Research Project Report

(Hico Ice-cream)

By
Muhammad Haroon L1f02bbit2040
Ahmad Saad L1f02bbit0001

Punjab College of Business Administration

University of Central Punjab
Lahore, Pakistan
Summer 2006
 Research Project Report
(Hico Ice-cream)

BBA Program
Summer 2006

Submitted To
Mr. Umar R Butt

Submitted By
Muhammad Haroon L1f02bbit2040
Ahmad Saad L1f02bbit0001
 Table of content

Executive summary ………………………………………………………………….1

Hico profile …………………………………………………………………………..2
Situation analysis …………………………………………………………………….2
Target market ………………………………………………………………………...3
SWOT analysis ………………………………………………………………………4
Key players in the industry …………………………………………………………..6
The consumer survey ………………………………………………………………...7
Company orientation to market place ………………………………………………..11
Advertising strategy ………………………………………………………………….12
Selecting the advertising media ……………………………………………………...14
The concept of integrated marketing ………………………………………………...17
Unique six sigma marketing method …………………………………………………20
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………..22
 Acknowledgements

First and foremost we thank Hico ice-cream for providing us this opportunity. Mr. Ijaz
Abbas, Marketing Manager Hico ice-cream, for his help. Prof. Umar Rehan Butt for his
guidance and last but not least Prof. Basma Abidi for her invaluable support.
 Executive summary

Hico was established in 1965. It is a division of Pakistan fruit juice Company private
limited. In 1997 they established proper marketing and sales department to improve its
business. The key strength of Hico ice-creams is its heritage. According to companies
management institutional buyers and general consumers use to queue up outside the factory
and get there ice-cream. The primary weakness of Hico ice-creams is its weak marketing.
This in turn leads to no proper positioning in the minds of consumers. Because of no proper
positioning, brand equity of Hico is very low.
At the start the only market Hico served was Lahore. After the year 1997 they
expanded there business and entered in other cities as well including Karachi, Rawalpindi,
Faisalabad and Peshawar. Hico is the only company which is offering the Diet ice-cream for
those people who have diabetes problem or are diet conscious. Hico has ice-cream for nearly
all demographic segments.
Hico has competitors in the market as well. Walls ice-cream is the division of Lever
Brothers. In Pakistan Lever brothers was established in 1956. Another major competitor is
Yummy ice-creams. It was founded in July 1981.The Company suffered losses in 1989 and it
was sold to present owners, who made changes to improve the performance of the company.
Third major competitor of Hico is Rocco. It is registered by the name of Prime Dairies
limited, basically the company was in the textile industry and the owners of the firm were in
import export business of textile but later they came to consumer goods product and
introduced prime yogurt. In July 1985, Rocco ice-cream was launched in Lahore and Karachi
market
This report analyzes Hico’s strengths and weaknesses and suggests the ways to grow
its business by improving its positing in the minds of consumers. The report also suggests the
ways to improve its marketing operations.

1
 Hico Profile

Hico which stands for Happy Ice-cream Company has its base of operations in
Lahore. Hico was established in 1965. It is a division of Pakistan fruit juice Company private
limited. RC and Flora juice are other divisions of the same company. Hico has its only ice-
cream plant in Lahore and from here they distribute ice-cream to others cites of Pakistan.
Initially Hico did not make sales through retail stores and bakeries. People use to
come at factory and buy ice-cream. In 1990 Hico introduced the push cart system to target
the different areas of Lahore including school, colleges and colonies to increase its reach. In
1995 Hico started home delivery on orders but did not continue it for long as it was not a
feasible option if they wanted to target the mass market. They subsequently changed there
distribution channel and started to sell ice-cream through retail stores and bakeries. In 1997
they established proper marketing and sales department to improve its business. They also
expanded there business with the entry in to markets of Karachi, Peshawar and Rawalpindi.
Hico is a medium sized business, with limited resources as compared to its major competitor
Walls. Hico did not expand its business as large as its competitor because they have a
philosophy of internal growth with there own profits.

