Marketing review

Domino to increase ad budget by 20 pc
Dominos Pizza India plans to raise its marketing and advertising budget by 20 per cent to over Rs 10 crore next fiscal. The company is looking at making its first profit this fiscal, seven years after commencing operations in the country.

Dominos has begun focusing on offering its customer more food for less money and becoming the leader in the home delivery market. Dominos is also planning to launch a new product — the Double Cheeze Crunch Pizza. It has set aside Rs2 crore as the advertising budget for the launch of the new product and Paresh Rawal has again been taken to push the new product.. The company also plans to increase its number of outlets to 100 by the end of the fiscal.

Dominos free delivery promise was launched in May this year and since then Domino's has seen 40 per cent incremental sales since then though it has also given out 40,000 free pizzas since then.

Hyundai drops prices of Elantra
Hyundai has dropped the price of its upper 'C' segment model, Elantra, by over Rs1 lakh and the offer will be open for seven days. Early this month, Hyundai reduced the price of Santro to Rs3.01 lakh for three days and last December, it had reduced the price of Accent to Rs5 lakh also for a limited period.

According to the company officials these offers are on the back of the company having achieved significant milestones though industry experts say these limited period offers are basically to make up for poor sales between April and June when Hyundai was having production problems.

Company officials refute this and say Elantra's sales are on target.

Local advertisers top in radio
FM radio stations attract a different set of advertisers from the traditional television and print media according to the first report of Radio AdEx, a result of a collaborative effort between TAM India and AirCheck India (a subsidiary of RCS Inc, USA).

Of the top 10 product categories in terms of adspends on TV, press and radio, only two categories, cellular phone service and cars / jeeps, use all three for advertisisng.

The report says local advertisers and independent retailers account for close to three-fourths of the total advertising on radio. Another interesting fact is the second heaviest advertiser are promos of television channels accounting for close to 13 per cent of the advertising duration on radio.

81 per cent of spends in Chennai, 70 per cent in Delhi and 66 per cent in both Mumbai and Kolkata are by local advertisers. Currently the radio accounts for close to 2 per cent of the Indian advertising industry and is currently estimated to be at Rs150 crore for the first nine months of the year. For the full year spends could touch Rs220 crore.

New watch brand from makers of Maxima soon
Manufacturers of the Maxima brand of watches P A Time Industries, are rolling out a new brand of watches. According to the company, the new brand targeted at the youth has been developed and will be launched in January. The brand promises to be fashionable, trendy and affordable.

Nutrine launches hazelnut éclair
Nutrine Confectionery Company, maker of sweets and toffees has launched hazelnut éclair priced at Re1 each. The product will be initially sold in the southern States, according to the company.

Company officials said Nutrine Confectionery has begun exporting its products to various countries and the Nutrine Naturo, a real fruit in a bar segment, has become very popular in the domestic and international markets.

Oracle, Dell further marketing alliance
IT heavyweights Oracle and Dell have extended an eight-year old global alliance to India, whereby the two provide a common point-of-contact for all computing requirements.

Under the bilateral agreement, Dell will rely on its strength in direct sales to provide customers in India with enterprise solutions, integrating both hardware and software. To achieve the goal, both companies have dedicated teams to collaboratively carry out activities including cross training, joint marketing and also tracking.

The two companies have extended this alliance to Asia-Pacific region in Malaysia, Australia and China.

Pillsbury launches Punjabi atta
General Mills India maker of Pillsbury Chakki Fresh Atta to take on local players like Roshan da Atta and Shakti Bhog Atta has launched a new sub-brand under the Pillsbury brand - Punjabi atta. The company says it is segmenting the atta market and is targeting Punjabis living outside North India as Punjabis constitute a huge target market for atta.

The Punjabi atta according to the company is a customised and coarser ground atta and has been initially launched in the Mumbai market before being rolled out nationally. Carrying the baseline `Sadda Taste, Saadi Roti' (My taste, my roti), Pillsbury Punjabi atta has been designed and customised to suit the Punjabi palate. Pillsbury's Punjabi atta is pegged at Rs175 for 10 kg packs.

World Phone launches, World Phone Diamond, VoIP solutions
World Phone Internet Services (WPISPL) has introduced 'world phone diamond', a corporate VoIP package that allows customers to place unlimited calls to the US and Canada for Rs3,995 per month, according to a company press release.

The company is targeting corporate customers, call centres and other BPO operations with its new VoIP service that provides the customer with a US phone number, a US area code of choice, free unlimited in-bound calls, voice mail, caller ID, and call waiting and call forwarding to any World Phone or US number.

The company also offers 'world phone silver', which offers 500 minutes of call time to US and Canada for a monthly subscription of Rs1,495. Thereafter, calls will be charged at Rs3.50 per minute.

'World phone diamond' and 'world phone silver' will be available to corporate and individual customers in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.

Wipro diversifies into modular furniture
Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting, the FMCG division of Wipro has launched modular furniture. The modular furniture market is set to grow by 30 per cent on its current value of Rs 500 crore.

The company would sourcing the products from its captive vendors, Wipro would provide its own design and tooling to provide customised products to its customers in the ITES sector. Initially, Wipro Consumer Care provided solutions to its own companies in IT which focuses more functional and ergonomic furniture's to enhance the ambience and work environment to provide less stressful workplace.

The company has invested in space planning and product design team to meet the stringent requirements of the customers in the ITES sector.

— Compiled by Mohini Bhatnagar