FFVs: Cause of Concern or Happiness???

Consider this: Bargaining with the vendor to reduce price, moving out early in the morning for the mandi to get fresh fruits and vegetables, sweating profusely and trying to find a way out in the hustle bustle of the crowd, a nagging feeling of weighing machine not being correct and many more. Now consider this: A fixed price shop with prices at par and sometimes even less than your nearest vegetable vendor, getting fresh fruits and vegetables at any time of the day and shopping in the luxury of ACs, paying for exactly 867gms of onion, etc. Now answer this: which experience would you prefer, the former or latter? Mostly likely the latter and that’s exactly where retail in fresh fruits and vegetables (FFV) come into picture.
India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables, next only to China and the total cultivated area of fruits and vegetables is around 12 million hectares, which is close to 7% of the total cultivated area. India produces around 90 million tonnes of vegetables and 40 million tonnes of fruit every year. This accounts for 13.7% of global production in vegetables and around 10% in global production of fruits. The total market size for fresh fruits and vegetables in India is Rs 145,000 crores and organised retail in this segment is a miniscule 300 crores. This figure reflects the huge untapped potential in the Indian FFV market.
The concept of organised retail has been existing in India since early 80s with the existence of players like Mother Dairy and Safal but its only in past one year that the fever of retail in FFV has caught up really fast. In the past three months 60 new outlets have opened across various parts of the country.

Challenges and Opportunities
The present agriculture supply chain has tremendous amount of inefficiencies at the farm level, the intermediary level and at the marketing and distribution level. About 60% of the land is with marginal, small and medium farmers. These farmers are not left with much of bargaining power and hence are left exploited at the hands of intermediaries. Until recently, the private sector was restricted from directly purchasing agricultural produce from farmers. The infrastructure of mandis is lacking and the mandis are mired with inefficiencies. Another inefficiency existent in the structure is the large mark-ups between the farmers’ realization and the final consumers’ price. Retail chain outlets reduce these inefficiencies to a significant level. Efforts are seen from big retail players to improve the efficiency of the agriculture supply chain helping both, the farmers, on one hand (by having fair prices for their produce) and the customer, on the other hand (by giving them a fair price and a comfortable shopping experience). Better price for farmers is the high point of the policy sales pitch of everybody, from the government to retail chains.
There is a great amount of wastage happening post harvest. This wastage is to the tune of nearly 25-30 percent of the total produce. The reason for this loss is the shortages of the cold storage facilities and refrigerated transport. Gulati, a supporter of the retail revolution, says “ Wastage loss will reduce when the same company handles the produce from the farm to the fork, as against now, when farm produce goes through several levels of wholesale and tertiary traders before reaching the retailer. Losses would further reduce with investments in cold-storage.”
Add to this difficulty of cold storage, the opposition that the retail outlets face from small vendors. The recent protests in three major cities against the opening of Reliance Fresh are evidence to the opposition that comes from small vendors. "See this against the single-window clearance for the industry, and you'll realise our grievance. Like industries, we too generate employment and offer services. Why should we be discriminated against?" asks Basant Haryana, leader of a street vendors' union. Whether this fear of small vendors is founded in reason or hype will be discussed in the next section and is there a reason at all for these small vendors to be afraid of?

Above is a brief of the article...complete article can be read on the following:

http://www.businessworld.in/content/view/2223/2294/1/0/

Advergaming :Prospects and Advantange

ADVERGAMING…does it ring any bells in your mind??
No…advergaming is the concept of promoting ones brand through online games. It has the ability to involve users and get them to interact, entertain and engage with them. This mode of advertising is increasingly catching up pace with the new inventions like TIVO and tele-zappers. Today when various players in the market are grappling with the issues of consumer attention and coming in the TOMA of consumers, the concept of advergaming has come to their rescue and is facilitating the “sought after” Utopian Attention Value exchange.
Not only online games, advergaming is also publicized through mobile games. The three most common uses of mobile includes talking, messaging and playing games. So the advertisers are finding yet another smart way to catch the attention of consumers; through the games in mobiles. Media planners feel that advergaming is still at a nascent stage in the country, but with growth in GPRS-enabled phones and increased Internet connectivity, it is poised for a take-off.
Advergaming can be broadly divided into following three categories:
Company provides interactive games on its sites in the hope that the potential customers will visit the site and gain more awareness about the product and become product aware. The games usually feature the company’s product more prominently. In the second form, games are published in the usual way that are intended to interest the player in the game's subject and cause them to investigate further. The subjects may be commercial, political or educational. Examples of the second form of game include America's Army, intended to boost recruitment for the United States Army, and Special Force, intended to promote Arab resistance to the state of Israel. In the third category, there is often forms of advertising within a game, especially of that not advertising the game maker. This is similar to subtle advertising in films, where the advertising content is within the "world" of the movie or game. There are many ways and examples of how this can be done. A recent example is this racing game which puts advertising logos directly on the player's vehicle and around the racetrack. A fictional example is Pepsi banners lining the inside of a virtual Soccer stadium in a video game made by EA Sports. A final (but weak) example is a regular banner ad in a free small-time browser strategy game. The actual effectiveness of this method is unknown because it is pretty new. However it can be a way to combat costs that the game makers encounter and reduce the cost of the game to the consumer (especially games with monthly fees) while providing an outlet to advertise ones product.

