The Age Of Neo Consumerism

I am writing this amidst the weekend cacophony at my place which is just getting louder with the grace of euro 2008 quarter finals, endless bollywood award functions telecasted on multiple channels, my desperate attempt to catch a glimpse of the late night edition news headlines and the never ending sound of my inner self.

I had somewhere read (yeah “somewhere”, it’s kind of difficult to remember where I read great articles, interviews or just random thoughts of people’s over fertile imagination… considering the massive overflow of information one is subjected to. Anyways, I feel that as long as remember things that I read, the source does not matter) that an urban individual on an average is subjected to 44 brands daily. My very first reaction on reading this was that of obvious over estimation. Just to satisfy my anxious self, one fine day I decided to actually sit down and note all the brands that I come across from the moment I get up till the wee hours of the night when my enthusiasm actually runs out. Any guesses how many brands figured out on my list? 54!!! And that too on a rather passive day which did not include any sort of major outdoor activity, that would have supplemented the list an made it longer.

So I guess the anonymous estimator’s estimates are pretty much fine tuned. Today I believe is the age of Neo Consumers, consumers who are aware, receptive to company’s offers, are qualified for the product or service offered and have the relevant incomes to actually make a well informed purchase decision. Rather than just buying something for the heck of it people actually weight their options, consider varied elements and go about making their choices. What I am saying pertains more to the modern urban India rather than the rural “Bharat”.

The quality of communication that is projected towards the consumers is becoming more and more sophisticated and polished. Consumers are not treated as intellectually challenged where the onus of consumer education falls on the agencies, but are treated with respect and in some rare cases even inspirational. The better reception and mobility of urban consumers have opened up new avenues for marketers to proliferate deeper into the consumer’s lives and carve out a niche for their brands. More and more people are conscious about their brand choices. They believe in brand associations and want to project a self-relevant image. People’s desire to stand out and have a distinctive appeal is augmented by the kind of brands they use. They let the brands speak for themselves.

Customer inputs for developing new products and services are vital. Companies which are constantly in sync with their customers and incorporate their insights are here to stay and lead. This fact can be proven by the tremendous popularity achieved by many companies who topped this year’s Brand Equity Survey.

I believe that the days are not far when people will have so strong brand connect that they will stand for the brands they believe in. Customers will have a greater say in the product design. This will facilitate a greater emotional bond that people will have with their brands. Companies that harp the tune of emotional appeal have a way to go. Needless to say that the product quality and product perceived-expected value equation need to be at par with the brand promise. Marketers have to scale unexplored heights and constantly develop better products and services, with better benefits that give actual solutions and make life easy.

I also believe that the marketing and the advertising fraternity shall have a great hand in shaping the way brands communicate with the users who feel the brand experience. The age of Neo Consumerism has begun, let’s just let it last as long as possible.

Latest Guide To Market Planning (Urban/Rural)

The fourth edition of the RK Swamy/BBDO Guide to Market Planning is now out. The earlier editions served as a source for market planning across the consumer packaged goods, durables, banking and insurance, telecom, automotive products, social marketing and government sectors.

This new edition, which is the fourth, is a comprehensive analysis of urban markets, rural markets and a combination of urban+rural.

As in the earlier editions, the guide provides three types of indices: Market Potential Value (MPV), Market Intensity Index (MII) and Market Exposure Index (MEI). All three are essential tools for market planning. The current edition of the guide has these indices separately for urban, rural and urban+rural.

MPV provides the relative aggregate market potential. MII provides the relative concentration of purchasing power. MEI is indicative of the relative ease with which the marketer can approach the task of marketing communication. These indices, according to the agency, have emerged as powerful marketing tools in the market planning process.

The new edition presents data for 515 districts in 21 states and three Union territories, covering 98 per cent of India’s population. (The country has 593 districts.) Now marketers can define the geography they want to analyse by way of districts or towns or rural only, and develop the plans that best suit their needs.

The usefulness of the guide has been further enhanced by the interactive CD that not only aids advanced market planning, but enables the marketer to see for herself the geographical area of the chosen market, with the map showing rail lines, roads, district boundaries, etc.

Dr Gowri Arun has been the prime mover of the guide which has used elaborate quantitative process using 24 distinctive sources of data. Weightages were assigned to each of the sourced in a most judicious manner. The team took nearly two years to develop the indices for this edition. It is invaluable because it reduces the cost of marketing, if used wisely.

Attitude-The New Advertising Mantra

The television advertising has undergone a sea change. Instead of selling products or its features, the ads now sell attitude, aspirations and emotions. Consider the Indigo CS ad. There’s office tyranny, pettiness and you only get to see the car at the tail end of the ad.

