Chatterjee is an international market researcher at Blair Company. He joined Blair Company eight years ago and immediately fell in love with this profession. When he was promoted to his current position last year 1 month, the boss told him, "The challenge you face is to lead the company out of the situation of too little business in underdeveloped countries and create a prosperous situation." In April this year, when the company sent him on a business trip to Mumbai and New Delhi, he readily accepted the task of collecting background materials for Blair Company to enter the Indian household water purifier market.
Chatterjee's main purpose in going to India is to study consumers in Kolkata and Bangalore and collect information about potential competitors. From the geographical location, scale, language, infrastructure and other aspects, Kolkata and Bangalore represent two completely different cities, but the difficulties in residents' water use are the same. Many underdeveloped countries have this problem, which is a favorable condition for the household water purifier industry.
Chatterjee will make suggestions on the composition and strategy of market entry based on the information collected in these two surveys. The managers of Blair Company will compare Chatterjee's suggestions with those of two other market investigators who collected information in Argentina, Brazil and Indonesia.
1, domestic drinking water filtration and purification market in India
This is the case in many aspects of India, and it takes a lot of effort to understand the situation. So is the domestic drinking water filtration and purification market. However, despite his best efforts, chatterjee found that there were still many things unclear or contradictory. For example, on the one hand, the market seems to be obviously mature, with four or five Indian companies competing for market share. On the other hand, it seems to be in a fragmented state. There are no large national companies, but there may be only 65,438+000 small regional manufacturers, each of which only operates in one or two of all 25 states in India. In fact, the market is likely to be in the early stage of growth, which can be explained by many product styles, different materials and attributes. Perhaps with the help of next-generation products and world-class marketing efforts, Blair can unify the market and stimulate the market to make great progress, just like India's automobile market.
This uncertainty makes it difficult to estimate the market potential. However, chatterjee collected the sales forecast of three products-vacuum cleaner, sewing machine and color TV in the next decade. In addition, a research institute in New Delhi provided him with a sales estimate of the water purifier "Water Guardian", which has the greatest sales prospects in several Indian states. Chatterjee uses these data and two forecasting models used by Blair Company (the models include realistic, optimistic and pessimistic subjective schemes) to get the estimation and prediction results of the water purifier (see table). Then chatterjee explained to his boss, "If there is anything wrong with the forecast, it is that my forecast is conservative. Because the forecast is only the number of people buying water purifiers for the first time, it does not include the update of water purifiers within the ten-year forecast interval. At the same time, he also pointed out that the forecast results are only applicable to the relatively large metropolitan area-the sales volume of key industries in the current industry.
One thing is certain, that is, many Indians have realized the necessity of improving water quality. Folklore, newspapers, consumer protectionism and various descriptions of India's extremely poor water quality by government officials often reinforce this necessity. The water quality is worse in rainy season, because the seriously polluted water source enters the water plant, and there are a lot of leaks and unauthorized recycling in the water supply and storage system. As soon as the purified water comes out of the waterworks, it is often polluted by such leakage and recycling. Politicians who participate in the election of national, state and local government officials have also strengthened the need to improve water quality through elections. Governments at all levels have formulated water quality standards, taken measures in thousands of places across the country, and made suggestions to consumers when the water quality is poor enough to cause safety accidents.
Even when the water quality is poor, many consumers have no choice but to use this water as usual. However, those well-educated, wealthy and health-conscious consumers have taken various measures to protect the health of family members and have persisted in this practice for many years. Chatterjee believes that the reliable estimate of such families is 40 million. These families are similar to middle-class and upper-middle-class families in the United States and the European Union in many aspects, paying attention to comfort and product selection, and thinking that material consumption is a way to improve the quality of life. They like foreign brands and are willing to pay higher prices, but the quality of their products must be better than those produced locally in India. Chatterjee will target 40 million families, plus 4 million other families, who share the same values and lifestyles, but have not spent much time on improving the quality of domestic water.
Table: 1990-2005 Sales Estimation and Forecast of Household Water Purifier Industry in India (thousands)
age
90
9 1
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
00
0 1
02
03
04
05
Unit quantity
60
90
150
200
220
240
reality
250
320
430
570
Eight hundred
1000
1300
1500
1600
1500
optimistic
250
370
540
Eight hundred
1200
1500
1900
2 100
2 100
1900
pessimistic
250
300
celebrity
530
750
850
900
780
500
420
(1) Traditional purification method of domestic water. The traditional purification method of drinking water in the target market is not to purify the products provided by merchants, but to purify the water by boiling. Boil water several times a day. Boil water for 10 minute, then let it quench itself, and then store it. Chatterjee estimates that 50% of households in the target market adopt this method. Consumers believe that boiled water is a cheap and effective way to eliminate bacteria, and they are convinced of it. Many people who use this method think that this method is more effective than any product on the market. But after boiling, the water tastes bad, tasteless, time-consuming and laborious, and can not effectively remove the odor. Therefore, about 65,438+00% of households were further purified by candle filter before storage. Although many people know that the water may be polluted again in the process of filtering and storing boiled water, this method is still adopted.
(2) Mechanical methods for filtering and purifying domestic water. About 40% households in the target market use mechanical devices to improve water quality, and 20% of them use candle filters, mainly because this device is cheap and easy to use. An ordinary candle filter consists of two containers, one on top of the other. The container placed at the top has one or several porous candle-shaped ceramic rollers, which filter the water when it flows into the container below under the action of gravity. Both containers are made of plastic, ceramic or stainless steel, and can generally hold 15-25 liters of water. The selling price depends on the material and capacity of the container, generally ranging from 350 rupees (small capacity, plastic material) to 1 100 rupees (large capacity, stainless steel material). 1996 1 US dollar can be exchanged for 35 rupees. The candle filter has a slow filtration speed. A filter can only filter 15 liters (one barrel) to 45 liters (three barrels) a day. And in order to maintain this speed, the candle cone should be removed and cleaned regularly, and boiled in water for 20 minutes. Most manufacturers advise users to change the drum once or several times a year according to the degree of precipitation (each price is 40 rupees).
The remaining 20% of households use water purifiers. The water purifier is more advanced than candle filter, and its purification is divided into three steps: the first step is to remove sediment; The second step is to remove odor and pigment: the third step is to remove harmful viruses and bacteria. The engineers of Blair Company believe that most water purifiers are inconsistent with the manufacturer's propaganda and can't really remove harmful bacteria and viruses. But the purification effect of all water purifiers is better than that of candle filter. Candle filters not only can't effectively remove bacteria and viruses, but may even increase this pollution, even though the advertisement says the opposite. Water purifiers generally use stainless steel containers, the price depends on the manufacturer, performance characteristics and capacity, ranging from 2000 to 7000 rupees, and the water flow speed is generally l-2 liters of water per minute. Simple water purifier maintenance can be done by users themselves, while more complicated maintenance needs to send the water purifier to a nearby dealer or invite skilled technicians to repair it at home.
The remaining 10% households use neither filters nor water purifiers, and rarely purify drinking water by boiling. They didn't realize the poor quality of drinking water, but thought it was acceptable. Among them, a few users are reluctant to buy things that they think are almost ineffective. Generally speaking, Chatterjee thinks that only a few of these consumers can be induced to change their habits and become enterprise users. In a word, the most attractive market segments include 90% households in the target market, which treat domestic water by boiling water, filtering it after boiling or using only filters or purifiers.
All market segments have very similar requirements for water purifiers. Chatterjee's research shows that the most important factors are precipitation elimination, sterilization and detoxification performance, capacity (referring to water storage capacity or flow), safety and size. For those families who boil water, filter after boiling or only use filters, price is also an important consideration; Secondly, style and appearance, and easy to install and maintain; Third, it is required to provide consumer credit; Finally, all market segments want to ensure that the water purifier will not break down within 18-24 months and run normally for 5- 10 years.
2. Foreign investment in India
India is attractive to many foreign investors, because since Prime Minister Raj Gandhi came to power in the 1980s, the Indian government has taken a series of measures to open the Indian economy to foreign investors. A widely used word to describe these behaviors is "liberalization". The reason for liberalization is that the Indian government recognizes that protectionist policies have little effect, but the western economy and technology are very effective. Liberalization means great changes in investment policies and tax procedures to meet the requirements of new business plans. The most important thing is the change of government officials' attitude towards foreign investment, which was retained by the two governments after Gandhi 199 1 assassination.
