Group B4 Source Business Line

                                                        BUSINESS READING      Group- B4

Group Name: THE MARKETERS

Tag Line:  making marketing readers

Source – Business Line

Tenure: 2/12 to 16/12

Citibank plans Cyber Monday-like e-shopping sale in India

Dec 2, 2012

India may soon have its own version of ‘Cyber Monday’, when billion-dollar worth products are sold online at heavy discounts within a day, with Citibank planning a similar mega e-shopping sale this week in India.

Although restricted to Citibank’s customers, it would provide discounts of up to 60 per cent across various product categories on 17 well-known Internet shopping platforms within a time frame of 24 hours on Wednesday, December 5 — making it the country’s first-ever ‘Cyber Monday’ event.

First coined in 2005 as a marketing term by online retailers for the Monday coming after ‘Black Friday’, which itself is the name for Friday after Thanksgiving in the US, the ‘Cyber Monday’ has become a phenomenon over the years.

With rising popularity, the ‘Cyber Mondays’ have recorded billion-dollar sales during the past four years.

FMCG players see sales warming up this winter season

Dec 3, 2012

This article speaks about the relation between the FMCG sector sales and winter season. It says that companies such as such as Emami, Dabur and Amway are targeting a 15-20 per cent spurt in the sales. The growth is expected to be driven by not only skin care, lip care or chawanprash, but also newer categories such as instant soups and hot beverages.

Companies tend to look forward for new schemes for the winter season as the disposable income and the budget of a consumer is high.

Thus we India has a good winter then the sales of these are expected to spurt at a higher growth rate.

Tata Elxsi, UAE-based Brash Brands form tie-up for brand development

Dec 4, 2012

Tata Elxsi and Brash Brands, a UAE-based brand consultancy firm have announced a strategic partnership to deliver brand consultancy and integrated design services in India and other key international markets including GCC and Asia.

Through this exclusive partnership, Tata Elxsi will build Brash Brands’ business in India and Brash Brands will represent Tata Elxsi’s portfolio of design services throughout its international offices such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Singapore. As a part of this initiative, the companies plan to set up joint operations in Bangalore to address brand development and consultancy services in

India, and target product design, signage and way finding markets in Asia.

Audi India ‘on track’ to be on global top five list      5^th Dec, 2012

Audi overshoot its sales target of 8000 units this year. Currently they sold 8072 units and they are aiming to sell 8600 units till the closing of this calendar year. India is at 21^st rank in the list of Audi global ranking. They are aspiring that India will be within top 5 rank in the list of Audi global ranking by 2020 due to India is fastest growing market with more than 50 % growth rate. They aspiring to be number  one luxury car in India by 2015. The company has already left behind Mercedes-Benz India in terms of sales in the luxury cars segment. According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, sales of the number one brand BMW India dropped to  5,174 units between April and October compared with 5,895 cars in the same period a year ago.

PepsiCo ropes in 5 brand ambassadors for Kurkure                            7^th Dec, 2012

Global food and soft drinks major PepsiCo has roped in five brand ambassadors including Boman Irani and Farida Jalal, to endorse its Kurkure snacks. The company has also signed Parineeti Chopra, Kunal Kapoor, Ramyakrishnan and Shivansh to feature in a series of advertising campaign for the brand.In addition to helping us target new platforms and consumer groups, this family will also act as a creative unifier as we strengthen our position as the largest salty snack brand in the country. Based on consumer needs, product proposition and personalities of the characters, PepsiCo will use some or all of the stars to endorse products from the large range of offerings from Kurkure.

Havells’ electrifying rise                                                                           8^th Dec, 2012

Reasons for success:

1. Courage

2. Refreshing brand appeal

 3. Campaigns that delivered maximum bang(reach)

4. Stylish and products with moderately premium pricing

5. Taking good care of the dealers/ distributors understanding their ability to nudge and swing customer decisions

6. Wide product portfolio, frequent new launches/upgrades

7. Global distribution platform with strong emerging market presence.

8. Strong differentiation and value proposition through R&D, for example, energy efficiency, fire safety, and so on.

9. Agility and rapid execution capability.

Walmart lobby bill hits $25 m on India entry, other cases       9^th Dec,2012

Washington/New Delhi, Dec 9:

Global retail giant Wal-Mart — waiting for years to open its supermarkets in India — has been lobbying with the US lawmakers since 2008 to facilitate its entry into the highly lucrative Indian market.As per the lobbying disclosure reports filed by Wal-Mart with the US Senate, the company has spent close to $25 million (about Rs 125 crore) since 2008 on its various lobbying activities, including on the issues related to “enhanced market access for investment in India“.

