FMCG ----- it’s all about availability (which depend upon distribution)

“Organization spends a lot in the Brand building activities but once established, they reap the benefits life time”. It was then now market is very competitive especially FMCG market, many established Brand are struggling to maintain the market share. So you are bound to compete, or ready to be eliminated from the market. Even the market of black cold drinks there is a lot of competition; only two big brands are present there. Distribution has critical role in the success of any FMCG organizations, because of

· Buyers have so many options available in this sector as so many established brands are available.
· There is not much risk involved while switching the FMCG products, so if one is not available people may switch to other.
· Earlier distribution (logistics, supply chain, dealers) was designed in such a way to reduce the cost of the product, but now a days it is to have edge over the competitors.

So as FMCG company, be competitive too have good distribution system or else you will be a company to be studied as case in MBA colleges. “Distribution system --- A big failure for company ABC”, perhaps you won’t like it. This is my perception or point of view perhaps you people may have different one.

Relations --- Problem for the researcher (In some cases)

I do not know why am I so much in relationship with relations, have already talked a lot in previous blog and again. Good relations results in excellent outcomes in almost all spheres of life but as a researcher it creates problems, as people are not ready to tell the truth because of one reason or other. Recently I have done a research on the distribution of the particular company, and found that people were reluctant to tell the truth because of fear of getting their relationship spoiled, especially with higher order members of the distribution channel.

· Sometimes retailers were suspicious that we are from distributor’s sides, and thought that anything against the distributor will be conveyed and they have to bear the consequences.
· Dealers and distributors were not willing to divulge anything against the company, fear of getting their license revoked.

As a researcher one may try their best to convince the confidentiality but it’s very difficult to change the perception of individuals. I am wondering to get a solution to deal with this limitation of the research, perhaps some of you may have ideas to deal with.

Relationship does matter even in distribution

Health, Relationship and Achievement are three most important things in the life of human being. Relationship does matter a lot in real life but it’s amazing to see it’s important in the marketing and distribution of the products. Here are few of the facts which will indicate its importance in distribution of the products especially in FMCG products.

· In my previous blog I mentioned that Dabur has problem with less production capacity of REAL JUICE. Demand of this product is more than supply, especially in the metros so every retailer tries their best to have it in their shop but few succeed. When I observed I realized that those who are having good interpersonal skill and hence relation with distributor are getting it easily, rest are complaining about the system i.e. company, distributor and themselves of being small scale.
· Now coming to the credit policies decided by the distributors. Frankly speaking most of distributor decides credit policies on the behavior of the individual retailers. For new retailers they provide the product after receiving the cash. With long term retailers they decide the policy upon the credential of the individuals.
· If one party is good they try to understand the problem of other if they have any. I know one of the distributors of Allahabad and was amazed to see that none of the retailer has any issue with the particular distributor. Even though he sometime fails to fulfill the demand of the individual but he is there to explain the reason.

Real Juice ……Where is the problem?

In previous post i talked about the problem in the Inventory management and their relevance. Now I will be talking about the issues in the distribution channel, when a product is not accessible to the consumer despite of huge demand. I observed that even most trusted and reliable brands are unable to fulfill the requirement of some consumers. Talking about the Dabur’s REAL JUICE, demands is incredible but supply is limited and retailers are cursing the distributors of being partial. What can be the problem?

• Distributors are unable to fulfill the need


• Communication gap between the channel members


• Failure to forecast the demand of the product


• Producers can not provide the demanded quantities because of certain limitations
  

1. Limited supply of Raw Material
   
2. Limited production capacity of the plants
   
3. Limited availability of the Labor

Like every time, this time also I will leave the question wide open but provide my opinion. As per my understanding it’s either the constrain of limited production capacity or availability of the raw material. Since abundance labour is available, big brands like Dabur can not faulter in demand forecasting, and distributors will not entertain the decrease in the profit because of not providing the products.

Amazing, this is not the problem of Dabur only it is the problem of many established brands. It is not the problem of rural areas only but is problem of even metros.

Inventory management .....issues

Inventory management is of highest pririority nowadays, for any organization. It can be in two different types namely management of Raw material and management of Finished goods. Inventory management is the one of the link of the the chain called Supply chain management, which even includes the distribution of the products. But here i will be dicussing the Inventory management and issues involved with it. Here are some of the issues, challenges the process of inventory management.

• Forecasting of demand of the finished products
• Communication inside the organization
• Internal theft in the organization
• Lack of supply chain professional
• Vendor management

These are few of the challenges which determines the efficiency of the inventory management as process and hence helps in the cost reduction of the organization. Some organization have an excellent inventory management and reaping benefits out of it, in one form or other. Dell is fallowing the JITIM (just in time inventory management) and saving a lots of inventory managment cost and having high level of customer satisfaction as well.

Despite many issues , relevence varies from person to person and with situation . Being an iterlectul being, again i am leaving it to the you decide what is the relevance of each of the issues ?

oraganized sector...should it grow or not?

Being marketing guy, i should talk about the organized retailing, distribution and selling but here i will talk about organized sector every Indian should be ashamed of. i will talk about the organised crimes ...which is happening in India but stress a lot about Delhi and NCR. Pickpocketing, theft, robbery and everything is happening in an organized way, so organized that you will see and realized the things happening to you and still you can not do anything. if you are the victim and unfortunately you resist the things...there are huge chances that you will trashed by the mob, part of the sector itself. Here are some facts about these events...

• Its not an individual work but its team work.




• Every team has some or other departments....some involve with identifying the prospect customer and some is the part of execution.




• They will create the fake events to get you involved , if you resists during it, you will be trashed by the members.




• They are intelligent and prefer picking mobiles because now a days people have more of cards than paper pieces...called money.




• If you create problem for them ...probability is high that you will trashed and loose your Wallets too.
• one most important thing which you should know is that during execution more than half population around you is team member only...so be aware of the consequence of any extreme decision you are taking.
  
• They commit the crime in the delhi and the state borders and disappear on the other side of the border.




• I Will not comment on the Role of the police, bus drivers and ticket collector ....you better understand and it can not be generalized.

Mayawati Opposed the organized retailing in the UP but organized crime is growing like anything. Crimes are commited in Anand Vihar and Seema Puri and the culprits get disappeared in the Noida and Gzb. without any doubt you will say that this kind of organized sector should be banned....but question is how?

Internet Slangs... good or bad?

During online chatting or using networking sites you must have come across several symbols and world Like LOL, :p, :>( , :). What they all are?

They are called Internet slang's and are frequently used now a days. Very strange for newcomers but usual for the experienced people. Networking sites like Face book and orkut is revolutionizing the culture and behaviour of the individuals. People are now inventing the new ways to express themselves but modifying the existing words like For is being replaced by 4 and to by 2.

Now thing is that it is good or bad?
There are some points need to taken in to considering while making any decision.

• There is no proper standard for this kind of slang's and modified worlds. ex some may write Two as 2 and some may write To as 2.
• It is not being used as official language. so one has two have two different way of writing as, official and other unofficial.
• Writing these kind of languages are faster as it requires lesser no. of alphabets to be written.
• It is widely accepted but not by everyone.
• Becoz i mean Because We are excessive in this kind of writing so we tend to forget the actual way of writing.

Like always every thing has some pros and Cons....whatever points i found relevant is being covered. But Final decisions is yours..

Internet Slang's are good or bad?