Brand Extensions

Samsung the south korean electronic and consumer durable is giving a tough time to the market leader Nokia and other rivals in this mobile handset segment,presently Nokia is the world leader in Mobile phones, followed by samsung,Lg and sony ericsson, In the smart phone market its RIM's blackberry's,apple's I phone and Htc making news with many companies trying to enter into the space as this is where future lies and soon to be used as computer as these smart phones do a lot of work and functions of computers.

Samsung's launched its Corby edition with the first mobile offering touch feature at an affordable price, the phone had a better User interface compared to other costly model,the exterior sported fresh colors unlike the routine pearl white and Black. The phone was well accepted in the market as the phone allowed the aspiring customer to graduate to a touch screen without hurting the wallet.
After Corby's success samsung has bought in 4 new line extensions

Samsung Corby (the flagship model)
Samsung Corby TXT
Samsung Corby mate
Samsung Corby Plus
Samsung Corby Pro

All these models have a common theme of corby that is exchangeable exterior panel, and touch feature. The reason why Samsung is using the same name Corby for all its new model is to leverage on the success and product acceptance of Corby. Its called a stimulus generalization strategy where in the consumer generalizes the stimuli based on one or few cues.In this case the stimulus could be the new version of the handset and the cue is the brand name Cue and similar color theme of all the Corby versions.One more company that successfully implemented this concept is Bajaj for its flagship brand Pulsar.(Pulsar 135 [5],Pulsar 150,Pulsar 180,Pulsar 200 DTS-i,Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi Pulsar 220 DTS-i)

High Involvement purchase

It generally happens that whenever we plan to buy an expensive item,generally a high involvement purchase that we over spend or stretch our budget and take home an expensive item. why does this happen ???

Most research say that most of our buying decisions are taken at the store premises, Its the salesmen who plays with the consumers psyche, Think about it, how often has the salesman told you that Sir, this is only onetime purchase of your life? why compromise on it?

The consumer is confused and this solution for confusion is a high value purchase which he perceives as the solution and marketers have built over years that a high valued/priced item is of more superior quality. Hence a consumer ends up spending MORE !!

If you own an alto, the higher is the probability that you'll land up at Big Bazaar

As part of the retail course we were supposed to study two different formats of retail in the food segment. we chose Big Bazaar and Spar both located in Bangalore which share a similar format.
Both the stores are located in the same trading area consisting of many corporate offices and residential houses with individuals having enough disposable income.
A Retail format has different offering and a value proposition, this value proposition is based on the format type, whether its a convenience store,discount store or a category specialist. depending on this value proposition the process of segmentation is carried.
Ex: If you are a high value retailer offering high discounts then the segment you would be catering would be the value conscious customer who wants to spend his hard earnings but looks for discounts as he buys.Retailer/marketers looks for finding unique characteristics of the target segment to better understand these customers, and this is done by knowing their demographics(personal information like age income,sex,marital status etc) the other way of segmenting is by classifying customers according to their behavior pattern(how they shop,behave,lifestyle etc)

one interesting observation which we made today was that the segments which Big Bazaar and Spar were targeting were completely different. we could identify this by the behavior and lifestyle pattern of the individuals visiting the store.

Spar had customers who were looking for value, now value for a spar customer would be huge variety,availability of national and international brands. and value for big bazaar customer would be the best prices and high saving deals and big bazaar was able to do so with the retail mix it had a collection of in-house brands and minimal services which helped Big Bazaar to push down its costs and pass it on to the customer.
segmentation can be done by studying any similar pattern among the group of customers, we tried segmentation on the basis of their ownership of vehicle. It helped me to understand the customer lifestyle and spending pattern. now if you are wondering what am i saying ? think why a person own's an SUV(huge in size)??? as it enhances his image or helps him project the image of a powerful person. At the spar hypermarket were the powerful sedans and Muscular SUV's zooming in and out contrast to it in the big Bazaar parking there were hatchbacks, the entry level segment cars mainly from the Maruti stable. these are the customers who would be looking for value deals and this could be concluded from their choice of cars. It would be justified saying that both of them cater and satisfy their customer needs and are able to deliver their value proposition

Whats your Hunger Mood ??

