The Marketing Mix

4P's of Britannia

Product:

 “A bundle of attributes (features, functions, benefits, and uses) capable of exchange or use; usually a mix of tangible and intangible forms. Thus a product may be an idea, a physical entity (a good), or a service, or any combination of the three. It exists for the purpose of exchange in the satisfaction of individual and organizational objectives.”

Rather than venture into new product categories, Britannia has used line extension, staying within existing categories and introducing product variations (often around nutritiousness). One recent visible area of innovation has been packaging, with the introduction of low-price, small-quantity packs, known as nano packs. By and large then, the strategy has been a conservative one, building on existing strengths, rather than creating ones from scratch.

Promotion:

The various communication techniques such as advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations/product publicity available to a marketer that are combined to achieve specific goals.

The success of Britannia's brands has been the result of sound product quality and astute advertising. In the food business, marketing is a key to success.

"The major competitors in the bread market all have good distribution systems and there is no major difference in product manufacturing technology. Those are not real differentiators; marketing is"

The company spends about 7% its revenues on advertising and it appears to spend it to good effect. Britannia strode into the 21st Century as one of India's biggest brands and the pre-eminent food brand of the country. It was equally recognised for its innovative approach to products and marketing: the Lagaan Match was voted India's most successful promotional activity of the year 2001 while the delicious Britannia 50-50 Maska-Chaska became India's most successful product launch.

Price:

The formal ratio that indicates the quantities of money goods or services needed to acquire a given quantity of goods or services.

In products, the strategy has been a relatively conservative one, of line extension; in packaging, Britannia has been more adventuresome. In 2007 it introduced low price small-quantity packs, known as nano packs. Depending on the brand, these retail for Rs 5 and 7. The low price and low unit count are destined to attract the on-the-go urban consumer, as well as the more budget-constrained rural consumer.

Place:

There have been no major strategic innovations in distribution in the last few years. Britannia's distribution in urban areas is excellent. However 72% of India's population still lives in villages and Britannia needs to worry more about tapping and therefore distributing to that market.