Came across this interesting read today regarding Container Homes. Shipping
& Cargo containers are used as house structures and Interiors are done
inside them to create homes, retail space and other spaces for residential
& commercial activity.
A very interesting idea still not seen much on Indian soil. Especially for a
country like India if this can be scalable and institutionalized would come to
help millions of poor people. Apart from this it can also be offered as a
unique experience by the hospitality industry.
Surely a novel idea to be explored & promoted further in the Indian
environment.
Kudos to team - "In the Box" and others in this space for working
on this new idea, which surely has the potential to solve housing problems for many in our country.
Do share your experience if you have stayed in one !!!!!!!
Festive mood is all around and with Christmas just gone by and New Year around the corner High Streets, Malls and Commercial markets across the country are decorated and well lit up to welcome the customers. For all offline stores it's first contact point with the customer at the shop point is the Shop Facade / Shop Front / Show Window.
As they say first impression is the lasting impression and any retailer out there would vouch for this.
Today on my way back from office came across this Shop Facade at Jayanagar - Flying Machine Brand Store.
Flying Machines is an Indian jeans Brand owned by Arvind Mills
Flying Machine was launched in 1980 by Arvind Lifestyle Brands Limited.
Flying Machine roped in emerging star Abhishek Bacchan to be its Brand Ambassador in 2007.
Next to join the Brand Ambassador list was cricketing icon Virat Kohli with currently the rising bollywood star Arjun Kapoor endorsing the brand.
Few days back was having a discussion regarding the impact of a brand ambassador on the company's sale. One of the exciting topics or highly debated one in the B-School arena or especially during the quiz contests at Managements fests.
What I did not understand during my classroom session on Brand Ambassador was the cost involved in keeping a Brand Ambassador, benefits of adopting this marketing strategy on the product, product acceptance or awareness that a Brand Ambassador can deliver in a quick span of time, risk of the Brand Ambassador taking all the lime light and product not standing out which is the main objective and giving up may more things that you can do with the money that you spend on hiring a famous face for endorsing your product.
Recent example which comes to my mind is Hrithik Roshan and Sonam Kapoor endorsing Oppo smart phone. I am sure the investment to rope in both of them would have been huge, but the instant recognition that a new brand can get through this route is immense.
One industry which comes to my mind when I think of the Brand Ambassadors is the watch industry with every international brand getting one celebrity on board to endorse their brand as a lifestyle product.
Some of the recent Brand Ambassadors in the watch industry endorsing different brands:
>Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for Longines
>Shah Rukh Khan for Tag Heuer
>Hrithik Roshan for Rado
>Abhishek Bachchan for Omega
>Sachin Tendulkar for Audemars Piguet
>Harbhajan Singh for Hublot
>Deepika Padukone for Tissot
>Yuvraj Singh for Ulysse Nardin
In the coming posts would try to analyze the concept of Brand Ambassadors through many live and practical examples and case studies. Stay tuned and do provide your inputs on this concept.
It was 2008 Winter during my MBA and in between rush of submitting last minute assignments incidentally I picked up a Green Colour Hard Bound Book from the library shelf. This was about a great visionary of modern times and one of the biggest retail store on earth - Yes it was about Jeff Bezos and his vision "Amazon".
Next 5 days I was completely glued to it and finished the book with a whizz dreaming that one day we will see this kind of a game changing environment in our country.
Little did I knew at that time that it was already brewing & the retail landscape in our country is about to change in next few years and we will see Amazon and many other revolutionary companies from across the world and many home grown corporations shortly flexing their muscles for the Indian pie.
Jeff Bezos visit to India in sep,14 was a big news and I still remember the Flipkart's aggressive "Big Billion Day Campaign" during that time with many hoardings at the Bangalore airport, highway and Commercial Business district.
In July,14 Amazon announced to pump in $2 billion investement into its India business as it aims to become the leader in one of the fastest growing e-commerce markets.
