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  • Kan Khajura Tesan wins Grand Prix WARC Prize for Asian Strategy

    Kan Khajura Tesan wins Grand Prix WARC Prize for Asian Strategy

    MUMBAI: About a month ago, Lowe Lintas + Partners had achieved an incredible feat of India’s best performance yet at the zenith of strategy awards in the world – the 4A’s Jay Chiat Awards in Chicago, with a silver and a bronze. The recognition goes further now with the agency bagging the top honour at another platform that recognises strategic excellence just as widely in Asia – The WARC Prize for Asian Strategy 2014.

    The fourth edition of The WARC Prize for Asian Strategy that was held in Singapore last night, saw the agency’s work on ‘KKT – From the ‘dark’ to connectivity’ bag the all-important Grand Prix for Best Strategy. KKT is an initiative for Hindustan Unilever developed by Lowe Lintas + Partners with media partner PHD.

    In another first for WARC, KKT was also conferred with the ‘Asia First Special Award’, for insight the rest of the world can learn from.

     As an awards platform, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy easily is a class apart from the others on numerous counts. Some of these include:

    –          Run by the World Advertising and Research Council, it is Asia’s leading platform that recognises great strategic thinking in marketing

    –          The award is open for all countries across the Asia Pacific region

    –          This year, it received over 180 entries, a record high for the competition

    –          The 40 that made the shortlist came from 11 countries, and from a mix of major networks and local independents

    –          The judging panel comprised of senior client-side marketers and agency experts that gave away a total of 19 awards

     Sharing his excitement on the news, Joseph George, CEO, Lowe Lintas + Partners India said, “KKT is a true innovation where a business problem was addressed with a platformic solution. The recognition it continues to amass at a global scale is a great testament to Lowe Lintas’ culture of creative effectiveness. The first Grand Prix for India at WARC makes it a little more sweeter.”

     For Anaheeta Goenka and Deepa Geethakrishnan, the team from Lowe Lintas + Partners that led the KKT initiative, the awards are a reiteration of the fact that no matter how small or simple an idea be, the true measure of its success is the change it brings about in the marketplace. Sharing their thoughts, they said, “This win is a crucial milestone of the global journey of creative effectiveness for Kan Khajura Tesan. From Europe to the US to now Asia. The WARC win further demonstrates that ‘solving real problems for real people’ is what the industry celebrates, in any part of the world. We are humbled and delighted by the honour conferred on us, by some of the best in the world.”

     With over 30 wins so far including World Mobile Congress, Cannes Lions, Jay Chiat and Spikes Asia so far, KKT is already among the most awarded ideas in the world on creativity and effectiveness this year.

     KKT is a ‘mobile radio’, that provides free entertainment to people in the ‘media dark’ regions of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Jharkhand, India’s Hindi- and Bhojpuri-speaking belt. The content is provided to the mobile user for FREE when (s)he gives a “missed call” to a designated number. The content is interspersed with ads for several brands of HUL.

     After the initial success in these regions, KKT continues to grow and expand to more regions of the country and is on its way to becoming the largest company-owned medium in the country.

     

  • SureWaves Media to expand its operations in south Asian countries

    SureWaves Media to expand its operations in south Asian countries

    KOLKATA:  SureWaves Media Tech, a Bengaluru based digital media-technology company, is looking beyond the Indian shores. The company is planning to expand its presence and operations in the south Asian countries.

    “We are extending the frontiers for growth. Since, we have covered the length and breadth of India, we are setting out to expand our scope and look for additional geographies. Nepal and Sri Lanka are on the radar now,” said SureWaves founder Rajendra Khare exclusively to Indiantelevision.com.

    According to Khare, there are advertisers in India that are looking at consumers in these countries.  And so, through a single gateway, SureWaves is now extending its scope and reach in order to enable the advertisers in these markets with the ease of technology. “We are also looking for additional strategic partners,” added Khare.

    The services will be fully functional in the next quarter. “Many product companies, auto sector, FMCG and e-commerce players have shown a strong interest,” he informed.
    Both Sri Lanka and Nepal markets are not yet digitised and so have a combination of terrestrial, cable and satellite channels. SureWaves is in the process of tying up with around 12-15 top media properties in Sri Lanka and another six to eight media channels in Nepal.

