Who is Kotler??

Marketing Principles @ Home

2012-01-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

This post is going to throw a lot of insight into our households; the most neglected parts of all our marketers/sales guys who are outside in field or in offices making strategies to wow our consumers. We can rather learn a lot and apply most of consumer behavior/marketing principles at home only! This post is going to be a revelation of sorts..

Consumer is the King - Be it your wife or your kid; this is a golden principle for them. Thou shall not follow it shall run great risks. Be it a trip to market or watching a particular channel; your wife and kids are like 'the consumer' and shall be treated like kings and be followed all times for better household hours :)

Customer Service is the key to success and peace - For couple who have just turned parents; they will agree to this principle with respect to their new-borns! Your kid, if not given service at 24 by 7; it will give you nightmares even during the days. Whether having food in the wee hours of the night or trying every trick to entertain the chap is what tells all newly become parents - that Supreme Customer Service for their kids is a MUST.

Customer is always right! - I am sure, all married men shall agree that this principle is the golden principle of marriage. Wife is always right. Thou shall not follow it shall suffer!

More will follow soon...watch this space.

I am Back!

2011-12-19T11:54:00.000-08:00

Time to write some stuff here..

New Year Resolutions

2010-01-17T09:49:00.000-08:00

This is a little different of a post on this blog which hasnt been updated for quite long. I had been the flagbearer of Marketing on campus during my MBA; however basic financial accumen is a must to have in order to manage the money you would earn thru marketing. Came across a blog - subramoney.com. A post on financial resolutions follows from the same -

Financial Resolutions for 2010!

Doing an article for the New year is easy. Just go to the article you did in the previous year…and change the year.
However is a good list of resolutions that you can make – it is really useful if you made it already, just reiterate it, and follow it! So here it goes
1. I will write down my financial goals – NOW, IMMEDIATELY.

2. I will convert a big portion of my savings into investments – especially if you are less than 55 years of age.

3. I will live a simple, frugal life by choice – but choose my dream career.

4. I will start saving/investing for my retirement – NOW IMMEDIATELY.

5. I will have regular conversations about money, saving and investing with my colleagues, friends, spouse, kids and parents – all people for whom I feel financially responsible.

6. I will not deal in direct equity with my current level of knowledge of equities.

7. I will increase my financial knowledge – inter-alia by visiting www.subramoney.com, www.myiris.com, www.moneycontrol.com, and such other sites.

8. I will maintain my income and expenditure details diligently and keep reviewing them.

9. I will maintain proper records of my assets and liabilities, understand the risk of each asset class, and do proper asset allocation.

10. I will protect all those people dependent on me. Will review my term insurance, medical insurance and retirement and make sure it is up to date and adequate, and the nominees are current.
Most important: Properly stick to all the resolutions!

The Facebook Marketing Bible: 24 Ways to Market Your Brand, Company, Product, or Service Inside Facebook

2009-06-30T19:45:00.001-07:00

The Facebook Marketing Bible: 24 Ways to Market Your Brand, Company, Product, or Service Inside Facebook

Shared via AddThis

Ghajini + Titan

2009-01-30T08:41:00.000-08:00

In these times of recession, film industry is trying refreshig means of promoting films - Ghajini with its ticket booking staff donning the aamir-haircut & aamir himself giving haircuts! May be SRK could have also gone for scooter rides for Rab ne...!

However, Titan's joint-promotion with Gazhini really was innovative. Most of us didnt get glimpse of it as it was localized to Mumbai. Aamir being the brand ambassador for Titan, it added mileage to both movie & brand.

The promotion was like - Enter any Titan EBO and u can win a watch if you can find the watch that aamir wore in Ghazini - in 14 minutes 58 seconds (Remember the short-term memory case!). Titan claims it did wonders with the footfalls...dont know whether it resulted in sale & how many were able to find the watch!

Anyways refreshing!

From Ghazini, remembered that in one of the awards show, Akshay gave away his 'best actor' trophy (For Sing is Kinng) to Aamir for Ghazini....accepting that he never thought that an actor can be so dedicated to his movie..that he can spend 4 hrs daily toiling for those '8 pack abs' for 18 months non-stop!! Amazing really!!

