Mrs. Naga Lakshmi Veeram

Thursday, January 19, 2023

US Olympics -- Failed McDonald's

Right during this time, McDonald's announced its campaign 'When US wins, You Win'.

McDonald's had planned to be benefit from the Olympics but things didn't go as planned.

According to the campaign, every visitor at McDonald's was supposed to get a scratch card with every purchase, the scratch card had the name of an Olympic event written.

Buyers were supposed to get free meals depending upon the win of US in the event mentioned on the scratch card.

Gold Medal = Big Mac

Silver Medal = French Fries

Bronze Medal = Soft Drink

In 1984, the tally of medals won by the US went up to 174 medals (an increase of 80 medals since 1980 Olympics), out of which 83 were gold.

This led an increase in demand for Big Macs across the 6000+ outlets of McDonald's in US.

The 14 countries led by Soviet Union had boycotted the 1984 Olympics. This led the domination of US in the Olympics.

Reportedly, McDonald's had suffered losses worth millions of dollars due to 1984 Olympics.

On the other side, many people had admitted to surviving on Big Macs during this time since poverty was severe during that time.

AMUL -The Taste of India

Main reason behind the lock down success of AMUL

A little back story ..... AMUL is a cooperative brand which started in 1946 and is how jointly owned by over 36 lakh milk producers.
AMUL is the brand which which led India's transformation from being a milk deficit country to the world's largest producer of milk.
Daily milk procurement of Amul is 24.6 million litres per day.
Amul has over 250 kinds of ice cream.
Amul butters dominates the market with a share of over 86%
Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) is India's largest exporter of dairy products.
During the lockdown, people were at home and their consumption of milk and milk products increased.
Understanding this, Amul increased the supply of their products.
Also, Amul introduced 30+ new products in 2020.
Today, Amul's annual turnover is ₹52,000 crore and it is one of the largest dairy companies in the world with an increasing growth rate since 2011.

DARK FANTASY CHOCO FILLS STORY

Back in 2010, the premium biscuit market in India was boring and undifferentiated. The market was filled with plain vanilla cream biscuits.
ITC's Sunfeast Dark Fantacy was a challenger brand and was looking for ways to disrupt the premium cream biscuits market.
ITC's consumer research revealed that there was a significant change in consumer behavior
Consumer needs were evolving and consumers were now willing to pay a premium for superior product experiences.
ITC saw this as a perfect opportunity. And in November 2010, it made a bold move.
ITC launched Dark Fantacy Choco Fills - the chocolate - filled baked cookie - which was the most premium offering in the biscuits segment.

It was priced at a significant premium to other brands. The idea was to disrupt the market with a differentiated product, pricing and create a niche where the brand could keep expanding.
ITC spent aggressively on marketing to communicate the differentiated proposition of Choco Fills.
Its advertisements portrayed consuming Choco Fills as an exotic experience that re-positioned other biscuits as boring.

Also its packaging strategy was a masterstroke. ITC intentionally packaged Choco Fills in single serves ( in a carton box). This gave the product a premium and exclusive image in the eyes of the consumers.

Choco Fills was soon a big hit. Consumers loved the taste and the premium experience.
Seeing its success ITC used its distribution might to help the brand to expand across the country.
Choco Fills kept on growing and taking market share away from its competitors over the years.
It kept engaging with consumers and maintained the brands premium feel with its awesome marketing campaigns.
Fast forward to today, Dark Fantasy Choco Fills is the largest selling premium cream biscuits brand in India with sales in excess of Rs. 600 crores.
Its success can be attributed to creating a great product and combining it with innovative marketing practices.

STORY OF LIJJAT PAPAD

Story dates back to 1959, when 7 Gujarati women living in South Mumbai, who had no formal business education, came together to start a small business of papads from their houses.
Jaswantiben Popat, and six others had borrowed a sum of Rs.80 to start their business with the aim of earning moneyand taking charge of their lives.
India's oldest all - women cooperative started as Shri Mahila Udyog Lijjat Papad, the company is now India's oldest all - women cooperative and has a net worth of over Rs.1600 crore.
As of 2021, Lijjat Papad company is co - owned by 45000 women who together make 4.8 million papads every day.
It is largely run by women as it aims to empower them financially and help them earn extra income for their households. Men have only limited roles in the company such as drivers, helpers etc.
Today the Lijjat Papad enterprise has 82 branches and is involved in the manufacturing of numerous FMCG goods such as detergents, rotis etc.
Besides having a strong presence in India, the brand also exports overseas to countries like USA and Singapore.
In November 2021, one of Lijjat Papad's cofounder who is over 90 years of age, Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat was awarded the fourth highest civilian award 'Padma Shri' by President Ram Nath Kovind.

ABOUT INDIA'S HUMAN HAIR INDUSTRY

The global hair wigs and extensions market is expected to be valued at over $13 Billion by 2026.
India's human hair market alone has a share of over 30% of this global market and exports human hair worth over $200 million approximately.
India is the second largest exporter of human hair next to China and is known for its chemically untreated and fine hair.
Due to religious beliefs, many Indians donate their hair mostly at Venkateswara Temple in Tirupathi.
Reportedly, Barbers shave heads every 5 minutes in Indian temples.
The business of donating hair is so lucrative that temples in India annually earn over $300 million from this and also pay hefty taxes.
However, the dark side of this business is that as workers are often underpaid and human hair smuggling is more than the legal trade.