1.

1 INTRODUCTION

A company is a natural legal entity formed by the association and group of people to
work together towards achieving a common objective. It can be a commercial or an
industrial enterprise. Different types of companies are taxed differently; therefore, the
taxation of the company defines its type. Some of the main definitions of the company
are as follows;

According to the definition of a company by the Indian Act 2013;‘‘A registered

association which is an artificial legal person, having an independent legal, entity with
perpetual succession, a common seal for its signatures, a common capital comprised of
transferable shares and carrying limited liability.’’

Key Features of a Company

1. Artificial person
The law treats the company as a legal artificial person because it has its name and
bank accounts. It can also own property under its name, file a lawsuit against other
companies or personals, or be partnered up with other companies. It performs all
of the activities that a person can legally do; a company can do it well. Therefore,
it acts as an artificial individual.
2. Separate Legal Entity
When we say legal entity, what it means that it’s completely independent of its
people who control its operations. In other words, the company won’t be
responsible if its members don’t pay their debt. The same goes for the company as
well; that the members don’t have to pay for the debt of the company, if it’s unable
to pay to its creditors.
3. Incorporated Association
A company starts its business operations when it is registered by the law and under
the ordinance of the companies act. The registration process of a company is
lengthy; it should have a memorandum of association, board of directors, share
prices and shareholders, a name, office, phone number, address, and other legal
documentation.
4. Limited Liability
The liability of shareholders is limited to their share price only; it is in the limited
companies by share. On the other hand, in the case of limited companies by
guarantee, where the share of contributors is like an asset in the company; if the
company goes bankrupt, then the shareholders have to pay a small amounts to
cover up the loss of the company.
5. Common Seal
As we know that a company acts as an artificial legal individual, therefore, it has a
stamp or seal with the name and address engraved on it. This stamp would be like
the signature of the company. The stamp and company’s seal is used for the
verification and authorization of various documents.
6. Perpetual Existence
Unlike proprietorship, partnership or any other type of business, a company doesn’t
depend upon its owners, board of directors, shareholders, or employees. Many
people come and go in the company, but it stays. Therefore, the existence of the
company is much stable than

Types of Companies
We can categorize companies based on various types like; liability, taxes, shares
members and control. Some of those classifications are given below with examples,

1) Classification of Companies based on Liabilities

a) Companies Limited by Shares
As the name implies, the liability of the company is limited to the share price of
each shareholder. Personal assets of the shareholders won’t be disturbed; their
responsibilities are limited to their debt of the company up to their share price
only.Companies limited by shares can be public or private.
b) Companies Limited by Guarantee
Companies limited by guarantee doesn’t issue shares or have shareholder. They’re
usually non-profit organizations. If in the case of profit, the company distributes it
among its members if it’s not a charitable organization. If the company goes
bankrupt, then their liability is limited to the amount they have pre-decided in the
memorandum of the company. Guarantors are the members of the companies
limited by guarantee.
c) Unlimited Companies
As the name implies the liability of the shareholders is not limited to the share price
they own, it goes beyond. They may lose their assets if the company is unable to
pay debt to its creditors. We don’t see many unlimited companies because it
involves a lot of risks.

2) Classification of Companies based on Members

a) One Person Company
One person company is an Indian concept where one person can create a company
without having partners, board of directors or shareholders. In OPC, you’ll have
all the advantages of sole proprietorship like; you don’t have to share profit with
others, take the risk on your own without requiring approval from others. Your
liabilities are limited like a company.
OPC has some differences with private limited companies like; you should mention
the name of a person in the memorandum of association, who’d take the charge
after your passing. The minimum capital for starting the OPC is 100,000.
ARADO Farms, VISHRUT Biotech, and HCARE Holistic Enterprise are some of
the well known one-person companies.
b) Private Company
A private company is a form of company that doesn’t offer its shares to the public
like in the public companies. The numbers of shares are limited to the close
members only. However, members can transfer their shares to anyone but they
can’t offer it to the general public.
A private company also goes by the name of unlisted or unquoted company. Some
people think that private companies are small because they aren’t public.
Some of the big companies like Dell (hardware and tech equipment), Virginia
Atlantic (airline), PricewaterhouseCoopers (business supplier and Service
Company), Mars (food and drink) and John Lewis Partnership (retail). These are
all are the private companies that are doing their business across the world.
c) Public Company
Public companies are those that advertise their stock and shares to the general
public. People can freely trade the stock of the public company without any
restrictions. The shares of listed companies are traded in the stock exchange
market.In England, a public company must have a minimum of two directors and
 shareholders respectively. It’s then it would fall into the category of public
companies. It should have a total share value of £50,000.
When investors buy the stock of the company, then they become the equity owners
of the company. Some companies are private in the beginning, later they become
the public companies after fulfilling all the mandatory legal requirements.

