This is a very difficult goal to achieve, because to see God formlessly is not a simple task. So Shankara Bhagavadpada, in his wisdom promoted the concept of giving God a form before worshipping. Dwaitham as it was called was meant to make the path to God simple. When the human mind cannot concentrate on a formless God, make it concentrate on a form like us would make meditation simpler.

It is strange and almost supernatural that Shankara has put forward a great branding concept too.

Dwaitham in the branding world is common and many times very helpful in making the essential connect with the consumer.

One of the first examples of Dwaitham in branding that I learnt about was Gattu. The mascot for Asian Paints. I can still remember the character created by R K Laxman though Gattu has ‘retired’. Naughty, colourful and ever ready to take on the challenge of painting a house, Gattu resonated a vibrancy that no other paint brand of that time. The brand still stands for all that, but doesn’t carry Gattu anymore.

The Maharaja of Air India is another character that has now been retired but can never be forgotten. Curiously, the character was created to be used in notepads by Mr. Umesh Rao of JWT, but became the official mascot of the brand.

Nipper of HMV, Bibendum of Michellin, Tux of Linux, Ronald McDonald of McDonalds, Fido-Dido of 7-Up and the Onida Devil are all characters that have brought the brand live in front of our eyes. While many points of view float around about the longevity of these characters, to me they would live forever.

A few examples. Fido-Dido was once retired about 10-12 years ago. I remember from my school days, this cute little line drawing character jumping out of the notepad and gulping down 7-Up like a cool dude would! But unfortunately, they retired him once and the brand was almost lost in the mélange of aerated drinks markets that we live in. After a hiatus of about 10 years, Fido re-appeared. And the brand was visible again. People started remembering the brand and the sales numbers reflected it. However, the brand managers confused it by featuring Mallika Sherawat, whose value systems does not match with the ‘cool dude’ attitude of 7-Up. Pity they retired both Fido and Mallika and brand is somewhere in the oblivion again.

Another classic example of brand connect through an imaginary character is ‘Chintamani’. I am broaching a topic in Financial Services, which is against my policy. But am giving a special mention to Chintamani because through this character, the brand was able to connect with the consumer and his problems beautifully.

But another R K Laxman classic is ‘The Common Man’ of Times of India. It is almost impossible for any of us to imagine the newspaper without the common man and the way in which the brand mascot connects with the consumer – by living the problems that a common man faces and shown with satire. The brand Times of India at one point used to stand for that satire, that questioning mind and challenging the authority. Today, it has morphed into much more both on the positive and negative side, however, the common man has and will always stand tall in my mind. For it was the common man that gave a ‘physical shape and size’ to Times of India as a brand.

I would like to end this post with another great mascot. Mickey Mouse. Perhaps Disney and Mickey Mouse have merged because the mouse brought out everything that Disney as a brand wanted to and still stands for. The brand was brought to life by Mickey Mouse and perhaps would remain to be amongst the greatest examples of Dwaitham in the Brand World.

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For many, these guys might look like the morons of the marketing world. To be honest, I have felt that way a few years back. And then it dawned into me that there is a very deep sense in what these guys do. Especially, after I happened to interact with some of the consumers. I must admit however that this is not based on any structured research. But Prof. Malay Chaudhuri (who taught me Market Research in campus) once told, “The best sample size for a research sometimes is 1”. I tend to agree with him.

When was the last time you bought salt? Do you remember what brand you bought? Can you remember the last occasion when you bought ‘rock salt’ or ‘powdered salt’ which didn’t carry a brand name and was packed in newspaper by your friendly neighborhood Kirana store?

Anil, Lion, Idhayam, Jeyam, Sakthi Masala, Gold Winner – You may not have heard these names outside Tamil Nadu. But within the state, these are names which the woman of the house swears by. These are brands, which I have learnt to admire lately for their ingenuity. A simple comparison between these two concepts shows that these marketers have borrowed generously from the Salt phenomenon and have executed seamlessly to taste success (pun intended).

Packaging started playing an important part in both these phenomena. Having the words ‘A trusted name’ would make a lot of difference in reaching out to large number of people. With packaging playing an integral part of brand building, they didn’t let go of their South Indian-ness and added a lot of color, brightness and attractiveness to it.

