LONDON SCHOOL OF COMMERCE

COLOMBO CAMPUS SRI LANKA

MBA FOR EXECUTIVES

MODULE ASSIGNMENT: Marketing Management

Student Name

Lakna Weerakoon

Student Registration No.

0020CHHCHH1214

Module Lecturer

Mr.Anand Walser

Module Tutor

Ms. Nilusha Gallage

Date Submitted

07th May 2015

Total Word Count

5040 words

Executive Summary
Harischandra is a seventy years renowned brand name for the natural and nutritious products.
The profit generated for year 2014 is hundred and seventy two million seven hundred and twenty
seven rupees. Furthermore, the company is dealing with products such as soaps, coffee, noodles,
gingelly rolls, coconut vinegar, instant products, flour, papadam, pickles and kithul trickle. The
products and product range is basically stick in to the identity of Sri Lankan culture.Currently,
Harischandra is the market leader for noodles, coffee, kurakkan flour, ulundu flour and has a
satisfactory market share for rice flour, laundry soap and blue washing soap(Annual Report,
2014 ,p 5).In this report the fuel and lubricant products are not consider in to the account which
belongs to HarischndraMills distribution Ltd.
Noodles are very popular product among the kids in Sri Lanka. But more than Harischandra,
Maggie and Prima havegain more attraction of youth and working people because of its shape,
size, and physical structure and packs size. Considering the time factor, mothers cook instant
noodles which have mini packs for their children to eat in the school. However, busy people are
also going for competitors noodles products to save their time.
When considering about current situation, people are paying more attention on the healthy and
fast cook products due to their busy life styles. Therefore, it is a solution to introduce instant rice
noodles which completes the balance diet requirements and suits to busy life styles. Further,
Harischandra has good reputation of giving natural and nutrition food products over the seven
decades of period and also most of the competitors are manufacturing the wheat flour noodles
and it is a deviation to Sri Lankan life style. Sri Lankans are used to have rice and curry for all
three meals. Hence, developing a product which suits to customer expectation would help to
capture high market share by targeting people who have busy life styles including university
students and health conscious people. Working women are targeted as mother will select the
foods for their children and other family members. Additionally, the packaging sizes are planned
to be changed to the scale of one person, two people, four people and six people.
The marketing campaign is proposed to develop based on cricket and select Kumar Sangakkara
as a popular cricket star to do the promotions campaign. Other than that, scratch and win offers,
Money back offers and Sponsor for school quiz and inter school cricket matches can make the
1

awareness of the product. The targeted segment is less price sensitive to obtain the quality
product which suits to their busy life styles. Therefore, premium is the pricing strategy which
creates company to provide different pricing strategies.Harischandra Noodles products are easily
can find in traditional groceries and supermarkets. The estimated budget for the implementation
is three million rupees. The expectation is to achieve twenty five percent of market share for the
product within three years of launch.

Table of Contents
No.

Title

Page No.

1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................5
2.0 Situational Analysis...................................................................................................................6
2.1 Internal Environment.............................................................................................................6
2.2 External Environment............................................................................................................8
2.3. SWOT Analysis..................................................................................................................13
2.4 Marketing opportunity.........................................................................................................14
3.0 Marketing Objectives...............................................................................................................15
4.0. Marketing Strategy.................................................................................................................15
4.1 Market Segmentation...........................................................................................................15
4.2. Target Market......................................................................................................................16
4.3. Value proposition................................................................................................................17
5.0. Marketing Mix........................................................................................................................17
6.0. Implementation.......................................................................................................................23
6.1. Marketing Action Plan........................................................................................................24
7.0. Customer Experience..........................................................................................................23
8.0. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................24
9.0 References................................................................................................................................25

List Of Tables
No.

Title

Page No.

Table 2.1:Barriers to entry...............................................................................................................4

Table 2.2:Rivalries for products.......................................................................................................6
Table 4.1: Market Segmentation16
Table 6.1: Marketing Action Plan..24

List Of Figures
No.

Title

Page No.

