1

A REPORT ON

DECIDING THE POSITIONING STRATEGY FOR SC

JOHNSON’S ALL OUT AND BAYGON FOR INDIAN

MARKET.

By:

Mayank Dhaundiyal

12BSPHH010532

IBS Hyderabad

2

A

Report On

“DECIDING THE POSITIONING STRATEGY FOR SC JOHNSON’S ALL OUT

AND BAYGON FOR INDIAN MARKET.”

Submitted by:

Mayank Dhaundiyal

12BSPHH010532

An Interim Report Submitted in the partial fulfillment of the

requirements of MBA Program of

IBS Hyderabad

This report is written for:

BBDO India Pvt. Ltd

Date of submission

May 24, 2013

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AUTHORIZATION

I hereby declare that I have got all the required authorization from the Servicing

and Planning department to carry out research work within the company

premises. This department has also given me the required authorization and

support for this research work. “The report is submitted as partial fulfillment of

the requirements of MBA Program of IBS Hyderabad.”

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I take this opportunity to thank “BBDO India Pvt. Ltd” for giving me this wonderful

platform to do my summer internship project with them. I want to humbly thank

Mr. Gireesh Gupta AVP India, BBDO India Pvt. Ltd (Company Guide), for helping

me at every possible stage and also supporting me every time in this project, Prof.

Abhilash Ponnam (faculty guide), for constantly updating me and providing useful

guidance at every stage of the project. In the end I want to thank Mr. Divyam

Kaushik and all the other staff members of BBDO who has helped me in getting

this project done.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues who have helped

me in this project with their fruitful advices.

Thank you every one for your kind support and help.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Authorization 3

Acknowledgment 4

Executive summary/Synopsis /abstract/summary 6-11

1 Introduction 12

1.1 Scope, Purpose, Limitations 15

1.2 Methods used 15

2 Main Text 16

2.1 Research Methodology 17

2.2 Brand Equity 18

2.3 Survey findings 28

2.4 Limitations 43

2.5 Findings 43

2.6 Conclusion 44

2.7 Recommendation 45

3 Attachments 46

4 References 49

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Student Information:

Name: Mayank Dhaundiyal

Enrollment No: 12BSPHH010532

Qualification: MBA, IBS Hyderabad

Organization Description:

Name: BBDO India Pvt. Ltd

Industry Type: Advertising

Address: BBDO India Pvt. Ltd

Plot No. 1 & 2, second floor,

Sec. 29, Gurgaon,

State: Haryana

Pin code: 122002

Title of the project:

Deciding the positioning strategy for SC Johnson’s All Out and Baygon for Indian

market.

Background

BBDO (Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn)

BBDO is a worldwide advertising agency network, with its headquarters in New

York City. The agency began in 1891 with George Batten's Batten Company, and

later in 1928, through a merger of BDO (Barton, Durstine & Osborn) and Batten

Co. the agency became BBDO.BBDO Worldwide has been named the "Most

Awarded Agency Network in the World" by The Gunn Report for 6 consecutive

years beginning 2005. As well, it has won "Network of the Year" at the Cannes

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Lions for half a decade. With more than 15,000 employees in 289 offices in 80

countries, it is the largest of three global networks (BBDO, DDB, TBWA) of

agencies in Omnicom's portfolio.[2] BBDO was named Global Agency of the Year

by Adweek in 2011. It has also been named Agency of the Year in 2005 by

Adweek, Advertising Age, and Campaign Magazine. In 2006, Mayor Bloomberg

proclaimed January 10 as BBDO day in recognition of the strength of its

advertising, as well as its contributions to New York City.

With an extensive portfolio of creative advertising, BBDO focuses on the

philosophy of "The Work. The Work. The Work", citing, "At BBDO, the Work

encompasses every kind of creative content that can touch the consumer and

reinforce the brand".

Some of the company's big clients include:

The Economist, PepsiCo, Diageo, FedEx, GE, Mercedes, Gillette, Motorola

Solutions, Orbits, Wrigley, AT&T, Exxon Mobil, Monster.com, HBO, Hyatt Hotels,

Starbucks, Lowe’s, PnG, Johnson & Johnson, HP, SC Johnson, Emirates, Olympus

etc

BBDO INDIA

BBDO started its operations in India in the year 2008. It works under the names

BBDO India, BBDO Proximity AND BBDO Asia.

