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Topic: Marketing Strategy of Freedomx Sanitary Napkin by ACI

Subject: Marketing Management

Submitting to
MD. Kashedul Wahab Tuhin
Associate Professor

Submitted by
Nishat Siyara
ID:18241029

Submitted on : 30th October, 2020

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Letter of Transmittal

September 29, 2020

To

MD. Kashedul Wahab tuhin

Associate Professor

Subject: Submission of Term Paper.

Respected Sir ,

It gave me immense pleasure in presenting this term paper, which was assigned to
us in the “ Marketing Management ” course of the BBA in Management program.
In this paper, we have tried our level best to portray the scenario of the Lehman
Brother Bankruptcy and how it impacted individual wealth.

I consider myself very privileged to prepare this paper under your guidance. This has
been an enormous opportunity for me to learn about this sector. It has provided me
with a great scope of applying the gathered knowledge in the practical field. I must
mention here that we are extremely thankful to you for your valuable guidance,
tiresome effort, and constant attention whenever required.

I will be pleased to answer any sort of query you think is necessary, as now and
when needed. I would like to draw attention, particularly on the matter that there is
always a space for clarification of any relevant topic. I will be available for any sort
of discussion.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Nishat Siyara-18241029

Section: A
BBA (Management)
Faculty of Business Studies,
Bangladesh University of Professionals

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Executive Summary

There has always been taboo surrounding menstrual hygiene but recently women are being more
aware and it is an advantage to launch a new sanitary napkin to capture the untapped market and
increase our market share. According to a survey done by BRAC students women are now aware
of the quality of sanitary napkins and will choose products having more value proposition.
Keeping this in mind , Freedomx is being launched in three packaging regular , heavy and
freedomx ultra to cater the needs of women in day to day life during menstruation There 19 more
brands offering sanitary napkin but the point of difference of freedomx is the new design and the
new features which will increase the comfort of women and decrease the usual complaints about
sanitary napkins. Leveraging the brand image and market share the new product can easily hold a
stable place and build a pool of loyal customers. Using technology and existing communication
streams ACI can successfully launch and have a good profit from the product crossing the break-
even point. The new Sanitary Napkin has a great prospect in the market and can easily beat it's
competitor whisper of Unilever.

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Table of Content

Executive Summary 3

Chapter 1 : Situation Analysis 5

Chapter 2 : Market Opportunity and Issues 7

Chapter 3. Objectives 9

Chapter 4 :Marketing strategy 10

Chapter 5 .Target Markets: 11

Chapter 6. Positioning 12

Chapter 7. Marketing Mix 13

Chapter 8 Marketing Research 15

Chapter 9. Financial Projections 16

Chapter 10. Reviews and Control: 18

Conclusion 19

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Chapter 1 : Situation Analysis

In the past decade and half , the market of sanitary napkins grew very fast . Total sales of all
sanitary napkins from different brands is around 25 core. Like ACI freedom there are 19 other
local brands of sanitary napkin. Around 80%of the females using sanitary napkins, prefer from
the local market. The market penetration of sanitary napkins is around 15%. It is hard because
the cost of a sanitary napkin is very high. On the other hand there is a culture of using unhygienic
means during periods in our country. In supershops the consumers have to pay a vat for which
the price becomes higher. The imported sanitary napkins are very costly. There are many
competitors of freedom in the market currently such as whisper , stayfree , senora , monalisa,
joya , smile , cottex , nirapad , softex and mondex , rose and grameen softly. The consumer of
sanitary napkins mostly comes from city areas and in rural areas the practice of using sanitary
napkins is seen rarely. According to research made by a BRAC student , 90 percent of the
women he surveyed preferred the quality of the sanitary napkin. The macro environment for this
product is influenced by geographical , cultural and economic forces. As the consumers from
rural areas are blinded by culture and tend to use unhygienic methods rather than using pads also
the cost of the pads plays a role in buying .
Customers:Bangladesh is a developing country which is overpopulated and half of the
population is women.The main customer base for sanitary napkin is teenage girls to women of
age 60 who goes through menstruation . IT is a product mostly seeked by women in urban
areas.

Competitors: The home brands that currently seizes more than 80% of the total market share
include

● Whisper
● Smile
● Cottex
● Rose
● Nirapad
● Senora,
● Onalisa
● Modex
● Softe
● joya and many more.
The price range of sanitary napkins varies from brand to brand . The current price range
is 30-350 tk .
Company: One of the leading conglomerates in Bangladesh is Advanced Chemical Industries
(ACI) Limited, with Multinational ancestry. The organization has split into three core strategic
business units ( SBU's),Pharmaceutical or healthcare , consumer brands and agricultural
enterprises. ACI, however, has Some joint ventures have been successfully conducted to
maximize their business growth benefits. Some of the ones ACI Godrej Agrovet private limited,
Tetley ACI (Bangladesh) cap, these effective joint ventures.

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Context: ACI introduced Freedom sanitary napkin under the Female Hygiene Group of
Consumer Brands in 2008 in order to guarantee good female hygiene practice among
Bangladeshi women. The customer still trusts ACI for its outstanding product supremacy. Due to
the product supremacy of the Freedom Sanitary napkin, customer confidence has further
improved. Savlon Freedom is a Sanitary Napkin universal standard made using the latest
technologies in the world. We maintain a clean and stable atmosphere.

The Market: The market penetration is very low and difficult mainly due to the socio-cultural
reasons. It is competitive to capture the urban market due to the availability of number of local
products and rural market is indifferent about this product. We need to find the latent needs and
fulfill the latent demands. Given the health risks associated with unhygienic times, the
penetration rate of sanitary napkins in Bangladesh is very small, at around 14%. In most women,
unhygienic cottons and clothing are still used throughout Time. As a consequence, 92% of
women suffer from urinary tract infections that can lead to miscarriage and miscarriage cancer of
the cervix. The high price of sanitary napkins is the primary factor behind this poor penetration
rate.

Market Needs: The prime market needs of the sanitary napkin are

● Good absorption
● Flexibility of the gum used
● Organic
● Maintaining healthy guidelines
● Long and extra coverage
● Extra long pads
● Thin but extra liquid absorbent
● Soft and smooth surface
● Organic
● No harmful gel used
● Extra wide
● Good surface
● Flexible
● Attractive packaging

Economy:
Bangladesh 's economy is a market economy which is evolving. In nominal terms, it is
the 35th largest in the world and 30th largest by purchasing power parity; it is ranked
among the middle income economies and a frontier economy of the Next Eleven

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developing market.The economy of women is not good enough .Number of working

women is increasing recently which is a good trend and the economy can shift to a
better condition in future.

Government:

The government has some regulations in this product. Although sanitary napkins are not
a luxury product. VAT has to be given to the government for this product which
discourages a lot of women to not use this product.

Legal :

In the face of strong opposition from the business community and women’s’ rights
group, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has exempted supplementary duty (SD)
on raw-material imports of sanitary napkins and diapers to protect the local
industries.June 30, the VAT wing of the NBR issued a statutory regulatory order (SRO)
scraping the supplementary duty (SD) on imports of raw materials for sanitary napkins.
It would remain effective for two years up to June 30, 2021.(daily star)

Technology: New technology are being used in everything Industry. We can see industries
importing new machines and technology and adapting. We can import new machines and adapt
to new technology to have efficient and safe production of our sanitary napkin to add new
features.

Socio-cultural: In our Country , the women in rural areas are still lagging behind and use
unhealthy means during periods. They use cloth and are not very open about using modern pads
which are healthy for them. That is why it is harder to penetrate the market.

Chapter 2 : Market Opportunity and Issues

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

● Good brand image

● Good market share
● Renowned company and trustable

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● Loyal customer base

● Experience management
● Experienced executives
● Established market
● Sustainable finance
● Great packaging
● Lower price than competitors
● Mass availability
● Established distributors
● Have proper knowledge about the market

Weaknesses:
● Hard to capture the rural market
● Socio-cultural boundaries
● Economic boundaries

Opportunities:

● The demand of this product is rising

● Experienced employees
● Advancement of technologies
● Developed communication channel.
● Company has a lot of proper channels to deliver the product.

