1

Presents

poweRBiz- Strepsils Case Study Event-2012

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EVENT FORMAT

Stage 1: Participants of each college must battle it out amongst themselves to decide the best team.

Campuses are free to decide their evaluation criterion.

Stage 2: The Best Entry from each college must be sent to marksoc@fms.edu by 23:59:59, 18th

November, 2012. This may be routed through the Placement Team/General Secretary. No requests

for the deadline extension will be entertained

Stage 3: Grand Finale – Held at South Campus, Delhi University for the best 6 teams on 30th

November, 2012.

RULES AND REGULATIONS

1.) Event is open to the Full Time Programs (Only Second Year Students) of the following B-

schools Name of the institute

1 IIM A

2 IIM B

3 IIM C

4 IIM L

5 IIM K

6 IIM I

7 IIM R

8 FMS

9 MDI

10 IIFT

11 IMT

12 IIT DMS

13 NMIMS

14 SP Jain

15 JBIMS

16 SIBM

17 SCMHRD

18 MICA

19 IIT Bombay

20 XIMB

21 ISB

22 IIT Kharagpur

23 IIT Roorkee

24 NITIE

25 XLRI

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2. Maximum number of members in a team is two. Each team can submit a maximum of 1 entry.

3. No participant should be part of more than one team.

4. Any number of teams from an institute can take part in this event and can submit their entries to

their institute by the date decided by the respective Placecoms. However, only top entry must be sent

to us at the end of the campus evaluation round ( By 18th Nov 2012) .

5. The Top entry from each college is required to be sent to marksoc@fms.edu latest by 23:59:59

PM, 18th November 2012 with the file name as Strepsils_<Institute>_<TeamName>

6. Each entry should be in the form of a detailed (not an executive summary) word document (2003

format) named as: Strepsils_<Institute>_<TeamName>

7. There are no word limits. However, teams are advised to be succinct.

8. The font must be Calibri, size 11, single line spacing

.

9. Members of the final selected teams would be reimbursed 3 Tier AC Tickets (both ways). The

selected teams would be required to submit original tickets for the same.

10. The decisions of the panel of judges will be final and binding on all the participants.

PRIZES 1st Prize: Rs 1.5 Lakh

2nd Prize: Rs 1.0 Lakh

3rd Prize: Rs 75,000

All the 3 winning Team members will also get Pre-Placement Interviews from Reckitt Benckiser.

CONTACT DETAILS 1. Prateek Dhanwaria

prateek.d13@fms.edu

+91 9582327331

2. Shivan Nair

shivan.n13@fms.edu

+91 8800395334

3. Harshal Joshi

harshal.j14@fms.edu

+91 8130599227

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Strepsils: brand in search of game change

(Case developed by Prof Harsh V Verma, FMS, University of Delhi for Reckitt Benckiser India Limited)

Saurabh Jain, Brand Manager Strepsils at Reckitt Benckiser (RB), has a huge challenge ahead of

him. He works for a company whose brands occupy nothing short of leadership position. These

brands include iconic brands like Dettol, Lizol, Harpic, Mortein and Cherry Blossom. It is certainly a

matter of pride to manage a leader brand but at the same time it is hugely challenging to steer a brand

into leadership when realities are at odds with the mission. Strepsils in Reckitt Benckiser‟s portfolio

is a brand with a line of sore throat lozenges. This brand was acquired by the company from Boots in

2005-2006 and is a global leader in sore throat category. In India too, the brand has been growing at

more than 15% CAGR. However, in a fast growing category, it has not been able to gain share. It

continues to be the no. 3 player in sore throat category in India and has miles to go to acquire top slot

in the category. Sitting in his office, Saurabh Jain has been vigorously trying to plot a path to

leadership of his brand amidst the apparent market complexity. Possessed by his unending train

of thoughts he was thinking:

Here is a brand which is a global leader in its category and is perceived as a sore throat

expert. It has a much better formulation but still lags behind in consistent sales growth and

market share vs. the market leader in the lozenges market. How can the game be changed

in the sore throat category?

