Introduction

If we want to understand what are possible marketing strategies for Le Petit Marseillais we have to analyse current market situation. In order to do it we decided to take 5 biggest competitors in EU countries, which are Dove, LOccitane, Body shop, Lux and Nivea. Those 5 brands are closest competitors to Le Petit Marseillais because of three main criteria: similar production line, same market target and popularity amongst European countries. Choosing competitors for analysis was more elimination process than acceptance; from a huge number of brand names we eliminated which doesnt fit our criteria mentioned above. For instance, we rejected Herbal essences, as they produce only shampoo while Le Petit Marseillais has additionally soap and shower gel; Garnier, as they focus more on cosmetics while Le Petit Marseillais cares about body wash; and many other brands. Also, it is important to mention, that prices and the numbers of stores in the report are not precise as it should be; therefore, in most cases we use average or approximated numbers. In the first part of report we describe those 5 competitors: who they are, what they produce, where they are (place), what advertising they do, what are their average price level and what are psychological, mental positioning in peoples minds. We believe that after describing 4 Ps of marketing and thoroughly analysing the psychological atmosphere of the brand, researching what associations come up when people face the brand, what stands behind the products, what story is hidden, we can structurally answer about competitive brands current situation and then make a comparison with Le Petit Marseillais. With having done comparison we will be able to answer: where the Le Petit Marseillais brand is currently? In addition, after pointing out commonalities and differences we will get idea how did the brand ended up in the current markets position. Furthermore, comes part with ideas, strategy for positioning the brand in the EU market. In this section we state our innovative ideas what the brand should stand for, what story it should tell to consumers. In order to implement the strategy, we finally suggest product development, placing, advertising and other related solutions. After all, the positioning strategy should appear consistently flowing and if applied might be a solution for Le Petit Marseillais to enter the global market.

Le petit Marseillais
Le Petit Marseillais is one of the leading body care and hair care goods producer in France, which was launched in 1985. The brand is well known for its natural production line and qualitative results that the products can do. Many French people know Le Petit Marseillais as eco-friendly company actively participating in recycling events.
Product

Products are solely based on natural ingredients, which could be precious honey or just a simple apple; essentially, it could be all types of herbs, plants and vegetables. Producers claim that it is possible to collect all necessary vitamins and substances in the nature; it is possible to create various products for different skin and hair. Thus, they are not using any synthetics or chemicals.
Price

Soap bar (100g) 2 EUR; Shampoo (250ml) 5 EUR; Shower gel (250ml) 17 EUR Price level of Le Petit Marseillais products is pretty high, which shows that products have high quality, they are natural and people can trust the products. Usually when the goods have such a high price, they are sold personally or with expert consultations. Therefore, as Le Petit Marseillais does not own official shops where one could be provided with consultations, we assume that in France the brand has superb reputation, so that people trust the brand and purchase expensive products just from retailers.
Place

Le Petit Marseillais uses retailers for selling its products in France. The brand is widely spread through all France; products could be found in almost every bigger store or shopping mall. While this strategy of distribution is only in France, it is smart move because people trust the product and Le Petit Marseillais does not have to spend money on stores, workers etc.
Promotion

Le Petit Marseillais focus their promotion on three main objects. Firstly, they show themselves as a brand closely connected to the nature. In the promotion campaigns it is presented as a brand from countryside. Secondly, they are participating in recycling activities by motivating people to recycle. They even made their products plastic bottles thinner by 20% to stress their eco-friendliness. Thirdly, they show themselves as a company which is against animal testing.
Psychological positioning

The story of Le Petit Marseillais begins in the South of France, where a unique soap already existed in the 18th century. Thus, people associate it with the smells of the French province and the strong

culture of hand-made products. The brand is carrying idea about earth and especially nature, which is a source of everything: beauty, health, joy or imagination. When using a product, a customer is motivated to imagine amazing nature objects, feel that they are surrounding him and that nature could be very vital.

