Gender and the Beauty Industry: Discipline and Power - Essay Example

27 September 2009 Industry Analysis There are some industries which have modernized and got advanced with the passage of time in such a way which is entirely unpredictable or unexplainable. Many industries and fields have widened their operations and areas with respect to innovations in technologies and advancements. Among all these various flourished and well-known industries, one industry which has grown to large extends with everyone's interest is known to be the Plastic Surgery industry. Plastic Surgery industry is a vast industry in which there are several big, medium and small players who are working as independent centres or somehow are involved in the cosmetic industry. Plastic Surgery Center in Morris County, NJ is one of the most well-known centers in this region. The present marketing activity of Plastic Surgery Center in Morris County profiles as well as overviews industry and situational analysis. A comprehensive overview of the SWOT and industry on the whole give insights on marketing strategy to follow in order to retain existing and attract new customers, who would become regulars. Thus, the analysis identifies marketing problem and offers marketing focus, objectives, program as well as tactics for the marketing plan implementation. The final part provides information on evaluation and control of the marketing implementation. The Plastic Surgery Center provides beauty services to men and women. The main types of services are Breast augmentation, Breast lift, Breast reconstruction, facelift, liposuction, total body lift, Botox, laser skin resurfacing, chemical peels, different types of message, etc. Plastic Surgery Center surgeons pride themselves on superb-quality services with innovative and stunning technology that provide excellent value to the customers. Plastic Surgery Center has positioned itself as a provider of superior service and products to all clients at an affordable price in convenient locations appealing to all family members. The centre has managed to position itself on the high-end of the service providing due to high standards for its customers, who are specially trained for high performance and consulting (Black 44). The strategic focus of all companies in this industry is providing hairdressing services with the superior quality and value for the customers. Efforts are aimed at providing friendly, efficient service from professional surgeons who are well-trained doctors to make the experience memorable and provide for loyal customers. The efforts are incorporated with the Centre's mission and vision as well as with the corporate culture instilled in the team, which according to the company's belief are the things that can bring a big difference (Doyle and Stern 98). The Plastic Surgery Center vision statementis to be a great business that is based on principles of: Profitability Friendliness Creativeness Consistency Great Value Cutting Edge Community mindedness ("Practice Philosophy". 2009). The Plastic Surgery Center puts emphasis on its clients receiving a service of a great value. The goal of marketing campaign, thus, is to retain existing customers and attract new customers, who would become long-term regular loyal customers, by the means of primary services as well as pleasant additional elements, which range from prices to the superior professional and products in terms of provided services. Situation analysis provides an insight on the Centre's position within the industry as well as overview of competitors, customers, industry trends. SWOT analysis outlines Plastic Surgery Center key strengths and weaknesses as well as describes opportunities and threats that its salons may face (Plastic Surgery Center in Morris County NJ 2009). Strengths Established brand equity and name in the industry Strong and business committed franchisees Well-trained medical professionals with high standard skills and creative customer-focused approaches Convenient locations and physical evidence elements in the centres, which are located on own separate from other entities' facilities Luxurious services of superior quality Affordable competitive prices ("Practice Philosophy". 2009). Weaknesses Lack of efficient marketing efforts to attract more new customers and retain existing Opportunities Change cost structure by efficient marketing campaign (though short-term effect will be increase in cost, long-term effect would be greater profits due to incomes from wider regular customer base) Provide additional beauty services, e.g. cosmetic services etc., that would allow many customers receive one-stop services Emphasize catering not only men and women needs, but also children surgery that would refer to whole family needs Establish efficient CRM system to better cater the needs of existing and new customers, which would allow saving marketing costs in future Threats Tight competition within beauty industry Sufficient decrease in households' disposable income Change in preferences and fashion The main sources of problems within Plastic Surgery industry include lack of working capital, general lack of management and marketing skills, completion being based mainly on prices, cost pressures due to salons' overstaffing, low productivity, and lack of profitability. Plastic Surgery industry highly depends in changes in household income that affect the demand for higher priced value-added services and sales, which are the core business of Plastic Surgery Center. Other key factors that impact demand for surgery services are fashion and demographics of the population. However, the industry has been evaluated as of low level of volatility (Plastic Surgery Center in Morris County NJ 2009). The key success factors for the Plastic Surgery industry have been identified as follows: Having links with technology suppliers Having a comprehensive range of specialist equipment and highly professional staff Proximity to key markets - location in a high profile