H2O Innovation India opens manufacturing plant

Quebec City, Quebec, Apr 6: H2O Innovation Inc. ("H2O Innovation" or the "Company")(TSX VENTURE: HEO)(ALTERNEXT: MNEMO:ALHEO) announces today that its Indian joint-venture H2O Innovation India Ltd. ("H2O Innovation India"), based in Mumbai, India, has opened its first manufacturing plant near Vadodara, India, and secured $4.2 M in bookings of water treatment systems and equipment for industrial Indian customers within its first year of operation.

Created in February 2010, just over a year ago, H2O Innovation India is a joint venture between Chembond Chemicals Limited ("Chembond") of Mumbai, India and H2O Innovation. Pursuant to the joint venture agreement, Chembond owns 51% of the shares of the joint venture and the Company owns the remaining 49%. During its first year of operation alone, H2O Innovation India was awarded contracts totalling $4.2 M for the supply of industrial water treatment systems and equipment for industrial customers (including the contracts valued at $2.2 M announced on June 8, 2010). As of April 6, 2011, H2O Innovation India's sales backlog stands at $2.6 M for Indian projects only. H2O Innovation India's backlog will now be consolidated into the Company's sales backlog - proportionally to the Company's interest in the joint venture.
Operating out of Mumbai, where its sales, engineering, and service offices are located, H2O Innovation India inaugurated last month a 10,000 sq. ft. manufacturing plant near Vadodara, State of Gujarat, India. The plant's manufacturing capabilities are equivalent to those of the Company's plants located in Ham-Nord, QC and Minneapolis, MN. This new production capacity will enable H2O Innovation India to locally ensure detailed engineering, together with assembly, welding, pipe fitting, in-house performance testing and programming, among other operations. It will also enable H2O Innovation India to have a better control on delivery schedule and to strictly honour its commitments towards its customers. The capital expenditure incurred to build the plant has been assumed by Chembond, and H2O Innovation India has entered into a lease agreement with Chembond.
Now relying on an extended footprint in India through its partner Chembond, coupled with an in-depth knowledge of membrane-based water treatment systems, H2O Innovation India provides water treatment solutions and operation & maintenance services to SAARC(1) countries, among which India. As part of the contracts awarded this year, H2O Innovation India provides custom-designed plants for specialized applications (including water reused from cooling tower blow-down, demineralization and condensate polishing), and also offers packaged units, system optimization and after-sales service. H2O Innovation India already provides full operation & maintenance to a multi-national industrial client in Central India. The Company has partially outsourced to H2O Innovation India three major international membrane filtration projects for industrial customers in the petrochemical, power generation and oil & gas markets.
"We are proud to see that H2O Innovation India has successfully secured these contracts within the first year of operation, while constituting a sizeable backlog and developing a growing sales pipeline in such a short period of time", stated Nirmal V. Shah, Managing Director of H2O Innovation India. "We are confident that H2O Innovation India's devoted team of water treatment experts will build on these contracts and our extended local presence to sustain its growth objectives while focusing on the execution and management of the projects."

HCL Launches Next-Gen ME Tablets

New Delhi, Delhi: HCL Infosystems Ltd. has unveiled its new range of ME Tablets. With over 30 years of leadership in research and development and an in-depth understanding of the Indian market, the company today introduced the country’s first Tablet with Localised Content and world’s first Tablet with one touch button for customer service. Powered by the Android OS, the ME Tablet is all set to unleash the world of global as well as special localised applications, enabling a converged solution for all mobile computing and entertainment needs.

HCL ME Tablet, available in three variants, is a converged powerhouse that is truly light and portable – HCL ME AE7 for the economy users, HCL ME AM7 for the mainstream users and HCL ME AP10 for the performance-preferred users. The new range of HCL ME Tablets will be power-packed with Indian content and integrated service with HCL Touch enabling a 24X7 one touch service facility.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Harsh Chitale, CEO, HCL Infosystems, said, “We are excited to launch the much awaited HCL ME Tablet. The HCL ME Tablet will be available to both individual and enterprise users with our award winning service and support network. We have put in significant amount of research to understand the Indian user need and have also further strengthened our backend systems to support the product through its lifecycle. We are confident that with our three decades of understanding of the Indian market and conditions, robust distribution and service support network, HCL ME Tablets will provide an Indian consumer some clear differentiators and add great value. HCL ME Tablets will also be India’s first range of devices with powerful localised content and applications backed by quality customer service.”

HCL Infosystems’ today has one of the largest service support network in the country with HCL Touch, reaching out to over 4000 towns with more than 500 HCL owned and manned service locations across the country with multilingual support in 11 vernacular languages. The company was recently also ranked #1 in the ‘IDC-DQ Survey on Customer Satisfaction’ for the third consecutive year. Apart from the nationwide support, the company will also be providing value added services like advance unit shipment to customer, onsite pickup and drop service, extension of warranty, annual maintenance coverage, express customer service and much more.

HCL ME Tablets will be available in stores in Delhi and will go national by end of March this year. The HCL ME Tablet range will start from Rs. 14990/- and go up to Rs. 32, 990/-.

Lilliput launches Spring-Summer 2011 Collection

New Delhi: Lilliput, a dominant player in the Indian Kidswear industry, has launched its Spring-Summer '11 Collection. The Collection epitomizes the mystic languor and bonhomie of beach towns in all their rustic chutzpah. The new collection is definitely a child's hideout for the Great Indian Summer.

The silhouettes, prints and embellishment patterns capture the myriad shades of the ocean, the frolic of the shimmering tempestuous turquoise waters, the freshness of tiny footprints in the sand, the mild scent of rustling coastal winds and the radiance of color flushed cheeks in sun kissed balmy days. The apparels are a vivacious blend of oceanic colours, creativity, comfort and fashion, available at all Lilliput and Lilliput World stores. The collection size ranges for the kids falling between the age group of 0 to12 years, at an average price of Rs. 450/-.

Offering a complete wardrobe, the little ones can choose the best styles of the season with exciting options in strappy sundresses, short button-me ups, bohemian skirts, classic vintage denims, brawny Bermudas, floral shirts & bright t-shirts teamed with matching accessories providing a complete stylish look. Keeping in mind the hot & sultry Indian Summers, Lilliput has used soft & summery fabrics like poplin, linen, seersucker, lustered twill, chambray and other wicking (perspiration relief) materials in honeycomb and basket weaves that not only ensures comfort but also provides style to the children.

For girls it's a sunny delight with collections like Polka Dots, Fun with Flowers, Peach Patch, Rosy Glow and Paisley Perfection. While for boys it's a tale of action and adventure with Surfing Carnival, Alien's Friend, Sports Boy, Monster Galaxy, Soccer Player and Discovery Boy. Infants get on the joyride bandwagon with Little Surfers, Bear & Friends, Safari, Monkey & Train and Words.

In addition to the Spring Summer Collection, the plush gowns from 'Glitterati' premium party wear collection will make your little darling turn into a Princess. The vibrant 'Everyday Essentials' range provides comfort to your kid at an affordable price starting from Rs. 125 onwards. So what are you waiting for, let your little boy and girl flaunt the stylish Lilliput Spring-Summer Collection this season.

Indians not as large hearted as Pakistanis, Shahid Afridi comments

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ISLAMABAD: Days after winning the hearts of numerous Indian fans with his remarks after his team's loss in the World Cup semi-final, Pakistan cricket captain Shahid Afridi has said Indians are not as large-hearted as Pakistanis. 

Afridi also slammed the Indian media for its "very negative approach" and said the Pakistani media was a "hundred times better" than its Indian counterpart. 

"In my opinion, if I have to tell the truth, they (Indians) will never have hearts like Muslims and Pakistanis. I don't think they have the large and clean hearts that Allah has given us," Afridi said during a talk show on Samaa news channel when he was asked about relations between the two countries. 

"It is a very difficult thing for us to live with them (Indians) or to have long-term relationship with them. Nothing will come out of talks. See how many times in the past 60 years we have had friendship and then how many times things have gone bad," he said as the audience in the TV channel's studio applauded him repeatedly. 

"We don't want to fight with each other but a third country - everyone knows which one it is - is trying to spoil our relations. (This country) is taking advantage of Pakistan and wants to take advantage of India. I don't want to go into details but these people will not let us come together," he added. 

Asked about the Indian media's coverage of the Pakistani team during the semi-final with India at Mohali on March 30, Afridi replied: "The Indian media has a very negative approach and very negative thoughts. The people may not be like that but I think the media had a very dirty role in spoiling relations between us and India. 

"Our media, which is criticised by people, is hundred times better than theirs," he said. 

India beat Pakistan in the semi-final, which was watched by the Prime Ministers of the two countries, who used cricket diplomacy to boost the peace process between the two sides. 

Afridi also criticised Interior Minister Rehman Malik for warning the Pakistani team not to get involved in match-fixing and Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir, who vowed to dedicate victory in the World Cup final to victims of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. 

"I think they were both very stupid comments by Rehman Malik and Gautam Gambhir...I wasn't expecting this from Gautam...This is all politics, what do you know about who carried out the Bombay attacks?" he said. 

The Mumbai attacks, which left 166 people dead, were carried out by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Officer’s Choice Whisky in a new Attire !

Blenders & Distillers Pvt. Ltd. (ABD), a Kishore Chhabria promoted company, had recently introduced a new packaging with the same refined taste for its flagship brand Officer's Choice. The brand will be available in a new look in the state of Rajasthan.

The new Officer's Choice bottle structure is stylish, elegant, assertive and easy to hold. The embossing at the back of the structure adds to the authenticity of the product and to its sensorial pleasure. The Label Graphics are premium, contemporary and stylish, with an evolutionary up gradation from the current label, so as to not alienate current consumers. The stylish crest also adds to the elegance of the label graphics and gives the brand character and finesse. The core identifiers of the current pack have been retained i.e. the Officers Choice font and the OC badge. Similarly, interplay of red, white, gold and black has been used, to bring in newness and also an element of familiarity.

Officers Choice is the fastest growing whisky brand in the country and is on a high growth trajectory, clocking a CAGR of 31% over the last 3 years. The new packaging has been introduced to bolster sales, increase market share and propel further growth whilst also meeting consumers' needs and aspirations. It aims to retain and energise the current franchise and also bring in drinkers of competing brands. The new packaging also endeavours to infuse the brand with youthful dynamism, a today's feel and a feeling of pride amongst existing and new consumers.

Says Mr. Deepak Roy, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, ABD, "Officer's Choice has enjoyed terrific growth over the past three years and is currently the fastest growing whisky brand in the country. This new and attractive bottle design, with its regal yet contemporary look, further reinforces the brand's quality and premium cues. It also increases visual impact and should ensure even greater appeal to its TG, while also attracting drinkers of competing brands. Rajasthan is one of our important leadership market and we are confident that our audience will not only appreciate but also enjoy this new look of Officer's Choice."

Says Roopak Chaturvedi, Director Sales and marketing "Modernizing with the changing world, we thus bring to you a 'new and improved' OC. The new design incorporates both traditional and contemporary elements, whist also reflecting the brand's core value of righteousness. We've decided to completely revamp the OC look and positioning in order to widen our market appeal and ultimately drive long-term and sustainable growth for the brand."

Citibank highlights “moments of success” for customers with new TVC

Citibank India has launched a new corporate TV campaign focused on the bank’s brand purpose which is creating “Moments of Success” for customers. This is the first time that the bank developed a corporate campaign which focused towards the Indian audience. Publicis Ambience has created the commercial, which has been timed to lead into Citibank’s fourth year of sponsorship of the DLF IPL.
Watch the TVC here (story continues below)
Speaking about the new campaign, Sanjeev Kapur, chief marketing officer, Citibank India said, “In the past, while we have launched a variety of product campaigns in India, this is the first corporate campaign we have developed exclusively for our India franchise. Our new campaign focuses on showcasing our brand purpose which is about working tirelessly to create the best outcomes for our clients. This is brought to life by showing a series of positive outcomes or 'moments of success' which highlight the many ways in which Citibank touches the lives of customers - be it individuals, their families, or institutions - and puts a smile on their face.”
On the thought behind the campaign, Kapur explained, “The new campaign is a key part of our phased customer-centric marketing strategy. In the middle of last year, we strengthened our visual differentiation by using our most impactful iconography manifested in a dominant blue vignette. Thereafter, we have invested in showcasing our best-in-class value propositions through a series of ‘Powered by Citi’ campaigns centered around the way our products and services power the success of individuals and institutions. Now, the new Moments of Success campaign expresses the emotional connect that Citibank has with clients in creating success and happiness in their everyday lives. Furthermore, it leads into our 4th Season as sponsors of the DLF IPL in which we already have an established Citibank Moments of Success platform.”

Elaborating on the creative brief, he added, “We were very clear that the campaign was not about any particular product or service. It needed to be from our clients’ viewpoint and must evidence the strong emotional connect that Citibank has with our clients’ everyday lives. Creatively, this was achieved by the agency’s use of the photosonic technique that helped amplify the moments of success that put a smile on our clients’ faces. Both the use of fresh talent and a memorable music score were also important aspects of the film.”
Ashish Khazanchi, national creative director, Publicis Ambience, said, “We identified certain interactions with customers which translated into a sense of happiness. We wanted to, in a sense, highlight the outcome of that transaction which creates happiness for customers and brings a smile to their face. In terms of execution, we did not want a typical advertising smile and wanted to capture it using a technique that would help amplify each smile.”
A specialist camera called Phantom that captures high speed shots at the rate of 4000 frames/second was used to shoot the campaign. Typically, this technique has been reserved to capture sports footage.
Credits:
Agency: Publicis Ambience
Client: Citibank India
Creative Team:
National creative director: Ashish Khazanchi
Creative director: Vivek Rao
Associate creative director: Siddhesh Khatavkar
Copywriter: Shreedavy Babuji
Account Management:
Associate vice president: Sameer Joshi
Associate account director: Megha Bagri
Account manager: Kalyani Murti
Account executive: Pratik Singhania
Films Department:
Films chief: Hozefa Alibhai,
Senior films manager: Istling Mirche
Director: Arun Gopalan
Production house: Storytellers India
Music score: Vipin Mishra 

The 3 Is of marketing today: Integration, Innovation, and the new Indian

L to R: Chander Sethi, Kainaz Gazder, Trevor Beattie, Sam Balsara, Michael Perschke, Shripad Nadkarni 

One of the points that generated laughs in the audience on day one of the 11th CII National Marketing Summit held on March 31, 2011, in Mumbai, was in a presentation by Shripad Nadkarni. The founder director of Market Gate Consulting presented a slide on the advertising of four apparel brands in India, and drew attention to how strikingly similar they were (indeed, when seen together, they were): Italian model with a 3-day stubble, standing at an angle of 15 degrees, shot in an international locale, and an “inane” tagline for the brand at the bottom.

The slide emphasised what was essentially the thought for the day: the need for newness in the way marketers think, because the consumer is changing. 

The two-day conference means to focus on issues relating to the needs and importance of the consumers, the manner in which their demand is picking up, and the importance of marketing strategies that respond to the changing and dynamic consumer demands unique to India. Sam Balsara, chairman and managing director of Madison World, is the chairman for of the CII summit this year.

