Amazon @ Seamless Innovation

Amazon’s Octocopter project swept many people e off their feet. It looked like future had arrived. Whether the project and idea is safe and more importantly legal in countries where Amazon would want to take this concept is a topic for a different day, but how revolutionary the idea is in terms of exceeding customer expectations in terms of delivery and service, we will take that into consideration for now. 

   

Marketing is not just about building a brand. It is also about creating a brand promise, communicating this promise to customers and most importantly, fulfilling that promise, time and over again.At a time when there is intense competition between companies to grab a share of consumer consumption, arriving at a brand promise and consistently delivering it is a critical factor for success of any brand and company.

Reliable, quick and hassle-free home-delivery is one such promise that is being made by a lot of companies these days. These companies are from sectors like e-commerce, food-chains, courier & logistics and many more.

With benchmarks for customer service and satisfaction rising due to the availability of alternatives and higher purchasing power, run of the mill ideas for marketing and customer services have started to feel the heat. Whether a company wants to grab its TG's attention or want to delight its customers through its service, innovation has become a game changer.Innovation has become a major factor to differentiate between ordinary and brilliant companies and brand.

Amazon is one such company which has always been know for its innovative approach towards its business.  The recent initiatives taken by Amazon testifies this. One is the much hyped experiment about using drones to deliver products to customers. But the other one is much local and much more viable option which many of us would not have imagined.

When a company demonstrates its futuristic delivery idea, how many of us would imagine that the same company is also roping in an organization tagged as old and slow – India Post, for the same objective- delivery! .  This is a classic example of seamless innovation. This is also something, which most of the organizations have not been able to achieve. When a company goes for all-tech futuristic innovations, it is almost impossible to have eyes open to more traditional avenues to innovate. Amazon did that.

The end objective in both the cases is same but the TG of course changes. The drone delivery would be for achieving quick delivery times and the India post collaboration is to achieve high penetration for the company in terms of customer reach. Not to forget the drone experiment was not done in India or for Indian market though, but the extent of pro-activeness and the efforts to achieve customer delight  is remarkable in the Jeff Bezos led company.

Also, one should note that Amazon's drone delivery experiment is not the first one since Dominoz has done this experiment in June this year already.

   

 But what makes Amazon special is the bandwidth of innovation it allows its employees and teams across globe to create value for their customer. This organizational culture not just enriches its employees with learning but also benefits its customers. Truly inspiring!

Cheers, 

Google Search Films - Business sense with Marketing 3.0

So what was the need for Google, already enjoying more than 95% of market share to make a series of ad films (Google search) promoting its presence and products?

When you are 95%+, it means it is just you!

The campaign is called Google search and was launched on 13^th November for netizens.  It has five films with the first film setting the tone for the other 4 films. The first film(Reunion) is 3:03 minutes long while the other ones are between 40-60 seconds each. We will stick this post to the first film which is the introduction and highest viewed film among the set of five.

With a view count of more than 6 million in less than 2 weeks and 66000+ likes, it is clear that viewers have accepted the ad and the concept whole heartedly.  Some of the comments on the film on youtube will make Google guys very proud of themselves.  The ad is going to be broadcasted on television from 25^th November. TVC space is expensive and the unique set of audience these ads will encounter on TV, will be the one which is not internet savvy, unlike the ones which have embraced the ad so strongly on net-space. Hence the question becomes even more critical. Does Google need this?

Before we answer this question, let us understand why this ad made such a furore on internet. Most have already figured out multiple emotional touch points these ads titillate, which have connected very well with the audience.

These are emotion of a generation who witnessed partition, friendship, affection, care etc.

Apart from this, Google has adopted an intelligent strategy of passive pitching in these ads. Nowhere in any of the film or voice over, the word ‘Google’  has been used. Hence, Google didn’t try to intrude the emotions and place its sales pitch into the films. Audience is intelligent and it always appreciates such gesture. A hard-sell approach would have killed the emotions!

Technically, this worked for Google since it is well-known by the viewers as a brand and hence it could afford to sit quietly as a product/service placed at multiple spots in the film but not announcing its presence. It worked better for Google because the films were released only on internet which means that it went to an audience who already knew what Google is.

Now coming to the ‘why?’

Shift towards  Marketing 3.0 –  With this campaign Google has promoted itself to Marketing 3.0 which as per Kotler is –

“...companies practicing Marketing 3.0 have bigger missions, visions, and values to contribute to the world; they aim to provide solutions to address problems in the society. Marketing 3.0 lifts the concept of marketing into the arena of human aspirations, values, and spirit”

This gives an edge and recall to the brand in audience’s mind as the brand is shown to celebrate human spirit and emotion.

The ad unlike believed however, is not a social or emotional build-up for nothing. There are subtle placements of the product/service which will make space in consumer’s consideration set without he/she being aware of it. These points are doing multiple things with multiple users –

• It is educating the unaware about the product
• It is bringing the product into consideration set for the fence-sitters
• It is making itself as the preferred choice for hopping consumers and win their loyalty

Here are these points which without being loud, registers in audience’s mind sub-consciously –

•  The first search shown in the film does not only show that Google is used for search, But it shows itself as the natural destination for search related services. It also shows Google to be the homepage which makes a lot of difference in the usage for a search engine
• Google autocomplete is shown to help the user with their searches hence pitching this small but clever innovation that adds to customer ease in internet search
• The very fact that the ad film seamlessly goes from a small mention of an old friend to them actually meeting shows the effectiveness of Google as a search engine. It basically suggests that Google search results are accurate and relevant to the search queries made
• In a very clever way, all the offerings were bundled together seamlessly in the film – Google maps, Google plus, weather app, flight information app. The one-stop shop idea was smoothly integrated with the script which educated the audience about other services

Apart from the above mentioned, there are three communication points that stand out in terms of the bigger strategy that Google might have in mind. While the above mentioned are subtle insertions to promote the product and service the next three are more important in terms of adding users who have not been to internet yet and those who are going advanced in terms of mobile technology.

The idea of the two young people being very comfortable with Google applications goes on to show the connect the brand has with youth. It shows that the youth has invariably accepted Google as their “know it all” friend. It positions the brand itself as a young brand. A trait very important for a brand to posses in a country where two-third of its population is under 35 years of age.

Another interesting aspect was the young boy in Pakistan in his sweet-shop using internet and Google applications with ease. It shows that the tech savvy tag is not exclusive to corporates and students any more. Google shows that it has breached these boundaries to go to people and have brought them in a bigger pool of “tech-aware” consumers if not tech-savvy.

The most important point is the demonstration by Google on its seamless and logical integration of mobile devices for using its applications. The share of mobile devices in internet usage has been increasing rapidly. The mobile devices account for 62.5% of internet usage now as compared to 37.5% from desktops. Google has acknowledge this fact and showed its applications being used as comfortably on tabs and smart phones as on laptops. This is a master stroke where, without going away from the concept of the film, the mobile adaptability of the product and service is communicated.

Put together, the subtle insertions of various communication points in the films is brilliant marketing. How are these ads taken by TV audience which is a different set form internet audience on many parameters, will be interesting to see.

Cheers,

  

Pranks are good - So says Prankvertisers !

Prankvertising is a hot debate these days in advertising world. The idea to capture your audience with a visceral reaction and emboss an idea/brand/set-up in their mind has always been tempting for the marketers. However, what makes this form of advertising an art and a science both is - how much creativity you can employ into these at one hand and how precise and calculated you should be on the other hand to keep the whole experience interesting and relevant. Most importantly, how clearly and effectively the experience can communicate the intended message to the targeted audience effectively.

     
                                  Prankertising for the movie CARRIE - 500,000 + views in 1 month 

 
Prankvertising is a high-profit-high-loss chip. Right from the point where the idea of creating a prankvertisement is conceived till the point it is in public domain, there are multiple points that can make or break the whole experience for the marketers and audience.

