Read the case given below and answer the questions given at the end.

CASE STUDY-1:

Pearls Soap

The marketing team of Hindustan Products was debating the creative strategy to be adopted for their Pearls soap campaign. The account is handled by HML, which is responsible for their entire range of soaps, cosmetics, and other fast moving consumer products. The total sales revenue for their products is in the range of Rs.1600 crores annually.The toilet soap market of India is one of the largest in the world - Rs.3000 crores. There are about fifteen major brandscompeting in the market, all from big companies. The distribution coverage for all these brands is nationwide. These top brands command over 85 per cent of the market and are positioned as unique in some way. The different categories are general purpose soaps, the special purpose soaps, beauty soaps, moisturizing soaps, and fairness soaps. Each of these soaps offers 3 to 4 variants with different features and enefits.These top brands are manufactured and marketed by five major companies, who are considered aggressive and the competition is intense in terms of promotion and advertising.'Pearls' is a specialty brand of soap and commands almost 25 per cent of the premium beauty soap segment. The soap offers special features and over the years it has established an image of quality and uniqueness. The soap has an unusually pearly appearance and colour, is translucent and mildly perfumed. According to agency analyst, Sumeet Jha, " The soap is being advertised for the last nearly 15 years as a mild, pure, and chemical free soap. People feel it is milder than other beauty soaps and women prefer to use it for their families, especially children. A large number of properties are associated with the brand; however, all the advertisements are based on mildness, purity, and chemical free nature of the soap. For many years the demand increased steadily and the company was happy with the growth rate.At the same time, however, because of special properties and restricted advertising, many consumers felt that the soap is suitable only for babies, and dry skinned people. In the last three years the growth has been stagnant and volumes have not increased. In this scenario, the aim of the marketing team must be to appeal to a whole new set of consumers, who are non-users of the soap. The biggest challenge is to retain the image and still create more demand.' Pearls' is available all over the country at around 4000 outlets, which is the range of average number of outlets used by specialty brands. The general category soaps are sold through 1.5 lakh outlets and special purpose brands are sold through 45,000. The outlets are chemists, general stores, cosmetics stores, and shopping malls. Almost 65 per cent of these outlets of Pearls are in cities and big towns of north, west, and east regions. The soap did not enjoy much popularity in the south.The consumer for the soap is well defined. An average consumer of Pearls is the housewife, who does the bulk of shopping and wants good quality soap for her family, even if it is slightly more expensive. She typically lives in a town or city and had good education. The family is in upper to upper-middle segment with higher disposable income and exposure to international trends. She has modem gadgets in her house, has two kids studying in public schools and the family speaks English as fluently as their mother tongue. Above all, she must be willing to spend almost 40 per cent more on Pearls than a regular brand of soap.The analysis of the past advertisements has revealed some interesting details about the advertising theme used over the years and change in the portrayal of the brand.

1. The ad showed soap and little girls, aping their mother's make-up routines or using Pearls as their mother did. The ads concentrated on the beauty aspects.

2. Another theme used was to show the soap's properties, such as translucent texture and mildness.

3. A not so successful theme used was to target it at teenagers by using the youth oriented context teenage girl showing concern about her skin and men using Pearls for beautifying skin.

4. A very strong theme used was the image of youthfulness through Pearls. The message given was the Pearls help maintain youthful/young skin/ complexion. This message was very powerful and had deep impact on the consumers. It was one of the most impressive and long lasting campaign themes used for Pearls

Questions:

1. What advertising strategy elements should be considered?
2. Which of the themes you consider as the most appropriate. Why?
3. Suggest two appeals for Pearls? Why do you think these appeals will be more appropriate.
4. Which type of appeals, rational / informational or emotional / transformational will be more appropriate? Why?