Thursday, March 01, 2007

Market Statistics : Volume 1 Revised

This is the updated market statistics with details of the source. As usual the data is confusing and different source give different figures.

Size of Advertising Industry in India : Rs 16300 crore ( ET 26/2/07)

Snack Foods Market Size : Rs 4500 crore (ET 26/02/07)

Branded Snack Food Market :Rs 1300 crore( ET 26/02/07)

Apparel Market Size :Rs 80,000 crore ( Business World 05/03/07)

Apparel Popular Segment :Rs 5300 crore (ET 07/02/07)

Popular Segment Shirt Market : Rs 2800 crore ( ET 07/02/07)

Popular Segment Trousers : Rs 750 crore ( ET 07/02/07)

High Middle class Apparel Market : Rs 5360 crore ( ET 07/02/07)

Soft Drinks Market Size : Rs 6000 crore (ET 21/02/07)

Juice Market Size : Rs 1200 crore ( ET 21/02/07)

Mango Juice Market Size : Rs 900 crore ( ET 21/02/07)

Retail Jewelery Market Size : $ 12.2 Billion (ET 21/02/07)

Retail Jewelery Market : Rs 70,000 crore ( Business World 05/02/07)

Branded Jewelery Market : Rs 2100 crore ( Business World 05/02/07)

FMCG Market : Rs 64000 crore ( ET 07/02/07)

Durable and Electronics Market : Rs 25,000 crore ( ET 22/02/07)

Indian Luxury Goods Market Size : Rs 63,000 crore ( Business World Feb 07)

Coffee Retailing Market size : Rs 660 crore ( Business World Feb 07)

Gaming Market Size : Rs 217 Crore ( Business World 05/02/07)

Footwear ( Above Rs 1000) Market Size : Rs 250 Crore ( Business World 05/02/07)

Toy Market Size : Rs 1000 crore ( Business India : 11/02/07)

Agarbatti Industry Size ; Rs 1000 crore ( Business India 25/02/07)

Color cosmetics Market Size : $ 113.4 million ( Business India 25/02/07)

Retail Industry : $300 Billion ( Business India 25/02/07)

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

BlackBerry : Small,Smart & Stylish

Brand : BlackBerry
Company: Research In Motion


Brand Count:204

BlackBerry is an interesting brand especially in the Indian context. The brand belongs to the Canadian Company : Research in Motion. The brand was globally launched in the year 1999. The brand was an answer to the need for a traveling executive to connect to the office.
Blackberry is a device which supports Push Email,Text messaging,Internet faxing web browsing etc. Rather than a device, Blackberry is a technology that enables one to forward emails from the customer's desktop to the mobile device. BlackBerry was an instant hit across the world and when you go to an airport, its inevitable to see executives using this device. BlackBerry was named By Lexicon Branding Inc which is a firm specialising in Brand Naming services. The name is said to be derived from Strawberry 'cause the buttons of the device looked like strawberry. ( source:wikipedia)
BlackBerry came to India in 2004. Airtel was the first service provider to enter into contract with BlackBerry. In India, Blackberry never advertise but it is the service provider that advertised the connectivity. Since this brand was aimed at the corporate users, it made more sense to entrust the promotional task to the sales persons rather than to the advertising agency.

More over BlackBerry did not need to advertise because it was a product which clearly satisfied a need of its TG. When it was launched,there was no smart phone or web enabled phones.Hence BlackBerry offered a solution to stay connected while travel. This product was lapped up by Corporate India. Although BlackBerry is not a mobile phone, the brand was able to build a point of parity with Mobile phones by associating itself with the cellular service providers. Airtel had an exclusive agreement with BlackBerry which will expire on March 2007. Hutch has already announced its association with BlackBerry and TVC's are already on air. You can watch it HERE

2007 is witnessing a huge change in this product. BlackBerry is repositioning itself. A brand that was targeting the CEO's have now set their sights on the younger crowd.The brand has metamorphosed to a Cellphone directly competing with Nokia and Motorola. Earlier BlackBerry never looked like a phone. The shape was different and the instrument had a QWERTY keypad with its iconic TrackWheel + Click feature. The brand was so famous that the users sometimes get addicted to it and some used to call it CrackBerry. But slowly the brand began to take itself to the cellphone territory.
BlackBerry launched its stylish version of BlackBerry branded BlackBerry Pearl 8100 which is aimed at the younger generation. The brand which is priced at around Rs 25,000 is expected to drive decent volume.
BlackBerry was earlier positioned on its email feature. The brand was positioned as a pure play email device. But now the positioning has been changed .The tagline says " Small Smart and Stylish" which reflects the look and design of the device.
Although BlackBerry is entering the highly competitive cellphone market, the brand has made a clever move by allowing non BlackBerry devices to offer email services using the BlackBerry Connect Software. This is a very smart move from the company which see itself more as a technology company rather than a device company. It has not made the mistake of Apple Computers which during the early days refused to sell the operating systems separately. Now customers can opt for smartphones from Nokia or Sony Ericsson to access email using BlackBerry technology.
BlackBerry has seen exponential growth in the subscriber base globally since its launch. The service already has 6.2 million users worldwide. In India too , this brand has become an essential tool for the busy executive.
Earlier an executive had to use a Cellphone and a BlackBerry to be fully connected,but the latest BlackBerry eliminates the need for multiple devices and converges all features into one. By doing so, BlackBerry is getting out of its comfort zone and entering into a deep sea. The Pearl will directly compete with Nokia and we have to see how Nokia reacts to this move.

