The great Mark Twain once said that in India there is no time for tea since all time is for tea only, which certainly was a comment on the lazy behaviour of Indians , doing nothing but drinking tea only. Tea was once considered as a drink of royal clan , tea was especially prepared on special occasions and was considered something special drink. In China today also it’s a custom, then change prevail and tea lost its touch, now it has become a poor man’s drink. If you generally ask for tea some people may just reject that because its below there standard, but this below standard drink has employed more than 20,000 inhabitants of Assam alone. The state which cannot produce anything but tourism and tea. Majority of tea leaves are properly look after due to lack of storing space and logistics. The tea boards are just filling there pockets with the government sanction money. They must synchronize the order of production and must pay a higher wages to labour also

Tea industry is going through its worst phase- environment degradation, land deforestation, herbal tea, green tea, cold drinks, market price fluctuations, no proper cultivation techniques etc.

Revival of the Industry hence should be prime importance to the state government. In its 166 year old history, The Tea Industry of Assam for the first time is going through one of its worst phases. There has been decline in export, stagnation domestic production and marketing in the Indian Tea Industry .price fluctuation, production cost, no exports, old techniques, unskilled labour, unavailability of labour are some of the major concerns in this field.

The industry should be much exposed like gambling industry in USA, the strengths of tea must be projected in such a manner that coffee lovers should go for tea. Weaknesses , threats must be eliminated and state and central government should look over the whole scenario by themselves.

Bhartihari Pandiya
RS178
Department of management studies
Rs178@iiita.ac.in

Market Identification

 Email marketing is consider to be the most economical way of creating the first touch among the potential customers ,Its time saving also as bulk impressions can be created using this approach. Before starting this practice the marketer should be clear about their list of potential customers if possible should segment them on the basis of business type ( i.e B2B or B2C), Location, Demographics etc.

 Content Preparation

 A template should be maintained, having all the useful information and eye catching, attractive yet simple and downloadable landing website navigators. It should not be too heavy and descriptive, heavy images, attachments and javascripts should be avoided. Instead map images, rich text and relative hyperlinks should be used. Aweber can be used for the same.

 Data Driven Analysis

 Analysing the trends and potential customer’s preferences, prediction can be made on whom to serve what. Marketer should keep the track of conversion rate, customer life cycle, clicks etc. in exact data clusters format.

 Re-Marketing Practices

 Email marketing runs on 80-20 rule, means only 20% of the loyal customer base handles the 80% profit share of the businesses, So Email should be designed such that it should reflect more care, facilitation and awareness than just selling, Once potential customer becomes customer.

 Subscription Management

 There should be a team to keep the track of all the users want to unsubscribe from the offered services and maintain a feedback mechanism for the same.

 Testing

 Before launching any campaign it should be tested on different email providers like gmail,yahoo mail,outbox,rediffmail etc , Also on different browsers to check the cross platform compatibility. There is a tool named Litmus that tests and provides screen shots of dozens of different email providers present in market. Mobile compatibility should also be tested as nowadays most the people prefer checking their mail on their smart phones.

 Policy Maintenance

 Content should not be such that it get blocked as a Spam, marketer should be aware about the CAN-SPAM Act. DMARC policy should be taken into account if sending email newsletters from public domains private domains without authentication.

Priyanka Malik
MBA, IIIT Allahabad
IMB2013017@iiita.ac.in

Just two decades back, the people were happy with Parle-G as a biscuit,Nirma as a washing powder and a tooth-powder or even daatun, for cleaning their teeth. But with every passing day, their needs and aspirations are changing. The anthropologist’s may say this is normal because as species evolve, consumer tastes also evolve, but the catch here is that along with their tastes, their buying pattern and point of purchases, is also changing. Now, they are no longer, interested in buying the same brand their ancestors were using and neither want to stick around with one brand.

The new India is young and dynamic and is willing to experiment. Perhaps that’s the reason, why you see, that today in every category, at least 5 brands are available. Also, now every brand is moving towards premiumisation. If we talk of biscuits category, gone are the days of glucose biscuits and now, we have players like Britannia coming up with a super-premium cookie ‘Chunkie’s’, which costs Rs.500/- per kg, a price quite high for Indian audience. But the market offtake data shows, that consumers are buying this. ITC Foods, has come up with its Dark Fantasy range of cookies, which is targeted at an equally premium segment. If we take of health segment, global brands working in the niche biscuit segment like McVitie’s, is working aggressively in ‘Digestive’range and Oats segment, through their ‘Hobnobs’ range of cookies and the health conscious Indian consumer, is responding by buying its products regularly. Even, innovation is being done in traditional biscuit range like Marie/Rich Tea, where newer varieties are being introduced by all players.

But hey, there’s a catch here!!! These are not aimed at the rich and elite class, which still has a craving for imported biscuits. These companies are targeting these new products at middle & lower income groups, as their price points are between Rs.20-Rs.50/-, which can be afforded. And as the products are really good, the chance of repeat purchase is pretty strong. This analogy becomes even true in organized/modern trade, where consumers can feel the product and are often tempted to buy these new products, thanks to its mouth-watering packaging.

Also, the traditional purchase points are also changing. Earlier, we used to be happy to go to the uncle-ki-dukaan(Kirana/General trade outlet) as it was close and gave us some petty discount, but now people are willing to take a cab and visit the super-markets like Big Bazaar & D Marts, shop in an AC environment and most importantly feel the products and not be influenced by the kirana retailer’s advice. Moreover, these super-markets will give customers a better deal in bulk buying and many customers can also redeem their Sodexo coupons, along with free parking. All in all, a happy deal, for a happy customer.

This new disruptive trend has forced the general trade (Kirana stores), to change the ways it used to function. Now, they are changing rapidly into self-service or standalone outlets in cities like Hyderabad & Bangalore, where customers can choose products and they are also giving new services like home delivery. The Big Bazaar is also working on a pilot project of home-delivery in small towns, to get an edge over such outlets.

This is just the beginning; keep your hunger alive for bigger things about to come. Bon appetite…

ABHISHEK DE
Management Trainee, United Biscuits
Email id-ade11@rediffmail.com

Rule number one- NEVER LOSE MONEY

Rule number two- REMEMBER RULE NUMBER ONE.

The basics of doing business depends upon such words. Many companies do some role playing activities within the organisation to find the loop hole, the point from where they are losing the money. One such exercise is 6 thinking hats in which we get to know information, feelings, innovation, creativity, goal, objective, conservatism etc. so many feelings and emotions just at the cost of hats, the answers are immediate and hence rich in context and honest. The most crude form of information is always helpful, people can’t hide there instincts and hence give away the natural desires. Now what are these 6 hats and what they represent:

White Hat thinking

The data at hand , information or statistics viable or visible to everyone. Something which is not hidden.Which can be proved with facts and figures.

Red Hat thinking

You may be right but I don’t like you and hence I don’t like your opinion also. Prejudices, feelings, the first thoughts, instincts. People with experience generally tend towards red hat because over the course and period of time they have well crafted this part.

Black Hat thinking

What if we fail, what if the situation is not ideal, this may sound negative but actually its not. Black hat is the mostly used hat, it shows us the negative aspects of our decision and hence mostly valued. What cautions must be taken, what system or policy must be used etc such issues are covered in this part.

Yellow Hat thinking

We will pass with flying colors , there is no one better than us in this field, we will create the state of the art system. The words of enthusiasm , encouragement, filled with joy and positive responses.
Green Hat thinking

Be different, the idea of the education is not to teach but to create imagination, think different, think beyond your scope think something not possible, think something vague, wild anything but give a try . Just think

Blue Hat thinking

This is the overview or process control hat. It looks not at the subject itself but at the ‘thinking’ about the subject. ‘Putting on my blue hat, I feel we should do some more green hat thinking at this point.’ In technical terms, the blue hat is concerned with meta-cognition.

Himanshu Singh
IMB2014010
MBA DEPARTMENT