Facebook Takes Off Pages of FCUK, Cadbury

Social networking site Facebook has taken down the official India pages of fashion house French Connection UK (FCUK) and chocolate giant Cadbury’s Bournville for violating the codes governing hosting of such pages halting the social media promotion blitz that these brands have been riding on.
Facebook issues ‘promotion guidelines’ which every brand must follow while publishing offers and contests on their fan pages. The guidelines are issued to “govern your communication about or administration of any contest, competition, sweepstakes or other similar offering (each, a “promotion”) using Facebook.”
According to the guidelines, if a brand wants to release promotions or run contests, they should do it by building an external application or tab. This is to specifically state that “the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.” The company was not available for comment on the specific reasons why it took down the promo pages.
“The Cadbury Bournville Facebook fan page went offline today. Cadbury is currently working with Facebook and agency partners to ascertain the reason and reactivate the fan page at the earliest,” a Cadbury spokesperson said. A fake Google Buzz page now appears on the Cadbury Bournville page. FCUK declined to comment on the issue. A week ago, dining chain Pizza Hut India’s Facebook page was taken down as well.
“Facebook periodically revises its promotions guidelines. However, when the policy was updated in the beginning of 2011, the administrator of Pizza Hut Delivery India did not receive a notification of the change. In a routine scan, Facebook referred to an old promotional offer that was still on our wall and temporarily disabled it until the historic content was deleted. Our administrator has been in touch with Facebook to ensure that we remain in compliance with the revised guidelines,” said Ashok Bajpai, general manager, Pizza Hut Delivery.
Most brands encourage the use of ‘Like’ button as a voting mechanism. On the other hand, leaving a comment on a post is considered an entry to the contest. This is considered a violation of the guideline. Some brands need users to tag pictures of their friends to win gift vouchers, which violates privacy norms.
Adhvith Dhuddu, founder and CEO of Alive Now, a Bangalore-based social media management firm, says Facebook had done this a couple of years ago to certain brands in the US. “I would say that is a smart strategy by Facebook. They will yank the pages of the top brands for a while and have it back up in a while to make social media agencies and brand managers vigilant.
Facebook can dictate rules and they target only these big brands because they are ones that matter. It amounts to a lot of bad publicity and the brand would have spent a good deal of money re-acquiring the fans,” he said. If brands were using Facebook to promote certain offers, it would lose out on that as well. “You create a digital asset and all of a sudden, it is gone,” Dhuddu added. Other brands that advertise on Facebook are Hard Rock Cafe, Levis, Pepsi, etc.
Face-Off
• According to Facebook guidelines, if
a brand wants to release promotions or run contests, it should do it by building an external application

• This is to specifically state that the
promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook

Diesel, Kerosene & LPG Price Hike Coming in July

Hike imminent as oilcos say swelling borrowings may force them to cut supplies

RAJEEV JAYASWAL NEW DELHI

The government will raise diesel, cooking gas and kerosene prices next month after a gap of one year as cash-strapped state firms say their borrowings have risen alarmingly and they will be forced to cut fuel supplies, starting with cooking gas.
State-run refiners are facing acute liquidity crunch as their market borrowings have soared to . 1,20,000 crore from . 97,000 crore in March. They will now be forced to cut imports leading to shortage of fuel, two government officials with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The empowered group of ministers, which is authorised to raise fuel prices, is expected to meet early next month to decide partial price hike on individual products against companies’ demand to increase diesel rates by . 15.44 per litre, kerosene by . 27.47 per litre and cooking gas by . 381 per cylinder, an official said requesting anonymity.
The government had frozen the prices of diesel, cooking gas and kerosene for a year fearing voter backlash against the inflationary move ahead of crucial assembly elections.
The government last raised prices of politically sensitive fuel on June 25, 2010 when kerosene became costlier by . 3 a litre, diesel by . 2 a litre and cooking gas by . 35 per cylinder. Crude prices have risen from about $75 per barrel then to $110 a barrel. Oil companies, that enjoy a pricing freedom for petrol since June 25, are expected to raise its price also. “They want to raise petrol price by . 2 a litre, but it will be done simultaneously,” one official said. Oil companies have so far revised pump prices of petrol 10 times since it was deregulated last year.
Oil ministry officials said that state-run oil companies – IOC, BPCL and HPCL – were suffering a revenue loss of . 450 crore every day on sale of controlled fuel and a price hike was imminent. Ministry officials said that they would place facts before the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) along with impact of a unit price increase of individual fuel on companies’ revenues. “Final decision would be taken by the EGoM,” an oil ministry official said.
At a press conference earlier this week, Oil Minister Jaipal Reddy had also indicated that a fuel price hike was imminent but he had declined to give specific details. “We are still exchanging notes, there are no specific suggestions by the oil ministry to EGoM,” he had said. Reddy had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week to explain financial condition of state-run oil firms and a pressing need to revise fuel prices.