Consumers insights are very essential for any marketer as it could be the next great positioning/ad theme or a great tag line. and these ideas come from customers,supplier or even the competitors. For valuable consumer insights companies conduct FGD's(focus group discussion) or talk to the customer. Most of the time it is a qualitative research conducted where consumers talk and express their emotions and these emotions form essential inputs to the marketer.

Cafe Coffee day which turns 13 this year is all set to reposition itself with new product offering and new store formats ?? now the big question is why is coffee day re-positioning ???

As rightly said by Harish bijoor a brand is repositioned for two main reasons fatigue and competition

Fatigue, when the brand has been for long in the market, it looks and feels jaded. Its this tipping point of fatigue that jolts brands to consider a re-positioning or re-branding exercise.
Competition : It is the ever-changing format in which brands live and thrive .Most brands are able to remain contemporary,relevant,original and innovative enough to fight competition.

Considering the case of coffee day which has been long here in the QSR(Quick serve restaurant) format and the intense competition from new format stores has propelled for a re-branding exercise.The new theme "Hunger mood" has its origins from valuable insight from customer, that customers have varied hunger desires or moods throughout the day.It has designed its new menu according to the customers appetite, If you are in a mood to have a light snack then they have Choco muffin, samosa and if you are in a diet mood then they have a different offering and if you are in an indulgence mood then they have offerings(new) like panneer Tikka sandwich. The menu is also region specific catering to the taste buds of that region. so next time you visit coffee day dont be surprised to see Chicken Chettinad Surprise,Andhra Chicken Puff,Mirchi Masala Chatka in the menu, It has brought in many new Indian snacks into its menu, this move could be to make coffee day more accessible and not confining to just few customers.

This campaign is launched at the right time as the brand has been here for long and has its own sets of loyal customers, with this new look and offerings the customer would be delighted and would stick for long. With coffee day planning to go global it needs a new fresh look which should appeal to the global audience hence
As a part of this re-branding exercise even the design and interiors will get a new look as the brand aims to go global it has got a new design which isn't limited to a geography boundary. The Hunger mood campaign has activated my taste buds :)just cant wait to taste the spicy exotic panneer tikka while sipping my all time favorite 'frappe'..

Pester me and I shall buy You this World

The sudden rise of income and the increasing class of working mothers has lured the companies to bring in new products for their "little prince" who uses his Pester power to influence the parents buying decision.now what is pester power its explained as the children's ability to nag their parents into purchasing items they may not otherwise buy. This little kid is smart enough to play powerful tactics and scratch on the guilt of the parents who are unable to spend enough time with kids and want to compensate for this time.

More and more companies are entering into the kids market, be it in apparel,toys or FMCG goods.there is a sudden rise in the new products catering to the kids segment as the kids industry is worth around 2500 crores in India that's the reason many apparel brands like PUMA,adidas,Allensolly are trying to enter into this market.Britannia recently launched its new Malted drink ActiMind targetted at school going children and claims it as a perfect substitute for the routine Milk which kids don't enjoy drinking.I call it smart as parents are willing to spend and the parents would be happy if their kids drink a healthy milk drink rather than a Cola.now what drives these parents to buy those products for their kids ?

1)Desire to make their "Little prince" outshine in every field whether be it sports or education and the perception created by marketers that their products would help the kid to outshine.

2)Increasing spending power and parents compensating/satisfying themselves for the time which they are not able to spend with their kids.

and of course the powerful PESTER power at the store

Today's kid is more smarter than what we were, they know about all their parents weakness and how to harness it, hence the marketers leave no effort in promoting their product to the kids and bring in more products for the young ones. Be it Big B,Sachin or Dhoni everyone is ready to dance for this LITTLE INDIAN..

A must watch video about PESTER POWER

Market for dual sim handsets in India

The telecom major Airtel at last with much hesitation yesterday announced the 1 paise/per second tariff plan to compete against Tata's DOCOMO,Aircel,Reliance,Idea and MTS which have slashed their tariffs in some way or the other. This move was expected as the telecom giant was losing out in terms of new subscriptions to DOCOMO. This will reduce the ARPU(average revenue per user) and will also affect the profits of Bharati Airtel.

The current telecom market is flooded with 13 players and new entrants are pushing aggressively and finding a new proposition to enter the market, the latest being MTS and unitech's telenor soon joining the game. now the question is will consumer still buy a new connection when all the competitors are providing the same service. and what would be the new value proposition the new players will pitch in ? and what would be the industry profits ??

