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Tag: Emami

  • Other brands tying up for the song include luxury carmaker Audi, mobile service provider Aircel and Chennai-based consumer durables retailer Vasant & Co

    How Cool-averi! Emami places brand in ‘Kolaveri Di’ song

    By Rajiv Singh

     

    Now, it’s Emami’s turn to sing “Why this Kolaveri Di”. The Kolkata-based FMCG maker’s Himani Navratna hair oil will have its place in front of the camera when the viral hit song is shown in Tamil film ‘3’, stated CEO Mr Krishna Mohan.

     

    Dhanush, actor and producer of the movie and lyricist-singer for the song, confirmed that a number of national and local brands have tied up for product placement during the song sequence. “Yes, brands have tied up for in-song placement, but I can’t disclose the details,” he told ET.

     

    A person familiar with the development said other brands tying up for the song include luxury carmaker Audi, mobile service provider Aircel and Chennai-based consumer durables retailer Vasant & Co.

     

    ‘Kolaveri Di’ has become a national rage with more than 42 million hits on YouTube, over 2.5 million ringtone downloads and 3.5 million video downloads since its digital release on November 16 last year.

     

    For Emami, it will be the first product placement in a Tamil movie. The maker of Zandu Balm pain reliever rub and BoroPlus anti-septic cream has had its brands present in some Bollywood super hits songs such as “Munni Badnaam Hui”.

     

    “The tie-up will give extra mileage to Emami products (in the south Indian market),” said Mr Mohan, adding that Navratna oil with its tagline ‘ Thanda thanda cool cool’ makes a perfect connect with the song. “From Kolaveri di to coolaveri di,” he added.

     

    Navratna Oil, an Rs 450-crore brand that is already endorsed by top South Indian actors such as Suriya, Junior NTR, Chiranjeevi and Mahesh Babu, has more than 65 per cent share of the Indian cooling hair oil market, estimated at close to Rs 700 crore. While Emami dominates the cooling hair oil category in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, its volume share in the overall hair oil segment in the two states are 14 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively.

     

    BEACH SONG, STREET SONG

    Arun Pradheep, CEO-director of Brand Workx, an experiential marketing firm that helped Emami seal the deal for “Kolaveri Di”, said that the song was recently filmed in a set made to replicate the crowded shopping street of Chennai’s Marina beach.

     

    “The sequence is such that the hero, played by Dhanush, does a choreographed step in front of the Emami stall while we show a lot of consumers buying Navratna oil,” says Pradheep. He said the placement was planned according to the lyrics and the mood (hero’s heartbreak for heroine, played by Shruti Hassan).

     

    Association with top Bollywood actors and product placement in songs and movies has been Emami’s hallmark marketing strategy for years.

    While ‘Munni Badnaam Hui’ helped push Zandu Balm sales in 2010, Emami funded the entire cost of a Bhojpuri film song last year which had a mention of Himani Navratna Extra Thanda hair oil.

     

    Pritie S Jadhav, chief operating officer of P9 Integrated, the in-film marketing agency of Percept Group, said brands use films as a medium to gain higher return on investment as compared to conventional advertising.

     

    The lubricant brand Mobil was displayed prominently in the Kishore Kumar-starrer chartbuster “Ek ladki bheegi bhaagi si” from Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi movie in 1965; yellow Rajdoot motorcycle became famous when lover boy Rishi Kapoor rode it in 1973 superhit Bobby.

     

    Jadhav, however, warns that this strategy will benefit a brand only if it is seamlessly integrated with the script. “Otherwise the work will look forced and jarred.”

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

     

  • Customers prefer private labels due to better quality, high food safety standards, international look and feel of products feels William Savage, chief merchandising officer, Bharti Walmart

    Private labels of retailers Bharti Retail, Future Group outsell national brands in own stores

    By Sagar Malviya

     

    Private labels owned by retailers such as Bharti Retail, Future Group and Aditya Birla Retail outsold several national brands in home care and packaged food categories at their retail stores as value conscious consumers opted for best bargain in an uncertain economic condition and soaring headline inflation despite consumer goods companies aggressively betting on modern retail to drive future growth rate.

     

    For instance, Bharti Walmart’s private brand ‘Great Value’ tops the floor cleaner segment with 50 per cent share and are in the top three selling spot in terms of market share in categories such as tea, wheat flour, rice and branded snacks according to Nielsen latest retail index service during July-September 2011 period for the India FMCG Private Label market.

     

    Customers prefer private labels due to better quality, high food safety standards, international look and feel of products feels William Savage, chief merchandising officer, Bharti Walmart, which has private labels owned by retailers such as Bharti Retail, Future Group and Aditya Birla Retail outsell several national brands in certain home care and food categories at their retail stores even as big brands push more sales through modern retail.

     

    Coming at a time when national brands increasingly bet on modern retail to drive their future growth, analysts say even large manufacturers such as Hindustan Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser are impacted.

     

    “In short term, national companies will have to either go for promotions or discounting to fight back market share,” says Gautam Duggad, an analyst at brokerage Prabhudas Lilladhar. “But it also means losing margins and that’s a trade-off call the companies will have to take,” he adds.

     

    While retailers attribute the success of their own brands to value offers, good packaging and their increasing credibility, consumer product makers say private labels are gaining mostly in low-involvement categories.

     

    QUALITY AT LOW PRICE

    “Customers have begun to like private labels due to better quality, high food safety standards, international look and feel of products, customized packaging created after customer feedback and the credibility of the retailer,” said William Savage, chief merchandising officer, Bharti Walmart, which has over 35 per cent market share in wheat flour segment, close to 22 per cent in tea and 20 per cent in salty snacks, or namkeen.

     

    Private labels are mostly priced much lower that branded products because of substantial marketing and distribution savings. Retailers make up for lack of media marketing through in-store promotions and prominent display.