Some important clients that BBDO India handles are PepsiCo, SC Johnson, Aviva,

HP, Exxon etc.

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SYNOPSIS

We are doing this project to find out whether SC Johnson should use doctors in

their TV commercials or not which is basically a positioning strategy (positioning

their products as “doctor recommended”).

These type of strategies are used for those products which contain chemicals in it

and due to which the consumers develop a notion that these types of products

could turn harmful for them and their family’s health. People today, are very

conscious about these types of products. They want healthy things. Healthy food,

healthy products etc. They won’t just use anything available in the market. Before

buying a product they search the net, ask their friends, colleagues, parents etc

and then make their decision. People are educated and they always need a “good

reason” to buy a product, they won’t just go by the price or looks or just “need”.

They want the best.

Now marketers found out this way of educating customers about their product so

that they believe that the product is safe and useful. They show a doctor in their

advertisement who recommends the viewers that it’s a good product and

effective too. They might also show themselves as regular users of these

products.

These advertisements are made to change the perception of the consumers i.e.

changing the negativity about the product into positivity.

The project highlights how doctors are used as promoters of brands by featuring

in TV commercials. There are many ways of positioning a product and some

brands position their products as “Doctor recommended”.

We are trying to position their products as if these products are superior to the

other products (in the same category) and currently present in the Indian market.

This can be done by advertising their products with doctors featuring in them and

giving consumers an idea that these products are recommended by doctors.

Recommendation could be done by directly telling the consumers to use these

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products or indirectly, by showing consumers that doctors are using these

products by themselves and their families.

These are the products which build an image of being recommended by doctors

or being used by doctors themselves which pushes them to buy these products.

This happens because today’s consumers are quality conscious and believe that

when doctors can use these products than we should use them too. The best way

to do is this by using doctors as promoters of these products in advertisements

(TV commercials, banners, standees etc.).

Doctors are used as promoters by various brands such as Dettol, Horlicks oats,

Orbit chewing gum etc. to give the consumers an idea that their product is

superior to other products available in the market and this is done by using:-

Doctors as RECOMMENDERS- Creating an image in consumers mind

through recommendation by a doctor in their advertisements. These

advertisements show a doctor which will make consumers aware of

various facts and positive impacts of a product and advise them to use the

product for benefits which other products might not give. They give an idea

of that how using these products may help consumers in the future and

consumers won’t need to see a doctor as these products are already

recommended by them.

Doctors as USERS- By showing, doctors and their families are regularly using

these products thus you can use them too. These advertisements help consumers

to gain trust on products since doctors and their own families are using these

products. This is a great way of advertising a product as doctors have a very high

image in our eyes and seeing a doctor using a certain product would highly

motivate us to use and recommend the same product to our family, relatives and

friends.

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ABSTRACT

The project will deal with recognizing that, is the positioning strategy of using

doctors as recommenders of various brands make a significant difference in their

sales and brand equity. This shall be done by analyzing various products in the

market which are currently using this positioning strategy. We will deal with those

products only which use doctors in their TV commercials.

We will be using Brand Equity analysis and Hypothesis analysis in our study. Brand

Equity analysis will be done though various ways by the data available on the

internet and Hypothesis will be done on the primary data which will be collected

through random people through online questionnaire. After all the data is

collected a Conclusive study will be done. Hypothesis will be developed and

accordingly calculations regarding the study will be done.

At last, we will use the result of this study to suggest SC Johnson that whether

they should go for this type of positioning strategy for their All Out and Baygon

products.

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SUMMARY

This project is meant to suggest SC Johnson whether to use or not to use doctors

in their advertisements. Doctors featuring in advertisements give viewers a notion

that these products are healthy, safe or better than other products available in

the market.

We can understand this by studying the impact of using this strategy by other

products which are already using this type of positioning strategy for their

products. This can be done by analyzing sales and consumer views of these

products. Good sales and consumer views are maybe because of using this

strategy. If they are not because of this positioning strategy than we cannot

suggest SC Johnson to go for this strategy. But how will we come to know

whether a good or bad brand equity is due to this type of strategy? For this we

will have to do a conclusive research. We will do a survey in which we will ask

people whether they take advertisements seriously or not? What do they

perceive of these doctors? Do they believe them or not? Do advertisements really

affect their buying behavior?