Once common salt became a ‘branded item’ and ceased to be a ‘kirana store’ buy, these brands started innovating concepts with respect to Salt. For instance, my salt is ‘whiter’ than the competition, OR one pinch of my salt is better than a spoonful of the other and so on.

Not the kind to be left behind, these smart marketers found once concept after another. I believe there is a ‘Z’ Technology to clean Tur Dal. Wow! It sure is something like the PUF which was in every refrigerator, but was made famous by Godrej.

There is a Urad Dal brand which claims that Idlys made with this brand is more ‘fuller’ than the others. I am yet to figure out how, but the brands are just hitting the right nerves.

There is another ingenious attempt. The brand is Lion Honey. Lion is a brand under which the company peddles ‘dates’, ‘date syrup’, honey, oats and many other food items. He was the first to attempt positioning Honey as a substitute for Sugar. The brand had their TVCs running which had honey replaced in almost every sugar usage including honey being mixed with milk, during cooking etc. This was also tried by a larger brand at a later date – Dabur – featuring Big B & MSD.

These brands have grown multi-fold that they can afford large advertising budgets. Today, almost all these brands feature celebrities (read film stars) and have well produced TVCs backed by a very impressive on-air presence.

Branding of essential commodities such as sugar, salt, pulses, spices etc, does the same job as branding any other product, say, T-shirts. It takes the pain out of buying. The consumer gets to choose amongst the many brands available and is able to make the purchase with a confidence that the product would be free of malicious content, adulteration etc.

Branding commodities help in achieving a straight line supply chain, thus making availability easy and the pricing affordable. By adding more value to the product (not just as a brand) but in say nutritional value much as iodized salt did to the salt industry, health is certainly a platform that the consumers would benefit on.

And moving up in the chain, branding helps create higher value for these products. This ensures that the manufacturer and the farmers who actually cultivate these items are benefited immensely.

As a consumer I have always been hit by their communication every time I get in front of the idiot box (especially with my mother around). And when I do look at it from a Marketers’ perspective, things fall in place.

• Branding essential commodities may just be a category starter
• Branding essential commodities adds its own value to the consumer, manufacturer, supplier and the economy alike.
• It is absolutely fine to copy a strategy as said by the legendary Sam Walton. Just be sure that the execution is better. Or at least, ensure that the execution appeals to the sensibilities of your target audience.

So when you enjoy your meal the next time (especially the South Indian meal), you can rest assured that a marketer has touched your life and your tummy .

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I used to live in a place called Mambalam Road, which was once an integral part of a thriving industry. Film Hoardings.

There used to be two large players in this market with the largest being J P Krishna. Almost every single hoarding in the state for all large banners Tamil Film banners including AVM, Satya and Devar used J P Krishna’s services. The speciality? These hoardings were hand painted and will look so real and beautiful. And it used to be a sight to watch these painters at work because being a film fan I used to get to see the posters / photographs before many others. Also, the size used to amaze me. 40ft hoarding will be actually hand painted. WOW!

Come to think of it, that was all they did for promoting a film other than PR. Those were not the days of TV promos because there were only 2 channels. DD local and DD National . Moreover, the film industry wasn’t run by professionals. They were just the creative kind and all they could think of, was film making. So the rest of the departments including marketing weren’t their greatest strength.

I am amazed at the speed with which the Movie Marketing Industry has taken over the Movie Making Industry in current times.

Nowadays, a movie budget includes the marketing budget and the number is substantial enough to ensure that enough visibility is garnered in the first weekend itself. Considering that 50% or more collections for a movie happens in the first weekend (or maybe the first 2 weekends), it is important to have a very high intensity burst and the marketing functions for these film houses do the job brilliantly.

Icing on the cake? They actually employ advertising agencies and they get really creative in promoting a movie. With many aces up their sleeve, I thought it would be worth discussing a few here.

PR – This is something that goes on an overdrive before a movie release. We Indians are suckers for celebrity secrets and the problem is that the movie marketers know it. So before the release of a film, you would end up knowing almost every dirty secret (of which I would assume that more than 60% would be fabricated) will be shared with the publications with enough pictures. Sometimes, not sharing any detail of the film will be the PR activity itself. And many times, it would be some controversy. Take the case of Raavan. The film was mired with enough controversies to ensure that enough people spoke about it. Starting from Junior AB claiming to have done a stunt and some swimmer from Bangalore claiming to have performed the stunt to Senior AB launching a desperate attack on Mani to say that the Hindi edit wasn’t great, PR was on an overdrive. Maybe it is this overdrive that cost the film dear, but the function did its job beautifully. Unfortunate that the strategy didn’t work.