FMCG Cos Cut Ad Budget to Balance High Input Costs

NEW DELHI FMCG firms are tightening their purse strings by controlling
    advertising spends and other marketing expenses to maintain their margins as high raw material prices continue to pose serious challenge, according to analysts. Going forward, they said companies are likely to be cautious on their advertising expenses if they have to remain profitable despite the high input cost. “Most of the FMCG companies are focusing on volume growth without hurting their operating margins. While they are resorting to price hikes, they also have to reduce their operating cost, including their adspend, staff cost and other expenses to maintain their margins,“ India Infoline Research Analyst Vanmala Nagwekar said. As per a report by Standard Chartered Equity Research on Indian consumer sector, the FMCG segment maintained margins at 15.8% in the last fiscal despite rising raw material costs by controlling adspends and cutting operating costs during the period.

Carrefour to Offer Online Shopping in India

NEW DELHI Looking to tap and engage tech savvy business establishments in India effectively, French retailer Carrefour is building an IT platform that will enable its customers to shop online. “We are in the process of building a platform for eenablement to engage them (customers) effectively,” said Carrefour WC & C India Director -IT Supply Chain and Organisation Subhodip Bandyopadhyay. Carrefour that currently has only one cash-and-carry store in India here at the capital offers multiple channels of engagement to its registered customers such as phones, email and direct contact on the shop floor. He said the new IT platform has been built “keeping in mind the Indian IT growth story and tech savvy business establishments all over India, particularly in National Capital Region, we believe, it will be one more way of delighting our esteemed customer base.”

Zee TV to Tune in with New Logo, Programmes

 MUMBAI Zee TV has gone in for a rebranding exercise, which includes a
    new logo and a slew of fresh programming on its flagship general entertainment channel. The last rebranding took place in 2005 when Zee had lost traction in the face of strong competition from Star and Sony. This time around, it is making changes to the GEC's look and programming backed by extensive research. 1.4 million people across India and global markets were spoken to for feedback on the channel’s content, the brand and their thoughts on its new identity. — Our Bureau

Reliance Gas Reluctant to Build Two Pipelines in South India

Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure (RGTIL) is reluctant to build two pipelines it had planned because no gas has been allocated, but it wants to hold on to the licence for the projects, which would become attractive if Reliance imports LNG, a source close to the company said.
The company, privately owned by Mukesh Ambani and other promoters of Reliance Industries, was planning to build the pipelines to transport natural gas from the Krishna Godavri basin to various industrial hubs in southern India.
RGTIL was granted the licence in 2007 to build these pipelines originating from Kakinada, the land-fall point of the D-6 block, which has India’s largest gas field. One pipeline will take gas to Vizianagaram and Srikakulam, while the other would head for Ennore, Nellore and Chennai.
“No gas has been allocated to these particular pipeline projects so there is no business case for building these pipelines as RGTIL has to be able to monetise the infrastructure that it invests in,” said a source close to RGTIL. These lines are a part of RGTIL’s two trunk lines that run from Kakinada to Haldia (1,100 km) and to Chennai (445 km).
“Apart from allocation, gas production at the KG basin is much lower than what RGTIL had envisaged earlier as apart from the production shortfall at RIL’s KG D6, other players operating in the KG basin have also not delivered,” the source said. At RIL’s KG D6 basin, output is down from 53 million standard cubic metres per day in March last year, to below 49 mscmd in the first week of May 2011.
Last month, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) had questioned RGTIL on its failure to start pipe-laying works for these two pipeline projects and asked RGTIL to explain in 15 days why its licence to build and operate these pipelines should not be cancelled. “We did ask for an explanation from RGTIL and the company responded by saying that they will submit quarterly progress reports on these two projects and soon we will also be conducting an independent review of the progress of these two pipeline projects,” said L Mansingh, chairman, PNGRB. When asked about these progress reports, the source close to RGTIL said: “Yes, RGTIL is submitting reports on the pre-project work done for these two pipelines.”
Mr Mansingh also told ET that the Andhra Pradesh Gas Infrastructure Corporation (APGIC) had submitted an expression of interest to build these two pipelines as RGTIL was going slow on these projects: “The APGIC had submitted an EoI to us to build these pipeline projects around 5-6 months back and RGTIL had raised their objections against it.”
The source close to RGTIL said: “Of course, RGTIL will protest as it has the original licence to build and operate these pipelines.” PNGRB is yet to take a final decision on the matter.
“There might be a case to revisit these pipeline projects if RIL decides to import LNG and build an LNG terminal,” said the source close to RGTIL.

