A CRITICAL STUDY AND ANALYSIS ON MARKETING CONCEPTS

FOR G.D.PHARMA FOR BOROLINE

Project Report Submitted to: CARDIFF METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY, UK

UNIVERSAL BUSINESS SCHOOL, Karjat

Name: Mohit Mohan Saxena

Course: CMBA 2Y2
Student ID: 20150357
Subject: Marketing Management
Module Leader: Professor Sushant Nanda

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 Table of contents

Sl. No. Contents Page No.

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1. Appraisal of the industry/About the company

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2. BOROLINE in India

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3. SWOT Analysis

7-8
5. Distribution channel structure

9-11
6. Product Strategy for BOROLINE

12-13
7. Pricing Strategy for BOROLINE

14-16
8. Promotion Strategy for BOROLINE

9. Conclusion 17

10. Bibliography 18

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 Appraisal of the Industry
The Indian FMCG sector is the fourth largest sector in the economy with a total
market size in excess of US$ 13.1 billion. The FMCG market is set to treble from
US$ 11.6 billion in 2003 to US$ 33.4 billion in 2015. Skin care products are one
of the key constituents of the FMCG sector. One of the major products under
skin care products are antiseptic creams. In India, the market size of the
antiseptic cream markets is approximately US$ 2.94 billion. The major players
in the antiseptic cream industry are Betadine Cream, Boroline, Boroplus, Vicco
Turmeric Cream, etc. With the growing market and many players, it becomes
essential for every organization to retain the brand that it has set in the
market. And every organization wants to take advantage the market and one
such organization is Boroline.

About the company

Pharmaceuticals is the happy outcome of the heady nationalistic wave that
had engulfed all Indians during the pre-independence era. Its founder,
Gourmohon Dutta, belonged to the rich merchant class of Calcutta. A practical
patriot, he was convinced that the best way to help India was to contribute to
her economic self-sufficiency. To actively do this, he decided to manufacture
product of a quality equivalent to their foreign counterparts. With a glorious
dream of free and self-sufficient India in his heart, he started manufacturing
medicines. One of them would be the legendary green tube-Boroline. It had a
humble beginning in his house in 1929.
The flagship product of GD Pharmaceuticals, Boroline soon became a bond
which united pre-independent India. For many years, the company had only
one product—the Boroline cream—and that was entirely by choice. After years
of consolidation, GD Pharma started to diversify again in the late 1990s with
the launch of Eleen hair oil, a product designed to cater to the West Bengal
market. But it was Suthol, an antiseptic skin liquid launched in 2003, which
raised the bar. With sales now growing at 20% year-on-year, Suthol
contributed about 30% of GD Pharma’s Rs150 crore revenue in 2015-16. The
company earned Rs28 crore in net profit, up from Rs25 crore the previous
year. Boroline still accounts for about 60% of GD Pharma’s revenue, but Suthol

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is growing faster. Both are produced at GDPharma’s 25-acre factory at Joka on
the outskirts of Kolkata.
Because their sales are seasonal—the cream sells more during the winter, and
Suthol, more during the summer—the same unit can easily balance the
production of the two different lines Products were always developed
internally and there was only one way to grow, organically, says Dutta. So,
even with Rs 110 crore in cash, this debt-free company is looking to push sales
only by expanding its distribution network and product innovations.

BOROLINE IN INDIA
Boroline has always had a strong market outside West Bengal. But previously,
say around 20 years ago, 60% of our revenue came from West Bengal. But now
at least 65% of our revenue comes from outside West Bengal. In the past 4-5
years, some states such as Maharashtra and Gujarat have done phenomenally
well for us. In Mumbai alone, for instance, we have some 45 distributors now,
up from just 10 six years ago. The market for our products is spread across the
country now, though there are still some states such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra
Pradesh and Telengana which are not doing as well as they should. In nearby
Kerala, we are doing very well. Also, in Tamil Nadu, we used to have a very
strong market previously—say in the 1970.

