Marketing review

New SEBI disclosure guidelines to reduce issuers' ad costs
Companies planning public issues can now reduce their advertisement cost along with the changes made by Securities and Exchange Board of India to the 'disclosure and investor protection' guidelines.

Earlier, companies had to compulsorily publish their abridged prospectus in their pre issue advertisements. Now SEBI requires these companies to only issue certain minimum details in the advertisements as the advertising costs for publishing the abridged prospectus were found to be too high.

This has been done as the abridged prospectus is anyway made available to investors along with the application form, SEBI does not see a requirement for this to be part of the issue advertisements.

Fall in Love Again from Sri Lankan Airlines
The $400 Sri Lankan Airlines the national airline of a country recovering from Tsunami disaster is launching a 'Fall in love again' campaign along with special offers to attract tourists to the island.

The airline is making special efforts to get the tourists back to Sri Lanka and says about 80 percent of the tourism infrastructure is back in operation.

Last year, Sri Lanka five-and-a-half lakh tourists came to them island nation but this years' target of six lakh tourists has been scaled down to five lakh.

The campaign is to revive the figure to original expectations.

Pillsbury's 'one mix makes all'
General Mills has launched the Pillsbury Variety Mix, which can be used to make a range of snacks like idlis, bhajiyas, murukku, dhoklas etc and all from the same mix.

The mix, used to make any common snack, is made up of rice, wheat and black gram and is claimed to be the first of its kind in India. According to the company the mix would help homemakers and working mothers cater to multiple tastes in the family without having to undertake the proportionate amount of work it would normally entail.

Priced at Rs15 for a 250-gm pack, Rs28 for a 500-gm pack and Rs50 for a one-kg pack the one-kg pack yields about 100 idlis or dosas.

Pillsbury has a 7.2 per cent share of the Rs800-crore branded atta market.
Planet Sports to roll out Ferrari branded goods
Sports retailer, Planet Sports, is launching Ferrari-branded sporting merchandise across its stores coinciding with the international launch.

The products will include footwear as well as racing gear such as dress; helmet and other accessories in the premium category would be imported from the Puma headquarters in Germany. The pricing is still being finalised.

Planet Sports, the exclusive licensee in the country for leading brands such as Puma, Prince, Spalding, Speedo, and Wilson among others, currently has 25 outlets across the country and expects to add five more stores in the current year.

Indians really love fast food!
An A C Nielsen study of 28 markets across the US, Europe and the Asia-Pacific carried out through the internet in interviews with more than 14,000 consumers, has found that Asians are among the world's greatest fast food fans.

India, in fact, figures among the top 10 markets for weekly fast food consumption. Most of the countries are from the Asia-Pacific region, with the US being the sole execption.

Hong Kong topped the list of countries with 61 per cent of the adult population eating at takeaway restaurants at least once every week followed by Malaysia (59 per cent), the Philippines (54 per cent), Singapore (50 per cent), Thailand (44 per cent), China (41 per cent) and India in the seventh place (37 per cent). In the US, the figure stands at 35 per cent.

Against this, only 11 per cent of European adults eat from takeaways at least once a week, the survey found. None of the European markets figured among the top ten.

Among international fast food chains and local operators, McDonald's was the most popular of all takeaway options, with 54 per cent of Americans, 75 per cent of Europeans and 64 per cent of Asians picking it as the first choice for takeaway food.

Ad rates seen on way down
As more and more television channels are launched ad rates are expected to go down. Already advertising spots are available for as low as Rs500 for a 10-second on channels like Zoom and some cable television channels while ad slots on channels like MTV, Channel [V], Discovery, National Geographic Channel and Sab TV are available for Rs2,000 to Rs2,500 for 10 seconds.

Next are English news and movie channels withj adslots available between Rs4,000 and Rs5,000. The most expensive, of course, are the 'K-serials' on Star Plus where a 10-second spot on any of the popular saas-bahu sagas are available for Rs6 lakh to Rs7 lakh, while ad spots on the channel during afternoons is available at anything between Rs2 lakh and Rs5 lakh. The card rate during prime time for channels such as Sony and Zee vary between Rs1 lakh and Rs1.5 lakh for a 10-second spot.

Media planners say that with options for advertisers increasing they are in a position to buy advertising spots at low rates especially on niche channels and the situation will intensify this year as well as the number of niche channels go up.

Welspun: soon a leader in home textiles
Global fashion brand ,Tommy Hilfiger, has entered into a licensing arrangement with Welspun India to market premium home textiles.
Last year Welspun entered the category with a range of bath and bed products under the brand Spaces. The company plans to take a leadership position in home textiles across premium, mid-priced and discount segments.

While Tommy Hilfiger (priced Rs2,000 onwards) will be positioned as a premium brand, Spaces (Rs500 to Rs2,000) will be targeted at the mass market, and Welspun will be the discount brand.

Interestingly, though Welspun is a supplier of terry towels to Tommy Hilfiger, US, it will initially import the Tommy Hilfiger home linen products to be retailed in India.

Aaren bags Tata Tele's solutions account
Aaren Initiative, the out-of-home solutions division of Lintas Integrated Marketing Action Group, has got the out-of-home solutions account of Tata Teleservices, Tamil Nadu circle. The agency won the account in a multi-agency pitch. The incumbent agency was RMG David.

Tata Teleservices, a leading player in the telecom sector and in Tamil Nadu, currently operating in over 80 towns has ambitious expansion plans to further augment its presence.

Aaren Initiative has recently launched AiMS, the Aaren Initiative Media System, the only tool of its kind in India, which provides error-free and efficient operations in the outdoor field.

AiPT, the proprietary planning tool of Aaren Initiative is the only planning tool currently available in India, which lists more than 9,000 out-of-home options in 9 cities, along with different angles of photographs, access maps and a unique rating system and visibility score.

Aaren Initiative handles out-of-home operations in more than 126 cities and towns, for clients like LG Electronics, Pantaloons, Big Bazar, Mont Blanc, Motul Lubricants, The Hindu, BILT, Thai Airways and Dena Bank. Aaren Initiative is a member of Lintas India's Integrated Marketing Action Group.

Turbo variant of Octavia Rider from Skoda
Skoda Auto India recently launched the turbo version of Skoda Octavia Rider priced at Rs11.03 lakh. The company is also planning to launch the Fabia and Octavia II soon.

Both the cars are expected to hit the Indian roads around October 2005. The Octavia II would be based on the A5 platform against the existing Octavia, which is on the A4 platform.

The new models / variants that Skoda India plans to introduce this year includes a station wagon variant of the Octavia, and a diesel variant of the Superb.

— Compiled by Mohini Bhatnagar