Introduction

Cosmetic is one of the industries with high demand. Contrary to popular belief that cosmetic
only demanded by female consumer, currently the number of male consumer is constantly
increasing from year to year. Due to the high demand, many companies try to penetrate this
industry. As the result, the competition between brands is getting tighter.

Too Cool For School is cosmetic brand that established in South Korea. However, the product
was designated in in New York City, US, where various of artists collaborate during the process
to come out with unique product. This brand created its product based on experimental creativity
and also influence of contemporary culture, to distinct itself from other cosmetic brands that
widely available. This brand obtained significant acceptance from the home market, South
Korea. This brand in its official website claims that “Too School For School is one of the most
sought after brands in South Korea,” (Too School For School, 2016).

Currently, this brand is selling 13 lines of product, with Dinoplatz as the main product. The
product is delivered to

Besides in home country, Too Cool For School also open its stores in New York, London, and
some countries in Southeast Asia, such as Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. While
in other countries, this brand collaborates with local cosmetic store such as Collete and Gallery
Lafayette in Paris, and Sephora.

The sales of Too Cool For School had across many countries. To make sure the sales in each
country reach the target, the brand should continuously perform marketing effort. But, nowadays,
there is significant change in marketing field. Many companies change the way to market their
product. Internet is considered as more effective and efficient way to be used as channel for
marketing effort, since there is no limitation of time and distance (Lieber and Syverson, 2011).
Moreover, people can freely and easily share information through for forum and social media.
Thus, internet also boosts chance for word-of-mouth marketing.

In one of Too Cool for School markets, Singapore, indeed the market share of cosmetic product
from South Korea increase significantly (Euromonitor, 2016). However, Too Cool for School
still needs to compete with other brands from South Korea. E-Marketing Plan can help this brand
to win the competition. Hence, this report will composed E-Marketing plan for Too Cool For
School in Singapore.

Situational Analysis

Environmental Analysis

One of the most important environments to consider when doing a business in foreign country is
legal environment. This environment is contributes significantly to the success of business.
Fortunately, the government of Singapore is very supportive to foreign companies that want to
expand to their country. Thus, the law and regulation to open and operate the business are easy to
follow. For example: the entrepreneur only needs less than a week to establish new business in
Singapore, the cost for the establishment also low. According to the website of Monetary
Authority of Singapore (2016), Singapore is considered as the easiest country in the world to do
business in World Bank Report that published this year. Based on the condition of legal
environment, it means that Too Cool For School will be able to do the business smoothly. The
value-added tax (VAT) for goods and services is low; it is only 7% from the selling price.
Meanwhile in other countries VAT can reach 10% or more (EY.com, 2016). Because of this,
Too Cool for School had the opportunity to sell the product at lower price and increase the
demand.

The condition of technological environment is also important to be understood. Since,

technology has dictate the ways of company to run its business, including marketing its products.
In Southeast Asia, the Singapore achieved the highest internet penetration rate with 80%
(Internet Live Stats, 2014). Besides accessing website, Singaporean is also active in using social
media. 96% of total internet user in Singapore, at least has 1 social media account and on daily
average spending 2 hours 27 minutes to access it. The most social media is Facebook, followed
by Twitter, then Google+. However, within last few months, Instagram began to gained
popularity (We Are Social 2014; 2015). The high internet penetration and exposure of
Singaporean to internet and social media provide opportunities for Too Cool for School increase
brand awareness, and attract new or existing consumer to try and buy its product. It also allows
this brand to convert the consumers that used competitors’ products.
When it comes to market related factor, cosmetic product also received high demand. But,
South Korean products recently become a trend, this country gained high popularity on its
cosmetic and fashion products. It happened due to widespread phenomenon of K-Pop and K-
Drama (Euromonitor, 2016). As the result, Too Cool For School as South Korea product is
boosted by this phenomenon. Another boost for this brand is come from blogger and social
media users, who posted review online. Nowadays, people tend to use internet and social media
to gained information and compared product, before actually buy it. By considering this behavior
of market, it is very important for Too Cool For School to take advantage of the trend and also
maintain its image on the in the internet. Singapore is very promising market for cosmetic
brands, although the size of population is small, but Singaporean willing to spend a lot of money
on luxury goods (Pitman, 2013).

