Indonesia's cosmetics industry is experiencing strong growth due to the country's growing middle class and affluent consumers. The global market for cosmetic and skin care is estimated at US$145.3 Billion in 2020, with a revised size of US$185.5 Billion by 2027. Indonesian cosmetics exports are expected to reach 1.67 billion USD in 2021 and the market consumption volume increased by 6% between 2015 and 2019. The Indonesian beauty market is projected to become the fastest-growing cosmetics market in Asia, worth over 130 billion USD globally (Figure 1). 

The fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector has also performed strongly in 2022, with inflation growth and price increases driving the industry's growth. OMG Oh My Glam, a new beauty brand, aims to serve the lower socio-economic segment by offering high-quality products that not only make women more beautiful but also boost their self-esteem and confidence. The low segment beauty market is highly competitive, with numerous local and Chinese newcomers vying for consumer attention.

Despite the fierce competition, there is significant growth from new beauty brands registered each year from 913 in 2022 to 1,010 by mid-2023. There are three top beauty companies dominating the market and one of it is Paragoncorp group. The Covid-19 pandemic has also impacted the market, with consumers reducing spending and basket size, leading to massive down gradation to all beauty personal care categories. To maintain business growth and secure sustainability, OMG needs to create long-term strategies that reflect its product lifecycle and innovation strategy within the brand. Brand managers must quickly identify and resolve challenges and obstacles, such as establishing strong brand equity and awareness to strengthen consumer share of voice and manage brand sustainability growth and long existence.

OMG Oh My Glam is a new beauty brand catering to the lower socio-economic segment, offering high-quality products that enhance appearances and cover imperfections. OMG is one of PT Paragon Technology and Innovation group. The brand targets Indonesian young women aged 15-35 in urban and sub-urban areas with lower socio-economic segmentation. OMG distributes its products in general trade, cosmetics stores, health and beauty channels and online channels. The brand's tagline "Never Fade" champions the beauty spirit of women to never fade in achieving their dreams. In early market penetration strategy, OMG focused on TikTok as the main awareness channel, forming partnerships with TikTok MCNs and TSPs. However, competition intensified in 2023, with local and Chinese brands entering the market. OMG's TikTok shop ranked 17th in the make-up category and 70th in skin care. The closure of the TikTok shop in October-December 2023 impacted the brand's value, contributing 5% of total sales.

The low-economic beauty market in Indonesia is highly competitive, with numerous local and international brands vying for consumer attention. OMG, a top player in this segment, must create long-term strategic plans to communicate products, establish a unique value proposition and define brand identity for sustainable business. The online market contributes 20,5% to the Indonesian cosmetics market, with TikTok being a significant growth channel. OMG leveraged TikTok growth by creating viral content and social influence strategies to win the target audience. 

The dynamic and uncertain nature of the industry presents challenges for sustainable business and brand existence. To navigate this, to maintain sustainable growth in the beauty industry OMG needs to develop scenario planning for business sustainability and develop a strategy. OMG should has long term and breakthrough strategic & scenario planning to grow faster and sustainable growth in Indonesia beauty FMCG market and win consumer’s heart especially Gen Z as future market target for OMG.

Figure 1: Cosmetics Revenue in billion USD

Objectives of the study

The purpose of this research is to formulating business strategy to gain sustainable brand business of OMG through identifying the scope and major stakeholders’ drivers for product lifecycle at beauty industry, identifying basic trend what influence the change of consumers behaviour and company external and internal factors to develop the right marketing strategy for sustainable brand business.

Branding

Brands are essential for differentiation and recognition, serving as vehicles for setting and managing consumer expectations while mitigating perceived risks. According to the American Marketing Association, a brand encompasses a multifaceted identity, ranging from a mere name or symbol to an intricate combination of elements, all designed with a singular purpose - to distinguish the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers from those offered by competitors. Brands are designed to provide a positive, predictable experience and desirable benefits, serving as a compass for consumers to navigate their choices. Branding is the process of endowing products and services with the power of a brand, creating differences between products and teaching consumers "who" the product is [10].

