Tuesday, August 19, 2008
My Triumphant Return to ELR!
It's been over a year since I did a guest spot on Scott Johnson's ELR, but who's counting? I was on last night discussing my non-meeting with Scott in Las Vegas, and basically talking about geekery and such. Listen, won't you?
Monday, August 18, 2008
My Yearbook Photos
I think I look pretty good. Thanks to Steve Garfield for pointing me to the link.
Brand Update : Tata Indicom
Tata Indicom was one of the first telecom operators to offer CDMA mobile services in India. Launched in 1996, the brand is the youngest of the lot. Infact it was one the first brands to be analysed in this blog.
In my post on Tata Indicom, I was talking about their launch of India's first prepaid plan with free incoming calls. I was lambasting on the poor campaign promoting the brand.
Indicom has come a long way since my first post on it. Now its one of the major players in the CDMA space with a market share of around 9.1 % in the highly competitive telecom market.
Last month the brand undertook a major repositioning exercise and is trying to position itself in an emotional platform rather than a functional one.
Tata Indicom has been positioned earlier using the " Do more live more " platform. The brand has been investing heavily on this platform with high decibel advertising featuring Bollywood stars - Kajol and Ajay Devgan.
Watch the old campaigns here : Tata Indicom Old
Most of the initial campaigns was of bad taste with unnecessary dramatics and substandard humor. Later the brand mellowed down to a " let me tell you the benefits " approach with Kajol acting as the brand expert. According to Afaqs, the first change in positioning was a result of the change in the ad agency from Mcann to Draft FCB Ulka.
This month Tata Indicom has launched a new campaign and a new positioning.
Watch the new campaign here : Indicom new ad
The new ad is also a result of change in the advertising agency. The account has moved to Contract Advertising.
The brand has now taken a more emotional platform to promote itself. Its a sort of laddering up. The brand is following the strategy of Airtel which has perfected the art of laddering up.
The new campaign of Tata Indicom now talk about " Listening to your heart ". The new campaign shows a small town girl making it big in athletics.
My initial impression about the ad is positive. Its a well made ad and its nice to watch. But when I watched the ad first time , I had a feeling that I had seen this somewhere before.
The concept of Rags to Riches is has been one of the most used positioning platform worldwide. It does strikes a chord but when every other brand tries the same chord, the chord gets broken.
So no Big Idea from Tata Indicom. Its the same bollywood formula in a new bottle. According to Afaqs, Kajol will be used in urban markets while this campaign will be used across the markets. The brand has identified ambitious youth in small towns as the TG. Its a good news since one of my major criticism for Tata Indicom was its inability in identifying the TG.
Rags to riches, defying the odds, David beating Goliath, Small humbling the Big .... These are sure shot recipes to impress the audience. In the execution of the idea, the agency has not let down the brand.
Branding has become an important element in telecom marketing in India. Now we are seeing a standardization of tariffs. Marketers are now trying to retain the customers through emotional connection with the brand. The war is now on two fronts . On one hand, the brands are trying to offer value added services to customers . Alongside the brands are investing in building a connect with the customers.
Tata Indicom was struggling to find a right positioning platform so far . Now they have a reasonable platform to work with.
In my post on Tata Indicom, I was talking about their launch of India's first prepaid plan with free incoming calls. I was lambasting on the poor campaign promoting the brand.
Indicom has come a long way since my first post on it. Now its one of the major players in the CDMA space with a market share of around 9.1 % in the highly competitive telecom market.
Last month the brand undertook a major repositioning exercise and is trying to position itself in an emotional platform rather than a functional one.
Tata Indicom has been positioned earlier using the " Do more live more " platform. The brand has been investing heavily on this platform with high decibel advertising featuring Bollywood stars - Kajol and Ajay Devgan.
Watch the old campaigns here : Tata Indicom Old
Most of the initial campaigns was of bad taste with unnecessary dramatics and substandard humor. Later the brand mellowed down to a " let me tell you the benefits " approach with Kajol acting as the brand expert. According to Afaqs, the first change in positioning was a result of the change in the ad agency from Mcann to Draft FCB Ulka.
This month Tata Indicom has launched a new campaign and a new positioning.
Watch the new campaign here : Indicom new ad
The new ad is also a result of change in the advertising agency. The account has moved to Contract Advertising.
The brand has now taken a more emotional platform to promote itself. Its a sort of laddering up. The brand is following the strategy of Airtel which has perfected the art of laddering up.
The new campaign of Tata Indicom now talk about " Listening to your heart ". The new campaign shows a small town girl making it big in athletics.
My initial impression about the ad is positive. Its a well made ad and its nice to watch. But when I watched the ad first time , I had a feeling that I had seen this somewhere before.
The concept of Rags to Riches is has been one of the most used positioning platform worldwide. It does strikes a chord but when every other brand tries the same chord, the chord gets broken.
So no Big Idea from Tata Indicom. Its the same bollywood formula in a new bottle. According to Afaqs, Kajol will be used in urban markets while this campaign will be used across the markets. The brand has identified ambitious youth in small towns as the TG. Its a good news since one of my major criticism for Tata Indicom was its inability in identifying the TG.
Rags to riches, defying the odds, David beating Goliath, Small humbling the Big .... These are sure shot recipes to impress the audience. In the execution of the idea, the agency has not let down the brand.
Branding has become an important element in telecom marketing in India. Now we are seeing a standardization of tariffs. Marketers are now trying to retain the customers through emotional connection with the brand. The war is now on two fronts . On one hand, the brands are trying to offer value added services to customers . Alongside the brands are investing in building a connect with the customers.
Tata Indicom was struggling to find a right positioning platform so far . Now they have a reasonable platform to work with.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Consumer Insight #3 : Value
I was at my doctor's clinic when I noticed a quotation by John Ruskin . I was amused because it was different from the usual quotes displayed in a place like a clinic. You typically expect a health related one. But quite the contrary this quote was on marketing.
John Ruskin was not a marketer. Ruskin ( 1819-1900) was an artist, a writer ,a poet, a social critic and a writer. ( source:Wikipedia). I bet he is a enlightened consumer too.
John Ruskin was not a marketer. Ruskin ( 1819-1900) was an artist, a writer ,a poet, a social critic and a writer. ( source:Wikipedia). I bet he is a enlightened consumer too.
What Ruskin has written about value is no-brainer.
Its pure commonsense but as a consumer we tend to forget this principle.
The quote goes like this
"
It's unwise to pay to much... But it's worse to pay to little.When you pay to much, you lose a little money... that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot.... It can't be done.If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run.And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better."
He adds
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper. And the people who always go for the cheapest are this man's lawful prey."
Although I am a marketing professor, I am a lousy consumer ( my wife's opinion ! ).
I see my self as a bargain hunter and most of the time I have burned my fingers looking for better bargain ( call it price) .
I blame it on my middleclass mindset for being so called value conscious.
But I think its the case with many customers. We tend to make mistakes by not understanding the true nature of value.
Its often greed that camouflage as value or bargain.
In the highly insightful book " It happened in India " by Kishore Biyani ,he says
" There are a couple of emotions that determine shopping behavior. The fundamental of them are greed, altruism, fear and envy. Greed drives a customer to purchase more than what he or she needs. "
What Ruskin says is perfectly true. Its not possible to less and get more... It does not make business sense. But customers lured by never-heard-before offers fall for it. The need for instant gratification is so huge that customers give in to the temptation.
It takes some patience to buy the best quality product because it costs more. Marketers of low priced products make their kill by instilling fear of a possible price hike among the customers .
We see messages like this all the time...
Limited offers !
Buy before price hike !
Offer to close this sunday !
Buy now or regret later !
Going by my experience the additional money (premium) you pay for getting the best product will compensate by giving you the peace of mind..
The doctor charged me a very heavy consulting fees... but I am not complaining.......
I think I am on my way to become a better consumer.
He adds
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper. And the people who always go for the cheapest are this man's lawful prey."
Although I am a marketing professor, I am a lousy consumer ( my wife's opinion ! ).
I see my self as a bargain hunter and most of the time I have burned my fingers looking for better bargain ( call it price) .
I blame it on my middleclass mindset for being so called value conscious.
But I think its the case with many customers. We tend to make mistakes by not understanding the true nature of value.
Its often greed that camouflage as value or bargain.
In the highly insightful book " It happened in India " by Kishore Biyani ,he says
" There are a couple of emotions that determine shopping behavior. The fundamental of them are greed, altruism, fear and envy. Greed drives a customer to purchase more than what he or she needs. "
What Ruskin says is perfectly true. Its not possible to less and get more... It does not make business sense. But customers lured by never-heard-before offers fall for it. The need for instant gratification is so huge that customers give in to the temptation.
It takes some patience to buy the best quality product because it costs more. Marketers of low priced products make their kill by instilling fear of a possible price hike among the customers .
We see messages like this all the time...
Limited offers !
Buy before price hike !
Offer to close this sunday !
Buy now or regret later !
Going by my experience the additional money (premium) you pay for getting the best product will compensate by giving you the peace of mind..
The doctor charged me a very heavy consulting fees... but I am not complaining.......
I think I am on my way to become a better consumer.
Friday, August 15, 2008
I'm Melting...IN VEGAS!
Arrived in Vegas. To 110 degree temps. It is damn hot out here. Who woulda thunk it? Anywho, attended the shrinking New Media Expo, went to In-N-Out Burger with The Eye-bott and Mashupman Sebastiaan and overall, just trying to make it to tonight's Coverville 500 party at Bally's. I'm going to try and get some video this weekend, but so far, not a whole lot. Plus, rumor has it that the Scott Johnson is sick. So that sucks.
Anyway, sleep for a second, then more expoing!
UPDATE: Coverville 500 was awesome. Great show. Video coming soon, I'm sure (courtesy of me). Photos and more coming this week as well. Hoping to get some video of this event, but it seems less likely as every minute goes by. More later...
UPDATE 2: Photos of my long Friday at the NME are up for you to look at now.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Brand Update : Rexona RIP ( 1947-2008)
So its official, Rexona will be laid to rest. I recently saw a TVC where the ad says Rexona is now Hamam. First I couldn't believe it. Then I searched for the news but there was no information anywhere about this possible brand migration.
Just now I got an sms from my journalist friend that Rexona soap is going to be migrated to Hamam.
The brand was in the life-support for quite a while. The first attempt to kill the brand was during the powe
r brand strategy where Rexona was planned to migrate to Lux. At that time Rexona was launched with Lux milk cream. But after some time, HLL decided not to migrate Rexona. Then I thought that this brand will be rejuvenated. But now is has been confirmed that Rexona Soap is now history.
As a customer I am sad because it was a nice soap. As a marketer, I am upset because such a good brand is being killed. For HUL , the reasons can be many. In this era of cut throat competition, it does not make sense to have too many brands. So the logic is to put your money into those brands which are powerful. Rexona has never been a volume/revenue contributor for HLL.
Another reason is the existence of Rexona deodorant which had a different image compared to the soap. Its in India that Rexona exists in soap category. Worldover Rexona is famous as a deodorant.
It is more difficult to kill a brand compared to launching a new one. There can be issues of managers getting emotional about the brand . Another difficulty is to handle the existing customers of the brand. HUL is hoping that Rexona customers will migrate to Hamam. As a customer I will not migrate because I have a different perception about Hamam.
Rexona deo will be given more focus by the company now that there is no soap variant. HUL has been using imported International commercials of Rexona in India. Its sloppy marketing to import global campaigns into a diverse market like India. HUL had the resources to do it by itself but its trying the short-cut.
So in the FMCG kurukshethra one more brand has been killed. This time by the own company.
Related Posts
Rexona
Hamam
Just now I got an sms from my journalist friend that Rexona soap is going to be migrated to Hamam.
The brand was in the life-support for quite a while. The first attempt to kill the brand was during the powe
r brand strategy where Rexona was planned to migrate to Lux. At that time Rexona was launched with Lux milk cream. But after some time, HLL decided not to migrate Rexona. Then I thought that this brand will be rejuvenated. But now is has been confirmed that Rexona Soap is now history.As a customer I am sad because it was a nice soap. As a marketer, I am upset because such a good brand is being killed. For HUL , the reasons can be many. In this era of cut throat competition, it does not make sense to have too many brands. So the logic is to put your money into those brands which are powerful. Rexona has never been a volume/revenue contributor for HLL.
Another reason is the existence of Rexona deodorant which had a different image compared to the soap. Its in India that Rexona exists in soap category. Worldover Rexona is famous as a deodorant.
It is more difficult to kill a brand compared to launching a new one. There can be issues of managers getting emotional about the brand . Another difficulty is to handle the existing customers of the brand. HUL is hoping that Rexona customers will migrate to Hamam. As a customer I will not migrate because I have a different perception about Hamam.
Rexona deo will be given more focus by the company now that there is no soap variant. HUL has been using imported International commercials of Rexona in India. Its sloppy marketing to import global campaigns into a diverse market like India. HUL had the resources to do it by itself but its trying the short-cut.
So in the FMCG kurukshethra one more brand has been killed. This time by the own company.
Related Posts
Rexona
Hamam
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