Source:blackberry.com,wikipedia


Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Brand Update : Rexona

Hindustan Lever Ltd has signed in Hollywood diva Preity Zinta as the brand ambassador for its Deodorant brand Rexona. The company in a press release also mentioned that the brand will be extending itself into health and hygiene rather than limiting itself to fragrance and deo. Preity will be endorsing the Rexona Roll- on range of deos. The move aims at increasing the volume and user base of the brand. I have written last year that the brand needs a celebrity boost and it seems that my reading was correct. Preity is the right choice for the brand and if properly used, she can give a new life to the brand. Preity has proved her might in reviving the fortunes of brands like Perk and Scooty. Rexona is targeting the SEC A and B segment. According to the news reports, the company plans to launch a 360 degree campaign to rev up the brand.Preity Zinta is considered to be a very positive and confident personality and the association will have a positive effect on Rexona. The brand has the tagline of " Be Ready" and the body copy reads " Who will you meet next". Right now the brand is being promoted using foreign ads which may not have the required impact. The new campaign featuring Preity is expected to hit the media soon.
source: allbollywood.com

Related Brands
Rexona

Monday, February 26, 2007

Jeeva : The Complete Ayurvedic Soap

Brand : Jeeva
Company: Jyothi Laboratories Ltd
Agency: Situations Advertising and Marketing

Brand Count : 203

Jeeva is a niche brand in the Rs 700 crore Ayurvedic soap market in India. The brand which was launched in 2002 is still restricted to the Southern Indian markets . Jeeva is the first initiative of Jyothi Labs into the highly competitive personal care market. Jyothi Lab which is famous for its Ujala Whitener will be fighting with the giants like HLL in this market. Jeeva competes with Medimix and Chandrika in the ayurvedic category. The market for ayurvedic soap is cluttered with all major brand's having an extension in this category.

Like all the brands of Jyothi lab, Jeeva was launched in the market with a clear differentiation. The brand boasted of 27 herbal ingredients that will smoothen, nurture, soften and deodorize the skin making it younger and beautiful. The brand is the brainchild of Mr Ramachandran MD of Jyothi Lab. According to the company website, the brand is the result of seven years of research by the R&D team.

Jeeva was launched with much fanfare in Kerala. Jyothi Lab always uses Kerala market as its launch market. There is an unwritten law ( my law) that if a brand succeeds in Kerala, there is a surety that it will succeed in the national market.
The company used the famous Southern Film Diva Simran to endorse the brand and the ad talked about only one thing: 27 ingredients. This differentiation was significant because at that time the market was dominated by Medimix which was positioned as a Curative soap. Medimix was well established and to take on that heritage brand, one needs to have one Big Idea.

All though there is no significance about the number 27, Jeeva tried to create a magic around the number. To a certain extent the positioning worked. The ads ensured a fair amount of trail purchase for the brand. Although some marketers say that the focus on 27 ingredients is sustainable because it can be bettered by another player. I feel that to launch the brand, the focus on the number has worked magically. The brand uses the tagline " The complete Ayurvedic Soap" which is further reinforced by the focus on 27 ingredients. The brand is targeting SEC B,C,D segment of the market.
But after a while the brand became silent in the market. Last year saw lot of action in the ayurvedic soap market with the relaunch of Chandrika , Hamam and Medimix. The category moved from pure ayurvedic to Naturals.

Jyothi Lab had big plans for Jeeva brand. According to the company website, the brand is going to be an Umbrella brand endorsing a range of personal care products . The first signs of that strategy became visible in 2007 when the company launched the first extension of Jeeva brand : Jeeva Naturals.
Jeeva Naturals is white soap that has coconut milk and ordinary milk protein extracts as the ingredients. The new product is positioned on the nourishment platform and currently TVC and print campaigns are on in the Southern States. The ads talk about the brand primarily as a beauty soap.

