Marketing India

E-Commerce posing a stiff competition to modern retail

2011-11-20T10:24:00.000-08:00

I walked into Crossword after a long time. Though not an avid book reader, but I always appreciated the books retail format it pioneered in India. Earlier whenever I used to be at Crossword, I always liked the ambience, the seating, the coffee counter which all together were a good enough to engage a customer. However, times have changed and over last two years, being a fast evolving internet savvy individual, I moved to e-commerce. And today modern format retail like Crossword is facing a stiff challenge from online retail.

Cost disadvantage - Modern retail requires presence at the right location. In the industry where returns are measured per square feet per month, cost pressure would surely be mounting on the modern formats. Mounting real estate cost puts further pressure on the bottom line.

Business Scale – In case of physical or brick and mortar retail outlets the target audience is the set of people in the proximity.

E-commerce is by default guarded against both of these challenges.

The above being the basics, consumer behaviour has changed a lot. With the increasing usage of smartphones, no wonder people would walk into a book store, browse through the collection, select the books, go online and purchase at a price differential. As a management funda says, the real threat to camera manufacturer wasn’t from other competitors but from mobile phones. Same is the case here. A Crossword need not worry about Landmark, which almost is the same business model but should focus on countering Flipkart. Even though the modern format retail has moved online also, but they don’t seem to have the muscle and the losgistics capability when compared to the Flipkart’s of the world who pioneered online retail.

Things don’t just end with books. Shoes, there are enough ways to purchase the same shoe you buy at a showroom at significant price differential. It can be argued that shoes and apparels are touch and feel phenomenon and people like to experience the purchase. Yes they do. But what if I want to purchase a particular variant of a brand, I try it in the showroom and purchase the exact size online. Certain things like coupon codes and promo codes which were unheard of in India are gradually becoming a common phenomenon. For all this to happen, the comfort with online transaction has been critical, but at the same time, keeping the ultra conscious Indian customer’s mentality the online retailers also have been offering cash on delivery. This is the final nail in the coffin for the high real estate cost retail.

On the consumer side, it is steadily strengthening its footprint, at the same time E-commerce in India is attracting humongous valuations. Lot of e-commerce firms are getting PE and VC backing for their business models. Being well funded, they have been spending a lot on advertising. I always was of the opinion that if e-commerce is for an internet savvy customer, it should be advertised only there. But the TV and Print ads are attempting to bring new customers on board, urge and convince them to atleast experiment once.

Online retail formats are creating a new market all together. Synergies with logistics and timely delivery, better prices and higher discounts are providing a satisfying customer experience. It would be good to see how the brick and mortar retail which has a better customer connect responds to the changing business dynamics. But one thing is for sure, the e-commerce is here to stay.

How Shopping has evolved in India

2011-04-12T07:50:00.001-07:00

With the growing Indian economy and a burgeoning middle class, the consumer is getting more empowered, as the purchase decision making becoming more aided, shopping as an activity has not just evolved but changed phenomenally. From the times when shopping used to be a routine activity of the head of household by going to a particular shop or a specific market, today a customer has plethora of options from a nearby kirana shop, a supermarket, a high profile shopping mall and an evolving online channel. Hence it becomes all the more important for the marketers to track the customers pulse, get their mindshare and ensure a favorable purchase decision and attempt to retain the customer at the next purchase.

In India there has been a noticeable change in the way shopping has evolved in a span of a decade. For a large consumer segment in the country, shopping which was perhaps a routine or a job a decade ago has now evolved to a lifestyle and a quasi-recreation activity. For instance, grocery shopping traditionally was perhaps considered as the job of the male family head, whereas it’s pleasing to see a young couple and a kid all together and enjoying shopping in a grocery super market on a weekend.

The way customers shop has changed remarkably, long back a monthly shopping list was made and the shopkeeper would pack the stuff from the same. Now we walk-in to a store, take a cart, go through all the aisles and pick up the required stuff. In the end you buy many things more than what you would have planned. The bottom line is impulse purchase is taking a higher wallet share of the customers today.

The way organized retail has changed the way a customer buys is worth mentioning, but as a matter of fact, traditional markets or bazaars and modern retail spaces complement each other. On one hand the traditional markets have their own charm and differentiation; the modern retail destinations have an element of sophistication and class. The traditional format of retail offers personalized service, attention or belongingness a traditional format can offer can’t possibly be achieved by database driven analytics and customer segmentation in modern retail. The modern retail formats offer loyalty programs and premium memberships to make their customers feel special. In today’s times customer engagement has become very critical for any seller in any market format.

Recently one of my friends wanted to buy an expensive branded watch. She went to the exclusive showroom in a shopping mall, checked all the models, selected one and also smartly noted down the model number. Although the selection was made in the showroom, she went ahead to make the actual purchase of the same model in a 30 year old reputed watch showroom in a bazaar where the retailer was offering a 20% discount. Had the customer been offered a tangible or a high perceived value intangible benefit such that the purchase decision was made at the point of making the first selection, the retailer would have justified the higher cost of the premium real estate of the mall. As a good marketer, the attempt should be to have maximum mindshare of the customer at the point of purchase and increase the probability of a successful conversion. In the example discussed, had the sales person at the exclusive showroom discussed a couple of arbitrary points about how to identify genuine Swiss watches the sale would have easily happened then and there.

In Indian context, I strongly feel that the bazaar and shopping malls will co-exist and complement each other. The look and feel, the fascination, the simplicity of a bazaar or a haat or a flee market would marry the classiness, sophistication and glitz of the malls. And it’s happening, at the festival times the same concept gets reflected in the form of make-shift stalls and small outlets which gives a feel of a bazaar within the ambience of the mall.

Grab the eyeballs

In this ever changing shopping paradigm marketers and brand managers need to advertise at precise touch points to ensure that the underlying message breaks the clutter and gets requisite attention. Within a shopping centre the focus should be on indentifying the areas attracting the maximum eyeballs for a considerable duration. A dipstick could be done to check that advertisement gets the attention of the target audience. Also it is important to identify locations where the advertiser can get an undivided attention for relatively larger time. The mall space around an open air coffee shop or an ice-cream joint could be one of the best locations to advertise, depending on the profile of the customers hanging out there. Side panes of the escalator or right in front of the capsule lift could be another good location to advertise. There could be several other such examples, but the idea is to improve the efficacy of each and every penny spent on advertising.

The basic fundamentals
The basic marketing fundamentals remain the same, Segmentation, Target and Positioning. Till the time the shopping areas used to be in a centrally located bazaar (traditional retail space), store-location identification was an exercise to identify the best real estate deal (in terms of rentals) and the right location. The parameters that would undergo scrutiny then would be traffic movement, availability of parking space and the store’s vicinity. The owner or the retailer would want the store to be conveniently located for the customers. With the omnipresence of the shopping malls, the phenomenon has changed completely. The variables that determine the selection of the retail space are not just the financial aspects of it, but other parameters closely related with the branding and positioning of the product.

This leads me to a concept that I identify as the “Mall Personality” which would mean the personality or lifestyle trait that a shopping place maps to the customer segment.

Malls can be categorized as:

Luxury Malls: The ones which attract the ultra high income bracket customers and house the Armanis and Versaces of the world.

Up-class Malls: The ones which cater to the upper middle class and higher segments and house the commonly popular known brands and outlets.

Value Malls: The ones which provide a pleasurable shopping experience and cater to the great Indian middle class

When it comes to mapping the brands to the Mall Personality there is a definite overlap between two consecutive categories, yet it gives enough insights to avoid a clear misfit.

For instance a deep-discount apparel retail store or a grocery retail operating on the low price positioning should ideally be located third value malls, where as in the luxury segment of the malls international brands, branded jewelry, exclusive cosmetics/perfumes etc, make a right fit. It makes logical sense to be present at the right place so as to get access to the right customer base and hence justify the costs. Not just the store locations, but advertising through kiosks and stalls within the malls get segmented easily. Whereas an upcoming, affordable yet innovative mobile phone brand should interact with the customers in a value mall, the luxury malls would be the best location for a new launch premium sedan.

