We all have heard/studied/read about the Product Lifecycle(PLC).The concept says that Product like a human being has a finite life.It grows, matures and then dies.

Lets take an example.Floppy Disk is no longer available now but it was a hot cake at one time.Even till 2001-02 floppies existed in market.The product just died.

Brands on the other hand don’t exactly follow a life cycle.Brands can be immortal unless they commit suicide.Brand and product are closely related.A brand is nothing without a product or service but brand can evolve over the time.

Continuing with our floppy example,Sony,Seagate all had their floppy disks,but the brands didn’t die after the death of floppies.

Sony today is preparing market for BluRay.Seagate is a market leader in hard disks.

The brands lived.Coca Cola is a brand that is immortal.Brands who realized that they need to evolve survived, rest have died.

There were brands in India like Campa Cola,Gold Spot etc,today they have died and are no more.

Either they were killed by the bigger brands or customers rejected them.If Campa Cola could have gone into a slightly different beverage market,they could have survived.Parle did survive as a brand.Today its a big brand.

Thums Up as a brand could not be killed even after Coca Cola tried its best because the consumer demanded the drink.

Some years back,there was a series of TV commercials in India for a brand called Home Trade.The ads featured Sachin Tendulkar,Shah Rukh Khan,Hritik Roshan but the brand was never heard of after the ads.The brand died instantly.

So do brands die ?

Yes and No,Brands are not created by TV commercials or campaigns,they are for the consumer/customer to test and trust.Once a name is in customer’s mind,its a brand.But the life of the brand would be decided by the fact whether customer sees the brand as a friend or a foe.

e.g. Whenever Maruti comes out with any new car,people accept it and trust it because Maruti as a brand is a friend to many target customers.Same is the case for Apple as brand.

Many would argue that once a brand is established,its immortal.But its not the case.Luna was a brand which was highly valued and popular, today the moped is no longer in production nor any other vehicle is produced with a Luna logo or brand.

So Luna is alive in history and not in reality.

Brand unlike a product can live for ever,if managed properly.Here comes the role of Brand Management.

Brand can undergo a physical change too.Like many brands keep changing their color,the look,the identity or image.This ensures freshness and long life.

Coca Cola,Nike,Adidas,Google,Microsoft are kind of brands which will ‘never’ die(hopefully) because they have evolved over the time,adding more products to their arsenal.

If a brand keeps evolving,it will never die,It can’t.

But it can commit a suicide.

What Say ?

Note: You can also request/suggest a post to me using the button on the left.I will certainly try to write a blog post on it with acknowledgement of your name.

© 2010, TMSBee. All rights reserved.

The part 3 mainly deals with poor execution,implementation and use of brand ambassador.

I will start it with an ad.Just have a look at it

After watching the whole ad,you just see Hritik Roshan and that is only what you see in the ad.The ad happens to be Parle Hide and Seek Bourbon.Majority of people don’t even know that,they just think its Hide and Seek ad that’s it.An advertisement is supposed to be for creating awareness about a product which should ultimately lead to a purchase.

In the ad,you just see Hritik and not the product.The product and the name just comes in the end till then the interest is lost.The agency had a super brand ambassador and an extremely successful brand name.They could have come up with a better ad in which HR actually talks about how good the product is or its taste or something similar concentrated on the product rather than his dancing skills(even those are funny in the ad).Just remember the Hide and Seek Milano cookies HR ad,that is precisely what had to be done with bourbon too.

Here due to poor execution and improper mapping the ad bombed and hence the product suffered.

Lets take the second case of a recent Ad featuring Akshay Kumar in new Micromax Game phone ad.

This ad could have been THE AD for Micromax who have been trying hard to come in the big league.They sponsored the last cricket tournament in india in which Sachin scored 200*.

Now they got Akshay Kumar as their brand ambassador.AK is a big star with large fan following.They could have capitalized on his star power and made a much better ad which could have placed Micromax where it wants to be seen.

But they chose to do a childish commercial in all the mess and fuss over one app in their phone.The worst part is the AK laugh which has been used over and over in the background.AK is losing ground these days for his comedy skills.All the people whom i asked about the ad said that the ad is irritating.

When you have a big brand ambassador and lot at stakes you should go for a mature sophisticated ad rather than a childish one which Micromax chose.With such an ad they cant challenge the likes of Nokias,Samsungs,Eriksonns etc.

Now last but not the least the last example which is a typical case of wrong mapping of an ambassador with a product.

Just imagine Salman Khan selling Wheel.I and my friend had a good hearty laugh when we saw this ad for the first time.Salman Khan is a superstar.I agree but he cant sell Wheel.Can he ? I think he can but still this is not a kind of ad you would want to see Salman in.

He acts good,the concept is great but still neither the ad nor the product goes with the image of the style icon.Wheel is not even a premium brand.Prachi Desai is a right choice but Salman doesnt fit in at all.From the same ad remove wheel and put in some premium electronic brand like LG or Samsung (with obvious changes),that would have been great.

But you never know Salman is loved by the masses and Wheel is for the masses so the combination might just  click.

But at present,you just enjoy this ad because its funny.

Just note how Salman says,”Ismein hai nimboo ki shakti aur hazaaron phoolon ki khushboo” in his typical English accent.:)

What Say ?

© 2010, TMSBee. All rights reserved.

TATA hai to achcha hi hoga ! (If its TATA,It would be good).This is general public perception about TATA.

TATA is built on trust and quality.

Now yet again TATA has diversified and stepped into a new market (where trust is paramount ) i.e. Cold Beverage market.They have a new offereing called TATA TiON.The market is not exactly cold beverage but non carbonated and natural cold drinks to be precise.

TATA TiON is a branded,packaged and flavoured Iced Tea.Iced Tea as a refreshing drink has become quite popular in recent past.But mainly Iced tea was not branded and packaged per say.It was available as an option at vending machines at McDonalds,Subway or Nestle vending machines installed at various places.

Its priced at Rs 22 for 400 ml which is quite competitive if we see the simlar offerings in the segments such as Real,tropicana,Minute Maid etc.The Iced Tea which i normally have at outlets are also costlier than this.I remeber paying even 15 -20 bucks for a small glass(150 ml approx) so Price is not at all an issue for TiON.

I would definitely prefer a Ice Tea rather than a coke or a pepsi if it available at such a good price.I have not seen it in Mumbai yet.One of my friends in Chennai told me about it.In Chennai it has been launched with OOH campaigns.

The drink is available in 3 fruit flavours which gives consumer the much needed choice.

“This is a defining moment in the history of Tata Tea as it symbolises the transformative change taking place in the company,” Tata Tea, executive director Sangeeta Talwar said in the release.

The competition includes Nimbooz,Minute Maid,Tropicana,Real,LMN,Frooti,Slice and even Red Bull as you would notice later in the post.And yes the usual suspects,all the aerated drinks would definitely compete for their share.

Would people prefer TiON over normal soft drinks ?

TiON takes the question and answers it too on the label as

“It is a fact of life. You can’t let go off the new T!ON. Why? It’s delicious. It’s refreshing. It’s absolutely buzzing with active energy. And, best of all, its good. Na, good isn’t good enough. It’s good 3 times over. With 3 good things – tea extracts, fruit juice and ginseng. That’s (count them) 1. health, 2. nutrition, 3. energy. All in one bottle. The new T!ON with 3 good things. So why let go!”

One thing which i noticed in the above copy was the word Ginseng.On googling i came to know that its a plant that is useful in Stress Relieving,But not without some Side Effects and concerns but overall its a friendly substance.

Even HUL is coming up with its own Lipton Tea Ice Tea variant and they also are stressing on a chemical called ‘Theanine’ to appeal to working professionals.

Theanine is known to increase alpha brain waves associated with “relaxed yet alert” state of mind and the ability to focus attention and stay sharp, HUL said.

A new competition is about to begin where a chemical(or biological) warfare would be used for the first time in the field of marketing.

Ginseng vs Theanine

Both are supposed to be Stress Releasing substances but i wonder what would be the stress levels of the professionals involved in the launch and marketing of the products containing them.

The competition in the beverage market will only become fierce with the entry of such natural and health drinks.Pepsis and Coca Colas of the world are definitely feeling the heat.

What Say ?

© 2009 – 2010, TMSBee. All rights reserved.

When speaking Spanish, especially with an Argentine accent, people tend to say “Pecsi” instead of “Pepsi”. They have said it like this for years, and Pepsi has responded by launching a campaign changing the second P to a C, believed to be the first such change for the venerable brand.

According to a recent survey, 25% of the population says it that way. So BBDO Argentina (ad agency) came up with the idea of simply making “Pecsi” the spelling and launched an integrated campaign to support it.

The motive was clear, get closer to consumers, by including those who weren’t pronouncing the name of the brand correctly but also by focusing on saving and standing by consumers’ sides in a time of crisis. In Argentina, drinking a Pepsi costs one peso less than drinking a Coke. The message: If you drink Pepsi, you save. If you drink Pecsi, you save as well.

