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Margabandhu is a sales officer of the Trichy division of Glitz, a company involved
in the manufacture of vermicelli (pasta products). Glitz is a Rs. 100 cr
company involved in the manufacture of biscuits, wafers, vermicelli and also has
backward integration with manufacture and marketing of products like rava and atta.
The main objective of the case is to focus on Margabandhu's line of action for
a product whose sale is stable, but he wanted to make the product safer
when competition arrived. His plan was to build additional sales by increasing
consumption out of his existing product. For this
he planned an event management based sales promotion activity from which he
wanted to build a customer relationship program. This case study analyzes the
sales promotion program involved as also the intervening consumer behavior scenario.
Glitz is a market leader and involved in the manufacture and marketing
of vermicelli in three variants—short, long
and hooks—based on the length and shape of the vermicelli. The tradition of the
people in the district (Trichy district in Tamil Nadu) is that payasam (Vermicelli in Sweetened Milk) and khitchdi (both south Indian dishes) were served in
every marriage with lunch and breakfast, respectively and their main ingredient
is vermicelli. The cooks of the area were used to Glitz and were intent on using the
same. Recently, with the multiplicity of branded vermicelli,
mushrooming of retailers and with the entry of big names in
self-service supermarkets, the choice of various
brands of vermicelli became available. Though the sales of Glitz vermicelli never showed
any sign of decline, the management of Glitz did not want to take any chances
and asked Margabandhu to plan the sales promotion activities not only to
maintain, but also to increase the sale of vermicelli. |
