Parachute oil

Marico industries in one of the largest FMCG company in India, offering a customized brands, catering to the needs of the target audience. Marico also has a very strong nation wide network, which makes the brands available for the customers. Ultimately, for a FMCG company ‘distribution’ is the core focus area. Marico is well known for its brand, Parachute coconut oil. Parachute is one among India 's Top 100 Most Trusted Brands and is the world's largest packaged Coconut Oil Brand.

Brand name: Parachute
Positioning: As a purity brand.
Target Audience: The primary target audience of ‘Parachute’ is women of all ages in both urban and rural population of India.
Pioneering idea: Parachute pioneered the idea of selling the coconut oil in plastic.
Communication: Mass communication on the platform of ‘caring’ with mother daughter theme.

Innovation strategy:
Marico followed innovation as a major strategy in building Parachute brand. The following are some example.
20 ml Parachute - a Rs 5 SKU that enables loose oil users to upgrade to Parachute.


Flip Top Cap for Parachute bottles to enhance the safety and protect the purity of Parachute

Parachute Mini - a bottle shaped small pack being sold at an MRP of Re. 1

Easy Jar of Parachute to facilitate usage especially during winters


The strategy followed by the company and the quality of the product offers a customized product in all seasons, to grab the price conscious customers and to provide value for money.

Other extensions are:
Brand name: Parachute Advanced refined hair oil and Parachute Jasmine
Target audience: Young and appearance conscious consumer.
Positioning: Focuses upon the fragrance aspect of the oil.

Brand name: Parachute After shower Hair Cream
Target audience: Young men (SEC A, B)
Positioning: Focuses upon stylish look, non sticky and nourishing aspect.

Brand name: Parachute Sampoorna
Target audience: Women customers
Positioning: Focus on providing strong hair.

Brand name: Parachute Natural shampoo
Positioning: On the platform of ‘Naturals’ which makes hair healthier.

New launch: Clinic all Clear Men

Brand name: Clinic all Clear Men
Company: Hindustan Unilever Limited
Concept: First ever anti-dandruff shampoo range formulated exclusively for men.
Variants: Clinic All Clear ACTIVSPORT and Clinic All Clear HAIRFALL DECREASE.
Quantity and Price: 200 ml - Rs.135, 100 ml - Rs.72 and 7.5 ml - Rs.3
Note: This idea was developed because man’s scalp is differed and 33% more dandruff than that of woman

Branding strategies: Chik shampoo

When Cavin Kare launched Chik shampoo in the market, there was a severe competition in the market. For a company, the so called “retailer” is the primary customer and obviously the problem of margin arises. A study revealed that customers are purchasing velvette shampoo repeatedly, since they are the pioneers in introducing shampoo in sachets and the customers are not brand conscious. Hence Cavin Kare decided to enter into the competition to give quality products and create an awareness about the brand “chik” among the target audience. In 2003, Chik Shampoo was declared the winner of the best performing brand in 2003 by AAAI, amongst the top ten brands in household availability.

Target Audience: Girls and women of rural and semi urban population of India

Flavours: Chik Black, Chik Jasmine, Chik Egg, Chik cool, Chik anti dandruff

Branding strategies:
Cavin Kare decided to give away one sachet of Chik Shampoo free for 5 empty sachets of any shampoo brand and further extending this strategy in the next stage it restricted the free shampoo exchange only for empty sachets of Chik.

Retailers too got benefited from the idea. Apart from the service charges Cavin kare also gave retailers a Chik Sachet free for every 15 empty sachets they get from the consumer.
Cavin Kare also kept the prices of the brand higher than the rest of the shampoos in the market, to maintain profits.
They advertised more often and hired well qualified professionals to compete with the MNCs.
The iconic Chik Girl in every Chik Shampoo commercial showcased the possibility of soft and manageable hair for the customers.
Source: www.cavinkare.com
related post cavin kare

Branding strategies: Cavin Kare

Cavin Kare was established in the year 1983, with an investment of Rs 15000. The company was started with a single product by an innovative entrepreneur C. K Ranganathan. In the initial period, the company was named as Chik India Ltd and it was renamed as CavinKare Pvt. Ltd (CKPL) in 1998. The reason behind the name is, Cavin means beauty in tamil and ‘care’ is spelt as Kare. The name is also a special one as it denotes the initials C and K of Mr. Ranganathan. The company offers quality Personal care (hair care, skin care, home care) and Food products. CavinKare has touched a turnover of over Rs 5000 million in 2006-2007. The Company has employee strength of 576 and has a network of 1300 Stockists catering to about 25 lakh outlets nationally.

Strategies used:
The main strategy of Cavin Kare is to strengthen the distribution and marketing. The company made its brand available to the customer through out the country. Continuous concentration upon Research and Development is an added advantage to the company which has dedicated staffs. Their main job is to understand the needs of the target audience and to bring more innovative products

Innovative marketing strategy used for Chik Shampoo:

“During 1999, the penetration level of Chik Shampoo was not aggressive. Hence the company went back to the consumer to understand their basic needs that would help Cvai Kare to drive the sales growth and gain good market share in the shampoo market. Cavin Kare also discovered that soap usage was the biggest barrier and people did not see the need for using Shampoo. As part of the consumer study, the company tried to convey the message to the consumer that soap usage was bad for the hair and when a product exists specifically for hair it should be used. The consumers responded by stating that their fathers and grandfathers have used only soap and their hair continued to maintain good health. So the argument that Soap was harmful did not bear merit to them. However they did agree that Shampoo usage gave soft and silky hair. However their perceived value on hair wash was very less and they did not want to spend more out of their pockets to buy Shampoo. The study also revealed that though the aspiration to use shampoo was there, the need to spend more did not appeal. To arrive at a solution for this situation, Cavin Kare introduced the 50 Paise shampoo sachet, which easily satisfied a single wash. It was a calculated risk took, since the existing volumes of 1 rupee shampoo sachets was also in the market but when sales started picking up for the 50 paise shampoo, the 1 Rupee Shampoo also picked up pace once the consumer started making a habit of using Chik shampoo and Cavin Kare gained a good margin.

Another situation where innovation was required was the economy value consumers saw between using shampoo sachets and shampoo bottles. 65-70% of the shampoo sold in India is through sachets and only 30% is through bottles. Sachet sells more due to the phenomenal value it offers to the consumer.
As explained by Mr. C.K Ranganathan…..
“Let us assume 7ml of Shampoo in a Sachet is sold at Rs.2 and a 100 ml bottle of the same brand of Shampoo is sold at Rs.55. When a consumer buys 14 Sachets and stores them in a bottle, it would make 98 ml. The consumer would invest about Rs.28, which is roughly half the price as that of the bottle. Sachet thus offers high level of economy and also every use is measured. So to offer the consumer value for money we came up with the concept that bottles will be cheaper than the sachets. We had to be innovative and economize on the cost of bottle, packaging and other things and came out with a 50 ml bottle of Chik for Rs.6 with 2ml more in the bottle when costs are compared. This move resulted in a huge volume of sales and helped the growth of Chik from 5% market share to the current value of 21%. So this exercise revealed to us that the consumer would buy a product if he sees enough value for money.”

Source: www.cavinkare.com , www.exchange4media.com

Branding strategies: Rasna

The brand Rasna is owned by Pioma industries, that introduced the concept of soft drink concentrates (SDC), a segment that had been created and nurtured by the company in the Indian beverages market. During the introduction period the company launched it under the brans name, jaffe and it marketed with the help of voltas. Then it changed its name to Rasna in the year 1979. It was the first brand in the country that provided consumers real fruit-like flavor and taste

Strategies:

Rasna’s extremely popular advertisements with the tagline, ‘I love you Rasna,’ had become an integral part of the Indian advertising.
The company also had a efficient sales and distribution network across the country so that the product is available for the target audience. It also employed extra sales force during summer season to match the demand.
The company emphasizing to increase the number of segments to make Rasna products more affordable to larger various sections of society and extended its strategy of Rasna being a mass drink to its global markets.
The company focused on multi-media advertising and promotion, wherein an effective marketing strategy was adopted to communicate the brand message, using the different media such as TV, radio and print. Mudra Communications, a leading advertising agency, undertook the advertising and promotional activities.
Product lines were categorized into two brands Rasna Utsav, an improvement over Rasna SDC, targeted the lower income group in rural markets and Rozana, a mix and serve powdered drink (no need to add sugar) targeted the convenience seeking semi-urban and urban consumers.
A new ‘leaf’ symbol was added to the Rasna brand name, to get the new distinct identity and to increase brand awareness in the rural market.

Some updates on snacks war…

We have already seen a Big Fight between the great giants of IndianFMCG companies..

find it out..some more….

This article is contributed by arvind…

As tobacco-to-hotels major, ITC, set its eyes on this segment a couple of months back, with the launch of Bingo, this category is sizzling. Across the country the action is visible. In places like Bangalore, promotional events like games and competitions basedon Bingo have become a regular feature at large malls like Garuda and Forum on weekends. The brand also tied-up with the Aerosmith rock concert that recently happened in the city. Last week, Pepsico’s snack foods company, Frito Lay, announced a major branding initiative for its Kurkure brand. About 35 AC BEST buses in Mumbai, followed by the Metro in Kolkata would be branded by Kurkure.

The action is also visible at retail points. Small retailers, almost all of whom also sell ITC cigarettes, claimed they had been promised a premium if Bingo display was better. With its sole objective of deep distribution, ITC introduced mega-size wafer trolleys outside most mom-and-pop outlets. Lay’s, the top selling brand reacted with its own version oftrolleys parked next to Bingo’s display. Of course there were some places where ITC Bingo blocked out its competition. Across the country, Bingo has laid claimto the large format outlets by tying-up with big retailers like Future Group’s Food Bazaar. But not all organised retailers believe in monopoly.

At C3, Kolkata’s second largest retailer, Kurkure and Lays dominate the branded snack market. The retailer said they would rather offer choice to consumers. But there are genuine stock issues for Frito Lay, at least in some parts of Mumbai. In south Mumbai, a shop owner said, “We sell both Lays and Bingo. But we haven’t received supplies of Lays, which is in much demand,for the past one month.” Similarly, the owner of a distribution agency for Lays said there was a supply issue. The company executives could not be reached for comment. According to ITC Foods executives, the company has launched an advertising blitzkrieg across the country to create awareness among consumers. “The brand name Bingo signifies victory. We have employed various strategies to successfully create an identity in the market in a short span of time,” said ITC Foods Chief Executive Ravi Naware.

Frito Lay is reacting with consumer promotions. As a part of its Chai Time Achievers campaign, over the next few months the company will run a campaign where consumers can send in recipes using Kurkure, of which 25 winners would be selected. These families then would be featured on 1 million packs each before October 2007. The contest is being promoted through a television, radio and outdoor campaign, as well as interactive display units at the point of purchase. ITC claims that it has done its homework well. It spent close to two years for developing Bingo. The entry was prompted by the fact that there are few players in this segment. “We found that there was only one organised large player at the national level inthe packed snacks segment apart from some regional players. There is a big opportunity for us,” says an ITC executive. He adds quickly that the market for thepacked-snack-on-the-go segment in India is around Rs 2,000 crore and ITC is looking at grabbing a 50 per cent share of the market at the earliest. “We are offering a wide range to ensure that the consumer is not restricted to a monotonous taste,” adds Naware. Headds that Bingo has also got an interesting range in the pipeline.

But as of now, it’s still early days to say whether Bingo will emerge victorious. Foodworld representatives in Bangalore admit that Bingo has emerged as a “hot selling” snack. “It is being replenished on a daily basis,” a Foodworld representative said. “We are replenishing the stock every day in all metros and cities with population in excess of 10 lakh,” Naware adds. But in metros like Kolkata, consumers have not yet switched over from Lays and Kurkure. Smaller outlets in Kolkata confirmed that sales of Lays or Kurkure had not dipped. “Frito Lay is still cashing in on the popularity and brandloyalty that it managed to establish with consumers over the years. Although consumers want to try Bingo, Lays or Kurkure have not been replaced.”

For this summer: a chilly “Krd Rys”

It’s refreshing news for the travelers and the busy city people, which they don’t want to care about their food here afterwards….
One of the strong contender of south, Hatsun Agro Product Ltd has come out with “Krd Rys”. It is the world's first branded curd rice offering. The company launched this brand recently in some parts of Tamil Nadu. `Krd Rys' will be prepared entirely by machines in the company's ISO and HACCP certified dairies.
Other brands of this company are Arokya' milk, `Komatha' milk, `Santosa' milk which is targeted towards hotels and caterers and `Arun Ice cream'

Strategies used:

At an introductory price of Rs 10 for 275 grams, the curd rice is garnished with mustard, cashew nuts, raisin, green chilies, ginger, curry leaves and carrot.
The company also engaged in suspense marketing, in which “Prakash Raj”, a famous south Indian actor is the brand ambassador. The company involved in this type of marketing to create hype. It also selected several strategic locations, where huge hoarding is fixed with a smiling Prakash Raj announcing Krd Rys, at an introductory offer of Rs.10
Are you ready for this?

“Why Five”?!!

In this modern era of growing technology, everyone is talking about “ Wi Fi”. But in marketing is it necessary to think “Why Five”?
Yes. Many FMCG companies have started focusing upon the price point of Rs 5. This strategy is mainly used to expand the penetration of that particular category, which customers generally feel that the product is not essential. E.g.: Maggi and the second one is to involve in or to be more competitive than other brands which helps company to attain the price sensitive customers E.g.: Pepsodent

The pioneers of this strategy are the tea manufactures like Brooke bond. The history happened when coca cola launched it’s “the paanch strategy” which becomes a huge success. This campaign roped in all the marketers to fix Rs 5 for their brand. Eventually the amount spend by the coca cola and Pepsi in promoting this strategy helped other players who had priced at Rs 5.

The other reason behind these strategy might be that Rs 1 and Rs 2 are limited to certain brands like candies and shampoos. But Rs5 brings in more category of products. Even I feel that marketers mainly use this price point to first change the buying behavior of the customer, then slowly drag them to the next stage of price stages. It happened in the case of Scotch Brite where Rs 5 scrub pad was not available now because its price is Rs 6 that comes with a new package.

Some of the brands that HLL sells for Rs 5 are Pepsodent, Pond's Talc, Pond's Cold Cream, Rin, Taaza, Fair & Lovely, Clinic Plus and Lux.

Source: business line

Snacks War!!

Increasing competition by the entry of new players like ITC's Bingo brand among crossover snack brands has led PepsiCo India's Frito Lay Division to stretch the equity of Kurkure. It created the `bridge category' between namkeens and potato chips through this brand. It is in a heaviness to innovate its offerings to the target customers.

Kurkure: Strategy used
Kurkure has tied up with the South Western Railways to have a branded train, under which a brand name would feature along with the train's name in all announcements, on reserved tickets, on reservation charts, on destination boards of the train, coach indication slips and during all information dissemination about the train.
Its another strategy is to get more personal with the customers by launching “chai time contest” which makes real people famous.
It is chiefly focusing on round pricing strategy, with introduction of more new variants

Bingo: Strategy used
Bingo has struck at the small shops, to whom it's offering a margin that's 4% to 5% higher than what Frito Lays is paying. If the display is good in the retail shop, that retailer is paid more. The idea of bingo is to get the consumer to take that first bite. ITC's offerings are priced at par with Frito's and the USP is as many as 16 variants in one go.
Source: business line, marketing practice.blogspot.com

Godrej: A fine market follower!!