More on Ghazini-Titan (http://in.movies.yahoo.com/news-detail/42453/Titan-Ghajini-Promotion-Rakes-in-Thunderous-10-000-Footfalls-in-Mumbai.html)

Pulsar Mania...

2008-09-08T23:29:00.000-07:00

Pulsar New Ad (bajaj Pulsar Mania 220cc - video powered by Metacafe

3M 4 Marketing Performance

2008-09-08T03:58:00.000-07:00

Measures of marketing performance!!

We all have learnt in marketing basics, terms like: market share, lifetime value and brand equity. These gauges are directly linked to the three specific performance areas that Marketing can impact: acquisition, penetration and monetization.

Acquisition
The first responsibility of Marketing is to identify and enable the organization to acquire customers, without whom there is no revenue, without which there is no business. Acquisition enables the company to increase its market share. Four key performance indicators enable you to address market share:

Customer growth rate

Share of preference

Share of voice

Share of distribution.

Penetration

The second responsibility of Marketing is to keep the customers that the company acquires and increase the value of these customers. It is expensive and ultimately disastrous to have customers coming in one door only to go out another. The following four performance indicators will help your drive these penetration-related metrics:

Frequency and recency of purchase

Share of wallet

Purchase value growth rate

Customer tenure

Customer loyalty and advocacy

Monetization
The third responsibility of Marketing is monetization. Up until the 1970s, a company's value was determined by its book value. Over time, intangible assets, such as a company's intellectual property, customer value, franchises, goodwill and so on have had an increasing effect on a company's market value. Marketing professionals can improve the market value of their company by improving their performance in four key areas:

Price premium

Customer franchise value

Rate of new product acceptance

Net advocate score

Source: Marketingprofs.com

Indian winners @ cannes 08

2008-07-15T22:50:00.000-07:00

Tide Series:

Category: Press LionsClient: Tide DetergentsAgency: Leo Burnett, Mumbai

******

Help Me read This:

Category: Direct LionsClient: Children of the WorldAgency: Contract Advertising, Delhi

******

Twins:

Category: Press LionsClient: Reynolds Permanent MarkersAgency: JWT, Mumbai

I would say - Awesome display of indian Ad industry at cannes 08!!

credits - http://www.canneslions.com/

Marketing world starts finally...!

2008-07-08T11:37:00.000-07:00

Started a new phase in my life...finally out of the software world...!

New job....with new status of married and employed!

The new phase starts in retail/marketing profile in a retail apparel manufacturer!

Can you imagine from software codes to apparrel (i m staggering to spell it only..:) )? However, i think this will be interesting. I have already spent past few days in visiting various malls (as i have been doing since my MBA started..) and my roommate is already cribbing about how i keep dragging him along.

Branded Apparel from some estimate i read last time is around 9000 crore market in india, and each brand is doing a miniscule amount of it given the spate of brands in the market. And given the population advantage, young poulation, increasing incomes...(u must have read it hundred times i guess..), this market is a big opportunity. And truely so, each brand is trying to put up some presence in malls, high streets, tier II, III cities..wherever they can find a manageable rental (thats kinda rare these days...).

However, as marketing bhakt, i always wondedred how cool is FMCG to start a marketing career..but i realize now that apparel market is very tough....given the no of brands ( i heard that it was 28000 on last count in India), and the kind of least u can do in product differentiation....ppl have already tried segmentation - pricewise, genderwise, occassionwise, designbased...agewise...whats left? The kind of retail formats thru which apparel is sold are again umpteen...LFR, MBO, EBO, SIS, MOMPOP, ....And promotions? - buy 2 get 6 free, flat 50 + 20 + 5 + 3.45 + 2.657 % less (what does that mean???), a gillete on 2 trousers, .....again u start doubting am i buying the right stuff...

SO, the big question i am asking these days is that what i will do as a marketing person in apparels?? Whats left?Lets see....how things move!

