VORA AND COMPANYUnderstanding the concept of marketing mixIn December 1963, MC Vora, owner of Vora and the Lucknow-based Blossom Quick-Cooking Oats manufacturing company, sought advice from Small Industries Service Institute in Lucknow regarding the measures that could be taken to increase the sales of his company. The company had been organized in 1959, began selling its products nationwide in 1961, but had failed to achieve profitable sales volume by December 1963. The Vora family has been present in the group's business for several generations. In 1959, about four years after the Indian government stopped importing packaged cereals, Mr. Vora and his family decided to go into the business of processing and selling a product similar to the Quaker brand of oat flakes in quick cooking, a product of the Quaker Oats Company of the United States. For some years before the government embargo, this product had been imported into India by the firm Muller and Phipps, who acted as exclusive sales agents. The company had advertised the product in many Indian cities and had reportedly achieved at least moderate sales volume, particularly in southern India in the states of Kerala and Madras. In 1956, shortly after the Quaker oat embargo, Delhi's Ganesh Flour Mills began developing and marketing quick-cooking white oats under the Champion brand. After about three years of experimental marketing in nearby areas, Ganesh Mills expanded its distribution nationwide, dedicating a moderate amount to advertising in city markets across India. The management of Vora and Company developed the machinery and method of processing its product based on trial and error. . The first product offered was not deemed satisfactory by management and was withdrawn from the market. Only in 1961 was the company satisfied with the quality of the product and its processing equipment which, once perfected, could produce 500 cases per month on one shift, each case consisting of 36 jars of 550 grams each. The best quality white oats were imported from Australia under government licence, as oats grown in India with the required characteristics were not available. The improved product was tested among consumers and was rated by them as equal to or better than the competing product. The management had applied for permission to use the mark from the Indian Standards Institution and learned that the product and its workmanship complied with the required standards.