The biggest learning he's taken away from India is the success of fashion e-tailing here which is evident from the following recent examples :
Jabong saw a sales growth of whooping 11,357 % in 3 years. It has grown its revenue from Rs 4.6 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 527 crore in 2013-14.
Another top fashion etailer Myntra (Taken over by Flipkart in May,14) grew its revenue from Rs 67.1 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 441 crore in 2013-14.
Amazon is no alien to the fashion business. It took over in July,2009 one of the best company well known for its excellent customer service "Zappos" created by Tony Hsieh selling shoes online.
It was no surprise to me when I saw this TVC first time, two days back for "Introducing Amazon Fashion - Fashion For Who You Are"
Amazon.in Fashion for Women
Amazon.in Fashion for Men
It was almost on the cards - Amazon's push to get a strong hold of Indian Fashion etailing market and garnering market share of the overall customer's wallet.
Amazon is now entering the Fashion arena in India in a big way.
For all my management friends out there in B Schools this is a great example in the realm of Line extension & Brand Extension.
In the current etailing scenario in India, Currently "Amazon.in" is perceived as a good destination for buying Books,Electronics,Gadgets, Computing Devices, Home & Kitchen Supplies etc.
However when it comes to fashion natural click is towards Myntra & Jabong who have seen stupendous growth and are still going very aggressive with their spends & campaigns
Recent Campaign by Jabong :
Recent Campaign by Myntra :
There is a drastic similarity with Jabong Saying "Be You" and Amazon Fashion Saying "Fashion For Who You Are" in contrast to "Live For Likes" as said by Myntra. The first two are concentrating on Center of Control while the later is concentrating on center of concern.
We can drill down further on this to understand the concept of Brand Positioning.
Also another important concept the launch of Amazon Fashion brings to my mind is "Integrated Marketing Communication" - Within few days of the launch I can see the same concept & communication being played on :
TV:
Print:
Outdoor:
Web:
The campaign has just started and will keep everybody posted on the other means of communication & promotion strategy utilized by Amazon to create a space in the niche fashion etailing.
Also to be seen is how Amazon's strong entry in this area will effect the scenario now as some pundits have predicted that going forward the ecommerce space is game for only bigger players with huge funding or niche players like bigbasket.com (Selling Grocery's), pepperfry.com (selling funiture), caratlane.com (selling
jewellery), zivame.com (selling lingerie) etc.
Stay tuned for more practical examples and Jugalbandi of Concepts thought in B Schools and their real world implementation across industries
Digital Marketing or in simple language marketing products & services on the internet. Log on to any job search site and look out for marketing jobs, chances are that out of 10 new jobs posted - 6 would be for digital marketing / SEO specialist / Social media specialist and many other profiles related to web marketing.
Critics would say that this is a fad or this is another internet bubble which would burst sooner or later, however gone are the days when people use to feel scared to use their credit cards over the internet, gone are the days when e-shopping was only constrained to buying railway tickets on irctc.com, within a short span of time e-commerce brands like flipkart, snapdeal, myntra and big basket etc.have a become a force to reckon with. Indian youth and price sensitive Indian customers have a given them a green signal to capture the retail landscape. Few years back we remember witnessing Big Bazar ads on Independence day, but check out last few days newspapers and you will witness a big fight for ad space and excellent offers from likes of flipkart, snapdeal and other e-commerce young guns. Indian marketing professionals are not ready for this new war landscape and especially the ones at middle management level who have to face the challenge from both the professionals in secured positions at the top end and the young force entering with new skills, hence its time for them to start thinking about the upcoming challenge and try to get the digital edge with new learning.
Titan
Company Ltd. has recently entered into the organized Helmet market under its
Fastrack brand.
Fastrack
is one of the largest and trendiest youth fashion brand in India famous for its
gen y products and bold advertising. The brand currently deals in the following
categories - Watches, Sunglasses, Bags, Belts, wallets and the recently
launched Helmets.
Started
in 1998 as a sub watch brand under Titan, it was created as an independent
watch brand in 2005 and since then have successfully created the affordable
fashion brand image. With brand extensions into Sunglasses (2005), Bags, Belts
& Wallets (2009) and Helmets (2013) Fastrack has maintained its core
positioning of trendy & stylish designs at an affordable price.
It started
opening exclusive outlets - "Fastrack Stores" in 2009 with its first
store at F.C. Road Pune and then Anna Nagar,Chennai and is currently having 147
stores across the country. Helmets to start off is not a very glamorous purchase
and is also not mandatory to wear in many cities across the country.
It
is considered a compulsion purchase and especially the brand’s youth target group
of 15 - 25 years (In this case 18 years onwards - legal driving age in India)
consider it as a fashion dampener rather than a fashion statement. Also the
replacement cycle is longer with people generally using one Helmet at a time
unlike watches, Belts and Bags. The pricing of Rs 1,495 - Rs 3,500 is
relatively higher than the well established players in the industry with safety
and style proposition.
But
this is what Fastrack is here to change and make the product a desirable
fashion statement of every image conscious motorider, making heads turn not
because of the moto-machine but because of the Helmets. In my opinion the task
would be difficult as previous foray into new categories were natural extensions
but this one is not directly related considering the helmet usage trend in the country. Main
USP the name Fastrack brings is trust (Safety) and Stylish (Cool Designs) and
easy accessibility of their products across different channels and it has to be
seen how the same is leveraged to create a new market in this protective gear
category.
Saw this Tata Sky Ad few days back and was reminded of the famous Maruti Service station Ad which created the concept of "wherever you go - you'll find a Maruti service station".
With their existing ongoing campaign of "TV in your pocket - Mobile TV" - This one is further targeted to strengthen the perception that Tata sky's product & service is available across Indian cities & villages and on multiple devices.
The Ladakh connection is common in both the commercials - creating the thought that if you can be present in Ladakh then you can be present anywhere across the country.
Female grooming market has always been the main target for leading cosmetic brands in India, however with rise in disposable income and an increasing awareness of their health and skin regimen among Indian men, male grooming industry has attracted a lot of attention from the cosmetic companies.
As a result we can see many male grooming products being launched in the recent past. The current launch of Garnier Men - AcnoFight Facewash last month is an addition to the growing list of male cosmetic products.
This month Garnier Men has introduced its first anti-pimple face wash for men – ACNOFIGHT. In continuation of its association with Bollywood this time Garnier Men have taken on board Sushant Singh Rajput. He will endorse AcnoFight which promises to fight the six signs of pimples and provide pure and smooth skin.
Garnier Men AcnoFight unique offering is first of its kind 6 in 1 pimple clearing property that
visibly fights six signs of pimples, available at Rs 170 (100 gm) and Rs 85 (50 gm).
Brand Garnier which belongs to L'OREAL India has launched a well crafted 360 degree marketing campaign to launch the new product.
The concept promoted in the communication is Sushant representing the brand as a "fighter" who will beat the six signs of pimples.
TVC:
Outdoor:
Print:
Social Media :
(source : Garnier Men Facebook page)
PR:
http://www.newswala.com/Business-News
http://www.adgully.com
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/
Product Placement:
On Screen : Big Boss 7 featured a task based on the product wherein participants have to
punch a boxing bag suspended on a trail and the points to be calculated from 1 to 6 based
on the distance traveled by the bag.
BTL:
Snapshot of BTL activities from Indonesia launch. (Expected similar on ground events in India)
Earlier in the year (May,13) we saw Nivea introducing its skin care face wash endorsed by Arjun Rampal.
Other major offerings in the category are Fiama Di wills, Lakme, Nivea, Aloe Veda, Vaseline, Himalaya, Ponds, Dove, Lotus, Park Avenue and Gillette. The category is growing and we can see many more brands coming in, but Garnier has put up their best show to bring the product high in the evoked set, now the next front of the battle lies at the retail point where products in this category fight for shelf space and visibility at mom & pop stores, medical shops, online sites and organized retail stores across the country. Watch out for the space when we observe and bring the activties taking place at point of sale.
