Coffee and Donuts with JWT Planning

Brand Gender Determination Using The Colour Wheel: Susan Mathen, JWT Planning, Bangalore

2012-01-18T14:57:00.007+05:30

‘Colours, like features, follow the changes of emotions’ – Pablo Picasso
Colours tell us stories.
Colours represent certain emotions, characteristics, values or objects; depending on the context. They act as symbols. In this regards, colours act as the ‘the signifiers’ and ‘the signified’ changes in different cultures.
At the deepest level, colours signify either masculine features or feminine features. A large role of determining the gender of an intangible object, like a brand, is played by colours. Here is an attempt to demystify the topic of Brand Gender, through colour symbolism.
Colour Symbolism:
Colour symbolism can be extremely interesting. Individually a colour could mean something. This meaning changes with the context. A red heart could mean love, a red skull and bone could mean danger, a red cross could mean hospital, a red ribbon could stand for AIDS awareness. When the colour that accompanies red changes, the meaning changes yet again. For most Christians, Red and Green signifies Christmas, for the football fanatics, Red and Yellow, probably signifies the Manchester United logo, and Red and Black in the NBA context, would mean the Chicago Bulls.
Colour Symbolism in Ancient Cultures:
Delving into a little bit of ancient Indian culture, you see that colours meant a lot even in terms of religion and spirituality. The Trinity- Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the preserver and Shiva, the destroyer- are represented together with Red, White and Black. The Five Elements, or the Panchabhuta, are also represented thus: Earth- Red, Water- Orange, Fire- Yellow, Air- Green, and Space- Blue. Talking about the Five Colours (Pancharang) it is quite powerful in different philosophies like Egyptian, Chinese, Babylonian, Hindu, Buddhist and Greek. There is a similar set of five colours (the actual colours used in each philosophy differs) representing the basis of the universe. In the Hindu stories, Surya or the Sun God is known as the Saptasvavahana/ Chitrabhanu as the seven horses that draw his chariot are Sveta(white), Rakta(red), Krisna(black), Pita(yellow), Harita(green), Kapisa(grey) and Nila(blue).
In Indian classical music, each swara (note) has a specific colour and when in combination with each other, various Ragas (tunes) are created(Samaveda has mentioned the 7 swaras, their respective colours, related god, grahas(planets) etc.). The corresponding colours of these swaras (or notes, the Indian equivalent of Do, Re, Mi…)are as follows: Sa- Green, Ri- Red, Ga- Golden, Ma- White/ Yellowish tint, Pa- Blue, Dha- Yellow, Ni- Multicoloured.
According to Bharata’s Natyasastra (Treatise on Performing Arts)- the 8 emotions or the Ashtarasas are symbolised as follows: Sringara (love)- green, Hasya (humour)- white, Karuna (pity)- dove coloured, Raudra (anger)- red, Vira (courage)- wheatish brown, Bhayanaka (fear)- black, Bibhatsa (disgust)- blue and Adbhuta (wonder)- yellow.
In ancient Egyptian usage colours broadly had the following meanings: Green was for new life or fertility, Red was for victory(during celebrations they used to paint their bodies red), White for purity (the name of the holy city, Memphis, meant White Walls), Black for death( Osiris the king of afterlife, was known as the black one), Yellow or Gold for eternal (Gold was used during mummy masks and cases), Blue for continuity (The phoenix, a symbol of rebirth was depicted in shades of blue).
There are similar, extremely insightful and interesting examples from different ancient cultures. Clearly, colours in the ancient times meant a lot. What about today? Are we losing the meanings behind colours and using colours a tad too frivolously?
The Colour Palette Today:
Looking at the globalized, commercialized, almost kitsch, postmodern canvas that the world is, you see colours smeared across with no apparent meanings. More so in the world of brands. There are very few times when the colour meanings are used with care. A retrospective effort to slap on meanings for the colours used in logos or branding is extremely different from arriving at the values of a brand and the colours they should therefore adopt.
Overabundance of Red and White:
Looking around at some of the popular brands, there seem to be an overabundance of red, almost always paired with white or appearing with white on a backdrop of black.
Vodafone, CocaCola, Virgin, Adobe, Puma, Levi’s, KFC, Colgate, Honda, Esprit, Pizza Hut, Youtube, Toyota, Marlboro, HSBC, Oracle, Budweiser, Canon, Kellogg’s, Sanyo, Toshiba, LG, Nintendo, Xerox, Nestle, Kitkat, Audi, Reuters, BBC, CNN, Smirnoff, Bacardi, are all popular international brands that have condensed their entire brand identity in logos of red and white.
The Communist flag, the Nazi symbol, the Japanese flag, the AIDs awareness symbol, the Red Cross symbol, even Santa Claus come adorned in red and white.
Why is Red and White so popular? Why is it a powerful combination?
Getting to the root of Red and White:
Red and White: A Roman Colour Symbol by Phillip L. Thomas points out how in the Latin literature used red and white metaphors to symbolize life and death. Through blood and bones, roses and milk, roses and bones, poppies and lilies, wine and milk, etc.
The Japanese ‘hinomaru’- or the rising sun, is based on the belief by most Japanese that the sun is red in colour. The sun is the basis of all primal energy and is the beginning of the cosmos. Even the national flag is of the hinomaru on a white background. Combinations of red and white signify auspiciousness in the Japanese traditions and white and red strips of cloth are hung during the wedding ceremonies there.
The Chinese Yin and Yang principle is one of the classic explanations of the perfect blend of two opposing forces. The Yin Yang symbol is seen either in black and white or in red and white. Yin, the darker element, red in this case, is feminine, passive, associated with valleys, night, the waning moon, slightly negative, etc. Yang, on the other hand, is the brighter element, white, that is active, masculine, positive, associated with day, the hills, the full moon, etc.
The Hindu philosophy also offers an explanation on the power of red and white as a combination. Purushais the male principle and Prakriti is the female principle. Purusha is associated with the white of the seminal fluid, therefore male, and Prakriti is associated with the red of the menstrual blood. Like the previous Yin Yang symbol, the Purusha-Prakriti combination is believed to be of supreme significance. The union of the Hindu Gods and Goddesses are represented in caste marks of the Shiva worshippers and the Vishnu worshippers. Shiva and his consort, Parvati are represented by three horizontal white lines and a red dot. Vishnu and his consort, Lakshmi are represented by a white V mark and a red line in the centre. Most Hindu temples have red and white striped walls.
What do we learn from these two colours?
The fire and potency of human life are symbolized in rituals by the colour red (heat) and control by white (cooling) substances. These two colours, in short, symbolise warm or feminine traits on the one hand, and cool or masculine traits on the other.
The perfect blend of these two opposing forces signify a balance, with no skew towards either side.
The underlying reason for the widespread usage of complementary colours should also be the same. That a shade of colour from the warm side of the colour wheel balances well with a shade of colour from the cool side of the colour wheel.
Dominant Values of a Brand: Masculine or Feminine?
The most important exercise for a brand is to determine whether the dominant brand values are masculine or feminine. This determines the choice of colours or the colour palette for the brand. The colour wheel is divided into the cool/ masculine side and the warm/ feminine side.
Mapping Values and Traits on the Colour Wheel:

Values that a brand stands for can be mapped onto either side of the colour wheel, depending on whether they are feminine/warm traits or masculine/cool traits.
Masculine Traits are Strong, Rough, Muscular, Competitive, Providing, Rational, Aggressive, and Logical while Feminine Traits include Gentle, Sensitive, Soft , Pure, Nurturing, Emotional, and Passive. Masculine and feminine traits could be debated, but there are some values and traits that are broadly agreed upon as falling under one of the two sides.

Depending on what the brand custodians agree as the most important values of their brand, this mapping exercise can begin. A larger number of cool traits would imply the selection of more colours from the cool side of the colour wheel or a larger number of warm traits would imply selection of more colours from the warm side of the colour wheel.
Competitive Colour Scan:
While we are at the colour analysis of brands, a competition scan based only on colours can also prove helpful. This results in an understanding of the most popularly used colours in this category in your market. This could mean either of two things: these colours are very important in that category therefore we should not disregard them, or there is way too much of these colours, so we should stay away from them. This is a call that needs to be taken after a deeper understanding of the category.
Cultural Colour Symbolisms of the Category:
Rather than choosing colours randomly from the colour wheel, some logical reasons would make this exercise more robust.
For example, if we are in the education business, what are the cultural symbols associated with education in a specific culture? If this is in India, we look at certain age old symbols that go hand in hand with education.
• Saraswati is the goddess associated with knowledge, and is represented by the colour white.
• The custom of lighting a lamp is a symbol of auspiciousness, and is usually done before you begin any sort of learning. The flame thus becomes a symbol here, and the colours associated with it- yellow, orange or probably gold.
• Turmeric is associated with wisdom in ancient Indian traditions. Therefore, the colour yellow.
• Saffron is associated with ascetics who are in search of greater wisdom. Therefore, the colour orange.
• Another common symbol of learning is the dancing god Shiva, crushing the demon of ignorance, the ‘Apasmara Purusha’. Shiva is depicted either with black or blue.
We have the following colour palette based on cultural symbols:
Warm: Yellow, Orange, Gold
Cool: White, Blue/Black
Depending on the brand values and this cultural symbols exercise we arrive at the brand colours of the education business.
Conclusion:
Brand gender determination is as important as freezing on the brand values and brand personality. Knowing the gender and expressing the same through the most appropriate colour palette makes the brand more congruent with its personality. Colour symbolisms when used carefully could make your brand reach out to your target audience in the most genuine manner. Colours are not there for no rhyme or reason, they are pregnant with meaning, and we as brand custodians should reflect on the colours that exist in our category and more specifically on colours that are right for our brand’s gender mix (dominantly masculine, with a few feminine traits or vice versa).

Don't Listen to your Customers by Lubna Khan, JWT Planning, Delhi

2012-01-06T16:56:00.013+05:30

Working with a task based approach to innovation.

We all know about products that were launched with extensive consumer research validating them at each stage of the development process, but still failed in the market. Every year, companies spend millions of dollars every year trying to understand customer needs in a bid to innovate and unlock growth. Yet despite the heavy investment in research, and in the actions taken on the basis of the ‘customer needs’ identified, new products fail, advertising and promotion efforts go unheeded and businesses shut down.
The problem at the heart of these failures is that too much attention is paid to what customers say they need. In a widely cited article published in 1993 titled “The Voice of the Customer”, Griffith & Hauser advocated listening to “a description, in the customer’s own words, of the benefit that he, she or they want fulfilled by the product or service.” This is typically the approach used by traditional market research. But in the years since then, the staggeringly high failure rate in innovation with these methods (as much as 80% by some estimates) has made it imperative that new models be found that help to understand what customers really need, and use this to guide business strategy and execution.
This paper argues for a shift to a more task based approach to customer needs – one where the problems customers are trying to solve in particular contexts forms the focus of the innovation process. This is because for a customer, current products and services are merely solutions that at that time enable them to solve problems, and tomorrow something else may come along to help execute the task in a better way. A transistor radio, a portable cassette player and an MP3 player, for example, all help customers with the task of listening to music while on the go.
Different models exist that use this ‘problem - solution’ or ‘task’ based approach to understand customers - for example ‘the jobs to be done model’ introduced by Clayton Christensen & Michael Raynor in The Innovator’s Solution and ‘outcome based innovation' as outlined in ‘What Customers Want’ by Anthony Ulwick. Yet these models, while good on paper, are difficult to adopt. The reason for these difficulties is the lack of clarity that companies have about how to apply the principles to their business problems and market situation.
This paper addresses this issue by providing frameworks to make the right choices when using a task based approach. Three kinds of choice situations are examined and directions are proposed. The first is the choice of market research techniques to identify tasks and customers. The second is about choosing which parameters to change when the current business approach is not working well. The third situation looks at the choice of marketing strategies to implement when a product is launched. The aim is to provide a blueprint that will encourage companies to focus on the tasks customers want to fulfill rather than just what they say, thereby increasing the success rate of their innovations and creating differentiated products and services that provide a substantial return on investment.
The real task of mobile phones
Consider the case of a mobile phone manufacturer. They wanted to strengthen their position in the Indian mass market by creating an innovative new product at a low price point. On asking customers who fit the buyer profile about their unmet needs, they got suggestions along the lines of a better camera, more battery life, better speakers and so on. The company did bring out a range of mobiles with these features – which did reasonably well, but did not have a significant impact on sales.
A representative of another mobile phone manufacturer observed the same profile of people when they were using mobile phones. He saw that many of these people had two handsets on which they had inserted SIM cards of two different telecom providers. Typically one handset was on a heavily discounted telecom plan and the other was connected with a telecom provider who gave better network coverage. This led to the idea of Dual Sim mobile phones that carved out a profitable niche for the first movers.
The problem in listening to customers
Why did listening to what the customers had said lead the company down a blind alley? The answer lies in the fact that when companies gather customer requirements they do not know what types of inputs they need to get from the customer and neither does the customer herself. Wants, needs, benefits, solutions, ideas, desires, demands, specifications (all very different kinds of inputs) can land up as responses to the same kind of questions.
Of course it is important to understand what the customer needs. But when capturing customer requirements, managers must look for what customers want to get done, not necessarily their ideas about the product or service itself. For example a razor manufacturer should realize that users who ask for a lubrication strip are really trying to have as few cuts as possible while shaving. A lubrication strip is just one way in which cuts can be minimized. Similarly, razor users may talk about “a wider handle”. But the wider handle may have been requested so that the razor would not slip out of the user’s hand while shaving. If the manufacturer takes this input literally and puts efforts behind creating a wider handle, they may miss out on the fact that a better option to prevent slippage might be a regular-size handle with a ribbed, rubberized grip.
Another problem is that the wrong questions or the wrong people get asked, or there may be unrecognized assumptions operating in the design and questions. For instance, Coca-Cola conducted millions of dollars worth of taste tests on New Coke, but didn’t ask whether awareness of the brand changed the drinker’s taste perceptions.
Response biases may also be at work. Respondents may decide for themselves what the research is all about and what kinds of answers are “expected”. They may want to unconsciously please or to create trouble for the researcher.
Finally, customers may never mention their desires because they assume those desires can't be fulfilled. Often people become so accustomed to the conditions under which they live that they don't even think to ask for new solutions - even if they have real problems that could be addressed.

Working with a task based approach
A task based approach overcomes the dependence on the voice of the customer and shifts the focus to more observable and objective ways of identifying customer needs. It creates a shared language that all the internal stakeholders in a company can understand and agree on, helping to create synergy. It also provides a single thread that links and guides effort at different stages of the innovation process.

Deciding on the research techniques
The first decision crossroad arises when companies have a product or product concept in hand, but don’t really know either the tasks the product can fulfill or the customers for whom these tasks are a priority.
a. When the customer is known but the task is not
This situation typically arises when the product has existed for some time in the marketplace, but is not doing as well as it should. Marketers don’t really understand what task this product is being used for and which other tasks could be connected with the product. In this situation some key customers should be tracked down (for example those who have recently increased purchase significantly, bought the product at some inconvenience or have stopped buying) and investigated through ethnography based market research tools.
Point of purchase and point of use observations and interviews will need to be combined with these inquiries. The emphasis is on watching the customers and learning from their actions, rather than just asking them.
b. When both the customer and the task are known
In such a situation, companies are interested in getting a deeper understanding of all the nuances of the task that’s important for the customer, in order to find new ways of positioning and advertising. ‘Generative’ techniques are helpful here.
Participating users are asked to make artifacts or fill in scrapbooks with expressive material, which convey meanings about concrete aspects surrounding product use as well as abstract aspects of their life, hopes and fears, and explain them to a panel of peers. Consumers can take photographs or make videos, put together collages, draw and paint or create models of the ideal product.
c. When the task is known but the customer is not
In some unique instances, the company understands the tasks that the product can fulfill for some niche customers, but don’t know what kind of customers would buy it in the mainstream market. Tracking down ‘lead users’ who have modified other products to fulfill a similar task can provide a clue to the larger set of customers who would be interested in the product.
d. When both the task and the customer are unknown
In this situation, a promising new technology appears on the horizon, but the manufacturer neither understands which customers to target nor the task it could do for them. In such a case, the company creates a prototype, virtual or physical, and through observation based research (like empathic design techniques) discovers the task it could fulfill for the most lucrative set of customers.
Deciding on changes in business strategy
In the dynamic and competitive business environment, the strategy with which a company initially approaches or exists in the market often needs to change. In such a situation, a task based approach can be used to inform the choice of parameter to change in the strategy.
When to change the product
Often customers use products for tasks that are different from what was originally intended. When it is seen that customers are putting up with inefficiencies because they don’t have a choice, and force fitting the product to their situation, this is an indication to modify the product and tap into a new opportunity.
Chinese appliance maker Haier Group discovered that customers in one rural province used its clothes washing machines to do the task of cleaning vegetables. Hearing this, a product manager got company engineers to install wider drain pipes and coarser filters that wouldn’t clog with vegetable peels, and then added pictures of local produce and instructions on how to wash vegetables safely along with the product – a move that helped them win market share in China’s rural provinces.
When to reposition an existing product
When the real competitors to a product are identified, it often points the way to a change in the marketing approach so that the product can compete more effectively.
When the launch of refrigerated entrees, positioned as upscale gourmet dinners, failed, research identified that some customers saw them as a better choice compared to alternatives to lunch at work. Restaurants, fast food, frozen dinners and home - made preparations all had some downside which made even the expensive refrigerated entrees seem like a bargain. This pointed the way to reposition them as office lunches.
When to change the target customers
When a new product launch does not achieve the success that was hoped for, often the root cause is that the targeting is not right.
A new venture in jewellery retailing initially targeted women between 18 and 49, but found that most of their buyers were men who saw the chain as useful for selecting a gift but had a highly unsatisfied task of ‘presenting the gift in an interesting way’. The jewellery chain zeroed in on an opportunity to sell men great gifts, by helping them find the perfect way to make a surprise gift presentation.
When to change the task for a brand
Over time, some brands lose their strong connection to their customers. In such a case, refocusing on the original task the brand promised to fulfill and making it relevant to a new set of customers through a change in the product portfolio can help in making the brand a powerhouse once more.
P &G revived Mr Clean by understanding that in the brand’s heyday customers were hiring it to ‘magically’ clean what was thought to be uncleanable. With this insight, they developed a new range of customer value propositions under the brand, like Mr Clean Magic Eraser which worked on surfaces like walls that children had scrawled on or coloured.
Deciding on the marketing strategy
Another choice framework can be used to make decisions on which marketing strategy to adopt based on how aware people are about the task and the solution to fulfill it.
a. Direct connection:
When an entirely new technology hits the market, consumers are not clear what tasks the product will fulfill for them. An effective way to market is to determine what critical tasks the solution could address that consumers are already highly aware of, and then to focus marketing around connecting those tasks in her life to the solution for hire. Direct marketing techniques work well here.
Ambient Devices created a set of consumer electronics that gave off lights of different intensity and color based on external conditions and marketed them through products like the Ambient Umbrella. The product indicated when rain was imminent and so fulfilled the task of having an umbrella when it rains.
b. Wake up jolt:
In this scenario, a job exists but is not at the forefront of consumer consciousness. But a great product that addresses that task is out there. The advertising needs to act almost as a ‘wake up jolt’ about the task for people to take notice.
Previous to the Listerine advertising, bad breath had been understood as a disagreeable social habit, but because people can’t really smell their own breath, ‘getting rid of my bad breath’ had not been a task they actively sought to fulfill. Before Listerine sold mouthwash, they sold halitosis.
c. Social currency:
In some situations, a product is released into a market where people are visibly frustrated and impatient that an important task they have is not getting satisfied. When the product clearly addresses this high-awareness task, it’s a success from the beginning. In such a situation, word of mouth strategies are very effective.
By offering a sophisticated atmosphere and high quality products to customers who had been looking for a ‘third place’ to relax in between work and home, Starbucks were able to create visibly satisfied advocates who spread the word to others.
d. Solution story:
In this scenario, the consumers are highly aware of the task they have and are actively looking out for solutions to fulfill it. But the ability of the product to accomplish the task may not be evident right away. Marketing is therefore vital to bridge that gap of understanding. A story needs to be told about how the product acts and delivers impact on people’s life.
Kodak realized that an important task was being able to share images with distant friends and family easily and conveniently and developed Kodak EasyShare. Success was in part due to communication on how simple the process was and how much pleasure it created.
Changing the world through the right choices
The task based approach to innovation has the power to change the world of business as we know it. Companies no longer have to rely on doubtful customer input to make critical investments, or wonder why their innovation failed despite extensive research with customers. The choice frameworks provided in this paper are a clear guiding light to help companies navigate the landscape of customer tasks much more effectively. Making the right choice of research techniques, parameters to change and marketing strategies while utilizing a task based approach will help companies unlock value from their customers and create innovations that change both their own fate and the lives of customers everywhere.
References:
Berstell, G. and Nitterhouse, D. (2001). Asking all the right questions: Exploring customer Purchase stories can yield Surprising Insights. Marketing research, 13(3) p. 14 – 20.
Christensen, C. M. and Raynor, M.E. (2003). The innovator’s solution. Harvard Business School Press.
Griffin, A. and Hauser, J.R. (1993). The voice of the customer. Marketing Science, 12(1), p.1-27.
Leonard, D. and Rayport, J.F. (1997). Spark innovation through empathic design. Harvard Business Review, November-December, p.102-113.
Sull, D. (2011). 10 Clues to Opportunity. strategy + business, 64. http://www.strategy-business.com/article/11304?gko=ce28d (accessed 21st September 2011)
Ulwick, A.W. (2005). What customers want: using outcome-driven innovation to create breakthrough products and services. McGraw Hill, New York.
von Hippel, E. (2006). Democratizing innovation. The MIT Press.

