The company Newvo Pvt. Ltd. wants to launch a baby care ayurvedic shampoo in the market. Mr. Ratan Shah, who has been running the company for past 28 years with his brothers Kanan Shah and Arvind Shah, first wants to launch it in test market before a country wide launch. In a meeting with his marketing team, he has been able to come up with a list of cities (Exhibit 1) that can be considered for the launch of his product. The choice of the final city has been left up with him to decide. Ratan is well aware of the competitiveness of the market in the baby care sector. The major concern regarding this launch is that people usually prefer well-known brands when it comes to baby care. Major MNCs like Johnson & Johnson, Sebamed, and Chicco have strong presence in Indian market and have set up a strong distribution network and created brand awareness through their huge advertising expenditures. Other noticeable players are Himalaya, and Pigeon. This is the primary reason that Ratan wants to launch it in a test market initially to test the customer response.
Newvo Pvt. Ltd. Was set up by Ratan Shah in 1985 and has its headquarters at Patna. The company is in field of bottled water and caters the Bihar region. The company enjoyed a monopoly for many years and has created awareness of its bottled water brand ‘Jal Jeevan’ in all places it caters. The second plant was set up in 1992 in Cuttak and it caters the Orissa region. Over the years, Newvo has managed to serve rural regions of these districts through strong distribution network which rely mostly on local distributors. Ratan Shah is the eldest brother among the three and has been looking over the operations, and financial part of the company. Kanan who joined the company in 1986 has been in-charge of supply-chain management and marketing of Bihar region and Arvind who joined the company in 1991 is in-charge of supply chain management and marketing of Orissa region. The company has employee strength of 80 people. A recent survey conducted by Marketing Research firm has shown that ‘Jal Jeevan’ is second most selling bottled water in Bihar and third in Orissa(Exhibit 2).
In 2007, Newvo bought a popular ayurveda centre ‘Ayurg Ashram’ in Gaya. The centre was popular in Bihar and neighboring states for ayurvedic treatments like weight shedding, spondylitis, back ache, and skin care. The centre has a dedicated Research centre where new products were tested and developed like ayurvedic shampoo, tooth paste. In 2011, the centre developed a baby shampoo ‘Baby Pro’. The shampoo has been tested and it was found to be effective with no side effects. Due to its effectiveness of natural treatments, the centre has been popular in nearby regions and the word of mouth has been tremendous. The centre had customers from Bihar, UP, Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal, MP, and Chhattisgarh in the past.
Mr. Shah wants to go national with the product ‘Baby Pro’, a baby shampoo. As there is a stiff competition in other categories like ayurvedic shampoo and toothpaste from companies like ‘Patanjali’ and ‘Vicco’, Shah places his bet on Baby Pro where currently Himalaya is the only brand that offers products of ayurvedic formulations. The product contains natural ingredients (Exhibit 3) and was under testing for four months where certain improvements were done on basis of test results. Mr. Shah knows that ‘Baby Pro’ can be an opportunity for the ayurveda centre to increase popularity and create awareness. Mr. Shah is also aware that he has to target young parents of age 24-35 years who have child of less than two years.
Deliverables
•Select a test city
•Baby Pro is a Product Development Name. Think of a name that you think will connect best to your target customers
•Select the pack/packs that must be introduced in the test city of your choice (Exhibit 4)
•Prepare a communication strategy with proper communication channel/channels for test city
•Product Positioning (you can be creative here)
• Assumptions made (if any)
The choice of test city must be made after relevant analysis. Kindly note that you may use secondary data available from various sources to justify your conclusions. Kindly provide references for the same.
Exhibit 1: List of Cities Shortlisted for Test Market
Jaipur
|
Hyderabad
|
Mumbai
|
Bhopal
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Ahemdabad
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Kanpur
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Bangalore
|
Pune
|
Patna
|
Cuttak
|
Exhibit 2: Top selling Bottled Water Brands
Bihar
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1. Himalayan Waters
2. Jal Jeevan
3. Dews
4. Aquatic
5. Thrust
|
Orissa
|
1. Dews
2. O2
3. Jal Jeevan
4. Thrust
5. Aquatic
|
Exhibit 3: Major Ingredients of Baby Pro*
Ingredients
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Primary Function
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Curcuma Longa
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Remove dirt and moisturizes
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Eclipta Alba
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Remove Irritancy and helps in Gentle Cleanse/ helps in tears free
|
Acacla Indica
|
Preventative role against bacteria
|
Aloe Vera
|
Keep hair healthy
|
Laureth
|
Viscosity and Fragrance
|
Cocamide
|
Cools scalp
|
Exhibit 4: Pricing of Standard ‘Baby Pro’ Packs
Pack(in ml)
|
Price(INR)
|
100
|
95
|
200
|
180
|
400
|
350
|
The case is a work of fiction and serves pure educational purpose.
*Ingredients are fictional and have been provided to better understand the product.
Submission details:
1. Entries to be mailed in the form of .doc to [email protected] of about 800-1000 words with subject line “Baby Pro”
2. Deadline for mailing the entry: 28th July, 2013. Winner to be declared by 10th August, 2013
3. Prizes: Ideasmakemarket.com Mug + E-Certificate for winning entry
4. The contest is open for all participants globally