Corporates are today focusing on economic, social and ecological responsibility and consumers on other hand are becoming more conscious of the natural environment .In order to address the concerns of the consumers, businesses are modifying their practices by promoting environmentally safe or beneficial products which has led to the emergence of green marketing .The green products are introduced that are less damaging to the environment. Thus, for the business world –wide ecological marketing and its applications in practice have become a competitive prerogative that guides the behavior of the entire organization. Green brands are that which offer significant eco-advantage over the incumbents and which appeal to those who are willing to make green a priority. Studies have found that 8-10 percent of people are up for dark green lifestyle like composing and micro-generation ; 20-40 percent of people are for light green changes e.g., smaller cars ,fewer flights and 60-80 percent of people are up for non-brainers ,such as turning down thermostats to save energy and at the same time heating bills.
Positioning a brand as “green brand” entails an active communication and differentiation of the brand from its competitors through its environmentally sound attributes. Ecologically sustainable products will not be commercially successful if green brand attributes are not successfully communicated. Green positioning strategies can be based on relevant environmental advantage of the product compared to competing conventional product and may be referred to as production process, product use and /or product elimination. Functional positioning strategies can aim to build brand association by delivering information on environmentally sound product attributes .However, in most of the cases the consumers will experience the functional benefits only in case of generalized environmentally sound consumer behavior but such strategies can easily be imitated as they assume rational buying decision and may reduce the flexibility of brand differentiation.
The green building movement, spearheaded by the Confederation of Indian industry (CII) - Godrej Green business Center, has gained tremendous impetus over the last few years. F Even the ongoing global financial crisis is unlikely to prove a deterrent to this growing green agenda, with clean technology being viewed as the vehicle of growth in 2009. In today’s scenario Indian companies have an array of green computing alternatives to choose from, with large IT vendors including Intel, EMC, IBM and Microsoft, offering more energy-efficient and environment-friendly products. Intel recently unleashed the Atom processor built for low-power mobile Internet devices, as well as its second-generation quad-core Xeon processor 5400 designed to offer greater energy efficiency and the multitasking performance necessary to maximize virtualization efforts.
Thus, as there is growing awareness among the consumers all over the world regarding protection of the environment in which they live, people do want to bequeath a clean earth to their offspring and the market needs to operate within a society in which sustainability is more than adopted as a public policy goals , but actively pursued through policy implementation.
Contributed by: Dr. Sapna Parashar
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
NEUROMARKETING
Neuromarketing is a decade old concept. It all gained importance in 2004 when a half-dozen scientists from the Baylor College of Medicine published a research paper on change in brand preference to cola brands by using a Siemens Allegra 3T functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) brain scanner. The study concluded that when exposed to Coke labels, soda drinkers who hadn't previously expressed much brand preference suddenly had affection for the Real Thing. The drinkers' noggins lit up like Christmas trees after they sipped the branded Coca-Cola. The results demonstrated that Pepsi should have half the market share, but in reality consumers are buying Coke for reasons related less to their taste preferences and more to their experience with the Coke brand. In other words, our brains confirm that the brand with the more effective marketing wins and can even fake out our taste buds. The field of neuromarketing is growing up. While large corporations employ neuromarketing firms to conduct costly fMRI studies, a new breed of marketing upstarts with neuromarketing expertise is promising smaller entrepreneurs the same kind of knowledge without the high costs of custom lab research.
But basically what exactly is neuromarketing? Well, it is the practice of using brain-wave product feedback to target goods and services to our subconscious appetites. Neuromarketing is the application of this huge amount of information that's available in the literature in terms of how people make decisions. Technically speaking a research study conducted explains the concept as : Consistent with neuroimaging evidence suggests that distinct circuits anticipates gain and loss, product preference activates the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), while excessive prices activates the insula and deactivates the mesial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) prior to the purchase decision. Activity from each of these regions independently predicted immediately subsequent purchases above and beyond self-report variables. These findings suggest that activation of distinct neural circuits related to anticipatory affect precedes and supports consumers’ purchasing decisions.
