Group B7 Source Economic Times

Business Reading report 

Group B7

Group Name: Marketing Orion

Tag Line:News hunted and delivered at your doorstep.

Logo:

Tenure: 13/12 to 19/12                      

                                                              Source: Economic Times

Content:

1.    Govt Probe on as Walmart days Bribes US-Centric

13^th December 2012

Government announced a judicial probe report of Walmart. Its joint venture, Bharti Walmart said 25 million dollar cost incurred was restricted to its expenses on American officials in US. Walmart says lobbying disclosure has nothing to do with Indian politicians. All US organisations spend excess of $11,500 annually on lobbying and employ and employ, out of this, atleast 1 lobbying must be reported. Washington DC publication in 1^st year, 143 organizations reported expenses of more than $1 million on lobbying.

2.    As Rich Live It Up, Lamborghinis Move into Living Rooms

Saturday 15^th December 2012
   

You buy a Ferrari when you want to be somebody. You buy a Lamborghini when you are somebody,” said America’s evergreen icon Frank Sinatra, who counted a 1970 Lamborghini Miura P400S among his fleet of luxury sedans and sports cars.

   The idea here is clear that Lamborghini wants to position their car MIURA P400S at completely different level among their fleet of sedan by creating a different status all together. Now when you see somebody in Lamborghini it will be clear that he is already a somebody.

Trouble is there are way too many “somebodies” in  India — 158,000 millionaires to be precise, as per a latest Credit Suisse report. So how do you stand out? Lulla decided to promote his garage: these days he drives his Lamborghini Gallardo home, literally, and parks it in the living room of his Chennai house, where he has made an extension with special track lighting to house the machine. Well, there are more ways to stand out.A proud owner of Rolls Royce has got the Spirit of Ecstasy studded with 1,640 real diamonds. “These are special customers. They are always on the lookout for something exclusive, irrespective of the cost. One of the new Lamborghini owners is a 16-year-old kid from the outskirts of Mumbai, who, thankfully, utilises the services of a driver. “The profile of our car buyers shows that awareness and love for Lamborghini cars run deep. (With regard to the 16-year-old) we have got an assurance from the family that he won’t drive till he is legally eligible to drive. We will train him, once he reaches that requisite age,” says PavanShetty, head of operations.

3.    Walmart: Shopping for Deals & Controversies

16^th December2012

Walmart, the giant retailer is under fire for allegations of lobbying and a bribery scandal in India, it was demanding anti-corruption undertakings from the owners of its Indian stores that operate under a joint venture with Bharti Group. Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) is the same law the company has been trying to enforce in its Indian operations. 

The news broke soon after a scandal involvingWalmart’s Mexican subsidiary, it made payments of more than $24 million in bribes to win construction permits came to light. A BhartiWalmart spokesperson says filings with the US Congress encompass all of Walmart’s federal lobbying activities and Walmart’s own lobbying efforts are not related to the FCPA.

String of Controversies
The government will investigate the company’s lobbying practices. The latest controversy was triggered by a Walmart disclosure to the US Senate that it had paid $25 million over four years to lobby American lawmakers to help enter foreign markets such as India. Opposition members, who are against the government’s move to open the retail market to foreign companies, including Walmart, demanded a probe into whether the money found its way into India.
   Among all the foreign supermarket companies looking to enter the nearly 25-lakh-crore Indian retail market, Walmart has shown the biggest interest. But Walmart has strongly refuted allegations of lobbying in India.Disclosure filings by Walmart show (see Outside Spending) its lobbying activities were restricted to the US and it has not spent a penny outside the country.
   But the Walmart case shows that those shopping for good deals might have to bargain for controversies.

4.    Adopt, Adapt, Create – But Ikea Better Watch Out!

18^th December2012

M G PARAMESWARAN (The writer is ED & CEO, DraftfcbUlkaAdvertising, Mumbai)

Global brands try and build synergies across all domains, but some creative ideas run into cultural obstacles. So, the global mantra for brand communication is Adopt fully if you can, Adapt is you cannot Adopt; and Create in times of dire need. First efforts are made to take the same creative interpretation of the idea and run it in every market. If this does not work, then the local office is allowed to ‘Adapt’, where it keeps the same idea, but try a local interpretation. The interpretation of ‘Dirt is good’ in the UK for Persil and for Surf in India would probably fit into the Adapt model. The Create dictum is used only if the brand promise needs to be reinterpreted through a new creative idea.