Product Lifecycle

The product lifecycle is a fundamental concept in marketing and business strategy, depicting the stages a product undergoes from its inception to its eventual decline and withdrawal from the market. Based on Kotler et al (2016), “product life cycle (PLC) is the course of a product’s sales and profits over its lifetime. It involves five distinct stages: product development, introduction, growth, maturity and decline”. Understanding the product lifecycle is crucial for businesses as it enables them to forecast and plan strategies for each stage. During the growth phase, companies might invest heavily in scaling production and expanding market reach, while in the maturity phase, they may focus on cost optimization and diversification. Comprehending these stages aids in effective decision-making regarding product innovation, marketing strategies and resource allocation throughout a product's lifecycle (Figure 2) [21]. Product lifecycle in marketing involves categorizing apparel and consumer goods based on their market relevance. There are three specific lifecycles (Basic, Fashion and Fad). Basic products maintain consistent sales over extended periods, while fashion products have shorter lifecycles. Fads have the briefest lifecycle, embracing styles by specific subcultures or younger demographics before fading away quickly. Basic products typically outperform fashion and fad items in terms of overall sales volume. Companies often diversify their product lines to include basic, fashion and fad items to optimize sales. Consumer adoption patterns throughout the product lifecycle can be categorized into five groups: Fashion Innovators, Fashion Influencers, Mass Adoption, Decline and Laggards. Marketing efforts should emphasize the product's novelty and unique attributes, while focusing on mass merchandising and broad audience advertising.

Figure 2: Product Lifecycle in fashion and cosmetics

Promotion Tools and Social Media Marketing

Modern marketing involves more than just creating quality products, pricing them well and making them available to customers. Effective communication is essential for establishing and maintaining customer relationships, which includes advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations and direct marketing [10]. Promotion tools include advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations and direct marketing. 

Social media marketing is the technique of increasing website or social media platform traffic or attention. Social media marketing focuses on increasing website or social media platform traffic or attention by creating content that captures readers' attention and encourages sharing [3].

Scenario Planning

Scenario planning is a strategic planning method used to explore plausible future situations and development paths over a medium-term horizon. It aids decision-making and information systems in anticipating role changes. Organizations facing high uncertainty, past costly surprises, lack of awareness of new opportunities and low-quality strategic thinking benefit the most from scenario planning [20]. User-centred design and marketing researchers use personas to build archetypal user profiles, providing planners, managers and designers with a typology of users to base their decisions. Strategic management scenarios are stories about the environment in which products and services are consumed, often challenging for company leaders due to their broad industry, economic and world view.

The building blocks for scenario planning include identifying focal issues and key factors, identifying basic trends, identifying key uncertainties and rules of interaction, constructing scenarios, developing multiple scenarios and focusing on relevance, internal consistency, generically different futures and an equilibrium state. The goal is to identify themes that are strategically relevant and organize possible outcomes and trends around them (Figure 3) [20].

Figure 3: Scenario Narrative Planning [20]

The author of this research uses qualitative research to formulate a business strategy for sustainable brand business. Data collection came from primary and secondary sources, with in-depth interviews and literature studies to strengthen conceptual frameworks. The data synthesis with in depth interview and reference publication. The purpose of this in-depth interview on this study is to explore the business of OMG brand to the perspective of the top management and executives.

The data analysis involves organizing, analysing and interpreting non-numerical, conceptual information to capture patterns and answer research questions. Four stages of qualitative data analysis are: data assembly, data reduction, data display and verification. Data assembly involves gathering data from various sources, such as notes, reflections, documents, photographs, audiotape recordings and records made by respondents. Data reduction involves organizing and structuring data, such as using the internet for in-depth interviews and focus groups. Data display presents the structure of collected data, using tools like PESTEL Analysis, Porter's Five Forces Analysis, competitors' landscape and 4Ps analysis. Data verification involves seeking alternative explanations from various sources and theories to ensure a valid interpretation of collected data. The author uses the Scenario Planning framework to create a plausible future and a sharp implementation plan.

