Radicals - Group B2-Source - Business line

 

Linc pens to sell note books too..

-By Kaushik Narayan

Review: - This article talks about 2000crore industry and linc pens has a market share of 10% which means 200crore. This article further says that they are looking forward to expand and diversify their product into related business i.e. stationeries. They are looking forward to launch or rather re-launch their product which is notebooks. Their target market is students and as an experiment they are going to launch their products only in west and south India because they have a huge demand there. The company is planning to promote its Uni-ball brand which falls in mid-section category and its priced in a range of Rs 35. To Rs 250. The company is planning to go for push strategy and is studying new markets in Gujarat and Maharashtra. The company for the first in 6 years has come up with an ad-campaign to promote its product and create awareness. However the products which are going to be launched are only in specific areas, such as West India and South India , where the dominance of Linc pens is more.

Implication: - Here the company is using selective promotion strategy and hence a trend is seen that it is playing safe and is ignoring any activity which causes risk. Every strategy the company has adopted is old school and is trying to maintain its market share without causing any damage to the image of the company. The company is also expanding in areas which are known to it and not venturing into unknown areas nor it is waiting to take any advantage of its position. In short Linc pens are playing it safe.

Future Group’s convenience store formats take the franchise route

By- Sangeeta Keni

Review:-

• This article talks about Future Group’s vision to grow through the franchise route in urban and rural convenience store retail formats under KB’s Fair Price and Aadhar.
• Entrepreneurs can run these formats i.e. KB’s Fair Price and Aadhar as they are being recognized as neighborhood store brands and have established operations that are profitable. 
• With 85 company-owned stores, KB’s Fair Price has the highest concentration of outlets in Delhi. They intend to have 300 additional outlets in Delhi with almost 500 outlets across the other metros.
• Having acquired another convenience store format Big Apple (with 38 stores) in Delhi recently, KB’s Fair Price would have to distinguish itself from this format in the future. Big Apple is about fresh produce. They are synergizing the back-end operations between KB’s Price and Big Apple. There are still no plans to consolidate these two and for the moment both are running as independent operations.
• Future Group has created these formats to cater to customers who prefer to shop at convenience stores and not malls.
• As for Aadhar, an acquired rural distribution format from Godrej is poised for a franchise concept having undergone a pilot test in the recent past. They have been training franchises on how to run self-service stores and the ways of doing traditional trade. Just like KB’s Fair Price, Aadhar is also like a store down the street in rural India.
• Aadhar would be expanding its outlets in Gujarat and Punjab with almost 100 new outlets planned through franchises. Just like their Big Bazaar format has undergone a transformation in the last 10 years, they are expecting the convenience store formats to do the same.
• They are expecting nearly 30 per cent of sales to come from the private labels at their convenience stores.

Yamaha looks to rev up scooter sales

By – Utsav Joshi

Dated  - 7^th January

Yamaha India’s target for 2013 is to sell 5 Lakh two wheelers, out of which it expects 2 Lakh units to be scooters. While overall two wheeler market is growing at 10 to 11%, the scooter segment is growing at over 20%. There is a huge potential for scooters in urban and semi-urban areas.

This trend is driven by more women looking to be more mobile. Families are also increasingly looking at vehicles which the entire family can use.

Hero and Honda are the big players in the scooter segment. Yamaha entered the space in September with the Ray range; since then, it has sold over 35,000 units.  Though it is targeted at the urban woman, Ray is also being used by boys and husbands.

To encourage more women to take up scooter riding, Yamaha on Friday launched a rider training programme. The 3-hour training will be given to women free of cost at Yamaha dealerships by company staff. The company is also targeting colleges to offer training. The programme covers aspects such as safety, balance, posture, start-stop, turning, cornering and braking.

This is also an attempt to get customers to experience the Yamaha brand. The company has similar rider training programmes worldwide, especially in Asean countries. About 70 per cent of people who undergo this training end up buying the Yamaha brand, said reports. Yamaha hopes to repeat this in India, too.

Yamaha is planning to expand its production. Yamaha is coming up with manufacturing plant at Vallam Vadagal, near Chennai. The plant will have a production capacity of 1.8 million units, taking Yamaha’s total capacity to 2.8 million units. Yamaha already has two plants in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

Yamaha is targeting 1 million (10 lakh) units by 2015 and 40-45 per cent will come from scooters.

Implications: In urban and semi urban areas, people are willing to buy scooters. The main reason being increase in women riders. This shows orthodox mentality of Indian consumers

Switzerland woos Indian tourists with Living Traditions

-By Jacob Joseph

This article states the increase in foreign tourism with respect to Switzerland. Tourism showed  a marginal raise by 3 % the swiss tourism is expecting an 8 % increase this year. They are expecting the tourists to stay overnight and not just sight see but to understand and involve themselves in swiss culture. For this they have many program called ‘Living Traditions’ for Indian travellers. This segment will focus on experiential travel and showcase some of the age-old traditions of Switzerland. “‘Living Traditions’ will highlight the watch-making industry’s farming connections, a relationship that dates back to the 18^th century. Tourists can also participate in cheese-making and visit the traditional chocolate makers.

As a part of the theme, Switzerland Tourism has introduced almost 100 activities to provide visitors an experience of the Swiss traditions. Switzerland Tourism will also focus on MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) this year. MICE groups have grown by more than 22 per cent in the year 2013 as compared with the previous year.

Switzerland Tourism will undertake varied marketing activities for 2013, such as consumer outreach programmes, advertising campaigns on TV and in print and training programmes for travel agents. It will also launch an official Facebook page with an Indian feed, followed by other social media such as Twitter and Pinterest for better interaction with its audience. 

Implication:- The countries which are tourist centric want to attract more tourists which will intern benefit their nation, Switzerland is trying to digital media , as well as word of mouth and consumer engagement programs to attract tourists not just for sight-seeing but also to understand the cultural heritage of their nation, with this they can promote Switzerland as an holiday destination as well as promote their culture.