| Over the last few years, like its competitor Hawkins, it has ventured into other kitchen appliances like non-stick cookware, mixers and grinders and gas stoves. As a result, pressure cookers account for only 60 per cent of its revenue today. |
| Having made its presence felt in the kitchen, Prestige decided to go the whole hog. And with almost every corporate betting on services, Prestige too is extending its equity with the home and housewife. |
| In-house research showed that consumers are looking for value additions and innovation. |
| Says senior vice president -marketing, TTK Prestige, M Chandru Kalro, "There has to be a reason for the consumer to purchase one more pressure cooker or any of our products, value additions are the way to do it." |
| So Prestige set up a few franchised outlets branded Smart Kitchens in the southern market, its stronghold, to see if this avenue would work. The idea was that customers would walk into the showroom and see how the products work in a kitchen setting. |
| "We wanted to provide the consumers a good ambience to come and view our entire range of products and have trained staff catering to educate them about our product," says Kalro. |
| The response, he claims, has been so encouraging that Prestige is now inviting franchisees across the country to open Smart Kitchens in various large cities. |
| By year-end, it will have cooked up 50 such outlets, up from the current 20. Apart from the ambience and showcasing the entire range of products, Smart Kitchens also double up as service stations. |
| Already, in its first year of operations the Smart Kitchens have contributed 4 per cent to 5 per cent of total turnover. |
| Later this year, Prestige may also tie up with vendors to provide modular kitchens in addition to the range of products. The reason? Consumers can then come to a single outlet for all their kitchen requirements. In other words, it wants to be a one-stop shop for kitchens. |
| Switching languages |
| BE GLOBAL BUT THINK local. This appears to be the credo of most television channels. That's why, increasingly, TV shows are being dubbed in the national lingua franca. Today, almost all the kiddie characters on screen, from Pokemon to Jhonny Bravo and Powerpuff Girls are talking in Hindi. |
| All set to spout the national language by this year end is Pogo, another kids channel from the Time Warner stable. Says Anshuman Misra, managing director of Turner International India, "Nearly 80 per cent of Pogo's programming will be in Hindi then." |
| Pogo, distributed by Zee Turner and launched in India in January this year, currently has a fully international programming line-up. |
| Now, that's about to change dramatically. The localisation strategy will be kicked off with a new two-and- a-half hour weekly programme branded Prime Pogo. |
| To be aired in August, it will be hosted in Hinglish and will engage Pogo viewers with online contests, phone-in competitions and the like. There will also be special reports on kids from across the country. The programme will also act as the weekly guide to the channel. |
| Besides Prime Pogo, Pogo is planning to launch five half-hour live action shows produced in India. The channel will also introduce a completely Indianised version of one of its popular non-animated international shows. The channel is looking at various production houses to re-make the show. |
| Moving on to the next phase of planned initiatives, Pogo will ramp up its language options. Pogo already has two hours of Telugu progammes and is looking at dubbing some programmes in Tamil. Kya Baat! |
| In step with the world |
| NEXT TIME YOU WEAR your latest designer shoes, be sure, you are in step with your global counterpart. Gone are the days when marketers around the world despatched outdated products to India. All set to change that is sports goods manufacturers Puma. |
| Last week Puma had its world launch of Italia. In other words, its introduced its new Italia range in India, at the same time the collection made its debut in other world markets. |
| What's interesting is the timing of the launch "" the Euro 2004 soccer championships to be kicked off in Portugal on June 2. And sporting Puma's gear will be the Italian team. (Puma is the official supplier to all associated teams of the Italian Football Federation.) |
| The first Puma collection to span all categories "" sport, lifestyle and fashion, Italia is the brainchild of top British designer Neil Barrett. |
| He was earlier associated with labels like Gucci and Prada. In keeping with the Italian team colours, the colour palette for the range is navy, white, brown, yellow and Azzurri blue. |
| Unlike other sporting labels like Reebok, Nike and Adidas, Puma has focused on the sporting lifestyle category, with an emphasis on fashion. Even its communication has steered clear of sports superstars. |
| To create awareness for the brand, Puma launched a global print and broadcast campaign building on the excitement of Euro 2004. While the print ads will run in India soon, the television spots will be aired only in August, when during the Olympic games in Athens. |
| Puma is also planning more product launches in India in the coming year. Most of them are likely to be tied in with the company's sponsorship of motorsports events. Looks like India won't remain an also-ran any more. |
| with contribution from Smita Tripathi & Meenakshi Radhakrishnan Swamy |
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