The year 2010 was in many ways like a buffet laid out by god. A mix of dishes, side dishes and desserts . Some dishes were not so good but important to taste and hard to digest. Some dishes were outstanding but kept in limited quantity,telling me the importance of not taking good things for granted. and thenthere were the experimental dishes which i was nervous to try, but on trying them they were a pleasant surprise.
Some looked delicious but tasted awful teaching me yet again that looks are deceptive. and some left such a bad taste, i know what i will never touch again.
Most of all , Some dishes i am thankful for, the ones that always comfort you,no matter what. They fill you up with the energy to go through life.
It was a year, i experienced god, when i could almost sense that i was being put to it and would be through it no matter what. A year where i learnt its ok to be wrong, answered some difficult questions honestly, Shed some emotional baggage,dreamt a new dream and reset my EQ . I have grown a little wiser, happier, and tougher. Thanks god! Come on 2011!
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
World Brand Congress 2010
World visits India Inc.
A report: World Brand Congress 2010, India
Twenty words that were most often repeated through the three days clearly highlight what is keeping marketers and branding specialists in India and the world over awake at night.
CHANGE. ENGAGE. EMOTION. NEURO SCIENCE. CONFLUENCE.REPUTATION. TRUST.SUSTAINABILITY.CONVERSATIONS.REJUVENATE.SOCIAL.MOBILE.BRAND.
BEHAVIOUR.STRATEGY.INFLUENCE.DESIGN. RENEW.RETAIL.CONSUMER.
India, a market that is a curious mix of large global brands and some strong local brands, intensely competitive, a high level of channel complexity and a demanding young consumer, make for an exciting ground to battle on. There is a lot to learn and lot to share so India becomes an ideal place for an event like the World Brand Congress, a large convention which sees enthusiastic participation from some of the best brains in the world of Marketing and Branding. This year the World Brand Congress 2010 was held in Mumbai, it saw participants from over 100 countries, a gathering of 500 Professionals from various sectors. It offered a platform to share and challenge new ideas, branding techniques and strategies in an ever changing environment.
It was held over three days, the theme for this year was “Building Borderless Brands: Rethinking innovation”.
Day one was a workshop with Martin Lindstrom, Day two and Day three had multiple sessions where speakers from various countries and sectors shared their views, experiences and brand challenges. Read on for a review of some of the sessions in brief and some in detail where India is specifically in focus.
On day one the Martin Lindstrom’s workshop was well attended and turned out to be a highly charged and interactive session. The core subject of Lindstrom’s workshop was around his concept of ‘Buyology’ . The focus was on how most people make decision based on emotions. The rational reasons are usually only to justify the behavior and not the root cause of the behavior. Lindstrom shared in detail the anatomy of the human brain and how new research methodologies like Neuroscience and Brain imaging techniques could help understand why people behave the way they do. He discussed his concept of ‘smash your Brand’ , basically asking Brand custodians to take off the logo and see which of the branding elements helped them instantly recognize their Brand. His point was mainly to encourage thinking beyond the logo and look at other own-able and unique branding elements that could become strong brand associations and assets in the long run. He discussed case studies such as McDonald’s, Coca Cola, and Apple among others to illustrate his point of the more the ‘smashable’ components the stronger a Brand. Touching upon the art of subliminal messaging and how it impacts people’s behavior towards Brands he shared some observations with examples of Marlboro and Benetton. The impact of the evolving environment would change the way campaigns are planned, from a linear approach of campaign where a post campaign test was undertaken and was more diagnostic in nature to a more interactive campaign planning where the course is decided basis continuous feedback and is dynamic.
There were no India specific case studies but overall Lindstrom’s presentation was an excellent combination of meaningful content and engaging delivery making it a high involvement high energy session.
On day two, the session started with a paper titled ‘Creating a media brand in a new market’, an interesting presentation from Hindustan Times, one of the top three news papers in India, and the second most widely read English newspaper in the country. Founded in 1924, it has roots in the Indian independence movement and over a period of time has evolved itself to remain relevant to readers and the changing media scenario.
Specifically addressing the challenges of Print media today, the session elaborated on how newspapers need to adapt themselves to the changing media scenario. The key points made by the speaker Shantanu Bhanja, the Vice President Marketing, Hindustan times were about the rapid changes in the way news is consumed. He talked about how important it is to know your readers well, use co-creation and participation in designing content and how newspapers needed to have ears. He gave an example of how ‘Hindustan times ‘has created forums on the net and on ground where the team can listen to its readers, take inputs from them and be sensitive to presenting content.
He talked about how advent of color first bought in a revolution in the print world, followed by internet and a live news room concept and today with the ‘tablet’ , it will completely change the way people consume news. He said today the same content needs to be presented in various avatars, so a particular news item gets sent as an SMS alert / streaming headlines, is on the internet as a ‘Breaking news’ with an online report that is being updated constantly, appears in the traditional newspaper and has a tablet edition. Consumers are engaging with news through different media as per their needs and interest in the news item. He talked about how a newspaper like Hindustan times is now designing and redesigning content to suit various new media and yet ensuring that it does not take for granted the ritual of getting a newspaper every morning. So while the Facebook , Twitter, widget versions are available, a tablet edition which comes on every morning (without logging in) takes forward the ‘morning newspaper’ ritual and will soon be available. His closing remark summed up the need to change and adapt the print media, when he said that newspapers were invented to bring about a change in the world, today more than ever before, if newspapers want to change the world, they must first change themselves.
An interesting paper titled ‘Designomics: The emerging value of Design as a key contributor to businesses’ was presented by a Strategic design company called VGC (Vyas Gianetti Creative) based in India. Preeti Vyas the Chairwoman and chief creative officer discussed how design needed a strategic and not just graphic approach. Preeti shared a case study of her client the Aditya Birla Group (ABG). Today the Aditya Birla Group, is an Indian Multinational with 130,600 employees, belonging to 40 different nationalities, the Group was ranked among the top six great places for leaders in the Asia-Pacific region, in a study conducted by Hewitt Associates. ABG assigned VGC with the task of designing its logo to match its ambition of being seen as a growing, global business with a high degree of professionalism. VGC’s approach was to question this requirement and post discussions and workshops with key client teams, they evolved the brief to say that they needed a corporate strategy and not just a corporate logo.
Post conducting a research, the issues facing ABG clearly supported the hypotheses that it required more than just a new logo. The findings stated that the group was perceived as big and trusted but had some perceptions going against it. That it was a group which had roots in the Marwari* community , which led to a perception of being old fashioned, inaccessible , not very transparent , average quality and would not be very professional in its approach. (The founders are from the Birla family which belongs to the Marwari community; Marwaris are among the major business classes from Rajasthan in India and traditionally have been traders and money lenders.) The findings led to a thorough interrogation of the groups businesses (spanning Non ferrous metals, Cement, textiles, chemicals, telecommunications, retail, wind power and many others). It was observed that there was lack of consistency in the way the ABG corporate Brand endorsed its businesses, the corporate structure seemed scattered and the corporate brand was not holding the group companies together.
The VGC group built the design strategy from the name ‘Aditya’ which means the ‘Sun’. The distinctive identity would become a strong ‘source’ of endorsement for all its businesses just like the sun is a source of energy for all living beings. The new identity was communicated both internally and externally. The imagery of the corporate brand was impacted positively. A few years down the line, when ABG wanted to go global and wanted to ‘take India to the world’ the logo underwent a refresh program. Today it has evolved into a confident graphic language that is recognized. Some group companies who had a strong branding for their business and were a little hesitant to use the corporate Brand are now keen to use the umbrella corporate brand ABG. The structuring and strategic design has helped, but along with the design intervention other CSR initiatives, like ‘Aditya Birla scholarship’, Hospitals and other social causes helped the Brand to come across as a corporate house that cares. High visibility both to internal and external stakeholders and consistency for over a decade turn around the perception. It won the best employer award in 2007, employee engagement surveys showed that there was confidence in a merit based evaluation system, the brand which is only 12 years old appeared in the most trusted brand survey where Brands that are 100 years old with a strong heritage have been listed,
The key points VGC made was to approach and use design strategically for creating economic ‘value’ , to keep refreshing and rejuvenating design elements without moving away from the core and communicating the change effectively.
Followed by these two interesting sessions, was a panel discussion on the theme of the convention ‘Building borderless Brands, rethinking invention. The panel had eminent advertising and media personalities, Chaired by Rahul Kansal, CMO Bennett Coleman & Co, the speakers were M.G.Parmeswaran, Director and CEO, Fcb Ulka, India, Anisha Motwani, Director and CMO, Max NewYork Life insurance, K.V.SHRIDHAR, NCD, Leo Burnett, India and R Balakrishnan Chairman and NCD Lowe Lintas, India.
Each panelist made a presentation of their take on the topic followed by a short discussion.
The first presentation was by Parmeswaran of FCB Ulka, who talked about how we can build brands by amplifying innovation. He gave examples of how certain product features can be amplified to create differentiation. Some examples shared were, Indigo –CS a sedan from TATA motors, which because of its size (slightly smaller than a regular sedan) was launched as the world’s first compact sedan, and post launch , the fact that it was fuel efficient (23 kmpl) was amplified by claiming it to be the most fuel efficient sedan. He also cited the example of Digene, an antacid which launched a format that didn’t need water to be consumed. The amplification came with a ‘fast-melt’ proposition because acidity can attack you anytime anywhere. Another interesting case was of Hero Honda pleasure, a two wheeler Brand that exclusively targeted the progressive Indian girl. A gender based pitch of ‘Why should boys have all the fun?’ helped amplify the benefit. It had high relevance, especially in the Indian society where girls enjoy lesser freedom than boys. The last example was of TATA Docomo a telecom brand that was a late entrant but still managed to break through the clutter with a unique ‘pay per second’ billing plan.
