Fastrack: Repositioning the Brand

Fastrack is one of coolest brand launched in India in recent times. Titan was a brand for older people beforehand and never appealed to younger generation until the launch of the brand Fastrack. It was launched in 1998 targeted at 15-25 years of age. The brand was promoted with the slogan "Cool Watches from Titan". It was the time when Titan and Timex parted ways. Initially the product was a success but within five years sales stagnated since it was priced too high for the target youth segment which mainly consisted of college going students.

It changed its target segment to executive segment and casual watch segment. But the repositioning strategy failed big time. The sales came down to one of its lowest level of 23 Crores. The consumers were not willing to pay Rs 1200-2700 for a watch that did not have the executive image.

Then it conducted consumer research that for youngsters most popular products are mobiles, deodorant, sports shoes and sunglasses. It zeroed it down to sunglasses as supplement product for its watch under the same brand name and do the brand extension. The other brands available in market, Ray-Ban etc., were too expensive for the target market and there was a big gap in the market as youngster used to prefer local brands over these foreign sunglasses brand.

It repositioned once again in 2005 with a new logo and advertisements. It adopted the cost leadership strategy by cutting the cost of production by going for cheaper raw materials and reduced the price up to the level of Rs. 500. Its advertisement campaign was focused on coolness of the brand with tagline “How many you have”.

This repositioning strategy was a big success and within a year sale reached the 35 Crores level. Its brand extension exercise of adding sunglasses also paid off big time. The freshness the brand brought with its repositioning and advertisements appealed to its targeted customers of young college going students a lot.

Alpenliebe: Making Crores from One Rupee Candy

Indian sugar confectionary market is estimated to be of 1200 crores and Alpenliebe is the leader in the market with its worth around of 160 crores. The brand has been one of the most successful launch in the last two decades and it has been positioned as family candy brand. The brand was launched in the year 2001 with a successful merger between the Italian and Dutch companies Perfetti Vanmelle (PVM). Now the Indian venture is the second largest of their global portfolio next to China.

PVM has many products in India but undoubtedly Alpenliebe is the shining star in its armour. With effective and aggressive brand building , this brand has grown to become the single largest brand in the segment. The brand is a very unique because of its name and the size. Alpenliebe is a very complicated name, which means “Alps with Love”.

When the product was launched, the biggest challenge was to teach such diverse community of Indians with 24 languages and a million dialects to pronounce a brand name that does not have a meaning and is very peculiar  sounding. According to marketing basic concepts brand name should be simple and be able to reflect the brand values and can be easily pronounced. However, Alpenliebe broke all rules. Its initial advertisements were focused on its name only. For the initial 30 second ad, Alpenliebe was pronounced the name 5 times to ensure that the target group pronounce it correctly. The name became the biggest differentiator and reflected an International image for Indian people who are known to be crazy about foreign brands and Alpenliebe capitalised on that.

The shape was also unique because most of the candies at that time was rectangular or cylindrical but Alpenliebe came out with a round shape. The product was also really good .The company changed the taste of this brand to suit the Indian Palette making it more Caramelliar than the international one.

Perfetti knows the method to build the brand and it spends lot of money on Alpenliebe through interesting ads. The brand is positioned as a Family Candy with kids and elders sharing the limelite. Alpenliebe is a classic case where basic concept were defied and still the product succeeded.

AASHIRVAAD ATTA : Converting Commodity to Brand

ITC launched Aashirvaad Atta on 27th May 2002 in Jaipur and Chandigarh. Today, it is available all over India and is the number one branded packaged atta across the country. The focus is kept on providing the best quality atta using the most traditional yet cumbersome methods. Through its PET poly packaging and E-choupal initiative, the freshness of the atta is guaranteed giving the consumers a confidence no other brand can comply. Khushiyaan Chun Chun ke (Happiness handpicked) is the motto of Aashirvaad atta and to achieve this, ITC buys wheat straight from the farmers using the sourcing strength of its e-Choupals.

Aashirvaad Select Atta (5 kg pack) was awarded one of the most prestigious awards in the world for Packaging- The World Star Award for Excellence in Packaging in the Consumer Pack Category. Aashirvaad atta also created a first in packaging in the branded atta category. Its premium offering, i.e. the 5kg premium pack, is available in vacuum sealing and carton packaging. Both these technologies help maintain the freshness of the product.

