It was the very first day of our Strategic Marketing class. We were told that, we will have to choose one product of a company, from any industry. We have to work on its existing strategic marketing plan and also have to come up with a better and effective strategic marketing plan for the company. Obviously the product needs to be predominantly a troubled one. Otherwise why should we be spending our time and energy to find flaws in the existing strategic marketing plan?
As soon as our professor mentioned our respective groups and i found that my team mates were still using their mental search engine to come up with a good product to finalize as our product for the project. Immediately I took the rare opportunity and proposed the name "Boroline Antiseptic Cream" to my team mates.
At first they were a little confused but I tried to convince them by saying that I worked there for more than one year and I have some insider info etc etc. They ate the bait and I got the chance to make my long nurtured dream to come true.
Why am I so nostalgic and sort of emotionally attached to this company or the brand? Yeah I know, most of you might be wondering "why Boroline"?
Because I had the first interview of my life with GD Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd. and I cracked the interview! I joined GD Pharmaceuticals as a Marketing Officer. I was amused to know that I was the only female employee they had in their 80 years of history!
Honestly, I am still proud of my first job and GD Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd. And I will feel the same till the last breath of my life. They believed in me and gave me a job in marketing department, when i only knew how to spell the word 'Marketing'!
So now you all know why I decided to go on and take up Boroline as the topic of the strategic marketing project.
When I worked in GD Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd., the manufacturer of Boroline Antiseptic Cream, I realized that the veteran brand is suffering from many issues and problems. Which I felt could possibly be dealt with.
First to give you a small intro about the Company and the Brand... GD Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd. is the first Indian company to manufacture an antiseptic cream and the name of the product was 'Boroline'. It was the year 1929, when they first manufactured Boroline. Time passed by and the Product transformed into a Brand. It reigned the Indian marketing with 100% market share. Mainly the North, East and West India completely fell in love with the Brand.
People, the customers and the consumers, invested their trust and loyalty in this brand. In return GD Pharma maintained the Best Quality, Texture, Perfume, Packaging and the overall Heritage of being there for 80 long years. Every year the price hiked for everything but Boroline. The Boroline people as they call themselves, never emphasized on profit margin. It is the satisfaction and delight of crores of people which drove the whole team to work harder and better to retain the essence of Boroline Antiseptic Cream.
But the market scenario changed. Many companies entered the lucrative antiseptic cream market with their products. They came up with charming perfumes and a new value proposition - "non sticky antiseptic cream"! Many a consumers found it interesting. They were a little annoyed by the sticky nature of Boroline. Even they were delighted to experience the flowery perfume of some new antiseptic creams.
We as a consumer and customer of brands, never dive deep into the real value propositions of each brand and try to sort out the really useful propositions from the nonsense ones. This is the problem. But we as a marketing manager cannot really blame our customers bluntly. It is our responsibility to educate our customers about these. The more knowledgeable the consumers are the easier to show them the core value of the brand. Once they realize it, we don't need to push them or allure them to buy the product any more. Just some recall aid and some ads to keep the image alive will be fairly enough.
The problem with Boroline was, consumers knew it very well that the product by quality is excellent. But they do not feel proud of using Boroline. Because its perfume is too strong, and the texture is too sticky. The analogy is almost like the good old house wife. The husband knows it very well that no one can cook food and take care like her, yet does not feel up to take her to the socializing parties.
During the project work I realized that Boroline is not being able to connect to the younger generation. Even the mid age office going people also don't use Boroline as they use Boroplus or Borosoft during the winter season. Even if they use they don't use it during day time. They use it only during night time. In this era of pure consumerism,young consumers think that Boroline is a good old product, "granny brand". Useful but obsolete!
Communication is the main issue. Be it the marketing channel communication gap or the direct to consumer communication gap. All the effort the Boroline people are putting in to produce the excellent antiseptic cream, are not getting properly communicated to the end users. Pretty unfortunate!
The Brand Awareness is quite high in the eastern, north-eastern and western India. But the Brand Relevance is painfully low. Only a certain number long time loyal customers are still sticking around the brand. Others, especially the newer generation, they simply have moved on to either Boroplus or Borosoft. Even a certain percentage of Gen Y consumers do not like using antiseptic creams on their face as a all round winter cream. They use antiseptic cream only when they get any cut or wound or bruised skin problem to heal quickly.
During the project work we came up with a few crucial issues with the Brand Boroline viz, Marketing Channel Issues, Integrated Marketing Communication Issues and Brand Stagnancy Issue.
In my next post I will be elaborating the above mentioned issues and my proposal to the company to revive the brands image.
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