Projective Techniques

Reshma Anand has written an interesting article on how to apply projective techniques in research. Do read it here and here.

Via Indiadrant

Era of innovation

Amazing design. Only concern, is it comfortable?

The cartoonist in me

Inspired by Gwen Yip (She's brilliant and her work inspired me to throw some light about life in an Indian ad agency) and Paul Colman, I thought I'll make a cartoon of myself.

Trying to perfect the looks of pooR_Planner at the moment. Once its done, storyline, rant, thought, mussing will follow in due course. I've decided to use my leisure time in doing something silly like this from now on. Don't I look a smart no-brainier?

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.”

Eco Logic

John Grant has been advocating Eco Marketing since long. He predicted Eco is one issue to watch out for in 2007. He is right when he said so. I find his articles on Go Green very interesting and insightful. Do read it here, here and here if anyone of you have missed it.

Axe again

Call it a visual pollution or a clever creative execution, one thing that I've noticed in Axe is the way they always manage to draw attention from by-passers . In this case a towel. Simple yet so powerful. Always a new way to promote 'Attraction.'

Agency: Lowe MENA (UAE)

Via BestadsonTV.com

Biking nostalgia

J. C. Road in Bangalore is a great place to buy second hand vehicles, mostly two-wheelers. Gujjri is the best place to buy spare parts. Last Sunday, I had to go to Gujjri to buy a hex wrench, carburetor and a clutch plate for my 1987 model 100 cc Yamaha RX bike.

I love my bike. Its sleek, its slim, its retro but a blazing gun. A hard-to-control beast when it fires up. And I love the sound.

While negotiating the price of a clutch plate with the shop owner, he offered me a clutch spring worth Rs. 100/- free. Upon asking him why, he replied, “Saab yeh original RX ka spare hai. Bina is spring ka plate lagaye to koi fayda nahi hai.” (This is an original spare of RX, Sir, without this spring your bike won’t give the desired performance) But why free I asked him again. “Saar, ye bike aaj kal milta nahin hai, aur main RX ka bara fan hoon. Mera paas saat RX hai, ekdum naya aur main ushe race karata hoon. Aap bhi RX chalate ho, to socha sahi parts dal ke aap chalayo, second hand hua to kya.” (Sir, RX is out of production and I’m a big fan of RX. I have seven of them. Since you ride one, we share a common passion, so I thought use an original spare even if it’s seconds) Am impressed. Brand loyalty at its highest order.

This got me thinking. I know the Govt. has banned manufacturing of all two-stroke bikes in India. Surprisingly they did not ban people from riding one on road. RX100 has a huge fan following in our country; ask any biker in this country and two brand names crop up – Bullet and RX. While Bullet riders love to thud, RX rider love to zip.

So why not help bring those loyal followers together? Why not help restore the bikes, help in engine modification, body beautification, and conduct street drags, anything that brings those rugged, free-spirited, street biking values back? Yes, you may not sell your Gladiator models but you can still keep a whole lot of followers closer and happy.

The RX100 club, The RX100 – 100 meters race, The RX100 – 100 Km torment test (endurance test), The RX100 – 100 days on the road celebration. You don’t need mass media help. Neither do you need to do a MTV Roadies. You’re the original ROADIE. Just bring back that BRAND NOSTALGIA. John Abraham alone cannot change your fortune, no matter how hard you try. Remember your most loyal fans have given up HOPE.

Effective Branding

I was reading this nicely written paper in Brand Channel. Amit goes on to explain Effective Branding as something which involves working on four important dimensions, namely:

The Functional Dimension
The functional dimension concerns the perception of benefit of the product or service associated with the brand

The Social Dimension
The Social Dimension concerns the ability to create identification with the group

The Spiritual Dimension
The Spiritual Dimension is the perception of global or local responsibility

The Mental Dimension
The Mental Dimension is the ability to support the individual mentally

He goes on explain his framework with the analysis of the brand Airtel:

The Functional Dimension
The role of the technology is to make thing easier for the consumers. Airtel has been very successful in simplifying the use of mobile services by modifying the technology to suit the common users. Even the simplest of the consumer can use the products and services.
Airtel says, "Your world of communication just got simpler."

The Social Dimension
Airtel is a recognized brand to be associated with. I satisfy my esteem and it gives me opportunity to be a part of the culture. It is associated with high level of social value.

The Spiritual Dimension
"Building telecom, building relationships." It is important to be in touch with the relatives and dear ones but this is possible today through the mobile communication. Airtel encourages everyone to be more involved in building relationships and spread the happiness.

The Mental Dimension
Airtel gives me the opportunity to "Express Myself." The message is very clear to be open and daring to express. The expression gives me a lot of pleasure and an opportunity to think that I am a separate individual and have the right to communicate and express myself.

Do all brands fall in this framework? What happens to a brand when it does not satisfy the Social and Spiritual Dimension? What if the brands Mental Dimension is considered too mental from a consumer point of view? Is Cultural Dimension same as Social Dimension? Anyways, I find this a very useful exercise and I am trying to fill in the blanks with several brands from different categories to understand whether this framework make any sense. Why don't you try out for yourself, you might come across something interesting.

Are you engaged?

Things are moving fast. Internet speed to speed dating. IM to IP (Instant pasta). Movie Mania to Maggi Mania. 110 TV channels to choose for two hours of viewing in a day. Ten financial newspapers and 20 English dailies with the same news, yet time for reading is just 15 minutes. Debates, documents, dialogues, decisions, work life is diabolical; personal life, demonic.

Going to a party and enjoying a good time depends on when you need to reach office next day. That’s why you never forget to pop ‘Party Smart.’ You go for dinner at a restaurant and expect food to be served as soon as you place the order, you chuckle, watch the person next table gorge, look at your wrist watch 3 times, if it’s more than 10 minutes, you call the manager. Fast food is junk food; your inner voice reminds you. And how can you ever think of not carrying your Blackberry on a weekend trip to the jungle resort some 60 kms outside the city.

Stress is the biggest lifestyle disease and urban Indians don’t have a remedy yet. (I know there are spas and gyms.) But we are happy with health clubs and happy hours. This lifestyle disease seems like a mixture of a chronic and complex virus of contradiction, confusion and chaos. When your (we urban dwellers) attention span have shortened, surely you are affected by the virus.

So, one day advertisers decided to engage people at a marathon meeting in their confusing conference room. How? Go guerilla, do digital, promotion pooh-pooh, attention ambient. Eventually conduct events. Call it 360, holistic, disruption; all you need to do is brief specialized agencies. Boom, the engagement plan ready for implementation.

Here is an example of true consumer engagement (It there for a week, alternatively you can download the same from here.) Yes, you’ll argue Standard Chartered pulled a similar stunt in Mumbai. But let’s be honest, how many will remember it as a SCB Run. You may say Hutch did a better job in Delhi. I’ll agree with you. Atleast it was better coordinated engagement. But still it was a copycat idea. Isn’t it?

So here’s my take on some engagement ideas for some brands:
Barbie: Doll Shows at all girls school. Get them to be more creative
X-box: Interschool Annual X Day for boys aka Annual Sports Day. Button it out
History Channel: Live the Story at our Heritage Sites. True stories come alive. Write your experience.
Excalibur: Lessons on corporate etiquettes at Business schools by industry leaders. Power dressing for the future leaders
Heinz: Throw Tomato Day. Smash it on the face like you do on Holi.

How about theatre, stage performances in semi-urban or rural areas? Brand theatres. Instead of TVC, why not enact the script with real people on a real stage?

Engagement is education. Engagement is encouragement. Engagement is exciting. Engagement is entertaining.

So, next time when someone tells you about engagement, you now know what to be done. Do share with me if you have some good examples.

Communication Policy

In India, insurance is generally considered as a tax saving device instead of its other implied long term financial benefits. We are prone to investing in properties and gold followed by bank deposits. Though this attitude is changing at a fast pace, India still remains an under-insured country. The insurance market is estimated to be USD 700 million according to IRDA and growing 20 per cent annually in real terms for the last 5 years. There are about 18 odd players in the market who offers various Life Insurance products.

Now that 31st March is approaching, Insurance companies have started advertising heavily. Once considered a boring category, Insurance companies have understood the importance of brand building. Sadly, below is what their communication boils down too:
The essence is Life, Security, Future and Being in control. Same message, different execution.
Life + Security = Retire from work not life (ICICI)
Life + Control = Control your life (SBI)
Future + Control = Kal par control (Aviva)
Security + Future = Mera Farz (ING)

This is how I see the insurance issue. How do you look at it?

Era of Eggvertising

It's time for Eggvertising folks. Indo Nissin launched it's new Egg Noodles with advertising on eggs. Complete story here.

Mark of a man

This is front page picture on today's DNA. A promotion of Gillette in Dubai. Federer, Henry & Woods were using Gillette Foam and Razor to shave clean. Wow. Three top-notch celebrity sports person doing a shaving stint in front of the public. Great promotion idea. Simple. To the point. End result high recall.

Now here's my promotion idea - In India, we still have the concept of 'Eetalian' Salon (Road side barber sitting on a brick with a small mirror doing shaving and hair cuts). Why not gather all the Eetalian Barbers in a particular city together and get them to do a branded act. For which brand? Ofcourse, Godrej Shaving Cream and Wilkinson Blades. Isn't it, still the most preferred 'Eetalian' brand?

Like the idea?

Choco Cutie

This is Choco. My dog. He is 5 months old. The most disobedient canine creature. Spends most of the time sleeping. When awake, he's mostly in the kitchen. I can't think of anything new to write about at the moment. Thought you might like Choco.

Crapulence calling

In a recent post at Thot Blurb, Fink commented on how whisky is still seen as the last male bastion. This got me thinking. Its quiet true that whisky is predominantly a male drink (now don’t hold me ransom for this statement). The image that first comes to mind is that of an older gentleman with a cigar in his mouth.

Interestingly, India is a larger producer of whisky than Scotland and sales are really high (100 million cases per year compared to 83 million of Scotland). And India is one of the biggest growing liquor markets in the world.

Look at some of the brand propositions:
“Make it large” – Royal Stag
“Game for life” – Royal Challenge
“It pays to unbelong” – Black & White
“Above it all” – 100 Pipers
“Taste that speaks for itself” – Blender’s Pride
“Genuine quality speaks for itself” – Teacher’s
“The new sign of success” - Signature

A closer look and you’ll notice that most of these brands are positioned around three things: Taste, success, achievement. Taste is a direct product benefit. While Success and Achievement is a derivative of age, accomplishment and the fact that the drinker has arrived in life to appreciate best blends of malt. These brands are premium, mind you. But none of them has managed to create a premium image/aura around them. Is whisky all about taste, success and achievement? Is it really a drink for older people? Is something terribly wrong in whisky which refrain younger people from enjoying it? Is it the lack of innovation or lack of education?

Probably the Scotch industry has been its own worst enemy over the years – the cheaper, less flavorsome blends have been under-marketed, by and large, with most of the advertising focusing on the top-end malts which offer a broader taste spectrum and greater margins.

But single malt is a product which remains extremely difficult to understand – despite the best efforts of the distillers to demystify – and even many regular Scotch drinkers could be hard pressed to distinguish between, say, a Lowland or a Speyside malt.

Furthermore, the emphasis on the taste profile has not helped sell the drink to young consumers – the reason why white spirits such as vodka and rum have been so successful in growing sales through the cocktail (and ready-to-drink) market is that they have relatively little flavour of their own – making them perfect vehicles for all the other cocktail ingredients.

I’m not a whisky connoisseur nor an expert, so it won’t be appropriate for me to comment much about developing a taste or educating consumer. But surely I can write about the image that a brand portraits and the one’s I want to associate with.

Chivas Regal seems to be the only brand right now in India which is doing things right. Promoting the “Chivas Life”. Ice Fishing in Alaska, Meeting without an agenda in a lighthouse or a Ibiza speciality foam party in Superclub Eden.

Am pretty sure over a period of time as the market becomes more lucrative, players like Glenlivet, Glenfiddich, and Macallan will end-up doing the same thing that Chivas is doing at the moment in India. Promoting a better life with a much better style.

This is something which caught my eyes. Probably the key lies in product innovation. If cola’s can go diet why not spirits. Then there’s Easy Drinking Whisky Company which make caricatures of the three founders on the labels.

Now admit you know God is a man.

Well, it’s a fun filled story for white spirits but that’s for some other day.

Cheers!!