Kicking off the session on “Integrated Marketing versus Advertising”, was Trevor Beattie, founder partner of BMB. He said, “The big idea is a myth. Instead, think of little ideas that will improve the big idea (If the wheel was the big idea, a suitcase with wheels is a little idea that takes it further).” He also expressed his distaste for the word “integrated”, calling it one of the most misunderstood words in advertising, like “branding”. It implied things looking the same, regardless of quality and content. Instead, he believed in “emotional integration” and integrity in the work presented to clients and to consumers. Kainaz Gazder, marketing director of Procter & Gamble, India, said that the acid test for a brand today is if the consumer is willing to share it – on social media or by talking about it. She spoke of work done on brands like Gillette that went beyond the traditional 30-second TVC, with the Women Against Lazy Stubble movement. Chander Sethi, managing director, Reckitt Benckiser India, said the biggest challenge is, “Do we understand what consumers really want in terms of latent future demand?” Specifically talking about digital, he agreed with an earlier point made by Gazder about the recent influence of the medium as seen in the Middle East, “If 12 guys can topple a government in 23 days, they can take your brand from a leader to zero in the same time.”

Michael Perschke, head of Audi India, said that for the luxury automobile brand, there was only so much a print ad could do; the marketing strategy was all about getting the consumer into the driver’s seat to experience the car. The brand also engages with 24 year old IIM and IIT graduates on Facebook and Twitter, because of their likelihood of considering the car after a few years. Nadkarni, citing the example of the apparel ads mentioned earlier, pointed out his grievances with current marketing strategies: obsession with industry logic, very few initiatives for the store and the website, and not having a digital strategy in place.

L to R: Aritra Sarkar, Devita Saraf, Shantanu Khosla, Tanya Dubash
 

The next session was about “Marketing to a new India”. Chaired by Shantanu Khosla, managing director of Procter & Gamble, the first speaker was Tanya Dubash, executive director and president (marketing), Godrej Group. She spoke of how brands should be willing to reinvent themselves, inspite of their legacy, and of the importance of creating a learning ecosystem, such as the India Culture Lab at Godrej, which aims to find a link between tradition, contemporary culture and design thinking. Devita Saraf, chief executive officer, Vu Televisions, said, “The new consumers are your kids.” Calling them “very knowledgeable, which can be scary for marketers” and “more likely to buy on recommendations from knowers”, she enumerated a few pointers for how marketers could keep up: get personal; make BTL 50 percent of your budget; invest in online ads, but don’t waste money there; don’t waste money on brand ambassadors (she later called Steve Jobs the best brand ambassador in the world because he made the product, so he knows it, and clearly uses it; Vijay Mallya was an example closer home); hire from the TG; keep your message simple and to the point; get scientific; don’t rehash your old brand, build a new one; modding is key; think Lalitaji in skinny jeans; and invest in design.

Aritra Sarkar, vice president – strategy, ABP Group, said the new consumer is like old wine in a new bottle. He said the challenge is to go beyond the urban consumer to the ones in Tier II, III towns and deep in the heartland. As India becomes more complex, with less homogeneity, it’s important to embrace the opportunities.

The “Innovation in marketing” session saw speakers like Dheeraj Sinha, chief strategy officer, Bates 141, Sanjay Purohit, country manager, Levi Strauss India, and Saugata Gupta, chief executive officer (consumer products), Marico. Sinha’s main points were: consumers don’t need innovation, marketers do; Indians buy because other people buy; not everything in India needs to be young; we have more young looking brands than brands for youth; and that access brands will get bigger than aspiration brands (he spoke of how Ujala’s imagery is a peek into the world of Surf). Purohit said that it is important to create ecosystems that encourage mini-entrepreneurship or risk taking. He reasoned that the reason the Bay Area in San Francisco, US (home to Google, Facebook and Apple), is a great place for innovation because it has people who believe in the power of ideas and an ecosystem that enables them to be brought to the market, backed by money, talent and role models. Gupta conjectured that innovation is usually done by “guys who haven’t gone through the complete education system in India, because exams here are all about mugging”. Shailesh Rao, managing director (media and platforms), APAC and Japan, Google, who was chairing the session, added that at Google, the benefit of “20-percent time” to work on projects other than what their job role entails, permits employees to come up with ideas like the Youtube Symphony Orchestra or write software that would aid the relief work for Japan’s earthquake and tsunami victims.