Experiential Branding and Technology products

I came across an interesting article on Forbes.com by Rishad Tobaccowala on marketing in Post-digital world namely Up Next: A Post-Digital World. He says that it is important that marketers use a blend of the traditional brick and mortar selling model and the contemporary online marketing environment. The partners and customers for a brand think beyond the narrow specialties.

Rishad has mentioned about one of the iconic brands, Apple which has used its brick and mortar exclusive outlets to create brand experience, the Apple experience and its online stores for convenience of tech-savvy buyers who reside in the post-digital contemporary world.

Well, in this era of ample examples of commoditized brands (or products!!! Commoditization leaves no room for brands), Experiential branding can be a break-through strategy for tangible products. However, how can we do experiential branding for intangible products like technology to create a "Wow" element to associate with the brand. Technology products cannot be physically demonstrated on account of intangibility.

Well, product demos can be experiential for technology products, but technology products are yet not commoditized. Technology products are best marketed in the online environment as the tech savvy target consumers are present online. As such, the best way to create brand awareness and recall for technology products is greater visibility among the target audience. You got to be present everywhere the competition is to build and identity and thereby customer base.

Brand extensions at a glance

I recently came to know that Nirma has entered into a new category and as such, has introduced Nirma salt. I was flabbergasted to see Nirma entering in to this entirely new category.

When a company wants to extend its products or categories, it may go for line extension, multibrands, brand extension and new brands. In the respective context, Nirma must have followed a strategy of introducing an entirely new brand rather than having the same brand name for an entirely unrelated category like salt.

Nirma has a huge brand equity in the detergents category and as such, product extension or multibrands would have been a good strategy, had it maneuvered in the detergents category only. Nirma has followed the brand extension strategy wherein it has extended its category as well as brand. Well, I am really not sure how well is this gonna work. I think that Nirma should have introduced an entirely new brand to enter a new category like salt or condiments.

Brand extension generally works when consumers tend to generalize the stimuli, that is, people relate the quality of a brand to all the brands from the same stable. On contrary, consumers tend to differentiate the stimuli when the categories are entirely unrelated as in case of Nirma.

I think P&G has been really smart in have multibrands and new brands for brand development. It is into a lot of categories like personal care, home care, grooming and many more. As such, multibrands is feasible for product extensions and new brands for category extensions. Nirma is known for its presence in the detergents category and not in the category of edible products. As such, consumers would not generalize the brand equity of Nirma in these two unrelated categories.

Let us wait and watch how Nirma fares in the highly commoditized category of salt.

Name of the game - Differentiation

A few days back, I came across the new packaging of Kinley mineral water, a Coca-Cola company product. Mineral water is more like a commodity now with minimum level of differentiation among various brands of the same. Click here for information on brand commoditization.

Mineral or bottled water category is one of the foremost to get commoditized. In the Indian scenario, Bisleri was the market leader to the extent that the category of mineral water had become synonymous with the brand, Bisleri. Now the competition is intense as the number of players in the category have increased significantly.

If you consider the category of mineral water, the scope of differentiation is really low. As such, the core product cannot be differentiated but the components of augmented product like packaging can be modified so as to survive in the market.

Evian, a French bottled water manufacturer and distributor followed a differentiation strategy long back when it modified its packaging to cater to the premium segment. The modified packaging marked the entry of brand in all premium restaurants thereby creating a niche for the brand. Well, this has been a brilliant differentiation strategy.

Well, differentiation is always different and if it isn't different, it is not differentiation. So is the case with Kinley mineral water. It almost tried to copy the packaging of Evian without alteration in its pricing. Well, it is difficult to say, but the strategy behind this could be to cater to aspirational need of people by providing them a look alike of a premium product in affordable prices.

Let us see how this new packaging and the underlying strategy works for Coca Cola Inc.

Open or Close ?

Let me again comment on the Indian telecom industry and its giants, who have a common feature called adaptibilty.

When a brand is being built, marketers use offensive strategies while they use defensive tactics to maintain their brands. Indian Telecom mammoths are now using defensive strategies to maintain their brand, and thereby retain their customer base. The major components of defensive branding strategies are adaptability, protectibility and transferability, which are being well used by players like Airtel, who have adapted the brand as per the heinous context of global meltdown.

Airtel has recently come up with its new ad campaign called "Anna and her special 5". Click here to view the commercial.

The commercial shows the synergy between Anna and her group of five friends, but there is no information on the significance of the figure 5 in the product offering. In the end of all TVCs of the campaign, there has been a mention of a toll free number for more information on the deal.

The ads are really cute and adorable with a special component which is called need for closure. When consumers are exposed to any marketing stimulus like a TVC, they tend to form perceptions, which may be favorable or unfavorable. In the process of organization of perceptions, marketers play a major role in moulding the consumer perceptions which are favorable for the brand.

Humans, by default have a tendency to organize their thoughts and perceptions and form a complete picture for every incoming stimulus. As such, they need a beginning, content or body for the perceptual image and then the closure.

In the new Airtel campaign of special 5, there is a beginning with introduction of the characters of the commercial as Anna and her friends and also the content which are interactions amongst friends, but there is no closure as there is lack of explanation on the special five offer, though there is a hint on lower call rates. This need for closure is addressed by giving a toll free contact number where customers can get the details of the offer.

Now, as the consumers have an urge to closure for the perceptual picture formed by the stimulus, TVC in the contemporary context, and as such, customers are compelled to dial to the customer contact centre, which would serve as a point of contact for the company to sell the new offering.

Well, most of the commercials and campaigns fail due to lack of conceptual support in managing the marketing mix, but Airtel has really lived up to the need of the hour.

Marketing Mantra of the month

"In good times, people want to advertise, in bad times, they have to."-Bruce Barton, Co-founder, BBDO agency.

Break Through the Clutter

I have been writing a lot on telecom players. Here is another piece of applause for this highly dyanamic, yet positively competitive industry. As the competition is immense, the organizations in the telecom industry are making constant efforts to beat the rest.

Here comes Airtel with an adorable TV commercial featuring a cute kid trying to protect her boat from the rain, unabling which she is helped by her five friends. Click here to view the commercial.

The TVC is sweet and adorable, but the only problem with the TVC has been the slight resemblance of the child model with the one used in Vodafone TVC. There have been reviews from audience that in the midst of the ad, they were expecting the entry of the famous Vodafone pug.

This erronoeus part of the Airtel TVC can be attributed to the effort to break through the clutter. Organizations have lately been using children in the commercial to enhance the likeability and memorability components of the commercial.

Well, we really can't blame Airtel for using the kid resembling the one in Vodafone commercial and I really applaud Airtel for coming up with such an adorable ad campaign.

Three cheers!!!

