MARCH 2011 - Monthly Newsletter INSIDE THE ISSUE Page 2 NATIONAL BRANDING: - Is it all about encouraging tourism? Page 3 THE ECONOMICS OF MARKETING FRESH FRUIT JUICE IN INDIA Page 5 CREATE YOUR UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION (USP) Page 6 An unprecedented growth story:- THE BOTTLED WATER INDUSTRY IN INDIA Page 7 TEN STEPS TO REVITALIZE A BRAND
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MARCH 2011
- Monthly Newsletter
INSIDE THE ISSUE
Page 2
NATIONAL BRANDING: - Is it all about encouraging tourism?
Page 3
THE ECONOMICS OF MARKETING FRESH FRUIT JUICE IN INDIA
Page 5
CREATE YOUR UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION (USP)
Page 6
An unprecedented growth story:-
THE BOTTLED WATER INDUSTRY IN INDIA
Page 7
TEN STEPS TO REVITALIZE A BRAND
build reputation, encourage foreign direct invest-
ment, increase tourist arrival, create internal pride, or
be a support for exports from the country. Antonio
Marazza of Landor Associates, says “A country brand
is more than just a logo. The purpose is to attract and
win customers from around the world.” It is the way a
country is perceived by the audience.
The major emphasis is given to improve the nation’s
image internationally, but equally important is to tar-
get nation’s own people. This is because, a nation is
not just the land outlined by its borders, but also
through its individuals. You can understand by this
why government spends in broadcasting ‘Incredible
India’ even inside the country.
Advertisements which show scenic ads and tourist
destinations in the country are mostly travel oriented.
Advertisements like ‘India Inclusive’ are targeted at
companies and governments who can be the poten-
tial investors or customers of India Inc. Let’s focus our
attention on this branding for some time.
Have you ever heard of IBEF? Can you recognize after
looking at the image, if you couldn’t earlier.
I’m sure some of you might have referred to the re-
ports published by IBEF about the status of different
industries in India, while preparing for Industrial
Awareness sessions during second term or while pre-
‘Incredible India’ is the slogan being used by Ministry
of Tourism to promote India as a destination for trav-
ellers. ‘India Inclusive’ was the campaign by Confed-
eration of Indian Industry (CII) during 2011 annual
meeting of World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzer-
land. These two slogans are part of ‘Nation Branding’
of India. The third slogan ‘India Shining’ though
started with the objective of promoting India interna-
tionally, had been used as a political campaign by
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This received wide
spread criticism for using taxpayer’s money for pro-
moting political gain.
'Branding' is how an organization communicates, dif-
ferentiates and symbolizes itself or its products to its
prospects. ‘Nation branding’ is doing the same, but to
a whole country. Remember your first week of
classes in Planet-I? From Kotler: What is marketed?
Goods, Services, Places, blah blah blah.. Nation
branding comes under marketing ‘places’.
The objective of nation branding is multi-pronged; to
MARK - AVENUE
DO YOU KNOW the origin of company name “PEPSI” ?
It once claimed to contain pepsin. Pepsi's creator, Caleb Bradham, claimed his cola contained pepsin, an enzyme crucial to digestion, so Pepsi allegedly aided digestion.
Page 2
NATIONAL BRANDING :- Is it all about encouraging tourism?
- Srinath Akula
costing as high as 18Rs? For a
conservative middle class
south Indian who was familiar
only with “Naranga Vellam
and Sarbath” (read Nimbu
Pani) and occasional road side
sugar cane juice/mosambi juice, 18 Rs
was way too costly. I remember during
my office days in Bangalore, Pune and
Chennai, I could clearly see the visible
difference in juice consumption pattern
of my peers (no, I am not referring to
the “hot” consumption) where most of
us started stocking family packs of
Tropicana, Real etc. That was sup-
posed to be the “IN” thing. Also, most
of us were being health conscious as
“Uncle Ji, Ek Tropicana Litchi dijiye..!”
For every visit up the hillock and down,
one tetra-pack of Tropicana/Real or
Saint..!! That is the thumb rule being
followed by many of us here in Planet-I.
In the last edition, we talked how Planet
-I and India as a whole is noodling too
much. I feel that another tectonic shift
in our food consumption pattern has
been characterized by an increased off-
take of fruit juices. Yes, the beautifully
tetra-packed Apple, Grape, Mango, Or-
ange flavored so called “fresh fruit
juices” marketed by the FMCG behe-
moths.
