Marketing review

Dabur may sell off Binaca
Dabur India seems uncertain about what to do with its Binaca toothpaste brand after acquiring Balsara's oral care brands.

Dabur had acquired Binaca from Reckitt Benckiser in 1996, but with the intense competition in the segment, it could not revive the brand to its former glory.

Dabur had tried to sell off the brand earlier but after unsuccessful attempts it decided last year to launch a herbal toothpaste under the Binaca brand name.

Now after the Balsara acquisition, Dabur is again trying to find a buyer for Binaca. Dabur now has a number of oral care brand at nearly every price point with brands such as, Dabur Red toothpowder and toothpaste, Dabur Red Gel paste and Dabur Herbal Toothpaste. After it acquired the Balsara range of Promise, Babool and Meswak toothpastes, it is now once again scouting for a potential buyer for Binaca.

Binaca once reigned in the oral care segment of the Indian market and was the chief sponsor of the long running popular musical radio programme, Binaca geet maala.

McDonald's ties up with MTV
Fast food major McDonalds's has entered into a music partnership with MTV Networks.

Initially, McDonald's and MTV will launch a 30-minute monthly programme called MTV Advance Warning that will feature new musical talent combined with McDonald's advertising imagery.

The logo for the programme will include the McDonald's name, its famous golden arches and the phrase "I'm lovin' it" — the slogan that has been a feature of the company's global marketing since September 2003.

As part of its "I'm lovin' it" campaign, McDonald's has been keen to use music, sports, fashion and entertainment to promote its brand. This year, for example, McDonald's will sponsor a global tour by Destiny's Child, the pop singing group, that will be called Destiny Fulfilled and lovin' it.

MTV Advance Warning has already been aired in the US and Latin America.

Local versions of the programme will begin broadcasting on February 19 in Europe and on February 21 in Asia.

Nirula's ties up with IOC
Indian fast-food retailer, Nirula's, has entered into an alliance with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for setting up restaurants at IOC petrol bunks across the country in a phased manner.

Under the agreement, Nirula's will set up `Family Style' restaurants and `Express' stores with ice-cream parlours at IOC petrol bunks for which IOC will provide retail space.

The first such outlet is expected to come up by April in New Delhi.

Nirula's will open up to 10 outlets in the National Capital Region in the first phase and then move towards highways connecting Delhi and Punjab, Mathura, Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur, Ahmedabad, Dehradun and Haridwar.

Once the regions in which Nirula's is already present have been covered the two will focus on an overall national expansion.

Bentley launches Arnage RL
Bentley Motors has launched its third model, the Bentley Arnage RL, in the Indian market. It is priced above Rs2.5 crore.

The pricing of the new car is subject to customer specifications and can go up to Rs3 crore.

ITC Foods to launch fruit, spice conserves
ITC's Foods Business has launched fruit and spice conserves under the "Kitchens of India" brand name in four flavours.

The company claims that the new product is totally natural and contains no preservatives, added flavours or any synthetic colouring materials.

RPG Retail reverts to Spencer's brand
The RPG group is opening hypermarkets under the Spencer's brand. Not only this, the group is reverting to the Spencer's name for its other retail outlets as well. The first Spencer's hypermarket opened six months ago in Visakhapatnam in association with Phoenix Logistics.

The other two stores, located in Hyderabad and Mumbai, known as Giant Hypermarket, changed their name to Spencer's.

According to the company, a recent study showed that the Spencer's brand had an 80 per cent recall and an association of `value for money' amongst 96 per cent of the respondents.

Haier targets 60 pc growth from mobile market
China largest appliances maker, Haier plans to achieve a growth of almost 60 per cent in the mobile handset segment. The company recently launched seven mobile handsets.

Haier has set a target to sell five lakh GSM mobile sets in a year and reap a turnover of Rs250 crore in one year.

Haier India, which entered the domestic market a year ago, has launched its GSM mobile sets first for the North Indian market and will subsequently enter the southern, eastern and western markets.

The new offerings are priced between Rs3,654 and Rs14,950.

The company is also planning to launch its CDMA handsets in the country and is in talks with a few telecom operators for this.

TV loses share in ad market, print gains
According to the findings of a survey by Pitch magazine and Madison Media, advertising spending on the print medium grew by 12 per cent in 2004 grabbing ads worth Rs4,100 crore to — a 43-per cent share of the total aspend. The Indian advertising industry grew 9 per cent in 2004 to Rs9,493 crore.

The print medium expanded at the cost of television, which grew by only 6 per cent, leading to fall in market share from 49 per cent in 2002 to 46 per cent in 2004.

Radio, cinema and the internet grew at rates of 20 per cent, 18 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively. Outdoor grew at 10 per cent to garner revenues worth Rs800 crore for an 8-per cent share in the industry.

According to the survey the industry is set to grow at 13 per cent in 2005, taking the overall advertising pie to Rs10,692 crore by this year-end.

Soya, yoghurt drinks fastest growing'
According to a global study by ACNielsen, among the world's fastest growing food and beverage products are those based on the health premise.

Of the seven categories of beverages that experienced double-digit revenue growth last year, five offered perceived health or weight loss benefits and the top two growth categories were soya-based drinks and drinkable yoghurts.

The largest growth was seen in the Asia-Pacific region, where soya-based drinks grew by 44 per cent.

On the other hand, the growth of prepared alcoholic beverages, actually fell. The category, which grew at 33 per in 2002, grew only by two per cent in 2004.

Eggs consumption grew by 16 per cent in 2004, compared with six per cent in 2002, cereal by 14 per cent (9 per cent), sports / energy drinks by 10 per cent (6 per cent).

In the Asia-Pacific region, the overall growth for food and beverages across the board was five per cent.

The Indian branded food and beverages market grew by over five per cent.

Online payment gateway from IndiaMART
IndiaMART, the B2B marketplace has announced the launch of ABCpayments.com, a global online payment gateway that facilitates authentic and secure online transactions between buyers and sellers from across the globe.

ABCpayments.com will facilitate the process of online transactions by providing multiple, secure payment options to buyers and sellers. It has been developed as a solution rather than a standard product to address the issues of security and online fraud.

— Compiled by Mohini Bhatnagar