Time for a change @ Broadcasters and Brands

(Continued… from the previous post..)

One more defeat.. Just one more required and it will happen.

I think it's high time that brands have been loosing out money on Ad space on low TRP matches(especially those after India is out of the tournament) as well as on the efforts of building up the required hype towards a concept or a new launch.

I think brands have realised that they need to work out some kind of agreement before the tourney rather than, what they have tried to do this time by settling post the tournament.. I think this is going to affect the broadcasters with a new risk rather than anyone else on the line. Neither those brands are going to let it go, nor will BCCI give it away.

Neither the brands will let it go because of the loss that occurs to them in this kind of situation. Nor BCCI will give it away because it has a huge opportunity to encash if one broadcaster it not ready to go ahead with their wishes(you can find this always in their DNA from the way they handled ICL). So, this might at the maximum lead to a fall in the revenue that BCCI gets through sale of rights by 10-15% but ultimately, the risk of handling the brands and the agreement lies with the Broadcasters.

Here is how it might go for them.... The brands will pay a certain rate for the time India is in the tournament and they will pay a different rate whenever India moves out of the tournament. But, what if India moves out in the first round? What if they have gone out in quarter finals / semi finals? So, this is going to be a good task for the broadcasters to come out with a set of 3-4 tables with rates per slot for every brand.

And now how is it going to affect the advertising strategy for the brands??
The brands have suffered in two ways during these events. One is the direct loss in terms of monetary value. Second, is the loss on the strategy front if they have tried something new or launched a new product or service. I think you will not find ads with a new product launch during the tournaments like World Cup or that involves basically more than 4-5 teams... You will neither see a new juice/drink being launched nor will you see a major change in the brand communications happening around these times.

Why??

If Vodafone might have come out with the Zoo Zoo's during World cup, they might have never ended up so famous that even Mumbai Police wants to use them to spread awareness.. Or you might have never seen Zoo Zoo wallpapers on so many mobiles or PC's..

Similarly, If a new product/service is launched or if there is a major change in the brand communication it needs continuity for some time in terms of not the number of days on Air but with respect to the number of times it has appeared constantly to the same group of audience. And you will never be able to trust on getting this continuity in these tournaments. So, it will always be an IPL that the brands will favour rather than a World Cup or for that matter a T20 World Cup.

This will be a good space to watch for because, the brands will not come out with launches or new brand communication to break the clutter like Zoo Zoo's and still they will try to dominate the space with some brand communication which should not be costly in terms of brand ambassadors as well as it should not cost the image of brand if India is out of the tournament.

So, less of brand ambassadors but still, a big fight to grab the pie...

Open for Comments.....

India out of T20 Worldcup n Finally ... Predictions (of my first article) almost come true.. after 2 years

For those who might have read my last post, this might seem to be giving an effect of views from an egoistic sense rather than a schizophrenic.. Because both of them speak of something that I expected to happen in the future some 2 years back and which have almost come towards what my predictions said…

There was an article that I posted on my blog (on 1st April 2007) related to "the poor performance on Indian cricket team in 2007 World cup and its effects on brands.." There was a predictive conclusion that was made that the brands might go towards a ad space buying agreement on the basis of India being in or out of the tournament.

Atlast, after more than 2 years, I see something moving towards the predictions made on that day..

ET has come out with an article on 22nd June 2009 "Admen seek compensation after India exits T20"

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Admen-seek-compensation-after-India-exit/articleshow/4685293.cms

“It’s obviously disappointing, and the advertisers with long-term and heavy investment in cricket will look for long-term compensation from the broadcaster,” said R Gowthaman, south Asia leader at GroupM-owned MindShare, the country’s largest media buying house. “The compensation would be a function of which advertiser has invested how much, and the terms of compensation would be worked out individually on a case-to-case basis. It will depend on the volume of commitment a particular advertiser has made,” he added. (as quoted in the ET article)

I think one more such a defeat where India comes out of the tournament in the coming 2 years I see a customized Ad space sales with respect to India being in or out of the tournament coming into picture between the broadcaster and brands.. How can this be done?? If it is done who will take the risk of broadcaster?? Should BCCI drop in?? And very interesting topic would be, how will the Advertising strategies of brands change w.r.t the type of tournament?? (to be continued in the next article...)

For now I don't care what others feel or think of but, I feel that atleast sometimes "My brain does work and something that I have thought of has been happening... 1.Pepsi Vs ThumsUp and now 2.Broadcasters Vs Brands...." I feel as if I am sitting on the top of this world for now.. It might take sometime to come back into realisation.. Till then, the floor is open for your comments.

Pepsi to steal the thunder: Fizzier Pepsi Vs ThumpsUp??

"A PepsiCo spokesman said the base formulation of the beverage hasn’t been changed while increasing the amount of carbon dioxide to make the drink fizzier" read the e-paper on economic times.. and the first thing I did was to try calling some of my project mates of IMT.. But, their numbers are not available and I turned towards my blog to share it with.

"Looking into the developments that can be made within the domestic resources would be: To launch some product which would capture the PCI share. There had been some differences between the CCI and PCI products (which we came to know in our research) due to which people are attracted towards one’s products and dislike the other products. CCI needs to concentrate upon bringing a new brand or drink (for ex: a drink with less fizz with almost same taste of present Coke) that would capture PCI customers. This sort of improvements would let our customers remain with us and capture the opponent’s customers."
"Ohh!! That's a wonderful strategy and a good suggestion indeed", said the executive from Vodafone. I thought, I have impressed him with this point but later on I screwed up big time by giving confused answers to some of those questions he asked me in the interview.."

I wonder why someone hasn't paid attention to this point 2 years back when we did it as an academic project for the subject Marketing Management-II?? Neither my team mates recognized it nor my Professor of marketing. The only one person who recognized it was the executive who came from Vodafone for final placements at IMT, Ghaziabad during our batch placements. And now seeing Pepsi going on similar lines of strategy makes me feel that actually in reality, "My brain does work sometimes :-) "

One of my strong recommendation in the academic project done on Coca-Cola India for the Marketing Management-II subject was to "Introduce a drink with less fizz and a bit of high sweet content with respect to ThumsUp or Coke as a new brand to capture the market share of the drink Pepsi.." and this is what pepsi had been trying to do these days in some parts of Indian Market. It has introduced fizzier pepsi in the market of Andhra Pradesh to pull out some share of ThumsUp. I finally thought though something has been happening in reality to what my thoughts were at some point of time... But, I feel that Pepsi can do it better that what it is trying to do with this decision.

When you know what's attracting customers towards your competition there are two ways to pull them back to you with one basic strategy behind it. Basic strategy is "To provide similar to what the competition is offering or to provide something better than what competition is offering." And the two ways to do it are "Make your brand offer the same proposition" or else, "Introduce a new brand that can provide that proposition." I think the second way will be better for Pepsi because of a simple reason.

The simple reason being, "There had been some differences between the CCI and PCI products (which we came to know in our research) due to which people are attracted towards one’s products and dislike the other products" and that this customers of Pepsi is a considerable chunk." Customers who prefer Pepsi to ThumsUp do so because they have found some connection in their tastes like less fizz, the amount of sweet content(in terms of taste), etc. So, now the strategy should be to attract new customers while retaining those old ones who are a considerable chunk. This can be done better by introducing a new brand with more fizz and a different sweet content, etc.

Yes, there are negative effects too if you introduce a new brand or some objections to it too. The cost of launching a new brand, the cost to company if the proposition fails in the market, etc.. But, if the product fails wouldn't it affect the image of Pepsi to an extent even if they withdraw fizzier Pepsi later on?? And if the cost of launching a new brand is too costly for Pepsi in these recession times why can't they start it with a limited edition which might have been called "Pepsi+" or "Pepsixyz"?? This might have helped them in covering up the extra costs to launch a new brand, etc and make sure that the product is placed well in the market.

Horlicks Vs TIME.... Who can do it and who can't??

Can you find something that is similar between the brands Horlicks (Health Drink) and TIME (Coaching Institute). If you see the ads that have been run by these brands since some time, the concept behind both these ads is the same. The concept of trying to pull customers attention through display of some statistical data that is neither known nor proven by anyone in public.

Though it has been the same concept behind both the ads, who can use this concept and who cannot is the question? Some say it's creative, some say that it's stupid, some say it's unethical.. I am not against the creative feelings of the directors. This is one of the best ways to directly attack against many competitors in the cluttered ad space. But, my question to who can and who cannot is by looking into which might mislead and which might not do so??

Horlicks has been advertising with the line "Children who drink horlicks have grown 3cms more than those who haven't consumed horlicks..." whereas, TIME has been advertising with the line "90% of the new batch at IIM are from TIME..." There are two different set of customers who are targeted by these two brands under the similar concept of advertising and that's where the difference of who can and who cannot crops up.....

In the case of Horlicks, the customers are parents across the country and if you try considering the nutritional awareness among parents in India the value would be drastically low. Thus we eliminate a set of customers who are really aware of nutritional factors and decide on some drink firmly. Now the next set of customers, whom we can eliminate out of the considerate set are those, who give a preference to the taste buds of their kids or to the taste that the kids like among different drinks. And to just try to know about the buying behaviour of this remaining chunk of parents just try assuming some parents in your home or ask some of your friends about the behaviour of their parents who buy a specific brand most of the time. Most of the time, it's either the health drink that is being used since long time in their home or through the suggestion of someone saying that a particular health drink is good because of so and so reasons such as it makes you get good strength, energy or keeps you stronger in older age, etc. And these logics which spread as word of mouth are most of time are from the advertisements which gave them a feel good factor or connected well with them. And these logics are what we are talking about which the Ad from Horlicks says that "Children who drink horlicks have grown 3cms taller than those who didn't drink horlicks." And the final set of customers who are in our consideration set constitute a huge chunk and this is how there is a problem of misleading someone through a logic which is neither proved nor disclosed with proper results. And finally this Ad is proving out to be misleading the customers rather than breaking the clutter.

In the case of TIME, the customers are those students who aspire to become future managers through education from a premier B-School. This set of customers can be broadly classified into three groups. The first group of people are those who are matured enough of taking a decision where to go for coaching. The second group are those who take advice from seniors, discuss with friends about a certain institute or a branch before joining in it. The third group are those who are neither matured nor among those who discuss with several people but would join just like that because they heard somewhere that it's good or else it's near to their home or comfortable for them or else attracted by the ads and then converted by those counselling professionals at the branch. Now this third group of customers are those who may be affected by the ad or whose decision might be affected by this ad and this chunk is very low on a overall scale. And this Ad is turning out to be breaking the clutter just to improve awareness of the brand rather than mislead someone.

I am not against anyone's ideologies of creativity in advertising or breaking the clutter but somewhere, I do feel that Horlicks ad is turning out to be misleading whereas, the as from TIME is turning out to be the one which is trying to break the clutter. And the way people at Horlicks and TIME replied to those certain questions raised by the press further supports the same... and there should be a limit to this sort of advertisements at least in the food segment and that's where the regulators should try playing there bit of role.. Especially, when such an Ad from GSK is pulled off the air without any reply to the questions from the UK advertising council but there isn't anyone to question them in India?? This brings out the biggest question of the day... "Is there any advertising regulator present in the country called INDIA????"

Vodafone Mumbai... Happy to (not) help

I strongly feel at times that "Happy to not help" would suit better than the original tag for Vodafone Mumbai customer care. Btw am not against Vodafone and it's services. I had post-paid connection for an year in Delhi from Vodafone. I never faced even a minor problem wrt any servicing issue. Right from the time of taking the connection to billing to call centre ccare executives to anything. I still remember, something related to my caller tunes or some other VAS also getting solved over minutes during the early hours arnd, 02:00Hrs.

But, in Mumbai it's absolutely upside down. Some of the patterns that I observed with the Vodafone Mumbai over the past 2 months are:

1. The form that we fill and the proof documents that were submitted goes missing from the hands of Vodafone people and without any communication, the number goes disconnected as if it was your fault.

2. The executive may forget to take your signature at a place in the form and the number goes disconnected again without any communication.

3. The executives at the store goes into the Manager's room in the store and makes the customers wait at the desk for hours.

4. You need to shout at the executives in the store to get your problem resolved and if you can't do that, you can opt to wait for 2-3 hours in the store. And to come out of the store with a solution will not take less than 2 hours.

5. The customer care executives on toll free (111) number are always very sorry for what happened but they can't help out in any way. And you are suggested to visit the nearest Vodafone store for any issue.

6. And when ever the number is disconnected it is done around 6PM in the eve. The stores close at 7PM and if you are lucky enough to reach the store before 6:30PM, the manager promises you to get it reconnected in 2 hours as they know that after 2 hours the stores are closed and they need not answer any issues. If you are not able to reach the store by 6:30PM, the call centre execs are again sorry for what happened but they can't help.

7. Address verification happens but still it appears pending on the systems for months. And they hope to get it resolved in the next 7 working days to activate any other services like ISD, etc. But, those 7 working days never end up.

8. I wonder why they give the waiting numbers to customers in the store when they don't follow the order. Have you ever learned that 115 comes before 95 and someone who doesn't have a waiting number is called before people still waiting for their turn standing since past one hour and this is just because the store manager knows the person well.

9. At any point of time only 75% of people work whereas the other 25% keep roaming here and there quite often though, there are lots of customers waiting. I wonder why 2 or 3 people leave their desk and keep peeping at other desk, chit chatting with others when there are customers waiting for their turn.

10. If you speak to any executive you may wonder if that exec owns the company called Vodafone. They can't solve the problem; they don't want the problem to be escalated to their superior as it might push the exec into soup. And finally they end up saying "If you meet my superior or anyone above him/her in the company they too can't help you out."

11. The Store Manager of any store is always on leave and the person whom you are sitting with over the computer desk is the person handling the store for the day.

12. The network/systems of Vodafone (either the call centre or at the store) are slow at any point of time on any day.

13. The Nodal Officer is too busy to meet any customer for 5 minutes at any point of time on a 24hour day. I seriously don't know then how is he able to live without at least 5 minutes of free time.

14. And the stores of Vodafone speak for themselves. Every time blocked with so many customers waiting for their issues resolved.

Mr. Sujit, please try changing the tag to "Happy to not help" for your Mumbai circle.

Missing out on basics of selling??

I have been worried about my shoes for the past few days. It has already been two years that I have changed my formal shoes and they started showing some signs of cracks. Finally, after a lot of thought process whether to buy a RedTape to use for 1 year or BATA for 5 months because of the Mumbai weather I decided to go with RedTape or Lee Cooper.

And I started my search for shoes with Lifestyle store at the Oberoi Mall in Goregaon. It has been offering 30-50% discounts on various brands in the price range of Rs.1000/- to Rs.5000/-. The sales executives invited us with a very caring attitude, and carried themselves in a way they should with the customers. Everything was fine in terms of quality of the shoes, brands available. But, there was some feeling from inside that stopped me from buying it from the store though it has huge discounts on the brand I need. It was a feeling that came from inside that I am not buying a new pair of shoes. The shoes were arranged in a systematic way on the hi-quality racks sort of things. But the way they looked is almost like they are 2nd hand shoes with dirt on some shoes, unpolished or looking old, etc.

Then, I moved on to Central store in the same mall. Found the same quality, brand shoes with the same discounts that were offered at the Lifestyle store. Though the sales executives are relatively less on the way they carried out, it did. It meant OK for me as they too are busy with so many customers in the store. But this time it's the size of my feet made me miss on buying a pair.

Next was the Mochi at Infinity Mall in Andheri. I entered the store where 2 executives were sitting along with in charge or manager at one corner. Some 3-4 executives standing at several points with no sense of feeling. They are almost equal to statues unless until, some customer asked them about the price or discount. It has been offering 50% discounts on several shoes and though the sales executive’s behaviour doesn't matter towards my buying behaviour, it was once again the way shoes looked and the way they are arranged. They were with dirt, looking old and need to search the whole table to find the full pair. One shoe lies at one end and the other shoe of the same pair lies somewhere which is to be searched for.

Next was the Metro shoes at Pheonix Mall in Lower Parel. There aren't any offers available on the brands that I wanted over here but still tried to look into them once. The sales executive invited the same way as in Lifestyle with taking my size asking about the type of shoes, range I am looking at and finally started showing different brands. Finally though it doesn't have any discount I settled on RedTape for Rs.2000/.

Though, I got the same pair and brands at LifeStyle or Mochi at 1200 bucks, I preferred to go with Metro for 2000 bucks. There are two reasons for these sorts of decisions that may take place with any customers.

1. SALE with a huge discount doesn't mean that customers buy anything despite the packaging or other features. It's one of the basic funda's I was saying about which a street side shoe seller follows everyday in the morning that biggies like LifeStyle and Mochi missed upon. Everyday morning before arranging the shoes for sale, he makes sure that each pair is shining which was opposite to that at the 2 stores.

2. SALE with a huge discount doesn't mean that customers will make themselves comfortable with the shoes in the store. Products like shoes are still different though it is sold in a Mall from the Apparels. Customer needs to get a sense of buying a product and this comes only when he/she at comfort which comes when someone accompanies them in showing/making them try the products like shoes. You may go to an Apparel store in a Mall and select some pairs and try it for yourself. But, in terms of shoes do you go, select some shoes which are arranged in a scrambled manner, search for pair, try them and ask someone to pack it. It's an absolute "NO" in realistic terms. This is the other funda which a street side shoe shop person follows and missed at Mochi.

SALE may not make a sale unless until you get your basic fundas right...

Breaking the clutter I: Kotak Credit Card

In today’s world, with so many products and services being launched every minute it has become hard for many companies to try and break the clutter. A very few campaigns break the clutter these days and here is one of those campaigns - Kotak Credit Card.

The pics show the way Kotak has reached the customers through the middle-upper class restaurants in Mumbai. You cannot get a better time rather than lunch or dinner, when people are in a relaxed mood. And you can't get a better time to push the message into customer's mind. This isn't a new thought but the way it reached the thoughts of customer is a bit new. The message making it correlated with dining/lunch - card offering discounts on dining at restaurants, card offering free coupons for lunch/dining.