Marketing review

Timex unveils Opex range of watches for women
Timex India has launched Opex, a French brand of women's watches from the Timex Group's international portfolio in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore. According to the company Opex is a 14-year-old "boutique brand" sold in select stores in France, Belgium, the US and China.

Timex plans to continue that marketing strategy in India also. Right now, it is available in all of Timex's exclusive showrooms called Time Factory, all Lifestyle and Landmark outlets. In France, Opex is a premium brand but in India, the company has decided to price it in the Rs2,000 and Rs6,000 bracket. The company says that in Paris, the same range is priced in the €150-€200 (Rs 10,000-15,000) range.

Opex is bringing in its `Watch Wardrobe' by offering a watch for every occasion from a black tie event to a poolside party to a board meeting. These watches can also double up as accessories- and can be worn around the neck, as a waist belt, as anklets and armlets or as fancy brooches.

MRF comes on top in TNS survey
MRF has moved up three rank positions from 2005 to rank highest in customer satisfaction in the JD Power Asia Pacific 2006 India Original Tire Customer Satisfaction Index (TCSI) study. This is the fourth time MRF has ranked highest in the study.

The study, now in its sixth year, analyses perceptions of new-vehicle buyers on five critical factors — appearance of tyre, durability of tyres, ride quality, traction and handling.

Godrej Aadhar ties up with Apollo Pharmacy
Mumbai: Godrej Aadhar, the rural services and retail arm of Godrej Agrovet, has entered into an agreement with Apollo Pharmacy to offer medicine support across Godrej Aadhar outlets in rural India. The agreement includes setting up of Apollo Pharmacies at Aadhar outlets called Apollo Aadhar Pharmacy, offering `genuine' medicines and life saving drugs. However, the two companies did not reveal how the revenue sharing arrangement would be worked out.

The new venture also plans to leverage Apollo's expertise in rural healthcare and contribute towards the rural healthcare system through telemedicine consultation, wellness programmes, health check ups, community health insurance products, joint social welfare activities and medical camps. In the first phase Apollo Pharmacy would set up services at two Aadhars-- Manchar, Pune and Jagraon, Ludhiana. Godrej Agrovet plans to aggregate other services including offering credit, insurance and postal services.

Cottons by Century plans more outlets
Cottons by Century (CC) the men's apparel brand from the BK Birla's company Century Textile and Industries has opened its 46th exclusive brand outlet (EBO) in the country. The company is planning to set up 80 more such EBOs during the current year as part of its brand building efforts.

The city's first CC exclusive outlet located in Ramnagar, closer to the upmarket `Cross-cut' Road area.

Fresh & Honest eyes 10 per cent of filter coffee market
Fresh & Honest Café (FHCL) member of the C Sivasankaran-promoted Sterling Infotech Group of Companies, after being present in the freshly brewed coffee vending business for nine years, is diversifying into the retail coffee segment recently with the launch of its roast and ground coffee brand. The company is targeting at a 10 per cent market share for the brand in the country's organised packaged filter coffee market this year.

The Southern states led by Tamil Nadu account for 90 per cent of the coffee consumed in the country. The company estimates the size of the mixed filter coffee market at 20,600 tonnes per annum. About half of this market is in the organised sector, dominated by players such as Hindustan Lever, Narasu's and Tata Coffee.

Priced at a premium of 10 per cent over the leading brands, FHCL expects `Alive' to hit the shelves of some 42,000 retailers throughout the country by this year-end, Mr Shivashankar said.

Going forward, FCHL proposes to come out with a pure filter coffee brand. The company has a tie-up with Espresso vendor Illycafe to distribute the latter's products in India.

HLL launches sun block lotion under Fair & Lovely brand
HLL has launched sunscreen lotion under the Fair & Lovely brand as a brand extension. HLL officials said, "Both fairness and sunscreens have common goals in terms of avoiding tan to get fairer." The new `Fair & Lovely active sun-block lotion' is priced on a par with the mother brand of Fair & Lovely at Rs30 for 25ml and Rs60 for 50ml.

