KIA Motors kicks some ass

David & Goliath is kicking some serious ass with KIA Motors. Great work guys. Here is an interesting interview of Colin Jeffery, Managing Partner and ECD of D&G, LA.

Awesome. More please.

feverish, lazy

Yesterday a trip to Chennai landed me in serious trouble. Down with dry cough and high temperature. Ahh! Grrr! Head is heavy, don’t feel like leaving the bed, I was thinking… Isn’t Chennai warmer? Does moving from a colder location to a warmer place affect the body temperature? How does an antibody function? Can I control my body temperature back to normal by concentrating on a charka point? Huh?? Anyway, I was practicing the art of lazing around. Believe me you actually savoir moments like this. Moments when body is too weak to lift itself, while the mind active as hell, which in turn forces a physical movement. You do a balancing act, somehow manage to control calm the mind to zero physical movement and just think. But think about what??

How to study a changing category?

Studying category conventions and mapping changing dynamics (any source is good source) gives me a real high. It allows me to quickly derive at five absolute critical points or quick directions. The best part of the thrill - I get to chase any direction to arrive at a hypothesis. Well, most of the time just to validate how wrong it was. Lol. What I meant was I enjoy doing it. A fun exercise when you’ve fever or just want to laze.

At the moment automotive category in India is the best example. The best, I tell you. It’s completely chaotic. It’s changing. And it’s hot and happening. The real action is in the small car segment. A small car at every price point. Luxury hatchbacks; multiple ownerships. Well, while searching those critical points, I made a laundry list of questions to see what hypotheses can be created.

Now if you’ve a point of view on this, please do share, it’s ‘collective learning’ you see.

Why is Bajaj getting into the four wheeler category? Do they believe in the next 10 years, demand for (their) city bikes will hit rock bottom? (What will happen to bicycles then? Will they even exist then, if yes, in what format?) Are they diversifying because they understand the implications of changing category dynamics? Are they getting future ready for that shift to happen? Will Nano really manage to eat into the two wheeler market? How will small car segment evolve over the next ten years? How will the two wheeler market evolve itself? Will evolution mean bikes getting meatier and meaner, maybe 300cc + will become the standard of what 125cc is today? What role will Royal Enfield play then - follow the Harley path to success?

(There’s lot to learn from the Walkman example. Remember how CDs took over cassette tapes? Later how MP3 players started evolving over CD players? How was Sony’s reply to the changing category dynamics with their mobile phones?)

Don’t you think I should shut up and take rest? Eh? Do let me know what you think... ;-)

Nano Car. Giga Dreams

Tata unveiled the Nano. The USD 2500 car. China must be shocked. It is making news every where. And as usual I’m late in joining the conversation. Well, like everybody it has made me proud as an Indian. Respect for Mr. Ratan Tata has gone up manifold. Made me wonder, how could the team pull it off? It has also made me think what will now happen to 2 wheeler owners. What will happen to Suzuki and Hyundai? What will happen to the category? What will happen to us Indians… Phew!

Amidst all these news flash, headlines and thoughts, some rather different thoughts came to my mind -

"What will be the image of Tata Motors be as a global player? ‘Cheap’ automobile manufacturer from India? Luxury hotels to lowest cost mass car manufacturer - what is the new face of TATA? Will Tata Motors only operate in the Small and Mid segment? Will Tata launch a new car is the luxury sedan class in the near future? Or is the acquisition of Land Rover & Jagaur be an answer to that question. How will the Fiat association help add and build the Tata Motors image? Will Tata Motors join hands with Kingfisher in F1?"

The ‘Nanomobile’… oops… small car bug is about to hit India, big. I say 'India in top gear' but where are the roads? Errr…does Tata Infrastructure Fund got anything to do with it? Ha! ;-)

Maybe another time.

Simplifying maintenance

Noticed this ad in Business Today the other day. Club One Air is an Aircraft Maintenance and Management Program offered to the nouveau riches of the society. You can buy a jet and hand over the same to Club One Air to manage and maintain it for you.

This also seems like a great platform for the automobile industry too. Atleast that's what I feel. I had a similar solution for Rob@Cynic's last APSotW assignment. The insights that I came up with was "Men love spending money on machines that reflect their status, but don't like spending additional money on maintenance." Yes, maintenance is a bigger issue for car owners. If companies can consciously help reduce these cost, customers will actually remain loyal to your brand. Given the fact that frequency of car change is now reduced to 24 months, clubbing your service offering with a similar maintenance program can go a long way in building your brand. Asian Paints Home Solutions is a good example from another product category doing a similar maintenance program that takes away consumer's headache. And it's getting all the good responses.

Probably, brands as part of their extension (or marketing plan) should consider setting up similar ventures that they can leverage upon in the long run.

Warhol's BMW

BMW has decided to sell art not car in India, Ha. Well, not exactly. As part of their marketing strategy, BMW is promoting 'Art Cars,' the works by great artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein to attract the right audience. For a brand that believes 'Ideas are everything' this is a must attend event for both car enthusiast and art lovers.

Question that arises in my head, why did they feel it makes sense to bring art lovers and car enthusiasts together? Will car enthusiasts feel inspired by the art or will art lovers book the car? Whatever.

I think it is a brilliant platform to bring together the right target audience and experience a brand. Brand engagement is the new operating tool for marketers in India. In this case its about being true and relevant to the BMW values of 'Inspiring Ideas.'

Have fun out there

So the new campaign of Jeep is creating news for all the good reasons. Another great example of how marketers can benefit from using Youtube, FaceBook, MySpace, Flickr effectively. Check this out here. Since Social Networking is attracting millions of consumers, it makes sense for brands to be present there. You need good data mining skills, you need to identify and tag the right target audience and Bingo. You have a success story worth sharing with others. What better way than communicating with a large base of captive audiences available in social networking sites.

Rhythm of lines

If you are in digital communication industry or for that matter in the communication industry and still haven't seen this, you are a waste. Yes, a waste! A big round of applause to the digital agency of The New Audi 5. Do I need to say more?