     

    In Big Bazaar stores, which started selling own brands four years ago, private labels are among the best sellers in at least a dozen product segments. Future Group Chairman Kishore Biyani believes its brands such as Tasty Treat and Clean Mate are now established. “Three years ago, our private label sales grew mainly because of experimentation and trials by consumers. But now, sales are driven by repeat purchases,” says Biyani.

     

    “We have quality products packed innovatively, priced attractively and placed strategically at our retail stores. So the success of private brands is a combination of all four Ps,” he adds.

     

    Aditya Birla Retail CEO Thomas Varghese says its More Value and More Choice brands have got good traction after the firm repositioned its private labels two years ago. Its private label pickles, with the widest range of regional variants, outsell the likes of Mother’s Recipe and Priya Pickles in More outlets. Hand wash, toilet and floor cleaners and disposable tissues are among the other segments More brands are among the best sellers.

     

    MARKETERS UNFAZED

    While companies such as Dabur, Emami and Parle acknowledge that private labels are gaining ground, they say it’s on segments where product differentiation is low and have relatively lower shopper involvement in purchase decisions, and that it will be tough for retailers to challenge national brands in high-involvement segments.

     

    “When it comes to foods or personal and beauty care products, consumers have been loyal to branded items and will continue to remain so,” said George Angelo, Dabur India Ltd Executive Director-Sales. He expects retailers to reduce product launches and rationalise range in this space.

     

    Emami CEO Krishna Mohan said it will be difficult to make strong private labels in personal care and over-the-counter health care segments because they require stronger consumer understanding and brands will need to innovate to provide extra benefit to consumers. But he expects retailers to eventually get there. “We are sure they are working on the same and eventually will venture into these categories which are huge.”

     

    Private brands already account for close to 7 per cent of modern trade sales in India, compared to 1 per cent in China, according to a Nielsen survey that covered more than 50 countries last year.

     

    And the scope is huge. Private brands account for more than 40 per cent of the total sales of the world’s largest retailer Walmart. The rise of private labels comes at a time when modern retail is increasing its contribution to the top line of most consumer goods firms.

     

    For instance, the country’s largest consumer goods company HUL gets around 12 per cent of its Rs20,000-crore annual sales by selling goods at modern retail stores compared with just 5 per cent four years ago.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

     

  • This strategy is not only giving smaller brands a pan-India presence, but also helping them reap dividends

    Small regional brands get modern retail push

    By Sagar Malviya

     

    Small and regional brands are tying up with retail giants to push their merchandise, as middle-class Indians shift from mom-and-pop stores to the comfort and variety of modern retail.

     

    The latest to join the bandwagon is ayurvedic products maker Baidyanath Ayurved Bhawan. The 95-year-old company has tied-up with Future Supply Chain Solutions, the logistics arm of retail giant Future Group to widen its consumer base and boost its position in the health products segment where it competes with Dabur and Emami. The Kolkata-based company will use Future Supply Chain’s network to sell its ayurvedic medicines, tonics, hair oils and toothpastes in more than 2,000 outlets in the country.

     

    Future Supply Chain serves several large retailers besides the parent group’s Big Bazaar.

     

    “More than just sales, modern trade gives a very high visibility that’s important to us. Also, it’s an easy way to break into newer markets without investing substantially in distribution,” said Ameve Sharma, president of the over 350-crore Baidyanath.

     

    This strategy is not only giving smaller brands a pan-India presence, but also helping them reap dividends. Within a year, the share of organised retail in total sales of brands such as Wagh Bakri tea, Super-Max shaving products, Nilon’s pickles, Dukes biscuits, NR Group’s Ripples fragrances has risen from near zero to about 15%.

     

    “Due to consumers moving and settling across geographies within the country, we are able to support small and regional brands get national footprint and also where relevant communities stay,” said Devendra Chawla, president of FMCG and food at Future Group. “For several small vendor partners, setting up distribution networks can mean lot of resources and costs. Modern trade is the quickest route to market in relevant markets,” he added.

     

    The move is also partly driven by the need to be where the competition is. “You have to be where your competitors are,” said Ravi Chandra, general manager, sales and marketing at Super-Max Personal Care, which earned 2% of sales from modern trade from just 0.2% a year earlier. “We have heightened our focus on modern trade as our product portfolio matched the target consumers of these stores,” Mr Chandra added.

     

    Nilon’s, the country’s largest pickle brand that was available in some 100 stores two years ago, is now available in 400 stores.

     

    “We were hardly present earlier in Mumbai and Tamil Nadu. We realise that the future in big cities is through large outlets,” said Nilon CEO Rajheev Agrawal. The company has seen sales from modern retail rise from 7% to 15%. Future Supply Chains, which works with 20 such clients, has added half of its clients over the past one year.

     

    “No distributor has an all-India presence, and that’s where we come in. We also take care of shelf and merchandise management,” saidAnshuman Singh,MDand CEO of Future Supply.

     

    However, firms say that jump-starting sales has its own problems. The margin for modern trade is higher than that of general trade, and small brands end up paying about 10% more than their bigger counterparts. But they are not complaining. “The fallout of margins is basically on the return on investments calculations and large stores are increasingly giving higher throughput,” said Mr Chandra.

     

    Also, these firms are getting into premium products, which need the platform of modern trade. For instance, Baidyanath is entering soaps and shampoos while Wagh Bakri Tea is focusing on tea bags and instant tea.

     

    This trade route has another plus: when a retailer expands, it carries the product with it. “Retailers have almost doubled their stores. This means more sales of our products,” said Anik Mukherjea, chief business creator (fragrances) in NR group, the Mysore-based maker of Cycle Agarbattis and Ripples.

     

    Source: The Economic Times

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