MxMIndia

Tag: Essar Group

  • With customers staying away, retailers are entering into business arrangements with brands to draw them back to showrooms, bypassing the banks

    Brands and retailers team up to offer 0% EMI schemes

    By Writankar Mukherjee

     

    Zero percent EMI schemes are back. Not that they’d gone away altogether, but offers had dwindled as banks got cold feet after the Reserve Bank of India frowned upon the practice because it seemed to be a way of concealing charges. However, with customers staying away, retailers are entering into business arrangements with brands to draw them back to showrooms, bypassing the banks.

     

    Under the new arrangement, retailers and manufacturers will share the interest cost on such offers that were earlier taken on by banks and brands. All such offers will be on the (lower) market operating price and not the maximum retail price (MRP) as it often used to be earlier, another grey area that the central bank had pointed out in September last year.

     

    The country’s largest cellphone retail chain, Essar Group-owned The Mobile Store, launched a zero percent scheme 10 days ago in partnership with Samsung, Sony and Nokia on smartphones bought through credit cards.

     

    Other chains such as Next Retail, PlanetM Retail and Future Group said they are in the process of launching such schemes, while Tata-owned Croma and Reliance Digital said they would be evaluating such programmes. Sony has re-launched a scheme for its televisions, but it’s taking on all of the interest cost.

     

    The Mobile Store CEO Himanshu Chakrawarti said there has been a sudden pickup in sales, up 30-35% in the last seven days, through the plan. “Sales are at par with Diwali. A bridge such as interest-free EMI (equated monthly installment) was required and hence we re-launched the zero EMI offer across all brands and banks,” he said.

     

    Before the RBI notification, zero percent EMI plans accounted for 20-30% of sales of electronic products such as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, LED televisions and home appliances.

     

    Banks withdrew the credit card schemes in October and started to focus on consumer goods loans, but this failed to pick up the slack as the formalities were cumbersome and interest rates were high. Also, consumer demand has been slack since Diwali with just an occasional bump on special sale days.

     

    Videocon-group owned cellphone chain PlanetM Retail CEO Sanjay Karwa said the retailer will launch its zero percent scheme by April. “We have got a positive sign from the brands who would share the interest burden and are talking to NBFCs (non-banking finance companies) so that the EMI scheme can also be availed of by those who don’t have credit cards,” he said.

     

    A senior Sony India official said the company’s scheme has been launched with NBFCs without any processing fees. “Post the RBI diktat when we re-launched the scheme, we strictly informed our trade partners that they won’t charge anything extra and offer it on the market price to comply with the advisory,” he said, requesting anonymity.

     

    RBI said last year that the schemes “only serve the purpose of (luring) and exploiting vulnerable customers.”

     

    The central bank had said the interest component was being camouflaged and passed on to consumers in the form of a processing fee. Besides this, such loans were mostly on MRP, which was always higher than the actual market price.

     

    RBI mandated banks to offer loans on the market price of the product and be open about interest costs and the final price mechanism. The new zero interest schemes will ensure transparency with the credit card statement of the consumer showing how brands and retailers have subsidised the interest cost.

     

    Ajit Joshi, chief executive officer and MD at Infiniti Retail, which owns the Croma chain of stores, said the company would seek legal opinion before re-launching zero percent EMI schemes.

     

    “Of course, such a scheme would help to boost demand of premium products but we would evaluate it thoroughly before re-launching it,” Joshi said.

     

    A senior Reliance Retail official said that the company would be interested in re-launching such schemes now that the brands were picking up the interest cost.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2014, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

  • Every year the PRCI looks at eminent professionals from the PR discipline in India and selects the chosen ones for inclusion in the Hall of Fame

    PRCI inducts NS Rajan in the Hall of Fame

    By A Correspondent

     

    NS Rajan, the public relations evangelist inIndia, has been inducted in the Hall of Fame by PRCI at the recently concluded Global PR Conclave 2012.

     

    Every year the Public Relations Council of India (PRCI) looks at eminent professionals from the public relations discipline inIndiaand selects the chosen ones for inclusion in the Hall of Fame.

     

    NSR, as he is fondly called, has been nurturing and re-defining the public relations industry inIndiawith his strong belief in consulting and advisory approach at a time when the industry didn’t have these words in its dictionary. Grit, passion and innovation are the three cornerstones of NSR’s illustrious career spanning over two decades.

     

    “I dedicate this recognition to each of my colleagues, past and present, who have contributed to make what Ketchum Sampark is today,” said NSR, Managing Director – Ketchum Sampark.

     

    A postgraduate in Business Management, NSR is widely credited for bringing in ethics, moral values and a sense of pride to the public relations industry inIndia. NSR started his career with the Associated Cement Companies (ACC), followed by Essar Group where he headed its Corporate Communications Team. He successfully guided all communications related to Essar Group’s metamorphosis into one ofIndia’s largest industrial houses with interests in steel, oil, shipping and telecom – including helping the group raise several billion dollars from the capital markets.

     

    Under his stewardship Sampark, started in 1994, has developed and executed distinctive, high-impact global communications campaigns for several global and Indian brands like DSP Merrill Lynch, ICICI Prudential, Fitch Ratings, ICICI Venture, Bajaj Auto, Tech Mahindra, Hutch Vodafone, ABB, Exide, Lafarge and others.

     

    H K Dua, Member of Parliament and former Editor-in-Chief of Times of India, K Subramanyam, Director General of Police,Maharashtra, Dr. N. Prabhu Dev, Vice-Chancellor of Karnataka University, and CV Prasad, CEO, Gradatim, Chennai, M B Jayaram, Executive Director KPCL and Chairman Emeritus PRCI and Mr. ND Rajpal, President, PRCI graced the occasion.

     

     

    In 2011, Ketchum Inc. a leading global communications firm acquired a majority stake in Sampark PR Pvt. Ltd. after a four long year preferred partner relationship. The joint alliance Ketchum Sampark Pvt. Ltd., part of the Omnicom Group significantly expands Ketchum’s presence inSouth Asia, complementing Ketchum’s strong network in the Asia-Pacific region.

     

    Public Relations Council ofIndia(PRCI) is a national body of Public Relations, Corporate Communications, Advertising and Media Practitioners, Event Managers and also academicians. Established in 2004 PRCI strives to enrich the professional development of media practitioners and provides networking opportunities to further the course of the profession.