COMPANY PROFILE The origins of Bisleri lie in Italy, and the brand owes its name to founder Felice

Bisleri, an Italian entrepreneur. In India, Bisleri set up a plant in Mumbai for bottling and marketing mineral water, which was first of its kind in India. However, it did not quite work. Among other reasons, the fact that the Indian consumer was unprepared to accept bottled mineral water was responsible for its failure. Consumer mindsets were more geared towards boiling water at home. In 1969, Parle bought over the' Bisleri' brand. In those days Bisleri water was available in glass bottles. 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 a people still considered boiling water to be a safer bet 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 parles soft drink brands- thums-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 as it sold its stable brands to Coco-Cola. This was the time when its 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 as people were becoming more health conscious.

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.

1998: Introduces a tamper-proof and tamper-evident seal.

2000: Introduces the 20-litre container to bring prices down from Rs 10 a litre to Rs 2 a litre. 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 Kinley's marketshare at 35.1 per cent compared to Bisleri's 34.4 per cent.

2005 : Bisleri Launches its Break Away Seal, Fear Factor and Play Safe Campaigns , which established its purity and safety. It has the largest stock keeping unit (SKU) of 500ml, 1ltr, 1.2ltr, 5ltr and 20ltr.

2006: Bisleri changes its packaging and design from blue to green to differentiate itself from its competitors. Launches natural water from the Himalays and made available in all its purity.

2010: Launches a limited edition of celebration and celebrate its cricket labels in 250ml and 500ml. Launches Vedica natural mineral water from the Himalayas.

4 Ps PRICE - AN ECONOMIC FACTOR AFFECTING THE BUYERS BEHAVIOUR Price is the sum of values that consumer exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or service. Price is the only element in the marketing mix that produces revenue. All other elements represent costs. In India, where the majority of the population comprise of the middle-income group and lower income groups it is not hard to understand that pricing is one of the most important factor in the buying decisions.

Bisleri has met the expectations of the consumers in terms of pricing the product and also making the product available in variations of litres, making Bisleri both convenient and affordable. The company was following a very aggressive pricing. Its product were available at a very reasonable price. Company charged Re.1for every 100ml. This strategy by the company was very effective in the Indian context where the consumers are highly price conscious. The company had come up with another variant of the product. It was 1.2 lt, priced at Rs.12 keeping the price fixed at Re.1 per 100 ml. The company had an edge over its competitors because at that time Aquafina which was recently launched by Pepsi had priced its product at Rs.10 for 750 ml. Later the company changed its pricing policy from Rs 12 to Rs 15 because of increased excise duty. Now the Bisleri products are available from Minimum of Rs 8 to maximum of Rs 60 i.e. 250ml bottles to 20lt cans.

In 2010, Bisleri launched a limited edition of celebration for the cricket fans, by introducing its cricket labels in 250ml and 500ml. They even launched Vedica natural mineral water from the Himalayas, targeting the premium segment, which is priced at Rs 20 for 500ml and Rs 30 for 1lt.

PRODUCT

BISLERI values their customers & therefore have developed 8 unique pack sizes to suit the need of every individual.

Products Produced by BISLERI Bisleri includes two types: Bisleri mineral water and Bisleri Natural Mountain water named as Vedica.

BISLERI MINERAL WATER : BISLERI with added Minerals BISLERI Mineral Water contains minerals such as magnesium sulphate and potassium bicarbonate which are essential minerals for healthy living. They not only maintain the pH balance of the body but also help in keeping you fit and energetic at all times. They presently have 250ml cups, 250ml bottles, 500ml, 1L and 2L which are the non-returnable packs & 5L, 20L which are the returnable packs.

Bisleri Natural Mountain Water BISLERI Natural Mountain emanates from a natural spring, located in Uttaranchal and Himachal nestled in the vast Shivalik Mountain ranges. The Natural Water is bottled in its two plants in Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh and is available in six different pack sizes of 250ml, 500ml, 1 litre, 2 litre and 5 litres. Nearly two years after the Launch of natural mineral water, Mountain Water from the Himalayas, got into a legal tussle with Tata Teas Himalayan over patent infringement so and decided to relaunch it as a premium segment brand. The second reason for Vedica to be launched is Bisleri wanted to have a separate brand for mountain water as there was confusion even within the company between Bisleri and Bisleri Mountain. Vedica is the new name of our Mountain water and will continue to use the tagline from the Himlayas' on the packaging. Priced at Rs 20 for 500 ml pack, Vedica is positioned as a premium brand with medical value.

