Brand Modi delivered his promise

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 .

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

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/

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