Rin Detergent Lever's Marketing Planning and Implementation

RIN Detergent Lever's marketing planning and implementation from 1984 to 1988 was ad hoc at best. The company essentially marketed RIN by trial and error, relying on a number of assumptions rather than consumer research. When the company launched RIN it supported the product with a strong advertising campaign, but did not support the choice of pricing, package size and advertising with research. As a result, the thunder and lightning campaign proved relatively ineffective and the price/package combination did not appeal to consumers.

It does not appear that Lever fully understood what its target market would be. The company followed the launch with a number of different promotional programs, none of which was particularly successful. The company overestimated the price elasticity of demand, and failed to interpret this overestimation as a sign that consumers were avoiding RIN for reasons other than price. The movie star promotion proved the most successful of the marketing strategies during this period resulting in steadily increasing sales. However, these successes are being hampered by a few key factors.

The product may not be right -- the laundry soap industry is dominated by liquids in Pakistan. There are issues within the distribution chain in that merchants are not placing RIN with other laundry soaps. In addition, there is evidence that the company has never taken the time to understand its customers. It often tries to explain RIN in writing. The target market -- females -- has a literacy rate of 36%, meaning 2/3 of the target market is not receptive to written messages.

In addition, although Urdu and English are official languages in government and business, the poor education of women means that most women in Pakistan speak their local language only. Urdu is the local language of only 8% of Pakistanis. To reach the female audience would require promotion in Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Siraiki and other major local languages. I would have made a number of changes to the marketing of RIN during the 1984-1988 period. The first thing I would have done is taken the time to understand the target market better.

Lever does not appear to know how to reach its target market on even a basic level. I would have focused advertising strictly on television and radio and de-emphasized written explanations of the product's usage. I would have ensured that marketing was conducted in the local language rather than the official government and business languages. In addition, I would have taken steps to ensure that retailers were stocking RIN with other laundry soaps.

Another step I would have undertaken is that I would have done addition test marketing of the product prior to launch to better understand the sizes and prices that were going to appeal to the customer. If the launch was unsuccessful, I would have undertaken research to determine the causes of that failure, rather than simply making assumptions -- for example the assumption that the consumer was price sensitive, which clearly was not the case to the degree that Lever thought. Section 2.The recent survey results leave Mr.

Mustafa with a number of different alternatives. The first is to continue with the status quo. RIN is improving its sales steadily, even if there is confusion in the marketplace about how to use the product. The second option is to redouble efforts to convey to the market the proper usage of RIN. This option carries the risk of losing sales, but could spur laundry-related sales of the product. The third option is to consider these findings a market opportunity.

For example, RIN could introduce a brand extension -- an all-white bar of exactly the same composition called "RIN for Laundry." A fourth option is to fully reconsider the marketing of RIN as strictly a dish product. The ideal recommendation should deliver the prospect of improved sales, preferably at low risk to losing sales or experiencing cannibalization. The new strategy should also play to the competitive advantages that the firm has. These include a positive brand association with the matronly celebrity and a growing reputation as a good dishwashing detergent.

Each of these different options carries some risk. The status quo has been somewhat successful, but the RIN factory is still far below capacity. Thus, I recommend exploring the other options to drive growth. The second option runs the risk of costing the company customers. There is no evidence that consumers have been receptive to the idea of RIN as a laundry detergent, so losing dishwashing sales could harm the prospects for the company.

The fourth option, marketing RIN strictly as a dishwashing product, would play to the product's strengths, but it would also risk losing the portion of the market that uses RIN for laundry. Therefore, I recommend the third option, launching a brand extension of RIN for laundry. With a largely illiterate customer base, and based on the comparison with the Indian example, it would appear that the blue color is associated with dish detergent in Pakistan.

Waging an information campaign is unlikely to succeed with such a low literacy level and in any event this tactic could risk losing customers. A white-colored brand extension would require minimal changes to the production line, but it would allow RIN to gain placement in laundry sections of stores. The brand extension would also convey to the market that there are two valid uses for the product. Some consumers may even purchase both.

The new RIN would be priced in line with norms for laundry while the original RIN would be priced in line with norms for dish detergent. Along with this recommendation I also recommend that Lever undertake regular customer surveys. The RIN product has sputtered for most of its existence because of fundamental failures in understanding the target market. Indeed, the dishwashing issue also stems from the company relying on assumptions about market behavior (that it would mirror the experience in India) rather than knowledge about market behavior.

Lever needs to take the time to understand its target market, and understand how both consumers and retailers behave so that instead of ad hoc marketing decisions based on assumptions it can lay out a coherent marketing strategy based on knowledge. Section 3. The.