Innovative outdoors by Garnier Fructis

2008-07-08T11:20:00.000-07:00

Have been through the toll roads in delhi & Gurgaon these days...and found a really refreshing one this time in outdoor advertising.

When u r swaeting it out in the waiting line on the toll, u find a solution right in front on the toll bar - message for cleaner hair by garnier! really caught my eyes..

Also, some really good advertising going on TV these days -
1. Idea ad regarding spread of education
2. Sahara life insurance - gabbar, sambha vambha kahan hai!! - Awesome idea & superb execution!
....
thats it for now.
~nits

Women & Kids Wear Market

2008-07-01T05:10:00.000-07:00

Women's and kids' wear comprised 30 per cent and 18 per cent respectively of the Big Bazaar's annual sale. The company is planning to increase the figures to 35 per cent and 23 per cent respectively by the end this fiscal.

Colour Plus Women
Koutons women
Allen Solly women
Van Huesen Women
Miss Players

Most of the men apparel brands have extended thier brands into women-wear which talks about the opportunity there...given the increase in the working women population in India. For more data...wait

Help Desk services retailing!

2008-07-01T04:56:00.000-07:00

Cellphone recharges, movie tickets, utility bills, cab bookings, rail-airway bookings....u name it they will have it soon......who?? The panwallahs, the kiranas, and the chaiwallahs!! A kind of god-gift for our non-IT savvy fathers & gradfathers....

Only 5% of Indians transact on the web, and many of them are afraid of using their credit or debit cards online. This means 95% of people haven’t got the benefit of the technology revolution that has taken place

Enter the Suvidhaa store, which provides a single counter for multiple services on payment of cash. Convenience is the key word in Suvidhaa’s business model (and its literal translation into Hindi). And realising that neighbourhood stores are where most Indians still prefer to shop, the company has chosen to target such outlets. So, a local kirana store or a mobile phone outlet can enroll as a Suvidhaa franchisee simply by installing a computer with a broadband Internet connection and a printer.

The benefits are obvious, an additional source of revenue, new walk-ins, and an entry into the fast growing services space. For many small retailers this can also serve as a hedge against the onslaught of large modern retail chains, claims Rajde: “Most mom-and-pop stores are facing a dilemma on their future due to big retail. We are empowering them through this initiative.”

Social underpinnings aside, Suvidhaa rides on the opportunity thrown up by the technology and services boom. And with time at a premium for most individuals, services intermediation has emerged as highly remunerative business. While commissions start at Rs 3 for a utility bill payment, they go up to as much as Rs 250 for an airline ticket.

And depending on the location and the type of outlet, kirana stores, PCOs, real estate agents and beauty parlours, the mix of services being accessed varies. Alok Jha, VP-marketing and sales, cites the example of the Suvidhaa counter run by a hot tea stall owner outside Varanasi’s BHU campus that does more of mobile recharges and railway tickets for students headed to their home towns. Then there’s a panwallah in a Mumbai suburb who sells two airline tickets a day.

Suvidhaa’s distribution network is based on the FMCG business, with dedicated distributors who appoint and service retailers in their assigned areas. Retailers are required to maintain a deposit of Rs 15,000 as ‘working capital limit’ with their distributor who, in turn, maintains Rs 3 lakh with the company. “But the best part of our business is that there’s no inventory to be held,” says Jha.

However, to make the service responsive in real time across 3,000 outlets in 125 cities, a robust IT infrastructure has been the cornerstone.

Guess what! Somewhere the mom-n-pop stores are started thinking out of the mind..given the onslaught of organized retail. Hope they continue such feats...

Inflation & Consumption - Both Soar!

2008-07-01T04:43:00.000-07:00

Kishore Biyani of Future Group pointed out India's retail potential to the world and he is now discovering opportunity in inflationary India. As fears increase that higher interest rates will slowdown consumer spending, Kishore Biyani's retail lending company Future Capital sees an opportunity to lend to customers.

