A few years back, the mineral water market had been crawling at the rate of 3-4%, or even a lower

figure. Indians carried drinking water in earthen pitchers, plastic or PUF bottles. But increasing cases
of typhoid and other waterborne diseases began to be reported. In addition to this, liberalization
happened and the mineral water industry began to be stirred and shaken. The market started
growing an astounding rate of over 100% per annum. The fact that there were very few players in
the market meant that their business grew by leaps and bounds. The market today has grown to
Rs11bn. The organized sector --branded mineral water -- has only Rs5bn of market share. The rest
isaccounted for by the unorganized sector, which is dominated by smallregional players. The market
is still growing at a rate greater than80% per annum.In the branded segment, Parles Bisleri is the
market leader with ashare of more than 45%. Parle Agros Bailley comes a close secondwith market
share of 15%. Other major players in the market are Yes of Kotharis, Ganga of T-Series, Himalayan,
Hello, Nestls Pure Life,Pepsis Aquafina, Coca-Colas -Kinley Prime, and Florida etc.Sensing the
opportunity that this segment holds, MNCs began to draw up plans to enter the market. Today the
market is proving to be yet another battlefield for an ongoing battle between the Desis andMNCs.
Last year the industry had around 170 brands. This figure isover 300 presently. The major foreign
players are Coca-Cola promoted Kinley, Pepsis Aquafina, Britannias Evian, NestlsPerrier, Herbert
sons and Danone International.
COMPANY PROFILE The origins of Bisleri lie in Italy, and the brand owes its name tofounder Felice
Bisleri, an Italian entrepreneur. In 1967, Bisleri set upa plant in Mumbai for bottling and marketing
mineral water, which wasfirst of its kind in India. However, it didnt work well. Among otherreasons,
the fact that the Indian consumer was unprepared to acceptbottled mineral water was responsible
for its failure. Consumermindsets were more geared towards boiling water at home.In 1969, Parle
bought over the Bisleri brand. In those days Bisleriwater was available in glass bottles. Parles taking
charge of Bisleridid not make a dramatic difference to the brands fortunesimmediately. While it did
gain in terms of visibility and reach(piggybacking on Parles existing distribution network), efforts
toexpand the bottled water market were not exactly painstaking. Parleat that particular time was
interested in making soda water and notmineral water. There were just minor initiatives on part of
the company for making mineral water, as it was not considered to be avery profitable business at
that time as people still considered boiling water to be a safer and better than mineral water.
Moreover they were not ready to pay for a commodity like water, which was so abundantly
available. In 1972-73 Parle changed the packaging of its bottled water to plasticbottles and that
significantly made a difference in the sales. The buyers,then, were mainly the upper class - the
trendy people.In 1993, Coca-Cola bought Parles soft drink brands- Thumps-up, limcaetc. While
Coca-Cola actually bought over Parles beverages, it agreedto a settlement that allowed the
multinational to bottle and distribute
Bisleri soda for a time frame of five years. The charge of Bisleri water,however, remained with Parle.
The upsurge in the sales of Bisleristarted from this point as Parle sold off its stable of brands to Coca-
Cola. This was the time when it started concentrating on making Bisleria success in the domestic
mineral water market. The reason why Parlechose to retain the Bisleri name was that Parle saw a
fairly lucrativebusiness of mineral water in Bisleris equity.The real shift in companys policy towards
mineral water industry camein 1998,although the conscious efforts had already been started in1994.
This change was primarily because of the fact that the people, atthis time, had started becoming
more health conscious.
MARKETINGSTRATEGY
MARKETING STRATEGYIt is complete and an unbeatable plan designed specifically for attainingthe
marketing objective of a firm. The marketing objective indicate what thefirm want to achieve. The
marketing strategy provides the design forachieving them the linkage between marketing strategies
and over allcorporate success is indeed direct and vital. Realizing the marketingobjectives is the
purpose of two generic categories . 1. price based 2. Differentiation basedprice based marketing
strategya business that opts for the price route in its competitive battle will enjoycertain flexibilities
in matter of its product and use prices as maincompetitive level . it will price its product to suit the
varying competitivedemands . it will be enjoying certain inherent cost advantages , whichpermits it
to resort a price based fight . the major forms where such costadvantage can occurs are economies
of sale , absolute cost advantages ,.Benefits of early entry a large market share build over a time . it
providesfreedom in the matter of pricing but after producing a particular productand getting stuck in
the face of the competition , one can not successfullyopt for a price led strategy .

ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN OF BISLERIEvery brand needs a good ad campaign to establish itself in
themarket. So it becomes very imperative to look at various adcampaigns that Bisleri undertook to
build itself as a brand. Bisleristarted its game plan with the punch line of Pure and Safe andused the
same catch-line for advertising. But with the advent of manynew players, all claiming the purity, it
became very imperative forBisleri to differentiate its product so as to stand out in the market.Bisleri
found the answer in sealed cap bottles. It claimed 100%purity. While the bottles of the other
brands, it claimed, could berefilled with ordinary, or even germinated water, Bisleris seal
cappedbottles ensured the consumer of purity of water and single-used nessof the bottles. The ad
showed a milk-man and a child showering theirbuffaloes and filling the so-called mineral water
bottles with thesame water and packing them with the simple polythene seal and theconsumer not
knowing about the purity of the water he is drinking.Next clip shows the Bisleri bottles being sealed
with plastic caps andensuring the purity of water. The ad did work for Bisleri and it got itsmuch
needed product differentiation.In 2000, some giant brands like Pepsi and coca-cola entered
themineral water industry with a big bang. Bisleri now had a big threat ofmaintaining its market cap.
While Coca-cola introducing its brandKinley as a health care product, Pepsi projected Aquafina
assomething as pure as Your own body. Pepsi targeted the younggeneration and introduced
Aquafina as a fancy product to carry.The ad campaign of Aquafina emphasized as 70% of your body
iswater and thus give your body the purest water. The ad showed
young vibrant models and created the atmosphere of youthfulness.Water, Pepsi claimed, was no
longer a simple beverage, but wassomething highly fashionable. They complimented it by giving
theirbottles an attractive look. This soon caught the eye of the consumer.All these factors made
Pepsi the biggest upcoming competitor ofBisleri (whereas Kinley lagged behind the race, showing a
doctoradvising a family to take Kinley for pure water not a very attractivead campaign).Bisleri, to
counter-attack the new Feel-Young fever had to even boldersteps. They first changed their base
line from Pure and Safe to PlaySafe. They tried a brand new ad campaign to catch the fancy of
consumer.The new ad showed a young romantic couple on a marooned island, whenthe girl
seductively attracts the guy and he follows her in trance. Themoment he gets hold of her, she
whispers something in his ears. The nextfew shots show the guy looking for something in frenzycan
not findit.rushes towards the chemists shop.buys something (keeping theaudience in
suspenseor rather implicitly pointing for ). The girlopens it and.POOF.takes out a bottle of
Bisleri and quenches herthirst. Caption: Play Safe. This campaign was to catch the attention
ofyouth and a new Indian society which is supposed to be not-so-prudish.Thus Bisleri has taken a
very bold step. The T.V. ads have beencomplimented by print ads also. The company has to focus on
themarketing management of the product. In light of the challenge in front ofthe company and its
current strengths and position, we have incorporatedthe marketing mix to counter the marketing
strategies of the competitors bydeveloping its own marketing.

PackagingVariety is spices of life. Today for any business organization to besuccessful it has to
provide its customer with the differentiated product thatis a value buy for them. In order to cater to
yhe changing needs of thecustomer the business has to continuously come out with the variants
ofthe products so that it can target the maximum segments.Today Aqua Minerals offers a variety of
packaging options: 1 lit, 2 lit, 5 liy,20 lit. The 5 litre bottles account for 35 % of sales showing a
growing healthconcern among the Indian society. 1 litre bottles account for 30% of theshare .The 2
litres bottle introduced to slowly and steadily replace the conventional1 litre bottle.The 5 litre packs,
launched in dec 1999 in Goa, now available everywhere.DistributionIts obvious that availability
holds the key to the market .For any product tobe successful yhe distribution system has to be really
good. Large tracts ofthe country have not been explored by the national brands, which explainsthe
proliferation of smaller brands.Bisleris strategy is to build a direct distribution system at an all India
levelthat means serious investment In company owned trucks and carts, this
would make it the largest fleet owner in the country. Bisleri has around80,000 retail outlets in the
country with about 12,000 each in the delhi andMumbai. It is intended to be increased this no. to
10,00,000 in order toexpand brands reach.The company will invest approximately Rs.200 cr. to
procure 2000 trucksand hire same no. of sales people . the company plans to have its
owndistribution network in places where it has its own plant.
The 4Ps
Product The main product of the company is the mineral water by the name ofBisleri Mineral water.
Other than mineral water the company has alsothe soda water under its brand name called the
Bisleri Soda Water.The concept of bottled mineral water was introduced in India, first byBisleri, and
that is the reason, it has become a generic name for themineral water. Bisleri has become a perfect
synonym of the mineralwater for the Indian consumers.The main challenge facing the company or
any other player in this mineral water industry is that there is no scope of invention and
innovation in the product, which can be added as the additional benefits of the product.It is just
water after all. This is what the Indian customers think of the bottled water. If we are talking about a
product like television we canthink that the innovations could provide extra benefits derived
fromthe product. For example other than its core usage the product canprovide for Internet facilities
using conversion. Place Place stands for the company activities that make the productavailable to
the target customers. To make the product available tothe target consumers a good distribution
network has to be there to support the good quality of the product. Here in the case of themineral
water industry the distribution network is the important factorin being competitive and the catch
lies in making water available to maximum number of places in the country.DISTRIBUTION
NETWORK: The small-scale players built their sales by piggybacking on the generic category built up
by Bisleri. Its a battle that Bisleri can win by
sheer distribution muscle. One of the reasons why Bisleri is runningstrong in this industry is its
strong distribution network built over theyears since its inception. Further, Bisleri plans to increase
itsdistribution network over the southern and eastern region, where it isbehind popular brands like
Team in Tamil Nadu and in AndhraPradesh.Prices for following packaging variants (AN ECONOMIC
FACTOR AFFECTING THE BUYERS BEHAVIOR)Price is the sum of values that consumer exchange for
the benefits ofhaving or using the product or service. Price is the only element in themarketing mix
that produces revenue. All other elements representcosts.In India, where the majority of the
population comprise of the middle-income group and lower income groups it is not hard to
understandthat pricing is one of the most important factor in the buyingdecisions.Bisleri has met the
expectations of the consumers in terms of pricingthe product and also making the product available
in variations oflitres, making Bisleri both convenient and affordable. The company isfollowing a very
aggressive pricing. Its product is available at a veryreasonable price. 1.2 Ltrs Rs. 10/-
2 Ltrs Rs. 20/- 5 Ltrs Rs. 40/- Promotion Modern marketing calls for more than just developing a
good product,pricing it attractively, and making it available to the target customers,companies must
also communicate with their customers, and whatthey communicate should not be left to chance.A
Companys total marketing communications program- called itsPromotion Mix consists of specific
blend of advertising, personalselling, sales promotion, and public relations tools that the
companyuses to pursue its advertising and marketing objectives.ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN:While
designing the advertisement campaign, it is necessary to keepin mind the opinion leaders. Youth are
the opinion leaders of thepresent time. And thus it becomes necessary to design the
campaignkeeping the youth in mind. The opinion leaders would further trickledown the message to
the less active members of the society.This is exactly what Bisleri is doing. Bisleri has started
anadvertisement campaign stressing the point of purity and flaunting the
patent right the company has over the breakaway seal. The company has tried to put the message
across louder, by using the ad campaign that catches the eye of everyone, specially the
youth.CONTENT OF THE CAMPAIGN:Bisleri that was looking for a differentiator decided to make
thebreakaway seal the symbol of purity. The tamper-proof seal wasdeveloped, around which the
communication was woven. Thecampaign stresses the safety provided by the breakaway seal
byillustrating the ease with which conventionally sealed bottles can berefilled and recycled.The
objective with the campaign would have been to highlight thetamper-proof seal and create doubt in
the consumers mind of thepurity of the other brands. That is, Bisleri is the only one thatguarantees
purity and keeps you Safe.To conclude: We find that new advertisement campaign of Bisleri iseye
catching. This is what the company should do. And also thecompany should make the message
clearer to the customers that ithas the patent right over the breakaway seal. In the survey we
foundthat the consumers are aware of the breakaway seal but are not awarethat the company has
the patent right.Apart from a high dose of investments on expanding bottling capacitiesand an ad
budget thats risen six-fold over last year, if Bisleri wants topenetrate every possible segment of the
market, it can do that by
introducing more pack sizes and establishing the brand strongly withtrendy new packaging.Apart
from creating consumer pull with campaign, the company, toincrease its sales would have to do the
sales push as well. For that it would have to give the retailers and other stockiest high trade
marginsand incentives for keeping the product. This is very important in caseof this product because
consumers would take up what is available tothem at ease and whatever retailer is giving.
