07 December, 2020, Bengaluru: A team from IIM Bangalore, including Chandrasekar T, Chithra R, and Vijay S, has bagged the top position at the semi-finals of the BLoC Boardroom Challenge 2020, held on December 04 (Friday), 2020. It was a two-fold feat for IIMB at the competition, as the runner-up team is also from the school, with Nidhi Ashok, Sanjana V Kulkarni and Pranave Nanda as team members.
The Bengaluru round of the contest had four teams participating. While the team from ICFAI Business School (IBS) was the second runner-up, the one from CMRIT was ranked fourth. Going forward, IIMB’s winning team will face the winners of the semi-finals from eight other cities, in the finals.
The Hindu Business Line on Campus presented the teams a unique opportunity to exhibit strategic and financial skills. The teams also had a chance to present their solution to an exemplar panel who challenged the participants’ understanding and pushed them to think more.
The case for the semi-final round was on Colgate, its branding strategy and how it can gain 60% market share by 2024. The case delved into the current oral care market scenario and the dilemma faced by Colgate. Even though Colgate is the market leader by a large margin, it is waging a continuous war with several competitors on multiple fronts and losing market share in many segments. The case talks about their current products' positioning and their difficulties in gaining market share, especially in the fast-growing herbal and sensitive segments. IIMB’s winning team proposed a shift to a hybrid branding strategy and local player acquisitions to achieve the objectives. The proposal was backed by marketing and promotion spends for each brand, including potential acquisition targets and their valuation.
The runner-up team from IIMB made a three-fold proposal to tackle the challenge. First, to employ an endorsed brand strategy for Colgate’s brands such as Vedshakti, Sensitive and MaxFresh. Next, to gain a first-mover advantage in the Vegan segment by bringing in the brand Hello, which is now a part of their global portfolio. Third was to ensure spending on better visibility, communication and branding efforts for the ayurvedic and sensitive segment and in the long term, to employ a direct-to-consumer model with their premium oral care brands, along with the product portfolio under Colgate’s ShopSmiles.
The rating of the teams was based on their understanding/analysis of the case, the solution provided, the presentations as well as teamwork. The esteemed jury members were: KS Rao, Senior Vice President & Head, Investor Education & Distribution Development, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Ltd, Vishwadeep Kuila of marketing consultancy Brand Vectors, Lokeshwarri SK, Associate Editor and Head of Data Research Vertical at The Hindu Business Line, and BLoC editor Vinay Kamath.