Dhanpal Jhaveri, Executive Director, Future Capital, said, "While inflation will possibly eat into the Indian consumer's wallet, they possibly are not as interested in postponing lifestyle choices. That is where we as a financial services company come in to offer credit at the point of consumption."

Over the last ten months, it has lent Rs 200 crore to customers. As interest rates have increased in the last 2-3 months, so too has customer interest in borrowing money from Future Capital.

As a result, his company expects to lend Rs 800 crore over the next six months and customers seem to be lapping it up.

What has also helped Future Capital is that over the last few months, atleast three of its competitors like GE Money, Citi Financial and ICICI have exited this business for various reasons.

With only Bajaj Finance still offering retail loans, retailers lending to customers is not unique to India. Internationally, companies like Walmart and Tesco do it very profitably. In fact, margins in lending are about 4-5% more than double that of retailing.

For example Britain's largest retailer, Tesco earns about 202 million pounds or 10% of its 2 billion pound profit from financial services.

And in inflationary India, lending could not just spur falling sales but also improve bottomlines.

Rural retail...

2008-06-24T10:59:00.000-07:00

According to a YES Bank report, the country's rural retail market is expected to grow by 29 per cent to Rs 180,000 crore by 2010. The rural per capita income is expected to double to Rs 14,000 by 2012 from Rs 7,000 in 2007, as more families switch to commercial farming from subsistence farming, the report said.

E-choupal and Choupal Sagar of ITC, Triveni Khushali Bazar, a retail chain of Triveni Engineering and Industries, DCM Shriram's Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar, Indian Oil Corporation's Kisan Seva Kendras among others are the main players in the rural retailing sector. Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail has also announced its plans to set up town centres with low-cost malls, and rural hubs in towns with a population of less than 50,000.

Future Group had bought 70 per cent stake in Aadhaar from Godrej Agrovet early this year for nearly Rs 30 crore. Aadhaar outlets provide farm solutions and agri services to farmers beside selling general merchandise. Kishore Biyani's Future Group is expecting a revenue of Rs 400 crore by 2010 from its rural retail venture – Aadhaar– nearly five times more than what it earned in FY08. The group is also planning to set up 15 Aadhaar stores this year and 50 stores next year, taking the total number to 130 from 65 now.

Biyani's Moves - MVNO

2008-06-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

Future Group is reportedly planning to come up as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO player) in the country. The group plans to offer talk time as a freebie to the consumers shopping at its retail outlets.

Footfalls.....are falling in India!!

2008-06-18T06:25:00.001-07:00

clipped from economictimes.indiatimes.com

The biscuit retail
major Cookie Man and Chinese fast-food chain Yo! China (as a policy) do not
operate in a mall with less than 10,000 footfalls on an average day. Similarly,
McDonald’s and KFC have moved their mall-based outlets in tier II cities
to high streets or other new malls. Apparel majors AO’s, Nike and Adidas
have also re-located their stores from lacklustre malls to other malls, and even
high streets in the recent past.

Most of these mall-based
vanilla stores are quicker to shut shop than larger anchor stores, which usually
have lower cost per square feet and more bandwidth to re-negotiate rentals.
While kiosks are the first to go, food courts and smaller brands in vanilla
stores, especially the ones that are run on the franchisee model, are next to
follow suit.

Typically, these stores pay maximum rental per square feet and are
looking at being profitable in the very first month,” adds Franchise India
president Gaurav Marya

Only about 50% of the estimated 100 malls across India are doing well. Further, slowdown in retail might see tier II cities like Nashik, Indore, Jaipur, Aurangabad and Ahmedabad repeat the Gurgaon experience.

VF Corp - Apparel Player

2008-06-18T06:05:00.001-07:00

retail

clipped from economictimes.indiatimes.com

The $7-billion VF
has an existing wholesale distribution joint venture with Arvind Mills Ltd, in
which it controls 60% stake, but operates mono brand outlets through multiple
franchisees, including Arvind. VF with brands like Lee, Nautica and Wrangler

VF brands
together have a network of about 150 single brand stores across India with the
denim coalition of Lee and Wrangler accounting for almost 130 of them.

