THE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT NEW DELHI

PROJECT REPORT ON

Marketing Strategies of Parle (Bisleri)

SUBMITTED BY:

Vansh Khanijow Batch: FW/2009-11 Section: FP-1 Email Id: [email protected] IIPM NEW DELHI

INDEX

1. Introduction 2. Marketing Strategies of Bisleri 3. References

Introduction
Background In 1967, Bisleri an Italian company, started by Felice Bisleri, first brought the idea of selling bottled water in India. It started a company called Bisleri India. In 1969, Ramesh Chauhan, the Chairman of Parle Exports, bought over the brand. In those days, Bisleri packaged drinking water was available in glass bottles. Being a returnable package owing to various other problems such as breakage and weight, in 1972-73, Bisleri was made available in PVC (Poly Vinyl Chloride) bottles. After this plastic packaging was introduced, things started to change, and sales increased rapidly. The upsurge in the sales of Bisleri started in 1993 as Ramesh Chauhan sold off the Parle stable of brands, including Thums Up, Limca and Gold Spot. Recognizing the potential of the packaged drinking water market, he then went on to concentrate on making Bisleri a top selling brand in India. The Present It was around the year 1995, when Parle Exports took charge of the brand operations and the business took off in the market. With factories across India and a strong distribution network, Bisleri established itself as a force to reckon with in the domestic packaged drinking water market. Earlier the packaged drinking water market consisted of five star hotels, tourists and foreigners. As a marketing strategy, a conscious decision was taken by the company that only 40% of the sales should come from these outlets and 60% from general market. i.e. paanwallas, street shops, general stores and even non-tourists. This brought about a sea change in the perception in the consumer's mind about consumption of Bisleri. Earlier, drinking bottled water was considered to be more of a status symbol. That thinking has slowly changed to the point where today, not drinking Bisleri is considered as being behind the times. Such has been the presence and penetration of the Bisleri brand in the bottled water segment. About two years ago, in 1998, a strategy was adopted to concentrate aggressively on the home market. The habit of boiling water or using electronic gadgets was not adequate, since the source of water itself was unreliable. The bulk packages like the 2, 5 and 20 litre bottles were introduced to meet this market need. The price per litre went down as a result, making bottled water very economical for the consumer. It has 60% market share in packaged

drinking water in India. It is available in 8 pack sizes: 250ml cups, 250ml bottles, 500ml, 1 litre, 1.5 litres, 2 litres, 5 litres, and 20 litres. Its operations run throughout the subcontinent of India and are one of the leading bottled water supplying companies in India. As of 2007, Bisleri has 8 plants & 11 franchisees all over India. Future Plans Bisleri was the first to market bottled water in a totally virgin market and naturally people associate the brand with bottled water. Now Bisleri is perhaps already ten steps ahead of its competitors and will endeavor to widen its gap in the months to come. Bisleri's brand positioning stresses on pure, clean and safe drinking water. Sales have grown by 140% and in the coming years, Bisleri hopes to boost its sales by more than 400%. Some of the future plans to maintain the top spot that Bisleri commands in the Indian market are:

New pack sizes in bottles and cups Increase the distribution network with an investment of over 200 crores Strengthen presence in traditionally weak areas by setting up 12 new bottling facilities at a cost of Rs. 150 crores

MARKETING STRATEGIES OF BISLERI

GENERAL MARKETING STRATEGIES: Growth and development have always been thrust areas for Bisleri. Every year they try to increase their product range. In order to make the companys product more popular, the firm has tried to enter into new markets as well as into new countries. Another general marketing strategy of the company is execution of several prestigious and large orders to stringent specifications. Value added production to higher grades is the next marketing strategy of the company. The company engages in creation of market support group for closer customer contact and identifying new outlets. The firm has been quality conscious and tried to cater to the specifications and requirements of customers by introducing remarkable up gradation in quality with ISO 9002 quality systems. All the plants of Bisleri have got this prestigious ISO 9002 certification. The employee of the Bisleri at various levels ranging from shop floor to the top level executives has dedicated their attention and efforts to make the marketing activities of the company most fruitful and effective. The company has a large network of distributors spread throughout the country. Apart from this distributors network, they have sales offices at big cities.

Products

PRICING Pricing is undoubtly one of the most important decision areas of marketing. Price and sales volume together decides the revenue of any business as the sales volume in itself is dependent on price, pricing really becomes the key to the revenue of business. Pricing is

crucial to business as well. Pricing becomes a vital decision area on account of certain other factors besides the crucial role in bringing revenue and profits to the business. Price is the only element in the marketing mix that produces revenue, the other element produces cost. Stated simply, price is the exchange value of the product, in fact price revolves around two elements i.e. utility and value. Utility is the generic property of the product to satisfy a need or want of the consumer, value is the quantitative worth the consumer attaches to the product for which he is willing to part with a certain quantum of money. Different companies follow different routes in fixing the price there are different methods of pricing. Each of them is appropriate for achieving a particular pricing objective or a combination of pricing objectives. Eg- Skimming pricing is suited for achieving the pricing objective of short term profit maximization. There are two categories of factors which influence the pricing policy of a company. In each of these categories some may be economic factors and some may be psychological factors; again some factors may be quantitative and others may be qualitative. Some firms attach great importance to pricing and believe that they can always break customers brand loyalty by lower price. They feel that other elements of marketing mix are not that important when they have the required freedom in the matter of price. A business firm will have a number of objectives in the area of pricing. Some of these objectives are long run while others are short run. Some are primary objectives while others are secondary, however all pricing objectives emanate from the corporate and marketing objectives. Profit optimum or maximum, long run or current, cannot be the only objective of pricing. A multiplicity or mix of objectives is inevitably involved in pricing. Each firm seeks

to meet a community of interests through its price policy. The interests may vary from firm to firm. Accordingly, pricing policies may also vary. But no firm can remain satisfied with a single objective in pricing. PRICING IN BISLERI 500 ml. 1.2 Litre. 2 litres. 5 Litres. 20 litres. Cups 5/12/20/30/50/3/- each

