Introduction

ITC
India Limited Type Public (BSE:ITC) Founded August 24, 1910 Radha Bazar Lane,Kolkat a, India

Headquarters Virginia House, Kolkata, India Key people Y C Deveshwar, ChairmanK Vaidyanath, Director, CFO: Partho Chatterjee Industry Tobacco, Foods, Hotels Products Cigarettes, Packaged Food, Hotels, Apparel Revenue $4.75 billion USD (2006) Employees 20,000 (2006) Websitehttp: //www.itcport al.com/

ITC is one of India's foremost private sectors companies with a market capitalization of nearly US $ 15 billion and a turnover of over US $ 4.75 billion. ITC is rated among the World's Best Big Companies, Asia's 'Fab 50' and the World's most Reputable Companies by Forbes magazine, among India's Most Respected Companies by Business World and among India's Most Valuable Companies by Business Today. ITC also ranks among India's top 10 `Most Valuable (Company) Brands', in a study conducted by Brand Finance and published by the Economic Times. ITC has a diversified presence in Cigarettes, Hotels, Paperboards & Specialty Papers, Packaging, Agri-Business, Packaged Foods & Confectionery, information Technology, Branded Apparel, Greeting Cards, Safety Matches and other FMCG products. While ITCis an outstanding market leader in its traditional businesses of Cigarettes, Hotels,

Paperboards, Packaging and Agri-Exports, it is rapidly gaining market share even in its nascent businesses of Packaged Foods & Confectionery, Branded Apparel and Greeting Cards. As one of India's most valuable and respected corporations, ITC is widely perceived to be dedicatedly nation-oriented. Chairman Y C Deveshwar calls this source of inspiration "a commitment beyond the market". In his own words: "ITC believes that its aspiration tocreate enduring value for the nation provides the motive force to sustain growingshareholder value. ITC practices this philosophy by not only driving each of itsbusinesses towards international competitiveness but by also consciously contributingto enhancing the competitiveness of the larger value chain of which it is a part." ITC's diversified status originates from its corporate strategy aimed at creating multiple drivers of growth anchored on its time-tested core competencies: unmatched distributionreach, superior brand-building capabilities, effective supply chain management andacknowledged service skills in hotelier. Over time, the strategic forays into newbusinesses are expected to garner a significant share of these emerging high-growth markets in India. ITC's Agri-Business is one of India's largest exporters of agricultural products. ITC is one of the country's biggest foreign exchange earners (US $ 2.8 billion in the lastdecade). The Company's 'e-Choupal' initiative is enabling Indian agriculture significantlyenhance its competitiveness by empowering Indian farmers through the power of theInternet. This transformational strategy, which has already become the subject matter of acase study at Harvard Business School, is expected to progressively create for ITC a hugerural distribution infrastructure, significantly enhancing the Company's marketing reach. ITC's wholly owned Information Technology subsidiary, ITC InfoTech India Limited, is aggressively pursuing emerging opportunities in providing end-to-end IT solutions, including e-enabled services and business process outsourcing. production facilities and hotels have won numerous national and international awards for quality, productivity, safety and environment management systems. ITC waste first company in India to voluntarily seek a corporate governance rating. ITC employs over 21,000 people at more than 60 locations across India. The Company continuously endeavors to enhance its wealth generating capabilities in a globalizing environment to consistently reward more than 3,95,000 shareholders, fulfill the aspirations of its stakeholders and meet societal expectations

Objective
The primary objective of this study is to systematically explore the determinantsresponsible for the competitive advantage of ITC Limited and how ITC developed newproduct lines in its foods business drawing on its competencies in brand-building, R&D,packaging, and distribution. However, market analysts were not sure whether ITC wouldachieve success in all the food categories that it had entered. Why people are buying the products. What all the things which influences them to buy To understand howIT C has diversified themselves to a multi-product corporation from a single product company

Research Methodology
The researcher has used secondary data, magazines, intern

Organisation structure
An organisation based on process management
ITC is organised on the basis of process management principles, with a transparent organisational structure.

Initiatives taken - Lets put India first

ITC is committed to a national agenda of raising agricultural productivity and making therural economy more socially inclusive. ITC believes that the urgency and scale of thesetasks make market linked solutions and innovations more effective and sustainable thancapital intensive approaches. Social & farm Forestry ITC has helped to bring nearly 13,000 hectares of wasteland under social forestry benefiting more than 16,000 poor households in 466 villages. ITCs social forestry programme simultaneously addresses the livelihood problems ofmarginal farmers and the ecological imperative of regenerating biomass and nurturingdepleted soils. Watershed Development ITCs watershed initiatives have led to an improvement in soil and moisture regimes there is more land under irrigation, water tables have risen and farmers can harvest morethan one crop, making it possible to live off the land round the year.

ITC Pricing strategy:

The pricing of the ITC food division depends upon the Customers demand schedule, thecost function and the competitors price. The pricing of the company is such that it catersto the need of all income groups of people but special provision has been kept for Lowand middle income group, and their pricing are competitive with respect to other playerslike Britannia, Parle and Briskfarm. The company follows the Going rate pricing that is the price of the product depends upon the competitors price. The firm chooses pricing more or less the same as Market leader.

ITC Promotional activities

A particular budget is allocated for the promotion of the products, the local promotionscheme is decided by the Area Sales Manages, it give its suggestion to the District officeand that is forwarded to the Head Quarter in Kolkata. In another promotional scheme for Biscuits a particular number of cases is given freely to the distributors according to the amount of sale they make, this was adrop down promotion i.e. of the number of free cases that a particular distributors gets, off them a certain part is reserved for the retailers and customer if they buy a certain level of biscuit quantity.

ITC Distribution
Buoyed by a strong distribution network ITC is likely to retain its market share in thecigarettes business; the ban on advertisements is likely to work in favour of ITC thanks tothe recall factor. The company's reliable distribution network also ensures superior inventory turnover than its peers.

BCG Matrix

Star
Agri BusinessHotelsPaperboards & Packaging

Question mark

FMCG Foods FMCG Cigarettes ITC Infotech

Cash Cow

Dog

Consumer Buying Decision

The main driver in attracting the consumers is Quality of the product itself with nearly65% of the people surveyed citing it as the main criterion for choosing the product,followed by past experience of the consumer with the brand (17.6%). Price was thirdcriterion with a percentage of 11.7% of the people surveyed gave importance duringbuying. An effective advertisement will attract more and more customer to buy, helps in the brand and image formation, and informative in telling the USP of the product.

The above graph shows the experience of the customer after using the product i.e.whether they were satisfied with the product as a whole. The higher the satisfaction levelhigher will be the chances that the customer will buy the same brand again and again thatleads to the building of the Brand loyalty. The Availability of the Product itself determine the effectiveness and the penetration of the distribution channel of that particular brand among the people.

SWOT Analysis of ITC Ltd.

Strengths
Brand Distribution Network Management

Weaknesses

Dependence on Tobacco Revenues Negative connection of Tobacco Rural market e-C h o u p alLow Per capita consumption ofpersonal care products

Opportunities Threats
Competition both domestic and international Increasing tax on cigarettes.

FUTURE PLANS OF THE COMPANY

Recommendations

According to the survey conducted and after analyzing the Price, Promotion, Place andProduct of the ITC and the consumer behavior in the market the company can implementthe following measure for increasing the sales and volume of their products. Advertisement for the Aashirvaad atta is found to be ineffective and infrequent. So, the company can come up with an aggressive advertisement to attract the Indian housewife as they are found to be the decision maker in the buying of Atta. The company can come up the concept of forming a Retail chain of Food products across all over India as it is follows the marketing strategy of Umbrella branding.In such retail chains all the food division products can be sold at the discountedrate, as more and more products are coming under the Umbrella products likefood processing. The branded atta can be exported to other countries where we are currently exporting the whole wheat. The company can approach the government or distributing their products in Military canteens and can sell them to organization that provides the afternoon meals to the children as a part of mid-day meal scheme.

Limitations
Skill set shortage Maintaining high quality standards Lack of talent pool Unable to do primary research Confidentiality Enhanced risk management Time constraint

References taken:
http://www.itcportal.com http://www.google.co.in/ http://www.blonnet.com http://www.just-food.com http://www.thehindubusinessline.com http://www.imcri.org http://www.scribd.com