• ICICI is the second largest bank in terms of total assets and market share
• Total assets of ICICI is Rs. 4062.34 Billion and recorded a maximum profit after tax of Rs. 51.51 billion and located in 19 countries
• One of the major strength of ICICI bank according to financial analysts is its strong and transparent balance sheet
• ICICI bank has first mover advantage in many of the banking and financial services. ICICI bank is the first bank in India to introduce complete mobile banking solutions and  jewelry card
• The bank has PAN India presence of around 2,567 branches and 8003 ATM’s
• ICICI bank is the first bank in India to attach life style benefits to banking services for exclusive purchases and tie-ups with best brands in the industry such as Nakshatra, Asmi, D’damas etc
• ICICI bank has the longest working hours and additional services offering at ATM’s which attracts customers
• Marketing and advertising strategies of ICICI have good reach compared to other banks in India

Weaknesses of ICICI Bank

• Customer support of ICICI section is not performing well in terms of resolving complaints
• There are lot of consumer complaints filed against ICICI
• The ICICI bank has the most stringent policies in terms of recovering the debts and loans, and credit payments. They employ third party agency to handle recovery management
• There are also complaints of customer assault and abuse while recovering and the credit payment reminders are sent even before the deadlines which annoys the customers
• The bank service charges are comparatively higher
• The employees of ICICI are bank in maximum stress because of the aggressive policies of the management to win ahead in the race. This may result in less productivity in future years

Opportunities of ICICI Bank

• Banking sector is expected to grow at a rate of 17% in the next three years
• The concept of saving in banks and investing in financial products is increasing in rural areas as more than 62% percentage of India’s population is still in rural areas.
• As per 2010 data in TOI, the total number b-schools in India are more than 1500. This can ensure regular supply of trained human power in financial products and banking services
• Within next four years ICICI bank is planning to open 1500 new branches
• Small and non performing banks can be acquired by ICICI because of its financial strength
• ICICI bank is expected to have 20% credit growth in the coming years.
• ICICI bank has the minimum amount of non performing assets

Threats of ICICI Bank

• RBI allowed foreign banks to invest up to 74% in Indian banking
• Government sector banks are in urge of modernizing the capacities to ensure the customers switching to new age banks are minimized
• HDFC is the major competitor for ICICI, and other upcoming banks like AXIS, HSBC impose a major threat
• In rural areas the micro financing groups hold a major share
• Though customer acquisition is high on one side, the unsatisfied customers are increasing and make them to switch to other banks

So, myself and a colleague of mine went through all the options we had. We had a very limited budget say of 20,000 rs for a quarter (February to April). We started writing down some ideas of below the line activities we could carry out and we wrote the marketing budget needed for them.

This article will not cover the products and neither will it cover each and every idea we discussed. The main objective of this article is to just brush on the topic of how to decide on a BTL activity based on your marketing budget. Lets see some of the ideas we had and the pros and cons of those ideas.

1) Use paper inserts –  Low costing but Low attention too. Very low shelf life. Mainly targeted towards the residential customers as industrial customers are unlikely to store paper inserts in their office. It is good for someone on the prowl for a product. If they are already looking for the product, you might get some returns on the investment.

2) Use neon boards / glow sign for retail shop –  Subtle, Low costing, long term strategy, stronger staying power. This strategy is very useful if you have a niche segment product. However, if you are one of the generic brand than this activity is taken for granted. If you are a dealer for Nokia mobile phones, you have to have a neon shop / glow sign. The return of investment is high as it creates a brand equity in the long term.

3) Place an ad in local newspapers and magazines –  Higher cost, very low shelf life, a medium which is being taken over by internet. You are more likely to benefit if you place an ad on the internet rather than in a newspaper. Services like Indiamart.com, justdial.com can come to your rescue. Information based services are rising everyday.

4) Hire two executives for a 15 day promotion –  The executives will distribute pamphlets left right and center. Negative is that they cannot have a reach in Industrial areas which is protected by security guards as well as a daunty receptionist. So this would involve more promotions in residential areas. Excellent for high value products which customers look for. Good for spreading awareness. Not so good for low value products for which there are women who are paid to promote the products.

