Marketing Management II

CASE X – Stanton Bleach

SECTION -B

SUBMITTED TO : PROF. SHYAM VYAS , PH .D. S UBMITTED BY: GROUP NO .- 8

DUE DATE: 14/12/2010 S UBMITTED ON: 14/12/2010

(MEMBER DETAIL)
Summary

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 Questions and answers
Q1. What in your group’s opinion should Stanton’s management really consider?
Suggest a strategy – and also elaborate on - What are possible other strategy
alternatives?

Ans: Stanton’s management should mount an advertising campaign that “educates” the
consumer about the superiority of Clo-White over its competitors. “Tell them the research
results and tell them that smell doesn’t make any difference. They should go for “Clo –
White Plus” but not by allowing aging to happen. In retaliation to Snowy- white, it would not
be prudent to follow the competitor rather Clo – White’s should adopt position defence which
involves building superior brand power and making brand almost impregnable.
Strategy:
1. Company’s strategy should be one of differentiation. The firm should seek quality leadership
by providing value to customer for their money.
Value delivery can be done by providing certain features as:
 Development of bleach in which labour is reduced and it is convenient to use for women with
relatively less domestic orientation.
 Providing a better quality of bleach by introducing new products.
2. Use Of Fragrances:
If Stanton wants to compete in smell, it can use fragrances in bleach which give strong
fragrance and customers may be attracted towards the product.

2. What would be the “short-versus long run effects” of each strategy?

Ans:
Educating the consumer Strategy
This strategy might not be a huge success in the short run as it won’t result in drastic changes
but have a long term effect and therefore will be a great strategy for the long run success of
the company.
Differentiation Strategy
This strategy can be proved effective in the long run if communicated to customer in a proper
way. As far as short time is concerned, it will not have much impact because it takes time for
message to reach to the customer.
Fragrance
This, in short run, will definitely lure customers to buy the product under the new name but in
the long run, will break the customer bonding with the company due to deteriorated quality.

3. How important is this sense of smell - olfactory perception in the consumer’s

evaluation of bleach and other similar products? How easy (difficult) would it be for a
company to “educate” consumers about product characteristics that are contradictory
to their own perceptions of the product?
Ans: Olfactory perception is very important in the consumer’s evaluation of the bleach and
similar products. A strong smell will often give a perception of a strong, good quality
product. Consumers can evaluate a product along several levels. Its basic characteristics are
inherent to the generic version of the product and are defined as the fundamental advantages
it can offer to a customer. The purchasing behaviour of bleach and related products is highly
affected by the odour associated with the products. For bleaches, a strong odour signifies the
strength of the products in removing stains and whitening clothes. Similarly in the case of

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products like detergents, the fragrances have an impact on the consumers’ perception
regarding them.
Difficulty in educating consumers:

 Changing the consumers’ perception is a challenging task, especially when reaching out to
all the people is difficult.
 People like to believe that their behaviour is rational; thus, once they use our products,
chances are that they will continue unless someone is able to get them to switch.
 Products and consumer perceptions are variable, so changes in strategy may be required to
better address customer needs, technological developments, new laws and regulations, and
the overall product life-cycle.
 Although attempting to change beliefs is the obvious way to attempt attitude change,
particularly when consumers hold unfavourable or inaccurate ones, this is often difficult to
achieve because consumers tend to resist.
4. Is Mr. Lawrence’s suggestion unethical? Or is he right in suggesting that the
company should be giving to consumers “what they want”?
Ans: In the above case customers want “strongest bleach on the market and that they are
willing to pay at least the competitive price for it”, but on the other hand they relate the smell
of the bleach to its strength which is not right. It would be difficult to take a stand on whether
or not Mr Lawrence’s suggestion is ethical or not.
On one hand the question, "does one give what customers want? would entice the manager to
give an answer as “yes”. After all, “the customer is always right”, but we feel the company
should take this decision only if their potential customers really know what they want.
Further we feel “What” isn’t necessarily the right question.
If one implements the “what” without knowing the “why”, then one risk missing the target
big time. One of the best ways to implement and ensure the proper establishment of ethical
business practices is as a “top down” program. Those at the top of a company are often seen
as professional role models for other employees, and if they are acting in a way that is
unethical, many lower level employees will follow suit.
5. Is it true that marketers need to resolve many ethical dilemmas on way to marketing
success? Do ethics “pay in the long run”? What does your group think – looking at what
would work in Indian scenario!!
Ans: The increased public awareness has made consumers more conscious about the world
around them. Consumers are becoming more demanding each day and with the plethora of
choices available to them, they are more aware than ever before.
Yes it is true that marketers need to resolve many ethical dilemmas on way to marketing
success. Some of the ethical dilemmas are -
(1) Various advertising that are misleading to consumers.
(2) The ethics related to direct marketing is another concern of marketing departments.
(3) Another dilemma is the marketing of harmful products-for example, tobacco and fast
food.
Ethics do pay in the long run as only if an organization is able to maintain a relation of trust
with its customers, will it be able to retain them and thus grow and prosper. Once the trust
with customers is developed with customers the company can expect to have loyal customers.
The brand of the company becomes strong. This will result in the long term success for the
company.

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6. Draw upon your group MM-II project and state whether the major players are really
ethical. Please describe any major instances of unethical behavior by Indian
corporations / business leaders – from recent (last three years’ time-frame). Class
should be apprised of what the scene was, and why you consider the behavior / action by
company / business leader as unethical.
Ans.
The company chosen by our group is BPCL which operates in petroleum sector. The major
players in this sector are:

Unethical behaviour by Coca-Cola:

Kaladera (Rajasthan) lies in an overexploited groundwater area and access to water has been
difficult. Summers are particularly intense in the area, and summers are when water shortages
are most acute. The Coca-Cola Company has continued to operate its bottling plant in
Kaladera in Jaipur, India even as the area has been declared a drought area last summer and
the groundwater levels are falling sharply – leaving the largely agrarian community with
severely restricted access to water. Ironically, summer months are also when Coca-Cola
reaches its peak production, and it is in the summer months that the Coca-Cola bottling plant
in Kaladera extracts the most water, making already existing water shortages even worse.
With facts in hand, the Coca-Cola Company has chosen to continue its operations, knowingly
contributing to the misery of thousands of people.

Coca Cola is considered unethical because of following points:-

 Prior to locating a bottling plant in Kaladera, Coca-Cola is supposed to have conducted an

Environmental Impact Assessment that looks at a variety of current conditions and
potential impacts if the plant is built and operated.
 In reaching out to the media and the public regarding the scathing TERI assessment, the
Coca-Cola Company has misrepresented the facts on several occasions.

RELATIONSHIP TO CONCEPTS

Differentiation: This is done in order to demonstrate the unique aspects of a firm's product
and create a sense of value. Company should establish leadership by differentiation in the
bleach.
Value Delivery: The way customer will be provided value with.
Position Defence: Position defence is a static defence of a current position, retaining current
product markets by consolidating resources within existing areas. Stanton should go for
position defence by building strong brand power.
Segmentation: Segmentation among domestic and relatively less domestic oriented women
and working men.

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Brand Extension: This has been the cause of concern for the company to launch product
with the suffix “plus” of the same name.