Religion, Sex & Branding

My professor once made a classic statement and it stuck in my mind.

“Almost any product can be sold if we involve Sex OR Religion OR both”

I happened to believe him. And Indian advertising reiterated that statement way too many times. Many brands in our country have stepped on this path and have been successful either [...]

Tu Tu Mein Mein of Detergent brands

The whole world has talked about it already. Yet another occassion, where I delayed in relaying my comments. Could find at least three significant pieces. Here, here and here. Here are my views:
Showing competition is always a relative issue. Unless there is a clear demarcation on why a product is better than another or issued in [...]

An interesting article by Mahesh Murthy of Pinstorm in WSJ

Just bumped into this article by Mahesh Murthy (through his twitter handle @maheshmurthy).
While the article highlights the importance of what I crudely call as ‘online PR’ with a mix of ‘online marketing’, I would tend to believe that examples like the iPad, Google Wave etc, is possible only for brands which have already been established overa  [...]

Facebook is the ‘buzziest’ brand of the year says Afaqs!

Here’s the story on FB being adjudged the buzziest brand of the year both by the jury and by people through a voting mechanism. Congrats FB. Vodafone and Twitter have followed FB as the buzziest brands. Well, this is a sea change from the last year’s list.
BTW, sorry Airtel

It pays to be quick!

It is a very important characteristic in Marketing to be quick when it comes to ‘time to market’. And more often than not, it is one of the most difficult pieces to fall in the jig-saw.
I witnessed the chopper flying over the (maxi)Mumbai city with a HUGE (I really mean it kind of huge) banner [...]

Lazy Marketing Worked! :)

I had in my last post chided a financial services organisation for exhibiting some lazy marketing. I have been made to eat my words!
I find the phrase ‘aall eeej welll’ across FB & Twitter and it seems to have clicked for them. Well, they seemed to have placed their bet on [...]

Lazy marketing – A new high

I have not been a great fan of celebrity endorsements. Some categories lend itself to having celebrities promoting the product. For instance beauty products. Honestly, I can’t figure out the difference between a Fair & Lovely, Neutrogena, Olay etc. I must either be blind or a man, and that I certainly am!
But here’s [...]

So, who actually said it …

“I know I waste half the money I spend on advertising. The problem is, I don’t know which half.”
attributed to department store pioneer John Wanamaker
attributed to Lord Lever Hume, the founder of Lever Bros
attributed to a ‘fellow named William Lever’ or is it ‘William Hesketh Lever’

World Brand Congress

Attending World Brand Congress being held at Taj Land’s End Bandra today and tomorrow. More about it by tomorrow evening. For live updates follow me at twitter. My handle is @nandaseth.
See you soon. Ciao!

Online Advertising 102?

My colleague on this blog Mr. Karthik Kumar had written about how current marketers ‘misuse’ online advertising and hence squander a fantastic opportunity to engage the customer.
I follow Mr. Anand Mahindra on Twitter (@anandmahindra), and I would like to share one of his tweets with you. Pardon me Mr. Mahindra for a minor ‘copyright violation’! [...]