The big and evolving picture of change in India by JWT

2012-01-06T16:10:00.005+05:30

"How life has changed. It is a phrase that pops up all the time. In informal catch-ups, in keen-eyed research, in rehearsed presentations. Change is the emphatic, the rhetorical, the catalytic point of so many conversation on and with consumers. We decided to take it up. "
With contributions from JWT Planners, Shaziya Khan, JWT Planning, Mumbai, looks at 10 changes each in 10 spaces - Children, Mothers, Health, Food, Finance, Media, Automobile, Technology, Fashion and Travel.
For the full report, first published in Campaign magazine, write to Shaziya.Khan@jwt.com

Unpacking the Uncertainity: Shaziya Khan, JWT Mumbai

2012-01-04T13:07:00.003+05:30

Here's the link to Shaziya's takeaways from AdAsia.

http://www.campaignindia.in/Article/280578,shaziya-khan8217s-blog-unpacking-uncertainity.aspx

AdAsia, Nov 1. Some shorthand notes and a few takeaways

2011-11-01T23:24:00.005+05:30

From the Keynote Address

*All digitisation, internet and social media has not just liberated and empowered the consumer but changed business models, resource allocation and interaction between businesses.
* (Drawing a horizontal line across the map of the world) People think there is transfer from West to East. It is actually from North to South. Markets of the future, unstoppable growth, FDIs are towards the South. FDIs are flowing from East to West as well, and South countries are now seeing opportunities in North.
*The global financial system has too many moving parts and no one understands how the parts connect. BTL finance ministers should put their brightest and best in Washington, to analyse the global system
Takeaway: Think of the total business not just the brand

From the Game Changers
*Rapid economic shift to Asia, need to live sustainably and digitisation are the big shifts.
*Strategies should include: straddling the pyramid – different price points and segments; competing for non consumption rather than for share; affordability and accessibility drive people into categories; start with the price point and reverse engineer the product and the business model; importance of talented people who understand consumers; sharper focus on shoppers rather than consumers
Takeaway: Responsible growth is all about “doing well by doing good”.

Conversation as a Route to driving Certainty
*Era of information was built on the notion of comprehensive information – that if it exists out there, I can find it. But with too much information we have moved from the web of information to the web of people; from a world of anonymity (reflected in our early email ids which hid our identity) to a world where we want to represent ourselves. Technology was earlier created for the enterprise ( ppt, xl) but now it is for the social individual.
* Next big hit will be on TV. We will watch programming on demand.
*All brands built in the last 15 years are technology brands. There is going to be no more online and offline but only one line; no more digital and traditional.
Takeaway: With the Audience of One, how are we as a creative force going to shape mass marketing customized to individuals.

Chat rooms to twitter: What next
*The power and psychology of sharing: With people beginning to “share” newspaper items, media brands now have a new way to engage and enrich their craft. The “most shared” most emailed” icon are shaping the way people now read newspapers online.
*In the age of people’s network – its not heavy users, but heavy influencers who play a bigger roel and that too not the advocates but the detractors who are 4 times more likely to speak out when something goes wrong. Brands should therefore focus on detractors rather than heavy users.
* You can’t be a scholar of this medium but an apprentice.
Takeaway: If you are not on twitter, facebook and Linked in, resign.

The Oops and Downs of Advertising

2011-06-22T15:41:00.014+05:30

"Don't go away, we'll be right back" by Indu Balachandran, who spent 29 years in JWT, going from Copy Trainee in JWT Delhi to Executive Creative Director in JWT Chennai, launched earlier this month. Indu combines her insights and affection for the profession with the wit and satire of a humour columnist, and has us laughing all the way. The question as she rightly poses is, do crazy people join advertising or does advertising make people crazy?
Read about the launch here
http://www.adgully.com/media/print/indu-balachandrans-book-%E2%80%9Cdon%E2%80%99t-go-away-we%E2%80%99ll-be-right-back-the-oops-and-downs-of-advertising%E2%80%9D-launched.html -of-advertising%E2%80%9D-launched.html

http://www.afaqs.com/news/story.html?sid=30755

And some reviews...
http://www.businessworld.in/bw/2011_06_18_Its_A_Mad_Ad_World.html

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/life-in-an-ad-agency-a-roller-coaster-ride-book/808180/0

Transformation by design

2011-04-16T00:03:00.015+05:30

Brands and corporates changing their name, logo, identity, philosophy, vision... How do communication agencies participate in this process, partnering their clients? Stop with design and logo? Or go beyond? Truly understanding the brands' dreams, fears; translating it to product philosphies and internal HR policies, cascading it to all stakeholders, knowing how to set metrics of success and measuring them? Surely transformation is not just about design. But by design. Beyond changing the logo, it is about managing the change across the organisation and the ecosystem in which it operates.

Mike Bentley, Chief Strategy Officer, Team Detroit, communication partners to Ford Motor Company in the USA, answers a few questions on Change Management. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bebOHQXipj8

As a corollary, here's Ford Motor Company's worldwide CEO Alan Mullaly in a Stanford classroom talking about the transformation of the company.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIwz1KlKXP4&feature=player_embedded

Wake up, Delhi . Or Die. Iraj Fraz Batla, JWT Creative, Delhi calls a spade a spade

2011-04-13T21:46:00.004+05:30

This year’s fest was a big, painful slap on Delhi’s face. Yes, of course, a lot of press/poster/radio was scam. But a good deal of work that won was great, solid brand work. Work that we all saw on TV or in the outside world. Kind of work that we seem to do a lot of, here in Delhi. But just not as well.

Why, Delhi did have Kit Kat (Squirrel), Airtel (relaunch films), Airtel DTH (Packing, Sardar, Bride) and Apollo Munich (Love Actually). Endless Goodbye picked up a metal as well. But 1 silver and a handful of shortlists was like nothing as compared to the work of Ogilvy Bombay or Leo Burnett Bombay.

But to feel the shame, you had to be there.

Appreciating KBC, Silent Jana Gana mana, Shubh Arambh when it played on the screen in front of the fraternity. Cheering the winners as they climbed up the glorious steps to pick up what they so truly deserved. And thinking where you went wrong to be only sitting in the crowd. It was a slap on Delhi is because a massive majority of great work seemed to have come from LB, Ogilvy, Mudra, Creativeland, Grey - all from Bombay.

And in there, perhaps is some fodder for thought for all of us advertising geniuses sitting here in Delhi.

There’s definitely a lot we are not doing right.

The Brief: sell the biggest brand ever. Broti Ganguly, JWT Creative, Kolkata, shares the inspiration from Goafest

2011-04-13T21:41:00.005+05:30

It took just one session with Bittu Sahgal, editor of Sanctuary Asia, to remind me (not that I had forgotten it completely) of the reason why I joined Advertising in the first place. I wanted to change the world – change perceptions and I felt Advertising was the most powerful tool I could ever have to do so. Naive is a term I have oft encountered for my views and it was heartening to note that I wasn’t the only one.

And there is hope.

As Mr. Sahgal took us through ‘climate weirding’ ala climate change, and how the damage caused during the Mumbai floods, the tsunami, and the rapidly disappearing wildlife was the immediate effect of bad planning on our part and not merely the wrath of nature, he put forward a simple plea to the advertising fraternity. Save the biggest and the most beautiful brand – brand earth. The startling facts were enough to shake off the apathy, arrogance, or a bit of both that each one of us living on the planet seem to treat Nature with. What was rather unsettling was the fact that it’s not she who needs us for protection but we who need to save her for pure selfish reasons: our need to survive.

To do this we could take a tip or two from what Robin Wight had to say. Earth has enough and more to go about ‘peacocking’ to get noticed. Of course, in the beginning we will have to make that extra effort to sell brand earth. After all, the brain is basically lazy – the reason why it takes the easy way out and picks brands in the first place. Why it looks for readymade symbols of trust, quality...

Well, if we want to work on Mr. Sahgal’s brief we will have to begin by making people aware of a brand called earth.

Of Cultural Movements and Collective Prosperity: Bhavna Yadav, Account Management, JWT Mumbai, recaptures two Goafest sessions

2011-04-11T18:19:00.005+05:30

Jake Baldridge, Strawberry Frog on Cultural Movements

A very interesting session on Strawberry Frog’s approach to their brands which he termed as “Cultural Movements”. By this what he meant was that for any brand to be successful, a mass movement is necessary.

He defined a 3 step process for agencies to follow: -

Find the purpose of the brand and strictly not the USP (according to him this is the biggest mistake that the marketers make) -

Find the cultural relevance of the brand - Don’t think of communication first and then force fit it to the brand. It should be the other way round.

He shared an interesting video wherein he showed how a single person can start a mass movement and it’s not the leader but the first follower who makes it successful. He is the most crucial to making any movement a success. A very interesting example that he cited was the campaign they did for Smart car titled – “Smart against dumb” which was a huge success on networking sites. He also showed the TVC that they have done for Jim Beam which talked about making a bold choice. All in all it was an interesting session to understand “cultural movements” and how they can take a brand to greater success.

Laurie Coots, TBWA and 5 pointers for Marketers This was my favourite session. Ms. Coots talked about 5 things that every marketer should know:

1. Gaming – She explained the significance of online gaming in today’s time by giving interesting examples like how a company sold a huge number of virtual blueberries on the Facebook game, Farmville. Also the fact that the 40 plus women form the majority of people which play Farmville was quite surprising. This just goes on to show that the brands have a huge opportunity to integrate themselves with these online games.

2. Information overload – According to her, the more information we get, the worse decisions we make. Also more emphasis is give to making quick decisions rather than good decisions. This is so true of today’s advertising wherein the only objective is to get work out even if that means comprising on the quality of work that goes out.

3. Com-vergence - This was an interesting term coined by her which stands for the collision of e marketing, m marketing and shopper marketing. With 3 G coming into the Indian market, mobile marketing is definitely the next big phenomenon.

4. Strategy and Purpose - Over here she basically emphasized the need for CSR and “Collective Prosperity”. This means that the brands and the marketers need to connect with consumers in a more meaningful way. She quoted some figures from a research that was done among the 20 somethings. 4 out of 5 people talk about companies that have social responsibility schemes, 56% of them want to work with such companies and 3 out of 4 will buy products manufactured by these companies. So there is a need to move from promotions to strategy.

5. Creative with a capital C: According to her – “Great creative is the least risky way”. Also it’s not just the creative agency that needs to be creative. It is as much a responsibility of the media agency. We need to be beginners again in order to become better. Creative should embrace media in order to make brands more successful. She ended the session on a very important note i.e. we need to shift focus from “Promotions” and concentrate as much on the rest of the Ps of marketing as well. We are in the brand belief and brand behaviour business.

Goafest, not adfest: Shujoy Dutta, JWT Planning, Delhi raves a bit and rants a bit

2011-04-11T14:34:00.004+05:30

This was my first GoaFest and I don’t know if the words ‘deeply disappointing’ adequately capture my feelings. Before I get to what was good, let me rant. What is Goafest a celebration of? Shorts? Beer? It certainly didn’t feel like a celebration of advertising. Press was entirely Scam. So was outdoor, only film where budgets are a deterrent and integrated felt like it was bona fide. I can’t understand why juries continue to award this sort of work. Also, why are there so many categories in press and so few for new media/ emerging media – the festival seems out of sync with the world and catering to scam ads. I really think they need to rethink the festival – in fact all Creative festivals. It’s just fuelling the wrong approach to advertising. We should start awarding clients and not Creatives for a start. The Best film Oscar goes to the Producer not the director – it should be the same with awards. Perhaps then some more sense will prevail.

The seminars

For me the highlight was Robin Wight president, Engine and WCRS, who spoke on how Neuroscience will change the way we advertise. He took precepts from evolutionary biology of the brain and abstracted the implications on Brands and marketing. For eg. Peacocking – or having resources to waste, is a sign of affluence and stability and hence attracts attention and inspires confidence. What was also interesting was his point that the brain is a cognitive miser and hence prefers action that use less brain power. Hence the preference for Brands in general. As Brands are a shorthand for trust, quality and prior cases of satisfaction.

Susan Clark of the Economist also made some startling observations on Social Media – showing how brands that were the buzziest and held in the highest regard were surprisingly passive in Social Media. She went on say that as far as social media was concerned it was important for Brands to decide whether they were using the medium to listen to their consumers or to talk to them. Bittu Sahgal, editor Sanctuary magazine, presented some more extremely disturbing facts, figures and pictures about the environment and how the climate is weirding and will get worse. He urged us all to wake up and be more honest.

New Age Health: Sell me health, not health care By Shaziya Khan on World Health Day

2011-04-07T19:49:00.007+05:30

AN EVOLVING SPACE:

Health is evolving. Not just in terms of industry numbers (OTC market estimates - 18% CAGR, USD 3 billion 2012 ; PWC-McKinsey) but also in term of consumer behaviour and awareness. Consumers today are more aware (more paraoid?) than possibly ever before in history. (India ranks 3rd in the world in search for health advice on the internet - Bupa Health Pulse, 2010). Last but not least, in terms of behaviour, health trends reveal that people today are growing older younger (JWT trends 2011) Not surprisingly, healthy messages abound. While watching the news one is informed about new testing facilities, a gripping cricket game is interrupted by fear inducing health insurance messaging and sometimes, a long meeting is interrupted by a text message urging you to get back your lost hair! The timing in each of these all too familiar scenarios borders on comic-tragic. There is a ‘healthy message’ waiting to be unleashed on you 24/7 whether you like it or not. What with the omnipresence of the web, paid for messaging in mass media, and editorial content in specialist health publications, health columnists. And social gossip sessions laced with gasps and gushes on weight loss, or otherwise. In all this, the question that comes to mind is how does this impact the ‘health’ of health care brands and branding? More pointedly, what is the evolving connection health brands should seek to build with their evolving consumers?

“HEALTHY CONVERSATIONS” NOWADAYS :

As we reviewed contemporary health conversations globally, one overarching theme stood out. A wise author put it really well. “People don’t want health care! They want health!” A simple shift, but a profound one. Health not health care, is getting reflected in how winning health brands have adjusted their pitch. This ‘shift’ is manifested in three distinct but related ways. 1. Evolve from the ‘sick’ code to ‘life’ code: Big connections are made with consumers when the codes of communication do NOT magnify the problem. Health related communication now is relatively less about codes of sickness, sickly people, graphic demonstrations and so forth and more about codes of normalcy, zest, joie de vivre. It is more solution centric than problem centric. Berocca a multi vitamin brand, remained a small, stagnant brand for nearly 19 years. Then, it shifted its pitch from persuading consumers about their deficiencies to appealing to them to be in top form. A shift that resulted in increased roi: for every one unit spent they earned 2. In a similar vein, Revital stresses peak performance, with a sports hero endorsement. Brands like Saffola too are taking a relatively more life positive stance – enabling being young at heart (jawan dil). 2. Social media to discuss health: 38% of people ‘look up’ health issues they have or might have on the web. “Monitoring me” – keeping a more watchful eye on health indicators is a key global trend. Thus, applications and electronic devices that help people track and monitor health are a key area of growth (JWT Global Energies study). Estimates corroborate anecdotal evidence gathered from health care professionals moaning about patients with little knowledge and lots of questions! A few health brands have actually leveraged this tendency, by being early movers in social media. In India Quaker oats, have created a “good morning heart programme” with screen savers and a lot more for DAILY advice and information. Health messaging has gone beyond a problem-solution based context. It has gone to where consumers are: their multiple screens and daily life. Globally, Johnson and Johnson has evolved a programme of co creation of products with mothers via social media. Embracing social media is the heath brands’ version of taking the category out of the box, literally! It is time, to think out of the medicine cabinet or its equivalent. 3. Agenda setting in terms of health: Health today is not just about solutions, but about positive and constructive ‘movements’. In other words, health is firmly on the ‘agenda’. Which means, health is championed at a ‘beyond brand’ level to embrace organizations, departments and even nations. Creating platforms for multiple partnerships. For instance, Michelle Obama’s hands on championing of anti obesity via the “get moving” programme; A UK wide initiative on change for a better life ( diabetes management ). While India has had long running family planning, vaccination etc programmes, the time is right to include in newer agendas. Girl child hygiene facilities, new parenthood are much spoken about areas in recent times. Can these also be on the agenda, and can brands embrace partnerships to expand their contribution, and impact.

EVOLVING ROLE OF HEALTH BRANDS:

Historically, health oriented brands have always stressed empathy and realness. How naturally people resonated with iodex ooh aah ouch, or coldrin li or vick’s gale me khich khich. These brand promises described the ailment in such a real, yet catchy way. Today, however, there is a qualitative shift in the nature of empathic connection. It is one that goes beyond treating the problem to treating the person. In that way, it is a more positive and more broad empathy. New age health brands, talk to “you” the person, not just to your problem. This is because, today’s consumers relate to their health ‘problems’ in a more holistic way. 63% of Indian consumers agree that “I see my body as something I nurture, and I take an ongoing holistic approach to managing”. 70% of Indians agree that there are more health risks in society today than ever before. (Futures Company Global Monitor, 2009) . This is significant at two levels. Firstly, consumers see health issues within the larger context of the demands of a modern lifestyle. Secondly, and relatedly, as something they must ‘manage’. So their sense of health is connected with life fulfillment and not just problem solution. Brands that are in step with them, do likewise. Thus, health oriented brands’ relationship with consumers has shifted beyond one of authority, dignity and order (the partriarchal archetype) to also include companionship, relaxation, ease (the friend archetype). In step with this, there has been a shift in the tone of voice of brands as well. As evident among the leaders in the category. Our review of health communication maps a shift in the tone of voice from order, control, mentoring, logic dignity, authority to heroic, witty, resilient, confident, daring, joyous, free spirited, agile, relaxed. Nothing captures this shift in role of brand and tone of voice better than Tylenol, a pain relief leader, globally which now simply claims ‘feel better’. Or Zyrtec, an anti allergy brand which focused its brand idea on how allergies can no longer prevent people from all the outdoor activities they love. Thanks to Zyrtec, they are free to literally, “love the air”. Zyrtec is rated as among the most admired new age health brands today. Bottom line, Sell me health, don’t sell me health care. Happy world health day!

Shaziya Khan, Executive Planning director, JWT Looks at spaces through the lens of a communications planner. This article appeared in http://http://www.adgully.com/advertising/agvoice-sell-me-health-not-health-care-jwts-shaziya-khan.html

The Creative Leap (from the Brief)

2011-01-06T11:30:00.001+05:30

For every ad I see, I have a tendency to work back its brief.

While doing this very act, I found two pieces of creative which seemed to have the same brief but with quite the difference in interpretations, though in different parts of the world.

Brands in question: Real Activ (India), Innocent Smoothies (U.K)
Brief in question: Stop having junk food. Product is a healthier alternative.

Check them out.

Though the basic brief behind the 2 pieces of communication is the same, I'd like to think that the actual words on the respective briefs might have differed. I reckon difference between the two briefs could well have been:
Real Activ: Stop unhealthy snacking switch to Real Activ
Innocent: Innocent smoothies will save you from temptation of junk food

I guess that "subtle" difference could well have produced an utterly loveable piece of communication in one case and one WYS-WYG(What-you-see-is-what-you-get) in the other. Having said that, who knows what were the other factors that affected creative outcome. Perhaps, Law & Kenneth might.

PS: If you're trying to place the song in the Innocent Smoothies TVC, it's "Fruits"-version of "Flash" by Queen, from the OST of Flash Gordon.

JWTIntelligence 10 Trends for 2011

2010-12-20T12:00:00.001+05:30

While most trends presentations are long and detailed, here's one that lasts all of 2 minutes and 15 seconds. JWT Trends Group along with the Nursery has compiled this video as a teaser of top 10 trends that brands should look out for in 2011.

Click here to purchase the full report.

Marketing Lessons from the Mad Men

2010-11-08T12:00:00.001+05:30

I’ve started watching Mad Men. For the uninitiated, the show is based on an agency of the 1960s called Sterling Cooper that was based in Madison Avenue, NY. Though the agency of the ‘60s looks nothing like an agency set-up today, the characters are quite stereotypical – the Creative Director who can do no wrong, the cool Account Executive whose writing skills are the envy of even the copywriters, the managing partner who remains an enigma to the rest of the office... and so on.

The point of this post, however, is not how well an agency of the ‘60s mirrors our agency today but how, even though the show is about the agency community in NY in the ‘60s, it seems to market itself like a 21st century agency. How have they done that? By having a presence that goes beyond the realms of the show itself, and I’m not talking about just the usual “About the show”, IMDb listings or online access to the episodes on their official website.

They have created:

Sterling Cooper’s online portfolio featuring all the work that they present to clients and even doodles that the art directors might have drawn during some of the meetings. Being a collector of ads, I found this thoroughly engaging
Twitter accounts of every character in the show, right from the Creative Director, around whom the show revolves, to his wife’s (or should I say *SPOILER’S ALERT*: ex-wife’s) maid. Every character tweets not as the actors but the characters themselves. Considering that Mad Men has a lot of under-currents in their scenes that go unsaid, the Twitter pages seem to, in a sense, bring the under-currents to the surface and engage viewers in between episodes and especially during the long-breaks in between seasons. Not only that, they even reward the show’s followers.
How, you ask?
If you’re a fan of Mad Men, the show, you start following @_Madmen on twitter, and next thing you know you have @_DonDraper (the Creative Director of Sterling Cooper, who women seem to swoon over) starts following you. Fans, especially female ones, get quite the kick when they realize The Don Draper is following them on Twitter. (Believe me, they do...I speak from witnessing the frenzy, first-hand)

This type of marketing isn’t restricted to shows based on advertising agencies alone. How I Met Your Mother, is another one such show that transcends the boundaries of their show by creating a blog authored by one of the characters (Barney Stinson) that enjoys frequent reference to it in the show. Not only that, books written by Barney Stinson can be bought at bookstores in the US and even ordered through amazon or flipkart.com.

The number of shows and movies that live beyond the realms of their celluloid selves are numerous. But, what are the lessons that we as marketers could possibly learn from them. Here are a few I could think of. Feel free to add or correct me if I’m wrong:

Create a continuous presence that goes beyond the realms of your product or service
Whether it’s Barney’s blog posts that feed into the next episode of HIMYM or @_DonDraper following you on Twitter, each of the shows have built a presence that engages viewers and has a conversation with them beyond the realms of the 30-minute or 45-minute show. The more brands start having such a conversation with their consumers, the more loyal consumers it can build
Create sticky properties or personalities
Properties such as JK Rowling’s “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” or Barney’s “The Bro Code” (books that are featured in the books or shows) are properties that tell us more about the show or book. JKR’s “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” even has doodles that Harry and Ron have allegedly drawn in class. These properties were not even advertised as separate products.
If the property or personality is sticky enough, your brand’s uber-loyalists will discover it themselves (with a bit of some smart search engine optimization) and spread its existence to those who aren’t as involved with the brand. As we all know, WOM is a far more authentic form of advertisement than a takeover of city landmarks or roping in celebrity endorsers

I know from experience that imparting such knowledge is easier than actually putting them into practice, but that doesn't stop me from making such observations.

How many other lessons did I miss out on?

"Trendy" India

2010-10-13T15:28:00.008+05:30

Trends can be described as ongoing cultural movements or developments. To continuously stay relevant, brands need to be cognizant of cultural movements that their consumers are part of. Planners from JWT India, along with Ann Mack, Director of Trendspotting, JWT NY, in their effort to help their clients stay relevant in a burgeoning marketplace have identified Indian-metro-specific trends that are shaping the Indian consumers in metros and tier 1, tier 2 cities. The chosen trends focus on the fall-outs of new urban lifestyles, delayed marriages, and new codes of moral conduct.
While identifying these trends is important, it is equally important, if not more, to understand the various drivers of the trends, their significance and their relevance to brands, the players involved in the trend and its potential implications.

For details on the trends, a presentation or a session over coffee and donuts, to discuss how these trends may add value to your business through new product and service ideas, communication ideas or even packaging and SKUs, contact:
Shujoy Dutta [Delhi]
Navonil Chatterjee [Bangalore]
Shaziya Khan [Mumbai]
Mythili Chandrasekar [Chennai or Kolkata]

Marketing to the Right Audience

2010-10-07T10:00:00.002+05:30

I've always found visits to the supermarket utterly engaging. Whether it is observing a single man's auto-pilot mode when it comes to grocery shopping or finding out about that product that seems to have hit the sweet-spot-need-state that the category leader has failed to tap - there's always something new to learn during a visit to the supermarket.

On a recent visit to the supermarket, I managed to take this picture without getting thrown out of yet another supermarket.

This is a picture of 2 Korean Nationals buying not 1 or 2, but 54 bars of Himalaya Moisturizing Almond soap. They were initially looking for Medimix soaps but since the retailer had only one Medimix soap bar, the retailer convinced them to pick up Himalaya Moisturizing Almond soaps instead.

Why did they buy 54 of these?
Apparently, because they don't get these products back in Korea. They weren't specifically looking for Himalaya soaps but for any "ethnic" soap with "natural" ingredients. It's not just Koreans... The other day I spoke to an American woman picking up a Chandrika soap who gave me the same reasoning. Well, not the same - she was taking the soap back to the States not Korea.

I remember in the '90s, perhaps even in the '80s, NRIs used to bring Yardley perfumes and talcum powders for their families in India. Seems like, with enough proliferation of foreign nationals in India - the reverse is happening.

The home-grown products and brands that we tend to take for granted in India - some of which are considered "down-market" by some Indian consumers - are the very products that foreign nationals find attractive. The neglected "ethnic" brands would do well to ask themselves the question:
Are we marketing to the right audience?
A change in distribution strategy might not only increase sales, but might also pull-up the imagery of the brands in question.

This effect of an Indian Marketer's products appealing to a foreign audience isn't necessarily restricted to beauty products and "ethnic" brands per se. Food and apparel could well be other categories where this effect could be evident.

So, are you marketing to the right audience?

Spikes Asia 2010 – JWT Bangalore’s ING ‘Chase’ Film Wins Silver

2010-10-05T17:59:00.003+05:30

In the grave-yard year for financial services ING Vysya was one bank that dared to invest in brand building. Partnering with JWT Bangalore, it’s Jiyo Easy (Live Easy) campaign built reach, drove salience, improved imagery endorsements for the brand, significantly bettered category advertising recall norms, broke clutter, generated leads and led to thousands of new account openings in little over a month, all the while giving the popular phrase “laughing all the way to the bank” an altogether different meaning!

The campaign achieved all of this because it provided a simple yet highly relevant promise of ‘easy banking’ in a humorous and highly engaging way. At a time when customers’ lives were pretty stressed out and complicated, it refrained from being preachy, high-handed or mirror-holding, but instead used humor as a recess for the recession. From “ING Who?” to “the bank that makes banking easy” was the vast chasm that ING Vysya’s campaign set out to bridge and it more than achieved its objectives by increasing awareness of the brand and doubling imagery perception on ‘easy’.

Banking advertising has historically been about hardworking people working day and night to keep their customers satisfied. Typically their symbolism had revolved around smiling faces and conscientious handshakes. ING clearly wanted to be the un-bank. We wanted to steer away of category clichés like ‘ROI’, ‘growth’, ‘trust’, ‘partnership’, ‘prosperity’, ‘relationship’, ‘commitment’, ‘customer focus’ etc. We felt ‘Ease’ was both relevant and yet different, since nobody had taken it as a long term platform in India. And though ING only made banking easier, creatively we wanted to peg the brand at a higher plane and therefore extrapolated the brand promise into the creative tagline of ‘Jiyo Easy’ which means ‘Live Easy’.

The awarded film from the campaign places the feature of easy replacement of lost debit cards in an interesting context. Senthil Kumar, Tina Sachdev and Ratindra Dasgupta were the Creative Team that worked on the campaign.

Cannes 2010 - Winning Case Studies from JWT (Part 3)

2010-09-16T16:00:00.001+05:30

Picking up from the 'Believe' campaign from Christmas of 2008, Macy's along with JWT NY, unveiled their 2009 Christmas campaign not by creating just another commercial but by going beyond the confines of conventional advertising and creating a property that has the potential to become a Chirstmas holiday ritual.

Cannes 2010 - Winning Case Studies from JWT (Part 2)

2010-09-01T16:10:00.015+05:30

Continuing our tardy updation of JWT's winning cases at Cannes.
Here's another one from JWT Italy for Heineken. They tackled the lack of beer consumption (and hence lack of interaction with the brand) during Valentine's Day with the introduction of a truly innovative product: Beer Gloss.

Cannes 2010 - Winning Case Studies from JWT

2010-07-19T17:03:00.005+05:30

With more posts to come , here are two winning campaigns by JWT Italia and Capetown.

Heiniken - Auditorium by JWT Italia

Taking Consumer Engagement to the next level , the campaign idea by JWT Italia truly did made its Target Audience spend quality time with their favourite beer - Heiniken.

My First Book by JWT Capetown

The campaign not only instills the importance of ‘going green’ but it also contributed to the education of many underprivileged kids around the world.

Evolving Role of Planning at APG

2009-11-09T12:31:00.002+05:30

Guy Murphy, Global Planning Director, JWT chaired the judging committee at this year's APG Creative Strategy Awards. In his article in Campaign, he sights examples from various APG entries in this year's competition to elicit the evolving role of Planning as a function in the industry.
Through the various APG entries he illustrates the various functions that planning has adorned in agencies across the world; from the Content planners at Mother to the Channel planners of McCann Erickson, from Cultural Planning at JWT Mumbai to BBH's brand of Behovioural Planning for Axe, Japan, planners seem to have done it all.

Click here to view Guy Murphy's article in Campaign that was published prior to the APG Awards ceremony.

Exhibiting Planning's rigorous strategic role as Cultural Planners, The Diamond Bride Case study from DeBeers India won a special prize and JWT won one of the only 5 golds at the APG Awards in London for the same paper.

JWT Shines Again With Creativity And Innovation

2009-10-05T11:29:00.013+05:30

Ford's new commercials on Kinetic Design showcases JWT's prowess on blending strategy with great creatives. Kinetic Design is the new Ford design language, drawing car lines based on movement. The movement works as a central foundation of each piece and is the inspiration behind the executions. Under the heading "The movement inspires us”, a campaign was developed to inform the viewer what Kinetic Design is; the new design of the current high-end brands.

Check out Ford's commercials on Kinetic Design, one for each of it's brands.

Innovation was given new dimensions by both Nokia and Nestle's Kit Kat. While Nokia used a special ad to launch the new Nokia 5800, Kit Kat reinforced the concept of "Have a break, have a Kit Kat" with a new digital campaign.

Click here for the Nokia 5800 ad

Repositioning of Rakhi Sawant

2009-08-25T16:03:00.006+05:30

Dr Anupama Wagh-Koppar, VP & Strategic Planning Director, JWT Delhi, illustrates how easily Rakhi Sawant repositioned herself successfully...
An exercise, brands struggle to do credibly, in the best of scenarios.

Click here to find out what lessons brands can learn from Rakhi's repositioning.

Anxious India

2009-07-30T12:12:00.007+05:30

Atika Malik, Senior VP and Executive Planning Director, tells us how JWT is tracking consumers' anxiety in India along with Millward Brown.

A proprietary JWT study, Anxiety Index was started to track the levels and intensity of consumer anxiety and, importantly, the drivers of anxiety.

JWT partnered with Millward Brown to understand the drivers of the Indian consumers' anxiety. In its study, JWT India and Millward Brown focused on three major cities in India. Five hundred adults aged 18-49 from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore were interviewed face-to-face about their anxiety levels and anxiety drivers. The study examined safety and security concerns—the threat of terrorism, military hostilities, crime, etc.—and economic worries such as the cost of health care, the cost of living and job security. The study also takes a closer look into how different categories are being affected by the recession, including FMCG, consumer durables and services.

Click here to view the findings of the study and its implications for brands.

JWT AnxietyIndex

2009-06-25T11:20:00.002+05:30

Real time data is a must to cope with anxious consumers during recessionary times. In an effort to provide exactly that, JWT started AnxietyIndex.com. The blog, authored by JWT planners around the world, chronicles how various brands have adapted their marketing, pricing and communication strategies to suit the recession-hit consumers.

Find out how some communities are teaming up to beat the recession in Singapore or how a lot of brands are resorting to price tactics around the world or how this era has given rise to "luxury shame" and how retailers in US are dealing with it.

While at AnxietyIndex don't forget to check out our anxietyindex Trends and Research page that maps out JWT's PoV on future recessionary trends.

JWT wins at AME Asia

2009-06-11T15:28:00.008+05:30

A particularly debated topic in recession-dominated 2009 has been the criticality of effectiveness of brand communication. The AME competition, now in it's 7th year, not only identifies Asia's top creators but rewards those that add value to consumers and businesses.

JWT Mumbai posted two major wins in the recently concluded Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards. JWT Mumbai's Teach India campaign won Bronze in the Most Effective Use of Direct Marketing category, and their Lux Temptation campaign, for Hindustan Unilever Limited, won Gold in the Most Effective Use of Public Relations category.

To find out who else won at AME 2009 click here.
View the 2 winning entries from JWT Mumbai here.

JWT buzzing with Creative Cases

2009-05-22T17:39:00.014+05:30

Who would have known that a product like the band aid, used to heal messy cuts and wounds could actually become a fashion statement with a coolness quotient. Our colleagues at JWT Sao Paulo did just that. They roped in designer Alexandre Herchcovitch to design a line of high-fashion Band-Aids, which debuted at São Paulo Fashion Week and went on to become the accessory of the moment in Brazil, even among the unwounded. The success of the idea is prompting Client J&J to take it global.

And in Japan, JWT relaunched a brand in style . They came up with a lavish 7-minute mini film for relaunching Unilever's Lux brand in China and Japan. The film titled "Alchemist" stars Cathering Zeta Jones, and aims to build an emotional connection with young female consumers in both markets through a memorable storyline.

Click here to view the Lux Film.

New media tools in plain English

2009-05-02T14:57:00.000+05:30

Christine Bella, planner in JWT Japan pointed us to a delightful source: CommonCraft. For all those amongst us who feel we don't quite understand what some of these new things are all about, how they work and how we should make the best use of it all.

Social media in plain English

Twitter in plain english

Social Bookmarking in Plain English

Wikis in Plain English

JWT India Planners buzzing with papers and points of view

2009-02-11T13:30:00.005+05:30

“Bite reality: Breaking 7 myths about the most wanted 700 million”. Ankit Vohra tackles myth by myth and argues systematically about the realities of rural Indian markets and takes a stance on the implications.
Will digital marketers find an audience unwilling to be empowered in rural India? Will online social networking have any relevance at all? How will the culture codes affect internet-mobile growth? Jitender Dabas asks searching questions in “When Rural met Digital”.
“Sense of self in Web2.0” … the face and the mask could be changing places. Shujoy Dutta on managing our public personas, the increasing role of feedback, and some food for thought for marketers.
To read the papers, click here.

Brand Chakras study on Indian Students

2009-02-11T12:39:00.009+05:30

What do Indian students really want? Beyond the usual surveys, the latest Brand Chakras study reveals what deep seated needs education brands can satisfy. On the one hand, a clear demand for “entertaining education” and on the other hand a yearning for mentors and inspiring role models who can give them individual attention and prepare them for life. Typical of so many other Indian consumer groups, the Indian student too today is asking for a magical combination. “The Call for Dronacharya”, a joint initiative of JWT India Planning and SRM University, a qualitative and quantitative study across 8 centers and students from different education streams. To see an executive summary, click here.

Guy Murphy on "What Planning should think about in a recessionary year"

2009-02-10T12:18:00.004+05:30

First instincts for the things Planning should think about in this recessionary year ahead: Guy Murphy, in his blog to JWT Worldwide Planners
Friday, January 9th, 2009
1. Category, not brand.
Tighter finances will mean consumers will start to make decisions between categories, rather than just between brands within a category. Not Gap vs Uniqlo, but clothes vs CDs. Look closely again at the buying decision. How healthy is the category for your JWT brand? Do you need more category messages?
2. Brand’s value voice.
This year, more than ever, brands will have to talk more about their price in some way. How do you maintain a sense of brand in that conversation? How can each of JWT’s brands talk about price in a way that is still branded?
(Harrods do this well. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYZXwt6t5Bw).
3. Effective versus efficient.
Always worth distinguishing between ‘doing things right’ (efficiency), and ‘doing the right things’ (effectiveness). The tendency in a recession is to not think hard enough about the latter of those two. What is the minimum number of the right things that a JWT brand should do this year?
4. Confidence.
Consumers can smell a brand’s confidence. Having a sense of success about a brand this year will be the kiss of life, and vice versa, e.g. money-back guarantee vs ‘2 for the price of 1′ (see Hyundai’s latest confident move www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVAWviuVmK4. How can we ensure JWT’s brands look in touch with difficult times but still appear sure of their own future?

What makes Mumbai the way it is: From "A Tale of Four Cities"/JWT India Brand Chakras Study

2008-12-03T16:34:00.012+05:30

Mumbai: where "Survival is the Art of Living"

A Street-Level Look at the people, culture and temperament of Mumbai, India's Sprawling City of 13 Million Shaken by Last Week's Terror Attacks

"Indifferent sadness." "Impotent love." "No whining. Accept hardships and keep going." "The show must go on." These were but some of the comments from consumers during a study by JWT India on the character of Mumbai just a few months ago. In the aftermath of recent events, the value of Mumbai-ites' resilience became a subject of debate. Many felt what one of the respondents said: "Riots, bomb blasts, floods. ... The city bounces back by forgetting and that, I personally feel, is a bad thing. The city should come to a grinding halt. That is when there will be considerable thought given to what led to these adversities and real steps will be taken to prevent these from happening."

So, according to the study, what makes Mumbai what it is?

* First, day-to-day life is a struggle

"Mumbai is a draining city in a physical sense; one requires tremendous amounts of energy to get through the rigors of every day life in Mumbai."

"Traffic is chaotic, most people have to spend five to six hours commuting. Mumbai's productivity is reduced by half due to traffic related delays."

*Yet, it's a city of opportunity

"Setting goals and achieving them is what people come here for and they focus on that." "Strugglers here continue to have their dreams despite their failures; especially in fields like media, films."

"Mumbai has a culture of intense competition. The number and scale of opportunities available are immense."

* Be competitive and you'll reap rewards

"Survival calls for competitiveness as well as preoccupation with own matters; hence being self-absorbed and indifferent is natural to the seasoned survivor in Mumbai."

"People do not mind being right or wrong as long as they get ahead in life and achieve what they want."

"Mumbai has no sympathy for the newcomer. He or she has to be ready to compete and work hard, suffer and endure to get going in this city."

"Don't resist the hectic pace, go with the flow, the current will carry you forward."

*Therefore, there is no time to dwell on the difficulties

"If your car is bumped, then you abuse that person and move on. You do not get into terrible rage like in some other cities. They do not want to get trapped in such situations ... it is smarter to move on."

"If you are traveling in a train, there will be so many times that you will be trampled, jostled ... but you have to pick yourself up and move on. That is the attitude that surviving in this city calls for ... forget and move on."

"Despite the frustrations, you do not find a lot of violence. If people are stuck in traffic jams for a long time. You might find a lot of horn honking but not physical violence."

*Mumbai is often trapped in situations that it cannot control.

"Terrorist activities are situations which Mumbai cannot control. Politician's actions also trap Mumbai in a way."

*Indifferent sadness and impotent love

"Mumbai only feels sad. Imagine a person hit by a train. People here will feel sad, but there is not enough action as a result of the sadness because people do not either have the time or the inclination. They leave it at feeling sad. They will tide over the guilt of not doing anything by thinking that 'I at least felt sad ... so what if I could not do anything about it.'"

* People do not speak out

"The average person in Mumbai is not inclined to speak his mind out on controversial issues; the fear of repercussions as well as the 'mind your own business' attitude act as deterrents."

"They cannot afford to spend time on such issues. People generally refrain from making political statements openly. They want to avoid trouble, not get trapped in situations."

*There is no 'Voice of the City'

"Power is in the wrong hands. The sentiments of the political power does not necessarily reflect the views and sentiments of the larger Mumbai public."

"Though Bollywood people are representing Mumbai, they are not doing anything personally for Mumbai."

"Though there are personalities in Mumbai who appear in TV interviews, all these people have no power ... nobody listens to them ... they only cater to the elite class. ... People who are really affected, they do not have any voice. Whatever leaders that they have are those who try to take advantage of the situation."

"The social fabric of the city is quite complex. The class divide is quite stark. So you do not have people responding to or uniting on larger city issues that do not directly affect them."

"You will have a group talking about pedestrian spaces being misused and another group talking about the attack on open spaces in the city. But you will never find people coming together as one group and talking about larger issues like terrorism that threaten the city."

* Mumbai does not have a vision of its future

"Mumbai lives in the present and does not think too much about the future. If they thought more about the future, then there will not be too much of dirt, filth lying around."

"Those here do not have the time to plan for two, three years down the road. They do not think of planning for the future, think of larger causes like environment, etc."

*Survival is the art of living in Mumbai" ... "In Mumbai, it is difficult to survive and also easy to survive ... you just have to be a little street smart."("Art of Living" refers to one of the biggest offerings in the new age "spirituality for wellness" domain in India.)

Now, even the definition of street smart has changed. For the people who will just honk and move on, for the people who just want to carry on with their goals, for the people who just want to live and let live, being street smart now means dodging bullets.

This article first appeared in Adage

~ ~ ~

This article quotes entirely from "A Tale of Four Cities," a proprietary JWT India Brand Chakras Study that set out to uncover the forces that make the character of each of its four metros: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata; and understand how citizens relate to their cities. The qualitative study involved Depth Interviews with journalists, radio jockeys, psychiatrists, advertising professionals, HR consultants and Focus Group Discussions amongst citizens of each city, a mix of men and women, young adults and older, long term residents and recent settlers. Mythili Chandrasekar, Executive Planning Director at JWT India steered the study.

For a snapshot of the character of all four Indian metros click here

To buy the full study, write to Mythili.Chandrasekar@jwt.com

JWT India Sweeps the EFFIES in Mumbai

2008-11-26T22:23:00.003+05:30

Services: UNICEF Red Ribbon Express - Bronze.
Corporate: Times of India Lead India - Gold.
Internet Digital: Pepsi My can - Bronze.
Integrated: Times of India lead India - Gold
Marico Uncommon Sense Award: Times of India Lead India ( recognition award).
Consumer: DTC Diamond bride - Bronze
Sunsilk Gang of Girls - Bronze.
Fritolay Kurkure Face on Pack - Silver
Nike Gutsy Cricket - Gold
Sunsilk Gang of Girls -
Yahoo Big Idea Chair for digital online advertising.
Times of India Lead India - The Grand Effie
Bennet Coleman Co. - The Effie Client of the Year
JWT India - Agency of the Year

JWT India Wins Big at AME, New York

2008-11-24T16:00:00.009+05:30

JWT India won the prestigious AME GOLD Medallion, the AME Silver Medallion and two finalist certificates awarded at the 2008 Advertising and Marketing Effectiveness Awards in New York, amongst competition from 30 countries.

