Category advertising

FUTURE OF ADVERTISING IN THE GEM & JEWELLERY INDUSTRY

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“Shining Stars.”

The regional shine nationally: A peculiar phenomenon of Indian jewellery brands.

We are a nation of many cultures, a nation globally unique owing to its diversity. Over the years as I travelled the length and the breadth of this country, I realized a new world meets you every few miles. From food, to architecture, to language, to apparels you will find a new hue, a unique lifestyle. This diversity has had an interesting impact on the realms of brands. It has created two level playing fields national and regional, which operate on equal strengths.

There are some categories where the regional v/s national brands dynamics thicken and often the regional brand trumps in merits. Real estate, furniture, Retail, foods and textiles are some of them. Regional brands have been in existence way before the national brand concept came into being. The era before television, was the era where there wasn’t a national media binding the diverse nation into one. After the advent of television even though a national presence became possible it wasn’t easy. Establishing your brand regionally with more region specific mediums was simpler, while making a mark nationally was an expensive challenge, a feat that the likes of Unilever, Tata, Procter & Gamble and ITC could achieve, that too was a possibility owing to their national distribution capabilities. Television surely was instrumental in helping many regional brands go national for instance Zandu, Amul, Rasna, Chick, Margo and many more. But the regional v/s national phenomenon still is a strong element in the brandscape of India.

Even today there are many categories where there exists no national brand existing or emerging and even if there is a white-space to occupy it is a herculean task. Amongst all jewellery as a category tops the list, the high value, high margin retail brands yet haven’t come up to the national level like Tanishq. Tanishq too has braved a multiple challenges to get where it is today.

Currently there exists only two national brands in the jewellery space, Tanishq and Reliance, of which the latter is struggling to establish itself and will take time. But in the same space dwell regional brands that have managed to garner national attention and are paving their way to become a strong national brand. The likes of Kalyan Jewellers, Malabar Jewellers, Joy Allukas, PC Jewellers, Lalitha Jewellers. For instance the Mumbai rooted Tribhuvandas Bhimji Zaveri, has created strong presence in Delhi these brands are now competing with Tanishq nationally. Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri Ltd. (TBZ) is a noted Indian jeweller and jewellery retail chain based in India. Established in 1864 (153 years ago) The company today, has 37 showrooms in 23 cities across eleven states, including Mumbai, Surat, Kochi, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Rajkot.

The brand has evolved with time and adapts communication that makes them be perceived as a national player. Rishton ko savarte aaye hai hum….their campaign talks about the connecting the older generation to the new, designs a combination of the two, a message that solves the problem of design vulnerability.

But no blanket national brands are emerging, intrigued by this dynamics I dived into comprehending the reasons that result in a brandscape so regionally heavy and the insights are interesting:

Reasons why Regional Brands shine nationally:

  1. Trust:Jewellery is a high-involvement category, the precious yellow metals core currency is trust. The mistrust in the quality of gold one is buying makes them choose the comfort zone of buying from the jewellers their family has known for generations. Generations of a family in India often buy gold from one jeweller. The concept of a family jeweller is a strong reality in India.
  2. Design: Regional players win heavily on traditional, authentic design that reflects the cultural nuances. Also the traditional designs are known and revered for their intricate craftsmanship. Mothers’ are more than happy to invest in traditional designs as they are the need of life-altering occasions like marriage. The vulnerability however steps in when the next generation, the daughters voice their choice of a contemporary designs. The designs that work for the new generation is a blend of traditional and modern, this is where the national brand scores over the regional player. Here is where Tanishq gets a brownie point over regional brand, as they have best of both worlds. However regional brands are quickly catching up and capitalizing on this trend, for instance TBZ has started a new light of design which appeals to the new generation. Hence this can become a great impetus for national brands to shine.
  3. Rates: National brands have their limitations when it comes to providing spot discounts over catalogue prices, as it becomes a matter of authority, ledgers and economies. But a regional player being an owner driven setup has the flexibility of incentivising big ticket purchases by spot discounts.
  4. Resale:Yet another decision making element where regional players earn a brownie point. Going to the same jeweller they have bought from gives them a chance to get higher resale value for their gold, and for the regional player it is about maintaining relations, the same isn’t true for national brands.
  5. Relationships:We are a country that operates on the warmth and goodwill of relations. This become one major area where regional players score highly over national players. The regional player know their customers by faces, name and vice-versa. For instance the comfort you share with your local kiranawala is valued more than the anonymous experience at the supermarket with professionals. The familiarity factor plays an important role, as customers truly indulge in the home like services and special treatment and word-of-mouth becomes an important fuel in building a regional brand.
  1. Consider making a matrix based on all these factors and when you map jewellery brands on it you will find that the regional players score higher on each of the parameters. They have the pedigree of craftsmanship. And it is these factors that can help them be a national brand, for instance Kalyan jewellers, Malabal jewellers and Joy Alukkas are hiring national level celebrities like Amithabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Kajol to create an impact across the country. 20 years back no one knew Kalyan Jewellers even in Andhra, but 10 years back when they engaged Nagaarjuna as their ambassador they became a huge brand in Andhra. They follow suit nationally by having the Bachchan’s on board.

