Memoirs.....Musings of a sales guy at heart.....

Episode 21....

IDV----journey continues....

Corrections....Shekar Bharadwaj came to IDV from Brook Bond....and from IDV he went to CPL....(thanks Debasish for correcting me).

As I had mentioned earlier, this narrative wont be on a chronological order as I am going to talk about things which keeps popping up in my memory...

In the last episode it was all about how consumers reacted to a price hike especially a product/brand selling at a cheaper price than a premium brand and suddenly coming on par with that premium brand without any add on either in the liquid or in other offerings....this is a great lesson learnt in a hard way by us at IDV....and this talk of Industry colluding et al never works out as the smarties in the industry understand where their volumes and profits have to come from and react immediately to be the first mover...keep this in your mind....the first mover advantage...HL encashed on the first mover advantage and made Bagpiper, from a non seller in Maharashtra, to N01 in volumes by understanding the price elasticity....Kudos to them....

This doesn't mean that IDV-SWC and BDA were not clued on....but sometimes even the biggies err....it was an error in judgement---on how consumers would react to price increases....

So, Sunil Lulla joins IDV....Sunil was in media and from media to Alcohol....and he is not a typical marketing guy...if I remember right, he is an alumni of SP Jain....but no airs about this tag....as mentioned earlier, liquor marketing is all about experiential marketing, visibility, distribution and execution of activities on time every time....He didnt have any baggages like we had....he didnt know anything about liquor industry except the brand he used to taste once a while....

He had Ajay as BM for Smirnoff (Ajay was not a typical marketing person either) and Nihar Das, BM of Green Label, Ashwin Deo (Ashwin came back after a short stint in Yangoon) and was the GM of Marketing under Sunil....Kamal Arora, Vibuthi Channa, Aparna and couple of others.....Also we had these Trade marketing managers in all the regions....Trade Marketing guys work as the bridge between marketing and sales guys....they are the ones responsible for execution of all the marketing activations at the ground level...so they get jacked often by both sales and marketing guys....if the marketing guys have to be successful, they need to ensure the sales team is completely aligned with the activation plan and motivated to execute the same. This we do at the beginning of the fiscal in our budget meets in every region and any issues raised by either of the team are discussed and sorted....But we found, despite best attempts there were always last minute irritants from both sides...initially the best offer we ran used to be Coke with SMV....the retailers used to go crazy and stock well....but we figured out later that some big retailers in Bombay were quietly selling the Coke to the nearby shops and discounting SMV....so we need to restrict the offers and think of ways and means of reducing the ramping....so keep in mind the 'ramping' part when you offer anything which is not packed inside the box along with the product....it should be 'in pack' and not 'on pack'....for regular whiskies it was either bhujia or glass....even today the same thing.....again ramping....huge ramping....bhujia were easy to sell off....so, bhujia would fly off but stocks would get stuck....one of the biggies came out with 'under the cap' offers....the retailers cant remove the cap and ramp the offers...caps have to be returned to claim the offers...only in the bars, the barmen were benefitted and hence pushed the brands...so in IDV we were trend setters on offers....competition copied many of our ideas and executed better with the learnings of our mistakes at the market place...also on trade we were always one step ahead of competition....

We finally brought the MRP of GL. This was the beginning of the other problem...what would retailers do with the stocks stuck with them at old prices (higher)? We had to compensate some big retailers..and after lots of struggle with the old stocks, finally some tractions started....and as part of our relationship building, we organised a distributors meet at Lonavla and Sunil instantly developed a great relationship with the distributors....

IDV HO Marketing, developed a beautiful way of working for on trade and to introduce the same to the team they conducted a workshop in Bangkok. Self, Abhijit and Sunil were nominated to attend that. This concept was called QDVP....(Quality, Distribution, Visibility and Promotion)....It was IDV Marketing initiative but the execution has to be by the sales team....but despite my best efforts on understanding that, it flew over my head...and I could not decipher that....on the last day after the program got over, our return flight was early morning, me and Sunil decided to discuss the execution part over a drink and went to the bar in the hotel (Abhijit left already)....After a few JD (I was a fan of JD then-though it was not from IDV), we decided that Sunil would travel to all the regions with his marketing guy and run a workshop on this with the sales team, drill this concept in their heads and make them to commit to execute this....After returning to Bombay, Sunil prepared a template on QDVP with easy to understand examples of different kinds of on trade and what should work where.....it was a brilliant piece of work....to be frank, without Sunil's involvement, initiative and his understanding this QDVP would have just got stuck in HO only and not seen the light of the day....why am saying this is that a good marketing guy should have the attitude to dirty their hands and not just sit in HO and just briefing the agencies....especially in spirits and beer industry, as the avenues to advertise are very restricted. Innovation and improvisation plays key and hence 'understanding' is key here....also convincing the sales guys on something that doesn't produce numbers, is hell a lot of task in itself....Sunil's template made things easier for us to execute it well in the market place. Those ex-IDV guys if they are still working either with Diageo/USL or any competition, would immediately recall how it helped them to segment the outlets and implement this QDVP. After a year or so, IDV came out with QDVP3 which means Quality, distribution, Visibility and 1) Promotion 2) pricing 3) presentation...

