A Time To Reflect

charukesi February 29th, 2008

Some odds and ends for the weekend…

A compilation of Indian blogs on marketing, social media and advertising. Good weekend reading. I know / know of many of these people but not their blogs, or even that they had one, so it’s been a nice surprise to discover some of them…

And from The Chasing iamb (who also admits - and why blog names should not be picked in a hurry) - sound advice for the freelancer. Where was the iamb when I needed this advice when I was starting out as a naive, will-cringe-and-die-before-I-discuss-money freelancer? Possibly chasing something else.

Heck, I may as well admit, I am still that way. Earlier as a researcher, now also as a travel writer. So this stays bookmarked and becomes daily reading. Repeat after me, you are a freelancer for the freedom and choice it affords you. Not so you get desperate and panicky if no work comes your way for a whole week, month, year. Okay, maybe not year. Go read now. There is a reason I have linked to it twice.

And while on this (rambling without purpose - and is there any other way?), today’s Mumbai Mirror, reporting on the Deshmukh son’s wedding (notice the url ends with english-skin-custom. So nothing. Just thought I’d point it out. I told you I was rambling) in Mumbai says among other things - The state Cabinet was represented by Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil and his colleagues. Marketing Minister Harshwardhan Patil was playing host for the Deshmukhs.

Marketing Minister? What does a marketing minister do? Does he have weekly / monthly / quarterly targets? And sales support? What about business development? And most importantly, what does he market?

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charukesi February 26th, 2008

I came across this piece on how advertising agencies position themselves - most of it seemed rather obvious or desperate to me (but that is the cynical advertising-industry-watcher in me speaking) - for instance a brand’s best friend? hey, isn’t that supposed to be the customer? And hey, that is anyway why you are the chosen agency for that brand…

I was trying to find positioning statements of Indian ad agencies and haven’t made much progress so far. But driving back to Bombay from Pune, I spotted this on the expressway.

A bold, provocative statement. Written by someone with great confidence and plans for the SMG brand. And as risky as the proposed business decision…

Personally, I found it the kind of attention-seeking statement that immediately raises my heckles - for I was reminded of this signboard on a shop window - Why go elsewhere to be cheated? Come to us. What do you think of such a statement?

More : As Apu points out in her comment, none of these is really a ‘positioning’ statement - at best, they are tag lines, much the way keeps my skin smooth is for a soap brand - that is the very least I expect from a soap. And going by the tag lines, there is little to differentiate one agency from the other.

Given that, I think the Starcom statement is atleast, well, different. Provocative, as I said, cheeky and makes you want to stop and think about it. So what makes them so brashly confident? What is it that they can offer that makes the risk worthwhile… I wonder if an additional line about the risk-benefit pay-off would make this whole ad more balanced, acceptable…?

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charukesi February 19th, 2008

Pepsi does it again. Proved that when you hit rock bottom, it is still possible to plumb newer depths. And there I was, thinking it couldn’t get worse than Oye Bubbly. Following that, John Abraham appeared with Shah Rukh Khan in a mercifully brief Chacha-Bhatija campaign and with winter came blessed relief from Cola advertising.

And out of the blue, this. Youngistaan? And just in case you start looking on the map for it, Youngistaan is not a place, it is an attitude. Ah, ok. Not a newly formed state, adjoining Chattisgarh. Youngistaan, a (moronic) state of mind.

As the name suggests, it represents a world of the youth, where the young generation likes to be in control. It brings forward their never failing attitude, their desire to take on challenges and the power to turn things around. Right. I am still trying to figure out which part of the name suggests all this to the brains (heh?!) behind this campaign. What it does suggest to me is a slight desperation…

Look at me, I am young. At heart. Eh, Speak up, will you? I don’t hear very well these days.

Give me steady sensible thanda matlab Coca Cola any day…

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charukesi December 5th, 2007

Catching up on reading and writing…

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has established 291 Village Resource Centres (VRCs) to provide integrated services, including tele-education, tele-medicine, natural resources information and skill development in rural India - digitalopportunity

And from ET, Soon, Indians can buy over-the-counter (OTC) drugs from post offices. In order to increase the access of essential drugs to consumers, pharma companies are talking with the Indian Government to use post offices to sell OTC drugs.

And consumer trends for 2008 from trendwatching - status spheres, premiumization, snack culture, online oxygen, brand butlers, crowd mining, MIY - make-it-yourself, eco-iconic… And just in case you wondered about where India was vis-a-vis China in the race, the info page of the trend report says, need to know what will excite consumers in 2008? (Yes, that means India consumers too!)

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charukesi September 22nd, 2007

Bingo - some of the most delightful ads I have seen in recent times. Not just for the sheer enjoyment value but also the fact that the ads do not make the slightest effort to take the brand seriously - if anything, the reverse. And that is so refreshing - some one in the creative team at the agency, and dare I suggest it, even a brand manger or gasp! marketing manager, who realizes the brand is meant to be taken lightly, the product being what it is - fun and completely incidental to the lives and diet of consumers.

A brand that has advertising with absurd situations (consciously and carefully created), that laughs at itself, tongue firmly in cheek. Perfect branding - and focus on what makes Bingo special (I HATE the term USP) - those amazing combinations! “Bingo. No confusion. Great combination.” I first noticed the ad with the potato chips and lal mirch combination - a good product and superb advertising - that rare and unbeatable combination - it is little wonder that in less than six months, Bingo has managed to capture 16% market share, giving Pepsi’s Frito Lays a hard run for tis money. Go Bingo!

***

While on not taking self seriously, the other ad that caught my attention was the Pepsi MyCan ad - the latest one is even more direct - John Abraham points to Shah Rukh and says, uncle - he called you uncle… Uncle manages to pass the title back to John Abraham and all is well in the world of stud-dom. While I didn’t think much of the ad itself (Apu, I agree), it takes a lot of courage to own up to the aging process - especially in an industry that survives on the “self”. I deeply admire Shah Rukh Khan for daring to take on this ad (notwithstading the fact that he looks in the ad like his stylist desperately wanted him to resemble Abhijeet Sawant).

And to this day I can never understand why I like Pepsi as a brand much much more than I do Coke (and I am a confirmed non-cola drinker!) - despite the fact that I think Coke advertising is consistently far superior to anything Pepsi has made in the last few years.

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charukesi September 21st, 2007

Orange went pink, and has now turned red. will the dog be now left dead? wonders adformula. Fortunately, so far the little dog has been romping along merrily, only stopping to sniff suspiciously at his now-red kennel before entering it through the small hole in the red. And then the line - Change is good.

I mean, what? Change is good - what kind of change? why is change good? for whom? Does this imply that customers felt a desperate need for change from Hutch? Seems to be presumptuous, what? Reminds me of Philip’s Let’s make things better. Only time can tell how good this change is.

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charukesi August 6th, 2007

I caught the ads for Zapak mail for the first time the other day at a theatre in Vashi. I also found posters in the loo - just above the pot - quick downloads, in bold type, with two block arrows pointing down. Made me pause - and smile - I remember not being very impressed the last time I saw an ad inside the theatre loo. The ad campaign as a whole - what I have seen of the tvc and posters - built on the theme of fast, quick is very entertaining - and interesting use of media.

[Images: agencyfaqs]

But. Two things.

How relevant is quick as a proposition in emails now - is that not the least one expects from en email provider? Rediffmail said quick some years ago - and rediff was quick - compared to other email services at that time. But now, is quick enough - how does it make your service different from any other? And more importantly, if you have a bad internet connection, like say, sify as I used to, how quick is quick?

The other and larger question is, why has zapak suddenly shifted focus to email from gaming? After splashing hoardings across the city with Salman Khan saying inscrutable things, they have suddenly gone quiet on the gaming side of the business - which is their mainstay. This again made sense during the initial dotcom boom - offer email to attract visitors to the site and so on (rediff and indya and suchlike) but now? Why does it seem to me that zapak is trying to live in the past.

I do not understand this whole strategy in the first place - why an email service at all for a gaming business? If the idea is to attract a bunch of adolescents, then what is to say that email will do that better than gaming? And who else will this attract - apart from those with a mental age of 14 - I mean, come on, imagine an email id @zapak.com… why would anyone want it? (The only reason I can think of is to get the user name you want - which you probably cannot find on yahoo and gmail - but I cannot honestly imagine 14 year olds wanting their own name as their user name when there are a million weird handles out there)

gmail gave me all I wanted in an email but did not know who to ask - viz. storage space and more importantly, a series of email exchanges on one page - email as conversation, if you will. I am curious - what can a new email service offer customers? Is there anything that you have wished for and never found in any other service? Reliance has a lot of money - I am sure they have some long term strategy in place, the way the younger brother is pouring money into this venture. But what that is, eludes me for the moment.

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charukesi July 25th, 2007

.. or it’s all in the looks. When I was in London, several of my friends mentioned Whole Foods - it was almost as if it was London’s latest tourist attraction. If you are anyway going near Kensington, drop in at the store, said one of my friends. So what’s the big deal about a new food store, even if it stocks and sells only organic stuff? Just go see it, he urged me, if only to see how they display stuff. I never knew it was possible to make eggs look so sexy.

Passing lightly over that, think about what that means - people walking into the store to look. More “footfalls” (interesting what a dreaded word that has come to be). But as in the case of shopping malls all over India, how much of it actually converts into sale, I wonder? Especially with a premium brand as this, with organic foods already perceived as expensive (and perhaps, not worth the money? by many), and with several competing, well-established stores offering much better rates to the not-so-discerning but value-conscious shopper.

In other words, what do sexy eggs do for a consumer? Do they actually egg you on to purchase? (heh, noticed that?) Several reports I read say that for the US customer, Whole Foods has created a “pleasurable shopping experience” - organic, good-looking and fresh all the time.

From Is Whole Foods the next Starbucks? on msn - Make no mistake, consumers pay more for the Whole Foods experience. But nobody shopping there seems to mind one bit. In fact, whenever I shop there the stores are crowded. Additionally, the company’s internal data suggests that consumers spend more time in its stores than in traditional supermarkets because of the unique variety of products. But isn’t that a niche segment - a consumer who will shop repeatedly and regularly at the store? What happens when the novelty value wears off for the regular supermarket customer?

I thought about Whole Foods when I read this morning about what Rashmi has to say about Croma, the newly opened electronics store in Belapur. So, how does a retailer convert the “shopping experience” into a confirmed purchase? And then repeatedly at that?

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charukesi July 7th, 2007

We were at the Park hotel in Bangalore (does anyone remember it used to be called a grand ‘Kensington Palace’ till some years ago?) earlier this week for dinner. I noticed my friend staring at the large abstract painting that covered most of the wall; what do you think this means, he asked finally? Everyone in the group had a view; the finally accepted response was mine - it means someone made a lot of money on this.

Indian by any other name

I thought about this the next day when I found myself discussing corporate brand identities with my client who has just returned to India after many years in the USA. He wondered about the name change of Indian Airlines to Indian; everything else seems the same. I hadn’t thought much about it at the time the change happened - but now reading about it, I am stuck by the naive confidence of the airline and the agency in charge of the rebranding (who perhaps have no choice but to defend their work, for what it is worth) - Rediff, ahem, enlightens us on Why Indian Airlines changed logo, name - “An Indian today is considered as making a difference, and his say is of significant value. That positive image of an Indian is being utilised well with the dropping of the suffix, Airlines,” says Harish Bijoor, brand consultant and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. What was that again? Bijoor goes on, pointing out how the image and name change also involves a change in mindset — from a plodding public sector undertaking to an airline that is ready to take on private airlines.

I am thinking here, if only image change was that simple to achieve, I would have change my name to what? Sharon Stone? Indra Nooyi? years ago. The name has changed but little else, even their website opens to Indian Airlines (notice just how complicated and difficult to remember the url is) - although the page does say - Indian welcomes you - must be the new global Indian who has a say - but it is difficult to say for sure. read this scathing long-ago post by Atanu on the thundering airlines.

The inscrutable logo

Indian is just one of them - the brand logo / name changers. I doubt if any of you has forgotten the much-publicized (and VERY expensive) multi-colored sunflower of Wipro? I have just about stopped shaking convulsively each time I see, but I would be lying if I said that I have finally understood what the logo stands for (yeah, yeah, Azim P’s roots in sunflower oil and all that but rainbow-colored sunflowers?). I only know that, like the abstract painting, someone made a lot of money on this one. If you are interested, here is an explanation on what this logo stands for - straight from the sunflowers’ mouth. In addition to the logo was the startling line, Applying thought - have you ever muttered to yourself - where there was none before… Logo, slogan, brand name - if only rebranding was just about changing these elements…

Then there is Hutch - fantastic branding in general, great advertising from Ogilvy, innovative media activities (unmissable outdoor campaigns) and then the three pink samosas.

And surely, this is not just an Indian phenomenon (heh, heh, did you notice that?) - think about the new Baskin Robbins logo - I agree, the old logo was boring, especially the font, but the new one makes me think of a kid with a bad tummy squirming after eating the ice-cream. So much for hidden design elements. And the much-debated logo for the London Olympics.

On the other hand, it is possible to convey a sense of change (ideally improvement, a positive change in perceived image of the brand) by simply improving service / product quality and advertising - as SBI did with their recent campaign (although I found the tone too defensive initially).

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Earlier posts on this subject : The slow-gun war and Deliver us from the darkness…

Update : Catching up on my blog feeds, I see that Rashmi Bansal has written about Unilever’s new logo. Exactly - so? sums up my thoughts on most rebranding activities I see.

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charukesi May 14th, 2007

I got this on email - several people seem to have already blogged about it but here goes anyway…

I have said this before - it is suicidal for a brand to admit to ‘change’. changed, improved, better, bigger… why, were they not so good earlier? Jet Airways proudly announced its new look - new crew uniforms, new corporate colors, new partner (Sahara) with an ad campaign that read - We’ve changed

Kingfisher Airlines, louder and bigger in every way (if not actually better) put this hoarding up on top of that one - We made them change

And if you are thinking Jet was asking for it, and hey, good for Kingfisher, upstart Go went and did this…

A good slogan does not a good brand make - heck, it does not even make for a good campaign. Go for it, Go! is what I say - Go got it perfect - after all, what does Jet’s “change” mean for the consumer? And Kingfisher’s too, beyond the initial smile it evokes. The only other airline ad I can think of (in the Indian context) was Deccan’s Simplifly, a revolutionary concept at the time it was introduced. (On another note, what does any of this mean to the consumer given the sorry state of Indian airports and the “air traffic congestion” situation?)

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