A Case Study on Pitfalls in Branding of Boroline

Introduction

Boroline is the product of G.D Pharmaceuticals. It was founded by Mr. Gourmohan Dutta, an Indian merchant. It was launched in the year 1929 in Calcutta which is currently known as Kolkota. The name is derived from its ingredients ‘Boro’ from boric power which has antiseptic properties and ‘Oline’ derived from Latin word ‘oleum’, meaning oil. The journey of Boroline since 1929 has not been smooth. The brand almost faced extinction in the early 1990’s. It almost disappeared from the retail shelves for two years. But however when the brand returned to the market after two years the customers accepted it with open arms. This proved the good will of the brand. And the sales doubled that year. But with more competition in the market both by the domestic and Multinationals the brand might experience again the same scenario. The major competitors for Boroline are Boroplus from house of ‘Emami’ another major FMCG group of India.

In the present era the companies have a wide market spread across the geography of the world. This has resulted in vast opportunity to the organization as well as a treat because every organization would try to take the opportunity of the wide spread market. And this led to very stiff competition. Today’s market is inundated with hundreds and thousands of product providing wide range of choices to the consumer in such a scenario it becomes difficult to retain and attract the consumers unless the company has established a strong brand image in the minds of the consumers.

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA) (2007) defines brand as “ name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.” According to de Chernatony and McDonald (2003) “a successful brand as an identifiable product, service, person or place, augmented in such a way that a buyer or user perceives relevant and unique added values which match their needs more closely. Furthermore its success results from being able to sustain these added values in the face of competition”

Kotler (1991) defines a brand as “a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or combination of them which is intended to identify the goods and services of one seller and to differentiate them from those of competitors”. A brand is intended to persuade the consumer about the quality, reliability, social status, value or safety of a product (Bowbrick, 1992), and it indicates that all products carrying this brand have a common manufacturer, distributor, retailer or country of origin.

From the above definitions it can be understood that brand is any kind of identification which makes the company’s product and service different from the other companies. It’s how well the customer recognize a particular product or service and differentiate it from that its competitors. This helps the organisation to set apart from its competition. And the process involved in creating a unique identification is known a branding.

Hence is can be concluded brands enable the customers to remember a particular product and service which allows the organization to gain loyal customer base. A brand of a product or service conveys the message to customer and adds values and emotion to the customers.

The case study discusses about the concept of branding. Here, we discuss about the ‘Boroline’ and the way in which branding has helped ‘Boroline’ to survive in market.

Brand ‘Boroline’ has two major problems to take care of one is marketing channel and second retaining the customer loyalty in order to survive in the market. The case study would be dealt in four parts.

• 1.

  It would provide a detail background of the company.

• 2.

  Throw light on the brand value since 1929 to present days.

• 3.

  The challenges faced by the brand at the present stage.

• 4.

  Suggestion based on the literature.