IPL in South Africa - Comments from Media Professionals

9:50 PM

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I asked a question in a previous post a few days back on what is going to be the effect of the IPL being moved to an international location this year on viewer behavior and what impact, if any, will this have on media revenues during the season.

Well apart from the expert comments I received from two of our "panel" experts - Abhishek and Ajit, I also came across this article on exchange4media.com where some eminent media professionals of the country have shared their thoughts and I quote below:

Nandan Srinath, COO - Radio Mirchi:
“Cricket always has had healthy revenues. Now, even though the matches won’t be played in India, the viewerships would not be affected”. He added, “So, basically other than the venue change, everything else pretty much remains the same.” He further said that the ad campaigns for IPL would go on air at the FM station in the coming week.

Anant Chakravarty, Sr. VP - Big FM:
“Although we have not finalised a fixed revenue figure, we have already started working towards the campaigns and various advertising packages. With the change of venue now, the only difference in terms of advertisements is the variation in the content that we are going to create. There is a little ambiguity regarding the dates, but once that is cleared, we will be out with our ad campaigns.”

Neeraj Chaturvedi, Delhi Station Head, Fever FM:
“According to me, all the three media – print, television and radio – will miss out on some revenue with the tournament being played outside India. Personally, I would have never wanted the venue to be shifted.”

(a bit of trivia - did you know Fever FM is Virgin Radio's India venture? I didn't!)

So there doesn't seem to be a clear verdict yet on how media will be affected. Personally I think while agencies which handle on-ground promos and activities will definitely miss out on the revenus and brands the opportunity to make a solid connect with the consumers on the ground, traditional media like television and radio will only gain viewership from last year.

Amit Budhiraja

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Link: Rural Markets in India

10:46 PM

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I must thank Deepak Laxmikantha for sharing this great article "Rural Markets in India". It is a very long read (I am yet to read it fully myself!) but it is as good a guide as you will find anywhere on the opportunity in Rural India today and the intiatives that leading companies are taking to tap these markets. It is a must-read.

Amit Budhiraja

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IPL Not on Indian Soil This Year - So what?

11:40 PM

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This is a question I'd really like to ask all my cricket loving fans, ethusiasts, fanatics - tous ces gens - if the IPL is not going to be held on Indian soil, how much difference is it going to make to you? Would you enjoy it as much as you enjoyed take-one? Or is it going to make a difference in the sense that you would feel less connected with the competition and it would be more like watching any other T-20 tournament?

I'd love to understand your thoughts as would most marketers in India who have probably already invested significantly in air time during the IPL broadcast.

Are we going to see the same number of eyeballs tuned to the IPL as last year ?

Amit Budhiraja

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Indian Auto Industry - Branding Anyone?

4:40 AM

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Why does the Indian auto industry still stay largely undifferentiated? Whatever little differentiation exists, exists only at the category level.

It’s really curious why car-makers are so reluctant to take a strong positioning on one attribute – I am performance, I am safety, I am comfort, I am technology, I am esteem, instead most seem to be rather comfortable with a general positioning – I am a little bit of everything.

Most brands do carry out a few sporadic campaigns to communicate a particular benefit, Toyota did a few commercials about space for qualis and innova, so did Getz (or was it U-va?), Honda city did comfort for a short while and there are many examples like this, but a coherent long term strategy which seeks to establish one brand on one attribute has been completely missing from this industry. In every segment it is the value offering that just about packs up a little of bit everything that is the market leader.

Ford’s ‘Josh’ machine campaign is probably the only one which has really left a lasting impression that it is a performance oriented vehicle. Sadly later variants of the product hardly lived up to this promise.

So I wonder why this is so, is it because the average consumer is yet to evolve in India? Because buying a car in itself is the dream, not buying a fast car or a really safe car? So these consumers actually want their cars to be a little bit of everything? Is it because the market is yet to mature to a level where manufacturers can profitably seek to customize their products for separate niches?

Even then, this is a huge opportunity for manufacturers. I can’t think of any other industry where every possible positioning plank is…well..BLANK.

Amit Budhiraja

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Link: How will the consumers respond to the slowdown

2:24 AM

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Hey guys, great article by afaqs! - Shop or Stop: How will the consumer respond to the slowdown?

I think this is a must read to understand how consumers are reacting to this slowdown and how are they going to modify their consumption behavior. This is the opportunity I was talking about in my earlier post Is the Recession a Blessing in Disguise for Regional Brands. 

