My globetrotting experience

May 12, 2010
Life is a long odyssey, full of challenges and experiences both pleasant and unpleasant leading to adventures and misadventures which perfectly describe a sailor's life. Being a sailors wife gave me the opportunity to be a globetrotter... Working as a market research executive for 3 years, I quit my job to sail with my husband that got me cruising to some of the most wonderful places in the world. The 3 voyages I made thus had been very eventful and memorable.
In the summer voyage of 2007, the vessel ‘Auk Arrow' as it was called sailed to Australia. The ship followed a coasting schedule which meant that the ship would disembark in port every few days and offload part of its cargo in each port. There were around 10-12 ports on the schedule. Among the bigger ones were Townsville, Adelaide, Brisbane, Portland and Gladstone. The first port that the ship berthed at was that of Townsville.
The city of Townsville houses the infamous Great Barrier Reef aquarium. It is a live aquarium and my tour to the aquarium was very fulfilling and informative. At a very short distance from the aquarium was the local bazaar popularly known as the flea market where the local artisans
displayed their beautiful works of art on the streets and where all shops were seen  flocked by people. I also headed there along with a friend for the wonderful shopping experience. Every shop and kiosk had different items on display. Especially the traditional ones like the boomerang, the didgeridoo, the Aboriginal artistic pieces and other trinkets caught our fancy. They were absolutely fantastic and we made sure we bought at least one piece from every shop and moreover took pictures of them all. At the end of our shopping spree me and my friend both grabbed a bite at the McDonald's and settled into our chairs, relaxing and waiting for the cab. This was the time when something struck me hard…that something in my sack was missing. After rummaging my sack I discovered that it was my camera. Hundreds of thoughts were racing in my mind now…It was a Sunday afternoon and the shops were shutting for the day. How was I going to trace my camera? It had all the rarest pictures which once lost would have been lost forever. Did I have the gut to tell my husband that I lost something so valuable? There was very less time on hand since the ship was to sail out of Townsville very soon.  At this point I had no time to waste, the cab was on its way and I had to think quick and  fast to find some solution. I quickly scurried back to the street and while hopping from one shop to another, a street vendor seemed to hear me inquire about my camera. He shouted out to me and to my surprise he knew had information about the camera. He was selling items in front of the same shop which was shut now. I quickly noted down the contact no of the shop owner. In the meanwhile there were some cops in sight who were on their regular round-ups. They assisted me with the telephone calls and thus I was able to convey to the shop owner that I was on the lookout for the camera. The shop owner agreed to drive down back to his shop to return my camera. Another hour's wait and to my greatest surprise he was actually opening his shop. He handed over the camera to me. I had no words to thank him. I expressed my gratitude to him thus proceeding towards the port. Had I panicked and returned to ship, I'd have probably lost those beautiful pictures forever. With this incident I would like to focus on the point that thinking constructively and acting promptly to an adverse situation especially in an alien landcan help solve problems quickly.
Just a month after this incident the vessel sailed to China, and berthed into the port of Shanghai. In a technologically advanced city and with its magnificent edifices which are a testimony to its technological advancement and infrastructural development, I had a contrast experience in Shanghai. One evening while shopping in the streets of Nanjing I got robbed. My wallet which contained my debit card, my driving license and some cash was all gone. But this time reporting the robbery would have been a futile attempt since the Nanjing Street walk was an extremely long one with hundreds of tiny shops in it. Tracing my valuables would have been an uphill task
The above two incidents gave me two completely contrasting pictures of the two respective countries. Some research done later revealed to me that "The Australian Crime and Safety Report of 2009" confirms that the urban crime rate in Australia is comparatively low in 2009 and road safety is high while the April 2009 Shanghai Daily report reveals that pedestrian robberies are on the rise in Shanghai which is evident in my story.
Rashmi Ponkshe
email: rash.ponkshe@gmail.com

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Comparative Advertising: The Rin and Tide tussle

Comparative Advertising: The Rin and Tide tussle




April 10, 2010



My last article about Vodafone’s advertising genius elicited a classic example of an oligopolistic product. In stark contrast with the former, this article states the evils of oligopoly namely the non-price wars that take the form of comparative advertising.

