A great product may just get turned into a hopeless also ran in the market place if it is not packaged right. Surely that’s reason enough to consider this aspect of your marketing program very seriously

This year, PepsiCo has found a mantra to breathe new life into its beverage category. The buzz word is “Refresh Everything.” With this focus, the company plans to reinvent the brand and fill it with the spirit and optimism of youth. Massimo d’ Amore, CEO, PepsiCo North America Beverages, said, “Today, people want beverages to refresh more than their taste buds... this is what our brand reinvention strategy is all about and we’re introducing new identities, new packing and holistic marketing campaigns designed to inspire people of all generations,” as according to them, their beverages have always been at the centre of popular culture, where they have energized new generations for years. The 60-second “Pepsi Pass” video on You Tube takes the winning mantra forward by claiming “Every generation refreshes the world… now it’s your turn.”

With a series of new advertisements & new packaging, the company marched ahead on this exciting plan, in the beginning of this year. It refreshed (read: modified) a lot of things; like refreshed the Pepsi logo, the Mountain Dew font and the packaging of its premium category orange juice Tropicana, among other things. The company invested $35 million to roll out this new look of Tropicana. Now, instead of its trademark “orange-with-the-straw” image, the Tropicana carton featured a glass full of an orange juice, while the cap was designed to look like an orange. The result – after the launch of the packaging on January 1, 2009, the sales of Tropicana had plummeted by 20% by the end of February.

It couldn’t get more shocking. A brand that was nurtured and grown for 30 years lost one-fifth of its customers in fewer than 60 days. To make matters worse, not just did Tropicana’s market share drop, but that of its competitors increased; i.e. Coca Cola, Minute Maid and various other brands, including private-label products, posted a double digit unit sales increase during this period! So what went wrong? In its bid to reinvigorate the brand and make new emotional connections, the company lost sight of the most important factor – customer experience. That is, the shopping experience of the customer. The new package design, though classy, actually confused the customer. The new design lacked the distinctive personality of the “Orange-with-the straw” image. Maybe it was not classy, maybe a lot of people didn’t care much about it, yet the “Orange-with-the-straw” made the carton stand out on the shelves of supermarkets and made it easier for the customer to grab the juice of their choice. The new design could not stand out and made the brand look generic. No one in their wildest dreams could predict that a change in packaging could cause such a steep and unthinkable fall in sales. The company, of course, has immediately discontinued the new packaging & brought back the original, but this big goof-up definitely gets one thinking.

The silent salesman
Very often, “packaging” is referred to as the silent salesman – speaking volumes, without saying a word! Packaging conveys a very strong marketing message. It’s packaging that a lot of seasoned marketers are turning to, during these times to boost sales. Frito-Lay’s new Smart Food popcorn is now coming in a smaller pack – as research revealed, women (who are its target customers) preferred smaller, portioned packaging for their snacks. Pepsi is bringing back its retro-style packing for Pepsi Cola and Mountain Dew – reminiscent of the 60’s & 70’s. Starbucks is planning to roll its ice-cream into grocery stores this summer and its packaging for the new super premium flavors emulates the company’s iconic white cup – so that loyal customers can recognize it in a glance. Mango Frooti is going in for innovative packaging to help increase sales this summer. It’s now offering a Frooti devil pack and a Frooti cupid pack – to make it look more contemporary and appealing to the youth and to enhance its image. Sprite also comes in a smaller version called Sprite Xpress now – in sync with the on-the-move lifestyle of the youth. Women’s Horlicks was the best ever launch for GlaxoSmithKline last year – primarily due to the unique design of the bottle, which was shaped like a woman’s form – and woman loved it! Old brands need to change with the times to remain relevant to the new generation & a new packaging helps in doing just that. Old brand Sunsilk became youthful & trendy last year with its new packaging.     Read More....


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As technology radically transforms interpersonal communication, the very tenets of marketing are getting redefined...

