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| Bhupesh Bhandari: The reign of rural retail | 19-NOV-09 |
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| Monsoon rains have been 23 per cent deficient this year. As the news from the Met office worsened week after week right through June, July and August, marketers became a worried lot. Urban markets had turned soft well over a year ago. The financial meltdown and fears of joblessness made it worse. But rural markets had held steady. The farm loan waiver, National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and increases in support prices of major crops in the run-up to the general elections ensured adequate money in the hands of rural customers. |
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| Bhupesh Bhandari: When the ads aren't good enough | 05-NOV-09 |
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| Conventional wisdom suggests that life insurance is always sold and not bought in India. There is no customer who will walk into a store and pick up a life insurance box off the shelf. Insurers have to go to homes and sell it. Max New York Life feels it can reverse the trend. |
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| Bhupesh Bhandari: The new pharmaceutical order | 23-OCT-09 |
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| The original poster boys of the Indian pharmaceutical industry all seem to be in a spot of bother. Habil Khorakiwala of Wockhardt has sold his animal health, nutrition and hospital businesses to repay the debt on his books. Dilip Shanhgvi of Sun Pharma faces regulatory problems in the US. Caraco Pharmaceuticals, a company he owns in that country, faces a manufacturing ban imposed by the Food & Drug Administration. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has had to recall products in the US. |
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| Bhupesh Bhandari: The basket case of Uttar Pradesh | 09-OCT-09 |
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| Business Standard Hindi had, some days ago, organised a roundtable in Lucknow. The idea was to bring together bureaucrats, economists and industry for a discussion on industrial development in the state. From the word go, businessmen proved very difficult to get. Normally, they are more than happy to get a platform to interact with top bureaucrats. Here, on one excuse or the other, they all opted out. |
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| Bhupesh Bhandari: Headhunters feel hunted | 25-SEP-09 |
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| That the market for jobs has improved is fairly well known by now. What is perhaps not so well known is that the improvement has been good enough for headhunters (they like to call themselves executive search firms) to get back in business. Some of them say business has rebounded to the pre-crash levels of 2008. Most of them are hiring at senior levels — people who can get business. Korn/Ferry has restored salary cuts for all partners. EMA Partners is in the process of opening an office in Hong Kong. |
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| Bhupesh Bhandari: Are celebrities worth their price? | 11-SEP-09 |
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| Purists will tell you that celebrity endorsement is nothing but lazy advertising. Instead of working on the brand, companies use a celebrity to create awareness and get the message across in a jiffy. The cost of creating the campaign may go up, but the money and time required to rub the brand in get reduced by a huge margin. |
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| Bhupesh Bhandari: Bitter-sweet times | 28-AUG-09 |
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| Sugar barons ought to be a happy lot. Sugar prices have risen steadily to over Rs 30 a kg as demand threatens to outstrip supply by a huge margin. It is more or less certain that the shortage will persist for at least one more year. Most of them have mills in Uttar Pradesh where there are no arrears of past payments to sugarcane farmers. Consequently, share prices of sugar companies have shot up in the last six months. Most promoters have seen their wealth climb 50 to 60 per cent. |
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| Bhupesh Bhandari: Royal challenge | 14-AUG-09 |
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| Ranibai Rajaram Chhabria, the mother of the late Manohar Rajaram ‘Manu’ Chhabria, has challenged in court the merger of Shaw Wallace with Vijay Mallya’s United Spirits, the Press Trust of India reported a few days ago. She has claimed that her son died intestate seven years ago and under Hindu Law she is entitled to a fifth of his estate, it said. |
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| Bhupesh Bhandari: Brand them into the dust | 31-JUL-09 |
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| The annual Brand Derby, the results of which were published last week in The Strategist, threw up some interesting results. First, right on top amongst the 2008 brand launches were two all-Indian entries — the Indian Premier League and Nano. Second, of the 26 brands rated by the 90 respondents, 13 came from Indian-owned companies — three cars, two direct-to-home services, two films, two apparel brands, two FMCG products, one general entertainment channel and IPL. And third, seven homespun brands made it to the ranks of the 16 most successful brand launches. The lessons to be drawn are: One, Indian marketers, if they want, can build strong brands. IPL and the Nano have gained recognition the world over. Amongst the six FMCG brands in the Derby, the one that was ranked on top was Mother Dairy’s Nutrafit probiotic milk drink. Two, companies across categories have come to realise the importance of a brand in a cluttered market. |
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| Bhupesh Bhandari: The business of family | 17-JUL-09 |
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| There is a businessman in Delhi, soft-spoken, deeply religious and courteous to a fault. He has a steady business, his employees speak well of him and his public image is spotless. But talk to him about his extended family and the politeness begins to melt, his nostrils flare and expletives begin to flow. |
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| Bhupesh Bhandari: The scent of oil | 03-JUL-09 |
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| There are very few product categories left where home-bred Indian companies still hold sway. Agreed, the two-wheeler market is dominated by Indian players, but the growing influence of Honda and Suzuki cannot be ignored. Multinational corporations lord over most other segments. One exception is that of hair oil. The entire market is controlled by Indian companies like Marico, Dabur India, Bajaj Consumer Care and Emami. But is it worthwhile? Ask any of them and you will be told that hair oil profits are second to no other fast-moving consumer good. |
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| Bhupesh Bhandari: A truckful of good news | 19-JUN-09 |
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| Truck sales have always been the most accurate barometer of the country’s economic health. Manufacturers need trucks to send their produce to distant markets, miners to transport raw materials, exporters to rush their merchandise to ports and farmers to take their output to the mandis. Every macroeconomic indicator suggests truck sales ought to be in the dumps — manufacturing indices are down, foreign trade has slumped. |
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| Bhupesh Bhandari: A report card for Malvinder | 05-JUN-09 |
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| When Parvinder Singh died in the summer of 1999, his father, Bhai Mohan Singh, was found pleading that his grandsons, Malvinder and Shivinder, be co-opted on the Ranbaxy board without any delay. They were, after all, the principal shareholders of the company. The brothers, on their part, put out a statement that they believed in their father’s philosophy of separating ownership from management and would, therefore, not seek a board representation. |
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| Bhupesh Bhandari: GE waits for the railway signal | 22-MAY-09 |
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| General Electric lobbied hard in favour of the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal. And it agreed to stick to Satyam when the company was in serious danger of imploding. Large customers were ready to junk the scam-tainted provider of software services. Alarmed, the government-appointed board soon after it took charge started calling up large customers not to cancel the work given to Satyam. |
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| Bhupesh Bhandari: Low-cost's fine, cheap isn't | 08-MAY-09 |
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| Pawan Munjal, the managing director and CEO of Hero Honda, has in his crosshairs a new two-wheeler which combines the performance of a bike with the price of a moped. Right now a Hero Honda bike can be bought for around Rs 31,000. Shaving a couple of thousand rupees off the price tag will not make the market explode, Munjal knows. The sweet spot lies well below Rs 25,000. His engineers are thus working towards a whole new price through value-engineering and some smart tax-planning. |
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