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Cricket pitch pays off for gang of sponsors: Economic Times
New Delhi, Mar 23: Their promos may have been pitching the perfect line and length, but did the decibel dervishes hit the ultimate six on the ground? Here`s a commentary on official sponsors LG, Hero Honda and Pepsi, and sundry others like Samsung, Reliance Infocomm and Coca-Cola.
New Delhi, Mar 23: Their promos may have been pitching the perfect line and length, but did the decibel dervishes hit the ultimate six on the ground? Here’s a commentary on official sponsors LG, Hero Honda and Pepsi, and sundry others like Samsung, Reliance Infocomm and Coca-Cola.
According to initial trends, sales of colour televisions have moved downwards after February. As against expectations of 50% growth in the January-March 2003 period, the sales graph hasn’t moved beyond 20 to 30% for the industry. But LG and Samsung say they have bucked the trend. Here’s LG’s Ganesh Mahalingam:”We set a 6 lakh target for the first quarter of 2003, and have already sold over 5 lakh till February.”
LG is expecting sales worth Rs 1,000 crore, whereas it has spent over Rs 55 crore on advertising, mainly cricket.
Samsung, which has spent over Rs 40 crore on cricket advertising, is expecting a 200% increase in sales. Says Samsung’s Ravinder Zutshi: “We sold 3.5 lakh TV sets in January-February 2003 and hope to exceed our target of 4.5 lakh sets for the first quarter.”
Hero Honda, however, isn’t in sync with these rah,rah figures. Whereas the motorcycle industry has reportedly grown 13 per cent in the first two months of 2003, the company has registered a growth of only around 6%. According to SIAM, a total of 6,17,661 motorcycles were sold during the first two months of the current year against 54,5,713 sold during the same period last year.
Meanwhile, Pepsi Foods claims to have coloured the world of stats blue. According to an IMRB survey, Pepsi Blue launched for the World Cup has generated 92 per cent brand awareness within just six weeks. The company had reportedly set a target of increasing its market share by 1% during the first quarter of 2003. Yet, a company spokesperson, only wanted to say that their cola sales had done exceedingly well so far since January.
Reliance Infocomm, which was among the top five most visible brands during the World Cup telecast, is reported to have notched up around 2 lakh connections in Delhi. According to market sources, the company will have got around six lakh connections in the entire country by the second week of March. The performance, however, may not be dubbed satisfactory in comparison with the 5 million connections’ target the ompany had set for the current year. Company sources the advertising will show results later in the year.
LG is expecting sales worth Rs 1,000 crore, whereas it has spent over Rs 55 crore on advertising, mainly cricket.
Samsung, which has spent over Rs 40 crore on cricket advertising, is expecting a 200% increase in sales. Says Samsung’s Ravinder Zutshi: “We sold 3.5 lakh TV sets in January-February 2003 and hope to exceed our target of 4.5 lakh sets for the first quarter.”
Hero Honda, however, isn’t in sync with these rah,rah figures. Whereas the motorcycle industry has reportedly grown 13 per cent in the first two months of 2003, the company has registered a growth of only around 6%. According to SIAM, a total of 6,17,661 motorcycles were sold during the first two months of the current year against 54,5,713 sold during the same period last year.
Meanwhile, Pepsi Foods claims to have coloured the world of stats blue. According to an IMRB survey, Pepsi Blue launched for the World Cup has generated 92 per cent brand awareness within just six weeks. The company had reportedly set a target of increasing its market share by 1% during the first quarter of 2003. Yet, a company spokesperson, only wanted to say that their cola sales had done exceedingly well so far since January.
Reliance Infocomm, which was among the top five most visible brands during the World Cup telecast, is reported to have notched up around 2 lakh connections in Delhi. According to market sources, the company will have got around six lakh connections in the entire country by the second week of March. The performance, however, may not be dubbed satisfactory in comparison with the 5 million connections’ target the ompany had set for the current year. Company sources the advertising will show results later in the year.