In an initiative to develop its herbal soap offering and create a repositioning strategy for its soap products, one of the front-runners in the Indian skincare market explored the perception of the brand image, using survey data to compare its own image with those of two of its strongest competitors. The challenge for this brand was to reposition itself and build its equity after taking into consideration the perceptual results of the study and the existing positioning of soap brands.
In recent years, the Indian shampoo market had been growing at an exponential rate, with several categories and brands of personal care products showing significant growth. Like consumers in several emerging markets, Indians had begun to place a heightened degree of importance on physical appearance, perhaps as an outcome of Westernization and exposure to media. Traditionally, Indians were known to use herbs to nurture and enhance their hair. Now, however, Indian consumers were caught between the propositions of “synthetic” hair-care brands versus the “natural benefits of the herbal” brands, despite the fact that some degree of processing was required for both types. Amid this dichotomous culture of hair-care products, how could the Himalaya brand establish itself as a differentiated herbal offering?
The Himalaya Drug Company is interested in obtaining insights into how the lifestyle of consumers is associated with the use of face washes, especially of its own brand. As the population of India, which is primarily under the age of 35, becomes more affluent and self-conscious, personal grooming has become more important. Several brands have positioned themselves in the market according to various attributes and benefits. Himalaya wants to understand the impact of values and lifestyles both on the category of face washes and on the brands in this category. The case makes use of a consumer survey conducted in December 2011 that investigated the lifestyle of consumers and connected it to various face wash brands through the concept of laddering. Were the attributes and benefits of the brands associated with the lifestyles of the consumers? How were values associated with brand association? Himalaya hopes to obtain insights through these questions to discover how it can effectively compete with its competitors through branding association.
HDFC Life Insurance (HDFC Life) was competing in a changing environment as established banks began entering the insurance business. Even though several brands in the category advertised with different positioning strategies, consumers were not receptive. HDFC Life commissioned a survey that seemed to lead the senior manager of digital marketing to a dead end. The challenge was to introduce a differentiation that could be associated with the HDFC brand despite the limitations of the category and the unreceptive mindset of the target segment. The case also takes into consideration the changing lifestyles of potential insurance buyers in India, their new interest in purchasing insurance online and the complexities of developing a services brand in an emerging market.
Ramesh Kumar was curious to determine whether consumers were loyal to toothpaste brands. Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste had herbal offerings in the retail and prescription segments, affording him the opportunity to conduct research. Were consumers loyal to a particular brand of toothpaste? Did they remember the functional brand benefits? Were consumers buying brands due to the social benefits reflected in ads? Did consumers continue to buy particular brands without switching? Were consumers interested in herbal toothpastes? How should Himalaya be perceived by consumers? This series of issues presented an opportunity to conceptualize consumer behaviour in the Indian context. <br><br>The concept of product involvement differentiates consumer segments based on the degrees of personal interest expressed by consumers with regard to products and services. High-involvement categories require consumers to be involved in extensive buying behaviour that leads to one or more of the following: risk reduction, enhancement of self-image, and gratification in having achieved an optimal choice after examining the alternatives. Low-involvement categories are those that are bought in a routine manner by consumers, with a lower degree of personal interest. Marketers always face competitive challenges in enhancing the degree of involvement even in low-involvement categories through appropriate branding initiatives, including in the toothpaste category.
Nitya was preparing for a meeting with an Indian company that manufactured hair oil and fairness cream. She wanted to make use of past research in order to offer her client insights on consumer values. Were emerging markets significantly different from developed markets in terms of consumer values? Were existing brands connecting with Indian consumers? Could values become associated with different socio-economic classes of consumers? With radical changes in the lifestyles of consumers and the proliferation of categories and brands, the Indian context offers unique marketing challenges to marketers.
Shamit Bagchi, owner of the online art company Dhonuk, recognized that art was a niche market in India. He wanted to utilize psychographics in order to better understand art buyers and properly position his company, so he undertook a survey of art consumers’ behaviour. He believed that through selecting the appropriate demographic segments, analyzing his competition, and using the behavioural insights of the survey, he could create the proper platform for his art company.
The case analyzes the response of the non-users of shampoo in an emerging environment, namely India. The non-users belong to the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum and they respond with their perceptions about the category of shampoo and well-known brands. The entrepreneur's challenge is to obtain the insights, analyze the attitude of the non-users towards the category and brands, and prepare a strategy to position a new brand of shampoo (Super brand) in the Indian mass market.
India has millions of kirana (small stores) but modern retail outlets are emerging. The case illustrates the challenges confronting the shop owner of Shiny Provision Store, a kirana in the suburbs of Bangalore, India. A customer, who is a market researcher, decides to explore how a small retailer in the food and groceries business can survive in an environment that is getting increasingly sophisticated in terms of professional techniques being applied to modern retailing. Data on retail images of small shops and modern outlets as well as lifestyle information on consumers is presented.
Tinplate Company of India is a leading manufacturer of tin packaging for food and beverage products and batteries. Changes in government policy on importing materials, new types of packaging products and customer dissatisfaction present challenges for the company. The company must decide whether to continue with its current market strategy, determine how it can compete with foreign companies or determine if they are missing other strategic opportunities based on organizational buying behaviours.