Business management
For centuries mankind has been trying to find the secret to eternal youth, the elixir of life, the key to turning off the aging process. Con-merchants have sold all manner of potions claiming to do just this and in the seventeenth century arsenic was used as make-up and led was dropped into the eyes to make them appear brighter!
You are the marketing team for a cosmetics company which, while working on a new face cream formula in 1999, made a very fortunate mistake and achieved what con-men and scientists have been dreaming of: they accidentally developed a substance which will actually stop the aging process in its tracks.
This breakthrough has been kept quiet for the last fifteen years while the Chief Geneticist used herself as a guinea pig. She has bathed twice daily in a bath into which the substance is added, much as you would with bubble bath. Not only does she not look a day older, but at a genetic level she is exactly the same age now as she was fifteen years earlier. Other than this, the cream has had no ill effects.
The Board is ready to go public with the product, subject only to achieving clearance from various health and safety agencies, which they are certain will happen.
1. How will the various elements of the marketing environment impact on your plans?
2. Where do you see your key markets and who would be your main customers?
3. Who (and what) are your competitors, and which ones will be the most important?
4. What pricing strategy should be adopted?
5. What promotional techniques would you recommend?