Jaago re: Khilana Bandh, Pilana Shuru: Phase II Vrat Yatra

Follow up: Post Dated: 29th August.

In the earlier post, the campaign was limited to TVC but earlier this month it stretched to BTL(Below The Line Activities) with the launch of 38 days Bus Journey which will be headed by FEVER FM Channel RJs fasting against the corruption and encouraging the youth to fast against the biggest social evil of our society.

In addition to the journey Tata Tea launched a Corruption Index in association with AC Nielson to bring out the perceptions of citizens about corruption and its impact on the social and economic fiber of society. The study included people from 3 cities, Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Well, the flaw which was there in the TVC is still the same because yet again they have put the entire onus on the person who is giving the bribe.

Nonetheless, the strategy through which Tata Tea wanted to engage the youth (As they consume Tea in large quantities) is remarkable and successful, I believe. The relaunch of website www.jaagore.com where a person can fast online, the tag line of “Khilate Khilate Desh ko indigestion ho gaya hai – is liye aaj se Khilana Bandh, Pilana Shuru” by Radio Mirchi, humorous advertisements with creatives handled by Lintas are effective ways of engaging the youth audience.

But on the social responsibility front which according to the company is the primary brand image of the beverage (Not only a ‘getting up‘ drink but a ‘wake up‘ drink) the brand is not doing a perfect job. There is neither a follow up for the voting campaign (that how many actually registered and voted finally through this campaign) nor a concrete plan to tackle the corruption issue involving the concerned parties (Like Government departments, vigilance etc).

If only ‘All say and Do nothing‘ can provide a long term brand image, this is the campaign to watch.

The Ebay-way

should be a well known name for 45 million Internet users in India.(Link). Around 4 years back it took over popular e-commerce site bazee.com. Since then there is no looking back and it has increased it user base substantially. It is an e-commerce site which provides a platform to sellers and buyers to come together and exchange value.

Ebay so far has advertised on websites by some flash ads, online banners etc. They had some multimedia campaigns running abroad but not in India. In India they launched their first ever TVC earlier this month in the form of a spoof of an old Doordarshan talk show. To make it more real they have used old Anchors Komal GB Singh and Dr. Narottam Puri who have hosted many shows on Indian TV and a well know name among Doordarshan viewers.

The basic format is a set up of a talk show where in a person calls up for any reason and they are given advise of using Ebay.3 features which were majorly advertised were Trust, Discounts/deals and Variety. (Click here to view the ads)

But I see some flaw in the campaign. As far as I believe the target population of Ebay who actually trade is born and lived in the era of Cable TV networks where a new satellite channel launches every other week. How many of them would actually recognize these anchors. (I did not!)

Secondly the concept is flawed seeing the psyche of TG. If they have some problem they will surf internet, or consult friends but never will they call on a show which is hosted by older people.

This campaign can only work if the TG for this is the parents of the users, so that the reluctance for online shopping can be reduced among elderly. For this purpose the anchors will also prove effective as they command lot of credibility in this age group.

Online shopping is anyway on splurge in India, however we are yet to witness the response of this particular ad series.

Indian Luxury Market

In one of my earlier posts I mentioned the recession-proof collectibles auction business. Not closely but remotely linked to this is the category of Luxury and/or High end Goods.

Volkswagen launched its iconic car beetle this December and got 170 cars booked in advance for its target of 300 Car sales in 2010. (Link). This is just a glimpse of what Indian Luxury Market is going to follow.

The luxury consumers are showing negative signs all across the world but the story in India is completely reverse. In last 2 years several International Luxury Brands have come to India; Canali, Zegna, Paul Smith, Ferragamo, Kenzo, Jimmy Choo, Bottega Veneta, Armani, Versace, you name it and it is here. The Indian luxury goods marketis predicted to grow 25% over the next five years. (Link)

Business of these brands span across Men’s and women’s read-to-wear and accessories like Versace, Armani, Cars like Fiat 500, Beetle, Bikes like Ducati, Yamaha YZF or VMax.

There are several reasons for the same. One is the growing population of working affluent class for whom money and consumerism are the new measures of success. This is the class which saves money not for contingencies like the older generation but to buy a Luxury car from the corner showroom or to buy an expensive hand bag to flaunt it in the party.  Their high aspirations have given this business a boost.

The other is the generation next of rich business families whose businesses are not much affected from the current turmoil. Another reason can be the new well traveled and brand aware consumer and the availability of latest season offering from the brand globally and high quality merchandise (and not the rejected European Goods).

Some brands especially Premium if not Luxury have kept the pricing at par with Indian dynamics which gives Indian consumer incentive to buy from a close-by store and not from abroad.

However despite the optimistic trends and sudden splurge of international brands there are skeptics about the so-soon progress of this category. Some experts believe that Indian consumers are very habit prone and is difficult to change them if the companies do not adapt to the Indian psyche. Secondly there are heavy import duties and unwillingness of brands to share high luxury margins with local partners (Read Franchisees) which poses extra burden to the consumer.

However, soaring response received by the companies and increase in the disposable income of Indian consumers give no way to these skepticism and Indian Luxury Market may grow leaps and bounds.

Rediff: Revamping Strategy with Homepage

, the Indian website has changed its home page again around a month back. But this one is really bold and just not cosmetic.

The new homepage just has a search bar, some news stories, a video story and 8 32×32 pixels icons of Cricket, Money, News, Movies, Rediffmail, iShare, My Page and Shopping. Besides it has a new tag line “Just Your Stuff” and a TVC promoting the site, however the ad has slightly failed to pass across the basic message.

Click Here to watch the TVC.

And all this without any advertisement on the main page (Like Google). This is really refreshing because it is coming from Rediff.com which is popularly known as one page-all work.

If you have browsed internet over Mobile network or on 3G you will notice that the new interface also befits a clean mobile interface. This can increase the user base of Rediff as mobile internet is going to a large way in India. This move can also be seen as a tactic to direct the traffic from Homepage to the inside pages which had less clicks earlier. But this can only work if Rediff provides rich content to its loyal user base.

It is now proved that one interested consumer is better than several uninterested consumers. And who else can better understand this than advertisers and this is where this new revamping strategy is more befitting. Because now advertisers can target better in the uncluttered site of Rediff. If a financial consultancy ad is to be placed, it has to be on the Rediff-Money page. And that will place Rediff on a higher platform where it may witness fewer ads but higher rates.

With uncluttered homepage, better Ad planning, and rich content Rediff.com may go a long way the field of web targeting and advertising.

What is your view?

Branding Online: Be B.O.L.D. – The Google Way!

It won’t be an overstatement to say that Google has given Internet and searching a new meaning. Moreover it has been a pioneer in terms of branding itself and have extended it to its consumers by encouraging them building their own brands online but all for its own good.

While surfing afaqs!.com I came across a 20 Page freely distributable pdf prepared by Google for branding online in which it has given 4 strategies to build brands online abbreviated as B.O.L.D.(Captioned as ‘4 Common Sense Ideas to Build Your Brands Online’)

Click here to download.

Google has termed it as an industry initiative which is true in a sense because if with the help of experts people will start branding online it will scale up revenues for the entire industry not only for Google. However go through these 20 pages to reaffirm marketing skills of Google. With each technique of B.O.L.D. Google has promoted it’s other services like Google Analytics, Google Insights, Google Trends, Google Content Network, Google Adwords, Blogger, Google Maps, You Tube, and Orkut.

And at the end of the report telephone numbers are published for customised solutions for building brands with Google.

The report are prepared with vibrant colors, advertised at right places like afaqs.com and at the right time when Online Branding is talk of the town with the advent of increasing social networking and Micro-blogging sites like  Twitter.com. Agencies like Interbrand are also writing white papers to build brand awareness online. Hoping to see increasing and more innovative online branding campaign in future.

Knorr: Mummy bhi Khush, Tummy bhi khush

Knorr  can be called as pioneer in India for Soup category. Its efforts coupled with Maggi created and promoted a category which is now growing at about 20% now.

Knorr is one brand of HUL which has sustained different (sometimes confusing and sometimes fatal) marketing strategies. These moves include its marriage with Annapoorna, its ultimate extension to ready to mix foods, ketchup, snacks and what not. All the moves done by the company left this brand to misery except the one promoting soup category in 2007.

But this year on the release of its new campaign on August 10, saw a new and refreshing positioning of the product.

Click here to see the TVC

With this ad a Colgate kind of strategy was adopted. (You should brush 2 times a day) and thus increase the consumption by changing a routine habit. A similar attempt is being made here to increase its usage and include soups as a pre-dinner snack at 7 PM. An attempt to find a place in Indian menu is made by using the empty time slot of 5PM to 8PM. A very fair portrayal of the child and the mother is shown in the TVC both representing their typical Indian image.

Coupled with TVC are the other supporting ATL activities like OOH and Print campaigns and BTL activities like free experimental samples.

This move can be seen as wise to promote the under penetrated soup category in India and reap the benefits thereof for the brand.

What are your views?

Jaago re: Khilana Bandh, Pilana Shuru

Jaago Re was one of the very successful social campaigns by the largest tea manufacturer in India (Tata Tea) to awaken people to cast their vote. The Jaago Re website witnessed nearly 2.8 Million visitors and one-fourth of them actually voted finally.

They have come a long way now and started their new campaign against corruption.

Watch the TVC here:

http://vimeo.com/6266009

Corruption is a prevalent problem in our society and this campaign can really spark a fire. But I feel a little doubt about this campaign for following reasons compared to the voting campaign

1) The time was ripe to release that campaign as it was election time and it is not an ongoing phenomenon like Corruption so a good or bad timing can not be decided.

2) Secondly and more importantly the greater onus lies on “Jo Khilata hai”(The Bribe giver) according to this campaign.Voting is a duty which some people can choose not to perform. But people willingly giving bribes can be rarely found except those who are indulged in wrong-doing.

3) The campaign is focusing to awaken people not to give bribes. But an important thing to note here is that people compelled to give bribes have no liberty to decide on this issue except complaining in vigilance and bear the official hassles and those people who give bribes for their wrong deeds, I have serious doubts if such social campaigns can affect their conscious.

Besides the TV commercial, many BTL activities will also be carried out for this campaign like website and Mobile Touch points. All will appeal not to bribe. But bribing is not an option for many and does impact direct benefits unlike voting.

Surely if Tata Tea takes up the responsibility through its Jaago Re website to register complaints against officials indulged in bribing and getting these complaints resolved, a positive change can be expected.

But no doubt this campaign will bring lot of ‘publicity’ to Tata Tea and a ray of hope to common man.

Music for Relief: One click, help a victim

Dear Readers of my blog.

I have added a widget (you can see on right) called social-vibe. The charity I chose to show is Music for Relief. This is a program funded by Linkin Park (The Music Group).

To be frank Linkin Park is one of my favorites and that was the primary reason to choose their charity but it is really for a great cause.

To know more please check their website: http://www.musicforrelief.org/

This organisation helps victims of natural disasters and also to the programs which are aimed to cut down on global warming to provide a better ecosystem for our future generations. It is only one click on these links which doesn’t cost you a dime.

Please click if you have time.

Thanks.

Dish TV: Sabse Zyada Wish Karo

Zee TV may be ranked as 3rd in TAM ratings but is certainly far ahead in business sense to earn revenues in tough times. The DTH business of Zee TV has proved to be its bad weather friend specially when it added 2 million subscribers last fiscal.

In a time when companies are taking cost cutting measures which is affecting advertising revenue for broadcasters, the January-March 2009 quarter was quite a relief for Zee TV when its subscription revenue overtook its advertising revenue.

It might be the reason that Zee TV is now revamping Dish TV’s entire creatives. DTH market is leading towards n undifferentiated arena with 5 operators and 6th(Videocon) coming to market. In this scenario adding new and different features and moreover talking about them is very important. Against Tata Sky’s Amir Khan and BIG’s Junior Bacchan, Dish TV is all set with SRK and its new position: “Sabse zyada wish karo! Dish Karo” from “Wish karo! Dish karo!”.

And the repositioning is not subtle at all. SRK very clearly transcends from wish karo to sabse zyada wish karo to be noticed by common viewers.

Besides in recent TVCs things like jobs, travel and marriage are also introduced which are so far not used in this industry. Currently with 5 million subscribers Dish TV is topping the charts in Private DTH space and taking every possible step to maintain the same.

Branding Steel

Sorry folks, my internet modem was down, thanks to BSNL guys..here is my today’s post about Branding an industrial product.

JSW Shoppe

click on the above link to read on a story which will tell you about the newly brought in concept by Steel Manufacturing company Jindal South West(JSW),a part of OP Jindal Group.

JSW Steel is opening retail shops where in industrial product like Hot Rolled Plates, Galvanised Plain and Corrugated Sheets, Bars, Color Coated Sheets and Profile Sheets for consumers to touch and feel the product.

Essar, another steel giant is also opening up their hypermarts and customer distribution points in the similar way. And as Steel has showed some signs of recovery the companies have started focussing more on these retail ventures. Click here.

By this their intention is to make consumers aware and assured of the right product.  However what I see is the scope of another Intel in it. I wont wonder if in near future people will demand a Bike made with JSW CR Sheet.