Trailors – With the idiot box taking over as one of the largest modes of promoting a product / service, it meant that the 30 second cut of the film must be so slick that you would want to endure 3 hours of the same thing. So the idiot box edits are nothing short of awesome to make you want to watch the film.

Reality Shows – The world today is nothing short of The Truman Show. With reality shows garnering more TRPs and GRPs than your favorite serials movie houses started connecting with these shows to promote their films. After all, this would mean that they get to promote the film for half hour (or one hour in some cases) in the given channel. So you can find the key cast of a film participating in a reality show just to ensure that their film gets talked about.

Online – Starting from a full fledged website for a film (example: www.idiotsacademy.com) to taking over the twitter accounts of key members of the cast, the online promotions side of the movie house has its hands full. Sonam Kapoor just before the launch of Aisha started sharing images from the film in the pretext of finding out how she looks with everyone. The good looker that she was, the film did get a positive opening owing to her strategy of sharing images through Twitter. Every film today has a Facebook page too. Social media today forms a key part of every film’s marketing strategy.

Just to be sure that we don’t leave out… Print happens too!

However, it is refreshing to see that movie marketing has taken a leaf out of advertising for products and indulge in creative and innovative ways to promote. Furthermore, these campaigns get considered for Advertising awards. The campaigns for Paa & 3 Idiots won accolades at Emvies for innovative usage of the media.

Film stars go to any length (figuratively and literally) to promote their movies. One of the Emvie winner ‘3 Idiots’ got it for Aamir travelling the length and breadth of the country many times in disguise and the competition was to identify him. This kind of made the character blend with the masses, thus ensuring larger audience for the film.

This certainly is a category where the bar is always high and is raised further with each large project. The film making business is creative and to advertise that you would again get creative. Sounds like the second level dream of Fischer in Inception.

Would certainly be fun…

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Living in Bombay brings its own idiosyncrasies. One of them is the various modes of public transport. No. I am not talking about trains. The reference points here are the Black-Yellow Taxis and Autos. The germ behind the movement is very simple. Three advertising professionals (Jaidev Rupani, Rachna Brar and Abhilash Krishnan) just decided to take the issue in their hands when they were facing the constant ‘nays’ by these ‘service providers’. Adding fuel to fire, a few weeks back the public transport system came under the mercy of the auto and taxi drivers when they decided to go on a strike demanding a fare hike.

Dubbed Meter Jam and designed like a reverse auction, Meter Jam is a reverse strike. While the taxis and autos be plying the road, the idea was to motivate the common man NOT to take either of these modes.

The movement appealed to the sentiments of the public because everyone has been affected by the ridiculous ways of these operators. It was initially promoted only through Social Networking Sites (SNS). But Six Degrees of Separation led this to become a national movement. Well almost!

To add fuel to the fire, news papers (read ‘tabloids’) picked up this cause and fanning it decently. With Mumbai Mirror starting it and Mid-day following right behind, the rest of the publications didn’t want to be left behind and covered it sufficiently. They actually interviewed the union heads and asked if they were afraid! PR picked up steam and the trio was nothing less than celebrities giving interviews to every channel / newspaper.

It has reached a peak and if you search for Meter Jam today, you would find the press articles before the actual site.

Meter Jam was held (or upheld) on the August 12, 2010. There are mixed reports on how successful the reverse strike was, but I felt the roads to be relatively easy to navigate. There were lesser number of black-yellow vehicles on the road and I personally offered a ride to a few colleagues on my way back.

The movement needed a mainstream support like that of PR for it to be known amongst a larger audience. It is absolutely true that it is not possible to build or retain brand salience only through Facebook and Twitter. It may be a very good starting point. Few reasons:

• The SNS user is looking at a quick bang. You don’t see a topic trending beyond say, 8 hours?!
• There still is a large audience outside SNS. Take me for instance. I have been bitten by the IT Policy bug and I don’t have connectivity to any social media (irrespective of the fact that I use them for official purposes too).
• The relevance of SNS may get restricted to a finite set of audience because amongst your connections / friends / followers, it is not a guarantee that everyone would be moved by your appeal. Striking the right chord at least for a movement should be more than just SNS.

The other one was a media sponsored movement along with an NGO of high repute. The NDTV Greenathon, which the channel conducts on its Flagship NDTV 24×7 every year, is generally a great success. The entire package is 360 degree in approach. The event is well promoted in all the channels owned or is part of the NDTV bouquet. The event is also taken on to other media including online. Today it is possible to connect with your favorite news personality through their website. They have their own social networking platform which is also activated during the Greenathon, which is conducted over a period of 24 hours.

Adding glamour is the presence of Bollywood personalities every year. They have some film start co-hosting it for the entire period, thus ensuring enough eye-balls for the key time-bands at least. The event is generally tied up with TERI and is in support of providing basic amenities in far flung villages of India. Some reasons why it almost always is a hit:

• Promoted by a large news channel, thus ensuring enough reach and visibility for the event.
• Presence of a celebrities (which Meter Jam lacked).
• 360 degree in approach thus ensuring a larger reach and awareness for the event.
• Sufficiently sponsored. With a lot of money going into running this ‘on air, on ground, online’ event, reaching and making it a success is not a great difficulty.
• Having a well known NGO brings in its own set of audience and credibility.

By bringing a serious issue out in the open, social movements take its own course to spread, propagate and in hopefully making this world a better place. However, not all such movements get to see as many reams of paper or footage time. Building a brand like ‘Jaago Re’ cost the Tata Group 2 years and sufficient funds to push the thought through. Even then, we had a key market like Bombay registering 34% votes in the general elections.

Though these social movements become large brands, effectiveness still depends on the buyer of the concept. Pity this is not a product / service.

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Two of the largest telecom companies moved their creative agency.

Airtel moves from Rediffusion to JWT

Reliance moves to Grey

Is there a signal? Some observations:

Problem 1: Both brands have not had a great ‘last few campaigns’. Personally, I think it is because Airtel & Reliance have been trying to say too many things and somewhere down the line, barring the signature tune, there was nothing that connected the many communication pieces that was coming out of these behemoths.

Airtel had a campaign with SRK based on his life story and how he is connected with his friends. Loosely made TV based campaign, which was doing nothing to the brand. Their earlier messages were clear and crisp in terms of communicating the brand objectives / values to the consumer. The SRK commercial didn’t connect well.

Reliance on the other hand brought in Hrithik. I am still unable to make sense out of the TVCs made by Reliance using Hrithik. This proved to be a classic case of lazy communication by bringing in a celebrity. The opening up of the GSM platform for Reliance was a tremendous opportunity, which I think was not utilized properly by the brand team.

Problem 2:  The relationships have either gone sour between the agency and the marketers. With Airtel, the relationship is since inception of the brand. This kind of long relationship would obviously bring some moments where one takes another for granted. It could be from the client’s side or the agency’s side. Either ways, the relationship would obviously suffer. Having been the agency since the beginning is a tremendous advantage for Rediffusion, but alas, it is not meant to continue.

With Reliance the account was with Mudra for a long time (again since inception if I am right) although the brand seems to have flirted with Cartwheel for a short while. But it is better for them to settle down with an agency properly with a long term view else the sufferer will be the brand.

Familiarity breeds contempt seems to have happened in either cases.

Problem 3: I also believe that there has been a churn at the client’s end in both these cases. Chandru alias Chandrasekhar of Airtel quit the telco very recently. And there is very little clarity (at least in media) about the person who has taken over the mandate.

Reliance marketing team also seems to have gone through a churn. I know for a fact that they are in the process of getting their marketing head on board. Internally there has been a churn which seems to have ailed these brands.

Problem 4: Intense competition. Tata Docomo, Idea, Uninor, Videocon, Virgin and many more have started digging deep into their pockets to start communicating. New regulations including Number Portability is not helping the cause and is building immense pressure on all the brands to maintain market share.

Problem 5: Highly fragmented customers. Starting from a Rs.10/- recharge to a VAS customer with an average billing of about INR4000-5000 per month makes it difficult to maintain the consistency. Also, both these brands have tried to communicate more than one message at the same time. Typically the brand ambassadors or the messaging style / guideline for each message is very different thus creating dichotomy. On the other hand, though the brand communicates different kinds of services Vodafone has at least managed to create a property which could be milked for 3 years in a row. And all their messages followed the same route, thus bringing in some consistency with respect to the different kind of customers and the kind of messages sent across.

I sincerely hope that both these brands will correct themselves on these parameters and many more that I may have left out. It is important to get the act right here because continuous errors on this front will expedite the brand’s demise. I wouldn’t want to see either of these brands in the twilight zone. Probably the change of guard is just the first result of a wake-up call.

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To begin with… watch the ad. Then you will know the reason for my first statement.

Here’s what I think about the TVC.

Simple thought which has been executed with absolute finesse. The TVC has humor in abundance and leaves you with a smile if not a laughter. And in the process the TVC’s take away is very simple. Anchor Toothpaste keeps your dental combination strong. Period!

The casting is awesome. Though I don’t know if the couple look good together. I mean, I am not sure if they look cute as a couple etc. But they are brilliant actors. And the guy is just amazing. The tinkling smile even when he is walking towards a grave danger – which is expressed beautifully by the wife – is just damn funny.

The TVC is a creative exaggeration to show the strength that the product gives to your teeth.

Just a look back on what could have happened behind the scene!

Afaqs state that the brief for the campaign was:

Anchor provides consumers with a relatable benefit, namely the proposition that one’s life is a whole lot more convenient and enjoyable, if one’s teeth are taken care of. Evidently, it emphasises the benefits of having good teeth in the context of one’s overall life.

I am sure the discussions between Marketing & the Agency would have revolved around humor as a tool. While the brand has dabbled many other platforms viz., targeting kids, 100% vegetarian and even celebrity endorsement (Kajol, again targeting kids), this time they have decided to ‘grow up’. They claim that their TG is ‘the family’.

In any case, the discussions could have been based on the following factors:

TG: The family (OKAY… This is plagiarism! )
Product: A dental care toothpaste for the entire family
USP: 100% vegetarian
Take away: Anchor Toothpaste gives you strong teeth that it can help you bite into anything without getting hurt. (Sounds very familiar? I have seen a Vicco Vajradanti TVC conveying the same message but in a boring fashion. If you don’t trust me, go to the nearest multiplex. They all play the Vicco Vajradanti ads still… Yes. The same old ones).
Creative thought: The tagline for the campaign is ‘Daant fit toh life fit’.
Potential route: Humor.

Though the pointers above do not constitute the brief for the campaign, I have attempted to just understand the thought process behind the storyline. While many tooth pastes have claimed to result in strong teeth (and many will continue to), it is the story telling that has made the difference thus bringing some kind of freshness to this category.

The TVC shows a good looking new wife trying to get to the man’s heart through his stomach. Another cliché, of the woman of the house trying to woo the man and shows the dependence that she carries with her always. The man – the typical tired hardworking gent who gets back to the house to be with his wife. Importance of family – another cliché. But what makes it memorable is the coming together of all these clichés to make a unforgettable story and that’s where they have scored.

The creative agency is Ogilvy. And they have done what they have done almost for every large and successful brand. They are the specialists of stating the obvious! Some examples: Fevicol Sticks, Sumo is large etc. They have stuck to the formula and have come out tops with a very memorable campaign. The creative mind behind this is Abhijit Avasthi. Mr. Avasthi is walking his predecessor’s footsteps and walking well. Good on you mate! And good one Ogilvy.

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A quick walk (which is virtually impossible) down the ‘Golden stretch’ would prove the point. The stretch between Panagal Park and T Nagar Bus Stand is home to more than 100 jewellery shops and a few hundred clothing shops. And all of them do ROARING business. During times of distress, I have always walked through this stretch and have found all the confidence I need to prove that there is enough money in the market.

I can never forget a bill board by a company called Rajkamal Sarees. When I was a school kid I have seen their billboards in all Chennai metro railway stations. Proudly it would read “Kick your jobs. Sell Rajkamal Sarees”. We seem to have come a long way from there.

Marketing is a tradition for these stores. Spending an evening with Sun TV will prove it for you. You can see at least 15 different brands of Silk Sarees, 8-10 jewellery showrooms and equal number of clothing outlets advertising. The point is that these advertisements defy some basic rules of marketing.

1. NO differentiation in advertising
   If you remove the brand pack shot from the TVC and plug another brand’s pack shot, it wouldn’t change a thing. The consumer may just not notice the brand.
2. NO USP
   Unique Selling Proposition? Go to hell. Though I cannot prove it, I believe that they all source the saris from the same set of looms in Kanchipuram (the silk saree capital of India situated about 70kms from Madras).
   That apart, they are all in a huge cluster placed one next to another thus beating any geographical advantage over another. Still each seem to have a story to tell. I am just discussing a few examples here. Maybe there is something to learn from each.

RmKV Silk sarees
They did a series of ‘World Records’. Longest saree, maximum number of colors in a saree etc. It has now become a tradition for this brand to break ‘world records’ for some reason or the other. The best part is that they had a popular film star Jyotika as their brand ambassador for a while. I still can remember their TV commercial featuring Jyotika selecting the color of her saree for her wedding. It was very apt timing because around that time she was getting married to her co-star Surya. Brilliant plug!

Pothy’s
Very little in terms of product differentiation. But the scale takes the cake for this brand. Pothy’s was a prominent outlet in Coimbatore Tirunelveli and they started opening branches because their competition decided to tickle them. Yes. When Nalli opened an outlet in Coimbatore, Pothy’s was outraged. And outraged is a euphemistic term, because going by what they did, it should be termed as nothing less than a war. They opened the then largest clothing outlet in Chennai bang opposite Nalli’s. And was amongst the first to go TV with consummate ease. They did take a huge part of the market share and they made it look so easy. Chennai (read T Nagar) had two large stores to go to now.

Another huge marketing trick of Pothy’s was the Aadi sale. Traditionally, Aadi (a tamil month) is a month when Tamilians don’t buy new stuff. They believe that things bought during that month will not stay! But this just happened to be a turn around. Around this time, Pothy’s started the Aadi sale. Prices were slashed by up to 50% and some price conscious Tamilians took the bait. All it requires is your neighbor to buy a new silk saree and show it off. The woman of the house has to get one for herself. The mood was almost like “screw the belief. Get that saree!”. The best part is the fact that this has opened up a new season for all categories in Tamil Nadu including white goods, clothing, jewellery etc. An erstwhile unchartered market!

LKS Gold House
Traditionally the only big guy in the Chennai (later TN) market was GR Thanga Maaligai (GRT). When LKS Gold House started, they took the same route (albeit in parallel) as Pothy’s. Heavy duty advertising was one of their key strengths. They were amongst the first to have a proper advertising agency servicing them. A key learning from LKS is the cost of production. These guys understood clearly that airtime is expensive. So they used to get new producers every time and experiment just to ensure that the cost of production of these TVCs were kept at a minimum. I have heard that they have done TVCs for as less as INR 50000 (in the year 2000), while never hesitated to buy airtime across channels even if it runs into a couple of crores. Brilliant strategy!

GRT, Nalli’s & Kumaran
I can’t leave out these brands. They have stood the test of time and wait… family splits. Both Nalli family and Kumaran family have had splits between brothers at some point of time. But they have always kept the tradition of their brands flying high. They were able to adapt quickly and also started campaigns to retain their existing customers. Notable amongst them is GRT’s chit plan. They started a chit system (quasi financial instrument) where customers can pay a fixed amount to GRT on a monthly basis which will earn interest for them and will be redeemed for Gold Jewellery at the end of the term. Awesome quick thinking! Nalli & Kumaran meanwhile went into newer markets and worked on market expansion.

While Nalli & Kumaran went into Market Expansion mode GRT also diversified. They started hotliering. GRT Grand Days and stakes in some of the large 4 & 5 star hotels in Chennai and other places hedged their dependence on retail folk buying gold, silver and platinum jewellery. Remarkable for what can otherwise be termed small town businesses.

Saravana Stores
How can I write about T Nagar, business and not discuss this brand. They used to sell only kitchen utensils. Well, that was ages back. Now, they can be the Hypercity equivalent of Mumbai. Or better still, the Mustafa equivalent of Singapore. Saravana Stores is now into every business one can think of! You can go to a Saravana stores outlet in T Nagar and actually buy everything for your home – including your home. Yes, they also sell real estate plots in there! I have always resisted getting into that store purely because of the crowds. But on one occasion, I stepped out of my shell and walked in and boy! Was I sold? Yes, most certainly! That was the first place where I saw broomsticks being sold in counter A and in the next counter (believe you me) carried mobile phones. Madness with a strong method behind it! That’s how I would describe this brand. Their procurement wing is an awesome bunch of individuals. They must be. Else, you can’t get the kind of deals that this store provides you with. Anything you buy, will be a comfortable 15-20% below the market price. From vegetables to video equipments, you can find almost anything here. And their strategy? Pricing. Beat that!

And their marketing wing is one of the most ‘on the ground’ teams one can encounter. I haven’t had the opportunity to meet them, but can vouch that they carry foresight like no other. They signed up an up and coming female actor ‘Tamannah’. A Bombay girl who can’t speak Tamil to save her life. This was a couple of years back. Today, she is the toast of the Tamil Film Industry. With films against every single big hero of today, she is the most wanted heroine and the numero uno. And Saravana Stores found her before she became that on a long term contract. That’s what I would call a ‘STEAL’!

There are many others and many other successful ones. But this article can’t carry all. But the learnings from each one of them would make an MBA hang his / her head in shame. These guys just know how to milk the customer without letting them feel the pain and probably, we all have a few leafs to take out of these books!

Amen!

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I was just about 11 years old and the hair dresser had in all probably mastered 4-5 different styles. The motive of cutting hair was to maintain a certain level of decency and that’s about it. It used to cost me Rs.20/- for the hair job and I remember that my father had to take me back to the saloon (back then, hair dressers were referred to as saloon. They still are, but there is a bit of finesse to the word now), just to ensure that the harvest was good enough to last at least another month.

I just had to go through a hair job a few days back and since I had moved recently to Chembur (a prominent Mumbai suburb), I was scouting for a hair dresser who is closer to where I live and also does a good job of making me look ‘decent’. I spotted an outlet called Javed Habib’s Hair Xpress.

I must admit that I was tentative to step in there. I have heard of Habib and that he is a ‘celebrity’ amongst the fashion circles etc. Honestly, that was my biggest deterrent to step in there. I am a price conscious Indian and Habib is a celebrity hair stylist. My first thought was, “Hey! I don’t want to shell out Rs.400/- for these stylists who wouldn’t do a good harvest! I want a hair cut and I want it to be formal and decent.” But women prevail. At the behest of my wife, I did step in there and asked for a ‘Menu’. Yes! I actually asked for a menu card, because the last time I stepped into a premium parlour like this, I was handed a menu card and was asked to pick the service AND the service provider / stylist.

I was pleasantly surprised when the girl at the front desk told me that there is no menu and that they offer only two services viz., hair cut and head massage. Believe me! You can’t get your shaving done there! I understand that these are gory details for a post on hair dressing, but I think it is important because of the lessons I learnt from Mr. Habib on marketing / pricing / placement. They can be termed as nothing less than awesomeness!

1. Pricing
   These salons provide only two services – Hair cut & head massage. Each job is priced at Rs.99/-. Yes! Rs.99/- only. I don’t know if it is promotional pricing. Didn’t ask that question (stupid me), but Rs.99/- from a Habib outlet is enticing enough! I agreed! I can now go around town stating that my hair job was done at a Habib franchise and can actually tell them that I shelled out a bomb (psst… don’t tell anyone about the pricing okay? )
2. Placement
   Habib’s Hair Xpress has outlets across the city. I looked up for Javed Habib on Google. (Yes… that’s the first time I have seen a website for a hair dresser. Gone are the days when we used to refer to these service providers are ‘barbers’. Please don’t ostracize me for the usage of this term. This post is solely to give an insight into how premium hair dressing as a business turn out to be!)
   To my pleasant surprise, I found that they have already more than 200 outlets across the country. I also saw a poster in the outlet which states that they are looking to make it more than 1000 within end 2010. That would mean at least two outlets in each prominent suburb of almost every important city in this country. WOW! That is some large franchise! Habib has ensured that he is present to take care of hair dressing needs of every price conscious Indian with his pricing and placement of his outlet! That’s two basics of marketing having fallen into place brilliantly!
3. Marketing
   It is impossible to keep this point brief. I will attempt in any case.

   a. Mr. Habib is a prominent celebrity hair dresser. That is marketing enough.
   b. By lending his name (which is now a brand in itself) he is bringing some quality, consistency and air.
   c. The brand colors are prominent red and black. With uniforms for the hair dressing professionals and similar look across the country, this would soon become the largest chain of hair dressing salons in India. He now has a brand in place!
   d. With students from across the world, Habib has managed to bring in the best under his fold, by first training them and then helping them start their own outlet under the Habib brand name. This means, his students would be able to practice in these outlets and then will also be able to start their own franchise under Habib’s aegis. That is a marketing strategy worth mentioning in the best of text books. This blog may just be the starting point! Today, these students train under Habib, work in these outlets and then when they can get the funding start an outlet with Habib’s name. It is a win-win for the student, the consumer (owing to the pricing and placement) and of course to Habib. Because with every franchise, Habib makes money!

4. Quality & customer service
   With trained professionals and standardized equipment, these outlets provide consistency and quality. While one may argue that the equipment is standardized whether it is a Habib outlet or not, there is a win-win combination here too. The equipment is available at a lesser cost owing to Habib’s negotiation power since it is a franchise model. It helps both Habib and the person who has taken the franchise. Also, since it carries the brand name, it comes with a certain level of quality. They have done a good job for me! And I am positive word of mouth for the brand today unless they take conscious efforts to spoil it! And the service was given with a smile. Both the lady at the front desk and the gentleman who performed his duties on my head were very polite and asked my preferences before putting scissor to hair.

In all, today, your hair cutting experience can be a great teacher for marketing too. Trust me, today is not my bad hair day, thanks to Javed Habib’s Hair Xpress.

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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 the winning horse and no wonder these guys will certainly take a fat bonus this coming year!

However, I would be curious to see how this success pans out to benefit the brand. That my friends, is a continuous arduous task. Success of the film does not mean success of the brand! So the wait and watch must happen!

However, all the best to you guys! And congratulations on a fantastic pick! Cheers

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But here’s taking lazy marketing and riding the celebrity (celebrities in this case) to a ‘brand’ new high! Reliance Life Insurance expects to make a song from the movie ‘3 idiots’ as the brand proposition. Read about it here.

I have great respect for Reliance as a brand and they have actually ‘bought’ brand recall amongst the average Indian consumer. Someone tweeted today and I have a screenshot here:

Don't actually take this as a threat!

Just as much as the tweet states that not watching Avatar demands execution, one can say that Reliance with all their businesses have touched almost every Indian’s life. But does that give them the authority to get lazy? I beg to differ.

How can an entire Marketing team get this lazy? This may just end up having binary results.

If the film performs at the box office… good. What if it doesn’t? Do you ride your entire organisation and its pride on the wise shoulders of Aamir Khan, Sharman Joshi (wowowow!) and Maddy boy?

What if the film fails? My views…

• Reliance Life will be forced to think of executing another set of creatives and unfortunately, ‘all may not be well’ then
• They would be forced to spend further sums of marketing Rupees behind another campaign.
• Not realising that this is around time when the average man on the road wakes up to ’save tax’, this strategy may prove to be scarily wrong. So they will have to run a parallel campaign on tax saving
• However they try to convince that this is not a promotion for the film, they should realise this and I quote myself here…

The average human being is lazy, however very intelligent. (S)He does not have the time to process your message the way you want it. Aamir, Sharman & Maddy not necessarily in that order are more liked and discussed about by them as against any ‘brand’. So, having ‘3 idiots’ as your campaign mainstay would make better promotion for the film than the brand itself.

• If this (All is well!) was a great proposition, then why wasn’t it thought of earlier? Why were we always doing this soppy, emotion stringing, tissue paper wetting commercials that claim that Insurance would take care of your family whether or not you are alive nonsense!

Ain’t we just lazy?

Disclaimer: Many years in financial services has led me to do this! I do not blog about financial services brands as a policy since I work in a financial services organisation (NOT in a Life Insurance company though!). However, this is just an exception. All views are strictly personal and does not reflect the views of my organisation / brand.

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