Kalyan Jewellers is an Indian jewellery store chain. It was founded by T. S. Kalyanaraman, who started their first jewellery shop in 1993 in Thrissur, Kerala, India with a capital of ₹7.5 million (US$110,000) and has since grown to become the largest jewellery store chain in India.[1] With approximately 8000 employees, the chain has 100 showrooms across India.

Kalyan Jewellers have partnered with a number of celebrities to be regional brand ambassadors, including Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif in North India, Manju Warrier in Kerala, Nagarjuna Akkineni in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Shiva Rajkumar in Karnataka, Prabhu Ganesan in Tamil Nadu. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was paid ₹100 million (US$1.4 million) per year for a two-year deal with Kalyan Jewellers to be a nationwide brand ambassador, which was formerly Sushmita Sen. The advertising and marketing budget of Kalyan is around ₹900 million (US$13 million). Also Katrina Kaif for the young generation. Har Bharatiya shadi ke liye.Uses celebrity strategy mostly, and this has made it go national.

Today the possibility of a regional brand going national is higher than a new national brand succeeding, due to the new media efficiencies’. Digital targeting, simpler national advertising options make it easier for regional players to dream national. On the other hand it is difficult for national brands to establish themselves efficiently, we only have a few and they belong to the big-houses, Tata and Reliance, the names people trust. This scenario is only true for Gold, as for platinum and diamonds the scenario changes are you see customers absolutely comfortable buying them online owing to the forever mark and a different attitude towards the jewellery. Gold being a cultural element of importance has a peculiar nuance and that is for now heavily rooted in the known and loved regional brands.

Originally published  in Gem & Jewellery Industry magazine.

 

WorkToLiveToWork

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The most inspiring idea to decongest Mumbai put in a most inspiring way by Nitesh Tiwari. And to the driving force behind the idea NandiniDais

http://www.worktolivetowork.com/Support.aspx

Inspired by her Secretary’s death during a rush hour railway bridge collapse of a suburban local station in Parel, a moved Nandini hated to sit idle doing nothing about the root cause “the daily muster” people do anything even risk their life to be on time to work. The committed Mumbaikar can beat any six sigma’s of the world as Mumbai Dabbawalas proved.

Nandini spotted the root cause of the local mania and a resolute Dias went on a mission to move the corporate and Babus alike to change to a flexi work time.

All citizens of including celebrities are coming forward to support. I certainly endorse and we work 2days a week from home and clock flexi hours.

After all we all work to live and some live to work.

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

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A walk down the city streets during the after-work hours these days, would show you a very different life of the hardworking labour class. Low cost smartphones and the latest revolution that was brought in by Jio has given all of them an access into a whole new world of entertainment and information that is creating aspiration in the section of our society that was never pulled in the economy. Though as single units, they might not look like a big change, but even a proportion of the 80 million migrant population can collectively change the face of consumption patterns in the country. Smart phones single-handedly have led to a revolution around us; the target groups are evolving, touch points for brands are changing, shopping pattern are way different, accessibility and experience are the new parameters for quality, but the world of advertising has failed to catch up with the pace of innovation.

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As any new pathbreaking technological evolution is accepted by people, the brand powerhouses start adapting themselves, they are followed by the marketing firms who tweak their strategy as per the brand’s need and then the advertising companies move towards the change only when pushed. Ad-agencies are not pre-empting the changes and adapting themselves but are being the laggards, and this gap could be as much as 2 years! In an era when technology is changing with the blink of eyes, 2 years is enough of a time to make you irrelevant and you may be consumed by what is being termed as ‘Digital Darwinism’.

