Project Proposal

Project Title: BRANDING AND BRAND EXTENSION STRATEGY FOR

EKAM CANDLES.
Project Background:
The Manipal Group owns Ekam Candles which is the domestic brand for the
scented candles business. Scented candles are a lifestyle product. Ekam has
been selling its high quality candles and related products through Mass
Retailers, B2B and Standalone Retail formats. The goal is to develop a
complete Branding Strategy for the Ekam Brand.
This Project aims to specifically find out what other similar products would
the house hold market of India, like to purchase under Ekam, brand name.
Management Objective:
Brand extension strategy for Ekam Candles by leveraging name of Ekam to
enter into new product classes
Research Objective:
To decide on the basket of products that household customers of India would
buy under Ekam brand name
Project Scope:
The study will identify 5 products category, which can use Ekam brand
name, if the company decide to extend into other product categories with
Ekam brand name. . The study will be done on households which use scented
candles. The study will be carried out in Mangalore, Udupi and Manipal
directly and through online in other markets, where customers are present
Conceptual Framework:
Brand extension strategy is the strategy of using the power of using the
original/parent brand to extend into unrelated product category i.e. into another
product class. The extended brand will have the same name as the parent brand.
Hence, brand extension can be considered as the strategy of using a familiar and
established brand name to introduce a product in another product class serving a
new or existing market. This consists of the following steps.
1. Identifying factors of associations of the parent brand
2. Identifying product categories with associations fit

3. The third step is to measure the intensity of associations of these 5 products

against the above 6 factors of associations
4. The fourth step was to compute a correlation coefficient of the factors of
associations of the new products ( product categories) with the parent brand .
5. Establishing additional fits

Information Required:
1. Usage habits of scented candles
2. Identifying most important factors of association of the Ekam Brand.
3. Identifying most important 5product categories, which can use Ekam
brand name.
4. Identifying most important factors of associations of each of the 5
product categories.
5. Establishing correlations of parent brand with the other product
categories.
6. Establishing fit of parent and the 5 product categories on additional
factors.
Methodology:
1. Population characteristics, number.
o Secondary study to find number of households in Manglore and
Udupi.
2. Sample- number, method.
o Sampling Methodology would be proportionate stratified sampling.
3. Data collections methods.
o For primary data we will conduct Focussed group discussion, In
depth interviews in Mangalore and Manipal, Questionnaires
would be used for conclusive study.
4. Data analysis- tools and techniques.
o SPSS would be used for conclusive analysis.
o Factor Analysis: Factor analysis of the attributes, to reduce the
number of factors.
o Logistic Regression: To identify the most important factors based
on their usage of the products.
o Cross Tabulation: To identify if there is a relation between the
demographics and the attributes
o Cluster Analysis: To classify the respondents into clusters based
on their self reported importance to each factors

Deliverables/ output:

1. Report of Usage habits of Scented candles.- Usage purpose, brand

awareness, fragrances preferred, size and shape preferred, type of
stand/container preferred, frequency of usage, Occasions usage,
duration of usage etc.
2. Most important associations of Ekam scented candles.
3. Recommendation - 5 most important product categories that Ekam
can extend to , with reasons.

Project Schedule:
Project start date: 20 Oct 2011
Project end date: 25 Dec 2011
Project review and review dates: 20th November.
Resources Required:
A team of one senior consultant will be working on the project. Computers
and Technology devices will be of the consulting team.
Project Team:
Names

Project Fee:
Item
Consulting fee
Travel to Mangalore
Secondary data
Reports
Misc.
Total Expenses

Title/Roles

Unit
15 hours
5 times
Data
source

Phone no.

Email Id

Fee

Total
amount(Rs)
5000 per hour
75,000
Per
trip=
RS. 10,000
2000
15,000
5,000
5,000
1,10,000.