The Company

Reckitt Benckiser is a multinational corporation with presence in over 180 countries and has had net

revenues in excess of 9.5 billion pounds last year. Its origin dates back to 1823 when Johann A.

Benckiser laid its foundation. With over 150 years of existence the company is founded on British

and German heritage. The company has distinguished itself for bringing innovative solution to meet

customer needs. Reckitt Benckiser (RB) came into existence after the merger of Reckitt & Colman

and Benckiser in 1999. This merger created world‟s top house hold cleaning solution provider. RB

operates in a number of high growth categories considered to be at the core of its business strategy:

fabric care, surface care, dishwashing, home care, health care, personal care and food. Four of the top

amongst these in terms of revenue are fabric care (22%), health care (26%), personal care (20%) and

surface care (17%).

Reckitt Benckiser India Ltd (RBIL) is a fully owned subsidiary of Reckitt Benckiser Plc. The year

2011 saw the company achieve very strong financial results despite not so positive economic

conditions globally. Net revenues grew by 13% to £9.5 Bn. and adjusted operating profit was up by

11% to £1,818 Mn. This performance, following a number of years of strong growth, is a testament

to the global strength of the Company's strategy and execution, and the quality of its employees and

their leadership.

RB has strategically built an impressive brand portfolio in the above categories. Most of its brands

consistently figure on the shopping list of customers worldwide. RB‟s brands stand apart from others

by combining an irresistible combination of innovation and value for money. A total of nineteen

power brands drive company performance including Airwick, Dettol, Disprin, Harpic, Lizol,

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Mortein, Vanish, and Cherry Blossom. Most of these brands enjoy top positions in their respective

markets. These are either number one or two in their categories. For instance, Lizol is a number one

disinfectant brand in the US. The other brands that lead the category include Dettol (antiseptic),

Vanish (fabric stain remover), Harpic (toilet cleaner) and Cherry Blossom (shoe polish).

For RB India like other countries where it operates, most of its brands are top performers in their

respective categories. A good innovative product when combined with ingenious marketing methods

creates a mix par excellence. For instance a great marketing feat is achieved when an antiseptic brand

like Dettol was completely transformed into to a health brand. Dettol subtly and strategically moved

away from being just an antiseptic yet leveraging its core benefit to become a brand embracing new

product categories like toilet soap, shaving cream, talc, plaster and hand wash. Company‟s toilet

bowl cleaner brand Harpic enjoys market leadership with a share close to 75%; glass surface cleaner

Colin tops the category with about 88% share and mosquito repellent brand Mortein dominates the

market with about 20% share. One of its recent launches, Vanish a fabric stain remover, went on to

create and dominate the fabric stain remover category. Most of these brands are either number 1 or

number 2 in their respective categories in India.

RB strategically focuses on its Powerbrands, disproportionately supported with high rates of

innovation and brand equity investment. Within this, the company is now intensifying

investment behind the Powerbrands in the higher growth & higher margin categories of health

and hygiene. Since these brands enjoy greater trust and consumer loyalty this focus will also be

financially attractive and more sustainable over time. Therefore, while past identity was based on

„household cleaning‟, future will now be in „health, hygiene and home‟. The company is now

looking to drive an above average growth in health and hygiene so that these categories become

72% of core Company net revenues by 2016 (currently 67%); on average an increase of 1% per

year.

Strepsils is one of the RB‟s Powerbrands in Healthcare & therefore is expected to deliver higher

growth rates than in the past.

The Category and brand

The incidence of cough, cold and resulting sore throat is a common ailment. It occurs frequently

and to almost everyone when seasons change. It affects both old and young across genders.