Initially I used to feel why on earth is a
juice packed in a meagre 200 ml pack
well with the added advantage of mix-
ing it with Vodka whenever required J
Yeah, Smirnoff with Tropicana orange
totally rocks..!
Coming to the point, as per a study by
McKinsey & Company, the Indian food
market is poised to grow to $ 310 billion
by 2015 and $ 344 billion in 2025 – at an
approximate compounded annual
growth rate of 4.1 per cent. Currently,
India ranks second in fruit production and
IBEF is a public-private partnership
between the Ministry of Commerce,
Government of India, and the Confed-
eration of Indian Industry (CII).
The primary objective of the trust is to
promote and create international
awareness of the Made in India label in
markets overseas and to facilitate the
dissemination of knowledge of Indian
products and services.
This trust prepares and publishes re-
ports on the status of Indian industries,
promotes the brand of India Inc, pub-
lishes newsletters like India Now, In-
vest Now, conducts national and inter-
national events to promote ‘Brand In-
dia’.
To name a few, it organizes ‘Made in
India’ show, runs different campaigns
like ‘India Everywhere’, ‘India Inclusive’
every year across the globe .
Zooming out to the international
arena, many countries across the world
do nation branding. To cite a few;
'Korea Sparkling,' 'Definitely Dubai,'
'Amazing Thailand', 'Malaysia, Truly
Asia', and ‘YourSingapore’. And un-
doubtedly world expo is a wonderful
arena for nation branding. Jay Wang
from LA says “You can find out how
countries want to portray themselves
to the rest of the world. In other words,
how they brand themselves. It’s like an
(expensive) beauty contest for na-
tions”. Expo 2010 organized in Shang-
hai, China is one such event. 192 coun-
tries registered to participate and
around 73 million visitors visited the
expo. Many countries had exclusive
National pavilions, showing their cul-
ture and development of urban life.
The government supports us in the
international arena by promoting the
nation as a brand and presenting a
positive image of the Industrial face of
the country.
To better understand this, I'd recom-
mend you to see the short films com-
piled by IBEF at http://www.ibef.org/
brandindia/indiafilms.aspx
Page 3 MARK - AVENUE
THE ECONOMICS OF MARKETING FRESH FRUIT JUICE IN INDIA
-Kiran Krishnan
third in vegetable production in the
world. Consumer taste & preference is
one of the major drivers for this indus-
try. Increased health consciousness,
high disposable incomes, changing
demographics and lifestyle are driving
demand for quality fruit products that
can be consumed at ease.
This is evident from the huge rise in
demand for ‘pulpy’ beverages as com-
pared to carbonated beverages, in the
last few years. The fruit-based bever-
ages market in India is divided into
three segments – fruit drinks, nectar
and 100 per cent juice – and is getting
increasingly competitive. Parle Agro’s
Frooti, Coca- Cola’s Maaza and Pep-
siCo’s Slice are the three major brands
in the fruit drinks space, which is the
largest chunk of the fruit-based bever-
ages category. It is not a coincidence
that all of them are mango flavoured.
In the nectar and 100 per cent juice
space, Dabur’s Real controls half the
market, while Pepsi’s Tropicana has
over 30 per cent share.
But ironically, in this 2nd largest fruit
growing country, hygienically packed
fresh fruit juice is still a middle class
luxury. India grows 70 million tonnes
fruit annually, of which mango and
banana make up 50% share. And con-
sequently India ends up importing
most of the other fruit concentrates.
This exposes the manufacturers to the
fluctuating commodity prices and the
only way out is to stock up the concen-
trate reserves which is also possible
only to a certain limit as it severely
cashes out your working capital. An-
other important cost driver is the pack-
aging costs. For every 15 Rs 200 ml
pack, the packaging costs sums around
to 4Rs. But this cannot be given away
as safe packaging especially in hot/
humid conditions is very critical for the
safe consumption. Transportation
costs in covered trucks also add to the
logistics costs unlike other bottled
juices. Moreover, the retailers won’t
keep the packs even for one extra day
after the shelf life period. Another solu-
tion would be to use bottles which can
re-filled and recycled. However this
requires extensive distribution network
which excepting Coke and Pepsi, no
others can exploit currently.
