Jassi and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, the new brand ambassadors of Coca Cola

Popular television character Jassi aka Mona Singh has been roped in as new brand ambassador for Coke along with Olympic silver medalist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

Confirming this, Vikas Gupta, vice President, marketing, Coca Cola , said that Coke would soon be airing two separate campaigns featuring the two individually. However, Aamir Khan would continue to be associated with Coke’s advertising, clarified Gupta. Coke’s recent commercial featuring Aamir on the theme of ‘Piyo Sar Utha Ke’ has just broken on air with the brand proposition ‘Looking up to all good things in life.’ With Aamir already there to rev up the excitement what impelled the move to bring in new faces?

“Both Singh and Rathore are seen as achievers, as go-getters in real life. They have stepped out from the shadows of anonymity to fame by sheer dint of hard work and positive attitude. They are helping us strengthen our proposition of ‘Piyo Sar Utha Ke,’ with values they embody.”

Marketers can't stop innovating !!

Gloria Jean Coffee to enter India

"We have decided to set up outlets so as to tap the expanding Indian market," said Tony White, Gloria Jean's regional manager of operations for India.

"Around 20 outlets are coming up next year in seven cities - New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune," White said, adding the target was to open 300 outlets over the next five years.

"We are in the process of recruiting master franchisees," he said, but declined to divulge details of investment. White said the company conducted an extensive market research in the country over the past six months to understand issues like product positioning, pricing, sourcing and returns.

"The recently concluded research indicated that there is an opportunity for Gloria Jean's to establish itself in the major urban centres," White said.

The retailer would serve 40 different types of coffees and snacks like brownies, cookies, peachiness, pastries, chocolate drinks and ice mochas. The chain will also store gift items, travel bags and designer mugs.

On pricing, White said his company was going to position its coffees between Barista and a five-star hotel. "The price will match Barista's but the ambience will be that of a five-star hotel."
White said the company was targeting executives and professionals in the 25-to-45 year age group who needed an atmosphere much better than the present coffee retailers in India. "There would be a wireless fidelity (wi-fi) system in the outlets for these professionals to help them work even while sipping a cup of coffee."

Gloria Jean's operates some 500 outlets in 20 countries including 300 in Australia.

Data Mining for Marketers

In the last few years there had been lot of importance given to satisfying customers, satisfying their changing needs and coming up with new products and services to satisfy those needs. But considering the diverse nature of customers, it becomes mandatory for marketers to have tools to segment the customers into homogeneous groups. Data Mining tools tremendously help the marketers to get all the above mentioned.

Data mining derives its name from the similarities between searching for valuable business information in a large database — for example, finding linked products in gigabytes of store scanner data — and mining a mountain for a vein of valuable ore. Both processes require either sifting through an immense amount of material, or intelligently probing it to find exactly where the value resides. Given databases of sufficient size and quality, data mining technology can generate new business opportunities by providing these capabilities:
1. Automated prediction of trends and behaviors
2. Automated discovery of previously unknown patterns

TECHNIQUES IN DATA MINING
Artificial neural networks
Decision trees
Genetic algorithms
Nearest neighbor method
Rule induction

HOW DATA MONING WORKS

How exactly is data mining able to tell you important things that you didn't know or what is going to happen next? The technique that is used to perform these feats in data mining is called modeling. Modeling is simply the act of building a model in one situation where you know the answer and then applying it to another situation that you don't. This act of model building is thus something that people have been doing for a long time, certainly before the advent of computers or data mining technology. What happens on computers, however, is not much different than the way people build models. Computers are loaded up with lots of information about a variety of situations where an answer is known and then the data mining software on the computer must run through that data and distill the characteristics of the data that should go into the model. Once the model is built it can then be used in similar situations where you don't know the answer. For example, say that you are the director of marketing for a telecommunications company and you'd like to acquire some new long distance phone customers. You could just randomly go out and mail coupons to the general population. In this case would you achieve the results you desired and of course you have the opportunity to do much better than random - you could use your business experience stored in your database to build a model.

DATA MINING and CRM

It is now a cliché that in the days of the corner market, shopkeepers had no trouble understanding their customers and responding quickly to their needs. The shopkeepers would simply keep track of all of their customers in their heads, and would know what to do when a customer walked into the store. But today's shopkeepers face a much more complex situation. More customers, more products, more competitors, and less time to react means that understanding your customers is now much harder to do. A number of forces are working together to increase the complexity of customer relationships:

• Compressed marketing cycle times. The attention span of a customer has decreased dramatically and loyalty is a thing of the past. A successful company needs to reinforce the value it provides to its customers on a continuous basis. In addition, the time between a new desire and when you must meet that desire is also shrinking. If you don't react quickly enough, the customer will find someone who will.
• Increased marketing costs. Everything costs more. Printing, postage, special offers (and if you don't provide the special offer, your competitors will).
• Streams of new product offerings. Customers want things that meet their exact needs, not things that sort-of fit. This means that the number of products and the number of ways they are offered have risen significantly.
• Niche competitors. Your best customers also look good to your competitors. They will focus on small, profitable segments of your market and try to keep the best for themselves.

Successful companies need to react to each and every one of these demands in a timely fashion. The market will not wait for your response, and customers that you have today could vanish tomorrow. Interacting with your customers is also not as simple as it has been in the past. Customers and prospective customers want to interact on their terms, meaning that you need to look at multiple criteria when evaluating how to proceed. You will need to automate:

The Right Offer
To the Right Person
At the Right Time
Through the Right Channel

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process that manages the interactions between a company and its customers. The primary users of CRM software applications are database marketers who are looking to automate the process of interacting with customers.

Data and Marketers go hand in hand !!

FMCGs now eye countryside for sales

It’s there all right. But consumer goods makers who have hit the dustroads out of the cities are finding rural buyers a bundle of contradictions and paradoxes. Some beginnings have been made, but experts say they are too skewed and superficial to be consistent. At the moment. there’s only ITC and HLL’s e-choupal and Project Shakti, respectively, and there seems to be some enthusiasm about them at the moment.

To read more visit: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1268624,prtpage-1.cms

Santoor increase Wipros Revenue

The brand Santoor’s robust growth for the third year in a row pushed Wipro Consumer Care’s market share in the national toilet soap category to an all-time high of 5.5% by volume and 6.2% by value in the second quarter of ‘05-06. Santoor alone, with a retail value of Rs 400 crore, saw its volume share hit 5% in August this year, up from 3.6% a year ago.

Wipro occupies the fourth slot in the pecking order after HLL (58%), Nirma (12%) and Godrej (8.5) in value terms. Wipro’s strong presence in the soap market is restricted to the west and the south through flagship Santoor and the recently-acquired ayurvedic soap Chandrika (0.4 by volume). Its presence in the north is minimal, with the Milk and Roses brand(0.1%).

Wipro makes a mark in FMCG from IT !!

Marico eyes new markets

FMCG company Marico Ltd said on Sunday that it is looking at tapping newer markets including South East Asia and areas closer to their existing operations like Gulf states.

"The focus of our current international business is the Gulf states and Bangladesh. We will look at tapping opportunities in countries near our current areas of operation in the Gulf, such as Lebanon, Syria and Egypt where consumer habits are similar to our Arab consumers," Marico Chief Financial Officer Milind Sarwate said here.

The company also said it plans to commence exploratory work in some of the South-East Asian markets where it saw a "potential demand" for some of its pre-wash and post-wash hair care products, he added.

The aggregate international business of Marico, comprising the FMCG business, Kaya in UAE and Sundari in the US for the first quarter ended June 30, 2005 grew by 13 per cent and stood at Rs 26 crore.

Asked whether the company was looking at entering newer segments in the FMCG sector, Sarwate said that it was considering the option. "Marico will largely operate in areas defined by beauty and wellness. We may enter some categories in which we are not present today but our decision as regards the exact timing of commencing the prototype cannot be shared at this point in time," Sarwate said.

The company may prototype more products in the areas of beauty and wellness during the course of this financial year, he said adding that this would involve expanding products which have been tested in a particular market, to other cities and states.

Global Paint Industry ... $84 billion in 2007

World demand for paints and coatings will reach US$83 billion in 2007 driven by higher quality, environmentally friendlier products (e.g., powder-based, rad-cure). Emerging markets in Asia/Pacific, Latin America and Eastern Europe will lead gains while the North American and Western European regions remain dominant.

GLOBAL PLAYERS in PAINT INDUSTRY

Akzo Nobel NV
Asian Paints India Limited
Barloworld Limited
BASF AG
Becker (Wilhelm) AB
Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated
Vertriebs KG
Chugoku Marine Paints Limited
Comercial Mexicana de Pinturas SA de CV
Dai Nippon Toryo Company Limited
Dainippon Ink and Chemicals Incorporated
Dunn-Edwards Corporation
DuPont (EI) de Nemours
Duron Incorporated
Dyrup A/S
Ferro Corporation
Fuller (HB) Company
Hempel A/S
Imperial Chemical Industries plc
Jotun A/S
Kansai Paint Company Limited
Kelly-Moore Paint Company Incorporated
Kemira Oyj
Kumgang Korea Chemical Company Limited
Masco Corporation
Nippon Paint Company Limited
Orica Limited
PPG Industries Incorporated
Professional Paint Incorporated
Renner Herrmann SA
Rohm and Haas Company
RPM International Incorporated
Sherwin-Williams Company
SigmaKalon Group
Valspar Corporation
Wattyl Limited

Best of Luck Asian Paints .. Make India proud being a part of top 5 paint companies in world!!

Co Branding in Credit Cards (Power of Patnership)

It's the mating season in the credit card business. Just about everyone is tying up with somebody else. Look at just the last few weeks.

1. ABN AMRO tied up with the hospital chain MAX to create a ‘Wellness' credit card
2. Jet Airways and Citibank relaunched their co-branded credit card
3. ICICI, which never seems to be out of the news, launched two credit cards in partnership: one with Kingfisher Airlines and the other with Central Mall, which is part of the Pantaloon group
4. SBI Card announced that it had introduced a co-branded card together with Lifestyle, the retail chain.

Just to emphasise the action in the business, in September HSBC launched a private label card for Star India Bazaar, the new hypermarket chain from Trent (part of the Tata Group, Trent also owns retail chain Westside). While Star India Bazaar has only one outlet in Ahmedabad currently, it intends to have more soon. Card holders will get a discount on their purchases at the store.

Grabbing big market share in short time !!

Brand Building of Low involvement category - engine oil Brand

MOTUL Lubricants is on a brand-building drive. Motul? Brand building? For a 152-year-old company, MOTUL Lubricants is little known in this part of the world, though it came into India 11 years ago. There's enough reason for this. The company makes an engine oil brand that is a very low involvement category. Moreover, it is a relatively less marketed brand compared to others in the genre like CRB Plus, GTX and Super TT from Castrol and Servo from Indian Oil. Lastly, it had to pull out of the Indian market for five years in 1997.

