SOAP OPERAMarketing Management

Group- VII

BACKGROUND Sonia was a small soap like bar of gold. No frills, no coloured packaging, no fancy

shape, just a golden glow, the earthly fragrance of sesame and the Lucida font that quietly stated, 'Sonia‘.

Produced and marketed by Benito. Benito was basically a speciality products

company producing household hygiene, fabric care and dental care products.

The brand name Sonia denoted purity, reliability and gentle skin care.

FACTS Ashish Agarwal is a marketing manager for

Benito India. He found that the soap had been sold

consistently for 30 years as a premium soap and targeted only niche segment of market.

Indeed, for 30 long years no one had tampered with the Sonia brand. No marketing or brand repositioning was one to Sonia.

Sonia, in his view was a self-sustaining brand. It was advertised only moderately arid Benito

India had never used any promotional gimmick for it.

Ashish Agarwal

FACTS Benito UK decided to launch its 'Tia'

range of skin care products In India. Sonia's presence and profile stood as a

major roadblock to Tia's success in India. So the UK marketing head said to close it

down whereas Ashish Agarwal protested about the strong equity and loyal following of Sonia.

Sushant Vaid Managing Director was positive and wanted to extend the brand seeing other brands rising up.

Ashish Agarwal & Sushant Vaid – About Tia Range

As we understand Ashish Agarwal was keen on saving the brand

“Sonia” he was doubtful whether to revamp it by making changes in

product quality, to extend the brand equity, make it premium positioning, making it a youth brand, or dilution

of equity.

Core Of Case Study

NEW MARKETING PLAN 3 Steps Plan:

Step1• Original Sonia• Sonia-Y• Sonia-Baby• Soap Sizes• Buy2- 1 Free

Step2• Shower Gel• Face & Hand

Wash• Paper Soap• Wet Tissue• Shaving Cream/

Foam

Step3• Tia+Sonia Tie

Up Offer • Exclusive

Traveller Kit

3 STEP

S PLAN

STEP-1 Original Sonia: Keeping this product will retain the

old loyal customers that have strong equity. Keeping its valuable purity, credibility and reliability intact.

Sonia-Y: This is for Gen-Y segment i.e. the youth. As the core values of Sonia is preserve it will have its sesame oil but additionally with what youth believes which is cure of skin.

Sesame

Neem/ Tulsi/

Chandan/

Turmeric

Sonia-Y

STEP

(1)

Sonia-Baby: This is children & baby. As this is very limited market dominated by J&J we suggest to keep this on lowest priority in the list. Adding Milk/Almond to make it gentler for baby care.Sesam

eMilk/

Almond

Baby Sonia

New Soap Size:For Sonia & Sonia-Y: Soaps will be available Big, Medium & Small.For Baby Sonia: Medium Only.

Soni

a

Soni

aBig Soap

MRP 40It will compete against Super Premium

MediumSoapMRP25It will compete against Mid range

STEP

(1)

Initial Product Offers:Buying 2 Packs of Sonia (Original) – 1 Sonia-Y

Free.

STEP

(1)Soni

aBuy 2 Get 1 Free

Soni

aBuy 2 Get 1 Free

Soni

a-YFree

STEP-2New Line of products by Sonia (Sesame+): Shower Gel, Sensitive Facewash & Handwash, Paper Soap, Wet Tissue, Shaving Cream/Foam.This will improve product diversity, attractive packaging will be addon and this will avoid dilution risk. Targeted towards youth and middle age group.

New Ads Campaign: As the Sonia Brand is now into new products line it has to

revamp its image to youth with full fledge products of Shower Gel, Facewash, Paper Soap, Wet Tissue, Shaving Foam, Handwash.

Sample packets should be distributed with newpapers/ magazine, stores, super stores, etc.

STEP

(2)

STEP-3 After the success of Step 1&2, Sonia can be used as

advantage of new image of youth along with loyal customers.

Part1: TIA+SONIA Tie UpTia Skin Care Lotion (250ml) + Sonia-Y Soap (Small Size) FREE.

STEP

(3)

Tia ProductsSonia

Complementry Packets

Introductory Launch Offer

Part2: Exclusive TIA+SONIA Traveller Kit @ Discounted Price

It includes: Medium Soap Facewash Face Cream Body Lotion Shaving Foam Paper Soap Wet Tissue

STEP

(3)

Youth

Corporate

Frequent Flyers

Target MarketInformation of Traveller Kit is to be positioned to Frequent Flyers from

Airlines, A/C Rails &, A/C Bus Passengers, Online Travel Websites, only to executive

class travellers.

INFERENCE As we have derived 3 step new

marketing plan that will revamp the brand image which will attract youth and also keep loyal customers.

It will expand the product offering as well as keep the premium position of brand intact.

Sonia will not be hurdle in Tia’s entry but it will boost its sales because association with Sonia which is new youth accepted brand now.

Thank YouSr No

Group Members Names Roll No.

1 Vinay Jain 1052 Tushar Bhadalkar 1063 Nishad Vichare 1074 Sarthak Gupta 1085 Nikita Jain 1096 Aditya Jagtap 1107 Ketaki Kawale 111