Holland & Barrett is the market leader in this sector in Europe. The United Kingdom-based company is globally recognised as a leading health and wellness retailer. The firm supplies its customers with various health and wellness, including specialist foods, vitamins, health supplements, minerals, and natural beauty products. With more than 145 years of experience, Holland & Barrett is familiar with many across the United Kingdom and becoming increasingly visible in the global market. They have positioned themselves as sellers of branded and own-label product lines. Although the company has led in the market for years, the management has always strived to position it as a leader in the sector, creating empowerment for people to manage their health and lives. The portfolio aims to critically evaluate how Holland & Barrett has used elements of the marketing mix to position itself and an assessment of the effectiveness of its marketing efforts.
Positioning of Holland & Barrett
One of the ways to understand the marketing strategy that the company uses to become successful is to use Porter’s Generic Strategies. The strategies apply to all industries regardless of the size of the business. Successful companies understand and apply such tools to ensure they are adequately equipped to address the increasing competition (Islami, Mustafa & Latkovikj 2020). One of the strategies that Holland & Barrett uses is “Cost Leadership” which is critical to counter the current competition from other firms in the health and wellness industry, such as GNC, The Vitamin Shoppe, Vitamin World USA, and Life Without Barriers. Regardless of the competition, the company also uses differentiation to create gluten-free and other healthy alternatives to appeal to customers seeking healthy options. The strategies have played a critical role in ensuring that the company remains a leader in the health and wellness sector.
With the increased competition within the leading health and wellness sector in the United Kingdom and globally, Holland & Barrett must position itself correctly and effectively to remain relevant to consumers. According to The Retail Bulletin, 2019, Holland & Barrett positions itself as offering solutions to consumers and empowering them to take control of their health and lives. Successful positioning requires that employees have 100% knowledge of all products to advice customers appropriately. The strategies are targeted to the current company’s position, helping consumers to have the right information to make informed decisions regarding their health and wellness (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick 2019). As a result, the company supplies products that help consumers to take responsibility for their wellbeing. Besides, the marketing actions aim to make the company trustworthy as a leader in the health and wellness market. To achieve the objective, the company uses various elements of the marketing mix.
Promotion
Promotion is one of the most effective ways to create awareness about its current and new products to target customers. According to Kotler et al. (2019), promotion is a wide range of activities that a company implements to communicate to consumers about a brand, product, or service. The importance of promotion is making people aware of the product and attracting them to purchase it (Andrews & Shimp 2017). Holland & Barrett uses various channels to communicate about their products, especially when introducing new ones into the market. One of the ways of promoting their products is social media, including its website. The screenshot below shows how the company promotes its products using the website. On the left side of the site, the company has a list of promotion categories. For example, customers can search all promotions offered by the company. It is also possible to sort the promotion categories into specific products. The promotions include the prices of featured products.
Figure 5: Promotion ((Holland & Barrett 2021)
Apart from its promotion activities on the website, the company has a Facebook page where it posts promotional messages for its customers. The figure below shows the Facebook page that Holland & Barrett uses to promote its brand and products.
Figure 6: Holland & Barrett’s Facebook Page
The company has launched numerous successful digital campaigns to promote its products and services. For example, the products are revealed on parts of the TfL networks, including digital screens with the most recent products ((Holland & Barrett 2021). The marketing team amplified its marketing campaigns on social media and other digital platforms. They were necessary to connect to the public and also as a public relations tool. The process begins with identifying target customers through loyalty programs. They listen to health and wellness and deliver messages that appeal to consumers. Promotion activities include advice to customers regarding how to use the products to improve their health and wellbeing. Generally, the marketing team recognizes that Holland & Barrett needs to embrace digital channels, which has led to its 32% growth online (Oe et al 2021). The effective promotion has achieved positive results for Holland & Barrett in the UK and globally.
Product
Product is an umbrella concept in business that suggests all the things that a company sells or plans to sell to the end-users. Products (or service) meets a customer’s need and want (Išoraitė, 2016). Most businesses offer a variety and blend of products created as a product offering. Thus, when a customer visit a store, they expect to have a variety of selections of products from the target firm. Holland & Barrett has such a variety of goods that it sells to customers seeking something to meet their needs and wants. Holland & Barrett’s health and wellness products are common in its stores and other retailers that sell them. The company’s stores supply various products, including vitamins, minerals, health food supplements, herbal supplements and natural beauty products. Its products fit perfectly with its current position of assisting customers with control over their health and wellbeing.