Figure 2.1: Product Life Cycle(Botha, 2012)..................................................................................7

Figure 5.: Product Life Cycle...18
Figure 5.2:Distribution channel for Harischandra noodles20
Figure 5.3: Product Advertisement23
Figure 6.1:Marketing Budget.24

1.0 Introduction
Harischandra name was born over seventy years ago at the down south area as a house hold
brand name. It is a renowned name for the natural and nutritious products over seven decades in
customers mind. The profit generated for year 2014 is hundred and seventy two million seven
hundred and twenty seven rupees. Furthermore, the company is dealing with products such as
soaps, coffee, noodles, gingerly rolls, coconut vinegar, instant products, flour, papadam, pickles
and kithul trickle. The products and product range is basically stick in to the identity of Sri
Lankan culture. Currently, the company is the market leader for noodles, coffee, kurakkan flour,
ulundu flour and has a satisfactory market share for rice flour, laundry soap and blue washing
soap (Annual Report, 2014,p 5). In this report the fuel and lubricant products are not considered
in to the account which belongs to Harischandra Mills distribution Ltd.
When considering about the buying behavior of customers, it shows that most of the young
people and young adults are not much aware with the Harischandra product range. Because all
the marketing tools, identity of the product and product range is basically focuses on adults.
Therefore, introduce a product which is targeting the teenagers and young people would make
more profits to the organization. These days people are paying more attention on the healthy and
fast cook products due to their busy life styles. Therefore, introducing instant rice noodles which
completes the balance diet requirements and suits to busy life style is an opportunity for
Harischandra, because of their good reputation of giving natural and nutrition food products over
the seven decades of period. Furthermore, most of the noodles manufacturers are dealing with
the wheat flour but Sri Lankan culture has designed to eat rice for all three meals. Hence,
Harischandra products can get the opportunity of providing instant rice noodles which suits to Sri
Lankan culture.

2.0 Situational Analysis

Situational analysis will critically review where are we now and the analysis will identify the
companys strengths weaknesses, external opportunities and threats (Vrontis and Thrassou ,2006,
p.134).
2.1 Internal Environment
BCG Matrix
BCG matrix will categorize the companys product requirements in terms of impending cash
requirements and cash expenditure requirements.
BCG Matrix
Market share

High

High

Low

Stars

Question marks

Cofee

Pickles

Flour

Papadam

Noodles

Kithultreackle
Instant products
Soaps

Low

Cash cows

Dogs

Coconut vinegar
Gingelly Rolls
Market growth

In the short term basis coffee, flour, instant products and Noodles require a capital expenditure to
maintain the market position, but these products can generate high returns in the future.
Harischandra is the only kurakkan flour manufacturer in Sri Lanka. With the time stars will
become cash cows and cash cows can be used to finance the starts.
Pickles, papadam and kithul treackle are in the category of question marks. The instant products
have the issue of competition among the rivals and they step down because of the easiness of the
competitors product. Under the instant products Harischandra is providing string hopper flour
(red, white) and it should mixed with the hot water and the competitors product should mix with
the normal water. Hence, customers are more prefer with the competitors product. Moreover, the
product should develop to compete or should allow dying.
Coconut vinegar, gingelly rolls and soaps are in the category of dogs. Harischandra is providing
handmade gingelly rolls provided only to own two outlets and supermarkets only. Therefore,
sales are not at a considerable level.
Product life cycle

Figure 2.1: Product Life Cycle(Botha, 2012)