After every bit and piece is done we will conclude and suggest SC Johnson that

whether they should use this type of strategy or not.

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INTRODUCTION

The Indian advertising industry is talking business today. It has evolved from being a small-scale business to a full-fledged industry. It has emerged as one of the major industries and tertiary sectors and has broadened its horizons be it the creative aspect, the capital employed or the number of personnel involved. Indian advertising industry in very little time has carved a niche for itself and placed itself on the global map.

Indian advertising industry with an estimated value of ES 13, 200-crore has made jaws drop and set eyeballs gazing with some astonishing pieces of work that it has given in the recent past. The creative minds that the Indian advertising industry incorporates have come up with some mind-boggling concepts and work that can be termed as masterpieces in the field of advertising.

Advertising agencies in the country too have taken a leap. They have come a long way from being small and medium sized industries to becoming well known brands in the business. Mudra, Ogilvy and Mathew (O&M), Mccann Ericsonn, Rediffussion, Leo Burnett are some of the top agencies of the country.

Indian economy is on a boom and the market is on a continuous trail of expansion. With the market gaining grounds Indian advertising has every reason to celebrate. Businesses are looking up to advertising as a tool to cash in on lucrative business opportunities. Growth in business has lead to a consecutive boom in the advertising industry as well.

SCOPE OF ADVERTISING IN INDIA

The Indian advertising today handles both national and international projects. This is primarily because of the reason that the industry offers a host of functions to its clients that include everything from start to finish that include client servicing, media planning, media buying, creative conceptualization, pre and post campaign analysis, market research, marketing, branding, and public relation services.

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SC JOHNSON

S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. (commonly referred to as S. C. Johnson and S.C. Johnson,

A Family Company in its commercials) is an American privately held, global

manufacturer of household cleaning supplies and other consumer chemicals

based in Racine, Wisconsin.

SC Johnson is a family-owned and managed business dedicated to innovative,

high-quality products, excellence in the workplace and a long-term commitment

to the environment and the communities in which it operates. Based in the USA,

the company is one of the world's leading manufacturers of household cleaning

products and products for home storage, air care, and insect control. It markets

such well-known brands as GLADE, OFF!, PLEDGE, RAID, SCRUBBING BUBBLES,

SHOUT, WINDEX and ZIPLOC in the U.S. and beyond, with brands marketed

outside the U.S. including AUTAN, BAYGON, BRISE, ECHO, KABIKILLER, KLEAR, and

MR. MUSCLE. The 124-year-old company, with more than $8 billion in sales,

employs approximately 12,000 people globally and sells products in virtually every

country around the world. It has operations in 72 countries and its brands are sold

in over 110. It is the largest component of the Johnson Family Enterprise, which

also includes the Johnson Financial Group and Johnson Outdoors.

Our study will take care of two of it’s products namely All Out and Baygon which

come under SC Johnson’s ‘bug repellents’ category.

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ADVERTISING

In Latin, ad vertere means "to turn the mind toward." Advertising is a form of communication for marketing and used to encourage, persuade, or manipulate

an audience to continue or take some new action. The outcome/result is to drive

the behavior of the consumers in the way the companies want. Ads are placed

where advertisers believe they will reach the largest, most relevant audience.

The advertisement must show what the product is all about. It should, in a way

give some kind of information about its price, benefits, usage, availability and so

on.

Advertising Strategy

The best advertising starts with a solid strategy:

Who’s your target: It is selecting who you are targeting your product to. Are you

targeting the moms who buy household products? Or the guys who buy SUVs and

other big cars? or the youth if you trying to sell mobile phones, trendy clothes,

gadgets etc

When and where you’ll advertise: Deciding where to advertise is another big and

important factor. A good advertisement if placed wrongly will not result in any

good. For eg. Advertising a flour brand early in the morning or late at night when

flour purchasers (mostly mothers) are busy with their family or during an IPL

match which is viewed mostly by men.

What to say and how to say it: Telling the viewers exactly what you want to tell

them is important because what you tell will ultimately give them a picture of

your product. One slight miscommunication will ruin the entire message. For eg

recently Ford miscommunicated their Figo ad and landed up in a huge

controversies.

