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Himangshu Watts
Calcutta, May 7: If an Indian wants the chance to visit England for the cricket World Cup, all he has to do is buy some biscuits, sip a soft drink or answer trivial questions in a competition. Indian firms have targeted fans to boost sales, bombarding consumers with discounts, incentives and contests offering winners the opportunity of a dream ticket to see the World Cup starting on May 14.
The love for cricket cuts across product segments: music systems, televisions, cigarettes, beer, fabrics, pens, soft drinks, biscuits, paints and motorcycles. "Everyone wants to get on to the cricket bandwagon. You have to build an association with cricket. No other game has such a fan following," said Sandip Rakshit, who heads the Calcutta branch of Trikaya Grey Advertising India Ltd.
World Cup-related campaigns have livened up advertising in the hot summer months, normally a dull period for consumer goods.
Barring products such as ceiling fans and soft drinks which thrive in summer, most firms normally step uptheir campaigns on the eve of the festival season from October to December. This time it is different. Kaushik Roy, head of corporate brand strategy at Philips India Ltd, said: "Consumer electronics firms could spend up to 35 per cent of their advertisement budgets in the April-June quarter instead of 15-20 per cent in other years."
Roy expected television makers to spend up to Rs 80 crore ($18.7 million) on cricket-related campaigns and account for about 80 per cent of the total expenditure on World Cup advertising in India. Leading the World Cup campaigners are consumer electronics firms aiming for a spectacular jump in sales, especially from television buyers eager to watch cricket on the latest models.
"At least 80 per cent of the expenditure is going to be for television sets," said a spokesman for Hindustan Thompson Associates.
"Most certainly, every consumer electronics firm is looking at the World Cup as a great opportunity," Roy of Philips India said. "Performance of the television set is verycritical. Every viewer is an umpire in his own right."
The television market in the country, estimated to be about 3.6 million sets a year with an average cost of about Rs 12,000 each, could grow significantly in 1999. The companies expect the World Cup to generate 30-40 per cent this year's sales. Others expect more from the Cup.
"We expect a 70 per cent increase in sales of television sets in the second quarter over the same period last year," said an official at Samsung India Electronics Ltd, a unit of South Korea's Samsung Electronics.
The firm has booked 70 per cent of the time reserved for consumer electronics products during the live telecasts of Cup matches, and plans to launch 15 new products including washing machines, television sets, air conditioners, refrigerators and microwave ovens.
LG Electronics India Pvt Ltd, a unit of South Korea's LG Electronics, has flagged an Rs 8 crore campaign with three contests to take the winners to Lord's for the World Cup final.
Philips has a directoffer in its Rs 12 crore campaign promising better picture and sound quality with a 24-hour after-sales service during the matches, which start late afternoon local time.
Companies are looking for innovative ways to stand apart in the rush of firms jostling for the consumers' attention. Biscuit maker Britannia Industries Ltd, offering 100 tickets to the Cup, used the timing of its contest to stand out.
"We chose to steal the thunder before the noise level went up. We planned our promo in February, at least a clear month ahead of most companies," the firm's vice-president of marketing and exports Vikram Kaushik said. Some have simply opted out of the World Cup campaign.
General Motors India, which has sponsored a one-day cricket tournament in the past, has decided to lie low. "There is too much advert clutter in the World Cup," Rajiv Chaba, vice-president, sales and marketing, said. Soft drinks maker Coca Cola chose the Asian test championship on the subcontinent and the recent triangular one-daytournament in Sharjah for its cricket-related campaigns. "We have no plans for the World Cup," a company spokesman said, citing the volume of advertising. But its rival, Pepsi, is in aggressive mode.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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