CategoriesPricing
by 2

Price Increase

We market Coconut Oil all over Dakshina Kannada district for edible use. In order to prevent unhealthy competition that erodes everyones profits, an association is formed among all oil millers. Minimum Price is being set weekly and all oil millers are expected to follow it in selling price of respective brands. Cocoguru started off with its price at 1 Re premium when association started 2 months back. Now we will increase the premium by 1 more Rupee and there by setting a premium of 2 rupees on a product that is valued at about 150. The following are our thoughts behind the price increase
  • Increase Brand Value – Brand Value is measured as Price Premium x Increase in sales because of use of brand name compared to an unbranded one. We invest in increasing our brand value and then look to encash it.
  • Signal of Quality – It is otherwise very difficult to communicate value of our product w.r.t. that of competition. One of the easiest and sure shot way is to increase price. While comparing 2 shirts that are seemingly similar, we tend to think that shirt that is higher priced as one that is better. Food served in a star hotel is supposed to be better than one served in an ordinary hotel because one gets a higher bill there.
  • Reason for Purchase/Sale – People should buy our product because they want it and badly want it, not because it is available at a lesser price.
  • Increase Responsibility – By price increase, in order to maintain and increase sales, one must back it up by improving the quality, service, marketing, be consistent and responsible. This will again be good for the brand.
  • Satisfaction – Company employees, suppliers, salesforce, distributors, retailers and consumers all feel very satisfied, have prestige in being associated with the brand.
  • Insulate from competitor moves – Lower priced brands are always under threat from new entrants and competitive price moves. Whereas premium brands are harder to topple by competitors. Competitors must work very hard to build their brand in order to acquire our customers.
  • Prevent Bargains – When our selling point is lower price, customer always tend to bargain. Transaction then happens only when we yield to the bargain. If we yield to those who bargain, then the one who doesn’t bargain suffers, eventually he too starts bargaining. For a routine FMCG sale, bargaining with the same customer every week is not a smooth way to deal.
  • Futile Price Wars – Price as a competitive advantage is never permanent and not worthy. We can gain a temporary sale by selling at a lower price. But competitor will immediately react by selling his at an even lower price. This will end in a price war with no winners but all badly wounded losers.
Going forward we like to increase the price gap and eventually not lend Cocoguru to price comparision with another brand. Every aspect of our business is undergoing continuous improvement, price will also undergo improvement accordingly.
CategoriesPricing
by 0

Effects of Price Increase on Coconut Oil Trade

In exactly one year we have witnessed increase in price of coconut oil, coconut, copra and coconut oil cake from its lowest to highest (so far). We are all talking about it because the growth in price has been whopping 3 times! So, I will try to put across some of the wisdom at hind-sight on its effects on various stake-holders. Not many in this industry including us, would have been prepared for this change that seems irreversible now. Till now inflation has happened on most commodities except coconut.

Farmers
Price increase should naturally bring cheer to the farmers. But this time it didn’t bring along the desired cheer to them. The price increase is not because of the increasing demand but more because of scarcity of the commodity. If the farmer had grown 100 nuts last year, sadly he has only grown 50 nuts this year. So, despite 3 times increase in price, his income has only grown 50%. Farmer has also witnessed similar inflation in the cost of his farm inputs like labour, fertilizers, water and so on.
Farmers generally don’t aspire to grow coconuts as much as they do for other cash crops like Arecanut and Rubber. They only cultivate coconuts for their own consumption and for plant diversity in their farm. Justifiably so, as the coconut price was way below his cost of production. This price increase should re-kindle interest in them to take coconut cultivation more seriously. If they do, this should be a great boon for entire coconut industry.

Usage
Coconut Oil finds widespread use in household cooking, baking applications, soaps, hair oil, body massage and so on. In a few of these applications, there are no easy substitutes and the demand is inelastic. That is why price is continuing to rise unabated.
Coconut from the tree was earlier used mostly for making copra and hence coconut oil. The price of coconut and copra was mostly driven by coconut oil and palm oil. Now the scenario is likely to change. Coconut Oil millers find that the coconuts cultivated don’t come as copra to their factory doors. Instead, Coconut is plucked while it is tender, the yield of coconut tree is also higher when tender coconut is plucked. Mature coconut (many times immature) is used extensively for making Desiccated Coconut. The remaining coconut that is still dried into copra again finds usage as edible copra (good shape and color) at higher price. The residue is available as copra for milling.