Car Majors Make a Big Splash to Boost Sales

Maruti, Hyundai, Honda Siel splurge on campaigns and advertisements to attract customers

CHANCHAL PAL CHAUHAN & RATNA BHUSHAN
NEW DELHI

Hit byslowdown in sales over the past two months due to rising fuel prices and interest rates, carmakers have stepped on the gas by splurging on advertising and below-the-line activities to lure back consumers. While Maruti Suzuki lined up . 15-20 crore on campaigns and promotions in May and June — besides rolling out at least four campaigns costing . 4-6 crore each — the South Korean carmaker, Hyundai, increased its marketing budget. Honda Siel, a joint venture between Japan’s Honda Motor and Siel India, too is banking on cheaper auto loans through its dealers.
“As market leader, we have to restart the sales momentum. So we have put together a fairly large budget this time,” said Shashank Srivastava, chief general manager, marketing, at Maruti Suzuki. While over the last two years Maruti focused on strategic brand building during summers, it has now moved to tactical advertising hoping to bring back sales, added Srivastava. Sales growth had come down to 7% in May, the lowest in the past two years, prompting carmakers to look at diverse marketing options and innovating packages to counter falling demand, which is likely to continue during the monsoon months.
India’s largest carmakers’ strategy to increase footfall at its dealerships and service centres include campaigns for its small-sized Alto and sedan SX4, both of which are pegged at . 4-5 crore each. While the Alto campaign was kick-started in the first week of June and would run for about four weeks, a campaign was launched in late last month for SX4. A 'low cost of ownership' campaign was launched during the same time, which talked about resale value, low running and maintenance costs, and fuel efficiency of Maruti cars.
    The carmaker also organised mileage rallies for Alto and WagonR, and provided accessories of its car models, which it says has helped in doubling enquiry levels at its showrooms and service camps. Hyundai too increased its marketing budget to combat falling sales.
“We have had cracking three months of cricket frenzy with huge spends on ICC World Cup and the IPL that kept our brand on the top. Continuing the momentum, we are looking at aggressive add campaigns in June and coming months, besides offering higher discounts,” said Arvind Saxena, director (marketing & sales), Hyundai Motor India. “We have also offered a fixed monetary package to customers buying petrol cars to cushion a rise in the price of petrol,” he Saxena.
Honda Siel Cars is targeting a higher participation by the customers after it discounted the interest rates on loans for its popular City and Jazz cars. “There has been a higher demand for diesel cars. So our dealers are offering auto loans at 6.99% rate to attract more customers,” said Jnaneshwar Sen, senior VP, Honda Siel Cars. Ford Motors will launch a multimedia campaign for its new Fiesta sedan, which may hit themarket insecond halfof this year.