The sunscreen segment comprises 3 per cent of the Rs1,265-crore skin care category and is growing at 11 per cent annum according to estimates.

Jealous Jeans launches summer range
Jealous Jeans, the brand exclusively targeted at women has come out with a spring summer range called Sugar and Kitsch. Sugar is for the young women, who want grace and charm in her clothing and Kitsch is the style statement representing the more dynamic and bold young woman.

The products are priced between Rs699 and Rs1,299 for bottoms and between Rs299 and Rs699 for tops.

Maruti launches a rewards program
The country's largest carmaker Maruti is planning to launch an innovative loyalty programme across 40 cities and towns in the country. According to the company this is an innovatively designed rewards programme, which promises to change the car ownership experience forever.

The company is launching the loyalty programme in association with Citibank and Indian Oil, and is based on all the expenditure customers make on the scheme. An Autocard user can redeem his points and potentially get his next Maruti car at nearly Rs20,000 less than a regular customer.

The biggest benefit for the customer is that he earns the rewards for no-extra obligations. Last fiscal the company produced over 5.61 lakh cars and has over 5 million customers across the country.

According to independent surveys, about 61 per cent of new car buyers are from its own range of cars. For those who buy a new car, the program is valid from the day he acquires a car from the showroom. And for those who already own one, they need to just fill up for the loyalty programme to avail themselves of the rewards programme.

There is no membership fee, and each member gets a credit of Rs10,000 upfront and bonus points accrue for purchase of spares and even for servicing the car. Apart from savings that come through six per cent lower charges on service, this is valid for five years. The best part of the programme is it brings a whole new experience for the Maruti owner who enters a relationship with Maruti that goes beyond business.

Bajaj Auto introduces the 100cc Platina
Bajaj Auto has launched a new 100cc bike `Platina' aimed at garnering higher margins in the entry-level segment.

The company claims that Platina is a high functionality, low maintenance bike and offers better margins than CT100. The bike is available in two variants priced at Rs34,000 and Rs36,000 (ex-showroom Delhi). The company expects to sell 70,000 to 75,000 units per month and around 25 lakh units of the Platina this fiscal, and gradually make it the largest selling bike in its portfolio.

Baja Auto is also setting up a new plant in Uttaranchal where it hopes to produce an additional 10 lakh units of the Platina.

Coca-Cola India launches new Thums Up campaign
Coca-Cola India has launched a new `Thums Up Taste the Thunder' campaign, starring Akshay Kumar. The campaign has been shot in in Cape Town, South Africa, and uses advanced technology in advertising targeted primarily at the `confident youth'.

Vikas Gupta, vice-president, marketing Coca-Cola India said, The Tums Up Taste The Thunder' campaign aims at portraying the achievement of every person's hidden yearning — to dare and subsequently win over the impossible, to set unbelievable targets and to have the power to accomplish ones dreams."

Hyundai to appoint more dealers
Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) is planning to appoint more dealers. The company plans to 200 dealerships across the country by the end of the year, up from the present 157 dealers. The company has been having a series of roadshows titled world of wheels.' The roadshow displays all the vehicles sold by the company in India, and also features two models that are yet to enter the Indian market.

Idea launches `Group Talk' facility
Pune: Idea Cellular has launched Group Talk facility in the Maharashtra and Goa circles for its prepaid and post-paid customers. This technology would provide fast and easy set up of mobile-originated conference calls with up to 10 wireless participants. Business colleagues, friends and families can initiate an instant conference call in seconds.

According to the facility Idea subscribers can make group conference calls to any GSM or CDMA numbers. Additionally, there will be applications such as availability status, Push-to-call (one-way call), and group SMS. Group Talk will soon be launched across the other circles in the coming weeks, an official release said.