Situation analysis

Hico ice-cream is an established brand but its positioning in the minds of consumers
is very weak. According to the survey results consumers take Hico ice-creams as a second
choice and, in many cases, will not like to make repeat purchase. Moreover, Hico is not
readily available in all major retail stores. Hence Hico also has distribution problems. Other
than the consumer sector Hico has a strong institutional buyer base. They include; Avari
Hotels, Gym Khana and Heera 36. Marketing is critical to its success in consumer sector and
future profitability. Hico is also strong in family take away packs. Hico buckets and other
family packs are a prime choice among families.
The basic market needs are high quality, innovative tastes and easy availability. Hico
will only meet these demands with an appropriate marketing plan, execution and control.

2
 Target market

The question of target market is pivotal for any organization’s success. Organizations
take special care while identifying and defining their target markets. On one end the target
markets can provide new horizons and on the other hand a wrong selection can play havoc
with company’s resources and image.
Earlier the management of Hico Company did not define their target market properly
and there was no segmentation of customers. As stated earlier, customers use to come to
factory and buy the ice-cream. Hico has some what established its marketing department now
and they segment there target market as follows:

Geographic:
At the start the only market Hico served was Lahore. After the year 1997 they
expanded there business and entered in other cities as well including Karachi, Rawalpindi,
Faisalabad and Peshawar. Hico covers Punjab Cities more strongly because they are closer to
its Lahore factory. Hico has near 20% share of Lahore ice-cream market1.

Demographic:
Hico has ice-cream for nearly all demographic segments. They have Ice Lollies and
Creamy Pops for kids. For teenagers they are offering Mega New Bar, Mega Cone and Cups.
For the families they have all there flavors in family take away packs.

Behavioral segment:
Hico is the only company which is offering the Diet ice-cream for those people who
have diabetes problem or are diet conscious. It is a large untapped market segment which
Hico is serving.

1
Accuracy of the figure is un-confirmed as the source is not authentic.

3
 SWOT Analysis

Strengths:
The key strength of Hico ice-creams is its heritage. According to companies
management institutional buyers and general consumers use to queue outside the factory and
get there ice-cream. Even today Hico has very good reputation among the bulk quantity
buyers and supplier to the business buyers like Gym khana, Avari Hotel, Heera 36, Freddie’s
café and Pearl Continental. Hico enjoys high customer loyalty among these buyers.
Just like Hico has a strong presence at business buyers sector, it is also strong in family take
away pack segment. 2, 5 and 10 litter packs are a first choice when ever families want to buy
ice-cream for parties or other occasions.
There are people who suffer from obesity, have diabetic problem or are health
conscious. Hico offers there diet line for these people. It is strength of Hico ice-cream that it
serves a market segment which is not yet served by its competitors. Another of key strengths
is Hico’s product with unique flavors like paraline and Oreo cookies. Not only that they are
unique flavors, Hico also takes advantage of using co-branding strategy with a very well
know brand Oreo. Last but not least, unlike its major competitor Walls, it has dairy ice-
creams. All Hico Ice-creams are made of milk and butter.

Weaknesses:
The primary weakness of Hico ice-creams is its not so strong marketing. This in turn
leads to no proper positioning in the minds of consumers. Because of no proper positioning
brand equity of Hico is very low. Hico has another disadvantage that its major rival, Walls
ice-cream, is a multinational company and uses its international experience and R&D to
come with very high quality products and popular tastes. Using there resources they can
conduct all the techniques necessary for conducting proper marketing. Techniques like
Market research and test marketing requires large resources. As Hico do not match Walls
resources, it can not conduct R&D up to the extent of walls ice-cream and has not yet used
the techniques of market research and test marketing.

4
 Hico has a very week distribution network. Our consumer survey suggests that Hico
ice-creams are at times out of stock even at major retail stores. There trolleys are also not as
much present as walls trolleys are. Hico does not raise finances throw public offering of
stock hence have to rely on growth internally through there own profits. This is a weakness
as its competitor, Walls, have a large availability of finances through public offering of its
stock.
Hico products are slightly expensive then the competition and our informal consumer
interview revealed that Hico has unattractive packaging as well. Furthermore, Hico is
primarily serving Lahore market and has very limited availability in Karachi, Islamabad and
other major cities of Pakistan.