location, with significant passing people traffic and with convenient parking. Having a loyal customer base - building a base of satisfied customers, to retain repeat and attract new customers, who would become regular loyal customers. Ability to control technology and supply stock on hand as it affects liquidity and cash flows Having the necessary medical skills and technical skills to provide a range of required and offered services. Keeping up to date with styles and fashions. Ability to adjust goods and services in favour of market conditions - follow the latest styles fashion and trends. Efficient positioning and marketing of differentiated products - moving away from competition based on prices mainly, by offering value-adding quality service. Although the industry is characterized by tight price-based competition, there is potential to further growth for such companies, who are able to establish their brand equity. The number of plastic surgery services providers is quite high, which guarantees tough competition based mainly on prices. However, the major competitors are the Centres or small hospitals that are located in the proximity to the Plastic Surgery NJ and operate in higher-end market. In terms of chains, main competitors are ("Practice Philosophy". 2009). Innovations are the driven force in plastic surgery industry. A fundamental innovation represents a break with the past and fulfills a need that was not previously met. Their introduction requires considerable change in consumer purchase-and-use habits. Innovation greatly affects corporate growth, survival, and profitability. It reflects the changing market wants and needs of customers. Innovation is stimulated by competition and in turn generates counternnovations. Whenever new products or services are launched, business becomes concerned as to whether customers will accept them, and if they do, how long it will take for innovations to be profitable. The impact of nonconformists on general purchase behavior seems relatively small. New products are expected to function within the current social setting and must appeal to the average, well-adjusted personality. Some innovations, however, which have originated with Bohemians have, in a modified version, been accepted on a general level. Newness is not adopted or rejected by all consumers at the same time (Hollensen 31; Treatments offered by Brian S. Glatt 2009). Target Market In Plastic Surgery Center in Morris County, NJ actual and potential consumers are the basic component of markets and the hub of marketing action. That the consumer is king or that the consumer guides businesses is a tenet of a market system. Marketing endeavors to fuse consumer wants and needs with the operations of a business organization, which to survive and grow in a keenly competitive, ever-changing environment, concerns itself with the mechanisms of corporate adjustment. Changes in life styles and market environment have had a direct impact on goods and services produced, expenditures, and the consumption process. For example, the effect of increased leisure time, suburban living, shopping centers, automatic vending machines, automobiles, television, and widespread geographic shifts on consumer wants and needs is pronounced. The shift from rural to urban populations, the growing number of women employed in industry, the decrease in the length of the work week, increasing productivity, and higher incomes all shape consumer behavior and, hence, market opportunity. Consumer behavior is an interdisciplinary science that embraces numerous concepts and models derived from various behavioral science disciplines such as psychology, social psychology, cultural anthropology and economics. Outlined below are the major factors as derived from these disciplines that influence consumer decisions (Board Certified Plastic Surgeon.com. 2009). Psychological Factors The main group of people are women from 40 to 75 years +. For this group, a consumer's decision to have a plastic surgery is influenced by five major psychological factors including motivation, perception, learning, beliefs and attitudes. Another group consumers involves men from 50-60 years old. For this group, motivation is based on needs and it in effect acts as a catalyst for learning. Knowledge of perception and learning is an essential guide to marketing strategy as consumers assign meaning to stimuli and acquire most of their beliefs and attitudes through learning. Behavioral theories view learning as observable responses to stimuli, while cognitive theorists believe that learning is a function of mental processes. The ideal beauty is a complex notion which involves ideals of body and soul. The urge to classify all the world's many things is an impulse which has received encouragement from science. The social sciences with their avidity for categorizing behavioral patterns were already elbowing their way forward with statistics, charts, and lists of norms and averages. Exclusion remains in force wherever desire for "the better thing" (defined according to social conventions of virtue) controls the content of art. In contrast, there is no room for disgust per se with objects included within patterns laid across art surfaces. Finally design exacts correctness; it excludes forms that do not meet its stern criteria for aesthetic beauty (Paley 87; Facial Plastic Surgery Specialists in NJ. 2009). Socio-cultural Factors Women are identified by the ideals they represent. Even the staunchest supporters of stability had to admit that there was precious little about late-nineteenth-century life that satisfied their taste. It was not enough for them to repeat the tiresome fact that permanence was what they desired, although it was not what they had. The visual representations of virtuous order which the American advocates of ideal values commissioned for the walls, corridors, and rotundas of churches, libraries, and courthouses existed in a tarnished world. They had to justify representations of