How to track results to know what works: And ultimately it is the result is tracked

by seeing the overall growth of the product (sales, brand equity etc).

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Scope of the study

We are taking into consideration only two product categories for comparison.

These two products categories will be soap and toothpaste. All the

advertisements of these products shall be watched and all the advertisements

showing doctors in will be collected.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to understand the role of doctors who feature in TV

commercials and to see how consumers perceive this positioning strategy. After

the study is done we have to recommend SC Johnson to whether go for this

positioning strategy or not.

Methods used

Conclusive research is done on data collected through a survey online to understand the mindset of the existing viewers and than a conclusion is give to SC

Jonson. Factor analysis to find out what factors influence consumers to buy/try a

new product.

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MAIN TEXT

We are doing this study for two of its Household pest control product category,

namely, All Out and Baygon.

Other products under the same categories from other brands are:

Goodnight

Tortoise

Mortein

Hit etc.

We see that there is no other product in this category under any other brand

which positions its products as “doctor recommended”. Our study will help us to

decide whether SC Johnson should position their products through doctors. This

study will help us to understand how other products like toothpastes, health

drinks, health foods etc. are affected by this type of positioning strategy. Are

these strategies helping these products to grow? Do people really believe what

advertisements are telling them?

We will decide our suggestions to SC Johnsons depending upon our study which

will include two parts, which are:

A. The project needs an understanding of brand equity of different products

(which are toothpaste and soap for our project) which are currently using doctors in their TV commercials and positioning their products as “Doctor

recommended”. Brand equity can be synthesized by how these brands are

perceived by the consumers or their sales data compared to those products which

do not use this strategy or their market share. We will have to use all of these

parameters since not all data for every product is available to everyone. So, we

will use different parameters for different products, whichever is available, and

will see whether this strategy has worked for these products or not.

B. The second part would be running a survey to see that do advertisements

actually influence people? If yes than what do people perceive of a doctor telling

them to use a particular product over another product? Do they believe them or

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not? What do they see in a TV commercial? What do they see in a TV

commercial? Etc

Research Methodology

Type of Research Design

Conclusive research is done on data collected through a survey online to

understand the mindset of the existing viewers and than a conclusion is give to SC

Jonson. Factor analysis to find out what factors influence consumers to buy/try a new product.

Information Needed

The data that was needed for this report was collected through the primary

sources and secondary sources.

Data collection from primary sources

Observation method is used to collect the data from competitor’s advertising and

promotional strategies and survey method is used to understand the mindset of

the viewers.

Data collection from Secondary sources

The organizations database, competitors TV commercials and their sales data

available on internet and other sites which gives information about brand

rankings and their views/blogs about the products has been used.

Instruments for collecting Data

The instruments used for collecting data are questionnaires.

Population and sample size

Random people selected from personal database and a sample size of 100 people

has been taken for this pilot study.

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Analysis

Brand Equity analysis and factor analysis has been applied to run the analysis on

the data that has been collected.

A.BRAND EQUITY ANALYSIS

For our analysis we will use two product categories to understand the affect of

positioning of these brands as “Doctor recommended” or “Used by doctors”. The

two product categories shall be Soap and Toothpaste. We see that there are

various products in these categories which position their products as “doctor

recommended”. They show this in their TV commercials and other print media.

First of all we need to track down all those products in soap and toothpaste

category which use this positioning strategy which are as follows:

TOOTHPASTE

Toothpaste Brand Doctor recommended

Colgate Yes Pepsodent No

Close up No Meswak Yes

Sensodyne Yes

Dabur lal Yes

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SOAP

Soap Brand Doctor recommended

Cinthol No Lifebuoy Yes

Dove No Santoor No

Nirma No Dettol Yes

Lux No

Second step would be, understanding that, has this positioning strategy really

worked for these brands or not? This could be done by various techniques such as

comparing sales figures, market share, consumer blogs and views, brand rankings

etc.

NOTE: Since, not all information about every brand is available on the internet;

we will have to do our analysis using the above mentioned criterion in any

possible way.

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Findings for toothpaste industry in India

Other Information:

Colgate:

Ranked No. 1 as “the most trusted brands in India”. (Economic Times)

Doctors are used as both users and recommenders.

Positioned as “recommended by 3 out of 4 dentists”.

Good consumer reviews.

Sensodyne:

Positioned as “9 out of 10 dentists recommend Sensodyne”.

Mixed comments.

52%22%

14%

12%

Sales

Colgate Pepsodent+Closeup Dabur lal Others

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Meswak:

Used a well known actress as a doctor and showed her as a user and a

recommender.

Good consumer reviews, used mostly for freshness fact and doctors are not

playing an important role.

Dabur lal:

Using doctors as recommenders.

Excellent reviews from the consumers.

Brand Equity rankings by “Brand Equity by The Economic Times” (amongst top

100 most trusted brands in India)

TOOTHPASTE RANKING

Colgate 1

Pepsodent 17

Close up 19

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Findings all together

NAME

RANK

DOCTOR USED IN

TVCs

CONSUMER COMMENTS/REVIEWS

COLGATE

1

YES

Good reviews

PEPSODENT

17

NO

Bad reviews

CLOSE UP

19

NO

Good reviews (mostly regarding freshness)

SENSODYNE

XXX

YES

Mixed comments

DABUR LAL XXX YES Excellent reviews

MESWAK XXX YES Good reviews (Mostly regarding freshness)

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Findings for soap industry in India

Other Information:

Dettol:

Ranked No. 5 in “the most trusted brand in India”. (Indiatimes)

Showing doctors as users and recommenders.

Excellent consumer reviews.

Lifebuoy:

Ranked No. 10 in “the most trusted brand in India”. (Indiatimes)

Doctors used but neither as users and nor as recommenders.

Excellent consumer reviews.

9%

14%

77%

Sales

Dettol Lifebuoy Others

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Brand Equity rankings by “Brand Equity by The Economic Times” (amongst top

100 most trusted brands in India)

NAME

RANK

DOCTOR USED IN

TVCs

CONSUMER COMMENTS/VIEWS

DETTOL

5

YES

EXCELLENT REVIEWS

LIFEBUOY

10

YES

EXCELLENT REVIEWS

LUX

14

NO

GOOD REVIEWS BUT MOSTLY AS A BEAUTY SOAP

DOVE

37

NO

MIXED COMMENTS, BEAUTY SOAP BUT ALSO USED A SOAP FOR SKIN PROBLEMS

CINTHOL

59

NO

FAIR REVIEWS, BEAUTY SOAP

NIRMA

73

NO

XXX

SANTOOR

75

NO

XXX

SOAP BRAND RANKING

Dettol 5

Lifebuouy 10

Lux 14

Dove 37

Cinthol 59 Nirma 73

Santoor 75

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Brand Equity analysis

TOOTHPASTE:

For the Brand Equity analysis we have used market share, brand rankings and

consumer comments and reviews.

When we compare these brands within the above criterion, we see that Colgate

has the highest market share and it has also been ranked no. 1 as the most

trusted brand in India by Economic Times (Brand Equity). It has got good

consumer reviews also. Colgate uses doctors as there promoters and this might

be the reason for the brand image they have created or it could be because of the

time for which they have been in India. Overall, the brand image they have is very

good and Indians believe that Colgate is a great brand.

Sensodyne, though not new to the Indian market, Sensodyne has a very small

share in the Indian market. It hasn’t been ranked among top 100 trusted brands in

India. Consumer reviews and comments tell that they are not sure of the brand

and are not excited to use it.

Meswak is another highly used toothpaste in India. The reason for its popularity

could be because of its positioning as an ayurvedic toothpaste. They have used

Bipasha Basu who is a well known actress to act as a doctor in their commercial.

Consumer blogs and reviews show that it is mostly used for freshness and not as

toothpaste fighting teeth and gum problems as is portrayed in the

advertisements.

Dabur lal toothpaste is admired by the consumers as a medical toothpaste as it

contains laung (clove) in it. It has a market share of 14% which is huge for a

market size like India. Consumer reviews are excellent.

Pepsodent and Close-up are not using any doctor for their promotion yet they

have a market share of 22%. While Pepsodent does not have any good reviews,

Close-up has fair reviews but mostly about its freshness fact; still these brands are

huge in the Indian market and are used widely.

