Well, here’s one that came close to getting it right, though even this one is almost but not quite there : 

One thing that worked for me, they went for a small part of a larger problem, and didn’t try and tackle the whole problem itself. Also, they leavened it with a bit of humour and didn’t end up sounding sentimental, melodramatic, over-sincere etc. As I’d said in this post, a heavy message is better delivered with a light and deft touch.

Though it’s ironic that the vehicle chosen to deliver this message is someone who danced to lyrics as misogynistic as ‘wanna be my chhammak chhallo’, the only reason I’d perhaps pardon that bit of mis-casting and refrain from mocking it is that since he also did the self-mocking parody ‘Dard-e-disco’.

A few quick tips for brands thinking of appropriating causes :

• You have to sound authentic and empathetic

• Not just in communication, but this has to show in other aspects of what the firm does too, else it sounds hollow and shallow ; think ‘Body Shop’, for a great example of this

• The link to the earlier campaigns and to the firm’s image has to be natural and not a force-fit; this is one thing that totally works for the Tata Tea ‘Jaago Re’ campaign and for this ad in particular. Watch earlier ‘Jaago Re’ ads here, here, here, here  and here

• And if it’s a cause, maybe the message can be one that makes people question status quo, and doesn’t just say things in a melodramatic manner ; even better, one that links to a specific action that furthers the cause ; no, buying the product or service is not the type of action I’m referring to here

Incidentally, while discussing the specific question raised in this ad, ‘why isn’t the woman’s name ever mentioned before the man’s ?’, a friend just mentioned to me that the ancient call was always ‘Jai Siya Ram’, so tradition does not demand that the woman’s name always follow the man’s.

Now that’s a good ad, one that gives rise to an involved discussion !

By,
Zenobia Driver

But it is not only the young ones who are adapting but also the elderly, especially so with the arrival of grand children (or in some cases, great-grandchildren) in their families.

Example A, 83 year old great-grandmother of 4 toddlers now, lives in Mumbai with her family spread across Dubai, Europe and the US. When she first became a great-grandmother 5 years ago, she switched from a regular Nokia phone to a Blackberry “so that my grand daughter in Dubai can send me pictures everyday over BBM”… not only did she pick up the lingo, but also familiarized herself with using it very proficiently, and loving the fact that now she could not only get her great-granddaughter’s pictures but also “check updates on the rest of the family through BBM updates”.

Two years after this, she bought an i-Pad to “…. to Skype with my growing babies…. how else would they be able to see me and hear me… I tell them stories and sing songs to them and they love it… I love seeing their reaction.” Last year, she was mighty impressed with her daughter’s iPhone5, and decided to move from Blackberry to iPhone5 because “all my grand children have now moved from Blackberry to iPhone, they are all on What’s App now, no one BBMs, so I thought why not move myself. Plus iPhone allows me to Facetime with them all instantly.”

Moving from a Blackberry to an iPhone is not always easy, the interfaces and interactions are completely different and she always manages to surprise me with her willingness to try and readily adapt new technology.

Example B, 65 year old grandmother to a 2 year old now, lives in Mumbai, but daughter and grandchild live in Dubai. She only got a phone a couple years ago, a regular no-fuss Nokia, only on the insistence of her daughter who worried about her. But as her grandchild was growing up, she felt the need to be in touch, so she learnt to use a computer and found it very cumbersome and complicated, but still managed to somehow use Skype after some struggle with the poor internet connections, high start-up times of computers and the need to coordinate times with the grandchild and daughter to actually talk over Skype. Frustrated with this, she decided she needed an easier way to be able to see her grandchild when she wanted, so she went to the market on her own, explained her problems to the mobile dealer and came home with a fancy new Samsung phone, with all requisite apps downloaded and ready to use! Surprise surprise to her daughter! She now uses What’s App very well and is happy to just get photos and video clips of her grand child instantly. She recently self-taught herself to record audio and video clips herself and send them to her grandchild as well, and she is mighty proud.