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 COMPETITORS ANALYSIS OF BOROLINE

The journey of Boroline since 1929 has not been smooth. The brand almost
faced extinction in the early 1990’s. It almost disappeared from the retail
shelves for two years. But however, when the brand returned to the market
after two years the customers accepted it with open arms. This proved the
good will of the brand. And the sales doubled that year. But with more
competition in the market both by the domestic and Multinationals the brand
might experience again the same scenario. The major competitors for Boroline
are Boroplus from house of ‘Emami’ another major FMCG group of India.
According to the 2016 data,

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 SWOT ANALYSIS OF BOROLINE

STRENGTH:
 Their products are their people as they say. They use natural ingredients in all their
products—nothing synthetic at all.
 Consistency in quality is so important to them that in the early 1990s—in 1998 or
1999—they had to suspend production of Boroline because their fragrance supplier
was not being able to supply ingredients of the same quality as it previously did.
They suffered an outage of at least three months before they could find a new
supplier who could produce the same fragrance.

WEAKNESSES:
 Outdated brand communication style.
 Lack of exposure in global marketing strategy
 Stiff competition from Emami’s Boroplus to Boroline and Savlon to Suthol
 Generation gap as youth is not attached to the brand.
 Not proactive distribution channel.
 Unattractive packaging.

OPPORTUNITIES:
 Boroline has a great scope of expanding its market share if it can face the
competition with Boroplus. Their brand image is above excellence.
 With great market reputation GD Pharmaceuticals can also take advantage on
Suthol, another leading product (competing with Dettol and Savlon).

THREATS:
 The product quality only cannot lead Boroline to its success as the Advertising and
Branding of Himani Boroplus duped the market of Boroline.
 Foreign products have more excellence in dealing with competition and thus they
become the biggest threat to the GD Pharmaceuticals.
 Completing losing the market share.

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 DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL STRUCTURE
Think about a distribution channel as one cut of the general advertising pie. It
is the manner by which an organization gets its items or administrations to the
buyers. A channel goes about as an essential piece of your private company's
general showcasing system and is one of the "Four Ps" of advertising - item,
advancement, cost and position, or dispersion. When leading a promoting
investigation, it is imperative to investigate this portion to guarantee that you
are utilizing the correct channels to get your item to your purchasers.
Distribution channels incorporate wholesalers, web-based business sites, index
deals, advisors, an immediate deal compel who offer via telephone, face to
face or both, merchants, home shopping systems and retailers. The
dissemination channel or channels chose can manage what whatever is left of
the showcasing technique would be, as they impact the purchaser specifically.
Promoting and other advertising strategies would then speak to the
purchaser's statistic. (Fontelera, 2018)

Fig: Types of Distribution Channel

Source: (VKBANDAR, 2016)

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 DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY OF BOROLINE

GD has established logistics, distribution and marketing infrastructure with

associates who have been working together for more than 30 years. It has
existing offices and ware housing facilities in 16 regional headquarters across
India. A list of tested and reliable transporters carries on supplies which are
meticulously insured. The Company specialized in Over The Counter (OTC)
Pharmaceutical products and Healthcare Cosmetics, catering the vast Indian
market through over 650 distribution channels situated throughout the
country. The vast and scattered infrastructural elements are supported and
monitored by a team of 90 trained, experienced and dedicated professionals.
The Company actively promotes using technology whenever it adds to increase
in efficiency and productivity. They have around 28 SKUs (stock keeping units)
now. They don’t sell all of them nationally.
The company had 3 lakhs distribution outlets (Super brand 2010). These
distribution outlets were very small in numbers in comparison to Boroplus 16
lakhs (Emami Annual Report 2010) distributors all across India.

SUGGESTIONS FOR DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL

It should do massive restructuring of its distribution network by following
Direct distribution. Direct distribution, as opposed to using distributors or
wholesalers, ensures both better quality and cross-selling opportunities for
consumer companies. It also helps in direct push of products across more
geographies, thereby increasing penetration, to reach out to more consumers
in the rural belt, they should focus on introducing and strengthening their
existing brands, which are available in smaller shelf keeping units. (Rakshit,
n.d.)

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 PRODUCT STRATEGY

The company has to match available resources and capabilities with the
market environment in which it evolves, in order to achieve the business goals.
The Product market strategy concerns the way how an organisation endeavour
to be focused in the market it chooses, regarding its objectives. Product
market strategy is a standout amongst the most critical marketing researchers.
(Alexandra Turlin, 2013)

