Asian Journal of Management Cases, Ahead of Print.
Vipul Murarka, Executive Director of Tropical Biotechnology Ltd. (TBL), was perplexed after looking at the erratic sales of dehumidifiers over the past 3 years since he started in June 2016. Although the number of goods sold was growing until 2019, which gave a marginal increase in revenue earned, the top line was increasing at a decreasing rate, with 10% in the first year, 8% in the second year and 7% in the third year. He could not understand the reasons for these inconsistent sales despite offering quality solutions and having many satisfied clients in the past.Given the torrential rains throughout the year in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, a dehumidifier was an essential product for factories, yet sales were not picking up as anticipated. Dehumidifiers as an industrial product aided many manufacturing units, as they helped in controlling moisture by extracting water from the air, thus reducing humidity and preventing the growth of mildew. There were myriad manufacturing companies in Yangon because of the availability of cheap labour, yet sales for certain months were flat, with not even one sales call funnelling to final action. These lull periods made Vipul anxious and forced him to think if he had entered the wrong industry. He even thought if the first-mover advantage turned into a disadvantage for him. The initial reason he speculated about this sales barrier was the price, as it was a high-investment product for industrial buyers. However, he also posited to himself that he might not have been able to position the advantages of the product aptly in the minds of the potential buyers.Unable to find a definitive reason for the sales barriers of the dehumidifiers, he approached his friend, Myint Than, an independent consultant and visiting faculty at an MBA institute where he taught sales and marketing strategy courses. Vipul and Myint had to find the reason for the barrier to the dehumidifier sales and eventually make a strategy to overcome these barriers for future growth before deciding the sales target for the year 2020.

Asian Journal of Management Cases, Ahead of Print.
Laxman and Joel, managing directors of Lakshya Foods India Ltd., faced a positioning issue for their milk brand. The young entrepreneurs had acquired a stake from Mr Redu, the founder and owner of Lakshya, a regional dairy company based out of Haryana, India, in 2012. While designing their annual marketing plan for 2019, they were not able to figure out what made Lakshya different from its competitors.The dairy market dynamics were changing with varying consumption patterns, people becoming more health-conscious, a rise in disposable income and consumer demand for variety in the product range. Due to these changes, the competition was growing intense in the dairy business. From renowned national brands such as Amul, Mother dairy, Madhusudan etc., establishing foothold to various app-based online milk vendors such as Daily Ninja, Milk Basket and Country Delight entering dairy space, everyone was fighting for more market share. There was a substantial unorganized market that had a loyal customer base. Different brands were using different value propositions to compete in the market, such as quality, purity or attractiveness of the packaging to pull consumers. The two young entrepreneurs were unsure about what would work better with the Indian buyers; purity, freshness, taste or health. These milkpreneurs wanted to convey a proposition that was deeper and moved Lakshya from mundane milk to a preferred choice of every household.Until now, there was no clear communication strategy, and various channels were used at any time of the year to reach customers, which led to target bullets in the air and wasting marketing effort. They wanted to make Lakshya a national dairy brand, but they were uncertain how to differentiate their dairy brand. They had to decide a value proposition that would help Lakshya position itself firmly in the dairy market.