Aashirvaad Atta is formed from the choicest grains - hard in bite, golden amber in color and heavy on the palm. Modern 'chakki - grinding' process is used to grind it for the perfect balance of taste, nutrition and color ensuring in the process that Aashirvaad atta contains 100% Sampoorna Atta  and 0% Maida.

SWOT Analysis of Aashirvaad Atta

Strengths

·         ITC has been able to establish itself as the market leader in the packaged food market. Within 8 years after launching Aashirvaad Atta, it has become number one in branded packaged Atta sector across the country with a whopping market share of 55%.

·         The focus of ITC has always been on the providing its customer with best possible quality and in the case of Aashirvaad Atta also, they have emphasized on the quality and freshness. To keep the taste of packaged Atta authentic with respect to Chakki Atta, ITC follows traditional methods to produce it. It obtains finest wheat grains directly from the farmers and then the grains are grounded using modern 'Chakki - grinding' process to produce genuine and authentic Atta. ITC also tries to ensure that Aashirvaad Atta contains 100% Atta and no Maida. In addition, the quality is maintained such that the dough made from Aashirvaad Atta absorbs more water making the Rotis softer.

·         ITC has been able to successfully use its E-choupals initiative to obtain finest wheat grains for the production of Atta directly from farmers. This backward integration gives them two distinct advantages. The first being reduction in the cost of wheat by around 2 percent as no middlemen is involved in the process. The second advantage is of course quality since ITC does not have to rely upon the Mandi system where the wheat grain can be of inferior quality.

·         ITC offers a wide range of Aashirvaad Atta products to cater to different consumer demands. Apart from the basic brands, there are two high-end brands with some special ingredients.

·         ITC has its own packaging business and it utilizes its packaging business to come out with really superior and innovative packaging. The material used for packaging the Aashirvaad Atta is “PET Poly” which keeps the Atta fresh. Further, it also offers carton packaging and vacuum sealing for its premium packs.

·         Although ITC already had excellent distribution network for its cigarette products, it needed to develop new and different distribution infrastructure for its Aashirvaad Atta product. However, in the last 8 years it had really developed its distribution network and with its strong E-Choupal network it can compete with its competitors on the distribution front.

Weaknesses

·         Aashirvaad Atta can be considered as a premium priced product, as it is very costly when compared to unpackaged Atta sector.

·         Currently, the focus of ITC is on urban market with respect to packaged Atta sector and with packaged Atta sector still being less than 3% of the total Atta market; ITC can focus on rural market also to capture more of the unpackaged Atta market.

·         ITC has focused more on the retail shop based promotion strategy. However, to attract more and more customers, ITC needs to promote it more using TV and other media promotion strategies.

Opportunities

·         Food Industry is India’s sleeping giant. With the rise of modern retail formats, increasing disposable incomes and health awareness, the category is undoubtedly evolving. With the branded Atta market in India being very attractive in terms of size and consumption patterns, growth has also picked up pace with the Government’s proactive approach with the formulation of national food policy, reservation of select segments.

·         Apart from North India, which has always been very high in wheat consumption, ITC can concentrate in rice dominant regions such as Andhra Pradesh. Atta is used for mak¬ing puri, which is a popular breakfast item for South Indians.

·         ITC can collaborate with fast food chains such as McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Subway. This has been an untapped market until now and tying up with these chains as their main flour supplier can open up a new window for ITC. 

Threats

·         Indian market is largely dominated by innumerable local flourmills and ‘Chakki Atta’, which are the biggest threat to Aashirvaad atta. Chakki Atta is still perceived as the best quality Atta and it is cheaper as compared to branded packaged Atta.

·         Obvious threat is the domestic competition. Competitors such as Annapurna and Pillsbury are doing their best to increase their market share.

·         Until now, the competition is mainly domestic. In future when Western companies will see India as an exciting opportunity for packaged atta, then the competition will get intense.

FAMOUS INSPIRATIONAL QUOTATIONS FOR ENTREPRENEURS

1. “Think big, think fast, think ahead. Ideas are no one’s monopoly.”-Dhirubhai Ambani
2. “Meeting the deadlines is not good enough, beating the deadlines is my expectation.”-Dhirubhai Ambani
3. “Pursue your goals even in the face of difficulties, and convert adversities into opportunities.”-Dhirubhai Ambani
4. “Whether you think you can or whether you think youcan’t, you’re right.”-Henry Ford
5. “My son is now an “entrepreneur.” That’s what you’recalled when you don’t have a job.” -Ted Turner
6. “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.”-Ted Turner
7. “I have had all of the disadvantages required forsuccess.”-Larry Ellison
8. “When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for everyone telling you you’re nuts”-Larry Ellison
9. “You do not require an invitation to make profits.”-Dhirubhai Ambani
10. ”A friendship founded on business is better than abusiness founded on friendship” -John D Rockefeller
11. “Paths are made by walking and walking down beaten paths is for beaten men“-Subhash Chandra of Zee TV
12. “Success breeds complacency, complacency breedsfailure, Only the paranoid survive“-By Andrew Grove
13.”I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.”-Warren Buffett
14. “If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.”-John D. Rockefeller
15. “If you can count your money, you don’t have a billion dollars.”-J. Paul Getty
16. “No one can possibly achieve any real and lasting success or “get rich” in business by being a conformist.”-J. Paul Getty
17. “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible”-Walt Disney
18. “Your attitude, not your aptitude, determines youraltitude.”-Zig Ziglar
19. “Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.”-Bill Gates
20. “The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.”-Peter Drucker
21. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”-Peter Drucker
22. “Business opportunities are like buses, there’s alwaysanother one coming.”-Richard Branson
23. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and afollower.”-Steve Jobs
24. “Plans are nothing, Planning is everything”-Dwight D. Eisenhower
25. “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”-Winston Churchill
26. “Never, never, never give up.”-Winston Churchill
27. “Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only theimaginary ones that are unconquerable.”-Theodore N. Vail
28. “Fall seven times, stand up eight.”-Japanese Proverb
29. “Don’t be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will neverbegin.”-Grace Hansen
30. “If you are going through hell, keep going.”-Winston Churchill
31. “Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiam.”-Winston Churchill
32. “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”-Winston Churchill
33. “Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records.”-William A Ward
34. “I couldn’t wait for success, so I went ahead without it.”-Jonathan Winters
35. “Always be a first rate version of yourself, instead of asecond rate version of somebody else.”-Judy Garland
36. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step.”-Confucius
37. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”-Confucius
38. “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”-Confucius
39. “Winners never quit and quitters never win.”-Vince Lombardi
40. “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”-Vince Lombardi
41. “Anyone who thinks my story is anywhere near over is sadly mistaken.”-Donald Trump
42. “As long as your going to be thinking anyway, think big.”-Donald Trump
43. “Sometimes your best investments are the ones youdon’t make.”-Donald Trump
44. “Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.”-Charles F. Kettering
45. “Impossible only means that you haven’t found thesolution yet.”-Anonymous
46. “Success is determined by those who prove theimpossible, possible.”-James W. Pence
47. “Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.”-Napoleon Bonaparte
48. “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”-T S Eliot
49. “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never triedanything new.”-Albert Einstein
50. “The great pleasure in life is doing what people say youcannot do.”-Walter Bagehot

Bajaj Pulsar: Definitely Male

When one think of cool bike in India, first thing that comes to mind is Bajaj Pulsar. It is one of the most loved brand for a bike rider (well if we do not consider super high end bikes). When it entered the market, it redefined its segment. Pulsar launched in 2001 is the market leader in the 150 cc + performance bike segment. More than that, this brand changed the fortune of Bajaj Auto Ltd.

Pre 2001, the Indian bike market was mainly segmented in three categories: Economy, Executive and Premium Bikes. Hero Honda launched its first 150 cc bike in the year 1999 with CBZ brand. It was successful but it didn’t excite the market that much. But then Pulsar came and redefined the whole market segment. Although it was not a pioneer technology, but its performance and brand building exercise won the heart of Indian customer.