                                    TNT Belgium Launch - 46 million views since Apr 2012

These ideas are top-of-the-roofs idea which are (and should be for the right buzz!) loud and subtle at the same time. They are largely clutter-breaking ads. This is also the sign of a good prankvertisment. It should be loud in the content but subtle in intent. Hence, it should be able to generate top-of-the-mind recall due to its content and must also be able to pass on the message to the audience in a simple yet effective way.

The cost associated with prankvertising is less since these are generally created to be aired on social media or fan page and not on expensive TVC slots.  Generally, these are created with the idea to promote a concept or a product in the public domain and rarely warrants for an action from consumer there and then. Hence once the ad is created it is released in social media which is the most common platform for such initiatives. These campaigns largely rely on social sharing and creating a buzz on the online communities. Word-of-mouth and social sharing hence are the strongest medium for propagating the same.

                           LG IPS Monitors - So Real, Its Scary - 20 million views since Oct 2012

Challenging part in this is the fact that since the reliance on taking the ad and hence the message forward is on audience prerogative. This means that if the content is interesting, the sharing and buzz-creation will work on its own. In case the content is not strong enough, it will be killed at very early stage by the TG and netizens. Hence, the first measure of success for prankvertisers will be the penetration (rate and absolute numbers) for the ad put in public domain.

However, as mentioned earlier, prankvertising is a dual-edged sword. These ads usually catch people out of prior information hence there always is a risk of events taking a turn which was unaccounted for. Sometimes the prank may not go down well with the audience who might feel offended. Such unwarranted events lead to bad publicity which is difficult to shed off.  The more practical problem with such events is that they sometimes become too loud and ignores/misses the second important part of the campaign – pass a message to the audience. Hence, one should be extra cautious while bring in a plan for prankvertising to the table.

Not to forget, sometimes questions are raised on prankvertising about its credibility and authenticity. Many argue that the people who are presented as ignorant passers-by and unsuspecting audience, are usually actors. This takes away the appreciation of the surprise element that the audience is shown to have gone through in the whole experience.Ethical behaviour is another factor that is invoked whenever such ads make rounds. Critics questions the rightfulness of involving people into a video making or campaign/ad without taking their prior permission.

However, on a pure advertisement perspective, It is clear that a well-thought of prankvertising campaign which manages all the macros and micros of planning and execution is a strong clutter-breaking method which also come out as cost-optimized and effective. Keep the prank mode on!

Cheers,

Brand Building Series #1

CPM – Three Pillars of Brand Building 

Branding is everywhere. And hence, it has gone through what everything that is everywhere has – for ever and ever. Overburdened! Cliched!Confused!

Unfortunately, definitions and explanations sought on branding are more likely to confuse the seeker than clarify. The reason is the vicious mumbo jumbo everyone chooses to rattle rather than KISS-ing (Keep-ing it simple!)

This short piece is to make things really simple for everyone.

Brand is not the name of a company or a logo or a colour its mnemonics carry. Instead, these are part of the brand identity.

Brand, simply put is – What people perceive in their mind about 

• A person
• A company
• A product/service

Obviously when we perceive something good about apple or amazon – It means that these companies have been successful in creating an effective and beneficial brand image for themselves. In broader terms they have been able to create a brand for themselves.

But how have they been able to do that while others either failed or were not so successful?

It takes more than just pumping money in campaigns and promotions to create a brand. It is generally a slower process and hence demands utmost discipline and patience.

In this piece, we only invoke the three pillars of brand building while keeping details on how a brand is built, for the next parts of the series. These pillars must be closely analyzed in order to move in the right direction to build a brand that lasts!

The three pillars of Brand Building are, CPM –

·    

• Customer
• Who is my customer 
• Target Group and traits
• What delights him
• Know what they expect and exceed it
• What influences him 
• Decision-making and influencers 
• Product
• What is my product type
• High/Low Involvement              
• Mass/Niche catering
• Innovative/Me-too
• Where does it fit in
• Need
• Comfort
• Aspiration
• What is its UVP  
• Unique Value Proposition
• Market
• Competition
• Acknowledge
• Observe
• Study
• PoSs and PoDs
• Points of Similarities
• Points of Differences within products available in the market
• Industry trends/Norms
• Fundamentals of the Industry
• Influencing factors

These pillars must be thoroughly understood by every marketer who wishes to build a brand.  Each parameter/question/factor mentioned under the pillar and sections under the pillar requires deep analysis which leads to certain answers.

