Marketing fact

Accent : Brand which is forced to be die

2011-04-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

This post contains a interesting case study of a product of Hyundai. Accent a entry level sedan brand from Hyundai automobile and has been launched in 1999 in Indian market. It's been 12 years to operate this brand in India market. As far as data is concern the company has sold 300000+ units. The story of this brand is very different from others. If you look at in marketing scenario this brand may die as the brand manager is getting bored from this product. This brand is oldest selling car in entry level sedan market. This brand has still decent amount of sales volumes in spite of the poor marketing from Hyundai. The brand is very much affordable and it is available in the range of 5-5.5 lacs in Indian market. This brand may die any point of time as the marketing support is very less still brand is surviving due to their performance and value for money. There could be one more factor towards success of this brand is that lack of competition. Many of the brand entered in to this segment but very few of them survived. When Ford Ikon failed to compete in the market only than Accent got boosted. If this brand dies in the market, there would following reasons for this first one poor marketing, second one not clear positioning of brand. The brand manager never tried to build excitement in the market regard to this brand. There is still time to nurture the brand and get full noise from market. If the brand like Benz, BMW can retain their charm than why not Accent.

Good news about this brand is that recently company launched new version of this called Accent Executive. The reason for launching this brand is lack of competition and external pressure. Now we need to watch that how far this brand survives in the market. Will company try to kill the brand or would it go long.

Basic of Customer service

2011-03-13T08:09:00.000-07:00

Today I will write about basic principles of Customer Service. The reason for writing this post is these days lots of companies are facing problem when it comes to customer service be it National or International company. I would say National companies are facing more problem compare to International after having great knowledge about local customers. Before starting kindly make your mind that Customer Service is not a Rocket Science, still companies are unable to cop up with situation. In this post basically I will focus on a specific Gurgaon based Real Estate company. This company is suffering from great customer dissatisfaction. I must say that top management is doing their best but the main problem is not at the right time or right place. The quote of management guru Prahalad applies here and is like this “Put your strategy at right time on right place. First of all I will write about few basic principles of customer service.

1. Indentify the origin of Problem- The main reason is companies are doing their best but they are unable to identify the origin of problem. According to me Top Management should identity the problem while keeping long term goal in mind. Here I will give a nice example- Companies can solve problem by providing full support (Investing in establishing separate department, heavily investing on technology) but my question is have you found the origin of problem ?, Have you ever noticed that why the same problem is being raised from different customer throughout the years. If this is correct it means there is Big Loopholes in your system which you are unable to identify. For instance, if you are receiving same query from different customers, than question arises that have you found permanent solution or designed any system to mitigate that problem? Most of the answers will be NO! What most of the companies are doing is that they will start solving the problem once they receive for years and years. But I would suggest please indentify the origin of problem and try to mitigate the root of that special problem instead of working like ass.

2. Vision/Goal should be clear- This is very basis point that before you go to find better solution for state of the art customer service. First make it clear that what is the vision of your company? The goal of company should be understood by all the departments in same way. In most of the places what I have seen is that Goal of various departments varies from each other. For instance accounts departments will demand money on time without any compromise where as CRM department will try to give few preferences to customer. Moral of this point is goals of all the department should contribute towards Vision of company instead making contradiction statement.

3. Investment in Resources- When it comes to best customer services, companies needs to invest towards well skilled Human Resources. The reason being when your customer is dissatisfied it means they will heavily blast on your employee with their concern. Than what happen your employee will start feeling stressed and at that point of time either they will leave the organization or they will pass wrong/confidential message to customers and that will again lead huge customer dissatisfaction.

4. Online marketing- When I say online marketing it does not mean only promoting your company/products via internet. In my word it means doing your most of the work using technology and internet. Even in this era you will get huge amount of feedback from customers and competitors.

There is lots of thing to improve in customer service but it depends upon on vision of your company and the most important where do you want to see your company in long run.

For more details on customer service kindly email me your concern at lalit.isme10@gmail.com

MBA Marketing or Finance: There Should be Logic

2010-12-26T05:56:00.001-08:00

As most of my readers belong from Management background they are either Management student or Management professional. The focus of this post is towards the student who is pursuing this course or planning to pursue. So, I would like to write something about a particular course which is called MBA (Master of Business administration). The reason for writing this post is I want that people should know logic, value and success rate of this course in our India. All the data or facts in this post would be from my past experience which is through reading various management magazine, blogs, newspaper, books, participation in various national and international conference and discussion with corporate professional.

MBA ( Master of Business Administration)

First of all the candidate should understand meaning of MBA which is clear that Master of Business administration. It means that after completing this course you will become master in business scenario but most of the professional are not able to understand this properly. As far as data is concern through qualitative marketing research says that most of the students are pursuing this course for JOB only. If the data is correct than you are in trouble. I want to make it clear that if you are pursuing this course for JOB and Handsome Salary than you should be from Top 50 college in India otherwise you will fall under general category. If you are doing this course to be an entrepreneur than this is right track. Here I am not saying that if you will do this course from any other institute it means your will not get a job but it is true that you will not get desirable JOB. The reason is in our India there are around 1500 Management institute and they are producing 100000 students per year as an MBA but we do not have that much of Job in market to equalize the data.

Now question here arises is what should we take Marketing and Finance?

It depends upon various factor that is your Interest, Comfortability and Academic background. As far as data is concern which indicates that it does not matter which subject would be your specialization but it should fit according to above mentioned trio factor. As far as marketing is concern I would say if you are going to take Marketing than you should be able to sale product in other word be strong to get in to sales field. Please keep in mind that marketing does not mean just getting job and started crafting strategy is company. Marketing means you are versatile and you can do any types of assignment even it does not relate to your area. If your are looking to be specialist in a specific area than you have to be more choosy. It is true that there are lots of Job in market for marketing professional even in recession. Than you should must understand that the Job which you will do can be done by a simple graduate also if he has some sort of experience. so, be clear before you go ahead with your decision. If you are going to be an entrepreneur than there is no doubt that you should take marketing.

As far as Finance is concern I think the area is very bright. One thing which is interesting about finance is that the Job which you will do can't be done by another simple professional until they has high amount of experience. There is one more thing that is after completing this course you will become master in your specific area. One thing I must share that student should not get scared by data which indicates that there is no Job in market for Finance professional. It is true that there are less Job in the market compare to Marketing. The reason being marketing professional can do sales, advertisement, recruitment and many more but finance people can't. In the said statement there are two meaning if marketing people can do any job it means they don't have specific mission whereas other meaning says Finance professional will get Job with struggle but they will make their career bright from the day one.There are Jobs for finance in market but you have to be strong in your area.

With this word I would like to conclude saying that Please take suggestion from Corporate professional about market scenario before you pursue this course and choose your specialization.

Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vatika Group : Creating lasting Value

2010-11-26T08:12:00.000-08:00

Dear Readers and well wishers,

It's been long time to write new post but now I am on track and will be with you from now onwards. It's my great pleasure to inform you regarding my Job. I got Job through campus selection in Vatika Group, Gurgaon. So, moral is I would like to write something about my first and dream company. Vatika group has incorporated in 1986 with vision to emerge as a niche player in real estate and hospitality. It seems that company is doing well. Group CMD is Anil Bhalla which is founder of this Group as well. Vatika Group is operating in different verticals. For instance- Real estate, Hospitality and Facilities management. One thing I must tell you about this company is which is a differentiation factor. Being a real estate company this Group is "Customer Centric" organization. For this Group customer is everything and for serving customer very well Vatika Group have different types of customer service department like Customer relationship management, Client records and Client service. Vatika Group serves customer at their best that's what this Group is growing day by day. Talking about few prestigious projects where Group is working like Vatika India next in N.H-8 near manesar, Vatika Infotech city in Jaipur and many more. These projects comprises of 600 and 800 acres of Township respectively. Now this Groups is also going to pay more attention towards Hospitality sector. Recently Vatika Group has launched Westin Hotel in Gurgaon, which comes under deluxe category hotel.

Talking about strategy of company as I feel is like this-

1. Group is focusing to be the niche player in market.

2. Group is putting customer at center.

3. Effective Customer service channels.

4. Good understanding of customer requirement in this trend.

and more are there.

Now I would like to conclude this topic and thanks to my readers for great patience. Now I would be continue with different topic.

DHL: Global Leader in Logistic Industry

2010-06-22T01:29:00.000-07:00

DHL is a global leader in world market having 43% market share. The name DHL derived from its founder name which is Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom and Robert Lynn. This company has been established in 1969 and its Headquarter is in Germany. DHL operates in more than 220 countries with providing end to end solution of logistic. DHL business is in four segment first one is Air express, supply chain, freight forwarding and Blue dart express due to this capacity they are leader in world market. DHL main competitors are FedEx, USP and others. A far as DHL strategy is concern they are looking at their business from ground to top. Some of their strategy is following-

1. Provide solution of problem- Their business strategy says If you are doing business than you need to understand that why I am in this business. Once you understood the problem than provide solutions of that problem for doing great business for long run.

2. About your competitor- According to this point they says that first you need to understand who is your competitor and why. Every company cannot solve all the problems. So, focus on a customer who need your services and provide him better than your competitor.

3.Expansion is key to business. DHL believe in expansion and that is good thing because for getting economy of scale you have to expand your business and you can get many other benefits also. That's what DHL is operating in more than 220 countries and serving each market.

4.Give equal chance to your employee- In this part they says employee is the root of any business and If you will take care of him they will do something better for you. That' what DHL has Annual employee survey for getting employee satisfaction and hearing voices of employee.

5. Innovation to beat competition- In 1985 Fed Ex and UPS came in to market with full energy to give him tough competition. At that point of time DHL did collaboration with Western Union to deliver company document. In fact DHL has its Innovation center in Germany. So, they say for beating competition you have to innovate.

6. Expand into related area- They says that If you want to give more competition to competitor than you need expand your business into related area. After 20 years of carrying small package, In 1990 they stared cargo business to carry freight.

So, that is all about DHL now I will give some highlights on its competitor and Logistic in Indian market. DHL has very big things which is Good brand Image, Globalism, Technology and smart truck project. Mainly the competitor of DHL is Fed Ex and UPS(United parcel service) both are USA based company. Basically DHL does not have great presence in USA this is the one area where they need to focus and they have tough competition in USA because their competitors are Glocal.

Logistic In India

In this topic I will write about logistic Industry in India its challenges and future. Logistic Industry in India is growing at the rate of 20%. it will grow further with the growth of our Economy. Our Indian logistic Industry comprises of 20% organised and remaining unorganized. As far as challenges are concern, In India we have poor physical infrastructure, lack of information technology reach, highly unorganized players. However this industry future is bright because now Indian business tycoon are going to invest into this sector, government is supporting and 100% FDI in this sector. So, I will say there is very great future in this Industry.

