Mandi

September 2008

Mandi

the marketplace

an IIM Indore students’ initiative

Readers, “Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid� says C.K.Prahlad. Inclusive economics is the manthra of the government.

From FMCG to automobiles, every company is now looking towards the hinterland for volume and visibility. The message is out loud and clear.

Rural India is where the action is. This issue focuses on the trends, opportunities, challenges and innovations rural marketing faces today.

Our heartfelt thanks to our guest authors Our Heartfelt thanks to our guest authors: Tamal Roy, FMS, Delhi Saurabh Sharma, NMIMS We look forward to your continued support and participation.

The Mandi Team: Srikumar S, Rishabh Sachdeva, Tejas Bhat, Gokul Kandhi

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What The Long Tail theory shows that as the world moves towards the digital era, the economics sees a paradigm shift by making it profitable to have customized products, unlimited choice and thus revealing the true face of demand . Borrowing from the idea of Long Tail , I will apply it to the rural shelfscape.

The rural shelf is populated by what the Long Tail theory calls as the “Hits”, products that have made themselves profitable to be kept there. This is achieved either by the scale economies the product enjoys or the sales volume it generates or in most cases of rural

Cutting the Long tail Short U Gokul Kandhi shelf, value for money it gives.

Research shows the rural customer is aware of most of the products in the FMCG market. According to MART, a New Delhi-based research organization that offers rural solutions, rural India buys 46% of all soft drinks sold, 49% of motorcycles and 59% of cigarettes. This trend is not limited just to utilitarian products: 11% of rural women use lipstick. Hence demand does exist. From the supply side, every company now looks towards rural India for growth. Though intent and market power is enough from both sides of the market, an yawning gap exists in the rural shelfscape.

For every product that makes it to the rural shelf, there are countless others that don’t. And a huge proportion of those products fall in the “Choice Set” of the consumers. They do not make it to the basket set

mainly because of a single reason : The Economics of Reach. The cost of reaching the marginal retailer becomes greater than the profit generated by him The Long tail diagram adapted to rural India shows that the present infrastructure and quality of demand has kept the high profitable area( The Hits) to a restrained minimum. The hits are the products that do not need strength in every unit of the distribution value chain.

The hits generally are products that do not need strong last mile power and presence. For example, a villager will go to the nearby town to buy his vehicle of choice.

In the lowest end, cigarettes need the barest of infrastructure and shelf space to warrant sales.

How do companies that populate the Hits segment in urban India , move out of the long tail? The answer is to revamp their supply chain. The industry has always looked at Rural India as an economically stripped down version of the Urban market. A mindset reflected by their approach to rural presence by offering cheap products and sachetization tendencies. Though effective to obtain shelf space and marker share, it is hardly potent in gaining wallet share. The driving force should be the ingenuity of the supply chain.

Sachetization was the first real breakthrough to reach the last mile. Increasing users while compromising on usage, sachetization brought about huge volumes which made reaching the marginal retailer in the dusty rurals a profitable venture to an extent. Sachetization helped on a multitude of aspects- The low cost increased consumption, eased logistics, helped stocking in small stores, was easier to showcase and gain visibility.

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FLIP

The next significant process innovation was the intellectual leadership brought about by HLL and ITC. Project Shakti and e-Choupal. Project Shakti is HLL’s smart way to use self-help groups to directly cater to 1 million homes every month in villages where traditional distribution systems cannot hope to enter.

E-Choupal is ITC’s much-feted business model to build a trading platform with rural India that eliminates nonvalue adding intermediaries. Both models have been discussed and analyzed and their impact duly appreciated. In short what they did was to revamp the supply chain of the companies to such an extent that it reduced procurement, processing and distribution costs. A strategy that ballooned both the top-line and bottom-line. what it also did was spawn a host of other such initiatives all across the FMCG space. Now, almost all major FCMG companies operating in India have their rural initiatives. Such a organic revamp of supply chain has brought about accessibility and affordability to wide range of products in the rural scene.

