Bpl Sets Aside Rs 120 Crore For Brand-Building

Consumer electronics major BPL has earmarked a whopping Rs 120 crore for a brand-building and marketing exercise this year. Since the first half of the current year has not seen much growth in the colour television (CTV) segment, due to lack of demand, BPL is keen on enhancing its marketing efforts.

During 1999-2000, the cricket World Cup gave a boost to the CTV sales to a large extent, and BPL sold more than one million CTVs during the same period.

As the CTV market has become extremely competitive, BPL is now looking at a multiple brand strategy and aggressive promotional campaign. At the top end, the company has Digital BPL, a competitor for Sony and Panasonic, and for the middle segment and price fighters such as Sansui and Akai, it has Evelux.

"But we do not have plans to launch any more CTV brand within the next two years," an official said. Evelux is aimed at enhancing market penetration and Digital BPL is aimed at raising the value of the mother brand, he added.

"This brand fragmentation has become important as the market has become fragmented with the entry of several brands and the cake is getting cut more and more," the official said.

The company is taking several initiatives to maintain its competitive advantage and market leadership, which include achieving the status of "the most customer oriented company" through superior delivery and customer relationship management.

The other key initiatives are Net-enabling of the company and deeper penetration of the export markets.

Moreover, there has been a drop in the offtake of CTV sales in the first half of the current fiscal unlike the last two years, which witnessed strong growth in volumes, up to nearly 40 per cent.

In 1999-2000, BPL posted a turnover of Rs 2014.6 crore, while its net profit stood at Rs 107.1 crore, a 4.54-per cent growth over the previous year.

BPL has nine manufacturing units, 39 offices and 3,300 employees in India. It had long relationships with its foreign partners like Sanyo, Toshiba, France Telecom, Siemens and Media One.