By this time everyone who had anything to say must have already said it. In this quick-fire world, people tweet their entire blog posts / thoughts as 140 characters. I didn’t participate much in such discussions, but I still have a few things to say. I think I should’ve been quicker, but hey! Better now than never! This is not someone’s wedding that I shall speak up in the stipulated time or hold my peace!

Yes, I am talking about the ToI Vs Hindu fight which is all over the place now!

First, a bit of history.

The Hindu has been having its own struggles for quite a while. Having handled the some brands from that stable (albeit briefly), I believe that they had way too many issues to fight against and TOI was not even in the radar then. Back then, people used to read Hindu publications to improve their English. Many a south Indian has been able to manage cracking CAT and other related exams by reading Hindu editorials apart from their other reading material. Hindu held the pride of place there. Over time, with the advent of technology, the human laziness crept in somewhere. Hindu was at one point filled with spelling errors, grammatical blunders and what not! But the paper still had some integrity left in it. Although at some point it became a bit of anti-establishment, some point it became a Congress stooge. At least, that was the impression that I was left with. With the brand pretty close to my heart, I did feel a bit odd when my own intellect questioned a lot of stuff from The Hindu press.

Things got worse with the family linen being washed in public. Between N Ram, Malini Parthasarathy & the entire editorial board there was a huge family problem which was very publicly fought. The worst part was the open letters by the members of the board which got published in all rival newspapers. Open letters got a new meaning altogether!

Editorial instability, lack of direction, family feud dogged The Hindu. No amount of fresh ‘layout’ changes could help. After all, the content started taking a beating. The Hindu is a serious newspaper and is supposed to remain so. That was its strength. And that was a strength which was losing its power with all the hullaballoo around the senior management & family.

But The Hindu is a tradition. Coffee & this newspaper is a must combination for all locations where the paper was available and given a choice, I would go back to it even today. Sadly, The Hindu doesn’t publish in Mumbai. And even if it did, would it have the same charm? I don’t have the answer.

Enter TOI.

TOI is not a serious newspaper. At least in my mind! It is a frivolous, bordering on yellow journalism kind of a publication. Front page news yesterday was ‘Bus Driver mowing down people’ replete with pictures. The paper thrives on scams, death & bollywood.

While it is true that Scams are important to be highlighted, deaths to be announced & Bollywood to be covered, the publication lacks the editorial strength. The Op-ed pieces there are good, but somewhere the line of seriousness is always crossed. Breaking News is key!

Can it be blamed? Chicken & egg story. They will claim that they provide what is read by the man on the road. If Bollywood claims it, we can pardon it. But a newspaper cannot do that. My opinion of course!

And when TOI entered the Madras market, they tried to change the culture. Page 3 happened. I never knew till TOI & DC entered the Madras market that such low neckline, short skirt, LBD toting PYTs roam around the streets of Chennai till these papers started publishing pictures of them in big sizes!

I read somewhere that you can win over a country not by wars, but by infiltrating (read polluting) their culture. TOI & DC did exactly that in my opinion. Hindu’s page 3 was about the city. I think it still is. The page 3 used to cover information about the city, changes happening, things of value and things that matter. Boring shit it was. TOI and DC made it glamorous. Partly visible bosoms, neatly waxed legs, funky jewelery! Whoa! Tamilians buy gold jewelery. Seriously! Oxidised Silver was made fashion by these papers! There obviously was a clash of sensibilities.

Hindu still sells largest in TN. South Indians are boring people. They believe in smaller scams which are not of national interest. Worried more about Mullaiperiyar than Chikni Chameli and Hrithik Roshan’s shaved chest (Do South Indian men shave their bodies?). And more worried about their exams (or their ward’s exams) than the name of Beti B.

TOI called it boring. TOI called it yawn worthy. TOI called it sleepy! And how!

HINDU responded

Sleeping Lion woke up. After nearly 2 months. War footing for Hindu is 2 months of time! They didn’t do it quickly. They made TOI spend all their money and then came up with this campaign.

Now folks here are my two cents.

a.       TOI & DC cater to a different market. Not the serious ‘news’ reader. They believe in volumes and started a price war by selling a year’s subscription for 99 bucks. Everyone bought it because one month’s newspaper at the raddhiwala will fetch Rs.8/9 per kilo. Good investment. Their news was also of that kind. With a pinch of salt, the average householder let the paper enter his household. Period.

b.      Hindu didn’t reduce the rates. Held on and still holding on. Of course, they need to really whip up their editorial team and screw the s&*% out of them to get a good newspaper going. But they cater to serious newsreaders. Hindu WAS the opinion maker in the south. They need to get that position back if they need to be in serious business.

c.       The campaign from both is frivolous. TOI poked fun at a serious newspaper calling it boring. Hindu responded with a ‘screw you’ kind of campaign by calling TOI what they are… frivolous. Tit for tat! As an aside TOI’s launch campaign was also frivolous. Day in life of Chennai was replete with films, fist fights, water fights and a folk song based on a film song. JWT (and Senthil) won awards and accolades, but little did they realize that they were setting the tone albeit unconsciously for the future. And this was just one of those occasions when the big brother of Chennai publishing industry tapped on the head and said ‘shut up’.

d.      You can’t change TOI. The Hindu should not change from its ‘old’. The last few years are but a blip in a tradition which The Hindu should remember and hold on to. Else the brand will face a slow but eventual death.

e.      Fond hope that the new CEO Arun Anant would bring in some change. He has a huge challenge in hand. Feuding family, bad ‘recent’ history, outgoing strongman, new editorial board being called ‘inexperienced’ very publicly by family members. Feces has already hit the roof. Clean-up is not going to be easy. I sincerely hope he is given a free hand to take things to a logical direction.

Just a couple of points about the TOI Vs Hindu campaigns

1.       TOI took a bold step. To call seriousness a.k.a boring the way they did. Very cheeky. Appreciable campaign and ran it for quite a while in the TN markets. Good media usage and viral potential which was also exploited well.

2.       However, biased as it may sound, I liked the Hindu campaign very well. To hit where it hurts most. The readers. The Hindu campaign did show some steel by calling the bluff on the reader rather than on the newspaper. To call them ‘dumb’ requires a lot of guts. To say ‘Read the other newspapers and you will also become dumb’ is not an easy task.

I remember seeing home videos of American idiots who didn’t know the difference between Iran or Pakistan, Sikhs or Muslims, couldn’t point Washington in their own map, but wanted to bomb Iran because they have WMD. Because Bush said so!

The Hindu campaign is a great take-off from there and I guess puts the message across not so softly or subtly!

After all, all is fair in love and war. There obviously is no love here

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I have also worked on some brands from ‘The Hindu’ family briefly during my stint at Ammirati Puris Lintas. The brand and the group have been very close to my heart.

Unfortunately, the group is facing a very slow cancerous death. I can see it! The editorial in the mainline daily is not as it used to be. And the change has unfortunately been to the worst. While many used to refer to the Hindu as a boring newspaper, there were also anecdotes doing the rounds back then about how the publication was a stickler for correctness of information before it gets printed. People used to joke that if you are pronounced dead on ‘The Hindu’ then you are actually dead. Else there is at least a fighting chance.

There are two other papers (worth this blog mention) apart from The Indian Express, in what used to be citadel of The Hindu. ToI & Deccan Chronicle. They have cornered a fair bit of space by doing one or more of the following:

• Yearly subscription for Rs.99/- (Beat that! We would buy that paper purely for waste paper purposes) That makes your entry absolutely easy and you are the second paper at least for Raddhiwala / Pazhaya paper purposes. (Pardon my inclusion of vernacular terms, but it gives the authenticity to the point that I was trying to make).
• Making Madras sound like Bombay by introducing a Page 3 culture. Generation X, Y, Z, ZA and whatever thrives on gossip. They are more likely to pick the ‘second paper’ for the juice in the morning than the ‘Oh! So boring national news where some minister has surreptitiously consumed 800 Crores of taxpayer’s money’. I am not saying that they are irresponsible. Without them Anna Hazare would still be a village headman rather than a national icon. However, this generation is not the kind which would prioritize something like national interest over Trisha or Sneha (or are they passé? I think it should be Tamannah / Tapsi?). Maybe I am wrong, but that’s the feeling I am left with.
• Editorial content based on ‘flavour of the day’. Scoop. It doesn’t matter if the printed word is true, partially true, pinch of truth or a complete figment of some journalist’s imagination. There is a requirement for trial by media in our corrupt society, but some of them take it way too far.

