Continuing from where I left……let’s talk about theatres now. Think of any theatre in your city.
Now……here is your question. What comes to your mind first when you think of it?
Nothing, right!
If you were the theatre owner, would you be worried? You better be. You just realized your brand means nothing to the consumer. Even worse, your brand means nothing to you!
The problem is theatres are not positioned. They lack a personality.
Why should theatres be positioned you ask? Isn’t the theatre positioned by the film that is running currently you argue? And because the films keep changing and there is a new movie all the time, should theatres be positioned at all you elaborate? Is it even possible to position a theatre, far less build a personality, you dispute?
In other words, what you are telling me and yourself is that you would invest crores of money building a theatre and spend lakhs of money maintaining it and let your fortune, future and fate decided by a stupid film that runs it. Isn’t that thought as much scary as it is stupid?
Wouldn’t you rather build a theatre keeping in mind the target audience you wish to attract by studying the location, the characteristics of the neighbourhood and the accessibility etc? And then follow it by playing only films that suit your target audience? Thereby telling the world, loud and clear, what kind of theatre you have; and what kind of experience they can expect?
Imagine this. You are building a theatre in a predominantly residential neighborhood. You position your theatre as ‘wholesome family fun’. Imagine every facet of design – from entrance to exit, from façade to restrooms, from seating to parking – every little detail is conceived, created and caressed with your target audience in mind – the family. You play only family movies; seating is designed in threes, fours or fives – decided by the size of the family. Even the food and snacks are sold in combo or family packs. Special restrooms designed for kids. Maybe even nappy changing rooms; breast-feeding facility for moms. Put simply, a theatrical version of McDonald’s.
And when you do that, you are doing a few things first, and right. To begin with, your target audience knows who you are. They wouldn’t care much about the film since they know what to expect. Which means you depend less on the film you run to define your success, and depend more on your theatre to defend your fortune? A far better way of doing business, you would agree.
If you own a multiplex, it gets even better. Imagine you have a 3-theatre complex. Dedicate each theatre to a certain target group. Like a portfolio of brands that has made companies like P&G invincible. Pantene, Head & Shoulders and Rejoice – three shampoos yet addressing three different audiences with three different positionings.
Make one theatre target kids – play only animations, adventure etc. Have rough flooring to take the abuse of young legs; restrooms whose urinals suit the size of the user; small serving of food and snacks among other things; maybe even video arcades on the side.
Position the second theatre for, say, couples; screen only love stories and romantic comedies. Have seats for two; armrest that folds so one could freely hold their partner’s hands, among other things! Maybe, even sell Unwanted 72 tablets along with popcorn and Pepsi!
How about a third theatre for young adults – action movies, adult comedies and more. Have more legroom maybe; a separate smoking section…you figure out the rest.
Am sure you are getting the picture!
You would realize you are not only branding your theatre but building a strong personality for it as well.
And not just that. Theatres will then become the next powerful advertising medium. When you showcase specific audiences, marketers are bound to follow by pouring tons of advertising money - prior to the movie, during intermission and all inside the complex – to reach their specific target audience!
Theatres have ceased to be film-watching devices long ago. Today, they are seen sources of entertainment; providers of experience.
Owners have failed to realize this and theatres are a dying breed. Multiplexes have been, erroneously, considered a whiff of fresh air that has come to revive movie-going experience. Without a proper positioning and personality, they are just oxygen cylinders to prolong the agony.
It’s time to redefine things. In fact, it’s time to define things! It’s time theatre owners give themselves a new lease of life. Positioning theaters and building an appropriate personality is a good starting point!
Let the show begin!
Friday, April 06, 2012
Sunday, March 04, 2012
Preachers don’t practice!
There are doctors who don’t exercise!
There are policemen who don’t wear helmets!
And then there are B-Schools who don’t practice branding!
Why do the preachers of branding don’t practice it? Take the all-important facet of branding i.e., Positioning. How many B-Schools have actually positioned themselves? Here is a simple exercise. Think of any B-school; what comes to your mind when you thought of that name.
Yup, nothing!
Should B-schools position themselves? Why not? And why shouldn’t they? They are selling a product; they are trying to differentiate themselves from one another; with increasing competition and the fickle nature of their rankings that seem to change every year, they need to stand for something in the student consumer minds. Read positioning!
If everything in life – products, places and people – can and should be positioned, why shouldn’t B-Schools?
Close Up means freshness.
Goa means beaches.
Rajinikanth means style.
Isn’t the whole objective of branding to make a product positioned on a workable and ownable platform and make it preferred over the generic? Doesn’t this apply to anything? Then why not B-schools? Or for that matter anything that can be marketed and merchandised?
B-Schools have become just a glorified commodity. Like mineral water. A category patronized and purchased for its generic benefits. Just as it is in the mineral water category, the B-school category has varying image and price point levels. The top tier schools – the IIMs - form the first leg. Call it the Evian and Perrier club. What’s the difference between Evian and Perrier? As much difference as you can find among the various IIM’s!
Then you have the second-tier schools. Name them the Aqua Fina and Kinley club. How is Aqua Fina different from Kinley? The same way XLRI is different from a FMS!
And the bottom rack of B-schools is filled with dime-a-dozen - a la the Bisleris. One as good or as same as the other. How do you differentiate one B-school from the other on this rack? Exactly the way you differentiate one Chinese face from the other. You don’t; and can’t!
You might remind me about Engineering, Arts & Sciences and Medical colleges not positioned themselves either. You might ask why I don’t accuse them as well.
What right do I have to ask them to execute branding and position themselves, when the preachers themselves don’t practice it?
There are policemen who don’t wear helmets!
And then there are B-Schools who don’t practice branding!
Why do the preachers of branding don’t practice it? Take the all-important facet of branding i.e., Positioning. How many B-Schools have actually positioned themselves? Here is a simple exercise. Think of any B-school; what comes to your mind when you thought of that name.
Yup, nothing!
Should B-schools position themselves? Why not? And why shouldn’t they? They are selling a product; they are trying to differentiate themselves from one another; with increasing competition and the fickle nature of their rankings that seem to change every year, they need to stand for something in the student consumer minds. Read positioning!
If everything in life – products, places and people – can and should be positioned, why shouldn’t B-Schools?
Close Up means freshness.
Goa means beaches.
Rajinikanth means style.
Isn’t the whole objective of branding to make a product positioned on a workable and ownable platform and make it preferred over the generic? Doesn’t this apply to anything? Then why not B-schools? Or for that matter anything that can be marketed and merchandised?
B-Schools have become just a glorified commodity. Like mineral water. A category patronized and purchased for its generic benefits. Just as it is in the mineral water category, the B-school category has varying image and price point levels. The top tier schools – the IIMs - form the first leg. Call it the Evian and Perrier club. What’s the difference between Evian and Perrier? As much difference as you can find among the various IIM’s!
Then you have the second-tier schools. Name them the Aqua Fina and Kinley club. How is Aqua Fina different from Kinley? The same way XLRI is different from a FMS!
And the bottom rack of B-schools is filled with dime-a-dozen - a la the Bisleris. One as good or as same as the other. How do you differentiate one B-school from the other on this rack? Exactly the way you differentiate one Chinese face from the other. You don’t; and can’t!
You might remind me about Engineering, Arts & Sciences and Medical colleges not positioned themselves either. You might ask why I don’t accuse them as well.
What right do I have to ask them to execute branding and position themselves, when the preachers themselves don’t practice it?
Saturday, January 28, 2012
It's payback time!
Hindu Muslim clashes be damned…for a while. For now, the fun and focus is the Hindu TOI war! Boy, is the Maha Vishnu of Mount Road taking the Times of India for a roaring ride or what.
No one expected The Hindu to react the way they did. Agreed the TOI sledged The Hindu first. The Hindu, surprisingly, reacted by making a few changes to their paper - content, style, presentation etc., something I even talked about here earlier.
But I didn’t expect The Hindu to come out with a hard-hitting campaign to retaliate TOI’s sledge. Damn; here is a brand that had never even advertised once in their 135+ year lifetime; far less taking a competitor head on.
Should The Hindu have reacted like this? Have they reacted right? And what next?
Before I continue, a few caveats are in order. I subscribe to both the papers. Though I admit I read The Hindu first. I am not a big fan of this paper anymore. I think it is left leaning, anti-BJP and Jayalalitha and losing its neutrality a bit, and shows a soft corner for Congress though not much of late. But when it comes to quality, writing style, use of the English language and depth of coverage, The Hindu stands tall and unrivaled. TOI is not even a shadow of an English paper, far less being comparable to The Hindu. Truth be told, TOI is at best a glorified vernacular; a daily film magazine; and a dignified porn pamphlet.
So, one day, the TOI takes on The Hindu accusing it of putting the readers to sleep – by their choice of news, the lush language they use and their aversion towards anything sensational. The Hindu reacted by adding a few new genre of supplements, adding a certain kinds of news that they had never covered earlier and eased their headlines a wee bit, without dilution of its famed richness.
And then, has come this Hindu Kolaveri!
My initial reaction, when told The Hindu has come out with a series of ads to counter TOI, was ‘disbelief’ and ‘why did they?’ I still believe The Hindu shouldn’t have even legitimized TOI with a retort. Maybe The Hindu’s research, assuming they did one, led them to believe seeds of suspicion being planted in the minds of young adults by the TOI campaign. Maybe The Hindu decided to react – lest they lose a whole generation of new readers who would end up growing with TOI. So, yes The Hindu probably was justified partly, am still reluctant to be whole hearted here, to take on TOI.
That aside, the choice of target audience for The Hindu’s campaign, I should say, was bang on. Young adults – who are increasingly being gleaned away by sensationalism and trivia at the cost of sense and knowledge. One could see a distinct degradation of the English language in the mouths of the young, the lack of depth of knowledge in their heads and a misunderstanding of what’s important for their jobs, careers and lives. I am the least bit being philosophical or judgmental. I am only worried these traits would affect the young adults’ chances of survival in these competitive times.
And therein lay the crux of The Hindu’s campaign. It is talking to a generation that’s growing up soaking nuisance masquerading as news and nonsense dressed up as current affairs, and choosing a paper that glorifies it. The Hindu’s campaign has been spot on. Readers of TOI are losers and hollow!
But then, one of the cardinal mistakes of marketing is to tell the target he or she is wrong. Even worse, term them idiots. The Hindu campaign, in a blatant way, does just that. Would that intimidate the TOI reader?
But then, I don’t think this Hindu campaign aims at weaning away the TOI reader. Maybe it shouldn’t either. The TOI audience is different from the Hindu’s. But what Hindu’s campaign does, and what I think The Hindu should continue to do, is to put the fear of God among the undecided and paint a picture in their minds the perils of preferring a newspaper that personifies hollowness and utter lack of depth. If that can be achieved, a whole new generation of users would feel cool and sensible to pick The Hindu. That would arrest the growth of TOI in the South. Which incidentally is where I think this campaign would have most of its effect. I doubt if the North, where The Hindu has been traditionally weak at best and non-existent at worst, would ever witness a shift in preferences.
Now what next? For starters, I expect TOI to take The Hindu to the court. The viewer could easily pick up the dumb characters in the ads mouthing ‘TIMES OF INDIA’; the beep sounds notwithstanding. It’s for the courts to decide if this can be termed disparagement.
And TOI will react. After all it’s the largest English daily. They might resort to statistics – how they are the largest newspaper, how they grown the most among the youth, how the who’s who is reading it etc. Such a campaign would be hopelessly weak to say the least. TOI, true to its true sensational style, would try and hit The Hindu below the belt. That’s the only place the TOI can ever be good at!
Also note that everyone in the ad voices TOI. So TOI can come out with a campaign quoting that and saying how they are the No.1 brand among the 18 to 35 or whatever. Feeble response, if it were to be.
At the end of the day, The Hindu has been provoked and woken up. As the old Tamil saying goes: The wrath of the quiet sadhu when awakened will shake the forest.
This Sadhu has gone one step further: He has brutally raped TOI and thrown it into the gutter, where it rightly belongs. And I love it!
No one expected The Hindu to react the way they did. Agreed the TOI sledged The Hindu first. The Hindu, surprisingly, reacted by making a few changes to their paper - content, style, presentation etc., something I even talked about here earlier.
But I didn’t expect The Hindu to come out with a hard-hitting campaign to retaliate TOI’s sledge. Damn; here is a brand that had never even advertised once in their 135+ year lifetime; far less taking a competitor head on.
Should The Hindu have reacted like this? Have they reacted right? And what next?
Before I continue, a few caveats are in order. I subscribe to both the papers. Though I admit I read The Hindu first. I am not a big fan of this paper anymore. I think it is left leaning, anti-BJP and Jayalalitha and losing its neutrality a bit, and shows a soft corner for Congress though not much of late. But when it comes to quality, writing style, use of the English language and depth of coverage, The Hindu stands tall and unrivaled. TOI is not even a shadow of an English paper, far less being comparable to The Hindu. Truth be told, TOI is at best a glorified vernacular; a daily film magazine; and a dignified porn pamphlet.
So, one day, the TOI takes on The Hindu accusing it of putting the readers to sleep – by their choice of news, the lush language they use and their aversion towards anything sensational. The Hindu reacted by adding a few new genre of supplements, adding a certain kinds of news that they had never covered earlier and eased their headlines a wee bit, without dilution of its famed richness.
And then, has come this Hindu Kolaveri!
My initial reaction, when told The Hindu has come out with a series of ads to counter TOI, was ‘disbelief’ and ‘why did they?’ I still believe The Hindu shouldn’t have even legitimized TOI with a retort. Maybe The Hindu’s research, assuming they did one, led them to believe seeds of suspicion being planted in the minds of young adults by the TOI campaign. Maybe The Hindu decided to react – lest they lose a whole generation of new readers who would end up growing with TOI. So, yes The Hindu probably was justified partly, am still reluctant to be whole hearted here, to take on TOI.
That aside, the choice of target audience for The Hindu’s campaign, I should say, was bang on. Young adults – who are increasingly being gleaned away by sensationalism and trivia at the cost of sense and knowledge. One could see a distinct degradation of the English language in the mouths of the young, the lack of depth of knowledge in their heads and a misunderstanding of what’s important for their jobs, careers and lives. I am the least bit being philosophical or judgmental. I am only worried these traits would affect the young adults’ chances of survival in these competitive times.
And therein lay the crux of The Hindu’s campaign. It is talking to a generation that’s growing up soaking nuisance masquerading as news and nonsense dressed up as current affairs, and choosing a paper that glorifies it. The Hindu’s campaign has been spot on. Readers of TOI are losers and hollow!
But then, one of the cardinal mistakes of marketing is to tell the target he or she is wrong. Even worse, term them idiots. The Hindu campaign, in a blatant way, does just that. Would that intimidate the TOI reader?
But then, I don’t think this Hindu campaign aims at weaning away the TOI reader. Maybe it shouldn’t either. The TOI audience is different from the Hindu’s. But what Hindu’s campaign does, and what I think The Hindu should continue to do, is to put the fear of God among the undecided and paint a picture in their minds the perils of preferring a newspaper that personifies hollowness and utter lack of depth. If that can be achieved, a whole new generation of users would feel cool and sensible to pick The Hindu. That would arrest the growth of TOI in the South. Which incidentally is where I think this campaign would have most of its effect. I doubt if the North, where The Hindu has been traditionally weak at best and non-existent at worst, would ever witness a shift in preferences.
Now what next? For starters, I expect TOI to take The Hindu to the court. The viewer could easily pick up the dumb characters in the ads mouthing ‘TIMES OF INDIA’; the beep sounds notwithstanding. It’s for the courts to decide if this can be termed disparagement.
And TOI will react. After all it’s the largest English daily. They might resort to statistics – how they are the largest newspaper, how they grown the most among the youth, how the who’s who is reading it etc. Such a campaign would be hopelessly weak to say the least. TOI, true to its true sensational style, would try and hit The Hindu below the belt. That’s the only place the TOI can ever be good at!
Also note that everyone in the ad voices TOI. So TOI can come out with a campaign quoting that and saying how they are the No.1 brand among the 18 to 35 or whatever. Feeble response, if it were to be.
At the end of the day, The Hindu has been provoked and woken up. As the old Tamil saying goes: The wrath of the quiet sadhu when awakened will shake the forest.
This Sadhu has gone one step further: He has brutally raped TOI and thrown it into the gutter, where it rightly belongs. And I love it!
Friday, January 13, 2012
Marketing Lessons: Govinda Goooooooovinda!
Marketing is amazingly easy to learn. And learn from unexpected sources too - people, products, places....and hell, even from places of worship!
Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD). How about learning some marketing from the world’s richest Temple authority – the BCCI of Hindu temples, so to speak!
You know the colossal crowds in Tirupathi Temple every single day. The titanic turnout is a sight to behold – provided you aren’t one among the crowd and only sight it from a distance! From sinners to sincere devotees; from people who come with a request to people who return to payback, Tirupathi is one cosmic ecosystem in itself! While the crowds are a testimony to Tirupathi’s brand pull, it also serves as a turn off!
So, what do you do as a marketer? Simple; you open new branches! When your shop gets huge crowds in a city, you open new outlets. And when it keeps growing, you expand across to other cities. So you get more walk-ins; they go back contended, having consumed your brand; word of mouth spreads; and voila, you increase your revenues!
TTD is doing precisely that. It’s planning to build Venkateswara Temples at various places across the country. New distribution outlets – allow me to say so – are to come up at Navi Mumbai, Kanyakumari and New Delhi. Plans are also afoot to convert the guesthouse and rooms at the TTD’s Chennai Information centre in T.Nagar and convert it into a full-fledged Temple....another branch that is.
Thus, increased footfalls and enhanced market share too!
Now how do you augment revenue – not from new customers but from existing ones? Simple, you go hi-tech, partner with professionals, take the e-route and profit from your existing customers....when they bow in the temple. Literally!
TTD has tied up with MSTC Ltd., the public sector trading house known for facilitating electronic auction of commodities and products – coal, manganese, scrap etc., - to profitably dispose of the huge stock of 471 tonnes of hair, offered by lakhs of devotees.
Raw hair, in general, is cleaned and categorized by local buyers and finds a huge market abroad, mostly for manufacture of wigs. So far, TTD had been selling hair through the traditional auction route. The Internet based e-auction has completely changed the rules of the game. The last sale was effected at a hair-raising (pardon my pun) Rs.133 crore (at approximately Rs. 2,824 a kg). This was 27% higher than the reserve price of Rs. 105 crores set earlier.
And this is set to swell. The last auction did not see foreign users participating directly. But MSTC is hopeful that they would soon take direct interest, raising the hair....I mean the proceeds!
This is just the tip of the icebergian hair growth! TTD is contemplating using the services of MSTC to auction the tonnes of silver and gold that devotees are only too happy to drop in the Temple’s humongous hundis everyday! Read revenues!
And there’s more. The Temple also gets, from its patrons, pots of provisions everyday - grapes, fresh fruits, dry fruits etc., worth Rs. 300–400 crores a year. They are to be auctioned too. The coffers are set to swell.
I think TTD could do much more. How about official Tirupathi memorabilia sold through authorized TTD outlets in and around the Temple? How about selling official Venkateswara merchandise around the country by exploring the franchisee route? How about banded Tirupathi Laddus sold through stores across the country using the distribution might of a company like Levers or ITC? How about Tirupathi and Venkateswara branded screen savers, ring tones, caller tunes.....you name it!
Yedukundala vaada Govinda Goooooooovinda!
Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD). How about learning some marketing from the world’s richest Temple authority – the BCCI of Hindu temples, so to speak!
You know the colossal crowds in Tirupathi Temple every single day. The titanic turnout is a sight to behold – provided you aren’t one among the crowd and only sight it from a distance! From sinners to sincere devotees; from people who come with a request to people who return to payback, Tirupathi is one cosmic ecosystem in itself! While the crowds are a testimony to Tirupathi’s brand pull, it also serves as a turn off!
So, what do you do as a marketer? Simple; you open new branches! When your shop gets huge crowds in a city, you open new outlets. And when it keeps growing, you expand across to other cities. So you get more walk-ins; they go back contended, having consumed your brand; word of mouth spreads; and voila, you increase your revenues!
TTD is doing precisely that. It’s planning to build Venkateswara Temples at various places across the country. New distribution outlets – allow me to say so – are to come up at Navi Mumbai, Kanyakumari and New Delhi. Plans are also afoot to convert the guesthouse and rooms at the TTD’s Chennai Information centre in T.Nagar and convert it into a full-fledged Temple....another branch that is.
Thus, increased footfalls and enhanced market share too!
Now how do you augment revenue – not from new customers but from existing ones? Simple, you go hi-tech, partner with professionals, take the e-route and profit from your existing customers....when they bow in the temple. Literally!
TTD has tied up with MSTC Ltd., the public sector trading house known for facilitating electronic auction of commodities and products – coal, manganese, scrap etc., - to profitably dispose of the huge stock of 471 tonnes of hair, offered by lakhs of devotees.
Raw hair, in general, is cleaned and categorized by local buyers and finds a huge market abroad, mostly for manufacture of wigs. So far, TTD had been selling hair through the traditional auction route. The Internet based e-auction has completely changed the rules of the game. The last sale was effected at a hair-raising (pardon my pun) Rs.133 crore (at approximately Rs. 2,824 a kg). This was 27% higher than the reserve price of Rs. 105 crores set earlier.
And this is set to swell. The last auction did not see foreign users participating directly. But MSTC is hopeful that they would soon take direct interest, raising the hair....I mean the proceeds!
This is just the tip of the icebergian hair growth! TTD is contemplating using the services of MSTC to auction the tonnes of silver and gold that devotees are only too happy to drop in the Temple’s humongous hundis everyday! Read revenues!
And there’s more. The Temple also gets, from its patrons, pots of provisions everyday - grapes, fresh fruits, dry fruits etc., worth Rs. 300–400 crores a year. They are to be auctioned too. The coffers are set to swell.
I think TTD could do much more. How about official Tirupathi memorabilia sold through authorized TTD outlets in and around the Temple? How about selling official Venkateswara merchandise around the country by exploring the franchisee route? How about banded Tirupathi Laddus sold through stores across the country using the distribution might of a company like Levers or ITC? How about Tirupathi and Venkateswara branded screen savers, ring tones, caller tunes.....you name it!
Yedukundala vaada Govinda Goooooooovinda!
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Recycled celebrities
There seems to be a sudden dearth of celebrities to endorse brands. Then what explains even competing brands signing up erstwhile celebrities of their competitors?
Fiama di Wills has signed up the same grandma who not too long ago was extolling the virtues of Hamam Nalangu Maavu brand. Never mind she is not a popular actress; and ignore the fact that the much-hyped Hamam variant bit the dust. Has India run out of grandmas?
What about the case of Sachin being signed up by Coke. This cola bottle sized celebrity was seen endorsing Pepsi for more than a decade. Now that you put a Coke in his hand, is the general public supposed to forget Pepsi? Every time and in every Coke commercial if the average consumer sees Sachin with a cola in his hand, wouldn’t he be thinking Pepsi? Even if most of us suffer from short-term memory loss.
The new addition to this madness is my favourite company (if you know what I mean) Hindustan Unilever. They have signed up actress Asin to make their Fair & Lovely even fairer!
Who are they kidding? Asin for half a decade was applying Fairever on her face or so she claimed in all Fairever advertising. Today, she gets up on the wrong side of the bed and has started applying Fair & Lovely. And wants us to follow suit. Excuse me?
Using celebrities in itself is fraught with risk. Remember Accenture’s predicament? Having tied themselves intricately with Tiger Woods, they were left high and dry when Tiger Woods was found flirting with 19th after every 18-hole golf game!
Now, why would any sensible marketer (never mind if it’s an oxymoron) ever use their competitor’s celebrity?
Is this country bereft of celebrities? Or, are marketers bereft of common sense?
Fiama di Wills has signed up the same grandma who not too long ago was extolling the virtues of Hamam Nalangu Maavu brand. Never mind she is not a popular actress; and ignore the fact that the much-hyped Hamam variant bit the dust. Has India run out of grandmas?
What about the case of Sachin being signed up by Coke. This cola bottle sized celebrity was seen endorsing Pepsi for more than a decade. Now that you put a Coke in his hand, is the general public supposed to forget Pepsi? Every time and in every Coke commercial if the average consumer sees Sachin with a cola in his hand, wouldn’t he be thinking Pepsi? Even if most of us suffer from short-term memory loss.
The new addition to this madness is my favourite company (if you know what I mean) Hindustan Unilever. They have signed up actress Asin to make their Fair & Lovely even fairer!
Who are they kidding? Asin for half a decade was applying Fairever on her face or so she claimed in all Fairever advertising. Today, she gets up on the wrong side of the bed and has started applying Fair & Lovely. And wants us to follow suit. Excuse me?
Using celebrities in itself is fraught with risk. Remember Accenture’s predicament? Having tied themselves intricately with Tiger Woods, they were left high and dry when Tiger Woods was found flirting with 19th after every 18-hole golf game!
Now, why would any sensible marketer (never mind if it’s an oxymoron) ever use their competitor’s celebrity?
Is this country bereft of celebrities? Or, are marketers bereft of common sense?
Friday, November 25, 2011
Does advertising work?
The citizens of Madras, over the past few days, have been witness to David taking on Goliath. Times of India (never mind it’s a Goliath elsewhere) has been trying to take The Hindu head on with a series of ads that has a sleeping man in everyday situations of Madras with a screaming line: Is the morning news putting you to sleep? Wake up to the Times of India.
Is the campaign working? Has the ad woken up the citizens of Madras to the perils of sleeping with The Hindu and moving to the Times of India instead?
We would know once the next round of INS data comes in.
But The Hindu certainly seemed to have woken up! Readers of The Hindu – the venerable Maha Vishnu of Mount Road – have been waking up to a change. A change in the kind of news one gets to read in The Hindu.
No, The Hindu’s impeccable language and unimpeachable use of the English language haven’t changed. Not definitely the absolute trustworthiness of its news reporting. Nor its unbelievable depth of coverage. These and other hallmarks of world class journalism that one could find only in The Hindu, hasn’t changed one iota.
But the kind of news The Hindu has added to its repertoire certainly has. ‘Why this Kolaveridi’ song (that everyone is raving about) was analyzed threadbare in The Hindu. And guess where? On prime real estate…..the front page! Never in my life have I, or for that matter millions of loyal Hindu readers, seen anything remotely similar in the first page of our morning master.
A few days back there was a complete postmortem of the decline of Kingfisher airlines……front page piece again.
There have been more changes too. The kind of headlines The Hindu now uses. The kind of news from Page 2 through the last. You could see and smell change - albeit some of them minor. The Hindu is racier now, so to speak. Funnier now, so to add. The Hindu is seeing change, to say the least!
So, coming back to the question, yes, advertising does work. Though quite not in the way TOI might have expected to! It has woken up a sleeping giant and probably getting ready to get crushed!
It’s time for Times of India to wake up……to a marauding Hindu!
Is the campaign working? Has the ad woken up the citizens of Madras to the perils of sleeping with The Hindu and moving to the Times of India instead?
We would know once the next round of INS data comes in.
But The Hindu certainly seemed to have woken up! Readers of The Hindu – the venerable Maha Vishnu of Mount Road – have been waking up to a change. A change in the kind of news one gets to read in The Hindu.
No, The Hindu’s impeccable language and unimpeachable use of the English language haven’t changed. Not definitely the absolute trustworthiness of its news reporting. Nor its unbelievable depth of coverage. These and other hallmarks of world class journalism that one could find only in The Hindu, hasn’t changed one iota.
But the kind of news The Hindu has added to its repertoire certainly has. ‘Why this Kolaveridi’ song (that everyone is raving about) was analyzed threadbare in The Hindu. And guess where? On prime real estate…..the front page! Never in my life have I, or for that matter millions of loyal Hindu readers, seen anything remotely similar in the first page of our morning master.
A few days back there was a complete postmortem of the decline of Kingfisher airlines……front page piece again.
There have been more changes too. The kind of headlines The Hindu now uses. The kind of news from Page 2 through the last. You could see and smell change - albeit some of them minor. The Hindu is racier now, so to speak. Funnier now, so to add. The Hindu is seeing change, to say the least!
So, coming back to the question, yes, advertising does work. Though quite not in the way TOI might have expected to! It has woken up a sleeping giant and probably getting ready to get crushed!
It’s time for Times of India to wake up……to a marauding Hindu!
Friday, November 11, 2011
11.11.11
Marketers are excellent exploiters of sentiments, we know. But there are times when they exceed themselves and go to ridiculous extents. The latest is this brouhaha happening across the Indian marketing landscape today. I am talking about the 11.11.11 syndrome.
Agreed it’s a unique date and all that. But it’s just the eleventh such unique date this decade. Every Tom, Dick, Harry and his marketing uncle are onto this bandwagon. Take today’s newspaper. It’s awash with advertisements extolling the virtues of this date and giving 11.11.11 offers.
A bank says its opening 111 branches today. Which one? I don’t remember.
Some vacation package company is offering some 11 days stay with 11 day something else thrown with another 11 something into the package. What exactly is the package? And which vacation company? No idea.
And there is this premium hotel charging some 11.11.11 rate for those who stay in their rooms today. What offer and which hotel? It went over my head and had gone past my senses and I don’t remember.
Another something brand is offering another 11 something with another 11 and one more 11 to boot. Which one and what is the offer? Don’t even bother asking. I have the foggiest.
See, this is the problem. The problem of plenty. The pitfalls of a dozen brands offering something similar. So, which brand is offering which? No one knows. And even worse, no customer seems to care.
It’s like spotting a fully-tonsured friend of yours in Tirupathi. Well neigh impossible since everyone looks the same. It’s like looking at Chinese faces. Everyone looks similar!
And so is every brand today - across every category - offering something spectacularly similar. I couldn’t find one brand which stands out today nor could I spot one offer that claimed attention. It was just a plain wallpaper effect!
I have a small piece of advice to all these brands that tried riding this 11.11.11 thing. Analyze the offer performance vis-à-vis campaign objectives. Do an honest post-launch evaluation. Check if your brand achieved even a semblance of salience and a modicum of success. The findings will help you 13 months from now.
When 12.12.12 dawns on us!
Agreed it’s a unique date and all that. But it’s just the eleventh such unique date this decade. Every Tom, Dick, Harry and his marketing uncle are onto this bandwagon. Take today’s newspaper. It’s awash with advertisements extolling the virtues of this date and giving 11.11.11 offers.
A bank says its opening 111 branches today. Which one? I don’t remember.
Some vacation package company is offering some 11 days stay with 11 day something else thrown with another 11 something into the package. What exactly is the package? And which vacation company? No idea.
And there is this premium hotel charging some 11.11.11 rate for those who stay in their rooms today. What offer and which hotel? It went over my head and had gone past my senses and I don’t remember.
Another something brand is offering another 11 something with another 11 and one more 11 to boot. Which one and what is the offer? Don’t even bother asking. I have the foggiest.
See, this is the problem. The problem of plenty. The pitfalls of a dozen brands offering something similar. So, which brand is offering which? No one knows. And even worse, no customer seems to care.
It’s like spotting a fully-tonsured friend of yours in Tirupathi. Well neigh impossible since everyone looks the same. It’s like looking at Chinese faces. Everyone looks similar!
And so is every brand today - across every category - offering something spectacularly similar. I couldn’t find one brand which stands out today nor could I spot one offer that claimed attention. It was just a plain wallpaper effect!
I have a small piece of advice to all these brands that tried riding this 11.11.11 thing. Analyze the offer performance vis-à-vis campaign objectives. Do an honest post-launch evaluation. Check if your brand achieved even a semblance of salience and a modicum of success. The findings will help you 13 months from now.
When 12.12.12 dawns on us!
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