Boroplus Case
“Safed Teeka” – Communicating Boroplus Antiseptic Cream
Introduction
On a fine Monday morning on August 26th 2011, work was at its peak at the Kolkata Head office of Emami Ltd. Mr. Subir Sen (Sen) was sitting at his desk with an advertisement running on his desktop which showed actor Amitabh Bachchan[1] (Amitabh), the brand ambassador of Emami. Sen had completed his MBA in Marketing from the ICM, Calcutta, and had joined Emami Ltd. under the Boroplus brand as a Brand Executive. The advertisement he was watching showed Amitabh in a crisp white kurta[2] applying a white dot on his cheeks. This was followed by a visual of various parts of India, right from Kashmir (North) to Kanyakumari (South) and Rajasthan (West) to West Bengal (East). The ad went on to show that people from all origin were applying the white dot on their cheeks. The whole clip was made more attractive with melodious background music whose lyrics were ‘Lagate Hain Safed Teeka’ (means: apply the white dot). The white dot/streak was the “Safed Teeka” of Boroplus Antiseptic Cream, a flagship brand of the Emami Ltd. The tagline of the ad went on to say ‘Boroplus ka safed teeka, taki sardi ki nazar na lage’ which means Boroplus white streak would prevent one from the evil effects of cold. The ad was a part of a new campaign where Emami was planning to try out a new advertising strategy (Refer Exhibit I for the ad storyboard). The commercial made Sen ponder over the objective which led to the creation of the ‘Safeed Teeka’ campaign. As a newcomer, Sen had been given two responsibilities.
He had been doing a competitor analysis for the winter cream category as a part of his research which was to investigate “The communication plan of Boroplus”. Mr. Sen was also given the task to suggest a new and an effective communication plan for Boroplus Antiseptic Cream (BPAC) for winter of 2011 and in order to do so he needed insights on the past communication strategy and the present communication objectives.
Introduction
On a fine Monday morning on August 26th 2011, work was at its peak at the Kolkata Head office of Emami Ltd. Mr. Subir Sen (Sen) was sitting at his desk with an advertisement running on his desktop which showed actor Amitabh Bachchan[1] (Amitabh), the brand ambassador of Emami. Sen had completed his MBA in Marketing from the ICM, Calcutta, and had joined Emami Ltd. under the Boroplus brand as a Brand Executive. The advertisement he was watching showed Amitabh in a crisp white kurta[2] applying a white dot on his cheeks. This was followed by a visual of various parts of India, right from Kashmir (North) to Kanyakumari (South) and Rajasthan (West) to West Bengal (East). The ad went on to show that people from all origin were applying the white dot on their cheeks. The whole clip was made more attractive with melodious background music whose lyrics were ‘Lagate Hain Safed Teeka’ (means: apply the white dot). The white dot/streak was the “Safed Teeka” of Boroplus Antiseptic Cream, a flagship brand of the Emami Ltd. The tagline of the ad went on to say ‘Boroplus ka safed teeka, taki sardi ki nazar na lage’ which means Boroplus white streak would prevent one from the evil effects of cold. The ad was a part of a new campaign where Emami was planning to try out a new advertising strategy (Refer Exhibit I for the ad storyboard). The commercial made Sen ponder over the objective which led to the creation of the ‘Safeed Teeka’ campaign. As a newcomer, Sen had been given two responsibilities.
He had been doing a competitor analysis for the winter cream category as a part of his research which was to investigate “The communication plan of Boroplus”. Mr. Sen was also given the task to suggest a new and an effective communication plan for Boroplus Antiseptic Cream (BPAC) for winter of 2011 and in order to do so he needed insights on the past communication strategy and the present communication objectives.