MxMIndia

Category: NEWS

  • The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s restrictions on depiction of tobacco-related products in films and television will also extend to the print and out-of-home media

    Ouch! Tobacco depiction rules effective today, to extend to print and OOH

    By A Correspondent

    It’s November 14, 2011, and along with Children’s Day and the celebration of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s birth anniversary, it’s also the day when the health ministry restriction on depiction of tobacco in the media takes shape.

    While there’s been much awareness of how the new guidelines will impact the film and television trade, tucked away at the end of the amendment is something that the print media needs to also be careful about.

    The relevant ruling states:

    “Wherever brand names or logos of tobacco products form a part of the pictures to be printed in any form of print or outdoor media or footage to be aired through any form of electronic media, it shall be mandatory for the media to crop or mask the same to ensure that the brand names and logos of the tobacco products are not visible, except in case of live or deferred live telecast of sports, cultural and other events or activities held in other countries being aired on television in India.”

    As per the notificiation, all old movies and TV programmes, that is, produced before November 14 displaying tobacco products or its use shall have to mandatorily display:

    a. anti-tobacco health spots or messages of minimum thirty seconds duration each at the beginning and middle of the film or the television programme.

    b. anti-tobacco health warning as a prominent scroll at the bottom of the screen during the period of such display.

    And such programmes will be telecast at such timings that are likely to have least viewership of minors.

    For new films and TV programme, a strong editorial justification for display of tobacco products or their use shall be given to Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC)  along with UA certification, and it will be accompanied by the following:

    a. a disclaimer, of minimum twenty seconds duration, by the concerned actor regarding the ill effects of the use of such products, in the beginning and middle of the film or television programme;

    b. anti-tobacco health spots or messages, of minimum thirty-second duration each at the beginning and middle of the film or the television programme;

    c. anti-tobacco health warning as a prominent scroll at the bottom of the screen during the period of such display:

    There will be a representative of Ministry of Healthy and Family Welfare in the Censor Board (CBFC).

    In order to restrict display of tobacco brands in old films and TV programmes, these rules  make it mandatory to crop /mask display of brands of cigarettes or any other tobacco product or any forms of product placement, closeups  and for new films and TV programmes  such scenes shall be edited/blurred by the producer prior to screening. The ban on display of tobacco product or its usage also extends to promotional materials and posters as well.

     

    Ministry of Health and Family Welfare notification:

    http://pib.nic.in/archieve/others/2011/nov/d2011111102.pdf

  • Two new agencies, Euro RSCG Design & Mosaik Communication, join HAVAS DESIGN+ community

    Euro RSCG Design & Mosaik Communication join Havas Design+ community

    By Amit Bapna

     

    The global branding and design community HAVAS DESIGN+ is possibly the first of its kind that brings together a community of experts from different countries putting their competencies in common. It has recently announced addition of two new members to its portfolio – these include Euro RSCG Design, Brazil and Moroccan agency Mosaik Communication. These two new additions extend the Havas Design+ community’s reach into Africa for the first time and strengthen its position in South America.

     

    Design is increasingly becoming a strategic tool and is becoming the engine fuelling the creation of new businesses and changing the story of brands. Reiterating the importance of design in their region, Monique Elgrichi, General Director, Mosaik Communication says, “it has become fundamental for any brand willing to bring a homogeneous and consistent answer to its audiences, be it in its visual identity, its communication tools, online or on its sales locations. The context is thus very favourable in Morocco.

     

    “Companies are well aware of this and have started increasingly investing in the design discipline. Elaborating on their offerings, Mr Jose Melchert, Euro RSCG Design shares, “We will offer Branding & Design services – challenges ranging from the creation of new brands, repositioning and designing portfolios to introducing a brand at the point of sale – brochures, shelves, furniture.” With the globalization, international brands are making the choice in brand management to stay global or to develop local brands to adapt to their market, and therefore must rely on experts having the appropriate insights to do so, which is where such a group of experts under one umbrella can help the brands.

