COMPANY PROFILE

Voltas is one of the world's premier engineering solutions providers and project specialists. Founded in India in 1954, Voltas Limited, a Tata Group Company is India's

premier offers engineering solutions for a wide spectrum of industries in areas such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning, refrigeration, electro-mechanical projects, textile machinery, mining and construction equipment, materials handling equipment, water management & treatment, cold chain solutions, building management systems, and indoor air quality. The Company's strengths lie principally in Management and execution of electro-mechanical projects, including air conditioning and refrigeration The design and manufacture of industrial equipment, cooling appliances and materials handling equipment. Sourcing, installation and servicing of diverse technology-based systems serving Indian industry through representation of global technology leaders. Voltas have capability in the manufacture of room/split air conditioners, industrial air conditioning and refrigeration equipment, water coolers, refrigerators, visi-coolers, freezers, forklift trucks and large water supply pumps. All these products bear the stamp of state of the art automated manufacturing plants resulting in consistently high quality and reduced costs. Company is partnered with international companies such as LG Electronics and Samsung of Korea and Fedders International of USA for manufacture only alliances producing low cost, high quality refrigerators and room air conditioners. Foreign investors and the public hold around 21 per cent share each, while domestic financial institutions and non-promoter corporate hold the balance. Voltas has recently gone through a comprehensive restructuring exercise, aimed at bringing the core to the fore. Accordingly it involved reorganizing the company business portfolio, exiting non-core businesses and exploiting unproductive assets to generate revenues, rightsizing the organisation through focused voluntary retirement schemes, aggressive cost cutting and financial reengineering. Voltas' operations have been organized into three independent business-specific clusters. Each of these has its own facilities for market coverage and service to customers.
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MARKETING MIX
Every company goes through different phases in the business. The phase is very similar to that of the product lifecycle. In order to sustain in the market and to maintain its market share it is essential for the company to have a right marketing mix. The company has to have a mix of proper product that is relevant to the target audience, proper price, and proper reach i.e. the place and relevant promotion that keeps the target audience interested in the company. The product, its price, promotion and distribution blended together to get favourable response from the customer. This is also called as 4Ps of Marketing or Market assortment. Product Variety Quality Features Packaging Price List Price Discounts Allowances Credit terms Place Location Transportation Inventory Coverage Promotion Advertising Sales Promotion Public relation Publicity

PRODUCT
In a formidable product offering, the company was the first in India to go main stream with Star Rated air-conditioners, complying voluntarily with the government's energy-efficiency labelling programme. With a comprehensive range of both window and split ACs many of which achieve the maximum 5-star rating Voltas is attempting to consolidate its position even further. It has announced the launch of 42 new models in 2008. The new Vertis Pristine and Panache models in the premium segment are top-of-the-line offerings. Vertis Pristine, with a unique, triangular shape, is designed to fit discreetly on the wall in a corner of a room. The Vertis Panache comes with a revolutionary DC inverter technology and a versatile heating-cooling function. Other Vertis combinations include Elan, Elite and Gold whose exclusive and elegant designs compete with the best luxury brands. In the last few years, Voltas has widened its scope in India to encompass what is known as MEP (Mechanical, Electrical and Public Health) in the industry. This new segment addresses special requirements that have arisen following the development of huge infrastructure building and construction projects.
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a. Product Line
Electro Mechanical Projects and Services Air-conditioning and Refrigeration. Electrical, Mechanical and HVAC Solution (International). Water Management and Treatment. Engineering Products & Services Textile Machinery Mining & Construction Equipments. Machine Tools. Material Handling Solutions Unitary Cooling Products Cooling Appliances. Commercial Refrigeration's Others Chemical trading for the personal care, paint, construction chemicals and plastics industries b. Point of Parity The POP material which is quite quintessential when it comes to convincing the customer about the Brands features, providing it distinctness from the host of other competitors and in establishing the Brand Identity in the minds of the customers. In the survey it was found that Voltas is in the second position when it comes to the POP material in the outlets. Continuing about the support material, the best support any brand can have is the word of mouth preference that the dealers or the salespersons give to the customers as only what they push has the maximum chance of selling. While speaking about their preferences the dealers or the salespersons invariably give the attributes of the brand that they are pushing and the negatives of others that they advise the customers against.

