Showing posts with label Brand Strategy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brand Strategy. Show all posts

Link: Believable Fantasy

10:27 PM

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"Of audiences and Colors and Mills & Boon" - This is a brilliant little post and I just had to share it.

Star Plus and many other GECs started the Saas-Bahu saagas a few years back. In the beginning the combination of extravagant settings and everyday family issues worked well to capture the aspirations and fascination of many a Indian housewife. However over a period of time the focus of the script writers and producers seemed to have tilted more towards the extravagance factor and less on building real issues. This is where they went wrong, they pushed the envelope beyond a point where it was just simply unbelievable and in the process forgot about the backbone that every story needs - an interesting, relevant and captivating plot. And Colors called on this brilliantly. 

Well these are just thoughts that to came to my mind after reading the post, Anant Rangaswamy, the author, has nailed it perfectly, please read!

Probably also a lesson for all of us in designing our advertising and communication - create fantasy, but "believable fantasy". 

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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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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