Toyota Set to Trigger Price War With Liva

Cheapest hatchback in India to take on Swift, Polo, Micra, Fabia & Punto

CHANCHAL PAL CHAUHAN NEW DELHI

Toyota may trigger a price war in the hatchback segment when it launches its first small car in India on June 27. The allnew Toyota Liva is expected to start at just over . 4 lakh and the top-end version, complete with multiple airbags and anti-lock braking system, will be priced around . 5.5-6 lakh, said a company executive.
This will make the 1.2-litre car from the world’s top carmaker cheaper than most hatchbacks, the fastest-growing segment in the 2.5-million Indian passenger car market, and force rivals to consider price cuts.
The prices of hatchbacks such as market leader Maruti Swift, Hyundai i20, Volkswagen Polo, Nissan Micra, Skoda Fabia and Fiat Punto start from . 4.3 lakh and go over . 8 lakh for different variants.
“Prices are the first phase of the competition,” says PricewaterhouseCoopers Auto Practice Leader Abdul Majeed. He says price reductions will happen as the Indian market gets crowded. “These Price wars would excite the customers and potentially help many to upgrade to bigger cars.”
Honda Siel Cars on Monday signaled a price war in the sedan segment by cutting the prices of its flagship City by up to . 66,000 to take on the challenge from recently launched Hyundai Verna and new segment leader Volkswagen Vento. Honda’s City lost its leadership in the mid-size cars segment to Vento.
Honda too plans to launch its small car, Honda Brio, this year and the company will be under pressure to price it competitively vis-à-vis Toyota Etios Liva. Honda is also expected to cut the prices of its Jazz hatchback, which is priced much higher than competing models, to make it more attractive for Indian customers.
Other companies may follow a similar route.
Without confirming the Liva prices, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Deputy MD (Marketing) Sandeep Singh told ET, “We will launch the car at the most competitive price and like its sedan sibling Etios. It’s an all-new car, offering huge value for money to Indian customers.”
Keeping in view the higher demand for smaller car Toyota would double production to 1.2 lakh cars for the Etios and the Liva at its second plant in Bangalore by September this year. “Our total capacity will go to 2.10 lakh cars by early 2012 that will enable us to cater to the fast growing Indian market,” Singh said.
Toyota Etios, starting at . 4.96 lakh, has got a big response and the company has already delivered over 20,000 Etios to customers with around 10,000 units more on booking list.The company expects Liva to get an even better response.
Toyota has followed a topdown approach in India after launching its bigger vehicles like Camry sedan and expensive
SUVs like Prado and Land Cruiser before rolling out Etios and now Liva.
It has enjoyed fair success so far with major models like Innova and Fortuner being segment leader netting over 50% market share in the segments. The expansion in portfolio and overall sales will help Toyota expand its used car business. Maruti sells 20-22% of its new cars from its used car business True Value and Toyota plans to reach the same level by 2013 from its U-Trust business.
The company will launch used car business in 15 outlets by the end of this year and expand its sales network to over 150 dealerships.
Toyota launched a new variant of its premium sedan Corolla Altis in both petrol and diesel options priced at . 10.53 lakh and . 14.77 lakh (ex showroom Delhi) on Thursday. It has sold more than 70,000 Corolla’s so far since the world’s best-selling car was launch in India in 2003.

Bihar is Best Performing State, says RBI Study

NEW DELHI Contrary to popular belief, a Reserve Bank sponsored study today said Bihar (including Jharkhand) was the best performing state during 1980-2004, while Tamil Nadu lagged behind in terms of TFPG, a parameter that measures productivity of the organised manufacturing sector. Although Bihar did well in terms of TFPG (total factor productivity growth), it faltered on employment generation, the study on 'Productivity, Efficiency and Competitiveness of the Indian Manufacturing Sector', conducted by the Development Research Group (DRG), a research wing of the RBI said. “The inter-state performance of TFPG of organised manufacturing sector indicates that Bihar (including Jharkhand) is the best performing state while Tamil Nadu is the worst performing state,” it said. Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in November 2000.

India Likely to be Largest Economy by 2050: Blake

KOLKATA US Assistant Secretary of State (Bureau of South and central Asian affairs) Robert O Blake today said the future of Indian economy seems very bright and the country is likely to become the world's third largest economy by 2030, and the largest by 2050. He added, “The incredible growth of India's economy has resulted in positive spillover effect for the US between 2002 and 2009, US goods exports to India quadrupled, growing from $4.1 billion to more than $16.4 billion in 2009.” “US services exports to India more than tripled from $3.2 billion to $9.9 billion during the period,” he said. Last year, US-India trade in goods broke a record with US exports increasing by 17% and US imports from India rising by 40%, he said during a seminar on 'West Bengal and Beyond: US-India business links and prospects' here.

