Posts Tagged ‘Dabur’
The last few years were a golden period for the FMCG industry. The economy was growing at a faster rate, imput prices were low, and inflation was low. This year the food inflation is very high around 12%, and the raw material cost has increased upto 15 to 20 percent compared to last year. The operating margins which are typically about 20 percent in the last few years have seen a drop to almost 16 percent.
High food inflation has an adverse affect on the FMCG industry. People will spend less money on discretionary items which will hit he FMCG industry. They say the fate of HUL is dependent on the monsoons. A good monsoon will not give any inflation worries and also increases the consumption power creating demand for hair oil, biscuits, soaps, shampoos, laundry, and toilet soaps.
High input costs
High input costs are another worry for existing woes. The cost of milk powder and sugar has gone up by 35 percent and 19 percent YOY and Nestle India is really struggling on its margins. The wheat used in ITC’s biscuits is up 10-15 percent thi year, the Copra used by Marico cost 10 percent more, the coconut and palm kernel oil used by Godrej Consumer has risen by 15-20 percent, and the menthol used by Emami has gone up by 20 percent. The heavy rains in Kerala might have caused the cost of Copra to increase and it doesn’t seem to be temporal. So, maintaining the margins this year is a tough task. Some of the FMCG players say that they will not increase the price of Low Unit Packs (LUPs) but may increase the prices of higher priced stock-keeping units (SKUs). The packaging cost which is very important in the FMCG sector has shot up by around 10 percent this year. They are expected to stay that way caused by the strong crude prices at $80 per barrel.
Rural Market is the way
Urban Markets are showing lower growth as compared to the rural hinterland. It is estimated that the big daddy Hindustan Unilever (HUL) gets almost 50 percent of their revenue from rural India , and Dabur gets almost 55 percent, and Marico gets 25 percent of their revenue from rural India. The Urban Markets are saturated with more and more competitors and less margins for the companies. For example, Toothpaste has a rural penetration of 40 percent as against 72 percent in the Urban areas. The underpenetrated categories such as toothpaste can be taken advantage of by companies like Colgate and HUL. Colgate started an initiative to educate people about the advantages of toothpaste and influence conversions from toothpowder and others. The volume growth in such categories will be fast.Shampoos showed a growth of 8.9 percent (Jan to May’10) compared with an urban volume growth of 2.5 percent.
The government schemes which have been launched over the past few years had helped in increasing the disposable income, in turn the purchasing power of rural India. Schemes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) which aim to put around Rs. 40,000 crores in the hands of the rural poor, leaves a large population with higher disposable incomes. This leads to some basic changes in the consumption patterns of greater consumption of personal care and above basic food requirements.
India is one of the most challenging markets in the world which fooled big marketers and companies across the world. We have over 1500 Gods segmented into 350 broad categories, and we have a God for every single day of the week. There are 9.5 lakh pan shops, 638,667 number of villages, 612 districts, and 28 states in India. This is the country where you see a pan shop and Haagen Daz together, and a bullock cart and a Mercedes in the traffic jams. Indian market is very challenging and it really fascinates me as a marketer.A very large part of Indian population still lives in villages defining the Rural India.
Rural India is very important for many companies and there is tremendous increase in investments and strategies surrounding the rural markets. Rural India Market buys:
- 45% of all soft drinks
- 50% of motorcycles, TVs, cigarettes, washing soap, fans, blades, and a lot others.
Rural Market Opportunities
Few of the companies that are going bullish in the rural markets:
- HUL with its Project Shakti has already has a reach of 1.7 lakh villages, and aspires to reach 5 lakh villages by 2020.
- Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) has a lot of penetration in the rural markets and the eChoupals are a big hit in the rural market.
- Airtel is planning to reach around 2 lakh villages.
- Marico with its most famous brand Parachute has a reach of 1 lakh villages.
- Pepsi and Coke, the Cola giants, have a reach of 70,000 villages.
- Dabur, known for its Lal Dant Manjan and Hajmola, has a reach of 60,000 villages.
- Colgate with its Operation Jagruthi has a reach of over 60,000 villages.
- Mahindra & Mahindra sells most of its SUVs in the rural market.
Mahindra Shubhlabh is India’s largest exporter of fresh produce. Mahindra Shubhlabh engages with farmers in the production of export quality grapes, pomegranates, and apples aimed at delivering to domestic and international markets. It has a huge R&D facility in Pune to research on various modern seeds and saplings.
- Nokia 1100 with its torch is a very big hit in the rural market. It is a perfect example of understanding the needs of the consumer. Nokia realized the need for a torch in the mobile for the rural people as they walk in the dark streets and fields of the village. Nokia is set to release some low cost phones to tap more from the tier-3 and tier-4 markets.
There are other companies like Godrej, ParleG, Asian Paints, Yes Bank, Royal Enfield, ITC and Revlon.
Marketing Challenge
Delivering to the rural markets is a real challenge to many companies. In fact, the whole dynamics of these markets are so different that you need to look at a different product mix containing the 4A’s instead of the traditional 4P’s of marketing:
Acceptability – Build what the consumer wants
Affordability - Make an affordable product
Availability - Distribution plays a key role in the rural markets
Awareness - Don’t promote the brand, demonstrate the product.
Top Media in Rural Markets
Dainik group is the leading newspaper in the rural markets. In the realm of television, we have the following in the descending order of penetration in the rural markets.
- Doordarshan has a reach of 97% of the rural markets in India.
- Zee Cinema which carries with the image of movies being the favourites of rural people.
- B4u movies
- MTV
- Discovery Hindi
One of the key trends in the rural markets is people changing very quickly from cable to satellite TV. This is because of the hassle-free dish connection of the satellite TV. Most of the dish TV companies like Tata Sky, BIG TV, and Airtel are selling good in the rural markets too. Similarly, Revlon has come up with a lipstick for the rural markets and it is doing very good as against Lakme. This shows that there is huge potential in these markets and it is interesting to see how these trends will transform the lives of the rural people and in turn impact the Indian markets.
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