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SOAP:

Dettol has been ranked no.5 among top hundred most trusted brands in India. It

has excellent customer reviews and has a market share of 9%. Dettol antiseptic

liquid has made a huge impact on this soap. It is mostly used for washing hands

after/before going to toilet and eating food. In and all, Dettol is a great brand and

is known to every Indian home as a medical soap.

Lifebuoy is similar to Dettol in all aspects. It is considered as a medical soap and is

endorsed as the same. It has high market share of 14% and was ranked no. 10 in

the brand equity list of top hundred most trusted brands of India. It has got

excellent consumer reviews for its medical values and its fragrance.

Lux has been ranked at no.14 as it has been in the Indian market for a very long

time. It has good customer reviews but only as a beauty soap.

Dove has been ranked at no. 37. It has mixed comments from consumers. Mostly

used as a beauty soap.

Cinthol is another beauty soap with good reviews. It has been ranked at no. 59.

Nirma and Santoor are ranked at 73 and 75 respectively. No comments and

reviews on the internet which implies low market share.

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After analyzing these brands we see that not all brands have good brand equity

even if they are using doctors as their promoters and there are brands which

without even using doctors have good brand equity. Since this strategy is adopted

by many brands and all these brands have different market shares and different

consumer reviews it has become even more difficult to comment on whether

doctors have been a good trump card for these brands or not. There are many

other factors which influence consumers in choosing these brands such as price,

advertisements, advice from friends and family or maybe they are not influenced

by any other factor other than using what they have been using already.

To see what these factors are, we have to run a survey asking people what

influences them in their buying behavior.

Final comment on the brand equity on a scale of Good, fair or bad.

Brand(soap) Brand Equity Dettol Good

Lifebuoy Good Lux Good

Cinthol Fair Dove Fair

Nirma Fair Santoor Fair

Brand(toothpaste) Brand Equity Colgate Good

Pepsodent Fair Closeup Fair

Dabur lal Good Sensodyne Bad

Meswak Fair

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B. Survey to find out whether advertisements and doctors influence the viewers

or not.

A survey was designed and circulated to random people (sample size = 100). The

motive of this survey is to see whether advertisements actually influence viewers

or not and if they do influence them then what do they think about these doctors

who feature in commercials and do they really make the viewers to buy the

products of these brands.

From the data collected till date following can be stated:

Only 21% people choose what they buy through advertisements. People

believe in consulting their friends and family before making a decision to

buy.

68% people believe that doctors featuring in TV commercials are fake.

Which means that they will never be influenced by doctors promoting a

brand.

46% people said that they “may” buy product if they are IDA or RDA

approved i.e. “white coat advertisement (advertisements which do not

have doctors but gives a perception of doctor recommended)”.

60% people said that they will not shift from using one product to another

even if it is endorsed by a doctor.

28% believe that doctors speak good things about these brands because

they are paid to do so and 44% believe that these are not real doctors.

According to the result of the survey there is no way that using a doctor in

advertisements could prove beneficial to a brand and that’s because a huge part

of our sample audience believes that doctors used in advertisements are fake and

speak good things about the brand only because they are paid for it.

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We see that a major part of our sample has chosen “consultation with family and

friends” as a factor of choosing a product. This means that, people consider

consultation more important than what companies show in their advertisements

for the promotion of their products.

According to a good part of the sample size, products are chosen randomly, which

is even more that factors like price and advertisements of a product.

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64% of the total sample size is moderately affected by advertisements. The

concept, endorser, information etc about the ad affect the consumers but to a

very low level. There’s a very small part of the sample which is affected by

advertisements. This might be because advertisements lack concept, they do not

show the core values of the firm, they fail to give some necessary information

about the product etc.

These factors must be taken care of when planning an advertisement so that all

the time and money which are spent on these ads does not go waste. Moreover

advertisements are the biggest promotional activities done by a company for their

products thus, they should be made with utmost care.

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According to 57% of the sample size their decision to buy a product is influenced

by advertisements but it depends on the product that is being advertised.

This means that different products will have different type of influence on

viewers. People will only buy those products which they think should be bought.

They’d probably be motivated to buy soap rather than buying a car.

