Here you have to think big but start small. Then iterate quickly and scale fast. It is advisable to have a simple prototype and see how it works. There can be experimentation. This is done on a shoe-string budget. Cash is preserved. One buys time needed to crack the success formula. It is better to test assumptions and hypotheses by market experiments than a ‘spray and pray’ approach.
In India, many foreign cartoon creations have a fan following. Mickey Mouse has featured in everything from pencil boxes to wrist watches. However, there are no India-created characters having pan-India appeal. Yes, the Maharaja of Air India and the Amul girl could be the candidates having all-India appeal. But they are advertising characters. The common man of Laxman has been a witness of the vagaries and variety of socio political life since 1951. There are attempts in the past to create such characters, say the mustachioed Chacha Chauhary or Dabbooji. Howerver, we do not see much of Chacha these days and Dabbooji has disappeared. In a multi-cultural country like India, it is difficult to create a character with an all-India appeal. Even characters created abroad have taken almost a century of brand building to turn into global characters they are. India is taking baby steps through mythological characters to crate brands as big as Iron Man and Spiderman. We can look forward to a Krrish too. It requires a strong imagination, conscious effort on detailing and quality backed by robust marketing and branding effort to push us into world class cartoon heroes.
Many of you must have wondered how Archie’s story would end. The maximum one could think of was whether he would end up with Veronica or Betty, or some surprise character waiting ahead. Instead Archie has died. It is too morbid. Millions of fans worldwide are sad with the demise of freckled boy-next doo. In the 36th issue of Life with Archie comic series, Archie takes a bullet for his gay best friend Kevin Keller, which leads to his death. The 37th issue will focus on other characters including Reggie, Betty, Veronica and Jughead. It is an end of an era.
Some other popular comic characters were also killed off. In Blue Cat Blues, Tom is bent on committing suicide and Jerry tries to prevent it without success. The little mouse thanks his stars for having a loyal girl friend but is deeply pained to see her going with another mouse in a car with ‘just married’ plank on it. The episode ends with the lovable characters ending their lives by coming under a moving train.
Spider-man is the web spinning hero. He faced death at the hands of Doctor Octopus who was a scientist turned villain. Spider-man gives back all his memories to Doctor Octopus and makes him realise how he has wasted his life in villainy. Peter dies , but the principles of Spider-man live on with the transformed Doctor Octopus. All this is the content of the Amazing Spider-Man # 700.
In The Death of Superman, the super-hero is shown to have died after succumbing to his injuries. He fights the Machine Man Doomsday, but loses his own life too. Later Superman Doomsday has a plot where a robot resurrects Superman.
According to Nikhil Advani, Karan Johar’s style of filmmaking consists of taking most shots as mid or close shots, as he would like to come close to the audience.Karan goes wide for dramatic scenes.On the other hand, Adi Chopra has a different style.He shoots mid and wide.Only for dramatic effects, Adi comes close to the audience.Temperamentally, Karan likes to be close to people, and Adi likes people to keep people away.Therefore, Adi likes his actors to be seen from a distance, while Karan wants to see actors close.
Here is the news. These are the four words with which the BBC anchors introduce the regular bulletine. It has 47 million British radio listeners and TV viewers. It has an additional 239 million people tuning in around the world. It does not just do news. It makes dramas, soaps and comedies and covers spectator sports and Westminister debates. It was founded in 1922, and makes first radio broadcast from London on November 14, 1922. In 1932, it starts World Service, and moves into the Broadcasting House. In 1953, it covers Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. Life on Earth, BBC national history programme comes in 1979. In 2012, it covers the London Olympics. It is in international model for public broadcasters. By law, most British households with a TV pay $ 231 a year to support BBC. The charter that provides the BBC’s constitutional basis and guarantees its independence is up for renewal in 2016. Some unpalatable facts have dented the BBC’s repute. A journalistic maxim holds that a reporter should never become a part of the story, but the BBC could not avoid this.
Media business today is less about delivering the news, and more about the live TV debates.Generating original news content is expensive.Comparatively, live debates are economical.They also provide the element of drama and tension.These are hard times for TV reporters.
ANI is the TV news agency that provides bytes across the channels, and deprives the reporters of the chance to do ambush journalism.As social media is more speedy, the TV reporters have also been deprived of the big advantage of speed over print.
The guests in live TV debates are now managed by Guest Coordinators ( GCs ). Politicians who wish to get on air now stay in touch with the GCs.
Most clothing and accessory brands of today have a history of 100-200 years. These are centered around creative craftsmen founders from Europe. Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, Armani, Cartier, Versace are luxury icons of this type. Similarly, Swiss watch and jewellery brands, Italian coachbuilders turned car designers have been around for a couple of hundred years and were also founded by visionary craftsmen par excellence. These brands have been continuously reinvented through storytelling and modern design.
Thus we have inherited the heritage model of luxury which is reshaped by geographic, technological and ecological forces. Fashion labels are quick to change to keep pace with the times, but other products and automobiles are evolving quite slowly.
A buyer group is emerging in the developing countries which demands original stories which it can culturally relate to and not just be content with the brand heritage. Thus luxury industry is experiencing a shift from exclusive to inclusive design. A new idiom of ‘affordable luxury’ has emerged. Instead of elitist brands, consumers need socially and ecologically responsible brands. Yes, there is resistance to change. Some do not want to change. However, the rigid will become irrelevant.
Coca Cola has began what one might call a phased re-launch in the US, where its sales are declining. There is a cultural shift, which does not occur overnight, but builds slowly. American diet is drastically different from it was ten years ago. It is more pronounced in the $ 75 billion soda ( carbonated) drink industry. It has experienced rising consumption for decades. In the 1970s, it exceeded the consumption of tap water. In 1998, Americans were consuming 50 gallons of cola every year. The decline started in 2005. Americans now consume 450 cans of soda a year, roughly the same amount as they did in 1986. Last year, in 2013, the consumption fell by 2 per cent. Diet coke was hit hard as aspertame, the sweetener was perceived as a health risk.
Pemberton who introduced Coca Cola in 1886 has removed alcohol from his medicinal French Wine Coca tonic, in response to the local temperance movement. Thus the very start of Coca Cola was a response to a health trend. It is exactly facing the same situation now.
Coca Cola makes 500 different beverages. Almost 25 per cent of world’s carbonated drinks’ consumption is accounted for by Coke. Pepsi is far behind, at 11 per cent.
Coca Cola is so secretive about its formula. Even the employees mixing the ingredients of the syrup concentrate do not know the names of the individual ingredients.
However, as it has come under assault, the company has realised that it cannot remain silent. In its own way the company is trying to open up.
In the US, Coke has introduced 20-ounce plastic bottle, three times bigger than its original 6-ounce glass bottle. It is not fair to sell drinks in such aggressive sizes.
A fifth of all US adults are obese by 1999. The number today is 35 per cent. Obesity amongst children has tripled.
The scientific community attribute the problems to fast food and sodas.
To bypass the decline in the US sales, the company concentrated on emerging markets such as India and Africa for a while. It has worked so far. The global revenue has gone up.
Coke has entered into non-cola non-carbonated drinks market by forming Venturing and Emerging Brands ( VEB ) division. It purchased some small start ups.
Coca Cola has to re-position itself so that people do not feel guilty when they drink it. They should ideally see coke as a treat.The latest ads describe it as a can of happiness.
Coca Cola is trying other sweeteners like stevia instead of aspertame. However, stevia does not taste great in colas.
The company is masterful at selling emotion along with its drinks.
There are people who belong to a growing community of ‘cord cutters’. They prefer to watch the TV content on Internet. They are more comfortable with their touch screens. In the US, there is a large number of cord cutters on account of the availability of the wide variety of quality content online. According to one survey, 40 percent of all broadband users in the US access some TV content from the web. Some have not used a cable or satell.ite connection at all. In India the numbers are not high, but growing fast. Google’s YouTube has wide access. There are content partnerships with it. Netflix and Hulu are the key players for online streaming video of TV shows. They are not available in India due to geographical limitations. Indian services are Hungama and Eros. Box TV features both Hindi and English TV shows, at a nominal cost. The convenience factor is the main attraction for code cutters. The devices like smart phones and tablets which can be used on the go have added to the trend. Apple TV are Chromocast (Google) use wi-fi to seamlessly connect a computer, tablet or a smart phone to a TV. That allows users to stream virtually anything from the Internet on to the TV screen.
The future model is multi-screen, People are platform agnostic. They would like to consume content when convenient.The two main issues here are the quality of Internet connection and content.These days TV and web-based programming co-exist.
A tweet from BudweiserIndia read, ‘ How are you coping with your # Monday Blues! Keep your # Buds close and watch them disappear!’ This is a tweet promoting beer consumption. As such, liquor products ads are banned, but these companies make use of the social media. Diageo, King Fisher of the UB Group, Budwiser, Tuborg, SAB Miller, Johnnie Walker are all active on Face book and Twitter. Smirnoff India, a Vodka brand tweeted, ‘ You don’t need an occasion to gift someone gold! Treat your friends to the royal taste of Smirnoff Gold toaday.’
Companies target their ads properly, for instance, a pizza company pings about them at lunch time or just before supper. Home decor companies are active in the afternoon to target the office goers. As against this, TV and print advertising is generic. Mapped browsing facilitates, the assessment of consumer behaviour by using analytics. Consumers leave a digital footprint behind as they browse. These marketing tracks are valuable for one-to-one targeting. In industry, close to 15 per cent of ad budgets are shifting towards digital advertising.