Top Stories
Boost to partner with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Boost, the leading malt based-health food drink in India, announced its partnership with the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team for the upcoming 2012 FORMULA 1™ AIRTEL INDIAN GRAND PRIX. With this association Boost has become the first Indian consumer brand to partner with this team and which is on the back of a long-term strategic partnership that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has formed with McLaren Group. As part of this association, the Boost brand logo will run on Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button’s race cars during the Grand Prix, with the chocolate flavoured health drink available for the team throughout the race weekend.
Over the years, Boost has been synonymous with stamina and energy and this partnership with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes will take this connection to the next level. Boost is also giving an opportunity to its loyal consumers to preview the behind-the-scenes Vodafone McLaren Mercedes experience of the race.
Speaking on the association, Jayant Singh, Marketing Head, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare said, “In the highly competitive sport of Formula 1, preparation is just as important as the actual race itself. Boost is excited to partner with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes for the Indian leg of the Grand Prix, providing the team with sports nutrition to ensure they are in peak physical condition for the race. It is an exciting partnership for the brand as Boost is the first Indian consumer brand to partner with the team, through which Boost’s consumers will have a chance to view the race through the team’s eyes. We would like to wish best of luck to Vodafone McLaren Mercedes for the upcoming 2012 FORMULA 1™ AIRTEL INDIAN GRAND PRIX race.”
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh said: “Our strategic partnership with GSK is a fast-moving and dynamic one. As such, we are looking forward to running Boost – one of India’s leading consumer brands – on our cars for the Indian Grand Prix. The Buddh International circuit is one of the most exciting new venues in Formula 1 and India is a fantastic, growing market for grand prix racing. Indeed, this partnership is perfectly timed and hopefully augurs well for great success on the track this weekend.”
The partnership is supported by a consumer contest being run by Boost and a national TV campaign that goes live soon.
Domestic News
Canon India bullish on East India expansion
Canon India Pvt. Ltd., India’s No. 1 Complete Digital Imaging Company, today announced its confidence in bullish expansion plans for East India starting with the festival of Durga Puja. The brand has developed robust plans including aggressive marketing strategy, new product launches, attractive pricing and retail expansion, with an aim to achieve an overall target of 27% market share in East India by the end of the year. All this will help the company to reach revenues of Rs. 21bn in 2012 with market share of 25% in camerasand 45% in DSLR category nationally
Investing heavily in marketing and promotion, Canon has budgeted Rs. 400 mn for the festive season making an overall marketing budget of Rs. 1.42bn for 2012 and plans to open 25 more Canon Image Squares (Canon’s franchisee brand stores) to touch 100 stores in 50 towns from current level of 75 nationally. It announced plans to take stores tally in East India from 8 to 12 by Dec 2012. In east, Canon has stores in Kolkata, Siliguri, Durgapur, Patna, Guwahati & Jamshedpur.
Speaking on the launch Dr. Alok Bharadwaj, Senior Vice President, Canon India said, “East India is a crucial market for Canon and has been significantly contributing to the overall growth of the brand, especially to our camera business division. We are particularly bullish about West Bengal which registered 110% unit growth for digital cameras and 200% for Digital SLR in first 8 months of 2012. In fact, with some luck and some efforts in lifting the buying sentiments during festival times, Canon is expecting to cross much awaited milestone of 100,000 digital cameras and 10,000 Digital SLR in West Bengal this year. This is more than 10% of national sales just in one state. This has made Canon’s market share more than 30% here”
“ 2012 has been most difficult year for digital Camera industry. Industry growth has generally been flat. However Canon has grown over 60%. Our effort is to reconfiguring the photography business in India with youth-centric propositions using a three-pronged strategy of celebrity endorsement, imaging brand stores expansion and faster product portfolio churn with strong range. We introduced 25 new products in 2012 and now offer 36 models to take the consumer experience with Canon to the next level. With 75 brand stores in 45 towns, we are attempting to make experience as a big differentiator. Canon is all set to achieve Rs. 21bn revenues in 2012 in India with 32% growth over 2011, a step in line with $ 1 Billion revenues by 2015. " Dr Bharadwaj added.Read more…
Pierre Cardin launches new watch collections
Emami re-launches Fast Relief with "Superfast Cheetah Formula"
Tetra Pak launches ‘Voices of Innovation’
Global News
Five Guys tops burger survey
Five Guys reportedly tops burger survey for its best taste,quality, service, cleanliness, and atmosphere.McDonald's and Burger Kind ended up at the bottom near last