Logic of Limited edition

2010-06-11T09:38:00.001-07:00

You might have heard about Limited Edition. It was concept of publishing industry but now this is concept of Marketing which marketers used to implement while launching of products or rejuvenating. Initially company were using this strategy for automobile and consumer durables and now it is being used for any products either it is FMCG or consumer durables. The main logic of this concept is to create excitement about product in market and aware the consumers about products very quickly and of course this is most profitable way. Why it is profitable because when product comes with limited edition consumers wants to pay high price because product is loaded with features or unique in market. Initially companies were not using this strategy often but now it became part of marketing strategy.There are various reasons for doing this type of implementation but I will write about few reasons of "Limited Edition" these are followings-

1. Brand Rejuvenation- This is the very first reason for this strategy. When any products reaches at the maturity stage of Product life cycle than marketers use this strategy to filling fuel in the product for long run. You have very nice example of Maruti 800 when they reached maturity stage company offered some extra features, fancy color and bumpers to keep this product in market. Company did it twice for Maruti 800 that's what you are seeing Maruti 800 still in the market and this strategy worked very well.

2. Consumer connect- Second reason for this strategy is to connect the consumers with brand for long time. For example you take Axe perfume this product were running in market since long time each time they used this strategy to connect the brand to consumers. Another example when Mahindra Logan came into market they used this strategy for saying that sedan car at affordable price and same thing happened with Alto also.

3. Event- By using this strategy company organize the events for create hype in market. For example you can take Lux. When Lux completed its 75 years than they organized event for creating hype in market.

4. Test Marketing- This is very important reason for any company because when any company wants to launch the product they uses this strategy. This strategy gives right test of market whether consumer will accept this product or not.

5 Creating Exciting- This is also very important because when any products comes into the market than they try to create excitement in the market for purchase. Recently mostly people have Gold flake new cigarette came in flavor of tea with limited edition. Being a smoker I have purchased two packets of that cigarette because I thought limited edition could end any time. Here I can understand this strategy and fall dawn under this strategy.

6. Word of Mouth- And the last reason is positive word of mouth. When one consumer will buy it another will get effected and they will also buy. So, here it works in the form of advertising.

Analysis- My analysis says this is very good strategy but company need to be real. Sometimes what happens company roll out the product in market with limited edition but this product become unlimited. So, at that point of time consumer feels cheated. Main reason for success of this strategy is company gives feeling of Limited. So, customer starts purchasing product with fully excitement and quickly.

Indovation: The new Indian Marketing concept

2010-06-07T05:56:00.000-07:00

Indovation ! As it name suggests that it is derived from India. Yes this is right that this is a new concept of marketing. In other word I can say that this concept was evolved in Indian market but now it came in picture. Basically this concept has been raised by Country head and Managing Director of Renault India "Slyvain Bilaine". He spend more than four year in India and now realizing fact of Indian market because he have gone through the various complex process which is involved in Indian market. He says that India is such a country which can manage everything with minimum resources at any time. More Important is that If any person can manage his business in India it means he is master in Business. For Instance He has given example of Mahindra Renault India. When they launched product called Logan in Indian market he faced lots of difficulties and at the end Logan failed. Logan comes under low cost mid sized car at a price of approx 5 lac. Unfortunately Logan failed in India the reason is like this. As I have posted some fact about this car in my previous post but in this post I am elaborating in details. According to him very first reason was Logan price was hardly lower than its competitors like TATA Indigo, Maruti Swift and Ford Ikon which had strongly presence in Indian market. Second reason was High Import rate. Third reason was when Logan came in market at the same time government came up with dual excise duty. This tax was like this If you are importing any car from foreign which length is 4 meters then you have to pay 12 percents and if it is more then 4 meters than you have to pay 24 percents. So, this was the big problem for Logan and the last reason was problem with distribution channels in India. So, the Logan failed in India.

He said that only foreign player like me(Logan) faced this problem. This was not a problem for Indian players because they were able to reduce the size of car instantly. So,this is called "Indovation" because Indian companies are able to reduce production capacity, process, minimize downtime, minimize maintenance time. So, he said that Indian companies were able to do things so we felt Indian is a great market. Western company was not able to do these things instantly due to their production philosophy.

Next point he said that Indian is a country for best management practices because in Indian you have less resources with complex market. so, If a company can manage Indian market it means you can manage another country as well. He is seeing India as a country for Best Management practices country.

Ultimately the meaning of Indovation is reducing product size, production capacity, complex changes according to customer preference instantly to be in the market for long time and I think Indian companies are master in these things.

Marketing Myopia : A complex Marketing concept

2010-06-05T10:59:00.001-07:00

Marketing Myopia is a term used in marketing which has been written by Theodore Levitt. Basically this concept talks about short sightedness of an Industry or any product or services by company or marketers. In this post I will write about this concept in brief with example for better understanding. According to Mr. Levitt they started talking about first Railroads. In case of railroads there was not a fault in management however there were fault in vision of long term. They took railroads only in terms of railways instead of taking in entire Transportation solution. This concept say that instead of taking it in one way of solution they should take in to in a way of entire solution. So, this is what we called as Marketing Myopia. They are giving excuse that car and other transportation services have destroyed the drastic growth of this sector. Again there is time to think out of the box. Second example is the Bollywood industry again there is also same problem. In case of Bollywood what happened they started making movies and only movies instead of providing entire Entertainment solution. Industry started making movies without seeing entertainment area. Author says that that's what the reason was that TV came in picture with big threat for this industry. So, the lesson here is that instead of making solution of one problem you need to solve the problem from scratch. Third example talks about Dry cleaning industry. In this case Industry was growing with very high pace but when chemical and other fabric washing powder or liquid came they gone out. We have multiple of example of this concept so I am keeping it short. Now that above was example of Industry further I will highlights some examples from Products.

You can see that what happened with ambassador car after leading long time in marketing they became victim of Marketing myopia. The reason for failure of ambassador could be no competition, no technology and other things But more complex reason was Myopia. Company could not understand changing needs of consumers. They were totally product oriented instead of customer oriented. Company should have done some sort of changing because ambassador was at the maturity stage. So, according to marketing philosophy when your product comes at maturity stage you need to done innovation, modification and promotion for go ahead. In second example author says that without solving a problem marketer needs to remove the problem from scratch. They says that for problem of rat company developed mousetrap but this is not the end solution because on daily basis rat will come and you will catch them and this cycle will go long time. Instead of developing mousetrap company should make any chemical or other solution to solve the rat problem from scratch. So, Now I think concept is clear according to my view for solving this problem company can do things reverse to problem which occurs. Means to say have a long term vision, customer centric process, development of product at maturity stage, tracking preferences of consumers over a period of time.

Lenovo: A new Business Model

2010-06-04T00:56:00.000-07:00

Lenovo a Chinese based computer technology company which is dealing in laptops, desktops and other related business. Lenovo acquired former IBM PC computer division in 2005. It is fourth largest computer brand in the world. Initially Lenovo was operating only in china after that it came to India in march 2006. Talking about new business model which has been introduced by Lenovo in India. Basically this Business model has came in June 2008 and established marketing hub in Bangalore. Now the big question here is that from Bangalore Lenovo will operate in entire world (wherever company is dealing) and will do all types of marketing activities. As far as marketers views are concern they are saying that this is a very big model because how a company can operate in world from one location. Even our late management guru C.K. Prahalad said that It would be very challenging for a company to break a traditional model which talks about that you have to integrate your marketing and communication strategy according to culture and market. It means that company can do whatever they feel suitable. Here I am giving some sort of overview of this new business model. Basically now onwards Lenovo will do all types of marketing and communication work from India. When Journalist asked to Vice-president of Lenovo that "why have you chosen Indian market in spite of fact that your market is growing faster than this market even in the entire world". His answer was like this first of all I will say India is growing market from past to future, second reason in India I will get cost advantages and great pool of marketing talent. He told that we want to build Lenovo brand at global level. Basically Lenovo is mainly operating in two types of brand one is "Think" which tagline is (The ultimate business tool) and second one is "Idea" which tagline is (Make life more fun). Think brand is for business personal and Idea brand is for Individuals.

According to new business model from Indian they will create communication message for entire world with the help of Ogilvy & Mather(Advertising company) and will create marketing strategy plan for markets. According to consultants Harish Bijoor they said that Lenovo is the only company which is doing all these things from one center. The lesson of this model is that culture can't be constraint for a company which has strong determination with great strategy. Lets see how far this model will work for Lenovo. As far as my view is concern I think Lenovo can operate from India but they have to make the communication message and strategy according to culture because at the end preference of customer matters.

Greek Crisis: Devaluation Of Euro

2010-05-30T11:39:00.000-07:00

This is a story of Greek Crisis, which started almost few months ago. It is like this when European country wanted to dominate world. Therefore they formed a Union called "European Union". This Union comprises of 27 countries few of them are France, Germany, Greece, Poland and Sweden. The reason for building that Union was dominating world, Internal strength to face challenges in near future and explore the opportunity. Things were running smoothly but there were problem with Greece. Greece standard was not up to the mark as compare to other European countries. This country was not able to match their living standard with their Union. But Greece wanted to catch up those country in terms of living standard, growth and other things which is relevant for growth of country. Then they thought that yes, we want to catch up those country at any cost. That's what Greece started borrowing debts from different institutions for developing the country. Even they started expending money more than they used to earn through different sources of Income. The result was up to mark that people of that country came to that standard at some extent which they were looking for but another result also came in the form of crisis. That leads to crisis in Greece because at that point of time Government was loaded with huge amount of debts. Greece was not able to pay the debts which had been taken. Then Greece told to their Union country that please help me for paying these money. European Union denied to pay the debts so, Greece stuck in big problem. They did not have any option for getting off without paying debts. After some times when European Union felt signal of crisis then they agreed to pay some amount. But when they started paying money that time was late and country has been caught by crisis. Now you can see it has been spread all over the world. Now the next point is devaluation of Euro. Theory says that when any country is suffering from crisis their export starts declining and that leads to crisis(lack) of national currency. Same theory applies here in case of Euro. That's what Euro is getting in the phase of devaluation. At the end being an Indian student I say Indian will not be impacted by these crisis because Indian economy is not directly linked with that country. Even after they linked at some extent India won't be affected because our export comprises only 4% with Greece. Again I say thanks to my friend Yogendra for giving me such a valuable insight. Thanks a lot !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mahindra Reva: The Strategic Alliance

2010-05-28T12:35:00.000-07:00

After appearing the name Reva along with Mahindra looking nice and sounding trust and healthy. Yes, It is my opinion and consumers also when any new things comes with trusty and worthy name it looks good from all parameters. Recently M&M has acquired 55.2% stake in Reva car and now it will operate with full energy. In marketing terms it is called"Strategic Alliance. Reva is a car from great entrepreneur called Chetan Maini. Maini has done his engineering from Michigan.Maini started rolling out this car in market with support of Detroit's General Motors and Silicon valley VC fund draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ). In this post I will talk about great story of Mahindra Reva. Earlier Maini was supporting GM in terms of technology. As soon as alliance has announced GM snapped all tie-up with Reva. Marketers stated commenting on this even GM Representative also commented on this. They told that there is no any value for this alliance and other things.

