Social Science homework help

Product Description

Flaus, the world’s first eco-friendly electric flosser, makes flossing as fast and easy as brushing your teeth. Brushing only cleans about 60% of the surface of the teeth without touching cracks and gaps between the teeth. But Flaus uses sonic vibrations to move quickly and gently between tight teeth, removing stubborn plaques and debris from places beyond the reach of the toothbrush. Flaus vibrates up to 12,000 sound waves per minute, allowing you to easily slide between tight teeth and massage your gums – providing strong, gentle cleaning. Using traditional floss inevitably causes our fingers to touch the mouth, which carries a lot of bacteria. But the electric flosser has a handle like our electric toothbrush, effectively preventing our fingers and bacteria from entering our mouths. This electric flosser also has an extra long battery life, we only need to charge once a month to use it, even when using it in the bath can also play a waterproof role. It’s worth noting that the Flaüs nozzle is for everyday use, easy to replace and less wasteful. Daily use only needs to hang on your own magnet, with built-in LED tracking technology that provides visual cues to help you maintain healthy habits and maintain a sense of responsibility. Made of plant-based materials and infinitely sustainable aluminum, Flaus is better for our teeth and the planet. Here is a product diagram of electric floss:

Core Competencies

Flaus, as an electric floss, offers a more convenient and effective oral care and sustainable competitive advantage compared with other similar products. The following part will analyze the competitors of the product from the aspects of cleaning strength, operation endurance and environmental protection concept.

First, in contrast to the floss and toothbrush products commonly available on the market, Flaus has excellent vibration, capable of up to 12,000 acoustic vibrations per minute, providing a strong and gentle cleaning. This is more effective in cleaning and protecting teeth than other teeth cleaning products. Secondly, Flaus’s products are also very humanized. The product is very small, easy to travel with. Flaus’s ergonomic handles allow for better control and easy access to hard-to-reach areas of the mouth. Compared with some similar floss products, it avoids the risk of having to cut long floss and even bring bacteria into the mouth with your hands.

Last but not least, the founders of Flaus believe that innovation should not be at the expense of the environment, which is one of the important reasons Flaus can develop more sustainably in the market. Flaus made from plant-based materials and infinitely sustainable aluminum. These eco-friendly materials are good for your teeth and the planet. What’s more, Flaus offers replaceable Flaus heads that are replaceable, biodegradable and PFAS-free. Many floss products on the market have been found to contain PFAS, which are not only harmful to the environment and cause significant greenhouse gas emissions, but also very harmful to teeth.In general, Flaus is unique in its environmental protection concept, humanized product design and effective cleaning function compared with other products of the same type, and also has a competitive advantage in the sustainable development of oral care market.

Target Market

Flaus has an enormous market as anyone with teeth can use it. Flaus is meant for everybody, because every day we have to protect our teeth and our brush, but there is still residue in the teeth holes. Plain flossing will hurt. Flaus is designed to help you adjust to floss faster. Given that Flaus is a simple and practical product, no specific target group exists. Relative to average consumer income,Flaus is a high-end product, with retail prices starting at $99 and targeting upper-middle class customers.Now more and more people around the world go to the dentist and protect their teeth. Flossing is getting bigger and bigger. One finds that the potential of this product is infinite. In the long run, what is beneficial to this product is that it is applicable to all people.Flaus can ship all over the world and protect your teeth no matter where they are. Flaus is for anyone who wants to clean his teeth without having to worry about a dentist. This product is easy to clean everyone’s teeth and keeps your teeth clean with no impasses.