Bisleri International now has the onus of building the new Vedica Mountain Water brand and will continue to sell it under the umbrella of Bisleri.And now the customers, will get every drop of purity, right here, in this bottle , opined by MD Ramesh Chauhan. BISLERI Mountain Water is available in 500ml. bottles & 1 litre bottles.

PLACE:

In order to be available in untapped areas Bisleri has setup 16 plants located all over the country - three-fourths of which are company owned. The balance are run by franchisees. Bisleri has 5 plants in the North, 5 in the West- two of which were setup in the last year at Ahemdabad 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. The new plants are being set up in states like Kerala, Orissa, Bihar and North Eastern States, which hitherto have been unexplored by the company. It is also changing its production strategy and shifting to a 10-hr production schedule with sudden increase in demand planned to be met by additional production.

Bisleri has planned to expand its operations by investing Rs 60 crore in the upgradation of facilities. The 120-bottles per minute (BPM) capacity of the 16 units across the country will be increased to 240 BPM. It is planing to set up 11 new franchisee and 8 new plantsin india.

Conscious of the environmental implications of its PET bottles, the company is to set up recycling plants at Delhi and Chennai, each with an outlay of Rs.50m. These will process 500 kg of PET per hour. The processed material will be an input for polyester yarn manufacturers. In centers other than Delhi and Chennai, the company will set up crushing units to crush the used PET bottles. DISTRIBUTION It's obvious that availability holds the key to the market. For any product to be successful the distribution system has to be really good. Large tracts of the country have not been explored by the national brands,which explains the proliferation of smaller brands. Bisleris strategy is to build a direct distribution system at an all-India level. Currently, Bisleri has around 80000 retail outlets in the country with about 12000 each in the Metros of Delhi and Mumbai. It is intended to increase this number to 10 lakh outlets in order to expand brands reach by 2013.

In order to service the home segment, the 5 litre packs are being pushed through the route of Fat Dealers( wholesale dealers) who are retailers as well as stockist and serve as supply points from where customer can pick the required quota. The customer can call the fat dealer and place order for home delivery of the 5 litre pack. 180 of these dealers are already functional, and more are in the process of being appointed. "The idea is to make Bisleri all-pervasive,".

[ FIGURE].

The company plans to have its own distribution network in places where it has its own plants. Franchisees would manage the distribution in their respective areas of operation.

PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITY Advertising Campaign of Bisleri: Every brand needs a good ad campaign to establish itself in the market. So it becomes very imperative to look at various ad campaigns that Bisleri undertook to build itself as a brand. Bisleri started its game-plan with the punch-line of Bisleri veri veri extraordinari and used the same catch-line for advertising. But with the advent of many new players, all claiming the purity, it became very imperative for Bisleri to differentiate its product so as to stand out in the market. Bisleri found the answer in sealed cap bottles. It claimed 100% purity and came up with the campaign of Pure and Safe.

While the bottles of the other brands, it claimed, could be refilled with ordinary, or even germinated water, Bisleris seal capped bottles ensured the consumer of purity of water and single-used ness of the bottles.

The ad showed a milk-man and a child showering their buffaloes and filling the socalled mineral water bottles with the same water and packing them with the simple polythene seal and the consumer not knowing about the purity of the water he is drinking. Next clip shows the Bisleri bottles being sealed with plastic caps and ensuring the purity of water. The ad did work for Bisleri and it got its much needed product differentiation.

In 2000, some giant brands like Pepsi and coca-cola entered the mineral water industry with a big bang. Bisleri now had a big threat of maintaining its market cap. While Coca-cola introducing its brand Kinley as a health care product, Pepsi projected Aquafina as something as pure as Your own body. Pepsi targeted the young generation and introduced Aquafina as a fancy product to carry. Bisleri, to counter-attack the new Feel-Young fever by Aquafina had to take even bolder steps. They first changed their base-line from Pure and Safe to Play Safe. 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, when the girl seductively attracts the guy and he follows her in trance. The moment he gets hold of her, she whispers

something in his ears. The next few shots show the guy looking for something in frenzycan not find it.rushes towards the chemists shop.buys something (keeping the audience in suspenseor rather implicitly pointing for ). The girl opens it and.POOF.takes out a bottle of Bisleri and quenches her thirst. Caption: Play Safe. This campaign was to catch the attention of youth and a new Indian society which is supposed to be not-soprudish. Thus Bisleri has taken a very bold step. The T.V. ads have been complimented by print ads also. The campaign is reported to be doing pretty well. PACKAGING Today, Bisleri offers a variety of packaging options: 250 ml, 500 ml, 1 litre, 2 litre, 5 litre, and 20 litre. The 5-litre bottles account for 35 per cent of sales showing a growing health concern among the Indian society. 1 litre bottles account for 30 percent of the share, whereas the 500 ml bottles taking up 15 per cent. The remaining sizes share the rest of the contribution.

