Marketing review

21 Feb 2004

Competition hots up in the sugar confectionery market
Competition in the sugar confectionery market is heating up. Cadbury India has drawn up an aggressive marketing plan to promote its acquired brand 'Halls' while Perfetti India is pushing its sugar confectionery brand Mentos with equal vigour. HLL on the other hand, has entered the fray with its Max Candy

Cadbury is strengthening its presence in the sugar confectionery segment with a brand new communication package and is looking at various retail initiatives to enhance the visibility of its brands. It plans to set up special Halls dispensers at retail outlets. To support its mass media ad campaigns, the company is planning to launch a package of above-the-line-communication initiatives.

Perfetti is also chalking out an ambitious marketing plan to promote its Mentos and CentreShock. Perfetti has recently launched two television commercials to promote the new variants of Mentos. The ad campaigns will be supported by dealer meets and retail initiatives.

The sugar confectionery sector includes manufacturers like Perfetti India, Cadbury India, ITC and Hindustan Levers Ltd among others.

Electrolux to reposition itself
Electrolux Kelvinator Ltd (EKL) is going in for a complete makeover of marketing strategy. The company increased ad spend by 5-6 per cent of its total turnover last fiscal ending 31December 2004, against 4.5 per cent, the previous year. Now it is aggressively reaching its target customers, which are mostly women. The company has launched four new TV commercials in the last one year targeted at women and is getting new ones made.

The company launched a range of microwaves sometime back and is all set to roll out its air conditioners, which are claimed to have unique features.

Big growth seen in the food mart
According to a CII-McKinsey report, the consumption of food products has risen in the last decade and the domestic food market is expected to touch Rs 5,00,000 crore in 2005. The food industry market, valued at Rs 3,09,000 crore in 1993-94, had reached a turnover of Rs 3,99,000 crore in 2000-01

Now a value-added consumption patterns are beginning to emerge with products like branded rotis, ready-to-cook / eat products and condiments, the report said.

The food manufacturing sector has grown two-and-a-half times faster than agriculture and significantly more than IT and pharma industry.

LG ready to bid for sponsorship rights of ODI series
LG intends to aggressively bid for title sponsorship rights for the two one-day international (ODI) tournaments involving India.

The company is looking at the Hong Kong Cup scheduled in June, involving India, Pakistan and Australia, and the upcoming Asia Cup in July and has set aside a budget of nearly Rs 42 crore for cricket related marketing activities this year.

The figure may go upto Rs 50 crore if some of the deals it's negotiating work out. LG is already one of the official sponsors of the ICC champions trophy to be held in England in t September, for which it had paid $5 million.

New variants of 'Bima Nivesh', 'Bima Plus from LIC
Life Insurance Corporation is planning to launch new variants of the single premium policy 'Bima Nivesh' and unit-linked scheme 'Bima Plus' soon.

LIC is also contemplating closure of some schemes, which were offering more than 8.0 per cent guaranteed return and focus more on market-linked schemes.

Pidilite Industries plans Dr Fixit service centres
Pidilite Industries Ltd is planning to set up 'Dr Fixit Service Centres' to meet the growing needs of contractors, builders and end-consumers with regard to providing services such as waterproof treatment, ceramic tile fixing, sealing gaps around window frames, plumbing jobs and filling surface tracks on walls targeted at the three categories.

The company will appoint nationwide service representatives who will operate through Dr Fixit's Service Centres.

The chemical construction division of Pidilite Industries is also planning to expand its number of shop-in-shops from 300 to 1,000, within two years.

Tata to be a global brand
Tata Sons wants to make the Tata into a household name in key global markets.

To this end the group corporate centre (GCC) in the group has identified specific geographic areas and a team of top Tata executives are working on identifying cost effective media to promote the Tata brand in these markets.

These markets include the United Kingdom, South Africa and the Asean region. The managing directors of the group's UK and South African subsidiaries will be a part of the team working on the strategy to build the Tata brand in these markets.

The group already has a strong business presence in the UK through TCS (Tata Consultancy Services), Tetley (the UK tea brand acquired by Tata Tea) and Tata Motors' recent deal with Rover. Also Tata Motors recently acquired the Daewoo truck facility in South Korea, while TCS and Tata Technologies have operations in Singapore . The group also has a significant presence in Thailand and Malaysia.

Titan to focus on jewellery
Titan Industries feels its jewellery business is growing faster than its watches business and will overtake the latter in the next four years. The company has identified customised jewellery and workwear jewellery as growth opportunities for Tanishq.

Tanishq intends jewellery to account for around 55 per cent of its overall turnover in the next four years, up from 45 per cent now and has set a target of securing a turnover of Rs 1,500 crore in that time.

Vivek's to launch own gadgets
The largest consumer electronics retailer in the country, the Chennai-based Vivek Ltd, which owns the Vivek's chain of stores, is planning to introduce a range of small appliances under its own brand name, Vivek's.

The Rs 200 crore turnover retailer is looking at appliances in the under Rs 5,000 category — mixer-grinders, blenders, table fans and iron boxes — and feels the move will help increase margins and profitability. By the end of 2005, Vivek's plans to have 100 stores in the country, making it the largest consumer electronics retailer in the country.

Food Bazaar in expansion mode
Food Bazaar, the food and grocery retailing arm of Pantaloon Retail India Ltd, is looking at achieving a turnover of Rs 500 crore by 2006. The retailer is also looking to expand to around 4.5 lakh sq.ft space from the present 85,000 sq.ft.

In 2004, the second year of its operations, Food Bazaar projected sales turnover is of the order of Rs 100 crore from the 11 outlets currently in operation.

Among its plans to increase sales one is to give more importance to the private label programme, expected to contribute 20 per cent to the total turnover by 2006. It is planning to introduce around 20 product lines in the next four to six months to add to the existing four private labels it currently stocks. The existing product lines comprise Food Bazaar tea, salt and spices and also Premium Harvest daals and spices.

Private brands like Tasty Treat in sauces, ketchups and namkeens, Tasty Mates in drinks and beverages and others in the homecare and personalcare segments will also be on offer.

Toyota launches Corolla variant
Toyota Kirloskar Motor has launched a new variant of Corolla sedan in the Indian market.

The ex-showroom price in Bangalore for the new Corolla variant, available in black mica and champagne mica colours, is Rs 10.75 lakh.

The Toyota Corolla has emerged the leader in the upper C segment in India, with a market-share of over 42 per cent within a span of a year.

— Compiled by Mohini Bhatnagar