Blogs By Shrikant Tyagi
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Aptitude, Attitude, Soft Skills come into play during Campus Placements
Thursday, September 16, 2010
What do Corporate look forward to in Fresher’s?
- Understand the problem professionally; not emotionally
- Handle the problem with a careful eye on the weakness
- Solve a problem and not just raise it
- Think positive and constructive
- Think creative- have a view of your own
- Expect success & Be an optimist
- Motivate self and colleagues to accomplish goals
- Look at failure and problems as blessing in disguise
- Identify an opportunity
- Why did you select your college?
- If given another chance, how would you pursue your academics & why?
- What subjects did you like the best & why?
- What subjects would you like the least and why?
- Elaborate your most rewarding college experience.
- Who was your best teacher and why?
- Your biggest challenge as a student and how did you tackle it?
- Are your grades in line with your academic achievements?
- You preferred doing project/ assignments alone or in groups?
- Do you have plans for further studies?
- What extracurricular activities you have participated?
- What are your greatest strengths as a student?
- Why did you choose your major?
- Has your college experience prepared you for a career? How?
- What is your greatest weakness?
- How do you handle stress and pressure?
- What is your greatest strength?
- How would you describe yourself?
- How do you think a friend or professor who knows you well would describe you?
- What motivates you?
- What accomplishments are you the most proud of? Why?
- Why should I hire you?
- What qualifications do you think will make you successful in your work?
- What things are most important to you in your job?
- What are your short term goals and long range objectives?
- How do you plan to achieve your goals?
- What do you see yourself doing five years from now?
- What do you see yourself doing ten years from now?
- What are the most important rewards you expect in your career
- What do you know about our company?
- What interests you about this job?
- Why do you want to work here?
- If you were hiring a college graduate for this job, what qualities would you look for?
- What do you think it takes to be successful at this company?
- What can you contribute to our company?
- What new ideas do you think you can bring to this company?
- Describe the relationship that should exist between a manager and employees.
- In what kind of work environment are you most comfortable?
- Are you willing to travel?
- Are you willing to relocate?
- How do you feel about working evenings and weekends?
- Is there anything I haven't told you about the job or company that you would like to know?
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Brand Promotion on Rural Market for India
Indian Marketers on rural marketing have two understanding (I) The urban metro products and marketing products can be implemented in rural markets with some or no change. (ii) The rural marketing required the separate skills and techniques from its urban counter part. The Marketers have following facilities to make them believe in accepting the truth that rural markets are different in so many terms.
(i) The rural market has the opportunity for.
(ii) Low priced products can be more successful in rural markets because the low purchasing, purchasing powers in rural markets.
(iii) Rural consumers have mostly homogeneous group with similar needs, economic conditions and problems.
(iv) The rural markets can be worked with the different media environment as opposed to press, film, radio and other urban centric media exposure.
How reality does affect the planning of marketers? Do villagers have same attitude like urban consumers? The question arises for the management of rural marketing effects in a significant manner so than companies can enter in the rural market with the definite goals and targets but not for a short term period but for longer duration. The Research paper will discuss the role of regard. The strategy, which will be presented in the paper, can be either specific or universally applicable.
Realities before the Marketers
70% of India's population lives in 627000 villages in rural areas. 90% of the rural population us concentrated in villages with a population of less than 2000, with agriculture being the main business. This simply shows the great potentiality rural India has to bring the much - needed volume- driven growth. This brings a boon in disguise for the FMCG Company who has already reached the plateau of their business urban India.
As per the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) study, there are as many 'middle income and above' households in the rural areas as there are in the urban areas. There are almost twice as many' lower middle income' households in rural areas as in the urban areas. At the highest income level there are 2.3 million urban households as against 1.6 million households in rural areas. According to the NCAER projections, the number of middle and high-income households in rural India is expected to grow from 80 million to 111 million by 2007. In urban India, the same is expected to grow from 46 million to 59 million. Thus, the absolute size India is expected to be doubles that of urban India.
HLL chairman MS Banga Says, "This exercise may not pay in the immediate future, but will definitely give long-term dividends. Incidentally, over 50 percent of the sales of HLL's fabric wash, personal wash and beverages are in rural areas. And we see a future in going rural in a major way".
The improved agricultural growth is expected to boost rural demand, through not at too sizzling a rate. Moreover, the price drop in personal products, after the recent excise duty reductions, in also expected to drive consumption. "Better agricultural yields will give farmers more spending power, making the rural markets bullish," says an analyst.
