Couple of years back when Chandra Babu Naidu was contesting the third term he positioned himself as the CEO of Andhra Pradesh. He was seen as the hi-tec man. A man in hurry who always roamed only with his lap top and was a hands on manager. He did give AP a new look and was seen as a dynamic leader both in regional and national politics. He was seen as the face of Indian IT amongst many global partners. But the question which was posed by people was did he deliver his promises made as the he was ousted for the 3 rd term People say it is incumbency that cost the defeat but I think it is beyond incumbency. It is plain selling or launching of any product If your product fails to deliver the promise your repeat purchase will not happen. That holds for politics also.
On the contrary the newly re elected CM of Gujarat positioned himself as the CM(common man ) of Gujarat and shall remain the CM was a brilliant strategy adpoted. Mr. Modi played his card very intelligently must have picked up some learnings from the earlier CM's. Mr. Modi kept his promises maintained a strong governance which benefited the people of Gujarat. Today Modi is a great icon both at regional and national politics. People called him arrogant, autocrat but he handled the media so well that resulted in a thumping victory.
The princple of delivering promise holds true across everywhere. Make a promise but deliver.
No tall claims. No false promises .
Monday, December 24, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Pharma brands employ new strategy to grow
The Indian pharma brands over the past decade has been aggressively marketing and formulating new strategies to garner market share. New drug formulation and combination drugs have been the order of day. Besides this there are many OTC drugs which are picked by consumers with out understanding the side effects of these brands. People just pop in these pills with the slightest of the symptoms with out consulting their family doctors. This is across all strata of the population without knowing the long term repercussion of the drug.
This is most common in the pain killers , cough suppressants and anti pyre tic drugs. The pharma companies have also become a bit smart to understand the Indian consumer and grab the opportunity to push their brands. Some people and patients feel scared of taking too many pills and hence settle for the combination drugs not realising that this is harmful. For the sake of easy dosage convenience the doctors also use it liberally. Here the patient or the customer does not realise that he is paying more for these combination drugs.
It is high time the drug regulators take a serious view of this and bring in strong governance to
control the pharma brands from ruining the life's of Indian consumer.
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20071224&fname=Medicine+%28F%29&sid=1&pn=2
This is most common in the pain killers , cough suppressants and anti pyre tic drugs. The pharma companies have also become a bit smart to understand the Indian consumer and grab the opportunity to push their brands. Some people and patients feel scared of taking too many pills and hence settle for the combination drugs not realising that this is harmful. For the sake of easy dosage convenience the doctors also use it liberally. Here the patient or the customer does not realise that he is paying more for these combination drugs.
It is high time the drug regulators take a serious view of this and bring in strong governance to
control the pharma brands from ruining the life's of Indian consumer.
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20071224&fname=Medicine+%28F%29&sid=1&pn=2
Monday, December 17, 2007
The End Of Great Sports Magazines
In the late 70’s and in the early 80’s when television was in its nascent stage it was sports magazines that gave sports entertainment with great pictures and posters. All these magazines were also edited by some very great sports celebrities like Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. Tiger Pataudi edited sports World from Anand Bazar Patrika group. We had Sportsweek from the Mid- Day group which was edited by Khalid Ansari and had a panel of great sports writers. And finally Sportstar from the Hindu group, which used to come earlier as a sports tabloid under the name Sports and Pastime. Believe me I used to be a kid in those days and use to run a sports library and buy all the sports magazine and share with fellow sports followers. I really miss those days. Today with the advent of media, which has technologically made a lot of advancement, has enabled sports lover to go online and get all the views and news.
One had to pay some money to buy these sports magazines. Today thanks to Internet and extensive coverage by the mainline dailies devoting more pages for sports has replaced the sports magazines. Sportstar is the only magazine which has survived and is still managing to deliver the best value in the sports magazine category.
While Internet and electronic channel has replaced these sports magazines but it is very difficult to get the look, feel and the language when you think of writers like Jack Fingleton and those fantastic pictures of Patrick Eagar.
Although Cricket Talk tried to make an entry in the year 2000 but could not sustain it and the magazines died a natural death.
Can we once again have a great sports magazine ?
http://www.sportstaronnet.com/
One had to pay some money to buy these sports magazines. Today thanks to Internet and extensive coverage by the mainline dailies devoting more pages for sports has replaced the sports magazines. Sportstar is the only magazine which has survived and is still managing to deliver the best value in the sports magazine category.
While Internet and electronic channel has replaced these sports magazines but it is very difficult to get the look, feel and the language when you think of writers like Jack Fingleton and those fantastic pictures of Patrick Eagar.
Although Cricket Talk tried to make an entry in the year 2000 but could not sustain it and the magazines died a natural death.
Can we once again have a great sports magazine ?
http://www.sportstaronnet.com/
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Pitfall of Brand extensions
The main advantage of a brand extension is that you take the equity/goodwill from an existing brand and use it in another context. If successful, this can save a lot of money because you do not have to invest huge monies in developing a new brand. All you have to do is to make people aware that the brand has entered a new product/service or market category.
Another advantage is that, if you are successful, you increase the respect/stature of your brand overall, and may well rejuvenate it.
The downside to a brand extension is that you can:
Fail in the new product/service or market because the brand is not compelling in that area
Lose the tight focus of your existing brand, and therefore its intimacy (differentiation and relevance)
Damage your existing brand by introducing new conflicting/confusing attributes
Learning’s from some brand extensions:
Over the past 2 decades there have been several brands in India have adopted brand extensions. Some have succeeded and some have failed. It is very critical that the equity and the values of the mother brand is percolated to the new brand with out any baggage. However there are some brands, which has failed miserably because of major miss- match in the new brand extension. The cosmetic brand Ponds launched a toothpaste long time back. It was really surprising as to how a consumer who knows the brand Ponds as a cosmetic brand use this inside the mouth. Total dichotomy and the brand did not take off and the company had totally withdraw from this category
Similarly Dettol Soap did the same mistake but realised it soon and corrected their strategy. Dettol liquid which was an antiseptic liquid had a great equity in the market and literally the market leader with absolutely no competition. Taking advantage of this company got into the toilet soap market and positioned the brand as the love and care soap. The brand did not take off as there was a disconnect in the brand proposition. The core values of the mother brand Dettol liquid was missing in the soap. But the company quickly revisited the brand and re launched Dettol soap as an antiseptic soap with the line THE 100% BATH SOAP. The results were seen and today dettol soap has a significant market share in the toilet soap category. The success has been well supplemented by the company by launching new variants of the soap to give the consumer more choice and variety in their offerings.
Another recent example of brand extension, which surprises me, is the launch of Anchor toothpaste from a brand, which is strongly know for electrical switches. On the face of it there is a major disconnect but I am told that the brand is doing well in certain pockets of Gujarat and Rajahsthan where the product and the brand is well received. The company also used a very clever strategy of positioning the brand as vegetarian toothpaste. Will they be able to sustain as a long term strategy one has wait and watch.
Some lessons one can apply:
What does your brand stand for in the mind of existing/potential customers?
What could you, with significant investment, make it stand for?
In what markets could your brand profile match needs, and in which segments?
Are those segments attractive enough to you?
Do you, or could you, have leading edge competence in those markets?
Evaluate the dangers of eroding the equity of the mother brand
Try and launch it as test market case
Another advantage is that, if you are successful, you increase the respect/stature of your brand overall, and may well rejuvenate it.
The downside to a brand extension is that you can:
Fail in the new product/service or market because the brand is not compelling in that area
Lose the tight focus of your existing brand, and therefore its intimacy (differentiation and relevance)
Damage your existing brand by introducing new conflicting/confusing attributes
Learning’s from some brand extensions:
Over the past 2 decades there have been several brands in India have adopted brand extensions. Some have succeeded and some have failed. It is very critical that the equity and the values of the mother brand is percolated to the new brand with out any baggage. However there are some brands, which has failed miserably because of major miss- match in the new brand extension. The cosmetic brand Ponds launched a toothpaste long time back. It was really surprising as to how a consumer who knows the brand Ponds as a cosmetic brand use this inside the mouth. Total dichotomy and the brand did not take off and the company had totally withdraw from this category
Similarly Dettol Soap did the same mistake but realised it soon and corrected their strategy. Dettol liquid which was an antiseptic liquid had a great equity in the market and literally the market leader with absolutely no competition. Taking advantage of this company got into the toilet soap market and positioned the brand as the love and care soap. The brand did not take off as there was a disconnect in the brand proposition. The core values of the mother brand Dettol liquid was missing in the soap. But the company quickly revisited the brand and re launched Dettol soap as an antiseptic soap with the line THE 100% BATH SOAP. The results were seen and today dettol soap has a significant market share in the toilet soap category. The success has been well supplemented by the company by launching new variants of the soap to give the consumer more choice and variety in their offerings.
Another recent example of brand extension, which surprises me, is the launch of Anchor toothpaste from a brand, which is strongly know for electrical switches. On the face of it there is a major disconnect but I am told that the brand is doing well in certain pockets of Gujarat and Rajahsthan where the product and the brand is well received. The company also used a very clever strategy of positioning the brand as vegetarian toothpaste. Will they be able to sustain as a long term strategy one has wait and watch.
Some lessons one can apply:
What does your brand stand for in the mind of existing/potential customers?
What could you, with significant investment, make it stand for?
In what markets could your brand profile match needs, and in which segments?
Are those segments attractive enough to you?
Do you, or could you, have leading edge competence in those markets?
Evaluate the dangers of eroding the equity of the mother brand
Try and launch it as test market case
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Spurt in branding initiative from healthcare brands
Health care is the most rapidly growing services in the world economy. As a result of this the Indian market for medical tourism has been growing at over 15%in recent years. It is estimated that about 1 Lac foreign patients come from West Asia, South Asia, the US and UK to India each year for the tertiary care such as cardiac surgery, transplants, hip replacement and cataracts. The advantage of coming to India is one gets quality treatment at a fraction of the cost in
developed countries.
In the past few years branding initiatives in the health care industry are getting more emphasis that they had never before. Brands play a very important role in this industry as brands convey trust when it comes to offering medical services. Research has also shown that in health care, the customer has a limited rationale framework in decision-making. In this context a brand becomes important. Hospitals take a wide range of channel to highlight the brand- sponsoring events for the medical fraternity, continuous medical education program, medical camps, awareness seminars in corporates or colleges, literature in specific ailments, and the reminder media
All leading hospital brands such as Manipal Hospital, Max Health care, Apollo etc have earmarked substantial budget for brand development. The objective here is very clear and that is to let the consumer know what the brands are offering. More players are entering in this segment to get the maximum first mover advantage. Brands like Wockhardt are expanding their reach by opening their network in new cites. All the health care brands will be able to command a good premium provided they are able to attach great value to their customers.
developed countries.
In the past few years branding initiatives in the health care industry are getting more emphasis that they had never before. Brands play a very important role in this industry as brands convey trust when it comes to offering medical services. Research has also shown that in health care, the customer has a limited rationale framework in decision-making. In this context a brand becomes important. Hospitals take a wide range of channel to highlight the brand- sponsoring events for the medical fraternity, continuous medical education program, medical camps, awareness seminars in corporates or colleges, literature in specific ailments, and the reminder media
All leading hospital brands such as Manipal Hospital, Max Health care, Apollo etc have earmarked substantial budget for brand development. The objective here is very clear and that is to let the consumer know what the brands are offering. More players are entering in this segment to get the maximum first mover advantage. Brands like Wockhardt are expanding their reach by opening their network in new cites. All the health care brands will be able to command a good premium provided they are able to attach great value to their customers.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT
The new buzzword for brands and marketeers :
After buzzwords like knowledge management, re engineering, business processing its now the turn of consumer engagement. Consumer engagement starts as early as a kid when all of us take our kids for the nursery school admission. The school management in their interview grills the parents and kids but while the parents sit and reply to the questions the kids are actively engaged in the playroom with lots of toys to play. During this engagement the parents comfortably fend the questions while the child is kept engaged. The engagement with the kids through those toys helps the school to understand the kid more and better.
This is a very important marketing tool that most big brands of schools effectively use to get the best talented and bright kids to their school. To me the definition of consumer engagement is nothing but politely and meaningfully conversing with the prospect to get the customer closer to experience the brand. Of course there will be several definitions one can look at but at the end of the day consumer engagement has to lead to conversion across product category. Hence it is of prime importance that engagement which is two ways dialogue is thoughtfully planed with a strategy, which has a killer instinct to win over the customer.
Types of Consumer engagement:
You have active and passive engagement with the consumer. Active engagement is more of two a way interaction where the consumer closely interacts to get to know the look and feel of the brand. In case of passive engagement it is other external props that entices the customer to experience the brand. A very classic and relevant example is movie watching in a multiplex. Here your primary motive for the customer is to identify a good movie and watch it in a multiplex. While the consumer is engaged enjoying the movie it is that other extras in a multiplex like the food, ambience, bookshop and that keeps his mind passively engaged with the multiplex brand. Even for some reasons the movie was not good the passive engagement of the multiplex in its various forms of frills that he experienced will bring very closer to multiplex brand. For the customer this experience has to be unforgettable and delightful.
The same holds good for a eating place or a fast food joint. While you relish the great food other factors such as the live making and viewing of roomali rotis or preparing of gelato cold slab through the transparent glass keeps the consumer actively engaged and gives he are she a different experience. There are these little extras that keeps consumer busy. Consumer enjoyment does not limit to only offline, live brand experience. Even online brands have strong consumer engagement mechanism to keep the customer hooked to the experience the brand is offering. One example, which is very common, is gaming portals, social networking websites and marriage portal. In the case of marriage portal you interact with lot of questions that the portal poses. Here the tone of engagement is a bit serious as the prospect is in search for a life partner and he or she needs to carefully handle the interaction. One of the best experience in consumer engagement I would like dwell upon is the great music festival in Chennai. The consumers or rasikas who enjoy the traditional music with all its nuances is also actively engaged with tastefully created ambience,décor which is perfectly integrated with other frills such as music shops and books, with mouthwatering idlis , dosas, vadas and strong aroma of filter coffee at the venue.
Here the over all engagement platform gives the customer a very delightful and tangible experience.
Consumer engagement helps generating sales and retaining customers: In a world where competition is stiff and customer expectations are high in terms of best deals, marketers across brands, products and services have taken consumer engagement as their new mantra to accomplish success. As mentioned earlier the engagement can be either active or passive.
I would like to illustrate an interesting shopping mall experience where consumer engagement is of the highest order. I was at a shopping mall, which was buzzing with lot of activities. While there was enough consumer engagement with in the mall by way of video games, singing competition and you were heard live through a popular radio stations there was one holiday travel brand that were just asking people to fill up a simple form with your contact number and address details. No quiz or trivia was asked. If you are lucky you get to win a prize. But more than the prize what was hidden in their sales strategy was to call some randomly picked customers and ask them to report in 24 hrs.These lucky prospects are then offered a free holiday at any of their resorts. The lucky customer gets a free gift voucher of 2 days and 3 nights to try the resort. However to get this free voucher it is mandatory that you have to go with your wife and spend 45 minutes with their sales team. You get the free voucher but not before you attend a strong sales pitch presentation promoting their various properties. Here the holiday company was involved in three different stages of consumer engagement process starting from filling up the form, followed by calling the prospect that you have won a free gift voucher and finally making the prospect attend the sales presentation. Here the travel brand was very clear that they were looking for a big fish to net their sales returns.
Similarly several loyalty programs keep continuously using consumer engagement ideas and tools. It could be credit cards, debit cards or co - branded cards. The Jet miles and Petro bonus cards are one of the strong consumer engagement examples. In the case of Jet once the passenger completes his journey the first task in his things to do list is to update his mileage points so that he does not miss on it. The whole engagement process has been so successful it is difficult to get this jet customer to switch brand. The petro bonus cards is another very good loyalty program where the customer interacts with the brand each time he or she refuels gas in their vehicle. There are several examples one can quote but rules of the marketing is changing fast and that is one of the reason most marketers are bringing in new consumer engagement models to woo customers and bring closer to experience their brands.
After buzzwords like knowledge management, re engineering, business processing its now the turn of consumer engagement. Consumer engagement starts as early as a kid when all of us take our kids for the nursery school admission. The school management in their interview grills the parents and kids but while the parents sit and reply to the questions the kids are actively engaged in the playroom with lots of toys to play. During this engagement the parents comfortably fend the questions while the child is kept engaged. The engagement with the kids through those toys helps the school to understand the kid more and better.
This is a very important marketing tool that most big brands of schools effectively use to get the best talented and bright kids to their school. To me the definition of consumer engagement is nothing but politely and meaningfully conversing with the prospect to get the customer closer to experience the brand. Of course there will be several definitions one can look at but at the end of the day consumer engagement has to lead to conversion across product category. Hence it is of prime importance that engagement which is two ways dialogue is thoughtfully planed with a strategy, which has a killer instinct to win over the customer.
Types of Consumer engagement:
You have active and passive engagement with the consumer. Active engagement is more of two a way interaction where the consumer closely interacts to get to know the look and feel of the brand. In case of passive engagement it is other external props that entices the customer to experience the brand. A very classic and relevant example is movie watching in a multiplex. Here your primary motive for the customer is to identify a good movie and watch it in a multiplex. While the consumer is engaged enjoying the movie it is that other extras in a multiplex like the food, ambience, bookshop and that keeps his mind passively engaged with the multiplex brand. Even for some reasons the movie was not good the passive engagement of the multiplex in its various forms of frills that he experienced will bring very closer to multiplex brand. For the customer this experience has to be unforgettable and delightful.
The same holds good for a eating place or a fast food joint. While you relish the great food other factors such as the live making and viewing of roomali rotis or preparing of gelato cold slab through the transparent glass keeps the consumer actively engaged and gives he are she a different experience. There are these little extras that keeps consumer busy. Consumer enjoyment does not limit to only offline, live brand experience. Even online brands have strong consumer engagement mechanism to keep the customer hooked to the experience the brand is offering. One example, which is very common, is gaming portals, social networking websites and marriage portal. In the case of marriage portal you interact with lot of questions that the portal poses. Here the tone of engagement is a bit serious as the prospect is in search for a life partner and he or she needs to carefully handle the interaction. One of the best experience in consumer engagement I would like dwell upon is the great music festival in Chennai. The consumers or rasikas who enjoy the traditional music with all its nuances is also actively engaged with tastefully created ambience,décor which is perfectly integrated with other frills such as music shops and books, with mouthwatering idlis , dosas, vadas and strong aroma of filter coffee at the venue.
Here the over all engagement platform gives the customer a very delightful and tangible experience.
Consumer engagement helps generating sales and retaining customers: In a world where competition is stiff and customer expectations are high in terms of best deals, marketers across brands, products and services have taken consumer engagement as their new mantra to accomplish success. As mentioned earlier the engagement can be either active or passive.
I would like to illustrate an interesting shopping mall experience where consumer engagement is of the highest order. I was at a shopping mall, which was buzzing with lot of activities. While there was enough consumer engagement with in the mall by way of video games, singing competition and you were heard live through a popular radio stations there was one holiday travel brand that were just asking people to fill up a simple form with your contact number and address details. No quiz or trivia was asked. If you are lucky you get to win a prize. But more than the prize what was hidden in their sales strategy was to call some randomly picked customers and ask them to report in 24 hrs.These lucky prospects are then offered a free holiday at any of their resorts. The lucky customer gets a free gift voucher of 2 days and 3 nights to try the resort. However to get this free voucher it is mandatory that you have to go with your wife and spend 45 minutes with their sales team. You get the free voucher but not before you attend a strong sales pitch presentation promoting their various properties. Here the holiday company was involved in three different stages of consumer engagement process starting from filling up the form, followed by calling the prospect that you have won a free gift voucher and finally making the prospect attend the sales presentation. Here the travel brand was very clear that they were looking for a big fish to net their sales returns.
Similarly several loyalty programs keep continuously using consumer engagement ideas and tools. It could be credit cards, debit cards or co - branded cards. The Jet miles and Petro bonus cards are one of the strong consumer engagement examples. In the case of Jet once the passenger completes his journey the first task in his things to do list is to update his mileage points so that he does not miss on it. The whole engagement process has been so successful it is difficult to get this jet customer to switch brand. The petro bonus cards is another very good loyalty program where the customer interacts with the brand each time he or she refuels gas in their vehicle. There are several examples one can quote but rules of the marketing is changing fast and that is one of the reason most marketers are bringing in new consumer engagement models to woo customers and bring closer to experience their brands.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Power of design in Annual reports.
Corporates moving towards creating better annual report designs :
All of us are somewhere stakeholders of some company and we keep on receiving financial report. From my experience in the good old days the first thing that a reader does after he gets his annual report copy is straight way go to the page where the dividend figure is mentioned and after that it straight away goes along with the sale of old newspapers. Companies never saw the power of annual report to communicate to the stakeholders both internally and outside the company. Most companies viewed creating a glossy annual reports was an additional expenditure to their advertising and marketing budget. That era has come to an end and trends have changed with more corporates making efforts in presenting better financial statement with good information, contents and design. Companies like Infosys have been consistently churning out good annual report, as this is one way for them to communicate to their global audience and business partners. This year the annual reports from some corporates have been tastefully done.
Unique approach :
The one annual report that is really impressive and different this year has been from MindTree Consulting Ltd. This is the first annual report after they became public limited. The idea and design for the report sprung up from the creation of the children of Spastic Society of Karnataka who designed the MindTree logo.Their creations were extensively used in the design. The theme of the annual report is "The Mind is a amazing thing."
Through their paintings, it was communicated to the world that they have a great mind that is trapped in a very disobeying body.
What is also unique about the report is that the company have published a list of resources where people can get help on cerebral palsy. MindTree consulting has attempted to use this medium to spread awareness. The first annual report of MindTree consulting after becoming public limited is a salute to the indomitable spirit that says ordinary people can do extra ordinary things. This is a great way of exhibiting corporate responsibility.
Adds value to the corporate brand: A financial report touches a lot of audience right from the stakeholders to business partners to financial institution. What’s more even new employee prospect who wants to join an organization scans through either on the net or lays hand on the reports. Now here if your annual report stands out and disseminates all information interestingly then you have managed to bring in the prospective employee a bit closer. This is one example and there are so many other situations one can look at the role and importance of a good annual report. A well thought out annual report can really create a lasting impression The contents and design must clearly spell out the goals and vision of the company which will help the stakeholders get to know in which direction the company is surging ahead.
Total planning and orchestration required: Earmark a sizeable budget right at the beginning, which will also include the paper that you use. Remember great designs may not get good results if the right quality paper is not used. There should be complete orchestration between design team and the printing company to get excellent results. Time is of very important essence and hence company should plan early to get the final printed copy on time. Since this report comes out only once a year planning should start early one must not wake up at the last moment to meet the tight statutory deadlines. This has been the issue with most corporates in our country. If companies view churning a good annual report as an investment for the brand this will only further help in strengthening the equity of the brand.
Innovative thinking: Internationally some of the companies have made their annual report interactive and have uploaded on their web page. The corporates should now capture the proceedings of their annual general meetings and post them on the web. This will help shareholders who are not able to attend the annual general meetings due to paucity of time or distance. On request from the shareholders the proceedings of the meeting can be sent through a cd or dvd. This is one way of being in touch with the shareholders and thereby building the confidence reposed on the company. It also means that the company is very transparent and honest with their shareholders.
If companies are serious and make it a point to consistently produce good annual report design every year then it will be able to get greater mileage both for their product brands and the corporate brand. Some of the software brands have this top in their agenda. And today they are commanding a premium image both in the domestic and international market. These software companies along with their focused public relation programs and well designed annual reports have achieved in building the company values and image.
Finally if the CEO of the company believes in creating a great annual report design then it will motivate his people in the marketing and corporate function to strive towards in producing an excellent annual report design.
All of us are somewhere stakeholders of some company and we keep on receiving financial report. From my experience in the good old days the first thing that a reader does after he gets his annual report copy is straight way go to the page where the dividend figure is mentioned and after that it straight away goes along with the sale of old newspapers. Companies never saw the power of annual report to communicate to the stakeholders both internally and outside the company. Most companies viewed creating a glossy annual reports was an additional expenditure to their advertising and marketing budget. That era has come to an end and trends have changed with more corporates making efforts in presenting better financial statement with good information, contents and design. Companies like Infosys have been consistently churning out good annual report, as this is one way for them to communicate to their global audience and business partners. This year the annual reports from some corporates have been tastefully done.
Unique approach :
The one annual report that is really impressive and different this year has been from MindTree Consulting Ltd. This is the first annual report after they became public limited. The idea and design for the report sprung up from the creation of the children of Spastic Society of Karnataka who designed the MindTree logo.Their creations were extensively used in the design. The theme of the annual report is "The Mind is a amazing thing."
Through their paintings, it was communicated to the world that they have a great mind that is trapped in a very disobeying body.
What is also unique about the report is that the company have published a list of resources where people can get help on cerebral palsy. MindTree consulting has attempted to use this medium to spread awareness. The first annual report of MindTree consulting after becoming public limited is a salute to the indomitable spirit that says ordinary people can do extra ordinary things. This is a great way of exhibiting corporate responsibility.
Adds value to the corporate brand: A financial report touches a lot of audience right from the stakeholders to business partners to financial institution. What’s more even new employee prospect who wants to join an organization scans through either on the net or lays hand on the reports. Now here if your annual report stands out and disseminates all information interestingly then you have managed to bring in the prospective employee a bit closer. This is one example and there are so many other situations one can look at the role and importance of a good annual report. A well thought out annual report can really create a lasting impression The contents and design must clearly spell out the goals and vision of the company which will help the stakeholders get to know in which direction the company is surging ahead.
Total planning and orchestration required: Earmark a sizeable budget right at the beginning, which will also include the paper that you use. Remember great designs may not get good results if the right quality paper is not used. There should be complete orchestration between design team and the printing company to get excellent results. Time is of very important essence and hence company should plan early to get the final printed copy on time. Since this report comes out only once a year planning should start early one must not wake up at the last moment to meet the tight statutory deadlines. This has been the issue with most corporates in our country. If companies view churning a good annual report as an investment for the brand this will only further help in strengthening the equity of the brand.
Innovative thinking: Internationally some of the companies have made their annual report interactive and have uploaded on their web page. The corporates should now capture the proceedings of their annual general meetings and post them on the web. This will help shareholders who are not able to attend the annual general meetings due to paucity of time or distance. On request from the shareholders the proceedings of the meeting can be sent through a cd or dvd. This is one way of being in touch with the shareholders and thereby building the confidence reposed on the company. It also means that the company is very transparent and honest with their shareholders.
