Business Environment Assessment Of Bisleri Marketing Essay

Business Environment Assessment Of Bisleri Marketing Essay A study of business environment is very useful to anticipate opportunities and to plan resources to exploit these opportunities successfully. It can also be used as an early warning system to prevent threats or to turn obstacles into opportunities. Business environment is a sum total of all those factors, conditions, situations or surroundings which directly affect the working of business. It is a comprehensive term and covers factors like consumer behavior, economic policies, competition in the market, technology and so on. ABSTRACT: Water is one of the basic necessities for human life to survive on this planet today getting pure water is not an easy task with so much harmful chemical being disposed into the water by various industries is making the water harmful for drinking. 71% of the earth is made of water out of which only 1% of water can be used by living beings. Among this 1% of water 50% of water is polluted. This is an analysis report of one of the premium, recognized trusted brand in the Indian bottled water market named BISLERI INTERNATIONAL PVT LTD. This is enjoying the huge share in the market both in bulk segment in small packs. HISTORY OF BISLERI: WATER WATER EVERYWHERE, BUT JUST A LITTLE THAT IS CLEAN The origin of BISLERI lies in Italy and the brand owes its name to its founder MR.FELICE BISLERI, an Italian entrepreneur. In 1967, BISLERI set up a plant in Bombay for bottling and marketing actual mineral water, which did not quite work. By 1969, BISLERI wanted to exit the business and to help him out the Chauhans bought the brand, intending to turn it into a soda brand. Since then it has come a long way. Now, it owns a large percentage of shares in the Indian market and also it has its presence in International Water Market. WATER WATER EVERYWHERE, BUT JUST A LITTLE THAT IS CLEAN JOURNEY OF BISLERI OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS: 1969: Buys BISLERI bottled water from an Italian company, Felice Bisleri. It was bottled in glass bottles then. Early-1980s: Shifts to PVC (Poly Vinyl Chloride) bottles. Sales surge Mid-1980s: Switches to PET bottles, which meant more transparency and life for water. 1993: Sells carbonated drink brands like ThumsUp, Gold Spot and Limca to Coca-Cola for Rs. 400 crore. 1995: BISLERI launches a 500 ml bottle and sales shoot up by 400 per cent. 2000: Introduces the 20-litre container to bring prices down from Rs. 10 a litre to Rs. 2 a litre. 1998: Introduces a tamper-proof and tamper-evident seal. 2000: BIS cancels BISLERIS license of water bottling in Delhi since some of the bottles did not carry ISI label; the license is restored one-and-a-half months later. 2002: KINLEY overtakes BISLERI. The national retail stores audit by ORG-MARG show Kinsleys market share at 35.1 per cent compared to BISLERIS 34.4 per cent. 2003: BISLERI ventured out into Europe and America to sell bottled water. THE GROWTH OF BISLERI OVER THE YEARS: 1. HOW THE QUALITY STANDARD IS IMPROVED:- Every bottle of BISLERI is put through a rigorous Multi stage purification processes which includes micron filtration and ozonisation. It acquires 6 stages of purification processes which ensure quality water which is pure and safe for drinking purpose. Good manufacturing are the strength all the time processing in religiously monitored at every stage. 2. THE TRUST FOR BRAND HAS ALWAYS BEEN CONSISTENT :- More than 50 lakhs people trust the BISLERI. They buy only BISLERI water because it has became generic name for mineral water. For example: When people go to buy the mineral water many of them ask for BISLERI, even though they get other brand. 3. LARGE RANGE OF PRODUCTS OFFERED:- BISLERI offers a large range of products which attracts consumer of all categories. For example: 1 litre or 500 ml pack is useful for individual buyers, 12 litres or 20 litres is useful for organization. Therefore it attracts large number of customer. 4. MARKETING STRATEGY:- BISLERI is promoted by an aggressive print TV. TV is backed by a Hoarding point of sale material. Every interface with customer is used as an opportunity to reinforce. For example: All vehicles used for supply have been painted in light green, bears the BISLERI logo sport catchy baseline likes drink and drive. 5. DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM. With little belief in the distributor system, the company leverage its large fleet to truck to supply bottled water directly goes to retailers through a system called Route Selling where the driver of truck are trained to be the service person. This ensures that water supplied are fresh and bottles are in the good shape. BISLERI has more than 80,000 outlets in the country. 