Saturday, November 24, 2007

4Ping Brandalysis: Boroline

Boroline: "Khushboo wala cream"
Boroline is a 80 years old brand from kolkata based GD Phramaceutical Ltd. The name Boroline has been derived from its ingredient “Boric” and “Oline” as a variant of the latin word ‘oleam’ meaning oil. Boroline was a house hold name in India especially in the eastern part. Consumers use this brand for different purpose i.e. to cure cuts and stitches after operation and also as a cold cream during winter to protect skin.


Till mid eighties Boroline was an undisputed market leader with almost 100% market share in antiseptic cream market. Today this position is taken away by Boroplus which enjoys 60% market share in 220 cr. antiseptic cream market. (Except in Kolkata where it believed to have higher market share, may be because of emotional attachment with the brand.) The other products which are giving stiff competition are Borosoft and Boro Natural – both from the maverick marketer Paras Phrama - Today market share of Boroline has slipped below 20%.

Over the years Boroline has used different tagline to attract consumer and the latest being “The Boroline – Works Wonder”. I have selected to write about Boroline because it sets a perfect example that addresses the issues of importance of brand management. In spite of being the best quality product in antiseptic cream category, the marketers of Boroline failed to upgrade its product to attract the new age customer. Today most of the users of this product are old aged people. Over the years, marketers of Boroline have kept the same package to keep it as heritage brand. Probably they failed to understand the need of the new generation consumer. One factor that went against Boroline could be its oiliness. Also its dark and dull green colour packaging failed to attract first time buyers. These were the weak points of Boroline on which Emami and Paras hit the hardest. As a result, today Boroline has just remained a brand with higher brand awareness but lower convertibility. They also failed to understand importance of advertising in building a brand. Apart from “Khusbuwala Cream” radio jingle, I can not recall any other form of advertising of this brand. The case of Boroline clearly gives insight that in today’s age brand can not be made only on the quality factor. It requires the perfect blend of quality, packaging, pricing and most importantly management’s concern about brand management.

Interesting fact about Boroline (Courtesy: Super Brand)

  • In 2002, a user while shifting homes found a tube of Boroline manufactured in 1976. He found that it had retained the same texture, efficacy and perfume as the new one.

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