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ContentsABOUT US

OUR TEAM

BRAND ANALYSIS

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

CONCEPT OF THE MONTH

CASE ANALYSIS

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OUR PRESENCE

ABOUT US

VISION

The SIMCON - SIMSREE consulting club is an initiative started in 2012 for those students in pursuit of excellence in management consulting and strategic management. Aimed at creating awareness among the students about consultancy as a discipline, the club strives to maintain strong relations with top consultancy firms and provide platform to craft highly skilled & competent consultants from SIMSREE. The club is a resource for information about consulting and a place for students to obtain real-world consulting experience.

SIMCON provides an avenue of interaction among faculty, students and alumni through competitions, live projects, guest lectures, and conclaves. For this purpose the club has also been publishing its monthly newsletter – BEACON (BE A CONSULTANT) and maintains a FACEBOOK PAGE where latest news and development in the consulting industry are posted.

MISSIONTo create awareness amongst the students about consulting industry & its latest trends.

To maintain strong relations with top consultancy firms.

To provide platform to craft highly skilled & competent consultants from SIMSREE.

To provide exposure to students via competitions, live projects, guest lectures & conclaves.

Contributions invited:To make this feature a successful effort, we seek continued involvement and contribution from our readers, that is YOU. We invite articles, research papers, and trivia on themes related to consulting. Be it industry news, consulting trends, a joke, a cartoon or feedback, we are eager to hear from you. So go ahead, do your research, pen down your thoughts and mail your entries to simcon.simsree@gmail.com.

Best Regards,SIMCON - SIMSREE CONSULTING CLUB

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OUR TEAM

ARPIT agrawal

ASHAY DHURI

HUZEFA BODABHAIWALA

KARAN CHOPRA

NAMAN CHANDAK

praCHI KORE

SARANG KULKARNI

YOGESH MOHATA

OUR TEAM

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OUR TEAM

ADITYA SINGAL

JASPRIT TANEJA

APURVA GHUTUKADE

MANGESH LAVTE

NIRANJAN SATAM

PRIYANKA HEGDE

SWAPNESH SAWANT

VIDHI THAKKER

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DEFENCEINDUSTRY ANALYSIS

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IntroductionThe Indian defence industry is one of the fastest-growing global defence markets. For acquisition of all types of military hardware and technology defence capital expenditure is spent, and has grown at a CAGR of 12.25%. In 2010, India was allocated US$13.1 billion for defence capital expenditure in the budget. Defence expenditure is expected to record a CAGR of 13.08% to reach an annual expenditure of US$67.8 billion by 2016. This is primarily due to the country’s ageing military hardware and technology which is in need of replacing, and demands for defence against domestic insurgencies and hostility from neighboring countries.

The strong growth in the industry is attracting foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and leading companies from the domestic private sector to enter the market. Further, terrorism is leading to considerable increase in the defence budget and a shorter sales cycle. Hence it offers an attractive market for defence manufacturers. The country is expected to demand unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), advanced electronic warfare systems, combat systems, rocket and missile systems, fighter and trainer aircraft, stealth frigates, and submarines.

In addition, its expenditure on IT and communications is expected to increase significantly, with a strong focus on enterprise applications, real-time mobile communications and systems integration.

India is dependent on imports to procure defence equipment with advanced technology. Since most of the equipment which India is seeking use advanced technology, there will be a significant prospect for foreign OEMs to enter the Indian defence market.

Market SizeIndia which is the world’s third largest fighting has the strength of defence equipment with regards to ‘State of the Art’, ‘Matured’ and ‘Obsolescent’ equipment is 15, 35 and 50 percent respectively. This implies that the Government will have to take serious efforts

towards up-grading its defence resources either by developing or procuring defence equipment and systems. Further, maintenance, up-gradation and modernization of the existing equipment will also provide enormous opportunities to the industry. India is one of the largest global military spenders too.