First I will write about factor which derived for this alliance-According to Maini when he had talk with Economic times's journalist. They told that he has seen drastic change in market in terms of Electric vehicle space over one year. He told that when he was looking at Electric vehicle market they found immense opportunity over there. According to Maini he has attended various conference on Electric vehicle. He saw that Warren Buffet Invest $200 million in EV company, Bosch and Samsung has started producing Batteries for Electric car, General Motors has started rolling out cars with Electric Batteries. So, they thought that yes, there is market for this category. Than he thought that this market is not for small player so we need some sort of help for moving forward. Because he need huge amount of fund for moving forward along with great player which has great presence and who understand pulse of consumers. That' what he came along with M&M in the market.

Journey of Alliance- When Pawan Goenka President of M&M saw NXG a model of Reva they got impressed and they started talking about licencing for this technology. After that his moves changed and they started talking about for buyout. One day Maini and his brother met with Anand Mahindra and almost finalized the deal at same day and alliance has taken place.

Moving Forward- Now Maini will operate from technology point of view, In other word Maini will support only for technology and M&M will do all the remaining things for success of Mahindra Reva.

Why Selling is Complex

2010-05-24T03:47:00.000-07:00

Whenever any person(job seekers) heard "Sales" they got afraid. Consider these point and remove fear of sales. The very first question here arises is why selling is complex now a days. In early days employees, students, companies does not had any fear about sales due to less competition. However In this age really selling is very complex task. People can say that sales is easy when they enter into market after that you can ask him/her. As far as my experience is concern I would say you can sell very easily but there should be some specific condition strategy. Somewhere companies are also responsible for that but except few companies they put totally pressure on sales people and sales management. If you see the data there is high attrition rate in BPO and other sales category companies. Recently I was reading a article on sales from company point of view and customer point of views. According to sources there should be some condition for company to make sales super flow. Companies/salespeople should consider these points-

1. Lack of proper training- These days what happens company only says yes, we have training and development program but when it comes in picture nothing is specific. Even some sales people does not have full knowledge of products or services which they are selling. In case many people have notice that when you got call from call center the person who is calling they will start selling to you without knowing about you are and your needs. Ultimately his/her goal is selling to you either customer go to hell or any where. So, I would say company should understand these problem and make strategy according to that.

2. Understand customer need/problems- Second problem arises here is every marketing books, journals, blogs, articles, newspapers and experts say please understand customer need/ problem only than try to provide solutions. Here also company and sales people do mistakes. Again I am giving you a example In case you have noticed in retail outlets. As soon as you will enter into store salespeople starts selling to you. They does not what you want and what is your need.

3. Knowledge- When we talk about knowledge in sales being a sales company or salespeople you should have knowledge of you customer, company, market and your competitor. Knowledge does not mean that knowing name and addresses, knowledge means choices and behavior of customers. Next moves of competitors and trends of market. So, If you know all these things you can sales anything, anytime at any cost.

There are may point to be consider but If being a company or a salesperson you will have to know above points then I am sure success will be in your hand. So, I am giving some point in the form of suggestions for both to consider and be successful in market and career.

1. Everyone is not your customer- Don't start selling products or services to everyone. This is the lesson I learnt from my previous boss. When he was giving me some sort of knowledge about how to sell they told that don't understand that everyone is your customer. People might come retail store for getting knowledge and ideas It doesn't mean that you have to sell product to that person also.

3. Sell your Idea not product- This is very Important point that marketers and experts says that don't sell your product sell your Idea. Reason is people can purchase Insurance from office why they will purchase from a Tele sales officer. Customer need your help, support and familiarity. So, give him feeling that yes, you are the right person whom I was looking for to buy product.

3. Be Skillful- When It comes to sales, selling need your skills not anything else. So, being a company motivate your sales people instead of pressure. Give him confidence that yes you can sell product instead of daunting. Identify right people and retain them.

More or less I am sure If any company/salespeople will consider these point carefully they won't have any problem in future. It does not mean that company don't know all these but they need to work on the part of implementation. I have seen during our project each and every company have great strategy but when it comes to implementation they could not consider.

Fiat500: Struggling in Indian Market

2010-05-22T06:19:00.000-07:00

The fiat is a car produced by Italy based company. In this post I will be discussing only about Fiat500 model in Indian context. People used to call it Baby Fiat. This car has been launched in 2008 in Indian market. Fiat500 is competing globally with New Beetle from Volkswagen group and mini BMW. If we talk about in the global context it is a successful car. However this car is struggling in India market. In the early age of market this Fiat's car was choice of Indian consumers. As far as news are concern in India Fiat has some sort of problem with distribution channel. Here I am giving some marketing fact of this case-

1. As far as Fiat500 is concern the price of this car is around 15 lac which is less than New Beetle. But interesting point is having two years of launch in India they could sold only 68 units where as New Beetle is concern they sold 280 units within 5 months of launch even after quoting 5 lac more price than Fiat500.

2. Second point here is that Fiat500 is sharing same engine with Fiat punto and Fiat Linea. Again there is problem is that company should understand that this car is for niche market. So, high class people is the customer of Fiat500. If high class people buy this surely they will have some information about basic of car where they are spending 15lac. Customer might be thinking that why I should buy Fiat500 when we are getting same engine with Fiat punto and Fiat Linea by much lesser price.

3. Third point here is Fiat punto and Fiat Linea is cannibalizing Fiat500.

My analysis says company is deliberately making mistakes. They should understand needs and choices of cost-conscious Indian consumers. As far as Indian market is concern first they should resolve problem in distribution channel for making great reach and something about car also.

Merger & Acquisition: Killer Game of Business

2010-05-15T10:50:00.001-07:00

Before coming to the topic please don't get confused that M&A are same. Merger means when two companies are coming in one way to do business that is called Merger, where as Acquisition means when one company acquires another company.Merger & Acquisition is going to woo the market of Asia pacific and specially India. In the past two years India and other strong Asian countries has shown much interest towards M&A. Even there were recession in the world but these countries has shown dare to acquire companies from outside of origin and from different market. The more interesting fact is initially there was concept that developed countries was acquiring companies from developing countries. However marketer has changed this views and now it happened reversely. In the last few years Indian companies has acquired different multinational companies. Now I will talk about benefits of M&A these are followings-

1. More market coverage- The very first is companies are getting more coverage of market to spread the business.

2. Economies of scale- Second one is companies can get benefits of economies of scale in his operations.

And many more like Taxation, Vertical integration...............

Recent M&A-

1.Oracle acquired Sun microsystem in $7.4 billions

2.Craft acquired Cadbury in $19 billions

3.Disney acquired Marvel entertainment in $ 4 billions

4.Bharti Airtel acquired Zain

Announced M&A-(most likely)

1. IBM is going to acquire SPSS

2. Nextel is going acquire Virgin mobile

The more interesting fact is when global M&A rate is decreasing by 38% where as India has shown positive growth rate of around 26%. The reason is In the past one year dollar declined by7.6% where as Rupees grown by 5.6%. In this context companies has benefits to acquire. If we talk about Indian companies they are very prudent when they goes for M&A but they have shown higher growth rate. One day when my friend Yogendra patel expert in finance was telling me story of M&A of TATA group and Corus. Which is biggest deal in Indian context. He told that instead of TATA If other company would have been acquired Corus. Definitely they would have became bankrupt. The reason was when TATA acquired Corus in $13.7 billions at that time company was in the 56th position in the world and after acquisition they became 5th in the world. What happened at that time TATA had not enough cash to acquire but any way they arranged and make it happen after all the trouble even they had to mortgaged his companies assets to bank. Unfortunely recession came and company had to suffer a lot. Even he me told that at that time TATA was the only company that bore this otherwise other companies can't think about this. By the way I should thank him to giving more insight towards M&A.

Still the game of M&A is on the way and going the woo the Indian market through M&A from different region. Here question arises is what kind challenges companies can face. The very first one is difference in culture but experts says Indian companies has guts to deal with these situations. The reason is Indian companies don't know culture of France but they know how to handle these because in Indian market they learned lot in context of cultural differences. There are more challenge which companies can face but they need to work on very carefully on his strategy and vision.

Volkswagen India: Wooing the market

2010-05-12T21:34:00.000-07:00

In this post I will be talking about Volkswagen India a German based company. Volkswagen has came India in 2001 and they are going to complete the journey of ten years. Giving some sort of view about Volkswagen group. It represent 9 brands at global level and 3 brands in India. Which comprises Skoda, Audi and Volkswagen. Don't get confused with Volkswagen and Volkswagen group they are separate. VG is a parent company where as Volkswagen represent a brand. Basically Volkswagen targeting entire Indian market with different models with of course value for money. In India Volkswagen represent with five brands these are followings- Polo, Beetle, Jetta, Passat, Toureg, Phaeton. In 2009 polo which comes under hatchback segment and started rolling out car since 2009 from Pune plant.

When Volkswagen started rolling out its car from Indian plant and they have done great marketing of its products and it seems that in a way of success. Initially they have bombarded market with print and TVC advertising.

New Beetle-Mostly marketer has been fear that does beetle would be success in India market or not. I wold say this car is for the person who is looking for totally different. However when you will know the fact about that car got surprise. I am giving some view about this car the car is very small and looking totally different with price of 20.45 lac. According to recent data published by company they are saying even if there price are high in context of Indian market still they got great response from customers. Within three months they sold approx. 300 units of this brand. If this is not enough, there are waiting list two-three months of this brands. Basically company is importing this brand from mexico. Now, no one can say that Indian market is not for high-end and luxury cars.

I am sure Volkswagen is going to get high premium segment In that market and will be success.

Hindustan Unilever ltd. : Struggling in Market

2010-05-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

Hindustan Unilever ltd a market leader in FMCG segment is struggling now a days in market for sticking at own point. In other word for last few months HUL share has been declined. FMCG market comprises of 86,000 crore where HUL has strong holds on soap, detergents and household segment. In this segment HUL holds 49% market share. The more interesting point is competitor attacked HUL where they had strong hold and sales declined by end of third quarter. Management board had given target of 10% but by the end they could achieved only 5% in Indian market. That leads to fire on Nitin parapanje CEO of India division and visit of Unilever CEO paulman to retailer and distributors. In this post I will explain cause and effect relationship and concept of marketing related with topic. Marketing theory says being a market leader company should not be aggressive on attacking. They should focus on how to protect market share and be at the top. That's why sir Cotler had described defense strategy for market leader. However now a days marketers are thinking that theory is not working but I would say theory is working all the time but you should use at right time in right context. Indian FMCG company Godrej which you cannot think that could damage HUL has been damaged drastically. In the same period where growth of HUL was 5% and Godrej was 16%. One more interesting point over 4 years Godrej has grown almost thrice of HUL. Now you can think power of marketing strategy adopted by Godrej. During same period HUL owned subsidiary Unilever has spend 633 crore only on advertising and promotions.