As a result, HLL has planned a rural marketing program that is expected to result in a marked growth in the consumption of the company's products in the rural market. HLL will adopt three-pronged marketing strategy- new price points, sizes and awareness campaigns for its detergents and soaps segment to augment rural growth.
The Indian established Industries have the advantages, which MNC don't enjoy in this regard. The strong Indian brands have strong brand equity, consumer demand-pull and efficient and dedicated dealer network which have been created over a period of time. The rural market has a grip of strong country shops, which affect the sale of various products in rural market.
The companies are trying to trigger growth in rural areas. They are identifying the fact that rural people are now in the better position with disposable income. The low rate finance availability has also increased the affordability of purchasing the costly products by the rural people. Marketer should understand the price sensitivity of a consumer in a rural area. The small sachet packs are the examples of price sensitivity. Colgate has done this experiment with launching of sachet packs for rural markets.
Research Objectives
The research paper consist of following objectives:
(i) To analyze the present promotion strategy of few brands in rural markets.
(ii) To measure the success of rural marketing campaign of few brands in Terms of consumer appreciation.
(iii) To study the determinants of specification factors which can decide the success the rural promotion strategy.
(iv) To evaluate the effects of adopting the specific brand ambassadors in the rural marketing context.
(v) To present suffocate on above-mentioned objectives.
Review of Literature
The Marketing Mastermind (2003), Hindustan Lever rural marketing Initiatives by "A Mukund" Marketing Mastermind has given the perspectives in which HLL has approached towards rural markets.
The Economic Times (2003), "The rural market likes it strong" the strength of rural markets for Indian companies. Financial express, June 19, 2000 has published the strategy about FMCG majors, HLL, Marico Industries, Colgate Palmolive have formula had for rural markets.
Research Modus Operandi and Design
The research methodology for this research work is based on the survey technique. Few brands like Coca-Cola, BPL, Asian Paints have been chosen to conduct the research work.
The Gram Panchayat areas have been selected on random basis from the list of available Gram Panchayat. The four-Gram Panchayat have been short-listed and 60 respondents have been selected in each Gram Panchayat so the total sample size N = 240.
The respondents were organized in a group and asked about their views on following advertisement actions and theme.
1) In case of Coca-Cola how does the role of Aamir Khan affect the rural consumers?
2) In case of BPL Television how does Amitabh Bachchan give the impression about BPL Brand
3) How does the advertisement of Asian Paints with the Slogan "Sunil Babu" influence the rural consumers
The research design applied for this purpose is experimental with descriptive. The experimental design was suitable as the rural consumers fell interest about it and descriptive design depends on the explanation past about the campaign of these Brands.
Conceptual Framework
Given the Literacy scenario in to consideration the promotion of Brands in rural markets requires the special measures. Due to the social and backward condition the personal selling efforts have a challenging role to play in this regard. The word of mouth is an important message carrier in rural areas. Infect the opinion leaders are the most influencing part of promotion strategy of rural promotion efforts. The experience of agricultural input industry can act as a guideline for the marketing efforts of consumer durable and non-durable companies. Relevance of Mass Media is also a very important factor. Door Darshan had already acquired high penetration in rural households.
Now the cable and other Channels have also penetrated in rural households. The newspapers and other printed Media are also gaining strategy but their role is still secondary in this regard.
Results and Discussions
The field exercise has given the various inputs about the rural consumers. This experience was unique from a marketer's point of view that the companies must have a proper understanding of rural marketing environment at a region wise basis. The data has tabulated in following manner. Advertisement of Coca-Cola (Acceptability pattern)
Contents | Favor | Non-Favor | No Comment |
Language and content of Ad. | 72% | 20% | 8% |
Back ground effect of Ad. | 50% | 20% | 30% |
expressions and communication styles of Aamir Khan | 85% | 15% | - |
The Ad plays an important role for giving boost to rural consumers feeling. The feeling plays very important role. The Language and content (72%) and expression style of Aamir Khan (85%) play significant role.
BPL advertisement
Contents | Favor | Non-Favor | No Comment |
Amitabh Bachchan as a brand Ambassador | 75% | 20% | 5% |
The Action style of Amitabh Bachchan | 65% | 30% | 5% |
The language of Ad. | 62% | 20% | 18% |
Amitabh Bachchan is a leading player in the ad feature. The Action style of Amitabh Bachchan is a very delighted factor for rural Consumers.