What would Ikea, the iconic Swedish furniture brand, do when it forays into India?
Well, it may need to watch, going by its own experience in Saudi Arabia. Ikea uses catalogues to present its products in great detail. In one of their catalogues used in Saudi Arabia, the company had taken a call not to show the mother, father and the kids in the bathroom brushing their teeth (as was shown in the original Scandinavian version). Since culturally this is not an acceptable thing, Ikea did what they thought was the smart thing: they airbrushed the mom out of the picture (Adopt). Now, the Saudi Arabian catalogue somehow reached a Swedish journalist who spotted the ‘missing mom’ and wrote a piece on how Ikea was airbrushing women out of its Arabian catalogues. Consumer activists wanted Ikea to withdraw the catalogues and do something not as crude as ‘airbrushing the mom’ (call for Create?).This is probably a new warning bell for global marketers when they try to adopt or adapt their creative execution in different parts of the world. Ikea shouldworry about what would happen if the ‘airbrush’ story goes back to home country.
 

5.    Coke Prepares the Pitch to Stump Pepsi’s IPL Deal.

19^th December 2012

PepsiCo has acquired the title sponsor bid for IPL 6 in a $400 crore five year deal. As Coca Cola couldn’t acquire the bid, they’re trying to acquire pouring rights for IPL-6,which includes serving soft drinks in stadiums, placing its logo on the T-shirt or helmet of players and access to advertise on three perimeter boards. Pepsi has acquired the title sponsor bid  at a rate that many consider to be overpriced as per industry standards. Pouring rights is not a central concept. Companies can strike deals with individual teams and sponsor them, advertising on their shirts and helmets. Pepsi is also trying to acquire pouring rights for IPL but is not ready to pay an additional cost as a large part of its budget was reserved for title sponsorship. Whether Coke will end up ambush marketing PepsiCo for next year’s IPL is not clear yet. In IPL 2,Coke tried to derail Pepsi’s Youngistan campaign by bringing in VirenderSehwag from DD and Ishant Sharma from KKR as Coke sponsored these teams.However, IPL CEO Sundar Raman has said that the BCCI-IPL has stringent clauses with regards to ambush marketing and will protect the rights of all central sponsors, which in this case is PepsiCo.

Group B6 Source Mint

Business reading report Group No 6

Group Name : Eagle

Tagline : Highflier with a clear, magnified vision

Group Logo :

                       

Period 2/12/12-18/12/12

 

Britannia’s Vinita Bali

Q&A: on slowing growth

December 18       by Suhasini Seshan

  Britannia Industries Ltd, the maker of Tiger and Good Day biscuits, was a 100% biscuits company five years ago. Over the last five years, the company has also focused on health and wellness with brands like NutriChoice and even fortified some of its bands. Vinita Bali, managing director and chief executive officer of the company says, We are not a samosa company trying to sell salad. We are a biscuit company trying to sell healthier biscuits; a bread company trying to sell healthier bread.

    We just launched the range (100% wheat bread, multi-grain bread, bread with oats and honey) six months ago all are doing well. The trends that we are seeing are very encouraging. So, consumers are buying healthy products at a premium. When you buy loose food like samosa, chana batura or bhujia, is there anyone telling you how much oil and calories you are consuming? Let’s not bash packaged food. In India, only 9% of food is branded and packaged. Look at water 20 years ago, people would not agree to pay for water. Today everyone is walking around with a packaged bottle of water. Five years ago, people did not buy packaged dahi (yoghurt).

   There is so much opportunity available in India with 91% (of food products sold) unbranded. Competition is good. Markets explode and expand when there is competition. Look at aviation; look at cars. Does a slowing economy affect you? The market is growing but the rate of growth is coming down. India as a market will continue to grow as there are new consumers who come into the consumption cycle. There is a plethora of opportunities here.

P&G's reaffirmed India focus

Published  3 december  by Asghar Zaidi

P&G Hygiene's shares have outperformed Gillette's, though Gillette has made a minor comeback since mid-November. Both subsidiaries are a key part of P&G's effort to increase contribution from emerging markets such as India. In a recent global investor meeting, P&G affirmed that a strong momentum in developing markets continues to be a key part of its strategy.

Marico to launch Kaya Skin Bar chain

Published : 4 december      By Asghar Zaidi

A decade after it launched Kaya, a beauty and wellness chain, Marico Ltd plans to launch a smaller beauty services chain under the brand Kaya Skin Bar to help it become profitable even as analysts remain sceptical about consumer packaged goods companies tasting success in retail.