Jeeva is a challenger brand in the Soap market . But to sustain and grow in this market, the brand has to identify a theme or a positioning strategy that is sustainable.

source: businessline,jyothilabwebsite
image :businessline jyothilab

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Brand Update : Horlicks

Horlicks is the market leader in the Rs 1300 crore health drink market in India. The brands owns more than 50% market share. As discussed in the one of my blogs, the success of the brand lies in its ability to change with the changing consumer. The new strategy of the company is to extend the brand into a family health drink brand with variants suiting every member of the family i.e Parents and Kids. The brand initially was aimed at kids aged around 6- 16 years and has been successful in establishing its present there. The brand in 2005 extended itself to a new segment : adults with its Horlicks Lite variant. The Lite boasts about Zero Cholestrol,Zero Added sugar is clearly aimed at the Parents. The brand also came up with another line extension Junior Horlicks aimed at pre-schoolers. Junior Horlicks claims to have DHA which is Docosahexaenoic Acid which is an Omega-3 fatty acid which will boost the brain power.With these three variants, Horlicks have covered all the life stages ( except infant) of a consumer.
The latest campaign of Lite aims at the lady in the house and reminds her to keep her husband active with Horlicks lite. The well made ad takes a cue from the cooking oil advertisements of Saffola and Sundrop.
To promote the Junior Horlicks, the brand has come out with a Piggy Bank shaped Horlicks Jar which is a consumer promotion scheme . Currently Horlicks is running a Topical that is related to exams. The campaign says that Horlicks can drive away the Exam GHOSTS.. Right now this brand is rocking..


Image courtsey:GSK

Related brand

Horlicks

Thursday, February 22, 2007

American Express : Membership Changes Everything

Brand : American Express Platinum
Company: American Express
Agency : O&M

Brand Count : 202


American Express is one of the world leaders in travel, financial and network provider business. The brand is synonymous with traveller's cheque and is a world leader in travel related financial services.

American Express was created in 1850 as a express delivery service provider (courier/moneyorder service). It metamorphosed to a financial service giant through a series of innovations. In 1891, American Express invented the first traveller's cheque. In 1958, world's first charge card was created by the company.American Express is currently the world's largest issuer of traveller's cheques.

American Express started its Indian operation way back in 1921.In India too , the brand is known for its travel related services. The brand extended to credit card business in 1986 for International travellers and in 1996 consumer card for domestic use was introduced. American Express was the first brand to introduce balance transfer facility for credit cards which later became a standard for all credit card issuers. ( Source : superbrandsindia.com)

Although American Express and Diners Club was the first companies to introduce credit cards in India, over the time, these brands failed to capitalise on the credit card boom. Visa and MasterCard through their aggressive promotions have cornered major market share in India. The aggressive schemes from the issuing banks like ICICI has virtually tripled the market for credit cards in India. But all through this hungama, American Express chose to take the backseat. The Indian creditcard market is estimated to be around $4 billion and there are around 17mn cards in circulation in India.

American Express only occasionally invested in brand building in the credit card market. I believe that the company was concentrating more on its travel related business rather than into credit cards. I remember only one TVC of American Express which shows an Indian traveller in a foreign location who get caught in a holi celebration. The ad was a memorable one but again the target was the travelling segment. The ad projected American Express as the card which is globally accepted.

November 2006 saw a major initiative from the brand to tap the domestic Indian credit card market. American Express launched the Platinum club in India which targeted the young Rich and Famous Indian. Platinum club is an exclusive club which offered the member wide range of privileges. Platinum Club is a premium service that gives exclusive service and pamperin a year , travels abroad three times a year and dines out three times more than the average Indian ( source :g to the privileged owners. The members of the club receives the new American Express Platinum credit card which provides the key to a host of premium services. Amex has tied up with premium service providers like Taj, Kingfisher etc which offers special benefits to the member. The club is targeted at Indians who is at the age group of 30-45 who earns 20-25 lakhseretailbiz.com)

To become a member one has to pay a lifetime fee of Rs 50,000.The member gets a welcome gift worth more than Rs 70,000 which includes a Longines watch and Two Kingfisher airline round trip tickets. Other benefits include dining privileges with Taj hotels, special treatment with Kingfisher etc..
The brand is clearly on an overdrive to woo the affluent Indian. The logic is simple, an affluent Indian spend around Rs 3.67 lakh on his credit card a year which is ten times more than an average credit card user.
Platinum Club is the special way through which American Express plans to build its credit card business in India. Worldwide the brand is known to pamper its customer. There are some unique stories about this pampering like one given in the super brand site which talks about how the company arranged to courier a sample of Dead Sea sand for a child's (of Amex cardholder ) school project.
Platinum club is endorsed by Abhishek Bachchan who is also the first member of the club. Already TVC is running in all media followed by an aggressive print campaign. The brand is using the tagline " Membership Changes Everything". The brand is directly taking the route of creating an aspirational value for the product. This campaign is going to create a positive effect on all American Express cards . The campaign also will increase the brand awareness which is one of the problem that American Express faces. Still there are lot of merchants that do not accept this card because of ignorance. Although the brand is aimed at premium segment, the entry cost is kept low at Rs 50,000 that will definitely drive volume for this card.
Platinum club is a smart marketing move by American Express which will also force other card companies to start pampering their customers.

Related Brand
Mastercard


Source: superbrandsindia.com,eretailbiz.com,businessline
image courtsey:superbrandsindia.com