With hope, all the way

December 7, 2009 will witness world leaders from 192 countries gather at Copenhagen to attend the most coveted conference – the United Nations Climate Change Conference. The conference will supposedly decide the future of our planet, which may go into oblivion if a definite framework on limiting carbon emissions before the expiry of Kyoto protocol is not formulated. UN, in its endeavour to connect with the general public, has devised a cause-related campaign with the leading ad agencies of the world (including O&M, McCann Worldgroup, Euro RSCG, MPG, Draft FCB, Tribal DDB, Colle+McVoy, Saatchi & Saatchi, Digitas, Interbrand) by the name of Hopenhagen, which signifies a more hopeful way of living in the future without any adverse effects of global warming. Seems that the mantra of hope propagated by US Prez Barack Obama will find solace in all the major ‘changes’ taking place in the world.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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ITC placed a huge order of 4.5 crore

Experts claim that the Indian Premier League is all set to become the next big licensing property in the country, though it is still in nascent stages. “It is just the beginning and we believe licensing will prove to be a major source of revenue for teams participating in the tournament in years to come,” explained a spokesperson for Delhi Daredevils. But reaching that platform will not be a cake-walk by any means as Marya of License India complains, “They have no clarity on what they want to do with their brands till now. But we will be happy to pitch in if they invite us,” he adds, making a public sales pitch for IPL licensing.

In fact, for marketers in India, licensing opportunities are coming in droves from a cross-section of categories and even people. India’s national religions, Bollywood and Cricket are two potential platforms that are just waiting to be tapped. Brand analysts in fact, go so far as to say that even sundry politicians in India – at least the ones with a pan Indian image – also present a great opportunity for the future of brand licensing in the country. “If Obama can do it, why can’t our politicians,” they say. Barack Obama’s ‘Change We Need’ campaign and merchandise sold like hot cakes in United States during and after the 2008 Presidential Elections. And by the way, who says Bihar is backward? Here’s some news to feed on. The state may be falling off the map so far as human development indicators are concerned, but so far as licensing of hot political brands is concerned, this one leads from the front. Already Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar are saleable properties in Bihar, and fire-crackers, dolls and even fodder branded in their names sells like hot potatoes here.

Speaking about Lalu, Marya has a line to add, “Brand Lalu has a lot of unlocked value attached and even today, if copyrighted and utilised well, it will sell like anything.” He however warns that in the case of political brands, there are hardly any which sell beyond a time frame of 5-10 years, of course, the Gandhi brand being the big exception here.

Commercial, character or political, fact is, brand licensing has arrived in India to stay. Nicholas Bloom, AVP – Brand Management, Beanstalk Group remarks, “For licensees, acquiring rights for a particular brand empowers them to intensify their market share in the category and often results in gaining incremental shelf space at retail.” What companies here should note is that having a prominent brand licence can open-up new channels or regions for a licensee’s product(s), that were previously unavailable and can also help a licensee acquire additional licenses or even raise capital.

Surely threats of brand-overstretch or misuse do exist, but does that matter when examples of brands (Electrolux and Anchor) that made more money from licensing activities than from sales of their core products, abound? Sometimes, the brand becomes the father of the basic product; and as far as making money goes, it outruns and outlives even the core product. Go ahead people, indulge in the power and prowess of your super brand!

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
TSI exposes b school ranking scamsters Mahesh Peri of Career 360 and Premchand Palety of C fore. - For Complete Sting Operation Video Click Here

Pioneer Exposes the fraud called Mahesh Sharma and Mahesh Peri of Career 360 and Barbel Schwertfeger of mba-channel.com

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IIPM, GURGAON
IIPM 3-year full-time Integrated (MBA BBA) Programme
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ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL

Rural and under-served community hold the key to success in India, but to get hold of it, one has to be as customised as Max Vijay and Operation Attack

Since liberalisation, customisation of products and services has caught the fancy of the marketers like never before. This has not only helped the companies to add some good meat to their toplines and bottomlines, but has also proved quite handy to them when it comes to tap the under-served markets.