Cargill buys Wipro’s ‘Sunflower Vanaspati’ brand                         10^th Dec,2012

Bangalore, Dec. 10:

Wipro Ltd has sold its initial core business, the Sunflower Vanaspati brand, to food-to-industrial products multinational Cargill for an undisclosed sum.Wipro, earlier called Western India Vegetable Products Ltd, started its business in 1945 selling vanaspati, vegetable ghee and refined oil. After current chairman Azim Premji took over the company following his father’s demise in 1966, Wipro was transformed into a multi-billion soap to IT conglomerate.

Next Retail plans shifting base to non-metro markets

11-12-12

Ø  Videocon Industries promoted Next Retail plans to move out of the metros and re-locate its stores in tier 2 and 3 cities.

Ø  There is potential in smaller towns and the gestation period is faster, giving better chances to attain profitability as in smaller towns there is greater acceptability of home-grown brands such as Videocon and Onida. Consumers in smaller towns have an emotional connect with indigenous brands such as Videocon and there is a demand for home-grown brands and would be pushing such brands in these markets.

Edible oil firms spread wings in FMCG sector
12-12-12

Eye brands out of commodities such as pulses, rice and spices.

Ø  Ahmedabad-based Adani Wilmar recently took a decision to extend its franchise into the branded pulses category, while Mumbai headquartered Ruchi Soya Industries will stretch its Nutrela brand into the margarine segment.

Ø  They will get better margins

Ø  The players will become full-fledged FMCG companies in the future.

Ø  It will de-risk their business from edible oil as the Government is not protecting the interest of domestic oil manufacturers and is allowing imports at almost zero per cent duties.

Ø  It will also broad-base their revenues.          

Consumer sales thru mobile devices to grow by 20%

13-12-12

Ø  Consumer sales transactions completed on mobile devices are expected to grow by 20 per cent, as a proportion of overall interactions, between 2012 and 2015 in India, according to a study commissioned by IT major Tata Consultancy Services.   

Ø  Customer services and mobile-specific market campaigns are expected to grow at 24 per cent and 23 per cent between 2012 and 2015.

Ø  In India in 2012, 30 per cent of companies have apps running on both smart phones and tablets. But this is expected to increase by 20 per cent.

Ø  In The New Digital Mobile Consumer study it is found that across several industries - transportation, travel, entertainment, media, telecom, retail and others - top executives expect sales, marketing, and service interactions via mobile devices to increase dramatically over the next few years.

Ø  Businesses that fail to adequately address these interactions via mobile devices risk being side-lined by competitors, and will be missing precious sales opportunities.

KAMAAL IT IS!!!                                                                                    14^th Dec, 2012

A bold move by South superstar Kamal Hassan who showed his film Viswapooram direct to home audiences. Thus cutting distributor's lion's share of revenues. Four operators have signed up. Each viewing would cost Rs. 1000. Considering an average family of 4 would cost around Rs. 250 each which is not less than any multiplex ticket. But considering parking and pop-corn charges it is of course less. Also it is beneficial for people who are eager to watch film as soon as it hits the screens. Of course low cost theatres are not considered but it can again be manipulated by increasing the number of viewers. But people have to trade off between picture-sound quality for low prices. It won't take much when others will emulate this idea.

Energy drinks no more effective than a cup of coffee?

16^th Dec, 2012

Energy drinks claim boosted performance after the consumption. But scientists say there is overwhelming lack of evidence. There is no ingredient in energy drinks other than caffeine

that increases physical or cognitive performance. Study found energy drinks have up to 14 times more caffeine than soft drinks. Children given energy drinks would pile on more pounds as they are not active enough to burn off the extra calories. On the contrary they should drink water to quench their thirst and should be given adequate amount of fruit juices. With these findings sales of energy drinks like Red bull, Heat, Cloud 9 who claim of increased performance would definitely be questioned. Also as it is bad for health and moreover increases the body weight number of sales would definitely hamper.