Social Media Armageddon

Rural Boomers

The rural sector is booming in spite of violence and troubles in the Pakistan. Pakistan is the agricultural country and largest wheat growing country of Asia. In 2008, prices of wheat, rice, sugar and other basic commodities increased by fifty percent and still on rising. Increase in demand of commodities brings cash to local harvesters. They are spending heavily on luxury items. Items comprising harvesting equipments, cars, bikes, mobile phones, personal-care items, packed branded foods and soft drinks, etc.

According to Economic Survey 2011 of Pakistan, boost in cash crops prices raise the income level of consumers by three hundred and forty two billion rupees in a year. Income level reached at its peak in this year as compared to three hundred and twenty nine billion rupees in the last four years. A bulk of consumer’s income already goes to food and other livings; about twenty percent is spent on personal grooming items like clothes and personal-care products.

Pakistan is the world’s sixth populas country where demand for consumer products boosted to Fifteen Percent in terms of revenue every year. Thirty three billion rupees revenue is generated by investing only three hundred and twenty six million rupees. Overall sale in this category increased by Twenty-Nine Percent. Pakistan’s consumption for packed foods brand is two times larger than India and China in Asian block.

Major beneficiaries of this current rural consumption boom are Honda Atlas, Millat tractors, Pak Suzuki Motors, Engro Foods, Telenor, Nestle, Colgate-Palmoliver, P&G, Unilever Pakistani, Engro Foods, Haleeb Foods, Shezan, Tapal, Shan and others.

Average monthly consumption per person of dairy products in Pakistan is at one hundred and fifty three kilogram as compared to other Asians holding figures at sixty four kilogram India, one hundred and fourth five kilogram Bangladesh and Ten kilogram East Asia. Sale of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) rose to Twenty-Nine Percent with an increase in revenue by Seven Billion rupees. According to Bloomberg report, this increase in revenue is entirely came from rural sector. Detergents like the bonus Tristar, Brite and surf excel are priced as low as to boost sales among low-income consumers of the rural sector. Other branded products like shampoo, toothpaste, soaps, oil, and tea are already available in about eleven thousand villages across Pakistan now. Companies are pushing beauty products in rural sector considering the fact that rural sector are the untapped sector of economy regarding beauty products. Telecom sector is also focusing to extend its operation in the rural sector. Mainly, Telenor Pakistan has expanded its operation in rural areas, which already contribute sixty percent of their total sale.

According to Euro monitor of Pakistan, presence of multinational giants like Nestle, P&G and Unilever, companies like Engro Foods, Haleeb Foods, Shezan, Tapal, Shan and others dominate the packed food business. Multinationals carry strong brand identities and target the upper class with premium brands, thus taking their handsome share in value terms. In spite of the fact multinationals are paving the way for novelty by launching new products and promoting them greatly, but national companies win the competitive battle in volume terms as they focus less on expenses and more on consumer base conformist items.

Pakistan continues to face multiple internal and external threats and crises of stagnant economy, shortage of energy and the lack of security. However, it is clear from the consumer expenditure data that Pakistanis are flexible people. It is fully expected that Pakistan to survive the current crises and will begin to thrive again soon.

Add Taste: Rite Salt

Salt is the important spice in the whole world that add taste in life. Salt considered to be  king of spices. Salt contains high level of Sodium Chloride. The Sodium Chloride has been using around the globe in number of ways. Domestically, it is used in a many ways such as cleaning substances, preservative material to save food and household method of curing sore throat (Gharary). Sodium chloride also found in many daily household products including shampoos and toothpastes etc.

Food without salt is hard to found. As matter of fact there is a huge population of world which have been victim of High Blood Pressure and Heart Problems. And main reason for that is salt or indirectly sodium chloride which is dangerous for them in silent ways. For the precautionary measures and on doctor’s prescription patients adopted two ways to handle this situation:

• Reduced the salt intake in edibles
• Abandon its usage.

Main purpose of marketing is to identify the needs and serve the needs with products. Low Sodium Salts  were launched after immense research, experiments and discussion with medical boards. Lot of international no sodium and low sodium salt brands have been introduced to target this very sector. These Low sodium salt brands contain more potassium chloride and less sodium chloride which gave patients taste of salt but will not harm them by salt’s sodium effect.

