Henkel Spic extends Pril brand to glass cleaners
Henkel Spic India has extended its dishwash brand Pril to glass and surface cleaners and is phasing out the Brisk brand of glass cleaner.

Till now available only as a dishwash liquid, Pril, was launched as a dishwash bar earlier this year and gained market leadership in the dishwash liquid segment..

The small Rs10-crore glass cleaning segment comprises two main brands; Collins and Brisk.

Henkel Spic's other dishwash brand is Limeshot priced lower to Pril. The brand has a presence in the floor cleaners market as well, where it competes with Domex and Lizol.

Pril glass cleaner has been launched in a lime and vinegar formulation, which, the company says, will provide the highest degree of cleanliness.

The Pril brand is available at Rs48 for 500 ml, with an introductory offer of Rs40.

New premium coffee chain coming soon
Global Franchise Architects (GFA), the parent company of Pizza Corner India, is launching its second retail fast food chain, Coffee World, in India.

The first of the upmarket Coffee World pubs will open in Bangalore in October this year. GFA has been operating the Coffee World chain in Bangkok since 1997, and has some 35 outlets there.

The Coffee World brand would be positioned in the premium segment and the outlets would look more like a living room with upholstered chairs and wood décor. The pubs will serve international blends of coffee, priced higher than the market.

With the company-owned flagship store being in Bangalore, GFA plans to roll out 10 to 12 stores in a year for the next 4 to 5 years through franchisees.

AirTel launches `Mail Live` facility
AirTel Andhra Pradesh circle has launched a 'mail live' facility for corporate customers according to which corporates can enable their employees to access office e-mails from WAP (wireless access protocol) or GPRS (general packet radio service) enabled handsets.

AirTel has tied up with Hyderabad-based JP Mobile, an enterprise mobility software solutions provider, to use its SureWave Enterprise Server for launching the mail live facility.

Companies can now enable their employees to read, reply, forward, delete or compose email from their respective office email accounts. Users can also modify contacts, view or edit attachments directly from their AirTel phones.

The mail live facility is compatible with number of devices such as palm, pocket PCs, Symbian smart phones as well as phones with WAP / GPRS browsers.. The facility also provides a single platform for all mail servers like MS Exchange, Lotus Domino and Novell GroupWise.

The facility, which at present is limited to the Andhra Pradesh circle of AirTel, will be expanded to the other circles in phases.

Standard Chartered launches Manhattan card
Standard Chartered Bank has introduced the Manhattan card in India after launching it in Singapore and Hong Kong. Targeted at the fast growing, ambitious, upwardly mobile Indian customer Manhattan is positioned as a lifestyle credit card.

The card gives customers the choice of setting their own pricing levels with interest rates varying from as low as 1.99 per cent per month to 2.49 per cent per month, depending upon spending and payment patterns. The Manhattan card is offered free for life and does not have an annual fee.

According to Mike DeNoma, group executive director, Standard Chartered Bank, the success of Manhattan is based on the premise that "one size does not fit all".

The Manhattan experience will be delivered through various events and activities classified into four experience zones for customer to choose from. These are:

Manhattan Sauce: (wining and dining): Example: A daylong trip to 'The Vineyard' located at Sula Vineyard.

Manhattan Unwind: (movies, music, art, sports & entertainment): Example: Exclusive Thursday Midnight movie previews of forthcoming blockbusters.

Manhattan TimeOut : (travel and adventure): Example: White water rafting,Micro-lite flying sessions or midnight hikes in the hills.

Manhattan BodySoul: (health, fitness and wellness): Example: Ranging from spa, body & soul rejuvenating session to vipashna sessions and personal session by aerobic instructors.

Pepsi emerges 'most recalled brand'
Pepsi has emerged as the brand with the highest advertisement recall among high value consumers in the metros and bigger towns across the country.

According to the Indicus Consumer Tracker, a monthly monitor by demographic research firm Indicus Analytics, which follows the buying and brand preferences of affluent consumers, automobiles loom large on consumer minds and lifestyle, with car brands emerging as the biggest symbol of status and luxury.

Indian consumers also associate highly with parent brands and companies such as Hindustan Lever, ITC, Cadbury's and Tatas as all these have shown high recall despite not being actively marketed as brands. MNC brands too score better in lifestyle associations, while brands of Indian origin are recognised more for their `economy' and `value for money'.

For the advertising fraternity the message is loud and clear — humour emerges as the advertising language of the day and beats celebrity advertising hands down. And consumers consider politicians of the day to have great potential as brand ambassadors, with railway minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav, and Priyanka Vadhra emerging as the favourite top male and female celebrities in advertisements by the respondents.

