The Marketers - Latest Comments

Re: Tapioca and the Tata Nano Lessons in using PR for Marketing

3bscit it — Tue, 07 May 2013 00:24:30 -0000

Nice article.

However being a IIMite, you should note that its is NOT "Volks Wagon" but "Volkswagen".

How could you be a student in an Institute of National Importance, yet overlook such an error? It's a blunder, so to speak. Proof read please.

Re: Marketique is back!

Sarth Rastogi — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 14:37:57 -0000

Can you please tell us a tentative date for when the results will be announced?

Re: Content Marketing – how to get your brand to talk more

Nandit Pathak — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 12:47:50 -0000

Prakshit,

Thank you for reading the article, and the appreciation.

In answer to question, firstly, I have not come across any academic work making clear the distinction between CM and advertising. CM is only receiving attention in recent times as a separate approach to communication. See, definitions evolve this way: someone does something that becomes very successful in practice, practitioners try to replicate it, after which academics gain interest and try to build robust academic definitions, models and frameworks. Hence, the difference in this case can only be qualitatively understood and not quantitatively verified.

That having been said, in my opinion, the Amul girl would not fall in the ambit of CM because of the following single most important characteristic that it has different from the CM approach: while it is an innovative and interesting form of communication, it is still primarily intrusive. Think billboards and newspaper ads, not comicbook sites and subscription magazines. Other characteristics like an intent to build thought leadership in the category (butter OR Indian society) doesn't really seem to be an objetive. Also, how much value does the ad have for the audience that is beyond brand communication?

The nature of the creative and the consistency in the artwork is similar to the ads of a lot of luxury brands. A very good example is Yves Saint Laurent. Since this brand has consistently used the same photographer for its print advertising, the unique style of photography and editing that was characteristic of the photographer is now characteristic of the brand. Is it consistent? Yes. Is the style per se communicating brand value? No (check out a brand analysis by Kapferer in Strategic Brand Management for the same). Is it CM? I don't think so.

Of course, good arguments can be made to oppose this opinion as well, but, in a nutshell, the content element is not significant enough here, in my opinion.

Re: Creatives in Advertising: Unearthing the Deepest

On A Good Length — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 06:06:04 -0000

Completely agree. Awesome point made.! Curiosity matters

Re: POP- The last mile for brands

On A Good Length — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 05:07:17 -0000

Very insightful read. Thank you for this. About vertical and horizontal layout, I believe all would prefer vertical display of similar products, but due to space constraint, they don't have much samples to display (talking of not-so-big organized stores). Agree?

Re: Creatives in Advertising: Unearthing the Deepest

Gaurav Bhandari — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 19:24:39 -0000

But there is an issue with ICICI kind of adverts. I am saying this after the following conversation with my family...
My parents and sister are among the millions of
daily soap viewers. They loved this advert with two cute little kids; even
the song, which is in some incomprehensible language, was on their
tongues.
But when I asked my family - "Kiska advt tha wo?" ... my sister went blank... after thinking for a few seconds (probably after analyzing the vedio in his mind) my dad said, "It must be of vodafone... they would be selling some new offer or sth free".... !!!!!... and my mom and sister agreed....!
May be we (advertisers and marketers community) do not look at advts from general viewer's perspective who might just enjoy the creativity in the advt, comfortably ignoring the the main part.
or because the icici advert did not generate any kind of curiosity in the end of it (like the jockey advts did)... icici delivered the whole story with ending.. and my parents enjoyed just that.

Re: Content Marketing – how to get your brand to talk more

Ayush Kapoor — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 09:07:38 -0000

Just stumbled on this one and what a fortunate accident. Its an amazing read! Keep up the good work :)

Re: Creatives in Advertising: Unearthing the Deepest

Aditya Rikhari — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 12:37:17 -0000

Thanks Chitransh!! Keep Reading :)

Re: Creatives in Advertising: Unearthing the Deepest

Chitransh Agnihotri — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 18:57:49 -0000

nice research work . . .novel way to targeting way to convey the message to the audience . . .

Re: Creatives in Advertising: Unearthing the Deepest

Aditya Rikhari — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 13:07:15 -0000

Thanks Manoj for reading... stay hooked for more marketing gyan on the marketers.

Re: Creatives in Advertising: Unearthing the Deepest

Manoj Lohiya — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:05:30 -0000

superb article. liked the last lines so much "the message should be clear .... to make a communication success" and i got the same thing here also. :)

Re: Content Marketing – how to get your brand to talk more

Pratikshit Pandey — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 07:35:31 -0000

Hi.. its an awesome read..clearly shows the effort you have put into it..recommended read surely.. Would you consider the Amul Girl/muppet as a manifestation of content marketing? Because that is one example you can inlcude..in the Indian context, there are hardly better examples..

Re: OMG! Marketing is Dead!

Sandhya Patil — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 16:56:13 -0000

I agree with you completely. These are the very emotions I felt as i read the article. I want to read articles on how this new social marketing/ viral marketing can be achieved. I think we have established it well that it is the need of the hour.