Maruti’s Manesar Plant to Resume Operations Today OUR BUREAU NEW DELHI

Though the 13-day-old strike at Maruti’s Manesar plant ended on Thursday night without the management agreeing to recognise the new union, the newlyformed Maruti Suzuki Employees Union’s (MSEU) has set the ball rolling for its formal registration.
“We have already filed for registration of our union at Chandigarh and will try to formally register it with the Haryana government in the coming days,” said MSEU general secretary Shiv Kumar. “As soon our application gets approved by the state labour department, MSEU will come into effect.”
The company said it has not accepted any new union or its formation and the issue was not part of the Thursday’s negotiated agreement.
India’s largest carmaker said its plant will re-start on Saturday and will also operate on Sunday to make up for the loss of production. The company’s revenue losses mounted to . 600 crore with production of over 13,200 cars impacted by the workers unrest.
“We will resume production on Saturday and all 11 workers have been taken back that would followed an internal inquiry to be done by the company for a disciplinary action,” said a senior executive of Maruti Suzuki.
According to labour experts, the issue of new union rests with the workers and the labour department. “Formation of any union is workers’ rights under the relevant labour laws and in Maruti Suzuki case there is no effective role to be played by the company but the issue needs to be settled between concerned department and the workers representatives,” said a Delhibased labour expert preferring not to be named.
Maruti will reinstate all the sacked 11 employees and has taken a lenient approach on enforcing no-work-no-pay rule and plans to deduct less wages of the workers for every single day of the stir. The company will deduct three-day wages for each day of strike compares to the legal provision of deducting eight-days salary for every single day of protest.

Maruti Suzuki workers flash victory sign as they end their strike after a truce with the management on Thursday night — PTI

Rishad Premji Sells 28% of his Wipro Stake for 10.5 cr OUR BUREAU BANGALORE

Rishad Premji, the son of Wipro’s billionaire chairman Azim Premji sold around 28% of his shares in the company on Friday.
In a statement filed with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Friday evening, Wipro said Rishad sold 2,60,000 of his shares valued at . 10.5 crore, bringing down his holding from 0.04% earlier to nearly 0.03%. The company did not mention reasons for sale of shares by Rishad, who is currently the chief strategy officer of Wipro’s technology business.
Rishad, 33, who joined Wipro from consulting firm Bain & Co in June 2007, and became general manager (treasury & investor relations) in 2009, was promoted to replace Lakshminarayana KR as the chief strategy officer last year. India's third-largest software exporter Wipro is largely held by its chairman and promoter Azim Premji who owns nearly 80 % shares in the company.
Wipro's stock closed at . 409, down 1.64 %, or . 6.8, on Friday. In December last year, Azim Premji sold about 8.6% of his Wipro stake worth over . 8,000 crore to build schools, train teachers and fund other educational activities.
The shares, at current market prices were valued at . 8,846 crore and represented the singlelargest donation by an individual towards philanthropic activities.

Rolls Royce Ropes in Atul Tandon for Nuke Push Here

MUMBAI Rolls Royce, the global power systems company, has appointed Atul Tandon as executive vice-president, civil nuclear business, India. Mr Tandon will focus on growing Rolls-Royce presence in the Indian nuclear power market. “As India continues to rapidly develop we are reinforcing our commitment to this important market with the appointment of Atul Tandon, who will bring a wealth of civil nuclear knowledge and leadership to our expanding local team”, said Lawrie Haynes, Rolls-Royce president (nuclear).

Hero Honda Gets Nod for Name Change

NEW DELHI Hero Honda Motors, the world’s largest two-wheeler company by volume, on Friday got shareholders’ approval to change its name to Hero MotoCorp. The shareholders’ approval will now be forwarded to the Registrar of Companies. Japan’s Honda Motor is exiting Hero Honda Motors after a 27-year partnership with the Munjals’ Hero Group. The joint venture was India’s largest motorcycle manufacturer with more than half the domestic market. The Munjals hold the right to use the Hero Honda name till 2014.