It is the responsibility of The Department of Defence Production of the Ministry of Defence to produce equipment used by the Indian Armed Forces. It includes the 41 Indian Ordnance Factories under control of the Ordnance Factories Board and 8 Defence PSUs namely, BEL, HAL, BDL, BEML,

MDL, GRSE, GSL and Midhani.

The Indian Armed Forces are currently the world's largest importer of arms and ammunitions, with Russia, Israel, and to some extent, United States and France being the primary foreign suppliers of military equipment.

Defence spending in India has grown at about 17 percent in the past years, and with this India has come forth as one of the largest arms importer in the world. In spite of this huge market, the current policies and structure of the industry has constrained the domestic defence production as only 30 percent of the demand is met internally.The participation of private sector is even lower at about 10 percent that too mostly from Tier II or III suppliers. The following table and chart shows the defence expenditures of the largest military spenders in the world:

Country Budget in 2010)Billions USD(

Budget in 2016 )Billions USD(

US 722 688China 78 137

UK 51 57France 56 62Japan 53 62

Germany 42 43Saudi Arabia 42 58

Russia 50 89India 33 68Italy 27 26

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Historically, India has always preferred the public sector over the private in the areas of defence production. India’s first industrial–policy resolution in 1948 made it perfectly clear that a major portion of industrial capacity was to be reserved for the public sector including all arms production. When this document was revised in 1956, it placed the aircraft, munitions, and shipbuilding industries in public sector under central Government control which prevented private sector production.

The Amount Of Money InvolvedThe Indian Defence budget was valued US$36.7 billion in 2011, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.08% as we saw Indian Government spending US$67.87 billion on it in 2016.

The country’s total Defence expenditure during the forecast period is expected to be US$304.8 billion, out of which US$120.3 billion will be spent on the acquisition of military hardware while the remaining US$184.5 billion will be spent on the upkeep of its personnel, maintenance of existing equipment and construction of facilities. The following table and chart shows the India’s defence expenditure:

Year US$ Billions % Growth2011 38.7 11.02012 41.2 12.52013 46.6 12.92014 52.7 13.22015 59.8 13.42016 67.8 13.4

CAGR 2011-16 13.08

The country’s defence expenditure grew at a rapid pace due to the external threats it faces from hostile neighbour. The country’s strong economic growth has also supported the defence budget’s growth. The country’s Defence expenditure grew at a rapid pace due to the external threats it faces from hostile neighbours.

The country’s strong economic growth has also supported the defence budget’s growth. India’s defence expenditure as a percentage of GDP:

Share Of Armed Forces In 2016-17 BudgetIn union budget 2016-17 Rs. 3,40,921.98 crore (US$ 52.2 billion) were set aside for the Ministry of Defence (MoD). As can be seen, the Indian army has the biggest share in defence resources, followed by the air force, the navy and the DRDO. The biggest share of the Army is primarily because of its numerical superiority over others.

Defence Sector Policies In India1. Offset PolicyThe key objectives of the defence offset policy is to leverage capital acquisitions to develop the domestic defence industry.  Under DPP 2016, the offset level has been raised to Rs, 2000 Crore from Rs. 300 Crore. Latest changes in offset policy promote following:

Make in India: As per latest offset policy , the foreign vendor will be mandated to spend its 30 per cent investment share in a particular "Make in India" plan

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to set up a defined manufacturing facility in India, eg. Setting up production line for air crafts

Transfer of Technology (ToT): A committee of armed forces and defence ministry would set up to decide technology requirement. In this case, DRDO would be the custodian of the technology but the private sector will be preferred as production agency which would be fully involved from the beginning.

Skill Development:  Creation of, innovation centers, R&D facilities, training institutions and labs to raise a new generation of skilled workers for the defence and aerospace sector.

2. Defence Procurement PolicyThe defence procurement is governed by the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP 2016).DPP 2013 had given more preference to Buy (India), Buy and Make  (India). DPP 2016 has covered various aspects in defence procurement in order to simplify procurement process such as,

• Enhancing strategic partnership with private firms;

• Transfer of Technology (ToT);

• Financial and legal examination of Standard Contract Document (SCD) to minimize uncertainty and scope for disputes etc.

