Sales Management

Sales management is attainment of an organization's sales goals in an effective & efficient manner through planning, staffing, training, leading & controlling organizational resources.

In the Marketing Mix, sales broadly classifies as a part of Promotions.

As a food product and a market leader at that, MTR does not really focus on personal selling. 

However, the restaurant Namma MTR in Bangalore has  a novel concept kitchen where customers can interact with specialist chefs to learn about MTR products and watch live demonstrations. This concept kitchen also works as an ideal platform for feedback allowing the company to understand and address consumer needs.

Holistic or Sustainable Marketing

According to businessdiary.com: A marketing strategy that is developed by thinking about the business as a whole, its place in the broader economy and society, and in the lives of its customers. It attempts to develop and maintain  multiple perspectives on the company’s commercial activities.

Societal Marketing: 

MTR follows a green growth path, reducing its dependency on diesel for producing electricity and substituting with briquette boiler, becoming a water neutral company etc. 

Orkla, which owns MTR Foods, committed to remove forest destruction from the palm oil it uses in its products.

Relationship Marketing:

MTR focusses on building relationships not just with its customers, which it does by delivering the perceived value, but it also focusses on the employees. The company involved employees across the organisation in developing the new vision through various engagements like wall writing, focus groups, one-on-one interaction and workshops.

Internal Marketing:

MTR Foods has also organised a broad range of training programmes for managers and employees to build awareness, increase functional expertise and develop leadership competence. In total, 32,700 hours of training were conducted from 2010 to 2012, or 30 hours per employee. The training has included leadership and managerial development programmes, food safety, occupational health and safety, as well as interpersonal collaboration and life skills.

Integrated Marketing:
In order to increase sales and reinforce the brand, all the elements of the integrated marketing mix are taken utmost care of, like services, communication and channels.

Analyzing Business And Consumer Markets

 Markets for any product are of two kinds- consumer and business markets.

Consumer Markets:

A consumer's buying behaviour is influenced by cultural, social and personal factors.

Cultural Factors:

For these cultural differences, MTR has a range of Noth Indian and South Indian dishes in its Ready To Eat range. And also different dishes under each category.

Social Factors:

The Indian marketers classify the customer markets into different SECs (Socio Economic Classifications). According to the SECs, MTR RTE targets A 1 and A2 customers mostly and at the most B1.

Personal Factors:

It is targeted at nuclear families and above average or high income groups.

As it is food, it satisfies Physiological Needs and since it decreases cooking time, also indirectly satisfies the Social Needs in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. 

Buying Decision Process:

In the 5 stage model,

Problem Recognition- No time to cook, not enough training in cooking all kinds of traditional food from across the country.

Information Search- Advertisements, display in supermarkets, family/friend recommendations

Evaluation of Alternatives- There are various alternatives available in the market i.e., competitors like Maiya's, ITC etc. But MTR is the market leader.

Purchase Decision- It is the most preferred brand and hence that infuences the purchase decision.

Postpurchase Behavior- Satisfaction is high post purchase.

Business Markets:

Usually, there are no Businesses buying an MTR RTE product in bulk for use. The only B2B transactions are from the manufacturer to the dealer and from the dealer to the retailer. There are very few dealers and most of the transactions are manufacturer to retailer.

Branding

According to AMA, A brand is a customer experience represented by a collection of images and ideas; often, it refers to a symbol such as a name, logo, slogan, and design scheme. Brand recognition and other reactions are created by the accumulation of experiences with the specific product or service, both directly relating to its use, and through the influence of advertising, design, and media commentary.

Creating a compelling, well-differentiated brand position requires a keen understanding of consumer needs and wants, company capabilities and competitive actions.

MTR as a brand promises purity, taste, heritage and vegetarian food with no preservatives.

MTR has always stayed at the top of the heap, despite tough competition because of the values it delivers, the loyalty it commands and the price, despite the superior quality.

These differentiators, specially that of a heritage brand and taste have always worked in MTR's favour. It has been constantly innovating, courtesy its research Lab, and bringing out new products and variants like the recent RTE rice meals.

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

Market Segmentation divides a market into well-defined slices. Each slice consists of a group of customers who share a similar set of needs and wants.
there are two broad groups to define segments;
1. Descriptive Charecteristics- Geographic, demographic and psychographic
2. Behavioral Considerations- Consumer responses to benefits,usage occassions and brands

Targeting is selectinf specific segments which the company and marketers feel could generate maximum revenue.

Positioning is the act of designing a company's offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the minds of the target group.

As a Ready-To-Eat foods brand, MTR was primarily looking at the urban households with both the spouses working, or employed bachelors who didn't have much time to cook.
So the whole range was always targeted at the urban population.
They positioned themselves as a trademark for purity, taste and heritage and have been striving to keep the same values up.

Rural Markets are not even being targeted.

Promotions

Objective: Persuasive advertising

Development of the Campaign:

Promotions are of 2 kinds for a product.

Above The Line (ATL)

1. Television Commercials:

2. Print 

     

                                                 

Below The Line(BTL)

1. Online:

 

                                                 

2. Sponsorship:

• MTR has been sponsoring magic shows and theatre performances which resulted in high brand equity and recall. 
• Holds live demonstrations and gives out free samples to people visiting the performances, before and after the show.

Shortcomings:

• Not enough clarity on the differentiators. Though they are the market leaders, MTR till now hasn't been successful in creating an impact in the minds of its perspective consumers.
• Not enough focus on marketing.
• Doesn't explore alternate media as such. 
• NO proactive or defensive marking strategies applied.
• At most, it is position defense, trying to occupy the most desirable market space in consumers' minds.

According to a press release, MTR spent 3% of its sales revenue on advertising and marketing till 2009. It has now gradually increased to 14-16% and expected to stay that much till 2015.

MTR advertises its RTE products 14 times more in terms of average ads scheduled per day over an year.

But most of the promotional activities are concentrated on their masalas and breakfast mixes ranges as the RTE industry in India is being seen as something a little futuristic. People are not yet ready to outsource their meals, even though the urban population are embracing RTE positively. 

Being an FMCG product and more importantly, commanding the kind of value the brand offers, the forgetting rate is relatively low. But as a processed food item in India, so is the purchase frequency. Buyer turnover is also reasonable with a lot of big names already in the market and many local brands coming up.

As of now, MTR did not foray into personal or direct marketing.

Distribution Channels

According to american marketing association: distribution is 1. (economic definition) A study of how factors of production are priced in the market place, i.e., the de-termination of rents, wages, interest, and profits. 2. (marketing definition) The marketing and carrying of products to consumers. 3. (business definition) The extent of market coverage.

According to american marketing association: channel of distribution is an organized network (system) of agencies and institutions which in combination, perform all the functions required to link producers with end customers to accomplish the marketing task.

Marketing Flows In The Marketing Channel:

Consumer and Industrial Marketing Levels:

FOR MTR READY-TO-EAT

• Initially the distribution chain wasn't scientifically mapped out. Distribution was random and based on gut-feel. MTR was in 200 towns in the East and North where the brand had no equity.
• Adoption of a two-pronged distribution strategy:  “In the North, West and East, we’ve strengthened our distribution network in the top 100 cities and towns and have shut down (operations) in 70-80 towns. Simultaneously increased presence in South India where the brand is virtually a household name." says Jyotiroop Barua, Vice-President, Sales and Distribution. (www.outlookbusiness.com)
• MTR is focussing on "distribution push & advertising pull" to make its presence felt.
• Also, the consumer base for its RTE range is mostly the urban and suburban markets. So distribution is also concentrated to cities and larger towns.
• Type of distribution intensity- Intensive in Selective areas