Marketing review

Span Apparels rechristened Spykar Lifestyle
Span Apparels, styled as U:th Icon and Brand of the Generation Next has changed its name from Span Apparels to Spykar Lifestyle.

The brand comprises a large array of casual wear from the authentic five pocket jeans to fashionable denims, fatigues, loozers, jackets, tees, shirts, etc. to trendy bags, belts, caps, wallets, socks and other accessories.

Spykar Lifestyle is gearing up to further extend its product portfolio by introducing other fashion essentials like travel gear, shoes, deodorants, junk jewelry, eyewear and time-wear.

Having catered for the last 12 years to the ever-evolving tastes of the youth, Spykar Jeans intends to now offer complete styling solutions to the patrons. The Spykar Style Lab is the first step in the direction that is a potent mix of a clothing store and a hair salon that offer the customers them their attire, hairdo, tattooing, accessorizing them, bearing the trademark Spykar signature.

Spykar Jeans currently has 74 exclusive brand outlets in India and has a presence in over 450 multiple brand outlets, large format stores and exclusive brand outlets.

Spykar Lifestyle has also opened its first exclusive brand store in London through the movie Namaste London in February 2006.

BIG FM sees growth through exclusive tie-ups
Adlabs Films has tied up with the Future Group for radio play at the latter''s retail outlets.

As per the tie-up, Future Group''s Big Bazaar outlets in cities such as Delhi (4 stores), Mumbai (5 stores), Kolkata (2 stores), Bangalore (4 stores) and two Food Bazaar outlets in Mumbai and Delhi will air the live feed of BIG 92.7 FM. The 15 Big Bazaar stores register a cumulative footfall of 27 lakh a month on an average, the footfall in the two Food Bazaar outlets average around a lakh a month.

Adlabs is also working on entering into similar tie-ups with the company to play its station at its Chennai outlets.

BIG 92.7 FM has also signed an exclusive agreement with the Chennai-based restaurant chain Vasantha Bhavan to air the FM station in its outlets in the city and has signed as "exclusive partnership" with Yash Raj Films'' forthcoming movie TaraRumPum starring Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukherjee.

BIG 92.7 FM will be in the lead on all the action around the movie with exclusive song premiers, behind the scene gossip, interviews with stars and other crew.

There will also be a special Yash Raj Films'' music countdown programme in which some of the most memorable songs from the films produced by the banner will be aired.

Extending the movie marketing initiative, BIG FM is planning similar arrangements with big banners in the South too.

Lastly, BIG FM has installed `fixed-frequency'' radio sets in a large number of autorickshaws in major cities.

PepsiCo set for new cricket campaign
PepsiCo India is withdrawing its ''Blue Billion'' ad campaign so far synonymous with Indian cricket, and plans to launch a brand new campaign, after the embarrassing exit of the Men in Blue from ICC World Cup series.

PepsiCo officials said the company has already started work on a new campaign for the series that should be on air very soon.

Rohit Ohri, managing partner of ad agency, JWT, who make ads for PepsiCo, said the campaign under development will also around the theme of cricket but will feature celebrity Bollywood endorsers- Shah Rukh, Kareena and Priyanka.

HLL to grow ice cream parlour biz through malls
Mumbai: HLL expects its ice cream business to grow as malls develop in the country. The company''s relatively new parlour brand under Kwality Walls Swirls is expected to increase its franchise from the existing 30-odd parlours.

Company officials said as the number of malls coming up rises, the more number of parlours would be set up. The company, which set up `Swirls'' two years ago, expects to increase its presence in the premium segment comprising freshly made ice creams.

Nearly 30 per cent of its ice cream sales continue to come from the Kwality Walls branded carts operating in the cities across the country.

This summer, HLL segmented the ice cream market further by introducing a calcium-enriched ice cream brand for kids called Moo.

Future Group launches `Home Town''
Future Group''s company, Home Solutions Retail (India), has forayed into the home improvement retail segment by launching its first `Home Town'' outlet in New Delhi. Home Town outlets will be divided into three sections - exhibitions, markets and services.