The Company is introduced in the year of 1943 with the initial capital of twenty five thousand
rupees. The activities conducted in the company was milling of rice, kurakkan and other grains.
Initial sales are used to expand the business by adding new premises and equipment.
Growth stage has started in the year 1952 by expanding into various fields including the milling
of coconut oil. Sales has been increased rapidly when the brand name get popular among the
early majority. In this stage company has generated the improvement of profit development.
In year 1983, company has started to position in the maturity stage and in the same year it has
listed in the Colombo stock exchange. Currently, Harischandra mills PLC is in its stage of
maturity for long span of time period. Additionally, the company is the market leader for
noodles, coffee, kurakkan flour, ulundu flour and has a satisfactory market share for rice flour,
laundry soap and blue washing soap.
2.2 External Environment
Porters five forces
Barriers to entry
Entry barrier is not so high, when it consider as individual product such as soaps, coffee,
noodles, gingelly rolls, coconut vinegar, instant products, flour, papadam, pickles and kithul

trickle. There are no special rules and regulations for the entry in to these markets. There is a
high level of threat from new entrance of multinational companies.
Table 2.1:Barriers to entry
Product

Barriers to entry

Reason

Soaps

Medium

The machines and considerable level of

capital is required.

Coffee

Medium

It needs considerable capital to run in large

scale. But still enough suppliers can find to
start a business.

Noodles

Medium

It needs capital to invest for machines and

staff.

Gingelly rolls

low

Small scale, self-employed people are

highly engage with this business.

Coconut vinegar

low

As a self-employment, homemade coconut

vinegar is prepared and can start with a less
capital.

Instant products

Medium

Considerable capital is required for

machines and staff.

Flour

Medium

Considerable capital is required for

machines.

Papadam

low

Very less capital is required.

Pickles

low

As a self-employment, homemade pickles

are prepared and very less capital is
required.

Kithul trickle

Medium

Suppliers are less compared to other

product items.

Bargaining power of suppliers is high for products such as coffee, gingelly rolls, coconut
products, instant products, flour, and kithul trickle. The reason for the high demanding of
9

supplier is because of the low barriers to entry. Furthermore, because of the rivalry in the market
suppliers has more bargaining power.
The threat from substitute is different for different products and for some of the products have no
substitutes that exists. In the current scenario the products such as soaps are more consumed by
the adults, because of the influence of substitute such as face washes and body scrubs are more
consumed by young people. Sri Lankans basically use tea as a substitute for coffee and in some
of the situations soft drinks also count to the account as a substitute. Furthermore, Nestea and
Nescafe are playing a prominent role in the market as a substitute for coffee. Sri Lankans
basically depend on rice for all three meals but for the breakfast and special occasions, people
are more practiced in to use noodles or instant products which can use to make string hoppers,
hoppers, ulundu wade and thosei. Gingelly rolls are considered as a traditional sweetmeat for Sri
Lankans and sweetmeats like milk toffee and pol toffee are playing the role of the substitute. Bee
honey and pol paney (coconut honey) are the Sri Lankan substitute for Kithul trickle.
Bargaining power of customers is high for the products such as soaps, coffee, noodles, Gingelly
rolls and pickles. Customers have the variety of imported and local brands to select the most
prominent and suitable product to consume. The main supplier for the final customer is retail
super markets chains such as Cargills food city, Arpico super centers and keels super markets.
The rivalries among existing firms are become strong in the point of individual product wise.
Table 2.2:Rivalries for products
Soaps

Hemas manufacturing (Pvt.) Ltd., Unilever Sri

Lanka, Vendol Lanka Co Ltd., Ceylon natural
and organic enterprise- steward MFG (Pvt.)
Ltd., energy , Swadeshihearbel industrial (Pvt.)
Ltd., Barakath Essential Ayurvedic Export
Products.

10

Coffee

Nestle
Raigam

Lanka
Marketing

PLC,

Services

(Pvt.)

Ltd.,

Unilever liptonceylon ltd, Hansa Ceyloncoffee

(Pvt.) Ltd., Jaykay marketing services (Pvt.)
Ltd, Island coffee (Pvt) Ltd.
Noodles

Nestl

Lanka

MDK

Food

Product

PLC,
(Pvt)

Ltd.,

Prima Ceylon Limited, Delmege Forsyth &

Co. Ltd., Raigam Marketing Services (Pvt.)
Ltd.,

Gingelly rolls

Nikado

Group

Gingally

rolls-

of

Companies.

