Assignment Sample on Research Proposal
Introduction
Cosmetics industry is a consistently growing industry all over the world as it targets all age groups by including colour cosmetics, toiletries, fragrances, skincare, and hair care. The increasing demand of the customers for this industry has helped in improving the identity of the industry throughout the world. It has been observed that the cosmetics industry market revenue worldwide in 2022 was $93054.74 million which has helped in maintaining the business properly (Statista, 2023). Moreover, it is expected that there will be a 20.8% increase in the revenue by 2027 which will help in maintaining the market of cosmetics industry in near future. Inclusion of the digital operations in maintaining the branding of the cosmetics industry has helped in managing the sustainability of the organisation by which business can improve its position in the market.
Figure 1: Market revenue of cosmetics industry
(Source: Statista, 2023)
Involvement of branding in the cosmetics industry creates visual and emotional connections with the customers to manage business properly. The implementation of business intelligence in maintaining the marketing operations of the cosmetics brand by integrated systems helps in improving the brands. The online operations of the cosmetics industry have increased by 143% growth rate in maintaining the order volumes in 2022 (ET Brand Equity, 2022). This has helped in maintaining a stability of growth in the industry by which online branding has got improved in the industry. Attraction of the products to the customers across the world in this industry is managed through online branding which helps in addressing competitive advantages.
Aim and objectives
The aim of this research is to analyse the process by which online branding provides a competitive advantage in the digital era in the cosmetic industry.
Objectives
- To evaluate the process so that online branding can provide competitive advantages to the digital era cosmetics industry
- To find the impact of online branding in maintaining competitive advantages in the digital era in cosmetics industry
- To find the tools and techniques used in online branding in digital era to gain competitive advantage in cosmetics industry
- To highlight effective suggestions for further improvement of online branding process using digital operations in cosmetics industry
Research rationale
The inadequate usage of internet tools is creating problems in maintaining the transactions and better visitors. This is creating issues to manage online branding of the cosmetics organisations. The influence of security concerns in online branding is also impacting the operations of branding. This issue is due to the lack of attention of the cosmetics organisations to its branding operations made online. As the online market of cosmetics industry is growing at a faster rate there is a requirement on introducing new policies and tools to maintain branding properly. It has been expected that the personal care segment of the cosmetics industry will increase its market by 18.7% by 2025. Moreover, in 2019 its value was $226 billion (Roberts, 2022). The other segments such as skincare, colour cosmetics and fragrances will also increase its values (Refer to Appendix). Therefore, the issues with the online branding need to be resumed to gather better opportunities for industrial growth. This research will shed light on understanding the process by which the online branding in the cosmetics industry is providing competitive advantage.
Literature review
Concept of online branding
The usage of social media or online channels for managing the brands and generating a proper position for the brand is managed through the inclusion of the online branding. This is a brand management technique which helps in increasing the use of the internet in managing advancement to the organisations (Yasin et al. 2020). Online branding provides an identity to the products that are sold by the organisations. This helps in pinpointing a distinctive quality of the products which can be used to attract the customers. The process of creating an online brand is managed through targeting the audiences first so that the branding across the business is managed properly. As suggested by Quan et al. (2020), online branding nowadays is a trend for the market which helps to build good relationships with the customers. Branding helps in getting genuine loyal customers for the organisation by which marketing of the products can also get enhanced. The key attributes to maintaining proper online branding are clarity, relevance, authenticity, cohesiveness, and adaptability. Therefore, it can be understood that online branding is a market trend which ensures in building a proper brand identity.
Role of online branding in maintaining competitive advantage in cosmetics industry
Online branding in the cosmetics industry is a recent trend which has been adopted by most of the reputed brands by implementing digital marketing operations. In the digital age customers are included with the shopping of products through online medium. Moreover, attracting the customers through providing different advertisements in online sources helps the cosmetics organisation to manage their branding process properly (Dodokh and Al-Maaitah, 2019). Branding helps in providing a shape to the products in the market by which customers get to know about the product. Moreover, online branding helps in understanding the values of the products to the customers which helps in gaining competitive advantages in the organisation. The inclusion of new ranges of cosmetics such as eco-friendly, organic, vegan requires proper online branding so that everyone could know about the products. Thus, it can be said that online branding plays a significant role in maintaining competitive advantages in the cosmetics industry.
Advantages of online branding in maintaining competition in cosmetics industry
The involvement of online branding in the cosmetics industry helps in targeting the relevant audiences by which the competitive advantages can be maintained properly. This helps in securing business in the market so that new product launches are performed appropriately. Online branding through social media or other online sources helps in creating proper brand recognition so that the goals of the organisation are managed properly. Another advantage of online branding in the cosmetics industry is developing the SEO (search engine optimisation) operations of the product so that the product can be addressed by the customer first. However due to increasing competition in this industry this process is becoming a bit complex. Creating exclusive and attracting content to the websites of the organisation and providing share buttons helps in improving branding of the organisation in the competitive market by which the customers are targeted properly.