Under the exhibitions section, the outlets will have live displays of various model rooms, while the markets segment will have products for rooms that would include the entire range from mattresses and home furnishings to consumer durables.

The services section on the other hand will offer facilities such as interior designing, tiling, plumbing and painting.

Future Group plans to open a total of nine stores in the next 12 months with an investment of Rs20 crore per store. According to the company Home Town is an amalgamation of the value-lifestyle propositions, so appears eminently approachable to the budget buyer, as well as the aspirational customer, and also to the lifestyle-driven customer.

The displays will echo the aspirations of the consumer, keeping traditions alive in a contemporary world.

While the first nine stores will have an average area of around a million sq ft, the outlets there on will be bigger at an average of about two million sq ft.

The company also plans to offer credit facilities to customers through its financial arm, Future Money.

Wockhardt launches offer for Airtel users
Airtel, Andhra Pradesh, and Wockhardt Hospitals in Hyderabad have got together to launch a scheme to mark the World Health Day on April 7.

The tie-up allows Airtel post-paid customers to avail themselves two exclusively designed health check-up packages at discounted rates of 75 per cent.

Under the campaign, customers can undergo the Wockhardt Master Health Check at only Rs799, originally priced at Rs3,200. In addition, they would be eligible for several discounts.

The offer is aimed at post-paid customers who have provided a solid base for the growth of the company in the State.

US content distribution company plans India office
Hollywood-based content distribution company Long Tale LLC is planning to set up an office in India, mainly for the purpose of distributing Indian films abroad. The proposed entity will also distribute films from across the world in India.

Long Tale manages intellectual property related to distribution of films, video, print and digital content. Films such as Superman, The Three Musketeers and The New Adventures of Pinocchio have been distributed globally and managed by the company.

Long Tale has tied up with Accel Animation Studios, a division of Accel Transmatic an animation and visual effects company. The companies will jointly work on re-mastering (changing the format of film content), re-formatting (reducing length of the film) and digitising Indian films to be distributed globally.

The company has entered into agreements with Indian filmmakers to convert and distribute their films in a manner suitable to foreign audiences.

These films will be stored and distributed through a new company created for this purpose called Shockwave Collection. As of now 38 Hindi films, including Dus, Sarkar, and James have been signed and agreements with regional films are also in the offing.

Shockwave plans to make these films available through the Internet, digital TV as well as in cinemas. Long Tale helped Kaante, a Hindi action film, to go through this process before it was screened in theatres across the US.

Tata''s Rs 1-lakh car may be named after JRD
Though no name has been officially announced for the to be launched one-lakh car from the Tata Motors fold romours doing the rounds say `Jeh'' is emerging as the `most favoured name''.

Officials said it has been Tata group chairman Ratan Tata''s dream to name one of the cars after J R D Tata."

The car, the prototype of which is ready at the Pune plant, is a four-seater with a 630 cc, four-stroke, two-cylinder rear engine and is scheduled for roll out from the Singur plant in West Bengal in 2008.

Zee starts Rs100-crore cricket league
The Zee Group has announced the launch of the Indian Cricket League with a prize-money of $1 million (Rs4.28 crore).

Subhash Chandra, chairman Zee Network said a professional league is the need of the hour as is a killer instinct in the players. He said private and public sectors needed to step up and partner together to commit the financial resources necessary to help the sport which is a national obsession. He said the league was not in conflict, but complementary to the BCCI.

The BCCI has acknowledged receiving a letter from Chandra "seeking permission to start the Indian Cricket League".

The Board has not yet taken a decision on the matter, said the BCCI secretary, Niranjan Shah.

Critics says Chandra''s league is much like the Kerry Packer series launched by Australian TV tycoon Kerry Packer in 1977, soon after he was denied television rights by the Australian Cricket Board. Packer though did manage to win over a host of top cricketers of the day.