Opportunities:
There are opportunities in the market which can work in Hico ice-cream’s favor. Ice-
cream eating culture has already been developed. It has become a favorite dessert for many
people. For Hico ice-creams there is large untapped market to grow its business
There is a reputation about ice-cream in the minds of consumers that it can cause
severe throat aches if taken in winter. A recent campaign from Walls ice-cream has
addressed this concern. Now ice-cream is taken regardless of season. This campaign from
walls has presented opportunity to the ice-cream industry. It can now achieve high sales
figures even in the winter.

Threats:
The major threats that Hico is facing is the introduction of new products and flavors
from Walls. Walls have introduced the new Cornetto with sauces and new limited edition
Magnum bar. These new flavors have received wide appreciation and Hico is not yet offering
these flavors. There is also a threat of new entrant in the market, Nestle Moven pick. Like
Walls, Nestle is also a multinational company and its resources easily match or beat Walls. If
Nestle enters in Pakistani market, it will further side line Hico ice-creams.

5
 Key players in the industry

The key players in the industry are as follows:

• Walls.
• Yummy.
• Rocco.
• Igloo.
Walls ice-cream is the division of Lever Brothers. In Pakistan Lever brothers was established
in 1956. It is a Multinational consumer product company with a portfolio of many consumer
products. Before starting its operations in Pakistan, Walls was already established in many
parts of the world. Polka was the market leader in ice-cream industry at the time of Walls
launch. Lever Brothers took a bold step and through a planned strategy they introduce Walls
ice-cream in the year 1995.
Lever Brothers first launch Walls ice-cream in Lahore at the festival of Eid. They
received a very good response from public. By making large investments for advertising and
through careful media planning they took a major share of Lahore market. After Lahore they
launched Walls ice-cream in Karachi. They used the same strategy and choose the occasion
of 14th August to launch the ice-cream. They next launched the ice-cream in Rawalpindi and
Islamabad.
Yummy ice-cream started its operation by acquiring loan from the government. It was
founded in July 1981. The company suffered losses in 1989 and it was sold to present
owners, who made changes to improve the performance of the company.
Rocco is registered by the name of Prime Dairies limited, basically the company was
in the textile industry and the owners of the firm were in import export business of textile but
later they came to consumer goods product and introduced prime yogurt. In July 1985, Rocco
ice-cream was launched in Lahore and Karachi market giving a complete range of ice-cream
from ice-lolly to ten liter family packs. Rocco was the first company to introduce plastic
packing for its products and later on it was followed by others ice-cream brands, not only this
Rocco has also given the dairy concept in its ice-cream range. In the first ten years company
got very good response from the market and there was increase in the sales graph. But in
1995, when walls was introduced in the market the hole trend got changed. Good

6
presentation of the products, fine quality and above all heavy bombardment of promotional
campaigns enabled Walls to capture huge market share. People were attracted to it very much
and it gained great popularity among the customers in 1999, later on Walls acquired polka
ice-cream which had the largest distribution network, it also gave an edge to walls.
Igloo ice-cream is not a direct competitor of Hico because its primary operations are at
Karachi. Igloo and Hico are serving two different geographic markets.

The Consumer Survey

We conducted a consumer survey to find out about market’s attitude towards ice-
cream in general and Hico in particular. We placed the questionnaire at some retail stores in
different areas of Lahore. It was filled by about 200 people ranging in there age, gender and
occupation. Following is the response:

Q.1 how often do you take Ice-cream?

a. I don’t take ice-cream.
b. Every day.
c. Once a week.
d. Occasionally.

18%
a
8%
b
51% c
d
23%

Q.2 I take Ice-cream because.

a. I like to eat cold in summers.
b. I love the taste of ice-cream.
c. It is fun.

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 d. It is my favorite dessert.

16% 19%

9% a
b
c
d

56%

Q.3 Pick your favorite ice-cream forms.

a. Cups.
b. Wafer cones.
c. Stick.
d. Family Packs.