Now, where is the next innovation coming from? Where should companies look at to reduce distribution costs and attain last mile presence. Borrowing the term from the Australian Biz Wiz Peter Sheahan, companies should look at FLIP approach. This approach calls for

turning conventional business ideas and views on its head and getting counter-intuitive solutions for business problems. Such avenues open up by moving away from the traditional notion of competition and identifying vehicles for rural thrust.

One such avenue will be the facilitating creation of organized rural retail. Godrej Aadhar, the rural retail initiative of Godrej Agrovet Ltd is an example. Aiming to be one stop store for all purposes for a farmer, they stock products from leading FMCG companies along with providing complete agricultural solutions for farmers. Taking the next step, moving away from competition, Aadhar has taken the route of co-option and partnering to augment its value proposition to the rural consumer. With a tie-up with Apollo pharmacy to bring in 24 hour medical support across all Aadhar outlets, they have brought health to rural doorstep.

Identifying financial services as another major growth driver, they have entered into a tie up with Bajaj Allianz to offer the latter’s life insurance products to rural consumers. The company is charging only the rental and other basic facility charges to Bajaj Allianz for providing products at Aadhar. The increase in footfalls is the driving motive here. Now the sourcing arm for Future Group’s retail business, Godrej Aadhar is a great 3

study of how organized retail is feasible and highly profitable.

Nothing works in rural India like emotional connect.

This has been well understood and worked on by the direct selling initiatives that spawn the new age of rural selling. Hindustan Unilever Network, though not a purely rural initiative is making great leaps in this regard. With an array of products that do not appear on regular shelves, they cut down on distribution and advertising costs to add more value to their products.

With highly targeted products like detergents for extra hard water, they have been able to increase both users and usage in the rural game.

Moving away from traditional delivery models, companies can partner to send mobile vans stocked with products from participating companies to rural areas. They can share the operation costs and let free market rules apply in the selling end. This will ensure that companies can get the last mile connect at a reduced cost. Such partnering can happen with two non-competing companies or products from noncompeting categories.

The final stages of innovation that will bring the rural market to urban standards will be the ones that enable profitable presence of luxury goods in the rural shelfscape. Judging by the present pace at which the industry chugs along, the utopian scenario won’t take too long to materialize.

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Rural Market Opportunities Tamal Roy "The future lies with those companies who see the poor as their customers."

- C. K. Prahalad Gone are the days when a rural consumer went to a nearby city to buy any ``branded products and services". In the present era, rural markets are critical for every marketer - be it for a branded shampoo or an automobile. Time was when marketers thought van campaigns, cinema commercials and a few wall paintings would suffice to entice rural folks under their folds. But the days have changed now.

Thanks to television!!! Today a customer in a rural area is quite literate about myriad products that are on offer in the market place. The rural markets have acquired significance, as the overall growth of the economy has resulted into substantial increase in the purchasing power of the rural communities.

The price-sensitivity of a consumer in a village is something the marketers should be aware of. Rural income levels are largely determined by the vagaries of monsoon and, hence, the demand there is not an easy horse to ride on. Britannia Industries launched Tiger Biscuits especially for the rural market. It clearly paid dividend. Its share of the glucose biscuit market has increased from 7 per cent to 15 per cent within a very short period.

An important tool to reach out to the rural audience is through effective communication strategies. ``A rural consumer is brand loyal and understands symbols

better. This also makes it easy to sell look – alike�.

The rural audience has matured enough to understand the communication developed for the urban markets, especially with reference to FMCG products. Television has been a major effective communication system for rural mass and, as a result, companies should identify themselves with their advertisements. Advertisements touching the emotions of the rural folks could drive a quantum jump in sales and it has already shown results previously. The brands have to be made relevant by understanding local needs and customize according to that. Even offering the same product in different regions with different brand names could be adopted as a strategy.

The main four factors influencing demand in rural India are - access, attitude, awareness and affluence. HUL has successfully used this to influence the rural market for its shampoos in sachets. The company had developed a direct access to markets through wholesale channel and created awareness through media, demonstration and on ground contact.

