Sony Ericsson's Product Strategy

The new Xperia Play from Sony Ericsson is another wonderful example of Sony Ericsson's product strategy that I mentioned here in 2007. Sony which realised long back that mobile or handheld devices will be the key driving force for all the gadgets in future, was quick to integrate it's sub-brands with its mobile phones. Walkman, Cybershot, Playstation, Viao, Bravia are all well-established brands from the house of Sony. However, in the mobile phone category, there was no strong differentiation for Sony when compared to Nokia's and Motorola's of the world. iPhone came much later if you remember. So why not integrate and leverage the brand equity created by the sub-brands and create a distinctive competitive advantage in the mobile phone category. Wonderful product differentiation strategy. We saw the birth of Walkman Phone followed by Cyber Shot Phone and now Xperia Play which is Xperia + Playstation.

With 4G in place, personal entertainment and watching video on the go is becoming even more popular, its not too far when we'll see a Bravia Phone soon. The Bravia Phone can even be Sony's answer to Tablets. Unlike iPad, the Bravia Tablet can strongly position itself as an On-the-go Entertainment device with all the goodness of Bravia TV inbuilt in it. Am dead sure as and when mobile computing becoomes mainstream, Viao Phone will be made available too. Anyways. Let Sony do what it does best. Build great brands.

Here's the new Xperia Play commercial.

Cheers.

GaS examples

As I mentioned previously, I'm working on this non-sense theory of Brand GaS. Gloss and Sign to be precise. Brand Efficacy and Image to be more precise. Brand GaS is not just plain vanilla product shot towards the end but efficacy that help build a stronger brand connect. Brand GaS are small talk points that connects with consumers easily.

Parachute is a one such brand that is applying Brand GaS very effectively in recent times. I'm speaking about the much published "1 Hour Champi." A simple property they managed to create and see how it is coming handy in communicating the brands core benefit. The best part, they haven't restricted themselves only to the the product window. A new product has been developed - The Champi Massager. Now that's brilliant thinking. So send me similar examples if you do come across.

building a flying brand

Office work is keeping me busy these days. No time to blog, read or party. Anyway, I was working on a project and had to present a case study to one of my client. After spending time to understand his needs and things needed to make a real case study that is interesting, add value to his business plan, I found Kingfisher to be the perfect example.

Now, if you go by the books of marketing then Kingfisher seems to be the only Indian brand that surely is flying. I mean a holistic brand that has managed to capture the heart and head of people. You might ask how? Well, Kingfisher has managed to create a strong aura around itself. It took them several years and now Kingfisher is truly flying. A great example of brand building using all sensory touch point (The Martin Lindstrom Theory, ha!)

So it goes something like this:

NDTV Kingfisher Channel - A true case of disruption in media. For the first time a TV channel and brand together brings great content for the changing urban India. A win-win situation for both. NDTV gets more viewership. Kingfisher gets to hammer its brand message. (Co-marketing is the new marketing mantra. Expect a post on it soon. And don't confuse it with co-promotion)

• Sensory Point - Eye and ear
• Eye - The constant display of the Kingfisher logo
• Ear - Different rendition of "Oooh lala looo"

Kingfisher Airline - What a brilliant example of diversification. That beside the point, the Experience of KF Air has changed the category rule. The world class service, cabin crew in red skirt, gourmet food, personal valet, great lounge, in-flight entertainment. All this put together has allowed consumers to truly experience a great service.

• Sensory Point - Eye, Touch and Feel
• Eye - The leggy, sexy, beautiful cabin crews
• Touch and feel - The food, entertainment, the feeling of being special
  

Kingfisher Beer - The best Indian beer. Drink it and you know.

• Sensory Point - Taste
  

Kingfisher Event - Some of the best events in India. Hot parties, memorable moments. Good times

• Sensory Point - Feel

So, if you observe this is one brand that touches most of our senses at different time to create an aura/association that we consumers love, remember and care about. And Mr-Richard-Branson-of-India is investing in the right kind of things (Kingfisher is bringing F1 in India) to further enhance these experiences. A perfect example of how a brand can build long term credible values for its consumer.

Can you think of any other brand in India that has managed to do something similar - creating touch points that works so perfectly to build an iconic brand? Do discuss.

extension simplified

This is the first time as a planner, I could manage to convince a new client to consider us as a potential partner with a one slide presentation. The flagship brand of this particular client is constantly losing market share over the last few years. They are really concerned and wanted to know how they can re-engineer their growth path. This simple slide helped me to explain my point of view. They've agreed to give us a chance to present our thinking. Fingers crossed.

Men are back

This is definitely a male marketing strategy. Suddenly all the retail shelves are alive with male range of skin care products. Switch on your TV and they pop up too. Indian male or shall I say the metrosexual (sometime the homosexuals too) men have started taking their skin very seriously.

Personal care companies are targeting Indian men as rising incomes allow them to buy more deodorants and shaving gels, adopting the metrosexual look popularized by Bollywood actors. Spending on men's grooming products is expected to rise 24 percent to 14.5 billion rupees, or $320 million, in the next five years, Euromonitor International forecasts. Emami, which makes beauty and health care products, developed its whitening cream for men because surveys showed they were consuming 30 percent of the women's version, ha!

"Everyone wants to be fair," and "To be fair is not just to be beautiful, but to be moving up the caste hierarchy" said Mr. Jayashankar, a professor with Tata Institute of Social Science. Since suntanned skin was associated with untouchables suddenly dark skinned men and especially those living in south wants a fair skin.

I've a serious task in hand at the moment. Make (oops rather force) all fat, dark, south-Indian males to use Skin Whitening Cream. Anybody got any decent communication idea that will help turn dark-male-arse-skins, White??? If you do have, please please do share with me, I promise to buy you a beer.

Creating equity

We have a lesson or two to learn from the Sony success story. Sony undoubtedly is one of the best and smartest marketer in the world. Here I'm referring to the success story of its mobile telephony business.

Sony first created the Walkman. Created a hugely successful brand out of it. Technology developed rapidly. MP3 took over the Walkman space. Sony quickly responded and launched the Walkman Phone. They regained their lost ground albiet with a new device.

Next they created the Cyber Shot. A leader in its category. As competition in camera/imaging technology heated up, Sony quiet smartly integrated their mobile phones with the camera technology to create another sub-brand Cyber Shot Phone. Am sure Cyber Shot phones will become a success story in due time.

Vaio is one of the best laptop brand in the market at the moment. And Sony has the potential to integrate its computing technology with their mobile phones. Probably a Viao Phone will be up for grabs very soon.

Mobile TV is the future. Sony already has an advantage there. Maybe Bravia Phones by the end of next year.

Sony is indeed breaking new grounds, everytime. And am sure these individual brands will add up to create a better brand equity for Sony in the near future. First movers advantage or smart thinking or both. Lot to learn from Sony. And it starts with this book.

Can you think of any other brands that has successfully integrated two seperate products/brands in it's own portfolio to create another niche product/ brand? Examples anyone?

Ready Food & Thoughts

The packaged food section in any retail outlet is worth spending some time these days. Typically in a retail store, the food section is segregated into five shelves – Snacks & Savory (which includes all your biscuits, cookies, chips, chocolates, cakes etc.), Breakfast (which includes cereals, breads, soups etc.), Condiments (which includes ketchups, pickles, mayonnaise, jams, spreads, salad dressing etc.), Cooking Aids (includes tomato-onion paste, ginger-garlic paste, curry paste, biryani paste, instant mixes etc.) and Ready Meals.

In the past few years the last shelf of the food section is getting filled with fancy looking packages of ‘Palak Paneer,’ ‘Dal Makhani,’ ‘Navaratan Korma,’ ‘Chicken Hyderabadi,’ ‘Awadhi Biryani’ and all those yummy dishes which Mom used to cook for us at home once upon a time. ‘Ready-to-Cook’ or ‘Heat-n-Eat,’ whatever you call it is in high demand at present.

So what if mummy cannot cook a good Chinese dish or a great Dal Makhani, ‘we’ll-make-your-mom-a-super-chef’ is every brands big promise. A closer look and this section will give you a clear overview of the changing Indian food habits especially among the urbanites.

Stressful life due to late working hours, working couples hence no time to cook, lack of culinary skills among the new-age home-makers are some common reasons which come to the fore-front in every consumer research. And food brands like Aashirvaad, Knorr, MTR, Priya Foods are quick to respond to this changing food habits with a range of offerings.

Some food for thoughts that brand managers are trying to encash:

Convenience with self care

• Homemaker is still in control therefore her contribution and value addition is paramount
• Help the home maker by making speciality dishes easier to prepare thereby offer a wide range of cooking aids which are time consuming and a laborious process

Reinventing the past

• Bring back retro eating or traditional dishes which grandma’s used to make. For the younger generation and new-age homemakers retro eating as a concept can be fun. There is an association with foods that are additive free, pure and often brings back the nostalgia in a dinner table.

Provenance

• In the age of information, consumers will increasingly care more about where their food comes from. Therefore always give a brief history of its origin, nutritional value etc which will only show your transparency

The above three points are the most visible values being offered by most RTE brands at the moment. But the common concern for every brand manager in this category is how to induce more trials? Consumers are still skeptical about ready food packed in retort pouch. The fear factor of preservative and taste haunts them. Are you doing anything to banish that fear?

Since wet sampling is a costly affair and product bundling promotion doesn’t always ensure a repeat purchase probably you should start thinking about “Food Miles” for all your consumers.

Anyone for dinner tonight, at the China Town??

Munna ka mania

I love Maggi Noodles. Maggi has been a part of my daily staple diet for years. There were days when I had Maggi for breakfast, lunch, my evening snack, dinner. Whenever hunger strikes, open a Maggi pack. One primary reason for being a highly loyal consumer of Maggi is because of my horrible cooking skills. Cup-o-Noodles arrived after that and I embraced it with grace. When I sat down thinking and analyzing the reason why did I shift from one of my favorite brand to another, I realized, the answer lies in the format - innovative packaging and sheer convenience. While I need a vessel to prepare Maggi noodles and then clean it after consuming, Cup-o-noodles went a step ahead to eliminate that chore. Bingo. Instant hit formula for instant food. End of story. No more innovation from Cup-o-noodles and the brand is stagnant.

Now look at what Maggi did. It took them twenty years to become synonymous with noodles in India. When they launched first, it was quick and wholesome snack for kids. Maggi is an extremely popular brand all across India. How to take that popularity forward? First, Maggi gave away its ‘instant’ positioning to take the ‘health’ route. And now they are a snack food for adults. It kept on innovating with the product keeping in mind healthy food for different occasions. A classic case where the values of the parent brand is kept in mind and extended to various ranges and product lines.

2 minutes noodles in three variants to new format of noodles – Wheat noodles, Pulses noodles and now Rice noodles. They introduced Tomato sauce at first and then went on to create seven more variants of different kind of sauces. Creating healthy soup and then creating rejuvenating soups. New pizza paste, maybe pasta dressing and salad dressing will be offered in the near future. Truly an enviable case of brand extension.

Incase of Nivea the brand extension of the sub-brands are created borrowing from the equity of the parent. So, when Dove launches its hair care products in India, it will follow a similar formula - Draw from the parent’s equity.

If you have any other good examples of brand extension do feel free to share with me while I hum the Maggi jingle - “Munna ko mania hoi gawa.”