The Journey of SPARTANS……

Mahip Sharma

Vikram Gangulavoipalyam

Govind Menon

Ramkumar Ganesan

Initial Observation

• 2 products - Soft and Solo

• Based on our research, we decided to market Soft to the Savers segment

• Similarly, Solo appeared to be more attractive to Shoppers segment

• Saver’s and Shopper’s segment had the highest growth rates in the coming years

Decision Taken

• Targeted Soft for savers segment and Solo for shoppers segment

• Decreased price of both the products to meet the expectations

• Allocated sales force according to each product’s target market

• At the end of period 3, decided to phase out Soft and introduce a new product, Sobo, focused on meeting the needs of Savers segment

• Invested on research activity to launch a new product in the Vodite market

The Descent

• SPI decreased by 12% in the first 4 periods

• Revenues decreased by 42.25%

• Earnings decreased from $13 million to $7 million in 4 periods

• Market shares decreased to 7% for Solo and 3% for Sobo

Key Learning Points: Phase 1

• Invested on advertising and commercial teams without due diligence via market research reports such as experimentation

• Increased advertising budget in spite of commanding high brand awareness in the market

• Inadequate knowledge about market research reports available to us

• Should have invested more time and capital on exploring the feature provided by Markstrat simulation during the initial periods. It would have helped us in our future decision making

Corrective Action Taken

• Option of getting into Vodites was not feasible owing to lack of capital

• More focus on the product offering

• Repositioning Solo from shoppers to savers and Sobo from savers to shoppers

• Using experimentation to suitably balance our advertising and commercial team budget

Introspective Analysis

STRENGTH WEAKNESS

High brand awareness and intention to purchase by consumers

Skewed away from customer perception

Key characteristics of product was competitive in the market, such as battery and design

Base cost was too high in comparison to other products

Low inventory cost for Solo Advertising and marketing mix was not in proportion.

SOLO

Introspective Analysis

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

New product-launched matching the favored characteristics

Price was not competitive

Supported by huge advertisement budget and commercial team

Distribution strategy was poor

Launched for Savers segment- expected to be one of the fastest growing segment.

Key characteristics were not matching the customers’ perception

SOBO

Phase 2: The Ascent

• Consecutive periods of SPI increase

• Increase in revenue by 116% in 4 periods

• Increase in earnings from $ 8M to $28M in 4 periods

• Solo– Top selling brand by volume at the end of the period 8

Key Learning Points: Phase 2

• Once our brand is established, we employed downstream marketing activities to reach out to our customers

• Analyzed competition and developed strategies to face the products.

• Invested effort in successfully building brand with limited resources

• Due diligence via efficient usage of market research reports (MDS, Semantic scales, experimentation, etc…)

Introspective Analysis

STRENGTHS WEAKNESS

Expenditure on advertisement and commercial team was optimum

High base cost

Market capitalization in the savers’ segment

Few characteristics were not matching customers’ expectation

High brand contribution High inventory at the end of period 9

SOLO

Introspective Analysis

STRENGTHS WEAKNESS

Product characteristics matching customer expectations

High inventory cost

Efficient distribution system Low impact of advertisements and commercial teams

SOBO

SONITE MARKET ANALYSIS

• The Sonite product was expected to be highly economical

• Sonite products attracted Savers and Shoppers

• Highly competitive market, especially in the fast-growing segment of Shoppers and Savers

• Distribution strategy was very important for Sonites

• Brand Awareness was important to survive in the market

Thoughts for the Management:

• Solo has been a winner - Harness its market share domination.

• Online platform is an efficient distribution channel, which we have just entered.

• Focus on segments which are fast growing- Savers & Shoppers, which we are currently established in.

• Huge market scope for Vodite products

• Need for efficient inventory management system

Key Takeaways

• Minor Hiccups for Period 9

• Market research is critical to success

• Competitive data is critical for strategy building

• If provided with capital instruments we could have developed strategies for Vodite

• Hands-on experience in creating real time marketing strategy

Thank You!

Q & A