While for the competitive environment, as mentioned before the competition in cosmetic
industry is very high. In Singapore, Too Cool For School not only compete with South Korean
product, but also locals and products from Western countries. Some strong competitors of this
brand are Laneige, and Etude. All of these brands had opened stores in Singapore and also some
other countries that similar with Too Cool For School. Laneige products can be obtained through
30 stores in Singapore, including Sephora. This brand is also making it possible for Singaporean
to shop online. Because Laneige collaborate with Lazada and Sephora. While, Etude has 18
stores in Singapore. It does not collaborate with any parties in term of distribution. The
competitive advantage of Etude, it has official website that dedicated for consumer in Singapore.
However, Etude does not facilitate its consumer to shop the products online. By considering the
competitors’ condition, Too Cool For School, has the opportunities to defeat its competitors by
developing website which dedicated for consumer in Singapore. The official website can give
needed information for the consumer to increase their awareness to the brand and attract them to
buy the product. This brand also should develop its own e-shop to give the consumer more
access to the product.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT is analytic tools that help business entity to find out the condition of its internal and
external condition. The internal covered the strength and weakness of the business entity, while
the external covered opportunity and threat to the business entity. The information of external
condition is obtained from environmental analysis.

No. Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats

1 This product is There is no Develop website Other South Korean

unique, since based website that that dedicated for cosmetic brands
on experimental specifically consumer in that penetrate
creativity and also dedicated for Singapore to Singapore market,
influence of consumer in increase brand such as Innisfree
contemporary Singapore. awareness and and Clio.
culture, also attract them to buy
developed by various products.
artists and has high
quality.

2 The price is match The brand is Develop E-Shop

with the quality, and less known which gives more
on average compared compared to the options for
to other two competitors consumer to get
competitors. Laneige who appoints the products,
is higher, and Etude A-class Korean without visiting
is lower. Stars as brand brick-n-mortar
ambassador. shop.

3 Utilize social
media as channel
of marketing.

4 Offer with
influencer in social
 media, YouTuber,
and blogger free
products and they
can tell their
experience to their
audiences.

From the result of SWOT analysis, there are some things that important to note.

 Strength 1 can be used to make sure the Opportunity 3 will bring good result for the
company

 Strength 2 can be used as point of attraction to consumer when Opportunity 2 is

performed

 Weakness 3 can be overcome when Opportunity 1 is implemented

 Weakness 2 can be overcome when Opportunity 4 is implemented

 Opportunity 1,2,3, and 4 can be used to reduce the risk of Threat 1

E-Marketing Strategic Plan

Segmentation and Targeting

Segmentation is thing that should be considered before deciding the target market for the
marketing plan. Based on the definition that is composed by Kotler and Armstrong (2005),
segmentation is the ways to divide buyers into groups based on a number of variables, such as
needs, characteristics, and behavior. Segmentation is performed because a group of buyers might
not suitable for certain products and campaign that created by same brands.
There are several ways to divide buyers, through geographic segmentation, demographic
segmentation, psychographic segmentation, and behavioral segmentation.

For the geographic segmentation, it is obvious that the market is concentrated on Singapore area.

Meanwhile, for demographic segmentation, there are a number of characteristics. Among others,
generation Y, dominantly female, across all races and ethnicity. Due to the brand and products
characteristics that represent youth spirit, and cuteness, it is not suitable for generation X. Also,
the generation Y is more aware to technology advancement compared to generation X, since this
generation is technology native. Besides that, most of generation X rarely exposed to traditional
mass media and other traditional channels of marketing (WJSchroer, 2016).

In context of psychographic segmentation, the market is divided based on personality and

lifestyle. There are other aspects added, according to Pickton and Broderick (2005), which are
attitudes, values, interests, and opinions. Thus, other characteristics of the target market based on
this segmentation are those who care about appearances and prioritize quality over price. They
also those with open personality, tend to be extrovert, love to socialize, and active using internet
and social media.

The last segmentation is behavioral segmentation. The E-Marketing Plan aims for those who
enjoy convenience, benefits, and prestige.

Differentiation

In the entrepreneur world, it is important to able to identify the competitors plan, including E-
Marketing Plan. Select the best practice, and then enhance the practice to benefit the brand. It
means, Too Cool For School should observe the website and social media of the competitors,
Laneige and Etude. Moreover, Too Cool For School also need to analyze the SEO effort,
including internal linking, outbound linking, and inbound linking. The partners (including
influencers/brand ambassador) that are chosen to improve the number of visitors of the website,
and how the competitors increase the consumer engagement to the brand and referring brand to
friend and acquaintances.
Out of many things, Too Cool For School can differentiate itself from the competitors by
establishing e-commerce on its own website. Besides that, the competitors do not provide any
service that can allow the consumer to consult directly with the beauty advisors before selecting
the product. For that purposes, most of consumers have to come to the brick-and-mortar shop.
Also, the competitors did not use the online influencer. The choose Korean Stars. Too Cool For
School can take advantage from international influencers such as Michelle Phan and Bethany
Mota, to increase popularity of brand not only in certain region but globally.

Positioning

Too Cool For School aims to positioned itself the top cosmetic brand from South Korea in the
global market. By creating unique products with high quality, which are marketed all over the
world not only from brick-and-mortar store but also website, social media, and e-commerce
that increase the convenience and prestige of the users.

E-Marketing Objectives

The E-Marketing Plan will be carried out within 2 year period, from 1 January 2017 – 31
December 2019. The objectives of the plan, among others:

 Increase the traffic growth of website by 50%

 Increase the brand awareness and recognition of Too Cool For School in Singapore
Market by 15%
 Turn 35% of traffic growth into the actual lead
 Enhance to total sales through Too Cool For School brick-and-mortar store, its website,
and website of partner by at least 18%
 Keep the satisfaction level of consumer at rate 2 negative feedback: 8 positive feedback

E-Marketing Strategy
Related to product strategy, the E-Marketing Plan of Too Cool For School including
improvement of the current product strategy. Despite the fact, this brand is selling goods, but
display of goods and information about the goods are also included in the product strategy. To
improve the strategy, website that dedicated for consumer in Singapore will be created. The
website will display the goods and complete information about the goods. The website should
not only available in the desktop version. But also, in the mobile version. Because according to
the data from Digital Influence Lab (2015), more than quarter of internet users, to be precise
28%, tend to switch to the website that works on mobile. The consumer is also able to consult
with standby beauty advisors through the chat box that available on the website. It make will
increase the convenience on their experience with Too Cool For School. It will boost the value of
the brand for those who are busy to come to brick-and-mortar to know the products. Before make
the decision to purchase.

Meanwhile for the pricing strategy, Too Cool For School will implement bundle pricing
strategy. Currently, this brand has 13 lines of product, with consists of face care, body care, to
make-up. The target market commonly buy cosmetic product from head to toe, from various
brand. By offering bundle pricing, it will boost the interest of consumer to try all products of this
brand. If they are satisfied, the repurchase will be made and they most likely give
recommendation to others. Besides bundle pricing, penetration pricing strategy also will be used
for those who buy product directly from website for the first time. They will be given discount
15% for that.

In the term of distribution strategy, besides direct distribution strategy through brick-and-
mortar stores, the website will be integrated to as part of the strategy. The consumer can order
directly from website, make a payment by transfer the money or credit card, then the product will
be delivered to the consumer chosen address by third party services.

Last but not least, the promotion strategy. Creating website, filled it with information and
feature including e-commerce are not enough. The marketing plan is also need to include
optimization of website speed. If it takes such a long time to load, most likely the consumer lost
interest to access it. SEO effort is also important. It is performed to make sure that Too Cool For
School website appear at the first page, when consumer searched for certain keyword that related
to cosmetics product in Singapore. SEO might able to attract those who do not know about this
brand, but currently looking for cosmetics product to buy. It provides the opportunity to get new
consumer. Providing blog section at the website about lifestyle, fashion and beauty, also able to
generate visitors and increase the engagement of exisiting consumer to the brand. The SEO effort
includes Google Adwords, and organic ways (internal linking, inbound and outbound linking)

Besides website, social media Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will be used. Although, Too
Cool For School already has account in all the social media, but those are not dedicated to
consumer in Singapore. Thus, the content is not match with the current trend in Singapore.
Because of that the new accounts that dedicated for consumer in Singapore will be made. These
social media will use to increase awareness and recognition to brand and maintain engagement
with exisiting consumer.

