a. How is your market segmented, which segments are your primary target, and what is the overall positioning strategy.

b. Product decisions. You need to talk about product features and product benefits here. If you are writing your plan for a service company, you would describe the core service as well as, e.g., the look of your service locations

c. Pricing strategy - this section should include estimates of costs you will incur if you are exporting. You also need to take into account the price range of competing offers in the market, and your estimate of what it would cost to make the product based on the price in the US.

d. Distribution strategy – type of retailers for a product launch. You also need to provide examples of particular retailers you would work with. Type of locations if you are launching a service.

e. Promotion strategy – start with branding, talk about the overall message, which promotional mix tools will you use and what is the justification for using each. You do not have to provide detailed media decisions, but need to provide some examples of what local media you might use

India’s supplement market, especially the one dealing with immune health

and preventing sickness, is brimming with opportunity. A combination of factors really

works toward Airborne’s advantage; mainly the fact that the industry is not being fully

developed coupled its rapid growth. Changes in India’s culture toward healthy living has

the industry trying to keep up, and this is highlighted by the supplement industry’s

forecasted 9% compound annual growth in through 2018 (**). Along with this, all three

leading supplement companies experienced 15-20% growth in sales from just 2012-2013

(**). Our main competition would come from Herbalife and Nutrilite, as they have the

biggest share of the market in India when it comes to immune health supplements.

Nutrilite is a top global competitor, and is the biggest player in the industry we

hope to penetrate (**). They offer a product very similar to Airborne and it is sold in bulk

of 180 tablet packs at $66. Their offerings come in at about $0.36/pill, which isn’t good

news for Airborne since our 10 pack costs around $7, coming out to about $0.74/pill.

Despite this, the industry is still developing and the way people purchase supplements

varies hugely on their lifestyle. Buying Nutrilite in bulk vs. buying 10 pack Airborne can

mean entirely different types of consumers. Along with this, we are encouraged by the

rise of unconventional sales channels in India for medicine and supplements (***). The

opportunities that come with this information is something we will cover further in later

on in our marketing plan, but it does highlight the development of the industry and its

distribution structure as a whole.

Herbalife is another brand known globally, these varieties of products are offered

in over 90 countries (). Last year the Herbalife Company reported record net sales of

$4.8 billion ( ). It is extremely apparent that the herbal and natural side of Herbalife has

made this company an undeniable force in this industry. Herbalife has made its presence

known throughout the entire world. Luckily for us Herbalife’s “Best Defense” Vitamin C

supplement cots $1.3/pill, while Airborne costs $0.74/pill. This product would be our

most direct competitor, since they both come in 10 tablet packs.

Marketing Strategy

The main factors that influence buying health supplements vs. not buying health

supplements in India are living location and income. As we have shown in our country

report India’s economic structure has lent itself to creating huge gaps between the lower

and upper classes, making income levels an obvious factor. The other factor that lends

itself to exploitable opportunities is living in urban vs. rural locations, with urban

consumers representing 67% of the vitamin and dietary supplement market. Rural

consumers represent the other 33% of the market (***).

We would keep Airborne’s formula the same for Indian market, the same way that

our competitors have done. The difference between the ingredients and effects of immune

boosting supplements is minimal, so price and reputation play the biggest roles in

capturing market share. Luckily for us, we can keep our price advantage over Herbalife

by using partnering with Zydus Cadila (an established local manufacturer), and giving

them exclusive license to produce our formula. This allows us to keep our costs down,

eliminate the need to export, and gives us access to their infrastructure.

It would appear that we can’t compete with Nutrilite’s $0.36/pill since they sell in

180 tablet bulk packaging, but we can compete with them by targeting a different kind of

consumer and using taking advantage of India’s developing distribution infrastructure.

The fact that we will continue to offer 10 tablet packs of Airborne helps us position

ourselves closer to the consumer who takes a defensive approach to illness prevention.

Buying in bulk is primarily for the offensive approach to combating illness, which

involves taking supplements daily. This is good news because Airborne has always been

for the defensive user, who only buys when they start to feel a cold coming on.

Buying in bulk versus smaller samples also means an inherently different way of

approaching our products and health. Buying Nutrilite’s bulk supplements is done

primarily in the retail sector, while buying in smaller samples opens us up to utilizing

India’s unconventional retail channels. These unconventional retail channels show a

strong growth in 2013, and it shows how differently these purchases are made in India vs.

the United States (**). Much of the “unconventional” distribution of pharmaceutics and

supplements goes through local pharmacists and chemists who own small shops, and for

us this means a more fitting consumer walks through the door. In this way, we can target

young, working, urban Indian’s who don’t have time to get sick. They are different from

the older generations that buy bulk in retail stores, allowing us to position ourselves

perfectly in the unconventional retail sector. We can be placed right next to our main

competitor (Herbalife’s “Best Defense” 10 pack), and still have a favorably lower price

for the young Indians to see. We can ride the growth of sales that comes from these

unconventional channels, and maybe consider entering the retail sector as well once

we’ve established our reputation.

We can also gain traction over Herbalife and Nutrilite by utilizing