HLL planned to grow and establish the HLN Network business through large-scale Consultant recruitment and retention and by further expanding the range of product offerings to its Consultants.
Objectives:
The objectives of HLN to launch network marketing and sales promotion activity were to help HLL survive the P&G onslaught. And Face up to P&G as HLL moves to a new structure secondly they intended to invest in core businesses and dispose of no core ones and finding funds for long-term growth without depressing margins further
HLN planned to expand innovation beyond a few select brands and tackle P&G’s detergent price war and kick start growth and wanted to focus on the water business and has to expand distribution of confectionery
business to local sweet shops including the expansion of Brooke Bond brand has to find ways to revive the struggling staple foods business
HLN could have use to distinguish:
The HLN Network business model could different model in the following ways:
- HLN could have create an brand salience and awareness among customers and consumers because Aviance wasn’t a well known name of that time though it was sub- brand of Hindustan lever which is very prominent and dominant in Indian market
- HLL may also have focused more on its retail personal products portfolio rather then directly jumping in to the direct selling approach.
- The HLN Network business opportunity could focus on building male and female entrepreneurs by actively partnering them to success. This achieved by providing them an earning and self-development opportunity that is both competitive and unique.
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The Aviance range now includes skincare, colour cosmetics and a range of shampoos and conditioners. HLL could feel this segment would offer a large potential, as the scope for growth in value-added products like moisturizers and skin cleansers is very high.
Background to the Problems:
Aviance seems to have done little to tone up HLL’s personal products portfolio in the recent past.
The brand had been facing problems such as lack of awareness and absence of a distinct target audience. Stiff competition in the personal products segment by extremely aggressive players both in the premium and mid-segment has given HLL a rough time.
HLL, at the time of the launch, expected the brand to grow the direct-selling cosmetics segment estimated at Rs 100 crore to Rs 500 crore given the right impetus.
Company observers say HLL did not really understanding the direct selling business well despite its distribution strengths.
“Direct selling is a different ball-game altogether and the business requires as much time and attention as mass retailing,” said a market source.
Aviance was expected to take on global brands such as maybe line, Oriflamme and Avon that have been operating in the country for years
The direct selling market is growing around 15-20%, faster than the overall FMCG market.
Several regional and new players have cropped up in the segment which coupled with the imported products has resulted in a sharp drop in customer loyalty to a particular brand.
Enhancement in Personal Selling Effectives
Effective communication
An important tool to reach out to the rural audience is through effective communication. ``A rural consumer is brand loyal and understands symbols better. This also makes it easy to sell look - alike", says Mr. R.V Rajan, CMD, and Anugrah Madison Advertising.
The rural audience has matured enough to understand the communication developed for the urban markets, especially with reference to FMCG products. Television has been a major effective communication system for rural mass and, as a result, companies should identify themselves with their advertisements. Advertisements touching the emotions of the rural folks, it is argued, could drive a quantum jump in sales.
There is a need to differentiate the brand according to regional disparities. The differentiation may not necessarily be in terms of product content. It may also be in terms of packaging, communication or association with the brand.
The four factors which influence demands in rural India are - access, attitude, awareness and Affluence.
District marketing
Since marketing is to target the growing segments, Mr. Francis Xavier, Managing Director, Francis Kanoi Marketing Research, wants to see the urban-like village dweller as an urbanized person from the districts. The village then becomes a location or a suburb of a district. And the district becomes the basic geographical entity. Since the urban-like populations in the villages are taken as a part of the district, they will represent the dominant part of the market in most of the districts. This will compel the kind of attention that it deserves. A districts perspective removes the complexities, heterogeneity, access and target ability that have hindered rural marketing initiatives. He feels that rural marketing requires every element of marketing including product, pricing, packaging, advertising, and media planning to have the rural customer as the target. And, this becomes possible when we have districts marketing as a separate entity.
Utility of Sales Promotion
Dissonance Reduction: The housewife, who buys one brand of washing machine, may get confused when she hears her neighbor praise a competitive brand. Sales promotions reduce this confusion in the consumers’ mind.
Jump-start Effect: Sales promotion helps in getting the brand off the ground. A well-planned promo attracts consumers to your brand. The jump-start effect is often used in the retail context. When the consumer enters an outlet, she is attracted by the product being promoted, and ends up buying several other products as well.
Lipton Ice tea being strategically placed between the entrance and the food counters at Food World.
