Conversations With Customers

Talking the talk

2011-04-21T11:15:00.001+05:30

Dr Kaushik Basu (Chief Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Government of India) has raised some hackles with one his working papers on corruption.

In his paper, Dr Basu argues that for bribes paid to get routine work done (he calls these "harassment bribes"), Law should reserve all punitive action for the bribee and none for the briber. He points out that the under the current legal system, the quantum of punishment could be same for the bribee and the briber. The change in law "will cause a dramatic drop in the incidence of bribery," thinks Dr Basu. "The reasoning is that once the law is altered in this manner, after the act of bribery is committed, the interests of the bribe giver and the bribe taker will be at divergence."

The idea may seem radical to legal luminaries, but I'd wager that a lot of us laymen didn't even know that paying a bribe and taking a bribe are equal crimes in the eyes of the Law. In fact, it seems hugely unfair that a person who has often no option but to pay up in order to get things done should be held as guilty as the parasite who doesn't move his butt until his palms are greased. So, to a layman like me, Dr Basu's idea seems logical and one that should be implemented.

However, the idea has faced flak from several quarters. Some newspapers have carried stories under headlines that do little justice to the idea ("Legalise corruption: Chief economic advisor"). Social media has been abuzz with messages trying to interpret and misinterpret what Dr Basu had meant (an example here).

The problem, in my opinion, is with Basu's choice of words rather than the idea itself. Take, for instance, the title of his paper:

Why, for a Class of Bribes, the Act of Giving a Bribe should be Treated as Legal

At first glance, this could seem like an ominous prescription. If the objective of presenting the idea through a paper is (in Dr Basu's words) "to minimize the risk of misinterpretation," this title probably doesn't live up to the objective. Rather it is an open invitation to those who specialise in misinterpretation.

Maybe a title like the one below could've worked better:

Why, for a Class of Bribes, Law should treat the Bribe Taker and the Bribe Giver Differently

Headlines and titles are often taken at their face value in today's haven't-got-a-whole-minute world. In any communication, the first line is more important now than it ever was.

Pic source: www.thehindu.com

Brochure for sure

2011-01-21T16:44:00.000+05:30

B2C sales pitches often seem like a trick.

Take the case of holiday time-shares. Salespersons spend a lot of time interacting with prospects. They scribble on sheets trying to explain various "plans" offered. In the end, you have a lot of uttered promises, a bunch of scribbled notes and a pair of eager eyes peering at you for an answer, but no printed brochure that gives you the reassurance that what you've just heard is indeed the truth and not the taradiddles of an eager salesperson.

A printed brochure can do the pitch a whole lot of good. It increases believability considerably and consequently the chances of sale closure are enhanced (unless of course one's business model is based on trapping customers through false promises that obviously cannot be printed, which is exactly the impression you create when you pitch without a brochure). And by brochure, I mean a brochure, not photocopies or prints of certain documents.

Another trend I've noticed is the tendency to lead the prospect down a blind alley into a tight corner. The pitch includes questions designed to elicit specific answers that are going to make saying "No" to the offer later seem stupid. While this tactic may seem clever, it actually draws the battle lines between the salesperson and the prospect. The defence shields are upped, and the salesperson is no longer on the prospect's side.

If you are selling a time-share, leave behind a printed brochure that has all plans & entitlements listed (and not just breathtaking pictures of your resorts). If you are selling insurance, hand over the product brochure(s) to your audience. And please, give the prospect some time and space to breathe. The Give-me-your-answer-now approach works sometime when you are proposing marriage, but otherwise it's not a nice thing to say to a prospect.

"Baithoongi piya Bolero mein"

2010-11-24T12:47:00.001+05:30

While brand managers and ad agencies "strategise" in conference rooms, sometimes brands get a fillip from unexpected quarters. This hilarious folksy video that sings paeans to Bolero (an SUV from the Mahindra stable) has surfaced on YouTube.

The song takes digs at many automotive brands including the likes of Honda City, Indica, Tata Sumo and even the Scorpio (which comes from the same Mahindra stable).

Somebody tweeted the link to Mr Anand Mahindra, the Vice Chairman and MD of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. and he retweeted the link with his comment:

Marketing is not just about "creating" a buzz, it's also about spreading the buzz.

Hey fever

2010-11-17T16:30:00.001+05:30

For some reason, some brands try really hard to sound cool & trendy on social media. Nothing wrong with that as long as it sounds natural and apt. However, sometimes the 'coolness' turns so robotic that it teeters on the edge of civility.

For instance, Nokia India, in its tweets, seems so attached to "hey" that almost all their responses begin with that word!

Hey there Nokia, wats wid connectin ppl?

Small change, but it jingles

2010-09-22T11:43:00.001+05:30

A couple of months ago, I had thought aloud about the Indian Railways' choice of imagery. The Indian Railways has now changed the picture on its homepage.

I do not know what prompted the change (Commonwealth?), but it surely is a good sign.

Brand romance

2010-08-09T15:20:00.001+05:30

The acid test of an Internet romance is the first face-to-face meeting. After days (sometimes months/years) of chatting/emailing/FBing/tweeting, the protagonists finally meet. Quite often, I'd reckon, the imagery built over online interactions gets a thorough jolt in the first meeting.

In today's digital age, brands and consumers undergo similar experiences. Before a consumer meets a physical brand in the physical space, she will probably check it out in the virtual space. As Seth Godin says,"The chances that you and your brand will first be encountered digitally grow every day." If the brand seems worthy of attention, the consumer will probably decide to meet the brand in the physical space. And then she will make that all-important choice: Yes, No or Maybe.

In order to make the first meeting happen, the brand must tell interesting stories. And in order to get the final decision in its favour, the brand must live up to those stories. Brands that tell interesting stories, display behaviour that gives credence to those stories and then wow the consumer with some unexpected surprises usually end up landing regular candlelit dinners with the consumer. Yes, telling interesting stories might need some practice, but the stories have to be genuine and the brand's demeanour must always corroborate the stories. Obviously, this cannot be achieved by pretence. The brand must look inward to source the interesting stories.

If we think of brands as either Romantics or Pretenders (although the two are not always mutually exclusive), it's obvious that the Romantics would stand a better chance of winning over hearts. Sounds simple, but most brands err on the side of overpromise. The first meeting happens. but sigh, no candlelit dinners thereafter.

Related post: Make big promises; overdeliver

[Picture credit: Nevit Dilmen]

What was the Indian Railways thinking...

2010-07-09T16:43:00.007+05:30

...when it decided to put this picture on its homepage?

In our attempts to woo the foreign tourist with imagery that strengthens the misleading stereotype of India, we often score self-goals (sorry about the pun, it's FIFA time). Even vintage needs good packaging.

And why on earth should the lifeline of the country be so obsessive about foreign tourists?

Update (22 September, 2010): The "steamy" pic has now been replaced by a "vatanu-cool" one!

To err is Human, to deny Airline

2010-06-22T16:36:00.004+05:30

“There was a big fight,” recalls Shuchita Srivastava. “Passengers were not getting off the plane, they would not let the door close. The passengers insisted they had valid boarding cards and it was the airline’s problem to give them seats. One lady entered the cockpit with her child and said, ‘I am going to sit here if you don’t take me to Mumbai’.”

Mint reports that a SpiceJet flight allegedly took to the skies with more people on board than permitted. Apparently, 15 passengers were asked to get off the plane after the scheduled 212-seater aircraft was switched for a 189-seater. This obviously angered the passengers and they declined to deplane. "The airline then asked that the children sit on the laps of adults they were travelling with" in order to accommodate all passengers.

If the incident did take place as described, it is indeed a cause for grave concern. In a situation like this, what should an airline do? Definitely NOT compromise safety guidelines, no matter how much the pressure from passengers. It's obvious that passengers would get agitated when they are asked to deplane after they have boarded the plane with valid boarding passes.

The first right thing to do is to apologise in a situation like this. An apology is the least that a service-provider owes when a goof-up happens. Then the airline could've explained why they couldn't fly with everybody on board and then could've requested some passengers to move to another flight with an offer: whoever volunteered to move to another flight would be flown free or given a free-flight voucher.

It would have cost the airline less than a lac of rupees in opportunity cost, to fly fifteen people from Delhi to Mumbai and would have solved the crisis, without putting lives at risk and without leaving too much bad taste in the mouth.

Communicating the right things at the right time, especially in times of crisis, can save not just faces, but lives too.

Coarse print

2010-05-03T16:50:00.004+05:30

Guess where I found this friendly message pasted?

On a prominent wall at Crossword! And no, this was not a single aberration. I found these sheets pasted at several places inside the store.

A bookstore is the last place one would associate with assassination of grammar. Besides, this is a bookstore that was once famous for its witty lines. By its own admission, Crossword wants to "encourage people to stay and browse" but such messages surely don't match that intent.

This is a huge challenge with chain stores. Each store has its peculiarities and often needs individual messaging. How does a chain build competencies and systems so that a Store Manager has better ways of communication than putting up such notices? These innocuos-looking A4 printouts can cause great damage. They score high on eyeballs (well, they're intended to) and can blow brand essence out the window. And then somebody, somewhere will once again start asking research questions.

When the visual is the villain

2010-02-16T16:37:00.000+05:30

This is an ad for a fund that promises to make your money work harder. The bloke's walking blind into disaster with a pile of boxes!

If this is how one made money work harder, I'd rather my money remained fast asleep.

Finally, someone has had the guts to say it

2010-02-11T11:55:00.000+05:30

In the of rush to expand customer base, it is now commonplace to offer "promotional offers" to new customers, while existing customers continue to languish, shackled by old contracts. I have always had an issue with this and have blogged out it earlier [(Customer) Happiness is a state of being, Marcom Wishlist for 2010].

According to a report in the DNA , Mr R R Nair, Chairman, LIC Housing Finance Limited, had this to say in reaction to the news of many banks withdrawing their teaser-rate home loan offers:

"Any discount of more than 50 basis points (0.5%) on a promotional basis is not good. This means your existing customers are paying much more than the new customers. You are creating a different class of customers."

Whether teaser home-loan products are harmful is an issue best left to finance experts, but that a corporate leader has agreed that it is wrong to shortchange existing customers in the frenzy to get new customers, is welcome news, specially when he belongs to a Industry that is notorious for promoting this practice.

All is not lost.

Wanted: More Social Heads

2010-02-03T17:26:00.000+05:30

While we have been obsessing over tweets from Shashi Tharoor and Priyanka Chopra, a silent revolution has been brewing in the Indian corporate world.

Business leaders are realising that there're no better ambassadors of their brand than them, and the age of putting up walls around you is virtually over.

Anand Mahindra, the Vice Chairman & MD of the Mahindra Group, has been quietly setting an example on Twitter. While many new age companies and their CEOs have embraced Twitter, most traditional behemoths shy away from it, ostensibly for fear of backlash especially from irate customers, or because they are clueless about it.

In this scenario, Mr Mahindra's Twitter page (@anandmahindra) is a welcome breath of fresh air. He shares interesting tidbits, and most importantly, responds to queries and provides solutions.

Here are some examples of his Twitter conversations:

Marcom Wishlist for 2010

2009-12-21T15:16:00.002+05:30

That telecallers stop parroting "Is there anything else I may assist you with?" to conclude the call
"Do you need any other help?" is shorter, sweeter and makes me feel I'm talking to a Homo Sapien.
That the same telecallers cut out the "Thank you for calling Abracadabra Magic services" part
I know who I have called. Just end on a happy note and let me get on with life.
That the word "promotion" be banned from all Marcom material
It's promotion for the company/brand. For me--the customer--it could be an offer, a deal or some such, but not a promotion.
That the term "Presenting Sponsor" appear only in sponsorship brochures and presentations
For the man on the street, "Pahalwan Body Oil presents Kushti Kishton Mein" is more intelligible. If you do need a descriptor, use "Brought to you by" or "Presented by" but not "Presenting Sponsor". It's your internal lingo, please don't unleash it on me, the aam aadmi.
That TV and radio shows stop the breathless muttering of taglines along with the sponsor brands
"Brought to you by Locomotive Mustard Oil--Har boond mein train ki shakti, in association with Balramgarh Shakkar - Live life with sugary sweetness" is like forcing the taglines down my throat and that ain't sweet.
That contractual service brands save the best offers for their existing customers...
and not make them feel cheated by offering new customers the same service at 50% "promotional" discount while the trapped ones continue to pay a premium for being loyal.
[Hint: Think home loans, pest control services, club memberships...]

I know the last point is not within the purview of Marcom, but what the heck, this is a wishlist, right?

Have a great 2010.

Mustache Magic

2009-11-16T12:03:00.003+05:30

Many many years ago, a certain mustachioed gentleman changed the way Fevicol went about advertising its white adhesive. Last week, the brand celebrated 50 years of adhesiveness. The mustachioed gentleman and his cohorts (all mustachioed of course, but without the trademark handlebar) came up with this:

This is the latest in the series of brilliant commercials for Fevicol which have stuck around for over two decades. It all started with an ad for a different brand. The man behind the mustache reminisces:

"The very first ad that I ever did for Pidilite was not even for Fevicol; the 'Dam laga ke haisha' campaign was originally created by me for Fevitite, which was another Pidilite brand. I created the radio ad for it and took it to Madhukarbhai, his father and the team. They thought it was a fantastic idea, and suggested that I make a film around the concept. When I presented the film, they loved it. That’s when Madhukarbhai’s father said to me, “Fevitite is too small a brand for a big idea like this. Take the money all over again and shoot it for Fevicol," and that was the beginning of everything."

Here's that Fevitite-turned-Fevicol ad:

May the magic continue!

Coke can, but will it?

2009-11-13T16:14:00.007+05:30

A design concept titled COLORLESS by Harc Lee is being profusely applauded by netizens.

Here's the designer's take:

"A convex logo substitutes colorfully sprayed can. Naked can help to reduce air and water pollution occurred in its coloring process. It also reduces energy and effort to separate toxic color paint from aluminum in recycling process. Huge amount of energy and paint required to manufacture colored cans will be saved. Instead of toxic paint, manufacturers process aluminum with a pressing machine that indicates brand identity on surface."

Prima facie, it looks like a great idea. Besides the environment friendly angle that the can projects, it looks stunning too.

It'd be interesting to watch if Coke actually puts the design on the production line.

Hat Tip: TheDieline.com

Panicky brand, arbitrary arbitration?

2009-08-28T13:00:00.001+05:30

The travel community portal oktatabyebye.com has been around for some time. In May 2009, Tata Sons Ltd filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) against the portal owners, contendng that the domain name infringes the right of its registered trademark/service mark TATA. WIPO is a specialised agency of the United Nations, established to promote the protection of IP throughout the world.

WIPO delivered its decision recently wherein it noted that the respondent had registered and is using the domain name (oktatabyebye.com) in bad faith; and ordered the domain name to be transferred to Tata Sons Limited.

This looks like a strange decision. "Ok Tata Bye Bye" is a colloquial phrase often used in our country to bid a jovial farewell. The portal has called for public support to preserve its rights over the domain.

Brand owners sometimes get unnecessarily jittery about their trademarks being misused. Brands are not just logos and trademarks. What you do as a company is also part of your branding.

Twice is not always nice

2009-08-06T10:20:00.006+05:30

A year ago, I had posted about irritating repeats in cinema theatre advertising.

The same irritant has come to haunt online advertising as well. Very often, one sees the same banner repeated on the same webpage. I'm not sure whether any advertiser would like to burn away impressions like this. Mustn't the ad servers be more intelligent?

GreatNonStickPansSince1980: How's that for a brand name?

2009-07-27T10:36:00.007+05:30

Businesses very often want their brand names to spell out their product/service. While it's not always a bad idea, getting fixated on this style of branding often leads us to very uninteresting names and sometimes even works at cross-purposes with the business.

A case in point is TinyURL.com. A website whose raison d'être is shortening URLs has a URL that is ELEVEN characters long!

If I shorten the link to this blog using TinyURL, I get http://tinyurl.com/lebj3y. If I use bit.ly, I get http://bit.ly/QyFOc. That's six characters saved. Now on platforms like Twitter where every character counts, it's not surprising that bit.ly scores over TinyURL.com.

On a slightly unrelated note, an NYT blogger cites some more reasons why bit.ly has found a haven at Twitter.

Good Carma

2009-07-20T14:22:00.008+05:30

This Friday, my car stalled. The battery charger warning indicator came on when I started for work in the morning. I thought I would take it to the service station. I was running low on fuel, so I stopped by at a fuel station. After refuelling, the car just refused to start.

The guys at the Shell fuel station went out of their way to help me. They pushed the car to a safe corner at their station and assured me that they would look after the car while I called for help. They even invited me to their office while I awaited the mehanic.

They demonstrated that the best Marketing happens when you are not even marketing. It happens when you're helping your customer.

Thank you Shell.

The extra mile is where the WOWs are

2009-06-18T11:02:00.006+05:30

In a recent post on Tompeters.com, author, speaker and consultant Steve Yastrow argued that in each customer interaction, one must aim to be "irreplaceable." The post sparked an insightful debate in the comments section (Yours truly couldn't resist to add in his two bits).

I think trying to be irreplaceble is good advice for people as well as brands. It's only when you try to walk the extra mile that you can deliver WOW experiences like the one narrated in this video:

Google gets lenient with keywords

2009-05-27T13:40:00.011+05:30

BusinessWeek reports

Starting June 4, marketers in about 200 countries will be allowed to purchase rival trademarks as keywords to trigger display of "sponsored search" ads on Google. Honda, for instance, could bid to have one of its ads displayed when a consumer searches the term "Toyota." In recent years some companies have sued Google or the competing company, saying the practice is a form of trademark infringement.

India is on the list of regions for which Google will not investigate the use of trademarks as keywords. However, I'm not sure whether this will spell huge changes in the SEM scenario in our country. Many advertisers in India already use keywords that are rival trademarks to display their ads, as you can see in the example below:

Reputation is not built on fine print

2009-05-09T11:43:00.006+05:30

Banking behemoth State Bank of India (SBI) is causing quite a stir in the home loan market with its 8% fixed rate product. New applicants are being offered home loans at 8% for a year.

Now SBI's ads are not exactly Cannes material (as you can see in the pic here) but one thing that stands out is the clarity with which the offer is presented without resorting to sneaky fine print. There is no attempt to hide the condition that the rate will be reset after a year.

When you've got a product like this, it's quite tempting to trumpet the big promise and shove the caveats under the carpet. Kudos to SBI for resisting the temptation. Being honest and upfront is key in Marcom, especially when you're looking to sign up customers for the long term. Is it a surprise then that SBI features among the world's 50 most reputed firms?

Maximum bang for the billboard

2009-05-05T11:40:00.002+05:30

What message do you put up on a billboard above your storefront? Your toll-free no.? A clever line? Your web address?

NakedPizza--a pizza joint in New Orleans--thought different, reports TechCrunch.

Standing out has never been easier

2009-04-22T10:15:00.002+05:30

Look around. Almost everybody is overpromising and underdelivering. The fine print mousetrap lurks in every corner. You have pricing designed to trick your brain (just Rs 799, for instance). Whenever customers are required to enter into long-term contracts, they almost always end up getting a raw deal after they sign up.

This is an unprecedented opportunity for brands that want to stand out.

Here's how:

Tell great stories. And then go ahead and overdeliver.
Do not make promises that come with strings attached.
If you've made a promise, keep it.
Keep existing customers happy. Word of mouth is more important than it ever was.
Be transparent. Say no to trickery. Sometimes, it's too hard to resist the lure, but stand your ground.
Appreciate the power of understatement. If you have a salience, live it. You may choose to convey it subtly but don't shout about it. An honest man who says "I'm honest" all the time is sure to invite some doubts. Positive inferences drawn by customers about your brand have much more impact than your headline or your punchline.

These can always help a brand win, but more so in today's environment.

I don't have an Inbox!

2009-04-10T09:48:00.009+05:30

For 12 years, I've been logging into my Hotmail account almost every day. When I tried logging in this morning, I got this immensely friendly and helpful message thrown at me.

Give me a break. If you are making things inconvenient for me, at least tell me why you are doing it and help me tide over the inconvenience.

How would the old geeks at Redmond feel if they turned up for work one morning and found this message at their workstations:
You never worked here. If you need a job, go to Cupertino. The coffee there tastes the same.

Update (11 April, 2009): The incorrect message was caused by a networking issue, says the Windows Live team.

Seth Godin offers boring advice

2009-04-04T11:34:00.004+05:30

Seth Godin urges Marketers to find a handful people (he actually says ten people) who trust, need, respect and listen to you.

A question we Marcom professionals need to ask ourselves is, "Do we have a communication strategy specifically for these few?"

Seth signs off by saying, "Three years from now, this advice will be so common as to be boring. Today, it's almost certainly the opposite of what you're doing."

Read Seth's post here.

Creative slowdown

2009-03-24T10:46:00.005+05:30

Slowdown is surely taking its toll on creativity, among other things. After the funny Finnair ad that I recently wrote about, it's now the turn of Singapore Airlines to get absurdly literal.

Making your customer smile

2009-03-21T09:46:00.007+05:30

A Southwest Airlines flight attendant has turned the safety announcement rigmarole into an entertaining performance. When a service makes the customer smile, the brand checks into a cosy room in the consumer's mind.

Hat tip: John O'Leary

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a joke!

2009-03-20T10:34:00.007+05:30

Started this morning with the best workout: a hearty laugh. This ad stared out of the newspaper. I stared back , and then laughed my lungs out.

The power of CEOspeak

2008-12-22T14:08:00.004+05:30

The Hindustan Times reports:

“We have not and will not lay off no matter how bad it gets, even if recessionary trends get worse,” said Vineet Nayar, CEO, HCL Technologies.

CEOs have this power. A single statement from the CEO can impact the company’s image in a manner that thousands of marketing dollars may not achieve.

At a time when the corporate world is leaving no stone unturned to cut costs, a statement like this requires courage, conviction and confidence. It sends out positive signals not only to employees, but also to customers and shareholders.

Incidentally, Vineet is one of the few Indian CEOs who blog regularly. Vineet’s blog is a great grazing place for unconventional fodder.

Insurance, get a life

2008-12-08T11:09:00.004+05:30

I was appalled to see this HDFC Standard Life Insurance ad on television last night.

Agreed, to sell insurance you sometimes need to take the fear route, but to instill the fear of losing their daddies in children (agar aapke papa ghum ho gaye toh?), and then feeding on that fear to sell life insurance to the parent is insensitive, cheesy, even reckless.

And the timing! Releasing this offensive ad at a time when the country is recovering from a terror strike is as insensitive as it gets. Business mercenaries would of course argue that there's nothing wrong in striking the iron when it's hot.

By comparison, I find the Pepsi "suicide ads" far less offensive.

Testing times for Arjuna

2008-11-19T14:08:00.015+05:30

This animation video has been floating around on the web.

Apparently, this is a TV ad made by JWT for Sulekha.com and it has been soft-launched on the Internet "to check people’s reactions to it before releasing it on television,” reports afaqs!

Online Reputation Management or Customer Satisfaction?

2008-11-07T14:16:00.007+05:30

Last Sunday, I watched on bemused as three executives from Club Mahindra (a holiday timeshare brand) staged a funny pitch (they call it "presentation"). Will spare you the details, but in case you're interested, it was quite similar to this.

Curious about what people felt about Club Mahindra, I turned to Google and was hit with scores of pages that painted Club Mahindra in the brightest shades (examples here, here & here). However, most of these sites/blogs seemed to have been created by the company/employees.

I scratched the surface and came across a lot of outbursts against Club Mahindra: tales of anger, disgruntlement, disenchantment and frustration, to name a few.

I scratched some more and discovered that Club Mahindra has been sponsoring blogger meets at their resorts. It looks like the initiative has paid off. The invited bloggers have sung praises in Club Mahindra's favour (examples here, here & here).

It looks like Club Mahindra has focussed heavily on acquiring a clean online reputation, especially since their IPO is due. The favourable blogs have actually managed to push down the complaints, as far as search engine pageranks are concerned. However, I still maintain (as I had written in an earlier post) that in today's connected world, people will eventually find out the what other customers feel about your brand. It would help to dedicate time and energy to become more customer-centric than trying to manufacture online reputation. Perhaps it could have saved Club Mahindra this unenviable distinction.

Thoughts are welcome in the Comments section.

"Brand is shorthand for...

2008-10-24T15:06:00.001+05:30

the collection of experiences and memories and expectations that people have for what it's going to be like to deal with you the next time."

Two business thought leaders I hold in very high esteem--Seth Godin and Tom Peters--express their views on what a brand is in today's networked world in this video.

Remote sensing

2008-09-01T13:53:00.003+05:30

Picture this. An ad that you find terribly irritating appears on TV. You pick up the remote and switch channels immediately. The 'click' on your remote is captured and fed into a feedback system for the advertiser.

This is already happening in the US--albeit in a limited manner--thanks to Google's deal with EchoStar's Dish Network. Google's plans obviously go beyond just a feedback system. The Internet giant's foray into television advertising is a step towards changing the way TV ad inventories are bought and sold.

"Can Google Crack the TV Ad Market?", asks Brian Morrissey in a piece on Adweek.
[Pic credit: Michael König]

(Customer) Happiness is a state of being

2008-08-25T12:38:00.004+05:30

"It's interesting to note that marketers trying to maintain market share have a lot of work to do in reminding us that we're happy," writes Seth Godin in a blogpost titled Destroying Happiness.

While this seems obvious, in reality there are very few companies who take the job of 'keeping existing customers happy' seriously. Take a look around you. New customers are getting better deals on home loans than the old, loyal ones. "Sales desks" and "Service desks" often present pictures of stark contrast. Many credit card companies promise lifetime free cards to new customers while happily billing annual fee to existing customers.

Companies often rely on ugly "pain of switching" tactics to keep their existing customers from straying, while they go on a wooing spree to get in new customers. For instance, loan providers do it by imposing a steep balance transfer foreclosure fee.

In today's connected world, there's no bigger advertising than referral by a happy customer. No amount of Marcom spin can match that. Keeping customers happy goes much beyond sending them mail-merged birthday greetings. It includes taking a hard look at your business processes to ensure that the existing customer gets more than she expects.

Do you want bad word-of-mouth to negate your advertising? Or positive word-of-mouth to take your advertising to the realm of believability? Take your pick. This or this.

Did you search for a saree?

2008-06-20T11:16:00.002+05:30

I don't know about others, but this saree has definitely caught the attention of bloggers. The designer (Satya Paul?) could've put the sponsored links on the blouse :)

Idiot box gets smarter

2008-06-13T15:32:00.002+05:30

Targeted ads are all set to hit the television. Not in India, not just yet, but in the US.

Six of the largest cable operators in the US have jointly launched a startup that will use customer data to beam targeted ads.

“The vision is to put dog food ads only in front of customers who have dogs and to give people the ability to push a button on their remotes and order a coupon or a brochure, or buy a product,” says the CEO of the new venture.

Red Herring has the details.

Hip, Innovative, Madonna, Airline, Atlantic...

2008-05-16T10:52:00.008+05:30

Apparently these are some of the words that are most associated with the brand Virgin.

An online project by Noah Brier tries to capture brand perception by having people like you and me tag brands with words/phrases that pop up in our heads when we hear the brandname.

Some of the things you can do on the site are:

View the words/phrases that people have associated with popular brands

Tag brands with your word/phrase association

Guess the brand by looking at its tags

Go, have some fun at Brand Tags.

Make big promises; overdeliver

2008-05-12T12:03:00.003+05:30

"If you can define great marketing in fewer words than that, you win," says Seth Godin.

This is something we Marcom professionals struggle with almost every day. If there is some obvious promise in a product/service, we shout it out from the rooftops. We often end up highlighting the shiny parts of the promise, cleverly 'hiding' the jagged edges using asterisks, fineprint or some such. The result is dangerous--trusting customers turn into cynics, love turns into mistrust and topline turns southward.

Marketeers often think of their roles as getting the customers to the purchase point and nothing beyond. "Our job is to get the horse to the water but we cannot make it drink." The fact is if the horse doesn't drink, everybody will perish.

Real marketing is all about telling believable but remarkable stories and then delivering an experience that takes the story to a new realm of believability. Easier said than done, or as Seth Godin puts it, "Just because it's only four words doesn't mean it's easy!"

Packaging with a twist

2008-04-02T10:33:00.004+05:30

Can you guess what these are? Find out here.

[Pic source: TheDieline.com]

Hitting the nail on the headline

2008-03-31T10:32:00.001+05:30

My last post was about headlines gone awry. This one is about a headline that hits the nail on the head.

Full-bodied headlines

2008-03-28T12:11:00.006+05:30

Headlines like this are proof that we often know what to say but don't know how to say it. "How do you always know when I'll need the supplies?" would have been much easier to process.

Here's a grab from the homepage of the same company. Three font colours, two font sizes and two pairs of quote-marks in the headline just to make the immensely complex sentence at least look processable!!!

Tom Peters doesn't click

2008-03-11T16:57:00.001+05:30

...on banner ads.

One way to get yourself heard above the cacophony

2008-02-25T14:53:00.007+05:30

...is to hold a conversation. Literally as well as figuratively.

Weekend shoppers in a Navi Mumbai mall are all eyes and ears as MTV VJ Rannvijay engages in friendly banter with Big FM RJ Rishi at the finals of the Reliance World GameBox National Championship

Looking back

2008-02-23T10:08:00.007+05:30

Tomorrow is Oscar Night (Oscar Dawn for us in India).

On the eve of the 80th Academy Awards, Movie Poster Addict has compiled the posters of all 79 past winners in the best picture category.

[Pic source: grebo guru, flickr]

Brand Personality--Should it mirror the consumer?

2008-02-19T12:29:00.007+05:30

Brands interact with consumers. The brand is not the consumer. Sounds simple enough, but it often gets forgotten when a brand is being architected.

Defining a brand's personality is an exercise agencies and their clients love to indulge in. Everybody knows the theory--if the brand were a person, what kind of person would it be? However, most often the brand personality that emerges out of a quagmire of colorful powerpoints is an exact replica of the target consumer's personality.

Say we need to define the personality of a state-of-the-art tractor brand aimed at the rural prosperous farmer in his mid 40s. My guess is we'd be immediately tempted to assign the farmer's stereotypical personality traits to the brand--hard working, rich, rooted, etc. (albeit only after much heated debate over colourful powerpoint slides teeming with boxes, triangles, circles, arrows and keyholes!)

Slapping the target consumer's personality traits on the brand is not always wrong. In fact, it works in many cases. However, marketers must be open to the suggestion that the brand personality can also be distinctly different from the consumer's personality.

For instance, can the tractor brand be architected around the personality of the farmer's son, who, say, is getting modern education in a leading university? The son is the farmer's window to the modern world and the farmer (and his family) shares a lovely relationship with the son. The typical traits that would then emerge for the tractor brand are--smart, technology-savvy, wordly-wise, etc. Agreed, I'm assuming a lot of things here, but I'm just trying to illustrate with an example.

A brand's personality could include traits that the consumer aspires to emulate, or it could be a personality that the consumer absolutely loves or is pleasantly intrigued by. A brand enters into a relationship with the consumer and two people in a relationship need not be identical. David Aaker has an academic take on this in his book Building Strong Brands (excerpt here).

There are two problems with brands blindly mirroring consumer personalities. One, by creating a brand that is a mirror image of the consumer and nothing more, we stop selling aspiration. Two, we lose out on interesting relationship opportunities. "The consumer will not identify with this" is a much abused statement that branding professionals have to contend with every time they try to sculpt a brand with personality traits that are not exhibited by consumers.

I'm definitely not saying that brands must always be positioned diametrically opposite their consumer personality. In fact, many successful brands colour themselves in the hue of their consumers and yet are roaring successes. However, very interesting brand personalities could emerge if brand managers and marketers pause and think about traits that are close to their consumers' heart and yet are different.

Brands and consumers engage in relationships. At the end of the day, consumers judge a brand by the result of the relationship, no matter whether the brand reflects her personality or not. Surely, brands do not want to end up in a relationship like this.

Indian brands like Kingfisher and Raymond have developed and maintained well defined personalities through the years. Would love reader reactions on what they think are the personality traits of these brands.

Good girl, go eat a burger

2007-12-07T11:45:00.003+05:30

In a Florida county, McDonald's is reaching out to schoolkids via an unusual medium.

Not everybody is amused.

Update (20 January 2008): Good girl, no burger

Care for thy subjects

2007-12-04T14:15:00.000+05:30

This is an e-mailer I received recently:

Pointing out the typo in the Subject line (loose) may seem like nitpicking, but the little typo does throw some light on how little importance advertisers attach to subject lines when they roll out their e-mail campaigns. No prizes for guessing who looses!

Here's another mailer:

A bland subject line (Everything changes with time...) that says the exact opposite of what the mailer says! I have nothing against Businessworld; it's just that they've been sending too many mailers with subject lines gone awry.

All's not bleak though. Take a look at this e-mailer:

A great subject line (Jack Sparrow ab bolega Hindi), has enough clickworthiness, and most importantly, is relevant.

Imagine a supermarket shelf stacked with multiple rows of identical cans. The only difference between the cans is the text they carry on their labels. The cans cannot have any graphic element and have to use the same font size for the text. Now imagine that you are one of those cans and your job is to get into a shopping basket as quickly as possible. The job of an e-mail subject line is as unenviable, if not more!

So what makes a good subject line? I don't think that there can be a definitive answer (like there can be no diktat on what makes a good headline), but here's a thumb rule: a subject line should have enough promise/intrigue/trustworthiness in it for the recipient to open the mail, without being irrelevant.While we are on the subject of interesting subject lines, a caveat is in order. A manic obsession with open rate is more dangerous than bland subject lines. That might encourage misleading subject lines. You may achieve a fantastic open rate, but ruin your believability in the bargain.

Advertisers need to insist on creative attention in writing subject lines. Agencies should make writing interesting subject lines part of the creative process, and not a rushed afterthought.

Even the From line deserves a lot more attention than it gets; more about that in another post.

The ORM Storm

2007-09-23T15:52:00.000+05:30

Going by the number of agencies that have sprung up promising to save brands from the wrath of unkind online reviews, there seems to be a large market for reputation repair.

These are homepage grabs of two agencies claiming to offer "Online Reputation Management (ORM)" services:

The similarity between agencies of this kind go beyond their shared love for similar historical quotes. What they promise their clients is quite similar too. Broadly, the ORM pitch follows this pattern:

1. There is a lot of negative publicity for your brand generated by irate consumers, disgruntled employees and suchlike.

2. This negative publicity can cause your brand a lot of harm since business prospects are likely to find these pages when they google your name.

3. "Push down" these negative pages by the weight of positive pages.

Point no. 3 is where it gets tricky and sticky. Where do these positive pages come from? How can these pages push down the baddies? An agency tries to explain this on its website:

"...we have a comprehensive approach to eliminating negative information from Page 1 of the major search engines, including Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. Our approach includes using traditional search engine optimization techniques to promote existing positive listings that already exist. In cases where no other listings exist, our team of content specialists will develop informational postings to blogs, business directories, and social networking sites, or create completely autonomous web sites to which we then optimize for specifically for your situation."

Any brand of repute that suffers from bad blood on the web must take corrective action, but to say that this corrective action should consist of manufacturing fake praises and unleashing them on the web is not just dishonest, but useless and harmful too in the long run.

I can think of two strong reasons why brands should not indulge in praise manufacturing.

One, people would soon call your bluff. No matter how good your wordsmiths are, manufactured praises have a tell-tale trait in them. Your manufactured reputation may get some fame, but when consumers discover that you have been going around town with a disguise singing eulogies to yourself, you have lost your credibility forever.

Two, Google's site ranking algorithm is quite a complex maze of mathematical formulae. It is safe to assume that Google keeps tweaking its search engine to give precedence to sites that are relevant. It's like the cat and mouse game between writers of malicious code and anti-virus peddlers. Devious techniques to "push down" relevant search results may seem to succeed for a while, but the search algorithm will eventually catch up.

So how does one "manage online reputation"? Here are some pointers:

Keep your ears to the ground

Listen in to the online buzz. Know what people are saying about you. Setting up Google alerts is an effective way of keeping abreast of the online buzz about you and competition.

Make sense of the buzz

Listening in is not useful unless you understand which way the wind is blowing. You are in an enviable position if your brand is being discussed favourably online. The best strategy here is to be an unintrusive listener and provide your online fans with all the resources they need (e.g., easily accessible product data on your website). On the other hand, if vitriol is pouring forth freely, you surely need some correctuve action and that should consist of addressing the complaint and getting your official stand across to people.

Use your website effectively

Your official website is the most important mouthpiece you have, make the most of it. Make it easy to include important announcements at short notice without waiting for the entire tech team to go into a coding frenzy. If you can manage it, open up channels of communication with your customers through your website. Ensure that the information on your website is always correct and updated. Your customers, associates and employees should turn to your website every time they are looking for some information about your company, products or services. Include your website address in all your official communication, e-mail signatures and press releases. You may outsource SEO if you want to, but a good web development team and an understanding of building and maintaining a clean, honest site should do the job. If you do hire an SEO egency, make sure they do not indulge in devious techniques. These are likely to do you more harm than good in the long run.

Look within for support

Employees are the best brand custodians, the most trusted brand ambassadors you have. If they are on your side (most of them are, at least when they begin working for you), your brand stands to gain a lot. In their social interactions, employees are often asked various questions about the products and services they represent. Make sure they are equipped to answer questions, especially the difficult ones. If you are facing slander, explain your stand to your employees. Encourage them to participate in online conversations. If your brand is caught in controversy, they are the ones who are going to face tough questions everywhere. Their answers will shape public opinion about your brand to a large extent. Prepare them for the questions. Give them the knowledge, the data and the confidence to represent your brand.

Don't bury your head

If you are facing a lot of flak online and you think it is unjustified, it makes sense to present your argument loud and bold. Use your website to let the world know your stand. Clarify your stand to other influential sites. Most consumer sites that influence public opinion will gladly accept and carry the brand owner's point of view. Does it mean that you must reply to every unkind comment that gets online? Obviously not. That would be too stressful and may snowball into a larger controversy. The trick is to tell the difference between simmering collective discontent and one-off unkind comments. Do not overlook the odd distrunglement though. Say, you find a scathing online review about your brand from a customer who has had a very bad experience. You believe that the complaint is genuine but is extremely rare and unlikely to happen to other customers. Nevertheless, get in touch with the consumer and make it up for her. After you have ensured a reversal of opinion, request the consumer to update her online post. Chance are she'd oblige and you would've turned a negative review into a positive one without any search engine push and shove.

Hire an agency if you think all this can get too overwhelming to do internally, but steer clear of tricks like impersonating customers and generating fake positive reviews. The web might seem like a haven for impersonation, don't give in to the temptation. If too many people are saying bad things about you online, you must be doing something wrong. Direct your energies towards getting the act right rather than spin-doctoring fake reviews. Once you have done that, go out and shout out loud from the rooftops but don't try sneaking in on other people's roofs to make a point. You might get pushed over the edge.

"Google is not God"

2007-09-18T12:34:00.000+05:30

"It's a machine, a superb machine that benefits millions, but it's still just a machine. And what it turns up can have remarkably deleterious impact on hardworking people and businesses," says the founder of a firm that claims to "defend you and your family's good name on the Internet."

This story on Forbes.com tells you what some people do to save themselves from this "deleterious impact".

In my next post, I will focus on the Online Reputation Management brouhaha.

Marcom job at Reliance World

2007-09-05T11:23:00.000+05:30

Reliance World is looking for a Marcom content professional (based out of its Navi Mumbai headquarters) who can strategise, conceptualise and develop ATL, BTL and online content. People with at least 4 years in Communication Design / Copywriting / Content Development Role (Ad agencies, Media, Web companies, Corporate Communications / Marketing Communications) have a high probability of fitting the bill. If you fit the bill or know somebody who could, mail the CV to me at subir[dot]ghosh[at]relianceada[dot]com, with a cc to subghosh[at]gmail[dot]com.

Thakur gets his revenge

2007-08-30T12:46:00.000+05:30

This is probably the most forwarded viral done by Webchutney. Many of you would've seen this, but those of you who haven't, do it now. Keep your speakers on.

I see double

2007-08-25T12:01:00.000+05:30

On TV, I do not see the same ad repeating back to back. In a magazine, I do not see the same ad appear twice, side by side. Why then am I forced to watch the same commercial twice over in cinema theatres?

A dark lady turns fair, thanks to copious amounts of a certain white paste. The dark world--that had been hitherto very unfair to her--also turns fair, and the lady suddenly turns into an air-hostess. You heave a sigh of relief that the ordeal is over. For you and for her. And then, she starts all over again.

It's probably got to do with ad slots being sold in large chunks and advertisers being forced to run their short films twice to fill those slots. This might make monetory sense for the theatres, but makes no sense for the advertisers and their brands.

Spare the air-hostess and spare the audience. Just once is enough. Not everybody is James Bond.

The Great Indian Gas Trick!

2007-07-27T10:42:00.000+05:30

When the 5-star style hospitals are on a marketing overdrive, why should the quacks be left behind?

And will the overeducated MDs be ever able to cure medicines of their diseases?

[Pic source: email from Abhijit Gupta. Click on the pic for a larger image.]

Personal opinions and corporate blogs

2007-07-06T15:22:00.000+05:30

In my last post, I had written about how a corporate blog had ruffled feathers across America.

Something similar has happened in our own backyard.

Anuradha Sengupta of CNN-IBN watched Sivaji--the latest Rajnikanth flick--and lambasted the film on IBNLive's blog. The post drew extremely strong reactions, with some people challenging her to visit Chennai and go back unscathed! (Her blog's comment count is 1528 as I write this and the number's ticking faster than our population.)

That's not at all surprising, going by the amount and extent of fan-frenzy Rajnikanth enjoys. What I want to point to is the fact that people treat corporate blogs as an extension of the corporate's official stand.

Here are just a few quotes (word for word) from the comments:

CNN IBN HAS GONE INSANE...I LOVED THE CHANNEL TILL THIS INCIDENT HAS HAPPENED

IBN should ensure nobody is hurt before posting such reviews

try to be more matured and smart partuiculary when you r carrying a brand behind ur name । (CNN IBN)

I strongly recommend CNN-IBN (was my favorite news channel till i read this article) not to release these kind of articles and loose the viewership and your brand image....

Irrespective of whether a corporate blogger is trying to promote his/her organisation, people are not ready to see the line between the official stand and personal opinion. At least, not just yet. That's some food for thought for corporate bloggers and corporates who run blogs.

Promoting your company through your corporate blog

2007-07-03T16:21:00.000+05:30

...may not be as easy as it sounds.

Lauren Turner, an Account Planner with Google, saw business opportunity in a film release, and posted this on the Google Health Advertising Blog.

Then all hell broke loose and strong reactions poured forth like the Bombay monsoons.

Lauren posted a rejoinder about how her opinion need not necessarily be Google's too.

The reaction (somewhat extreme, methinks) to Lauren's post makes one thing clear--netizens see corporate blogs as an extension of the organisation's official communication.

iSigh...

2007-06-28T11:06:00.000+05:30

Tomorrow, many men and women will strut about with their iPhones. Today, they wait.

I can neither strut nor queue up. All I can do is rewind to Feb'07 when Apple aired this teaser ad during the Oscars.

Hazaron khwahishen aisi

2007-06-26T11:10:00.000+05:30

Mirza Ghalib had made greed seem poetic. Google AdWords introduced us to the wonderful world of contextual advertising on the Internet. Now that we're used to the good stuff, we're greedy for more. That's why we hope Yahoo's new search marketing platform--Panama--breaks some new ground.

If you have anything to do with online advertising, read this review on Panama by Tomio Geron on Red Herring.

Those who find Ghalib's poetry more fascinating than Search Engine Marketing can get the lyrics of the ghazal quoted in the title and its meaning here.

I thought you just loved queuing up

2007-06-20T10:11:00.000+05:30

...but the findings of the Queue Frustration Survey have opened my eyes.

agencyfaqs! reports:
...consumers are signaling loud and clear that they are just not in favour of queuing up.
Research, I guess, is the new-age imperative. It adds more push to the argument, especially if one is trying to push a mediocre ad campaign. ("It will be difficult for the CEO to bounce a campaign if it's backed by research.")

What next? Probably we'd need research to tell us that 3 out of 4 people form 75% of the population. Or that bread almost always falls on the buttered side.

Now laugh, because research has shown that those who laugh frequently last 68% longer than those who don't.

Logo, na maaro isey

2007-06-07T10:32:00.000+05:30

Logo design has always been a subjective issue. Many lousy logos litter the neons while some good ones never see the light of day.

The recently revealed Olympics 2012 logo, however, has proved one thing--you can design logos with your eyes closed. All you need is some Lego pieces. Arrange a few pieces any way you like and then call a spin doctor who can see great meaning in every piece of trash. S/he will find suckers to dole out the dough. One man's Lego is another man's logo.

Talking about spin-doctoring, Wolff Olins--the agency that designed the logo--had this to offer by way of explanation on its website:
Neither an appendage to London nor the Olympic symbol, it brings the two together in an inclusive way. It is a brand which can be read and understood by people of all ages, around the
world...

...Echoing London's quality of a modern, diverse and vibrant
city, the London 2012 emblem is unconventionally bold, deliberately spirited and unexpectedly dissonant.
The agency has now removed most of the logo-related content from its website.

Amit Varma of India Uncut has his hilarious-as-usual take on the logo here (parental guidance recommended). Seth Godin calls it a jaggy picture. The jaggy picture punched a hole in Olympic Committee's deep pockets and £400,000 fell through. Loose change!

Those of you who're still wondering why the jagged pieces are arranged the way they are, see if you can find 2 0 1 2 in the logo. Go read up some de Bono.

In letter, not in spirit

2007-06-02T10:56:00.000+05:30

Among all communication material, advertisements probably receive the maximum creative attention per sq cm. Communication strategies & creative routes are discussed and thrown around, each word in the copy is often debated and the art director's hair grows grayer with each campaign.

Contrast that with the amount of attention that a letter on the company letterhead receives. Many a time, letters are hurriedly typed and sent out without so much as a second look. The truth is these letters play a great role in building/damaging your brand. As a consumer, I know that your adverts are "created" with an objective (although subconsciously I might associate it with spontaneous expression). On the other hand, when I receive a letter, I take it as a personalised expression of your true intent. If an ad and a letter were to say contradictory things, I would believe the letter. If you shouted "I care for you like your mama does" in your ads and then got my name wrong in your letter, I would care two hoots for your advertising.

If an ad is akin to loud self-congratulatory drumbeats, a letter is like a personalised whisper. We do not seem to realise this and end up emitting careless whispers. I once received a letter from ICICI Bank that addressed me as Mr Aggarwal! That the letter was signed by one Smita Aggarwal provided no solace.

Guilty feet have got no rhythm...

Hide & seek with Google

2007-05-29T14:55:00.000+05:30

Organisations that seek business from their websites often look at SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) as the panacea for all ills.

Paul Sloan, in this CNNMoney article, points to the simple truth--that to better your Google ranking, you don't have to be a devious geek, you just have to focus on two factors.

Why fine print is not fine

2007-05-23T12:19:00.000+05:30

Many of us hate the stereotypical politicians--the kind who make lofty promises just before our fingers are dotted with black ink, and then do a Houdini. But don't we do the same? FREE this with that, we proudly exclaim and when the poor customer is inside the trap, we quickly shut the trapdoor and point to the fine print which says FREE only if you were wearing red pants with yellow socks while you were walking into this trap. "But it works," say some. It sure does, but don't pretend to be a Marketing professional if you're doing this. A Marketing Mercenary is more like it.

I have nothing personal against fine print, but when fine print is used to prop up a weak product or service, the message may echo for a while in its own hollow and may find an audience, but eventually the brand ends up in the trashcan.

For, unlike a democracy, election of brands happens every minute.