epages News [Advertising Agencies, May 2003]

Herbalife to expand distribution network

May 01, 2003: Herbalife International India Pvt Ltd. plans to expand its distribution network by adding 12,000 distributors to its existing team. A direct marketing company in the dietary supplementary products segment, Herbalife already has around 40,000 distributors across the country. In a bid to promote its product range, Herbalife plans to implement a host of new incentives for its distributors in October this year to enable them to develop their businesses further. As part of the strategy, the company is planning to provide training-cum-promotional schemes.

In the nutrition and dietary supplement segment, Herbalife competes with Talwalkars, VLCC and Dabur's 'Himalaya Foods' among others. The company plans to launch 'Formula 1 Protein Drink Mix' and 'Dino Kid Shake' in strawberry flavour soon.

Lakme, Kingfisher in fray to rule the ramp

May 02, 2003: New Delhi / Mumbai: The race to rule the ramp at India Fashion Week (IFW) for the next three years, has narrowed down to Lever’s Lakme and United Breweries Kingfisher. Both have pipped FMCG giants like LG and Samsung on the way, with highly placed sources placing their bets on the Lever brand. Along with Lakme, most of the co-sponsors of the IFW too ended their three-year contract last year and, except Seagrams which signed on later, Sunsilk, Kingfisher, Fiat, Taj Palace, Star World and Air Sahara will be reorganising their contracts.

Following the growing success of the IFW coupled with fashion being the favourite launchpad for almost all products, the queue for title sponsor is also associate and co-sponsors is believed to have been pretty long. In the co-sponsors race is Sony trying to bag the exclusive telecast rights over Star World and Hutch. If the FDCI, which owns IFW, announces Lakme as the title sponsor, sources say that UB, which is vying for the title as against its co-sponsor contract till last year, will in all likelihood pull out of the race altogether.

Telco, Mahindra chalk out brand-building initiatives

May 02, 2003: Even as Tata Engineering is chalking out an aggressive marketing plan to promote its SUV and MUV brands, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is stepping on its brand-building plans to promote its brands Mahindra Bolero and Scorpio. Interestingly, both the companies plan to lay a greater emphasis on their loyalty programmes namely, the Tata Safari Explorer Club (Tata) and Top Gear Club (M&M). For starters, Tata Engineering is planning to launch a multi-media ad campaign to promote its MUV brand Tata Sumo soon. Designed by Ogilvy & Mather India, the campaign will harp on the merits of Tata Sumo in a different manner. Essentially, the company plans to build upon the same positioning through its new ad campaigns this year. To support its mass media advertising plans, the company plans to roll out a slew of below-the-line activities and events to popularise both its brands. As for the company’s marketing tie-ups, Tata is currently evaluating various options.

Amway charts out aggressive marketing plan, ties up with ICICI

May 03, 2003: The Rs 625-crore directing selling company, Amway India has embarked on an aggressive growth strategy in India. It targeted a growth of 8-10% in the next one year. Amway, which has so far invested more than Rs 151 crore in the Indian operations, intends to achieve its target by launching new products every month, by persistent communication and by providing more facilities to its distributors, who are the backbone of its business. And it is to cater to the needs of this backbone that the company has tied up with ICICI Bank to launch a co-branded international credit card.

With this card Amway’s 3.5 laky distributors in India can purchase Amway products, earn and redeem rearward points in the form of Point of Value (PV) of Amway. These PVs are incentive points of Amway, which in turn, determine the total bonus earning of an Amway distributor. The distributor will have the exclusive benefit of earning two points, instead of one, for every Rs 100 spent on purchasing Amway products through the co-branded credit cards. This product will be available at 62 locations across the country. The direct selling market has recorded a steady growth in the country over the past few years. To fuel this growth, the company has lined up a range of new products. While internationally, Amway has 450 products, in India only 36 are available. Amway has products in four categories – nutrition and wellness, personal care, home care and cosmetics.

Honda India strategy in fast gear

May 03, 2003: New Delhi: Honda Motor Company is revving up its India strategy in both the cars and two-wheeler segments. For starters, Honda Siel Cars will launch a luxury sports utility vehicle CR-V on May 9 to be followed up by new versions of City and Accord car models. On the two-wheeler front, Honda is working on a strategy to increase its existing market share of 36% to over 50%.

Honda wants to graduate to the status of a major player in India with presence in all segments with products specific for the Indian market and has set a annual sales target of 1,00,000 cars to be achieved over the next few years. Honda is also bullish on the future of premium and luxury segment cars in India and expects the SUV market to pick up in years to come. Honda will initially launch its CR-V model as a completely built unit (CBU) and may shift to completely knocked down (CKD) kit imports later. The new City and Accord models, which will replace the existing models of City and Accord, are also expected to hit the road over the next one year and will have many new features.

India's first wireless marketing solutions company launched

May 06, 2003: Mobile2Win (M2W), India’s first international wireless agency, was launched on May 1. M2W was set up in China last year as a joint venture between Siemens, Softbank and Alok Kejriwal-promoted Contests2Win. The company has conducted some of the biggest mobile SMS promotions, including the Coke Summer Campaign in China recently. According to a prepared note by the company, “M2W will work closely with brands to evolve and deliver them world class wireless marketing solutions.”

According to the company, M2W hopes to educate advertisers and advertising agencies alike on using the mobile phone as a marketing and media platform. Apart from the basic branded ring tones, wallpapers and screensavers, other applications which are being rolled out in India include SMS promotions for brands, mobile couponing, mobile marketing innovations, MMS content, Java content/applications, embedded games, targeted campaigns to mobile users and advergaming content. M2W will also work with brands to conduct mobile events and build wireless communities.

Pepsi to hire Bollywood stars in its ad campaign

May 08, 2003: New Delhi: Corporate giant Pepsi has hired the services of four Bollywood stars including teenage heartthrobs Preity Zinta and Kareena Kapoor for its new advertising campaign this summer. The campaign, to hit the screen later this week, has a star cast including Fardeen Khan and Saif Ali Khan along with Zinta and Kapoor. According to a company statement, theme of the campaign is guys and gals next door who will do anything for their Pepsi.

TVS 50 left to its own fortunes

May 08, 2003: The country's first two-seater moped, TVS 50, which swung the fortunes of TVS Motor Company and kick-started its operations two decades ago, is on its last leg with the company not keen on keeping the model afloat for long. The largest selling moped in its category at one time, TVS 50 has a bleak future with the vehicle's sales dropping 25% over the last one year to around 45,000 units during 2002-03. Even the sales of its 72 cc TVS XL Super and XL Super heavy duty grew marginally by five % over the last one year though the company does not plan to phase them out. During 2003-04, moped sales for TVS are likely to decline by 8%, mirroring the trend of the moped industry itself which has seen sharp drop in sales over the last few years.

TVS plans to launch a series of variants during the year, two of these, the 72cc Scooty Pep and 150 cc Feiro F2 motorcycle have already been launched. The company has earmarked around Rs 100 crore for launching new models and variants during the current fiscal. A variant of its largest selling bike, Victor will be launched soon. Victor, the most successful model of TVS has so far sold over a half a million units since it was launched in March 2001.

3 new racing bikes drive out from the TVS stable

May 10, 2003: Two-wheeler manufacturer, TVS Motor Company, has launched three new racing bikes, the TVS 125X, 250X and the 400 FX, a collaborative effort between its research and development wing and offshore consulting institution, Engines Engineering of Italy. The launch signalled the company's intent to dominate the future motorcars events in the national and international arena. The company would also launch at least four new bikes in the first six months of the current fiscal in the commuter bike segment, which would be volumes-driven. Of the four new bikes scheduled, two will be upgrades of the existing bikes while the other two will be new models. The project to make its own racing bike commenced an year-and-a-half ago when it broke of with partners Suzuki following which it decided not to use the latter's bike for its racing teams.

Honda Siel unveils new SUV

May 10, 2003: Honda Siel Cars India unveiled its popular sports utility vehicle (SUV) Honda CR-V with a price tag of Rs 14-15 lakh. The CR-V will be imported as a completely built unit (CBU) and will be available by July-end. The SUV will be pitched against Chevrolet Forester and Suzuki Grand Vitara, launched recently. The second generation Honda CR-V is the most recent version available internationally in the CR-V series. The CR-V will come fitted with a 1998cc and 142 brake horsepower (bhp) engine sports features like anti-locking brake system, dual air bags and an engine immobiliser.

Honda Siel Cars plans to sell 20,000 units of its three models, City, Accord and CR-V. The company is targeting to become the no. 1 player in the premium segment. The company is targeting a 50% rise in turnover this year from a topline of Rs 760 crore during 2002-03 as HSCI would be strengthening its position in the premium car category.

Cadila eyes herbal cosmetics mart

May 12, 2003: Ahmedabad: Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited, which announced its foray into the OTC (over the counter) market with a range of Ayurvedic formulations, is also eyeing the herbal cosmetics market. They have already developed a hair oil and prickly heat powder, which is intended to launch next month. It is also working on the Ayurvedic soap for the cosmetic segment. Once the franchisees are tied-up across the country within the next six months, the company will work on corporate advertising plan for the OTC range to support the marketing franchisee. The franchisee will on the other hand look after local marketing promotions, including regional electronic and print media, for the brands. The company, which has decided to take the marketing franchisee route for its OTC foray, has joined hands with Onasis Healthcare Products as their franchisee for the Gujarat market.

SSC&B to unveil campaign for Kissan Greedy Bistix

May 12, 2003: SSC&B, Bangalore, is helping Hindustan Lever fire its first salvo in the biscuit category with its new campaign for Kissan Greedy Bistix, a web site report said. The agency bagged the Rs 5-crore account recently and is credited for successfully launching two HLL brands – Kwality Walls Max Candy and HLL Nihar. Launched under the Kissan franchise, Greedy Bistix happens to be HLL’s first indigenous fruit-cream-based brand, which is quite unlike anything available in the Indian market currently. These are biscuit sticks available with fruity dips.

The television campaign, which broke late last month, is a film scripted by the creative team of SSC&B, Bangalore, and produced by Whitelight, Mumbai. The commercial has 35 seconds, 30 seconds and 20 seconds versions and is made in Hindi and five other language versions.

Confluence bags Sahara account

May 13, 2003: Leading advertising firm Confluence has been assigned the advertising campaign for Sahara India's weeklies in English and Hindi. The weeklies, along with the Urdu edition hit the stands on Sunday, 11th May. The three publications that would come out every Sunday, are Sahara Time in English, Sahara Samay in Hindi and Aalmi Sahara in Urdu, a web site report said.

The account, according to agency sources is worth about Rs 7.5 crores. The agency already handles Sahara Samay TV News Channel account. While the press campaign for both the brands broke on Sunday in all leading newspapers in the country, the multi-media campaign comprising outdoor, TVC, Radio & Cinema will break shortly, the report said.

Eventus in expansion mode

May 14, 2003: Eventus Management, the integrated marketing communication outfit floated by Fountainhead Communications, has chalked out an ambitious growth plan for the next one year. During this period, it has bagged Empee Distilleries, TVS Motors, Zuari Furniture, Johnson & Johnson, Tata Indicom, De Beers (the Asmi brand), Standard Chartered, Ramco Systems, Coca-Cola and Colgate.

Currently, the agency is working on a specialised BTL activity for Empee Distilleries, which is planning to launch a new product. Eventus has put 790 field people to cover 3,000 liquor shops across Tamil Nadu. It has also created a website for the client, where it can access the information with a code sitting out of Mumbai.

Shoppers Stop offers 'Dream Deals' scheme

May 14, 2003: Women shopping at Shoppers' Stop, the retail chain store, will have an opportunity to win prizes and get discounts on purchases made under the `Dream Deals' scheme, the scheme will run from May 8 till May 25. The scheme is available in 13 stores across the country. Some of the participating brands include Stop, Kashish, Modern Silk House, Lovable, Triumph, Sweet Dream's, Romantique, Weekender, Provogue, Allen Solly, Chambor, Calvin Klien, Lakme, Carbon, Revlon, Giordano Timex and YSL. For the convenience of shoppers, first Citizen Citibank card members can avail of zero% EMI on every purchase of above Rs 3,000.

Cool Star takes on LG and Samsung in A/C segment

May 15, 2003: Cool Star, the domestic brand of air-conditioners from Sidwal Refrigeration Industries (P) Ltd. has unveiled plans to launch a range of window and split A/Cs between 0.75 tonnes and 2 tonnes. Being a major player in rail and bus air-conditioning, the company is taking on the might of multinational brands such as Whirlpool, Samsung, LG, and Hitachi that are trying to capture the domestic air-conditioner market. The company is targeting the northern India market in the first phase. It has set up a marketing network with 75 dealers in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana and Rajasthan. In the second phase, the company will appoint distributors in other parts of the country, like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal. A report said that the company has set a target of selling 10,000 A/C units for the current year.

HLL reworking marketing strategy for Surf Excel

May 16, 2003: FMCG major Hindustan Lever Ltd is packing a fresh punch to its premium detergent powder brand Surf Excel. The company has decided to rev up its marketing strategy for the brand which is showing signs of stagnation. By revamping the product, HLL is aiming at gaining another 15% market share in the Rs 350-crore premium detergents market. Surf Excel currently has a 65% market share in this segment followed by P&G’s Ariel which has a share of about 30%.

The company has re-packaged the product using brick packaging which is a first among detergents in the country. Speaking at the re-launch of Surf Excel, HLL’s marketing manager for fabric wash division, Sanjay Behl, said that the new product incorporated a breakthrough technology that HLL had achieved through years of research at its R&D unit. He said HLL will soon give a facelift to its Rin bar. “We will soon relaunch the product with a unique feature. The bar will be the first in India with ‘Pure Clean Technology’ which will offer even less than one % insoluble substances in it. Insoluble particles in detergent bars often accumulate on fabric leaving its impression even after a wash,” he said.

Surf Excel relaunched with water-saving formula

May 17, 2003: Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) has re-launched its detergent brand Surf Excel, with a new technology that claims to conserve water. This new low foam detergent also claims to be a quick wash formula with features such as high-speed stain removal, low scrubbing and low rinsing. The detergent with its low foam technology is capable of reducing water consumption to two buckets of water as against four buckets required for rinsing regular foaming detergent powders.

They are launching a two-phase audio-visual advertising campaign to break the myth. The subsequent campaigns will talk about the brand's other features such as less scrubbing, low rinsing and so on. The estimated advertising budget for this product is around Rs 16 crore for a period of six months. The New Surf Excel would be available in the existing sizes and prices. A half kg pack would continue to be available at Rs 70 and the one kg pack would be priced at Rs 135.

Dabur launches new campaign for 'Real' fruit juice

May 19, 2003: Dabur Foods Ltd. has launched a new television ad campaign for its flagship brand, 'Real' fruit juice. The concept for the new TVC is based on consumer research, which showed that consumers prefer the 'taste' of Real to all other juice brands and that 'Real tastes like eating a fruit'. According to the company, Real Fruit Juice commands more than 55% market share in the packaged fruit juice category. The 25-second TVC has been created by Dhar and Hoon and shot in Australia. The TVC is on air since 15th of May on prime time slots on TV channels including Star Plus, Sony, Discovery Channel, Cartoon Network, Sun TV, Zee TV, Zee Cinema, ETV Bangla, ETV Kannada. The media spend on the campaign is Rs 3 crores.

AIR top slot selection through ad

May 20, 2003: A non-Government person might soon be heading the Government-owned All India Radio (AIR) for the first time in its history. In keeping with trend initiated in the financial sector to hire private sector hands to run public sector institutions, Prasar Bharati will soon be putting out advertisements to select the top person at AIR thereby throwing open the process for those in the private sector to apply for post of Director General (DG), AIR. Though AIR has managed to garner revenues of over Rs 100 crore last year, it’s highest ever, the radio channel will have to up its ante to stay ahead in the race. It has recently initiated steps to improve its revenues by revamping its rate cards after several years. The marketing division set up by Prasar Bharati has also decided to become proactive by approaching advertisers directly for selling airtime.

HLL may merge Rexona soap brand into Lux

May 22, 2003: Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) has initiated steps in the direction of migration of certain non-Power Brands into Power Brands, as part of a larger strategy aimed at strengthening its profitability. A pointer to this development is seen in the once-popular toilet soap brand, Rexona, which is likely to be migrated into leading Power Brand Lux soap. The packaging of Rexona toilet soap has undergone change to reflect the possibility of the soap brand being migrated to Lux. The process of migration can take one or two years to accomplish, and is in line with Unilever’s global strategy to retain and harness global brands and strong local jewels. This form Unilever’s pronounced strategy of ‘liberating’ brands. However, the move involves the toilet soap brand of Rexona and not the deodrant brand, which shares no genetic code as such with the soap brand. Rexona deodorant, which is said to have evolved on its own, continues to be a strong brand in HLL’s stable. HLL is a market leader in the toilet soap market with a share of about 60%.

Ogilvy Live to adopt new marketing concept

May 22, 2003: A new concept is round the corner that is all set to give a different dimension to ground level promotions. Termed as guerrilla marketing, the purpose is to have a powerful idea in overtaking what a competitor does for having a more effective recall for the brand. Introducing it for the first time in India is Ogilvy Live, the specialist division of O&M, which is planning to basically take on a competitive brand in terms of upsetting a competitor’s promotions. With intentions of having ‘out of the box’ solutions for its clients, Ogilvy Live is in the process of moving away from mundane ground level activities like sampling to more innovative forms of promotions. Ogilvy Live is looking at sports as a medium to help its clients get the right amount of brand recall. Focusing on games like cricket, tennis and golf, there are plans to have ideas and activities built around these sports. Ogilvy Live, which changed its name from Ogilvy Promotions about 18 months ago, has a new team in place. It has clients spread across the country, ranging from ICICI Bank to Godrej Agrovet.

Voltas to spend Rs 18 crore on advertising

May 23, 2003: Voltas Ltd. plans to spend Rs 18 crore in 2003-04 on advertising and plans to continue its focus on the household segment, which is estimated to grow much faster than the institutional segment. It has plans to bring in a frost-free range as well. The refrigerators will be competitively priced. According to company sources, Voltas air conditioner, branded Vertis, backed by big bang advertising of around Rs 15 crore, the market share has gone from 6% in 1999 to 12% in 2002.

Besides extensive advertising in the electronic, print and outdoor media, the company appointed 250 new retailers and 150 new dealers. Additionally, 20 outlets selling Voltas products have been opened all over India.

Accessories turn money-spinners

May 26, 2003: New Delhi: With the arrival of new players, launching of world-class products and a growing number of style conscious customers willing to pay more for quality, the nation’s Rs 350-400 crore branded accessories market, currently growing at 15-20%, can only get better and better. No wonder then that everyone from Lee Cooper to Zodiac and from Raymond to Reebok seems to be making a dash to be the gods of small things. And those who are still not there, are the wannabes. And in India, accessories have graduated from the earlier unorganised sector to the realm of the high-flying branded sector.

European apparel major Lee Cooper is another MNC, which has got major plans up its sleeve for introducing its range of accessories in this country.Though the company has already launched belts and caps under its own brand name, it has other products such as toiletries (deodorants, perfumes, talcs, after shaves etc), sunglasses and watches on its agenda. Dittos United Colors of Benetton, which is planning to launch its global range of accessories in India very soon.

Sundrop to spend Rs 15 crore on advertising

May 27, 2003: Sundrop, the vegetable oil brand owned by Agro-Tech Foods Ltd., has put Rs.15 crore as the marketing and advertising budget for the brand for 2003. It has roped in FCB Ulka as the advertising agency for the brand. The company also plans to use some non- traditional marketing efforts, including consumer contact programs. To take the brand forward, the company plans to launch the second campaign in month of September this year. The company has launched three new variants of the brand-Sundrop Goldlite, Sundrop Superlite and Sundrop Nutrilite. While Sundrop Superlite is pure sunflower oil, Sundrop Goldlite is a blend of sunflower and corn oils and Sundrop Nutrilite a blend of sunflower and soyabean oils. It has also recently launched Sundrop Heart, special cooking oil that reduces blood cholesterol levels.

Samsung, LG bag 1/3rd of CTV market in Jan-March

May 28, 2003: Korean majors Samsung and LG Electronics cornered nearly one-third of the colour television (CTV) market on the back of over 110% growth in sales during the January-March period. While Samsung CTV growth was a whopping 149.40% during the quarter, LG sales were up 114%, according to ORG-Gfk retail audit data. LG, however, continued to be the market leader in the CTV segment with a 17.6% share followed closely by Samsung at 15%. For the same period in 2002, LG and Samsung clocked market shares of 9.5% and 8.3%, respectively. In March this year, Samsung was the market leader in flat CTVs with a 27% share. ORG data did not take into consideration sales made from LG’s exclusive brand outlets, which apparently account for about 15% of the company’s sales. Onida, which clocked a market share for the first quarter of 2002 of 11.6%, increased only marginally to 11.8% this year. BPL, which commanded a share of 17.1% for Q1 2002, slipped to a meagre 8%, while Videocon slipped from 9.8% to 8.5%.

Coke coming up with milk-based drink

May 29, 2003: The fragmented, but high-potential packaged flavoured milk market, which has names such as Amul, Nestle and Britannia vying for the consumer's attention, will witness a big-ticket entry shortly. In line with its intended `beverage revolution', soft drink major, Coca-Cola India (CCI), is mulling the introduction of a flavoured, milk-based beverage. The development assumes importance in the domestic market, considering that only last week, Coke's Atlanta-headquartered parent company had announced its decision to introduce a dairy drink called Swerve in the US this season, to boost its share of the nutritional beverage market.

The company had been testing the chocolate-flavoured dairy drink, through an existing joint venture with Swiss food giant, Nestle SA, as well as another dairy drink called Slap. Swerve will replace both products in the US. Globally, Coca-Cola also sells the Planet Java line of bottled coffee drinks, which contain dairy products. This market saw another major development early this year, with Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) rolling out of Amul Shakti, its flavoured milk brand, in disposable bottles.

Retail, Titan's new watchword

May 29, 2003: New looks, an international shopping aura and ultimate customer convenience are the latest buzzwords at Titan Industries. With the revamp of as many as 25 World of Titan showrooms last year, and around 35 showrooms undergoing the revamp process this year, the company is looking at retailing as a strategic investment for the brand. It has already invested to the tune of Rs 6 crore for its new retail identity and plans to carry out this exercise not only in the metros but also in smaller cities such as Nagpur, Lucknow, Trichy, Jamshedpur, Ludhiana and Jaipur. The company plans to have at least 75 showrooms with its new retail identity by 2004. The company has showrooms in 90 cities and towns, with a presence in places such as Ambala, Shimoga, Sholapur, Sitara and Sangli. It plans to expand its network to at least 10 small towns such as Bhilai, Dibrugarh, Agartala, Siliguri, Warangal, Ratnagiri, Latur and Bareilly this year. Apart from setting up Titan showrooms in smaller markets, the company is also toying with the idea of setting up exclusive Sonata showrooms in these markets in order to encourage consumers to buy branded watches.

Timex plans to tap market

May 30, 2003: Timex Watches is planning to tap the capital market to raise funds for an undisclosed working capital requirement. The proposed share issue will reduce the parent’s shareholding from the present level of 85% in the paid up share capital of Rs 125 crore. Prior to March 2000, when its joint venture with Titan broke off, the public held 40%. Timex, United States and Titan held 30% each in the domestic venture. Timex has an accumulated loss of around Rs 100 crore, including a net loss of Rs 25 crore during 2001-02. But the company expects the operating losses to come down by over half during 2002-03 over 2001-02. It has chalked out a multi-pronged plan to establish the Timex brand as a successful and profitable brand. The plan includes launching high-margin brands from the Timex global brand-portfolio locally, keeping the organisation lean, developing an extensive vendor base (raised to 50 from a dozen earlier), and keeping an in-house focus on operations like tooling, plastic components and gold-plating.

McDonald's to attract adult consumer with new ad film

May 31, 2003: Fast food brand McDonald’s is launching a new television commercial (TVC) next week to take the adult consumer into its fold. In the last few months, the fast food brand has also introduced many products such as McCurry Pan and Wraps, to encourage adults in this age group to visit its outlets.

The new TVC showcases the fact that the American food chain is as popular with adults as it is with the Indian kids. The film spells out McDonald’s new focus on wooing the 24-38 year olds with kids. The new ad film seems to be a result of the fact that the new product innovations had lured 30% more adults to walk into the McDonald’s outlets in the last six months.

 
WebHydEpages.com
Hyderabad-Classifieds.comHyderabad-Jobs.com