If companies are serious and make it a point to consistently produce good annual report design every year then it will be able to get greater mileage both for their product brands and the corporate brand. Some of the software brands have this top in their agenda. And today they are commanding a premium image both in the domestic and international market. These software companies along with their focused public relation programs and well designed annual reports have achieved in building the company values and image.
Finally if the CEO of the company believes in creating a great annual report design then it will motivate his people in the marketing and corporate function to strive towards in producing an excellent annual report design.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Is Brand Dhoni the new role model ?.
Two great wicket keepers endorse the same brands
Cricketer and celebrities has become the role model for tomorrow’s generation. The other day I came across an interesting observation in one of the leading dailies where Ajay Jadeja’s little son was mentioning that daddy you are not a great cricketer look at Dhoni uncle, I want to become like Dhoni. Look what the dynamic and dynamite Dhoni has done to the generation next. Watching cricket and advertisements have motivated kids to follow celebrities to accomplish their ambition. Today most of the kids and the generation next youth who are constantly on the move and look up for role model to learn and achieve their goals. Currently it looks like brand Dhoni has become the icon across all audience and all product categories.
Walk in to a hair-dressing salon you will notice the posters of Dhoni
to woo customers to get their hair cut like Dhoni. Dhoni as a brand has became so popular with his hairstyle that even the President of Pakistan in his speech at the prize ceremony in the last one day series against Pakistan in Pakistan mentioned in his speech, I adore your hair my friend Dhoni and advised him not to shorten or change his hair style. Another very interesting observation hit me. In the early 70’s we had Farookh Engineer who was the only cricketer model I remember of endorsing any brand. Incidentally he was also endorsing the brand Brylcreem. He too was a wicket-keeper and an aggressive batsman known for his lusty heating. Today Dhoni is also endorsing the brand Brylcreem. Is it sheer co- incidence or was the brand looking for a great wicket- keeper batsman after Farookh Engineer to endorse their brand. We have so many wicket-keepers come and go in the last three decades.
Finally a good brand fit. Farookh Engineer was quite successful and so is Mahi today as a wicket-keeper batsman. Both the cricketers had good-looking hair and were popular with the crowd when they arrived at the batting crease. As personality both were bold, aggressive, jovial , cool but a had a different style and grace in their approach to batting. Since helmets etc were not used in the early days and Farookh use to bat bare headed he could subtly display is beautiful good looking hair applied with Brylcreem.
Cricketer and celebrities has become the role model for tomorrow’s generation. The other day I came across an interesting observation in one of the leading dailies where Ajay Jadeja’s little son was mentioning that daddy you are not a great cricketer look at Dhoni uncle, I want to become like Dhoni. Look what the dynamic and dynamite Dhoni has done to the generation next. Watching cricket and advertisements have motivated kids to follow celebrities to accomplish their ambition. Today most of the kids and the generation next youth who are constantly on the move and look up for role model to learn and achieve their goals. Currently it looks like brand Dhoni has become the icon across all audience and all product categories.
Walk in to a hair-dressing salon you will notice the posters of Dhoni
to woo customers to get their hair cut like Dhoni. Dhoni as a brand has became so popular with his hairstyle that even the President of Pakistan in his speech at the prize ceremony in the last one day series against Pakistan in Pakistan mentioned in his speech, I adore your hair my friend Dhoni and advised him not to shorten or change his hair style. Another very interesting observation hit me. In the early 70’s we had Farookh Engineer who was the only cricketer model I remember of endorsing any brand. Incidentally he was also endorsing the brand Brylcreem. He too was a wicket-keeper and an aggressive batsman known for his lusty heating. Today Dhoni is also endorsing the brand Brylcreem. Is it sheer co- incidence or was the brand looking for a great wicket- keeper batsman after Farookh Engineer to endorse their brand. We have so many wicket-keepers come and go in the last three decades.
Finally a good brand fit. Farookh Engineer was quite successful and so is Mahi today as a wicket-keeper batsman. Both the cricketers had good-looking hair and were popular with the crowd when they arrived at the batting crease. As personality both were bold, aggressive, jovial , cool but a had a different style and grace in their approach to batting. Since helmets etc were not used in the early days and Farookh use to bat bare headed he could subtly display is beautiful good looking hair applied with Brylcreem.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Greeting card messages looses shine.
Festivity and Cards:
The next few weeks across the country there will be buzz around all places across the country as the season of festivity begins. Two decades back people religiously go shopping for various types of greeting cards to send it to the dear and near ones to express their greetings and convey their good wishes for the various festivals. Some major local players and national brands dominated this market. Greeting card brands offered a wide range of design with interesting creative messages at various price points. Then there was the social organization who were very aggressively marketing their cards to both the individual customers and corporates. Some of the big brands were very strong in using various media to promote their brands just few weeks before the festive season. These brands were offering personalized printing of names on bulk orders of the cards. One had to plan well in advance so that you get the design of your choice on time to catch the festive season.
Technology paves way for the cards:
Thanks to the revolution in technology it has now become easy sending greeting cards. PC’s and mobile phone have really made great inroads in this segment. The consumers find these as very simple and cheap means to send his or her good wishes to his friends. In the case of computers one can create a design of one’s own choice and send it. All one has to do is send an E-Greetings, SMS or MMS. In today’s world where time is of paramount importance people cannot set a side time to write the addresses go to post office buy stamps and post them. The inertia to send card has become low on the priority list, as there are other simpler and easy means to send good wishes and still enjoy and celebrate the festivals. The cellular operators also encourage and woo users during festivity to send good wishes messages at very attractive rates. The prices are down to earth and so tempting that even somebody who does not send social messages joins the messaging bug during festivity.
Government a big looser :
The postal department has have lost a considerable amount of revenue as purchase of stamps have dropped over a period of time. Also some of the private courier brands have to face loss in billings. Many local brands and national brands have also seen the drop in the sales of greeting cards as simpler and cheap substitute option is available to customers. Small time designers and paper companies have also been affected. Big time social organizations that earn considerable revenues marketing cards have also been affected to some extent. The revenues of press, magazines and to some extent the electronic channels have come down as marketing efforts to push greeting cards have dwindled. Although there are some corporates who still oblige these social organization a majority of them have moved away from this as it also involves considerable amount administrative machinery and expenditure to dispatch the cards on time.
Emotional connect missing :
E – Greeting cards and SMS’s has been easy means for people to send their messages. Not only is it easy but it has become cost effective for many. But what one does not realize is that sending greeting card messages through SMS’s etc is like talking to an answering machine where the emotional touch is missing. In the case of greeting card the sender invariably takes lot of trouble and planning to hand pick the right greeting card with the right choice of message before he or she sends it. By choosing the card with right message and visual gives he or she to express the emotional feelings of celebrations from the bottom of the heart. This is where greeting card brands have been very forward in their thinking by coming out with newer designs that will touch the receiver. Technology will never be able to fill this gap. Emotive expressions through a nice greeting card attach more value and touches the human chord. The chances are that with messages flowing from various well wishers one may tend to not read the messages as most of the times the message content is very boring, mundane and monotonous. That does not hold good when you receive a greeting card. You will receive different types of cards and one will make it a point to take some time to have a look at them. In some case if the card is unique and eye catching one tend to preserve it for some time.
Marketers adapt to the change:
A quick shift has taken among many players. Greeting card companies have been very forward looking in their approach and have moved to the gifting segment, which constitutes a huge market. With a growing affluent society and opening of malls and multiplexes the aspiration and desire of the Indian consumer has prompted many companies and brands to move towards gifting from the social expression card segment. Some of the companies have tied up with several international brands to bring gifting in a big way keeping in mind the nuances and the flavor of the Indian market and the Indian consumer.
New ideas have also been explored in the area of cards. Specially designed cards have been created through niche positioning to market cards for occasions such as friendship day, valentines day, father’s day, mother’s day, teacher’s day .While these may not deliver great volumes but in terms of value some of the brands will be able to reduce their revenue gap for their shortcoming through traditional and conventional greeting cards. While technology has eaten in to the greeting card brands but there will be some loyal and die hard customers who will still use the greeting card medium to express his or her wishes . These may be mostly in the smaller towns for whom emotional connect and expression is bigger then technology.
The next few weeks across the country there will be buzz around all places across the country as the season of festivity begins. Two decades back people religiously go shopping for various types of greeting cards to send it to the dear and near ones to express their greetings and convey their good wishes for the various festivals. Some major local players and national brands dominated this market. Greeting card brands offered a wide range of design with interesting creative messages at various price points. Then there was the social organization who were very aggressively marketing their cards to both the individual customers and corporates. Some of the big brands were very strong in using various media to promote their brands just few weeks before the festive season. These brands were offering personalized printing of names on bulk orders of the cards. One had to plan well in advance so that you get the design of your choice on time to catch the festive season.
Technology paves way for the cards:
Thanks to the revolution in technology it has now become easy sending greeting cards. PC’s and mobile phone have really made great inroads in this segment. The consumers find these as very simple and cheap means to send his or her good wishes to his friends. In the case of computers one can create a design of one’s own choice and send it. All one has to do is send an E-Greetings, SMS or MMS. In today’s world where time is of paramount importance people cannot set a side time to write the addresses go to post office buy stamps and post them. The inertia to send card has become low on the priority list, as there are other simpler and easy means to send good wishes and still enjoy and celebrate the festivals. The cellular operators also encourage and woo users during festivity to send good wishes messages at very attractive rates. The prices are down to earth and so tempting that even somebody who does not send social messages joins the messaging bug during festivity.
Government a big looser :
The postal department has have lost a considerable amount of revenue as purchase of stamps have dropped over a period of time. Also some of the private courier brands have to face loss in billings. Many local brands and national brands have also seen the drop in the sales of greeting cards as simpler and cheap substitute option is available to customers. Small time designers and paper companies have also been affected. Big time social organizations that earn considerable revenues marketing cards have also been affected to some extent. The revenues of press, magazines and to some extent the electronic channels have come down as marketing efforts to push greeting cards have dwindled. Although there are some corporates who still oblige these social organization a majority of them have moved away from this as it also involves considerable amount administrative machinery and expenditure to dispatch the cards on time.
Emotional connect missing :
E – Greeting cards and SMS’s has been easy means for people to send their messages. Not only is it easy but it has become cost effective for many. But what one does not realize is that sending greeting card messages through SMS’s etc is like talking to an answering machine where the emotional touch is missing. In the case of greeting card the sender invariably takes lot of trouble and planning to hand pick the right greeting card with the right choice of message before he or she sends it. By choosing the card with right message and visual gives he or she to express the emotional feelings of celebrations from the bottom of the heart. This is where greeting card brands have been very forward in their thinking by coming out with newer designs that will touch the receiver. Technology will never be able to fill this gap. Emotive expressions through a nice greeting card attach more value and touches the human chord. The chances are that with messages flowing from various well wishers one may tend to not read the messages as most of the times the message content is very boring, mundane and monotonous. That does not hold good when you receive a greeting card. You will receive different types of cards and one will make it a point to take some time to have a look at them. In some case if the card is unique and eye catching one tend to preserve it for some time.
Marketers adapt to the change:
A quick shift has taken among many players. Greeting card companies have been very forward looking in their approach and have moved to the gifting segment, which constitutes a huge market. With a growing affluent society and opening of malls and multiplexes the aspiration and desire of the Indian consumer has prompted many companies and brands to move towards gifting from the social expression card segment. Some of the companies have tied up with several international brands to bring gifting in a big way keeping in mind the nuances and the flavor of the Indian market and the Indian consumer.
New ideas have also been explored in the area of cards. Specially designed cards have been created through niche positioning to market cards for occasions such as friendship day, valentines day, father’s day, mother’s day, teacher’s day .While these may not deliver great volumes but in terms of value some of the brands will be able to reduce their revenue gap for their shortcoming through traditional and conventional greeting cards. While technology has eaten in to the greeting card brands but there will be some loyal and die hard customers who will still use the greeting card medium to express his or her wishes . These may be mostly in the smaller towns for whom emotional connect and expression is bigger then technology.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Invisible Brands.Consumer forgets the brand once the product is installed. .
Branding constraints:
Ask anybody what brand of tiles or what brand of glass or what brand of cement or paint is used in his or her house. Chances are most of them would be blank and will take a wild guess. The primary reason for this is the product does not permit to have a branding which is prominent and visible.
Products related to the construction material such as, steel, tiles, cement, paints and glass, which were sold as commodity year’s back has now realized the need of branding their products. All these products have now transformed from commodity to brand. But the biggest challenge these products face today is they are seen as brand and remembered as brand at the time of purchase. Thereafter the brand goes out of mind and out of sight once the products are installed. The consumer does not take the trouble to remember.
The other day I had visited my friend’s house who had just refurbished his house with some new flooring. Since it looked very impressive I was prompted to ask the brand used but to my disappointment the brand could not be recalled. In most of these cases the decision on buying the flooring tiles to a large extent is left with the mason or the architect.
The end customer is involved but not evolved so much as his or her knowledge on the category is low. We go to shopping malls enjoy the experience, ambience, appreciate the flooring , the walls which are aesthetically done using tiles, glass ,aluminum laminates and the latest paint technology with great shades but unfortunately the brand name is not visible on these products.
The irony is that all these invisible brands have helped the construction companies to create and build their own brands. Today even after the construction of a mall or a township is complete one will remember a DLF or a Hiranandani but the construction products used tends to take a backseat.