Reason for sales decline: As far as marketing expert views and my analysis is concern these are following-

1. Attacked on detergent segment by competitors

2.Huge spending on advertising and Promotions

3. Didn't take care of close competitor

4. Some where rural market care compare to P&G

5. In aggressive marketing always talking about competitor. In other words promoting competitor rather that own company.

6. Ignorance of Retailer and distributor views and concern

However now it seems company is going on right track. According to marketers views are concern in spite of huge spending on advertising and promotion they should work upon retailers and distributors.Company should talk to retailers and distributors for getting pulse of market and competitors. One more important thing company should do is they should promote retailer for keeping more space on outlets. By the way Recently company has announced new and good project called "Perfect Store". In first phase nearly four thousand staff including CEO Nitin parapanje will visit mom and pop store and small kirana shop and will clean dust of shelves for boosting sales of detergent and personal care products. This is very good initiative taken by HUL for understanding business of retailing and problems as well. The reason is most obvious that problem is not with product but with the way you operates.

Marketing concept: Cannibalizing

2010-05-03T05:31:00.000-07:00

This is the very old concept of marketing but marketers are realizing now. First of all I must tell you about this concept in simple way"Cannibalizing means when newly launched product start eating the market share of existing product. In other word when companies are going to extend there line of products it happened. It mostly happens in Automobile sector but not with all companies. Maruti Suzuki is the great victim of this concept. Further I will write about each and every aspects of this concept with examples mostly in Indian context.

Reason for cannibalize- The very first reason is company does not have clear positioning of product. Second one is lack of effective target market because when you are launching the new product in market you are targeting the same customer who is your own for existing product. And of course third one is bad marketing of product. Somewhere timing of launching product is also responsible for that. According to me most obvious reason is why they are quoting same price for different product and this is the most important part of cannibalizing.

How it happened- A very good story of Maruti Suzuki is like this when they launched Zen they were doing great in market due to lack of competition. Over a period of time when during 1990 Wagon R and Alto came into the market they starts eating market share of Zen the result was declining the share of Zen. Recently Zylo SUV segment launched by M&M is also going to eat somewhere market share of Scorpio but M&M is very smart marketer they will be control it to some extent. As far as various marketer views are concern if they would take care of it then it cannot happened in future. In case of cannibalizing Maruti Suzuki is master in that following are the few examples of cannibalized product.

1. Zen by Wagon R and Alto

2. Bajaj XCD 125 by Pulsar

3. Maruti 800 by Nano

4. Alto, Omni by Eeco

5. Swift by Ritz

6. Spelendar by CD dawn

and many more................

Having said that, there few positive aspects of cannibalizing the very first one is they are filling product line to always be first in market than competitor. Second one is getting benefits of scale of economies, third one is making customer happy with new product with innovation and retaining them.

As far as my understanding is concern for getting over this problem is first of all they should have different prices for different products. Second one is they should have clear target customer and of course better marketing.

Company store Vs Independent store: Crash or Coexistence

2010-05-02T04:06:00.001-07:00

As name suggests that company owned store means stores owned by company or manufacturer and Independent store means any store where companies are putting their products for sell. The point here is mostly companies are operating in these two dimensions. You have lots of example of these case like Nike, Apple, Reebok, Puma and recently launched Microsoft. These companies are selling their through company owned store and Independent store but this is not enough even in the same mall these two operators are running their businesses. You can see the competition within himself. However the question here arises is Does is matter of crash or coexistence????????????

Answer is in both the way they are doing best from company point of view and customer point of view apart from some assumptions. Recently world leading Microsoft has opened its own store to compete with innovative Apple.According to research done by faculty of kw they say that both are doing great in their own ways but there are some possibility of crash if they aren't careful.

Business model of company store- When companies are selling own products through own store they are charging high compare to Independent store. The reason being is they are providing deep knowledge about innovative products and more important is they are giving experience to customers. Apart from this company owned store are putting more efforts on marketing and advertising. Coming to the point that why they are quoting more price than Independent store the reason is there are few conditions. First one is if the both are operating in same mall then no one is going to give discount and there are tough competition between them.

Business model of Independent store- This concepts says when an Independent retailer are selling other companies products at their own store. At this point of time If both are operating in same mall then Independent store are also charges high however when they are operating in different places then Independent store charges less then company owned store.

Conclusion- The conclusion here is when company owned store are charging high they are providing more knowledge about product, giving Brand experience and putting more marketing efforts, giving details of material used. so, they are charging high. In case of Independent store if both are operating in different places then they gives more discount than another otherwise in same places they will charge more or less equal. If both are careful about what they are doing than it is good otherwise these things can creates problem in future.

FDI in Retail: Opportunity or Threat

2010-04-26T22:07:00.000-07:00

Recently Commerce and Industry ministry proposed a proposal to government for allowing FDI in Retail sector. The industry is getting hot after this proposal is being made. Retail sector is a sunrise sector with high growth potential. Till now India comprises 5%organised and remaining unorganized sector and expected to reach 10% by 2012. The factor that drives this growth is rise in Demographic profile, consumers aspirations, growing income of middle class family. Coming to the point that Is that good for India or not. The answer is yes because by allowing FDI in retail sector our economic condition will be strong and many more advantages along with disadvantages. Currently government has allowed 51% FDI in single brand Retaling and 100% in cash and carry business. Presently big Retailer are operating in this cash and carry business. For instance Walmart, Tesco to joint venture with different Indian companies.

Why FDI in Retail- As in first paragraph I have written that since 2006 government has allowed 51% FDI in single brand retailing. As far as new proposal are concern Government is going to allow up to 51% FDI in multi-brand Retailing only if it passes through various process of Indian Government. The very first reason for this proposal is our economy condition will be strong, strong distribution network, local employment, Improve in Infrastructure and many more. The second one is discouraging the player which is not serious in this sector. Government has seen condition of economy before and after FDI.

But some conditions- It is very obvious that government has also fear that If big players like Walmart, Tesco, Carrefour will enter into this segment they will destroy local vendors. so, Government is going to put some condition in this game. Conditions are as followings for Multinational players-

1. The very first condition is If a foreign player will enter than they have to procure goods from local manufacturers.

2. The second one is there will be 50% reserve employment for rural youth.

3. According to proposal players have to spent 50% of FDI in Infrastructure, logistic and agro-processing.

4. Paying attention towards agriculture food processing to boost Indian economy.

5. For protecting local vendors these retailers can operates only in big cities where minimum population is one million.

As far as my understanding is concern it is sure that our economy will boost but what happened with other players. There will be high price war in this sector that leads to destroy local players. But I am not sure would it be success in India due to Infrastructure problems. lets see what happened............

Logan: Good product but Bad luck

2010-04-24T05:41:00.000-07:00

Logan is a sedan segment car from Mahindra Renault (JV) company. In 2007 Logan has launched in Indian market. Renault is a French based car makers entered into India with the help of Mahindra & Mahindra. M&M is providing sales and distribution channel to Renault as far as agreement is concern. Unfortunately, Logan is messing up in market due to bad marketing strategy with excellent product.This is the case of Good product struggling in market with bad strategy.

Fault in strategy- The very first one is they entered into Indian market with M&M and according to joint venture M&M will support them for sales and distribution. Second one is at the same time Renault announced that they will do JV with Bajaj for small car segments. Now being a management student I can say and its very obvious that If you are operating in same segment with two different player you cannot success because it can create dispute between two company. By the way same thing happening with these company. It is clear that one side M&M is selling own brand car and other side they need to push Logan to customer also. so, It is also a great fault done by company.Ultimately problem is not having own distribution channel. so, there is lack of mutual understanding and trust. According to me first Renault should have built his own distribution channel before entering into market.

Issue-As far as marketers and various magazines are concern they are displaying fact that Logan is a good product on each parameter but is suffering in market due to bad strategy. Actually Logan has launched in 2007 since then company has able to sell only 44,000 units and drastic sales down in last year. In sedan segment car price of this car is totally affordable between 5 to 7 lac price.

Recent Announcement- After having Joint venture between M&M and Renault since past three years now it has been broken. From now onwards M&M will manufacture this car under own unit and they can change name if they want. According to sources this is a five year of manufacturing agreement for manufacturing the car. As far as my understanding is concern if M&M will change then they may again face problem because now Logan is moving towards building the brand. Right now in market Logan have some sort of value and respect. whatever has been sold till now are running well. According to me may be M&M wants to add it to in his portfolio so, they can form new strategy and relaunch the product in market but I am sure if M&M will take this thing according to his philosophy they will win.

lets see what will happen............

Rural India: Think Out of the Box

2010-04-20T12:32:00.000-07:00

Mostly people have misconception about Rural India means "Roti Kapda aur Makan". I will say far more than this concept. Now mostly marketers and MNC's are understanding the potential of this market. According to data Rural India is same as Urban area at some extent, company like Dabur, Mahindra & Mahindra, Procter & Gamble to some extent HUL is getting more from this market. In this post I will analyse the point and display some fact about rural India.

Income Growth- Past five years marketers and Indian economy have seen growth rate and per capita income of Rural market. According to data the per capita income growth rate of rural India and urban India has grown at the same rate. How can you say that there is no potential in this market.
Population- If we talk about population of rural India which is much more then Urban India. More than of 72% population lived in rural India. so, You can see the market here.

Demographic segmentation- According to "we are like that only" book on Indian consumer written by Rama bijapurkar says that we has divided rural consumer in four classes(R1, R2, R3, R4). Hansa research had conducted research on this area and found that In rural area consumer class R3 and R4 has more purchasing power where as they also contributes more pupulation.

According to this book she says 90% of rural consumers are self-employed and generating more from agriculture. She also says over a period of time Indian consumption will be dominated by middle class. So, we can say there is much growth opportunity in Rural India.
Recent trends- Now a days what happens in Rural area people have more income and they are consuming more. As soon as they will see any new product in urban area they try to purchase it and of course once your products satisfied his need than no way they will left you. Mobile industry are totally drive by rural India. Our management guru late C.K. Prahalad he had written a book called"The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid" in this book they says there is much potential and they has also given some clue about how you can enter and sustain into that market. His famous concept is being adopted by various MNC ex- Coca-cola has introduced sachet of cold drink in orissa and in future mostly companies are working on that concept.
At the end I would say being an MNC or marketer this is totally untapped market with high potential to enter into and this is the only right time to go there.

Telecommunication market: flooding by new entrants

2010-04-16T23:59:00.000-07:00

Indian market is going to flood by various new telecommunication operator. Indian telecommunication market consists of 50000 crore. In last few years marketer has seen that each month atleast one operator came in India. The main reason could be Indian telecommunication market is growing very fastly even in the rural area mostly people have their own mobile handsets.