serene forms in the midst of the raucous "rotary system" of modern times (Board Certified Plastic Surgeon.com. 2009). Self-consciousness about the current state of affairs in the United States, the awareness that caused the desire for permanence in the first place, instilled the need to argue for the presence of stone images of Charity and Knowledge or elaborate murals centered by Justice and Bounty. True, some Americans tried to go home again into the timeless realms where absolute principles supposedly once existed in happy contiguity with great men and women. most of those committed to idealism tried to bring its tenets to bear directly upon the particular American scene in which they were fated to live. If they were to escape the psychic damage done to those who merely lament the decline of society, they had to bring idealism into line with provocative new ideas of evolution (Newton 1950). The world is changing. Idealists could not blink that fact. If they could read change as development, perhaps they could uncover the hitherto hidden process by which Reality in America is en route to the Ideal (Black 2004). Then all those statues and paintings of allegorical subjects would be validated by the future; they would prove to be symbolic representations which wake up to find they are true. Raw change meant the future doom of still greater instability and of knowledge replaced by chaos. Evolution promised a future of the permanence of truth and of things set to rights. In that happy time, the faith placed in the Winged Female as the visual vehicle for all good things would be vindicated. Human conduct and human thought would become what wings had been expressing all along. The desire to reach into the past to the magic source of visual conventions of the ideal in order to bring order and stability to every level of contemporary society was a philosophical botch. Ideals based on conventions require lost origins, yet we can never go back far enough (Paley 63). Personal Factors Personal factors such as gender, age, self-concept, personality and lifestyle affect consumers' purchase decision. Personality is an individual's characteristic response tendencies across similar situations. Several well-known personality theories include Freud's psychoanalytic theory, non-Freudian personality theory, and trait theory. Researchers who apply Freud's psychoanalytic theory tend to stress that idea that human drives are largely unconscious. Non-Freudians, however, believed that social relationships are fundamental to the formation and development of personality. Trait theorists believe that a personality can be understood by studying the pattern of traits within an individual. Lifestyle is basically how we live. It emerges from various social influences (Medical Malpractice Liability 2009). The primary beauty of bodies is such a beauty and it is perceived at first sight, and the soul, as being ware of it, calls it by name and, recognizing it, welcomes it and is wedded to it. If the soul meet with the ugly, it shrinks from it and refuses and rejects it, not consenting with it, but alien. Our belief is that the soul, being what it is, and belonging to the world of true reality, when it sees what is akin to it or a trace of kinship, acknowledges it with transport and is reminded of itself and of its own things. For if there is likeness we should have to say they were alike. Our belief is that the things of this world are beautiful by partaking in an essential character. For everything that is formless, though its nature admits of form and essential character, so long as it is devoid of rationality and essential character is ugly and excluded from the divine and rational. That is the absolutely ugly. But a thing can also be ugly if it be not completely mastered by form and rationality, because its matter does not admit of being completely formed in accordance with an essential character. But when essential character has been added to a thing, so as to make it one by organizing its parts, it confers system and unity of plan and makes the thing coherent. For since the essential character was one, that which was formed by it had to become one, so far as the multiplicity of its parts allowed. Beauty is then enthroned upon the unity thus created, conferring itself both upon the parts and upon the whole. But when beauty takes possession if something simple and homogeneous, it confers itself upon the whole. From historical perspective, certain pressures were exerted in the 1890s to extend the accreditation granted to the ideal female type. Enlightened moral and intellectual reasons for inclusivity were slow in coming, as we shall see; but if nothing else, there were strong commercial arguments for tolerance in the matter of who might qualify as the American Girl. As the integral part of marketing, consumer behavior helps the Plastic Surgery Center improves marketing strategies by understanding the psychology of the consumers, their needs and preferences, internal and external influences in decision-making process, and so on (Morris County NJ Board 2009). It is relatively easy to state that the function of business is to satisfy customer wants and needs. But customers do not specify the products they will desire and, in fact, do not know their future wants. Yet executives are forced to forecast well in advance what consumers will decide to purchase. Thus marketing executives operate under conditions of great uncertainty. First, they cannot identify customers precisely -- as individuals, families, households, or social and business groups. Second, although it is difficult to discover the scope of customer wants at any moment, it is even harder to predict their wants and needs over a period of time, since desires change, sometimes drastically and rapidly. Some of the changes stern from sociological and psychological factors; others are economically based. Third, it is hard to translate wants and needs into products and services that lead to profitable market