Amit Budhiraja

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Beware of "Brand Jacking"

11:35 PM

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Try googling 'Sonia Gandhi'.
Ok, now try 'Manmohan Singh'.
Did you do it? Ok now try 'Rahul Gandhi'.

What was the one common result in all three searches? Try again and look at the AD results by Google on the right, each time you will get only one ad 'Why Advani Ji is a better leader and why BJP is a better party'.

This is not chance my friends, its a new technique called 'Brand Jacking' by Google introduced as part of their overall Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategy.

So what's happening here is that BJP has 'brand jacked' keywords (850 of them!!) like Sonia Gandhi so that every query with these keywords will return their sponsored ads and thus in effect drive more traffic to their websites and eventually (they would hope) spread their propaganda to readers who were actually interested in reading about Mrs. Gandhi and her motley crew !

This is becoming a common practice in the industry, so please please register your brands with Google as a registered trademark. this will allow you to block competitors from using your brands as keywords to generate their own ads. Try Colgate, you will only get Colgate sponsored links. Well you may also get results from Monster about jobs in Colgate, but I figure Colgate doesn't mind that too much.

In fact, the issue doesn't stop here. See this article on imediaconnection.com on 'The Art of Self Defense against Brand Jacking'. The problem is the way social media has grown, companies have less and less control over who is saying what about them, and more importantly in what capacity. For argument's sake, I could start a blog today as an employee of Hindustan Lever and write without any constraint whatsoever. This obviously exposes brand HLL to significant risk.

Please read the article linked above to see what are the strategies we need to adopt to ensure we are not exposed to any such risk and how not to let the internet run free with your brand !!

Amit Budhiraja

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Time for Brands to Go Green

7:28 AM

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We are pushing the envelope and we know it. What started out as a capitalistic quest for improving quality of life by developing new products, services and technologies has now turned into a Frankenstein of sorts; we can’t seem to hold its reins and it is draining this planet of its resources faster than we care to believe or even imagine. Either way, we are all guilty. The good thing though is we truly want to do something about it and that very intent to correct our wrongs is an opportunity.

Over time we have evolved from being users of simple commodities into complex consumer segments and niches demanding ever more differentiation in our products and services to suit our individual lifestyles. Businesses have been more than eager to oblige in order to compete profitably in the market place. This has resulted in a rather potent spiral of feedback and counter-feedback amplifying the number of goods and services available in the market.

So at first the simple commodities turned into ‘products’, which gave the consumer at least some benefit over the basic commodity, like extended shelf-life in Food. Then came the explosion of differentiation on every product axis possible - new flavors, new types of packaging, more features in your car, new technologies for devices and appliances at home and so on. Technology, while having done more for humankind then words can describe, has also been a two faced coin in that it has been the single largest force behind this culture of buying-trashing-buying leading to an e-waste pile of 20-50 Million Tons every year. Just imagine the number of cellphones, computers that are being replaced every day for models with newer and updated technologies. Think about the myriad list of electronic devices (the automatic toothbrush takes the cake here!) we have created for ourselves which purport to make our lives easier. None of these luxuries come without a price, a price that our planet is paying now and we will pay soon.



This price is already manifesting itself in the form of increasing global warming, melting ice caps, rising sea levels and several abrupt climate changes. A recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says some of these changes are coming a good 100 years ahead of schedule. To borrow from Barrack Obama’s words, “the science is beyond dispute…Denial is no longer an acceptable response”.

There is, however, a growing awareness about this and I’d like to believe a growing conscience as well. Most of us want to do something about it, want to make amends but either don’t know how or are just not prepared to make drastic changes to our lifestyles. Corporates, Governments and a handful of NGOs are doing their bit to alleviate this situation, but this effort will probably fall short against the rapid pace of consumption growth.

What is required is for us to harness the power of the same spiral of feedback and counter feedback between consumers and producers that led us into the current situation in the first place. However, this time, consumers need to show preference to “Green” brands which will lead more producers to offer green brands to stay competitive in the market place. The result of this feedback loop will be hundreds of producers across product categories undertaking measures to go green like reducing emissions, improving packaging, using recycled materials, or even supporting an unrelated but pertinent “green” cause.

Producers will have to take the first step. The key here is to think of the ‘Green’ feature as a differentiation strategy that will drive consumer preference for a brand and not merely as a CSR initiative and then present it as such to the consumer. Sporadic examples are already propping up across the globe. In the US, Tropicana is offering to conserve 100 sq.feet. of rainforest land in the Amazon for every pack of Tropicana juice that you buy. In Russia, Philips is taking full responsibility for recycling of its products. Earlier, the recycling costs had to be borne by the consumer. This is believed to have ripple effects down the value chain as industry observers believe since Philips will also now invest in developing cleaner and more easily recyclable materials. Don’t you think if this is communicated to the consumer, it would definitely go on the pros list for Philips when a consumer is deciding which brand of TV to buy?