6. BULK SEGMENT IS USEFUL FOR HOUSEHOLDS ALSO:- Households in certain parts of the country spend a huge amount of money on fuel in order to purify the water. They are supposed to buy the impure water and then they have to spend money to purify it. For instance the water scarce south people spend large some of money to buy water and still more to purify it. The 12 litre product is hit in various cities of south. 7. GROWING POPULARITY:- The popularity of BISLERI is increasing rapidly day by day. People in the market when it comes to mineral water a person goes to any shop and asks for BISLERI as his/her first preference. BISLERI is seeing a growth of almost 50% per year. With the small pack being popular among individuals user its bulk pack is also generating the huge demand which is capturing the market for BISLERI. Today 60-70 % of total income of BISLERI comes from its bulk segment and the company is planning to increase it up to 80%. 8. THE BREAK AWAY SEAL:- Keeping in mind the consumers need to recognize a genuine product that cannot be tempered with. The unique cap has been patented and cannot be duplicated. This technical strength ensures that the consumer will only get a high safe product when they will drink BISLERI. MISSION STATEMENT To provide the highest quality product, keeping in mind all aspect including freshness purity and safety and making it easy available to the consumer at very affordable price. MARKET SIZE AND GROWTH Market share 2005 Bisleri 53% Yes 13% Bailey 23% Others 11% Bisleri Yes Bailey Others Market share 2007 Bisleri 51% Yes 11% Bailley 17% Aquafina 4% Kinley 10% others 7% Bisleri Yes Bailley Aquafina Kinley Others market share feb 2008 Bisleri 38% Kinley 28% Aqua pure 11% Bailey 6% Others 17% Bisleri Kinley Aqua pure Bailey Others The Bisleri in the mineral water market is still maintaining the pace at which it has been growing over past few years. The brand has been witnessing launch of a number of player with every passing day. Presently the market is skewed towards regional players and has more than 250 players in the fray. Besides these there are a number of fly-by-night operators who enter the market in summers, reap benefits by packaging tap water and selling as pure mineral water, and then leave once the season is over. The problem in the market is not with the players but with the consumers. Poverty levels, illiteracy has led these players to take full advantage of consumers by selling even the tap water as mineral water. Total bottled market has a size of Rs11-12bn of this around Rs7bn is in the hands of organized sector and rest is with unorganized sector. In the organized sector Bisleri is the market leader with 45% market share followed by Bailey with 23-24% market share. The Rs 1,000 crore branded packaged water market has always been synonymous with the desi Bisleri. Market Share of players among users The brand is a product of Parle International and presently is the market leader with more than 45% market share. The company pioneered the concept of bottled water in the Indian market as early as 1967. The company is also credited with SKUs of 500ml, 1.2 lts, 1.5 lts and 2 lts in the Indian market The relaunch of Bisleri in 1993, however was a success due to growing awareness and high consciousness of health and hygiene among people. In 1993, when Ramesh Chauhan, Chairman, Parle Bisleri sold his right to market Bisleri brand to Coca-Cola, Bisleri, which underwent the new management for a period of 5 years, remained largely neglected. On getting the rights back, he started building Bisleri as a mineral water brand. Bisleri had a brand name, a product, the brand building of Bisleri started in a small way in 1998, which bore fruit in 1999-2000 when it grew by 140%. Positioning : Playing Safe Target audience : Health and hygiene conscious people Personality : Guardian, Authoritative, Reliable Punch Line : Play Safe USP : Pioneer advantage in bottled water industry, old player with lot of experience Bisleri, which enjoys 65 per cent market share in the branded water segment, is also eyeing a sharp growth in sales during the present year 2010. The company, that recently launched its premium brand with medical values Vedica, is expecting a 50 per cent growth in sales from this brand With so many brands launched and to meet the growing demand in the bottled-water segment that is growing at 40 per cent year on year, the company plans to scale-up its production units. It would be opening 10-15 bottling units in the next six months. In this year so far, Bisleri has set up 5 plants .At present, the company has 52 bottling plants across the country. On Bisleris overseas plans, company is in talks with local beverage-makers in Sri Lanka, the UAE, Bangladesh and Oman to set up units and franchise the Bisleri brand. The company also plans to expand its global footprint this fiscal. Currently, it exports its products to Singapore. The bottled water brand leader is opening 35 new plants in smaller towns and entering the high-margin segments Bottled water brand leader, Bisleris new plants are ready to meet the summer demand. And over the next six months, the