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3. Export Import PolicyTo become globally competitive it is necessary to develop export capabilities in defence sector. To encourage the export following strategies have been notified,• Setting up an export promotion body;

• Constituting a defence export steering committee;

• Providing government support to defence exports;

• Export financing

Public And Private Sector Participation Public Sector Department of Defence Production (DDP) was set up in November 1962 with the objective of developing a comprehensive production infrastructure to produce the weapons/ systems/ platforms/ equipments required for defence. Over the years, the Department has established wide ranging production facilities for various defence equipments. The organizations under the Department of Defence Production are as follows:

Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL), Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL), BEML Limited (BEML), Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Garden Reach Shipbuilders & EngineersLimited (GRSE), Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited(MIDHANI), Directorate of Standardisation (DOS), Defence Exhibition Organisation (DEO)

DPSU 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16HAL 15867 16289 10228BEL 6127 6659 4466

BMEL 2814 2599 1840BDL 1804 2770 2446.70

GRSE 1611 1651.31 1030.95GSL 509 569.55 465.09HSL 453 294.16 340.16MDL 2865 3592.6 2174.64

MIDHANI 572 640.04 477.77OFB 11123 11364 7526Total 43745 46428.66 30995.31

Value of Production PSUs & OFB(in Rs. Crore)

DPSU 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16HAL 2693 2388 1005BEL 932 1167 563.16

BMEL 5 6.76 -102BDL 346 419 318

GRSE 121 43.45 47.22GSL -61 78.24 32.26HSL -46 -202.84 -60.34MDL 398 491.59 388.74

MIDHANI 83 102.13 66.26Total 4471 4493.33 2258.3

Profit After Tax For PSUs(in Rs. Crore)

Private Sector To achieve the goal of self-reliance in the Defence sector, continuous efforts are being made to increase indigenization, wherever technologically feasible and economically viable. In May, 2001, the Defence Industry sector, which was hitherto reserved for the public sector, was opened up to 100% for Indian private sector participation, with Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) up to 26% both subject to licensing. Following are few examples of the same:

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‘Make in India’ Initiative & Defence Industry‘Make in India’ initiative has had mixed effects on

the Defence Industry. On the positive side, there are a slew of tax-related measures to encourage the domestic industry. The withdrawal of tax benefits extended to direct imports by the MoD would provide a much required level-playing field to the domestic industry as a whole vis-à-vis the foreign companies. Similarly, the withdrawal of tax benefits given to the contractors of the government-owned entities would provide the level-playing field to the Indian private sector vis-à-vis the Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and OFs.

On the flip side, the allocation for the DRDO, which is supposed to be at the heart of the design and developmental efforts under the ‘Make in India’ initiative, has been reduced by 5.3 per cent. Further, the new budget does not provide any allotment for ‘Make in India’ projects, whereas the paltry sum of Rs. 144.41 crore provided under this head in previous budget has been taken out at the revised stage.

Technological ProgressThe country is planning to set up 12 Research &Development Centres with state of the art CAD/CAM facilities in order to boost R&D efforts in the

ordinance factories which will prove to be a positive initiative. In real battle conditions, it is the day to day usable technology and product up-gradation that helps the fighting forces. The Defence PSUs have also embarked on intensification of their R&D efforts and the initiatives taken by HAL (10 R&D Centres), BEL and BDL are definitely a boost.Challenges FacedRestricted FDI, bureaucracy and lack of transparency are the key challenges for the industry. Despite expanding opportunities in the Indian defence industry, the government’s comparatively strict regulatory regime creates challenges for foreign investors who are eager to enter the country. The critical area of concern is the offsets in defence, which have been placed at 30%, and in some cases, for example in the development of Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), offsets increase to 50%.

Managing their offset obligations will continue to be the biggest challenge for foreign companies. However, the recent changes in offset policy indicate that the regulatory regime may ease, making the Indian defence market more competitive. The Government has made favourable changes in its FDI policies considering persistent pressure on the

Key Areas To Target In The Indian Defence Industry

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government from Indian industry bodies and key corporate companies.