It doesn’t bore you with the mileage bragging, power window or any other feature. Just a vindictive smile on the employee’s face and only one line in the ad, ‘at the end of the day, it’s the style which matters’. Pure entertainment and statement anchored on youth.

Or be it the Fastrack ad. A couple breaking apart, without speaking a single word through out the ad. Both of them make smirking faces at each other, returning each others gifts — Fastrack articles — and moves on. No product message, the ad just has one thing to sell ‘move on’ attitude. Many such ads make to the list.

You rarely get to see adds which will punch ‘sabse sasta’, ‘sabse achcha’ catch lines, or ads communicating ‘in new pack’. It’s all passe`. ‘Move on’, ‘Dar ke aage jeet hai’,”har roz utho nahi jago”. are ‘in’TV ads have seen a lot of innovation in the past couple of years. Advertisement on TV is no more informative, it’s entertaining. What’s the idea behind keeping features at a bay and infusing entertainment?

Industry professionals are citing that the “information context” of the ads ought to be kept for the print media which will do all the intellectual work. And the fun and entertainment part shall be taken over by TVCs which initiate the highest recall value. It is proven time and again that a serious message does not evoke as much response as humour does. One run of humour ad equals ten runs of serious ads!

Almost all the products come with more or less same features. It becomes difficult to establish a ‘very distinct’ image of the product in the minds of the audience. Cult ads like Fastrack, Virgin Mobile and MotoYuva have a great recall value even if the features of the brands are not talked about.

Even radio ads are becoming increasingly free from the information clutter,afterall how much info can you pack in a 10 second slot!

TV is an emotional medium, being both voice and visual medium, and does justice to entertainment or emotions better than any other medium.So lets look forward to a whole lotta “Attitude thrown at us” !!!

Paanchvi Pass-With A Bang

The much awaited game show, Kya Aap Panchvi Pass Se Tez Hai?, was launched amid much fanfare on April 25. Besides the traditional media of TV, print and hoardings, an interesting on-ground promotion helped to build the anticipation. A high intensity, 15 day activity was carried out before the show’s launch to build awareness and lure in the crowds for “India’s biggest game show”.

Nine Panchvi Pass Express vans, designed by Candid Marketing, went around 25 cities in six states. The vans or floats had the Panchvi Pass branding and were designed in the form of a classroom. People were allowed to play Panchvi Pass games on board and win a chance to witness the shooting of a Panchvi Pass show. The floats were taken across Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and in the states of Uttar Pradesh (Agra, Kanpur, Allahabad, Lucknow), Punjab (Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana), Madhya Pradesh (Indore, Ujjain, Gwalior, Jabalpur), Rajasthan (Jaipur, Udaipur, Kota), Gujarat (Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot) and Maharashtra (Pune, Aurangabad, Nagpur). It was flagged off in Mumbai by host and actor Shah Rukh Khan. Publications such as Hindustan Times and Dainik Bhaskar promoted the Panchvi Pass Express in every city, informing people about its location and at what time it would appear in their part of the city.
Prem Kamath, vice-president, marketing and communications, STAR Plus, says, “We fabricated the float to offer a glimpse of our show and its format to the consumer. That’s why the float has the basic elements of the show – the green board, school props and desk. The games played on the float are based on the subjects taught from Classes 1 to 5, such as history, geography, English and maths.”

Traffic signal branding was also done – 800 signal posts were branded with Panchvi Pass panels with traffic sensitive messages such as ‘Always wear a helmet. Yeh ek Panchvi Pass ko bhi pata hai’ and ‘Don’t drink and drive. Yeh ek Panchvi Pass ko bhi pata hai’.

The activation at Big Bazaar outlets saw Panchvi Pass carry-bags in 47 outlets in 21 cities. In the Mumbai and Delhi outlets, the staff were dressed in school uniforms to promote the Panchvi Pass message. A purchase linked contest was also held at Big Bazaar outlets.

Branding across Shoppers Stop cash counters was done across 20 stores in five cities – innovative Panchvi Pass tags were put on inhouse apparel, which read, ‘What is the temperature of a normal human body? Don’t know? Ask your Panchvi Pass neighbour’.

Another out of home branding consisted of numerous magnet cups placed on cars at high traffic points in key cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Indore. These read ‘Magnets stick to iron – Std V Science. Are you prepared for India’s biggest game show?’

Other outdoor branding included branded buses in Mumbai and Delhi and branded vikrants (rickshaws) in Agra, Amritsar, Lucknow and Kanpur. A flash mob activity was conducted in Agra, Amritsar, Lucknow and Kanpur, wherein a cutout model of a school bus was carried around by people dressed in white school uniforms.

In addition, Panchvi Pass branded T-shirts were distributed to stall owners, ‘nimbu paniwalas’ and ‘pani puri walas’.Now thats publicity with a BANG!!!

Cartoon Network Survey

Cartoon Network is out with the seventh edition of New Generations, India’s largest children’s lifestyle research study. The survey attempts to map subtle changes in children’s behaviour and preferences. It throws up interesting facts relating to their mindsets and choices, considering their access to technology, TV viewing habits, media consumption and frequency patterns, spending power, favourite icons, and awareness about the nation and the world at large.The survey report clearly points out children’s increased access to emerging technologies. Interesting figures have emerged when it comes to use of mobile phones by the younger generation.

 Around 9 per cent of children across SEC A, B and C in the age group of 7-14 years have their own mobiles. Interestingly, more boys than girls own and use mobiles. The television consumption pattern thrown up by the survey will be a matter of celebration for all those who have a stake in the television business. Television is the No. 1 choice for kids – a whopping 98 per cent watch it daily. Newspapers are a distant second, followed by a close fight between radio, comics, magazine, cinema and the Internet. Television also scores high when it comes to kids’ consumption frequency of various media. As many as 98 per cent respondents watched TV throughout the week, radio and newspapers stand at second and third positions, respectively, with 47 per cent and 44 per cent children accessing these media at least twice a week. An interesting trend can be spotted amongst these figures – 25 per cent children read a newspaper on a daily basis. This is twice the level of readership registered among children in other countries covered by similar surveys. The survey finds that 76 per cent parents watch TV with their kids at some point of time in the day. This could be because India still has many single TV households. The figures for the combined TV viewing have been split into weekday and weekend viewing. On weekdays, 59 per cent parents watch TV with their kids at prime time (8-9pm); on weekends, 54 per cent watch TV with their children at prime time. Afternoons (2-4pm) account for the highest joint viewing of programmes by parents and kids. During holidays, 44 per cent parents spend their time watching afternoon TV with their children; on school days, only 29 per cent parents watch TV in that slot with their kids.

Commenting on the purpose and significance of the study, Duncan Morris, vice-president, research and market development, Turner International Asia Pacific Ltd, says, “The research aims to gather facts and figures about the choices and preferences of kids in India. We invest heavily in the study to obtain better understanding of the changing needs, lifestyle and attitude of youngsters. The study helps us when it comes to deciding on programming, packaging and wooing advertisers.”Pointing to other interesting data in the study, Krishna Desai, associate director, research, Turner International India Pvt. Ltd, says, “When it comes to assessing the role and impact of advertising and Internet use by kids, the survey throws up interesting figures.”When asked whether TV ads give them any useful information, 74 per cent kids said ads helped them decide what to buy. When the same question was put to the parents, 78 per cent agreed that TV ads do give useful information on products for both them and their children. Around 14 per cent of the kids and 15 per cent of the parents felt TV ads are of no use. And, 11 per cent of the kids and 7 per cent of the parents believed advertising had nothing to do with what they buy.

Some 40 per cent children reported using a computer on a daily basis; a quarter of these use the Internet as well. Children in the age group of 7-9 years use the Internet less frequently than older children aged 10-14 years. Online gaming is the most popular activity for 45 per cent of the kids, listening to music comes second (13 per cent).Pocket money given to children throws up some more exciting trends. The figures say that 36 per cent parents give their children pocket money. However, where pocket money was earlier disbursed on a monthly basis, now it is given out every week. The average monthly pocket money for kids in all the surveyed cities was Rs 193. Again, boys get more money than girls. Kids in Ludhiana get the highest pocket money (Rs 402), then Mumbai (Rs 215) and Delhi (Rs 213). Children also get to amass an average Rs 700 as gifts on various occasions. So, the total pocket money of the surveyed kids was Rs 330 crore, with gift money adding another Rs 138 crore. The total is a staggering Rs 478 crore per year. Now, that’s some food for thought for advertisers targeting kids as consumers.

The children surveyed were asked what they would buy if they had Rs 5,000 in hand. Around half of them said they would buy bicycles, mobiles, video games and clothes, in that order. The survey also checked the general knowledge of the children: 60 per cent identified the Indian President correctly, while 80 per cent identified the Prime Minister correctly. Around 74 per cent of the children said India was their favourite country, 9 per cent chose the US, 4 per cent, Australia, and 2 per cent, the UK. Universal principles such as promoting peace and love in the world are high on the children’s minds – 34 per cent wished for peace in the world and 32 per cent wished for the elimination of poverty and hunger.

 The kids’ favourite icon is no longer Sachin Tendulkar; the Little Master has been run out by Mahinder Singh Dhoni, though by just 1 per cent – 33 per cent voted for him as against 32 per cent for Tendulkar. Actor Hrithik Roshan has usurped King Khan’s throne. Actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan leads the list of female icons, followed by fellow actor Rani Mukherjee.The research study for 2008 covered 3,020 boys and girls, aged 7-14 years, SEC A, B and C, in 14 cities across India. The parents of the surveyed kids were also included for a few select queries. The cities covered included New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Ludhiana, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Nashik, Kochi and Madurai.

Knowledge Management

This is of of my articles that i had written for my college’s refreed journal.It deals with knowledge management and its importance in today’s business processes.

Knowledge management started evolving as a formal academic and professional concept since 1995, with a body of university courses and both professional and academic journals dedicated to it. Initially it formed a part or sub-division of either HRM or IT, but today, it’s perceived value has increased, as it has been given a place of importance in the organisational mosaic.

The value of Knowledge Management relates directly to the effectiveness with which the managed knowledge enables the members of an organisation to deal with current situations and effectively envision and shape their future. In the absence of on-demand access to managed knowledge, every situation is addressed, based on the added value a particular individual or group brings to the situation with them. With on-demand access to managed knowledge, every situation is addressed with the sum total of everything anyone in the organisation has ever learned about a situation of a similar regard.
Knowledge Management aids in getting the right information to the right people at the right time, provides them with the tools and techniques for analysing that information and gives them the power to respond to the insight they gain from that information, all in a Blitz Krieg. Knowledge Management Systems enable manufacturing to adjust production to meet demand, based on real-time information from the sales force. It enables just-in-time delivery of supplies and products, as retailers can assess the company’s inventory and the company, the suppliers’ inventories of raw materials. It also eliminates the countless hierarchies of red tape that impede day-to-day business – paper-based systems that slow business processes; centralised decision-making that wastes the knowledge and experience of the workers, who are closest to products and customers and poorly connected computer systems that prohibit departments from sharing information.

Knowledge Management is a discipline that treats intellectual capital as a managed asset. Knowledge Management isn’t a centralised database that contains all the information known by an organisation’s workers. It’s the idea of gaining business insight from a variety of sources including databases, web sites, employees, business partners and informal networks and cultivating that information wherever it resides. Business insight comes from capturing information and giving it greater meaning via its relationship to other information in the company. And to allay fears, Knowledge Management is not about making plug-and-play workers, dispensable because all they know is recorded for the next person who fills their shoes; it’s about delivering information to knowledge workers, symbiotic culture, business processes and technology to make business houses and people successful.

Knowledge Management has come a long way, from its status as a traditional debate between two generations to its modern day glory. The older generation was with concerned information technology loaded processes, such as information collection, storage and distribution and focussed more on old knowledge diffusion rather than new knowledge generation, whereas the new generation believes in spreading knowledge and achieving dynamic results.

Today organisations are extremely dynamic, fast paced and evolving. To harness knowledge is a challenge. Knowledge can be generated at mainly 4 levels, namely the knowledge worker, organisations, processes and technologies.

Knowledge Workers:
Knowledge workers are individuals who effectively utilise knowledge assets within the organisations and make these avenues available to future employees. They are global citizens in the true sense, as they are always on the move and handle operations in different parts of the world. They accumulate knowledge from various sources, which go way beyond regional or national borders. They do not mind experimenting and thinking out of the box and are risk takers, who thrive on adventurous situations. Effective communication skills are not a rarity with them. Their vast experience and expertise is reflected in their business decisions. They believe in integration of knowledge processes and making information available to a number of people. Their ability to multitask and handle different sets of situations at the same time makes them dynamic and iconic. Most of the times, in informal communication circles, they are the prime change agents, who can effectively bring about change in people’s perception and attitudes. A Knowledge Worker’s benefit to a company could be in the form of developing business intelligence, increasing the value of intellectual capital, gaining insight into customer preferences, or a variety of other important gains in knowledge that aid the business.

Knowledge Workers work in an environment described as a knowledge network where there is always an increasing need for knowledge to grow and progress continually, whether in a tacit or explicit manner.

Organisations:
As individuals differ, companies and organisations are also different. They are set in different external environments and operate with their unique internal cultures. They have different strengths and weaknesses, which they measure and quantify in various ways. No two companies are similar. Things that work for one might not be applicable to the other. Similarly, their Knowledge Management techniques will also differ. The key is to align one’s managed knowledge in accordance to the organisation’s philosophy.