Christophe Morin in his book “ Neuromarketing: Understanding the Buy Buttons in Your Customer's Brain” , says entrepreneurs can improve their products, services, marketing and advertising by learning six keys to neuromarketing : We are self centered, we crave contrasts, we are naturally lazy, we like stories, we are visual and emotion trumps reason. In future, marketing analysts will use neuromarketing to analyze consumer’s preference in an effective way. Personally asking question would involve a cognitive bias. This knowledge will help marketers create products and services designed more effectively and marketing campaigns focused more on the brain's response. Consumers’ reaction to the color of the packaging, various attractive shapes, the sound the box makes when shaken, or the idea that they will have something their co-consumers do not would be understood by the marketers through neuromarketing.
The main idea is that the decision is made and influenced by the subconscious part of the brain and by generally asking people about their preferences may only give us partial information about the factors actually influencing their purchasing behaviors. Also there are some things which consumers avoid to say when asked about their buying decisions due to emotions attached or the pride factor.However, this study is still in nascent stage and has a long way to go. Also the relevance of the initial results is not very convincing. Some analysts also fear the manipulative use of neuromarketing on children and marketing of harmful products. Every technology has positive and negative aspects. However, proper use of neuromarketing will help the marketers in making better decisions in the future and while integrating technology to increase the profits for organizations.
Contributed by: Abhishek Muley
But basically what exactly is neuromarketing? Well, it is the practice of using brain-wave product feedback to target goods and services to our subconscious appetites. Neuromarketing is the application of this huge amount of information that's available in the literature in terms of how people make decisions. Technically speaking a research study conducted explains the concept as : Consistent with neuroimaging evidence suggests that distinct circuits anticipates gain and loss, product preference activates the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), while excessive prices activates the insula and deactivates the mesial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) prior to the purchase decision. Activity from each of these regions independently predicted immediately subsequent purchases above and beyond self-report variables. These findings suggest that activation of distinct neural circuits related to anticipatory affect precedes and supports consumers’ purchasing decisions.
Christophe Morin in his book “ Neuromarketing: Understanding the Buy Buttons in Your Customer's Brain” , says entrepreneurs can improve their products, services, marketing and advertising by learning six keys to neuromarketing : We are self centered, we crave contrasts, we are naturally lazy, we like stories, we are visual and emotion trumps reason. In future, marketing analysts will use neuromarketing to analyze consumer’s preference in an effective way. Personally asking question would involve a cognitive bias. This knowledge will help marketers create products and services designed more effectively and marketing campaigns focused more on the brain's response. Consumers’ reaction to the color of the packaging, various attractive shapes, the sound the box makes when shaken, or the idea that they will have something their co-consumers do not would be understood by the marketers through neuromarketing.
The main idea is that the decision is made and influenced by the subconscious part of the brain and by generally asking people about their preferences may only give us partial information about the factors actually influencing their purchasing behaviors. Also there are some things which consumers avoid to say when asked about their buying decisions due to emotions attached or the pride factor.However, this study is still in nascent stage and has a long way to go. Also the relevance of the initial results is not very convincing. Some analysts also fear the manipulative use of neuromarketing on children and marketing of harmful products. Every technology has positive and negative aspects. However, proper use of neuromarketing will help the marketers in making better decisions in the future and while integrating technology to increase the profits for organizations.
Contributed by: Abhishek Muley
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Is Private Labeling Key to Retailing
Private label products or services are typically those manufactured or provided by one company for offer under another company's brand. Private label are often positioned as lower cost alternatives to regional, national or international brands, although recently some private label brands have been positioned as "premium" brands to compete with existing "name" brands. In India, the largest retail chain today has around 300-400 stores. The share of private labels in any country depends on how consolidated the retail chains are. Developing a good quality brand has a high development and innovation cost attached to it. To be able to absorb such costs, Indian retail chains will need to scale up. Retail chains in developed nations on the other hand have around 3,000-5,000 stores each. So it will start with retailers reverse engineering manufacturers’ brands, and as organised retailers grow larger, their labels, too, will move up the value chain. The biggest change in the last decade or so has been the entry of premium private labels. They are no longer saying “buy us because we are cheap”, instead today, they are saying “buy us because we are the best”. By offering high quality products, many private labels have started charging more than regular manufacturers. Consumers globally are in agreement when it comes to Private Label quality and value for money, with a global average of 69 per cent agreeing that they were extremely good value for money and 62 per cent considering their quality to be at least as good as the big brands.
