Is your brand being hijacked in social media?

New customers, who may not even use a brand, are making life quite difficult for brands

I am a social media buff, if such a term exists. I gloat at the folly of politicians and gleefully share their antics online. When a brand mistreats me or any of my Facebook friends, I go to town, castigating it. I happily share bad news about customer service and ask my followers to be aware of the brand, never mind that I haven’t used the product or service.

Yes, I am the new, deteriorated customer who is making life quite difficult for brands and their owners. Sadly, as much as they detest or fear me, I cannot be wished away.

Fodder for online rants

And I have been having a field day over the last couple of weeks! The first piece of entertainment was provided by the boorish Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad, who had the gall to proudly claim that he hit the Air India staffer no less than 25 times.

For once, I was in support of the airlines I have been critical of. When the videos of the Vietnamese passenger being bodily dragged hit my mobile screen a few days later, I hoped that the brazen MP would be overbooked on United Airlines.

Hardly had I recovered from these incidents that Kendall Jenner’s new ad for Pepsi was pulled off with an apology, as it was seen as a crass attempt to ride on a popular wave. The brand was slaughtered on social media, and United Airlines wasn’t spared either, with everyone and their brother- in-law giving their own version of what had actually transpired. This leads me to a few important observations.

Crises are here to stay

Unlike a Tylenol, which was a landmark crisis some of us still remember, today’s controversies seem to happen with a lot more frequency. Remember Maggi, Cadbury, Pepsi and Volkswagen?

The biggest reason for this is social media. This medium has the capability of turning millions of us citizens into journalists with our own following. Look at the number of videos on the internet of the passenger being dragged off by United Airlines personnel, to speak nothing of the spoofs and the jokes that it has spawned.

I may have never travelled by United Airlines — and most certainly won’t, in the near future — but I do have a point of view that I am airing, whether people want to listen to or not.

Multiple perspectives

Everyone has their own perspective to the story. Today, the world is getting polarised, with many starting to believe that their view is the only one that matters. Contrary views are studiously shut out, even views people identify with are promoted and shared, truth be damned.

But that is the new reality, and brands better be aware of this. A typical example is how the United Airlines’ issue was turned into once of race. The passenger was identified as Chinese, and it spawned off a discussion on how Asians are being targeted and discriminated against.

Time is of the essence

It has been well documented that crisis need a speedy response from the custodians of the brand. One of the reasons Air India came out smelling roses in the Gaikwad episode was the firm manner in which the airline’s CMD, Ashwani Lohani stood up for his brand and employee.

Juxtapose this with the Maggi incident, that almost went out of business in India due to the tardiness of its response to the crisis, and you will understand that time is of the essence.

They may have been guilty of underestimating the seriousness of the threat and ended up with a horrible financial year.

Is your brand being hijacked?

All students of marketing are familiar with the launch and failure of the ‘new Coke’. “Why would anyone want to improve the real thing?” seething customers asked. Angry phone calls, letters and protests followed, forcing the brand to pull back the new product. The company then learnt a valuable lesson - that the brand actually belonged to customers, not to the giant headquartered in Atlanta.

Today, there is a twist to the tale as social media buffs, trolls and underemployed people, who may never be consumers of the brand, get into the act and harass brand owners. They can’t be wished away and yet can cause some serious damage to the brand.

Mind you, I have no sympathy for brands that treat consumers poorly. But as a customer, am I giving myself a lot more importance than is due? Probably, but I am here to stay and the earlier the brand managers realise my criticality, the better. Yes, it is no fun being a brand manager in today’s connected world.

So what’s trending today? Hope it’s not your brand for the wrong reasons!

Is brand Infosys pushing the self-destruct button?

 

It takes just a moment of carelessness to destroy the image brands painstakingly build

Before you read this piece, I would like to place certain facts on the table. I am a great admirer of the Infosys brand and its founders. I have featured the company in my books, columns and lectures, and have nothing but the greatest admiration for the founders’ philanthropy. 

Yet, I have been dismayed at the divisive nature of statements made by its chief architect and founder NR Narayana Murthy in the last several months, where he spoke to the media about issues that have the board and the investors at large concerned.

I have neither the competency nor the desire to comment on areas outside my purview, and will therefore, confine myself to my primary area of interest - the Infosys brand equity, that is currently facing a lot of erosion and dilution.

 

Darling of the bourses

My association with the brand spans over 25 years. I had the good fortune of handling its public issue in one of my earlier avatars and had observed the founders from close quarters - their simplicity, vision and ambition. I have had meetings at the company’s modest office in Koramangala, which has since become a heritage centre for the IT services behemoth. 

