Print Media Battle Royale : Who decides the winner?

So, as the titans of the Print media, Hindu and TOI engage in a head-on clash through their advertisements, with plenty of responses and counter-responses, knee-jerk reactions and the endless banter, I have one question to ask – have they ever thought about who decides the winner?

Let me take you through the reel of how things unfolded on this:

1) First, the TOI took potshots on the Hindu by saying that Chennai (a Hindu stronghold) should ‘wake up to TOI’ because right now they are reading ‘boring’ news which puts them to sleep (alluding to the Hindu news reporting style). They claim that their reporting will make a reader ‘wake up’ and be active for his day ahead. Watch that campaign below

2) Next, after a couple of months, Hindu has recently hit back with the a set of campaigns, attacking TOI’s preference towards reporting Bollywood and Page 3 news. With the campaigns they have tried to highlight that people do not know about issues of social and national interest and know more about bollywood gossip. And they have laid the blame of this to the newspaper they read, which is Times of India (the name is beeped out from the ad, but it is still easy to make out which name it is). The caption too is a an attack – ‘stay ahead of the times‘

Watch the Hindu campaigns below:

The other campaigns are linked here: Hindu Ad 2 ; Hindu Ad 3

 

Now, coming back to my question, while the print media champions are leveraging their strength areas (interesting news and relevant news respectively for TOI and Hindu), they are ignoring the end-consumer in their chain of campaigns taking potshots at each other. Here’s what I think:

1) The Hindu ads reflect that the  TOI readers are missing out on ‘important general knowledge’ which they would get when reading the Hindu. A broad image that comes across is that the TOI reader is kinda dumb. Now, these are the readers that the Hindu wants to be converted to their own bastion. Attacking the target consumer is not something I would like. If I am a TOI reader (And I am!), my reaction to this would be to immediately get into the defensive mode, with a thought process like – hey I know this, I know that, I am not dumb and I don’t need to switch my newspaper! – and if that is the reaction of the TG, why do any advertising at all?

2) The TOI ad, which was released earlier, is also guilty of attacking the TG they want to break away from the Hindu. A broad section of south india population is  educated and quite interested in keeping themselves updated on the happenings of social and national interest. They take pride on this, and wouldn’t really be lured to the fact that TOI makes the news ‘interesting’ . (In fact, there have been quite a few incidences where TOI has been highlighted to add unnecessary ‘mirch masala‘ to common happenings – facebook is full of such examples which have gone viral).

So, the readers of both newspapers know their respective paper’s strengths, and like to stick to it. But when you are taking potshots at the competitor, do take it only at the competing brand and not its users. Because the users are people whom you want to switch from the competitor to you. And its not wise to attack them, even indirectly or mildly – People have fragile egos and get to the defensive.

Hindustan Times, in fact, showed the way how it can be done. Like the Hindu, they too wanted to leverage responsible journalism. They simply talked about themselves, and not about others. And that’s how advertising is supposed to be – talk about your own brand, don’t waste money on airtime by talking about competition. Look at the HT campaigns: HT 1; HT 2; HT 3.

Let’s see how this pans out for both the newspapers. Hopefully, they will get back to track and start making more sense in their ads than cajoling egos!

ET NOW : Counterintuitive TVCs?

ET NOW has recently released a chain of 3 ads for their business news channel, with the core punchline – ‘Always thinking markets‘. After watching all the three ads, my first reaction was that the ads were surprisingly counterintuitive to the very product that was being advertised!

First, have a look at the commercials:

The other commercials can be seen on the following links:  TVC 2 (Pharma) ; TVC 3 (Gold)

There are some points I wish to make about the campaign:

1) Primary Message:

I think the intent was to bring out the concept that ET NOW is a 24-hour business channel, and you can get authentic and educated business/stock information anytime.

What came out was – ET NOW is super-addictive, to the extent that the person who watches it is just glued on to the TV, and spends day-in and day-out doing just that. It sends out the unflattering message that the viewership of the channel is composed of nerds who have no life of their own apart from gathering business news and stock market updates – not a good message to send out to your TG. You don’t want to tell them that they join an ‘elite’ group of nerds when they watch ET Now!

2) Brand Recall

I think I harp on about prioritizing brand recall over ad recall in every other post that I write! Even in this TVC, the ad recall is pretty high due to the humour content, but the brand name, ET Now, does not linger on after the ad. I was just surfing through the channels on my TV, and found 10 to 15 business news channels! How do you expect a recall? Did you differentiate your product from others in the category? – The answer is No!.

3) Brand disocciation?

The answer above about differentiation is a pretty sad answer given that ET Now was backed by a very strong legacy of ET print newspaper which enjoys a very positive brand equity. Why couldn’t that be leveraged? Even if you want to disconnect your brands a little, you should only aim to communicate  that one complements the other – if you send out a message that either of the two can serve the TG’s need, then rest assured that the TG will always pick a 30-45 minute browse-through of a printed newspaper than spending 24 hrs watching your channel!

While ET Now did take a brave step forward by advertising a business news channel all across prime time television, the scripting of the ad left much to be desired.

David challenges Goliath : Vini’s 18+ vs HUL’s Axe

Vini‘s deodorant, 18+, has been trying to carve a niche for itself in the Rs 1000 crore Indian deodorant market. This market is being strongly lead by HUL’s Axe, although its market share and leadership margin have been dipping off late due to the entry of a lot of different players – Denver, Fuel, Garnier, Nivea, Reebok, Adidas, Park Avenue, and many others.

The Indian deodorant market is a typical example of Marketing Clutter, where Axe first introduced the concept of ”Deodorant transforming a guy into a chick-magnet’ and then the other players simply copied the concept and reapplied it into their own ad copies, releasing their products at almost the same price points, never bothering about a tiny little concept called differentiation !!

And in this cluttered market, Vini was among the few players who tried to do something different and make an attempt at clutter-breaking. They dared to price-up their deodorant from the prevalent Rs 150 price point. The priced it at Rs 250, and then presented a justification to back it up – they positioned their product as a deodorant + perfume. The added perfume ingredient helped both differentiate them with others, as well as aid in explaining the higher price point (look from the shopper’s perspective – he thinks he is getting both deodorant and perfume at Rs 250 – a true value for money bargain !)

And now Vini has come up with an ad challenging the very concept that deodorant advertising in India was borne out of – ‘chick-magnetism’. It breaks the barrier between reality and TV Ads, and directly points out the other ads as being fake claims ! Interestingly, they too have shown their product as a reason to attract girls, but they have used a different reasoning, and a more subtle approach. Also, the ad is a form of spoof on Axe wherein the protagonist is shown spraying on a deo in a fashion reminiscent of the Axe ads. And of course, the concept being attacked is the cornerstone of Axe advertising strategy.

Watch the ad below:

Some key points on the ad:

1) Takes on Axe and pulls a subtle spoof on it: Most viewers might not spot its connection to Axe, but the relevant people in the industry would take notice. And even the viewers will at least be able to connect it with the usual chick-magnetism themes of the deodorant ads.

2) Youth Connect: Creating an abbreviation, LKPD, pretty similar and obvious in its connection to the popular youth slang, KLPD, is an attempt to connect and relate with the youth. The youth would automatically listen to something which speaks their langugage

3) Clear message transmission: And amongst all this, the one message that does clearly stand out is that 18+ has a lot of perfume-components in it. The clarity of transmission here is pretty good.

So, it seems that David has challenge the Goliath here, and this slingshot too seems to be quite effective. Will Vini be able to subdue the Goliaths of the Indian Deodorant market? Maybe time will tell.

No Marks Teens: Muddling up an Excellent Idea.

Ozone Ayurvedics has recently launched an extension to its No Marks skin care range – the No Marks Teens Facewash. As is obvious from the name, it is targeted at the growing teenager population in the country.

In terms of the underlying concept, I think this is a great idea. There are two important points to note:

1. It can help No Marks carve out a niche for themselves by directly targeting a specific population segment (and honestly, who doesn’t like a product targeted at them and tailor-made for their requirements?)
2. It will attract the customer at the POME (Point of Market Entry). The product is focussing on teenagers, and teenagers is the age-group when women first start using cosmetics. If they are convinced on the product quality/value, they would stick to other extensions of the same brand when they trade-up in the category (If you go to the website of Ozone Ayurvedics, they have shown how they have classified their cosmetic range by age: Teens/ Youth etc. Visit their site here) Capitalizing on the POME is amongst the most surefire ways to gain and hold Customer Loyalty – something which is available at a high premium these days.

So, the idea has a lot of merit. But ideas are available a dime a dozen! It is the execution of the idea that matters and that is where the No Marks team has failed.

Watch the ad below:

 

The product is clearly mentioned in the ad as a Teens product, connecting to a new term which the team has brought in – ‘Teenocracy‘. But, given that this is an advertisement which is supposed to create the aforementioned niche segment, I expected a lot more content in it. I expected the ad to differentiate between the regular and teens cosmetics in terms of product features, and to highlight why a teen should use the teens-specific products instead of her mom’s products (could talk about differences like – mom’s products focus more on skin nourishment and anti-ageing, while teens’ cosmetics focus more on acne-control and skin whitening etc.).

The ad, on the other hand, seems to say that just because this is a teens product, all teens should use it! There seems to be no effort made to highlight the existence of a need-gap in the market before filling in that gap. No plausible reason is given as to why a girl should use this product and not any other.

Also, when they bring in a concept like Teenocracy, it is a powerful key-word around which an entire campaign can be structured. But in this ad, it just seems as if somebody in the marketing team liked the word and insisted on it being thrown into the script, irrespective of whether there was any context/ relevance to it in the ad or not !!

The pioneer of an idea is the one who can reap the maximum benefits out of it. And if a pioneer does not maximize a good idea, then someone else is sure to capitalize. No Marks had the opportunity to enter the market and create a stronghold in it. They failed to do it.

Now I am waiting to see who else enters this market segment, and who goes about this the right way.

the HD Marketing Warfare: A Battle between Mirrored Sides!

HD DTH (High Definition – Direct to Home) is an emerging revenue channel in India, especially for established DTH players such as Airtel and Tata Sky. Both know that HD can expand their customer base and also increase ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) for them. And hence, it is but obvious that they are pitted against each other in this. (This is not to say that Dish TV and Sun TV are not major players – I have picked up Airtel and Tata Sky because the marketing campaigns run by them are the focus of this post).

Check out the advertising campaigns by the two first:

 

 

As you can see, both the ads are positioned on the exact same message – extra-fine clarity with HD, enabling the viewer to recall the faintest of details. Taken individually, both the ads have a splendid recall and the message is sent across very clearly to the viewer. The problem is when both of them are considered together (which can easily happen, given that they are both investing havily in media spends, bringing in a lot of airtime at prime-time slots). When viewed together, there seems to be very less differentiation between the two ads. So you end up convinced that HD can give great picture clarity, but you would not have anything to choose between Airtel and Tata Sky (which is why I call this a battle between mirrored sides)

Comparatively, Dish TV has a set of different ads, in which they talk about other value-adds that they offer, in the form of a-la-carte channels, properly pre-selected channel packages etc. Reliance has also brought in something new on the lines of a loyalty program, with redeemable reward points. Watch the campaign below (I couldn’t find the Dish TV campaign online)

 

Hence, I would really like if the DTH vendors introduce some innovation in their USP model. If you recall, the entry of DTH in India, with Tata Sky et al was also based on the same concept – better clarity over existing cable operators. Now, they are using the same proposition to upgrade customers from Regular to HD DTH that they used to induce upgrade from Cable TV to DTH. They forgot that the investment add-on that is required from DTH to HD DTH is, as of now, not comparable to the value-added. The customer does not really need an upgrade to HD on the parameter of clarity. On the contrary, the customer is more likely to be lured into an upgrade by features such as reward points, live telecast recording (initiated by Tata Sky Plus) etc. These, in my opinion, should have been the focus points for the operators.

Let’s see if this warfare evolves to better quality marketing tactics in the future.

 

Note:  Two related points I want to make here:

1) If you notice the HD DTH ads carefully, no one brings to notice the fact that for true HD output, you not only need an HD DTH operator, but also an HD-compatible TV, and even more critically, channel content being filmed in HD. So, the fact that hardly 10-12 channels (mostly from the Star network) have switched to HD telecast is usually missed by the customer while purchasing. And this may lead to a strongly negative post-purchase dissonance for him as he would feel cheated

2) Interestingly, a couple of months back, Dish TV and Airtel were involved in a similar ‘mirrored campaign’ competition! Watch the ads here: Dish TV., Airtel. (Repeat offence from Airtel ! And you already know what my opinion on Airtel Marketing tactics is at the moment)

Volkswagen: Marketing backed by a flood of Dollars

Volkswagen‘s India entry and subsequent marketing campaigns over the past one year are case studies on how money can be used for marketing, especially when you seem to be carrying truckloads of it !!

The marketing brains at Volkswagen, apparently intend to deluge the market and create an impact in the consumer mindspace by adhering to only one mantra – ‘in-your-face‘

The campaigns that they are running are such that the consumer/viewer simply cannot ignore it. And no, it is not because of some creative scripts or funny TV commercials being employed. It is because Volkswagen believes in strongly capturing prime-time slots across media – be it the 7-10pm slot in TV channels, or the front pages of prominent newspapers. Let us take up three of these campaigns run by Volkswagen, see what was done and how effective they turned out to be:

1. The first-ever print road-block

A major newspaper roadblock had been unheard of in India, although TV roadblocks were gaining popularity (HUL, Vodafone etc). Volkswagen captured the entire TOI on November 11, 2009, with all the slots advertising one or the other of its Car brands – Jetta, Passat, Touareg. As per sources (on the web), VW spent close to Rs 8 Cr on this campaign. Obviously, capturing entire TOI editions advertising for a day can’t come cheap !

2. The first-ever talking newspaper

The readers of TOI and The Hindu in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Pune and Chennai were in for a surprise on 21st September, 2010. As soon as the opened their favorite newspaper to read, they heard a mini-sized, pressure-activated device play a recorded message about the Volkswagen Vento. Reportedly, VW spent around Rs 5 Cr on this.

Watch a descriptive video of the same below:

 

3. The first-ever glossy newspaper frontpage

And on 29th August, they unveiled the glossy, super-shining silver coloured TOI frontpage which carried a full-size poster of the All New Volkswagen Jetta. Find below a picture of the same and tell me if it is at all possible to miss this ad?

While these are not the only advertisements VW has launched (they have launched several other, more innocuous advertisements, both on TV and print), these certainly were the ones which were meant to be attention-grabbers. These were the ones to create huge whizbangs, and boy, they did it in style !

(And interestingly, they used a medium nowadays seen as a passive, increasingly ineffective one to advertise in! They brought all the action and excitement back to newspapers)

In general, I am of the opinion that marketing approaches should not be driven by money. In my view, whenever marketers have a lot of advertising budget, they tend to leave their gray cells at home and merely do dumb things on which they throw money (Examples abound – VI JOHN casting SRK as brand ambassador (he has almost never ever been seen with a beard!), Luminous Inverters/Ujala signing Sachin Tendulkar, and many more).

So, when people have money, they tend to waste it by simply signing up the most popular star to do an ad for them in the most exotic of locales, irrespective of whether it makes brand sense or not! That’s why I don’t like if money is available aplenty to marketers – it takes away the will to be creative!

But, refreshingly, the people over at VW have put the ‘flood of dollars’ at their beck and call to good use. While they have spent in oodles, they have achieved the objective that they set out to meet – grab attention to brand Volkswagen, and make it stand out in a horde of auto players – Maruti, Hyundai, Honda, Fiat, Skoda, Chevrolet etc. They have been able to create a strong brand recall through the campaigns, and people do know the name clearly now. This was what they wanted to get – stand out amongst the crowd – and they got it done in huge flashbangs of advertising!

Let us see whether VW passes the ultimate test of performance to reign over Indian roads, in the way that it is reigning over the marketing tracts!

Airtel : Messy Rebranding followed by Shabby Marketing !!

As a Marketing enthusiast, the work done by Airtel’s Marketing team over the past one year comes across to me as nothing short of crazily unplanned !! It seems that they are purposefully trying to confuse/irritate the consumer, by coming out with all kinds of things – logo change, overnight rebranding, new signature tune, a lot of new ads, with widely varying scripts – as if the underlying thought process is merely to cook up what we Indians know as ‘khichdi’ 

(A) Rebranding:

Let’s take it up from the beginning. Right after MTN acquisition, the top brass decided that the company needed a new logo, to symbolize its ‘youthfulness‘ and ‘multi-national flavour‘. What came out was popularly seen as a hideous mix of Vodafone and Videocon logos. The new logo added practically no value to the company or its image, especially given the kind of expenses incurred for the same.

The logo is one brand-element which symbolizes the brand the most, helping create conscious and sub-conscious imagery in the consumer mindspace, and this effort by Airtel is nothing short of disappointing. (Go through the following article; I personally believe that the explanations given for the logo changes are absolute rubbish: Business Standard Article on Logo Change )

I have mixed opinion on the new signature tune – The new one is okay, but the earlier one, in my view was far better. Too much of techno and international touch in the new one.

(B) Positioning

The positioning statement – Dil jo chahe, paas laye. This is among the most vague positionings that I have ever seen used in advertising. Based on the meaning of this statement, it seems that connectivity to others (friends, family etc) is the paramount USP of the telecom operator.  I think that over the years, Airtel, along with Vodafone, has been able to successfully establish itself as a player with good network coverage. This factor does not need further reinforcement with the customer. Additional services, customer schemes/offers, VAS and 3G etc should have been the crux of their ads – something which Idea is actually able to do, through its ads which are, in general, pretty lame, but still manage to get the point across. View one ad by Idea here

(A couple of Airtel ads do talk about VAS, but their effectiveness is questionable, as I discuss below)

(C) Advertisements on TV

And now, let’s talk about the multiple different ads that they have launched in a short span of time. I have embedded two of them here, and provided links to the others – would recommend you to watch all, it will aid in understanding my point better:

Others: Street Dancer , Soldier , Saina Nehwal , Shahrukh Khan

The following are my pet grudges;

1) Coherence:

Had the ads been independently launched, with sufficient gap in between them allowing the customer to forget the older ad and replace it by a newer (but, related) one, I would have appreciated the ads. In isolation, they are good ads, but when you launch all of them in a short span of time, it will end up confusing the customer. We can’t really expect a time-constrained viewer flipping through channels to be able to connect ads featuring Shahrukh Khan, Saina Nehwal, and foreigners and form one coherent brand image out of it. What will form in his mindspace is nothing but, as mentioned above – meaningless khichdi.

So, after watching these all sorts of ads, the viewer ends up with a confused perception of what is being told to him. What is the point of appointing famous brand ambassadors at hefty prices when all they manage to do is send out a signal which is not getting a point coherently across.

2) Brand name-salience

Almost all the ads have 40-60 second airtime, followed by a 5 second mention of the service being talked about (international roaming, video call etc.) and the ad punchline (dil jo chahe paas laaye). I admit that the ads are well scripted, but as I often end up saying, it is likely that the ad-recall would be high but associated brand-recall would be low. And apart from keen marketeers who spot the brand name, this helps in no customer-recall of the brand. The brand name should have sufficient salience in the air time you have purchased

Along with this, the use of foreign models and settings for the ads, purportedly in an effort to add an international touch to the brand also seems to be a bit meaningless. Today, the customer has seen a lot of exotic locales in movies and Discovery channel. He isn’t impressed by ‘abroad’ settings any more in ads. The would have done better to focus on ‘international standards of service.’

 

All-in-all, it seems as if Airtel is trying to send across the message of its numerous services – 3G Internet, International Roaming, Video Calls etc., but since the ads are so different from each other in terms of their script/settings/ambassadors, it does not form one unified picture.

Take the case of Vodafone on the other hand. Their iconic zoozoo campaign had a lot many different ads (15+ if I am not mistaken), but since they were all in the same setup of animated white-coloured zoozoos in red/gray background, they were able to gel together (the fact that they espoused the vodafone colours helped as well)

Hence, Airtel’s acclaimed re-branding, undertaken over the past one year, has been a let down. Neither the new logo, nor the new positioning/tagline, nor their varied ads seemed to be working. They really need to sit back and look with ‘60,000 feet view’ on what they are doing, to coalesce everything they do into a inter-related unit. Else, their expenditures will continue going down the drain.

Crowd-Sourcing: A Toast to the Customer

Crowd-Sourcing is fast gaining acceptance as a means of marketing in the community of advertisers, marketers, branding experts and strategists. In its most basic form, it refers to companies involving customers in business decisions – be it in the form of promotion styles, advertisement campaigns, expansion ideas, product innovation etc.

So, what are the reasons why crowd-sourcing is used more and more frequently these days? The following section talks about the possible benefits of crowd-sourcing, along with prominent examples of each case.:

1. Involving Customers – Making them feel Valued

Whenever you involve the customers in something which they know is critical in the company’s sustainability – business ideas, marketing ideas etc – the customers feel good about it. They like the fact that the company values them enough to involve them in such decisions. It may not be their own ideas which get executed in the end, but just having the chance to do so, thrills them a lot.

For instance, Frito Lays created a wave during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 by asking its consumers to come up with new flavors of potato chips, Out of the many ideas they received, they handpicked 6 of them, and launched them in a special combo trial offer, giving credit to the specific customer who gave them the idea. All the viewers of such an ad, who had contributed ideas for the flavors, get an ego-boost for being included in the decision making, for playing a miniscule part in the company’s success.

2. Greater acceptance by the masses

In general, when something (an ad style, a product variant, a logo design etc) is imposed upon you as a viewer/user, you instinctively rebel against it, trying to remain in a state of status quo. You tend to be unhappy at not being given a choice on something that affects you as well. Crowd-sourcing helps add credibility to any such thing that the company does – like a new launch, or a new campaign – aiding in smoother acceptance.

So, when the Indian Government decided to open its doors and invite entries for the design of the Rupee logo, they were able to circumvent a lot of criticism/rebellion against the logo. This is because, sub-consciously, every Indian would think – “one of our own has created this logo, it has not been thrust upon us, we ourselves had a chance to submit our entries”. It will mellow the blow of rebellion which was expected when 120 crore people hold opinions on the same issue.

3. Leveraging popularity amongst customers 

Remember the ‘Me & Meri Wali Maggi’ campaign? In this campaign, Maggi invited its users to send in video clips/scripts illustrating how and when they have used Maggi Noodles in different situations and circumstances. These videos were reprocessed into TV Commercials and the scripts were condensed and put up on Maggi packs. This brought to every user a recall of the uses we put Maggi to – noodles for a tired mother, noodles as a change from hospital food for a wife etc.

With this campaigns, Maggi was leveraging on its immense popularity amongst Indians, and making them feel as a part of a big community, all members of which relish Maggi noodles. The sense of belonging that comes with using a highly popular and successful product builds further loyalty in a user.

From across the borders, Old Spice’s Isaiah Mostafa campaign also leveraged a lot of popularity from its ad-viewers, by going heavily viral – discussed here

4. Gathering Third-party opinions to get business ideas

When marketers/strategists in a company keep thinking about a product for too long, there is bound to be some stagnation in the thought process. Bringing in outsiders to think about the business brings in fresh new perspectives and new lines of thought. It helps uncover areas hitherto untouched by the business strategists because their thought process tends to get limited to a bubble.

So, when Starbucks launched the My StarBucks Idea campaign, inviting customers from all across the world to submit them some ideas for their business, be it for product development/improvement, enhancing the StarBucks experience etc., they got a huge repository of ideas from all sorts of people around, a sizeable number of which were easily implementable, worthwhile ideas. So whenever a local StarBucks manager wants to “do something different”, he simply logs on to the site and checks out possible ideas for his store.(The website is in public domain – http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/ – do check it out, its an amazing campaign)

Think about the reaction of customers whenever StarBucks publicly launches one of these ideas, giving credit to the concerned person. It sends out a message that the company values the opinion of its customers enough to invest in them. This creates a feel good factor about the company in the consumer mindset – what more do you need from a campaign?

5. Getting a feel of the Consumer Pulse:

Interacting with your consumers in any way helps the marketers get an idea of what the consumer feels about the company and its products, what are the pet peeves, what are the favorite features etc. These campaigns allow the marketer to gain significant and true feedback from the customer which can be incorporated both in the product technologies as well as marketing campaigns. Being in touch with consumer needs helps the business grow faster.

 

Hence, crowd-sourcing, alternatively also called as Co-creation, is a concept which is here to stay. Making the customer an interested party in any business decision can only mean good things for the brand and the business. It is like social media in this sense – social media allowed customers to speak up and give opinions, and if these opinions were handled well, especially the negative ones, then the brand equity soars. Similarly for crowd-sourcing, if handled well, it can create wonders.

But, a word of caution – Crowd-sourcing helps when the consumer already has at least a positive opinion for the brand. He should be in a frame of willingness to contribute to the brand and its upliftment. If consumers in general don’t like the brand/product, involving them in business decision will be more of an exercise in self-demotivation than leading to the above-mentioned wonders.

Government Branding: a merger of opposites

What words/images comes to your mind when you think ‘Government‘? – Likely, it would be aged, slow-moving, ,dhoti-sporting, ridiculously diplomatic statement-making politicians – right?

And what pops up when you think or branding/advertising/marketing – Likely, a guy with long hair tied up in a pony-tail, oozing energy, and wearing trendy clothes – am I right again?

By a very common sense, it can be seen that the personalizations of the two words lead to entirely different personalities – two sets of people who are never likely to be sharing any personality traits, and hence any business concerns.

But yet, instances are growing where the Government and the marketers are coming together to create various ad campaigns. And this is happening because some Governments have realized that in this age of information clutter, you need strokes of a genius marketeer to get your message across to the customer (which usually is the common public)

Governments, both of countries as well as states within them, seek out revenues to sustain themselves. In general, the government deals with industries themselves, earning revenues by granting rights and access to resources (land, power, water supply etc), which by law are owned by them.

If a government wants to sell itself to an industry, usually it would be in the form of what is traditionally called as a ‘sales pitch’, which will be delivered inside boardrooms in swanky hotels, trying to woo industrialists to invest in their state/country.

Not all such campaigns are inside-closed-rooms BTL pitches though. A classic example of a full-blown ATL campaign targeted at industrialists, showcasing business opportunities up for grabs in a state, was the quite famous Vibrant Gujarat campaign. Vibrant Gujarat is mass scale annual industrial summit organized by the Government of Gujarat, wherein corporations from across the world sign thousands of crores of MoUs. The same is widely publicized through news channels, newspapers, radio etc. It helps generate a very strong business-friendly image of Gujarat state machinery.

However, there are certain revenue sources where the government earns directly from the spending of the end-consumer himself/herself. A prime example of such a revenue source is Tourism. A well flourished tourism industry will aid the government not only in generating revenues, but also in helping generate jobs leading to self-sustaining economies. Hence, in this current era of growing incomes, with tourism on the rise, governments at all levels try to woo the consumers themselves.

Let us see some examples of such ads before we talk about them further:

Some others: Dubai, Australia, Kerala

As you watch these ads, you would notice that every campaign is designed around a central theme/concept. The theme refers to the basic positioning that every geography wants to portray – So Dubai talks about Shopping festivals with lots of exciting deals, Malaysia projects itself as a mini-representation of Asia, Madhya Pradesh talks about the traditions of India and Kerala presents itself as the place of nature’s true beauty which could only have been created by God. (Kerala deserves a special mention here – not only were they among the first states in India to start promoting tourism, but are also well advanced in it. They know that the youth amongst today’s tourists are frequently online. So they have uploaded lots of videos depicting Kerala and its beauty on YouTube (the link above is to the Kerala Tourism YouTube page))

Usually, every place has sufficient good things to attract a tourist which can be shown in a video clip. The trick to a successful tourism marketing campaign is to string together all the relevant things to develop a coherent positioning statement. So, as you see above, the Madhya Pradesh ad doesn’t lay much emphasis on the scenic beauty of Panchmarhi, Dhauladhaar waterfall etc., and focuses on traditional and historic things because that’s what they have decided to be the projected USP of the state. Taking a hypothetical case, Goa tourism should talk about the youth and the hippie culture there, and not about the strong presence of churches and christianity there – because Goa is all about an amalgamation of youth and fun, and this is the quality which should be leveraged.

Hence, as we see above, when the Government realizes that the end-consumer is the direct source of revenue for them, they decide to partner with the marketeers of the world, and churn out campaigns promoting themselves as tourism hotspots, trying their best to boost their own tourism revenues. That’s what marketing is all about at the end of the day – be it for the government or for the corporates.

Corporate Branding: Gaining Impetus by the Day

Corporate Branding is an advertisement style which has recently seen a lot of interest shown by the industrial giants of the country – with Mahindra, Tata Steel and the freshly minted Hero Moto Corp having rolled out such campaigns across screens. So, let’s talk through the campaigns in a bid to find out with what intent have they been rolled out and whether they have been successful in the same. As a functional definition, I have taken up Corporate Branding as the set of ads which talk about the parent companies of a product, instead of talking about the product itself.

Let’s watch one of the above three ads first so that everyone gets an idea about what I aim to discuss here, following which, we will do what I like the most – Dissecting the ad and the concepts behind them!

As you can see, there is no specific mention about the products of the companies above. The ads merely talk about the company, their culture and the values they espouse.

So, let’s evaluate why companies resort to Corporate Branding. For this, we will have to classify our TG into three parts, because for every part, there is a different purpose:

A) For the Prospective Customer: Create an overall value-based brand Image

It helps creating a positive image about a company which is embedded across all its products. It helps build and leverage the connect a brand has with the people. So, in the ad above, Hero Moto Corp, formed after demerging from Honda, has sought to leverage the connect that everyone in India has with Hero Honda, and tried to transfer this same connect to the new entity – Hero Moto Corp. They have clearly talked about how the new Hero Moto Corp is merely a rechristening of the erstwhile Hero Honda.

In addition, it also talks about building a value system to associate with the brand name. It has taken up ‘being a hero‘ as the quality that everyone of us displays in the small things in life, and has related this quality with the brand name itself.

If you recall, Hero Honda (the erstwhile entity) too had initiated a campaign called ‘Dhak Dhak Go’, which was another example of product-neutral campaign. That campaign was pivoted around the Indian-ness in us. Check it out here 

Maruti, of course, created the ‘India comes home in a Maruti‘ campaign, a campaign I quite frequently use as an example of Marketing 3.0. Watch it here.

(I will be putting in a lot of links to ads in this post, because if I keep embedding every one of them, this will be akin to a Ph.D report 🙂 )

B) For the Prospective Customer: Project product qualities 

Some corporate ads also tend to leverage a common quality across all the products that a company offers. One notable example of the same is Maruti, which leveraged fuel economy for all its vehicles through this ad:

Videocon put all its products under the umbrella of high ‘MNC-like’ quality, at the same time building an India-connect, through an ad featuring Shahrukh Khan, saying that Videocon is ‘India ka MNC‘

Honda built in a concept of technological superiority for all its products through this ad.

C) For the Prospective Employee

At times, companies tend to broadcast the value system and the work culture present in a company, to woo future employees. In today’s highly competitive market, Human Resource strength has slowly grown as the ultimate business advantage that every company enjoys. So, the marketeers try and project the company as a worthy place to live. The following ads by Tata Steel (recent) and Intel (slightly old, but a fantastic concept) showcase the same:

D) For the Current Employees – Morale Booster

For the current employees, ads which are about the company help build a feeling of pride in working for the company. Even the Tata Steel ad you saw above is an example of this category. A person always feels good if he can see proof about the good job he has, an ad which he can point to and brag about. Hence, these ads also serve the purpose of boosting employee morale.

Another example would be Mahindra’s recent campaign on Rise. With a view to going multi-national, Mahindra has launched a corporate initiative of the same name, introducing wide changes across the company. Showcasing the same on TV instills a sense of purpose in the employees, making them feel that the changes are planned out and not random. (Although my own opinion of the ad in general is low, since most of it talks about non-Mahindra things and then tries to connect everything to Rise and Mahindra. People outside the business community would really have no clue as to what the ad is all about)

So, there can be many different needs and purposes that corporate ads can intend to fulfill. I would say that amongst the ads discussed above, Hero, Maruti, Honda, Intel have done a pretty good job, and Mahindra, Hero Honda (Dhak Dhak Go) and Videocon haven’t been able to leverage it successfully.

In recent times, we have seen a strong growth in corporate branding, with a lot of companies indulging in it. Even IT companies have ads talking about their services in general (Accenture‘s High Perfomance, Delivered ads, IBM‘s Why I’m an IBMer campaigns are just a few examples). So, the trend has been initiated, let’s see how long and successful this style of advertisement becomes.

Next Up: Marketing by the Government

Process-Oriented Campaigns

By process-oriented campaigns, I refer to advertisements which demonstrate a proper usage/consumption methodology for a product . The recent Act II campaign, which showcases a kid explaining to his friend/elder brother how to use an Act II packet to cook popcorn alerted me to this concept and I decided to write about this style of advertisements. (It is recent in the sense that it has been given TV airtime again by the parent company ConAgra, while the ad had been released for the first time about an year ago)

Watch the ad below:

So, which other ads can you recollect which show a process and what was the inherent purpose behind them?Let us take a look at some of these campaigns and see what their intent could have been:

A. To show Simplicity of Usage:

The consumption of certain products are obstructed by people perception that the products are difficult to use or are too complicated. One example of the same is the ad we just saw above – Act II ready-to-cook-and-eat popcorn, which can be prepared in a few minutes. The company realized that the consumer still thinks of the product as a complicated one and is hence avoiding the same. To help the consumer realize the simplicity of it all, they had initially tried to show a father with no culinary skills being able to cook Act II. And now, the campaign they have come up with showcases a kid explaining how to make popcorn to a young fellow, further emphasizing that Act II is indeed a pretty easy preparation (even a child knows how to do it!)

A similar society dogma was also faced by Godrej wehn they launched their now well-known hair dye. This is how they tackled it.

Godrej did two things with the above ad:

a) Projected dye application as a common process: Helping reduce the embarassment that men usually faced when they wanted to dye their hair

b) Illustrate that it is a pretty simply process to follow: Since people usually felt that hair-dyeing is a complicated thing to do. This also took away some market from the local barbers since now people started dyeing their hair themselves instead of at the barbers.

Apart from showcasing the product usage simplicity, another purpose was behind some other process-oriented ads:

B. To create a ritual of usage and introduce a fun element in consumption:

Certain products create a ritual of usage for a product to make the consumption process seem more joyful. A consumer, when does something in accordance to a set pattern, finds his own element of fun in the consumption.

Two prominent confectionary giant brand names come to mind when I think of this style – Kitkat and Oreo.

Watch below the ad used by Oreo when they launched this brand in India:

There is no product quality change that occurs when you follow the ritual, but it is the sheer process of it that makes eating Oreos all the more interesting and fun. It’s an excellent style of differentiation – in one fell swoop Oreo has set itself apart from other biscuits in the genre, because you have to ‘Twist, Lick and Dunk‘ an Oreo to eat it with pleasure, unlike other ‘ordinary’ biscuits.

Some of the readers may also recall the very first ads released by Kitkat accompanying its launch. The ads showed people following a ritual to eat KitKat : 1) Slide out the wrapper –> 2)Pierce Aluminium foil to separate a finger –> 3) Break the finger –> 4) Eat and Enjoy

(I tried very hard to find the video of any one of a series of commercials they released, but couldn’t find even one. Hope you recall the ad I am talking about)

The above two campaigns were made to add fun into the process of having a biscuit or a chocolate. Kids, especially, tend to ask for these so that they can perform ‘that’ process while eating them.

So, process-oriented campaigns are not very frequently used by companies, but there have been notable instances (as seen above) where they have been leveraged to great success. Godrej, Oreo and KitKat enjoyed this success, let us see if Act II can do the same.

3G Blitz: The Battle continues

With the advent of 3G, the telecom wars have been rekindled, with major players on a blitz of marketing spend on advertisements telecast on TV, broadcast on Radio and showcased on the internet. The battle has been further stoked by MNP being implemented in most circles, allowing users the luxury to switch telecom operators with aplomb. Every operator is trying to woo his current customers with good and better quality services, to ensure that he/she sticks with the current operator and not switch. Another factor of course, is that 3G and the associated mVAS are likely to increase ARPU for the telecom companies, which in India are amongst the lowest in the world (especially because of very low call tariff rates)

Let us take up the 3G ads that operators have launched recently and see who seems to be winning on the screens at least:

A) RELIANCE

Reliance, according to me, has launched amongst the best campaigns in this series. Watch the video below before we dissect its various aspects:

 

The message clarity in this ad is of the highest order. A very large proportion of the online youth today can be found watching videos online frequently. And hence, Reliance decided to pick online videos as the central axis along which to present their connection quality. They send across the message that buffering issues, which lead to a chopped video experience, are only present in ‘other’ networks and their own network offers ‘true’ high speed internet, doing away with buffering problems.

The ad is crafted with a pretty simple script, doing away with complications of multiple sets and multiple characters. The ad is as straightforward as they get and conveys the message very well.

Now it is up to the operations people in the company to ensure that the claims made by their marketing team is backed by actual results and real-time performance.

B) IDEA

Idea has been literally playing around with different ‘ideas’ on the kind of campaigns that they are releasing on 3G. An initial burst of ads suddenly talked about 3G by using three Abhishek Bacchans on screen. Watch one of the ads of the series below:

 

What these ads managed to convey was that 3G was here, that it was something new and it helped one work on the internet faster. Contrary to other ads, these ads were a bit more ‘brand-neutral’ and seemed to talk in general about 3G instead of Idea 3G. Now, whether that was an oversight on the part of advertisers or that was an attempt to build market pie instead of market share is something we don’t know for sure.

Then, they recently launched this ad, thankfully, with a single Abhishek in it:

About this ad, there are two things that I have to say:

1. Letting fun overtake content:

Over a series of ads over the past couple of years, Idea has been indirectly talking about its services in the ads, be it through CSR based ads, environment-protection ads etc, in the ‘What an idea Sirjee‘ series. Now, the famous tagline has been removed, and the latest ad is too indirect to allow a viewer customer to recall the brand or its function properly. The background story is taking too much of the limelight.3G and its applications are being showcased, agreed, but the focus on Idea 3G seems to be missing, with a pretty vague connect (Fortunately, they have a good association with the brand ambassador, allowing people to connect Abhishek to Idea)

2. TG Showcase

Now, 3G, even with tariff cuts resulting from price wars, is still a pretty expensive service. And it also needs a 3G-enabled phone, which is a mid- to high-end phone. These two things squarely put the TG into upper-middle and upper class. The ad however, shows a community of people from the middle and lower-middle class (sub-consciously pointed out by power failures, small CRT TVs etc). This segment of the populace is unlikely to pick up and use 3G, and the segment which is likely to do so has not even been shown in the ad.

This phase of the launch of 3G is not an ideal period to try and dig deep in the population tiers. Efforts should be made to ensure that people who can easily afford it are convinced of the service, and only then should you try to customize your service into inexpensive plans.

C) VODAFONE

Vodafone was among the first-movers in the category to launch TVCs. And they did it in their trademark style – zoozoos:

Bringing out a ‘Rajnikant Zoozoo‘ to differentiate from the usual zoozoos worked effectively in separating 3G from other services in the consumer mindspace. And since they were the early-movers, it also helped create a basic understanding of the elementary premise of 3G – It’s fast. However, they did not build on this campaign to further explain what this fast service can be used for. The other operators scored over Vodafone in this, highlighting all the uses that 3G can be put to (admittedly, some of the uses were pretty lame, but still, they served the purpose)

 

So, the 3G Telecom wars have been initiated, and battlelines have been drawn. It is difficult to predict who wins this war, because this is one market segment that is strongly driven by functional excellence. The ads, good or bad, can at max persuade the customer to check your service delivery once before deciding on an operator. It is the functionality which matters the most.

I also wonder at times whether 3G services can be a viable reason for people to switch operators. I think in the current infancy of 3G, the focus of telecom companies should be about spreading the concept of 3G to all users. Let’s see how this trend pans out for the different players in the industry.

Lava Mobiles: Going Emo too soon?

Lava Mobiles have launched a new campaign on air. There are both positive and negative elements featured in the ad, and I would like to talk about these. Watch the ad below, after which we will take up the dissection of the ad:

 

About the ad:

1. Focus attribute:

As my post title says, I feel that Lava Mobiles are quite in their infancy in Indian markets, and it is too early for them to climb up the brand ladder from physical attributes and functionality to emotional attributes. (I have talked about brand laddering in an earlier post here ). Right now, being a new entrant in the market, the main question against their saleability is the functional performance of their products. For low-end phones, Nokia still rules the roost with low-priced and highly functional/user-friendly phones. Micromax has made some inroads by using innovation in its features (such as TV/AC remote control, dual SIMs etc). Advanced features at low cost is what has helped them. Notice that in both cases, functionality is the focus.That’s why Lava’s sudden thrust to emotional connect seems a bit far-fetched to me.

(Infact, in my opinion, Lava did spot the correct opportunity earlier when they focussed their ads on the look of the mobile handset. Watch that ad here. An extension to this ad would have been better)

2. The Script:

The script of the ad was, admittedly pretty simple and it was easy to understand. So, while the message clarity was high, my protest is against the content of the message which was conveyed. I mean, the only thing that comes out of this ad as a realization to you is ‘These mobiles can double up as music players‘. Duh! That is something which was the USP of phones about 5-6 years back, and not now. In this era of VAS, 3G, MNP and what-not happening in the telecom world, they are focussing on music players??

 

All in all, I felt that the positioning and USP that the mobile is using at the moment is pretty lame, and also, they have climbed up the brand ladder too fast. They should have first established functional superiority before going towards emotional connect. (There is a reason after all that it is a ladder! You have to go through the middle rungs to get to the top!)

Affiliate Marketing: Outsource your Marketing !!

I always like to say that Marketing is one of the few subjects which are very strongly connected to on-ground realities. Marketing is something which is supposed to be pretty logical (barring consumer eccentricities) and can be rationalized even with common sense instead of numbers. The entire field of study is based around organizing these on-ground connections, and giving them some structure.

The specific type of marketing that I wish to discuss in this post is a prime example of the same. Affiliate Marketing, in its most basic form can be compared with two common things:

1. Outsourcing – the buzz word, which means referring your own work to someone else for a fee.

2. Commission – An agent can give you a service, and will charge you a commission for the same.

Affiliate Marketing is a concept wherein a manufacturer of goods chooses third-party ‘affiliates‘ or ‘partners‘ to do marketing for his goods, and bring him business. The affiliate incurs the marketing expenses and does his best to deliver as much revenue as he can to the manufacturer, who in turn pays him based on the business he geneates.

Affiliate Marketing rose to prominence with the advent of the Information Age, with the rise in Internet penetration, Search Engines, and, – most importantly for Affiliate Marketers – Search Engine Optimization (SEO). A new, more tech-savvy breed of Affiliate Marketers was born out of SEO, giving rise to Internet-based/Online marketing, which today forms the backbone of Affiliate Marketing.

So, how does SEO get involved in this? – There are many services out there which can put up advertisements on webpages – advertisements which contain some information on the product/service being offered, and links to take a viewer to the home page of the manufacturer, where he can get more details about the product/service and then possibly purchase the same. Now, for this to happen, the ads should be present on the right webpages. For instance, you would want the ads for a Nikon/Sony Digital Camera on a website which offers product reviews on cameras (that is the most likely place a prospective Camera buyer is expected to be and might click on your ad for the camera). On the other hand, if the ad is placed on a blog which focuses on book reviews, it is completely useless since rarely would the blog readers click on the link. SEO, with its numerous analytics tools, is able to connect relevant pages together, hence ensuring that the ads are placed on relevant pages.

So, the ad is placed on the correct page, what next? The next process would be for the customer to click on it, get to the manufacturer’s page and buy something. The “affiliate” who placed the ad would be compensated for his efforts in proportion to the business he generates (different revenue models are – pay per click, pay per sale, pay per minute etc.)

The above was an illustration of how SEO-based advertisements and services like AdSense are online forms of Affiliate Marketing. Let’s see some other forms as well:

1. Advertorials (Advertisement + Editorial): There must have been instances wherein you might have read reviews of products in newspapers/magazines which have been particularly appreciative of a product you did not think was so great. There is a good chance that the review might be written by a partner/affiliate of the manufacturer, driving business indirectly for the manufacturer. Of course, there are regulations to monitor it, and you will likely find the information mentioned somewhere in the fine print, at a place you are liable to miss.

2. Public Interest Advertisements: At times, advertisements about a product take on a more neutral tone, and come with a disclaimer that they are issued in public interest. Some times, such ads are done by the manufacturer, while at other times, an affiliate might be at work.

I am sure most of you might have seen the following ad, or one similar to it, featuring Brand Power:

Other such ads can be seen on the following channel: BrandPower

I wonder how many of you thought that this was a paid advertisement? Most of the customers believe that this is a very neutral third party advertisement, meant to help buyers choose, and is completely unbiased. While I don’t directly question the accuracy of claims, I intend to point out that it is nothing but an advertisement vehicle which is available to the manufacturers to use to promote their product.

(Excerpt from BrandPwer website, taken on 31st July, ’11 – ” Brand Power is an advertising product used by leading manufacturers and their advertising agencies as a different method for promoting their brands “)

Hence, there are many means by which marketers outsource their own work to other channels/players to do it for them. These third party affiliates then promote the products/services. Perhaps the most prominent reason why marketers use this method is the rationalization of marketing expenses since affiliate programs are usually based on strongly results-driven compensation and the manufacturer pays only for the performance/sales obtained (Readers might have read the oft-repeated quote about traditional marketing – “I know that half of my advertising budget is wasted, but I’m not sure which half” )

Affiliate Marketing, especially its online version is here to stay. It would definitely be interesting to see how it grows in the physical/offline space, and what other imaginative variants of using third-party vehicles emerge out of the proverbial marketer’s hat.

Campaign Analysis: Hajmola spoofs Chlormint !

And as the spoof roller-coaster gallops onwards, Hajmola too has jumped onto the bandwagon, and has released a spoof on Chlormint with the launch of its new Hajmola Mint Masti. Take a look at the commercial below:

Obviously, the baar baar poochna is a dig on dobara mat poochna by Chlormint. The setting too resembles a pretty common Chlormint ad, which can be seen here: Chlormint.

Let’s talk about the ad in further detail:

In general, my opinion is that spoofs are a waste of good money, and I stand by that under most circumstances. But, in this case, I believe that the ad was not at all about taking potshots at competitors (which is the usual reason behind spoofs).

The ad is likely to have been designed with an entirely different objective – spreading awareness about the existence of such a product. The ad has been used to create a lot of buzz and hoopla around the launch, which makes sure that the brand comes up in the limelight for the viewers. They have used a commonly-known and generally well-appreciated commercial of Chlormint, which people tend to watch for its humor quotient, instead of switching channels. Hence, picking the specific Chlormint ad helps them grab the viewer attention for the initial few seconds of the ad.

Post that, the comic twist that the ad script takes ensures that the viewer registers the following things:

1) Hajmola has launched a Mint Candy of its own :

Creating awareness about one’s own brand in a cluttered market is important. Customers should know that you exist as well, along with Chlormint, Mentos, Mint-O etc. from major confectionery makers. The ad contributes to a strong brand recall.

2) The candy is different from others, in that it has a tangy Hajmola core inside the surrounding mint:

In a cluttered market, especially one with tightly squeezed margins, Differentiation is the key to success. Hajmola has tried to do this by introducing a ‘twist’ in the product offering, and the ad setup ensures that the customer remembers that twist. That will definitely introduce trials (especially because in this category, the customer is usually the consumer himself). And Trials is the stage where a marketeer’s work ends.

Hence, this seems to be a successful spoof in the sense that it merely uses the spoof platform to serve its own purposes of creating a differentiation in the customer mindspace for its own product – A good move while entering a cluttered market. Let’s see what Dabur’s latest offering does to the established players such as Perfetti van Melle, ITC and Wrigleys!