Harischandra

Mills

PLC,Samagi product, Risirasa sweets, Uma

thalakarali
Coconut vinegar

ThambapanniCocos

(Pv.t)

Ltd.,

CICAgri

Produce Exp. (Pvt.) Ltd., Lanka Canneries

Ltd., C. D. de silva and sons Pvt Ltd.
Instant products

Prima

Ceylon

Limited,

AigamMarketing

Services (Pvt.) Ltd., Cargills (Ceylon) PLC,

Delmage Forsyth & Co. Ltd., East west foods,
Jaykay marketing services(Pvt.) Ltd., Plenty
foods

Flour

(Pvt.)

Ltd.

Lanka Canneries Ltd., Prima Ceylon Limited,

Raigam Marketing Services (Pvt.) Ltd., MDK
food products (Pvt.) Ltd.,Allicompany (Pvt.)
Ltd., Serendib flour mills (Pvt.) Ltd., MC tit
associates, Convenience foods Lanka (Pvt.)
Ltd.
11

Papadam

Elephant papadam co. (Pvt.) Ltd., Nikado

Group of Companies, Alli company (Pvt.) Ltd.,
Jaykaymarketing

Pickles

services

(Pvt.)

Ltd

Food (Pvt.) Ltd, Enrich Tea & Food Exports

(Pvt.)

Ltd.,Lanka

Canneries

Ltd.,

Vinegarforbes and walker fine foods, hock

seng food(Pvt.) Ltd., East west foods (Pvt.)
Ltd., Agro SevillaAceitunas Coop.
Kithul trickle

Enrich Tea & Food Exports (Pvt.) Ltd., Lanka

Canneries

Ltd.,Cargills

(Ceylon)

PLC,Edinborough products (Pvt) Ltd., CBL

canneries (Pvt.) Ltd., Ceylon kithul institute
(Pvt.) Ltd.
PESTEL Analysis
The political scenario of Sri Lanka is going through some changes and after the period of post
war in Sri Lanka. Because of the power obtained by the political parties, politicians are
interfering with the businesses in order to change the policies or to stop the operations.
Politically, ecological and environmental issues are impact to the mills which produce the coffee
and flour. Other than that, Harischandra soap manufacturing factories also have the impact of
that. But when compared with the other entities in the country it is a very less amount of
influence that effects to the Harischandra mills plc.
The Economic factors are basically consisting with the income level of Sri Lanka is growing fast
and the country is having a growing GDP from year to year. In the year 2012 country has a 6.3
percent GDP growth rate and 2013 it has a 7.3 percent growth rate (Central Bank of Sri Lanka
2014, p1). Furthermore, in the year 2014 there is a 4.4 Percent unemployment rate in the country.

12

As a social factor, Sri Lanka has a high literacy rate which is 95.6 percent and 0.8 percent
population has increase during the period of 2012 to 2013. The life expectancy rate of the
country is 75 years which is close figure to the developed countries life expectancy span.
Country has 53.8 percent total active participate labour force and quality of life style is
increasing as the purchasing power is also increasing. Poverty head count ratio is 12.8 percent
and 50.2 percent of the total poor population in Sri Lanka is less than 25 years of age
(Department of Census and statics 2009/2010)
Currently, the environmental factors have high impact on organizational actions. The importance
of environmental policies is increasing and the sustainability practice has created the value inside
the entity. Harischandra mills PLC is joined with the business and biodiversity platform to
contribute to the conservation of bio diversity and natural resources of Sri Lanka (Harischandra
mills PLC, 2015).
The technology is a really important factor which leads the development of the products. In
Harischandra mills PLC, in every five years they change their vehicles and not only that, all the
quality assurance and quality control people look for the technological aspects of the business.
Moreover, Huge amount has invested to keep upgrade the technological level in the business.
Additionally, all the machines are keep upgrading and they take steps to train the staff with new
equipment and machines. However, the amount and the commitment used for the research and
development are not at a satisfactory level. All the manufacturing works are conducted in the
Matara district and now its not an issue of not locating in the capital of Sri Lanka because
southern highway is completely finished with its work and transportation is not a big issue.
Legal conditions have a high influence on the organizations operational scenario for the long
term basis. Sri Lanka has a very complex legal system which is highly mixed with the several
law systems. In the recent period of time Sri Lanka has many significant changes in its legal
system which effect to the organizations behavior. After the introduction of legislations related
to increase in minimum wages, age and disability discrimination, a greater requirements for
firms to recycle are directly impacts to the organizations operating process (Scribd , 2015)
Furthermore, under the Sri Lankan labour law it has clearly specify the age limits , working
hours , prohibition of child labour and industrial safety. These legislations have more impact with
legal factors in the operations of Harischandra mills PLC.
13

