An Assignment on Marketing plan of Bashundhara Wet Tissue

Historical Background:

Bashundhara Group is one of the most prestigious and experienced commercial and industrial conglomerates in Bangladesh today. The Group took off from the incipient period after establishment of East West Property Development (Pvt.) Ltd. a real estate concern, popularly known as "Bashundhara" which happened to be its first venture in this sector.

Keeping pace with rapid economical and technological changes followed by the policy of Globalization, Bashundhara Group has outspread their business activities within a short period of time and have been able to emerge as a promoter of international standard of business houses and industrial enterprises founded on the principles of engineering and financial integrity with a group of highly capable technical personnel and professionals. Since inception, Bashundhara Group has been actively contributing to the national as well as global economy by way of effective utilization of resources, using raw materials, production and marketing high quality products at the most competitive prices and creating employment opportunities. Bashundhara is now operating with fourteen vital enterprises of highly esteemed commercial and technological superiority having profound degree of specialization in the field of real estate, industrial ventures and commercial enterprises. Current value of the total assets of the enterprises of Bashundhara Group would be about Tk. 15000 million equivalents to approximately US$ 300 million. Total turnover of the business amounts to around Tk. 16000 million equivalent to US$ 325 million. Presently 8100 people are employed in various enterprises of the group. Besides, through its multidirectional economic activities, Bashundhara has created employment opportunities to over 30,000 people. The linkages to employment and better standard of living are immediate. By providing employment opportunities to a large number of people, Bashundhara helps in generation of income which, in turn, would assist in improvement of the quality of life of people in terms of nutrition, literacy, standard of living and physical and social environment.

In the year 1987, 'Bashundhara' was launched, initially as a real estate developer, moving in later years into other areas, including manufacturing. Over the past two decades, the challenges in the fields of urban housing and civic amenity provision have been unprecedented. In keeping with rapid population growth in metropolitan Dhaka, Bashundhara stretched itself to cover new boundaries and respond effectively to long-term needs of the mammoth city populace. We took real-life lessons from past experience, while taking new strides in innovation and partnership.

 A new scenario emerged as we started a new way of doing business and expanding our horizon to cover manufacturing, and the provision of services. We grew with a selective choice of new investments. Bashundhara is now a leader in many fields with several enterprises involved in a diverse array of manufacturing. The Group’s concerns are currently engaged in the manufacture of a wide range of products, such as – cement, all blends of tissue paper, newsprint, pulp, and duplex board, various kinds of paper and allied products, MS rods, LP gas, gas cylinders, GI pipes, pavers, hollow bricks, among others. Bashundhara is also a pioneer in LP gas bottling and marketing. Bashundhara has just completed construction of South Asia’s largest shopping mall-cum-recreation centre, located in the hub of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital. By the turn of the century, Bashundhara became a “Group of Companies” with over 14 different concerns – now a leading business conglomerate of the country. We fully understand and appreciate the scale of our corporate social responsibility that requires our Group to strive for a better quality of life for the average citizen. They have been in the business-world for only about sixteen years. They have made meaningful gains. They do not strive to be the market leader for glory – but their aim at being at the apex as far as quality and pricing go. Most of our products are ISO certified and have passed the rigors of modern quality testing. Let me assure you that Bashundhara will strive to espouse the need to enhance the quality of our services and products, and evolve new goal.

Overview of the company:

Corporate Mission

Bashundhara Group (BG) is a leading private-sector industrial conglomerate in Bangladesh. It currently has 14 on-going concerns, ranging from real estate development and management to manufacturing and services. The BG strives to work in partnership with the Government for promoting sustainable development, environment preservation, and employment-generation and poverty reduction. The BG has a particular focus on urban housing, recreation centers, and commercial ventures. Thus, the motto of the Group is “For the People, for the Country”. At the crux of all industrial processes deployed at the Group’s enterprises stands the need to ensure environmental stability. This project turned out to be very successful and had helped foster the growth of trust and confidence of the urban people in "Bashundhara". Dhaka's burgeoning population, combined with a conspicuously slow growth of housing - LED to the landmark success of Bashundhara. Driven by the ramifications of this success, Bashundhara geared up to invest in new fields, including manufacturing and trading. More enterprises were established in the early 1990s, covering diverse activities involving the production of cement, paper and pulp, tissue paper, steel, lpg bottling and distribution, and a trading company, among others. All these had happened in a span of less than 10 years. During this period, additional schemes on land development and real estate were launched and these focused more sharply on increasing responsiveness to client needs. At present, the group employs over 3500 people.

Ø  Motto:

For The People, For the Country

Ø  Vision:

To serve people with maximum satisfaction

Goals and Objectives

The group has come a long way in reaching these goals by listening to client needs, learning real-time lessons from past projects, innovating and partnering. Through major investment undertakings, Bashundhara has meaningfully contributed to the economy's stability in financial and capital markets. Underlying all of the group's activities are the common threads of change, flexibility, and fostering closer ties with the government, the city corporation and our clients. Most of its projects have been success stories - this fact alone is enough to justify a sense of confidence in the group's future.

Business Portfolio

Year of Incorporation:  In the year 1987, 'Bashundhara Group (BG)' was launched.

Type of Company: Private Limited (Bangladesh)

Location:  Corporate Office:                 

Bashundhara residential area                                             

Road-2 Block-A, Baridhara

Dhaka Bangladesh-1229

Fax: 880-2-8401495  

Web Site: www.bashundharagroup.com
                     

  E-mail:     bgc@bdcom.com

Founder: 

                 Chairman: Ahmed Akbar Sobhan

Products and Services

Through forward and backward linkage, the enterprises of Bashundhara Group have encouraged development of various industrial and commercial units in the country. With its expertise in different fields and extensive human resources, Bashundhara has undertaken various projects:

Enterprises: 

·         Meghna Cement Mills Ltd 

·         Bashundhara Paper Mills Ltd 

·         Freyschmidt Tissue Limited

·         Shahjalal Newsprint Industries Ltd 

·         Union Lp Gas Limited 

·         Bashundhara Steel Complex Ltd 

·         Bashundhara Industrial Complex 

·         East West Property Development 

·         Bashundhara City Development 

·         Crystal Property Development 

·         Bashundhara Import Export Ltd 

·         Bashundhara Trading Company Ltd

·         Bashundhara Cement Trading Ltd 

·         Bashundhara Paper Trading 

·         Bashundhara Steel Trading 

·         Bashundhara Gas Distribution 

·         Bashundhara Enterprise

Choosing a Product:

Why we have chosen Bashundhara Wet Tissue?

Cleaner, fresher, shinier…and convenient! As lifestyles become increasingly demanding consumers are willing to integrate almost any product which offers these qualities in their daily routines. Starting from the household cleaning segment to personal care and cosmetics, disposable wiping products claiming convenience, ease-of-use and cleanliness, have become a booming business in recent years, reaching over $4.5 billion in value in 2002 according to global market analyst Euro monitor.

So, we have decided to help people to upgrade their lifestyle.

Industry Analysis:

SWOT analysis

There are many types of analyses that help to illuminate potential issues as well as areas of opportunity for a new product or business– one is known as a SWOT or Strengths – Weaknesses – Opportunities and Threats analysis. This type of analysis forces the executive team of any tissue manufacturer to brainstorm these critical items before launching a new company, new division or new product – which may help decide whether or not to venture into this new direction. The SWOT analysis is divided into two parts which one part belong to the internal of the company and the other one to the external of the company. The Strength and the Weakness are internal and the Opportunity and the Threats are the external part. These analyses just give us a view for a go or no go.

Strengths:

Strengths are attributes that are unique to the company, product or division in question.  Some examples of strengths would be having a key scientist on your team that has a unique skill set or knowledge that will make your new product a success.

The strength points of products are given below-

1. We are strong enough with technological skill.
2. Our existing company is one of the best leading brands in the country.
3. We are offering the best quality product in the current market.
4. Higher qualified personnel lead management.
5. We have strong distribution channel which helps to deliver from manufacturer to customers.

Weaknesses

Weaknesses are just the opposite – some examples include lack of a patent or relying on unpatented discoveries, having no clear manufacturing process or significant process issues, or not having talent specific to the area you are moving towards. 

The weakness points are mentioned below-

1.      It is a matter of weakness as ours is a new product.

2.      We have to bear huge money to promote wet tissue

Opportunities:

Opportunities would include an increase in the disease group that your new product is expected to address, the opening of a new global market that the product can fulfill , or a new federal grant to help subsidize the cost of your new drug or treatment.  Once opportunities are identified, a plan to take advantage of them should be created.

Our opportunities are pointed out below-

1.      It’s a great opportunity to introduce our wet tissue in national and international markets.

2.      We can utilize our huge population.

3.      The changing behavior of consumers may affect our sale as they want to try new products.

Threats:

Threats could include clinical trials in this area by other competing companies, new regulations that would make it difficult to get approval, adverse press garnered by any preannouncements of what you are working on, or a loss of any type of funding for the project.

The threats points are mentioned below-

1. Our sells may decrease in the season of late autumn and winter.
2. If we cannot go to the rural sector it will stable our sell as well as production.
3. Foreign competitors.

The diagram of our SWOT analysis:

Competitor analysis:

Competitor analysis in marketing and strategic management is an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and potential competitors. This analysis provides both an offensive and defensive strategic context through which to identify opportunities and threats. Competitor profiling coalesces all of the relevant sources of competitor analysis into one framework in the support of efficient and effective strategy formulation, implementation, monitoring and adjustment. We have an existing competitor and some potential competitors.

 There are also some foreign competitors. Our only existing competitor is – “Personal Tissue” and other potential competitors are:

a)      Bangla tissue and

b)      Fay tissue

We hope we can provide the best quality product than our competitors and we will capture the largest portion of wet tissue market.

Target Market:

Though we have a mass-marketing strategy, our ideal customers are generally those types of people who spend most of their time outside of home. So, working people and students are our target customers. As our product is not so expensive, any person at any income level can buy it easily. The weather of Bangladesh remains very hot and humid most of the year. Therefore, people naturally get sweated at most of the time of day. Our product- ‘Bashundhara Perfumed Wet Tissue’ can bring them much relief in the hot weather. As an example, our sweet perfumed wet tissue can make the experience much better for those people who have stuck in a traffic jam. Another target market is restaurants. People, after having a nice meal can enjoy the time by the aroma of our wet tissue. Big corporate offices and other big institutions is our important target. When the officials feel boredom of their work, they can get rid of the boredom and increase their attention level to work by taking refreshment from our perfumed wet tissue.

We have a concentration on the medical use of the wet tissue. So we want to cover this sector also. The beauty conscious women are also in our target market. We are bringing a product for the babies.

Most people like sweet fragrance, touch of softness with color to remain fresh always. As we have a large variation of our product that contain different types of flavor like lemon, strawberry, orange and Lavender. So we hope ‘Bashundhara Wet Tissue’ will be able to satisfy our potential and real customers.

Industry or societal forces that can affect our customer:

To build and maintain successful relationships with target customers marketing environment is essential. In close to our company some microenvironment can affect us. Like suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customer markets, competitors and also publics. Mainly the suppliers and marketing intermediaries can affect our customer a lot because if the suppliers and marketing intermediaries do not help our industry then it will be a major factor. Other factor is public, as it is new product publics need to be with us.

Some other societal trend that is macro environment such as demographic, economic, natural, technological, political and cultural forces can affect our customers. Here mainly technological thinks like, if we cannot create perfect product and opportunities for our customers it can affect our customers.