New entrants- Main thing here is that who are the players coming in India and there are also some players which is from the Indian. when we talk about new entrants name you will be surprise that how and why they entering in this sector because they are coming from different background. Now its very clear that their main motto is get diversified, cover more market and of course profit. Following are the name of few new entrants-
1. Luminous- Basically this company is enterning with wynn telecom. Luminous is dealing with power and energy saving industries. Now you can understand such a drastic diversification. As far as company's source is concern intially they will come with 7 dual sim models under price of 5000. Indian cine actor Saif ali khan will endorse this brand.
2.Frvon- Basically this brand is from olive communication and lauched mobile handset in Indian market last month. Olive is targeting on rural market it has range of 9 mobile and price starts from 999.
3. Airfone- this company has came in this sector along with more than 9 models of mobile handsets. Basically company is targeting price consious consumers.
4. INQ- This company has tie-up with aircel, main motto of this company is to get touch with social networking sites. They are urban consumers.
5. Micromaxx- Basically Micromaxx came mobile handsets market in 2008. First of all they launched first phone for Rural market with handsets name Micromaxx X1i. Proposition of this phone is 30 days battery life. I will this ia very good point chosen by company becasue they understood that less availability of electric in rural market. Right now Indian cine actor Akshay kumar is endorsing this brand. This brand is spending huge money in IPL in terms of advertising.

6. Karbonn

Many more players which can enter into market Microsoft, Etisalat, Google Nexus one and more........

Point of success- Now point here is how they will become success in this extremely competitive market. One thing I can say that here could be one thing where compnay can get success is called "Service". Service could be pre sales serive or post sales service. Service is the only thing where these company can differentiate themself from the crowd. In this market mostly companies are paying attention on Latent Demand. That's what they are prefering browsing facilities, camera, different music formats and many more.

Retailing Concept: Store within store

2010-04-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

This is a new concept which is running in retailing business called"Store-within-Store". This concept is all about many retailer can operate in same retail mall. In other words you can say store owner will give permit to his competitor/retailer to operate in this store on the basis of agreement.Recently Retail tycoon Kishore Biyani announced that they will work on this concept.

How they will work- According to Central mall owned Kishore biyani who recently told that now they will operate in this system. It is like this any retailer can operate in central mall. Either it is Reliance group or Raheja group. If you will enter in central mall you can find many retailers who is competitor of Biyani group is operating in that store.

Who will get benefits- Of course, Indian consumer will get benefit because they are getting everything from one place along with different brands. Retailers will have different choice which can satisfied consumer need. If you will go in that store you can purchase product of Big bazaar, reliance and many more which will satisfied your needs.

One thing which would be very interesting for consumers and retailers is they can control over price and cost. Retailers can save cost by this way and consumer can get equal range of price from different price. No one can have monopoly on price of certain product.

Choice Modelling: New Forecasting or Marketing mix model

2010-04-11T10:38:00.000-07:00

In this era marketing research is going to exploit the market. As you can understand importance of marketing research how much is it. The very first question arises here is why we need to do marketing research. I will try to clear this point by using one example and entire marketing comes under this. If an existing company wants to operate in different place they will use market research for knowing growth and failure rate of that market. Second If they wants to launch new product they will use marketing research. Fortunately I would say whatever you will try to do(either it is knowledge about moves of competitor, consumers, and more) you have to go through marketing research. so, see the importance and dynamics of market research.

Coming to point the term called "choice modelling" in marketing research is going to replace many concepts and tools very soon. This method has been developed by Nobel prize holder Daniel Mc Fadden. First I must tell you about what is this method all about. In simple way this is tool a which understand importance marketing mix and choices of consumers. This method is all about understanding of price, product, promotion, place and choices of consumers.

This research has been conducted in various situations mainly it focused on retail store where moderator asks to consumer not only that " what you like or dislike about this product or what you buy or not" apart from this in this research method consumer can tell you about" why we like this product in terms of price, features, packaging and many more............

By using this method consumers can tell you "what why they purchased, why purchase right now and why they will purchase in next time". This is very important point to keep in mind for market analysts.

How this methods is effective sales forecasting-

Mostly companies uses traditional sales forecasting and if some thing goes wrong they blame on various thing. By using this tools you can forecast your sales in effective way because this method tells you each and every aspects of your product and consumers. This method also helps research analysts in to understanding volume of products for future sales because when you use this method they will tell you what types of product they will purchase in future and why.

So, at the end this methods is going to run very fast in Industries in an effective way. It is a very nice method which can replace traditional marketing mix.

This method has been used by the global leader in analytical research system company called Decision Analyst in USA.

Banned: 10 Television commercials

2010-04-10T05:45:00.000-07:00

In this post I will write and give you some links of best"Banned commercials" ads. As far as my understanding is concern these types of ads are totally unethical. I cannot understand how the managers and Management are taking decision and giving permission for these types of stuff. As I know the very first reason could be publicity about product and company and others may be. You cannot watch this types of advertisement with your family. let's click on the following link and watch the ad.

1. Microsoft XP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MATGJBZl1Lg

2. Amul macho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPOqDhOuYl0

3.Volkswagen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0a06gsiF4

4.Levi's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSG807d3P-U

5.Pepsi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6dFg0fE8T0

6.7up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhT2m0gMYHw

7.Mastercard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGnaFq_7wJM

8.Zazoo condoms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nojWJ6-XmeQ

9.Peugeot206

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8bSjP9F5eM

10.Axe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_ySo29c-Gg

What do you think???????????????

Rin Vs Tide: Second ad war

2010-04-08T09:58:00.000-07:00

This year HUL is going towards Ad war campaign.In first week of march when HUL launched a tvc ad where they were directly challenging to his competitor P&G. The ad was particulary for their prestigious brand called Rin from HUL and Tide from P&G. In this ad Rin was directly challenging to his competitor Tide. After that when P&G took the help of court then HUL had to discontinued his ad this was 1st round of ad war between Rin and Tide. Again, recently HUL has launched same types of ad war which you can call 2nd ad war but in this campaign Unfortunatly Rin is not pointing out Tide. In this post I will give you overview of both war and analyse also.

1st round of War-
It is like this when last month HUL launched tvc ad where they were targeting to P&G. In that particular ad HUL was conveying to consumer that Rin is better than Tide. watch the ad-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQQc4YlNnkI.
Ad was like this two women was waiting at bus stop and looking for her child who will come from school. Both were coming from shopping so, there were basket in both hand one lady purchased Tide and another had Rin and both were looking to each other with jealous view. As soon as school bus came then the lady who was having Rin her child's dress was looking more whiteness then another lady's child. Suddenly one child told "Aunt chownk gaye kya".
This ad was created buzz in market and mostly people cricized and supported. HUL had to discountinued this ad due to pressure from court. I would say HUL won 1st round of ad war becasue court had also given order to P&G that you cannot say Tide is containing lemon and termeric. Intially you would have seen Tide,which says that tide is containing lemon and termeric. so, court told no any detergent contains lemon and natural things.

Interesting point-
HUL had spend 30 lac for this ad of 30 second but more then 20 seconds they spend time on promoting Tide. As I understand there is no need for such types of ad where you are spending money on promoting your competitor. Earlier same thing happened with Horlicks and Complan but Complan got opportunity cost grap the market share of Horlicks and sales also. I will not say that was the right way for advertising.

2nd round of war-
Recently HUL has launched same version of promotion scheme instead of tvc ad. In this campaign Rin is challenging that If you can prove that other detegent is better than Rin in terms of whiteness then they would give prize of 1 crore. Thanks god that In this time HUL is not pointing out any particular detegent name but version of this campaign starts where HUL had ended last campaign. HUL is using same model for this campaign.

Conclusion- In this point of time I am in dilenma about our analysis because I could criticized earlier ad but not 2nd round campaign. In this there is matter of 1 crore HUL may prove that nothing is better then Rin.

Big Bazaar: Could not control overcrowd

2010-04-06T07:27:00.001-07:00

This is the story of year 2006 when "sabse sasta din" promotion scheme has been started by leader in retailing called as Big bazaar. The time Big bazaar was not able to handle unpredictable crowd of consumers, they faced many challenges to control this overcrowd of Indian consumers However at the same time they learned more from the market and got opportunity. In this post I will explain each and every point of that memorable day of Big bazaar. I must tell if you want to know more about story of Future group and Indian consumers you should read the book called"It happened in India" written by Kishore biyani and Dipayan baishya.

Concept of sabse sasta din- This concept was idea of Mr. kishore biyani owner of Future group. Question here arises is why they had chosen 26 January for this promotion scheme. Main reason was according to KB (who knowns the pulse of Indian consumer) that because at this day people used to stay at home due to holiday of Republic day. so, they thought why should not we convert this day in happy day. so, people can enjoy shopping at his store.

Challenges of this promotion scheme- When all executives were in the meeting the decision has been taken that we are going to introduce this scheme in mass market. Mostly executives were afraid and they raises following questions during meeting.

Does Indian consumer respond it?????????

Without using mathematical tools how far it would be effective??????

Does Innovative idea works???????

After clarifying all the doubts final decision took place and Head of operation told that 26 KO 26 crore should be sales target. All became agree and jumped into market. For mitigation of this risk they also had planned that this scheme would be for only one day.

Launch of Sabse sasta din- The memorable day for Big bazaar started buzzing in market and few prices of products was like this Flat TV- 5890, Mobile- 1399, Designer sofas- 15999 and many more. Coming to point the day when Big bazaar's family heart bit was running very fast due to uncertainty about Indian consumers. In morning at 7.30 a.m KB received called from Head of operation that people were waiting outside the stores since morning and there is uncontrollable crowd. Same time they start getting calls from different parts of country( Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata). KB has ordered that please call police and control over crowd. Within couples of hours sales of day has been closed and they were not able to deliver more goods to consumers waiting outside the store. They announced that sales has been extended for next day.

Scene of kormangala store in Bangalore- Store manager called police and told them I want to close store so please help me out. Having said that they failed to closed the store however they closed store in afternoon.

Scene of lower parel store in Mumbai- You cannot imagine what would have happened at store it is like this. Customer who were waiting outside the store start giving bribes to security guard and saying please permit me to enter into store. The incident which happened in any other prestigious place that thing also took place here. When a smart consumer told to security guard that Please permit me to enter into store because I have to go toilet as soon a guard permit him people were start pointing out that this is the smart way to enter in to store then security guard had to say outside of toilet there is also long queue.

Scene of kandivili store in Mumbai- It happened at place where a offer was going on called"Buy one Get one". Scene is like this people were start pushing to each other for purchasing Basmati rice. One of the sales person got injured during this"Dhhaka Mukki". so, store manager called ambulance for taking him Hospital. Crowd was totally uncontrollable. Even police could not crowd.

Result of this Memorable day- Astounding result of this scheme cleared the mind of executives who had feared of getting response from Indian consumers and they got confidence. The sales of that day was 30 crores.

Conversion of Sabse sasta din into Sabse sasat tin din- Same day in afternoon emergency meeting were called and they decide to extend this scheme for two days more so, people who was waiting still outside the store can get benefits of this scheme. So, they decided this scheme would be for three days. Same day when few important executives reached store they found there was crowd of news channels who was eager to take a shot of store and next day Big bazaar became the news headlines.