Changing Business Environment and the Need to shift from Traditional Advertising : With TIVO (TIVO is a device that allows TV viewers to skip commercial.), tele zappers, etc. having already made an entry to the market, the tension gripping the marketers is increasing. Already much of hand wringing and gnashing is going about TIVO but the fact is that TIVO is catching up the sensation and certain to erode marketers of advertisers. Tele-zappers and caller id are also here to make the companies run for their life for making the consumer watch their commercials. These devices are blocking the most effective communication medium, advertisements, to reach the concerned target audience. In fast paced life no-one wants to go through the droll of advertisements after a hard days work and therefore the consumers are moving towards such devices as TIVO and tele-zappers. Therefore the changing role of the consumer from a passive observer to an active player in the marketing process needs to be explored, in particular, in relation to attracting them to online games, and holding and rewarding them for their attention.

Advantages of advergaming:
Unlike TV advertising, where the consumer has the option of zipping and zapping and also of engaging in other activites, advergaming requires the complete concentration of consumers. Most of the netizens while engaged in a gaming session prefer to concentrate on the task at hand and generally do not indulge in chatting online.
Advergaming is also a great opportunity for integrated marketing efforts. A recent sweepstakes for Hanes, for example, promoted the apparel company's new "tagless" t-shirt by using a tag as the virtual game piece: "Lifting" it with the mouse revealed the visitor's prize.
The facility of engaging users has led many companies to develop games which has increased not only the interaction level but has also helped companies increase their database.
Advergaming increases awareness and recall.
If any consumer gets intrigued by the product, he or she can immediately check the website to get more information about the product and make informed decisions.
Through advergaming one can know about the likeability and penetration the product has by knowing the no. of clicks and the no. of hours an individual sticks to the site.

Technology is undergoing development with every passing day and internet gaming technology is also simultaneously maximizing on the attributes afforded by the internet. Animated digital characters make the games more captivating and is getting increased involvement of the targeted consumers. The continued growth in access to the Internet and communication over the Internet is likely to support the intentions of marketers to spread their brand and product messages through social networking. And so are the growth prospects of Advergaming….

Who's gonna have the bigger bite

As a child you most certainly would have heard the story of two monkeys fighting over a chappati and a third monkey coming and taking advantage of the fight and moving away with the chappati. Same story is going around in the Indian biscuit industry. Competition emerges out of the wood work and swamps the champion from all sides….any guesses who this competitor is????....yes, its ITC giving a tough competition to major players in the Indian biscuit market; Britannia and Parle.
The Rs.4500crore Indian biscuits market has grown at the rate of 12-14 percent year on year. Britannia is highest selling in terms of value followed by Parle and ITC. Britannia and Parle together command a 75-78% market share which three years ago was 82% before the entry of ITC.
The biscuit mkt. in India is extremely price sensitive. With Parle providing most of its biscuits in the range of Rs. 4-6, other players in the market can’t think of increasing the prices. The onus now lies in the hands of brand managers to project their brands to capture a bigger mkt. share. One factor on which smaller players like Bisk Farm, Priya Gold, etc. are leveraging is the “quality”. Since most of the bigger players like Britannia and ITC outsource their manufacturing there is difference in the quality of biscuits contrary to these firms who do the production in-house.
Role of distribution channel is very very crucial for any FMCG product. Britannia and Parle have got more or less a very wide coverage for their products in whole of India. Parle is weak in Eastern India and Tamil Nadu. To cover up this loop hole of theirs, they are giving scholarships to children in these states to cover up the corporate equity which is less than Britannia in these states. ITC already has a good understanding of distribution channels. The company uses its existing network of convenience stores — the company’s name for the hole-in-the-wall pan-beedi shops — for Sunfeast. Not content with the existing resources, the company is also looking at grocery stores and other retail formats. Smaller players like Priya gold are setting up new plants in Guwahati, Dehradun, Ranchi and Nagpur to gain mkt. share in the eastern region as it is already growing fast in the north and west.
2000-2005 were the years in which the customers did not get any newer variants from the major players of the market. Then in 2003 came ITC which flooded the market with a lot of variants like flavored version of Marie, butterscotch flavored cream biscuits and many more. In face of the competition Parle and Britannia also came up with newer variants like Double flavored Mariegold and 50-50 Chakkar by Britannia. Parle Products introduced two new cookie variants under its chocolate chip cookie brand - Hide & Seek.
Sporting flavors such as Butter and Cashew Badam, Hide & Seek is pitted against Britannia's existing Good Day cookies that come in similar flavors. To come in TOMA of the customers and also to increase the brand equity of their product brands are going for celebrity endorsements of their products. ITC has signed a contract with Shahrukh Khan. Parle has signed up Kajol for its digestive Marie ads and Britannia has signed Sachin Tendulkar.
Considering all the above parameters namely pricing, distribution network, ad thrust and variants in taste ITC certainly takes up a leading stand because it has been able to gain a market share of 7% in a short span of 3 yrs. At this point I would like to do the SWOT analysis of ITC:
Strengths:
Widely distributed network.
Innovative products-like butter scotched cream and strawberry cream.
Celebrity endorsements- Shahrukh Khan ,Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupati
Weaknesses:
Experience with paan-shops but not with retail outlets.
Opportunities:
People are willing to try newer variants and hence it satisfy the taste buds by its newer variants.
Threats:
The market for biscuits is extremely price sensitive; Parle offers its cream variants at Rs. 4-6 whereas ITC offers it for Rs. 10, hence it may loose out on market.

Marketing is more than the product itself

All of us are well aware of the success story of Coke. But how many of us know about its failure, dubbed as the 'biggest blunder' in the history.some theorists even go so far as to say that the whole thing had been planned as a deliberate marketing ploy to reaffirm public affection for Coca-Cola. Now you must be thinking what blunder am I talking about??????.......
Here goes the story...................
....Coke undoubtedly was the biggest stakeholder in the Cola market. But its number one position was facing a threat from Pepsi.
In 1950s Coke had outsold Pepsi by a ratio of more than five to one. However, Pepsi during the next decade repositioned its image as a youth brand. By doing so it took amajor risk;risk of loosing the older-aged peoples' segment. But, the risk paid off, Pepsi became successful in marginalising the ratio between Coke and itself and was claiming a stake for an increased market share. A number of public tests conducted by Pepsi showed that people preferred the sweeter taste of Pepsi as compared to that of Coke.....another cause of cocern for Coke. Moreover, another reason for Cokes market share outnumbering that of Pepsi was the vast distribution network of Coke and the presence of larger number of vending machines of Coke. Else given a choice between Coke and Pepsi(in the same shop), people preferred to have Pepsi if it was available. Seeing the vulnerability of its number one position Coke adopted 'flanking strategy', by introducing Diet-coke, to retain its market share. Diet-Coke was closer in taste to Pepsi and besides eating Pepsis' market share it also ate up cokes market share(as was expected). Coke found its market share at a staggering 24%.
After this Coke ended up deciding that fault remained not with its marketing startegy but with the product itself and hence it started working towards anew formula. The results were overwhelming in terms of taste and finally, in 1985, it launched the New-coke.
After the launch of New-Coke, US population decided to boycott it. Throughout most of the last century,Coca-cola had capitalized on its 'original' status in various advertising campaigns claiming Coke to be "the real thing". By launching New-Coke, it was contradicting itself. The contradictory marketing message was accentuated by the fact that since1982, Cokes strapline had been 'Coke is it'. Now it was telling consumers that they had got it wrong as if they had discovered Coke 'wasn't' it, rather New-coke was instead. To confine the brands significance to a question of taste was therefore completely misguided.
It soon beacame evident that Coca-cola had to bring backits flagship brand and formula and it did do by relaunching old Coke, redubbed 'Classic coke'.
In the words of Jack Trout "marketing is a battle of perceptions, not PRODUCT'.