SWOT analysis

Strengths

Flaus use the environmentally friendly materials to product their floss than other brands of floss. The floss is made by plant-based material and aluminum that is harmless to the human body and reusable. Flaus has the long battery life. It can be useed one month when charging once. It is convenient to take Flaus when people go to travel. Flaus provide magnetic mirror mount, it can be hold on anywhere in the bathroom and save the storage place. Flaus provide the free replaceable heads when customer buy the floss. The head of floss use compostable material to reduce the environmental pollution. This floss achieve high frequency vibration to clean the dirt in the teeth, it can clean the gaps that the toothbrush can not clean. This electric floss also has a reminder function when you forget to use it and it record the number of days that you have used it. Designers and Co-founder are working in dental-related industries, it means they are possess very professional knowledge and technology. Flaus provide delivery services in the worldwide. Customer can buy it in any countries, there is no regional restriction and without the tax.

Weakness

The cost of electric floss is higher than other floss. The price is not cheap than other floss. Electric floss is not a consumable, its demand is not as good as disposable floss. The customer’s purchase interval is relatively long.

Opportunity

Threats

Flaus is a new brand, the number of loyal customers is less. The customer purchasing power is weaker than other old brands.

Marketing Mix-Product Strategy

Flaus’s product strategy should first consider consumers’ use experience. As more and more people are paying attention to oral care, we know that some consumers find using regular dental floss painful, disgusting, time-consuming and difficult. In view of this, Flaus made a very humanized design in product design and functional features. High intensity acoustic vibration and ergonomic handle make it easy for consumers to clean their teeth, greatly improving consumer satisfaction. Secondly, in terms of after-sales service, FLAUS can provide consumers with a two-year warranty for free on the premise of normal use of the products. In addition, the materials of the products are all environmentally friendly and non-toxic. The environmental protection concept throughout the product design can make consumers more trust and loyalty to the Flaus brand. We plan to achieve sustainability through environmentally friendly materials and humanized design concepts. Flaus is a user-friendly oral care product in the form of a home. Ensure quality control of each product from manufacturing to distribution channels. Providing customers with safe, effective and convenient products is the main core customer value of our products.

Marketing Mix-Distribution Strategy

Based on the fact that Flaus is not sufficiently known, we first decide to promote the product to the sales network through the sales staff.

The second step is to let our sales personnel recommend products to wholesalers, wholesalers to recommend to retailers, and finally to retailers to sell our products. It gives the retailer a better price. Specifically, our products will be located in LA, USA. We will first expand our popularity and build our brand in Los Angeles, the United States. We will sell our products like Shoppers through well-known supermarkets and drugstores. And then the retailers spread out in different parts of the United States and eventually around the world.

And for the convenience of customers in other regions and to maximize the smiling face of our products, we also need to utilize our own direct selling site. It is convenient to directly manage and process the orders of consumers around the world. To save costs, we will find the lowest price and fast delivery of express shipping, so that customers feel our sincerity.

Marketing Mix-pricing strategy

Flaus will take advantage of an overall “value-based pricing” pricing strategy. Our products set prices based on the level of trust our customers place in the value of the products we sell, and we start with the value we provide them. Because the floss electric floss brush is the world’s first, unlike the electric toothbrush and waterline puncher on the market. We offer unique and high-value features. Effective customer-oriented pricing involves understanding how much consumers value the benefits they receive from their products and setting a price that is comparable to that value. Each flaus suite provides greater value to its connected components as a whole. So, based on our customers’ needs and the value we offer, we decided that the recommended retail prices for Flaus’ All-Star (1 Pack), Power Duo (2 Pack) and Dream Team (4 Pack) would be 99usd, 179usd, 329usd. In addition, the three packages we sell have the same functionality, so it’s more cost-effective to buy more. By setting models of different prices and values, we can understand the needs of a wider range of consumers and what we think of our products. So we adjusted the price between each package to maximize sales.

SWOT Analysis

Strength：

Flaus can easily clean the plaque and debris between the teeth. This is because the product uses sonic vibration technology, which allows the product to clean places that the toothbrush can’t reach. In addition, the product provides a two-year after-sales warranty service. This service aims to reduce the defects in materials and artistry and customer satisfaction with the product. Flaus uses many recyclables and environmentally friendly materials to manufacture dental floss, giving the company’s dental floss a particular advantage in the sales of similar products in the market. Because more and more people are willing to buy products made of environmentally friendly materials.