Conclusion- Conclusion is like this they decided to whenever this scheme will start. We will provide water and refreshment to consumer who will wait outside. Big bazaar also decided to call some expert from temples so, we can handle the over crowd.

Toyota: A Case of Overconfident

2010-04-03T05:15:00.000-07:00

Toyota a Japanese automobile company and world's largest automobile company in terms of sales. Now a days company is facing crisis this is due to recall of their vehicles(Toyota Prius) which has some sort of problem in brake and accelarater. Why this is a case of overconfident because when company got news about problem in few cars. They were fully confident that they can handle this problem effectively but fact is not like this. Now they are going to become victim of overconfident. According to company's philosophy "each problem provides opportunity for improvement". That's what company is facing problem. According to analysts the main reason for this recall is higher growing rate and other factors as well. so, being a company who believe in Just-in-time facilities how they are facing this types of problems. Now when Toyota started repairing millions of defected car they were not able to handle it. The very first and recent reason is Arrogance which the company have. so, they wants to handle all problems by himself and simultaneously all production facilities are also running. The time is for first control this problem otherwise it will create very difficulties in market and bad image. So, I would say arrogance is no.1 enemy of his philosophy. There is news in the market that toyota is not able to handle that so, I will say control it as soon as possible so, you can have same image in front of consumer. Talking about from this problem what type of messege goes to other automobile company. Definitely they will pay more concentration about their quality but some company can get benefits from this in terms of more market share and profit.

Coming to end part,I will say Toyota can handle this problem very soon and can have same Brand image and reputation in front of consumers.

Future group Vs Wal-mart: Kisme kitna hai Dum

2010-04-01T06:07:00.000-07:00

Once India was called sone ki chidiya(Golden bird) for its prosperity, intellectual, culture. so, we are going to make it happen. Here two questions arises first one is"Does wal-mart succeed in India" and second one is" Can Future Group compete with wal-mart". First of all I will give some sort of introduction about both the Companies.

Future Group- Future group is a India's largest retailers led by Kishore biyani. company has total 22 retailing formats ex- Big bazaar, Pantaloon, Brand factory, star, Depot, Blue sky, Future insurance, Future capital and many more............! Charming face of retail Kishore biyani know the pulse of Indian consumers, that's what the book called "It happened in India" written by Mr. Biyani get sold 100000 copywhich is highest number in any business book. Big bazaar has core competency in visual merchandising and product portfolio. they have presence in mostly retail businesses.
Wal-mart- American based retailer operating in various countries led by Sam walton. company has revenue of $404.16 billion(2009), which is total of India's total consumptions. wal-mart is master in supply chain management they have two types of supply chain. The very first one is Normal SCM and secong one is Cross docking SCM. They are pouring huge money on Information technology and supply chain management.

Challenges Wal-mart can face in Indian market-

1. The very first one is supply chain management( where they are strong) because India does not has very good Infrastructure in terms of road, electricity and others. India does not has sufficient cold distribution channel. That is the reason India's 40 percents of food is wasting.
2. Big store Vs small store- According to market research the perception of Indian cosumers is If store is big the price is high and if store is small price is low. so, how they can sustain in India it is very big challenges in terms of consumer behavior.
3. Store location- The third one is wal-mart business model says, they will not operate in centre of the city but near by the city. According to research India consumers are not willing to travel more then 6-7 km. for shopping. this is also very big challenges for wal-mart.
4. Real estate- Fourth one is wal-mart need too much space for store operations and parking. They can operate anywhere because they has money and willing to spend but If we will calculate profit according to per square feet of store space that can effect profit margin, here they can also face problems.

Future Group Vs Wal-mart
When Mr. Biyani was giving Interview with experts of Knowledge wharton, one question asked to him was"Do you have any plan for collaboration with Wal-mart?" the answer was No, Because they told we cannnot do partnership with wal-mart. The reason is they are very large so, we can do partership with someone who is similar like us in terms of revenues and operations. They also told wal-mart is unique in world. so, there is no question for partnership with us.

My analysis says its very tough to compete with each other because both has some sort of staretgy. We cannot say that if wal-mart is largest retailer in world so, they can win in any market or acquire any company. Mostly marketers think that wal-mart can win in this market because they has low price strategy. I would say it is not necessary that if you have low price you will win anywhere you go. If it is so, than why Wal-mart failed in Germany? Why wal-mart failed in south Korea?

Big bazaar is going to do partnership with world's second largest retailers(in terms of revenues) carrefour in next year 2010. so, this is very strong point for Big bazaar to compete with Wal-mart.

Reason for failure in German market-
Wal-mart entered this market in 1997 with large financial Investment company. In 1997 they acquired wertkauf retail and in 1998 they acquired Interspar stores. At that time market was in oligopoly situation with high competitions. The very first reason is companies which were present in that market also using low price stretegy. so, wal-mart could not win in that market. Second reason they have some sort of ethical issues.
I am confident that Big bazaar should not have any sort of anxious about wal-mart but keep doing things according to market situation you will win....................................

Zain deal: Bharti Airtel or Bsnl

2010-03-31T04:52:00.000-07:00

Zain Mobile communication, Kuwait based mobile operator has been acquired(Not entire only African based assets) by India's no.1 mobile operator Sunil mittal led Bharti Airtel on last week march 2010. The deal has been finalized,total amout is $10.7 billions. Sunil mittal acquired this company in very sophisticated manner within one and half month. Talking about Zain,which has present in 23 countries(Africa 15 and rest are in Middles east). After acquiring this company Bharti became the world's fifth largest mobile operator. Now, Bharti has customer database of 179 millions with presence in 18 countries( India, Sri Lanka Bangladesh and Africa's 15 countries). Bharti has opportunity for operating in this emerging market with its same brand name called"Airtel". Talking about Zain it had customer database of 42 millions and presence in 15 countries of Africa and 8 countries of Middle east. Bharti is going to pay $8.3 billion and remaining amount they will take from banks(standard charted, SBI and Barclays) than pay.

Talking about what are the challenges which Bharti can face-

The very first one is Bharti is going to take debt from banks and analysts say the interest rate is high. so, we have to see reaction of his shareholders. This will effect happiness of shareholders.

Second reason is also similar to that, state-owned BSNL and MTNL also wanted to acquired this company but they were not willing to pay more than $10 billions. In this point analysts has also some sort of confusion that "why BSNL cannot acquired this company" Does $0.7 billions differ or something else.

Third challenges could be that Zain is operating in 15 countries of Africa and 7 of them are making loss however in 10 countries they are market leader. let's see how Bharti can grow in that particular countries.

My analysis says, Bharti is fully confident about entering in this market. After some year of operation in this countries they can acquire MTN. As I know this could be Bharti's long term aim.

As fas as analyst's view are concern some where I am not agree with this point because they says, If BSNL cannot acquire then why Bharti did this. There is differences of deal amount. My view is that's what BSNL is running behind the Bharti. Being a competitor they should know about there future plan. Any company cannot success if they imposes product to customers. That's what BSNL is doing. Taking risk is a funda of Business so, you have to take risk. BSNL was only paying $0.7 billions extra why they did not do so.

Now we have to see future direction of Sunil Mittal.

New Product launch

2010-03-29T06:08:00.000-07:00

In this post I will talk about new product which is going to launch or has been launched recently. The very first one is SACH toothpaste from my favorite company. why it is favorite because this company had helped me for doing project on Retail marketing. It has launched recently under private label brand of Big Bazaar. For this product Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar is going to endorse.

Second, Star bazaar which has support of world's third largest retailer Tesco is going to launch 58 private label brand. Products will comprises organic biscuits to fruit infusion shampoo.

Third one is Crest toothpaste owned by P&G which is going to launch very soon. According to news this brand was about to launch in 2005 but due to some internal reason this brand could not launched. let's see what will happened this time.

Coming to the Automobile segments Mercedes launched new version of car called GL 350 CDI . According to Mumbai showroom source price of this car is 63.57 lakhs.

In Telecommunication Industry Olive communication has launched new handsets called frvron which means "forever on". which is similar to USP of handset. The lowest price of this handsets is 1699.

let's see what will happens next.............

New USA consumer:Recession changed the habit

2010-03-27T23:38:00.000-07:00

United state of America which has estimated population for (2010) 30,89,57000 and playing in dollar with power now a day trying to overcome from recession. In this post particularly I will talk about "How recession has changed consumer behavior of America. A country where mostly people were totally brand conscious and habitual of luxuries products.

Pre-Recession consumer- If we compare pre-recession consumer behavior of this country and post-recession that would be totally different. According to survey, data say Initially 61 percents US consumers which had credit card spending more than $1000. 41 percents consumers were spending more than they earned. They were totally conscious towards premium and luxury product.

During recession- Let's talk what they were doing when entire country were suffering from recession. If we look at data you will believe that how this paradigm shift is happening. Mostly people stopped buying which they can't eat. I will give you one example initially they used to purchase pizza by home delivery amount of $20 but during recession they felt why they should take home delivery. realty is this if they purchase same pizza from store they can save $15. so, this thing very quickly set in his mind that how to save money and get same product. Necessity Vs Luxury this word has emerge very roughly during recession. their mind has been set that If we are getting same value from product which we earlier purchased at high price. they all becoming habitual of private label brand, during this period marketers has seen drastic increase in private label brands.

Post recession consumer - Now, this is very tough time for marketer or company which is operating in this market because consumers has shifted towards value for money mode. they are totally depend on discount store which gives premium products. example- Wal-mart, Target, Costco. Online consumer has grown very dramatically. According to survey result, data says 90 percents respondents are saying they will use same buying habit which gives him/her saving for future and they also said they are paying more concentration towards online shopping. Question here arises does it continue????????

Answer is yes, except some products like healthy and organic product, online customer will grow continue and most important frugal consumer will emerge. private label branding grow continue, discounted brand will increase.

What company should do??????????????

Lets pay attention towards data right now I have written that consumers are moving towards save of money because data says in next 10 years saving rate may reach 10 percent from almost negative growth. so. company need to fetch money from that saving. company should pay attention towards online shopping.

Again I say after sometimes you cannot find much difference between Indian consumer and other developed countries consumers.