Look at what’s happening in the Industry, many brands are losing their equity and connect with customers and are increasingly being commodititized. For instance, let’s consider the Airline industry, the companies have lost their brand value and the entire business has become a price war zone. People choose the cheapest flight and are not willing to pay any premium for a brand. One of the reasons could be that companies have failed to tell their stories to their consumers. Once, the television was an engaging medium, people had time to spare and TV commercials served as effective medium for brand communication. But now, the world has shrunk into the 5.5” mobile screen and brand communicators have not been able to tap that medium effectively yet. Although social media campaigning and digital marketing are a ‘talk of the town’ these days, but the innovators are moving far ahead as we are trying to figure out what hashtags and keywords make users click. The Siris and Cortanas are slowly becoming an integral part of our daily lives, our gadgets are becoming more intuitive and intelligent, chatbots are taking over communication, in such times shouldn’t advertising be moving on along the same pace? How do we integrate a brand with the modern-day J.A.R.V.I.S and F.R.I.D.A.Y, and gain the customer’s mindshare?

iron-man-jarvis

 

Seamless connectivity, accessibility and quick service are no longer a tool for customer satisfaction and retention, they now are hygiene factors; if you’re not quite there, you’re off the evoked set, may be, forever. The factors like quality, better features, design innovation, though are still relevant, but they are not the only ones that would differentiate you, there are so many others offering the same. To find a place in the customer’s top of the mind recall we need the brand communication to be an experience that would keep the customers at ease and weave into their lifestyle perfectly; the message needs to be unified at various brand touch points, from the customer support service to the UI/UX experience.

A big revolution that awaits us in the very near future is Internet of Things, or IOT. We’re talking of a world where not just our phones and tablets but even cars, refrigerators, air conditioners would all be intelligent enough to know just what we need. These devices become store houses of data, giving novel insights into customer’s buying pattern, preferences, lifestyle and choice drivers: data that was previously unobtainable. The marketers will have several opportunities to deliver more relevant communication to the consumers and it might not be in any ad-format we know as of now. We’re heading towards an unpredictable era. Is the advertising industry ready for such a change, from being just a communicator to being an integral part of the service design and orchestrating a brand campaign?

We need to gear up and participate in this evolution, as the strategy guru Peter Drucker put it, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

First published in Business Standard on the 2nd Jan 2017 

The Long and Short of it.

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Stories are the earliest forms of communication known to mankind, they have stood the test of time; we share lessons, morals, beliefs and any kind of emotion through our stories. Advertising is no different and I have always believed that advertisers are story tellers. Today as advertising is adopting the modern internet space, we are experiencing the next level of storytelling by advertisers – the long format advertising, usually 1-5 minutes duration. They are fast becoming the popular new kids on advertising block. It’s encouraging to see advertisers keep a purpose and an emotion at the heart of the story and the products placed in the background, it sure reflects the maturity that the society and the advertising community is undergoing.

But as we speak today about 90% of these stories don’t serve this purpose and fall short of touching the core. I hope we don’t fall in the trap of long format for the sake of it. A long format ad is no different from a good short ad or good film making, the principles remain the same. Take for instance one of the most viewed ads on internet; the ad for a French toilet paper brand Le Trefle, the Emma ad, this was actually a 40 second TVC or Ambuja cements ad with wrestler Khali which is just more than a minute.

Now is the right time to reflect and realise the power of such a format and ensure that this is not reduced to being an extended TVC by just changing the duration from 30 seconds to 3 minutes. It’s time we realise it’s not about the duration, but the determination to highlight a purpose and bring about a change; it’s not about the number of hits, it’s about the number of hearts touched; it’s not just about ‘likes’, it’s about Love; and it’s not about product selling, but story-telling.

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46690_India_Jan_Sale_IFE_81.5×41.5.indd

British Airways “fuelled by love” online campaign by SapientNitro India

The 10% long format ads that work are conceived, written and directed to do justice to the duration and the space. The Fortune Oil’s Daddi ad, Nestle’s stammering standup comedian and cartoonist ads, Lifebuoy’s Gundappa, Google’s reunion, British Airways’ ticket to visit mum, Skymet weather’s help the farmer initiative and the likes are some that prove this point beyond doubt; and that content on the internet should be less aspirational and more authentic. There is this Wagh Bakri Tea ad that tells the story of a wife who leaves her husband, he realizes her worth and then reaches out to get her back in his life; I love the video but the last 1.5 minutes of the 4 minutes video is spent on the clichéd pack shots, underwater shots of tea leafs in boiling water which obstructs the storytelling. I so wished they stayed away from those typical TVC type shots.

khali

Ambuja Cement’s Khali campaign by Publicis India

It’s time we realise the fundamental difference of the audiences in this space and the possibility that it offers. The audiences here are active unlike the passive audiences sitting in front of the TV set, here they can engage with the purpose, with the brand. They can comment, join the purpose, create more content; hence we should invite them to engage and make them a part of the story, help them contribute. Like the way a Lifebuoy’s Chamki does, it picks a real life story of one family, gives out a larger message and asks the viewers spread the message ‘Help a child reach 5’.

There are some myths prevalent in this space like long format ads costs nothing, but for anything to go viral you need to have a reach till it gains traction and there after it’s the content that will help you take off. The next myth is that length is not an issue in the internet space, but the reality is that maximum people drop off after 15-20 seconds which will count as your hits but they haven’t seen your story, so better aim for depth of engagement.

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Nestle India’s ” Fauja Singh’s #100AndRunning  online campaign by SapientNiro India

To sum up we should work on the Inspire , Interact , Amplify framework. We are still to amplify the internet space to its fullest, for starters we can enable viewers to just click on products they see in the video, donate for the cause, interact with the people they see etc Eg DBS ChilliPaneer. For instance you can even link to e-commerce by interacting either by a click or drag the room they see in an online furniture store into the shopping cart, which should then break it into all the products shown and the viewer can then add or less items and then transact. All these and much more can be done in this space but it all starts with a relevant story that is well told.

*This Article was published earlier in an online publication.

2015 – Exploring the iceberg

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2015 – Exploring the iceberg

 

The past years 2013, 14 we touched the ice berg with higher digital spends, long format story based ads, adoption of online shopping and flourishing of e-commerce businesses and better and more impactful government advertising. In the coming years we shall explore the iceberg and comprehend its magnitude. The developments in 2014 will continue and better in 2015 and also the year should see (I hope) new trends responding to the changes happening around.

The adoption of internet and its influence in communication and advertising will continue with higher growth rates. A recent report by McKinsey & Company and Facebook said India would add close to 300 million internet users by 2018 to make up an online population of just under 500 million people. While this trend is acknowledged by the advertising industry, the adoption of this trend in the rural areas is still to be explored. Few pioneers like HUL with its Kan Khajura Tesan have taken steps in this direction; with more than 80 million internet users and increasing consumption of low cost, internet enabled smart phones in the rural markets I hope to see more work in this space. Internet and mobile multimedia is used more for entertainment in the rural areas unlike urban where the use is more for social purposes. This insight should lead marketers to create more entertaining content for the rural population in 2015. What happened on ground all these years should go online, catering to masses; things like music, performances, plays and movies are likely to go online and accessed through mobile phones.

The rural markets have been paid attention in some industries but there are certain trends that will influence consumption and communication in the rural space – like rural doesn’t always mean poor and bottom of pyramid, there is rural rich as well and they are consuming brands; with luxury car brands, branded consumer durables and electronics getting a fair share of their revenues from the rural space. Another very important trend is about the rural children with access to satellite communication and internet are growing up with similar aspirations like their urban counterparts. Hence we can’t discriminate between an urban and rural kids as they are viewing the world with same lens. Hence the psychographic targeting will become more important than geographic targeting. Going forward rural marketing will go through a sea change.

Another trend that took shape in 2014 is the spending on the digital mediums and this will continue unprecedented in 2015. According to the latest findings of the Digital Advertising in India Report by IAMAI and IMRB, the online advertising market in India is projected to reach Rs 3,575 crore by March 2015, a growth of 30 per cent over last year. Along with increasing spends what was seeing in the year gone by and also with their plans for coming years was the maturity of the clients w.r.t. digital adverting; they are taking bold decisions and are understanding the immense possibilities that comes with digital. Having CMTO i.e. Chief Marketing Technology Officer will become common in the coming years.

