SEE…

Often we hear the marketing gurus saying “It’s all in there, You just have to see”. Well, that is the key to finding opportunities and new markets. There are so many innovations and new products and services cropping up from previously unknown persons, avenues and sources from across the world. Its all because the person who brings out the innovation just sees what others oversee. There is a readily available  solution to every practical problem. We just have to spot it.

On a recent business trip to Jakarta , I noticed something that was very interesting and made me think “Oh yes..! Why did not  somebody think of this in India?”. Look at the photo below.

My client’s office was located on the General Sudirman road, Jakarta. It was heavily pouring down one evening, and me, my colleagues and client representatives where waiting in the portico for our car. There where these young kids (looks showed that they are obviously from economically backward families) and few elders standing close to the portico holding an umbrella each. As and when some one comes out of the office building, these guys go across to them offering the umbrella. If you wish to take it, they hand it over to you and walk besides you in the rain, until you reach your destination(usually the nearby bus stop or a parking lot across the block). After you reach that place you can hand over the umbrella and pay them some small amount. My Indonesian friend told me they usually charge anywhere between 2000 IDR to 5000 IDR depending upon the distance.

Now this is not a regular source of income. However, when it rains (as it does half the year in Jakarta), these people make a good sum to serve their daily needs. This would be a very good service to be available in any country or city where it rains heavily and people are willing to pay a little for the service. How many times have you come out of office and wait in the lounge hoping that the rain would stop for you to walk across to the bus stop or reach your car. As they say, the need is there, we only have to see.

Freeconomic browsing… for everyone

Two years back it was Chris Anderson who spoke about Freeconomics on Wired.com. Google was one of the prominent examples quoted in the web space of doing business the Freeconomic way. Even today every single offering from the Google stable is FREE. Right from their mail service to search engine to GOOG-411 to Picasa. This is understandable given the business model that google follows. But today there is something that google has done…. Guess what… They ‘ve thrown up full page advertisements for one of their FREE products, the browser CHROME. The pic below is their ad that waspublished on today’s Chennai edition of THE HINDU. This I think might be the first ever ad published by Google for their product. And I think this could also be the first ever print ad for a Web browser. (Ppl pls educate me if u know any such ads from the past).  How and from where they account for these marketing costs? Well it’s for you to guess… Guess this is their way of celebrating their 12th Birthday. But for now Surfing is fast and its for everyone. Happy Chroming..!! But for Microsoft and Internet Explorer, Guess they are still exploring ways to overtake google.

This could be another first... Yet again from Google.

Disruptive technology…….

Technological innovations have been happening at lightning pace. Today is totally different from yesterday and tomorrow is gonna be completely new. That much is for sure. Time scale for change has come down from a few years to few days in certain fields and even few minutes in certain other fields.

We all must have pleasant memories of the days when we used to buy film rolls from konica / kodak and load them onto the still cameras made by Yashica and co…. (Few of us might would have even not had luxury of owning an camera, But I bet you must have watched this and wanted to do it.) Once the cam is loaded, put in the Eveready batteries and start click fotos with utmost care so that you dont run out of the film midway. 36 was a very significant number back then. Used to repeatedly check the number of clicks left to reach the end of the film. You thought tens of of times before clicking something. Having one more film roll was added luxury on most trips leave alone the spare batteries. I used to be scolding from mom for taking pictures of flowers and landscapes without any human subject in the picture. Well she is not to blame. With just 36 pictures to take, any one would want to cover people(family and friends) more than mother nature.

After clicking the entire roll, you then patiently wait praying to get out the prints with good quality. You never know what it is going to be like until the very minute you recieve your photo prints(after a day). Printed to the dimensions of Maxi size, kept inside a paper pouch along with the negative. I even remember the studio guys offering a 1 litre Fanta or Pepsi bottle free for every two film rolls dveleoped(72 prints). And hey you also get free albums to insert your organise your clicks.

Today with your point and shoot digi cams you can go on clicking hundreds of snaps without having to replace the batteries or the memory card. U can even review the fotos then and there in the 2 to 3 inch LCD screen and delete those clicks you feel are not upto the mark. No film roll hassles, no limit of fotos. My 5 year old cousin can handle the digi cam with utmost ease and shoot lovely fotos.

