Pick up anything for Rs 65,'' screams the banner outside a makeshift shop that's selling everything from electronic toys to moulded chairs to footwear at Lajpat Nagar, a shoppers' borough in Delhi. Welcome to one of the hundreds of ''Chaay-na" bazaars hoping to cash in on the low-cost image of Chinese products. ''Not all products are made-in-China. Most of them are produced in and around Delhi,'' admits Gaurav Mishra, a China Bazaar entrepreneur. The formula for the quick buck is simple: scrounge the wholesale markets for cheap deals and hire a place for two-weeks. The products can be Chinese imitations, the B-model isn't.

-T.R. Vivek

SIDE EFFECT
Boom Checks In

Hotel industry: Something to cheer about

The rise of call centres isn't cheering young graduates alone. Hotels too-at least the ones in Bangalore-are singing hosannas of the new industry. Why? According to estimates, 15 to 20 per cent of the 1,100 five-star rooms in the garden city have been taken up by foreign voice and technical trainers. These long-stay guests have made room vacancy in the city drop to record low. Says Pep Kumar, General Manager, Taj Westend: ''Typically, these guests stay with us for anywhere between six weeks and six months.'' In appreciation, most hotels reward them with 25 to 30 per cent discount on rack rates and significant discount on other services like food and beverages, laundry, and telecom. Despite the rush, the local industry is wary of adding capacity, thanks to the new geo-political uncertainty. Meanwhile, if you are travelling to Bangalore, book in advance.

-Venkatesha Babu

The Other Korean War
Who won: The official sponsor or the ambush marketer?

Rs 150 crore: That's their World Cup ad-spend

Cricket first or India first? Actually, it was money first. as consumer durable makers embark on the task of auditing the bang for their WC-ad bucks it has become clear that there is a direct linear relationship between the amount a company is willing to spend and returns in terms of immediate sales, the trapping of official status be damned.

LG, the company with the official status, spent close to Rs 75 crore on Cricket's biggest event. Samsung, despite restrictions surrounding the use of Indian cricketers in its ads-the result of an ICC effort to curb ambush marketing-burned close to that amount, some Rs 70 crore. And while Samsung expects its March 2003 sales to be around the 100,000 mark, television industry execs claim LG (the company wouldn't speak to Business Today) would do around the same.

Being sponsor has its advantages-and we are not talking about a mention in ICC President Malcolm Gray's speech at the end of the tournament. By the end of the World Cup, LG boasted a 54 per cent spontaneous ad recall among consumers across eight metros according to an A.C. Nielsen study. Samsung did 37 per cent. Still, that could well be a function of better advertising, not an official status.

-Shailesh Dobhal

Bollywood's 'Hit'
A cold box office is hurting Hindi film music sales.

The downturn in global music sales (down from $34-billion in 2001 to $31-billion last year) seems to have swept the Indian shores as well. The Rs 1,040-crore Indian music industry, dominated by Hindi film music, has reported a 23 per cent drop in sales. Piracy (which accounts for nearly 30 per cent in lost sales) and higher acquisition costs apart, what seems to have hit Indian industry the hardest is a weak performance by Bollywood in 2002. With the box-office anything but hot in the first three months of 2003, predictions are of no growth this year. A revival is expected only around 2005. Shah Rukh had better get back.

-Swati Prasad

GULP
Fall Brands

Anytime people in India go bashing the US, it's the country's two most visible brands that get the most stick. No wonder, then, that recently when the Andhra Pradesh-based People's War Group wanted to protest against the American attack of Iraq (don't ask what PWG has to do with international politics), they blew up a godown each of Pepsi and Coke in two different locations in the state. May be the cola companies should start sending the repair bills to the White House.

Why Everyone Likes Biscuits

Wondering why the cookie refuses to crumble when the entire fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) market is gasping for growth? Here's our take: differentiation in terms of product variants (chocolate chips and cream wafers are just the tip of the iceberg) and aggressive distribution by mid-sized players like Priya Biscuits may have helped, but the real reason for the double digit volume growth in this category-and you'd better believe this-is the pack.

No other category has adapted itself to smaller pack sizes-something consumers prefer when things aren't going too well with the economy at large-better than biscuits. ''There are 47 pack sizes in the biscuit market and a significant number (8) of large pack sizes have been discontinued in the past two-three years,'' says Sujit Das Munshi, Vice President & Executive Director (Retail Measurement Services), A.C. Nielsen ORG-MARG. And most new launches come in small sizes. Repeat after us: small is...

-Shailesh Dobhal