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Indian Textile

In India textile enjoys a rich heritage and the origin of textiles in India traces back to the

Indus valley Civilization where people used homespun cotton for weaving their clothes.

Rigveda, the earliest of the Veda contains the literary information about textiles and it refers

to weaving. Ramayana and Mahabharata, the eminent Indian epics depict the existence of 

wide variety of fabrics in ancient India. These epics refer both to rich and stylized garment

worn by the aristocrats and ordinary simple clothes worn by the common people. The

contemporary Indian textile not only reflects the splendid past but also cater to the

requirements of the modern times. The rich tradition of textile in India has been favoured by

a number of factors. The favourable factors leading to the extensive growth of textile

tradition in India follows.

• Easy availability of abundant raw materials like cotton, wool, silk,  jute and many

more

• Widely prevalent social customs

• Variety of distinct local culture

• Constructive geographic and climatic conditions

Each and every region of India contributes in creating a myriad of  textile tradition. The hilly

region of the country produces a rich variety of woolen textiles. The pashmina and

shahtoosh shawls of  Kashmir , shawls and woolen garments of  Himachal Pradesh and

other  north eastern states provides excellent examples of world famous woolen Indian

textiles. The barren and semi barren regions like Rajasthan and Gujarat usually prefers

embroidered bright colored textiles. The coastal areas of the south eastern regions prefer 

light colored fabrics and particularly cotton and silk textiles are very popular over here. The

home furnishing utilitarian textile products like bedspreads and sheets, pillows and

cushions, linens and mats, curtains and napkins, carpets and rugs and many such other 

items are produced by all parts of the country.

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Distinct style and tradition of Indian textiles 

• Silk and cotton weaving predominates the rich tradition of weaving in India. Silk

weaving is most popular in various parts of the country. Assam, Banaras, Mysore,

Surat, Kanchipuram and Surat are all important centers of silk weaving. All these

centers specialize mostly in cotton and silk sari weaving and some of the popular 

traditional Indian saris are Banarasi, Patola, Baluchari, Pochampalli, Paithani and

many others.

• The ornate style of appliqué most commonly done bright colored fabrics from the

Kutchh region of Gujarat is very popular in the country as well as in abroad.

• The state of Punjab is famous for its phulkari work.

• Lucknow, a city in Uttar Pradesh is famous for its chikan work

Apart from those mentioned, each and every region and state of India has its own distinct

individual style in textile.

Kitchen Textile

Textile originally referred to a woven fabric however, gradually the term textile as well as

the plural textiles implies fibres, filaments and yarns. Textile products are usually broadly

categorized as textile apparel and textile home furnishing.

Kitchen textiles fall into the category of home textiles or home furnishing textiles and

almost all the fabrics used in home furnishing are utilized in kitchen textile products to keep

up with modern trends.

A wide range of innovative products are available in the category of kitchen textiles which

cater to the varying requirements and budgets of consumers. Kitchen textiles comprise of 

the products and the fabrics used to produce kitchen products. Products which are primarily

used in our kitchen both for functional purposes as well as decorative purposes are known

as kitchen textile products.

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The textile fabrics most commonly used in are listed below.

• Silk fabric 

• Cotton fabric 

• Jute fabric 

• Rayon fabric

• Wool fabric 

• Nylon fabric

• Polyester fabric

Coral Mills in Brief 

A coral mill was a sub-division of Regal mills. It was facing a three year sales

decline. It produces only kitchen towels. The sales of this product were only Rs.30 crores,

and the costs incurred by the mills were Rs.28 crores. Hence their profit margin was only

Rs.2 Crores which was its lowest in its twelve year history. The kitchen textiles market

included towels, dishcloths and tablecloths; however the other two products were not

manufactured by any of the divisions of regal mills.

The products were distributed through a network of wholesalers and retailers. A

majority of the sales staff operated out of Kolkata itself. They also sold their own brand of 

towels to grocery chains located in different parts of India. Agents were also used to sell the

products. These agents used to handle other manufacturer’s products, however, in other 

segments. A coral mill also manufactures private label kitchen towels for four departmental

store chains. The costs involved were very high, however, this accounted for forty percent

of their sales. Another 60% was the sale of their own brand.

