BRANDS NEED TO MILK THE POWER OF IRRATIONAL THOUGHT

Emotional Atyachar

BRANDS NEED TO MILK THE POWER OF IRRATIONAL THOUGHT

V I V E K K A U L

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Economic times, Brand equity, 7-10-2011

The late actor Ravi Vaswani did two famous films in his career.One was the cult classic feature film Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro,in which he plays a bumbling photographer called Sudhir Mishra.The other was an ad film for B-Tex ointment and lotion,which was a spoof of the hit song Oye Oye from the movie Tridev.The jingle for the ad went Oye oye,Oye oye,Khujli karne waale,B-Tex lagale

The advertisement first came out after Tridevs release in 1989.Those were the days of rational advertising,in which the benefits of the product were directly highlighted.Like the second line of the B-Tex jingle,which explained B-Tex lagake tu apni daad khaaj khujli mita le,Oye Oye.
Regular listeners of Vividh Bharti would definitely remember the jingle of Saridon,which went: Sirf ek Saridon,aur sir-dard se aaram.There was also the famous ad for Bajaj bulbs: Ab main bilkul boodha hoon,goli khakar jeeta hoon,lekin aaj bhi ghar ke andar roshni deta Bajaj.

Rational ads highlighting the benefits of a product worked beautifully for products whose usage had a direct,measurable sort of impact.Also they worked well at a point of time when product categories were not cluttered with many brands.But how do you advertise a product like Pan Parag pan masala Eating pan masala doesnt have any direct benefits,like the analgesic Saridon or B-Tex ointment.In fact,the consumption of pan masala is injurious to health.

So the original Pan Parag ad featuring the late veteran actors Ashok Kumar and Shammi Kapoor,played on the emotional irrational nerve of the consumer.The scene was that of a marriage being negotiated and almost settled when Shammi Kapoor says something to the effect of Par hum to aapko ek baat batana bhool hi gaye.This statement gets Ashok Kumar who is the girls father in the advertisement all worked up.Shammi Kapoor finally relieves the stress by saying Hum to bus itna chahte hain ke aap baratiyon ka swagat pan parag se kijiye.
Of course nobody started welcoming baratis with Pan Parag after the ad was released.However,the irrational exaggeration of the ad where the future father in law expects to be welcomed with Pan Parag ensured that consuming Pan Parag was no longer looked down upon as it was in the past and pushed it into the drawing rooms of middle-class India.I can vouch for it,given that my maternal grandfather was addicted to it for a very long time.The broader point here is that whenever a brand needs to make that leap of faith in the minds of the consumer,it needs to be advertised in an emotional,irrational sort of way.
Take the case of Cadbury Dairy Milk which came out with the Kuch khaas hai hum sabhi main ad.Who can forgot the beautiful girl running into and then dancing on a cricket field after her boyfriend (from the looks of it) hits a century while the jingle sung by Shankar Mahadevan jingle plays in the background!

Until then,Cadbury chocolate was something that children ate.After this ad,eating Cadbury became cool even for youngsters and the middle-aged.The brand made a quantum leap in the mind of the consumer.

The recent Idea ad featuring Abhishek Bachchan which shows how Idea 3G services are helping solve Indias population problem also falls into the same category.When all other telephone companies are busy talking about faster 3G speeds and lower prices,Idea has made a leap of faith and tried to make an emotional irrational connect with the prospective consumer in a category cluttered with big brands.

The other brands have been highlighting either the cheap price or a functional attribute,both of which are now taken by the consumer as a given.Reliance 3G ad shows how better streaming is possible by using its service.This is a direct,functional approach to advertising.But the point is that faster streaming in 3G is expected.

The Thums Up ad featuring Akshay Kumar also plays on the emotional and the irrational.It has Kumar doing stunts and jumping off buildings to get a single bottle of Thums Up.This ad has helped the brand make a leap of faith in the minds of the consumer as a drink that signifies the cool and the brave.The jumping Kumar seems to be telling the consumer,this is not a sissys drink,like some of its competing products.

