'All Out' - Marketing a Mosquito Repellant

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Themes: Marketing Mix
Period : 1989-2003
Organization : Karamchand Appliances Private Limited
Pub Date : 2003
Countries : India
Industry : Home Appliances

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Case Code : MKTG060
Case Length : 9 Pages
Price: Rs. 300;

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Background Note Contd...

Other significant players emerged over the years, offering products in many segments: Bayer with the brands Baygon Spray, Baygon Power Mats and Baygon Knockout; Balsara Hygiene with a repellant cream, Odomos; and Tainwala Chemicals with the Casper brand of mats and coils. Besides these large players, a number of local brands were also available across the country.

In the latter half of the 1990s, the market became much more competitive, with the entry of GSLL², Reckitt & Coleman (R&C, now Reckitt Benckiser) and HLL. GSLL launched an array of brands (all coils) one after the other - Jet Fighter (1997), GoodKnight Jumbo (1999) and GoodKnight Instant, GoodKnight Smokeless and Jet Jumbo (2000).

The company's other brands included Banish (mats), Hit (aerosols), Hit Lines (chalks), Mosfree (lotion) and Hexit (spray). The Jet brand was extended to coils and sprays.

R&C also launched its range of mats and coils - Mortein, Mortein King and Mortein Red - while HLL launched Raid and Attack. These new entrants resorted to heavy advertising and aggressive sales promotion tactics.

GSLL soon emerged as the market leader in the mats segment with a 68% share in May 2000. R&C quickly became the second largest player in the coils segment, next only to Tortoise. (Refer Tables II & III).

While the other companies concentrated on the coils and mats markets, KAPL promoted the use of vaporizers. By the mid 1990s, vaporizers had attained a market share of 5 percent (Refer Table IV). This segment was almost completely dominated by KAPL, whose sales reached Rs 253 million in 1996-97.

GSLL could no longer ignore this growing segment and launched its own vaporizer under the GoodKnight brand in 1996-97. GoodKnight soon acquired a 40% market share of the vaporizer market. However, this did not affect the sales of KAPL, as the launch of GoodKnight had led to a growth in the overall size of the vaporizer market.

Instead of eating into All Out's sales, GSLL ended up expanding the market. However, GoodKnight could not sustain its success, and by 1999, the brand's market share had gone down to 21% - a major portion of the 19% loss being taken up by All Out. (Refer Table V). Although the initial success of All Out was largely due to technological innovation and first-mover advantages, it was widely believed that what had kept the brand going was strong marketing.

This was corroborated when KAPL's promoters Anil, Bimal and Naveen Arya were given the 'Marketing Persons of the Year' award at the 2000 A&M awards³. A&M described KAPL as a 'sterling example of enterprise' and a 'tale for budding entrepreneurs and marketers of the new millennium.'

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2] GSLL was incorporated in 1987 as Transelektra Domestic Products Private Limited. In 1994, India's leading business house, the Godrej Group acquired a 75% stake in the company, which was raised to 97.5% later on. In 1995, Sara Lee Mauritius Holding Limited (SLM), a Mauritius-based company, acquired a 40% stake in the company. The GoodKnight brand was acquired as a part of the Transelektra deal.
3] The A&M awards is an annual event that recognizes advertising and marketing excellence in India, conducted by the country's leading magazine, Advertising & Marketing (A&M). The awards are given based on the recommendations of a jury of eminent marketing professionals.