Point Of Difference PODs are benefits consumer strongly associates with brand, positively evaluates and believes they couldnt find to the same extent with competitive brand. Voltas creates strong, favourable

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and unique associations is a real challenge, but essential in terms of competitive brand positioning. PODs are Unmatched quality Affordable price as compared to competitors Combination of ACs + coolers + chemicals

c. Product and Brand Relationship More than its marketing, its the philosophy of the Tata Group that has moulded Voltas brand values. The company is an ethical, transparent and responsible corporate citizen that has now chosen to reach consumers by appealing to their pride in being Indian in a market that recognises the arrival of the country on the world platform. Its India Ka Dil, India Ka AC campaign has created a special niche in consumers hearts and is in sharp contrast to the feature-led advertising conducted by competitors.

d. Types of Products and Services offered by Voltas: Commercial Refrigeration: Products include Chest Freezers, Upright Coolers, visi Coolers and Chest bottle Coolers. Air Conditioning and Refrigeration: Large Air-conditioning& refrigeration installations or different applications including, production, among others, naval and warships and mercantile research

hips, pharmaceutical

telecommunication

computer

facilities,

laboratories, atomic every plants, power plants, hotels, information technology parks, shopping malls etc. Electro-mechanical projects Services: Undertaking international turnkey projects in India and abroad in the field of Heating, Ventilation and Air-conditioning(HVAC), mechanical, public health, plumbing, electrical, building power and lighting, low current systems, fire fighting and safety systems, for airports, palaces, five-star hotels, convention centres, railways complexes, hospitals, auditoriums, townships, pharmaceutical factories and textile factories.

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Pumps and projects: Products include a wide range of Horizontal Split casing and Auxiliary Cooling Water Systems. Water Pollution Control: Raw water& pure water systems, Seawater application and Hot after application (up to 700C). Textile Machinery: Supply of spinning textile machinery. Milling Construction and Equipment: Supply, installation and servicing of mining and construction equipment of globally renowned manufacturers. It offers its customers

comprehensive package proven expertise, long experience, the world's best equipment and value added product support services. Material Handling: Products include Diesel engine driven Forklift trucks, LPG/C NG driven Forklift trucks, Battery driven Forklift trucks, and Warehouse equipment. Chemicals Division: Import, indent and distribution of industrial specialty, pharmaceutical and perfumery chemicals, bulk drugs, vitamin pre-mixes, commodity and engineering plastic and bulk commodities. Machine Tool: Marketing and Servicing of machine tools and cutting tools. Voltas has helped equip many industrial establishments in applications as diverse as automobiles, automobile ancillaries, electrical, defence, railways, consumer durables and many ore. The sourcing and marketing operation cover textile machinery, machine tools, mining and construction equipment and industrial chemicals. In these sectors, the company demonstrates specialized engineering expertise as well as an extensive network of global sourcing. Construction Equipment has 3 groups namely Cranes, Crushers & Screens and Concrete. 1. Out of this Crusher is the biggest division comprising imported product mix and Voltas make plants. 2. The Concrete vertical is a new one and we are planning to launch Concrete batch plants in a phased manner. Both Cranes and Crushers group have a product mix comprising local

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manufactured and imported product lines. Each group operates as an independent profit centre and the resources are separate.

Now when we talk of air conditioners, there are a number of makes and models available in the market. So as to say that there is a variety of sizes and types of ACs available for cooling rooms of different sizes. And in order to choose the perfect air conditioner for your room it is always advisable to have some extra knowledge about the types of AC and their purpose as to which one is best for what kind of room. With the variety of air conditioners available in the market, it is very difficult to choose the most suitable AC for our home or office. And if we dont have a clue about air conditioner then it adds to our own disadvantage. The types of air conditioner are as follows: 1. Split Air conditioner: This type of air conditioner is best suited for rooms whose area is up to 60 meter square and might cost you (approx) around Rs.16,000 to Rs.35,000 on an average (multi-split system). A split air conditioner consists of two parts: the indoor unit which is also called as the evaporator unit and the outdoor unit which is known as the external condenser box and is installed outside the room or the building. And this is one main reason why most people opt for split ACs, as during the operation, it doesnt make any noise which might distract your attention or annoy you. Split ACs are permanent systems which can either be installed at the floor level or on the walls or on the ceiling. However, it can be very noisy and may create nuisance for your neighbours.

