Research by: Dominique Turpin, Umashankar Venkatesh, Jones Mathew, & Sandeep Puri
3rd prize at the 2022 John Molson MBA Case Writing Competition
Abstract
Kineer Services Limited (Kineer) was a social marketing startup set up in 2018 by Lakshmi Narayan Tripathi, a prominent Indian transgender, and Manish Jain, an ex-hospitality industry veteran. Their objective in setting up Kineer was to provide a life of dignity to the socially stigmatized third gender community in India. As a startup, Kineer faced several challenges including finding the right business investors and manufacturing facilities, crafting a suitable distribution set-up, and marketing a commodity product with a differentiated branding strategy. Tripathi and Jain had to try to create a recallable and recognizable packaged water brand using a unique value proposition based on gender inclusivity. They also had to choose between pursuing a consumer market and an institutional market route. Could they hope for a future beyond being a niche brand? Was social marketing going to help them? As B2C sales required massive investments, should the brand continue to pursue the more manageable B2B segment? Should it go ahead with the offer of Cyrus Enterprises to sell its product in the B2C markets? Would selling the product through a third party compromise the brand identity?
To cite this case: Turpin, D., Venkatesh, U., Mathew, J., & Puri, S. (2022). Kineer: A social marketing challenge. IMD-7-2293. https://www.imd.org
To access this case: https://www.imd.org/search/searchresults/?Term=KINEER:%20A%20SOCIAL%20MARKETING%20CHALLENGE