In this study, the author used focused data analysis method from in depth interview with some tools and fundamental theory, some of the method employed in this study are:

• Brand STP analysis

• PESTEL external analysis

• Porter’s Five Forces Analysis

• Competitor 4Ps analysis

• Product Lifecycle analysis

• Ansoff Matrix

• Agile Organization and PDCA framework

• Scenario Planning

By applying these all method, the author was able to conduct in-depth analysis with top management of PT Paragon Technology and Innovation and analysis the key drivers and uncertainty in from each stakeholder. Through this qualitative research analysis, this research able to provide business strategy to gain sustainable brand business for OMG brand.

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP)

OMG Oh My Glam is a new beauty brand catering to the lower socio-economic segment in Indonesia, offering high-quality products at affordable prices. The brand's current positioning is to provide value for money for consumers who purchase cosmetics below IDR 30.000, - with an average basket size of IDR 50.000, - / year. However, OMG needs to improve its positioning statement to compete with other affordable, on-trend beauty brands. The brand's main segment is women seeking product worthiness and value. To serve this segment with low loyalty, OMG needs to increase brand relevancy. The brand's target market is the largest women in Indonesia aged 15-40, with a preference for basic and on-trend products. The target market is characterized by confidence, self-esteem and a bold character who aims to achieve life betterment for themselves and their families [11].

OMG, Oh My Glam, aims to provide affordable, high-quality products that cater to the needs of its target market, ensuring that women can maintain their beauty without sacrificing their budget. By embracing the Never Fade spirit, OMG aims to empower its consumers and make them the best version of themselves (Figure 4).

Figure 4: The Brand mapping on quality and price

PESTEL Analysis

The PESTEL framework is a strategic analysis tool that examines six key segments of the macro-environment:

Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal. It helps businesses identify threats and opportunities that impact their strategic planning and their decision-making in optimizing their all the concerning operations.

Political factors impacting the beauty industry include government regulations, trade and finance policies and the president's election in 2024. While economic factor drives by Indonesian economy which shows resilience growth, with the cosmetics revenue projected to reach US$1,583.2 million in 2020.

Social factors include Indonesia's diverse cultural attitudes towards beauty standards and preferences, particularly among the younger generation Z and millennials. Beauty and personal care awareness has increased due to massive product offerings on social media and new brands are driving demand for transformative results. Technological factors include advancements in beauty technology, such as AI and augmented reality and the rapid growth of e-commerce platforms and online beauty retailers.

Environmental factors include consumers' growing concern for sustainable and eco-friendly beauty products and the impact of climate change on sourcing natural ingredients and product formulation. Legal factors include cosmetics legalization complying with Indonesian regulations and standards for beauty product safety, labelling and advertising.

Table 2: Competitor Marketing Mix Mapping

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis

Porter's Five Forces model, created by Harvard Business School professor Michael E. Porter, helps businesses analyse and explore major forces influencing industry profitability. The model consists of five forces: threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, rivalry among existing firms and threat of substitute [17].

The threat of new entrants driven by the cosmetics industry in Indonesia rapid growth, with 153 new beauty brands registered each year. However, the top three companies in skincare are Paragoncorp, Loreal and Unilever, while the top five companies are Paragoncorp, Ekajaya, Priskila, Loreal and Mandom. The market size is estimated at US$145.3 Billion in 2020, projected to reach US$185.5 Billion by 2027, with revenue in the Indonesia Cosmetics segment projected to reach US$1,583.2m in 2020.

Buyer has the largest bargaining power in the Indonesian cosmetics industry, with the 130 billion women population and the growing online shopping habits. Consumers' buying decisions are driven by FOMO or Fear of Missing Out, with the Tiktok and Tiktok shop product virality driving brand awareness and purchase decisions.

Suppliers have low bargaining power due to their large product format choice and low loyalty to brands. Paragoncorp Group has the biggest bargaining power in the Indonesian beauty industry, but internal sourcing gaps need improvement.

Rivalry among existing firms is another threat, with Chinese cosmetics brands disrupting market share, particularly in online commerce. OMG, an emerging brand from Paracorpgroup, has become the top 3 best-selling lipcream products in ecommerce and the top 10 brands in make-up, with a 10% market share gap in offline stores.