Dove
Dove is well known old (launched in 1957) international company operating almost in hundred countries including all EU countries. Currently Dove brand is one of UNILEVERs brands line. Dove produces numerous body care products including bar soup, shampoos, and shower gels. Product Dove products are made from animals fats and vegetable oils. Nonetheless, none of the products are totally natural; everything includes various syntactical substances, such as acids and sodium formulas (Alabu, 2012). Price Soap bar (100g) 1 EUR; Shampoo (250ml) 6 EUR; Shower gel (250ml) 5 EUR According to quality of products, prices are not the lowest ones and even not the highest. We can claim that goods are affordable to the mass of people for medium prices. Prices are set at the level, so that every woman, no matter what is her income, who comes to the shopping center, can purchase a product without the expert explaining what it does, what it is exactly for, as it is usually done in official brand shops. In this case women will not hesitate to spend money for average prices. Place Dove operates almost in 100 countries. Companys core distribution channels are wholesalers and retailers. If we take for example Baltic countries, there are shopping centers such as Maxima, Rimi, which are the main distributors and sellers. Moreover we can find a lot of dealers on the internet, which is also one of the channels. The last but not the least is Doves official shops that are not so popular around the world; therefore, we can say that Dove focuses on retailers rather than original stores. Promotion Dove promotions campaigns have numbers of methods start with simple ad on the wall and end with TV advertisements. Nevertheless, Dove participates in globally charitable events, supports Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., Girls Inc. and Boys & Girls Clubs of America (Dove, 2012). It also launched a fund which is responsible for womens body care, which teaches women and girls how to carefully pursue their beauty. Furthermore, Dove provides customers with a various educating tools, programs, tips how to look after a body.

Psychological positioning Dove creates a real, beautiful womans image around its brand. Idea is to show that all women black or white, young or elder etc. have possibility to be beautiful and feel joy of the life. Dove focuses on womens and girls self-esteem, which means feeling pretty and self-confident every day. As Dove state in their official website, Imagine a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety, it just confirms that beauty would enhance womens life. Commonalities and differences with Le Petit Marseillais Major commonality between Dove and Le Petit Marseillais is distribution strategy. Both brands are being sold through retailers, in shopping centres. Both companies do not see the purpose or marginal value coming from official brand store. Differences between Dove and Le Petit Marseillais appear as well in a few parts of marketing. Firstly, Doves production line is all synthetic and chemical based while Le Petit Marseillais is totally natural, thus Le Petit Marseillais brand has a huge advantage in this case. Secondly, difference in prices shows that Dove with lower prices focuses more on mass production, massive sales while Marseillais with high prices shows quality and uniqueness, not just a cheap chain of production. Thirdly, looking from consumers perspective, Dove stress that every woman can be beautiful, and thus, self-confident, while Le Petit Marseillais points out healthy and natural body, no matter woman or man.

LOccitane En Provence
LOccitane is an international French company manufacturing cosmetics and body care products. LOccitane focuses on enhancing beauty and health of people. Uniqueness, friendly environment, pursuing sensitivity, consistent improvement are the core values that company follows from the very beginning, which is back in 1976. Product LOccitane provides wide assortment of products for face care, bath & body, hair care, men and even gifts. Most of the products are based on natural but high quality performing ingredients, which are basically plants and herbs. Production line is solely created by LOccitane starting from analyzing ingredients formulas and finishing with packaging the goods. Price Soap bar (100g) 5 EUR; Shampoo (250ml) 16 EUR; Shower gel (250ml) 16 EUR LOccitanes price level is rather high but it is all explained by high quality and natural product ingredients. LOccitane most of its production sells in official LOccitane shops, where customers are provided with consulting service from experts. Thus, clients can be sure what they are buying and that the product is unique and natural. Place LOccitane distributes its production in more than 80 countries including almost all EU countries. Distribution process is done through stores, internet shops, mail-orders, airports, spa centers and duty free shops. Currently LOccitane owns over 1540 unique LOccitane beauty salons where products are being sold, and the number is rather huge (Anonyme, 2012). Therefore, we can say the company is inclined to distribute directly, which is advantage in the current market, because people can visit their stores and feel fragrances, uniqueness and freshness. Promotion LOccitane promotes itself through all possible ways, which are TV, newspapers, magazines, ads, internet, email etc. Nonetheless, LOccitane cares about their corporate social responsibility, so they participate in various non-profitable events. The company has founded LOccitane Fondation which takes part in dealing with childrens diseases such as blindness, which could be actually avoided. Moreover, LOccitane works with Burkina Faso women and helps them to amend their life style by providing better working conditions (Fondation, 2012).

Psychological positioning Overall, LOccitane is all about natural products and healthy people. As we find in their website, it is written a detailed description of companys history, how naturally the company started their production line from plants, and so that they still keep those traditions in current world where most of similar products are synthetics based (LOccitane, 2012). In addition, pictures and advertisements of LOccitane are only with flowers, herbs and plants, which totally represent their idea about being natural and harvesting what nature gave to the people. Commonalities and differences with Le Petit Marseillais Actually both brands are similar in various areas. The production lines of both brands are totally natural, ingredients are taken from nature. In addition, the origins of both brands are coming from South France, where soap production has old and strong traditions. Furthermore, prices are high of both brands products but that is explained by quality and trust of brands. Difference comes out when we analyze distribution strategy. LOccitane sells its products in own shops all over the world while Le Petit Marseillais uses retailers and wholesalers. This difference can also explain promotional strategy that having official stores, LOccitane promotes itself. Moreover, if we try to understand peoples perception about brands, we see LOccitane as carrying natural, healthy body care and Le Petit Marseillais as stressing out natures vitality; that nature provides us all essential substances. So, recycling and animal care are ideas that explain how important nature is.

Where is Le Petit Marseillais at the moment?

The brand currently is well known only in French market. It is one of the leading brands for body care products. French people already demonstrate positive attitude and trust towards Le Petit Marseillais. Consumers understand that products are being produced by old traditions and culture representing company, that the company sells unique and high quality goods. Le Petit Marseillais are surrounded by numerous bigger (in a sense of company size and spread in the world) competitors but it manages to maintain its leading position in French market. Nonetheless, if we think globally, the same big competitors as Dove, LOccitane, Nivea, Lux or the body shop would be totally stronger Europe-wide. Therefore, if Le Petit Marseillais would compete

in Europe market, in the beginning would be one of the weakest brands and that has to find market niche and stay consistent with carrying ideas. The brand is already known for its positive attitude towards nature, animals and people. When the French people hear about Le Petit Marseillais associations could be related to clean nature, its vitality and animals as a part of nature. To sum up, Le Petit Marseillais positions themselves in the French market as eco-friendly brand from all possible aspects. The brand is very strong in France and manages to overcome all bigger worldwide known brands.

How Le Petit Marseillais reached its current position?

Le Petit Marseillais was very reliable with its ideas all the time from the very beginning of the company. They knew that it is and it will be always fair to pursue body care business on natural products and at the same time be eco-friendly company. Permanently participating in recycling and cleaning events, and setting on against experimentations with animals have been expression of all the idea about nature. The brand has been constantly building their consumers base for many years. It is logical that providing natural product instead of synthetic will always attracts new clientele rather than disappoints them. While the prices of Le Petit Marseillais products have been high, it is hard to attract huge amount of new consumers instantly but through many years it is possible. Le Petit Marseillais business is built on fair values but so the products are expensive; therefore, if they manage to attract new consumer and even setting high prices, it is highly possible that the consumer will be loyal and buy again. The opposite example for this could be Dove with its cheap and synthetic products. If consumer buys their product and disappoints or just understands that synthetic products are not good for health, Dove instantly becomes bad brand and loses its customers. So, using slow but constant growth of consumers base, Le Petit Marseillais is leading brand in French. Last but not least reason for Le Petit Marseillais being leading brand in French and overcoming worldwide known brands, is its roots hidden in the province of France. Le Petit Marseillais always emphasizes that products are made in South of France, where production of soup has old and unique traditions. Thus, people can trust the brand and quality of goods.

Where do we want to see Le Petit Marseillais in the future?

International company- European markets Strong brand in Europe market Natural, unique soap which come from France High quality

How to get there?

SWOT Analysis Official shops, expert consultations Advertisement with France, nature initials

Conclusions

Fondation http://foundation.loccitane.com/Default.aspx?c=1&l=1&a=4919&s=166 Socit Anonyme http://img.loccitane.com/OCMS/Investors/EN/pdf/Press%20Release%20%20L'Occitane%20Annual%20Results%20200910_E.PDF Dove http://www.dove.us/ LOccitane http://www.loccitane.lt/pivoine,28,1,2116,149456.htm Alabu http://www.alabu.com/education/dove-ingredients