Healthy Oils India: Cooking Up a Success in the Indian Edible Oils Market

Published 23 Jun 2014
Reference 6051
Topic Marketing
Region Asia
Length 36 page(s)
Summary

Healthy Oils, the Indian subsidiary of a Fortune 500 subsidiary, has four offerings in the edible oil market – Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Omega. While these are recognized by consumers of cooking oil, they are not among the top five in terms of brand awareness, nor are they the top choice in the most-often-used category, except for Beta in the groundnut category. Having spent a considerable amount over the past six years to acquire a suite of edible oils from other market players, the multi-brand strategy being to move from a bulk business to a consumer-facing retail business, Healthy Oils’ products remain second-tier offerings (in terms of consumer preferences) compared to Marico’s Saffola brand, Adani-Wilmar’s Fortune brand, and Agro Tech Foods’ Sundrop brand, the market leaders. With an all-important 2012 Executive Committee meeting on the horizon, the chief marketing officer must come up with a new plan of attack.

Teaching objectives

The teaching objective of this case is to expose participants to the topic of segmentation and targeting. It highlights 1) a best practice example of how to segment the market, 2) the importance of moving beyond demographics to understand customer benefits/needs in developing actionable market segments, 3) the complexity of the Indian marketplace, and 4) how to choose an appropriate segment and brand from the perspective of a multi-brand MNC trying to develop a differentiated offering in the commoditized edible oils category. The case requires participants to a) choose a target segment, b) decide which brand to deploy in that segment, and c) develop a marketing plan for the chosen brand in the desired segment.

Keywords
  • Marketing
  • Segmentation
  • Targeting
  • Edible Oils
  • Branding
  • Emerging Markets
  • India
  • Food
  • Q41314