Quality Traffic & Compelling Content are the two most important components that drive sales online

The 2 important components to driving sales online are:
- quality traffic and
- compelling content.

What if Pepsodent condom is launched?

If HUL decides to launch Pepsodent condom with the same tagline as its toothpaste, the brand communication cost can be drastically reduced.
The target audience has been bombarded with the positioning tagline, viz. Raat Bhar Dishum Dishum ever since his/ her childhood & will easily relate to the words for the new product category.
Only the context stands changed wink emoticon
‪#‎BrandPositioning‬ ‪#‎MarketingLessons‬ ‪#‎MarketingGyanology‬

What if Dr.FixIt condom is launched?

If a condom is launched with the brand name 'Dr.Fixit', success is assured because of the apt positioning tagline.
The target audience can ill-afford to forget the hard-hitting phrase!

#MarketingLessons #MarketingGyanology

What if Coca-Cola condom is launched?

If Coca-Cola were to launch a condom, they could have easily communicated with their target audience using their existing 'brand positioning' tagline, 'Open Happiness'.

Surprisingly, the positioning tagline(s) of numerous brands can be interchanged almost seamlessly with condom as a product category.

#MarketingLessons #MarketingGyanology #MarketingPundit #LaughAloud

What if Amaron condom is launched?

'Brand Positioning' is my favourite topic in marketing.
Surprisingly, the positioning tagline(s) of numerous brands can be interchanged with one particular category of product, almost seamlessly. The product is 'condom'.
‪#LaughAloud‬ but read on to enhance your knowledge in marketing.
Here's the 1st of the series. How about an Amaron condom?

‪#‎MarketingLessons‬ ‪#‎MarketingGyanology‬

What sets you apart from the competition

What sets you apart from the competition?

#MarketingGyanology

First seven seconds of an advertisement

First seven seconds of an advertisement are the most crucial in capturing a consumer’s attention and can boost a consumer’s opinion of the brand by 15 % to 20 %

#MarketingPundit

Job openings for twins as 'Front Office Executives' - Weird Advertisement

Quite a weird advertisement for job openings as 'Front Office Executives' for an Automobile dealership in Pune, India.

Why do you think they want only twins (M/M, F/F, M/F) to apply for the job. What could be the logic?

I am baffled!

#HowIndiaTravels

Delivering 'personalized experiences'

Delivering 'personalized experiences' is a challenge for all marketers.

The Telegraph celebrating Father's Day 2014

A very catchy advertisement by The Telegraph (Kolkata edition) on Father's Day 2014.
Very relevant!

Business card of Durex India

Business card of Durex India with a high 'top of the mind' brand recall.
Kudos!!

Richard Branson knows that 'Virgin' can benefit from any sort of publicity - even if he jokes on himself

Any brand owner looking to learn a lesson about getting noticed should just follow Richard Branson.
The head of Virgin has a penchant for publicity that keeps his name popping up in the press with uncanny regularity.
His latest gambit is silly but it's still making headlines. Branson bet AirAsia owner Tony Fernandes that his Virgin Racing Formula One team would finish higher than Fernandes' Lotus Racing team. The loser of the bet agreed that he would dress up as a woman flight attendant for the winner's airline.
Well, Sir Richard lost, and Tony is playing out the bet for all it's worth.
Fernandes told the UK's Daily Mail that "it's time for Richard to start preparing himself for some hard work and the likely pain of high heels." He added, "Many years ago Richard Branson employed me so I'm looking forward to him sucking up to me as a stewardess!"
Branson, who's redefining internal brand engagement by publicly answering questions from Virgin employees to honor his 60th birthday, will experience what his female in-flight crew experience by serving as a flight attendant for a rival airline brand — down to dressing the part.
Travelers can buy a ticket to be served by Sir Richard on an upcoming AirAsia flight on its Kuala Lumpur/London route. Seats will be made available through an online charity auction that will raise money for a charity of Branson's choice.The 60-year old Branson has already received his uniform and flight attendant badge from Fernandes.
Keith Collantine, editor of Formula 1 website F1 Fanatic, commented to the Daily Mail about the publicity stunt, "Richard Branson has always been a master of marketing. He knows that this brand can only benefit from this sort of publicity — even if the joke's on him."
A veteran at embarrassing himself through marketing stunts in order to promote his many brands, his self-mocking ways only endear him to the public — Virgin Airlines just topped a ranking of brands based on emotions and passion expressed by consumers on social media.

What should be the first priority of a marketing head - brand syntax, business results or customer insights? What is your formula for a nascent brand?

t(Excerpt from discussions initiated by Rahul Sinha, Marketing Head, Birla Sun Life in the ‘Marketing Pundit’ group on Linkedin.com)

Deep Banerjee wrote:
Customer Insights should be the first priority of a marketing head.
For a nascent brand, the market segmentation has to be flawless. Accordingly, the brand's positioning stance has to be worked out.

Rahul Sinha wrote:
Another view - If you do not know your Brand Syntax (what is at the heart of your brand), customer insight will be a map but you would lack the purpose. Hence the first goal should be to determine the brand syntax. Positioning will require both. So a chicken and egg? Which first?

Deep Banerjee wrote:
Before I typed out my comment, I pondered a lot over the superior choice - brand syntax or customer insights. I chose the later. I felt that a product/ brand should be conceptualized with the customer in mind. His demographic, behavioral and psychographic profile assessment is extremely important. That will dictate the brand communication language, methodologies, expenses, etc. All said, I too agree that it’s a chicken and egg story.

Alok Sud wrote:
I agree, knowing your customer is first and foremost priority. Once you know the Target Audience you are chasing, the nest logical step would be creating a value proposition to attract the customers, the brand syntax would then need to be worked out and thereafter the rest of the stuff follows. Without a clear understanding of the customer nothing would work, however great the brand syntax / architecture.

Bring back the Maruti Suzuki Esteem

The 1300 cc, three-box Esteem car from Maruti Suzuki was one fantastic machine. It was very low on maintenance costs and extremely good in fuel economy. Driving comfort was just too good. The pride of ownership was indeed an ego booster .... no wonders the little girl after the joyride in daddy's new Esteem (as shown in the TVC) proudly announces that its "My Daddy's Biiiig Car". In the Indian motor-rallying circuits, Esteem still calls the shots.
Why did the company want to bring in a 'forced obsolescence' with effect from early January 2008? In the product life cycle, the car was still in its growth stage, there was nothing to worry.
It is being heard that a three-box Swift is in the offing. However, I am sure that the new product being planned could have been squeezed in between the Esteem VXI and SX4. The media in no uncertain terms have spelt out that the introductory batches of SX4 is very poor in fuel economy.
Maruti Suzuki had earlier made the mistake of withdrawing the jelly-bean shaped Zen from the market for about a year in 2005 and replaced it with Zen Estilo. Estilo has just not been able to create an impact with customers. With competition hotting up in the small car segment, Maruti Suzuki needs to become far more market savvy in the higher segment and that's where Esteem figured.
Past and present 'Esteem owners', 'Esteem lovers' and marketing gurus, can we have a discussion on the topic please?
(Article by: Deep Banerjee dated 14th February 2008)

A Summer Project is NOT Agent Recruitment Project

I'm shocked at the way number of B-Schools in India are forcing their Marketing Management students to appear for campus interviews - for Final Placements as well as for Summer Training.
For Summer Training, private Insurance sector companies are awarding projects which involve appointment of agents for selling insurance products. The students are being paid a commission for the number of agents they manage to recruit. They are being threatened that if they do not appoint a bare minimum number of agents, they may not get their "certificate of satisfactory completion" from the company at all. Once these students pass out the following year, companies marketing branded products may not touch them with a barge pole. What these students do in the name of Summer Project for a period of 6 to 8 weeks is not a project at all.
Final year MBA Marketing students (with a background in Engineering) have been offered final placements (during campus interviews in February) in insurance companies with the job profile remaining the same as that of Summer Training. The insurance companies issue "Letters of Offer" to practically every individual who appear for the interview. What is worse is that, thereafter, the students are not even allowed to appear for other campus interviews by the college authorities between February and June.
These final year students were not even informed about their job content, i.e. on what they were expected to do on joining the company. On completion of their MBA in June - July they have also realized that the remuneration promised to them has a very very very high component of variable pay (in the form of incentives). No wonders there's a large number of demotivated fresh and young MBAs in the marketplace.
Will someone counsel these youngsters properly, please? I'm keen to hear from youngsters incidents which are very similar to these.