THE ECONOMIC TIMES AUGUST 02-08, 2017 INSIDEBE Korea Feels The Heat By Rajiv Singh In a first, South Korean giants sweat as desi AC players turn on the heat. INCRED’S COVER DRIVE WITH DRAVID Voltas Topples LG… t was in 2006 when Voltas launched its new brand posi- tioning with a tag ‘Indian ka dil, India ka AC.’ Though it CHEFS COME HOPPING IN Imight have won ‘India ka dil’ Startup Hopping Chef wants a a long time back, it took the piece of the fine dine pie homegrown brand a decade to become On XX 2 ‘India ka AC.’ According to the latest Gfk numbers, NOW FOR THE NEXT Voltas ended FY’17 with a 19.5% mar- QUESTION… ket share. Its bugbear — South Korean SET’s Kaun Banega biggie LG — logged in 18.4%, forcing it …Lloyd Batters Samsung Crorepati is to cede the coveted crown to its Indian rebooting to skew younger and rival. Voltas continued to maintain its hen in February this radar and recently roped in Amitabh aspirational. Will lead in the first two months of the first year, lighting and elec- Bachchan as its brand ambassador, has it deliver? quarter of this fiscal. trical appliances major trampled South Korean biggie Samsung Pradeep Bakshi, President of Voltas, W Havells announced its in the AC segment. would however like to set the record ceded ground to Korean ri- move to buy the consum- From a meagre 2.8% market share in straight. “Voltas has been the clear vals, starting the late 90s and er durables business of Lloyd Electrical financial year 2015, Lloyd closed the leader in the room AC business since the early part of last decade. “It’s a and Engineering for a staggering tag of last financial year with 7.1%. The rapid the last five years,” he says. What has tenacious brand and the latest numbers `1,600 crore, it surprised many. Experts growth continued in the first two months helped the brand gain leadership, he only reinforces the belief that Indian deemed it a ‘costly’ buy. of this fiscal: 8.5% in April and 9% in May. lets on, is a well differentiated product brands can beat the global biggies,” Havells chairman and managing direc- The numbers, when contrasted with portfolio, positioning based on sharp says Ashita Aggarwal, head of market- tor Anil Rai Gupta, however, stuck to one Samsung, presents a stark picture. consumer insight, highest distribution ing at SP Jain Institute of Management of the basic tenets of marketing: value is When Lloyd was crawling at 2.8% reach and brand equity, and a custom- and Research. always bigger than price. in FY’15, Samsung was lording with BY INVITATION ised approach for the Indian market. In 2012, when Voltas introduced its Cut to July. In less than 50 days since 13.7% market share. It closed F Y17 with Motilal Oswal’s Ramnik Chhabra The imagery of ‘trust’ being part of the all-weather AC backed by a charac- the acquisition got completed in May, a lower share of 10.5%, but still ahead decodes the Fearless Girl Tata group, the ‘all-weather’ and ‘energy ter called ‘Mr Murthy’ in its TV com- Lloyd has done business of close to `300 of its unlikely rival. However, in April On XX 3 efficient’ brand positioning all had a role mercials, it took a huge leap in terms crore. Gupta stands vindicated. “It is a and May this year, it dipped to 7.5% and in in reinforcing dominance. “The brand of connecting with consumers. While good and satisfying start,” he says. “I al- 6.3%, respectively. is seen as the expert in the space of com- other brands were shouting themselves ways see value.” It would be tough, reckon marketing the twitterindex fort and cooling,” he says. hoarse about features, Voltas had The real value, however, can be gauged experts, for the South Korean consumer It has been a remarkable comeback, Murthy talking to people. from the fact that the little-known Indian durable player to stage a comeback. reckon marketing experts. Voltas had >Continued on Page 4 brand, which has always been under the “Oops, that’s a big loss,” says brand strategist Harish Bijoor. In the category Room AC market share % (Only MBO, which makes Room AC market share % (Only MBO) of air conditioners, just as in the case of (MBO+EBO) up 90% of market) (MBO+EBO) any other consumer durables, it means a Game of loss of home or office for the next six years Promotions minimum. “ACs have a habit of blocking OLTAS LG OLTAS LG LLOYD AMSUN LLOYD AMSUN From amusing to V V S G S G repeat buys. To that extent, this loss is a crazy – the FY’15 18.7% 20.5% 20.8% 15.6% FY’15 2.8% 13.7% 3.2% 10.6% heavy one,” he