Lastly, the threat of substitute comes from information technology like augmented reality and social media filters, which can be used as complementary products in marketing campaigns to showcase the product's results.

The Competitors 4Ps analysis 

OMG's position in the Indonesian beauty market is crucial in comparison to emerging local brands like Implora and Hanasui and Chinese brand Originote, which is currently viral on TikTok. Mapping these competitions helps formulate future business strategies.

The Product Lifecycle Analysis

The product lifecycle is a fundamental concept in marketing and business strategy, illustrating the stages a product undergoes from its inception to its eventual decline and withdrawal from the market. OMG's total brand is currently in the growth stage, with its specific backbone product, OMG Matte Kiss Lip Cream, already in the maturity stage. To accelerate the brand lifecycle, OMG should refresh or revamp the most important product to keep it relevant with consumers' needs.

The top selling product for OMG is OMG Matte Kiss Lip Cream, which is categorized as a basic item with a long product lifecycle journey. To keep relevant with consumers' needs during the adaptation stage, OMG should collaborate with opinion leaders by creating attractive campaigns and offering special product samples. This strategy, known as influencer marketing, involves partnering with key opinion leaders to drive virality on social media platforms and increase brand awareness.

Masses consumers are the largest in the market, attracted by wide virality and wide product options. To attract them, OMG should use product distribution and awareness strategies, such as the OMG lip parade campaign in three cities, to increase product trialists and share awareness of 18 colours of OMG lip cream.

Late adopters, who try products after hype timelines, are those who have been influenced by peers and family and are not into trends. To engage these consumers, OMG should use massive advertising and offline event roadshows (Figure 5).

Figure 5: The consumers adopter

The Fashioned Product Strategy

Fashioned products, such as lip tint, lip gloss, foundation, cushion, concealer, blush on and eyeshadow, can also be targeted through influencer marketing, livestreaming, affiliate marketing and influencer marketing strategies. One example is OMG Glassy Lip Tint, which became a top-selling product across channels in just two weeks.

The Ansoff Matrix Analysis

The Ansoff Matrix is a strategic tool used to analyse products and markets, proposed by Ansoff in 1975. It consists of four key strategies: Market Penetration Strategy, Market Development Strategy, Product Development Strategy and Diversification Strategy. OMG, a new challenger brand, focuses on market penetration and product development to disrupt the existing beauty market. The brand has a strong traction in the lip make-up category and should expand its product development strategy to gain market share. The product development strategy, including packaging design and colour series completion, is crucial for OMG's sustainability business in the era of TikTok and socio-commerce. This strategy helps fulfil consumers' needs and drive online conversations, making OMG the biggest purchase buying behaviour segment.

The Agile Operation and Organization 

The Agile Operation (PDCA) Cycle is a systematic process for continuous improvement in a product or process. It is an iterative four-step process that starts with small tests to test potential effects on processes and gradually leads to larger, more targeted changes. The PDCA Cycle is applicable across various contexts, such as new product development and marketing and is characterized by an open corporate culture, personal responsibility and open communication style. 

Agile organizations are more effective, flexible to change and can test ideas faster than top-down organizations. They also drive employee enthusiasm and motivation, enhance cooperation and inspire ideas change and recognition. Agile organizations are characterized by their structure, policies and capabilities that facilitate rapid responses to dynamic environments (Figure 6).

The Scenario Planning 

Scenario planning is a crucial tool for businesses to forecast future possibilities due to rapid market growth and uncertainties in external drivers. For OMG brand, it is essential to analyse the future using scenario planning, which is a top-down strategic planning approach. The process begins with identifying the focal issue, which is how OMG can grow and prolong the product lifecycle in the next five years to become a sustainable business. Key factors for sustainable business include marketing role, communication, channel innovation, customer relations and PDCA process.

Figure 6: Agile Organization Framework

The driving forces for OMG brand include economic growth, online ecommerce market growth, new product innovation and technology, Chinese brand expansion, consumer preferences and behaviour changes, beauty trends, social media channel changes and innovation in packaging and technology (Table 3).