3) Classification of Companies based on Control

a) Government Companies
The economy of a country plays a very important role in managing the GDP and
index. Government companies are those that hold 51% of the share capital of the
company. The remaining 49% of the share, the company offers it to the public and
private individuals.
Mixed Ownership Company is also the name used for the government companies.
Where we see the management and chain of hierarchy of government and technical
skill of the private sector, it’s a great mixture of both public and private sectors.
Heavy Industry Taxila, Industrial Development Bank, Faisalabad Electric Supply
Company, and Karachi Urban Transport Corporation, PTCL, Oil, and Gas
Development Company are some of the examples of Government Companies.
b) Holding and Subsidiary Companies
Holding and Subsidiary companies are two companies; where holding is a parent
company that controls the business operation of the subsidiary company. By
control I mean the holding company has a complete over the selection and election
of board of directors, it holds all the shareholders of the subsidiary company. The
subsidiary company can make its decision once it’s become independent.
Subsidiary companies can be profit or non-profit organizations. The subsidiary
company of West’s Encyclopaedia of American Law is 2008, Thompson and
Thompson, and The Global Tutor are some of the examples of Holding and
Subsidiary companies.
c) Associate Companies
An associate company is the business valuation firm in which one company owns
a significant voting share of another company. The voting share usually ranges
from 20 to 50%, if it is more than 50%, then it would be subsidiary company. If
it’s less than 50%, then the owner doesn’t have to consolidate the financial
 statement of associate. If it is more than 50%, then it has to consolidate the financial
statement, where the associate would consider the balance sheet as an asset.

Hindustan Unilever, a unit of British-Dutch company Unilever, is India's largest

marketer of consumer products. The company sells more than 30 brands of soap,
detergent, food and other products and employs more than 15,000 workers, including
those at its local manufacturing plants.

While it was founded in 1931, the predecessor to Hindustan Unilever had ties with
Unilever the date back to the 1880s when Lever Brothers, the forerunner of Unilever,
was selling imported soap in India.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Unilever took over Brooke Bond, Lipton and other companies
and their subsidiaries in India were consolidated into the Indian unit of Unilever.
Hindustan Unilever bought a number of Indian companies, including some that were
under major conglomerate Tata Group's umbrella, in the 1990s.

Hindustan Unilever is known for its Shakti project, which encourages the employment
of young residents in India's rural areas as sales staff. These employees sell small
batches of low-priced soap and other products in their areas. Products under the
company's brands sell well in both urban and rural areas.In 2013, Unilever raised its
stake in Hindustan Unilever from a little more than 50% to just under 70%.

Marketing strategies – Definitions

Stated in simple terms, marketing strategy of a firm is the complete and unbeatable plan
or instrument designed specifically for attaining the marketing objectives of the firm.
The marketing objectives will tell us where the firm wants to go; the marketing strategy
will provide the design for getting there.

The marketing of goods and services goes all over the world round the clock. Millions
of marketing activities takes place every day involving individuals, groups, business
and government. These activities are parts of the marketing processes. Marketing
management’s job is to ensure that these activities are co-ordinated into an integrated
system. This requires an overall marketing strategy, a plan that optimizes marketing
inputs to achieve maximum business surplus.
Marketing strategy means the game plan’ that the market will use in attaining the
objectives of the business.

