Sibhansh Hastey

3318
MAYADERM CASE

The case prepared by Prof. Mukund Dixit, on Dr. Shahs product - Mayaderm
analyses various aspects and issues faced by Dr. Shah in trying to make the product a
commercial success. Finally the product did not perform as per the expectations in the market
and had to be closed down.
In 1978, even though the people at that time were reluctant to use herbal medicines,
Dr. Shah had a breakthrough when Dr. Vasavada suggested a boy to use Mayaderm and the
results were really good. But after this, Dr. Shah had almost a gap of 19 years i.e. in 1997 to
realise to make the product on a large scale. This big gap meant a loss of product placement
and marketing. Had he realised this earlier, it would have helped Mayaderm to be in market
early on and rise ahead of competitors. The main issue was that no manufacturer was ready to
work on a new product which had a limited audience and uncertain demand. Manufacturers
prefer clients with huge and consistent orders. This delayed Mayaderms entry in market.
Also, after Tuton Pharmaceuticals agreed on making the product, Dr. Shah recruited
15 medical representatives and area managers to promote the product in Gujrat. Even though
the product gained publicity, all the representatives and managers resigned from company
with reasons unknown to Dr. Shah in 2001. After this loss, he depended on word of mouth
publicity which is not a good way of marketing as it is slow. Had he recruited new
representatives in his company, publicity and marketing would have started again with a good
pace and gained substantial momentum.
With time, other doctors started to prescribe Mayaderm for various skin related
ailments with ineffective prevailing treatment and the results were positive. Dr. Shah could
have used this opportunity to publicise the product as a wide range special purpose cream
which could treat a number of skin related ailments so that the target audience for the product
is increased. With increase in target audience for product, it serves as increase in popularity
and Mayaderm may have gained substantial market.
Various doctors suggested their patients to use mayaderm for their problems, but
when they went to the shop to get the cream, many had the issue of being out of stock. The
marketing firm was not keeping a check on stocks at various places. Had the firm kept a track
of stock in various of the shops, patients would have been benifited from the cream and it
would have served as word to mouth publicity. Lack of proper stockist caused this issues.
Moreover, Dr. Shah conducted various tests for the safety and wound healing property
of the cream and were deamed for safe to use. This test results could have been used to gain
popularity as being passed a certain standards and being safe to use without side effects.
Now, when Dr. Shah entered the market, many big companies had released their
versions of skin cream such as Boroline by G D Pharmaceuticals and Vicco by Vicco
laboratories. Even though Mayaderm has unique qualities and healing properties which could
heal many burns and cuts and wounds, it was not able to get popular in the market. This is

mainly due to lack of proper marketing of the product. In early times, marketing was done
improper manner because of which mayaderm entered the market late. By that time, many
big companies had their products well established in the national market. Dr. Shah had
mainly focused in marketing in local areas and Gujrat. Giving this task to a major firm and
publicizing the product on the national scale may have given mayaderm a substantial market
from the beginning.
When non exclusive marketing rights of mayaderm were given to Atra
Pharmaceuticals to promote. For promotion in national scale, the price was also increased by
71.4% from 70/- to 120/-. This price increase affected negatively on product in local scale.
Also instead of promoting the product, they focused on other tasks and products which lead
to downfall of Mayaderm.
Now, Dr. Shah should sell the rights to some big company or just wait for the patent
to be expired. As the main goal was to benefit the people, giving it to a big company and
launching by a brand name would serve its purpose.