Strepsils: Brand in search of Game Change

Group No. 10

Apurv Gosain 2014139Diana Godiwalla 2014142Dipanjali Biswas 2014143Disha Divecha 2014144Harjas Bakshi 2014148Joe Thaliath 2014151

Company Background

Reckitt Benckiser is a multinational corporation with presence in over 180 countries.

Net revenues in excess of 9.5 billion pounds an year.

World’s top household cleaning solution provider.

Core of its business strategy: fabric care, surface care, dishwashing, home care, health care, personal care and food.

Most of its brands are either number 1 or number 2 in their respective categories in India.

Looking to drive an average growth in health and hygiene become 72% of core company by 2016(Currently 67%).

Strepsils is one of the RB’s Powerbrands in Healthcare & is expected to deliver higher growth rates

Problem Definition

Consumers do not take sore throat seriously

Brand mascot , Mr. T, is not engaging enough

Suffer on account of non-trial of the brand(89% are aware of brand, however 32% are non-trialists)

Lower share of sales of Strepsils Ayurvedic line through grocery stores

Brand awareness is declining is two centers, inconsistent on impacting consumer behavior.

Problem Definition

It continues to be the no. 3 player in sore throat category. Overall share has fallen from 10% to 9%.

The brand continues to be sold largely through pharmacies.

Our competition wins in convenience driven impulse buying. Our brand is seen as a medicated product for serious

ailments.

The category leader has presence in close to 65% (1.4 million) outlets whereas our brand has a much smaller distribution

reach (<15% of the outlets).

Key factors affecting consumer behavior in the market

Time and money: Lack of availability of time has increased OTC medicine to cater day to day elements. People even opt for not approaching to doctor to reduce the cost of treatment.

Belief: The belief in self medication has increased and people start treating minor elements by themselves for major elements they go to doctor.

Chemist: The importance of chemist has increased. For minor elements like cold, headache, fever, pain etc. they take the advice of chemist rather than going to doctor. In small town chemist is treated just like doctor.

Awareness: Increasing awareness among the consumer made them realize that some medicines and health supplements must be available in the home all the time. Some of OTC medicine has become part of grocery such as Vicks, cough syrup etc.

Lifestyle: Changing lifestyle lead to development of various lifestyle diseases for which herbal medicine is best remedy. Due to urban lifestyle there is a large increase in need of ayurvedic products and ingredients like ginger, mint, orange etc.

Campaign: AbMontu Bolega Strepsils connected itself to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan which aims CLEANING INDIA. This was a step to build its CSR initiatives as well as marketing efforts using social media engagement and digital media technology.

Strepsils launched the campaign on social media, requesting people to participate by sending images of uncleaned streets, grounds, beaches, etc with an assurance to adopt them for cleaning.

Analysis of the campaign 

Failures:

• Through the video and interactive website promotes campaign for SPEAK UP concept, it failed to connect with audience for all issues related to SPEAK UP, since it has more focus on “Swachh Bharat”.

• The campaign was initiated from 1st Dec 14, but haven’t been able to achieve viral factor, as  it focused more on blogging and tweets.

• Failed to propagate Who is MONTU of “Ab Montu Bolega”, like “Digen Fruti Peeta hai” for Fruti or Balbir Pasha for AIDS awareness 

Success:

•The innovative concept of visual communication for SPEAK UP for CLEANINESS, worked amongst audience. Cleaning & adoption of playground at Kolkata helped to build case study for CSR also.•Achieve success to raise awareness on CLEANLINESS on Google search through blogging contest.•The campaign syncs with vision of Strepsils – Cleans throat, now cleans streets both for better and healthy life.

Suggestions

Re-characterize “Mr. T” as “Dr. S” in the promotional campaigns for Strepsils India

We would like Strepsils to be positioned as a complete solution to mild throat soreness; Dr S will help leverage on that front.

Reposition Strepsils and change the tagline, such that it suggests, Strepsils is the Expert/Specialist in the category

Consumers will associate Strepsils’s Dr S as a “go to” person whenever they have a throat ailment. 

Reason: The present communication of Strepsils through Mr.T lacks consumer attachment. Mr.T has not been able to establish itself as a strong brand cue

Doctor Tips: Every Strepsils pack will carry a special “tip” telling how one can prevent throat ailments. These tips will be specially placed inside the wrapper of each Strepsil

Recommendations

Create an India

specific strepsils website

to clearly communicate the products

of Strepsils available in India

Phase out the

present brand cue – Mr.T

since the cartoon

character approach does not connect well with

the customer

s

Create engaging videos,

contests and

online promotio

ns aggressively using

its Facebook page. Set

up an active digital

marketing team

Piggy back on

the distributi

on channel of other

RB products

like Dettol, Vanish etc to

drastically

increase the reach

of strepsils

Induce trials by giving away

strepsils as

freebies with

other RB products

Expand the

product range in

the healthcare domain

to improve

the brand recall of Strepsils

Launch smaller candy type

variants at

50paise/Re.1 price points to push the retailers to give away

strepsils as

change instead of halls/vick

s

Website Brand Cue Social Media Distribution Promotions Line extension New Product

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