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.
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