The technology of fruit processing and
preserving the taste is only getting
continuously evolved and thus limits
the challenge to taste. And this is pre-
cisely why most of us still cherish the
road side fruit wala’s fresh nimbu/
masala juice.
More surprisingly, there are not
enough technologies developed or ex-
ploited for exploring the feasibility of
bottling sugarcane juice/coconut water
etc.
Even though, Lemon flavoured juice
drinks exploded onto the juices scene
in 2010 with the launch of brands like
Nimbooz by 7-Up (PepsiCo), Minute
Maid Nimbu Fresh (Coca-Cola) and
LMN (Parle Agro) accounting for 10%
of off-trade value sales of juice drinks,
bottled nimbu pani is a distant second
favourite when compared to the
mango market share which is quite
surprising for the taste of Indian con-
sumers.
These fresh juices are not marketed as
thirst quenchers but as health drinks.
However, with more serious efforts in
technology up gradation, indigenous
development of fruit concentrates,
development of green and sustainable
packaging solutions, Indianising the
flavours etc, these players might be
able to bring down the overall cost to
the consumer and it would be only then
that they would be able to further cash
in on the Indian middle class explosive
growth story.
Until then, let the roadside juice waala
smile..!!
Page 4 BY MERCUR—I
DO YOU KNOW the origin of name “Apple Computers” ?
It was the favorite fruit of founder Steve Jobs. He was three months late in filing a name for the busi-
ness, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn’t suggest a
better name by 5 O’clock.
The factor or consideration presented by
a seller as the reason that one product
or service is different from and better
than that of the competition.
Brand Positioning is the process by
which marketers try to create an image
or identity in the minds of their target
market for its product, brand, or or-
ganization. It is about offering differ-
ent from, and placing the idea more
valuable than competitors in the minds
of customers. Hence it is imperative for
distinguishing offering from everybody
else's.
In order to pick out the product or ser-
vice USP, requires some hard soul-
searching and creativity. One way to
start for getting basics right is to ana-
lyze how other companies use their
USPs to their advantage. This requires
careful analysis of other companies'
advertisement and marketing mes-
sages. If it says about what they sell,
not just their product or service charac-
teristics, one can learn a great deal
about how companies distinguish
themselves from competitors.
For example, Charles Revson, founder
of Revlon , always used to say he sold
hope, not makeup. Some airlines sell
friendly service, while others sell on-
time service. Neiman Marcus sells lux-
ury, while Wal-Mart sells bargains.
Here's how to develop a Unique Selling
Proposition (USP) and use it to power
up product sales:
1) You are also a customer i.e., put
yourself in your customer's shoes.
Remember, price is not the only reason
customers buy. It is often learnt that
entrepreneurs admire or fall in love
with their product or service and forget
that it is the customer's needs, not
their own, that they must satisfy. Put
your focus on business daily operations
and also carefully scrutinize what cus-
tomers really want.
2) Learning is important. Consumer
buying decision and what motivates
their behavior has to be known.
Effective marketing requires the owner
to be an amateur psychologist. One
need to know what drives and moti-
vates customers. Initially you can go
beyond the known demographic pa-
rameters of customers, such as age,
gender, race, income and geographic
location that most businesses collect
to analyze their sales trends.
3) Know your value. Uncover the real
reasons customers buy your product
instead of a competitors.
As your business grows, you'll be able
to ask your best source of information:
your customers. For example, the pizza
entrepreneur could ask them why they
like his pizza over others, plus ask
them to rate the importance of the
features he offers, such as taste, size,
ingredients, atmosphere and service.
Many retailers routinely drop into their
competitors' stores to see what and
how they are selling.
Well, successful business ownership is
not about having a unique product or
service; it's about making your product
stand out even in a market filled with
similar items. Hope these give a start-
ing point for you to create a unique
selling proposition for your business.
Whatever, one must choose the right
position, right path and execution.
For now, get your minds towards the
ideas which will be your kismet.
Page 5 MARK - AVENUE
CREATE YOUR UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION (USP)
-Harish Kumar Raju
“Bottled water”, once deemed to be
foreign to the Indian context & consid-
ered as the luxury of the rich, is now
one of the fastest growing markets in
India, with a CAGR of 25% (highest in
the world) since 1999. As of now, the
packaged water market is approxi-
mately equal to $445 mn.