ConclusionIn this growth stage, our country enjoys advantages like availability of capital, accessibility to earlier denied technologies, willingness for cooperation and collaboration by defence production giants especially from the West in the wake of the economic downturn.

Today, India has a globally competitive scientific community and skilled manpower with long years of experience and knowledge pertaining to the Defence industries. There is also a new wave of enthusiasm in India’s public sector enterprises.

For acquiring self-reliance – cutting across the barriers of public and private sectors, the Defence Ministry can perhaps utilize the experience of ISRO which outsources components, hardware and sub-systems for its launch vehicles and satellites from the Indian industrial units, both in the public and private sectors. Vision, speed, convergence and de-bureaucratization of defence production and technology development should be the guiding Mantra of India in the coming decades.

ReferenceDefence-industries.com, Make-in-india, Canadean, Institute for Defense studies and Analysis, Ministry Of Defence

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ROYAL ENFIELDBRAND ANALYSIS

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IntroductionRoyal Enfield was a brand of the Enfield Cycle Company, a British manufacturing firm. It started in India for the Indian Army 350 cc bikes were imported in kits from the UK and assembled in Madras. After a few years, the company started producing the 500 cc Bullet.

In the famous 1975 Bollywood movie Sholay, Dharmendra and Amitabh used it to ride down a bumpy road singing to the tunes of ‘Yeh Dosti' which marked the peak of this well-known motorbike brand in India. Royal Enfield India is known for its rugged bikes having a superior build quality, and vintage design. It was formed in the year 1955 when British Enfield motorcycle Company partnered with Madras-based Madras Motors in order to produce bikes for the Indian Army and was named as Enfield of India. The first bike assembled in India was a 350 cc bullet an overhead valve single cylinder four-stroke motorcycle which is one of the oldest bikes with a longest continuous production run of 75 years.

components were being made in India. In 1972, the original Redditch, Worcestershire based company was dissolved though the Indian brand ‘Enfield of India’ was still thriving, which then bought the rights to use the name Royal Enfield in the year 1995. The Indian brand is currently a subsidiary of Eicher Motors, an Indian automaker. Its products include Royal Enfield Bullet and other single cylinder motorbikes. 

Royal Enfield currently sells bikes in more than 50 countries including the  UK. It surpassed its competitor Harley Davidson in sales in the year 2015.

DeclineIn the 70s and 80s, there were only a handful of competitors for Royal Enfield Bullet. During that time, bikes were mainly used by urban people as a utility vehicle for transport. Though market share of Yezdi and Rajdoot was higher than that of RE but because of strong inherent brand values even the second-hand bullet had a good value. 

In the early 90s and late 80s, preferences of buyers began to change as they started considering quality, mileage and other parameters while buying a bike which RE neglected. Also after the liberalisation of 1991, the  entrance of Honda and Kawasaki Bajaj with fuel efficient motorbikes changed the market dynamics. RE’s market share came down from 25%

in the 70s to a mere 5% in the late 90s.

Revival Siddhartha Lal, the third generation CEO and MD of Eicher Motors came to the rescue of RE. He decided to do away with the 13 businesses and focus on only 2; one of them being Royal Enfield. His strategy was clear; instead of being mediocre in 15 businesses, it was better to be a master in 2. RE decided to focus on a niche market instead of competing with 11 other companies making bikes at that time. The niche segment that Lal focussed was mid-sized leisure motorcycle with target customers being Indian. In this way, he found a right positioning for RE in the crowded market. 

Parts were imported from England and assembled in Madras before 1957. In the year 1957, the company started importing technology to make the components in India; by the year 1962, all the

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Royal Enfield touched a new high by selling 25,000 bikes a year by the year 2005, which then reached 50,000 per year by 2010. But the bikes were being made on three different platforms which added to the cost of production. Lal decided to do away the other two and produce it on a single platform and also increased the scale of production in order to spread out the fixed cost over large output and maximise economies of scale. 