And The Hindu has not been any less in helping their competition. The group today is suffering from many types of malignant cancer.

• Their family feud has been one of the worst cases of dirty linen being washed in public. There are people from the family with a clear divide who have spoken to other media houses about their family fights and it has in one way become a national exhibition.
• Blind in terms of polarity. The publication has not been a neutral entity for quite a while. There was a time when the publication was known for its anti establishment stand. Today they are almost seen like a Congress DMK combine newspaper. Much of the 2G scam was soft pedaled in The Hindu, which I believe was a disaster in waiting.
• Not moving with the Times (certainly not a pun). Their editorial IS (let’s face it) boring. Their writing style doesn’t make good reading for today’s audiences. The publication gives a feeling of talking from a pedestal still which leaves much to desire. No wonder TOI is taking a huge dig at The Hindu. Watch the TVC here. A boringly long 65 seconder echoing the boring newspaper.

• And what did The Hindu come up to promote itself? This?

Too bad, they thought that South was their bastion forever. They bloody well have to do better than this! They never had felt the need to advertise for a long time. But today, when they have to, they didn’t know what the brand stands for. Solution: Throw a few adjectives, show a few Tams (and TamBrahms) doing their daily morning chores and voila! We have the Hindu Ad. Shame!

For old times’ sake, I hope these guys come up with something to end their feud and focus on the brand which Mr. Kasturi Iyengar started around the same time as Coke. Not the same genre but similar legacy!

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For instance, one of the biggest competitors of Indian Railways was ‘low cost airlines’. People who can afford to travel second or third A/C would rather spend a thousand Rupees more and fly to their destination. For the simple reason that they would end up saving a lot of travel time; this can be used for business or recreation as the case may be. Simple concept!

I have also heard of another concept propounded by Coke – especially in developing markets like India & China. They called it ‘Share of throat’. They realized pretty early that their biggest competition was not Pepsi in these markets but other natural, home-grown remedies to thirst – like tender coconut, buttermilk etc. Their biggest job was to convert these consumers to coke. I believe that was one of the key reasons for a Rs.5/- SKU, which was not common in most developed markets.

Coming back to the inspiration for this article – radio spots that I heard over the last few days & recent TVCs that I’ve seen.

Diwali Season has begun and every brand is roaring its heart out to reach for the customer’s pocket. And these are times when one brand understands who their real competitor is.

A few examples:

Cadbury’s Celebrations. Click here to listen to the spot.

Simple concept. Khushiyaan Baato. Share the happiness. Don’t think about meeting your old friend / boss / neighbor or whoever. Just go and meet them. Make them happy and you shall find happiness.

Pretty much straight forward. I will mind my own business kind of a spot, which is in line with its campaign in other media including TV.

Here’s the next one: World Gold Council. Click here to listen to the spot.

You can figure out who their competitor is! The electronic goods industry! Whoa! WGC actually thinks that Samsung, LG, Onida, Apple and other electronic goods manufacturers as competition. They’ve taken them head on to let us know how quickly these goods depreciate in value and how Gold can appreciate! Good idea. I will corner that corner of the pocket which was meant for the LED TV that the consumer felt the need for at his home!

And here’s the next. Morphy Richards.

I would have ideally liked to feature Croma’s Radio spot which believes a Gym Membership is competition, but couldn’t find it. But here’s the Morphy Richards TVC:

It looks like marketers have woken up to the concept of ‘Share of Wallet’ and are trying to poach from every other corner to get a bit of action for themselves! Competition is not within your category anymore. It has spread far and wide. What else can explain Gold fighting with Appliances fighting with Chinaware & Gym Memberships?

Marketers of today are fighting varied challenges.

• Competition is not just from within the category.
• Inflation & broader economy is making the size of the wallet smaller.
• Pricing has become a decision point with the consumer being spoilt with choice. More effort required by Marketing & Sales to get the same amount of revenues.
• Brand loyalty is almost a thing of past. Samsung is the new Sony. Korea is the new Japan.

Two eyes are just not enough. Look around. See the patterns and if you can’t see that almost invisible spear travelling at high speeds coming towards you, you may well be dead!

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Pretty recently a campaign broke out in National Media for Union Bank of India. It was pretty visible at least to me. I saw the ad on TV, hoardings on my way & back every day! A fairly large PSU Bank has again embarked on a mission to remind the customers about the brand after I think 3 years.

The campaign features Aruna Vishy, Ajit Tendulkar & Manoj Singh. Celebrities. NOT.

India and Indian family system is much interconnected. We are more social that the average social animal of the west. Family values are based on strong bondage and interdependence is very high within the members of the family.

Unlike the west, it is almost impossible to live alone and manage your life with the kind of facilities that are (or are not) available and one tends to depend on their immediate family a lot more than most other countries. Kids are under the aegis of their parents even till 24-25, while the average ‘walking out’ age in the west is 18 (or less)?

Beautiful insight. Transalated into communication by Union Bank of India.

The campaign features some unlikely heroes in their own way. Vishwanathan Anand’s wife, Sachin Tendulkar’s brother, and Vijender Singh’s brother, who are publicly known to be the pillars of support for the well known gods of their respective sporting discipline.

However, they were not in public eye till date.

Reems of paper and documentation have been made about Ajit Tendulkar. Sachin never forgets to mention his brother every time there is an accolade that is showered on him. But never has he been considered a celebrity. Till one views this campaign, chances are that they wouldn’t have seen Manoj Singh (Vijender’s brother). While Aruna has been in public eye before, I don’t remember her endorsing any brand.

Brilliant idea. It seems to fit with the brand’s communication well too. As a bank they claim to share your dream. Moot point being that one’s dream is never one’s alone! At least in the Indian context. This I believe is a fantastic premise for a brand to take. Especially one in the financial services space and that too – a large PSU Bank. Brings in the consumer closer to the brand in more than one way.

Using celebrity spouses or family members seems to be picking up in India. I remember Viru’s mom, now Aruna, Ajit & Manoj and Indian Cricket’s first lady Sakshi Dhoni. Snooky but viable idea. Make celebrities out of celebrity family members and get them cheap (at least relatively). I also believe that Abhishek (Aishwarya’s husband) is endorsing a few brands right? (Ha! My sarcastic self has to peep up someplace!)

However, I believe that the execution has its own minor glitches. The TVC is way too breezy and doesn’t get to the point. In the pretext of making it very classy, the point about driving home the key message is almost lost because the TVC is not crisp. Clearly the story could’ve been told in a 30 or 20 seconder rather than a 40. It almost sounds like the creative vs client argument. Client wants the story told shorter and the creative wants that extra 10 seconds. Things haven’t changed much in the last 5 years at least on this front

In all, I believe it is a great insight in the Indian context, but a not so great execution.

Must admit however that the advertising from PSU entities lately have been creative & catchy. That however has to be a separate discussion by itself!

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Recently, a prominent tweeter from Bombay tweeted about such ads being played during prime time (dinner time) on TV. It seems that the sleaze makers in this case had gone overboard and made it difficult for her to have a quiet dinner with her kids in front of TV.

Think of this. You watch TV with your children and this ad plays on TV.

And the resultant questions from the kids may not be a palatable discussion that follows.