Different types of private labels are Store Brands which are on retailer's name and are very evident on the packaging. Store sub-brands are products where the retailer's name is low-key on the packaging. . Individual brands which is a name used in one category, this is only used to promote a "real" discount product line. Exclusive brands which is a name used in one category, but to promote "added value" products within the category. Distributor brands which are large wholesale grocers and foodservice purveyors often have private labels, for example the Parade brand of Federated Foodservice and the wide array of private brands of the large food service supplier. Copycat private labels brands owned by a retailer which use similar trade dress, i.e. packaging as a leading national brand. Private labels help in building exclusivity and differentiation, bring customer loyalty, better margin, better control in deliveries ,brand equity, freedom in pricing strategy and increasing bargaining power with both national brands and private label factories. However there are some cons like inventory risk, higher R&D expense ,higher marketing expense ,no markdown or return allowance from branded suppliers , if product fails, will create negative image and quality control, complex production & import issues.
Some private label strategies which are being followed by various promoters of private label companies fall in one of the following category: Generic –very promotional, very low margin some examples are Conway, Walgreen . Fast Value Fashion – knock-off brands, Zara and H &M . Premium Store Brands – Retailer’s own brand offers same or better quality at better price. Retailers believe private brands are their strategy to differentiate, to gain and maintain consumer loyalty, to achieve higher gross margin , to compete with national brands , to change mind set and realize that Private Labels are competing brands to stay focused on target audience . Future of private label include that it will continue to play an important part of the assortment to their growth strategy ,becoming national premium lifestyle brands: INC, Alfani, Arizona, UMM, Bare, Jealous 21, branching out to create specialty chain business: George apparel stores, Wal-Mart, UK, increasing depth of multi dimensional merchandising product mix (Tony Hawk mens, boys, footwear and etc) ,cannibalize weaker private label brands and deploying a multi-layer strategy in brand, price and quality. Private retailers will occupy 50 per cent of the market the world over. At 50 per cent, they begin to saturate. If they try to occupy more than this, then consumers feel that there aren’t enough choices. In countries such as Switzerland and the UK, private labels have reached this limit and these markets have saturated. But they will continue grow in the other countries till they reach the same level and this will happen very soon in India, too.
Contributed by: Hitesh Gaur
Different types of private labels are Store Brands which are on retailer's name and are very evident on the packaging. Store sub-brands are products where the retailer's name is low-key on the packaging. . Individual brands which is a name used in one category, this is only used to promote a "real" discount product line. Exclusive brands which is a name used in one category, but to promote "added value" products within the category. Distributor brands which are large wholesale grocers and foodservice purveyors often have private labels, for example the Parade brand of Federated Foodservice and the wide array of private brands of the large food service supplier. Copycat private labels brands owned by a retailer which use similar trade dress, i.e. packaging as a leading national brand. Private labels help in building exclusivity and differentiation, bring customer loyalty, better margin, better control in deliveries ,brand equity, freedom in pricing strategy and increasing bargaining power with both national brands and private label factories. However there are some cons like inventory risk, higher R&D expense ,higher marketing expense ,no markdown or return allowance from branded suppliers , if product fails, will create negative image and quality control, complex production & import issues.
Some private label strategies which are being followed by various promoters of private label companies fall in one of the following category: Generic –very promotional, very low margin some examples are Conway, Walgreen . Fast Value Fashion – knock-off brands, Zara and H &M . Premium Store Brands – Retailer’s own brand offers same or better quality at better price. Retailers believe private brands are their strategy to differentiate, to gain and maintain consumer loyalty, to achieve higher gross margin , to compete with national brands , to change mind set and realize that Private Labels are competing brands to stay focused on target audience . Future of private label include that it will continue to play an important part of the assortment to their growth strategy ,becoming national premium lifestyle brands: INC, Alfani, Arizona, UMM, Bare, Jealous 21, branching out to create specialty chain business: George apparel stores, Wal-Mart, UK, increasing depth of multi dimensional merchandising product mix (Tony Hawk mens, boys, footwear and etc) ,cannibalize weaker private label brands and deploying a multi-layer strategy in brand, price and quality. Private retailers will occupy 50 per cent of the market the world over. At 50 per cent, they begin to saturate. If they try to occupy more than this, then consumers feel that there aren’t enough choices. In countries such as Switzerland and the UK, private labels have reached this limit and these markets have saturated. But they will continue grow in the other countries till they reach the same level and this will happen very soon in India, too.