The next trend is a problem of sorts which will aggravate in the coming years, and what needs to be seen is how the industry deals with this. The trend is that many category of products are becoming commodities due to the presence of search and aggregating technologies; they loosing brand value and hence the ability to charge premium for branded products. Take for example the airlines industry where once the brand was the most important variable in the decision making criteria i.e. business travelers sweared by Jet Airways. Now due to the presence of google and other aggregators which throw the cheapest tickets for the searched routes, price has become the most important variable and the industry has gone into this vicious cycle of downward spiraling prices. This leads to a compromise in services, losses and hence today a profitable airline is an achievement. This is true for many industry like many financial services and also consumer durables where the customer may visit a retail outlet to get all the information related to a product but purchase online. The concept of branding that created emotional connect with its customers and there by commanding a premium is failing to do so in spite of increased investments.

With most activities in the purchase process happening online the scope for creating human connection is reducing and hence in the coming years brands will be redefined by the experiences they create online and offline. Marketers have forgotten this and are now having a very transactional relationship with their customers over the internet and emotional affinity is taking a back seat. I hope in the coming year some will wake up and act to break this spiral.

Some other trends that will take off from 2014 is rise of e-commerce and online shopping, the online shopping behavior that was seen during Diwali in 2014 will continue in 2015 and players should build their infrastructure accordingly. Making ads for government which was seen below dignity of any professional advertising agency has changed for good. With the new government’s progressive vision, today advertising agencies take pride in contributing to governments actions. Corporates, agencies and people all are participating in issues of national importance, this was seen in the Swachh Bharat campaign in 2014 and going forward more such campaign and better integration will be seen.

Being more selfless, fresh, more engaging and telling stories that connect with the people will be the mantra in 2015. We saw hints of this happening and some pioneering brands and agencies working in this direction; if this is the take-off, 2015 will see the real flight and that makes it an exciting place to be and to watch out for.

 

Note: Originally published in the Financial Express in early 2015

 

 

 

 

Creation of Gandhi font.

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Or is he a different type?

In hatred he saw love. In fear, courage. In weakness he saw strength. And in violence, truth. In cruelty he saw kindness. In anger he saw humanity. And in struggle, he saw peace. He saw things through his soul that are invisible to the eye. Yet through his eyes, we can still see the shining light of humanity. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. A different type.

Above are the words came out of Agnello Dias when I told him about my intention to create a font for Gandhi.

” There is no god higher than truth.” is what he said and is what got imprinted in my mind  ever since I was a little boy, my grand parents always told me stories of Gandhi at bedtime, I am still a vegetarian thanks to the impression he made on me. I am just a spec in billions who follow him…

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100 Days of Action

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‘A Vision without Action is just a Dream’, the thought itself is a cliché but its philosophy is deeply rooted to the very concept of being, i.e. ‘Doing’. Quite recently I happened to come across this interesting development at TED Talk. TED has risen to being a platform that mirrors the status quo, the dynamism, the possibilities our world holds. It captures ideas in the form of talks, ideas which they feel are worth spreading. ‘Ideas worth spreading’ has been the tagline of TED since its inception, but now there are plans to change their mission from spreading to doing. TED may have a new tagline ‘Ideas worth doing’. This change in mission yet again reflects what our world needs. The way our world is moving today it is not just about great ideas but how can we implement those ideas so as to create a ripple effect of the greater common good and change the lives of millions. With this thought TED even before saying what they intend to in the form of a tagline is doing what they intend to say. Thus TED is not just spreading the ideas but it is also following up with the speakers and keeping track of how they are changing lives based on the ideas they shared. How is the shared idea being converted into action, how are these ideas in action impacting the world and hence creating the second level content. TED is indicating a paradigm shift around the world – the shift from ‘Spreading to Doing’, because great ideas mean absolutely nothing until they are put into practice.