With the launch of Royal Enfield Classic, the sales of RE shot up 6 times from 50,000 in 2010 to 300,000 in 2014. It sold 400,000 bikes in FY 2015 the number increased by 50% to 600,000 bikes in the FY 2016. RE also solved the problems of electrical failure, oil leakages, engine seizures, snapping of accelerators and other major changes were made to the manufacturing process and supply chain. New engines with 30% fewer parts, lighter, powerful which improved efficiency, lower workloads and fewer warranty claims. The focus now is on mid-size segment targeting commuters using scooters and commuter bikes. 

Royal Enfield Product ProfileRoyal Enfield Bullet 350

With 18 bhp power from air cooled 4-stroke single cylinder 346 cc engine, fuel tank capacity of 13.5 litres the bike has got all the features to get excited about. It has got a traditional design of a bullet, superior design, comfort and is a flagship offering of the company, with other bikes being more of a derivative of Bullet rather than standalone products. 

Royal Enfield Bullet 500

A 499 cc, 13.5-litre single cylinder 4 stroke, twin sparked air cooled engine featuring electric start. It provides a higher torque at a low engine rpm, making the drivability easier. Though it looks similar to the 350cc model but a high power and capacity of the engine make it preferable for long journeys. 

Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 4S

Due to problems in kick start of its 350cc Bullet, due to CB point ignition system, Electra was introduced with CDI ignition system. This also paved way for newer bikes to have digital TCI as a part of standard package. 

STP AnalysisSegmentationRoyal Enfield segments the market on the basis of demography (country or city in this case), age group, income level, life style (leisure/utility/status symbol).

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TargetIt targets the middle-class people within the age group of 25-45. These are particularly executives in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities and young, rich and powerful in the case of Tier 3 cities. 

Positioning A powerful motorcycle for bike adventurers in the case of Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities and as a social status

.symbol in case of Tier 3 cities

SWOT Analysis

Competitors1. Bajaj Auto Limited2. Hero Motor Corp (Hero Honda)3. TVS 4. Suzuki5. Harley Davidson6. Yamaha 7. Ducati Superbike

Profits After Tax (PAT)Eicher switched from an earlier January-December FY cycle to April-March in compliance with the Companies Act, 2013.

The profit growth has seen a phenomenal jump over the past 3 financial years. The marketing strategies employed by Royal Enfield are finally paying off their.dividends

Units sold graph

Source: MoneyControlRoyal Enfield has seen a phenomenal growth in the mid-size motorcycle segment. Fueled by an aggressive marketing blitz-krieg and a loyal fan-base, the sales have rocketed over the years. This has ushered in huge profits for the company which ironically has a waiting period of 3-6 months on each order placed. That definWWitely does not seem to be a deterrent as customers value the brand and waiting period being the least of the concerns for an association with Royal Enfield.

The Indian motorcycle market, when segregated on tank capacity, gives a clear indication of the customer preferences. A huge chunk of the 150cc+ and 250cc+ bikes sold are by Royal Enfield.

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Royal Enfield RidesA way to create a strong brand awareness is by capturing the masses’ imagination. And that is the purpose that is served by the Royal Enfield Rides. The company promotes RE owners to undertake such road trips with other fellow riders in the process building a strong rider community.

Media Campaigns“Handcrafted in Chennai”

The latest campaign by Royal Enfield is a tribute to Chennai, its home. The advertisement captures how each Royal Enfield motorcycle is assembled and handcrafted in their Chennai plant unlike other bikes of today which are mass produced. The plant also boasts of Royal Enfield Bullet 350cc which has the longest production run for any motorcycle passing 75 years of continuous manufacturing.

The Chennai plant now also conducts factory tours for enthusiasts from all over wherein they are allowed to see the assembly process in action.

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“Leave Home”

Royal Enfield launched this campaign to promote their spirit of free riding with nothing binding the rider down. The campaign was released in print media aimed at capturing the imagination particularly of the 18-25 age group customers to explore with the rides.

