Murugappa Group : Bet We Have Met

Corporate brand : Murugappa Group

Brand Analysis : # 536

Murugappa group is one of the oldest Indian conglomerate.The group founded in 1900 has grown to become a Rs 23000 crore business empire with 28 businesses including 11 listed companies. The group has interest over industries such as cycles , abrasives, autocomponents,sugar, farm equipments,fertilizers etc. 

Murugappa group owns some of the very famous consumer brands like BSA, Hercules , Parrys, Cholamandalam etc. But the group as such does not have much recall with the general public.

It is in this context that Murugappa Group undertook a massive corporate branding exercise themed " Bet we have met ".

In 2008, the company undertook a brand study to understand the brand connect with the key stakeholders. The study revealed that though the individual brands were well known and respected, there was no connect between the individual brands and the group's identity. Even at the employee level, an understanding of the Murugappa's scale of businesses a pride of being a part of a large group were less than expected. 

The process of creating a unified corporate branding exercise started in 2010 with a rebranding of the group with a new logo . This was followed by a massive internal branding exercise themed " Energy Unbound". The campaign had external and internal linkages. 

External campaign was addressed at creating awareness about the group's diverse business and how it touches one's life. 

Watch one campaign here : Murugappa Group Energy Unbound

The campaign was the beginning of the group's thinking that they need to create an identity for the group.

More than the external audience, the 2010 focused on creating awareness of the group's identity among the 32000 employees through an internal branding campaign.

The internal marketing campaign was created to facilitate awareness and bringing a sense of pride among the internal stakeholders. How the group executed the campaign was interesting. Every year, at a specific time, all the group employees come together at their respective firms to celebrate "Energy Hour ". The employees irrespective of the hierarchy came together in same uniform to celebrate this event. ( source )

In 2012, Murugappa group initiated another ambitious corporate branding campaign themed " Bet we have met ". This Rs 30 crore campaign was to build awareness about the group's varied operations to the general public. 

The campaign was executed on the basis of the theme of " bet we have met". The core idea is that Murugappa group has touched the life of the people through any of the group companies. In a sense that was true also. I used to ride a BSA SLR cycle. 

So that concept was executed using the idea of meeting someone whom we have met but couldn't recall when or what context. So the agency created 9 different campaigns featuring 9 group companies.

Watch the ad here : Murugappa bet we have met

While the 2010 campaign established awareness about the Murugappa group, the company felt that the connect between the corporate brand and the individual company brand's were not established. The 2013 campaign has clearly linked these two brands together. The common visual element used was the visiting card . The ad is simple and very effective in communicating the message. Only issue is that  the repetition makes it little irritating.

Now the question is why such a high profile branding exercise ? Is there a real benefit for such a corporate branding exercise.

The answer is affirmative. In the case of Murugappa group, the individual companies under the conglomerate has a better brand equity compared to the corporate brand. So in the initial branding years, the conglomerate brand - Murugappa will be trying to derive equity from brands of the group companies. The group will benefit with this campaign because once the connect gets established, Murugappa Group will be able to get advantage from this equity for future endevours. For example, once Murugappa establishes itself as a powerful conglomerate brand, its public offerings ( IPO etc) will have higher chances of success. Also a powerful corporate brand will also able to attract investors aswell as human resources and business partners.

At this point, the SBU brands like BSA, Parrys etc may not have immediate benefit from Murugappa Group brand but in future, having a powerful corporate brand is always helpful. 

Although the current campaign establishes the fact that Murugappa Group is a large business house with lot of good group companies, there is no mention about the core brand values of the brand- Murugappa Group. What does Murugappa brand stands for ? 

What are the core brand values ? 

What is the Murugappa brand's manthra ?  

These questions are not addressed in the current campaign. I think that the brand should have thought about these and  should have conveyed some of these in the current campaign. Anyways the company is spending  Rs 30 crores and getting lot of eyeballs, it should have used this opportunity to convey the conglomerate brand's values through a tagline or some copy. May be the brand is keeping that for the next campaign. 

The current campaign has a very short term objective - create awarness. And it will deliver awareness about the Murugappa brand but the real success of the corporate communication campaign will depend on how Murugappa identifies and communicates its core brand values and brand manthra in the coming campaigns.

10 Social Media Tricks Your Small Business Needs to Try

If you're struggling to get the word out about your small business, social media could be your great equalizer. Social media as a marketing channel is more strategic and data driven than a few blog posts, status updates, and a few hundred “followers” and “likes.

Expanding your audience is crucial, and Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter let you do that easily. HootSuite lets you manage all these profiles at once, saving valuable time, while Tumblr, Vine, and Instagram allow you to reach a younger audience in creative ways. And don’t say your audience isn’t on social media; the fastest growing demographic on Twitter is 55-64 year olds.

Keeping up with the latest social media changes is not always easy, and your social media marketing tactics may need to be refreshed. At Grovo, an online learning platform that trains people on leading cloud apps, social media tools and Internet trends, we put together the top 10 tips your small business needs to try to take your social media presence to the next level today:

1. Promote a Page Post with Facebook Ads
Paying to advertise a Facebook Page post increases the distribution of an important message so that it appears in more News Feeds across Facebook. To promote a page post, select "Page Post Engagement" from the ads creation page. Pick a recent post from the dropdown, or check the box to automatically promote the most recent post and keep your ad up-to-date.

Below, you'll see what your ad will look like in the "News Feed" and the "Right Column," but you can "Remove" it from either place. Uncheck the box beneath "Sponsored Stories" if you don't want stories published about people liking your posts, commenting on your posts, or sharing your posts.
However, leaving Sponsored Stories enabled won't force you to increase your budget. Under "Advanced Options," you can add "URL Tags" to make it easier for you to track clicks if you want.

2. Get To Know Your Facebook Fan Base
If you don’t know who your fans are, you won’t know what content to publish. Posting the wrong content will help you lose likes, not drive likes. The “people” tab will help you better understand the users who share and engage with your page’s content. Here you can choose data on demographic information and narrow your data down to people you’ve reached, who’ve engaged with content, or who’ve checked in within the past 28 days. You can also see check-in, age, sex, and location comparison reports, and detailed explanations.

This video will help you better understand how you can get to know your fans better, in order to target them with the right content and drive likes:

3. Advertise on Twitter
Setting up your Twitter ads account allows you to promote your brand or company through Twitter. To sign up, go to ads.twitter.com and sign in with your brand's Twitter account.

Once you get started, add the locations and interests of people you'd like to target. Under "More targeting options" you will be able to better precisely and accurately you target your ads. If you do this, the more likely it is that someone who views it will click on it, so choose carefully.

You get to decide the maximum you'd like to pay per day and per interaction for individual promoted tweets and promoted accounts. You won't always pay the maximum amount, but you'll never pay more than your maximum bid. You can also choose to focus exclusively on promoting individual tweets or your account by clicking "Stop promoting" under the other category. Your ads will begin appearing on Twitter users' feeds. You can control your ad settings on this page, and return to it at any time by going to ads.twitter.com.

4. Convert to a Pinterest Business Profile:
Pinterest now allows businesses to have official accounts. These accounts allow companies to more effectively interact with their audiences on Pinterest.

By visiting business.pinterest.com, you can either create a new business profile or convert an existing profile to a business account. To create a new business profile, click "Join as a business." You'll then be prompted to fill out a form with such information as: your business type; your contact info and password; the business name and logo; and a description and website.

Business accounts, you only need to provide a single name, rather than first and last name with personal accounts. To convert an existing profile, select "Convert your Existing Account" on the Pinterest Business page. Log in to your account, provide the required information, accept the terms of service and click "Convert Account." After creating or converting your account, you'll see a Get Started page that can help you Verify your website, install a pinterest widget on your site, drive traffic back to your site, and grow your audience.

5. Make Your Business Googleable
Google Places for Business allows you to manage the information Google displays about your business in search results, your Google+ profile page, your Adwords account, and Google offers all from a single dashboard.

To get started on Google Places for Business, go to google.com/places and click "Get started for free." Log in with your Google Account or Google apps username and password. In the popup, choose whether you'd like to be notified about future release information, agree to the terms of service, and hit "Okay, got it!"

