BRIEF INTRODUCTION OF THE BRAND

Hamza Vegetable Oil Refinery & Ghee Mills Pvt, in a brief period of less than 20 years, has

championed quality assurance and customer satisfaction to emerge asone ofthe top two market

leaders in the Edible Oil and Ghee industry in Pakistan.

Under its marketing name of Sufi Banaspati& Cooking Oil it has introduced international

standards of production and packaging to its industry. With certification of ISO9001:2008, the

company continues to live up to its promise of its distinction in customer satisfaction and

consistency in quality with commitment and dedication.

Currently operating with 3 state of the art production plants, it is the only company in Pakistan

providing pure oils and banaspati to its customers. With a countrywide distribution network

channel, it holds a good market share and offers a wide range of packaging options. The

company takes pride in its prized employees who form an integral part of this growth and

development over the years. The company not only enjoys loyalty from its customers but also

from its employees and boasts of average employment term as high as 8 years. We aim to

continue on its path of leadership and excellence with ever growing zeal and vigor.

REASON OF CHOOSING BRAND

We choose Sufi oil and ghee because at first Sufi was a market leader at a time. But at current

time period there are many companies which are competing for maximum market share. Many

companies positioned themselves as healthy and premium like Cannolive. So Sufi is struggling

against these kinds of brands and they are not focusing on new trends that are entering into the

markets. Because of this intensive market competition Sufi lost its market share at some extent.

This information was collected by interviewing the distributors by us.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BRAND ON THE BASIS OF IMC

COMPONENTS, ELECTRONIC & PRINT ADS.

Advertising

Advertising is a non personal and mostly paid medium through which companies convey their

message to the customers about their products and also promote their product in the market.

Advertising has long been viewed as a method of mass promotion in that a single message can

reach a large number of people. But, this mass promotion approach presents problems since

many exposed to an advertising message may not be within the marketer’s target market, and

thus, may be an inefficient use of promotional funds. However, this is changing as new

advertising technologies and the emergence of new media outlets offer more options for targeted

advertising.

Advertising have strength like the company’s control over the message content and also

company can define location and timing of the advertisement. Also use of different advertising

mediums also defines which type of viewers is watching company’s advertisement like TV users

are different from Radio listeners. Advertisement can influence and persuade consumer to buy

the advertised product.

In case of our product that is SUFI ghee and oils they are also using different advertisement

mediums for their promotion. Sufi uses TV ads, print ads in newspaper and magazines,

billboards etc to convey their message to their target audience. Sufi has a difference in their TV

advertisement and their print and website ads. They convey the message of the leisure and love

and affection in family relations e.g. their one ad “Zaiqa Jashan Ka” is totally based on family

gathering and feeling of a event. On the other hand their print ads and website description is

based on health benefits of using Sufi ghee and oil. They include information like ingredients of

ghee or oil and also added benefits like vitamin A, B and E. So there is no uniform message in

among different mediums of advertisement.

Sales promotion:

Sales promotion can be described as a promotional method using special short-term benefits to

persuade members of a target market to respond or undertake certain activity. As a reward,

marketers offer something of value to those responding generally in the form of lower cost of

ownership for a purchased product e.g., lower purchase price, money back or the inclusion of

additional value-added material. These benefits in return support product’s sale. Sales promotion

also generates excitement and encourages immediate purchase. Sales promotion can be given to

traders and also directly to the consumers. Trade promotions are the benefits or offers that is

given to distributors and retailers. Trade promotions help companies increase product visibility,

and increase the product purchase rate. But while there are multiple products on the market,

retailers only have limited space to display items on their shelves. It is therefore sometimes

necessary to encourage retailers to stock your item instead of your competitor's. Customer

promotions are the short term benefits that are given directly to the customer in form of discounts

or any coupons etc.

In case of Sufi they also offer trade promotions as well as customer promotions. In trade

promotions firstly they give a good and reasonable margin to their distributors of Rs 45-50 so

that more distributors are attracted towards Sufi ghee and oil. Also Sufi gives its distributors a

target to achieve. If they achieve those targets the company debits their accounts of some

incentives. These targets are based on the volume of their sales of the product. On the other hand

Sufi also gives promotion directly to consumers also. Sufi also gives retailers some stock on

credit basis also. They receive the cash payments from retailers when the stock is mostly sold out

but this credit is only given to those retailers who are frequent buyers of Sufi ghee and oil. These

promotions are carried out in normal routines but are mostly available in special months like

Ramzan.