Contributed by: Hitesh Gaur
Thursday, December 11, 2008
New Market New Rules
Rural markets have gained significance, because of the growing economy which has resulted into considerable increase in the purchasing power of the rural communities. Owing to green revolution, the rural areas are consuming a large quantity of industrial and urban manufactured products. In this environment, a special marketing strategy, namely, Rural Marketing has emerged. Rural marketing is over and over again confused with Agricultural marketing – the latter denotes marketing of produce of the rural areas to the urban consumers or industrial consumers, whereas rural marketing involves delivering manufactured or processed inputs or services to rural producers or consumers. Rural marketing experts also term it as developmental marketing, as the process of rural marketing involves an urban to rural activity, which in turn is characterised by various peculiarities in terms of nature of market, products and processes. Rural marketing differs from agricultural or consumer products marketing in terms of the nature of transactions, which includes participants, products, modalities, norms and outcomes. The participants in case of Rural Marketing would also be different, they include input manufacturers, dealers, farmers, opinion makers, government agencies and traders. The existing approach to the rural markets has viewed the markets as a homogeneous one, but in practice, there are significant buyers and user differences across regions as well as within that require a differential treatment of the marketing problems.
These differences in approach could be in terms of the type of farmers, type of crops and other agro-climatic conditions. One has to understand the market norms in agricultural input so as to devise good marketing strategies and to avoid unethical practices, which distort the marketing environment. The importance of rural marketing can be understood from the fact that today modern inputs i.e. diesel, electricity, fertilisers, pesticides, seeds account for as much as 70% of the total cash costs and 23% of the total costs incurred by the farmers in the Green Revolution areas. Further the percentages were higher at 81% and 38% for small; farmers owning 1.85 hectares of land. Rural market offers huge opportunity to marketers, infrastructure is improving rapidly, and social infrastructure has improved a lot in past decade with more kuccha houses getting converted into puccha houses, percentage of people below poverty line has declined and literacy level has improved by huge numbers. Other opportunity is the use of available infrastructure of post offices (1, 38000+),haats, mela’s etc.Proliferation of large format rural retail stores which have been successful like DSCL Haryali stores,M & M Shubh Labh stores, TATA/Rallis Kisan Kendras etc. Rural marketing involves more concentrated personal selling efforts compared to urban marketing. Firms should desist from designing goods for the urban markets and subsequently pushing them in the rural areas. Distribution strategy need to be devised in a different manner compared to urban market. Communication channels should be chosen very carefully as only around 20% of the rural population has access to a vernacular newspaper. So, the audio visuals must be planned to convey a right message to the rural folk. The rich, traditional media forms like folk dances, puppet shows, etc with which the rural consumers are familiar and comfortable, can be used for high impact product campaigns.
Some successful examples are of Escorts which had an focused approach depending on geographical and market parameters like fares, melas etc. Looking at the ‘kuchha’ roads of village they positioned their bike as tough vehicle. Their advertisements showed Dharmendra riding Escort with the punch line ‘Jandar Sawari, Shandar Sawari’. Thus, they achieved whopping sales of 95000 vehicles annually and HLL which started ‘Operation Bharat’ to tap the rural markets. Under this operation it passed out low–priced sample packets of its toothpaste, fairness cream, Clinic plus shampoo, and Ponds cream to twenty million households. Thus, looking at the challenges and the opportunities which rural markets offer to the marketers it can be said that the future is very promising for those who can understand the dynamics of rural markets and exploit them to their best advantage. Rural marketers should understand this fact and try to tap the huge untapped potential in our country, so they can successfully impress on the 230 million rural consumers spread over approximately six hundred thousand villages in rural India.