Coconut Processor
Profitability-wise it has been a great period for coconut traders and processors. They buy raw materials and when they about the sell the finished goods, the price would have increased. More stock one is able to hold and faster one is able to complete the processing cycle, better were is profits. Earlier the price increase brought with it some caution, what if the price comes down tomorrow? Now it has become highly predictable. But it has not been all that rosy.
Working Capital required has increased proportionally. For those with limited working capital his ability to hold stock has reduced. A certain level of stock is required to maintain quality in production (e.g. Time is required for drying copra, filtering oil through sedimentation). Minimum stock is required to meet sudden demands, ensure supply just in case production has been disrupted. While discussing with a Vendor, he was telling about his customer in Coconut Oil industry. Who were once paymasters when it comes to vendor payments have now been delaying his payments.

Adulteration
Extent of adulteration is directly proportional to the price difference between Pure Coconut Oil and its adulterants. Palm Kernel Oil is the often used adulterant owing to its similarities with Coconut Oil. Many other malpractices also go along with adulteration like Underweight and Sales in Black.

Consumer
It is the consumer who has been badly hit by this price increase. He is obviously forced to pay much more. Also, he has to consume adulterated products. In order to keep his expense on cooking oil within budget, he will try substitutes like Palmolein Oil and Sunflower Oil. Worst thing to happen will be when he has changed his edible oil for good, when he doesn’t buy coconut oil again even when the price has come down.

Coconut Oil compared with other edible oils
Coconut Oil will join edible oils like Ghee, Gingelly Oil and Groundnut Oil as premium, local cooking oils. A place where it rightfully belongs. It should be consumed because people want to consume it and not because it is cheap. Each one of them having a cheaper substitute, Vanaspati for Ghee, Ricebran Oil for Gingelly Oil, Palm Kernel Oil for Coconut Oil. Palmolein Oil, Sunflower Oil, Soyabean Oil, Cottonseed Oil and Rice-bran Oil will be for the masses.

CategoriesTaxation
by 1

Unique challenge with marketing pure edible coconut oil in small packets

It is logical that per unit cost of a commodity sold in bulk is less than that sold in lesser quantity. But that difference isn’t very significant. Ideally, if 1 litre of coconut oil pouch costs 60 Rs, 100 ml pouch should be around 6.5 Rs if not just 6 Rs. Government tax laws makes it costlier.

Here is how
Pure coconut oil is used all over India as a hair oil (cosmetic purpose) but people of coastal Karnataka and Kerala use it for cooking (edible purpose) also. Edible items are considered essential commodities and are taxed less. Government in its bid to differentiate the usage of pure coconut oil has come out with this dubious way of classification. All packets above 200gms are for edible purpose, attracts no excise duty and 4% VAT. All packets at or under 200 gms attracts 8.24% excise duty and 13.5% VAT OR combined (8.24% + 13.5% + 8.24%*13.5%) 22.85% ~ 23%. So, 100 ml pouch which was 6.5 Rs without tax now becomes 8 Rs after tax i.e. 80 Rs per litre. 1 litre pack which was 60 Rs before tax will become 62.4 Rs after tax. That is a difference of 17.5 Rs or 28%!

Why is this dubious?
Lower end consumers like the daily wage workers who use coconut oil for cooking like to buy in smaller quantities. They have to shell out 28% extra for an absolutely essential item like edible oil despite their inability to afford. Government is essentially heavily taxing those poor consumers while it should have done it otherwise.

This anomaly presents a great opportunity to unorganized coconut oil manufacturers to avoid taxes and sell cheap gaining a clear 23% (combined tax) price advantage over branded organized players. The consumers at this segment are extremely price conscious and are willing to switch brands for price difference. How can brands compete with them?

A more sensible way is to classify based on whether they follow the food standards i.e. Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA) and have an Edible Oil Packing (EOP) License. Those brands that follow PFA guidelines and have EOP license should be considered as essential and hence less tax.

News Item about the same issue – Marico to move court on coconut oil excise notice, Dabur May Follow Suit.

CategoriesBranding
by 13

How is Cocoguru Coconut Oil different from Parachute?

When I ask random people about the coconut oil brands that they are aware of, they all say Parachute and in many cases only Parachute. Name Parachute is synonymous with coconut hair oil, Marico should be congratulated for successfully branding the commodity and establishing a whopping 50% + market share in Indian organized coconut oil market. They are also such a boon to the Indian coconut industry by consuming 7% of Indian coconut production.

