Product Of The Year debuts in the country

Mumbai, Feb 26 (UNI) Product Of The Year (POY), the prestigious consumers' recognition across the globe, has arrived in India and products launched in the past 18 months are entitled to compete.

Product Of The Year Management Limited CEO Mike Nolan, while announcing POY's arrival in India, said consumers in over 28 countries already rely on POY. ''It is indeed the quickest and authentic way of finding the best products from a plethora that appear every year in the market,'' he said.

Product Of The Year, India, CEO Charulata Ravi Kumar said, ''With Product Of The Year being launched in India, we will have a global standard in consumer rating as one of the most credible, and unbiased systems that provides consumers a unique way of identifying the best and most relevant innovations in products in categories where it is otherwise difficult to do so.'' Mr Nolan said Product Of The Year is the first ever recognition in India where the consumer will judge products on innovation and benefits they provide to end-users.

The contesting products will go through a consumer research, which will be conducted by an independent research organisation across the country.

Some of the most eminent brands that have been participating over the years across various Product Of The Year markets are Procter&Gamble, Unilever, Nestle, L'Oreal, PepsiCo, Coca Cola, Panasonic, Reckitt Benckiser, Johnson&Johnson, Danone, Heinz and Kingsmill Bread.

Mr Nolan said an eminent jury consisting of industry leaders, senior journalists, consumer protection groups, iconic citizens and personalities of national standing will first vet the entries to validate them for innovation and the entires will be then exposed to a statistically-valid national sample for their verdict.

The entry is free for all participants. The qualifying participants enrol into the consumer research for a fee Rs four lakh and the winner in each category will buy the rights to promote their brand for a year for Rs 15 lakh.

Mr Nolan said they are expecting at least 100 products entry.

The winners earn the rights to use the Product Of The Year logo on the product and the advertising as well as any other communication.

UNI JM MAZ SKB1843