     

    For this international group of agencies that is dedicated to brands in the emergent countries and countries with quick economic growth, India is not too far in its expansion plans. Shares Mr Denis Gancel, co-founder and coordinator of Havas Design+, “Within this framework, India is one of our priorities. We are examining different opportunities that will add to our existing locations and the ones of the Havas group, already present in India.” The multicultural community now numbers 15 agencies across the world employing 500 branding and design experts.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2011, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

  • The investment will be for new infrastructure, partnerships, brand building and sustainability programmes.

    Coca-Cola to put $2 billion into India

    By A Correspondent

    Coca-Cola India has announced that Coca-Cola System will be investing US$2 billion in India in the next five years, beginning 2012. The investment is to further capture the opportunity in the Indian nonalcoholic ready-to-drink (NARTD) beverage market. India is a strategic growth country for the company ranking among its top 10 markets in volume globally and as the largest market in the Eurasia and Africa Group.

    Commenting on the development, Ahmet C Bozer, Coca-Cola’s President, Eurasia and Africa Group, said, “India is one of our most important growth markets as we work toward our 2020 Vision of doubling system revenues and servings this decade. The opportunity in the packaged beverage segment is immense, and our efforts in India are focused on being the beverage of choice all day, every day.  If we continue to do the right things each day and at all times, it would not surprise me if India becomes one of the top five markets for the Company globally by the end of this decade.”

    NARTD beverages have enormous growth potential in India.  The Coca-Cola Company and its bottling partners have robust plans to capture this opportunity with investments in innovation, consumer marketing and brand building, expansion of distribution and cold drink equipment placement as well as further development of manufacturing capacity to meet growing consumer demand.

    The Coca-Cola system has already invested over US$2 billion in India since it re-entered the country in 1993, and currently it directly employs more than 25,000 people. The system is estimated to have created indirect employment for more than 150,000 people in related industries through its vast procurement, supply chain and distribution system. The current investments announced by Coca-Cola will further catalyze economic growth and create new opportunities for the local community. The Coca-Cola system currently employs more than 700,000 people worldwide.

    Atul Singh, President  & CEO, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, said, “This investment is a part of our long-term commitment to invest in innovation, partnerships and a portfolio of brands that will enable us to grow our business in a sustainable and responsible way. In addition to our infrastructure and capabilities, the new investment will also focus on enhancing the consumer experience, building brand loyalty and contributing to environmental sustainability and community development. Our India business has been growing at a robust rate over the last five years, and our goal is to continue this growth momentum. The country’s demographics, economic and social parameters are all huge drivers of growth and we have to ensure that we capitalize on the opportunity.”

    The Coca-Cola system has a long history of partnership with non-governmental organizations in India for community development and sustainability initiatives. As a system, Coca-Cola has now achieved a net zero balance with regard to groundwater usage in India.  It is well integrated with local Indian communities and is a valued contributor to economic and social growth. The Company and its bottling partners are strong supporters of education in India through programs like the ‘Coca-Cola NDTV Support My School’ campaign, which is aimed at creating more than 100 model schools in India. The Company also supports sports programs to encourage active, healthy living such as the Coca-Cola Under-16 Cup cricket tournament, the Coca-Cola Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy football tournament, Sprite Gully Cricket and Sprite NBA Jam.

    Worldwide, The Coca-Cola Company and its bottling partners are investing nearly $30 billion over the next five years to support anticipated growth across its system. These investments range from new manufacturing facilities to new distribution systems to new marketing investments in emerging economies.

  • For the 5th Grand Kerala Shopping Festival which opens on December 1, the State has planned unique and innovative events on a massive scale for shopping enthusiasts.

    Kerala Shopping Festival opens on Dec 1

    By A Correspondent

    The Grand Kerala Shopping Festival (GKSF), Asia’s biggest shopping festival and the signature show by Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala, is set to welcome shoppers and tourists from all over the world in its fifth edition. Turning the entire State of Kerala into the biggest shopping mall, this 5th mega shopping show in a row will open on December 01, 2011 and run through 45 days to end on January 15, 2012.