Organisations should first identify their knowledge assets or sources. Knowing about them is half the battle won. Exploring the human resource database will give information about the employees and their demographics. Analysing business data will also give a lot of vital information, as a lot of people bring in their personal and professional experiences and view points while taking business decisions. The employees, their practices, policies, decisions etc. are sources of knowledge for an organisation. All an organisation has to do is to have in place a structured system, so that everyone in the organisation can gain easy access to this knowledge. Effective Communication and Change Management mechanisms are also essential while freshly introducing Knowledge Management to a company or a new business unit.

Caselet:
British Petroleum, one of the largest petrochemical companies in the world, gave users information about why the company was deploying its Knowledge Management System. It used newsletters and road shows. It published deployment plans and technical standards. It educated its users. After the company implemented its system, it gave users even more information over the intranet and a half- or one-day training course that taught them how to use their new system. Before dropping Knowledge Management in the users’ laps, the company answered the big five journalistic questions—who, what, how, why and where—eliminating surprises.

Overcoming cultural and behavioural barriers is another hurdle, which an organisation has to manage. Knowledge Management Systems depend on a company’s culture and how well that culture supports the efforts of the people, who produce the information in it. High-value content, that an empowered staff produces, is more useful in a Knowledge Management System than the drivel that employees produce due to cultures that don’t support sharing ideas openly and obviously. For example, one must encourage employees to take time to learn before jumping onto new tasks. Reward failure so that you encourage employees to take risks. One must create a culture that is conducive to sharing information, finding it, and creating knowledge.

Processes:
Process Management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, techniques and systems to define, visualize, measure, control, report and improve processes, with the goal of meeting customer requirements profitably. Application of Knowledge Management to processes radically redefines business objectives and makes them more aligned to the needs of the management and the customers. Knowledge Management Processes helps companies deliver products and services and are usually found in technology based companies. But those kinds of systems are just as appropriate in other types of companies, such as those that deliver fast moving consumer goods and capital goods.

Not only can service companies use Knowledge Management Systems to develop better services, they can also use Knowledge Management Processes to coordinate, manage, and improve those services, once they go on the field.

Standardising on a single messaging and collaboration architecture helps ensure that users will be successful and makes the system more manageable in the long run. Collaboration allows product development companies to bring insight from its various departments together to produce results quicker than ever.

Well-designed Knowledge Management Processes can also reduce product failures significantly, ultimately leading to zero-defect policies.

Technology:
The goal of technological initiatives is to pour a firm foundation for building Knowledge Management Solutions. The success of Knowledge Management depends on the users’ interaction with the company’s information, so the initiatives enable them to use tools, with which they are already familiar, without requiring them to learn new ways of working. These initiatives also allow business houses to leverage existing investments in technology as well as existing sources of information, delivering information to users from every source that is relevant to them. Finally, these initiatives ensure that users who need information have access to it, whether they’re using computers plugged in to walls or getting quality time on their favourite airline.

Digital dashboards give users one familiar place to go to, in which they can share knowledge and gain insight from important business information. They provide a rich environment for displaying and organising information, with which knowledge workers are already familiar.

Exchange Web Storage Systems seamlessly integrate information from a variety of sources and allow Knowledge Workers to access that information from already familiar user interfaces. It combines the functionality of the file system, the web, and a collaboration server, providing a single location for storing and managing information.

Wireless solutions allow Knowledge Workers to access information anytime from anywhere. New types of mobile devices such as phones, pagers, tablet PCs and handheld computers ensure that they can access the information they need, when and where they need it.

Intelligent interfaces enable Knowledge Workers to interact with computers in more natural ways. Types of intelligent interfaces include natural language processing, handwriting recognition and speech recognition.

How Knowledge Management will help Business Houses evolve?

The extent to which an organism engages in healthy rule-making and learning will, to a large degree, determine its outcomes in life. An agent that rarely tests its rules will tend to perform more poorly in practice than one that constantly challenges, upgrades, and refreshes them. A business that rarely revises its approach to the marketplace or its operating routines will tend to ossify and atrophy. On the other hand, companies that engage in healthy levels of rule-making and revision are inherently more capable of adjusting to changes in their environment. Indeed, organisational agility depends, to a large extent, on just how well an organisation’s learning and knowledge systems work.

Knowledge Management will not only bring about changes in the functioning of an organisation but change the whole approach and attitude with which business is carried out. Managed knowledge will work on the “Darwinian Principle” of “Survival of the Fittest” and ensure overall development of personnel, business processes and technologies and give them a long term sustainable competitive advantage.

Eternal Love – Paris

Definately the most fascinating city i have visited so far.Sadly the start of my sojourn in Paris was not very pleasant.The flight landing 4 hours late, made me miss a considerable time on the 1st day. Within minutes after exiting the airport we headed straight to the heart of the city, the main city circle. The whole city is divided into rings.The inner most ring being the city centre.Needless to say that the main centre was the most busy,expensive,exciting and crowded place in Paris.You really cant experience this circular division concept until you on the topmost(3rd) level of the exhilirating Eifel Tower which overlooks the Siene River and the whole Paris city.The view is mesmerizing.Seeing this beautiful city unfold in front of me made me forget my ill flight experience. The city is extremely well planned and awe inspiring. How can each and every building in the city look like a well crafed work of art? Its colonial architecture,magnificent buidings made of white sedimentary rocks,palaces,bridges (there are more than 19 bridges on Siene river alone!), and grand gates all are splendid.Another thing to die for is seeing the city at mid night,it turns into sparkling gold.The endless cafes serve everything from coffees and croissants to alcohol.Its wonderful to see the number of tastefully doneup cafes lined along small french streets.There are like zillion cafes in Paris.Its a culture there.Its like your own porch, everybody whos anybody is always in a cafe!!!

Its a city for artists,its a city for lovers.Small gardens along the Siene river banks…ah…just curling up there with a good book is all thats required.And yes, not to forget the Louvre Museum…luckily i was there post the much publicised “Da-Vinci Episode”.Its s stunner…it actually takes 2 months to visit the whole museum,that is if you actually see all the artifacts (can u believe that!!!) But it really does, the place is massive!’Coz of the book i knew my way to the famous “Danon Wing” which hosts the controversial Mona Lisa.Honestly i did’nt find the masterpiece so exciting…id rather put my money(if i had that much…lol) on “Tiziano Vecellio’s Woman with the Mirror” its a great piece of art. All my rambling about the place cant be enough to actually explain the true Prarie experience…My Paris visit will stay on the top of my favourite list until i visit it again!I say…”Paris De Jaime”

 

Virgin Mobile- Definately Hatke !

Virgin Mobile has made a grand entry and is screaming its arrival. The front page of The Times of India carried the print ad of the newest entry into the mobile industry in India on March 10. The ad leapt out at the reader, with its sensational claim, Get Paid for Incoming. What’s more, the headlines of all the news stories on the front page of the TOI were red. Now thats a royal inroad!And this is only one part of the campaign,Virgin has planned for India after its announcement of the joint venture with Tata TeleServices. The same innovation was also carried in Dainik Jagran and Sandesh! Pretty cool…they hitting the biggies already!
Other initiatives include two television commercials targeting the youth. The first one narrates the story of a teenage girl telling her parents that she doesn’t like boys. This leads to her parents worrying over how to get her to like boys. Her father extols the virtues of going out with boys, and sanctions a trip to Goa with her boyfriend.
In the second film, a boy gets caught by a policeman for not heeding a stop light. When the boy calls his ‘Papa’ to bail him out, the policeman is told by the furious ‘Papa’ that he wants his son thrown into jail and slapped soundly. The policeman’s heart melts and he lets the youngster go. The ‘Papa’, it is later revealed, is none other than the boy’s friend.
Both commercials end with the tagline, ‘Think Hatke.’ Thats such a clutter breaking proposition in already saturated mobile market in India which has got some mean and mighty players.The concept reflects the edginess and street smartness of the youth of today.
The entire character of the Virgin Mobile brand is drawn from the maverick persona of its founder, Sir Richard Branson. Therefore, it will constantly push the envelope in terms of its irreverence and cheekiness. This will carve out a unique identity for Virgin Mobile.
Pull up your socks guys, the mobile category just got a hell lotta interesting and competitive!

Socio-Cultural Anthropology (Ethnology)- A Qualitative Tool To Analyse Consumer Behaviour

Prominent anthropologist Eric Wolf once described anthropology as “the most scientific of the humanities, and the most humanistic of the sciences.” Anthropology as a concept has grown since European colonisation in the 17th century to the present date. In its evolution, it has not only branched out into various other sub categories but also enriched itself by the profound contributions of avid thinkers.

Ethnology is a science that analyses and compares human cultures, as in social structure, language, religion, technology and cultural anthropology. The study of Ethnology and its application in the management discipline will bring about a qualitative development in the way organisations perceive their customers.

Mankind being the most knowledgeable species has evolved into a complex mesh, which requires an intensive mental dissection, for the purpose of analysis and understanding. Social and cultural influences affect us in our day-to-day behaviour. A particular experience can have dramatically different interpretations across the world. Ethnology is a valuable tool that can be applied to business practices to make a difference. Understanding Consumer Behaviour, individually as well as in groups, is the crux of marketing research and a determining factor for the financial growth of organisations. Consumer-centric business practices need to be developed, with reference to social and cultural biases.The sensitivity attached to one’s society and culture needs to be tapped to understand and satisfy different consumer types. Because satisfaction is basically a psychological state, care should be taken in the effort of quantitative measurement; and though a large quantity of research in this area has recently been developed, there is a latent need to show qualitative progresses. This study can be of ground breaking value, which will contribute to differentiation and positioning strategies adopted the world over.

Culture refers to a set of values, traditions or beliefs, which guide individual behaviour. In a way culture is normative, as it prescribes norms of acceptable human behaviour. In other words, culture refers to values, ideas, attitudes and other meaningful symbols created by people, to shape human behaviour and how this behaviour transmitted from one generation to another. For examples, beef is not very readily accepted in the Hindu society and likewise pork in the Muslim society. These things form a core concern for many international food franchises like Mac Donald’s, Pizza Hut etc. Values in any culture are developed through socialisation and acculturation. Refusing beef or pork or garlic by a society is a value developed through socialisation. The use of a fork or knife to eat food, by Indian families, is a value acquired through acculturation. In any culture, there are subcultures that exist. These are different nationalities, religious and geographical groups. For example, in India, we have Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Christians and Sikhs, as exciting religious subcultures. A marketer needs to be aware of these cultural and sub cultural influences on consumer preferences. This will affect his/her brand, packaging, advertising, sales promotion and even distribution decision. A culture’s values are likely to influence its member’s purchases and consumption pattern. For example, one consumer may place a high value on achievement and may demonstrate success with symbols of luxury and prestige. Culture not only influences consumer behaviour, it reflects it. The preponderance of exercise machines, fitness clubs, skin care lotions, diet foods and low fat products reflects the emphasis that Indian youth places on fitness. Culture is therefore a mirror of both the values and possessions of its members.

Some organisations have remarkably built a sustainable competitive advantage, by laying emphasis on diverse cultures. For example, the HSBC Bank has quite sucessfully positioned itself as the “World’s local bank”. Being global and personal at the same time is the key to its success. HSBC’s international network comprises over 10,000 offices in 83 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. It has sucessfully adapted itself to variours cultures and sub-cultures and constanly thrives on the changes that affect these societies. Its popularity is evident from the numerous awards and the recognition that the bank has be showered with, the prominent ones being The Best Consumer Bank (November 2004 by The Banker Magazine) and the World’s Best Bank Award (July 2004 by Euromoney Awards for Excellence.)

The coffee giant Starbucks has also started capitalising on cultural pluralism. This year during Ramadan, for its customers in the Middle East, Starbucks created a new drink, that it hopes would go on to becoming a Ramadan tradition — the Date Frappuccino.It would seem like a real blunder, maybe even cultural insensitivity, for Starbucks to market a new food product just for the month of Ramadan — the month Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. But Starbucks executives seem to think, this caffeinated version of “think globally, act locally” strikes the right marketing balance.Starbucks, now with 200 stores in the Middle East (mostly in the oil-rich Gulf countries) has operated in the region, since 1999, with the help of a trading partnership from the region. We have to wait and see if this new move works for Starbucks.

Not having appropriate cross cultural awareness can lead to disastraous consequences for companies. It might result not only in poor penetration and low sales but also a lot of damage to the company’s reputation and goodwill. It is crucial for today’s business personnel to understand the impact of cross cultural differences on business, trade and internal company organisation. The success or failure of a company, venture, merger or acquisition is essentially in the hands of people. If people are not cross culturally aware then misunderstandings, offence and a break down in communication can occur.
The need for greater cross cultural awareness is heightened in our global economies. Cross cultural differences in matters such as language, etiquette, non verbal communication, norms and values can, do and will lead to cross cultural blunders.

We can illustrate this with a few examples. In 2002, UMBRO, the UK sports manufacturer, had to withdraw its new trainers (sneakers) called Zyklon. The firm received complaints from many organisations and individuals, as it was the name of the gas used by the Nazi regime to murder millions of Jews in concentration camps.
In 1985, Bechtel pulled out of a joint venture in New Guinea. It seemed flawed from the beginning. Bechtel had 33 months to build a new plant, organise services and meet a production deadline or face financial penalties. They planned to place a mine, at the top of a mountain, in an isolated rain forest, creating a town of 2,500, camps for 400, a power plant, an air strip, roads, hospitals and support services (for natives who had never seen a Westerner). The natives, who were recruited to work (while receiving 400 inches of rain during the rainy season), had no concept of private property, modern money, central government or work regulations. The multicultural workforce of 5,000 comprised mixed indigenous people and imported technicians from the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Korea, and Philippines. The road builders did not believe in working round the clock (the contractor finally went bankrupt). Natives also did not like the work schedule, so they went with bows and arrows to shut down telephone lines, roads and frighten personnel. There was an 85% turnover in the native workforce. It is a classic example, where the company was not able to manage and understand diverse working groups and behavioural patterns of the different socio-cultural people.

