Marketing Mix at Vora and Company

1896 Words4 Pages

VORA AND COMPANY

Understand the Concept of Marketing Mix

In December 1963, M.C. Vora, proprietor of Vora and Company manufacturers of Blossom Quick-Cooking Oats located at Lucknow, sought counsel from the Small Industries Service Institute at Lucknow regarding steps that might be taken to increase the sales of his company. The company had been organized in 1959, had started to sell its product nationally in 1961, but by December 1963 had failed to attain a profitable volume of sales.

Mr. Vora’s family had been in the group business for several generations. In 1959, some four years after the Government of India had stopped the importation of packaged cereals, Mr. Vora and his family decided to enter the business of processing and selling a product similar to Quaker brand of quick-cooking rolled oats, a product of the Quaker Oats Company of the United States. For some years previous to the Government’s embargo, this product had been imported into India by the firm of Muller and Phipps, which acted as sole selling agents. The firm had advertised the product in many Indian cities and reportedly had attained at least a moderate volume of sales, particularly in South India, in the states of Kerala and Madras.

In 1956 shortly after the embargo on Quaker oats, the Ganesh Flour Mills of Delhi started to develop and market a quick cooking white oats under the trademark Champion. After some three years of experimental marketing in nearby areas, Ganesh Mills extended its distribution nationally, devoting a moderate amount to advertising in city markets throughout India

The management of Vora and Company developed the machinery and the method of processing its product on a trial and error basis. The first product offered was not deemed satisfactory by the management and was withdrawn from the market. Not until 1961 was the company satisfied with the product’s quality and with its processing equipment, which, when perfected, could produce on a one shift basis 500 cases a month, each case consisting of 36 tins of 550 grams each. White oats of finest quality were imported from Australia under Government licence, since India grown oats of required characteristics were not available.

The perfected product was submitted to test among consumers and was rated by them as equal to or better than the competing product. The management had made application for permission to use the mark of the Indian Standards Institution and learned that the product and its processing measured up to required standards.

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