Deepesh is my 17 year old cousin in his high school who uses three connections and has two mobile phones. he is quick to grab any opportunity or scheme available. he uses
Airtel as it has an excellent coverage and this was his first connection.
Aircel as he liked the VAS(value added services).
and latest was DOCOMO for its 1 paise per tariff.

same is the case with Sandeep who has 4 mobile connections and is a P.G student. These days its not a big deal if a person has more than one connection. The consumer is opting two connections due to the marketers effort both the telecom operator who is slashing prices while adding new services and the marketing efforts of handset manufacturers who have brought in new handsets and cut down the prices drastically. due to both these factors the consumer today doesnt mind adding one more number or connection carrying an additional handset.But this implication doesnt apply across all the customers its just relevant to the innovators and the price conscious customer.

Analyzing the current market competition there could be huge demand for Dual sim handsets in India where as there are only few handset manufacturers making dualsim handsets mainly spice,emerging Indian companies like Micromax,karbonn and other chinese players.Now the question is why aren't major players like Nokia,Sony Erickson and LG tapping on this need. ??? when people are willing to own more than one connection.. It's high time for companies to launch dual Sim mobiles to tap this Market where as the Indian handset manufacturers are smart and have understood this trend, firms like Micromax and karbonn are providing dual Sim handsets at a reasonable price of Rs 4000/- targeting the rural market who look for value.

High end companies can launch dual handsets for two markets one is for the aspirational Indian who wants to own a smart phone and is an innovator.The other could be a low end model priced at 5000 having basic features to target the value looking customer.

with TRAI opening up the Market for new entrants the Indian consumer is for sure going to benefit and the day is not far when whole India would be connected for free !!!

U veda's Kismat Konnections

As i was flipping through the economic times yesterday i came across the financial results of Dabur limited, next to the ad was a huge picture of Vidya balan endorsing Dabur's new product range of skin care named as U-veda which means Ayurveda for you. The choice of the brand name really makes sense as there are many companies already using the Ayurveda name in their product extensions and U-Veda breaks the clutter and yet retains/leverages "Ayurveda".

The brand ambassador "Vidya Balan" was considered after a survey which was conducted among the target market as the most preferred personality. The company has launched a wide range of skin care products under the U-veda brand, the packaging has also got a new look which is impressive and uses the standard color(red and gold)which dabur uses it in al its products.Dabur is one of the successful brands in India which has captured a great market in the Chywanprash category and has carved a niche for its products. Dabur also has Gulabari range of skin care products leveraging the "Rose water power" . With existing product line in skin care"was it a wise decision to launch a completely new range of products" ???
The answer according to me is yes as the skin care market is worth Rs 2500 crores in India, It is relatively untapped and the penetration level is low.and all the international brands are queuing up to enter the Indian Market and dabur can tap this oppurtunity as well by leveraging the brand equity of Dabur.


U-veda's product target market is the tier 2 and tier 3 cities ladies who want to protect their skin and also use safe products and Ayurveda is percieved as being made out of natural ingredients hence women want to play safe on their skin. many companies have leveraged Ayurveda in their skin creams like fair and lovely, fair-ever and even soaps and shampoos are branded as Pure Ayurvedic by the companies these days.
U-veda is a safe bet ..well lets wait and watch whether U really like U-veda

Do You Face The Offisial Atyachaar

Offisial Atyaachar is the superb Viral from Makemytrip.com designed by EURO RSCG, The viral is targeted at all the office goers who make a good money but are overloaded with work left with no time for themselves.They have targeted the right audience as these are the people who make their travel purchases from the website's due to lack of time and ease of internet access.

At present the websites which cater to the travel needs are yatra.com, makemytrip.com, cleartrip.com, irctc.co.in.. these are the website which have the maximum market share and in terms of brand recall its makemytrip.com and yatra.com which are leading. The reason why yatra.com has a better brand recall is due to the fact that it has an Indian name and is short.where as makemytrip offers better services and has been leading in terms of bookings for Flights.. makemytrip is very aggressive in its expansion plans and has recently added up bookings for railways through their website.The user interface is much much better and way ahead to other sites.