Contributed by: Manish Sharma & Prasenjit Sen
These differences in approach could be in terms of the type of farmers, type of crops and other agro-climatic conditions. One has to understand the market norms in agricultural input so as to devise good marketing strategies and to avoid unethical practices, which distort the marketing environment. The importance of rural marketing can be understood from the fact that today modern inputs i.e. diesel, electricity, fertilisers, pesticides, seeds account for as much as 70% of the total cash costs and 23% of the total costs incurred by the farmers in the Green Revolution areas. Further the percentages were higher at 81% and 38% for small; farmers owning 1.85 hectares of land. Rural market offers huge opportunity to marketers, infrastructure is improving rapidly, and social infrastructure has improved a lot in past decade with more kuccha houses getting converted into puccha houses, percentage of people below poverty line has declined and literacy level has improved by huge numbers. Other opportunity is the use of available infrastructure of post offices (1, 38000+),haats, mela’s etc.Proliferation of large format rural retail stores which have been successful like DSCL Haryali stores,M & M Shubh Labh stores, TATA/Rallis Kisan Kendras etc. Rural marketing involves more concentrated personal selling efforts compared to urban marketing. Firms should desist from designing goods for the urban markets and subsequently pushing them in the rural areas. Distribution strategy need to be devised in a different manner compared to urban market. Communication channels should be chosen very carefully as only around 20% of the rural population has access to a vernacular newspaper. So, the audio visuals must be planned to convey a right message to the rural folk. The rich, traditional media forms like folk dances, puppet shows, etc with which the rural consumers are familiar and comfortable, can be used for high impact product campaigns.
Some successful examples are of Escorts which had an focused approach depending on geographical and market parameters like fares, melas etc. Looking at the ‘kuchha’ roads of village they positioned their bike as tough vehicle. Their advertisements showed Dharmendra riding Escort with the punch line ‘Jandar Sawari, Shandar Sawari’. Thus, they achieved whopping sales of 95000 vehicles annually and HLL which started ‘Operation Bharat’ to tap the rural markets. Under this operation it passed out low–priced sample packets of its toothpaste, fairness cream, Clinic plus shampoo, and Ponds cream to twenty million households. Thus, looking at the challenges and the opportunities which rural markets offer to the marketers it can be said that the future is very promising for those who can understand the dynamics of rural markets and exploit them to their best advantage. Rural marketers should understand this fact and try to tap the huge untapped potential in our country, so they can successfully impress on the 230 million rural consumers spread over approximately six hundred thousand villages in rural India.
Contributed by: Manish Sharma & Prasenjit Sen
Monday, December 8, 2008
Customer is Queen
Indian women has elbowed her way into yet another male domain-purchasing .The present day women is not an easy target for marketers, as beside being value conscious and price sensitive , she is sharp ,educated and thinks before making up her mind .Marketers have learnt that women (working and non working ) are more influenced by advertisement, studies product carefully and make informed choice. A woman as compared to men are influential in task such as information search but prefers to be in comfort zone this makes them tougher to change their buying habits. Research suggests that men look for label and brands, women look for style, specific features and quality. They are more confident purchaser and are consulted by their male counterparts more often. Most even take the final call of purchase be it automobiles, white goods or home improvement. Consumer researchers are interested in women’s multiple roles, time pressure and changing family structures basing on which they can formulate effective marketing and communication programs to reach them. The ad industry also faces a key challenge as advertiser can no longer have single generic advertisement that runs across all categories because women are keeping their eyes open and making sure that information about the financial and technical product is impeccable.
Many women do mirror the lifestyles of their male counterparts, especially as they take on androgynous roles in the workforce and social activities. Acknowledging the changed equation, Electrolux brought out a range called “affirmation of self” a premium brand for new, affluent multitasking women. Lifestyle changes, an obvious off-shoot of better earnings and for a fashion alert society ensures that there is assured market for women’s product .When it comes to residential and family matter , it is always the women who dictates the choice and 80 percent of the housing choice are made by them .This is so because apart from being quality conscious and comfort loving they are assertive about their needs and also has flexible income to splurge .It is not financially independent women who are splurging on shopping during weekends ,but homemakers too ,who throng the malls on weekends .Manufacturers too are ensuring that women –specific products and services should be designed to woo the financially independent and discerning target. Idea Cellular had launched the first ever Women’s Card because they understood the need gaps of women and offered value adds such as tips on beauty, fashion, health and safety alerts .On other hand, Cox &King provides women traveling in groups into hotels with women –only floors and provide them with an experienced woman guide .