When it made an initial public offer, the issue was undersubscribed and ended up making a lot of people rich and some, like me, comfortable. The employer of choice had put India on the global software map and been prominently featured in Thomas Friedman’s landmark book, The World Is Flat. It continued to make headlines - after all, it was the first Indian company to be listed on the Nasdaq.

 

Media relations

The media loved the company and Infosys got a larger-than-life projection. It would be fair to say that a lot of its positive image had to do with strategic media relations, spearheaded by founders who largely shunned the advertising route. And as someone who spent most of his life in advertising, I had a grudging admiration for the brand and its ability to harness the largely unmanageable media not only in India but also globally.

But media can be strange bedfellows, and companies and individuals who wooed them have often come to grief - albeit because of their own doing. Although it may seem inappropriate in this context, let’s not forget how quickly Vijay Mallya moved from the ‘king of good times’ to the ‘king of bad times’.

 

Bad blood

The last few months have not been ordinary for Infosys — neither at the bourses nor in the media. There have been a number of stories about the company’s inability to meet its promised targets, bad press about expenses and compensation of its chief executive officer, and rumours about using a private jet. But the latest salvo from the founder, NR Narayana Murthy is a letter to the media about the COO’s salary.

While media lapped up the great man’s comments, it raises a number of issues not only about the way the company is being run but also about a host of issues on corporate governance, ethics and management responsibility. While social media and private discussions range from ‘Why should dirty linen be washed in public?’ and ‘Is NRN suffering from withdrawal symptoms and is unable to let go?’ to ‘Is Infosys the same company it was in the early nineties?’ and ‘Should not CEO’s be given freedom to operate?’, my underlying feeling as an admirer of the brand is one of regret that it is shooting itself in the foot. It reminds me of some of my golfing friends who play wonderfully till the fourteenth hole and then press the self-destruct button.

 

Brands under fire

Brands constantly come under fire, whether it is Tylenol, Maggi or Tata. This is a crisis or the beginnings of one, coupled with poor performance and possible shaky employee morale. The focus should be on resolving the issues rather than trying to assuage the feelings of an injured founder.

While it would be difficult to go back to business as usual or brush the issue under the carpet, the solution is definitely not to talk to each other through the media. To my mind, the onus is on Narayana Murthy to realise that the brand he created, championed and built is now under severe threat.

Sadly, the enemy is within. Good sense will hopefully prevail, as we have a brand that put India on the global software map and was a great source of pride to its employees, investors and customers.

Yes, brands take time, effort, energy and money to build. But like a fine crystal, it needs just a moment of carelessness to destroy its beauty.

Blinding flash of the obvious

Title: The Curious Marketer: Expeditions in Branding and Consumer Behaviour 

Author: Harish Bhat ; Publisher: Penguin Random House. Price: ₹599

A marketing maven offers a candid reflection of our times

“Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.” 

I was reminded of this interesting quote by Hungarian physiologist Albert Szent-Györgyi when I read Harish Bhat’s The Curious Marketer, which is an interesting and insightful look at the world of marketing, among other things.

The book has an easy, conversational, non-jargonistic approach to writing which should appeal equally to your spouse and your teenage daughter. As the book is a a collection of articles that has appeared in this paper over a period of three years, it straddles events, people and places.

The book encourages us to “notice” things; somehow many of us seem to have lost the power to observe people and places, lost as we are in the security of, say, our mobile phones. And to impart his lessons, Bhat traverses not only the God’s Own Country, but such far flung places as London, New York and Austria to name a few.

The writing spans not only the wonders of modern retail, like the Apple store, but even the less heard of and more exotic things like the marketing of coconut water! Being a marketer at heart, Bhat seems to find opportunities in what might seem mundane things like us, for instance, there is a section on umbrellas, which might seem odd to someone who does not live in Kerala or Mumbai where the skies open up more easily than my accountant when he has to pass my travel vouchers!

 

Marketing wisdom

Bhat is a marketer of repute and has spent a majority of his life working on diverse brands and often writing about them. The book is replete with examples that the average marketer might not have come across like the origin of the brand name Lakme, which is how the French pronounce the Goddess Lakshmi!

Bhat talks about the power of circles in logos and how brands like the Olympics and Audi have used the time-tested power of circles as consumers seem to rely on them. The important lesson for me at least is the fact that most of us seem to be lost in our brands, our world and our planet to borrow an expression of Bhat. This limits our vision and impacts our ability to think out of the box.