4,000 respondents from urban and emerging towns put Pepsi, Maruti, Tata, Sony and Samsung (in that order) at the top of the 200 unaided brand recall list. Of the five top brands, only Pepsi figured at the top of the unaided advertisement recall list of top 100 brands. The other four brands on the unaided ad recall are Close Up, Hutch, Cadbury's and Coke.

The most liked ad was the Hutch boy-and-the-dog commercial, with the slogan 'wherever you go our network follows' emerging as the most-liked slogan.

In the `brand associations' category, Mercedes-Benz tops the `status symbol' and `luxury brand' associations. Interestingly, even though the brands emerging as the top `status symbols' are foreign brands, Raymond came in second while Maruti a distant eighth.

The brands associated with the `value-for-money' propositions are mostly Indian, with Maruti, ICICI, LIC, Bajaj, Tata, Bata and SBI among the top ten.

The brands having top of the mind brand association with the word `hi-tech' is topped by Sony, Samsung and Intel, while Reliance, Tata and Yamaha are brands that have top-of-the-mind brand associations with the word `power'.

Dabur cuts shampoo prices
Dabur India has put in place several aggressive initiatives to spur demand for its products, which include selective price reduction, product launches and introduction of smaller packs at the Rs5 price point for the first time.

To begin with Dabur has slashed prices of its Vatika shampoo by 20 per cent from this month onwards. After the cut the 100-ml Vatika would be available for Rs38 comparable to HLL's Sunsilk. However, Dabur has excluded its value-for-money shampoo brand, Anmol, from the price cut.

Dabur will soon launch smaller packs in the products segment that include baby massage oil, toothpaste, shampoo and hair oil. Apart from this several product launches are in the pipeline. The company plans to introduce a herbal toothpaste and a gel under the flagship brand Dabur as well as another shampoo variant this fiscal.

Dabur is also planning to overhaul its brand image and has begun the process of revamping its age-old logo. After 15 years of sporting the banyan tree as its logo, the company is replacing it with something "more contemporary and relevant." The design of the new logo has been handed over to DMA, part of the Aalia group. The logo is expected to be ready by mid-October. Apart from the logo redesign, Dabur will initiate a complete packaging redesign for some products including new printing and moulds, and a new advertising campaign by O&M.

Dabur recently revamped its digestives brand Hajmola.

Hitachi launches new Acs
Hitachi Home and Life Solutions India has launched five new cooling solution products for the Indian market. These include the Sense I split air conditioner, two models of the floor standing Hitachi Tower air conditioner, the Microcool Cassette ceiling air conditioner and the high end Quadricool window air conditioner.

Quadricool will be available at an approximate price of Rs25,000 and comes with 'twin turbo' technology for better cooling, a power index and Hitachi's patented Auto Climate Technology (ACT).

Hitachi claims to have a 14 per cent share in the organised market is looking to increase its share to around 20 percent in the next two years. The company also says that it is the market leader in the high-end segment, while LG remains the leader in the low end.

Tata Indicom gets into pre-paid segment
Tata Indicom has finally entered the wireless prepaid market with the launch of the '100 % Sacchai True Paid.' It is offering a service based on a one-second pulse, 100 per cent talk-time and a flat tariff for both local and STD calls at 5 paise per second.

Though there is no promotional tariff offer with the prepaid Tata Indicom is offering a hundred thousand free seconds (1,666 minutes approximately), 2,000 free SMSs per user, and free download of ring-tones, games, and wallpapers, (depending on the handsets bought) till November 14, 2004.

The Tata Indicom prepaid voucher carries 100 per cent talktime as the company does not impose any administrative charges or plan fees.

The launch will be supplemented with the simultaneous launch of two T-SIM-enabled CDMA handsets as well as four non T-SIM ones to enable users to be handset independent if they choose to, and to retain their SIM cards whenever they change handsets according to the company.

Modern Food launches `diet bread'
Hindustan Lever is launching 'diet bread' under the Modern brand. According to the company, Modern Diet Bread does not contain any added fat or sugar.

Manufactured at HLL's Mumbai facility in Aarey Milk Colony Modern Diet bread is priced at par with its atta bread, Modern Diet Bread, at Rs 12 for 400gm and is at a premium to its white bread (Rs 9 for 400gm).

HLL has been adding new product variants under the Modern brand such as the earlier launched Annapurna fortified atta bread. The Modern brand has been extended to buns, rusks, doughnuts and biscuits, although most of these new products are still being tested in various markets and do not have a national presence. Apart from this, there exists its original white bread, small cakes and whole-wheat brown bread pegged at Rs 14 for 400gm.

According to industry data, the bread market is estimated at Rs2,000 crore (inclusive of both the organised and unorganised sectors). The other significant players are Britannia and Harvest Gold, besides a host of regional players in different markets.

— Compiled by Mohini Bhatnagar