Vitality of socio-cultural environment

What do you think determines the purchase behavior of buyers? Well, the two major factors which mould the buying behavior of consumers are the marketing mix and the socio-cultural environment of the buyers. Marketing mix is the marketers' domain while marketers have no influence over the socio-cultural environment of the buyers.

Lets us talk about the socio cultural environment. It includes ones' family, friends, culture, beliefs and societal norms. As the domain of discussion is socio-cultural environment, culture definitely plays a major role. Now If you see the Hofstede's Model for accessing cultures, you can well infer that certain cultures are individualistic while others are collectivistic. Indian culture is collectivist while American cult is individualistic. Well, you may ask how can I say this with conviction.

Let me take a simple example. If you listen to Western music, it has individualistic orientation. If you hear the lyrics of the song in the video, you can figure out the fact that people in US or UK beleive in being solitary and fight the battle of life alone. As such, people prefer to listen to music that reflects individualism and and to some extent rebellion. Hence, socio-cultural environment of people determines their taste even in music and this is what marketers need to tap on.

The crux of this post is to tell that socio-cultural environment plays a vital role in determining buyers' buying behavior. As such, marketers must not ignore the cultural patterns of their target segments.

What's Paramount ?

I was reading a magazine on marketing a few days back and I came across an article on Paramount arlines. I have heard of this player in the airline industry and could even recognize its blue signature color, but what I didnt know was that it caters to only the premium segment. It only serves the business class and has no provision for economy class at all.

Well, this strategy may be the USP of the brand as none of its competitors has ever served just the business class. The USP of a brand helps attain the competitive advantage that is sustainable (Sustainable Competitive Advantage). Of course, this unique targeting of business consumers has given the airlines an edge, which is evident from the fact that the Paramount airlines has captured 27% market share in Southern Indian within a span of less than 3years. The airlines has ambitious plans to extend its services to north and north east India. Also, the airlines plans to go international after 2011, when it completes 5years of operation in the domestic market.

As such, Paramount has sucessfully been able to use its unique targeting strategy as its USP, but I guess the utility of this strategy is subjective than being objective. When the market was booming and economy was doing well, Paramount could have expected to extract the maximum out of its space or seat utility. But in times of recession, when the companies are into cost cutting, even the executives who are the target customers of Paramount airlines may travel in economy class.

Airlines sector is the one which is most badly hit by recession. The giants like Kingfisher and Air India have suffered huge losses. Kingfisher is trying to compensate for its losses through its low cost variant, Kingfisher Red and even Air India is seriously considering revision of its pricing policies.

As such, the unique targeting isn't a USP of Paramount airlines as USP helps you gain long term advantages, which hasn't been the case. USP isn't subject to subjectivity, rather it is objective which helps a brand to get out of adversities by differentiating from the competition.

When companies build brands, there are several criteria that must be kept in mind. The brand elements and associations must have six elements including memorability, meaningfulness, likability, tranferabilty, adaptability and protectability. The first three elements are offensive in nature and help in building brand equity while the latter three are defensive that help in maintaining brand equity.

I guess the offensive criteria for brand building are in place for Paramount which is evident from its growth figures, but I really suspect the defensive critera. The brand lacks the elements of tranferabilty and adaptability in the gross era of recession. I think Paramount airlines has missed on this Paramount part of a successful business strategy.

Let us just wait and watch and see how Paramount countinues to grow or move towards downfall.

Value Added Services or only Value ?

The telecom services providers are pondering over ways to enhance sales and market share in the Indian market with intense competition. The number of players is increasing with two new players namely Virgin and Aircel. How does the players in this industry strategize so as to attain their objectives?

These companies are resorting to various means in order to gain market share. Vodafone came up with the much hyped Zoozoo campaign while Idea came up with a new idea during the IPL season 2 (Click here for more details). All these companies are now trying to sell their Value Added Services or VAS.

Well, I really don't think that it's a great strategy to promote VAS now, when the world economy is hit by recession. The common people are struggling to avert receiving pink slips. Analysts are working hard to speculate the after math of recession. As such, there is a lot of uncertainity around and the entire financial structure of the country isn't in great health.

As such, who cares about getting beauty tips or cricket scores? The masses now want to stay connected in the cheapest possible rates with absolutely no inclination towards any kind of value added services. They rather want value for money.

In this context, the attempts of several players is laudable. Airtel, which is positioned around knitting relationships, lowered its STD tariffs some time back. Virgin mobile, which is the fastest growing mobile operator has further lowered the STD and local call rates to 50paise per minute.

Well, I think revising the pricing strtegies is the need of the hour and not VAS. Let us see how these VAS providers and promoters fare against those who could feel the pulse of customers based on heinous market scenario.

Who created Father's Day ?

Today is 21st June or Father's Day. I think it is the right time to discuss the content of this post. How do you think Father's Day came into being and who created it?

Well, this day and many such days have been created by none other than brilliant marketers who tapped the emotions of masses to generate revenue for their organization. Marketers very well understand that needs, like decisionmaking process, may be rational or emotional. Consumers may want a product to serve functional or emotional needs. There may not be any product in the market to satisfy many of such needs, and marketers call this a latent need. Consumers had a hidden emotional need to nurture their relations with the expression of warmth and here comes the role of marketers to fulfill this latent need.

The biggest challenge for marketers is to create an offering that would satisfy hidden needs of the consumers. The marketers of greeting cards well realized the emotional need of consumers and successfully created the eternal tradition of days for every relation in the human community. Hats off to these great marketers.

Greeting for Father's Day.

Latent or Real ?

I came across this print ad today. Well, I guess it's a brilliant ad as the ad is attractive enough to attract the eyeballs of consumers, who are consumers of all age groups. These consumers are sons and daughters who may not be very caring towards their parents, but who make sure that they thank their parents at least once a year for their life time service.

Well, marketers say that the success mantra for any organisation is to give consumers what they want, but if you see products like greeting cards, do you think that customers have ever required such a thing? Well, a naive response to this issue may lie in tapping of latent needs which are the hidden needs. Latent needs are the needs which consumers aren't aware of.

Well, I really don't think that greeting cards serve your latent needs. All of us express ourselves some or the other way. Speaking about myself, I express myself in writing. I may write a letter or a small note to extend my feelings. Now, these cards serve the function of facilitating this expression of feelings in a convenient way. If I want to express gratitude to my parents, rather than writing a letter, I would prefer giving a greeting card which is actually convenient for me.

As such, greeting cards do not cater to your latent needs. Rather, greeting cards facilitate your need to expression, which is a real or a felt need.

What is that consumer buys?