17%
27%
a
b
c
25% d

31%

Q.4 my favorite ice-cream flavors are.

a. Chocolate
b. Vanilla
c. Strawberry
d. Praline
e. Other _____________

8
 8%
25%
14% a
b
c
d
23% e
30%

Q.5 when you think of ice-cream, which brand comes to mind?

- ______________

18% 8%

Yum m y
9%
Walls
HICO
unansw erd
65%

Q6.What ice-cream you take the most?

a. Yummy.
b. Walls.
c. Hico.
d. Home made ice-cream.

6% 8%
23%
a
b
c
d

63%

9
Q.7 what ice-cream kids at your home like? (Can select more than one option)
a. Ice lolly.
b. Milk ice-cream.
c. Cone ice-cream.

39%
47% a
b
c

14%

Q.8 which attribute is more important when you take ice-cream? (Can select more than
one option)
a. Quality and taste.
b. Price.
c. I take any which is available.

16% 19%

9% a
b
c
d

56%

Q.9 Do you find Hico ice-creams easily?

a. I find Hico when ever I want to.
b. I find Hico In major retail stores.
c. I don’t find Hico ice-creams.

10
 10%

47% a
b
c
43%

Besides the questionnaire we also conducted an informal interview and main

questions we asked were. Which Hico cream you take often? What new flavor would you ask
from ice-cream companies? And can you recall Hico or any other ice-cream commercial?

Company orientation to market place

After the analysis of company we have found that, at present the company’s
orientation to market place is one of selling philosophy. The starting point for Hico’s
business is its factory, the focus is on products and it uses selling and promotion to sell its
product the profits are through sales volume.

Starting Point Focus On Achieve objective Profits

Factory Products Through sales and By sales

Promotion. volume.

Our objective in this project is to change the orientation of Hico towards the market
place. We suggest a model which is radically different then Hico’s current model of doing
business. The starting point in our suggested model is the target market; focus is on customer
needs, means to achieve its target is through integrated marketing and profits will be through
customer satisfaction. We have suggested few alternatives for the advertising strategy. The
strategy talks about customer needs, customer satisfaction and the target market. In the end
we have used Six Sigma approach to integrate the marketing department of Hico with other

11
departments. Hico can use these alternatives as a guideline to improve its marketing and
positioning.

Starting Point Focus On Achieve objective Profits

Target Market Customer Integrated Customer

needs. marketing. satisfaction.

Advertising strategy

The first step in forming any advertising strategy is to define the purpose of
advertising strategy by creating measurable, specific objectives. In other words, we must
decide, “what do we want to accomplish with our advertisement?” Some ads are designed to
stimulate immediate response by encouraging customers to purchase a particular product in
the immediate future. The object is to trigger a purchase decision. Other ads seek to build
brand recognization among the target market. These ads try to create goodwill by keeping
firm’s name in the public memory so that customers will recall the firm name when they
decide to purchase the product. We have two major purposes for our ad campaign. We want
to build the brand recognition and we want to improve the positioning of Hico ice-creams in
the mind of consumers.
The next step in developing an advertising strategy is to identify the company’s target
customers. The idea is to match both the message and the media to target audience. We have
thought of a few questions answering those questions will help us define our business, profile
our customers and focus our advertising message on specific target market to get more for
our advertising rupees. Following are the questions and there answers:

Question: what business Hico is in?

Answer: Obvious answer to this question would be that Hico ice-cream is in the business of
selling ice-cream. But from the marketing point of view we suggest the real business Hico is
in is to delight the customers with a pure dairy ice-cream treat.

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Question: who are our target customers?
Answer: Hico uses geographic, demographic and behavioral segmentation to segment its
market. Hico primarily serves Lahore market, and it also has presence in Karachi, Faisalabad,
Multan, Rawalpindi and Peshawar. Each city differs slightly in there needs and cultures.
Hico have products for kids, teens and families. Each of these demographic segments has
different needs and different motivational factors to take ice-cream. Hico also targets health
conscious people with there diet ice-cream.

Question: Where can we best reach them?

Answer: Television is a media almost ubiquitous among our target market. More over
internet has also become a media of choice for many. Then there are always newspapers and
magazines. Launch of many trendy FM channels also provide us with a new choice of media.