Another example of lack of etiquette awareness is that of Proctor & Gamble. They used a television commercial in Japan that was previously popular in Europe. The ad showed a woman bathing, her husband entering the bathroom and caressing her. The Japanese considered this ad an invasion of privacy, inappropriate behaviour and in very poor taste.
A nice cross cultural example of the fact that all pictures or symbols are not interpreted in the same way across the world. Staff at the African port of Stevadores saw the “internationally recognised” symbol for “fragile” (i.e. a broken wine glass) and presumed it was a box of broken glass. Rather than waste space they threw all the boxes into the sea!

American Motors tried to market its new car, the Matador, based on the image of courage and strength. However, in Puerto Rico the name means “killer” and was not popular on the hazardous roads in the country. Some genius, at the Swedish furniture giant, IKEA, somehow came up with the name “FARTFULL”, for one of its new desks. As you can imagine, sales did not exactly hit the roof! Pepsodent tried to sell its toothpaste in Southeast Asia by emphasising that it “whitens your teeth.” They found out that the local natives chew betel nuts to blacken their teeth, which they find attractive. Thus a keen understanding of the people, in their social and cultural context, is essential before delivering value through business.

The traditional and obsolete approaches in understanding diverse cultures have to end. We need to have a paradigm shift in our customer orientation. Application of socio-cultural anthropology or ethnological studies to management will make us more culturally sensitive and help us in understanding the end consumers in a better way. In this era of “Glocalisation” where more and more people are integrating and boarding the bandwagon of standardisation, the players who will capitalise on the cultural, social and ethnic differences of the people and address their specific needs will stand apart. Multi-linguistic and multi-cultural people have needs that need to be dealt with differently. One has to play in their field to satisfy them and establish a customer value chain. The role of socio-cultural influences is not necessarily the foremost driving force behind customer purchases, but it is definitely a big part of their conscience and plays an eminent role in their buying decisions. Achieving a tandem between similar economies and buying habits is imperative, but understanding the dissimilarities is also of equal importance. One has to market the products, services, ideas and experiences in a way which will harness their underlying conscience and promote satisfaction-driven sales. This will establish a win-win situation for everyone involved.

 

Vodafone Communication

I am an avid fan of all the Vodafone Communication. And When I say “ALL “communication, I definitely mean so. I actually changed my service provider to avail the benefits of this super brand.
For lucidity of my expressive purpose I have divided the Vodafone Communication initiatives under different headings:
1.) Television Commercials
What can I say about them? They are so damn appealing. Each and every advertisement commercial is crafted to perfection. Right from conceptualization to its execution, they are just perfect. The music stands out and so do the adorable kids and not to forget the dahling pug. Even the placing of their ads across channels and time slots is so effective, They never seem out of place and always refreshing. Every ad that you see makes you feel that it is unbeatable and always you are proven wrong after seeing the next one. The core brand proposition “of always being there for you” is so well established. The full fledge ads to small insertions, the ads about daily alerts to the socially sensitive ads, all are masterpieces. Looking forward to some more endearing TVCs.
2.) Internet Communication
Their interesting virals with animated boy and girl which was a logical continuation from hutch is clearly remembered and gels with the core format which is different.
3.) Mobile Communication
There is nil interference as compared to other networks, which is a boon. Apart from timely vital information and bill related info, there is absolute peace. God Bless’em!
4.) Out Of Home Ads
The hoardings and bill boards are extension of the TVCs and retain the charm. Whats important are the locations which are selected for them. Away from the clutter and higher than the adjacent ads.
5.) Vodafone Bills/Leaflets/Handouts
I am actually maintaining all the bill envelopes since the time i have switched over to vodaphone. Apart from being very communicative and creative, they are damn interesting, out of box and pretty clear in the way they put the message across. Right from the rebranding exercise, to blocking unwanted calls, to caller tune feature, every word has been very represented through pictures. Leaflets and handouts which are low involvement means to communicate are also painstakingly splendid.
6.) Personal Communication
The back office guys who handle their customer care operations are doing a wonderful job. They are courteous, articulate, non-irritating and don’t bother you at wrong time. Also they are good at providing apt info at blitz krieg.
7.) Below the line Initiatives
Still some time to be at par with its international btl initiatives but definately at par with other industry players.
8.) Socially Relevant Communication
From sponsoring youth oriented events, shows and concerts to environmental campaigns, they are maintaining a strategic balance between the commercial and relevant communication