MARKETING MANAGEMENT INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

1. Brief introduction of the company

Popy Umbrella Mart is a Small and Medium Enterprise(SME),which is the producer of the
largest selling umbrella in India. They stands as a success story for innovation and
organizational excellence in the country. Popy is located in Alleppey, in the state of Kerala in
India. Their main area of concentration is now shifted onto manufacturing and selling of
umbrella’s in and outside of the state. Their daily production varies between 10000 to 13000
umbrellas. Popy shows outstanding creativity in delivering high quality products, product
innovation, product marketing, managing competition, knowing and coping with the culture
of its customers and employees and making an organization an excellent one. Davis Thayil
formed Popy umbrella brand in 1995.

2. Product Details
The following timeline of the product helps to understand the growth of the product across
different periods of time.
1950: Thayil Abraham Varghese founded St. George’s group.
1968: Thayil Abraham Varghese passed away and his brand also got shut down with his sons
splitting up after working together for 20 years.
1995: Popy started under leadership of David Thayil
2008: Launched “Nano” umbrella and described it as the world’s smallest umbrella.
By bringing enormous number of innovative products in Indian umbrella market, popy was
the first to bag ISO 9001:2000 in umbrella manufacturing in 1997. They also bagged
prestigious Rajiv Gandhi National Quality award in the year 1999.
Initially there were only one category of umbrella with 2 Folds then they later introduced other
variants. The different types of umbrella that popy produces are mainly based on the number
of Folds with 3 Fold colour umbrella for women’s with design and patterns, 5 Fold popy Nano,
2 Fold umbrella with Traditional Style etc.

3. Segmentation and Target Market Segments

Market Segmentation can be defined as the activity of dividing a broad consumer or business
market into sub-groups of consumers based on Demography, Psychography, Behavioural and
geography. The popy mainly follow multi-segment strategies for segmentation. In this strategy
the popy chooses to focus its efforts on two or more distinct market segments. They do that
with developing a distinct marketing mix for each segment. segmentation is necessary because
If a consumer segment can be targeted, then the marketing cycle would become more
effective as the product being sold would be designed to meet the customer's needs.
As for the Popy Umbrella the type of segmentation used by the company are:
 Geographic : Geographic segmentation divided the market into geographical units such
as nations, regions, countries etc. In this case they divided the market into regions
where there is heavy rainfall and less rainfall, Thus they mainly focused on the state
Kerala where there is frequent rainfall so they can penetrate the product between the
month of June and September. Less focus where given to those regions or states where
is less rainfall probability based on previous records, thus timing of buying umbrellas
 is high when the schools reopens on June 1.Thus umbrella market can be defined as a
seasonal market.
 Demographic : Divides the market into groups based on variables such as age, gender,
family size, income etc. In case of popy umbrella they have also segmented the market
according the age ,gender and family size. Popy further captured the kids market with
exciting initiatives. For the kids market, they have tie-ups with Walt Disney ,Star Wars
Marvel, DC and other studios to produce umbrellas with their favourite characters.
They also focused on one of the common problems faced by ladies while closing the
umbrella when they board a bus. The auto-close umbrella will close the umbrella with
the click of a button.
 Behavioural :Consumers are divided into groups according to their knowledge ,attitude
toward, use of or response to a product. It can be based on different behaviour of the
consumer. Some consumer may use umbrella in sunny days ,some may use in rainy
days thus the usage is entirely dependent on the consumers behaviour.

4.USP and Positioning message

Positioning is a marketing strategy aimed at getting a brand to occupy a distinct position in
the customer's mind relative to the competing brands. It also include improving a customer’s
perception about the experience they have if they opt to choose to purchase the product. This is
created through the use of promotion, price, place and product which are known as the
marketing mix strategies. The more powerful a positioning strategy, the more productive an
organization generally has for a marketing strategy. Targeting the market is important as no one
strategy will suit all the consumer groups. Popy umbrella focuses mainly on kids and adults.
 MARKETING MIX - Price, Product, Promotion and Place.
The Marketing mix is a business tool used in marketing and also by the marketers. The
marketing mix if often crucial when determining the benefits of launching a new product.
 Price: popy uses the Cost plus pricing strategy and they set price accordance with
customers perception about the value of the products made and sold in the market. They
sometimes introduces low price to secure high volumes of demand and also to stand
with the competitors both from Kerala and outside. The price of all umbrella’s in the
market are almost the same. Only the quality and the brand name leads to different price
 Product: The product produced by popy ranges in different size and different design that
varies from kids to old age group. Size varies from 53cm (5-Fold) to 100cm (single
Fold) and also have different designs for kids based on comic characters etc.
 Promotion: Refers to raising customers awareness about the popy products ,generating
sales, and creating brand loyalty. They advertised the umbrella on visual media with
jingles and catchy ads. In 1996 they released “mazha mazha kuda kuda ” and it captured
the market instantly. They also captured the kids market with exciting initiatives like
creating a popy kids club. These advertisements with uncompromising quality and
reasonable price made Popy the leader in the run.
Different sources of promotion are newspaper, social media, Radio , Television etc
 Place: The place part of the marketing mix is where the customers receives the product
or services. Place in case of a product determines where the products of popy will be
 sold more. Place can be related to distribution of the product and the main aim of the
distribution is to make products available in the right time to the right customer.

5. ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

The main issues that can be faced by the Popy umbrella brand can be the entrance of new
competitors. Given these advances and smart marketing, the company is facing problems from
China's introduction of cheap umbrellas. These can take away Popy's mass market as the mass
market is price sensitive and the product is seasonal. The life of the umbrellas is less than 2
years, and clients may not be loyal to the brand. Popy is on the overdrive of building brand
equity to sustain the everchanging price war. In current scenario climatic changes are very
large and unpredictable thus can cause doubt in quality of umbrella to withstand the wind.
Commercialization and promotion in offseason to bring on more consumers. Umbrella being
Seasonal market can cause deficiency in demand if there is a sudden demand during offseason.

6. CONCLUSION

Popy achieved by then, at such high quality standards, that other manufacturers could not meet
with the technologies and work force they had. Popy just got the certification and this led to the
rise in Popy revenue and the consequent closure of several Indian competitors. While Popy did
not intentionally exclude rivals from the market, innovation and creativity gradually became a
good strategy for managing competition in the industry. Around 65 per cent of Popy umbrellas
components come from outside the world. Japan, Singapore, Dubai, Taiwan and Germany are
some of the countries which import parts from. Popy will import best quality parts from Japan,
and is grateful for the ISI certification for that to happen. Popy can tackle the seasonal market
by producing more innovative products which can be used in all seasons.