Type your business name, location information, business phone number, and business type. On the next page, verify your account to prove you really own the address, or "Continue and verify later."Note that your page won't be displayed on Google until you verify it. Next, click "Edit information" and add your business's hours, a description, and photos. Your changes will be saved automatically.

6. Post Simultaneously to Multiple Social Networks
Once you've added social networks, you can use HootSuite to post to multiple networks at once.
First, select the profiles you want to send this message to in the box to the right of the compose box at the top of any page. You can select as many profiles as you have connected. Deselect a profile by clicking its icon again. Click into the "Compose" window and type the message you want to send.You can type up to the most lenient character limit of the networks that you selected. You'll see each limit decrease to the bottom left as you type.

If you exceed the limit of one of your networks, the number will turn red and go into the negatives. This lets you know how much of your message will be cut off with an ellipsis on that network. Click the location icon to add location data to your message, and the lock to adjust your privacy settings. Click "Send Now," and your message will be posted to all the profiles you selected.

7. Help Search Engines Find your Videos
Adding tags and video categories can improve the performance of your videos by helping search engines find them when users search for your tags and similar terms. You can add tags when you upload your video, or at any time after by selecting "Video Manager" in the dropdown below your username. Check off a tag you've already used to include it, or type in the box above to find a specific tag or create a new one. You can also choose a video category that matches your title, description and tags to help improve your video's search ranking even more.

8. Track the Performance of your Tweets
There are many ways to advertise your business, this way has 140 character restrictions. Twitter helps your business build an audience, broadcast your message and send followers to your site. Tracking your tweets' performance allows you to see how popular your tweets are over time, as well as get information about the people who follow you. To track tweet performance, go to ads.twitter.com and log in. The following video will give you a better understanding of using Twitter’s Analytics, to dive into your Timeline activity, followers influence, good and bad tweets, and more.

9. Pay to Have a Tumblr Post Shown More Places
Promoting a Tumblr blog post allows you to pay for your posts to have better placement in front of your audience or highlights a post to stand out on users' dashboards.From the post creation page, click "Promote this post" then select either "Pin this post" for $5 or "Highlight this post" for $2.

When you pin a post, it remains pinned to the top of your followers' dashboards until they remove the pin.
Highlighting a post means the post will have a glow around it to stand out from other posts, and include a tag to the right of the post.

Select a message for the tag using the dropdown below, after you select the "Highlight this post" radio button. Select the icon and color to the right. If you've already entered your credit card information, you can either confirm the payment, change your card, or cancel the order. Otherwise, type in your credit card information and click "Next" or use PayPal to pay for your promoted post.

10. Track Your Most Popular LinkedIn Updates
LinkedIn page analytics allow you to keep track of which of your company's updates are the most popular,and see how your LinkedIn page has grown over time. To access your company's analytics page, go to your company's page, then click "Analytics" at the top.Here, you'll see your company's most recent updates, with more information about each post to the right. To better understand your LInkedIn Reach, Engagement, Clicks, Likes, COmments, Shares, Range AND More… Grovo’s 1minute LInkedIn Analytics Overview will help:

Special thanks to Drew Hudson for today's guest post.  Drew Hudson is a Product Analyst and Writer for Grovo Learning, Inc. specializing in social media, cloud computing, and mobile apps. Since the turn of the decade, he has entrenched himself in the evolution of Web services and digital strategies and is an authority on the business impact of new Internet tools and trends. He writes several tutorial scripts each day, with tips on how to better use the Internet, and is a lead writer for the Grovo Blog. Besides keeping up with what's going on in the tech world and writing about it, Drew loves music, sports, and exploring the best of everything New York has to offer.

Colgate : Adds Mothers' endorsement to the pitch

Colgate, the market leader in the toothpaste segment in India has made a subtle but significant change to the brand's pitch. All through these years, the brand has been pitching itself as the No.1 brand endorsed by dentists.

In its latest campaign, the brand has included mother's endorsement to its tagline. The new tagline is " No.1 brand endorsed by mothers and dentists. This move was warranted by the fact that dentist's endorsement has become commoditized. Every toothpaste brand has now taken up the endorsement of dentists, either explicitly or by showing the main character as a dentist. 

