Time to position salt differently!!!(DFS)

Almost all the companies offering table salt are positioning on some/all the benefits like free flow, iodized(good health), taste etc.. Now the companies have to reposition their offer because of an added benefit... R&D department of India have developed a new salt variant which is rich not only in iodine but also in iron. All the TVC's are focusing on the benefits of Iodine and now they have to add iron content makes the body more immune and improves the oxygen carrying property of blood making the individual more healthy..They have come up with this new product called as DFS(Double fortified salt) and this doesnt alter the real taste of the salt . Officials declared that they have not decided the price of this new commodity..FMCG majors like ITC,TATA Chemicals are all set to launch this new variety by mid of 2010....RamKumar

Creating communities is the game for the day!!!

Buoyed by their successful Tweets and YouTube promos, brands such as Canon, LG, Samsung and Adidas are now busy creating online consumer
communities. Marketers feel that besides increasing brand salience, online communities can emerge as a platform for cross-selling products, thanks to the ever-increasing relevance of the internet as a medium to reach out to consumers. Canon and Samsung Mobile, which were among the earliest to roll out online consumer communities in India, claim huge dividends. Canon has logged in 80,000 members in its Canon Edge community. “Since a lot of consumers participating in our community are interested in serious photography, this translated into nearly 100% growth in the digital SLR camera business,” says Alok Bharadwaj, senior VP at Canon India. “Next month, we will launch an online photo gallery that will provide further thrust.” While money spent on online promotion is still less than 5% of the overall marketing budget for most brands in India, brands like LG and Canon are increasing their online investments 50-100% every year. This is because the return on marketing investment on the internet is high as its cost is minimal and the reach measurable. But the companies are not betting big on online sales. Canon manages to sell some ten cameras every month online, but average monthly revenue of Rs 1 lakh is nothing great. Source--Economic times

Aamir bags highest endorsement fee!!!

Aamir Khan, fresh from the success of 3 Idiots, has signed a deal with a UAE-based telecommunications service provider reportedly for a staggering Rs 35 crore -- the highest a Bollywood celebrity has ever received for endorsement, leaving far behind the previous highs of Rs 12 crore to Rs 15 crore. Reports say it is a two-year contract during which period Khan will make himself available for an allotted number of media shoots, press advertisements and personal appearances.Aamir's own earlier contracts for a biscuit, a cola, a car, an FMCG, a watch maker and a satellite TV service provider are all reportedly in the range of Rs 12 crore; so, by even his own standards, his fees have almost tripled. Trade insiders attributed Aamir's rising stock in ad circles to his recent box-office successes. Aamir himself neither denied nor confirmed his latest endorsement fee. "I enjoy doing my ads. And I'm choosy about the brands and the creative team that works on them. I work as hard on my ads as I do on my films," he said.
Endorsement fees charged by other actors are (highest):
Aamir Khan Rs 35 crore
Shah Rukh Khan Rs 15 crore
Akshay Kumar Rs 15 crore
Hrithik Roshan Rs 15 crore
Salman Khan Rs 12 crore

HUL has gone too aggressive

Leaving behind ethics and friendly rivalry, HUL took a major step by pointing on TIDE's poor performance. I think they should think of how Horlicks was effected in terms of market share post launch of a similar spoof ad against complan..the results were a decrease of 5% market share of horlicks in that month and it was like waking up a sleeping tiger(Complan)..
If you look at the ad, Rin instead of telling/ showcasing its superior properties was committed to showcasing tide's deficiencies.. 75% of the time they told about tide.. Audience thought more about tide than thinking about rin.. If you remeber the equation for inpact of advertising, it is proportional to mind space of the consumer and proportional to the time the consumer was made to hear about the brand...so tide is in advantageous position.
Moreover this ad would never entice non users of rin/ users of tide to switch over to rin because the ad was too unrealistic... I mean, the users of tide never had such horrible brownish fade of a white shirt, so ad was on a lighter note to them...
Similarly Rin users had never experienced such sparkling white from a cheap product like Rin-----RamKumar. Need comments on this..

Japanese had learnt from us!!!

Right from our MBA first year we have been taught about Japanese performances and their supply chain efficiencies..I have come across keywords like Kaizen, Shitsuke(Dont remember other 3s), six sigma and so on.Among all these I personally think we(Indians) are also good at some kind of supply chain process, the only reason we are not credited upon is because we hate using jargons... Yes I am talking about the buzz word in SCM classes called JIT(Just in time)... Recently i happened to attend a marriage ceremony of my cousin and an inaugural function of a shopping mall on consecutive days...To my surprise i have noted some similar SCM practices in both the cases..
1. I went to the mandap 3 hrs. before the muhurat(the scheduled time) and i saw everything disorganized and i wondered whether they would be able to locate mangalsutra(the sacred thread) when demanded by the purohit. But everything went normal and in fact precisely perfect..
2. Similar thoughts waves were generated across my mind the day before inaugural function of the shopping mall..Uncleanliness, chaos, & panic filled the pages of the night..The same..Perfect by the time scheduled..
Well dont u think JIT should be a label from indian tradition??? I think we overcede Toyota in several fronts.. They developed but we inherited!!!!!!-----RamKumar

Save tigers----Save the poor

I have seen South Indian actor Surya, Baitchung Bhutia, Dhoni etc. coming up on TV sets & speaking about Save Tigers initiative...I was moved & logged on to their site to check what was it all about..To my surprise i understood that this years advertising budget is a big knock off!!! I followed their site which says about the existence of tigers in several parts of India which you could easily find out easily from other government sites & had statements trying to inculcate proactiveness to support their societal marketing drive...I dont understand how can we save tigers if we dont come across it...Did that mean we are all poachers????
Their site had a column where we can donate some amount to WWF(World wildlife federation)..Even that was skeptical....Should we contribute money to save tigers or sould we contribute money to help the poor & underpreviliged people for their daily bread????? Ramkumar

Brand Endorsement!!! "TIGER" The buzz word..

Well i heard a lot of discussion and i have gone through several articles which made me feel that i have to throw some light upon it..... The first name that strikes our mind is "Tiger Woods"...
Well statistics say that when his polygamy act came onto the surface they said the rub off effect would cause the company's accumulated losses to touch around $2billion.. Rather i would say that it would not have any effect n even if it had,it would only be for some transient period... .Well because all the products that he used to endorse were of high quality with well established market share(Accenture,Pepsi,Gillette among the major ones).. For example accenture is a consulting company with some Big names as their cleints.. I dont think they would stop consulting if their business is growing and Tiger Woods is under charge....How does it matter....There might be a slight slump in the share prices but im sure it would bounce back as the time pass by and media gets some fresh news to engage upon...It is just a game with sentiments(Share market).... I think i dont take a shave with gillete because of Tiger woods or their world record feat by engaging some thousands of people to shave their beard at a single gathering...i do it for comfort & price & gillete serves it!!!!! RamKumar