Based upon these answers, a strategy is devised to help in building a brand. More on this, in the sequel to the series.

Cheers,

Mantastic may not always be Fantastic - Milind Soman Old Spice Ad

The latest ad from Old spice india is already creating buzz. With more than one and a half million views already, this ad has sure grabbed enough eye-balls. Stats have been disabled for the video for now.
There are multiple facets to the theme, execution and brand proposition offered by this ad.

For starters, Old spice India, with this ad, brings on television - Milind Soman, the first and probably the only super male model of the country to the small screen after a long time and more importantly, in an avatar which accentuate his presence.

The underlying theme for men's deodorants have largely been same across all brands. Fog and Nivea, very recently did something on different lines but still the underlying proposition largely remains same. Unfortunately, this ad, though with a peculiar set up and execution theme, does not strike a very different chord than the chore.

Firstly, this ad is heavily inspired by the Old spice ad on the theme - "The man your man can smell like" which was a wildfire in online ad trade. The ad starring Isaiah Mustafa was thronged by monologues which made it difficult to break attention for the viewers. The underlying proposition was - Old spice does wonder to its consumer and makes him uber-attractive to his female counterparts

In the latest Indian version, Milind Soman is seen to be undertaking the similar task. The ad starts with him donning just a towel and a pair of sunglasses(and of course a gold chain shouting out loud -'MAN') to add to the "kewl" quotient. He later talks about his realization on how being a macho is not about gelled hair. One can't miss a cue dropped when while being uber-cool he is sipping tea in a silverware (trying to break more myths on "kewlness"). He then invokes the lady-luck of all deodorant brands, the 'sweetheart'(How did fairer skin become an inevitable part of men hygiene?) to hand him over a bottle of old-spice deodorant. The ad ends with the 'sweetheart' sitting in his lap but not before he has pushed hastily a brief and desperately timed sales-pitch where he insipidly asks people to buy Old-spice to become 'mantastic'. The newly coined word 'mantastic' just seems to be a substitute for "macho-ism". Ans all this is happening when the background music is being played on sitar.

   
There are highs and lows for this advertisement and i'm sure marketeers were betting more on highs than they were worried about lows. For example, Milind Soman seems to be a great choice for the product and brand considering his reputation of being bold and due to the fact that he has been a male super-model, a coveted profession for many. Bringing him onscreen with a low 'apparel budget' was also a way to strengthen his
'desirable' rapport with women. The set-up easily breaks out off the clutter from run-of-the-mill deodorant ads where audience at the start of ad itself can zero down the ad to be for either a condom brand or a deodorant(sadly yes!). Background music is intelligently chosen to aid the set-up.

Alas! The highs ends here, and i have not even touched the product and the brand proposition. The biggest problem as mostly with clutter-breaking ads is, when the ad takes over the supposedly central figure of the whole idea- the product or brand.

The 'Mantastic' theme seems to be halfhearted one. How Old spice builds it from here, will be important. The flat speech on do's and dont's of macho-ism looks more like an interview which audience didn't ask for. The "Sweetheart" ends up adding the same 'old spice' to the ad only bringing it closer to the other deoderant ads by emphasizing the 'Use deo to get girls' theme.Informing the audience about ingredients which are largely chemicals (or at least sound so) doesn't help the cause either.

Overall, the ad gives some new and intelligent avenues while falls flat miserably at some points. How it helps P&G in terms of top-line, that is yet to be seen. But for sure, this ad is a great learning for marketing students on what to do and what not to do while conceiving an ad concept.

Cheers,

Indian Badminton League - Net Lagao, Pyar Badhao

Cricket has been the cynosure of Indian sports and the success of IPL seasons one after other manifests how insatiable is Indians’ hunger for cricket.

A slight change in this stance where other sports like Tennis, Football, Hockey and Badminton are getting some attention as well, hence, is quite refreshing. We have had competitions on the line of IPL in other sports and Indian Badminton League is latest one to register. Indian Badminton League was kicked off with player auctions and now we are seeing the promotional advertisement of IBL on major TV channels.

                           

The ad scores well in all aspects.

It moves from one frame to another while keeping its theme and message intact. Starting with a couple at home who gets into an argument to a courthouse with lawyers fighting with each other to the tension at Line of control, the context and communication is succinct.

Context – The IBL is promoting its maiden season and attempts at garnering a bigger audience for the event by building interest and curiosity around the league event

Theme – Various set-ups suggesting a contest between two parties and a badminton net that interestingly finds its way in such chaos. The background score propagates the intended message of bringing people together with the help of net and badminton (& hence, IBL)

Message –The ad cleverly use some serious situations and place a badminton (net!) in the middle of the scenes. The message propagated by the score emphasizes on building love and trust and how badminton can do that. Hence it suggests the audience to fasten a badminton net and build lovely relationships.

“..Ky rakha hai anban me, pyar hai bas badminton me…Ye khel dilo ko jodta hai..Net lagao Pyar badhao..”

Ad Promise – Badminton brings people closer (Hence embrace it and watch the coming IBL)

TG – All sports enthusiasts (Especially badminton)

Response requested – The ad clearly notifies the audience of the starting date of IBL and channels on which it will be telecasted. Hence, the requested response is the audience viewership for the event.

The ad puts forth the message in a cleverly packaged theme which is funny as well as serious at the same time. It does a wonderful job as a promotional tool but how will this cricket-crazy country respond to the maiden season of Indian Badminton League, only time will tell!

Cheers,

Learnings from famous marketing failures - 'New Coke' Blunder by Coca-Cola

In the 1970s, Coke’s chief rival, Pepsi-cola which had very recently positioned itself as a youth brand successfully, introduced the Pepsi Challenge.This challenge tested consumers' taste preference while being blindfolded.To utter dismay of Coca-Cola, most of those who participated in this challenge preferred Pepsi’s sweeter formula over Coca-cola's longstanding taste.  

  
                               


When Roberto Goizueta became chairman in 1981, Coke’s numero uno status was being seriously threatened, not just by the rival Pepsi-Cola but also by its owned brands like Fanta and Sprite. Americans had started to view coca-cola as a stout but slow and historic company and this was not doing any favour to the company. This opinion was largely created by the youth branding which Pepsi assumed and a seemingly feeble response from coca-cola to the pepsi's rising popularity.

Under tremendous pressure to act and stop this landslide, Coca-Cola committed the first mistake.Coca-Cola concluded that the problem was primarily due to the product and not product's perception. They started to believe that consumer preferences have changed and now sweeter is better.

Coca-Cola worked on a new formula and based on 200,000 taste tests which largely favoured the new formula over the old coke as well as the rival drink Pepsi-cola, Executives at Coca-cola were sure that it was time to turn the tides in their favour by introducing the new formula for coke. Thus, New coke was introduced.

Second mistake was to shut the production of the old coke altogether and hence the only coke offering from Coca-cola was the new coke.

When its customer found out that the new coke is a changed formula and hence a different taste and the legendary Coca-cola which by then had found its association with american culture and history was killed by the Coca-cola executives, things went berserk. A large population of US boycotted the new coke. Large number of hate messages and letters were received by the company. This decision since then is known as 'the biggest marketing blunder of all time'.

Coca-Cola went into damage control mode. Starting with a public apology and the famous "We have heard you" comment by the the Chairman, Roberto Goizueta. Eventually, Coca-cola had to bring back the old formula while the drink was branded as the "Classic coke".

As a result of this, the loyalty to the old coke (Now, classic coke) increased even more than the old coke and Coke was back to number one with reasonable lead.

Learnings from the marketing failure of New Coke -

• Product perception is as important as product itself
• Never underestimate the emotions attached to a brand
• Imitating your competitors can never be a long-term strategy
• Save your market research from any possible biases
• Have courage to accept your mistake and correct it

Cheers,