This past sunday I had been to Trissur, Kerala for my friend’s sis wedding. We happened to get stranded there for one extra day for want of return tickets to Chennai. So we decided to go down to Athirampally falls and Vazhachaal on the next day and then take a bus from Coimbatore to Chennai that night. Look at what I saw there , that too in a Chaya kada run by two elderly people. Felt totally surprised and nostalgic. Hope you all will feel the same.

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O-o-H 2.0 …. Outdoor Advertising refreshed

We have seen large banners, colorful flex boards, LED lighted Billboards etc etc where the ad guys put up their brands for the public to see… Here in India We ‘ve seen them adorn top of the sky scrapers, side of the towers, alongside roads and highways, on roof tops around important junctions on the buses and trains even the flights.

Take the famous temple city of Madurai, in southern India. It is, has been and will continue to be a traditional city for ages. After a recent ruling all the ad hoardings across Madurai were removed leaving blank steel skeletons standing tall on the road sides.

However recently a new place to post these outdoor ads have been found in Madurai. Guess what ?! Nothing but the walls of public toilets which I doubt are being built solely for this purpose. Check out this foto I clicked at the busy Palanganatham junction where the NH 7 meets the By-pass road.

The one inthe pic above is a newly built public Toilet whose front and side walls are covered with these bright ad boards for a leading Textile shop in the state. Such buildings are being at a few more places across the city and all of them carry the same ad. That’s OOH 2.0… for a city like Madurai.

Box Office Success

Awe inspiring movie making…; Creativity at its best…; Technological innovation transforming into silver screen magic…; Intriguing way of unveiling the plot and storytelling…; Top notch technicians….; Celluloid beauties and Screen idols…; Personal touch moulding century old story lines into modern-day novelties… This is how I would think of most of the Hollywood Box office successes and their reasons for raking in the millions and made them Historical master pieces worth watching over and over.

The story in Bollywood is a tad different. They thrive on sensationalism, fantasy, demi god heroes, script and lyrics and music to create success and draw the crowd. For decades it has been the family values and tradition that they utilise to define the plot. Very few movies stand apart and have experimented and travelled the Road less travelled. There have been far more people taking these bold decisions off late.

Coming down further south and seeing how Box office success was and is created in Kollywood….

For several years it has always been Hero centric movies in the Kollywood. Right from MKT Bhagavathar, M.G.R, and Rajinikanth to the current crop of heroes, its been all about the hero worshipping the mother’s feet, speaking bold dialogues on the face of the camera, dancing around trees with gorgeous actresses (most of them totally alien to the Tamil language) and pouncing on the bad gang. Again the ones who take the other road are very less here too. But there has been a prominent rise of one particular force in one of the biggest film industries in the world.

That force is nothing but – “Marketing and TV media publicity”. This has been the reason behind several latest successes (in terms of box office collection).  Even though most ofthese films might get only average rating from a traditional film critic, they all have managed to earn decent returns. Sun Pictures with with backing of Sun Network’s array of channels, FM stations, political muscle and marketing acumen has made a string of medium budget movie releases. All have been above average on earnings. The group buys distribution and marketing rights of many Minimum return-guarantee  films and plans the release of all of them on a sequential manner. Targeted, well planned list of trailers get released day after day, building momentum gradually right up to the release day. This is followed by half an hour interactive programmes with the Movie team (Director, Actor, Actress, Producer and comedian) on each of their channels. Dont forget the Audio release, Movie preview, Movie Launch functions aired on a 3 hour time slot. This is what we call Fully Loaded 

This is one aspect of the force. the other aspect is that it has become a blessing in disguise for the movie production houses who find it difficult to market and bring in the needed RoI for their films. This has helped them to recover whatever they have invested with a decent margin and thus encouraging them to produce more movies. It has also helped a lot of new comers get chances to prove their mettle. Overall even though the movies run just because of the marketing genius, this new found success formula has extended the shelf life of medium budget movie makers.

Can the same tactic work out for other products genres too ??!!

Shopping for ad space…. This Diwali…

With so much of cricket going around at some place or the other, ICC is finding it hard to finalize the ICC Future Tours Programme. In its path towards making cricket a truly global sport, the planning needs to be done perfectly with equal mix of matches and venues and game formats. With three different formats and so much of cricket, the players have to be at superb fitness levels. The packed fixtures had already had its toll,  like early retirements from international cricket and opting to play in cash rich tourneys like IPL and also repetitive injury to players. However for any cricket buff things are just the way John Abraham puts it “There is so much cricket that life has to wait“.