Even though science says that the outer skin color cannot be changed by applying the fair creams externally, Indians have a perception that fairness is the real beauty and it can be achieved easily. Even I have tried “Fair and Handsome”. But regrettably it failed.


Theodore Levitt, in his article” Innovative Imitation” argued that the strategy of the product imitation is lucrative as that of the product innovation. Godrej made the right way through it.
With the FMCG major HLL’s” Fair& lovely” and Cavin kare’s “Fair Ever” holding a majority of the market share and they are in a severe competition to grab a dominant position in the Indian fairness cream market. Cavin kare was considered to be a prominent player because “Fair ever” was launched with the USP of ‘a fairness cream with saffron’ and the brand associated itself with the herbal characteristics.
In this circumstance Godrej created a new product category, fairness soaps by launching its FairGlow Fairness Soap. It was positioned as twin advantage soap, a clean fresh bath and the added benefit of fairness. Then Godrej had decided to furnish direct competition against the major player by extending its brand by launching “FairGlow fairness cream”.

Strategy used by Godrej:

Godrej launched the website fairglow.com and involved in the online promotional campaign called “FairGlow face of the fortnight” where a winner is selected and awarded with prizes.
The company also launched the ‘FairGlow Express,’ the first branded local train in India partnering with the western railways. The FairGlow cream was also launched in a affordable sachet.
The market leader HLL later launched Lux Skincare soap, positioned on the sunscreen stand followed the market follower Godrej to make its presence in the new product category.

HLL‘s Delicious kwality Strategy!

It is crystal clear that Hindustan lever limited is still the undisputed leader in India in the FMCG sector. Its exceptional strategy and focus upon the marketing plan made it as the leader. HLL main focal point is to enter into the ice cream industry under the brand name “Kwality walls”. Its progress in this segment has been made through merger and strategic alliances with the Indian groups.

Strategy used:
As marketing strategy in the introduction stage, it introduced range of products like feast, softies, Max and Viennetta, Vanilla Gold, Black Currant Sundaes which targeted the take-home segment. In the next stage, in expanding the segment, it had a alliance with the pizza corner in developing “home delivery concept”, which uses distribution network of the pizza corner to make home delivery for the customers.
HLL also involved in “activation and visibility strategy” in which it mainly focuses upon various promotional campaigns to increase the brand awareness and brand visibility. Its announced a special contest for valentine’s day. It next campaign for its Feast range ‘What’s on your stick?’.
HLL also launched innovative campaign called “Ek Din Ka Raja” which was awarded the 'Best Promotion Campaign in India'. This campaign also awarded Silver for the ‘Best Idea or Concept’ and a Bronze for the ‘Best use of Direct Marketing’. This campaign is about picking up 10 lucky customers and giving them 10 lakh rupees to spend on a single day. For its summer promotion it had a alliance with the cartoon network

Positioning:
Some brands under Kwality walls are
Feast range of ice creams was positioned as a 'youth ice cream brand with an attitude'.
Cornetto was positioned as the product for romantic and special moments.
Sundaes positioned as an offering, which helped bring families together for fun and enjoyment

Secret of my (our) Energy: Boost !!

To reach the target audience, marketers generally use the communication channels like internet, newspapers, radio, television, billboards and etc. This is essentially done to deliver and receive messages from the buyers of the product. The company can use the same marketing communication program or they can modify it according to the local market called “communication adaptation”.
In case of “boost”, it is very interesting to notice that the brand had never changed its communication strategy. Since 1974 it is communicating only through cricket players.
The brand ambassadors for the brand “boost” are1986-Kapildev1989-Sachin Tendulkar2001- Virendar Sehwag
The agency which handles this account is JWTIt is one of the leading players in Health food drink market and we shall say that it was the brand which pioneered this sort of communication. While lots of players are juggling with their communication strategies, how could this brand have a same communiqué? Can it be called a communication paradox???

my special thanks to ranganathan....

Scotch Brite: An innovative strategy of a hiding giant

An average Indian may not know that the brand “Scotch Brite” is yet another innovation owned by one of the world’s most innovative company “3M India limited”. It always uses “product innovation” as the special attacking strategy for the competition while entering into the segment. Scotch Brite is one such brand which is a scrubber used for cleaning utensils, which is launched in India and all over the world.

Strategy Used:
Since Indians believe that steel scrubbers are better, it is now coming with the steel scrubber under the brand name” Steelo” which serves the taste of the Indian customers better. At the same time, the company also promotes Scotch Brite Scrub pads through various promotional campaigns like super saver offer and conducting housemaids meet to create awareness about scrub pads.
3M is only organized player and pioneer in this segment which faces severe competition from local manufacturers. The price range of the product starts from Rs5 to overcome the competition from cheap priced products in the market.
The product quality is good and the scrubbers are now coming with “S” shaped pads for more convenience for the consumers. The company also involved in direct marketing where the company staffs gets appropriate feedback from the customers

Today in the Indian FMCG segment, the competition is becoming so severe that the companies are started using their corporate names in the TVC ads to grab a dominant place in the minds of the consumers, as an entity which as real love for its environment. Some of the companies are HLL, ITC, TTK and so on. Even HLL have changed its name to Hindustan Unilever Limited; in bring its global name into India. In this situation, 3M is not giving importance in associating the corporate name with its brand. It is already displaying the name of the company in the packages. But customers are not identifying it.
Is corporate identity important for 3M? If so, will this pioneer attach its corporate name with its brand in the future?

Ujala’s violet strategy!! A change from Blue to Violet.

Today’s customers are becoming more conscious about the brands they use and the value they get from it. They take more care in maintaining their cloths. The cleanliness of the cloths is considered to be the main factor which gives image to the individuals and it also shows the ability of the home makers. Even majority of the detergent and washing soap advertisements emphasized upon whiteness
and shows ‘shining’ white clothes as a symbol for a good personality.

The concept of “Blue” in India is very popular that people believed the pigment in the blue powder which makes the cloths whiter and brighter. Reckitt and coleman was the first organized player in the sector despite there are large number of unorganized players in the market. They introduced Robin blue powder which is very lower in prices and possessed a good market share in this sector. This brand “Robin” becomes much famous that the blue was considered to be the synonym for Robin. Since there are no significant threat R&C had never took any marketing effort to enhance the performance of the brand.

Then Jyothi laboratories came with the pioneer idea of whitener which was a violet colored liquid that dissolved easily in water. They decided to introduce under the brand name” Ujala”. The man with the strategic thinking for this brand is Mr. MP Ramchandran. This was the first innovative product in the fabric whitener segment which gives more advantages when compared to other powder blue competitors. The high performance characteristics of the product made the company, register a growth of 50% and grabbed a 25% of the market share in the Rs 25 billion organized fabric whitener market of India.

Strategies used:
Concentration upon the rural markets for its innovative fabric whitener liquid and they made a huge distribution network in the country. Robin lacks in this regard since it is from a foreign company which doesn’t focused upon the rural markets.

Ujala’s Focus on Direct marketing: The company got the required information and the feedback from its staffs who make direct marketing with the customers of the product, helps customers to get more and more customized product.

Innovative radio advertising which had a localized touch in it. This makes path to the word of mouth advertising for the company which made it a huge success and consequently led to the dominance of “Violet” which invaded “the blue”

Advertising agency for Ujala: Situations advertising and marketing services

Other brands of the company:
Maxo – Mosquito repellant
Maya – Incense stick
Jeeva – Soap
Exo – Dish wash bar