Looking at other categories, brands and planets can substantially improve our ability to come up with innovative solutions. Something which management guru Gary Hamel used to advocate when he urged companies to look outside of their industry to widen their horizons.

 

Times are a changing

Since Bhat has spent a considerable amount of time with Titan, the company that changed the face of time in India, he discusses the origin, the advertising, the vision of Xerxes Desai and goes on to talk about the often controversial advertising of Fastrack including the ad that features women “coming out of the closet” literally! He speaks about LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) and urges us to open our eyes at least to the urban reality around us.

A reality that some of us studiously close our eyes to! And this is something that I feel strongly about. Marketing is never about yourself, or who you were when you were young, but about today’s young customer and too often our biases and prejudices prevent us from understanding or accepting this important fact.

The key theme of the book is about consumer insights and what he calls as “Small Data”. He strongly advocates Martin Lindstrom’s book on small data as a must read for anyone who is in marketing. Many of us will not have the capability to spend days on end with consumers and understand how they spend their lives, but we can certainly keep our eyes and ears open as Bhat advocates.

The other interesting point he makes is that very often we assume consumer insights are the exclusive domain of marketing and advertising. While the lead may happen from marketing and advertising, Bhat advocates the use of insights being harnessed by other functional areas like manufacturing, distribution and inventory management. This is an important difference as one can think of as too often insights seem to be the exclusive domain of marketing and advertising, and the other functional areas just seem to abdicate their own rights and responsibilities in this area.

 

Different strokes

While there is no doubt that Bhat’s book is an easy read with a wide range of topics, it is perhaps this factor that works against the book. The articles are too diverse and some of them certainly like the one on Muhammad Ali have limited place in the book. 

The author, because of his ability, manages to string together a connection even when it is tenuous at best and that to my mind is the weakness of this book.

The fact that many of the pieces have been written at different points in time is another factor which probably works against the same theme. A shorter, tighter book with articles closer to the central theme might have made the book even better than it already is. I would urge working professionals, not necessarily only from the marketing area, to go out and buy The Curious Marketer and read it. It has a lot of what Tom Peters would call “the blinding flash of the obvious”.

Let me end with an appreciation of the interesting epilogue by Gayatri Bhat, Bhat’s daughter’s irreverent and yet affectionate look at her father and his writing. Certainly a reflection of the times that we live in and that’s the key feature of this book; it reflects the times we live in, interestingly.

The reviewer is the chief executive officer of brand-comm 

 

MEET THE AUTHOR

Harish Bhat has held several senior roles in the Tata Group over the past 30 years. An avid marketer, he has helped create many successful Tata brands. Bhat now writes extensively and is a columnist for the The Hindu Business Line and Mint. His first book TataLog was published in 2012.

(This article was published on April 9, 2017)

The phones, they are a-changin’

A number of Chinese brands are dominating the smartphone market in India

What is common between a young girl working as nanny in a large apartment complex in Bangalore, an IIM student who will soon be placed in a big consulting firm, and my car driver? All have Chinese mobile phones!

Chinese phones have grabbed four out of the five top slots in India’s smartphone segment, and the share of China-based vendors is as high as 46 per cent in the October-December 2016 quarter. Young Indians are leapfrogging the technology barrier and moving away from the practices of people like me, who have a desktop heritage.

India’s smartphone population is still only 300 million out of a possible 1 billion, even as it grows at an astonishing 23 per cent year on year. Markets like China’s are probably stagnant, which means one can expect even more obscure Chinese brands to enter the market in the coming months.

Can perceptions change?

‘Perception is reality’ is one of the oldest maxims we were reared on. If you were to ask people of my generation, many would have scant respect for China and its products. We may marvel at their growth, their tremendous discipline, their prowess in sports and even the speed at which their infrastructure has been built.

But when it comes to their quality, we have strong views and not necessarily positive ones. We swore by Japanese brands and their fantastic quality.

Marketers are well aware of this shortcoming, and if you notice the advertising for Chinese brands — some of which do well globally like Haier — they don’t seem particularly interested in talking about their country of origin. While German car manufacturers proudly announce their heritage (Volkswagen notwithstanding), the Chinese have been reticent.

And yet, things are changing in the mobile market in India, as Chinese brands continue to advertise heavily, have below-the-line activities and do extremely visible things like sponsoring the IPL.

Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker, is setting up a second unit in India so it can produce a million phones per month. Clearly, ‘Chinese’ is no longer a dubious distinction — unless you are an Australian cricketer facing a left arm spinner!

Is consumer behaviour changing?

Coming back to the initial scenario I had depicted, all of them use one of the many widely advertised Chinese brands. While they may still use a phone primarily for calls and WhatsApp, they still want handsets that look good, don’t cost the earth and keep them going for the next 18 months.

Many years back, a common theory had prevailed in India, something I had spoken about extensively in my first book One Land, One Billion Minds. “India will patronise affordable quality at acceptable prices”. I had said that with conviction.

Are we seeing the same phenomenon carried forward to today’s young Indian with even more strength?

The increasing importance of the camera

There is no doubt that the current generation of mobile phone users are narcissists, even if it sounds uncomplimentary! And this is really where the Chinese brands do extraordinarily well, as they all have powerful cameras that tickle the fancy of a self-obsessed generation.

Some of these brands have very aggressive offers on the online channels, as the latest offer clearly demonstrates. Hardly surprising then, that these brands rapidly gain enormous ground.

Premium brands?

One of India’s characteristic feature is that Indians aspire for and admire brands like the iPhone and maybe even the Samsung Galaxy. But these companies will generally struggle when it comes to numbers and volumes. In the West, they have aggressive packages with the mobile phone companies, so consumers there don’t have to pay enormous sums of money upfront as we Indians do. 

The whole mobile market has moved up, in my view, from the Nokia 1100 to the Oppos and the Xiaomis. At this point in time, it seems that the Chinese firms are competing amongst themselves, even as the MotoGs of the world struggle with numbers and distribution.

The world’s hottest mobile market seems to be quite satisfied with its current lot of brands, even if some consumers are mildly sceptical about their quality or future.

The phones they are a changing!

 

How l’affaire Gaikwad burnished AI brand

Chennai, April 7:   

 

L’affaire Gaikwad has ended with Air India lifting its ban on flying the Shiv Sena Member of Parliament after he expressed regret for the incident in which he was caught on camera assaulting the carrier’s cabin crew. 

What impact will this episode have on the brand equity of the national carrier and the other airlines that joined hands with it? It’s not the first time they have had to encounter such behaviour, though perhaps not of this magnitude. Brand strategists believe Air India has redeemed its reputation somewhat by standing up to the disorderly MP, but add that much more needs to be done.

Ramanujam Sridhar, Founder CEO, Integrated Brand-Comm, is not sure if the incident will affect the brand. The ban’s revocation is regrettable, but everyone knows Air India is government-owned and it may not come out unfavourably, he says. Harish Bijoor, brand strategy expert and CEO, Harish 

Bijoor Consults, says the incident involving an errant politician does many things from a brand image point of view. For one, the airline “became the first one to really implement a no-fly list, even if it was a short list of one.”

It also sends a message to fliers across all airlines that they cannot behave like lords. Give respect and take respect is the norm that has been reinforced with this incident, he adds.

Raghu Viswanath of Vertebrand believes it does not affect the brand equity of Air India one way or the other.

The only good part was the travel ban, considering that politicians and other VIPs have ridden roughshod over airlines over the years. “Air India, at least, got people to believe it has some spine, and that the civil rights of individuals and businesses are getting more respect under this regime,” he said.

Air India draws frequent criticism for its poor service, and the tendency to delay flights for VIPs. 

However, the airline’s stand in this case has secured widespread support. Air India and the other airlines stood by their employees in the face of unreasonable behaviour, however much the axiom of ‘the customer is always right’ holds sway.

“We have to commend the CEO,” says Brand-Comm’s Sridhar.

The ban’s rollback, if done without a proper enquiry or and an apology, will create “cynicism among employees”, says Bijoor.

Vertebrand’s Viswanath says a single incident cannot improve the image. For sustainable brand equity, Air India must focus on efficiency of service, the quality of its aircraft and hospitality of its staff.

Not so OOH la la!

At eye-level Hoardings in one’s field of vision are more likely to be noticed. 

 

Bengaluru’s citizens recently cried foul over trees being mutilated to make hoardings more visible. But how relevant are these out-of-home (OOH) media today?

Recently, there was an outcry over the alleged poising and pruning of several trees to improve the visibility of hoardings in Bengaluru Environmentalists and concerned citizens gave vent to their shock and anguish over the act on social media. Notices were served to the advertising agency and the owners of the sites, and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike pulled down the allegedly illegal hoardings. 