Comparative advertising entails advertising a particular brand in direct comparison with a competitors’ brand to make it appear more attractive to consumers.



The recent Rin vs Tide ad is a classic example of comparative advertising that took the Indian advertising industry to a different level. HUL’s controversial ad claiming that Rin was far more superior than Tide on the ’whitening’ aspect was aired on televisions at the end of the month of February and it created a furor among the industrial fraternity, media and consumers as well. HUL claimed that the ad was in retaliation to P&G’s claim that the Tide ‘Naturals’ brand had natural ingredients. Direct competitors out rightly lashing out at each other in this case do bring forth the evils arising out of cut-throat competition and unsuccessful price wars in an oligopolistic market structure.



Implications of Price Wars



Hindustan UniLever and Procter & Gamble, the two FMCG giants had been competing for market share lately. With the advent of Tide in India in 1998, as a new entrant in the Indian market it had a miniscule market share in the detergents market but in 2004 it witnessed a turnaround. P&G changed focus to the mid-segment, targeting a specific clientele. It reduced price of its Tide brand drastically in order to gain a greater share in the detergents market. Initially Tide was trailing behind Rin but since 2007, sales picked up, and its market share rose posing a threat to HUL whose share started eroding. P&G then introduced its Tide ‘Naturals’ brand targeted at the rural segment, with its landmark price. The 200 gm pack was priced at Rs 10, 400 gm for Rs 20 and the promotional offer was for 250 gm pack for just Rs 10. This pricing strategy turned out to be highly successful and it greatly aided the company to penetrate and consolidate in the Indian market. While HUL witnessed erosion in market share, the company’s quarterly results ended December 2009 do show a dip in revenues in the soaps and detergents segment. HUL’s revenue growth declined by 2.4%, market share dipped that was grabbed by rival P&G. It is thus evident that Hindustan Lever in order to maintain its position in the detergents market did take to comparative advertising (non-price war mechanism) to outwit its rival P&G.



But if HUL’s segment-wise revenues are reviewed over the years it is found that there is no major loss of revenue in the detergents segment in terms of % of the total revenues. Illustrated below is the revenue of the detergents segment as % of total revenues.



Revenues in the Detergents Segment (% of total revenues):



1999 – 41

2000 – 40

2001 – 40

2002 – 45

2003 – 44

2004 - 45

2005 – 45

2006 – 47

2007 – 47

2008 - 49



The above statistics do not show a fall in revenues in the detergents segment except for years 2000 and 2003.



HUL filed a case against P&G in the Madras High Court while P&G’s case against HUL lies in the Calcutta High Court. Whatever the outcome of the court proceedings, the question to be asked is what effect do these misleading ads have on consumers? A commoner with preferences for a specific brand would be iffy whether to continue buying or shift loyalties. Secondly market values of company stocks are largely affected by market sentiments and such controversies would definitely affect stock prices. As was seen in the month of March, post the ad, HUL’s market price fell 8.75% over March 11th and 12th while most of the brokerage firms also downgraded the HUL stock.



Comparative Advertising Worldwide



Comparative advertising has been prevalent in countries like the US where generally precautions regarding disclosure of company brands are taken. In the US comparative advertising is permitted but under strict control. As per ‘Millward Brown’ research statistics there are certain countries where comparative advertising is more prevalent than others. Among these are the US, India and the Philippines with 7% while Australia, Taiwan and Brazil with just 4%. Europe has the least number of comparative ads than any other nation. In any country, culture plays a great role in determining mass acceptance and responses to comparative advertising



Comparative Advertising – India



India has been quite liberal as far as advertising laws are concerned. There has been ample of leeway in advertising norms. Any company that advertises its brand has to adhere to the ASCI rules. ASCI rules state that comparison to the rival brand has to be backed by factual information and tested results and secondly in no event should the consumers be deceived due to comparison. Thirdly competitors’ products cannot be degraded explicitly or implicitly. On all three aspects, it seems ambiguous for HUL to get a clean chit. With both the companies having filed their cases against each other in their respective courts, one has to wait and watch the outcome of the court proceedings.



Rashmi Ponkshe

Email: rash.ponkshe@gmail.com