Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy - Case Analysis
Problem
The case depicts the uncertainty faced by Scope’s management about the appropriateness of their strategy as the company is encountering the issues of trailing market shares in comparison to Listerine. It is also feared that the situation will further deteriorate if appropriate measures are not undertaken regarding their advertising strategy. Scope’s team has also been told that there would not be any further investment over the advertising of the brand in that year. However, the brand critically needs revolutionary and innovative advertising rather than further expenditures over existing advertising strategy. The chief problem is to design adequate questionnaire for the upcoming planned focus group sessions that intends to probe the foremost consumer insights in order to finalize their brand positioning and advertising campaign, which would lead them towards breakthrough for advertising strategy of Scope.
Analysis
It has been analyzed that the Canadian Mouthwash Market has experienced a significant change in the last three years with the advent of few product such as Plax and Colgate Total product range that has quickly acquired a substantial market share. Plax has easily snipped 10% share of the Mouthwash market, which in return caused a slight reduction in Scope’s share. Apart from that, the industry has also experienced considerable competitive changes by the brand like Plax and Listerine and it is forcing Scope to rethink about its advertising strategy to maintain its competitiveness in the market while preventing its share to be trimmed.
Scope’s market position is highly confronted by a new oral-care market product launched by Colgate-Palmolive by the name of ‘Colgate Total Mouthwash’. The products are backed by aggressive trade promotions, television advertising, weekly flyers co-promotions, and couponing with an emphasis on the 12-hour benefits entitlement of breath refreshment. The scope is under pressure by the high rise GRPs of the brand. It has also been analyzed that the increasing market share of Listerine has also resulted from their intense coupon activities, display activities and price discounts (Hulland, 1998). By analyzing the market trends for the last three years, it is evident that Scope has been slightly affected despite increased rivalry and advent of new substitutes. From 1988 to 1989, its market share has been marginally declined from 33% to 32.3% which is remarkable, although it should not be overlooked that the company did not make any considerable progress in attaining increased shares from its competitors. It has also been evaluated that Scope has already spent maximum on advertising; therefore, they cannot further come up with the more spending and also cannot afford to lose the market share. Instead, Scope rather needs product innovativeness in order to compete in the best possible way while sustaining its market competitiveness.
Alternatives
Recommendations
In order to find out the excavated consumer insights, Scope’s focus group session should focus on probing factors like consumers’ opinion about benefits that product offers, as well as, brand awareness, brand positioning, positioning statement and efficacy of the advertisement. With the purpose of probing consumer behavior, they should be asked why they would buy a particular mouthwash. This will help them defining rate difference criteria. This can be done by asking them questions like how a particular mouthwash helps them refining their mouth conditions when they like to use a mouthwash, what maximum price are they willing to pay for standard value, how the consumer perceives ‘Scope’ and what kind of mouthwash advertisement appeal them. These questions would possibly help them understanding what kind of product features are consumers expecting and at what price. This would help them crafting their fall advertisement campaign accordingly.
Scope should also incorporate modern marketing techniques such as providing coupons, price discounts and utilizing flyers, hoarding, and billboards etc. It should also lower down the price a little bit. It should also advertise regarding its affiliations with regulatory bodies and should also distribute free sample in the areas where people are not buying Scope.
References
Hulland, J.; Mark, K. (1998), Procter and Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy Case. Ivey Publishing. Retrieved on March 3, 2016