opportunity. Purchase responses are shaped by communications which, in part, are controlled by the seller in the form of advertising and selling. But seller-dominated market communications do not furnish all the information necessary to satisfy the curiosity and needs of buyers. Moreover, advertising and selling may not be fully trusted. Both often fail to furnish the credibility or authoritative information that consumers need. As a result of past experience, customers have preconceived notions or attitudes that shape their view of reality and hence their decisions. Marketing is designed to affect and shape demand by causing changes in buyer preferences and reactions or by bringing products and services into line with customer desires. Advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, product development, pricing, and other marketing decisions endeavor to elicit favorable reactions from customers. They attempt to expand and shift demand for company products, thus extending market opportunity (Premier Plastic Surgery Center of New Jersey 2009). Competitors Analysis In New Jersey, every county has a number of excellent plastic surgery centers. The most famous are Atlantic City Center, Cherry Hill, Bergen County, Passiac County. Atlantic City Center segments customers according to their occupation and social class. Service differentiation gives Atlantic City Center a share of a broad, horizontal market, whereas market segmentation tends to result in cultivation of a market position in depth. Given the analogy of a layer cake, service differentiation seeks to secure a layer of the cake, whereas segmentation seeks a wedge. Differentiation, therefore, may be characterized more as a promotional strategy that endeavors to control demand by advertising and other promotional efforts, Market segmentation often results from substantial growth. After markets are developed on some general basis, they reach the point where additional effort tends to yield diminishing returns, and attention is given to specific market segments that become large enough to be attractive. By cultivating specific market segments, Atlantic City Center seeks to make use of a greater opportunity to maximize customer satisfactions. This maximization, in turn, results in the development of a more secure market position and posture (Premier Plastic Surgery Center of New Jersey 2009). Cost leadership helps New York Plastic surgery to attract wide target audience and sustain loyal consumers. For instance, New York Plastic surgery range of prices between 60 ponds from London to Europe and up to 500 ponds by traveling to Far East. Cost reduction is the main strategy followed by New York Plastic surgery. "Surprisingly, the average cost of plastic surgery is relatively level across the nation, including Morris County. The only exception is New York City, where plastic surgery patients can expect to pay up to 50% more for a plastic surgery procedure. Because of the relatively level playing field, Morris County has attracted a number of qualified plastic surgeons from across the country" (Plastic Surgery in Morris County 2009). The internal dimension indicates that the marketing-management concept, referred to as a breakthrough in management thinking, by its very nature incorporates the systems approach to management of the marketing effort. It emphasizes the interrelations and interconnections between marketing and other business elements, recognizes the integration of all components of the marketing program into a coordinated marketing mix, and requires the establishment of a communications network and linkages of the various functionaries and activities necessary for the accomplishment of marketing missions. In New York Plastic surgery, the micro-marketing-action system highlights the systemic functions of marketing, to be analyzed later. The assessment of opportunity, planning and programming, and the organization and control of marketing are undertaken to develop and manage the micro system. The actual system is depicted by the combination and integration of marketing inputs into a product and service mix, a distribution mix, and a communications mix that form a cohesive whole -- a marketing mix. Product differentiation is followed by Cherry Hill and is concerned with minor variations, adjustments, or adaptations in a product. Cherry Hill Plastic Surgery Center is faced with the need to instill an image in the minds of customers that distinguishes their products from others and causes the customer to react more favorably toward them. This is the result of the image of the company itself, its distributors, or the product per se. In matching differentiated products with markets, executives have the choice of selecting converging or diverging strategies. Converging strategy refers to the convergence of demand for product variety among individual market segments, so that distinct markets are satisfied by a single or limited offering. Here, variations in individual consumer wants are minimized, and heterogeneous demand converges upon the product or product line. Cherry Hill designs its marketing mix to meet the requirements of specific marketing segments or to develop a customer-prospect mix. Favorable purchasing reaction helps to achieve company goals. The external perspective of marketing systems relates various elements and activities of the total marketing unit. It presents a macro perspective of a marketing system. It shows that internal company resources (such as manufacturing capacity, labor, and finances) are linked with external resources (such as advertising and marketing-research agencies, banks, and transportation agencies) to develop a marketing mix. The purpose of the mix is to satisfy consumer wants and needs and thus achieve corporate objectives (whether sales, profit, rate of return, or image). Communications and feedback help link the system together. It indicates that corporate welfare and consumer satisfaction are brought together through a