I also believe that each shopping place has its shelf life, the time till it attracts enough footfalls and buyers before another location in the city takes an upper edge. The good retailers would be the one who can foresee such a development and secure better real estate for them at favorable terms.

Technology will be shaping the way we buy

So far, so good. Certain things I see that would be defining in coming years in Indian context would be use of technology primarily the smart phones and apps. Today people select products by physically comparing the prices and features. In times to come, GPS synchronized smart phone applications, would help the customer explore what they are looking for, compare guide the customer to the store offering the highest discount by just scanning the barcode. It will not only necessitate the brands and sellers to be available at the customer’s arms length of desire, but also engage them such that the information aided decision taken results in the desired outcome.

I must reiterate that understanding the customers pulse is most critical for being a successful marketer today. The source of customer insights being immaterial be it through extensive data mining and analytics, customer segmentation, through personal relationship or assisting a customer through technology enabled decision making, it’s important that they provide inputs in shaping the overall strategy. For smelling success consistently, a marketer has to always think a step ahead of the customer.

Social CRM: Leveraging Social Media

2010-02-15T05:10:00.000-08:00

Social CRM is a process to monitor, engage and manage conversations and relationships with existing and prospective customers and influencers across the Internet, social networks and digital channel [1]

The paper gives a general overview of social networking, how it is gaining importance in today’s internet driven society and how the organizations are using it more meaningfully for business purposes. Social networking started as a tool to engage users and create their networks, with time the organizations realised the importance of social network and presence of people on these networks as a channel of effective communication. It led the organizations proactively creating their presence on the social networks and engaging the customers. Further going in the details, the advantages and the stumbling blocks of social CRM implementation are discussed to give a perspective of how things would shape in the real business scenario.

Towards the later part of the paper, Social CRM cases in real business scenarios have been discussed to understand the nuances of application and the benefits of implementation in terms of better customer engagement overall business benefit. . Also, for any broad organization level decision like a CRM strategy employing social media, there has to be a model for measuring the returns. Social CRM RoI is also discussed to give an impression of how the investment decision at the organization level could be arrived at and how could the use of Social CRM be justified with numbers.

The overall understanding of Social CRM is useful for developing organization’s CRM strategy and is responsible for managing its customer centric approach especially important in the increasing competitive business world.

Literature Review & Methodology

The methodology used was survey of literature available on the internet, journals, magazines and reports of studies conducted by reputed international research organizations. These have been very useful sources for researching the debates and discussions that have centred on Social CRM also known as CRM 2.0, and how it is increasingly being used as a tool in collaborating with customers to provide mutual value.

[1] Martin Walsh, Head Digital Marketing, IBM

Leveraging Social CRM

Nano Marketing: Small is Beautiful

2010-02-15T03:19:00.000-08:00

- Gaurav Kayal

Nano or 1billionth or 10^-9. Small is beautiful for the Nano marketers.

Nano marketing is ideating a product in an existing product category at a low cost for a mass market having almost all the hygiene features. It could be anything, from FMCG to consumer durables to electronics to automobiles.

I would call the concept of selling shampoo in sachets, though long back, as Nano marketing. The idea is to capture a larger consumption base who need the product but either use alternatives or just don’t use anything.

For instance, a car is needed by almost all the families, but being expensive, many families in India are still dependent on two-wheelers. People in the lower income categories also need a shampoo, but go for other alternatives because they cannot probably purchase a bottle of shampoo at one point in time. Almost everyone in a developing country needs purified water. In a country like India, where water supply isn’t ensured for masses, pure and germ free water is a dream. Even people in rural areas need refrigerators to meet their requirements, but electricity is an issue.

In all the examples cited above, there is a need, but there are usually no products to satisfy those needs at prices which are affordable. It must be understood that for making any product available at a lower price, quality cannot be negotiated. There can be a compromise on the capacity, on the look and feel, on the quantity, but quality of the product needs to be maintained more than acceptable standards.

Nano Marketing Attempts

Tata Nano: I guess I need not get into the details; the product is itself very popular and almost known to all its target audience.
Mahindra Gio: 1/2 tonne truck (4-wheeled), targeting the price gap between the three wheelers and 1 tonne mini trucks. More stable, can carry higher load.
Tata Chemicals Swach: A water purifier at Rs 999, which doesn’t require electricity or running water supply. It essentially caters to the requirements of the households where the water and electricity supply is erratic, thus directly indicating a lot of potential in developing countries.
HUL’s PureIt and Eureka Forbes AquaSure are other products in the category.
Godrej’s Chotukool: A 43 litre cool box, top loaded, 7.8 kg in weight. Given power shortage problems, it has high level of insulation and keeps cool for long hours without the use of electricity. Priced at around Rs 3250, it is a nano product for the product category. It also targets the people who otherwise wouldn’t have used a refrigerator and thus is creating a market for itself.
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/godrej/s-nano-chotukool/377275/

How to identify Nano Marketing opportunities?

The product category itself is not a luxury, rather a need or close to a necessity
For a low priced product category, the penetration of the product and usage is very insignificant in the bottom 20-30% (income levels) of the population. In India, SEC classification could be a deciding criteria
Using the product will add value, but the product doesn’t have close substitutes
There is a potential of large volume of sales, although the per unit price could be low
There is a price gap that could be targeted

What could be next on the anvil of marketers is for us to ponder. Affordable housing, affordable health care, insurance, beverages, packaged food... possibilities are immense and the potential is huge!!

Search Engine Optimization

2010-02-02T03:09:00.000-08:00

SEO is a process of increasing the traffic to a website from search results.Whenever a keyword is searched in a search engine, usually the sites listedin the top results would be accessed by the internet user. SEO targets to place a particular website in the higher rank for the key words searched for.It plays a highly important role in the world web, online, or e‐Marketing or in general Internet Marketing. This paper will discuss in detail SEO and itsimportance, Internet Marketing and future prospects.
Search Engine Optimization

With the growth of Internet in 1990s the webmasters started getting theirwebsites registered with the search engines which kept a copy of the sites’content and searched it on various parameters including keywords and other links associated with it. The search results were indexed and displayed on theresults page. This was probably the first time when getting a site rank highwas realized as important to the business of the company. With increasing importance of SEO, two methods evolved, White Hat and Black Hat which willbe discussed subsequently.

Search Engine Optimization

Tata Nano: Will it be an auto FMCG?

2010-02-02T02:39:00.000-08:00

-Gaurav Kayal

The most hyped and talked about car in India over last 2 years has undoubtedly been Nano. From political controversy, land acquisition to problems it may create due to lack of sustainable infrastructure. The car, the base model of which touched all time low price, the cheapest car in the world, will it get the desired customer response is something that we have to wait and watch.

As an MBA student, Nano has been cited as one of the best examples of NPD in India. Product development at reduced cost without compromising on the safety and quality is in itself a great challenge which Nano has met. I was in Mumbai and saw it for the first time on display in Westside and I was amazed at the curiosity of people around. The car is spacious, much more than the closest competitor Maruti-800, taller and wider. Overall seemed to be a good product.

That was the time when booking was being made but today you could see Nano on road. Looks cute, less noise (may be all are new) BUT the engine sounds like a mellowed down version of a auto rickshaw. If you could compromise with it, it seems to be a great product.

Comparing Nano, Maruti 800 and Alto on prices (Source Carwale.com, on road price Mumbai) Prices in INR

Tata Nano
Base 1,52,486
CX 1,81,255
LX 2,08,896

Maruti 800
Maruti 800 Std - 2,22,900
Maruti 800 AC - 2,48,491

Alto
Std. 2,67,553
LX 3,03,107

The base model of a Nano is a sure winner, Maruti 800 standard model costlier by 46% (Rs 70000) but the difference reduces to Rs 40000 for the high end model i.e. AC Maruti 800 model is just 18% costlier than Nano LX. Although Nano LX has better features, a safe bet would be to go for tried and tested Maruti 800.

