After FMCG, auto, real estate and telecom, now it’s the time for consumer durable players in the country to enter the slugfest!
Summer in India looks a lot different this year, at least when it is about the so called ‘short’ commercial breaks, which always hit your road just when you’ve got too engrossed with your daily soap or cricket match on the idiot box. Strangely, the colas are nowhere to be seen – at least relatively. Instead, there are a number of celebrities posing with refrigerators or demonstrating the features of air conditioners, TVs too. Yes, there’s a war brewing north, south, east and west of centre, and it’s worse than last year.
The reason is quite obvious. Encouraged by the reviving economic conditions in the country, manufacturers of consumer durables in India have enormously increased their marketing budgets to makes sure that no stone is left unturned to woo the consumers. The size of their budgets is spectacular, if not numbing. For example LG India, the subsidiary of the Korean consumer durable major, has earmarked a total of Rs.1,000 crore (Rs.700 crore for Marketing and Rs.300 crore on R&D) for this year alone. The company confirms its strategy of placing the Indian market on its priority list.
The rejoinder is not so dissimilar in the case of Whirlpool, which has geared up for massive below-the-line (BTL) activities and is currently hosting various events (like in-store demonstrations, point of sale materials, trade and consumer promotions et al). In terms of marketing though, the figure is nowhere close to LG’s behemoth power. As per Whirlpool, it has plans to shell out around Rs.60-70 crore during this year with the focus of trebling the sales volume of its ACs.
Even Hitachi India, a major in the air conditioner segment, has raised its marketing spends by nearly 35% as compared to last year and is aggressively escalating its presence in Tier II and Tier III towns through a 25% to 30% expansion in its distributors network. But the question is, what’s so different this year that was not there the previous year? Why is there a more than significant jump in various marketing expenditures of players?
As per latest reports, the Indian AC and refrigerator markets are expected to surge to 3.2 million units and 6.2 million units respectively by the end of 2010. Considering the buying patterns witnessed in India, a major chunk of the sales would take place in summers, that is, during the April-June quarter. This makes it imperative for the durable players to ramp up their production levels in both the product categories and set higher growth targets for this quarter. Moon Bum Shin, MD, LG India, says to 4Ps B&M, “For ACs, we have a current production capacity of 1.3 million, which we intend to scale it up to 1.5 million with an investment of Rs.80 crore.” He further adds that his company is now targeting to generate a revenue of Rs.3,000 crore from the refrigerator category this year.
For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine
IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summer in India looks a lot different this year, at least when it is about the so called ‘short’ commercial breaks, which always hit your road just when you’ve got too engrossed with your daily soap or cricket match on the idiot box. Strangely, the colas are nowhere to be seen – at least relatively. Instead, there are a number of celebrities posing with refrigerators or demonstrating the features of air conditioners, TVs too. Yes, there’s a war brewing north, south, east and west of centre, and it’s worse than last year.
The reason is quite obvious. Encouraged by the reviving economic conditions in the country, manufacturers of consumer durables in India have enormously increased their marketing budgets to makes sure that no stone is left unturned to woo the consumers. The size of their budgets is spectacular, if not numbing. For example LG India, the subsidiary of the Korean consumer durable major, has earmarked a total of Rs.1,000 crore (Rs.700 crore for Marketing and Rs.300 crore on R&D) for this year alone. The company confirms its strategy of placing the Indian market on its priority list.
The rejoinder is not so dissimilar in the case of Whirlpool, which has geared up for massive below-the-line (BTL) activities and is currently hosting various events (like in-store demonstrations, point of sale materials, trade and consumer promotions et al). In terms of marketing though, the figure is nowhere close to LG’s behemoth power. As per Whirlpool, it has plans to shell out around Rs.60-70 crore during this year with the focus of trebling the sales volume of its ACs.
Even Hitachi India, a major in the air conditioner segment, has raised its marketing spends by nearly 35% as compared to last year and is aggressively escalating its presence in Tier II and Tier III towns through a 25% to 30% expansion in its distributors network. But the question is, what’s so different this year that was not there the previous year? Why is there a more than significant jump in various marketing expenditures of players?
As per latest reports, the Indian AC and refrigerator markets are expected to surge to 3.2 million units and 6.2 million units respectively by the end of 2010. Considering the buying patterns witnessed in India, a major chunk of the sales would take place in summers, that is, during the April-June quarter. This makes it imperative for the durable players to ramp up their production levels in both the product categories and set higher growth targets for this quarter. Moon Bum Shin, MD, LG India, says to 4Ps B&M, “For ACs, we have a current production capacity of 1.3 million, which we intend to scale it up to 1.5 million with an investment of Rs.80 crore.” He further adds that his company is now targeting to generate a revenue of Rs.3,000 crore from the refrigerator category this year.
For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine
IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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