For the uninitiated, MOTUL, France, claims to be one of the largest independent lubricants companies in the world and operates in more than 80 countries. The brand, which first entered India in 1994 (in a JV called MOTUL Mafatlal Lubricants), is now available in India through Atlantic Lubricants and Specialities (ALSL), which manufactures MOTUL's products at its in-house plant in Silvassa. Motul's JV with Mafatlal broke up eight years ago and it tied up with ALSL in 2002

Exclusive Diwali pack of Sona Chandi Chyawanprash from Emami

To make this Diwali an occasion to remember, Emami, the Personal and Healthcare major in India, is bringing to its customers an exclusive Diwali Pack of Sona Chandi Chyawanprash. In addition to the 500 gms pack of Sona Chandi Chyawanprash, the Diwali pack contains all ingredients for the Puja - a photograph of Lord Ganesha and Goddess Lakshmi, Diya, Dhoop, Gangaajal, Mishri, Laung, Elaichi, Supari, Janeu, Roli, Chawal, Moli, Puja Vidhi booklet alongwith Aarti and the red cloth. Priced at Rs. 110/-, the Diwali pack will be available across all leading retail outlets.

Speaking on the special Diwali pack, Mr. Manish Goenka, Director, Emami Group of Companies, said, "It is very important to keep our traditions and values alive in these fast-moving times. Diwali is a very special occasion for all of us, the time of the year when family and friends come together. In a culturally rich country like India we in Emami like to reinforce our faith by bringing to our customers this special offer. The Diwali pack is Emami's way of thanking its loyal consumers in India. We hope to bring to our customers many more such delightful trimmings in future. And as our punch line goes 'Shubh Ho Yeh Varsh, Yash Ho Sowbhagya Ho, Sona Ho Ghar Mein, Chandi Ho Arogya Ho', Sona Chandi promises a rich blend of health, strength, agility and alertness throughout the year."

Good change EMAMI !!

Will Mobile Karaoke Become The Next Big Thing In Indian Mobile Content?

Mobile2win India, the subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based wireless marketing solutions provider Mobile2win Ltd and a part of Contests2win.com, has developed a software that will enable mobile users to download karaoke on their phones.

So while the mobile plays the music, the screen will flash the lyrics. One can even search for the favourite singer or music number. Indian users will be the first in South Asia to have this entertainment quotient attached to their handsets. "Only a handful of countries boast of this software. With the vibrant film and music industry in India, there is a big market as people here are fond of music. Those with GPRS mobiles can download songs from their operators’ portal,” said Rajiv Hiranandani, country head, Mobile2win India.

So Mobile2Win is starting its mobile karaoke service in India from October 19 onwards. According to Rajiv Hiranandani, CEO, Mobile2win, mobile karaoke is the next big thing to happen in the mobile value added services sector. "It can get bigger than games if not bigger than ringtones," Hiranandani says. Ringtones currently clock Rs 4-5 crore a month for the entire industry while gaming is about Rs 1 crore a month. So in the long term karaoke on phone can clock about Rs 2 crore. There could be about 2-2.5 million karaoke downloads three or four months down the line. The price point for karaoke songs range from Rs 25-35 per download.

According to Hiranandani, the trigger for this could be when karaoke is available for regional language songs. Mobile2win is planning karaoke in five (more) regional languages like Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi, Malayalam, and Kannada. Mobile2win currently has a catalogue of 200 songs (mainly English and Hindi) which is likely to be expanded to 1,000 songs. The company has tied up with operators like Airtel, Hutch, Idea, BPL, Spice, MTNL, Tata Indicom. Apparently, many other mobile content companies are rushing to operators to provide karaoke services.

So will karaoke be the next big thing?

Airtel To Bring World Cyber Games 2005 To India

World Cyber Games 2005, considered to be the Olympics of virtual gaming, is being brought into India by Airtel. As the exclusive presenting partner in India, Airtel is hosting the championship in the country, the final round of which will be played in Singapore from November 16 to 20.

In order to take part in the competition, Airtel mobile subscribers have to download the games from Airtel Live at the rate of Rs 99 per game and get themselves registered for the championship by paying another Rs 50. They can download and participate in as many games as they wish, but can finally participate in only one gaming competition by uploading his highest score at Airtel by paying another Rs 10. Registration for the championship ends on October 31.

“The gaming competition is getting popular in India as over 15,000 enthusiasts have already downloaded the games,” said Mohit Bhatnagar, Senior Vice-President, New Product Development, Value Added Services & Alliances, Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd.

Another Matrimony Site For Indians: Easternmeetswestern.com

There is no dearth of matrimony and dating portals for Indians. Easternmeetswestern.com is the latest one to join the bandwagon. A statement says, "(EMW) welcomes you to join and use our site as a powerful tool to find friendship, love, romance and marriage at home and abroad. We specialise and are poised to become an outstanding website assisting single males and females in India meet their perfect match from the West, mainly in UK and America." It's more of a dating site rather than a pure matrimony sites like Shaadi.com or BharatMatrimony.com. The latter is planning a dating site targeting NRIs soon. Shaadi already has a social networking site Fropper.com

Modern Indian Is Digital Indian: Survey

These are the key findings from a study by JuxtConsult, a Delhi-based internet research consultancy: -
Digital is the new ‘symbol’ of emerging lifestyles among urban Indian net users
Digital is increasingly dominating net users’ lifestyle choices
Digital friendly features top their gadget buying agendas
Netizens are fairly ‘integrated’ Indians in their media habits
More of them prefer to ‘invest’ rather than to ‘save’
They associate success very highly with ‘monetary’ success, but essentially look up to Indians as their role models.

For details, visit: http://www.contentsutra.com/blog/_archives/2005/10/6/1283714.html

What is FMHP??

Goods have started being defined from FMCG to FMHG - Fast moving Health Goods - Pudina Hara, Vicco Turmeric Creams, Face Wash - these are some goods whose paterms have changed.

FMCG advertisers are missing a trick in ignoring online advertising

With broadband penetration at a record high and young people spending more time online that with traditional media, why don't FMCG brands recognise the power of internet advertising, asks Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

We can all guess that telecoms is a big online advertiser, like finance and travel. But future growth is set to come from FMCG and retail advertisers. These guys are currently conspicuous by their absence. Such marketing directors tell me that their customers would never go online for products.