The bottle

The commercial

The Coca Cola had also done something similar in China.The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means “bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse stuffed with wax” depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, “ko-kou-ko-le,” which can be loosely translated as “happiness in the mouth.”

Ko-Kou-Ko-Le

Coca Cola has to do it to suit the local flavour and especially the name to make some sense(or no nonsense) but what about Pepsi’s (or Pecsi’s) campaign ?

On one website i read an interesting quote ,”Whats next Pepsi ? A “bebsi” for Arab countries?”

or may be Papsi(with Accent) for India.

One more strong argument against this is that 75% of the crowd has no issue in pronouncing Pepsi as Pepsi( and not Pecsi).So is this campaign just for the 25% ? Or it is an emotional branding for the rest of other 75 % too ?

What ever the reason apart from Consumer Connect Pepsi(or Pecsi’s) campaign seems to generate a lot of interest world over and surely it will help the sales team.

Argentinians also pronounce Pizza as Picsa so whats next Picsa Hut haan !

Comments Please !

© 2009 – 2010, TMSBee. All rights reserved.

MTV stands for music television so we should not have been surprised but we were because from past some time MTV just airs some shows like Roadies,Splitsvilla,connected (these days).If you want to watch(listen) some music MTV is not the place to be.We search for other channels like Music India or B4U music and whatever.There was time when MTV and Channel [V]  were music channels.

Its not the case that at that time MTV didnt have shows on them.All VJs were part of some shows.But all the shows were related to music.Talk shows,dial in shows,countdowns all were there but music was omnipresent.English,Hindi  

or Punjabi but these days they have all these roadies like shows which are similar to each other and MTV airs them again and again.

MTV has been representing the young crowd from ages and its brand personality was of a young teenager who is fun loving rebellious,risk taking and most importantly loved music but these days its brand personality is just of a Roadie.

I myself watched Roadies(and even liked it) and i also know its all about TRPs so MTV will air such shows which grabs them the maximum eyeballs.But i think this is in the short run.It has already started against them.Even people have started to say these days that there are no songs on MTV these days just roadies or shoadies every time you put on the channel.

MTV could have a new channel instead dedicated to such shows instead of running MTV(music TV) without the music.

In the long run MTV cant run long without Music.

Enjoy!!!

© 2009 – 2010, TMSBee. All rights reserved.

The Chlormint Salman Khan Ad

The Halls Ad

• Both Ads feature airplanes.
• Both Ads feature Dumb characters asking about the product
• Both Ads are about a refreshing product.
• Halls had one brand ambassador,Chlormint has two.
• In the end also protagonists are thrown out (or stuck out) of the plane to tell them about the cooling effect of the product

The two competitors now have quite similar ads.

Can it create the diffrentiation a product needs to diffrentitate ftom the competitor product ?

Halls have an advantage that it came out the with the similar ad first but Chlormint has an advantage of having two bigger endorsers Salman Khan and Sohail Khan.

According to afaqs.com the agency for halls is Contract Advertising Agency and for Chlormint it is McCann Eriksson Ad Agency.

I hope both the ads are not a rip off of a foriegn ad of some other brand or the either brands.

But the similarity in the ads and products cant be unintentional.I dont know whether its just a rip off or just a coincidence.

What Say?

Comments !

© 2009 – 2010, TMSBee. All rights reserved.

All was going fine then Ruffles(now lays ) came.Uncle Chips and CRAX had a big big competition lined up in front of them.Many of us switched to Ruffles because of various flavours it offered.Also its Ad campaigns were also cool and many other factors were too in its favour.Uncle Chips as a brand survived(later bought by pepsi foods) but CRAX lost somewhere in the middle and was totally out of sight.

CRAX’s visibility was quite restricted.Sometimes somehwere i used to see it.But whenever i used to see it i used to buy it.
Then some years back CRAX has returned with CRAX namkeen.But it also couldn’t do that well as compared to other big brands of namkeen and also local players so it just remained as ‘me too’ namkeen brand and faded form the scene.

But from past few days,I have been seeing a lot of CRAX.Most importantly the old Red packed CRAX is back and also CRAX namkeen is also back in new avatar.I hope its a well thought out brand relaunch.
I am talking of Gurgaon ,Delhi region .I dont know about the other parts(I hope the trend is same).

I hope this time CRAX stays and children again like it as we did.I hope they too eat them the same way as we did(5 ringed fingers).

© 2009 – 2010, TMSBee. All rights reserved.