Kaya Skin Bar will be first launched in Hyderabad in January and the company expects to have five stores by the end of its first year of operations, according to Ajay Pahwa, chief executive officer of Kaya Ltd. "Over 5-7 years, we hope to ramp it up to 150-200 stores," he added.

Samsung is top 2012 phone brand, ousting Nokia

11^th December 2012, MINT newspaper        by Parchi trehan 112

 

 “The competitive reality of the cell phone market in 2012 was ‘live by the smart phone; die by the smart phone,´” said Wayne Lam, senior analyst at IHS.

Samsung has overtaken Nokia as the top mobile phone brand for 2012 and has opened up a decisive lead over Apple in the smart phone market, a research firm said Tuesday.

IHS noted that Samsung produces dozens of smart phone models every year that address all segments of the market, from the high-end to the low-end. Nokia is transitioning its smart phone line to the Windows operating system, resulting in declining shipments for the company.

Sales of Nokia’s older Symbian-based phones have plunged, while its new Microsoft Windows-based handsets have been modest so far.

This will mark the first time in 14 years that Finnish-based Nokia will not sit atop the global mobile phone business. Samsung is expected to account for 29% of worldwide cell phone shipments, up from 24% in 2011, according to the IHS, which said Nokia’s share dropped to 24% from 30%. This will mark the first time the South Korean electronics giant will occupy the top on a yearly basis, IHS said.

IHS said global smart phone shipments are set to rise by 35.5% this year, while overall cell phone shipments will increase by just 1%. This will propel 2012 smart phone penetration to 47%, up from 35% in 2011.

IHS said it expects smart phones gains to accelerate in 2013, and to account for 56% of the mobile phone market.

E-commerce firms face survival test

Published: Dec 11 2012     by Gigitha Vadakoot

Nearly half of all the e-commerce firms launched this year until October have shut as investors tighten purse strings, leaving fledgling ventures starved for cash and forcing their exit. Entrepreneurial instincts have been tucked away as well, with most founders opting to work with large, stable employers, rather than start another online company. Some of the main reasons for the shutdown of e commerce are  consolidation forced by investors among their portfolio companies, sites have dead inventories and the 20-30% discounts are not helping them cover their costs, insufficient bank balance to sustain and compete with big companies, getting customers to pay for services in time. Today, they want to know about very basic business fundamentals while evaluating e-commerce—the revenue and reach ambitions. Due to rising mortality of e commerce, the running of many new startup companies also gets affected.

Two-wheeler sales skid in festive season

Published : 5 December       by Abhishek Shetty

   Two-wheeler sales have fallen by 2.4% year-on-year in the festive period. As inventory started getting built up since September 2011, the y-o-y comparison is for the period from September till November.Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (Pvt.) Ltd outperformed by a long shot, with sales growing by 29%, while each of the other three leading two-wheeler companies reported a decline

HBO Asia and Eros launch two ad-free pay channels in India

Published : 6 December       by Abhishek Shetty

  HBO Asia and Eros launch two ad-free pay channels in India. Aminah Sheikh Bollywood movie producer Eros International Media Ltd and Hollywood movie broadcaster HBO Asia have launched two premium movies channels-HBO Define and HBO Hits-for pay television audiences in India.

  The channels will not carry advertising and will be available only through digital TV platforms, together priced at around Rs.100 a month, the companies said at a press conference on Thursday.

India will be 4th largest aviation market by 2016: IATA

Published : 7 december     by Jay gandhi

India will become the fourth largest passenger airline market in the world by 2016, behind only the US, China and Brazil, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in its air traffic forecast report released on Thursday."Airlines expect to welcome some 3.6 billion passengers in 2016. That's about 800 million more than the 2.8 billion passengers carried by airlines in 2011," IATA said. "The emerging economies of Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East will see the strongest passenger growth."

McDonald's franchise holder merges

Published : 8 december     by Jay gandhi

Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt Ltd (HRPL), the McDonald's restaurant chain's master franchise for south and west India, Friday announced a consolidation of its business to become a part of the publicly listed family business company Westlife Development Ltd, in a filing with BSE. The consolidation will help the BL Jatia group company take advantage of high growth in the quick service restaurant industry, said a company official.

"The board made the decision to go ahead with the merger today," said Amit Jatia, vice chairman of Hardcastle Restaurants. The merger process will take six to nine month, he added.