The Royal Enfield has been immortalised by a perfect product placement (unintentionally on most occassions). It has been long associated with Bollywood movies from epic blockbuster “Sholay” to more contemporary flicks like “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag”. The trademark bullet engine sound has been embedded in the masses’ memories.Though firmly perched at the top with a cult status to the brand, the position is threatened by Harley Davidson and the likes. The customer associate RE with a luxury brand and a status symbol. The long history behind the brand makes it an even more enticing product.

In a world of Ducati and Harley Davidson, Royal Enfield has held its own among the customers. The classic analogue dials and the shiny chrome tanks bundled with the trademark piston pumping has created a community of riders who share the same passion. RE has tapped into this tactfully coming up with merchandises and rider festivals to create a brand awareness not seen by other brands.Below is the link of Royal Enfield advertisement of Royal Enfield Himalayan (a bike built specially for riding in tough conditions of Himalayas)Royal Enfield HimalayanHere is the advertisement’s narrative to inspire the explorer inside you..:Journeys are not great or small, they just are..Explorers were not born heroes, they were just curious,The earth awaits you, answer it,The sun will light your path, follow it,Valleys will not stay quiet, and even time will not stand still,Sometimes the first step.. is the final frontierDon’t turn around….!The mountains call us all,The only difference.. is what we say back..

ReferencesBusiness Standard, Economic Times, Royal Enfield, Eicher Motors Annual Report

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HIPPOCASE STUDY

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BackgroundIn 2001, Parle Agro entered the food segment of India with confectioneries. In 2009, it extended its presence into the Indian food snack category by launching 'Hippo'.  Hippo is neither potato chips nor biscuits; it is a new baked wheat snack brand. It was launched in five flavours- Pizza, Chinese Manchurian, Hot-n-Sweet Tomato,  Thai Chilli and Yoghurt Mint Chutney.

Hippo was promoted with the philosophy of ‘Hunger is the root of all evil. So, don’t go hungry.’. What differentiated Hippo from all of its competitors was its unique and uncommon brand endorser- A fat Hippo. Hippo’s humanistic character was loved by everyone. It communicated with everyone via Facebook, BlogSpot and Twitter.

The word HIPPO was written in huge font to go well along with the personality of the character. They advertised Hippo as Not fried only baked, which communicated the message of staying healthy and urged the consumers not to neglect their health and consume healthy snacks.

The brand performed extremely well in its category leaving the shelves across 200,000 stores empty.

Problems Faced By Hippo1. Distribution And Logistics

Hippo was launched in the Indian snack market in 2009 and received a stupendous response from the customers all over India. Within a few months of its launch, demand was becoming more and more and it was becoming difficult to meet the increasing demand. The retail shelves at various stores were becoming empty faster than expected leading to a demand-supply problem for the company.

It was becoming difficult for the developing Sales and Distribution Network to meet the overflowing demand. It was a daunting task to identify the empty stores and re-stock the empty shelves among the 4 00,000 retail stores nationwide.

1.1 Strategy

Plan T

To overcome the distribution problem, Hippo came up with an innovative solution instead of following the traditional way. It entered social media. In 2010, Hippo asked its followers on Twitter to send a tweet @HelloMeHippo about the unavailability of Hippo snacks at the neighbourhood stores. This campaign involved the customers in Hippo's entire supply process across specific locations. People heartily participated in huge numbers in this “Hunger-Fighting” campaign.

Tweets poured in from 45-50 cities in India. This campaign brought a huge number of followers on Twitter. It helped Hippo to get 400 more people to help with the sales and distribution at no cost via twitter. Customers were tweeting using their cell phones from colleges, supermarkets, local grocery stores, offices and railway stations.Hippo collected the information found on twitter, analysed it and sent the information to the local distributors of the specific areas who eventually restocked the retail shelves, thus satisfying the customers within hours.