Nautica, a premium sportswear
brand, runs 10 stores while the rest is split between Jansport and Kipling.
Incidentally, Arvind’s share of the current franchisee store network is
less than 50%.

VF is also
working on the introduction of two more blockbuster brands — North Face
and Vans — as part of its plans to tap the outdoor clothing
segment.

Indian Amazon.com

2008-06-17T11:36:00.000-07:00

Per quoted statistics, there are around 40-million online users, of which 28 million are believed to be active buyers.

Futurebazaar can be indian amazon??

more data to be posted...

Indian Retail's customer engagement initiatives...we will help you achieve what u want!!

2008-06-05T08:46:00.000-07:00

Kolkata: Six-year-old Anubhav likes to scuba dive.
But he can’t plunge into an underwater odyssey in the midst of the concrete jungle in the eastern fringes on the city where he lives. The spunky youngster isn’t ready to give up on his dream though. And for now, it’s his neighbourhood retail store that is rewarding him for it.
At a recent drawing contest themed “what you want to be,” run by Spencer’s stores, Anubhav’s sketches of scuba diving won him the top prize. Part of the retailer’s customer engagement campaign, the contest and scores of other programmes that collaborate with local schools to host talent shows, quiz contests, poetry, debating and the like, are bringing people such as Anubhav and his parents back to the stores.

The strategies that aim reaching out to neighbourhood communities are becoming a big hit with the retail industry, and several big brand retail chains are using these innovative ways to keep the customer interested to not just drive up sales during hard times but also improve the image of organized retail lately battered by negative news.

“The purpose of our programmes is community building for customers and adding value to their lives,” said Samar Singh Sheikhawat, vice-president of marketing at Spencer’s Retail Ltd, which runs 400 stores across 65 cities in India. “It’s creative engagement is not only for kids but for their mothers, too,” said Anubhav’s mother Pallavi Mukherjee, who lives in Kankurgachi. “Through such activities, kids internalize learning with fun.” Spencer’s also runs a programme for women, which includes workshops on cookery, home improvement, make-up tips, health, career counselling, diction and parenting. “The workshops are not only enriching but also leave a positive impression of the brand,” said Rita Giri, who participated in a skin-care and cookery workshop conducted through her residential welfare association in Ramgarh in south Kolkata.

The retailer has earmarked 10% of its ad spend for the two programmes, though it wasn’t willing to disclose the actual amount. Like Spencer’s, Pantaloons Retail (India) Ltd, has increased its focus on its customer-connect programme. As part of the plan, the chain runs blood donation camps, creative sessions for women and children, drawing competitions, and magic shows for kids. Pantaloons’ eastern region head Sandeep Marwaha said, “They are a big draw.”

Big Bazaar, an arm of Pantaloon Retail that owns 87 department stores across the country, organizes blood camps, anti-pollution drives, and cleaning up of hospitals as part of its local community-centric outreach strategy. “Our strategy prefers to create value with our customers over plain marketing,” said Rajan Malhotra, chief executive officer of Big Bazaar.

The increase in engagement campaigns comes at a time when organized retail has taken a beating due to widespread protests. Small traders, farmers and shopkeepers wary over big format retail, have opposed private investment in it. Traders fear new competition that they say would take away 40 million jobs.
Large-scale protests and demonstrations had stymied plans of Reliance Retail Ltd, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd, and a joint venture of Wal-Mart Store Inc. and Bharti Enterprises, one of the leading mobile telephony operators in the country.

Reliance, India’s biggest listed company, fired more than 1,000 people and closed stores after protests in northern and eastern India. Foreign retail multinationals such as Carrefour SA and Tesco Plc. have also halted their investment plans in the country. Though local retailers such as Spencer’s and Big Bazaar have been operating hundreds of stores in India without facing protests, they could benefit from a positive brand association, or being seen as people friendly, and reaching out to people’s hearts and minds and not just wallets.