Yesterday I was talking to one of my friends who was pretty disappointed by the ruthless behavior of one of her friends. I said to her not to worry about such people in life because the existence of these people in life is transient. Such people would come and go but the only person who would be with you is your own self. I may sound like a narcissist, but this the fact of life. Human beings love themselves the most, more than their most valuable possessions.

Lets apply the principle of self love in consumer marketing. What do you think a customer buys every time he purchase your offerings? If you say that a customer buys your product or service, then you need to get into the depth of the consumer psyche. Superficially it seems that they buy your offerings but actually, they buy the benefits you offer to them.

Consumers generally ask a question to the marketers "Whats in it for me?" If you are able to answer this through your offerings, you are successful in meeting the objective of your business. Here lies the concept of augmented product. Your offering is termed as the core product and the benefits offered by the product make the augmented product. Marketers generally get caught with just the core product, which is referred to as marketing myopia.

Anyways, enough of fundas, the crux of the post lies in the fact that customers don't care what your product is. They care only about the benefits it offer and that is what can be used to as a Point of Difference (POD) to attain Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA).

Relavance of Product Extensions

Wipro has come up with its EGO range of netbooks. All leading PC manufacturers like HP, Acer and Lenovo have launched their netbooks and as such, Wipro doesn't lag behind. They too have launched their netbooks under the brand name, EGO.

Well, how relevant do you think is this line extension. Wipro has already been in to maufacturing and sales of laptops, which are nowhere in the market. Wipo couldn't attract customers to buy the product. I don't know the exact causes of the product failure, but possible reasons could be inadequate market communication. Also, Indians do have a stigma when it comes to India based technology products.

Well, whatever be the reasons for Wipro's failure in laptops category, I personally think that extending the product line is not a great idea. Why so?

It may sound stereotypic to you, but thats what it is. Wipro as a brand is not in the Evoked set or Consideration set of consumers. As such, even POP branding is not gonna convince the customers to turn your consumers. I think Wipro must try to build its brand before launching new product lines, as these new products won't sell. Consumers aren't aware of it and as such, don't want it.

Let's see how the new product fares in the market.

Indian KNOT

Today I came across a web site, very popular in the West. It is called THE KNOT. It is a site that helps you plan your wedding, choose your wedding gowns and accessories from a wide assortment and in a nutshell, you get advice on what we call the institution of marriage. The Knot has its sister concerns named The Nest and The Bump. So, what do you think of this web site and the business concept? Well, I don't think I need to speak on the Knot as a business concept as its success says it all. The knot is a brialliant example of experiential branding which keeps the customers engaged and gives them a life time time experience.

Well, quite fascinated by this web service, I was just wondering whether such a concept would work for Indian consumers. How about Indian version of The Knot, say Bandhan.com? Well, this concept is too stingy for Indians. Here, the couples do not have the luxury of planning their own wedding. In India, the influence of socio coultural environment, particularly family is so high that they make all decisions on wedding related issues. As such, couples have no say in the matter. As such, Indian version of Knot may not work as then, the target audience, that is the couples, do not have much role in deciding on wedding related matters.

There is an alternative to this. The target audience can be the members of socio cultural environment of the couples. As such, family and friends of couples must be targeted. There must also be some alterations in the product offerings like there can be provision of advice on wedding arrangements, suggestion on gifts for the couple, etc. This strategy may work as a lucrative business proposition. Wat say?

Why Brands ?

Today I went out with my friends to shop for my other friends. My favorite shopping destination to buy gifts and greeting cards is Archies gallery. Archies has a very wide assortment of products in each product line, whether it is cards or accessories. Though expensive, yet the brand equity of Archies has leveraged it a supreme position in market.

Archies generally provides you the option of getting the gifts wrapped and it then hands over the stuffs to the customers in an Archies poly bag. Today, I got an ordinary plain poly bag and not the usual Archies bag. I felt that recession has also hit this giant in its category that led to deterioration in quality. When I asked the store manager, the excuse he gave was lack of stock of Archies poly bag.

Now, why do you think is a polybag with its brand name important to consumers? Well, I really don't think brands give you something more than any unbranded stuff in terms of tangible functionality. But there is other side of functionality that is based on perception and is more of psychological in nature. That is, the customers want to show to their peers that they have shopped in a branded outlet, which in turn enhances the self esteem of the shoppers.

This can be attributed to the fact that brands help you become what you want to become. Everyone wants to be rich, affluent and exclusive. To project this exclusivity, they buy the brands that have this exclusivity element in them. It gives consumers a sense of self conceit and a feeling of being different in crowd. As such, even branded poly bags do matter to consumers.

But the question to ponder is does Archies really need to pay heed to this? Archies is the category leader and has a monopoly in the market. So, do you think if it doesn't give customers the requisite brand sensation, customers are gonna stop coming to Archies. My answer is a straight No, at least till the time a competitor builds this kind of brand equity.

KFC to BFC

What is it that comes to your mind when you think of KFC? Well, I guess it is the great taste of chicken created by Colonel Harland Sanders and the red signature color of the brand. In India, KFC has very high brand equity among chicken lovers and another feature the has led to the success of these multinational chain of restaurants is the experience they provide to the customer in terms of taste, varieties, ambiance, etc.

As KFC is one of the highly recognized brands for chicken, people associate and connect to it. KFC's red signature color that is seen on its signage and instore arrangements, people tend to generalize the red color of a food outlet as KFC, which is assurance of great quality chicken.

Well, this results in what is called stimulus generalization, wherein customers tend to generalize the offerings of various organizations on the basis of brand equity built by the strongest player in the category. I came across a food outlet here in Bangalore called BFC with red signage and red interiors. I guess BFC stands for Bangalore Fried Chicken. They have used the red color so that customers generalize the stimulus provided by their offerings as equivalent to KFC.

Stimulus generalization is used by marketers to extend their brands in the same category to leverage the high brand equity of a brand to its various brand extensions. Also, it is used by people to create duplicate products by copying the graphic labels. BFC is one such case of duplication using what marketers refer to as stimulus generalization.

Theory in Practice

Yesterday, I wrote about Parle's sugar free bonbons, Lite. I gave you an overview of the TVC and a critical analysis. Now, let me relate the ad to a basic theory of consumer behavior.

In this ad, the theory of classical conditioning has been applied. As you can see from the diagram above, There is something called an unconditioned stimuli and response. Marketers do not have any control over these domains of conditioning as these are a consequence of vicarious learning over the years.

Now, the unconditional response can be linked to a conditioned stimulus which is your product so as to get the conditioned response which in most cases is purchase.

In this ad of Parle Lite, the unconditioned stimulus is Belle dance and the unconditioned response is association of Belle with flexibility and lightness. This unconditioned response of feeling being light and weightless is linked to the consitioned stimulus which is the product, Parle Lie and the conditioned response would be purchase.

It is really fabulous when you see the linkage of various theories to practicality of vast and diverse world of marketing, this is one such instance.

Is it Light or Heavy ???

Well, what do you think of social networking sites, particularly facebook? I am quite fond of it, not only because its a forum where I meet my friends, but also where I learn.

I have joined the afaqs community on facebook that updates me on new arrivals on the site. Today I came across a lovely ad of Parle's sugar free bonbons, Lite.

The ad is sweet and attractive enough to gauge attention. It shows Sumo wrestlers being taught Belle. In this form of dance, you are supposed to put your entite body weight on toes. These bonbons make those bulky and heavy wrestlers feel light and fly.

The ad is very sweet and is a delightful watch, but I am not convinced with the approach. They used attractiveness in ad which is quite fine, but as the product is a new food category in confectionery foods in India, people are unaware of Bonbons. As such, is it justified to focus more on accompaniments of the ad, rather than product? As the product is new, people have to be educated about the product. The focus should have been on bonbons and its attributes.

Now, this product is absolutely a want or desire based product, not a need based. Also, it is a low involvemnet purchase. As such, the purchase would be absolutely emotional with not even a hint of rationale. As such, product attributes aren't important. But as a matter of fact, this product is new and as such, people need to be educated and hence, focus on product attributes is crucial.

Well, lets see how the product fares in terms of sales. I hope Point of Purchase advertisments are informative enough to convince the customer to buy the product.

Its All about Strategy

Rasna has gone international without significant market share in India. I really don't that its a great idea to go for market development when you don't have a stable market in your domestic.

Well, if we look at the competitors that took the market share away from Rasna are packaged juices and carbonated drinks. Kids no more want to buy Rasna, as it is tedious to prepare it and they may even not be satisfied with the taste. There can be other factors too.

Well, if we see through BCG matrix concept, the brand is a dog with low market share and low potential. As such, the only way is to diversify.

Rasna can enter into other categories  like juices, etc and invest on all P's of marketing mix. It need to innovate the product, manage the distribution channel to enable accessibilty of the product, price competitively and promote. It may take up a different brand name altogether as Rasna as a brand doesn't have great equity to leverage it to the diversified product. Conversely, if the company uses Rasna as the brand name for diversified product, it may require less efforts to lead the brand to evoked set of customers as the brand is known to customers and recall is quite high. 

Ponder for a While...

Marketers know how to tap in each and every emotion of consumers. One such powerful emotion is that of parents' inability to say no kids' wishes which marketers refer to as pester power. 

Parents are well aware of harmful effects of burgers loaded with  fats or chocolates loaded with calories, but still they fall helpless before young kids. They finally give them whatever they want. Marketers do understand the force of kids in buying certain products and they have well capitalized on it. All they did is allured these young kids and thereby used pester power to sell their products.

Let me come to the crux of this post. I was thinking of a strategy to reposition Rasna which has almost enervated in terms of its image and also sales. You must be thinking why Rasna. Actually Rasna came to my college a few days back for placements. The profile was that of sales. Sales can be enhanced by sales promotion, otherwise there is no differentiation in the product. Kids do not want it anymore. So I was just thinking what can be done to enhance sales.

Well, here the primary target are kids and secondary target are mothers. The product is meant for kids and as such they are the primary target. Mothers are the buyers of the product but may not be consumers of it, hence they are the secondary target.

Now how do you think pester power would work for Rasna? The major point is there is no Point Of Difference (POD) for the product. As such, product must be differentiated to lure kids and then use pester power.

Can you suggest some ways to differentiate the product to gain Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA)? Your comments are awaited and would be much appreciated.    

Emotions can be Better Expressed by Letters

I came across a brilliant print ad today, the one you can see in this post. Can you guess the name of organization that uses this ad?

This is an advertisment by Australian post that says, "If you really want to touch someone, send a letter". This is one of the most impressive ad campaigns I have ever come across. It is a concept and execution of Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising company. 

The ad is meant for the current technology driven generation which believes in saving time and effort in every possible manner. With the advent of e-mail technology, postal services have suffered a big setback. E-mail provides convenience of time, location, cost, etc. As such, people do prefer to send e-mails than postal letters.

This campaign tries to maneuver with consumers' emotions. It emphasizes the importance of words jotted on paper which express feelings better than technology driven processes like e-mails. Letters would make you feel that the concerned person is very close to you as you could express yourself better with a hand written letter.

The ad has an important character called likeability and visibility. This ad is truly a parable of "Beauty in Simplicity". 

 

A Marketing Mantra

"For a business not to advertise is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but no one else does" by Stuart H. Britt, US advertising consultant.

Why Sales Or Why Not Sales?

Well, most of the fledgling marketers want to start their marketing careers with lucrative pay packages and definitely with highly acclaimed work profiles like that of brand management, strategic planning, etc. Budding marketers are reluctant to do sales, even to start with.

Well, they may want high profile jobs, but then they cannot thrive in such jobs until they do justice to the work. I don't say that burgeoning marketers lack commitment to work, but then there are several steps to move up the ladder and sometimes, there aren't any shortcuts.

Sales is the function of marketing that is closest to the consumers. Once you understand consumers, you understand their buying preferences and patterns, their responsiveness to advertising, their desired value proposition, etc. Once you know all this, you can feel the pulse of consumers and give them exactly what they expect out of brands. So, to strategize and build brands, one needs to understand consumers and sales is one of the best arena where you learn that.

So, marketers shouldn't be scared of sales, rather this is the marketing domain that could lead them where they exactly want to land up.

Jai Ho Vs. Bhay Ho

The election campaigning for election 2009 are is over and IMRB is with the scorecard for these campaigns. 

Congress featured its Jai Ho campaign wherein it highlighted the developments that were a consequence of its constructive policies, taking the backup of great Congress leaders like Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Click here to view the TVC.

On contrary, BJP's Bhay Ho had an anti-advertising campaign, focused on denigrating Congress on grounds of inflation, recession, unemployment and terrorism. Click here to view the TVC.

IMRB report makes it evident that Congress' ad campaign was more effective compared to that of BJP. Congress has displayed and highlighted its achievements, while BJP has scorned on Congress. Rather than highlighting its achievements in previous term of reign, they tried to malign Congress.

Audiences clearly stated that they liked Congress' ads better than BJP's ads. Congress has taken a more positive approach and is more promotion focused. On contrary, BJP has tried to use a fear appeal against Congress, but it failed to instill any appeal in its favor. BJP's approach has been negative and people didn't appreciate their campaign in terms of concept and content.

Well, the results for Election 2009 are due this weekend. Let's see how advertising has shaped up the poll results. 

Would "IPL" Merchandise Sell ?

Yesterday, I had a discussion on sales of IPL (Indian Premiere League) merchandise with my peers. The issue of contention was, "Would IPL merchandise sell" ? 

Before moving on with IPL, lets look at EPL (English Premiere League), that earns revenues from sales of tickets, sponsors, etc., but maximum revenue is through sales of merchandise that includes T-shirts, accessories of various clubs. IPL may earn money by sales of tickets, sponsors, TVCs, but do you think it is possible to generate revenues out of sales of IPL merchandise?

Well, IPL is quite a new name in Indian sports scene fabricated around India's common religion named Cricket. IPL consists of eight teams representing various regions of the country and each team has its own merchandise.

The issue is when people are following IPL like a religion, why wouldn't the merchandise sell? 

Well, the answer lies in inadequate marketing mix. It is not only about product, but price, promotion and place also.

IPL merchandise is meant for the youth, who go frenzy about the game. Now, if we look at India's economic scenario, size of middle class overrides the magnitude of upper class. As such, the product, that is, IPL merchandise is meant for middle class who connect to the game as religious conviction. Now, if you look at the prices of IPL merchandise, you will be flabbergasted to see mismatch between the affordability of target segment and prices of IPL merchandise. Click here to see some of the prices. Also, the owners of IPL have tie-ups with premium brands like Reebok, Adidas. The question is when the product is meant for the mass consumers of middle segment, how would they buy it from the house of premium brands. 

Also, the channel of distribution has to be such which makes the product within the reach of target audience. They must have various channels like online channels, mass segment retail outlets like Westside, Shoppers Stop, etc. Middle class is reluctant to go to Nike or Adidas.

As such, not only product, but place and price are also important to sell IPL merchandise.

Last, IPL owners must realize that they have to follow a Push strategy to sell the respective stuffs, as consumers still aren't as crazy about the game, they have economic constraints and they want easy accessibility of products.

Recession isn't that bad

When the recession has hit the world heinously, marketers have found a way to beat its effect. They have devised ways to capitalize on it.

I am talking about the new Airtel TVCs, featuring R. Madhavan and Vidya Balan. The commercials emphasize on relationships and not money, whether it is recession or not. Click here to see the commercial. 

The company has always had a positioning of fostering relations. Even now, the positioning is same as ever, but the theme has been altered and fabricated around recession. Here, company also communicates its lowering of tariffs to sustain the product's value proposition, complementing the brand image.

As such, marketers do find a way to find positives in negatives. The campaign seems to be impressive. Almost all of  marketing mix elements have been altered including price, promotion and product (inclusion of M-commerce). Lets see how sales complement this new strategy with modified marketing mix.

THE AXE EFFECT

Axe is known for its bold and audacious ad campaigns. Here it comes with it the all new Call Me campaign. 

In this ad, a girl gets smitten by strong masculine fragrance of Axe and depicts something called numberitis, wherein the girl is directed by her psyche to give her number to men smelling of strong masculine cologne.

Well, the ad campaign is a huge success as it has succeeded in involving the masses in ground activities. The company expected somewhere around 1 million calls in the initial month of the launch of the campaign, while the numbers were exceptionally high to 2.7 million calls. It was a treat for consumers to have the so-called Axe babe Tanya on the other side of phone.

Well, the ad campaign is based on strong construct in marketing. To have your brand known to consumers, you have to involve the consumers with the brand. The brand successfully did that, which is evident from the no. of calls made, though sales would finally dictate success of the campaign. In my opinion, the campaign aroused immense curiosity and excitement in the target segment, and as such, the purpose of media campaign is well served.

Let's Go International

Once a company establishes itself in the national market and if it is ambitious enough, it would definitely want to go international and thereby expand its consumer base and sales.

There can be various strategies to go international. A company may want to enter only one foriegn market at a time or a no. of markets simultaneously. Based on number of markets to be entered, the strategies could be either waterfall strategy or sprinkler strategy.

Waterfall strategy is one wherein companies enter only one foreign market at a time, establishes itself there and then move to other markets. In this competitive era, this may be a slow pathway, but to understand the consumers of cross-national area, waterfall strategy is highly recommended. This is generally meant for products which are to be customized. For Example, Nestle sells highly customized products. Its products like dahi (curd) and ghee (clarified butter) are India-exclusive products.

On contrary, sprinkler strategy is one wherein a company enters several foreign markets in one stance. This strategy works well when products are standardized and needs no adaptation to local needs. For example, Gillette launched its Mach3 range of razors in 11 countries simultaneously.

As such, choice of entry strategies to foreign markets depends on company's objective and kind of products. 

What an Idea !!!

IPL fever is on its peak and so is marketing war among competing brands. I am talking about the new ad campaign of Idea. 

In the recent days, Vodafone's Zoozoo characters have been the hottest stars in the nation. Vodafone has launched a unique commercial campaign to communicate its services and schemes. The characters are particularly popular among IPL audience.

Well, competitors of Vodafone havn't been sleeping when Zoozoo was making people laugh by its raillery. Here comes Idea with a new campaign which stars Mumbai Indians. The players of Mumbai Indians display their Idea Numbers on screen and ask people to call them and become a celebrity.

Well, the idea sounds great. After all, it is all about sustaining in the market, by creating and maintaining awareness and inserting brands in consumers' evoked set. People are not going to buy Vodafone because of Zoozoos' banter or Idea's "a call away" Sachin or Harbajan. It is just a way to be on consumers' top of mind. This implies that being a part of consumers' evoked set, consumers would consider buying these brands. Ultimately, it is the product attribute that will govern the sales.

Dot Com Burst to Credit Bubble

Today, we had a discussion on ethnocentrism in class. Ethnocentrism refers to degree of preference to goods and services produced in one's own country. India ranks low on ethnocentric scale, while USA ranks very high.

The Bill Clinton government capitalized on this trait of American consumers. In Dot Com burst scenario, American consumers who are shopoholics, became skeptic about buying. As there were lay-offs and credit crunch was on upsurge, these shopoholics abandoned their marked trait of shopping, which was an agony for businesses. At the same time occured the 9/11 incident and that's when businesses built on American ethnocentrism. 

Consumers were encouraged to shop, not for self, but for America. Banks provided easy credit, adding ease to desire for shopping. Well, the idea was great. Marketers majorly aim to sell sentiments than anything else, but the utility of this idea was overestimated.

As consumers kept on buying on credit, we encountered what is called sub-prime crisis, that led to formation of so-called credit bubble. All these led to worst ever economic recession, that has adversely affected almost all businesses in the world.  

Well, nothing is sustainable, neither prosperity nor haplessness. Click here to read more on sustainablity. As such, there are solutions to the contemporary economic crisis by economic gurus. I will elaborate on latter in my next post.

Brand Sense 5

Here comes the last brand sense, which is related to sense of touch. Well, do you know the reason why people do not shop apparels online? The reason is that when it comes to apparel, consumers want touch and feel experience. As such, online shopping isn't rampant for clothing materials.

Have you noticed some perfume bottles with a smooth and appealing texture? This texture is meant to coincide with the sense of touch of consumers and connect the brand to the latter.

Though sense of touch isn't widely used in brand sense, yet it can't be neglected. Marketers must devise ways to capitalise on this sense as well.  

Brand Sense 4

When you pass by a Cafe Coffee Day or Starbucks outlet, what do you sense? It is the rich aroma of exotic coffee from best coffee plantations in the world. Do you know why these outlets make effort to stimulate your olfactory glands?

The answer lies in the fact that marketers attempt to connect their brands to one of your senses. Here, it is the sense of smell. You actually get attracted towards the smell of coffee you sense in and around these outlets. You start associating the pleasent smell with the brand. As such,marketers make an attempt to connect to consumers' sense of smell.

I came across a book called Brand Sense which said that in Europe, the owners of bakeries have put in efforts to install veinlets in malls, etc., wherein they take hold of consumers' touchpoint by exposing them to enticing smell of their confectionery products. It may sound hilarious, but the effort to reach consumers' contact point is immense.

So, sense of smell is as important as any other sense. Marketers are smart enough to use it wherever necessary.

Brand Sense 3

A way to man's (consumers, in this context) heart is through his stomach. 

Well, marketers do realise the importance of having strong association with consumers' taste buds. Here comes the third Brand Sense which is related to sense of taste. This is more relevant to businesses which are into food and beverage industry.

Why do you go to the burger outlet in your lane or to the local idli point? It is because you are highly receptive to taste of their servings and the taste has been consistent throughout. Now, how do businesses capitalise on this sense of consumers?

The answer is quite simple. First, companies have to find the recipe that is well-suited to consumers' taste preferences and which has the potential to become the USP of the product. KFC is the best example to be quoted here. It has created a unique recipe of fried chicken that gives it Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA) and which is liked by customers. Second, they must maintain consitency. When a customer comes to a food outlet, he wants to rejuvenate his previous experience at/with the food outlet. As such, consitency is an important concern.

Once an organisation is successful in connecting with the sense of taste of consumers, it is very difficult for competitors to get the same consumer segment with same offerings. 

Brand Sense 2

Marketers don't rely only on visuals and graphics to connect with the consumers. They use sound and audio too, and that is to link the brands with the sense of hearing of consumers.

Do you remember the audio which Airtel capitalised on for the purpose of brand building? It is a memorable sound track composed by the Indian Mozart, Mr. A. R. Rahman. This audio is an Airtel patent, which actually helped the brand in registering in consumers' minds as audio is a great way to connect to human brain. Click here to listen to the audio.

Similarly, Harley Davidson patented the sound which is supposedly produced while starting the bike. Click here to view the related commercial.

All these efforts are directed to link the brands to a sense of consumers, that is, the hearing sense and therby have a unique brand identity and higher brand equity.

Brand Sense 1

As mentioned in my earlier post, I will now elucidate on integration of each of the five physiological senses to brands. 

Le'ts start with the sense of sight. It is easiest for marketers to connect with consumers' vision. There are n number of examples in this context. Lets us take the example of Coke. When I say Coca Cola, what comes to your mind, rather what association comes to your mind? Probably, it is the red color which Coca Cola is strongly associated with. As such, when a brand has such strong association with vision of consumers', it becomes easier for brands to be on top of minds of consumers.

Marketers need to expend very less marketing or promotional expense. Any bill board with Coke-specific red graphics would serve as reminder for the consumers and that is the essence of brand sense with reference to vision.

Sense the Brands

We have five senses to sense varied stimuli and the sixth sense is the common sense. Well, it is really important for marketers to first connect their brands to consumers' five senses and may then tap in consumers' sixth sense.

I came across a book named Brand Sense by Martin Lindstorm which talks on the same. It says that it is very essential for marketers to connect their brands with various senses of consumers including sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. By doing so, marketers can integrate their brands with the sensory receptors of consumers, leading to penchant towards their brands, compared to those of competitors.

Well, it is really difficult to connect to all senses of consumers, but a few senses can definitely be tapped in under the process called Brand Sense. I feel that once you link your brand with any of these physiological senses, it automatically gets linked to the sixth sense of consumers.

I will write on integration of each of these senses to brands in my subsequent posts.

Why Blogger Beware !!!

I came across a post in one of the blogs. It says about FTC norms to penalize the bloggers who promote products by projecting their fake attributes. The post is rightly titled as "Blogger, Beware". Click here to view the post.

Well, I have a different and contrary take on the issue. I really feel that it's up to a blogger to manage and write on his blog. He may have a different view point on a product's attributes, which don't neccesarily make him a culprit under FTC norms. If there's affirmation on later, I think we should no more consider blog as a platform to express viewpoints. Rather, it should be called a whosover (marketers/blog governing bodies ) dictated area. I just want to ask, "Why Blogger Beware ?"

Indian Ads Fabricated around Cultural Domains

What A Customer Wants ?

Yesterday, I watched a movie named "What a Girl Wants?", Amanda Bynes being the leading lady.

 

In the movie, Amanda as an American teenager learns about her father, who's contesting for office in British political regime and then movie talks about a father and daughter who try to get along and build father-daughter relationship. The movie is touchy, but more than any other thing, I could see how marketers capitalise on human relations.

Coming to Indian cultural fabric, it's in a state of transition from Indian to Western (specifically American) orientation. Indians are somewhere in the midst of these two cultural domains. Well, marketers do have a way to breakthrough this scenario too. As such, they have realized what customers want. They want products/services witha blend of these cultures.

Cadbury has positioned itself brilliantly to tap in the cultural factors of India. They ask the customers to substitute their Deepawali sweets or Rakshbandhan gifts with Cadbury chocolates. As such, they are not asking the customers to shift from or shed their cultural beliefs, but at the same time, they have tried to fit in their products in such a cultural design. I feel it's great strategy for MNCs, dealing with various cultures.

Recession Alters Strategies

I wrote on effects of recession on consumer behavior in one of my previous posts. In this era of great economic depression, customers want value for money and as such, cost based pricing or efficiency pricing are of great concern to customers as well as marketers.

Well, marketers well understand the implications of recession on consumers' purchase behavior. As such, PepsiCo has come up with a great strategy, that positions the brand on cost-based parameters. It says "Plenty in Twenty" (Twenty Mein Plenty), which is for 600ml. On contrary, Coca Cola sells at Rs. 22/600ml. 

I think Pespsi has a real advantage here. Firstly, its positioning clearly indicates its concern towards customers in recessionary times. Secondly, Just Noticeable Difference (JND), in favor of Pepsi may be apparent. Though a difference of Rs. 2 is petty, but I think it is above JND for Coca Cola. This is because the drinks from PepsiCo and Coca Cola hardly have a distinguishing feature. As such, pricing can be a factor in favor of PepsiCo.

Well, sales will ultimately tell the impact of the current pricing strategy of PepsiCo.  

Brute Force Branding

I am reading a book named Brand Harmony by Steve Yastrow. In this book, I came across a term called Brute Force Branding. This form of branding emphasize on a two-fold way to build brands. First, marketers have to break through the clutter to gauge the attention of consumers by being able to make the customers selectively perceive the brand. Second step is to expose the customers to advertisements enough number of times to impart learning about brand and thereby form attitude.

Well, this form of branding must have worked in past, but today's consumers is just not ready to buy on basis of advertisements. The reasons for such a shift can be attributed to reasons like cutomers having more choices than before, customers becoming more savvy and having access to information. As such, relying on ads isn't going to work for brand building.

Rather, customer wants harmony in terms of brand experience, that is, harmony in their experience with ads, brochures, salesforce, etc. and definitely with the product. That's how great brands are built, at least in the current scenario. We have brands like Nike, etc. that followed Brute Force Branding , but that's history now. Today's consumers are unreceptive to bombardment with ads and as such, they have to be convinced some other way. I really feel Brand Harmony is a great way to do so.

Child is the Father of Man

Well, why "Child is the Father of Man"? You must have noticed that as kids, we have a strong urge to quickly reach adulthood and once we are adults, this urge fades away and rather, we want to go back to our childhood again . Well, this is general human tendency beyond human control.

Well, marketers have well capitalised on this facet of human behavior paving way for an otherwise unnoticed pattern of consumption behavior. Let us see the new frooti commercial. Click here to view the commercial.

Here, themarketers are asking the consumers, "Why grow up?" Adults really don't want to grow up, rather they want to get back to their childhood. As a child, you must have slurrped your drinks to the last drop. You still do it, may be subconsciously as you want to be a child again. Now, as an adult, slurrping to the last drop is like repeating the behavior seen in early stages of growth. 

Well, it is a brilliant positioning strategy. Give the consumers what they want. They want to get back to their childhood which is actually a latent or hidden need, and that is what is  being offered to them by Frooti. I think they have managed to break the clutter. 

Who's Worth It ???

Do you know what it takes to build great brands? Technically speaking, products can be branded using several functions which are Credibility, Attractiveness and Power. 

The usage of these forces are a function of nature of product. Suppose you have a food product, it needs credibilty as that is what distinguises it from competing brands. Now when it comes to cosmetics, attractiveness is the pre-requisite and as such, celebrities are best suited to be used to brand such products.

Well, most cosmetics companies have celebrities as endorsers. Taking the case of L'Oreal in India, it has had Aishwarya Rai Bachhan and Diana Hayden as its brand ambassdors, and for past few years, Aishwarya has been the only face of L'Oreal. Well, as a matter of fact, any brand requires a contemporary figure to endorse it and thereby protect it from getting enervated. As such, L'Oreal decided to rope in a fresh face for its brand, while retaining Aishwarya for some of its products. 

This new face is Sonam Kapoor. Well, no doubt she is attractive and can leverage her attractiveness to a cosmetics brand, but I don't think Sonam is the right choice for a brand like L'Oreal. L'Oreal is a brand that is truly international in its appeal. As such, it should have taken an endorsee with international appeal. I think any international beauty peagent winner would have been great, but we don't have any such figure in recent times. The  next best choice would have been Deepika Padukone, but then she has already been roped in by Maybelline and there L'Oreal looses the advantage. 

Let's see how Sonam fares for the brand. We can just speculate but times would confirm the success or failure of this move of L'Oreal. So, let us just wait and watch. 

Click here to see reviews on Sonam's selection as brand ambassador for L'Oreal. 

It's All About Strategy

Today I had a discussion on Nokia's extension strategy with my peers and professor. Nokia wants to go for extension into rural markets. The million dollar question is how to decide on the extension strategy, that is whether to go for market development (getting in to rural market) or product development (and retain its bomb share in urban market).

Well, the answer is pretty simple. It depends on the company's core competencies. If a company wants to extend its markets, it must have a really strong distribution and logistics network. When later is the case, only then it can push its products to these markets with really poor infrastructure and connectivity.

For product development, a company must have hold on R&D and technology. If an organisation has intellectual resources and innovative temperament, only then it should go for the respective extension area.

Well, I personally think that Nokia has competencies in both logistics and innovation. As such, it is wise to go for product and market development simultaneously.

Marketers are Smart

As summers have begun to heat the nature, marketers have come up with ways to combat the latter. This summer witnessed the launch of several brands of lemon drinks including 7UP Nimbooz by PepsiCo and LMN by ParleAgro. 

Let us look at the branding strategy of 7UP Nimbooz. When Pepsico decided to go for line extension, there weren't any players in lime category and  as such, there was an opportunity to get first-mover advantage for this category.

The big question is whether it is apt for Pepsico to extend the brand name of 7UP to Nimbooz. Well, the technicality of issue depicts that it is a right move by Pepsico to leverage the brand image of 7UP to Nimbooz. The reasons attributed to this action are:

1. 7UP is quite close to a lemon drink in terms of taste. 

2. Lime drinks is a not an established category till date. As such, consumers do not discrminate stimuli for the category. Rather, there will be stimulus generalization, wherein consumers would percieve Nimbooz close to 7UP, which has strong brand equity. As such, consumers are expected to form favorable attitude towards Nimbooz, similar to that for 7UP.

This is a smart strategy to keep a sister brand in shadow of master brand (that is 7UP), rather than launching an entirely new brand.  

Flush Out The Common Sensical

You must be wondering as to why "Flush out the common sensical". Well, that is what is apt for the young generation, who wants to break free.

If you see the recent ad of Wild Stone mens' deodorant, a man gets involved with his siter in-law. Now, this is absolutely not acceptable in Indian culture and here lies the great positioning strategy for the product.

Youth of today's era generally doesn't want to comply with societal norms. They are more of rebellious kind, who are averse to established beliefs. This product, by depicting a rebellious attitude, is highlighting the positioning of product as a distinct, daring and individualistic identity.

Common man with high cultural values may not like the concept, but it is a brilliant positioning strategy. It is apt for its set of target group which is that of youngsters. They want something that is audacious and bold, which is exactly what is given to them by the marketers. 

Click here to view the commercial.

Recession and Consumer Behavior

One of my friends went for a job interview and the topic for group discussion was "Effects of recession on Consumer Behavior". My friend is in Finance stream, and so he couldn't speak much on it, but this led me into deep thinking.

Recession has badly hit the world and almost all businesses are striving to atleast survive. How do marketers measure Consumer Behavior (CB) in a recession-hit scenario?

The process of Consumption Behavior is a congregation of four consecutive psychological domains, all backed by a common domain of Personality. These four psychological factors are Motivation, Perception, Learning and Attitude. 

The essence of CB is that consumers of a segment depict more or less uniform behavior and that is what is capitaised on by marketers. Now, as there is recession, the behavior of consumers have changed drastically. For eg: A consumer may have a favorable attitude towards say, Gucci watch, but his attitude towards purchase behavior may be unfavorable. He may like Gucci as a brand, but may not have resources to buy it. As such, marketers can't conclude anything about consumer attitude, if they aren't buying a particular product.

So, how to tackle this situation? Well, in current situation, not only economies, but consumers too are in deep liquidity crunch. As such, consumer attitude is dictated by pricing. Consumers want value for money. So, marketers must give them cost-effective or efficiency pricing, and that's how marketers can mould the attitude of consumers towards their offerings.

Let's just wait and watch the actions of marketers and then draw a conclusion in this context.

Whats So Peculiar ?

Consumer behavior is a highly analytical subject, with great scope of research. There is a scope of research in every aspect of behavior shown by consumers.

Well, consumers do behave in a peculiar fashion quite a number of times. In my last assignment on consumer behavior (CB), we had to take up an irrational behavior depicted by consumers, and then work backwards to relate the behavior to theories of CB. I took up the behavior of obsessed investors as my topic of research.

The interesting part is the speculation of my classmate on the pecularity of the respective behavior. He wasn't convinced with the behavior we took up as being peculiar. Then we came up with discussion on the parameters on which we call a behavior as strange and erratic. One criteria was that a peculiar behavior is uncommon in terms of frequency and number of people doing it.

Other argument was that a behavior though shown by majority, may be called peculiar. For eg: people are fussy about paying ten extra bucks to a cab-driver, while same majority may give money as tips in restaurants. This behavior though depicted by a lot of people, yet is peculiar.

So, the criteria of peculiar behavior can be:

1. A behavior that is shown by few people, that is, a behavior that is uncommon

2. A behavior that shows two converse and contrasting reactions in different situations, or that shows lack of uniformity in different situations.

This is a great area of research. There are no right and wrong here, but there can be multiple answers.  

What's great advertising ?

Do you know what it means by great advertising? As per Leo Burnett, "Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief."

Attitude vs Perception

Can you differentiate between attitude and perception? The two terms seem to mean quite the same thing, but there's a great difference in thier implication.

I will enunciate on the topic as per the principle of consumer behaviour. Perception refers to an opinion formed about a product or brand on reception of a stimulus. Every stimulus (selectively percieved stimulus) leads to formation of perception. Now once perception is formed about a product, consumers tend to learn more about the product or brand. Once learning comes up to the desired level, consumers form attitude.

Now, the difference between these two psychological domains lies in the fact that every single stimuli forms a perception, while attitude is a consequence of learning about a product/brand, which in turn is the outcome of perception(s). Consumers may have different needs for cognition. As such, consumer learning comes from multiple stimuli leading to multiple perceptionm.

In a nutshell, consumers first percieve, learn from perception/s (on account of single or multiple stimuli depending on their need for cognition) and then forn attitudes, which dictate their purchase decisions.

What Allures You ?

Marketers follow various approaches to allure the consumers to their offerings, as the ultimate goal of a marketer is to sell and attain profits. He may lure customers by approach object or avoidance object.

Approach object refers to focus on promotion, wherein marketers try to promote a product on its benefits. On contrary, avoidance approach focuses on prevention, that is, marketers pitch a product on the harms of not using it.

If we see the category of life insurance, this is a category where these conversely different appeals are used by major players. If we see HDFC commercials, they are more based on prevention focus. They highlight the grave consequences of not buying the insurance plan. On the other hand, ICICI uses promotion focus. It pitches the product on benefits (like a tension free life) of buying its plan.

There are brands which even change their focus, as they want to reinforce the consumers over and over again, with a differential stimulus and the difference in these two approaches serve to go beyond what is called Just Noticeable Difference (jnd) .

How about this Promotional Mix ?

Tata has come up with the cheapest car (in terms of price) of India. There has been a lot of hype surrounding the car, Tata Nano. What can be the possible reasons for such great awareness level for the product, with nil advertsising expense.

Well, Tata's have taken up a great promotional strategy for the product. As the product is cheap, advertising expenses cannot be borne by the company. Company has solely relied on publicity to promote the product.

Now, for an innovative product like Tata Nano, publicity is a great idea as publicity is supposed to come from neutral sources like media which give reviews free form any bias or prejudice. as such, it gives credibility to the product and promotion. Also, company didn't have to make any effort to build awareness to the product and at the same time, need not expend for the purpose. As such, Tata's strategy to promote the product, rather not to promote it (and let media do that) is a smart move.

Also, Tata Nano has been engaged in PR actitivies during unveiling of the product, adressal by the top executives of the company. The product has also been displayed at Tata's retail outlets like Croma and Westside.

In a nutshell, promotion is the least expended area for Nano, with great awareness and visibility to the product.

Relavance of Appeals

I have been writing a lot on marketing appeals, but often these appeals aren't used appropriately. When it comes to sex appeal, it is used without its relevance to the product. The greatest example in this context is that of latest commercial of mango drink, Slice featuring Katrina Kaif. In this ad, sex appeal is used to allure the customers, which is totally irrelevant to a product like mango drink.

On the other hand, the recent commercial of Sony Vaio (pocket style) uses the sex appeal which is apt for the product. As it is a pocket laptop, the use of this kind of appeal is sensible.

Well, marketers should understand the essence of marketing concept and then apply it to market the product. Not too many marketers are smart enough to do this. 

A Brilliant Product Placement

I wrote a post on product placement quite a few days back. I came across a great work on product placement a few days back.

As we all know, MTV flagship Roadies is sponsered by Hero Honda. Now how to place a product in such a programme which is already associated with a brand. Well, marketers do have  away to tackle this unique problem and that is placing the product at relavent positions.

The recent task for the contenders of Roadies was to collect coins tied around the lower part of crocodiles body. The task was really scary and contestants were panicking a lot. And here comes a product that says, "Darr ke aage jeet hai", which means that there is victory beyond fear. Well, I guess you have surmised the respective product, which is Mountain dew (from the umbrella of Pepsico).

I think product placement is a great way to breakthrough the advertising clutter and to manage to place a product in a programme that is associated with some other brand (though in different category) is a brilliant marketing effort.