Ch. 7 Business Marketing

An example of business marketing and purchases in conjunction with Burt's Bees is the use of MEI software. Up until the point that the firm began using the software offered by MEI they were still using Excel spreadsheets to track sales, accounts, and project future sales based on data imported in Excel by a handful of people at the company. The shift enabled Burt's Bees to boost efficiency quickly and increased levels of productivity to new heights.

The purchase of the MEI software was certainly a business product vs. a consumer product as it would ultimately fulfill the needs of the business as a whole, to work better, faster, and with more accuracy. Tracking spending and managing sales forecasts could now all be done by using a single system with the capabilities to monitor, store, and compartmentalize all the data the Burt's Bees would input to run the company from supply and production costs, to future sales projections based on previous data. Additionally more Burt's Bees employees would use the services of the software, and instead of only a handful of people doing a job and knowing its components many of Burt's Bees employees would seamlessly use the same system to input and export data for the company.

It hadn't occurred to me how important this aspect is to a growing company until I began reading and learning of the changes that Burt's Bees has made in the last 20 years as a brand within a growing industry. It's interesting to have learned how the company continues to grow and innovates their products as well as seeing how they respond to changes while holding on to the core values of environmental sustainability, high productivity and quality products.

Ch. 8 Segmenting & Targeting Markets

In the beginning of Burt's Bees and during the early years the company was part of a growing niche market, and still is today- though it can no longer be termed 'niche' -of natural personal care products, under the larger umbrella of personal care products, along with cosmetics.

Segmenting markets are important as they allows companies to hone in on and focus on a very specific set of criteria for potential customers. How old are they? How much money do they make? How educated are they? What kinds of lifestyles do they live? These questions can be asked answered throughout virtually every facet of marketing, but this is how segmenting ultimately begins. The definition of marketing is made up of elements. Elements change, products change, advertisements change, but the main goal remains the same; to exchange things of value to others. How is the Burt's Bees product priced? Where is it placed? Who are the people that buy these products?

Key product offerings that are great examples of segmenting and targeting markets from Burt's Bees;  a line of baby products.

 

In 2012 Burt's Bees teamed up with AyaBlu, a company specializing in developing baby products and toys in a license agreement to create a entire new product line of garments and toys and for the first time ever the company moved into a market outside of the personal care industry. At the time of the alliance the company had already offered a variety of baby products; washes, moisturizers, ointments and soaps. 

This line of products represents a different consumer than those that buy Burt's Bees more well known products, as it is specifically tailored to babies and mothers. While segmenting and targeting this market new questions are raised as to what type of products do mothers seek for there new born babies, how can the products be packaged designed and implemented in a way that will attract the Burt's Bees target market. The new line from Burt's Bees Baby as well as its website and the launch of its products to several key retailers nationwide, such as Target.com is how Burt's Bees has introduced this new line of products to its target market.