TVS Apache RTR:A strategic brand on a test drive?

Its has been a huge victory for pulsar... and Tvs also dont wanna leave that share..
Tvs will soon gonna launch Tvs Apache 160 RTR... actually to say they are following a me too strategy to take over others in this segment.. the price is expected to be around Rs60,000 .

Here are some pics... its really nice... waitin for it??!!


source:rearset.blogspot.com
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“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

Cielo: A Strategic Blender?

As we all familiar with the brand Cielo sometimes before, is dormant today.
What actually pushes this brand to such a quagmire?

Cielo was the brand owned by Daewoo motors India limited, was a part of the $ 65 billion Daewoo Group founded in 1967 in Korea. The group diversified into general trading, construction, machinery, automotive, ship building electronics and tele communications. Cielo was launched in India in July 1995, since there is no option for the Indian customers in the mid size segment except Maruti esteem. Within a short span of time Cielo saw a large volume of bookings from the customers. This made a intense competition for Maruti. Soon after the situation turned upside down that all the bookings made by the customers for Cielo were cancelled and it faced a huge problem.

Circumstances:
Daewoo motors saw a intense competition and higher customer expectations in terms of quality and performance in developed markets. Hence the company decided to penetrate in the emerging markets where the demand for automobiles was expected to increase in the future; it launched the brand Cielo in India.

Strategies used:
Promotional campaign, called the ‘Diwali Bonanza scheme’ for corporate, offering one Cielo free on purchase of every ten cars. This campaign was initiated by the marketing head of Korea, who had no idea about the Indian auto industry and the target market.
Frequent changes in positioning. The car was positioned as ‘technology with aesthetics’ which was later moved on to a ‘premium family car’ positioning followed by “value-for-money” car.

Consequences:
The customers began to look the brand with a suspicion because of the way it had been marketed
The Cielo had been promoted as a feature-rich, luxury family car. But the frequent change in the positioning made confusion among customers. Since there is a gap between a premium car, a family car and value for money car. Cielo fails to grab a good image for themselves in the minds of the customers.
The Nexia was promoted as being an upgraded version of the Cielo. The move failed badly because the customers failed to see any worthwhile additions to the earlier Cielo model.

Cielo fails in “Positioning”. Even though Daewoo is one among the first multinational player to enter into the Indian auto market only after Maruti Udyog Limited, improper market study leads to the fall of the brand Cielo.

Will we learn a lesson to concentrate upon giving importance to “Positioning”?
Other brands of the company: Matiz – small car segment