I think these advertisers are missing a trick because the entire audience for, say, youth products has migrated almost entirely online.

FMCG advertisers would kill for an opportunity to engage with a young person -- traditionally 30 seconds on TV, why not three minutes or more online?

Smart advertisers are waking up to sophisticated on-demand video ads in the same way that the music and movie business has been streaming film trailers and pop videos at us for the past couple of years.

I'm not talking about viral ads -- those quirky chopping the head off a cat clips that may come our way -- I'm talking about big audience, TV-like spots delivered to your desktop. Web-streamed ads are effective at building brands and hit the jackpot when a user clicks through to a website to download a promotional e-voucher, which in turn helps build loyalty.

EIAA study finds Internet advertising builds FMCG brands (AME Info): The European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) recently revealed consolidated study findings proving that not only do Internet ad campaigns build FMCG brands across all major brand metrics but that the FMCG category strongly outperformed European Internet brand effectiveness averages.

Target youth Online !!

AGENCYFAQS .. top 20 advertisements

Ranking from 1 to 20

Lux
Pepsi
Surf Excel
Compaq Presario
Tata Safari Dicor
Perk
Hutch
Nokia 6600
Prestige
Asian Paints (Print)
Bajaj Discover DTS-i
Bugle Boy
Sunsilk 9to9
The Telegraph (Print)
Asian Paints
Hyundai Santro
OCM (Print)
Lynx
Pepsodent
Swatch (Print)

To view update ranking everyday, visit - http://www.agencyfaqs.com/community/top/secop_top20.html

General Motors moves to McCann Erickson & Rediffusion DY&R

DY&R have bagged the creative duties for General Motors.

While McCann will look after all their car lines including Chevrolet Optra and new car launches, Rediff will look after Tavera and Chevrolet corporate business.Confirming this development to agencyfaqs!, Anisha Motwani, director, marketing General Motors India, says, “The size of the business is upwards of Rs 50 crore.”

The incumbent agency for Chevrolet Optra was Enterprise Nexus. The media duties were recently won by Madison Media. Says, Santosh Desai, president, McCann Erickson, India, says, “It was a combination of our in-depth strategy and impactful creative that helped us gain an edge over the others.”

Marico Bangladesh acquired a toilet soap - Aromatic

Marico Bangladesh (MBL) - the Bangladesh-based wholly owned subsidiary of the company - has acquired the toilet soap brand, Aromatic, from Aromatic Cosmetics Ltd (ACL) for an undisclosed consideration.

The soap brand, Aromatic, had an aggregate turnover of about Taka 300 million in Bangladesh with a market share of around 5%. Aromatic's brand equity owes its strength to the quality of the soap and its positioning based on the "halal" concept, which has a strong recall amongst consumers, a Marico statement said.

Earlier this year, MBL had acquired another soap brand, Camelia, to signal its entry into the toilet soaps market in Bangladesh. The acquisition of Aromatic will now enable MBL to strengthen its presence in the soaps category that is estimated at about Taka 6,000 million.

Marico currently enjoys market leadership in the coconut oil category in Bangladesh through its brand Parachute. A strong distribution network that reaches about 290,000 outlets supports this.

Marico operates in the consumer product, skin care services and ayurvedics segments in India.
Marico has done well over the past few years when the FMCG industry was facing bad times. For Q1 June 2005, Marico’s consolidated net profit jumped 22% to Rs 20.77 crore (Rs 16.99 crore). Sales rose 12% to Rs 272.85 crore (Rs 243.94 crore).

Its a global village !!

FMCG companies going the Internet advertising way !!

In the months to come, the share of online ad spend of traditional advertisers in categories like fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), such as Hindustan Lever Ltd, Pepsi, Coke, telecom, such as Airtel, Tata Indicom, Reliance, and automobiles, such as Maruti, Tata Motors and Hyundai, could go up to 40-50% from the current 30-odd per cent. Hindustan Lever, which has an ad budget of Rs 700 crore per year, has created a separate online ad budget for its products like Axe deodorant and Close Up toothpaste, both targeted at the youth.

Advertisers, advertising agencies and portals in the country, exciting times seem to be ahead!!

Reckitt Benckiser - Career Profile in Sales

The role of the sales organisation is to ensure that consumers can find Reckitt Benckiser products wherever they shop around the world. The objective is also to have our products on the best shelf position in the store, at the best price and promoted in the most effective way.

Roles within Sales include such positions as:

Global Trade Marketing Director
Global / Regional Customer Director
Sales Director, CountryHead of Trade Marketing
Sales Manager Trade Marketing
Head of National Field Sales
Sales Manager National Account
Sales Manager Key Account
Sales Manager Regional Field Sales

As such there is no mention of any Marketing as a functional area in Reckitt

Be a part of Reckitt Sales Team !!

Lifebuoy launches Lifebuoy Clear Skin

Hindustan Lever Limited has introduced the Lifebuoy Clear Skin, a new soap which reduces pimples by 70% when used continuously over a period of 6 weeks.

This has been established through proven scientific tests conducted by the Hindustan Lever Research Centre, in conjunction with independent dermatologists.

Lifebuoy Clear Skin’s formulation includes a number of ingredients, one of which is multani mitti that works on skin by absorbing excess oil and eliminating the pimple-causing bacteria without over drying the skin.

Young adults often suffer from oily skin and pimple irks. Lifebuoy Clear Skin provides the remedy for these ailments and inspires Lifebuoy’s ‘Koi Darr Nahin’ confidence against pimples.
It is priced at Rs13 for 75gms and Rs20 for 125gms.