    The inaugural function will happen in Kochi on December 01, 2011. Opening the 38,863 kms of the State for the shopping jamboree, the GKSF – 5 will aim at raising the State’s profile as one of the most preferred and the biggest shopping destinations of not only India, but of the world. The Department of Tourism, Kerala has designed the festival to give a ‘Real Shopping Experience’ while awarding an opportunity to ‘Feel the Kerala’ where visitors can connect with the State and explore its rich art, crafts, culture, customs and architecture. Kerala has been the first state in India to promote such a shopping festival on a mammoth scale.

    Commenting on the festival, Dr Rathan Kelkar, Additional Director, Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala and Director, Grand Kerala Shopping Festival, said, “Our market share in the Indian tourism landscape has increased over time. With new innovative promotional properties like GKSF in place, we can raise the tourism profile of Kerala beyond boundaries to national and international markets. Through GKSF – 5, we want to ensure the best quality visitor experience and multiple community benefits and establish Kerala as a global brand.”

  • Maruti Suzuki has trained over 10 lakh people in safe driving in the last decade in its ‘National Road Safety Mission’ which attains the 500,000 mark, and the company targets to double Maruti Driving Schools in next three years.

    500,000 milestone for Maruti Suzuki’s safety mission

    By A Correspondent

    Car Market Leader Maruti Suzuki’s flagship road safety initiative on promoting safe driving, ’National Road Safety Mission’, has attained the milestone of 500,000 trainees.

    Under the programme launched in December 2008, the company has successfully trained over 500,000 people so far. Out of these 500,000 trainees, over, 147,000 are from economically challenged sections, who are beneficiaries of this special programme. They were sponsored by Maruti Suzuki and many of them are meaningfully engaged today.

    In addition, the Company has successfully expanded its training infrastructure in the form of 6 operational Institutes of Driving and Traffic Research and over 192 Maruti Driving Schools thriving across the country. With this special infrastructure in place, the Company has in a small way institutionalized driving training in the country and brought in international best practices to the Country.

    On the occasion, Mayank Pareek, Managing Executive Office, Marketing & Sales, said, “The milestone of training 500,000 people in safe driving, is only a humble beginning, compared to the scale of the issue. The scale can be gauged from the latest report compiled by International Road Federation, which states that India loses close to about Rs 100,000 Crore every year in road accidents. In terms of fatalities, around 160,000 lives are lost annually in road accidents. As the automobile sector continues to grow, there is a need to bring in high quality training institutes, which help institutionalize high `quality training’ on road safety. This requires a 360-degree approach and involvement of several bodies. We hope to be the catalyst for other organizations to join the road safety efforts.”

    Added Mr Pareek, “I take this opportunity to thank our dealer partners, who have partnered with us in setting up state-of-the art driving training infrastructure in the country. With their support, we are successfully running over 192 driving schools in the country. Various State governments have joined hands with us in setting up IDTRs and institutionalizing driving training in the country. Going forward, we look forward to support and guidance of several other state governments to strengthen this initiative of national importance.”

    Announcing the road map ahead, Mr Pareek added, “So far we have trained over 10 lakh people through our existing network of 6 IDTRs and 192 Maruti Driving Schools. We now target to double the network of Maruti Driving Schools to 400 in the next 2 to 3 years. This will help us train more people by spreading high quality structured driving training in the country.”

    To strengthen its road safety initiatives , the Company recently, added another interesting format in the form of `Road Safety Knowledge Centre’, in partnership with the Gurgaon police. This new platform targets to enhance traffic education and inculcate safe driving habits for commuters of Gurgaon. In addition to existing driving training modules, the centre has been equipped to offer specialized training to traffic violators.

  • Mudra India has announced the appointment of Sharmila Malekar as the Senior Vice-President at Mudra West.

