Marketing review

Honda Siel has long term plans for India
With plans to introduce an India specific small car in the country Honda is thinking long term for its operations here. The company has lined up a 10-year strategy for the country mainly because of the success its products have achieved in India.

The company plans to introduce a small car in India that will be specifically tailored to the needs of the Indian consumers.

Even though the small car will be India specific, it will be designed outside India with inputs from Honda''s engineers in India. The car could probably be designed in Thailand where Honda has an R&D centre.

Radio City launches high decibel ad campaign
Radio City 91.1 FM is launching to launch its largest campaign ever with the tagline `Fun ki nayi Bhasha'' in an effort to stand out amidst the clutter of radio channels.

The channel will run 160 spots a day, over the next three months, and complement the campaign with ground activities across malls.

The campaign is an extension of the company''s recent music video ''Bolo whatte fun'' starring comic actor Vinay Pathak.

The channel has identified its listeners as belonging to the age group of 25-34 and from SEC (socio-economic class) AB. The content is strictly adult contemporary.

The channel is also trying to differentiate itself from competition, offering English content to early morning listeners in Chennai, and Hindi to those in Hyderabad.

The channel has eight stations up and running and expects to add another 12 by July. The channel has already present cities such as Baroda, Surat, Nagpur and Ahmednagar are on the map for stations, the channel is also expanding its network to smaller towns such as Nagdeo and Sangli in Maharashtra.

Honda Motors plans new offerings
Honda Motors and Scooters India is planning to launch new products in the bike and scooter segment in the coming two years. The company plans to launch a new scooter model by the end of the current fiscal and a 125 cc motorcycle by the first half of next year. The company is also chalking out a strategy to introduce its popular high-end bikes in India priced at around Rs 10 lakh per unit.

Godrej Consumer introduces FairGlow face wash
Godrej Consumer Products that manufactures and markets the FairGlow brand of fairness soaps, has forayed into the fairness face wash category, under the FairGlow brand. The company said that venturing into the fairness face wash category and not the cream category was a conscious decision, since it''s a well-known fact that soaps find it difficult to enter the skin, and therefore are not able to provide quick results. However, due to the presence of an active ingredient in Godrej''s FairGlow face washes, the product works much better as it penetrates the skin more effectively. The face wash, priced at Rs 29 for a 50 ml pack and Rs 55 for a 100 ml pack will not be positioned at the mass market and will be rolled out in only select markets.

Dabur kicks up lather with new soaps strategy
Dabur India is increasing focus on its soaps portfolio with a two-pronged strategy. The company plans to grow its soaps portfolio in two directions. One through the Vatika soap brand was launched two years ago and has two variants; and two; to launch new soaps under the Dabur brand. The soaps under the Dabur brand wouldn''t be cosmetic beauty soaps, but would have a core ayurvedic heritage, built on the health platform, where the Dabur equity is.

The Vatika soap brand, which has the Honey & Saffron and Sandal & Saffron variants, is being expanded with the introduction of a new summer special variant, the Orange Peel & Saffron soap, which would hit the stands soon. The company already has three variants under the Vatika brand. Dabur is also mulling launching an ayurvedic range of soaps under the Dabur brand.

CavinKare launches special edition Spinz talc
CavinKare, the Chennai-based FMCG company has launched a special edition of its Spinz talc — Simply Asin — named after the product''s brand ambassador, actor Asin. The company expects to increase its market share to 7 per cent with the new product. At present, Spinz talc is the third biggest brand in the talc market with 5.8 per cent share of the overall talc market and growing at 38 per cent against the industry growth of 14 per cent year-on-year. If the baby talc category is excluded, Spinz will be the second biggest brand as the present No.2 Johnson & Johnson, which is present only in the baby talc category, has a market share of around 16 per cent. Pond''s is the largest in the market with an over 60 per cent share.

For the present Simply Asin will be made available only in the South. The Spinz edition will be available in three sizes: 20 gms for Rs 6, 50 gms for Rs 19 and 100 gms for Rs 33. The Southern states are the biggest talcum powder market with a 42 per cent share.

Speed Post intra-city rates slashed
The Department of Posts has slashed tariffs for the Speed Post service. According to the new rates sending packets within a city has become cheaper by 40 per cent even as couriering parcel over long distance has become more expensive.

The DoP has reduced rates of local Speed Post for packets weighing less than 50 g by 40 per cent. A 50-g packet can now be sent anywhere within a city for Rs 12 instead of Rs 20 being charged at present. The move is aimed at grabbing market share from private courier companies, which offer local delivery at around Rs 10 for a 50-g packet. Officials said when the One India tariff was launched there was a 45 per cent increase in traffic and a similar surge is expected with the new rate cut.

However the postal department has increased the tariff for long distance Speed Post service for higher weight categories. A 500-g packet to be sent over 2,000 km will now cost Rs 80 instead of Rs 70 at present. Similarly, a 500-g packet sent to a destination that is over 1,000 km away will now cost Rs 70 instead of Rs 60.

Marico enters weight-control biz with Kaya Life
Marico has expanded the Kaya range of health services by launching Kaya Life, a chain of weight-control centres. Marico already runs Kaya Skin Care clinic, which is a 100 per cent subsidiary of the company.

The first Kaya Life centre will come up in Mumbai within two weeks'' time, and seven more will be established by March next. The company plans around 50-60 centres in tier-1, and later in tier-2 cities, over the next three years. The infrastructural investment in each centre would be around Rs 1.5 crore and each centre would be approximately 1,500-2,000 sq ft in size and would have a headcount of 24 employees, he added.

The company said, "Today''s consumer is awakening to the benefits of health and wellness. Changing lifestyles and the fast pace of living is leading to deterioration in overall health and growing obesity levels in the country. At Kaya Life, we have created an innovative approach to combat these issues through effective, holistic, healthy and customised weight-control solutions."