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Executive summary

Strepsils is a line of lozenges manufactured by Reckitt Benckiser in Nottingham. It is part of the Boots Healthcare International brands and has been in production since 1958. The two main active ingredients are amyl metacresol and 2,4-dichlorobenzyl alcohols. These ingredients kill bacteria associated with mouth and throat infections due to its antiseptics characteristic. Through research, Strepsils has developed a whole range of products, which provide specific solutions for different type of sore throats. There are seven flavours which include Original, Honey & Lemon, Orange with Vitamin C and Sugar free which have provides effective and soothing relief for sore throats. It has a stronger effect for pain relief for sore throats. Our business management is to successfully market our product through intensive market segmentation to target to the masses of the age 10 to 60 of all the races. Our main consumers are those who consume Strepsils for throat care purposes as well as a candy. In addition, we can also target the younger children who do not like the strong cooling sensation by having new flavours incorporated so that they can consume it like a candy. Strepsils is still at the maturity phase of the product life cycle due to its popularity among the people. However, to prevent Strepsils from progressing into the decay phase, we recommend a few modifications. One of our modifications will include a line extension for younger children where lozenges are made into lollipops. The quality of the lozenges can be improved by investing in Research and Development to discover new and better active ingredients to effectively soothe throat problems. Based on our research, Strepsils remains to be the number one choice in terms of its quality, efficacy and product features. Strepsils currently has no known side effects compare to its other competitors. Strepsils use positioning strategy to plan their 1

marketing mix. This can be achieved with three important steps namely; identifying possible competitive advantages, selecting the right competitive advantage and communicating and delivering the chosen position. With this, Strepsils aims to be the number one brand that provides consumers superb quality and customer satisfaction in their products.

Product Description

Level of Product

Core Consumers purchase Strepsils for the main purpose of soothing their throat when they are down with sore throat and throat infection.

Basic & Expected product Firstly, Strepsils come in many types of flavours to suit the consumer taste. Each lozenge comes individually sealed for hygiene purposes. Each sealed lozenges is then packaged into an easy-to-open box. Secondly, the box is then designed to attract consumer with its unique red and white combination and embossed illustration of the lozenges. Finally, quality is assured by Boots Company. 2

Augmented product The manufacturer and importers address are printed on the box of Strepsils as well as an expiry date. This is part of Strepsils after-sales service where customers can enquire more of the product.

Product Attributes

Strepsils is of good quality as consumer can feel the effect of the lozenges on their throat. Instead of the medicine taste, Strepsils has the sweetness in it and can treat it like candy. Therefore, consumer who have phobia of eating medicine will not fear consuming Strepsils. Strepsils is one of the only brands that individually seal each lozenge so that every lozenges consumed is free of debris. A lozenge also comes in an eye-catching red, which grabs consumers attention and produce pleasing aesthetics. Strepsils comes in a box of 24 containing 2 sets of 12 allowing consumers to take desired amount out for consumption. Pocket-sized packaging allows consumers to easily carry it along with them.

Branding

Strepsils is a registered brand and has been identified by customers as a leading brand in throat care. Consumers would establish that Strepsils provides high quality lozenges due to its long-term existence in the consumer market. Therefore, it is perceived to be 3

reliable.

Line extension is part of Strepsils brand strategy. They extend their existing products into various flavours ranging from Menthol, Regular, Honey & lemon, Blackcurrant, sugarfree and, Orange and Vitamin C to target different types of consumers. For every different flavour, lozenges comes either in a box of 24 or a pocket-pack of 8.

Packaging & Labelling

Besides containing and protecting the lozenges, the packaging attracts customers with its red-white colour scheme, big bold fonts and clear concise information on how to administer the product. The packaging has an embossed illustration of how the lozenges would look like inside the packaging and also informs the consumers on the types of flavours they are buying (eg. Menthol, Regular). Important product information is also printed in three different languages (Chinese, Bahasa Melayu, and Tamil) besides English.

Product Support Services

Strepsils packaging contains a website (www.strepsils.com) where consumers can give their feedback on its current products. Strepsils can then alter and improve their current line to give greater customer satisfaction and higher net profits to the company. The regional manufacturers address and basic information is also printed on the packaging to allow customers to feedback on products performance (eg. Tempered seal, discolouration of lozenges).

Market Segmentation

Segmentation

Strepsils can be segmented into various consumer markets namely Psychographic, Geographical, Behavioral and Demographic.