Given all this and the number of competitive cricket the top team play, do we really need a  bi-annual Champion Trophy .. ??! To be honest, after the thrilling Ahses series, I did not even have interest to follow the one day series between the Aussies and the English. That too a 7 match series that is clearly tilted one way, I rather would prefer catching up with the results later on or even forget it.

For ICC this event is just another way to earn in terms of broadcast rights and sponsorship deals. After fighting past various odds in the form of terrorism and fixtures clash, the current edition which is all set to begin tomorrow. With so many millions invested, ESPN Star which bagged the rights for this edition have gone over board to reach out. Starting with nearly a year long ad campaign to adding the touch of Diwali to the theme its been ‘trying-every-trick-in-the-bag’ kind of effort from them.

[Xtra - two different ad promos for the event one with a host of players from different teams and there is one with only Indian stars in it]

I believe that it is an appreciable and greatly timed move from ESPN Star to come up with a Diwali linked ad for the event. I feel that this ad not aimed at the viewers but cleverly targeted at other companies who have not shown much interest in buying ad time. Wondering why ??!!.. Well with the event coinciding with the festive season, you get a chance to keep flashing your brand to the lakhs and lakhs of people watching the matches which increases the ‘Top-of-mind-recall’ (may not be a drastic increase, but a sure increase). ESPN has hinted out at the marketers to use this opportunity to strike it right with the consumers.

Apart from the question of this tournament being a redundant one or not, the real questions are

1. Will this event command high TRP on the lines of T20 events?   2. Will the brands flashed during the matches see a increased sales volume this festival season?  3. Will the event support the cause of retaining the 50 over format of cricket?

For us Team India supporters, it doesnt matter what format, which venue or which event. We just have two questions in mind to be answered at the end.

1. How convincingly did India beat Pakistan?

2. Did we win the finals and the cup?

All the best Team India, Lets pray that this time around the Safari turns out to be worthy.

Wid Luv,

Indian Cricket Fan

C for… Cat,Christ,Cocaine,Calorie,Chemistry,Congress,Church, C programming language ..??!!

The third alphabet, “C” could have stood for so many things so far…… But nowadays I think the word that deserves to get the credit is “Convergence”. My Strategy professor at BIM-Bangalore, the late Dr. V G Ratnam, often used to say that the  Companies that dont have Convergence capabilities will soon die. We have had quite a many discussions on this during our case discussions at BIM. Some recent products and announcements made me believe even more on the importance of convergence.

We can take examples that are as simple as the digicam to the intelligent rocket engines. All the fields have seen at least a small degree of technological convergence happening. The latest trends however are particularly phenomenal in the field of In-home entertainment. We, the consumers are in for a big treat as the companies are fighting it out to be the first to introduce the new technologies. Lets see a few examples of what is in store for the future of “Hometainment – The In Home-Entertainment”.

Recently we saw LG, the Korean giant launch the Scarlet 2.0 series of TV’s that have embedded Bluetooth connectivity. These new range of TV’s can connect to other devices that support Bluetooth 2.0 and thus receive data directly and display them.

Airtel might not be coming out with stunning concepts for its ads these days(Read Zoozoo’s) when compared to Vodafone. But its emphasis on quality digital products and new technology services has not faded. The Airtel Digital TV (Airtel’s DTH service) which now boasts of embedded widgets that range from weather reports to programme reminders has created quite an interest . What more, they are now showcasing “Ordering Pizzas thro’ TV” feature as part of the iTV. This is for certain a “First in India” feature.

Now if you were bowled over after you saw that ad, then I would say you have not seen it all. The software major, Adobe Systems Inc has decided to make use of its competency in the field of Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) technology to reach out to the millions of TV viewers across the globe. In April this year, Adobe has announced the extension of its Flash content platfromto be used in TV’s and the associated Hometainment devices. And to add to the excitement, it seems major players from the technology and media industry including Broadcom, Intel, Comcast, Disney Interactive, Netflix, New York Times Company, NXP Semiconductors, Sigma Designs, STMicroelectronics, Atlantic Records etc have shown interest and positive reactions to Adobe’s move.