Since marketing is to target the growing segments, the village then becomes a location or a suburb of a district.

In addition, the district becomes the basic geographical entity. Since the urban-like populations in the villages are considered as a part of the district, they will represent the dominant part of the market in most of the districts. A districts perspective removes the complexities, heterogeneity, access and targetability that have hindered rural marketing initiatives. The rural marketing requires every element of marketing including product, pricing, packaging, advertising, and media planning to have the rural customer as the target. This becomes possible when we have districts marketing as a separate entity.

Marketers need to understand the psyche of the rural consumers and then act accordingly. Rural marketing involves more intensive personal selling efforts 5

compared to urban marketing. To effectively tap the rural market, a brand must associate it with the same things the rural folks do. This can be done by utilizing the various rural folk media to reach them in their own language and in large numbers so that the brand can be associated with the myriad rituals, celebrations, festivals, "melas", and other activities where they assemble.

One of the ways could be using company delivery van, which can serve two purposes - it can take the products to the customers in every nook and corner of the market, and it also enables the firm to establish direct contact with them, and thereby facilitate sales promotion.

However, only the bigwigs having hefty investments plans can adopt this channel. The companies with relatively fewer resources can go in for syndicated distribution where a tie-up between non-competitive marketers can be established to facilitate distribution.

Periodical "melas" organized are quite popular and provide a very good platform for distribution because people visit them to make several purchases. “Haats� are another potential low cost distribution channel available to the marketers. Also, every region consisting of several villages is generally served by one satellite town (termed as "Mandis" or Agri-markets) where people prefer to go to buy their durable commodities. If marketing managers use these feeder towns, they will easily be able to cover a large section of the rural population.

Firms must be very careful in choosing the vehicle to be used for communication. Only 16% of the rural population has access to a vernacular newspaper.

Therefore, the audio visuals must be planned to convey a right message to the rural folk. The rich, traditional media forms like folk dances, puppet shows, etc., with which the rural consumers are familiar and

comfortable, can be used for high impact product campaigns.

One very fine example can be quoted of escorts where they focused on deeper penetration. They did not rely on TV or press advertisements, but rather concentrated on focused approach depending on geographical and market parameters like fares, melas, etc. Looking at the 'kuchha' roads of village, they positioned their bike as tough vehicle. Their advertisements showed Dharmendra riding Escort with the punch line 'Jandar Sawari, Shandar Sawari'. Thus, they achieved whopping sales of 95000 vehicles annually.

ITC is setting up e-Choupals, which offers the farmers all the information, products and services they need to enhance farm productivity, improve farm-gate price realization and cut transaction costs. Farmers can access latest local and global information on weather, scientific farming practices as well as market prices at the village itself through this web portal - all in Hindi. It also facilitates supply of high quality farm inputs as well as purchase of commodities at their doorstep.

Thus, looking at the challenges and the opportunities, which rural markets offer to the marketers, it can be understood that the future is very promising for those who can understand the dynamics of rural markets and exploit them to their best advantage. A radical change in attitudes of marketers towards the vibrant and burgeoning rural markets is called for, so they can successfully impress on the 230 million rural consumers spread over approximately six hundred thousand villages in rural India.

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Rural Ps Saurabh Sharma What motivates me to buy? Is it fear of the dire consequences that I might face if I don’t have the product? Is it the emotional connect with the brand that makes me buy the brand? Is it the guilt that if I don’t buy the product, I might not do justice to the people I love? Or is it the greed for the feeling of pride that will overwhelm me after I possess the product? But, do all these emotional triggers take a back seat and only play a passive role when I talk of rural consumers? But again, all rural consumers are not misers. They all are not looking for the cheapest product; they are probably looking for the most value for money. It is not about a cheap buy, but a smart buy.