Hypercity: Retail outlet In large format

2010-03-26T20:47:00.000-07:00

Hypercity is one of the retail chain of K Raheja group. K Raheja group has diverse range of businesses comprises Real estate, Hospitality, Retail chain. this group has retail like Shoppers shop, Crossword and others. It has been established in 2006. this store will give International touch to Indian consumers because area of store is 1,50,000 sq. feet. Shoppers stop entered furnishing business through Home stop and retailing through Hypercity. this concept of retail format of Hypercity is designed by UK's leading retailer Argos. On 25 march when they opened in Bangalore I visited store along with my friends. According to our observation layout is very big so, confidently I can say they will give International experience of shopping. According to our observation being a retailer in India it is very big and consumers will face difficulties,when they will go for Impulse purchase and any other small items. Till now they are seven (Mumbai-2, Thane-1, Jaipur-1,Amritsar-1, Hyderabad-1 Bangalore-1) in numbers. this world class retail format has designed by Hypercity partner JMP, JDA and johnson diversey. In store you can find ATM facility, they have specialty areas for different items, Demo rooms for kitchen items, Home theater for music systems and 30 cash counters excluding vegetables and fruits. Apart from that they has exclusive areas for International brand called "WAITROSE". For customer loyalty they has club called "Discovery Club" and pharmacy facilities. This facilities will sure differntiate Hypercity from any other retailers in India. As other retailers they also has 15 brand of private label these are followings-

Food segments- Terzo, Fresh Basket, Hypercity and Waitrose

Home segments- Every day, Ebano and Avorio

Fashion segments- City life, City style, City sense,Joojoobs and River inc.

Sports segments- Raleigh and Maxit

Appliance segments- Technix.

My analysis says how Indian consumer perceive this format of retail, they can face difficulties in walk in store. Other side I will say Wal-mart can get benefits of this because they can now judge the mind of India consumers in terms of big format of retail stores. Hypercity might be thinking about entry of wal-mart. lets see how far it works.

Dabbawalas Network:Promoting for New product launch

2010-03-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

I would say yes, traditional promotion and ditribution tool does not means old version which is not working now aday. If we talk about Mumbai Dabbawalas still they are using tradional way to distribute 200000 tiffins everyday through approximetaly 5000 vendors. see the entire chain of this dabbawalas they do not has any modern computer technology but still they pick and deliver all tiffins to right people at right place to right time. How they do, the reason is they uses color coding system for this and make it happen. Coming to point mostly company are using this channel for promoting and building awareness about their brand. Recently Perfetti van melle launched MANGOFILLZ under band extension of Alpenliebe. They are going to use traditional promotional scheme which is dabbawalas imense network because they has reach of 200000 households. This types of networks uses in launching of new brand. Microsoft also used this scheme to promote their product called "asli PC". Relaince' Big cinema also used this scheme to advertise about their Big cinemas,that you can watch IPL match in theatres and Reliance had used this network to promoting their IPO. India's largest mobile operater also used this channel for promoting New Handsets, connections and Prepaid card users. According to my analysis this types of channel can works very well when product are new,due to Dabbawala's great reach. Expences are also low for promoting and building awareness. Dabbawalas has emotional attachment with these household who can change the meaning of traditional channels and second thing is company can use this channel for Impulse product, confectionery and to some extent fmcg product as well. lets's see effectiveness of this channels in favour of company.

Figo: A compact car launched in India

2010-03-25T01:53:00.000-07:00

Ford which is American based Automotive company recently launched compact(small) car in India. As I had earlier posted that in India small car segments is going to give very tough competition within the segments and outside as well. Name of the car is"FIGO". This car has made using 90 percents local components even local color specially for Indian market. Target group of this car is newly married couple and ambitious professional. If we talk about player in this extremely competitive market is followings: well established Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai and also Nano from Tata motors, Beat from General motors. new entrants are Volkswagen, Honda, Toyota, Fiat and Renault& Nissan. this car is in two version diesel and petrol as well. Price of this car is 3.49 lac for petrol with mileage of 15/km where as 4.47 lac for diesel with mileage of 20/km. Figo is totally made for Indian market with using local components. Positioning of car is "Car for Sandeep", which means person who is married couple and young professional. car has very low maintenance cost. According to research done by company says in Indian market mostly problem occur in engine oil, brake fluid, filter, door and bumpers. so, Company has made all these things very durable. company is providing various unique service like 24 hours free road service till 2 years from day of purchase. lets see how far it would be successful in Indian market.

My analysis is they will face very tough competition from Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai which is well established in Indian. According to me price is little bit high but company can win if they come true on promise along with company reputation. Being an foreign company car has Indian touch so, this is also that how customer perceived it.

Coming soon: Ford Figo Staretegy in India

2010-03-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

Dear readers, Very soon I will write about marketing strategy of Ford FIGO (small car) for Indian market. please wait, two days more....................

Exam is going on.

King of Internet: Facebook overtook Google

2010-03-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

There is clear indication is according to Hit wise intelligence that last 13th march Facebook took over No. 1 website Google. According to report last week Facebook surpasses Google by over 0.4% market share is US market. Data says last week US market share of Facebook was 7.07% where as Google was 7.03%. Facebook is growing aggressively in networking sites. there are also some news about that Buzz is going to eat market share of Orkut. now this news is going to revise the advertisement policy of many companies because now mostly company will advertise on Facebook. Data says people are now spending mostly time of Facebook rather than Google.

Dear readers,

sorry for inconvenient nows day my final exam is on head. so, I am totally busy for three days. As soon as exam will over again I will continue with you along with your MARKETING FACT.

Smallketing: Marketing of small product

2010-03-18T12:55:00.000-07:00

This is new concept of marketing called"Smallketing", where various companies are doing business or trying to do. let's see what is mainly this concept is focusing on marketing of small products it could be car, laptops, mobiles, garments, real estate, consumer durables, motors and many mare....

this concept can works in two ways they are following-

1. For BOP(bottom of pyramid) segments- If we talk about small cars, beverages and cold drinks, motors. let's see how it work In our country mostly consumer belongs from this segments and they are totally aspired. company which understand value of this customer can win this segments. we have many examples of this Tata nano, Tata starbus, Small coke, alcohal in small pack, chota refrigerator and FMCG products with small packaging. whatever example I have given here they all are winning or about to win in this segment. Thanks to Prof. C.K.Prahalad who bought concept "Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid". so, now mostly companies are understanding value of these customers.

2. For TOP(top of Pyramid)segments- This segment is totally reverse of previous segments where for small products customer has to pay more and most interesting thing is they are willing to pay for it. Let's analysis this point with examples small laptops,small mobiles, bluetooth headphone, real estate(home in city), specs, and more important is garments. these all products belongs to high profile customers. If you go for garments and want to purchase short shirt, half t-shirt it will cost more than longer one. same things builders are constructing small home for customer at high price. If you will purchase specs than it will also cost more than bigger one.

My analysis- India being a diversified country with different income group and want to win in Indian market you have to pay attention towards both types of segments. what could be reason for this very first changing trends second is effect of globalization and bottom of the pyramid's customers are converting into middle class. so, at the end I would say in our country both work and will work.

New age of Japanese consumer

2010-03-18T06:09:00.000-07:00

After decades there has been drastic changed in Japanese consumers. Now this is very crucial time for marketers who were operating in Europe, US,Japan and other countries because behave of consumer is changing in these countries. so, company cannot find difference between Indian consumers and these country's consumer because they all are becoming value conscious. coming to the point what change has been occured over a period of time in Japanese consumers.

1. spend money to save time Vs spend time to save money- Initially Japanese consumers were spending more money for saving his/her time but now, they want to spend time for saving of money.

2. Drastic increase in sales of private label brands- decades before they had more money and they were willing to pay for good quality product at high price but now, According to recent survey done by My voice Internet survey says sales of private label has increased by 4 to 20 percents. they are seeking value for money like Indian consumers. that become very difficult time for luxury products.

3. spend more time at Home- Initially they were spending time on moving in malls but things has been changed dramatically now, they are not willing to spend time at malls or stores because by using this they are saving money.

4. Online shopping booming- very rightly I have written that they are more conscious about value for money so, they prefer to shop online because in offline shopping they used to spend more money by visiting stores and all. so, now they can also save money for future. In online shopping consumers escape from cross selling.

Why this changed has been occur-

1. economy downturn- the very first reason is economy downturn this led to loosing jobs of citizens and many other factors related with downturn.

2. long life jobs- this is second reason because there were fear arises in mind of consumers about loosing of jobs. people do not have fixed job these days so, they understand concept of "save money and spend less".

3. new generation of consumers- this also led to these problems because new age of consumer is value conscious. they want any product or services at affordable price they are also health conscious.

My analysis- Now company have to understand consumers behavior very well like Indian consumer. they have to market product at affordable price. one things could be favor of company is that they can produce same product for mostly market.

Know how: Walmart low price strategy

2010-03-17T05:55:00.000-07:00

Walmart world's largest U.S based retailer is providing lowest price product either it is fmcg or any others. the very first reason is amazing supply chain management,tough negotiator and highest spending on Information technology. Details are followings-

1. Tough negotiator- when they purchase any materials from vendors they make sure that no one sell cheaper and better than this,only than they finalize deal. there negotiator is master in negotiation with vendors or manufacturers.

2. Bulk purchasing- very second reason is they purchase in Bulk because they believe in high volume with low margin. let's see how they purchase items If a manufacturer produce product which cost of production(exclude sales&marketing) is 10 lac in one year and company spend 5 lac for sales&marketing, then walmart will say please give this product to me @12 lac direct from manufacturer plant. so, there is no harm for company or walmart because company is getting direct profit of 3 lac and walmart is getting much lower then market price. this is called win-win situation.

3. Large volume with low margin- Walmart believe in this concept that's what India's retail magnate told, "walmart sales is equal to India's total consumption".

4. Inventory management- Walmart has RFID(radio frequency identification) technology by using this device company can track record of Inventory label time to time. If any product get sold from any store this device can inform all store and distribution centre about this sales within seconds. company has such a amazing information technology so, they are manging it.

5. Transportation management- Walmart has own distribution channels with more than 4000 trucks. they make sure that delivery of product is happening within two days from distribution channel to stores. they hire such truck drivers who has driven more than 300000 lac kilometers without any major violence.

6. Supply chain-

A. In terms of finished products- VENDORS TO DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS TO STORES

B. In terms of others products- MANUFACTURER TO STORE( this is called Cross docking distribution).

whatever I say is very less about walmart in every thing they are master is everything.

Does Negative Publicity Work ????????

2010-03-15T23:01:00.000-07:00

Definitely it works, I have seen lots of negative publicity where it worked very much. how company gains from this types of publicity. what happened when people get news/rumors about anything they want to try at least once because they may be or not have tried such product or services before so, he is totally eager do know about rumor that is it true or not. his main motto is to prove that it is wrong or right In that way company get benefited because If product/service is really bad then by way of trying company can Increases volumes or popularity but if it is good then absolutely it will gain. I have few example of negative publicity-

1. KURKURE CONTAINS PLASTIC- this was rumor in market at that time people wanted to try at least once for sake of purchase. If any customer who did not take kurkure regularly they also purchased because they wanted to prove via burning of kurkure but at end It comes false that KURKURE DOES NOT CONTAINS PLASTIC.

2.It work very well in Bollywood industry because whenever such film released and if they have something wrong(may be or not) at that it also create negative publicity. so, people wants to watch movies atleast once. recenlty when shahrukh khan movies'released. they also get benefited from these types of publicity.

