Punjabi Girls Rocks !! .. Royal Enfield Drivers

Punjabi women are increasingly taking to the Royal Enfield as can be seen from the growing number of female members in motorcycle clubs. Several new schemes are being planned for these enthusiasts, such as new adventure routes to add to the existing Rider Mania and Himalayan Odyssey, offering of weekend experiential rides, promotion of bike communities and slight modifications in the product design.

“We are the undisputed leaders of the cruiser segment. There is hardly any competition in the 250cc plus segment. Our sales are growing and we are also making foray into the foreign markets. But keeping with the tradition of the product some changes will have to be made. Our challenge is to bring these changes without compromising on the identity of the bike,” says M Krishan general manager (sales) of Royal Enfield.

Every year, 5m motorcycles hit the Indian roads. Enfield’s annual sales figures of around 40,000 (40% come from Punjab only) may suggest that there is a lot of room for improvement, but it doesn’t seem to bother the company. ”Ours is not a commuting vehicle. Please do not compare a niche product like ours to products of mass consumption,” says S Vaitheeswaran, director (sales & marketing).

Can Royal Enfield extend its brand portfolio to increase its market?

Highest Spenders on Print in July 2005

JULY SPENT on Media

HP - 3.92 crores
Chate Coaching Classes - 3.3
IIPM - 3.2
IDFC - 2.9
Bajaj’s CT-100 - 2.9
Bajaj Discover - 2.6
Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar - 2.6
Hero Honda - Glamour - 2.3
Canara Bank - 2.3
Toyota Innova - 2.2

July saw around 34,000 brands buying space for display of their advertisements in the print media.

Do you think IIPM spending 3.2 crores is justified?
Has the spending by the above organizations reaped benefits for them ?

Chillies .. in the brand personality stage

National brands like
Everest
ITC Aashirvaad
MDH
Badshah
President
Ramdev
are all jostling for consumer mind space with blistering marketing campaigns that would put most FMCG products to shame. But they believe it is worth it. Branded chilli powder is today a Rs 200-cr business that is growing at a fiery 30per cent annually. That makes it one of the top money spinner in the grocery business.

Everest, for instance, discovered that people had different preferences for chilli powder. While some liked it hot, others preferred the milder form. Still others liked it ground fine while many liked it coarse. Everest launched three varieties of chilli powders -
Teekhalal, Kashmirilal and Kutilal

But it is uphill, nevertheless. “Chillies are now in the brand personality stage, where they need to state what is different about them. Unfortunately, they all appear quite similar right now. They all want to own the colour red, the word tikha and ethnicity. That is causing a lot of confusion in consumer minds,” says Jagdeep Kapoor of advertising consultancy Samsika. “Apart from functional needs, they now need to cater to a consumer’s aspirational and latent needs and create disparity through intangibles. After connecting with the mind by focusing on price and quality, they now need to connect with the heart. Otherwise, all brands will become clones of each other,” he points out.

Its a jouney from price/quality to Heart !!

What intangibles can marketers introduce to touch the consumer heart ?

DELHI .... RETAIL CAPITAL in 2007 .. But will these Malls survive?

1. Delhi and NCR by 2007 will have 50 malls with retail space of more than 22 million sq ft
2. Mumbai which will have 42 malls and retail space of 19 million sq ft
3. Bangalore will have 14 malls and six million sq ft
4. Kolkata will number four on the chart with 13 malls and more than four million sq ft of space

-- FMCG --

But the biggest question at hand is: When will these 50 malls in NCR break even ? Its not all about opening hundreds of malls, when the customers only visit for window shopping or Bird Watching. When will the large footfalls on weekends convert to sales ?

SENSORY BRANDING ... future mantra for marketers !!

Most marketing and brand building plans pivot around only two senses: sight and sound. However, according to Martin Lindstrom, “Though brand awareness is created, but it gets diluted compared to the rare brands that appeal to all five senses.” Lindstrom believes that more marketers need to take their brands’ imprints beyond the commonly used senses of sight and sound, and capitalise on the stronger impact that they can make the other senses.