Given the Indian population it has a vibrant market with a huge potential. Sore Throat Lozenges

market in India is valued at INR 5200 Mn. The market is poised to grow at an impressive rate of

more than 15 percent rate. And that raises the challenge to steward a brand which operates in a

very attractive space but generates parity or less than attractive performance. As a marketing

manager it certainly is a big challenge, especially when most other brands in your portfolio are

leaders. Nitish Bajaj, marketing manager at Reckitt Benckiser does not want to hide behind the

statistics and structurally imposed constraints. Like other brands he manages he wants to

turnaround Strepsils brand completely to deliver growths ahead of the category:

Since acquiring the brand from Boots, we’ve been able to increase Strepsils brand share

in pharmacies from 21% to 26%. However, overall share (across all channels) has fallen

from 10% to 9%, and the brand stacks at no. 3. The sore throat lozenges market is led by

Vicks with a formidable 58% value share followed by Halls with a 20%. There is a clear

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opportunity to expand Strepsils. There is a need to change the course of this brand. If

Vicks is a formidable firmly entrenched leader brand then we must at least become a

serious challenger brand. We need to be a brand of some reckoning in sore throat

lozenge market.

The sub ten percent market share has also been a point of contention for Saurabh Jain, Strepsils‟

brand manager. It is not that all is bad for the brand; it has managed a +15% CAGR since

acquisition. However, it is just that the competition between Vicks and Strepsils is defined by a

unique aspect. Vicks Cough Drops is an Ayurvedic throat soothening lozenge, straddling the

medicine and candy spectrum. Strepsils is a superior medicated formulation clinically proven to

provide relief. While Strepsils too had launched an Ayurvedic variant, the brand continues to be

sold largely through pharmacies only, as has been historically done with its medicated variants

because the laws of the land do not allow medicines to be sold through general trade channels.

Saurabh proudly claims that his brand is a significant #2 player in pharmacy sales with 26%

market share (up from 21% share at the time of acquisition):

Historically Strepsils was sold only through pharmacies. Since it only had a medicated

(western medicine based) formulation it could not be sold through groceries and general

stores. The good side of the story is that Strepsils is second player in this channel. In terms of

value share within pharmacy the top three brands have value share as follows: Vicks 40%,

Strepsils 26% and Halls 10%. But key concern here is that lozenges category is dominant in

non-pharmacy or general merchant channel. Of the total sales 68% comes through non-

pharmacy outlets. And this is not a random occurrence. There is critical consumer behavior

issue here. And this probably is major contributor to our brand’s below expectation

performance.

Strepsils Ayurvedic was launched in 2008 to make an impact in non-pharmacy outlets.

However the Ayurvedic range has grown with the pharmacy channel itself, and even till date

more than 90% of the brand sale continues to come from pharmacy channel.

Strepsils is actually quite an efficacious formulation and enjoys a „medicinal expert‟ position.

But people, when faced with sore throat problem do not go to the expert brand; rather they buy a

brand which could be reached at an ease. And here Vicks and Halls manage to score points over

Strepsils due to wide and convenient availability at general stores present everywhere. The

consumer behavior and perception of the sore throat and remedy seeking behavior favors

competition. The brand provides a remedy to a problem of sore throat. And it provides an

effective remedy. Yet consumers do not seek out Strepsils brand. Why does this happen? Answer

to this question requires gaining deeper understanding of sore throat problem.

Incidence and behavior

A study commissioned to discover consumer insights related to the phenomenon of sore throat

found the following:

To people the problem of a sore throat implies uneasiness and discomfort and a very irritated and

lethargic body language. Spontaneously the problem is not highlighted as a major one. The

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associated sentiments include: irritation, burning sensation, thorns in throat, compete dryness,

pricking feeling in the throat, constant itching, irritating feeling. As a result of sore throat people

do not want to do anything, don‟t feel like speaking, feel dullness, and just want to sit quiet and

stay away from everyone else. The sore throat has both functional or physical and emotional

sides to it. Physically sore throat affects a person by itching, dryness, split voice and difficulty in

swallowing. Emotionally sore throat creates a feeling of crankiness, lathery, social discomfort

and lack of interest in things. In terms of imagery, sore throat conjures up images like a cactus

(thorn in throat), Rani Mukherjee (cracked and hoarse voice) and a television with scrambling

images and audio.