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1.2 Execution

Hippo did not want to use the conventional way of spending large amounts of money by outsourcing the distribution and supply duties to overcome the demand-supply problem. It instead helped the customers by directly communicating with them. Hippo set up a core cell at the manufacturer’s headquarters in Mumbai, which was found to gather the information and immediately passed it to the distributors. This system was working very much efficiently. The stocks were replenished within 48 hours of receiving the complaints and the customers were informed immediately about the availability of hippo via twitter. They awarded the most active customers on twitter with ‘anti-hunger’ hampers in order to encourage more and more participation from the customers. It helped in creating a bond between the customers and the brand.

The customers began to realize that this campaign was helpful in solving their complaints and that their tweets made hippo available in their neighbourhood retail stores. Hippo gained more popularity by word of mouth publicity and social media.

1.3 Results

Hippo identified the problem it was facing and did not want the customers to take the empty retail shelves as an indication about the failure of the brand in a short span of time.

It came up with the Plan-T (Twitter), which was very much successful in converting the followers and customers into inventory trackers. Hippo was able to bring equilibrium between the demand and supply thus solving the distribution and logistics problem. Its sales rose by 76% in the initial phase of its launch. Before the launch of the campaign, Hippo had 800 followers on twitter which soon increased by 300% to 4000 followers which was equal to 50% of its sales and distribution network. The customers had an amazing experience to learn how a simple tweet can restock the retail stores and fulfil their demand. They engaged better with the brand and helped Hippo in building online presence.

Hippo was able to assess markets and identify potential markets for its business expansion with the help of this campaign. It identified its weakness and converted it into strengths by leveraging social media. Hippo is a very good example of how a brand retained its customers who could have gone to its competitors due to unavailability of stocks. It used social media to connect with the customers and provide real-time solutions to availability issues.

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2. Competition

One of the problems faced by Hippo was fierce competition. It had to stand out of an already crowded snack market and create a strong brand preference in the minds of consumers. It had to do something innovative which could give it an edge over the other competitors. With the nationwide successful digital campaigns in the past, Hippo came with another campaign, Indian Food League (IFL)

2.1 Strategy

Indian Food League

In 2012, Hippo launched an online campaign named, Indian Food League (IFL) during the Indian Premier League (IPL) session.

Indian Food League was catchy and funny and designed in order to engage all the cricket fans and capture the emotional rivalry amongst Indian cities during the IPL. The brand had designed a micro site for this campaign and organised an event with the campaign.

Hippo had named the teams like Chennai being represented by Idli Sambhar, Delhi by Papdi Chat, Mumbai by PavBhaji, Rajasthan by Dal Bati, Bangalore by Masala dosa, etc. So a match between Delhi and Mumbai would be a match between Papdi Chat and PavBhaji. Hippo added ‘today’s special’ which mirrored the match scheduled.

2.2 Execution

The IFL campaign was conceptualised and executed by Creative land Asia. All the cricket fans nationwide could login via twitter or facebook. They had to write witty comments in support of their favourite flavour and use different colours of chalk. They had to be as funny as possible to win the contest. Winners were announced daily and rewarded with Hippo bean bags. IFL was created as a platform to engage its customers during the cricket season. IFL was launched keeping in mind the large fan following for cricket in India. People watch cricket along with their family members and friends and Hippo IFL was targeted at this consumer pattern.

2.3 Results

Hippo’s IFL brought all the cricket fans together to watch their favourite teams fight it out. It gave all of them a chance to voice their humorous opinions. Hippo’s campaign became successful by bringing food to the heated and opinionated conversation.

IFL received astounding response with Hippos sales going up during the IPL season. It is a classic example of crowd-sourcing activity.

Currently, Hippo has 3,975 followers on twitter and 28,098 likes on Facebook.

Parle Agro preparing for a comeback

Nadia Chauhan, Joint Managing Director and Chief Marketing Officer, Parle Agro, in an interview said that Hippo as a Brand is doing well. Since the logistics cost in the snacking category is enormously high, Parle Agro is now planning to localise the factories and looking into the entire business model. It has added more factories and Hippo will take some time to become stronger nationally.

