Monday, December 21, 2009

Marketing Strategy : Celebrate Your Big Ideas

So you have got a big idea... then what ?

Getting a big idea in this tough competitive market place is a lottery and when consumers love that big idea, it is nothing but a jackpot. We are living in a world where there is intense competition even for taglines and positioning. Even in this scenario, it is surprising to see how marketers fall short of taking advantage of that Rare Big Idea.

Take the case of the ZooZoo. The ZooZoo had an unprecedented success in India. This was one of those rare occasions where consumers get emotionally attached to a campaign. Viewers loved the character and celebrated it through blogs and social media.

But what did Vodafone do ?

Nothing...

Off late there has been reports that Vodafone is planning ZooZoo merchandise. But nothing has happened in this regard ( atleast in the place where I live).

It is time that marketers wake up to the idea of celebrating their big ideas. Most of the marketers are still hooked on to spreadsheets and media plans. Brand Promotion ismuch much more than putting 30 seconds ads and then looking at the results.

Ideally Vodafone should have milked ZooZoo to the maximum. It could have developed merchandise like dolls, t-shirts, keychains, collectibles etc on these lovely characters which could have given the brand ways to get into the heart of millions of youngsters. There were countless opportunity for the brand to build a community around ZooZoo.

But so far nothing happened. What a waste of opportunity for the brand. The one and only one reason for this wastage is that one may not be able to project the ROI for such a celebration atleast for the short-term.

Take the example of Disney. When they have hit upon a wonderful cartoon character, they will explore all the marketing opportunities around it. But Indian marketers are not yet open to such celebrations. When Nike hit upon " Just do it " slogan , it created a huge celebration of it. Accenture celebrated its association with Tiger Woods to the maximum ( yes yes.. I know what happened later..), MRF celebrated Sachin and his MRF bat to the maximum and even launched MRF cricket bats.

Take the case of Idea cellular brand. The brand hit upon a wonderful tagline " An Idea can Change Your Life " and the brand celebrated the big idea wonderfully well. It innovated upon this big idea, used the entire promotional mix around this idea and no wonder, the brand has excellent top of the mind recall. But still the opportunities for Idea lies beyond mere advertising and hoardings. It could have done many things to take the ownership of this big Idea. Compared to Vodafone, Idea is much ahead in capitalizing on its big ideas.

When your company hits upon something big whether be it a tagline, a character, a logo , don't hesitate to celebrate it. Create games , create dolls, give away keychains, market collectibles, use social media to build community around your big idea . Put your resource behind that big idea. Own it , celebrate it and enjoy the rewards.

10 comments:

  1. Harish,

    Zoozoo tshirts are availble at shoppers stop and lifestyle in mumbai.

    @eviral

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Sir,

    This post is very resonating with my own thought process on marketing small and big innovations across all avenues.

    I would go a little far to suggest that celebrations should continue in operations level to carry forward the same experience as in a marketing campaign.

    The same slickness, same exuberance in advt, message should be evident in servicing the customers buying from the company to create WOM viral marketing and community on principles of exceptional customer service.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I would like to disagree with Mr. Harish here on this point. Vodafone has released the merchandise of Zoozoo's lately, my friend has it and she purchased it from Delhi, but Im not sure if the penetration has been deeper and faster. Vodafone has used the Zoozoos in creating a customer engagement campaign, wherein the and incomplete Zoozoo story has to be completed by the viewers.
    Though it is an accepted fact that Vodafone did launched these programs and merchandise very late, may be they wanted the Zoozoo mania to remain in the target audience's minds for some time and hit the next step when the retention has gone a bit lower.

    Ashish Asopa

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Sir,

    Zoozoo t-shirts are available at all Shoppers' Stop outlets.

    It seems that you are a Vodafone customer, not sure if you are a Prepaid one. Vodafone has two popular recharge denominations of Rs. 55 and Rs. 110. From time to time, physical recharge stocks are pumped into the market with these denominations where the recharges come along with a free Zoozoo sticker. These recharges are therefore called Zoozoo recharges.

    Special DVD's of the Zoozoo ads were sold out through the Vodafone Stores.

    Zoozoo keychains are given away from time to time at the Vodafone Stores.

    Lot of effort goes into managing the Zoozoo fan club pages on Facebook and Orkut.

    As a service brand, there's been an attempt to underplay the Zoozoo story, so that the Zoozoos do not get bigger than the brand and the brand propositions of innovation (through VAS) and Customer Service.

    Just to share with you and the readers here, the three values of Vodafone are Speed, Simplicity & Trust and efforts are made to align all our communication & actions along these lines.

    Regards,
    Laxmikanth,
    Vodafone Employee

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dear Sir,

    Zoozoo t-shirts are available at all Shoppers' Stop outlets.

    It seems that you are a Vodafone customer, not sure if you are a Prepaid one. Vodafone has two popular recharge denominations of Rs. 55 and Rs. 110. From time to time, physical recharge stocks are pumped into the market with these denominations where the recharges come along with a free Zoozoo sticker. These recharges are therefore called Zoozoo recharges.

    Special DVD's of the Zoozoo ads were sold out through the Vodafone Stores.

    Zoozoo keychains are given away from time to time at the Vodafone Stores.

    Lot of effort goes into managing the Zoozoo fan club pages on Facebook and Orkut.

    As a service brand, there's been an attempt to underplay the Zoozoo story, so that the Zoozoos do not get bigger than the brand and the brand propositions of innovation (through VAS) and Customer Service.

    Just to share with you and the readers here, the three values of Vodafone are Speed, Simplicity & Trust and efforts are made to align all our communication & actions along these lines.

    Regards,
    Laxmikanth,
    Vodafone Employee

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Sir,

    Zoozoo t-shirts are available at all Shoppers' Stop outlets.

    It seems that you are a Vodafone customer, not sure if you are a Prepaid one. Vodafone has two popular recharge denominations of Rs. 55 and Rs. 110. From time to time, physical recharge stocks are pumped into the market with these denominations where the recharges come along with a free Zoozoo sticker. These recharges are therefore called Zoozoo recharges.

    Special DVD's of the Zoozoo ads were sold out through the Vodafone Stores.

    Zoozoo keychains are given away from time to time at the Vodafone Stores.

    Lot of effort goes into managing the Zoozoo fan club pages on Facebook and Orkut.

    As a service brand, there's been an attempt to underplay the Zoozoo story, so that the Zoozoos do not get bigger than the brand and the brand propositions of innovation (through VAS) and Customer Service.

    Just to share with you and the readers here, the three values of Vodafone are Speed, Simplicity & Trust and efforts are made to align all our communication & actions along these lines.

    Regards,
    Laxmikanth,
    Vodafone Employee

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dear Sir,

    Zoozoo t-shirts are available at all Shoppers' Stop outlets.

    It seems that you are a Vodafone customer, not sure if you are a Prepaid one. Vodafone has two popular recharge denominations of Rs. 55 and Rs. 110. From time to time, physical recharge stocks are pumped into the market with these denominations where the recharges come along with a free Zoozoo sticker. These recharges are therefore called Zoozoo recharges.

    Special DVD's of the Zoozoo ads were sold out through the Vodafone Stores.

    Zoozoo keychains are given away from time to time at the Vodafone Stores.

    Lot of effort goes into managing the Zoozoo fan club pages on Facebook and Orkut.

    As a service brand, there's been an attempt to underplay the Zoozoo story, so that the Zoozoos do not get bigger than the brand and the brand propositions of innovation (through VAS) and Customer Service.

    Just to share with you and the readers here, the three values of Vodafone are Speed, Simplicity & Trust and efforts are made to align all our communication & actions along these lines.

    Regards,
    Laxmikanth,
    Vodafone Employee

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dear Sir,

    Zoozoo t-shirts are available at all Shoppers' Stop outlets.

    It seems that you are a Vodafone customer, not sure if you are a Prepaid one. Vodafone has two popular recharge denominations of Rs. 55 and Rs. 110. From time to time, physical recharge stocks are pumped into the market with these denominations where the recharges come along with a free Zoozoo sticker. These recharges are therefore called Zoozoo recharges.

    Special DVD's of the Zoozoo ads were sold out through the Vodafone Stores.

    Zoozoo keychains are given away from time to time at the Vodafone Stores.

    Lot of effort goes into managing the Zoozoo fan club pages on Facebook and Orkut.

    As a service brand, there's been an attempt to underplay the Zoozoo story, so that the Zoozoos do not get bigger than the brand and the brand propositions of innovation (through VAS) and Customer Service.

    Just to share with you and the readers here, the three values of Vodafone are Speed, Simplicity & Trust and efforts are made to align all our communication & actions along these lines.

    Regards,
    Laxmikanth,
    Vodafone Employee

    ReplyDelete
  9. VODAFONE- ZOO ZOO
    A powerful story and logo to talk about the brand and the company,

    But as far as Mr.HARISH is concerned about the revenue, i would like to agree with his view, because Zoo Zoo was able to bring awareness to the already known brand not immediate revenue (as of my knowledge)

    I would like to say that Shopper's Stop had a tie-up with ZooZoo for merchandising, it was started but not penetrated as ZooZoo was penetrated in the market.

    Compelete the story of ZooZoo and selling ZooZoo DVD’s can generate the revenue, but I read somewhere that consumers were bombordered with marketing mix elements by almost all the marketers, in that sense I really don’t think consumers will do it and it will be helpful

    we can compare this with LAYS, one of the powerful brand in Indian Market, which has asked the consumers to send the taste which they wanted,if it is matched with the company, winner will get 1% of sales, it can be possible for snackery item but in terms of mobiles service and complete the story of ZooZoo, the core connection is missing.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This post motivates people to think and use their ideas or the available ideas to get success in any type of business. Viral marketing ideas are helpful to almost all the people to generate more traffic to their website. There are so many ideas in viral marketing. Whatever the idea people want according to their business they can opt and can implement accordingly.

    ReplyDelete

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