Tirupati Oils: Launching a Rice Bran Oil in India during the Covid19 pandemic

The case outlines how the strategy for launching rice bran oil, a less consumed edible oil, was modified with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Tirupati oil by NK Proteins is one of the top 3 edible oils sold in Gujarat. Three months before the launch of the rice bran oil, the director passed away. With pandemic restrictions still in force, there was a change in the management with the next generation taking over. Amidst this chaos, the rice bran oil was launched. Within a year of its launch, it became the market leader in Gujarat. To achieve this goal, the company did three things differently from the competition. First, it focused on affordability and marketed it to the masses unlike their competitors who portrayed it as a premium product for a niche customer base. Second, they weighed on their huge distribution network and created a push product by directly supplying rice bran oil to the distributors rather than going through the traditional via the traders, and third, they positioned the oil as an immunity booster vis-à-vis the heart-healthy positioning adopted by other players. After this successful launch, the next plan of action was to professionalise NK Proteins from its traditional way of working. The new MD, Priyam Patel, felt that this was the only way to expand the business and take it to the next level. But would the personnel working with the company since before Priyam was born be receptive towards the change? Furthermore, the nearest competitor, Fortune, was looking to gain lost ground and thus posed a new challenge. Tirupati had always positioned its product as a healthy and immunity booster oil. With other competitors also highlighting the health benefits of their oil, Tirupati needed to strengthen its competitive positioning. Could a consumer survey provide them insights to evaluate their positioning strategy?

• Sales
• Strategy management
• Sales and marketing