Understanding Brand Strategy: Nike - Make it Count

February 29. Once in four years, just once, an extra day seeps into your life. What will you do on this day? Same old rigmarole or would you rather do something different. C’mon step up! Make it count! What’s stopping you? Lack of enthusiasm, oodles of inertia? Dose of inspiration? Yeah, since the internet is so full of distractions, it’s nice to come across something that will remind you of what you have to do, instead of sitting there waiting for your Twitter feed to refresh.

Is that what Nike had in mind when it launched its ‘Make it Count’ campaign. Urging people to put in their effort to make it count.

 

Background:

The London Olympics steps up marketing stakes like very few others. Adidas reportedly signed a £100m sponsorship deal to be the official Olympic sponsor. Other majors too threw in their moolah. Nike investors thought the management wasn’t punching enough and hence in the plans for the current fiscal, Nike executives listed connecting directly with consumers was one of the company’s main goals. What did Nike do to counter this and still create a buzz?

The Campaign:

Nike has launched this new campaign that urges we all step up our game in 2012 and ‘Make it Count’. This multi-media channel campaign features a number of the UK’s top athletes making personal pledges, this includes the likes of Mo Farah, Jack Wilshere, Rio Ferdinand, Mark Cavendish and more.

At the bottom of the posters, they encourage everyone else to join in with a simple call to action and make a pledge via #makeitcount. Adam Hinton’s photography mixed with the bold Futura and handwritten typography works so well together. I love the personal touch, it’s nice to see the individual’s handwriting – simple and impactful. It’s incredible how Nike has managed to get the Olympics thought across without actually mentioning it.

Upping the game:

Until the launch of this campaign, Nike never had an official Twitter account. It has several separate accounts for each of its division but now for the first time, the company has a single voice tweeting on behalf of the entire brand. Also what appears, Nike has possibly tied a deal with twitter to customise their page with a giant banner. In addition it’s a big respite that Nike updated their awful flash based website to a new slick  HTML5 one. There’s more! A physical interactive installation is in place in each of Nike’s big stores. Stores on Oxford Street have mini-studios where consumers can create their own pledge photographs.

Results:

Research on web buzz – carried out by BrandWatch, from 1 December to 7 February, shows that Nike is dominating conversations on the internet, with 7.7% of the conversations about the Olympics associated with the brand. By contrast, Adidas is only pulling in 0.49% of conversations and ranks fifth. HSBC is the brand that is receiving the second-most buzz on the web in relation to the Games, but it is far behind Nike with just 0.68% of the web buzz. This reminds me of the classic case of Pepsi’s Nothing Official about it campaign during the Cricket World Cup in 1996. But this one’s  a more gentleman-ly shot at the competitor.

While no mention of the Olympics is made in the ads (Nike is not an official partner of the Games), the theme of the campaign and the decision to use UK athletes only makes it difficult not to link it to the event. One can only hope then that the notorious 'curse of the Nike ad' (seen most clearly in the 2010 World Cup, where virtually all the football stars featured in Nike's campaign were either injured or underperformed) doesn't happen again here.

So, that’s the thought! I will see you right back here!

Learnings from the Social Media Week: Part 1

After the Star Wars-esque attempt at mixing the parts here’s the part one of the previous post on Social Media Week.

1.      Liquid Content:

Liquid content is creative work that is so compelling, authentic and culturally relevant that it can flow through any medium. Liquid content includes emotionally compelling stories that quickly become pervasive. Link this liquid content to brand strategies and business objectives and voila! You have an excellent trick up your sleeve.When content is both "Liquid and Linked," it generates consumer expressions and has the potential to scale quickly.

2.      Be a Facilitator

In experiment on the ‘The Best Job in World’ Tourism Queensland embarked on a global search to promote Australia and tourism in general. Thousands of people sent in their 60-seconders and finally Ben Southall made the cut. His job apart from being a caretaker was to blog about his experience and share them via his networks. The advertising receieved a lot of buzz and by the end of the campaign it has generated more than $200 million in global publicity value for Tourism Queensland. What happened here?

Tourism Queensland had to give up control of the content, so that ambassadors could share their own experiences. In an era of consumer expressions, seek to facilitate and participate with communities, not control them.

3.      Not all is positive:

Of course, not every consumer expression will be positive. You have to be part of the conversation so you can set the record straight when you need to. What would be ideal is turn your star fans into the self-police brigade. When the facebook site of Coca-Cola was targeted by an activist group and negative messages were posted about the brand, Coke fans responded with support messages and challenged the communities attempts at image tampering.

4.      Be quick to replicate success

Increasing consumer expressions requires many experiments, and some will fail. Build a pipeline so you can quickly replicate your successes in other markets and share the lessons from any failures. We see this happening in many cases in which success across one channel leads to extension of the concept across others as well. Superbowl commercials should be a good example of this.

I am sure there is lots to cover, and I will slowly come to learn about it. Drop by in the comments section if you think there is something else to add.

So, that’s the thought! I will see you right back here!