Re: Content Marketing – how to get your brand to talk more

Tushar Ranjan — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 16:41:27 -0000

Awesome article.. it'll be interesting to see how CM will evolve to keep pace with technology.. its fascinating how much goodwill a brand can generate using content, apart from the obvious advantage of being able to differentiate oneself from competition.. keep em coming fatack :)

Re: Online Media Marketing: Simply Complex!

Charu Smita — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 12:00:26 -0000

Great analysis, Manoj. While I agree that online marketing can get expensive for some players, but if strategized well, it has tremendous reach and benefits. Advertising for mother's day gifts when users are searching on mother's day, or browsing on related sites will work best than any boarding, tv ad which doesn't always respect the occasion. Yes, relevance is the best tool it offers! Also, the convenience for an advertiser to launch a last minute campaign or make side-by-side changes (add/remove discount/stock info) is only available on an online platform. With all the 'likes' and '+1s' buttons on the web, it gives users a social platform to discuss/advise each other. I'm tempted to borrow some space on marketeers to discuss this further, if possible ;)

Re: Online Media Marketing: Simply Complex!

Manoj Yadav — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 08:14:54 -0000

Hey Sushant
Good to hear from you.
The metrics part is straight from my internship experience. During my internship I realized that the online marketing economics could be a little tricky. The Adwords, social media marketing require huge investment (all the relevant key words would be priced at ridiculous prices). But when it comes to measuring the impact of the investment there is little consensus on which metrics should be used.
The objectives could be many like conversions, engagement, visibility, 360 degrees multi-screen experience. First of all it is difficult to establish the weights of these objectives in estimating your final impact. Secondly even if the weights are finalized, the metrics required to evaluate these components are again contentious. Hence anyhow it is difficult to arrive at a set of metrics to justify the ROI for evaluating your marketing efforts.

Manoj

Re: Online Media Marketing: Simply Complex!

Manoj Yadav — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 07:38:47 -0000

Hey Sushant
Good to hear from you. The metrics part is straight from my internship experience. I interned with an e-commerce company in my summers. I realized that the online media economics could be extremely complicated. First of all, one needs to be clear about what should be measured. Objectives for marketing online could be many: conversions, visibility, engagement etc. And when you try to calculate your ROI, it becomes difficult to weigh each of these objectives vis a vis the marketing expenditure.

In the last para I gave an example of Facebook. In most of the companies facebook page content generation is out sourced and the contract is usually on number of likes basis, but no one is really sure if the number of likes should be taken as a good measure. Over that there is no consensus on what is to be measured if not "No of likes". Hence to come up with a set of metrics which could evaluate the online media marketing expenditure is a little tricky.

Manoj

Re: Online Media Marketing: Simply Complex!

Sushant Harit — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 12:17:44 -0000

hi Manoj,

I was not able to completely understand the last para on the metrics. please throw some more light on it...

Thanks
Sushant

Re: SKU architecture in FMCG industry: SKUs as the tools of a brand manager

Anand — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 07:39:45 -0000

Good post

Re: NESCAFÉ – It's time you started

Kanishk Arya — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 01:25:40 -0000

True but Nescafe needs to ensure that Coffee doesn't become just an outdoor drink for many...

Re: SKU architecture in FMCG industry: SKUs as the tools of a brand manager

Adityari2013 — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 19:52:50 -0000

Thanks Animesh. We really value your appreciation and hope that you keep reading and discussing marketing with us. We always promise you Marketing Simplified :)

Re: SKU architecture in FMCG industry: SKUs as the tools of a brand manager

Adityari2013 — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 19:50:17 -0000

Paritosh - As any marketer would tell you that considering your consumer not smart is the last thing you would want to do. Consumers understand everything.
Of course the consumer will not compare each and every SKU on price, grammage etc on a modern trade aisle, but she has his measures while comparing SKUs across brands and even in a single brand. For example if a consumer is alone/out of home and the only SKU of Bourbon present in the shop is a 25 rs one. She will probably buy a similar product like Oreo (this happens in a variety seeking category) in a smaller package as she would not be able to eat the big Bourbon in one go and later on it will become soggy.
Consumers always appreciate value. Hope it answers your doubts.

Re: SKU architecture in FMCG industry: SKUs as the tools of a brand manager

Paritosh — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 14:15:42 -0000

Sir, very nice post. But I have a question?
When we talk of all this SKU architecture, we are talking of a smart consumer who is expected to weigh the pros and cons of a product while buying. In India, how many smart consumers are there? How many think of price/quantity and best fit size? Most of them, I believe, ask for a Bourborn and take whatever variant the shopkeeper offers. Right?

Re: Hum Mein Hai Hero!!!

Vini — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 13:02:59 -0000

@ Harish: Nice piece, but I feel you forget to mention one great point which would have added a new light to this topic. After the split of JV, Hero had to re-brand themselves any way. And if you look at the ad.. its not about any of the two wheelers.. only Hero and how it still reconnects to the spirit of India as it used to before the split.

Re: Jet Lite vs Jet Airways Konnect

Ajay — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 05:47:42 -0000

It is important that the customer knows while booking which flight he would end up travelling, Jet, Konnect or Jetlite, since the schedules only mention Jet. Further, one does not know the kind of aircraft one would board - boeing or ATR. The differentiation has to be transparent.