Exploring the brand knowledge in the organic Cosmetics market

Abstract:

A trend of environmental consciousness is developing for some years in every market and sometimes gave birth to a sub-market such as the organic-cosmetic market. This market represents an important part of cosmetics in general and major companies can be identified. Marketers have noticed this trend and sometimes use it into their communication strategy but it still has to be studied properly in order to determine its impact on the purchasing behavior of consumers and their perception of the brand. Indeed, we think that this environmental consciousness can challenge the balance between Brand Image and Brand Awareness in this market.

This paper is aiming to explore the impact of this specific trend on the organic-cosmetic market and studies its influence over the Brand Knowledge management, more precisely the relationship between Brand Image and Brand Awareness. In that goal, we chose to make interviews in front of the shops of two companies interacting on this market: The Body Shop and L’Occitane en Provence. Combined with data collected from previous research into a deductive approach, it led us to some general conclusion concerning the level of Brand Image and Awareness of those companies, their relationship and the impact of environmental consciousness on this relationship.

We concluded from those results that the brand L’Occitane en Provence had a slightly lower Brand Awareness than its competitor but its customers had a more important environmental consciousness that led them to this company due to its values and specific type of product. We can then conclude that on such markets impacted with this type of external factor, if the company implements it in its communication strategy or its core values, then its need for Brand Awareness is lower. One can now wonder if this trend in particular or any other external factor can be used in other markets on the same way.