New Launch: Flyte - MP3 download store by flipkart

Ladies and Gentlemen, I interrupt the flow of Learnings from Social Media to blog about flipkart's latest offshoot - flyte. If you have been waiting for an iTunes like music store in India that offered “legal” music, here’s an exciting bit of news. Flipkart has launched its online digital music store called Flyte (one of the first such e-com players to do so), and claims it is India’s largest legal online music store. Here are some initial thoughts.

Pricing Strategy:

The cost of individual music tracks vary anywhere between INR 6 and INR 15 (for newer songs) while albums will be available for download starting at Rs 25. Users also have the option of listening to a 30 seconds clip of any song (free of cost) before actually purchasing it. (so that you are actually downloading the desired song). The prices of the albums that are available for download are cheaper than their CDs or DVDs. For example, you can purchase the entire Rockstar movie album for only Rs 113 whereas the movies audio CD costs Rs 149. If the differential seems small take into account immediate gratification so much important when listening to music.

Competitors:

The major competitors for flyte are telecom operators who are big players in the digital music market. Vodafone was offering popular songs for download at the price of Rs 25 per song, while the full album in available for prices that range between Rs 50 to Rs 99. Some others are offering single song downloads at Rs 15 each. The telecom operators have an advantage with an easier payment mode as the downloads are charged to the phone bill or deducted from a pre paid balance. But can flipkart still eat into the market share of telecom operators? Let’s wait and watch.

What betters this offering?

1.      Ease of use: All digital music downloads are available in Digital Rights Management (DRM) free MP3 format which means that the MP3 files that users purchase will not contain any software that will restrict the usage of the file. Almost all the songs I came across on the store were available in CD-quality (320kbps bitrates). The default option for download is 128 kbps but users can also choose to download songs at 320kbps or 64kbps bitrates.

2.    Add-ons: All purchased songs are automatically added to the MP3 Library and users can download their songs anytime, on any Internet enabled device, although. The company has also provided a ‘Download Manager’ which is a desktop application with which users can choose to pause and resume file downloads.

3.   Re-download-ability: One area where Flipkart scores over Amazon is allowing users to redownload, unlike its global counterpart. The songs can only be re-downloaded a maximum of three times after the initial download. However Amazon allows users to save songs in Amazon Cloud Drive. Indeed, cloud storage for consumers is still at a nascent stage in India but we would expect Flipkart to soon come out with a similar option. The question is would Flipkart just go ahead buying some small Cloud storage firm or just use the services of one to roll it out. Use Dropbox till that happens.

4.    Mode of payment: Users can purchase music via the regular payment options as well as the flipkart wallet. Obviously there is no option for Cash on Delivery. Also, once an order is placed, it cannot be cancelled.

What I don’t like: One thing that may put off some users is incomplete ID3 tagging in some of the downloaded files. Call me finicky but consumers especially techies can be very choosy.

The launch of Flyte happens 10 days after reports that the notorious music piracy website Songs.pk was blocked in India. Legal action against piracy websites may direct some users to legitimate digital music services but Flipkart will need to give users some value addition to be able to lure them away from free, albeit illegal content.

So, that’s the thought! I will see you right back here, tomorrow!

Learnings from the Social Media Week: Part 2

It was a whirlwind of a week, and while I am still gathering insights – and my breath- I am thrilled to look back at the rich insights congregated.  What am I talking about? I am talking about the Social Media Week. The Social Media Week is a bi-annual conference of the best minds in social media and is held across multiple cities in the World. This year it was held from 13^th to 17^th February 2012. If you are one of those skeptics who still thinks that social media is not a big deal do check out 52 reasons on why social media is important.

So while you can browse through the blogs sections across Hamburg, Hong Kong, London, Miami, New York ,Paris etc. and probably read the Forbes Report here, you can discover your own insights and the way social media is shaping marketing across the world. Trust me it will be a fantastic experience. I have made my notes as well and would like to share them with you.

5.      Consumer Impressions and Expressions:
Consumer Impressions is the most often used and quoted metric in terms of audience measurement across all types of media. So when social media evolved it was natural that the same would be stamped on here as well. However impressions give only the raw size of the audience. They are passive. They don’t mirror engagement and it’s engagement that brands are striving to achieve. Awareness is okay but that’s it, it’s just okay! What you need is consumers to advocate your brand. Hence in addition to consumer impressions marketers need to track consumer expressions. 

An expression can span any level of engagement like a “like”, uploading a photo/ video or passing content onto the consumer’s network. Sometime back Coca-Cola hosted a 24-Hour Live Session with Maroon 5 and captured impressions (the number of online views) but gained tremendous insights from expressions by consumers — their comments, input on the song that was being created and what they shared with their networks.

6.      Consumers generate more messages than firms:

Let me illustrate this by a case in point.  Let’s pick up Why This Kolaveri Di. Now say  you as Sony Music filmed the song and you uploaded it on youtube. Within hours there were multiple versions of the song created and shared by people. Out of the 60 million odd views for Why this Kolaveri di about 45 million were for the parent rest 15 million are for the versions consumers created. Not convinced! Let’s take another case on YouTube. There are about 146 million views of content related to Coca-Cola. However, only 26 million views were of content that was created by Coke. 

Firms shouldn't fight this wave of expression but feed it with content that touches consumers' passion points like sports, music and popular culture. No firm can match the volume of consumers' creative output, but they can spark it with the right type of content.