Moreover, Flaus brand dental floss also has an extended battery storage capacity, which can often be used for about a month after a single charge, which significantly enhances the customer’s satisfaction with the use of the product. Meanwhile, the company also employs a lot of staff related to the dental industry, reflecting that the products produced a certain degree of professionalism in the medical field. Flaus provides delivery services worldwide. Customers can buy in any country. The product also offers tax-free services when it is sold, giving the product a specific sales advantage in the market.

Weakness：

The cost of the company’s electric dental floss is much higher than other similar products, which often results in the company’s products having a selling price disadvantage in the market. In addition, the electric dental floss produced by the company usually does not have too much purchasing power compared with the disposable dental floss on the market because people tend to buy more convenient and inexpensive substitutions. Customers often do not purchase the product again in a short period after buying the product. The long purchase interval also makes the product’s sales in the market fail to meet high expectations.

Opportunities & Threats

Flaus is a new brand. The brand does not have a high reputation in the market. This also makes the company’s products often have fewer sales than similar products produced by other well-known brands. In addition, the company’s production scale is relatively small. Although the company has good development prospects, it needs to be strengthened in market expansion and multilevel marketing.

 

Teams (4 – 6 people per team) will be assembled to work together on a project throughout the semester. Please select a product from a crowdfunding site and create a comprehensive marketing plan for the product. Teams will present their plans in class and submit a written report about the plans. The critical framework that needs to be included (but not limited to):

 

1.Product Descriptions

2. Core Competencies (how it plans to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage) 3. 3. Target Market
3. Competitors in the Market
4. SWOT Analysis
5. Marketing Mix

(1) Product Strategy

(2) Distribution Strategy

(3) Promotional Strategy

(4) Pricing Strategy

 

This is a group assignment, my part is 4 and 6(2). 1-2 page for question 4, 1 page for question 6(2).

 

Product link:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/flaus-world-s-first-eco-friendly-electric-flosser#/

 

You may use point forms in your report. – Double-spaced typing with 1″ margins on all sides on 8 1/2 x 11″ paper, Times Roman 12-point font, or equivalent is required. Properly acknowledge all material used in your report that is not your own. – Please use in-line citations and include a list of sources cited. APA format is preferred. Regarding APA format, please refer to the following site: http://researchguides.library.yorku.ca/styleguides. For information from the internet, please provide the URL and the date accessed.

Rubric for Group papers

Section:

Group number:

 

A	Product Descriptions [maximum 2 points]	Score: 2
	Outlines what it is, its functionality (1), what it does specifically (1)
B	Core Competencies [maximum 2 points]	Score: 2
	Plans address both sustainability (1) and the unique differentiator (1)
C	SWOT Analysis [maximum 2 points]	Score: 2
	Each element (0.5) is correctly specified
D	Competitors in the market [maximum 2 points]	Score: 2
	Competitors are identified (1)
	Additional analysis (e.g., perceptual map, grouping, comparison) rather than a mere listing of competitors (1)
E	Target Market [maximum 2 points]	Score: 2
	Target market is clearly specified (1)
	Additional analysis (e.g., chain ratio, TAM) to specify the target market (1)
F	Marketing Mix [maximum 4 points] key point: whether the team applied theories/analysis with proper rationale to drive so-called “strategy”	Score: 4
	Product strategy: additional analysis (1) rather than the mere description
	Distribution strategy: provide rationale (1) rather than the mere suggestion
	Promotion strategy: at least one promotion idea is specified (1)
	Pricing strategy: additional analysis (1) rather than a merely provide the actual price
G	Overall Evaluation [maximum 6 points]	Score: 6
	Internal consistency (2):  –1 per violation
	Originality/Use citations properly (2): –1 per violation; – 2 if the reference is not provided
	No key frameworks missed out (2): –1 per violation
	In Total	Score: 20