Page 111 - DMGT547_INTERNATIONAL_MARKETING

International Marketing

Notes
But Shah, on the other hand, had not reacted favourably to the idea of introducing an
extension with product attributes that were incongruous with those of the mother brand.
“It could backfire”, he had warned, “and not just on this extension, but also on all the
others as well as the mother brand.” Still, he had enough faith in Ranganathan to agree to
an independent market survey in order to gauge how customers would react to the idea.
And that was what Product Pulse had been commissioned to do.
At precisely 11.30 a.m., Shah — along with his team of managers — filed into the fourth
floor conference room for the meeting with Anil Malhotra, the CEO of Product pulse.
A few seconds later, Malhotra and two of his colleagues were ushered into the large airy
room and they took their seats across the long oval table. Once the introductions were
dispensed with, Shah invited Malhotra to make his opening remarks. “To begin with,
there are several questions that ought to be answered when a brand extension is being
planned,” said Malhotra.
“Is the product unique? Does it offer a functional benefit to the consumer? Is the benefit
sustainable? Does it have a central message? Is the message consistent with what the
parent brand stands for? Or does it go against it? While the new product you have certainly
offers a distinct promise of a benefit to the consumer, its central message of therapeutic
value is inconsistent with the brand image of beauty and complexion care. This is evident
from the customer survey we undertook in 10 major cities in the country,” said Malhotra,
as the first slide was projected onto a screen at one end of the room.
“As you can see, we selected a very large sample of 2,500 consumers, each of whom
possessed the following attributes: they were in the age group of 18 to 49 years; they were
the principal shoppers in the family; they were regular buyers of at least one Glow product;
and their gross family income was over ` 6,000 a month,” said Malhotra, returning to his
seat. His senior analyst, Poornima Anand, then went on to explain the nuances of the
study, the weightages that were assigned, and the methodology. She then turned to the
major factors that determined the respondents’ choice of soaps.

Finally, Anand discussed the customer’s perceptions of Angar’s present range of soaps.
“From our next slide, you can see that over 85 percent of the respondents, strongly
associated beauty and complexion care with the Glow brand name. Furthermore, therapeutic
benefits scored a low 12th in terms of the attributes customers would assign to soaps
bearing the Glow brand name. To a specific question whether they would buy a health
soap marketed under the Glow brand name, 60 per cent answered in the negative.
But when they were asked if they would be willing to try a new anti-infection health soap
in the price range that you had indicated, 70 per cent of them said that they would definitely
do so,” she said.
“The conclusion is obvious,” said Malhotra. “The notion of a brand extension does not
appear to have been received favourably by your existing customers. On the other hand,
the figures appear to indicate that there is a growing awareness — and the need for an anti
infection health soap bearing a different brand name, which could enjoy high trial
purchases from your target customers.” Thanking the Product Pulse team for its
presentation, Shah and Ranganathan saw Malhotra and his two colleagues out and then
returned to the conference room to join Tahamane and Paranjpe.
“The findings of Product Pulse’s survey are invaluable,” said Shah. “And as far as the
extension of the Glow brand into the heath segment goes, I believe they have hit the nail
on the head. While it is obvious that our new anti-infection health soap has a receptive
market out there, it is equally clear that we cannot piggyback on the Glow brand name.
What do you think, Ranganathan?” he asked.
Contd...

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