Auto Rickshaw’s- The New Means of Marketing

Uninor, the telecom company, come up with the new strategy of using auto rickshaw’s and milk men, and newspaper vendors for selling SIM cards and recharge vouchers. Having seen this, another  telco Videocon, wooing its customers with LED TV for selling SIM card and recharge vouchers.

These companies are offering the same commission as they offer to a shop retailer and it will fetch auto drivers nearly Rs. 2500/ month for 50 transactions. Being closer to the customers enabled the company to garner better market. With this result, Uninor is planning to launch more auto recharge vehicles in different cities across Maharashtra in the coming months. I hope that the new strategy will help in getting  incremental sales and open up new employment opportunities.

Indian Retail Sector Posted Double Digit Sales In 2012-2013

Major retail chains like Reliance Fresh, Easyday, Star Bazzar and More have posted double digit sales growth in the year 2012-2013. In the last two years, most of the players were shutting up their shops, and these players increased sales by focusing on efficient supply chain management and by closing down the non performing stores. Top executives of these companies are attributed this to efficiently reducing the operating losses and focusing on performance management that resulted in improving the bottomline and topline growth.

 

 Current situation is far better than what it was two years back, and still one has to watch, how the Indian retail sector is going to progress after Indian govt allowed FDI in retail sector. Still Indian retail sector is swamped with problems like lack of skilled persons, lack of efficient supply chain and lack of infrastructure.

ITC "Engage"s Consumers with Deodorants

India's leading FMCG gaint ITC launched ‘Engage’ brand of deodorants into the market. Through this launch, ITC wants to enhance its portfolio of consumer products. The main reason behind the entry into deodorants could be the fact that personal care segment is experiencing swift growth. The brands core positioning would be freshness with modern proposition of romance. And the company is confident about consumer mindshare through its variety of fragrances that make consumers engage.

ITC offers complete range of Engage and available for men and women who are looking for freshness. The following pairs of Engage would be available for consumers:

            Rush (Male) & Blush (Female)

            Mate (Male) & Spell (Female) &

            Urge (Male) & Tease (Female)

Engage deodorant is priced at Rs. 160 for 165 ml bottle  and available for men in a classical black with effervescent colors and for women it is in Pink.

Kotler adds 5th P to marketing

Philip kotler, the marketing pandit in an interaction with the students of JRE group of Institutions, Noida, suggested 5^th P i.e “purpose” an addition to 4P’s of marketing. He also said that the purpose of most of the organisation is to earn money. Adding to that, the regular purpose is of most of the organisations is to make money, and the higher purpose must be to make difference to the people.

                  

Kotler emphasied that organization should not only add value to the product they deliver but also add value to the citizens of the country. He also mentioned that people of this country should try to uplift the poor and must try take the country technologically advanced stage.

                      During his talk, he also said that marketer must focus on new medium of communication i.e social media, and move away from old or traditional communication . He also said that the expenditure on social medium would touch nearly 50% in near future from mere 5%. Hence, firms must embrace and adapt new medium of communication to stay connected with customer & potential customers and to interact & get feedback on a continuous basis.

Dettol Launches Dishwash

Dettol, the iconic brand from Reckitt Benckiser launched a dishwash under the name “Dettol Kitchen Gel”.  Reckitt Benckiser, owns brands like Lizol, Harpic, Cherry Blossom and Disprin. The Rs.400 crore Dettol is the market leader in liquid hand wash market with more than 50% market share and faces stiff competition from HUL lifebuoy liquid hand wash. Dettol’s core positioning continues to be the same i.e germ protection. Even HUL was also positioned its lifebuoy liquid hand wash on the same germ protection platform.

Coming to this, Dettol Kitchen gel was positioned as a multipurpose germ cleaner & germ killer. Hence, Reckitt Benckiser, named it as a kitchen gel than a dish wash. So it can be used for cleaning utensil, kitchen surface, sinks and cooking tops. With the launch of this product, Reckitt Benckiser gives stringent competition to HUL’s Vim. Dettol, an 80 year old brand dominating in hand wash segment is going to take on 100 year old brand dominated dish wash space.

Well, innovations are essential to survive & succedd in the market. According to the company sources, the current brand extension is a part of company’s strategy to enhance its product folio, market share & business. It would be quite interesting to see, how Dettol is going to battle the competition from Vim of HUL.  Nonetheless, we have to see, wether Dettol’s core positioning works in the dish wash space as well. Until then, watch your kitchens wether Dettol replaces brand like Pril, Vim, & Exo or not.