5) Trade shows –  Primarily targeted towards Industrial customers, a trade show can bring your customers to you. The cost of running a trade show is high but you are more likely to get in touch with some premium customers which will give you an ROI in the long run. The selection of Trade shows to participate in is important. If you are selling packaging machines, then you should be involved in a food company based trade show as food companies are most likely to use packaging. You get the idea.

Now, with the options above, i have numerous other options as well which may be low in cost but high in involvement. I could go for making a website. I could go for a sales executive. Each and everyone of these options has pros and cons. It all comes down to one thing –  Your marketing budget. Depending on your marketing budget, you need to go for the right marketing strategy.

Coca cola is the brand with the highest brand equity. No doubt it has gone through the ups and downs of business to reach that position. The marketing mix of Coca cola has been changing over time with more and more products being added such that today it has 3300 products. So what is the marketing mix of Coca cola? Read on.

Product

The company has the widest portfolio in beverage industry comprising of 3300 products. Beverages are divided into diet category, 100% fruit juices, fruit drinks, water, energy drinks, tea and coffee etc.  As per Nielson’s data, Coca cola is the No.1 brand in sparkling beverages, juice, and retail packaged water in 2010. Coca cola has its market presence around 200 countries. Coca cola brands in India are Fanta, Maaza, Limca, sprite, Thums up, Minute Maid, Nimbu fresh, Nested iced tea etc.

Price

Due to the availability of wide range products the pricing is done according to the market and geographic segment. Each sub-brand of coca cola has different pricing strategy. Their pricing strategy is based on the competitors pricing, Pepsi is the direct competitor to coke. Beverage market is said to be a oligopoly market (few sellers and large buyers), hence they form into cartel contract to ensure a mutual balance in pricing between the sellers.

Place

Coca cola is the world’s most favorite brand and is available all over the world. The distribution system of coca cola follows the FMCG distribution pattern. The effective distribution network of coke has almost eroded the small and middle level players in the market. In India they have captured even the rural market by extensive distribution and have eroded the market share of Bovonto, Kalimark etc.

Promotion

Coca cola adopts various advertising and promotional strategies to create an increased demand in the market by associating with life style and behaviour and mainly targeting value based advertising. You are more likely to see a coke ad individualised for a particular festival or in with a general positive message. Coca cola uses CSR as its marketing tool to gain emotional benefits in consumers mind. The current promotions through CSR include “Support my school” campaign  with NDTV. It has many brand ambassadors like Shahrukh khan, Hrithik Roshan, South Indian Actor Vijay and Trisha , Ghambir, Aamir khan etc and has signed contract recently with Imran khan. It allows price discounts and allowances to distributors and retailers in order to push more products into the market. It employs both push strategy through promotions and pull strategy through advertisements and campaigns.

The Sony Tablet is another entrant into the tablet market. However, we can be sure that Sony will give both Samsung and Apple a run for their money with its two products – The Sony Tablet S (Lower version) and Tablet P (Higher version, dual screen). But the question to be asked is –  Has Sony missed the tablet wave? There are so many tablets in the market, that Sony can attract new customers only on the basis of price. It has surely missed the skimming price which is being implemented by Samsung and apple as they have the first mover advantage. Now, Sony has only two strategy up its sleeve

a) Pull in customers based on brand equity and keep a high margin

b) Go for penetration pricing with keeping a VFM model of pricing

Knowing Sony, it is more likely that Sony will rope in customers based on its brand equity and keep a competitive pricing. This is exactly what sony has done with the pricing of its basic model, Sony Tablet S being 26,990 for the basic model. This strategy, although sensible, might affect the overall sales generated by Sony. Because lets be clear of one thing, if Sony has brand equity, so does Samsung, Apple, RIM and Iball. All of them also have the first mover advantage as they were much earlier in the market than sony. On the other hand, Sony has Android 3.2 which is the latest one. But as with any other software, an Android version will get outdated in 6 months.

