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Tag: Sanjiv Goenka

  • Expands its horizon

    Saregama launches Padhanisa – an AI based Music learning App

    Saregama, a RP Sanjiv Goenka Group company, launches – Padhanisa, an AI based music learning app that aims to make Indian vocal learning simple, easy and accessible to everyone across the globe. Saregama, India’s oldest music label has expanded its horizon with Padhanisa, from delivering super-hit music for over a century to creating a platform that simplifies music learning.

    Padhanisa aims to be a personal singing teacher for those who enjoy singing but have never considered learning due to lack of access to the right resources or fear of judgement.

    The personalized approach of the app ensures that every individual receives tailored recommendations based on their vocal range, suggestions on warmups and workouts focussed on the key improvement areas. A comprehensive assessment of the performance is shared after every level so that learners can keep improving.

    Sharing his views on Padhanisa, Vikram Mehra, Managing Director – Saregama India Limited, “Padhanisa is an obvious extension from Saregama. The insight of the app comes from the fact that all Indians’ love to sing, be it any occasion or just to feel happy. We truly believe that there are no bad singers, but just untrained ones. So, here we are with an AI based app which trains you to sing in Sur. All you got to do is download the Padhanisa App and start your personalised music learning journey.”

  • The bid amounts in the negative mean the two teams won’t get any share of revenue from the board’s central pool, but have to pay money to it. Hence they are expected to go the whole hog to minimise their losses

    Budgeted brands may join IPL bandwagon after entry of two new teams

    By Ravi Teja Sharma

     

    The entry of two new teams could offer an opportunity to brands that want to jump on to the IPL bandwagon but have limited budgets, said media planners and agencies.

     

    Each of the two teams will have 10 sponsorship slots to sell on the jersey – on the cap, shirt and trouser. None of these is pre-committed to any brands, unlike in the case of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan (RR), the teams that have been suspended for two years.

     

    In the reverse auction conducted by the Indian cricket board earlier this week, industrialist Sanjiv Goenka’s New Rising won the Pune team with a bid of minus Rs 16 crore and handset maker Intex got Rajkot with a bid of minus Rs 10 crore.

     

    The bid amounts in the negative mean the two teams won’t get any share of revenue from the board’s central pool, but have to pay money to it. Because of this, these teams are expected to go the whole hog to minimise their losses.

     

    Vinit Karnik, national director at ESP Properties, a sports and entertainment consultancy of media management giant Group M, said the two new teams might not be able to charge a premium immediately. But since they would be getting top players from both CSK and RR, they might still be able to ride on these players to gain traction.

     

    Among the eight original IPL franchises, Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings (before they were suspended) earned Rs 40 crore to Rs 50 crore a year from sponsorship deals. Other teams such as Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore get around Rs 30 crore. The new teams could make around Rs 20-25 crore from sponsorship a year, media planners said.

     

    Melroy D’Souza, chief operating officer at sports marketing firm Professional Management Group, said Pune would do better than Rajkot on sponsorships, especially with the possibility that New Rising, which got Pune with the lower bid among the two winners, would get to pick the first player from the draft.

     

    That could probably be MS Dhoni, who remains the most sought after player in IPL.

     

    “For the audience in small towns (such as Rajkot), there will be limited amount of brands that will be interested,” said D’Souza. Karnik, however, said Rajkot would be the real hotspot among the two new teams.

     

    “This is the first time that an IPL team has come from Gujarat. The state is a passionate follower of cricket and it has a big base of local business houses, who would love to leverage on the opportunity.”

     

    Large businesses and local brands from Gujarat include the likes of Adani, the tile manufacturers of Morbi, large watch manufacturers such as Ajanta and Orpat and diamond trading houses of Surat.

     

    On air and on ground sponsorship in IPL is very expensive and out of the reach of brands with smaller budgets, said Basabdatta Chowdhuri, chief executive at Madison Media Group’s Platinum Media. “But there is still considerable visibility to be had by signing up with newer teams. In a limited budget, you can get decent mileage through a new team as well. In that same money, a brand will only get a few spots on television during IPL,” she said.

     

    A media planner who did not wish to be named said the other advantage with newer and relatively smaller teams is that brands can negotiate that much more and get more bang for their buck.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2015, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

  • Spirituality is on the path of marketing with Baba Ramdev, Art of Living and others foraying into the consumer space

    Trusts of Baba Ramdev, Art of Living etc emerge as large consumer product makers?

    By Writankar Mukherjee & Sarah Jacob

     

    Spiritual gurus and ashrams are widening their reach among the populace not just through their teachings but through products as well.

     

    If Osho slippers are a craze among fashionable youngsters, Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali line of personal care and packaged food products and Art of Living’s body lotions and ayurvedic energizers too are finding takers beyond their followers.