    Sharmila Malekar is Sr VP, Mudra West

    By A Correspondent

    Mudra India has announced the appointment of Sharmila Malekar as the Senior Vice-President at Mudra West. Until recently, Ms Malekar was the Managing Partner at Mind Mirror, A Research & Strategic Consultancy. Based out of Mumbai, she will report to Arijit Ray, President, Mudra West and will help strengthen brands on businesses like ITC, Jyothy Laboratories, Electrolux, Kalpataru, Emami, HPCL and Godrej.

    A dynamic professional with rich experience in Brand building & Consumer Research, Ms Malekar has been in the industry for 18 years. She started her career with Lintas where she worked on brands like Liril and its brand extensions viz Shower Gel, Talc; Liril Icy soap & Liril skincare soap, J&J feminine hygiene for their Stayfree, Carefree range among others.

    She has also played a significant role in Ogilvy and Mather, having worked as business head on Dove, Aviance Beauty Solutions, Tata Sumo and Tata Safari among others. She worked with Mudra DDB Communications as Vice President on the Godrej Franchise, Big Bazaar (Future Group) and LIC.Subsequently, she moved to Publicis Ambience Advertising to head the P&G Vicks and Marico portfolios.

    Announcing the appointment, Arijit Ray, President, Mudra West, said, “Sharmila comes on board with a rich experience of overseeing a wide spread of brands in the FMCG, Automotive Entertainment and Beverages space, across few of the best agencies of the country like Ogilvy, Lowe and Publicis. We are looking forward to her experience in consolidating and building on some of our most important client relationships at Mudra West.”

    Commenting on her appointment, Sharmila Malekar said, “I am delighted to be back especially at Mudra India and look forward to doing some interesting work for our clients.”

    Ms Malekar takes a keen interest in alternative healing techniques and is also a practising therapist.

  • After quitting Grey, Bindu Sethi will be now working as the National Head Planning for JWT India.

    Bindu Sethi to be National Head Planning @ JWT

    By Shubhangi Mehta

     

    Post putting in her papers at Grey, Bindu Sethi is now joining JWT India as the National head planning. Industry sources close to the development have confirmed the news to MxM India. She will be based out of Delhi.

    It was reported yesterday that Ms Sethi has called it a day at Grey. Since then there have been a lot of speculations as to where will she be moving now.

    Ms Sethi has spent nearly more than two decades in the advertising and marketing industry. She joined Grey India in 2009 as the national planning director. In May 2010, she was promoted as the chief strategy planning officer for Asia Pacific. However, she continued to handle India responsibilities as well.

    Joining JWT can also be regarded as a homecoming for Ms Sethi, as she began her career at the Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB). She then moved to JWT where she developed and headed the strategic planning department for eight years. She was instrumental in building JWT’s reputation for deep consumer sensitivity and brand building. At JWT she got the opportunity to work on brands such as Horlicks and Maggi.

    She was instrumental in creation of JWT’s social communications division Thompson Social, which redefined the role of communications in the adoption of new health practices amongst rural and suburban populations. Furthermore, her experience extends to the marketing side of the business, where she partnered Hindustan Lever Limited as General Marketing Manager – Personal & Hair Care. There, she formulated the brand vision, strategy and proposition for Unilever’s family health portfolio comprising three brands across seven South Asia and South East Asian markets.

    With experience as diverse and rich as hers, it comes as no surprise that she won WPP’s prestigious Atticus Award for original thinking for her piece entitled Understanding India through Advertising.

  • Tiger Balm has provided its creative mandates to Quadrant Communications.

    Quadrant appliesTiger Balm, bags creative biz

    By Shubhangi Mehta

    The creative mandates for Tiger Balm have been won by Quadrant Communications, industry sources close to the development have confirmed the news to MxM India.

    The account size is estimated to be Rs 10 crore. This is the first time that Tiger Balm has appointed an agency to handle their creative mandates.

    Tiger Balm competes with the likes of Zandu Balm and Amrutanjan. Jagdish Saxena, chairman, Elder Group introduced the balm over 20 years ago. It initially imported the product from Singapore. Later on, Elder manufactured Tiger Balm Red and White at their Ponta Sahib factory in Himachal Pradesh.

    It may be noted that in July this year,BSE-listed Elder Healthcare, which was the exclusive marketer of Tiger Balm in India, parted ways with its long-term partner, Singapore-based Haw Par Healthcare .

    Quadrant Communications Ltd is a full-service advertising agency, providing clients with 360-degree marketing communications solutions.

  • Mudra Group wins ‘Best Corporate Citizen, India’ Award at the GABM 2011.

    Best Citizen award for Mudra

    By A Correspondent

     

    Mudra Group has recently won the award for ‘Best Corporate Citizen, India’ at the GABM (Global Association of Billionaires and Millionaires). GABM has introduced the ‘Best India Corporate Citizen Award’ program, first and foremost, to give recognition to those outstanding Indian corporations who are engaged in good corporate citizenship practices.

    GABM was founded in 2000 as a private and exclusive non-profit society of billionaires and millionaires from all over the world. They represent a group of relentless philanthropists who firmly believe that the engagement be corporations in local Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes, or donations made by individuals to local charities does not suffice in terms of good corporate citizenship, or ultimately a way to escape our collective responsibilities towards the creation of a safe and better global economy for all mankind. Considering the enormous challenges facing the global economy of today, their philosophy is that real good corporate citizens must, as a matter of course, unite in a strong international collective to actively and physically participate in intelligently designed programmes, which significantly enhance international business development of entrepreneurship, and the creation of sustainable jobs etc.

    Commenting on winning the award, Mr Ajit Menon, Executive Director, Organisation Development, Mudra Group, said, “Mudra Group has always believed in the philosophy of ‘people first’ be it employees or the society. Being a home grown agency, we realize that it is this country and its people who have helped us become what we are today and strongly feel that we need to give back to the society that has helped us. Mudra is currently engaged in various CSR activities such as Blood Donation Camps, Protsahan India Foundation (NGO), Helen Keller Institute for Deaf & DeafBlind (NGO), Himjoli (NGO) and Udayan Care (NGO), in the country and will continue to do so.”

  • moneycontrol.com unveils Master Your Money – An online investor event

    Online investor camp from moneycontrol.com

    By A Correspondent

     

    moneycontrol.com, India’s No1 financial portal, has launched an online investor camp starting 6am on November 16, 2011. The day-long event includes a host of investment experts answering queries from investors all over India.

    Master Your Money brings a unique opportunity to investors in India to go online and connect with leading experts, and get answers to their investment queries online. It provides a resource to millions of investors currently confronted with falling stock markets, high rates of inflation, skyrocketing real estate prices and the exploding value of gold.

    Master Your Money is open to all kinds of investors, from buyers of fixed deposits, government bonds and insurance, HNI stock and mutual fund investors, individual traders and corporate finance professionals. The unique online event covers stocks, bonds, insurance, gold and real estate.

    “As a leading national portal dedicated to serving investors in India, we conceptualized Master Your Money to provide knowledge to the entire community of Indian investors,” saidJoyson Thomas, COO, of Web 18, the company that owns moneycontrol.com”. Mr. Thomas added that this is the 2nd edition of Master Your Money and the first event attracted investors from all over the country.

    “As owners of the No. 1 financial national portal in India, it was logical for the leader to protect the interests of our audience,” said Mr Thomas.

  • With so much bad news around the Kingfisher Airlines business, we ask experts in what ways it could impact the brand.

    Brand Kingfisher in the red

     

    By Tuhina Anand

     

    The King of Good Times is battling bad times, and all eyes are waiting to see how much the whole bailout issue will cost Brand Kingfisher. Right now, the airline business of Kingfisher is under deep scrutiny and the media focus has only heightened the negative atmosphere. Public memory, of course, is short and all ‘bailout’, ‘bleeding’ and ‘those who die must die’ phrases will be forgotten once Vijay Mallya is able to arrange the corpus to manage the airline’s functioning. Remember, Jet Airways employees’ protests against job cuts some years ago didn’t do much harm to the brand in the long run.

     

    Kingfisher, known primarily for its beer, is unlikely to be affected. The brand has been there for a long time and people vouch for it. Even in this scenario, it’s the airline business that is under the scanner. The airline business is diversification of the core business, hence the impact on Kingfisher the brand would not be much. But when it comes to Kingfisher Airlines, people – especially frequent flyers and privileged guests wooed with the airline’s promise of an extraordinary experience – would stay away, considering flight cancellations and the consequent inconvenience.

     

    Expressing his view, Harish Bijoor, brand expert and CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, said, “Kingfisher is a dominant brand in the Indian context. The brand for a start is a beer. And from there on has developed the brand equity of brand Kingfisher Airlines. To that extent, the recent sets of issues in aviation tends to hurt the equity of Kingfisher Airlines more than the beer. The airline is a service brand that touches the lives of hundreds of people. The beer is a product brand. To that extent there is less of an issue there.”

     

    “The negative publicity that hits Kingfisher airlines is really about the pains of the traveller more than anything else. A traveller faced with flight cancellations at the last minute is impacted the most. This is where the biggest pain point of Kingfisher Airlines’ brand equity vests,” added Bijoor.

     

    So at one level where the crisis has hit most is the frequent travellers, but that is more of a short-term problem. In fact, the brand has taken a beating but not as much. Even V Balasubramanium, Director at RainMan Consulting, is of the opinion that the brand would have been affected if the issues were that involving ethics or credibility but something like a ‘bailout’ and being cash-strapped will not impact it long-term as people already know that the airline industry is bleeding and the same goes for Kingfisher Airlines. So while the issue has not come as a surprise, it’s true that the rumours about large-scale layoffs or the airline shutting operations don’t exactly help Mr Mallya’s case.

     

    One view that also emerges is that whenever UB has tried to diversify and move away from its core business of alcoholic drinks, they haven’t really succeeded. Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO, Brand-Comm said, “The next two to three months will be critical for Kingfisher, and how they manage to emerge out of this crisis and do damage control. There will be close scrutiny and overcoming this will be a challenge. There is a negative undercurrent especially among those who have raised eyebrows over the extravagant lifestyle and now the financial mess. I think it’s a wait and watch policy and the next couple of months will be make-or-break as far as the Kingfisher Airlines brand goes.”

     

    As it stands, the Kingfisher brand which is primarily associated with liquor will not be impacted in any case, as it will have its loyal followers, but for the airline business, which is actually a brand extension, it’s time to be cautious and move carefully. “Kingfisher needs to get off the pedestal and talk and emote with its users and those sitting on the fence with reference to its usage. It’s important to be transparent and admit folly where folly lies. In reality nothing succeeds like success. I do believe this is a temporary blip in the brand equity fortunes of Kingfisher Airlines. With some degree of fund infusion, it will be business as usual,” concludes Bijoor.

     

    Image: Grab from Kingfisher Airline TVC

  • FMCG retail will hit $100 billion by 2025, notes Nielsen’s Consumer 360 report

    FMCG retail will hit $100 billion by 2025: Nielsen

    By A Correspondent
    Nielsen estimates that the country’s rural FMCG retail landscape will grow from $12 billion in 2011 to $100 billion by 2025, as it unveiled its Consumer 360 report in New Delhi on Tuesday. Prashant Singh, VP, Nielsen, said: “The rural mindset is open to consumption of newer, more contemporary food categories and as a result, drives consistent growth.”

    The research firm has identified four key trends that will drive consumption: premiumisation, consumers switching from commodity to brands, from indulgence to regular consumption, and acceptability.

    “While small-sized packages are vital for entry into the market, as purchasing power increases, rural consumers are increasingly buying larger pack sizes to share with family and friends,” said Singh. Indian shoppers will increase spends on FMCG at modern retail stores from $1.8 billion to $5 billion by 2015.

    Sales at modern trade stores are up 31% since last year across the country’s socio economic spectrum.

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2011, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved