Invasion of brand aliens

The invasion of brand aliens

Brands have always introduced to us animated characters that we never imagined before. These animated characters are supposed to hook up on our minds and facilitate recall. But sometimes things go overboard.

Anyways, but that’s how brands behave sometimes.

Brands that have successfully leveraged the animated characters are Vodafone, Mortein, recently Kitkat with birds and squirrels, Mentos, Android Apps and the list goes on.

Recently I came across very unique characters for a toothpaste brand. At first glance, I felt that I have seen them somewhere. Accurately speaking, the characters I am talking about are of Domex. The toilet civilians that share the space with us, living in colonies their aim is to control our lives and health in a negative way.

Jaggu Jaundice and his friends and soldiers are always attempting to command a position in their battle with the housewife. We have seen Jaggu and his friends do many antics to scare the s#$@ out of us but recently I was surprised to see that they could even travel. Or if I may say, they are really travel freaks and you could even expect them in your towel, slippers and god knows where all. They are actually expanding their territory and only time will tell where all they can travel to.

Something which shocked me further was to find out that a toothpaste brand from the same company uses the same characters to show how effectively it works in cleaning the teeth and maintain better oral hygiene. If you watch closely, towards the end of the ad, which has the superstar/ baadshaah of Bollywood educating his son on the good things about the toothpaste, it shows some aliens (germs) who resemble the toilet civilians.

Were these animated alien characters used in the toothpaste ad due to lack of imagination or since they were idle and doing nothing, so better put them to some other work.

Hope someone is not getting inspired parallel for a business proposition and gearing up to start recruitment services of such aliens, Jaggu’s family and friends.

The day could not be far, when Jaggu is seen in box office hits, through brand placement in films. Or its creator is given the critics award for best horror performance.

     

    

    

The Race for Multipliers

The race for Multipliers

Suddenly there is competition in the air. You will ask, where is it not? True. But this time the competition I am talking about is in the air waves – television frequency.

In the past two weeks I have seen commercials of brands that are betting their efficacy and delivery on the multipliers. Suddenly brands seem to have realized that it more effective to have multipliers in their brand advertisements.

What are multipliers? When a consumer brand says that it is more effective and delivers better results because it is “X” times more than normal or average, that is what I call multiplier brand communications. The best part is that I have discovered this phenomena across consumer product categories. What is the reason behind using multipliers? Is it really effective? Do shoppers/consumers even consider such parameters when making the buying decision? Is 5X or 3X the new brand mantra?

I still have not figured out, but have some bells ringing to corroborate my pov.

I will go a little back in time. The days when acronyms used to be the strategy for most products and brands communication.  The more undecipherable the term, the more impactful it seemed to be.

Mortein’s MMR technology is the first that hits my brain. What made someone think that MMR technology on the front of pack of Mortein coils would persuade the housewife to buy? Was it used with the intent to promote Mortein as a qualified repellent or use MMR as a bait to catch fish? When a mosquito bites, it bites and it hurts. Who cares what is the Mosquito Mortality Rate?

Similarly ZPTO technology in shampoo’s and other similar acronyms were being thrown left right and centre to the shoppers for beautiful hair. Water purifiers had RO Technology the way cars had MPFI. Nothing was new in it, just that the mass was averse to such acronyms, and then one day marketers realized that if there is nothing new to say, lets confuse and leave at that. Those who will be interested will anyways find out. Phew!!

After many many years, suddenly the same era seems to have come back, just that it is now playing with numbers. Maybe because everywhere we are talking about numbers and money, honey. Inflation, bankruptcy, downgrade, sensex, crisis, taxes, evasion, swiss accounts etc or maybe we don’t need to be literate enough to read up to 5. The marketers as a result never go beyond 5 for their multipliers. Assuming that anybody no matter what the educational background, would know how to read 1,2,3,4,5.

From toilet cleaners to hair oils, hand wash to fabric wash, cereals to beverage, batteries to paints, medicines to deo sprays, water purifiers to ceiling fans; they all seem to be influenced by the multiplier and are leaving nothing behind. Except that the consumer is left behind wondering how to measure the multiplier and against what.