The point being made was that innovation always cannot and need not be path breaking and relatively small innovation when amplified well, help Brands.
The second panelist, Anisha Motwani, talked about how Brands need to be revitalized and like human beings Brands need spas too. Anisha discussed how Brands are like human beings. Today as human life cycle is accelerating, when 9 is 14 and 16 is 25 but 40 is 20 and at 60 life has just begun, Brands are following a similar PLC. Brands are ageing faster and needing to rejuvenate themselves more often. She discussed following strategies to revitalize 1. Reinvent to become a contemporary classic 2. Design deliberately for a shorter lifecycle, one brand many lives approach, 3. Make your own product obsolete 4. Pick up different market segments, one at a time and re craft the proposition 5. Reinvent to make competition obsolete. 6. Engage in conversation & creation and 7. Keep an experimentation budget aside. She closed her talk by saying the changes made to revitalize needed to be revolutionary and not evolutionary if they are to make an impact.
The third panelist was KV Sridhar, who shared a film on various innovations around the world and made the point that most innovation followed approaches like 1) Created in a lab , 2) Created by understanding and observing consumers and lastly 3) Created by People themselves to meet their everyday challenges. Of course the most effective and actionable innovations were the ones that people created themselves. Among other examples he gave, an example of a girl in rural India where power is a problem, invented a washing machine that works when she peddles her cycle was very interesting.
The last talk was by R. Balakrishnan, and it challenged conventional thinking. He was of the opinion that most great innovations create a desire and not necessarily a solution. He disagreed with the view that marketing and communications landscape has become complex, he felt it was self inflicted complexity and that even today we communicate through words, pictures and sound, just like we did before. For him it’s all about expression and engagement to the people whose attention you seek. He saw too much marketing information and planning being talked about and that it is revealing the ‘science of fantasy’ to consumers, which is a bad idea. Brands need to maintain their originality and mysticism. He also said it’s not always necessary for Brands to be borderless, because at times there are cultural and local insights which can build highly relevant propositions for a specific target audience. He gave examples of Indian Brands like Camlin permanent marker, which has a creative execution that only an Indian can associate with. Other interesting examples cited were Idea cellular which uses the fact that India is culturally diverse and how people reach out to each other in spite of different languages was interesting. Tanishq a brand of jewelry uses Indian woman’s fascination for gold jewelry and ties it up with ‘Wedding’ as an occasion has been very successful. All innovation, technology and communication has to be relevant to people, for example, mobility has brought in a lot of change in the country, but brands like TATA Indicom are making mobility solutions work for the local people, example, a fisher man gets location alert of where he will find more fish with the help of a GPS system, or a farmer can switch off the water pump with the help of his mobile. A thought provoking session, Balakrishnan caused disruption and challenged audience by questioning ‘borderless’ brands as a concept , challenging how research is used and that innovation is not always driven by consumers.
There were couple of other sessions post the panel discussion, but there was one particularly interesting session by D Shivakumar, Vice President and MD – Nokia, that I will share in detail.
Keeping with the topic of how innovation helps Brands, Sivakumar started his talk with reasons of why Brands die. He gave reasons and examples to elaborate his point. The first reason he said was, that Brands get locked in a product format. He gave an example of a Brand called DALDA (a brand of hydrogenated vegetable oil that was very popular in India), the Brand was identified too closely to its format, it didn’t recognize that with rising health awareness, a transfats based format would see a decline in acceptance and lost out in the market. He said when Brands don’t have focus they die, when too many things are offered under one Brand, it drains out the meaning of the Brand‘s promise, Pierre Cardin was the example he used. Brands like rubber band need to be taut and slack in right measures. Another reason why brands die is not keeping pace with technology, KODAK film was a case in point. The example of the Indian film industry was also discussed in detail, The industry model underwent a complete change from widely distributed films where tickets sold cheap and the film ran for weeks and months to prints sold to specific theatres for a specific audience with lot of pre launch marketing and tickets at a much higher cost, the movie rakes in the moolah in the first week of the launch itself. Production houses which adapted to this change survived, those that didn’t faded away. Another aspect is loose consumer connect, it can kill Brands, an example of a toothpaste called Forhans which was very good for the gums but low on taste, didn’t realize that the consumer had become demanding and wanted both taste and protection and lost share in the market as other options came in. Brands that are untouched by innovation also die. HMT watches, a leading watch Brand in India just vanished from the market because it didn’t ride on the trend of a watch becoming a ‘lifestyle accessory’ and didn’t innovate accordingly. Then some other reasons why Brands die were acquisitions, being on the wrong side of law, unseen religious issues, mergers and acquisitions and portfolio rationalization by companies.
The second part of Shivakumar’s talk dealt with how next ten years are going to change the scenario in India. He shared some data which clearly pointed out the expected changes like; healthcare and wellness will be the next area of spends, Education, skilling and re-skilling will gain importance to retain and grow in jobs and real income in India will double. The media landscape will be competitive and complex, the icons of India will be beyond Cricket and veteran film stars, the new icons will be from different fields such as non cricket Sports, business achievers and younger film stars. The foreign direct investments is up from 4 million $ to 40 million $, a tenfold increase, this will see rise in new technology, new people, employment opportunities and more competition. In fact a lot of global Brands are looking at India as a potential market and Indian marketers will have to open their competitive frame of reference from Indian Brands to Indian and global brands . India is a hyper competitive market and its retail scenario is still dominated by scattered grocery and mom and pop outlets. It needs a unique approach to marketing brands in India, while one can borrow the principles from another market; the large and unique market landscape of India as a market make it impossible to plug and play any readymade model.
In the next ten years, India will be younger and richer than most nations. In 2020, the average age in India will be 29 years, in China 37 years, in Europe 45 years and in Japan 48 years. Youth is the mainstream in India, it is not a segment in the market, it is the market. Youth being dominant, there will faster product lifecycle changes. The challenge for marketers will be the ability to distinguish between a fad and a trend and plan their strategies accordingly. Word of mouth in the digital world will become important, Sensory advantage in products will be important, even in mundane products like detergents etc. Young consumers will look for total consumption experiences, a case in point here; coffee drinking in urban India has been made popular more by coffee shops rather than coffee brands.
A Unique identification number (UID) system is underway and is said to have a huge impact on the country. It is a number that will be assigned to each individual in the country and will provide information on his /her profile. Apart from being a huge emotional benefit (that I am ‘counted’), it will ensure that government benefit schemes will reach the right people. This will improve their economic status and consumption capability. Shivakumar was of the opinion that UID will have the same impact on India as GPS had on the world.
India allows many experiments with business models as it has many markets with different characteristics. To conclude he said the possibilities in the Indian market will be only limited to the marketers imagination.
Arun Tadanki, managing director on Yahoo! India spoke about ‘Building brands online, creatively’. The talk centered on the fact that internet as a medium needs to be taken a lot more seriously than it is today. There are 60 million internet users in India and in 5 years time, India will be the second largest internet market in the world with 240 million users. He said the mobile will become a primary access point for internet in India. He questioned as to why spends on print medium are still higher in markets where there 3 times more people online. He felt that marketers are not yet recognizing the power of internet. One of the reasons could be that the initial positioning of internet advertising was as a cheap medium and has damaged perception towards internet. Marketers’ treat it like an ‘option’ and not as an important component of their media strategy. He shared some innovative ways of advertising on the net like Smart ads, where depending on the target consumer’s needs marketer could alter the advertisement in about 1 million ways. He talked about augmented reality as an offering where experiential campaigns could be planned. His message was to take internet as a medium seriously and use it creatively. Especially since India is a young country, when the medium reaches a tipping point it will become very powerful and Brands would have missed a trick or two.
The day ended with the global awards for Brand excellence. The organizers also launched the new look of the World Brand Congress.
Day 3 had various experience sharing sessions covering, the Branding journey, a panel discussion on designomics, emotions and Branding, destination branding, best global Brands 2010 report and managing corporate reputation to name some. A few sessions are covered in detail.
Crispin Reed, The managing director of Brand house spoke on the topic ‘Feelings you can’t ignore – the role that emotion plays in branding.’ The talk was centered on the fact that emotion sells, and the role of emotion in creating intangible value for Brands is significant. As a case in point , he shared that in 1982 the S&P 500 list vs. 1998 S&P 500 list reflects the value shift , In the 1982 list, 62% of value of brands came from tangibles whereas in 1998 only 15% came from tangibles, the rest came from intangibles like image, associations , loyalty etc. This shows the power of softer issues like imagery and associations. He then talked about the importance of creating emotional bond with 7 key emotions, contentment, belonging, compassion, pride, enjoyment, excitement and desire. He summed up his talk by quoting that there is a good reason and a real reason and most consumers respond basis real reason.
Hampton Bridwell, President, BrandLogic Corporation, spoke about ‘Managing corporate reputation and brand in the new economy.’ His focus was on how ‘Trust’ is the most important factor in today’s day and age where many a corporate face off has happened. How an organization deals with a negative issue is critical in protecting its reputation. He cited some examples, including Toyota, of how challenging is for a company to manage perceptions.
Viren razdan of Interbrand spoke about Brand strength and its components and took the audience through Interbrand’s approach on Branding and Brand valuation. He shared that companies are conscious of the fact that Brand value needs to be created and nurtured in a scientific manner.
The session titled ‘The connectivity revolution’ by Paul Antoniadis of Scenario creation ltd. talked about how the connected age is changing things. The three demands on any connectivity brand are connection speed, access anywhere and everywhere and capability to handle volumes. The retail behavior of consumers is observed to be of three types, Brick, where the consumer prefers to go to the retail outlet, Click & Brick, where the consumer checks out the deals on web and, makes the purchase decision and then goes to the retail outlet, and then there is click, where the consumer researches and buys on the web. The movement into the connected age as Paul calls it will see a huge change in retail dynamics, in fact our mobile screens would be the next ‘retail window’ and marketers need to be ready for this change.
Anita Nayyar, the CEO of Havas media and MPG south Asia spoke about ‘Consumers punish brands who don’t embrace sustainability- are you listening?’ Anita shared examples of Indian brands like Idea cellular who takes up causes through mainstream advertising and TATA tea which used its tea brand to tell people to ‘awaken’ and not just wake up. They used the positioning platform to increase social awareness and awakening towards voting. She shared a research done among citizens across the globe and consumers in India clearly expressed concerns regarding addressing pollution, environment conservation, depletion of natural resources and wild life preservation. In fact India topped the chart compared to other countries when it came to concern regarding environmental pollution. Consumers in India have high expectations from corporate houses when it comes to taking responsibility for social initiatives. Consumers want corporate world to empower them to make a difference. The research also showed that consumers respect companies who tie up with NGO’s and attempt to give back to the society. However when it comes to ethical consumerism, very limited progress has happened. The biggest obstacle to ethical consumerism among Indian consumers was lack of information and awareness about what Brands and companies are doing towards conservation or supporting causes. This means it is important to communicate the sustainability and social cause efforts made by the company both internally and externally. The example of Unilever which has an initiative in rural India called ‘Shakti’, Project Shakti, launched in 2000 in partnership with non governmental organizations, banks and government. Women in self-help groups across India are invited to become direct-to-consumer sales distributors for Unilever’s soaps and shampoos. Today it has 45 000 Shakti entrepreneurs that reach 100 000 villages. This model has been taken as a best practice globally. Nokia is running a program in India where consumers can return their old phone, chargers etc. and the company can takes the onus of managing the scrap. Companies like TATA motors, Infosys cam through as companies that are committed to sustainability efforts.
It was observed that companies who were known for their efforts and consumers had seen evidence of the same; it did lead to Brand advocacy.
The three day convention was abuzz with networking and sharing. It brought together points of view on a number of topics and it was quite interesting to note that a lot of markets faced similar challenges and sharing their experiences and learning helped open up minds and possibilities.
A report: World Brand Congress 2010, India
Twenty words that were most often repeated through the three days clearly highlight what is keeping marketers and branding specialists in India and the world over awake at night.
CHANGE. ENGAGE. EMOTION. NEURO SCIENCE. CONFLUENCE.REPUTATION. TRUST.SUSTAINABILITY.CONVERSATIONS.REJUVENATE.SOCIAL.MOBILE.BRAND.
BEHAVIOUR.STRATEGY.INFLUENCE.DESIGN. RENEW.RETAIL.CONSUMER.
India, a market that is a curious mix of large global brands and some strong local brands, intensely competitive, a high level of channel complexity and a demanding young consumer, make for an exciting ground to battle on. There is a lot to learn and lot to share so India becomes an ideal place for an event like the World Brand Congress, a large convention which sees enthusiastic participation from some of the best brains in the world of Marketing and Branding. This year the World Brand Congress 2010 was held in Mumbai, it saw participants from over 100 countries, a gathering of 500 Professionals from various sectors. It offered a platform to share and challenge new ideas, branding techniques and strategies in an ever changing environment.
It was held over three days, the theme for this year was “Building Borderless Brands: Rethinking innovation”.
Day one was a workshop with Martin Lindstrom, Day two and Day three had multiple sessions where speakers from various countries and sectors shared their views, experiences and brand challenges. Read on for a review of some of the sessions in brief and some in detail where India is specifically in focus.
On day one the Martin Lindstrom’s workshop was well attended and turned out to be a highly charged and interactive session. The core subject of Lindstrom’s workshop was around his concept of ‘Buyology’ . The focus was on how most people make decision based on emotions. The rational reasons are usually only to justify the behavior and not the root cause of the behavior. Lindstrom shared in detail the anatomy of the human brain and how new research methodologies like Neuroscience and Brain imaging techniques could help understand why people behave the way they do. He discussed his concept of ‘smash your Brand’ , basically asking Brand custodians to take off the logo and see which of the branding elements helped them instantly recognize their Brand. His point was mainly to encourage thinking beyond the logo and look at other own-able and unique branding elements that could become strong brand associations and assets in the long run. He discussed case studies such as McDonald’s, Coca Cola, and Apple among others to illustrate his point of the more the ‘smashable’ components the stronger a Brand. Touching upon the art of subliminal messaging and how it impacts people’s behavior towards Brands he shared some observations with examples of Marlboro and Benetton. The impact of the evolving environment would change the way campaigns are planned, from a linear approach of campaign where a post campaign test was undertaken and was more diagnostic in nature to a more interactive campaign planning where the course is decided basis continuous feedback and is dynamic.
There were no India specific case studies but overall Lindstrom’s presentation was an excellent combination of meaningful content and engaging delivery making it a high involvement high energy session.
On day two, the session started with a paper titled ‘Creating a media brand in a new market’, an interesting presentation from Hindustan Times, one of the top three news papers in India, and the second most widely read English newspaper in the country. Founded in 1924, it has roots in the Indian independence movement and over a period of time has evolved itself to remain relevant to readers and the changing media scenario.
Specifically addressing the challenges of Print media today, the session elaborated on how newspapers need to adapt themselves to the changing media scenario. The key points made by the speaker Shantanu Bhanja, the Vice President Marketing, Hindustan times were about the rapid changes in the way news is consumed. He talked about how important it is to know your readers well, use co-creation and participation in designing content and how newspapers needed to have ears. He gave an example of how ‘Hindustan times ‘has created forums on the net and on ground where the team can listen to its readers, take inputs from them and be sensitive to presenting content.
He talked about how advent of color first bought in a revolution in the print world, followed by internet and a live news room concept and today with the ‘tablet’ , it will completely change the way people consume news. He said today the same content needs to be presented in various avatars, so a particular news item gets sent as an SMS alert / streaming headlines, is on the internet as a ‘Breaking news’ with an online report that is being updated constantly, appears in the traditional newspaper and has a tablet edition. Consumers are engaging with news through different media as per their needs and interest in the news item. He talked about how a newspaper like Hindustan times is now designing and redesigning content to suit various new media and yet ensuring that it does not take for granted the ritual of getting a newspaper every morning. So while the Facebook , Twitter, widget versions are available, a tablet edition which comes on every morning (without logging in) takes forward the ‘morning newspaper’ ritual and will soon be available. His closing remark summed up the need to change and adapt the print media, when he said that newspapers were invented to bring about a change in the world, today more than ever before, if newspapers want to change the world, they must first change themselves.
An interesting paper titled ‘Designomics: The emerging value of Design as a key contributor to businesses’ was presented by a Strategic design company called VGC (Vyas Gianetti Creative) based in India. Preeti Vyas the Chairwoman and chief creative officer discussed how design needed a strategic and not just graphic approach. Preeti shared a case study of her client the Aditya Birla Group (ABG). Today the Aditya Birla Group, is an Indian Multinational with 130,600 employees, belonging to 40 different nationalities, the Group was ranked among the top six great places for leaders in the Asia-Pacific region, in a study conducted by Hewitt Associates. ABG assigned VGC with the task of designing its logo to match its ambition of being seen as a growing, global business with a high degree of professionalism. VGC’s approach was to question this requirement and post discussions and workshops with key client teams, they evolved the brief to say that they needed a corporate strategy and not just a corporate logo.
Post conducting a research, the issues facing ABG clearly supported the hypotheses that it required more than just a new logo. The findings stated that the group was perceived as big and trusted but had some perceptions going against it. That it was a group which had roots in the Marwari* community , which led to a perception of being old fashioned, inaccessible , not very transparent , average quality and would not be very professional in its approach. (The founders are from the Birla family which belongs to the Marwari community; Marwaris are among the major business classes from Rajasthan in India and traditionally have been traders and money lenders.) The findings led to a thorough interrogation of the groups businesses (spanning Non ferrous metals, Cement, textiles, chemicals, telecommunications, retail, wind power and many others). It was observed that there was lack of consistency in the way the ABG corporate Brand endorsed its businesses, the corporate structure seemed scattered and the corporate brand was not holding the group companies together.
