The unnecessity of advertising as a promotional tool to build brand awareness and brand image: a case of Lush Cosmetics

• Autor(a) principal: Ernesto, Maria Carolina de Jesus
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/42303
• topic: Advertising; Brand equity; Brand awareness; Brand image; Lush Cosmetics

In the dynamics of modern marketing, where the focus is on customer satisfaction, consumer relationship management, and value creation, promotion has been considered an essential practice for the success of any brand. Despite the fact that it is only one of five promotional tools commonly used to achieve these goals, advertising has been criticized for its lack of cost-effectiveness, for creating disloyal customer bases, and for making businesses look dishonest or manipulative. This research sought to analyze Lush Cosmetics’ brand equity in order to understand whether or not the use of advertising as a promotional tool was necessary, thereby answering the research question, “To what extent is brand awareness and brand image reliant on the use of advertising?”. In that sense, a qualitative exploratory research was conducted through a focus group of seven participants, chosen based on their prior contact and experiences with the brand. The analysis was conducted using Keller's customer-based brand equity model, a pyramid-shaped model comprising six brand-building blocks, each dependent on the success of the previous one. The research made it possible to understand that Lush had a strong awareness among consumers, and that consumers had a good perception of the brand's image, associating it with its products, the shopping experience it offers consumers, and its values. Although Lush Cosmetics' global no-advertising communication strategy was unlike that of most cosmetics companies on the market, the brand was able to find alternatives to advertising to convey its value and points of differentiation to consumers.