“We sometimes use the platform as an opportunity to clear the air. We talk about how retail benefits the society through quality service, standards and improving the quality of life,” Spencer’s Sheikhawat said.
Some of this customer engagement is delivering tangible results for retailers with an increase in sales. Dasaratha Raman, president of RPG Cellucom India Pvt. Ltd, that runs the Music World and the Books and Beyond stores, says its customer engagement programmes have been effective. “The strategy drives more people to our stores and increase our sales by 15-20%,” he said.

Sheikhawat agrees. The number of visitors to Spencer’s stores rose by 15-20% where it has conducted workshops, he said. The retailer aims to reach 500,000 schoolchildren by tying up with 1,000 schools, and had conducted 130 workshops last year across Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata, and in Kerala this year.

source - Livemint

Why grocery chains everywhere?

2008-06-05T08:35:00.000-07:00

Have you ever thought why suddenly there is a spurt in the new retail chains offering groceries in India...? The answer lies in the retail model not followed until now in India because of the broken supply chain from the farmer to retailer...

Let us start with a brief analysis of the Retail model which includes the likes of Reliance, Subhiksha, Big Bazaar and dozens of other chains. If you look at the much maligned Retail model, in fact, in the entire chain there are four major stakeholders - the Supplier (farmer), Middlemen (path to Retail outlet), and market (Retail outlet itself) and the end consumer.

When we actually have a situation here where all the four stake holders are gaining, what’s the problem? It’s a win-win situation and frankly, quite simple to understand as explained below.

The entire philosophy is based on this premise: Retail industry will pay more to the producer (farmer) and sell at a lesser price to the end consumer. This seemingly magical trick is achieved by making the process more efficient i.e. if the wastage today is about 40%, it will be brought down to, say 15%, and the 25% saved effectively gets shared between the producer, Retail outlet and consumer. Of course, this is a simplistic explanation but it is the basis of the whole business. Let us take each stake-holder and see the effect.

Suppliers: In today’s scenario, farmers are forced to sell to local aggregators or at the local mandis with no storage facilities and they have to sell at the rate offered to them in absence of alternatives. With the Retail shop industry going directly to the farmers to buy produce, the farmers will naturally get a higher price in exchange for the quality demanded by the Retail outlets. In fact, this will also help the suppliers to plan their produce because most of these associations will be long term in nature.

Processors including logistics: While middlemen who add no value will be ruled out, the processors and other persons in the chain will get assured business from known corporates with standardized rates based on higher volumes, assured business and a demand for better process quality.

Retail outlet: The third member of the chain, the Retail outlet, who is actually the risk-taker and the link which is funding the previous two, gains by getting organized, timely, quality assured delivery dictated by the wants and needs of the consumer they are servicing. Having cut down on costs by eliminating middlemen and reducing wastage by forcing the processors and logistics businesses to have high quality set-ups, the saving made is spread out over these three stake holders as also to the end consumers.

Consumer: The final and most important stakeholder. Stands to benefit on account of lower prices, assured quality and a better and standardized shopping experience.

source - http://www.commodityonline.com/news/MostRead/newnews.php?id=8887&cont=1

The Call of the Mall........??

2008-05-27T03:00:00.000-07:00

Given my mania for retail, it was long time due on my books list - The call of the mall by Paco Underhill (The author of "Why we Buy"). And i finally got this book delivered to my address from the indian counterpart of Walmart - Bigbazaar's Futurebazaar.com. Have been toiling with the book since last month....but given these spoiling days of no-work...its taking more than often..

To some extent, the author himself is to blame. I was in the impression that the book will analyze Malls through some sociallogy stuff + amazing observatons + weird shopper behavior...but this book leaves a lot to ask for. Also to cover a single peice of info, the author creates some absurd characters and thier funny dialogues...which makes it boring.

