REPORT

Marketing Management

Case Study: Stanton Chemical Company

Group Number - 12

Section – MBA (A)

Submitted to - Dr. Smitha Nayak

Members

Wallace Fernandes 191202105

C.Ankitha Subbaiah 191202107

Vedansh Shrivastava 191202109

Sayuj Nandakumar 191202111

 Case Brief

In this case we talk about Stanton chemical company’s Laundry bleach “Clo white” it gained
quite a bit of success early on achieving a tremendous amount of sales which amounted to
Sales of almost 6 Million $ out of 130 million $ Industry Sales in 1975.

But their competitive advantage didn't last for long as another bleaching product called
“Snowy-white” came up with a stronger smelling bleach which attracted more and more
consumers towards it.

Due to this Stanton chemical company undertook a marketing research with 1000
homemakers asking them to rank pairs of leading regional brands in terms of their
perceived similarity. They were then asked the appropriate reason for their rankings.

The comments from the research after evaluation showed that consumers were not
educated about the product and just bought it either because it was the cheapest or
because it gave a strong smell. Which according to them indicates a better quality of bleach.

Due to this Stanton chemical company’s Vice president Mr Pearl suggested that the
company must advertise in order to educate the consumers by convincing them that strong
smell from the bleach doesn’t necessarily mean better quality.

Mr Lawrence the brand manager of the company suggested that instead of

advertising/educating the consumer the company must age their bleach in order for it to
give out a stronger smell which will suit the consumer’s expectation of a bleaching product.
 Questions

1.What Other Alternative Might Stanton Chemical Consider?

A substitute Alternative that Stanton chemical company can consider is to create awareness
among its existing consumers about the non-relevance of smell in contrast to the quality of
bleach, educating the existing market for the company can then help them to influence the
other unaware consumer market.

They can also have a O-T-J Training (On the job) which will help the employees of the
company better understand the product and convey it to the consumer market in a way that
they get convinced and influence others by word of mouth.

Samples of the bleaches can be given out as complementary to the consumer in newspapers
or give it as a gift with another product, and public demonstrations on how to use the product
and its effectiveness.

In today’s era Social media marketing will play a vital role in advertising the effectiveness
and receive appropriate feedback from the consumers. And conduct their further research on
the product accordingly.
2. What would be the short run vs long run effects of each strategy?

1. Short run Effects

● Build a brand image

● Give importance to consumer demand
● Increase in sales and revenue
● Improve customer relationships with the brand
● Gain a competitive advantage against other substitute products in the existing market

2. Long Run Effects

● Expansion to a new market (geographically)

● Increase in product line
● Establishing the product as the consumer’s product

3. How important is olfactory perception in the consumer’s evaluation of bleach and other
similar products? How easy (difficult) would it be for a company to “educate” consumers
about product characteristics that are contradictory to their own perception of the product?

When it comes to bleach or any other similar products such as Soaps, shampoo, hand wash
etc., consumer’s evaluate the products by smelling it (olfactory), the common mind-set for
consumers while buying a bleach is if it has a strong smell it might be effective, or in the case
of soaps if a soap gives out a good odour it is perceived that the soap is effective.
In today's modern market era Consumers have become more and more educated about the
product they indulge in and do a research analysis of the product.
But still some products fail to deliver their 100% to the consumers need as the consumer
himself is unaware of the product and thus doesn’t use it to its optimum, due to this many
companies have started educating their target consumer’s about the product.
Some companies find it easy as their consumers are somewhat aware about the product and
they can then influence the unaware consumer segment of that product.
While some companies fail to educate consumers about their own perception about the
product, the mistakes that they do is, either they make the advertising too complicated for the
consumer to interpret and understand or the product does not contain a proper instruction
manual, these companies must simplify their way of approach towards the consumer’s and
make them understand in a way that suits them best.

4. Is Mr. Lawrence’s suggestion unethical, or is he right giving consumer what they

“want”?

Mr. Lawrence is right to a certain extent as giving consumers what they “Want” isn't always
the right way to go about. they must first try to educate the consumer about the product and
how the smell of bleach doesn't determine its effectiveness, if after this there is a change in
consumer behaviour then well and good, if not then we must go about with the suggestion of
Mr. Lawrence which states that the company must age the bleach so that it starts giving out a
strong smell which is exactly what the consumer’s perception of a good and effective bleach
is. Thus the suggestion is not unethical to a certain extent.