Aircel seems to have flooded the markets with its red and blue hoardings and kiosks dotting the whole city. They plastered Delhi with Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s smiling face, they stole the front page of the Times of India and changed it to “Move on India”. On 21st March, apart from TOI, Aircel had literally hijacked all Radio Channels & TV Channels with its advertisements. Many have used such “Ambush” marketing techniques earlier, however this time, Aircel did something else too. This Apollo Group-promoted brand went and connected itself with the youth – and where else to go other than Facebook. Aircel launched a voice message application on Facebook, which allowed friends to leave each other voice messages instead of just text messages. Within no time, it got 190 users to sign up for its voice mail application. Social networking sites are turning out to be lucrative options, where marketers can focus on their target groups, and that too, at very cheap rates.

Lets Face it!
Facebook has become a place where every college kid now hangs out. Its stickiness has improved with a user spending 190 minutes on an average on the site. Originally developed for college and university students, where you could log in only if you had a college e-mail id, Facebook is available to anyone with an email address today. So now there is an increase in the users of the 12-17 and 35+ demographic. So these social networking sites are attracting a lot of marketers, especially those who want to target the youth, for it’s the young who have typically more free time to spend on a social networking site. So if you can do something interesting & creative, which catches the fancy of young minds, you can create a “friendly buzz” about your brand; something very necessary for a brand’s survival and growth.

In Australia, when Nestle wanted to launch its new Kit Kat Chunky product targeted at teenage boys, it decided to not use any traditional media. According to its head of campaign marketing John Broome, five years ago, the advertising campaign would have included television, radio and outdoor; but today, things have changed. This time, the campaign includes a multi-player online game, online videos, mockumentaries (mock documentaries!!) and a mobile component to the website. With teenage boys spending, on an average, 13 hours a week playing games online, this was the perfect way to reach them. The advantage – if they liked you, they would refer you to their friends, who would like you too – ‘coz their friends told them so. Though overall, Nestle spends about 10% of its media budget on the internet, but this time, of the $1 million kept aside for launching Kit Kat Chunky, it decided to spend 70% of the amount on the internet. Nano, the latest offering from the Tatas to hit the Indian roads, broke new grounds in design, engineering and production processes. Now it’s using innovative ways to market and promote this unique Rs.1 lakh car. Unlike most small cars, Nano won’t advertise on TV. It will instead focus on online Nano games, Nano chat rooms, Nano pop-ups and even enter into a conversation with young users on Facebook, Orkut and blog spaces. Nano wants to be synonymous with anything “small, cute and brief” and it’s using the internet to help build this buzz about its brand, and probably this time, it’s not gone wrong, for the networking sites triggered a gushy response from people all over the world, asking for a similar car in their land too!

P&G, the world’s biggest advertiser, created a page on MySpace called “Miss Irresistible” to help market its Crest toothpaste. This way, it could connect with its users, potential users and along the way, gather market research. According to Wall Street, when the world’s biggest advertiser turns towards a new medium, a whole lot of others are bound to follow
Read More....


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Slumdog Millionaire has been in news for long, primarily because of its wins in eight categories at the Oscars. Yes, it’s been the toast of tinsel town and considering the fact that this was the very film that had no one to give it a theatrical release makes its victory even more interesting. However, there is more to an Oscar win than meets the eye.

The recession seems to have shaken everyone and show business seems to be affected too. Big movie studios are facing the heat and are closing down. Consider this; Warner Independent Pictures was supposed to be the original distributor of Slumdog Millionaire, but Warner Bros. closed down this division along with another of its specialty film divisions – Picture house. It was not the only one closing down divisions. Paramount Studios closed down their Paramount Vantage unit. Add to this “Think film”, a leading distributor of non-fiction films – which packed its bag-n-baggage and disappeared totally. With so much of upheaval all around, Slumdog Millionaire was practically left with nowhere to go. Then a tiny cog from Rupert Murdoch’s conglomerate News Corp, named Fox Searchlight, picked up the film, marketed it well and “Slumdog”, which was faced with the prospect of going for a DVD release rather than a big screen, landed up marking thirteen times the amount its makers had invested in the film. Slumdog Millionaire reached places it never expected to go, a sentiment very aptly described by its screenplay writer Simon Beaufoy during his Oscar acceptance speech. He said he never expected to be in certain places – “The moon, the south pole, the Miss World podium and here – at the Oscars.”