Contents | Favor | Non-Favor | No Comment |
Style of Presentation | 77% | 20% | 3% |
The concept of ad. | 65% | 20% | 15% |
Interesting and delightful Ad. | 63% | 17% | 20% |
Style of presentation plays an important role. 77% is a high figure as this affects the whole creativity aspect of any ad. The total concept and delight fulness is a strong factor for this ad. Different Modes of promotions in rural market.
Modes | Favor | Non-Favor | No Comment |
Hats | 65% | 30% | 5% |
Wall Paintings | 40% | 53% | 7% |
Melas | 65% | 20% | 15% |
Hats and Melas play a very important role in this regard. The 65% response in favor of this is an indicator of this.
Suggestions
1) Rural consumer environment must be understood before the creation of ad.
2) Rural mindset accepts the brands easily, which are close to their culture. This point must be reflected in ad for rural markets.
3) Sponsorships to the Melas and Hats must be considered in a significant manner.
4) Selection of brand ambassadors, lyrics must not be ignored in this regard.
They have a special liking for folk culture so this can be taken in an effective utilization of brand promotions.
Conclusions
The following conclusions could be drawn:
1) The Language and content must be according to the suitability of rural environment.
2) Background figures are also a deterministic factor.
3) Admissibility of brand ambassadors plays an important role in this regard.
4) Special promotion measures are the strong applicable factors in this regard.
The new rural rising: Malls, hypermarts
* The biggest challenge facing rural marketers is distribution. * The rural pie constitutes 70 percent of the total market; rural India is home to 715 million or 12 percent of the world's total population. * Hindustan Levers' Project Shakti fetches 10 percent of its total sales from rural markets. * ITC's Choupal Sagar records average footfalls of 1,200 a day and nets Rs 2 lakh; the company will be launching 50 such rural malls * There are over one lakh villages with 2,000 populations, while there are only 2,300 towns with 20,000 or more population. At his maiden interaction with the press soon after taking over as the non-executive chairman of Hindustan Lever, Harish Manwani was queried whether his company's compulsory rural posting for its managers has outlived its utility. Manwani did not need to pause for an answer. "Rural India is in the DNA of Hindustan Lever and such postings will continue, come what may. There is no way but to listen to the real markets," Manwani declared to everyone's surprise. This question is not relevant just to the largest FMCG player, but also to the rest of the flocks in corporate India, be they in the FMCG or in the durables arena, which face a downward churn in the celebrated urban space. No wonder then, an increasing number of corporates like tobacco-to-hotels-to-foods major ITC, FMCG giant HLL, industrial conglomerates such as the Tatas, the Mahindras, the Godrejs, DCM Shriram group, EID Parry, oil majors IndianOil and Bharat Petroleum, and bankers like ICICI and SBI are making a beeline towards the hinterlands. What makes them rush to rural markets is the fact that almost all of them have been facing saturation in the celebrated urban markets since the opening up of the economy in 1991, and especially during the past five years due to stiff competition and brand proliferation. Marketers swear rural India is a veritable marketplace. Why? Because reaching out to the customer at the place and the time of their choice—be it the weekly cattle markets or the weekly haats or melas or even the village well where women wash clothes—is the quick, simple answer, for sans a proper distribution system, the best of the brands and products cannot survive. Hence, the million-dollar question is what holds the key to success in this vast, untapped marketplace. Companies know it far too well that unless they come up with some innovative distribution channels that grasp the rural nuances well, all their rural efforts will come a cropper. ITC's Choupal Sagar; HLL's Project Shakti; DCM Shriram's Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar; Godrej's Aadhaar Stores; Mahindra's ShubhLabh Stores, oil major IOC's Kisan Seva Kendras are some of the examples of how India Inc has moved on a path-breaking manner to tap this market. What Makes it Tick? Their pioneering efforts are not without logic. Look at some of the macro factors that make them rush to these goddamned hinterlands: rural India is home to 745 million people—a hefty 12 percent of the world population; they've more disposable surplus income than their urban counterparts'; the consuming class households with an annual income between Rs 45,100 and Rs 2, 15,000 in rural areas equal those in urban areas; CGAR of rural income was 10.95 percent while it was only 10.74 percent in urban areas between 1970-71 and 1993-94. The rural pie is around 70 percent of the total market; the share of FMCG segment is pegged at Rs 65,000 crore; durables at Rs 5,000 crore; agri-inputs market at Rs 45,000 crore; and automobile market is worth around Rs 8,000 crore. When it comes to banking, there are 42 million rural households availing banking services from 32,000 branches against the 27 million urban