Sore throat is connected with bodily discomfort and social avoidance. A person with a sore throat

is perceived to be dull in appearance with reddish eyes and nose. A person with a sore throat is

likely to be quiet, dull, irritated and as a consequence avoids social participation and who is later

on avoided by others.

Sore throat irrespective of the fact that it could escalate into to a major bodily and social

problem, its incidence is not generally perceived to be serious. This attitude causes a person to

take recourse to an easily available remedy. Three stages associated with the problem of sore

throat can be summed up in words like: „Oh oh!‟, „Damn‟ and „Where‟s the doctor!

The perceptions associated with three stages of sore throat problem are unique and hence

consequent buying behavior. At the mild stage a mild irritation is felt („Oh oh!‟) which leads to

blocked nose and pain in swallowing („Damn!‟). The mild stage does not affect a person and one

continues to enjoy normal active life. This stage is cautionary and people begin to take

precautions. The full blown severe stage where problem gets worse does not affect many people.

Only those people who are very prone to the problem actually reach this stage. The full blown

stage is characterized by blocking of ear, nose, and throat and accompanied by severe cough,

congestion and fever. It is here people look for a doctor.

Nitish Bajaj observes in this regard:

In the absence of a perception of severity people reach out to first easily available

remedy. Although Strepsils enjoys a perception of ‘sore throat expert’ but yet people do

not reach out to the expert rather convenience drives them. Our competition wins in this

convenience driven impulse buying. Our brand is seen as a medicated product for serious

ailment. Globally Strepsils is a number one brand in this category but in India it stands

at distant third position after Vicks and Halls. In order to tackle this challenge RB has

launched Strepsils Ayurvedic version in 2008 to achieve presence in non-pharmacy

market but this move has not allowed the brand to cut out a major share from competing

brands because of trade dynamics. In order to induce trials the brand vs the normal

Strepsils pack of multiple lozenge strips, Ayurvedic range was made available in packs of

singles which is also the standard industry product pack size.

Saurabh Jain feels that the brand operates in a condition of structural constraint:

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Our competition fares better in terms of availability. The category leader has presence in

close to 65% (1.4 million outlets) of the outlets whereas our brand has a much smaller

distribution reach. Its presence is less at less than 15% of the outlets. Our reach is

constrained by the brand’s classification as a medicinal product. Our OTC Ayurvedic

variant has not been able to establish itself strongly in the non-pharmacy channel to give

a serious challenge to the top two brands. The consumer perception of the sore throat

problem and resultant buying behavior works against us.

Communication and character

Strepsils is relatively a new brand in the Indian market compared to Vicks which has been

present in the market for more than 60 years. A prospect gets introduced to Vicks brand in very

early stage of life. Vicks Vaporub is a common remedy to get rid of cold related congestion in

children (responsible for pioneering something called „touch therapy‟). The brand offers a bigger

portfolio of products including ointment, cough drops, and inhaler. These products deal with the

symptoms of cold and the medicinal products include Action 500 and Formula 44. In comparison

Strepsils is a lozenges brand. In its way to achieving dominance the brand introduced the words

„Khitch Khitch‟ and the once highly recallable slogan „Vicks ki goli lo Khitch Khitch door karo‟.

The bigger portfolio of Vicks allows it to enjoy a greater share of voice. The total portfolio TV

GRP of Vicks sands at about 5000 compared to Strepsils‟ 3200. But Vicks lozenges GRP falls in

the range of 2600-3000. But the good part of the story is, shares Saurabh:

Strepsils has been steadily increasing in Spontaneous and first mentions across the years,

while the total awareness remains constant. Both key competition brands Vicks, Halls

losing share of first mentions from last round with the gains going to home remedies (see

table 1: Brand Awareness and Table 2: Brand Awareness Across Different Centers).