Okay why is this post Part 2? Attribute it to some inspiration from Star Wars. Part 1 up soon.

So, that’s the thought! I will see you right back here, tomorrow!

Grammar & Brand Taglines

I am hopping states and cities once again! It’s been five cities in the last one week and here I am in Moradabad, a small nondescript town in Uttar Pradesh. On my journey from Gurgaon to Moradabad I come across thekas (places selling liquor) who offered to sell ‘CHILD BEER!’ Yes you are right! Although any Indian who has ever been to Gurgaon would have merely scoffed at it, the tourists seemed pretty amused.

 

Me and my colleague are amused too. Especially when we saw this tourist clicking her pic next to the hoarding. We then progressed to discuss the valiant but unfortunately unsuccessful attempts by traditional Indian retailers to sound Engliss. It then dawned upon me- the stickiness of the subject. An error in the spelling made me think so much about the shop. If it were correctly spelt I wouldn’t have remembered where or what the particular shop was. But now I do. Can brands too work and get away with it? Have there been any instances where brands have bent the rules of grammar to make the tagline more sticky? Apparently, examples abound.

What first comes to my mind is ‘Think Different’ by Apple. "Think" is a verb and should take the adverb, "differently", not the adjective, "different". When you read the book Steve Jobs By Walter Issacsson you realize that the copywriter, ad agency, and Apple all knew it from day one. While zeroing in on the tagline Steve Jobs said – “Its grammatical, if you think about what we are trying to say. Its not think the same, its think different. Think a little different, think a lot different, think different. ‘Think Differently.’ wouldn’t hit the meaning for me”. The debate around the tagline and the subsequent commercials helped Apple gain the ‘conversations’ required for a new brand. It was clutter breaking. Toying with grammar is, after all, a way to ‘Think Different’ (ly?).

That’s just one example, have a look at others in the recent past include:

1. Lets Merry! – Starbucks – Also see the subsequent backlash on the error in grammar here

2. Real News. Real Fast. - CNN –  Debate here.

3. Winston tastes good like a cigarette should. - Winston Cigarettes – Grammar Controversy here.

Grammatical disruption, when used judiciously, is an effective communication technique. Moderately incorrect use of the English language can cause your audience to stop and think about what you're saying long enough to absorb your message.

Some more acrobatics with the language: Brand taglines are often played upon to enhance message recall and to freshen up expression. Uncommon words are used, vernacular words are sprinkled, words are inverted, tone or rhythm is altered and grammar rules are broken. This helps the brand to rise above the pedestrian and project its ideas in language that is stylistically fun, surprising, and inventive.

Thus semantics still manage to trump syntax. Placing undue emphasis on grammar at the expense of the message is a trick to be used judciously. (Did some purists just raise their eyebrows?)  Noam Chomsky’s , a famous MIT linguist (also a regular participant at my college fest;) ) says that perfectly correct sentences don’t serve the purpose if they don’t communicate the message. His example ‘Colorless green ideas sleep furiously’ says it smart. 

So, that’s the thought! I will see you right back here, tomorrow!

Understanding Brand Strategy: Great Britain

I am sitting at the Mumbai airport (again!) and am thinking about the Great Britain campaign I just saw. I wonder what's with various countries plastering the Indian landscape with their advertisements! The promotion for South Africa was done on the heels of burgeoning Indian ‘visitors’ flocking the Cape of Good Hope and the campaign was a mere stimulus injected to increase footfalls. To read more about the South Africa campaign read my blog post earlier this month. However, Great Britain comes as a surprise, until you link it to London Olympics to be held in Aug-Sep 2012.

Background:

The poster series includes images of crowds at the Reading Festival to capture the British music scene, a portrait of Henry VIII to illustrate British heritage and so on. The ten posters, costing a whopping £500,000 to produce were designed to promote Britain and ultimately attract an extra 4 million visitors over the course of the next few years. (Various sources) The objective is to attract an extra billion pounds of inward investment and trade over the next year, giving a lift to an economy that has barely grown during the last 12 months.  

The thought behind the campaign according to Prime Minster, David Cameron, is to dispel negativity linked to the country's ongoing economic problems and move away from the racial and anarchic images beamed over the globe by media channels last year. However not all of Brits subscribe to the Prime Minster’s views. Read report from Dailymail here.

The campaign:

Great Britain’s Tourism Poster Campaign was launched in UK in Oct 2011 and then spread to other countries. The posters supposedly put the “Great” back into Britain. The campaign also demonstrates good timing with the London Olympics in the offing. I like the concept, however there are some jarring issues with the typography.

1.   Alignment: I reckon the left-aligned typography looks slightly odd with the word BRITAIN aligned centrally underneath.

2.      Choice of Images: Of course, we have Richard Branson striking a pose for the camera and an array of scenic views and historical venues. These images seem aspirational and fit the bill however I don’t subscribe to the choice of other images. The ‘Music is Great’ design sports a man signalling the ‘devil horns’ gesture. There could have been so many better images for a music concert! The Shopping one has something of sexy-insanity in it, the colors are dark and the aura tilts more towards ‘fetichista’ than ‘fashionista’.

