雀巢公司首度承認忽略了印度社會內的富有人羣

Nestlé, the world’s biggest food company, has admitted to making a strategic error in India by ignoring more affluent consumers and pursuing buyers of cheaper sweets and noodles.

世界最大食品公司雀巢公司(Nestlé)承認在印度犯下戰略性錯誤，忽略了更富有的消費者而把主要目標對準了那些購買較廉價糖果和麪條的顧客。

“We made a mistake,” said Nandu Nandkishore, who heads Nestlé’s Asia business. “We basically focused on driving the mass market and we really ignored a little bit the emerging affluent segment.”

雀巢亞洲業務主管南都•南基紹爾(Nandu Nandkishore)表示：“我們犯了一個錯誤。我們基本上將精力集中於發展大衆市場上，對正在興起的富有人羣確實有所忽略。”

Like other consumer goods companies, the maker of KitKat chocolate bars and Maggi noodles has been increasing its focus on emerging markets, which now account for 43 per cent of its $98.2bn global sales.

和其他消費品公司類似，這家奇巧(KitKat)巧克力棒和美極(Maggi)麪條的製造商一直在加大對新興市場的關注。如今，新興市場銷售額佔雀巢全球982億美元銷售額的43%。

But, like some of its peers, Nestlé is having to redraw its strategy in the face of depreciating local currencies, slower economic growth, higher input costs and rising domestic competition.

然而，和部分同行類似，面對當地不斷貶值的貨幣、放緩的經濟增長、更高的投入成本以及日益加劇的競爭，雀巢不得不改變其經營戰略。

These factors have proved especially punishing for makers of cheaper, mass-market goods – as L'Oréal has already discovered. Last week, the French cosmetics group halted sales of its mass-market Garnier brand in China.

正如歐萊雅(L'Oréal)已然發現的，事實證明上述因素對於廉價大衆商品製造商的負面影響尤爲嚴重。上週，這家法國化妝品集團停止了其大衆市場品牌卡尼爾(Garnier)在中國的銷售。

Nestlé’s sales in India had been growing at about 20 per cent a year in the three years to 2011, but this growth decelerated sharply – to 8 per cent – in the third quarter of last year.

在截至2011年的3年裏，雀巢在印度的銷售額保持着約20%的年增長率，但在去年第三季度，這一增速急劇下滑至8%。

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Nandkishore said that at the peak of its sales growth in India, Nestlé focused primarily on making its more mass-market products available to large numbers of new, cost-sensitive consumers, largely in the countryside – even though demand for premium products at the upper end of the market was also exploding. “We have realised this already,” he said. “We’ve been working to plug that gap.”

在接受英國《金融時報》採訪時南基紹爾表示，在印度銷售額增長最快的時候，雀巢主要關注的是，如何向大量對價格敏感的新顧客（多在農村地區）提供旗下那些更大衆化的產品——儘管高端市場對高檔產品的需求也在迅猛增長。他說：“我們已經意識到了這一點。近來我們一直在努力填補這一漏洞。”

The Swiss manufacturer is now switching tack in India to cater to more affluent Indians, whose household budgets are more immune to the country’s rising inflation and faltering economy.

這家瑞士製造商正在調整在印度的經營戰略，以迎合印度更富有的人羣。面對通脹的不斷加劇和經濟增長勢頭的減弱，這部分人羣的家庭支出預算受到的影響比較小。