We all know our Indian movie makers can never make good movies of their own, exceptions apart, though. Most often than not, they have to pilfer popular playwright’s work, filch Hollywood films, steal scenes and lift ideas from around the world.
The Indian advertising industry is no different and it has always had more than its fair share of thieves and robbers - barefaced souls who have blatantly stolen stuff from foreign ads. And I am not talking about stealing just ad themes or execution ideas; sometimes even ad jingles are brazenly borrowed and silently stolen.
Want proof?
Click on this slick flick…… No marks for guessing the brand though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfiwDRDvgng
As irony would have it, this piece of info was passed to me by a good friend of mine in……………….where else, advertising!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Senseless Marketers and their Sensational Sense of Humour
A career in marketing might be hectic and chaotic; tension-filled and pressure-mounted. But you have to give it to marketers for their amazing sense of humour. They never let their busy lifestyle mar their incredible talent to make people laugh. Just scan the business press and read about the marvelous marketing magic weaved by marketers. It is sure to open your heart, widen your smile and even let you have a deafening laugh. Want proof: here is a comic gem I found in the business press recently.
A Kolkata-based FMCG major is diversifying into cement business and will invest Rs1,750 crore to set up production units in the next three years. “We are diversifying into the cement business, considering the potential and demand of it in the country, particularly in the eastern region. The total investment for the venture will be around Rs1,750 crore for the next three years,” the company’s group director Mohan Goenka said.
As part of the new plan, the company will set up a fully integrated cement plant in Chhattisgarh with an installed capacity to produce 3.1 million tones. He also added the product will cater to the eastern region only.
Oh, by the way, the company in question is Emami.
Now, where is the humour in all this, you wonder? The company is launching its cement under the ‘Emami’ brand name.
Yup, you heard it right. ‘Emami Cement’. What do you say?
I guess it would just be a matter of time before other marketers too get their comedy act together and launch a laugh riot. When that happens, boy we could well expect these: Lakme Housing, Pond’s Shipping, Garnier Fertilizers, Fair & Lovely Steels, Nivea Nuclear Plants and many more.
And, not for a minute, should we underestimate the marketers of industrial brands. Be rest assured; they would come all comic guns blazing to invade FMCG turf. Get all set to welcome: L&T Facewash, DLF Sunscreen Lotion, TISCO Talcum Powder, ONGC Room Fresheners to name a few.
Though strictly not within this ambit, yet as a parting shot, allow me to present my favourite: Harpic Mouthwash!
A Kolkata-based FMCG major is diversifying into cement business and will invest Rs1,750 crore to set up production units in the next three years. “We are diversifying into the cement business, considering the potential and demand of it in the country, particularly in the eastern region. The total investment for the venture will be around Rs1,750 crore for the next three years,” the company’s group director Mohan Goenka said.
As part of the new plan, the company will set up a fully integrated cement plant in Chhattisgarh with an installed capacity to produce 3.1 million tones. He also added the product will cater to the eastern region only.
Oh, by the way, the company in question is Emami.
Now, where is the humour in all this, you wonder? The company is launching its cement under the ‘Emami’ brand name.
Yup, you heard it right. ‘Emami Cement’. What do you say?
I guess it would just be a matter of time before other marketers too get their comedy act together and launch a laugh riot. When that happens, boy we could well expect these: Lakme Housing, Pond’s Shipping, Garnier Fertilizers, Fair & Lovely Steels, Nivea Nuclear Plants and many more.
And, not for a minute, should we underestimate the marketers of industrial brands. Be rest assured; they would come all comic guns blazing to invade FMCG turf. Get all set to welcome: L&T Facewash, DLF Sunscreen Lotion, TISCO Talcum Powder, ONGC Room Fresheners to name a few.
Though strictly not within this ambit, yet as a parting shot, allow me to present my favourite: Harpic Mouthwash!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Docomo’s dilemma
I have always believed, exceptions apart, the state or government should not interfere in the market and should rather let the market decide. Markets are far more efficient in leveling themselves than any government rule or policy can hope to achieve.
This has yet again been clearly played out in mobile telephony. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was trying to mandate all telecom companies to charge calls on a per-second basis instead of the per-minute basis that they were all following. Telecom companies cried foul and said TRAI was exceeding its brief and was trying to arm-twist them.
While this debate was raging on in the corridors of power, the marketplace, where it all mattered, was witnessing the emergence of something sinister. Docomo launched its services with this very promise ‘Pay per second’.
‘Why pay in minutes when life can change in seconds’ was their war cry. New subscribers and quite a few younger audience – who keep changing their provider – heard it loud and clear and started migrating to Docomo.