However, it has some good stuff on retail...like:
1. Why departmental stores place perfumes at the entrance most of the times? Is it an impulse purchase...na! then?
2. How parking can be used and is used effectively by Walmarts?
3. How Mall toilets are scarce in nature and why consumer products companies dont use them for product placements or advertising?
......
........think!!

signing off now...till then...more boredom...some more pages...some more some more some more (pappu!!!! ;))

-nits

Chic Shampoo - A case study in rural marketing

2008-05-08T04:44:00.000-07:00

Case: Chic Shampoo- Rural Revolution - Upload a doc

Dabur’s makeover

2008-02-12T10:40:00.000-08:00

Dabur’s makeover
From foods to a new retailing foray, Dabur India wants to grow big in the health and wellness space.

With its Real brand of fruit juices and eponymous honey is Dabur India a foods company? Or, with its Vatika range of shampoos, Gulabari cream and the Odomos range of mosquito repellents and Babool and Meswak toothpastes, a fast moving consumer goods company? Perhaps a retailer, with its new foray into health and beauty retailing with new-u? Or, is Dabur an Ayurvedic and herbal products company? Indeed, with the merger of Dabur Foods with itself, Dabur India is all this and more.
More because the Rs 2,196-crore Dabur India is metamorphosing in a way that any one of these monikers may not suit the company. Instead, with its portfolio of products Dabur, in the coming months, would like to see itself as a player in the health and wellness space where all its brands will be leveraged on these planks. As Sunil Duggal, CEO, points out, “We believe this merger is a unique opportunity to combine the strengths of a foods company with those of a growing and profitable FMCG business to create an extraordinarily strong and rapidly growing global competitor in the health and wellness space.”
Big plans are afoot for the foods business. Today, this segment derives most of its revenues from the fruit juice business, but with a portfolio also of culinary products under the Hommade brand.
“There are opportunities in the ready-to-cook, ready-to-eat and convenience food sectors. These may be small today, but are growing at a fast pace and offer a huge potential in times to come. Our foods portfolio will surely have a greater play in the composition. Our immediate priority is to increase our presence in the fruit drinks market,” declares Duggal.
Dabur: A bouquet of businesses
Dabur has roped in consulting firm Accenture to give it a lay of the land, though the call on what areas to invest in will have to be made. One thing is clear that it will be definitely be processed and convenience foods and not staples. As V.S. Sitaram, Executive Director, Consumer Care Division, says, “We are revisiting the whole approach to the foods business to see what can be the strategy. We clearly think there is a bigger opportunity. It’s about saying that foods should be core to the Dabur India strategy.” As Sitaram explains, in most economies first are the home and personal care products that scale up and as affluence sets in processed foods start shooting up. “Our opinion is that India has reached that level of affluence where people are in the market for more convenience, more variety and increasingly in the health and wellness areas,” he adds. So, the direction for Dabur is clear and that’s what it is signalling to the outside market too that by integrating Dabur Foods (which has been one of the fastest growing businesses for the group reporting a 35 per cent CAGR for the past five years) with Dabur India, it intends to be a serious player which will invest big money to stay the course and build brands.
While the foods foray gains traction, the group has already plunged headlong into retail with new-u, which is “part of our overall strategy to emerge a stronger player in the beauty, health and wellness market,” says Duggal. He points out that Dabur spotted a gap in this retail space with no major player as yet in it and enabled it to have an early mover advantage. It plans to open 350 stores in the next five years and the first store is expected to be opened before the end of this financial year.
With a planned equity investment of Rs 140 crore, Dabur has targeted sales of Rs 1,700 crore over the next five years. “Our USP in the market will be the unique store environment and the diverse range of products that will be on offer at the stores. This, combined with Dabur’s in-depth understanding of the Indian consumer and capability to deliver a great experience at affordable prices, makes us confident that we will break even in the third year of retail operations and generate profits in the fourth year,” elaborates Duggal.
Dabur’s willingness to invest and foray into new business has found favour with analysts. As Nikhil Vora, Managing Director of IDFC SSKI Securities Ltd, points out, Dabur’s business model has the right mix of stable businesses (hair care, health supplements) and strong growth drivers (oral care, foods, international business, health and beauty retail). Says Vora in his report, “We believe that Dabur has the right ingredients to continue double digit top line growth. With a portfolio of strong brands in the hair care, health supplements and home care categories we believe the growth triggers will come from oral care, foods and international business. While the foods business has slowed down recently due to supply chain issues because of the merger of foods with Dabur India, we believe the foods business will notch 25 per cent growth rates over the longer term.”
Meanwhile, Dabur’s mainstay FMCG business has seen robust growth. According to IDFC’s report, the growth in the consumer care division for the nine months ending December 2007 was driven by shampoos (23 pc), oral care (16 pc), health supplements (15 pc), digestives (15 pc), home care (12 pc) and hair oils (11 pc). Toothpaste too has seen rapid growth with Dabur Red toothpaste growing at 26 per cent, Babool at 37 per cent and Meswak at 34 per cent for the first nine months. Says CEO Duggal, “All our key categories have been our growth drivers. In fact, our brands in the toothpaste and shampoo segments have been growing much faster than the industry average. There is a growing audience for Ayurvedic and natural products and our very strong herbal proposition has helped us in this market.”
Asks the CEO of a large retail chain which deals with a variety of Dabur brands: “The issue is that in a health and back-to-roots and Ayurveda market they can do a lot but am not so sure about pure foods; I would rather bet on body care. Dabur is a trusted Indian company with a focus on Ayurveda, that’s its perception. So, in foods would they have to focus on Ayurveda-based foods rather than Western concepts?”
Dabur’s mainstay brand, Vatika, meanwhile, has undergone a change in its packaging and visual identity done by an Australian design house to give it an international flavour.
As Sitaram says, “The real opportunity is increasingly in targeting urban, upwardly mobile, affluent young people and there is a disconnect between Dabur brands and that consumer. So we want to get a more contemporary and leading edge feel to our brands, so a lot of them are going in for a facelift.” Connecting with today’s consumer is sensorial. Ayurveda has the connotation of being gritty, sticky and smelly and consumers today don’t want that, he explains. They want all the goodness of Ayurveda but with today’s sensorials, so too with packaging. “So, we’ve got to borrow from tradition and give today’s rendition of that,” he adds.
Dabur has shown too that it has the appetite for acquisitions when it took over the Balsara brands in 2005. Duggal is emphatic when he says that inorganic growth is one of the key strategies for growth. The growth can come from domestic or international markets, he says, but one has to look at the strategic fit of the target.
“Various proposals are under consideration and the company has the balance sheet to fund a large acquisition at short notice. Future growth will come through both organic and inorganic routes,” he elaborates.