Example C, 58 year old who recently became a grandmother, in the past always argued with her children about buying her a simple phone when they’d get her phones with a camera or with a radio or with a touchscreen, etc. But as soon as she had spent one month with her granddaughter and it was time to go back home, she knew she had to find a way see her grand-daughter when she pleased. So she asked around amongst her friends and after having figured everything out, asked her son to get her an Android phone! Android phone! Son was shocked to know that she even knew that there were Android phones, leave alone what an Android phone was!!! Promptly she asked for What’s App to be downloaded on to it and voila! she could get pictures of her granddaughter on her phone. Not only that, now she can proudly show her pictures to her friends, family, trainer, beautician, anyone who asks, cause it’s right on her phone!!

I don’t know if its the love and affection that a grandparent feels towards their grandchild that has made them adapt to new technology, or whether we owe it to the developers who’ve created interfaces which are so simple to adopt and so intuitive that even people, especially women who’ve hardly ever used calculators and computers in their prime, are so quickly and deftly adapting them.

• Roshni Jhaveri

If you’ve read ‘Why we Buy : The Science of Shopping’, Paco Underhill’s classic on the retail environment and how to influence consumers to buy more, you already know a whole lot of interesting facts. You know that products meant for the elderly should not be kept on the lowest shelves as they find it difficult to bend down and pick up products, and sales of these products end up being lower than they ought to be. You’ve also read about the ‘butt-brush’ effect (really apt naming here) – in narrow aisles people get jostled and brush against one another, nobody really likes this and hence they spend less time browsing these aisles and rush out of them as soon as they can. ( If you haven’t read the book yet, do get your hands on it, it’s well-written, fun to read and a lot of what he observes is fairly intuitive and gives the reader a sense of ‘aha, this sounds so logical, why did I not notice this before’.)

You’ve also probably noticed certain products being stocked next to each other or on adjacent shelves at the grocers; for instance, shampoo next to conditioners, moisturisers and face-wash and creams together, all cosmetics together. The logic here is fairly obvious.

So, using that as the base to begin from, here’re two questions for you.

Q1) In some shops in Gujarat, why do shelves stocking a certain brand of fruit juice also have yeast packets stocked ?

Q2) If you look closely, you’ll see that yeast is stocked next to packs of only a certain brand of fruit juice, not all; why is this ?

(Disclaimer : Cannot take credit for working hard and noticing this in the retail environment myself, I heard this at a party this weekend ; am yet to visit Gujarat and verify this for myself, would be glad to hear from any reader who visits or has visited Gujarat too)

And here’s the answer :

Two hints first, so you can try figuring it out yourself. One, Gujarat is a dry state ; two, grape juice, though the answer applies equally to other juices too.

Didn’t get it yet ? Fermented grape juice…wine ! In a dry state, one easy way of making your own alcohol is to buy fruit juice, pour it into a glass bottle, add yeast and wait for it to ferment.

And, to help you out, retailers even keep the juice and the yeast together on the same shelf.

And the answer to the second question is that this doesn’t work with all brands of fruit juice, some have preservatives that kill the action of the yeast. Hence, not all brands of fruit juice have the yeast packets stocked next to them.

[ Additional info courtesy a reader's comment (Thanks, Rohit). Apparently the grape juice and yeast trick was fairly common during the prohibition era in the U.S. and has been mentioned in this documentary too. Even more interesting is that the write-up mentions that 'with a wink and a nod, the American grape industry began selling kits of juice concentrate with warnings not to leave them sitting too long or else they could ferment and turn into wine'. Yes indeed, something to really worry about and avoid, I'm sure.]

• Zenobia Driver

Brand bloopers

In Feb this year, we’d mentioned how we felt that a Gillette campaign seemed to be milking a tragedy in India while ostensibly trying to express a higher moral position. And in March, this post commented on the Ford Figo ads that caused such outrage at the time. The post pointed out that something posted publicly on the internet can be replicated in a very short amount of time, and once something is out it’s impossible to contain it. Brands are now being built in real time, but they can unravel just as quickly, especially if they respond / communicate inappropriately in times of social or national tragedy.

Frank Eliason, Director Global Social Media at Citi, gives a real-time example of how quickly social media shines the spotlight on any online fumbles that a brand makes. The article includes pics of the ridiculous tweets from Epicurious, an online mag for foodies, after the Boston tragedy.

