Covergirl is an American brand of cosmetics sold by Procter & Gamble. Covergirl deals in a wide gamut of cosmetics such as foundations, concealers, blushes, and lotions for face makeup, eyeshadows, eyeliners, kohl pencils, and mascara for eye makeup and lipsticks, lip glosses and lip liners for lips makeup. With a list of popular celebrity endorsement CoverGirl has been able to reap success in most markets it operates in which include USA, Canada, and Australia.
As a popular brand Covergirl has been responsible for defining how a modern day woman should be or what they should avoid. The brand was recently taken over by Coty Inc. in the year 2016 from P& G and the company has always relied on leading models, film stars, and musicians who were featured as cover girls in magazine covers for their advertisements.
The brand is targeted towards young as well as middle-aged women and their target segment was between 15-40 years. Since the brand has been in operation from the year 1961 it would not be wrong to say that the rich history has helped the brand to evolve in accordance with the changes in the fashion world.
Table of Contents
Strengths in the SWOT analysis of Covergirl
Strengths are defined as what each business does best in its gamut of operations which can give it an upper hand over its competitors. The following are the strengths of Covergirl:
- Clear Target Segment: The target segment of Covergirl, are women between the age s of 15 to 40. The cosmetics company thus has makeup which is pastel as well as bold and also incorporates the preferences of each age group into the products. The makeup range caters to all kind of skin types in the western world since its primary market is the western world.
- Strong backing of Procter & Gamble: The biggest spurt of growth for Covergirl happened when it was owned by Procter & Gamble. This could be because the conglomerate owned some of America’s marquee cosmetic brands like Olay, SK-II etc. The conglomerate helped the brand to expand to more regions and also reach out to customers better.
- Trend recognition: Research has always been the strong point of most American FMCG brands. As time passed Covergirl was one of the first companies to realize that traditional forms of makeup such as skin care formulations like moisturizers were giving way to masks and oils. They were also one of the first to introduce mineral makeup.
- Packaging: Covergirlwaspopular for its differentiated packaging and it involved usage of the segment as well as age appropriate colors and design. Like in the case of most other successful cosmetic brands, Covergirl also used packaging as a core differentiator for their products.
- Leveraging magazines: As the name indicates Covergirl has always been closely associated with the covers of magazines. With each new product, Covergirl used the makeup on models, film stars, or musicians who would pose as covers of glossy magazines and this was what would serve as their main advertisement.
- Cultural Consciousness: Covergirl has a customer base across the world leading to brand having to manage myriad types of skins and hair in their beauty segment. The company centers their research on adapting theirs to the target segment. he made it imperative that the company be as culturally conscious as possible.
Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of Covergirl
Weaknesses are used to refer to areas where the business or the brand needs improvement. Some of the key weaknesses of Covergirl are :
- Change of women in society: As the world has evolved so has the role of women in society. This change has also influenced the manner in which customers perceive makeup and Covergirl has not been as effective as other competitors in managing this change in preference.
- Competition from online retailers: In comparison to the competition, Covergirl was slow to respond to the online boom. The strong competition from online retailers as well as global cosmetic brands which were selling through e-tailers is tiring the brand out.
- The sudden reduction in US sales: The dip in the sales of cosmetics has dimmed in the US lately and the country was one of the top markets by share. There was also a global financial recession which curbed unnecessary spending in the western world. Both these together resulted in the company shifting focus to lower income segments and to countries like Vietnam, South Korea, and Africa where Covergirl has no or low presence.
Opportunities in the SWOT analysis of Covergirl
Some of the opportunities include :
- Selling through online portals: In addition to direct selling, Covergirl should now focus on selling through online retailers like Amazon or Flipkart to get the products to customers. They should also look at Asian market more seriously if not through direct selling by e-tailing.
Threats in the SWOT analysis of Covergirl
Threats are those factors in the environment which can be detrimental to the growth of the business. Some of the threats include:
- Competition: The major competitor of Covergirl is EsteeLauder, Maybelline, Loreal, and Revlon.
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