Saturday, 16 April 2016

ACS - Product packaging for international markets

Every BMMite is well versed with the 4P's of marketing. PRODUCT. PLACE. PRICE. PROMOTION.
These 4P's play a major part for the marketing of a particular product in the market. But another important aspect or rather the important P of marketing is PACKAGING.

Packaging and labeling, two important aspects which every manufacturer/service provider should consider while his product is going to hit the market.
Take a walk across the super market. Every super market holds about 45,000 products. And the ultimate goal of every manufacturer is that my product has to land in my potential consumers shopping basket.

To achieve this goal, what is required is a cutting edge packaging, with brilliant use of colors. Colors which will appeal to the potential customer and will turn him into the products consumer.

Since this is the era of globalization, the protocols of packaging are also to be followed at the global level. In this case what the marketer has to undertake is "glocalisation", which means going global keeping the local essence intact. There are several differences in the marketing environment across the countries.
Modification may be required in all the 3 levels of the packaging. The 3 levels of packaging are as follows:

Primary Pack: For example, a labeled tooth paste tube
Secondary Pack: For example, the labeled carton which is going to hold the tooth paste tube
Tertiary Pack: The box which contains a specific number of cartons


Labeling:

Labeling not only specifies the contents of a particular product, but is is also legally essential to mention the same in all the countries. The labeling protocols change from one country to another. The labels are to be modified into the local languages or it has to be multilingual if a particular product is a world brand.
Product names have to be specific. You cannot call a ketch up "Hot chilli" in Saudi Arabia. It needs to be named as Spiced Hot Chilli. Diet Coke a product of Coca Cola did not work in Brazil because the work Diet refers that the product has some medicinal qualities. Coke had to get special approvals and they had to alter the name to Coca Cola Light in countries like Germany, France due to legal restrictions. 

In some countries words like giant pack or jumbo pack are prohibited.

Package Size and Price:

Package size and price have a great importance where the income level is meager. In poor countries make the products in smaller size in small packages.
For example, Sunsilk launched in the concept of satches in India to reach the potential target group with lower income group.

Trade Mark:

I read this somewhere, a country had red circle as their trade mark which was not used in Asia because it drew references with the Japanese flag. A company had yellow flowers as their trade mark which was not used in Mexico where yellow flowers symbolize death. Hence care should be taken while choosing trademarks where in the trade marks don't have any other meaning across the globe.


Color:

Color is one more important factor which has to be considered while packaging a particular product. While in some country white symbolizes purity while in some it is associated with mourning.

Also one more factor has to be taken into consideration while packaging a particular product.The product has to be well protected in the packaging in all sorts of climatic conditions. Quality of the packaging also has to be considered. Japanese attitude about quality includes the packaging of the product. A poor packaged product conveys an impression of poor quality.

Container material preferences also alters across the globe, like the Americans consumer beer in cans where as Europeans prefer in glass bottles.


Hence it can be said that the success or the failure of a particular product depends on the understanding the cultural differences in terms of the factors which are essential for the packaging of the product.



Friday, 15 April 2016

Types of Advertising Agencies

Well, in my previous blog I had mentioned I will be writing about the types of the ad agencies. It took me some while to get my hands on this blog.
This blog is about the types of the ad agencies and the functions they undertake.

When it comes to agencies there are some who know from alpha to omega, while some are the ones who specialize in a peculiar area and serve only the service they specialize in.

Let's take a look at the type of the ad agencies:

  • Full Service Ad Agencies:

Well when I mean full service ad agencies they are giants of the advertising world. The ones who cater from alpha to omega. Full service ad agencies are the ones who not only create but also promote the creatives. So basically right from development of the concept with thorough brain storming, to fine execution to proper media placement is what full service media agencies do.
These agencies have multiples departments like the client servicing, account planners, creative, media planners and buyers, production. Well these agencies don't come cheap. They have teams assigned for specific accounts who manage start to end execution of these accounts.

  • Specialty Ad Agencies:

While there are giants like Full service ad agencies, there is also a presence of the cognoscenti's!
The ones who are frequently referred as the creative boutiques or most commonly referred as the " A LA CARTE"
  • Creative agencies who work for print and television ads- right from the concept. Their forte' is only developing the creatives and not in the media buying or in media placement.
  • Media Buying agencies are the ones who specialize the media planning and media buying activities. They are the ones who conduct an extensive research to figure out which media channel should be used to the reach to the target audience in an effective way.
  • Digital and social media agencies are the ones who specialize in Internet marketing. They special on running campaigns on social media platforms, create websites, run search and display ad campaigns.


  • Category expertise:

There are some agencies who specialize in advertising special category.
Some specialize in advertising products, where the aim is to introduce the product in the market or to create a demand for a particular product in the market. Some specialize in Institutional Advertising. Here the aim is creating a positive image of the institution. Also another type of advertising is Advocacy advertising. This advertising agencies particularly work for a specific cause like polio vaccination which is supported by government or by non profit organization.

  • Industry Expertise Agencies:

Some agencies specialise to work for certain specific industries like hospitality, travel, banking, education and likewise. If a business is large, falls in niche then Industry expertise agency will be an appropriate agency to advertise the offerings of the business.
 

 


Friday, 11 March 2016

Advertising Agency Departments

When you see all those awesome ads on television, neatly designed creatives in the newspaper or on the billboards then it's not just one person managing the show. There’s a  brigade of creative people at the back end who manage to put up a great show.

Let’s go through the key departments who play a crucial role in the functioning of the agency:

Depending on the size of the agency there is a management team. If it's a small agency then there is a Managing Director and a Financial Director. But if it's a large agency, then there is a whole management team sitting in to manage the functioning of the agency, a Managing Director, Financial Director and respective directors for every department.

Account Servicing/Client Servicing:

Client servicing are the face of an agency. Once a client is on board the daily co-ordination, the follow-ups for the billings are all managed by the Account Servicing Team. Also Account Servicing is responsible taking a brief from the client, coordinating with the team to execute the task as per the brief and then delivering the end result to the client.
Depending on the size of the agency, the hierarchy differs. However, the standard hierarchy as follows: Account Director, Account Manager, Account Executives & Assistant Account Executive.
What are the qualities that you will need to have if you plan to join Account Servicing? Well, you need to be very patient, very convincing. You need to be a good listener and at the same time you need to understand what your client intends to say.

Account Planners:

Account planners do a lot of strategising stuff. Account planners conduct research and dig in some insights which they use to make a creative brief for the creative team who are going to work on the advertising campaign. When the agencies are small in size the role of account planner is usually done by the account executive. But if the agency is large in size, then there is an entire team who sits for Account Planning

Creative Team:

Creative particularly includes the team of the designers and copywriters. It can be said that the copywriters and designers are the driving wheels of an agency. It's the Art Director who heads the team and at time works in sync with the copywriters for the execution of the campaigns. Also there are visualizers who visualize how the campaigns will be like.

Media Team:

Media team is divided into two broad areas, media planners and media buyers. Media planners are the ones who plan strategically where should be the creative placed to gain maximum visibility. Media buyers are the ones who actually buy the inventory for media placement. Media buyers and planners both have to be exceptionally good at numbers and calculations. Media buyers should also be good at negotiation, since they have to finalize the media slots for which the client pays.

Production Team:
Usually the larger agencies are the ones who have the production team. They are basically responsible for the management of the campaigns, managing the budget, setting in the schedules also they work in coordination with the creative and media team. The creative team also communicates with the vendors like the printers, photographers, etc. If the agency is small in size usually the account servicing or the creative team takes care of these duties

In my next blog I will write in detail about the types of the agencies. So stay tuned know more in detail!

Thursday, 10 March 2016

E-Mail Marketing

Like it is always said these days, this is the era of digitalization. You come across advertisements or some or the other form of marketing on media channels. But what I prefer the most and what I recommend to my clients and my personal favorite - E-Mail Marketing.
E-mail marketing still remains a key element when it comes to media mixes in my media plans.
Here are a few pointers why I prefer e-mail marketing:

If I plan to advertise any product on any of the broadcast media or say OOH for that matter, the commercials will be extensive. But if I am low on budget, and at the same I am looking for a media channel which will take me to my target audience, then E-mailers work absolutely great. To create e-mailers I don't need to invest on printing or on postage. All you need to do is shoot bulk e-mailers, off course with right planning.

Other major advantage of E-mailers is that it gives you the option of targeting the audience you aim to reach. I might want to reach frequent flyers or people who love shopping home decor online. I can specifically reach out to them with choosing in the perfect database. Reaching out to the accurate target audience or potential target is the main objective of any marketing campaign. If that is achieved, your job is half done.

When you shoot e-mailers, it helps you create brand awareness and exposes your target audience to the brand. E-mail marketing when done with strategic planning and proper execution will work wonders to create awareness for your brand.

Gone are the days when you could check your emails only on your desktops. Now you have a mobile phone handy. I can always browse through mails while I am travelling, when I am at work or when I am dining at a restaurant. So basically what is intended here is that the ease of accessibility, what is the key essential for your target audience.

E-mailers are very easy to share as well. If I come across an E-mailer from E-commerce site which really is interesting, all I need is to just click a button which will forward the mail to my acquaintance.

Another key advantage of E-mail marketing is that the results are measurable. Analytics is always there are your rescue to present the precise report. While the numbers from the other marketing channels are ambiguous, you can easily deduce the delivery rate, click through rate, the conversion rate for the campaign conducted.

 Just few tips what you need to keep in mind when you are planning for E-mail Marketing.

According to my experience, E-mails targetting B2B marketing should be deployed on week days. However when it comes to fashion brands, online shopping sites even weekends work great.

If you happen to schedule a deployment on monday, schedule it for the second half of the day. People are generally equipped on mondays after enjoying their weekend.

You need to select the type of the E-mail campaign depending on the goal you intend to achieve.

If you aim to create Brand Awareness then Cost Per Mail Campaign
If you aim to fetch clicks on your E-mailers then Cost Per Click Campaign
And if you intend to generate leads then Cost Per Lead Campaign

So in short what I intend to say is, E-mail marketing is the must.
In today's digitalized world E-mail marketing is the tool which will drive your business to success. Planned and strategic approach, a hard hitting message and proper direction is all you need to have a successful and efficient E-mail marketing campaign.

Monday, 7 March 2016

Facebook Advertising

Just take a walk down the memory lane and try recollecting what was Facebook like 8 or 9 years ago. And look what Facebook is now. Too many features. Too many innovation, which is why I believe, Facebook is the #1 Social Networking Site in the whole wide world.

Lets take a look at  some statistics of Facebook:

1.49 Billion Monthly active users worldwide which is pretty huge!
13% increase in the monthly active users 
48% of Facebook users belonging to the age group of 18-34 years check Facebook as soon as they wake up. Some of you reading this blog might be a few of this sub-set
54% of Facebook Users access Facebook via there cell phones

When it comes to posting updates for your brand on Facebook there are some time slots which work the best. Also when you are planning for a brand make sure you incorporate several content baskets such as quotes, facts, questions and likewise.

Following are some stats which define which content baskets get maximum engagement:
Quotes fetch you 26% more likes and 19% more shares
Question posts get you 100% comments
Using emoticons or smileys brings 33% more comments.
Pictures/Photos bring in 42% more interaction

And just like I stated there are few time slots which work the best.

Posts which are published in the time span of 10-11 pm brings in 84% more engagement
If you follow multiple post policy for your brand property, then make sure you have a time span of 4-5 hours between 2 updates
When it comes to posting recipes, kitchen hacks or tips post them on weekends
When it comes to fashion brands 8pm to 1am work the best

Gone are the days when brands just used to rely on organic updates. Facebook advertising plays an integral part in the Social Media Marketing of brands.
Following are some types of Facebook Advertising:

Post Engagement: Ads to draw in engagement
Page likes: Ads run to fetch likes on the page
Click to Website: Ads run to send people to the website
Website Conversion Ads
Video View ads to bring in maximum views on the video
App Installs to your cell phone or on your desktop
App Engagement: Get people to use your app

When it comes to Advertising on Facebook following are the aspects which are to be considered

Extensive yet precise targeting is what Facebook has to offer you. Not just geographically but you can also target based on the interests of the Audience you need to tap.
For Example, If I wish to target housewives I can particularly select interests like the best TV shows, Chefs, Movies. So depending on the audience I need to target I select the interests.

Before promoting, examine the organic performance of a post. The post which works the best, the one which gauges maximum engagement should be promoted.
If you have a budget of INR 100, invest INR 15 just to get in some reach to the ad creative. Invest the rest INR 85 to bring in engagement. However target 2 to 3 categories of interests. One ad specifically targeting Daily Soaps, other ad targeting chefs, when it comes to targeting women.
Select which one performs better then top-up some budget on the same.

Also design you ads with smartphone in mind

When it comes to Facebook Advertising, they have a rule where in you cannot include more than 20% Text. Well this text counts in the text in your logo, text on your pack shot. So all these are to be kept in mind while you design a creative which is to be promoted.
Follow this link to check whether your creative fits in the 20% policy for the ad creative
https://www.facebook.com/ads/tools/text_overlay

Just a quick tip, make sure you always include Call To Actions in the status. Make bit.ly such that you can track the number of people who clicked on the link and got directed to the website.


Thursday, 3 March 2016

Branding & Marketing Strategy for Amul


Be it their utterly delicious butter, their pasturised milk, cheesy weesy cheese, Amul definately has created an everlasting and a strong position in the minds of its target audience by its hard hitting marketing and branding strategy.

What Does Amul Stand For:
Anand Milk Union Limited

Lets take a quick look through Amuls product offering:
Amul Milk
Amul Butter
Amul Cheese
Amul Shrikhand
Amul Icecream
Amul chocolates
Nutramul
Amulya

  • Branding Strategy:

Amul as a brand has occupied the space in the minds of its target audience by positioning itself on the grounds of purity and taste

If I want to describe the brand personality of Amul it will come under the Sincerity personality trait of the Big 5 Model.
Amul as a brand portrays genuineness, down to earth, wholesome and a cheerful brand

  • The Key Brand elements of Amul are as follows:
Brand Name:Amul
Tagline:The Taste of India
Jingles:Amul the taste of India, Utterly Butterly Delicious Amul, come on come on oh yeah Amul Ice cream, Amul Kool, which is their flavoured milk sub brand, which had a jingle Amul kool chill your dil and they have some advertisements which have some catchy tunes.
Mascot: Everybody knows the cute little girl with a pony, wearing a white little frock with red polka dots in it, licking the lip smacking butter off the bread.

They do have their own corporate website which gives you an elaborate list of the product offerings. www.amul.com

Lets take a look at their Marketing Strategy. When it comes to Amul Target audience they have hit a bulls eye.
Age Group: Usually when it comes for the rest of the brands from the FMCG category, I specify different TG for the sub brands. But Amul and the product range spans for the entire mass. Right from a kid to elder people every body loves some or the other product offering of the brand.
Here are a few possibilities:
When it comes to Amul ice cream, they particularly target little kids
When it comes to Amul Kool they particularly target the youngsters or I would say young-adults
When it comes to Amul Milk they target it to the whole lot. For a kid, a mother who buys the groceries, or a old couple.

Hence:
  • Demographics Targeting for Amul
Age:10-60 years
Income:35K and Above
Marital Status:Single as well as married

If I am supposed to state some target persona they will be as follows:

For Amul Butter/ Amul Cottage Cheese/Amul Cheese:

Mrs. Sahay, a home maker and mother of 2 kids. She stays in Mumbai. She loves cooking a loves to explore and try her hand at new recipes. She wants to give healthy and nutritious food to her kids. Also at times her kids are reluctant to eat veggies. This is when Amul products come to her rescue. She gives a brilliant twist to the daily veggie recipes.

For Amul Ice Cream:

The Shah’s love food. They love family time and they dine together. Every body has a sweet tooth and crave for ice creams most of the times. This hence becomes Amul Ice Creams target audience for their Sundae’s or their family packs.

  • Geographically Amul targets on a Pan India Scale.
Psychographically they target people those who value pure milk and milk products, the people who value nourishment as well as taste.

  • Who are Amuls major competitors?

1.Nestle
2.Britannia
3.Mother Dairy
These are giants how ever local dairy players also play a potential threat to Amul and can affect the sale of the products

  • SWOT Analysis of the Brand:
Strengths:
When it comes to the strengths of the brand the brand name and faith that Amul has gained is excellent. Their quality products. They are the largest manufacturer of milk. They have a strong distributor network. Everybody is well aware of their brand mascot which is like an additional advantage.

Weakness:
Amul's weakness is that the market share in the chocolate industry is less. Many international players from the ice cream segment dominate the market thus leaving a tough competition and a lower market share in this segment

Opportunities:
Amul can introduce new products in the chocolate segment. Not only this Amul can also tap on to the rural markets which are not covered

Threats:
Competitors pose a heavy threat to Amul. Also there are major international players entering into this segment this leading to a potential threat to the brand