Executive Summary

Executive Summary

Herby, is an herbal, non tobacco smoking device manufactured by Maans Products started in 1982. It is made of 14 medicinal herbs. It was an innovative idea of Mr. Bhavsar who saw an opportunity in marketing this herbal product as an alternative to smoking.

Maans Products has decided to market this product extensively and increase the sales. Mr. Bhavsar plans to establish it as a brand at national level. He further plans to make it a leading brand in the domestic market and delve into foreign markets as well. He plans to do it by targeting appropriate customers. In the interim period, he plans to raise funds using his social contacts. Once the sales increase to a level in the long term where there is enough cash surplus, he can go for purchasing machinery to facilitate the automation of the production process.

Situational Analysis:

Customers: Huge opportunity rests in form of current smokers who are spread across various age groups. This product has already gained publicity as a medicine to various ailments like cold, cough etc. He is trying to target it as an alternative smoking device amongst educated class of people.

Competitors: Established players like IT C, GTC and VST offer cigarettes at cheaper price and occupy a major share in the market. Maans Products, by scaling up its manufacturing operations, will be able to reduce its cost further and will be able to reach more customers. The product has an edge over tobacco cigarettes because of its medicinal benefits.

Company: Maans Products is a family owned proprietary organization which mainly is biri manufacturing and marketing enterprise. It had 30-40 workers with annual turnover of 10 Lakhs in 1980’s. It launched Herby in 1983. In the initial years the sales were around 5000 packs a month. It however increased to 8000 packs a month in 1989. It is expected to increase further in future.

Context: As per the market survey, the number of smokers and cigarette sales increased every year from 1980-85. Expecting the same trend in future, there would be an increased number of smokers, some of whom are not able to quit smoking. This product comes as alternative, which the smokers can use instead of tobacco cigarettes. Its medicinal values would add up for further increase in demand for this product.

Market Opportunity and issues:-

There are various issues pertaining to various areas:-

1. Raw Material: Raw material is currently seasonal and is sparsely distributed.

2. The labourers are not adequately skilled. For e.g. rolling of cigarettes in cylindrical form was not known to the labourers. Proper training could help boost the performance.

3. Government policies need to be accounted. For e.g. a change in