Docomo soon became the brand that attracted the most new subscribers in mobile connections. It even overtook market leaders like Airtel and Vodafone in new subscriber acquisition. To throw some numbers, Docomo added four million new subscribers in September alone. And it continues to march on.
Docomo’s spectacular growth has startled the existing biggies and guess what they did. They have started to charge ‘per second’ too. And we are talking all the big brands – Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel, Reliance – who once pooh-poohed this very ‘per second’ manner of charging.
Market forces have achieved silently what TRAI was trying to achieve shouting. Well done Docomo!
But my marketing mind (kindly allow me to claim so) now has a different worry. More a worry for Docomo than it is to me. Docomo was clearly positioned as a ‘per second’ charger. By default and by their design, that’s how they had positioned themselves. Now that every other player is offering the same thing, has Docomo lost its only weapon? Does ‘per second’ billing makes sense for a brand when every other brand in the category is offering the same thing?
Agreed, Docomo was the first player to offer it. But when a brand harps on a functional benefit and a functional benefit alone, will it lose its edge when others also offer the same functional benefit?
Remember, the other brands have other stories to tell too while Docomo has just this one to scream about. And something that is not theirs alone, any more.
Is this why Docomo is trying to create a youthful personality to itself through their new ad - guys and girls humming the Docomo jingle in the friendship express? Is that sufficient reason for people to purchase this brand? What do you think?
Oh yeah yaaa ohhh. Docomooohhhhhhh!
This has yet again been clearly played out in mobile telephony. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was trying to mandate all telecom companies to charge calls on a per-second basis instead of the per-minute basis that they were all following. Telecom companies cried foul and said TRAI was exceeding its brief and was trying to arm-twist them.
While this debate was raging on in the corridors of power, the marketplace, where it all mattered, was witnessing the emergence of something sinister. Docomo launched its services with this very promise ‘Pay per second’.
‘Why pay in minutes when life can change in seconds’ was their war cry. New subscribers and quite a few younger audience – who keep changing their provider – heard it loud and clear and started migrating to Docomo.
Docomo soon became the brand that attracted the most new subscribers in mobile connections. It even overtook market leaders like Airtel and Vodafone in new subscriber acquisition. To throw some numbers, Docomo added four million new subscribers in September alone. And it continues to march on.
Docomo’s spectacular growth has startled the existing biggies and guess what they did. They have started to charge ‘per second’ too. And we are talking all the big brands – Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel, Reliance – who once pooh-poohed this very ‘per second’ manner of charging.
Market forces have achieved silently what TRAI was trying to achieve shouting. Well done Docomo!
But my marketing mind (kindly allow me to claim so) now has a different worry. More a worry for Docomo than it is to me. Docomo was clearly positioned as a ‘per second’ charger. By default and by their design, that’s how they had positioned themselves. Now that every other player is offering the same thing, has Docomo lost its only weapon? Does ‘per second’ billing makes sense for a brand when every other brand in the category is offering the same thing?
Agreed, Docomo was the first player to offer it. But when a brand harps on a functional benefit and a functional benefit alone, will it lose its edge when others also offer the same functional benefit?
Remember, the other brands have other stories to tell too while Docomo has just this one to scream about. And something that is not theirs alone, any more.
Is this why Docomo is trying to create a youthful personality to itself through their new ad - guys and girls humming the Docomo jingle in the friendship express? Is that sufficient reason for people to purchase this brand? What do you think?
Oh yeah yaaa ohhh. Docomooohhhhhhh!
Friday, November 06, 2009
Roadblock to nowhere
I don’t consider myself well equipped to write about media (or for that marketing) but a media innovation being praised by all and sundry caught my attention and I decided to make it the topic of this belated post!
If you didn’t know already, on September 17 all consumers who watched any of Star’s 10 channels saw only HUL brands being advertised. HUL had, to use a media term, roadblocked all advertising time and space in Star’s ten channels and had only their ads for the entire day.
The world stopped revolving and exclaimed ‘my god’. The entire nation stood up and applauded the most earth shattering event since this nation became independent. ‘HUL has done it again’, screamed the who’s who of marketing.
Done what? This mind of mine fails to grasp the outcome of all this. So a few million people watched only HUL ads all day, fine. But, how many of them felt they were watching only HUL ads. Or how many of us know which company makes most of the ads that we watch or the bulk of the brands that we buy.
Do we know who makes Oral B?
Do we know who makes Medimix?
Do we know who makes D’Cold?
Do we care to know?
It is not just about a simple case of buying inventory from Star. The premium cost for such a strategy is obscenely high and my media sources say it would have been about 100%. Businessworld magazine estimates HUL’s ad-spends that day at about Rs.1,000 crores!
So what did HUL actually achieve by spending a fortune? People got to see only Surf or Lifebuoy or Pears or whatever that was dished out. To the average Mrs. Housewife it’s just another day of ads on TV. Even assuming she never switched to any other channel– Zee or Sony or Colours - during ad breaks, what would have she got? Agreed, she probably didn’t get to see any HUL competitive ads that day. So what? She saw them earlier and she would be seeing them the next day; the day after. Why need to spend Rs.1,000 crores for this? Isn't this the classic case of putting-all-advertising-eggs-in-one-media-basket?
Has recall of HUL brands increased tremendously post this? I doubt. HUL has yet to comment on that. Knowing HUL, they would have done a study by now to ascertain the impact. Their silence screams the deafening impact of their media innovation. Zilch!
You see, this media roadblock strategy might gain people’s attention if a single brand does it with a single message on a single day. For instance, Hutch used this roadblock strategy in 2007 in Star, when they changed the name to Vodafone. All day, a single focused message that Vodafone wanted to achieve – ‘Hutch is now Vodafone’. Maybe that made sense. But different brands of the same company being advertised on the same day – to the consumer, is just another set of advertising. Spending a fortune on it is strategically foolish and creatively futile.
I wondered why any company would even do this. Was I missing something in all this? So I called my media friend – one of the most respected media minds in the country – certainly one of the few I respect - and posed him this question.
Why would a company spend Rs.1,000 crores on just one set of channels on a single day? Who would benefit?
The soft-spoken friend of mine smiled and said, ‘First, the brand manager would. He or she would show it as something different that they attempted and executed. Secondly, the media agency would have earned brownie points and a fat media commission as well. And thirdly Star TV, which would have made a quiet killing’.
But what about the brands, I enquired. He smiled even more and said, ‘Who cares about them’!
If you didn’t know already, on September 17 all consumers who watched any of Star’s 10 channels saw only HUL brands being advertised. HUL had, to use a media term, roadblocked all advertising time and space in Star’s ten channels and had only their ads for the entire day.
The world stopped revolving and exclaimed ‘my god’. The entire nation stood up and applauded the most earth shattering event since this nation became independent. ‘HUL has done it again’, screamed the who’s who of marketing.
Done what? This mind of mine fails to grasp the outcome of all this. So a few million people watched only HUL ads all day, fine. But, how many of them felt they were watching only HUL ads. Or how many of us know which company makes most of the ads that we watch or the bulk of the brands that we buy.
Do we know who makes Oral B?
Do we know who makes Medimix?
Do we know who makes D’Cold?
Do we care to know?
It is not just about a simple case of buying inventory from Star. The premium cost for such a strategy is obscenely high and my media sources say it would have been about 100%. Businessworld magazine estimates HUL’s ad-spends that day at about Rs.1,000 crores!
So what did HUL actually achieve by spending a fortune? People got to see only Surf or Lifebuoy or Pears or whatever that was dished out. To the average Mrs. Housewife it’s just another day of ads on TV. Even assuming she never switched to any other channel– Zee or Sony or Colours - during ad breaks, what would have she got? Agreed, she probably didn’t get to see any HUL competitive ads that day. So what? She saw them earlier and she would be seeing them the next day; the day after. Why need to spend Rs.1,000 crores for this? Isn't this the classic case of putting-all-advertising-eggs-in-one-media-basket?
Has recall of HUL brands increased tremendously post this? I doubt. HUL has yet to comment on that. Knowing HUL, they would have done a study by now to ascertain the impact. Their silence screams the deafening impact of their media innovation. Zilch!
You see, this media roadblock strategy might gain people’s attention if a single brand does it with a single message on a single day. For instance, Hutch used this roadblock strategy in 2007 in Star, when they changed the name to Vodafone. All day, a single focused message that Vodafone wanted to achieve – ‘Hutch is now Vodafone’. Maybe that made sense. But different brands of the same company being advertised on the same day – to the consumer, is just another set of advertising. Spending a fortune on it is strategically foolish and creatively futile.
I wondered why any company would even do this. Was I missing something in all this? So I called my media friend – one of the most respected media minds in the country – certainly one of the few I respect - and posed him this question.
Why would a company spend Rs.1,000 crores on just one set of channels on a single day? Who would benefit?
The soft-spoken friend of mine smiled and said, ‘First, the brand manager would. He or she would show it as something different that they attempted and executed. Secondly, the media agency would have earned brownie points and a fat media commission as well. And thirdly Star TV, which would have made a quiet killing’.
But what about the brands, I enquired. He smiled even more and said, ‘Who cares about them’!
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