Women have inimitable criteria for buying and sellers just can ignore them as “Customer is Queen” is the new marketing mantra.
Many women do mirror the lifestyles of their male counterparts, especially as they take on androgynous roles in the workforce and social activities. Acknowledging the changed equation, Electrolux brought out a range called “affirmation of self” a premium brand for new, affluent multitasking women. Lifestyle changes, an obvious off-shoot of better earnings and for a fashion alert society ensures that there is assured market for women’s product .When it comes to residential and family matter , it is always the women who dictates the choice and 80 percent of the housing choice are made by them .This is so because apart from being quality conscious and comfort loving they are assertive about their needs and also has flexible income to splurge .It is not financially independent women who are splurging on shopping during weekends ,but homemakers too ,who throng the malls on weekends .Manufacturers too are ensuring that women –specific products and services should be designed to woo the financially independent and discerning target. Idea Cellular had launched the first ever Women’s Card because they understood the need gaps of women and offered value adds such as tips on beauty, fashion, health and safety alerts .On other hand, Cox &King provides women traveling in groups into hotels with women –only floors and provide them with an experienced woman guide .
Women have inimitable criteria for buying and sellers just can ignore them as “Customer is Queen” is the new marketing mantra.
Contributed by: Prof. Sapna Parashar
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Ambush Marketing
Ambush Marketing, a term first coined by marketing guru Jerry Welsh.
The word Ambush means, the act of concealing yourself and wait to attach by surprise. But the word Ambush Marketing means something very different. It means a tactic whereby a company attempts to ambush or undermine the sponsorship activities of a rival that owns the legal rights to sponsor an event. In simple words it is where a company runs a marketing campaign around an event in which it is not directly involved or has paid a sponsorship fee. Ambush marketing is always associated with events. Ambush marketing is a planned effort by an organization to associate them indirectly with an event and gain some recognition and other benefits .
It is typically targeted at major sporting events like – like the Olympic Games or the world cups in various games and is a strategy adopted by rivals of the official sponsors. For example, in the Winter Olympics held in Lillehammer, Norway in 1994, Visa was one of the official sponsors. Its rival American Express launched an advertising campaign with the slogan: “If you are traveling to Lillehammer, you will need a support, but you don’t need a visa”. An example more familiar to Indians is Pepsi’s hugely successful campaign on the slogan “nothing official about it” during 1996 cricket World Cup, for which rival coke was one of the sponsors. Similarly, when Pepsi sponsored the 1999 Cricket World Cup, Coca Cola put hired people in the stadium and made them furl Coke flags, drink Coke, wear Coke T-shirts etc., in full view of the worldwide TV audiences. In 2004, the tables were again turned. Coca Cola sponsored Euro 2004, but Pepsi used its association with David Beckham and other players to produce a celebrity ad that successfully deflected and diverted viewers’ attention from Euro 2004.
There two forms of ambush marketing:
1) Association Ambushing: The non-sponsor gives the impression of being an official sponsor by using symbols and words associated with the event.
2)Intrusion Ambushing: The non-sponsor company creates hype in the media and goes for spectator exposure of the event by advertising near the venue of the event.
Some Strategies of Ambush Marketing:
1) Sponsoring the media coverage of an event: Kodak sponsored the broadcast of the 1984 Olympics where Fuji was the official sponsor.
2) Sponsoring a sub category within an event : During the 1996 Olympics Samsung which was not the official sponsor took an aggressive strategy against Panasonic which was the official sponsored the event by taking rights to a parking lot near the venue of the event. Panasonic managed just 3% awareness after the event while Samsung managed as high as 9%.
3) Making a sponsorship related contribution: Ian Thorpe, an Australian swimmer is the brand ambassador of Adidas while the team is sponsored by Nike. To protect his personal contact with Adidas he draped his towel over the Nike logo while receiving a medal at the Olympics.
Engaging in advertising with coincides with a sponsored even t- Pepsi floating a hot air-balloon over the final in Sharjah where Coca-Cola was the official sponsor.