Credits - Hindu Business Line

Vibrant Advertising on our Campus! - Marksman

2008-02-05T05:09:00.000-08:00

As per the popular demand of some, i am putting down a post with Marksman creatives that we developed for advertising our event at IIM Indore in IRIS 07.

Marksman - is 'the ultimate marketing strategy game ever'. Thats the punchline of the event. Yes! :) The brand of Marksman has lots of attitude! You will see its tinge in our posters...so here these are:

Hope you liked it! We have few names associated with Marksman - Vimal in 07 batch, Angshuman in 06 batch! And they all feel delighted when they hear anything about Marksman. Hope me & my current collegues (Marksman Team) will also feel the same way later on..

India - The golden Bird??

2008-02-02T02:53:00.000-08:00

New Delhi: The Economy grew an impressive 9.6% in 2006-07, the highest in the past 18 years. Releasing the revised estimates here on Thursday, finance minister P Chidambaram said the government was confident of achieving "a close-to-9%" growth rate in the current fiscal.
This translates into an almost Rs 1,700 rise in every Indian's annual income. Per capita income, or the income each citizen would receive if national income were equally distributed, grew at 8.1% to Rs 22,553 in 2006-07, from Rs 20,858, in 2005-06.

Chidambaram said despite growing uncertainty and turbulence in global Markets, the Indian Economy was estimated to grow at near-9% in 2007-08, although the government may need to make 'rapid adjustments' in policy, depending upon the global situation. "Which side of 9% it is difficult to say," the minister told reporters. He added that he would be doubly happy if it was to the right side of 9%.