Marketing Management II Prof. B.

S Nayyar

Indian Products Limited cases C and D

1. Assess opportunity for a new brand in the SPRO market through reason for using current
brand, use of multiple cooking medium, use of multiple SPRO brands and brand loyalty status

IPL conducted a market research study to assess whether there was an opportunity for a new brand
in the SPRO market. This research aims to determine the best product concept according to
consumers expectations/desires.

Using current brand :

64% of the respondents made explicit choice about their brand which can be observed as a
positive point. (12% Really no Choice + 48% Best among available brands + 4% Exactly the
brand I would like to use)

Only 4% were entirely satisfied by their current brand which means that it could be possible
to launch a new product in order to satisfy the other 60% of respondents.

Use of multiple cooking medium

We can notice that the most cooking medium used is the Pure ghee with 96%
And the second most cooking medium used by consumers is the Refined Oil packed with 74%
100% of the respondents use two or more cooking medium
78% used three or more cooking medium

Those results confirm that there is an opportunity for introducing a new brand in the SPRO market.

Number of refined oil brands used

Postman is the brand leader of Refined Oil (88%)

Saffola is the main competitor of Postman (66%)
74% of the respondents used two or more brands and would not mind to using another
brand
32% used three or more brands and would probably welcome a new brand

Brand loyalty

16% have very low loyalty

54% have low loyalty

Which means that 70% had very low or low loyalty

toward a brand. This could be good for a new brand.

2. Validation of the important attributes and benefits chosen by the researcher with the
customers using rank test and rating of each brand. Please also comment on the choice of
odour as an important attribute.

To conduct the research, 8 attributes/benefits were identified (Taste, Health, Nutrition, Digestibility,
Purity, Colour, Odour, Keepability) and used in the consumer research.
Three attributes are considered as important by the company: taste, health, nutrition.
Two methods were used: The ranking and the rating methods.

The ranking of each attributes/benefits in the buying decision

Each customer interviewed gives a ranking to the attributes/benefits, ranking them from 1 to 8. In
Exhibit 2 we can find the results of the 50 persons interviews. We can see the simple distribution of
responses, and the cumulative results, starting from rank 1.
The median rank (the rank at which the cumulative results are equal or superior to 50) shows us the
three most important attributes: health, purity and taste. They all have a median rank of 2 or 3 (=
their cumulative results are equal or superior to 50% at ranks 2 or 3). Those with lower ranks
(ranks>4) are less important.

The ratings of the attributes

202 brands/concepts are rated by the interviewees

Use of overall rating
Before doing the regression analysis, the researchers obtained summary measures (mean and
standard deviation) of each variables as well as of relationship among each pair of two variables
(correlation matrix)
There was a plan of applying a factor analysis, but it was canceled due to the correlations not being
high enough (0.7)
The regression analysis showed that four of the eight attributes have coefficient signigfgicantly
different than zero.
As we can see, 4 attributes (Taste, Health, Odour, Purity) have values superior to zero (between
0.112 and 0.280)

Of the three main attributes in the ranking test (Health, purity and taste), two (taste and health) are
also the most important attributes in the rating test. This confirms the impression of the company on
which attributes are the more important. In the rating test, the Odour attribute appears as
important, which wasnt the case with the ranking test (the median rank was 5

3. Overall evaluation of the four product concepts across the elements of overall rating, buying
intention, uniqueness and believability.

For this consumer research, Overall rating, buying intention, uniqueness and believability were the
four variables of the overall evaluation of consumer expectations.
- To understand the relationship between each of the four variables we can use the Correlation
Matrix table. We can notice that the two variables Overall rating and Buying intention had a
significant positive result (+0.42) meanwhile Uniqueness and Believability had a high negative
result (-0.37).
What is more, concerning the correlation between Buying intention and respectively Uniqueness
and Believability, the result was positive in each case but low. (+0.12 / +0.11)
Besides, if we focus on the variable Overall rating, we can observe that it had a negative correlation
with Uniqueness equal to -0.03 and a low positive correlation with believability( +0.16).

- Then in order to select the most efficient concept we first need to rank the four product concepts.
P1: According to the table 4, P1 was included for further consideration by IPL because it
obtained the second best ranks on overall rating and Buying intention which are the two
most important variables. P1 encountered the second lowest rank on Believabilty and the
lowest on Uniqueness
P2 : This concept was dropped from further consideration because it obtained the lowest
rank on Overall Rating, Buying intention and Believability and the second lowest
Uniqueness.
P3 : Even if this concept got the highest rank on Believability and Uniqueness, it was
dropped from further consideration because it was the second lowest on the two most
important variables which are respectively Overall Rating and Buying Intention.
P4 : This concept seems to be the best one among the four concept because it was the
highest on Overall Rating and Buying intention. And what is more, it was the second
highest on Believability and Uniqueness.

The concept 1 (P1) and the concept 4 (P4) are quite similar and thus it is quite difficult to affirm
which one is the best, so we need to go deeper in the research analysis.

4. Assess competitive positioning of the chosen concepts and the existing brands through mean
rating of each brand and each concepts on each of the eight attributes/benefits.
To assess the competitive positioning of the chosen concepts and the existing competitors brands on
the SPRO market, two approaches are used: a mean rating approach and a positioning map.
2 existing brands (Postman and Saffola) are compared to the 4 concepts by 23 interviewees. The
other interviewees didnt fully answered the test, and are excluded from the results.
-> Mean ratings (from 1 to 5) results in showing that P4 and P1 have good results and they both
correspond to two brands present on the market (their overall ratings and main attributes ratings are
similar to those of Postman and Saffola).

5. Perceptual positioning map with an analysis of the choice of axes and the recommendations

High taste & general purpose

Postman
P4
P3

Therapeutic/Medicinal

General Health/Nutritious
Saffola

P2
P1

Low taste special purpose

For the second approach, the positioning map, we need first to determine the axes the company is
going to use for its market analysis.
After studying the position of each brand/concept, we determine the properties which could fit the
position of the brands/concepts on the map, and finally we check the independency of each axis
from the other. The result is the X axis which classifies by taste and general purpose, and the Y axis
which classifies by the therapeutic/health image of the product.

Postman: This brand is positioned as high taste and general purpose and neutral in terms of
health position.
Saffola : This competitor is described as low on taste and has a therapeutic image
P1: This brand concept is similar to Saffola, low on taste and therapeutic image.
P2 : This concept is midway on taste and specify of usage and makes no general health claim.
P3: This concept brand is considered midway on taste and has a Nutritious image.
P4: This new brand has a strong positive healthy image and is known to be tasty.

Recommendations

It is strongly recommended to implement a new brand of SPRO. Of the different possible brands, the
concepts P1 and P4 are the most promising.
P1 needs to have a supplementary study in order to check its potential, considering there is already a
similar brand (Saffola) on the market.
P4 would compete with the Postman brand on the taste attribute, which seems feasible due to the
high ratings given by the interviewees.
The company needs to conduct product-tests, because corn-oil is new to the Indian market.