Currently, Strepsils is focusing solely on Behavioral segmentation as the potential consumers and the current consumers seek the benefits that Strepsils provides. Being an established brand since 1958, consumers down with throat maladies will look for Strepsils line of products for effective and reliable throat care. In addition, Strepsils also doubles as a breath freshener and candy. Strepsils have two active ingredients that help soothe and kill bacteria residing in the throat. Strepsils comes in many variants that give consumers different added benefits (eg. VitC-100 prevents scurvy while Menthol provides a minty breath).

Strepsils targets everyone under Behavioral segmentation using mass marketing. Once in a while, people would be down with a sore throat. Strepsils will then tap into this huge market with their range of products as the peoples form of solution. Evidently, Strepsils are mostly sold at every pharmacy, convenient stores, and supermarkets. Strepsils is priced rather affordably and is consumable by all ages except for very young children. This shows that there is no segmentation as the same product is targeted and sold to all consumers.

Targeting

Through our brief analysis, Strepsils is known to target consumers aged 10 to 60. Children below 10 years of age are not advisable as they might choke on the lozenges due to its size. These children might also dislike the cooling sensation that Strepsils provide compared to competitor Ricola that does not have a cooling sensation. Elderly aged 60 and above are generally not targeted due to their traditionalist ways. These people often seek traditional methods for soothing their throat (eg. Nim Jom Pei Pa Kao). Therefore, the people aged 10 to 60 would be much preferred as they are mainly influenced by a more western form of throat remedy. Being more in tuned to western medicine; they tend to have a negative outlook on traditional remedies and tend to seek out scientifically proven cures and remedies found in western medicines.

Product Life Cycle Strategies

Product life cycle is an important concept in marketing that provides insights into a products competitive dynamics (Kotler,2007). There are four different stages namely Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline.

Presently, Strepsils is in maturity stage because the company has been in the market for half a century and it is not a market newcomer. Therefore, it can neither be in Introduction nor Growth stage. Furthermore, Strepsils is not in the decline stage because the product has achieved acceptance in the consumer market and is perceived as a reliable product. In addition, my team believes that the sales and profits of Strepsils are not deteriorating and are most 6

likely to be stable as seen in the diagram below.


Top of mind lozenges

13% 5% 3% Strepsils Ricola Vicks Fisherman's friend

79%

Strepsils dominance in the market shows that it is a stable company and will continue to dominate the market for some time.

Recommendations

Despite being in the stable phase, my team foresees that a few years down the road, Strepsils may have the possibility to gradually enter the decaying phase before reaching the decline stage if the company continues with its current marketing strategies. Therefore, my team would like to introduce and recommend a few modifications on improving the current market and its marketing mix.

Firstly, my team would like to help expand the current market by increasing the usage rate per user. This can be done by promoting Strepsils lozenges as prevention against sore throats on top of its core benefits.

Secondly, we would like to recommend slight modifications in product itself by changing

both the products quality and feature.

We can improve Strepsils product quality by investing in Research & Development (R&D) to produce a much better active ingredient that can help relive and soothe sore throats rapidly and efficiently.

We can also improve on Strepsils product features by catering to the children out in the market. We will modify the current lozenges and turn it into a lollipop so that children are able to suck on without choking. Therefore increasing the number of buyers and expanding our market.

Next, we can change the marketing mix of Strepsils by focusing on sales promotion for a period of time. We will implement an Even More for Same strategy by including 2 extra lozenges of different flavours into a regular/flavoured box of Strepsils.

Based on a brief survey on 60 people of all ages and race, the bar chart below illustrates the packaging designs of 4 different brands of lozenges that consumers are attracted to. Strepsils and Ricola came up tops but Ricola has a slight lead over Strepsils. Therefore we recommend having an improved packaging design for Strepsils so that it attracts consumers easily and maintaining its lead in the market.

The most attractive packaging design


30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Strepsils Ricola Vicks Fisherman's Friend

Our survey also shows that although consumers prefer using Strepsils, the majority thinks that Fisherman Friend is worth paying for in terms of efficacy and quality. Therefore we suggest that Strepsils should find ways to reduce operation cost yet not tarnishing the brands image and product quality.

Overall Positioning Strategy

For a company to be successful, its marketing department must plan their marketing mixes to help position their products to be of a level higher than that of competitors. This can be achieved with three important steps namely; identifying possible competitive advantages, selecting the right competitive advantage and communicating and delivering its chosen position.

Currently Strepsils can be seen to have the biggest share in the throat care industry based on our data collected over 60 respondents. Strepsils 79% dominance in the industry is 9

due to the various competitive advantages that will be discussed in the following paragraph.

For Strepsils, its competitive advantage would lie mainly on product differentiation. Strepsils is known to provide reliable and efficient relieve for throat maladies and without any adverse side effects compared to other brands. Brands like Ricola gives consumers laxative effect due to over consumption of its lozenges.