Is this any trend? Is this communication tragedy or shorthand of communication? When there is nothing else to differentiate, use the number game, something we all are scared to face in real life. What rank did you get in school, what is your railway ticket waiting list number, what is your height, how old are you? Many consider Maths as a subject of the genius, while others ignore Maths to remain genius. Such could be the plight of housewives or shoppers when they come across such multipliers. It is better to ignore it than to get into the equation. If they say so, it must be so? Is they say 5X, it must be at least 3X. Thik hi hoga!!

But why all of a sudden almost every brand is looking for multipliers as a brand qualifier.

What is the psychological inference of such influences on Indian minds?

Bollywood or any Hollywood movie is best judged by the number of stars it carries after Friday release. Some people decide on the basis of stars given by critics/ reviewers, if they will want to watch the movie or not. Some decide on the basis of the crowd outside the theatre, where the reality is.

Insurance products in India are sold on the basis of numbers. It starts from the age, a number, which will decide how much can you be insured for. The insured amount is a multiplier of the premium. Basically, only the agent will know the maths behind the chart and tables that will have your age shown declining with increments in premium amount.        

In India, banks are one of the most advertised products along with food and personal care. Every day you will notice that some financial body has decreased or increased CRR/LRR/MRR and so many other types of RR’s. What a Tizzy man!!

Doctors in India are considered as one of the most learned species. The way they write, their handwriting, is only emblematic of how learned and wise they are. Have this tab OD, BD or TD for a specific time or a life time, as you may survive.

Telecom is not any more hush hush. Both inside and outside, it is the talk. What they keep yelling and shouting, talk talk as you much. From 2G to 3G, broadband + to +++, from per minute to per second; the fight for that perfect number will always remain.

Indian house runs on maids and not salary anymore. The only profession/occupation which has even the mightiest of the mightiest, physically or financially, bend down on the knees in front of them. Every task is associated with a currency number. The more times the visit, an exponential number you will have to shell out.

My formula though is simple. If anyone gets into a multiplier, use the same quotient to erase it from the memory.

A quote I would love to share with my friends – It is so simple to be happy, but so difficult to be simple.

So, be SIMPLE!

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Why bring in the New Year at Midnight when it is so cold?

Rings any bell? Do you remember what you were doing when the arms of clock were on top of each other? Hope you were not being carried in others arms because you could not hold your ground, forget the glass. Never mind, it’s not about how much you were high above the ground but about whether you lost sight of the ground reality.

Even our country got freedom at midnight 65 years ago. How is achieving freedom at midnight different from New Year’s arrival? May be I will have the answers at the end of this New Year. So much to see and so much to go through, yet. I have not kept the title because I don’t know how to read a calendar. Please!!

At midnight when everyone was partying hard or harder than any other night because it was being done to replace the calendar the next morning, I was trying to grab, in whatever senses I was awake, the world around me. People were partying terribly, I don’t know why. Some were drinking more than their bottles could hold, some were eating what their bowels had never imagined consuming, some were dancing as if they had decided to buy new pair of shoes the next day, some were driving faster than what their peddle was designed for, some were singing as if it was the last day to apply for Sa re gama pa and some were laughing out so loud as if they had paid all the premiums of their health insurance.

I was partying hard too with my family and friends and gobbling a full course buffet after midnight.

I was wondering why people had paid so much to welcome just another date in the calendar, another year subtracted from their life. I know what you must be thinking, he is so cheap. I am from the same creed so please don’t despise. One elderly person’s wise advice I do remember though. He said, “If you spend more than you have on the New Year night you will never run out of money in the coming year”. He also said once, “At the stroke of midnight, if you solve a maths problem from the most difficult chapter, you will never do wrong with calculation of money”. I wonder which New Year was that, but do repent not doing it then. Such was a New Year once upon in time. But last year, no matter where the food inflation was headed, it knew where to end up, ultimately.

While everybody was wishing and greeting each other on the New Year ’s Eve, those who had come as guests for the party by paying a handsome amount of money, there were a whole lot of species who were making sure that the former were enjoying to the hilt and not forgetting to help them accomplish their superficial love and compassion. Was it a New Year only for those who paid to party? Nobody seemed to bother to wish the people who were trying to ensure happiness was unrestricted and flowed like bottles of IMFL (that was unlimited). What kind of people are we? If we feel that New Year is for the rich and famous, those who can pay to party, that too at the beginning of a New Year, what are we going to do in the whole of the year. What are we starting with and why are we starting it at all? I pity those who feel that wishes are not meant to be spent like the money they spent the whole year in random things that don’t even have any remembrance. IMFL can flow unlimited because you pay for it to access but to share love and compassion it needs to be registered without a white badge and black bow on white shirt.  