Pulsar owes its success mainly to its advertisement campaign that triggered the pull from the customer especially its "Definitely Male " campaign. It was Bajaj's first bike without Kawasaki label. The new bike was an R&D and design marvel. Pulsar was designed by the renowned design house Tokyo R&D. O&M knew that the communication of this brand should also be different. Starting with lot of ideas, O&M stuck upon the Big Idea of India's He-Bike. Previously lot of bike take the persona of Macho bikes as being "sexy". It was position as World's first bike endowed with a gender. The campaign together with the design and performance catapulted the brand into stratospheric sales level.

Its target consumer segment was of the age of 18-24, but later it repositioned for older consumer also (21-35). It knew that Pulsar is the golden key to control the entire bike market. Hence Pulsar got undivided attention from the company. In 2003 another milestone event happened in the product lifecycle of the brand. Bajaj launched its new technology DTSI. DTSi stands for Digital Twin Spark Ignition that delivered more power and efficiency. The increased performance of the brand took Pulsar to greater heights.

Pulsar came in three variants : 200cc, 180 cc and 150 cc where 200cc and 180 cc excited the performance bikers, 150 cc was for the mileage conscious ones. The 150cc variant took lot of customers away from the executive segment to the performance segment.

But the brand had its share of issues. Bajaj used to reassigns its media campaign to two brands: O&M and Leo Burnett, alternatively for every six months. Leo Burnett changed the campaign from "Definitely Male" to "Digital Biking" during DTSi launch. Although the ads were successful in conveying the technological superiority of DTSI and making that acronym popular, it gave away its most successful tagline.

Bournvita: Sustaining Brand for 60 years

Bournvita is one of the oldest brand in the malted beverages (chocolate flavored health drink ) segment and was launched in 1948. It has market share of over 17% and still after 60 years it market leader. Cadbury has been able to sustain this brand over these years. The main reason for such longevity is its investment and changing the brand as per changes desired by the market.

 When the brand was launched, it focus was to solve the problem that many mothers faces that of a need for a healthy food which is as well tasty. Its unique value proposition of both health and taste made it a success initially. However whenever there was any change required in its positioning it did not hesitate. In 1970s t he brand was repositioned as a product that helps in good upbringing with the tagline: Goodness that Grows with You.

During 1980's the brand changed its focus from Upbringing to Intelligence. The tagline was changed to: Brought Up Right, Bournvita Bright. In 1990's the brand felt that it should be focusing on the overall health of the kid thus changed its focus on Body and Mind. The brand also took energy as a main focus and thus the famous tagline : “Tan Ki Shakthi , Man Ki Shakthi”.

It had till 1998, no major competition but things changed with launch of Nestle’s Milo. At this time, the brown health food drink segment was facing issues of stagnation because of lack of value addition. Bournvita then changed its positioning on the health platform. The brand used a marconym RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance) to reinforce the health positioning. The brand used a clever Nutritional meter to communicate the RDA formula : 2 cups of Bournvita for balanced nutrition.

It also set up a unique proposition of Bournvita Nutritional Center where nutrition experts recommended the right RDA percentage to kids. The brand at that time used the cricketer Ajay Jadeja to endorse the brand. The brand also harped on the taste and used the tagline "No Bournvita No Milk" to reinforce the taste attribute.

Now in this new decade, it has repositioned its brand once again and identified Confidence as its Core Brand Essence. The brand realized that every kid have a chance to excel in his chosen field of endeavour if he have confidence . The realization has enabled the brand to chalk out the current marketing strategy. The brand now uses the tagline "Do you have Bournvita Confidence".

Currently it faces stiff competition from Boost brand and in order to defend the leadership position, Bournvita has invested heavily in product development, advertising and sales promotion. In the product development front, Bournvita had significantly changed its packaging. In the advertising campaigns, Bournvita has always been a heavy spender. Apart from Bournvita Confidence Academy it is also associated with highly successful Bournvita Quiz contest. The association with Cartoon Network enabled this brand to use the famous characters like Powerpuff girls and Dexter to the brand's advantage.

KNOWLEDGE SERVICES INDIA

The knowledge services sector is a major contributor to service sector revenues in India and is considered to be one of the key growth drivers of developing Indian economy. Its contribution to GDP of India has reached 5.4 percent. The key reason contributing toward building ‘Brand India’ in the knowledge services domain is the availability of quality manpower at competitive cost. India provides a large pool of engineers, post-graduates and PhDs at significantly lower cost.