3.      Hey! Am I missing something?: To add on, one of the reasons I would like to visit Britain would be for its weather. (Yeah! Anything is better than the humid Mumbai climate)  As can be seen, the posters include titles such as “Countryside is Great”, “Heritage is Great”, “Entrepreneurs are Great” and “Shopping is Great”. I think they missed one off intentionally, though “The Weather is Great”? Okay you may argue how can they portray weather in the posters. Well that’s an easy fix, you have a plethora of options to choose from. Snow caped hills, lush-green grass and so on.

4.    Customize: Also rather than blanketing the world with 10 rigid posters they could have done well to tailor their USPs to the nations they would advertise. The reasons why Japanese would visit Britain would differ from what prompts Indians.

5.  Splitting the words: I would’ve tried splitting the longer words over two lines (countryside, entrepreneurs) so they were the same type size as “GREAT.” Although this doesn’t bode well, the current prints don’t look good to me. Also from small-to-large-to-very small is a no-no for me.

Do they expect this? Lessons from previous hosts:

Evidence from previous Olympic host cities suggest cashing in on the Games is no easy task.  In Greece, even before the current economic crisis, Athens struggled to pay off its £9.4bn splurge on the 2004 Olympics. The country was crippled by debt and its venues lay abandoned.

Beijing did not see an immediate surge in hotel bookings despite hopes that hosting the 2008 Olympics would open China up to a wider tourist market. Barcelona 1992 has been heralded for transforming the coastal city into one of Europe's most popular tourist destinations, but even its tourism trade suffered in the aftermath of the Olympics.

What cities and countries should learn from the best?

Which is the best and longest lasting tourism campaign till date? Which one pops up when you link advertising campaign and city? Think and you will get it.  I believe the 'I love NY' campaign should have been there right among the top. The rebus is iconic and is still seeing the light of the day after more than 30 years since it was first launched in 1977. Steve Karmen’s idea was to incorporate all of the Broadway actors and have them sing "I love New York". The ad campaign was a success; the jingle became NY State's official song, the "I Love NY" slogan stuck. Read more on how it started here. That’s how it should be done. The song and signature white t-shirt printed with the I love NY logo are symbolic of the city till date.

The campaign shouldn’t just be externally focused, it should involve the people living in the country as well. Otherwise it would just be a royal (pardon the pun) waste of money, innit?

So, that’s the thought! I will see you right back here!

Understanding Brand Strategy: Dewar's India

Earlier this week, the day before I darted off to Goa for the weekend, a friend pinged me on Whatsapp and asked me ‘What do you think of the Dewarsists?’ What do you mean what do I think, I am not thinking of anything but the Goa trip in the next few hours.! However he was pretty enthusiastic about it and told me how different it is from the traditional surrogate cassettes, CDs and tonic water marketing other liquor brands undertake. I wanted to park the discussion for laters but he hit me with a statement - ‘I think its worthy of a mention in your blog! What’s your view on it?’ Good Lord! I am happy that people are actually reading up! So before heading off, I promised that I would write a post on ‘The Dewarsits’.  So here it is.

What is it?

‘The Dewarsits’ is a musical television series on Star World India. The series is part music documentary and part travelogue. The show casts musicians from various parts of the world, collaborating to create original music while travelling across India. For the uninitiated it is pronounced Doo- erists – don’t call it Day-ver-ists and sound stupid among the fans. But hey, Dewar’s is also a brand of whisky! So-the-brand-must-be-promoting-itself-through-the show. Okay we all guessed this! <cheers to us all!>

Point:

1.      Excellent Surrogate:

I believe the show is a wonderful example of surrogate marketing. It’s not just the usual brand recall advertisement by Bacardi Music CDs or McDowell’s Soda but is experiential. It was bang on with the idea Arvind Krishnan, GM - Marketing, Bacardi India started out with.  ‘To deliver experiences to consumers to create brand recall. To endeavour to construct ever evolving, ever unique experiences that keep the target audiences loyal.’ Read the entire transcript here.

The pronunciation has also played on the aspect of doing! It salutes musicians who have fought against all odds to pursue their passion. If it weren’t for the immaculate execution, the campaign would have left nothing remarkable as was the case with Lenovo’s Campaign (For those who do) earlier this year. The show was wonderfully produced and was everything that Coke Studio India wasn’t – thankfully. The rigmarole of using the TV as a conduit and ploughing the audience to youtube channels, facebook likes etc was followed-you know the drill.  Check out the youtube channel here and the teaser promo here. To add on there is enough and more praise for the show on the net and you can read one of the praises here on TED Ads. Read show review by Mumbai Boss here.

2.      Channel Pick:

For a music TV show, the regular choices would have been either an MTV or Channel [V]. However Star World caters to a different set of audience as compared to an MTV or a Channel [V]. TAM data for 2 October to 19 November for All India market, target group CS 25+ years, shows that the show gathered a cumulative reach of 1,052,000 only. Compare this with music shows like MTV Big Bang Mornings and MTV Music Xpress gathered 41,258,000 and 44,800,000 as cumulative reach on an average basis. Even the much talked about Coke Studio could register 22,186,000 as its cumulative reach. But if these numbers for ‘The Dewarists’ come across as relatively marginal, you have to check their channel views on YouTube (282,145) and the total upload views (1,315,876). Also one must reconcile these with the feedback received by the brand on Facebook and twitter. The brand gained conversation. The show was a success because apart from the ratings, the show enabled sale of 10,000 CDs.