The reason I choose to delve on this paradigm shift is because something similar is happening closer at home. Our country has earned itself a breath of fresh air, because big words that dominated our democracy are being converted into action, the action called – 100 Days of Modi. The spirit of action was a common thread that ran all along right from his election campaign and manifesto, to the recent budget and his vociferous speech he gave on Independence Day. The spirit is not just restricted to words and promises but it is moving beyond the realms of planning and getting converted into action. These actions come with a proof of performance, changes are unfolding and driving a positive sentiment. Although it isn’t about big overhauls but more so about small beginnings, which in itself is a big thing. Until now we as a country have been fed excuses, “We don’t have funds” “We lack the required infrastructure” but here we have 100 days that have seen considerable action. I attempt to capture this action, GDP touched 5.7 other important economic indicators like retail inflation, exports, fiscal deficits have shown considerable improvement for the quarter ended June 2014. Sensex has hit a record high of 27000 points, investors made 65000 Crores on Modi’s 100 day completion. All of these are positive sentiments. Further on Modi’s vision of Digital India has begun to roll into reality. e-Visas as an idea has entered the implementation phase. The introduction of electronic visa facility in India could double the annual tourist arrival to over 12 million in the next five years. With e-Visa in place foreigners can apply for their visas online and get them online. This will not only ease out the process but with the increase in tourists new money gets generated for the country and everyone from the macro tourism industry to the micro level street vendor benefit. Also concepts like e-governance, e-learning, and e-commerce are being consciously focussed on. Even Telecom companies are preparing for the Digital India. When each Indian will own a phone concepts like e-governance, learning and commerce will change the face of India. Modi’s dream has made Telecom companies see India in a different light, it has made them pull of their socks and prepare for Digital India. Telecom companies have begun to develop tools for Modi’s Digital India and channelizing spends to it. The talks about financial inclusion have seen action in the form of Jan-Dhan Scheme in which 15 million bank accounts were opened on the first day itself. Top three Auto industry players Maruti, Hyundai, and Honda have achieved their record sales. Also bullet trains which were a farfetched, often talked about dream until now has witnessed action in the form of some high speed trains with lesser stops being introduced and some deals being struck with Japan during Modi’s last visit. The government has also reserved 10000 crores for new businesses, i.e. start-ups. Modi spoke of focus on skill, speed and scalability to ensure development and these actions exactly reflect the framework. Its empowering people with skills. This will act as a new dawn for the era of entrepreneurship in India. Even Reliance, Wipro, Tata and the likes are spending more money in entrepreneurial ventures.

Thus if we were to correlate the 100 days of action to what is happening internationally on the lines of government initiatives, industry changes, and people heading towards entrepreneurship we will see a greater overlap today than ever before. For the first time in history of India global realities, our government, businesses and people all of these are coming together. Hence we can safely say good times are coming, ‘Acche din aa rahe hai’. 100 days of action is just a precursor a lot more action awaits. As Modi rightly said while speaking with children on teachers’ day “It is important to do things rather than dream”.

Note: This piece was originally written a month back for a leading publication, unfortunately did not publish it as this was not part my mandated topic.

I must also add the most audacious and most impactful campaign ever mounted by any Indian government in free India: “MakeInIndia” .

Big Brands – Bigger Purpose

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Commitment to quality and values

The above statement isn’t a mere vision statement that companies put on their walls but a mark of authority that is etched into brands like Tata and Aditya Birla Group and forms the core of each of their endeavors. Both these groups have been a beacon of trust for years and have set standards for everyone else to follow. They are the fulcrum and the inspiration on which New India has been built. Today we’re going to take a look at one dimension of the brands to try and decode why they are what they are.

Like all other practices, Tata Group’s communication also puts ‘people’ at the heart of it. Long time back when Tata came out with the corporate campaign for Tata Steel, it connected with people on a socially relevant basis without taking away the relevance of its brand. Tata Chemicals’ ‘Desh Ka Namak’ campaign for Tata Salt was based on bringing back values like honesty that have been long forgotten in our country. Over the last two decades, Tata Salt has lived up to its claim of being ‘Desh Ka Namak whether its change in behavior or business numbers’. According to Nielsen Retail Audit, March 2011, each month more than 50,000 metric tonnes of Tata Salt is sold through over 12 lakh retail outlets reaching 50 million households across the country.

Perhaps one of the most defining campaigns of the last decade was Tata Tea’s- Jaago Re. Jaago Re was a cause based initiative taken by Tata Tea in 2008 with other NGOs and non-profit organizations to create awareness on certain issues plaguing the country around elections. The aim was to awaken the nation to the fact that they tend to hold the government accountable to various mishaps and encouraged them to participate in the functioning of the country’s politics by voting. The campaign received numerous accolades and was an extremely successful campaign.  Taking the good work of Tata Tea forward, Tata Capital positioned itself on the platform of ‘Doing Right’ and putting people above oneself. The brand and its communication propagated the virtue of selflessness- projecting right values, putting people first and preaching what is right. Coming to jewelry, the recent Tanishq campaign from Tata celebrates the second marriage of a woman which has always been frowned upon by our society. It is a brave and progressive attempt by Tata which has always been the agent of change in this country and showing the way to others.

Tata’s commitment to the nation and the society for all these years without losing focus of its business has led to it being one of the most responsible, credible and transparent brands in the world. This is a message to other businesses and brands who are not consumer facing to take a leaf out of Tata’s book and make a social connect along with the business connect. There’s something in the DNA of Tata to build brands which have social commitment and respect for the same values. Apart from this, championing acts like Tata Nano to empower the middle class is really magnanimous and commendable.

Another brand which has set an example for others to follow is the Aditya Birla Group. Whether it’s their corporate campaign which in spite of its larger than life feel, yet retains a strong connect with the masses or its Birla Sun Life Yuvraj Singh campaign which aimed to inspire mass India with the personal triumphs, trials and tribulations of Yuvraj, who like a Phoenix, never accepts defeat. The biggest triumph for the group came in the form of Idea Cellular. Idea has always come up with campaigns which have been for a greater cause.

In 2007, the brand came up with a campaign ‘What an Idea Sirjee’ taking up the caste issue plaguing the society. This series included campaigns like ‘Use Mobile, Save Paper’, ‘Walk When You Talk’, ‘Education for All’, ‘Democracy’ et al. Idea took up several causes plaguing the society and provided brilliant solutions to it without the brand losing relevance.

The world is changing very fast. And in this changing world unfortunately, values are taking a backseat. Fortunately, for us there are brands like Tata and Aditya Birla Group which stand tall and firm like a lighthouse showing us light amidst a sea of doubts while guiding us towards the right port.

 

-Published in Business Standard  09th of december 2013

 

 

When you witness Tendulkar getting out along with Waqar Younis, Shaun Pollack, Stephen Fleming and Carl Hooper…

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One of the perks of being in advertising is to be privy to some of the most intimate moments of the history; in retrospective I recollect one, as Sachin is hanging his boots in few days I owe it to myself to narrate this amazing event to the world. It was in 2002, while working on a world cup cricket campaign for LG electronics; I was shooting 36-television commercials at a breakneck speed for the world cup in South Africa. LG tied-up with ICC as the primary sponsor and was allowed by ICC to use all participating 14 team captains for publicity hence the campaign with 14 captains ( “Cricket first” was the campaign theme), we got the time for shoot allotted by ICC in Colombo Sri Lanka whist the ICC champions trophy being played in that country. We had around 6 days to shoot all 14 captains, were allowed a couple of hours a day with out upsetting the team schedules.

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We parked ourselves at the Hilton Colombo and marked several locations in the hotel for shooting different commercials to save time, one such location was the penthouse suite; One of the days when we were set to shoot the combinations with Nasser Hussain, Waqar Younis, Shaun Pollack, Stephen Fleming and Carl Hooper, while Nasser Hussain was getting ready for his shot, I was watching India playing Zimbabwe in one of the bedrooms sitting in center of the bed, soon I was joined by the legendary bowling captains, Waqar, Pollack, Flaming and Hooper.

Soon the bowlers were glued to the TV watching the Indian “God” batting, I still remember the mesmerizing site of four bowlers watching master batsman Sachin bat,  like little kids seeing an instructor play. I was pinching myself for what I was witnessing and then all hell broke loose as Sachin gets out cheaply to Heath Streak or Henry Olongo, In unison you see all four raising hands in air and say “Shit” with utmost disgust and argue amongst themselves about, how unfair the life is; while Pollack says “ we all are always asked to bowl straight and we follow that religiously and look at this bloke bowling wide outside the off stump and the master decides to ignore all his discipline and reaches the ball to give a catching practice to the second slip.” “Why does this bowler gets “Masters” wicket so easily? And why do we have to slog for days to get him?” adds Waqar.

I can never forget how lucky I was to see the greatest bowlers of all time discussing about Sachin’s batting and putting the kind of importance to his wicket in their life is simply amazing, bowlers around the world practice relentlessly for months and years to get him out is a testimony to his greatness and being a witness to such an event makes my 34 years of advertising career worth the while.