Location does matter..........

2008-09 was the age of Social media in terms of the mainstream acceptance, 2011 and beyond represents the same for the location based services like Foursquare which allows the users to transmit their locations by checking in option with their mobile phones.The adoption rate for the same has been phenomenal and holds a tremendous impact on marketing.
Services like Foursquare have enormous potential for brands to drive awareness. I remember a program that I did long back with the collage kids to understand the shopping patterns and places they loved to hangout. The objective was to maximize the return on dollars spent on the consumer experiential activity for a brand. We had given college kids mobile phone with the connection and students were told to text back their location on regular basis to a specified number. This gave us lot of insight about the youth preferences and places they love to hang out which in turn helped us to select the venues and timing for the youth experiential activity. I see a similar possibility with location based services which would help the brand to study people’s shopping habits in ways that previously weren’t possible. Many brands are using both Foursquare and their own proprietary location tools to drive loyalty programs, advertise directly to consumers who are near a retail outlet, and gather data on shopping patterns and other preferences.

"Think Different"? In Schools: Mostly Not.

I was reading “The Real Story Behind Apple's 'Think Different' Campaign”, a fascinating story about Apple‘s “Think Different” ad campaign. It actually brings out the fact that both the people behind the campaign were the masters in creativity. Every revolution in whatever field is a resultant of the “Think Different “approach and this is the mantra for the corporate world too.

But how is creativity really treated, beyond the field of such misty-eyed ad campaigns? When I look back at my school days I was always told to be obedient, sincere, reliable and expected to obey the rules and regulation without even trying to understand the logic behind the laundry list of do’s& don’ts. Things are still the same and I realized it during my trip to my son’s school for the parent-teacher meeting. I was told to make my kid to understand the importance of obeying the R&R and ensure a disciplined approach. In other words, teachers like the idea of creativity as long as its manifestations are not disruptive. It’s high time that we implement democratic education theory of learning and school governance in which students and staff participate freely and equally in a school democracy. In a democratic school, there is typically shared decision-making among students and staff on matters concerning living, working, and learning together. C’mon wake up…….Don’t kill the creativity.

Accounts Redefined

Five Common Strategy Mistakes - Joan Magretta - Harvard Business Review

Interesting read


http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/12/five_common_strategy_mistakes.html

Craft of working on Diwali ads

The most overrated and under worked ad's you get to see,during the Diwali season and the worst part is that every second ad seems the same. The main ingredients of creating a Diwali ad are diya and happy family image with colorful lights in the back ground. From apparel to sweets to consumer durable to Cars, every brand would follow the same tried and tested model year after year. And so, over the years, the one line brief of 'Link brand to Diwali' became the scourge of creative teams across the country.

So here's an out-of-the-box solution - a headline template that could be used forever and ever.

(L suresh conceptualized this frame work in one of his article and is quite interesting too.......)

"This festive season, ............... the/your ................. with ........................"

To fill in the blanks, he created a little table with three rows, each of which applied to one blank.

 

Now, a mix-n-match of a random word from each of the rows could result in an option. For instance, a line for a retail brand could be: "This festive season, celebrate your style with the perfect wardrobe", or, "This festive season, brighten up your life with Brand X".

Hate it, 'Unhate it', but you cannot ignore it

‘Unhate it’ Campaign-The campaign that featured the prominent political and religious leaders kissing each other is one more addition to the series of controversial ad’s from Benetton. Whether it is German Chancellor Angela Merkel kissing French President Nicolas Sarkozy, President Barack Obama pecking his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, or Pope Benedict XVI smooching Egyptian Imam Benetton has clearly created a disruption.

The campaign finds leaders from opposite sides of the political and religious divide kissing each other, with the underlying message of peace. What we find out is hate it, 'Unhate it', but you cannot ignore it and Benetton really scored a home run here…………

Coffee with Sensory Marketing

Starbucks understands sensory branding, and in particular olfactory marketing. The wonderful aroma of a good coffee shop is a great selling and branding tool – this is particularly important since research shows that the majority of the experience of drinking espresso comes from the coffee shop experience itself. Now, Starbucks has announced that they will quit serving breakfast. Why? Because the smell of heating egg and cheese sandwiches interferes with the coffee aroma.

This is a fairly amazing reason to drop what was supposed to have been a major growth product line, and shows that some companies really DO understand sensory marketing and branding. With McDonald’s also competing with Starbuck’s on the beverage front (coffee), this becomes even more interesting.

If you look at the Indian market, CCD gave Indian consumers the Starbuck’s coffee experience and catered to the new generation of coffee drinkers. Some of the CCD’s have also stared serving breakfast and I am sure that’s doing well in terms of topline and bottom line contribution. I am sure CCD would also face a similar problem that Starbuck’s is facing but are they ready to give up the major growth product line just to ensure a right SENSORY MARKETING AND BRANDING.

WAIT AND WATCH……………