Soap to Cream - Changing Times Changing Priorities!!

My resposne to Economic Times article (Click below link for artice:
 http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=pastissues2&BaseHref=ETM/2011/09/21&PageLabel=27&EntityId=Ar02700&ViewMode=HTML
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HUL's strategy of focussing more on Beauty and Grooming is quiet well thought out act but late in implementing. Because I think detergent market was saturated and became less growth driver a decade back! I remember when I was still in undergraduate during 2005 something then only we discussed in the college and came to conclusion that most saturated and competitive market in India is Detergent. You will find hundereds of local brands, National brands and adding up to this are the counterfeit brands!

In such a scenerio I would expected companies to change the stragegies and concentrate more on lucrative and high margin categoires like B&G!

Due to globalisation, gaining more purchasing power by the Indian middle class due to evolving newer job opportunities thrown out by the ITES revolution are said to be boon in disguise for the FMCG/CPG cos who are looking desperately other avenues of growth.

Emergence of SOcial Media-Change in Media strategy:
Coming to other point, emergence of social media in the recent years is changing the landscape of the media reach by any industry. More and more companies are raching out and publicly displaying to follow them on facebook or twitter! With mushrooming TV Channels and viewer having more than what he can take, effectiveness of the TVC is always unpredictable and always a challenge.

On the other hand social media may prove to be more practical with the the option of fine tuning the target and reaching out to the accurate segment. And engaging in social media will be more direct with two way communication where in companies can connect with consumers directly and more effectively. It will prove to be economical and more satisfying as you are fine tuning your reach and reaching to more accurate and target audience!

There is no dounbt Internet will soon start posong a major challenge to the Television media ditto in the same way the news channels posed their threat to the Print media! With the bebefit of reaching to accurate target audience, and more effective measure of the effectiveness of campaign and direct consuer connect it seems social media is already winning over traditional TV media.

No dount with the shift in the proprities of the FMCG/Retail companies from Soap to Cream may end up Ekta Kapoor having faebook version of KSeriesVille!!

Response to The Hindu article - Headlines you will never see

This is in response to The Hindu article. Click below link for article:
http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/article2475946.ece

Its true that there are various news channels which are banking on more of non news items than the news. Apart from few 3-4 leading news channels if you wantch any other news channel either they are showing the reality show of colors/imagine channel or they are showing sme TVC advertorial. It has gone to such extent that some regional news channels always either shows the dubbed version of BBC, Animal Planet, History channels programms and also there are instances where they simply lift teh clippings from youtube videos circulating in social media!

This is the "creativity" our media organisations are showing! They stopped showing socially relevant programs long back and have became just another entertainment channel.

Why Usha Kiran was started? Truth behind having two newspapers by one media

Why Usha Kiran was started? Truth behind having two newspapers by one media

In response to article in following link:
http://column9.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/%E0%B2%B8%E0%B2%AE%E0%B2%AF-%E0%B2%AA%E0%B2%BE%E0%B2%B2%E0%B2%95%E0%B2%A8-%E0%B2%95%E0%B2%82%E0%B2%97%E0%B2%BE%E0%B2%B2%E0%B3%81-%E0%B2%AA%E0%B3%8D%E0%B2%B0%E0%B2%B8%E0%B2%82%E0%B2%97/

He started Usha Kiran for the pretty same reason why there are two channels from single co say ETV2 in AP, SUN2 in TN. When there is big gap between first and second paper by circulation there is every chance that any one will fill that gap. Vijay Sankeshvar ensure that no one able to fill that gap by putting Usha Kiran to fight with rest of newspapers while VijayKarnataka remain without any competition. And Vijay Times is no1 except Bangalore.

Now when Times killed Usha Kiran and Vijay Times its importance is evident. You can see now there is absolutely no gap between first second and third news paper! Now VijayKarnataka have to fight with Udayavani in aggressiveness and Kannadaprabha with innovation! I think already Udayavani captured the Ushakiran place in its absence. If there was Ushakiran it would have given fight to Udayavani and Vijaykarnataka would ahve been safer side.

And busniess decisions are not taken by stupid reasons at least people like him who weighs pros and cons hundred times and who is not aggressive risk taker!

A dream and a reality:

Ambani had a dream. to make phone call cheaper than postcard. He made it reality With his devotion and hard work.

Capt Gopinathan had a dream. To make Air travel cheaper than 1st AC Train. He made it rality With his hard work and dedication .

Vijay Mallya also had a dream. To make every bottle of beer cheaper than pertrol. Manmohan Singh made it reality with his ignorance and lazyness..