Now that’s not the “happy ending” of a story. In fact, it’s the beginning. Yes, traditionally, Oscars have been the places for final coronation of a film after its successful victory run at the box-office, and after it has won the praise and accolades of audiences and critics alike. Think of movies like Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, et al. They created box-office records before the “Golden Lady” came their way. Today, the rules of the game have changed. The Oscars are now a part of the marketing plan for most production houses. Production houses are making movies especially for the Oscars. They are purposely timing the release around the Oscars, because its not so much about the wining; even a nomination at the Oscars is enough to increase the sales of the movie.

Oscars Not very different from Oprah

It’s said that anything Oprah touches turns to gold – look at what she did to Barack Obama! In places where he had no hold; a word from Oprah and people came in the droves to support Obama. Many say the Oscars are like “Oprah’s Book Club”. Any book featured on it becomes a best seller. Similarly, any movie which gets nominated or wins at the Oscars gets a lot of financial success after the accolades that the “award season” bestows on them. Look at Slumdog Millionaire. It didn’t generate much interest in India, yet, after its Oscar victory, there was an increased demand from multiplexes. In US, it became the top grosser after the Oscars. In Argentina, Australia, Mexico, Chile; everywhere its box-office revenues increased tremendously and Fox Searchlight sure must have seen itself smiling right till the bank!     Read More....


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Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

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Comparative advertising has irresistible appeal for marketers, especially when it is backed by a genuinely better product. But there are definite risks as well, so this strategic tool has to be used very carefully

“Don’t Dew it” is the aggressive advertising campaign that Coca-Cola is running in US these days. What Coca-Cola is doing is completely unthinkable and probably something no one has ever done before. Anyone who buys PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew would get a free sample of Coca-Cola, “Vault”. How many times has this happened to you, when you have purchased a product and got its competitor’s brand for free? Probably never. But Coca-Cola thinks it’s hit the right spot. According to it, once consumers get to taste “Vault”, they will convert, for they would like it more than Mountain Dew. Considering that Mountain Dew holds 80% of the market share for citrus drinks while Vault holds just 4%, not many have actually tasted Vault! With the slowdown taking its toll, marketers are being driven to extremes. Coca-Cola feels this is its golden chance. It’s hit on Pepsi’s hottest property. In the past, the only carbonated drink that’s managed to do well and even increase its market share by 0.2% has been Mountain Dew. But then Pepsi is unfazed. It’s not surprised by such moves. It was in the 1970’s that it invented the “Blind Taste Test”. Consumers were given two glasses of drinks – one with Pepsi & the other with Coke. They were asked to taste both and then select which one they preferred. A lot of people chose the glass which had Pepsi. The outcome of the Pepsi Challenge was that Americans preferred Pepsi. So Pepsi would probably soon come out with a better trick and outdo Coke. After all, it’s not new to this “Attack” game!

Rise of comparative advts .
The markets have slowed down. Getting to the consumer has got even more difficult. A number of marketers the world over are openly declaring war. Love it or hate it, but the fact is comparative advertising does grab eyeballs. Dunkin’ Donuts has been using this strategy time and again against its rival Starbucks. Like Pepsi, it too did a taste test and concluded that “hard working” people prefer Dunkin’ Donuts coffee while the “elitist” preferred Starbucks. In fact, in 2005, Dunkin’ gave away $100 to dozens of its faithful consumers in Chicago to go and buy Starbucks and discovered that a loyal Dunkin’ Donuts customer couldn’t understand why anyone would pay as much as $4 for a cup of coffee. Moreover, they felt that drinking coffee at Starbucks was like celebrating Christmas with strangers. Talking of “taste-tests”, Burger King took the challenge to a different level - literally. Its tests did not involve shopping malls or department stores; rather they involved 13 planes, two dog sleds and one helicopter. The fast food chain sought out farmers in far flung places like rural Romania, Thai villagers and even people of Greenland. They did this for they wanted the results to be totally unbiased. As one of their advert claims, “What happens if you take Transylvanian farmers who’ve never eaten a burger and ask them to compare Whopper versus Big Mac in the world’s purest taste test?” As expected, each of them preferred Whopper to McDonald’s Big Mac. Today, advertisers are going to any length to convince consumers that they’re the best.