says. promos that are Bijoor contends that the alarming dip in keeping Game FY’16 18.6% 20.3% 2 1 % 16.2% FY’16 5.7% 13.7% 6.5% 11% of Thrones FY’17 19.5% 18.4% 21.4 % 15.4% FY’17 7.1% 10.5% 7.8% 8.6% market share might be due to a combina- at the top April ’17 19.1% 15.2% 20.4% 12.4% April ’17 8.5% 7.5% 9.1% 6.3% tion of act of omission or commission by On XX4 May ’17 20% 13.6% 21.5% 10.5% May ’17 9% 6.3% 9.8% 5% Samsung and its hungry rivals. >Continued on Page 4 Source: GfK; Motilal Oswal; EBO is exclusive brand outlets and MBO is multi-brand outlets Management opted for a different spend the time, the money and hire SIDETAKE route. While the first film talked a name director — Amol Gupte, fa- OR JUST IDIOT? about the category, even if it didn’t flog mous for his work on Taare Zameen This 1979 letter shows just how IDIOT SAVANT the brand, this time around there’s no Par and Stanley Ka Dabba among much Xerox hates people using pect of a sequel should fill you with joy. reference to IDFC at all. others— for something where the IDFC Asset Management BY RAVI BALAKRISHNAN | The Return of One Idiot will be out end Why, you wonder, would a brand brand doesn’t even have a ‘blink its name as a verb MUMBAI creates yet another near August or early September, clocking and you’ll miss it’ appearance? Is Assuming you were among the 400,000 in at a generous twenty five minutes. it still branded content if there’s no half hour branded content plus people who saw One Idiot — Except, instead of immediately One Idiot: The most skinflint brand? IDFC MF’s film on investing wisely figuring out how many ways the resident of the building, The team however believe the film with no brand. What on YouTube — and lasted through its brand could be shoehorned into so roundly mocked for wearing films serve a greater purpose. It’s does it hope to achieve? nearly 35 minute run time, the pros- much running time, IDFC Asset his Hawaii chappals thin and pointless flogging specific products — this struck us as a little and offers, in a category where pene- bizarre — for buying his own Xerox is a known vegetables, turns out to be a tration is abysmally low – at just 5%. stickler when it comes to crorepati several times over Instead the question business ought its corporate trademark, but that’s not new. because he saves, invests to be grappling with, as IDFC Asset In light of longtime book critic Michiko and doesn’t splurge. His Management CEO Vishal Kapoor Kakutani stepping down from her role Thursday, a reporter for The New York circle of influence gradually puts it, is “How do you get people to spreads through a building Times tweeted out an amazingly anach- become savers in the first place and ronistic letter to the editor from an upset full of chronic spenders, star- take their financial outcomes more ing debt in the face. Xerox employee. The typewriter-written seriously than they typically do?” letter, dated August 2, 1979, is directed to IDFC Asset Management is revisit- a mis-gendered “Mr. Michiko Kakutani” ing the idea, encouraged by the suc- in response to an article in which Xerox’s cess of the first film which worked name is used as a verb. “ There is no ad- better in seeding the thought than jective xeroxed’. Rather, one should use a traditional ad campaign; Kapoor copied, photocopied or duplicated,” Maggie Lovaas, a field market analyst, wrote on says it was popular with both inves- official Xerox stationary. “If in the future tors and distributors. you wish to use the name Xerox, it should The team were clear they wanted be used with a capital ‘X’ and no ‘ed’.” The a sequel in a similar space. And so, article in question, titled “Pat Carroll Pat Amol Gupte found an enthusiastic Carroll Pat Carroll,” is a profile on the mid- client when he approached Rishi century actress Pat Carroll. The author, Ms. The Return of One Idiot: In a presentation Kakar, director – marketing, IDFC Kakutani, verbifies the company’s name to a college on how he made his fortune, Asset Management with an idea while detailing the decor in Carroll’s house. the idiot speaks of people who hadn’t he’d got after spending a lot of time “Miss Carroll’s reconverted farmhouse has planned well enough — from cab drivers speaking to people at old age homes, become something of a Steinian archive; it in Mumbai behind the wheel well into is filled with books by Stein and about Stein, and informally interviewing the their 70s and 80s to the mother of an as well as xeroxed Ph.D.