Currently, the company has about 3,000 health and beauty products (Holland & Barrett, 2021). In the below screenshots, the different categories of products that Holland & Barrett sell. The categories include vitamins and supplements, food and drink, health and wellness, CBD, vegan, natural beauty, and weight management. Below each category, the company has numerous individual products that it positions to customers as providing solutions for their health and wellness. A client can easily identify the product they need and even purchase it online or visit a physical store to buy. The company has also positioned its products carefully online such that a client can even search for what they need and pay. On the very top of the first screenshot, there is a field where one can search for a product to determine whether it is available.
Figure 1: Holland & Barrett’s products (Holland & Barrett, 2021).
Place
The place is another important concept in the marketing mix, determining how a business positions itself in the market. Thabit & Raewf (2018) define place as the geographical location where a business markets its products or services. The place is critical because a company should position itself correctly to assess its products or services. The place should be somewhere where the target consumers will reach and buy products. Holland & Barrett has traditionally sold its products in physical stores. It is difficult for a person walking in the street with such a retail shop to pass without noticing (Knikker 2021). The screenshot below shows one such store in High Street, Rugby, Warwickshire, UK: Positioning has played a crucial role in ensuring that customers arrive at the store and purchase whichever product they need or want. The stores are a familiar experience in major cities and towns in the United Kingdom as well as the Republic of Ireland and other countries in Europe. The stores are strategically placed on the streets of the main cities and towns in the country and elsewhere. The figure bellows shows how the company positioned itself to deal with the threat while remaining open.
Figure 2: Holland & Barrett’s store during the pandemic (Greenaway 2020).
While the company has heavily relied on the physical space to position its products, the management has recognized the importance of the digital space. Engaging customers in the digital space has allowed the company to reach a vast customer base in the UK and globally. Digital data and analysis enable the company to understand its target customers and empower them to care for their health and wellbeing. In 2020, the company launched a digital customer engagement to modernize its operations and the way it reaches customers (). The screenshot below is from the company’s website regarding the launch of the platform. The company also has online platforms through which customers can reach out and purchase. For example, on the website, the company has included a place where customers can order products and have them delivered at the most convenient place. The company has grown in its use of digital marketing and created new spaces to interact with and sell to customers.
Figure 3: Holland & Barrett’s Digital Transformation Project (Mercaux 2020)
People
People are an important element of the marketing mix since they determine the strategic direction. They determine the success of the business. For Holland & Barrett, customer service is the main focus to ensure its productivity and profitability. The company values direct communication with customers to empower them to take responsibility for their health and wellbeing. To achieve the objective, the company trains its employees to develop an expert approach to customer service. They emphasize advising shoppers who come to the store and through social media platforms. Employees are trained at the Holland & Barrett Natural Health Academy to qualify for customer service and develop other necessary skills. They gain the knowledge to provide customers with information about products like dietary supplements. The firm has practiced the approach since customers can trust the staff to get the correct information about a product. Its social media platforms are populated with expert information, recipes, and explanations of different supplements. The company prides itself as the place to go for all information about health and wellness. Besides, the website encourages customers to contact the marketing team and customer service experts with feedback about products. The information helps improve its products and services. The company also uses Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter to connect with customers and improve engagement (Salcido Bonnin, F. G. 2021). The tools have informed its success amid the pandemic.
Price
Pricing is another critical factor in marketing for businesses. Price is the value customers pay to acquire a product or service from a firm (Ahmed & Rahman, 2015). Pricing is at the core of a company’s success since it determines survival and profitability. When pricing a commodity, a company considers numerous factors, such as the cost of producing the product or service, competitor’s price, list price, discounts, and terms of sales. Considering these factors, the sales and marketing team should ensure that the sales of each product or service generate a profit for the firm. For Holland & Barrett, pricing plays a key role in positioning since it should appeal to consumers and charge competitive prices for all its products.