This story is not purposed to carry a social message nor is it about philanthropy. It is about what we did at the moment which was supposed to change the tracks of our life. What we were supposed to do in the shadow of dark overlooking the glitterati of fire power? While our heads were held high, spinning like a charkha, weaving the threads of an impossible future, somewhere down below, our heart was floating like ice on cold drinks. Why are we so cold?

Business Process Re-engineering to Branding Process Re-Designing

Business Process Re-Engineering to Branding Process Re-Designing – PART1

(There will be a series of three articles. This is the first one.)

Sounds cool or complex? But ‘kuch to hai’ (there is something in it). And by the way, BPR is not an old school logic or idea because it was born only in 1990 which is not very far away from us. The same time our country was waking up to reforms and liberalization. Children who were born then are completing MBA in a management school today, or have taken up their first job in the corporate hallway, or exercising their likes and dislikes on consumption from their own disposable income.

It’s been only 21 years since it was first coined, debated and consumed by organizations. BPR is not also one man’s idea or case, it was supported and propagated by established management thinkers like Tom Peters and Peter Drucker. Wow!

I am here just to re-engineer the abbreviation in an age and time where BRAND is the business, BRANDING is the process and DESIGN is the engineering. It is solely my view. So let’s begin and see if it is cool or complex.     

BPR (aka business process re-engineering) is a ‘set of logically related tasks performed to achieve a defined business outcome’. You will find many definitions of BPR and different ways to consider this idea and adopt as per need or individuals who propose and organizations who comply. It is actually about “where you want to apply it” for the favourable results.

My subject is BRAND and I want to see how branding needs re-engineering through DESIGN.

Normally the stakeholders of a brand and its branding are huge. In the earlier days there used to be very few stakeholders. For example, the brand owner, the brand marketer, the brand seller (sales), the brand advertiser and the brand customer. If these entities were in sync with each other and went about doing things as guided by each other, there were no problems. Each one would aptly deliver on the roles and acknowledge the outcome.

But today a brand does not have stakeholders. It has relationships. And hence the connections and associations it enjoys cannot be isolated into departments or organizational structures. I have seen people from finance in a company adding as much value to the branding as the R&D, and people from production aiding the brand building as much as the brand manager. You would not see this phenomenon in the earlier structures and processes of BRANDING.

To quote an example - I was once involved in the brand design of a nutritional supplement for toddlers. I found the brand in the process of being built (design & creation) exhibiting almost eleven relationships. Starting with the (1) Managing Director of the company who had approved the assignment and our agency, the (2) General Manager who had briefed us on their expectations, the (3) Brand manager who had put together and narrated the actual brief, the (4) Production guy who had specified the do’s and dont’s, the (5) Nutritionist who had worked on the product story, the (6) Research guy who had executed the research and study to find the insights, the (7) Creative director who was leading the design development process, the (8) Designer who was working on the graphics, the (9) Relationships manager of the agency who was servicing the account, the (10) Strategic planner who was decoding the brief and putting together a strategic framework for design and finally the (11) Printer who was supposed to bring the physical evidence into place. But strangely I did not find the advertising agency anywhere in the process. I won’t be able to say if this is the ideal mix of relationships for any brand design process but truly this team did wonders and the results were mind boggling. Once this team was ready with the delivery of the work in hand, then only the advertising people were brought in and briefed for developing a suitable and compelling communication in media.

We all know relationships cannot be manufactured. And there cannot be any engineering on that. It is like a software and not hardware. What brought so many people from such diverse roles and potential together is the relationship which each of them wanted to establish with the creation, the brand. Each one of them felt that their presence was significant while being critical and towards the end of the process had developed a very strong relationship with the brand even before it was available for the world to see and build on its relations further.

I am not trying to say that a brand built with relationships is a brand that will enjoy profitable relations or vice versa.

All I am trying to say is that very often the branding process engineering is done the other way round. And that is what needs to be re-designed. We start looking for ‘what communication should be done and so what relations can we develop’. We first pay attention to the communication, the ad, the campaign and based on that start engineering the brand design in reverse. But is that right, I wonder?

We often try to hunt for relationships first, spend fruitless time identifying who should we relate to and who can be avoided. We jump to decide what we are going to say and then hunt for words and then look at who is it all about. We first try to write the speech and then try to figure out how to make it relevant to the listeners. But this is not right.

If ‘Business process re-engineering’ is about “how can we make our brand profitable” then ‘Branding process redesigning’ is about “how can we make our brand lovable”. It goes beyond stakeholders, the people who are meant only to deliver a job.

It is about relationships and how the brand can earn from it in the process of development. The more relations are built in the inception and development, the brand becomes more admirable and likeable as it grows.

So if I may say, at the end of this part that today “BRANDING PROCESS RELATIONING” is BPR of 2011.       

Is it Fair to hold 7 for fairness?

Is it Fair to hold 7 for fairness?

(for those who know me this is a work of fiction, for those who don’t this is a short story...on fairness)

I remember when I was reading the biodata of my sister which my dad had prepared for her matrimonial ad in one of India’s leading newspapers. It did specify her age, qualification and our family details besides her height and weight, but something was in bold which still haunts me even after 12 years when that ad was published in the newspaper and after 8 years of her marriage and 2 years of mine. Where did I come in the picture? Yes even in my matrimonial ad this one particular data was highlighted, but not bold. Plus there were only two differences, first that my matrimonial ad was written by myself and that the ad was never published. Phew!

But what iteez? Hold your breath my dear. It was the color of the surface on our body called skin.

While I took the liberty to describe myself “wheatish fair” after deliberating for many days on the right words and description, I never got to know if it would have attracted any attention and favour from a similar one or superior one destined for me.

We were born in a “small” middle class family and spending on personal care was a no no. Budgets were the order of the day and personal care products were perceived to be waste of money or luxury of the upper class. I even don’t know which “middle class” we belonged to, though I have stated one just to make a point. Small does not imply income, what did you think? It implies a family of four members. Anyways..

My mom would however take all inputs and inspiration from Sarita, Grihshobha and Grihani and many more which I completely detested in those days right from the cover. These used to get circulated from one house to the other wherever there was a girl child. Oops! No wrong intentions. I respect women. And my mother used to pick them up at the railway station when we used to travel from our place to our grandfather’s place or someplace out of town. Coupled with some inputs from my grandmother who felt that my dad was the brightest (color of the surface, mind it) in our family and would never mind mentioning in front of us, about how she managed to keep him brighter (again color of the surface). Sounds like a detergent!! Anyways..

My sister and many more like her were victims of several concoctions prepared with Indian herbs and ingredients. Sorry sisters.

I was the deprived one as my surface color did not matter. I would get married in any color, that’s what my mother used to say. That was just her belief not an actual truth. Actually when she saw my grooming wardrobe now, she really got upset. Not because she didn’t treat me to the concoctions but that I was wasting so much money on my grooming and looks. Especially when I am married now. Now what can happen and for what, by the way....

Now let’s look at the part outside my family. Enough of laughter!

Even in those days there were fairness creams. Slight correction, one fairness cream that held the responsibility of fairness of all the girls and women in our country in those days. What a burden?

I don’t remember if the product was any different then from what it is today. Except that there are more such creams today than there were women ‘seriously’ conscious of their surface color.

But one thing that frustrates me about these creams is not their ability to transform ‘he or she’ but the fact that they say it can in “seven days”. Who said that first is not important but that every new comer says that now, depresses me.

And then I wonder what can we do in seven days? And if we start thinking, we will be able to do at least 8 out of 10 things in a week if we are determined and dedicated. But never be able to change the color of our surfaces in 7 days. Sometimes I feel as if, if it cannot happen in seven days for you it can never happen in seven weeks, seven months or seven years even. But keep applying....at least seven people will get inspired from you, seven such companies will prosper and magnify their turnover seven times, seventh marriage proposal will get accepted, seventh matrimonial ad will get you a response or you will get married on the 7^th of a month....

Sorry boys. That’s why girls have all the fun.

But there is one truth, I have become one shade brighter than when I wrote my first matrimonial ad. I wish I was 7 times brighter...