Strepsils can act as a candy due to its different flavours and can double as a throat care remedy vice versa. There are 7 different types of flavour including menthol, regular and honey lemon compared to other competitors brands like Ricola, Vicks and Fisherman Friend. Each of these competitors comes in 5, 3, 6 flavours respectively, fewer compared to Strepsils.

Strepsils has a simple packaging that secures and seals each individual lozenge. The box is design such as a way that consumer can open it easily and can close it back for storage purposes. As for Ricola, it is packaged in box but the lozenges are not packed individually. This might result in contamination of the lozenges when consumers do not keep it properly. Vicks lozenges are sealed individually in small wrapper and finally packaged into an external wrapper. Lastly, Fisherman Friends lozenges are not individually packed and packaging is easily torn. Thus, lozenges are constantly exposed to moisture, which may cause changes in overall appearance.

The pie chart below shows consumers opinions on brands that keep their lozenges fresh after the first opening.

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The brand that keep lozenges 'Fresh' after first opening

10% 17% Strepsils Ricola Vicks 10% 63% Fisherman's friend

It can be seen that Strepsils provides the best storage for each lozenges.

Pricing

Strepsils: $3.92 per box. $0.16 per lozenge Vicks: $1.70 per packet. $0.11 per lozenge Ricola: $3.01 per box. $0.167 per lozenge Fisherman Friend: $1.83 per packet. $0.08 per lozenge

From the data we collected, we conclude: PRICE More BENEFITS More Ricola The same Strepsils Less Vicks

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The same

Fishermans Friend

Less

In conclusion, Strepsils ultimately provide more benefits compared to the other competitors in terms of functionality, packaging design and flavour varieties.

Conclusion

We conclude that Strepsils has made its mark in the lozenges market. This is supported by the various data collected on 60 respondents. A majority of consumers have chosen Strepsils to be their number one brand for sore throat remedy in terms of hygiene and quality. Therefore, we believe that Strepsils is able to satisfy consumers needs and gain their trust and loyalty. However, Strepsils still have the potential to gain maximum competitive advantage in the Singapore market if they improve on a few aspects of their product (e.g. Packaging design, efficacy, line extension and cost). Soon, we believe that non-Strepsils consumers will consider buying Strepsils the next time they get a sore throat. Hence, Strepsils market will expand further more leading to higher net profits and also to maintain its pole position for a longer period of time.

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Analysis of Singapores Marketing Environment

Introduction

Recently in Singapore, there has been an increased interest in Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM). People of different races (Malays, Chinese, Indians, Eurasians) are looking towards traditional Chinese medicine as an alternative other than western medicines for therapeutic purposes. Therefore for Health Plus to successfully enter Singapore market, we have to look into the various aspects of the marketing environment.

Macroenvironment

Demographic Singapore is a multi-racial country and has a growing population of approximately 4 million people. Singapore is currently facing an ageing population due to the post war baby boom. With technological advances especially in the medical sector and together with healthy lifestyle campaigns organised by the government, people will tend to have longer lifespan.

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Forming the bulk of society is people of age 40 and above. These people especially the Chinese tend to be more traditionalist than their Generation X and Y counterparts. Therefore they would prefer the use of Traditional Chinese Herbs to cure ailments.

Economic Singapore is a developing country and it is economically stable, therefore foreign investors can safely invest in Singapores market. Nowadays, Singaporeans are highly educated hence they have greater knowledge of their health and wellbeing. Most of them also hold white-collar jobs that give them the spending power to splurge on health supplements. By introducing Health Plus to Singapore, Singaporeans might be keen to spend on Health Plus line of traditional Chinese health products.

Natural The Government collaborates with environmental agencies to help curb down on various pollutions. Singapore have long been implementing various strategies like monthly recycling programmes and its 3Rs campaign (reuse, reduce, and recycle). This shows that Singapore is a clean and green country that focuses on saving the environment. Companies would be very interested in setting up their base in an environmentally friendly country.

Technological To increase production efficiency, machineries are now made more sophisticated and advanced so companies are able to save time, manpower and create new products at a rapid pace. With state-of-the art technology, there will be no

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disruption of power supply therefore companies will put faith in Singapore. There will also be no disruption of production line. Health Plus revenue will not be disrupted.

