Marcom Wishlist for 2010

1. 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.
    
2. 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.
    
3. 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.
    
4. 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.
    
5. 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.
    
6. 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

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?

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?

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

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?

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

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.