BRANDS:-
Some consumer durable companies have thought it fit to adopt an umbrella branding Strategy for their products. Their assiduously built images over the years convey the message of leadership to their customers.
Anchor, for eg, has changed its logo to convey the message of precision, quality and technical edge in all company activities.
Electrolux Kelvinator is a good example of how a well-known and popular brand suffers due to a lack of adequate marketing support. One of the early entrants in the market, Kelvinator also had a limited portfolio of models, lower brand visibility and had suffered at the hands of indifferent dealers.
PRICING:-
With washing machine sector operating at 34.7% capacity utilization, prices had touched an all time low in FY99 and with new capacities coming up this year, the trend is expected to continue.
Penetration pricing is now the name of the game. The strategy is to keep entry-level prices lower in order to activate demand. A sharp rise in the sales of washing machines in the first half of FY98/99 had partially been attributed to this. Prices of semi-automatic machines fell by an average of 15% since January 1998.
The biggest fall has been noticed in the cases of Anchor (22%) and Anchor (12%). In fact, Anchor has introduced a new model breaking the earlier price barrier of Rs.5000. For the fully automatic segment, the price fall has been in the range of 6.5% on an average.
Unlike the semi-automatics, there is a large variance in the extent of price declines of the various brands. Also, the price difference between a semi-automatic and a fully automatic one has narrowed down considerably.
Some consumer durable companies have thought it fit to adopt an umbrella branding Strategy for their products. Their assiduously built images over the years convey the message of leadership to their customers.
Anchor, for eg, has changed its logo to convey the message of precision, quality and technical edge in all company activities.
Electrolux Kelvinator is a good example of how a well-known and popular brand suffers due to a lack of adequate marketing support. One of the early entrants in the market, Kelvinator also had a limited portfolio of models, lower brand visibility and had suffered at the hands of indifferent dealers.
PRICING:-
With washing machine sector operating at 34.7% capacity utilization, prices had touched an all time low in FY99 and with new capacities coming up this year, the trend is expected to continue.
Penetration pricing is now the name of the game. The strategy is to keep entry-level prices lower in order to activate demand. A sharp rise in the sales of washing machines in the first half of FY98/99 had partially been attributed to this. Prices of semi-automatic machines fell by an average of 15% since January 1998.
The biggest fall has been noticed in the cases of Anchor (22%) and Anchor (12%). In fact, Anchor has introduced a new model breaking the earlier price barrier of Rs.5000. For the fully automatic segment, the price fall has been in the range of 6.5% on an average.
Unlike the semi-automatics, there is a large variance in the extent of price declines of the various brands. Also, the price difference between a semi-automatic and a fully automatic one has narrowed down considerably.