Sunil also got a great sense of humour....DRs birthday is 25th June....he planned something quite wacky and the plot was something like this....on 25th June, after DR walks in, settles down after receiving everyone with their wishes, 2 guys well dressed would walk in and tell the security at the reception to tell the boss that they had come from IT department and its urgent they have to meet the boss....we knew that DR, on getting the call from the security, would call me/Rodney/ Sridhar/Sunil and we told his secretary Pervin to manage that and we quietly sneaked out and stationed ourselves just outside the office door. These two guys walked in to DRs cabin and told him politely that they have been asked to bring him to the IT office at Churchgate for questioning on the company's last year filing...DR got quite edgy and tensed up....he wanted to use the phone but the guys, drama artists by profession, stood firm and said no phones and no one should be contacted...they took his cell phone and DR was completely distressed and panicked....he called Pervin and they told him politely they dont want anything and he can only call his auditor or an advocate....DR didnt know how to react to this and it almost lasted for around 10 to 20 minutes...these two guys pulled out an envelope telling him that he can open and read the charges...DR opened the envelope dreading things and there he saw 'Happy BD boss' signed by all of us....and at that moment we all walked singing happy BD....DR's expression from desperation changed to first relief and then laughter....and that was a sight to behold....what a BD it was for DR.....

IDV USA had a brand called Christian Brothers.....it was a locally made brandy...IDV India got excited with that, brought the entire bottle and label design and launched Christian Brothers Rum....first in WB but bombed...

Myself and Ashwin went to DR and convinced him to come out with Christian Brothers Brandy as we felt it would help us in Kerala, UT and in AP to gain some volumes and make our presence felt. Blend was developed locally and we launched the brand first in UT of Pondy and there after in Kerala and in AP. In Kerala it was an instantaneous hit...we were so happy and even in Pondy and AP Coastal we started getting some great feedback....but alas, some Christian association objected to the name and filed a complaint with the government in Kerala...Sudeep and Ashwin handled this very well, went and explained to them the origin of this brand, gave lots of proof that the name was international. Same issue cropped up in AP too and Sudeep and Ashwin went on a 'convincing' mission. But it took some time to sort this out but by the time the brand suffered major set back and it became a struggle then...but we still sold decent quantities...later we realised one of the major competitor used their clout in Kerala and were instrumental in lodging this complaint as they felt it would destabilise one of their brands named after an Italian King....

Sunil was instrumental in recruiting Mohita Arora...who came to us from P&G....very intelligent and with great pedigree but from day one, developed some kind of 'antipathy' with the sales team. Gaurav and Ashu were very vocal about Mohita...I have to play it safe...I remember this episode well. I was called to DRs cabin and as I entered, I saw Mohita also inside...DR, when he is angry or upset with something, would look at the person with some kind of indifference....I knew, the moment I walked in, there is something wrong....Mohita had complained about one of our guys 'indifference' to her and DR told me that I should pull up my guys and make them to understand that marketing plays a major role in IDV....I felt bad as there was no proper dialog and hence I asked him whats so special about marketing for which he quipped ' marketing is the brain of the organisation' and I said what about sales...'they are just the bran'....believe me guys...this was what he said....I didnt want to react to this but stored it at the back of my mind.....Mohita never bothered to understand the nuances of the industry and she thought it was like any other FMCG....when we relaunched Gilbey's Old Gold as Gold Club.....the pack was fabulous but the content was the same....Mohita wanted all the retails should be supplied on the same day....which was not just a task but quite impossible too.....impossible as first they have to place the order and the WS has to apply for the permit and supply....when this was told to her, she brushed us aside thinking the team was just not cooperating....again matter went to DR but this time DR knew what she was demanding was something which is not possible but he still defended her.....DRs weakness for the marketing team....

We tried to resurrect our failing numbers in AP with the relaunch of Old Gold and launched the new pack but didnt succeed much....this Gold Club didnt take off at all....

Another brand in the premium segment....'Gilbey's Solitaire.....with lots of fanfare was launched....again failed in the USP area....consumers looked at it as yet another product and with no differentiation....we put in lots of efforts but failed miserably....RC was unshakable....only Blenders Pride was making in roads...Signature and all the other brands....no one could dislodge RC....it took years for this brand to be dislodged and that was by USL after they bought over SWC....today RC is no more premium....in many markets RC is sold either at the same price of Royal Stag or slightly premium. Their major market-Maharashtra, they lost it totally....the undisputed king in this price segment today is Blenders Pride...we will talk about that later.

Sunil, got bored of IDV and left...joined a start up company but the imprint he left behind was something we all still remember....and he is back in media again and based at Mumbai....