Get to know your daddy!

Using Father's Day as a hook, providers of paternity test services offer discounts for rest of month to lure clients

Using Father's Day as a hook, providers of paternity test services offer discounts for rest of month to lure clients

Celebrating Father's Day Upto 20% off on Paternity Tests.

No, what you just read is not a misprint. This is exactly how a DNA testing facility is marketing its paternity test services.

It is not the only one to use Father's Day, which was on Sunday, as an opportune occasion to offer paternity test discounts for the rest of the month and attract clients.



Quite a few companies in the business are offering discounts to people who would like to find out who their real father is, or even establish that the person they call father is really their biological parent in case of a doubt.

Dhruv Prasher, vice-president of Indian Bioscences, the Delhi-headquartered company which put up the 20 per cent off deal on its website, said the move to offer discounts for paternity tests was getting a good response.

"We have received a lot of new queries and even those who showed interest earlier have come round to doing it after the discount offer was introduced," said Prasher.

Cost of procedure

A paternity test starts at about Rs 12,000, but with the discount this figure drops to about Rs 10,000, said Prasher.

And in classical advertising tradition, the company's website https://www.inbdna.com/ also asks potential customers to hurry up and avail of the offer now as the discount is valid only till June 30.

Various test options

Another company, Paternity Test India, is offering a discount of up to 25 per cent for a gamut of paternity tests, from those conducted just for the sake of 'peace of mind' to tests that are legally-admissible evidence.
"We conduct two types of tests.

Is that you and me, papa? Paternity tests confirm whether somebody is a person's biological parent by matching DNA.

One is on court orders, and such results are admissible in a court of law, while the second type of tests are those that are done for putting suspicions at rest," said Ritu Sohaney, founder of Paternity Test India, which is headquartered in Hyderabad.
u00a0
"We are offering discounts on all these tests for one week. We want people to find their real fathers on Father's Day, and what better way to do so than a paternity test?"

Sohaney's company usually charges Rs 10,800 for a basic test that is good enough to confirm paternity, but the discounted rate till June 29 is Rs 8,500.

South tops demand

While most such companies cater to demand from all over India, most say they get the majority of their business from southern states, followed by western India centres like Mumbai, the city, and even Baroda.

Advanced DNA, Another Hyderabad-based company, recently slashed its price for a basic paternity test to Rs 9,999 from Rs 11,800.

"We are aggressively marketing the new prices, especially now that Father's Day was celebrated two days ago.
u00a0
"We are promoting it as an 'event special' discount," said a spokesperson of the company over telephone.

Infertility experts who have been associated with paternity tests for many years call such marketing techniques mere gimmicks.

Dr Gautam Allahbadia, whose clinic Rotunda in suburban Bandra, Mumbai, conducts paternity tests says he would still prefer to keep dealing with the company he passes on such work to irrespective of the discounts others offer.

"The company we deal with is into a serious business, while these (Father's Day discounts) are frivolous marketing techniques. I wouldn't give it much importance," said Allahbadia.

Did you know?
Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June

DNA Sources

Cheek swab samples, blood, samples or blood stained clothes, bone, cigarette butts, dental floss, earwax, hair, licked envelope, nails and razors can all be sources of DNA.