The per capita consumption of mineral
water in India is 3-4-liter compared to
the global average of 25 litres. In com-
parison to global standards India's bot-
tled water segment is largely unregu-
lated. According to a national-level
study, there are more than 200 bottled
water brands in India and among them
nearly 80 per cent are local brands.
On close scrutiny, the above data re-
veals that this sector is far from being
stagnant; it’s going to get huge and will
continue providing the fabulous
growth opportunities to its players.
W h y B o t t l e d w a t e r ?
Millions of people in India, suffer from
inadequate or no tap water supply. The
growing number of cases of water
borne diseases, increasing water pollu-
tion, increasing urbanization and in-
creasing scarcity of pure & safe water
have led the consumers to the pack-
aged water industry. Bottled water fills
a void created by government’s failure
to address the basic societal problems.
What is amazing is that people are
prepared to pay Rs. 12 for a litre of wa-
ter-in India, especially when the cost of
material input (0.25 paisa per litre ex-
cluding labour cost) pales into insignifi-
cance before the price of the prod-
uct. Informal sources indicate that
gross profits of this industry can be as
much as between 30- 205%.
Marketing strategies of the major
players:-
In this cut-throat completion among
the market players, distribution has
become critical for this industry due to
the high volume and low margin effort.
Companies are offering retail margins
of 20 to 40 % against 8 to 10% on soft
drinks. This is very important in case of
this product because consumers would
take up what is available to them at
ease and whatever retailer is giving.
Therefore promotional spends have
become low.
Parle’s Bisleri
First real threat to the market leader,
Bisleri was the arrival of PepsiCo’s
‘Aquafina’ and Coca Cola’s ‘Kinley’. In
response, it followed a differentiation
marketing strategy. It started an adver-
tisement campaign emphasizing on
purity & flaunting patent right the
company has over the breakaway seal.
The objective with the campaign was
to highlight the tamper-proof seal &
create doubt in the consumer’s mind of
the purity of the other brands. That is,
Bisleri is the only one that guarantees
100% purity and keeps you Safe.
Since Aquafina, focussed exclusively on
youth Bislery came up with two vari-
ants:
(1) Bisleri with added minerals
(“celebrate with the sweet taste of pu-
rity”) to focus specifically on the youth
(2) Bisleri Mountain Water( “natural
mountain water”) to emphasize on the
purity aspect.
As it is said:- “A product that's not
available where it's needed, is useless.”
The number of outlets where Bisleri is
available have increased from 50,000 in
1995 to 2,00,00
PepsiCo’s Aquafina:-
Pepsi targeted the young generation
and introduced Aquafina as a fancy
product to carry. Water, Pepsi claimed,
was no longer a simple beverage, but
was something highly fashionable.
They complimented it by giving their
bottles an attractive look. This soon
caught the eye of the consumer. It’s
being positioned as a premium product
Page 6 BY MERCUR—I
An unprecedented growth story:- THE BOTTLED WATER INDUSTRY IN INDIA -Shashank Kumar Verma
Market Share of top players in India 2010
in imagery and packaging. The new
swirl shaped PET bottle resembles the
Pepsi family and is sturdier and more
hip than most others in the category.
Coca Cola’s Kinley:-
Coca-Cola introduced its brand ‘Kinley’
as a health care product. Its ad-
campaigns showed a doctor advising a
family to take Kinley for pure water
through its 'Boond Boond Mein Vish-
was' commercial. Kinley’s strategy has
been to target institutions. This has
paid off well until now. It’s focus is
primarily on perfecting its distribution
strategy.
The Way Ahead
Time has come for companies to in-
dulge in brand building activity by
squeezing retailer and distributor mar-
gins spend the money for advertising.
The flavoured water market is still at a
nascent stage in India. Higher price,
limited products and alternative home-
made products are some of the barri-
ers for the growth of this segment. Still
it’s probably the next big thing, going
by the global scenario.
Meanwhile, the tussle to become the
market leader has heated up with the
explosive positive growth forecasts of
the industry, let’s see what’s in the
store for these “water players”.
Page 7 MARK - AVENUE
Brands follow a lifecycle which is very
same as we human beings follow .They
are launched , then they grow like hu-
man beings , after some time they be-
come mature and ultimately decline to
die some day.
