Manivannan Sadasivam

Areas Manivannan Sadasivam is Knowledgeable in:

Techniques Manivannan Sadasivam Uses:

Manivannan Sadasivam's Problem Solving Skills:

1. Key Account Management (esp Super Markets)
2. Business Strategy (Core Expertise in Consumer Marketing)
3. Business Turnarounds (of declining and loss-making business)
4. Gaining Competitive Advantage in Complex Markets
5. Rejuvenating Businesses in a recessonary environment
6. Branding/ Positioning
7. People Management (Sales-led Organizations)
8. Problem solving through 'bottom up' thinking
9. Quantitative modeling for Business Situations
10. Trade Marketing/ Channel Management

Manivannan Sadasivam's Problem Solving Experience:

1. Business Turnaround, Marketing Strategy and Motivating a large Network:
   
   Oral Care (Oral-B) portfolio for India & SW Asia:
   
   Results: Turned around a loss-making portfolio by growing PFO by over $900,000 within a year of taking charge.
   
   The Context:
   
   >> Oral-B is a 50 year old brand, and was the world leader in mechanical plaque removal (,ahead of even Colgate in value terms) in 2002.
   >> Oral Care typically contributed under 10% of Gillette's total business in most countries.
   
   Oral Care was just under seven years old in India (for Gillette) when it had already started declining-- an inexplicable situation for a brand with the strengths of Oral-B. At the point when I took charge as Business Manager, the portfolio was showing a negative of ~$1 million at PFO level, on a turnover of $5.3 million, ten months AFTER the launch of the flagship product Oral-B Exceed/ Cross-Action (the most advanced product in the market, technologically).
2. contd. from Solution 2
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   Other Observations:
   
   (1) Gillette as an organization, with its 'superior product' strategy in Grooming had a particularly weak approach to competitive categories.
   (2) Unlike Grooming, where men were the core target audience, the main decision maker and buyer for Oral Care was the Urban housewife.
   (3) The brand advertising strategy was in incoherent and discontinuous-- the brand had had theme advertising for the first two years in India, followed by promotional advertising with different brands being advertised in years 6 and 7 of the brand's presence in India.
   (4) The brand team based at London (which guided the India strategy) was attempting to fit statistical ideas centred on normal distribution curves to decide the price point strategy, instead of working with 'winning products at price points acceptable to consumers'
3. contd. from Solution 1
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   Market Characteristics:
   
   >> Overall low awareness for Oral Hygiene
   >> Low category development
   >> The toothpaste (chemical plaque removal) market was ~10 times the size of the toothbrush (mechanical plaque removal) market-- in the west the multiple is ~3.
   (Oral-B does not compete in mainstream toothpastes)
   >> All the other players incl Unilever had large stakes in toothpastes and had reasons not to advertise the relative importance of mechanical plaque removal in oral- hygiene (it is now generally accepted that mechanical plaque removal is far more important component in oral hygiene, with toothpaste mainly performing the role of a polishing agent)
   >> Competitors had large advertising budgets given their involvement with toothpaste-- they could count on 'rub-offs' to work for their toothbrush sales
   >> Gillette's value share of the the toothbrush market was less than 4% by volume and less than 10% at retail value.
4. contd. from Solution 3
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   (5) There were examples from other countries that in the absence of 'weight' through presence in toothpastes, Dentists' endorsement of Oral-B worked well for the brand-- eg. In Turkey, Oral-B had acquired leadership position in under 10 years through a programme Dentist- centric promotion strategy, with zero TV advertising.
   
   Now, its well known that serious brand turnarounds take years to achieve. But Oral-B had the advantage of being a top-end player, a segment where general awareness for Oral Care was higher and we were a small player in the market (yet).
   
   
   We made the following changes to the Marketing Strategy:
   
   (1) Decided to advertise only Oral-B Exceed, the most advanced product-- to establish our position at the very top end first.
   (2) Created a theme advertising strategy targeting the Urban housewife-- we used afternoon and non- peak hours to leverage advertising moneys better.
5. contd. from Solution 4
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   (6) Repositioned Oral-B Advantage as the largest selling toothbrush in the world (in value terms), with on- pack advertising and visibility in trade-- since this product was not advertised in the media
   (7) Reconfigured the (Retail and Wholesale) Distribution and Visibility strategy in a market with ~7 million toothbrush stocking outlets
   
   
   Heading the Oral Care brand team, there were further challenges to face-- the sales network (channels) were common to the three businesses of Gillette (Grooming, Portable Power and Oral Care). An 8% share of Gillette value thru' this network in an extremely competitive market and a declining business implied that the Sales force was extremely demotivated on this category and had 'defocused', adding to the burden on the brand team.
6. contd from Solution 5
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   But these were again presented to us with opportunities in terms of lower trade pipelines and other unexplored trade segments (This may not easily appeal to those trained in consumer markets in the west, but trade pipelines are important for tertiary sales(offtake) and market- share for a category that was treated like a semi-durable in a market with low category awareness).
   
   While the brand and advertising strategy would take at least 4- 6 months to bring in the planned buoyancy, we set about creating tactical changes. The number of activities being too numerous, I'm just stating two examples:
   
   (1) The Oral-B Ripple brand relaunch plan was being made when I joined and I immediately saw the opportunity for tripling the planned volumes; this meant changing several schedules and a staggered launch in the regions
   (but this is the kind of thing that happens when teams face declining sales-- they sub-consciously choose lower targets)
7. Key Account/ Super Market Management:
   (Relationship- building and Creative solutions)
   
   
   Organized Modern Retail trade entered the Indian market in the mid- ‘90s. I had the opportunity to lead Gillette India’s strategy and approach to these Super Stores.
   
   >> Working with limited resources compared to competition, we set industry standards on trading terms, relationship- building, category management, problem-solving and in-store visibility.
   >> We achieved best-in-the Industry in-store visibility without having to pay for display space.
   >> The trading terms we negotiated formed the basis for continued business growth as well as high margins for Gillette over a 10 year period.
   
   While organizations like P&G had invested far more than Gillette, had exclusive Key Account Executives and paid for display space too, they never nearly managed the kind of results Gillette achieved on visibility, innovation and category dominance.
8. contd from Solution 6
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   (2) I picked one trade segment-- towns with population below 100,000-- to demonstrate the possibilities on this category to the sales team as well as to the organization. In this segment, we did not have exclusive distributors and this was also an attempt by us to take a greater share of mind and resources of these distributors.
   We devised and launched the '200% Oral Care' programme, to double our (primary sales) volumes in this segment consistently over a period of 6 months, with programmes for secondary sales and offtake generators at trade. When the programme was first announced, the General (Sales) Managers for the regions revolted; but the programme was delivered with the kind of inputs the Gillette orgaization had not seen before (such as simultaneous launch conferences for distributors across 17 centres and other quality inputs)-- we weren't surprised when we hit 87% higher volumes than normal over the six month period.
9. contd from Solution 7
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   Results:
   
   With Sales teams, demonstration works far better than all the theory brand teams can muster. The success of this programme, coupled with the slow impact of the advertising and dentist endorsement programme brought the change in mind-set and buoyancy we sought.
   
   The Oral Care portfolio grew new profits by over $900,000 in 2002 and reached break-even, setting the stage for the launch of the 'power toothbrushes' in 2003 and the growth of the brand in India.
10. contd. from Solution 9
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    Results:
    
    Gillette was the 4th largest branded goods supplier for the Foodworld chain in 1999-- a significant achievement for a non- food category and one not emulated by Gillette in another country.
    
    Note that key accounts contributed less than 8% of the business for my division-- but we put in that extra special effort because we were miles ahead of Industry peers in visualizing the role of modern trade in the future. We were also probably the first to recognize that different chain stores worked with different business philosophies.
    
    I believe that the complex, time-consuming and painstaking negotiations we went thru’ to establish the right 'trading principles' in terms of margins as well as visibility standards in 1997, continued to help the organization after I moved on to another role at Gillette and probably benefits them till this date (unless P&G has taken a softer line after acquiring Gillette).