Question

Solve the following case: 10

Saurabh Mitra is a fresh graduate from the institute of Mass Communication. He also possess a Masters Degree in Marketing Management from the Mumbai University. It was through campus recruitment that Saurabh was picked up by Doras Pharmaceuticals, a reputed company, having a large market share in many OTC products. Main among these being a fairness cream named Snowhite and an ointment for burns and cuts branded 'Burns" i.e. Stopburns.

The company has an all India presence and plans to soon launch a pain balm -cum-cold rub named D'Cold. D'cold would be in straight competition with 'Vicks Vaporub' and 'Amrutanjan'.

Shri Manoj Singh, the company's marketing manager, dreams to make Dtcold a leading brand. He has contracted Admagic the country's no. 1 advertising agency to handle the account of D'cold.

When Saurabh joined Doras he was included in the Marketing team of D' cold. L o o k i n g at Saurabh' s qualifications, and interests he was given the task of liaison with the advertising agency Admagic. After a series of meetings between Saurabh and the Account Executive of Admagic, in a few of which Mr. Singh was also present, it was decided to position Dicold towards the adult segment of the market since all the three of them believed that the requirements of the adult segment of the pain balm market were different from those of the children. They were also convinced that D'cold had all the ingredients to meet the requirements of the adult segment of the market. .

Accordingly, the first advertising campaign of D'cold was released in July 1999 to the media. The company decided to concentrate on TV and the national press to reach its targetted customers. The TV spots showed D'cold being used on the father of a family who is down with cold and body ache. The focus of the advertising was on the punch line ‘Bado ka cold rub’(A rub for the adults). The timing of launching D'cold was perfect since the rainy season was considered boom period for cold rubs.

The initial results were very encouraging and by the end of the rainy season D'cold had already become a brand to reckon with. After the rainy season Admagic proposed to change the campaign and accordingly a new campaign was prepared. While the TV spots showed a young mother using D'cold on her school going child the earlier punch line was entirely missing.

Saurabh was not very happy from the TV spots as he felt that the new campaign went against the earlier positioning of D'cold. This, he felt, would confuse the buyers and the advantage of the positioning strategy would be lost. Since Mr. Singh was very happy with the new advertisements Saurabh decided to keep silent.

Requirements:

1. Evaluate D'cold's segmentation strategy. (3)
2. Do you agree with Saurabh's opinion on the new advertisements? (3)
3. What would you do if you were in Saurabh's place? (4)

Answer 1

Answer 1= The segmentation strategy of D’ Cold was good as it tried to develop a different segment of the market for its new product called D’cold. As the market was already been captured by two major players such as 'Vicks Vaporub' and 'Amrutanjan', the company needed the distinguished and separate market segment and it focused on the adult customers who are seen as the head of the family. Thus the segmentation was suitable to make the inroad in the industry where already two major players were leading the game.

Answer 2= I do agree with the opinions of the Saurabh that the ad commercials should not confuse the target market but the focus should be on making the already communicated strategy or brand positioning to make stronger. When the new TV spots were released, it appeared to have totally adverse positioning than before and it could boomerang on the company as the customers might get confused with this new TV spots

Answer 3= I would have used the earlier brand positioning to propagate the new TV advertising campaign and to develop the new brand image or positioning. This is due to the fact that if a totally different ad campaign is used, the chances of failure may be quite high