Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 492 views

    Rohm & Hass Casestudy

    Uploaded by

    RajeevManojM
    Joan Macey's dilemma about the low sales of Kathon MWX is valid according to a market analysis. While Kathon MWX has advantages like being highly effective and easy to use, it faces weaknesses like low customer awareness and a lack of need recognition. Opportunities exist through promotional campaigns and its market potential, but it faces threats from competition and possible substitutes. A marketing strategy is proposed that includes standardizing the product, increasing costs gradually, educating distributors, and setting sales targets to increase market share over time.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Rohm & Hass Casestudy

    Uploaded by

    RajeevManojM
    492 views6 pages
    Joan Macey's dilemma about the low sales of Kathon MWX is valid according to a market analysis. While Kathon MWX has advantages like being highly effective and easy to use, it faces weaknesses like low customer awareness and a lack of need recognition. Opportunities exist through promotional campaigns and its market potential, but it faces threats from competition and possible substitutes. A marketing strategy is proposed that includes standardizing the product, increasing costs gradually, educating distributors, and setting sales targets to increase market share over time.

    Original Title

    Rohm & Hass Casestudy .docx

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Joan Macey's dilemma about the low sales of Kathon MWX is valid according to a market analysis. While Kathon MWX has advantages like being highly effective and easy to use, it faces weaknesses like low customer awareness and a lack of need recognition. Opportunities exist through promotional campaigns and its market potential, but it faces threats from competition and possible substitutes. A marketing strategy is proposed that includes standardizing the product, increasing costs gradually, educating distributors, and setting sales targets to increase market share over time.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    492 views6 pages

    Rohm & Hass Casestudy

    Uploaded by

    RajeevManojM
    Joan Macey's dilemma about the low sales of Kathon MWX is valid according to a market analysis. While Kathon MWX has advantages like being highly effective and easy to use, it faces weaknesses like low customer awareness and a lack of need recognition. Opportunities exist through promotional campaigns and its market potential, but it faces threats from competition and possible substitutes. A marketing strategy is proposed that includes standardizing the product, increasing costs gradually, educating distributors, and setting sales targets to increase market share over time.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 6
    At a glance
    Powered by AI
    The key takeaways are that Kathon MWX, a new biocide product launched by Rohm and Haas, is underperforming compared to sales targets despite having advantages over competitors. Joan Macey, the product manager, is concerned about the low sales. A complete analysis of the market, product, competition and customer needs is presented.

    Joan Macey's dilemma is that sales of the newly launched Kathon MWX product are well below the target set in the marketing plan for 1984, achieving only 6% of the first year target. This low performance is an issue despite Kathon MWX having advantages over competitors.

    The SWOT analysis identifies strengths of Kathon MWX like its great market potential and effectiveness, but also weaknesses such as low product awareness, lack of need recognition among customers, and distributors selling it at high prices. Opportunities and threats are also discussed.

    Industrial Marketing

    Rohm and Haas Case


    Question 1. Is Joan Macey’s dilemma valid? Justify this by doing a complete market
    analysis – besides the information given in the case study please make suitable
    assumptions where necessary
    Answer:
    Situational Analysis- Kathon MWX
    ● Rohm and Haas is a diversified chemical company operating in four distinct business
    segments of which the focus of the case is on the biocide products division of the
    specialty chemicals group.
    ● The biocide product manufactured by the firm caters to the needs of the metal
    working industry. Its major product –Kathon 886 MWX operates in the Central system
    market where the company enjoys a healthy 30% market share of the $18 million
    market.
    ● However, Kathon 886 MWX is a very powerful biocide and is not suitable for small-
    capacity tanks (capacity less than 1000 gallons). In view of this, Rohm and Haas has
    found a new opportunity in the Individual system market (reservoir capacity less than
    1000 gallons) and they have launched a new product –Kathon MWX to address this
    opportunity.
    ● The product sales of the company’s newly launched product Kathon MWX are well
    below the target set in the marketing plan for 1984.
    ● The target sales for Kathon MWX was $0.2 million of the potential value of $20
    million in 1984. That is a reasonable aim of achieving 1% of sales potential in the first
    year.
    ● However, in the first 5 months of launch, Kathon MWX was able to achieve only
    $12,000 in sales. Which means that they had achieved only 6% of what they had
    targeted which is not a
    good representation. By:
    ● Kathon MWX extends the Simran- IGTCPG28MU089
    life of the metalworking
    fluid for a period of 4 weeks Kavya- IGTCPG28MU041
    on an average in Shrinivas- IGTCPG28MU083
    comparison with only 3
    days to 2 weeks if the
    Swapnil- IGTCPG28MU094
    competitor biocides are Mukesh- IGTCPG28MU045
    used. Hence, Kathon MWX
    is 2 to 10 times as effective
    as the substitutes offered
    by Rohm and Haas
    competitors. Despite
    having a major
    distinguishing factors, the sales of Kathon MWX in the first 5 months of its launch
    have been very low with respect to its target.
    ● On the other hand Rohm & Haas does not enjoy good brand awareness in the US
    metalworking fluid market, since its products are sold to customers as Private Label
    products.
    SWOT Analysis