SENSEual Branding

Do you like the aroma of coffee or u can't simply resist swaying yourself after hearing any tune?....If YES, then beware...you are falling prey to 'sensory branding' strategy being widely adopted by marketers, to compel you to buy their products.
It all started in 1918 with coke. Coke wanted to design such a bottle for itself that a blind folded person could also recognise it simply by the touch of it. And guess what??????....It actually worked....Though with time Coke lost the unique shape of its bottle but taught other marketers a very important concept "Sensory Branding".
Sensory Branding, says Minda Lindstorm, is the most happening thing in the marketing world today.
Today when we are bombarded with hundreds of ads, day in and day out, the recall of ads is becoming lesser and lesser. By 2007, it is predicted that 20% of the consumers will be eliminating ads from their TV screens with devices like TiVo. Almost 83% of marketing and brand building concentrate on just two senses and just 17% make use of the other 3 senses. Marketers have realised the deterioarting impact of visual branding and hence are moving to multi-sensory branding of their products.
Our olfactory sense is probably the most impressionable and responsive of the five senses. Other senses invoke memories which are filtered by the brain but smell invokes memory that directly appeals to the feelings without getting filtered through the brain. And probably this is the reason why marketers are adopting olfactory sense as their way of marketing. For example, take Pepsi, it launched aroma centres in some cities; these aroma centres emanate the odour of coffee which attracts the attention of passer-bys to its newly launched cafechino coldrink. Some super markets in North America are connected to bakeries by hundreds of meters of pipeline. The pipelines carry the aroma of fresh bread to the stores entrances......The strategy works. Automobile manufacturers are investing heavily in developing an aroma which can be sprayed onto the car along with paint. And the reason for this being done: Gratify the 'new car' smell that accompanies the purchase of a car. Sensory Branding is also being applied to service industry. Singapore Airlines has patented a distinct aroma that permeates itsentire fleet and is included in the flight attendants perfume and also blended into the towels served before take-off.......and its customers are distinctly able to relate to this scent.
Ever started swaying after hearing the Airtel tune ????????....YES.....This is a classic example of sound branding. Mercedes-Benz has 12 engineers dedicated to the sound of opening and closing of doors. Nokia tune has created awareness similar to that of Intel Pentium tune with the only difference being that Intel paid millions and Nokis nothing at all in composing these tunes.
Ever brooded on the fact that why selling clothes through internet never took-off????.....it was because it lacked the 'feel' of 'touch'. The consumers were not able to touch the clothes and get a feel of its texture and quality and hence the sales of clothes through Internet never took off.
The potential for connecting with consumers via other senses is huge and unused. The more senses a brand appeals, the more customer loyalty it gains.

"BEING SPACE" in marketing

Ever seen people running towards that comfortable couch, the moment they enter a CCD or Barista outlet? have you ever wondered why a Shoppers's Stop showroom has used star, black and white images, defying and challenging the wisdom of conventional advertising. Ever wondered how stark and noticeable a change your own SBI has undergone in its internal settings and ambience?....And yes!!...Have you noticed the soft music being played in the background when you enter your own....Guess WHAT??....your own old SBI. Now I won't keep you guessing all the time.....I'm talking about the "being spaces" concept rapidly adopted by Indian Players.

Commercial living room like settings in the pupublic space, where catering and entertainment aren't just the main attraction, but are there to facilitate out-of-home, out-of-office activities like watching a movie, reading a book, meeting friends and colleagues, and so on. None of the sectors have spared themselves from the taste of being "being space" marketers.

Coca-cola launched in December Coca-cola red lounges, an interesting experience based on innovation, target teens in malls in Illinois and Los Angeles(source:Promoxtra). The lounge areas offer exclusive music, movie and games programming, custom built furniture, a plasma screen media hall and sound domes. This provides a perfect ambience for teenagers to relax in comfort, hang out with friends, socialize and enjoy great entertainment.

The competition isn't showing up in the retail sector alone but the service sector also is fast adopting the "being space". Indian software firm Infosys can be related to the being space example: Infosys combines work, child care and "being space".

Each day companies are coming up with newer and newer ways to appease its customer. Firms both abroad and in India are fast adopting to "being space" and many others have surpassed this stage and moved on to the next higher level of "brand space".