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India’s biggest fast moving consumer goods brand at street price, or in retail value, may no longer be a dairy product, but surprisingly liquor. United Spirits Ltd’s flagship McDowell’s has an estimated retail value of around 950 million pounds ($ 1.9 billion) edging past GCMMF’s Amul milk products with an estimated retail value of $ 1.5 billion. Although the debate is whether liquor can be considered as an FMCG product, AC Nielsen survey which is considered as the official data publishers for the FMCG business does not consider liquor as a product, but the industry is arguing that the same should be considered as a product looking at the fact that the product has a very similar distribution play compared to the FMCG products.

Well my take on the matter is, when the consumer has given his verdict that liquor is more ‘fast moving than milk’ then there should be no doubt whether to consider liquor as a fast moving consumer good.

How did the industry in the land of the Mahatma gain this status is a very interesting question, which needs to be answered. From a very conservative society, India has moved on to become an economic powerhouse and very influential nation in terms of the opportunities it gives both to the industry and the individual.

The liquor industry has a very interesting strategy. If I have got it right, we need to look at the fact that a generation before ours, liquor was never considered as a drink and it was attached to the weak and the hopeless of the society. So the liquor industry had to move very fast, because unlike the western countries, the industry in India did not have a very big customer base. It has been found that, in the established markets the bulk of the business comes from the 10% of heaviest drinkers. And since this is one market, where repeat business from hardcore drinkers, matters a lot, it is necessary to hang on to your customer. But this industry faces a big problem in retaining it’s customers, it has been proved that as the customer ages he tends to reduce the intake or such people succumb to various kinds of illnesses, 3.5% of the world’s deaths or disability is due to alcohol, which is not what I say , but WHO says ! So the industry has only one option left, to maintain the customer base and increase its longevity, target the YOUNG. Because these are customers who are easy to capture, they spend much more lavishly compared to their older counterparts and they give the brand their loyalty for a very long time. So the Indian liquor industry or for that matter anywhere in the world, the focus has shifted from ‘all other age groups’ to the ‘YOUNG’. Does this make lot of business sense? Yes, it does!

The strategy adopted has been, first of all to make this a very normal product and easily accessible to all.  You cannot sell the product, if you have restrictions on its availability and visibility. Just take the example of Gujarat, a dry state, the birth place of Bapu, the industry is pushing hard and using every kind of power corridor to open up the industry. The Gujarat Government, it is said will win lot of brownie points from the industry if they allow liquor to flow. They say it will bring lot of investment and lot of tourists as well, like Miss Keeling?

Everybody now knows the story, what happened to Keeling, the young girl who was murdered in Goa, the tourist hot spot! What the industry does not consider is the side effects!

Secondly visibility, it makes a lot of sense to associate the sport stars and sporting events to a liquor brand, everybody is watching, the tiny Dhoni fan to the old Tendulkar loyal! And it really makes a big impact, then why does the whole world make so much noise about hooligans at football matches and strippers doing the full monty in front of thousands of sports enthusiasts, most of them young! Alcohol is one thing that does not impact just the individual but all things around him. But he does not realize that, till it becomes beyond his control, no wonder, the guy sitting next to you, always says, “Hey, it’s just for fun man, I can stop it when I decide to do so.”

Not only are we here talking about the young but also a much bigger plot. Just imagine the young women who drink, it greatly impacts their health, reduces their ability, physically and mentally to give birth and kills or disables the ‘Unborn Fetus’. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, babies who are born with this syndrome can be small at birth, have some facial malformations, and have small eye openings, webbed or even missing fingers or toes, organ deformities, learning disabilities, mental retardation and much more. Can you imagine feeding your just born with beer or whiskey, then why do the women drink and think its ok! Now you know why your just born child looks drowsy, isn’t it? Well, who knows!

From the young high fliers of the society to the unborn fetus! Well blame it all on the liquor industry, well that is what the society has been doing till now!!

But for me, it is impossible to design such a heinous crime against mankind without the permission of a supernatural being! Well it sounds funny but ever since, the serpent tempted Adam in the Garden of Eden, God’s wrath, has been upon the serpent and man! HE said to the serpent “And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.” Well, since then, the serpent, synonymous to evil, has been striking the young one of the woman, with every kind of poison. When will the offspring of the woman crush the serpents head?? Well, good news! It’s already done and God has taken away his wrath from man through Jesus Christ.

If you want to know more how you can win over alcohol or any other addiction or if somebody you know needs help, use the lighthouse on the homepage of www.gracejunction.com. 

Tags: Alcohol, Amul, Drinking, FMCG, Liquor, Serpant

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 2:06 am and is filed under Addictions, Articles, Economy, Navin, Society, Troubles & Problems, Youth Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.