Demographics of Social Media in Infographics

Interesting. Check it here and here.

Smart moves by Smart Phones - The Mobile Movement

Google just released a some statistics about Smart Phones and where it is leading us in the future. Nice.

Cool infographics

Here's where you can find all the cool infographics on various topics and subjects. Enjoy.

Digital Life Study

Digital Life - a very interesting study done by TNS. throws up lots of interesting facts about the Digital Life people lives. An useful resource for understanding and planning your digital strategies.

The Pot Market. Bu

The Fast Company has recently released the most unusual study I've come across. The Market of Legal Marijuana - The Business Potential of Medical Marijuana. Amazing.

So stop smoking pot and do something meaningful ;-)

80% children between 0 - 5 yrs are on internet

Nearly 80% of children between the ages of 0 and 5 use the Internet on at least a weekly basis in the United States, according to a report released Monday from education non-profit organizations Joan Ganz Cooney Center and Sesame Workshop.

Via Mashable.

Traveling Caravan

Finally, I could take out little time for myself last weekend. So I went to Mysore with a friend of mine on my beyond-repair bike. And I covered the 130 kms in just an hour and 27 minutes. Whoooo. A great feat given my bike is in bad shape.

We had loads of fun. Managed to click tons of picture, check out my flickr for all the fun we had. Next weekend we might (still on papers, ha) head towards Pondicherry - the french colony but this time on the TRIP bike.

don't carry baggage

You need your baggage to move around. So here's all the dope on the Luggage Industry of India. The category is divided into hard luggage and soft luggage (now, don't ask me the difference). Soft luggage is slowly gaining grounds. Top branded players include VIP (Alpha and Aristocrat are part of VIP Industries), Safari, Samsonite (American Tourister is a part of Samsonite) and Witco. Hidesign is one Indian player who is giving a tough competition to other foreign luxury players like Giordano, Delsey, Louis Vuitton and Gucci. And they are all making a beeline to woe Indian consumers.

Factors that seem to push this industry are low cost air travel and multiple vacation in a year. Rise in business travel and frequent women fliers are setting new trends.

• The size of the organised luggage market in India is pegged at Rs. 800 crore
• The market is growing at 20% y-o-y
• The grey market is estimated to be another Rs. 800 crore
• The market is witnessing 70% offtake in soft luggage

With varied traveller needs, luggage companies are now providing toilet kit holders, garment hangers, laundry bags, shoe bags and expandable bags. Value addition huh. Well, this is indeed a growing market and companies are indeed adapting fast to keep up.

Source: The Economic Times.

Well, don't carry baggage, carry soft luggage. Call the porter...

Business Week

Business Week has a very interesting section in its website called the Interactive Gallery. It's all about marketing. So those of you looking for interesting information and slides, visit here, it might come handy during those late night presentation preparation days.

Dope on Booze

Interesting figures in today's ET. Booze market in India is growing.

• In 2006, sales of beer and other spirits crossed 220 million cases - a growth of 10%
• Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) sales made up half the market
• The market for IMFL is estimated to be around Rs. 34000 crore
• Beer hogged 90% of the rest of the market
• There are estimated to be 200 million regular whiskey drinkers in India
• A McKinsey study sees consumption of alcoholic beverages growing from Rs. 11,500 crore in 2005 to Rs. 71,200 crore in 2025 at an annual CAGR of 9.6%
• Almost 90% of the whiskey sold in India costs less than Rs.300
• The alcoholic beverage market is seen growing @ 15 - 20% if deregulated
• Exponential growth in the premium liquor segment is pulling the entire category
• Imports account for barely 1% of Indian spirits market
• INDIA is the BIGGEST CONSUMER of WHISKEY in the WORLD

Hola, I guess Alcoholic Anonymous has lot of work to do in this country. Anyone out there has any interesting campaign based on this figures. If yes, do revert. And don't drink and drive, you might end up paying the cops more than you drank.

Hic.

Update: More resources:

• Beer sales in India are forecast to grow at a CAGR 17.2% to 2011
• South India consumed most beer - 471 million litre, while north guzzled up 35 million cases
• Kingfisher rules the market with 45% share
• SABMiller brands command 37% market share
• Annual per capita consumption stands at just 0.6 litre compared to 23 litre in China, an average of 73 litre across Europe and 78 litre in US

Hurray.

Outdoor in Indore

I am at Indore, a 25 Lac+ town in India's heartland and a real experience. No sign of small town sensibilities here. Buzzing malls, speeding two-wheelers, mithai shops at every corner, pan shops under every tree and beautiful, nice people all around. Mishraji, my cab driver showed me IIM on my way to Sivaji International Hotel from the airport. He's proud of IIM, though he didn't know what makes IIM so special. but he does know about the kind of visitors and guests who comes there quiet often. He drives them around and sometimes overhears the "Talks."

Sivaji International Hotel is the biggest hotel in town. Comes as surprise when you see a huge 10 storey building with 300 rooms standing in-front of you. I was escorted straight to a Coffee Bar called, "Beat the Heat." Decked up in Hawaiian costumes, the waiters were friendly and the cuisine was Mediterranean. I couldn't resist myself from gorging the lasange, cottage cheese salad and grilled chicken breast in red wine sauce. Well, that when the Croc Bread caught my eyes.
A quick meeting with few people at 10.30 pm. A de-brief about tomorrow's meeting with the big bosses of the client. After that I was taken to my room on the third floor. A huge room with a mini bar. I took a hot bath. Bliss I must say after a long air journey of 4 hours late in the evening. Time to crash. Tomorrow is the presentation. To be honest, I haven't written a slide of it and I've no clue what I am going to say. I know I'll dream of something good, which I then need to powerpoint early in the morning.

See you soon. Hope things will be fine tomorrow. Good Night.

Window Shopaholic

100 Ft Road in Indiranagar at Bangalore. The way to my office. And below pictures are the brand new Brand Flagship Stores that I pass every morning and evening. Total transformation of an entire road, a locality into a bright and a busy shopping destination. In just one year. Real estate value has sky rocketed. And these lovely looking Flagship stores are just another reason for so. Glass windows, open store fronts, bright brand colours and excellent signage materials. A world class shopping experience for all.
On the other hand, a bit confusing. Which brand to buy? Which shop to enter? Wondering if these Flagship stores are only to showcase the best architecture, brand offerings and attract only Window Shoppers? My question to you all. What is the basic difference between a shopper behaviour and a consumer behaviour? While walking down this street, how different will be a consumer's reaction vis a vis a shopper's reaction?

Anyone?

Sex don't sell anymore

In the latest issue of The Economist, I found this article very interesting. A challenge to the old adage, “Sex Sells,” Ellie Parker and Adrian Furnham of University College London carried an experiment which explains sexually enticing commercials don’t help people remember it.

They carried their experiment on 60 young adults and exposed them to a series of telly episodes which had both titillating materials and no such eroticism. During the commercial break the respondents were exposed to series of advertisements which again had both sexual implicit content and the ones without. It was found that men were most likely to remember sexual advertisements whereas women were more likely to remember non-sexual advertisement.

Now I don’t know how much of it holds good for us Indians but one thing is for sure ‘Sexing Up’ ads won’t work in the long run. Though we created Kamasutra, we don’t like too much of explicit ‘Kama’ on screen. The recent spate of Bollywood item numbers seem to have a dominating effect on every Idiot Box channel and it doesn’t go well when it comes to family viewing. Often slap-stick humour doesn’t work either.

We Indians are evolving. We are in a period of realism. Building aspiration through fantasy is no more the rule of the game. We are moving from being a value seeker to an experience seeker. Selling erotic dreams might not be an effective route anymore, especially with product categories like body care/hair care, fashion etc. Smart lines like, “Are you game?” “Get naughty” may not do the trick anymore.

Well, this is what I feel, what do you think?

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?

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.

Wait and watch

India has always been a fascinating country for marketers. With more than 1.2 billion population, marketing in India has a different charm all together. Now look at the watch market for instance. India is the most promising markets for the watch trade across the globe with penetration level of 25 watches per 1000 people, as compared to global average of 250 watches per 1000 people.

Out of the total present demand of more than 30 million units, the ‘organised’ sector supplies only 14 million units valued at $203 million while the ‘unorganised’ sector (read illegal) is worth $232 million. Over the past couple of years the watch industry have shown a decline in growth rate until last year when the market grew by 14.73 per cent in 2006. All kudos goes to Titan for its brilliant marketing initiative. At present there are more than 20000 watch retailers in India. The watch industry is estimated to be Rs. 2750 crore in 2006 and expected to become Rs. 4750 crore by 2009.

Seems like Titan is the only Indian watch maker doing all the marketing juggernauts? Wonder whether HMT is lost forever? Or will India become the new battle ground of Cartier, Omega, Rolex, Tissot, Swatch, Citizen and the numerous other luxury watches opening exclusive boutiques in India? Or can we see a complete brand revival of HMT? I guess we’ll have to wait and watch.

Do anyone of you remember any HMT print ad or a TV commercial?

Music for the ears

The Indian music industry is growing through sea-change these days. Traditionally a cassette and CD playing market, India is suddenly waking up to the potential of digital music. Recent example of digital music by films like KANK, DON, Jan-e-Mann, and Salam-e-Ishq are prime example of the growing demand in digital music. The crucial point is that promoting an album in the physical format is expensive, while the money that accrues from digital sales is all profit because it is one file that is downloaded again and again.

Physical sales of CD’s and tapes dwindled to Rs. 720 crore from Rs. 1081 crore in 2001. Though the number of CD’s sold has gone up from 10 million in 2000-01 to 36 million in 2005, the fall in the sales of cassettes has been drastic. On the other hand sales of mobile music – ringtones, true tones, full track downloads and video clips – have zoomed to Rs. 450 crore with 300 million downloads per annum. This figure is set to double over the next 12 – 18 months.

According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report on entertainment, the mobile music industry in India will be the largest at Rs. 3600 crore by 2009-10.

India, with its mobile consumer base of 130 million, is witnessing a boom in the consumption of mobile music. This segment s likely to contribute Rs. 120 crore to the bottomline of music companies this year, while consumers will pay up to Rs. 450 crore for downloading music on their phones.

This is another reason why marketers should bank on this growing category. No wonder, mobile companies like Nokia, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson are increasingly focusing on music playing mobiles.

And how exactly can they benefit? Maybe start creating more memorable jingles, brand songs, memes, signature tunes etc. which can be downloaded as music on the move. Maybe create a database of consumers who like certain brands and send it as free gift.

Digitization allows music companies to cater to specific needs of consumers. For instance there is a significant market for old classical music by artists and consumers are willing to pay different amounts for multiple devices. Not to forget the advantage digitization allows in combating piracy. To check piracy now phones are designed such that once a track is downloaded, it gets locked on the handset and cannot be forwarded enabling any kind of revenue loss.

Digital music (online and mobile) will outsell physical music in India by the end of this year. It will be largely defined by the growth in the mobile music sector. With new delivery channels of music such as FM stations and WAP sites emerging, entertainment companies, music publishing companies, production houses and equipment manufacturers are waking up to a booming music market. This revenue stream has given lease of life to some very old music companies too.

After music, it will be the digitization of our favorite Bollywood flicks. What’s next? Mobisodes of K serials?? Podcast of Sri Sri and his meditation techniques???

Technology you’re truly transforming.

Cool Hunting - JWT Style

This is great compilation of great ambient media at work. JWT Cool Hunting Team.

Pure promotion

Kidstuff Promos & Events conducted a recent survey to find out what role do pr0motions play in influencing buying behaviour. Of the 2612 consumers in 10 cities, 47 per cent of people go for repeat purchase if there are offers. Promotions do help in creating demand for a brand but also help convert a future purchase intention into action.

The retail end of the survey, conducted across 820 stores in 10 cities, shows that promotions work well in modern retail outlets. Interestingly, about 59 percent of mall-goers had participated in a promotion through SMS and over the telephone, 44 percent through a contest, and only 28% used the traditional scratch cards.

Source: Businessworld Magazine

India Facts

Some interesting facts revealed in the latest issue (15 Years After) of Business Today magazine. Do grab a copy for your own reference at the earliest.

• According to a Deutsche Bank Report, India is likely to be the world’s third richest economy by 2020, with a GDP of Rs. 64 lakh crore
• Today, 1.6 million people earn more than $100,000 a year; the number will grow to 3 million by 2010
• 544 million Indians will likely join the consuming middle class between 2006 and 2015; current size estimated 250 – 300 million
• Total consumption estimated around $550 billion in 2006 as against $300-340 billion in 2002
• Market for luxury products in India is estimated at $444 million today; it was almost non-existent a decade ago
• FMCG industry will grow to Rs. 1,06,300 crore by 2012 compared to Rs. 60,000 crore now
  
• 21 million Indians have a home loan today compared with only 2.6 million 10 years ago; this is likely to double in the next 3 years
  
• Total number of credit card issued is 13 million (just 2% penetration) and 32 million users of debit card, while average monthly spend on cards is as low as Rs. 1500
• Television penetration in 2005 stood at 50% of the total population of which 60% are C&S household
• Refrigerator penetration is 12 per cent

Where is all this taking us? Definitely not Mainland China. Pun unintended, our culture is slowly sinking into consumerism and the middle class is indeed growing in size. Says, Mr. Rajeev Bakshi, "The growth base is still very small, 60 million people who can actually afford goods and services will not be the growth driver. When this number becomes 130 million over a period of three to five years and attains a critical mass, thats when the FMCG sector will start booming." To add on that Mr. Gurucharan Das says, "If the economy grows over 7% annually in the foreseeable future and the population increases by 1.5 percent and literacy rate keeps rising, then half of India will turn middle class between 2020 and 2040."

After going through all this, I am left with several questions on my mind. Things are growing faster, things are changing even faster, what role will advertising play on these newly enlightened-uplifted-new-age consumers? Will advertising re-incarnate itself as an information provider or become a true facilitator to the buying/consumption process? Will advertising become more scientific or more artistic?

If you have answers to this, do write back.