The traditional mode in advertising is to highlight the functional attributes of a product,like the age-old Lifebuoy ad which claimed Tandurusti ki raksha karta hai Lifebuoy or the recent Complan ad which quoted a study that found out drinking Complan adds two inches on an average to the height of the child drinking it.

But when a brand has to make that perceptional leap of faith,it has to advertise itself in an emotional irrational sort of way.As William J.Cusick writes in All Customers are Irrational Research shows that 95 percent of our thought processes take place in the irrational,emotional subconscious.In other words,we think (whether we know it or not) through our emotions.
The Micromax Q7 mobile phone ad took this leap of faith quite literally,in a category where everyone is playing on features like lower price and longer battery life.The ad showed a boy walking around in a mall while using his Micromax Q7 mobile on which he is watching a movie,typing etc,all at the same time.He is so involved doing this that he pushes a waiter,kicks a kid and even pushes a lady,till he reaches a point where he misses a step and leaps from the top floor of the mall.And this is where the ad ends with a freeze shot.
vivek.kaul@timesgroup.com

Business Line : Features / BrandLine : And what of brand behaviour?

Business Line : Features / BrandLine : And what of brand behaviour?

ONLINE CAMPAIGNING - Recognizing firms tapping social media's potential

ONLINE CAMPAIGNING - Recognizing firms tapping social media's potential

B Y ABHILASHA O JHA & S URABHI AGARWAL ·························

NEW DELHI

abhilasha.o@livemint.com

http://epaper.livemint.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=22_09_2011_012_001&kword=&mode=1

A number of Indian companies are moving beyond merely leveraging social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to reach their target audiences. Companies are adopting business models around social media, using these platforms to market events, generate sales, intro- duce innovative concepts and even create a new market for their brands online.

To recognize such innova- tion, IndiaSocial--described on its website as a “social me- dia community“ to bring to- gether stakeholders in the “In- dian digital eco-system for en- gagement, sharing, learning and collaboration“--an- nounced the second edition of the IndiaSocial Case Chal- lenge, which awarded compa- nies integrating social media intelligently.

It received 105 submissions in three categories--best stra- tegic programme, best short- term campaign and best use of platform. Finally, nine case studies by Reebok, MTV, Channel [V], ArtistAloud.com, Kaya Skin Clinic, Max New York Life, Bookmyshow.com, Fastrack and Idea Cellular Ltd made the cut.

INNOVATION IN USE OF TECHNOLOGY To popularize Indiafest--a college fest featuring 11,000 students from 1,200 colleges-- Channel [V], Star India Pvt.
Ltd's music channel, roped in Mumbai-based E-Phoria Technologies Pvt. Ltd to offer radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for the event. The technology uses electronic tags attached to an object to transfer data.

With a budget of around `10 lakh, Channel [V] imported 15,000 RFID wristbands from China. “That's the cost of two hoardings in Mumbai for 10 days each,“ said Prem Kamath, general manager, Channel [V].
Though the budget was low, the online impressions, which had audiences swiping these wristbands at especially creat- ed Facebook booths at the ven- ue, were massive. At least, 6,000 people swiped their RFID wristbands to create more than 12 million impres- sions on Facebook in barely 48 hours. “We wanted to engage the youth all over India and promote Indiafest as a brand,“ said Kamath.

Up next: Importing 30,000 RFID wristbands for next year's fest and introducing the technology at [V] Spot, a cafe chain the channel opened a few months ago.

Like Channel [V], telecom company Idea Cellular, which has been associated for four years with popular reality TV show the Roadies, flagship pro- gramme of Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd's music channel MTV, decided to evolve a compre- hensive social media cam- paign to reach out to the youth.

To popularize Idea Roadies VAS packs, especially designed value-added services for mo- bile phones priced at `49 each, Idea started a campaign on so- cial networking sites. With a tiny budget, Idea Cellular clocked a revenue of `19 lakh from the campaign in two- three months. Its target was `4.9 lakh. “The programme has been a huge success, and, through this campaign, we have realized the value of earned media,“ said Sashi Shankar, chief marketing offi- cer, Idea Cellular.

WHEN ONLINE PRESENCE GIVES RETURNON INVESTMENT Fastrack, the lifestyle brand of Tata group's Titan Indus- tries Ltd, wanted to translate its online presence into busi- ness on a thin media budget. It also wanted space on its shelves for new stock, so sell- ing its older products became vital. Fastrack announced on Facebook a day-long 50% sale at its outlets. The result: sales of `2.75 crore in a single day.

Komal Jyoti, brand manager for Fastrack, said it was a gam- ble to run a campaign only on the Internet. The gamble paid off and some stores stocked out in seven hours. Fastrack has added one million fans on Facebook since and plans more such sales.

Similarly, Reebok saw sales of its EasyTone shoes surge through advertising largely done on Facebook. Sajid Shamim, brand director, Ree- bok India Pvt. Ltd, said the online campaign targeting a niche audience (women in the 18-24 age group) was a “risk“ but was paid off well. The cam- paign was named The Butt Revolution, an interactive page where certified Reebok train- ers answered fitness queries.
Shamim added that after the initial communication using the traditional media, there was a need to keep the propo- sition alive. So the company launched a campaign on social media.
CREATING A NEW MARKET If Idea, Reebok and Channel [V] used the social media to in- crease sales and create a fol- lowing, ArtistAloud.com and Bookmyshow.com used these platforms to create online markets for their products.

Given that physical sales of non-film Indian music is al- most non-existent, ArtistA- loud.com was started last year as an online platform to allow musicians to release their con- tent online and connect direct- ly with fans.

Run by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt.
Ltd, ArtistAloud.com began “webcerts“ or online concerts that allowed people to watch, listen, download and buy un- released music from indepen- dent artists.

Indian rock band Parikra- ma's webcert, for example, took place at The Sports Bar, a pub in Gurgaon. ArtistA- loud.com booked the venue and sent a team of technicians who recorded the gig and up- loaded it on the website. Cor- porate sponsors such as Hin- dustan Unilever Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd have chipped in for webcerts in the past.

ArtistAloud.com uses fo- rums such as Facebook and Twitter to advertise its web- certs, directing a growing number of people to visit the website, download music and attend webcerts.

With 155 musicians, 33 gen- res and more than 500 songs, ArtistAloud.com ensures musi- cians retain the publishing rights for their compositions.
Singers such as Shaan, Kailash Kher and Sona Mohapatra have released albums first on ArtistAloud.com.

Bookmyshow.com, which has created its entire business model of selling tickets to movies, plays and other events online, introduced its mascot Bob on Facebook. With contin- uous updates on films, plays and other events, exclusive re- leases of movie trailers and contests offering cinema tickets and other goodies, Book- myshow.com attracted 350,000 fans on Facebook till June, compared with 12,000 fans in November.

“There's low cost but high visibility on social media plat- forms,“ said Ashish Hemrajani, founder and chief executive of Bigtree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, the parent company of Book- myshow.com.

LEVERAGING EXISTING PLATFORMS INTERESTINGLY With three million Facebook fans, the sixth most engaging Facebook page in the world, Roadies, the MTV show launched in 2003, is an online success story. No wonder then, MTV's overall digital market- ing budget to evolve innova- tive online media strategies has gone up significantly, from `1 crore four years ago to about `5 crore a year.

“Television ratings are im- portant, but a bulk of our view- ers are sampling us online,“ said Aditya Swamy, head, MTV.

The channel has evolved content, listening and interac- tive strategies to promote Roadies online. From an- nouncing entries to showing uncensored footage of the show online, MTV has ensured that audiences who get hooked online also watch the reality show on television.

The content was shown si- multaneously on television, Internet and mobile phones.
At times, select episodes were first aired online and later on television. To encourage par- ticipation, a lot of the show's online content was edited based on the suggestions of fans.

An in-house team of 10 peo- ple in their early twenties up- loads micro-posts on Twitter, replies to Facebook comments even past midnight and up- dates content through the day.

Given the phenomenal reach, Swamy said the digital media budget for Roadies was roughly 5% of the entire show's production cost. Typically, re- ality shows cost `25-35 lakh an episode. “The dependency on traditional print media for ad- vertisements has reduced be- cause my core target audience is on the Internet today,“ said Swamy.

Kaya Skin Clinic, a chain of premium skin care clinics owned by Marico Ltd, used Twitter to address the com- plaints of consumers. In a mar- keting campaign that began in August 2010 to promote its brand using Facebook, Twitter, blogs and YouTube, Kaya re- frained from hard-selling it- self. Instead, it reached out to the core audience group: women of 16-40 years, offering them advice and answering queries by Kaya-trained der- matologists.

Max New York Life Insur- ance Co. Ltd, the joint venture of Max India Ltd and New York Life International Llc, started igenius on Facebook and Twitter, aimed at encour- aging not just academics but also extra-curricular activities among children while award- ing scholarships of up to `10 lakh.

The insurance company cre- ated a parenting community on Facebook and Twitter with more than 90,000 fans. The challenge was to keep debates on parenting issues healthy, said Anisha Motwani, director and chief marketing officer, Max New York Life Insurance.
“Online social media, used regularly by consumers, can make or break a brand,“ she said. The company has a special online reputation manage- ment team to track consumer comments and deal with their concerns.

abhilasha.o@livemint.com

How Ford Got Social Marketing Right

How Ford Got Social Marketing Right
The automaker successfully re-entered the subcompact car market via the Fiesta Movement and YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter
By Grant McCracken
Posted on Harvard Business Review: January 7, 2010 12:20 PM

Ford recently wrapped the first chapter of its Fiesta Movement, leaving us distinctly wiser about marketing in the digital space.

Ford gave 100 consumers a car for six months and asked them to complete a different mission every month. And away they went. At the direction of Ford and their own imagination, "agents" used their Fiestas to deliver Meals On Wheels. They used them to take Harry And David treats to the National Guard. They went looking for adventure, some to wrestle alligators, others actually to elope. All of these stories were then lovingly documented on YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter.

The campaign was an important moment for Ford. It wanted in to the small car market, and it hadn't sold a subcompact car in the United States since it discontinued the Aspire in 1997.
And it was an important moment for marketing. The Fiesta Movement promised to be the most visible, formative social media experiment for the automotive world. Get this right and Detroit marketing would never be the same.

I had the good fortune to interview Bud Caddell the other day and he helped me see the inner workings of the Fiesta Movement. Bud works at Undercurrent, the digital strategy firm responsible for the campaign.

Under the direction of Jim Farly, Group VP at Ford and Connie Fontaine, manager of brand content there, Undercurrent decided to depart from the viral marketing rule book. Bud told me they were not interested in the classic early adopters, the people who act as influencers for the rest of us. Undercurrent wanted to make contact with a very specific group of people, a passionate group of culture creators.

Bud said, The idea was: let's go find twenty-something YouTube storytellers who've learned how to earn a fan community of their own. [People] who can craft a true narrative inside video, and let's go talk to them. And let's put them inside situations that they don't get to normally experience/document. Let's add value back to their life. They're always looking, they're always hungry, they're always looking for more content to create. I think this gets things exactly right. Undercurrent grasped the underlying motive (and the real economy) at work in the digital space. People are not just telling stories for the sake of telling stories, though certainly, these stories have their own rewards. They were making narratives that would create economic value.
The digital space is an economy after all. People are creating, exchanging and capturing value, as they would in any marketplace. But this is a gift economy, where the transactions are shot through with cultural content and creation. In a gift economy, value tends to move not in little "tit for tat" transactions, but in long loops, moving between consumers before returning, augmented, to the corporation. In this case, adventures inspired by Undercurrent and Ford return as meaning for the brand and value for the corporation.

Undercurrent was reaching out to consumers not just to pitch them, but to ask them to help pitch the product. And the pitch was not merely a matter of "buzz." Undercurrent wanted consumers to help charge the Fiesta with glamor, excitement, and oddity — to complete the "meaning manufacture" normally conducted only by the agency.

This would be the usual "viral marketing" if all the consumer was called upon to do was to talk up Fiesta. But Undercurrent was proposing a richer bargain, enabling and incenting "agents" to create content for their own sakes, to feed their own networks, to build their own profiles...and in the process to contribute to the project of augmenting Fiesta's brand.

Fiesta's campaign worked because it was founded on fair trade. Both the brand and the agent were giving and getting. And this shows us a way out of the accusations that now preoccupy some discussions of social media marketing. With their gift economy approach, Ford and Undercurrent found a way to transcend all the fretting about "what bright, shining object can we invent to get the kids involved?" and, from the other side, all that "oh, there he goes again, it's the Man ripping off digital innocents." It's a happier, more productive, more symmetrical, relationship than these anxieties imply. Hat's off to Farley and Fontaine.

The effects of the campaign were sensational. Fiesta got 6.5 million YouTube views and 50,000 requests for information about the car—virtually none from people who already had a Ford in the garage. Ford sold 10,000 units in the first six days of sales. The results came at a relatively small cost. The Fiesta Movement is reputed to have cost a small fraction of the typical national TV campaign.

There is an awful lot of aimless experiment in the digital space these days. A lot of people who appear not to have a clue are selling digital marketing advice. I think the Fiesta Movement gives us new clarity.
It's a three-step process.
• Engage culturally creative consumers to create content.
• Encourage them to distribute this content on social networks and digital markets in the form of a digital currency.
• Craft this is a way that it rebounds to the credit of the brand, turning digital currency (and narrative meaning) into a value for the brand.

In effect, outsource some of our marketing work. And in the process, turn the brand itself into an "agent" and an enabler of cultural production that is interesting and fun. Now the marketer is working with contemporary culture instead of against it. And everyone is well-served.

"Low Attention" Branding

"Low Attention" Branding

How Customers Think

How Customers Think

David Ogilvy’s Four Problems of Advertising

In a preface to a later edition of his 1963 “Confessions of an Advertising Man“, advertising legend David Ogilvy identified four problems that threatened the survival of advertising. Although he wrote the preface in 1988, the problems are still very much with us.

1. Package goods manufacturers spend too much on discounting and not enough on advertising. “Price-off deals are a drug. Ask a drug-addicted brand manager what happened to his share of the market after the delirium of the deal subsided. He will change the subject. Ask him if the deal increased his profit. Again he will change the subject.”

2. Creativity for creativity’s sake. “…advertising agencies … are now infested with people who regard advertising as an avant-garde art form. They have never sold anything in their lives. Their ambition is to win awards at the Cannes Festival. They bamboozle their unfortunate clients into paying millions of dollars a year to exhibit their originality.”

3. Consolidation. “… the emergence of megalomaniacs whose mind-set is more financial than creative. They are building empires by buying up other agencies, to the consternation of their clients.”

4. Poor execution. “I recently counted forty-nine advertisements set in reverse (white type on black background) in one issue of a German magazine, long years after research demonstrated that reverse is difficult to read.”

In the book itself, Ogilvy makes some nice points about creativity in advertising. He points out that the best ads draw attention not to themselves, but to the product. And for creative types who demand total “freedom”, he points out that Shakespeare wrote some pretty fair sonnets while adhering to strict rules of form.

David Ogilvy, who passed away in 1999, is still teaching, still relevant. Contained in this deceptively simple, 200-page book, are hundreds of valuable ideas.