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Monday, March 23, 2009

Build your own NANO...!!!

Without going to the showroom, now you can decide upon how your Tata Nano should look like. Tata Nano’s website offer’s you to build your own Tata Nano. Customize your Nano as per your preference. The website offers you to customize on colors, wheels, decals, scoop trim etc.

Go and check out yourself!

Visit - Tata Nano

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Deflation On Inflation...

In simple layman terms deflation connotes a contraction in the general price levels. As the inflation has fallen to a 30 year low of 0.44 %, which is now turning out to new darker clouds of deflation from inflation on India. The skyrocketing inflation has come to an end for now but had put us into new worrisome shoes in this dis-inflationary environment is a fallout of the drop in commodity prices, rollback in production and weakening demand. Such a sudden and frenzied fall in inflation numbers brings to another worry, namely Deflation.

For general consumers food grain prices are still holding high, vegetable prices have gone down lower on diesel prices. The decline in prices of food articles, fuel and metals has pushed the WPI to strange lows in March, 09. Mainly consumers and manufacturers defer spending, trying to cut production costs by either firing workers or employees which entirely leads to drop in demand and further fall in prices. Deflation has a deep and harsh impact on the economy. As companies are forced to sell their products at reduced prices along with reduce out their margins, which indirectly threatens job loss and pay cuts which is a cause of worry.

There is still a room of scope and joy as the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is a reflector of retail prices at the end-consumer level, held firm at 10.45%. Along with that Oil prices has again started soaring in international market along with that all time gold prices will bring some respite to the commodities market. Along with that this was just on week figures so deflation has not officially entered Indian Economy. I believe both RBI & Present government won't give easy permission giving out more scope to debt to expand from now onwards for a medium term. So folks don’t panic…..

Credits - Manik Gursahani

Ref. - Business Line

Limca's... “Haseen Lamho Ko” !!!


Saw the new Limca’s advertisement, “Haseen Lamho Ko”? This ad featuring Niketan Madhok and Sushma Reddy (mine favorite) is a huge hit these days. On Orkut, more often you can see this ad featuring in everyone’s favorite videos list. People are making “Haseen Lamho Ko” as its ringtones and caller tune.

Imagine, showing this 2.30 minutes advertisement at the prime time slot, and paying nothing! Reason, “Haseen Lamho Ko” is been played on the top music channels, over and over again, as a song. Coke is not spending a single penny to these music channels to show the advertisement. Moreover, Music channels are bound to play its music video, due to its popularity.

Srinivas Murthy, GM-marketing (Flavours), Coca-Cola India agrees “When the Limca ad was first aired, it was a 40-second TV commercial for which we had to pay the channels,” he says. “But when we started getting innumerable requests on our toll-free number for the song, we thought why not scale it up.” Murthy feels that music channels are only too happy to play “Haseen Lamho Ko” over and over again because it has all the elements of a music video — great visuals and an engaging background score. “And in the video the Limca brand is not too much in your face either,” adds Murthy. “This doesn’t put off the viewer even if he watches it a number of times.”

That’s called intelligent marketing!!! Three cheers to Limca’s “Haseen Lamho Ko”!!!

See the ad here - "Haseen Lamho Ko"

Ref.- Economic Times

A day before its launch... Tata Nano !!!

Just a day is left, when the most eagerly awaited car, Tata Nano would be launched. Tata Nano holds huge importance not just only for Indian consumers, but also for Tata Motors. Tata Nano has the heavy burden of expectations. Tata Motors expects Nano to turn their fortunes. When I was in Tata Motors, dealers used to ask me in every meeting, “When will Nano get launched?” Moreover, Indian consumers were waiting for this 1 lakh car. Nano brings dreams (of buying a car) of the lower class and middle class families into reality. Tata Nano is already been termed as “People’s car”!

Similar was the feeling among Indians, when Tata Indica was launched as the first indigenously made car.
Following are the similarities between Tata Nano’s launch and Tata Indica’s launch.