Companies need to see “Green” as a new dimension to differentiation and make it a part of their overall brand strategy. The “Green” feature has to be real and authentic and how it helps the environment needs to communicated to the consumers. As consumers we need to show a clear and present preference to “Green” brands to ensure the spiral sets in. Remember we need to outpace the cycle of environment deterioration that we have already set, for our own good. Yes we did push the envelope, maybe a bit too far. But it’s never too late, now is the time we start giving back to this planet.

Amit Budhiraja

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Advertising on Airport Baggage Trolleys

2:48 AM

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Advertising on baggage trolleys at Delhi Airport costs about 100 bucks per day per trolley, so says this recent article from afaqs!. Let's do some quick back of the envelope calculations here -
  1. Let's say we hired 500 trolleys for 30 days, our total advertising spend would have been a cool 15 lakhs. i am not even counting costs of printing, service tax and everything else.
  2. Now, assuming the airport functions 18 hrs a day, 30 days a month and the average replenishment time for a trolley is 30 mins (the time in which a traveller picks it up, uses it, leaves it and then some airport liaison drops it back at the trolley pool, now ready for its next use). i know, 30 mins is an extremely ambitious target but let's study the best case scenario first.
  3. So basically we are saying each trolley can do about 36 rotations or rather can touch 36 passengers in a day. Thats 36 passengers times 500 trolleys times 30 days, or 5.40 lakh passengers in a month.
  4. That gives us 15 lakhs spent to reach 5.4 lakh passengers, giving an effective Cost per Thousand contacts at roughly 3000 bucks !!

Seems to me like a very expensive proposition, especially for a medium which has limited capabilities in terms of the content it can deliver. Most of the examples I can recall are of Banks just putting their names on the trolleys - 'State Bank of India'. That's 15 lakhs spent very poorly if you ask me. 15 lakhs will get you at least a couple of hoardings in a prime area in any metro which will definitely give you much higher reach and you could convey so much more about your brand\services etc.

Having said that there is one area where I feel this can have some utility - instances where you can or would like to ellicit an immediate action from the viewer. For example:

1. You are a Cafe Coffee Day at the airport. Put a picture of a delicious sandwich and a coffee and pose the question - 'hungry? head to CCD'. tickle the consumers senses and get immediate response.

2. One good thing about this medium is that the passenger is going to spend some time with this media. You could put important information for the passenger to note down, say "Call 13402804 to book a free test ride of the new Fiat Linea'', "Done with your tax planning for the year? Call 12301980 to find out more about our tax saving products". So you get the idea right?

So my take is only advertising which is meant to encourage an immediate viewer action is suitable for this medium. Generic Brand advertising would only de-optimize your advertising budget.

Amit Budhiraja

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Inside Scoop On Focus Groups!

3:50 AM

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Just how many times have you decided to go with the results of a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) over your own intuition as a marketer? Just how many times has your packaging or advertising strategy been based on that one singular insight that emerged from these FGDs? Well, as a marketing professional, I know this happens far too often.

And it’s not wrong to do so either, because all said and done the participants of the FGD are supposed to mirror consumers of your exact target group – demographically , sociographically et al. And so naturally it follows that their opinion is king, and nothing else matters.
If you agree with me, here’s an eye-opener by Will Leitch, well known writer and blogger for the NY Times. He says he has participated in several FGDs as

ü A hardy adventurer who has back-packed through Mongolia
ü A person with a severe sweating disorder (for a discussion on Deodorants of course!)
ü A person of Italian descent
ü A long term asthma Patient
ü A resident of Southern New Jersey

just to name a few. Please do make a note however that Will Leitch is NONE of these things.

He has found his own way to play the agencies and their recruiters who carry out these FGDs and says it isn’t too hard for anyone to do. He just says what he knows they want to hear, see this excerpt -

“Recruiters usually call on weekends to determine suitability for a survey. If they ask you whether you’ve done one in the past six months, just say no. They never check. If they ask you something off-the-wall, like “Have you purchased a treadmill in the past year?,” say yes; they wouldn’t ask if that weren’t the answer they wanted. If they ask you what brands you purchase most often, always name big ones: Sprint, Budweiser, Marlboro. They’re representing either one of those companies or a smaller one trying to figure out how to steal you away. And, most important, let the recruiters lead you. Before you answer a question you’re not sure about, pause for a couple of seconds. They’ll tip their hand every time.”

This throws up a major caveat for any marketer who wants to base his/her strategy on results from such FGDs. Not only is it possible that your participants are actually not from your TG, they may in fact further mislead you by stating opinions on issues which they possibly have no clue about.

So there, don’t say you weren’t warned. Take your results with a pinch salt and as far as possible play an active role in talking to the shortlisted participants before the FGD begins. Make sure they are the people you are seeking. Good luck!

Amit Budhiraja

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Apple iPhone's International Marketing Gaffes

6:23 AM

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The Apple iPhone was a path breaking device, bringing new meaning to terms like convergence and innovation and was perhaps not only far ahead of competition but also ahead of its time. No one can take this away from Apple.

Now you probably don’t go wrong with a product like that and well, by most conventional standards the iPhone did a pretty good job. At the end of its first quarter of launch, the iPhone 3G held a 16.3% share of the world smartphone market, overtaking RIM for the 2nd place. In the US it is now the largest selling handset , pipping the Motorola Razr for the top spot.  The iPhone app store was a stroke of genius and is apparently bringing in big money for Apple.

So far so good, but guess what,

 the Japanese apparently “hate” the iPhone, we Indians haven’t shown a lot of love since its launch in late 2008 and apparently the Europeans are not falling over their feet to get hold of one either. The 16.3% market share is mostly due to its tremendous success in the United States alone. Overseas, the reaction to the iPhone has been less than stellar.

Apparently the folks in Japan take their mobile phones quite seriously. No self respecting Japanese will allow him to be caught with a 2 MP camera, no Video recording and would you believe it, a non-Japanese brand – it’s just not cool there to use foreign brands.

In India, they got EVERYTHING wrong. There was no marketing – they left that entirely to the local wireless operators, Flawed Distribution - iPhones were being sold through the outlets of these wireless operators – not where Indians go to buy their 100 million units every year.

The list is endless, and perhaps the only consistent thought emerging from this list is that maybe Apple is suffering from that all too familiar ailment of marketing myopia.

Why do we repeatedly fail to appreciate that cultures, habits, values, aspirations, needs everything changes when you step out of your home? No product is going to succeed in the international arena until the marketing and product strategies are adapted to the realities of that market.

“Think global, act local” – was that not the mantra for businesses aspiring for a piece of the global market?

Amit Budhiraja

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Idea Cellular Needs a New Idea

5:45 AM

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Base your advertising strategy on the stage of the product life-cycle. A very important lesson I learnt in my b-school days.

In a nutshell what it says is – If your product or service is relatively new in the market, you advertise its generic benefits and increase adoption. As the product progresses on its life-cycle and competition increases, your advertising should aim to differentiate your brand from the rest.  So when the world’s first camera was launched, the manufacturers would have said, ‘’hey folks, this little thingy is called a ‘camera’. It allows you to quickly take pictures of you and your family and just about anything you want. Isn’t that swell?!”. Today, when there are a number of such manufacturers, one says “hey we give you 10 megapixels with multiple face recognition technology”, another says “hey we have Bluetooth connectivity and an image stabilizer for countering camera shakes” and so on. So that’s how product life cycle affects the overall advertising strategy. Of course the need to strike that special emotional connect remains an imperative throughout this life cycle.

So what baffles me is the creative strategy Idea Cellular continues to adopt year after year. Each campaign continues to highlight the generic benefits of mobile telephony. The campaign with the under-privileged children being able to learn through wireless communication, the campaign with the Minister taking a quick public poll on an important issue through SMS, a damsel (apparently) in distress taking quick poll of her friends through SMS – all of this only manages to show what mobile technology is capable of and how it could be used in our day to day lives. Just where is this campaign doing that little bit called ‘differentiation’? You know differentiation, where you tell your consumers this is how you are different and better than the competition.



Even more amazing is that they continue with their generic advertising while competitors like Airtel and Vodafone are churning out nothing less than advertising gold. Their campaigns represent a brilliant mix of thematic and tactical advertising. So while they build the emotional connect through many of their endearing thematical ads, they also pepper their campaigns with advertisements that create the final reason to buy. 10 paise SMS, friendly customer care service, bill payment portals and so on. This is where Idea is missing out – they need more tactical ads in their campaigns to support the overall theme to complete the package and to create that one final reason to induce purchase by consumers. 

Amit Budhiraja

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