Motivation: Promos leverage the key factors of customer motivation. They can urge trial, keep the consumer coming back for more, or help him switch to the brand being promoted.
Factors of Sales promotion in Brand- building
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Construct: A “construct” is the way a promo is designed. Promotions should be constructed keeping in mind brand objectives and consumer behavior.
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Length of the Promotion: The duration should be right! It should not last too long to let laggards in, and also not too short for the early adopters to get a chance to try it out.
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Rural Promotions: A promo for a rural audience could be completely different from one designed for the urban market. Media penetration is not high in rural areas, therefore promos work well towards building the brand.
Wilkinson Sword India launched a rural promo for its safety blades, the top two prizes being 100gm of gold, and a motorcycle, both on the rural inspirational list.
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Perfect Timing: The right time is when the consumer has the desire to spend. The turn of the millennium was the perfect launch pad for many urban campaigns. Festivals, occasions, events may be ideal for a rural promo. At the same time, a festive promo must be followed up with a local field level promotion also.
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Zero Hour Glitches: Let there be no loopholes in the promo! Inventory Depletion should not be a problem. The minute the consumer sees the promo; the product should be made easily available. Bad timing can be disastrous. A leading publication was giving away ten CDs with a subscription.
Conclusion
Although the overall strategy and marketing communication tools of Hindustan lever was pretty good and effective but the brand awareness of aviance were not created instantly, sales promotion and sale management activities required some instinct changes and re-branding and brand loyalty should have to implemented before the launch of the programme.
Sales force were quite capable of achieving sales target but they were not trained enough to create brand salience that is why the communication process were distorted and voice were not as reachable as it should be.
Recommendations
Identify the Target Audience
A marketing Communicator must start with a clear target audience in mind. The audience may be potential buyers of the company’s products, current users, deciders, or influence. The audience may be individuals, groups, particular publics or the general public. The target audience will critically influence the communicators’ decision on what is to be said. How it is to be said, when it is to be said, where is to be said and who is to say it.
The communicators should research the audience’s needs, attitudes, preference and other characteristics as a prelude to setting communication objectives. One of the most important things to establish is the audience’s current image of the object.
Image Analysis
The most popular tools for this is the semantic differential. It involves the following steps:
· Developing a set of relevant dimensions
· Reducing the set of relevant dimensions
· Administering the instrument to a sample of respondents
· Averaging the results
· Checking on the image variance
Determining the communication Objectives
Once the target audience and its characteristics are identified, the marketing communication must determine what response is sought. The ultimate response of course, is purchase. But behavior is the end result of a long process of consumer decision marking. The marketing communicator needs to know how to move the target audience from where it now stands to a higher state of readiness to buy. We will work with the “hierarchy – of – effects “models and described the six buyer – readiness states Awareness, Knowledge, liking, Preference, Conviction, and Possible, depending upon the degree of consumer involvement and the degree of brand differences.
Designing the Message
Today companies are moving towards the concepts of coordinated marketing communications. This concept calls for:
- Appointing a marketing communication director who has over all responsibility for the company’s persuasive communication efforts
- Working out a philosophy of the role and the extent to which the different promotional tools are to be used.
- Keeping track of all promotional expenditure by product, promotional tools, stage of product life cycle, and observed effect, as a basis for improving further use of these tolls
- Coordinating the promotional activities and their timing when major campaigns takes place
The communication process
Itself consists of nine elements: Sender, receiver, encoding, decoding, message, media, response, feedback, and noise. Market must know how to get through to the target audience in the face of the audience’s tendencies toward selective attentions, distortion and recall.
Effective sales promotion
Tactics must be employed keeping in mind the target audience’s tastes and preferences. Each and every product offered by the company should have its own individuality and it’s own market share.
Promotional marketing
Can also be defined as a business marketing strategy that is designed to stimulate a customer to take action towards a buying decision. Promotional marketing is a technique that includes various incentives to buy such as the ones listed below:
• Contests
• Coupons
• Sampling:
Sources of Research
- Foundation of Marketing communication, P.D.Pelsmecker, Prentice hall 2005
- Case study: Hindustan Lever Foray into Network Marketing
- Market line Electronic resource [accessed via LISA.LSBU on 20/04/2006]
- Business source premier electronic source [accessed via LISA.LSBU on 20/04/2006]
- Lecture note, 5, 6, 7 Ms. Beverly barkers
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http://www.icmr.icfai.org/casestudies/ catalogue/Marketing/MKTG093.htm