Nature Care...Brooke Bond launches flavoured tea in India

Brooke Bond on Thursday introduced to the nation a unique flavoured tea called 'Brooke Bond Red Label Natural Care'. The offering is tea with its goodness enhanced by the addition of the natural flavors of Adrak, Ashwaghandha, Mulethi (Yashtimadhu), Elaichi and Tulsi. With this launch, India's leading tea brand creates a new segment within beverages, targeted at families seeking wellness in their daily lives.

Vineet Taneja, VP, Tea, HLL said, "Our aim has been to provide a unique and relevant product, to make a real difference to consumers' lives. Tea itself is known for its myriad benefits, and the addition of these 5 natural flavours makes the cup even more full of goodness, not to mention, pleasant to taste -that's why we call it the 'Pyaar ka Pyaala, sehatwaala', a truly innovative offering."

The Company said that, its Tea Excellence center in Calcutta worked closely with the research center in Bangalore for the development of this product. They researched the five natural flavours and concluded that they worked well as a combination in this flavoured tea because they contain those that are familiar (Elaichi, Adrak, Tulsi) as well as those, which are not usually accessible in the kitchen in day-to-day life today (Ashwagandha, Mulethi).

A major criterion in the selection process of these natural flavours was the perceived fit with tea, and the end result is a unique product, which is healthy, as well as tasty.

Affordably priced since it is meant for daily use by consumers, the flavoured tea will be available in two pack sizes, a main pack of 250g for Rs53, and a trial pack of 100g for Rs20.

Colgate launches toothbrush with a tongue cleaning feature

Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited (CPIL) on Tuesday announced the launch of New Colgate Super Flexible Toothbrush, India's first toothbrush with tongue-cleaning feature at the back of its head, that gives a 'Whole Mouth Clean'.

New Colgate Super Flexible, which builds on the best-selling Super Flexible range of Colgate, boasts of 'premium' bristle profile. It uses imported bristles with raised tips that reach in-between teeth and also back teeth. The firm inner, coloured bristles gently scrub the tooth surface to remove plaque while the soft outer bristles gently massage the gums. At the back of its diamond-shaped head is a special ribbed design that serves as a tongue-cleaning device that removes deposits from the tongue.

Practical concept !!

GSKCH launches two new Horlicks biscuits

GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, said on Monday that, it has launched Horlicks Lite and Horlicks Lite Bite, products that have been specially formulated keeping in mind the dietary needs of health conscious adults.

This product is also suitable for people with diabetes. Horlicks, the pioneer in innovation in the health food drinks segment, has yet again delivered a product, which will help alleviate a lot of concerns that adults have with age. Horlicks Lite will also help people with diabetes in managing their daily diet requirements.

Learn product innovation from GSK !!

Rasna forays into fruit Juice market

Rasna Pvt. Ltd. made announcement to foray into the highly competitive Fruit Juice market by launching Rasna Juc Fit. Rasna Juc Fit is enriched with vital vitamins, minerals and calcium fulfilling human body's daily nourishment requirements and available in three appetizing flavors - Orange, Mango and Mixed Fruit at selected outlets.

The launch of the new fruit juice based health drink has been backed by an extensive research in a number of Indian cities. Based on the research, Rasna Juc Fit is expected to fill the need gap that currently exists in the mass market for a healthy and affordable fruit juice. Rasna Juc Fit will front end Rasna's consolidation of the Indian juice market.

The launch of the new product is being backed by an aggressive marketing strategy that entails extremely economical pricing, excellent quality standards and a strengthened dealer network of 1.7mn retailers.

Rasna is the first company in India to introduce a fruit juice product with 100% Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA), 7 essential vitamins and minerals. Rasna Juc Fit, the product for every healthy Indian home, adds fitness with style. Bollywood heartthrob, Hrithik Roshan is endorsing Rasna Juc Fit and will be featuring in its print advertising campaigns.

Rural FMCG demand to grow over 50% by 2010

The Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry will witness a growth of more than 50% in rural and semi-urban markets by 2010, and will grow at a CAGR of 10%, according to an analysis carried out by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM). This will boost the market size of the FMCG industry to Rs1 trillion from the present level of Rs480bn, the study added. The industry chamber’s study is based on the feedback it obtained from various district industry centers all over the country on the future demand-supply situation of FMCG products.

The growing penchant and insatiable appetite of rural and semi-urban folks for FMCG products will be mainly responsible for this development and manufacturers will have to deepen their marketing presence for higher sales volumes in these areas, says the ASSOCHAM study. In the rural and semi-urban areas, FMCG market penetration is currently less than 1% in general as against its total growth rate of about 6.2%, says ASSOCHAM President, Mahendra K. Sanghi while releasing the analysis on FMCG Rural and Semi-Urban Prospects by 2010. Sanghi says that the Indian rural market with its vast size and demand base offers a huge opportunity that FMCG companies cannot afford to ignore. With 128 million households, the rural population is nearly three times the urban, he adds.

The ASSOCHAM President says that the FMCG products which will attract rural and semi-urban citizens will mainly comprise soaps, detergents, cold drinks, consumer durables, toothpastes, batteries, biscuits, namkeens, mosquito repellants, refined oil, and hair oil. The industry chamber estimates that in the semi-urban areas a lot of malls will have been put up in the next 2-3 years to sell large volumes of FMCG products and thereby increase their demand phenomenally.

Though the rural and semi-urban demand of FMCG products will grow, it will put a severe pressure on the margins of FMCG manufacturers because of cut-throat competition, says the ASSOCHAM study. The branded companies in the FMCG sector that will make a killing will include the likes of Nirma, HLL, Dabur, ITC, Godrej, Britannia, Coca-Cola, Pepsi etc.
The rising rural and semi-urban income levels coupled with massive advertisement of FMCG products in the electronic media will spread awareness towards consumer products. ASSOCHAM is also of the view that the rural market may be alluring but it is not without its problems: low per capita disposable income that is half the urban disposable income; large number of daily wage earners; acute dependence on the vagaries of the monsoon; seasonal consumption linked to harvests, festivals and special occasions; poor roads; power problems and inaccessibility to conventionaladvertising media. However, the rural consumer is not unlike his urban counterpart in many ways.