To increase traffic to website and social media of Too Cool For School, the brand will
collaborate with influencer local and international, so they placed online review based on their
experience about Too Cool For School products. The influencers commonly have strong
credibility that will be effective to affect the image of brand and perspective of consumers
toward the brand.

Online advertisement also will be placed in several prominent beauty website in Singapore.

Implementation Plan
Strategy No Description Responsibility Schedule
Product S1 Create website that Marketing: Create the Start: January
dedicated for plan (including the 2017
consumer in online of the website) Launch: March
Singapore with all and calculate the 2017
needed features and needed budget.
mobile version Finance: Releasing
fund based on budget
that created by
 marketing.
IT: Create the website
based on the plan that
made by marketing
team.
S2 Optimization of IT: Improved based on Start: March
website speed trial and error 2017
Launch: April
2017
S3 Hire online beauty Marketing: Research Start: February
advisors on the number of 2017
online beauty advisor Launch: April
that needed to handle 2017
consumer
HR: Create budgeting
for the recruitment
process
Finance: Releasing
fund based on budget
that created by HR
HR: Start the
recruitment process
and get the candidate
Pricing S1 Applying Bundle Marketing: Decide Start: April
Pricing Strategy which product should 2017 – the end
be bundled and decide of campaign
the price.
Sales: Discuss with
sales team for the
calculation to make
sure pricing strategy
still bring profitability.
S2 Applying Marketing and sales: Start: April
Penetration Pricing Discuss to calculate 2017 – until
Strategy pricing strategy to June 2017
make sure still bring
profitability.
IT: Insert the coupon
code that automatically
deduct the bill based on
discount
Distribution S1 Activate website e- IT: Make sure all Start: March
commerce transaction process run 2017
smoothly Launch: April
Sales: Supervise all the 2017
transaction process and
 interfere if any error
occurred/consumer
complained
Promotion S1 SEO Effort Marketing: Planning Start: April
and budgeting the SEO 2017 – until the
effort end of
Finance: Releasing the campaign
fund based on
marketing budget
Marketing:
Implementing the SEO
effort
S2 Filling Content For Marketing: Filling the Start: April
Blog Section on content based on most 2017 – until the
Website search keyword related end of
to beauty and lifestyle campaign

S3 Create social media Marketing: Create the Start: April

account and operate social media account, 2017 – until the
it posted promotional end of
content campaign

S4 Collaborate with Marketing: Create plan Start: April

influencers and budget for 2017 – until the
collaboration, and list end of
potential influencer campaign
Finance: Releasing the
fund based on
marketing budget

Evaluation and Budget

Strategy No Description Evaluation Budget

Product S1 Create website that $25.000 and
dedicated for $500 per
consumer in month for
Singapore with all maintenance
needed features and
mobile version
S2 Optimization of > 10 seconds = Bad
website speed performance
10 – 6 seconds =
Average performance
> 5 seconds = Good
 performance

S3 Hire online beauty Budget: $50

advisors per potential
candidate
Pricing S1 Applying Bundle Sales on bundle
Pricing Strategy products % of total
online sales
<30% = Bad
Performance
35 – 50% = Average
Performance
>50% = Good
Performance

S2 Applying Convert new users to

Penetration Pricing actual lead
Strategy <30% = Bad
Performance
35 – 50% = Average
Performance
>50% = Good
Performance
Distribution S1 Activate website e- Total online sales ..% of
commerce total sales
<30% = Bad
Performance
35 – 50% = Average
Performance
>50% = Good
Performance
Promotion S1 SEO Effort Domain authority $1.000 per
<20 = Bad Performance month
20-40 = Average
Performance
>40 = Good
Performance

Appear in first page of

Search engine
S2 Filling Content For Testing quality by staff
Blog Section on in other department
Website 0-5 : Bad Performance
6-8 : Average
Performance
9-10 : Good
 Performance

S3 Create social media Facebook: 200 likes per

account and operate content
it Instagram: 200
followers per month, 50
likes per post
Twitter: 200 followers
per month
S4 Collaborate with Increase of traffic based $3000 per
influencers on unique link that influencers
posted by influencer.
20% of traffic increase
per influencer