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Like the previous question, in this question also majority of the people have

shown a trend of believing on a product depends upon the product and not what

they tell you. They might believe products of big brands or those products which

they have already used and now the company has come up with new or an

improved variant.

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A whooping 75% of the sample say that they need information about a product to

support their buying decision. Increase in education level and literacy level has

lead to a drastic change in the society. Today, people don’t just make their buying

decision like that, they need information. They need to know what the product is,

its ingredients and all.

The next most chosen option is “you buy what you buy”!!!! There are people who

are not affected buy advertisements at all. Their buying decisions are affected by

other forces.

Only 6% of the total sample say that the endorser (actors, sports persons,

musicians etc) affect their decision to buy a particular product.

People know that the endorsers are paid to speak good things about these

products. They know it’s a promotion strategy and thus they do not believe them.

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This is the most important question for our survey. This question will give us a

clear idea of whether or not doctors are good promoters for a brand.

68% of the total sample has said that the doctors they see in advertisements are

fake!! A person who has this kind of perception about something where the

person knows that someone is trying to make a fool out of him, he would never

believe on them. In fact, even if he believes them he won’t buy that product.

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Here we see that about half of the sample size has said that they might buy a

product if their advertisements tell that these products are IDA, RDA etc.

This might be because IDA and RDA and other bodies are Govt. regulated and only

a few products are given this affiliation. In addition, people do not see any doctor

in these ads and thus they do not perceive these ads as fake.

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Most of the people have said that they won’t shift from a product which they are

already using to a different product which is endorsed by a doctor. This is related

to one of the questions asked earlier that what do consumers think of the doctors

endorsing a brand to which they answered that they consider these doctors to be

fake. So, when they consider them as fake why would they believe them and shift

from one product to another.

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People get an impression that these are not real doctors. People know that these

are paid actors who are told to speak good things about the product.

A very few people have said that they would use a product endorsed by a doctor.

There are more people who said that advertisements doesn’t matter to them and

does not affect their buying decision at all than the people who have said they

would use a product endorsed by doctor.

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Now, we have seen that people do not believe what doctors say about different

products in the TV commercials. According to a large part of the sample these

doctors are not even real. What they believe is that these are actors and they are

paid to say good things about these products.

So, what and how should these advertisements contain and advertise their

products? What are the factors which influence viewers to become a consumer?

Which factors should companies use to force people to use their product?

The answer to this question can be found out by using factor analysis. Following

are some important factors which influence consumers to choose a certain

product:

Concept of the ad

Concept of an ad can hit the spot if it is planned and executed well. Say, for

example, advertisement of an energy drink which shows mother-child

relationship would make a great impact on a mother and she’ll be compelled to

buy it.

Information about the product

A product like mobile phone or a music system has many features which are

needed to be explained. If not explained at least they should be mentioned in a

TVC. This gives the basic difference between several brands and their products

which helps a consumer to make a clear decision.

The person who is endorsing

People who follow a certain celebrity or a sportsman would definitely go for a

product they buy. There are people who are very cautious in buying products

which directly affect their family’s health; this type of people would love to see a

doctor telling good about a product.

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The product itself

A product like soap does not need any special attractions for its advertisements. It

is a well know brand and has been there for a very long time. They just need to

remind the people of there existence.

The brand to which the product belongs

A brand like Apple need not use any special thing to launch a new product. If they

are launching a new product, they just need to show the product; people know

Apple as a great brand and thus every product they launch is great.

Frequency of the ads

The frequency of an ad means how many times is an ad telecasted on television.

This affects the brain of the viewers as they are constantly watching the same ad

again and again. This makes them remember the name of the product ultimately

they buy it when they go to a shop.

Price and offers

People see the price and the offers on a product and tend to buy that product.

Telling people about the price and offers of a product makes them an early

decision of buying that product. So, the next time they go for shopping they shop

that particular product.

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Factor analysis output (using SPSS)

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Kmo>.5 we can use factor analysis.

Sig. (.741)> kmo(.525) which implies correlation matrix is valid.

The correlation matrix shows correlations between each and every factor we

considered for our study.

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Limitations

The project undertaken will require some data which will be collected

through secondary sources and taking a lot of brands and products into

consideration may lead to some difference in facts and figures from the

actual figures.