Again, Prof. Philip Kotler of the North-Western University defines marketing

strategy as follows:
“Marketing strategy is the basic approach that the business unit will use to attain its
goals and which comprises of elaborate decisions (strategies) on largest markets,
market positioning and mix and marketing expenditure allocation. Moreover, the
marketer should take care of the other two strategic aspects, viz., expected environment
and competitive conditions while determining the marketing strategy”. Prof. Philip
Kotler

Once deciding over the game plan, the next task of the marketer is to develop or
elaborate each element of the marketing strategy. The marketer’s first task is to choose
a potential market and identify its needs and patterns, after which it formulates
strategies for each controllable (product, place, price and promotion).And, it is the
management which manipulates the controllable in terms of the non-controllable in
such a way which can meet both the target market’s needs and wants and helps to attain
the company’s overall objectives. Now to perform these tasks managements
streamlined product market, distribution, promotion and pricing strategies into an
overall marketing strategy.

Marketing Strategies – Types: Building Marketing Strategies, Strategies of

Customer and Producer Mix under Competition, Branding Strategies and a Few
Other Strategies

Type 1. Building Marketing Strategies:

Strategy is an approach in consonance with the goal of the company to be achieved.

The strategies are formulated for short and long run according to the goals of the
company. The goals indicate what a company wants to achieve in a given environment
and time frame; the strategy answers how to get there. Every business must develop a
tailor made strategy for achieving its goals. The corporate business strategies should
possess three generic points on overall cost leadership, differentiation and focus.
The company should build strategy for the following functional areas:
i. Market segmentation.
ii. Positioning of goods and services.
iii. Product line.
iv. Price.
v. Physical distribution and outlets.
vi. Sales force.
vii. Service and advertising.
viii. Sales promotion.
The strategy planning should be specific in different stages of the product lifecycle. In
launching the new products at the introductory stage the high or low levels for each
functional variable such as – price, promotion, distribution, product quality etc., may
be set. In the introductory stage, when the product is new to the market it has to be
backed by the attractive promotional schemes.
The high price of the product backed by the high promotional strategy fetches rapid
response while the low price level with high promotional strategy would help the
product to penetrate the market quickly. On the contrary if the promotional activities
are low and the price of the product is high, the marketing strategy will have slow
skimming of the market and slow penetration strategy will have low product price as
well as the low promotion. The market segmentation strategy also needs to be built by
the company in the introductory stage of the product lifecycle.
The company should think of the following strategies for marketing their goods
and services in the growth stage:
i. Company should strive on improving the quality of the product.
ii. Add new attributes to the product and improve the presentation styles.
iii. Company should add new models and flanker products.
iv. Identify new market segments.
v. Identify new marketing channels and enhance distribution coverage.

Type 2. Strategies of Customer and Producer Mix under Competition:

Alike customer matrix the produce matrix also needs to be constructed for developing
the competitive strategy. In this process the matrix may be plotted using the information
on the marketing effectiveness of the company and the unit cost of the products on the
X and Y axis respectively. The effectiveness of the firm may be identified on the basis
of operational competence and system competence.
The operational competence refers to the technical competence including production,
packaging, distribution, quality control and information management. The cost
efficiency largely depends on the technical competence of the company. The system
competence includes value assurance, value enhancement and innovation.
If the company has to build up the competitive strategy for the mass market, it is
necessary to improve the effectiveness and lower the unit cost of the product. The
company may move its position of the product to the quadrant where the performance
of the company as well as the unit cost also remains high due to improved technological
intervention and marketing interventions.
The company may follow the checklist of activities in building the competitive
strategy as stated below:
i. Scanning of the environment.
ii. Identifying relevant economic inevitable and rigid factors.
iii. Identifying the key trends of major competing brands.
iv. Political, economic, socio-cultural and technological factors affecting the product
market.
v. Conduct an activity cost analysis for the upstream and downstream linkages with
the company.

Type 3. Branding Strategies:

The company has to assess the strength and weaknesses of the existing brands in the
market before taking the branding decision for their product. The manufacturing
company may have several options on brand sponsorship. The product may be launched
in the market as the brand of manufacturer which is also known as national brand, a
distributor brand as happens in case of edible oils, sugar, processed grains and in many
products which needs re-packing, or licensed brand names.
The brand category may be chosen from the brand sponsorship in terms of national
brand, private brand or licensed brand. Deciding upon the category of brand an
appropriate brand name may be selected. The brand names may reflect individual name,
blanket family name for all products, separate family names for all products or company
trademark. The brand name should be easy-to pronounce, short and convey proper
meaning in the language of the country/region.
The brand name should be such that it suggests some use value or attribute of the
product and should be distinct from the existing market brands. The brand extension in
the same company can be explained as product line. It has been observed that majority
of new product activities consist of line extension.