Boroline antiseptic cream has come a long way since its launch in the pre-
Independence era, in 1929: the winter cream that hails from West Bengal has,
over the years, become a family brand trusted by generations. It has enjoyed a
long period of intense monopoly in East India, has survived stiff competition
from international brands and me-too, and been part of the Super brands India
list for 2003-05. All this has been accomplished with minimal alteration in its
look/packaging and a wholesale driven strategy for a long time. As GD
Pharmaceuticals' flagship brand completes 80 years this year, it seeks to
become more relevant to modern India by launching a trendier pack in
addition to its tube, strengthening nationwide distribution.
Boroline has a strong penetration in East Indian markets such as West Bengal,
Assam and Orissa. In its initial years, word of mouth is what made the brand
popular - of course, this was helped by the fact that back in 1929, it was
perhaps the only cream of its type available. In the 1950s, Boroline eyed its
communication in an organised way, with the strapline 'Tender Face Cream'.
With the emergence of aggressive competition (particularly sophisticated me-
too brands) in the '90s, Boroline asserted its position with 'The Original'

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 STP Model
SEGMENTATION:

Geographic Segmentation: Eastern region of the country-west Bengal, Orissa,

Arunachal Pradesh

Demographic Segmentation: 20- 70+ age group.

Behavioural Segmentation: Dividing the market according to knowledge and

attitude towards the product. The knowledge and attitude about skin care
cream were indifferent from people so boroline did not need any effort to
capture the market.

TARGETING:

Boroline targeted those groups which are more conscious about their skin and
were ready to adopt and new remedy form the old ayurvedic techniques.
Demographically, boroline targeted middle age group people.

POSITIONING:

Boroline targeted the product by keeping housewife into consideration.

The tagline of boroline was ‘the hard-working cream’ in context with the
amount of work housewife and mothers do.
Soon boroline was passed from generation to generation and it started
positioning itself as the household cream of India.

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SUGGESTIONS FOR PRODUCT STRATEGY
• Brand category extension: Category extensions happen when the parent
brand is used to enter a different product category (Kotler XII Edition). Boroline
can do brand category extension by introducing the talcum powder for
summers, face wash. This is required because the company does not have
product offering for its consumer in the summers. As per the study brand is
having strong presence in the Eastern part of the country. Since this part of the
country faces both extreme winters and summers so by introducing the
product for summers would be a hit. This can be gradually extended to
Northern, Southern and Western part of the country.
• Brand line extension: Line extensions happen when the brand launches the
new product in the same category targeting a new segment through new
flavours, added ingredients, package sizes etc. (Kotler XII Edition). Boroline can
extend the brand line extension by introducing boroline face cream, boroline
cream for foot, boroline body lotion for attracting the new target market. The
brand line extension would be able to attract the new customer as well as old
customers would not require much effort to be convinced to buy the new
product as they are already convinced by using the old product Boroline.
• Identifying neglected segments: Segmenting on the basis of demographic
variables and identifying neglected segments are thus one viable brand
revitalization option. Boroline has many neglected segments like they do not
have product for summers and products for various skin related problems.
•Balancing new and old target markets: Firms have multiple market segments
they can target to grow their sales. All firms face trade-offs in their marketing
efforts to attract new customers versus their efforts to retain existing ones.
Since the brand has been in the market for more than eighty years its target
market may be split into two groups based on the age. One target market may
be of the age 16-25 years and the other target market group of 35-45 years.
The brand has to come up with two different products for these different
target markets.

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 PRICING STRATEGY

Price is the esteem that is put to an item or service and is the consequence of a
mind-boggling set of counts, research and comprehension and hazard taking
capacity. An evaluating procedure considers sections, capacity to pay,
economic situations, contender activities, exchange edges and info costs,
among others. It is focused at the characterized clients and against
competitors.

Fig: Types of Pricing Strategy

Source:(Learn Marketing, 2018)
• Depiction: There are several pricing methodologies:
• Premium pricing: High price is utilized as a characterizing foundation.
• Penetration pricing: Price is set falsely low to pick up piece of the overall
industry rapidly. This is done when another item is being propelled.
• Economy pricing: Edges are skinny; overheads like promoting and
publicizing costs are low. Focuses on the mass market and high piece of the
overall industry.
• Skimming strategy: High price is charged for an item till such time as
competitor’s permit after which costs can be dropped. (The Economics Time)

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 PRICING STRATEGY OF BOROLINE

Pricing policies can make or break a company. Boroline owes its success also
because of its pricing policies which have helped the company to penetrate
both urban and rural market with equal success.
The company has launched its products in various quantity packs to make
them reach every section of society. It has adopted a reasonable pricing policy
which makes products affordable to general masses.