Sales data of various products was not available individually and company’s

total sales data is of no use. Thus we have not used any sales data.

Findings

Our brand equity study shows that the brands with “doctor recommended” as

their positioning strategy are doing good. They are trusted by the customers and

have good/fair reviews about them. Using doctors for promotion could be one of

the reasons for good brand equity of these brands. Most of these products have

been ranked among top 100 most trusted brands in India by Brand Equity

(Economic Times).

But, our survey with the common people who are actually using these products

in their day to day life have something else to say. According to them,

advertisements do not affect them very much. The survey tells us that

advertisements do not influence people’s buying behavior to much of an extent.

It is clear from the survey that people think of these doctors as fake and are used

only for the promotional activity but on the same time 37% people have said that

they would shift from their current brand to another brand if it is recommended

by a doctor. But this 37% is a part of those who are influenced by advertisement

which is mere 20% of the total sample size.

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Conclusion

We can conclude that doctors are not proving very affective for the promotion of

a product. All those brands with high brand equity have been able to attain that

level because of other reasons such as long existence in the market, superb

products, customer loyalty towards brands and its product etc.

People consider these doctors to be fake which means using this positioning

strategy might change consumer perception towards All Out and Baygon. But on

the other side we know that these are very old brands and one of the earliest

brands to enter into the bug repellent category in the Indian subcontinent. And

49% of the people said that they might use products which are doctor

recommended and 17% said that there decision would depend upon the product.

37 % also said that they might shift from using there current product.

These are products of SC Johnson which has its products worldwide. People know

these brands and use them too. In fact, these products are so famous that we

sometimes use the name “All Out” for other bug repellents. We know that these

brands are so well known and since there is no other product in this category

which is positioning their product as “doctor recommended” we can use doctors

for the promotion of these products.

The other reason for using this positioning strategy is that these bug repellents

contain several chemicals in them due to which some people especially parents

stay cautious in using them. If doctors promote these products as ‘safe’, there are

possibilities of consumers shifting from using other bug repellents to SC Johnson’s

All Out and Baygon.

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Recommendation

SC Johnsons should do further research for more qualified data and with a

broader sample size. After conducting an extensive research they can take the

decision of whether to use doctors or not. I would recommend them to position

there products as “doctor recommended.”

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ATTACHMENTS

Survey: Questionnaire is used for collecting data regarding our study.

This is the questionnaire prepared:

1. How do you choose a product you buy?

How do you choose a product you buy? Advertisements

Consultation (friends, family etc.)

Price

Randomly *

2. How strongly are you affected by TV commercials?

How strongly are you affected by TV commercials? Very strongly

Strongly

Moderately

No affect *

3. Do these commercials motivate you to buy the products being endorsed?

Do these commercials motivate you to buy the products being endorsed? Yes

No

Depends on the product *

4. Do you believe in what they tell you about their product?

Do you believe in what they tell you about their product? Yes

No

Depends on the product

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5. What do you see in an ad which makes you buy that product? (two answers

at most)

What do you see in an ad which makes you buy that product? (two answers at most) Concept of the ad

Information about the product

The person who is endorsing

You buy what you want (advertisement doesn't matter) *

6. What do you think about the doctors used in ads?

What do you think about the doctors used in ads? Real

Fake

Can't say *

7. Would you buy a product if it is promoted as doctor recommended (IDA, RDA

etc.)?

Yes

No

Maybe

Depends on the product *

8. Would you shift from a product you are using to other product if it is recommended by a doctor in an ad?

Would you shift from a product you are using to other product if it is recommended by a doctor in an ad? Yes

No

Maybe

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9. What impression do you get from such advertisements?

Doctors are using/recommending these products so we should use them

Doctors are paid to speak good things about these products

These are not real doctors

Doesn't matter to us

10. What do you see in a TV ad which influences you to buy a product?

Concept of the advertisement

Information about the product

Endorser of the brand

The product itself

Brand of the product

Frequency of the advertisement

Price/Offers

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REFERENCES

economictimes.indiatimes.com

www.youtube.com

www.wikipedia.com

www.scjohnson.com

Books: Marketing Management from Philip Kotler

Research methodology concepts and cases by Deepak Chawla and Neena Sondhi