DEVANSH PATEL

MBA E&FB B004

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Q1. Using the “4A’s” framework in this Caselet, analyse the considerations
that went into the development of the Gillette Guard razor for the Indian
market.

P&G company introduced Gillette guard razor to the Indian market by focusing on the
BOP(bottom of the pyramid) market. P&G took 3000 thousand hours on research over 18
months for developing the product, this research was proved most valuable in the development
of razors which helped them in cutting cost for the product and their main aim was to reach
maximum consumers by keeping the low cost of the product and present the final product that
can fit in BOP(bottom of the pyramid) of the market after that company launched razor and
blades at the very low cost of just 15 Indian rupees (34 Cents USD) and 5 Indian rupees (12
Cents USD). to introduce the product for shaving needs for Indian men in Indian market
company targets bottom of the pyramid by considering 4a's marketing strategy as follows as

Awareness - brand name was globally famous for providing generic products with some deep
research and development of the Indian market and needs for shaving. By applying local R&d on
the product they find a large number of consumers in BOP. so introducing the consumer product
in the market that fulfills shaving needs in the Indian market was not as difficult.

Acceptability - world bank estimates over 5% of the population of the Indian market is present at
BOP, research conducted by the company provides information that many populations do not
have access to water, so the acceptance of such low-cost products is huge in the Indian market.

Affordability - by keeping in mind what are the target consumers that relay at the bottom of the
pyramid company introduces a product name vector that sold for 15 rupees (34 Cents) and razors
at 5 rupees (12 Cents) that are produced at one-third cost as compare to previously introduce
products in the market product can be made affordable by reducing the cost of packing, operation
of production.

Availability - as the company focuses on a large number of consumers, distribution and

marketing of such products were difficult to implement so the company focuses on the BPO
marketer business model that partners with non-governmental organizations (NGO) which helps
the company to gain a large number of consumers through connections with countries. To fulfill
availability, the company applies short term supply chain management to reach maximum
distribution facilities.

Q2. 1 What traits are available as indicated by the brand personality map for
the brand to be developed by XYZ company?

To get brief insight about brand personality, it would be like how humans are associated with
your brand and how they perceive the brand emotionally and what is their behavior over the
period in time. This can make a huge impact on the mind emotionally as well as would define an
experience of how positive the customers are towards your brand.

The brand personality divided in categories giving brief information on broader basis and there
are some of personality traits associated with each dimension are discussed below:

1) Prestige seeking - Customers will believe those brands who are strongly associated with their
brand and work for their brand by believing in the good product delivery. Customers would fall
under the bracket of reliability and need and that's what xyz company needs to develop to fit the
personality map away from origin creating their own space with traits like prestige seek.

2) Outgoing- The best example for defining this trait would be “ROADSTER” as they fit the
column of outdoor feeling that customer wants so with that feeling would the customer associate
with XYZ company! Customers should feel powerful with the product and your offerings so that
should be the basic motto for XYZ company.

3) Exciting - As a company, XYZ should look after the building excitement and hype among the
customers and create a different vibe that might be trendy, exciting, spirited in terms of catering
to youth, giving the sense of independent feeling and uniqueness.

4) Cool & Stylish - As the major portion of customers for xyz belongs to lower middle class,
they already has the market in unbranded market and now if they have to step in the market with
brands a certain sense of sophistication should be the primary objective to make their new
customers feel classy and refined them keeping high class customers in mind.

5) Active - Entering the market and competing with multinational brands requires a sense of
honesty and activeness. XYZ as a brand should try to look after creating a friendly environment
for themselves as well as family oriented. There should be genuineness in the product and should
always look after the to become a brand that caters to the customer expectations meeting their
preferences and needs.
To position yourself with multinational brands you should develop a good communication
channel in which you can easily reach the customer and for that on a starting basis you can
associate a channel partner for advertising your brand and market yourself by providing
information in newspapers as well as radio and hoardings. This channel would help you a lot to
ensure trust in your new customers as well as old customers.

Lastly, to conclude they can create their own tagline which contributes the list of traits that can
be associated with XYZ company is worth exploring in vivid manner but to position themselves
in the map they should focus on the low margin players first for entering the market and then
they should focus on becoming a brand like nike and adidas. So above explained, different traits
should be developed keeping in mind the market changes and customer preferences and by
positioning strongly at a lower level market which caters around 16% market share of the shoe
industry.

