Industry Study: FMCD and Retail

Fast Moving Consumer Durables (FMCD):

Products which are essentially durable goods or hard goods. Goods that yield utility over time
rather than being completely consumed in one use. Example: cars, bikes, jewelry, books etc.

Retail businesses include:

Merchandise stores, grocery stores, specialty stores, restaurants etc.

Unlock trends:
Due to the social distancing measures and the pandemic fear in place, e-commerce was bound
to experience a major boom for business and so has happened. A structural shift was brought
in the customer behavior as more and more people started relying on online retailers for their
daily need products, not only in metros but also in tier III regions and beyond. A Grofers
spokesperson said that amongst all new users on its platform in the last one year, 64 per cent
were first-time online grocery shoppers, while 20 per cent were totally new to e-commerce. 
Flipkart witnessed new user growth of close to 50 per cent soon after the lockdown, with tier
III regions and beyond registering the highest growth of 65 per cent during the 'Unlock' (July
- September) phase last year (PTI, 2020).

From the annual reports:

Hero motocorp., one of the companies that immediately stopped operations and then one of
the first to also begin operations post government allowance took pro-active steps to ensure
optimum service and products for the consumers in the time of the pandemic. They
introduced for the first time in FY2020-2021, the position of the Chief Operating Officer to
look over the robust operational processes.
The company has initiated vaccination drives and has successfully vaccinated more than 90%
of their employees. More than that, to support the employees during this time, they have also
introduced covid care centres specially for their workforce.
For Mahindra, much like other companies, the last 2 years were a rough terrain, with the
average RoE being 12%, negatively impacting the stock price. The company, however, has
been taking on challenges head on while working on the betterment of the community.
Mahindra developed and deployed a block chain based ePass solution for State Governments
to streamline validation and mobility of essential services.
Mahindra has been working on and stands as a pioneer for electric vehicles in India,
contributing to the change necessary for climate action by actively pursuing development of
the electric vehicle market, products and technology.

Marketing campaigns by Hero Motocorp. Limited

 #IndiaCalling
A campaign designed around the idea of experience hungry Indian youth who wants to
explore the world and gain as much as they can from it. An advertisement under the
campaign made by L&K Saatchi & Saatchi tells us this story through the eyes of two
young men who explore the country on their bikes and kick starts the hashtag for the
campaign.

 #RideSafeIndia
Hero Motocorp. rolled out three films on digital media as part of its CSR initiative. Here they
got 4 children to enact a road safety street play making it clear as to how easy it should be
and is to understand the importance of road safety. Another film narrates a story through the
eyes of a fly. The fly says that as a young man in its previous birth, he always looked for
danger, and that's why he wouldn't ride a bike but 'fly' it. He died while riding a bike because
he wasn't wearing a helmet. As the fly moves around the house, it's attacked by everyone, and
that makes the fly feel like living on the edge, just like the young man did in the past life. The
film ends with a super that says 'Don't bank on the afterlife. Always wear a helmet while
riding.'

 #HumMeinHaiHero
The user generated video campaign the transformed the Indian Advertising Culture. Rahul
Nangia, chief creative officer at the time (2012), West and South, Law & Kenneth, who
executed the campaign says this is an attempt to make the consumer the centre of the entire
communication process. Hero campaign was the first of sorts in India, but sourcing user-
generated content for advertising had been popular internationally since a few years from
then.
Notable Alumni:

 Aditya Rahandani - Territory Sales Manager - Hero MotoCorp

 Prasad Venkatraman
 Prashant Desai - Head Of Media - Hero MotoCorp Ltd.

Bibliography:

 P. (2021, March 24). Lockdown proved inflection point for e-commerce in India. The

Economic Times.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/retail/lockdown-proved-

inflection-point-for-e-commerce-in-india/articleshow/81665377.cms?from=mdr

 Hero Motocorp. Limited. (2021). Annual Report 2020–21.

https://www.heromotocorp.com/en-in/uploads/Annual_Reports/pdf/Annual-Report-

FY-2020-21.pdf

 Mahindra and Mahindra Limited. (2020). Integrated Annual Report.

https://www.mahindra.com/investors/annual-report-FY2020/index.html