Updates || Harsha Daga || IIM Shillong || February 2016 edition

New Product Launch

Freedom 251, the world’s cheapest smartphone unveiled

With the announcement of this product, it is seen not only as a new product but as a catalyst to the dream of taking digitization to the corners of the country. World’s cheapest smartphone - the $4 Freedom 251 is set to be made in India. The company behind the project - Ringing Bells - received a huge coverage in the media and received beyond positive backup from users around the world. Well, only time will tell how efficiently the consumer needs are met.

Domino’s radical pizza delivery car is ruling the streets

Though it is not for consumers to purchase, the idea behind this state-of-the-art pizza delivery car

with a built-in warming oven is to enhance customer experience. Domino’s has been a leader in pizza delivery since years and they could maintain this stature only because of the innovative processes of pizza making and delivery, be it its Heatwave bags or the pizza lovers’ Batmobile. A J.P. Morgan restaurant analyst quoted "Dominos is a technology company disguised as a marketing company disguised as a pizza company". Brand up, Domino’s!

Brand Extension

Bisleri challenges the industry with Pop

With the launch of four variants of carbonated soft-drinks under the brand name Bisleri Pop, the 50 year old giant is set to re-enter this segment. After more than 20 years of Parle selling off their soft-drink business to Coca Cola, here it is..back with a bang. How well do they compete with the well-established-deep-pocketed MNCs is what we are eager to see. While we enjoy this show-down of the interesting cola flavors, do you want to know who will make it happen? It’s advertising agency Soho Square, a unit of Ogilvy & Mather India.

Green Mango Fanta has an answer to that

Interestingly, with the arrival of Bisleri Pop, Coca-Cola has also launched a Green Mango flavored carbonated drink under its Fanta brand. Now, this is war! But the fact that launch of India specific Green Mango Flavored Fanta was done in line with the Make in India summit deserves some kudos on being right on time. Coca-cola plans to add more variants such as litchi and strawberry by sourcing the raw materials from lakhs of local farmers. This is what we call a truly ‘Glocal Approach’.

Market Development

Garmin launches Vivosmart HR Activity Tracker

Here is the latest addition to the extremely handy and sophisticated fitness gear by Garmin, and guess what? It is available in India; thanks to SnapDeal. With its activity tracking features, additional workout support including timed activities, and smart notifications vívosmart is like having a personal coach and assistant right on your wrist. Further exploring this opportunity, Garmin plans to invest close to Rs. 900 crores in India by the end of 2016. Go Run!!

Ad Watch

Official 2015 FIAT 500X Super Bowl Commercial

This tongue-in-cheek humorous depiction of how FIAT’s 500X got Bigger, More Powerful and Ready for Action with a “Blue-Pill” meant for an old man that he accidentally dumps out of his bedroom window. And it’s wonderful to see how without the use of any sports gear, FIAT made its ad relevant to Super Bowl through the tag line and garnered more than 14 million views on YouTube.

Brand Watch

BrewDog spills its secrets to engage communities

In order to involve the home-brewing communities, BrewDog made recipes of all its 216

beers publically available. They say it is their way of “giving back” to the community as their name has also grown from the same place. By doing this, the brand has very swiftly made a space for itself in the hearts of the people. At the same time, it is a subtle scar on the face of their competitors as they believe the strength of their brand is derived from unique brewing abilities and not just the ingredients. Now this is some confidence!

PepsiMojis explores the language of Emojis

A picture is worth a thousand words, but hey, Emojis are no less. This summer, the “Say It With Pepsi” campaign is all set to boost consumers in getting their point across through their internally designed emoticons. The designs don’t only have a global appeal but some are also customized for local markets. Emojis deliver marketing messages "graphically, quickly and in a relatable way," Toronto-based branding consultant Jeff Swystun said in an interview. We can’t wait to share one ;-)

Xerox announces its split

Reflecting industry dynamics, we will now see Xerox as two separate listed companies, one carrying its legacy printer and documentation solutions while the other will focus on its business process outsourcing unit. Whether the two separate entities will carry the same brand name or decide to deviate will determine the valuation of this mammoth brand that has seen the highs and lows like no other.