2.3. SWOT Analysis

Harischandra is a pioneer brand name of Sri Lanka over the seven decades of time period. Sale
of food products has increased by 1.5 percent and operations profit has increased by 55 percent
comparing to lower input cost. Soap sales have increased by 17.8 percent and that has resulted to
3.7 million rupees of profit. The emotional relationship with the customer for providing natural
and nutrition products with the Sri Lankan identity is a positive factor to company. Customer
loyalty for the brand is directly bonded with the emotional factors which provide the brand
loyalty. Moreover, the country-wide strong distribution channel is work as strength to the
company. All the products are unique to the organization and wide product range such as soaps,
instant products (string hoppers, kurakkan thosai mix, hopper mix, thosai mix), coffee, Flour
(rice flour, ulunduflour,kurakkan flour) , Noodles , Papdam, pickles, gingelly rolls, kithul trickle
and coconut vinegar makes customer more convenient to stay with Harischandra name.
Organization runs without a single loan issued from a bank or financial institute. All the premises
vehicles, machines and staff is completely operate through cash in hand concept. Therefore, the
risk occurs from liabilities are very low. Other than that artificial preservatives and flavors are
not added to the products, that to provide the natural quality.
Harischandra is not providing strong marketing campaigns which targets to youth of the society.
The basic advertising campaigns are conducted by neglecting the youth in the society and that
will negatively impact to the products like noodles and coffee. Most of the product features are
remaining constant from the introduction stage of the product life cycle. The products only have
limited number of scales which can lead negative impact to the organization in a long term
period. The paid attention for product development is not satisfied with the identity of the
organization.
When consider about the current trends and situation of the country, there is indeed opportunity
for Harischandra to introduce new products and enter to new market which influenced by
international trade. The new segments like kids, youth and working women are available for
Harischndra to go for repositioning or launching of a new product. The trend of having
convenience food level is going upwards due to the busy life style of the people. Moreover,
people are looking for healthy products which fulfill the natural and nutrition requirements.
Unexploited rural market is available for Harischandra to introduce their name and product
14

range. The level of countrys income is increasing and that will make positive impact on
customer buying behavior.
The new entry to the market is very high from the individual product basis and it is a threat to the
organization. Moreover, well known international products are also entering to the market and
create highly competitive market condition for some of the products such as, noodles, coffee and
flour. The high end marketing campaigns organized by competitors such as Maggie, Prima and
Nescafe is a threat to the organization in long term process. Additionally, the changes in the
government will introduce the new rules and will make the amendments to the existing rules and
regulation will make organization to change its policies.
2.4 Marketing opportunity
Foods come with noodles category are very popular product among the kids in Sri Lanka. But
more than Harischandra, Maggie and Prima has more youth attraction because of its shape, size,
and physical structure and packs size. These days people are paying more attention on the
healthy and fast cook products due to their busy life styles. Therefore, introducing instant rice
noodles which completes the balance diet requirements and suits to busy life style is an
opportunity for Harischandra, because of their good reputation of giving natural and nutrition
food products over the seven decades of period. Furthermore, most of the noodles manufactures
are dealing with the wheat flour but Sri Lankan culture has designed to eat rice for all three
meals. Hence, Harischandra meals can get the opportunity of providing instant rice noodles
which suits to Sri Lanka.