Masked-no more
Recently, Horlicks took Heinz India’s health drink Complan head on. Its advertisement categorically claimed that Horlicks had better nutritional content and was cheaper than Complan. So while Complan just made you taller, Horlicks made you taller, stronger and sharper. Of course, comparative advertising is not new to India, but it used to be much more subtle. Earlier, the advertisements relied on tricky lines and ambiguity. Remember Surf and Tide, showing orange and blue-green-yellow packs of detergents in their respective ads as comparisons? Amul’s Mithai Mate commercial showed a housewife using a hammer and various other tools to open a can of condensed milk. Even though the shot was digitized, you knew it was Nestle’s Milkmaid. This was Mithai Mate’s way of showcasing its easy-open can. Britannia saw its “Good Day” turning not-so good when Unibic India launched its “Great Day” biscuits with a tag line, “Why have a good day, when you can have a great day.” Whether it was inspired by Jim Collins best selling novel “Good to Great” we don’t know, but it sure had Britannia clamouring hastily to the courts. When Subhiksha was on an aggressive expansion spree, its print ad campaign compared its own prices with that of competitors, showing how Subhiksha was much cheaper than others. The ad also saw Food Bazaar, owned by Future Group, taking Subhiksha to court on grounds of inconsistent comparisons. While Future Group took Subhiksha to court, its Big Bazaar launched aggressive campaigns against its competitors Shopper’s Stop, Lifestyle & Westside. What’s it with this advertising strategy? For one, they’re no more as subtle as they used to be - at least in India. It’s hard times and companies are making sure their advertisements are working harder for them. This year could see a rise in comparative advertising with advertisers getting more aggressive in their quest for the consumer’s moolah.
Read More....


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Recession does lead to a windfall for marketers who thrive on affordability. But that does not mean companies should go for panic discounting, as it harms brands in the long run. Better options are available to improve your product demand...

“Four bucks is dumb Serving Espresso.” Smirks a billboard in Seattle USA. This was McDonald’s way of advertising for its coffee. Early 2008 McDonald’s had started unsnobbycoffee.com to promote the launch of its espresso drinks. McDonald’s was doing all it could to steal business from Starbucks, even though its advertising agency claimed that the fact that “Four bucks” rhymes with “Starbucks” was purely coincidental! It claims it was more to do with the pricing. At Starbucks, a cup of coffee costs $4, while you could buy a cup at McDonald’s at one fourth the price. McDonald’s and Starbucks have been at war for long in a quest to grab the larger market share. So McDonald’s started serving coffee and Starbucks started serving breakfast sandwiches. However there was a slight difference, after trying to outdo each other, we find Starbucks in the process of closing down up to 600 locations, while McDonald’s just can’t stop smiling at its balance sheet.

It’s surprising how some companies are thriving in times like these while their competitors are wilting away. Big retailers like Abercrombie and Fitch, Barney’s, Neiman Marcus, and even Saks Fifth Avenue say they have been hit by the worst holiday season in almost 40 years. Meanwhile, things couldn’t be better for Wal-Mart, as millions of consumers continued to flock into Wal-Mart to buy its low price, quality goods. According to Lee Scott its former CEO, founder Sam Walton built the company to thrive during downturns – something it surely has been doing pretty well this time round. What is it that’s made these companies and many more like them “recession resistant”?

The consumer is changing

The consumer is cash-starved. He needs to save money and given the first opportunity, would switch to cheaper brands. He is holding off big purchases but he still needs the basic necessities like clothes and medicines. He still doesn’t mind spending on a toy which will light up the face of his child and sometimes he does indulge into guilty pleasures of a rich, dark chocolate, a glass of wine or a puff of a cigarette. According to Mintel International, the US cigarette and tobacco market will grow by 28% to $132 billion from 2008 to 2011.