More recently, there was a straight fight between Hero Honda, a global sponsor of the Champions Trophy taking place in Sri Lanka, and its rival TVS. TVS has, according to industry experts, paid Rs 12 crore to rope in cricketer Sachin Tendulkar as its brand ambassador for three years.Nike became the official uniform suppliers of many hockey teams during the Olympics without paying the huge sponsorship sum of $5 to 50 million.
Ambush Marketing has many ethical issues related to it. Nowadays there some legislative laws being put into place to curb the issues regarding ambush marketing. One such recent example is current ICC controversy. It is precipitated by the desire to protect official sponsors of the Champions Trophy. The ICC does not want to allow any company to cash in on its events secured by other sponsors paying huge sums of money. The objective was to protect the exclusive rights granted to the sponsors at a whopping cost of $550 million (until 2007).
Some measures which can be taken to curb Ambush Marketing:-
· Preventing tickets from being used as competition prizes
· Policing the event more strictly for “ambushers” and denying them access
· Using event regulations and participation agreements to restrict the rights that participants can grant their own sponsors (e.g., what athletes may wear or carry when they compete).
As such ambush marketing at the margins will arguably always occur and law alone will prove for the ingenious marketing strategies .The challenge now lies with lawyers to determine what strategies can be identified to curtail ambush marketing
Contributed by : Fahad Bagadia & Mohit Kapila
Monday, December 1, 2008
Are Mascots Worth Thousand Words ?
Mascot is ‘a person or animal or thing that is supposed to bring luck to its users.’ Mascot is used by a company as a part of a marketing strategy to interact with the customers or consumers. It is a way to gain more customers by using a mascot as a medium for physical and psychological interaction with them and distinguishes brand by having a marketable character. A mascot helps to brand the company/product and can be used in creating games (flash games, computer games etc.), commercials, advertisements, toys and cartoons. Effective ‘Brand Mascots’ increases awareness, sales and profits whereas ineffective ‘Brand Mascots’ do not amass customers or wealth, yet incur ‘MASS COSTS.’ A strong mascot marketing effort enables to create media exposure and excitement, generate goodwill for the brand, act as an ambassador for the brand by providing a voice for the company's social conscience and provide tie-in identification at point-of-sale (the mascot boldly featured on packaging, in-store merchandising, trucks and T-shirts), and sell products.
For effective development of a character or mascot a company should spend reasonably to develop a professional character that is worthy of the product, contact professional firm to guide through the important development phase. Character development, particularly for mascots, requires a special base of knowledge to make it work successfully as they must have strong identification with the brand and use mascot everywhere from signage to collateral to in-store merchandising to packaging, advertising and events which will enable brand association .Apart from this whenever a company wants to introduce a new mascot they need to identify that whether the present mascot is consistent and helping company to increase sales, the withdrawal of the existing mascot is a good decision and will the new mascot be efficient enough? To answer above questions and decision more accurate one has to fall back model to the model knows as Brand Mascots v/s Brand MASS COST. In this model one needs to compare few things like:
1. Relevance v/s Irrelevance:. If it is a highly industrial category or a highly technical category, it may be prudent to look at other branding means rather than use ‘BRAND MASCOTS.’ This is because the target audience is serious and there is high probability that they may consider mascots frivolous and casual, thereby destroying the rational product story, the technical competence as well as the product efficacy image. While on the other hand in categories like services, FMCG or other consumer products, a ‘Brand Mascot’ may work out to be relevant and effective.
2. Attract versus Distract :If the ‘Brand Mascot’ is able to attract consumers towards the brand, not only in terms of awareness, but also in terms of trials, purchase, consumption and repeat purchases, then the ‘Brand Mascot’ is working. However, if the Brand Mascot distracts from the brand and its products and service usage, then it would just be a Brand Mass Cost. In fact many years ago, 7-up lost its product usage because Fido Dido actually distracted consumers from the product. Consumers bought the concept of Fido-Dido - the ‘Brand Mascot’ and did not buy 7-Up, the brand itself. There is a very thin line between attraction and distraction and must be worked on very carefully.
