Breathe Right Case

Case 2: CNS Breathe Right Strips: Going Global

1. The advantages for CNS taking Breathe Right Strips into international market are:

• Ability to be the first nasal strips company outside the US and Canada;
• Growth potential and increase in sales;
• Ability to introduce other Breathe Right products, once the nasal strips prove to be a success.

The disadvantages are:

• The need to explore and research foreign countries and their OTC market in order to identify the right partners;
• Added costs to create unique packaging that attracts consumers in each of the foreign countries;
• Obtaining necessary paperwork for Product Codes due to Universal Product Codes (UPCs) not being “really universal”.

1. CNS uses a “three-stage” process to enter new global markets. The three stages are:

1. Explore and Test the concept.
2. Establish the product.
3. Manage the product.

Each of the stages plays an important role in ensuring the company is on track to success in a new market. Going global can be a daunting task and by breaking down the process into three stages, CNS makes the process more manageable. The company bases everything on what works in the United Stands and then expands to meet the necessary local needs and customs. It is also very smart of them to have specific criteria to move through the stages. The company performs a criteria screen to make sure they’ve achieved all the necessary steps in the previous stage of the process and can now move on to the next one. Their first criteria screen includes items such as: GDP size and GDP growth, product acceptance, political stability, etc. It is understandable that if any one of these criteria is not met, the company will have trouble penetrating the market or making profits. I would say that the main advantage of this is the ability to see a “red flag” without going too far into the process.

1. In my opinion, countries with rising demand for over the counter drugs and, as CNS suggests, high GDP and GDP growth have the highest priority for the company. Such companies are: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, Japan, China.

1.  I would target people who snore to enter a new market. The reason for that is the other two main customer categories for CNS are: athletes, trying to improve performance and people with allergies.  Let’s review each of them: athletes – though there are athletes in every country in the world, some of them may not be a large enough group to make an impact and it may be hard to reach them directly. Additionally, professional athletes in other countries may have existing endorsement deals that prohibit them from signing on with another brand, especially a brand new foreign one. As for people with allergies, first of all, the percentage of people with allergies is smaller than those who snore. Additionally, allergies tend to be a seasonal issue and that may affect the success rate of the new product. The company would have to time the release of the product perfectly to the allergy season to make it more relevant. Since in this case we are talking about entering a global market, I don’t think a company would need any additional pressures (i.e. timing the release of the product).

1. Marketing mix is a combination of 4 controllable elements: product, price, promotion and place. These elements are used by marketing professionals to develop marketing programs to reach consumers and satisfy their needs. I believe that in order to succeed in a global arena, CNS needs to focus on the first “P” of the marketing mix – the product. What they are selling is so unique that they need to ensure there is a need for their nasal strips in the market they are about to enter. The company needs to make sure its researchers identify the real market and then also quantify and justify it.  If I could pick a second variable, it would be promotion. Since the majority of consumers in a new market will not have any past experience with nasal strips, it will be very important for CNS to launch a campaign that would demonstrate how to use the product and also talk about benefits, baked by testimonials from trusted sources.