Marketing Strategies – Major Steps in Competitive Marketing Strategies:

Competitor Analysis and Competitive Strategies
Step 1. Competitor Analysis:
The process of identifying key competitors, assessing their objectives, strategies,
strengths and weaknesses and reaction patterns and selecting which competitors to
attack or avoid.
Steps in analyzing competitors:
(a) Identifying the company’s competitors:
i. Competitors may be other companies offering similar products and services to the
same customer at similar prices.
ii. The company may define competitors as all firms making the same products or class
of products.
iii. Competitor might include all companies that compete for the same customer
spending.
(b) Assessing competitor’s objectives, strategies, strengths and weaknesses and
reaction patterns:
i. The more than one firm’s strategy resembles another firm’s strategy the more the two
firms compete.
ii. Recently a growing number of companies have turned to Benchmarking.
Benchmarking is:
“The process of comparing the company’s products and processes to those of
competitors or leading firms in other industries to find ways to improve quality and
performance.”
Knowing how major competitors react gives the company clues on how best to attack
competitors or how best to defend the company’s current positions.
(c) Selecting which competitor to attack or avoid:
i. A company selects its major competitors through prior decisions on customer targets,
distribution channels and marketing mix strategy.
ii. The management must then decide which competitors to compete against most
vigorously.
iii. Most companies prefer to aim at weak competitors.
iv. Companies may decide to compete with close competitors (Those that resemble
them most)
v. At the same time company may want to avoid trying to destroy a close competitors.
For example, if it does so then small competitors sell off to larger ones and it will have
to deal with strong large competitors.
Benefits from Competitors:
i. Competitors may help increase total demand.
ii. They may share the costs of market and product development and help to legitimise
new technologies.
iii. They may serve less attractive segments or lead to more product differentiation.
iv. They lower the antitrust risk and improve bargaining power versus labour or
regulators.
Step 2. Competitive Strategies:
After identifying and evaluating its major competitors the company must design broad
competitive marketing strategies by which it can gain competitive advantage by
offering superior customer value.
(i) Basic Competitive Strategies:
Three winning strategies suggested by Michael Porter are:
(a) Overall Cost Leadership:
Here the company works hard to achieve the lowest cost of production and distribution
so that it can price lower than its competitors and win a large market share.
(b) Differentiation:
Here the company concentrates on creating a highly differentiated product line and
marketing programme so that it comes across as the class leader in the industry. Most
customers would prefer to own its brand if its price is not too high.
(c) Focus:
Here the company focuses its effort on servicing a few market segments well rather
than going after the whole market.
(d) Operational Excellence:
The company provides superior value by leading its industry in price and convenience.
It works to reduce costs and to create a lean and efficient value delivery system. It
serves customers who want reliable, good quality products or services but who want
them easily and at low cost.
(e) Customer Intimacy:
The company provides superior value by precisely segmenting its market and then
tailoring its products or services to match exactly with the needs of targeted customers.
It specialises in satisfying unique customer needs through a close relationship with and
intimate knowledge of the customer.
It builds detailed customer databases for segmenting and targeting and empowers those
who are willing to respond quickly to customer needs. It serves customers who are
willing to pay a premium to get precisely what they want and it will do almost anything
to build longer customer loyalty and to capture lifetime value.
(f) Product Leadership:
The company provides superior value by offering a continual stream of leading edge
products or services that make their own and competing product obsolete.
It is open to new ideas and relentlessly pursues new solutions and works to reduce cycle
times so that it can get new products to market quickly. It serves customers who want
state-of-the-art products and services, regardless of the costs in terms of price or
convenience.
(ii) Competitive Position in the Target Market:
(a) Market Leader:
The firm in an industry with the largest market share is the market leader. It usually
leads other firms in price changes, new product introductions, distribution, coverage
and promotion spending.
(b) Market Challengers:
A runner up firm in an industry that is fighting hard to increase its market share.
(c) Market Follower:
A runner up firm in an industry that wants to hold its share without rocking the boat.
(d) Market Niches:
A firm in an industry that serves small segments that other firms over looks or ignore.
Marketing Strategies – Factors Affecting: Competitor’s Counter Moves,
Synergistic Potential, Substitutability, Elasticity of Marketing Inputs and a Few
Other Factors

(i) Competitors’ Counter-Moves:

This differs with various marketing inputs. Most competitors can easily and quickly
match or otherwise adjust to price changes. However, they often find it difficult to
follow or to retaliate against product innovations. This explains why many marketers
seek to gain differential advantage over their competitors by varying product
characteristics as altering promotion than prices.

(ii) Synergistic Potential:

Marketing inputs are capable of being, mutually reinforcing or having synergistic

potential and marketer should consider this working towards an optimum overall
marketing strategy.Displays and advertisements can be made mutually reinforcing
since the display repeats the advertising efforts message at a time when the consumer
is in an outlet where the product is one sale.

Product inputs and marketing channel inputs can be mutually reinforcing, depending
upon the effectiveness with which they are integrated.

(iii) Substitutability:
The selection of marketing inputs is also affected by their degree of substitutability. It
is important to know the extent to which one type of input can be substituted for another
type in as much as the nature of marketing objectives such as that of returning a certain
level of profit presents a decision-maker from making unlimited use of all inputs.

A marketing strategist must ask himself. Consideration of such substitutability helps in

determining which inputs to include and which to emphasize in the overall marketing
strategy.
(iv) Diversity in Productivity Levels of various Marketing Inputs:
The marketers should recognise that not all inputs have equal productivity; some inputs
need a minimum level of use before they begin to have measurable effects. An
advertising message must often be repeated several times before consumers become
aware of it.
The lower cost per consumer contact of radio, magazines and billboards often make it
possible with a limited budget to present a much stronger impact on consumers.

(v) Elasticity of Marketing Inputs:

Different marketing inputs are elastic and they influence the demand of the product.
The marketing manager must recognise that effect on the product. For example, a
manufacturer determines different prices for different customers or for different areas
only on the basis of varying elasticity of demand. More often, the prices for wholesalers
retailers and consumers are different in almost all the markets.

The marketing manager must consider all the above factors in mind while formulating
the overall marketing strategy. The strategy must also be elastic so as to incorporate all
the strategic factors of the competitors as and when required.

Marketing Strategies – Building Marketing Strategy: Market Segmentation,

Positioning of Goods and Services, Product Line, Price, Physical Distribution and
a Few Others

Strategy is an approach in consonance with the goal of the company to be achieved.

The strategies are formulated for short and long run according to the goals of the
company. The goals indicate what a company wants to achieve in a given environment
and time frame; the strategy answers how to get there.

Every business must develop a tailor-made strategy for achieving its goals. The
corporate business strategies should possess three generic points on overall cost
leadership, differentiation and focus. The managerial strategy in business should be to
reduce the cost of production and distribution. The company cultivates the strengths
that will give competitive advantage in one or more benefits.
The companies seeking quality leadership must make or buy the best components, put
together expertly after careful examination and so on. The company must plan all its
operations with specific focus on one or more test segments in the beginning and then
go for a larger operational area.
The company should build strategy for the following functional areas:
i. Market segmentation,
ii. Positioning of goods and services,
iii. Product line,
iv. Price,
v. Physical distribution and outlets,
The strategy planning should be specific in different stages of the product life cycle. In
launching the new products at the introductory stage the high or low levels for each
functional variable such as price, promotion, distribution, product quality, etc., may be
set. In the introductory stage when the product is new to the market it has to be backed
by the attractive promotional schemes.
The high price of the product backed by the high promotional strategy fetches rapid
response while the low price level with high promotional strategy would help the
product to penetrate the market quickly. On the contrary if the promotional activities
are low and the price of the product is high, the marketing strategy will have slow
skimming of the market and slow penetration strategy will have low product price as
well as low promotion.
The market segmentation strategy also needs to be built by the company in the
introductory stage of the product life cycle. A company may develop the strategy to
place product/brand 1 in all markets and move the product/brand 2 in the next stage to
the market 2 and 3 and place the product/brand 3 in market 2 and decide to fill the gaps
later.
During the growth stage of the product life cycle the company will have rapid sales and
the company should build effective marketing strategies to sustain the competition and
establish the brand image in the market.
Marketing Strategies – International Marketing Strategies: Global, Multi-
Domestic and Hybrid Marketing Strategies
The three strategies possible in international marketing are as given below:
1. Global
2. Multi-domestic
3. Hybrid.
Global strategy is one where the firms have a single international business strategy. For
instance, Mercedes car Benz has a single marketing plan for all its markets. Lever
Brothers, however, have different products, brands and marketing tactics for each
country. This is called multi-domestic strategy. A combination of the two is hybrid
strategy.
Firms which have a universally accepted product, like Coke and Toyota, keep a single
global marketing policy, as the product remains the same the world over. However,
firms with products where the tastes of countries differ use the multi-domestic policy.
They change the product specifications and pricing policy and advertise according to
local conditions and tastes. FMCG firms like Unilever and Proctor & Gamble follow
this strategy.
Hybrid is the most popular strategy, where firms have a uniform product, but change
advertising and promotion to suit local conditions. Even Coke changes its advertising
and promotion to suit the country, while keeping the product same universally.
Levis Jeans are workers’ clothes in the USA, while in France, Italy and India they are
a fashion statement. Mercedes car is used as taxi in Germany, while it is considered a
status symbol in the rest of the world.
If value is added in upstream activities like commercial aircraft it is global strategy. If
the value is added downstream like prepared food it is multi-domestic strategy.
In most countries, foreign firms can get competitive advantage by having good relations
with the government.
1.2 NEED
 To understand the marketing strategies, followed by the company.
 To find the awareness to the people of the company products.
1.3 SCOPE
 THE STUDY DESCRIBES,THE MARKETING STRATEGY FOLLOWED
BY THE COMPANY
 THE STUDY GIVES THE INFORMATION ABOUT, HOW MUCH PEOPLE
AWARE TO THE COMPANY PRODUCTS
1.4 LITERATURE OF REVIEW

