Nokia picks up CII's Brand of the Year Award

What has instantly become as one of the most coveted achievements in the branding scenario in India made its debut recently with a big BANG. The recently held CII Brand Summit, which has returned after a hiatus of five years launched its Brand of the Year award. An impressive list of India's most admired brands from across all categories were placed on an even keel, and then passed through a rigorous test called Brand Microscope. The methodology, devised by Vertibrand, tested each brand against its peers, in the marketplace and the consumers before arriving at the final list. The jury members included Gurcharan Das, K.N. Shenoy, Dorab Sopariwala, Mani Aiyar and Prof S. Ramachander among others. The 10 finalists were Titan, which incidentally was everyone’s favourite, Nokia, Eveready, Lux, Pond’s Dreamflower Talc, Dabur Chyawanprash, Fair & Lovely, Rin, Indane and Pond’s Body Lotion. Even as a large section of the crowd rooted for Titan, the surprise winner came in the form of Nokia, which in a decade’s time, seems to have made itself completely at home with the Indian consumers. The summit also featured an amazing fusion music performance by kanjira wizard Selva Ganesh, legendary bass player Jonas Hellborg, ghatam exponent Vikku Vinayakram and others. the performance was the perfect break from a day packed with facts and figures and analyses by eminent speakers from across the country and the globe. Read more about why India loves Nokia at Mobile Phones India.

Bollywood can catalyze Indian fashion retail

Bollywood can be a catalyst for the booming Indian retail trade sector and push fashion merchandise market to $4.5 billion in the next two years, a new study says. Read full story at Yahoo. It indeed has been the case that the fashion trends in India are guided by film stars rather than fashion houses. What our popular actors wear becomes a fashion statement. Hope that the multinational fashion houses eyeing India will realise this potential and use Bollywood to catalyse demand for their brands.

Now Suggestive 'Moan Tones' for your Mobile Handsets

Polyphonic ring tones are passe. Now, your mobile handset can be actually moaning, that too, suggestively! So, are you ready for the moan tones. Yes, that's the latest addition to the fancy services on your mobile handsets. Read the complete story at Mobile Phones India.

BSNL targeting 55% market share

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) is targeting a marketshare of 50-55% to achieve its share of 120 million phone connections out of the 250 million phone connections target by 2007 announced by the government. Read complete story at Mobile Phones India.

Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Haier, Motorola to launch new mobile handset models

Almost all the major mobile phone vendors in the Indian market like LG Electronics, Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Haier India, Bird International, Reliance, Philips India, Akasaki International, among others, are all set to launch new mobile handset models in India. Read complete story at Mobile Phones India.

Indian Oil Corporation to set up 10,000 retail outlets

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has chalked out an aggressive expansion plan. The state-run oil major has decided to enhance its retail operations by setting up over 10,000 retail outlets by the end of the current financial year. The oil major plans to add over 1,000 new retail outlets by December, 2005. The annual spends on retail expansion is estimated to be around Rs 500 crore. “We have already opened over 1,000 retail outlets in 2004 and in 2005 we plan to open over 1,000 new retail outlets across the country. We will have in excess of 10,000 retail outlets by the end of the current financial year,” S K Swaminathan, executive director (lubes), marketing division, IOC told Business Standard. The corporation has appointed Leo Burnett to promote its retails outlets and retail-related offerings. Bulk of the promotional spends, which comprises all forms of advertising and marketing support, will be focused on IOC’s flagship lubricant brand, Servo. The budget spent for Servo is estimated to be Rs 30 crore. The brand commands a 40 per cent share of the Rs 5,000 crore lubricant market. For the retail outlets, the corporation plans to promote its petrol stations as brands, in addition to promoting the offerings at the outlets such as branded diesel, branded petrol and branded cards amongst others. At present, IOC’s marketing network is spread throughout the country with over 22,000 sales points, the largest in the country, which include petrol and diesel stations, consumer outlets, lube distributors, servo shops, and LPG distributors amongst others. The corporation commands over 53 per cent of the petroleum products market share, 41 per cent national refining capacity and 76 per cent downstream pipeline transportation network in the country. IOC is the lone Indian company to feature in the Fortune 500 list. It is also the 17th largest petroleum company in the world. The corporations concept of ‘Jubilee Retail Outlets’ has also been launched to set up petrol and diesel stations on highways with comprehensive value added facilities for various customer segments, such as truckers, farmers, tourists and passenger transport amongst others. The Jubilee Retail Outlets include motels, restaurants, parking lots, weighbridges, sale of tyres, batteries, accessories, agricultural machinery repairs and recreational facilities provided selectively.

Indian Oil Corporation to set up 10,000 retail outlets

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has aggressive expansion plans and will strengthen its retail operations by setting up over 10,000 retail outlets by the end of the current financial year. Indian Oil Corporation's annual spends on retail expansion is estimated to be around Rs 500 crore. The corporation has appointed Leo Burnett to promote its retails outlets and retail-related offerings. Bulk of the promotional spends, which comprises all forms of advertising and marketing support, will be focused on IOC’s flagship lubricant brand, Servo. The budget spent for Servo is estimated to be Rs 30 crore. The brand commands a 40 per cent share of the Rs 5,000 crore lubricant market. For the retail outlets, the corporation plans to promote its petrol stations as brands, in addition to promoting the offerings at the outlets such as branded diesel, branded petrol and branded cards amongst others. At present, IOC’s marketing network is spread throughout the country with over 22,000 sales points, the largest in the country, which include petrol and diesel stations, consumer outlets, lube distributors, servo shops, and LPG distributors amongst others. The corporation commands over 53 per cent of the petroleum products market share, 41 per cent national refining capacity and 76 per cent downstream pipeline transportation network in the country. IOC is the lone Indian company to feature in the Fortune 500 list. It is also the 17th largest petroleum company in the world. The corporations concept of ‘Jubilee Retail Outlets’ has also been launched to set up petrol and diesel stations on highways with comprehensive value added facilities for various customer segments, such as truckers, farmers, tourists and passenger transport amongst others. The Jubilee Retail Outlets include motels, restaurants, parking lots, weighbridges, sale of tyres, batteries, accessories, agricultural machinery repairs and recreational facilities provided selectively.

Piramal plans 16 Piramyd Megastores in next 3 years

To cash in on the retail boom, Mumbai-based Piramal Holdings Ltd (PHL) has decided to invest over Rs 300 crore for setting up 16 departmental stores, named Piramyd Megastore, across the country in next three years. At present, Piramal Holdings Ltd has three such departmental stores in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. Piramyd Megastore will set up shop in Ludhiana and Ahmedabad by May and in Delhi by June this year. It will also put up two mega stores in Pune by October. Each Piramyd Megastore will be around 70,000-80,000 sq ft in size. Crossroads, which houses other retail formats such as Piramyd Megastore, Piramyd Supermarket and Jammin, the family recreation centre, is the mall format of Piramal Group. The company is also eyeing five properties in Hyderabad, Gurgaon and Mumbai.

Planet Sports to sell its 49% stake to Pantaloon

Pantaloon Retail is continuously working on strengthening its its position as the undisputed leader in the retail sector. The latest news is that the company has acquired 49 per cent stake in Planet Sports, a leading sports and fashion retail company . The deal has brought internationally acclaimed brands such as Marks & Spencer, Wilson, Puma, Speedo and Converse to Pantaloon’s portfolio. Planet Sports plans to triple its turnover to Rs 105 crore from the current Rs 35 crore in the next two years. Planet Sports has six Marks and Spencer and 25 Planet Sports stores in the country.

Nokia to set up mobile handsets manufacturing plant in India

World renowned cell phone manufacturer Nokia has definitive plans to set up a mobile handsets manufacturing unit in India. Nokia India has already started negotiating with various state governments in India to finalise the location of its proposed mobile phone manufacturing plant and the company expects to zero in to the site by end of this financial year. Read full story on Mobile Phones India.

Amway launches new skincare brand

Leading FMCG firm Amway India forayed into the Rs 3,250 million skincare market in India with the launch of cosmetic brand Attitude and has signed Diya Mirza as its brand ambassador. Currently five products will be available under Attitude brand - cleanser, toner, moisturiser, face wash and sunscreen lotion. Like all other products of Amway, `Attitude' will be sold exclusively through its 4,00,000 distributors spread across the country. Amway India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of $ 6 billion Amway Corp, expects 10 per cent growth by the end of the present financial year current with the trend continuing next year too.

Delhi to host Mobile Phone Exhibition

Top mobile phone manufacturers and service providers are converging towards New Delhi, India to participate in Mobile Expo 2005, an exhibition that will showcase the evolving mobile phone industry in India. Read more at Mobile Phones India.

Merger & Acquisitions picking up in India

It is a good opportunity for discerning Indian investors to grab some cool deals as many Indian companies are going in for big time merger and acquistion activities. Corporate honchos are fishing for companies that might prove be a strategic fit in their existing portfolios and add value to the long term plans. And this time around, the relatively smaller companies are more proactively homing in on ambitious targets for takeovers. Mergers and acquisitions are no more a reserved playing field for the big and mighty. While Procter & Gamble’s acquisition of Gillette in a $57 billion deal dwarfs the $800 million (Rs 3,600 crore) deal for a controlling stake in ACC by Holcim - the Zurich-headquartered second largest cement producer in the world - and Dabur’s Rs 143 crore acquisition of Balsara as well as Videocon’s recent acquisition of Thomson’s colour picture tube unit in Anagnani, Italy, what’s clearly evident is that businesses are increasingly opening up to growth through the inorganic route. Analysts attribute picking up of M&A activities in the country to India's rapidly evolving economy. They are also equivocal on the year 2005 to be much better than last year in terms of M&As. Most of the analysts expect things to hotten up as the economy further opens up and people with a long-term view eye opportunities.

LG launches India's first 3G Mobile Phone

LG Electronics became the first mobile phones vendor in India to introduce 3G mobile handsets in the country.

LG's new range of handsets is priced between Rs 16,000- Rs 30,000. LG's four new compact, lightweight and versatile 3G-enabled GSM mobile phone models launched by LG would offer live video streaming, gaming, continuous video recording, downloads, among other features at a speed of 384 kbps as against a GPRS speed of 48 kbps. Read the full news at Mobile Phones India.

Adidas courting Sania Mirza for a longer contract!

Adidas India has found a new love in Tennis after Cricket. Adidas India is celebrating the achievement of Sania Mirza, India's latest sports icon, at the Australian Open 2005 by announcing the opening of Adidas ITF Juniors’ Tournament in New Delhi in association with All India Tennis Federation. Adidas India has been supporting Sania with great products for the last 10 years and is also eyeing at extending the support to a long-term contract with Sania Mirza.