Read Here - The Economic Times

EMAMI.. Going Britannia’s way !!!


“Tin tin tin tin”… Remember this Britannia signature tune! Britannia used this signature tune successfully to link all its brands in a common thread. Now Emami is going Britannia’s way. Emami has planned to come with a sign-off tune for its brands in advertisements (April onwards).

Emami group of companies’ director Aditya V Agarwal said: "The Company has more than 25 brands under its umbrella, but all of them are not power brands. Since the brand equity of our lesser known brands was getting lost, the sign-off tune will help the smaller brands to ride on the huge acceptance and popularity of our power brands."

As per me, it’s a smart idea, but Emami shouldn’t expect any radical shifts in sales! It’s just a brand building exercise! Yes, the lesser known sub-brands of Emami will get a little push. But does Emami holds enough Brand equity that consumers will buy, just on its name? I have lot of doubts on this aspect.

A Rs 2,000 crore diversified group, Emami owns power brands like Boroplus, Navratna, Fair and Handsome, Sona Chandi Chyawanprash, Mentho Plus, Himani Fast Relief as well as the entire range of Zandu Pharmaceutical products.

Ref.- Economic Times

Tata's "T!ON"...

Tata is planning to enter the Pepsi and Coke's den. Tata Tea, has launched non-carbonated beverages as "T!ON". Due to the strong presence of Pepsi and Coke, the barriers to entry in this industry were really high. Tata's only, with their humongous distribution presence in India, can have dared to enter this monopolized market. Parle Agro (Frooti and Appy) is fighting the battle with the giants of the beverage industry, in India.

As per now, T!ON is under concept testing. The brand has been launched in a small way, only in Chennai region. The product has been launched in three flavors-Mango Rush, Peach Punch and Apple Buzz. If the consumer's reaction is positive, sooner the brand would be made available to every retail store, pan India.
Tata's can gain super-normal profits if they are able to establish their brand T!ON. The journey would be tough, and the toughest challenge would be the Positioning and Price. The 400 ml bottle has been competitively priced at Rs 22. I believe, its smart pricing. Because, consumers don't really differentiate between a 400ml. bottle and a 500 ml. bottle. Moreover, pricing of Pepsi's 600 ml. bottle is Rs. 20 itself. Thus the just negotiable difference is less.

But, positioning still holds the key to success. I guess, we have to wait for few more months to get our answers!

By the way, I am still confused how the brand "T!ON" would be pronounced!

Ref.- Economic Times

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Citigroup: Crisis along with Shake-up

Citigroup, is changing its way significantly. Gary Crittenden as the new Chief Financial Officer, is being made responsible to manage all its underperforming and toxic assets. Crittenden has earned the confidence of the financial community. It is a welcome relief for the firm as they want to release these assets as soon as possible.Gary Crittenden along with Vikram Pandit wants to live with the dream to restore the third-largest U.S. Bank even after $38.5 billion in losses over five quarters.

Citigroup is also involved in some financial gymnastics to raise its sunken share price. Citigroup is planning a reverse stock split-equivalent of giving $10 billion to its investors in exchange for split. This lead to a short term rally in the share price of Citigroup since the beleaguered company is earning profits in the first two months of this year. To my view this won’t make a significant change in its fundamental outlook for the company. In financial terms a reverse stock split reduces the number of shares outstanding and therefore the share prices also increases proportionately. This financial housecleaning will also help in the bailout plan to go smoothly.


Credits : Manik Gursahani

About Me

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I am an ardent Blogger, an enthusiastic Marketer, a Chemical Engineer and above all, a profound Thinker. I work for, Sales & Marketing Solutions, at Dun & Bradstreet. I did my MBA, in Marketing, from Alliance Business School, Bangalore, India, and B.Tech, from Institute of Engineering and Technology, Kanpur, India. I have also been associated with Tata Motors, during my internship, handling the product Tata Sumo Grande. I have won many Marketing Competitions, pan India.

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