Critical uncertainty refers to potential changes in key issues, ranking them by level of uncertainty and impacting a firm like OMG brand. Two critical uncertainties include new product innovation and customer preferences, which play a significant role in the beauty market

The scenario planning framework consists of four important quadrants, each with two critical uncertainties, aiming to create a contrast environment for decision-makers. In the uncertainty dynamic of beauty market Indonesia, scenario planning is important for the brand to forecast and predicted the plausible future.

The OMG brand is developing a scenario for sustainable business by prolonging its product lifecycle. Four scenarios are identified based on critical uncertainties.

Table 3: The driving forces from stakes holders in depth interview

Doomsday

The beauty industry is growing rapidly post-Covid19, with new cosmetics and beauty brands being registered every year. However, without a product portfolio innovation strategy, the brand may easily be substituted by competitors. Consumer needs constantly change and if the brand is not adapting to these changes, it may not sustain its business.

Growth

The brand faces competition from local and Chinese firms with updated technology, but the new product format may not match consumer needs. Consumers have various needs, such as high-quality, affordable, basic products, attractive packaging, guaranteed quality and viral products. Consumers with higher buying power look for viral products with premium price points.

Defensive

The beauty and cosmetics market dynamic shows that brands must offer a variety of products to meet consumer needs. To achieve sustainable business, the brand must provide attractive factors such as product worthiness and effective marketing strategies.

Deliberative

The product that meets consumer needs must have updated technology, ingredients and innovative communication to attract consumers and increase its worthiness value.

The scenarios are analysed and feasible options are generated to address each scenario, allowing the firm to achieve its objectives in building a sustainable business. Early indicators for each scenario include expert technology innovation, growth acceleration, high product worthiness, new media and commerce channels and strong consumer loyalty.

The Business Strategy Formulation

The author proposes a business strategy for OMG Oh My Glam, focusing on sustainable brand business. The strategy involves identifying the root cause and key drivers through interviews with PT Paragon Technology and Innovation representatives and literature review. The business is analysed using PESTEL Analysis, Porter's Five Forces, competitors mapping and Ansoff, STP analysis. 

The OMG Oh My Glam brand offers affordable, high-quality products with an aspirational image for its target market. The company has a good position as a value-driven product that matches consumer needs in low-cost consumers. The strategy can be executed smoothly with an agile organization and strong PDCA monitoring. The Ansoff Matrix suggests that Market Penetration is the most suitable strategy for OMG to develop a sustainable business strategy. This involves extending the product lifecycle, increasing market penetration and disrupting competitors. The marketing mix strategy consists of product, price, place and promotion.

The current marketing mix may not be effective in facing future uncertainty (Table 4). To ensure sustainable business, the Scenario Planning framework (Figure 7) is essential for forecasting the future and providing early signals. OMG Brand faces four plausible scenarios:

• Doomsday: Consumers constantly change, requiring innovative products

• Growth: Product innovation may not align with target market needs

• Defensive: Combining marketing mix strategies with technology and trending channels like TikTok and ecommerce

• Deliberative: Providing products with advanced technology and attractive packaging to increase brand worthiness and relevance to the target market

Table 4: The critical uncertainty based on in depth interview

Figure 7: Scenario Framework

The proposed implementation plan for OMG Oh My Glam aims to achieve sustainable business by fostering seamless teamwork across departments and creating innovative product portfolios and communication strategies (Table 5).

The plan will start with marketing strategic review and continuous improvement through PDCA, focusing on developing an innovative squad to drive product and brand awareness. The implementation strategy is feasible and executable, with budget allocation and resources needed for success. Understanding the fast-changing beauty industry scenario is crucial for future planning.