A car is bought for atleast 7-8 years, so a price differential of 70000 spread across 7 years would amount to Rs 1000 per month additional if a person wants to switch to Maruti 800 instead of Tata Nano. With increasing income levels, will Tata Nano be able to find enough buyers? And if there are people willing to spend little more, Maruti 800 will surely survive.

The production facility at Sanand expected to be producing 2.5 lakh units per year, will it find a market large enough. All it needs to do is to find these many people who are not willing to pay additional Rs 70000 for a Maruti 800. And in India, it is very much possible. Also, it can always explore export market.

I happened to have a chat with an auto-rick driver, who had recently bought a Mahindra 3 wheeler for Rs 1.65 lacs, seats 6 people other than the driver, diesel average of 25 kmpl. It would be interesting to see if the base model Nano in CNG/ LPG variant could replace auto-ricks and seat 4 people in a more comfortably.This would be a point where in the mass produced Nano will actually find enough buyers, say 2.5 L cars per annum and at the same time will change the face of Indian public transport.

If it happens it could be a first FMCG story for an automobile, for car sales, spares, mechanics everything will be on a massive scale.

Brands Re:Charge, Re:Invent, Re:Engage in today's times

2009-11-07T23:45:00.000-08:00

Presentation at the 17th Business School Affaire and Dewang Mehta Business School Awards.

The event was held alongwith the World Brand Congress, Taj Lands End, 4-5 Nov 2009

Brands Re:charge, Re:invent, Re:engage in today's times

View more presentations from gmkayal.

Analyzing the Airtel New Tariff Plan

2009-10-31T10:00:00.000-07:00

This is the analysis of the Airtel's new tariff plan. Airtel today launched the per second tariff plan. The Freedom Plan as it is called offers its prepaid customers a tariff of 1 paise per second on local and intercity calls made to another user on its network and a tariff of 1.20 paise per second for calls made outside its Airtel network.

Now, 1.2 p per second for calls to other networks is 20% higher than competitors. Airtel is playing a nice trick as nobody probably cares about 0.2 paise extra being paid.

Airtel’s existing plan offers 60 p per minute for calls to other non Airtel subscribers. Here is a comparison of the existing plan, i.e. 60 p per minute and the new plan 1.2 paise per second.

According to me, the new plan makes no sense for any calls of more than 5 minutes on other networks. And since most of the STD calls hold long, the customer stands to lose and the trick works in favour of Airtel.

Market Research for Scooter Segment

2009-10-18T03:21:00.000-07:00

Market Research for identifying communication strategy for metal bodied two-wheeler was conducted as a part of an academic project. The results reflected in the study are indicative and may not be quoted. Also, the market research was conducted in a small city and the inferences cannot be generalised for the country.

Market Research for Scooter Segment

Brand Valuation of Happydent

2009-10-18T01:43:00.001-07:00

Brand Valuation of Happydent

Brand Equity Measurement: Happydent

2009-10-18T01:40:00.000-07:00

Brand Equity Measurement: Happydent

Brand Image Measurement of Happydent

2009-10-18T01:23:00.000-07:00

Brand Image Measurement of Happydent

Funda Goli: Dil se Desi

2009-09-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

-Gaurav Kayal

Funda Goli: Yet Another product in the gamut of sugar boiled candies in India

Funda Goli is product from tea to cigarettes manufacturer Godfrey Phillips India in two variants “Kachcha Aam” and “Lichi.” The company had earlier launched two candies in Funda Mint Saunf flavour and Funda Mint Double Thunda. I personally haven’t seen any of these brands not even at the Paanwalas which stock the cigarettes from Godfrey Phillips.

The big question is does it make sense to launch a product in the already crowded low involvement category? The major players in the category are Perfetti, Parle, ITC Candyman, Nutrene to name a few. The category could be segmented into: Fruit Flavours, Mint, Butter Candies. The classical segment of flavours of fruits consumed in India is not addressed by Perfetti (except for Strawberry Flavoured Alpenleibe). The fruit flavours are offered by Candyman, Parle (Mango bite, Orange candy, and latest KAcha Mango bite and Mazelo) and many other local players. Funda Goli is available in just two flavours, Lichi and Kachcha Aam, both typical Indian flavours.

The fruit flavoured candy launches, 3 flavours of Parle Mazelo, Parle Kachcha Mango Bite, and now Funda Goli indicates that the Big Daddy of the business Perfetti is probably not laying its hands on this category, which leaves a void to be filled by others.
The tag line "Dil se Desi" goes along with the flavours but does the advertisement induce a desire of the trial? The advertisement is in itself not very appealing and possibly would deter an economically well-to-do consumer from trying it.

Two fundamentally important aspects of a low involvement product category like this are ensuring availability and creating pull, not just by trial but repeat purchase. Hopefully the company delivers on both.

Funda Goli: www.dilsedesi.in

Mint Candies in India: A Cold War

2009-09-15T07:52:00.000-07:00

-Gaurav Kayal

In a country where the Gutka and Pan Masala form probably the largest chunk of the habitual chewing products, how often do Indians consume Mint every day? The answer might be a guess but the market is huge. Over 2.8 million Perfetti products are consumed in India daily.

Recently from the TVCs Perfetti and Cadbury’s India (HALLS) are focussing a lot on the generally commoditized Mint candy market.

The Halls ad is a cold exaggeration. In the Halls ad, a person waiting for a suburban train at a station (possibly Mumbai) pops a Halls candy and almost freezes. The ad shows a polar bear appearing from nowhere and throwing snowballs at him followed by a mad bear hug. The main character of the ad madly shivers and dances with public watching his erratic behaviour. The background music as makes little sense. A humorous combination... not really!!!

It comes with a message about an ingredient, Mentholyptus, which supposedly brings freshness. The ad ends with a tag line Halls – Thandi Saans ka Blast. The ad is little confusing, in the beginning it shows the central character sweating, and then he pops up a Halls. The message ends with a “Thandi Saans or Cool Breath.” I believe that no mint candy cools the body, it at best gives a fresh feeling in the mouth, so the person experiencing shivering in the humid Mumbai climate actually doesn’t relate to the utility of the product. Another problem with Halls is its old positioning as medicinal lozenge might create dissonance.

ITC had Minto-Fresh. The ads were good, humourous but not continued for long. Again a typical of low involvement product category, the memory is washed out easily and ad repetition is a must.

For a low involvement product, use of humour and ad repetition is important, but humour should be actually taken as humour and not erratic behaviour. Chlormint always has been good with adding humorous flavour to its ads and has worked for it. It also tried to prevent commoditization of category through the Panwadi ad. Everyone remembers “Dubara Mat Poochna” as the reason for eating Chlormint. Salman Khan is endorsing for Chlormint and the humour is actually taken the way it is intended.

Chlormint: The message is unambiguous, doesn’t offer any extraordinary benefits, assumes that people know the reason why they need a mint.
Halls: Possible negative effects due to the old positioning, fails to bring a smile for the viewer, attempted dual positioning (makes you feel cool in summers, fresh breath)

In the market of Mint candies, there have been many players who have come, made their presence felt, but couldn’t sustain. In a very low involvement product category, where the product differentiation is low; in order to create a pull, advertising is the right strategy and doing the right advertising with right ad story an important determining factor. Perfetti has mastered the art of humour, be it Chlormint or Happydent, the humour is taken the right way resulting in a good product pull.

Check the space for a Happydent Brand Tracking.
Halls TVC

Estilo Launch: Goodbye Zen

2009-08-26T12:54:00.000-07:00

- Gaurav Kayal

Maruti Suzuki launched a new petrol version of its hatchback Estilo. Aggressively priced between Rs 3.12 and Rs. 3.95 lakhs (Ex Showroom Delhi). The interesting thing to notice here is that Maruti Suzuki has dropped the name Zen, from the product.

The new Estilo

To remember the old days, when the Indian car market was driven by Maruti-800, it was the Zen which created the upper end of the compact car market, the A2 segment as we know. For a lot of years, Zen held an unshakable position in the segment, till the Korean manufacturers create a jolt.

Zen: The Original Model

Zen stood for sportiness, design (at that time the cars didn’t have smooth curves and were rather edgy). Zen which meant Zero-Engine-Noise, hardly few know about it, rather most of the people think it is a Japanese name, also communicated an innovation in technology (not through the acronym but association with Japan is also considered equivalent in India).

Maruti Suzuki went for a complete revamp of Zen, with an all-new-design Zen Estilo launched in December 2006. The car derived association with Zen as at the same time, Maruti Suzuki had discontinued the existing Zen. Therefore, to fill the vacuum, the Zen name had to be in the market.

Zen Estilo

At the time of launch of Zen Estilo, in the higher end of the compact car segment, Maruti Suzuki had Zen, WagonR and Alto. Alto was being extended to the lower price range thus creating a segment between Maruti 800 and the A2 segment, but it couldn’t be identified clearly. Thus, killing the brand Zen at that time wasn’t a good idea, it would have left Maruti Suzuki with just WagonR as an existing brand. Therefore, it was imperative to retain the brand name Zen, where came the new product Zen Estilo.

Thus Maruti Suzuki capitalised on the brand name Zen for a new product launch at the same time took off the classic old Zen.

August 25, 2009, Maruti Suzuki Maruti Suzuki launched new Estilo without Zen prefix. Estilo over the years has itself become a brand and Maruti Suzuki can afford to get rid of the Zen association. It derives its design and styling more closely from Zen Estilo and can be termed as a regular upgrade of the same version. Estilo is an independent brand with a 998 cc, 3 cylinder, K-Series engine and is claimed to be more fuel efficient.

The brand Zen will always be remembered with certain positive attributes to it.

Revamped Rediff: Repositioning "Just Your Stuff"

2009-08-21T13:20:00.001-07:00

-Gaurav Kayal

Rediff.com, the Indian internet portal has revamped its design to give it a complete new look. Just not this, a new TV ad campaign has also been launched to reach out to the audience. “just your stuff”. is what Rediff.com claims indicating a level of personalization.

The once cluttered website with loads of content is replaced by a Plain Vanilla with icon based navigation.

The Earlier Interface

There is no advertisement on the homepage which is again simple yet attractive. The home page includes a search bar and eight icons, representing news, movies, cricket, money, Rediffmail, my page, iShare and shopping.

Revamped website

On the right side there are links to articles in sections like headlines, news, sports, business and movies. With no ads on the homepage, the interface looks nice and friendly, and advertisements have been reserved for the linked pages. An uncluttered space is liked by users and will fetch more hits. The ad targets slightly evolved users of the Internet.

BBH Mumbai has created a new television campaign to focus on “just your stuff”. Possibly with direct competition from personalization offered by iGoogle, Rediff.com also needs to provide a level of customization that users can design their own homepage, something that isn’t being offered but can be looked upon in coming times.

The TVC focuses on a middle aged man, bathing in the tub and notices a singing toy duck. He begins recording the duck and soon all the other things in his apartment become lively with animated movements. The entire ad plays in the background “Your love keeps lifting me higher and higher" by Jackie Wilson. The ad signs off with the tag line “just your stuff"

Rediff.com’s market share in search is 8-9% share in India and we are a clear no.3 position in India ahead of MSN. It is possibly the only Indian web portal which is still surviving the competition from global behemoths like Yahoo, MSN, Google and still manages to have a decent recall and user base in India.

Revamped site is fresh and uncluttered. Text laden homepage is replaced by a user friendly interface. What has remained constant is the company logo: The Black and Red combination still remains the same in the same font. The change is for good.

TVC

Happydent: Backed by Happening Ads

2009-08-09T08:03:00.000-07:00

-Anton Babu

Chewing gum is one of the most popular traditional confectionary item which has endured the test of time through suitable product evolution & innovation.Typically,chewing gum is made of Chickle, a natural latex product(that is why the brand name-Chicklets).If we look at the per-capita consumption of chewing gum in India it is only 8 per year as compared to 2000 per year in U.S.A & 1000 in Russia. The current size of the Indian chewing gum market is estimated to be about 1000 Crores(INR)thus it offers huge opportunity to companies like Perfetti & Wrigley in terms of market & new product development.

Perfetti launched the brand `Happydent’ in 1970 along with Alpenlibe, Big Babol and the brand has been growing ever since. The parent company of Happydent, Perfetti Van Melle was established in March 2001 through the merger of Perfetti S.p.A and Van Melle NV. In 2001, Perfetti Van Melle India introduced the functional gum category to India by way of Happydent White, a chewing gum containing ingredients (baking soda) that provides the benefit of keeping teeth naturally white. In this category, Happydent competed with strongly entrenched brands with high awareness and big spends. The brand was sailing along but could not really shake the competitors. In early 2006, Orbit White (Wrigley’s) stepped up, with marketing inputs. It has been as serious potential threat to Happydent White.

The category of chewing gums is an impulse purchase and so ads play a very important role in market share. Based on the fact that “whitening” is perceived as a desired consumer benefit Happydent took the liberty of dramatizing whiteness to a degree of unbelievable, a fantastical exaggeration- Thus was borne the bizarre idea of a human bulb—a man who is a professional bulb since his teeth are so white. Spontaneous recall more than doubled to 16 percent, from the previous 8 percent in 2005. Market share simply doubled and trebled. Total brand awareness scores of HAPPYDENT doubled and grew dramatically to reach the 90 percent level. Gross national volume grew by 102 percent over 2005 figures.

Happydent has also been successful in increasing health awareness amongst consumers thus making functional gums the most exciting sub-category within confectionery. What adds to the excitement is the fact that functional aspects bring some level of “planning” in the purchase procedure from the customer’s side. This is good news as it means incremental business for confectionery-players with increased relevance to the customer and possible addition in the monthly grocery list. To tap into this opportunity Happydent has tried innovative pricing and new packaging (pocket bottles) which carry aesthetic appeal which tends to increase per-customer-throughput . The launch of products like Protex Happydent which is claimed to prevent tooth decay due to the presence of a special ingredient called 'Xylitol' and Happydent White which contains sodium bi-carbonate helps to keep teeth clean & white helped to leverage its position in this segment. The latest variety is Happydent wave which is already making the waves in the market.

TVC

Mr WizeR: The new mascot of Maruti Suzuki WagonR

2009-08-08T22:55:00.000-07:00

-Nikhil Singh

After Vodafone and Videocon, its Maruti Suzuki now which has come up with new mascot. Maruti is first Indian automobile company to unveil a mascot for its product. The main objective for whole exercise is to position WagonR as a leadership brand. Company is planning to achieve this not only through sales volume but also through customer satisfaction. Through this mascot it will be communicating the core strength of the brand. This new concept will help break the clutter in its category.

Mr WizeR will be having all qualities as embodied by WagonR. Mr Wizer reflects a person who is natty, smart and capable to get things done. He is having his own image among others, and own individuality. He takes his own decision after thoughtful deliberations. A person can rely on Mr WizeR suggestions, thoughts. He is able to deliver and suggest to others smart and reliable solution.

Company has launched the comic strip to capture the customers mind. Customer should link brand name and the comic strip together when they think of WagonR. The comic strip appears on Friday in business section of The Times of India. Rational behind this move is that people are in more relaxed mood. They can leave all past week load behind and they think forward for weekends and next week. To increase interaction between customer and brand, company will launch digital campaign as well.

It needs to be looked whether Indian companies are getting enticed by the recent fad of Brand mascots. Michelin Tyres has been successful with their brand mascot. This is a first Indian automobile component manufacturer’s attempt to revitalize their brand through a mascot. It will be interesting to see whether all Indian automobile companies will follow the same suit.

Maruti’s K SERIES Engines: Technology Branding

2009-08-08T22:35:00.000-07:00

-Nikhil Singh

In April Maruti Suzuki unveiled K12M engines. In recent TVC for K series engine, products from Maruti had taken a back seat. Maruti is showcasing its recent technology upgradations through this TVC. In K series engine Maruti has achieved the impossible trinity of fuel efficiency, power and small size. All cars have one or maximum two of the above mentioned benefits. Maruti has achieved the impossible, by bringing all the three benefits in one engine.

Tagline “Leaner, Meaner, Fitter”, conveys the above benefits efficiently. TVC starts with a race, which the sprinter completes and proceeds for the next marathon race. Even after winning the marathon race, he keeps on running and winning. Slowly the athlete is replaced by a machine (Transformers redux) with a heart of K series engine. TVC is a real clutter breaker. Usually why will a common man worry about an engine? But this TVC makes one sit, watch and think about it. TVC conveys exceptional quality of the athlete, i.e. the manner in which sprinter turns into a champion marathon athlete, same exceptional quality is available in K series.

K12M is BS-IV compliant 1197 cc aluminum engine. It will be manufactured at the company’s new state-of the-art engine manufacturing facility at its Gurgaon plant. A-Star bears K 10B engine. K series engine are not only fuel efficient but they are also low on CO2 emissions. Ritz will be having new K12M engine.

The engine has lower running costs because of increase in first changeover time of engine oil from 1,000 km to 10,000 km, increased spark plug life and reduced valve clearance adjustment time.

Bajaj also recently came up with the same concept. Bajaj robot bike ad showed Bajaj bikes converting into Transformers style creatures, thanks to twin spark technology.

By applying the transformers company is able to establish a linkage between technology and human being. They are able to give human face to the technology. This was successfully employed by Bajaj for its DTSI technology. Maruti’s attempt in the same direction is worth noting for.

Bajaj Robot Ad

Maggi: Targeting Nostalgia

2009-08-08T12:57:00.000-07:00

- Gaurav Kayal

Maggi: 25 years of Joy, that’s what claims the latest print ads and the message the pack delivers. Maggi is a household name in India, almost generic in quick to make noodles segment with more than 50% market share. The only direct competitor to it could be Top Ramen which is not even in the TOMA.

Maggi was launched in India in 1984 as an instant food snack targeting working mothers. Until then, there was no other player in India in such a category and Maggi created a segment for itself. In the past 25 years, it has been able to keep off many new entrants and remains the market leader.

Maggie has always been positioned as “2-Minute Noodles” or “Bus do Minute” implying the time to prepare being very less targets convenience of the mothers to cater to their kids’ hunger requirements. Children’s appetite, which is always a function of taste, Maggi has never let anyone down

The target group for Maggi has been children and their pester power being leveraged. But off late it has realised that the once loyal to Maggi children must have grown up to become college students or working professionals. Therefore it makes all the more business sense to communicate to this segment through its advertisements. Many of the single men and women use Maggi as an easy to prepare instant food.

A new conversation has started, ‘What’s your Maggie story’? A new dedicated website to celebrate 25 years of Maggi in India has been launched www.meandmeri.in which essentially means “Me and My Maggi”. It asks for consumer’s to share their experience with Maggi and their photograph would appear on the Maggi packet.

It is not just about 2 minutes anymore but to establish an emotional connect with the consumers. I myself felt that such a campaign prevented me from buying Top Ramen and instead ended up purchasing Maggi. Such a campaign not only creates an emotional connect but also makes the consumers think that the company also values them. The website asks for an online poll on the various Maggi flavours, 17 of them, invites stories from the consumers and also publishes the slogans coined by various users as well.

The print ad, almost a half page in Mumbai TOI I had seen this summer gives a clear message: “For all these years I have just asked for two minutes of your time.” Along with this message are testimonies of actual users claiming where they had used Maggi – Hostels, their new home, office and so on.

But over all these years there was a growing health concerns about whether it is actually a healthy food. And when it comes to children, Indian mothers would really be very cautious. Many had a perception that due to being made of refined wheat flour (“Maida”) it isn’t all that good. Nestle realized this and came up with Atta Maggi. It has traditionally been believed that Atta (Normal wheat flour) is better than the refined. It has positioned itself as “Taste Bhi Health Bhi”. It features that no MSG is added and the website reassures that it is completely healthy food with no harmful ingredients added.

Nestle has tried to keep Maggi to what it stands for “Good Food Good Life”. It has to maintain its market leadership, fence off competition from branded and private labels.

Videocon Rebranding-Does it confuse or convince?

2009-08-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

- Anton Babu

Durables major Videocon is rebranding itself and has shed its solid steel 'V' for a more fluid, lava like 'V', coupled with a new proposition – 'Experience change'. The brand, which has been in existence for more than two decades, has managed a fair share in the entry/middle product segment. It is perceived as a brand for the Indian middle class -- no frills, no glamour, simple, reliable and hassle-free. This rebranding exercise is being read as cues of Videocon making forays into the premium segment.

Prior to this, the brand has banked on other propositions, such as 'Technology for health and pleasure', 'Bring Home the Leader', 'New Improved Life', 'The Indian Multinational', 'Whatever role life gives you, play it big', as well as the most recent one, 'Eco Logic for sustainable life'.

Conceived by Interbrand, Singapore, the new 'V' is composed of two animated green, lava-like shapes called Chouw and Mouw, both of which have distinct identities. Chouw and Mouw are 'live' characters that will be employed to tell simple stories, each depicting a positive dimension of Videocon's new tagline, 'Experience Change'. Both have certain personality traits, based on their physical attributes. The bigger one, Chouw, is slow but earnest; strong and silent; he is patient, good natured, kind, and maybe a little romantic too. The smaller one, Mouw, is quick witted, energetic bordering on restless, curious, and funny.

The rebranding exercise has been successful on the front that it is:

* Fresh and relevant- It is a campaign that has a whiff of fresh air and also projects a brand identity that people can relate to easily.
* Well Launched – The decision to launch the campaign at the IIFA 2009 was a masterstroke since it guarantees eyeballs and also combine its punchline with IIFA’s green pledge.
* Vibrant- The green color for the “V” logo is Vibrant, appealing and also provides continuity from its earlier green products platform.

There are however some pitfalls with this rebranding strategy which Videocon will have to overcome if it’s campaign has to be a success. The major issue is that the brand has changed its positioning quite a few times. Now, with the old Videocon jingle and the previous Shah Rukh Khan adverts, coupled with the new green logo consumers might feel confused. If the consmer is confused, the brand is normally refused, “If you can’t convince them then confuse them” logic normally doesn’t work with consumers.

Corporate houses nowadays tend to think that the brand is the logo, stationery or corporate colours. However we know that Brands encompass everything from customer perception and experience to quality, look and feel, customer care, retail and web environments, the tone and voice of communications, and more. The customer should be able to perceive a difference in the product and the offering also otherwise it will like the rebranding of a couple of Banks in which only the logo changed and everything else remained static. The Chouw Mouw ads though cute and well executed might tend to be considered as a “me-too” phenomenon because many companies like Reliance, Virgin have come up with unique characters inspired by the roaring success of Vodafone’s Zoozoos.

Volvo: Digital Media

2009-07-31T10:40:00.000-07:00

-Nikhil Singh

Deliberate move or Second thought?

Volvo cars have always stressed their historic reputation for solidity and reliability. All their products have been marketed on this reputation. Even prior to the government focus on vehicle safety, Volvo cars had been forefront in safety and reliability engineering. But in the recent TVC launch of its luxury sedan S80, there was no mention of safety and reliability. The recent TVC doesn’t talk about safety features present in the car. This doesn’t mean Volvo is not positioning itself in India as world leader in safety engineering. Volvo India is using digital medium to convey its safety and reliability features present in the car.

