PROJECT REPORT

ON
PRODUCT & BRAND MANAGMENT

SUBMITTED TO:
PROF. NIKHIL RAO

SUBMITTED BY:
Batch No. : XMBA_32
SEEMA GAWDE
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Water is the most important liquid in the world. Without water, there would be no
life, at least not the way we know it. In today's living condition, the need for Pure
Drinking Water is becoming the issue for the common Man

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE

Water - the Beverage your Body needs most

when we were kids in school, we learned that each molecule of water is made up of two
hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. We also learned that it was great fun to fill up our squirt
guns with water, at least until the principal caught us. What we really didn't learn, however, was
how much water we needed in order to be healthy human beings.

West Europeans, south Asians and Japanese live in the most densely populated regions of the
globe and worry constantly about the quality of their drinking water drawn from rivers and lakes.
Most is polluted and unfit for human consumption. In North America, people never worried
about water quality and safety until early 1970’s and restaurants always provided iced water free.
Some still do. Then came Perrier, the French mineral water emphasizing how restaurateurs could
increase their revenues by replacing iced water service with bottled water. Restaurateurs never
miss an opportunity to increase their profits, and soon studies started to surface claiming that
serving iced water was costly and no one benefited. Many restaurants started serving
automatically bottled water, and charged outrageous amounts i.e $ 3.50 for 300 ml. These days, a
750 ml bottle goes for $ 10.- in some restaurants, plus applicable taxes and tip!

Meanwhile, the word savvy bottled water marketers started circulating the myth that drinking
bottled mineral water is safer, never mentioning what their studies were comparing.

It is said that the inhabitants of seven cities between Switzerland and the Netherlands consume
the water of the Rhine River. In these parts people drink beer, wine, bottled water or fruit juices
and shun tap water. North Americans have recently begun to drink bottled water, but already the
distinction between spring water, mineral water, and filtered tap water is blurred beyond
redemption. Spring water must come from a natural springs with proven purity of contaminants;
mineral water must contain 2000 parts per million in minerals; and filtered tap water means just
that. Europeans always preferred mineral water or eau de source (spring water) since their rivers
were polluted a long time ago. Now considerable efforts are made to clean all major European
Rivers. The Rhine River, the Thames, the Loire are clean enough to allow several species of fish
to thrive.

As always, large companies with considerable cash reserves dominate the market. Groupe
Danone, a French conglomerate, markets Evian, Volvic and Crystal Springs; Nestle, a Swiss
food multinational with headquarters in Montreux markets Perrier, Nestle Pure Life and San
Pellegrino. Not to be outdone soft drink giant Coca-Cola joined the cause with filtered tap water
and positioned their brand as pure, safe, life-style water. Coca Cola markets Dasani and Pepsi
Cola Aquafina. When it comes to mineral water, Voss (Norway); Tynant (Ireland); Vitel,
Cathledon, Volvic, (France); Appolinaris (Germany), Spa (Belgium); Gasteiner (Austria); San
Benedetto, San Pellegrino, Aqua di Nepi, Lete (Italy), Ramlosa (Sweden);Borsec (Romania)
stand out. They display distinct taste profiles that spring and filtered waters lack, but tend to be
more expensive. When it comes to consumption, Canadians consume approximately 30 litres per
capita, Italians 158 litres, French 133, Dutch 119, Germans 101 and Americans 76. The low per
capita consumption can be attributed to the illusion that tap water is safe. In reality, only large
cities control tap water quality regularly and vigorously and treat it appropriately for safety. In
small communities, scarce financial resources and lacking expertise often make tap water safety
questionable. Since the introduction of PET bottles (polyethylene terephate) bottled water
consumption increased by 16 percent in five years and continuing growth of the market is
forecast by the Canadian Bottled Water Association in Richmond Hill, Ontario. The question for
restaurant patrons remains whether to ask for bottled or mineral water, or demand ice water.

It all depends on the situation. You can ask politely for ice water, if that is what you prefer, or a
glass of wine, or beer. The cost is almost the same for all the three, or you can complain to
management that prices charged for bottled water are ridiculous as is the case with wine.
BISLERI - COMPANY PROFILE

Mineral Water under the name 'Bisleri' was first introduced in Mumbai in glass bottles in two
varieties - bubbly & still in 1965 by Bisleri Ltd., a company of Italian origin. This company was
started by Signor Felice Bisleri who first brought the idea of selling bottle water in India.