Threats:
● Customer base having misconception
● Period is a taboo in bangladesh
● Men and women in the country are indifferent to this topic
● Religious extremist having strong opposition for the promotion
● Social stigma around the product
●

Competitors Strength:

● Established brand image such as freedom and other ACI

Product
● Product supply- the competitor’s product supply is very larger than My product.
● The price is set affordable and provides lucrative offers

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Competitors Weakness:

● Expensive
● Size issues
● Gum issues
● Availability issues
● Flexibility issues
● Imported

Points of Difference: The new features makes our new sanitary napkin different such as

1. The size
2. The absorption quality
3. The width
4. The glue quality
5. Flexibility

Competitive Advantage: ACI Is a renowned local company offering sanitary Product. It offers a cheap
rate with higher quality and new features than the competitors. The biggest competitor whisper is
imported and expensive.

Chapter 3. Objectives

Marketing objectives: To raise awareness about menstrual hygiene and capture the rural market
which has low penetration rate . Become the number one sanitary napkin in Bangladesh. Increase
the current market share and grow the number of loyal customers.

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Financial objectives: To reach break-even within 6 months of launching the product and make
sustainable profit after the 6 months. Become number one in the market of sanitary napkin and
eventually have profit of more than 2 lakh per month after the 6 months trial period.

Chapter 4 :Marketing strategy

Mission: The mission is to tap the untapped markets and raise awareness to rural women to use
freedom to maintain more hygiene during periods and prevent their health from the diseases that
occur when unhygienic means are used during periods. The marketing objective is to increase the
current market share and financial objective is to generate more revenue and sales. In order to
capture the rural market , the cost of the sanitary pads need to be minimized and for that the
production cost has to be modified so that the profit margin is not minimized. The cost of buying
the raw materials and manufacturing cost needs to be reduced ensuring the safety of the product
as well. Freedom has 19 competitors and the biggest competitor is unilever’s whisper. As the
price of competitors is high, offering a lower price and better value will help to capture the urban
areas. Special marketing strategies need to be applied in rural areas to raise awareness to use
sanitary napkins and capture the untapped market in the rural area.The availability of the pads
also need to be ensured by partnering with local general stores so that the strategies work . The
lower price and new features added will work as a compettive advantage for freedom pad.

Marketing Objectives: The main marketing objectives are

● Raise awareness about menstrual hygiene

● Create Brand awarenesses
● Increase Brand Exposure
● Tap the untapped market.

Financial objectives: The product will have three types of packets. The sizes of the
packets are small, medium and large. The main objective is to reach the break even
point within 6 months and after than get good profit margin.

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My main factors will help us decide what to charge for My product or service:

1) My fixed and variable costs;

2) To make a substantial profit.

3) Our market research data on competitors’ prices;

4) To reach the breakeven point within 6 months

Chapter 5 .Target Markets:

Teenage girls to Women of age upto 60 years having regular period.

Target Market Segments: We have targeted the entire sanitary napkin freedomx market based
on the geographic segmentation, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral factors. We
segmented My market on the basis of following categories

Geographic:

● Women in Urban areas

● Women in Rural Areas

Demographic:

● Teenage girls
● Generation x girls
● Generation y girls
● Generation z girls

Psychographic:

● Women aware of menstrual hygiene

● Women looking for cheap and healthy absorbent item
● Working women
● Active women
● Teenage girls in the process of getting aware of menstrual hygiene
● Women not aware of menstrual hygiene

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● Girls and Women blinded by social taboo

● Women using cheap and unhealthy sanitary napkins

Behavioral:

● Seeking better quality

● Seeking flexible product
● Seeking flexible size
● Seeking organic product
● Seeking environment friendly products
● Seeking hygienic and less chemical materials

Chapter 6. Positioning
Market positioning requires the determination of a frame of reference- by
identifying the target market and the nature of the competition and the ideal points-
of-parity and points-of- difference brand association. We will always try to position
My product through-

● Image differentiation
● By related marketing and
● Superior Communicable
● Product differentiation.

We will use logos and short advertisements so that people can consistently see the
advertisement so the product will occupy a clear, distinctive, and desirable place in
the mind of the consumer relative to competitors’ product. Dewan Group Ltd. will
use USP (Unique Selling Proposition) for products. To do brand differences that
make a better differentiation or that has thepotential to create company costs as well
as customer benefits. A difference is worth establishing to the extent that it satisfies
the following criteria.