COMPETITION IN MARKET
COMPETITIONThe mineral water market is set to explode and hit the Rs.2,000-croremark in the next
couple of years. This is drawing the big gunsattention. First Britannia launched Evian. And recently,
soft drinksgiant Pepsi entered the fray with Aquafina. Now, Nestle too isreportedly planning a foray.
Meanwhile, Parle Agros Bailey has beengrowing steadily. Small local players too are breathing down
Bislerisneck riding on better trade margins and intensive distribution (in theirrespective areas of
in marketshare in the organized market, Bisleri faces tremendous competitionfrom the unorganized
sector.
AquafinaThe advantage for Aquafina is that though there are over 300 labelsof bottled water in the
Indian market, few can be called brands. It isnecessary to remember that every product with a name
is not a brand;even Bisleri has become generic to this category.It does not have any emotional
values attached to it. So there was nodifficulty for Pepsi in creating space in such a market, which
iscompletely different from the soft drinks market, where it will be verydifficult for any new player
to find a slot. So the creative team at HTAvirtually had an empty canvas to work on. And it came up
with acampaign that did have people talking. First, a series of teasers,followed by a film that showed
healthy bodies and youthful peopleand, of course, lots of water.Although Aquafina is only available
in a 750 ml pet bottle, the pricing,at Rs.10, is competitive. And it is safe. In addition to the tamper
proofseal, there is a reliable method of checking whether the bottle hasbeen refilled. The date of
manufacturing has been written on the capas well as on the bottle. Thus a person who is refilling it
would haveto find a matching cap and bottle, the probability of which is very low.
Coca Cola- KinleyCoca-Cola joined the race by announcing the imminent launch of itsown brand of
water and, in the process, putting to rest rumors of itsso-called takeover of Bisleri. Kinley is targeting
institutions. Parle Agros- BailleyBailley the brand that is owned by Ramesh Chauhans
brotherPrakash Chauhan is very popular in the southern part of India.Southern part of India
accounts for 20% of the sale of the whole watermarket industry. Bisleri would have a tough
competition from Bailleysince the company plans to spread its presence in that part of thecountry.
Another thing that makes the competition difficult for thecompany is the price at which its
competitor is offering the product.Like Bisleri it also gives the 1 lt. For Rs.10. The only strength point
ofthe company, which it can capitalize, is its generic name. And alsothe company would have to
enter that market with a strongdistribution base. We know the fact that Bailley has grown at a
rapidpace using the route of franchising, which Bisleri has not adopted asyet. This is another point,
which the company would have to take careof to face the competition.
PRODUCT PROFILEIts a compliment being generic to the category, but its not very goodwhen
consumers think any mineral water brand is BisleriBisleri, a product established in India by Ramesh
Chauhan, Chairman ofParle Aqua Minerals has become a generic brand. Bisleri was the firstmarketed
bottled water in a totally virgin market. The brand has become synonymous with mineral water;
consumers accept any brand offered bythe retailer when they ask for Bisleri.So far Ramesh
Chauhans Bisleri enjoys the largest market share of 56%in the Rs1100 crores mineral water markets
and is growing at the rate of180% per annum. Annual sales of Bisleri have touched Rs400 crores.
