Owner: rajeshaithal.blogspot.com URL:http://rajeshaithal.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2007 14:26:48 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Observations and Insights into branding, product, distribution and promotion issues related to Indian Markets. Site statistics:Click here
Cricket is interesting Again !!!!!! 2008-03-05 00:33:00 Interest in Cricket
has gone the full circle in the last couple of years or so. What started off as a low point with the exit of the Indian team from the world cup in the initial rounds to the world cup to high of twent20 triumph and the CB series victory. Marketers around the country have suddenly rediscovered cricket as a good means of reaching the masses. According to a news item in Economic times, with these victories very few advertisers can afford to ignore the sport now. In this context I found two contrasting bits of information which I thought would force us to think more on the issue. The first one spoke about how HUL has roped in Yuvraj to endorse Lifebouy, which marks a change in HUL policy of using Bollywood stars as Brand Ambassadors for its brands. The second news item Read more:Again
, interesting
Mobile Phones and Cameras 2008-03-03 23:25:00 If one were to observe the recent communication campaign for mobile phones, everyone is talking whether their phone has a 2, 3,4 or even a 5 megapixel camera . One wonders if it is the mobile which is being sold or the camera. A few years back most of us looked forward to the convergence era, but it has not delivered as much as it had promised. We still use our Digital Cameras
for major occasions and the Mobile
phone camera tends to have limited usage. But then why is that almost every major phone manufacturer is talking about the cameras, be it the Metal Series of Samsung or Nokia N82 series.....There are a few reasons why this is happening , first would be the fact that the prices of cameras has dropped and they can be added to the phone without actually making it every expensive as it Read more:Mobile Phones
, Phones
The Next Retail Rush – Mobile Retail 2008-02-24 12:03:00 88 lakhs and 81 lakhs is the number of new mobile users we have added in the Dec and Jan. If one were to estimate the time taken for it would take to cover the whole population of US would be three years, which in a way explains why Indian market is so attractive today. The drivers have been call rates which are among the lowest in the country and the fall in prices of handsets. This post is not about the number of mobile users, but it is on the organized retail which is coming in a big way into MobileRetail
. Across cities which I have been traveling I have seen at least 10-12 new ventures into mobile retail. The established retailers like Big Bazzar and Subhiksha are extending their extending there exiting forays from normal retail into the mobile domain. The more interesting are th
Market Update 21.02.08 2008-02-20 13:46:00 A good article in business standard on advergaming, juxapositioning advertising and gaming, LinkThe strategist had a main article on the changing business models in Indian film industry, LinkThe brand line has the story of $27-billion Sharp and its plans in India, Link And an interview with Urquhart, President of Omega Watches, LinkBrand Equity covered the issue of Luxury brands, LinkDial M for Mobile Read more:Market
, Update
Unofficial Best Seller Lists 2008-02-19 13:26:00 In any major traffic signal in a metro one can observe how the road side vendors tend to sell the copied/counterfeit version of books. You can be assured that all the best sellers would be carried by these people. Some might feel flattered that they are being copied, but I am sure the authors and publishing house would be a worried lot. They have a very good distribution network in place which endures the regular supply of these books to the vendors, which also applies to the other products which are sold by these vendors . The moment the first rains hit, these people are ready with the waterproof caps and jackets and similarly at the onset of winter they have with them the caps ready.One wonders what all one we should learn from them , obviously leaving out the counterfeiting part.... Read more:Lists
, Seller
Market Update 12.02.08 2008-02-12 11:43:00 The Brand equity had a story on how Super Bowl has managed to retain its position as the ultimate in TV advertising in spite of the emergence many new options and TV losing out as the main source of entertainment. LinkIn the initial days success of Walmart was driven by its strategy to target small towns in US. Something similar is what is being done by the second-tier retailers, LinkBusiness Standard Strategist hadThe cover story on how to serve the "next billion" customers, linkIn campaign logic the story of re-branding of Canara Bank , LinkThe new emerging category of sugar free chyawanprash, LinkBrand Line on Business line coverered the make-over of the Dabur group, LinkAnd an article on building power brands in services.A story of the plans of Haier group in India, link and one on the Read more:Market
, Update
More Dead Products 2008-02-07 01:44:00 On my recent visit to Mumbai I saw one more example of a product considered for long to be dead and buried. It is the ubiquitous Fiat Taxi roaming around the city. They constitute the majority of Taxis in the city. They have been fitted with gas conversion kits and according to the few Taxi Drivers i spoke to they are quite economical, which is obviously the reason why they can still be seen in the city, though they also told me that it is a matter of few years before they disappear from the roads of Mumbai.... Read more:Products
Smoking ways for prevention and role of marketing 2008-02-06 04:07:00 At on end of the burning cigarette we have consumers who know that smoking is bad for health and still keep smoking , in spite of the ban on ads in TV, and increasing prices the consumption has been going up. On the other end we have large corporate houses with huge marketing budgets willing to go after the consumer to achieve their sales growth figures....In the last few months we have had a lot of coverage on the efforts being made to reduce the consumption of cigarettes among the youth. The initiatives include,1. Adopting a visual representation on the covers of Beedis and cigarettes to indicate that they are injurious to health. On this issue I have written earlier, and the initiative has not been implimented, due to various reasons, including the pressure from the Beedi Lobby. The in Read more:prevention
, Smoking
Dead products??? 2008-01-30 11:04:00 I read a very interesting piece if news in Business standard today, it was about the manufacture and sale of typewriters. The article says that Godrej is manufacturing and selling 12,000 typewriters annually, and one of the two remaining manufactures of typewriter in the world. I thought of sharing it , because most give typewriter as an example of a product which has died, which may actually happen in a few years time ....Link to the article
Some More Books 2008-01-30 05:42:00 1. Wikinomics By Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams2. The Long Tail by Chris AndersonThese two books in the list are more about the impact of internet on business, but felt that they give one very good insights into how the business will evolve and adapt ....3. Culture Code by Clotaire RapailleNot something directly linked to marketing or business but essentially with the close link of marketing and culture a must read4. The Toyota Way by Jeffrey LikertAgain and all time favorite, gives insights into the wroking of Toyota , though there are umpteenbooks on Toyota this book has been appreciated by many...5. Witch Doctors by Micklethwait and WooldridgeMust be the oldest book in the list, written somewhere in the late 90's, the authors take a critical view of management theories. Management Read more:Books
Marketing and Service Linkage.... 2008-01-25 11:17:00 In theory one reads a lot about how post-sales service is a critical component of customer retention and building a reputation in the marketplace. but in practice we have to look really hard to find instances wherein companies exhibit such behavior towards their customers.In his latest post Seth Godin writes about his experince with a service provider who ended up not finishing the job propoerly, which spoiled an overall good experince.In India we face such situations day in and day out . The problem with our distribution and retail networks is that they have been designed to handle one way traffic, focusing on making a sale, and they are not willing to even consider a situation wherein the company might also have to take back goods or help consumers out in situations like the one in whic Read more:Marketing
, Service
Market Update 24.1.08 2008-01-24 03:56:00 An update on the links for the weekStrategist this week is focused on cars with a story on Nano, and an attempt on deciphering Hyundai's strategy in introducing i10.It also carries Airtel's attempt to create a iconic brand...Brand EquityBritish Airways and it strategy for openskies, LinkCoca Colas New Packaging Design, Link Brand line of Business Line has a very good article on the need for marketers to customize thier products regionally in India , link And also an update on the latest strategy of Kellogg's in India Read more:Market
, Update
Consumer Promotions : Are they really relevant? 2008-01-23 10:15:00 Though we have been talking about increasing accountability of marketing expenditure and working on metrics to show the return on marketing investment not much progress has actually been made. We have not moved much further from the era when people use to claim that half of the ad expenditure is waste but no one knows which half. I thought of relating the issues of results to expenditure on consumer promotions as quite a substantial part of money is spent on consumer promotions. I would like to share examples of a couple of consumer promotions schemes which I found to be either inappropriate or inadequate. I am regular Bru Coffee drinker, and I buy 50gms every month. Last moth they were giving a free air-tight container was with 50 gms pack. Same day evening I found that along with the Read more:Consumer
, Promotions
Mountain Dew - Brand Evolution 2008-01-20 05:27:00 Mountain Dew is the number three brand in the US after Coca Cola and Pepsi, more than $5 Billion . The brand has evolved over the years from a rural focused brand to being a brand which could connect with the young population through its association with adventure sports. Mountain dew and linkage of building a iconic brand through connecting the brand with a myth and the cultural trends of an era has been documented by many , I thought the story of its evolution could be depicted through the ads which it has changed and adapted to suit the changing cultural trends,hillbilly character - Willy used in the 1960's , to symbolize the power of the drink to change attitudes in a heartbeatThe Mid-1980's ad where corporate executives done cowboy gearOne more in the seriesNext Came the 'Do the Dew" Read more:Brand
, Evolution
, Mountain
More More on Nano 2008-01-13 03:13:00 I know most of you would be tired of reading on Nano as all newspapers and blogs are full of rave reviews of Nano-the one lakh rupee car launched by the Tata's in the Auto Expo. But the fact it is a quintessential Indian Car manufactured by an Indian company with a team of Indian engineers makes it even more special.People have called it "if not reinventing the wheel, at least reinventing the automobile", anticipating the impact it is going to have on the overall automobile market. The city corporations across the country have expressed their worries about the impact Nano could have on the urban infrastructure and the overall impact on our dependency on fuel resources. But leaving out the negatives I personally feel that it is a time for celebration and acknowledging the prowess which has
Nano Tata 1 Lakh Car Unveiled in Auto Expo 2008 2008-01-10 04:48:00 We have been following the developments related to the launch of the Tata 1 Lakh Car in the blog so thought should post something on it's launch. I have posted only the photos and the article links, will post comments on the issue later..............Links of Coverage in Economic Times Business Standard and Business Line..More information on tatapeoplecarUpdate : Ratan Tata's Interview on Nano in Economic Times
Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives by Indian Corporate Houses – The Way Ahead 2008-01-08 06:42:00 The world business council for sustainable development defines “Corporate social responsibility (CSR) as the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large”. Most corporate houses in India have full fledged CSR initiatives, which are being managed by their trusts or foundations. When one glances through the recent annual reports of Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) and ITC one can see the increased interest and coverage that such initiatives are getting. Within the CSR initiatives one can see two distinct categories, one is the pure CSR initiatives in which the company has no business objectives attached to it, on t Read more:Initiatives
, Responsibility
, Social
Mobile Telephony - Intiatives in Rural Areas 2008-01-03 00:25:00 The telecommunication initiative in rural areas in the past have largely been driven by government initiatives and is more or less restricted to fixed land lines. It is the very recent past that companies like Airtel have started talking about focusing on rural India , which probably is driven by the fact that rural tele-density is still very low and offers the opportunity for growth as and when the urban markets saturate.Surprisingly till now none of the private operators have made any serious foray into rural areas in India. But that is not the case in other developing countries, in Africa according to a report by Vodaphone, initiative is driven by private operators and predominantly cellular technology based. Another successful case is that of Smart Communications Inc of Philippines wh Read more:Mobile
, Rural
Indian Market Update 30.12.07 2007-12-30 09:33:00 The weekend edition of ET had a few invitation articles and predictions made for the new yearKishore Biyani's article on retailing No one can Stop an IdeaArun Maira's predictions for the new year linkHector Ruiz, Chairman and CEO AMD Inc, on Indian Market
and InnovationOther Usual Update
sPredictions on the Gadget boom coming in 2008 linkHarish Bijoor Catalyst reviews the year 2007 from a marketer's perspective linkThe Strategist had an article on selling luxury homes.Radio ad makers and the use of golden days to connect link
Suzuki - 'from denial to price reduction' reaction to Tata 1 Lakh car 2007-12-29 02:39:00 Tata's seem to be the flavor of the month in terms of the media coverage and news. This is media attention is only going to increase in the coming days with the Jan 2008 launch of its 1- lakh car at the Auto Expo in Delhi. As it had happened with Indica, competitors and other auto manufactures were in a state of denial that an Indian company could come up with a world class car, now the same is happening with the 1 Lakh car, Suzuki
initially denied that it was possible to manufacture a car at $2500, and then a few weeks back questioned the ability of Tata's to produce a car at the price
with adequate safety and emission norms. Now the news is that Suzuki is planning to slash the prices of its iconic 800, some are even saying that it might try and match the prices . To quote the managing Read more:reaction
, reduction
Bottom of the Pyramid a Mirage? 2007-12-27 23:57:00 Debates and arguments are beneficial , many a times the process brings out dimensions which have not been thought-off by the parties involved. Infact it is when some one questions you that you are able to articulate your thoughts better than when your idea is accepted passively by peers and others.The debate between Prof C K Prahalad and Prof Aneel Karnani on the viability of the concept of Bottom
of the pyramid marketing is one such debate. C K Prahalad is the one who propounded the theory that the Bottom of the pyramid consumers with incomes less than $2 per day can be a viable and a profitable segment to market and he places the onus of these activities on MNCs who have ignored this market till now. He says serving the bottom of the pyramid can become a win-win situation for both the co Read more:Pyramid
Indian Market Update - 22.12.07 2007-12-22 05:59:00 Thought should start providing links in major news paper articles, which had marketing news so that one would be able to access it at one point. Staring from this week would try to post this info every Saturday.Brand Equity had the main story on Market
ers who dominate the market, a good read which provides us insights into how some companies are able to dominate their markets. Examples of J&J, Nestle, Eureak Forbes....Strategist reproduced an article on Companies approach to innovation, which had some time back come in the McKinsey Quarterly and the other story was on how three comics are trying to redefine the markets.Catalyst describes the challenge that Raymonds is facing trying to manage both park Avenue and Raymonds Brand.More News linksThis article is about the importance of Boll Read more:Update
SRK and New Nokia Ads 2007-12-21 05:09:00 Celebrity endorsements as a means of promoting a brand has often been misused in the country with celebrities like Amitabh Bachan and cricketers endorsing scores of brands each, from petrol, Banks to chocolates.But the new ads of Nokia
featuring Shahrukh Khan (who is into as many if not more endorsements as Amitabh Bachan) has been generating a lot of media attention even before it's release. The coverage on Hindustan Times talks about the ads connecting the use of Nokia phones with the generic category of telephony itself. With Nokia having close to 70 percent market share in the handset market it does make sense. Overall though nokia has been a little late in jumping on to the band-wagon of using celebrities with the rivals Motorola having used Abhisek Bachan and Sony Ericsson Hrithik Ro
Rise of India.... 2007-12-18 00:33:00 Here I have written many times on the potential that India
holds ,but one always feels good if some one outside also acknowledges the same and thus thought this video* should find a place in this blog....* saw it on varun's page so due acknowledgment to him...
