Over view & Background of the company:

Nasir Glass Industries, the biggest and first float glass manufacturer in Bangladesh. Produces different sized and colored float glass according to the requirements of the buyer. The manufacturing plant is located within the short distance of the capital city Dhaka, at Sripur in Gazipur made at a cost of Tk 300 crore. Built in 2005, Nasir Glass Industry, the country’s first float glass plant, has a capacity to produce 60,000 tonnes of float glass, strong enough for furniture, besides window and door panes. The glass factory produces clear and tinted heat absorbing glass, clear, bronze, blue and dark gray and light gray glass. The factory, producing glass from 2mm to 12mm thickness, has already achieved international standards in producing glass. Our country has an annual market for Tk 3.00 billion glassware and almost all of them are imported from China, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. But because of the poor local demand, it can sell only 3500 tones in the local market and export around 1500 tonnes to the neighboring countries of India, Nepal and Bhutan. As a major portion of the raw-materials are procured locally, the prospects of the float glass industry is bright indeed.

It sells glass at much lower price compared to that of the imported glasses with similar quality.

About 501 – 1000 People  are employed directly or indirectly in this industry. Its total annual sales volume US$1 Million – US$2.5 Million. Its main exporting markets are North America, South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Eastern Asia, Southeast Asia, Mid East, Africa, and Oceania.

The company is named after its owner Nasir Uddin Biswas, the group has an annual turnover of around Tk 10 billion.

NGIL is a multi-functional float glass complex set up with a dream. Sprawled over 23 acres of lush green land at Joinabazar, Sreepur, Gazipur, Bangladesh, NGIL has a buitt-up area of over half a million square feet with some structures rising over 80 feet. With 37 meters (121 feet) high imposing water tower and 75 meters (246 feet) lofty chimney, NGIL presents a panoramic view of eloquent beauty with impressive grandeur. Dotted by architecturally attractive workstations surrounded by elegantly crafted paths which are landscaped by intertwined trees, shrubs and lawns, the factory is an ecological dream.

Therefore good marketing must be able to create a “proposition” or set of benefits for the end customer that delivers value through products or services.

Company portfolio:

Nasir Glass is one of the products of Nasir Group of Industry. Nasir group is one of the famous industries in our country. In bellow we give their business portfolio.

Nasir Group:

• Nasir Biri Industries Limited (Nasir Biri)
• Nasir Tobaco Industries Limited (Nasir Gold Cigarette)
• Nasir Leaf Tobaco Industries Limited (Nasir Jorda, Nasir Gol)
• Bangladesh Melamine Industries Limited
• Nasir Glassware & Tube Industries Limited
• Biswas printing & packaging Industries Limited
• Bangladesh Footwear Industries Limited (Jamp Keds)
• Nasir Glass Industries Limited

Marketing mix Strategies:

Marketing is a societal process which discerns consumers’ wants, focusing on a product or service to fulfill those wants, attempting to move the consumers toward the products or services offered. Marketing is fundamental to any businesses growth. The marketing teams (marketers) are tasked to create consumer awareness of the products or services through marketing techniques. Unless it pays due attention to its products and services and consumers’ demographics and desires, a business will not usually prosper over time.

Marketing tends to be seen as a creative industry, which includes advertising, distribution and selling. It is also concerned with anticipating the customers’ future needs and wants, which are often discovered through market research.

Essentially, marketing is the process of creating or directing an organization to be successful in selling a product or service that people not only desire, but are willing to buy.

1.Product:

In order for any company to sell its products and services as successfully as possible, it needs to look at what products it is selling in detail to ensure they will be attractive and needed; the price to ensure it is not too cheap or too expensive; where it is best distributing its product; and finally, how it can create interest and awareness for its products.  All these elements need to be targeted at the right people at the right time.   In order for its business to tackle this correctly, it needs to get the right type of mix (marketing mix), the mix should include four main elements: Product, Price, Place and Promotion, by examining each and carefully and adapting them to customer’s needs, it will continue to produce and needed products and services.

Every company needs firstly to identify who will be interested in buying its products and services, this should be identified once it has analyzed the results of the market research.  Company’s market research data will be able to look more closely at what its market want and then look at its products to see if they are satisfying your customer’s needs.  Examine its packaging design, materials used, size and quantity.  By analyzing the market and its requirements, it will be able to change the product or develop the product in order to match those requirements of the people it is aiming at.