Question: How do we want to position our company in the market?

Answer: The basic message we want delivered is that Hico is pure dairy ice-cream. We will
have three different messages for three target market segments that we will be positioning.
For kids the message will be that Hico ice-creams are nutritious and eaten by super heroes.
Hico can not use heroes like Super man, Spider man or Batman because they have copy
rights with there respective owners. However, Hico can create its own story around a “Hero”
character. There have been examples in the past where companies created there own stories,
Ding Dong bubble gum had a story centered around a cat and more recently Safe guard has
been running a campaign with a super hero character “Captain safe guard”. The nutritional
factor in the advertising message will give satisfaction to parents that Hico ice-creams will
not harm there child’s health.
For teens and college going students we will position Hico ice-creams as a first
choice for a dessert when hanging around with friends. In our positioning campaign we will
show Hico ice-creams as inciting sentiments. This positioning theme is used by almost all of
our competitors. We will differentiate our positioning campaign by adding an element of
humor in our campaigns.
For families the positioning campaign will deliver the message of a dessert to be
taken at festive occasions. Positioning campaign will show a gathering of people all having a

13
great time. They will, of course, be taking Hico ice-creams. We will also position unique
flavors of Hico like Praline and Oreo Cookies flavor as classic delicacies. These delicacies
will be shown taken in parties set around a very sophisticated and delicate themes.
There will be a positioning campaign specifically directed to the health conscious
people. The theme will be a bulky middle aged man and a lady running along the jogging
track. Both are enjoying life as it is. They love to take ice-cream but are health conscious as
well. They see a Hico trolley and happily takes diet ice-cream. They have enjoyed ice-cream
now and it will not affect there health also.2

Question: What advertising approach do our competitors take?

Answer: Our prime competitor walls have the same advertising strategy as we plan to take.

As we have defined the target audience, we can design an advertising message and choose
the media for delivering it. We will build our ad campaign around a Unique Selling
Preposition that Hico is pure dairy Ice-cream. To summarize our re-positing in one line we
will not win customers by boring them into buying. We will create a desire for our product.

Selecting the advertising media

A few years ago, a team from the Wharton School of Business at the University of
Pennsylvania in Philadelphia set out to establish the definitive answer to the question of
which advertising media to use. Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Colgate-Palmolive and a host of other big
companies collectively invested more than a million dollars so that Wharton might track the
return-on-investment experienced by several dozen small businesses as a result of
advertising. These businesses were scientifically monitored and measured for seven long
years. The final report filled more than 2,500 pages. Only three conclusions were reached:

2
The positing campaigns depicted in these paragraphs are only guide lines. They will not be shown exactly as they are
explained.

14
1. There is no direct correlation between money invested and results gained.
In other words, how much you spend and what you can expect to see in return is not
directly linked by any kind of mathematical equation.

2. Results are inextricably linked to the message.

Two advertisers invest the same amount of money reaching the same target audience.
One succeeds brilliantly. The other fails miserably, receiving no response whatsoever. The
difference between these two is in the message of their ads.
Ads that speak to the heart of the customer and touch a nerve are the ones that turn little
companies into big companies. Hico so far has not run such an ad campaign. It has so far
used advertising with the goal of merely getting their name out. And there is no evidence to
suggest this will help Hico in the slightest. The Wharton study indicates that everything
hinges on the message you attach to your name. Is your message predictable and,
consequently, boring? Is it believable? Is it relevant to the perceived need of the
reader/listener/viewer? Tempt a dog with a bowl of rice, and he'll ignore you. Put a steak in
the bowl, and you'll have his undivided attention. Our prospective customers are no different.
What have we been putting in their bowls?

3. Results increase with repetition.

When we have identified a message that generates a positive response and we deliver
that message consistently, business growth in year two will be approximately twice the
growth of year one. Growth in year three will be approximately triple the growth of year one,
with growth measured in rupees, not percentages. But following year three, anything can
happen. Your business can explode exponentially, or it can flatten out as though hitting an
invisible glass ceiling. There are examples of companies grow to 70 times their original size,
and there are examples that show companies grow slowly to only double or triple their
original volume and then flatten out. The difference is in the clients, not in the ads.
The follow-up question we are sure any one would ask is, "OK, let's assume we've found a
message that works. Now which medium is going to give us the most for our money?" Again
there's no simple answer, but we will try to give you a frame of reference. These are the

15
major media, with some more expensive than others. The one that's right depends entirely on
Hico business goals.