Holland & Barrett has developed a pricing strategy that makes its products quite appealing to consumers and positions itself as a leader in the health and wellness market. Information from the website (see screenshot below) shows pricing decision-making for the company. The statement, “We believe wellness should be affordable to all, which is why we’ve lowered the prices on our expertly made vitamins. Get wellness products that do you good, for low prices that are here to stay,” communicates the company’s commitment to creating affordable products for consumers (Holland & Barrett 2021). The growing competition from similar companies and the challenges caused by the COVID-19 are some factors that have led to the decision to lower the company’s prices for some vital products, such as vitamins (Oe et al. 2021). Besides, Holland & Barrett ensures that the prices reflect its positioning strategy that includes a commitment to ensure that people take control over their health and wellbeing. When doing so, they should have access to affordable products.
Figure 4: New Lower Prices (Holland & Barrett 2021)
Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Marketing Efforts
Through digital platforms, the company can monitor the effectiveness of its marketing efforts. One of the key performance indicators that the firm uses is changes in customer engagement. Customer data associated with their behaviour and buying decisions provide key input for the evaluation process. For example, after launching the digital customer engagement platform, the marketing team would collect data online to understand its effectiveness and inform any need for change or improvement. For example, using a data-led loyalty programme established that the new platform resulted in a 40% increase in membership card activation (Holland & Barrett 2021). The customer engagement program through digital platforms fed through to sales with a 62% penetration rate. Besides, the voucher system improved by 36%. The data indicated how well the company performed in marketing using digital platforms.
Another key performance indicator that the company uses to evaluate the success of its marketing effort changes in sales over time. When Holland & Barrett launched its digital transformation project, the marketing team, and management aimed at increasing its sales from the physical and online stores. They modernized the operations and connected better with customers, the main drivers of sales revenue. Thus, it was necessary to establish the project’s impact by collecting data related to changes in sales revenue. With the growth in loyalty cards and the voucher system, the company’s sales revenue also grew. For instance, for every voucher, the firm gained a 10% average increase. The company’s CFO’s statement affirms the data that the modernization program was instrumental to its ability to maintain its market leadership position as well as to grow and expand to other markets in Europe and globally.
Generally, digital marketing has improved the company’s sales revenue, indicating the success of its new media approaches to marketing. The screenshot below shows evidence of Holland & Barrett’s improved financial performance in 2018, amid the increase in digital channels for marketing purposes. Sales and EBITDA growth indicates that the marketing efforts for the company have improved and gained considerable success. The increase in digital revenues also indicates improvement in customer engagement since they translate to sales for the business. The marketing team recognized and adopted the trends, revealing greater competence in data collection and analytics.
Figure 7: Financial Highlights (Holland & Barrett 2021)
Conclusion
Holland & Barrett uses marketing principles to position itself effectively in the health and wellness markets in the UK and globally. Using Porter’s generic strategies, it is evident that the company has achieved differentiation and market leadership. Besides, its marketing team has recognized the power of digital communication tools to reach customers. The success of the marketing efforts is revealed in the data collected for the past three years, showing significant improvement in financial and market performance. The use of proper marketing channels will also inform its success in overcoming the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
References
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Chaffey, D. & Ellis-Chadwick, F. 2019. Digital Marketing, Strategy, Implementation and Practice (7th edition), Pearson
Greenaway R, July 29, 2020, Holland & Barrett’s New Format Chelmsford Store Combines Latest Retail Ideas – And A Host Of Covid Safety Measures. Available at: https://www.naturalproductsglobal.com/featured/holland-barretts-new-format-chelmsford-store-combines-latest-retail-ideas-and-a-host-of-covid-safety-measures
Holland & Barrett, 2021, Financial Highlights. Available at: https://www.hollandandbarrettcorporate.com/financial-highlights
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Mercaux 2020, Holland & Barrett Launch Digital Transformation Project with Mercaux, http://blog.mercaux.com/hollandbarrett-launches-new-pilot-with-mercaux
Oe, H., Liang, Y., Sharma, S., Yamaoka, Y., & Takashi, K. 2021. An exploratory discussion of the global expansion strategy of a health sector business in the COVID-19 pandemic: A Perspective of economic security.
Salcido Bonnin, F. G. 2021. Inbound Digital Marketing Strategy for an Industrial B2B Company with a Complex Sales Process/Case Company X.
Thabit, T., & Raewf, M. 2018. The evaluation of marketing mix elements: A case study. International Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies, 4(4).
The Retail Bulletin, 2019, Insight: health and wellness uppermost at Holland & Barrett. Available at: https://www.theretailbulletin.com/health-and-beauty/insight-health-and-wellness-uppermost-at-holland-barrett-04-02-2019/
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