Political Singapores government is politically stable. There are strict law enforcements and no corruptions. Singapore also has increased emphasis on ethical and socially responsible business legislation. Health Plus would thus want to set up their base here as there is no corruption within the government and the presence of agencies (CASE) that protects the companys well being. Legal Singapore has a legal administration called Centre for Drug Administration (CDA), which comes under the Health Science Authority (HSA). The CDA ensures that medicinal and health product in Singapore meet appropriate standards of safety, quality and efficacy by doing constant quality checks. In addition, the Central Chinese Proprietary Medicines Unit was set up to administer regulatory control on Chinese Proprietary Medicines (CPM). With a force out there to help control and protect the import of CPM, we can conclude that Singapore is very strict on faux companies that sell counterfeit products. Health Plus can assure the public that their products are of high quality and efficacy.

Cultural TCMs benefits have a positive influence and trust on the people. Religious matters will not affect Health Plus venture into Singapore because Traditional Chinese herbal health supplements do not contain any porcine or bovine origins. Therefore, Health Plus will not face any complaints from the various religious

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groups.

Integrated Marketing Communications

Targeting

After the analysis of the Macroenvironment, we decided to target everyone of all races and age including the older traditionalist and younger health-conscious people.

For the older generation, they were brought up using traditional Chinese medicine as a health remedy. These people would prefer this natural form of healing than Western form of medication. Forming the bulk of this group is mostly Chinese age 50 and above. They have been consuming TCM all their life and switching to a traditional herbal supplement either in a form of a tablet or capsule would appeal to them due to its time-saving capabilities as they need not boil herbs purchased from medical halls over a long period of time.

With the rise of many health problems (e.g. Cancer, Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disease), the younger generation are more into their health and well being. Together with an increased interest in Traditional Chinese Medicine, these young people are willing to explore different types of therapeutic methods of healing. To appeal more to these group of people, Health Plus could manufacture their supplement in the form of a tablet or capsule, which is an infusion of traditional and western technique. The younger crowd would then look towards Health Plus products as a traditional form of therapeutic remedy

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with a modern twist, making them less hesitant in purchasing it.

Positioning

Based on our brief research, there are many companies addressing the traditional Chinese herbal supplement market. For now, we will be focusing on sore throat relieving products.

The following is our analysis of each of our 2 competitors strength and weakness.

WIN BRAND WeiZiHuang Highly Concentrated Sore Throat Tablets

Pros: Screw on cap Tablets valid for 2 years In built seal for prolonged storage No known side effects

Cons: Confusing dosage instructions on packaging insert Packaging insert only comes in Mandrin and English Do not contain any contraindications warning

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NATURES GREEN Pearl Powder Sore Throat Tablet

Pros: GMP certified Longer shelf-life compared to WIN BRAND In-built seal for prolonged storage No known side effects Contains contraindications warning

Cons: Frequent dosage requirement

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For Health Plus to gain a competitive advantage among its competitors, we will focus on 3 major and 1 minor type of product advantage.

Innovative Product Container

Our survey shows that an innovative box would attract the young and old. Types of packaging preferred
30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Individually packed flip open caps screw on caps innovative box ( eg. Smith box) Series1

Therefore, our supplements will comes in a slim pocket-sized container that will dispense 1 supplement at a time. This makes it convenient for older folks as it can be popped directly into their mouth without handling it with their hands, which may be unhygienic. The slim feature of the container allows users to carry the supplements in their pockets wherever they may go.

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Mini Capsule

According to the survey conducted on 60 people, 38% preferred their health supplement to come in mini capsule form as shown in the pie chart below. Types of dosage forms preferred

19%

26% Tablet Capsule Mini capsule Liquid 17%

38%

Both competitors above use tablets as a dosage form. When swallowed with water, the tablets might dissolve at the back of the throat, leaving an unpleasant taste lingering behind. Therefore, we differentiate our product by introducing a capsule form. This will help aid swallowing of the supplement. We will also propose a mini capsule to fit into the product container and to prevent consumers from possibly choking on a normal sized tablet.

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Dosage strength Survey shows that consumer out there dislike taking many pills at once (in the case for traditional Chinese herbal health supplements), therefore prefer a stronger dosage that comes in a pill. Strength of dosage preferred

Less stronger dosage; few pills, twice a day

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Series1 Stronger dosage; one pill, twice a day

45

10

20

30

40

50

We recommend increasing the dosage strength of the mini capsule to a level whereby consumers only need to have an intake of 1-2 times a day. This will be beneficial for people with busy schedules and for elders who tend to have poor memory.

Lastly, we would also print the packaging insert containing product details in the four common language that Singaporeans use; namely English, Tamil, Malay and Mandarin. This small change would definitely be welcomed by the different races in Singapore. With this, the Malay and Indian community would be more receptive to Health Plus range of traditional Chinese health supplement.

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Marketing Communication Mix

To successfully promote Health Plus range of health supplements particularly on sore throat remedy, we will focus on Advertising, Sales promotion and Public relations.

