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Growth
and Development in Asia: The Evolving Perspectives in Marketing
Practices
-- R Venkatesh
Corporate
activities in various industries—ranging from textiles,
consumer goods, and automobiles, to healthcare, travel and
tourism—are now going through a metamorphosis in the
Asian continent. The developed nations can no longer disregard
the growing purchasing power of the millions of people in
Asia. Marketing practices are getting fine-tuned and exciting
developments are on the anvil. Asian countries have woken
up to the immense possibilities of marketing alliances among
themselves. This paper elaborately discusses different types
of marketing trends in the Textile Industry, Telecommunication,
Electronics, Automobiles, Healthcare Marketing, Education
and Training, and concludes with a note that with such emerging
marketing trends towards mergers and acquisitions, big multinational
companies are expected to evolve in the developing countries,
encouraging the new concept of `franchising'.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Analysis
of the Strategies of HLL and Coca-Cola in the Indian Rural
Market
-- Kaushik Mukerjee
India's
rural market holds high potential for increased consumer buying,
as per the reports prepared by the National Council for Applied
Economic Research (NCAER). This paper explains the potential
of the rural market and the issues of concern with regard
to rural marketing, with supportive data. A research framework
is presented, followed by the cases of Hindustan Lever Ltd.
(HLL) and Coca-Cola. The cases cover the strategies employed
by these companies for the rural market. An analysis of the
research framework and the data presented in the cases has
been carried out.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Wal-Mart:
A Value Chain Analysis
-- A
Lakshminarasimha and Apeksha Pande
The
arrival of Wal-Mart—the largest grocery retailer in the
United States, with an estimated 20% of the retail grocery
and consumables business—in India, as a joint venture
with Sunil Mittal's Bharti, has created much excitement and
media hype. This paper describes the value chain of Wal-Mart
of USA, outlining the Indian retail environment today, with
a mapping of the value chain for the success of a supermarket
in the Indian scenario.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Emerging
Trends in the Marketing of Consumer Durables in India
-- R Harish
The
annual market for consumer durables in India (excluding computers
and communication products) is currently of the order of Rs.
25,000 cr. In recent years, intense competition has led to
a decline in prices. Consequently, market growth has mainly
been in terms of quantity, rather than value. Further, the
increase in quantity is propped up by consumer financing,
promotions and discounts. Distribution is fragmented, and
there are 40,000 consumer durable dealers in India. Organized
retailing is catching on, but has overheads due to expensive
real estate, air conditioning and higher manpower costs. One
tries to offset this by negotiating lower prices with durable
manufacturers. The Indian consumer is brand-conscious, but
not necessarily brand-loyal, and might even pick up a reliable
private label if it offers good price and quality values.
Retailers such as Reliance, Future Group, Hyper City and E-Mart,
therefore, plan to launch low-priced private labels by importing
in large quantities from China and Thailand. Domestic durable
manufacturers are responding by expanding their product range
to ensure higher bargaining and shelf power with the trade.
They are also exploring the possibility of cross-category
tie-ups with non-competing partners from other industries
to tap each others' points of influence, particularly in smaller/rural
markets. Consumer durable penetration is one of the lowest
in India and the untapped potential is evidently enormous.
However, as Indian consumers continue to attach a high degree
of importance to value for money, both manufacturers and traders
would be compelled to explore every conceivable method to
improve operational efficiencies, in order to achieve substantial
and profitable business growth.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Sales
Force Management A Comparative Analysis of Major and Upcoming
Pharmaceutical Companies in India
-- Girish Taneja and Usha Arora
In
a fiercely competitive pharmaceutical market that is flooded
with me-too products, the competition is no longer between
products and strategies. The competition is between the talent
of one company and that of another. It is the quality of sales
force that determines success in the market place. The ever-intensifying
competition and the unending proliferation of brands place
a premium on the personal selling element of pharmaceutical
marketing. This research paper is aimed at determining the
current aspects related to fieldwork norms, sources of recruitment,
training and compensation of sales force in the pharmaceutical
industry and exploring the differences in sales force management
practices among the major and upcoming players in the pharmaceutical
industry. A close-ended questionnaire was sent to the managers
of the marketing department of the selected ten companies,
out of which nine responded (five Group 1 and four Group 2
companies). To find out the differences between the sales
force management practices of the two groups of pharmaceutical
companies, various null hypotheses were tested by applying
Mann-Whitney test. Based on the findings, a few recommendations
have been made to the pharmaceutical companies to manage their
sales force and achieve their sales objectives.
©
2007 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
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