Tata's Small Car as a Taxi 2007-12-17 05:59:00 I read this news item in the economic times Tata's small car may become taxi operators' choice and then there was a question raised in one of the discussions* which promoted me to raise this issue .The article says that many of the Taxi Operators across the country are postponing their plans to buy Indica and other small cars and are waiting for the Auto Expo in Jan when the Tata's would unveil the new car. The fact that the other products in the Tata Motors stable, Sumo and Indica have both the reputation of being cheap to run and affordable to own, the taxi operators expect the same from the new offering.But as a marketer would it be a good idea if your car sells as a Taxi? World wide car manufactures have resisted being seen as a Taxi reasons being the impact on the Brand image and als Read more:Small
Gender as a Basis for introducing Brnad Extensions 2008-03-22 12:28:00 We always speak about using gender as one of the segmentation variables, it is only in the recent times that we can see examples of marketers trying to use this often forgotten basis to come up with brand extensions of existing products or even new products, like Emani Fair & Handsome, a fairness cream for men. If one were to back a little in the past we have examples of Nivea coming out with an exclusive range for men...In the recent times I have seen two new products which I thought were revisiting this basis demographic variable to segment the market.The first example is Horlicks for Women. Horlicks has been around in the Indian market for a long time, as has been coming with new variants to cater to different age groups with Horlicks for Kids and so on...maybe the whole range of v Read more:Basis
Good ideas.... Samsung, Tata and LG 2008-03-24 11:49:00 I have always felt that one of the paradoxes of a good idea is that after the idea is commercialized in the marketing context every one says what is so great about it, it is apparent, or I was also thinking about the same, but that is what makes a good idea something which makes a lot of sense to consumers because it fulfills a very obvious and glaring need.....To give examples, first one which comes to my ming is Tata Ace, what Tata apparently did was add one more wheel to the ubiquitous three-wheel auto avaliable in the market. Very Simple and nothing great....But see the phenomenal success the products has achieved in the market and all the three wheel pick-up manufactures rushed into the it , but Tata had a couple of years lead on itA more recent example is the Samsung
Bio Sleep AC Read more:ideas
Integrated Marketing Communications - An Art Mastered by Marutisuzuki???? 2008-03-28 01:45:00 There are different ways in which IMC- IntegratedMarketingCommunications
is interpreted, more traditional way of looking at it is to ensure that you send a consistent and uniform message across the various means of communication, be it print, TV, Internet, and FM and integrate this with the variety of communication disciplines like general ads, dierct response, sales promo and PR.If one were to follow this definition of IMC one company which has been good at achieving this sort integration is the car major Maruti Suzuki. Whenever they launch a new car one can see how they are able to hit the consumer consistently across all media and modes of communication. I had observed it when they had done it with the launch of SX4,and see the same thing happening with Swift Dezire, and thought it wo
Tata Motors and Land Rover and Jaguar 2008-03-27 05:23:00 This blog is supposed to cover issues related to marketing in India, so I could not afford to miss out the Tata Motors
Deal buying the Land Rover
and Jaguar
Halewood plant for $2.3 Billion. The deal has been in news for a very long time, and I myself have written about it in the last few months but thought will compile links and put up a few photos, Land Rover is considered to be a heritage brand, second oldest SUV brand next only to jeep…. Official Website link Wikipedia cover a lot on the two brands, Land Rover Link and Jaguar Wiki Link The stock markets have reacted sharply with Tata Motors shares plummeting after the announcement of the deal, i have been a non-believer in stock markets and have my own opinion on the deal , but what do reader feel about the deal, to start off
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