A direct talk with ‘the’ brand believer...

IIPM: An intriguing story of growth and envy

Nitin Mathur,
Director – Marketing, Yahoo! India

4Ps B&M: What are your expectations from the ‘It’s Y!ou’ campaign?
Nitin Mathur (NM): Well, this campaign is not something which has come about becasue we woke up one fine day and decided to pump-in money into branding efforts. This actually comes at a mid-point of transformation that is happening in the organisation. We looked at our core experiences and products and combining that with our consumer research, we wanted to make our products more open and more relavant for our users. It’s about trying to make the Yahoo! page the dashboard for our users. We are making our products more social. 4Ps B&M: ... Social? What does that really mean? NM: We wanted to make our experneices relevant to our customers and empower them with what they can do with the Internet and not the other way round. So we are now giving them a direct access to third-party applications as well. It’s bascially customisation. This is what the new Yahoo! is all about. Even in terms of search, we have been able to filter our search results, like Google does.

4Ps B&M: How does this campaign prove useful to Yahoo! vision and strengthening the brand Yahoo!?
NM: Truly what we have achieved through this campaign is get one step closer to our vision, which is that we want to make sure that whenever people think about the Internet and going online, they think of Yahoo! When you look at the brand campaign’s promise, it says “It’s Y!ou”. The experience of the consumers and our new offerings therefore serve as the background to the brand campaign. The campaign is really brand marketing exercise, which helps to invigorate the brand at places where it has become rusty. So this is an investment back into the brand, so that it can deliver on more promises in the future.

4Ps B&M: And how about timing it now. Why now?
NM: Rather than thinking of it as a point in time decision, we should think of it as a long process, which has come up as a part of overall company strategy to realign itself both internally and externally. It makes sense for us to go to the market only when we have redefined some of the consumer experiences and therefore the campaign with some new offerings. The process has been going on for nine months now. This campaign proves how brand Yahoo! is now increasingly becoming more consumer-centric.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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... and the shakers

IIPM: An intriguing story of growth and envy

•Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai has won the multi-agency pitch of Religare Enterprises, leaving behind accomplished agencies like JWT, McCann Erickson, TBWA, Law & Kenneth, et al. O&M was already handling Religare’s mutual funds business, and as per Subhrangshu Neogi, Director, Brand and Corporate Communications, Religare Enterprises Limited, will now look after the full range of products and services offered by it. The account is estimated to be around Rs.30 crore.

•Starcom Worldwide has been appointed by Walt Disney Corporation as its media partner agency. Starcom will be responsible for Walt Disney’s media strategy and investment across all business verticals like broadcasting and home entertainment, across all media forms. In a separate multi-agency pitch, Starcom also bagged the media rights for Eko India Financial Services – a financial company extending mobile banking services. Starcom will promote Eko’s business through strategic media planning and execution.

•Vizeum India, a unit of Aegis Media has won the account of Luxor Writing Instruments, which was previously handled by Lintas Media.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!
For Exclusive Footage by Sunday Indian Click Here

Outlook Magazine's B School Ranking Scam Exposed
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IIPM - We will change your outlook : Career 360 and Mahesh Peri scam is exposed

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ASPIRING TO ‘BE MORE’…

IIPM: An intriguing story of growth and envy

By repositioning itself once again, Titan has only strengthened its proactive approach to appeal to the younger audience…

“The reason for repositioning Titan did not come from the current crisis or other usual reasons like slipping market shares, declining volumes, et al,” clarifies Suparna Mitra, Global Marketing Head, Titan. Being the market leader with over 55% share in the watch category, Titan clearly defied slowdown by registering 17% growth in the watch segment in FY2007-08. So, if slowdown was not a cause of concern, why did Titan undergo a repositioning exercise?

The origin of repositioning came from a certain restlessness of the brand. “Titan, over the years had become a larger than life brand catering to a wide range of consumers. The entire exercise was an initiative to understand what Titan really stood for,” avers Santosh Desai, CEO, Future Brands (brand consultants for Titan). Certainly, launched in 1987, Titan successfully ended HMT’s monopoly in the Indian market and gave an altogether new dimension to the entire watch-shopping experience.

However, of late, Titan was apprehensive about how the up-coming generation will look at it. “We wanted to connect with a new consumer and a new India. Therefore, we decided to re-look at the brand idea to appeal to the young generation,” explains Mitra. In fact, the new brand idea came from a multi-disciplinary exercise, which encompassed consumer research, retail analysis, product-line research, internal company culture introspection, et al. The key consumer insights analysed from the research were: ‘My watch is an expression of who all I want to be’ and ‘My watch is a compass of my imagination.’ All these threads when weaved together created the brand idea of ‘Be more.’

“Inspired by these insights, we decided that besides having great style and functions, each Titan watch must have a story to tell,” says Mitra. For instance, the Titan Aviator series is inspired by the World War II fighter aircraft. “The series appeals to those consumers who once aspired to become pilots but somehow could not succeed in their endeavour,” explains Desai. Similarly, Titan’s other collections like Titan Octane, Titan Heritage, et al, too come from the idea of looking into the consumer and their yearnings so that they could follow the idea of ‘Be More.’

Titan’s proactive approach to appeal to the younger audience may have been a forward-looking approach, but it seems that the idea has not gone too well with the financials of the company. For FY 2008-09, Titan recorded just 3.6% growth in the watch segment. “Growth was never a problem for us. It was not the reason behind repositioning. The main idea was to connect with a whole new generation of consumers,” counters Mitra. They may shout it from the rooftops that the slowdown has left them untouched, but there’s no denying that Titan’s growth has indeed been sluggish not just in the last year, but last few years. Who knows ‘Be more’ may yet add more to Titan’s kitty.

Savreen Gadhoke

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!
For Exclusive Footage by Sunday Indian Click Here

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CHOUW & MOUW IN LOVE

Videocon adopts a younger positioning to add glamour to its imagery and market share...

While shooting for My Name is Khan in San Francisco in July this year, Shah Rukh Khan’s security personnel got a shock of their lives when two green, flubber like characters barged into his vanity van. When the security people tried to stop them, the two characters started screaming Shah Rukh’s name and then to everyone’s horror brought out a suspicious looking object with a switch, which when turned on, emitted green laser lights.

Even as the entire cast and crew of MNIK was nonplussed, a grinning and seemingly unperturbed Shah Rukh walked out of the van. The unit soon learnt that this was actually a prank staged by him and Videocon. Then, much to the amusement of guffawing onlookers, he accepted a gift from the two amoeba-like characters. On pressing the switch installed on the gift, the new logo of Videocon flew out of the box and into the sky, blobbing impressively in the skies, above the famous Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

This was Videocon’s unusual way to launch the consumer durable company’s new brand identity and logo. Jaideep Rathore, Chief Marketing Officer, Videocon told 4Ps B&M that the logo change was for a new identity, which could synergise with the group’s entry into new businesses like mobile phones and DTH. “We needed to change the perception of our brand. Besides, Videocon needed youth acceptability, so we opted for aspirational positioning in SEC-A market.”

Rathore, in fact, sums up a problem that the group has been facing for some time now. Once a happy-go-lucky consumer durables company, Videocon has added telecom services, DTH services and a separate handset business under its brand umbrella. While the previous positioning – The Indian Multinational – was enough to take on Videocon’s Korean multinat rivals (LG, Samsung) in the durables space; the new businesses under the brand needed something more diverse and relevant. Besides, even in the durables space, LG and Samsung were clear winners in terms of sales, market share and revenues. So, the slowdown indeed came as a perfect opportunity for Videocon to effect an image change among its target audience. After all, since every other brand was cutting back on its marketing spends, chances were that the consumer would sit up and note any big-budget re-positioning taking place, in an otherwise dry market. And hence, Videocon bid adieu to its sturdy steel coloured ‘V’ logo in times of slowdown and adopted a more fluid, lava like ‘V’ coupled with a new proposition – ‘Experience change’. Ad man Prasoon Joshi of McCann, along with Vineet Mahajan, Senior Creative Director, McCann, led the team from T.A.G., McCann Worldgroup’s second agency, to devise a 360-degree campaign revolving around the brand building exercise. “The idea behind the campaign was to make it more contemporary. This brings in a sense of movement of energy,” says Joshi.

