All that glitters may be gold this diwali – Indians to go online for shopping?

Update: Catch my latest post on pluggdin:

  • All that glitters may be gold this diwali: It’s that time of the year again which most Indian marketers wait with bated breath, there is festivity all around and thanks to better market condition, Indian consumers are looking forward to splurge this festive season both in offline as well as online shopping. Read More…

Wish all readers a ‘bagful’ (after shopping ) & prosperous diwali! 🙂

What’s Your Raashee on Facebook

While doing some random surfing on Facebook, stumbled upon this app for horoscope and compatibility check, in fact it came as a friend’s update. On visiting I realized it to be an app from the makers of the movie “What’s your Raashee”. Indeed another interesting example of movie marketing from Bollywood. After websites, communities, forums, twitter and other social media marketing, it was good to see an app based on the theme of the movie i.e., zodiac signs. The application requires the user to answer questions about their personal preferences and then based on the common characteristics with other signs, they will be shown a list of users whom they are compatible with while offering them an opportunity to add those people as friends on Facebook.

Considering my interest in movie marketing, I did install that app immediately but well I must say that I was bit disappointed with the overall impact. Horoscope, compatibility tests or fortune cookies are definitely some of the most commonly used apps on facebook, every third update on my friend’s feed is actually related to horoscope or zodiac signs. So potentially this app could have created a great viral effect if there were enough interactivity and feed triggers available in it. The feed functionality is available only while installing the app, for rest of the actions actually there is no way to publish your updates. The way it tests the compatibility between you and your partner is quite confusing. Now if the app is allowing you to check the compatibility and if your partner is available on facebook, the fun would have been if there was a way to inform the partner about the compatibility result, same is missing from this app. Also it would have established a better connect with the movie if somewhere the zodiac result of any person could have been associated with the relevant character of the movie:

  • For e.g., in my case the result reads something like this: “Kark, About Your Raashee – Consider starting a small business on the side…”; instead of showing it like any other zodiac trait announcement if it would have read something like this: Karka, About Your Raashee – So, you’re like Hansa (Cancerain character in the movie) who is also a Kark and…” then I think along with fun this app would have led to subtle promotion of the movie as well.

Overall a great idea and I loved the initiative but execution could have been thought about more. Let’s see how the movie fairs at BO tomorrow, I for sure gonna watch it soon as I love Ashutosh Gowarikar’s movies.

Should Air-India change its mascot now?

Was surfing the website of Air-India today to book a ticket & suddenly I saw our very own Maharaja in different avtaars there, like Maharaja with a laptop on home page & Maharaja with Indian flag near log in box. Though the size of Maharaja was definitely reduced but nonetheless noticeable enough! In fact I think as a kid my understanding of the word “brand” or “mascot” was only limited to either AI’s Maharaja or AP’s Gattu and its that solid imprint on my childhood memory that even slightest trace of Maharaja ji or cute Gattu catches my attention till date.

Airindia.mascot.maharaja

Air India had adopted this Maharaja mascot in 1946 symbolizing an Indian Maharaja kind of person welcoming passengers from all across the world on board, if I’m not wrong this Maharaja is one of the longest lived & most recalled mascots till date. But then today this mascot made me really thinking esp. because of all the reasons for which Air India has been in news of late. Now with Rs. 5000 crore loss last fiscal year due to operating costs, day on day ongoing loss of approx Rs. 15 crore & plans to cut down on quite many travel sectors, does Air India stand anything to do with royalty in these days? Well, I know the mascot was not chosen for exact representation of royalty only but then to a common man the image as well as the word Maharaja has always meant to communicate the same. With Air India being in news for only huge losses and other sorry state of affairs I personally think this Maharaja is a mismatch with the overall perception of the company. A Bankrupt Maharaja instead of Maharaja is what it makes me feel about it now 🙂. Rationally speaking, I think it’s time for AI to re-look at its mascot, it has outgrown its own perception today and I can see some sort of disconnect here. Though I’m sure there must be nostalgic / emotional reasons for the company to still continue with the same.

Would like to know your views on this. Does this Maharaja suit AI’s current image? Do you think AI should bid farewell to this Maharaja now?

Re-branding of Sony Television

I got the chance to catch up on television tonight after almost 3-4 weeks & when I saw the complete video “ghar aayi hai khushi” today I realized that it’s a promo video of Sony channel itself. I liked the video, have watched it earlier in bits & piece but somehow because of this line “ghar aayi hai khushi” I used to think it’s a promo campaign of yet another crappy soap from Sony.  But few minutes on that channel and I think I was very pleasantly surprised.

I wasn’t aware that Sony has gone for such a major facelift in last 3-4 weeks. Yes, Sony did create a noise during IPL with its “Badal Rahe Hain Hum” campaign but it was good to see this badlaav not only in terms of just a branding campaign but overall programming too. They have launched fresh content during prime time and for a change this time they have taken themselves away from saas-bahu, typical Indian family sagas or singing-dancing reality shows. I got the chance to go through two out of their five (Rani Padmini, Palampur Express, Bhaskar Bharti, Ladies Special & Entertainment ke liye kuch bhi karega ) new programs and I liked both of them. They looked fresh & appealing.

I think this re-branding exercise was much needed from Sony. Once a number 1 channel, they had really lost the game to their competitors over a period of time. Not only they lacked the pull in their existing content, they were lacking innovation in their new content too. After all, for how long only Indian Idol or CID could have helped them sail through the competition? I as a viewer don’t remember when was the last time I would have watched any program with interest on Sony. And with some millions of singing reality shows I had lost complete interest in the last season of Indian Idol as well. Now let’s see if this re-launch of Sony really helps them in upping their ratings once again. The last total GRP rating which I had read was definitely not having Sony in top 3. These slots were occupied by Star, Colors & Zee as per TRP ratings for the week ending 13th June’09. But then it was hardly 2-3 weeks since they had launched their new programs. So, would be good to observe the future ratings & fate of this re-branding campaign of Sony.

 

Why marketers should use Twitter?

Update on 30th May’09: ssp

I had personally joined twitter more than a year & half back but was not an active user of the account then. Initially, I just used to read updates from the people whom I was following & then slowly got into posting my updates too. In fact I became totally active (rather addictive ;)) almost after six months of opening my account & the more involved I got into this the more I realized the power of it. Very soon I opened an account on behalf of the company where I work & started tweeting about the updates of my company. Well, what started just as an update mechanics is now converted into a full-fledged customer interaction medium. I’m totally amazed at the viral effect & the potential of this medium from promotion & customer engagement point of view. I occasionally keep on reading about twitter & it’s phenomenal growth etc., but based on my personal experience with twitter I think I have come to a conclusion that this medium is definitely a must for every new age marketer who wants to be in touch with his net savvy (or shall I say tweet-savvy) customers. Here is why:

  • Creating & Tracking Brand Buzz: I have found twitter to be one of the best mediums for being updated with what people are writing about your brand. I’ve used  other popular alert services including the ones for twitter too but I find the “search” option on twitter to be really a smart way of being updated about at the moment” buzz of your brand. It surely gives a real time insight into your customer satisfaction, dissatisfaction, needs & gaps of your service.
  • Word Of Mouth (Or Tweet of mouth :-)) : While a negative tweet definitely harms your image but a positive tweet followed by different retweets surely leads to excellent word of mouth marketing. There is this one guy who was having problems with our service, I read his negative tweet which he had written just 2 minutes ago, I immediately escalated it to our internal service delivery head & in next 5 minutes the guy got a call from our service head. The guy got so impressed that he immediately tweeted about the power of twitter w.r.to. customer service. In next 15 minutes when his problem was solved he ensured to mention the prompt action taken by our company in so many tweets of his and was all gaga about the service attitude & brand promise of our company. Thanks to all his retweets which gave us a positive boost to our brand that day. After that my SD head ensures to search for keywords related to our service every 2 hours 🙂
  • Competition Tracking: If your competitor is also active on twitter, then toh wah bhai wah! Isko kehte hai chandi ho jana! Easiest & fastest way to be abreast with what competitors are doing as well as how many customers are dissatisfied by your competitors is to search your competitor related keyword in twitter. I’m telling you it’s a very effective medium for competitive taka-jhaki 😛
  • Customer Feedback / Suggestions: It’s definitely a very quick medium to seek feedback before any new launch or for announcing any new update / feature / product etc. And thanx to tweet-savvy customers they give you some very genuine feedback immediately.
  • Potential Targetting: Highly effective medium to reach out to potential customers too, check out who is looking out for your kind of service & reach the potential TG in a smart way.

Serious word of caution: When I say it’s an effective medium for marketers to promote & engage, this does not mean it should be used as a free tool for SPAMMING. Beauty of twitter is that twitter users till date DETEST spamming a lot. So, don’t go ahead posting only URLs or your service related promotions. You’ll only lose the interest of your followers & it just takes a few micro seconds to “unfollow” your brand. If it is fast method to engage, it is equally fast to un-engage. So, think again before you start abusing this medium. Key is to interact, talk, engage personally & tweet something which your followers can look forward too :). If you’ve captured the attention, you can definitely promote your brand in a more involved way.

Advaniji goes further aggressive on digital medium!

I had earlier written about Advaniji getting net savvy and his portal www.lkadvani.in. But looks like humare neta, Advaniji toh internet space mein super aggressive ho rahe hai :D. Ah he is not leaving any stone unturned to reach out the online Indian citizens. Here are some developments which I observed recently from Advaniji and his campaign promotion teamJ

  • Blog: Like everybody and anybody on this earth, even L.K. Advani has decided to have his presence on blogosphere. His blog http://blog.lkadvani.in/ got launched in Jan’09 & supposedly Mr. Advani is blogging personally on this space. Well, posts are good but don’t think he is writing it himself. Fan following of his blog seems to be ok with each post having on an average 100+ comments. No, I don’t mean 100+ comments is less but kya karein, celebs like BigB and Aamir Khan have set a very high bench-mark for popular personality blogs with each of their posts receiving on an average 1000+ comments.
  • Online Advertisement / SEM: Oh this was truly a surprise for me, I noticed 2-3 sites as well as Google sponsored search displaying L.K.Advani portal ads. And yeah quite an extensive keyword listing they have done for these ads, you type any election related keyword & you get to see these ads. Impressive isn’t it?

lkadvani_website

  • Emailer campaigns: Personally I have not received this email but one of my associates was mentioning that after pre-recorded voices now people are doing email blasts as part of political advertising. He received an email with subject as invitation from L.K.Advani to visit his portal www.lkadvani.in

Well, I am neither a big supporter of BJP nor I am active into Indian Politics scenario. Most of the times I find it to be so dirty that I prefer to have my involvement limited to reading or watching just headlines and that too not because of any interest but only to be updated about the latest happenings. Having said that, I do find this initiative of BJP a good move and sort of positive change in Indian Politics. At least they are trying to connect to the newer generation; at least they are taking some effort to reach out to educated mass. Wondering if it is Obama effect or the Social media effect on his campaign management team but whatever it is, I must say it is a welcome change J.

Stampede of price driven promotions!

I get to cross this mall daily on my way back home and its one of the most popular malls of Bangalore. Always damn crowded and is having all popular brands which you can think of. It used to have those occasional promotions during Diwali, Christmas or End of season sale. But now instead of those occasional sale offers, the mall has sort of become “discounted product” mall only. Just think of last 3 months – November they were having “festival special”, December they were having “Christmas / New Year Special” and now in Jan, 1st it was “26th Jan” special which got extended to “end of season sale” on 27th Jan’09. 😀 Wow every day there is a sale and most of these are not “upto 50% off”, rather “FLAT 50% or 40% off”.

Well as a consumer, it’ too good and I’m loving it but then it forces me to think, are these brands going through sales volume crisis which is forcing them to come out with such price driven promotions every day? Is it another after-effect of recession? I can understand it for few brands but almost every brand is currently running a price driven promotion including some very big names which are not so famous for their discount promotions. Even they have jumped into this price game now. One walk in any popular mall / market and you will see nothing less than a stampede of price driven promotions. As a first impression, it definitely communicates that brands / retailers are trying hard to sell the products to Indian consumers who have otherwise become conscious now of their expenses esp. in categories like luxury & entertainment. Since not many consumers are hit by recession in India as badly as in US, so expenses in necessary categories are still going on but if I think of me, my friends and acquaintances as a sample set, I definitely know that people have curtailed frequency of activities like eating out, multiplexes, impulse apparel purchase and frequent air flying. Though price driven promotions like these are good to some extent, it helps in attracting attention of consumers but do such tactical sales promotions and that too regularly really help companies in meeting their numbers? And even if they will meet their numbers, how about their P&L? And with most of the main marketing budget frozen now, do they have any other option than to do such promotions to increase footfall…Hmmm let me think and in case you have any thoughts, do share it here. In the meantime I think I should enjoy these sales and discounts before companies realize that its hitting their margins badly and decide to stop it J

Update on 30th Jan’09: Two interesting observations related to this post:

·         Yesterday I actually stopped at that mall and went to this very prominent apparel retail outlet, they were running an announcement there for promos and offers. And guess what? Despite yesterday being 29th, the promotions running were having old dates, one of the announcements sounded like, “100% money back offer! Dear shoppers, shop for X amount between 10th Jan – 26th Jan and get a gift voucher worth Rs. X back”. And no, the date was not announced by mistake, they kept on repeating the same recorded message J. The promo was still on but collateral as well as promo clip was having the last date as 26th Jan’09. Clearly communicates that they had plans to end the sale on 26th but were continuing it till now!

·         Today’s ET states – “Subhiksha is closing a significant number of its 1,600 stores across the country to cope with a cash crunch”. Very recently I read a write-up mentioning Subhiksha’s success story and while I was wondering on these price driven promotions and cash situation of the retailers, here I get to read about a situation which is self-explanatory and that too of Subhiksha! Wondering if other such announcements are also on their way?

 

IPL is back with yet another marketing gimmick

Last year we did see the birth and rise of one of the greatest marketing phenomenon in sports marketing in India, yes of course I am referring to IPL’2008. More than cricket, it was this whole business and marketing angle to it which made it so popular. Cricket combined with entertainment and that too Bollywood, what more do you need to create pull in Indian market? After all cricket and Bollywood are like two religions in India. As expected this combination of cricket and entertainment did create a huge roar in the market esp. from business and brand point of view.  And when this year IPL is back in news, it is again so with yet another marketing gimmick viz., reality show for Cheerleaders!

Watched it on television first and then read it in news that Shahrukh Khan, owner of Kolkata team Knight Riders is conducting a talent hunt show this time to find cheerleaders for his team. This reality show will be aired on NDTV Imagine and will be produced by his home production “Red Chillies Entertainment”. The program called as “Knights & Angels” will be first ever such contest in India and is open for only young girls who aspire to be cheerleaders in the second season of IPL. Well, I am confused. Do girls really aspire to be cheerleaders in life??? But on second thought when girls can compete to be the item number queen on television now, then why not a cheerleader? Personally speaking I’m all for IPL and its overall marketing angle to it, it definitely gives a different edge to sports in India, but a reality show for cheerleaders is something which didn’t go well with me. Anyways reality show is done to death now, so I don’t know if there will be any added charm for this program and most importantly how does it matter if these cheerleaders come through reality contest or through some other medium? Will it really make any difference to the team? From promotion perspective it can create some hype but let’s see if it really benefits the overall Knight Rider brand in IPL season two.