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2. Cassette Air Conditioner: These are air conditioners that are usually fixed into the sealing. This ultra thin air conditioner can be installed in any narrow ceiling. These are usually fit in places where it is not possible to fit either a Window or Split Air conditioner. The price range varies from Rs. 68,500 to Rs. 86,500on an average. 3. Ductable Split Air Conditioners: Ductable air conditioners are those that are used to condition more than one room, in the same building. These kinds of air conditioners are usually seen in institutions, big organizations, hotels etc. Duatables comes indifferent tonnages depending upon the space needed to be cooled. The prices of ductables vary depending upon the tonnage.

e. Service Quality Voltas philosophy of customer care strengthens its long term relationship with its customers. Towards this objective, Voltas offers a wide range of services to continually meet the expectation of the customers. Factory-trained and qualified engineers are stationed at the branches to render effective product support. Voltass service mission is to support the vision of the company- becoming the most customer oriented company in the country, by building a proactive service organisation that continuously strives to create customer satisfaction, by internalizing the best practices of customer relationship management.

f. AFTER SALES SERVICE At Voltas, it is believed that customer relationship doesnt end with purchase of products. It's just the beginning. This has been instrumental in helping design V-Service - voltas after-sales service network. A comprehensive maintenance contract at nominal rates is designed to make sure that Voltas experience is long-lasting for the customers. Customers can avail his service from a number of dealers franchisees spread across the country. Features offered are: Database management: V-Service is based on the latest technology that automatically registers the service requirements with all Voltas offices. Service par excellence: Man power training programs, IT resources and prompt service vans streamline the service procedure and ensure utmost efficiency.
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End-to-End Customer service solutions: V-Service provides various services like Do & Charge, MC, Retrofits and spares. Expertise at door step: Professional after-sales services are provided at your doorstep, ensuring a hassle free experience. Nationwide network: A wide network of customer care centres and call-centres ensures prompt service.

Cleanliness A damaged or unkempt display unit will create a bad impression of the brand. Also, the approach to the unit on display has to be tidy and easy in addition to the clean surroundings of the display unit to serve the purpose. As a result the condition in which the display units are is also one of the objectives of the project.

PRICE
Pricing is the process of determining what a company will receive in exchange for its products. Pricing factors are manufacturing cost, market place, competition, market condition, Quality of product. Considering the customer segmentation and market positioning, Voltas has kept its product prices competitive and lucrative for the economy minded consumers. The company does operate in the higher segments but it ensures Price as their winning factors, since they cannot compete over other value addition which is possible for other costlier brands. Out of all the above mentioned air conditions the maximum selling would be the Split air conditioners .Though window a/c will cost less and is easier to install. The downside is you will lose your view through the window and you will have more air leakage than a split unit. A window unit will be less efficient than the split also a slit a/c is much quieter than a window a/c. The split unit will add more value to the home and will be quieter. Todays market is very sensitive to prices. The customers survey conducted reviles that nearly 30% of the customers buying decision is influenced by the price offered of a particular product. Also most of the multi brand dealers were of the opinion that there is not much product differentiation, almost all the features of all brands are alike the only thing setting them apart is the price .As a customer you would tend to choose a product which has all the features and also which is the lowest on
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price. Hence LG by offering such low prices has managed to capture the majority of the market share. The pricing policy for dealers varies depending upon the number of units sold by a particular dealer in a stipulated period of time (usually 1 month.).Following is the Pricing & Incentives policy for dealers. Voltas provides a minimum of 2% to dealers selling upto 50 units and a cash incentive of Rs. 500 on window AC& Rs. 750 on splits, while market leader LG provides its dealers with 8% incentives for the same & Rs. 500 on window AC & Rs. 750 on splits. Hence as a multi brand dealer one would tend to push for LG as compared to to any other brand as it would be a lot more profitable. In nearly all the multi brand dealers vested their primary preference was LG followed my either Voltas or Samsung. The best support any brand can have is the word of mouth preference that the dealers or the salespersons give to the customers as only what they push has the maximum chance of selling hence it would be vital for Voltas to offer higher margins to its dealers if it wanted to be the primary brand spoken about my all dealers. It was also observed that Big accounts such as Vijay Sales, Croma, Reliance Digital, Kohinoor and Sneha anjali are offered products at nearly 22% less than small dealers. In such a scenario it would get extremely difficult for small dealers to compete with these giants. Example: An air conditioner sold to a small dealer for a price of Rs.25, 000 the same air conditioner would be sold to Vijay sales for 19,500. As a dealer there would be no ways in which you could compete with these big dealers as far as price is concerned eventually resulting in losing out the customer.