Special Feature

Brand Forum, Sydney 2017

Australia’s biggest event dedicated purely to brand strategy & management saw participation by more than 350 executives hooked on to over 35 experts from the domain of branding. Take a look at the highlights here:

Updates || Harsha Daga || IIM Shillong || December 2015 edition

NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH

TATA to launch hatchback called TATA Kite

TATA with its HorizoNext-the four pronged customer centric approach plans to launch TATA Kite. In a new teaser featuring brand ambassador Lionel Messi, the automaker christened TATA Kite Hatchback as the Zica. TATA motors looks to re-establish its image in the entry-level hatchback segment, where currently it had only Indica eV2, which again has lost its charm as it seems outdated when compared with competitors such as Maruti’s Swift and Hyundai’s Grand i10.

PULSE - latest candy launched by Pass Pass

The entry of this new candy into the market by Noida based DS Group (makers of products like Rajnigandha Paan Masala and Pass Pass) might not be new to people from states like Delhi and Rajasthan, but now the entire nation will be privileged to get a taste of it. A simple Re.1 candy is showing new trends, wherein consumers are making bulk purchases of 8-10 candies at once as against a usual behavior of buying only a single piece at once.

BRAND WATCH

HDFC introduces sonic marketing by developing first ever MoGo

HDFC introduces sonic marketing by developing the first ever Mogo (musical logo). It’s for the first time that music will be used by a large, main stream corporate for purely branding purposes. HDFC plans to use their mogo at various touchpoints at a pan-India level, through ATMs, phone banking, mobile banking app and the website. The company aims at capturing the interests of the youth as use of new age technology and ways of branding not just appeals to the target but also establishes a better recall probability.

HTC & Snapdeal: The newly found friendship

In a very trendy manner, HTC and Snapdeal not just captured the hearts of Delhi-ites but also twitteratis across the network. They announced their partnership in a storyline when executives from both the companies went across NCR clicking pictures of the monuments, streets and people. They tagged each other in every post by eliciting response by the other one. They also used the opportunity to market the fine camera of HTC’s upcoming phone One A9. Looks like this team is here to give others a ride for their buck.

AD WATCH

Happydent makes the world go bonkers!

Though this ad is not a new one, it deserves a mention this time around as it is the only Indian ad to feature on the prestigious list of the Best 20 Commercials of the 21^st Century, as per the Gunn Report. Prasoon Joshi from McCann Worldgroup India, the creator of this ad deserves accolades for capturing the attention of the consumer in the most quirky and innovative way that could be. All we Indians were in love with this ad, and now, the world is going bonkers over it.

Durex calls upon for Unicode Consortium

While all other condom brands are struggling to hold ground and going the usual “pleasure” way to advertise, Durex always has something much more interesting. And this time to on World Aids Day on December 1^st, Durex encouraged its customers to call upon the Unicode Consortium, who oversee the introduction of new emoji, for an emoticon depicting safe sex. Their aim was to make more and more people comfortable to have a conversation about the importance of Safe Sex, and hence a condom. What a way to integrate societal marketing with digital media.

Scrabble’s new ad says more than just playing with words

“Words” is the first thing that strikes you the moment you come across Scrabble, but their new advertisement capturing the same in a set-up that is most expected in the holiday season, is so exceptional that feelings become the more dominant proposition for the board game. Leveraging the festivities and the spirit of joy and celebration to connect with their consumers they ensured to pull their attention towards the game with the use of anagrams.

NEW BRAND LAUNCH

Aeropostale forays into Indian markets with Arvind Lifestyle

The American apparel and accessories retailer plans to foray into the Indian markets in collaboration with the Arvind Group of Arvind Lifestyle. Aeropostale is a mall-based retailer targeting young women and men, hence reaching out to a very large segment of the Indian retail population. The brand aims at having 30 standalone stores along with 25 shop-in-shop (or multi-brand retail store) locations in the next three years.

The Moson’s group announes a new brand by the name of Indian Woman

The Moson’s Group, a Kerala based maker of Indulekha range of personal care products which has been acquired by HUL, has announced a new brand by the name of ‘Indian Woman’ under which it will sell non-personal care products. They plan to do the same through the Self Help Group (SHG) model with the primary objective of providing quality education to the to the Indian girl child.

NEW CHANNEL

Mobile Advertising - Tango Media

Tango media, a subsidiary of Mogae Group, launched a mobile advertising platform helps the companies in connecting with consumers, without the pre-requisite of data connectivity. Its patented technology uses keywords that it sells to various players who can directly communicate to the customer keying in ** followed by the particular keyword. Tango has currently tied up with five telecoms for carrying out the activity, hence reaching out to a humongous consumer base.