The other model of Sony, Sony Tablet P brings in something new –  Dual screen. Excellent. Something new brought in the market. But do you know the storage space of the Sony Tablet P?? Its 6 GB. A single Blu ray movie itself would take 5 GB. What is Sony doing by giving such low storage space in today’s digital world?? 6 GB space is not enough and it needs to be expandable to at least 16 GB for a dual screen tablet.

About the Advertisement  –  The ad covers everything that any tablet can offer in an effective manner but also broadcasts the USP of Sony tablets separately. The ad shows the screen space and the zooming capacity of Sony tablet effectively. It showcases the lightweight of Sony Tablet by comparing it to paper. The flexibility of Sony Tablet P is spot on with the tablet being folded from double screen to one. Makes you go “Wow”. A kindle like screen is shown just for 2 seconds, immediately getting attraction from kindle lovers like me. The ability of Sony tablets of controlling media devices and sharing content is shown with a Sony Bravia. And lastly, the one thing which makes people buy portable computers –  GAMING. How can an android pc be complete without gaming. The addition of a PS2 like on screen remote adds a zing to the tablet and makes it even more attractive.

Finally Sony shows its tagline which is sure to raise some eyebrows –  All our innovations rolled into one. Well, one things for sure. Sony is not taking its competitors lightly and is pushing its complete weight based on its brand equity to really penetrate in the tablet market. Whether or not it will be able to succeed is yet to be seen.

• The banks major strength is it involves latest cutting edge technologies to support its core banking operations
• The bank has network of 943 branches and 1529 ATMs
• The total turnover of the bank is 3,37,584 crores in the last FY 2010-11, and earned a net profit of Rs.1650 cr.
• The bank has grown at a rate of 60% compared to previous year
• IDBI has the first mover advantage in opening ‘G-sec portal’. This is a platform for the retail investors to invest in government securities
• IDBI is one of the largest commercial banks in India which focuses on industrial infrastructure and development

• IDBI’s product portfolio includes 14 broad classifications, and there are some sub categories in each. The bank has customized solution faculties for its industrial clients
• The location of its head quarters in Mumbai fosters the growth of the bank
• IDBI’s subsidiaries are into capital market services, IT services, asset management and life insurance

Weaknesses of IDBI bank

• IDBI has less penetration into the rural market
• IDBI has very less number of branches and ATM network compared to other major players
• It concentrates mainly on commercial banking services whereas the individual banking services is where the main revenue lies.
• The customer help desk is not performing efficiently and there are many unresolved issues of customers
• The bank has lots of consumer complaints with respect to servicing charges
• The bank lacks in promotional activities

Opportunities for IDBI bank

• Scope for bagging government schemes are high as IDBI belongs to public sector
• Global opportunities for IDBI are the rise as the management is keenly focusing on global expansion in next few years
• They have a good number of financial expertise to face the emerging industrial and economic growth in India
• It is the only bank in public sector which has enabled social media plug-in in its website. This has increased the brand awareness and better reach to its customers
• The bank has good opportunities in semi-urban and Tire II cities areas as the industrial growth is taking very rapidly

Threats for IDBI Bank

• IDBI faces tough competition in terms of new market development due to competition from both government and private banks
• FDI in Indian banking has been opened up to 74% by the RBI
• In private banking HDFC, ICICI and in public sector SBI, Punjab National Bank, Andhra bank and Allahabad bank are the major competitors
• The bank has to focus on improving the customer satisfaction in order to sustain the loyal customers
• Recent scams and fraudulent activities of bank have gained mistrust from its customers and investors

You want the most important ideas on management all in one place. Now you can have them—in a boxed set of HBR’s Must Reads.

This six-title collection includes only the most critical articles from the world’s top management experts, curated from Harvard Business Review’s rich archives. We’ve done the work of selecting them so you won’t have to. From leadership and strategy to managing yourself and others, HBR’s Must Reads offer foundational articles on essential business topics to help you maximize your organization’s performance and your own.

For Ease of use, we have divided the series into six different parts. You can purchase any of these Must Reads individually in case you do not want to buy the complete set. Heres the link for the complete set of HBR’s Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books) (HBR’s 10 Must Reads)

The series includes:

HBR’S 10 Must Reads: The Essentials

This book brings together the best thinking from management’s most influential experts. Arm yourself with the insights of Michael Porter on competitive advantage, John Kotter on leading change, Daniel Goleman on emotional intelligence, Peter Drucker on managing your career, Clayton Christensen on disruptive innovation, Tom Davenport on analytics, Robert Kaplan and David Norton on measuring strategy with the “balanced scorecard,” Rosabeth Moss Kanter on innovation, Ted Levitt on marketing, and C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel on core competence. Once you’ve read these definitive articles, you can delve into each core topic the series explores: managing yourself, managing people, leadership, strategy, and change management.

HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself (with bonus article “How Will You Measure Your Life?” by Clayton M. Christensen)

The path to your professional success starts with a critical look in the mirror. Here’s how to stay engaged throughout your 50-year work life, tap into your deepest values, solicit candid feedback, replenish your physical and mental energy, and rebound from tough times. This book includes the bonus article “How Will You Measure Your Life?” by Clayton M. Christensen.

HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing People (with featured article “Leadership That Gets Results,” by Daniel Goleman)

Managing your employees is fraught with challenges, even if you’re a seasoned pro. Boost their performance by tailoring your management styles to their temperaments, motivating with responsibility rather than money, fostering trust through solicited input, giving rookie managers the support they need, and building high-performing teams.

HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Leadership

Are you an extraordinary leader—or just a good manager? Learn how to motivate others to excel, build your team’s confidence, set direction, encourage smart risk-taking, credit others for your success, and draw strength from adversity.

HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Strategy

Is your company spending too much time on strategy development, with too little to show for it? Discover what it takes to distinguish your company from rivals, clarify what it will (and won’t) do, create blue oceans of uncontested market space, and make your priorities explicit so employees can realize your vision.

HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Change Management (including featured article “Leading Change,” by John P. Kotter)

Most companies’ change initiatives fail—but yours can beat the odds. Learn how to overcome addiction to the status quo, establish a sense of urgency, mobilize commitment and resources, silence naysayers, minimize the pain of change, and motivate change even when business is good.

All of the above 6 collections are a must read and a must have for a Management student or Professional. Heres the link again to all six sets of Harvard Business review –   HBR’s Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books) (HBR’s 10 Must Reads).

Happy Reading.

The tough war between the two giants in technology space began ever since Facebook started gaining more popularity than any other brand in the social web. Google’s product portfolio consists of more than 100 products, as Google wanted to have its presence in every product which is used on Internet. This led Google into concentrating on continuous acquisitions in the market mainly Orkut, Youtube and others.

Google Started off late in 1998 by three people Larry page, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt. The company started with a core idea of being one-stop search engine for Internet users in getting all the information around the world in a single mouse click. Google’s strategy is to constantly innovate and engage in acquisition and partnering with other companies beyond the core business of providing search engine. Google’s broad classification of products includes web-based products, operating systems, desktop and mobile applications, hardware etc.

There is a saying “Curiosity is the mother of invention”, but here the idea of search “curiosity” itself made a great revolution in web space. Google’s revenue generation model is mainly from advertising and its main motive is to make people stay more time on its webpage. Along with search engine advertising, there are products like google adwords and google adsense which allows marketers to advertise and earn revenue respectively. Adwords and adsense contribute heavily to the revenue generated by Google. Google advertising covers 41% of the $31 billion US advertising market. When Google has shown such a rapid growth ever since its launch, what made Larry Page to go for Google plus? Which was a similar concept of like and share in Facebook!

The revenue from search advertising were slowly declining as the companies started concentrating on advertising in social networking giant ruling the social web, Facebook. Facebook has a user base of over 800 million and a survey says that an FB user spends an average of two hours daily. So, it is easy for the companies to capture them in Facebook over any other forms of advertising. Banner –ad revenue is expected to rise by 81%, which will result in decline of Google’s online advertising market share from 41% to 34 percent in the coming year. Forbes magazine has released the annual list of richest Americans, in which Mark Zuckerberg has pushed Larry Page behind. Mark Zuckerberg CEO and president of Facebook was in 35th position last year and has moved to 14th position with a net worth of $6.9 billion. Now that’s growth!! Larry Page who was in 11th position last year is in 15th position.

The war between the duos of Internet space has started and Larry Page took a counteroffensive defence to defend the market share by introducing Google plus. Mark zuckerberg’s recent announcement to go for IPO , also alarmed Google to retaliate in order to retain their position in Social web. Orkut which belongs to Google was once the most preferred social networking site, but Orkut rapidly faced a decline in the number of users after youngsters found FB to be more interesting as it had new features. Google also tried introducing google buzz which appeared to be a twitter clone trying to leverage the power of google. But buzz too was a failure. This clearly shows that any company in technology space has to constantly upgrade in terms of features and creativity to appeal the audience. A recent report by Enders Analysis has mentioned about Google Plus that it will be a Niche product and will remain to be niche and has a huge scope to regain Google’s lost market share in Social networking. The rivalry started from “Facebook Vs Orkut” and then to “Facebook Vs Google”. Presently the war is getting tough like a head on head competition between Larry Page and Mark Zukerberg.

Google has a better work culture compared to Facebook, in terms of the freedom given to the employees to take up their pet projects. Every employee can work 20% of their work time in concentrating on their pet projects. This means the employee is allowed to spend 20% of allotted time in his own area of interest apart from his assigned projects. This is considered as an opportunity for innovation as people tend to exhibit more productivity only in when they like the job.

Facebook’s only area of focus is Social networking whereas Google has a chain of products complementing each other like Gmail, Picassa and Youtube etc. Any technology innovation is subjected to sustain only over a short period of time. Hence Facebook is more vulnerable in the years to come as youth’s tendency is generally to look for new arrivals. As learning from Orkut the user loyalty to such products is generally low and there are also professional networking sites like LinkedIn etc. On the other side the reason for the Facebook success is all about the “Curiosity of knowing what others are up to!”

Larry Page, Google CEO and founder who is 11 years older than Mark Zukerberg is facing the heat as Facebook in showing their dominance over Internet. Both are great visionaries in tech world in terms of their innovation and accomplishments. In the end the debate boils down to this – “Necessity or entertainment?”. Google is a necessity as people need to search. They need google’s product such as the search engine, gmail and youtube. But Facebook is complete social entertainment and that’s something people love. People may not need Facebook. In fact Facebook is a time sink. If you wanna be unproductive – log into facebook. But that’s the fun. If you want to escape from work online, and catch up with friends. Facebook is your way out. It is your hangout.

So we come down to the basic point. Who will win in the end? Only time will tell. Till then, keep searching, and keep sharing.

• Hyundai India has such a brand equity that it is almost assumed to be an Indian brand, with lot of good accolades for being India’s second most selling brand next to MUL in market share
• Hyundai Motor India limited is the largest car exporter from Asian Market which showed a 10% growth compared to last FY
• The domestic sales is increasing at an average rate of 19.1%
• HMIL is known for its quality products which has better performance and it has constantly been ahead in the race with Maruti Udyog limited in many parameters
• The product length includes around 8 cars, starting from new Eon in small car segment to SUV segment Santa Fe
• Among the automobile players only HMIL is known for its CSR activities
• Hyundai products never fail to win laurels in each segment from various automobile ratings ever since its operations in India
• Hyundai , has the largest network of showrooms and service station next to Maruti in India
• An article in Economic times quoted that “Hyundai Eon launched , treads on Alto territory” indicated that Eon will act as a threat to reduction in Alto’s market share

Source: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-10-14/news/30279409_1_800cc-small-car-alto