Sex education is very unlike the Americas. We have human anatomy discussed in Standard VIII (unless it has changed recently). And schools are not strictly co-education yet. We don’t teach them what it means to reproduce (which partly explains our population burst). And the responsibility is completely vested with parents and is never approached as education. There is no formal, common system of making a child understand this. And we expose them to this:

Amrutanjan Roll-On balm ad by soumyadipc

One has virtually given up on the ‘Deo’ category where the only way to sell is by showing women running behind men in a very pied-piper-ish fashion. AXE started it and we have other brands doing the same. Many industry colleagues have different views about it. But Amrutanjan? Guys, I loved your last campaign based on ‘Funny videos’ where people fall during unexpected moments and ‘Be Ready’ was a fantastic tagline. A proposition to die for. You lose that for this? Mr. Shambu Prasad – I wish we were in touch after our DAV days. I have a few things to talk to you about the iconic brand that your forefathers created!

And Parachute! Whoa! Another iconic brand, which sold a commodity available at the nearest kirana store, branded it and virtually replaced the coconut oil tin cans with brilliant packaging (including the Re.1/- bubble pack available in pan shops) has gotten sleazy with their new product.

Well, there is a difference. The Amrutanjan TVC looks like it has been made like a B grade Boolywood film, while the Parachute TVC has obviously been given a ‘classy touch’. Almost soft porn-ish. Another great comparison would be Gramathu Virundhu by Paravai Muniyamma as against Nigella Lawson cooking up those delicious pastries and digging her chocolate stained dental combination into the awesomely soft lit cake with oodles of flowing chocolate. But hey! Porn is porn is porn.

And all this talk about sensuality is a vague attempt in evading the obvious. Impulse woman was sensuous. Singapore girl was sensuous. Liril girl was sensuous (and certainly bold), but I believe that we have somewhere crossed the thin line between ‘being sensual’ and ‘outright sleaze’.

I am no authority (yet), but I think AAAI can probably look at this seriously. I might be barely scratching the surface, but some ideas (or at least discussion starters) could be:

• A common ‘story board approval’ body by AAAI like the censor board. This can be debated till cows come home, but at least a starting point.
• A common forum where viewers can register their complaints for such campaigns to be quarantined to some restricted channels and not be allowed to be aired in GECs, news channels, kids channels etc.

Also, creative guys. Please get creative. It was fun when AXE did it. It is not when Wild Stone, Adiction and a whole host of others do the same. We also call it plagiarism. J

And marketers – Dudes! Seriously, you buy this S&*% from the creative agencies and put money behind it on media? I think it is just a lazy idea! A better brief to start with can be a good point to begin with.

I respect a condom company for coming up with this:

They are talking sex. But they are talking sensuality. Ain’t it? And I am bloody sure they sell well!

Q.E.D

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It is true that many times the best sample size for a market research activity is ‘1’, but can we really do that when we choose media? Here’s a small example: Data says (at least if we still can trust RAM) that Radio One is the leading FM Channel in Bombay (yes, I refuse to call this city Mumbai. If you don’t like it, watch Russel Peters for the reason). However, the CEO prefers Malishka of Red FM over “Who’s that unknown RJ in 91.1 FM, which claims to be no.1? It is very Indianly common to have hoardings from the Airport to Office (even if it is just for a few days) for the ‘senior management’ to see & feel happy about during branch visits. It surely keeps the bosses happy!

That apart, it always is a good idea to take a hard look at one’s own media habits. It may just help plan better the next time you write the brief for the campaign plan.

That’s what I am planning to do now. How do I consume media? What do I watch? What do I do? Maybe some planner may get some idea from what I do (unconsciously). My routine can (hopefully) be the trigger for dropping that self-proclaimed omnipresent media vehicle! Here goes:

My demographics:

Age: 37

City: Mumbai

Occupation: Marketing head for a Financial Services Firm

SEC: I don’t believe in this classification. But am earning well.

MHI: ahem! See earlier point!

So what do I do everyday?

• 6.00 am to 7.30 am: The first media that I consume is Vijay TV. Judge me if you must, but Vijay TV in the mornings broadcasts spiritual stuff and it helps keep my mind clear of all the nonsense like corruption, accidents, murders, scandals and other such ‘outrage inducing’ news. So Vijay TV it is!
• 7.30 am: Yes. I do read ToI. But I just browse. I don’t find their editorial engaging enough. Not for me at least. Also, owing to business considerations, their news is filled with negativity. Read point 1 for what I would like to avoid and TOI is filled with it anyway. Lately, even the sports coverage has scandals as the pivot. But yes, I browse through that paper for just being abreast.
• 7.30 am: My modified Nook Color which is now an Android Tablet. I access NDTV app, Economist, Huffington post, NYT for a bit of world coverage. I prefer to read the politics and broader economy items rather than most other categories. Sports comes in too.
• Economic Times: Being in Financial Services, it is imperative for me to read this paper. Thought the colour is mildly yellow, this pink paper is a must read for me to ‘be in the know’. Also, this is the largest circulated / read (both are different) newspaper and I handle retail. QED.
• The Mint: For me, this is intelligent reading. This newspaper is actually where there is limited or no jargon and complex financial events can be understood, albeit with a little effort. Must read
• Google News: A site that is ‘almost permanently’ open on my computer to get my dose of news. I read through articles of varied topics through Google News and it’s constantly updating feeds
• LinkedIn: Provides me with business updates through links posted, people with whom I am connected and business related news.
• Twitter through the day: In intermittent spells, I tweet and read tweets. I follow some news junkies, stand up comedians, advertising, PR & digital media folks, and some politicians too. Most times, twitter is my first source of breaking news. In that same vein, Facebook is almost relegated to a weekly once kind of activity or ‘only when there’s time’.
• I also frequently visit Quora, Mashable & Rediff (not necessarily in that order) for reading about anything under the sun.
• Infrequently, I also read blog posts when someone tweets their links. Not much time.
• My evenings are typically spent with Raymond / AFV, followed by MasterChef Australia. Food is the new porn (as my wife called it) and Masterchef is the epicenter of it all for me! Despite knowing the result, one is always drawn to the edge of the seat with this programme. I try my best not to miss it. Also, I toggle sometimes with Super Singer on Vijay TV. Those singers are by no stretch of imagination ‘amateurs’. Continuing with porn takes the logical next step to Nigella Lawson. I may never eat a morsel of what gets cooked in Masterchef or Nigella’s show, but I seem to be relishing it with glee!
• Back to Nook Color, news & other apps before I crash.
• I drive to work & back. Outdoor is dangerous for me to keep track of! But hey! This is Bombay and traffic is always ‘almost still’. So I do watch out for the billboards too! I am generally a safe but distracted driver! J

I have conveniently and consciously left my personal life out of this!

So, does that make a generalization? Not at all. It is how I seem to be sharing my time with the various media vehicles that I consume / come across.

If this helps anyone while making a media plan, ping me.

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• How aggressive, in your opinion, have both the brands been, in marketing their various chocolate variants?

If I have to consider all facets of marketing (not just communications), I believe that Cadbury’s has been relatively more aggressive. In my opinion, their distribution strengths far exceed that of Nestle. Also, regular promotion strategy for new products and festive seasons are highly catchy as compared to the Nestle stable. The focus shown by Cadbury’s in having different SKUs in the chocolates segment is again superior. You will always find something at every price point by Cadbury’s and I think it starts at Rs.2/-

• Though Cadbury Dairy Milk(CDM) occupies a major share of the entire market, one doesn’t see advertisements of variants like Fruit & Nuts, Crackles or Wowie. Do you think that affects the consumer mindset in anyway?

Not necessary to advertise the other variants. The strategy could be to get the consumer to ‘ask’ for a particular (maybe the cheapest) variant in your stable. Since Chocolates are ‘low-involvement’ & ‘high-impulse buying’ products, they would almost always be ready to pay that Rs.10 or Rs.20 extra to go for the other variants. Especially Wowie, which I have never seen advertisements of. But consider this scenario when a family is walking through the aisles of a super market looking at CDM & the kid spots Wowie. The consequences will be far higher than the parents can imagine if the kid doesn’t get it! J

I always go to a store with the determination to not buy chocolates, but end up buying a crackle or Fruit & Nuts. Not as much of CDM though it is evergreen!

• What are your thoughts on Nestle Kit Kat’s squirrel commercial? Do you think Nestle’s recent marketing campaigns have been able to oust the impact of Cadbury in the crunchy chocolate category? ( Cadbury: Perk, 5 Star Crunchy. Nestle: Kitkat, Munch)

The Squirrel commercial was heart warming. No doubt about that. The insight, the creative & the execution were to perfection. But the campaign could not survive the onslaught of Cadbury’s muscle of being present all around the Nestle communication, distribution and the variants at every price point. Though Kit Kat is a lovely product, I think they must do something far reaching like the Jesus in Kit Kat (Dutch viral) to outdo the effects of Cadbury’s. The products from the Nestle stable are as good or better, but should have more muscle or that ‘one great idea’ to outdo Cadbury’s.

• Nestle launched fresh campaign for Bar One late last year. Would you consider it a wise move considering their product faced competition from both CDM, and 5 star?

It is a variant in a similar price point. I think it was a good move by Nestle to launch the Bar One chocolate as against the 5 star. Bar One has again been in the market for way too long, but has almost been forgotten. Also, the issue with Nestle is that there is no over arching brand identity as compared to Cadbury’s. People will always remember 5 star as a Cadbury product, but not many realize that Bar One is a Nestle product. Their chocolate category communication requires rethinking.

• Despite not much competition in the Milk chocolate category, we hardly see any marketing activity for Nestle Milkybar? What does that say about consumer demand for the category?

In my opinion Milkybar is a smaller niche as compared to the dark chocolate market. This is a very acquired taste and is very evolved in many other markets. India is still a dark chocolate market and would take a long while before there will be activities in this space.

• In general, which are the best marketing initiatives of each of the brands that you like the most?

Cadbury’s – 1^st of the month campaign & festival campaigns are great. Their latest ‘Khane ke baad kuch meeta ho jaye’ is not exactly as great as their ‘sweet uthao, majaa lo’ campaign. However, their support to these campaigns are just inspiring.

Nestle – I believe that their Kit Kat Squirrel campaign was very heart warming. Also, their old campaigns still ring in my head!

• With CDM Silk getting popular in the market, do you think it would make the cut to the premium chocolate category( imported chocolates)? Or we are still far from that?

Not exactly. ‘Chocolates’ is a not a requirement market. It is not a necessity. Hence the urge to try the new one will always be there. One can expect slightly lesser levels of loyalty in the consumer as against to most other ‘foods’ category. So we are far from creating great / successful barriers for say a Ferroro, bounty, Mars or Snickers. They will find their own space in the average chocolate eater’s stomach!

• Any last words on how do you perceive the market for chocolates growing as an observant of consumer behaviour.

As a rank outsider, I believe that the chocolates market has grown leaps and bounds with (not in any particular order):

• Frequent abroad travels by many
• Availability of different SKUs at every price point
• Easy availability
• Distribution in-roads (you can now find chocolates at local chaaiwala shops too)
• Variants to address the different palettes

It will continue to grow as long as the consumerism that the Indian markets have witnessed since 1991 continues and probably far longer than that.

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Classic conundrum! But fun topic.

The panelists were:

• Mr. Ravi Banka – CMD – Eggfirst Advertising and Design Pvt Ltd
• Mr. Raghu Bhat – Founder Director – Scarecrow Communications Ltd
• Ms. Mansi Trivedi – Associate Planning Director – Saatchi & Saatchi India
• Mr. Rizwan Khatri – Founder Consultant – Arkay’s Media Solutions
• Mr. Shashi Sinha – VP – Sales & Marketing – Laqshya Media
• Mr. Mukesh Anand – Principal Consultant – RK Swamy BBDO
• Mr. P K Anil Kumar – Senior Creative Director – McCann Erickson
• Yours Truly

The moderator was Mr. Prasen Agali – VP – Golbal Business Development – Greaves Cotton

I spent almost a week debating within myself if I have to go with the flow or instigate a debate. I guess being in front of students, it is better to start a discussion than be diplomatic or ‘correct’. So I finally decided to get a bit theoretical and stick to the topic in spirit. I made a PPT not because I believe in it, but because it helps me organize my thoughts rather than anything else.