    “Bangladesh is also important for us,” he hinted.  As for Pakistan, Khare said that it would depend on the relationship between India and Pakistan.

    Currently, the company, through its internal team in the south Asian countries, is working on the initial research. “The geography and culture in the south Asian markets is not very different from that of India,” he said.

    SureWaves provides real-time data monitoring of ads, which for the first time, has made cable TV advertising accountable.

    The company, which has penetrated over 100 different markets across India by tying up with close to 250 local channels, plans to approach more satellite channels to extend its solution in the country.

    At present around 150 brands including HUL, Wipro, Dabur, Parle, Aircel, Vodafone, Nestle and Honda among others are using SureWaves services in India. Of these, a few have already shown interest to use the services in the neighbouring countries as well. “We are also targeting national advertisers who want to reach all the markets,” he concluded.

  • Harish Manwani to retire as HUL’s chief operating officer

    Harish Manwani to retire as HUL’s chief operating officer

    MUMBAI: After 38 years of service, Harish Manwani, Unilevers’ chief operating officer has decided to hang his boots.

     

    Manwani will retire from Unilever on 31 December 31; however, he will continue in his capacity as the non-executive chairman of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL).

     

    Manwani, who had joined HUL as a management trainee in 1976, grew the personal products business from a nascent business to one of the key growth engines of the company. Subsequently,  he enjoyed success in many roles, covering both categories and markets, and across many parts of the world. This included stints as SVP Global Hair Care & Oral Care and Home & Personal Care president first of Latin America and later of North America.

     

    Unilever CEO Paul Polman said, “Harish is an inspirational leader and leaves a remarkable legacy. He has been at my side in helping to drive the turnaround of Unilever, making this once again one of the most admired companies in the world. Over the last three years, especially as Chief Operating Officer, Harish has been instrumental in the transformation of the company. Under his leadership we have seen a step-change in our go-to-market organisation and there has been a relentless focus on flawless execution globally.  He has role-modelled the 4G sustainable growth model – Competitive, Consistent, Profitable and Responsible – which has become such a strong focal point for the Markets.”

     

    Paul added, “I would like to thank Harish once more for his enormous contribution.  He is both a friend and a much admired and respected business leader. In everything he has done, Harish has lived the values that make Unilever such a great company. Through his passion, commitment and endless energy, he leaves a lasting impact on the business he has served with such distinction. I will personally miss his friendship and wise counsel.”

     

    As COO, Manwani’s key achievement have been his leadership of the global markets where he established and aligned the market clusters across the world behind a clear agenda, creating a better and more integrated go-to-market organisation. It has also allowed the business to be managed more dynamically, resource allocation to be done more efficiently across markets and best practices to be transferred more seamlessly. This has allowed Unilever to become increasingly more competitive in a tougher business environment.

     

    Manwani  said, “I am deeply grateful to all those colleagues who have helped to make the last 38 years at HUL and Unilever so memorable and fulfilling. It has been a privilege to serve such a great company. Today, Unilever is in a strong position with a clear strategy and capabilities to drive long-term responsible growth. This makes it a good time for me to make this personal transition. I look forward to working with Paul and the leadership team over the coming months to ensure a smooth transition and to further build our growth agenda.”

     

  • JWT’s ‘Make Every Yard Count’ leads at Spike Asia

    JWT’s ‘Make Every Yard Count’ leads at Spike Asia

    MUMBAI: At the Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity 2014, Indian entrants won four Gold, nine Silver and 32 Bronze Spikes. JWT India’s ‘Make Every Yard Count’ for Nike bagged two Golds, one each in the Film and Film Craft categories. Bagging two Gold, two Silver and five Bronze Spike trophies, JWT emerged as the winner amongst the Indian entrants, this year.

     

    PHD India and Lowe Lintas received a Gold each for Kan Khajura Tesan (HUL), in the media and mobile categories, respectively. Ogilvy & Mather India bagged a trophy for its entry ‘The Good Road’, for Castrol Activ/Bengaluru Traffic Police in the Innovation Spikes category.  

     

    The winners were declared in Singapore on 26 September, the final day of this year’s event. The Indian winners are listed below, by category.

     

    Branded Entertainment

     

    Two Bronze Spikes were won by JWT’s ‘Make Every Yard Counts’ for Nike and ‘Kan Khajura Tesan’ entered by Lowe Lintas, PHD and Ozontel, for Hindustan Unilever.

     

    Design

     

    Two Bronze wins again. One by DDB Mudra’s campaign ‘Identity 1, Identity 2’ for Volkswagen and the other by BBDO India for Visa’s ‘Dream2Advance’.

     

    Digital

     

    Ogilvy & Mather bagged a Silver Spike for The Akanksha Foundation’s ‘Message Barter’.

     

    Direct

     

    Ogilvy & Mather’s ‘Message Barter’ received a Silver along with Visa’s ‘Dream2Advace’ by BBDO taking the count to two Silvers.

     

    McCann Worldgroup India and Cheil Worldwide India won two Bronze awards each for ‘Share my dabba’ and ‘The Light Bag’ respectively. Havas Worldwide India also bagged a Bronze for ‘No Child Brides’, for Child Survival India.

     

    Film

     

    JWT’s ‘Make Every Yard Count’ for Nike received a Gold while Bronze went to Ogilvy & Mather for ‘Google Reunion’.

     

    Film Craft

     

    Besides a Gold, ‘Make Every Yard Count’ for Nike by JWT also acquired two Silver trophies.

     

    BBH India won two Bronze Spikes, one each for Skoda India’s ‘Hydrant’ and ‘A Family Story’.

     

    Innovation

     

    Ogilvy & Mather secured one for ‘The Good Road’ campaign for Castrol Activ/Bangalore Traffic Police.

     

    Media

     

    PHD India landed a Gold and a Silver for Kan Khajura Tesan (HUL).

     

    22Feet Tribal Worldwide earned a Bronze for ‘Push the Pin’, for Tata Global Beverages (Media agency: Maxus Bengaluru).

     

    Cheil India collected a Bronze for work on Halonix – the entry ‘The Safer City’.

     

    McCann scooped a Bronze for ‘Share My Dabba’. 

     

    Vizeum’s entry for MTV also took home a Bronze trophy.

     

    Mobile

     

    Kan Khajura Tesan entered by Lowe Lintas and Partners in this category bagged a Gold award.

     

    Outdoor

     

    Grey received two Bronze awards for work on Duracell – one for the entry Torch ‘Squeeze’ entry, and the other for the campaign (Choo-Choo, Remote Control, Camera)

     

    McCann won a Bronze for the campaign on Big Babol (Tangerine, Mango, Pear).

     

    JWT’s campaign for Godrej Security Solutions (House, Antique Store, Music Store) also secured a Bronze. 

     

    Cheil India received a Bronze for ‘The Light Bag’, for Salam Balak Trust.

     

    PR

     

    Ogilvy & Mather acquired two Silver – one each for The Akanksha Foundation (Message Barter) and Road Safety Awareness (The Seatbelt Crew, for Channel V).

     

    BBDO obtained a Silver too, for ‘Illegal Sand Mining’ for client Awaaz Foundation.

     

    Print

     

    McCann won one Bronze for its Big Babol series, while Grey bagged one for the Duracell campaign. 

     

    A Bronze went to DDB Mudra Group for work on Future Group, a campaign comprising entries ‘TV Unit’ and ‘Dining Table’ for Hometown Retail.

     

    Print & Poster Craft

     

    DDB Mudra bagged a Bronze in this category for its campaign for Volkswagen (Identity1, Identity2).

     

    Promo & Activation

     

    JWT received three Bronze for the Nike ‘Make Every Yard Count’ film.

     

    BBDO’s ‘Dream2win’ won two Bronze awards. 

     

    Geometry Global was awarded one Bronze for Lifebuoy Hand Pump (HUL).

     

    Radio

     

    Ogilvy & Mather acquired a Bronze for Mumbai Police’s ‘The Train’ entry, India’s lone metal in the category. 

     

  • HUL announces key appointments

    HUL announces key appointments

    MUMBAI: Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) has announced a key change in the management committee. Manish Tiwary, currently sales and customer development executive director and VP, will now take charge of the Unilever Gulf business as the managing director.

     

    Customer Development Global RTM, TT and CDIT vice president Punit Misra will take place of Tiwary at HUL and will be part of the company’s management committee. The change will be effective November 2014.

     

    HUL CEO and managing director Sanjiv Mehta said, “I would like to express my deep appreciation for the significant contribution that Manish has made to the India business and congratulate him on his new role.”

     

    Tiwary has led the largest increase in sales coverage by adding 1 million plus perfect stores across India. He also executed structural changes to provide a sharper focus to the Foods business and laid the blueprint for ‘Winning In Many Indias’, the customer development model of HUL that was rolled out in September 2014.

     

    Misra joined HUL in 1996 and has worked across marketing and customer development roles both in HUL and Unilever.

     

    Misra’s successor will be announced in due course.

  • Lodestar UM retains number two position at EMVIES 2014

    Lodestar UM retains number two position at EMVIES 2014

    MUMBAI: It was a night of celebration and awards. And at the centre of it was Maxus, which won nine gold, six silver and three bronze trophies at the EMVIES 2014.

     

    Maintaining the second position was Loadstar UM which bagged one gold and 13 silver trophies. On the win, Loadstar UM CEO Nandini Dias said, “It would have been nice to have been the media agency of the year, but many would say that I should be satisfied since we are way ahead of a lot of others. The good part is that no agency has had award winning work across so many diverse clients and categories.”

     

    “We have Coca Cola, Microsoft , Mahindra , Amul , Tata Motors, Johnson and Johnson, Kansai Nerolac . In addition we have won in categories which are the toughest that is ‘strategy and research’ and ’analytics’. Unfortunately in digital space despite being digital agency of the year in IAMAI, in Emvies barring one none of the work got short listed,” she added.

     

    This year saw 650 entries, of which 132 were shortlisted by 32 marketing and research professionals.  Maxus got the highest number of shortlists with 27 entries, followed by Madison Media and Lodestar UM which got 23 shortlists each and Mindshare with 19 entries.  

     

    The ‘Best Media Client of the Year’ was bagged by Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) and Tata Global Beverages with 100 points each. While Tata Global Beverages won four gold and two silver medals and HUL bagged three gold, five silver and one bronze medal.

     

    The fourth position for ‘Media Agency of the Year’ was jointly bagged by Madison Media Pinnacle and Madison Media Infinity with 70 points each, while PHD India stood at number five with 55 points.

     

    The evening also the felicitation of the ‘Young Emvie of the Year’ which was won by DDB Mudramax  chief youth marketer Samyak Chakrabarty for his Operation Black Dot, Clean and Clear, United Nations Young Changemakers Conclave and DDB Mudra Group Youth Report. As part of the prize, Chakrabarty has been given an all expense paid trip from Mumbai to Abu Dhabi as well as a free trip to Ferrari World.

  • Management shuffle at HUL

    Management shuffle at HUL

    MUMBAI: Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) has announced key changes in the management committee of the company. Subject to Unilever Indonesia’s external board approval, Hemant Bakshi, currently executive director – home and personal care, will be appointed as executive vice president (EVP) of Unilever Indonesia.

     

    The home and personal care (HPC) business will now be organised into home care and personal care businesses in India. Samir Singh, currently global brand vice president Lifebuoy and vice president – personal care lead, south Asia cluster, Unilever, will be appointed as HUL executive director – personal care and Priya Nair, currently vice president – Laundry, HUL, will be appointed as executive director – home care. Both Nair and Singh will be part of the management committee of HUL and their appointments are effective 1 October 2014.

     

    HUL CEO & managing director Sanjiv Mehta said, “I wish to take the opportunity to express my deep appreciation for the significant contribution that Hemant has made to the India business, both in his current role as executive director – HPC and his earlier role as executive director – CD. I would like to congratulate Hemant on his move to Unilever Indonesia and wish him all the best in his new assignment.”

     

    Nair joined the company in the consumer insights team in 1995, where she brought with her a diverse and rich experience including customer development and marketing. In her earlier roles, she has worked across various brands such as Dove, Axe, Rexona, Closeup, Pepsodent. As VP home care she has been leading the entire detergents portfolio of HUL. More recently, she has led the launch of HUL’s path breaking rural mobile marketing initiative ‘Kan Khajura Tesan’ which received three Gold Lion awards at the 2014 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

     

    Singh on the other hand joined Unilever in 1997 as a management trainee in India. He has worked across many brands including Fair & Lovely, Vaseline, Ponds and has also worked in Foods in Customer Development in India.

     

    For the past four years Singh has been the global brand vice president for Lifebuoy and a member of the Global Category Leadership Team for skin cleansing. In this role, he has led global strategy, innovation and communication for Lifebuoy in more than 30 key countries across the world. He was also the personal care cluster lead for south Asia in 2014.

     

    “We have reorganised the home and personal care business into two separate businesses to ensure focus on the growth drivers for each of these businesses. I am pleased to welcome Priya and Samir to their new roles. Both bring with them rich and diverse marketing and business experience in Unilever. Priya joined HUL in 1995 and has worked in roles across marketing, customer development and CMI. Samir joined HUL in 1997 and has worked in various roles in HUL and across the regional and global Unilever organisation,” he added.

  • Is there a market for advertising on feature phones?

    Is there a market for advertising on feature phones?

    MUMBAI: When HUL’s ‘Kan Khajura Tesan’ campaign came back home with a Gold Lion in the mobile category from Cannes this year, it took the whole industry by surprise.

     

    The campaign rolled out by the FMCG giant was an effort to reach out to the media dark areas. ‘The Kan Khajura Station’ a 15 minute free, on-demand, entertainment channel was a service where people could give a missed call and then get entertained for free.

     

    The brand created a new media through a rudimentary mobile phone that brought people out of media darkness and connected them with the world. According to the brand, the activity was done at a cost of Rs 6 per person. This campaign was executed in Bihar and Jharkhand.

     

    This is not the first time that the country’s largest consumer good company had executed a campaign for people with feature phones in the country. It can be recalled, couple of years back the company’s detergent brand Active Wheel had also used missed call as an advertising inventory to catch the attention of consumers in UP and Bihar.

     

    Further to this, the company is now collaborating with local grocery shops and is working on making custom-made caller tune as part of a new marketing initiative. This means that when a consumer calls up the shop to place an order he/she will be informed about various promotions and offers on the various brands from the house of HUL. According to economic times, HUL has piloted this initiated in Mumbai and Delhi.

     

    If studies by International Data Corporation (IDC) are to be believed feature phones still hold over 70 per cent of the Indian mobile market. Experts in the space are optimistic that the scenario will change the game. A recent IDC report mentions that India is the fastest-growing market in Asia-Pacific, with a year-on-year smartphone shipment growth of over 186 per cent in 1Q 2014.

     

    Is there still a market for advertising on feature phones in country where smartphones are growing exponentially?

     

    Digital Quotient COO Vinish Kathuria believes there is a lot of scope of exploring this market. According to him, advertising opportunities on feature phones revolve around text and banner ads on WAP sites, IVR based outreach and SMS and missed call strategies which are being used interestingly even today by many big brands.

     

    Out these advertising options, missed call as tool looks to be promising to many other experts. In a recent development, Facebook announced that it has introduced missed call inventory to boost its advertising revenues in India that counts for the second largest user base for it.

     

    This advertising tool will allow mobile phone users to click a button that calls an advertiser, immediately hangs up and then receives a return call. The return call delivers pre-recorded audio messages about everything from sponsored cricket scores to information about shopping discounts, minimizing data charges for the user.

     

    The social networking site has partnered with ZipDial for this. In early tests of the missed call ads by L’Oreal-owned haircare product Garnier Men, the ads led to a 2.5 times year-on-year increase in online sales, according to Facebook.

     

    When asked how different is it to execute an advertising campaign on feature phone than on a smartphone, ZipDial founder and CEO Valerie R Wagoner mentions, “We don’t believe in thinking of it as advertising on feature phones but rather advertising to consumers who have feature phones.”

     

    Wagoner thinks media activations with these set of mobiles can deliver great results.  She is of the opinion that every media whether print, television, outdoor, or even digital ads should have a mobile call-to-action to make it interactive and to drive ongoing engagement with consumers in a targeted and personalised way.

     

    “While a QR Code is relevant to less than 1 per cent of mobile consumers in India, a missed call is the easiest thing that anyone could do from any phone,” adds Wagoner.

     

    She informs that ZipDial is collaborating with Unilever to work on expanding this success globally across emerging markets.

     

    Apart from this the cost is minimalistic. Running a campaign on feature phones might cost a brand anywhere between Rs 3 to 6 lakhs mentions a senior media planner.

     

    The Roadblocks

     

    Having said that, thought there is a huge opportunity in using mobile as a broadcast channel to directly reach consumers, it has to be done very carefully, especially for consumers on feature phones.

     

    “Advertising potential is significantly lower on feature phones because of two main reasons. One is the limited screen size and phone’s processing makes it harder to offer plethora of multi media advertising options. Two, availability of apps and usage of it are significantly lower. So, in-app advertising, one of the biggest mobile advertising categories, is almost non-existent,” says Kathuria.

     

    Brands should never spam users. Wagoner states, “Blasting SMS or voice calls can be extremely intrusive. However, SMS and voice Calls are a very powerful tool when you use them in combination with protecting consumer privacy. For example, standard industry response rates to generic push SMS blasts are around 0.1-0.2 per cent. However, response rates to SMS sent to ZipDial followers are between 9-56 per cent because users give permission and are in control of the content they receive.”

     

    It is extremely necessary to have personalised experience which targets the right message to the right consumer at the right time that will successfully lead to behavioural change, conversions and business impact across this segment.

     

    ”The difference is that there are thousands of companies designing for smartphones (especially companies in the West and developed markets), and there are very few innovative companies designing and building good advertising technology for emerging markets,” concludes Wagoner.

     

  • HUL q-o-q ad spend up 12.4 per cent in Q1-2015; PAT 21.2 per cent

    HUL q-o-q ad spend up 12.4 per cent in Q1-2015; PAT 21.2 per cent

    BENGALURU: Indian FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever Limited’s (HUL) Advertisement and Promotions expense (ASP) in Q1-2015 at Rs 948.88 crore (12.2 per cent of Total Income from Operations or TIO) was up 12.4 per cent as compared to the immediate trailing quarter Q4-2014’s Rs 830.34 crore (11.8 per cent of TIO). HUL’s above mentioned ASP in Q1-2015 was 6.2 per cent more than the Rs 889.78 crore (13.1 per cent of TIO).

    Note: (1) Rs 100 lakh = Rs100,00,000 = Rs 1 crore = Rs 10 million.

    (2) All figures in this report are standalone figures filed by the company.

    The company has reported an 8.8 per cent jump in TIO in Q1-2015 to Rs 7716.34 crore from Rs 7094.1 crore in Q4-2014, and 13.3 per cent more than the Rs 6809.04 crore in Q1-2014.

    Fig 1 below shows the PAT trend of the company over a nine quarter period starting Q1-2013 until Q1-2015. The ASP expense in terms of rupee value shows an upward linear trend, while in terms of percentage of TIO, ASP shows a downward linear trend. The company’s ASP in terms of rupees spent and also in terms of percentage of TIO was in Q2-2014, during which HUL spent Rs 954.02 crore (13.8 per cent of TIO).

    As per Fig 2 below, HUL’s PAT has been showing a downward trend, both in rupee terms and percentage of TIO during the nine quarter period under consideration.  In Q1-2015, the company reported PAT of Rs 1056.85 crore (13.7 per cent of TIO), which was 21.2 per cent more q-o-q and 3.7 per cent more y-o-y. In Q4-2014, the company had reported PAT of Rs 872.13 crore (12.3 per cent of TIO) and in Q1-2014 its PAT was 1019.25 crore (15 per cent of TIO). HUL’s highest reported PAT during the above mentioned nine quarter period was in Q1-2013 at Rs 1331.19 crore and 20.9 per cent of TIO.

    Here’s what the company has to say about Q1-2015 results:

    NOTES:

    1. Net sales grew by 13.2 per cent during the quarter. Domestic Consumer Business (FMCG + Water) grew by 13.3 per cent with a 13.3 per cent growth in HPC and 13.4 per cent growth in food businesses.

    2. Operating Profit (Profit from Operations before Other Income, Finance costs and Exceptional Items) for the quarter at Rs 124,982 lakh (Q1-2014: Rs 101,916 lakh) grew by 22.6 per cent.

    3. Profit after tax from ordinary activities before Exceptional Items net of tax and prior period tax adjustments (refer note 6 and 7 below) for the quarter at Rs 101,968 lakh (Q1-2014: Rs 88,513 lakh) grew by 15.2 per cent.

    4. Employee benefit expense for the quarter includes a one-time credit of an amount of Rs 3,244 lakh on account of adjustments for un-utilised pension corpus relating to earlier years. (Q1-2014: Nil)

    5. Other income includes interest income, dividend income and net gain on sale of other non trade current investments aggregating to Rs 8,810 lakh (Q1-2014: Rs 7,974 lakh) and net gain on sale of non current investments Rs 10,622 lakh (Q1-2014 : Rs. 7,275 lakhs) and interest on income tax refunds of Rs 779 lakh (Q1-2014: Rs. 2,426 lakhs).

    6. Exceptional items, net credit in Q1-2015 include profit on sale of surplus properties Rs  4,015 lakh (Q1-2014: Rs 10,625 lakh) and restructuring expenses Rs  51 lakh (Q1-2014: Rs Nil).

    7. Taxation for the quarter includes net write back of excess tax provisions of earlier years amounting to Rs 1,056 lakh (Q1-2014: Rs 6,421 lakh).

    8. Previous period figures have been re-grouped/reclassified wherever necessary, to conform to this period’s classification.

    9. The text of the above statement was approved by the Board of Directors at their meeting held on 28 July 2014.

    Click here to read financial statement

    Click here to read financial result

  • Philips India adds celebrity quotient to its male grooming category

    Philips India adds celebrity quotient to its male grooming category

    MUMBAI: Macho man is passé; metrosexual is the current breed of men who with a high disposable income is the most promising consumer today.

     

    They don’t mind filling their shopping carts with make-me-look-good goodies. And this is the reason why a bunch of male grooming products have sprung up in the last few years.

     

    The male grooming segment which was projected to be Rs 1,500 crore market in 2012 is expected to reach Rs 5,300 crore by 2016.

     

    According to a Nielsen study on the Indian male grooming segment, there is a rising aspiration among Indian men to look groomed, which has led to the Indian men’s grooming market’s rapid growth of more than 34 per cent.

     

    The Nielsen study further stated that this growth is faster than the growth rate of the total personal care and beauty industry in India. The research company believes time is ripe for beauty and grooming brands to make the most of this growing male attention.

     

    The segment can be divided into sub categories: beauty range of products and grooming gadgets (manual and electronic).

     

    As per a report by Euromonitor International on male grooming sector in India, Gillette India lead men’s grooming with a value share of 28 per cent in 2012. The company has a strong horizontally diversified portfolio of razors and blades, with brands such as Mach, Vector, 7’O clock and many more, enhancing its long term sustainability. Hindustan Unilever was second, accounting for a 15 per cent share. These products fall in to the manual sub category.

     

    On the other hand, in the electronic sub-category, Philips with a range of grooming gadgets for men including trimmers, shavers and stylers, is ruling the market share, claims the company.

     

    To take a step further, the brand is set to roll out an extensive marketing campaign.

     

    The brand has decided to add celebrity quotient to its communication and has roped in actor Arjun Kapoor to be its face in the country. It can be noted that earlier John Abraham was its brand ambassador.

     

    The TVC which went on air on 10 July has been conceptualised and created by Ogilvy & Mather. The brand will also splash its communication on other media platforms. About 15-20 per cent of its marketing budget is expected to be invested on digital.

     

    The business of electronic brands of this segment is growing at 30-40 per cent year on year, mentions Philips India director marketing-personal care Anurita Chopra.

     

     “The Indian market is fast adopting this particular category. The reason to bring Arjun on board is mainly because he brings in positivity which we as a brand are trying to promote through our communication,” says Philips India president consumer lifestyle ADA Ratnam.

     

    However, the pricing strategy of the brand is to make it affordable.