The other difficulties which the FMCG companies are likely to face will include availability of the product or services, says the study. India's 627,000 villages are spread over 3.2mn sq km; 750mn Indians live in rural areas, finding and delivering them consumer products is a tough task, it adds. Given the poor state of infrastructure, it is an even greater challenge to regularly reach products to the far-flung villages. To service remote villages, dealers use auto rickshaws, bullock-carts and even boats in some parts of the country.

Affordability of the product or service to rural consumer is also a big problem, says the study. With low disposable incomes, products need to be affordable to the rural consumer, it adds. ASSOCHAM has therefore suggested that to tap the rural and semi-urban market, better infrastructure facilities like roads, better telecom connectivity to rural persons, proper sanitation and healthcare facilities should be created, concludes the study.

Marketers target the bottom of the pyramid !!

Asian Paints .. Career Growth Path

Entry Level

Area Manager - Retail Sales

He consistently focuses on productivity of Working Capital and has to possess knowledge of costs or overheads of the product and the related statutory rules.

He suggests system improvements for cost control and to improve service levels.

He is responsible for support to other functions in his specific product area and has to implement and champion various marketing and retailing initiatives undertaken in the field.

He has to have a working knowledge of sales management and a basic understanding of brand management and market development

Brand Manager

He consistently focuses on productivity of Working Capital and has to possess knowledge of costs or overheads of the product and the related statutory rules.

He suggests system-oriented improvements for cost control and to improve service levels.

He is responsible for support to other functions in his specific product area and has to implement and champion various marketing and retailing initiatives undertaken in the field.

He is responsible for developing the right marketing mix, achieving targets and designing marketing initiatives to generate or maintain demand.

He develops and implements the brand communication package and advertising systems and is responsible for agency handling and accounting.

He should be aware of the information systems involved in brand monitoring, possess market intelligence and focus on removing bottlenecks by improving the system.

He should possess detailed knowledge of each market segment, their positioning and interpret consumer research findings to help in the commercialization of New Product Introduction.

He supports and participates in retailing, by increasing machine penetration, deciding the price, distribution and training, and monitors the installed machines (Dealer Tinting Systems)

He should possess a basic understanding of sales management.

Level 1
Regional Manager
Group Brand Manager

Level 2
Divisional Manager
Marketing Manager
Marketing Manager - Project Sales

Level 3
General Manager - Sales
General Manager - Marketing

Level 4
Vice President - Sales and Marketing

Do you think you have it ??

Reasearch Paper: India could pioneer a new Business Model for FMCG

The apparent slide in the fortunes of many FMCG companies during the last couple of years seems to be the sign of times to come. I believe that it is a sign of the paradigmatic shift from Industrial Economy to Information Economy.

The major FMCG companies have to now move on to a new business model. This paper outlines a way to move towards such a model.

It is time large firms in India came up with bold new initiatives. For FMCG companies in India they have to craft a strategy that adequately takes into account the singularly unique characteristics of India and also move towards meeting triple bottom line results.

The rest of this paper is divided into the following sections
A. Typical current business model of FMCG companies
B. Ground Reality Created by the Existing Business Model
C. What can be done now? Towards new business principles
D. The New Business Model
E. Advantages of the new model
F. Important Questions that will need to be answered

To Read full article read: http://innovationsankaran.blogspot.com/2005/05/india-could-pioneer-new-business-model.html

Lovely Insights !!

FMCG Basics !!

The Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector is the fourth largest sector in the economy with a total market size in excess of Rs 60,000 crore. This industry essentially comprises Consumer Non Durable (CND) products and caters to the everyday need of the population.

Product Characteristics

Products belonging to the FMCG segment generally have the following characteristics:

1. They are used at least once a month
2. They are used directly by the end-consumer
3. They are non-durable
4. They are sold in packaged form
5. They are branded Industry Segments

The main segments of the FMCG sector are:

Personal Care: oral care; hair care; skin care; personal wash (soaps); cosmetics and toiletries; deodorants; perfumes; paper products (tissues, diapers, sanitary); shoe care. Major companies active in this segment include Hindustan Lever; Godrej Soaps, Colgate-Palmolive, Marico, Dabur and Procter & Gamble.

Household Care: fabric wash (laundry soaps and synthetic detergents); household cleaners (dish/utensil cleaners, floor cleaners, toilet cleaners, air fresheners, insecticides and mosquito repellants, metal polish and furniture polish).Major companies active in this segment include Hindustan Lever, Nirma and Reckitt & Colman.

Branded and Packaged Food and Beverages: health beverages; soft drinks; staples/cereals; bakery products (biscuits, bread, cakes); snack food; chocolates; ice cream; tea; coffee; processed fruits, vegetables and meat; dairy products; bottled water; branded flour; branded rice; branded sugar; juices etc.Major companies active in this segment include Hindustan Lever, Nestle, Cadbury and Dabur.

Spirits and Tobacc Major companies active in this segment include ITC, Godfrey Philips, UB and Shaw Wallace. An exact product-wise sales break up for each of the items is difficult.