The VGC group built the design strategy from the name ‘Aditya’ which means the ‘Sun’. The distinctive identity would become a strong ‘source’ of endorsement for all its businesses just like the sun is a source of energy for all living beings. The new identity was communicated both internally and externally. The imagery of the corporate brand was impacted positively. A few years down the line, when ABG wanted to go global and wanted to ‘take India to the world’ the logo underwent a refresh program. Today it has evolved into a confident graphic language that is recognized. Some group companies who had a strong branding for their business and were a little hesitant to use the corporate Brand are now keen to use the umbrella corporate brand ABG. The structuring and strategic design has helped, but along with the design intervention other CSR initiatives, like ‘Aditya Birla scholarship’, Hospitals and other social causes helped the Brand to come across as a corporate house that cares. High visibility both to internal and external stakeholders and consistency for over a decade turn around the perception. It won the best employer award in 2007, employee engagement surveys showed that there was confidence in a merit based evaluation system, the brand which is only 12 years old appeared in the most trusted brand survey where Brands that are 100 years old with a strong heritage have been listed,
The key points VGC made was to approach and use design strategically for creating economic ‘value’ , to keep refreshing and rejuvenating design elements without moving away from the core and communicating the change effectively.
Followed by these two interesting sessions, was a panel discussion on the theme of the convention ‘Building borderless Brands, rethinking invention. The panel had eminent advertising and media personalities, Chaired by Rahul Kansal, CMO Bennett Coleman & Co, the speakers were M.G.Parmeswaran, Director and CEO, Fcb Ulka, India, Anisha Motwani, Director and CMO, Max NewYork Life insurance, K.V.SHRIDHAR, NCD, Leo Burnett, India and R Balakrishnan Chairman and NCD Lowe Lintas, India.
Each panelist made a presentation of their take on the topic followed by a short discussion.
The first presentation was by Parmeswaran of FCB Ulka, who talked about how we can build brands by amplifying innovation. He gave examples of how certain product features can be amplified to create differentiation. Some examples shared were, Indigo –CS a sedan from TATA motors, which because of its size (slightly smaller than a regular sedan) was launched as the world’s first compact sedan, and post launch , the fact that it was fuel efficient (23 kmpl) was amplified by claiming it to be the most fuel efficient sedan. He also cited the example of Digene, an antacid which launched a format that didn’t need water to be consumed. The amplification came with a ‘fast-melt’ proposition because acidity can attack you anytime anywhere. Another interesting case was of Hero Honda pleasure, a two wheeler Brand that exclusively targeted the progressive Indian girl. A gender based pitch of ‘Why should boys have all the fun?’ helped amplify the benefit. It had high relevance, especially in the Indian society where girls enjoy lesser freedom than boys. The last example was of TATA Docomo a telecom brand that was a late entrant but still managed to break through the clutter with a unique ‘pay per second’ billing plan.
The point being made was that innovation always cannot and need not be path breaking and relatively small innovation when amplified well, help Brands.
The second panelist, Anisha Motwani, talked about how Brands need to be revitalized and like human beings Brands need spas too. Anisha discussed how Brands are like human beings. Today as human life cycle is accelerating, when 9 is 14 and 16 is 25 but 40 is 20 and at 60 life has just begun, Brands are following a similar PLC. Brands are ageing faster and needing to rejuvenate themselves more often. She discussed following strategies to revitalize 1. Reinvent to become a contemporary classic 2. Design deliberately for a shorter lifecycle, one brand many lives approach, 3. Make your own product obsolete 4. Pick up different market segments, one at a time and re craft the proposition 5. Reinvent to make competition obsolete. 6. Engage in conversation & creation and 7. Keep an experimentation budget aside. She closed her talk by saying the changes made to revitalize needed to be revolutionary and not evolutionary if they are to make an impact.
The third panelist was KV Sridhar, who shared a film on various innovations around the world and made the point that most innovation followed approaches like 1) Created in a lab , 2) Created by understanding and observing consumers and lastly 3) Created by People themselves to meet their everyday challenges. Of course the most effective and actionable innovations were the ones that people created themselves. Among other examples he gave, an example of a girl in rural India where power is a problem, invented a washing machine that works when she peddles her cycle was very interesting.
The last talk was by R. Balakrishnan, and it challenged conventional thinking. He was of the opinion that most great innovations create a desire and not necessarily a solution. He disagreed with the view that marketing and communications landscape has become complex, he felt it was self inflicted complexity and that even today we communicate through words, pictures and sound, just like we did before. For him it’s all about expression and engagement to the people whose attention you seek. He saw too much marketing information and planning being talked about and that it is revealing the ‘science of fantasy’ to consumers, which is a bad idea. Brands need to maintain their originality and mysticism. He also said it’s not always necessary for Brands to be borderless, because at times there are cultural and local insights which can build highly relevant propositions for a specific target audience. He gave examples of Indian Brands like Camlin permanent marker, which has a creative execution that only an Indian can associate with. Other interesting examples cited were Idea cellular which uses the fact that India is culturally diverse and how people reach out to each other in spite of different languages was interesting. Tanishq a brand of jewelry uses Indian woman’s fascination for gold jewelry and ties it up with ‘Wedding’ as an occasion has been very successful. All innovation, technology and communication has to be relevant to people, for example, mobility has brought in a lot of change in the country, but brands like TATA Indicom are making mobility solutions work for the local people, example, a fisher man gets location alert of where he will find more fish with the help of a GPS system, or a farmer can switch off the water pump with the help of his mobile. A thought provoking session, Balakrishnan caused disruption and challenged audience by questioning ‘borderless’ brands as a concept , challenging how research is used and that innovation is not always driven by consumers.
There were couple of other sessions post the panel discussion, but there was one particularly interesting session by D Shivakumar, Vice President and MD – Nokia, that I will share in detail.
Keeping with the topic of how innovation helps Brands, Sivakumar started his talk with reasons of why Brands die. He gave reasons and examples to elaborate his point. The first reason he said was, that Brands get locked in a product format. He gave an example of a Brand called DALDA (a brand of hydrogenated vegetable oil that was very popular in India), the Brand was identified too closely to its format, it didn’t recognize that with rising health awareness, a transfats based format would see a decline in acceptance and lost out in the market. He said when Brands don’t have focus they die, when too many things are offered under one Brand, it drains out the meaning of the Brand‘s promise, Pierre Cardin was the example he used. Brands like rubber band need to be taut and slack in right measures. Another reason why brands die is not keeping pace with technology, KODAK film was a case in point. The example of the Indian film industry was also discussed in detail, The industry model underwent a complete change from widely distributed films where tickets sold cheap and the film ran for weeks and months to prints sold to specific theatres for a specific audience with lot of pre launch marketing and tickets at a much higher cost, the movie rakes in the moolah in the first week of the launch itself. Production houses which adapted to this change survived, those that didn’t faded away. Another aspect is loose consumer connect, it can kill Brands, an example of a toothpaste called Forhans which was very good for the gums but low on taste, didn’t realize that the consumer had become demanding and wanted both taste and protection and lost share in the market as other options came in. Brands that are untouched by innovation also die. HMT watches, a leading watch Brand in India just vanished from the market because it didn’t ride on the trend of a watch becoming a ‘lifestyle accessory’ and didn’t innovate accordingly. Then some other reasons why Brands die were acquisitions, being on the wrong side of law, unseen religious issues, mergers and acquisitions and portfolio rationalization by companies.
The second part of Shivakumar’s talk dealt with how next ten years are going to change the scenario in India. He shared some data which clearly pointed out the expected changes like; healthcare and wellness will be the next area of spends, Education, skilling and re-skilling will gain importance to retain and grow in jobs and real income in India will double. The media landscape will be competitive and complex, the icons of India will be beyond Cricket and veteran film stars, the new icons will be from different fields such as non cricket Sports, business achievers and younger film stars. The foreign direct investments is up from 4 million $ to 40 million $, a tenfold increase, this will see rise in new technology, new people, employment opportunities and more competition. In fact a lot of global Brands are looking at India as a potential market and Indian marketers will have to open their competitive frame of reference from Indian Brands to Indian and global brands . India is a hyper competitive market and its retail scenario is still dominated by scattered grocery and mom and pop outlets. It needs a unique approach to marketing brands in India, while one can borrow the principles from another market; the large and unique market landscape of India as a market make it impossible to plug and play any readymade model.
In the next ten years, India will be younger and richer than most nations. In 2020, the average age in India will be 29 years, in China 37 years, in Europe 45 years and in Japan 48 years. Youth is the mainstream in India, it is not a segment in the market, it is the market. Youth being dominant, there will faster product lifecycle changes. The challenge for marketers will be the ability to distinguish between a fad and a trend and plan their strategies accordingly. Word of mouth in the digital world will become important, Sensory advantage in products will be important, even in mundane products like detergents etc. Young consumers will look for total consumption experiences, a case in point here; coffee drinking in urban India has been made popular more by coffee shops rather than coffee brands.
A Unique identification number (UID) system is underway and is said to have a huge impact on the country. It is a number that will be assigned to each individual in the country and will provide information on his /her profile. Apart from being a huge emotional benefit (that I am ‘counted’), it will ensure that government benefit schemes will reach the right people. This will improve their economic status and consumption capability. Shivakumar was of the opinion that UID will have the same impact on India as GPS had on the world.
India allows many experiments with business models as it has many markets with different characteristics. To conclude he said the possibilities in the Indian market will be only limited to the marketers imagination.
Arun Tadanki, managing director on Yahoo! India spoke about ‘Building brands online, creatively’. The talk centered on the fact that internet as a medium needs to be taken a lot more seriously than it is today. There are 60 million internet users in India and in 5 years time, India will be the second largest internet market in the world with 240 million users. He said the mobile will become a primary access point for internet in India. He questioned as to why spends on print medium are still higher in markets where there 3 times more people online. He felt that marketers are not yet recognizing the power of internet. One of the reasons could be that the initial positioning of internet advertising was as a cheap medium and has damaged perception towards internet. Marketers’ treat it like an ‘option’ and not as an important component of their media strategy. He shared some innovative ways of advertising on the net like Smart ads, where depending on the target consumer’s needs marketer could alter the advertisement in about 1 million ways. He talked about augmented reality as an offering where experiential campaigns could be planned. His message was to take internet as a medium seriously and use it creatively. Especially since India is a young country, when the medium reaches a tipping point it will become very powerful and Brands would have missed a trick or two.
The day ended with the global awards for Brand excellence. The organizers also launched the new look of the World Brand Congress.
Day 3 had various experience sharing sessions covering, the Branding journey, a panel discussion on designomics, emotions and Branding, destination branding, best global Brands 2010 report and managing corporate reputation to name some. A few sessions are covered in detail.
Crispin Reed, The managing director of Brand house spoke on the topic ‘Feelings you can’t ignore – the role that emotion plays in branding.’ The talk was centered on the fact that emotion sells, and the role of emotion in creating intangible value for Brands is significant. As a case in point , he shared that in 1982 the S&P 500 list vs. 1998 S&P 500 list reflects the value shift , In the 1982 list, 62% of value of brands came from tangibles whereas in 1998 only 15% came from tangibles, the rest came from intangibles like image, associations , loyalty etc. This shows the power of softer issues like imagery and associations. He then talked about the importance of creating emotional bond with 7 key emotions, contentment, belonging, compassion, pride, enjoyment, excitement and desire. He summed up his talk by quoting that there is a good reason and a real reason and most consumers respond basis real reason.
Hampton Bridwell, President, BrandLogic Corporation, spoke about ‘Managing corporate reputation and brand in the new economy.’ His focus was on how ‘Trust’ is the most important factor in today’s day and age where many a corporate face off has happened. How an organization deals with a negative issue is critical in protecting its reputation. He cited some examples, including Toyota, of how challenging is for a company to manage perceptions.
Viren razdan of Interbrand spoke about Brand strength and its components and took the audience through Interbrand’s approach on Branding and Brand valuation. He shared that companies are conscious of the fact that Brand value needs to be created and nurtured in a scientific manner.
The session titled ‘The connectivity revolution’ by Paul Antoniadis of Scenario creation ltd. talked about how the connected age is changing things. The three demands on any connectivity brand are connection speed, access anywhere and everywhere and capability to handle volumes. The retail behavior of consumers is observed to be of three types, Brick, where the consumer prefers to go to the retail outlet, Click & Brick, where the consumer checks out the deals on web and, makes the purchase decision and then goes to the retail outlet, and then there is click, where the consumer researches and buys on the web. The movement into the connected age as Paul calls it will see a huge change in retail dynamics, in fact our mobile screens would be the next ‘retail window’ and marketers need to be ready for this change.
Anita Nayyar, the CEO of Havas media and MPG south Asia spoke about ‘Consumers punish brands who don’t embrace sustainability- are you listening?’ Anita shared examples of Indian brands like Idea cellular who takes up causes through mainstream advertising and TATA tea which used its tea brand to tell people to ‘awaken’ and not just wake up. They used the positioning platform to increase social awareness and awakening towards voting. She shared a research done among citizens across the globe and consumers in India clearly expressed concerns regarding addressing pollution, environment conservation, depletion of natural resources and wild life preservation. In fact India topped the chart compared to other countries when it came to concern regarding environmental pollution. Consumers in India have high expectations from corporate houses when it comes to taking responsibility for social initiatives. Consumers want corporate world to empower them to make a difference. The research also showed that consumers respect companies who tie up with NGO’s and attempt to give back to the society. However when it comes to ethical consumerism, very limited progress has happened. The biggest obstacle to ethical consumerism among Indian consumers was lack of information and awareness about what Brands and companies are doing towards conservation or supporting causes. This means it is important to communicate the sustainability and social cause efforts made by the company both internally and externally. The example of Unilever which has an initiative in rural India called ‘Shakti’, Project Shakti, launched in 2000 in partnership with non governmental organizations, banks and government. Women in self-help groups across India are invited to become direct-to-consumer sales distributors for Unilever’s soaps and shampoos. Today it has 45 000 Shakti entrepreneurs that reach 100 000 villages. This model has been taken as a best practice globally. Nokia is running a program in India where consumers can return their old phone, chargers etc. and the company can takes the onus of managing the scrap. Companies like TATA motors, Infosys cam through as companies that are committed to sustainability efforts.
It was observed that companies who were known for their efforts and consumers had seen evidence of the same; it did lead to Brand advocacy.
The three day convention was abuzz with networking and sharing. It brought together points of view on a number of topics and it was quite interesting to note that a lot of markets faced similar challenges and sharing their experiences and learning helped open up minds and possibilities.
Friday, November 19, 2010
MRSI highlights
Mid November saw a gathering of researchers and research users in equal strength for the 20th MRSI annual seminar. The seminar, conducted by Market research society of India in association with ESOMAR (European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research) is an annual event and provides a forum to share success stories an exchange new ideas and techniques in MR. The theme of this year was ‘Unraveling the New age consumer’. It was a two day seminar held in Mumbai at Hotel Westin and broadly covered Technology and New Media in research and New thoughts, Trends and new applications in MR.
The key note address on both days was made by senior client members (Day 1 CMO-Aegon Religare and Day 2 MD- Kimberly Clark Lever) and set the tone for the two days ahead. The key focus in the address was on the need for Market Research to transcend from just information to knowledge, to be a lens that allows Marketers to see the picture clearly and to push for innovation to stay in tune with new age consumers and changing client demands.
10 key observations and highlights of the seminar:
1.The focus was on challenging status quo of research techniques. The entire research fraternity was in a mood to push for adoption of newer techniques and thoughts on how innovation was critical to be in tune with the changing consumer and changing client.
2.The topic of data integrity and delivery timelines, which is usually not discussed too openly was put on the table, acknowledged and action areas suggested. The role of technology was thought to be vital in helping the data collection process.
3.A lot of emphasis on ‘action ability’ of research findings, most papers discussed how their approach made the research more action oriented.
4.The interesting observation was that the seminar saw an enthusiastic response from clients as well. It was encouraging to see papers presented jointly by research team and client team.
5.There was a clear call for research agencies to start improving the perception that clients and general professionals had about research being just ‘information’. A pertinent question raised was ‘why is it that a strategy meeting does not happen without the communication agency partner but the research agency is not really missed?’ The need to improve quality of conversation, initiative and transcend from mere information to knowledge sharing was seen to be important.
6.It was felt that a lot more of innovation and imagination was needed in research design and processes. It had to be self motivated effort, with or without client buy in. The opinion was that once an innovation is proved to make a difference, client follow suit. So probably there is a case for R&D budgets for Research agencies.
7.In the Indian context, it was interesting to note that industries which were known to be highly gut based on their decision making were looking at MR to put a method to the madness. Hindi films and Hindi music were new areas of opportunity for research.
8.A lot of discussion on new media, both in terms of how it is going to impact the business processes and also about how it is opening new opportunities of providing measurement products.
9.Using social networks, conversations on the web to gain real time consumer insight was explored. Since India is a ‘face to face’ market, it was interesting to note how agencies and clients are experimenting with hybrid techniques that bring together real and virtual.
10.The new ‘Socio economic Classification’ parameters were shared by the MRSI. The SEC GRID which has been used for decades to determine demographic profiling of consumers is undergoing a review. The key changes were in durable ownership where one saw ‘Personal Computer’ and ‘internet connection’ being added. Some categories were done away with. This however is not yet formally launched but was shared since the forum had key people in the industry attending.
Its time for MR to become knowledge marketers!
The key note address on both days was made by senior client members (Day 1 CMO-Aegon Religare and Day 2 MD- Kimberly Clark Lever) and set the tone for the two days ahead. The key focus in the address was on the need for Market Research to transcend from just information to knowledge, to be a lens that allows Marketers to see the picture clearly and to push for innovation to stay in tune with new age consumers and changing client demands.
10 key observations and highlights of the seminar:
1.The focus was on challenging status quo of research techniques. The entire research fraternity was in a mood to push for adoption of newer techniques and thoughts on how innovation was critical to be in tune with the changing consumer and changing client.
2.The topic of data integrity and delivery timelines, which is usually not discussed too openly was put on the table, acknowledged and action areas suggested. The role of technology was thought to be vital in helping the data collection process.
3.A lot of emphasis on ‘action ability’ of research findings, most papers discussed how their approach made the research more action oriented.
4.The interesting observation was that the seminar saw an enthusiastic response from clients as well. It was encouraging to see papers presented jointly by research team and client team.
5.There was a clear call for research agencies to start improving the perception that clients and general professionals had about research being just ‘information’. A pertinent question raised was ‘why is it that a strategy meeting does not happen without the communication agency partner but the research agency is not really missed?’ The need to improve quality of conversation, initiative and transcend from mere information to knowledge sharing was seen to be important.
6.It was felt that a lot more of innovation and imagination was needed in research design and processes. It had to be self motivated effort, with or without client buy in. The opinion was that once an innovation is proved to make a difference, client follow suit. So probably there is a case for R&D budgets for Research agencies.
7.In the Indian context, it was interesting to note that industries which were known to be highly gut based on their decision making were looking at MR to put a method to the madness. Hindi films and Hindi music were new areas of opportunity for research.
8.A lot of discussion on new media, both in terms of how it is going to impact the business processes and also about how it is opening new opportunities of providing measurement products.
9.Using social networks, conversations on the web to gain real time consumer insight was explored. Since India is a ‘face to face’ market, it was interesting to note how agencies and clients are experimenting with hybrid techniques that bring together real and virtual.
10.The new ‘Socio economic Classification’ parameters were shared by the MRSI. The SEC GRID which has been used for decades to determine demographic profiling of consumers is undergoing a review. The key changes were in durable ownership where one saw ‘Personal Computer’ and ‘internet connection’ being added. Some categories were done away with. This however is not yet formally launched but was shared since the forum had key people in the industry attending.
Its time for MR to become knowledge marketers!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Touch Points
Rapid development and convergence of technology makes it possible to give ‘more’ with ‘less’, and do so ‘faster’. Multi point marketing, previously understood as a visibility and salience tool, is now more about engagement and involvement because of technology and new media. Transcending its role as an enabler, technology is now the driver of experience.
There are social and economic changes , new opportunities, rapidly changing lifestyles, and increasing the pace of life more than ever before. Our ‘on the go’ lives are powered by technology and fueled by marketers, this culture is an ideal stage for real time multi point marketing. Modern lives have turned into a series of short lived experiences, filled with easy accessibility and constant multiple sensorial stimuli: a perfect opportunity for marketers. Like I said in one of my earlier articles, even before consumers have juiced out emotional richness of one experience, they are on to the next.
In the past, the depth of an experience arose from the amount of time spent immersed in that experience. Now, depth comes from multi point engagement.
There is more width and less depth to the consumer’s life today. As a result, today the memory banks are wired differently; depth of an experience will come from width and frequency.
It’s only now that 360 degree marketing approach will reach its full potential. Thanks to availability of real time multiple mediums that create an experience for the consumer, and the pace of life that compels consumers to interact with this media constantly.
To market successfully, the Brand must not come from outside but needs to weave itself into the consumer’s life; each ‘unit’ of the ‘whole’ message has to flow seamlessly to the next unit of the message: a feat that is most effectively delivered through a multi touch point approach.
Simulating and converging experiences is what consumers are looking for and technology is a willing host!
There are social and economic changes , new opportunities, rapidly changing lifestyles, and increasing the pace of life more than ever before. Our ‘on the go’ lives are powered by technology and fueled by marketers, this culture is an ideal stage for real time multi point marketing. Modern lives have turned into a series of short lived experiences, filled with easy accessibility and constant multiple sensorial stimuli: a perfect opportunity for marketers. Like I said in one of my earlier articles, even before consumers have juiced out emotional richness of one experience, they are on to the next.
In the past, the depth of an experience arose from the amount of time spent immersed in that experience. Now, depth comes from multi point engagement.
There is more width and less depth to the consumer’s life today. As a result, today the memory banks are wired differently; depth of an experience will come from width and frequency.
It’s only now that 360 degree marketing approach will reach its full potential. Thanks to availability of real time multiple mediums that create an experience for the consumer, and the pace of life that compels consumers to interact with this media constantly.
To market successfully, the Brand must not come from outside but needs to weave itself into the consumer’s life; each ‘unit’ of the ‘whole’ message has to flow seamlessly to the next unit of the message: a feat that is most effectively delivered through a multi touch point approach.
Simulating and converging experiences is what consumers are looking for and technology is a willing host!
Monday, November 8, 2010
Why waste a good recession
Recession is good. It does good. “Why waste a good recession”?
The key is to treat recessionary times as a 'call' to think like you have never thought before, and not like a storm where you duck and wait for the dust to settle down. This piece brings out why you should be 'riding high' on the 'low'. It is aimed at infusing enthusiasm about a bright future and getting them to believe slow down does what boom time can only dream of doing, it fosters innovative thinking and changes the world and it is a good time to be young and doing things in today's environment.
It is a great time to be talking about lessons to managers. Great time? Most of you are thinking “But wasn't it an economic downturn? A slowdown? a nightmare where people lost jobs? Well yes. but for a moment take a differnt angle when looking at the recession.
Give this a thought, when did the “development of the American railroads, invention of the automobile, invention of the electric light, the telephone, the phonograph as well as a great many other products based on electricity” happen? It was during the period 1866-1896…a time in American history that was a long period of declining prices…an economic depression! Was this long a bad period in American economic history? Not exactly. It was a period that shaped the modern world by some serious inventive thinking. It was during this period that the United States moved into the economic leadership for the world.
So, as we are emerging from the slow down, I would like to leave a few thoughts on why recession is good and that we should not fear it, but make the most of it to become successful managers and leaders of tomorrow.
For one, it dispels the myth that only money breeds' money. The truth is real and legitimate difference is made by a great imagination!!! Innovative and inventive thinking is what is teased out in recessionary times. Money is only the means. Limited resources challenge us to put them to better use and that is what leads to path breaking discoveries. Good manager think with their brain and not their wallet. (An example, google had no clue where revenues would come from for the first 3 years of their existence before they went on to become a 86 billion dollar company.)
The second learning that makes great managers is not accepting mediocrity. Economic slowdowns force businesses to only invest in the best projects. So there is no room for mediocre thinking, the environment will put to test the best and only the best will see the light of the day.
The third important thing that good managers do, is take risks and only in challenging times you know who has taken risks…like the famous quote by Warren Buffet, it's only when the tide goes out that you learn who's been swimming naked. To say that keeping your head up for opportunities and taking risks does separate the men from the boys… ( Example- to say 'daag acche hain' when the category is all about damming stains is a brave thing to do)
One of the most exciting things about a slowdown is that it fosters entrepreneurship. Most big guys are afraid to invest in new ideas and it is strategic to seize the opportunity before others show up. Smaller resources are more available and if there is a big idea, it is just the right time, so start ups get a head start
And in the world of communication, they say “When times are good, you should advertise and When times are bad, you must advertise.” Conventional logic says advertise during economic expansion and cut down during a recession. The reality says otherwise…a research study found that aggressive recession advertisers increased market share 2 ½ times the average for all businesses in the post-recession.
Apart from the numbers, there has never been a better time, simply because it is time to challenge. Challenge conventional thinking, conventional practices, a time when only creative thinking can pick up the pieces and create a mosaic.
And if I were to talk about the business of advertising and communication in the times of recession, It is quite honestly a good time to be in the business of communication. Not only will the advertising agencies role expand beyond advertising and branding into innovation, product ideas and creating new media solutions, but today we will be able to genuinely innovate and disrupt conventional thinking. and that is liberating!
Take a case of showcasing New York's street culture. Street performers were brought together to create a new album, they performed around town, the recordings were put on internet and it created a viral frenzy. Completely innovative, never done before, work that is truly game changing.
Agencies can go as far as creating content, creating programming and creating new media. And in the virtual world the ultimate test of creativity is 'if the idea isn't fantastic, people won't click on it' they will just move on…incredibly challenging and what a creative high!)
Smart thinking in recession time to use the power of internet to prove the potency of the idea, to a deterrent and scared client
(dove 'real beauty' first gained momentum on the viral campaign)
It is in trying times that communication partners can persuade clients to be brave and to take risks, because in any case conventional logic won't do in chaotic times. A time when integration is most critical and clients will treat agencies like close aides and partners.
And of course through history we know that communication has a huge impact on human minds. Many a war was lost due to low morale of people led by negative sound bytes. It's not just about selling jeans, soaps and powders, its about contributing to society, influencing mindsets and making a difference. When else would influencing sentiment mean more than in times of recession?
Hardly surprising that in the uk, with the collapse of financial services, all creative industries are still holding ground…be it filmmaking, gaming or advertising.
And on the lighter side, recession makes you bond better with family, makes you a better person and what's more it gets people to marry for love.
Don't just think of 'survive the recession' but think of how to thrive on the recession.
The key is to treat recessionary times as a 'call' to think like you have never thought before, and not like a storm where you duck and wait for the dust to settle down. This piece brings out why you should be 'riding high' on the 'low'. It is aimed at infusing enthusiasm about a bright future and getting them to believe slow down does what boom time can only dream of doing, it fosters innovative thinking and changes the world and it is a good time to be young and doing things in today's environment.
It is a great time to be talking about lessons to managers. Great time? Most of you are thinking “But wasn't it an economic downturn? A slowdown? a nightmare where people lost jobs? Well yes. but for a moment take a differnt angle when looking at the recession.
Give this a thought, when did the “development of the American railroads, invention of the automobile, invention of the electric light, the telephone, the phonograph as well as a great many other products based on electricity” happen? It was during the period 1866-1896…a time in American history that was a long period of declining prices…an economic depression! Was this long a bad period in American economic history? Not exactly. It was a period that shaped the modern world by some serious inventive thinking. It was during this period that the United States moved into the economic leadership for the world.
So, as we are emerging from the slow down, I would like to leave a few thoughts on why recession is good and that we should not fear it, but make the most of it to become successful managers and leaders of tomorrow.
For one, it dispels the myth that only money breeds' money. The truth is real and legitimate difference is made by a great imagination!!! Innovative and inventive thinking is what is teased out in recessionary times. Money is only the means. Limited resources challenge us to put them to better use and that is what leads to path breaking discoveries. Good manager think with their brain and not their wallet. (An example, google had no clue where revenues would come from for the first 3 years of their existence before they went on to become a 86 billion dollar company.)
The second learning that makes great managers is not accepting mediocrity. Economic slowdowns force businesses to only invest in the best projects. So there is no room for mediocre thinking, the environment will put to test the best and only the best will see the light of the day.
The third important thing that good managers do, is take risks and only in challenging times you know who has taken risks…like the famous quote by Warren Buffet, it's only when the tide goes out that you learn who's been swimming naked. To say that keeping your head up for opportunities and taking risks does separate the men from the boys… ( Example- to say 'daag acche hain' when the category is all about damming stains is a brave thing to do)
One of the most exciting things about a slowdown is that it fosters entrepreneurship. Most big guys are afraid to invest in new ideas and it is strategic to seize the opportunity before others show up. Smaller resources are more available and if there is a big idea, it is just the right time, so start ups get a head start
And in the world of communication, they say “When times are good, you should advertise and When times are bad, you must advertise.” Conventional logic says advertise during economic expansion and cut down during a recession. The reality says otherwise…a research study found that aggressive recession advertisers increased market share 2 ½ times the average for all businesses in the post-recession.
Apart from the numbers, there has never been a better time, simply because it is time to challenge. Challenge conventional thinking, conventional practices, a time when only creative thinking can pick up the pieces and create a mosaic.
And if I were to talk about the business of advertising and communication in the times of recession, It is quite honestly a good time to be in the business of communication. Not only will the advertising agencies role expand beyond advertising and branding into innovation, product ideas and creating new media solutions, but today we will be able to genuinely innovate and disrupt conventional thinking. and that is liberating!
Take a case of showcasing New York's street culture. Street performers were brought together to create a new album, they performed around town, the recordings were put on internet and it created a viral frenzy. Completely innovative, never done before, work that is truly game changing.
Agencies can go as far as creating content, creating programming and creating new media. And in the virtual world the ultimate test of creativity is 'if the idea isn't fantastic, people won't click on it' they will just move on…incredibly challenging and what a creative high!)
Smart thinking in recession time to use the power of internet to prove the potency of the idea, to a deterrent and scared client
(dove 'real beauty' first gained momentum on the viral campaign)
It is in trying times that communication partners can persuade clients to be brave and to take risks, because in any case conventional logic won't do in chaotic times. A time when integration is most critical and clients will treat agencies like close aides and partners.
And of course through history we know that communication has a huge impact on human minds. Many a war was lost due to low morale of people led by negative sound bytes. It's not just about selling jeans, soaps and powders, its about contributing to society, influencing mindsets and making a difference. When else would influencing sentiment mean more than in times of recession?
Hardly surprising that in the uk, with the collapse of financial services, all creative industries are still holding ground…be it filmmaking, gaming or advertising.
And on the lighter side, recession makes you bond better with family, makes you a better person and what's more it gets people to marry for love.
Don't just think of 'survive the recession' but think of how to thrive on the recession.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
When Gay meant happy
Hollow.poignant.witty.warm.wiles.weapons...they infect, they infuse...words!!! watch them, feel them roll out of your tongue and even more intense, watch them change their association,meaning and usage over time.
1.Its fascinating,how word associations have changed over time, changing their context, their usage and their intent.
a few examples that come to mind...
cool or hot- describing the weather, hot; hang out - hanging out your clothes
chill- a state of physical discomfort in winter;happening- an event or activity taking place or actually happening;net- a net;surf- surf with a surf board or a detergent powder;hit- physicaly hit or popular as in a hit song;Kick ass- meant kick ass and not 'wow';Suck- meant suck .. a sweet or drink.
2.Sentence construction also has its own meaning...so i don't say , i totally disagree , but say i 'so' disagree with this...
3.The other phenomenon is to have acronyms for everything...i guess the sms and chat generation are responsible for it, but i just feel the impact is lost. I mean when one says 'What the fuck' it means something..it has impact , WTF doesn't come close to it!
and there is actually an Urban dictionary where you will find not just words but expressions which have their own meanings far from what conventionally words mean. So go look it up and yenjoy ! (this was my generation's contribution to evolution of language...hinglish,tamlish,bonglish...whatever!!)
1.Its fascinating,how word associations have changed over time, changing their context, their usage and their intent.
a few examples that come to mind...
cool or hot- describing the weather, hot; hang out - hanging out your clothes
chill- a state of physical discomfort in winter;happening- an event or activity taking place or actually happening;net- a net;surf- surf with a surf board or a detergent powder;hit- physicaly hit or popular as in a hit song;Kick ass- meant kick ass and not 'wow';Suck- meant suck .. a sweet or drink.
2.Sentence construction also has its own meaning...so i don't say , i totally disagree , but say i 'so' disagree with this...
3.The other phenomenon is to have acronyms for everything...i guess the sms and chat generation are responsible for it, but i just feel the impact is lost. I mean when one says 'What the fuck' it means something..it has impact , WTF doesn't come close to it!
and there is actually an Urban dictionary where you will find not just words but expressions which have their own meanings far from what conventionally words mean. So go look it up and yenjoy ! (this was my generation's contribution to evolution of language...hinglish,tamlish,bonglish...whatever!!)
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Riding on the wrong side?
My first reaction to the Stallio Mahindra bike commercial was ‘Wow’ a brand is being really courageous, on a one way street riding on the wrong side? Very bold indeed!
Then as I saw the commercial the second time, some questions popped up in my mind. The first one being – who is this communication for? Is it talking to the usual bike TG? Because if it is, then does a biker to be look for safe driving as a motivation? No, I think. I have never worked on the two wheeler category so don’t know the documented motivations, but as a young girl a ‘boy’ with a bike meant adventure, freedom and a style statement. And nothing was cooler than the Bullet, even an Average Joe riding a bullet was cool.
Driving fast has always been cool, driving rash never!
The dare devilry and stunts in commercials are performed to package the experience, very naïve to assume that bikers aspire to perform those stunts themselves.
Do you know anyone who throws a watch in a bucket of water to check whether it is really water proof?
So Aamir saying, you can repeat all that I have done in this scene, though a tongue in cheek remark against other bike adverts, am not sure whether it does anything for the Brand itself.
I thought, maybe the commercial is talking to a slightly older TG. One who is married, with responsibilities and needs to be told that make your ‘cool’ statement but take your mom along on a date! If I know a little bit about purchases post 40, especially purchases that make a statement, then most consumers who I like to call the ‘older youth’ would buy youthsy/gutsy stuff that helps them hold on to the last few years.
Maybe the commercial is trying to woo potential two wheeler buyers who are yet undecided between a scooter and a bike. (Wonder whether that can be?) The proposition then could be the looks of the bike and the safety of the scooter? But it is so unconvincing even as I write it and even if there were a consumer with that need state, how big would be that segment?
Then who is this communication meant for? And what does it want to achieve by going against the very core of the category? When a Brand decides to break the rules, it still doesn’t get absolved of the responsibility of delivering the core emotional experience. Power, Freedom, Confidence, or whatever it is. Taking an ‘anti’ stance can build ‘Brands’ as long as there is a strong reason for the consumer to vibe to that stance. So if this bike is for people who need a two wheeler transport and promises ‘freedom’ with responsibility , it sounds way too idealistic!
When a Sprite says baki sab bakwaas , the product is ‘clear’ and supports the proposition and when a dove says imperfection is beautiful, it is supported with a product strength of simple moisturizing. If a Brand is breaking category codes, the product support has to be strong; The ‘Uncola’ wasn’t just a cola with less fizz!!
So when you say zindagi ka mazaa jeene mein hai, what jeene ka mazaa are you talking about after taking away the chutzpa of owning a bike!! Maybe you want to talk to parents who want to gift a bike to their kids? Every Brand has had its reasons to break the category code, what’s yours Mahindra Stallio?
Then as I saw the commercial the second time, some questions popped up in my mind. The first one being – who is this communication for? Is it talking to the usual bike TG? Because if it is, then does a biker to be look for safe driving as a motivation? No, I think. I have never worked on the two wheeler category so don’t know the documented motivations, but as a young girl a ‘boy’ with a bike meant adventure, freedom and a style statement. And nothing was cooler than the Bullet, even an Average Joe riding a bullet was cool.
Driving fast has always been cool, driving rash never!
The dare devilry and stunts in commercials are performed to package the experience, very naïve to assume that bikers aspire to perform those stunts themselves.
Do you know anyone who throws a watch in a bucket of water to check whether it is really water proof?
So Aamir saying, you can repeat all that I have done in this scene, though a tongue in cheek remark against other bike adverts, am not sure whether it does anything for the Brand itself.
I thought, maybe the commercial is talking to a slightly older TG. One who is married, with responsibilities and needs to be told that make your ‘cool’ statement but take your mom along on a date! If I know a little bit about purchases post 40, especially purchases that make a statement, then most consumers who I like to call the ‘older youth’ would buy youthsy/gutsy stuff that helps them hold on to the last few years.
Maybe the commercial is trying to woo potential two wheeler buyers who are yet undecided between a scooter and a bike. (Wonder whether that can be?) The proposition then could be the looks of the bike and the safety of the scooter? But it is so unconvincing even as I write it and even if there were a consumer with that need state, how big would be that segment?
Then who is this communication meant for? And what does it want to achieve by going against the very core of the category? When a Brand decides to break the rules, it still doesn’t get absolved of the responsibility of delivering the core emotional experience. Power, Freedom, Confidence, or whatever it is. Taking an ‘anti’ stance can build ‘Brands’ as long as there is a strong reason for the consumer to vibe to that stance. So if this bike is for people who need a two wheeler transport and promises ‘freedom’ with responsibility , it sounds way too idealistic!
When a Sprite says baki sab bakwaas , the product is ‘clear’ and supports the proposition and when a dove says imperfection is beautiful, it is supported with a product strength of simple moisturizing. If a Brand is breaking category codes, the product support has to be strong; The ‘Uncola’ wasn’t just a cola with less fizz!!
So when you say zindagi ka mazaa jeene mein hai, what jeene ka mazaa are you talking about after taking away the chutzpa of owning a bike!! Maybe you want to talk to parents who want to gift a bike to their kids? Every Brand has had its reasons to break the category code, what’s yours Mahindra Stallio?
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
100 days in wireless wonderland
One Sunday afternoon when I was telling my daughter, “no more television” , she shot back, but tell him first (him being , my son, who was playing a game on my husband’s mobile) to stop “screening “. I was a bit confused before it suddenly struck me that she was talking about the experience and not the format. It dawned on me that they now looked at it as ‘screen time’ and not just TV time and in this context the possibilities of what all mobility could mean to this generation. Having now spent a little over 3 months in the telecom sector, I am struck with awe, the scale, the workings and the dynamism of this ‘in transition’ industry feels surreal.
Of course, let me clearly state that what you read ahead is from an industry novice and a ring side view of the happenings. Needless to say it could have a heavy dose of idealism. But I couldn’t stop myself from penning this down. Telecom in India is an industry whose pace of growth is frightening, where ‘because of’ and ‘in spite of’ heavy regulatory pressure the action continues. I have observed consumers across FMCG, Healthcare, Home products and durables but am yet to see such dynamism and complexity in behavior, easily the most challenging consumer behavior ever in my opinion.
As I look back on my last 100 days of being a part of this industry, there are thoughts that I would like to share. A few observations and peculiarities of this wireless wonderland
Consumer participation and involvement: There is intense level of involvement, not only because the players are pushing action in the market but also because the consumer is participating whole heartedly, sometimes following and sometimes leading marketers. So the Indian consumer, who cracked the code of expensive washing powder for office clothes and cheap one for everyday clothes, is using his own homegrown logic even on telecom products. The sheer creativity with which usage is planned, by way of multiple service brand SIMS, using missed calls, SMS’s and separate sims for incoming and outgoing calls, it’s astounding.
The paradox of the being one of the most talkative nations and at the same time most value conscious, consumers in no other market would have used such home grown street smart wisdom to get the best value possible every day in every possible way.
Constantly changing consumer context: In most industries new consumers come in with varied expectations depending on their context of the category. Telecom has the most diverse set of consumers, ones who have been mobile since a decade and hence have a different context and expectation vs. consumers who are born in the lap technology and expect the world at the best price. It is a challenge for marketers to be able to meet such a diverse set of needs. Where the 30plus consumer expects to pay more for smart services and the 20 plus expects it to be ‘ofcourse available’ at an affordable cost.
What is advanced to one consumer is basic to another, and hence the logic of ‘more advanced, more expensive’ that operates in other industries is likely to be challenged, especially since players want to encourage usage of services other than voice. So now you can buy a bag of chips or surf the net for two days in the same money.
Law and loyalty: An industry that has too much of a regulated environment to breathe easy, it is impacted from all sides, revenues, offering design and distribution. The industry is almost pushed in the direction of downgrading the market under the excuse of ‘fast growth’. The scale of the commercials of this industry has put tremendous pressure prompting players to do tactical short term initiatives and get quick wins, but this could become huge challenge in the long term. Prepaid sims helped hugely to expand the market but while all were busy trying to match a bag of chips price point in the acquisition game, they forgot to value add and give any meaningful reason for the post paid consumer to stay. In fact with fixed rentals, post paid service is quite the contrary and not surprising that only a very small percentage of the market comprises committed users. It’s quite possible that soon consumers will actually get paid to make calls.
Bottomless price wars, government policies and regulations that change stance frequently, to add increasing competition, number portability and low loyalty the market has set an ‘extreme conditions’ stage to perform on.
Consumer and market research: It is quite a task to research this market, by the time research findings are available, the dynamics of the market could have changed dramatically. The consumer base could be totally different and the assumptions thereof challenged. One more market intervention in form of new technology, one more new handset, one more new plan etc could change the dynamics completely making the findings rather redundant.
Real time research that is predictive and not descriptive is what would really help.
Last but not the least, an incestuous industry it has people and sometimes teams who have been there and done that with other brands. They belong and almost have such deep tacit understanding that once you get them talking you realize how much knowledge isn’t documented. They have worked on consumer bases that are possibly equal to the sum of the population of a few European countries.And of course the industry insiders use a language that cannot be understood by lay people, an outsider has to crack the lingo of the industry to comprehend any discussion. Most of it is in acronyms (seriously there are times when the entire sentence is made up of acronyms, sample this: “ARPU of REC is from VAS, CRBT ,WPDL” Phew, how on earth is one to understand ? And for my telecom friends who are thinking hard about what is WPDL, there is nothing called WPDL, I was just being wicked (Wall Paper Down Loads, may be)
Of course, let me clearly state that what you read ahead is from an industry novice and a ring side view of the happenings. Needless to say it could have a heavy dose of idealism. But I couldn’t stop myself from penning this down. Telecom in India is an industry whose pace of growth is frightening, where ‘because of’ and ‘in spite of’ heavy regulatory pressure the action continues. I have observed consumers across FMCG, Healthcare, Home products and durables but am yet to see such dynamism and complexity in behavior, easily the most challenging consumer behavior ever in my opinion.
As I look back on my last 100 days of being a part of this industry, there are thoughts that I would like to share. A few observations and peculiarities of this wireless wonderland
Consumer participation and involvement: There is intense level of involvement, not only because the players are pushing action in the market but also because the consumer is participating whole heartedly, sometimes following and sometimes leading marketers. So the Indian consumer, who cracked the code of expensive washing powder for office clothes and cheap one for everyday clothes, is using his own homegrown logic even on telecom products. The sheer creativity with which usage is planned, by way of multiple service brand SIMS, using missed calls, SMS’s and separate sims for incoming and outgoing calls, it’s astounding.
The paradox of the being one of the most talkative nations and at the same time most value conscious, consumers in no other market would have used such home grown street smart wisdom to get the best value possible every day in every possible way.
Constantly changing consumer context: In most industries new consumers come in with varied expectations depending on their context of the category. Telecom has the most diverse set of consumers, ones who have been mobile since a decade and hence have a different context and expectation vs. consumers who are born in the lap technology and expect the world at the best price. It is a challenge for marketers to be able to meet such a diverse set of needs. Where the 30plus consumer expects to pay more for smart services and the 20 plus expects it to be ‘ofcourse available’ at an affordable cost.
What is advanced to one consumer is basic to another, and hence the logic of ‘more advanced, more expensive’ that operates in other industries is likely to be challenged, especially since players want to encourage usage of services other than voice. So now you can buy a bag of chips or surf the net for two days in the same money.
Law and loyalty: An industry that has too much of a regulated environment to breathe easy, it is impacted from all sides, revenues, offering design and distribution. The industry is almost pushed in the direction of downgrading the market under the excuse of ‘fast growth’. The scale of the commercials of this industry has put tremendous pressure prompting players to do tactical short term initiatives and get quick wins, but this could become huge challenge in the long term. Prepaid sims helped hugely to expand the market but while all were busy trying to match a bag of chips price point in the acquisition game, they forgot to value add and give any meaningful reason for the post paid consumer to stay. In fact with fixed rentals, post paid service is quite the contrary and not surprising that only a very small percentage of the market comprises committed users. It’s quite possible that soon consumers will actually get paid to make calls.
Bottomless price wars, government policies and regulations that change stance frequently, to add increasing competition, number portability and low loyalty the market has set an ‘extreme conditions’ stage to perform on.
Consumer and market research: It is quite a task to research this market, by the time research findings are available, the dynamics of the market could have changed dramatically. The consumer base could be totally different and the assumptions thereof challenged. One more market intervention in form of new technology, one more new handset, one more new plan etc could change the dynamics completely making the findings rather redundant.
Real time research that is predictive and not descriptive is what would really help.
Last but not the least, an incestuous industry it has people and sometimes teams who have been there and done that with other brands. They belong and almost have such deep tacit understanding that once you get them talking you realize how much knowledge isn’t documented. They have worked on consumer bases that are possibly equal to the sum of the population of a few European countries.And of course the industry insiders use a language that cannot be understood by lay people, an outsider has to crack the lingo of the industry to comprehend any discussion. Most of it is in acronyms (seriously there are times when the entire sentence is made up of acronyms, sample this: “ARPU of REC is from VAS, CRBT ,WPDL” Phew, how on earth is one to understand ? And for my telecom friends who are thinking hard about what is WPDL, there is nothing called WPDL, I was just being wicked (Wall Paper Down Loads, may be)
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