Winners list
De Beers - De Beers Wedding Program : Integrated Marketing, AME GOLD MEDALLION
UNICEF India -Red Ribbon Express: Guerrilla/Alternative Media, AME Silver Medallion
Kellogg's India - Kellogg's Special K : Foods, Finalist Certificate
Bennet, Coleman and Company Ltd. - The Times of India : Media Promotions, Finalist Certificate
Click Here to view all the AME Winners of 2008.

JWT India- Youth Dynamix Trax Study

2008-11-24T15:43:00.010+05:30

JWT India and Youth Dynamix (Pvt) Ltd, a specialist WPP youth agency have joined forces to offer clients a specialist youth consultancy offering. It aims to launch an in-depth Trax study focused on the youth in India via a joint venture with Youth Dynamix. The study is the first step in assisting brands in developing strong youth strategies that dove tail their mainline strategy and allow youthful consumers an opportunity to build bridges to the adult brand.

The study will cover a host of categories, including Financial and Shopping Behaviour, Technology and Telecommunications, Media and Advertising, Lifestyles, Attitudes and Family Dynamics.

Click here to read the news article.

Predicting the Trends of 2009

2008-11-24T14:39:00.004+05:30

JWT released its 10 Trends for 2009, from New York this week. In addition to the economy, recurring themes include technology and the environment.

Given the current volatility in the world’s markets and consumers’ greatly intensifying anxiety, it’s no surprise says the report that the economy is a common thread. In 2009, we’ll see more consumer strategies for coping with the downturn. Among them is making the most of simple pleasures, a trend we explore here. In this climate, authenticity will become paramount for brands as they look to regain credibility and trust, especially in the wake of a financial crisis that has seen established institutions topple overnight and many others teeter on the brink. Meanwhile, the coming years will see a widespread redistribution of power in almost every major sphere: economic, social and political.
For the full report, click here.

Marketing During a Recession

2008-11-24T11:43:00.005+05:30

JWT, from New York, is launching a series of research papers that will examine consumer attitudes and behaviors during a recession and dissect what they mean for marketers.

The following paper—a short audit of existing thinking on the topic of marketing during a recession—is a synthesis of historical and current material published by ad organizations, marketers, journalists and research and consulting companies based on findings from past recessions. It highlights key recurring ideas about why marketers should continue to spend during down times and strategies for how best to go about it.

Read the entire paper at http://www.coffeeanddonuts.co.in/

Marketing lessons from Barack Obama

2008-11-24T10:42:00.015+05:30

There have been a flurry of articles on the marketing lessons to be learned from the American President Elect Barack Obama. Here is a sample.

Obama's Seven Lessons for Radical Innovators by Umair Haque

How Better Marketing Elected Barack Obama by John Quelch

How Obama Became CEO of the USA-- and What it Means for CEOs Everywhere by Bill Taylor

Barack Obama's Victory: Three Lessons for Business by Jack and Suzy Welch

What Marketers can Learn from Obama by Al Ries

Ten marketing lessons from the Barack Obama Presidential campaign by David Meerman Scott

10 lessons for marketers from Barack Obama by Vijay Sankaran

Email Marketing Insights from Obama and McCain by Morgan Stewart

Here's a tongue-firmly-in-cheek response to these articles!
I Also Want to Write About Barack Obama by Mythili Chandrasekar

From Reel to Real: JWT India Brand Chakras study on Celebrities

2008-09-23T16:44:00.005+05:30

The Indian film star is no longer only a hero of the silver screen; he is a beacon of inspiration to his fans. Their on-screen portrayals are being given lesser importance and their off-screen lives and personality have gained prominence, says the recent JWT Brand Chakras™ Study: From Reel to Real Life.

The study reveals that film stars are no longer considered to be larger than life in terms of his or her persona and lifestyle; they are now real individuals who have risen to extraordinary heights. This shift in how celebrities are viewed is largely attributed to the availability of more real time, wide spread knowledge of what the stars do off screen – be it television shows, blogs, news controversies, or activism. While celebrities were once virtual prisoners of the characters that they played on-screen, they are now seen as individuals whose personal traits earn them as much admiration as their display of talent on-screen. His real attitudes and his larger life story is where the opportunities for brands lie.

The study reveals: 1) a model of how consumers relate to celebrities, and therefore how celebrity brands can be shaped; 2) the key payoffs that consumers derived from the three celebrities studied (Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Akshay Kumar); and 3) kinds of fan relationships.

The Brand Chakras framework revealed that Shahrukh Khan operates mainly in Power and Transcendence (leadership and vision) Chakras, while Hrithik Roshan was observed to be operating in the Love and Creative Expression Chakras. Akshay Kumar, on the other hand, was seen to be dominating in Survival and Pleasure Chakras.

The study also threw up three different types of fan relationships. The Entertainment Seeker, the Fantasy Seeker, and the Inspiration Seeker: Different fans would be deriving different benefits from different celebrities.

The qualitative study undertaken by JWT India was executed through Focus Group Discussions and Depth Interviews in Delhi and Mumbai amongst young adult fans of Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan.

JWT India - Thompson Social wins a silver at the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards for The Red Ribbon Express

2008-09-23T16:33:00.007+05:30

The Red Ribbon Express – Uniting India Against AIDS
Zindagi Zindabaad!

The Red Ribbon Express is a ground breaking, ambitious campaign that aims at changing the current HIV and AIDS scenario in India on an epic scale. An empty shell of a train has been transformed into a unique multi-media world of behaviour change communication that cuts across deeply rooted ideological and geographical boundaries.

The in-train communication takes the audience through an engaging interactive experience with a range of multimedia devices to induce self risk perception, persuade in favour of counseling and testing and creates a positive social environment for care and support to people living with HIV.

Flagged off on World AIDS Day 2007, the train is on its journey traversing 27,000 kms, halting at 180 stations over a period of 365 days luring millions of Indians to the largest mass mobilization campaign and perhaps the most unique in the world.

JWT - Thompson Social is privileged to have been behind this prestigious, pioneering endeavour.

Read more details at http://www.coffeeanddonuts.co.in/

The Prepared Mind

2008-07-30T12:16:00.004+05:30

Responding to our bank of "Insights and stimulus from everywhere" Amudham Balakrishnan, Fortune, Mumbai finds something he feels he may use in an ad one day.

Any Male in Sight? 3

2008-07-30T11:06:00.006+05:30

Jayanarayan, JWT Bangalore, shares something he read on "Why men don't write advice columns..."
Here is why.
Dear Walter:
I hope you can help me here. The other day I set off for work leaving my husband in the house watching the TV as usual. I hadn't gone more than a mile down the road when my engine conked out and the car shuddered to a halt.
I walked back home to get my husband's help. When I got home I couldn't believe my eyes. He was in the bedroom with a neighbor lady. Iam 32, my husband is 34 and we have been married for twelve years.
When I confronted him, he broke down and admitted that he'd been having an affair for the past six months. I told him to stop or I would leave him. He was let go from his job six months ago and he says he has been feeling increasingly depressed and worthless. I love him very much, but ever since I gave him the ultimatum he has become increasingly distant. I don't feel I can get through to him anymore.
Can you please help?
Sincerely,
Mrs... Sheila Usk

Dear Sheila:
A car stalling after being driven a short distance can be caused by a variety of faults with the engine. Start by checking that there is no debris in the fuel line. If it is clear, check the jubilee clips holding the vacuum pipes onto the inlet manifold. If none of these approaches solves the problem, it could be that the fuel pump itself is faulty, causing low delivery pressure to the carburetor float chamber.
I hope this helps.
Walter

Here's a commercial that has captured this sentiment in a different way!

JWT celebrates 40 Years of Account Planning in London/Campaign UK Report

2008-07-23T22:12:00.005+05:30

40 Years of Planning, Campaign, by Suzanne Bidlake , July 16, 2008
JWT hosts an evening marking the 40th anniversary of planning and looking forward to what the future holds for the discipline.
As the sun went down on July 15, a 130-strong crowd gathered under a tee-pee on a roof-terrace overlooking Harrods to give praise - to account planning.
The ruby-themed event at JWT's Knightsbridge HQ was to celebrate the birth of account planning at the agency, exactly 40 years ago to the day, under the aegis of the legendary Stephen King.
A stellar line-up of speakers entertained, informed and bamboozled an audience that included Martin Boase, one of the founding fathers of the discipline, and clients such as Philip Almond, the European marketing director of Diageo, and Simon Clift, Unilever's global marketing chief.

Speakers Jeremy Bullmore, Jon Steel, John Grant and Guy Murphy, JWT's worldwide director of planning, paid homage to King and called for planners to look to the past for answers to the future.

Constant themes were the need for more old-fashioned rigour in fact-finding and data-mining (not just "being cool and smart and hanging out with the creative department") and also for more ambitious target-setting.

Planners were variously urged to get angry, to shake up clients' obsession with short-termism, to find a big theme and to continuously get under the skin of different cultures.

JWT chief executive Alison Burns painted a picture of planners as weird, dull, bookish guy-without-a girl types in her introduction to the evening. They are the navigators of the plane piloted by the account managers, she said. Rarely adequately recognised, they come into their own when things go wrong - landing the plane on just one engine and one wheel - and still the pilot all too often gets the glory (and the girl).

Yesterday evening was different. It celebrated their contribution and attempted to shed a light on how planning would live its next 40 years.

Here's a sample of wisdom imparted.

Jeremy Bullmore, non-executive director, WPP
Bullmore's talk was entitled, "In praise of antimonies", partly to show off, he admitted. "It's quite a long word, not many of you know what it means, and I do," he said, setting the tone for his talk, delivered with comedic timing throughout.

The main thrust of his argument was that there must be some antinomy, some conflict, between the planning and creative functions for great ideas to flourish.

He talked at length about planners' post-rationalisation when being shown an idea by two "under-educated" types in black t-shirts.

In real-life, "a client might be asked to spend 35 million pounds on, let's say, an animated vampire duck, on the sole basis that someone in a black t-shirt tells them it is pushing the creative envelope," he said. "I have yet to meet one who will. And this is not a reflection of their cowardice. Post-rationalisation is not only respectable but absolutely essential."

In a planning world inhabited by "ad tweakers", performing elegant pirouettes rarely troubled by a fact, and "grand strategists" who crush people to death with PowerPoint presentations, planners in the future need to find a middle ground that embraces both approaches, Bullmore said.

In a later Q&A session, Bullmore said that marketing was more necessary than ever to combat the harmful consequences of excessive consumerism. "We have never been in greater need of good marketing than now," he said. "But it won't all be for crisps."

Jon Steel, WPP's advertising strategist
The promise of planning is really tested in existing business, not new business, Steel said. "In the absence of great creative, planning will never make the work better," he suggested, adding that great planning requires "hard work and information."

"I lament the amount of grounding I see in a lot of creative and planning today," he added.

Changes in clients' world had also contributed to the situation, he argued. Short tenure of chief marketing officers (an average of two years in the US) meant "doing the right thing is not as important as doing something" to them.

Also, the term procurement used to conjure up images of illicit night-time activities. "Now it's a constant day-time word," he said, "and no damn fun at all."

Steel called for anger and energy among planners to "change the disappointing marketing status quo".

"Who is really setting big, hairy, audacious goals?" he challenged. "We need to be more ambitious in our targets."

Planners can spend hours debating how many of them can fit on the head of a pin and whether Paul Feldwick can pass through the eye of a needle, he said. His answers, given as an aside, were "not many and no".

But the chief role of planning, he reminded the audience, is to help clients set the right objectives for their brands and businesses. "To move forwards, we need to look backwards," he suggested. If planners were merely "cool", "we should fire them", he said. Similarly, those who are not good with numbers and can't do quantitative research should meet the same fate.

"The fundamentals of planning may not sometimes be very interesting but planners and planning ignore them at their peril," he warned.

John Grant, marketing consultant

Thanking the god of fashion that he'd put on a white t-shirt rather than black under his cream linen suit, Grant talked at pace, without notes, charting the life-cycle of brands and relating them to planning. Perhaps, at 40, the discipline is in the throes of a mid-life crisis, he mused.

Taking the brand Brad Pitt as an example, he reeled through the life-cycle stages: who's Brad Pitt?; get me Brad Pitt; get me Brad Pitt for less money; get me the new Brad Pitt, and who's Brad Pitt?

He wondered whether the trend for "fast strategy" meant that planning had reached the "get me planning for less money" stage.

At 40, he said, we can go one of two ways. One is stagnation, in which we become smaller versions of ourselves, repeating the same old arguments. The other is generativity, in which we start believing in something more important than who we are and what we stand for.

Grant has identified sustainability as his personal generative issue and has thrown himself into it for a book on the subject.

But planning needs to find its own generative question, he said. It may be about the future model of the agency. "Saving the ad agency might be your generative thing," he suggested. "Let's look for the bigger space and the generative issue."

Guy Murphy on planning on global brands

Murphy said King would have wanted to remind planners that they are in the business of "helping clients make more money from their money".

But are we so obsessed with new media that we are creating "bits, not brands?" Murphy asked.

Geographic expansion into regions where prospects are huge, with the opportunity to spread risk, makes an irresistible cocktail. "This is marketing's mojito," he said. "It's a chapter of planning yet to be written and we must pioneer it."

The onus is on culture-neutral brand ideas, capable of flexing around the world and based in human truth, he said. This would contrast with a lazy carving up of the world to reflect client structures.

The new-style planners JWT wants to recruit can be likened to piranhas, he said. They are likely to come from places other than the UK and US (combating idea racism) and their multi-cultural experience will mean they will be more creative than the generation before them.

"How long will it be," he asked, "before Cannes consistently awards the Grand Prix to global campaigns?"

To read readily dowloaded pdfs www.coffeeanddonuts.co.in

To view the speeches, http://www.planningbeginsat40.com/.

JWT Atticus Winners 2008

2008-07-23T22:03:00.003+05:30

See some more JWT Atticus winners here

Thayalan Bartlett, JWT Sri Lanka on Branding in Turbulent Times.

http://blog.jwt.lk/?p=66

“Thought Catcher: Moensie’s Blog on Brands and Digital Culture”
http://www.sendupalargerroom.com/

Book Review: Aparna Jain, JWT Planning, Kolkata

2008-07-01T17:26:00.003+05:30

We are like that only: understanding the logic of Consumer India
By Rama Bijapurkar

From one of India’s most respected thought leaders on market strategy and consumer behaviour, this book outlines the reasons behind the seeming contradictions in India’s consumption pattern. While India is undeniably an important future growth market of the world, is young and is just beginning its consumption journey, it ‘has been the source of belied expectations and frustrating resistance to conventional global offerings’. Bijapurkur attempts to explain the realities of emerging economies and dispel many myths through powerful examples, many of which have been drawn from her own experiences.
While doing this, the author delves deep into the minds of Consumer India, traces the rise of new economic classes in conjunction with cultural shifts, the changing structure of the rural economy, the woman consumer etc. She does this with the aim of easing out the seeming incongruities of what she calls ‘schizophrenic India’ and asks marketers to define their ‘target India’ for themselves as the first step to winning in the Indian market.

See a full summary of the book in power point here http://www.coffeeanddonuts.co.in/

Trends in Indian Fiction: Aparna Jain, JWT Planning, Kolkata

2008-07-01T17:23:00.002+05:30

Indian authors in English: What are they writing about?

Here are the top 6 themes that have caught the attention and imagination of our authors in the recent past:
· Emerging India
· Modern, urban India
· Woman authors taking on bold, new themes
· Social awakening
· Historical writing
· International issues

Within each of these broad themes, the issues captured are diverse, have been treated differently and in some cases rather innovatively. Hence, under ‘woman authors taking on bold, new themes’, we have a graphic novel looking at lesbian relationships along with a book on the Mahabharata from Panchaali’s point of view. While writing about the past, authors have covered debates like the Revolt of 1857 and they have explored Indian scandal in the backdrop of the socio-political environment of the 1950s. Books on urban India have captured dysfunctional India, lonely India and cricket crazy India. However within this variety, we can sense some similarities of thoughts, concerns and topics, mirroring to an extent the lives and times of the readers that they are writing for.

See the full report here http://www.coffeeanddonuts.co.in/

The Prepared Mind 4

2008-07-01T17:22:00.002+05:30

Continuing our series on where to look for ideas, stimulus inspiration. An oft repeated theme in advertising: attachment to certain food... food so good, you won't share. An example from Friends: Ross and his sandwhich.

Any Male In Sight? 3

2008-07-01T16:30:00.003+05:30

How men greet men, after an absence. Do they really...?

The Yin-Yang of Technology Payoffs: Brand Chakras study

2008-05-25T12:23:00.010+05:30

Personal computers, internet, connectivity, telecom services, mobiles, visual imaging gadgets... new categories are trying to connect with new consumer groups. JWT Brand Chakras set out to answer the question: "What are the deeper payoffs that consumers are getting from technology - be it in their work life or personal life?" In-depth discussions in Mumbai and Chennai with 25-35 year old early adopters and people who worked in the technology space, revealed some interesting details.
Efficiency and indulgence, refuge and escape, conformism and showmanship, child-like delight and intellectual growth, the payoffs from technology in personal life are dichotomous says the Brand Chakras™ study. In work life, technology can facilitate democracy or meritocracy, be a performance leveler or a performance discriminator, foster conformism or creativity. Technology can be functional and symbolic, in the temporary and immediate or in the permanent and the long term. It can help social anchoring or enhance social clout.

It all depends on your orientation. You could be looking to satisfy your need to belong or your need to be individualistic. At the very least, technology helps you celebrate life, but as you go up the ladder, it becomes a life-evolving tool.

The study identified five types of technology mindsets.

The Doer: keen on upgrading quality of everyday life, with a thirst for ease and efficiency in day-to-day life, wants technology to maximize life and help balance different spheres.
The Connector: strong urge to nurture relationships and stay anchored.
The Indulger: fundamental need for fun and entertainment to cope with day-to-day pressures.
The Discriminator: pressured to establish, redeem, conquer, catch up or breakaway to create a distinct identity and distance himself from the rest.
The Explorer: instinctive thirst for excitement through new experiences and keen to constantly add new facets to his life.

Technology is no longer just about convenience and greater efficiency, its influence on the average individual is more profound and life defining. Technology is now the most powerful agent of mental evolution. The power and worth of any technology will increasingly be evaluated in terms of its ability to unlock and express the power of the mind and the intellect, concludes the study.

The study found that technology largely catered to Pleasure and Power Chakra needs in our lives. And identified almost 20 payoffs that technology brands could use to connect with consumers.

For more on the study, Mythili.Chandrasekar@jwt.com

For more on Brand Chakras: http://www.brandchakras.com/, http://www.chakrawatch.blogspot.com/

Internet in India: The New Divide/Suresh Mohankumar, JWT Planning, Chennai

2008-05-25T11:44:00.012+05:30

The world of Internet in India is clearly divided between two kinds of people, the ones who use the internet and those who don’t go near it: the Haves and the Have-nots. As the Internet continues to grow in India, internet companies have to every day live with the question: What is it the Haves have seen and why is it the Have-nots refuse to see?Here is a handy point of view, that indepth interviews with internet users and non-users revealed.
What the Haves admit to enjoying
Efficient Living: saves time, gives me the best deals

Enlightened Living: quenches my thirst for knowledge, stimulates my curiosity

Empowered Living: stimulates my spirit of enterprise, helps me make informed decisions

Entertained Living: engages me with what I am interested in

Emotionally Anchored Living: takes geography out of relationships

Expressive Living: Gives me the opportunity to express my individuality through creative endeavours

What's stopping the Have-nots

Barrier of Relevance: "The Internet is only for business people and people who travel abroad frequently. How can it benefit us? "

Barrier of Exposure: "It does not go with our culture. It is definitely not for girls."

Barrier of Inadequacy: Seen as a distant and complex entity, Techno phobic - "I have never used a computer-it has so many buttons, I might do something wrong ."

Barrier of Fear: "I will not let my children near the internet even if it is for half an hour. Even if it is free. Pornography and adult content is easily available”

Barrier of Language: "If it was in our regional language we would even get our neighbors and friends to use it ."

Barrier of Inertia: "How can I learn something new now? (age factor) “I don’t need it for my job” “Probably it will be useful for my children - but later”. "What is the need for it?"

The trick for internet brand marketers of course is to show the Have-nots what the Haves have seen, and find those exact moments of truth that makes people cross the fence.