3.0 Marketing Objectives

Marketing objective reveals what the business wants to achieve from its marketing actions. Its
important to obtained marketing objectives to support the overall business objectives.

To increase company sales by 20% by 2016.

To launch instant rice noodles 2015-2016.
To achieve a market share of 25% for instant rice noodles within three years of launch.
To establish new modern trade channel during 2015/2018.
To increase the percentage of customers who rate product quality is excellent by
5%.within one year.
15

4.0. Marketing Strategy

Segmentation in the marketing refers grouping various customers into segment that reflects
common need or they will similarly respond to the marketing action. Furthermore, the strategy of
dividing the group of consumers or segment in a homogeneous group with distinct needs and
wants is called segmentation (Goyat, 2011). After segmenting, business will choose the group
which they want to enter. Companies must decide precisely how and where in targeted segment
to aim product or products and brand or brands. (Dibb and Warwick, 2007, p.7). After
conducting the targeting, positioning is conduct to develop the product image in the consumers
mind. In some of the cases it can also include improving customers to choose the product or
service.
4.1 Market Segmentation
Market is segmented in to age, eating habits and Life Style. Age is a factor which should
consider for noodles products. Basically Harischandra is providing a family pack which is
suitable for main meal. But after considering the busy life style of different age groups, the size
of the package, product appearance and flavor should be changed. Additionally, according to the
eating habits and life style of the people , cooking time, flavor, ingredients and pack size has to
be varied.
4.2. Target Market
Primary target market is people who have busy life styles including, working people, and
university students. Other than that Youth and kids are also targeted because kids and youth are
more convenient of eating instant products than eating rice and curry for all three meals. Working
women are giving their priority for time saving and healthy products due to their busy life styles.
Therefore, their children and other family members have to go for her choice.
Market Demographics
Region Urban, Semi Urban, Rural
Occupation- Working Professionals, University Students, Self-employed, House Wives
Sex Unisex
Income < 70,000 per annum
16

Social class- Middle and upwards

Behavioral
Occasions Regular, Every day- user urban, Rural depends on the temporal aspects of the
consumers life, (varied usage in terms of time of time day, week, month, and year).
Table 4.1: Market Segmentation
Segmentation
Age
Eating Habit
Life Style

Targeting
People who have busy life styles
Health conscious people

Positioning
Easy to cook
Two minutes rice noodles
Taste
Health
Complete balance diet

4.3. Value proposition

Harischandra is the pioneer of providing the rice noodles which gives with natural quality. With
this newly introducing instant rice noodle will save the time by fast cooking (2 minutes).
Furthermore, for the first time, Harischandra is providing the noodles with a sauce maker. All the
ingredients, included in the sauce maker consist with natural quality and it includes required
nutrition for the complete balance diet with the rice noodles.
Further, MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) is not included in the Harischandra noodles products
and the wax, coated on the other instant noodles products has not coated on the Harischandra
noodles. Hence, after boiling, this new rice noodles can eat with a single curry as string hoppers.
The boiled noodles will give the closer feeling of eating string hoppers. The product is basically
designed by considering the life style and the taste of the Sri Lankan people. Moreover, noodles
are coming with different scale of packsize which is sufficient for one person, two people, four
people and six people. With this new product, Harischandra has entered to different scale pack
size for noodles which suits to busy life styles. This newly introduce noodles has the product
quality which gives minimum negative effects to health.

5.0. Marketing Mix

Marketing mix is the different choices that organization has to introduce their product or services
to the market. According to Kottler,et al. (2008), has described marketing mix is a set of tools
that use to create a proffered response from targeted market.
17

5.1. Product
This introducing noodle is developed to enhance the healthy conditions for the people who have
busy life styles. This noodles is comes under the instant noodles group but with the positive
health conditions.

Product Life Cycle

Figure 5.2: Product Life Cycle (Maxi-Pedia, 2012)

Development stage is the most important stage which needs to develop the product with the
current requirement of the customer. Only the fulfillment of the required features will lead
product to the introductory stage. (Refer the pg 15 for product features)
Introduction stage
After conducting the development process for the Harischandra instant rice noodles, the
introduction of the noodles is planning to launch in the year 2016. This is the most important
18

stage which needs to promote the product initially. According to the schedule in the year 2016
the product should launch by targeting the kids, youth and working women.
Growth stage
Product will start to grow and it needs large amount of money to spend for the advertisement. At
this stage its highly required to spend the money to make Harischandra instant noodles as a
household name in Sri Lanka.
Maturity stage
This stage is comes after passing the introductory and growth stage. Generally product will have
high life span in this stage. In this stage its possible to get great deal of competition in the
market by entering the international products such as Top Ramen which has large market share in
Indian market.
Features
This new product consists with easy to cook concept which takes ten minutes to cook and comes
with a sauce maker inside the pack. Furthermore,

It should be made with red rice and white rice.

It should be made to full fill the complete balance diet requirements.

Taste of the sauce maker could be made to change by adding vegetable, fish, chicken and
cheese on the preference of consumer.

Only two minutes will take to cook the noodles.

Source maker should be made to MSG free -Monosodium Glutamate.

Any kind of wax should not coat on the noodles.

Packaging

The noodles packet should be come up with 84g pack for one person, 158 g pack for two
people, 308g pack for four people and 420g for six people.
19

The colour of the packaging should be changed.

5.2. Price
The objective of launching the instant pasta is to achieve the high product quality with the Sri
Lankan identity. The targeted segment is fewer prices sensitive to obtain the quality product
which suits to their busy life styles. Therefore, premium is the pricing strategy which creates
company to provide different pricing strategies.
In the current situation, the comparison of the price can do with the competitors such as Maggie,
Nikkado, Prima, MDK and Raigam. Raigam is providing rice noodles and but its not an instant
noodles product. On the other hand it will not provide a complete balance diet. Therefore,
comparing prices among competitors will not give the fair balance. Even though, product cannot
go for higher price compared to competitors because of the high competition. Price discounts
will offer for trade customers based on the policies of the organization.
5.3. Place
Harischandra Distribution Channel is established in all over the Sri Lanka. But still there are
some locations where the distribution channel is not established. Organization has limited
penetration in rural areas. Harischandra Noodles products are easily available in traditional
groceries and supermarkets. It should introduce single agent per city including rural areas.
Additionally, direct retailers should give the freedom to deal with any wholesaler

Harischandra factory
Factory warehouse
Agent
Distributors
20

Wholesalers
Direct Retailers
End customer
Figure 5.2:Distribution channel for Harischandra noodles

5.4 Promotion
This product is targeted for people who have busy life styles such as women who are working,
young professionals and university students. Also the people who would like to go for instant
meal, without going for complete Sri Lankan meal.
Suggested future advertising campaign
With the introducing of instant rice noodles, it is propose to move away from Harischandra
family approach. People like to enjoy snacks when they are watching the cricket match.
Therefore, its more prefer to get a cricket star to endorse the advertisement campaign.
Television events
Harischandra Rasamedura telecast on every Sunday at 11.30am which is providing innovative
recipes for Harischandra products by a professionals. The program can develop by giving a
chance to a customer who has most innovative recipes and can publish it as a book.
Celebrity endorsement
Popular cricketer Kumara Sangakkara can select as a celebrity for the advertising campaign
TV advertisements and print media should use to introduce the product.
Other than that,
21

Scratch and win offers

Money back offers

Sponsor for school quiz and inter school cricket matches can make the awareness of the
product.

We

only

ask

minutes
for healthy life
(Instant

Rice
22

Noodles

Easy to cook
Two minutes rice noodles
Healthy
Equal to complete balance diet

Figure 5.3: Product Advertisement

6.0. Implementation
For the implementation first its required to do the research and development for the new product
by adding all the new features and its required to conduct a feasibility study and then focus for
market research. Based on the results gain from the market research the production should carry
and the launching should carry out. Afterwards, the creating commercial advertisements, getting
customer feedbacks, designing promotions, contribute to the sponsorships will increase the
market share of the company. Finally to give a good customer experience trained the employees
to give their maximum. The estimated budget for implementation is three million rupees.