Big Bang Strategy As per the formulated strategy, Voltas first studied the market in detail. They figured out how the market would be shaping in coming years. They reached the conclusion that Volume Generation will be critical for survival and for that Voltas need to achieve the economies of scale. The first step to the Big Bang Strategy was to revamp their product. To come up with a product that challenges the competitor product, they partnered with Fedders international, a leading room AC company in US. The result was a brand new model of AC i.e. Vertis. They introduced features like air purification, economy mode to save electricity etc. Voltas launched nearly 74 products between 2001 and 2004 which included the first 1.5 ton AC of the industry.

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The next step they took was to reach out to new markets especially new buyers. For this, they strengthened their distribution system and they first identified non-performing dealers and removed them. The management pumped more funds into training dealers, improving infrastructure and cooperative ads. They opened exclusive showrooms for retail AC segment. The final step was brand building and positioning. The brand recall among the target consumer for Voltas AC was very feeble. In 2000, company first positioned its product as Indian product. They emerged into the retail AC market with the tagline India ka Dil, India ka AC. Soon they turned to position their brand as energy saver with the tag line Save Karo India. With these strategies they were able to achieve the No.3 position in the market. But this was not enough, to gain the No.1 position they came up with Sensible Cooling campaign which tells the consumer the benefits of the brands such as uniform cooling, air filters, energy savings etc. In 2011, Voltas tried something different and innovative. This time they attempted to move away from the trend of seasonal usage of AC by positioning the product as suitable for all weather. They carried out All Weather AC campaign targeting first time buyers and young audience. The Big Bang strategy what Voltas calls it has been highly successful and this has resulted in a huge turnaround for the company. They have been named as the leader in retail AC market and are known as the low cost manufacturers in Indian market. Now we have to wait and see how long Voltas will be able to maintain their position especially due to changing climate conditions in India, less government friendly policies for air conditioner market, new energy efficiency norms and innovations by other market players.

PLACE
Voltas has its branches in PAN India. In Mumbai and Thane region it has more than hundred outlets .Voltas has given the particular area to a particular distributor who looks after the specific area. Head office of Voltas in Mumbai is at Chinchpokli. It was found that Voltas had to go through a lot of nitigrity processes which are time consuming hence resulting in slow delivery. Voltas has ensured its product presence at almost all tiers of cities throughout the country through local retailers, exclusive showrooms, malls, electrical and electronic superstores etc. Since last year, the company has also started coming up with special retail franchisee where all the Voltas products are installed in working conditions so that the consumers can check and feel
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the features of the product at the store. The location of such innovative stores is made such that it caters to majority of the areas within its radius. The after sale service shops are present in all major tier A, B, C cities. Voltas has even developed its own 24 hours dedicated customer care representatives to take all types of complaints, feedbacks and suggestions from customers.

a. Logistics Logistics is the art and science of managing and controlling the flow of goods, energy, information and other resources like products, services and people, from the

sourceof production to the marketplace. It is difficult to accomplish any marketing or manufactur ing without logistical support. It involves the integration of information,

transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging. Theoperating responsibility of logistics is the geographical repositioning of raw materials, work in process, and finished inventories where required at the lowest cost possible. 5Rs of Logistic followed by Voltas: 1. Right Time 2. Right Place 3. Right Condition 4. Right Cost 5. Right Handling

The Factory is located at Bhandup & Bhiwandi there are three types of Warehouse1. Mother Warehouse 2. Branch Warehouse 3. Spare part warehouse The mother warehouse is that where the products from the factory are kept and from that warehouse, the products are sent to the branch warehouse. A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They come equipped with loading docks to load and unload trucks; or
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sometimes are loaded directly from railways, airports, or seaports. They also often have cranes and forklifts for moving goods, which are usually placed on ISO standard pallets loaded into pallet racks. 5Ss of warehouse, which Voltas strictly follows. 1. Sweeping 2. Sorting 3. Systematic Arrangement 4. Simplification 5. Self- discipline In warehouse, the products are pinup with 3-color paper to get the knowledge about the delivery. 1. Red Card To stop the product going into market, 2. Green card To allow the product for delivery in market, 3. Yellow Card After the product labelled with green, allow this to move in market

b. Distribution Local delivery 24 hrs Upcountry delivery 48 hrs Within 200 km. 24 hrs. Beyond 200 km. 48 hrs The above distribution time is the time of delivery of products from warehouse to the market place, which the logistic department follows to fulfill the demand in the market at right time. In Voltas, we have the following process, which is followed in logistic through ERP. Order Processing- booking for dealers /distributors Invoicing - after billing process/bill generation Indenting - requirement (Pdt Unit to branch unit) Report

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c. Channels Of course, it wasn't enough to just spruce up its offerings. Voltas also needed to reach out to new markets and new customers. This meant shaking up its distribution network. The first step was to weed out non-performing dealers. Voltas identified some 300 of its 650 dealers - close to half as non-performing. They were given strict deadlines to clean up their acts - while 200 dealers upgraded their performance to meet the new, higher standards Voltas demanded; about 100 were shown the door. They were promptly replaced by 200 new dealers, taking Voltas's dealer network to 750 by 2001. At present, the company has about 2,000 dealers, which will be hiked to 3,500 by the year-end, while franchisee spread will increase from 350 to 500 over the same period. Back in 2001, dealer confidence was low and the default rate high. The trend was towards single-product dealers, who were "supported" through credit extensions. Now Voltas put in place a dealer-friendly policy that offered subsidies and incentives, but also raised the performance bar. The company signed memoranda of understanding with the dealers, clear spelling out the operational procedures and norms to be followed and the scope of work between the dealer and Voltas. Voltas set aside 1 per cent of its turnover for training and development of its channel partners. Money was pumped into dealer infrastructure, manpower training (with certification programmes for all employees), sharing costs of mobile vans, cooperative ads and so on. Says a Voltas marketing executive, "Dealer satisfaction is important as we are no longer into direct selling and servicing in the residential AC market. Unless they are satisfied, they can't satisfy the customer." Changes were also made in the after-sales part of the business. Voltas's earlier model was of direct servicing where the company sent out its own AC engineers to attend to complaints. Now, it made the dealers responsible for customer care - and in one stroke, cut its workforce by more than a third, from 370 to 216. Even the dealers have strict guidelines on interacting with customers and responding to complaints. How many servicemen are required, what kind of servicing kit is required, what spare parts must always be there, the dress code of a servicemen everything is spelt out for the dealer. Time targets - under four hours in the metros - have also been set for responding to customer calls. And since the dealers and the head office are connected through a SAP system, all transactions are online and transparent.
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PROMOTION
Voltas is approaching its promotional programmes from three directions: advertising and communications, distribution and customer relationship support. A Rs. 30 crore (US$ 7.50 million) advertising budget for 2008/09 is expected to provide more ballast for the market and a finely tuned and focussed strategy is expected to add zing and bite. Voltas extensive distribution network is also being strengthened. The proposition includes making available Voltas products in more cities and through a retail system of more than 2500 multi-brand outlets and 550 sales and service dealers. These will be backed by over 700 franchisees, employing 3000 trained technicians and engineers. The CRM programme is an initiative designed to keep Voltas completely in sync with customer requirements. The company has invested nearly Rs. 20 crore (US$ 5 million) on setting up this module and expects to interact with consumers through exhibitions, seminars, customer meets and other forums. In recent years, Voltas has also sharply raised the visibility of the Vertis range of air-conditioners by using the emotive India ka Dil, India ka AC (an AC after Indias own heart) platform. Voltas advertisement strategy clearly depicts their customer segmentation and positioning within market. The advertisement is meant to emotionally bridge the gap within its consumers who feel that AC runs on electricity bill to electricity saving AC. The promotions done through magazines are smartly placed and designed to attract different income level customers who prefer AC with good exterior look and low on energy bill. As Voltas started its promotion with television that is targeting lots of people at a time. It began by switching ad agencies - from O&M to Euro RSG, which came up with a new positioning platform. The ads focused on defining features of Voltas's new product range such as uniform cooling, energysaving, timers and air filters, with cues of performance and value-addition through technological innovation.

COMMUNICATION MIX
Retailers communicate with customers through five vehicles: Advertising Sales Promotion Publicity
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Store Atmosphere & Personal selling a. Advertising: Voltas is spending about Rs 25 crores on advertising in this financial year, majority of which will be spent in the summer season. The company is routing about 50 and 25 per cent of its advertising budget to TV and print ads respectively. It is spending about 10 per cent of its advertising budget on the Internet, which is much higher than the 2 - 3 per cent spent by the company till the last financial year. The Internet Ad of Jagmag Desh campaign is being done on a major scale along with ads on media. The Voltas TV commercial is running across various channels such as NDTV 24X7, Aaj Tak, CNBC, Times Now, Discovery and National Geographic. Its print ads are appearing in The Times of India, Hindustan Times and The Hindu newspapers across India. There was also pervasive outdoor advertising consisting of hoardings, kiosks, bus shelters, bus panels and banners, as well as a radio campaign. It is a form of paid communication to customers using mass media like TV, Newspaper, and Radio. Here the ad spend is something that had to be very carefully planned. In the months preceding summers (April to June & October) the aggressive approach needs to be adopted, as the AC market in India is seasonal. The key here is to provide information to the customer when he is on the lookout. Its ad campaigns like Jagmag Desh Mera & India ka dil India ka AC are emotional appeals to Indians. Voltas, the first company in India to manufacture an indigenous air-conditioner in1954, was also the first to launch the split AC in 1982. Over five decades of operations, Voltas has introduced India to newer cooling technologies. An Indian brand at heart, Voltas understands the needs and concerns of the consumer. ToIndians, an AC is

not just a cooling appliance; it is a device that enables them to provide care and comfort to those they love. While consumers are moved by this emotional plank, they are also aware that every Voltas product is supported by state-of- the-art technology, a robust after sales services network and the inherent assurance of being a Tata product. The appeal of Voltas lies in the values and
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emotions

it

stands

for.

The

brand

also

implies

dependability Voltas,

in means

delivering value through engineering and innovation. Value, according to

providing the customer satisfaction in terms of performance, durability and cost. Like the Tata brand, Voltas too is being seen as a brand which effortlessly combines the traditional with the modern, a brand that has deep roots in India and a global outlook to take on the world. The media campaign can be evaluated as follows a) Projecting companys products as energy saving appliances and their product as hard working by saving money for its users. b) By absence of major media stars in its ads shows their nearness to the masses. c) The latest designs and aesthetics are overshadowed which has cut off the product from the elite class. It also shows their focus on rural and middle income group people in India.

b. Sales promotion: Paid impersonal communication activity that offers incentive to customer to purchase a product like coupons, contests, discounts etc. in the bigger Outlets. Voltas has entered into partnership with the Blue Star, Fedders Lloyd and Arco air conditioning co. for production and technology as well as with TERI of USA to promote its CSR initiative of lighting 10 villages in India. Voltas has also been actively participating and sponsoring global environment talks and seminars as well as local events to become a part of the masses which is also sensed in its Tagline India ka Dil, India ka AC and also its aam aadmi campaign. Target Audience The Primary audience - This refers to the consumers who are most likely to buy a Voltas product and are the main audience for communication campaign. The primary target for Voltas is young urban professionals, middle income sector and rural India consumers who may have certain degree of fancy towards having an AC. Because this consumer segment is price conscious and is looking for value for money, Voltas has focused more on lesser priced (sub Rs.10k ) ACs as well as saving on electricity bills which is most important cost factor in AC purchase. It is entirely for this reason that the entire campaign promotes ACs which know India Ka Dil or its purse constraints and the ones which save on power bills. In doing all this Voltas made sure that

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it involves Govt. in all its campaign by promoting electrification of villages, promoting environment and cutting consumption of electricity by promoting Sensible Cooling. The Secondary audience Here the target people are ones who are looking to expand accommodation or want to rent out air-conditioned appt. by using low cost ACs. Also targeted are NGOs fighting for the cause of environment. By promoting Vertis class of ACs the tech savvy young people are being targeted who get bored very often and are willing to try something new but are not so strong financially.

c. Public Relations By launching the Jagmag Desh Mera campaign, the company enjoyed increased sales as well as projecting its CSR initiative of saving electricity and lighting villages of India. Voltas launched a separate website for its campaign as shown below. The website had its sales objective and its CSR initiative mentioned side by side. This campaign struck well with the Indian masses and justified the companys objective of: a) Presenting itself as an organization working for the welfare of the people by lighting villages across the country along with manufacturing equipments which were energy efficient. b) This also silenced the environmentalists, protesting against use of AC which promote global warming and add to the power crisis.

d. Store atmosphere: It is a paid impersonal communication is combination of stores physical characteristics like signs, displays, color, lighting etc, which create an image about stores service, pricing, fashion ability of merchandise. This is one of the areas that we covered under our project. The figures for store atmosphere are- of the total 50 outlets for the Mumbai Region 22 had the POP Material for Voltas Air Conditioners.

e. Personal selling: Is communication process in which sales people assist customers This

insatisfying their needs through face-to-face conversation. It is paid personalconversation.

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as another head covered under the project. The Dealers/Sales people at majority of the outlets for Voltas the most spoken about positive features are good quality (19 outlets) and better electricity efficiency (20 outlets). Thus the positive feedback from the outlets is almost the same but the difference creeps in when it comes to the negative features given by the Dealers/Salespersons Voltas has a problem as 25 outlets all over Mumbai claim it to priced to high and 16 claim it to be poor on the after sales front.

f. Direct Marketing - A very important aspect of direct marketing i.e. the internet has been fully utilized by Voltas for its advertising purposes. About 24 crore impressions, including banner and video ads, are already being served on websites such as Yahoo!, Rediff, MSN, Sify and NDTV.com in the month of May. The digital agency claims that banner and video ads received a click through rate (CTR) of 1.2 and 5 per cent respectively during the initial stage of the campaign. It also claims that on an average, the campaign has clocked about 0.77 per cent average CTR. Voltass official website www.voltasac.com The website focuses on its Vertis range of air conditioners displaying various models and designs. The website has a key feature like how to buy Voltas ac, locating stores, energy efficiency, safety techniques etc. On the lower right side is the mention of its CSR events and its participation in events like greenathon and likes of those. A special section focuses on search by Need and search by Model. This shows the company has researched well before coming up with the site. It also offers free subscription to the Voltas newsletter which has all the latest offerings from its stable and its green initiative. The website gives direct link to Facebook, Twitter and You-Tube. Through these mediums it has promoted its sensible cooling technology by targeting the youth as these mediums (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube) are very popular among them.

STRATEGIES
a. Generic Strategy: Generic strategy includes Product diversification and focus of the company. Product Diversification
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Product Range is from contemporary to hi-tech. Diversifying products so that each and every segment is covered. Provide contemporary and best-in-class products meeting customer needs and value expectations. Build customer loyalty by strengthening after-market operations through service. Ensure cost reduction in all aspects of operations to achieve total cost leadership in the market. Achieve market leadership through people by attracting, developing and retaining excellence in personnel. Energise the organization through teamwork to ensure that various functional areas work together to deliver results in a quick and effective manner. Explore new avenues for revenue generation leveraging established manufacturing and distribution strengths. Spending a good amount of its revenue on R&D.

b. Marketing Strategies Market segmentation and selecting target marketVoltas has smartly created their market segment on the basis of the Cost sensitivity within consumers. Voltas has segmented their consumers as- Cost saving conscious - Cost saving plus appearance conscious - Affordability with ease Following strategies adopted by the organization. Niche Marketing: Voltas has kept their marketing objectives for niche segments. The specific marketing effect helps them staying focused with their product and customer demand. Multi Prolonged Strategy: Voltas marketing strategy is a long term approach. They have not changed their stand since the inception of the brand and continue to promote the same value proposition of economic energy consumption to their customer segments. This has helped them

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in creating a brand sentiment within masses and the featured product are helping them in getting into cutting edge competition. Corporate selling at discount price to Employees: Voltas has adopted an amazing marketing technique of offering their AC product at reduced price to the employees of TCS. This promoted the brand within in house.

CONCLUSION
The present effort in the markets is to reach out to the masses 'Aam Aadmi', identify supplydemand gaps and provide products to fill them. Voltas has strictly adhered to their mass marketing technique and highly efficient products at reasonable cost of owning. This has helped Voltas to capture the niche market of cost sensitive consumers and even retain them. They have been able to reach out to their customer segments through very emotional and powerful advertisement channels. Voltas has been pioneering themselves across all segments of ACs with their solid engineering expertise of Voltas engineers and great Indian value company Tata.

RECOMENDATIONS
A concerted effort to promote Voltas products through advertising & branding should be launched. Need highly focused marketing strategies to provide the target segments with compelling customer value propositions. Trust relationships with customers should be improved. The Company must be ready to incur the high customer acquisition costs required for brand marketing. Company need to offer low cost service trials to early adopters of technologies who maintain opinion leadership within their social communities.

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REFERENCES

www.voltas.com http://www.tata.in/company/Media www.icmrindia.org articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com

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