It also needs to remember that its customer’s needs are likely to change and therefore its products should constantly change to reflect each market change, if it ignores these changes its products will no longer be needed or desired by your target customers.  The only way it will be able to do this is to track your products and track how its customers are still receiving its products and services, balancing the subtle changes as they occur.

Products of Nasir Glass Ltd:

Nasir Float Glass is a single line manufacturing unit. Basic float glass is manufactured by melting Silica sand. Ingredients such as Soda Ash, Dolomite, Salt Cake, etc. are added to lower the melting temperature of Silica and achieve optimal clarity of finished product. The mixed batch is heated at about 1650ºc and formed into large sheets by floating molten glass on molten tin, thus giving it precise flatness & transparency. The formed ribbon then passes through an Annealing lehr, which cool-up the glass from 600ºc to 70ºc. The operation prevents the formation of both temporary & residual stresses in glass. Quality Control System is an integral part of the production process, which assures the fineness of finished goods.

Distortion-free:

Nasir Glass has precise surface flatness, which provides distortion-free vision.

Clear & Transparent looks:

Nasir Glass is excellently clear & transparent. When turned into mirror, it provides brilliant reflected image.

Sparkling Surface:

Nasir Glass has fully fire furnished surface and executes a fine luster, which resist scratches, dust & dirt. It’s easier to clean.

Solar Heat Energy Absorption:

Tinted Nasir Glass absorbs 30 to 35 percent of the solar radiation heat (depending on the tint and thickness of glass), reduces the flow of heat into the buildings and keeps the building cool and comfortable.

Beautification:

Nasir Glass enhances the aesthetics appearance of buildings. It provides flexibility which helps Architects and Designers to use it in new design trends.

Protection Against Glare:

Tinted Nasir Glass has low visible ray transmittance, thus softening the glare of light.

Strength & Durability:

Nasir Glass is very strong & durable because it is free from bubbles & ripples.

Window Glazing

Nasir Glass is the best choice for any window glazing application for its superior strength, high optical clarify, undistorted, smooth surface & flexibility in sizes.

Curtain & Partition walls

Nasir Glass enables to design curtain & partition walls owing to its inherent strength & availability of various sizes. Besides giving modern looks, it reduces the overall dead weight of buildings, allows faster construction & requires less expensive maintenance. The heat absorbing ability reduces the air conditioning & lighting load largely, thus saving precious energy.

Home Doors & Decorations

For its crystalline, transparent & tinted quality, Nasir Glass is the first preference for home doors, cabinets and different decorations.

Shop Fronts & Decorations

The shiny, strong, distortion free Nasir Glass provides a distinct image to a shop. The easy maintenance & non-inflammability of the glass make it an essential material for display cabinets, partitioning, screening & decoration.

Furniture’s

Due to its versatility, Nasir Glass is ideal for furniture, tabletops, shelves, cabinets, showcases & sliding doors of large cabinets, cupboards, etc.

Mirrors

Nasir Glass gives perfect reflected image when turned into mirror.

Tempered Glass

For its strength & durability, Nasir Glass also gives perfection as Tempered Glass.

REFLECTIVE GLASS

A REFLECTIVE GLASS is made by high velocity electric sputtering of metallic elements or compounds on to a glass substrate in vacuum or in presence of special gas.

Functions & Features:

Reflecting glass lowers the initial construction time & cost of the building.

Lowers the operation cost of air conditioning by reflecting the solar energy.
Makes buildings aesthetically beautiful by offering variety of colors to glazed the building appearance, attracting customers and enhancing renta l and sa l es value of the building.

Makes a room comfortable by conrolling light transmittance,

which ranges only 8-30% and reducing sun glare.

Applications:

Reflective glass can be used as curtain walls for office buildings, hotels, department stores, hospitals, laboratories, computer rooms etc. where requires no direct sun glare.
It can also serve as mirror glass for room decoration.

It serves as ‘antipeep’ and ‘antisteal’ barriers.
Specialized Application

Nasir Glass is also producing specialized crystallized glasses, coated glasses.