3. BIHAR MIRACLE GROWTH- In this case lots of economists marketrs and people have doubt that is that real bihar growth rate second in India. that is what mostly economist visited bihar and A team of IIM-A going Bihar to visit and business opportunity.

My conclusion is In negative publicity product or service is good that's what it work very well in long term relationship.

and many more..........................

Why not Business in: BIHAR

2010-03-15T22:06:00.000-07:00

Initially positioning of Bihar was "CRIME" but now days it has been changed repositioning of Bihar is "MIRACLE GROWTH". The question arises here how and why it happened reason is like this thanks to Honorable chief minister of Nitish kumar who was giving speech in gandhi maidan patna that if I do not come true on my promise please hang me in this ground in front of people of Bihar. As I think really state is going to way of changing but this is miracle changing. According to recent data growth rate of Bihar is 11.03 second after Gujrat in India. why it is so because cosumption pattern is changing in state. now people do not have fear of crime this is due to tight administration of Government. According to INTERNATIONAL FINANCE COMMISSION title of "Doing business in India 2009" they has rated Bihar second position after New Delhi. why it is so because starting business in Bihar is less expensive. Coming to point of ownership of consumer durable in urban India where what is the position of Bihar. these are data---

Bihar have ownership of cooler is 4.3% which is more than Assam 0.7%, Gujrat2.2%, karnataka 0.9%, Westbengal 0.3% and many more.

Ownership of Electronic Iron is 2.9% which is more than Andhrapradesh 1.68%, Westbengal 2.01%. Ownership of car/van/jeep is 1.8% which is more than Westbengal 1.7%,

Ownership of music system is 26.3% which is more than Andhrapradesh 15.6%, Madhyaprdesh 19.5%, Maharashtra 25.8%, Uttarpradesh 24.4%,Uttarakhand 26%.

My analysis is Bihar has such types of ownership than we can say absoulutely there is opportunity for growth. according to recent data NRI is going to Invest 37000 crores in state.

In terms of PEST analysis state is favour of company. coming to point of Infrastructure of state recent government has changed this system they are building such Infrastructute which previous government cannot build in past 15 years. Eastern dedicated freight corridor linking punjab,westbengal via Bihar this will certainly help state to development. In thisyear Nitish kumar awarded by BUSINESS REFORMER AWARD. lets see how they attract business man.

some fact about availability of empolyees because Bihar produce highest number of IIM and IIT they are very interested in willing to work in own state, for example kaushlendra passed out in 2008 from IIM-A did not take placement from Institute now he is totally Involved in his business of Vegetables in Bihar. so, we welcome you in Bihar.

Concept of old to new version Car

2010-03-15T05:39:00.000-07:00

This is very popular concept which work all over the world. As far as my understanding is concern mostly Automobile company is doing this. There could be two reason one is consumer can be irritated from same product using more time and others company can make more profit and brand Image by Introducing new one with customer satisfaction. We cannot say it work all the time because these days consumers are tech-savvy and aware about trends of market. Having said that If company has clear target group with clear positioning along with good strategy they can win. I have few example of these concept.

OLD VERSION to NEW VERSION

1. Maruti Versa to Maruti Eeco

2. Toyota Kijang to Toyota Qualis

3. Maruti Zen to Maruti Estilo

These are the example of this concept right now I am forgetting this I had some more example as soon as it recall I will add here. Now talking about how far it will work in case of maruti versa to maruti eeco according to market trend it will work. If we talk about toyota qualis it did not work too well in Indian market however being an outdated model it earned money as expected.

My conclusion is If a company is doing this they should have recent market research data of consumer preference and clear positioning and looks of product. then, they can success in market.

Private label: category killing

2010-03-14T12:02:00.000-07:00

The concept of private label brand is peaking pace in retail industries. If you are in chennai than it is very difficult to find paste of mustard(masala of fish). India's largest retailer future group some year ago introduced this paste called KASUNDI but you can find this paste where there is popularity of fish quisine like-west bengal. Coming to the point that why retailer are keeping this private label as I know there is two reason first is highest profit margin and another is category killing. Mostly retailer are doing this business for popularity of his brand and for higher margin. Big bazar has own brand in apparels like blazor of KNIGHTHOOD. which is very less price with discount it cost 600 only. Private label brand are available in less price with somewhere less quality. Recently I visited star bazar part of Tata enterprises. when I was purchasing FMCG product at ground floor got suprised. Mostly branded product were assorted with private label with same packaging. this is the concept which is called category killing because in same reckthere were all side noodles of maggi but in between there were noodles of star bazar. coming to point of profit margin experts and marketers says in private label there is margin of 25-30 percents which can go upto 40 percents where as in branded products margin is hardly 14-15 percents. the reason is in private label company does not too much expend on advertising on tv and Internet hardly they advertsie in print media and local radio, newspaper etc. private label brand can differntiate retail store from others which is good for any retailers. according to me private label brand will not work in consumer durable. so, at end I would say private label brand can uniqueness for retailers and easy,cheap and convienent for consumers so, there is profit for both. till now as I know star bazar is master in private label branding.

Retailing: Moving towards cash and carry

2010-03-12T21:13:00.000-08:00

I became very happy when two days ago I was reading very nice article published in afaqs.com. the article was all about how retailers wants to move towards cash and carry(wholesale). recently our group was doing project on how big bazaar can sustain when world's largest retailer will come in India. At that time our group member has suggested that big bazaar should tie-up with small kiranawalas and vendors then we can convert these competitor into customer. In another way presently these are our competitor but when we convert these then they can become our customer.so, moral of this strategy is "kill two birds with one stone". secondly we had also suggested that for tapping this company should partly divide store in two ways one for daily customers and other for vendors/kiranawala who purchase in bulk. by doing this here is also same story apply, one side we are increasing sales volume and other side facilitating more customer services in terms of queue at cash counter. we had also recommended others strategy lets see how far it work.

coming to some highlights about articles- in this article mostly retailers are planning to enter in cash and carry these are some aditya birla group, store one retail, future group,reliance group, wadhwan''s group and others foreign retailers. why foreign retailers beacuse they do not have right to directly operate in retaling where as they have 100 percents right to operate in cash and carry.

we have to see how far it would be successful because in retailing retailer have margin of 14-15 percents whereas in cash and carry there is only 7-8 percents and also in this business retailer should have very nice back-end process with vast infrastructure.

we congratulate our group members and our hilarious faculty of retail management. on request we have published our presentation on scribd.com. follow link-http://www.scribd.com/doc/27877223/Big-Bazar-vs-Wal-mart

Nielsen Study: Indian are Ready to Pay...........

2010-03-12T05:31:00.000-08:00

The Nielsen company has recently conducted survey among 27000 respondents across 54 countries including India. the objective of research was that, Does consumers want to pay for online books, music, TV shows and games? From India about 70 percents of consumers are ready to pay for these online services if they have right to download and share within their friends and relatives. 63 percents respondents said that they will pay for online if payment system is easy.data is like this who are willing to pay- for books 50 percents, for music 47 percents, for magazines 47 percents, for TV shows 46 percents, for movies 45 percents, for games 44 percents where as there are only 38 percents consumers who is willing to pay for online newspaper.

In case of blog 70 percents respondents said they are not willing to pay for access blogs on Internet. consumers also showed that they are unwilling to pay for online radio and prodcast.

after analyzing the research company found that if content is related with professional life than consumers will pay otherwise not. In case of consumers are not willing to pay for blog which is written by fellow consumers.

I had written in my very first blog that new age of consumer are totally different from what company think. so, data is showing the truth.

Recalling: Toyota and Maruti Suzuki

2010-03-11T10:02:00.000-08:00

The recent recall of A-star by Maruti Suzuki to rectify defects in fuel tank, the largest recall in Indian automobile industry. now , question here arises, does this defect going to effect the brand image of company? company has recalled 1 lacs A-star cars in this march. As I understand and also there is views of marketers and auto experts say that if there is emotion attach with consumers then company can win the heart of consumers. just relate this problem with human relation. If same situation happened with anyone of our friends and there is emotional attachment than friends forgives us for my first mistakes.In the same way company is going to win the confidence of consumers. similar condition apply with consumers and brands. now same thing is happening with toyota prius model. toyota has recalled more than nine millions car worldwide. In this brand there is defects in accelerater and brake. this situation is very crucial for company because there is fully rumor in the market that how company is going to fix this problem.At the same time when automobile industry is struggling. according to news both the companies are going to settle problem very soon and company has informed its dealers and business unit that solve the problem as soon as possible. so, here is fear of BRAND REPUTATION and CONSUMER RETENTION. same thing happened with NOKIA batteries but the company has taken proactive steps to solve this problem before it arises in market. company has provided enough information via advertisement and this approach of solution worked very well.

At the end I would say this is very good policy of company in terms of favour of consumer and company as well.

Qualis miracle

2010-03-10T08:56:00.000-08:00

This was the only vehicle which tested in indian market with out dated model. qualis was mpv segment of toyota launched in India in 2000. this was old version of toyota kijang of Indonesia, toyota launched this car in India for testing of marketing because it was first product of toyota in India. toyota launched this car after doing too much research but they were confident about launching of qualis with success. As I understand there could be two reason for failing of qualis one is its outdated model where Indian consumer were aware about this global trends and another was not looking good. qualis was not able to attract individual consumer however they attract the taxi owner with its space and comfort. at that time qualis has tough competition from market leader sumo in that segment, thanks to taxi owner who made it somewhere successful. when toyota was seeing future of qualis they planned to phase out it from Indian market. But Miracle comes here because when toyota announced phase out of qualis at that time sales of qualis was at record high but due to company policies they had to do so. company earned more money from its outdated model. let's see next what will happen in Indian market. At the end I would say toyota used good marketing stratgey to market the outdated product in better way, where many fails after having good product.

New age of Indian Consumer

2010-03-09T23:38:00.000-08:00

Hii, everyone from now onwards meself lalit choudhary start writting blog on various topic of marketing. today I am going to start with something new which is"new age of Indian consumer". If you will see India at global point of view or local it is very complex market along with same types of consumer but it is very interesting according to study India have60% young consumer(less than 30 years). Indian consumer want good quality product at low price. Is it possible????? Of course yes, lots of company are operating in this procces. example-Big bazaar, Wal-mart etc. Intially whichever company had belief that we can easily operate in India now is not like this because if you see when Levi strauss launched in India the price of first jeans was 3000. Indian consumer did not accept it at the end he had minimize price at affordable price. then see now growth rate of this company. new age of consumer is totaly related with social networking sites from where they take all infiramtion and suggestions. new age of consumer has choice of unlimited brand so, any point of time he/she can switch. being marketer you need to now pulse of your consumers. pay fully attention towards your competitor that'what in the war of ad between Rin and P&g due to past information which Hul had they won first ad war.
At the end I would say pay 360 degree towards market. Nevet assume anything any company play game of huge profit in India but it won't be too easy.

looking forward to your favourable response and critical comment