While marketers may rejoice and cheer (sorry pun not intended, this time!) at the success we must step back and view it from a different vantage point. Till this point, I’m thinking like a normal marketer.

Counterpoint:

1.      Confusion:

The brand Dewars India is slyly prompting its users to ‘like’ the ‘Dewar’s India’ Page as opposed to what should be ‘The Dewarists’ show. The Dewarists website has hyperlinked the ‘Dewar’s India’ page instead of linking it to ‘The Dewarists’’ page. Result - 24,000+ for Dewarists’ vs. 100,000+ for Dewar’s! Although the ultimate purpose of the show is to lead conversation for the brand, this sly tactic opted for is a strict no-no. Imagine underage issues as well as issues with people who don’t want to portray themselves ‘liking’ an alcohol brand on facebook.

Let us look at it this way. How would you feel if a Coke Studio India asked people to like Coca Cola India page on facebook. It feels desperate right? Same holds true for Dewars as well.

2.      Hey, something's not right here:

While I was at it I also noticed another aberration on facebook. The Bacardi page on Facebook is listed under ‘Wine/spirits’. Why is the Dewar’s India page listed under ‘Food/beverages’? A whiskey brand like Dewar’s being listed under ‘Food/beverages’ seems odd, when other hard liquor brands like Bacardi and Absolut are listed appropriately. More so when people from the TV show are directed to this brand.

While I think the tactic used by Dewar’s is perfectly legitimate in marketing-speak, I feel they could have used a little more caution before getting fans of the show to become fans (on Facebook) of the brand. Is this a classic example of a bait-and-switch?

So, that’s the thought! I will see you right back here!

The Psychology of Color

Color (or the lack of color) triggers a very powerful emotional response in us.  We can use insight as we select company colors, design logos, create ads, build websites and even create products.

Anyone who works in branding or advertising realizes the importance of colors and their shades. I remember seeking help of a designer friend from NIFT for coming up with a colour scheme for one of our brands. She sent me a dossier on the use of colors and their significance. Although that was pretty helpful, the infographic below some sort of a ready reckoner.

Check out this fascinating infographic on how we react to color. The Psychology of Color is a cool infographic from CertaPro Painters of Louisville. Pretty neat stuff.

Designed by NowSourcing.com, I loved the visual appeal of the design.  Obviously, it’s bright and colorful, but in all three sections of the layout (home, colors and advertising) they provide visual examples to back up their observations about different colors.  Especially liked the McDonald’s and the Victoria’s Secret examples.

Cheers to CertaPro Painters for creating this and Infographic Journal for originally sharing it.

Try to apply these to the brands you see around you. Is the same(red) applicable to Coca-Cola as well? What about the TATA brand (blue)? Also a lot of Chinese restaurants use red as the dominant colour in their light arrangements. It will be interesting to see the effect music has on people as well.

So, that’s the thought! I will see you right back here!

PS: More interesting stuff on the color pink here.

Farmers Using Social Media

Recently Economic Times reported about ‘Farmers using Facebook to discuss prices and plan strategy’. The headline is a perfect blend of a social media buzzworthy headline and follows it up with a meaningful piece.

The fact that social media helps in collaboration and reaching out to people is no news. But then what worked for the farmers here at Sangli? It’s the novel application of the social media tool. Farmers in India are typically thought to be an exploited, poor lot. That’s because the media paints them that way. Majority of the news we come across are that of farmers committing suicide and being shortchanged for prices of their produce. The article is a welcome change because it shows that not all farmers in India are the typical bechaara lots portrayed in the media. Some of them use smartphones and are even using the latest social media tools in farming. And that is a welcome change.

More than the headline what left an impact on me was a statement from Asheesh Raina from Gartner India. He said, “Earlier, a village sarpanch would sit under a tree and discuss certain issues with villagers before taking a final call. Facebook and Twitter are an extension of this concept.”

I would have loved to see the article emphasize and dwell more into the details of the statement. Since it doesn’t, let me try.

1.      Collaboration:

Consider how these farmers would have done the same had they used the phone as a tool. It’d mean one or more farmers getting the numbers of all relevant farmers and call them one by one to announce their prices/decisions. This would have been massively time consuming and cumbersome.

2.      Virality

The speed with which the news travels via social media is incredible. In the earlier days, a farmer’s cooperation may need to release a print ad in a national newspaper to announce the decision to boycott the local auctions. Or, one local group needs to get in touch with other local groups to pass on the decision to boycott the local auctions across the country. The way this may spread depends on how efficient the local groups are, in spreading the message. What Facebook enabled is that it gave voice to farmers to talk amongst themselves and share the update. Only when you compare this to real world equivalents, would you realize that this is massively efficient in ensuring that the message spreads virally. How? Take the last point – like a PR pro being connected to at least a few other PR pros, a farmer would be connected to at least a few other farmers, online. Even if one of them gets the message, they would share it for the benefit of their community. That’s where viral magic happens.

