Page 112 - DMGT547_INTERNATIONAL_MARKETING

Unit 5: International Market Research

Notes
“While I do not dispute the finding — if anything, they certainly confirm what you have
been telling me for the past three months — we must consider the broader implications,”
said Ranganathan. “If we are to launch a new brand and achieve the volumes for the health
soap that we initially envisaged, Angar will have to commit at least ` 3 crore for advertising
the product this year alone. Is that possible? We are already talking to a number of small-
scale units in order to secure their capacities and we also plan to buy into some of their
equities. As we are all aware, one of our competitors is already preparing to launch soap
in his niche by the third quarter of the next financial year by which time we had hoped to
be firmly entrenched…”
“And you are suggesting that if we roll-back our timetable in order to introduce a new
brand, we will lose the initiative?” asked Shah.

“Precisely,” answered. Ranganathan, “What’s more, as we have concentrated our marketing
efforts on reinforcing the Glow brand so far, developing a new brand from scratch will
require far more dynamism and aggressiveness than we have had to exhibit until now.
Are we sure Angar is prepared for that at this point of time? Unless our skills are suitably
upgraded, going to the market with a new brand would be risky.”

“Perhaps,” he continued, after pausing for a moment,” even more risky than extending
the Glow brand into the health segment. For, if the new brand bombs, it will not only
shake the confidence of our marketing team, but it could well jeopardise our entire future
blueprint in terms of investments and expansion.”
Shah sat in contemplative silence. “I agree with Ranganathan,” piped up Tahamane. “Speed
is probably our greatest asset: we already have a product in place and a brand that can
carry it.” “There is another angle we cannot ignore,” added Paranjpe. “A sharply-defined
anti-infection attribute may spell trouble if new rivals enter the market using the more
general platform of health appeal. Remember what happened to Marico’s Saffola refined
oil? When it was relaunched in 1981 as oil for the health-conscious on the attribute that it
helped reduce the risk of heart attacks, it secured big gains in the first few years. But after
ITC’s Sundrop and Lipton’s Flora entered the scene on the platform of all-round good
health for the user, Saffola was quickly pushed into a narrow niche — as an oil for only
those with heart trouble — and its market share plummeted.”

Questions
1. Should Shah and Ranganathan have gone by the market research that Product Pulse
had conducted? Or should they have gone against it?

2. How could they minimise the risk of eroding the Glow brand in the event of an
extension?
3. What safeguards should they have built into their marketing strategy? And how
should Angar have gone about marketing and distributing its new brand?
Source: P K Vasudeva, International Marketing, Excel Books.

5.8 Summary

This unit attempts to give an overview of the functions in as simple manner as possible.

International Marketing Research is a complete analysis of the market, information
regarding the nature, size, organisation, profitability of different markets, changes in the
market and various factors – economic, social and political – affecting those changes.

The main purpose of international market research is to know about consumers and the
markets of its products and services.

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