Target customer’s needs and wants and corresponding product benefits:

Our target customers are middle class, official and business persons who get in work, they can use our wet tissue and also the student and travelers who travel one place to another they can also get benefits from our wet tissue. Our product is actually at all beneficial for those people who want refreshments with fragrances. Our wet tissue is also soft, silky and with 2 percent of perfume and another important think that is, the chemical we are using in our wet tissue that is not harmful for any human being.

Marketing Strategy:

Overall Objectives:

To inform target audience about features and benefits of our product and its competitive advantage, leading to a 20% increase in sales in one year.

Mission Statement:

To the smart and lifestyle conscious person who want to remain fresh. Bashundhara perfumed wet tissue is a wet tissue which will make you fresh at anytime anywhere.

Positioning Relative to competitors and in eyes of customers:

Bashundhara is a leading manufacturer group of Bangladesh. Its brand value is higher than any other local manufacturer. We have a vast distribution channel of our existing paper tissue. We will utilize this advantage of its huge distribution channel. which will give us a competitive advantage relative to our existing and potential competitors.

As Bashundhara is a popular manufacturing brand, so we hope people will favor our product with a loyal mind and they will keep faith on us.

Marketing Mix:

Product:

1. for women:

     

Description:

1)      Name: Aroma Fresh, Deep free, mist, Lavender

2)      packing specifications: 1pcs/pack, 2 pcs/pack, Packaging specifications: 60 packs/carton

3)      Main ingredients: Non-woven cotton High-quality spun lace, distilled water, chlorhexidine, plants cleaning elements.

4)      They can be divided four smell types: Wet wipes for disinfecting, wet wipes for skin cleaning, refresh mint wet wipes and Aroma series (purple) wet wipes.

5)      Suitable for daily use for Women.

6)      These wet wipes can be used on the face and all over the body for highly absorbent to water and oil

7)      Finest quality & competitive price

2. For Man:

   

Description:

1)      Name: Man

2)      packing specifications: 1pcs/pack, 2 pcs/pack, Packaging specifications: 50 packs/carton

3)      Main ingredients: Non-woven rayon High-quality spunlace, distilled water, chlorhexidine, plants cleaning elements, aloe extraction, pure natural coconut oil extract- bionic phospholipids.

4)      Products characteristics: We use high-quality spunlace and steriled automatic packaging techniques to produce the wipes. CE is rich in the refined formula.
The products can clean skin, moist, and aren't stimulus and oily to the skin. They are silky dry and the cleaning functions are better. This kind of wipes is suitable to men with more exercise and sweat. The aroma can eliminates unpleasant odor and make you confidence and happy.

5)      These new wet wipes can be used on the face and all over the body for highly absorbent to water and oil.

6)      Strictly sterilized, safe and comfortable.

7)      Finest quality & competitive price.

3. For Babies:

   

Description:

1)      Name: Snoopy and Sofiya plus

2)      Main ingredients: Non-woven cotton High-quality spun lace, distilled water, plants cleaning elements

3)      Suitable for daily use for babies

4. For medical use:

Description:

1)      Name: Clean Hand

2)      packing specifications: 1pcs/pack

3)      Main ingredients: Non-woven cotton High-quality spunlace, distilled water, plants cleaning elements, liquid germ cleaner.

4)      Lavender flavored

5)      Specialized for medical use only

5. For travelers and Corporate:  

   

Description:

1. Using high-quality spun lance nonwoven fabric, specific line design, soft as cotton with considerate.
2. Be rich in cherry extract and APG green decontamination, which is used for skin cleaning while moistening skin.
3. Delicate fragrance or faint scent, moderate and anti-irritation.