In Pakistan at least twenty percent of the population suffer from blood pressure and 30 percent of adults deaths were due to cardiovascular disorders reported by Department of Cardiology. International Society of Nephrology and the International Federation of Kidney Foundations (ISN and IFKF) declare that 1 out of 3 adults over the age of 45 suffers from hypertension in Pakistan. And in a report on hypertension by Pakistan Medical Board  (PMB) declares that fifty percent of major city population like Karachi and Lahore suffer from this disease. Statistics of report shows alarming situation for people suffering from hypertension.

To serve this huge segment of consumer pharmaceutical company of Pakistan with the name of “Father & Sons” jumped in to the niche sector of market. Father & Sons is Karachi based company and has history of pharmaceutical operation. As matter of fact, company is pioneer in its products and focused on the core needs of individuals. The products they till launched were on Latent Need of individuals. On October 2009, first Pakistani brand having low sodium was introduced with the name of  “Rite Salt”. previously company has launched SUCRAL (for diabetic patients) in earlier year 2009. Rite is the second brand of this company and especially targeted to individuals suffering form hypertension and high blood pressure.

Rite Salt is composed of forty percent sodium chloride and sixty percent potassium chloride elements. It is available in two sizes:

• 450 grams ( Plastic Pouch)
• 70 grams (Plastic Bottle)

Product came up in plastic covering pouch with blue theme colour. Rite’s pouch have resistance against the environment (water and heat) in general words it is in air tight packing. Rite has blend of dark blue and sky blue colour with sodium percentage indication on front. Behind are the ingredients with percentages and manufactures address with expiry date. Company is wise to choosing blue colour as it indicates  truth, confidence and loyalty. Also Blue colour is more indicative then other on the shelf for display.

Rite is a product of FMCG sector. Salt product comes under habitual buying behavior by consumer and individual do not pay attention to them while selection. Sector is divided into

º Raw salts  (Un-grinded)

º Less Sodium salt

º Iodized salt

º Black salt

º Regular salt

 º Refined Salt

º  Sea salt

ºNo sodium salt

Rite is locates in Less sodium salt by segment. Rite is initially targeted to two segments A and B. Segment A is high blood pressure individuals and segment B is heart problem patients. To have full access to these target audience they have adopted selected retail vehicles to reach them.

In the sector, Rite battle with not only local regular salt brands but also with many international brands having low-sodium. International brands counting LoSalt brand, So low brand, Nu-Salt brand, Hard Salt brand and Cardio Salt brand. The price of Rite Salt is high as compared to regular and other iodize brands. Rite salt is sold at price of Rs 99 for 450 gram and other sold at margin of Rs 17 to 18 that of Rite’s price. Rite used skimming price strategy for brand building and for the quality of the potassium chloride used in it . Potassium chloride is imported from foreign.

Michael Porter has explained three generic strategies for keeping competitive advantage over competitors. Generic strategies Including cost leadership, differentiation and focus. For Branding “Rite” adopted differentiation strategy from Michal Porter Strategy matrix. This strategy is applied overall marketing tools form product to placement. For marketing campaign “Father & Sons” marketing theme is more approached as previous describing tension and stress.  But the recent campaign is telling hypertension problems of people. Rite Salt brand positioned with the slogan “keep blood pressure in control’. For advertisement Father & Sons has been using specialty programs to hit the target market of their product. They have been investing in cooking shows and on cooking channels like Masala Tv for promotion. Celebrity endowment is also used by selecting leading chiefs including were Mehboob ,Saadat and Gulzar. Also doctors were put in for recommending to patient suffering from hypertension and blood pressure.

Rite success factor can also be idealized for its huge portion of potential customers. Potential customer include people suffering from high blood pressure  and other conditions where high sodium is  restricted such osteoporosis, abdomen cancer, asthma and fatness. In spite of all this efforts, nutrition specialist and doctors are more and more recommending low sodium diet even to hale and hearty people. Need for Rite Salt is to have more focused on medium to address theses untapped portion of consumers.

Animation industry Pakistan

With the sunrise of a new year 2012, the animation industry, like other technology based industries, is hop to bring more wizardry. Animation industry is a billion Dollar industry in the world. In Asia, especially Philippine and Korea are highly preferred countries in animation sector. Now a day’s India and Pakistan are growing massively in Asia.

Although India is more forward in animation industry but also more expensive then Pakistan industry.On the local front, a discussion of the animation industry in Pakistan may seem be a new expected hotspot of discussion and exploration. Animation is not just the product of Pixar and Walt Disney but now a day they used in television promos and commercials regularly. The industry is found to be around us for long time but been appreciated. The reason for this is that nearly all the companies when comes too Ad agencies they believe Pakistan is still a country on un-educated people who cant understand the indirect concepts of Ads.

There are several animation houses in Pakistan with reputation for providing high quality animation work to large internationally reputed companies. Real example for that is Pakistan’s “Post Amazer” (animated studio) has already worked on an international project of 3-D animation on the movie “Son of Mask”. More over Pakistan’s top class animator Mukeem Khan has also worked on international project of “Final Fantasy”. Lots of animation and quality post production work has brought Pakistani animated industry at a level where they can easily compete Asian as well as International markets.

The animation industry in Pakistan developed swiftly on the potency of high quality institutions whip creative, ingenious, and technically savvy animators. Pakistan is lucky to have training institute like Arena Multimedia which has some high profiled teachers, and many quality students have come out from this institute. Mindstorm Studios, Pepper, TinTash, Tkxel, Systems Ltd. , AniVista subsidiary, Agenci monkhi studios, Numerical studio, apartment complex, Gogi fame, Post Amazers ,GenITeam , Sharp Image and H2O there were only a handful of organizations focused on game or animation development.

Explore the animation companies listed by their contents on their portal. Includes the followings span 3D Character Content, Architectural Visualization, TV Commercials, Cartoons, VFX/Asset Development or other specific requirements such as Concept Art/Pre-visualization/Animation, Character design with 3D Sheets or 3DModeling.

Last few years media in Pakistan has industry has got a great boom and so the advertising sector too. Pakistan has full potential of fetching precious forex of $1 billion every year through promotion of Animation Industry. The local demand for animation solutions is growing due to the deregulation of media services in Pakistan which has in-turn resulted in an explosion in TV based entertainment. Over 80 TV channels are currently operating in Pakistan, thereby, contributing to the growth of the local animation industry by requiring animation content for advertising, entertainment, children programs etc.

For the point of Advertisement, Ding Dong bubble is the famous and first hit of the animated sector. The Ad got famous by the characterization of Cat and Mouse indeed copied from the Tom and Jerry serial but got highe perception among childer. Now comes the most famous animated hit by Pakistani animated industry Commander Safeguard, the first animated superhero of Pakistan and the mascot of P&G’s brand Safeguard. Developed by Post Amazers, the hit series started a semi-revolution amongst Pakistani kids who just could not get enough of it. After this hit success in Pakistan, series of adapted animated commercial and Ads were created and get exposed to audience. Including HBl Khofia khazana Ad, DinDong bubble Ad, Tiger bubble Ad, Reb bull Ad, Tatra pack Ad, Jam-e-shereen Ad , Ufone Roberry Ad, Chulbuli & Pyari Ad, Jazz Jazba’s new animated Ad. Most of the ads are for the confectionery sector of FMCG in Pakistan. But later the concepts were adopted by every sector of industry now the animated Ads become the integral part of advertisement Rush.

Zong’s M9

The overall industry analysis shows that Pakistan is one of the countries with a huge untapped potential for telecom growth and have an attractive investment environment. Business Monitor International (BMI) graded Pakistan as main destination for telecom development in Asia region. Overview of caller sector indicates that rivalries among the competitors are high. All the service providers are competing each on multiple dimension such as low price, innovative packages, active efforts to improve service quality and also by better customer service. Telenor, Warid, Ufone, Mobilink and Zong all have attractive packages nearly in Paisa’s and coverage in almost every city with franchise and Sales and Customer service Centers in the Pakistan. Using all media vehicles cellular service provider heavily bombarded customers with promotional activities by means of  timer checks, Jingle promotions and sponsorship in famous TV programs.

 

In this fierce competition the lagger puffed up with its M9 opened fired at all the players and their package offers. Yes its M9.M9 plan form Zong,  from its very first launch taunting at Ufone, Mobilink and Telenor. We can call it tri-taunt called ULINKNOR. Ulinknor is one place that claims to think about U and reshaping lives by devising tariffs as all of them consider relevant.

 

In the beginning of the year 2011, M9 plan is the first aggressive attempt from the smallest market player in the telecom sector in term of market share. Not a surprise that customers want to walk away to a new world of freedom and choice. Zong M9 not only put forward an industry primary service of its kind but also turn into industry’s first brand to punch other operators in one shot. Opening from RS 0.90 per min to Rs 2.20, provides 12  plans differentiating each other in tariff plans. With M9 user can not only choose their own M9 calling plan as well as free benefits as daily free minutes based on previous usage. Apart from call rates, each package plan in M9 includes all basic vale added service such as SMS,GPRS, bundle offers and other VAS. M9 plan  vigorously added services in all his call plan  as others service provider offered these separately in their product folio. M9 plan  includes super free number, late night offer, voice bundles, Sms bundles,  Gprs bundle starting from hourly base. Validation of these services vary form daily  to monthly subscriptions.

 

SHAN MASALA

Shan brand comes under “Easy to cook” packed spices used in houses for curry in the Pakistan. Asian especially Pakistani are knows for hot spice eater among Asians. In Pakistan curries are prepared on daily bases for lunch and dinner. Multiple spices are used while preparation of curries at home. Shan brand popularity has been enhanced because Pakistani cooking is usually hard to prepare due to the large quantities of spices required. Now Shan offer packed and refine spices to overcome this problem fir housewives.

Shan Brands got success by introducing their spices.  Now Shan Masala transformed in to Shan Food and has 90 products consisting of Masalas, desserts, instant food mixes, and pickles and exported to 56 countries making it the largest exporter of premium quality Packaged Spices; Spice, Food, and Rice Mixes.

Competition was tough between National foods and other local companies that gave Shan brand serious run of money but in spite of all Shan Masala were remain on the top of all brand portfolio.

Sikander Sultan, owner started its brand by Garam Masala which was indeed shared within the family and orders from distant relatives, friends had increased for specific masals he prepared. The response was good that came from near relatives. Shan Food Industries began from a cottage in 1981. Sikander Sultan then decided to launch its very own brand and start a full-scale manufacturing unit to cater the taste of the local public. In 2000 Shan Masala fortified its sales with local penetration in the central and northern regions of Pakistan. The recipes brands soon found their way into the international markets by good value of local travelers, globetrotters and expatriates.

Sultan strategy was simply to produce and distribute because of lack of competition and demand for that product. For that purpose he created its own mixes and got recognition from both internationally and locally. This innovation step is because Pakistani cooking is usually hard to prepare due to the large quantities of spices required. There were no brand when Shan introduce its Masalas in the market and hence successful.

Lemon Max Bar

Lemon Max Bar is a quality washing bar. Lemon Max Bar is a with leadership among dish wash segment of FMCG in Pakistan. Lemon Max Bar is product of Colgate Palmolive which was launched in 1982 with scourer embedded tagline “Hara Kaam Maun Khara Nimbo Ki Taqat Say Bhara”.

Primary shoppers of Max Bar are women and housewives and secondary are men purchasing household items. Brand is used for dish washing at home with the essence of lemon in it. Many year of sale and consumption  at home consumers have approved Max Bar is a high quality product with many benefits.

Max Bar with strong, lemon-like, grease cleansing action and name that gave impression of foreign brand. Brands pass through ups and down then got stabilized and become market leader in terms of sales and Brand name.

In 1985,brand manager learnt that consumer perceive that scourer damaged the dishes then they launched max liquid to overcome this perception. At the same time Unilever Pakistan ,the mega corporate giant of FMCG’s , launched its brand under the name of “Rin” in dishwashing segment of FMCG. The competition become aggressive in terms of promotion, retails distribution and event placement. But according to market experts, consumer used brand for cleaning their quality dishes utensils. Due to heavy advertisement and erroneous branding decision Rin brand got positioning problems , product colour confusion among the consumers. Taking advantage from that opportunity, revelry brand “Max Bar” makes aggressive movements by heavy promotions. Soon Mac brand takes the game by kicking Rin Brand out of market form distribution to media promotion  and become market leader.

In 2001, Rin brand repositioned himself and change to “vim” and entered in to the market . Competition again got fierce between max bar and Vim due to heavy marketing budget form unilever gain to pull the max bar from market. In the end of 2004, Rin vanish from the market and max become the leader in the market.

After that many brands emerge on the competition arena like Safoon and Aana bar ,raising competition with the Max bar with relatively low price. For tackling this Max Bar has launched 200 gm and sachet in that brand to gain an edge in the competition. But still Max Bar got 60 percent of the market share till now.

 

HABIB COOKING OIL

Pakistan edible oil and fats is dynamic market with share of branded and unbranded of 50 to 50. In the branded segment of cooking oil account 30 percent and Banaspati and Ghee account for 70 percent of that market.

Edible oil and fats market major player are dominating with brands of Soya Supreme and Dalda. They have got relatively big portion of market.

Habib Oil Mills (Pvt.) Limited established in 1955, and is the largest FMCG Company exclusively in the vegetable oil & fats sector in Pakistan. The company produces premium brand cooking oils and hydrogenated cooking mediums. It launched its cooking oil with the blend of Canola, Soyabean and Sunflower. After that, they launch came up with positioning that relate to health as oil ingredient as prescribed by doctors healthy. The result is tremendous Habib cooking oil got 38 percent of the market with the increase of 80 percent of revenue of firm. With this competition become tough when the Dalda Soya Supreme and Habib Oil come head to head with each other. Due to this competition increased by consumer promotion which ultimate objective is to prevent consumer from switching to other brands. After long time of competition prices settled and consumer promotion stops with view that consumer do not switch but look for niche for switching.

Basic strategy in the mind of Habib Oil executives and brand manager is to enter in to the segment of Edible oil and fats market that is relatively attractive for the consumer for health point of view. Also that branded oil segment of Edible oil and fats market has potential of more brands. With the innovation of blended oil which really hits the segment of Oil. Improve promotion strategy when competition was at its top and positioning that depicts that product is health will lead health image in the mind of consumers.

CAPRI SOAP

In November 1980, Zulfeqar Industries for the manufacturing and marketing of toilet and laundry soaps. Pakistani soap market is most attractive for the MNC’s and local brands and it has been segmented on the basis of price as premium, popular and discounted. There are many brands in the soap segment such as peer and other mainly targeted to premium segment. In 1969 Capri was launched with box packing and yellow colour and targeted in the segment of premium. Capri positioning was luxurious, family soap at that time and hence successful. In 1980s new concept of introduction of natural ingredients in the soap was introduced, this concept was also successful in the market at that time. The communication problem arose due to lack of interest and for that purpose Capri classic was introduced in 1990 with advertisement campaign. In 2000 when they repositioned their brand from previous to over all skin care to and to beauty by targeting young generation. Variants of the brand introduced in 2007 and got second in the premium segment with market share of almost 46 to 50tpercent.In 2008 fierce competition stats among Capri, Lux and other imported brands with make the market grow.

Majority of customer in the soap market are quality conscious they seek the quality first as this is the matter of their beauty. The Zulfeqar Industries and brand manager use different positioning and product innovation strategies for making the Capri brand grow against their competitors. Initially Capri was positioned as a luxury family soap. It was being marketed as a beauty soap which will give benefit to the beauty of the family. After that they have change the product by different variants by seeking continuous change and updates in the customers changing needs.

BONUS TRI-STAR

Detergent market of Pakistan is attractive and battle place for the MNC’s as well as Local brands. The story begins in 1981 when Lever Brothers launched the first ever branded detergent in Pakistan with the name of “Surf”, and was doing very well because of its quality. When Colgate Palmolive saw the detergent market growth and the potential buyers, in 1982 launched “Brite” a detergent with the same quality and price of surf. Initially the results were excellent and the sales were growing but later Brite was not able to create brand loyalty and the sales went flat, but surf was still doing well. Survey regarding the failure of Brite depict that people were satisfied by surf quality but were not happy by the price. This gave an idea to Colgate Palmolive and in 1986 they launched “Express”, a detergent with same quality as surf and Brite but was priced 30% lower than the other two. This step was a turning point for express sale increases and making it market leader in 1988. After that lose Levers launched “Sunlight” in 1991 which was of same price and quality as express but the results were disastrous and sunlight went away from the market in a quick period. When Colgate Palmolive saw that Levers were trying every strategy to break express, they launched “Bonus Tri-Star” in 1992 another detergent by Colgate Palmolive produced for the lower segment. Lever saw surf was not doing well they launched in 1995 “Wheel” a competitor of bonus sunlight .Wheel was of same quality as bonus but was priced even lower. It was a success, and in 1996 wheel got 60% of lower segment market share while bonus decreased at 40%. In After that Brite Tri-star 1999, Bonus tri-star gets at tope by advertisement and marketing activities.

Majority of customer in the detergent market are price conscious they seek the price first and quality second to price. The major strategies seeking in the Bonus story are pricing that directly targeted to low income consumers that was not identified before. They have kept in mind customer needs and constantly adopted the cost reduction strategies