Firstly, we would invest heavily on advertising by doing Print, Sound and Moving images.

Print Newspaper: The Straits Times (Mind Your Body) Lian He Wan Bao Berita Harian Tamil Murasu

Others: Posters along bus stops MRT stations dotted around Singapore In-train panels

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With newspaper advertising, we will try to tap into this large homogenous pool of consumers to Health Plus range of products. This will be one of the major forms of communication between our products and our target consumers.

By placing our print advert along the various public transportation routes, we will be able to attract attention to the various races from all walks of life due to the high traffic of people commuting to and fro from work via MRT and buses.

Moving Images Advertisements on television

For TV advertisement, our 30 to 60 second advertisement will be broadcast once between 7pm to 12am where it can target the masses effectively, as most of the people will be at home.

Sound Radio station (97.2FM)

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We will allocate a 30 second voice clip advertisement between 10am to 2pm. This is the timeslot where the famous DJ Dong Fang Billy is hosting his programme, which talks about health and well being in general. By slotting our sound advertisement in his timeslot, we are able to target a large group of middle-aged health-conscious Chinese women from Singapore and even Johor Bahru. This would indirectly allow Health Plus to tap into a small Malaysian market.

The table below lists down the costs for the advertising campaign.

ADVERTISING

Price (Singapore dollars)

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Print Sound Radio $48 000 Mind Your Body Full page coloured (8 weeks) Lian He Wan Bao Half page black and white (8 weeks) Berita Harian Quarter page black and white (8 weeks) Tamil Murasu Quarter page black and white (8 weeks) SMRT 4 sheets half weight 50 panels 4 sheets full weight 100 panels In train panels -whole train 102 panels $133 000 $143 000 $17 600

$41 000

$23 000

Love 97.2FM Moving Images Television Mediacorp Channel 5 Mediacorp Channel 8 TOTAL

$ 642 000 $1 047 600

So with advertising, the mass public will have an increased awareness of Health Pluss range of traditional Chinese health supplement and will look towards it as an alternative remedy for sore throat problems.

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Secondly, we would use a sales promotion tactic of giving out free supplement refills together with the product as part of Health Plus launch. This is to generate a buzz towards this new product and gather awareness. After using the product on a small scale, consumers will adopt the product if they find it effective.

Lastly, we would employ public relations as a small part of our promotion mix. Occasionally, we propose to organise seminar to be conducted by Health Pluss researcher from Taiwan to introduce and talk about the therapeutic benefits Health Pluss range of products can offer to the Singaporean public. This seminar can be attended by majority of the public and even TCM doctors to help gain overall product awareness. We estimate that this would set Health Plus back by around $140 000.

Promotion tools like Personal selling and direct marketing are not touched on because it is not able to bring the message across effectively to consumers as the three other promotion tools mentioned above. In personal selling, Health Plus will spend a lot of money on sales team to go around Chinese medical halls to give presentations. Although this method allows for more intimate relationship with customers, it is not effective in reaching out to a wide range of consumers. In direct marketing, it is ineffective due to its large amount of money being invested in printing out leaflets, brochures and pamphlets etc, which will contribute to large amount of paper waste.

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Conclusion

After analysing the market, we conclude that Singapore is the ideal country for Health Plus first venture outside its country. This is due to the fact that Singapore has a politically stable climate and a fast growing economy. Furthermore, Singapore is a multiracial country with a large majority of Chinese. Health Plus can be assured that its range of products will be widely accepted by all. This large population only consist of the older folks whereas the younger generation are more into Western forms of health supplements. However with the increasing awareness to traditional Chinese herbal health supplements, we will implement our promotional mix tools to target both the young and old of all races. With that, we are confident that Health Plus can successfully promote its range of products (e.g. Sore throat) to the masses.

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REFERENCES Part 1

Armstrong, G. Kotler, P. (2007) Marketing: An Introduction 8th edition. Upper saddle, N.J. : Pearson/ Prentice Hall, 2007.

www.strepsils.com www.about.com www.dynotech.com/reports/attitude.htm

Part 2

Armstrong, G. Kotler, P. (2007) Marketing: An Introduction 8th edition. Upper saddle, N.J. : Pearson/ Prentice Hall, 2007.

www.jcdecaux.com.sg/ www.sph.com.sg/aboutus/sph_story.html www.mediacorp.com.sg/ www.smrt.com.sg/ www.writinghelp-central.com/business-reports.html www.brl.org/transcribers/session04/acknowlex.html

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www.about.com www.2.cs.fsu.edu/~manzano/Design/advertisement.html http://www.advertisingarchives.co.uk www.hsa.gov.sg

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