Its All about Strategy

Rasna has gone international without significant market share in India. I really don't that its a great idea to go for market development when you don't have a stable market in your domestic.

Well, if we look at the competitors that took the market share away from Rasna are packaged juices and carbonated drinks. Kids no more want to buy Rasna, as it is tedious to prepare it and they may even not be satisfied with the taste. There can be other factors too.

Well, if we see through BCG matrix concept, the brand is a dog with low market share and low potential. As such, the only way is to diversify.

Rasna can enter into other categories  like juices, etc and invest on all P's of marketing mix. It need to innovate the product, manage the distribution channel to enable accessibilty of the product, price competitively and promote. It may take up a different brand name altogether as Rasna as a brand doesn't have great equity to leverage it to the diversified product. Conversely, if the company uses Rasna as the brand name for diversified product, it may require less efforts to lead the brand to evoked set of customers as the brand is known to customers and recall is quite high. 

It's All About Strategy

Today I had a discussion on Nokia's extension strategy with my peers and professor. Nokia wants to go for extension into rural markets. The million dollar question is how to decide on the extension strategy, that is whether to go for market development (getting in to rural market) or product development (and retain its bomb share in urban market).

Well, the answer is pretty simple. It depends on the company's core competencies. If a company wants to extend its markets, it must have a really strong distribution and logistics network. When later is the case, only then it can push its products to these markets with really poor infrastructure and connectivity.

For product development, a company must have hold on R&D and technology. If an organisation has intellectual resources and innovative temperament, only then it should go for the respective extension area.

Well, I personally think that Nokia has competencies in both logistics and innovation. As such, it is wise to go for product and market development simultaneously.