● Affordable
● Flexible
● Available

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● Superior
● Comfortable
● Satisfiable

Chapter 7. Marketing Mix

Product: The product will be having new features and an attractive packaging. The new features are

- Better absorption capacity

- Flexibility
- Wider size
- Longer size
- Better coverage
- Better glue quality

Price:

Price is the amount of money customer wish to pay to obtain the product..Necessary strategies
pertain to the locations of customer price flexibility related item within a product line and terms
of sale. Here, they can set maximum Tk.100 for small and TK 190 large packet. Pricing policy
for its product due to the following reasons:

Ø Distinctive Packaging

Ø Brand Name

Ø Cost of raw materials

Discounts, allowances and payment period will be reasonable for customers.

Product Package size Price to Retailer Selling Price

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Freedomx Regular 10 90 100

flow wings

Freedomx heavy 20 180 190

flow wings

Freedomx ultra 10 95 105

Place: The product will be highly available in most of the general stores and super market. It'll be
marketed in special women empowerment events.

Promotion: The product will have aggressive promotion.Several marketing tactics can be applied
to get ahead of the competitors and increase the market share and generate more sales. The
purpose of the marketing is to raise awareness about using pads to maintain hygiene and make
freedom the priority of the customers.

● There are many billboards established in many important locations in Dhaka.so freedom
can be displayed in prime locations.
● Arrange a small fair to raise awareness about period hygiene and offer special discounts
in the fair. .
● Get booths in top public and private universities and offer to buy one, get one and arrange
games to win one unit of pad.
● In the activation program, Freedom is offering 10% discounts to the female students for
each products. They are also giving a Savlon bar soap for each unit of Savlon Freedom.
● In the display program, if a retailer display Savlon freedom to their shop according to the
company demand for 3 months, retailers can have free products. But the amount of free
products depend on company policies and some rules and regulations based on the
purchased amount.
● Women empowerment fair can be arranged in rural areas and each stall can be given pads
to display for promotion
● Advertisement: New TVC will be launched to make women aware of using Sanitary Napkin and
why they will be benefited for using the new Sanitary Napkin. SEO and keyword will be used for
marketing. The TVC will be shown in YouTube and apps.

● Public Relation: The Freedomx will be sponsoring heated movements like ‘rage against rape’ to
have strong brand image and get bigger market share. To increase the credibility of the market.

Distribution & Retailer We will use both direct and indirect channels for our product. In the indirect
channel we will target retailers to sell the products to our customers. We will not have many
intermediaries because this way the profit margin will be less for the retailers and our target is to give
them more profit so that they prefer our products than our competitors. We will have direct
communication with retailers such as pharmacies , general stores and super shops to distribute our

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products through the help of internal distributors. We will offer them an average of 10tk profit which is a
lot for 1 unit and it will help us to attract the retailers. For direct selling to customers we will have
different events and fairs to sell directly to the customers . arranging different fairs and event will be
touchpoint with our customers

Chapter 8 Marketing Research

It was important to know brands users of sanitary pads to identify the popularity among all the
sanitary pads. Moreover, this response will help to identify the satisfaction level, their
preferences, media of influence and other relevant interpretation can be extracted.The result
shows that 36.7% of the respondent prefer Freedom, 26.7% uses Whisper, 20% uses Senora,10%
uses Monalisa, 3.3% uses Joya and 3.3% uses other sanitary pads. From the data, it is confirmed
that Freedom has the highest users compared to other brands. However, according to the internal
research conducted by ACI Ltd, Whisper is the most popular brand in the sanitary napkin’s
market. This difference of research result may have occurred since it was an online survey whose
mass respondents were students unlike ACI Ltd’s research which includes all the females from
different backgrounds and locations.In order to measure to what degree the customer gives
importance to the price before buying a sanitary napkin. It has a strong influence on both
purchase intentions and purchase satisfaction. 46.6% consumers believe that price plays a very
important role for buying a sanitary, 30% give importance to price and 23.3% are neutral about
the price level. Since the highest number of females considers price very important therefore, an
affordable price range can change the game. 90% of the buyers give the highest preference to the
quality of sanitary napkins. 6.7% considers quality as an important factor, only 0.3% are neutral
about and no-one thinks that quality is an unimportant aspect for female hygiene products.
Therefore, in order to attract a customer a sanitary pad manufacturer should give profound
importance to the quality of the product. It is very important to know the rationale behind
choosing a specific sanitary napkin. Thus, I wanted to know whether consumers prefer a sanitary
pad due to the product itself or because of the brand. 36.7% consider brand is very important and
important and 26.7% are neutral. Therefore it can be interpreted that the customers want their
pads form a branded and trustworthy company.Availability means obtainable or accessible and
ready for use. Availability is the greatest factor which ensures satisfaction as you will get the
product available at any time you need it. Significantly for sanitary pads, females feel shy to ask
about pads from the retailer. Thus, they just took whatever was there in front of them without
any detailed inquiries. In addition to that, consumers use that product which is highly available in
the market. As a result it creates the possibility of switching to a competitor's brand. Thus,
availability factor makes the product as the consumers’ preference as well as company’s need.

Chapter 9. Financial Projections

Expenses Forecast:

Estimated total Cost for the first Six Months:

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Fixed cost Tk.25,00,000

Raw materials Tk. 12,00,000

Rent Tk. 1,00,000

Employee (Operation & Sales) Tk. 15,00,000

Salary

Packaging Tk. 5,00,000

Promotional Expenses Tk. 15,00,000

Distribution Tk. 1,50,000

Commission Tk. 10,00,000

Operational Expenses Tk. 30,00,000

Administrative Expenses Tk. 4,50,000

Insurance Tk. 15,000

Interest Tk. 50,000

Miscellaneous Expenses Tk. 1,00,000

Total Tk. 81,50,000

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Sales Forecast: In the first 6 months we are expecting to hit the break even point and get a sale
of 250000 unit

Optimistic forecast: 300000

Pessimistic forecast : 260000
Normal forecast: 250000

Break-even Analysis: The fixed cost is 25,00,000. The difference of variable cost and selling is
approximately 10.22. So the break even point should be 2500000/10 = 250000 units.

Chapter 10. Reviews and Control:

For each intervention initiative, the marketing schedule involves multiple forms of strategy and
management tasks. We illustrate how to conduct the campaign strategy. The schedule also
provides a quarterly comparison of real and expected revenue and expenditures a monitoring
purposes. If they will not equate the proposal with this, so they can never go to the competition.
They need comparisons between real and expected revenue and expenditures for their
improved results. If any difference in plan and production is detected. If there find out any gap in
plan and output, we have to take corrective actions. Not only that, if there is any problem arise
in production, marketing process, or any other areas, we have to take necessary steps to
overcome that. Finally, the management will monitor the total environment, progress,and gap
and will take the corrective actions if necessary. The company always has to maintain the TQM
(Total Quality Management).

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Action Programs:
● Check quarterly sales
● Take feedbacks online from customers
● Take feedbacks from retailers quarterly
● Keping sales count up to date
● Keep track of sales from different channels
● Keep track of communication

Difficulties and risks:

● Tapping the rural market

● Shifting the customer from previous freedom products
● Getting in the market share of whisper
● Making the assurance of availability
● Convincing the retailers

Worst case risks may include: Reaching the pessimistic goals only

Conclusion
Freedom sanitary napkin is a well known commodity on the market. The competition is,
though,Occupied by giant products and foreign products, but many prospects and scopes
remain. This is the domestic commodity.The greatest benefit of the esteemed producers is
They will comfortably enjoy a strong market penetration. Since the brand is already well known,
Customers are often drawn to faith. It's a freedom from the ACI. ACI is already one
A well-known and trustworthy brand. So, direct portrayal of ACI would continue to bring this
commodity to the forefront of the business.Since sanitary napkins are a woman's hygiene
product, consistency plays a part.The most critical thing for the consumer. If the consumer is
pleased with the quality of the goods There is nothing like the commodity that will deter them
from becoming a faithful client. There are some of them that will guarantee the consistency of

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the sanitary pad. As the new pad is likely to meet the demand of women it has a very high
possibility to succeed and meet the goal.

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