Says Shyam Mariwala, managing director, Marison Biocare Pvt Limited: ``The privilege cards will be given to our club members. Our objective is to establish effective relationship marketing with our target audience.'' Aimed at farmers, Terra Care has registered a growth rate of 200 per cent since its launch in 1996.

The company also plans to launch a newsletter to promote interaction amongst its members. The privilege card is being designed to offer Terra Care customers a host of benefits that include the right to participate in contests and seminars designed especially for farmers.``We will have direct contact with our members at the club functions. In an effort to educate our members, we will also host `Questions & Answers' sessions at the club,'' adds Mariwala.

As for `Planta Care', the urban avatar of Terra Care, the company is all set to launch television commercials on July 10, 1999. ``We will be airing the 35 and 10-second TVCs on Star News. Earlier, we were releasing press ads in the leading dailies. But now, we want to reach out to a wider audience through television,'' explains Mariwala. The TVCs are created by a new advertising agency, Pigtail Pundits.

It was in 1996 that the company launched Terra Care in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. According to Mariwala, the company's strategy was to design, develop and market soil-improvement products, that would surpass customer expectations. In an effort to promote the brand in the villages, the company hired the services of Samsika Marketing Consultants Pvt Ltd in 1997.

Says Jagdeep Kapoor, managing director, SamsikaMarketing Consultants: ``We adopted a two-pronged strategy for effective rural marketing of the product. Primarily, we took the education route, bringing the fruits of farm research to the fields.'' As a second initiative, the agency set up a strong distribution network--comprising 400 members--for deeper penetration into the rural belts. Now, after seeing the success of Terra Care in Maharashtra and Gujarat, the company plans to roll out the product in the northern and southern states of India in the near future.

Targeting the city gardeners, the company launched Planta Care in December 1998 in Mumbai. According to Mariwala, the productwas specifically developed for terrace and indoor gardens in Mumbai. ``From the beginning, we decided to treat the product as a FMCG,'' adds Mariwala.

As a first step, the company created a new category called the `urban garden grooming product.' Then, it positioned the brand as a product that improves the soil structure of indoor gardens. As for the USP, the companyhighlights the `convenience factor' in its advertisements. ``Garden grooming was never so easy'' reads the tagline of the press ads. Besides press ads, the company also releases `garden grooming tips' in the leading dailies, on a regular basis.

In addition to the mass-media advertising, the company is also sending direct mailers to many potential customers across the city. As part of its brand building exercise, the company also conducts `Mali Meets' at nurseries.