SUGGESTIONS FOR PRICING STRATEGY

Boroline antiseptic cream should follow a market penetration pricing strategy.
In other words, it should be the lowest price option for people when it comes
to skincare. Contrasting it with the fairness cream Fair and Lovely, we can
clearly note that Fair and Lovely costs 50% more than the Boroline.
When it comes to Boroplus, it should follow a competitive/reference pricing
strategy. Boroplus capture 74% market share.

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 PROMOTION STRATEGY
In marketing, promotion means any activity used to educate or induce target
groups of onlookers of the general benefits of an item, administration, brand
or issue. Promotion is additionally one of the components in the special blend
or limited time plan. Nowadays customers are always barraged with limited
time endeavours from a wide range of channels. Advertisers speak with their
crowd with the end goal to illuminate, instruct and induce them to buy their
item or administration. Considering that objective, there are a few distinctive
limited time vehicles advertisers can use to guarantee their message gets
crosswise over to the buyer, somehow. By and large, a multi-channel limited
time exertion is important to keep current in the psyches of purchasers.
• Utilizing Traditional Advertising
• Utilizing Online Advertising and Social Media
• Using Direct Mail
• Receiving Public Relations and Sponsorship
• Participating in Personal Selling

Source:(Ahmed, 2018)

Fig: Types of Promotional strategy

Source: (Bhasin, 2017)

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 PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY OF BOROLINE

Boroline's brand image is the brainchild of the founder's son, Murari Mohan
Dutta. A marketing genius, he pioneered marketing concepts that were
decades ahead of their times. In the late 1950s, when concepts like brand
image, rural marketing and event sponsorships were virtually unknown in the
Indian market, Boroline went ahead to explore all possible avenues of brand
building. Boroline took to the streets during festivals, cheered the players in
the grounds during cricket and football matches, and launched a blitz of
newspaper, magazine, radio and outdoor promotions. Boroline was
everywhere, with everyone. It simply became a part of people’s lives. Since
1982, every four years, Boroline has sponsored the Jawaharlal Nehru Invitation
International Football Gold Cup. In terms of image building Boroline has kept
pace with the times. The changing straplines reflect the course of promotional
platforms of Boroline through the decades.
In early 2000, the brand values were summed up with ‘Boroline in early 2000,
the brand values were summed up with ‘Boroline - works wonders. In the year
2010 the company had come up with new tag line ‘wake up to a happy skin
with BOROLINE’.
The chronological order for the advertising tag line has been given below:
1950- Tender face cream.
1960 – BOROLINE for the skin, skin needs BOROLINE.
1970 – BOROLINE has no substitute.
1980- The hard-working cream that protects your skin.
1990 -The original, BOROLINE skin healthy skin.
2000- WOW FACTOR!!!! BOROLINE works wonder.
2010 - Wake up to a happy skin with BOROLINE. (Krishna, 2011)

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SUGGESTIONS FOR PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY

• Multiple marketing communication programs: One approach to attracting a

new market segment for a brand while satisfying current segments is to create
separate advertising campaigns and communication programs for each
segment. The management can go for communication program via TV
advertisement, radio and print media. The communication program can be
done in a phased manner. The management can divide the country in four
zones and then launch the campaign as per the zone at different intervals.
• Associate the brand with relevant goals: If the revived brands relevant goal
is communicated clearly to its consumer it gives the consumer confidence and
reason for buying the brand. This in turn would not require much effort to
convenience the consumer for buying the brand.
• Alter packaging to influence usage: Studies have shown that Boroline
packaging is perceived to be old by its consumers. The management reasons
for not changing the packaging is that the product is used by the illiterate
consumer more and by altering the packaging it would be difficult for them to
find the product. First the outer packaging should be changed by using
different colour. They can make the logo bigger in the size to be more
prominent for the existing target market.

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 CONCLUSION

This study revealed some unknown facts about the brand like, it was
established in 1929 in Pre-Independence era. Brand is from Kolkata. Still the
brand had largest market share in the Eastern part of the country. No product
could beat the brands performance during the winter season. The GD
Pharmaceuticals should brace themselves for the stiff competition with their
stiff competition. They should understand the need of the hour and should
start to work on their promotional strategies as we shared.

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Bibliography
Anon., 2018. GD Pharmaceuticals. [Online]
Available at: http://www.boroline.com/about-us.html
[Accessed 12 11 2018].

Anon., n.d. [Online]

Available at: http://www.boroline.com/about-us.html
[Accessed 13 11 2018].

Krishna, R., 2011. STRATEGIES FOR CHOSEN MATURE. 30 04.

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