What is worrisome is why the brand awareness is declining is two centers. Strepsils TV

advertising has been unable to make an impact in Ludhiana, where consumers are

relying more on retail display, recommendation and hoardings. In Chennai, whilst TV,

Shop display and WOM is high, recommendation by the retailer is low (Table 3). Overall,

there our communication plot appears to be limited & inconsistent on impacting the

consumer behaviour.

Vicks and Strepsils communication strategy differs in both idea and execution. Vicks comes

across as totally Indian brand. It is not only number one brand in the category but also rated as

one of the most trusted brands. One thing that runs across all its campaigns is an effort to

develop a strong consumer connection at the emotional level. Each of its product‟s

communication begins with a problem solving approach or functional oriented appeal as the

starting point and then develops higher order emotional connections. This is reflected in their

communication platform like „touch therapy‟ and „happy birth day‟ for VapoRub and „Haan bhai

haan‟ for Action 500. The brand relies upon real life characters in real life situations and

leverages upon the very contemporary events to communicate with its prospects. Some of the

recent campaigns leveraged the cricketing fever („Cheers for India‟ T-20 World Cup). The brand

even leverages social media like it ran a campaign in which people were asked to upload cheer

song for the Indian team.

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Strepsils in India needs to follow the globally mandated brand campaign. Under the global

campaign, brand uses a cartoon character (animation) in situations of sore throat and the brand

comes to his rescue (see table 4).

As per the global copy campaign, Mr „T‟ (cartoon character) was used in brand‟s communication

with the following objectives: to act as a brand device – associated with the brand; help in brand

linkage; to add appeal/bring intrinsic likeability to the ad; and to stand for certain personality

characteristics which help consumers to understand the brand message. Various copy executions

were tested and some also tried out in market during from 2008 to 2009. A study of the brand

communication carried out by a research firm reached the following conclusion (see table-5: Mr

„T‟ in Communication):

• Mr. T as a brand cue is weak…negligible mentions for the character in most of the

copies. There are mentions of the activities undertaken by the character and not

“character” which are essentially format related.

• Even if we consider the “format” as a cue – even that is not an established device.

• There are two important functions of Brand Cue – to derive association to the brand and

to add to the brand linkage – none of which is carried through successfully ……Brand

linkage seems to be coming out more from Strepsils‟ role in the story and not Mr.

T‟s……..Pug of Vodafone or Juhi from Kurkure are both strong brand cues as well as

add to the branding

On the advertisement appeal issues such as likeability and suitability of Mr. “T” the study found

the following: the ad format is found to contribute to likeability but format as a standalone is not

strong enough to bring about enjoyment. It depends upon the story of the advertisement. The

character is liked across all ad copies. A majority of respondents claimed that that Mr. T is

suitable for the advert but they fail to give clear reasons for its suitability. In terms of personality,

Mr. T is associated with personality characteristics like energetic, optimistic, likeably,

memorable, interesting, amusing, and friendly, knowledgeable, credible and helpful. The top

three traits of Mr. T are likeable, interesting and energetic. The words used to describe are found

to be fun, friendly, amusing and memorable.

Although Mr. T scores high on a lot of advertising aspects, yet he has not been able to firmly

establish itself as a dominant brand cue. There appears be a missing link between the character

and the brand. Many brands use cartoon characters in their communications like Pillsbury and

Michelin. Probably due to commonness of their usage Mr. T has not been able to develop a

distinctive identification. The personality characteristics are positive but lack distinction.

Meanwhile, on-pack communication has undergone a change recently. The category sells on

ingredient based strategy with packs focused on the ingredient to develop relevance which

included ingredients like Menthol, Ginger, Tulsi and Honey. e.g. Vicks sells in variants Ginger,

Honey and Menthol, Halls in Menthol, Ginger etc. and Strepsils was selling in Orange, Ginger &

Lemon, Honey & Lemon and Menthol. However, from last year Strepsils has aligned its local

range to Global range which is segmented on benefits of sensorial relief. So on top of its largest

selling ingredient based variant Orange, Strepsils medicated range is now sold in 3 variants

Warm Ginger & Lemon, Soothing Honey & Lemon and Cool Menthol. The same 3 variants are

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also available in its Ayurvedic range. Now the brand communication instead of focusing on

ingredients is shifting to the consumer benefits. This has been implemented very recently and

any learnings are yet to be concluded. Nitish Bajaj spells out the new pack communication

orientation as follows:

It is now essential for any brand to strike an emotional connect with its prospects.

Problem solution is essential but is not a sufficient condition in the present day

environment. Brand must adopt a benefit orientation. Accordingly Strepsils has ginger

variant for warm feeling, honey for soothing effect and menthol for a cool sensation.

Could a differentiated range increase loyalty and drive consumers to choose only

Strepsils vs. competition despite accessibility issues and thus merit a communication

strategy behind sensorial relief variants vs. brand communication adopted in past?

Further, outside India Strepsils has a range of hard hitting or highly effective variants which

include Sugar free for diabetic & fitness conscious, Pain relief formulas to treat swelling and

pain and Strepsils for Children. But current approach has been to focus on building a minimum

threshold level behind existing variants rather than adding new variants. Saurabh sees another

dilemma in launching the global range in India:

We could brand drive differentiation and equity via these variants. For example it would

make sense for brand to do medical marketing to Healthcare professionals behind its

differentiated range e.g. Strepsils Pain relief formulas or Strepsils for Children. This has

been adopted in many European countries via detailing to pharmacies and even to

Doctors with successful results. But with current medicated and specialist imagery, we

also run the risk of making brand too serious and hence consumed only in case of severe

sore throat occasions. And this strategy is only relevant for pharmacy outlets as these

variants will require pharmacy license and hence would not provide an opportunity to

gain from competition dominance in non-pharmacy outlets.

Trial generation reality

A relationship between brand awareness and trial is shown in Table 6. It is quite evident that

Strepsils suffer on account of non-trial of the brand. Brand trial is one of the first steps in

establishing creditability through performance. Many barriers obstruct a movement from

awareness to trial. These include lack of depth of awareness, satisfaction with current brand

used, perception of being expensive; flavor unavailability and lack of availability (see Table 7).

Nitish Bajaj articulates the problem as follows:

The brand faces a clear challenge. Lack of familiarity, price, and flavour appear to be

the reasons preventing the trials. The non trialists also perceive that the brand is not fit

for consumption under severe conditions; it does not taste good and is not effective. The

brand has also suffered on account of lapsing on account of issues like high price,

availability, and preferred flavour availability. All Strepsils users have used Vicks but all

Vicks users have not used Strepsils. There many things that prompt use of Strepsils. The

triggers to trial include brand newness, brand visibility at the shop, advertising, flavors,

and perceived effectiveness. Information and availability at the store trigger brand trials.

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Strepsils today is sold in pack of Singles lozenges and packs of two to eight tablets and is largely

sold through pharmacies. Because of superior ingredients the brand is priced almost twice the

competition per Lozenge. The pharmacy variant was historically packed in strip format with 8

lozenges priced at Rs. 16. The trade could sell this pack in multiples of 2 Lozenges at price point

of Rs. 4. This is a significant premium vs. competition price points of Re 1 (Vicks) / 50 paise

(Halls).

