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• Ample experience in managing a complex supply chain.

• Its backward integration (makes circuit boards, shells for its TVs).

• Taking advantage of policy-friendly locations.

• Wide product portfolio complements each other giving us an edge in terms of marketing, logistics, manufacturing etc. It is because of this bigness ('Bada Hai Toh Behtar Hai') that they are India's largest consumer electronics and home appliances company.

Consolidation of the Brand

As a core brand, it did not have any brands at the top end or at the flanks to ward off the thrust from the Sonys, the Panasonics and the VFM Korean range of products. So Videocon developed Bazooka as a top-of-the-line product to spearhead a frontal assault. Toshiba too was introduced to reinforce this strategy to take on all comers. Private was introduced as a sub-brand and gave tremendous protection to the brand in all the size categories and especially from price-aggressive competitors. The coup de grace was to bring in Sansui to protect the flanks, completing the protection of the core brand, Videocon, from virtually all sides.

But according to Newton's law, each and every force has an equal and opposite reaction. So while a new range of brands and sub-brands creates a revenue thrust and protects the core brand, the core brand tends to get compressed over a medium- to long-term period. Likewise, Videocon saw its market share fall to 19 per cent from 26 per cent. However, all the other brands that were a part of the overall multibranding campaign gained substantial market share. So while production capacities were shored up, brand shares got fragmented. This led to an overall consolidation of the core brand, Videocon, which itself grew by 40 per cent. Thus, a multibranding exercise, once initiated, can bring about a substantial consolidation of the core brand.

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* Contributed by -
Manasi Panigrahi,
Pursuing MBA, Batch of 2006,
ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad.