OOH Advertising: Passive yet Effective Medium

I have recently been seeing a lot of Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising. All industry sectors, whether its tourism or technology, are leveraging on OOH advertising. I have been seeing good advertising gimmicks on billboards on bus stops, prime locations of cites like airport and even the exteriors of buses/volvos.

OOH advertising is a great branding strategy as this medium exposes the consumers to a brand a number of times which are enough for the brand to stay on top of consumers' minds. However, if OOH Media is such a great and powerful medium of branding, why not all brands resort to such advertising?

If we talk about OOH in India, the best of infrastructure is yet to come. Our OOH medium is passive and not interactive as it is internationally. As such, a lot of companies would prefer to use their marketing budgets on interactive media like television ads and online banners. Also, we are yet to develop in terms of "technology-enabled creativity" which could otherwise give a new dimension to OOH medium.

Despite some loopholes in Indian OOH advertising scenario, an integrated marketing approach is the need of the hour. India has been a preferred destinations for top MNCs and retail chains. All of the new upcoming brands which are targeted to the fast growing middle class, offer almost the same value proposition, which is great quality at affordable prices. As such, the brands which are able to be a part of the consumers' consideration set would win consumers' loyalty and revenues as well. To be a part of your target audiences' evoked set, it is important to always be in front of them. A brand has to chase consumers and go wherever they are, offices, home, malls, streets, etc. You can get the most out of OOH advertising if you take up an integrated marketing and advertising approach including all the prime media like TV, newspapers, magazines and internet.

Diversity of Facts - Star News

In today's competitive era, media is a powerful advertising tool. However, there is competition in various media groups and each of them are resorting to all means to gain viewership, news channels being no exception.

The word News is derived from the initial alphabets of the four cardinal directions namely North, East, West and South. The reason for the unique derivation of the word can be attributed to diversity of the updates from all directions of the universe. News is supposed to reflect facts with no tinge of fiction, and this is what contributed to the proverb, "A pen is mightier than a sword".

However, the increasing competition has moulded this powerful medium for expression of fact, truth and strong beliefs. News channels have resorted to telecast of irrelevant content to gain TRPs. News channels have come up with shows that talk about movies, daily soaps and film actors, which have altered the domain of a news channel. News channels are now dominated by content high in entertainment value and low in informational value.

In such times when audience is looking for a news channel that depicts the reality of the universe, Star News has come up with a commendable campaign (Click here to view the print ad). If you see the print ad, you will notice that they have tried to use the derivation of the word news (which is diversity innate in the four cardinal directions), which I think will help them break through the clutter.

This campaign highlights the difference between contemporary news channel which are now nothing more than money-minting businesses, and its own brand which promises to bring the essence of news, which are as diverse as the world and people around.

I am not sure about how well they have used the campaign, but in all, this campaign is good and if advertised well, will definitely help the brand meet its promotional goals.

Causal Marketing: A Great Marketing Initiative

"Marketing is what you do when your product is no good". What do you think of this quote? I came across this marketing quote while browsing the net and was flabbergasted to comprehend it. My inference of this quote is that there is no great product on earth as there is hardly any product that is not marketed.

If you do not market your product, it will not sell. Remember, consumers do not buy your product, they buy the benefits associated with it. If you do not communicate the benefits of your product, your competitor will..and you will loose your potentials.

When I talk about marketing in contemporary era, it is taking new forms and dimensions with each passing day. I would like to talk about marketing for social cause.

If you see the latest commercials of Aircel and Nokia, you will very well realize that these companies have resorted to a known but merely implemented form of marketing, Causal marketing. Nokia takes up the much talked about issue of deteriorating vegetation while Aircel picks up the sensitive issue of meager population of tigers in India.

You may say that these companies are committed to their Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR). Well, probably yes, but if you think that is the only reason for their current marketing campaigns, cerebrate for a while.

Companies are in business to earn profit and not for social work. However, Corporate Social Responsibility is a factor that increases the goodwil of companies and the brand in the minds of consumers. In this competitive era when companies are resorting to comparative and anti-advertising campaigns, hampering the goodwill of the brand, Aircel an Nokia are on the right track.

There is no element of abashing competition, rather, the brands attempted to showcase their CSR and have registered in the minds of consumers, which is what these brands aimed for. These are already known brands, but consumers may forget these brands if not advertised. As such, Causal advertising to stay on top of mid of consumers and build goodwill is a great strategy to beat competition.

Brand Mantra

New Year is a time to celebrate the success of past and hopes for future. This New Year has been truly special for me as I got to know a significant fact of life, "We must try to be skillful than being successful", which means that success is a function of skills. This comes from the biggest Bollywood hit of 2009, "3 Idiots".

Well, we all know such things but human character is such that they know a lot of things, but they still need to be reminded. In times of recession when jobs and pay scales are being cut, I think a fact link the one mentioned above can be a breath of respite and a motivating factor for recession hit people.

My motto of starting this blog post with a note on the movie is not to talk about recession, but to initiate a conversation on the power of a brand in recessionary times.

Brand is the most powerful thing on earth, which could make human beings do what the band intends to. Brands are not just material things, but celebrities are brands as well. Brands are associated with an innate element of trust and integrity, which differentiate them from products and commodities.

When we talk about the success of 3 Idiots, it is not just the brand value of the actor that is credited with the success of the movie. However, the box office statistics for the movie are just amazing. The movie earned more than 75 crore rupees in the first week of its release.

Well, generally people are reluctant to go to multiplexes without the review of a movie, but when it comes to an Aamir Khan's movie, people are just not concerned with review as they trust the potential of the brand "Aamir Khan". Aamir has always identified with the common man and has sensitively addressed their issues. He has performed better than customer expectations earlier and the trust element on the actor is ever lasting. Consumers know that they are not just gonna be satisfied as the actor is a master in delighting the consumers.

There are other renowned actors in the industry, but Aamir Kahn is the among the very few who is regarded as a "Perfectionist". This is the reason that his "one great movie every year" concept earn him more money that "2 idiotic movies every quarter" funda.

Every brand has a special and differentiating element, which may also be referred to as brand association. However, the element of customer delight is common among all brands. When consumers spare their hard earned money, they want the best return on their investments and that is when the quality assurance of a brand comes into play.

Brands are powerful, but it is extremely challenging to build a brand. The foundation of a brand lies in a good product with sustainable quality over years.

Hats off to the brand AAmir!!!

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.