“We chose green as our new logo colour as it is the colour of the future. The logo has been broken into two parts to dramatise and add more liveliness to it. The new brand identity is futuristic and philosophical in approach and has re-energised the brand,” adds Joshi. Even the launch planning of the new campaign at IIFA Awards 09’ was a masterstroke, as the hyped event saw to it that the change grabbed instant eyeballs.

A static brand is an oxymoron in itself and Videocon knows that. From ‘Bring Home the Leader’ to the ‘New Improved Life’, from ‘The Indian Multinational’, to the ‘Eco Logic for sustainable life’, Videocon has changed time and again to connect and reconnect with consumers. Now they are again trying to regain lost paradise. Will things change?

Vareen Ray & Neha Saraiya

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!
For Exclusive Footage by Sunday Indian Click Here

Outlook Magazine's B School Ranking Scam Exposed
Don't trust the Indian Media!
IIPM exposes Career 360 and Mahesh Peri scam
IIPM - We will change your outlook : Career 360 and Mahesh Peri scam is exposed

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Price based competition is once again threatening to commoditise airlines brands in the country.

But who’s to be blamed for the mess, asks Ratan Lal Bhagat

“Keeping in mind my tight budget and the more or less similar kind of in-flight services that airlines offer these days, I would prefer buying ticket of an airline which provides me with the lowest fare rather than opting for a specific airline to satisfy my travel needs,” professes Vivek Dixit, a Delhi based businessman whose business obligations make him hop over metros nearly every week. And it’s not only him. In fact, almost every other frequent flyer seems to have got stuck in the same predicament, who, like Dixit, blatantly displays the loss of brand differentiation and loyalty for the Indian aviators.

Even renowned names, which include Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines, Naresh Goyal’s Jet Airways, et al, seem to have perhaps failed in evoking any kind of purchase perseverance and brand loyalty among flyers. Certainly, no loss can be bigger than the fear of loosing one’s own identity and unfortunately the players in the domestic aviation arena are somehow currently going through a similar crisis.

Raison d’être: The ailing economy and in turn the decline in the purchasing power of travellers have forced them to opt for the most economical fare available, irrespective of the airline. Further, with business fraternity too looking for modes to save every possible penny, the corporate travel through air has also registered a considerable decline. All these definitely have had a bad impact on the already declining load factors of the domestic airliners. In fact, according to the data provided by Cleartrip.com, a portal for ticket and hotel bookings, the domestic business class occupancy has fallen significantly by over 50%. But then, who is to be blamed for the mess?

“The entire loss in brand differentiation and loyalty has been self triggered by the domestic airlines. Players have persistently highlighted their low fares to sell their services thus encouraging prospective customers to adopt the price-only-approach whenever they plan to travel by air,” claims Anand Halve, Co-Founder and CEO, Chlorophyll Brand and Communications Consultancy. Certainly, it’s the fear to lose to the low cost carriers (LCCs) that has forced the full service carriers (FSCs) to indiscriminately slash their fares. This, however, has not only flagged another air fare war, but has also added to their own plight.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!
For Exclusive Footage by Sunday Indian Click Here

Outlook Magazine's B School Ranking Scam Exposed
Don't trust the Indian Media!
IIPM exposes Career 360 and Mahesh Peri scam
IIPM - We will change your outlook : Career 360 and Mahesh Peri scam is exposed

Prof Arindam Chaudhuri of IIPM on MF HUSAIN‎
Follow Arindam Chaudhuri on Twitter
IIPM B School on Twitter
Detail of all IIPM branches
Exclusive In chat with Society Magazine - Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri