ISSUE 20 – Smoothing the Way Forward

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Orange Disc - Issue 20

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This issue offers professional advice on how to win in a downturn and gives insight into Gulf's efforts in Youth Marketing

Foreword

Ravi Chawla - President of Lubricants Division, Gulf Oil Corporation Ltd. India

As we look back at the last year, the one word that comes to mind is ‘unprecedented'.

At Gulf Oil India (like others worldwide) we face challenging times, as we witness demand shrinkage across products, slow or zero growth in lubes - especially in the Commercial Vehicle sector that accounts for nearly half of India's automotive lubricants - as well, of course, as competition from price-led brands.

The saying that ‘In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity' has been adopted as our mantra in Gulf Oil India for this year, as we undertake the tasks of growing our market share and sales faster than our competition, as well as of building our brand in these challenging times.

In addition to streamlining costs, we are pursuing our core strategies even more diligently than ever, to retain our share in the ‘New Gen' (15W-40) diesel engine oil market (as the no. 2 player) and aggressively outperform our competition in the MCO sector (we grew 30 % last year to increase our market share by 1.4 %).

We have taken on these tasks by:

Fine tuning the KRAs of our team to increase focus and inspire & energise them
Developing closer contacts with our customers via customised loyalty programs & BTL activities
New initiatives like setting up a ‘Fleet Business Vertical' - which is based on the strength of a personalised B to B selling model, offering superior technology (THE BEST in India) and a more reliable/cost-effective supply model
Pursuing new segments like Construction (which is still growing), Agriculture and Telecoms.
Entering into a major brand/marketing tie-up with ‘Cricket' through Gulf Oil's recent partnership with one of the leading teams in this year's Indian Premier League (IPL), - the KINGS XI Punjab - that has dominated television viewing for over a month.

People are the most important asset. To arm them ‘to sell with an EDGE' we are supporting them with more focused BTL support activities, in selected high potential/low market share districts.

We are the world's largest nation in terms of youth population. Youth of India is nearly 40 % of our population and it's cricket and sport crazy. We are tackling both areas with a number of activities, such as the cricket tie-up, Motorsports like the Gulf Dirt Track and we have plans to leverage our association with Aston Martin Racing events. The youth connection is a key that will open the doors to millions of users of car and motorcycle products in times ahead.

Our endeavour to increase share in the PCMO market, by taking some from Castrol, is about to take-off & will also help us to move up the value chain.

We are confident that all these actions will put us on the ‘front-foot' as they say in cricketing terms and will secure our visions of becoming a top three brand in India and of truly building our great brand around our core values of Care, Courage, Endurance, Inspiration & Youth.

Our best wishes to all our Gulf colleagues across the world for this year. Thanks to all of you for your support.