company will start operating more plants in the remaining parts of the country. This is part of the companys plans to open as many as 35 new plants across the country to tap the fast-growing market for packaged water (at Rs 2,400 crore now) in Indias hinterlands. The growth will come, Parle Bisleri says, as there is an increasing consciousness even in villages to the fact that over 1,600 Indians are dying every day because of waterborne diseases and almost four million people in India are affected by water-borne diseases every year. Theres another reason for Bisleris ambitious plans. It will help the company shave costs. Typically, in this business, transporting water to a distance of 200 km costs the company Rs 30 per case freight. But with distances cut, the company will now spend only Rs 4-5 per case freight. But Bisleri invariably starts selling the product in a given location before the plant comes up. There was a point in the early 90s the sales and the market value of the bisleri were going down. No doubt, that was tough to take for Bisleri. The first thing it did was to change the look and feel of its brand. From the earlier conical shaped bottle, Bisleri took on a streamlined, round shape, replacing the erstwhile blue logo with an aqua green one. The move paid off Bisleri is also doing several other things as well to open up the higher margin market. For one, it is in talks with beverage makers and bottlers in countries such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Oman and the United Arab Emirates to franchise its brand name. Exports to Singapore have already started. It also launched Vedica, its first mineral water, in January 2010 and is test marketing flavoured water across the country. The company is also setting up a new manufacturing facility for its enhanced water brands, which will be fortified with vitamins and minerals. These are brands that will tap the top end of this market, which now account for just 10 per cent of the packaged water market, and bring in substantial profits. Vedica will take on Himalayan and foreign brands like Evian and Perrier in a category that is willing to shell out that extra buck. Enthused by its 35% growth in 2008-09, Parle Bisleri is targeting 40% growth this year. With a 60% market share, they are the market leaders in this segment.. The company has already geared up to foray into the flavored water segment in October 2009. Currently, the company has 52 bottling plants across the country. July 26 2009 Bisleri International Pvt Ltd, the packaged water brand grew at 78 per cent in the current fiscal on the back of increasing capacity. They always had an aggressive growth plan in place. Not only they developed the brand further through several marketing initiatives, they also planned on setting up more manufacturing facilities in the country. The television campaign for Bisleri has worked wonders for the brand giving it a big boost. The important increase in India can be easily explained through the growth of the population and problems of water quality and water supplies. Until 1992, the demand for bottled water in India was mostly limited to foreign tourists, corporate meetings, conferences, etc. The introduction of bulk packaging extended the market to new and numerous consumers. Bottled water is a particularly competitive market, hence companies need to develop diverse marketing strategies, such as accessing new markets by owning or developing partnership with regional brands, developing new products (such as flavored water) or by-products (such as cosmetics) and developing services (home and office delivery of water). WEAKNESS 1. METHOD ADOPTED FOR DISTRIBUTION:- THE ROUTESELLING policy adopted by BISLERI for distribution is more expensive than more commonly followed method of appointing distributors in different towns. This reduces the profit of company. The dealer margin is reduced due to this .therefore not many dealer keeps BISLERI in many areas. Indirectly this is reducing the coverage of BISLERI. 2. REUSE OF BOTTLE BY LOCAL SELLERS AND ILLEGAL MANUFACTURERS:- Market research conducted by BISLERI revealed that the other overriding concern for this set of buyers is the tampering of seal and the reuse of bottles. Many have witnessed used bottles being refilled at railway stations. This deteriorates the brand image of BISLERI. For example: local sellers fill the bottle of BISLERI with impure water and the bottles are purchased by illiterate customers as BISLERI water but they buy water of low quality. In this way brand of BISLERI gets affected. 3. FAULTS IN PRODUCTION:- Tests conducted by various authorities shows that it contains pesticides. In 2002 the 2cm long insect was found in the bottle of BISLERI. This has affected its sales and reputation. The license of its two factories one at Noida and other at Bangalore has been cancelled because of fault in production. 