Negative impact of online branding in maintaining competition in digital in cosmetics industry
Online branding creates awareness to the organisations to maintain updates to the products to become unique in the cosmetics industry. However, there are several negative effects of online branding which create problems in maintaining competition for the organisations in this industry. Parajuli et al. (2021) have suggested that internet frauds are increasing day by day as many organisations are replicating the websites of the genuine organisation from where the customers are placing the orders. It impacts in maintaining the originality and USP (Unique Selling Point) of the products to the customers from which brand loyalty is getting hampered. Moreover, the fake trade markets are also being induced in the websites of the organisation from which financial frauds are being included. This is creating a burden, a critical concern for the cosmetics industry to manage their branding which is affecting the competitive power of the business. Therefore, there are significant negative impacts of online branding in the cosmetics industry.
Techniques used in online branding in cosmetics industry for maintaining competitive advantage
Different techniques are employed in online branding of the products by the cosmetics industry to maintain competitive advantages in the organisations. The involvement of collaboration with the social media influencers is a trending technique which is followed by the cosmetics organisation for improving the brand value. For example, Mamaearth which is an Indian cosmetic brand has implemented influencer marketing by providing advertisements through YouTube and Instagram has maintained its competitive market in the country (Agrawal, 2021). This has also created a brand position of the organisation by which customers like the products of the organisation. Moreover, another technique which is being implemented by cosmetics organisations is email marketing through which offers and discounts are provided to the customers by which the organisations are convincing the customers to purchase products regularly (Syawaluddin et al. 2019). This is improving the branding of the organisation.
Opportunity based theory of competition
Opportunity based theory helps in understanding the new ideas in an organisation by which the competition in the organisation is managed. The implementation of online branding might assist organisations in discovering prospects for market expansion. As per the views of Azeem et al. (2021), this theory aids in making the most use of social and technological advancements to give online operations in an organisation to manage its competitive advantage. Nowadays, everyone uses social media; therefore, developing a market place on this platform could present a chance for many customers to know a brand by which competition can be managed properly. This theory raises awareness, which aids in preserving their knowledge of acquisition regarding online branding of the products in the competitive market. This idea aids in identifying the best strategies for organisations to launch online branding operations and draw the attention of customers. Making an online market aid in learning about current trends that customers may find fascinating.
Literature gap
This is focusing on the online branding of the cosmetics industry which is creating competitive advantages in the businesses. However, there is a gap in finding information regarding the online branding strategies used in the specific segment of the cosmetics industry. Moreover, there is also a gap in understanding the needs of customers through online branding in this literature.
Research Methodology
Methods in research are an important part which helps in understanding the way by which the research will take place. The inclusion of research onion will help in understanding the research firework by which the research work will be conducted. The implementation of the research philosophy can help in understanding the knowledge based content of the research work. Research philosophies like positivism, realism and interpretivism are generally used for determining the data and analysing those. The inclusion of the interpretivism philosophy will be used in this research to understand the process of online branding in maintaining competitive advantages in the cosmetics industry (Tamminen and Poucher, 2020). Interpretivism philosophy helps in gathering theory based knowledge, which can easily be interpreted. However, positivism philosophy will help in understanding the factual knowledge, which includes statistical analysis. Therefore, the selection of interpretivism philosophy will be better for this study.
In maintaining a research work both an inductive and deductive research approach is required to be considered which aids in understanding how the work is organised. The process of using the right approach, researchers can lessen any difficulties they may encounter while doing their study. In order to understand the branding operations in the cosmetics sector, an inductive research approach will be used in this study. Inductive approach aids in the development of first observations from which the study’s aims can be quickly deduced (O’Kane et al. 2021). This approach is used by implementing a bottom-up process where the data patterns are selected first then the data are selected. Additionally, by using this approach, the theories associated with the research project will be discovered, increasing the work’s reliability factor. As a result, the inductive approach will be chosen over the deductive one.
Exploratory, explanatory, and descriptive designs are involved in a research work which helps in providing a blueprint to the study. These designs can address the problems that may occur during the research analysis process (Kabir and Kabir, 2019). For understanding the impact of online branding in the cosmetics industry for maintaining competition the inclusion of descriptive design will be included. This design helps in understanding the requirements of the study so that the proper situations or instances can be implemented to improve the quality of the research work. Exploratory design is used for understanding a new topic which is in its initial stage; however, online branding has different researches for which descriptive design will be followed in maintaining this research work.
The implementation of qualitative research strategy will be followed in this research work to gain knowledge regarding the online branding in cosmetics industry. Qualitative research strategy will help in understanding the experiences that have already been provided in other researches and online sources. This strategy will help in conducting this study between the stipulated time by meeting all the objectives of the study successfully (Hamilton and Finley, 2019). This study will employ a secondary data collection method to determine the online branding processes used by the cosmetics industry in managing competitive advantages. Finding the data that are previously included in other published studies will be aided by this method. In order to effectively manage the study, secondary data collecting will be implemented from the online journals, publications, websites, and newspapers. Utilising secondary sources of data will assist in achieving the goals in order to produce accurate research results. Additionally, Google Scholar data dictionary can be used to find information from journals and articles from previously published research.