Many brands die somewhere in their
growth stage while some die after
crossing mature stage and many get
revived and given a new life when they
are about to die . Significant invest-
ments used in making of brand get lost
along with the brand are also lost. A
bitter truth is even the strongest
brands which are leaders are much as
prone to decline as new products. In
today’s market, where new product
launch is very risky and requires huge
investment so it is often not a bad idea
to evaluate brands which are on decline
and put an effort to revive them.
Branding is a long term exercise. Most
brands take a long time to build, and a
long time to die. Reviving a brand is
also a long term exercise, typically last-
ing more than a year or two.
Challenging part involved in reviving a
brand is that it does not start giving
result in a sudden so for managers who
have quarterly or semi annual goals it is
all the more difficult as they have to
take a long term vision which is to
backed up by a well thought-out strat-
egy and its execution.
The revitalization of a brand needs a
start by addressing the causes of the
decline, understanding the brand’s
promise (and why it may have failed to
maintain its relevance), making re-
quired effort.
Let’s see the 10 ways to revive a
brand
1. Create new usage occasions.
Cadbury’s campaigns are often tar-
geted about finding new occasions to
eat Cadbury chocolates.
Kuch Meetha Ho jaye campaign told
the consumers that anytime they feel
that they are happy and then they can
have Cadbury’s Dairy Milk to celebrate
the occasion. It was followed by Pappu
pass ho Gaya campaign which became
an instant hit and since then Cadbury
has been attaching themselves with
occasions on which the product finds
its usage like on rakshabandhan or be-
ginning of month to start a month on
high note .Recently they launched
Shubh Aaarambh campaign, as in In-
dia there is a tradition to have some-
thing sweet before beginning some-
thing good and pious.
2. Find customers outside your existing
target groups.
Companies in US have revitalized the
orange juice industry from being only
on the breakfast table to a juice for all
occasions. It’s also being touted as a
healthy alternative since it has vitamin
C. With bulk of population in US being
elders has broadened the product
scope and has helped it make a come-
back. John players also entered Female
apparels with their launch of Miss
TEN STEPS TO REVITALIZE A BRAND
-Kumar Vaibhav
Players.
3. Discover a new way of using the
product.
Paxil, Pfizer’s popular anti-depressant, is
also approved and marketed as a treat-
ment for Social Anxiety Disorder
4. Position your product as the one
used by professionals and experts.
The Colgate and other tooth pastes
often associate themselves to some
dental association or some experts in
the field so that their credibility and
trust in minds of consumers can be
increased.
5. Associate a compelling story about
your product’s origins.
Every brand has a good story to tell.
Some may take a little digging to find
it, especially at a bigger organization…
but it’s worth the journey. Consumers
appreciate it and brand gets benefitted
from word of mouth and brand loyalty
that come from a profoundly human
story.
6. Create a jingle that relates to your
product’s unique feature, or Associate
your brand with music that carries cer-
t a i n a s s o c i a t i o n s
Washing powder Nirma’s famous jingle
is a still used after more than 20 years
and it has created a unique brand im-
age in minds of consumers.
7. Develop a new delivery vehicle or
packaging convenience.
Dabur repackaged its Real fruit juice;
the company’s flagship product; as a
natural, great tasting fruit juice for
kids. They aligned the packaging, com-
munication and all elements of the
marketing mix to communicate the
brand’s benefit (i.e., “REAL-tastes like
eating a fruit”).
8. Create a character to personify your
product, ingredient or Attribute or use
celebrity spokespeople.
Fido Dido, the famous 7UP character,
was created and introduced on the
market in 1987.Fido Dido compliments
the core brand values of simple, clear
refreshment, by offering a simple and
refreshingly clear view on life.
9. Become the reason for family and
friends’ togetherness.
Kodak came with its campaign to re-
vive its brand with Kodak moment slo-
gan for family togetherness which was
quite successful however the Brand
could not sustain the success due to its
inability to responds quickly with grow-
ing digital technology.
10. Attach with a cause to generate
goodwill.
One can get themselves attach with
any of the social causes prevalent in
the society like many of the companies
are already doing .Pepsi is associated
with Water Conservation
Page 8 BY MERCUR—I
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