Indian luxury : a brand idea whose time has come. Shaziya Khan, JWT Planning, Mumbai

2008-04-18T17:57:00.004+05:30

“Beauty is the purgation of superfluities”
This is an old quote, attributed to the great Michelangelo.
But its spirit felt alive & fresh, at a recent conclave of luxury honchos in India recently. If one could sum up the singular hook that stuck in the mind - India is in the luxury state of mind, again. Give or take a few centuries, its long running royal patronage of all things fine and beautiful is coming keenly alive among the mass affluent and emerging rich of today.
And that luxury state of mind means to get rid of superfluities.
Sign 1: First things first, majority ownership has been allowed by law to foreign brands being welcomed to the great Indian beauty bazaar of things fine and fey. And the companies are cueing up at India gate. Salvatore Ferragamo, Hermes, Savile Row brands, Chanel, Ballantyne to mention a few.A small but telling gesture was the presence of both the French trade minister (3 weeks before elections in France, no less!) and the Indian trade minister at a luxury seminar. But their presence went beyond the powerfully symbolic to embrace the powerfully productive as well – for instance, each went on to openly discuss & welcome suggestions on a mutually beneficial way of doing away with countervailing duties that aids the entry luxury brands entry and yet prevents dumping by cheaper brands.
Sign 2: Secondly, luxury demands a beautifully luxe environment and in this matter too, Indian retail and business interests are stepping forward. They plan to create specialist luxury malls that will provide the appropriate brand neighbourhood and gilt edged physical ambience. As many a luxury honcho put it – the right retail environment is vital – to communicates the brand, not just to make the sale. Rarified iconic hotel environs like those of the Taj Mahal or Oberoi have housed the luxury brand pioneers from oversees such as LVMH; But are too small to take in the dozen odd more brands keen to enter. The demands in terms of marble, granite,fit, feel,finish, DETAIL are going to be hard to meet but the will to do away with second best and B++ is there. No matter if it takes months and millions – the Gucci store blue print from Paris will be adhered to inch by inch when it opens its Mumbai branch. Luxury retailing it is a game of gilt edged inches and it has begun. Watch out for luxury malls and exclusive luxury retail outlets. Where only the thinnest stilettos will tread in soft and but undeniable clicks …
Sign 3 : Aah but the greatest superfluity of them all – is being done away with. Why adhere to a foreign definition of luxury? Academics, designers, luxury CEOs are asking a new (Indian) luxury question. Indians are being asked to introspect and ask themselves what is the definition of Indian luxury? As distinct from French luxury or Italian luxury or British luxury; Each of these has a certain distinct appeal.
What is distinct about Indian luxury is the question of the moment. In other words, What is India’s brand of luxury? Here is a smattering of answers suggested by global luxury experts:
• The long running royal patronage of luxury. From Chanel to Cartier and the 360 circle of brands in between practically all evidenced familiarity with Indian tastes and the Indian clientele’s eye for luxury over a few hundred years.
• Craftsmanship is another. More than one world famous designer said he visits India often and is inspired by its quality of craftsmanship – in saddles, in weaving, in embroidery etc. A particularly enthusiastic one in typical ‘from the heart ‘ designer speak even proferred a spontaneous definition of Indian luxury. Pigeon English. But its says something “the Indian hand is the greatest”.
•“Made in India” as a label. “The world of luxury has no problem with the label made in India” – French designer, to quote a common sentiment. It has been revered a long time. And a source of inspiration too.
• Colour of luxury, here is one from me. The Indian luxury brand can be rooted in colour – literally and metaphorically. Literally - India is all about colour. As some one said ‘Pink is India’s navy blue’ and you see that in palaces, jewellery, rich textiles. Metaphorically “colour” ie. colour in quotes is the spirit , energy, fusion of India. And at both levels colour is a draw and a discriminator for India vis a vis the world. For instance, Hermes sent a team of global designers to visit India. Their brief ‘get the smell and colours of India and be inspired’. They visited the calico museum in Ahmedabad, tourist sites, Benares and went back marvelously inspired with indigo and fuschia on their mind.
And there could be more. At this point, what matters is not which is the final cut of the brand. What matters is that the “great Indian brand of luxury” is being sought. The royal tradition of Indian luxury; or the beautiful hand of India, or simply Made in India or colour of luxury… Marketers, designers, bureaucrats and ministers are you thinking big enough to make the “great Indian brand of luxury” come into its own? Again or anew? Anything less is a superfluity.

This post first appeared as an article in Admap

Luxury marketing in India: ‘because I’m worth it’. Shaziya Khan, JWT Planning, Mumbai

2008-04-18T17:54:00.004+05:30

Glyn Atwal, ESC Rennes School of Business, and Shaziya Khan, JWT Mumbai, examine how luxury brands can best maximise the Indian luxury rupee.
PARADISE FOR ANYBODY wanting to stay en vogue is the shopping arcade at the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers Hotel in Mumbai. Being at the cutting edge of fashion comes at a price – whether in London, Paris or Mumbai.
According to Ledbury Research, the global luxury goods market in 2006 was worth £75 billion, with annual sales growth in double figures. India has been identified as an important source of this growth and is likely to growth at an annual rate of 28% in the next three years.
Market luxurification
The accelerating pace of economic and social change is transforming the Indian luxury landscape. The so-called luxurification of society is a phenomenon that can be attributed to the following dynamics.
New affluence: The booming economy
According to the McKinsey Global Institute, consumers earning more than 1,000,000 rupees a year will total 24 million by 2025 – larger than China’s comparable segment. It is however the emergence of ‘mass affluence’ combined with aspirational mindsets and lifestyles that are helping to stimulate consumer demand. The rapid growth of the Indian middle class means that a larger number of consumers are able to afford luxury goods than ever before.
Media exposure: Luxury is now mainstream
The media-cultural phenomenon is however, not restricted to the pages of glossy magazines. Mainstream media are taking a greater interest in luxury brands, fashion trends and consumer lifestyles. Weekend supplements in national newspapers devote pages to fashion features and product reviews. Increased product knowledge and brand awareness are translating into greater consumer confidence – an important catalyst for luxury consumption in a fast-emerging market.
Luxury accessibility: The world at your doorstep
Luxury brands are now following the Indian consumer, expanding their sales operations not only in Delhi and Mumbai, but to smaller cities or metrocities such as Pune and Hyderabad. Luxury boutiques which were traditionally confined to the secure but often inaccessible surroundings of exclusive hotels have been thrown open to the masses thanks to the shopping mall boom.
Market regulation
Although high import duties on luxury goods continue to prevail, India’s policy of liberalisation and deregulation has improved its image as an attractive destination for foreign investment.
The changing face of the Indian luxury consumer
The luxury market has traditionally been segmented according to two very separate and distinct customer groups – namely the ‘affluents’ and the ‘non-affluents’. The transition towards a consumer society has changed the profile of the luxury consumer. Luxury is no longer reserved for the English-speaking elite. Priyanka,a BPO employee, loves shopping, worships brands and is typical of a new generation of luxury consumers – the ‘because I’m worth it’ generation.
Today’s luxury shopper could be a broker, an entrepreneur, an IT specialist or a student.
Maximising the Indian luxury rupee
Beyond exclusivity
Beyond status
Beyond westernisation
Burberry meets Bollywood

The following seven guidelines set out to guide high-end brands to capture India’s growing fascination with luxury consumption.
1. Respect. Connect with luxury consumers as a selective target. Luxury brands need to respect this point of difference in all interactions between the brand and the consumer.
2. Segment. Acknowledge luxury consumer subsets. Luxury brands need to identify, differentiate and prioritise the most profitable subsets for targeted strategies.
3. Insight. Identify what is important to the defined target. Motivations could be based on personal and non-personal factors.
4. Connect. Assess which brand interactions really matter. For example, respondents cited that friends and family are an important influence on luxury consumption.
5. Experience. Establish emotional connectivity. Deep and meaningful relationships need to be developed in order to win the ‘soul’ of the luxury consumer.
6. Indianness. Embrace and celebrate the ‘Indianness’ brand. India has a very powerful and unique identity, and this needs to be leveraged within a luxury brand context.
7. Consistency. Adopt a truly holistic approach, to ensure that all brand interactions, whether advertising or customer service, are consistent with the brand positioning. Jitnee Lambi Chadar ho Utna hee pair failana Chahiye is an Indian proverb that means ‘limit your spending to your earnings’.
Contemporary Indian society is challenging traditional consumption patterns. The Indian consumer is ready to embrace luxury consumption. Is the international luxury industry ready to unlock the market potential? ■
NB: The authors would like to stress that the term ‘affluent masses’ should be interpreted broadly within the context of the emerging

middle classes. This paper was also presented jointly by the authors at the Asia Brand Congress held in September 2007 in Mumbai,India.
1. M Silverstein and N Fiske: Trading Up: The New American Luxury. Penguin Group: New York, 2003. 2. S J Vickers and F Renand: The Marketing of Luxury Goods: An Exploratory Study – Three Conceptual Dimensions. The Marketing Review, 3 (4), 2003.

The 8 P’s of Luxury Branding: Rohit Arora, JWT Planning, Mumbai

2008-04-18T17:49:00.007+05:30

In the luxury conference held few months ago, our Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath pointed out that luxury brands need to adopt an India-specific policy. So while the international luxury brands are building their momentum of their presence in the country, the challenge lies with Indian luxury brands – how do they adapt effectively, swiftly and more importantly meaningfully.
We have the zooming capital market, booming business sectors, stronger GDP growth, the rising affluence and consumer optimism, a more hedonistic consumer society with the spending mindset further fueled by emerging retail landscape. So, there’s money to spend, willingness with optimism, space that’s evolving a benchmark of premiumness & luxury. The challenge is to be relevant, today and tomorrow.
This article focuses on the 8 P’s that are employed in the luxury branding mix. The degree of significance of these factors may vary, but more often that not, it is the interplay amid these 8 P’s that makes a luxury brand.
THE 8 P’S OF LUXURY BRANDING – PILLARS OF A LUXURY BRAND
Performance: Refers to the delivery of superior experience of a luxury brand at two levels – product level & experiential level. At a product level, it must satisfy the functional and utilitarian characteristic as well as deliver on its practical physical attributes – a recipe of quality or design excellence ingredients like creativity, exclusivity, craftsmanship, precision, materials, high quality & innovation. The luxury brand must perform at the experiential level as well; that is the emotional value of the luxury brand the consumers buy . Luxury isn’t just about the ‘thing’ anymore; it is about the special experience people feel in buying and using or enjoying that ‘thing’.
Paucity: Over revelation and distribution of luxury brand causes dilution of luxury character, hence many brands try to maintain the perception that the goods are scarce.
(Burberry diluted its brand image in the UK in the early 2000 by over-licensing its brand, thus reducing its image from a brand whose products were consumed only by the elite. Gucci, now largely sold in directly-owned stores, following a nearly crippling attempt to widely license their brand in the 1970s and 1980s).Broadly, there’s natural paucity (actual scarcity) & technology-driven paucity. Natural paucity is generally as a consequence of scarce ingredients (platinum, diamonds, etc.) and/or those goods that require exceptional human expertise (e.g. handcrafted quality) that constraint mass production. Technology-driven paucity is as a corollary of conception-time involved in continuous innovation and research-&-development process.
Beyond these brands employ promotional strategies like limited editions, special series, etc. Another deviation to this strategy is customization &/or individual craftsmanship of luxury good.
Persona: The persona of a luxury brand is largely a consequence of distinctive projection and coherence of the application.The visual brand identity captures the brand’s personality, mystique & emotional values in a nutshell. The distinct and consistent expression of the identity (by way of its logo, the color(s) association, the other design elements like icons, the uniquely identifiable ergonomics or branded environment, etc.) is central to establishing the visibility, familiarity & common identifiable brand imagery (E.g. the Louis Vuitton monogram & graphic symbols). While the brands visual identity is a fairly stable factor, advertising is the most dynamic marketing vehicle and hence is critical in developing aspirational context. At an overall level, luxury advertising messages can be observed:
§ As more emotional and sensual to distance it from mass-premium brands
§ Create a world and an aura that is truly exceptional to their brand signature
§ Generate major differentiation in its production and execution
§ Extremely selective and niche media
Public Relations (PR): PR in luxury branding plays an enormous role in image proliferation of the brand, thereby subtly influencing public opinion. It is also employed to convey other supporting messages and attributes of the brand which cannot be explicitly captured in advertising, but by no means are less important to create brand’s personality, mystique and emotional values. (e.g. Chanel organized a brand familarization trip to journalists with peek at the fashion house's main salon in Paris salon, inc. tour of Coco Chanel's private apartment)
It is also a sophisticated branding machine for maintaining ongoing relevance with the luxury consumer, especially so in fashion and seasonal trends driven categories. Generation of brand news, story angles, speaking points of inspirers (like what celeb’s speak or wear) and of influencers (like the designer speak) blended with innovative event concepts (like the fashion weeks, polo matches, themed previews) are utilized for tactical brand exposure made relevant to industry trends & culture.
Placement: The branded environment in luxury branding is all about heightening the customer’s experience and amplifying the aura of brand’s essence. Hence, the branded environment, the moment of truth, is where it must live the brand by staging immaculate detailing that engages all senses of the discerning luxury consumer. In India, for example most of the luxury brands have boutiques in 5-star hotels (Gucci’s boutiques are in Oberoi-Hilton, Mumbai & Imperial, Delhi. Likewise Louis Vuitton’s in Taj Mahal, Mumbai & Oberoi, Delhi)
The chain of touch-points consumer interacts & the impact of each touch-point is critical for creating an unique indulging experience.
Personal Touch: Luxury branding is largely about establishing and enhancing the ‘emotional connections’ with discerning luxury consumers. Beyond the typical sophisticated, over-the-top concierge services, exclusive invites, previews, the new age luxury consumers is seeking higher level of personalized, knowledgeable & professional assistance – trusted & reliable help for managing their lifestyles.Also, the escalating democratization of luxury & the constantly changing retail environment has made luxury consumers increasingly discriminating & demanding.
Pedigree: Many luxury brands have a rich pedigree and extraordinary history that become an inseparable part of the brand story. The mystique and the legend is generally built around the exceptional emotive founder character of past.So, when consumers buy Cartier or Dunhill, it is not merely because of the product performance or quality. They are buying a lineage of the legendary people and the evolution history behind these brands.
Public Figure: The role of public-figure or celebrities endorsement can be observed to be more skewed towards the aspiring & accessible luxury brands. That said, it would be improper to conclude that high-end luxury brands don’t bring into play the public figure factor; they are relatively less explicit & are largely PR-led (like accessorization, product placements with celebs/movies). Compared to other endorser types, public-figures achieve a relatively higher degree of attention and recall (e.g. Nicole Kidman for Chanel No. 5; Pierce Brosnan for Omega & SRK for Tag Heuer), thereby positively affecting consumer’s attitudes, brand value & purchase intention.
ACTION POINTS
The 8 P’s provide a solid framework for luxury branding at a macro level.
§ Identify how well your brand performs within each of the 8 Ps
§ Analyze your competitors in relation to the 8 Ps as well
§ Hypothesize; validate the variations & degree of significance of 8 Ps to address the identified problems or opportunities.

This post first appeared as an article in The Hindustan Times
REFERENCES
Nikola King & Paul McGowan: The DNA of Luxury article & compressed document
Giacalone, Joseph A: Market for luxury goods: the case of the comité colbert1

Is India ready for the IPL? Shweta Bhatnagar, JWT Planning, Delhi

2008-04-15T18:08:00.036+05:30

A lot has been said about cricket and its importance in India… but it can never be said enough. The one passion that unites the country, the one love that takes all of us on a roller coaster of emotions, the one religion that makes each Indian, as temporary as it maybe, come together in its beliefs. And where a national anthem before a movie, and sometimes even Independence Day, fail to raise the sense of patriotism one would like to see, cricket is able to bring it alive in almost all of us!
So one cannot deny that in a cricket fanatic country like ours, sports and politics definitely cross paths. The current debate on whether India should withdraw from the Beijing Olympics owing its stand on the Tibet issue is a prime example of this. And let’s face it! How many times have we seen political acrimony spill over during a Pakistan / India match? When Pakistan lost in the T20 world cup they had to go under cover with their families in their own nation. Whether this should, or should not be, is a separate question. But like it or not, the two are inseparable.

So lets take a quick glance at what’s happening in both these fields right now.
The latest on the block is IPL… a great new concept. The gods of our one common religion got bidden for. And the country watched in anticipation. It was a strange but mixed feeling. Put a price tag on Sachin? Who would have thought! But how does that affect me? What does affect me, however, is what will all this lead up to? A cricket match! And hey! That’s always welcomed isn’t it?
And then, lets see the recent mob violence the country saw. Mumbaikars against north Indians. A relatively newer definition of communalism that at least the current generation may not have seen before. We’ve seen religion against religion, a political party against the other, public against the government, terrorists against the public… but region against another region? Beyond just water / electricity disputes? Beyond the murmured stereotypes plaguing each state that may go around many corridors? They first time gathered enough momentum to be so loud as to gather a mob!
And herein lies my question. Isn’t IPL only going to fuel this further? We know pride doesn’t come in a bigger size than when it comes for one’s team. But unfortunately, this time its not for India. Its delhi vs. Mumbai vs. Hyderabad vs. Bangalore vs. ... the list will only increase.
Saurav Ganguly has always been known as the Bengal tiger, but did a non-bengali ever love him any less? How many of us, across the country would say they love Sachin because he is marathi, or because he’s done me and the nation proud, irrespective of where he’s from?
I do not say that IPL was designed to fuel this divide, but from the look of it, does it not seem axiomatic? In a sensitive nation like ours where one radio jockey’s lose comment can anger the whole north-east community, are we ready to handle IPL in a mature manner?
When the similar concept gained enough momentum in England in the late 70s-80s for football, the violence it led to cost many lives, places burnt down, and the emergence of a term called football hooliganism, where each team had a group of supporters ready to kill the others at each win and each loss. Can we really safely say we won’t face a similar situation with IPL gaining force?
As the British contemporary writer Alan Sillitoe once wrote "sport is a means of keeping the national spirit alive during a time of so-called peace. It prepares the national spirit for the eventuality of war".
I ask you to replace ‘national’ in that quote with ‘regional’ once… and tell me what picture you see… Can India handle the IPL :Feast for sport lovers or setting for regional rift
See Jitender Dabas' reply and continue the debate...Voice your views on our comments

Wetting the sponge:Training the JWT way. Shaziya Khan JWT Planning, Mumbai reports

2008-04-07T10:27:00.021+05:30

India is booming faster than a trained brain can follow so we need to train differently to solve faster. Our aim is to widen people's perceptions and fertilize ideas.
Every month a guest speaker is invited to talk to all JWTers on a curious topic. Like a sponge, each of us will absorb the material in our own way. Here is a glimpse of our exciting aqua experiences so far!
November 2007
Injector: Hormazd Sorabjee
Container: Autocar India
Water: the car market as a mirror of the economy
Absorption: Looking at which and how many cars are on the road is a good indication of the national economy’s health but also consumer’s behaviour. It appears that quality is not always the prime incentive, status is. However, we are more inclined to a uniform consumption rather than individualistic as 65% purchases are influenced by word of mouth.
On another note, the car market is a laughable example of foreign products lacking adaptation to the market’s specificities as luxury cars are designed to be driven, not chauffeured. The back suspensions are hard and there is no remote for the stereo, so where is the fun in that?

December 2007
Injector: Charlotte Cooper & Ashling O’Connor
Container: Reuters Mumbai, Times London
Water: the image of India from a western point of view

Absorption: India’s equity is building up everyday, distancing itself from China, the all time point of comparison. This being said, some worries remain in foreign investors minds: Will the widening wealth gap lead to social tensions? Also, while the economy grows fast, the education system does not follow. How will industries overcome the lack of qualified labour?

January 2008
Injector: Mahesh Bhatt
Container: Bollywood
Water: the right message for the right crowd
Absorption: Real India feels alienated. Gate keepers, whereas they are distributors or our clients, are not ready for changes whilst people are. The population cannot identify to the portrayed image. For instance, when poverty still exists in India, it does not in Indian media as the poor are party spoilers! The real world has no space in the dream world. Research only takes you so far. The bucket of water has all the properties of the stream of water except the key one. The bucket of water does not have the “flow”! So always be careful of research it often captures the capturable but not the “essence”. Standards – keep them high. There is such a thing as success backwards and failing forwards! i.e. Even though you momentarily appear to fail it is actually something very progressive. And sometimes even when you have market success, it might be a regressive idea

February 2008
Injector: Jim James
Container: Haymarket India
Water: Formula 1
Absorption: Formula 1 does not run on fuel but on advertising. It is the most watched sports even after the Olympics and the Football worldcup. It has a huge advantage over these two – while they happen once in four years, Formula 1 takes place 18 times a year! However much the sport seems to cost their sponsors, given the coverage they get, the returns are high. Infact, the recent sponsorhip by Vijay Mallya of Formula 1 got so much coverage they recovered their investment even before the car spun a wheel! This is why Marlboro still sponsors Ferrari despite the ban on cigarette advertisement in most countries, limiting their visual presence to the color code shared with Ferrari.

More mind blowing speakers to follow - soak it up!

Why the consumer should not be the KING in India: Jitender Dabas, JWT Planning, Delhi

2008-03-11T20:19:00.019+05:30

An approach to building service brands in high "Power Distance" societies

The sudden rise of ‘bully consumers’ in India

When was the last time you heard someone warning his mobile service provider and threatening him about switching to another brand? Or when was the last time you snubbed a representative from a reputed bank/ insurance company selling you loans/investment products? Chances are, if you are in India, you would be experiencing one or more of these frequently.
About 10 years ago, it used to take 15 days to 3 months to get a telephone installed at your residence. Today it takes less than 24 hours for an active landline connection and you can have an active mobile phone connection almost instantly. There are more than 20 banks to choose from – all of them armed with latest technologies to make your life easy.
An even more intriguing aspect is consumer behavior before all this. 10 years back, the line man from the state-owned BSNL would install the telephone after months of applying, but most consumers felt very obliged to happily offer him sweets and warm hospitality.
And yet today, when we as consumers are having the best time of our life, and service brands are treating the consumer as King, we are becoming increasingly foul.
What explains the sudden emergence of this rude consumer behavior towards service brands?

Is this the REVENGE OF THE CONSUMER?