Now that we have launched Cocoguru brand of coconut oil, Question that anybody would ask is “We already have Parachute available everywhere, then why Cocoguru?”. I would like to answer that in this post.

1. Brand Positioning
Parachute brand represents Hair Care and Coconut Oil is one of the ways in which they nourish your hair. That is why we have hair cream, jasmine oil, non-stick hair oil from Parachute. Cocoguru brand represents delivery of Natural Goodness of Coconut, Coconut Oil is one of the ways in which we deliver you the benefits of Coconut. We have organic coconut oil, oil cake and edible copra. We plan to introduce virgin coconut oil, desiccated coconut powder, coconut milk etc in future.

2. Cooking Oil vs Hair Oil
Though both brands are 100% pure coconut oil and follow PFA (Prevention of Food Adulteration Act) guidelines and hence edible. Parachute is used as hair oil by people across India and world and has a much wider mainstream market. Cocoguru is used as cooking oil by people in Coastal Karnataka and has a niche market. We believe that Coconut Oil’s benefits are best realized when used in our diet though it is an excellent hair oil. With Parachute you see only small quantity upto 1 litre blue color HDPE bottles, while edible oil brand generally pack in pouches, cans and tins in quantity above 1 litre.

3. Cold Press process vs Heat Press process
Parachute is mass manufactured using a heat press process. Copra is roasted and cooked to remove moisture and fed into an expeller for crushing at high temperature and pressure. Oil extracted through this process has smells sharper, lasts longer due to less moisture and is a more efficient process in terms of percentage of oil recovered from copra.

Cocoguru is manufactured using cold press process. Sun dried copra is directly fed into Ghani (rotary machine) for crushing. Oil that comes out isn’t subjected to much pressure, temperature and hence retains the Natural Goodness of Coconut. Cold Pressed oil has a milder smell and appears colorless like water while heat pressed oil appears yellowish.

4. Quality of Raw Material (Copra)
Quality of coconut oil in cold press process depends mainly on the quality of copra, even one bad copra can quickly spoil the oil extracted from that batch. So, we can’t afford to use bad quality copra. Heat press process masks the presence of bad quality copra. We need only a few hundred tons of copra per year and can afford to have laborers sort out good quality copra from bad quality ones. When Parachute uses millions of tons of copra for mass manufacturing oil, it can’t afford to ensure raw material quality. Also they use 7% of coconuts produced in the country, if they go hunting for only good quality copra they will be left with not that much of copra. The bad quality copra that we separate are taken by copra traders and sold to Marico in Kasargod for making Parachute Coconut Oil. That is how we know that even bad quality copra is acceptable to them.

5. Job Work Service
Parachute has 5 factories in Maharashtra, Goa, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and caters to the entire country. We are where our customers are and work closely with them. Customers can get their Copra crushed at our factory and take back oil and oil cake for certain crushing service charge.

6. Cost and Price
500 ml Parachute bottle retails at 90 /- while Cocoguru sells at 30/- for a 500ml pouch. I would say Cocoguru is 3 times cheaper for a superior product! The reason for this vast difference is in the costs. Parachute has the overheads of managing a listed company, managing copra supply chain, spreading brand awareness and intensive distribution to a national market. Ours is a closely held family business catering (not unorganized) to a small local market and buy copra directly from farmers. Parachute attracts higher taxes 13.5% VAT and 8% excise duty as it is used for cosmetic purposes while Cocoguru has no excise duty and only 5% VAT as it is used for edible purposes.

7. Brand Awareness, Availability, Packaging
Above 6 points are all positives for Cocoguru over Parachute. But I give it to Parachute without much comments w.r.t. Brand Awareness (category definer), nationwide distribution and innovative packaging from small 1 Re tube to 1 litre bottle.

Based on these facts, Is Cocoguru threatened by Parachute? No. Cocoguru targets a small market of Coastal Karnataka and Kerala, people who use Coconut oil for cooking purpose. Cooking Oil market is highly price sensitive. So, because of small market size and high price sensitivity cooking oil market isn’t attractive for big players like Parachute. Still I wish Parachute for its market power should have done its bit to promote the health benefits of coconut oil and endorse its usage as cooking oil. Instead it chose to launch Saffola (blended safflower oil with rice bran oil) and Sweekar (refined sunflower oil) to cater to edible oil market.

Then who is the biggest threat to Cocoguru? Cheap substitutes like refined palm oil and sunflower oils are the biggest threat. Perception (wrong perception) that Coconut Oil is bad for heart because of Cholesterol and all saturated fats are bad is another big threat.