• Outdoor advertising/billboards: These reach more people for a rupee than any other
media, but are limited to a picture and no more than eight words. Hico already have
some billboards at major places in Lahore.

• Radio: Reaches the second most people for a rupee, but traditional radio cannot be
targeted geographically and can only be loosely demographically targeted.
Introduction of many new FM channels have solved this problem as well. It can be
targeted geographically and there are specific channels for different demographic
segments. For example City FM 89 is more targeted toward energetic and fun loving
people.

• Cable television: Offers the impact of moving images as well as spoken words. Can
easily be geographically targeted. But the advertising will likely look homemade.

• Broadcast television: It is big prestige and also requires big money. But able to
target psychographic profiles. We recommend that if Hico wants to use this option it
should buy specific shows and do not buy a rotator, which repeats same add time and
time again.
• Newspapers: Reach customers who are in the market to buy today. Unfortunately,
people not currently in the market for Hico products are less likely to notice
newspapers advertisement than if it had appeared in another media.

• Magazines: These ads are expensive, but have high-impact with tight targeting and
little waste. They also have a weakness that there is infrequency of repetition.

• Direct mail: Highly targeted, all the way down to the level of the individual. But
shockingly expensive to do right. Limited resources of Hico Might prevent it in
running a direct mail campaign, and also direct mail campaigns are not an ideal

16
 choice for a product like ice-cream. The message delivered is usually to mass market
and direct mail is not a mass market media.

• Blogs: They are a new development in the world of internet. Basically defined, blogs
are opinion forums. They have a specific topic, people come and share there views
and opinion on them. Hico ice-creams have no presence on the web. Instead of using
vital resources to develop a static web page, which can only show pictures and
written messages, we recommend that Hico launch an official blog. Blogs are
dynamic in nature as they give users an opportunity to interact with them by writing
there opinions. It is not at all expensive to create a blog and can be done fairly easily.
A blog will be an excellent marketing tool as it will provide users a ground for
interesting stories and Hico can extract public opinion and innovative ideas from the
blog.

The concept of integrated marketing

In our model we suggested that to achieve its objectives Hico should use the concept
of integrated marketing. This portion explains how to integrate the marketing using six sigma
approach. Six Sigma for Marketing and Sales are relatively new approaches to enable and
sustain growth. They are part of the bright future offered by adapting Six Sigma to the
growth arena. The linkage of Six Sigma for Marketing and Six Sigma for Sales is where the
Six Sigma discipline adds measurable value to marketing and sales team performance. There
are matrices which measure the team performance and set achievable targets.
Six sigma further integrates the marketing department with all the rest of departments
in the company. The departments like R&D finance and procurement all work in harmony
with the marketing department.
The Six Sigma concept started out as a problem-solving process. The problems
generally concerned eliminating variability of product quality, defects, and waste in a product
or process, all of which undermine customer satisfaction. Six Sigma practitioners call this

17
original method DMAIC —Design, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. The five steps
are as follows:

1. Define the problem.

2. Measure the process and gather the data that is associated with the problem.
3. Analyze the data to identify a cause-and-effect relationship between key variables.
4. Improve the process so that the problem is eliminated and the measured results meet
existing customer requirements.
5. Control the process so that the problem does not return. If it does return, it should be
controllable using a well-designed control plan.

The key elements in a DMAIC project are team discipline, structured use of metrics
and tools, and execution of a well-designed project plan that has clear goals and objectives.
When people across a company use the simple steps of DMAIC, objectives and result targets
are much harder to miss. If everyone solves problems differently, non-systematically, they
become a great burden.

The new frontier for Six Sigma is in problem prevention, which should occur as part
of our daily workflow. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Six
Sigma for Marketing and Six Sigma for Sales, like Six Sigma for Research and Technology
Development, are methods of problem prevention during the product development, product
commercialization, and post-launch product-line management processes.