The implementation of proper analysis to the data is an essential stage for finding appropriate outcomes to the research work. The inclusion of the thematic analysis will be done in the research for finding the online branding process to manage competitive advantages in the cosmetics industry. The thematic analysis will be done by using a coding tree where six stages will be followed in creating themes. The stages will include, familiarisation, filtration, searching the themes, reviewing the themes, naming the themes, and lastly creating the themes (Liamputtong, 2020). The research questions will be used to understand the main themes that will be present in this study. The inclusion of data from 2018-2023 will be used in this research from online sources only. Moreover, the reliable and consistent data will only be used for conducting this research work. However, the exclusion of the data from Wikipedia UKessays and any untrusted site will be restricted in conduction of this study. Moreover data prior to 2018 will not be used in the data analysis process.
Ethical Considerations
Ethical considerations will be an important aspect in conducting this study, which helps in securing the data from any manipulation. In order to manage the effects of data theft and data breaches, the Data Protection Act 2018 will support the security and privacy of obtained information, and will be taken into consideration (Algarn et al. 2021). This can assist in compiling the data with strong confidentiality and privacy in the research work. Moreover, to perform this study, the information from the authorised website will be used to meet the objectives. This can help in maintaining the authenticity of the work that will be made by the researcher. The researcher would also consider the copyright and patents law and regulations to avoid issues with plagiarism or copyright while collecting data from secondary sources. Moreover, throughout collecting the second data researcher will maintain proper integrity in conduction of the research work.
References
Agrawal, P., (2021). Influence of Social Media Marketing on Brand Image of Mamaearth.
Algarni, A.M., Thayananthan, V. and Malaiya, Y.K., (2021). Quantitative assessment of cybersecurity risks for mitigating data breaches in business systems. Applied Sciences, 11(8), p.3678.
Azeem, M., Ahmed, M., Haider, S. and Sajjad, M., (2021). Expanding competitive advantage through organizational culture, knowledge sharing and organizational innovation. Technology in Society, 66, p.101635.
Dodokh, A. and Al-Maaitah, M.A., (2019). Impact of social media usage on organizational performance in the Jordanian dead sea cosmetic sector. European Journal of Business and Management, 11(2), pp.75-91.
ET Brand Equity, (2022). Beauty & personal care grows 143% in online order volumes Report. [Online]. Available https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/research/beauty-personal-care-grows-143-in-online-order-volumes-report/96371157 [Accessed on: 1 May 2023]
Hamilton, A.B. and Finley, E.P., (2019). Qualitative methods in implementation research: An introduction. Psychiatry research, 280, p.112516.
Kabir, A.M. and Kabir, A.M., (2019). Research Design and Methodology. Development Aid in Stable Democracies and Fragile States, pp.13-26.
Liamputtong, P., (2020). Qualitative research methods.
O’Kane, P., Smith, A. and Lerman, M.P., (2021). Building transparency and trustworthiness in inductive research through computer-aided qualitative data analysis software. Organizational Research Methods, 24(1), pp.104-139.
Parajuli, S., Thapa, B., Devkota, N., Raj, U., and Paudel, S.G., (2021). Female Consumers Awareness Level on Purchasing Online Beauty Products in Kathmandu Valley. Nepalese Journal of Management Science and Research, 6(1), pp.161-177.
Quan, N., Chi, N.T.K.C., Nhung, D., Ngan, N. and Phong, L., (2020). The influence of website brand equity, e-brand experience on e-loyalty: The mediating role of e-satisfaction. Management Science Letters, 10(1), pp.63-76.
Roberts, R., (2022). 2022 Beauty Industry Trends & Cosmetics Marketing: Statistics and Strategies for Your Ecommerce Growth. [Online]. Available at: https://commonthreadco.com/blogs/coachs-corner/beauty-industry-cosmetics-marketing-ecommerce [Accessed on: 1 May 2023]
Statista, (2023). Revenue of the cosmetics market worldwide from 2014 to 2027. [Online]. Available at: https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1272313/worldwide-revenue-cosmetics-market-by-segment [Accessed on: 1 May 2023]
Syawaluddin, S., Joni, J. and Erwin, E., (2019). Influence of social media advertising, e-marketing and product quality on the process of purchasing nature cosmetics. International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), 8(5), pp.316-321.
Tamminen, K.A. and Poucher, Z.A., (2020). Research philosophies. In The Routledge international encyclopedia of sport and exercise psychology (pp. 535-549). Routledge.
Yasin, M., Liébana-Cabanillas, F., Porcu, L. and Kayed, R.N., (2020). The role of customer online brand experience in customers’ intention to forward online company-generated content: The case of the Islamic online banking sector in Palestine. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 52, p.101902.
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