With the main proposition of the brand under threat, Colgate had to move fast to protect its position. And it did that in a smart way by including endorsement by mothers. 

Another major brand development is the plethora of celebrity endorsement that was initiated by the brand in recent times. Now Kareena Kapoor endorses Colgate Activ Salt, Sonam Kapoor for Colgate Whitening, Virdas for Colgate Total , Allu Arjun for Max etc.

In the case of Active Salt variant, Colgate has added lemon as an ingredient. Now Active Salt focuses on whitening  ( removing yellowness) too rather than gum strength.  

Marketing the QR Code...

These small & black looking 2D images have been popping up all over the place - print adds, retail units, visiting cards, on soap cartons, candy wrappers, I can even see them within laptop DVD trays once you pop-them out to put your DVD in.

These QR codes have become a must have to all Marketers, everyone of them is coming up with innovative ways to communicate & market them. The creative agencies have them on their visiting cards through which details printed can transferred onto your contacts within a jiffy, retailers have them in-store to scan & avail discounts, mobile chargers have them in case you need to find out where to get a replacement - the list goes on, & quite innovative these usages.

Now comes the pertinent discussion, in a world of the QR code, does the consumer fundamentally see a benefit or atleast the lure of a benefit, or an associated value that he/she associates with that brand just because that brand is looker 'hipper' because of a QR Code? 

For many marketers any of the above rational associations would mean that their QR code is working in delivering its desired intent. 

In India the smartphones growth is around a 100% every year & poised to reach 100 million+ units by the end of this financial year in an overall base of 900 million+. But QR Code readers (which are to be generally downloaded) available on such phones are a far smaller number, 5 million itself might be an over statement.

Nevertheless this number is poised to grow. Which means that the QR code plans that marketers use have to be of a far higher order, rather than being generic & simple.

The current users of this technology (started in Toyota's manufacturing subsidiary) in India will be the younger or professional crowd whose access to high end smartphones & apps are far higher.

This means their engagement level can also be expected to be higher, maybe leading them on to spend more on the desired brand being marketed through a higher level of involvement.

QR Code led augmented reality, internet app discounts, direct interactive uploads, retail window shopping experience - the lists & implications could be endless.

There is also the QR Code design front - majority of the brands use a simple black 2D image, while a few have flirted with some colours & text too. But technically these QR code designs can be improved to have a better connect & design adherence to your overall brand language.

Blackberry..A Marketing revival?

A look of the stock graph below, gives only one logical solution; that it is time to get out before one gets erased from the map.

But in a shock to the business community, RIM has decided to back out. BB has not cut itself into pieces and sold itself off to the other competitors waiting to pounce of the valuable R&D that RIM had built up over the years. Maybe a few optimistic consumers might even dream to imagine a revival?

For once RIM could now stop thinking about bailing out on the mobile business & focus forward. Sure the heydays of supremacy might be over (at least for the short run), but the future for no reason need not be bright. Especially with multiple developing nations kicking into the act.

Blackberry's following in the business community was that strong that many Consumers struggled to use the IOS & Android platforms even though they were becoming popular. Then RIM themselves launched quite a few gems in Bold & Torch - but the marketing effort could be rated as 'poor' at best.

Blackberry might have even reacted quite a bit late when the disruptive technologies driving today's smartphones had come along, but react they did on the technology front; but the marketing campaign was a lot left to be desired for. 

The demise as I had indicated in http://fmcg-marketing.blogspot.in/2011/04/who-are-blackberry-boys.html started when RIM according me played their Defensive strategy incorrectly.

Instead of protecting their core faithful, they sprayed around their ammunition to capture the youth - the growing market. It was a matter of time before the fad of Android & IOS became the norm and bulldozed its way through the business community too.

I see no reason to believe that BB as a brand cannot become a powerhouse once again - Addressing the needs of the erstwhile core faithful, who I may add are definitely up for grabs.

Every manager & businessman from Junior levels till top management, crave for a better work management system. Tech cos are constantly trying to address different company needs through technology, but the gap still exists on manaer managing his own time - trying to make himself/herself more efficient. Oh sure there are apps in the market for such stuff, but no dedicated devices - made, built, positioned for business efficiency.

This is where RIM was successful & this is where they should re-enter as a Niche player. Understand that the pie to be captured here is not only the devices & its market share, but the amount of cyclic revenue that the professional crowd brings in.

There are people looking for a Harley Davidson kind of rise from the phoenix, & it is possible if it can be marketed right.

6 Tips for Brands Using Vine a Instagram Video

Short-form video is an invaluable tool in the marketers kit. With the incredible popularity of Vine and Instagram videos as of late, the savvy marketers amongst you will no doubt have picked up on it’s plethora of opportunities and potential reach, with studies showing that 40% of the top 1000 most shared Instagram videos for last month were brand led.

In fact, Instagram's 15 second videos are creating twice the engagement that images do and not only are users watching but they are also sharing and embedding them. The downside of all this of course is that getting your content seen is even more of a challenge. Greater popularity = Greater competition meaning your video has to be even better than it’s multitude of competitors. But never fear! Here are some top tips to make your video the cream of the corporate crop.

1.) Tell a Story: Real Time is all well and good, but giving your story some context can make it even more engaging to the viewer. What do you want your video to say? Using it as a storytelling arc may mean more time prepping and planning - thinking about storyboards, angles, and what it is you are trying to achieve. This extra effort could, however, serve in making your video more memorable and aid it’s longevity.

2.) Listen!: Instagram & Vine are pretty much entirely mobile-based applications, so the sound quality can sometimes be hit-and-miss. Be sure to place yourself at a close enough distance to your object so that you can clearly capture what it is you want your audience to hear. It might even be worth using a microphone to get the crispest audio possible, especially when in a noisy environment.

3.) Have Some Fun: Never be afraid to show some personality in your content. Above all, Instagram and Vine are social platforms - people are waaay more likely to follow you for likeability over professionalism. Make sure you build relationships with your audience and maintain a strong sense of character throughout your videos. Having a personality can engage viewers and help cement good customer relationships.

4.) Use a Great Thumbnail: First impressions DO count! The thumbnail is the first thing viewers will see and has to encourage them to click through to the actual content, so it’s worth making them as appealing as possible. Pick one that could stand alone as a picture, but also teases the viewer into watching the whole video.

5.) Hold Steady: Mobile phone footage is the worst culprit when it comes to shaky, jerky shots. Stop moving and set the phone down on or against a steady surface, or better still, mount it on a tripod. If you absolutely must be holding the camera, consider keeping the focus object stationary in the shot whilst you move with them, it will help create smoother transitions and stop the overall footage from being too disjointed.

6.) Experiment with Angles: Unless you're doing a stop-motion piece, try and vary the perspectives of your shots as much as possible.Experiment with close-ups, wide shots, big reveals...just doing something as seemingly simple of this could make your video more interesting as well as provide you with some excellent practice.

Madeleine Hammond is a marketing executive at Skeleton Productions - one of the UK's leading video production companies.

Maruti Estilo : RIP ( 2009-2013)

Finally  Estilo is dead. From a sub-brand ( Zen Estilo) to an independent brand and finally to a dead brand, Estilo never had a good run in the Indian market primarily because it tried to step into the iconic place of its predecessor- Maruti Zen.

The fault was not  with the product but with the messy brand experiments and the lack of giving proper positioning of Estilo. The primary error was made when Maruti decided to brand the new car  which replaced Zen as Zen Estilo. While the intention was to keep the Zen brand alive, the main issue was that the new product did not share any commonalities with the outgoing Zen. That created unwanted dissonance in those who expected the same peppy personality of the original Zen.

To be fair to Estilo, the car was spacious and good. But Maruti never was able to give a space for Estilo in its crowded product portfolio. It was to fill the gap between Alto and Wagon- R but was not able to quite do it effectively. Consumers viewed it as a compromise primarily because of the perception. Maruti was also not keen of giving any sort of promotional push to the brand neither was any thought on the positioning of Estilo. 

So when there was an option , consumers stopped looking at Estilo as an option. 

With the death of Estilo, the legacy of Zen has completely ended.

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Zen RIP ( 1993-2009)