kannada english

ಇದೊಂದು ಸಂದೀಘ್ಗ್ದ ಸ್ಥಿತಿ. ಇವರು ಎಷ್ಟೇ ಬಾಯಿ ಬಡಿದುಕೊಂಡರು ಯಾವ ಪಾಲಕನು ತನ್ನ ಮಗ ಕನ್ನಡಮಧ್ಯಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಲಿತು ಕನ್ನಡ ಶಿಕ್ಶಕನೋ ಉಪನ್ಯಸಕನೋ ಇಲ್ಲವೇ ತಹಾಸಿಲ್ದಾಾರ್ ಕಛೇರಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಗುಮಾಸ್ತನೋ ಆಗಲಿ ಎಂದು ಬಯಸಲ್ಲ. ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ತನ್ನ ಮಗ/ ಳು ಇಂಗ್ಲೀಶ್ ಕಲಿತು MNC ಕಂಪನಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕೆಲಸಮಾಡಲಿ ಎಂದೇ ಬಯಕೆ! ಬಹುಶಃ ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಪರಿಹಾರ ಇಲ್ಲವೇನೋ !!
ನಾನೂ ಹಳ್ಳಿಯ ಕನ್ನಡ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮ ಶಾಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿಯೇ ಕಲಿತವನು. ಇಂಗ್ಲೀಶ್ ಮಧ್ಯಮ ಹುಡುಗರಿಗಿಂತ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿ ಇಂಗ್ಲೀಷ್ ಮಾತನಾಡಬಲ್ಲೆ. ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಕಾರಣ ನಮ್ಮ ಶಾಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿದ್ದ ಇಂಗ್ಲೀಷ್ ಗುರುಗಳು ಹಾಗೂ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿದ್ದ ಪೂರಕ ವಾತಾವರಣ.
ನಿಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿಯೂ ಈ ಪೂರಕ ವಾತಾವರಣ ಇರಬಹುದು. ಆದರೆ ಅಷ್ಟೇನೂ ಕಲಿಯದ ಶ್ರಮಿಕ ವರ್ಗದವು ಏನು ಮಾಡಬೇಕು? ಅವರಿಗೆ ಒಂದೇ ಕನಸು. ತನ್ನ ಮಗ ಇಂಗ್ಲೀಶ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ಕಲಿತು ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಹುದ್ದೆ ಹಿಡಿಯಲಿ. ಕನ್ನಡ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಲಿತರೆ ನನ್ನಂತೆ ಖಾಕಿ ಪ್ಯಾಂಟ್, ದ್ವಾರದ ಮುಂದಿನ ಸ್ಟೂಲ್ ಗತಿ!!

Indian Retailing-One sip at a time..

My comments on Economist article (follow this link for article: http://www.economist.com/node/18560587

I was not impressed. It is yet another typical article wich ended at introductory level only! India is really moved forward from its introductory phase.

And again there need to think how much malls one city can hold? Is there room for both Reliance fresh and "Fresh" by heritage group in one location? We can find this in metros but how many metros are in town?

And entering India without studying consumer behavior will be disastrous.

In Kishor Biyanis words " We first replicated the Walmart store structure where in stores will have clear passages which will make customers easy to roam and shop. But it ended up customer entering at one point and leaving from the exit as if its a jogging track! Then we decided to create hurdles in the passage. You wont see a clear passage in any of Big Bazaar or Central mall. You have to go from one end to another end in a zig Zak lane even to go one storey down or up. It ended in better footfall converting into sales".

And this trick is still working.

Service Retailing

Services Retailing

A service is the action of doing something for someone or something. It is largely intangible (i.e. not material). A product is tangible (i.e. material) since you can touch it and own it. A service tends to be an experience that is consumed at the point where it is purchased, and cannot be owned since is quickly perishes. A person could go to a café one day and have excellent service, and then return the next day and have a poor experience.

Services Retailing is a subfield of General retailing and marketing, which can be split into the two main areas of goods marketing (which includes the marketing of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and durables) and services marketing. Services marketing typically refer to both business to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) services, and include marketing of services like telecommunications services, financial services, all types of hospitality services, car rental services, air travel, health care services and professional services.

Services are economic activities offered by one party to another. Often time-based, performances bring about desired results to recipients, objects, or other assets for which purchasers have responsibility. In exchange for money, time, and effort, service customers expect value from access to goods, labor, professional skills, facilities, networks, and systems; but they do not normally take ownership of any of the physical elements involved.

There has been a long academic debate on what makes services different from goods. The historical perspective in the late-eighteen and early-nineteenth centuries focused on creation and possession of wealth. Classical economists contended that goods were objects of value over which ownership rights could be established and exchanged. Ownership implied tangible possession of an object that had been acquired through purchase, barter or gift from the producer or previous owner and was legally identifiable as the property of the current owner.

How it different from Merchandise Retailing?

Inseparable - from the point where it is consumed, and from the provider of the service. For example, you cannot take a live theatre performance home to consume it (a DVD of the same performance would be a product, not a service).

Intangible - and cannot have a real, physical presence as does a product. For example, motor insurance may have a certificate, but the financial service itself cannot be touched i.e. it is intangible.

Perishable - in that once it has occurred it cannot be repeated in exactly the same way. For example, once a 100 metres Olympic final has been run, there will be not other for 4 more years, and even then it will be staged in a different place with many different finalists.

Variability- since the human involvement of service provision means that no two services will be completely identical. For example, returning to the same garage time and time again for a service on your car might see different levels of customer satisfaction, or speediness of work.

Right of ownership - is not taken to the service, since you merely experience it. For example, an engineer may service your air-conditioning, but you do not own the service, the engineer or his equipment. You cannot sell it on once it has been consumed, and do not take ownership of it.

Western economies have seen deterioration in their traditional manufacturing industries, and a growth in their service economies. Therefore the marketing mix has seen an extension and adaptation into the extended marketing mix for services, also known as the 7P's - physical evidence, process and people.