Parle bought over Bisleri (India) Ltd. In 1969 & started bottling Mineral water in glass bottles
under the brand name 'Bisleri'. Later Parle switched over to PVC non-returnable bottles & finally
advanced to PET containers. . Parle's taking charge of Bisleri did not make a dramatic difference
to the brand's fortunes immediately. While it did gain in terms of visibility and reach
(piggybacking on Parle's existing distribution network), efforts to expand the bottled water
market were not exactly painstaking. Parle at that particular time was interested in making soda
water and not mineral water. There were just minor initiatives on part of the company for making
mineral water, as it was not considered to be a very 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 plastic bottles 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 Parle’s soft drink brands- Thumps-up, limca etc. While Coca-Cola
actually bought over Parle's beverages, it agreed to 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 Bisleri started from this point as Parle
sold off its stable of brands to Coca-Cola. This was the time when it started concentrating on
making Bisleri a success in the domestic mineral water market. The reason why Parle chose to
retain the Bisleri name was that Parle saw a fairly lucrative business of mineral water in Bisleri's
equity.
Since 1995 Mr. Ramesh J. Chauhan has started expanding Bisleri operations substantially and
the turn over has multiplied more than 20 times over a period of 10 years and the average growth
rate has been around 40% over this period. Presently we have 8 plants & 11 franchisees all over
India. We have our presence covering the entire span of India. In our future ventures we look to
put up four more plants in 06-07. We command a 60% market share of the organized market.
Overwhelming popularity of 'Bisleri' & the fact that we pioneered bottled water in India, has
made us synonymous to Mineral water & a household name. When you think of bottled water,
you think Bisleri.
How Parle Bisleri began…..

June 10, 2005

According to the Bureau of Indian Standards there are 1,200 bottled water factories all over India
(of which 600 are in one state -- Tamil Nadu). Over 100 brands are vying for the Rs 1,000-crore
(Rs 10 billion) bottled water market and are hard selling their products in every way possible --
better margins to dealers, aggressive advertising, catchy taglines.... In such a scenario, The
Strategist takes a look at how it all started -- with Bisleri -- and how Ramesh Chauhan, chairman,
Parle Bisleri created a market out of pure water. Excerpts from a conversation with Prerna
Raturi:
Can I be honest? When we bought Bisleri mineral water from the Italian company, Felice Bisleri,
in 1969 -- the company had been unable to market bottled water and wanted to exit the market --
we too did not see any potential for the product at that time.
As a soft drinks company, we had Thums Up, Gold Spot and Limca (cola, orange drink and
lemonade) but no soft drink company was complete without a soda. So we merely used the name
and launched Bisleri soda with two variants -- carbonated and non-carbonated mineral water.
But three decades ago, what could we say about a category that had no market? We didn't know
our target group. Then, since bottled water is colourless, tasteless and odourless, it was not an
easy product to advertise.

hus, the earlier brand building efforts focused on Bisleri being healthy with adequate minerals.
The Italian name added a dash of class to it. The first print ad campaign captured the
international essence and showed a butler with a bow tie, holding two bottles of Bisleri.
The punchline was, "Bisleri is veri veri extraordinari" (the spelling of the punchline was
designed to capture the consumer's attention). The campaign was successful and we were being
noticed as someone who catered to the need for safe, healthy drinking water.
However, the real boost to mineral water came in the early-to-mid-1980s when we switched to
PVC packaging and later to PET bottles. The PET packaging did not just ensure better
transparency -- we could now show sparkling clear water to the consumers. It also meant better
life for the water.
Meanwhile, Bisleri soda was doing well but we had to discontinue production as we sold our soft
drink brands to Coca-Cola in 1993. But my interest was in building brands and not in bottling
soft drinks. That's when I started to concentrate on developing the Bisleri water brand.
There was a clear opportunity of building a market for bottled water. The quality of water
available in the country was bad. It was similar to what Europe faced before World War II. The
quality of water in Europe was extremely poor, which created the bottled water industry there. In
India, too, not only was water scarce, whatever was available was of bad quality.
Initially, though bottled water was something only foreigners and non-resident Indians
consumed, we still had to increase the distribution, which meant the dealer margins reduced. And
because of limited sales, the dealer margin had to be kept high to compensate low sales. Now we
had to push sales.
But to reach out to the masses, we had to make the category more affordable. The introduction of
a comfortable-to-carry 500-ml bottle for just Rs 5 in 1995 not only answered that need, but also
meant doing away with carrying the excess water or throwing it away if you were to buy a one-
litre bottle.
The idea was a success and gave the company a growth of 400 per cent. We also introduced the
1.2 litre bottle in 2000, which was aimed at those who share their water. This also gave us the
advantage of higher margins that a crate (12 bottles) generated.
With other brands joining the fray, things were hotting up -- the bottled-water market was
estimated at Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) and was growing at 50 per cent a year. Bisleri had
captured 40 per cent of the market.
We realised it was time to move to the next level -- the bulk segment. Several commercial
establishments had no access to piped water. We tapped into this segment by introducing the 12-
litre container, followed by the 20-litre can. The bulk segment also helped bring down the price
per litre from Rs 10-12 a litre to about Rs 3 a litre.
At present, the bulk segment constitutes 60 to 70 per cent of our sales and we intend to increase
it to 80 per cent in the next two years. With water scarcity in several cities, even households are
demanding bottled water now.
The home pack was made more user-friendly by introducing pouring spouts and jars with
dispensers. At the same time, we were constantly looking for new ways to tap the market. We
noticed that during wedding receptions, the older guests (above 50 years of age) generally stayed
away from ice cream, soft drinks and so on.
Hence, we introduced free sampling of Bisleri at the tables where the elderly guests would sit.
Soon customers were ordering bottled water on special occasions. Currently, the consumption of
bottled water is far in excess of soft drinks on such occasions.
The other major challenge was distribution. I still have the mindset of a soft drink seller. Soft
drink sales are in glass bottles and the distribution model is built around picking up empty bottles
and getting them back to the factory. That's not the case with the retail bottled water packs
(below 2 litre). But a product that's not available where it's needed, is useless.
The number of outlets where Bisleri is available has increased from 50,000 in 1995 to 2,00,000
at present. But that is not enough -- we need to keep looking for different avenues. Take
stationery shops and chemists, for instance. They don't keep soft drinks but sell Bisleri. That is
the kind of exclusivity we look for to get ahead of the distribution network that soft drink
companies talk of.
The journey till now
1969: Buys Bisleri bottled water from an Italian company, Felice Bisleri. It was bottled in glass
bottles then.
Early-1980s: Shifts to PVC bottles. Sales surge
Mid-1980s: Switches to PET bottles, which meant more transparency and life for water.
1993: Sells carbonated drink brands like Thums Up, Gold Spot and Limca to Coca-Cola for Rs
400 crore.
1995: Bisleri launches a 500 ml bottle and sales shoot up by 400 per cent.
2000: Introduces the 20-litre container to bring prices down from Rs 10 a litre to Rs 2 a litre.
1998: Introduces a tamper-proof and tamper-evident seal.
2000: BIS cancels Bisleri's licence of a water bottling in Delhi since some of the bottles did not
carry ISI label; the licence is restored one-and-a-half months later.
2002: Kinley overtakes Bisleri. The national retail stores audit by ORG-MARG show sKinley's
marketshare at 35.1 per cent compared to Bisleri's 34.4 per cent.
RECOMMENDATIONS

Advertisement to build the brand image that will provide the required ground to establish the
authenticity to the product.

Display of hot and cold dispensers and bottles at places like hotels, clubs and airports where
upper class group visits, as they are the potential customers. Place like departmental stores,
petrol pumps and super bazaars can also be considered.

The company should organize camps at various part of the city also road show to bring about
the difference between mineral water and filter/purified water and to tell the people how mineral
water is more hygienic than filtered water/purified water.

To aware people the cost benefit analysis to the customer of how the mineral water would cost
less and benefit more, because people using purifier system cost too much.