Online published on 28 February, 2020.
Cement is a product, which fulfils the basic requirement of the society. The major demand drivers in case of cement industry are obviously theconstruction sector. Although the sector has various divisions, mainly the commercial and personal consumption of cement as a product becomes the main driving force of the industry. With such an importance of the industry, the future growth of the economy becomes the main growth engine of the industry as a whole. On the other hand we can say that if the economy grows then the related sectors will also grow and because of this expansion of capacity new infrastructure development will take place. This expansion will automatically increase the demand for the cement. This follows a unique chain of events where it has a direct contribution in the sector itself as well as indirect contribution in other sectors in terms of employment generation, increased income of government, and increase in foreign exchange earnings. Thus, we can say that if the industry is in a position to meet the increased requirement of overall infrastructure development then surely add significant contribution to GDP of the country. Not only that increased demand for cement production may indicate significant investment opportunity in that country which may attract FDIs in related or unrelated sectors where growth opportunities are there. It can be observed in various research reports that demand for cement as a product is exceptionally high in developing as well as less developed countries compared to developed countries. The reason for this kind scenario is quite easy to understand. The developed countries have already reached the saturation point in terms of infrastructure development both in terms of commercial as well as private capacity. Thus, the next big market for growth is emerging countries where full potential of the market is yet to be realized. Thus, today we are observing that most of the developing countries taking leading step in case of increased production of cement by utilizing the exiting capacity or by establishing the new units where the demand is high. The figure shows that India is the second highest producer of cement, just after China where growth of the cement industry is mainly attributed to tremendous development in infrastructure.
The process of developing a brand starts from the first stage i.e. introduction stage. This is the first time when the product comes in front of the consumers. This is the phase where consumer starts realizing the potential of the product or services. At this time the consumer never gives weightage to the product as a brand as the relative merits and demerits of the product are yet to be judged by the consumers. So, atthis stage the productremains asa coreproduct whose basic approach is to incorporate the core benefit, which the consumer is supposed to get from it. But only sticking to core benefit will not suffice as the new entrants will try to capture the market with the help of innovative features which may be superior or at par with the existing products. Because of this increased competition the demand for a separate brand image needs to be created so that it will get a permanent position in the mind of the consumer. While doing so, the f irm needs to take a differential approach so that it's positioning is different from other players in the market.