     

    “These products have the potential to challenge some of the top FMCG brands in the market,” Sanjiv Goenka, chairman of hypermarket chain Spencer’s Retail, says.

     

    Industry observers say spiritual trusts such as Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living, Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved, Aurobindo Ashram, Pujya Bapuji’s Sant Shri Asharamji Ashram, Coimbatore-based Isha Foundation and the organisation that runs Swaminarayan Akshardham are all on the cusp of emerging large consumer product makers.

     

    Some of them plan to widen distribution of their products-so far largely sold at their ashrams-through kirana stores, supermarkets and online retailing. Some are entering into back-end integration for commodity sourcing and are building distinct brands.

     

    Spencer’s plans to sell such products at its outlets-there are more than 200 of them-and is open to offer larger shelf space than even some mainstream brands.

     

    “These organisations have huge brand pull and Ayurveda products always do well. It is a potent pull factor,” says Mr Goenka.

     

    Advertising veteran R Balki thinks it would take a while before these products compete with the established brands, but says they can create a niche for themselves. “These products have a great base or personality-they tend to connote health, nature and purity,” says Mr Balki, chairman of advertising agency Lowe Lintas & Partners.

     

    PROFITS FOR CHARITY

    Baba Ramdev started retailing his Patanjali line of FMCG products via through kiranas and modern retail in April. Acharya Balkrishnan, promoter of Patanjali Ayurved Products and a close aide of Ramdev, said this would allow the firm more than quadruple its sales to 2,000 crore this fiscal from 455 crore in 2011-12. If achieved, this would make Patanjali larger than Fair & Handsome and Boroplus-maker Emami and at nipping distance of Colgate-Palmolive. Patanjali Ayurved says it achieved a net profit of 100 crore last fiscal.

     

    Being not-for-profit organizations, spiritual trusts plough back all their profits to sustain their organisations and charitable work.  If Patanjali has decided that none of the board members will earn from the company’s profits, others too say profits from sales will be used to support their activities.

     

    “Through the sale of the products, Art of Living funds its various service initiatives like the 185 free schools which it runs in the Naxal and the tribal belts of India,” says Umesh Pradhan, trustee at Sri Sri Ayurveda Trust, the FMCG arm of Art of Living. The trust makes creams, shampoos, body care lotion, scrubs, cleansing milk, soaps, ayurvedic energisers and juices.

     

    Isha Foundation, which has recently ventured into the FMCG space, says the foray is to support its various activities. Pondicherry-based Aurobindo Ashram, which forayed into FMCG products as vocational development for its inmates, now retails incense sticks, soaps, candles, perfumes and furniture through Khadi Bhandar and even in overseas.

     

    HOME, AWAY & ONLINE

    Consumer goods companies take years to build a distribution channel and consumer base while devoting large investments into branding. Big ashrams already have a loyal consumer base among their devotees running into millions.

     

    “Our devotees are our primary consumers,” says Mr Pradhan of Art of Living, which claims it has more than 300 million followers across the world. It sells its products through ‘Divine Shops’ set up at locations where it organises its programmes, as well as through the world’s largest online retailer Amazon.

     

    Ahmedabad’s Sant Shri Asharamji Ashram sells its products through outlets at ashrams, mobile vans and at devotees’ homes.

     

    Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), the socio-spiritual Hindu organisation that runs Swaminarayan temples and Akshardham in New Delhi and Gandhinagar, retails at 800 temples across India, US and UK. Its chyawanprash, honey, oil, tea, shampoo and dental care products, sold under BAPS Amrut brand, are also retailed online.

     

    Baba Ramdev, meanwhile, has big-ticket plans for rural India. His Patanjali Ayurved plans to launch swadeshi seva kendras with self-help groups by August.

     

    “We hope to open around one lakh swadeshi kendras, especially in villages with less than 3,000 people so that they become self-sufficient and empowered,” says Mr Balkrishnan of Patanjali Ayurved.

     

    BETTING ON HEALTH, CULTURE

    So what ties spirituality with consumer goods? “Once you come into the spiritual path, you understand how it is connected with the body and mind. You tend to become conscious of chemicals being used on your body and prefer more organic food,” says CR Sudarshan, a volunteer at Art of Living’s ayurvedic clinic and its retail chain Divine Shop in Bangalore.

     

    Sant Shri Asharam ji Ashram’s brochures say its products extend the benefits of “the pristine rishi culture to the masses at lowest cost possible”. Patanjali Ayurved is pitching its products as “swadeshi,” claiming they are at least 30% cheaper than national brands.

     

    Inputs from Sagar Malviya in Mumbai

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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