Even as one awaits all the details, with the Lokayukta seeking reports from the municipal authorities and police officials on the serious allegations, the events turn the spotlight on the relevance of hoardings in today’s digital age. The logic behind this “mutilation” of the trees was reportedly to ensure people saw the hoardings clearly. Now this brings up this question: Is the digital-savvy consumer, who is busy twiddling with some gadget or the other at traffic signals, really looking up at hoardings? 

Static, traditional billboards put up invasively at great heights may not always do the trick. Only really clever messaging will divert the consumer’s attention from her smartphone to look around (and not necessarily up).

In India, the outdoor medium is still under-utilised. Barring better reproduction and superior back lighting, the outdoor medium has not been explored well, says Ramanujam Sridhar, Founder, Integrated Brand-comm, a brand consulting firm. Traditional advertisers have to understand “old ways” won’t work all the time, he adds. 

Ambient advertising, the future

Marketers would do well to explore ambient outdoor advertising through street furniture, bus shelters, bus panels, foot over-bridges and medians. 

The poster campaigns in British and American railways make good use of the outdoor medium. Back home, some of the new-age marketers are discovering ingenious ways with the OOH (out-of-home) medium. Ola audaciously advertised its auto rides in grab handles in a bus, while online brands such as Snapdeal and Big Basket have dabbled with wrapping ads around buses and local trains. Amazon piloted ‘chai carts’ out on the streets to talk to local retailers about e-commerce, over steaming cups of chai, of course. More brands need to think on these lines. 

Preserving a city’s character

Brands may also need to bear in mind that, with citizens’ awareness of civic rights increasing, they may not be impressed with hoardings that mar the city’s skyline.

Vinod Hayagriv, Managing Director of C Krishniah Chetty and Sons, a Bengaluru-based jeweller, advocates that no more than 10 per cent of space should be allocated for hoardings. “Such spaces should be small, beautiful, neatly marked-out areas. Hoardings must be non-intrusive, neat in size and specification, and of high quality.” He also calls for clearly published, transparent and non-negotiable rates.

“At no cost should the beauty and heritage of the city be compromised,” says Hayagriv, whose brand has taken a conscious decision to stop doing hoardings to preserve the city’s character. “We will stop being part of the visual ruination brigade of this city.”

 

Needs professional management

Then there is the issue of illegal hoardings, not just in Bengaluru but in other cities too. Despite the authorities promising to take stringent action against violators time and again, unauthorised hoardings continue to crop up.

With whom does the buck stop in respect of such hoardings? Tree doctor Vijay Nishanth, who has been working overtime to revive three of the 17 trees in Bengaluru whose roots were reportedly sprinkled with acid, believes brands must be responsible and aware. But MG Parameswaran, an advertising industry veteran and Founder, Brand-Building.com, says it is difficult for brands to monitor what goes up where. Nakul Chopra, President, Advertising Agencies Association of India, says it is the job of the local municipal authorities to ensure discipline and compliance.

Unless there is a proper audit of all the hoarding sites in the city and stringent checks and balances are put in place, it is not easy to monitor the industry, which is not the best regulated medium today.

The industry is in complete “chaos” and in dire need of professional management, says Parameswaran. “There is no clarity in ownership of the sites. Different parties are involved and there is a lot of sub-contracting.” 

“Today, the outdoor medium has become a space for unpopular methods … does not have ethics. One agency blames the other or the entire environment,” rues Hayagriv.

Despite the issues associated with the medium, one cannot wish away the outdoor advertising medium, says Parameswaran. It is still a great way for municipal authorities to generate revenues, which can be used to improve the city. But this is not quite the case on ground. “For instance, if a client is paying ₹1 lakh for an outdoor space, only about ₹1,000 goes as government licence fee. Money passes through five hands.”

Obviously, there is a lot of inside-out cleaning to do on many counts! 

(This article was published on April 6, 2017)

The importance of symbols for a brand

Be it political party or a brand, having a unique logo certainly matters, especially in recall value

As I was getting ready to write my weekly column, the news was coming in about how the Election Commission prevented the two warring factions of the AIADMK from using the ‘two leaves’ icon in the forthcoming by-election in Chennai's RK Nagar constituency.

New symbols - a ‘hat’ and an ‘electric pole’ — have been allotted to the two camps (VK Sasikala’s and O Panneerselvam’s) temporarily, even as the EC decides who the real heir to the original symbol is. Speaking of which, the party that has the electric pole claims moral victory as it looks similar to the two leaves!

