Scribbles from the Tissue Roll # 2

I was wondering if vigorous bowel movement has anything got to do with great ideas. I've seen you invariably get some of your best ideas when you're alone and lonely inside the loo, sitting on a shit pot. Jokes apart, lightening struck me once again last evening when I was cleaning up my alimentary canal.

I was thinking about the changing face of Indian out-of-home media, ambient media, billboards and communication in general. Maybe my sub-conscious mind was silently working on the huge billboards of Chennai as the pressure inside my arse started rising. And then I drifted to urban chaos, visual clutter and architecture. How the charming face of a city can change with irresponsible advertising? How does a urban development planning department of Govt. tackle these issues? Is pulling down billboards a right solution? Etc. etc.

Architecture has defined humanity for ages. It has helped define culture, communities. It has helped define people and places. It has created icons and landmarks. Architecture has created awe-inspiring wonders. Monuments and buildings that stand tall for centuries to tell us a story.

Which brings me to the question - What are the learnings from architecture that we can use in brand building and outdoor communication?

Let's take Absolut Vodka as an example. For years they have invested in creating an icon out of the Absolut bottle. They have done some brilliant outdoor campaigns but in the process they've also added to the visual clutter of a city. However they never thought that "In an Absolut World" they should be doing something beyond billboards.

'In an Absolut World' all your offices across the world should look something like this:

You don't need billboards once you have created this, right? You don't create clutter but add to the aesthetics of your urban landscape. It can become the greatest communication ever possible by Absolut. An icon that will remain forever on the face of earth. Now don't ask me about the construction cost, ROI etc. Those are immaterial if you love your bottle so much. Or maybe Coca Cola should think of doing the same for their HQ at Atlanta. You might argue, isn't this the same thing what BMW Towers has done in Germany and Nike Town in the US? Well, similar but way beyond.

Let me give you another example - Taj Mahal Tea from the house of Levers can do so much more. India is infested with tea stalls all over the place. How about creating Taj Mahal tea stalls like the picture below.

My poor photoshop skills but if executed well, I assure you, it'll make the brand more interesting and exciting.

So all said and done "potty thoughts" is not always crap, eh?

Cheers.

Absent from blogosphere

At times life can be really hectic. So absolutely no time to blog, even worse, no time to read what others are writing. You get so little time to do so much more and you sit back wondering 'why with me?' Anyway. Been traveling like crazy. Consumer contact program at Chennai one day, Cochin the next day to understand retailer's grievance and so it goes ... Rich experience though.

Meeting people from all over south India to find out what makes them choose, select, buy and buy again a particular product or brand is indeed an enriching experience. They have so much to tell you. You have so much to learn from them. Now I realize why it's not an easy job being a planner. Sure research agencies does their best to enlighten us but meeting people in-person and figuring out how they use a product in real life, the preparation, the process and what the brand actually mean in their lives, honestly, I don't think any research agency actually captures that in-depth. It business for them, not passion (if you know what I mean.) And let me assure you, you'll never find any real depth in a research ppt unless you do it and see it for yourself. The sheer amount of knowledge and learning is mind boggling. Plus you get to try out all the authentic south Indian dishes at their houses. It's like Consumer Couch Surfing. I mean it is fashionable and up-to-date to say Consumer Couch Surfing rather than saying you're doing an anthropology study or an ethnographic study. Isn't it?

This is no bollocks. I think every advertising professional in our industry, be it a creative, planning or servicing - must do a stint in Consumer Couch Surfing. It should be a part of their KRA's. The only reason why am saying this, it will save lot of time and energy of our often worthless endless hours of closed door 'brainstorming session' in the conference room. We honestly don't know a shot about our consumers. The results actually reflects that. Anyway. Just my poor way of thinking. But something inside me tells me, it is a smarter way to work.

So what is Consumer Couch Surfing: To put is very badly, it is surfing the couch of your consumers and spending time with them at their place and living their lives for some days.