This post by David Armano – Managing Director of Edelman Digital – has a simple but useful checklist for how to handle branded content online during sensitive times. Even if you didn’t click on the other links given in this post, suggest that you click on this one and read David Armano’s post.

Some attitudes towards Gold as an investment

This article in today’s paper reminded me of some posts we’d run late last year; in those, we’d written about the dilemma faced by Mahesh, a friend’s driver who wanted to invest his meagre savings wisely (see posts here and here).

In our earlier posts, we’d written about many commonly held beliefs and attitudes – for instance, like many others, Mahesh believed that gold prices only went up and it was a good hedge against inflation. Within the options in gold, he’d rather invest in gold jewellery than gold coins; in his words, “I will buy gold coins once I’ve bought enough jewelry; kuchh pehenne ke liye bhi hona chahiye naa (there should be something to wear too)”.

Other interesting facets of these beliefs relate to gold and loans. A lot of Mahesh’ friends and neighbours were against buying gold jewellery on EMI schemes and would much rather buy whatever they could afford to with their annual savings; after all, “Yeh tho udhaar hua, aur Lakshmi ko udhaar ke paison ke sahaare ghar kaise laa sakte hain (this is like a loan, and how can we bring Lakshmi – the Goddess of wealth – home on borrowed money)”.

And since this gold jewellery is associated with Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth, and it is a symbol of the household’s prosperity and status, pawning it is absolutely the last option; though firms such as Mannapuram Gold Loans, Muthoot etc. have gone some distance towards removing that stigma and making the transaction reliable and transparent.

Vitamin water – Danone B’lue’s National launch

In Dec 2011, we’d blogged about seeing Danone B’lue banners all over Pune. This month, we noticed in news articles that B’lue has now been launched nationally. With the launch, this beverage opens a new segment in the Indian Ready to drink beverage segment. Tarun Arora, Country Head, Danone-Narang Beverages said that B’lue was launched as a pilot in Pune followed by a soft launch in Mumbai, and that the beverage was very well accepted in the market.

Will be interesting to watch how the brand fares, and whether the vitamin water market becomes a viable niche in the Indian beverages market.

Compiled by,

Zenobia Driver

Lifebuoy: Reminder for Hand washing

At the recently concluded Maha Kumbh Mela, Lifebuoy implemented a unique activation to spread the message of hand washing. Over 100 million people reportedly attend the Maha Kumbh Mela and Lifebuoy used this apt opportunity to highlight the importance of hand washing to its attendees. While Lifebuoy created awareness through the usual street hoardings and banners, it also utilized another innovative intervention to remind people to wash their hands before eating.

Lifebouy created special heat stamps with the message “Lifebuoy se haath dhoya kya?” (Did you wash your hands with Lifebuoy?) and put this impression on fresh rotis at 100 dhabas and hotels across the mela. Roti is a staple with every Indian meal and typically eaten by hand. What better place and time to remind people to wash their hands! Their target was to reach over 2.5 million visitors over a month long initiative. What an innovative way to reach a large small town and rural audience, and that too at a fraction of the cost.

Chennai City Traffic Police: Drink & Get Driven

An initiative by Zara Tapas Bar and Chennai City Traffic Police brought about a very novel idea to discourage drunken driving. Cause for 70% of accidents in India is attributed to drunken driving. Capitalizing on the god-fearing nature of most Indians, they created a short video featuring guests drinking and having a good time at a bar and when its time to leave, on receiving the car from valet, they are shocked to see Yamaraj (the god of death) himself, sitting in their car. Yamaraj warns them by handing over a “Drink and get Driven” information leaflet about hire-a-driver service. 

Ever so often we see posters or signs about ‘Don’t Drink & Drive’ across streets in our city but we fail to pay heed to it. But this video is sure to make you remember. The video was posted on Feb 15^th 2013 and it went viral. It now has over 4.5 lakh views on Youtube and has been the matter of chatter on several social networking sites as well as newspapers and news channels picked up on it within a couple of days of being posted.

Have you seen any such innovative campaigns? Do tell us about them, we’d love to hear from you.