Some suggest that increased brand choice across all categories has made him a ‘spoilt child’ and hence his bully behavior. So what could explain the increasing bad-behavior or intolerance from the consumers in a culture which is seen as tolerant and polite?
A look at the social structure in Indian society would reveal a pyramidal construction with the power gradient being steep between levels/classes.

The Power Distance Index
A more scientific understanding of this behavior comes from the study of different cultures by Geert Hofstede on various dimensions. One of the dimensions is Power Distance, defined as "the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally".
India has Power Distance (PDI) as the highest Hofstede Dimension (among the five dimensions), with a ranking of 77 as compared to the world average of 56.5.

Implication for brands
To be respected in such a culture, brands will need to increase their distance and will have to assume power. If brands try to play a ‘subservient’ role in such cultures they will not be treated well. Hence the conclusion that in India (and similar cultures with high PDI) THE CONSUMER NEED NOT BE THE KING. Brands should not operate from “You are the king” mindset with the consumer.

What does it mean?

It simply means that brands need to be always at a higher level of hierarchy than the consumer if they need to protect the premium-ness. If the choice has to be made, then brand should be the king.
Service brands need to be careful when they’re training their staffs in soft skills. They need to be told the difference between being polite and being servile.

A good example here is the way Vijay Mallya invites you aboard his flight, it sounds like a ‘King’ inviting you to his kingdom. The equation with the consumer is therefore stated clearly in the very beginning.
The argument that by increasing the Power Distance from your consumers you will become niche is also not correct. In fact, brands with high Power Distance from their consumers will always be the bigger and more desired brands than others.

Not just India but other markets as well
Indian has a PDI (Power Distance Index) of 77. But then there are countries like Russia, Romania, Mexico, Bangladesh and countries from the Arab world with PDI scores higher than 80. While other cultural dimensions too affect the overall consumer behaviour in each country, when it comes to Power Distance, brands will have to decide which side of the power equation they want to be.

For the complete article pls visit http://www.coffeeanddonuts.co.in/

Western COOL and Indian COOL: Shaleen Sharma, JWT Planning, Delhi

2008-03-11T19:52:00.017+05:30

SKETCHING THE MYTHS, MEANINGS AND METAPHORS OF COOL

The Super Brands UK, Cool Council defines that all cool brands have a consistent presence of certain values:

Cool is forever distinctive and is aspirational.
Cool generally goes against the grain (not necessarily rebellious).
Cool is itself - it doesn’t try too hard.
Cool is authentic, it doesn’t try too hard.
The subscribers of Cool behave like a tribe.
While these characteristics form the core of cool, the ramifications and manifestations of this cool differs across cultures. Cool is not culture-agnostic, instead it is culture-driven.

Western Cool - It is all about doing your own thing. It firmly anchors itself in individuality as the primary instrument of human exploration and creative fulfillment. An individuality that has to be unrestrained and unchecked and must press forward at all costs, even to the exclusion of the larger community.

Indian Cool, on the other hand is all about Me and my community. The Indian way of life has its roots in the ancient Vedic tradition and so holds true with Indian cool as well. It seems that in India if you are outside the ambit of the society, then unlike the West, you aren’t cool- you are an outcast! And nobody wants to be an outcast in a deeply collectivist society like India.

Western cool is all about rebellion, even without a cause
Indian cool is not about rebellion at all. Be a rebel, for a greater cause, when all else fails.
Western cool traditionally springs from bottom up.
Indian cool is mandated and not self-bred! Indian cool often comes from top down.
Western cool is about Expression, Indian cool is about Aspiration.

Emerging themes of Cool
One of the key emerging themes of cool will be the emergence of local movements and expressions, that shall seek to reinforce, re-interpret and re-vitalize local cultural and historical symbols. It could be either through pure play or through fusion.
The new cool will be about coming to terms with these developments and keeping your identity intact.
Human technology interactions will probably be the biggest dynamic that cool will play out on.
Cool will be about evangelism, philanthropy and filial affiliation. This theme will be more visible in developed economies.

For the complete article please visit http://www.coffeeanddonuts.co.in/

Retail: Value Propositions for Customer Satisfaction

2008-02-04T17:49:00.000+05:30

Someone famously said “If people went into stores only when they needed to buy something and, once there, they bought only what they needed, the economy would collapse”

Different kinds of people have different attitudes to shopping. Some will buy stuff because it’s cheap, some because its expensive. Some want to browse forever, some want to buy and run. Buying a gift for a wedding you don’t want to go to vs buying a gift for your best friend’s daughter. Buying diamonds vs buying grocery.

Given the complexity of bahaviour patterns, usage, occasions, and purchase pathways, how do you arrive at what could be a handy guide to value propositions for retail brands? Here’s a point of view: V2E3. Value, Variety, Exclusivity, Experience and Expertise. Every retailer needs to pick the dominant offering and craft a combination of those that suit its desired customer base best. Take a look at how each of these come alive.

Value: Some people just can’t resist the lure of low price.
Variety: something for everyone.
Exclusivity:The dilemma and pleasure of buying something expensive.
Expertise:How often have you gone back to a shop because of a sales person, or walked out of a shop because of a sales person?
Experience:Ambience and display turned into an art form, almost.

VALUE:

VARIETY:

EXPERTISE:

EXPERIENCE:

EXCLUSIVITY:

The above post is an excerpt from a talk titled “Value Propositions for Customer Satisfaction” delivered by Mythili Chandrasekar at Asia Retail Congress, Mumbai, Jan 08

Any Male In Sight? 2

2008-02-04T16:25:00.000+05:30

Men and Sports: Fatal Attraction

"Sports is one of the few things on Planet Earth that just makes sense. Men don’t want to accept confusion. We want things simple. Sports allow us to do that."
-A Basketball Fanatic

Whether its a platform for male bonding, opportunities to show off cool facts and give “expert” advice and dazzle fellow fans with their superior knowledge, or evoking national pride, sports has been a perennial male passion. Captured yet again in the new Vodafone ad, which shows a tense man outside a maternity ward, equally awaiting close-finish cricket alerts! But what’s a new twist in the tale, is the woman in the Canara Bank “Square Slice” commercial who decides to get into cricket for his sake.

Tech Talk 2: Shaleen Sharma,JWT Delhi

2008-02-01T15:54:00.000+05:30

Mobility and Web Services - Challenges and Opportunities in Developing Countries

From Japan to US, from Africa to Asia, there exists a fanatic optimism about the increasing power of the internet. It seems that just like advances in micro processing transformed computing experience, the internet browser will change the very way people have been using internet till now. (Primarily E mail and search).

There has been a lot of noise about the next killer apps residing in the browser. The likes of Google are now offering integrated office solutions (like spreadsheets, word and power point) completely online. Software itself is no longer peddled shrink wrapped on IT stores, it is following a pay-per-use services delivery model which pundits are calling SAAS-Software as a service.

To my mind, internet itself, more than being a consumer medium, is a “Great services and information framework.” Mobility too essentially started as a service, till entertainment and computing applications converged on the same.
One wonders, what is the next tidal wave of evolution, for mobility and for the internet? Can the internet drive mobility adoption or mobility facilitate quicker internet penetration? These questions are all the more relevant, for developing countries like India who’s technology adoption will not be linear and is expected to benefit from the “experience curve” of the developed world.

Of course, the convergence of mobility and web services is going to open new opportunities, but the players looking to leverage those opportunities will have to negotiate through some tough challenges-cultural and economic.
While in Western Europe and US, high in-home broadband penetration levels have led consumers to view web services completely differently. The experience there has to be larger, richer, bigger, and quicker. In developed mobile societies of Asia like Japan and South Korea, though in home broadband levels are roughly similar (or even more) than those in the West, consumers have taken to mobile broadband and mobile web services far more excitedly. May be this is cultural or may be this is because the overall mobile services infrastructure there has evolved faster and better. Just the other day we heard that in Japan notebook sales declined for three straight quarters as people are downloading most of the web applications (entertainment, e mail etc) and using services (billings and bookings etc) on other web compatible appliances. High Definition Televisions and Hand Held phones were the dominant segment of such appliances.

In India, the driver of web services roll out through mobile phones is primarily going to be economic. Critics concur that India’s rate of tech adoption across categories is a little sloppy. But what most people fail to understand is that whenever a technology has been made economically affordable, Indians have grabbed it. This is evident from automobiles technology (where Tata Nano has created such a splash in popular consciousness) to LCD screens to mobile phone tariffs itself. (Folklore has it that since the time tariffs have been coming down, rate of growth is going up by a factor of 4).

Some key learnings have come to us from the African continent. It has been estimated that the “Unbanked” (people who have no bank accounts because of very little savings generated or illiteracy) are sitting on a liquid capital of around a trillion dollars. Cellular Services Providers in Africa have been aware of this opportunity. MTN and Vodafone are successfully experimenting in providing mobile banking solutions to all such people. One can have a mobile account, and all the financial activities one undertakes can be routed through their mobile bills. This is both convenient and economical.

In countries like India however, financial web services can be the killer app for their adoption, initially, especially amongst the mobile segment at the lower end. Just as e mail was the killer app for web’s adoption, basic, transaction based financial services can drive mobile penetration as well as internet adoption in India.But just like the EU, India is a federation of markets and consumer segments. Consumers at the upper end of the spectrum might not be so gung ho about financial services being delivered through the mobile portal. Many Indians in the Upper SEC ranks, rate security much above convenience and even economy. But what will drive these guys will be differentiated content. For certain segments it could be gaming, for some others it could be music and for some video.
By differentiated I mean exclusive- content that is not available elsewhere on other gateways or portals like television stations, radio or even websites.
Web services could also proffer information or opinion that is not available outside of the mobile cloud (embedded in the handset or relayed by the service provider)

All of this brings us to two critical questions. One definitely is that if it happens, and eventually it will who will “control” the last mile, i.e the consumer relationship. Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone was recently asked about the handset vendor-services provider relationship status in the wake of Nokia launching its web services foray. Mr. Sarin made it quite clear that the service providers believed that they control the relationship with the consumer and there is no way they would want to loosen their grip on that! The consumer mobile bill is the greatest instrument they have, and they have to continue to generate it.
I would tend to think so too! And I believe that is their rightful domain as well. And may be that is why, from AT&T to T-Mobile to Vodafone everybody is more interested in integrating “mobile content and services” in their business architecture, across countries. It will be nice to see how Nokia who says that web services will be the mainstay of its future strategy handles this fundamental conflict.
In hindsight, Apple looks smarter! They came out with web content and services portal in the form of i-tunes, and then launched the handset. Could Nokia have done the same? In hindsight, yes!
But may be what handset manufacturers like Nokia can do, is pick up areas where service providers can not effectively provide web services. This can be done through exclusive tie in like the one they did with Universal Music, where Nokia music phones will come with some embedded tracks, and Universal taking a cut from the overall sales. But such web services will be asynchronous and not live.

May be consumers will tell what mode of web services they will adopt?! May be Apple was smarter or may be Nokia is!

Case Study: Nike Mean Streets

2008-01-08T16:31:00.000+05:30

Navonil Chatterjee, JWT Planning, Bangalore shares the thinking behind the award winning Nike TV commercial, on behalf of the Nike Team in JWT Bangalore.

Hardly a Walk in the Park : The Challenge

In a country where the Jordans, the Federers, the Nadals and the Rooneys could not help Nike much, it was imperative for the brand to be associated with Indian cricket in order to make inroads into the market. Besides, Reebok and Adidas had a head-start over Nike and had also signed up almost all the major cricketing superstars of India. It was in this challenging environment in December 2005 that Nike successfully bid to be the official apparel sponsor of the entire Indian cricket team for a period of 5 years.

The team sponsorship undoubtedly gave us an opportunity to drive visibility, credibility and even acceptability for the brand. But the biggest task for us was how to make the brand stand apart from a plethora of other cricket-based commercials? Especially given the fact that in India almost every third ad - from soaps to bikes, from shampoos to cars, from credit cards to televisions, from colas to insurance - features one cricketer or another!

The Search for a Point of View (POV) : What JWT DidWe soon realized that to stand out in this cricket clutter, we needed to have our own unique POV on the game itself. What was this game truly about? We contacted every possible stakeholder of the game in trying to answer this one question …We asked ourselves … what are the greatest moments of cricket for us?We debated … what stood out in these moments?We interviewed … top Indian cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Jawagal Srinath, Anil Kumble and also met past Indian greatsWe spoke … with cricket commentators like Harsha Bhogle and Charu SharmaWe observed Cricket Crazy Kids training at the National Cricket AcademyWe wrote … to cricketers and coaches in every test playing nation in the world to check their take on the game, and even did focus groups amongst some of them …Character Over Cover DriveAfter tapping through all the responses, we realized that the abiding moments of cricket are those where character prevailed over cover drive, temperament took precedence over technique, fighting spirit reigned over flamboyance and grit glowed over timing.

Moments like Kumble bowling his heart out with a fractured jaw, Sehwag refusing to play it safe and risking a six when approaching a triple century, Yuvraj and Kaif relishing the pressure in the Natwest run-chase or the VVS Laxman-inspired epic turn-around against the all-conquering Australians at the Eden Gardens.We realized that cricket is not just about skill and brilliance and timing alone.

It is about context, about handling pressure.

That it is not just a game of bat and ball. Rather, it’s all about balls.

And it is from this realization that Nike’s POV on cricket was born: GUTSY CRICKET!

Celebrating Gutsy Cricket : The Communication

Our commercial then when went on to dramatize that POV instead of indulging in the usual ‘Come on India’ kind of jingoism. However, given that cricket is a religion in India, in the brand’s first foray into the Indian market, we chose to ‘CELEBRATE’ gutsy cricket instead of making it grim and over-intense. And an Indian traffic jam served as the perfect amphitheatre for this celebration of a spectacular and yet gutsy brand of cricket.

Just Did It : The Results

The effects of the commercial were clearly not gone in 120 seconds. Sales showed a 40% growth in the activity period over last year, 60% of the Nike Team India jerseys were sold out within 10 days of the launch, Nike got the maximum free media coverage (around 180,000 USD).

There was unprecedented buzz – the commercial was displayed 16 times on a YouTube page and had close to half a million hits. It became the most debated ad on agencyfaqs. There were communities in Orkut and innumerable number of blogs on the ad.

Watch Out India 2008: Adip Puri, JWT Planning, Mumbai

2008-01-08T16:27:00.000+05:30

Question. What do Deepika Padukone, Green buildings and Foreign universities have in common?
Answer. All of them feature in the 80 big things to watch out for in India '08.
We start this year with an interesting initiative on the lines of “Eighty things to watch out for in 2008” released by JWT, New York. India planners have started compiling a list of 80 Big things to watch out for in India 2008.

In no particular order
1.Young new filmmakers
2.Indian pride/jingoism
3.Farah khan's triplets
4.Rahul Gandhi/as a mass leader in the Rajiv Gandhi 1989 mould
5.Narendra Modi as Prime Minister
6.Mini metros
7.Foreign universities in India
8.Chinese students in India
9.Indian students in countries other than USA ,UK ,Australia
10.Citizen governance/civil society action
11.Brand social responsibility
12.Green buildings
13.Diesel cars
14.Family /friends reunions
15.Facebook in Indian languages
16.Blank Noise Project
17.SMS banking
18.One Lakh Rupee Tata Car
19.Vigilantism
20.Deepika Padukone
21.Climate change
22.Increase in non-biodegradable wastes
23.60 seconds of fame for anyone
24.Instant spirituality (or its fixes thereof)
25.Experimental relationships (bi-curious, f**k buddies, etc)
26.The increasing ‘Friends’ syndrome
27.30ies (even 40ies) is the new 20ies
28.Male grooming industry
29.Small is big in car designs

We invite you to add your thoughts to this list.Look through your telescope and do tell us the people/events/ideas or anything big you see happening in India '08.

Eighty Things to watch out for in 2008,JWT NewYork

2008-01-08T16:21:00.001+05:30

JWT NY, has released its list of 80 things to watch in 2008.
"These people, products, places, services and shifts will help to define 2008," says Ann Mack, director of trendspotting at JWT."By examining what will resonate with people or drive their thinking and behavior, we can identify larger patterns that will shape all of our lives in the years to come. Love it or hate it, technology continues to be a common thread on our list, it drives the serendipitous randomness that throws up chance connections, groundbreaking discoveries and great business ideas."

JWT's list of 80 Things to Watch in 2008, in alphabetical order:
1. Africa (foreign investment and development in)
2. Antibiotic backlash
3. Assisted marriage
4. Beijing 2008
5. Blue replacing green as the environmental movement's color du jour
6. Brain exercises
7. British actress Keira Knightley
8. Carbon tax
9. Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang
10. Classical musician Gustavo Dudamel
11. Climate sightseeing
12. Continuation of comebacks (Indiana Jones, The Cure, etc.)
13. Cooperative consumption
14. Couch surfing
15. Country branding (Oman, Indonesia, etc.)
16. Designer Phillip Lim
17. De-teching
18. DJ Tiesto
19. DNA-based exercising
20. E-clutter (and e-clutter consultants)
21. Eco-fatigue
22. E-mail etiquette
23. Facebook suicides
24. Fashion label Vena Cava
25. Foreign government investment (e.g., China, UAE) in U.S. companies
26. French President Nicolas Sarkozy
27. Game 3.0 (gamer-generated global gaming)
28. Google's Android
29. Gossip Girl
30. Gphone
31. Green weddings
32. Higher education online
33. Hip-hop's Retro Kids
34. Humbling of the hedge fund manager (anti-excess post sub-prime)
35. Hybrid taxis
36. Indian actress Deepika Padukone
37. Intellectual luxury
38. Investigating ingredients
39. Japanese designs (Tsumori Chisato, Uniqlo, Muji, etc.)
40. Kitchen appliances as new power tools
41. Lifestyle curators
42. Lipstick trumping lip gloss
43. Manga-inspired clothes
44. Mobile technology explosion
45. Mobulimia
46. Music as awareness driver; concerts and other residuals as cash cow
47. Musicovery (music tailored to moods)
48. Myanmar
49. Nollywood (the rise of Nigerian cinema)
50. Outsourcing to Ukraine (and other Eastern European countries)
51. Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto
52. Pantone's 18-3943 (blue iris)
53. Pets in the office
54. Prius homes
55. Radical transparency
56. Radiohead repeats (name-your-own-price music)
57. Recycling into fashion (Nau, Gary Harvey, etc.)
58. Selfless as the new selfish
59. Sex and the City, the movie
60. Shiny Toy Guns (the band)
61. Skiing in novel spots (Kashmir, Japan, Greenland, Russia, Korea,etc.)
62. Single men saying no to sex
63. Skype sex
64. Smart Cars in American cities
65. SNS (social network service) brand communities
66. Spanish actor Javier Bardem
67. Staycations
68. Sturking
69. Tequila as the new wine
70. The N-11
71. Third screen (the mobile screen) rivaling the first screen
72. Trans-ertainment
73. U.S. gymnast Shawn Johnson
74. U.S. presidential election
75. Vicarious consumption
76. (Video) Gaming Olympics
77. Virtual gifting
78. Wannabe young Internet entrepreneurs (a.k.a. Mark Zuckerbergcopycats)
79. Weak dollar/strong euro
80. Women juggling men

Tech Talk 1: Shaleen Sharma, JWT Planning, Delhi

2008-01-08T15:55:00.000+05:30

I remember seeing one of the communications about Toyota that proudly proclaimed Toyota as “The Machine that changed the world”. It did talk about Toyota, but in a way it also spoke about the sheer domination of the automobile category that defined popular imagination for much of the last century.
It is said that Americans romanticized their cars so much that till around 1950’s close to two thirds of all marriage proposals were actually popped up on the back seat of a car!But all this is set to change, with the advent of another machine that people call the mobile phone. If automobiles were objects of romanticization, mobile phones have become the objects of obsession.
The Guardian already estimates that at least 56 different functionalities have by now converged to that piece of handset you hold in your hand.But the question that is doing the rounds now is how is the next trajectory of mobility going to evolve? First came voice, followed by data, text and then came imaging, music and now we have live, real time video streaming!

The question begets the answer that with 3 billion users already logged in-what is the next killer app and how is it going to intersect with the modern day, time challenged consumer?Unlike computing, the innovation map within the mobility eco system is diffused. While Japan is known for its mobile services innovation, South Korea has successfully shown what mobile broadband innovation can do. Telcos in the US are known for mobile applications whereas Europe is taking the lead in design and fashion aspects of the device.
So, where does the centre lie? We have seen intelligent handsets that compute and smart phones that organize your schedule. Now phones will be used to relay information, encrypt data, compress video files and act as real time gaming devices! Recently, Nokia announced its global software and services push, with the launch of Ovi-its music and gaming download portal and MOSH-Social Networking site compatible to mobile phones.
Why would Nokia do so?

There are three consumer trends here:
* One is as Gartner correctly opined, that close to 60% of the value that a consumer pays for is now “services led” and “handset independent”. This means that there will be a complex mobile services ecosystem that will come into play.Surely Nokia doesn’t want to miss that. For example, In Japan, you can already pay your bills, swap your employee card and watch movies with your mobile. This trend is going to explode around the world.
* The second trend is of physical mobility. Nat Geo says that close to 85% of the world population is now always on the move, as compared to 70% in the 90s and 61% in the 80s! Of course, convenience is another big driver and therefore the term “mobile services”.
* The third trend is the web itself. A medium that spews information, is a repository of your personal records like banking and healthcare and is available anytime anywhere.

