- 22/01/2024
- Rohit Mishra
As you take baby steps towards building your soap business, remember you need to take giant leaps in crafting a soap marketing strategy for your business to flourish and reach out to your target audience.
Here, we tell you exactly how to plan a tailor-made marketing strategy for soap starting from scratch. We also give you deep insights on market segmentation of soap industry and tools to push your soap marketing plan through intelligent marketing.
Soap Marketing Strategy- Key Steps Before Starting
Before you embark on adopting a marketing strategy for soap business, keep the following elements in mind. These steps move you closer to your target audience for soap products and help you build a brand with a lasting impression in the market.
1. Conduct Market Research
In-market research helps you understand the battlefield where you are most likely to meet your target consumers and face tough competition from your contemporaries. Equip yourself with the following two tools-
- Identify Target Audience: The end users of your soap products.
- Competitor Analysis: How your competitors are exploring and tapping the soap target market where you need to invade and mark your presence.
2. Build Your Soap Brand
Don’t make your soap sound like an everyday hygiene product; give it a character and distinct brand name. Penetrate the minds of your target customers with the brand name rather than the product.
Focus equally on packaging and logos. Remember, the rule of the game- what looks good sells good!
3. Develop a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
What makes your soap brand stand out? Identify its key uniqueness and convert it into your soap marketing plan tools. Educate your customers on how your soaps are free from chemicals that make them gentle on their skin.
Talk about its natural ingredients, gentle formulation, and easy application. Discuss all the benefits that your brand brings in.
4. Understand Legal & Regulatory Requirements
Doing business requires a good understanding of commercial laws and the regulatory framework you need to operate within.
Hire a good legal advisor who guides you through the compliance network and keeps you apprised about the laws and guidelines for manufacturing and marketing plan for launching a new soap business.
So far, we helped you unlock the first stage of exploring a good marketing strategy for soap business and how you can better understand the target market for soap business, its consumers, and the war game.
Market Segmentation of Soap Industry
Here, we help you discover the soap target market where you deliver your products and face the real judges- the consumers. Understand how your soap market segmentation changes character in different demographic segments and how geography, culture, and lifestyle affect your business.
1. Demographic Segmentation
Before starting a soap marketing strategy, conduct a detailed study about the population of your targeted customers. Understand their choices, preferences, and purchasing power, which are some of the prime factors that influence the demand for soaps in that region.
Do they prefer soaps for hygiene purposes, gifting, or as a luxury product? Are herbal, organic, or regular soaps their first choice, and how much are they willing to spend on making this purchase? While studying the demographic soap market segmentation pattern of an area, consider the following factors:
- Age: What is the average age of the consumers? Are the soaps meant for adults or kids and babies?
- Gender: Focus on a marketing strategy for soap products that meets the needs of men and women separately.
- Income: What percentage of income is spent by consumers on toiletries and whether soaps are purchased as a necessity or luxury product?
- Occupation: Study the soap purchasing power of people from different occupations, such as salaried people, business class, and daily wagers.
2. Geographic Segmentation
This helps you understand the population soap market segmentation of a specific area like a country, state, or city where you intend to do business. Depending upon the scale of your business, do a deep dive into the geographical area and its population.
Study the physical terrain, climate, culture, and lifestyle of the population residing in that area. For example, the soap business will likely flourish more in hot and humid areas where people need to shower more than in hilly or colder regions. Keep an eye on the following two factors:
- Climate: Whether the region is subject to a hot or cold climate? Study the soap usage frequency of users in the area.
- Region: Understand the population density of the region, the population’s age patterns, and the region’s physical terrain.
Marketing Plan For Launching a New Soap
A well-defined soap marketing plan serves as a perfect launch pad for your new business and helps in skyrocketing your sales. Here are three key factors that you must include in your soap marketing plan.