Weaknesses of HMIL

• HMIL took a long time to gain the market share as its not the first mover in India
• In terms of most reliable and trusted brand; Maruti is more strong in Indian subcontinent
• Spare parts of Hyundai vehicles are comparatively priced higher and spare parts do not have PAN India presence
• In SUV segment both Tucson and its next model Santa Fe didnt make a major impact
• Increase in commodity prices such as steel, aluminium and ancillary parts has affected margins
• Since HMIL concentrates on both domestic and International sales there are higher risks of exchange rate fluctuations
• As Hyundai majorly concentrates on quality, most of its product are in premium category in each segment. Hyundai  is still struggling to make a better impact in small car segment in terms of cost efficiency like other manufactures
• Hyundai doesn’t have any product match to compete in Corporate orders like Tata Indica V2, Tata Sumo, Tata Indigo, Chevy Tavera, Ford Fiesta etc. These vehicles are most preferred in both cab segment and government booking for bulk orders

Opportunities of HMIL

• SIAM – Society of Indian automobile Manufacturers, have stated that there is steady increase in Car sales both Domestic and Indian contributing a valuable share in India’s Gdp
• The export markets growth rate is 22.30% compared to last fiscal year
• The saving consumption pattern of India is an added advantage for any segment doing business in India. This was one of the major reason for Indian market to survive amidst global recession
• There is more scope of HMIL to enter into small car segment as its has dedicated R&D plant in Hyderabad, India. Hyundai is one of the very few companies that has widest R&D network across the world located in Korea, Europe, India, US, Japan
• Hyundai has very good opportunity in entering into commercial vehicles and Recreational vehicles as they are already doing well outside India. Currently HMIL has its focus only on Passenger car segment

Threats of HMIL

• Though Hyundai claims itself to have no direct competitors other than MUL, there are Indian players like Tata, Mahindra imposing a strong threat for Hyundai Motors India to expand its product category
• Foreign Direct Investments flowing in Indian automobile space are not good signs for already existing Giants like MUL and Hyundai.
• Almost all major automobile players have started invading India to open up their market and their manufacturing plant in India.”Chennai” is referred to as the Detroit of Asia!
• Hyundai faced a slight decline in market share due to tough competition from Ford’s Figo and Volkswagen- Polo
• Many manufacturers have started to concentrate on small car segment as an alternative to Nano. These will slowdown the expected sales of Eon.

A song that created a sensational wave across the globe with a number of records; more than five million hits on Youtube, more than 7000 shares in FACEBOOK in 48 hours!! The most searched three letter word on Google in the recent days is “Why this Kolaveri”. In Tamil language it means a person has strong passion or urge to kill someone! It is generally used in jovial manner as colloquial language.

To find out more about the 21 year old young chap “The Musical Architect” behind this song”; just go to google and start typing ‘Music director of’ and you will find the recommendation as kolaveri. The song created such hype amongst the music lovers all over the world that there are a lot of lessons that needs to be learnt for all marketers and for the people who dont realise the “Power of Marketing”. Is it a marketing hit or musical hit? If so what were the marketing strategies used to promote the song to make it a sensational hit. Many dance troupes and bands across the globe started choreographing for this song in their own cultural styles and preferences.

The success story of Kolaveri has many factors like Lyrics made by Dhanush, it’s an first attempt to use only “English words with Tamil slang” – Tanglish. The entire song lyrics is composed in same manner which can be understood to all kinds of audience throughout the world. Slow pace music used for the song by music director Anirudh and Viral marketing tools used to promote the song. The spontaneity factor led to lots of creativity in the song with respect to both music as well as lyrics. “Believe it or not, it was all impromptu”, this was told by Anirudh an Bcom graduate from Loyola, Chennai, the music director of the film. It was such a daring attempt of the debut in Tamil Film Industry. Though it was a huge hit, one who has been with Tamil Film won’t claim it as a very first attempt.

There were earlier attempts made in Tamil cinema by Music Director Yuvan Shankar and Hero “Little super star” Simbhu in their earlier films and many attempts by AR Rahman. The only change was that it was compiled fully in Tanglish style to appeal to the modern youth and ‘easy to remember’ lyrics. How could Anirudh achieve such a peak in his career at very first attempt , which AR Rahman and others took a long way ?That’s something for us to ask ourselves to understand the emerging trends in movie marketing. The impact of the hype created by that song has led to new pricing strategy called “Kolaveri Pricing” “Kolaveri Discount” in Chennai and Suburban’s of Chennai. The shop keepers say that this is an attempt to attract customers in a more easy way than mentioning any other catchy phrase. The song has created such an impact among the public to the extent that it is used as a marketing tool to attract large pool of audience. Audience perception towards this pricing methodology is that the company is ready to give huge discounts than any other brands.

Coming to the main success factor of this song reaching millions of people across the world is because the effective use of Viral marketing techniques by the film team. The Viral marketing tool is used to pass a message to large audience at a single instance. The main channel or the medium used is through broadcasting in internet and social media networking. The crucial factor in the marketing of Kolaveri was Facebook where people shared, liked and did everything possible to associate themselves with “Why this kolaveri”. Since the major medium is through internet the campaign metrics are always measured in terms of reach and frequency of use by the audience.

Media soon caught up with this frenzy on Facebook and each and every news channel could be seen repeating the success story of  ”why this kolaveri”. It helped that the music was really catchy and addictive. In the end, Dhanush took timely advantage of  the hype created by conducting as many events as possible thereby causing the fire to really ignite and the word to spread. Thus what started with a simple product, became the talk of town through social marketing, became news because of the media and finally became a unique event which just had to be experienced.

This is why, “Why this kolaveri” is surely a marketing lesson for all and for the film industry to think beyond films and film making and to ensure that message reaches maximum audience in minimum time.

Strengths

• Dabur India is the fourth largest company in FMCG segment with a revenue of US$ 910 Millions
• Dabur has its own heritage, it is more than 100 years old , established in the year 1884
• It has presence in around 60 countries across the world
• It is the world’s largest ayurvedic medicine provider
• Dabur has extensive distribution service network with 50 carrying & forwarding agents
• Dabur has the largest distributors in its respective segment, around 5000
• The top performing five master brands are Dabur, Vatika, Hajmola, Real, Fem
• It has 17 sophisticated manufacturing facilities
• The product length includes around 300 prescribed products and few of them are sold over the counter
• Dabur product categories include health care, personal care, foods, home care, consumer health – OTC/ethical, professional range

Weaknesses

• Dabur doesn’t have direct company outlets
• Lack of awareness of products by customers
• Doctors prescribe allopathy medicines as they get more incentives from medical companies and the share of ayurvedic companies are less compared to allopathy
• According to a survey the number of registered practitioners in Ayurveda is less than 3.7 lacks which is a meagre figure compared to allopathy doctors
• Ayurvedic medicine takes time to cure compare to allopathy medicine

Opportunities

• Dabur is the world’s largest ayurvedic medicine and its export quantities are constantly in demand in foreign market
• The affinity towards yoga and Hinduism is proving more advantageous towards the reach of ayurvedic medicines globally
• People have started realizing that ayurvedic medicines like Dabur, Himalayas etc doesn’t have much of side effects
• Growing women’s earning power has made them independent and has made them to be more health and beauty conscious –  a segment in which Dabur too is trying to capitalise with its products
• Improper and unhealthy food habits due to modernization has forced people to take ayurvedic supplementary like Chavanaprash, Hajmola, and life style medicines
• Ayurveda as a field is receiving much more attention across the world in the last 2–3 years. Thus huge opportunity for Dabur to capitalize on the market sentiments.

Threats

• The allopathy players are of major threat as they invest heavily on advertising and distribution of their products through medical representatives etc
• Some ayurvedic doctors give their own medicines or give a mixture of Ayurvedic Company’s product without packaging (loose medicines). This reduces the sales in the market and dilutes the brand image
• Since ayurvedic medicinal practise is obtained traditionally there are many untrained professions who take up the profession
• Lead and ferric content is more present in many ayurvedic medicine, this may sometime result in reverse side effects when consumer over longer period
• Kerala is an ayurvedic hub, for most of the treatments. Hence people visit directly and attend health camps to get cured