Example:
Rolls-Royce has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to reproduce the smell of the classic 1965 Silver Cloud RR, and is spraying it into their cars to ensure that they smell like a ‘real’ Rolls-Royce.
Singapore Airlines: Target all five senses
Kellogs: Emphasis on the sound of chips
Marriott: Smell

Indian Population: The Indian part of the Brand Sense study done by market research agency Millward Brown shows that Indians have over 20per cent more sensory sensitiveness.

In Asia, major hotel chains, airline companies, clothing stores, restaurant chains, theme parks, fashion lines and mobile phone brands have implemented the concept of sensory branding with major success. The same is the case for Indian brands. Indians, in fact, are very open towards the sensory way of thinking as they feel it enhances the quality perception of using brands.

Comment on the above with examples from different industries where sensory branding has led to ROI?

Marketing Analytic Techniques for FMCG Marketers

1. What does beer and diapers have in common?
2. Or men's premium shirts and Barbie dolls?

Why are they placed next to each other in some supermarkets ?

1. Well, it seems men who buy diapers are usually baby-sitting and they invariably buy a couple of cans of beer.
2. Men who buy premium shirts always land up buying Barbie dolls for their daughters to feel less guilty for spending a bomb on a shirt for themselves.

Such connections have come to light through, what is called, marketing analytic techniques. Market analytics is an extension of data warehousing- the storing of information from operational and customer interaction systems .

At present, niche players like Marketics, Fractal Analytics, as well as BPO players like Evalueserve, Symphony Services, B2K Corporation are digging deep into this space.


"In FMCG and retail space too, market analytics is getting bigger. It can help retailers decide which products to carry, how to price those products for optimal sales and where to place those products on store shelves. And, they can use it to decide which products to stockbase on the profiles and buying patterns," said S Rama-krishnan, CEO, Marketics, which does market analytics for leading US clients.

No wonder then, Heineken and Pampers eye each other while Polo shirts and Barbie dolls are within touching distance on supermarket shelves.

Can you think of any other examples - where - Marketing Analytic Techniques have helped FMCG Marketers ?

Aspirational products - key growth engine for FMCG companies in future !!

Hair colours at Rs 399 a pack,
styling spray at Rs 195 a canister,
shampoos for coloured hair at Rs 120 a bottle,
face wash at Rs 95 a tube, conditioning soufflés, shower crèmes...

Priced several notches higher than the current product range, these launches hope to whet the urban consumer's appetite for "aspirational" products.

HLL
Lakme Hairnext shampoo is 15 per cent dearer than Clinic All Clear .. Priced at a hefty 60 per cent premium to the popular Sunsilk range
Lakme has unveiled a range of hair styling sprays and a conditioning soufflé, under its Hairnext range
New skin care brands - Perfect Radiance and Lakme Matteffect - are priced at a 50 to 100 per cent premium to the Fair & Lovely range.

Henkel SPIC
Recently unveiled two new hair colour brands for home use, says that it sees the market for premium hair colour growing at 40-45 per cent, as consumers upgrade from dyes to fashion colours

"We expect non-functional and purely aspirational products to be the key growth engine for FMCG companies in future," Mr R. Subramanian, Managing Director of grocery chain Subhikshahe, pointing out that consumers are willing to pay a premium for beauty, health and food products, but not for detergent powders or cleaning bars.

What can be the other ASPIRITATION BRANDS in future in India ??

NEXT BIG PRODUCT CATEGORY

Hi,

We have seen marketers launching new product categories to fulfill the customer needs.

Pepsi lauched a sporty drink - Gatorade.
HLL launched Lipton Ice Tea.

What is going in the minds of thousands of FMCG marketers in India?

Which can be next big product category which will accepted widely?
What are different options for marketers?

SOAPS ... the most talked product category

There are hundreds of soap brands globally ... Marketers always had a soft corner for SOAPS. Even today when people talk of FMCG, the first thing which come to mind is SOAPS.