In order to tap into non-pharmacy segment an Ayurvedic variant was launched with a single

tablet pack. For the grocery channels the sachet packaging was created to give it an attractive

price point of Rs. 2 closer to competition. Further in order to achieve brand visibility at the store

counters Strepsils „Singles‟ were packaged in transparent jars of 110 units. The „Singles‟ came

in a variety of flavors like Orange, Ginger-Lemon and Honey-Lemon. The single pack was found

to perform well on account of variety, convenience, and visibility (see table 8). Nitish Bajaj

points at the problem faced by the brand at the non-pharmacy distribution front:

At an aggregate brand level, currently Strepsils sells about 50% each in packs of both,

Single lozenges and in Strips pack. There has been a good growth in Singles pack, given

same pricing for single and strip pack. As a result, there is a gradual and steady shift of

users from Strip to Singles pack.

But the real issue that hinders success of Ayurvedic pack is how to ensure jar rotation in

non-pharmacy outlets. In a grocery outlet, our jar gets rotated almost at twice the time of

competition. Jar turnover for Strepsils is about 90 days but Vicks achieves the same in

30-45 days. Thus, Strepsils brand is perceived to be slow moving by the grocers.

Purchase per customer is just about two tablets for an amount for which he gets four

Vicks. In order to solve the jar rotation problem a smaller jar of 50 sachets is created.

But being of small size the visibility of the brand is compromised at the point of sale. The

grocery stores resist stocking the brand because of the perception of it being a medicinal

product coupled with slow movement. Driving & maintaining distribution in non-

pharmacy outlets is a problem for the brand.

On Crossroad

Strepsils is stuck in a unique conundrum. A superior formulated product with better ingredients

is stuck at the third market position. The consumer perception of sore throat, the grocery store

behavior, the compulsions of medicinal formulation and brand perception together create a

cocktail of market reality that has left the brand at the lower end of category share. Saurabh

observes:

Here is an effective product for sore throat problem. But consumers do not feel the same.

The medicinal formulation ties the brand to the pharmacy channel. Consumers take the

incidence of cold lightly and approach the solution on convenience considerations. As a

result lozenges are reduced to the category of candy. Consumers look for symptomatic

relief in throat soothing and not for problem solution. Hence they walk up to grocery not

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pharmacy. As a result our brand suffers. The brand can fly off pharmacies only if

consumers are made to walk a little extra to chemists. But it is unclear how to do this.

An overall picture of attributes and their importance in provided in Table 9. The attributes at the

top of the hierarchy are longer relief from sore throat, provision of effective relief, easy

availability, soothing effect, starts to work immediately and value for money. The dipstick

survey reveals that Strepsils is differentiated as an overall good solution for the problem and

dealers who stock it also push it. But Vicks is differentiated on account as a product

recommended by doctors. Data on brand perception amongst different category of users is given

in Table 10. This quite palpable that with the increased interaction with the brand the key

proposition of Strepsils emerges as a differentiating aspect among trialists. Brand enjoys a

differentiated perception on critical aspects like efficacy and trustworthiness. Strepsils is

differentiated from other brands in terms of its stance in the consumer‟s mind. It is not seen as a

tasty tablet to pop in. It is seen as proper medication. Across centers people emphasized the fact

that Strepsils feels more of a medicine than just an ordinary tablet. Nitish spells out:

A significant proportion of those people who use Vicks most are positively disposed

towards using Strepsils. So attitudinally the brand is favorably placed but it suffers on

account of its inability to convert attitude into action. On the other hand people who

prefer Strepsils have wider repertoire of products available to them in terms of

competitive brands and home remedies. For both sets of consumers the brand is

unfavorably affected. The Vicks users must move from disposition to action and those

who prefer Strepsils their window of acceptable solutions needs to be narrowed down.

Strepsils and Vicks use different copy executions in their communication. Strepsils conveys the

core idea through an animation character Mr. T. Vicks on the other hand uses real people in real

life situations. Does this creative treatment affect our performance in delivering the brand

message correctly? One independent industry observer opines:

How brand’s core proposition is expressed can affect brand perception. Brand mascots

and characters used consistently can improve recognition and recall. But for a medicinal

product a cartoon character or animation can create a situation of ambiguity. People can

relate with communication which shows people in real life situation faced with real life

problems. Animation is fine for products that are typically low involvement. The

perception of severity and seriousness may get compromised by communication involving

animation.

