Focus Shifts To Price Cuts, Brand Building

The third marketing summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) turned out to be a complete sellout despite dignitaries including Suresh Prabhu, the former power minister, Vinod Khanna, minister of state for tourism and culture, and Sunil Alagh, managing director and chief executive officer, Britannia Industries, opting out at the last moment.

Interestingly, the luminaries this time spoke on the importance of price cuts, brand positioning and the impact of electronic medium to build up a brand and determine market shares across categories.

Bharat Patel, chairman, Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care Ltd, said that cutting the price of Tide detergent by 30 per cent and following it up with an effective and striking advertising campaign led to an increase in demand for the product by almost 200 per cent within few months.

 

Alex von Behr, president, Coca-Cola India, also said that specific markets including Gujarat and Rajasthan have reacted quite favourably to a price cut by the cola-major. He, however, added that some other markets such as Punjab are more sensitive to the imagery and the packaging of the brand.

He said that lower price positioning in the form of 200 ml bottles has also been responsible for a healthy 26 per cent growth shown by the company in the last quarter.

Raj Jain, managing director, Whirlpool of India Ltd, stressed on the importance of reacting to customer needs