Yes impulse purchases are seeing a decline. People are asking for discounts even during the peak season. Retailers of all types, be they car makers, home builders are stuck with huge inventories. For survival they are slashing prices. Microsoft has cut the prices of its Xbox 360 Pro – its best selling version, to be able to put pressure on rivals Nintendo and Sony. Intel has slashed prices by up to 40% on its Quad-Core Chips. Top end designers of luxury goods and apparel are giving discounts as high as 70% to lure customers back into their outlets. Think about it; till just about a year ago, luxury stores couldn’t keep up with the wealthy’s appetite for extravagance.

From Jaguar to Apple, everybody seems to be cutting prices and it seems to be boom time for auctioneers and discounters. Gilt Groupe is a company that sends members e-mail alerts about a sale from a specific designer – and many big names like Valentino etc. are turning to it for help. Portero.com, an auctioning website is also doing brisk business by auctioning Chanel bags, Tourneau Watches etc.

Last Christmas created records when prices were cut the maximum by many retailers to woo the customer back. This traditionally is that time of the year when sales used to be maximum. This time it was different. So then is price the only solution? Not really.   
Read More....



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First Ladies are known to dress with definite purpose. And an endorsement by them can help any fashion label beat recession blues

Barack Obama seems to have ushered in an era of hope. Every thing he does, every word he speaks, attracts huge feedback. There seems to be one more thing that generates similar response and that’s his wife Michelle Obama’s presence next to him. As the world hung on to every word that Obama spoke, it was Mrs. Obama’s dress that was driving people everywhere from fashion magazines to Internet chat rooms – in a total frenzy. Her black sheath dress with splashes of red had everyone commenting or her style. Some hated it and some loved it and, some called it “the look of victory”. For according to many, the Obama’s don’t do anything just for the sake of it – there is always a purpose. As the London Times fashion editor said, “You may like or dislike Michelle Obama’s dress but that’s not as interesting as the agenda behind it, because you can be sure there was one.” She may not be wrong, for the entire Obama family was colour coordinated. It was probably the most well choreographed First Family Elect Appearances in history with Barack Obama’s tie and his daughter’s (Malia and Sasha) red and black clothes matching Michelle’s dress! According to some, the red & black combination symbolised two things – black for mourning for Obama’s grandmother who died on the eve of the election while red stood for passion!

It is said that it was not a mere coincidence why Barack Obama chose Hart Schaffner Mart to make the suit he wore to accept the Democratic nomination for President. The company is one of the few that can claim their products are made in America. For a man who has always so vociferously opposed outsourcing of jobs, this was an interesting way of making his point. Keeping the same logic in mind, it is argued that Michelle Obama prefers to wear clothes by Chicago-based designer Maria Pinto, for Pinto built her brand from scratch and made it a success. She represented the American dream – a country where you could realise your dreams. Come to think of it, you thought clothes were just meant to make one look good – well they do a lot more than that.

DRESSED TO WIN

The First Lady with her simple and clean style seems to have won the nation over. She seems to have well understood the power of clothes and used it to her favour. Michelle Obama has an uncanny knack of understanding what appeals to the masses. Her choice of dresses has made it clear that she believes in looking stylish and also advancing the cause of American fashion. She appeared on the very popular TV show “The View” wearing a simple dress picked off the rack from a retail chain named “White House Black Market” (symbolic again!). Women came in droves to the retail chain store demanding the $148 dress. For the swearing-in ceremony, Mrs. Obama wore a lemon-grass outfit designed by, not Versace or Ralph Lauren, but a Cuban-American nobody, Isabel Toledo. From the choice of the designer to the choice of colour, everything seemed to emphasise her husband’s speech which said, “We are going to do things differently now.” Some even said it sent a message about a favorable foreign policy vis-à-vis Cuba. Some people sure know how to make their clothes work for them.

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Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

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