Harley’s Corner: A

Positioning Dilemma in the

pet food market
Group 05 z
a. Anupama Bara – PGP18014

b. Himanshu Modak – PGP18263

c. Siddharth Chaudhary – PGP18238

d. Abhinandan Pandey – PGP18266

e. Vaibhav Sabar – PGP18160

f. Shaikh Wasim Akhtar – PGP18232

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a. Case Synopsis
 In 2012, Harley’s corner (HC) entered the dog food business backed by the founders Ishmeet Singh Chandiok
 HC appealed to the premium segment of consumers looking for wet pet food offering functional and fortified benefits
 HC’s food was made of natural ingredients which served as their USP for being preservatives free and innovative
packaging
 The product had high nutritional value and a shelf life of 12 months
 HC was competing against Mars International and Royal canin India both of which had a wide distribution network
 HC’s net profit started to decline in 2015 compared to the figures of 2014
 In 2016 CEO of HC was required to decide upon a suitable positioning strategy for fresh, gourmet home cooked food
for pets
 They were nibble on addressing the issue arising out of change in consumer preference towards HC and they also
stood at a position where they had to identify the point where their positioning took the wrong turn
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b. Case Dilemma

 Harley’s Corner’s revenue was declining and net profit from 2014 to
2015.
 The customer’s preference was declining for Harley’s Corner dog
food.
 To craft a suitable positioning for Harley’s Corner.
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c. What is Positioning and its relevance for Harley’s Corner?

 For Harley’s Corner the positioning is to be a premium wet food for dogs that has
natural ingredients and a long shelf life.
 Being a pet lover and an aficionado when it comes to pet food and nutrition,
Chandiok wanted to position Harley’s Corner as the go to brand for all pet lovers.
 Since competition used preservatives to improve shelf life, HC wanted to focus on
the preservative-free nature of their product and position themselves as a safe
product for pets.
 Every Pet owner has a deep care for their pet, and food is how they take care of their
pet’s growth needs. Positioning Harley’s corner such that it becomes an integral part
of every pet owner’s diet, was the important task that the company needed to do.
 d. What is the
 The market has fierce competition for a larger share of the market
z
 Major competitors have few top products and a few down products that were

competitive cannibalizing the brand value of the top products

 In India, the two largest pet food companies are
market scenario  Mars International

for the pet food 

 Royal Canin India (Royal Canin)

During July 2001, Mars International acquired Royal Canin and selling Royal
industry in Canin products.
 Marketing & Distribution Channels :
India? Why 1. Television advertising campaigns

does India have 2. Print advertising

growth in the 3. E- commerce- Helped to capture the maximum market share to build brand
awareness and loyalty

pet food  Mars International’s brand names include: Banfield Pet Hospital, Cesar, Crave,
Greenies, Nutro, Pedigree, Royal Canin, Goodlife Recipe, Whiskas, and

industry? 
Temptations.

The other major competitors in the market are Colgate-Palmolive, Del Monte Food
Co. & Procter & Gamble Co.
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 The demand for pet ownership is highly growing

specifically in urban sector
 The demand is growing in India for Pet clinics, Pet salons,
Dog caretakers, Dog walkers, Dog-friendly hotels, Air-
conditioned kennels.
 During 2011 and 2012, the average spending exceeded
d. contd. ₹10,000 per month on pets in India
 for daily hygiene care, food, vaccinations, and other high-
end services such as spas.
 The Indian market have a huge untapped potential for pet
food
 z e. Compare and discuss the various positioning strategies
being adopted by Harley’s Corner compared with other players
operating in India.
To understand the answer to this question, let us take two situations as mentioned below and see what happened actually:

Situation A (Before Survey) vs Situation B (After Survey)

Situation A (Before Survey)

 Two types of products; with and without preservatives

 With Preservatives: Dealt with increasing shelf life of products

 Without Preservatives: Dealt with Pet health

 Branded Products served more to mass market by focusing on products with higher shelf life and popular varieties

 Albeit the health conscious market seems to be a niche segment, it holds a promise of growth in future

 To understand what clicks and what doesn’t, a survey (Exhibit 6) was conducted with a carefully curated sample
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e. contd.

Exhibit 6: Survey Structure Analysis Sheet: Predictors

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e. contd.

Situation B (After Survey)

 From Analysis Sheet, we can see that Packaging, Promotion 2, Product 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

and Price were significant predictors for the study and had some actual effect on the
overall study of perception

 Customer’s understanding of “what are they getting” instead of “from where are they
getting it” is more clear. “How much are they shelling out to buy Harley’s products” is
also in check, positively

 Packaging Innovation, which was aimed for Health conscious target, was their USP. It
helped them build their brand repo around it

 Whatever promotions they might be doing from their social media end, they were
absolutely working for the brand
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e. contd.
Conclusion?

 Their strategy was to check the 4Ps, and by the looks of what they’ve found from the study, they have

identified where they need to work. Product is positively praised by the ever growing health
conscious segment. Although existing in a niche category for now, Pricing has not posed any
major issues for them. Promotion is also fine for them (Social Media Front). Still, some
suggestions related to these positioning strategy points are given in the last slide of the presentation.

 Big Brands are pushing “shadow products” on the wave of “Brand Name” and thus making the
competition fierce. Companies like Harley not only have to compete in their “currently niche” segment
among other small companies, but they have to also fight to position among and between the big brands
as well.
 f. Applying multiple regression analysis, discuss how can
Chandiok position Harley’s Corner and solve his decision
dilemma?

SUMMARY OUTPUT
Regression Statistics
Multiple R 0.974171 The R Square value suggests that
the model can explain around
R Square 0.949009
95% of the variance in Future
Adjusted R Square 0.946691 preference (DV) ,implying that
Standard Error 0.115626 the model is doing a good job at
Observations 300 it.

ANOVA

df SS MS F Significance F
The significance value ( p <0.05)
for regression indicates that the
Regression 13 71.163 5.474077 409.4468 3.1361E-176 model is statistically significant

Residual 286 3.823662 0.013369

Total 299 74.98667

 z Coefficientsa

f. contd. Model Unstandardized

Coefficients Standardized
Coefficients
t Sig.

B Std. Error Beta

 For a 95% Confidence Interval, (Constant)
1 11.392 .156 73.014 .000
the following attributes with
Product1 -.095 .025 -.068 -3.816 .000
Sig.(p) < 0.05 were not
Product2 -1.069 .041 -.922 -26.047 .000
considered since they are
Product3 -.107 .027 -.074 -3.984 .000
statistically insignificant –
Product4 -.494 .020 -.816 -24.904 .000
1. Channel 1 - Buying pet food Product5 .053 .019 .067 2.764 .006
directly from HC Product6 -.031 .011 -.052 -2.912 .004
Price -.190 .013 -.262 -14.160 .000
2. Channel 2 - Buying pet food Channel1 -.004 .025 -.003 -.147 .884
online using from other Channel2 .037 .024 .036 1.545 .123
retailing sites Promotion1 -.049 .027 -.048 -1.799 .073
Promotion2 .153 .021 .173 7.311 .000
3. Promotion 1 - Print media in
Promotion3 .035 .021 .040 1.697 .091
creating awareness about HC
Packaging .034 .017 .039 1.995 .047
4. Promotion 3 - Sales promotion a. Dependent Variable: Future_Prefer
in creating awareness about HC
 z Suggesting Marketing Mix for positioning Harley’s Corner

 Product

 Quality of products (Product 5) is the only attribute positively impacting future preferences as its rating is 0.053. So,
Harley’s Corner should maintain its focus on Quality.
 Product 2 is negatively impacting future preferences as ratings go down by 1.069. Which is relatively drastic. So,
Harley’s Corner should try to avoid positioning products as such.
 Packaging is positively impacting future preferences as future preferences rating going up by 0.034.

 Price
 Price ratings are negatively impacting future preferences as decrease of 0.19 for unit increase in price rating. So,
Harley’s Corner should reconsider its pricing if it wants to improve future preferences.

 Promotion

 Harley’s Corner should put its resources to Social media in creating awareness (Promotion 2) as it is positively
impacting future preferences. As well as for Future preference ratings are going up by 0.153. This is 5x more
increase than the only other two attributes that have a positive impact.
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Thank YOU!!