Marketing review

Haier offers attractive schemes on Ganesh Chaturthi
To mark the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi, Haier, which says it is the world's second largest home appliances brand, has announced an attractive festive offer on its range of colour televisions. The offer is available from 1-14 September 2005. On the purchase of any Haier colour television, the customer gets a scratch card; on scratching the card the customer can win discounts upto 99 per cent on the same television.

Announcing the offer, TK Banerjee, president and CEO, Haier Appliances (India) said, "In an attempt to reach closer to our customers, we have offered them the best possible prices and benefits. Western India is a very important market for us and to continue providing quality products and services at par with international standards to our customers, we have come up with special festive offers to make each festival a remarkable one for our cherished customers."

HLL launches ayurvedic variant of Clinic Plus
HLL has launched Clinic Plus ayurvedic hair wash — an ayurvedic variant of its Clinic Plus shampoo. The new sub brand is priced on par (Rs60 for 200 ml) with its existing Clinic Plus Health shampoo with milk proteins. With natural ingredients such as neem, tulsi and cinnamon leaf oil, the hair wash's dark brown colour distinguishes it from the other blue Clinic Plus products — Clinic Plus and Clinic All Clear shampoos and hair oils.

The company's Ayush shampoo has not been seen on shelves recently leading market observers to conjecture that the company may be replacing the Ayush Shampoo with Clinic Plus ayurvedic hair wash.

HLL officials however, say there is no connection between the launch of Clinic Plus ayurvedic hair wash and the absence of Ayush.

The company also launched Sunsilk Naturals 9 to 9 (Rs48 for 100 ml) combing lotion for both wet and dry hair. It had withdrawn the Sunsilk Naturals brand of hair conditioners some time ago.

Marico launches baby oil
Marico Industries has forayed into the baby care segment with the launch of baby massage oil Sparsh, in Andhra Pradesh.

The company is planning to expand its presence in the baby care as it sees great potential in the country with 12 million babies being born every year and around one million in Andhra Pradesh alone.

The total branded baby massage oil market in India is worth Rs350 crore and Andhra Pradesh comprises a huge segment in this market. The company hopes to garner a 15 per cent market share in the state within the next three years.

Marico claims that its baby massage oil is enriched with tulsi and turmeric besides coconut oil and vitamins D and E. The product is priced at Rs33 for a 50ml pack and Rs61 for a 100ml pack.

Brooke Bond launches spiced tea
Brooke Bond is expanding its portfolio of brands and has recently launched flavoured tea, branded 'Brooke Bond Red Label Natural Care', in the Bangalore market. At present Brooke Bond has four sub-brands — Brooke Bond Taj Mahal, Brooke Bond Red Label, Brooke Bond 3 Roses and Brooke Bond Taaza, reaching out to over 500 million consumers in India.

Red Label Natural Care tea is available in natural flavours of ginger, ashwaghandha, mulethi (yashtimadhu), cardamom and tulsi. The variant was developed at the Brooke Bond Tea Excellence centre in Kolkata along with inputs from research centre in Bangalore.

The flavoured teas are priced to target daily users and will be available in two sizes — a main pack of 250g for Rs53, and a trial pack of 100g for Rs20. The company plans to push its products through innovative formats and packaging in tea bags and vacuum packaging.

Brooke Bond is the single largest tea brand in India with a range of tea offerings appealing to the diverse preferences.

Bajaj opens probiking showroom
Bajaj Auto recently inaugurated a probiking showroom in Pune and has plans to open 10 such showrooms across the country. Probiking showrooms are designed to give the customer a complete feel of the product they are buying.

Rajiv Bajaj, managing director, Bajaj Auto, said the probiking showroom has been designed for biking enthusiasts and the showroom offers prospective 'probikers' a chance to test-ride the bikes on specially-designed, indoor dynamometers.

The centrally located showroom is spread across 2,300 sq ft area and has a specially designed, indoor dynamometer for a static test-ride. Here riders can put the bike through the ultimate driving conditions and check out parameters such as acceleration, time, power, torque, top speed etc, which is not possible on a normal road test.

Nakamichi to launch home audio, video systems in India
The Japanese audio and video systems manufacturer Nakamichi Corporation is entering the Indian market through a strategic tie-up with Sharda Motor Industries.

Pro-Acoustics would import, distribute and service its entire product range, which would be launched in the country in phases.