Features of all types of Wet Tissue:

1. Silky soft and extra thick like a soft washcloth
2. Gently formulated to clean and moisturize your skin
3. In easy pop-up pack for single hand of wipes.
4. Conveniently packed for travel and home use
5. Ideal for daily skin care

Pricing:

We are determining our product’s price based on our production cost. As we have only one existing competitor so we want to capture the whole market with a short time. We just add a mark up on our total cost and set the price at that rate. The maximum retail price of a wet tissue pack that contains 2 piece tissues will be 6tk. We will price our product lower than other existing competitors. We will follow cost based pricing for this product.

The pricing system of Bashundhara Wet Tissue for each wallet pack that means for women and Men wallet packet is given below:

Unit Cost:       Variable Cost + Fixed Cost/Expected Unit Sales

                        = 2 + 7000000/2500000

                        = 4.8/-

Markup: We will add 20% markup to the sales. After adding markup price to the unit cost of these product will reach six taka per wallet pack.

Markup Price: Unit Cost/ (1-0.20)

                        = 4.8/0.80

                        = 6 /-

  

But in case of baby wipes pot, which contains approximately 80 pieces of wet tissues. Packaging is much costly than the wallet pack. We will try to gain cost leadership with substantial quality. For this purpose we will price differentiated product. We have differentiated two types of baby wipes. Both of products are different in term of packaging and prices. We have two types of baby wipes these are snoopy and sofiya plus.

Unit cost of snoopy:

Variable Cost + Fixed Cost/Expected Unit Sales

                        = 40 + 8250000/150000

                        = 95 /-

Markup: We will add 36.70% markup to the sales. After adding markup price to the unit cost of these product will reach one-fifty taka per baby wipes pot that means you will purchase snoopy by 150 taka.

Markup Price: Unit Cost/ (1-0.367)

                        = 95/0.633

                        = 150 /-

Unit cost of Sofiya plus:

The cost of Sofiya plus is comparatively low than the snoopy because of values and packaging. In Sofiya plus there are 50 pieces of wipes for that reason cost is minimum than snoopy.

Unit cost of Sofiya:

Variable Cost + Fixed Cost/Expected Unit Sales

                        = 27 + 8250000/250000

                        = 60/-

Markup: We will add 25% markup to the sales. After adding markup price to the unit cost of these products will reach eighty taka per Sofiya wipes packet.

Markup Price: Unit Cost/ (1-0.25)

                        = 60/0.75

                        = 80 /-

Place (Distribution channel):

Our company has a vast distribution channel. We maintain different types of distribution channel for different products. As we think wet tissue is like a convenient good, we will go for intensive marketing for this product. We will distribute it through our authorized dealers of our target market, who will sell it to as much retailer as they can. This distribution policy will help to make our product available at everywhere in our target market.

Promotion:

Bashundhara works with such a product which is essential for daily life. Our Research and Development team focuses principally on developing new predominantly through reverse engineering techniques and on simplifying manufacturing process and improving cost efficiency. We promote our product by:

·         Electronic media

·         Print media

·         Campaigning

·         Corporate ad

Electronic media:

Bashundhara is promoting wet tissue through different TV channels, radio, internet etc.

Print Media:

Bashundhara is promoting it through different newspapers, journals, magazines etc.

Campaigning:

Bashundhara is promoting this product through different campaigning so that people can be aware about various social problems.

Corporate advertise:

Bashundhara is also doing corporate promotion advertisement to increase its corporate image, brand name, reputation among publics.

During past years, global and local media relations were further extended with targeted interventions in the local market.

Conclusion:

“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan but also believe.”

As lifestyle become increasingly demanding consumers are willing to integrate almost any product which offers innovative features. The growth of our economy, in particular the sanitary sector has created an opportunity in the market. We are working hardly to make fulfill people’s Dream by the limit of your fancy and feasible. 

Bibliography:

1.      With the help of Image guide book and intranet of Bashundhara Group. 

2.      Divisional annual report (Customer management decision)-July-2006

3.      Business for the 21^st Century, by Skinner & Ivancevich.

4.      Principles of Marketing, by Phillip kotler & Gray Armstrong.

5.      News letter of Bashundhara Group limited.