The size of the fabric wash market is estimated to be Rs 4500 crore; of household cleaners to be Rs 1100 crore; of personal wash products to be Rs 4000 crore; of hair care products to be Rs 2600 crore; of oral care products to be Rs 2600 crore; of health beverages to be Rs 1100 crore; of bread and biscuits to be Rs 8000 crore ; of chocolates to be Rs 350 crore and of ice cream to be Rs 900 crore.In volume terms, the production of toilet soap is estimated to have grown by four per cent in 1999-2000 from 5,30.000 tonnes from 5,10,000 tonnes in 1998-99. The production of synthetic detergents has grown by eight per cent in 1999-2000 to 2.6 million tonnes. The cosmetics and toiletries segment has registered a 15 per cent growth in 1999-2000 as against an annual growth of 30 per cent recorded during the period 1992-93 to 1997-98.In the packaged food and beverage segment, ice cream has registered a negligible growth and the soft drink industry has registered a six per cent growth in 1999-2000.

Nice Stats !!

Unilever .. the FMCG major - coming out of Ice Cream and Frozen Foods

1. Foods Business - 49% of Unilever's sales
2. Ice Cream and Frozen Food Business - 30%

-> European Market - 43% of Unilever's sales

With Europe getting increasingly more health conscious, frozen meals are falling out of favour with consumers. Chilled fresh foods, organic foods and chilled ready meal kits have been eating into frozen foods market - ever since Healthy Eating Campaigns have caught hold of European palate.

Unilever Brands
1. Birds eye
2. Findus
3. Iglo

Unilever has appointed Goldman Sachs to review and recommend more investment or creating a subsidiary. The most appropriate move would be a sell-off which would fetch $2.5 billion.

New Marketing Mantra: Star couples at Package Rates

Book one and get other at discounted rate. This is no more for goods or servives, rather it is applicable to Bollywood.

Its a win win situation for those who hire the stars gets a neat price cut and bulk dates, while the stars gets an oppurtunity to combine business with pleasures

1. Ajay and Kajol Devgan - 3.5 lacks for two year deal plus six months airing time
2. Shahid and Kareena Kapoor
3. John Abraham - Bipasha Basu
4. Amisha Patel and director Vikram Bhatt
5. Sushmita Sen and Randeep Hooda

Keep going Marketers !!

Microsoft, HP, Sony in Restructuring Mode

To combat growing competition from nimble players like Google, Yahoo, Oracle and Linux, Microsoft would reduce the number of business units from 7 to 3 with a president heading each unit. The plan is to speed up the decesion making process and organize the company around Windows, Office and Xbox

Sony is gearing up to handover 100 pink slips worldwide (7% of workforce) and close down 11 manufacturing plants by end 2007. This is done to revitalize its faltering electronic business. This excercise will save $1.8 billion.

Mark Hurd after Carly Fiorina has gone for restructuring by:

1. Stopping Digital Camera Business in Asia
2. Stop reselling Apple iPod
3. Out of total employee strength 151000, 14500 jobs have been slashed (10% of its workforce)

Lets see whether this will help them or not !!

FMCG major Gillete divest its overallaping products (part of P&G acquisition of Gillette )

US anti-trust authorities have given a go ahead to P&G for its $57 billion acquisition of Gillette. This all comes with a stipulation that Gillette divest its overlapping products:

1. Right Guard (men's anti-perspirant deodorant)
2. Rembrandt (at home tooth whitening)

One has to loose something to conquer over other !!

Future of Consumer Durables - conventional to high end

We know that in Rs 400 billion consumer durable industry, price margins are very low. This has led to exit of many players like Kelvinator, Weston etc.

There are main 4 categories:
1. Colour Television
2. Refrigerator
3. Washing Machine
4. Microwave Oven

LG is the leader in all the above categories.

The promising sectors in future are frost free refrigerators, fully automatic washing machines, micriwaves, ACs, hobs, hoods and built-in ovens.

There is a specific segment of Indian consumers who are shedding their value of money image and opting for high end durable products, despite "high cost" factor.

A) Conventional CTV saw a 19.8% decline in sales, the high end flat screen ones on the other hand saw a 78.3% volume growth
B) 14% growth for normal air conditioners in first six months of 2005, while split air conditioners the growth was 30%
C) Samsung expects the value contribution of their high end CTVs to their total CTV range to gro from 4 to 10% this year

Last year, 65% of LG's total revenues of Rs. 65 billion came from non-urban sources. This is much more than industry average of 25 to 30%.

So Marketers have to keep a balance of Coventional and high end consumer durables.

Bottom of Pyramid vs Diamond Peak of Pyramid !!

From few to 100 Radio Stations soon .. bigger medium for marketers to advertise

Indian radio is on the verge of a boom with new rules abolishing huge license fees and allowing 20% FDI.

Advertising revenues on radio is expected to grow by 20% this year from 220 to 260 crores.
US - 14000 radio stations !!

Lets see the Radio Boom !!

Brand Portfolio and Pareto Rule

1. To attract foreign equity, Vikay Mallaya has amalgamated all 8 group companies to form United Spirits Ltd. This will be the world's third largest spirits marketer. 30 brands out of an attractive 130 brands account for 90% revenues of the group. This reminds me of the Pareto 80:20 rule. But here it is 23% of the United Spirits Brands accounts for 90% of revenues. This has prompted pruning of brand portfolio in next fiscal.

2. We saw the same thing which fews years back in case of HLL. They narrowed down their focus from more than 100 brands to only 30 power brands.

So at the corporate level, business leaders have to prune their unnecessary bigger brand portfolio to managed and more profitable portfolio.

Do you guys have more example ??

Airline Business .. targeting Bottom of the Pyramid

The Deccan airlines were the first in India to offer tickets for Re 1 to Rs 500.

Capt. Gopinath's Vision - "each and every individual, whether a labourer or a professional, should definately be able to take atleast one flight a year". According to him - "Emerging India was not about 1 billion hungry people, but 1 billion hungry consumers"

Out of 20 million passengers travelling by train, Capt. Gopinath suggests that even if they get 5% to travel by air, it will be 1 million passengers, which currently is 50000.

