Concept Refresher: The Black Swan Strategy

I came across an article  about the sudden fluctuation in market and how the people responded with the jump of NIFTY and SENSEX. The people called it as the black swan strategy that guided the market for that time. The time was a good for few as they invested in right time and a few who missed out were at a loss.

 A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. The impact can be positive as like the success of a I POD or negative impact like the happening of 9/11.

 We as marketers focus more on what we are aware of rather than what we don’t know, this gives room for happening of the unpredicted. Like the markets suddenly going up and the investor falling to put money in right time or few of them able to grab the opportunity so it makes a positive and the negative impact both.

 The companies are seen investing a lot in their risk management to avoid the uncertainty in the areas where they think there is a lot of risk but they are not looking for the areas that may cause them actual risk at the unexpected time in the future years to come. Thus companies must keep their eyes open to see what’s coming and they have a loss free business in the future years.

 

Sometimes Black Swan helps the company and individuals to gain in unexpected way in large amounts and they are able to cover huge looses by making use of the situation that just came up for them unexpectedly.

 

 

 

Marketing Failure By BJP

People gave their support once again to congress and showed the trust they had in the party for the country's benefit. We look this past election from a marketers point of view and see the difference in strategy that was adopted by the two big parties in India, the BJP and the congress.

Both parties used all means of communication to deliver their message to public. All touch points were used and not even a single was left untouched. The parties used all means and similar strategy then why one failed to achieve its objective. The answer lies in the way both parties were positioned and the campaign strategy.

BJP was lead by Mr. Lal Krishna Advani who is looked as a senior leader by people and was leading from BJP's side the campaign. On other side if we look at congress their main campaign leaders were Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka. The people were looking for more youths to lead the nation and this worked for congress. They showed a team of young leaders who were taking charge. They positioned them selves in a more youthful image.

The failure of BJP was a failure of their positioning and the party which used all means of communication and spend a large amount of money on advertisement failed on the ground that it was not able to have a right positioning.

Retail Sector All Set To Boom

The government is all set to allow almost 100 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail sector, the retail sector is all set to grow and boom. The retail sector which has taken a setback due to recession causing a few firms to go for a close down. The firms were hit badly and they recorded a constant decrease in sales over the past months. The new policy by the government will certainly help the retail sector to come up and open doors for new companies to enter into the Indian market and provide a new range of products to the consumers. The growing income and the increase in purchasing power by the people will also add to the further growth of the sector.

Players like Wall Mart have already made their way in the market and are in the starting phase and now they can increase their share in the market by putting more of investment. Other retailer companies like Tesco is also entering the Indian market with   joint venture with Indian firms. The organized retail sector which accounts for just 3 to 5 percent will increase and this gives more job opportunities in retail sector.  

The policy thus expected to be a boon for the sector is waiting for the acceptance by the members and will certainly add to the growth of organized retail in the Indian market.

Maruti: A True Leader

Maruti has given the big car manufacturers a way to get into smaller car market. The big car manufacturer are now following the strategy used by Maruti develop smaller cars for the market by using the same platform. The company has effectively used this to make a lot of variants of small cars using the same platform and has been a market leader in small car markets for years.

The company's like Ford, Toyota and Honda are also working on same concept to use the same platform to make small car and enter the market. Maruti has again proved its a leader in small segment cars. The new cars by Maruti are just having small variations and are doing well. Hope this strategy works well for other companies too..

Source: Economic Times

From Product Manufacturers To Solution Providers

There is always a need of new means to communicate the message the company wants to give its consumers and to attract them in one form or the other. The change is required to keep the business alive and to enjoy a larger customer base, as it is essential for growth. The companies are now over with the concept that we provide products that satisfy your needs now they target consumers with concept of we provide solution to your requirements.

The market is over flooded with products and they are almost identical in their features and the need they satisfy . Hence it becomes necessary to look for a different way to position your self and target the market. If we look at market the service/ sales executives of products like laptop do not say they provide a better product but they say we provide solutions to all your needs.

Even companies like Nokia are now making a change from the general hardware company position to a solution provider, as stated by company's marketing director Vineet Taneja. The companies are now shifting to new concept and all small and large organisation now try to look more into the solution providing aspect rather just delivering a product.

Thus this seems to be working well for now as customers feel better as they think their problems are solved by using that particular product and it adds value.

Pepsi & Coke: A Take On Celebrity Endorsement Strategy

Pepsi and coke have always been competing neck to neck everywhere and they follow entirely different strategy to gain more and more market. They follow an all together different strategy when it comes even to the celebrity endorsement. Celebrity endorsement is very necessary when it comes to India as people are a great fan of these people and they try to use all the products which celebrity are seen using.

 

Looking at Pepsi they continuously change the person whom they endorse for the promotion of their brand. They company started by using Amir Khan and Aishwarya Rai as the promoter in 1994iand they changed to Sachin Tendulkar and then to Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor and SHarukh Khan. Then they used Sharakh Khan and Jhon and now they finally moved to Deepika and Ranbir for promotion. There has been a continuous change in the celebrity from time to time and company always goes for a change. The reason for the change is not that celebrity looses  popularity the reason for change is that when the celebrity becomes too popular that instead of associating the brand with celebrity they start knowing the rand by celebrity they go for a change. They don’t want their brand to be known by just celebrity in fact celebrity should be associated with the brand.

