VENKY’S OF VENKATESHWARA HATCHERIES:

Venkateshwara Hatcheries which went public recently is one of the most modern plants in poultry business inAsia. They have 60 p.c. market share of chicken marketed in the country. Dr.B.V.Rao of VenkateshwaraHatcheries expired in 1996. His daughter Anuradha Desai is now the Chairperson and M.D. of VHL. In the beginning they had an Executive Director Gulam Harjanwalla who professionalized chicken marketing. SajidPeerbhoy’s Speer ad agency was chosen. The brief given to Speer was “to market raw chicken in the form of afull bird. Further, to market legs. To market legs and breast. To market curried pieces. And half-bird.”
The company also planned to market ready-to-fly pre-spiced chicken and to operate a chain of fast-foodoutlets serving chicken fast food on the lines of McDonald’s.Speer did some marketing research by focus group studies in Mumbai and then in Pune. The qualitativereseaci1 (QR) findings were followed by quantitative research.The following summarises the findings.Occasions to use chicken:(a)On special occasions(b)On Sundays(c)As a special treat(d)Cook it for guests(e)First non-veg food to which vegetay1ans graduated.(f)Each mother cherishes her own special recipe for a chicken dish. She prides herself on it.The ideal chicken was: Freshly chicken.
The convenient option was: Frozen chicken.The following are the demerits of the frozen chicken:(a)It does not taste good.(b)It does not cook fast.(c)It requires a lot of water to cook.The Inconveniences in getting fresh chicken were:(a)It is more and more difficult to get it near-by.(b)The search consumes time.(c)It involves transportation cost.On deep probing, the consumer psychology while buying fresh chicken was one of guilt and disgust. The birdslook so cute, as they are young. Just a minute ago, they were alive. It is so awful. Those poor creatures!Imagine them alive one minute, and then being eaten the next. It is so difficult to get used to this process.Advertising Strategy It is not necessary to remind about live chicken. It is not necessary to see and think about raw chicken, dressedor otherwise. The communication strategy should be to treat chicken as a vegetable. They are not to be shownalive or in their ugly raw dressed form. The client was led step-by-step and was supportive.Long-run ObjectiveThough chicken has high standing as a special food, we have to make it an almost twice or thrice a week fooditem.Positioning It was necessary to overcome the negative barrier to frozen food. In the market, fresh chicken was in factfrozen chicken vulnerable to bacterial contamination. The answer was a fact frozen chicken product. Venky’schickens were chilled by a special process: blast freezing. The position taken was that of technologicalsuperiority. Venky’s unique freezing process makes it taste better and cook faster and melt quickly.DifferentiationIt was a special breed of chicken, that was extra delicious to eat. It scores over ordinary frozen chicken andeven the freshly killed chicken. Brand NameIn spite of the Agency’s reservations, the Venky’s was chosen as brand name, since it was the name of theM.D.’s son. The Agency had considered fifty other optional brand names. Marketing research showed.
Venky’s connoted a South Indian image and was associated with vegetarian food. There were also connectionswith Lord Venkateshwara.HeadlinesThese worked hard to ward off negatives:‘Chicken so fresh, it simply melts in your mouth. Reason: Superior blast freezing process.”“Chicken so fresh, it’s only minutes old.”Promotion of Special PartsThe special parts were promoted as:“The part you want are the parts you get.”ExecutionAsimple mnemonic was used. Chicken was shown in a graphic from; one that did not turn off the house wife,and yet looked modern.The colour scheme used was of yellow and red colours, being happy and bright food colours. These coloursare appetising too.For quick identification, a common symbol was used on all hoardings. ad material and at POP.Success of the LaunchThe launch created tremendous demand but the distribution was weak .There was the problem of spurious brands.The company strengthened the distribution network later. However consumer supplies were diverted toinstitutional buyers leading to non-availability and spurious brands passing off as Venky’s.The Agency advised premium pricing and quality policy. Instead, the company lowered the price. So many persons dealt with the Agency. Each questioned and disagreed with the thinking of earlier persons. Gulam,their E.D. left Venky’s. The number of out left were increased dramatically.New Ad Agency New agency was selected. It brought chicken again to a commodity position A good chicken that makes tastychicken dishes). Emphasis on blast freezing was dropped. Emphasis on blast freezing was dropped. Rawchicken again appeared in the ads, contrary to research findings. Brand or product differentiation strategy wasdropped. Instead, emphasis was on different recipes.
Present Thinking Venky’s is moving closer and closer to a commodity than a brand. It is fine as long as there is no competition.The company perhaps believes that no one has the backing or volume of production to be a threat to them. It issatisfied with a marginal price premium. Being a chicken monopoly, it can afford not to have a marketingcutting edge. The following is their present ad copy:Questions (A)(a)Comment on the advertising strategy adopted previously and currently.(b)Comment on branding of food products, and their promotion.(c)Can you think of a different creative strategy for a product like chicken?Lip-sticks with permitted colours can also damage the lips since the stainers are tetra-bromo-fluorosine.When rubbed against the palm, darkness of the stain will indicate the quantity of stainer present.Darkening of lip colour also depends upon the bio-chemistry of individual’s lips.Questions (B)(a)The complete product knowledge is given in the above write-up. What do you think should be the copy platform for these products? Indicate the theme, the appeal and the buying motives.(b)Indicate a suitable media mix for advertising these products. Give your reasoning.