Personal Selling:

Personal selling is a method in which one party like the salesperson uses skills and techniques for

building personal relationships with another party which are involved in a purchase decision that

results in both parties obtaining their desired action. Because selling involves personal contact,

this method often occurs through face-to-face meetings or via a telephone conversation, though

newer technologies allow contact to take place over the Internet including using video

conferencing or text messaging. One key advantage personal selling has over other methods is

that it is a two-way form of communication. In selling situations the salesperson can adjust the

message as they gain feedback from customer. So if a customer does not understand the initial

message e.g., doesn’t fully understand how the product works the salesperson can make

adjustments to address questions or concerns. Many non-personal forms of promotion, such as a

radio advertisement, are inflexible, at least in the short-term, and cannot be easily adjusted to

address audience questions.

In case of Sufi they use personal selling is used but not for direct customers but for retailers.

Some of the distributors send their delivery boy to search for shops that don’t have Sufi ghee and

oil and they convince those retailers to keep Sufi ghee and oil in their shop by telling its

advantages and giving them good profit margins.

Online and Interactive:

It is a customized and direct communication that uses technology like websites, social media

pages, blogs and many other mediums to deliver the message and also encourage the audience’s

response. It is the most growing method that is used now days as new technology advancements

are taking place. People are more tend to search online about any product they want to buy or

want any further detail of that product that they bought. Social networks are growing and mostly

everyone is using social media which is best suited for their personality. So this method of

promotion attracted many of the marketers to focus more on online and interactive media of

promotion as many of its mediums are free to use. Also this method can deliver the message to a

wide variety of audience and get response from them at the same time

Sufi is also using this medium for its promotional reasons. Sufi developed a website through

which they convey their message about their product. They gave description about every type of

Ghee and cooking oil they have. They also have a section of blogs where they post about latest

updates about any events and latest news. They also have a poll area in their website to get

response from visitors. They have a member’s area where people can join Sufi’s member club

and get inside information of Sufi and also they inform its members about latest upcoming

products and discounts. Their website gives message of a healthy living and gives image of

brand as a health conscious brand. But on the other hand their TV ads focuses on leisure and

family relations.

Product Placement and Branded entertainment:

Product placement is a form of advertising where a business will pay to have its product

prominently displayed in a TV show or any drama or film. Product placement is most prevalent

today in movies or television shows. It is a rather indirect form of advertising, because the

product isn't being expressly pitched for sale. In this method company will pay the TV show,

Drama or any film to show and mention their product in their drama/film. It is very effective

because in this method exposure can be high and frequency also can be high.

Sufi also uses this method of promotion to promote their product. Sufi has sponsored many

cooking shows in the past from different cooking TV channels like Ary Zauq and Masala TV.

Sufi also sponsored special transmissions in the holy month of Ramzan on Express TV. Now a

day’s Sufi is sponsoring a cooking TV show named as Dawat on Masala TV hosted by Chef

Gulzar Hussain.

Point Of Purchase:

Point of purchase and packaging is an in-store media like ads, shelf displays, ads on shopping

carts in store TV and product packaging etc. These items are generally located at the checkout

area or other location where the purchase decision is made. The customer is more attracted

towards this type of promotion method because PoP materials are generally near to the product

which makes up the mind of the customer to buy that product. This also causes impulse buying

and can modify habitual purchasing behavior. PoP materials can also encourage retailers to stock

that product prominently, as the customers buying behavior is changed due to PoP material, so

there will be more buying of the product having POP.

Sufi is using very little POP materials. Sufi only sends a little POP material when there is a sales

promotion or any new product is launched like “Dastarkhwan”. There is no POP material on

small or medium retailers but a little POP material is provided on Super markets. For POP Sufi

also gives the product on credit to the retailers so that their shelf space can be enhanced and thus

can create impulse buying.

GAP IDENTIFIED

The gap identified by us on the basis of IMC Plan and viewing of five print ads and 5 TV ads is

this that they have

“No synergy in their message, the message conveyed by the SUFI via print ad is focused

on health benefits and the company has also positioned its brand on trust factor whereas

via TV ads the message displayed does not support it all as they focus more on leisure and

family gatherings, lack of scientific information is a big gap that they lack in their ads.”