• Roshni Jhaveri

A few weeks ago, we ran this post about the innovative offers from auto manufacturers trying to lure customers to purchase. For those interested in the auto industry, yesterday’s issue of the Mint had this article about Japanese car manufacturers tweaking strategies to suit Indian markets.

• Escape Velocity Team

Consider, for instance, the Ford Figo ads that sparked outrage recently; these showcased the extra-large boot of the car by showing three scantily clad bound and gagged women inside it. While I’d have called the ad misogynistic, regressive and in bad taste at any time, given the current environment in India it also showed that at least some people existed in a time warp that totally blanked out current events and the mood in this country. You might cavil at the lack of my sense of humour, but while I feel that these would be ok in MAD magazine or in a men’s changing room, as an ad intended to sell more products or win an award (!!), these lack a certain something. (Read Anuja Chauhan skewering the ad here – frankly, her article was one reason I desisted from doing so in detail, she’s already done it so efficiently.)

Created as award ads, these ads would probably have gone unnoticed a few years earlier, but with sharing so easy on social media, these went all around the world and created a storm that resulted in an apology from Ford and heads rolling at the ad agency. In fact, on Wednesday, 27^th March, after the news about the ad agency’s reaction broke, in just 7 hours there were over 1500 tweets on this issue, with a duplicated reach of 4.6 Mn people.

As this post on adsoftheworld says, ‘The world is becoming increasingly smaller. If you post something publicly on the internet it can be replicated in a very short amount of time. Mass media picks up stories from social media and blogs. Once something is out it’s impossible to contain it.  Think twice about how your ad will be perceived in different cultures of the world.’

If you want to read more about this controversy, follow the links below :

A slightly different point of view from Prathap Suthan.

And here too : http://www.firstpost.com/business/ford-mess-ford-jwt-and-wpp-have-overreacted-677371.html

For an analysis of how the ad spread around the world, read this.

Other news about these ads here, here, here and here.

• Zenobia Driver

Reportedly, February saw the biggest fall in the last 12 years in car sales – passenger car sales in February 2013 declined by 25.71% over February 2012. Overall the car sales increased by only 3.68% over last year (Source: SIAM). 

Given the high interest rates and soaring fuel prices, the car market is expected to remain weak. In the wake of such circumstances, car manufacturers are thinking outside the box, or at least stretching it to regain sales momentum.

To lure in customers, car manufacturers are offering several attractive offers across their range of cars. While some are offering 0% interest, others are offering attractive EMI schemes, some are doing buy-backs and exchanges while some are offering additional accessories and fittings for free.  Nothing new in this kitty, these are typical of March, because its year-end for everyone.

But wait, car manufacturers are now offering something new too. For example: Volkswagen is offering a trade-in scheme, where you can bring in your old car + Re.1 and take home a brand new Vento, rest of the payment to be made after one year, in full or in attractive 36 EMIs.

Tata Motors is offering its Manza customers 60% of the purchase price after three years. That’s quite an attractive offer, locking in the resale value, knowing for sure that you will get 60% of your car’s price, Given how poor the resale market has been in the past few years, with so many players in the market and manufacturers introducing new models and upgrades to old ones much more frequently, buyers are spoilt for choice even in the resale market.

It’s understandable that the car manufacturers themselves are offering such bold schemes because they have the deep pockets to take in some of these costs, but there are some entrepreneurial automobile dealers who have come up with some innovative offers for their own markets.

A Skoda dealer in Gujarat is offering ‘Buy a Rapid, Get a Fabia free’! We’ve heard of buy one, get one free offers in FMCG, but a first in automobiles, that too an initiative not by the manufacturer but by a lone dealer! Sure, from your point of view, you get the hatchback (Fabia) free only after five years, but by then won’t it be time to change your car anyways? Who would pass up on such an offer?! He sure has worked out his economics and has gone in head first to tackle the sales slowdown. A source from the trade says, “This is quite a bold move. In a time like this, when they are sitting on so much inventory, it is cheaper to offer such deals than to pay the bank interest. More cars on the road at least ensures us that we will have constant revenues from car servicing…”

A Jaguar Land Rover dealer in the north gave 15 cars to the who’s-who of society without taking a penny. He knew these people would pay him eventually given their status in society, but to just send off 15 of such high-end cars is quite a gutsy move. He was only trying to capitalize on the North-Indian “if he has it, I should have it too” attitude and it worked well for him. 15 Jaguar and Land Rover cars were on the streets of this not-so-big city, getting noticed and inquiries started pouring in. Plus the word of mouth from none other than the who’s who of the city helped him tremendously.

Tough times are calling for some tough calls, and manufacturers and dealers are tackling them with some innovative approaches.

• Roshni Jhaveri

The current campaign was probably motivated by good intentions – making a positive difference and occupying a higher moral ground, while at the same time dovetailing neatly into the soldier identity that the brand was trying to establish by piggy-backing on a current issue that is top of mind for everyone.

However, I felt that the ad lacked a certain something in terms of execution. It seemed to lather on the sentiment a bit heavy and altogether lacked subtlety; my personal opinion is that a heavy message is better delivered with a gentle hand, this one played to every melodramatic instinct in the gallery – stirring music, B/W frames etc.

Worse still, the ad also seemed a bit patronising towards women. I actually thought that the nicest bit of the ad was towards the end where it spoke about respecting women because ‘when you respect a woman you respect your nation’. If all men respected women, then women wouldn’t need to be guarded and protected, would they ? (But then the ad wouldn’t appeal to macho soldierly instincts either, I guess.)

In contrast to this ad, there’s an ICICI Prudential ad that I noticed on TV yesterday that expressed a far nicer sentiment while showing everyday slice-of-life situations, ‘jo zimmedaari nibhaate hain, jataate nahin’.  Now that’s what I like; though the marketer in me is forced to admit that the Gillette ad will probably go down better with their TG than this one.

p.s. For other opinions on this, you can also watch the Gillette ad being discussed on ‘Brand Equity – Final Verdict’ on the channel ET Now by clicking on this link.

• Zenobia Driver

 A comparison of the change in the population pyramids of various countries – we looked at these in this post  a few weeks back – tells us that India will continue to be an attractive destination for such firms at least another 15-20 years. Though the decline in fertility levels means that the base of India’s population pyramid in 2026 will be narrower than that in 2001, it will continue to be larger than that of other countries for some time still.

The Census of India’s Population Projection Report has some interesting data on the composition of this increase in population. You can access the entire report here, some points from the same below (in blue font) :

• 22% of the total population increase in India of 371 million during 2001-26 is anticipated to occur in Uttar Pradesh alone. 

• In fact, nearly 50% of India’s demographic growth during this period of twenty five years, is projected to take place in the seven erstwhile BIMARU states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand,Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal); i.e. of the projected increase in population  of 371 million in India during 2001-26,187 million will occur in these seven states.

• In contrast, the contribution of the four southern states, namely Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, to the total increase in population size of the country during 2001-2026 is expected to be 47 million -13% of total demographic growth of the country.

This raises a few points relevant to companies selling age or life-stage related products. Those selling products for babies, toddlers or kids would do well to keep in mind that a large chunk of their market in 2026 will be in the erstwhile BIMARU states. They need to plan for building a good distribution infrastructure in those regions and for generating demand after understanding those customers, their sociocultural backgrounds, lifestyles and needs etc. This will be especially critical for companies aiming at scale and large revenues.

If however, they are strong in the southern states and intend to remain geographically focussed, they need to think about where growth will come from once the penetration reaches saturation level. The selected strategy could be in the domain of brand extensions / new products to existing consumer and customer segments, or targeting new consumer segments, but neither option has easy quick-fix solutions.

With due apologies to those that object to the idea of education as a business, another point to ponder over is the supply (or lack therein) of good quality education at every level. This is a service that has been in short supply all over India, more so in the BIMARU states, is this changing at all ? There is some anecdotal evidence I’ve heard of the student mix in colleges in the south changing as the percentage of those from the North increased. But for those at primary and secondary level, studying outside the state (and away from parents) is not an option. What options do they have ? But this runs into the topic for the next post on the topic, which will look at some of the sociocultural implications of this demographic shift.

•  Zenobia Driver