The Indian version of Volvo car website has a separate section named Experience Volvo. Experience Volvo section has interactive flash presentations showcasing Volvo’s strength in child safety and environmental technology. It also has presentations on luxury, quality related features. Volvo’s mobile internet site has dedicated links, which directs customers to experience the safety features of its cars.

Company is using digital medium to educate Indian customers about the safety aspects of its cars. As per recent interview given by a Volvo official to a marketing magazine, 30 seconds TVC is not enough to showcase the safety features of the car. They are using 30 sec TVC to build their brand imagery around safe and luxurious brand.

According to a company executive reported in Brand Reporter Volvo will be employing digital marketing tools to showcase its core brand values safety, luxury, environment and quality. Online marketing will involve rich media banner ads, search and social media marketing.

TVC

Tata DOCOMO: Is it doing something NEW?

2009-07-31T07:38:00.000-07:00

- Gaurav Kayal

The latest entrant to the telecom space in India: TATA DOCOMO. TATA DOCOMO is Tata Teleservices Limited's (TTSL) telecom service on the GSM platform in strategic alliance with Japanese telecom major NTT DOCOMO. NTT DOCOMO has 26% stake in the company. It has been launched in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The company is planning a pan-India rollout by October. TTSL has got the GSM license for 19 circles and spectrum in 18 circles.

DOCOMO is also a global leader in the VAS (Value-Added Services) space and the alliance will try to leverage strong R&D of DOCOMO to its benefit in India.

Building the Brand

The TVCs are nice comic creatures made out of ‘D’ ‘O’ ‘C’ ‘O’ ‘M’ ‘O’ into a cat, a see-saw definitely having a great recall and a good attempt after the Zoozoo clutter.

But Vodafone, everyone knew is a telecom operator, my only fear is that there has been no attempt to associate the value added services or the network to the advertisements.

Local Promotion: Cities are flooded with flex banners of Tata DOCOMO (Do The New). The advertisement claims the same. But does it give an insight what product TATA DOCOMO is? For many haven’t heard of NTT DOCOMO it is hard to figure out if it is actually a mobile service operator. It isn’t my gut feeling that says so, but a few friends of mine, decently educated, and also couldn’t figure out what is Tata DOCOMO.

Tata DOCOMO is being launched in Web 2.0 way, with a Twitter page, Youtube Channel , and a company website www.tataDOCOMO.com with interactive features like user comments, page ratings, share links for Facebook etc.

The pricing has been done in an innovative manner and could probably be the most competitive as no other telecom operator offers per second pulse. Tata Indicom also had offered similar at the time of launch.

I personally see overall a great brand building exercise being done. It could be a very late entrant in the telecom space, but the market potential is huge. The value proposition being offered and the Tata brand name also would be helpful in building the brand. The only concern that I see here is how long will it take for a layman to identify the brand as a telecom player. It has to prove in the market with coverage and customer value. There is going to be significant movement in the telecom space, Aircel trying to make a footprint, and few more waiting to enter the Indian market (Telenor).

Reliance Home Products: FMCG Test Marketing

2009-07-27T21:44:00.000-07:00

-Gaurav Kayal

Latest from Reliance group, Test Marketing of its independent brand of FMCG products in Mumbai is currently on, Reliance Home Products. To clarify, it is not a private label that the group intends to sell through its organised retail, but an independent FMCG brand that will be sold through other retailer and kirana stores. If it smells success in Mumbai, it will look forward to a wider launch.

The products introduced food items such as flour, pulses and edible oil. Reliance Home Products, has introduced wheat flour, cooking oil and pulses under Healthy Life and a mango drink under brand name Good Life. Reliance intends to have presence in coffee, noodles, ketchup, soaps and shampoos as well.

Reliance through its retail store Reliance Fresh has been selling private labels in various categories, noodles, snack items, ketchup, detergents but this is something new that is seen not only to leverage its existing infrastructure of retail outlets but also penetrating through other’s network.

The last time I went to Reliance Fresh, it had flooded its soaps and detergent section with a private label SUDZ, the packaging imitating the age old surf, in detergent powder and detergent cake variants.

Apparently, because of its ambitious plans in FMCG, Reliance Retail had bid for two Henkel soap brands Aramusk and Moloy last month.

According to a company executive reported in Economic Times, the FMCG brands won’t bear the Reliance brand name, which could possibly be because of the negatives people associate with the company can go well with gasoline but not edible oils and other food products.

The FMCG space is witnessing a lot of movement and vibration. HUL losing its market share, new players with long term focus making their foot prints like ITC, Himalaya and private labels moving out of organised retail (Pantaloons) and now backward integration by organised retailers.

Great Indian Ads: Hamara Bajaj

2009-07-20T08:33:00.001-07:00

-Anton Babu

In this thread, `The Great Indian Ads’ an attempt has been made to revisit the classic ads of yester years which remain permanently etched in the collective memory of the Indian public. These are real classics which make us feel that the time machine is indeed the need of the hour.

There was a time when Bajaj scooters were the king on Indian roads. Supers and Chetaks were the order of the day; Lambys had become unfashionable and Vespas tried to compete but just. It was a time when people were willing to wait for months for a Chetak ; it was the time of `Hamara Bajaj’.

The `Hamara Bajaj’ ad was able to capture the joy ride of a quintessential Indian middle class family to its finest details- The father driving the scooter with utmost concentration negotiating the traffic and also doing the `Great Indian Balancing trick’ on the scooter along with three other members of his family. The younger kid would be standing on the front with the mother clad in a sari sitting on one side of the scooter clinging on to the Stepney tire while the elder kid would be sandwiched between the father and mother. Thus the idea which was conveyed through the ad was that Bajaj is an integral part of the family and also stood as a symbol of the unity in the Indian families. It was positioned as `Hamara Bajaj’ which literally means `Our Bajaj’ thus further resonating its position as a family vehicle.

The vehicle was not particularly appealing to look at but it served the need of commutation very well for the Indian families and it was apt for the Indian roads. Its durability was also one of the best available and there was a notion that any problem would be solved by tilting the vehicle sideways. A popular joke - “The Indian rocket did not fire. What to do? Just tilt it for a second.” – only helped to reinforce the hold of this vehicle on the Indian mind.

Bajaj ads today reflect the changes in the society with the new Pulsar ads featuring the advanced technology and the sheer joy of riding the machine. The `Hamara Bajaj’ campaign however occupies a special place in the minds of the Indian consumer. It was one of the first ads that created a sense of belongingness in them and hence most people feel very nostalgic when they hear the jingle of the ad. The ad is also specially noted for the universal appeal it was able to garner across India despite the many cultural differences. `Hamara Bajaj’ad might have been in Hindi but it touched the heart of the customers and the heart knows no languages.

TVC

Liril 2000: An attempt to re-establish itself

2009-07-18T07:50:00.000-07:00

- Gaurav Kayal

A recent repositioning of Liril: the iconic soap which probably launched the first ad focusing on beautiful women in India. The ad was shot in Pambar Falls in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, which is now more popularly known as 'Liril Falls' thanks to the ad. It was the hottest ad in the early 80’s - the image of a girl drenched under the falls wearing only bikini. The brand continued to be promoted the same way and later found Preity Zinta modelling for it.

From the advertisement itself, freshness was the key message being communicated and focus was on a female model. Liril shifted focus from the waterfall advertisements which were doing good for the brand and experimented with Liril Orange, which didn’t quite pick up. People would prefer bathing with a soap having lime content but not orange.

The latest TV Commercial of Liril, isn’t focussed on a female model, but a family, a married couple with a kid. Something most of us would not associate Liril with. It has a completely different setting, early morning charm inside a home. It talks about points in our body which refresh us. The ad claims to rejuvenate the entire body and is presented as an interaction between a father and a kid. The new ad campaign in itself looks brilliant but it is very optimistic to assume that it will help revive the brand because of its existing image in the minds of the consumers.

There has been a significant effort put into rebranding Liril, different packaging, earlier tight wrapped covering is replaced by box type packing, the light green color is replaced by a darker shade and gloss finish.

The attributes of the iconic waterfall advertisement and "la…la la la laaa" song are totally missing in the new branding attempt. Although HUL might be focussing on the new age consumers, who are not very influenced by the earlier brand imagery, but the memories don’t fade easily. In the years that have gone by, no other soap brand in India has been successful in replacing Liril, that is why in my opinion it made sense for HUL to replicate previous attempts, something that it stood for.

Sugar boiled toffees: Indian Context

2009-07-12T01:50:00.000-07:00

-Ayan Das Gupta

Parle recently added Kachcha Mango Bite to the portfolio of its confectionery segment. It has launched a TVC to convey the product’s rich taste of raw mango through the idea of imitation between the product and the kachcha aam. The ad was designed keeping in mind kids across all sections of society, and TV channels like Nick and cartoon Network were used for ad placements.

Not so long back, Perfetti had roped in the Indian actress Kajol in one of its TV commercials for its product, Alpenliebe. Perfetti felt that in Kajol they saw a perfect fit for the message that was being conveyed. Previously TVCs for confectionery in India did not use celebrities for brand –building but increasingly the need for a known face has cropped up as companies have realised the importance of moving sales to the next level.

Top confectionery manufacturers generally feel the need to draw in consumers through heavy advertising and marketing. The reason is these products are ‘impulse buys’, so efforts are needed to promote them.

A good example is Perfetti Van Melle, which boasts of brands like Alpenliebe, Big Babol and Center Fresh in its stable, was able to capture a large market share in India within a decade of its entry by dint of a good product portfolio, distribution network and more importantly brand-building exercises. The branding exercises are a mix of the conventional as well as the unconventional ones.

In fact one could easily classify the Indian confectionery market as a high activity one with new product launches and a high level of media activity a regular trend. Besides Perfetti, other players in the confectionery market include HLL and Nestle India.

The primary difference between the Indian confectionery market and the global set-up is that the global market relies on organised trade whereas in India the paan shops and the kirana shops are responsible for the bulk of the sales.

However rising incomes and retail expansion have fuelled growth in the confectionery category, and more and more players are entering the developing market being aware of its growth potential.

Mumbai Indians: Is it a good Idea?

2009-06-30T06:40:00.001-07:00

-Ayan Das Gupta

A little before IPL-2 got underway, Idea Cellular entered into a multi-year sponsorship deal with Reliance Industries owned 'Mumbai Indians'. The deal was believed to be in the region of $ 2-3 million.

Having identified sports and entertainment as categories through which it was going to enhance its brand visibility across the country, the company was of the belief that the deal would give it great brand exposure. In tune with its latest foray, Idea decided to launch a range of value added services for its customers, designed on the theme of connecting the Mumbai Indians with their fans.

As part of its fan-connect initiative, what was claimed to be the first in Indian sports, Idea Cellular unveiled an innovative gateway for its customers and other cricket fans to help them connect with Mumbai Indians’ stars such as Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan, through a massive campaign. Each player of the team was to have a unique Idea number which was flashed across various mass media platforms, for people to call their favourite cricket stars.

Lowe Lintas was roped in to create an elaborate four-phase campaign to connect the public with members of the Mumbai Indians team.

The first was a teaser comprising three ads that showed instances where regular people found excuses/means to call their favourite cricketers with such ownership that one would think they were buddies. A mysterious ‘Coming soon’ wrapped up these.

The second phase had three cricketers – Tendulkar, Harbhajan and Zaheer – advertising their respective phone numbers in a placard style, asking consumers to call/SMS and share what they feel. The third phase showed the cricketers calling back and catching the fans by surprise.

The fourth and final phase had Idea’s brand ambassador Abhishek Bachchan stepping into the picture. In one commercial, he was seen practicing before a mirror on how suave he would be when addressing Sachin over the phone (but ending up like a squeaky toy when the call got through), while the second one had him making inane conversation excitedly with Jayasuriya.

Idea outsourced a team of 20 to begin with (a number that was eventually increased), to quickly scan through the calls and SMSes.

Apart from the TVCs, a microsite was created on Idea’s website (www.ideacellular.com).

The microsite (http://bythepeople.in/talktoyourmumbaiindians/) informed people how to avail the opportunity of connecting with the players.

The campaign received an overwhelming consumer response, with 75% of the calls being made by non-Idea subscribers. Regionwise Maharashtra topped the list; with the company claiming to have received calls from markets beyond India, such as Pakistan (but these were miniscule). As Mr. Pradeep Shrivastava, Chief Marketing Officer, IDEA Cellular, pointed out – “the communication underscored the power of a mobile telephony idea to unite all Indians behind one team in a way it has never been witnessed before.”

Reliance GSM and Aircel: Finding Share of Mind in T20

2009-06-30T01:49:00.000-07:00

-Gaurav Kayal

Reliance ADAG, through its group company, Reliance Communications has been focusing on making GSM technology available to the entire country. India’s 2nd largest telecom company, which started off its India operations with CDMA technology, is now all set to offer the GSM services across the country.

Aircel a joint venture between Malaysia’s Maxis and Apollo Hospitals India is also focusing on capturing a bigger pie of the Indian GSM customer base. In India, although the number portability isn’t offered, still there is a high possibility for the customers to switch between different operators. This could possibly be a reason for not a very high acceptance of the CDMA technology, in which the customer was earlier bound to the handset.

Both Aircel and Reliance GSM have roped in celebrities, Dhoni and Hrithik as their brand ambassadors and eyed for the presence in the T20 World cup, but the positioning and communication is a lot different.

Hrithik Roshan is on air and is casted as Hrithik “the actor” calling up his friends, fans, school teacher and co-workers and they enthusiastically responding. A positive vibe but it isn’t a feature specific ad.

Reliance has apparently used 4Rs in the English voiceover of the ad: Recall Reward, Rejoice, and Respect which seem to be on the lines of classic Airtel Ads. The company has also created a few animated filler ads of 5-6 seconds ad slots.

The Reliance GSM promotion is much balanced in this regard, old childhood friends, teachers, and colleagues being talked to. The message “India’s first 3G ready network” shows technology being focused. It urges you to be spontaneous when it comes to communication: ‘don’t wait, – go for it’ is the refrain. Not goose-flesh stuff. Generic message for most telecom companies and the presence of Hrithik is likely to aid recall.

Aircel on the other hand, pitches Dhoni, the Indian cricket captain on the move, getting down from the airplane, being able to use social networking platform, Facebook and being able to stay in touch of his friends through an internet button saying “Aur main ban gaya man of the match.” Aircel Positions itself as "Your World of Possibilities" with loads of latest internet applications.

Not only on the TV, is the Aircel advertisement highly visible on popular cricket sites like Cricinfo.com.

Aircel’s positioning seems to be a little confusing. Firstly Facebook isn’t yet a very big phenomenon in India that people will go and buy a new connection to use it on mobile, secondly Facebook, internet on phone are the features which appeal only to the youth and so does Dhoni. Mobile services are not only for the youth which is why a major chunk of the target segment is almost ignored through the ad. To add to the confusion, Dhoni goes abroad for playing Cricket, does it mean to indicate that it is providing international roaming?

The efficacy of the Aircel ad is still questionable with the awful performance by its brand ambassador in the T20 World Cup, I am pretty sure many would have made a choice against the brand. Also, Dhoni featuring on some small cap ad campaigns like PSPO Fan in the world cup itself could have taken a beating on his own image.

India is such a big market for the cell phone operators which is dominated by the GSM players that Reliance couldn’t have been able to afford watching the developments from outside. The Key players still remain Airtel, Vodafone, BSNL, Idea we need to wait and watch how far Reliance and Aircel are able to make a dent into the existing players’ market share.

Vodafone: Reaching out differently in India

2009-06-30T01:44:00.000-07:00

-Anton Babu

Who do you think is the real star of IPL-II? You might have to scratch your head and think who the man of the series was or who the man of the match in the final was. One wouldn’t face this dilemma if he was asked to name his favourite ad during the IPL. There can be and there is only one answer – the ZooZoos.

Zoozoos are latest mascot of Vodafone, featuring in different 20-30 seconds ad films which were screened for 300 seconds during each day of IPL .These white skin egg headed creatures come on TV screen to advertise the value added service (VAS) offering of Vodafone. These ads though look animated are actually real humans in the Zoozoo costumes. According to Rajiv Rao, executive creative director (South Asia) of Ogilvy & Mather, the agency that handles Vodafone advertisements, they "wanted to make real people look as animated as possible" and hence employed Bangalore-based Nirvana Films to shoot these ads in Cape Town, South Africa.

These ads were a huge hit with the Indian audience, especially the youth and it was also a lesson for the advertising industry that tends to overestimate the value of a celebrity endorsement. This trend is validated by the fact that zoozoos have a huge fan following on social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut and Twitter. There are more than 200 pages on ZooZoos having more than 2 hundred thousand fans, growing daily. The ads have already been viewed by lakhs of people in YouTube. They are currently featuring on a specially created micro-site, where, one can partake in quizzes and contests, like the ‘What kind of Zoozoo are you?’ quiz. In the pipeline are a spot, titled “A day in the life of Zoozoo” on Twitter, and merchandise such as key-chains, mugs, T-shirts, and mobile phone stands.

The zoozoos have undoubtedly succeeded in attracting the eyeballs but whether the message of value added services has been properly conveyed is still a doubt. Another major challenge for Vodafone is managing the ZooZoo characters and ensuring that they don’t grow bigger than the Vodafone brand. Vodafone in collaboration with O & M have always come up with innovative ads which are successful in attracting the eyeballs but it should ensure adequate services so that the eyeballs and the customer stay with them. It will be worthwhile for the company to remind itself that Vodafone is a mobile service operator and not a company that comes up with great ads.

Interesting Snippet: Zoozoos normally don’t make any comprehensible sounds but in the ad for international roaming one can hear various delicacies of Kerala being sung in Malayalam. Even if you know Malayalam you need to listen very carefully to understand what is being said.

Reliance Communications takes on the ZooZoo challenge

Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications (RCom) is borrowing a concept from the Charlie Chaplin classic The Great Dictator. Just as Chaplin dances with a globe in the film, RCom's forthcoming advertising campaign will shows five animated characters dancing with a globe. Being developed by Delhi-based RocketScience, the characters — five of them representing the five network bars on a mobile phone — are yet to be given a name. Right now, they're being referred to as "humanised network bars". “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” and RCom’s new venture bears testimonial to the fact that Vodafone ads were indeed very effective but only time will tell whether RCom can repeat the success story with spoofs.

Nano-mania: Innovative Marketing

2009-05-02T01:23:00.000-07:00

- Gaurav Kayal

Tata Nano could be the automobile that Indians have waited for the most. The Rs 1 lakh price tag car, called by the Americans as a disposable car, still hasn’t hit the Indian roads, but has created a buzz in the public, media, and a new way of marketing as well.

Its launch coincides with difficult times in business for Tata Group and marketing it to the masses has been in one of the most innovative ways in the automobile segment ever.

Westside and Croma outlets stores both owned by Tata group companies are displaying the Nano and also selling a wide range of Nano merchandise, caps, key chains, T-shirts etc. In one of the Westside stores in Mumbai, Nano accessories included sandals, slippers as well in a separate section of the store.

Nano, unlike most other cars, hasn’t been advertised extensively on the TV, most of its buzz is created by the media and auto-shows. It has put across its message through newspapers, web, radio, Nano chatrooms on the Net, Nano pop-ups on major websites and Nano conversation on Facebook, Orkut and blogspaces.

The blogspace is full of writing about the Nano, comparing it with Maruti 800, Bajaj Auto-rickshaw, delivering the verdict of it being a success and what not. With the word spreading and media is acting a positive catalyst. Carrying forward its vendor partnership production strategy, Tata Motors is also sharing promotion of the Nano brand with its multiple PSU bank partners. These PSU financiers are promoting the Nano brand during booking jointly with Tata Motors and on their own.
There’s an Orkut user profile for Nano which has a few pics and videos and has around 350 friends. Also, there’s a group dedicated to the care which has around 11,000 members. The community was started back in May, 08.

Facebook has also been used to market Nano here too. There’s a fan page for the car with about 6000 fans, a few videos and picture albums.

There’s also a YouTube channel for Tata Nano which has some 78 subscribers and has managed to generate more than 10,000 views on videos of the car.

The Nano game by Zapak was a great move to spread word about the car and it seems to have really worked well in doing it’s job. There are a lot of claims that the game has been played millions of times since its launch. It’s a simple and easily accessible game, which anyone with a browser and internet connection can play.

Last not the least, Nano toy cars are available for kids even at the subway market at the Churchgate Station.

Nano could be a success, but it is necessarily a great researched product being delivered to Indians by one of the most reputed industrial group in India, something that Indians feel proud about, but at the end of the day it is an automobile.

Citrous Wars: LMN and Nimbooz

2009-05-02T00:35:00.001-07:00

- Anton Babu

`Nimbu Paani’ or lemonade has always been the most commonly consumed cold beverage for Indians, especially during hot summers. With an eye on summer sales Parle Agro and PepsiCo have come out with packaged lemonade - LMN and Nimbooz respectively, to provide relief our parched throats. It makes perfect business sense to launch a non-fizzy drink during summers as it scores above the colas in the health aspect (carbonated drinks actually soaks up the body’s moisture leaving the system more dry). The added advantage of it being a very familiar natural refreshing drink which is now being offered in a hygienic and convenient way would make the mothers prefer it over the Colas. The marketing strategies of these brands could very well be the discerning factor as to who captures the market.

LMN, which is derived from the SMS format of Lemon, is a catchy sounding brand name that seems very youthful and chic. Positioned as 'The Emergency Lemon Refresher', it has the ability to cut through the clutter and make people remember the brand. Nimbooz is a much unadorned name that appears very desi and its positioning as 'Ekdum asli Indian' also re-emphasizes this desi touch. The pricing of both brands are similar with a 200 ml packet costing only Rs.10. Nimbooz comes in three packaging formats of 200 ml returnable glass bottles (RGBs), 350 ml PET bottles and 200 ml tetra packs, priced at Rs 10, Rs 15 and Rs 10 respectively. Parle has chalked out a 360 degree marketing strategy comprising a TVC, print advertising, point of purchase promotions and BTL activities.

PepsiCo which is launching Nimbooz under its 7Up brand also has come up with a 360 degree marketing communication plan to build awareness through multi-city launches and road shows, 3D activation, leveraging Out-of-Home (OOH) media, radio, press and outdoors. The Nimbooz activation campaign, a sampling exercise which is to cover 10 lakh people across Mumbai, Delhi and select cities in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Goa is already making an impact. Nimbooz have also gained the exclusive pouring rights at home matches besides being the official beverage for the Punjab Kings XI, an IPL team. Another innovative strategy is the launch of a special 'Nimbooz Highway Gadi' to visit the four major highways connecting Delhi to Lucknow, Jaipur, Dehradun, and Agra to drive trials and brand connecting. It has to be said that LMN has been found wanting on their initial phase of marketing and the people who created waves with their campaign for Appy Fizz can certainly do better than this.
The size of the largely unorganized `Nimbu Paani’ market is estimated to be around 1 billion cases, which is double the size of the carbonated soft drink industry in India. Parle and PepsiCo is vying with each other to tap into this market and with the mercury levels soaring it looks like packaged lemonade is here to stay.