LG unveils DTH-ready TV
LG Electronics India has launched Digi Direct,India's first DTH-ready television, targeted at rural households across rural and semi-urban India.

The company hopes to garner three per cent of its revenue from sales of Digi Direct televisions (CTVs) in 2005. Along with the Digi Direct, LGEIL also launched 'Slimagic', the world's slimmest flat TV, and 'X-Wave', stated to be India's first CTV with wireless audio transmitter.

During the year ended December 2004, LGEIL notched up a turnover of Rs6,500 crore. The company's sales target for calendar year 2005 has been pegged at Rs9,000 crore.

GlaxoSmithKline launches Horlicks variant
GlaxoSmithkline Consumer Healthcare (GSKCH) has launched Horlicks Lite and Horlicks Lite Bite for the southern and eastern regions and formulated keeping the dietary needs of health conscious adults.

Horlicks Lite is a drink that contains zero added sugar, has zero cholesterol, and is high on fibre and low on fat.

According to the company the products are suitable for people with diabetes.
The Horlicks Lite Bite is a biscuit, which has no added sucrose while containing fibre to help glucose control and satiety. It also has the benefits of antioxidants, vitamins and calcium.

Horlicks Lite comes in two flavours- coffee and malt.

Horlicks is a 100-year-old brand and has 53 per cent market share in the Rs1,300-crore health drink market in India.

Idea brings "Music Masti"
Idea Cellular has announced the launch of "Music Masti" on Say Idea Voice portal (456). This unique service allows the customer to listen, dedicate, gift songs, preview and download ring-tones of their choice from Say Idea Voice portal.

Idea customers can use Music Masti by dialing "456" and a voice welcoming the customer will inform him / her of the content that can be explored. The customers will be charged @ Rs6.99 / min for accessing Music Masti through the voice portal, 456. For Polyphonic tones download, data charges will be applicable as per the GPRS tariff plan.

Subscribers can select songs by browsing the different categories and then selecting the desired song by just saying its name.

Music rendition: The selected song is streamed to the customer's handset. There are no handset pre-requisites. Customer can use any mobile handset and listen to the song.

Device personalisation using the song: After listening to the song, customer can
tag the song as "My favourites," they can also download the song as ring-tone onto their mobile phones, dedicate / forward the song to a friend, listen to the song again and again.

Preview and download ring-tones: When the customer chooses to download the selected song as a ring-tone, a preview of that ring-tone is played back exactly as it would on their phone.

The customer has to simply say download and he can download the song. For polyphonic ring-tones the preview process is same as above. For tones delivered via WAP the service prompts the customer for the model of the phone as well and informs that subscription to GPRS is a prerequisite.

Multimodal Access to special songs: Music Masti provides for Multimodal access to songs or categories. Customers will receive SMS alerts when the content is refreshed or if any special songs are introduced.

Jet Airways acquires JEPL trademark
Jet Airways India has entered into an agreement with Jet Enterprise for the transfer of right, title and interest in the 'Jet Airways' trademark for $7 million.

With this the license agreement between JEPL and the company have accordingly come to an end.

Leading apparel brands run cotton campaign
Leading apparel brands like Allen Solly, Cottons by Century, Monte Carlo, Shoppers' Stop, Peter England, Pantaloons, W and Ashima, which are part of the international Cotton Gold Alliance (CGA) are running a month-long cotton promotion campaign, called 'Seal of cotton', through September across Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Those buying 100 per cent cotton fabric and apparel from the stores of these brands will get key chains and shipping bags as gifts, according to a release from consulting firm KSA Technopak which represents CGA in the country.

The aim of the campaign is to reach out to customers and increase awareness and preference for pure cotton.

Gold winner gets quality certification
Flagship sunflower oil brand from Chennai-based Kaleesuwari Refinery, Gold Winner, has received two international quality certifications that make it unique among edible oils, according to the company.

Gold Winner has received HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) certification to receive, refine, package and supply edible oils and hydrogenated fats. The certification, valid for five years, confirms that the process does not have any physical, chemical or biological contamination.

Gold Winner has also been awarded ISO 9001:2000 for its oil manufacturing process. The three-year certificate issued by TUV Management Services Gmbh, Germany, is for its manufacturing plant at Vengaivasal, 30 km from Chennai.

— Compiled by Mohini Bhatnagar