Marketing review

MTNL bowls for Cricket World Cup 2007
New Delhi: For World Cup 2007 MTNL Delhi has come out with a unique initiative for landline and mobile users.
The company has made a special arrangement to bring live cricket scores to its customers. Hence to obtain the latest cricket updates of all the matches played by India starting from 17th March 2007, all customers have to do is dial 24012401 from their landline phone.

Apart from this, MTNL has also introduced a mobile service where the updates are available through SMS, keeping it simple and accessible. Here customers have to type CRI and send it to 2001 from their Garuda, Trump and Dolphin mobile connections.

MTNL's initiative will ensure that cricket fans all over the country will cheer for all the matches when boys in blue are ready to take over the world.

Nokia launches the new stylish 6300 model
Mumbai: Nokia, the world leader in mobile communications has launched its slim, powerful and stylish Nokia 6300.

To offer consumers a personalised mobile experience, Nokia has announced a 'limited edition phone wherein the first 2,500 consumers across India can get their names etched on the phone, choosing from a range of stylized fonts and designs.

Nokia says the 6300 represents an evolution of the modern monoblock design. It is constructed of quality materials and offers a modern suite of features for the new age consumer. A stainless steel frame that adds both design interest and strength highlights the clean lines and recessed buttons of the Nokia 6300.

In addition, the Nokia 6300 has a large screen, ergonomic keymat and offering a robust range of easy-to-use features, including a 2 megapixel camera with zoom, expandable memory, built-in MP3 player and FM radio. Its, detailed screen has applications like an Opera Mini Browser games like Sudoku and Snakes III to life.

Added to this, the Nokia 6300 weighs a mere 91 grams and measures less than 13.1mm in width. It is packed with easy-to-use features offering a best in class 16.7 million colour screen, a 2-megapixel camera with 8X Zoom, email capabilities, built-in MP3 player and FM radio. The handset is targeted at consumers aspiring for both style and feature rich capabilities.

Hindi film actor Rahul Bose will endorse the Nokia 6300.

ICICI ties up with Subhiksha to launch pre-paid food card
New Delhi: ICICI Bank and supermarket chain Subhiksha have launched a pre-paid food card to be used as an alternative to the cash and meal vouchers.
The pre-paid card is re-loadable on a monthly basis and will be accepted at all Subhiksha outlets in India and select restaurants.
The card will be launched first in Delhi and will thereafter be available in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Gujarat.

Now book railway tickets through your mobile
New Delhi: Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has launched IRCTCmobile, a graphical interactive interface for booking train tickets, for mobile phone users.

However, for using this application, mobile users need to have Java-enabled handsets (to view graphics) and should be able to access the Internet.

IRCTC already offers the option of ticket booking through mobile phones using instant voice response and text messages, but they are not based on graphical user interfaces.
Once users install the new application, they can check availability of tickets, book tickets using credit and cash cards, check fare and train details between two stations, check ticket details and view route.

IRCTC has not yet announced the charges for using the application.

McDonald's to invest Rs 3 crore in developing home delivery services
New Delhi: Global fast food chain McDonald's has announced plans of investing about Rs3 crore over the next three years to strengthen its home delivery services. To offer this service McDonald's has launched an all-India single home delivery number — 66-000-666.

The company will spend Rs4 crore in promoting the delivery system, including a television commercial.

McDonald's also plans to add 25 new restaurants over the next year in the northern and eastern regions of the country and had earlier announced investments of around Rs 400 crore for this.

Landmark to set up standalone stores for Kappa brand
Bangalore: The Landmark Group is focusing on the Italian fashion sportswear brand Kappa which is currently available at all Lifestyle stores and will also be promoted through standalone stores, about 40 of them, in high streets in the next one year.

This is as the company feels that though department stores help in attracting consumers, cannot communicate the entire identity of the brand.

However, Kappa will continue to be available at all Lifestyle stores, in addition to which LMG plans to make it available in other large department stores.

Kappa bridges the gap between fashion and sportswear and offers a collection of apparel, sports shoes and accessories, targeted at age groups between 18-25. |

Kappa outfits and accessories, priced between Rs399 and Rs2,999, are in line with international fashion trends. Kappa currently has seven stores in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Bangalore.

i-Mate aims at the global mass market
Chennai: i-Mate India, the wholly owned subsidiary of Dubai-based smart phone and pocket PC maker i-Mate, is planning to launch a marketing campaign next fiscal (2007-08).
The company which has till now offered only high end mobile handsets now plans introduce 10 new handset models between April and July, including its `Ultimate' range showcased at the recent GSM Conference in Barcelona. It recently introduced the i-Mate PDAL priced in the mid-range having the full functionality of a pocket PC.

The company aims to grow its market share four times next fiscal and plans to offer more models of its phones in the Indian market.

At present i-Mate has about 10 per cent share of the 2-lakh units market consisting of smart phone, pocket PCs and hand held devices with Windows Mobile software.
At present about 10 i-Mate handset models are available in the price range of Rs17,000 and a little over Rs40,000. Besides providing Windows Mobile features such as access to MS Word, MS PowerPoint and MS Excel, the company also provides free e-mail access.

ITC to focus on snacks, ready to eat foods
New Delhi: ITC's food division has forayed into the Rs2,000-crore domestic branded, organised snacks segment through its brand Bingo, which will be available in 16 variants priced at Rs5 and Rs10.

The company is also planning to launch television commercials during the Cricket World Cup to promote the new product.

ITC has also reclassified its `ready-to-eat' and `to-be-cooked' foods under `Kitchens of India' and 'Aashirvaad' brands respectively. After the reclassification, ready-to-eat foods such as 'Aashirvaad rajma-chawal' will be sold under the 'Kitchens of India' brand.

Just Dial Services launches local info search engine
Mumbai: Just Dial Services has launched its local Internet search engine - www.justdial.com. The search engine provides local information for 14 cities. At the moment it covers Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Ernakulam, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Pune, Vadodara and Vizag.

Just Dial is set up to allow users to search local information by company name, product, service, local area and price. Just Dial Services is also planning to launch a mobile phone search service using an SMS code in the near future.

Dabur to set up health & beauty retail venture
New Delhi: Dabur India plans to set up health and beauty stores, through its wholly owned subsidiary, H&B Stores Ltd.

The company says retail is its next big focus area. H&B Stores will set up 350 franchisee retail stores spread over 1,500-6,000 sq. ft across India in five years and will expand it to over 1,000 stores by the tenth year of its operation.

The stores will sell products ranging from personal care, cosmetics, baby care to over-the-counter drugs. The store roll out is to begin by the middle of the next fiscal April 2007-08, in metros, Tier-1 cities and malls.

The company says it has recognised a clear need to fill the gap that exists in the health and beauty retail segment in India, thereby enabling Dabur to have an early mover advantage. The retail venture would be run under a separate brand name, which will be decided in due course. H&B Stores expects to start generating profits by the fourth year of operations with revenues exceeding Rs 1,000 crore. Besides its own products under the segment, Dabur will also retail other brands.

Tata Tea aims at the premium segment
New Delhi: Tata Tea has decided to target the premium segment in the tea market, currently occupied by Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) in the Rs 6,000-crore organised tea market in India. The company says it has been achieving double-digit growth while the industry is growing only at 3.3 per cent.

Currently, Hindustan Unilever leads the domestic tea market with 19 per cent shares, closely followed by Tata Tea's 18 per cent shares. Tata Tea feels it can get to the top slot by next year.

The company has recently launched its new flavoured product, Tata Tea Life, thereby making its foray into the health and wellness segment of tea.

The new product will not be positioned as a niche product but will be promoted as a mainstream one that has additional tastes of herbs and spices known to provide overall health and wellness. Initially, the company will make available its new brands in 250gm and 100gm packs priced at Rs52 and Rs20 respectively.