Brand Communication : Store Facade and Brand Ambassadors

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. 

  

"Fashion ka Jalwa" By Amazon - Beginning of a New War in India's Fashion e-tailing Industry

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 

Suggested Readings : 

Zappos - Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose 
http://www.pearltrees.com/rajatchaddha#item132966732

How digital is transforming retail: The view from eBay: 
http://www.pearltrees.com/rajatchaddha#item123501060

Hero MotoCorp sells 700 bikes online during Google's online shopping festival
http://www.pearltrees.com/rajatchaddha#item132966732

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