Reality Bytes!

I am an avid ad enthusiast and follow ads closely. In doing so, I observed a trend that is prevalent in most of the ads that we see today. I have been noticing that ads, today, are moving away from larger-than-life images and visuals. They are telling a ‘story’. How are they doing it? If you people notice, most of the ads today are based on small real life incidents. They are taking a slice out of our, so called ‘mundane’ every day life, and trying to convey messages through them.

It is very common for all the family members to gather in the evenings, after everybody has come back from work. This is very commonplace. Such ‘adda’ sessions are used to discuss various things (and I admit a certain amount of bitching too!). The range ranges from anything to sports (specifically, cricket), to politics (the younger female group generally comments on how cute Rahul Gandhi looks), to why the girl next door is not getting married, etc. A paint company uses this to great effect in a TVC that is being aired now. The TVC shows a family discussing the various colors that they could use to paint their house just before Diwali.

Another good ad that is being aired currently is the Vodafone ad featuring Irrfan Khan. The ad shows Irrfan calling up relatives to invite them to his brother’s wedding. He cribs about how relatives go on talking and inquire about a hundred other things, and all this on STD. These are very common happenings that we experience, and conveniently, overlook and forget.

In today’s times, when differentiation between brands on the basis of features alone, has become very difficult, it becomes important to approach the consumers in a different manner. Building up a connect becomes very important. Under these circumstances, almost all the brands have subscribed to this idea. ‘Give the consumers a reason to buy your brand. Giving features is not good enough, everybody does that. What are you giving extra?’ seems to be the mantra.
There is also another reason. We, as consumers, relate to things better that are closer to real life. This is not cinema, where we are happy to shell out 250-300 Rs to watch out favorite heroine, sway to a tune in a chiffon sari on the Alps. There fantasy works. However, there is a touch of realism even in our movies now. India is a large middle class country that has a ‘mundane’ existence. However, we still relate better to it when we see a housewife, struggling with something and when a brand comes to her rescue.
Historically, cola ads, in India, were the most lavish ads. Even they have turned to reality. You need an example, the ‘aap muskuraenge, bulbule gungunayenge’ ads of Coca Cola (featuring Aamir Khan). Also, reality is big on the small screen these days. This further advocates the use of reality in ads as well. There are many other examples like the Tata Sky Ads (featuring Gul Panag and Aamir Khan), the latest Airtel ad (featuring Shahrukh Khan), the new Platinum forever ads among many others.

The reason as, I mentioned above, is to build up a connect with the consumers. This might be termed as ‘emotional branding’ where the brand tantalizes the emotions of the consumers and attracts them towards it. From what I perceive, this trend is here to stay and for good.

While in Rome, do as the Romans!!

The other day I was just thinking about the changes that have taken place in the advertisements we see, with respect to the way the messages are conveyed. I compared two ads that are very clearly etched in my mind. The first one is of Ajanta Watches (which I think was done by Mudra). It had a music piece by Beethoven playing in the background with a lady playing a very lovable grandma. The point here is the use of Beethoven. The second ad that comes to my mind is that of Pepsi that said, “Yehi Hai Right Choice Baby…aha!” The point here is the use of a strange language.

You might be wondering what the point of relevance here is. Well, what I am trying to say here is the difference in the approach. One ad uses a Beethoven piece and the other ad uses a language medium that is neither Hindi nor English, .at best it is Hinglish (even MS Word does not recognize this word. Mr. Bill Gates, you need to gear up and do better than Windows Vista!!).

Language purists who swear by Webster and Chambers would have gone crazy about the use of such outrageous English!!! Earlier (I still know a couple of people) advertisement professionals used to swear by Bern Bach, and Ogilvy. The use of English was crisp, and very proper. But post 1991, India went through a lot of changes. Earlier, it was unfashionable to say that one went for a Hindi movie!! Arnold, Stallone, Van Damme, Tom Cruise were suddenly in vogue!!! However, Hindi was still the people’s language. The result, the insurgence of a new language, Hinglish (essentially Hindi, with generous dollops of English thrown in). We, in our younger days, took to this language very easily. As a result advertisements also started using them to communicate with us. Hence, today we have an Idea Cellular saying “What an Idea, Sirjee” and Virgin Mobile saying, “Think hatke”.

Here, we (and also, the advertisers and the creative agencies) need to understand what the real purpose of making an ad is. What is more important, to create a brilliant work of art with great visuals and impeccable technique or make an effective ad? The ideal situation is to have both, but then life is hardly ideal! So, we have a Nirma ad which is very in your face, with the word Nirma being mentioned exactly 7 times in a 30second ad and that becomes a huge success and on the other hand, we have a Hero Honda Karizma Ad that has all the ingredients(including Hrithik Roshan) that does not ruffle many feathers. I think the idea here is to help sell the product. In order to do that it is very important to get that connect with the TG, whatever it takes! In today’s world of SMS, we are much more comfortable with brb s (be right back) and dnd s (do not disturb) and btw (by the way). So, to me it makes a lot more sense to speak in the language that people understand.

Someone said and very correctly, “While in Rome, do as the Romans"

A Memory Test!!!

Yesterday, I was going through a very old edition of a magazine (I am a film buff, and I admit I discreetly collected editions of this popular film magazine!). There I saw an old ad. The funny part is that although this ad was almost 15-20 years old, I still remembered it. This was an ad about a detergent soap featuring Deepika Chiklia (for those who cannot relate to the name, she is the lady who played Sita in the TV mega series, Ramayana, along side Arun Govil).

It was here that I decided to recollect and made a conscious effort to remember as many ads that I could, TV or Print or Radio. Very surprisingly, most of the ads that I recollected (I mean I remembered the visuals, the product, the brand and everything else!) were quite old, some of them from the DD days and some from the early phase of the satellite TV revolution in India. I started questioning myself that why is it that I cannot remember much ads of recent times, although they are made in a better way and we have much more access to watching them.

The reasons for this phenomenon are many. I will start with the last line of the last paragraph. We have almost unlimited access these days. This ensures that we see number of ads today. What this also ensures that we watch few of them. The retention has been reduced drastically. We have two different ads running at the same time on two different channels. The result, we flip to the third channel which is airing the favorite K serial. It is this clutter that has possibly reduced the retention capacity of us consumers.

Another reason that I feel is the overuse and in some cases abuse of a brand ambassador. I will ask you a question. Which personality comes to your mind when I say, “Waah Taaj”? Did you say Zakir Hussain, the famous tabla player sitting and sipping tea from a white cup in a flowing white kurta and churidaar against the background of a pristine white Taj Mahal? Yes, you are right. It is the same image that comes to my mind also, when I hear that punch line. Now, another question. When you see, Saif Ali Khan, sitting in the green room of a studio asking his designer to show him the clothes that he is supposed to wear at the fashion show, which brand comes to your mind. Stretch your mind a little more. Can you recollect the tagline? Try harder…No? Giving up? Well, the brand is Taj Mahal Tea from the Brooke Bond Stable of erstwhile HLL. See the difference; we vividly remember the previous ad whereas we try hard to recollect the newer ad of the same brand with the same punch line. I have one reason for this. I will explain this with another question. When, I say, “It’s your life, make it large” which brand comes to your mind. This is easy. Yes you are right. It is Royal Stag. The brand ambassador, hmm, well, Mr. Saif Ali Khan again. The same person, endorsing two kinds of beverages, tea and whiskey. I agree that these two categories do not directly compete with each other. Tea is had in the morning (unless you are a complete teetotallerian like me) while whiskey is normally had in the evenings (unless you are like one of the characters essayed by Mr. Keshto Mukherjee!). However these two segments do compete with each other somewhere else, if not the market. They take each other head on in the consumer’s mind, which in turn percolates down to the market. Similarly, we have an Amitabh Bachhan, Shahrukh Khan, MS Dhoni, et al, endorsing similar, if not the same products and brands.

So, does it mean, that more ads and more channels mean less retention? Not necessarily. It is upto the ad agencies to really decide the mix. Let us study an example. Take Vodafone for example. The pug has become synonymous with the brand and they did not even use the name of a celebrity. Remember, the ad for the LG CDMA phones. It shows a mobile phone on a paper boat, shows how light weight the phone is. It did not have any celebrities or even any models. Or the Fevicol ads or he Chlormint ads. It is the question of effectively getting your message across. Why, even some ads stand out, for example, the Vodafone ads (both the pug as well as the zozoos), and the Sunil Babu ads.

Really, it is upto the agencies to decide what kind of ads they want to show us, the consumers, because, “yeh public hai, sab jaanti hai”!!!

All marketing is B2C Marketing.

This is one question that has been bugging me ever since I have come across these two terms and actually studied them, which would be pretty much my MBA days.
I will start with formally defining the two terms:
Business 2Business(B2B) Marketing: as in intra-organisational communication, collaboration, and commerce - normally electronic, normally using websites and/or web services (source:wikipedia)
Business 2 Consumers Marketing (B2C) : Business that sells products or provides services to end-user consumers ( source: http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/b2c/)

Now, my doubt/confusion is that are businessess, not customers? Dont business houses buy things. I will answer this question later. ...Here again I think and believe that all marketing is B2C marketing, albeit the 'C' stands for something slightly different.

As I said, all marketing, according to me, is B2C marketing or 'Business to Client' marketing. Now, many would argue the difference between a consumer/ customer and a client and why does it make the term B2B marketing redundant.

The word 'Customer' , to me, signifies a one time buyer. It does not imply relationship of any kind. A person who makes a one time purchase would be a customer. On the other hand the word 'Client' implies a consumer with whom the seller has a relationship and a scenario where the consumer stays with the seller for a certain length of time. To put it simply, 'repeat purchase'!!!

Brand Loyalty/ Repeat Purchase is the ultimate nirvana for Brand Managers...Then why should it be any different for FMCG/FMCDs. The aim is to transform the 'customer' to a 'client', be it any kind of sales/marketing activities, B2B or B2C.

For Example, take a medicine shop. I have been visiting my local medicine shop for 10-15 years. The shop owner, knows me by my first name and knows my parents by their first name as well. He also acts as my local physician at times when I have a cold etc. By the text book definition, this is a typical B2C scenario. So, what am I to the medicine shopwallah. Am I a client or a customer??

Similarly, in my current professional capacity, I sell HR solutions to corporates. Their have been cases when my organization has helped companies define their HR policies as well. I address my clients on first name basis and at times even share a drink with them. So , are they my 'clients' or are they merely businessess. We all know one thing that businesses dont buy and businesses dont sell. It is we human beings who buy and sell.

This is my justification in favor of my argument that there is no separate thing such as B2C or B2B Marketing. To me, every marketing effort is B2C Marketing,i.e. 'Business 2 Client' Marketing.