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The Abhishek Bachchan-starrer, Refugee, is yet to be released. But both media and movie-goers have been fed with a generous dose of what the movie is about, the behind-the-scenes stories, and even about papa Bachchan's anxious wait. Britney Spears, the American teen-pop icon, was recently in a Net chat-room, talking about her new album. And Virgin Records, which just launched Indipop singer Shaan's newest album Tanha Dil, hired the Mumbai-based pr agency, Buzz, to spread the word. The common thread? Buzz marketing seems to be gaining the industry's favour. Admits Archana Sadanand, 30, CEO, Buzz: ''We are in the business of creating the right buzz.'' On Buzz's roster of clients are Subhash Ghai's Mukta Arts, Merchant Ivory Productions, Anupam Kher's Voice Entertainment, and Shahrukh Khan's Dreamz Unlimited. Says Kher: ''The transnational onslaught will make things difficult if we do not professionalise.'' In a world where the producer is only as good as his last movie, buzz marketing can make all the difference between a mega hit and a spectacular flop. -Vinod Mahanta SURVEY Sensex, listen to this. India Inc.'s business confidence is soaring and stands at a five-year high now. A survey conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in March-April, 2000, shows a steep climb in its business confidence index. Having fallen to a low of 68.3 points in June, 1998, the index has bounced back to almost the December, 1995-high of 124.7 points. The rise in confidence is based on current performance. And, the expectation of increased profits are based, not on higher prices, but on better internal economies. Companies with a turnover between Rs 10 crore and Rs 500 crore are the most bullish. Among sectors, services was on a roll. Two-thirds of the firms polled in this sector anticipated better sales and profits. Optimism was high in the FMCG sector too, although it was marginally higher in the intermediate and consumer durables sectors. Worryingly, companies in the North seemed less confident. Their confidence index fell from 124.1 in January, 2000, to 101.5 in March-April, 2000. Points out Atul Sood, 39, co-leader of the NCAER project: ''Poor perception of state finances and infrastructure are to blame.'' The other three regions, however, were soaring. Corporate India should be wearing a smile when the real millennium dawns. Aparna Ramalingam T A X A T I O
N Want a cheap smoke? Go north-east, where there are plans to produce 186 billion sticks annually at an investment of Rs 1,400 crore. The reason? A 10-year Excise duty waiver to new cigarette units in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura. And industry leaders ITC and Godfrey Phillips are in the race to get there first. The tax sop, announced last year, was intended to boost industrial activity in the North-East. But with cigarette units rushing in, the government faces a dilemma. For, cigarette-makers constitute the single biggest Excise duty paying segment, contributing Rs 8,100 crore in 1999-2000. But, repeated hikes in Excise and sales tax have taken a heavy toll. Sales declined 4.1 per cent last year over 1998-99. And projection claim that sales will decelerate competitions by 5 per cent this year. The government fears that most of the cigarette production will now shift to the north-east. Ironically, individual cigarette makers themselves are worried about their exodus to the north-east's cheaper climes. They have petitioned the government to check the transfer of licences from states elsewhere to the north east. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. -Rakhi Mazumdar I N T E R N E
T There could be a new nerd on the block: your grandma. Breaking the Net's language barrier, a Pune-based company, Mithi.com, has launched a free on-line service that lets you send e-mail in 11 Indian languages, including Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, and Bengali. Called Mailjol, the service is based on open standards which allow it to communicate with other systems. As soon as you log onto www.mailjol.com and register yourself as a user, the software is downloaded onto your PC. A user interface dialogue box pops up on the screen, which specifies the local language equivalent of English phonetics. For example, if you want to type 'mera' (my or mine) in Hindi, just key in 'm-e-r-a' using the English keyboard, and the Hindi word for it gets displayed. Once you send an e-mail, the receiver gets a notification, and on clicking on the link, he is taken to the mailjol.com homepage, where he can read it in the language it was written. Says Tarun Malaviya, 32, Mithi's CEO: ''Three days after our launch, we had 3,000 users.'' The flipside: your mom's nagging won't be restricted to the occasional visits home. -Roop Karnani M A R K E T I
N G Shoppers at Chennai's FoodWorld supermarket in April, 2000, were greeted by bright orange and red packs beaming from the racks. No, it wasn't a new chocolate. Rather, it was Procter & Gamble's (P&G) 54-year-old best-selling detergent, Tide. The brand has joined forces with the company's Ariel in taking on arch-rival Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL). FoodWorld only happens to be P&G's chosen vehicle of launch. P&G's research expects the product to catch on quickly. By May, tide detergent was available nationally. Says Sailesh Jejurikar, 33, Director (Marketing), P&G: ''The launch of Tide in India is an outcome of the Speed, Innovation, & Stretch concept which is indicative of P&G's global re-organisation.'' In sync with its US platform, the brand is targeted at quality-conscious households, and is sold in India in pack-sizes of 200 gms, 500 gms, and 1 kg, priced at Rs 30, Rs 68, and Rs 120, respectively. Tide, with a 36 per cent marketshare in the US, carries a premium since it is generally accepted as the world's most innovative detergent brand. Since its launch in 1946, Tide has had many firsts to its credit. In 1968, Tide was the first US detergent to break down protein and carbohydrate stains. By 1996, it was sold with grease-releasers, a Carezyme technology to reduce fuzzing and colour-fading. Today, P&G has a huge range of Tide products. In India, P&G will showcase Tide on television with the punchline, Tide, The Detergent The World Trusts. It has roped in talkshow host Shekhar Suman to push the product on the small screen. In response, HLL has launched Surf Excel Liquid. Priced above Tide at Rs 85 for 500 ml, Surf Excel Liquid is being marketed on the tough-stain-remover plank. No matter who wins in the end, it promises to be a frothy battle. -Shamni Pande R E T A I L I
N G Feeling bored, want to read something, or just day-dream with a cup of coffee at your elbow? Don't hit the sack. Walk over to a coffee pub. There are three in Delhi, courtesy the Java Coffee Company (JCC), which operates the coffee-chain Barista. And Chennai has two, called Qwiky's, launched by Chimayo Chains, with a licence from Qwiky Corp. of the US. Coffee pubs, like Starbucks in the US, could be the next big thing in Retail India. Between themselves, Chimayo and Java plan to open 19 (12 will be Chimayo's) by end-2000. At an average investment of Rs 50 lakh apiece, these pubs don't just sell coffee, they sell an experience-and assorted merchandise. Says Edwin Paul, 30, Head (Operations), Chimayo Chains: ''Coffee is the single biggest common denominator to be found among Indians.'' And, potentially, a huge one. According to JCC, the national per capita coffee consumption is just seven cups. Both companies are vying to position their chains as places where people can go to just hang out. And nobody is going to frown if you don't order a cup. Given the huge variety, you'd be crazy not to though. For instance, Barista sells more than 50 varieties of coffee, and Qwiky's has 30 on its menu, which can be stirred into 101 different varieties. The prices range from as low as Rs 15 (at Barista) to as much as Rs 101 (at Qwiky's). Says Jayant Kochar, 40, CEO, JCC: ''What we are trying to create is an ambience similar to that of an Italian neighbourhood bar.'' In fact, the Italian word Barista means the friendly neighbourhood bartender, who knows his customers by their first names, and is privy to all their family gossip. And if you thought few Indians would bother going to a pub for coffee, think again. Barista gets nearly 2,000 visitors every day at its three outlets, and Qwiky's sells 700-odd cups a day. It may be a virtual world, but you still can't do without a reality portal. -R. Sridharan
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