Coral mills advertised in the Good Housekeeping magazine because it wanted the

organization’s mark of approval to boost sales. However, it spent a whopping Rs.60 Lakh

on advertisements in this magazine. The sales staff felt that the decline in sales of its

private label was due to the fact that they manufactured only kitchen towels and not the

entire range of kitchen products.

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Kitchen textiles generated the lowest margin in all the groups, and within kitchen textiles,

the lowest margins were in the kitchen towels category. Several other manufacturers

manufactured the products at a price that was feasible to them due to the large scale of 

operations that they had.

Identification of Problem Area:

The sales of Coral mills were on a downward spiral.

The sales staff operated only out of Kolkata.

Private labels were expensive to manufacture.

Advertising exposure received by Coral mills was very limited.

The market demanded that the kitchen towels be sold with the entire range of 

kitchen products.

Competition was able to reduce its prices to a very low state due to their economies

of scale.

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ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS AVAILABLE TO CORAL MILLS

Increasing the Sales Workforce

The sales staffs who presently handle the southern, western and northern states

operate directly out of Kolkata. This hampers their ability to get first hand knowledge about

the market there and develop new customers. The sales staff should be deployed to these

regions and be encouraged to introduce new customers to Coral Mills. This will increase

the exposure of Coral mills to the market. However this can lead to increased travelling

costs which have to be incurred by the organization

Distribution Strategy

The company gave very narrow focus towards the distribution of the product.

Though the company had a wide spread it had very poor distribution network. The

company supplied its product to departmental stores, grocery stores and even hired food

brokers who sold products in different geographical region. This was a very good move but

still as the sales were declining the company should move on changing the distribution

channel. The company can use intensive channel of distribution. The company

manufactured various brands with private label and even its own brand. Intensive

distribution aims to provide saturation coverage of the market by using all available outlets.

Intensive distribution is usually required where customers have a range of acceptable

brands to choose from. In other words, if one brand is not available, a customer will simply

choose another. The company can set up its own outlets in main cities, where in it can sell

the product the way it wants to. It can distribute the products even in other local shops. We

know that in India household sector is mostly looked after by women so the main target is

women. Heavy promotion should be carried out in places where women visit most

frequently.

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Advertising and Promotion

Coral mills currently advertise only in the Good Housekeeping magazine, because it

wanted its seal of approval to display on the packaging of its products. This advertisement

campaign cost Coral mills Rs.60 Lakhs. However, the exposure received by Coral mills in

this campaign is very little, because the percentage of the public in India who speak English

is very little. They should target a wider audience with their advertisements, and in order to

do so, they need to advertise in vernacular print media, or television, in the regions where

they want to promote their products. This will result in a larger number of people learning

about the product and hence an increase in sales. However, this will cause increased

expenditure, whose returns cannot be guaranteed.

Joining Hands with other Companies for Distribution of the Product

Coral mills manufactures product for even other companies with their private label.

The company can take advantage of this and can merge with the companies in order to sell

the products. There are certain companies which have excess to even remote markets and

this will help the company even to explore the newer markets. This tie up will even be

beneficial to other companies too. Coral mills can focus on this and come up with a proper 

networking whichever is feasible for the company.

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The Best Solution Available to Coral Mills

The best alternative available to Coral mills is a mixture of all the above strategies.

They should strive to increase their sales by deploying their sales staff to the locations that

they are marketing their products. Simultaneously they would also benefit from selecting

one of the private labels which is the most profitable to manufacture. The advertising of 

their own label needs to be looked into, in order to ensure that their products get the

maximum exposure.Apart from this, Coral mills can also make a strategic alliance with another 

manufacturer in order to benefit from the economies of scale that they have, thus reducing

the overall costs of producing the products. This cost benefit can be passed on to the

customers to increase the volume of the sales.

Hence a synergy of the above strategies would have a collective benefit to Coral mills, thus

making it more profitable.

The company can definitely benefit in the long run if it focuses on the above point

and makes changing time to time as per the need. The most important aspect is the

company’s sales and distribution strategy, which plays vital role in promoting and

increasing the sales of the company

 

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Reference

www.india-crafts.comwww.indiantextilejournal.comwww.tradeindia.com.Ww.indian-textile.com

Bibliography

Still, RR & Cundiff, E, Sales Management (5th Edition) Prentice Hall India

Philip Kotler, Koshy and Jha – Marketing Management(12th Edition) Prentice hall

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