Marketing Ganga

Author: Shabbir Chunawalla

  • Receiving Scent Digitally

    In those days of snail mail, you used to receive letters which were scented. In these days of emails and digital communication, there are efforts to recreate the aroma by employing a table top device oPhone or a cartridge Scentee that connects to a Smartphone, and is set up with an app. These days plastic pallets with scents are used, and aroma is released when air flows over them. A small pallet is called an oChip. These chips are arrayed in oPhone. Each chip contains one to four aromas. These chips are sold in packets of eight. These are families of similar smells. A person positions the chips depending upon the smell he desires, and air flows over them, and a combined smell is emitted. Each chip lasts for 1000 uses, and costs $2. oPhone is accompanied by a table top receiver.

    A scented message can be sent by tagging a pic with  oSnap iPhone app. The sender selects the aromas. The person at the receiving end taps for the scent. The app directs the receiver to position the air flow. A fan switches on and the device emits aroma. oSnap app is free on iPhone. It will be available on Android next year.

    Scentee is simpler. Here liquid aroma is changed into an aerosol by a small motor. Each cartridge is good for 200 sprays.

  • Science of Signs

    A sign stands for something else other than itself. It can take the form of sounds, colours, images, words, odours, gestures, flavours, objects. Semiotics studies the meaning of these signs and symbols within our culture. Though signs themselves are studied, they are further arranged into organised codes and are given cultural context.

    A sign links the concept and the meaning. Flowers offered to a girl are a sign of love. Flowers offered in a graveyard are a tribute to the departed soul. The concept is the signifier and the meaning is the signified. The relationship between these two gives it a meaning. The relationship between the two can be arbitrary, e.g. a rose is a pink flower, but it could have been given any other name but would have smelled as sweet. When the signifier resembles the signified, it is called iconic. A picture, for instance, is a representation of the real thing. When the signifier and the signified are directly connected, it is called indentical, e.g. passage of time is shown by the growth of the anatomy of the hero in a movie.

    Signs are organised into codes of social behaviour, fashion, rituals, mass media and fine arts. Signs are put in a cultural context, a managalsutra is a sign of a married woman. This is its interpretation in Indian culture. A mangalsutra-like necelace would have just remained an accessory in some other culture. We are not surprised to find white bridal trousseau among Catholics, but Hindus consider white as a colour of mourning.

    Advertising is a system of distinct signs . Semiotics seeks to explore the working of advertising.

  • Prompotion tied up to Mega-Events

    Companies invest in the promotion tied up to mega-events like the Cricket World Cup. Mega-events are exceptionally good in terms of reach and impact. Cricket World Cup reaches 75-80 per cent of all TV households. There is considerable out-of-home viewership. One can reach the entire nation at one go. Mega-events receive pre-event publicity in the media. There are several hundred promos prior to the event. These events generate a great amount of saliency. The brand also gets the benefit of the positive rub off of the event. It all depends on how the campaign is handled. Some brands use the event as a platform to their existing creative. Events have been used to promote brands whose ads are restricted by law. Events generate a lot of awareness for the brand. Events also have pre- and post-event programming capsules.

    It requires a very high budget for the brand to be promoted visibly during an event, running into several crores. It is also very difficult to overcome the clutter of several hundred ads during an event. Investment is risky in the sense that the event has to deliver to pay off. Imagine what happens if the match is rain-washed, or a beauty contest faces hostile opposition of several groups. Besides, events generate one-time impact, whereas serials are present round-the-year. Some marketers create their own events, e.g. Lakme India Fashion week.

  • Topical Ads

    Advertising agencies have a natural tendency to turn what is topical into ads. They turn a morning’s headlines into a hook for an ad. Topical touch does have an impact. But can they exploit tragedy, death, terror and epidemics ? Is it not being too opportunistic ? Maybe, if the organisation has the products that could help in the crisis, they can use these themes. For example, anti-bacterial products may be advertised taking the epidemic as its platform. Telcom companies can advertise their non-contact benefits. Cosmetic companies cannot possibly exploit the epidemic theme. Who needs lip-sticks when the mouth is behind a mask ? Still, some companies advertise their non-stick lip-sticks. But advertising using crisis may turn out to be repugnant if not carefully handled. It is not good to take advantage of death. Gumboot companies should not relate their products to the Kargil crisis, but could do so tastefully once the crisis is over by highlighting the role of the product played during the crisis. It is best to stay away at the time of crisis. Lowe created an ad for Garware’s sun protection film at the time of Mumbai bomb blast, because the executives had experienced its effectiveness in an office facing Air India. It is a difficult case. Sometimes ads are made to get awards rather than to promote social causes. This of course is avoidable.

  • Electronic Shelf Labels

    Brick-and-mortar retailers are using electronic shelf labels. Once a store adopts digital displays, one person, rather than an army of persons, can quickly update the prices on thousands of products in multiple locations. The increased use of electronic shelf labels is changing the in-store experience. This has become popular in Europe over the last decade. Pricer is the Stockholm-based market leader in digital pricing displays. The need to compete with online e-commerce sites has accelerated the pace of electronic shelf labels. It allows a store to change the prices quickly. It can be integrated to smartphones applications. There are price changing algorithms used by merchents to keep pace with the competition. There would not be a gap between the store price and online price. It leads closer to perfect market conditions.

    The discrepancies in prices the consumers face at the check out counter is eliminated. There are reduced number of complaints, returns and cancellations. Many employees who were pasting price labels manually are freed from the chore. There are some problems too — customers keep on waiting for the price change on the lower side before they buy. Amazon makes price changes all day long. As a matter of policy, a store may open with lowest prices. After 5 minutes, there is no guarantee how the prices will move.

  • Well-off Older People : Woopies

    There is increasing older population of 50 plus in the US and Europe. Advertising industry calls them woopies  –well-off older people. They will have a large discretionary income, money left over after necessities are taken care of. All grey heads cannot be treated alike. There are several distinct segments. Those aged 50-64, 65-74, 75-84 and 85 and older. The first group may be flush with funds. They are at the peak of their career. They have fulfilled most of their family obligations. The 65-74 and 75-84 group spend money on travelling and buying gifts for grand children. They are usually retired. Their budget is, therefore, tighter. The elder group of 85 plus spends big amounts on health care.

    Oldies think of old age security. They are not able to project their longevity and health care expenses. They are after bargains. Some hotels offer them rooms at a discount. They are vulnerable to price cut promotions. They show more brand loyalty than their young counterparts. Woopies may take promotion with a pinch of salt. They seek genuine information about products. They require PR handling and product information of packs. Service is the key criterion in buying.They may be outraged by advertising treating death and disease without sensitivity. They may not like advertisers who harp on their weaknesses. A shampoo for old women should emphasise how it makes them charming in spite of the age. A nappy of old people should show images of elderly athleticism. But even such positive images are no guarantee of success. Who likes, the name ‘retirement homes ‘ and ‘ virdhashram ‘ ? Even euphemisms like ‘ senior citizens ‘ and ‘ golden years ‘ are no longer palatable.People who are questiones about their age like to understate it by at least 25 per cent.

    Ageing population also buys products to satisfy their needs. So promotion should not always be age specific. Some powerful appeals for them are convenience, comfort, security, sociability and old world charm. A micowave oven used by older people should have pre-set controls which are easy to operate by older people. Cruise liners provide male hosts to entertain older female passengers. Age is a state of mind. As Twain remarked, it is a thing of mind, it does not matter. An ageing world wants marketers to adopt this philosophy.

  • Data Scientists

    Data scientists are modern day archaeologists and oracles. They are much in demand. They have to piece together the stories that numbers have to tell. New age companies such as e-commerce retailers and mobile advertising companies employ data scientists to find new ways of doing business and solving problembs. They attract lucrative pay packages. A large part of their job is grunt work, gleaning information from data spread over social media, public government records etc. The data is cleaned and structured to make sense. Data scientists switch across half a dozen technologies — an ability to code in popular languages such as Python, Java, Perl. They should be able to work on Hadoop platform, and execute queries on SQL database, and work with unstructured data. They should ask  ‘why’ of the problem. They should maintain neutrality.

  • InMobi’s Miip : Ad Delivery Platform

    A Bangalore-based start up has launched in Silicon Valley a new ad delivery platform Miip to deliver content rich ads to mobile app users. It will create delivery zones for consumers within their favourite apps. It will present a curated collection of product feeds, apps and related content with visuals.It aims to charge higher premium for ads delivered from advertisers and share revenue with mobile commerce companies on business transactions. They are pitted against Google and Facebook who have their own ad delivery engine. Google dominates the web search market, and struggles to get a foothold in the mobile ad market, despite owning Android platform. InMobi has tied up with customers in the US.

  • New Business Model in Digital World

    In the online business, the very first priority is to get the user. It is necessary to get more and more users over a period of time. The second priority is to get them use more and more. After this, it is time to think about making money.

    Telecom was making money through SMS. SMS is dead now. All have taken to WhatsApp and Viber. It is difficult to figure out how WhatsApp intends to make money. It is in the future that such companies will make money.

    On line banking has challenged the way banking is done. There are digital disruptions. We do not know how far the physical model of brick-and-mortar bank will sustain in future.

    Digital models do affect privacy and security. People are revealing where they are and what they are doing.

    Steeve Ballmer, Microsoft’s former CEO spoke about Amazon that they make no money. In his world, it is not a real business. You are not in a real business until you make some money. Balmer’s mistake was to think about Amazon in conventional terms.

  • Digital Advertising Growing by Leaps and Bounds

    Some five years ago, digital advertising was just 5 per cent of the total ad spending  of the companies. This has increased to 8-10 per cent currently. Most widely used digital advertising mediums are Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

    It is easier to connect with the consumers using digital advertising. The number of hits can be tracked. You can know how much traction the particular campaign or ad has generated.  Besides, it is more economical to use digital advertising. Its cost is lower by 40 per cent than TV advertising. Digital advertising is an apt medium to target youngsters.

    Digital advertising was considered customised advertising to begin with. Since then digital itself is emerging as mass media on account of its increased reach. There are, however, many platforms which are offering segmented targeting. There is a provision to have multiple messaging that is tailored to audience. All this makes digital more attractive to the brand owners. In digital advertising, you can control the number of cities and the target audience. The increasing penetration of mobile connectivity has generated an audience that consumes digital content.