How critical is the value of a symbol in politics and more importantly, in business? Let’s begin with the former, as it’s upon us here and now, and state upfront that symbols matter a lot in politics.

Symbolic importance

If you look around, you see the ‘rising sun’ painted on more walls in Tamil Nadu than one can imagine. Nationally, we have two other icons that are well recognised - the hand of the Congress and the lotus of the BJP.

Research suggests that people tend to remember shapes and symbols far better than words. It’s not for nothing that they say a picture is worth a thousand words. There is another distressing reality about India that comes into play during the elections. Not everyone can read, and yet, they are voters who can determine the destiny of parties. Irrespective of whether they can read the name of the party or not, they can certainly recall symbols, even as political groups exhort them to vote for their respective symbols, sometimes with incentives that may not be politically correct to write about.

For years, these parties have overtly and subtly reinforced their visual images on millions of Indians, as AIADMK had done with its twin leaves. It alternated as a victory symbol, because everyone, from the leader to millions of followers, kept flaunting the sign in front of television cameras. It will certainly be interesting to examine the impact of the loss of this icon to both the warring factions. And as a result of the confusion-ridden state of its opposition that has probably lost its most potent weapon, perhaps the DMK’s sun may actually rise .

I’m no poll pundit, so let’s wait and watch till April 15. I am sure it’s going to be a monumental task for both the parties to ingrain their newly-assigned symbols in voters’ minds in this short period. 

Have the swoosh

One of the brands I have admired enormously is Nike. The brand that reveres athletes and athletic performance has a widely-recognised swoosh that is so powerful, that the company can get away even without using its name. 

 

Interestingly, it is rumoured that Phil Knight was not completely happy with the symbol when it was first designed. He had paid the creator, a young college student, the princely sum of $35, worked out at a mind-boggling rate of $2 per hour. Of such instances are legends made!

While there are certainly multiple reasons behind the brand’s phenomenal success over the years, there is no denying that the swoosh is one of the most significant. This, coupled with its advertising that has featured striking celebrities, and its tagline of ‘just do it’ which is as much a statement of attitude as it is an exhortation to superior performance. 

The golden arches spell riches

Nike is not the only brand that recognises and values symbols. McDonald’s is another that has used its striking logo to great effect in every corner of the world; the happy-yellow ‘M’ that weary travellers and hungry children recognise instantly. 

The other big advantage of logos is that they keep beckoning consumers into their outlets, serving as a powerful point of sale.

Automotive brands too have used their symbols to flaunt ownership and prestige. Who can ignore the Audi’s four circles that are reminiscent of the Olympics logo; or Toyota’s or Mercedes Benz’s. In brand association tests too, the symbols feature prominently.

Let’s not forget that in today’s crowded world, brands need multiple associations and touch points with their consumers, who are constantly being wooed by several names across categories. Does your brand have something it can be strongly associated with?

Can a model be your brand’s property?

Ad professionals must use unique and recognisable models to make sure their commercials stand out

 

As India braces itself for another blistering summer, I am reminded of a time long ago - over 25 years ago — when a company based in Ahmedabad would feverishly prepare itself for the peak season. It was marketing a famous brand of soft drink concentrate back then, called Rasna, that many middle class Indians grew up and slurped on. 

Although I had nothing to do with those commercials, which were path-breaking, I was one of the several Mudra employees who basked in the glory of our Ahmedabad office’s creative. Crucial to the success of these commercials was a cute, cuddly girl who eyeballed the camera and said “I love you Rasna”! 

The entire India wholeheartedly accepted the adorable little girl and I’m sure many parents wanted their children to be like her. Here is one of the many ads that featured this much-loved child in the late 1980s and 1990s. She had become Rasna’s brand property and was always mentioned when research was done on the brand. 

Fair or Lovely or both?

Another brand that I have always admired (though never used) is Fair & Lovely. It has often caught the attention of activists and young girls who wish to appear fairer than they actually are.

It has been a bestseller for Hindustan Unilever, irrespective of what the detractors of the brand have to say, as the advertising has always appealed to middle-class women. One of the constants of Fair & Lovely advertising in recent times has been Yami Gautam. 

She also featured in a recent Bollywood film. While that may or may not have helped the brand, there is no denying the fact that this model is a constant feature in the brand’s advertising and will surely be recalled by consumers. 

The Airtel girl

Not too long ago, Airtel launched a high decibel campaign for its 4G offering, with a series of commercials. They were on different themes and had multiple creative executions, all of which featured a model who beamed at us from TV screens, newspapers and hoardings all over India.