Its very tough for a website to build a brand as its a service and they dont have any physical existence and people cant measure their efficiency.hence it becomes very important for a website to have a great brand recall(ability to remember the website name) as this helps to drive traffic to their website, remember the "Harisadu campaign" of naukri.com. that was a cult and has become an integral part of people live that they use this word quite often to describe their bosses.even makemytrip.com is following the same lines of naukri.com and has used humour appeal and tapping in the right emotion of the offisal atyaachar which an office goer faces..

Back to Offisail atyaachar The video and the lyrics are amazing and apt to any office setting, they have used right props and word,,.This viral other than playing on internet has a website for the people who are frustrated with their work and bosses, users can get cool downloads,a contest where in they can give funny names to their boss, this campaign was run offline in Delhi at a popular mall where users were given base ball bats and a office setting , The contestants can break those computers and office furniture showing their anger against their boss, :)
Thats sounds so cool....every one has a self within ready to fire the bosss.. check out the website @
http://www.offisialatyachaar.com/

Logos of different countries bidding for 2016 olympics

Chicago, Tokyo, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro are all bidding to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. The successful city will be announced in Copenhagen on 2 October.

Zoo Zoo on my Reliance

Prashant gets a Rs 50 voucher for recharge of Vodafone and is surprised to see the Zoo-Zoo sticker on the recharge Vouchers, he gives me the sticker and it's so appealing that i paste it on my Reliance CDMA handset :),and today i was surprised to see many people sporting similar stickers on their handset as i did.

A small thing like voucher can also be an important element in Brand building exercise as it's a consumer touch point, a consumer should be reinforced with the same message/image when ever he comes across any of the companies Communique, be it a visiting card,uniform of the staff, packaging etc, companies spend a lot on the details and effort in designing these elements across all the communication materials and various consumer touch points. and the details about the color font, logo size are emphasized in the Brand manuals which the agency insists to follow strictly as this would help the brand building and consistency in image/feel.



Now coming back to Vodafone brand building exercise, the company came up with its new character ZOO ZOO this summer with a lot of hype and it was well accepted by the audience and generated a favorable image about the brand. Vodafone is cashing on ZOO ZOO's success by placing them across all its communiques, it also gives a free ZOO ZOO cd with recharge vouchers of Rs 350 and now it has come up with these new innovative vouchers reinforcing the brand identity and making the association more stronger.

The story of a Father and Son

A Marwari or a gujju business man always encourages/enforces his son to visit his business when ever the little thing is free and leaves no chance in introducing him to all his clients and stake holders.The son after his education(though he hardly studies) joins the business and the father indulges in generating awareness among his clients about his son, that he would be the face of business and slowly leaves the game to him and over a period he is as popular as his dad this is due to the fact that people associate him with his dad and over a period all those credibility,trust and image which is associated with the old man pass on to his Son...

This is how Brand associations work, companies actually create perceptions and make people follow those perceptions.

If you remember the name Bajaj some 15 years back with the image and the product line(scooter)in which bajaj was into.. would you buy a pulsar at that time if it was made by Bajaj, the answer is NO..because of the inbuilt perceptions that Bajaj can only make scooters and not bikes.

But lately Bajaj has broken all these perceptions and how it did this is quite interesting.



It first had technology tie-up with Kawasaki and launched all its Bike under the name of Kawasaki-Bajaj..it told a story to the people that they have tie-up with kawasaki and they are technologically competent to make a Bike..

After kawasaki Bajaj performed well slowly it launched its Flag-ship Brand Pulsar under the Bajaj Umbrella,this bike performed well and was well accepted by the people and its superior performance evoked favorable image in the minds of customers,associating Bajaj as a superior bike maker which is now competent enough to make bikes.(just like how people started associating the fathers characteristics to the son)
Now Bajaj has a great market share and is doing equally well compared to its competitors and it has made people associate Bajaj with Superior technology.and as a part of this strategy it has changed its whole look right from its logo to the product line(it no more makes scooters).

That was a successful story told by Bajaj to the world

Line Extensions and brand recall

Naukri.com, part of the Info edge group which has its business operation in many online ventures.Jeevansaathi.com,policybazaar.com,shiksha.com to name a few, these are the very few online ventures in India which have succeeded and are doing good, the reason for its success is due to their careful selection of brand elements,operational efficiency and first mover advantage.

They have a great brand recall in all the domains which it operates and it is very important for a website to have a great brand recall as this is the only thing which can be their USP, that is how easily are customers able to remember the name of the particular website.Online companies are very careful while choosing the domain name as this is their face or office address, Now info edge group is very smart at this as all their domain names start with Indian names or are in words that a common man uses like Naukri for a Job and for matrimonial its jeevan saathi, they try to use phrases which a common can easily relate to the purpose of the website and there by the brand recall is enhanced..and also the word of mouth becomes easy for a simple name.

naukri.com has many line extensions catering to different job markets or different customers based on the users current job. like Firstnaukri.com caters to the job aspirants who are applying for a job for the first time and the domain name is perfect and could be remembered easily by the target market and it also has some connection to naukri with its name being added in the domain name hence people can relate it to Naukri.com,the parent Brand and the trust and credibility of the parent brand can be passed on to the extension.

In an online business its very important to get the domain right as its necessary in building a great brand..

Why Do We Purchase A Luxury Brand

Brands are an integral and important part of our daily lives, Brands help you to enhance your image by possessing them, the reason why do we shell out an extra buck for a brand, even though the satisfaction or the core benefit which we derive is the same. For example a decent watch(unbranded) would cost you Rs 350-800 and it would serve the core benefit that is make you read time as good as to any other premiuim brand like TITAN,TOMMY HILFIGER,POLICE. but the difference between the price range is huge even though both the devices solve the same problem in a similar fashion.

Strong and powerful Brands have this capability to command a premium in the market due to the Image which they have built or due to the superior brand Image.now an individual always has two personalities that is the actual self that is what he is at present,,,An indivdual always aspires to move or upgrade his image to someone or some personality he admires that is called his Ideal self which he carves to achieve. How can an individual achieve or upgrade his Image ??? the answer is Brands help individuals to achieve their Ideal self by transferring the qualities or characteristics of the brand to the user. for example if the user is driving a landrover its implied that he loves sports and wants power over things. and his need of gaining power is tapped and fulfilled by land rover, he feels better and a sense of power when he rides the SUV, The SUV satisfies the EGO needs of the user.Marketers try to position their brand on these image or personalities targetting those individual aspiring to achieve their Ideal self.

How important are Associations for a Brand

Its very important for a Brand to have the right brand association or the right people to be associated with the brand as these people's image and credibility affects the brand personality and even the ambassador endorsing the brand.

Kiran bedi is a strong personality in India with characteristics like sincerity,honesty and sophistication a women who has done few commercials on social causes and issues relating to women and polio.It was quite unusual for me to see Kiran Bedi in an advertisement for a fairness/anti-marks cream Nomarks. The commercial starts with kiran Bedi walking and explaining about the product and pitching the product as a True/honest cream.Kiran bedi is known for her boldness and fearless attitude..Nomarks as a brand doesnt have any of the characteristics that kiran bedi has, if kiran bedi was a small town girl who had made big in the beauty/glamour industry then it would have made more sense for the brand to associate with such kind of a personality.

The idea or thought process behind using kiran bedi as a brand ambassador could be to transfer or associate Nomarks with characteristics of Kiran bedi, but the product as such is a low-involvement product with little or less brand image, and a consumer would never feel proud/special that she is using a NOMARKS cream. If No-marks was a product which would add or enhance the user image then yes kiran Bedi could be a right choice.
Its very important for a personality like kiran bedi to have the right association as the credibility which she has gained for years could be affected due to the wrong choice made.

Aping the West

The best part about being home is access to T.v and Great food..while i was watching T.V, I came across Himesh Reshammiya after a long time and this time without his unusual cap and long hair, he was looking decent in his new hairstyle,but the image which he has built over years is so strong that we just can't break the association of Himesh as a wierd and unusual guy. The song has some unusual lyrics in English "man ka radio" the song tries to copy 50 cents and other pop bands..the video starts with Himesh walking with a negro women completely oiled, i just cannot understand what made the director to choose that girl in that song when the song is supposed to be a sad song...it makes the video more sick.. I think the director wanted to create an image in the minds of the viewers of a modern day song which is shot abroad hence tries to provide cues like negro girls around men,and girls wearing bikinis to show westernized approach and to go in sync with the song which is partly in English and hindi. the lyrics are really funny, I think Himesh is actually a good actor as he manages to put up a sad face all through the song even when the lyrics are so funny.. hats off himesh,,,

But the truth is he still makes money and popular among all sec b and sec c cities..