Inseventies, Bisleri was the only mineral water, which had nationalpresence, and the sale was to the
tune of approximately one hundred thousand cases valued at about Rs.60 lacs. i .exe
MANUFACTURING A quick look at Bisleris manufacturing reach indicates that it is representedacross
the country North accounts for 35% of sales for the industry, Westaccounts for 30%, South 20%
and the East 15%.In order to be available in untapped areas Bisleri has setup 16 plantslocated all
over the country - three-fourths of which are companyowned. The balance is run by franchisees.
Bisleri has 5 plants in the North, 5 in the West- two of which were setup in the last year
atAhmedabad and Surat, 4 in the South and 2 in the East. The company has bottling units located in
Chennai, Bangalore, Goa, Calcutta,Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Indore and Nepal.
Thenew plants are being set up in states like Kerala, Orissa, Bihar andNorth Eastern States, which
hitherto have been unexplored by the company. It is also changing its production strategy and
shifting to a 10-hrproduction schedule with sudden increase in demand planned to bemet by
additional production.Bisleri has planned to expand its operations by investing Rs.60 croresin the
upgradation of facilities. The 120-bottles per minute (BPM)
capacity of the 16 units across the country will be increased to 240BPM.Conscious of the
environmental implications of its PET bottles, thecompany is to set up recycling plants at Delhi and
Chennai, each withan outlay of Rs.50m. These will process 500 kg of PET per hour. Theprocessed
material will be an input for polyester yarn manufacturers.In centers other than Delhi and Chennai,
the company will set upcrushing units to crush the used PET bottles.The companys expansion plans
will see its water bottling capacity goup from the present 400 million liters to 500 million liters. Parle
BisleriLimited (PBL) is planning to invest Rs 200 crores to increase itsbottling capacity and double its
turnover. The expansion will alsoincrease the number of companys bottling plants from 16 at
present,to 25. The company will set up all the new plants as green fieldplants. It doesnt have any
intentions to acquire any existing plants.
PURE BOTTLED DRINKING-WATERIs DangerousThe Safety of Bottled Drinking-waterBecause of the
large number of possible hazards in drinking-water, thedevelopment of standards for drinking-water
requires significant resourcesand expertise, which many countries are unable to afford.
Fortunately,guidance is available at the international level.The World Health Organization (WHO)
publishes Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality which many countries use as the basis to establish
their ownnational standards.International Standards for Bottled DrinkingwaterThe
intergovernmental body for the development of internationallyrecognized standards for food is the
Codex Alimentarius Commission(CAC). WHO, one of the co-sponsors of the CAC, has advocated the
use ofthe Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality as the basis for derivation ofstandards for all bottled
waters.CSE Report on pesticide residues in bottled waterThe Centre for Science and Environment, a
non-governmental organizationbased in New Delhi, has set up the Pollution Monitoring Laboratory
tomonitor environmental pollution. Its main aim is to undertake scientificstudies to generate public
awareness about food, water and aircontamination.
The bottled water market share of major brands is Bisleri (51%), Bailley(17%), Yes (11%) followed by
Kinley (10%), Aquafina (4%).Drinking water filled in hermetically sealed containers of
variouscompositions, form, and capacities that is suitable for direct consumptionwithout further
treatmentFACTSBottled drinking water samples of some top brands Bisleri (Parle BisleriPvt. Ltd.),
Bailley (Parle Agro Pvt. Ltd.), Aquafina (Pepsico India HoldingPvt. Ltd.), Kinley (Hindustan Coca Cola
Beverage Pvt.Ltd.) and of other less popular brands like Best, Royal Aqua, Seagull etc.,which were
being sold and manufactured in Mumbai and nearby areas likePune and Daman, were purchased
randomly. All the samples werepurchased from retail outlets in the market and from railway station
andwere checked for proper seal, date of manufacture and batch number.Even the top brands,
which claim to use treatment methods like purificationfiltration, activated carbon filtration,
demineralization and reverse osmosiswere found to contain residues of pesticides. It might be due
to the reasonthat the manufacturers may be by-passing the raw water after partialtreatment and
remixing it with the fully treated stream so as to cut down thecost of treatment. On the basis of the
results different brands can be ratedin terms of total organochlorine and organophosphorus
pesticides fromleast to most contaminated as-
Aquafina MacblueBailley KinleySeagull SheetalBisleri BrilliantBally Apurva