How to be an effective Consumer Couch Surfer:
- Understand the requirement of your brand. Why you want to do a study? What you want to study, observe, learn and gain from the exercise? This is the first stepping stone, so be clear in your head.
- Identify a strong market and weak market for your brand. You need to do your study at both this places and compare the same to generate your own hypotheses, theories, deductions etc.
- Understand your audience, demo, psycho and emographics.
- Based on your understanding of your audience and which market (strong or weak), you need to identify a person or family you want to stay with. The most important point to note here is, the person or family has to be a complete stranger. Someone whom you never knew and be living with them for the first time
- Find out a way to communicate with them in case you don't speak their language
- Never bug them with questions, it is a slow process not a rapid fire FGD
- Follow and obey the rules they have in their house
- Be an active part and contribute to their lives each day
- Make sure you win their respect and trust

I think that's what I am doing at the moment. And it is helping me in more ways than I ever thought was possible. This will continue till end of March. Will write another post on my first experience with Consumer Couch Surfing. Hopefully, I'll be able to share my learnings with you in a months time.

Cheers.

Jazz Masters and Unbelong

Finally got some rest. I guess I needed this rise in temperature with a heavy head and a running nose. Complete bed rest. And after spending 48 hours surfing channels on my Onida set; I found at last, one thing that’s worth mentioning.

Yes, Jazz Masters in association with VH1 sponsored by Black & White. B&W has managed to create a brilliant property for itself. Some thinking has really gone in. B&W is for people who “Unbelong”. People who’re definitely mainstream yet they’re not necessarily from the mainstreet. The alternate seekers… ok… those who drink mixers… eh? Hmm… people who like Jazz with influences of R&B, Pop and Funk. People who Unbelong. ‘Marriage of contradictions, different from the usual,’ as the site mentions. Now that’s real brand connection.

However all my excitement turned in to disappointment when I went through the website they created for these event. It speaks everything about the event but hey I also want to know about your brand. What’s your history - your story from Scotland? Why do you want me to Unbelong, when Johnny’s asking me to keep walking? Now that’s shitty job. Honestly, I will go watch the event, be very happy, tell people about the gig and how Bob James and Earl Klugh improvised and I might even blog about it. But I shall not tell anyone about the B&W brand. What a pity?

Isn't the idea of using event/surrogate to promote the B&W brand?? Don’t get me wrong but half done things as final product really pisses me. Either you do it thoroughly. Or you don’t do at all.

Now here’s a brilliant idea. Free of cost guys. Just make sure you pay me the royalty when you implement it. Ha.

Black and White Terrier owners. Blackie and Whitey. (Someone please find me what breed are those two little cute pups?) B&W should actually promote people with pet terriers. They are people who truly Unbelong. Imagine lots of people in your city heavy petting a pair of black and white terrier. They walk on the streets, in the parks. Living brand icons. Public relation for free. Well you can tie up at dog shows. Give few bottles to the vet to spread the buzz. Even create soft toys of Blackie & Whitey for kids, whose parents drink B&W. Boo.

So next time, please do ensure that you give enough information about your brand because people might just want to know more.

Let’s have it doggy style. Cheers. Woof! Woof!!

Gas - Part 2

I've been thinking a lot about Brand Image and Brand Efficacy over the last few days. GaS (Gloss and Sign) was a term that I suddenly came up with and thought why not explore more to see if something could be made out of it. Thanks to Spiritual Manager for igniting more thoughts on GaS.

A simple definition of Brand Image - The perception of your brand by the consumer or in other words the mental or emotional association of a brand in the consumer's mind. Can image also be called Gloss? Brand Efficacy can be defined as the power of a brand to produce a desired effect. Could efficacy be the Sign? Well, I've been thinking in that way.

Since you all know about brand image, efficacy is an interesting area to touch upon. Efficacy is the promise that a brand delivers using a symbol e.g. The Colgate Ring that fights 24 hours or the Anti-bacterial Shield of Dettol. Hmmm... the Anti-Dandruff Scalp of Head & Shoulders or the four stages of fairness for Fair & Lovely. Several P&G brands have been successful using these kind of signs. You may not like the advertisement or shrug off saying poor execution but for years companies have invested in these images and signs which has helped them in getting the desired response/effect/sales.

So, you simply just can't rule GaS out of your brand.

In India, you can find three distinct types of Efficacies most companies use:

Western Route - The above examples of Colgate, Dettol and H&S. Something we see everyday in the LOreal ads on telly; clinically proven; Germinol or enriched with Vitamin B+

Indian Route - Properties or qualities unique to India. Example, enriched with amla, heena or shikhakai. The natural way. Graphics of ingredients flowing into the pack which transforms into the pack shot at the end of a commercial (if you know what I mean). Something that companies like Dabur , Baidyanath, Ayur etc. uses frequently.

Hybrid Route - This is a mix of both world. Western and India. Signs you see in commercials of Biotique and Himalaya etc.

Well, this is work in progress for me. I am thinking if GaS can use some properties of how normal gases perform under pressure and temperature, about how gases expand and contracts, how gases diffuse readily or their spontaneous tendency to distribute uniformly. Properties that any brand would love to possess. So hopefully I'll be able to write few more crappy lines on this as and when it comes in my mind. Can GaS be a way of thinking for certain categories still remains one big question in my head.

Does it make sense to add GaS into your aging brand? Does it sound like wtf-you-ain't-saying-anything-new-here? Whatever. Do send me your comments and feedback about what you think.

Gas

Did you ever say to a client - Your brand needs 'Gas'? Ha. Gloss and Sign. In other words, Image and Efficacy. Working on this project, we suddenly discovered, that this particular brand needs more Gas. The brand needs more glossy image and more signs of efficacy. I thought you just might find the term "Brand Gas" interesting. Since am no brand pundit, it is really difficult for me to write a theory paper on Brand Gas with complex models and diagrams to prove my point but I think it can be a decent term used in place of brand-image-makeover. Lifebuoy is a great example of what I am saying. From a red color carbolic soap for people in SEC C to a brand that provides hygiene and health solutions that enable people to lead a life without fear hygiene anxieties and health consciousness.

If you have any examples of "Brand Gas"or whatever the f*&% you think it is, do share.

The best reason to buy an iPhone

Wickrum, my dear friend from O&M send me this:

Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field has achieved a lot in the past, but nothing to rival this. Could the iPhone's most impressive feature be the ability to help treat AIDS?

That's was a young man called Johnny Vulkan hopes . He's first in line outside the SoHo Apple store in New York, waiting to pick up a handset, which will auction on eBay. The proceeds will then go to Keep a Child Alive, which provides AIDS treatment to African children. He is also considering selling sponsorship on his t-shirt, anticipating the media attention his plan would get.

It seems like a great idea. Sure, the handset has its problems but, by being the first in line, Vulkan will surely double, triple or quadruple his initial investment. And, more importantly, he's harnessing all that iPhone hype for a really good cause.

The other people in line for the iPhone fascinate me too. Also outside the 5th Avenue store in New York is retired Greg Packer, who arrived four days before the launch. He was also in line for a PS3 days early. Others are there as paid placeholders, advertising their services on Craigslist for anything from $200 to $1000. Vulkan has perhaps the only sane reason for waiting in such a queue.

Maybe it would be wise for other charities to send their staff out to queue at big product launches. They could make lots of money in a few days. Anyway, let's hope that Vulkan's iPhone becomes the most expensive one sold this week.

My Impressive Idiotic Idea

In one of my previous post, I had mentioned about how Reliance Fresh can benefit by bringing local vegetable vendors into their fold. I was extremely happy today morning, when I saw this news article below in The Economic Times. Call it a give-away idea (ofcourse I deserve the consultancy money, man!) or free consultancy, sometimes my idiotic ideas are not so idiotic. As long as you help those poor vendors grow in life, I promise not to charge you a single penny.

It's for a social cause, so I request you (Reliance Fresh) to keep that in mind apart from your business objectives. Feels good to see Reliance Fresh taking a step forward in the right direction.

Old Idea, New Inspiration

I'm sure you must have noticed the ad above in the Times of India off late. Lux Coffee Table Book is all about the gorgeous Divas of Indian Cinema. Lux is a soap for the Cine Stars. Bollywood Diva's have endorsed Lux for ages in every piece of their communication. The Coffee Book from Lux is an extremely beautiful way to engage consumers. Though an old idea but in the Indian context it is really a great thinking from the agency and the marketer and executed in a brilliant manner. Suddenly Unilever seem to be doing all the right marketing tricks to woe consumer in India. Isn't it?

Honestly, it feels good to see the marketing guys at Unilever pushing the boundaries of traditional media and creating cutting edge communication. Well, what's next is my question. After the Lux Coffee Table, will they explore other avenues? For example, a Photography Exhibition of Bollywood Diva's or create a Lux Diva Museum which has all memorabilia of the Stars etc etc.

Good work and do keep it up. Consumers today want more of what you are doing.

Fresh

Our local, neighborhood vegetable 'thelawala.' The poor innocent man doesn't know much about marketing. He goes to 'mandi' early every morning, buys his stock, pays cash upfront, and then pushes his cart in our neighborhood shouting and screaming to sell the stocks. Dadi, maaji, auntiji, behenji and all the other ji's of the mohalla gathers around him; buys what they need for their house, bargains on the bhao and finally settles for 1 kg onion, 2 kg potato and 1 cauliflower.

Am sure you must have seen it all. Reliance Fresh is talking about innovative marketing. Now honestly, I haven't noticed anything innovative in their marketing approach. Wonder why haven't they thought of bringing our Thelawala's under their fold? Probably they never gave it a thought. Or they don't share my vision.

Anyway, wouldn't it be great if these poor souls were given a nicely decorated and branded Reliance Fresh push cart. A nice Tshirt and a cap. Allowed to sell veggies at a same price of Reliance Fresh. Finally a little more margin to live a better life. Last but not least, a little training about 'How to be Fresh?' Well, let's not talk about the visibility and equity that Reliance can create by taking such a small step. Cause Marketing is all about identifying a genuine cause.

Reliance Fresh - Now that I've identified a cause for you, go and champion it for gawd's sake.

Goafest #3 - Free Ferry

Free booze, free food, free fun, free party, free spirit and FREE TAXI. Really thoughtful, our MSN. Made life easy for people to commute. This also gave me an idea. Idiotic, copycat idea though.

How about starting a Free Taxi Service in Bangalore? Great idea, isn't it? Well, if you don't want the service to be free, you have the option to make it a paid service. A cheaper commute service If Commute Easy can be an entrepreneurial effort and become successful, am sure this will become superhit.

Who should start it? A Motorbike brand. For example, Hero Honda Splendor - Hero Splendor Ka Bharosa. So, the Bharosa part of Hero Honda Splendor is taken good care off.

What do Hero Honda get our of it? Free publicity, a great cause and a long term brand property. The Free (or Paid) Taxi concept can provide employment to hundreds of uneducated people.

How will Hero Honda Splendor achieve it?
You require to provide them a Splendor Bike and two helmets (one for the rider and the other for the pillion rider). Create several Bike Taxi Points - where they can wait at busy Bus Junction/Stop. Brand the bike and the rider. And they taxi people around. Say within a 10 kms radius from the Bike Taxi Point.

This will not only ease the traffic congestion, help people move faster and allow Hero Honda to take up a good and a genuine cause upon which they can create a long term brand property for the future. Now isn't that a better scam ad? ;-)

Suggestions anyone? Splendor are you listening?

On a bike trail

15:35: Watching Ten Sports, ‘Road to Beijing – Olympics 2008’ the bike event caught eyes. Thumb stop at the CH+ button.

15:37: Blink Blink Blink Blink

15:39: “Goddamn’ that’s it thats @#$#in’ it. Yippy, I’knw what me saying?”

15.40: What if? Brand X makes the first move? For 90 days? In any one relevant TG market. Is there any marked difference? What you saying man? Well well, how do you know that? “They’ve seriously taken to the sports. They’re practicing. Infact they have transformed into small groups. Hang around together. Trying out bike stunts, wheelie, free fall, twist, double twist etc. etc. Believe me boss, I saw it happening over these last three months.” “You got any pics? Footage?” “Yes, boss every bit of it.” Great! Send them over to me. Now!!

15.45: Snnnnnooorrrrrrr….ooorrrrrrrrr…..nnnnooooorrrr

I don’t remember a word once I got out of bed. A hot summer afternoon nap is truly energizing. Anyway. That thirty minute footage gave me some food for thought about a shrinking category. Bi-cycle has lost all its appeal. And you all know to whom they have lost it all.

How to bring back the appeal - an obvious question I asked to myself.
Make it eco-friendly – who cares
Make it a fitness tool – f@#$ cares
Make it a kid’s dream machine – are you kidding me

Cricket, as you all know is sinking. Hockey is limping. Tennis is pimping. Soccer, kabadi, badminton, athlete have turned into dumplings. New is India. New is the Generation. Why not new avatars of an old sport - Cycling???

Image via this.

Cycling clubs, professional training in cycling, build cycling velodromes, create state level, national bikers, sports events and competitions, send talented potential young ones to Asian Games, Olympics. Kartikeyan is the face of Indian Motor Sports; why not make Master Sandeep Srivastav (aged 14 yrs from Hubli) the face of Indian Cycling Sports? Huge opportunity for BSA and Hero Cycles, isn’t it? Somewhere you need to take that responsibility.

If you are stuck with your brand in a shrinking category like this and do want to create a real success story for your brand, contact me ;-)

Driving School and more

This recent advertisement of Maruti Suzuki caught my eyes. A brilliant strategy by Maruti I must admit. Driving schools are not new - thousands of them infest our roads near any RTO office.

But what makes a Maruti Driving School so special?

1. A new revenue model for Maruti. Castrol Bike Zone was a similar move. Bring thousands of local neighbourhood driving school under your fold. Provide support and proper branding and you create a Maruti goodwill in the market. (Research shows new drivers generally tend to buy the same car, which they used to learn driving. Upgrade happens much later.)

2. Secondly, it brings new consumers under the Maruti umbrella. Registration gives Maruti access to a huge database of potential car buyers.

3. The process of procuring a driving license becomes easy (otherwise you generally have to catch an agent or bribe the RTO guy.) Maruti Driving School takes that headache from you.

4. Easier to push a particular car eg. someone wants to own a Esteem, learn to drive one at a Maruti School, fill in your papers, get a driving license and the keys of your new car will be delivered at your doorstep.

5. Since women drivers are on the rise, they feel safe and secured being trained with high-tech gadgets at a professional driving school.

I wonder if this model could be replicated by other players in the market. How about a Ford or GM Stunt Driving School (Chevy has a huge equity with our Bollywood Stunt Directors)? Or a Honda Drag Race Driving School? Or a Mitsubishi Rally Driving School? Or a Volvo Truck/Bus Driving School centered around "Safety"? Am sure there is merit in this idea and it can strengthen a automotive brands positioning in the market.

Don't drink and drive. Be safe.

ARCB Media Inc.

Rusta Media is a wonderful example of interactive communication. T0 sell media space and time for SABC Channels in South Africa during ICC World Cup, Tequila\Johannesburg created this website.

Interesting is the way Rusta Media shows coconut branding, roaming goat branding, restaurant branding, beach imprints and umbrella branding. Well they ain't selling any of those expect their Radio and TV though but as you know inspiration can come from anywhere.

My inspiration: Abandoned Roaming Cow Branding in India (we have millions of them, don't we?) As long as I take good care of them, I don't think CUPA or PeTA will come running behind my arse. ARCB Media Inc. is the name of my new project. Any Vulture Capitalist interested?

Entertainmnent@home

So, I went for dinner at Bulu’s place. Bulu is one of those creative guys who don’t blog. He gives a simple explanation for not blogging, “I don’t have enough time to think, write and fill my web dairy.” Well buddy, do you read any blog? “Yes, reading is my source of inspiration.” Fair enough. Then we started discussing boring stuff like work, latest scandal in his agency etc, when suddenly Bulu’s four year old daughter Sonia came running inside “Papa I want to watch Finding Nemo.”

Bulu picked up his phone called someone and order the DVD, turned back at young Sonia and said, “It’ll be there tomorrow morning, you can watch it once you’re back from school.”

Bulu used an offline method to hire a DVD from an Online DVD Rental company. The concept of Online DVD rental is not a new concept. A new category in India though, which is gaining popularity. Netflix, Blockbuster, Lovefilm, Quickflix are some of the popular Online DVD Rental brands in US/UK/Australia. In India, VC’s and Angel Investors found Online DVD Rental a lucrative business to bank upon. Madhouse, SeventyMM, Catchflix, Cinesprite, Moviemart are few such companies to open shop in India. They follow the same business model - Get online, fill registration form and pay a fee, decide a plan and select your movie. Most of them are regional players and unlike the west they don’t use postal service for logistics. However the good point is that you can call, send SMS or queue your list in the website for the DVD's to be delivered.

Common brand proposition – India’s first online DVD rental company + No Late Fee + Free home delivery + largest collection

If you put together all of them, their customer base adds up to a million approximately. Given that India’s favorite pastime is watching television and cinema, the number seems insignificant.

I found few basic challenges that these companies need to overcome soon. A quick look at the movie list and you’ll find the same old movies enlisted on every website. No major differentiation in offering. Movie channels air the same movies and even show new releases then why do I subscribe you? To watch movies at my own convenient time. Not a strong enough reason. As a customer if I want to watch a French or a Japanese movie, what do I do?

Logistics is a big issue. They are unable to deliver on time therefore cannot reach smaller towns. Ultimately end up making big promises and a growing list of unsatisfied customers. Another issue is the penetration of Broadband on optical cable backbone with set-top-box. As they gain momentum, services like video on demand, pay per view will pose a severe threat.

No proper customer segmentation based on age, individual viewing or family viewing, what genres of movie does a person like, customer recommendation etc. Atleast this would have given them a fair amount of knowledge and insight about their own customers.

Lastly, internet penetration in India is low. Therefore as a company you limit yourself to a set of niche audience from the very beginning. And honestly this internet savvy audience is in no mood to watch ‘Mard’ or ‘Dil Main Dard’ ordering from the net.

So what do Online DVD Rental companies do to secure a bigger pie of the Indian market? Here’s my take on how these companies should do marketing:

We are infested with tens of thousands of neighborhood CD Shops serving us pirated VCD/DVD’s. A great opportunity lies in bringing them under your fold. How? A more effective online-offline business model.

• Create a franchisee business model. These stand alone neighborhood shops will be more than willing to be a part of brand and instantly give you a multi city presence (Also save you the cost of setting up several warehouses)
• Create brand retail outlets. Ask them to junk all pirated VCD/DVD’s and you provide them with original copyright legal versions. (Use PR effectively and ensure that people are aware you care hence serve the best)
• Create a call center and your brand shop is the delivery point (aka a Pizza Corner)
  

Once you put in place these basic infrastructures, you’re ready for marketing 2.0.

• Tie up with LG, Philips, Samsung, Videocon, Onida and Sony Home Theatre Systems for one year free subscription with every purchase
• Remember what Reliance Communication did? Handset + Subscription @ Rs. 501/-. To penetrate in smaller towns offer a DVD Player free with two years of subscription. Buy DVD players in bulk from a manufacturer, brand it and sell it along with your subscription. It allows you to enter Non-DVD player owning households immediately. You reach to a larger audience
• Exchange scheme – Pay for a year's subscription and bring along your old VHS Player, walk out with a brand new DVD Player
• Since computers are also touting themselves as a complete home entertainment device, tie up with HP, Compaq, Zenith, Acer, Lenovo to increase your subscription.
• Tie-up with Filmfare magazine and create a Filmfare Award Winning Collection. One years subscription of Filmfare gets you a Online DVD rental subscription or vice versa
  

Once you’re ready with your marketing 2.0 effort, it’s time for revenue generation 2.0

• Producers are spending a fortune on advertising their movies in different media. Use your website for advertising these flicks. Make money
• Use your DVD jacket/DVD envelope for advertising. Make money
• Use your brand shops for advertising. Make money
• Use your movie catalogue for advertising. Make money
  

Now that you’ve made money and I dare say lots of them, use your brain and start segmenting your customers based on genres and likings and make an enviable list of movies. Include world cinema, foreign movies etc. a collection that will draw customers to you by itself.

Before I end, if you think these are difficult ideas to execute, the easiest solution will be to hire me as a consultant. Will someone please write back to me on this soon?

Update: This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

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??

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.

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.

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?

Recycled ‘Seconds’ thought

Overheard in a second-hand scooter market —

Customer: Bhai, mera saat saal purana scooter kine da vik jaauga? (For how much will my seven-year-old scooter sell?)

Scooter dealer: Rate taan laa laange. Pehlaan grahak taan laab layiye? (We’ll fix the rate afterwards. Let’s find a purchaser first.)

No hyperbole. This is the state of affairs in market at present.

I was thinking about the ‘second-hand’ market in India for a long time but didn’t know how to put it in context. In his latest post, “Predictions for 2007,” John Grant mentioned about how a ‘second-hand superbrand’ can create opportunities for itself by extending the lifecycle of consumer products.

Over the last five years, second-hand market in India has gained immense popularity but restricted only to certain categories like automobile, books, apparel & accessories, footwear and furniture. Maruti’s ‘True Value’ and Arvind Mill’s ‘Megamart,’ Primus’s ‘Pennywise’ have managed to create a niche for them. Indian middle class are deal seekers; they are always looking for VFM products.

