Market Statistics :FMCG

According to Neilsen India, FMCG industry experienced slowdown in the last three quarters of 2013. Non-food categories experienced considerable slowdown than food category. Hair care and personal care suffered most . Cooking oil and impulse foods saw better growth. Categories such as household insecticide, hair color and fabric whiteners were not hit by slow growth.
Analyst say that slowdown is seen in discretionary and premium segments and in saturated categories like soaps and oral care.The volume growth in most cases are driven by price cuts and offers. (Source:Businessline)

Market Statistics : Personal Care

Indian personal care segment :Rs 59600 crore (Euro monitor )
Anti -Blemish segment :Rs 340 crore
Number of TV channels~ 800 ( Neilsen)
Number of retail stores ~ 8.5 million
Food service market -Rs 6 lakh crore
Quick service restaurant  -15 %
Human hair export -Rs 2500 crore
Diagnostic labs - 80000
Furniture and furnishings :Rs 40000 crore (80%unorganised)

Brand Update :Fogg outsmarts Axe

In the cluttered Rs 2100 crore deo market once pioneered by axe now has a new leader -Fogg

Market Statistics :Men's Fairness cream

Emami Fair & handsome -57% marketshare
Vaseline + FAL  -30 %
Garnier - 12% (less than)
Fair & Handsome - Rs 200 crore brand

Source TOI

15 Internet Marketing Stats of 2013

Creating a unique and compelling content marketing campaign is becoming increasingly important for modern brands that hope to distinguish themselves. With social media, high-speed Internet and mobile devices reaching a larger audience all the time, we’re witnessing a paradigm shift in the way that products and services are marketed.

Below are 15 marketing statistics from the past year. Some might surprise you, while others might be familiar from previous years

1. The outsourcing of content marketing is becoming increasingly common: 62% of companies now take part in the practice, which represents a 7% increase from last year.

2. The amount of money spent on online content marketing accounts for more than one quarter of the average marketing budget.

3. 72% of shoppers now trust reviews posted online at least as much as they trust personal recommendations from friends and family.

4. It’s now estimated that about 44% of online shoppers use a search engine to begin the shopping process.

5. When it comes to the frequency of posting, marketers see diminishing returns: a brand that posts twice per day receives only 57% as many Likes as it would have if they posted only once per day.

6. It is estimated that by the year 2016, more than half of all the money spent in the retail sector will have been influenced by the web in one way or another.

7. Over the course of the average week, fewer than 0.5% of Facebook users will actively engage with their favorite brands. This handily confirms how important it is for brands to provide the right kinds of content to their audience.

8. 20% of Facebook users have reported purchasing a product or service after seeing an ad or comment about it on the site. Facebook’s targeted ads have gotten a lot of hate, but their success rate continues to climb.

9. The average company only responds to about 30% of feedback provided by fans using social media. This is more than a little bit dispiriting, considering that social media is meant to be a conversation rather than a one-way street.

10. 91% of adult Internet users report using social media websites on a regular basis. In other words, it’s become a nearly inextricable part of our culture.

11. Blogs provide the average brand’s website with 97% more indexed links and a stunning 434% more indexed pages. If you don’t have a blog yet, now is the time.

12. Smartphones now account for more and more online shopping: 64% of smartphone owners now use mobile devices to make purchases online.

13. In an average month, YouTube users watch a total of about three billion hours of video. This confirms how useful it can be for brands to turn their Channels into a destination.

14. Of all smartphone users, 73% report using apps at least once per day to access their favorite social media sites.

15. Of all the accounts on social media websites, approximately 40% of them are spam. 

Special thanks to Alicia Lawrence for today's guest post.  Alicia is a content coordinator for an SEO and web development company and blogs in her free time at MarCom Land. Her work has been published by the Association for Business Communication, Yahoo! Small Business, and Spin Sucks. 

Market Statistics: Body Spray

Total body Spray market : Rs 1800 crore
Deo for women :30 %
Women's spray growing at 13.9%
Men's category growing at less than 1%

Brand Update : Fastrack launches helmets

One of the most successful homegrown youth brand Fastrack announced its entry into Rs 400 crore organized helmet market recently. Fastrack has grown from a watch brand to an umbrella brand endorsing products from watches, eyewear, bags and accessories. 

image source : gaadi.in

Although I am not a big fan of brand extensions, I have to admit that Fastrack has been able to spot opportunities ( gaps) in the market where it can fit in without diluting its core positioning.

Helmet market is highly cluttered with lot of local brands and minimal differentiation. Although there are established players like Studds, the organized market constitutes only 20-25% of the total market. Since the designs and styles of helmets can be easily copied, differentiation becomes very difficult in this market. 

Many motorists also feel that helmet is a grudge purchase since they wear it out of compulsion . Hence focus of many commuters will be to spent less, get a helmet and carry on.
Fastrack has priced its range between Rs 1495 - Rs 3495 charging a premium. The pricing , in my opinion, is steep and make the product out of reach for many consumers. 

It is in this context that Fastrack's foray into this market becomes interesting. Fastrack definitely will have a headstart because of the brand's equity. But how it fares will depend on the freshness it will bring into the design and style aspect of the product . Since competitors will waste no time in copying the design the challenge will be to keep one step ahead of the others.

Market Statistics:Biscuits

Cream Biscuit Market :Rs 4600 crore
Market leader:sunfeat at 25%
Brittania and Parle : 20%
Cadbury Oreo   :5%
Share of organised market has grown to 50% of total market.
Source:TOI 5/12/13

Market Statistics

Ayurveda/Unani/Sidha/Homeo/treatment market : Rs 9000 crore   Growth :20%
Ayurveda:Rs 5000 Crore
Salon Products-hair and skin :Rs 2000 crore
Salon business: Rs 12000 crore
Specialist salon treatment :Rs 1000-Rs1200 crore
Anti aging -invasive& surgical :Rs 700 -800 crore
Tv advertising market :Rs 14000 crore

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.

Related Post

Zen RIP ( 1993-2009)

5 Brands Using INFOGRAPHICS Well

One of the best ways to get an audience engaged and familiarized with your brand is through storytelling. Combine this with something visually appealing and you have the recipe for marketing gold.

Infographics are a great way of engaging and familiarizing a potentially huge audience with your brand. Here are just some of the best examples of businesses using infographics, and what you can take from them. 

1.) VERY - THE OFFICE CATWALK

This infographic from clothing brand Very is a great example of a brand who have kept their target audience clearly in mind throughout the creative process. In this case, it’s professional, young women. From the pink & white colour scheme right through to the statistics and market research, Very have created something that is both attractive, informative and appealing to their main demographic. Click here to see infographic

2.) VERACODE - RECIPE FOR A SUCCESSFUL RISK ASSESSMENT PROGRAM

Another great example of a brand with their target audience well in mind, Veracode got a bit creative with this infographic. In a play on the well used cooking guides, the risk assessment company came up with these ‘cooking tips for crafting a super-powered risk assessment program’. The various steps are paralleled by dinner party prep steps and the result is both engaging and informative. Click here to see infographic

3.) SAMSUNG - THE EVOLUTION OF SAMSUNG

In celebration of the launch of their Galaxy 4, Samsung released this infographic illustrating the brand’s growth from humble grocery beginnings to technology tyrants.  Founded in Korea in 1938, the chart documents some of the key points in their 75 years, leading right up to the release of their latest device.  Click here to see infographic

4.) HSBC - EMPLOYEE LIFETIME VALUE

British bank HSBC created this chart to help businesses calculate their Employee Lifetime Value (ELV). With a clear flow chart depicting the different steps you need to undertake, this is a great use of an infographic to help a specific demographic familiarise themselves with a new process as well as steps you need to then follow up on. Click here to see infographic

5.) ZENO MARKETING - 7 STEPS TO BUILDING A STRONG BRAND

Marketing department Zeno took a more literal approach when creating their ‘7 Steps to Building a Strong Brand’ infographic, which depicts the seven building blocks needed to...well, build a strong brand. It’s a more straight-forward approach but with creative patterns and bold text, is the all the more eye-catching. Click here to see infographic

Madeleine Hammond is a Marketing Executive at Skeleton Productions, one of the UK’s leading Video Production Companies. 

Brand Update : Thru a horrible campaign,Old Spice asks you to be Mantastic

In my marketing communications class, I used to show the globally famous " The man, your man could smell like" campaign featuring the Old Spice man Isaiah Mustafa ( watch here) as an example of a highly successful marketing campaign in 2010. Three years after, in 2013, P&G started showing that advertisement in the Indian market. The disconnect had started.

To my surprise, the brand owner decided to adapt the globally successful campaign to Indian market with Milind Soman taking the place of Isaiah Mustafa. And the outcome was hopeless.

Watch the ad here : Old Spice India ad 1
                               Old Spice India ad 2

I would say that Old Spice has done a horrible job in adapting a global campaign. I am not sure what the agency had in mind when they conceived this campaign ? While the original global ad had a strategy behind it, the Indian brand failed miserably in making any sense and  succeeded killing the brand's whatever image that is left in the Indian consumer's mind. 

There is total confusion in what the brand is aiming to convey and to whom ? While the Old Spice man from original campaign talked to the ladies with his famous " Hello Ladies " opening, the Old Spice Indian man doesn't know what he is talking about and to whom ?  And sadly at the end of it, the brand talks about " attraction " thus falling into the  same language that other brands are talking about. 

When a brand adapts a globally successful campaign, its inevitable that people will compare and its brand and agencies duty to do justice to the original creative. Here in my opinion, the brand fell flat in the adaptation. The ads are neither attractive nor share-able and is desperately trying to be funny which is sad. The new tagline Smell Mantastic is as horrible as the campaign itself. 

 The new campaign had virtually killed the earlier brand image of Old Spice. But instead of creating a new image, this adaptation had put a confused picture of the brand interms of the image. While the 2010 global campaign put Old Spice in a leading position in western market because the ad theme and message connected with the consumer. But thats not the case here. The adapted campaign neither connects nor conveys any message or makes sense. Hope in the subsequent ads, the creatives will do justice to the brand.

What a horrible waste of a good brand !

8 Ways to Connect with Your Audience and Market Your Brand

When the Internet was made available to the public, few businesses and brands could have anticipated the powerful effect it would have on the ability to personally connect with a consumer audience population. Today, brands are able to metaphorically reach into the homes of consumers, evaluate their preferences and actions, and communicate with consumers on a very personal and intimate level. 

This type of communication is personalizing brands and making them more accessible to consumers. If your website is still struggling to connect with audience members, implementing a few of these strategies may help you market your brand.

Take Questions and Provide Answers

Questions and answers are one of the most popular content types for generating a positive brand image and establishing a business as a reputable source of information. Consumers are filled with questions about their favorite brands, products, services, and subjects, and if your brand can effectively answer these questions, you will generate some serious “fan affection.” Allow consumers to post their questions on your website or blog, and answer the questions as directly as possible.

Host a Contest

Hosting a contest for your consumer population is a great way to stay connected with consumers. People love contests, especially contests that offer a valuable prize such as a free giveaway, valuable discount, or high quality information and recognition. By regularly hosting contests on your website, you will improve your brand’s reputation and keep consumers coming back to your website for more opportunities.

Redesign Your Website

Sometimes, redesigning your website is all it takes to connect with your audience and market your brand as a forward-thinking, modern, and relevant entity. Adding a brand new WordPress template to your blog, for example, will show your readers that your site is continually changing and updating. Implementing new design features on your website will ensure that the site doesn’t become visually stale, too.

Create a Popular Blog

Creating a popular blog is a highly effective way to connect with your target audience. Consumers love blogs because they are simple and accessible sources for high quality information. Be sure that the content on your blog reflects the industry in which you want to make an impact. If you’re trying to sell men’s clothing, for example, a recipe blog isn’t going to allow you to cover much ground with your target audience population. The more you update your blog with relevant information, the more effective your brand marketing efforts will be.

Interact with Consumers via Social Media

Don’t neglect the affordable power of social media when attempting to connect with consumers and market your brand. Most social media networks offer free marketing efforts that simply require the investment of time and energy. You can attract consumers to your social media pages and use links and feature posts to direct them to your website.

Share Images and Video Content

Highly shareable content, like images or video content, are great ways to attract consumer attention and communicate something of value about your brand. You can use infographics, entertaining videos, product promotion videos, or other types of visual content to ensure that your brand remains relevant.

Create a Content Series

Anticipation is a great influencer amongst consumers. If you can create a highly anticipated content series that features “episodes” of content released at regular intervals, you’ll be able to attract incredible amounts of customer attention. Your target audience members will continually check back with your website to see when the next content installment is due to appear.

Treat Your Audience Like People

One of the biggest marketing mistakes that big-name brands make today is treating their consumer population like a massive group rather than a collection of individuals. This problem is increasing because of the massive number of ways that the Internet offers to connect with consumers. Because brands are able to create e-mail blasts delivered directly to consumer inboxes, advertising campaigns that are displayed on computers around the world, and even social media marketing campaigns that reach impressive volumes, it can be difficult to remember that consumers are individuals with individual needs, desires, preferences, and styles. 

Treating your audience members like people is a great way to connect with your audience as a whole and market your brand as something different than your run-of-the-mill business or organization. A brand that communicates directly with its consumers is refreshing and appreciated.

These are just a few of the many strategies that your brand can use to effectively connect with audience members and expand your brand’s reach while simultaneously improving your brand’s image. The Internet offers a myriad of opportunities, and all that is required of you is an investment of time and energy. The results of connecting personally with your audience members will be staggering for your brand’s popularity and reputation, so try implementing one of these great strategies today.

About author

Anny Solway is a dedicated writer at ThemeFuse – a web studio that creates original WordPress themes that can be used out of the box. She loves to share blogging and technology  tips.

Nivea Men : It starts with you

Brand : Nivea Men
Company : Beiersdorf

Brand Analysis : 535

Nivea is on a high these days. One of the world's largest skincare brand has decided to up the ante in the highly cluttered Indian market. In the process, the company has rebranded and repositioned its offering for men. 

Nivea had its presence in the men's grooming market with the brand 'Nivea for men' in 2007. The men's range was promoted with the tagline " What men want ". The brand started its serious foray into men's category with an Advanced Whitening range.

This year, the brand has gone for a makeover. Nivea had rebranded its men's range with the new brand name " Nivea Men". Along with the new name is the new positioning. The Nivea Men is positioned on the user .The typical brand user is  profiled as the one who tackles things on their own. The brand has the new tagline " It starts with you ".

Besides the new name and the positioning, Nivea Men has roped in the Bollywood actor Arjun Rampal as the brand ambassador. The brand is on a high decibel campaign featuring the brand ambassador. 

Watch the ad here : Nivea Men deo , Nivea Men Skin care

I like this campaign for two reasons. First is that the brand has resisted itself from taking the " Attraction " route taken my most men's grooming brand. Second is the fit that the brand established between the brand and its celebrity endorser. I feel that Arjun Rampal was used very smartly by the brand . There is a personal touch and authenticity to the message delivered by the celebrity. 

Nivea has been able to convey its message very smartly in the new campaigns. This has been backed by research done by the brand before venturing into the men's category. According to various newsreports, research revealed that 

a. Men are not satisfied with the efficacy of the existing skincare products which are targeting women.

b. Men are also not interested in visiting products displayed in the women's isles in the stores.

c. While grooming is the end result for women, men view grooming as a tool to get what they want in life.

d.84% of men use products borrowed from the women of their life. 

e. Most of the men's grooming issues arise out of excessive oily skin and hyper-pigmentation.

Based on these insights, the brand carefully crafted  the brand's strategy. It adopted a narrative where the brand talked to the men like men do. This is evident from the way the celebrity endorser has conveyed the message through the ads . 

Another good thing the brand did was it clearly and rationally identified the brand's USPs. For example, in the skincare range, the brand talked about darkspots, for deodorant the brand talked about freshness etc.

Nivea has clearly got its communication right this time. It has a convincing message and a right brand ambassador. Nivea is also the only brand in the men's category to have a range of products ranging from skincare to deos which also adds more punch to the brand's visibility in the retail outlets aswellas the scope. 

Good going.

Reputation Management Using Social Media Accounts

Not too long ago, I started doing reputation management for a company that offers a beauty product. The product has been on the market a long time but recently updated to improve its efficacy and value.  Unfortunately the original business owners had never focused on reputation management for their company or this specific product, and the new owners inherited a reputation mess.

After a complete review of the website, page one and two search results, we put together a plan to leverage existing digital assets and build new ones that would serve as an effective way to enhance page one search results.  Primary social assets such as the Scalp Med Facebook Page, Scalp Med Linkedin Account, Twitter, etc. were all optimized for better search engine presence.  This involved reviewing each account, completing profile information, and embedding target keywords.

The second part of the strategy is leveraging citations.  Not a lot of people are familiar with the term but essentially, in addition to focusing on national search, we focused on Local Search.  Google is placing much more emphasis on business listings and local related factors that help verify business information and authority.

By combining both the optimization of existing social media assets as well as citations, we have been able to positively influence page one search results for the client.  However, some negative listings still persist.  In addition to the before-mentioned strategies, we also reached out to select affiliates who have authoritative websites and could rank assets rather quickly that are in support of the brand. This third prong of the strategy is proving effective as they have been able to influence rankings quickly with a positive result.

Some of you may be asking, "What's next?"  If you've created a reputation marketing plan and are now in a better position but still not showing a pristine online reputation, where do you go from here?  And the answer is that you remain persistent and continue to reinforce the assets that are appearing on page one and page two.  Slow and steady wins the race.  By focusing your efforts on a few, very authoritative assets, you can win in the long run, which should be your goal.

If you simple focus on trying to win the reputation game overnight, you'll have a really difficult time improving your online company view.  I like to use the phrase, "pick your square" which means that you need to focus on the digital assets that give you the best chance of showing up organically and pushing down negative results.

Reputation management and improving online search results for assets that reside on other pages (like your Facebook profile) can take time.  Be patient, continue to optimize, build quality inbound links, and you're sure to win!

Brand Update : Cadbury rebrands Eclairs to Choclairs

Brand : Cholairs

Company : Cadbury India 

Brand Analysis : # 534

In an interesting move, Cadbury's has rebranded its eclair brand to Choclairs. The brand is now running a TVC communicating this rebranding. Cadbury have two brands in the Eclairs segment - Cadbury Dairy Milk Eclairs and Cadbury Eclairs Rich. 

According to Business Standard, echlair market in India is worth around Rs 1000 crore( 2011statistics) and is witnessing intense competition for share between the players like Nestle, Parle, Cadbury and Perfetti. It is estimated that Cadbury is leading the market with its CDM Eclairs.

What can be the possible logic behind the rebranding of a very well known brand ?

One reason can be to handle the issue of generic nature of the term Eclairs. As I understand, eclairs stands for the special type of candy and is used by all the players in  the market. So when a consumer ask for an eclairs, it is retailer that decides which brand to be given. So by changing the name of CDM Eclairs to Choclairs, Cadbury's expect that problem to subside and with the new TVC the brand is trying to teach the consumer to tell the new name Choclairs.

Watch the TVC here : Candbury Choclairs

Second reason can be to remove the endorsement of Dairy Milk from this category. In my earlier posts on this brand, it may be recalled that Cadbury's had earlier renamed its eclair to Cadbury's Dairy Milk Eclairs .In effect, the eclair was a Product line extension of Dairy Milk brand. Now the brand owners may want to restrict the use of Dairy Milk to the chocolate bar category. So since the endorsement is removed, the eclairs would need an identity and Choclairs has become a new independent brand. 

Third reason can be that Choclairs is the brand which is owned by Cadbury's and is a leading brand in UK and China. Choclairs was created in 1996. So this move can be seen as a global alignment of the brands by Cadbury.

The positioning of Choclairs in India is funny. The new brand's main message is that it will not stick on the teeth. The brand has  the tagline " jo dimag mein chipke, daaton mein nahi "  which translates to " It will stick to your mind and not on teeth ". I wonder why the brand has taken such an attribute in a rebranding exercise. 

It is true that eclairs have a tendency to stick to gum and teeth and may be the brand feels that it may be prompting many consumers away from the category. But as a tagline, I feel that the brand deserves a better treatment.

Related post

Eclairs : Brand Update