The model, Sasha Chettri, talks to a variety of people on the features of 4G and its speed; she travels all around the countryside, goes to villages in bullock carts, holidays in the Himalayas and claims that 4G works extremely well, wherever you go. While one can quibble about the veracity of the claims, there is no doubt that the girl’s image is strongly associated with Airtel 4G. 

It was in this context, therefore, that I was a bit bemused when I saw this commercial for Quick Heal, an anti-virus solutions brand, featuring Sasha Chettri! In the ad, she tells a group of youngsters about the various types of viruses their smartphones are vulnerable to. More intriguingly, the setting and the script of the commercial is very similar to that of Airtel.

I have always maintained that our advertising creative executives don’t seem to watch enough of other Indian advertising, which explains the similarity between advertising and scripts across categories, to say nothing about the choice of models. 

Keep your eyes open

The reality is that most advertising professionals seem to have a very poor view of other ads produced in India. Hence, they consider it beneath their dignity to watch advertisements created by others. This places a greater responsibility on clients to ensure that their own advertising stands out and is easily differentiated.

One of the easiest ways to not get lost in the crowd is to use a unique and recognisable model, just as Fair & Lovely, Airtel and Rasna have done. While it is difficult to ensure that models are not used in multiple categories, it is certainly within your power to look for models who are not overused, and try to appropriate them for your own brand.

Yes, small things can make a big difference, if only you put in the hard yards. Are you ready?

Should your brand ride the Women’s Day wave?

Can it beat the clutter or will it be just one of many brands jostling for attention? Choose wisely!

 

India is known for going gaga over a global concept that it speedily assimilates. Cricket is an example that comes readily to mind. A game that has often been described as one played by ‘flannelled fools’ has completely taken over the country’s imagination, as we saw last week in Bengaluru in a test match that had thrills, spills, excitement, controversy and the possibility of a major face-off between two of the most powerful boards in the world. Thankfully, the country quickly moved on to another international concept — International Women’s Day.

Women’s Day is probably more relevant for India than it is for the Western world, which probably treats the female sex as equal while, closer home, after taking the opposite sex for granted for 364 days, people are probably suddenly reminded of their obligations that seem to have been conveniently forgotten thus far.

Brands, too, realising that women are consumers and decision-makers (who dictate whether they flourish or merely exist) usually plan some activities on International Women’s Day, thereby adding to the clutter and the advertising revenues of channels. While there were several, let me focus on the ones that caught my attention.

 

Power of the idea

Star Plus, the popular TV channel with its huge base of women consumers, uses its enormous reach and viewership to extend its Nayi Soch concept to Women’s Day with an interesting, yet simple, commercial featuring the eternal celebrity Aamir Khan, who is shown running a very successful sweet store. When an acquaintance compliments him on his success, he attributes it to his smart children, who have converted the store online. When the admiring friend compliments Aamir on his sons, the proud father points to his two daughters who are responsible for the success and says it is not so much about son or daughter as it is about the power of the idea.

The commercial ends with the camera panning to the shop’s signboard, which proudly reads “Gurdeep Singh and Daughters”. Clearly, a commercial which is against popular sentiment and serves as an eye-opener in a country that blatantly discriminates against women, even at birth. And what better way to drive home the message than through a celebrity. Here’s the commercial that I liked.

The channel has gone further, featuring a series of successful fathers and daughters and the relationship between them, as this one featuring Sashi Sinha (IPG Mediabrands) and his daughter. Clearly, the concept is one that can be extended for it to get wider reach and appreciation.

Let the woman lead her life

Another stereotype we are familiar with is that of the woman who has to do everything for someone else, whether it is her husband, her children or even her in-laws, and has hardly any time for herself. We have seen this in mothers, wives and daughters, haven’t we? It is this consumer insight that Reliance Fresh draws on in its new commercial for Women’s Day.

It features a middle-aged couple and an annoyed husband who is just unable to handle the fact that his fifty-year-old wife is going on a “girls’ gang” trip to Goa for five days. He throws objection after objection to his smiling wife and threatens her that she will call him in two days because she will get into a problem! The wife smilingly laughs away all his objections and even ridicules his poor attempt at ill-health and cheerfully rushes off with her waiting friends, bag and bikini packed, with the closing line ”If I don’t do it at fifty when will I do it?” 

Then there is another disturbing commercial which talks about sex change, a sensitive topic if ever there was one. Here’s the commercial for UrbanClap that will certainly catch your attention.

 

But what should brands do?

Having said all this, what’s the way forward for brands on occasions like these? Here are a few thoughts for your consideration.

Think long and hard whether you actually need to be here or you could use your money elsewhere with less clutter.

Have a calendared, annual plan. Things like this should not be ad hoc.

Does your brand really belong here? And even if it does, can it beat the clutter or will it be just one of several brands jostling for attention?

Can your brand beat the stereotype? How many commercials can we have for long-suffering Sati Savitris?

Can your brand go beyond mere advertising, as Star Plus is doing?

Can you put enough media weight behind this?

Can you focus on men, for instance, in your commercial in an interesting way that will get the attention of all women?

Finally, the old adage is worth remembering. Don’t do something that you can’t do damn well, both in strategy and execution.

Yes, the world is full of opportunities. Sadly, everything comes with a cost. Choose your opportunities carefully and belated wishes for a happy Women’s Day!

I love you but I love my phone more ….

 

Is it enough for ads to play on the obsession with smartphones or should they go the extra mile?

 

Imagine if you had a choice between taking your spouse or your mobile phone to a desert island: which would you choose? Ok, ok you don’t have to answer that. I can, because I am secure in the knowledge that my wife never reads anything I write (even a shopping list) and can tell you that a mobile phone wins hands down.

Have you observed what young people do when they are sitting at a restaurant or even in a park? They keep staring intently at their mobiles instead of looking at each other, for who knows which WhatsApp message might disappear if they looked at it an hour later!

While this malady may seem particularly associated with young people, I think it is a universal problem that cuts across ages. Nowadays we have older people whose day starts with Facebook and not necessarily with Venkatesa Suprabhatam, as it might have done a decade ago. Yes, the mobile has captured our attention, imagination and hearts, hook, line and sinker! It is in this context that Vodafone has done a new piece of communication which says “Look Up”.

 

Look up at your partner

Watch this new video done for Valentine’s Day which is perhaps more interesting for picking on a theme that is universal and which everyone can relate to as it happens all the time in everyone’s lives; and that is about mobile phone usage. It takes a light-hearted look at how obsessed we are with phones so that, even when we are on a date with our loved one, we are peering anxiously at the mobile phone instead of looking lovingly at our partner’s face.

The communication starts at a fancy restaurant, where valets offer to take charge of your mobile phone for the time you are at the restaurant so that you can have undisturbed time and probably even talk (!) to your surprised partner! Unsurprisingly some mobile phone users decline the offer, saying that their boss might call, and so on.

Of course, a few others take up the offer. Obviously they enjoy the meal and, when interviewed later, relate a multitude of favourable experiences, ranging from how interesting their partner is without a mobile phone to how they actually looked at each other and what a fun time they had without the constant distraction of the phone.

While it is clearly a message for Valentine’s Day, there is a deeper message to all of us who seem to have difficulty in looking beyond our mobile screens, on how personal moments and relationships are getting badly hurt, thanks to this wonderful invention. 

As communication goes, it is simple rather than dramatic. Clearly, it does not have the sophisticated execution that earlier Vodafone commercials do but, then, neither does this seem a communication for mass media. 

Rather than get into the execution of the commercial, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the TVC has universal appeal as it is based on the obsession of today’s youth with the mobile phone and it seems perfectly acceptable behaviour; usually, the other person is too busy to notice this as she is peering at her phone too! Insights like this get the following reaction from consumers: “wow, it’s really true. It’s about me. I can relate to this”. This is precisely what the communication gets by way of response from viewers, and that is its biggest success. 

Insights are not new

Mobile services and their use have been a hot topic for years now for advertisers and ad agencies. I’m sure some of you remember the commercial for Airtel on a young person’s obsession with “missed calls”. A youngster’s car gets vandalised in a multiplex and, as the concerned youngsters hang around the car, the owner asks his friend if he has called the police. The young man replies that he has given a missed call to the police and they should soon call him back! This highly successful commercial, which made waves for Airtel, had youngsters look at the Airtel brand more seriously. 

Back to Vodafone

Having discussed insights, let us go back to the original Vodafone communication. While it is interesting, the way to really engage with the consumers and demonstrate to them that Vodafone cares about them is to take the concept online, request people to share their experiences when they are not on the phone, have contests, write blogs, do cartoons and just about anything that can be done to ensure that the concept of “looking up” gathers momentum and steam so that it becomes a mass movement that the brand can eventually claim credit for. 

Otherwise, it might just remain what it is now - an interesting piece of communication from a brand known for its creativity.