There is more to rural marketing than just offering LUPs (Low Unit Packaging), reducing a product’s price or making an inferior product and dubbing the national ads in vernacular. It might rather do more harm than good. It is very important to understand the psyche of

the rural consumer and modify the marketing mix so as to be fit to cater to the rural demographics. Let us have a look at some of the companies, which, made the efforts to understand a rural consumer, customized the offerings and revolutionized the rural marketing mix.

PACKAGING There are two reasons why a rural consumer prefers LUPs. a. Since they don’t have a big dwelling place, they might not have place for storage. b. Many of them earn their wages daily so they can’t spend in bulk.

Let us look at some instances where some of the companies have taken up a strategic move to introduce LUPs in the market.

HUL - Under “operation Bharat”, they introduced sachets of Clinic plus, Ponds, Close Up and fairness cream to make sachet buying a habit for these consumers. Seeing that the rural retailers sell the cut lifebuoy cakes to the consumers, it came up with 75 gm soap cake and later launched 18 gm lifebuoy soap, priced at Rs. 2.

Asian paints - It introduced oil paints in 250 ml packaging, to cater to the rural consumers’ need to 7

paint the horns of their livestock and to paint their buffaloes for selling.

Colgate - Understanding the paucity of space for rural consumers, it came up with caps for their toothpaste sachets, to facilitate extended storage while usage of its product.

PRODUCT Catering to 70 crore residents in 6 lakhs villages, where the habits, customs and culture change every 100 kms?

Customization of products to suit the requirements of such diverse demographics hence becomes logical.

Many consumer durables companies have just removed the value added features from their products and relaunched them in the rural markets. (e.g. Refrigerators without frost free technology, LG’s Sampoorna TV).

Though, changing your product seems to be a time consuming and tedious exercise, it has brought some mentionable and fabulous results for the companies who have used consumer insights to bring in these changes.

HUL - Indigence forced the rural community to use the same soap for hair and skin, since a Rs. 2 shampoo sachet categorized itself as a luxury item for them. HUL, having taken a cue from this insight, introduced Breeze

2 in 1, a multipurpose soap for hair and skin.

Arvind Mills - Being used to get their clothes stitched, the Rs. 300 price tag on readymade entry level jeans was a major deterrent for the rural youth. Arvind mills ready to use stitch kits to the rural tailors, priced at Rs. 195. Arvind mills sold 5 million kits in 2 years!

Hawkins - Unlike in urban areas, the use of coal and wood made the control on the flame of the burner difficult. To help the rural women avoid hand-burns and facilitate the handing of the pressure cooker, it came up with a new product with 2 long handles on both sides of the cooker.

Philips - The rural mindset of “Sturdier the product, more powerful it is” led to their ‘Mahasangram’ campaign where they introduced larger and louder radios for rural demographics.

PLACE Complexities galore in these distinctive yet blended markets of rural consumerism. A rural consumer who takes 2 years to make a watch-buying decision definitely does not believe in impulse buying of consumer durables, but timely availability becomes an important factor in their buying decisions for consumer goods. Research shows that on an average the daily sales figure of a shandy with average 314 outlets are

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close to a whopping Rs. 2 lakhs per day and that of an individual outlet is Rs. 874. Together these rural supermarkets have the potential to challenge the world’s K-marts and Wal Marts in their size and sales!

HUL - Initiated “Project Harvest”, “Project Bharat” and “Project Shakti” (which utilized the concept of self help groups) to extend their distribution to the villages with a population of 2000, 1000 and less than 1000 respectively. Each state has one or two Carrying and Forwarding Agents (C&FAs) who are assisted by Redistribution Stockists (RS), who are alloted a specific area and are responsible for the physical distribution of the products. RS, in the vans provided to them cover the areas allocated to them called Indirect Coverage (IDC).

The frequency of the RSs’ visit to these IDC depends upon the kind of business these IDCs generate.

LG - This is a perfect example of a brand which has maintained a premium positioning in the urban market and still has managed to cater to the rural markets.

When LG launched its “Sampoorna” TV range, it understood that shops in all the villages won’t be profit centers since a rural consumer usually buys such highpriced items from assembly markets or from the markets of nearby towns and cities.

PROMOTION To make the Promotions/Advertisements in rural markets successful, you have to connect instantly with the consumers. You not just have to use the local dialect, but the psychographic inclinations that a rural consumer has so long been trained to develop should be built upon. The strategy of shock-and-awe might not be as successful as a flighting teaser campaign that sinks in easily. Also, a promotion that establishes an emotional connect will lead to returns, sooner than later.

CavinKare - Appreciating the cost-concern of consumers, it did a pre-launch campaign where it went

to the village schools and gave a free head-wash to children and then launched its “chic” brand at a meager 50 paisa per sachet. Consumers, having seen the live results, liked the value proposition and hoarded the shops!

HUL - The Company has continuously designed innovative promotions to reach the rural markets.

Lifebuoy in its rural contact program called “Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetna”, where it spread information on how washing hands can keep diseases away, targeted a population of 5 crores in 15000 villages. It applied a 2 prong approach.  HUL employed Health Development Officers and Health Development Assistants who went to all the villages and educated the community through lectures and community meetings.  They returned to the villages after 2 months, offered toys, badges and medals to children who had made it a habit to wash hands regularly (read saved “Lifebuoy” soap wrappers) and a certificate to the children who had won these badges most often.

ITC - The promotion done by ITC during its Hero cigarettes brand launch in 1993 is unforgettable. In a campaign extended to 3 days, on the first day a person just went on cycle or a rickshaw saying on a P.A. system “Hero aa raha hai”. On the 2nd day, an elephant draped in a large “Hero” logo embossed sheet and carrying a huge cut-out of the hero cigarette packet went through the villages distributing free samples of the product.

And finally on the third day, a video van came to the villages playing popular movie songs to attract crowd.

The campaign was so successful that the villagers actually started waiting for an event to happen in those 3 days. It was done in U.P. and Bihar in October 1993, and the sales figure reached 175 million sticks in just a matter of months.

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There can be many such promotional exercises cited that companies have undertaken to capture the mind share of a rural consumer. Asian paints for example painted the house of the Sarpanch and the post office to show that the paint can stand against time and weather.

CONCLUSION Competence of a corporation makes it stay in the market, its competitiveness makes it reach the rural markets and its Customer orientation helps it be successful there. Also, though the aim seems difficult to accomplish taking the initiative and opening the gates of innovation can make a corporation reap the benefits of the large and untapped demographics of India.

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"I knew a trade name must be short, vigorous, incapable of being misspelled to an extent that will destroy its identity, and in order to satisfy the trademark laws, it must mean nothing" – Who said this and about what brand?

Mahatma Gandhi used this brand of pocket watch Identify this leader

Identify the retail chain

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Who coined the term Generation X? Below is the logo of a famous automobile. Who is known as the “Father of this car.

9. What's WhiteKnightTwo? 10. What does the term ESI mean in Corporate Branding?

Solutions in the October issue

Solutions to Metaquizzics- August issue

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Who is the author of the book “Games Indians Play” Which designer am I talking about?

1. LEXUS AND THE OLIVE TREE by Thomas Friedman 2.Toyota Lexus 3. Deepika Padukone, Brand Ambassador 4.Undercover Economist 5.Volkswagon Bug 6.Maserati 7.Device that tracks the movement of the Sun 8.C K Prahlad 9.Fifth Avenue, New York 10. Thomas J Watson, IBM

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Amartya Sen in an interview not so long back called for what he termed - ‘Radical Change’ for India’s poor.

While laying stress on healthcare in that particular interview, he also mentioned the correlations that exist with other factors such as education, employment and income support. These gaps in India’s growth story are well known, yet, not too often highlighted in these years of close to double digit growth. However, sometimes the facts cannot be overlooked. A recent World Bank study highlights the gargantuan challenges that lie

Rurally worth it?

Rishabh Sachdeva ahead of India in alleviating its poverty. Between 1981 and 2005, India has managed to reduce the number of people living below the $ 1.25 mark a day from 600 percent of the population to 42 percent. A mammoth achievement by any measure but good enough? Tough to answer. With 20 percent of the country’s GDP, agriculture continues to support over 70% of India’s population. Thus, it is no surprise that the majority of the deprived masses are to be found in India’s rural spread. The image of the Indian village is oft celebrated in this country for it is what we consider the epitome of simple life, enriched with values and principles, hardworking people and satisfaction. I would not agree.

The numerous farmer suicides from Vidharba can surely not be called a picture of satisfaction. The country today, reeling under a sharp price rise is once again forced to wonder whether its large population is indeed a boon or the bane of folklore. The inequities are wide spread and the goods of development restricted.

This throws open a challenge to policy makers,

corporates and citizens of this country to take responsibility for filling these apparent voids in the system.The corporates in this country want to spread their businesses to rural India. Apart for FMCG products, which benefit from an ingeniously developed distribution system; other businesses like banking, health, electronics, telecom, and transportation are still looking for opportunities in the market place. C K Prahlad postulated that great riches lie for businesses that are targeted at what he said was ‘The Bottom of the Pyramid’. There have been some great successes too like the ‘Grameen Bank and Phone’ businesses in Bangladesh. In India however no such spectacular success story has been witnessed. In the last few years, initiatives by HUL (Shakti) and ITC (eChoupal) have been recognized for their contributions but large scale implementation of these projects has yet to be noticed.

For the concept of selling products and services to the rural populace to succeed, companies will have to dawn multifarious roles of innovator, facilitator and developer of resources and infrastructure, dispenser of information, educator and deliverer of quality.

Tomorrow, a company’s efforts would not only be concentrated on making profits and achieving growth, but also on providing platforms for sustainable and equitable development of people’s lives, especially in rural India. The opportunities and responsibilities thus measure up equally.

In the short term, innovations at company level might cause a small tremor or two in the vast solace of the Indian heartland; but for any such ideas to make a big dent, there will have to be a change in attitudes towards what is considered worthy of making note. Rural Marketing and Business would only be worth it, if vast numbers of people are brought forward from a position of inability to a position of potential and power to buy and choose from a spread of choices laid down in front of them.

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the tank of the automobile on its famous voyage from Mannheim to Pforzheim. Ok, this is straight out of Wikipedia (Blessed be thy name!)

J J Sharma Petrol Station Rau, Indore

The first places that sold gasoline were pharmacies, as a side business. In fact, the first petrol station was the city pharmacy in Wiesloch (Germany), where Bertha Benz (Karl Benz’s Wife. Also, the first person to drive an automobile over a long distance. 60 miles in 1988 in a newly made Patent Motorwagen Automobile) refilled

The Standard Oil Company of California (now Chevron) built what was the second filling station in the US in Seattle in 1907. It was also probably the first oil company to start marketing itself with roadside signs advertising its filling stations.

Now, this time our adventures on the road took us to an Indian Oil Petrol Station on the Agra – Bombay Highway in Rau. Indian Oil operates about 17606 stations in India.

Mr. Yogesh Sharma has been operating this station for about 15 years now. This year, the Oil Companies have been supplying oil on a quota system, where stations are supplied with 90% of their sales figures from last year. The spectacular rise in oil prices that was noticed this year has made companies avoid any kind of overheads and cut down their losses. Protests against the same policy were noticed in many states as dealers are of the point of view that demand is growing almost at 20-30%. Mr. Sharma told us that last year he sold 2 Lakh Liters of Diesel and about 20,000 Liters of Petrol.

Diesel apart from being used for transportation is also used by local industries and institutions like ours. In fact, we have been facing a diesel crunch for our generator at IIM Indore. Talk about an energy crisis!

The oil companies have also made it mandatory to submit drafts before placing orders with the company.

So, as a daily ritual Mr. Sharma’s emissary is sent in the mornings to the Oil Depot at Mangliya which is about 40 Kms from his station. On the other hand, his own business relies heavily on credit customers. Since, majority of the pump’s sales are derived from diesel, the main customers for the pump are transporters from Rau. These customers account for 60% of the total customer base for Mr. Sharma. Speaking of profit margins with him, he highlighted that they are close to 13

80 paise for petrol and 40 paise for diesel. Further, there is a high premium on the special fuels (Xtra brands) and these are preferred by those with new vehicles or when there is shortage of normal fuel.

Inquiring, about the possibility of opening a new station, Mr. Sharma said that this year the Oil Companies have been extremely strict about opening new stations. Practically there have been no new additions. Reliance Industries earlier this year closed down its network of almost 1500 stations because there were rising losses being realized in the operations. However if one were to open one there is a requirement of a 100X100 square feet area. The frontage of the station required to be spacious for easy maneuvering of vehicles. Land is leased by the company for the pump. The decision to open the pump is the company’s after it has done a due diligence on the prospects of opening a pump in the area (taking into account vehicular traffic, population, competition etc.).

Then, obtaining licenses from the local corporation, explosives agencies, National Highway Association etc. is the responsibility of the owner.

Among other things, after the recent spate of communal violence in Indore, the local administration has banned selling petrol or diesel in bottles, as they fear the use of the same as petrol bombs. So, if you are stranded on the road with a dry tank, as we often are, then you are headed for some trouble folks. Also, as so many people in this country fill their bikes with Rs.20 – 30 worth of fuel, Mr. Sharma’s pump also has many of these customers. And, while we were there, some extremely hassled people arrived with an empty bottle and were refused. Stranded somewhere or potential rioters?

We’d never know...

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Always wary that you will be run down by a truck while jogging with your earphones plugged in? Then the Air Drives earphones from Mad Catz is just the thing for you. It is targeted at runners and cyclists and allows the wearer to hear the surroundings. The earphones are unique in that they don’t go inside the ear and so the ear canal is open to surrounding sounds. Quality of sound or safety, your call.

If you take your pencils seriously, then this is just the thing for you. The pioneer in pencils Faber-Castell has taken pencils to a whole new level with this platinum topped pencil. The pencil on sharpening releases a divine cedar smell. After the pencil is used up, the top and eraser can be unscrewed and the pencil replaced.

Transforming a cheek swab into a work of art has never been easier. DNA11’s product allows the narcissists out there to immortalise their DNA with their easy swab kit .The DNA is then transformed into an image which can be used as art. Talk about exclusivity!

Porsche has tied up with Bosch to bring out a sleek coffee maker. It makes great tasting coffee at 200 degree farenheit in 7 minutes flat. And the design is unique with minimal buttons. The symmetric design and removable reservoir ensures that water doesn’t get into other parts of the machine while cleaning. Now you can proudly say you own a Porsche!

The Arash AF10 prototype by Arash Farboud is ready for production after 2 years of finetuning and preparation for the summer of 2009. The Arash AF10 may not have caused much of a stir when it debuted at the British Motor Show as a concept in 2006 but this mid-engined carbon-fiber clad sportscar possesses some excellent performance capabilities that could challenge the likes of the Gallardos and F430s.

Once in a while there comes an invention which is truly revolutionary and which has the ability to change the way we see the world forever. The Cyber Clean is certainly not one of them. The slimy contraption is specifically designed to clean the keyboard, just by rubbing it across. The Cyber Clean gets into the crevices, captures dirt and food particles and kills germs.

Too good to be true. I am already thinking of other, more regular uses for it.

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Dear Readers, Heartfelt thanks for your readership and support.

We intend to make it a magazine that is as much yours as ours. In this regard, we will be publishing two articles from the readers every edition. The article should be in line with the theme of the edition.

The Theme for the Next Edition is:

Destination Marketing Please send in your entries to mandi.iimi@gmail.com by 20 September 2008 Format: MS Word, Times New Roman, Font size 12, Word Limit: 1500 words

Everybody is invited