Contests like these are great opportunites for small business to take their products to the next level. One don’t need to win the contest to succeed, as thousands of people vote, if the product is unique they will definitely go and buy even if its not going to get in to the shelves of walmart. Already products like ipad pillow, soda lock and boots for dogs got covered in the main stream media like CNN, thanks to their participation in the contest.

Will the big Indian retailers like Reliance, Pantaloon or Shopper’s Stop think about such a contest?

Post from: Biz Dewz

Get on the shelf contest – Will Indian retailers try?

There are other online food ordering services like justeat.in and yummybay.com. Ordering online does make things easy but one thing to note is they are all taking care of only the ordering part. Delivery is left to the individual restaurants. One main problem most customers face when ordering food in the local restaurant is the delivery. Their serice is not as efficient and professional as the customers used to it from the big pizza delivery chains.

Also for the neighbourhood small food joints, it will be easier if someone handles this delivery logistics so that they will focus on their core competence in preparing food. Tastykhana.in provides such home delivery along with online ordering in Pune area. It will take some time before they spread their business to other Indian cities as it requires huge investment and trained manpower to expand and maintain the level of service.

It would be good if some logistics players like courier companies enter this food delivery business, as they have the expertise and local knowledge, they will able to go national easily than someone starting from the scratch. Will someone step in to take the delivery out of the local restaurants across cities in India and provide better service to the customers?

Post from: Biz Dewz

Online food delivery business – Who will help the local restaurants?

Not long ago, savings rate had remained constant at 3.5% for more than 8 years. Customers who are not aware of the recent deregulation policy by RBI could very well believe this 6 or 7% as the new reality and might think that it will remain at this level for many years.

Its better for the banks who advertize higher savings account interest rates to add a disclaimer, as in the end it will affect the bank’s brand image too as customers will feel cheated when the rates begin to drop to lower levels. Its time for a clear disclaimer to these savings rate ads in the line of Mutual Fund ads.

Post from: Biz Dewz

Savings account interest rate ads – Time for a disclaimer

From fast paced T20 cricket they moved over to even faster sporting event in F1. Bharti Airtel joined hands with the Formula One Group Companies to become title sponsor of the Indian leg of the race series to be hosted at Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida on October 30, 2011.

So the brand goes out of Airtel Champions League T20 to fit in Airtel Grand Prix of India. With Champions League T20 not being able to get good TRP ratings last year, this timely shift to F1 will help the brand to push its global image further.

What do you say?

Post from: Biz Dewz

Brand Airtel – Bye to Cricket and Hi to Formula one

When there are IPL team names like Kings, Devils and Warriors the owners would not have expected such an angry reaction for the name Commandos from their fan base. Again Indi Commandos being a very generic name they might have thought it would fit perfectly even if they decide to move their base out of Kerala in the future.

“INDI stands for an independent Indian cricket team that will go ahead to win a billion hearts. COMMANDOS stands for an elite fighting squad, renown for attacking with speed, stealth and deadly power.” That’s the explanation given for the name in the team’s official facebook page.

But fans had other reasons to hate the name. One main reason for the fans rejecting the name is the word Indi that in the Malayalam lingo meant something abusive. And the other irritant to the fans is the logo for Indi Commandos, which they felt resembled like the popular mosquito repellent brand Mortein. Kochi being known for mosquitoes, they were quite upset with that logo similarity.

With the fans expressing their displeasure thru social media tools like Facebook and Twitter continuously, Kochi franchise owners were forced to change their team’s name. This time they decide to listen to the fans and they conduct an online voting and chosen the name Kochi Tuskers Kerala. Elephant being the state animal and also in the emblem of Kerala Government, fans have chosen the name Tuskers for its cultural linkage with their state over other options like Titans, Commandos, Tigers, Heroes and United.

Though the name sounds good and the idea behind is perfect its better to check with the local sensibilities before finalizing on the brand name. That’s the one big lesson for the media agencies from this Kochi IPL team naming controversy.

Post from: Biz Dewz

Brand Name Lessons – From Indi Commandos to Kochi Tuskers

Wave, hug and curve are the entries that make it to the final three from more than a lakh of names suggested by the participants. What’s more interesting is out of the three, two are already well known in the mobile arena.

Samsung Wave and Blackberry Curve are quite popular smart phones. That doesn’t deter the brand managers from shortlisting them as the name for new airtel symbol. Let’s see if they promote the name of the logo in a big way or just forgot it after the contest is over.

Post from: Biz Dewz

Airtel Logo – Wave, Hug or Curve

With all these new industries and young workers, Indian cities continue to grow exponentially while most small towns have moderate to low growth. These Non Resident Town wallahs can do their bit to improve the local economy in towns instead of waiting for the Government to take any action.

NRTw’s could plan and buy things in their towns and ensure they spend more when they are in their hometowns than they normally do. There are lots of consumer goods where there won’t be any significant difference in the markup price. So it won’t hurt them if they buy it in the towns instead of getting it in the cities they work.

If they don’t want to buy a new mobile phone for the lack of choices and discounts that one get in the cities, at least plan to buy the recharge card in the towns. Idea is to be more conscious in who is getting profit out of our purchases and spend more when one visit their towns on vacation to help improve the local economy.

Just like we expect Corporate social responsibility programmes from companies and more inclusive growth programmes from the Government, let this be part of Citizen’s Social responsibility.

Post from: Biz Dewz

Non Resident Town wallah

Kindle like iPhone doesn’t have much early success in India. And Amazon like Apple was not so keen to sell their product in India thru proactive marketing strategy, instead just rely on word of mouth. And even worse, Kindle is available only online and cannot be bought directly through local retailers. So there is no real push for Indian consumers to buy the product and even the one willing to try gets discouraged by the limited Indian content.

However most of the Indian business magazines make thier content available online for free. But they are not taking the initiative to publish in the new digital media with paid subscription model.

With the competition from tablet PCs and other e-readers, Amazon is not resting on its laurels at least in the US. It is promoting the Kindle heavily thru television commercials this holiday season in US. Also they started focusing more on selling the ebooks with the Kindle app for various gadgets like iPad, iPhone and Android phones.

One big advantage with being in the Kindle platform is it will take the magazine into an international publication overnight. It will be easier for people in other countries interested in Indian business to follow up things closely thru magazine subscriptions. And also with 3G services ready to take off in India there are enough incentives for the Indian business magazines to start thinking seriously about Kindle.

Wish to see more Indian business magazines going the Kindle way.

Post from: Biz Dewz

India Business in Kindle

However how many young Indians know about the brand Venky’s and can associate with the brand as they see it during the Twenty20 match. How many Indian fans who watch the champions league T20 daily in Tier II or Tier III cities know they are one of the leading national brand in the processed chicken segment. How many of the fast food loving young Indian cricket fans know they are the preferred supplier to the Indian outlets of McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Domino’s.

Well, for entrenched brands like Pepsi, Hero Honda or Kingfisher having a brand name alone will be enough to connect with the viewers. But for a relatively unknown brand like Venky’s, having spent crores of rupees to get the sponsorship rights, the campaign would have been much more effective if they had supplemented the on-ground brand promotions with TV ads too. What do you say?

Post from: Biz Dewz

Brand Venky’s in Airtel CLT20

But supermarket or grocery stores unlike burger joints stocks hundreds of items. And hence it would be very difficult to service customers as and when they arrive with their shopping list.

The next best thing that these retailers can do is to give option to their regular customers to call or SMS their shopping list and then later drive through the shop to pay and collect their items.

Well, additional facilities like these might not bring big revenues to the retailers but it will certainly enhance their brand value, as there is a genuine need from customers for such service. Will Indian retail giants like Reliance Retail, Future group, Bharti or Aditya Birla Retail think about drive thru shopping?

Post from: Biz Dewz

Drive-Thru shopping – Its time for Quick Service Retailers in India