Marketing Management: Case Study No. 1 – Mr.

Basu’s Safes

Early morning, deep into the monsoons, on a severe rainy day, Mr. Basu was sipping his ‘garam
chai’ at his residence in Belgachia, northern part of the city of joy. He was contemplating shutting his
business and working for someone. ‘Kolkata’, he thought was not giving him the joy of doing
business which he so desired after taking over his father’s profession as a Safe maker. After his
father passed away in 2009 Satyan Basu decided to start his own ‘Safe’ company. He realised he
had gained valuable experience from his father who had been in-charge of production in a medium-
sized ‘safe’ company in the city. After finishing his Polytechnic Diploma in 2005 he had joined his
father as a junior engineer in “Prasad Agarwal & Sons Safe Pvt. Ltd.”. After four years of rigorous
work in the foundry of his father’s production setup he decided to start a company of his own. He
was not the ‘yes sir’ type and had the passion of producing his own brand of Safes.
Now it’s middle of 2012 and Satyan Basu was in deep trouble with his business. His company
managed to sell only one hundred and twenty three safes which did not cover his operating
expenses and have been running on red since inception. He had started his venture with a capital of
about 10 lakh rupees. He invested 6 lakh on machinery and manufacturing equipments and the
balance was left for working capital purposes. He had setup his small factory in his own house
premises in Belgachia since he did not want to incur additional rental costs. Also considering his
limited budget he accepted to set up his Retail Shop in Ultadanga market since it was near to
Belgachia. The shop rental was cheap and Ultadanga being the main consumer marketing hub of
North Kolkata and its Suburbs region made Mr. Basu to choose this location for selling his Safes.
There were only two shops selling ‘Safes’ in Ultadanga, one ‘Electro Bazaar’ which sells safe and
other Consumer Durables like Kitchen appliances , TVs, Refrigerators and Washing Machines and
the second one ‘Home Emporium’ which sells Household Furniture and few Safes like the ‘Godrej
Storewell’. Mr. Basu was the only one specialising in selling Safes with his own brand of Safes
called ‘Strong Safes’. He made only two types of safes:
1) Cupboard type of 6.4 ft height and
2) Locker type of 2.2.ft height
Both were made with good quality raw materials and had Fine Powder Coat Finish. The quality and
finish were as comparable to the Safes being sold by the other two shops at Ultadanga. With such
quality and life-time warranty ‘Strong Safes’ were priced atleast 20% lower than the comparable
Safes sold in the other shops. However, Mr. Basu couldn’t comprehend the low sales figures of his
safes not that the other two shops were faring any better. Most of the sales happened only during
the marriage season which was during the months of November to March and May to June. But
during the other months the sales were dismally low.
Mr. Basu is running out of cash and he is desperate to save his business. He feels he can make
quality ‘Safes’ which can sell very well. But don’t know how to revive his business and fulfil his
dreams.
What should Mr. Satyan Basu do?