1. Target Your Products to a Specific Market
Focus on the soap market segmentation you intend to cater to. Different people have different needs. Beauty soaps, medicinal soaps, moisturizing soaps, and baby soaps are all formulated for different segments of the population.
Targeting the correct segment with the most appropriate soap products can boost your sales manifold. Pitching your products to a special segment helps you understand their needs and expectations of the product.
2. Sell Your Soap in a Local Health or Beauty Store
Local markets, hotels, hospitals, and schools are the best places to showcase your soap products and collect meaningful feedback.
Prepare small hampers or baskets of your soap products wrapped in attractive packages and leave them on hotel receptions, rooms, and billing counters as free takeaway samples. This spreads your soap brand aroma and registers a presence in customers’ minds.
3. Influencer Collaborations
Today, the soap target market is not limited to physical stores but has penetrated a parallel world of social media with platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Social media marketing is a powerful tool.
Collaborating with digital influencers can take your products to millions of households with a slight click. Posting HD photos of your soap products with attractive infographics can further educate your potential customers.
Navigate your marketing plan for launching a new soap product with the above anchors and see how your sales grow and reach out to a vast segment of targeted consumers.
Marketing Strategy For Soap Business
A good soap marketing strategy aids in increasing sales, improving product quality, and creating customized products that meet customer needs. Focus your marketing strategy of soap industry on the following key parameters:
1. Online Presence
Make the most use of the digital market by increasing your online presence. Create a good website that is user-friendly and showcases your soap product.
Collaborate with other e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart and tap the online markets there. Make your soap products more popular through Google Ads, where people get a glimpse of your product while browsing the net.
2. Social Media Marketing
Tap the social media trend by showcasing good HD quality pictures of your soap products on social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
High-quality photographs and videos make a great visual impact on the audience compared to boring, blatant text. On special celebrations and festivals, connect with customers through sales-driven soap marketing plan.
3. Partnership Soap Marketing Plan
Partner with hotels, restrooms, offices, schools, departmental stores, and hospitals that help to showcase your newly launched soap products.
You can keep your soap samples as free takeaway gifts at these places with a small card, dropping your mail ID and asking for their feedback. This makes the consumers feel wanted, prompting them to try your products and share their views.
4. Perfect Your Soap Video Content
Good video and pictures showing all the key features of your soap and its uses help educate consumers through minimum content.
Good quality video creates a quality brand for your product and instantly establishes a connection with consumers. It intrigues them to learn more about the product, its makers, and how it can make a difference to them.
5. Customer Reviews & Testimonials
Customers love to hear and learn from the experience of other customers. Equip your soap marketing strategy with testimonials of customers who have used the product and how they have benefitted.
This has a lasting impression on your potential customers. Ask them for their feedback and suggestions, and make them feel your soaps are customized.
6. Promotions & Discounts
Everyone loves freebies. Promotions, discounts, and free samples are a great way to push your soap products. During the holiday and festival season, we offer great surprises through offers.
Use push soap marketing strategy like offering customers a 5% discount on their next purchase when they buy a minimum of Rs.999/- and so on. Try the ‘buy one, get one’ strategy to upsell your products.
7. Soap Market by Distribution Channel
Local selling is the key to retail marketing strategy for soap business. Besides expanding on distribution channels like e-commerce sites and online pharmacies, strengthen your local presence by selling in local markets, grocery stores, craft fairs, spas, salons, and where customers can instantly access your soap products.
Start with small retailers, who have direct contact with consumers rather than going through the wholesale route.
Design your marketing strategy for soap business around the above key parameters and experience your brand image grow and sales boost with time. Consistency is the key to a good soap marketing strategy.
Conclusion
Trailing a path of new business can be both risky and challenging. But with a good soap marketing strategy, you can turn the tables and win the game. While launching a new soap business, focus on a marketing plan that is both customer-centric and lead-generating. Value customer feedback, increase online presence, and make the most of the digital revolution. Keep reading our blog post for more insights on marketing strategy for soap business.