Guys, get ready for the next big revolution in entertainment… Could this be Adobe’s best in the field of Hoemtainment equivalent to what Photoshop has been in Photography ? Lets wait and watch… though watching television at home will never be the same again..

With luv from Outer Space… Godrej travels brandishly

The Godrej group can be cited as one of the most diversified and best examples of a”Branded house” in India. The decades old group is in the process of a prolongated rebranding exercise. What started with the colourful make over of the logo and rejuvenating the ads to be more refreshing and pleasant, is now continuing with repositioning of their products in each of the categories. For instance, the recent Cinthol ads have been given a face lift with Hristhik Roshan endorsing the brand. I personally feel that this ad ( to emphasize on the 24hr long protection) where they show case the cinthol deo chasing Hrithik in a desert setting is of the most “ordinary-in-class” types.

The group has also brought in a series of ads and new range of products in the white goods category over the past dozen months. All of them carry the brand name Godrej EON and have been touted to be equipped with latest digital technology. They had also launched an Air conditioner (AC) under this name is as “Godrej EON Air Conditioners. Godrej has continously supported this product range with ample ad spend. A survey done last year suggests that the Godrej EON AC’s led the market with 16% share of the total ads aired in Jan-Mar 2008. This year too I am sure they have spent enough to command a good Top-of-Mind recall. And to add to all that, this summer Godrej has taken up a new way to rebrand this product by showcasing its technology competency in an other field.

 The Precision Components & Systems Division (PCS) Division or the Godrej Aerospace Labs as it is projected these days has been around for over two decades now. However very little has been known about PCS to the end consumer over these years. Talking on the lines of brand awareness, we can as well say the PCS division would score very much near zero when surveyed amongst the general public on their Brand Recognition score. This division is said to have supplied many crucial components to various Indian Space missions over the years. After all these years of existence and excellence in the aerospace technology, the marketing brains at Godrej have thought of a new way to leverage this expertise. Little would have the competitiors known that Godrej will start usign its Aerospace Labs as an endorsement for its EON brand of AC’s. No one stopped you from using the positives of one product / division from your stable to improvizse the position of the other. That is exactly what Godrej has done.

The manner in which they have done the endorsement is also truely systematic. They did not start by putting Aerospace Labs labels all over the Eon AC’s overnight. They began by first getting the customer to familiarise with the Aerospace labs division. In other words they first put up ads to improve the Brand awareness for the labs division. (remember the Ad where the coffee mug floats in the Vaccuum…). This kept the consumers guessing and increased their curiosity to know more about the labs. Im sure many of us would have googled about these labs the very next day.(Well, I did it for sure). Then they upped the ante slightly by showcasing the achievements and what they have done for ISRO over the years. And finally last week they came out with the ad that says they have used their experience in Aerospace technologies to craft the best in class AC’s for the consumers(What and Idea Sir ji ?!! ).

And yesterday they had the same thign done to advertise their Interior decor range of products. Sold under the brand name “Godrej Interio” , the ads for this product now say that the companies expertise in buiding compact aero space components has helped them design compact and efficiently space utilizing interior decors.

To put it simply, they have helped the consumers learn about an otherwise unknown brand from the Godrej group and have succesfully graduated to the level of using this relatively lesser known brand to endorse the othjer brands from the house of Godrej. This is purely marvelous stuff from Godrej and the minds behind this campaign.

The new age Political playground : Rise of Web 2.0 & Social Media in Indian Politics

I believe a majority of the politicians in India play the game based on the Social classes of the country. There were days when candidates won purely based on the votes from people belonging to their own social class or caste. And there have been cases where candidates have played well with the social set up itself in order to gain advantage. This happened with the likes of  Nitish’s JDU and Laloo’s RJD in the state of Bihar. When RJD garnered majority with the ‘Yadava’ votes, JDU’s supremo has been successful in re-engineering the society itself. (He was the one to come up with the new the new class of the society called the Mahadalits).

This propaganda of has remained the same to much of an extent over the decades. However the current elections have seen a surge in the role of the Internet and the other innovative media being put to use by the politicians. It makes me believe that the campaign team of Barack Obama and its way of making use of the web has inspired the think tanks of the Indian Politicians. Obama has for sure brought about a noticeable change in the way Indian politicians battle each other. The “Obama way of campaign” as I would like to call it, has been a great success. Business houses around the world have learnt a lot from this masterful campaign strategy, especially onthe angles of leveraging the powers of Web 2.0. The parties have now found a new way to reach the masses with their agenda.BJP I would say has made the best use of the web offerings. They are making fullest possible use of all the so called Web 2.0 platforms and avenues. They even have the credit of picking up graduates from IIM’s to intern with them and aid “LK” ji on his strategic moves for this election.

We have young candidates like Milind Deora who are active on the social networking sites like facebook.The site for “LK” ji has links to all the major social networking sites including Orkut, Facebook and Youtube. The site has options to join the discussion forums too. Onecan register to receive updates via e-mail and SMS. The website is in no way sub standard. It has been designed and maintained in a very professional way.

Then we have this young South Chennai candidate Sarath Babu with a real Life rags-to-riches story. He talks of his early life and the way he fought his battles while addressing various forums and meets (thereby going about inspiring young people to do what they want to do). Not a surprise that he was Voted Pepsi MTV Youth Icon 2008. An alumnus of BITS-Pilani and IIM-A this first generation entrepreneur has taken up politics to eradicate hunger. His website was launched recently and his campaign is very strongly dependant on his on-line network of friends and in turn their friends. With wide spread media coverage and prompt help from his social networking circles he has achieved a phenomenal reach at least to the educated, web savvy vote bank of south Chennai. He is also leveraging the brand values of IIM and BITS to the his best advantage.

After decades of dominance on the traditional media forums, the politicans have now come to steal the lime light on the social media also. They might not quite deliver the change that they promise to bring, but their ways of winning over votes has undergone a sea change in the past decade. We can even say that this change marks a huge forward looking strategic shift in the campaign media strategy.

This would present Marketeers and PR pros with a new opportunities. And what does this mean for the general public??!!

If the politicians continue to mobilise support and opinions through the social media, it would be a very effective and fast way to compile public Opinion. And the social media will prove to be a very very effective forum to voice our opinions and gather mass support in huge numbers so as to gain the attention of the Government. Well these might take a bit of time to happen, but will happen for sure. … Let hope that Change happens in India too.

And by the way guys,  pls cast your precious votes. Remember its still the old way, You can’t enjoy the convenience of On-line voting.

SARS, 9/11, Oil Prices, Recession and now Swine flu

Any event that affects global sentiments, will affect the aviation industry without any doubt… That is what I get to derive from what has been happening to this lucrative industry over the past decade or so.

We had the 9/11, the deadliest terror attack on American soil which suddenly sent shock waves around the world making people to fear air travel. A few years later came SARS that proved even more deadly. These two incidents in history saw a big lull in global air traffic. Drastically bringing down revenues and air traffic. Reports say that in September 2001, when a larger part of the global fleet was grounded temporarily, the decline was in air traffic was 13.9%.

IATA’s outlook for the current year has not been very encouraging either to the aviation players.  The economic slowdown has prompted travelers to spend every penny more wisely. An estimated 30 to 35% of all the cargo is transported via air. IATA’s director general Giovanni Bisignani had commented that “2009 is shaping up to be one of the toughest ever years”.
The fall in crude prices has done no good except for a few airlines who have managed to stay in the black. But a majority of the players are still running in the red zone. In a recent interview Bisignani has said “It’s not the end of the recession, but we may have found the floor.” .. Floor all right…. But how low is that floor ??!

Now given all this, we have another threat.. In comes the Swine Flu from the pig farms of Mexico. Thanks to the heavy consumption of bacon and pork across North America, these regions have thickly(really thick) bred pig farms. This has given rise to the probability of infections being passed onf rom swine to the humans. Air travellers around the world have been issued safety warnings. Major MNC in Mexico have issued warnings to their workforce in Mexico as well as people going there. Airports have started using thermal scanners to detect infections. Generic flu vacines are the thing of the day in the pharma markets. Govenrments and Organisations around the world have started to gather vaccines adn medicines on a large scale.Now what have we go on our hands… Is it going to be another threat that the Airlien industry will shrug off ?! Yeah U bet they will shrug it off succesfully.