Category: Products & Brands

Almost a century old HMV group selling music in physical form is crumbling. Music for niche genres, record labels and stores that rely on physical formats face tough times. It is a great time for large concert organisers, mobile device, manufacturers and brands—all of whom are adopting to the new realities of how the music is heard, shared and even created.

Music competes with traditional form of entertainments such as Hindi films and cricket. People are ready to pay good money for a concert.

Music has emerged as a branding option. To marketers, it is an opportunity to get the ideal audience. Many brands have tapped the opportunity that live music represents.

The game changer for music industry is the proliferation of internet and cell phones. You can distribute content legally online. Musicians reach a wider audience. This is good for brand managers.

Music associated with brand may not have direct correlation in terms of gains. However, it brings enormous happiness in the life and so people value it and keep company.

There is a continuous shift of music from physical to digital formats. Music industry achieved revenues of Rs. 9 billion in 2011. ( KPMG ). A lot of people are accessing music through cell phones. Mobile devices are preloaded with music. Nokia store allows download of music. Samsung has tied up with Hungama.com  to make music available to customers. Micromax has launched Mymicromax.com –- an entertainment portal. Sony is also going the pre-loaded way. Cell phone companies do not remain just passive suppliers of music. They support actively the music festivals.

The rollout of 3G and 4G networks will give a further push to monetise digital music.

Music labels in future will tie up will handset manufacturers.

The CD’s are in danger of going the way of the tape, receding into ‘ a relic of the past’ territory. Music labels, therefore , are relying on cell phone manufacturers to pull them through.

 

Caller tunes are those tunes which are played when some one calls, instead of the usual ‘tring tring’. It could be a popular Indian film number or western music. The phenomenon started in South Korea for the first time 10 years ago. In India, it happened on July 19, 2004 ten years go. Technically these tunes are called CRBT—caller ring back tunes. The estimated market for this is worth Rs. 2000 crore. Around 66 million people have used the service. The business is operated by the telcos, the owner of the music, and the value added service (VAS ) companies like Hungama, OnMobile and One97. The revenue is shared amongst these three. Typically telcos get 50 percent, and copyright owners 20 percent. India’s music industry is worth Rs.900 crore, and caller tunes account for a substantial proportion of it. Caller tunes are tools of individuals expression—expression of the personality of the user. BPL introduced the service limited to Mumbai in June, 2004. As caller tunes are paid for by people, they are a better indicator of the popularity of a song.

In this VAS, the caller does not experience the service he is paying for. Getting people to change the song is difficult. People also tend to forget the song they have subscribed to. In addition, there should be a search and delivery mechanism to enable a user to find what he is looking for.

It includes–

 

* copying a tune a caller hears when he calls another person.

* a song-catcher where a user can dial a number and say a song’s name

* or even place the phone next to a radio or any other device playing the song

* or an IVR ( interactive voice response ) system.

In future, there could be caller tunes with a video aspect.

The music on records was not easily replicable, and so its spread remained limited. It could be transported as a tangible disc from one place to another. Then came cassettes. It affected the market. These were soon replicable at low cost.Then came CD , DVD, MP3. All these finished the monopoly of music market. It spread widely through Internet. Music was a sign of creativity and talent. This was diluted. New market for music emerged. Steve Job’s created iTunes to globalise the music market. Piracy has adversely affected the music sales. Music market in 2005 was $ 20.7 billion. In 2011, it was reduced to $ 16.2 billion. It affected the spread of music, and the musicians too. There were no concerts without sponsorship. Music was available free on You Tube. The market prices crashed. Presentation of music in a concert—this was considered secondary. Talent was adversely affected. Music shops closed down. New talents were seeking stage shows. Download of music became possible. It has entered Indian market. The repertoire of Indian music on iTunes is limited. But there is a hope, that the market will expand. The iPods have given a new experience of listening to music.  iTunes buys music and sells it. It has disciplined the market.

According R.A. Mashlekar, the innovation culture must be promoted in India by believing that the ‘ I ‘ in India stands for ‘ innovation.’ Secondly, innovation must be directed to the national goal of, ‘ inclusive growth’ by creating an ‘access equality ‘ despite the ‘ income in equality.’ The Indian innovation must move quickly from mind to market place. There are bottlenecks here. ae must recognise that research labs need funding, and produce output. They thus convert money into knowledge. The real challenge comes after the research output is available again for conversion into money. Thus we have to create monetisable knowledge. The skills in patenting too must be mastered. Fourthly, we must recognise the innovative potential of each Indian. Fifthly, we must build a national innovative eco-system.

 

This term is coined by Kevin Lane Keller, marketing professor, Tuck school, and branding expert. He compares the changes in the brand to the cuts on the human body. Human body can suffer a few cuts, heal them, and become normal. But if the same body  suffers a 1000 little cuts, it may never recover fully. The same is true for the brands. Small changes, limited in number, do not affect the brand much, but too much tinkering damages a brand. Strong brands avoid this. Starbucks almost succumbed to this syndrome, by  entering into unrelated areas. But the founding CEO set matters right. Nike too did initiate many things but survived, as it stuck to its core value ‘authentic athletic performance.’ It is the safety zone . The safety zone can be expanded in phases.

 

Brand icon is much more than a strong brand. It is timeless, incomparable and irreplaceable. Few strong brands achieve this iconic status. These brands have high emotional connect with the consumers. Even those who have not experienced the brand have strong feelings for it. Saatchi and Saatchi look upon brand icons as love-marks. These are the brands which people love and respect. A brand icon has to be high on both love and respect. A strong brand could be high on respect, but low on love. A fad is high on love, but low on respect. A brand’s iconic status is tested against its absenteeism. It may leave a void in people’s lives. Brand icons belong to  the people and not to the organisation. Disney is an iconic brand. Harley Davidson is another classic icon. Harry Potter is a recent example of an iconic brand. Cult brands have small following. Iconic brands have a large following. Amul is an Indian example of an iconic brand. IIT is another Indian example.

 

A brand is an asset just like a factory and plant machinery. A brand does not become an asset as soon as it is it is born. It is ‘ built’ ‘ up over a period of time. Brand equity is the result of the process of brand building. Aaker calls brand equity a set of assets associated with the brand, which provide value to its customers. In short, brand equity  represents the value inherent  in a well-known brand name. A strong brand equity means easy acceptance of new products, willingness to pay more for the brand, preferred shelf-space. A strong brand equity gives financial clout to the company. Brand with strong equity can be bought and sold.

Which assets lend the brand its equity ? These are brand awareness, brand loyalty, perceived quality of the brand and the brand associations. These four set of assets are created and enhanced by the brand managers to built brand equity. Brands are developed over a period of time – they are not made in a day. The process of brand building is continuous. Brand building process starts with product development, positioning and launch, brand development, brand association and brand extension – brand improvement.

 

Companies formerly had only a product to satisfy the consumer needs. These products were given a name called a brand name. But just as a person who has been christened by the aunty or godmother later acquires certain traits giving him a unique identity and image, brands in course of time get associated with a set of tangible or intangible benefits which flow from the product. Brand strategy decides what a  brand stands for and for whom. Advertising does play a great role in investing a brand with a set of unique characteristics. The other elements of marketing mix also support in this process. To build strong brands, a company must build a relationship between the brand and the consumer. Relationships arise from the customer’s entire brand experience.

 

There are many reasons for brand failure. Maybe it is a case of bad product. Perhaps, no proper research was conducted. Marketing mix can be faulty e.g. bad pricing or bad distribution or bad advertising. When there is no apparent reason for failure, we call it plain bad luck. However, the most important cause for brand failure is bad thinking or in other words bad strategies. Just a strategy statement is not enough. While formulating the strategy, we should keep in mind the following.

Be consumer driven

There should not be emphasis on the mere attributes of the product. We should keep in mind consumer behaviour.

Common cold affects two categories of people — those who keep indoors for rest when they catch cold and those who move out and work even while suffering from cold. Contac  is positioned for the movers since it ‘keeps –you-going’.

Re-define Research

Research itself is not always perfect. We mostly read the operative part and accept it as gospel truth. Research may have subjective bias. Dissect the research report thoroughly. Examine the questionnaire. See whether the right questions were framed.

Concentrate on the Crux of the Matter.

Sometimes, we tend to state to state what is pretty obvious. All of us know that frozen food are convenient. What matters more how they taste.

Meaningful Benefit

Though we can derive a number of benefits from the products, we have to restrict ourselves to the more meaningful benefit. Detergents have to clean and cold remedies must provide the relief. Even Diet Pepsi has to refresh, though it provides only 1 calorie and controls sugar and weight.

Popularity As the Main Benefit

The most sold brand sells most due to some reason. The most sold status is a consequence, and not a cause.

Price Strategy

Mere price with no regard to quality is not a good strategy. Sooner or later, we must strike a price-quality equation which  provides value to the customer. We may buy an economical car but it does not last for a long time. This is poor value. A car that lasts with minimum maintenance costs, is luxurious and gives resale value is an example of good value.

No Arguments

In financial advertising, just cold facts won’t do. People do not perceive them properly. We have to justify us by relevant information or reasoning.

Bundle of Benefits

Who buys just a combination of ingredients or parts? We buy some expected benefits. Are we buying a quarter-inch drill or a quarter-inch hole? Just attributes are not the benefits.A computer may have processing power  –it is speedy. It is the attribute. But its speed saves our time. It is the benefit.

Mother Brand

Never dilute the property of the mother brand by extensions and improvements.

We should not fiddle with the long term brand strategy right at the beginning. It should be the last thing to change. The reasons of brand failure may lie elsewhere.

 

We are mesmerised by the innovations in the corporate world but behind the success of these corporate laboratories is a busy underpaid university scientist. In the corporate sector, there is little room for fundamental research, and that is why most Nobel laureates are from the universities. In university set up, you are prepared for years of failure, and risks can be taken. In corporate world, if you do not deliver in time, you will be asked to take risk. It is not always the Ivy League universities which corner all the glory but many  non-Ivy League universities scattered all over. All chemistry research has been facilitated by Norman Allinger who is a guru to all those who use computer to figure out chemistry. The federally-funded National Institute of Health (NIH) of the US added to our understanding how the transport system in the cells work. This facilitates so much research in medicine. Though Steve Jobs was brilliant and audacious, yet without Alan Turing of National Physical Lab, UK and then the university of Manchester, there would neither be computer science, nor formalisation of the concept of  ‘alogorithm’. Mask Zuckerberg may have leveraged the Web, but the web was put in place by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1989. CERN, Geneva is funded by 12 European countries and Berners-Lee is today a professor in the University of Southampton, UK.

As the Indian universities are in bad shape, we do not think of pure science research in India. Though IIT, Mumbai is the best but ranks 251st in the world. Some other Asian institutes happen to be in the first 100.