Serendipitously, the mobile phone is the gateway that links all these three trends seamlessly. Nokia seems to have realized earlier than most.But competition is awakening too. Apple will reportedly open the i-phone platform for other developers to create web applications. Google has recently launched its own standard for mobile operations called Android. The game is getting interesting and my guess is that Google because of its previous experience in web related advertising services is better positioned to leverage this opportunity than a hardware manufacturer like Nokia. But Nokia has always surprised analysts.

Coming up next on Tech Talk: how “mobile services” strategy for different players is going to pan out in developing countries like India.

Why agencies should employ more fish: Guy Murphy

2007-12-16T16:03:00.000+05:30

Excerpts from Guy Murphy’s talk at Provoke 2.0, the JWT India Planners Meet 2007

A Planners job is to help create great brands. In so doing, a Planner should help create opportunities for great creative work, and help inspire the creation of that work. Or at least increase the chances of those things happening.

Networked Creativity

The most successful global entertainment properties on TV started life as successful local entertainment properties that were exported from country to country. Sex and City, Survivor, Big Brother are global successes that started life being right for the US, Sweden and Holland respectively. It is hard to imagine what ‘Sex and the City’ would have been like if it was originally conceived as a global entertainment property. Certainly the name would have changed. Global focus groups would have re-titled it ‘Sex, but not before marriage, and never unprotected, in the city, and in rural areas’.
But when a TV production company sets out to create a global success formula from the start then the result is creatively weak. Miss World, the Eurovision Song Contest and It’s a Knockout are global TV formats that tend to be creatively weak.
Great global ideas start life as great local ideas. The trick is to encourage local ideas, spot the great ones and export them to other places. We call this ‘Networked Creativity’.

Vision rather than Insights
The second area in which I sense we are narrowing our inspiration is to do with a thing called consumer insight. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone says this phrase.
Consumer insight is becoming some kind of Holy Grail for marketers and Agency people. The current belief is that you can’t have a great strategy or a great creative brief or a great piece of advertising if it doesn’t contain some insightful thought about the target audience at the centre.
We have gone insight mad. I sensed that things had gone too far when last year I was asked by someone, who’s job title was ‘Head of Consumer Insight’, to speak at their conference, which was entitled, ‘Consumer Insight’, and her brief to me was, ‘Could I speak about, ‘my insights about consumer insights’.
We seem to have forgotten that consumer insight and insight generally is a means to an end and not an end in itself. The quality of consumer insight is entirely dependent upon the quality of the creative work it can inspire.
But there is a bigger point here. Great creativity does not require consumer insight. Consumer insight can sometimes help but it can be completely absent from the creation of something wonderful. There are many, many other things that can help great creative work than consumer insight.
But I am trying to make a bigger point than simply cast doubt on consumer insight. I don’t dislike consumer insight at all. Like many others these days, I am concerned that the role of agencies is increasingly seen as a narrow one. The more we are reduced to ‘insight spotters’ the more it negates the bigger role we can actually play.
Our creativity must be used to help businesses and brands take huge leaps forward. We should be creating big, new, delicious futures that provide creative opportunities in abundance. If on the way we unearth a consumer insight or two then marvellous but let’s not get dragged down into the level of insights at the beginning. The question should always be, ‘what vision do we have for this brand?’ not ‘how can we get the right consumer insight?’
Stephen King spoke about the importance of Planners being ‘Grand Strategists’. Men and women who could look to the long term, create a view for how a brand could be, and map out what solutions would be needed - communications, product, distribution. Be ‘Brand Designers’, he said. From this wide perspective creative people can graze on the finest opportunities that are just not afforded by an insight or two.

Long term brand ideas vs short term execution
In times of great change we all have to spend time learning all the new things. And right now those things are very executional. How should we best use interactivity in communication? What’s the right way to advertise on mobile phones? How should brands communicate on social networking sites? How should we integrate our use of different media channels? What is the right balance of budget for on and off-line communication?
These are all very important questions to ask, and difficult questions to answer. But we must keep asking and keep trying to answer these questions.
However, there is a danger that we are getting trapped in execution. We try to solve the problems of all the bits and pieces of communication but never look to see what it all adds to. Adding a great new on-line game to a campaign can often be a source of pride but what is it doing to the make the overall effect greater? We can often get excited about a great execution for YouTube that secures millions of views but what does it add up to when viewed alongside the rest of the communication for a brand?
We should not just be creating executional greatness for the bits of a campaign we should understand what the sum of the bits could be.
Stephen King wrote back in the 1970s that brands were becoming diced up into separate parts as different agencies were getting their hands on different aspects of the brand’s marketing. He pointed out that a brand is a holistic entity that must be planned as such. I think his fears are ever more true today.
The most consistently brilliant creativity that I see these days comes from brands that seem to have a very clear sense of what they are and what they want to become. It is no surprise that we see great work from clearly defined brands like Dove, Apple, Playstation, Axe… They have brand ideas. Long-standing, creatively fertile brand ideas.
Having these ideas makes it so much easier to know how to navigate all those difficult questions I mentioned. The question becomes not ‘how to advertise on mobile devices? but – in the case of Nike – ‘how to use mobile devices to encourage a sense of Just do it?” A different and much better question to be addressing
Better creativity will come from getting brand ideas first before diving into the executional bits. They will provide a clearer guide for using all the new media channels, allow for more creative opportunities in the long term, and hold the creative work together to build a coherent and exciting brand.

Summary
I would urge us all to find greater creativity in looking more broadly and searching more widely. We need to have fish-eyes, seeing the whole picture.
Let’s push ourselves to take a proper look around the world for inspiration and not get stuck thinking that great ideas must come from certain cities.
Let’s push for Grand Strategies that open up big new creative opportunities and not just fiddle with consumer insight stuff.
And let’s use the power of brand ideas to drive us to bigger creative campaigns rather than getting stuck in one-off execution.

Murphy's Laws: Interview with Brand Equity

2007-12-13T10:40:00.000+05:30

Murphy's Laws, The Economic Times, by Ravi Balakrishnan, December 12, 2007

Guy Murphy is bit of an anachronism in the world of planners - where the mere mention of 'consumer insight' makes many of his contemporaries all misty-eyed, his take on this most-beloved trope of account planning is decidedly contrarian. The planner who swears by JWT's Stephen King (regarded as the originator of account planning) finds himself in the agency his icon helped build, charged with the task of driving its creative agenda. Murphy aims at building the industry's most networked team of planners, and has them pinging each other with suggestions and information on pitches via a dedicated group on Facebook. Taking time out from a day spent inspiring and evaluating JWT India's clutch of planners, Murphy, JWT's global planning director, speaks his mind on research, creativity and lots more.

For an agency that was grounded in strategy, how was the creative resurgence received by account planners at JWT?
I think the creative resurgence has been received very well by everybody, especially planners; it's the reason we joined the business. The bit that was less clear was what the role was for planners in the new agenda. It's not a complicated answer - planners are fundamental to a move for a more creative agency. The options for how a brand can communicate are so many that you need someone to make sense of it all. That's the preserve of the planning department - to guide us through a complicated world and do things with a proper sense of 'why' rather than just to be trendy and new.

Do you believe part of the reason you were brought in from BBH (where he was deputy chairman) was to reassert the importance of planning at JWT?
It's not that they needed me or any head of planning to apply to a certain recent initiative or issue. But you are not a complete management line-up without a head of planning. One of the reasons why I was an acceptable candidate is I'm a firm believer in the quality of creative work, and the role of planning to help deliver that.

In a lot of agencies, with planning taking the centrestage and arrogating for itself the thinking part of the business, what is the future of account management?
The future of account management… that's a $64,000 question! My belief is we are seeing equality of relationships. What I see in the emphasis of creativity is a re-balancing to ensure the creative voice is heard. I don't think anybody knows what the role of account management is in the future. Something I'd point to is that nowadays there are many, many agencies involved in a campaign. And one of the skills is to help know how to handle multiple agencies and lead them in a kind of collaborative force to create a great answer. Account management could be the specialist in becoming the lead agency pointing others in the right direction and helping them work together.

There are several definitions of planning in vogue - from Stephen King's conception of the planner being a combination of a marketing person and a media person to the idea of a planner being the voice of the consumer within an agency. How would you define the role?
Planners help build great brands and in so doing provide exciting creative opportunities for the agency. King spent no time really trying to define what planning was. One of the dangers of the discipline is that it becomes too obsessed with itself. There will always be many definitions, but that doesn't mean people are unclear on what it is. It's just that we do things in so many different ways.

There was a feeling even among the Account Planning Group a few years ago that planning was becoming a bit too esoteric and self indulgent…
As an industry, planners have to stop worrying about what they do and whether it's helping. In some way, it's a reflection of our intellectual honesty and integrity - being constantly concerned about adding value. We don't have an obvious metric. Creatives have awards and account management has client satisfaction surveys and budgets. Those are false metrics anyway, but people rest on them. I really don't have much time for the question - the answer is clear and we should just go on and do it. Besides, I don't think we are arcane…

In many advertising case studies, planners switch between debunking research entirely and using it to ratify their strategies - there are enough examples of both approaches having succeeded. How do you decide when to go with research and when to disregard it?
You should never see research as an arbiter of a decision. It's just one of the tools and inputs. There are many other factors to be considered - what you believe internally, what the sales force considers appropriate… But for many, it has become the yes/no gate, which shouldn't be the case. If you have a strong enough vision of how the world should be and have a well-founded belief in that vision, then it's fine. Most of the time, when we've done a good job, we change the world a little. Research is never going to come back easy on those answers.

How did your current mistrust of consumer insights as they are popularly used in the advertising context develop?
I've always believed there are many things that can get you to a good answer - not just understanding consumers. I'm not against insights; they are useful. And I'm not saying don't talk to or try and understand the consumer. I used insights a little, but never particularly stuck to it. My personal style of planning (and that of agencies I've been with before) always prided itself on originality and uniqueness. But over the past two or three years, we've been bombarded with 'what's the insight?' It's becoming a frenzy now, eclipsing other things. Ideas are being rejected because they are perhaps not 'insightful' enough. People seem happier with consumer insights more than the work; they think the creative product is great because it stems from an insight. It becomes a big magnet that everything is drawn towards to the exclusion of other things. Processes are being designed primarily to get a consumer insight.

JWT has a team of trendspotters on board - how does the planning department work with them, considering in many other agencies planners themselves are expected to play this role? Do you commission your studies to them?
There are people in New York, Italy… some in Argentina. Those are the three places I know for sure, where they quite formally do trendspotting work. In South America, 'cool hunting', as they call it, has become a real fashion right now. Trendspotting is just one of our inputs. Their work gets published into the network and sometimes externally too - that's how people have heard of Marian Salzman.
They are involved in two types of assignments - Marian and her team will have an eye out for what future trends might be. They commission work, explore it and maybe publish it. By the end of every year, they'll come up with what's going to happen next year. We have access to that information. The second aspect is when we have a particular point on an account and want to try to understand; for instance, notions of beauty and femininity in the case of Estee Lauder. We used the trendspotters to find what it means at the moment, and how it was going to be in the future… and that becomes one of our inputs.

All about the King of Planning

2007-12-12T16:31:00.000+05:30

"Advertising has many gurus, many professors, many geniuses, and many mavericks. But only one King.” So said the Delhi ad club invitation to hear Stephen King speak in 1992!

Who was he?

Stephen King was a genuinely original thinker. He began his career in JWT (J. Walter Thompson) in London in 1959, retired from the agency in 1988 and spent the next 4 yeas at WPP. In addition, he spent 7 years as a director of the Henley Centre and was a Visiting Professor of Marketing at the Cranfield School of Management. During his career, he pioneered an entirely new organizational structure to support his ideas and philosophy – the importance of a function called account planning and the role of the account planner in creating advertising. It was a structure that was copied by agencies around the world. Stephen died in February 2006, leaving a legacy of articles and books about marketing, advertising, research and brand communications written over a thirty year period, which have influenced advertising people around the world. He is remembered as a leading intellectual figure in the world of communications strategy.

What he did

Stephen King was the originator of the discipline of Account Planning – gave the advertising industry the thinking and the theory it needed, and the organizational structure that exists even today.
He saw account planners on a scale of grand strategists – intellectual, aim to see the big picture, are a little above the fray, and almost economists, to advert tweakers - who peer myopically at advertisements, justify creative work to skeptical clients and are almost qualitative researchers.
He created the Account Planners toolkit: “this manual contains J Walter Thompson’s views on how to plan the most effective advertising. This is what account planning is for; to get the most effective advertising.”
He gave JWT the underpinning of its reputation in being strong in strategy, doing the right thing for brands and building long term brand value.

Some of the tenets which defined JWT Planning and became part of its DNA

"Great planning is grounded creativity".
“Creative imagination subjected to critical control.”
“Planning is about learning and improvement, not proof and magic solutions.”
“Proof/data in not just about the fact that the advertising worked, but how and why it worked.”
“Work out the right problem to solve.”
“Be precise in the role of advertising.”

The principles that Stephen King set out are all the operating principles even today.

*Advertisements vs advertising
*Stimulus vs response: it’s not what advertising does to people but how people respond to advertising
*The role of advertising, and the scale of immediacy that he devised and the theory that advertisements can work at several points in the scale:
- direct (response)
- seek information(tell me more)
- relate to own needs, wants, desires ( what a good idea)
- recall satisfaction, reinforce, reorder (that reminds me)
- modify attitudes (really?)
- reinforce attitudes(i always knew I was right)
*What sort of research to do depends on which is the most important role for advertising
*Toolkit that spanned the planning cycle, consumer buying system, brand objective, unique brand personality, target group, target responses, role of advertising, choice of medi, creative brief as stimulus and the advertising idea
*Advertising must not only get the right response but also stimulate the maximum intensity of response.
*Long term effects can be harder to evaluate but maybe more valuable to the advertiser than short term effects and so must not be overlooked when setting the advertising budget. It can help to have a unique hold over the hearts and mind of consumers.
*Measuring added value and long term effect.
*Advertising budget setting and market modeling.
*Constant search for what is measurable and what is not, and the need to balance good data with judgement.

What Stephen King means to JWT Planning: Guy Murphy, Worldwide Planning Director, JWT

“Stephen King’s thinking forms a big part of the JWT brand of Planning that I want to pursue. Please read his work and enjoy his prescience and clarity.”
“I first read his work when I was a Trainee Account Planner at BMP, I quoted his thinking on brands to clients throughout my time at BBH, and now I find myself at JWT, where of course, the culture is steeped in his planning heritage, and my files are full of his writing.”

JWT launches "A Master Class in Brand Planning: The Timeless Works of Stephen King"

2007-12-10T16:28:00.000+05:30

JWT planners converged at their annual meet Provoke 2.0 last week to welcome Guy Murphy, their Worldwide Planning Director and discuss account planning visionary Stephen King’s stunning relevance.

The meet saw the launch of the book "A Master Class in Brand Planning: The Timeless Works of Stephen King". Prophecies of the King, an evening with the media was a celebration of the life of a man regarded as the father of account planning. In the picture you see Shweta and Vishal, two of the youngest planners, receiving the first copies of the book form Guy Murphy, and Rohit Ohri, managing Partnet, JWT Delhi.

Published by Wiley, the book contains 20 of King’s most important articles. Each one is introduced by a respected practitioner who describes the relevance of the article to the communications environment today. The contributors include professionals from Ogilvy, WPP, Marketing Society, Market Leader, Interbrand, Mindshare, BBDO andJWT among others.

For those who may not know, King was the originator of the discipline of Account Planning – he gave the advertising industry the thinking and the theory it needed, and the organisational structure that exists even today. In fact, when he was in Delhi in 1992, an invitation to hear him speak at the Ad Club said," … advertising has many gurus, many professors, many geniuses, and many mavericks. But only one King”!

What he said about advertising

“Don’t measure what advertising does to people, start at the other end and ask what people do with ads.”

“If advertising is to succeed, it has to involve the receiver and entice him into participating actively in whatever is being communicated about the brand. It has to stretch his imagination and make him an accomplice.”

“ Advertisements compete not only with other advertisements but also with editorial, programmes, people, events and life itself… all of us spend our lives subconsciously zapping what we have decided almost instantaneoulsly , not to be interested in”.

What he said about consumers

“Consumers nowadays are extremely expert in advertising; they see a great deal of it and they have quite precise – and usually accurate – ideas about what it’s for. Again and again research has shown them analyzing advertisements much as agency people or brand managers do, often using the same jargon. They show skills in decoding visual imagery, working out the strategy, picking up clues, seeing the company behind the brand, accepting quick cuts, recognizing the actors in voice-overs, and so on.
What has changed most in recent years is that today they are more inclined to believe that not just the brand but advertising itself should give them some sort of reward – aesthetic, emotional or intellectual. They see advertisements not only as a medium through which company talks to them but also as part of the style, skills and personality of the company itself. To them, the style of the advertising is as much a part of a brand as the pack is.”

All this he said in the 70s!

Glimpses form the book flap

“The book tells the modern young planner in these pressed times who they are and what they should be.”
- Malcolm White, Planning Partner, Krowe

"What is a Brand?’ by Stephen King was one of the most influential pieces of work ever and has had a lasting influence on the way in which I think about brands. A few years ago I had the extraordinary experience of re-visiting the video of it made by Stephen and Jeremy Bullmore and the stunning thing was how prescient they had been some thirty years previously.
- Hamish Pringle, Director General, IPA

"King’s relentless thirst to understand, rigour of questioning and breadth of learning remain an inspiration. A profoundly rewarding, and rather humbling read.
- Adam Morgan, author of Eat the Big Fish, and The Pirate Inside

Media coverage on the book launch

http://www.agencyfaqs.com/main1.html
http://www.exchange4media.com/e4m/news/newfullstory.asp?section_id=1&news_id=28879&tag=23786

Employee Engagement and the New Age KarmaYogi

2007-11-21T14:24:00.000+05:30

(A version of this piece appeared in The Economic Times, Nov 16, 07)

Beauty packages for diwali, karva chauth on office terraces, weaving in sports and games into work lives and presence on Second Life… increasingly, employee is consumer and employee delight is part of talent recruitment, training and retention. But is it making any real difference? Are organisations missing the woods for the trees in the search for employee engagement?

A Towers Perrin study in 18 countries (including India), among 90,000 workers reports that only one in five employees were engaged. The study defines engagement as the degree to which workers connect to the company emotionally, are aware of what they need to do to add value, and are willing to take that action. Higher engagement led not only to retention but also increased profits. And, most importantly it was senior managers that drove employee engagement, (not just feel-good HR activities). India, incidentally, emerged the third most engaged country, next to Mexico and Brazil!

So what exactly do leading edge employees in India want? The Power and the Glory, a recent JWT Brand Chakras study on the global Indian, revealed the complete centrality of work is worship. But these new age karma yogis are clear: work is worship, but only at the altar of power, fame and money. Four very clear desires and demands emerged.

One: Work is an avenue of creativity and innovation, therefore organisational backing of ideas is imperative. This needs to be seen in the light of: a) growing unwillingness to work for others and need to get credit for one’s own work and not give it to the company; and b) a disdain for large organizations even though they work in them, and a belief that individuals and the wisdom of the crowds is faster on the innovation curve.

Two: Work must help to “build my name larger than the organisation”. Careers should provide adequate scope for personal evolution and growth, even while offering monetary rewards. And must, sooner rather than later, bestow a larger-than-life status, leading to social and professional influence and clout.

Three: Work must lead to opportunities to be part of the Indian badge on the world stage. Work is part of their celebration of living, and a keen desire for enriching experiences. So they expect continuous broadening of horizons, skill enhancement, early positions of power and responsibility, and opportunities to ride the crest of technological advances – so that they can evolve a larger world view. Through work, they “want a name for boosting the country’s economy” and satisfy the thirst to play a role in the global impact India is going to have; create jobs, wealth and technology.

Four: Eventually, enriching spiritual and emotional experiences – so that they can “give back”, positively influence others’ destinies and be put on a pedestal. They feel a certain responsibility to make India a better place. Twenty eight year olds are already talking of “going back to my village and doing sericulture”. Or “I’m earning two lakhs a month as a surgeon, so I give free medicines on Sundays at home. My patients say I’m God. I tell them no, but they can put me next to him.”
On his part, his personal strategies are in three large areas.

One: invest intellect and energy in work, seize the initiative in any situation, be open minded and adventurous with respect to exploring career opportunities - not letting geographical boundaries or cultural differences come in the way.
Two: get spouse and family to buy into his vision of his career; spell out the rewards at stake for them – compensation for not making them the fulcrum of his life. “My wife must actively help and support the search for glory. She is second to career, and she knows it and it is to her advantage, because my success will brings her also greater social respect’. Equally, working women want husbands to “be a source of inspiration” in their own similar quest.
Three: cultivate the power of networking by shrewd choice of friends and contacts because “ you never know when they’ll come in handy”.

Underlying all this, are two fundamental shifts in corporate life.

The first is a reduction of distance to the leadership. Psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar, in his book The Indians, cites the GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organisational Behaviour Effectiveness) study as confirming that “what younger managers in India most dearly wish for is a reduction in the power distance between the leader and the led”. He goes on to draw a curious parallel in the transition of father-son relationships in middle class family life – from the formality and restraint of the authoritative joint family patriarch who struggles to express his love for his children to the more involved playmate of today, available to both sons and daughters.

The second is a greater demand on the leadership for inspiration, collaboration, communication, and nurturing. Again, Sudhir Kakar points out the basic Indian tendency to idealize the leader, avoid realistic evaluations and ignore his weaknesses. But not any more. Young global Indians too are revising their expectations of their leaders.The JWT Brand Chakras study showed that younger people like to use their talent to have a hold on their leaders, while older managers say dealing with younger people is one of their key challenges.

