The Hindu Business Line : Venus seeks `mixie' fortunes

STANDARD Appliances, which owns the Venus brand of water heaters, has a new identity and is now called Venus Home Appliances Ltd. It had to go in for this makeover as Venus has recently forayed into the Rs 1,000 crore mixer-grinder market. The company's entry into this segment comes after being in the water heater market for almost 40 years and making it among the top players in the business.

Venus has a close to 30 per cent share nationally in the water heater market. And now, with this recent foray, I. Ramkumar, Director, Sales, Venus Home Appliances, hopes to initially target a market share of 10 per cent in the Southern States, which accounts for almost 35 per cent of the entire mixer-grinder market.

The mixer-grinder market

While the organised market of mixer grinders is estimated at around 40 lakh units per year, industry experts say that there is also a huge slice of the unorganised sector, which would make the total market size around five million units per year. Says Srinivasa B. A., Director of the consumer durable retail chain, Viveks Ltd, "Mixer-grinders have almost become like a cottage industry, with a large number of local players assembling parts under small sheds and selling them under various brand names."

Though there are number of national brands such as Sumeet, Preethi, Maharaja and Kenstar, Srinivasa of Viveks says that the market is overcrowded. "There are at least 500 local mixer-grinder brands," he says.

Marketing strategy

In a category which has as many as 500 brands and is continuously under threat from the unorganised market, how does Venus plan to establish itself? "Product differentiation," says Ramkumar.

He says that research shows that even though the market is highly cluttered there are quite a few consumer need gaps which the other players have not been able to fulfil. "The product benefit of faster grinding was seen as highly promising and evoked an enthusiastic reaction among the target audience. The faster, finer grinding attribute was perceived to lead to speedier results, increased savings and more quality time for the smart homemaker."

The company, therefore, decided to focus on the feature of faster and finer grinding and Ramkumar says that both the mixer-grinder variants, Magicmix and Duramix have the patented Superflow technology, which is supposed to direct the contents to the centre of the jar and down towards the rotating blades, thus ensuring faster and finer grinding.

Unlike the other mixer-grinder brands which normally focus on the product features, Ramkumar says that Venus decided to choose the emotional route for its communication exercises. "We decided to explore the personal benefit angle and create an inviting context for the woman to discover the proposition. The campaign, therefore, is all about mixing happiness into life," he says.

The press campaign, which has been created by JWT, Chennai, shows a woman in three different situations where she has more time to do things she loves and is able to spend quality time with her children and family.

"With the faster, finer grinding benefit translating into `life becoming easier and better/ more quality time', the communication aims at establishing an emotional connect with the audience. It is geared to the housewife in the middle-income segment who uses a `mixie' on a daily basis. One who is interested in finding a greater balance between her household chores (cooking forming a significant part) and the time she finds for her family, her children in particular," says a JWT spokesperson.

A tough job

However, Srinivasa of Viveks feel that making its presence felt in an overcrowded market would be a mighty task for Venus. "The company has to constantly come up with new product innovations and creative communication to find a place for itself in this cluttered marketplace."

However, Ramkumar is confident that he would be able to leverage the brand's strength in water heaters to establish itself in the mixer-grinder market. "Venus as a brand has a good image. Research has also shown that the brand is a household name as far as water heaters are concerned and is also considered reliable in terms of offering good after-sales service and so on. It was also associated and perceived to be a home appliances player of potential due to these qualities."

He says that the company's foray into a new segment was essential for its growth, which wouldn't have been possible by just focusing on water heaters. The Rs 35 crore company is looking at a turnover of Rs 50 crore by the next fiscal, and the coming months would also see the company's entry into newer segments such as fans.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Corporates and calendars

Customer experience equity

Where's customer service?

Saying it on film

Venus seeks `mixie' fortunes

Smile and sell!

AAAI & young creatives

Brand might, with kids' insight

Everybody is a consumer as well as a producer