Chintan Dedhia

Top 10 advertisers on Indian TV 2012

2012-12-20T16:53:00.000+05:30

1. Hindustan Unilever Ltd

India’s largest consumer goods company, HUL tops the list with an 8% share in 2011. The company’s products are available in more than 6.4 million outlets across India. The company’s products include foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. Some of the company’s popular brands include Bru, Brooke Bond, Domex, Surf Excel, Vim, Axe, Close up, Sunsilk, Lakme and Lux among others.

2. Reckitt Benckiser India Ltd

The company is known for household cleaning products, consumer healthcare and personal products has a 3% share in 2011. The company organises its products into six categories: surface care, fabric care, dishwashing, home care, health and personal care, and food. Some of the Reckitt Benckiser's brands include Dettol, Strepsils, Veet, Air Wick, Clearasil, Durex, Mortein and vanish.

3. ITC Ltd

The Indian conglomerate company is headquartered in Kolkata and has a 2% share in 2011. The company’s business includes four segments: FMCG, hotels, paper and packaging, paperboards and agri business. Some of its products include Gold Flake Kings, Classic, Aashirvaad, Minto, Sunfeast, Candyman, Bingo, Fiama di Wills and Vivel.

4. Cadbury India Ltd

The popular confectionery company has a share of 2% in 2011. Cadbury India operates in four categories: chocolate confectionery, milk food drinks, beverage and candy and gum category. Its products include Cadbury Dairy Milk, Bournville, 5-Star, Perk, Gems, Eclairs, Bournvita, Cadbury Celebrations, Cadbury Dairy Milk Shots, Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk, Halls, Tang and Oreo.

5. Coca Cola India Ltd

The company which is often referred to as Coke has a 2% share in 2011. The company’s marketing tactics led Coke to its dominance of the world soft-drink market throughout the 20th century. The company has also introduced Diet Coke under the Coke brand name. By 2020, Coca-Cola with its partners is expected to invest $5 billion for its operations in India.

6. Colgate Palmolive India Ltd

The company focuses on the production, distribution and provision of household, health care and personal products, such as soaps, detergents, and oral hygiene products including toothpaste and toothbrushes. Colgate Palmolive India’s share was 2% in 2011 when compared to 1% in 2010.

7. Procter & Gamble

The products of this multinational consumer goods company include food, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. P&G’s percentage share has dropped in terms of advertising to 1% in 2011 when compared to 2% in 2010. Ariel, Gillette, Duracell, Dolce & Gabbana, Hugo Boss, Oral B, Olay, Pantene, Pampers, Pringles and Wella are some of the P&Gbrands.

8. Ponds India

Pond’s is a company which is very popular for its beauty and health care products. The company has passionately and diligently led the way in understanding a woman's skin care and beauty essentials. The company concentrates on anti ageing, skin lightening, oil control, moisturizing and other skincare segments. Pond’s Age Miracle and Pond’s Gold Radiance are among the popular products. It has a percentage share of 1% when it comes to advertising on the television.

9. Smithkline Beecham

After the merger with Glaxo Wellcome, Smithkline Beecham is now known as GlaxoSmithKline and has a percentage share of 1% in advertising. This consumer healthcare company has its R&D centres in India. Sensodyne, Nicorette, Aquafresh and Biotene are some of its well known products. It also has a large consumer healthcare division which produces and markets nutritional products including Boost and Horlicks.

10. Bharti Airtel Ltd

Commonly known as Airtel, the company’s advertising percentage share is 1% according to the report. Airtel is considered to be the largest provider of mobile telephone and second largest provider of fixed telephone in India. It also provides broadband and subscription television services.

Source – Yahoo Finance

Research Report - FICCI-KPMG Indian Media and Entertainment Industry Report 2012

(Note: Data represents shares for January to September 2011)

Ansoff Matrix

2012-12-14T12:38:00.001+05:30

GE Portfolio Matrix

2012-12-14T12:31:00.001+05:30

20 Ways to Generate Passive Income....$$$

2012-12-13T15:16:00.001+05:30

If you're interested in making money but don't want to take a second job, you should consider making passive income. It's basically money you earn consistently without doing much or even anything at all. Of course, you do have to put in a lot of work in the beginning, but once you set up the passive income revenue stream, you can just sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor without lifting a finger. Here are some ideas:

· Write a book. Writing a book means you can earn money off of the sales once you've published it. You can always go the ebook option and self publish, or try to find a publishing house that will take you on.

· Create an app. Create a smartphone app and earn money every time someone downloads it. You never know what will go viral and how quickly you can make money if your app's a hit. In fact, the silly iFart app even generated $30,000 in just one day.

· Start a static blog. Spend some time building a website in an area that interests you and other people. Focus on topics that won't ever get dated ("how to" articles are pretty evergreen) that you know people will be searching for. Host ads on your site. Once you have some good content on your site, you can quit writing and make money off your old content.

· Write articles online. You can make money if you get approved to be a writer for About.com. You'll get paid to write the articles in the first two years. After that, you'll be paid according to page views. Once you've put in the initial effort to write the article, you can just make money off of the views in years to come.

· Create a YouTube video. Shoot a video for YouTube, and if your video becomes popular, you can run ads on it to make money. The amount you earn varies, but many people, such as Justin Bieber, have launched careers out of it, and popular YouTubers are making over six figures.

Read on for more.

· Take beautiful photos. If you've got an eye and passion for photography, sell your photos to sites like Shutterstock — a place where amateur photographers can sell their photos. You'll earn a commission that ranges anywhere from 25 cents to $75 or more for every image downloaded. There are other similar sites like iStockphoto and Shutterfly, so be sure to do your research and pick one that works best for you.

· Draw and design graphics. The photo websites also accept illustrations and graphics. You will still earn money for each download.

· Make a t-shirt. Design a t-shirt for Threadless, and if your design is popular among the site's community, the company will use your designs for the next Threadless shirts. If your design is picked, you'll get $2,000, a $500 threadless voucher (which you can redeem for $200 cash), and another $500 every time your t-shirt is reprinted. You can also design and sell t-shirts as well as other products on sites like Zazzle and Cafe Press.

· Sell insurance. If you sell insurance, you will not only make money when you've closed a deal, but some companies will also give you an additional commission when your customer renews his insurance.

· Stock dividends. One of the more common ways to earn passive income is investing in stocks that pay high dividends. Here's a list of some dividend-paying stocks with high rates.

Source - ThinkStock

What is a Ponzi Scheme ???

2012-12-11T18:52:00.002+05:30

Picture - Charles Ponzi — (SourceBoston Public Library, Print Department)

In a Ponzi scheme, potential investors are wooed with promises of unusually large returns, usually attributed to the investment manager’s savvy, skill or some other secret sauce. The returns are repaid, at least for a time, out of new investors’ principal, not from profits.

This can continue as long as new investors line up with cash, and old investors don’t try to withdraw too much of their money at once.

Ponzi schemes are also known as pyramid schemes, from the shape of any chart that reflects their basic premise — that ever-growing layers of new recruits are needed to provide gains to the smaller, earlier cohorts. A gigantic pyramid scheme virtually bankrupted Albania after the fall of Communism.

Ponzi schemes are named after Charles Ponzi (pictured above), the flamboyant con man whose scam followed a particularly spectacular course. Mr. Ponzi began telling New York investors in December 1919 that investments in foreign postage coupons could yield 50 percent returns in 45 days. By redeeming coupons bought cheaply overseas for much higher amounts in the United States, he could double their money in three months, he claimed.

Mr. Ponzi was a fast-talking immigrant and college dropout, and his scheme — according to Mitchell Zuckoff, Mr. Ponzi’s biographer — rested on the eagerness of ordinary working people to benefit from the wealth they saw being generated around them as the economy recovered from World War I.

Mr. Ponzi was convicted of mail fraud in 1920 and served time in federal and state prisons before he was deported to Italy in 1934, never having become a citizen. He died penniless in Rio de Janeiro in 1949 and was buried in a pauper’s cemetery there.

The $65 billion fraud that Bernard L. Madoff perpetrated has been called the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Though the magnitude, scale and details are different, Mr. Ponzi’s scheme and Mr. Madoff’s fraud each reflect their respective, super-heated financial eras.

Source - nytimes.com

Coca Cola Products

2012-12-07T14:21:00.000+05:30

Proctor & Gamble Product Range

2012-12-07T14:04:00.004+05:30

Proctor & Gamble Product Range

The Secret of Attracting Money.....!!!

2012-11-16T18:39:00.000+05:30

What is the nature of money???

Why is it that only a handful of them have it all???

Why the majority struggle all their life and end up with just meeting ends even though having all the talent, knowledge and skills????

To get the answer these questions read the full article. And I am sure after reading this article you will gain something out of it.

Often the topic of money is not appreciated by the so called society. If some body talks about money all the time, people think that he is a
greedy person.

My question to you is if u love a girl and think of her all the time, does that mean that you are a nympho maniac or does that mean you are just thinking about lust ???

The same way there is always a difference between love for money and greed for money.

There is no harm or sin in thinking about money, for it is just an idea. when you ll start having money in your thoughts and ideas , it will flow into your real life and make you prosperous and truely speaking it is a great pleasure and joy to think that you have lots of money and you are prosperous. :)

The more you become attached and obsessed with money the hard it becomes to manifest it, money flows into your life once you become detached to it.

The saying "it takes money to make money" is true, but not how you think.
Money is attracted to money, but it doesn’t always have to be physical money that attracts money into your life.

Money is energy.

Everyone ought to be rich, there are many ways to be spiritual, and one of them includes money.

Money has been abused and misunderstood.

Money is not the root of evil.

So you may be asking yourself now, “Why don’t I have those things then?”

The fact is that, most likely, you don’t have those things because you haven’t let yourself be open to receiving them.

You have to begin to think and feel different in order to get something different.

It all starts with a vision of you being in a different life.

Now, it may be hard to imagine yourself with lots of cash if you’ve always had a problem with money.

But what if you begin to imagine what it would feel like if your neighbor had lots of cash? Or what would it feel like if your co-worker had more than enough money?

Sometimes it’s easier to imagine those kinds of things for others than it is for yourself, but what you end up doing for yourself is focusing on abundance.

And that’s the key secret…
By consistently focusing on abundance, you are consciously sending a command to your subconscious to start attracting abundance.

To Know more how on how create abundance and manifest your desires click on the below link.

http://hop.clickbank.net/?dedhia86/tsdc1129&x=moneymagnet

What is Claim Repudiation Ratio?

2012-05-12T18:28:00.000+05:30

Insurers always play the game on Claim Settlement Ratio specially the King in the market boasts of having the undisputable claim settlement ratio.

Consumers are being convinced on this ratio by showing colorful numbers but the fact is one should buy an Insurance Policy based on the CLAIM REPUDIATION RATIO and not on CLAIM SETTLEMENT RATIO. Logic is as below.

Claim settlement ratio = No of Policy settled / No of Policies issued by the company

AND

Claim Repudiation Ratio = No of Claims Rejected / No of Claims made

So as the insurance company grows automatically its Claim settlement ratio also improves.

But the fact remains that company has to be fair at the time of settleing the claim or it immensely affects its Claim Repudiation Ratio

Note – The information posted is issued in public interest and consumer awareness. Any individual or institution having any issues regarding the same can mail me at chintan.dedhia@live.com

Claim Settlement Ratio for Indian Life Insurers 2009-2010

2011-12-12T20:57:00.000+05:30

Fuel price and interest rate hikes a Political Math....

2011-05-15T11:21:00.000+05:30

On the one hand RBI is increasing the interest rates to make money costly which will tame demand and hence reduce inflation. And once the inflation tames Govt increases fuel prices.

The result of the two actions is as below

Interest Rate Hike By RBI to tame inflation	Fuel Price Hike by Govt in the name of deregulation
Results in increase in interest rates which leads to increased cost of borrowing, increased Home loan EMIs.	Results in shooting up of transportation costs making travelling by private vehicles dearer and increase in Rickshaw and Taxi fares as many of them still run on Petrol.
Result – 1.Reduced inflation, reduced cost of food and other daily necessities. 2. More outflow of salary per month to pay loans. Reduced food prices, but increased EMI amt.	Result – Costly Private and Public transport again draws a big hole in Common Man’s pocket, who even if does not have a private vehicle, has to suffer from increase in fuel rates due to increase in fares.

If the price of petrol stands at Rs 58.90, the break up of cost as calculated by the Indian Government is as follows - (Current break up is not available)

Basic Price: Rs 28.93

Education Tax: Rs 0.43

Dealer commission: Rs 1.05

Excise duty: Rs 14.35

VAT: Rs 5.5

Petrol Custom: Rs 1.54

Crude Oil Custom duty: Rs 1.1

Transportation Charge: Rs 6.00

Total price: Rs 58.90

Suggestion to government – I think govt should stop looting its citizens in the name of taming inflation. Instead of increasing the fuel and interest rates, govt can save a lot of money just by reducing electricity theft by 50% and reducing corruption by only 10% if possible and it is a simple logic which can be understood by a common man and we do not need any ECONOMIST to understand it!

- By Chintan Dedhia

Disclaimer - It is just a personal thought and the expression of the same by a mere analysis on the economic events It is not intended to hurt any person or institution .Any body having any queries please mail me at chintan.no1@gmail.com

Top 10 Most admired companies in India

2011-03-25T17:06:00.000+05:30

Top 10 Most admired companies in India

1. Infosys Technologies (Annual Sales of over $4 billion)

2. Tata Consultancy Services (largest Indian Outsourcer by Sales)

3. Bharti Airtel

4. Larsen & Toubro (in deal to build nuclear reactors)

5. Wipro (Global workforce of close to 100k)

6. Tata Steel (Manufacturing units in 27 countries)

7. Hindustan Lever (has more than 400 brands)

8. HDFC Bank (Incorporated in 1994)

9. State Bank of India (planning to add 1000 branches)

10. ITC (Wide-range Conglomerate)

Infosys Technologies is adjudged as the most admired company in India followed by TCS and Bharti Airtel in 2 and 3rd position respectively.

The ranking has broadly taken 5 different aspects into consideration.

§ Financial Reputation

§ Corporate Reputation

§ Quality

§ Innovation

§ Vision

Following are the individual ranking of various parameters:

Financial Reputation

With the biggest reserves and deposits than any other bank in India, SBI takes the numero Uno position when it comes to Financial Reputation. Reliance Industries, followed by HDFC bank complete the top 3 positions.

Corporate Reputation

Infosys Technologies known for its exemplary Governance and transparency in corporate dealing comes at top followed by 2 Tata companies, TCS and Tata Steel

Quality

Again with excellent quality of Software deliveries, Infosys takes the top position, followed by L&T and Bharti Airtel.

Innovation

Now this is a big surprise to me, TCS takes in the top position in Innovation. I always related TCS as a Volume player without much innovation, but I seem to be completely wrong here.

Infact, TCS is the most admired company for innovation, followed by Bharti Airtel and Infosys Technologies

Vision

With visionaries like Narayan Murthy and Nandan Nilekani at the helm, Infosys Technologies had to take the top position when it comes to vision. Tata Steel surprisingly comes at 2nd followed by Reliance Industries.

UNCLE SAM HIT THE SUMO !!!!

2010-12-14T23:34:00.000+05:30

Due to my academic schedules and my SEM III exams of MBA I could not write the blog. Please find below the continuation of the previous Blog( UNCLE SAM's CHINESE PROBLEM)

During the 1980s due to heavy Japanese exports especially that of automobiles flooded the US markets which led to the outflow of the USDs to Japan leading to surpluses with Japan and deficits with the US, thus US blamed JAPAN’s undervalued Yen for the US deficits.

The long running dispute between the United States and Japan throughout the 1980’s and early 1990’s over the value of the yen ended only when Japan’s economy entered its “lost decades,” which has made the Chinese determined not to repeat the experience.

But, based on Japan’s experience, the Chinese do seem to have good reasons to be wary of US pressure to revalue the renminbi. Indeed, the economists Ronald McKinnon and Kenichi Ohno have singled out US pressure for yen appreciation as a key source of the Japanese economy’s long-term deflation and stagnation – the so-called “lost decade” of economic malaise that is now well into its second.

Chinese officials agonize over the US pressure. If they yield to it, the Chinese economy, they argue, may fall into the same deflationary trap that ensnared Japan after the yen’s appreciation in the 1980’s – under US pressure – inflated a catastrophic asset-price bubble. But if they continue to resist, China may face hot trade disputes with the US, which could be even messier.

Like Japan in the 1980’s, China must defend itself from US claims that the renminbi’s weakness is the source of the imbalances between the two countries. Currency appreciation, Japan argued then and China argues now, is unlikely to result in a significant current-account adjustment, which requires addressing not only China’s high savings rate, but also low savings in the US.

What is the Lost Decade?

The economic miracle ended abruptly at the very start of the 1990s. In the late 1980s, abnormalities within the Japanese economic system had fuelled a massive wave of speculation by Japanese companies, banks and securities companies. Briefly, a combination of incredibly high land values and incredibly low interest rates led to a position in which credit was both easily available and extremely cheap. This led to massive borrowing, the proceeds of which were invested mostly in domestic and foreign stocks and securities.

Recognizing that this bubble was unsustainable (resting, as it did, on unrealizable land values - the loans were ultimately secured on land holdings), the Finance Ministry sharply raised interest rates. This popped the bubble in spectacular fashion, leading to a massive crash in the stock market. It also led to a debt crisis; a large proportion of the huge debts that had been run up turned bad, which in turn led to a crisis in the banking sector, with many banks having to be bailed out by the government.

Eventually, many become unsustainable, and a wave of consolidation took place (there are now only four national banks in Japan). Critically for the long-term economic situation, it meant many Japanese firms were lumbered with massive debts, affecting their ability for capital investment. It also meant credit became very difficult to obtain, due to the beleaguered situation of the banks; even now the official interest rate is at 0% and have been for several years, and despite this credit is still difficult to obtain.

Overall, this has led to the phenomenon known as the "lost decade"; economic expansion came to a total halt in Japan during the 1990s. The impact on everyday life has been rather muted, however. Unemployment runs reasonably high, but not at crisis levels (the official figure is a little under 5%, but this is a considerable underestimate - the real level is probably around twice that). This has combined with the traditional Japanese emphasis on frugality and saving (saving money is a cultural habit in Japan) to produce a quite limited impact on the average Japanese family, which continues much as it did in the period of the miracle.

UNCLE SAM’S CHINESE PROBLEM ! ! !

2010-10-12T02:22:00.000+05:30

Today after the Subprime Crisis America is blaming CHINA for the high unemployment rate in the whole US.

US is forcing China to appreciate the YUAN as its depreciated value is leading to cheapest exports from China to

US leading to huge deficits in the US economy as claimed by US

But do you think the depreciated value is the sole reason for the deficits in the US?

The answer is NO because the deficits in the US are structural deficits. The savings rate of US is hardly 1 % which is a major contributor to the deficit because, if the citizens don’t save the money in the domestic banks then it is spent on purchasing goods and services(Chinese) which leads to the outflow.

The cycle goes this way in the following manner

US employees are highly paid – The basic Wages paid are anywhere between $ 4-8.
Thus wages are a huge cost to the manufacturers and service providers, which leads to higher prices of Goods and Services.
But on the macroeconomic level employees of any economy are the consumers also so in the end goods and services in the US become costly for their citizens itself.
And then the citizens have no other option than to buy Chinese Goods and services which are available at Cheaper rates which leads to the outflow of the currency($) leading to deficits.
And also the poor sales of the American firms then leads to layoffs which results in Unions putting pressure on politicians which in turn leads to put pressure on China to appreciate YUAN.

So do you think US should pressurize China to appreciate YUAN??? Or is there any other country on which US had put pressure to in the past to appreciate its currency???

Find out in my next blog

- By Chintan Dedhia

What Is Freemium?

2010-09-23T20:57:00.000+05:30

(Click to Enlarge)

Freemium is a business model that works by offering basic Web services, or a basic downloadable digital product, for free, while charging a premium for advanced or special features. The word "freemium" is created by combining the two aspects of the business model: "free" and "premium". The business model has gained popularity with Web 2.0companies.

The freemium business model was articulated by venture capitalist Fred Wilson on 23 March 2006.

"Give your service away for free, possibly ad supported but maybe not, acquire a lot of customers very efficiently through word of mouth, referral networks, organic search marketing, etc., then offer premium priced value added services or an enhanced version of your service to your customer base."

An early example of the freemium model working on the internet was Musicmatch Jukebox, an all-in-one music management tool that was first marketed with a freemium model in 1999. Most users could use the Basic/Free version, but a $19.99 upgrade provided extra features such as supertagging and faster ripping and burning.

According to the New York Times, freemium is becoming the "most popular business model among Web start-ups." Some of the most popular services, such as Pandora, Flickr, LinkedIn, Spotify and Skype use the freemium model.

§ Feature limited

§ Time Limited

§ Capacity limited

§ Seat limited

§ Customer Class Limited

What is Dodd-Frank Act?

2010-09-03T21:21:00.000+05:30

(Click to enlarge)

President Barack Obama's policy architects say they will begin enforcement of a sweeping new set of financial regulations intended to govern risk-taking on Wall Street and offer greater protection to consumers. The goal is to help the U.S. economy return to prosperity even as troubling signs of a global downturn remain.

According to Wharton experts, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is a good start toward future financial stability, but they warn that significant concerns remain unaddressed, and stress that the details of implementation must be handled carefully to avoid creating new problems.

HIGHLIGHTS OF DODD-FRANK ACT

1. Consumer Protections with Authority and Independence: Creates a new independent watchdog, housed at the Federal Reserve, with the authority to ensure American consumers get the clear, accurate information they need to shop for mortgages, credit cards, and other financial products, and protect them from hidden fees, abusive terms, and deceptive practices.

2. Ends Too Big to Fail Bailouts: Ends the possibility that taxpayers will be asked to write a check to bail out financial firms that threaten the economy by: creating a safe way to liquidate failed financial firms; imposing tough new capital and leverage requirements that make it undesirable to get too big; updating the Fed’s authority to allow system-wide support but no longer prop up individual firms; and establishing rigorous standards and supervision to protect the economy and American consumers, investors and businesses.

3. Advance Warning System: Creates a council to identify and address systemic risks posed by large, complex companies, products, and activities before they threaten the stability of the economy.

4. Transparency & Accountability for Exotic Instruments: Eliminates loopholes that allow risky and abusive practices to go on unnoticed and unregulated -- including loopholes for over-the-counter derivatives, asset-backed securities, hedge funds, mortgage brokers and payday lenders.

5. Executive Compensation and Corporate Governance: Provides shareholders with a say on pay and corporate affairs with a non-binding vote on executive compensation and golden parachutes.

6. Protects Investors: Provides tough new rules for transparency and accountability for credit rating agencies to protect investors and businesses.

7. Enforces Regulations on the Books: Strengthens oversight and empowers regulators to aggressively pursue financial fraud, conflicts of interest and manipulation of the system that benefits special interests at the expense of American families and businesses.

What Is ATL and BTL?

2010-08-21T22:22:00.000+05:30

(Please Click to Enlarge)

Above the line (ATL), below the line (BTL), and through the Line (TTL), are advertising techniques.
In a nutshell, while ATL promotions are tailored for a mass audience, BTL promotions are targeted at individuals according to their needs or preferences. While ATL promotions can establish brand identity, BTL can actually lead to a sale. ATL promotions are also difficult to measure well, while BTL promotions are highly measurable, giving marketer’s valuable insights into their return-on-investment.
Promotional activities carried out through mass media, such as television, radio and newspaper, are classed as "above the line" promotion. "Below the line" promotion refers to forms of non-media communication or advertising, and has become increasingly important in the communications mix of many companies, not only those involved in fast moving consumer goods, but also for industrial goods.
"Through the line" refers to an advertising strategy involving both above and below the line communications in which one form of advertising points the target to another form of advertising thereby crossing the "line".

Above the line sales promotion
ATL is a type of advertising through media such as television, cinema, radio, print, web banners and web search engines to promote brands. This type of communication is conventional in nature and is considered impersonal to customers. It differs from BTL advertising, which uses unconventional brand-building strategies, such as direct mail and printed media (and usually involves no motion graphics). It is much more effective when the target group is very large and difficult to define.

Below the line sales promotion
BTL sales promotion is an immediate or delayed incentive to purchase, expressed in cash or in kind, and having short duration. It is efficient and cost-effective for targeting a limited and specific group. It uses less conventional methods than the usual ATL channels of advertising, typically focusing on direct means of communication, most commonly direct mail and e-mail, often using highly targeted lists of names to maximize response rates. BTL services may include those for which a fee is agreed upon and charged up front.
BTL is a common technique used for "touch and feel" products (consumer items where the customer will rely on immediate information rather than previously researched items). BTL techniques ensure recall of the brand while at the same time highlighting the features of the product.
Another BTL technique involves sales personnel deployed at retail stores near targeted products. This technique may be used to generate trials of newly launched products.

What Is Search Engine Marketing?

2010-08-09T00:59:00.000+05:30

Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of search engine optimization, paid placement and paid inclusion.

In 2008, North American advertisers spent US$13.5 billion on search engine marketing. The largest SEM vendors are Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter. As of 2006, SEM was growing much faster than traditional advertising and even other channels of online marketing. Because of the complex technology, a secondary "search marketing agency" market has evolved. Many marketers have difficulty understanding the intricacies of search engine marketing and choose to rely on third party agencies to manage their search marketing.

History
As the number of sites on the Web increased in the mid-to-late 90s, search engines started appearing to help people find information quickly. Search engines developed business models to finance their services, such as pay per click programs offered by Open Text in 1996 and then Goto.com in 1998. Goto.com later changed its name to Overture in 2001, and was purchased by Yahoo! in 2003, and now offers paid search opportunities for advertisers through Yahoo! Search Marketing. Google also began to offer advertisements on search results pages in 2000 through the Google AdWords program. By 2007, pay-per-click programs proved to be primary money-makers for search engines. In a market dominated by Google, in 2009 Yahoo! and Microsoft announced the intention to forge an alliance. The Yahoo! & Microsoft Search Alliance eventually received approval from regulators in the US and Europe in February 2010.

What Is Crowd Funding?

2010-08-02T01:25:00.000+05:30

Crowd funding describes the collective cooperation, attention and trust by people who network and pool their money together, usually via the Internet, in order to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations. Crowd funding occurs for any variety of purposes, from disaster relief to citizen journalism to artists seeking support from fans, to political campaigns and now in Venture Capitals for raising funds.

The crowd funding approach has long precedents in the sphere of charity. It is receiving renewed attention from both commercial and social entrepreneurs now that social media, online communities and micropayment technology make it straightforward to engage and secure donations from a group of potentially interested supporters at very low cost.

An entrepreneur seeking to use crowd funding typically makes use of online communities to solicit pledges of small amounts of money from individuals who are typically not professional financiers.

What is Blue ocean Strategy?

2010-07-26T22:38:00.000+05:30

It is a slang term for the uncontested market space for an unknown industry or innovation. Coined by professors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne in their book "Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and the Make Competition Irrelevant" (2005), blue oceans are associated with high potential profits.

In an established industry, companies compete with each other for every piece of available market share. The competition is often so intense that some firms cannot sustain themselves and stop operating. This type of industry describes a red ocean, representing saturated market share, bloodied by competition.

To avoid costly competition, firms can innovate or expand in the hope of finding a blue ocean. A blue ocean exists where no firms currently operate, leaving the company to expand without competition.

Red Oceans are all the industries in existence today—the known market space. In the red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of product or service demand. As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products become commodities or niche, and cutthroat competition turns the ocean bloody. Hence, the term red oceans.

Blue oceans, in contrast, denote all the industries not in existence today—the unknown market space, untainted by competition. In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. There is ample opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid. In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set. Blue Ocean is an analogy to describe the wider, deeper potential of market space that is not yet explored.

The corner-stone of Blue Ocean Strategy is 'Value Innovation'. A blue ocean is created when a company achieves value innovation that creates value simultaneously for both the buyer and the company. The innovation (in product, service, or delivery) must raise and create value for the market, while simultaneously reducing or eliminating features or services that are less valued by the current or future market. The authors criticize Michael Porter's idea that successful businesses are either low-cost providers or niche-players. Instead, they propose finding value that crosses conventional market segmentation and offering value and lower cost.

What Is Angel Investing?

2010-07-22T01:19:00.000+05:30

(Click on the Image to enlarge it)

The term "angel" originally comes from Broadway where it was used to describe wealthy individuals who provided money for theatrical productions. In 1978, William Wetzel, then a professor at the University of New Hampshire and founder of its Center for Venture Research, completed a pioneering study on how entrepreneurs raised seed capital in the USA, and he began using the term "angel" to describe the investors that supported them.

An angel investor or angel (also known as a business angel or informal investor) is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. A small but increasing number of angel investors organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share research and pool their investment capital.

Angels typically invest their own funds, unlike venture capitalists, who manage the pooled money of others in a professionally-managed fund. Although typically reflecting the investment judgment of an individual, the actual entity that provides the funding may be a trust, business, limited liability company, investment fund, etc.

Angel investments bear extremely high risk and are usually subject to dilution from future investment rounds. As such, they require a very high return on investment. Because a large percentage of angel investments are lost completely when early stage companies fail, professional angel investors seek investments that have the potential to return at least 10 or more times their original investment within 5 years, through a defined exit strategy, such as plans for an initial public offering or an acquisition.

Current 'best practices' suggest that angels might do better setting their sights even higher, looking for companies that will have at least the potential to provide a 20x-30x return over a five- to seven-year holding period. After taking into account the need to cover failed investments and the multi-year holding time for even the successful ones, however, the actual effective internal rate of return for a typical successful portfolio of angel investments is, in reality, typically as 'low' as 20-30%.

While the investor's need for high rates of return on any given investment can thus make angel financing an expensive source of funds, cheaper sources of capital, such as bank financing, are usually not available for most early-stage ventures, which may be too small or young to qualify for traditional loans.

What Is Washroom Marketing?

2010-07-13T21:58:00.000+05:30

It sounds weird but it’s true.

As the name suggests, it’s advertising in the washroom, literally. Something like putting the advertisement and pamphlet about a product in the loo.

This is a place our eyes can never miss, 9 out of 10 times its gender specific, and when you are in the loo, you might as well read it.

Most of us have taken newspapers to the loo, which in fact is filled with ads. There have been questions about the privacy issues in the washroom, but one can’t figure out how privacy comes into picture here. There is no camera there in the washroom, unless and until the advertisement is hiding a cam under it.

Just placing something to read there doesn’t lead to invasion of privacy. Moreover it’s a sure shot method of reaching the customer. He/she will read it without any disturbance. And yes for everyone’s information there are companies too for washroom marketing like Positive Media of UK, IN YOUR FACE media corp. and many others. The marketing communication world is getting weirder by the day…

What are PODs and POPs? (Marketing)

2010-07-11T01:49:00.000+05:30

(Points Of Parity)
(Points Of Difference)

Points-of-difference (PODs) – Attributes or benefits consumers strongly associate with a brand, positively evaluate and believe they could not find to the same extent with a competing brand i.e. points where you are claiming superiority or exclusiveness over other products in the category.

In a crowded market place, products that stand out and get noticed.

"Point of Difference" = a difference that competitors do not have have in their product or Brand.

The assessment of consumer desirability criteria for PODs should be against:

Relevance
Distinctiveness
Believability

Points-of-parity (POPs) – Associations that are not necessarily unique to the brand but may be shared by other brands i.e. where you can at least match the competitors claimed benefits. While POPs may usually not be the reason to choose a brand, their absence can certainly be a reason to drop a brand.

Whilst when assessing the deliverability criteria for POPs look at their:

Feasibility
Communicability
Sustainability

What Is Bancassurance?

2010-07-09T11:12:00.001+05:30

The Bank Insurance Model ('BIM'), also sometimes known as 'Bancassurance', is the term used to describe the partnership or relationship between a bank and an insurance company whereby the insurance company uses the bank sales channel in order to sell insurance products.

BIM allows the insurance company to maintain smaller direct sales teams as their products are sold through the bank to bank customers by bank staff.

Bank staff and tellers, rather than an insurance salesperson, become the point of sale/point of contact for the customer. Bank staff are advised and supported by the insurance company through product information, marketing campaigns and sales training.

Both the bank and insurance company share the commission. Insurance policies are processed and administered by the insurance company.

BIM differs from 'Classic' or Traditional Insurance Model (TIM) in that TIM insurance companies tend to have larger insurance sales teams and generally work with brokers and third party agents.

An additional approach, the Hybrid Insurance Model (HIM), is a mix between BIM and TIM. HIM insurance companies may have a sales force, may use brokers and agents and may have a partnership with a bank.

BIM is extremely popular in European countries such as Spain, France and Austria.

The usage of the term picked up as banks and insurance companies merged and banks sought to provide insurance, especially in markets that have been liberalised recently. It is a controversial idea, and many feel it gives banks too great a control over the financial industry or creates too much competition with existing insurers.

In some countries, bank insurance is still largely prohibited, but it was recently legalized in countries such as the United States, when the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed after the passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. But revenues have been modest and flat in recent years, and most insurance sales in U.S. banks are for mortgage insurance, life insurance or property insurance related to loans. But China recently allowed banks to buy insurers and vice versa, stimulating the bancassurance product, and some major global insurers in China have seen the bancassurance product greatly expand sales to individuals across several product lines.

Source - Wickipedia.com

Image Source - einsuranceprofessional.com

What Is Volcker Rule?

2010-07-08T23:50:00.001+05:30

(Click on the image to enlarge)

The Volcker Rule (also known as the "Volcker Plan") is a proposal by American economist and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to restrict banks from making certain kinds of speculative investments if they are not on behalf of their customers. Volcker has argued that such speculative activity played a key role in the financial crisis of 2007–2010. Volcker was earlier appointed by Obama as the chair of US President Barack Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, a board created on February 6, 2009.

Basically it is the trading restrictions placed on financial institutions. The Volcker rule separates investment banking, private equity and proprietary trading (hedge fund) sections of financial institutions from their consumer lending arms.

Banks are not allowed to simultaneously enter into an advisory and creditor role with clients, such as with private equity firms. The Volcker rule aims to minimize conflicts of interest between banks and their clients through separating the various types of business practices financial institutions engage in.

The rule was introduced following the recession of 2008, to control the risk associated with the financial sector. Wall Street banks were accused of accumulating an excessive amount of risk and unfair business practices due to the inability of regulators to properly monitor their complex instruments and activities. The Volcker rule aims to protect individuals by creating a more transparent financial framework which can be regulated with greater ease.

Source - Investopedia.com

Image Source - nakedcapitalism.com