Well, I was thinking how to bring the thriving ‘chor bazaars’ of India into the fold of a modern retail banner. A typical ‘chor bazaar’ in Mumbai or Delhi or a ‘Sunday bazaar’ in Bangalore or a ‘College Street’ in Kolkata has some amazing items/books up for sale. Rare artifacts and items are available at a dirt cheap rate provided you really know the art of negotiating. Why not bring this dealers and shop owners under a “branded” banner? Restore, reconstruct these items for sale, add a seal of quality and service and sale them in the market. An excellent business model, this will make. Future Brands, are you listening???

Seconds Brand as a strategy can help in many ways:

• Get first time buyers into your brand’s fold.
  
• Provide them the assurance of quality and they will be more than happy to stick to you.
  
• A service agreement which makes them feel that you really care even if it’s a used product (Big no-no to all ‘No exchange, no refund’ words)
  
• Build a loyalty program (a genuine one with no fancy plastic cards and redeem points)
  
• Extend the lifecycle of your product (copying from John Grant)
• Slowly upgrade them to newer offerings over a period of time

Here’s how some brands can benefit from a ‘Seconds’ Store:

• Apple/HP/Dell/IBM: Create an exchange program. Get all the old computers, restore them and sell it in tier II & III cities at a much subsidized rate. You as a brand help eradicate illiteracy and they will become your most faithful followers.
• Harley Davidson: It’s a cult brand and Indian bikers will embrace it with grace. (Let’s stop thinking about Govt. rules for the time being.) Complete knockout units (CKU) of Harley’s can be brought to India. A franchise (assembly unit) put things in place and sales at an unbelievable low cost. Hell’s Angel rules.
• Samsung/LG/Haier/Sony/Philips/Videocon: Restore all your used/defective white goods and reach out more people in smaller towns of India. Tie-up with Tata Sky and you’ll have a killer combo to enter the market.
• Singer/Usha/Merit: Restore all your old used/defective sewing machines and reach those people, out there. You’ll create employment opportunity for them; brand loyalty will be a natural part of this program. So will be your opportunity to create content.
• Hero Honda/Bajaj/TVS: Set up branded second-hand retail stores in Gujjri and other similar spare-part/second-hand 2 wheeler markets. Follow the Maruti ‘True Value’ model; you’ll create a new profitable revenue stream.

SULZER India Ltd, the Indian marketing arm of the Swiss textile weaving machinery major Sulzer Textil Ltd, is already widening its market base at the South Indian textile centers which have reported higher imports of second-hand looms. The growing number of used shuttleless looms imported by the southern weaving industry in recent months has inspired Sulzer India to strategize its marketing through customer-care for second-hand looms, as nearly 80 per cent of the projectile looms imported into the country were from the Sulzer stable.

They say consuming base of products and services in India is low, 60 – 70 million people at the moment which is expected to become 130 – 140 million in the next three years. I say, why wait for three more years?

Well, hire me and you’ll get 350 million more consumers into your brand’s fold ;-)

Ulta-Phulta

(c) www.Ipar.org

I haven't come across people who actually loves to have fun with words. Of course there are few who do have fun with words, unfortunately I don't know many of them. Maybe I lack the basic skill of networking.

Anyway, I was reading about Palindrome and Semordnilap. Palindrome is a word or a phrase which has the property of reading the same from either direction. Eg. Malayalam. Semordnilap is a word or a phrase that spells a different word or phrase backwards (contrasted with Palindrome). Eg. Elbert - treble

What has this got to do with brand communication? Is that what you're asking?

Well, top of mind example of a Semordnilap in the Indian context is ROMANOV vodka, which was creatively executed as VONAMOR. A great campaign indeed. Another great example is EVIAN which was spoofed as NAIVE.

Great Indian examples of Brand Palindrome is LIRIL, the la la la soap. AVIVA Life Insurance is another.

Brings me back to the question how can advertising take this small clues for better communication and execution.

Here are two bad examples of Semordnilap:
1. Naomi Campbell or Naomi Watts or Naomi Klein starts a new line of Lingerie and Perfume under the brand name 'NAOMI,' the slogan reads 'I MOAN.'
2. UB Group will launch its new ready-to-drink rum brand called 'RED RUM' with a baseline 'MURDER.'

If you come across similar words and wordplays, do let me know.