Brand Update : Titan

Titan has launched a new series of watches. The series is called Titan-WWF series. This series isbeing launched in collaboration with the International NGO -Worldwide Fund for Nature ( WWF).

Titan and WWF had entered into a tie-up to celebrate the World Environment Day. World Environment day is celebrated on June 5 every year. This year's theme is on Low Carbon Economy.

The current launch is an extension of the tie- up between Titan and WWF.

The aim of the collection is to raise the awareness about endangered species among Indian consumers. The new series is inspired by six species of animals who are fast getting endangered. The six species are

Indian Tiger
Indian Rhino
Gangetic River Dolphin
Red Panda
Whale Shark
Oliver Ridley Turtle.

The collection is targeted at the new generation consumers who wants to express their concern about animals and nature .

According to press reports, some contribution will go to the WWF from every sale of these series of watches.
More than the monetary part, this collection is aiming at the non-monetary benefit of awareness among the public. These series of watches are priced at the range of Rs 3000- 38000 and comes in 13 different styles.
Already the brand is running a series of print ads featuring the brand ambassador Aamir Khan.

The launch of this series is a good move by the brand to add a touch of social equity to the brand. Its a way for a brand to show concern to matters that affect the consumer . Another positive about this series is that the designs looks good and may prompt many customers to buy this brand because of the style rather than the cause.

On the negative side , Titan is far ahead of its time because Indian consumers are less sensitive towards Nature ( my opinion ). Hence I am doubtful about the actual number of customers who will opt for this series for the actual cause. The sale of this series will be a good indicator of Indian consumer's sensitivity towards this cause.

Related Brand
Titan

Wild Stone : Wild by Nature

Brand : Wild Stone
Company : McNroe Chemicals Ltd
Agency : Asian Shopping Club

Brand Analysis Count : 349


Sex Sells or does it ?

Well an ambitious chemicals company in West Bengal thinks that Sex sells . So when they wanted to sell deodorants they put that principle into practice.

The result speaks for itself. Their ad which is available in the youtube is watched more than 8 lakh times. A brand search in the google gives you 100 invitations to see the uncensored ads. So at times sex do sell.

Wild Stone is a market challenger. This brand from an unknown company has been able to make its presence felt in the market thanks to the controversy generated by the ad.

The ad is set in the background of Durga puja. The plot is that a homely bengali lady accidentally bumps into a stud and the Wild Stone perfume takes her into a fantasy involving the stud.
While youtube has the uncensored version, the channels are showing the heavily censored version.

Compared to the raunchy ad of Amul Innerwear, this ad is not of bad taste but ofcourse its highly suggestive ( I am talking about the censored version ).

In a report in Live Mint, the company clarified the heavy use of sex in their ads by saying that the TG which is 15-30 is highly influenced by these type of commercials.

Like in the case of Amul innerwear , these type of commercials helped these brands break the clutter. According to Live Mint, there are about 37000 television ads which are shown on every day. To make the customer discuss about the ad is not a child's play. For a small company with a limited budget, its a jackpot if their commercial is discussed and shared.

I think these controversial ads help these brands get the trial sales very fast. And for a new brand , getting trial sales is of significant importance. Because if the product is good, the customers will come back .

But there is a risk factor also. The risk comes from the regulators and civic society who will definitely cry foul. Recently Government has asked HUL to withdraw the commercial of Axe Dark Temptation.

Another risk is with the execution . The agency has to be very careful not to offend the customers. If the customer is forced to switch the channels because of the ad, its not going to help the brand.

In the case of Wild Stone Deo, the censored version has helped the brand to break the clutter and I bet many have checked out this brand. I am yet to find this in my city hence not able to comment on the price. I feel that is priced at a premium.

But there is another issue. From here to where ?

Amul Innerwear has released the follow up commercial which was again little controversial . For Wild Stone, the challenge is to bring the brand into focus.

The tagline ' Wild by Nature ' will prompt the agency to follow the current route which I feel may not do well with the brand. The brand should aim to build on the current eyeballs into developing a positive association with the brand through the follow up campaigns.

Related Brand
Amul Innerwear

Picture courtsey
Cutting the chai

Brand Update : Air Deccan RIP (2003-2008)

On August 30 ,2008, Kingfisher officially announced the rebranding of Simplifly Deccan to Kingfisher Red. It marked the end of a wonderful brand which rewrote the aviation industry in India.

Air Deccan was India's South West Airlines. It made air travel affordable and many Indians had a chance to experience traveling in a plane. Now it is a part of history.

As a marketer , I am upset at the demise of a wonderful brand. As a consumer I worry that I will not be able to have an affordable air travel. Without Air Deccan , air travel will not be the same again. Its back to the earlier days where flying will be restricted to rich and those who travel at their employer's expenses.

When Kingfisher took over this brand followed by rebranding it as Simplifly Deccan, I thought that Air Deccan will emerge as one of the best low cost carrier in India. I did not believe media reports that Kingfisher was only looking at the overseas flying license.

Now I feel these reports were correct. Kingfisher had the following agenda :
Kill the competition
Gain market share
Get the overseas flying licence.
Many new airplanes and routes.

By taking over Deccan, Kingfisher got a larger marketshare to fight Jet Airways. More over Air Deccan was creating huge problems for full service airlines. By taking over and killing this brand,Kingfisher has made life easier for all airlines.

For Captain Gopinath, its life as usual. As an entrepreneur , he has built a business, scaled it and then sold it at a best price.

The problem for Air Deccan was that it went public too early. When the companies become public, its operations are guided by the quarterly reports and stock markets. Stock markets never understand the logic of long term sustainable business models. If the quarterly results are bad, there is media / investor frenzy calling for blood.

For Low cost carriers, one cannot survive by looking at quarterly results. The business may bleed for long before attaining break-even. Especially in Indian aviation industry where there is still confusion in terms of policies.

For a consumer, the death of this brand is a huge loss. Its visible also. All airlines have jacked up prices, cut many routes and scaled down their operations. This has prompted many consumers to depend on Railways again. If Air Deccan was alive, it could have rode this season with lower prices. That's what a low cost airlines will do when every airlines increase their prices.
Kingfisher Red will not play the game of Air Deccan. It will be a flanker brand that will fight Jetlite. But never will you be able to fly at reasonable rates.

Related brand
Air Deccan

Consumer Insight # 5 : You are just a Number

I just had a enlightening conversation with a Vodafone Customer " care " center. The unsolicited call came and poor me attended. It went on like this

Lady : Sir, This is from Vodafone customer care center

me : yes

Lady : Sir We wanted to check whether you have activated our GPRS services.

Me : I have activated the GPRS services

Lady : Sir Do you know that you can download pictures and wallpapers from Vodafone website

me : See I don't use this service

Lady : Ok Sir.... What is your name ?

me ( Stunned ) : What ?

Lady : What is your name sir ?

me : You called me and you " should " be knowing my name !!!!!!

Lady : No sir, we only have your number.. Please give your name so that I can enter your name in the system.



I sat there wondering what is happening to marketing.

A company calling a customer and telling him that ultimate truth

Dear Customer .. You Are Just a Number.

Consumer Insight # 4 : Fish Rots From The Tail

There is a book titled " Fish Rots from the Head ", written by Bob Garratt, talks about the role of Board of Directors and the crisis in the boardroom. As the title of the book indicates, Bob feels that the decay of the company often starts with the passive attitude of the Board of Directors.


But I have a different opinion.

Yesterday I went to my bank which is India's largest private sector bank. I have limited my visits to the bank owing to the horrendous customer experience and has been relying on the passive but decent ATMs.

I have been banking with this bank for last five years and I must say that none of the officials including the Branch manager whom I have interacted during the opening of account works here now. It seems that people here changes every week.

I would say that its a clear sign of decay and decay starts with the tail . If Board of Directors are Head, then the front office ( customer service) will be the tail isn't it ?

In a classic article titled " Best Face Forward " in HBR December 2004, the authors Rayport & Jawroski clearly states that in this competitive world, customer service or rather customer experience is the only available competitive advantage.

But we can see that many companies turning a blind spot when it comes to customer service. Your company loses its competitive advantage the moment you outsource customer service. Firms spent lot of money bringing the customer to the company. But when the customer reaches out to the company, it gives a raw deal.

Why do companies do this kind of basic business stupidity ? There is only one reason - cost.

Customer service is a costly business. Its costly because it involves people. And most businesses look at human resource as a cost center . So for a business , it makes perfect sense to avail cheap labor through outsourcing its customer service. If China offers a cheap customer call center service, I bet most of the Indian companies will outsource from China.

So firms reduce the number of their customer service staffs . The existing staffs are given double workload. Often these guys forget how to smile . These people are under severe emotional labor. They have to give their best face forward irrespective of their emotional situation. These guys/gals may have their personal/professional problems but cannot afford to show it to the consumer. So their stress level will be equal or higher than those in the sales field.

How many companies are sensitive to these issues ? To add to this issue, some firms give sales target to the customer service executives.

But for a customer, what is lost is the experience . In most of the new generation banks , customers are just numbers. In a rush to reduce the human interaction ( which is costly) companies invest in technology believing that technology can replace human interaction.

Its true that when comparing to rude staff, machines are better . But not always.

What the companies need is a judicious mix of people and technology. We are forgetting that we are living in an experiential economy. Customers - whether small or big, are looking for experience especially in the service sector.

When the market is growing, all these customer service issues are set aside . Firms look at break-neck growth . The key focus is customer acquisition. But market does not grow indefinitely. At some point of time, growth will stop and what you have will be the existing customers whom you have forgotten.

When you go back to these customers who was given a raw deal, you get back what you have given them.

Brand Update : Yamaha

In an interview with CNBC TV18, Rajiv Bajaj was asked about competition. His reply was he get jitters with the new launch of Yamaha R15. What Pulsar done to the motorcycles, R15 may repeat it.

I did not believe that statement. I viewed the launch of R15 with cynicism because of the price tag.

Can anyone think of buying a bike for Rs 100,000..

But a conversation with my journalist friend who handles the automobile-column in a leading newspaper changed my perception. According to him, R-15 is selling like hotcakes.

In my last post on the brand Yamaha, I had suggested that the brand needs was a statement. And it did make a statement with R15

R 15 is a stunner interms of looks. Auto reviews say that it doesn't disappoint interms of the performance.

More than that ,Yamaha got the timing correct. The market was evolving and there was a need for a motorcycle which made a statement. Two factors paved the way for the wide acceptance of R 15.

First was the emergence of a new set of customers who wanted a bike and was willing to pay the price to look different. R15 gave that fillip to this segment. These guys liked fast bikes and wanted something that suited the Indian conditions.

Second was the dealer support. Price wars among the bike marketers had significantly eroded the margins. R15 gave the dealers their required margin and they gave enough support for this bike.

Pulsar was too popular to be exclusive so the bike had to be exclusive and the higher price ensured that not everyone could afford this bike.

Whether R 15 will deliver volumes or not, it has given a new lease of life to Yamaha. The brand which was once an icon now have a chance to regain its lost status.

Related Post
Yamaha