3.      Staggered

Take the same sarpanch analogy. What if each participant in the meeting had the power to drop in to the meeting whenever they wanted – when they had the time? And what if whenever they dropped in, the meeting was on and relevant? What would that mean? That would mean a sarpanch with a very, very annoyed wife/family! But that’s precisely the nature of social media. It allows staggered participation depending on time availability of its participants.

4.      Eliminating Middlemen

The social media channel also eliminates the need for middlemen and enables farmers to form communities to sell their harvest.

Whats happening elsewhere?

Ben Holtz, a 26-year-old avocado grower in California, launched CaliforniaAvocadosDirect.com in January, as reported by The Signon San Diego. Through promotions on Facebook and Twitter, Ben promotes his wares. When he receives an order, he fills it right then, going straight from the computer out into the fields to pack the order. He has sold more than 100 boxes of the buttery green fruit to people all over the country.

Ben is not the only farmer to find social media useful. Log in to Twitter and search for #AgChat. The center of "AgNerds," AgChat, which now has its own site, is a year-old weekly Twitter conversation in which farmers of all sizes together to discuss crops, tell their stories, compare with others, and help promote their wares and produce. Jeff Fowle, the president of the AgChat Foundation, has 33,000 followers on Twitter.

What’s next?

The farmers could form communities of their own and use their facebook pages as some sort of a living brochure- describing their products and programs with continual updates. It would also allow farmers to inform customers by sending out updates and newsletters.   An online payment option could be done to reserve or block the produce in advance. A ‘contact us’ feature would allow new merchants/ end consumers to communicate instantly. Live auction on twitter and so on. The uses are as much as you can think of.

So finally facebook has its own set of farmers, and for a change its not Farmville.

So, that’s the thought! I will see you right back here!

Social vs Interest Graphs

Guess who’s joined Pinterest? If your guess was the Mark Zuckerberg - the social networking god himself, then give yourself a pat on the back and treat yourself today.

Until the last visit, there has not been much activity on Zuckerberg’s Pinterest profile: three pins, one like, 2,346 followers, and he is following 125 Pinterest users. What’s weird is that Zuckerberg seems to really like iPhone screenshots of homescreens. Don’t believe it, check out for yourself. He has dedicated an entire board to it.

 So Zuckerberg’s testing the waters again! But it’s nothing new is it? He also has accounts on Twitter and Google Plus. Zuckerberg has only tweeted 19 times, and his tweet January 18 — which linked to a Facebook post where he outlined his opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act — was his first since March 13, 2009. (Various sources) His Google Plus page is even more fallow, with no public posts.

In my earlier post on ‘What is Pinterest?’ I had outlined how and where Pinterest can be used.  Today’s check showed Pinterest zoom up to rank 102 on Alexa.com .What is Pinterest showing us?

Trend 1:

The major difference between Facebook and Pinterest is that social networks like Facebook use friends as a common starting point and then discover your interests. Whereas interest graph-based models such as Pinterest start with your interests and then let you make connections. It’s less about who you know and more about what you care about.

Trend 2:

While maybe everyone may not agree, the number one draw to this site for me was it's visual appeal. I am a very visual person who sometimes has the best intentions of either bookmarking articles or printing them out to read later & then rarely find time to do it. Pinterest is exploding because people don’t have time to read. It’s an illustration of a trend towards visual communication.

What all of this means for marketers?

Social and Interest Graphs:

Getting social media efforts to deliver hard results and ROI is a challenge for the simple reason that most consumers aren’t there to connect with brands and their advertising messages.

While Facebook has been able to bring social trust to online search by enabling social endorsements and sharing via its “Like” button, some major flaws remain: We assume that 1,000 “Likes” are better than 100 and that “Likes” from within my social circle are better than “Likes” from strangers. However, I might have interests that I do not share with anyone in my social circle. Also, the algorithm behind the Facebook feed emphasizes recency over relevancy, burying useful bits of information in digital nirvana. To add on to the problems is the often high noise level in the data due to the lack of context (e.g. I might be looking up something for a friend rather than myself), which decreases relevancy.  Also customizing search results by google seems to be a bit of a push down the throat.

But the interest graph platforms can change that. If marketers can suddenly identify people who’ve raised their hands and virtually asked for a “proposal,” they can more easily connect with people who’ll welcome them. 

If Facebook is the service with the internet’s most visible social graph, Twitter is the service with the internet’s most visible interest graph. “Following” a person — even one you don’t know — is an affirmation of your interest in their insights and recommendations. “Friending” someone is simply an act of acknowledging an existing relationship, that in many cases, has more to do with a previous shared experience (think: your friends friend you just met) than with a really active shared interest. Check out an 'interesting' interest graph on Starbucks here.

Way forward?:

Having read interest graphs and all that jazz, say I am interested in an ‘active’ action rather than just a passive like or follow for something. Can there be a platform where I can get or ask people with similar interests to do something for me? Ta-da! This is where fiverr.com comes into picture. A site that allows you to buy and sell tasks for $5. Have a look at the most interesting stuff people have posted they would do for $5.

So what does it all mean? For brands, it’s definitely not too late to be early. Marketers can still get in on the ground level. But they need to embrace it and work to leverage it.

So, that’s the thought! I will see you right back here!

Coca-Cola relaunches Citra in India

This summer is going to turn up the competition in the Indian soft-drinks market. Coca-Cola already turned aggressive by taking a first mover advantage in promoting its mango flavoured drink Maaza. (I had shared the details of the Maaza campaign in my previous post). And much to Pepsi’s dismay it’s now pulling Citra out of the oblivion.  

1.      Cold Storage!

In 1993, Citra and Gold Spot were discontinued in order to make room for Coca-Cola's global brands Sprite and Fanta, brands like Thums Up, Limca and Maaza were retained. In fact Thums Up was sidelined for a while, till Coca-Cola paved its way into the heart of the Indian consumers. Now it seems like deja vu for Coca-Cola as it is banking on a Parle brand once again to push market share in the lime segment.

The reasons for pulling a brand out of cold storage  and re-launching it at a discounted price seems more to gain volumes rather than to unlock the brand’s heritage. In case of the latter, the logical decision would have been to bring Gold Spot (shelved in favour of Fanta) back to life which almost had a cult following in India in the early 90s.

2.      Surprise! Surprise!

The surprise element in the decision is that fact that Coca-Cola's Sprite, the second-largest soft drink brand in the country after Thums Up, leads the lime-lemon drinks segment, which is the fastest-growing soft drink category in India's 13,000-crore fizzy drinks market. India's per capita consumption of carbonated drinks is 11 litres a year as compared to 34 litres in China and 675 litres in Mexico. The lime-lemon category in India has been growing 16-17 per cent a year while colas are growing at about 11-12 per cent and orange drinks at 8-9 per cent.

3.      Competition and Pricing

The pricing and brand identity of the relaunched Citra will also be decided after the feedback from the Gujarat pilot run. There are estimates that the drink may be priced around 20 per cent cheaper than existing lime-lemon drinks such as its own brands Sprite and Limca as well as PepsiCo's Mountain Dew and 7 Up. PepsiCo has Bollywood star Salman Khan endorsing Mountain Dew and actor Sharman Joshi for 7 Up, while Coca-Cola pushes clear-lime drink Sprite and cloudy lemon drink Limca on the irreverent and freshness platforms, respectively.

4.      Pilot and Rollout

The pilot has been launched in around 2000 outlets in Gujarat and depending on the feedback, the product would be tested in other markets. The lighter price tag would help the company target a wider audience and take on smaller brands in the world’s second-most-populated country.

Coca-Cola India marketers aren’t expecting Citra (available in select markets in the U.S. and Zambia) to cannibalize its existing lemon drinks because there is ample room for multiple brands in a developing segment like sparkling fizzy drink in a high-potential market such as India, a company spokesman told the Economic Times.

So, that’s the thought! I will see you right back here!

What is Pinterest?

The newest rage to enter the social media arena beeped on my radar about six months ago. This platform called Pinterest allegedly drives more traffic than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined. Pinterest  is a clever portmanteau of the words "pin" and "interest." The title pretty much spells it out. It combines Pin and Interests, with the idea being that you ‘pin’ and ‘repin’ visual things you find interesting.

It’s partly social network, partly digital scrapbook and partly browser bookmark bar. This “virtual pinboard,” as the site describes itself, is almost two years old, but it languished in a corner of cyberworld for much of its existence. Within the past several months, however, its user base multiplied, steadily at first but zoomed in the past few months. 

And it recently took off in India. About 3 people in office asked me about the website and around 12 people started following me today. About six months back when I mentioned it to one of my friends, she asked me not to waste my time on random social networking sites. Today she returned back to me to ask for an invite. She says it has an amazing visual appeal and said that it looked like an organized wishlist. How to use it?

Initial thoughts!!

Being heavily image driven, it’s a great site to use when you just want to browse and be inspired. Pinterest is a great way to get ideas, share ideas and store things for future use – such as a pattern, picture, room design or recipe.

What works well on Pinterest?

• Images
• Colours
• Professional quality
• Inspirational pieces
• Quality visual content

What doesn’t work?

• Infographics (too long & busy)
• Text rich content
• Poor quality pictures

Why Pinterest?

On Pinterest all pins lead to the original source. Because of its visual nature the user can share an image/video and a subsequent article with the ‘pin’. What is useful is that when a user ‘pins’ a piece of content, the URL embeds in the image automatically, so even if you have users that aren’t super savvy with how links work – you will get one automatically.

How does it work?

The genius of the UI is that when you hit the "Pin It" button, it pulls out all the images on the page you're visiting, allowing you to select just the right one. Using individual photos instead of the whole URLs means that Pinterest's boards end up slick and aesthetically appealing. I've found it's actually supremely helpful for planning “details" (of anything) because you can quickly accumulate a bunch of examples of things of a type.

Who is currently using Pinterest?

Although the data is heavily US skewed and the rage is yet to catch up in India, the demographics that stand currently are that its dominated by younger women. The sex ratio skews 5:1 in favour of women. For full demographics feel free to browse through the Google Ad Planner data.

What does it mean for brands?

Pinterest is simply brilliant when it comes to brands for whom high quality visual appeal is a critical factor.