Few Ad By Pepsi:

If on other hand we look at coke they have used Amir Khan as their celebrity and its been a a constant time over which they are using him. The company follows a clear strategy of using a single person for promotion of their brand who has a unique popularity and we see that coke used both Amir Khan and Aishwarya Rai for their ad campaign. Still we find Amir as their main celebrity endorsement who does ad for the company.

 

Did ZooZoo Killed Pug?

The number of fans of ZooZoo are increasing everyday and the ad clips are becoming the most watched clips in youtube for now. The compays developed these character for promotion of their value added service for a period during the IPL matches. The company aims at releasing alomost an ad a day and they have certainly brought a lot of awareness for the brand. They have served the pourpose for which they were created. ZooZoo have almost hijacked the internent and are most everywhere in print media in videos and people are watching these creatures which relate our daily requirements of sevices with their own life. 

The company though launched a successful campaign but in course of this it has made way for the departure of its "PUG". The pug was everywhere associated with company and has almost become a symbol for company. The release of new campaign has ceratinly made doors open for the old campaign to go but with question after the IPL will company stick back to original campaign that it had or will come up with something still new or carry on with current campaign of ZooZoo till people find intrest in them...

Vodafone old ad campaign:

Vodafone new campaign:

A Take On New Fanta Ad

Well Fanta has always positioned itself as a refreshing drink and it has been changing its tagline continously over the years. The new ad of FANTA features Genelia D’Souza trying to take her friends out from the social places where they dont want to be in. Well the ad though shows something that we want but it lacks creativity and the newness in itself as a whole. 

The ad has come up to give a new message to youths but it has used a platform which is already there, and we are acting according to that from a long time. The ad though may be a new creativity by Oglivy but it doesnot appeals much. The core of the drink has still been maintained in tha add a it has always been shown as a fun loving drink , as shown by all the ad which came previously.

Lets see what this ad does for the company as it has still time to be broadcasted for more days and new themes before the new change takes place...

From Cricket To Football

Where the performance of the players looks highly unpredictable the companies are finding it hard to endorse any cricketer for their brand promotion. The company are going for the full team endorsement and reducing the risk for themselves. Cricket is like a religion in India and its been followed by almost everyone in country. The marketers have used this very effectively for their promotion but on other hand Airtel has moved to football for promotion of their service. The company had tied up with Manchester United, the famous foot ball club and the company hopes to earn a great revenue by making the football videos and clips as a part of their value added service.

There has been an increasing interest among youth in football and the fan following for Manchester united is estimated to about 12 million in India. Airtel has thus planned to promote football in India and provide updates and live matches on mobile phones. They hope it would increase the fan following in India and Sub Continent. The contract is for a period of 5 years between the company and the club.

The company has planned to invest Rs 100 crore to open a football academy and make India eligible for world cup 2018. The new move by company is expected to be beneficial for them and expected to increase popularity for football.

Guerrilla Stores

Products come and go in market, even stores open and close after a while then why cant we have stores which open for a very short period of time and then they are closed down. There has been significant growth over the opening of Guerrilla stores at various places. The company uses this strategy to sell quickly and new trends in the market and close down. This seems to be working well for the companies as they are able to move quickly from a place to another and are able to target new market .

In America and Europe this concept seems to be working well and a lot of well known brands are opening their stores for a short span and then moving to new places. Even the online companies like Ebay opened few stores at different places to get the real world experience. The company opened stores in the New York city which it closed down after a short span.

The stores are an example of Pop Up Retail stores that making it easier for companies to reduce cost and to get into various places and new markets faster and faster. The stores are opened in the vacant spaces in the city and then are closed down. The consumers become aware of the company’s products. This gives various economic benefits to companies as of space and design and customization is possible to a large scale by using this concept. 

Can Venus Help Marketers?

We see a lot of commercials now a days that are focussed towards women and the marketers are now targeting them to survive in the tough times. A number of new ads about women beauty products and fairness creams are been shown in all forms of media and the companies are spending a lot of money to focus on women. The marketers know that women have  a greater say when it comes to making  a purchase decision so they are directing more and more commercial towards them.

A recent survey also showed that  of the total number of lay off that took place in various companies across the world the majority were male. Thus females still hold the buying power. So now when the companies have changed their focus and are looking at planet Venus for surviving the tough times, lets see if this works for the companies......

Recession A Time for Blue Ocean Strategy

Recession has hit the market badly and companies are reporting a loss everywhere around the world almost all companies are suffering. The markets are drying and consumers are turning towards cheaper alternatives to satisfy their needs and markets are doing really bad. In such times it becomes essential for companies to look for ways by which they can still make their profits rise high .

This creates a need for companies to come up with something new in markets which help them to tap markets and consumers. This is time for BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY by which a company still make out of this recession time and survive still.

Blue Ocean Strategy is about creating and capturing uncontested market space, thereby making the competition irrelevant. In short, Blue Ocean Strategy is about creating exceptional value for the buyer and compelling profit for the firm executed in a motivating fashion for people around it.

The strategy thus focuses on product innovation and finding of new markets by companies at same time giving them high value at low cost. This gives two way benefit as the customers also are satisfied and company is also make good amount of profit.

Tata Nano launch is the perfect example of such strategy where the company has launched an innovative product in the market at the recession time but still customers will be attracted as it offers a great value to the customer at a low price. The market is responding positively to the new product and thus them strategy of company seems to be working good....