network of actors and actions. Except product, price and place, marketing mix involves promotion decision. The main types of promotions are advertising in different media (TV, national and international press, radio, etc) and public relations (sponsorship and philanthropy) (Plastic Surgery in Morris County 2009). Cherry Hill Plastic Surgery Center focuses on actual authority structures, communications networks, interrelationships of elements, and the functioning process, rather than on the structure portrayed by static organization charts and the organization attributes capable of achieving goals. Cherry Hill Plastic Surgery Center management emphasizes the integration and coordination of functions and facilities, the adaptation of organizations to its external environments, the impact of changes in one part of the organization on others, the resources necessary to support the organization system itself, the resources necessary to achieve goals, and the ends means relationship (BoardCertifiedPlasticSurgeon.com. 2009). Systems stress the interrelationships or connectiveness of organizations. The basic premise of marketing management is that firms are goal-oriented and that systems of action must be developed. Although marketing planning and programming are rather fundamental activities, in most companies they remain in a relatively rudimentary state of development. Planning and programming activities are fundamental in adjusting an existing business system to future market patterns. They are the basic instruments for designing marketing systems. Only recently have companies developed marketing-planning departments. Cost leadership and differentiation strategy help the Plastic Surgery Center to create a core of loyal supporters and sustain unique image of the company. If goals are not clearly specified in terms of opportunities, dysfunctioning will occur in the firm and resources will be wasted. They transform a group of unrelated marketing activities into a cohesive system (Premier Plastic Surgery Center of New Jersey2009). Conclusion The analysis shows that the long-term value strategy is built on creating strong relationships with customers and anticipating their requirements. A significant new challenge is emerging with regard to value. Plastic Surgery Center in Morris County, NJ must now strategize with respect to both the physical product and the "virtual" product, such as information. Overlaps in physical and virtual product occur in many industries, particularly those where a tangible product, such as an automobile, and an intangible product, such as service advice or computer-based information support, coexist. For many individuals and households, demands on time because of longer work days and work weeks, the necessity of having multiincome earners, and the complexibility and choices offered to families in general have increased the value of speed. Speed is what drives services as varied as photo processing, car rental check-in, package and mail delivery, pizza delivery, and eyeglasses. Cars, computers, radar detectors, mortgage loans--the list of products and services is lengthy--have all had product development or delivery times slashed. Increasingly, speed is becoming a value differentiator in business-to-business and other consumer services. Seemingly solid service benefits have lost some of their luster because of the amount of time involved in providing customer service--from pick-up to completion. Customer trends, like strategic choice issues, require constant attention from companies. It means genuine closeness to customers. For Plastic Surgery Center in Morris County, NJ, lifestyle is particularly related to consumer products and services, although, like the domino effect, it can impact business-to-business as well. As stated by Hollensen: "Lifestyle changes can occur in any arena of customers' (33) lives and involve work, leisure, child-rearing, marital status, safety, environmental concerns, and so on. One consequence of the changing character of products and services in this country has been the growth of marketing management. To manage the abundant group of commodities that are distinctive in so many ways, and that embody symbolism as part of their utility, requires increasingly complex, analytical activities. The credo of the Center reflects its unique approach and philosophy of the industry: "You deserve the outstanding, yet natural results" (Plastic Surgery in Morris County 2009). Works Cited Black, P. Gender and the Beauty Industry: Discipline and Power. Routledge, 2004. Doyle, P., Stern, Ph. Marketing Management and Strategy. Financial Times/ Prentice Hall; 4 edition, 2006. BoardCertifiedPlasticSurgeon.com. 2009. Web. 27 September 2009 http://www.boardcertifiedplasticsurgeon.com/nj_morristown.html Facial Plastic Surgery Specialists in NJ. 2009 Web. 27 September 2009 http://www.facialplastics.net/ Hollensen, S. Global Marketing: A Decision-Oriented Approach. Financial Times/ Prentice Hall; 4 edition, 2007. Medical Malpractice Liability Insurance Premium. Norris County. 2009. Web. 27 September 2009. http://www.mcmsdocs.org/announcements2004.html Morris County NJ Board Certified Plastic Surgeons. Web. 27 September 2009 http://www.plasticsurgeon411.com/locations+city+Morris%20County+ST+NJ.html Paley, N. The Manager's Guide to Competitive Marketing Strategies. Thorogood, 2006. Plastic Surgery Center in Morris County NJ. 2009. Web. 27 September 2009 http://www.drbrianglatt.com/ Plastic Surgery in Morris County. 2009. Web. 27 September 2009 http://www.breastenhancement.com/New-Jersey/Morris-County.html Practice Philosophy. 2009. Web. 27 September 2009 http://www.breastimplantsusa.com/cosmetic_surgeon.phpdr=250 Premier Plastic Surgery Center of New Jersey - Dr. Brian S. Glatt. 2009. Interview. Web. 27 September 2009. http://uk.video.yahoo.com/watch/1738113/5785594 Treatments offered by Brian S. Glatt, MD. 2009. Web. 27 September 2009 http://www.realself.com/find/New-Jersey/Plastic-Surgeon/Brian-Glatt Read More