 Some examples of product decision to be made:

Brands

The word brand is comprehensive; it encompasses other narrow terms. A brand is a name and or mark intended to identify the product of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate the product from competing products. Brand is also used not really correctly to refer to a specific product as in ~sales of the brand.”

A brand name consists of words, letters and or numbers that can be vocalized. A brand mark is the art of the brand that appears in the form of a symbol, design or distinctive color or lettering. A brand mark is recognized by sight but cannot be expressed when a person pronounces the brand name. A trademark is a brand that has been adopted by a seller and given legal protection. Nasir Glass Brands its products by using the company name at the beginning of the products name like Nasir Color Glass, Nasir Reflective Glass etc.

Reasons for Branding

For seller, brand can be promoted. They are easily recognized when displayed in a store or include in advertising. Branding reduces price comparison. That is because brands are another factor to be considered in comparing different products, branding reduce the likelihood of purchase decision that are based solely on price. The reputation of a brand also influences customer’s loyalty among buyers of services as well as business and consumer goods. Finally, branding can differentiate commodities.

Desirable Characteristics

Various characteristics determine the desirability of a brand name for either a good or a service. It is difficult to find a brand name that rates well on every attribute.

Suggest something about the product, particularly its benefits and use.

Be easy to pronounces, spell and remember. Be distinctive. Be adaptable to additions to the product line. Be capable of registration and legal protection.

Branding Strategies

1.   Marketing entire output under producers’ own brands.
2.   Branding of fabricating materials and parts.
3.   Marketing under middlemen’s brands.

Among the above branding strategies Nasir Glass uses the first strategy Marketing entire output under producers’ own brands.
 

Branding within a product mix

1.   A separate name for each product.
2.   The company name combined with a product name.
3.   The company name alone.

Branding for market saturation

With increasing frequency firms are employing a multiple brand strategy to increase their total sale in a market. They have more than one brand of essentially the same product, aimed either at the same target market or at distinct target markets.

Building and using brand equity

We tend to think of brand equity as a positive aspect of a product. Occasionally a brand will have negative equity. In such a situation a brand creates unfavorably impressions about a product in a consumer’s mind.

The brand itself can become an edge over competition, what are we call a differential advantage influencing consumers to buy a particular product. Because it is expensive and time consuming to build brand equity it creates a barrier for companies that want to enter the market with a similar product.

Packaging and labeling

Protect the product on its way to the consumer.

Protect the product after it is purchased.

Help gain acceptance of the product from middlemen.

Help persuade consumers to buy the product.

Packaging strategies

A company must decide whether to develop a family resemblance when packaging related products. Family packaging uses either highly similar packages for all products or packages with a common and clearly noticeable feature.

Multiple packaging.

Labeling: The Nasir Glass to its products does all the three types of the following labeling.

1.   A brand label is simply the brand alone applied to the product or package.
2.   A descriptive label gives objective information about the product’s use, construction, care, performance and other potential features.
3.   A grade label identifies a product’s judged quality with a letter, number or word.

Design:

One way to satisfy customers and gain a deferential advantage is through product design, which refers to the arrange of elements that collectively form a good or service. Good design can improve the marketability of a product by making it easier to operate, upgrading its qualities, improving its appearance, and/or reducing production cost. A distinctive design may be the only feature that significantly differentiate a product. Nasir Glass is constantly changing its products designs to give the customers a variety of choice.

Color:

Like design product color often is the determining factor in a customers acceptance or rejection of a product. Nasir Glass is producing color glasses in different colors

Quality:

There is no agreement on a definition of a product quality, even though it is universally recognized as significant. One professional society defines products quality as the set of feature and characteristics of a good or service that determines its ability to satisfy needs.

Nasir Glass is using the advanced technology of producing different glasses. So they are being able to serve the market with the quality products.

2.Price

Price in economics and business is the assigned numerical monetary value of a good, service or asset. The concept of price is central to microeconomics where it is one of the most important variables in resource allocation theory (also called price theory). Price is also central to marketing where it is one of the four variables in the marketing mix that business people use to develop a marketing plan.

Pricing objectives of NASIR GLASS

The firms pricing objectives must be identified in order to determine the opticalpricing.common objectives of NASIR GLASS include the following

• Current profit maximisation
• Current revenue maximization
• Maximize quantity
• Maximize profit marzin
• Quality leadership
• Partial cost recovery
• Survivalstatus quo

No matter what type of product for sell, the price what will charge the customers or clients will have a direct effect on the success of business. Though pricing strategies can be complex, the basic rules of pricing are straightforward:

1.   All prices must cover costs and profits.
2.   The most effective way to lower prices is to lower costs.
3.   Review prices frequently to assure that they reflect the dynamics of cost, market demand, response to the competition, and profit objectives. Prices must be established to assure sales.

Pricing decisions require time and market research, the strategy of many business owners is to set prices once and “hope for the best.” However, such a policy risks profits that are elusive or not as high as they could be.

When is the right time to review your prices? Do so if:

• You introduce a new product or product line;
• Your costs change;
• You decide to enter a new market;
• Your competitors change their prices;
• The economy experiences either inflation or recession;
• Your sales strategy changes; or
• Your customers are making more money because of your product or service.

Strategies used by nasir glass to determining price:

Various types of strategies are used in pricing considering the objectives of the company, products and their pricing methods. As the pricing objective of Nasir glass is profit maximizing, they mostly use market-skimming pricing for their new and specialized products. It also follows market penetration strategy for the competing products. It uses penetration pricing which is comparatively low pricing but the target is to capture the biggest share of the market. So we can that It follows a matrix strategy for pricing its products.

Other strategies followed by Nasir Glass:

 Price Set in Relation to Market Alone

Nasir Glass uses cost plus pricing but it also considers the price in relation to the market competition. Nasir Glass has three options – such pricing can be for the meet competition.

In glass market of Bangladesh there are not very much competition. Only a few company are existed. So, Nasir Glass doesn’t recognize the price to meet competition.

Nasir Glass follows pricing below the competition. Actually it wants to capture the market. And that’s why it launches its product in the market as a price, which is below than the competitors. Nasir Glass does it to increase the share in the market. It wants to increase its sale volume and to earn maximum profit. The most important message is this pricing is done by discount retailers.

Another option is pricing above competition. Normally Nasir Glass don’t follow this method but if it produce a distinctive product then it charge high price for that product.

Geographic Pricing strategy

Nasir Glass is sold all over the country even outside the country. So, it is the important fact to consider the freight of the product. Recognizing the geographic, Nasir Glass may establish pricing policies whereby the buyer pays the entire freight expenses, the seller bears the whole burdens or the seller and buyer share this expense.

In geographic strategy, Nasir Glass recognizes the zone delivered pricing. In this system, price of the product will be varied according to their destination. If the destination is too far then the price of the product will be high compare with the product whose destination is in near. So, depending on the destination the price is varied. To make the charge easy, Nasir Glass has divided the total geography in various zone and determined the charges for each zone. The destination is situated in which zone; the pricing will be varied according to the charge of that zone.

Price Lining

Price lining involves selecting a limited number of prices at which a business will sell related products.

Nasir Glass selects the prices for their same categories product. It firstly categories their product and then select the price each category.

Method used in pricing by Nasir Glass:

Using a particular pricing method is important for pricing products. As there are many pricing methods prevailing in markets, the Nasir glass company is using mainly the cost plus pricing method. This method sets the price where both cost desirable profit are considered to determine the price. So the cost plus pricing is

Price = cost for product + desired profit.

Reasons behind the selecting cost plus pricing method ———–

• Its objective is giving emphasis over the earning profit.
• Here cost and profit can be easily identified.
• It can predetermine the profit when pricing of a product. So desired profit can be easily identified.
• This method is over all easy to determine price.

Cost plus pricing:

To price in this method, Nasir glass consider three factors. These are

Total cost plus a desired profit

Marginal analysis

Competitive market condition.

Although it is an easy method it has some limitation. Firstly one is – it does not recognize various types of cost, secondly- it ignores the market demand. To overcome this limitation the Nasir Glass’s pricing is not only basis of cost and profit. But it also considers the demand of the market. Actually it is following a matrix method for pricing. But pricing will be made in which point where profit is obvious. So they combined the profit and market demand in pricing. In identifying the cost they consider the total cost.

Break-even analysis

Nasir Glass Company does break-even analysis as it considers both demand and cost in price determination. The break-even point is that quantity of output at which total revenue equals total cost, assuming a certain selling price. It helps to find out revenue cost and profit. Nasir Glass made the price by cost plus pricing. Then Nasir Glass want to know is their pricing efficient or not. To know the answer Nasir Glass made break-even analysis recognizing selecting price. And make the final decision about the price of the product. It also makes decision about the sale volume, revenue and profit.

Total Fixed cost

Break-even point in unit  = —————————————————————————————————————–

Unit contribution to overhead

Here,

Unit contribution to overhead = Selling price – Average variable cost

In cost plus pricing there is also two methods such as

• Prices based on marginal cost
• Pricing by middlemen

But Nasir glass does not follow any of these methods because of the following reasons…

Ignore prices based on marginal cost:

Nasir Glass Company uses expensive machineries for production. This cost affects hugely on the cost of final products. If they ignore this fix cost or pricing mainly bases on marginal cost it would not be suitable for the company. This method is appropriate for only those companies who use less expensive machine for production.

Ignore pricing by middlemen:

The reasons behind ignoring the pricing by middlemen are as follows

• Most retailing prices are really just offers. Customers may accepts the price or reject the price. If they reject the price, the company must change the price or the product will be out of the market.
• All retailers do not use the same markup. These different markups for distinctive product reflect competitive consideration and other aspects of market demand.

Actually middlemen don’t set the price. They only add percentages on the price; the pricing is really done by the producers.

3.PROMOTION

Another one of the 4P’s is ‘promotion’. This includes all of the tools available to the marketer for ‘marketing communication’. Marketing communications has its own ‘promotions mix.’ Think of it like a cake mix, the basic ingredients are always the same. However if you vary the amounts of one of the ingredients, the final outcome is different. It is the same with promotions. You can ‘integrate’ different aspects of the promotions mix to deliver a unique campaign.

Methods

There are some main aspects of the Promotional Mix of this company. These consist of:

Advertising– Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.

Examples: Print ads, radio, television, billboard, direct mail, brochures and catalogs, signs, in-store displays, posters, motion pictures, Web pages, banner ads, and emails.

Various types of media

Nasir Glass Company uses various types of media. In selecting the media Nasir Glass consider the following factors—

1. The purpose of particular advertisement and the goal of the entire campaign influence which media to use.
2. The advertise will be considering the geographic where it will be advertised.
3. The media should fit the message.
4. Time and location of the buying decision.
5. Company analysis the media cost.

Media using by the Nasir Glass:

Television – It is a most important media for advertising. Most people enjoy television program a reasonable time of a day. So, Nasir Glass Company advertises their product on this media for increasing their sell.

Direct Mail – Nasir Glass some times advertise about its different products to its existing and potential customers by direct mailing them.

News Paper – As an advertising media newspapers are flexible and timely. Newspapers can be used to reach an entire city or where regional editions are offered selected areas. After analyzing these facts Nasir Glass Company uses newspaper for advertising their products.

Radio – After inventing the television, Radio audiences declined so dramatically that some people predicted Radio’s demise. However, Radio has enjoyed a rebirth as an advertising and cultural media. With the number of stations increasing at a steady rate radio is a low cost per thousand media because of its broad reach. Nasir Glass Company uses Radio for advertising their program.

Magazines – Magazines are the media to use where high quality printing and color are designed can reach a national market at a relatively low cost per reader. In recent years the rapid increase in special interest magazines and regional editions of general interest magazines has made it possible for advertisers to reach a selected audience with a minimum of wasted circulation. So, Nasir Glass Company advertises their product on magazines.

Out of Home Advertising:

Now a day many companies are spending on out-of-home advertising. Nasir Glass Company also advertises their products on out of home advertising. It may be billboard, Poster, Banner, and Neon light.

Sponsorship is  sometimes added as a fifth aspect. The company is now sponsoring many social competition, debates, cricket matches, stage plays etc

Web promotion  is also a promotional mix.

Promotion budget:

Establishing promotion budget is extremely challenging. Because management lacks reliable standards to determine how much to spend altogether on advertising, personnel selling and the remainder of promotional mix. Now the money spend in promotional activities is treated as investment. So company must made the budget to fix the amount for promotion, divide the amount among the all-promotional mix and the budget should be recover for the prosperity of the company.

Nasir glass involves in promotional activities and it budgets in promotion investment on basis of percentage of sales .the method can be divided into two parts. First- determine the estimated sales and second identify the percentage what will be spend for promotion.

4.Placement

Placement (or Distribution) is one of the four aspects of marketing. A distributor is the middleman between the manufacturer and retailer. After a product is manufactured it may be warehoused or shipped to the next echelon in the supply chain, typically either a distributor, retailer or consumer.

Broadly speaking, distribution concerns the methods, processes, infrastructure, institutions and pricing mechanisms required to bring a product from manufacturers to consumers. Product may pass from distribution partner to consumer via various “channels of trade”, where a channel of trade is defined to be an established market mechanism for placing and selling products that follows a well-understood set of merchandising, settlement and delivery policies. Consequently, distribution strategy encompasses elements of marketing, merchandising, delivery and logistics: the set of business rules and processes used to move the product or service through the supply chain to the end customer. Distribution strategy addresses questions about appropriate logistics service providers (such as 3PL’s), channels of trade, pricing and service policy. The NaSir Glass company has its deaklers almost in every district of Bangladesh. It has its own transport facilities for supplyiong he products to their dealers.

The distribution channel:

Frequently there may be a chain of intermediaries, each passing the product down the chain to the next organization, before it finally reaches the consumer or end-user. This process is known as the ‘distribution chain’ or the ‘channel.’ Each of the elements in these chains will have their own specific needs, which the producer must take into account, along with those of the all-important end-user.

Channels used by Nasir Glass:

A number of alternate ‘channels’ of distribution may be available:

• Selling direct, such as via mail order, Internet and telephone sales
• Agent, who typically sells direct on behalf of the producer
• Distributor (also called wholesaler), who sells to retailers
• Retailer (also called dealer or reseller), who sells to end customers
• Advertisement typically used for consumption goods.

First the products are supplied from the factory to the main dealer at Babubazar. Then the main dealer supplies the products to the sub-dealers at 54 districts. These sub-dealers control the total distribution channel within the districts. The products are supplied from sub-dealers to the retailers. The customers can purchase either from the sub-dealer or from the retailers. The company has more than 100 retail shop all over the Bangladesh totally owned by the company.

Sometimes customers with big orders purchase products from the company directly or from the main dealer. The company gives a ordering service for its customers to give order through its official web sites.

In the remote areas where the company does not have any sub-dealer or retail shop, the company sells its products to those areas by hiring retailers.

The distribution channels for exporting products are not as the same as the distribution channels used for supplying products within the country.

When an international buyer gives an order to the company, the company supplies the products by direct shipment to that buyer.

The company has its own transportation division for transporting the products to its dealers and retailers within the country.

Conclusion

The four marketing mix elements are interrelated, decisions in one area affects the action in another. Design a marketing mix is certainly affected by whether a firm chooses to compete on the basis of price or on one or more other elements. When a firm relies on prices as its primary competitive tool, the other elements must be designed to support aggressive pricing. For example, the firms competing on the basis of price their promotional campaign likely will be built around a theme of “Low Price”. In non-price competition, however, product, distribution, and/or promotional strategies come to the forefront. For instance, the product must have feature worthy of higher price, and promotion must create a high quality image for the product.

Each marketing mix elements contains countless alternatives. For instance, a producer may make and market one product or many; the products may be related or unrelated to each other. They may be distributed through whole sellers, to retailers without the benefit of wholesalers, or even directly to final customers. Ultimately, from the multitude of alternatives, management must select a combination of elements that will satisfy target markets and achieve organizational and marketing goals.

The Nasir Glass has set a combination of all the marketing mix elements. The company is trying to supply export quality products at a cheap rate than its competitors and imported glasses. So it is competing both on the basis of quality and price. The company is also enhancing its promotional activities to raise its sales volume and maximize profit. The company uses a short vertical distribution channel to distribute its products. At a glance to compete in a competitive market, where both domestic and international competition is present, the marketing mix the Nasir Glass is using is a successful one.