Strategy: Use small 48 to 50 seaters planes for towns and large planes for metros
He projects that Air Deccan will touch 4 million passengers by end of the year, which is half of what Indian Airlines achieved in 50 years - Signifies the paradigm shift.

Air Deccan did not only remove the price barrier, but also the social and caste barrier to air travel !!

Strategies for Consumer Goods

Consumer goods companies thrived in the past decade's tough climate thanks to a focus on strong brands and big productivity improvements. But mounting pressure from thrifty consumers and powerful retailers, combined with diminishing returns from efficiency efforts and heightened competition in emerging markets, is forcing companies to rethink their strategies for future growth.

To read more visit: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?ar=1549&L2=20

Fast Forwarding Digital Cable .. TiVo, DVR, VOD etc

Cable companies that have invested billions of dollars upgrading their networks for digital have been disappointed to find that viewers are churning even faster than they did for analog cable—unless they are offered programs and movies on demand, a technology that makes the digital premium worthwhile to them. There is a catch, however: the networks are reluctant to offer programming on demand because this makes it easier for viewers to skip advertisements and thus costs the networks revenues.

For details visit: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?ar=1283&L2=17

Its a fast world !!

Brand Building in Emerging Markets

US and European consumer goods companies have hit a wall in their home markets; competition is fierce and growth minimal. But as these companies enter the fast-growing emerging markets of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, they face an equally harsh reality. The time-honored techniques that have made them leaders in developed markets—expensive brand building, frequent product enhancements, and sophisticated marketing—are ill suited to the vast, but price-sensitive, middle and low ends of emerging markets. A study of 23 product introductions in such regions illuminates the operational and organizational approaches most likely to succeed there.

To read more about this visit: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?ar=1317&L2=16&L3=17

Bottom of the Pyramid Rocks !!

Marketing to China's Consumers

In China's fast-growing market for consumer goods, most foreign companies sell premium brands to the most prosperous consumers. Several industry leaders have achieved sales of more than $1 billion, but the rest have failed to crack their first $100 million. To scale up, they will have to sell to the mass of consumers with middle and lower incomes. Few foreign companies have gone this route, however, because they fear hurting sales of their premium brands.

To read more about it visit: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_abstract.aspx?ar=1472&L2=16&L3=14

Moving goods in China

It has never been easy getting goods to market in China; even producers of bulk goods and commodities find its transportation system cumbersome, costly, and slow. For makers of finished goods—whose needs are more complex—the situation is even worse: ships and railroads are slow and inflexible; modern trucking networks are nonexistent at the less-than-truckload level; and cargo planes account for only 20 percent of China's aircraft. Yet the business of getting goods to market may soon become more competitive in China—with improved services the likely result.

To read more about it visit: https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/subscribe/index.aspx

Indeed, China is Huge !!

Making BRAND PORTFOLIO work

Brands are proliferating at a breakneck pace. Marketers know that steering a number of them individually often leads to overlapping investments, confused customers, and outright cannibalization, but many resist the centralization and tactics that aggressive portfolio management requires. Companies can overcome this reluctance by appointing a portfolio manager to establish clear roles, relationships, and boundaries for their brands and then, within these guidelines, giving individual brand managers a long leash.

To read more about it visit: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?ar=1515&L2=16&L3=14&srid=264&gp=1

Hope it helps you to design Brand Portfolios !!

BRAND RECALL .. know what you want

When we talk of Marketing and especially brands, concepts like BRAND RECALL is at the top of our mind. I myself is going through articles on. I have found some links which can be useful for you guys.

1. Blog: http://brandrecall.org/
2. http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?ar=1645&L2=16&L3=14&srid=17&gp=0, login to http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?ar=1645&L2=16&L3=14&srid=17&gp=0 to view good articles

You guys can comments some of the links which can be helpful to know more about brand recall !!

Top 100 most valuable brands worldwide - Business Week

Business Week magazine publishes an annual "brand scorecard" of the top 100 most valuable brands worldwide. Some of the results from the 2001 survey, which contained 62 American, 30 European, and 6 Japanese brands, are listed below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Best_Global_Brands

Dabur India launches Vatika - Honey & Saffron soap

Debut in the Rs. 4700 crore soap market
A unique combination of honey & saffron: Shehad ki damak, kesar ka Nikhaar
Isha Sharvani to star in soap commericals

Dabur India Limited today announced its entry in the personal wash segment with the national launch of its new Vatika - Honey & Saffron Soap. This launch marks Dabur’s entry into the Rs. 4700 crore Indian soap market.

Vatika is one of the five master brands of Dabur India with a turnover of over Rs 100 crore and the distinction of being awarded “Super brand” in 03-04. This brand currently has products in the Hair Oil, Shampoo and Skin care categories.

“Soaps segment is amongst the biggest FMCG category in India with 98 per cent of urban and 88 per cent of rural Indians using soap for bathing. Amongst these, the beauty and skin care sub-category ranks the largest and comprises almost 50% of the total soap market. “Vatika - Honey & Saffron soap will be positioned as a natural offering to the consumer who is looking for good looking beautiful skin ”, said Mr. D Garg, VP (Marketing), Dabur India Ltd.

The 100 gm Vatika Honey & Saffron soap is priced at Rs 13 in comparison to other beauty soaps that are priced between Rs 6 to Rs 25.

The company has signed Isha Sharvani, the lead actress of “Kisna”, to star in the commercials of Vatika Honey & Saffron soap. “She was chosen because we felt she was a promising and talented young actress who fits well with the benefit of Natural Glowing Skin”, he further added.

The soap continues Vatika’s promise of offering premium personal care products while using traditional natural ingredients for the modern women. Vatika Soap presents the unique combination of natural ingredients – Honey and Saffron Honey for a clear skin with natural glow. The soap is peach white in colour and has beautiful saffron coloured specks.