3. Focus versus Hocus-Pocus :Over a period of time there has been a focus on the Air-India Maharaja. Its consistent usage has definitely helped the Air-India business and created a special identity reflecting the culture and splendor of India and its history. The ‘Brand Mascot’ clearly symbolises that the passenger would be treated like a King. This focus has helped. In some other cases constantly changing brand mascots under the garb of boredom leads to a shallow, inconsistent hocus-pocus thus leading to ineffectiveness.
4. Brand Mainline Versus Brand Sidelined :Everything a ‘Brand Mascot’ stands for should keep the brand in the mainline and mainstream to bring out its core values and benefits. It should not let either the brand or its benefits get sidelined. There was a feeling that Gattu, the ‘Brand Mascot’ of Asian paints had outlived its utility and the brand was brought back in the mainline with Gattu being removed so that the mother brand does not get sidelined. If a choice has to be made between the brand and the brand mascot, it is better that the ‘Brand Mascot’ be sidelined because ultimately the brand is the hero and celebrity, whereas the mascot is only a support.
Thus, as per this model if the four parameters are appropriately evaluated, ‘Brand Mascot’ will work, otherwise it may turn out to be just a ‘Brand Mass Cost.’ After all a mascot is supposed to bring good luck to the user, isn’t it?
Contributed by: Vaibhav Gupta
For effective development of a character or mascot a company should spend reasonably to develop a professional character that is worthy of the product, contact professional firm to guide through the important development phase. Character development, particularly for mascots, requires a special base of knowledge to make it work successfully as they must have strong identification with the brand and use mascot everywhere from signage to collateral to in-store merchandising to packaging, advertising and events which will enable brand association .Apart from this whenever a company wants to introduce a new mascot they need to identify that whether the present mascot is consistent and helping company to increase sales, the withdrawal of the existing mascot is a good decision and will the new mascot be efficient enough? To answer above questions and decision more accurate one has to fall back model to the model knows as Brand Mascots v/s Brand MASS COST. In this model one needs to compare few things like:
1. Relevance v/s Irrelevance:. If it is a highly industrial category or a highly technical category, it may be prudent to look at other branding means rather than use ‘BRAND MASCOTS.’ This is because the target audience is serious and there is high probability that they may consider mascots frivolous and casual, thereby destroying the rational product story, the technical competence as well as the product efficacy image. While on the other hand in categories like services, FMCG or other consumer products, a ‘Brand Mascot’ may work out to be relevant and effective.
2. Attract versus Distract :If the ‘Brand Mascot’ is able to attract consumers towards the brand, not only in terms of awareness, but also in terms of trials, purchase, consumption and repeat purchases, then the ‘Brand Mascot’ is working. However, if the Brand Mascot distracts from the brand and its products and service usage, then it would just be a Brand Mass Cost. In fact many years ago, 7-up lost its product usage because Fido Dido actually distracted consumers from the product. Consumers bought the concept of Fido-Dido - the ‘Brand Mascot’ and did not buy 7-Up, the brand itself. There is a very thin line between attraction and distraction and must be worked on very carefully.
3. Focus versus Hocus-Pocus :Over a period of time there has been a focus on the Air-India Maharaja. Its consistent usage has definitely helped the Air-India business and created a special identity reflecting the culture and splendor of India and its history. The ‘Brand Mascot’ clearly symbolises that the passenger would be treated like a King. This focus has helped. In some other cases constantly changing brand mascots under the garb of boredom leads to a shallow, inconsistent hocus-pocus thus leading to ineffectiveness.
4. Brand Mainline Versus Brand Sidelined :Everything a ‘Brand Mascot’ stands for should keep the brand in the mainline and mainstream to bring out its core values and benefits. It should not let either the brand or its benefits get sidelined. There was a feeling that Gattu, the ‘Brand Mascot’ of Asian paints had outlived its utility and the brand was brought back in the mainline with Gattu being removed so that the mother brand does not get sidelined. If a choice has to be made between the brand and the brand mascot, it is better that the ‘Brand Mascot’ be sidelined because ultimately the brand is the hero and celebrity, whereas the mascot is only a support.
Thus, as per this model if the four parameters are appropriately evaluated, ‘Brand Mascot’ will work, otherwise it may turn out to be just a ‘Brand Mass Cost.’ After all a mascot is supposed to bring good luck to the user, isn’t it?
Contributed by: Vaibhav Gupta
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