If Blair Company enters the Indian market, it can adopt any of the following three entry methods: (1)*** Same operating agreement; (2) Joint ventures; (3) merger. In addition to understanding these basic access methods. Chatterjee admitted that he knew nothing about the legal issues related to market entry, so he went to a consulting company in Kolkata. Two days later, he got the following information: if he wants to enter the Indian market, he must submit an application to the Foreign Investment Promotion Committee, the Industrial Approval Secretariat and the Ministry of Industry. The application is first submitted to the Committee, which will evaluate the relevant technology and India's demand for the technology. If the Committee approves the application, it will be sent to the Reserve Bank of India and the Ministry of Finance for approval of royalties, dividends and interest (if any), repatriation of profits and investment capital, repayment of foreign loans, etc. Although the application process sounds time-consuming and laborious, the consultants of the consulting firm assured chatterjee that the government would complete all the deliberations within six months, and their consulting firm "almost guaranteed" that the application would be finally approved.
In India, trademarks and patents are protected by law, and the trademark protection period is 7 years, which can be extended if the failure fee is paid; The patent protection period is 14 years. After comprehensive consideration, chatterjee told his boss that as long as Blair Company didn't go to court, there would be no intellectual property protection problem in India like that in the United States. Charterjee went on to explain that due to the high litigation cost and long litigation cycle in India, the settlement of litigation problems needs the help of appeal procedures, and it is easy to drag the case on for ten or twenty years. Therefore, many foreign companies prefer to apply for arbitration, because India, as a member of the Geneva Agreement, accepts foreign affairs arbitration.
Foreign companies are required to pay corporate income tax, interest, dividends, royalties and capital gains from selling assets to India. The Indian government provides a wide range of tax incentives for foreign investors, including generous accumulated depreciation and substantial tax discounts. If foreign investors invest and set up factories in six free trade zones in India, the government will provide more favorable tax treatment. Generally speaking, Charterjee thinks that the corporate tax rate in India may be slightly higher than that in the United States, but the profit rate is also higher-the average return on assets of all Indian companies in recent years has almost reached 18%, while that in the United States is only about 1 1%.
The repatriation of ordinary profits requires the consent of the Reserve Bank of India. However, if Blair Company can prove that the repatriated profits are paid in exported hard currency, it will be easy to obtain the consent of the Reserve Bank. Chatterjee believes that it is not difficult to earn foreign exchange through export, considering India's extremely low wage rate and its location in the center of relatively wealthy South Asian countries. "Repatriation of profits to China is actually not a big problem." It may take three years to make profits, and at least five years to repatriate profits to China. Considering the trend of liberalization, the repatriation of Li Jian after five years may not require the consent of the Reserve Bank. Finally, if it is still difficult to repatriate profits by then, Blair Company can take arbitrage or other measures to release the control of profit repatriation.
1996 India's investment and trade laws and regulations make business much easier than before. Many companies from the European Union, Japan, South Korea and Britain are making great strides in various fields of India's economy. In the home appliance market, Chatterjee saw the following 1 1 foreign companies doing business in India-CSR Ricr, Electrolux, General Electric, Gao Shida, Mitsubishi, Shengli, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Toshiba and Whirlpool. Many of these companies have not yet made considerable profits, but the market prospects in the next few years are generally good.
3. Blair Ltd.
Blair founded Blair Company on 1975 after resigning from the R&D department of Culligan International Company. The first generation product of Blair Company was desalter, which was quite successful after it was put on the market. The market quickly expanded to nearby municipal authorities, small industrial and commercial enterprises and bottled water production enterprises. At the same time, the regional market has been expanding, first to other coastal areas near Tampa, Florida, where the company is headquartered, and then to the desert in the southwestern United States. New products have also increased rapidly. To 1996, the product line includes desalter, particle filter, fresh air converter, ozone generator, ion exchange resin and water purifier. Experts in the industry generally believe that the performance and quality of this production line are better than similar products, and the price is higher. The sales revenue of Blair Company 1996 is about 400 million dollars, and the expected profit is close to 50 million dollars. In recent five years, the sales revenue has increased at an average annual rate of 12%. The company employs more than 4000 employees, 380 of whom are technicians.
Blair Company started to export desalting equipment and other related products on 1980. These products were first sold to resorts in Mexico and Belize City, and later to bottled water producers in Germany. Export sales have increased rapidly. 1985, Blair Company thinks it is necessary to set up an international department. After the establishment of the International Department, its export volume also increased rapidly. 1996 almost reached1400,000 USD, of which about 70 million USD came from Latin America and South America, 30 million USD came from Europe (including products shipped to Africa) and 40 million USD came from South Asia and Australia. The International Department has sales offices, small assembly plants and distribution agencies in Frankfurt, Germany, Tokyo, Japan and Singapore.
During the period of 1990, the Frankfurt office promoted the development and marketing of Blair's first generation product-domestic drinking water filter. 1989 shortly after the reunification of Germany, consumers and dealers in the eastern region asked the sales engineers in the Frankfurt office to buy or sell domestic drinking water filters. By the end of 199 1, the company had designed two models in the United States and then exported them to Germany (especially the East), Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czech Republic and China.
The managers of Blair Company attach great importance to the success of these two drinking water filters. In underdeveloped countries, the market demand for pure water is great, with rich profits and attractive sense of social responsibility. However, the water quality in many underdeveloped countries is extremely poor, and even after being treated by drinking water filters, it is still unsatisfactory. Therefore, at the end of 1994, the company manager instructed to develop water purifiers and enrich the company's product line. Engineers gave the final design a brand-new brand name-"Rejoice", which chatterjee and other market analysts accepted temporarily, but they didn't know whether the brand infringed the existing brands in India or other countries that the company was considering.
4. Rejoice water purifier
"Rejoice" water purifier comprehensively uses a number of technologies to remove four major pollutants-sediment, organic matter, odor and so on. Contained in drinking water. This technology is extremely effective if the pollutants in water are required to be at a reasonable level. The engineers of Blair Company interpret the "reasonable" level as meeting the standards of pollutants in drinking water proposed by the World Health Organization, and they comprehensively use these technologies to purify drinking water, making it exceed the standards proposed by the World Health Organization. The engineer in charge of designing Rejoice assured chatterjee many times that the design of Rejoice is definitely not a technical problem. 10 water purifiers have been running in the company's laboratory for 5000 hours without any abnormal signs and their performance has not deteriorated. In spite of this, chatterjee still believes that "before entering India, we still have to carry out field experiments, and the risk of failure is very high, which can never be ignored. In addition, the test results will also help convince consumers and retailers to buy our products. "
Chatterjee and other market analysts still face some major design problems when translating technology into actual products. For example, the design of the "water inlet point" allows the water purifier to purify the water immediately after entering the room, and then flows to all the water outlets, and only after reaching this position can the water be purified. Based on cost estimation, competitive product design and understanding of Indian consumers, chatterjee instructed engineers to design a number of "point-of-use" water purifiers for the Indian market.
Besides, other technical details need to be worked out. For example, chatterjee must give engineers many suggestions, such as filtration speed, water storage capacity (if necessary), parts layout, overall size and many special functions-one of them is that in the case of power failure (which is common in India and many other underdeveloped countries), a small battery can drive the water purifier to run for several hours; The other is to design two "small bells or whistles" to let members know whether the water purifier works normally. Another function is additional, which allows users to add some fluoride, vitamins and even some condiments to the water.
Chatterjee knows that the Indian market will need many different types of water purifiers. However, when it enters the market for the first time, there may be only two types to solve the problem, one is the large capacity used by houses or bungalows, and the other is the small capacity used by apartments. He believes that the style and specific appearance of the model should reflect the style of western high-tech design schools and distinguish "Rejoice" from other competitors' products. To this end, he asked a graphic expert to show two ideas he used to estimate consumer response during the second survey in India. Consumers like these two models, but prefer the one on the counter.
5. Main competitors
There are more than 100 companies competing in the domestic drinking water filter and purifier market in India. Although it is difficult to obtain detailed information of most companies, Chatterjee and Indian research institutions have obtained some information of three main competitors and profiles of several other competitors.
EF's most competitive company in the water purifier market is Eureka Forbes, which was established in 1984 by Electrolux (Sweden) and Forbes Campbell (India). It sells many products that conform to the modern lifestyle, such as water purifiers, vacuum cleaners, mixers/shredders. Its brand of water purifiers is "Aquaguard", which has a high reputation. "Water Guardian" came out 10 years ago, and it is the undisputed market leader and almost the only national brand. Eureka Forbes recently launched a new brand "Puresip", which is similar to "Water Guardian" except that the third step of purifying water is different. "Pure SIP" uses iodine resin instead of ultraviolet rays for sterilization, which means that purified water can be safely stored for future use. Moreover, unlike the "water guardian", "pure drinking does not need electric drive.
However, the biggest difference between the two products is the difference in sales methods. "Water Guardian" is sold by a sales team of 2,500 people, and "Pure Drink" is sold by independent dealers who operate small household appliances. 1996 The retail price of "Water Guardian" and "Pure Drink" is about 5,500 rupees and 2,000 rupees respectively. Charterjee said that although the sales volume of "Pure Drink" is smaller than that of "Guardian of Water", the growth rate is much faster than that of "Guardian of Water".
"Water Guard" is usually placed on the wall of the kitchen. It needs to install pipe fittings to lead water to the inlet of the water purifier and connect it with an AC power supply with a voltage of 230 volts (Indian standard). If the voltage drops to 190 volts or lower, the "water protection" will stop running. "Water Guardian" has other restrictions, including the use of a small amount of activated carbon, which can only remove weak organic odor and cannot remove strong odor or organic solutes, such as nitrate and iron compounds; At the same time, the "water guardian" can't store the treated water, and the flow rate of one liter of water per minute seems too slow for some consumers.
The promotion strategy of "Shuiwei" is mainly personnel promotion, and each salesman is responsible for a certain block. And led by a team leader. These groups are headed by a supervisor. Every salesperson should carefully investigate the block he is responsible for, select potential users (such as annual income of more than 70,000 rupees) for product demonstration, and make efforts to promote it. Repeated sales visits help consumers know the quality of their drinking water and assure them that they can always get the service of "Water Guardian" if they need it. A large number of TV advertisements and advertisements published in magazines and newspapers support the promotion work. Chatterjee estimates that the sales expenses of EF Company 1996 are about1200,000 rupees, accounting for about 1 1% of its sales revenue, of which1000 million rupees is paid to the salesman in the form of sales commission; In the same year, the total advertising expenditure was only about 6.5438 million rupees.
EF is a strong competitor with a huge sales team, high enthusiasm and high management level. Moreover, "Water Guardian" is the first to enter the water purifier market, with high brand value. The product itself may be the weakest strategic factor. But it takes a lot of effort to convince consumers of this. Although the company's sales team is a strong competitive advantage, it also means high fixed costs, which will inevitably limit the sales efforts to metropolitan areas, while more than 80% of India's population lives in rural areas, where the water quality is much worse than that of metropolises.
IE company. Ion exchange is a major water treatment company in India, specializing in water treatment and industrial wastewater treatment. 1994 was established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Permutit Company in the UK. Permutit withdrew its investment on 1985. Therefore, the ion exchange company became a wholly-owned company in India. The company has now set foot in many industries. Including nuclear energy and thermal power stations. Chemical fertilizer, petrochemical purification, textile, automobile, household water purifier. Its water purifier brand is "aseptic".
The "aseptic" water purifier uses halogenated resin technology as part of the three steps in the purification process. The first step is to remove suspended impurities with filter pad, the second step is to remove odor with activated carbon, and the third step is to sterilize and detoxify with trace iodine. The third step is very popular because it helps to prevent iodine deficiency and make the purified water stored for 8 hours without pollution.
The basic water purifier for ion exchange is marked with the word "Puristore". Generally placed on the counter near the faucet at the end of the kitchen, its operation does not need electric drive or pipe connection. Each water purifier can store 20 liters of pure water, and the retail price is 2000 rupees each. Users need to spend 200 rupees a year to replace the halogenated resin in the water purifier.
Chatterjee estimates that the market share of "sterile" water purifiers in India is about 7%, and the main reason for the small market share may be that consumers still don't know the brand. "Aseptic" has been on the market for less than three years, and it has not invested much in advertising, nor has it spent as much effort on sales as "Guardian of Water", and its distribution scope is limited. Charterjee found that only five dealers in Calcutta were dealing in this product, while none of Zheng Jialuoer's. The dealers he contacted all thought that "Aseptic" would soon strengthen its marketing efforts, and two others said that they had heard the rumor that "Aseptic" planned to set up a direct sales team and would publish advertisements soon. The rumor has been confirmed by Calcutta advertising company. A few "sterile" TV advertisements with the duration of 10 second will be broadcast on Zee TV and DD suburban channels soon. The advertisement will focus on telling consumers that "sterility" is not a filter, but a water purifier, which is much more effective than a candle filter in preventing diseases. Apart from TV advertisements, the only way to promote "sterility" is to distribute sales brochures, which dealers can distribute to potential consumers.
Katsuya's latest competitor to enter the Indian water purifier market is India Shengjia Co., Ltd., which was originally a branch of American Shengjia Company. 1982, Shengjia Company transferred 49% of its shares to Indian investors. The change of stock right led to 19 1 investing in the construction of sewing machine production facilities, 19 1 expanding the facilities again, which can produce a variety of household appliances. 1996 The total product line (including sewing machines, food processors, electric irons, mixers, toasters, water heaters, ceiling fans, kitchen utensils and color TVs) is about 900 million rupees.
In Kolkata, chatterjee visited the product showroom of Shengjia Company on Park Avenue. He hopes that Shengjia will become an ideal partner for producing and selling "Happy Brand" water purifiers. However, to his surprise, he was told that Shengjia had its own brand of water purifier in the market-"Aquarius". This product has not been listed in Calcutta, but it has been put into the markets of Mumbai and New Delhi.
A market research organization in New Delhi was able to collect some information about the water purifier of Shengjia Company. The purification process of this water purifier actually includes nine stages, and the retail price is 4,000 rupees. It can remove sediments, heavy metals, odors and pigments, and kill bacteria, viruses, fungi and nematodes. This water purifier is driven by water pressure (at least SPSI) and does not need electricity. There is only one model, which can be moved from one room to another on the counter. If the flow rate is 3.8 liters per minute. * * * The total amount can purify 40,000 liters of water within the service life. According to this total, the average Indian family can use it for 4-6 years. If the flow rate is small, the total amount of * * * can purify 70 thousand liters of water. However, when it reached 70,000 liters, it should have been thrown away long ago. The institute also told chatterjee. When Shengjia launched the Aquarius water purifier in Delhi, advertisements were bombarded in turn-mainly TV and newspaper advertisements, supplemented by outdoor advertisements and mobile advertisements. Delingha Shengjia 10 exhibition hall all displayed pictures and materials that vividly introduced the operation of the water purifier. Chatterjee has to admit that the picture of Aquarius water purifier displayed in Kolkata exhibition hall is very attractive. An article he saw about trade described this product as follows: Compared with other "original" products on the market, "Aquarius" has "artistic level". Chatterjee and Blair's engineers tend to think that the disinfection resin used in Aquarius was developed by NASA, a subsidiary of the US government, and this resin has been proved to have 65,438+000% sterilization and detoxification effects. He thought, "if I can buy one and bring it back, then we can carry out experiments to see how good this resin is." The article also mentioned that Shengjia hopes to sell 40,000 units in the next two years.
Chairiee knows that Shengjia is a well-known brand in India, and its distribution channel is superior to any competitor in the market (including Eureka Forbes). Among the three distribution channels, the most prominent one is the 2 10 showroom set up in important urban areas of China. These showrooms are all owned by the company, and all showrooms provide sales and maintenance services for every product of Shengjia Company. The company deployed a group of knowledgeable employees at the exhibition, who managed the exhibition hall in good order. Shengjia's products are also distributed by more than 3,000 independent distributors all over India, who purchase goods from the distributors designated by Shengjia (the number is estimated to be 70). According to this marketing research institute in Delhi, the profit earned by these dealers when retailing Aquarius water purifiers is 12% of the retail price, while the profit of dealers is 5%. Finally, Shengjia hired more than 400 salesmen to sell sewing machines and food processors door to door. Like Euroka Forbes' direct sellers, Shengjia's direct sellers mainly sell goods in metropolitan areas.
Finally, Chatterjee learned that almost all the water purifiers sold by 1996 are sold in metropolitan areas, and none of them are aimed at villages or small towns. Chatterjee estimates that the number of people who have used water purifiers accounts for only 10%- 15% of the Indian population at most. If we can provide suitable products to areas outside the metropolis, the sales volume will increase greatly.