ReferencesMXMIndia, India Social, Campaign India, MBASkool, Best Media Info, Digital Marketing Blog

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SURROGATE ADVERTISINGCONCEPT OF THE MONTH

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Advertisements have a strong influence in our life. Advertisement decides the fate of the product. Our decisions whether to buy a product or not, is often completely influenced by the promotional activities of the companies concerned.

Surrogate advertising is duplicating the brand image of one product extensively to promote another product of the same brand. It aims to promote brand name rather than the actual product. Advertisement of prohibited product is done by indirect referencing.

In India, Product advertising for liquor and cigarette companies is banned since 1995 by Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act. Since liquor & cigarette generates high revenue a way had to be found to advertise these products. Various surrogate products used by companies include audio cassettes, soda, drinking water juices, etc. Surrogate Advertising is done simply to ingrain name of the brand in the mind of consumers.

Surrogate marketing is a smart way of marketing products as the original product is being marketed by just communicating the brand name.Through surrogate advertisements commodities dilute itself in the brand name. Liquor & cigarette advertisements lure customers by establishing their products as status symbols. In such cases changing buying behaviour of the consumers is extremely difficult as they look for brand & not product. People have stopped wearing ordinary shirts, but only wear Louis Philippe, Van Heusen or Arrow. Similarly, how a

person will not drink anything but Johnny Walker. And it goes without saying that once a person starts buying brand he ends up over-spending and over-consuming.

ExamplesBrands like “Royal Stag” & “Imperial Blue” are associated with Music CD’s and Music Concert.

Johnny Walker, associates their brand with successful achievers through “Keep Walking” campaign.

UB group has used the surrogate advertisement most effectively by creating a Kingfisher calendar, as well as by incorporating the tag line ‘The King of Good Times’ into their cobranded lifestyle channel, NDTV Good Times. UB group brought back its signature 'Oo la lala le o' jingle during IPL.

Fore square, a cigarettes manufacturing company is more known for the Four Square bravery award. Gold Flake, cigarette brand, sponsors tennis tournaments. For 5 consecutive years Manikchand, manufacturers of ghutka, sponsored the Filmfare Awards. Haywards 5000 promotes the soda & has launched a start-up reality program called ‘Haywards 5000 Hauslay Ki Udaan’.

VOLUME 04BEACONDec 2016

23 ISSUE 12

Legislative Measures

In the 1999 Voluntary Health Association of India filed a petition against Wills brand of cigarettes manufactured by ITC, seeking ban on the sponsorship of the Indian cricket team by them. The Association believed that repeated viewing of the logo on the official uniform of the players could influence a lot of viewers. In 2001; during the pendency of the petition, ITC on its own withdrew the sponsorship as it did not wish to go against any government endeavours.

As per ASCI (Advertising Standard Council of India) an advertisement is not objectionable as long as it does not contain direct or indirect sale or consumption for the product which is not allowed to be advertised.

To regulate the surrogate advertising the government has instructed the companies to manufacture sufficient quantity of surrogate products such as bottled water or music CDs & file for a certificate.

Moreover, the money spent on advertisements of surrogates should be proportionate to the actual sales turnover of the products. Most of the times, the taglines used in the ads of the surrogate products are same as ones used for liquor or cigarette brands. Now, direct or indirect reference to the banned products, use of same colours, presentations, layout or phrases as in the original ads has been prohibited. Even the story board or visuals should not resemble.

Conclusion

Advertisements are a means of information exchange. The problem occurs when heavy advertising is done so that the customers do not forget their liquor & tobacco brands, for which advertisements are banned.

Government is now enforcing ban on surrogate advertisements. As a response to this companies have started associating with events, award shows, films & are employing similar integrated marketing strategies.

Since liquor & cigarette are huge revenue generating industries, complete ban on these products is not practical. These brands will continue to exist & they will surely seek ways to promote their products to the masses. Whether surrogate or otherwise!

References

The advertising club, Legal service India, MarketingFAQ