Will Indian senior management move quickly to harness the power of the new age karma yogi? Or absorbed in their own worship, expect mehendi, kickboxing and film screenings to do the trick?

Here are a couple of ads that reflect different aspects of work is worship.

Brand Chakras Study: Mother India

2007-10-25T16:41:00.000+05:30

MOTHER INDIA: FROM CHILDREN AS RESPONSIBILITY
TO CHILDREN AS OPPORTUNITY

The Indian Mother-and-Child is now a team with a shared vision, with mothers actively believing they can shape their children’s destiny for mutual benefit, says the latest JWT Brand Chakras™ study.

Close on the heels of The Power and the Glory, which studied the Global Indian, JWT now looks at payoffs that mothers want from their children and vice versa, through Brand Chakras™.

The insight mining exercise was done in eight centers - Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkatta, Kanpur, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Trichur, and covered SEC A, B mothers with children between 8 and 16, through group discussions, and depth interviews with pairs of mothers and their children.

Enabling and empowering, coach and companion, event manager and project manager, motherhood has moved beyond protection, nurturance, compassion and selflessness. The child is now a project and a mission, and industriousness, determination, passion and planning are the dominant traits. The children too are taking the roti- kapada-makaan for granted and are looking to the mother to give them the headstart they need in life and ensure that they remain focused.

Other shifts include: from living for the moment to constantly shaping the future; from child’s success to shared glory; and a clear staking of claims on the eligibility for the fruits of success.

Emotional elasticity, reasonable adult-like conversations, retaining locus of control while appearing to be democratic, love that includes toughness and a steeling of the heart, are some of the mother’s strategies.

Children in return are conscious of the contribution that their mothers make in their current lives by donning the roles of organizer, guide, enforcer, and friend. While there may be the usual squabbles over food, outings and social activities, children do indeed look to their mothers to give them courage, inspiration, help them set and achieve their goals and fill them with a will to win. Mother is both cushion and launch pad… giving new meaning to the famous line “mere paas maa hai”! They seem to be defining success in terms of living up to the mother’s expectations. Though, “itna tenson nahin lene ka” is also something they’d like to say to the mothers!

All mothers showed a strong inclination to Power chakra qualities, but three types of mothers emerged:
The Lifeline Seeker: she has given up hopes of the husband improving their lives and is totally dependant on the child to rise to glorious levels and rescue her; looking for insurance and security, she will do everything she can to help them in this journey, but is clearly establishing her rights to the fruits of this labour.
The Coronation Seekers: she is hoping her child’s achievements will bring her out of a life of oblivion and bestow on her a halo for greater social conquest… the child is an opportunity to make an overwhelming statement about herself.
The Independence Seeker: her striving to excel in the mother role is geared to fostering independence and self-reliance in her child, so that she will have the freedom and space for her own pursuits; motherhood enhances her efficiency and gives her exposure that helps her discover unexplored facets of herself.

The implication for brands is that:
*brands need not necessarily choose between mother or child as target but could talk to the duo; *must reflect the new sets of motherhood values and attitudes;
*need to find a role in the shared vision and future that they are chasing;
*salute the mother, Maa thujhe salaam for a new set of reasons;
*connect with the philosophy of effort and determination that she is trying to instill;
*focus on the 15 Chakra payoffs that children chose from the battery of 60 fundamental payoffs; *draw from the mothers’ behaviour codes across the seven chakras that the study has identified.

While the study focused on mothers, it has revealed three types of fathers too – according to the mothers!

The Genuine Partner: who tries to play a synergistic role willingly taking up activities which are beyond the mother’s competence;
The Conveniently Detached: who is taking it easy, capitalizing on the mother’s high involvement and taking up the provider stance to negate criticism of his lack of involvement; and
The Cynically Detached: who disagrees with the approach, perceives the mother as crossing the line and fostering too much dependance, and feels children need a more hands-off approach.

Brand Chakras™ is the first Indian strategic planning tool that applies the 2000 year old chakra system as laid out by Patanjali, to consumers and brands. This original system of understanding human behaviour based on the seven major nerve/energy centers in the human body has never been used in marketing, and is an initiative of Strategic Planning at JWT India. http://www.brandchakras.com/

For further information, write to Mythili.Chandrasekar@jwt.com

When was the last time you Ego Surfed?

2007-10-15T18:03:00.000+05:30

Have you ever wondered what might come up when you Google your name, your blog or website? Or, how many times your blog has been searched for or looked up ?

EgoSurf.org loves egos and believes they need nurturing! “Egosurf helps massage the web publishers ego, and there by maintain the cool equilibrium of the net itself”, they say!
The ego ranking, they say, is arrived at by using “A highly secretive and complex algorithm developed over months of work, utilizing the best mathematics brains in Weston-super-Mare, to calculate the cubic volume (in cm3) of ego contained in your search engine experience.”

Take a look and enjoy this ego soothing, boosting or crushing experience as the case maybe!

http://www.egosurf.org/

The Prepared Mind

2007-10-15T17:59:00.000+05:30

Monica’s super clean obsession hilariously brings out the hidden “control freak” side of the other wise normal individual. A refreshing idea for a cleaning product waiting to be taken?

And the effect our “ super-cleaner “ has on people living with her!

The Dove Onslaught

2007-10-15T17:51:00.000+05:30

For the past couple of years, the Dove campaigns on “Real beauty” have been attempting to alter popular perceptions of women and beauty.

In continuation with this theme, Dove’s latest communication, centered on young girls, urges parents to “protect” their little girls from the harmful and self-deprecating messages of the “beauty industry”.

The global debate on the Dove commercial has been on these lines:
Critics state that, as a product, Dove isn’t herbal, organic or even seaweed-based so why is Dove supposed to be pure, safe and most importantly- not a part of the beauty industry? Added to this, Dove urges women to feel comfortable with their natural body contours, while selling anti-cellulite gels. It is still trying to sell beauty products at the end of the day, they say.
Supporters argue that, even if it is to sell beauty products, the attempt to boost the self-esteem of women and urging them to accept themselves “as they are” deserves praise. Their commercials do not feed on the “media-generated” inadequacies of the female form and thereby do not sell on the basis of insecurity or fear.

So is it genuine concern or just clever advertising?

2007-10-04T10:18:00.000+05:30

Any Male In Sight ?

We start a new stream of thought here, looking at men from all angles! Over the next few months we will look at Men and the Seven Deadly Sins, What Men Chase, Male Bonding, Conflicts in Men, and more.

To start with, we bring you the latest wave maker in JWT: from JWT Paris, the feelings of a man looking at the woman welcoming the new member in their family, a portrayal of age-old father-son rivalry for... guess which category?

Where have all the men gone?

2007-10-03T18:54:00.000+05:30

Where have all the men gone? Suresh Mohankumar, JWT Planning, Chennai

Simple, they have turned into cars; if we were to believe Maruti that is!!
But men have been missing from advertising and sitcoms for a very, very long time now. With the lenses being focused elsewhere, the media has been full of stories of the ‘new woman’. It has been so for quite some time now. Some call her the ‘post modern woman’. She is highly qualified and her economic independence has set in motion social tremors that are bound to have far reaching implications.

She is the new super hero or should we say the super heroine. Most heroes through out the history of popular fiction have had sidekicks. Batman has Robin, Sherlock Holmes has Dr. Watson, Bugs Bunny has the hunter, and even Anil Kapoor has Jackie Shroff. So it should come as no surprise that she too has a sidekick. Thirty minutes of TV gazing will tell you exactly who this sidekick is. But unlike the sidekicks mentioned earlier this one is an absolute no-hoper.

Meet Mr. Buddhu. He is out there putting on his act to help sell cornflakes, cars, financial services products, cooking oil, credit cards, tea and pretty much everything else. More often than not, he also happens to be the significant “other” in our super heroine’s life.

There are certain traits that clearly mark him out

- He displays symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. He simply cannot remember anything especially when it comes to dates. Wedding anniversaries, birthdays, or even the date for paying the LIC premium; in fact you can safely depend on him to forget any significant date
- He cannot take a decision. Not to save his life. He needs to be pushed and prodded into it. He can’t even decide when and how to propose to his girl
- It is beyond him to resist temptations of any kind. Even when they come in the form of samosas and jalebis.
- He is absolutely and completely insensitive. He would much rather hear cricket commentary than listen to his wife talk during their anniversary dinner
- He is such a complete dud that he can’t even make out that his house is being cleaned out by goons even when he walks right past them as they carry the loot down the stairs.
- He is so way gone that he completely misses it when some really awesome looking women hit on him
- Taking his mind off something is child’s play. Just get him to drive around a little bit and he will even forget that ten out of hundred is really bad even if its in maths
- His interest in cricket does not mean that he knows how to get scores on his mobile; he needs his son’s help for this.
- It is not just advertising that has been running down men so meticulously. A quick check of the major sitcoms is ample proof that this breed is alive and kicking there. Two and a half men, Everybody loves Raymond, Fraser, The Office, Becker, According to Jim- the list is endless and the attributes quite clear
- Men have an exaggerated opinion of their self worth
- They can’t think of anything other than sex
- They are sloppy
- They chase trouble or rather trouble chases them and gets them all the time
- They cannot express themselves emotionally
- They cannot take a complement or give one well enough
- They are pathetic role models to their kids

The less said on the state of male characters in Hindi Television serials the better.
They are either, puppets moved along by the heroine/ the vamp or completely devoid of morals.

The classic time tested method of story telling, that has been practiced by authors since the time of Ramayana, follows a simple logic the goodness of one’s character gets amplified when it is juxtaposed against the evil of the other. The absolute smartness of the woman therefore has to be juxtaposed with the dudness of the man.

Or should it be? Do agencies and marketers need the help of a caricature ‘him’ to appeal to the woman? Do women really feel more perfect and fulfilled when they are communicated to in such a manner? Isn’t it time to break this stereotype? Isn’t it time that the real men stood up?

Why don't you tell us why you think this is happening in Indian advertising?

The Waiting Game

2007-09-12T15:34:00.000+05:30

The Waiting Game: Rasika Fernandes, JWT Planning, Delhi

Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.
Dr. Seuss, Oh The Place’s You’ll Go

Waiting. It’s something we hate to do but can’t evade.

But, from a marketer’s perspective, those precious seconds of doing nothing, of staring into oblivion, offers us a priceless opportunity to have a meaningful conversation with the reason for our being - Our Consumer.

That’s where the concept of Wait Marketing, propagated by Professor Diana Derval comes in.
Wait Marketing is about avoiding the need to be intrusive and bothering people when they are busy or enjoying themselves and communicating with them only and only when they are available and open to having a conversation with you.

It’s about finding a good place and time to communicate with people who might be receptive to what you have to say, because they have nothing better to do! That place and time is the moment of ‘waiting’. Waiting in a queue, waiting for your movie to begin, waiting in the doctor’s room, waiting for your bus, waiting when you’re downloading from the Internet…

Wait Marketing is people friendly and more effective because instead of being an intrusion in people’s lives, we try and find ways to enhance the dull moment of waiting by connecting with people in interesting, un-expected ways about things that interest them.

Studies published by independent advertising organisations, in Europe and in the US, confirm that consumers are at least 2 times more receptive while they are waiting. This is linked to the fact that advertising is in that particular context welcome. A TV ad, for instance, will be memorised by 17% of the consumers if they watch it on their TV screen at home. The same ad will be remembered by 27% of consumers if they see it while they are in the doctor’s waiting room.

A great example of Wait Marketing is that of MSNBC.com who launched a movie theater version of their web based game, called NewsBreaker where MSNBC.com headlines float to the bottom of the theatre screen and when players hit 25 of the headlines with their paddle, they gain another life.

In the theater version, instead of a single player moving a paddle left and right with a keyboard, the entire audience controlled the paddle together, moving it around by waving their arms.
A motion-sensitive camera in the front of the theater measured how the audience was moving its arms. The camera then translated that collective motion to an onscreen paddle that players used to bounce a ball back up to the top of the screen to knock out blocks. In effect, the audience became the joystick!

The game was being run in place of the advertisements that usually play before film previews and was received with much enthusiasm because it meaningfully engaged an otherwise waiting audience.
Your audience is waiting to be wooed! What are you waiting for?

For more information and examples on wait marketing visit
http://www.purple-guru.com/www.wait-marketing.com/Blog/Blog.html

http://www.buzzismedia.fr/index.php?Wait-marketing

http://ezinearticles.com/?Wait-Marketing:-Communicate-at-the-Right-Moment-at-the-Right-place&id=639759

P.S. On the flip side,surely there is a brand promise in this itself: “you don’t have to wait”.Here’s Seinfeld again, frustrated at a restaurant, waiting for a table.

Purchase Pathways

2007-09-12T14:46:00.000+05:30

It’s the treasure trail that every marketer is obsessed with.The purchasing behavior/pathway of consumers – known as the Buying System at JWT - is as unique as it is common.

Each category has it’s own path. From the display window to the shopping bag, there are as many paths as there are consumers.

In an attempt to put these paths into perspective, some directions have come out of a recent study conducted by Yahoo & OMD, titled “Long and Winding Road: The Route to the Cash Register”. Different purchase pathways of different categories as well as different kinds of people: http://www.scottweisbrod.com/index.php/?p=301

Different kinds of purchase pathways
· QUICK: This path involves little consideration. Consumer packaged goods are often quick paths.
· WINDING: Comparison-shopping between different channels, including online and offline retailers, typifies this path. Retail goods are often winding paths.
· LONG: This path involves researching various options over an extended period of time. Technology purchases are often long paths, particularly if the price tag is high.
· LONG AND WINDING: This path requires investing a considerable amount of time researching across several channels. Many big-ticket items — including automobiles and financial services — follow a long and winding path. These paths offer marketers the most opportunity to impact and possibly sway a purchase decision in their favor, because consumers of these products are the hungriest for information.

You can see the full report, The Long and Winding Road: the route to the cash register research here.http://www.scottweisbrod.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/Long_Winding_Road_v10.pdf

A related comment: the traditional marketing funnel is dead, measuring reach and frequency vs measuring engagement. http://www.scottweisbrod.com/index.php/?p=293

The Prepared Mind

2007-09-12T14:39:00.000+05:30

In continuation of our series, The Prepared Mind.

Two wonderful insights and two readymade ads. This time from FRIENDS.

1) Girls fantasize about their wedding dress long before they actually get married!

2) There are times in our lives when we bolt the door on a relationship, locking away our emotions– and sometimes we let them back in! What a wonderful way to look at locks.

If there are any FRIENDS fanatics out there, do write about your favourite scenes... anything that made you think "Hey, I must put that in an ad one day!".

The Prepared Mind: Insights are everywhere, are we looking?

2007-08-22T22:30:00.000+05:30

INSIGHTS! Easily the most used, misused, abused word in advertising! Perhaps the one question most often asked is, "achcha, you have any insights on...?"! But where on earth do you find them? The question really is, Are you looking? All the time?

"In the Field of Observation, Chance Favours the Prepared Mind" said Loius Pasteur. It really is no different in the field of advertising!

We start a series here, The Prepared Mind, jotting down stuff we see today, for use some day.

To start off, a couple of scenes from Seinfeld: a delightful moment while buying something expensive, and some post-purchase satisfaction.

Why is a good insight like a refrigerator?/ An all time favourite piece by JWT creative legend Jeremy Bullmore

2007-08-22T22:17:00.000+05:30

Here is an Insight: "Product satisfaction arises less from inherent construction and performance than from consumers' internalised perceptions of personal utility."

You may have found it faintly familiar; and - when you finally worked out what it meant - more than faintly obvious. What you won't have found it to be is exhilarating, inspiring, memorable, actionable, evocative. You will not have been tempted to repeat it to colleagues or include it in your next internal newsletter. Certainly, it contains a truth - and an important truth at that; but it just sits there.

Between 40 and 50 years ago, Professor Theodore Levitt famously told his Harvard Business School students: "People don't want quarter-inch drills. They want quarterinch holes." It's been quoted a million times ever since and enlightened generations of marketing people. But what if Professor Levitt had chosen to say this: "Product satisfaction arises less from inherent construction and performance than from consumers' internalised perceptions of personal utility." (Doesn't improve with repetition, does it?)

Whether from their research companies or their communications agencies, marketing companies today are unanimous in demanding insights. There seems to be no universal agreement on what an insight is but a reasonable definition would seem to be something like this: "A new understanding, probably of human behaviour or attitude, as a result of which action may be taken and an enterprise more efficiently conducted."

The call for insights is natural. To return to Levitt's dictum, marketing companies don't want research; they want enlightenment. Conventional market research, professionally conducted, can paint an invaluable picture of the immediate past; but companies also need help in forging their futures. That's what lies behind the demand for insights - but not all insights are equal. They come in two very different styles and with very different values. There are low-potency insights and there are high-potency insights. "Product satisfaction arises less from inherent construction and performance than from consumers' internalised perceptions of personal utility" is a low-potency insight. "People don't want quarter-inch drills. They want quarter-inch holes" is a high-potency insight.

Read the full article here, and find out why an insight is like a refrigerator, http://www.wpp.com/WPP/Marketing/Articles/whyisagoodinsightlikearefrigerator.htm

Planning For Good: Putting social networking to good use

2007-08-22T22:14:00.000+05:30

Planning for Good is a brand new group on Facebook formed with the intent of picking up causes, and using collective intelligence to offer solutions to non profit organisations.

With over 300 members already and growing every day, the first brief is out: The Idea Village, a non-profit venture that supports innovative businesses, must now encourage, motivate and retain young talent to elevate the next generation of leaders to reinvent New Orleans.

If you are on Facebook, check this out. If you are not on Facebook, then this is a terrific reason to get on to it.

Planners as Idea Thieves: A new model for network creativity

2007-08-22T21:37:00.000+05:30

Another recent Atticus winner, William Charnock, JWT Planning, New York writes about global and local creativity. "What’s wrong with global creativity is that we create a culture of can’t.The output of our process is invariably a list of reasons why creative ideas cannot work (a list of global considerations only the global team is aware of and can solve for). The victims of this process are the central creative teams who are fed a list of impossible demands. “No humor, it will not be understood in Germany”; “No use of language”; “It will not translate”; “No use of sports”; “No reference to numbers, as they have religious meaning”; “Colors too have secret meanings”; “Hand signals are out, as are animals”; “No sex, it will never be allowed on the US networks.” Anything people feel passionate about is deemed out of bounds for global creativity. But the internet and global communications have eroded the boundaries between local and global to the point where everything we create exists on a global stage. Whether we like it or not, advertising agencies are no longer in charge of what gets distributed to where—the consumer is. Global ideas are no longer the ones designated global by a global team; they are the ideas that have broad appeal and touch a nerve withconsumers in many parts of the world. Global ideas are simply the best ideas in the world that rise to the top and get circulated and distributed by the people who consume them. Global ideas are local ideas with world class potential."

He advocates a new model where planners should be ideas thief and idea modifier. 'Such a model changes how global teams work... their global role should be one of “idea thief” and “modifier.” As “idea thief,” the planner takes the best, most successful ideas and tries to identify why the idea worked so well locally and what it would take to replicate that successfully in different markets/cultures. As ”modifier,” the global planner takes local ideas and adds their own interpretation/execution of it, often merging or combining ideas from different markets that touch on a similar territory.'

Read the full article here, http://networkcreativity.com/

Unlocking Naturals: Shaziya's Recent Atticus Win

2007-08-22T21:33:00.000+05:30

JWT Planning, Mumbai, Shaziya Khan’s paper on Unlocking Naturals - a point of view on the under-exploited potential of “natural” products - won an Atticus Certificate of Merit this year. She argues that natural products may have been discovered in the past, but natural brands can be new age, bright and potentially iconic if taken out of the dark. Deeply embedded meanings and associations of naturals could be an incredibly appealing new age choice that encompasses life choices, design philosophies and spirited individualism, giving a powerful resonance to what ‘being natural’ really is.

Read the article which first appeared in BusinessWorld here,
http://www.businessworldindia.com/Aug0706/indepth01.asp

Or the Admap version here,
http://www.warc.com/ArticleCenter/Default.asp?CType=A&AID=WORDSEARCH84608&Tab=A

Welcome to Coffee and Donuts on the Net!

2007-08-12T20:44:00.000+05:30

To kick off Coffee and Donuts on the Net, we bring you Guy Murphy, JWT Worldwide Planning Director's post, "Objectives are for wimps" from the IPA Strategy Group blog.

And we marvel at the Atticus award winning paper written by Shaziya Khan, JWT Planning Mumbai, many years ago - see how what she said has come so true!

Objectives are for wimps/ Guy Murphy, JWT Worldwide Planning Director

2007-08-12T20:41:00.000+05:30

Objectives are for wimps

Guy Murphy JWT Worldwide Planning Director makes a case for spending more time defining objectives before getting into strategy discussions.

“ Why do we spend so little time thinking about the objective for communication? And why, instead, do we plunge so quickly into strategy?” he asks. “Having an objective tells us how to evaluate strategy. It also tells us how to judge levels of success. But most fundamentally, having the right objective means you have properly defined the problem and are therefore more likely to be successful.

I will always remember the tale of the tomato farmer whose tomato farming machinery was too big to pick the tomatoes. But instead of defining the problem as having the wrong machinery (and having to spend millions to upgrade), he defined the problem as not growing big enough tomatoes (needing only minor investment). A problem well defined is an objective well understood.So, if it is so important, why do we not talk much about objectives?”

Read his article “Objectives are for wimps” here http://ipastrategygroup.blogspot.com/2007/03/objectives-are-for-wimps.html