MUMBAI: Dilemmas of today's business model and the 'Eureka Forbes' case study is what Eureka Forbes senior vice president marketing & COO Bal Palekar stressed while addressing the India Brand Summit today.

Talking about the four kinds of pressures that a business has evolved in facing Palekar talked about the pressure of brand building in India, coping with that pressure and how Eureka Forbes managed it.

- Pressure of Margin:
With profit margins getting thinner and thinner, cost of manufacturing a product is steadily on the rise. Drawing an example for the colour TV induatry (CTV), Palekar gushed that in 1999 the margin per CTV set was Rs 3200 which in 2004 has been reduced to Rs 1200. On the other hand, volume in 1999 was 12 lakhs and 2004 has witnessed volume levels of 43 lakhs.

- Pressure of Divergence:
Every segment today calls for a different marketing strategy. In the 1950's it was okay to only set up a factory and the rest followed. Today one has to deal with distribution, retailers and then the customers. An interesting point that was made was that if there were nine competing brands in the market, the rule of three will ensure that three out of none thrive, three will survive and three will die. Nine brands can only survive together if the market is segmented.

- Pressure on obsolence:
In today's age within 15-18 months of a product being launched, it becomes redundant. This calls for constant upgradation and product innovations which entail development costs.

A key solution to the above Palekar reiterated was the integration of the backend and the front end. Also, customer satisfaction comes from employee satisfaction which comes from management functions.

Eureka Forbes (EF)Case study:

"Pricing is always above the customer expectation for EF. And, we never give discounts," states Palekar.

With front end focusing on giving the customer a personal experience at her home; which a dealer can never do, EF salesmen sell ideas and not products. Relationship marketing is new buzz. Despite bad time for the consumer durable industry EF managed to show an increase in sales year on year.

Highlighting the salesmen (Eurochamp) role in the company Palekar said that no other company has managed a one point contact who right from prospecting, communicating, negotiating, selling to installing is handles by that one Eurochamp. EF follows a no middlemen philosophy.

Human resource is another key area where EF focuses and ensures and every member of the company feels a sense of pride and belonging. "We treat our employees as customers."

If Indian marketers cultivate both back end and front end of their business, the can build brands and volumes at the same time were the mans closing words.