The main segments of knowledge services in India are as following:

Knowledge Process Outsourcing:

Knowledge processes are those high value added processes  which requires high level skills and good domain knowledge. These processes when outsourced a new business activity, known as knowledge process outsourcing, comes into picture.

Cost savings, operational efficiencies, availability to highly skilled workforce and improved quality are all important factor contributing to outsourcing of high-end processes to India

Since the KPO domain is a knowledge-intensive industry, different service segments require a different skill-set and industry experience.

·         During 2000-01, the KPO industry was having 9,000 billable professionals who generated total revenues of USD 260 million. However, by 2006-07, the number of billable professionals had increased to 75,400 employees who were responsible for generating revenues of USD 3.05 billion.

·         The industry witnessed a CAGR of 51 percent in revenues and 43 percent in the number of billable professionals.

·         It is estimated that by 2010-11, the Indian KPO market will be valued at approximately USD 11-12 billion. The industry will witness a CAGR of 38 percent in revenue and 36 percent in the number of billable professionals during the next four years.

·         Data management, search and analytics services, and contract research services form the largest segments in the KPO industry with 19 percent share each.

·         The legal services and intellectual property outsourcing services segment is expected to gain momentum in the near future.

The Indian KPO industry comprises four different types of vendors on the basis of their operations or the initiation of operations. The following are the different categories of vendors:

·         BPO companies venturing into the KPO services domain (eg., Progeon, WNS)

·         Individual companies providing specialised services; captive centres included in this segment (e.g., Evalueserve)

·         Highly specialised groups of individuals offering specialised services to global markets (e.g., the Pharma research team)

Thums Up: Killing a Brand Not Always Succeed

In the year 1977 something happened which changed the dynamics of Indian industry altogether. Like many other industry, in beverage industry also, foreign players Coke and Pepsi were asked to close its India operation. Seeing this as an opportunity Ramesh Chauhan of Parle launched Thums Up as cola beverage. The product then went on to rule the Indian market for next 16 years. Things really changed in the year 1992, with Indian economy opening up, when both Coke and Pepsi reentered the indianmarket with a bang. Everybody was looking for the three way fight between Coke, Pepsi and Thums Up. But then something unusual happened. Giving in to the mighty power of these global giants, Ramesh Chauhan sold Thums Up to Coke for 120 crores.
Coke, as it has done in other countries, tried to kill the Thums Up brand in order to pave way for Coca Cola, its flagship brand to dominate the Indian market. However, this whole plan of killing once market-dominating brand of Thums Up did not went, as Coke would have planned. Thums up even after 13 years sells more than Coke and Pepsi. The brand is so strong that it has refused to die.  After 1985 “New Coke” failure, this can be termed as biggest blunder of Coke.
Thums Up with its extremely famous tagline of “Taste the Thunder” was something that Indian youth can never forget. It contains the highest carbonation among the cola brands, which appealed to the Indian youth the most and gives it product differentiation over other brands. The brand is very popular in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra Gujarat, UP, West Bengal, and Karnataka with Andhra contributing 30% of the sales.
With Thums Up; the largest selling cola at its fold, Coca Cola initially tried to kill the brand to pave the entry of Coke. But after few years they realized that only Pepsi is getting the benefit of absence of Thums Up and Coca Cola was struggling against it. So they have now relaunched the product. It has been positioned as manly brand. Its tagline was changed initially to “I want my Thunder”, but it did not succeed and the company retracted the old tagline. They used this brand mainly to target Pepsi and sweetness associated with Pepsi brand.
Right now Thums Up is degraded as a flanking brand for Coke. Coke has been using all macho film personalities like Akshay, Salman and Sunil Shetty to position this brand as a macho brand. We see sporadic bursts of promotions of this brand but one can see the dilemma of Coke about this brand. Full-scale promotion of the brand can take away the share of coke, which they cannot afford to do. Taking this brand away will help Pepsi. Therefore, he only choice is to push it along until it dies on its own.
Coke was been trying Half-heartedly to market the brand and still despite all these flaws in its branding the brand Thums Up is strong mainly due to its taste uniqueness. May be the consumers are not willing to let go the brand. This is a classic case of a brand getting an iconic status. A case where the customers take the ownership of the brand. Now Coke no longer owns the brand, consumers own it.