    Strength Weakness
    Customer Surplus Low need recognition
    Safe Low product & brand
    Easy to use awareness
    Highly Effective

    SWOT

    Opportunity Threat
    Great market potential Competition
    Promotional campaign can Substitutes
    help
    New distribution system

    STRENGTHS
    Kathon MWX had a great market potential of more than $ 38 million. Moreover, similar to
    the customers’ preference, the product was really easy and safe to use. What is more in its
    advantages, the customers did not have to check its maintenance again and again. It was
    highly effective for the small capacity systems and there was rarely an alternative available
    for it. Furthermore, there was a great customer surplus; the number of customers for Kathon
    MWX were far greater than Kathon 886 MW.
    WEAKNESSES
    The product awareness was very low among customers; many customers did not know if
    there was an effective solution available for the treatment of small capacity containers. There
    was also a lack of need recognition among customers. Also, the customers did not know
    about the company; they did not know if MWX were the products of Rohm and Haas. The
    distributors took advantage and sold it to the customers at a greater price. Furthermore, few
    distributors felt that there was no incentive for them to sell the product.

    OPPORTUNITIES
    The product had great market potential and it was estimated that the number of end users
    for MWX won’t run out. Moreover, the new market campaigns and strategies presented a lot
    of opportunities for the success of the product. It is beneficial for the customers as it can cut
    costs for customers because by using Kathon MWX the customers can hold the fluid longer
    than ever.
    THREATS
    Major threats for the company are the threats of competition. There are other companies
    which have nearly equal market share as of Rohm and Haas; 15-20 %. There is no
    substitute available at this time; however, there would be likely threat of substitutes in future.
    The customer’s survey also revealed that there was less need recognition in the customers
    for the dermatitis. Most of the customers were either not aware of Kathon MWX or they did
    not know the benefits of the MWX. There were many customers who did not have tried it one
    either.
    Therefore, Joan Macey’s dilemma is valid and the situation needs to be addressed.

    Competition Analysis
    MWX has two competitors, first one is Dowicil 75 but this product is not really a competitor
    because it is just useful for tanks over 500gallons. The other competitor is TrisNitro. So, the
    competition in the market with only 2 competitors.
    Marketing Objective
    ● Standardising the product cross the channel
    ● Increasing the product cost gradually to the nearest competition in order to establish
    product superiority
    ● Using the same distribution channel with training and educating the distributor about
    the product to increase the sales, visibility and awareness of kathon MWX among
    end users
    ● To increase the market share on yearly basis
    ○ 1st Year = $1 million or 5 %
    ○ 2nd Year= $2 million or 10%
    ○ 3rd Year= $4 million or 20%

    Product Objective
    ● Eliminate odour
    ● Controls bacteria and fungus
    ● Convenient and safe to use
    ● Cost effective
    Product Category

    Product Mix

    Product Kathon MWX100 Kathon MWX500 Kathon MWX1000

    Capacity 25-100 gallons 100-500 gallons 500-1000 gallons

    Weight 4 ounce 8 ounce 10 ounce

    Product Positioning
    The Kathon MWX product should be positioned as the
    ‘ Easy handling, cost effective biocide which increases the fluid life and reduces downtime ’
    *More emphasis on the easy handling aspect because of the disposable packaging.
    Product Level Offering
    Core
    ● To Curb the growth of odor causing bacteria in metalworking fluid with affecting the
    performance.
    ● Increase the life of metalworking fluid
    Tangible
    ● Comes in small quantity sachets
    ● Easy to use
    ● water soluble packaging with no necessary of plastic hanger

    Augmented
    ● Guarantee of upto 4 weeks on product life
    ● Onsite assistance of product use and disposal

    You might also like