In fact, two such novel concepts that recently joined the bandwagon are Max Vijay (by Max New York Life Insurance) and Operation Attack (by Castrol India Ltd). While Max Vijay empowers the lower strata of the society by giving them a 5 in 1 advantage (flexibility, convenience, simplicity, life cover and savings), Operation Attack, from Castrol’s arsenal aims at providing farmers with the first hand technical knowledge on how by using CRB Plus engine oil they can protect their tractor’s engine even at 300 degree centigrade temperature. Though, these two concepts operate in different domains, but at the end of the day they certainly serve a single purpose – benefit the rural mass.

Both initiatives aim at bringing about a revolution in the industry by benefiting a large chunk of the population, so far untapped and under-served. Sharing his view on the success of Operation Attack, Rajeev Govil, Marketing Manager – Agri & Old Gen avers, “The high visibility activation campaign conceptualised and implemented by the agency in the key rural markets across the country innovatively communicated the brand proposition – ‘protects engine even at 300 degrees C’ – to create the desired impact. The overall campaign more than met the program objectives and resulted in creation of buzz and mass conversions.”

If Operation Attack is for better longevity of the engine, then Max Vijay with its unique concept of ‘Bima Gullak’ wishes for the long life of a poor villager. The company claims that this new product is entirely different from any other existing financial products, from start to finish. For the uninitiated, the policy can be started with a premium amount as low as Rs.1,000 and subsequently top up payments can be made at Rs.10–2,500 per day. Commenting on the impact of Bima Gullak, Anil Mehta, Senior Director, Max Vijay says, “Currently we have sold 80,000 Max Vijay policies, thus touching the lives of over 3.5 million Indians.” In fact, through Bima Gullak the company is now planning to touch the lives of over three million households over the next three years.

But then, just launch of a product/service or presence of a vast target group is not what solves the problem. Taking it to the masses is also equally important. And in both these cases the respective companies have left no stones unturned in achieving the same. While Operation Attack reached out to 17 states using Bus Talkies and live technical demonstration, Max Vijay on its part has now made itself available in 23 states. Moreover, considering that insurance is a complex product, the insurer has roped in corporate agents, NGOs, Financial Institutions, et al, to reach out to the underserved segment.

But, be it Max Vijay or Operation Attack, the underlying fact remains the same – customisation is the key if you want to unlock the wealth that lies at the bottom of pyramid.

Gyanendra K. Kashyap

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
TSI exposes b school ranking scamsters Mahesh Peri of Career 360 and Premchand Palety of C fore. - For Complete Sting Operation Video Click Here
Pioneer Exposes the fraud called Mahesh Sharma and Mahesh Peri of Career 360 and Barbel Schwertfeger of mba-channel.com

IIPM: An intriguing story of growth and envy
Prof Arindam Chaudhuri of IIPM on MF HUSAIN‎
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Exclusive In chat with Society Magazine - Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri

Yahoo’s latest “It’s Y!ou” rebranding campaign

IIPM: An intriguing story of growth and envy

However, the question is: is this another ploy by Yahoo! to grab new users too, who for long have served the consumer ranks of its competitors? “Yes, it’s both about retention of old ones and getting new users onto the Yahoo! vehicle. In short, it’s ‘Grow and explore’,” shoots back Mathur. Obviously, this is yet another attempt from Yahoo to make its brand indispensable to Indians (and users globally). But has such rebranding strategy worked in the past? And will Yahoo succeed? As far as Harish Bijoor, noted brand analyst is concerned, he doesn’t seem to agree completely with Mathur as he opines, “When it comes to the softer side of online technology like browsers or search engines, brands find it tougher when it comes to returns from just re-branding, as users are very loyal to the particular browser or search engine. So if Yahoo! is actually looking at acquiring new consumers, at the cost of its competitors, it will prove a very difficult proposition.” And what about payoffs? Bijoor opines, “I don’t believe the payoff will be as solid as the company expects it to be, because it is only a little change of identity and product offering that we are looking at in this case. And again, the great loyalty factor will play against the expectations of Yahoo!” On the other hand, Mathur justifies the investments as, “We are looking at personalising and customising the brand Yahoo! And our payoffs will definitely touch our expectations...”

$100 million is indeed a great deal, for Yahoo, being a company that has its roots in technology, could have invested a great part of this amount in something more concrete, like offering a newly innovated service. To this Bijoor adds, “Yahoo could have gone single-handedly through the route of harvesting young people who are just new to the market. The problem is that Yahoo is preaching to the converted, which is really futile! They could do something for new users, maybe something like a Kids Google, that could cater to age group eight years and above.” A slightly different-minded Kapoor however feels that, “This campaign repaints Yahoo! as more vibrant and fresh, as a young and trendy service, and it should do a world of good to Yahoo!” Providing a different solution to the proposed payoff matrix, Diptarup Chakraborty, Principal Analyst, Gartner, hints at a potential sell-off of the brand, “The brand has lost a lot of value and weight in the recent past, and this campaign only appears to be increasing the brand value of Yahoo! to make it more appealing and attractive to potential bidders.”

And how will competitors react? “I do not believe that the competitors need to even react as this outlay is clearly a cost for Yahoo which will eat into its bottom line,” explains Bijoor. While Chakraborty doubles up on the same, a rather assertive Ptak states, “They will be very glad that Yahoo! has spent $100 million to so little effect. It should motivate them to invest much more heavily in technology to create new offerings and services for their customers.” Yes, $100 million is a big sum anyday, but at the moment, it appears to be the best bet for Yahoo! Mathur and his Yahoo! India team is hopeful, and who knows, Yahoo!, Yellow and its yearning, might just click!

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Retail in the time of slowdown

IIPM: An intriguing story of growth and envy

Pragya Singh,
Senior Consultant, Technopak Advisors Pvt. Ltd.

However, since organised retail penetration is higher in the big cities, most of the organised retailers did see an impact on their sales. In fact, the slowdown has been a reality check for retailers to take stock of their operations and strategy, especially after most companies scaled up number of outlets at a fast pace, in unviable locations, at exorbitant rentals, charting out ambitious expansion plans and relying on debt in the last few years. Slowdown or no slowdown, the reality would have struck sooner or later. So, it can also be argued that this was in a way not completely undesirable.

The retailers have therefore focussed on putting their house in order through repositioning, renegotiation, restructuring, reconfiguration, and replanning towards robust & efficient business models to develop a stronger proposition and profitability. While some of these strategies would benefit in the long term, others like price-cuts, making organisations too lean etc. can be a double-edged sword and may hit back in the long term.

Some strategies adopted include more empowerment to sales staff by a leading sportswear retailer and increased incentives for added sales by a major electronics retailer. Another leading hypermarket/ department store retailer is resorting to relocation or shut down of stores, which are economically not viable or where rentals are more than market rates, while several leading retailers are trying to lure consumers through extended sale seasons /value merchandise/ freebies and innovative marketing schemes targeted at ‘consumer savings.’ A leading international apparel retailer is looking at repositioning its store by adding space and making the items more affordable.

Other strategies adopted by retailers include:

l Consolidating the operations of various formats to reduce overheads and achieve economies of scale;
l Restructuring of supply chain by reducing inventory and logistics costs to reduce working capital requirements;
l Renegotiation of rentals which have already seen a significant drop across cities;
l Rationalising the HR overheads;
l Resizing of outlets to make them more profitable;
l Focusing on core formats for long term growth;
l Increasing margins by pushing their private labels;
l Negotiating better credit terms and price from vendors;
l Being more selective in expansion unlike before

Organised retail in India is only 15 years old and going through a very steep learning curve. In the first phase, retailers were busy setting up the front-end business and now it has entered a new phase where they are taking a hard look at their business fundamentals, operations and strategies. With the economy now getting back on track, perhaps the best phase in Indian retail sector will come in the next five years, when the sector would see major expansions by the national and international players and at the same time consolidation and operational efficiencies would start reaping benefits.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!
For Exclusive Footage by Sunday Indian Click Here

Outlook Magazine's B School Ranking Scam Exposed
Don't trust the Indian Media!
IIPM exposes Career 360 and Mahesh Peri scam
IIPM - We will change your outlook : Career 360 and Mahesh Peri scam is exposed

Prof Arindam Chaudhuri of IIPM on MF HUSAIN‎
IIPM Related Links
Follow Arindam Chaudhuri on Twitter
IIPM B School on Twitter
Exclusive In chat with Society Magazine - Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri