Marketing and Brands

Mahindra XUV500

noreply@blogger.com (Ankur Jain) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:48:00 +0000

Mahindra-Rise is a new theme and marketing campaign for Mahindra. What is it? It could be CSR or A program for the growth of customers, An initiative to grow Globally or to match with the growing aspirations of the Youth of the country.

One thing is for sure, all marketing campaigns communicate brand promise and here Mahindra promised its customers a product that is loved by all, Mahindra-XUV500. This Campaign marked by the launch of very dashing XUV and one of the cheapest in its segment is an indication of an aggression of the company.

Inspired by the mighty cheetah in terms of designing, Mahindra XUV 500 is in a huge demand. The first phase of booking was closed and waiting time has gone as high as 8 months in some cities. Now, happy times have come again for the customers who don't want to miss all inclusive higest version of XUV priced at 13.5 Lacs INR, The company has opened booking for 10 days and in case number of bookings exceed 7,200 then with the help of draw lucky customers will be chosen. What a better strategy to attract customers, simple case of demand and supply. Though Company sources have confirmed that this limited supply is because of MHAWK engines, which is used in Scorpio also. People can definitely compare this situation with that of iphone releases worldwide.

The company is trying its best to dominate the market not only with aggressive pricing but also with digital campaigns. Mahindra became one of the first companies in India to use Augmented reality to showcase its product. 3d virtual Cheetah was hit among the visitors and marketers in the current Auto Expo, India's largest Auto Expo show,

Time has come for Indigenous brands like Tata and Mahindra to take multinational companies head on with the better product, better pricing and with the best marketing campaigns.
That's the Rise of the company and the society

Roadblock advertising

noreply@blogger.com (Ankur Jain) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:24:00 +0000

RoadBlock Advertising is going to be back in action soon. It is a powerful means of advertising and brands use it for different purposes.

The word roadblock is derived from the traffic roadblock, where the traffic is jammed on the road and people can’t see anything and get struck at one point. Similarly in Roadblock advertising, brands books advertisement slot for 24 hours or couple of days and air their advertisements all the time.

There are lot of benefits like when some company wants to launch a new brand, in order to get 100% voice share, ads are aired all the time. This is predominantly a TV medium but now print media and also online websites are capitalising this. In Nov, 2009 Volkswagen is reportedly paid 100 million rupees to TOI and published its advertisement in all TOI newspapers and in all cities. This was received with both positive and negative response as this was the first time that print media has moved towards to road block advertisement. But in one shot and by paying hefty amount more than 20 million viewers get to see Volkswagen new Jetta and Pasat cars. Since this is not a targeted medium of advertisement, one tend to lose lot of money but it is worthwhile gaining lot of eyeballs.

In a similar campaign in 2009 HUL roadblocked Star network and Zee network for 24 hours so which meant on all 25 network channels of ZEE, viewer will get to see only HUL brands. As the FMCG space is cluttered and fragmented. The move of airing advertisements for HUL brands was thus impactful, as the brands in question will get exposure on as many as 25 channels and 24 hours.

Recently, pizza chain Papa John's ran a roadbloack ad on Facebook promoting a free pizza for every user who became a fan of the brand on its Facebook Page. Thanks to the home page ad and an associated e-mail campaign, Papa John's garnered 131,000 new fans in a single day.

Following are the main features of roadblock advertising

100% share of voice during the campaign period
Can be booked for a single date, multiple days or for a week
Runs multiple ad units
Uses Rich media and creative formats are available

Now we will not be surprised if Star roadblocks its entire network to launch its new channel Star Action. Star is largely popular in Youth, Housewives and entertainment oriented audience. In order to get 100% voice share it is expected that Star will roadblock all its network channels, which is in way a good medium to launch new product/ brand .

New logo of Star Plus

noreply@blogger.com (Neha Jain) — Sat, 28 May 2011 18:08:00 +0000

Star Plus unveiled its new logo, the Ruby Star, along with programming that reflects Rishta Wahi, Soch Nayi’ – a fresh perspective on life and relationships.

“The new logo is a ruby star which is feminine, strong, and full of energy and life. The white swoosh, lit from within and represents inner strength and quest for fulfillment,”

The nayi soch captures the evolving nature of relationships and is manifested in the shows currently on air. All content will continue to reinforce the nayi soch, a new perspective on life and relationships. Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India Pvt Ltd, said,

“Nayi soch is basically fresh perspectives, which will now reflect in everything the channel will do, from the point of creating content to creating brand solutions for advertisers, to adding value to our distributors, stakeholders and employees.”

In an attempt to experiment with its viewing pattern, the channel will launch its big ticket show Master Chef India hosted by Akshay Kumar.
“No cookery show has occupied a prime time slot on Indian television till date and this can be looked at as a bold experiment from our end. We are launching it as a driver show of the channel”, added the CEO, STAR Plus.

Along with Master Chef India, the channel will also launch a fiction produced by Rajan Shahi’s Director’s Kut titled as Chaand Chhupa Baadal Mein.

Uday on the occasion of a new beginning said, “Rarely something is created which has such spectacular reach and an all-round effect on almost everything in the society. STAR Plus decided to go Hindi 10 years ago and became an iconic and successful channel.”

New face of Airtel

noreply@blogger.com (Neha Jain) — Sat, 28 May 2011 18:08:00 +0000

Airtel has added new face to its advertising campaign. Sharman Joshi –he is new brand ambassador of Airtel. He is portraying his college guy image in Airtel advertisement.

When Airtel signed Sharman, his immense popularity that he got after the roaring success of 3 Idiots was cited as the main reason and also the youthful and bubbly image that he has and which Airtel also wants to stretch to its young TG. He is doing series of ads for Airtel. The series so far has 5 ads. - Roaming, Night calling, Mobile internet, SMS and STD services

Advertising agencies and corporate world did a lot of research before zeroing in to the face. They needed someone who is popular amongst their target audience, that’s why company selected Sharman who can easily connect with their audience.

Is it a right move for a brand like Airtel or not?

Pizza Hut Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Ankur Jain) — Sat, 28 May 2011 18:06:00 +0000

Once captain Gopinath mocked at airlines strategy to inflate air prices and earn 800 crore rupees @ 80% occupancy rate. He alternatively suggested to decrease the prices and earn 900 crore rupees @ 100 % occupancy rate. Obviously this strategy has its pros and cons.

To cater to 100 % occupancy, there would be direct impact on operations and there by increases the cost. But we can on the other hand apply economics of scale and achieve operational efficiency.

Similar strategy is used by pizza hut, now a days. 3 course meal @ Rs 99 during weekdays. This is awesome way of using unutilized space during the weekdays.

Pizza hut, being positioned as a place for any event normally remains vacant during weekdays. Through ATL(above the line) promotion, company has tried to push its brand and its usage when the company wants them to use.

Most of these strategies are normally used by airlines, hotels and theme parks.
Hope, pizza hut achieve 100 % occupancy soon,

"Get More from us"- Anchor

noreply@blogger.com (Ankur Jain) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 16:43:00 +0000

Anchor, India’s leading manufacturer of electrical materials like switches and wires, is running a huge branding exercise, largely visible in Mumbai. The major punch line is “Get More from us”, we are now Anchor by Panasoic.

This campaign is certainly a high visibility and high impact exercise in Mumbai, if someone visits the city, chances are very less that he misses this campaign. As Primetime outdoor agency, which is a OOH agency of this campaign has put in all efforts to place this ad at every possible visible area.

Surprisingly this campaign is launched in more than 100 towns and cities and announcing company’s association with the parent brand i.e. Panasonic but somehow as compared to Delhi, Mumbai seems to be major spending area of the company as Anchor ‘s headquarters in Mumbai. The major objective of campaign is to show that the brand is associated with more products than only Switches .

The company has very smartly used outdoor media to promote various products at the same time saving the cost of print or TV. Using outdoor media, they can certainly launch various message statements and target the large audience at the same time.

Primetime Outdoor used a wide media mix including hoardings, unipoles, bus back panels, bus shelters, station branding, gantries, Meru Cab branding, utilities,

Metro station branding, wall wraps, LED screen, in train branding, kiosks series, and many more to give the brand a lavish spread.

"Why Grow Up" Frooti

noreply@blogger.com (Ankur Jain) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 08:17:00 +0000

“Why Grow Up” was a campaign started by Parle Agro to give Frooti new look and new positioning. The campaign was started in 2009 and now when we look back, it seems that creative agency has done a wonderful job in creating this campaign.

Advocacy is the most powerful means of creating goodwill and thus creating stronger brand. In all these advertisements, company has used common people and they are seen playing around with large, non-symmetrical, funny mango.

This is a great strategy in which brand has given preference to common people over celebrities and stars. The new campaign gives a new, young, happy and funny look to brand. “Why Grow Up” campaign is conceptualized by creativeland .

This is a part of long term strategy of company, as per the news they want to take brand to new heights and associate it with young and aspirations of audience. The company has even incorporated the new designs in the packaging with a small change in logo and brighter color of tetra packs.

The company has gone aggressive with smaller packs of frooti and gave a heads on collision to other fruit juices and aerated drinks. People have spent their lives growing with frooti and now when they are part of their new brand strategy .

The creator of ad has used candid cameras and captured the surprise impact of the participants who are playing a game and which in turn is made an ad. This is a very unique concept and highly appreciated by the audience. All people not only children but adults who still long for happiness in their lives love the advertisement.

Frooti is considered to be a cult brand and in some sense a category name also. Mango is considered to be king of fruits and brand company has done a great job in understanding the strengths of the company and revamping the identity of brand thus keeping its heritage intact.

Big Bazar's new tactics to lure customer

noreply@blogger.com (Ankur Jain) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 06:55:00 +0000

Big Bazaar has launched new promotion offer “Trial Offer”, obviously this is not the name which they are promoting. But the offer says that if customer tries one apparel, the customer is entitled to get 100 rupees voucher, which she can redeem at fashion bazaar.

In some store of Big bazaar, as many as 300 trial coupons were distributed and around 50 are redeemed. This shows how impulsive is Indian consumer, any offer which hits on the floor is bound to be popular.

On the other hand company says that the objective of this offer is not sales but the better relationship between customer and floor staff, better engagement and better revenues indirectly.

The management wants its employees to spend time with its customers and know them better. This is a part of customer service but it seems that it will in one way impact directly sales as chances of trying one T-shirt, Shirt as many times by just going out and in will entitle you those many vouchers for free. This does not ensure the overall objective of the campaign and it defeats the purpose of relationship management.

On the other hand this campaign will run for more than two months and in all fashion outlets across the country. Try a cloth and get money. Companies are trying different ways to lure the customer and this new way of paying him without even purchasing is all together a new tactic.

This campaign is just one day old and started on April Fool’s day and only time will testify its success.

Starbucks

noreply@blogger.com (Ankur Jain) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 19:50:00 +0000

On Tuesday, March 8, Starbucks marks its 40th year – and as part of the celebration, we’ll start rolling out the new logo we announced a few months back.

The first place you’ll probably see the new logo is on the cup of your favorite beverage. It could be a while before the signage in your neighborhood store is changed – it takes a while to update 16,500 stores!

For communication professionals and design nerds like me, this is an exciting time. Watching the reaction to any new logo is fascinating, because people can hold such passionate attachments to these marks. The comments on our Facebook page and blog posts were decidedly mixed – some of you don’t like the new look at all, some of you think you’ll love it once you get used to it. (Honestly, that was pretty much the reaction we were expecting.) The verdict from the design community has generally been more positive, and even the voice behind the hilarious (but fake) Gap Logo Twitter account lent support.

For those of you who aren’t sold on the new mark, all I ask is this: give it time. As you start to see it out in the world, I hope you’ll start to appreciate the simplicity and elegance of the new design. I like the new mark because I feel that we’ve unleashed the Siren, a mythological figure who represents the romance and creativity that inspired the founders of Starbucks 40 years ago. I hope that unleashing that energy – that mojo – will keep us (and you) inspired for the next 40 years.

Courtesy: Starbucks official website

T24 Mobile

noreply@blogger.com (Ankur Jain) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 10:37:00 +0000

T24 is a mobile service launched by Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) & Future Group. There are many aspects to this partnership and offering.

Firstly, seeing the growth of mobile penetration, traditionally retail companies like Future group has entered into this space. The Indian industry already has more than 15 mobile operators and share more than 600 million subscribers among themselves. The need of hour is to improve service and connectivity but instead there are new brands which are getting launched. Though T24 aspires to capture 10 million subscribers in the period of 3 years, which is very less as compared to its target audience. Future group has various retail formats in all parts of the country and having launched in 18 circles, it could get more subscribers, if they offer better service.

Secondly, the positioning which T24 has taken is on price. UNPAID, is the key word which company is promoting as customers get free talk time when ever they shop in future group. Future group has more than 1000 stores in 120 different locations and they touch base with more than 200 million customers in a year, which makes Future group the largest retailer in India. The market which is already very price sensitive, and players like Videocon offering call rates at 0/paise has opened new fronts for companies to fight. No doubt this is very innovative idea where retail company has ventured into this space and Future group with Big Bazaar its flagship chain portrays itself as a retail outlet of common man. But the challenge of TTSL & Future group would be to ensure the service and hence they will be able to retain the customer.

Thirdly, the marketing and promotion which T24 is doing is aggressive. They have taken big hoardings in mumbai, pune, hyderabad, chennai and other big cities. Once you walk down the streets of Mumbai, you will find almost every second bus shelter painted with "UNPAID" message. That's an irony, the cities which already have tasted the service of big players like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance etc. will take some time to try this new service. Though free connections in the retail stores will get them to sell their connections but success of T24 depends on recharging.

Cocoberry

noreply@blogger.com (Ankur Jain) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 10:27:00 +0000

Cocoberry is a food chain that serveQs frozen yogurt. These small pink and chocolate color outlets are in the market since last 2 years but somehow have become very popular in last 8-10 months or so.

It has opened various outlets in high class malls, shopping complexes targeting young crowd. There are few outlets in some metros near university and colleges. The product is priced around 40-200 rupees.

Cocoberry is a right example of perfect 4P model. Product sold in these outlets is a great alternative of ice creams and other desserts. Though many companies have tried to sell yogurt earlier in Indian market but somehow it has never picked up. Frozen Yogurt topped up with fresh fruits is highly popular among girls and young crowd.

When any product is launched in Indian market, price point is always a key growth driver and also keeps proper check against competition and Cocoberry is very aggressive on this front. Small yogurt is priced at around 40 rupees which is comparable to various ice creams, donuts, pastries and other desserts.

Cocoberry outlets are majorly found in Delhi and NCR, well there are outlets in other Indian metro and Tier A cities. The company plans to open 50 outlets in next 2 years. Early adopter of this product is generally a college going student, early job earner and audience having good disposable income. So In Delhi/ NCR one will find Cocoberry outlets in DLF mall Saket, Ambience Mall Gurgaon, Khan Market, Kamla Nagar and other happening places of the city.

The fourth P, which determines marketing strategy of any company is promotion and one will find only BTL activities around these outlets. Though the company has used the more effective way of communicating with its target audience and what else than digital World. Cocoberry’s facebook page has more than 100,000 fans which is a testimony of great brand in making. You can check berry club (FB fan page) http://tinyurl.com/5wamrrp . It engages its fans with lot of quizzes, regular updates and offers. Cocoberry will soon celebrate its second b’day and it is expected that the company will float many offers to thank its loyal customers.

The company has even won various awards like the most innovative concept and best frozen yogurt. The one interesting fact on cocoberry’s website is that it changes its flavors once every two to three months which is commendable in this industry.

Who controls the market? Men or Women

noreply@blogger.com (Neha Jain) — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 17:28:00 +0000

In a recent survey of Boston consulting Survey associated to women shopping, some astonishing facts have been identified. These facts reflect increasing contribution of women in an economy. According to the survey, amongst the total spending of 18.4 trillion on consumer items; sixty-five percent is under control of women. These amounts to 12 trillion, which is aprrox 10 times of the country’s economy. In the next five years it is expected to reach significant level which will result into more spending.

Currently women are spending lavishly on diamonds, jewels, and laptop and on foreign trips. Skin care is another segment where women are spending. Visit any branded showroom, restaurants you will find women over there.

Working women have diverse approach of spending, even companies are coming up with innovative products for this segment of women, ready to eat food, taxi service, hotels having special floor for women guests, insurance policies, some banks have plans like Miss confident keeping in mind working women, low interest rates, zero balance facility, loans to women for buying gold and jewelry at very low rate.

Rising female economy is outcome of more number of working women. In America women are ahead of men. The difference between male and female salary has reduced to a great extent.

Biotique

noreply@blogger.com (Neha Jain) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 17:05:00 +0000

Within a short span of the last five-six years, the use of cosmetics by Indian consumers has increased significantly with more and more women and men taking greater interest in personal grooming.

Biotique a name synonymous with premium ayurvedic cosmetic segment. It was 1992 when Vinita Jain started her dream project Biotique mostly to export, has set up an R&D centre in Switzerland to get a blend of Swiss biotechnology and ayurveda and today she is credited with making Ayurvedic beauty products fashionable. Biotique today boasts of Rs 600cr turnover . In India, Biotique is undertaking a rebranding and repositioning exercise that, Jain hopes, will help her brand reach the Rs 1,000 crore revenue mark in the next 18 months

The ayurvedic segment accounts for about Rs 4,100 crore, or 18%, of the country’s Rs 22,000-crore cosmetics market, according to KPMG Advisory Services. Other key players in the segment include Forest Essentials, Shahnaz Husain Himalaya, Blossom Kochhar, VLCC, Dabur and Lotus.

EVERY two months, Vinita Jain takes off to Switzerland for about 10 days or so to oversee her team of doctors, biotechnologists and scientists. The team, based in Switzerland, comprises Biotique's exclusively-owned research and development headquarters.

The results show. Demi Moore, Kate Moss, Prince Charles and the royal families of Dubai and Saudi Arabia are just some celebrity names that figure in Biotique's regular consumer base.

That the trademark green and white jars now draw immediate brand recall from consumers across various cross-sections and income groups is an indication of success that has come in quick time.

Exports now account for about 65 per cent of Bio Veda . Within the herbal category, Biotique competes with the Shahnaz Husain range, besides smaller names such as Lotus Herbals and Ayur.

Driving factors for such growth is increasing purchasing power in urban cities. The advent of satellite television and awareness of the western beauty and fashion world, advertisements and promotions, increasing number of women joining the work force is changing preferences, customs and cultures in India.

All this has led to a constant up-gradation from mass to premium products even though mass-market products still constitute the major portion of the India cosmetics and toiletries market.

Babies’ world

noreply@blogger.com (Neha Jain) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 09:50:00 +0000

Some 24 million (240 lakh) babies are born in India per annum, much more than born in any other country globally.

What do you know about them? It’s not only about their rising numbers. It’s about their mindsets. It’s about their approach. It’s about their thinking, their preferences, likes, dislikes and everything else that make a kid a kid.

One of the most fascinating and complex facets of retailing happens to be branded children’s apparel. This segment has been till now small and largely stable. But exciting times are in the offing. In the kids apparel market, the large variety, segmented customer profile and changing tastes plays a big role. Also, the children’s buying behaviour, influence of parents and media makes a huge difference in the purchase decision. Selling kids apparel you would soon realise is no child’s play. Spunkywear, for instance, is an iconic global apparel brand. Its premium name commands a loyal customer following. In India, Spunkywear has been a prominent brand in adults wear segment. The company now aspires to achieve a similar status in kids segment with its brand ‘Spunkywear Kids’.

Children are also the main focus of Indian families, and their aspirations in terms of education and career choices are quite high today. The average family size in India has been on a decline, coming in now at almost 4.3 as compared to earlier years when it was more than 5. With the reduction in their average size and the increase in their incomes, Indian families have more money to spend. And children being the main focus, parents try their best to fulfill their aspirations. Net result, they get more attention and participate a lot in the decision making process.

Gone are the days when children would go ga-ga over a doll or a toy car. With most of them buying toys on their trips abroad now, the desi market is literally burning the midnight oil to come to terms with this demanding shopper. Education consultant Ekta Singal, mother of a three-year-old, says, "My son knows his mind. He is very definite and selective about the toys he picks up." Echoes Saurabh Gupta, a toyshop owner, "Parents are happy to go by their children's choices. The price is hardly a consideration."

Next time you tell your friends that you are taking your children shopping, correct yourself. If the figures are anything to go by, it is the little ones who are taking you on a shopping spree because, incidentally, you hold the purse strings.

From toys to FMCGs to apparel to gizmos, kids want it all. And this snooty tiny tot is responsible for a $3 billion market, which is growing even as you read this. India is the largest children's market in the world and such are the demands of children here that business organisations and associations are holding meets and calling experts to understand what children want.

India has a rapidly expanding middle class and therefore the world’s largest retail groups have long been circling India and are urging the Government to drop rules that prevent foreign companies owning multibrand retail operations

Why Companies need Brand Ambassador?

noreply@blogger.com (Neha Jain) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:26:00 +0000

Who are Brand ambassadors? What role they play in promoting product? Can we trust them ? These are some of the questions which need to be answered.

The role of the brand ambassador is to transcend all aspects of the brand. One of the most important factor that attracts consumer’s mind is psychological factors such as motivation, perception, learning, believes and attitude. And these are the factors that a brand ambassador influences. Brand having successful association with its Ambassador sometime translates into stronger brand awareness campaign than millions of rupees spent on other marketing efforts such as advertising and promotion.

Consider the case of Salma Hayek selling pampers during her pregnancy

What actually is the power that brand ambassador exerts over the consumers to urge them?

These people have such a strong impact of personalities that people sometime use brand ambassadors as a “tool” for their product, like we seen the case of Junaid Jamshed clarifying Lays issue when it was hit by the accusation of using haram contents in its manufacturing.

More often than not Brand endorsements, especially, come at the expense of an idea. Everyone remembers when Zoozoos and the Pugs walked away with the honors while Airtel was busy spending crores on Sharukh, Madhavan etc. An idea overpowered the blandness of celebrities. Brand ambassadors mean that you are forced to weave your brand around the celebrity than the other way around. This results in lack of believability and consumers fail to associate themselves with the brand. How believable is it when Deepika Padukone says that she uses orbit white? Whereas, Happy Dent had a brilliant idea that needed none to endorse. The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authencity and poor brand ambassadors destroy it.

If the consumer feels that the brand ambassador is the brand itself then there is nothing better than that and that will not be possible until and unless there is exclusivity in your selection. Brands should awaken to the power of zero cost internal marketing assets like their customers, internal as well as external, who can represent their brand. Starbucks is what it is today not because of any ads, in fact they hardly advertise, but due to the service experience that the employees or the Starbucks “partners” help provide. These kinds of brand ambassadors are especially relevant to brands that are service oriented. Even the high end apparel brand Abercrombie and Fitch uses only its sales representatives as its brand ambassadors. Consumers are willing to pay extra for a good service where the employees represent the brand wholeheartedly and hence enhance the brand equity and create a win-win relation. Many product brands are now shrugging of the albatross around their necks of the brand ambassadors and using its consumers or a seemingly normal person as its brand ambassadors. We have seen Dove doing it and Maggi and KurKure do the same with the faces of consumers on its packages.

It is advisable to opt for better ideas more than secondary associations. Incase, companies feel that they need a brand ambassador they should adopt a brand character. If they are still dissatisfied then they should opt for credible, exclusive as well as zero cost marketing assets like consumers and employees to be their brand ambassadors. It will create long term brand equity and better “hard-to-attack” points of differences.

Yellow Journalim

noreply@blogger.com (Ankur Jain) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:46:00 +0000

Yellow Journalism

Yellow journalism is a type of journalism that under estimate real news in favor of eye-catching headlines that sells more newspapers. It may feature exaggerations of news events, scandal mongering, sensationalism, or unprofessional practices by news media organization or journalists.

The term typically refers to sensationalism in news reporting that bears only a superficial resemblance to the profession of journalism.

Some examples of yellow journalism

Sachin Tendulkar takes anti-Sourav stance

News posted by leading newspaper just because Ganguly is in the news, you have to state that Tendulkar takes anti-Ganguly stance.

Worst examples of Yellow Journalism by the media

Since last couple of year some group of journalists has tried to defame Banglore by terming as “Bride Burning Capital. They keep on arguing that there are 250 “bride burnings” are happening in Bangalore every month. They refer to Victoria Hospital data.

This is where the yellow journalism comes into play. Where as the truth is that Indian homes are 2 times safer than American homes so far as women are concerned.

Yet the journalists show Indian family system is a poor light and want to convert India into America without realizing that crime against women in America is more than that in India in any category of crime.

Journalists are not Gods. It’s the responsibility of journalists to show real facts to people or else people will start losing their trust on media. Today, people use extremely derogatory language on English TV Media in blogs because of media bias.

Big Bazar New Ad

noreply@blogger.com (Ankur Jain) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:35:00 +0000

Please find new communication strategy adopted by India's biggest retailer, Big Bazar

Rooh Afza

noreply@blogger.com (Ankur Jain) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:02:00 +0000

Rooh Afza is a popular concentrated drink invented by Jatinder Heer and manufactured by the companies he founded, Heer and Sons Laboratories, India since 1906 and Hamdard Laboratories, Pakistan.

Rooh Afza is made from natural products .It is said to be a great alternative for chocolate milk. Sometimes people make it with ice cream, 7up, and Coke.Rooh Afza is traditionally made in preparation for breaking the fast during Ramazanthe holy month of fasting for Muslims.

Rooh Afza is the product of Hamdard and due to its uniqueness, the product survived in the market for more than 100 years without any brand ambassador. It is the only drink that dominated the market without any brand face. Juhi Chawla is the first celebrity whom they have signed to endorse their product. Juhi is chosen for the ad because she symbolizes bubbly family person. In the ad she will be seen rejuvenating the family members with three flavors of Rooh Afza, Lassi, Nimbu Pani and Milk shake.

RoohAfza brand is worth Rs 1 billion in the concentrated drink market segment, which itself values up to Rs 5 billion. The company plans to reach a turnover of Rs 5 billion with a revenue growth of 67% in another two years.

Jaaogo Re drive against corruption

noreply@blogger.com (Ankur Jain) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:07:00 +0000

Mahatma Gandhi was of the view: Be the change you wish to see in the world. Tata Tea seems to have taken that up quite seriously. With the help of its advertising and marketing initiative, Jaago Re, this time, the brand takes up the issue of corruption.

In its third year, the Jaago Re campaign revolving around the issue of corruption has the tagline, 'Ab Se Khilana Bandh, Pilana Shuru'. In an official tete-â-tete with the media at a gathering, Sangeeta Talwar, executive director, marketing, Tata Tea discussed the fact that corruption has eaten into more than 50 per cent of India's population. Considering the gravity of the problem, Tata Tea chose to address it

The television commercial is a montage of real-life situations of bribes been given and taken. In the end, the youth give the message to stop doing so.

Jaago Re began as a movement in 2007, with the aim to make tea a youthful drink, after a research showed that apart from people of other age groups, the youth consumed the beverage heavily too. Tata Tea wished to resonate with the youth.

The intent was also to have a unified message for the four brands under the Tata Tea umbrella -- Tata Tea Premium, Tata Tea Agni, Tata Tea Gold and Tata Tea Life.

A campaign featuring the scenario of politics played as a curtain raiser to Jaago Re in 2007. In 2008, with the elections round the corner, Tata Tea made an attempt to get the youth out of their homes to vote. The company put a website in place to ease the voting process for the youth -- www.jaagore.com -- which helped people with easy, step-by-step processes.

The website, Talwar reveals, got 28 lakh registrations, and 6 lakh first-time voters. Out of the 28 lakh registrations, one-fourth converted into final voting.

With the corruption campaign, Tata Tea puts forth the message to start with oneself -- begin with yourself and stop giving and taking bribes. Apart from the television commercial, the brand plans to reach out to each and every citizen across the nation, with the help of media such as outdoor, mobile and online.

Online and mobile have a significant role to play, as people can take the pledge against corruption online, or through messaging a short code from their mobile. People can also register themselves at various mall activations. In-store activities and passing on the message within the trade would also be done in a similar manner.

Source:AFAQS

ZEE TV

noreply@blogger.com (Ankur Jain) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 07:34:00 +0000

Zee TV, the flagship channel of Zee Network was launched in October 1992. With a reach of more than 167 countries and access to more than 500 million viewers globally, Zee TV has created strong brand equity and is the largest media franchise serving the South Asian diaspora. In the past sixteen years of its existence, Zee TV has driven the growth of the satellite and cable industry in India.

Zee TV's programming delivers a variety of choices for all segments of the audience,

including primetime comedy and drama series, premiere Hindi movies, mini-series, children's programs, musical shows, and mythological series. Zee has always believed in bringing innovative programming to its viewers.

Zee TV has long been the number two channel and now it has been pushed a place behind by new channel “Colors”. Zee has come up with some new marketing strategies to counter this and also to reconsolidate its position in the market.

Zee has basically identified two genres of TV shows- reality shows and daily soaps. Daily soaps are mostly targeted at Indian women. A soap called “Kasamh Se” is being aired at the prime slot of 9 P.M. from Monday to Friday. Its being promoted as their prime soap. A reality show “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa” is being running for 13 years now has been the top TRP getter for Zee. Recently Zee started promoting it as “Bharat ka pratham mahayudh”, targeting youth and housewives alike.

Zee TV has used various media mix to promote its serials. A study by TAM shows that Zee spends more on newspapers to promote its serials than on radio and magazine.

Along with this, Zee also promotes its shows through its websites allowing viewers to

download wallpapers and ring tones of the popular shows. Hoardings along the road side are also a common promotion media for Zee. Zee also promotes its popular shows on prime time slots of rival channel.

For the promotion of its reality show “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa”, Zee TV had ventured into an alliance with Rediff. The joint initiative was called “Voice of Rediff on Sa re ga ma”. The initiative provided an opportunity for aspiring singers to showcase their talent on the show, by uploading their videos and audio files on iShare. One lucky winner was chosen from the top five short listed entries by the show’s judges. The lucky winner then performed in the final episode of the show. iShare provides all hosting and bandwidths for free. One can upload videos directly from the mobile handset by converting the various video formats into Flash video. It also provides the users with viral tools that include showing a commercial before or after a user’s video and sharing of revenue. It has taken into consideration all elements of protecting user contents and privacy rights.

DMCL, a Zee group company has tied up with mobile operator BSNL to offer video

Content on the mobile - a service branded iSee. Popular soaps, abridged to episodes of 3 minutes duration, are provided to viewers.

Zee TV has undergone a makeover recently. To mark its return with fresh programming, the channel has adopted a more vibrant look and a new tagline. ‘Jiyo Zee Bhar Ke’ gives way to the new tagline ‘Har Pal Banaye Ek Naya Rishta’.

The new packaging highlights the quintessential Zee TV woman, who is rooted in tradition, but is also the perfect example of a contemporary woman, inspiring confidence in her family. The channel has come out with a 30-second master promo, which captures the journey of the Zee woman in different roles in relation to her family, her children, her husband and God. This is the second time in three years zee has come up with a revamp strategy. The advent of Viacom 18’s Colors has pegged back Zee to third position in the prime slots. With the current rebranding exercise Zee is planning to target the Indian women. This emphasizes Zee’s strategy to market its prime time slot soaps. Current rebranding has been largely based on the formal research into viewing habits and preferences. The findings underlined a truth the channel already knew - “The general entertainment genre is still largely a woman's sphere.”

Zee TV is one of the oldest General Entertainment Channels (GECs).I t has off late lost a position. Zee TV is lagging behind Star Plus and Colors (of late), though the gap is not much. If Zee doesn’t come up with a new product mix and effective marketing strategy quickly, it stands to lose further market share and the gap may widen further.

Tropicana

noreply@blogger.com (Ankur Jain) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:50:00 +0000

Fruit juices are perceived as anytime beverages, with consumption being spread more or less evenly between the mid-mornings, afternoons and evenings. Moreover, Generation Now is as much inclined to sipping fruit juices as colas, with teenagers driving the maximum trials.

Among packaged fruit beverages, the `awareness to trial' ratio of PepsiCo's Tropicana juice brand has been rated the highest. Up to 17 per cent of the respondents were aware of Tropicana, while the brand's trial stood at 11 per cent. In addition, eight per cent of the respondents stocked the brand at their homes.

Another interesting finding is that the average Indian may have a legendary weakness for mango, but when it comes to preference of fruit-based juices; his choices are in tune with international trends. Therefore, it is orange juice that is the most preferred fruit juice flavour in India, followed by apple, sweet orange and mixed fruit.

The findings indicate that most packaged juice-drinking consumers’ travel abroad on Holidays. Other attributes of branded juice consumers include employment of domestic help, ownership of assets and credit cards, and health consciousness with 80 per cent respondents going to aerobic classes or working out at gymnasiums.

Understandably, therefore, awareness and trial levels of packaged juices are higher within the SEC A category, than among SEC B consumers, the majority of whom rated these as aspirational.

As a clear indication that consumers perceive fruit juices as a grocery purchase, 60 per cent of the respondents consume fruit juices at home. While 55 per cent of the respondents consumed 1-litre packs at home, 45 per cent consumed 200-ml packs.

The Rs 100-crore packaged fruit juice market is estimated to be growing at 25-30 percent annually, with Tropicana and Dabur Foods' Real holding about 40 per cent market share each.

Tropicana is a subsidiary of PepsiCo family, a leader in foods and beverages. Tropicana went Public in 1969. It was purchased by Beatrice in august 1978 for $490 million in cash and stock and then sold to The Seagram Company Ltd., the Canadian alcoholic beverage maker, for $1.2 billion in March 1988. Later, they sold it to PepsiCo in 1998.

The juice business was sold to the beverage giant for $3.3 billion in cash. Rodkin was then the President and CEO of the company. Tropicana Products, Inc.: the leading producer of chilled orange juice and claims the top spot in the overall U.S. orange juice market, with a share of 33 percent. Tropicana distributes its products in 23 countries.

Initially Tropicana was launched with a bitter taste but gradually they changed it to sweet to attract the Indian consumers. In a way, it revamped their products to suit the Indian palate. To target the people who feel health as “The Most Important” factor to purchase a drink, Tropicana took on the health awareness and from now on “The Indian Medical Association (IMA)” will endorse PepsiCo’s Tropicana fruit juices-“partnership for health”! It Launch of 'Tropicana Twister’ to target the young generation. In addition to this, it introduced new flavors i.e. mango nectar, guava pulp and litchi juice- tickling the Indian taste buds. Advertisements were a perfect mix of modern and traditional trade via trial generations, TV, radio, outdoors and consumer-trade promotion.

Since, its market share is 30% - after Minute Maid and Real – there is an opportunity to increase this and make Tropicana a leader in this segment.

Advertising in Slowdown

noreply@blogger.com (Neha Jain) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:36:00 +0000

Advertising is a communication tool used by companies to sell their products and services. Through advertisement companies try to persuade consumers to buy their products or services.

It was expected that during downturn advertising will be the first thing to be axed but figures show something else. Ad spends by top five FMCG companies have raised by 55% in the 2nd quarter of the year 2009-10. 70% of the total revenues generated by advertising sector come from top FMCG companies.

Instead of curbing their expenditure on advertisement, companies started launching their old existing brand in market. Henkel did this by relaunching its soap brand, Margo and also increased advertising and communication spending to 11 percent of the total sales.
The one of the main reason to increase expenditure on advertising is retain existing customers, who might switch to cheaper product.

Companies want to increase their market share by spending more on advertising and marketing. Relaunching and brand promotions lure customers to stick to brand and also attract new customers. During recession times customers become careful in spending. So each company wants to convince customers to prefer their brands. Research shows companies that slash advertising by 50 per cent take three to four years to recover their sales post-recession.

Marketers are wooing consumers with instant gratification, therefore they are using promotion such as discount sales, test drives of cars and get free assured gift(by Hyundai ), buy “a shampoo get a soap free” etc. In apparel retailing, discount plays magnetic role in enhancing footfalls. End of season sales lead to 30-45 per cent jump in sales. Especially in case of kid wear where parents prefer to shop during discount period as kids outgrow clothes fast.

Companies have understood that value retailing appeals to customers so they spend lot on advertisement to increase customer buying, in store promotions helps in impulse buying. Brands like Arvind has also received benefit of impulse buying in their store by introducing range of accessories, where by their average ticket size has increased by Rs 400.

Result too show that increased spending on advertising paid off. HUL’s net profit rose 19.6% from a year earlier and sales were up 21%. Marico’s revenues and net profit grew 28% and 15%, respectively. GCPL’s revenue jumped 26%, although profit was up just 1%. At Dabur, revenue and net profit grew 12.2% and 25%, respectively

Ritu Wears

noreply@blogger.com (Neha Jain) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:19:00 +0000

Ritu wears is a well known Retail brand present in North India. In 1965 Ritu Wears entered the Indian fashion Industry with a 200sq.ft children’s wear store owned by the enterprising Mrs J.D Sahni. It started offering fashion and lifestyle to consumer since its inception.

Ritu Wear has emerged as one of the favorite brands. It success can be measured by its popularity amongst consumer. From single outlet of 200 sq.ft, now Ritu wears has 10 stores which are present in Delhi NCR Region and parts of Punjab. By opening new stores Ritu Wears is reaching close to customers who were far away from the store.

Ritu wears is a customer centric company. Every decision of the company revolves around customer insight. From opening of new stores to expanding their range for clothes. It’s a brand for passionate. Ritu Wears has always believed that without passion there cannot be fashion.

Be it is any festival, or any occasion, Ritu Wears is always there for its customers with collection for that offers. Ritu Wears specialty lies in being a fashion store for the entire family. Ritu Wears want when customer think of family, fun or fashion, they should think of them. The reason why RW is a complete family store is that not only cater exquisite fashion products to the tastes and preferences of every age group but also provide lots of shopping extravaganza and fun for the entire family

Ritu wears has achieved so much popularity amongst its customers due to the efforts being put by lot of people at its back end operation team. Director of company Mr Sahni and their entire family pays lot of personal attention to every feedback from customer and they themselves do product testing before it reaches to final customers. This helps in minimizing customer complaints. Distribution chain of Retail house follows proper coordination from head office and store level which ensures that product reaches customers on time.

Demand and supply gap is reducing to minimal by the constant efforts of the management team. The team follows the strategy of 3 B’s i.e Belief-----Behaviour --------Business.

For eg; if you believe that you want to give best service to your customer then it will be reflected in your behavior (actions) and which result into good business for the organization.

For this organization structure is framed in such a way that there is proper communication and coordination within all levels where best solution/variety can be given to customer.

Once customers are in store him / she finds something for everyone. Visual Merchandising of stores is taken care by management to provide pleasant atmosphere for shopping. Signages and Branding make accessibility easy for customer.

Marketing team of store is very strong, they come up with innovative ideas every time to attract customers to store. Sometimes with footwear Carnival, sometime it’s with Mother’s Day special offers etc.

Ritu Wears is amongst the few fashion houses in India that has successfully initiated and redefined not just sense of dressing with its brand new collections but also the shopping experience itself along with establishing new avenues. The products in its portfolio include apparels for men and women in segments including formalwear, casual wear, ethnic wear, party wear; kids wear, accessories, footwear and a wide range of national and international brands in lifestyle category

Brand Sense

noreply@blogger.com (Ankur Jain) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 14:35:00 +0000

Currently 83% of all commercial communication appeals only to one sense – our eyes. That leaves a paltry 17% to cater for the other four senses. This is extraordinary given that 75% of our day-to-day emotions are influenced by what we smell, and the fact that there’s a 65% chance of a mood change when exposed to a positive sound.

The effects of sensory branding are astounding. Yes, it’s possible to create a truly spectacular commercial, or an impressive advertising jingle, but they begin to become effective only when the two elements are combined. The effect is magnified many times over when you include any of the other senses. So the idea of sensory branding sounds good in theory? Well, practical steps need to be taken in order to move your brand from its two dimensional world into a five-dimensional place.

There are strategies to employ so that this transition will be successful. Events, moods, feelings, and even products in our lives are continuously imprinted on our five-track sensory recorder from the second we wake to the moment we sleep. This despite the fact that most mass communication—including advertising messages—that we’re exposed on a daily basis comes to us on two of the five available tracks. They’re visual and they have sound. We are so used to it, we never give it much thought. Herein lies the anomaly. As human beings, we’re at our most effective and receptive when operating on all five tracks, yet not many advertising campaigns, communication plans, or brand-building exercises utilize much more than sight and sound to put their message across.

Many people cite the new-car smell as being one of the most gratifying aspects of purchasing a new car. The smell is as much a statement of newness as the shiny body. In fact there is no such thing as a new-car smell. It’s an artificial construct, a successful marketing ploy that taps directly into fantasy. This smell can be found in aerosol canisters on the factory floor that contain that “new-car” aroma.

As for cornflakes, Kellogg’s considers the crunchiness of the grain as having everything to do with the success of the breakfast product. Emphasis is placed on the crunch we hear and feel in our mouths rather than the sound effects we hear on commercials. Kellogg’s has spent years experimenting with the synergy between crunch and taste. As part of this research they made contact with a Danish commercial music laboratory that specializes in the exact crunchy sensation of a breakfast cereal. Kellogg’s wanted to patent their own crunch, and trademark and own it in the same way they own their recipe and logo. So the laboratory created a highly distinctive crunch uniquely designed for Kellogg’s, with only one very important difference from traditional music in commercials. The particular sound and feel of the crunch was identifiably Kellogg’s, and anyone who happened to help himself to some cornflakes from a glass bowl at a breakfast buffet would be able to be recognize those anonymous cornflakes as Kellogg’s.

The day Kellogg’s introduced their unique crunch to the market, their brand moved up the ladder. They’d expanded the perception of their brand to incorporate four senses (including touch) rather than the more limited sight and taste. So by appealing to another of our five senses they broadened their brand platform.

In fact, as far back as 1973 Singapore Airlines broke through the barriers of traditional branding with their Singapore Girl, a move that would prove so successful that in 1994 the Singapore Girl

celebrated her twenty-first birthday and became the first brand figure to be displayed at the famous Madam Tussaud’s Museum in London. Previously airlines had based their promotions on cabin design, food, comfort, and pricing—ignoring the total sensory experience they could offer. Singapore Airlines made the shift when they introduced a campaign based exclusively on the emotional experience of air travel.

With a brand platform emphasizing smoothness and relaxation, their strategy was to move away from portraying themselves simply as an airline and instead to present themselves as an entertainment company. In the process, a new set of brand tools were invented and introduced. The staff uniforms were made from the finest silk in a fabric design based on the patterns in the cabin décor. The staff was styled right down to their makeup. Flight attendants were offered only two choices of color combination based on a palette designed to blend with Singapore Airlines’ brand color scheme.

The sensory branding of the Singapore Girl reached its zenith by the end of the 1990s, when Singapore Airlines introduced Stefan Floridian Waters. Not your average household name, to be sure, Stefan Floridian Waters is an aroma that has been specifically designed as part of the Singapore Airlines experience. Stefan Floridian Waters formed the scent in the flight attendants’ perfume, was blended into the hot towels served before takeoff, and generally permeated the entire fleet of Singapore Airlines planes. The patented aroma has since become a unique trademark of Singapore Airlines.

By the end of the 1990s Daimler Chrysler established an entirely new department within the company. This was not to design, build, or even market cars. Its job was solely to work on the sound of their car doors. That’s it. With a team of ten engineers allocated to the task, their only role was to analyze and then create the perfect sound of an opening and closing door.

Brand communication has reached a new frontier. In order to successfully conquer future horizons, brands will have to find ways to break the 2-D impasse and appeal to the three neglected senses. Superb picture quality won’t do it. Rather we should look to embrace all five senses in order to create a foundation for future brand strategies.

Courtesy: Lindstrom_Brand: Brand Sense

Dominos: New positioning

noreply@blogger.com (Ankur Jain) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 05:54:00 +0000

Here is a brief description of how Dominos’ evolved as a brand over the period of time. Dominos’ call itself to be in Food Services sector but not as a pizza player. The very definition of Marketing is that it is discipline of optimally allocating company’s resources for fulfilling consumers’ needs so as to ensure a balance of consumers’ subjective profits and the company’s long term financial profits.

Over a period of time, customers’ perception about Dominos changed and hence the subjective profits also varied. To sustain the long term profits in the market Dominos’ had to work hard in redefining its positioning in the minds of the customers.

For any business the first thing to do right is to choose a right segmenting variable. Segmenting variable could be anything like demographic parameter like age, region, sex etc. Or attitude behaviour like lifestyle, culture, belief, habits etc. Most of the people would be surprised to see that age, disposable income and family size are not the segmenting variable of Dominos. Infact the segmenting variable of Dominos’ is OCCASION. They have segmented the market on the basis of occasion so that people want a meal replacement for change in mood, party, spending time with family and kids, spending time with old friends, formal meeting with colleagues, clients and so on and so forth.

So dominos business is providing a high quality tasty food in meal replacement sector. When Dominos entered into Indian market, they tried to establish in a pizza category. First of their communications and tag line was based on the attitude that whenever and wherever you are hungry just call dominos. “HUNGRY KYA?” in one of the initial advertisements Mallika sherawat was the model. So some of the advertisements did fairly well and they established points of parity with other players.

Soon they realized that for home delivery model, time is the parameter which most of the customers value so they created a points of difference by new value proposition that is “30 Minutes or free”. Paresh Rawal featured ad in monsoon of Mumbai was a real hit and got many national and international awards. So after some time, when dominos’ business was not growing as fast as they expected they did lot of in depth and focus interviews where they found that it is not fast service which is the value driven parameter for customers, it is Taste which people want to pay for along with value for money. So once again as per the customers’ expectations Dominos’ introduced pan size pizza worth rupees thirty five and it all along changed the perception of people that Domino’s is a value for money.

So now responding to the customers’ reactions of valuing taste as the foremost reason to order pizza at home or office. They spent huge amount of money in R&D, hired new chefs on Dominos’ payroll and introduced various new variants in the Indian market like Cheese crust, Chinese pizza, other regional flavours etc. Some of them were instant hit and some could not do well. But one thing was very clear that constant innovation in product would only make your company better.

So now company has established three core values namely “30 Minute, free delivery”, “taste” and “Value for money”, with once again new positioning. “KHUSIYON KI HOME DELIVERY” is a new tag line and by virtue of this proposition, they could incorporate any of the core value in a same tagline. This is a beauty of any successful brand “CONSISTENCY”. The brand which is consistent over a period of time across product line is there for long time. Recently Dominos’ have introduced new series of commercials featuring sawant. Dominos is a smart company and they kept on this advertisement for quite a long time because of the recession in the market so they are banking upon the value proposition.

Hope to see brand dominos there for long time in the market with new brand proposition.

Videos of Dominos can be watched at the following link

http://www.dominos.co.in/advertising.jsp

Thanks to Dominos senior management for above piece of information.