Price differential between Strepsils and competition is often debated as one of the reasons why

people opt for competitive brands. Quantitatively the price point difference is almost double- one

rupee for the competitive brand and two rupees for Strepsils. There are believers of the theory

that high price puts Strepsils in disadvantageous position. But the brand does not have the

freedom to play around with the price because it uses superior ingredients which cannot be

compromised upon. RB follows strict quality policy and all products must adhere with that.

Nitish Bajaj looks at the price issue differently:

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Our brand does not have any price flexibility. Superiority of ingredients makes our

product better. Price actually does not seem to the real problem. Is a migration from

rupee one to two really a big thing for people seeking a remedy? There may be other

things at play here. On the contrary high price can signal good quality and effectiveness

which can work in our favor. Sore throat is problem and it needs medicated formulation

not a candy.

Both Saurabh Jain and Nitish Bajaj agree that Strepsils as a brand needs to be turned around and

catapulted on to a higher level. Here is a superior product locked is low performance trajectory

because of what can be called „grocery store bias‟. But it is unclear how.

Appendix

Table 1: Brand Awareness

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Table 2: Brand awareness across different centers

Table :3: Sources of Awareness (Brands)

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Table: 3: Sources of Awareness (Center-wise)

Table 4: Mr. T in Brand Communication

16

Table 5: Mr. ‘T’ Performance in Communication

Table: 6: Brand Awareness and Trial

17

Table 7: Barriers for Trials and Reasons for Lapsing out of brand

2

AidedAware Non

TrialistLapser

Base : All 256 192

I don't know much about it 69 -

I am satisfied with the brands I use regularly 54 42

It is expensive 43 39

Flavour I wanted was not available in the shops where I buy 38 29

Brand was not available 32 36

It is not suitable to be taken when the condition is severe 28 16

It does not work well on cold and cough 28 18

It does not taste good 26 34

It is not effective on sore throat 22 17

It doesn't come in flavours I like 21 18

It is too strong 21 32

It is too medicinal 19 31

It doesn't refresh the mouth 14 15

It treats the symptoms not the cause 13

It doesn't give soothing feeling to my throat 13 12

I can not eat it too frequently - 24

I did not feel the need for it - 15

Table 8: Triggers for using new Strepsils single pack

18

Table 9:

Attributes driving overall opinionIMPORTANT ATTRIBUTES

Relieves the sore throat for longer time

Gives effective relief

Is easily available anywhere

Soothes the throat

Starts working immediately

Gives good value for money

Retailer / shopkeeper recommended this brand for sore throat

Also relieves sore throat associated symptoms like cold/ cough

Works on various throat problems

Has no side effects

Gives relief from severe sore throat / throat pain

Is a brand I trust

Is a well known brand

Has a cooling effect on my throat

Available in convenient to use packs

Doctors recommended this brand for sore throat

It has natural ingredients

Comes in a variety of flavours

Contains medicinal ingredients

19

Table 10:

Brand Perception | Strepsils Usership

Overall good solution for ST

Has a good taste

Gives effective relief

Is easily available anywhere

Relieves the ST for longer time

Soothes the throat

Is a well known brand

It has natural ingredients

Ayurvedic / herbal ingredients

Can feel working as soon as I take

Works on various T problems

Comes in a variety of flavors

Can eat as candy/confectionery

Shopkeeper recommended

Has no side effects

Has a cooling effect on my throat

Relieves ST associated symptoms

Gives relief from severe ST

Available in convenient packs

Contains medicinal ingredients

Doctors recommended for ST

Gives good value for money

Is a brand I trust

Aware Non Triers(620)

Average Endorsements 26% 42% 56%

All random listings

Lapsers(294)

Trialists(723)