Group B5 Source Business Standard

Business reading report Group No B5

Team Name: Ninja Readers

Team Logo:     

Team Tagline:

 “Rooted in Reading”

Dated: Dec 3^rd, 2012

Game is not over yet for Sachin

The trend world over suggests that superstars who retire from their game don't necessarily see a drop in their fortunes. Brands continue to exploit them in some way or the other Gaurav Laghate & Viveat Susan Pinto Mumbai Dec 03, 2012, 00:35 IST

As we know, Sachin Tendulkar is considering retirement, here in this article we are discussing about his brand value in endorsement market. As Melroy D’souza, chief operating officer of celebrity and sports management firm Professional Management Group (PMG) says, “Sachin is bigger than a cricketer.

To support this forecasting; different examples are given.

Indranil Das Blah, chief operating officer, Kwan Entertainment and Marketing Solutions, says, “Once Sachin retires, he will continue to be a big draw for brands, the reason being his lack of visibility on the field. People are used to seeing him on the field.

Dated:  Dec 3^rd, 2012

My Best Campaign: Rohit Ohri

The campaign identified with the aspirations of the youth

In this interview; Rohit mentioned campaign he made for Pepsi with the tag line “Yeh Dil Mange More” (YDMM) which continues being one of the most recalled brand taglines. The idea was to communicate that it was the heart craving for ‘more’. At the time this campaign came out, India was witnessing a change; its generation was seeing a change. The country was liberalising. Global brands were coming in. Technology was transforming lives.

To promote this tag line they came up with 2 add campaign

·         SRK, Kajol & Rani mukharjee.

·         With SRK & Indian cricket team where SRK replace Sachin Tendulkar in search of Pepsi.

To show the effect of this campaign; he gave an example- When the Indian flag proudly fluttered over Tiger Hill in Kargil on the morning of July 4, 1999, and Captain Vikram Batra joyously yelled, ‘yeh dil maange more’, this tagline became India’s way of life.

Dated: Dec 5^rd, 2012

Street divided on RBI action in Dec policy review

RBI hold repo rate, CRR; focus shifts to growth.

The RBI kept interest rates on hold, ignoring government pressure to reduce borrowing costs, but said it was shifting its focus towards boosting a flagging economy, raising the odds of a rate card as early as January 2013.

The RBI rechecked guidance from its last policy meeting in October that it was likely to resume monetary policy easing in the January-March quarter, as inflation pressures are expected to ease in the next few months.

As the inflation rate is very high, the RBI has kept its key policy rates on hold since a 50 basis point cut in April 2012. This is the contrasting step in comparison to the other big emerging market Central Banks in China, Brazil and South Korea that have been so aggressive in easing policy to support growth.

Dated: Dec 7^rd, 2012

Retail stocks rise as UPA wins FDI vote

The Lok sabha voted on Multi brand retail FDI after two days of debate and as expected, the government won the debate by a margin of 253 to 218. As per the commerce minister Anand Sharma, decision on FDI in multi brand retail was not taken overnight. 

UPA Alli Nationalist Congress Part, which the major partner in Maharashtra government, suggested that it was not completely onboard regarding implementation of FDI in retail. With its leader Praful Patel saying  the state’s coordination committee will assess its impact as it did not want small retailers to be hurt. But at the same time, he rejected the Opposition contention that FDI was bad for the country.

18^th Dec 2012

Retail Tide coming, realtors to go with the flow:

With acceptance of FDI in retail, foreign retail players are waiting eagerly to setup their outlets in India. Rising on the occasion, domestic real estate players are trying to reach out to these foreign players. Real estate players claim that they are in talks with foreign retail chains to build customized retail stores according to the front-end, back-end and commercial requirement of foreign retail majors.

For instance, Noida based Supertech is in touch with Swedish furniture maker IKEA and is showing them space in NCR (DELHI). Another real estate company, Raheja developers, is in talks with multi brand players like Woolworths and Tesco from Australia and UK respectively. Similarly, real estate developers like AMR infrastructures Ltd and Mantra Realty said that they are in direct contact with foreign players but declined to name any. 

All these foreign players want a large format stand alone store and is not considering space in malls. On the other hand, real estate giants like DLF and UNITECH denied being in talks with any foreign brands saying that multi brand policy still needs further clarity.

4^th Dec 2012

Apple iTunes debuts in India

Apple has announced the launch of the iTunes Store in India, Russia, Turkey, South Africa and 52 additional countries. Apple owners will have an access to over 20 million songs available to purchase and download on iTunes store. The iTunes have kept its prices pretty nominal for the Indian market. For eg. For latest bollywood movie songs, per download will cost around Rs 12. Along with this, high definition movies can also be purchased or even rented by the iTunes store. Experts feel that, Apple’s launch will bring new visibility and emphasis to legal entertainment and multimedia content. They feel that it’s great news for the industry as it will help to curb the piracy to a very large extent. It also provide a new way to film producers to monitise their library. The only dilemma for movie or music from iTunes store is that the consumer will require a valid credit card with a billing address in the country. This is the only possible hitch for the users. This is where Nokia scores who offer operator billing service with Vodafone and Airtel.