1. Hungenberg, Thomas Engelbertz, (2009). "Towards an integrated perspective of strategy: The value process framework", Journal of Strategy and Management, Vol. 2 Issue: 1, pp. 76-96, https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/17554250910948712/full/html

2. Armstrong, G. M., Parment, A., & Kotler, P. (2017). Principles of marketing Scandinavian Edition, 2nd Edition. Pearson. https://books.google.co.in/books/about/Principles_of_Marketing.html?id=xOz0DQAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y

3. Barker, M. S., Barker, D. I., Bormann, N. F., & Zahay, D. (2016). Social Media Marketing: A Strategic Approach (2nd ed.). Cengage Learning. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317692496_Social_Media_Marketing_A_Strategic_Approach_Second_Edition

4. Baurley, J. W. (2019). Marketing mix and promotional strategies of TikTok. International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT) 

5. CNBC (2024) ecommerce rising in Tiktokshop https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/26/tiktok-shop-a-rising-threat-to-shopee-and-lazada-in-southeast-asia.html.

6. Fahey & R. Randall (2006), Learning from the future: Competitive foresight scenarios (pp. 3-21). New York: John Wiley. https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Learning+from+the+Future%3A+Competitive+Foresight+Scenarios+-p-9780471303527

7. Jabareen Y. (2009) A new conceptual framework for sustainable development. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 10(2), 197–192. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33246-4_2

8. Kantar Annual FMCG Report (2023) https://www.kantar.com/investor-relations/financial-announcement/announcement-of-the-kantar-groups-fy-2023-results

9. Kouzes, James M., Posner, Barry Z., (2012) “The Leadership Challenge”, Jossey-Bass, 5th Edition, https://books.google.co.in/books/about/The_Leadership_Challenge.html?id=u-5xDgAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y

10. Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2016). Marketing Management (12th ed.). Prentice Hall. https://books.google.co.in/books/about/Marketing_Management.html?id=UbfwtwEACAAJ&redir_esc=y

11. Kotler, P., Wong, V., Saunders, J., & Armstrong, G. (2012). Principles of Marketing: 4th European Edition. Pearson. https://archive.org/details/principlesofmark0000kotl_n2i3

12. Kumar, R. (2010). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications. https://books.google.co.in/books/about/Research_Methodology.html?id=J2J7DwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y

13. Lin, X., Chen,  Y.,  Zhang, Q.,  &  Gao, Y.  (2020).  Understanding the  factors  affecting the  popularity of user-generated  contents  on social  media: A  case study of TikTokNo Title. Information Processing & Management, 57(6)

14. Malhotra, N. K. and Birks, D. F., (2007). Marketing Research: an Applied Approach. 3rd Ed. Harlow: Pearson Education. Mattila, Anna S., and Jochen Wirtz https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/en/publications/marketing-research-an-applied-approach

15. McGrail, S. (2014), ‘special issue on “sustainable futures”’, Journal of Futures Studies, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 1–12.

16. Meta. (2024). About Instagram Insights. Instagram Help Center. Retrieved June 16, 2024, from https://help.instagram.com/788388387972460

17. Porter, M.E. 2008. The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy. Harvard Business Review, (2008). http://www.ibbusinessandmanagement.com/uploads/1/1/7/5/11758934/porters_five_forces_analysis_and_st rategy.pdf 

18. Pringle James & Jeroen Huisman, 2011. An Industry Analysis Using Porter’s Five Forces Framework, 36, Ontario Universities Analysis, Volume 41, No. 3, pages 36 – 58, 2011. DOI:10.47678/cjhe.v41i3.2489

19. Pruitt, J & Grudin. (2003). Personas, participatory design, and product development: An infrastructure for engagement https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Personas%2C-Participatory-Design-and-Product-An-for-Grudin-Pruitt/7ea9505694f1d444a330b1947109c7268a9704d2

20. Schoemaker (1995) Scenario Narrative Planning https://enlazate.kuikmatch.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2021/06/Scenario-Planning-2.pdf

21. Slide “The Leadership Challenge” by Pak Wawan (Laporan Akhir Pimpinan Sekolah Bisnis dan Manajemen Institut Teknologi Bandung)

22. Statista (2023) Global Beauty Market and Indonesia Online Market https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1220238/indonesia-revenue-beauty-and-personal-care-market

23. Weeks, D., Malone, P., & Welling, L. (2011). Climate change scenario planning: A tool for managing parks into uncertain futures. Park Science, 26-33.  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290016544_Climate_change_scenario_planning_A_tool_for_managing_parks_into_uncertain_futures