• Jewellery/Accessories
• Architecture
• Interior Design
• Party themes
• Wedding themes
• Food and drink (especially recipes)
• Travel
• Fashion

Benefits of using Pinterest:

• Increased brand awareness
• Great way of showcasing quality, visual content
• Drives traffic to your website
• Helps to reach your target demographic

Parallely you can check out techcrunch’s tips on leveraging Pinterest for your brands.

What's in store for future?

1.     Pinterest could be used in future by news sites, fashion designers, jewellery designers, travel portals, painters(artists), wedding planners (its India, we spend lavishly on elaborating our weddings, Okay I can see some wedding planners from South Delhi already raising their hands) etc who could very easily create a gallery for themselves to showcase their work.

 2.   It could also be used by people, to organize their wishlists. Say for example I want to purchase a smartphone, I can pin the phones I come across while browsing and then flip through them at leisure. Given the female skewed user base and its probably use as a wishlist will pinterest spell doom for boyfriends all over the world? Don’t be alarmed TIME magazine says that might not happen.

So, that’s the thought! I will see you right back here!
________________________________________________________________________________
Update 14th Feb 2012: Previously I spoke about how Pinterest is currently enjoys a US skewed user base. Here is an info-graphic by visual.ly which compares the website and its user's interest in US the country on the other side of the Atlantic, UK. Most compelling are the gender, wealth and interest differences between the two countries’ users. Why is the same social network so appealing to crafters in one country and venture capitalists in another?
Point to Ponder!

Indian brands, Social Media and Augmented Reality

If there’s an Indian brand which is at the forefront of using technology for its marketing it has to be Hippo. In this post we explore Hippo’s clutter breaking efforts at marketing and Shopper’s Stop plunge into the Augmented Reality bandwagon.

How Hippo cut the clutter using twitter? 

1.      Launch:

In 2010, Hippo Baked Munchies was successfully launched into the Indian snack market. With its simple yet insightful philosophy of ‘Hunger is the root of all evil. So, don’t go hungry.’ Hippo became a runaway success. However, its nascent sales and distribution network found it challenging to keep track of stock, identify and re-stock empty shelves across 400,000 stores nationwide. In India, 92% of the snack market is unorganized and inventory tracking is usually a logistical nightmare. To connect with the consumers better, Hippo entered social media. The brand’s chirpy and talkative personality instantly gave it an edge over the rest.

Hippo spoke to its consumers as a hunger fighter. As more people bought into this philosophy, Hippo launched Plan-T and urged them to help him identify empty shelves and inform him via a tweet whenever they found empty shelves in their neighbourhoods. Tweets poured in from more than 50 cities. Hippo collected this information, analysed and sent it to the local distributors of respective areas, who eventually restocked the packs.

2.      Execution:

Hippo set up a core cell at the manufacturer’s headquarters in Bombay, which monitored these tweets, collected this information and passed it on immediately to teams of distributors in the respective areas. This system proved to be extremely efficient. Within 48 hours of locations being identified, teams of distributors had already replenished stocks. As people began to see that their tweets actually succeeded in making Hippo available at their neighbourhood store, word of mouth and social media took over and Hippo became a rage. Soon, tweets were pouring in 24/7, from over 45 cities. You can watch the video case study on ET NOW here.

3.      Result:

Shortly after launching this activity, the number of people tracking the inventory equalled 50 percent of the sales and distribution network itself and at zero cost. And the sales were upped by 76 percent. Hippo thus managed to blur the lines between the marketing department, consumers and the distribution force. Hippo used social media and provided real-time solutions to distribution and availability issues.

Okay so twitter's done! What next?

1.      Hippo uses Augmented Reality

Having established a bond with its consumers, Hippo’s latest campaign involves Augmented Reality. Blink Solution created a website for Creativeland Asia that used augmented reality effectively for the said campaign. The website identified a packet of Hippo Round Round using an augmented reality set-up and a web cam. Once the packet was identified, a customized visual would pop-up depending on the packet a person had bought. The visual, that was seen once the packet faced the web cam, was that of a mother who told the visitor about Hippo’s tasty snack and how it followed her recipe. By using augmented reality, the packet of Hippo was identified and then the animation of a mother was seen. The option of calling one’s mother was also available for a visitor. All he needed to do was feed in his mobile number along with his mother’s mobile number and the website would connect the two parties. Website for Hippo AR.

2.      Augmented reality by Shopper’s Stop:

In order to create more excitement and curiosity about their offers, Shoppers Stop India wanted to use the digital medium effectively. They came up with an Augmented Reality app for Shoppers Stop India that would integrate the real and digital world. An ad was published in newspapers that asked people to download an app from the Android & i- Tunes market. With the help of this app, a reader could trigger an AR (augmented reality) set-up in which he could view certain ‘secret offers’. These offers were not printed specifically in the newspaper ad, hence in order to see them one had to download the app. On viewing the augmented reality graphic, a person could click on the deal he found desirable and could directly go to a microsite where a purchase could be made.

It’s great to see Indian brand using Augmented reality which is still at a very nascent stage in India. These campaigns surely tell that brands in India are ready to experiment.

So, that’s the thought! I will see you right back here!