17^TH December 2012

More life, power to computing in India in 2013

BS Reporter / New Delhi Dec 17, 2012, 17:54

In 2012 we saw the emergence of convertible devices (for example laptops that can be turned into tablets), smarter tablets and ultra-books, in 2013 we will see more powerful computing devices, laptops with all-day battery life and devices which go beyond touch and recognise facial and hand gestures.  Computer chip maker Intel on Monday said it foresees a vigorous change in computing in 2013 with the emergence of a highly-connected multi-device landscape. "The traditional input devices such as keyboards and mouse will be challenged by the new input methods such as voice and gesture recognition. Besides, tablets and convertibles and new devices will enter the market blurring the boundaries between PCs and tablets," Sandeep Aurora, Director - Marketing, Intel South Asia said.In 2012, various device makers such as Dell have launched Intel-based Ultrabook convertibles that become a tablet when one needs it.  Besides, laptops with long battery life that runs without charging for 10 hours, are also going to be a reality in 2013, he added. The company will also launch its fourth-generation Intel Core Processors that will boost performance in all devices from mobiles to tablets to ultrabook convertibles. This is also likely to enhance the battery life of the device.“A series of tablets from Intel-based Core as well as Atom processors are all set to take the market by storm in 2013,” Aurora said. He said the latest Windows 8 tablets have begun shipping, and in the first half of 2013 Intel will also deliver Android-based designs to the Indian market. The company also expects to see new Intel-based smartphones to be launched in 2013. In 2012, the first Intel-based smartphone -Lava XOLO X900 was launched in India. “2013 will see more such devices hitting the market at affordable prices," he added. Intel expects many organizations to adopt tablets. Enterprises would see higher usage of tablets and smarter devices. Moreover, 2013 will be a turning point for cloud deployment in the Asia Pacific region. Another big trend that will emerge in 2013 is analyzing the big data. "Storing and analyzing the massive amounts of user data to give near real-time insights into customers' behavior to tailor products and services to exceed customers’ expectations, will gain momentum in 2013," he added. 

10th December 2012 Godrej Consumer lowers the price bar for crème hair colour

Size of the hair colour market in India Rs 1,800 cr

Viveat Susan Pinto / Mumbai Dec 10, 2012, 00:37 IST

Mumbai-based Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) has launched single-use hair colour packs at Rs 30, far lower than the current price of similar products in the market place. The launch has happened under the Expert brand name in the crème segment, one of the four lines in GCPL’s hair colour portfolio, the others being Renew, Nupurand Soft. To promote it, GCPL has launched a new advertising campaign and is also pushing the product aggressively at the retail level. While announcing the company's second quarter results recently, Managing Director Mr A Mahendran had said they’d look at all possible levels of growth in core categories Market experts say cutting prices while retaining value is the best way for GCPL to move ahead in hair colour, giving stiff competition to local and foreign players. GCPL derives nearly 15 per cent of its domestic revenues from hair colour, the others being house insecticides and personal wash, 45 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively. It has dominated the powder hair colour segment within the roughly Rs 1,800-crore hair colour market in India but has struggled in crème, dominated by multinationals such as L’Oreal. According to industry estimates, powder hair colour constitutes 45-50 per cent of the market, while crème is 25 per cent. While powder is growing at 15 per cent yearly, crème is growing at 20 per cent, partly because of the ease with which one can use it. But crème is also higher priced. Typically, powder hair colour is available between Rs 10 and Rs 20 for a small pack. Crème price points, which for a long time were above Rs 100 for a 100-ml bottle, began coming down last year, when L'Oreal, which has Garnier Colour Naturals at the lower end of the market, launched a 40-ml product of the latter at Rs 59. Till that time, Garnier Colour Naturals was available at Rs 150 for a 100 ml pack. Rivals such as Streax from Mumbai-based Hygiene Research Institute ( HRIPL) and Colour Mate came out with products priced between Rs 45 and Rs 50 for a 40-ml unit. Their 100-ml units were priced between Rs 105 and Rs 150. The Rs 30 crème sachet, also a 40-ml pack, launched by GCPL, say market experts, is likely to be a game changer.