Must admit that I fell in love with the campus. Awesome. Period.

The event started well with regular pleasantries, bouquets et al. Prof. Ashok K. Pundir (Associate Dean) and Prof. B M Ghodeswar (Prof. God as named by Mansi Trivedi) had kind words for the panel, the students and the institute.

Instead of getting to specifics on who spoke what, I would just like to share a few snippets from the event. It may not be exactly possible to share who said what since I wasn’t exactly taking notes, but was focusing on listening and sharing. Wherever possible, I have shared the names too.

• Raymond’s case study – A very lucid presentation on how strategy and creative worked together to re-create the magic that was the brand in a fairly crowded market and with awesome competition like Vimal, Reid & Taylor etc. Mukesh Anand also entertained the crowd by playing all the TV commercials to loud applause!
• Ravi had varied examples predominantly in the print & outdoor space on how creativity and strategy go hand-in-hand in making winning communication pieces
• Rizwan’s presentation argued that creative is more important especially when it comes to special situations (like in categories where the product is short lived). His examples on movies taking the highly creative platform to generate a fan base albeit for a short time, was very entertaining.
• Anil shared his thoughts extempore. I am pretty sure that his thought on comparing creatives with short skirts went well with the students. There was an uproar of laughter amongst the audience!
• Shashi Sinha was also extempore. An awesome speaker. His speaking style was fast enough to make it interesting, but slow enough for the students to comprehend, enjoy & savour each word. Lots to learn from the way he spoke. To have thoughts so organized in his mind to speak extempore this way is a great talent. He argued that creativity is the most important piece since the intended message would not reach if it is not creatively said.
• I had my presentation (which will be shared through slideshare shortly) arguing that it is the strategy which needs to be put in place first and the main point of argument was ‘Great Advertising is more important than Great Advertisement’.
• Very unfortunate that Mansi & Raghu couldn’t share their presentations owing to lack of time. But they made up well during the discussion!
• Raghu’s first visiting card (with the address being Coffee Day, Dadar / Barista, Shivaji Park) is etched in my mind forever. I hope I get the balls (pardon the language / slang) someday to take a plunge like that!
• Raghu quoting his experiences with clients on creative thoughts backed by strategy would certainly be a great learning experience for the kids
• Mansi’s original thinking is commendable. When the discussion veered towards Digital marketing, she summed up with the thought that every individual working on the brand 9including servicing, media, admin etc) must be aware of the digital platform and the campaign for it to be successful.
• The question hour (?) had impressive challenges. One question was about conflicts between strategy (planning) & creative. While Rizwan argued about the maturity with which agency professionals handle it, Mansi & I felt that a conflict is necessary for improvements and great ideas to flow.
• Another question was on NITIE’s brand building efforts. We all were of the view that NITIE is famous enough that all seats are filled and the students get placed before day 3 of placements. Also, every touch point of the alumni is a brand moment of truth. Mansi argued that they need to focus on how they need to harness thought leadership to create a sustained brand for NITIE.

In all, a very enjoyable session. Would love to interact more with the students. It keeps us close to academia, fresh thoughts from students and helps us be on our toes always. Maybe one of these students might rise like fire in the Marketing and advertising world. Arms wide open. Welcome my friends!!!

Thanks are in order to Prof. Ashok K Pundir, Associate Dean (Placement), Prof B M Ghodeswar, Dean Academics, Vijay Baweja & Shruti Sharma who coordinated with me and the many other students whose names are not mentioned here.

Thanks to Mr. Prasen Agali for moderating the panel. Some great questions which initiated further discussions and arguments and hence the learning!

Thanks to all the fellow panelists. Fun engaging with each one of you!

Update: Have added the presentation in slideshare. You can download it from here.

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