Do we need a CMO for our cabinet?

We have ministry of finance & a ministry of human resources development which manage well the finance & talents. But the leverage of these efforts can not be obtained unless we integrate the different departments' effort of communication. Our tourism has well communicated & got the result of surge in tourists flow from domestic as well as international destinations. But how much have we marketed our defense products or space innovation. Even we can export our railway, power utility or telecom expertise to under developed nations. But all we need is to communicate through a single window to maximize the impact.

“DO THE NEW” - Borrowed tagline?

UPA budget 2009 stimulated the vibrant Indian telecom market. The 3G services licenses will be distributed soon in the market. The market challenger Tata Teleservices (approx. 10% market share) is all set to storm the 3G services market by making an alliance with DOCOMO, Japan. The later is known for delivering superior value added services based on its advanced mobile technology. The brand essence ‘trust’ (Tata) is reinforced with the ‘lifestyle’(DOCOMO) to enrich the lives of the nation & will lead its new generation.

The initial brand essence of the new identity “Tata Docomo” is perceived to be ‘uniqueness in experience’ what the print adds & the new website says “ Do the new.” But isn’t the idea borrowed from “Do the Dew” campaign? Yes, PepsiCo adopted the tag to revive Mountain Dew in the 90s. Let us see what kinds of TVCs will be designed by the advertisers to communicate NEW……..

WHICH COFFEE WILL START YOUR DAY?

US coffee market has been vibrant due to domestic competition among three rivals – Starbucks, McDonalds’ & Dunkin’ Donuts. Starbucks is the most sought after brand consumed by a majority of Americans.  But McDonalds’ adopted frontal attack to have a category extension & a significant US coffee market share. They penetrated the café market by launching “McCafe” format with lesser price than Sturbucks & it offers beverages (coffee) along with burgers.

But this time Starbucks has been attacked badly by Dunkin’ Donuts. They adopted Viral marketing strategy to spread the news “In a recent national blind taste test, more Americans preferred the taste of Dunkin' Donuts coffee over Starbucks”. They have used social networking sites like Face book, Twitter & YouTube to form fan clubs to spread the message quickly. This type of comparative advertisement has not been adopted in US coffee marketplace before.

India is a growing market for café business. CCD & barista have a created a significant branded café market. But the Market is not as vibrant as US. I hope the major foreign café chains will come soon to India & make the market more competitive.    

EXPORT OF INDIAN CRICKET

If we do PEST analysis of Indian cricket, the present scenario will definitely indicate how the vibrant political weather forced IPL outside Indian border. Few days back, I wrote my blog on "Terror blessing for Cricket India". The subject is going to be true. We, the common follower of our cricket religion, haven't thought in dream that BCCI can take such a high quality managerial decision. Yes, it has decided to launch its best product(IPL) in South African or English soil. So Indian cricket is in the 2nd box of Ansoff's matrix - existing product(IPL) in new market(England may be).

Mr Lolit modi already outperformed English county cricket . That forced them to counter attack by starting EPL(English Premier League). IPL is definitely a great opportunity for all the stakeholders involved. Indians will get a chance to play on fast English pitches rather than domestic slow pitches. They also can get offers to play with traditional English county teams. The team sponsors will get a wider audience comprising of Euripean & Asean people. Even the Indian commercials will hit the English pubs,offices,clubs,homes & will spread throughout Europe.

Isn't it a great experience for Cricket India? Well done Mr. Lolit Modi(Chairman - IPL)! - Well done BCCI!

SMEs hiring MBAs

Time is very bad & might get worst. US top trading zones(NASDAQ, Dow-Jones, S&P 500) are not showing any light of hope to the global trade. Even the oil cartel OPEC is formulating how to regulate the supply & demand of oil in the global market & the effect will be transmitted to pockets of common men . 

The top campuses of Indian B Schools are struggling to provide quality placements to all the students, even some colleges are not able to attract top companies for summer internship. As the slowdown enabled the HR managers to stay away from these campuses, the lesser demand in quality jobs is a boon to the small & medium enterprises(SM Es). The biz freshers have no option in hand rather than joining those companies. So the less effective Indian SM Es have got the opportunity to attract top talents & leverage the slowdown effect.

 It is seemed that this slowdown will be continued for few years & the SM Es will get enough time & resources to turn around till the next boom comes. I hope that the next generation Indian MICROSOFT ,GOOGLE, CISCO, GM,3M will emerge from today's so called SM Es & will drive India to become world's supreme biz hub.

XCD 135 DTSi - BRAND MATTERS

“By end of the day, brands profit while products merely sell.” – Rajiv Bajaj

February came with a hope for auto companies. Two wheeler companies have shown steady growth after decline of several months. But Bajaj Auto could not write it's growth story while rivals Hero Honda & TVS grown at a reasonable rate. Bajaj Auto, which replaced the market leader Hero Honda few years back, could not maintained it due to wrong positioning & problem of distribution channels.

XCD 135 DTSi is saying a different story after it has been repositioned recently. The new commercial of two girls along with addition of new feathers definitely has given a distinct image to this brand. Now the sales is showing a steady growth trend. The added quality is paying off. The communication is in line with the legendary brand Pulsar. XCD 135 is all set to storm the gap of 125 & 150cc in Indian market. Bajaj is expecting to become the market leader again by riding XCD.

TERROR BLESSING FOR CRICKET INDIA

Terror strike happened for the first time in the cricket history.It IS not unexpected & the global regulator ICC has not considered to take adequate action to allocate the proper destinations for current matches. Srilankan players were attacked in such a country, which is presently struggling to survive due to the Taliban aggression on it's soil.