PLACE Distribution channels bring together the maker and the user in an efficient and economic manner. It will not be practical for any manufacturer to organize a network of his own selling products throughout the market and sell his products directly to consumers totally avoiding outside distribution channels. Just like mass manufacturing, mass distribution too needs large resources on terms of money, materials and men. No manufacturer can easily command such resources. Distribution channels combine the products and the components manufactured by different firms and offer them in the form of assortments that are convent to final users. The

final users in most cases actually need an assortment of items they do not prefer to shop at outlets which fail to provide an assortment of all the products they require. By offering merely ones own products through a network of ones own outlet, no firm especially a consumer product firm can properly meet the customer needs. Distribution channels also provide a vital input of salesmanship; they assist in establishing new products in the market. Dealer recommended selling is common in many consumer products. The dealers promote the product through their word of mouth communication. They also provide the presale and after sale service to consumers. In addition they provide market intelligence and feedback to their principals. Merchandising is an important function performed by distribution channels. Through merchandising distribution channels help reinforce the awareness about the product among the customers. Merchandising activity which includes display, complement the selling efforts of the company and act as a silent salesman at the retail outlet. Distribution channel also helps implement the price mechanism in the market; they assist in arising at the price level that is acceptable to the maker as well as to the user. This is very vital for the consumption of the marketing process and in several cases without the active role of these channels it would be difficult to accomplish this requirement. Market intermediaries also look for a good part of the physical distribution functions like transportation, warehousing and inventory management. In addition they look after financing of the goods, credit transactions, negotiations with buyers.

Producers normally use a number of marketing intermediaries for taking their products to users. Marketing intermediaries bear a variety of names such as: sole selling

agents, marketers, wholesalers, distributors, stockiest, semi wholesalers, retailers, authorized representatives, brokers and jobbers. All such intermediaries constitute the distribution channel. The depots/showrooms and other direct outlets of producers also form a part of the distribution channel.

DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL OF BISLERI

Manufacturing Unit

Carrying and forwarding agent/authorized dealer/ super stockiest

Retailer

Consumer (end user)

PROMOTION Promotion is essentially a direct and immediate inducement that adds an extra value to a product so that it prompts the dealers, distributors or ultimate consumers to buy the product. Promotion can be defined as followsIn a specific sense, sales promotion involves those sales activities that supplement both personal selling and advertising and co-ordinate them and helps to make them effective such as displays, shows and exhibitions, demonstrations and other non recurrent selling efforts not in the ordinary routine. In a competitive market, sales promotion comes handy to a marketer to solve several of his short term hurdles. Short term because the impact of sales promotion measures is not that durable and lasting like the results obtained through advertising and personal selling. Sales promotion offers an extra value to the product over and above its present value, but this extra value can be given through other means as well through advertising, through more effective personal; selling or through better publicity or a combination of these efforts. Sales Promotion does not attempt to achieve goals that advertising or personal selling can accomplish. Better Sales Promotion programmers yield the best results when they are well co-ordinate with other elements of promotion- advertising, personal selling publicity. Sales Promotion programmers cannot run independently of these major promotion variables when used in combination with promotion variables. Sales Promotion programmers stand a better chance of meeting their aims. Although Sales Promotion tools - coupons, contests, premiums, and the like are highly diverse they all offer three distinct benefits.

1)

Communication- They gives attention and usually provides information that may lead the consumers to the product.

2)

Incentive- They incorporates some commission, inducement or contribution that gives value to the customer.

3)

Invitation- They includes a distinct invitation to engage in the transaction now. Companies use promotion tools to create a stronger and quicker response. Promotion

can be used to dramatize product offers and to boost sagging sales. Promotion effects are usually short run, however, and not effective in building a long run brand preference. A variety of tools and techniques are available for promotion i.e. letters, catalogues, POP displays, customer service programmers, demonstrations, free samples, discounts, contests, sweep stakes, premiums and coupons are the commonly resorted methods of promotion. Promotion Strategies of Biller Hoardings: This is one of main promotional tools of Bisleri. As the brand name it is perceptualist by customer as a symbol of quality, taste and packaging. They have installed their hoardings on highways, electric poles etc. The company is giving more emphasis on opening new outlets at various places by keeping the tastes and preferences of the customers in mind. They are also trying to give more emphasis on the customer service at their outlets.

References
1. 2. 3. Books : Marketing Management by Philip Kotler Magazines : Business Standard Internet : www.google.com www.bisleri.com 4. 5. Brochures : Company Brochures Newspapers : Times of India