Vidita Cleaning Products vs Rainbow Market Research Services
On July 23rd 2013, Malini Ahuja (Malini), Marketing Manager and Partner at Vidita Cleaning Products (Vidita) was wondering whether the lawsuit filed by her on behalf of her partnership firm (Annexure I) was an appropriate decision. Through her lawyer, she had just received a copy of the written reply (Annexure II) filed by Rainbow Market Research Services. The said reply was in response to her complaint filed in the court of Mumbai for Rainbow’s fudging of field data.
As expected, the defendant, Uday Mirchandani (Uday), Managing Director, Rainbow had refuted the allegations. Now the case would be called for hearing in the court and Malini had no clue as to when exactly the trial will begin or how long this battle would take. She remembered that her lawyer had once quipped whether the suit is an answer to the question “Who should bell the cat?” She started to think whether she could have pursued other alternatives to legal action for the bogus data she received from this agency. After all, who will file a legal case in the Indian courts, where it may take endless time, money and energy to get the judgment, for such a small matter?
Upon reading the written reply filed by Rainbow, she also started evaluating the chances of her winning the case, even if she was right in taking Rainbow to court. Was she on a sticky wicket without the formal contract? Was her research design of using MTNL1 directory for sampling appropriate? Could she prove fudging and what evidences would be needed?...........................
Vidita Cleaning Products
Vidita Cleaning Products (Vidita) was a partnership firm, born out of the entrepreneurial enthusiasm of Malini Ahuja. After completing her MBA from a reputed B-school in Udaipur, Rajasthan, Malini started her business in 2008. It was a small-scale business of cleaning products manufacturing in Jalore, in Rajasthan. Although Malini belonged to Mumbai, she had studied market potential in this region as an assignment in her Marketing course during her MBA.............
Launching New Product in Mumbai
During 2011, Vidita was planning to explore the possibility of launching a new dishwashing liquid. However, they planned to launch this in both Rajasthan and Mumbai, which happened to be the hometown of Malini. Dr. Vasavada suggested that a market research be carried out in Mumbai before taking the decision to launch the new product there..........
Research Design
Malini had to decide if Vidita should launch the new dishwashing liquid. This decision depended on demand in the market for such product. However, she believed that more than ‘to launch or not launch’, it was how to successfully launch which was a more important issue. New product launch demanded relevant marketing decisions pertaining to all elements of marketing mix apart from positioning strategy............
Vidita Goes To Court
After a series of events, which included alleged non-cooperation from Rainbow to execute successfully the market research project in time (Annexure III), Malini filed a civil suit in the court of Mumbai...........
Annexures
Annexure I: Plaint Filed by Vidita Cleaning Products in the Court of Honorable Judge at Mumbai Case No. 360/2012
Annexure II: Written Statement Filed by Rainbow Market Research Services
Annexure III: Malini’s Registered Letter Which Returned Unclaimed
1 MTNL refers to Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, an Indian public sector telecommunications enterprise, which provided telephone services in metro cities in India.