Marketing Strategies of Chitale Bandhu

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Price-

The price of Chitale Bandhu products varies according to their products. Their products are available in various SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) and each product is price according to the category in which it is and the weight of the unit. Chitale Bandhu has always managed to provide its products at much cheaper rates than its competitors, because of superior technology employed by it and also large production give it a benefit of economy of scales. For instance the cost Chitale bandhu Bhakadwadi is 300 per kilo gram as compared to its competitors who peg the price of bhakadwadi ranging from 350-400 per kilo gram. Due to its high efficiency and extremely efficient distribution channels Chitale bandhu is able to provide high quality products at cheaper rates than its competitors which makes it the market leader.

Place-

Chitale Bandhu is one of the biggest distributors of snacks in Maharashtra state. It has total 19 retail stores in Pune and some stores are also present in Mumbai as well. All the sales of Chitale Bandhu is done through this retail stores only, there are no wholesalers for Chitale products. There are various dealers for Chitale Bandhu products present across Pune city. Apart from its offline presence, Chitale bandhu has also made its online presence. It also sells it whole product range on its own website, from where people of Pune city can deliver online and get their favourite namkeen aur sweets at doorsteps. Following the footsteps of Chitale Bandhu many of its competitors has also made their online presence. The Chitale brand also exports its namkeen, especially bhakarwadi, to the US, Israel and Singapore.

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Promotions-

Chitale Bandhu has never adopted conventional methods to promote its products. The quality of the products and the good will of the firm is self-sufficient and hence the Chitale Bandhu never advertised their products in print media or television or for that matter they never used any of the ATL (Above the Line) marketing techniques. The word of mouth publicity for them has worked really well and also the brand visibility of Chitale Bandhu has helped it to position itself as a quality manufacturer of sweets and namkeens.

Conclusion-

With nearly no ATL/ advertising to start with and no merchandising at all, Chitale Bandhu is a story of a company which has achieved heights due to its sheer dedication to serve the customers with ultimate quality of snacks and sweets. Their revenue of about 2.5 million dollars shows that by far and large they are the market leaders of Sweets and snacks segment in Maharashtra region. They revolutionized the whole industry by bringing automation to such a product that was majorly limited to the kitchens only. They have bring innovation in each of their products to leave an everlasting impression on the mind of their customers.

Questions-

- Chitale Bandhu despite doing so well in the Maharashtra region is not expanding its Business in other states, unlike what Amul did. Why?

- Despite being such a large firm, why Chitale Bandhu is not going public to raise more funds for their expansion in the whole country?

- Chitale Bandhu is solely managed by a single family, should they hire professional managers to take company forward like what Pidilite did?