Demerits of not branding :
Consumers today are buying brands and hence it is of paramount importance to ensure that they stay connected with the brand. By not able to get their product branded marketer lose out a lot. And therefore they need to put that much extra efforts and also invest extra money in getting the brand top of mind and get it into the consideration set of the customer, to retain the share of mind amongst their audience. The other handicap of not having the brand on the product also prohibits the strong word of mouth communication as the consumer is not evolved with brand on an on going basis like a consumer durable or any other FMCG brand.
How marketers are countering?
To maintain the equity and recall of the branded products in category like steel, glass , tile and cement , companies have stepped up their marketing efforts to connect with the consumer closely. Retail outlets have created strong visibility outside their outlets to keep the brand top of mind with eye catching dealer sign boards and attractive packaging designs for the products. Exterior paint companies have made it a point to display their brand name while the work is in progress. Decorative paint brands are strongly present in TV on a national level. Flooring brands have been effectively using print medium to move to the consumer closer. Apart from being present in technical and architect journals these brands have also has now moved into film based and general magazine to reach out the general consumer. Tile brands are also getting associated with event like fashion show to create hype and buzz around the brand on a continuous basis
In spite of all these efforts the marketers have still not come out with an answer to the counter the product branding. It is a tough proposition because of the inherent factors and the characteristics of the product category.
Tough challenge ahead :
Marketers must take up this challenge and find out new ways to get their brand visible at the consumers end. In the case of engine oil also one tend to forget the brand that has been used in the vehicle but since the frequency of replacing is high you get connected with the brand either through advertising or check out with your garage owner as to what brand of oil he has poured in the engine. Another interesting illustration one can refer is the brand INTEL. The product is actually not visible. Here the technology is branded but the consumer is strongly entrenched and connected with the brand because of the sheer brand experience he has come across working on his PC’s and laptops. Where as in the case of flooring the product is visible but since it is a low in involvement the consumer is not so serious and curious to remember the brand on which he or she is walking.
Even in the case of glass products efforts have been made to inscribe the brand name on the product but does the branding stays back once the glass is installed or fixed? Are consumers able to recall the brand name ?
The one way branding can be made visible is to have a good understanding with the construction houses to create some vantage point with in a apartment or malls where in there can be a permanent display of brands installed with in the complex. Ensure that the builder uses the brand names of the product used in sales brochures and other sales kit. This can to some extent help in recalling the brand. In the malls, which are offering today electronic media you, can communicate saying the brand of flooring or glass used. With huge footfalls at malls this will definitely touch the consumer and reinforce the brand recall. It is a tough task but marketers must find out some path breaking creative solution to make the brand visible with the end consumer.
Ask anybody what brand of tiles or what brand of glass or what brand of cement or paint is used in his or her house. Chances are most of them would be blank and will take a wild guess. The primary reason for this is the product does not permit to have a branding which is prominent and visible.
Products related to the construction material such as, steel, tiles, cement, paints and glass, which were sold as commodity year’s back has now realized the need of branding their products. All these products have now transformed from commodity to brand. But the biggest challenge these products face today is they are seen as brand and remembered as brand at the time of purchase. Thereafter the brand goes out of mind and out of sight once the products are installed. The consumer does not take the trouble to remember.
The other day I had visited my friend’s house who had just refurbished his house with some new flooring. Since it looked very impressive I was prompted to ask the brand used but to my disappointment the brand could not be recalled. In most of these cases the decision on buying the flooring tiles to a large extent is left with the mason or the architect.
The end customer is involved but not evolved so much as his or her knowledge on the category is low. We go to shopping malls enjoy the experience, ambience, appreciate the flooring , the walls which are aesthetically done using tiles, glass ,aluminum laminates and the latest paint technology with great shades but unfortunately the brand name is not visible on these products.
The irony is that all these invisible brands have helped the construction companies to create and build their own brands. Today even after the construction of a mall or a township is complete one will remember a DLF or a Hiranandani but the construction products used tends to take a backseat.
Demerits of not branding :
Consumers today are buying brands and hence it is of paramount importance to ensure that they stay connected with the brand. By not able to get their product branded marketer lose out a lot. And therefore they need to put that much extra efforts and also invest extra money in getting the brand top of mind and get it into the consideration set of the customer, to retain the share of mind amongst their audience. The other handicap of not having the brand on the product also prohibits the strong word of mouth communication as the consumer is not evolved with brand on an on going basis like a consumer durable or any other FMCG brand.
How marketers are countering?
To maintain the equity and recall of the branded products in category like steel, glass , tile and cement , companies have stepped up their marketing efforts to connect with the consumer closely. Retail outlets have created strong visibility outside their outlets to keep the brand top of mind with eye catching dealer sign boards and attractive packaging designs for the products. Exterior paint companies have made it a point to display their brand name while the work is in progress. Decorative paint brands are strongly present in TV on a national level. Flooring brands have been effectively using print medium to move to the consumer closer. Apart from being present in technical and architect journals these brands have also has now moved into film based and general magazine to reach out the general consumer. Tile brands are also getting associated with event like fashion show to create hype and buzz around the brand on a continuous basis
In spite of all these efforts the marketers have still not come out with an answer to the counter the product branding. It is a tough proposition because of the inherent factors and the characteristics of the product category.
Tough challenge ahead :
Marketers must take up this challenge and find out new ways to get their brand visible at the consumers end. In the case of engine oil also one tend to forget the brand that has been used in the vehicle but since the frequency of replacing is high you get connected with the brand either through advertising or check out with your garage owner as to what brand of oil he has poured in the engine. Another interesting illustration one can refer is the brand INTEL. The product is actually not visible. Here the technology is branded but the consumer is strongly entrenched and connected with the brand because of the sheer brand experience he has come across working on his PC’s and laptops. Where as in the case of flooring the product is visible but since it is a low in involvement the consumer is not so serious and curious to remember the brand on which he or she is walking.
Even in the case of glass products efforts have been made to inscribe the brand name on the product but does the branding stays back once the glass is installed or fixed? Are consumers able to recall the brand name ?
The one way branding can be made visible is to have a good understanding with the construction houses to create some vantage point with in a apartment or malls where in there can be a permanent display of brands installed with in the complex. Ensure that the builder uses the brand names of the product used in sales brochures and other sales kit. This can to some extent help in recalling the brand. In the malls, which are offering today electronic media you, can communicate saying the brand of flooring or glass used. With huge footfalls at malls this will definitely touch the consumer and reinforce the brand recall. It is a tough task but marketers must find out some path breaking creative solution to make the brand visible with the end consumer.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Science of naming a brand
The Importance of a Name :
A name can inspire, excite, motivate and entice.
It is very critical that the brand carries the right name
A good brand name gives a good first impression and evokes positive associations with the brand
A good name provides clarity and recognition
What is a good name?
Apple/Nike/Orange: Strong logos and easy to remember names but not connected to the type of business it does. Still consumers have to strong recollection of these brands
Federal Express/National Broadcasting Corporation: Manufacturer desires, consumer decides. A good name hence is Fed Ex and NBC
Duracell: signifies a quality of the product like durability. Another example being Stronglas
Naming Process
The Marketing Filter
Define the product’s features, functions and benefits, the qualities that would appeal most to customers, how the product differs from competition
Ex: The word “Power “ or “Speed “defines high octane fuel with certain essential qualities as opposed to a flat, unleaded fuel.
Semantic filter
Its important to find out will the name work in the global market place?
Negative connotations, tongue twisting challenges and cultural and religious affronts are frequent foreign language hazards
Federal Express in Latin American countries, “Federal” conjured a negative image of “federals”
Phonetic filter:
The phonetics filter incorporates pronunciation, readability, rhythm, tone and vowel/consonant arrangement.
Ex: Super Shell is simple to pronounce and not Shell Super!
Sound symbolism filter:
We have to keep in mind that a corporate or brand name is often seen not heard, so it is important to consider how it will look on packaging, letterhead, signs, websites etc
Legal filter:
It is important to find out if it is legally available.
The Do’s and Don’ts of naming
A brand name has to be memorable, distinctive, easy to pronounce and work globally
Keep it simple. The longer a word is the less likely you are to remember it
Avoid clichés like ultra, pro, global hi tech, as they have used too often
Coined words have been successful Pentium, OXO
Reinvent a real word. Apple has nothing to do with technology much like Shell and petroleum
ORIGIN OF SOME BRAND NAMES
Abbreviations / Acronyms :FedEx, Telco, Unisys, Microsoft, IBM, Amul, KFC
Arbitrary : Apple, Orange, Tamarind
Classical : Maruti, Ganga, Ashok
Foreign Languages : Samurai, Sansui
Founders : Godrej, Bajaj, Gillette
Symbolism : Mustang, Tiger Biscuit
Combination/Semantic : Nutrasweet ,Victorinox, Pagemaker
Oxymoron : True Lies, Intimate Strangers Lowe Alpine
Descriptive : Pudin Hara , Hajmola , Airbus , Duracell, Energizer
Gods Name: Dhanlakshmi Bank, Lord Krishna Bank
A name can inspire, excite, motivate and entice.
It is very critical that the brand carries the right name
A good brand name gives a good first impression and evokes positive associations with the brand
A good name provides clarity and recognition
What is a good name?
Apple/Nike/Orange: Strong logos and easy to remember names but not connected to the type of business it does. Still consumers have to strong recollection of these brands
Federal Express/National Broadcasting Corporation: Manufacturer desires, consumer decides. A good name hence is Fed Ex and NBC
Duracell: signifies a quality of the product like durability. Another example being Stronglas
Naming Process
The Marketing Filter
Define the product’s features, functions and benefits, the qualities that would appeal most to customers, how the product differs from competition
Ex: The word “Power “ or “Speed “defines high octane fuel with certain essential qualities as opposed to a flat, unleaded fuel.
Semantic filter
Its important to find out will the name work in the global market place?
Negative connotations, tongue twisting challenges and cultural and religious affronts are frequent foreign language hazards
Federal Express in Latin American countries, “Federal” conjured a negative image of “federals”
Phonetic filter:
The phonetics filter incorporates pronunciation, readability, rhythm, tone and vowel/consonant arrangement.
Ex: Super Shell is simple to pronounce and not Shell Super!
Sound symbolism filter:
We have to keep in mind that a corporate or brand name is often seen not heard, so it is important to consider how it will look on packaging, letterhead, signs, websites etc
Legal filter:
It is important to find out if it is legally available.
The Do’s and Don’ts of naming
A brand name has to be memorable, distinctive, easy to pronounce and work globally
Keep it simple. The longer a word is the less likely you are to remember it
Avoid clichés like ultra, pro, global hi tech, as they have used too often
Coined words have been successful Pentium, OXO
Reinvent a real word. Apple has nothing to do with technology much like Shell and petroleum
ORIGIN OF SOME BRAND NAMES
Abbreviations / Acronyms :FedEx, Telco, Unisys, Microsoft, IBM, Amul, KFC
Arbitrary : Apple, Orange, Tamarind
Classical : Maruti, Ganga, Ashok
Foreign Languages : Samurai, Sansui
Founders : Godrej, Bajaj, Gillette
Symbolism : Mustang, Tiger Biscuit
Combination/Semantic : Nutrasweet ,Victorinox, Pagemaker
Oxymoron : True Lies, Intimate Strangers Lowe Alpine
Descriptive : Pudin Hara , Hajmola , Airbus , Duracell, Energizer
Gods Name: Dhanlakshmi Bank, Lord Krishna Bank
Friday, August 31, 2007
Radio should explore & discover more….
Three decades back:
In the earlier days the role of radio was more like a support medium. But today with more and more radio channels entering the market on an national level radio is no longer seen as a support. Many small clients and retailers have adopted radio as their primary medium to sell their products. In the early 70s many brands used radio to create brand property through intelligent programming. Great programs like Inspector Eagle, Cricket with Vijay Merchant, Sports with AFS Talyar Khan were favorites of the listeners on a Sunday afternoon after a nice lunch. Brands like Eagle Flasks, Thackersey Fabrics and Erasmic blades were the brands that were associated with these programs. Who can forget the great Bournvita Quiz Contest, which took birth through radio, and has today become a very popular program with the kids and the parents on television. The brand connect with quizzing has been so strong that nobody can take that slot for years to come. Even the memorable Binaca geet mala was popular among every household and Ameen Sayani ji with his evergreen voice at 8pm every Wednesday’s made it entertaining and enjoyable. It was a must listen program on radio Ceylon for music followers.
This radio program was as famous like what Saas Bahu of the prime time slot in star plus channel or the popular chiti program on sun TV. Every member of the family was completely glued to Binaca geetmala.
TV makes the viewers passive, radio is interactive
Radio also permits you to enjoy music while you can do your work. A typical housewife can enjoy music while she is busy preparing food for her family. May be we need to try and see how we can target housewives who are more likely to tune in while working at home. Create special programming during her work time, which help her carry the work with some nice entertainment.
We also need to explore and look at innovative ways of tapping the kid audience. While most kids are glued to kid channels one must get interesting radio programming which can encourage the kid and children community to shift to radio. Also from the health point of view the kids may not spoil their vision by constantly watching the idiot box. Here radio can play a key role. We need to understand their needs carefully and look at educational programs to enter the kids mind.
Radio should re-discover Sports:
Some great sports commentator voices will always be remembered through radio. Right from Tony Cozier from the Carribean to Henry Blofield from the BBC and Alan Mcgilvary from ABC. Even our own Jasdev Singh had a very nice and interesting way of giving running hockey commentary. Infact there were times when hockey was relayed on radio and TV but to make it more lively and interesting people use to switch of the TV sound and play the radio voice of Jasdev ji. It is time we look at sports commentary in radio again. If packaged interestingly listeners will switch on to radio especially the motorist .With the ownership of cars growing and people have less time to watch TV good cricket commentary on radio may enthuse listeners. (Yes it’s a tough challenge, it is something like asking people to use fountain inks instead of ballpoint refills and gel pens) People should feel the difference like watching cricket on an ESPN or Star sports. Give the listener the best that is the only way one can win the audience. While Television has bought in new technology such intense action replay in all sports related program radio has a huge handicap as the medium is driven purely on sound bytes. But with good production values and great commentators radio can attract more audience. If people have moved from watching music channels to hearing music on hi-tech gadgets why cannot it happen to sports if the content and quality is excellent.
Educational programming can be a new challenge :
In the earlier paragraph I had touched upon the fact that radio must talk to the kids. Now how this can done is a big challenge for the channels. We all know that radio is nothing but pure sound and here lies a great opportunity for channels to introduce educational program for kids like story telling, the art of public speaking or in the case of music it could be learning the basics in Hindustani and carnatic vocal music or any other form of instrumental music.
One can also help teaching the physically challenged people ( especially the blind ) through radio. A special vocational guidance for the blind could be designed and taught through the power of sound.. Immense opportunity lies for this medium to become more powerful. We should look beyond just songs, music and interviews Let the masses get to learn from this medium. I am sure the channels can come out with more scintillating and new ideas to make this medium powerful.
In the earlier days the role of radio was more like a support medium. But today with more and more radio channels entering the market on an national level radio is no longer seen as a support. Many small clients and retailers have adopted radio as their primary medium to sell their products. In the early 70s many brands used radio to create brand property through intelligent programming. Great programs like Inspector Eagle, Cricket with Vijay Merchant, Sports with AFS Talyar Khan were favorites of the listeners on a Sunday afternoon after a nice lunch. Brands like Eagle Flasks, Thackersey Fabrics and Erasmic blades were the brands that were associated with these programs. Who can forget the great Bournvita Quiz Contest, which took birth through radio, and has today become a very popular program with the kids and the parents on television. The brand connect with quizzing has been so strong that nobody can take that slot for years to come. Even the memorable Binaca geet mala was popular among every household and Ameen Sayani ji with his evergreen voice at 8pm every Wednesday’s made it entertaining and enjoyable. It was a must listen program on radio Ceylon for music followers.
This radio program was as famous like what Saas Bahu of the prime time slot in star plus channel or the popular chiti program on sun TV. Every member of the family was completely glued to Binaca geetmala.
TV makes the viewers passive, radio is interactive
Radio also permits you to enjoy music while you can do your work. A typical housewife can enjoy music while she is busy preparing food for her family. May be we need to try and see how we can target housewives who are more likely to tune in while working at home. Create special programming during her work time, which help her carry the work with some nice entertainment.
We also need to explore and look at innovative ways of tapping the kid audience. While most kids are glued to kid channels one must get interesting radio programming which can encourage the kid and children community to shift to radio. Also from the health point of view the kids may not spoil their vision by constantly watching the idiot box. Here radio can play a key role. We need to understand their needs carefully and look at educational programs to enter the kids mind.
Radio should re-discover Sports:
Some great sports commentator voices will always be remembered through radio. Right from Tony Cozier from the Carribean to Henry Blofield from the BBC and Alan Mcgilvary from ABC. Even our own Jasdev Singh had a very nice and interesting way of giving running hockey commentary. Infact there were times when hockey was relayed on radio and TV but to make it more lively and interesting people use to switch of the TV sound and play the radio voice of Jasdev ji. It is time we look at sports commentary in radio again. If packaged interestingly listeners will switch on to radio especially the motorist .With the ownership of cars growing and people have less time to watch TV good cricket commentary on radio may enthuse listeners. (Yes it’s a tough challenge, it is something like asking people to use fountain inks instead of ballpoint refills and gel pens) People should feel the difference like watching cricket on an ESPN or Star sports. Give the listener the best that is the only way one can win the audience. While Television has bought in new technology such intense action replay in all sports related program radio has a huge handicap as the medium is driven purely on sound bytes. But with good production values and great commentators radio can attract more audience. If people have moved from watching music channels to hearing music on hi-tech gadgets why cannot it happen to sports if the content and quality is excellent.
Educational programming can be a new challenge :
In the earlier paragraph I had touched upon the fact that radio must talk to the kids. Now how this can done is a big challenge for the channels. We all know that radio is nothing but pure sound and here lies a great opportunity for channels to introduce educational program for kids like story telling, the art of public speaking or in the case of music it could be learning the basics in Hindustani and carnatic vocal music or any other form of instrumental music.
One can also help teaching the physically challenged people ( especially the blind ) through radio. A special vocational guidance for the blind could be designed and taught through the power of sound.. Immense opportunity lies for this medium to become more powerful. We should look beyond just songs, music and interviews Let the masses get to learn from this medium. I am sure the channels can come out with more scintillating and new ideas to make this medium powerful.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Simply click, but no fly!
Though many travel portals have mushroomed of late, the common traveller still seems sceptical of their benefits.
Over the past ten years, there has been a huge spurt among Indian audience to travel, both within the country and abroad. It is estimated that by 2010, outbound tourism in India will touch a substantial 15 million. With the advent of budget airlines, and the birth of travel portals, the Indian audience now has several options available in terms of making their travel plans, and booking tickets as well as hotels, not just within the country but abroad too.
Unlike in the olden days, where one needed to work out travel plans well in advance to visit any place, either domestic or international, today, that gap has been minimized and a quick holiday can be planned much easily thanks to several new travel portals which are offering great services under one roof. Travel portals have been spending a lot to create awareness of their portal and are trying various means to woo customers by offering attractive packages to get people book online. Even the offline travel operators have doubled their budgets with high decibel advertising.
Unfortunately, though, the campaigns run by both the offline and online brands have become rather confusing as each is offering similar deals and their campaigns too look and feel similar. However, there are serious doubts and questions one needs to answer on online bookings. How many people are really going online to make their travel booking? Though no accurate statistics are yet available on this, one of the main contentions for people not booking their tickets or making their holiday plans online is due to the fear of their credit card details leaking out.
Online booking may not favour first time travellers:
Most family households invariably make their travel decisions jointly, instead of individually. And, since it is usually while dining in the night that they come together, or over the weekends, that such a decision is taken then and there and is unanimous. Typically, the first-time visitor is a bit more cautious. He or she seeks more knowledge from either friends or a neighbourhood travel shop before deciding the travel operator. After deciding on the destination, the next step is to thoroughly study the pamphlets and information available on the net before closing the deal.
The first choice of the first-time traveller would be to visit a travel company and get all documentation done with them. Since the traveller is visiting a new country, or place, the person would need some kind of reassurance from the travel operator in India, which is not possible when one opts for online booking. Here, the traveller interacts with the sales personnel on phone and at the travel desk of the company and gets all his doubts cleared.
Also, with the first time traveller, caution is the buzzword. The traveller doesn’t want his plans go awry on his maiden journey and hopes that the trip be a very memorable one. This is one of the reasons there are travel brands that offer both online, and offline services so that they do not lose customers either way.
Barriers to Online travel booking: Although reports suggest that the sale of computers and laptops have gone up, their penetration is, as yet, not so much that it spawns an entire online industry. And, one of the major reasons for this is the poor bandwidth that is currently offered and the poor power situation in most parts of the country. Such glitches have kept the use of the Net for making travel plans online low, especially when you need long hours on the computer to understand the offers and get the best deals.
Security, too, is a major concern. Although one does get proof and documents on online booking, but, since the personal touch is missing, customers are reluctant to provide their credit card details online as plastic monies are being misused across the world.
In the case of offline booking, one can always fall back on the travel operator, who can guide a traveller through the ways and means of the nitty-gritty concerned with travel bookings, as well as act as an escort in the foreign land. One may, however, not get such a service when you book your travel itinerary online.
Also, most people in smaller towns prefer to interact with a live person rather than a faceless computer. It serves best to remember that these very people prefer the post man delivering letters to their homes, or visiting a local bank instead of using the Net to do their banking transactions or emailing their family and friends. Travel portals need to have a closer look at the demerits of online booking and find better solutions in educating the customers on the same.
So, what do travel portals need to do to increase online booking? The future (of travel portals) seems quite bright and, according to industry estimates, the online travel industry is pegged around Rs5000-crs. At present, online booking is more utilized towards domestic travel bookings on budget airlines and for local hotel bookings. The need is to create a strong educational campaign for travellers to log in for outbound tours.
Net banking, which is getting popular, has made some inroads. But people still prefer to go to the bank and get their passbook updated and have a cup of coffee with the bank staff. This is especially true of small towns. To increase online usage, many banks are wooing customers through various promotional schemes to increase usage of the Net for banking.
A deep sense of insecurity, though, continues to prevail in the minds of consumers so far as using the Net to make travel plans is concerned. This mindset has to be corrected, though this will be slow and a long-drawn process. However, with concerted efforts from various travel portals, the confidence of booking online should go up in the near future. Travel companies must explore new methods to popularise online booking. More innovation and fresh ideas should be infused to drive the concept, which is still a bit alien today.
- A joint promotional campaign educating the potential users on online booking.
- Talk to the customer once the booking is done. A customer service executive should call up and instil confidence in the customer.
- The opening page of the web could talk about the security aspect of online booking, by reiterating the safety guarantee.
- Conduct seminars and road shows to drive the concept and use high footfall areas to demonstrate the usage.
- On the website itself, one can look at infomercials in a very interesting manner to address the concerns of the traveller. Remember that the infomercials has to be demonstrative.
Published in USP Age August 2007 issue.
Over the past ten years, there has been a huge spurt among Indian audience to travel, both within the country and abroad. It is estimated that by 2010, outbound tourism in India will touch a substantial 15 million. With the advent of budget airlines, and the birth of travel portals, the Indian audience now has several options available in terms of making their travel plans, and booking tickets as well as hotels, not just within the country but abroad too.
Unlike in the olden days, where one needed to work out travel plans well in advance to visit any place, either domestic or international, today, that gap has been minimized and a quick holiday can be planned much easily thanks to several new travel portals which are offering great services under one roof. Travel portals have been spending a lot to create awareness of their portal and are trying various means to woo customers by offering attractive packages to get people book online. Even the offline travel operators have doubled their budgets with high decibel advertising.
Unfortunately, though, the campaigns run by both the offline and online brands have become rather confusing as each is offering similar deals and their campaigns too look and feel similar. However, there are serious doubts and questions one needs to answer on online bookings. How many people are really going online to make their travel booking? Though no accurate statistics are yet available on this, one of the main contentions for people not booking their tickets or making their holiday plans online is due to the fear of their credit card details leaking out.
Online booking may not favour first time travellers:
Most family households invariably make their travel decisions jointly, instead of individually. And, since it is usually while dining in the night that they come together, or over the weekends, that such a decision is taken then and there and is unanimous. Typically, the first-time visitor is a bit more cautious. He or she seeks more knowledge from either friends or a neighbourhood travel shop before deciding the travel operator. After deciding on the destination, the next step is to thoroughly study the pamphlets and information available on the net before closing the deal.
The first choice of the first-time traveller would be to visit a travel company and get all documentation done with them. Since the traveller is visiting a new country, or place, the person would need some kind of reassurance from the travel operator in India, which is not possible when one opts for online booking. Here, the traveller interacts with the sales personnel on phone and at the travel desk of the company and gets all his doubts cleared.
Also, with the first time traveller, caution is the buzzword. The traveller doesn’t want his plans go awry on his maiden journey and hopes that the trip be a very memorable one. This is one of the reasons there are travel brands that offer both online, and offline services so that they do not lose customers either way.
Barriers to Online travel booking: Although reports suggest that the sale of computers and laptops have gone up, their penetration is, as yet, not so much that it spawns an entire online industry. And, one of the major reasons for this is the poor bandwidth that is currently offered and the poor power situation in most parts of the country. Such glitches have kept the use of the Net for making travel plans online low, especially when you need long hours on the computer to understand the offers and get the best deals.
Security, too, is a major concern. Although one does get proof and documents on online booking, but, since the personal touch is missing, customers are reluctant to provide their credit card details online as plastic monies are being misused across the world.
In the case of offline booking, one can always fall back on the travel operator, who can guide a traveller through the ways and means of the nitty-gritty concerned with travel bookings, as well as act as an escort in the foreign land. One may, however, not get such a service when you book your travel itinerary online.
Also, most people in smaller towns prefer to interact with a live person rather than a faceless computer. It serves best to remember that these very people prefer the post man delivering letters to their homes, or visiting a local bank instead of using the Net to do their banking transactions or emailing their family and friends. Travel portals need to have a closer look at the demerits of online booking and find better solutions in educating the customers on the same.
So, what do travel portals need to do to increase online booking? The future (of travel portals) seems quite bright and, according to industry estimates, the online travel industry is pegged around Rs5000-crs. At present, online booking is more utilized towards domestic travel bookings on budget airlines and for local hotel bookings. The need is to create a strong educational campaign for travellers to log in for outbound tours.
Net banking, which is getting popular, has made some inroads. But people still prefer to go to the bank and get their passbook updated and have a cup of coffee with the bank staff. This is especially true of small towns. To increase online usage, many banks are wooing customers through various promotional schemes to increase usage of the Net for banking.
A deep sense of insecurity, though, continues to prevail in the minds of consumers so far as using the Net to make travel plans is concerned. This mindset has to be corrected, though this will be slow and a long-drawn process. However, with concerted efforts from various travel portals, the confidence of booking online should go up in the near future. Travel companies must explore new methods to popularise online booking. More innovation and fresh ideas should be infused to drive the concept, which is still a bit alien today.
- A joint promotional campaign educating the potential users on online booking.
- Talk to the customer once the booking is done. A customer service executive should call up and instil confidence in the customer.
- The opening page of the web could talk about the security aspect of online booking, by reiterating the safety guarantee.
- Conduct seminars and road shows to drive the concept and use high footfall areas to demonstrate the usage.
- On the website itself, one can look at infomercials in a very interesting manner to address the concerns of the traveller. Remember that the infomercials has to be demonstrative.
Published in USP Age August 2007 issue.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Quizzing and Brands
Birth of quizzing
Do you know how the word ‘quiz’ entered the English language? It appears that a Mr. Daly, manager of a Dublin theatre made a bet that he would introduce into the language within 24 hours, a new word of no meaning. Soon on every wall and on other places within reach he wrote the four letters Q U I Z and all the people in Dublin were asking each other what the mysterious word meant. Thus Mr. Daly won his wager and the word became part of the language. The word now means a competition of knowledge, general or otherwise and the media, especially television has made quiz contests very popular. The expression Quiz Kid refers to children appearing in radio or television quiz programs. Quizzing in India started way back in 1967 when Neil O'Brien, regarded as the "Father of Indian quizzing" conducted the first open formal quiz in a small church hall in Kolkata. Soon it became a popular, regular event and other clubs began to organize similar contests for the general public.
Branding through Quizzing :
In India some leading brands has used quizzing to build brands. One of the long standing brand which is still strongly connected with quizzing is the energy drink Bournvita. The Bournvita quiz was one of the most popular program on radio. Great quiz presenters like Hamid Sayani followed by Amin Sayani is now being hosted and compeered by the great quizmaster Dereck Obrien. Infact quizzing runs in Derreck Obrien ‘s family for years. Bournvita quiz has moved from radio to TV and is still watched by many quiz buffs both old and young. The quiz progaram was so popular the finals the year’s quiz questions and answers was sold through a book. A collector’s item prerserved by many . A small promotion campaign is held to promote the book and the brand. Some of the other brands that were connected with quizzing were Binny textile which ran a quiz program called Binny double or quits compered by well known actor Farookh Shaikh. This program did not last long as there was a major disconnect with the brand and the program. Then we had the North Star Quiz which was live quiz held at various venues across the cities. But in the recent years Brand Equity has replaced this event. Brand equity is an annual event promoted by the Economic Times. This has become very popular among corporates and is being regularly held in the cites from where Economic Times is published. The final event is finally aired on some important channel across the nation. Terrific mileage for the brand and connects well with product. Another important brand that is involved in quizzing is the TATA crucible quiz. This is also popular but is relayed only through a business channel and hence the reach is limited and is meant for a select audience who watch CNBC No body can forget the success of KBC. This has been the mother of all quizzing which built a channel and a brand. The credit for raising the viewer ship bar of Star channel must go the team which devised this killer idea of using quizzing. And what’s more the program was brilliantly executed. The success should also be attributed to Big B who made the quizzing look very simple , lively, interactive and entertaining.
Strong belief desired :
Companies and brands must firstly should have strong conviction and belief to invest on programs like quizzing . If you have that belief and patience you can make programs like quizzing has strong long term brand property. Quizzing for Bournvita has been a long term property. Close to almost over three decades the Bournvita brand has been strongly connected with quizzing either through radio and off late through television. The connect is so strong that people still are able to recall the program and the brand. Brand equity quiz has also to large extent done this and is still popular with the corporate audience. Femina is another brand which strongly connects with Miss India show and is one of the long term property the Times group is associated with. If your brand values and product offerings match the event the chances are you will never go wrong. In case of Bournvita , Brand Equity and Femina the brand association has bonded so well with the events that people wait for the event each year. While I am sure that there must be several other brands that has been successful by associating with various events but to me the quizzing and Bournvita will be cherished for ever by the target audience in India. Some times there are brands who look at short term association with events but such association is not good for the health of the brand. ET bazaar which was one such event which Economic times associated was a total disconnect. The brand was a total mis -match to the event and after the year 2 it wall called off. Marriage between brands and events will lasts if the kundali of both matches in all respect.
Do you know how the word ‘quiz’ entered the English language? It appears that a Mr. Daly, manager of a Dublin theatre made a bet that he would introduce into the language within 24 hours, a new word of no meaning. Soon on every wall and on other places within reach he wrote the four letters Q U I Z and all the people in Dublin were asking each other what the mysterious word meant. Thus Mr. Daly won his wager and the word became part of the language. The word now means a competition of knowledge, general or otherwise and the media, especially television has made quiz contests very popular. The expression Quiz Kid refers to children appearing in radio or television quiz programs. Quizzing in India started way back in 1967 when Neil O'Brien, regarded as the "Father of Indian quizzing" conducted the first open formal quiz in a small church hall in Kolkata. Soon it became a popular, regular event and other clubs began to organize similar contests for the general public.
Branding through Quizzing :
In India some leading brands has used quizzing to build brands. One of the long standing brand which is still strongly connected with quizzing is the energy drink Bournvita. The Bournvita quiz was one of the most popular program on radio. Great quiz presenters like Hamid Sayani followed by Amin Sayani is now being hosted and compeered by the great quizmaster Dereck Obrien. Infact quizzing runs in Derreck Obrien ‘s family for years. Bournvita quiz has moved from radio to TV and is still watched by many quiz buffs both old and young. The quiz progaram was so popular the finals the year’s quiz questions and answers was sold through a book. A collector’s item prerserved by many . A small promotion campaign is held to promote the book and the brand. Some of the other brands that were connected with quizzing were Binny textile which ran a quiz program called Binny double or quits compered by well known actor Farookh Shaikh. This program did not last long as there was a major disconnect with the brand and the program. Then we had the North Star Quiz which was live quiz held at various venues across the cities. But in the recent years Brand Equity has replaced this event. Brand equity is an annual event promoted by the Economic Times. This has become very popular among corporates and is being regularly held in the cites from where Economic Times is published. The final event is finally aired on some important channel across the nation. Terrific mileage for the brand and connects well with product. Another important brand that is involved in quizzing is the TATA crucible quiz. This is also popular but is relayed only through a business channel and hence the reach is limited and is meant for a select audience who watch CNBC No body can forget the success of KBC. This has been the mother of all quizzing which built a channel and a brand. The credit for raising the viewer ship bar of Star channel must go the team which devised this killer idea of using quizzing. And what’s more the program was brilliantly executed. The success should also be attributed to Big B who made the quizzing look very simple , lively, interactive and entertaining.
Strong belief desired :
Companies and brands must firstly should have strong conviction and belief to invest on programs like quizzing . If you have that belief and patience you can make programs like quizzing has strong long term brand property. Quizzing for Bournvita has been a long term property. Close to almost over three decades the Bournvita brand has been strongly connected with quizzing either through radio and off late through television. The connect is so strong that people still are able to recall the program and the brand. Brand equity quiz has also to large extent done this and is still popular with the corporate audience. Femina is another brand which strongly connects with Miss India show and is one of the long term property the Times group is associated with. If your brand values and product offerings match the event the chances are you will never go wrong. In case of Bournvita , Brand Equity and Femina the brand association has bonded so well with the events that people wait for the event each year. While I am sure that there must be several other brands that has been successful by associating with various events but to me the quizzing and Bournvita will be cherished for ever by the target audience in India. Some times there are brands who look at short term association with events but such association is not good for the health of the brand. ET bazaar which was one such event which Economic times associated was a total disconnect. The brand was a total mis -match to the event and after the year 2 it wall called off. Marriage between brands and events will lasts if the kundali of both matches in all respect.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Logo design is the heart of your brand and company
What a Logo means: Different people and books have different definition as to what a logo means. To me logo is the face and the image that represents the company and its product. The role or function of a logo is to keep the brand top of mind in the consumers mind. The design of a logo is created only once for the company and hence it is important to get the essence and values that go into the design. If the company is able to define the values and the vision for the brand and the company translating that into a well thought design will be easier.
A typical logo /identity design usually revolves around picture and textual elements in a manner, which will give the logo design a distinct identity. So what makes a good logo design ?
A good logo design is one, which entices the audience /customer to have look at it.
Types of logo designs :
Broadly logs can be categorized in following forms :
- Logos with illustrations. The illustrations depicts what the company is into.
- Graphic Logos : These will be purely design based ideas with an abstract design which will connect with the brand
- Typographical : Here the logo is developed based on text and fonts.
Need of a Logo design :
- Launching a new corporate or product brand.
- A change in the name of the company and its values
- Change in the management, wants to send new strategic signals
- Acquisitions and Mergers
- The current identity has lead to some controversy like infringement
- The current design has grown obsolete and needs some freshness injected
- Diversification in business can prompt to re visit the design
Designing a Logo: A good and relevant design will happen if the core values and what the logo needs to communicate is clear. Once this is agreed upon then the next step is bring in a relevant idea in the design. The idea will then be either translated graphically , visually or typographically. It is extremely important to keep the design simple and avoid the use of stylish or fancy fonts, which may be difficult to reproduce and read. Care must be taken to ensure that the tone and style matches the values that have been defined for the brand and the single-minded message is communicated clearly.
Since logo application is across several media ranging from print, television to digital , the use of right colour is important. Colour plays a very key role in a logo design. There are some do’s and don’t when it come to usage of colour. Each colour has certain meaning and representation. For example when you talk of the colour blue it communicates trust and coolness. Similarly the colour Orange depicts energy, vibrant and action. While the green colour brings in growth, money, nature and peace. One also must also find out how the design will reproduce in black and white version, as the tonal values are different when you reproduce the same in black and while. The weight age and dimension needs to carefully examined
Market research helps logo designing :
Since designing a logo is a long drawn process it will help if the whole design process is given good support from the research point of view. Preliminary research before starting the design will be of great help to design team. The research will also help in giving the right path the designer should follow.
Once the basic ideas and design is developed it will help the designer further if the designs are researched in depth with different target group based on the brand values defined and objectives defined.
The learning’s from the findings will help perfect the design further so that the final product that emerges out will have long term association with the brand.
Role of a logo design: A brand or a company logo carries lot weight. To a consumer a logo conveys the following:
a. The logo connotes trust and quality
b. It expresses the correct image and perception of the brand
c. Plays the role of a great merchandising visual
d. Must communicate across diverse people with one common message. Especially in India where we have multi- lingual culture
e. People should be able connect the logo with ease
f. Must be memorable
Role of colors in design :
Colors also play a very key role. Different colours have different meanings and expressions. Here are some examples as to what each means when used.
Color can play an important role in logo design. Don’t use blue because it looks cool; understand the psychological connotations it has. Below are some common color associations:
•Blue: trust, loyalty, water, relaxing, power, dignity
•Yellow: energy, joy, light, hope
•Pink: calming, feminine
•Green: life, growth, money, jealousy, nature, fertility
•Purple: richness, power, love, and sophistication
•Brown: credibility, stability
•White: purity, cleanliness, innocence
•Red: heat, passion, danger, power
•
Aside: Red and Blue are the predominant colors in almost 70% of all registered logos worldwide!
Application and usage of Logo: The designer takes a considerable amount of time to develop a logo. It is very important that the logo is respected and used properly in its various forms. Inconsistency in the usage of the logo will send wrong signals. Hence it is important that a proper brand manual is created specifying the do’s and don’t. This brand manual should be used as the bible for using the logos in its various avatar. The brand manual should be a detailed one which will cover the fonts used, font sizes, the right colours to be used on various applications across all media. Even after giving the brand manuals in smaller towns you invariably find that the manual is not strictly adhered to. This is where corporates must bring in periodic brand audits to keep a check on the right usage of logos in terms of weight ages and correct colors. Offer & incentives can bring in healthy competition by giving rewards for displaying the logos in its right avatar to the field force and the trade.
Trends and design ideas used in creating logos : New trends has set in area of design and visual communication. It ranges from using very effectively and creatively the fonts, colours and the intricate use of 3- dimension logo designs. In the region of fonts customized fonts has been created to be uncommon in style and looks. Also the use of lower case fonts and letters are used by more and more corporates like Travelocity,
Alltell etc. GE. For trends in design please visit this site.
http://frankefiorella.com/newsletter/identityWise_v2i4.html
A typical logo /identity design usually revolves around picture and textual elements in a manner, which will give the logo design a distinct identity. So what makes a good logo design ?
A good logo design is one, which entices the audience /customer to have look at it.
Types of logo designs :
Broadly logs can be categorized in following forms :
- Logos with illustrations. The illustrations depicts what the company is into.
- Graphic Logos : These will be purely design based ideas with an abstract design which will connect with the brand
- Typographical : Here the logo is developed based on text and fonts.
Need of a Logo design :
- Launching a new corporate or product brand.
- A change in the name of the company and its values
- Change in the management, wants to send new strategic signals
- Acquisitions and Mergers
- The current identity has lead to some controversy like infringement
- The current design has grown obsolete and needs some freshness injected
- Diversification in business can prompt to re visit the design
Designing a Logo: A good and relevant design will happen if the core values and what the logo needs to communicate is clear. Once this is agreed upon then the next step is bring in a relevant idea in the design. The idea will then be either translated graphically , visually or typographically. It is extremely important to keep the design simple and avoid the use of stylish or fancy fonts, which may be difficult to reproduce and read. Care must be taken to ensure that the tone and style matches the values that have been defined for the brand and the single-minded message is communicated clearly.
Since logo application is across several media ranging from print, television to digital , the use of right colour is important. Colour plays a very key role in a logo design. There are some do’s and don’t when it come to usage of colour. Each colour has certain meaning and representation. For example when you talk of the colour blue it communicates trust and coolness. Similarly the colour Orange depicts energy, vibrant and action. While the green colour brings in growth, money, nature and peace. One also must also find out how the design will reproduce in black and white version, as the tonal values are different when you reproduce the same in black and while. The weight age and dimension needs to carefully examined
Market research helps logo designing :
Since designing a logo is a long drawn process it will help if the whole design process is given good support from the research point of view. Preliminary research before starting the design will be of great help to design team. The research will also help in giving the right path the designer should follow.
Once the basic ideas and design is developed it will help the designer further if the designs are researched in depth with different target group based on the brand values defined and objectives defined.
The learning’s from the findings will help perfect the design further so that the final product that emerges out will have long term association with the brand.
Role of a logo design: A brand or a company logo carries lot weight. To a consumer a logo conveys the following:
a. The logo connotes trust and quality
b. It expresses the correct image and perception of the brand
c. Plays the role of a great merchandising visual
d. Must communicate across diverse people with one common message. Especially in India where we have multi- lingual culture
e. People should be able connect the logo with ease
f. Must be memorable
Role of colors in design :
Colors also play a very key role. Different colours have different meanings and expressions. Here are some examples as to what each means when used.
Color can play an important role in logo design. Don’t use blue because it looks cool; understand the psychological connotations it has. Below are some common color associations:
•Blue: trust, loyalty, water, relaxing, power, dignity
•Yellow: energy, joy, light, hope
•Pink: calming, feminine
•Green: life, growth, money, jealousy, nature, fertility
•Purple: richness, power, love, and sophistication
•Brown: credibility, stability
•White: purity, cleanliness, innocence
•Red: heat, passion, danger, power
•
Aside: Red and Blue are the predominant colors in almost 70% of all registered logos worldwide!
Application and usage of Logo: The designer takes a considerable amount of time to develop a logo. It is very important that the logo is respected and used properly in its various forms. Inconsistency in the usage of the logo will send wrong signals. Hence it is important that a proper brand manual is created specifying the do’s and don’t. This brand manual should be used as the bible for using the logos in its various avatar. The brand manual should be a detailed one which will cover the fonts used, font sizes, the right colours to be used on various applications across all media. Even after giving the brand manuals in smaller towns you invariably find that the manual is not strictly adhered to. This is where corporates must bring in periodic brand audits to keep a check on the right usage of logos in terms of weight ages and correct colors. Offer & incentives can bring in healthy competition by giving rewards for displaying the logos in its right avatar to the field force and the trade.
Trends and design ideas used in creating logos : New trends has set in area of design and visual communication. It ranges from using very effectively and creatively the fonts, colours and the intricate use of 3- dimension logo designs. In the region of fonts customized fonts has been created to be uncommon in style and looks. Also the use of lower case fonts and letters are used by more and more corporates like Travelocity,
Alltell etc. GE. For trends in design please visit this site.
http://frankefiorella.com/newsletter/identityWise_v2i4.html
Monday, August 13, 2007
60 years of Independence... The changing face of Indian consumer
Post Independence ie in the early 50's and the 60's the Indian consumer had very few choices when it came to buying any product. Most of the provisions and groceries were sold as commodity. A whole of lot the population use to queue at fair price shops to get their share of rice, wheat and pulses. This is because the govt had a tight control over distribution food and grains. There were very few brands across category. Some of the brands that one can remember and are still iconic brands in today's time. The popular brands are Horlicks in white beverages , Lifebouy and Cinthol in the toilet sopas, Caltex and Esso in the fuel category. Coke and Fanta in beverages. Bombay Dyeing and Binny's in the textile category. Colagate, Binaca and Forhans in tooth paste. Ambassador cars in the 4 wheeler cateogry. Dunlop and Firestone in tyres. GEC, Orient and Rallis in the fans, Philips and Murphy in radio. But beginning 70's this has changed and more brands entered the market across various category.
The 70's was the time when the Indian consumer was still had few more choices in terms of brands. This is across most categories except in the case of some of them where there was a choice of buying a brand but there again the brands available were very few. Also with limited promotion and advertising the saliency of the brands were very low and as a result the consumer was not aware of them. In some of the category it was a single brand dominance. Like for example in the case of cement it was just ACC cement. ACC was seen has the generic name for cement. Similarly in the case vansaspati ghee there was only dalda and dalda was very synonymous with ghee another classical case of generic branding. Groceries were still sold has a commodity right from salt to atta . In the case of salt it was sold on cart by the local salt seller which was available in both crystal and powdered form.
In the early 80's the concept of buying brands was instilled in the minds of Indian consumer. People slowly moved from buying commodity to brand. This was thanks to the introduction of colour TV's during the Asiad games and the use of TV as an powerful medium to reach the audience. Several new brands came into existence in the 80's. In the soft drinks category we saw the emergence of brands like Thums UP and Gold spot. In the watch section we saw the re birth of Tats's going into wrist watches again by launching TITAN. The entry of Titan really shook the watch market and the once monopoly brand HMT took heavy beating. Today the brand HMT is virtually non existent . The 80's also saw the entry of new car called the people's car under the brand name Maruti. A govt initiative today this brand is popular among many Indian motorcar owners. In spite of new and global brands arriving Maruti has stood strong and managed to stay ahead. Another brand which did wonders in the 80's was VIMAL from Reliance. When it came to sarees the brand was the first choice of many Indian woman.
But it is in the 90's that the Indian market changed leaps and bounds. The introduction of liberalisation by the Govt gave ample opportunities to various industry. The launch of private TV channels gave a new dimension to media. The entry of more channels enabled to reach more consumer and the conumermism boom started. People became more conscious and very keen only in buying brands. This also helped in growth and birth of more brands across all category.
That trend is still continuing and there will be a healthy competition in the market. Lets now examine and look at some categories where more brands have arrived in the last 60 years.
Given below are brands that existed 60 years ago and brands that are today.
1950
Airlines Indian Airlines
2007
Jet, Kingfisher, Go, Spice jet,
Indigo, Paramount, Deccan
1950
Cars Ambassador
2007
Maruti, Hyundai, Mithubushi
Lancer, Cheverlot, Benz, Palio
1950
Cement ACC
2007
Ultratech, Jaylakshmi, Prism,
Ambuja, India cements.
1950
Watches HMT
2007
TITAN, Rolex, Tissot,
1950
Beverages Coke
2007
Pepsi, Fanta, Slice, Appy, Frooty
Thums Up, Sprite,
1950
Tea ; Red Lable
2007
Girinar, Tata tea, Wagh Bakri,
Society
1950
Sport shoes :Bata
2007
Power Nike, Rebeeok, Fila, Liberty ...
1950
T- Shirts:Dawn
2007
Nike, Allen Solley, Benetton,
Crocodile, FCUK
In almost every category brands have emerged. But in the end all these brands will survive if they are able to bring in innovation and match the consumer tastes in the area of fashion, technology , quality and finally the price.
The 70's was the time when the Indian consumer was still had few more choices in terms of brands. This is across most categories except in the case of some of them where there was a choice of buying a brand but there again the brands available were very few. Also with limited promotion and advertising the saliency of the brands were very low and as a result the consumer was not aware of them. In some of the category it was a single brand dominance. Like for example in the case of cement it was just ACC cement. ACC was seen has the generic name for cement. Similarly in the case vansaspati ghee there was only dalda and dalda was very synonymous with ghee another classical case of generic branding. Groceries were still sold has a commodity right from salt to atta . In the case of salt it was sold on cart by the local salt seller which was available in both crystal and powdered form.
In the early 80's the concept of buying brands was instilled in the minds of Indian consumer. People slowly moved from buying commodity to brand. This was thanks to the introduction of colour TV's during the Asiad games and the use of TV as an powerful medium to reach the audience. Several new brands came into existence in the 80's. In the soft drinks category we saw the emergence of brands like Thums UP and Gold spot. In the watch section we saw the re birth of Tats's going into wrist watches again by launching TITAN. The entry of Titan really shook the watch market and the once monopoly brand HMT took heavy beating. Today the brand HMT is virtually non existent . The 80's also saw the entry of new car called the people's car under the brand name Maruti. A govt initiative today this brand is popular among many Indian motorcar owners. In spite of new and global brands arriving Maruti has stood strong and managed to stay ahead. Another brand which did wonders in the 80's was VIMAL from Reliance. When it came to sarees the brand was the first choice of many Indian woman.
But it is in the 90's that the Indian market changed leaps and bounds. The introduction of liberalisation by the Govt gave ample opportunities to various industry. The launch of private TV channels gave a new dimension to media. The entry of more channels enabled to reach more consumer and the conumermism boom started. People became more conscious and very keen only in buying brands. This also helped in growth and birth of more brands across all category.
That trend is still continuing and there will be a healthy competition in the market. Lets now examine and look at some categories where more brands have arrived in the last 60 years.
Given below are brands that existed 60 years ago and brands that are today.
1950
Airlines Indian Airlines
2007
Jet, Kingfisher, Go, Spice jet,
Indigo, Paramount, Deccan
1950
Cars Ambassador
2007
Maruti, Hyundai, Mithubushi
Lancer, Cheverlot, Benz, Palio
1950
Cement ACC
2007
Ultratech, Jaylakshmi, Prism,
Ambuja, India cements.
1950
Watches HMT
2007
TITAN, Rolex, Tissot,
1950
Beverages Coke
2007
Pepsi, Fanta, Slice, Appy, Frooty
Thums Up, Sprite,
1950
Tea ; Red Lable
2007
Girinar, Tata tea, Wagh Bakri,
Society
1950
Sport shoes :Bata
2007
Power Nike, Rebeeok, Fila, Liberty ...
1950
T- Shirts:Dawn
2007
Nike, Allen Solley, Benetton,
Crocodile, FCUK
In almost every category brands have emerged. But in the end all these brands will survive if they are able to bring in innovation and match the consumer tastes in the area of fashion, technology , quality and finally the price.
The story of naming YES BANK...What a coincidence
This happened in the year 2002. RMG David ( Now Bates David ) was invited to suggest a new name for a bank which was promoted by Rabo India group promoted by two well known name in the banking industry namely Rana Kapoor and Ashok Kapur. The brief was to launch a new bank who will have a retail presence with focus in agro credit at a latter stage. As a team we were excited with the project and we met the client with just 3 names.
Our meeting was slated for the afternoon and we presented our names around 4 pm. The names presented were :
a. Green Bank as it connected the agro part
b. Welcome Bank as it sounded good for a bank
c. Yes Bank which was more to do with good customer service. In fact the idea came from the
sentence yes sir can I help u. This is what happens when you enter a bank.
The client was very surprised when we presented the name Yes Bank, he whispered to us that the same name and idea was presented by another agency in the morning. The agency here happened to be Ambience now Publicis Ambience.
The next we heard was the name Yes Bank was used and ambience was awarded with the business.
Today the brand Yes Bank has become very popular and has been surging ahead with great speed in the banking sector. The bank is now a listed company and is performing excellently.
What a coincidence the left brain and thinking power of both the agency was very identical.
V.Ganapathy
Our meeting was slated for the afternoon and we presented our names around 4 pm. The names presented were :
a. Green Bank as it connected the agro part
b. Welcome Bank as it sounded good for a bank
c. Yes Bank which was more to do with good customer service. In fact the idea came from the
sentence yes sir can I help u. This is what happens when you enter a bank.
The client was very surprised when we presented the name Yes Bank, he whispered to us that the same name and idea was presented by another agency in the morning. The agency here happened to be Ambience now Publicis Ambience.
The next we heard was the name Yes Bank was used and ambience was awarded with the business.
Today the brand Yes Bank has become very popular and has been surging ahead with great speed in the banking sector. The bank is now a listed company and is performing excellently.
What a coincidence the left brain and thinking power of both the agency was very identical.
V.Ganapathy
Sampling, demos: Key differentiators
Given the array of products and brands available to the customer, it is imperative that marketers innovate
With more brands entering and mushrooming across all categories, companies will try and use innovative ways to demonstrate and sample their product offerings.
From the traditional method of sampling by way of free sachets, free tasting, and so on, clients have become more dynamic and have brought in a new dimension and thinking to generate trials and sales by sampling and demos. They have devised interesti ng ways of bringing the customer close.
A few years ago, a battery brand participated in a toy exhibition to generate awareness and increase trials of its product. One would wonder what the battery brand was doing at a toy exhibition. But it was clever strategy as the brand connected well with the exhibition and succeeded in generating awareness about the product. One could come up with more such exciting examples. For example, a glass company participating in a furniture exhibition. The glass brand would stand out as the odd product at the exhibition and as a result could generate good traffic to the glass products. With a competitive market environment it is time for marketers to look at newer means to touch the customer. Sampling, demos cut across product categories
Sampling has, over the years, become a powerful marketing tool that allows the customer to try or feel the product. When one goes to a sweet shop during festivals, the salesman invites his customer to taste the range on display and then make a decision to buy the sweet of one’s choice. Basically, this reassures one that he or she has made the right decision in buying a certain product. Here the customer is happy and the sale is closed.
Today, sampling has moved ahead of the times. While planning to buy a house or a flat, one goes through various brochures and leaflets. While such literature gives the prospective buyer some idea about the flat, the customer will be more comfortable if he or she could actually visit the site and inspect the apartment or flat. This is where the builders have effectively created sample flats to bring the customer close, so that he or she knows how the final product would look.
The customer gets to know everything starting with how big the flat is, to the kind of amenities and material that would be used in the flat.
The same also holds good with home textile brands. Given the array of products and colours available in home furnishing brands, sellers are trying to demonstrate their products by actually displaying furnishing brands in a room, complete with all the accessories, so as to show the customer how the products really look in a bedroom or living room. Today’s customers are seeking more value for what they buy and they want to be 100 per cent sure before buying a product and a brand.
Today, if you want to change your floor tiles, or the tiles and fittings in your bathroom, you should visit the nearest showroom. Tile and sanitary fittings showrooms of many leading brands actually display sample bathrooms with the right colours and fittings, to give the customer a first-hand look and feel of the product in terms of colour, design and aesthetics. At the end of the day, the customer gets enough time to mull over the options available before deciding on what to buy. At many book shops, customers are given a cosy space to browse through the selection available before making their choice. Marketers take sampling and demos seriously
In the good old days, automobiles were purchased purely on the strength of word of mouth. As there were few brands and the waiting period was long, there was never any question about the need to test drive or demonstrate the automobile, be it a bike or a four-wheeler. Today, buyers in this category insist that they test drive the brand. Especially when the investment is high, the customer is keen to get to know more about the product. Exploiting this trend, some airports have rented out display space to automobile brands. This is good strategy, as one is able to tap the right audience.
In fact, the other day, I had gone to buy a bicycle for my eight-year-old daughter. While she was aware of a few brand names, my little one was keen to ride the bicycles available before she made her decision. Believe me, she tried out three brands before making her choice. That quick trial and test ride basically reassured my daughter that she had made the correct decision. The customer today seeks complete satisfaction before buying.
New ideas and innovations will drive sampling
With more brands entering and mushrooming across all categories, companies will try and use innovative ways to demonstrate and sample their product offerings. Especially with the advent of malls and luxury malls where the customer has to shell out good money, the role of demos and sampling will spur the sale of brands. If kids can be so intelligent as to ask for a test ride, then brands and companies will have to bring in newer methods of sampling and demonstration to attract all types of audience across product categories. Some insight for cycle companies: Cycle brands should sell their brands at school grounds after the final exams so that kids get to test ride and pester their parents to buy one.
There are enough new opportunities and vehicles for sampling and demos, be it snack food or luxury products. The Deccan Odyssey, the luxury train, has served as the venue for a fashion show. What an opportunity to demonstrate the latest trends in fashion clothing and accessories! The beautiful bar inside the train could be a great opportunity to launch a premium champagne or Scotch.
The Saturn Aura is a new car that recently launched in the US. Instead of just allowing potential customers to test drive a single model, the manufacturer had the three leading competitors also available for a test drive and comparison alongside. Now that’s truly daring and a brilliant strategy to demonstrate your product.
To be successful, marketers must keep the customer engaged with sampling and demos. With more malls and shopping complexes coming up across the country, the retail space is getting crowded. In this scenario, it is innovative demonstration and sampling that will differentiate products and brands in the consumer’s mind.
V.GANAPATHY
With more brands entering and mushrooming across all categories, companies will try and use innovative ways to demonstrate and sample their product offerings.
From the traditional method of sampling by way of free sachets, free tasting, and so on, clients have become more dynamic and have brought in a new dimension and thinking to generate trials and sales by sampling and demos. They have devised interesti ng ways of bringing the customer close.
A few years ago, a battery brand participated in a toy exhibition to generate awareness and increase trials of its product. One would wonder what the battery brand was doing at a toy exhibition. But it was clever strategy as the brand connected well with the exhibition and succeeded in generating awareness about the product. One could come up with more such exciting examples. For example, a glass company participating in a furniture exhibition. The glass brand would stand out as the odd product at the exhibition and as a result could generate good traffic to the glass products. With a competitive market environment it is time for marketers to look at newer means to touch the customer. Sampling, demos cut across product categories
Sampling has, over the years, become a powerful marketing tool that allows the customer to try or feel the product. When one goes to a sweet shop during festivals, the salesman invites his customer to taste the range on display and then make a decision to buy the sweet of one’s choice. Basically, this reassures one that he or she has made the right decision in buying a certain product. Here the customer is happy and the sale is closed.
Today, sampling has moved ahead of the times. While planning to buy a house or a flat, one goes through various brochures and leaflets. While such literature gives the prospective buyer some idea about the flat, the customer will be more comfortable if he or she could actually visit the site and inspect the apartment or flat. This is where the builders have effectively created sample flats to bring the customer close, so that he or she knows how the final product would look.
The customer gets to know everything starting with how big the flat is, to the kind of amenities and material that would be used in the flat.
The same also holds good with home textile brands. Given the array of products and colours available in home furnishing brands, sellers are trying to demonstrate their products by actually displaying furnishing brands in a room, complete with all the accessories, so as to show the customer how the products really look in a bedroom or living room. Today’s customers are seeking more value for what they buy and they want to be 100 per cent sure before buying a product and a brand.
Today, if you want to change your floor tiles, or the tiles and fittings in your bathroom, you should visit the nearest showroom. Tile and sanitary fittings showrooms of many leading brands actually display sample bathrooms with the right colours and fittings, to give the customer a first-hand look and feel of the product in terms of colour, design and aesthetics. At the end of the day, the customer gets enough time to mull over the options available before deciding on what to buy. At many book shops, customers are given a cosy space to browse through the selection available before making their choice. Marketers take sampling and demos seriously
In the good old days, automobiles were purchased purely on the strength of word of mouth. As there were few brands and the waiting period was long, there was never any question about the need to test drive or demonstrate the automobile, be it a bike or a four-wheeler. Today, buyers in this category insist that they test drive the brand. Especially when the investment is high, the customer is keen to get to know more about the product. Exploiting this trend, some airports have rented out display space to automobile brands. This is good strategy, as one is able to tap the right audience.
In fact, the other day, I had gone to buy a bicycle for my eight-year-old daughter. While she was aware of a few brand names, my little one was keen to ride the bicycles available before she made her decision. Believe me, she tried out three brands before making her choice. That quick trial and test ride basically reassured my daughter that she had made the correct decision. The customer today seeks complete satisfaction before buying.
New ideas and innovations will drive sampling
With more brands entering and mushrooming across all categories, companies will try and use innovative ways to demonstrate and sample their product offerings. Especially with the advent of malls and luxury malls where the customer has to shell out good money, the role of demos and sampling will spur the sale of brands. If kids can be so intelligent as to ask for a test ride, then brands and companies will have to bring in newer methods of sampling and demonstration to attract all types of audience across product categories. Some insight for cycle companies: Cycle brands should sell their brands at school grounds after the final exams so that kids get to test ride and pester their parents to buy one.
There are enough new opportunities and vehicles for sampling and demos, be it snack food or luxury products. The Deccan Odyssey, the luxury train, has served as the venue for a fashion show. What an opportunity to demonstrate the latest trends in fashion clothing and accessories! The beautiful bar inside the train could be a great opportunity to launch a premium champagne or Scotch.
The Saturn Aura is a new car that recently launched in the US. Instead of just allowing potential customers to test drive a single model, the manufacturer had the three leading competitors also available for a test drive and comparison alongside. Now that’s truly daring and a brilliant strategy to demonstrate your product.
To be successful, marketers must keep the customer engaged with sampling and demos. With more malls and shopping complexes coming up across the country, the retail space is getting crowded. In this scenario, it is innovative demonstration and sampling that will differentiate products and brands in the consumer’s mind.
V.GANAPATHY
Sunday, August 12, 2007
UPTO ...70%......60%.....50%.......
What this discount means ?
On Saturday 11 August I happen to glance the supplement of mumbai's leading newspaper. I have an interesting observation to share with. The publication carried more than 11 advertisement in descent sizes which just had headline UPTO... and the discount offering. Most of these ads were in area of textiles, fashion , footwear and ready to wear shirts. The announcement of sale to me is also the beginning of festival season. Most of the brands were using the Upto 60%... scheme as this is connected with the 60 years of India's Independence. This is type of discounting is the most easiest way to deplete your stocks. The logistics is very simple and also from the communication point of view the press ads are idiot proof. Most brands and retailers offer these discounts for various reasons. But the customer has certain myths on such discounts.
The Customer Myths :
a. Am I getting a defective quality
b. Are these old stocks with outdated designs
c. Is it a export surplus
d. My choice would be limited in terms of selection
e. Is there any warranty if the goods are defective
f. Is the brand or company shutting operations
g. Is it original or duplicate
The Reality :
I did speak to a a few retailers to find out the actual truth of such sale. The first thing I was told that these are genuine discounts and there is no suspect on the quality aspect. Some of the reasons that were stated for the sale were as follows :
- Excess stocks of a particular fashion and since in the textile and ready to wear markets style and fashion often change they would like to dispose of the stocks so that they are able to stock new designs and products. Depleting the stocks will also help in getting sufficient working capital to run their business.
-Since India has different climatic conditions they have to stock goods accordingly. For eg... before the onset of winter they need to push the half shirts as people would go for full sleeve shirts for the winter and to stock the full sleeve shirts they need bring the stock position down.
- In some case certain colours do not sell and these gets accumulated but to get this out of stock the retailers and brand owners have no option but to give huge price offs.
Observation and Findings :
- This is a annual trend to deplete stocks. Such sales are very common in the US and west.
- Some smart consumer take this opportunity to buy a lot and stock for the festival time
- The sale bonanza is week end fever
- The retailers use only mainline dailies to create awareness and get response.
- The publication has heavy traffic and it is therefore important to take big ads.
- The offers last for about 3 to 4 weeks. Otherwise it may effect the health of the brand.
V.GANAPATHY
On Saturday 11 August I happen to glance the supplement of mumbai's leading newspaper. I have an interesting observation to share with. The publication carried more than 11 advertisement in descent sizes which just had headline UPTO... and the discount offering. Most of these ads were in area of textiles, fashion , footwear and ready to wear shirts. The announcement of sale to me is also the beginning of festival season. Most of the brands were using the Upto 60%... scheme as this is connected with the 60 years of India's Independence. This is type of discounting is the most easiest way to deplete your stocks. The logistics is very simple and also from the communication point of view the press ads are idiot proof. Most brands and retailers offer these discounts for various reasons. But the customer has certain myths on such discounts.
The Customer Myths :
a. Am I getting a defective quality
b. Are these old stocks with outdated designs
c. Is it a export surplus
d. My choice would be limited in terms of selection
e. Is there any warranty if the goods are defective
f. Is the brand or company shutting operations
g. Is it original or duplicate
The Reality :
I did speak to a a few retailers to find out the actual truth of such sale. The first thing I was told that these are genuine discounts and there is no suspect on the quality aspect. Some of the reasons that were stated for the sale were as follows :
- Excess stocks of a particular fashion and since in the textile and ready to wear markets style and fashion often change they would like to dispose of the stocks so that they are able to stock new designs and products. Depleting the stocks will also help in getting sufficient working capital to run their business.
-Since India has different climatic conditions they have to stock goods accordingly. For eg... before the onset of winter they need to push the half shirts as people would go for full sleeve shirts for the winter and to stock the full sleeve shirts they need bring the stock position down.
- In some case certain colours do not sell and these gets accumulated but to get this out of stock the retailers and brand owners have no option but to give huge price offs.
Observation and Findings :
- This is a annual trend to deplete stocks. Such sales are very common in the US and west.
- Some smart consumer take this opportunity to buy a lot and stock for the festival time
- The sale bonanza is week end fever
- The retailers use only mainline dailies to create awareness and get response.
- The publication has heavy traffic and it is therefore important to take big ads.
- The offers last for about 3 to 4 weeks. Otherwise it may effect the health of the brand.
V.GANAPATHY
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Mr.Piyush Pandey's Silver Jubilee at Ogilvy
On 2nd August Mr.Pandey celebrated 25 fruitful years at Ogilvy. To salute the God's gift to Indian advertising all the Ogilvites assembled at the atrium of Ogilvy's mumbai office to celebrate and congratulate him. The celebration was short and sweet but what was more memorable was the people across advertising marketing present and past colleagues from the wrote their experiences and memories working with Piyush. This was a fitting gesture to Piyush's great contribution to the organisation and the industry.
While Piyush was very emotional when the scrap book was presented and he became more emotional when the work done by him on various brands were spelled out. The one thing I noticed and observed carefully was when Piyush gave his short speech. I knew Piyush for almost 16 years except for a brief period when I left Ogilvy. In his speech Piyiush gave a simple example ie friends hang on patiently and the results will come. I remember he followed the same illustration while playing cricket for the inter office matches, he used to say partner stay on the wicket runs will come. Piyush followed the same principle very religiously and it has worked wonders for the doyen of Indian advertising
Wish you all the best and more success in the years to come.
V.Ganapathy
While Piyush was very emotional when the scrap book was presented and he became more emotional when the work done by him on various brands were spelled out. The one thing I noticed and observed carefully was when Piyush gave his short speech. I knew Piyush for almost 16 years except for a brief period when I left Ogilvy. In his speech Piyiush gave a simple example ie friends hang on patiently and the results will come. I remember he followed the same illustration while playing cricket for the inter office matches, he used to say partner stay on the wicket runs will come. Piyush followed the same principle very religiously and it has worked wonders for the doyen of Indian advertising
Wish you all the best and more success in the years to come.
V.Ganapathy
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