The traditional "reactive" DMAIC methods should be used to reduce variances in

product quality, cut costs, and streamline processes.

Marketing professionals want to avoid suppressing creativity of there employees with

structured and standard way of doing things. Process-centric work may at first seem slow,
routine, and burdensome. Moreover, marketing may think statistical analysis can hinder
spontaneity and innovation. But industry experience suggests that the opposite is true3. The
Six Sigma model described here plans for innovation and creativity to occur. If implemented
correctly, a proven methodology averts rework (caused by mistakes), ensures completeness,
3
“Six sigma marketing processes” by Clyde M. Creveling, Lynne Hambleton, Burke McCarthy

18
and reinforces quality standards. A well-constructed method that requires improvement
should plan for innovation and identify the appropriate participant employees. Moreover, Six
Sigma can help tackle the new, the unique, and the difficult as is the case where Hico has to
tackle a new and popular product line from Walls. If Hico can follow guide lines suggested
by the six sigma approach, it can easily improve its own product line and introduce new
flavors easily. The key is to develop structured methodologies for R&D, market research and
consumer survey.

Few dispute the value of measurement. However, that which is easily measured rarely
produces real or optimal value. Real value comes from measuring what others cannot or will
not measure. Hico ice-creams measure there sales, there return on investment and all other
standard measurable metrics. We suggest that they also measure the creativeness of there
employees by requiring them to bring new ideas to table every now and then.

The benefit of integrating Six Sigma into your marketing processes includes better
information to make better decisions. Using the more robust approach reduces the
uncertainty inherent in marketing. Processes like product development and factory operations
with Six Sigma embedded in them can better sustain growth.

The marketing methodology of Hico should facilitate the customer, product and
financial linkages. Marketing should develop products according to consumer tastes and
development cost should also justify its results. The marketing department at Hico must
integrate these three areas:

• Strategic area: The Portfolio Renewal process. What products should be in the Hico
line of offering?
• Tactical area: The Commercialization process. How the products be positioned?
• Operational area: The Post-Launch Line Management process. Managing the
launched products.

The natural flow of marketing work starts with strategic renewal of the offering
products, to the tactical work of commercializing new offerings, and finally to the

19
operational work of managing the product lines in the post-launch sales, support, and service
environment.

Unique Six Sigma Marketing Methods

There are unique Six Sigma marketing methods which were created for each of the
three areas: strategic, tactical, and operational. The method to guide marketing's strategic
work is called IDEA. The approach for tactical work is called UAPL. The method to direct
marketing's operational work is called LMAD.

The strategic marketing process environment has the following four distinct phases,
known as the IDEA process for portfolio renewal and refresh:

1. Identify markets, their segments, and the opportunities they offer.

2. Define Product requirements and product portfolio alternatives.
3. Evaluate Product alternatives against competitive products by offering.
4. Activate Utilize the resources of the company in the are which is decided by the
companies executives.

The tactical marketing process environment has the following four distinct phases,
defined as the UAPL.

1. Understand the market opportunity and specific customer requirements translated in

to product requirements.
2. Analyze customer preferences against the value proposition.
3. Plan the linkage between marketing and sales to successfully communicate and
launch the product
4. Launch: Prepare the new product under a rigorously defined launch control plan.

The operational marketing process environment has the following four distinct
phases. This process is called the LMAD.

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1. Launch the offering through its introductory period into the market according to the
launch control plan of the prior process.
2. Manage the offering
3. Adapt the marketing and sales tasks and tools as required changes.
4. Discontinue any product offering, if necessary, with discipline to sustain brand
loyalty.

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 Bibliography

1. Six Sigma for Marketing Processes by Clyde M. Creveling, Lynne Hambleton, Burke
McCarthy.
2. Marketing Management by Philip Kotler.
3. Strategic Marketing by Mark E. Parry.
4. Consumer Behavior by Leon Schiffman, Leslie Lazar Kanuk.
5. Advertising by Gerard J Tellis.
6. Small Business Management by Justin G Longenecker, Carlos W Moore

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