1. poweRBiz- Strepsils Case
Study Event-2012
Team: MythPunks, IIM Kozhikode
Members
Anshul Kumar, anshulk15@iimk.ac.in, 8086087963
Mahesh Koppad, maheshk15@iimk.ac.in, 8943455233

2. Team: MythPunks, IIM Kozhikode: poweRBiz- Strepsils Case Study Event-2012
Page | 2
Situation Analysis
 Strepsils has a perception of a ‘sore throat expert’ in the market, yet is positioned at No.3 in
the market behind Vicks and Halls
 Strepsils is mostly confined to pharmacy stores due to its classification as a medicated
product. The ayurvedic version despite being launched for the non-pharmacy stores, still
sells 90% through the pharmacy stores only
 Convenience and easy availability of the brand drives the consumer’s purchase rather than
the expertise
 The present brand communication with the usage of character Mr.T lacks the consumer
connect
 Strepsils faces trade issues due to slow movement compared to its competitors. So the
retailers are not willing to stock it in bulk.
Industry Analysis
The Sore Throat Lozenges market in India is valued at INR 5200 Million. The market is growing at
an impressive rate of more than 15 percent rate. The market is dominated by 3 major brands:
Vicks, Halls and Strepsils. Their respective market share is shown below:
Key factors affecting consumer behavior in the market:
 Time and money: Lack of availability of time has increased OTC medicine to cater day to day
elements. People even opt for not approaching to doctor to reduce the cost of treatment.
 Belief: The belief in self medication has increased and people start treating minor elements
by themselves for major elements they go to doctor.

3. Team: MythPunks, IIM Kozhikode: poweRBiz- Strepsils Case Study Event-2012
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 Chemist: The importance of chemist has increased. For minor elements like cold, headache,
fever, pain etc they take the advice of chemist rather than going to doctor. In small town
chemist is treated just like doctor.
 Awareness: Increasing awareness among the consumer made them realize that some
medicines and health supplements must be available in the home all the time. Some of OTC
medicine has become part of grocery such as Vicks, cough syrup etc
 Lifestyle: Changing lifestyle lead to development of various lifestyle diseases for which
herbal medicine is best remedy. Due to urban lifestyle there is a large increase in need of
ayurvedic products and ingredients like ginger, mint, orange etc.
The pie chart below describes the behavior of consumer in case of ailments such as cold and sore
throat. Almost 44% of the consumers prefer the advice of a pharmacist than a doctor.
Competitive Landscape:
Product Strepsils Vicks Halls
Parent Company Reckitt Benckiser P&G Cadbury
Tagline Gala khol, khul ke bol Vicks ki goli lo, khich
khich door karo
Thandi saans ka blast
USP Sore throat expert Remedy against khich
khich
Ultimate cooling candy
Target group Urban middle class
adults
Urban middle class
adults
Urban middle class
adults

4. Team: MythPunks, IIM Kozhikode: poweRBiz- Strepsils Case Study Event-2012
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Point of sales Pharmacy (26%)
Non-pharmacy
Pharmacy (40%)
Non-pharmacy
Pharmacy (10%)
Non-pharmacy
Price Rs.2/pack Rs.1/pack Rs.0.50/pack
Availability 0.3 million outlets 1.4 million outlets 0.9 million outlets
Brand Association Map
The important insight from the Brand Association Map is the “expert” attribute attached with
Strepsils. The need for Strepsils is to position its brand around it to be an expert in the category
which people will look up to, something which the other brands in the competition are
comparatively incapable of
Major Influencers for brand awareness
As per the appendix given (table 3), the major sources of brand awareness are TV, Word of mouth by
retailer and Shop Display
Medium Strategy Suggested for medium (later)
TV Revised brand communication campaign
Word of mouth by retailer Push Strategy
Shop Display In store branding

5. Team: MythPunks, IIM Kozhikode: poweRBiz- Strepsils Case Study Event-2012
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Suggested Recommendations for Strepsils India
Creating a user pull by value addition
1) Re-characterize “Mr. T” as “Dr. T” in the promotional campaigns for Strepsils India
We would like Strepsils to be positioned as a complete solution to mild throat soreness; Dr T will
help leverage on that front. Rather than showing Mr T as a person who suffers from ailment, show
him as an ailment healer (Doctor) and change the tagline to “kharaab gale ka first-aid” in the
promotional campaigns targeted for the Indian audience
Reason for the strategy:
The present communication of Strepsils through Mr.T lacks consumer attachment. Mr.T has not
been able to establish itself as a strong brand cue.
 As per consumer insights, Mr.T is a likeable character who is associated with energetic,
optimistic, interesting, credible and helpful person. But customers do not have clear reasons
for its suitability
 There is a missing link between the character and the brand. The personality characters are
positive but lack distinctive
So we suggest that instead of portraying Mr.T as a person who suffers from sore throat, which is the
common theme among all major competitors where the main protagonist is a sufferer, position the
character as Dr. T who is an “advocate” of strepsils. Consumers will associate Strepsils’s Dr T as a “go
to” person whenever they have a throat ailment.
Right now Strepsils is positioned very closely to its major competitors so the customers do not see
an additional benefit to move to Strepsils and discontinue using the current product. There is no
additional value associated with Strepsils that can be good enough to trigger consumer switching or
trial. Dr T will act as a stimulus to drive that. We are informing the customers that Doctor T will
never let them move to the severe throat ailment stage (stage 2 as described below)

6. Team: MythPunks, IIM Kozhikode: poweRBiz- Strepsils Case Study Event-2012
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2) Reposition Strepsils as ‘’kharaab gale ka first-aid”- leveraging on the popular “expert”
brand attribute of Strepsils
The Brand Association Map suggests that Strepsils is considered to be an expert brand in the
category. Therefore “Doctor T” is a clue to reposition the brand as an expert (adviser) in the
category. We will reposition the brand as ‘’kharaab gale ka first-aid” depicting that Strepsils
is an expert/ First Aid for the unwell sore throat
Doctor Tips: Every Strepsil pack will carry a special “tip” telling how one can prevent throat ailments.
These tips will be specially placed inside the wrapper of each Strepsil
Eg: Doctor Tip: Drinking enough water is one of the best remedy for cold. Start your day by drinking
warm water in morning and avoid drinking tea or coffee
This will create an instant connection with the target as it involves “customer education”-which
serves as a value addition to the main offering
3) Value addition by online modes- Educating customers on symptoms of sore throat, cold and
other allergies associated with throat
2(a) Interactive website for Strepsils India where are customers are educated on different throat
allergies and ailments associated with throat. For ex. “3 ways to escape cold this flu season”
Stage 1: Presence of Doctor T: brand
awareness with an emotional connect and
eliminating the case where the customer
moves to the next stage
Stage 2: The customers are informed in the
previous stage itself that using Strepsils will
not let them move to this stage

7. Team: MythPunks, IIM Kozhikode: poweRBiz- Strepsils Case Study Event-2012
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Reason: First, education creates an incentive for customers to become more involved in the brand.
By increasing consumer awareness about a product, customers gain the ability to understand the
value it provides. By educating consumers about your brand and values, you are giving them the
opportunity to discover something they may not have realized they have a passion for.
Education leads to engagement. As customers learn more about Strepsils, they will start to demand
higher quality tiers, creative innovations and new ways to interact. While higher quality tiers
often lead to better margins, the greater value is derived from increased engagement, which often
leads to an increase in brand advocacy. Here Strepsils can actually continue charging the premium
(premium pricing) that it charges as the educational value that Strepsils would provide will
compensate for the premium charged
2 (b) Increase Facebook Presence: Right now Strepsils India has just 4 likes on its page. Considering
the fact that consumer interaction platform is now majorly shifting online, Strepsils need to increase
its facebook activity

8. Team: MythPunks, IIM Kozhikode: poweRBiz- Strepsils Case Study Event-2012
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Solution:
Stage 1
How to attract likes: Strepsils and Bhogle, “har match ki meethi awaaz, Harsha Bhogle ke andaaz”:
Sign Harsha Bhogle for exclusive match expert opinion for every India-Pakistan cricket match in the
upcoming Indo-Pak series exclusively for the Strepsils India facebook page. Strepsils India posts the
expert opinion of Harsha Bhogle after each match day. This attracts new targets to the page as well
as create interactive platform for the existing
Reason: Here “meethi awaaz” is associated with the commentator’s voice (Harsha Bhogle in our
case- we show Harsha’s voice to be a metaphor of Strepsils throat clearing capability)
Stage 2
“Dr T se pucho contest”- In the advertisement campaigns ask people to come to facebook and
comment on the thread related to “Dr T se pucho” where they are free to ask any one question
pertaining to throat ailment. The best question will be picked randomly and ‘exclusive’ strepsils
goodies will be given to the customer
Once the number of likes takes an upward curve, start increasing the number of contests for better
customer engagement. Also use the facebook platform to promote the Strepsils India website
4) PR Strategy
Tie- up with any famous Hindi TV channel for its singing competition(s) and run a PR campaign at the
site of registrations. Promote the product's soothing properties to a target market who are left
queuing for hours in the middle, and will be in no doubt desperate need to soothe their throats
before their one shot at glory.
Strepsils can secure a captivated, enthusiastic audience and raise their profile and brand recognition
in a consumer market which, traditionally, has been left out of the marketing drives of similar
brands. Extensive branding would ensure great coverage and awareness of the new Strepsils
branding, and promoters would in turn record fantastic feedback from the captive audience.
5) Increase product variants (only when other strategies take off)- Increase the number of
variants to create a pull

9. Team: MythPunks, IIM Kozhikode: poweRBiz- Strepsils Case Study Event-2012
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Push Strategy: Trade incentives
Major Issues:
A push promotional strategy involves taking the product directly to the customer via whatever
means to ensure the customer is aware of your brand at the point of purchase.
Push strategies generally appropriate for
 Product categories where there is low brand loyalty
 Where many acceptable substitutes are available in the market (Vicks and Halls in our case)
 When the brand choice is often made in response to displays in the stores,
 The product purchase is unplanned or on impulse
Solution:
Trade Discounts
Offer Discounts to retailers/grocery stores on ordering bulk quantities of Strepsils (based on the
number of jars ordered)
Benefit: Demand for strepsil jars at all seasons without worry of inventory pile up due to no demand
of the product
In-store Branding
Now a days in store branding is a key component in the brand promotion of a product as with stiff
competition among the main brands in market one has to be specialized in in-store branding i.e. how
one displays its products to the customer to create a brand exposure
Incentivise the grocery stores and retailers to put Strepsiles posters inside the premises of the shop
to create awareness and exposure for the brand. We suggest going for promotion at the line of
visibility of the customer
Product placement at the billing counters: Impulse buying for strepsils (as a candy) can be triggered
by putting the strepsil jars at the billing counters of the retail outlets and the grocery stores