Q 2. 2 Do you agree with the defensive strategy of the brand to try to acquire
only the available traits which are not associated strongly with any of the
brands? What strategy will you suggest?

Yes I agree with the defensive strategy of the brand to try and acquire the traits that are not
strongly associated but so they should try and develop their own traits because that would help
XYZ as a company a lot in building new preferences for customers and gaining stronghold in the
market.

The case itself suggest that 84% market is already captured with multinational companies and at
lower side the other marginal market is covered by power and action and to enter at the
equilibrium position between both the markets would be right option for the XYZ company that
would be keeping up prices at marginal level but providing quality at level multinational brands,
this would hamper the profit at start but would allow lots of customers to mark their presence
and buy our product. While competing with multinational brands it would slightly be difficult
because of economies of scale they are all working on but as they have established themselves in
an unbranded market so the customer base would be more than enough but positioning in
branded markets would lead to high cost.

The strategy that i would suggest for XYZ company would be :

1) Positioning XYZ company as a brand which has traits like stylish, outgoing, exciting outgoing
and prestige seeking because every multinational brand has associated with a high sense of
feeling like for nike its youth, for power its caring and for adidas it is elegant and cosmopolitan
so portraying brand with listed traits would help to cover market of people who possesses those
traits.

2) I would like to implement a strategy of pricing and advertising to set the right amount for
price and gaining exposure through advertising that would ultimately help my brand in providing
benefits at the start and gradually increase the market reach and market share. Would definitely
take a look at organising campaigns for brand awareness and initially grow by gaining a price
sensitive market with quality product offerings.

3) Their third strategy would be value that would mainly focus on delivering products that are
genuine and made with right quality that does not create any harm and the product delivered to
customers should have a sense of excitement associated with shoe and design and everything
related to product. So satisfaction should be the key strategy which should be perceived by
customers.

4) The last strategy would be engaging the brand with any trust or ngo’s by donating the amount
because that would create a palpable state for customers and would help in creating brand
worthiness setting up XYZ company as a loyal brand with completely different perception in
mind of people.

Q3. 1 If this brand “came to life” as a person, what kind of person would the
brand be which will be able to connect emotionally with your targeted
consumers. What core value will the brand signify ?

If the brand was made for organic food then the personality of the brand which would connect
emotionally with target consumers would be a health conscious person.

The core value of the brand would signify the awareness of a health conscious person, in today's
world people are becoming health conscious and thus this brand can emotionally connect with
consumers.

The most important aspect of this brand is to make consumers aware about the healthy organic
products which are beneficial to the body and brains i.e does not contain any chemicals which
are harmful for the body or any kind of pesticides/product used for growing organic products.

The most targeted audience is the woman aged between 20-65 yrs who has the knowledge of
organic products and is a decision maker in the house. It's very important for a woman to target
the products as she is the one who decides what all things are important and beneficial for her
and her family.
Marketing of the organic product is just like a health conscious person who is not willing to take
any harmful chemicals in the body which can cause damage/disease.

The core value of the brand signifies the depth of the products which are natural and pure. Eating
healthy food can lead to a healthy life and thus it's very important for a person to choose the
product which he/she consumes in order to live a healthy and happy life.

Q3. 2 Describe the brand personality of your brand —on what basis do you
infer these traits?

The brand personality of this brand is a health conscious person as described before, the major
traits are:

1) Chemical free products - The main trait of this brand is to sell chemical free products which
are harmful for the body. In today's world there are lots and lots of pesticides/chemicals used to
grow products which eventually is harmful for the body, takes less time to produce and it's cheap,
on the other side organic products take huge amount of time money and efforts to grow products
without any harmful chemicals thus are expensive, only a few people are aware of the
importance of using organic products and know the value of it. Organic products are not
beneficial to the human body but also the environment as the soil and land remains nourished at
the time of production without using harsh chemicals into it.

2) Living a healthy lifestyle - Organic products not only help in living a healthy life but also
helps in prevention of illness and food poisoning which is a common disease nowadays. Living a
healthy life is basically eliminating junk chemical based food/products for health and of course
skin/body related products.

3) Beneficial for skin and body - Organic products are just not for eating but also applying on the
body which now a days a lot of products are just filled with chemicals and are harmful for the
skin, they show results fast in comparison to the organic products but in long run are harmful
leaving the skin dry dull pigmented which eventually leads to skin related problems, it's very
important for a person to know the difference between the regular product and the organic
products and what are the Benefits for using the same.