23

Markerting Budget

3%

9%

3% 8%

News papers
Consumer magazine
Trade publication
Radio
Television
Direct mail
Onine promotions
Trade promotions
Market research
Direct Markerting
Public relations
Bill boards
Sponsorships
Other

3%
7%

2%

2%

3%
12%

21%
14%
9%

4%

Figure 6.1:Marketing Budget

6.1. Marketing Action Plan

Table 6.1:Marketing Action Plan
ID

Activity

Do

the

Responsible Party
research

and Production

development

Duration
manager, 210 Days

development for new product

Production Manager

Conduct a feasibility study

Finance manager

29 Days

Carry out a market research

Marketing manager, Sales manager

29 Days

24

Production

Production

manager,

Product 100 days

development manager

Launching the product

Marketing

manager,Production 30 days

manager, sales manager

Commercial advertisements

Marketing manger

261 days

Customer Feedbacks

Human Resource Manager

245 days

Promotions

Finance manager,Marketing manager.

123 days

Giving Sponsorships

Finance manager,Marketingmanager.

123 days

10

Trained to give a proper Finance manager, Human resource 245 days

customer experience

manager, Production manager

25

22

7.0. Customer Experience

This describes the overall experience customer gets with the interaction of business entity and its
product. When the customer is buying the product, customer should have the good impression
about the surrounding. Then only customer will satisfy with the product. In Harischandra mills
PLC, there are two outlets in Colombo and Matara, where employees directly meet the final
customer. Therefore, its essential to recruit the right candidate for the right job. Further, the
agents who are meeting the trade customers also should give a proper attitude and training to
gain the customer satisfaction which impact to the final sales outcome because they reflect the
brand image, and they can be the source of positive word of mouth. Furthermore, in the process
of handing over the product to customer, issues such as waiting time will make negative impact
on customers mind. Hence, building a strong system that can provide the required service to the
customers and improve customer relationship management as it is an essential factor to consider.
Customers satisfaction is also depends on the factors like physical evidence that they
experienced with the employees of the company. When there is a formal document submission, it
should do in a professional manner and there is a situation where the employee has to work in a
friendly environment. Even the partnerships are matters in some of the circumstances. Therefore
as a method give a satisfactory customer experience, it is suitable to conduct surveys, customer
feed backs and do the amendments based on that. (Refer the pg 11for objective no.5)

23

8.0. Conclusion
Harischandra Mills PLC shows the quality of the products with their Sri Lankan identity. The
marketing tools in the organization are not powerful to compete with the competitors marketing
practice. But most of the products are developed for the family concept and targeting the adult
market. Harischandra has not carried out an extensive study for kids and youth. Therefore, the
targeting market for product was a limited group of people. In the same time customers have the
faith on Harischandra products for their quality of natural and nutritious aspects.
Additionally, after considering all the above factors its proposed to develop a product which
suits to the busy life style, and targeting the kids, youth, working women, people who are adopt
to busy life style and health conscious people. The product is an instant rice noodles which fulfill
the complete balance diet requirements. Further, the packaging sizes are planned to be changed
to the scale of one person, two people, four people and six people. The marketing campaign is
proposed to develop based on cricket and select Kumar Sangakkara who is a popular cricket star
to do the promotions campaign. The expectation is to achieve twenty five percent of market
share for the product within three years of launch. Other than that, scratch and win offers, Money
back offers and Sponsor for school quiz and inter school cricket matches can be used to make the
awareness of the product. Premium is the pricing strategy which creates company to provide
different pricing strategies.Harischandra Noodles products are easily can find in traditional
groceries and supermarkets. The estimated budget for the implementation is three million rupees.
The expectation is to achieve twenty five percent of market share for the product within three
years of launch.

24

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at,

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