 A.Saratha, Dr.K.Kamalakannan(April 2018) Fast moving consumer goods

are essential for the people in their day to day life. Their importance is giving
the personality oriented benefits to the consumers. The study reveals that ponds,
Fair & Lovely, Lakme, clear, dove, Hamam, close up and axe are the preferred
brands of personal care products of Hindustan Unilever Limited provide
Satisfaction to the consumers in the way of price, Quality and availability of the
product. It is also association between the variables selected and the level of
satisfaction of the consumers.
 Wang Aimin and Sumayya Begum (2012), Undergone a study titled
“Investigating the Impact of Marketing Mix elements on tourist satisfaction”.
The main object of this study is to examine the impact of marketing mix
elements on tourist satisfaction by adopting the statistical techniques,
correlation and regression. Further, the study reveals six, out of seven marketing
mix elements such as Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process,
Physical evidence have positive relation towards tourist satisfaction but the
Price imposed by authority is not satisfactory to the visitors.
 Kulkarni, Dr. Hundal B., (2011), Role of Promotion Mix In Influencing Rural
Consumers, Int. Jour. of Business & Inf. Tech. Vol-1 No. 1 June 2011,pp-110-
118, concluded in his study that, the rural market in India is quite fascinating
and challenging in spite of all the difficulties existing. The potential is
enormous. Even though, these markets have weaknesses, they also have
tremendous opportunities which should be availed by the marketers. It is well
known that "Markets are created and not born". The market so created should
be tapped effectively.
 Arunkumar and Madhvi., (2006) in their paper entitled “Rural Marketing for
FMCG” found that, changes from domestic to global, economy is confirmed to
major and far-reaching. Corporate sector has already realized the vast
opportunities existing in the rural sector and are trying to harness these with
their strategies specially aimed at rural markets. Marketing in rural areas needs
altogether different strategy as against the marketing in urban area.
 Abrazhevich (2001) opines and confirms with his study that favorable image of
product in the mind of customers has an important impact on purchase, which
 are showing more of the customer‘s interest in buying the product either it could
be cosmetic products or personal care products
 Bhatta and Jaiswal., (1986) in their study entitled “A Study of an Advertising
Impact and Consumer Reaction” analyzed that the reaction consumers towards
washing powder advertising and purchase behavior of consumers in Baroda
city. In most of the cases the study discovered that females took decisions
regarding the purchase of a particular trade name considering some important
aspects like good quality, less consumption, advertisement and low cost.
Founded Maximum numbers of consumers were attracted by television
advertisements.