Itc Bingo

ITC has big investment plans for the snacks project. Naware specifies, "In two years, we will invest Rs 150 crore; Rs. 60-70 crore has already been invested in the initial rollout."target is also aggressive 25% of snacks market.

Marketing Planning

Term Project

ITC Bingo

Group 4

Abhishek Gupta 07P002

Aldrin Aloysius 07P006

Arpit Vishwakarma 07P013

Rohit Awasthi 07P033

Shikha Rana 07P040

Vardan Mathur 07P044

Acknowledgement

We would like to take this opportunity to express our most sincere gratitude towards Prof. Anita Goyal, whose classroom teaching helped us develop insights into the marketing concepts in general.

We also thank the vendors and local retailers approached by us and the respondents in the process of collecting information.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Indian snacks market is estimated to be worth Rs 2000 crore and growing at a whopping rate of 30 percent. There are few organized players in the market and a large untapped unorganized market. Hence, it provides a glaring opportunity to grow and thrive in such an environment. Eyeing this opportunity, ITC launched вЂ?BINGO’ in the potato chips market. With extensive research behind it and with an aggressive promotion campaign, Bingo was launched to fight head вЂ" on with the established market leader Frito Lays.

This study is an attempt to analyze and understand the marketing environment for the industry in general and вЂ?Bingo’ in particular. The report is divided into three parts: we commenced with the SWOT analysis of ITC Bingo wherein we studied the internal and external factors that might affect the marketing strategy of the product. Further, we studied the consumer buying behavior through a survey conducted on around 60 respondents вЂ" this helped us to gain an insight into the factors which influence people to buy potato chips. Lastly, we looked into the similarities and disparities between the findings of the survey and the SWOT. Based on this we were able to provide a few recommendations to fill in the loopholes and to help the product gain further market share.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Company overview

2. SWOT analysis

3. Consumer buying behavior

4. Similarities and disparities

5. Recommendations

6. References

COMPANY OVERVIEW

ITC Limited (ITC) is engaged in diversified businesses including cigarettes, hotels, paperboards and specialty papers, packaging, agri-business, packaged foods and confectionery, branded apparel, greeting cards and other fast moving consumer good products. The company primarily operates in India. It is headquartered in Kolkata, India and employs about 20,000 people.

The company recorded revenues of INR1, 95,050.5 million (approximately $4,492 million) during the fiscal year ended March 2007, an increase of 20.2% over 2006. .The operating profit of the company was INR39, 267 million (approximately $904.3 million) during fiscal year 2007, an increase of 20.1% over 2006. The net profit was INR26, 999.7 million (approximately $621.8 million) in fiscal year 2007, an increase of 20.8% over 2006.

KEY FACTS

Company Address 37 Jawaharlal Nehru Road

Virginia House

Kolkata 700 071

IND

Phone 91 33 2288 9371

Fax 91 33 2288 2257

Web Address http://www.itcportal.com

# Employees 20,000

Turnover (US$Mn) 195,050.5

Financial Year End March

WHY BINGO?

Savory snacks have been a part of Indian food habits since ages. The Rs 2000 crore Indian snacks market is growing at a rate of 30 percent. The booming retail scenario has only added fuel to the fire. Bingo, with its unique advertising strategy has come up as a strong player in the snacks market. There was only one major player in this market before Bingo was launched, Frito Lays. But now with Bingo flooding the market with its varied flavors; Lays executives have started standing on their toes. In this cut-throat market, both the players are coming up with newer and innovative ideas to capture a larger chunk of this market.

ITC has had its success with products like Sunfeast wherein brand ambassadors like Shahrukh Khan have increased their popularity. They did not apply the same strategy for Bingo keeping in mind that they had to do something different in order to overpower the market leader, Frito Lays. Hence they have come up with eye-catching advertisements that attract the consumers, especially the youth. They are also strategically sponsoring a lot of events for channel V, aiming to target the major consumer of potato chips, the college going youth. Instead of limiting themselves to conventional mediums of promoting the product, they are exploring alternatives like a website of their own, www.bingeonbingo.com, which has interactive role playing games which help in connecting with the consumer better.

How Bingo, a new product, attempts to take over an established player like Lays is why we chose this product. The ongoing battle between ITC and Frito Lays would be an interesting analysis.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths Weaknesses

Effective