Scribbles from the Tissue Roll # 1

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm glad to present you Scribbles from the Tissue Roll. Tissue Rolls is not about wiping your arse in the loo. It's all about quick observations from things that are seen on Indian television channels, read in the newspapers, heard on radio stations, watched on the streets, seen on the retail shelves... It covers almost anything and everything that attracts my eyes. Things that are insignificant in nature but has the potential to make a difference in our lives. Will try to keep it interesting, insightful and fun but I request you to also share your observations on trivial issues that you think are highly eligible for hanging on Tissue Rolls here.

So here goes the first edition:

Parle Musst Bites - One great snacking product from Parle Foods. The product was launched with some good communication which were enjoyable and hilarious to watch. However, little effort has gone to sustain the momentum of the communication. Even lesser effort has gone in to build a holistic brand out of a good product. Well, maybe because of high marketing and media budgets involved in building a brand. Maybe other reasons unknown to us.

Musst Bites is positioned as a snack food too tempting to part with. Fair enough. Now, look at the packaging. The communication says something that doesn't reflect on the packaging. Maybe the packaging was done before the communication strategy was finalised. This are small things that make a huge difference in the brand building exercise. It's not about a Big Idea anymore.
Well, they have some characters at the back of the pack? You see it? Why did they create those characters in the first place? Did they do it to fill the gap? Does it have some other meaning? Or are they meant to sitting static on the pack? Why not use these characters to do something? Hmmm... something as simple as stickers maybe? Or badges? Or caps and t-shirts for kids- your core target audience? Maybe amplify the 'Too Tempting' theme to do some really nail biting cutting edge stuff. Contest. Game Shows. Mobile Games. Short Videos. Sad but true, they don't even have a website mentioned on their packaging either. Grrrrr... the list goes on. These things don't cost you a bomb in an era of social media. What are you waiting for??

Mind you, if you plan to use any of the ideas mentioned here, be decent and kind enough to drop me a mail or pay up the royalties. Ha.

Co-Marketing - The new mantra

The industry is heading in the right direction. Here I mentioned how co-marketing can redefine marketing in India, if only our noble marketers did some serious thinking. With so many good examples floating around I can't help but think optimistically about the future of co-marketing in India.

If you thought LG & Prada's KE850 was an object of true desire then Ladies and Gentlemen, hold your breath. Bang & Olufsen has joined hands with Samsung to bring the ultimate music phone of the year. The Serenata. The website says "Two icons of excellence come together in Serenata, a music player and a mobile phone in one. It's high quality on a higher level, with the advanced acoustics, interface experience and design ingenuity of Bang & Olufsen combined with the intelligent mobile phone engineering of Samsung."

To take the Serenata, a step forward, B&O and Samsung has roped in ECM Records (I'm a big fan of Jan Garbarek whom they launched in the early days) to provide some pleasing music to the ears. Now this is what I call 'Innovative Thinking.' Co-creating meaningful products by sharing each others strength and expertise. And then marketing it together.

This is a bigger Marketing Ideal. It is about understanding the need and then finding a right partner to develop the right product for the right audience. I'm looking forward to some more examples of co-marketing and co-creation. So with the new year approaching us, can we expect to see some innovative marketing from India Inc.? Or is it we will still look at west, read their case studies and try to follow their foot steps? Co-marketing according to me has huge potential in India. The recent "Diamond Bride" commercial on air is decent example, unfortunately its only an advertising idea. Not a big marketing ideal. Will there be a change in the 2008 marketing mantra? Let's keep our mind open. We might just strike gold. And many thanks Harshal for sharing the link with me. Keep sending more examples like this.

Update: Here is another exciting news. Media join hands with Airline to provide in-flight magazine. Exciting times ahead.

Cheers.

M Player

Disney did it again. This cute little M(usic) Player or M(ouse) Player or whatever you think it is, is really a sexy device. It's a fashion accessory. It's a toy. It's a mp3 player. It's a key chain. Simply lovable. Kids will love it. Your girlfriend will love it. Your granny will love it too.

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.

Immobilised

It had to happen one day. Unfortunately that day was yesterday evening. Vanished just like that. Stolen right under my nose. Well, I am speaking about my 5 years old Nokia 1100 'Made in India' phone.

My fault to leave it on the window near the entrance of my apartment in sheer excitement of the India/SL match. By the time I realised, it was gone. That lil black Nokia indeed stood for me (I changed the phone jacket twice in five years) It waked me up diligently at 6.30 every morning. Allowed me to be in touch with the world and listen to the voice of my loved ones. Though recently the battery was creating some nuisance, I must admit it was a tough toy. It survived several fall and Choco's bite. My real loss is my phone book. I don't have a backup. What a fool I am. So, I guess you understand the trauma and pain I'm going through at the moment.

Infact, this phone was performing so well and given my technophobic nature, I actually never had the desire or aspiration for any of those fancy gadgets out in the market. Mobile phone is just another phone, the analogy I always gave to my peers. Mine was a basic device which allowed me to make and receive calls, send and receive message and I was happy. It also allowed me to keep my monthly rental, nominal. Now do I sound like a laggard in the chasm curve?

The good news - I gifted myself a Nokia 6270 this morning. Don't know why. As I am writing I'm trying to justify my purchase decision as a consumer. Why did I buy this phone? Firstly, few of my friends recommended me this phone before. Word of mouth. Secondly, I'm loyal to brand Nokia. Checked out all that is available (even though I am loyal to Nokia) in the market and settled for 6270 at a discount of 10% from a friends shop. Loyalist but a value seeker. Thirdly, I wanted a phone with a decent camera to shoot all odd things on the street. Upgradation.

If any of you had to ask me what was that one reason that made me buy this phone, my answer would be, becoming techno-progressive from being a technophobic.

Since I don't have a backup of my old numbers (my itemized bill helped me in recovering some numbers though), I would be grateful if you can mail me your contacts once again. And I promise to keep a backup this time onward.

Ok, I'm off to fondle my new phone.

Era of innovation

Amazing design. Only concern, is it comfortable?

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!!

Healthy is wise and wealthy

Health consciousness is indeed a cause of concern for us Indians. A closer look at the figures below will explain why:

• 60% of the world’s cardiac patients will be Indian by 2010
• Every fourth diabetic in the world is an Indian
• 120 million urban Indians are seriously obese and Indian ranks among the top 10 obese nations of the world – 70% of diabetes in India is obesity - related
• 800000 Indians are diagnosed with cancer each year
• Strokes kill 2,000 people in India each day
• 5.1 million number of reported HIV/AIDS cases in India, highest in South Asia
• One in three teenagers has a bad eyesight, 30% have decaying teeth and 17% of the country’s 250 million adolescents are overweight

Take a look at the market figures according to a recent CII & McKinsey Study conducted in India:

• Health forms 12% of household expenditure. The third on the consumer’s spend list – higher than apparel and entertainment.
• What’s worrisome is that 76 per cent of the Indian population pays their medical expenses themselves, often wiping out family savings in one stroke.
• Only 20% is covered by health insurance. And the market for potential insurable lives in the country is 315 million.
• The boom in healthcare is slated to rise up to Rs. 208800 crore by 2012.
• The pharma retailing for nutraceuticals - everything from multi-vitamins, diet supplements, sugar substitutes to low fat etc. thepie has crossed Rs. 30000 crore.
• The medical tourism industry in India is currently worth Rs 1,500 crore and the country could well earn Rs 5,000-10,000 crore by the year 2012 and growing at an annualized rate of 30 percent.
• The beauty, fitness and wellness market is estimated to be Rs. 80000 crore in India.
• The fitness equipment industry is clocking an annual growth of 50 per cent.

No wonder modern India is growing conscious and aware about a ‘healthy lifestyle’. Call it wellness or healthy, a sudden upliftment of the old adage “Health is wealth” is hitting us hard. Companies are repositioning themselves to the health platform, new health products are being offered. Dabur, Himalaya, Marico, Nestle, HLL, Britannia, Kellogg’s, Pepsi, Amul, ICICI have joined the band-wagon. Basically, all hustle and bustle around the word ‘well-being.’

• Nestle now stands for Slim Milk.
• Kit Kat went Lite.
• Amul launched probiotic ice creams.
• Mother don’t scold anymore when snack on Kellogg’s.
• Atta Maggi is health bhi, taste bhi.
• Saffola Gold is champion of healthy hearty cooking oils.
• Knorr soup is nourishing souls.
• Sugar Free Natura is on media spend spree.
• Pepsi’s core focus is on Tropicana juices
• Dabur is doing a similar stunt with Real Fruit Juices
• Britannia says ‘eat healthy, think better.’
• ICICI Bank launched the ‘Diabetes Care,’ the first critical illness insurance policy in the world.
  

And the list goes on and on and on.

Why is ‘health’ a healthy brand platform?

The desire to reduce health-care costs is one force behind the rise of the wellness industry; the other is the growing demand from consumers for things that make them feel healthier. Lifestyle disease and disorder is really on the rise. So it makes tremendous sense for marketers to deal with consumer’s health concern to be relevant in-case they start losing their market shares. Hence the need for companies to go beyond physical fitness and enter into mental, emotional and physical wellness in their lives.

These changes were restricted to the F&B category initially, but there is a discernible shift from fairness to healthy skin, from beauty salons to spas that offer holistic health, and more male interest in all these categories. True, much of this is still niche, but waiting eagerly to come into full bloom.

Marketers are only happy to embrace anything that’s happy and healthy. Therefore every brand and category is trying to draw upon the benefits of a healthy living. And over a period of time more companies will try to bank on the health platform with an array of new products to lure the Indian consumers.

Now that you have understood the importance of a healthy lifestyle and how marketers will target you with their next less sugar, low fat, high fiber offering, I’ll go and get my apple before my doctor turn against me.

A novel canine idea

This guy, Wasiff Khan is giving sleepless night to companies like Pedigree, Eukanuba, Purina and others a run for their money, well, at least in Mumbai city. He has already made news with NDTV covering him for his novel idea - 'Dabbas for man's best friend.' Home delivery of freshly prepared cooked dog food. A graduate who didn't know what to make of his career is now running a flourishing business in the heart of Mumbai city. His clients include top Bollywood stars and industrialists. He offers customised food as per the wish of the owner and charges anywhere between Rs. 30 - 120 depending on the menu. His future plans include cookies, cakes and cat foods as a part of his product extension.

Watch out for this guy. Single handedly Wassif has taken up the task of giving big established pet food brands a run. And with more celebrities joining his list as clients, Wassif surely knows how to bark a success story. Woof!

Heals faster

'Jesus Heals' faster when you wear his brand of bandage.

Via Dan Germain