4. PRESSURE BY GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY:- After insect was found in the bottles, FDA (Food Drug Adulteration) has cancelled the production of BISLERI. Afterwards it was allowed to resume it but in this period its customer were moved towards other products. It is constantly under check by various authorities. 5. NOT MEETING THE DEMAND OF THE CUSTOMER:- In certain parts of south in our country big bottles of BISLERI are in huge demand but the company is unable to meet the demand of the consumers. This is affecting the demand for the product. So People are forced to use other brands of mineral water. OPPORTUNITY 1. FAST GROWING FIELD:- The best beverage for India in the new millennium seems to be water. In recent years, the bottled drinking water market has been witnessing high decibel level of activity, with a host of new entrants. The bottled water market which worth Rs. 1000 crore is expected to be Rs. 5000 crore by 2010. This will increase a lot of scope for bottled water market. 2. BISLERI CAN UTILISE ITS DISTRIBUTION CHAIN:- With BISLERI becoming a generic name for bottled drinking water. If company can manage the distribution chain of the product to make it available where the consumer needs it the most, the company may well succeed in his gamble with water. For this the company can connect it with dealers and other distributors who will market the products for them all around the world. 3. EXPANSION IN EUROPE:- The launch of BISLERI in the European market on 4th September, 2003 has created a lot of scope for BISLERI in the field. This will also compensate the deterioration of image; BISLERI has suffered after insect was found in the bottle. It will silence the critics and it will also increase the faith of the customer for the brand. It will create an international brand image and the quality will increase. 4. LAUNCH OF PREMIUM PACK:- The company also has its premium product range. This is prepared keeping 5-star hotels and other premium customer. This pack will be sold at Rs. 20 per litre. This will give a tough competition to the EVIAN, the biggest player in the premium water range which sells its 1 litre water at a hefty of Rs.85 per litre. 5. CHANGE OF IMAGE:- The company has changed the colour of the product. It has changed from blue to green. By changing the colour, the company has provided a new product to the consumers; they will be getting a new and a refreshing product. 6. INCREASE IN PRODUCTION:- BISLERI is eyeing the Market and is in the process of increasing the production by setting 4 new plants adding to its 23plants. This will increase the production capacity of the company. THREAT 1. MARKET IS EYED BY THE BIG PLAYERS:- The growth of the market indicates the need for the mineral water. Due to this the heavy weights are eyeing the market. Coke, Pepsi, Britannia, Nestle, Auswater-is keen on raising their stakes in this market. With the cut throat competition between Coke and Pepsi, BISLERI is not safe. 2. ENTERING OF NEW PLAYERS:- To get some share in the market many new players are entering in the market. Among them major names are Godrej, which is launching its product AQUA-PURE and Tata-Tea is looking forward to but Himalayan, this will increase the competition. Also Britannia which is distributing EVIAN is planning to launch its own brand. There are also new entrants ATCO with BRILLIANT water, DS FOODS with CATCH are also coming. Even Hindustan lever is planning to enter into the market. This is give a tough competition to the current water brands including BISLERI. 3. WATER FILTER MANUFACTURERS:- BISLERI is not only getting competition from mineral water maker but is also facing a tough competition from various water filter manufacturers such as Eureka Forbes (Aqua guard). They have been marketing there purifiers in the market which has decreased the sales of bottled water supply to homely customers. 4. ILLEGAL MANUFACTURERS:- Company is facing a tough competition from illegal manufacturers in the rural areas. The illegal manufacturers provide water at a very cheaper rate then the branded manufacturers. There are 1000s of illegal manufacturers which are providing the water at a very cheaper rate. This is a serious problem for branded manufacturers. This companies also use the fake name of branded bottled water i.e. BISLERI and supply their products in the market. 5. STRONG DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL OF THE OTHER MANUFACTURERS:- Analysts feel that BISLERIS break away seal will not at all be effective the company having strong distribution channel will only survive. This rings the warning bell for BISLERI because among other players Kinley and Aquafina are having a strong distribution network of Coke and Pepsi. Nestle will be banking on its chocolate distribution network. Even though the BISLERI has a strong networks but its concentration on bulk segment can lead to improper network. For example: A chemist who is selling the 1 litre pack may not sell the 20 litre pack. This could disturb the network.