hhs. All these just re-affirm one fact: the rural has much more potential than the urban marketplace, not only for agri-extension services but also for oraganised retailing in the form of rural malls and supermarkets. If you are not convinced as yet, just read on to know how these companies have innovated rural distribution and have been reaping rich benefits. The problem with the rural flock is not lack of money but choice, which is precisely what these channels are offering. These organised retail channels are nothing but replicas of urban malls, selling almost all branded goods, not just agri-inputs. Choupal Sagar Following the runaway success of its e-Choupals, the tobacco-to-hotels-to-foods major ITC's rural foray, which kick-started a silent revolution amongst the harried soya farmers of MP in June 2000, the company has now moved on to the second phase. And the result is Choupal Sagar, the first of which was unveiled at Sehore near Bhopal in August 2004. A rural hypermarket or a rural mall, Choupal Sagar provides multiple services under one roof, like selling produces and buying quality products for farm and household consumption. "This rural mall also provides farmers the invaluable additional services like soil testing, banking, insurance from ICICI Prudential and LIC and medical facilities and restaurant, besides selling fertilisers, pesticides and motor pumps," says ITC agri-input head Sanjiv Sharma. With the dazzling array of clothes and consumer goods alongside, the Choupal Sagar is a shoppers' stop for farmers—7000sqft stacked with brand names like Sonata watches and Usha, Prestige and Hawkins home appliances jostle for space with Italio, Cosmo, Springwood and John Players shirts, jeans, and Philips and LG products, and motorcycles. It also has a BPCL outlet selling diesel and petrol, and an average farmer buys fuel for Rs 3,000 or above. How is it doing? "We plan to open 50 such hypermarkets over the next two years, for every day it has about 1,200 footfalls and a daily sales in excess if Rs two lakh soon after it was launched," says Sharma, adding the first Choupal Sagar has cost ITC Rs four crore and by the end of 2005, 25 such malls will come up in MP, with Rajasthan, UP and Maharashtra getting another 25 malls. While e-Choupal saw the bullock cart pushing farmers making way for the e-farmers, who now log on to the e-mandi called e-Choupal to order high quality agri-inputs, get information on farming, domestic and global prices for their crops and the weather forecast in his own tongue. Began in June 2000 with six virtual mandis in MP villages called e-Choupal or a virtual mandi, today its spread across seven states and numbers around 5,400, covering 31,000 villages and empowering 3.5 million farmers. It plans to extend its reach to 15 states and one lakh villages with 20,000 Choupals empowering 10 million farmers in the next seven years, says Sharma, adding ITC is adding four e-Choupals everyday. Project Shakti Faced with fast eroding market share and revenues, the FMCG giant Hind Lever couldn't but borrow a leaf or two from the Bangladeshi Gramin Bank, a pioneering and successful rural initiative that has reshaped the lives of many rural Bangladeshis, to keep itself afloat and give value to its shareholders. The way out was to tread the virgin rural market; and the vehicle was deprived village women. Thus born Project Shakti, HLL's rural marketing foray. Launched in 50 villages of Nalgonda district in Andhra in 2001, today it covers 61,400 villages in 345 districts spanning AP, Karnataka, TN, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, UP, MP, Punjab, Rajasthan, Orissa and Bengal. With over 15,000 women entrepreneurs or Shakti Ammas under its fold, it reaches out to 61,400 villages. These Ammas hawk soaps and shampoos to tea and biscuits and fetch around Rs 100 crore annually to the company besides making a living. "By the end of this decade, HLL aims to have one lakh Shakti Ammas covering five lakh villages, reaching over 600 million,'' says an official. In fact, the Shakti is not just a venture between HLL and these women, rather an affair between state administrations, NGOs and self-help groups formed by these women and HLL. Shakti offers critically needed sustainable income, improving living standards and generating prosperity, he explains. To HLL, it offers access into the hitherto unexplored hinterlands. Under this win-win partnership, also called Operation Bharat, it sells low-priced toothpaste, fairness cream, shampoo, and fairness creams to 20 million households. "A typical Shakti Amma takes home an average of Rs 700 every month and the company nets ten percent of its rural sales from this," says a company official. Though HLL refused to divulge more data, industry watchers estimate that it nets around Rs 100 crore in sales annually. Another offering is iShakti, a community portal that empowers rural society by creating access to relevant information. All that a farmer has to do is log in again the next day—the answer to his query will be in a mail addressed to him. They can also post queries on any of these subjects and have they answered by experts. The initiative has been rolled out in AP in partnership with the government. Currently, there are 400 iShakti kiosks in AP, with plans in place for 1,000 more by the year-end. Yet another initiative is the Shakti Vani programme, a social communication drive that spreads awareness of best practices in health and hygiene. Under this, a local woman, after training, is appointed as Vani for a cluster of villages. It is currently operational in over 20,000 villages in MP, Karnataka, Chattisgarh, and AP. Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar Another company that has seized upon the importance of reaching out to the rural market is the Rs 2000-crore DCM Shriram groups that has launched a chain of rural business centres under the brand name Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar. "Currently operational in 17 centres in UP, it is a unique front-end interface for farmers, and is a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country, " says its head of operations Sanjay Chhabra. "This chain has two-fold objective: rural retailing and extending farm produce linkages to farmers, besides giving agri-advisory and technology services, farm inputs, and financial services to villagers," adds Chhabra. The Bazaar sells consumer products like farm fuels like petrol and diesel, kerosene and gas, fertilisers, pesticides, seeds, farm implements, vet products, lubes, irrigation equipment, auto parts, consumer durables, drugs, financial services like farm credit, retail banking, insurance and integrated storage facilities. It also acts as a last mile agri-advice and customised agri-solutions on a 24x7 model, explains Chhabra. Each Bazaar is part of a three-four-acre campus, which can accommodate other facilities like farm output warehouses, fuel pumps, tractor service centres, warehouses, bank branches, ATMs etc. The company is planning to rapidly scale up the operations and create a national footprint with over 500 centres across the country says Chhabra. Godrej Aadhaar The Godrej group is another industrial powerhouse that has walked into the hinterlands by opening its rural malls under the brand name Godrej Aadhaar Stores, which are a complete solution provider for the village folks. "The first Aadhaar centre came up at Manchar near Pune in December 2003," says Godrej Agrovet's managing director CK Vaidya, adding the group entered the agri-extension service in June 2002 and the malls are the logical conclusion to this. A complete solution provider, each Aadhaar facilitates rural credit, water management, agri-inputs supply, advisory services, marketing of rural produce, consumer goods, vet services etc. Aadhaar doesn't sell its wares at lower price unlike in urban malls but retails only at MRP but only branded items. Mahindra ShubhLabh Stores The Rs 6,000-crore Mahindras, the largest farm equipment maker in the country is another key player, that is also into agri-extension services, contract farming. Its branded rural retailing foray is a chain of superstores called Mahindra ShubhLabh Stores, while the farm extension arm is called Mahndra Krishi Vihar. The company has already got into agreements with the governments of Punjab, Haryana, MP, Chattisgrah, Karnataka, AP and TN for contract farming, says an official. ShubhLabh Stores, began in 2002, are present in 11 states—AP, MP, TN, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Bengal and Delhi, says Mahindra & Mahindra executive vice-president Andrey Purushottam. Over the past three years, the company has pumped in Rs 20 crore into these stores. Now, it is planning to get into food retailing, following its reported loses in contract farming. Kisan Seva Kendras Faced with steadily declining margins from the urban markets as competition from private marketers began to breathe down its neck, IndianOil was forced to look elsewhere for growth. And it didn't take much long for the IOC mandarins to spot the way forward—head to the goddammned hinterlands. During the 2004-05 past fiscal alone, it pumped in Rs 91.06 crore into the rural retail business, called Kisan Seva Kendra, the first of which came up in Haryana last fiscal. IOC is so gung-ho about this venture that it plans to put in Rs 764 crore by the end of the next fiscal and already around 100 such Kendras are up and running. What's more, it will add 1,000 more such outlets by this fiscal end. General manager-marketing, Delhi and Haryana, Kuldeep Bery says the Kissan Seva Kendra at Andhera near Karnal is a virtual supermarket. It sells pesticides, seeds, and fertilisers, groceries and FMCG items, besides fuel and auto parts. That apart it has an ICICI Bank counter to exclusively extend loans and insurance cover to farmers, he says adding these outlets are run on franchise model. IOC meets over 50 percent of rural fuel demand and controls close to 52 percent of total market. Yes, a definitive beginning is already underway and what's needed is jacking up the numbers and reaching out to more geography and masses, as also inter-corporate collaboration efforts, something like the Choupal Sagar model. In the long-run, the Levers' model may perhaps lose out, as organised distribution is about making more brands available. For, distribution to be meaningful, it has to be inclusive, not exclusive. |
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