Pakistan will surely lose the right to host the 2011 world cup cricket. It is a great lose not only for PCB but also the industries like transportation, tourism, aviation of Pakistan mainly. ICC may find other locations in the subcontinent to carry on this tournament. So it's the exact time for BCCI to proactively promote safe Indian image. BCCI is strong enough financially & able enough to convince the ICC to take a major portion of the most awaited tournament. 2011 may be starting of a good financial environment worldwide & WC can stimulate the industrial growth in India.

BRAND RAHMAN

We got it at last. Yes it is Oscar. We had to wait for a long time (read for a foreign director's Indian film) to benchmark our film industry. But it is surprise for me, while the excellent films like Lagaan or Rang de basanti could not achieved the status of Oscar, the less attractive film like Slumdog ... won Oscar? I have a crazy logic, those films were worth more than the so called oscar standard.

No need to analyze why we could not achieved the status before in any Indian film. It is time to look forward. It is the time to capitalize what we have now in our hand. Hollywood had a long relation with our Mumbai film induatry. But they never shown any interest to evaluate the feasibility to strenghen this relationship further. In recent times Reliance Big Entertainment shown their interest to attract more holly directors to Indian soil. Now slumdog being a benchmark for Indian film industry, the top foreign studios like Sony, Disney & TWX are all set to come to Mumbai. Slumdog's Oscar-winning sound mixer, Resul Pookutty, is an FTII(Pune-based Film & Television Institute of India) alumnus. Not only our competence of film making capability is on holly radar but also our filmy telent making institutions are of the prime interest of holly directors & studios. We can deliver same or improved version of hollywood jobs at much lesser price what we have already shown in IT already. Yes it's time to become a global film hub for Mumbai. It is seemed that opportunity is knocking the door.

TOUGH ROMANCE

Valentine's day has been converted into an unofficial festival in India. Thanks to the mighty marketers who along with the incredible Indian media has transformed it into an event to get more exposure to the products & services.But this year it is going to be the real test for them due to the global slowdown continues.Consumers plan to spend an average $102.50 on Valentine's Day gifts and merchandise, versus $122.08 per person last year, according to the National Retail Federation's 2009, Valentine's Day Consumer Intentions and Actions survey. According to the serves the average spending on the gift items like rose,greetings,jewellery has been effected globally. India being a major exporter of roses for different festivals has reported 30% reduced sales this financial year. This ill financial weather can not dominate lover's market for long. They have found new way called online dating , a cheaper way for making relations of busy people. So the online dating agencies like Perfect Match.com has been proved to be recession proof with a steady growth in sales.

So, this year few have to compromise with intangible gifts rather than tangible ones.Hope the next 14th will come with a packet of boom......

LET'S GO TO WAR

IPL, India- Sri Lanka, Formulae one, WWE,FIFA world cup,……………,Israel Palestine, Ltte-Sri Lankan army, Russia-Georgia-Chechen . All are events. The difference is that the first four are used as communication channels by the companies like Adidas, Nike or RBS – the driving force of the various products & services. The last three are the potential events used by the marketers of the global weapon market. The market of weapons is flourishing day by day. The reason being a structured supply chain management in the market, has polarized into two verticals – The mighty United States & ever challenging Russia. Being the market leader of 41.9% in the global market, The US has always shown its invention to update its unknown weapon line & differentiated from the challenger’s threat.
Apart from the two biggies in the trade, Britain & recently China ,the market followers, are showing their capability to meet the market gap in the supply chain network. Britain came in third, but its arms exports grew only 200 million over 2005 and the overall volume of arms transfer deals stood at just 3.1 billion dollars, less than a fifth of the US total.
The challenger Russia is known for its inbuilt aptitude in heavy engineering. It has deployed its chief marketer President Vladimir Putin who claimed a remarkable $2.2 bn deal from Saudi Arabia for supplying the Mi-35 attack helicopters and transport choppers Mi-17 and Mi-8. Russia is also expecting the Saudis to make a decision on a $1 billion package which includes T-90 tanks and armored personnel carriers.
The target consumers of both the majors are also different. United States tries to capitalize its allies(NATO members) & some of its faithful foreign relations like India & Pakistan. The huge cost involved in maintaining the military supremacy all over the world, US needed a concrete blueprint of marketing its ever changing weapon lines. The Russia has targeted always the nemesis of US like Venezuela, china,Iran, north Korea, Cuba etc. India is always a loyal customer of Russian defence products(recently the Sukhoi fighter jets were updated with the brahmos areal missile system on Russian soil!).
If we see history we shall come to know that the gulf countries are a major potential market for weapon sales. That’s why US has approached several times the area through its famous Marines to promote & demonstrate its advanced defence star products to maintain a brand recall in minds of the surrounding countries. But the promotional huge cost sometimes diminishes the image of the president(Mr. Bush), as he can not justify the proportional success in the marketing audit!
The success of grabbing a reasonable share in the weapon market relies on the R&D capability of a country. As the high cost involved in the process lengthens the break-even, the corporate do not take interest to start weapon business(L&T). India is also trying to market few products like helicopters & missiles developed by DRDO to the lower segment. There seem to a gap in the market – the training of defence professionals in different countries who do not get enough chance to demonstrate its defence capabilities. So India, fighting with terrorism for decade ,can become the “Master Chief” for those nations & can bypass the majors.