Mortein: Finalizing the Theme and Creative Idea

Abstract

Mortein, one of the top pest repellant brands in India, was facing a stagnant market share for the past three years. Although the brand in itself stood for “power”, consumers did not perceive the vaporizer to have the same power as competitors' products. Deepak Sinha, the brand manager for Mortein, had formulated a business strategy to capture share from competition through a brand relaunch with an improved and more effective product, Mortein PowerGard. Deepak had come up with the proposal for a 360-degree activation for Mortein. Deepak had to approve the advertising copy designed and developed by a management trainee. He wanted to be doubly-sure about the target audience for the communication campaign and the decision-making units for the purchase of a mosquito repellent. There was a debate on this at Reckitt-Benckiser (hereafter referred to as RB). He wanted to be scientific about decisions like target audience selection and the appropriateness of the message strategy which was also part of the copy strategy. Deepak and the trainee had to convince the top management at RB on certain decisions that were taken and some others that were being contemplated upon.