The 2 litres bottles were introduced to slowly and steadily replace the conventional 1 litre bottles. This would give them an advantage over others. The 500-ml category was re-focused as a trendy product, targeted at the teenage crowd and for the roadside consumers.

Promotion for Vedica : As the product is aimed for niche and not for the masses the promotion of it is carried in premium Newspapers and Magazines like lonely planet etc. The marketing team of the product also carries its promotion in parties of corporates and VVIP people. Also it is kept in premium hotels and restaurants.

% share of bottle sizes

5 Lt 1 Lt 500 ml
Others

Following is a quick overview of the various packaging options provided by bisleri along with the target consumers:

Size of the bottle

Price bottle

per Target consumer

250 ml

Rs 6

Convienence and easy to handle. Make it available for functions, conferences and institutional

seminars. 500 ml Rs. 8 Teenagers, consumers. 1 litre 2 litres Rs. 15 Rs. 25 General consumers and travelers. Small offices, shopkeepers, households college students and roadside

5 litres 20 litres

Rs. 45 Rs. 60

Mainly for household purposes Households, institutes, offices, schools and colleges

3 Cs

CONSUMER: The central question the company has to understand is: How do consumer respond to various marketing stimuli the company might use? The company that really understands how customers will respond to different product features, prices and advertising appeals has a great advantage over its competitors. The question can be further broken down to: Who buys? When do they buy? Where do they buy? Why do they buy?

Who buys? In the survey conducted by us, we found that the middle income and the upper income groups are the users of the bottled water. The lower income group is still dependent on the water from wells and hand pumps. In the middle-income group also, people buy bottled water while travelling. Among the various income groups, there comprise the students, the office going executive ,tourists and the retired people. So the company should go in for strategies to target customer segments based on appeal, prices, convenient packaging and other characteristics conforming to the customer segment the company is targeting.

When do they buy? In the survey we found that the middle-income group buys mineral water while travelling. At home or at the work place they mainly use water filters that are installed. Or, they use large

pack of bottled water like the jumbo pack (18 lt.) by Bisleri. The upper income group uses mineral water only. So, they constitute a large part of the total market.

Where do they buy from? According to the survey conducted by us, the bottled water users buy the water from retail outlets and also through tie ups with dealers. Large consumers of bottled water like Hotels, institutions, corporate order their water requirements through dealers. The small time but frequent consumer buys bottled water from retail outlets.

Why do they buy? For obvious reasons, soaring mercury levels are directly proportional to consumption of purified bottled water. The basic reason consumers ask for bottled water is the safety. With the growing health hazards in the country and as the people are becoming more health conscious they are switching over to bottled water. This is the reason that the industry is growing at fast pace. The other reason after this is, that the bottled water is convenient to carry. They can throw the bottles after use unlike when they carry water from home.

Consumer Concerns and Perceptions

The thinking here is that with consumer perceptions about mineral water changing, the brand Bisleri has to Reinvent itself. Earlier, mineral water used to stand for water enriched with certain minerals and was picked up by health-conscious consumers. This no longer holds. Mineral water has come to mean just thatwater. Albeit safe drinking water that is conveniently available. The consumer does not really care if the water contains minerals. The most important consideration is purity of the product. What the company is doing to take care of the consumers concern.

Tampering of seals: Around 76 per cent of consumption happens in transit. Consumer research conducted by us revealed that the overriding concern for this set of buyers is the tampering of the seal. Many have witnessed used bottles being refilled at railway stations. So when a consumer buys mineral water, he would like to be assured that the water has not been tampered with. Bisleri has rightly introduced the concept of the breakaway seal to reinforce the purity of Bisleri mineral water and given a surety to its consumers that what they are consuming is SAFE.

Taste of the mineral water: Many consumers want the mineral water to taste more like Water. The consumer research done by us revealed that consumers preferred Bisleri because of its natural taste.