Sales & MarketZing !

Watched an international TV show ,point being mentioned was  India is likely to be fastest growing economy in the world , ahead off China  too ! , however in the same breath , they said that the gap between the have's and have not's  is quite large still , And this story has been like this for ages , hasnt it been , while changes have happened , structually the  bottom of the pyramid  is not shrinking and bulging at the middle belly , its the head which is bloating still and that means the rich seem to be getting richer still . India's  super richest class is estimated to be  approx 10 % of population  hold 75 % of the country wealth , which is mind boggling a stat , the pareto principle shudnt apply here , right ! the latest structure of the pyramid is as above , while the figures are a bit of a suspect , lets go with it for the time being . any developing nation will have this disparity in sections of society  , the question is...

firstly we read somewhere that its "rural mindsets that one should address not rural markets",which is quite profound a statement to start with . After travelling to a lot of rural markets ,here is our version of whats happening around the mindset of rural consumers Farming is getting Automated ::Markets are littered with tractors and heavy duty harvestors ,with heavy dependence on agriculture still ,we must be getting better productivity from all this ,which must be adding to spending power . Development in some pockets ,large pockets remain isolated still from the world ,wherever there is change ,the need to stay connected using mobile ,dth etc is a need that's prevalent already as a want .However banking infrastructure is very weak still and is an opportunity . Urban products will not always fit into the rural domain ,just by using the say, chotta pack route ,there are products designed for rural which work ,Godrej chotakul,nokia asha ,the old to...

Here is our take of some great Indian marketing /market myths :: Great Penteration opportunity :: The biggest marketing myth of India is the great penteration stories ,any product category is quoted to have low penteration and thus the vastness of the market is shown .Whats missing is the relevance of right TG of population for the product ,when you are aware that a number of Indians still live in rural and are below poverty !Then these opportunities of penteration becomes questionable .( examples ..Indian per capita beer penteration is 0.6 litres ..in US its 100 litres ) There is no doubt that we still have huge mass of population of say middle class consumers that cud end up looking equivalent to certain country opportunities ,whats middle class in India is it comporable to other countries middle class ,would they have same spending powers of other countries ? Rural Markets ::Most of us tend to think that rural is largely agriculture ,rural consumer have lesse...

Here is some fresh thinking in the deo category ,instead of swooning girls ,falling angels and easy girl pick up . HE Deo TVC, is great in thought ,and execution ,some parts we are sure will not connect with the opposite sex for sure ,the one saying men sit late changing diaper etc yaaaaawn :)   Check out the TVC

These days newspapers have become fatter in the weekends ,not by news content ,but the advertising content .Its another fact ,the way the newspaper lands all crisp at the door steps in the morning ,it goes to the raddiwallah mostly in the same  crisp form ! Some newspapers are so cluttered these days that you are left wondering whether its worth the money being spent on it by the consumer ,when its asking you to spend more monies on brands thru all the advertising ! Most of brands who advertise must be clear that this the medium to try still ,as everyother brand in its category ,is in it too,best example is real estate ,each day there are some 20 projects vying for attention everyday ! We ponder to think whether it works ? Maybe it does ,when you connect to the location of the property or price ,or feature ! With so many new mediums like mobile ,social media ,youtube ,online available for marketing ,you are left wondering as to what would be ROI of newspaper advertis...

Brands do vie to build the trust platform ,what drives this is important to understand as in a category with threats of me too's and low cost players ,its an impprtant defence to have . here is our take on the trust drivers :: Built by sheer product consistency :: Consumers trust brands which they believe hasnt changed in performance and experience inspite of a long period of time ..examples are godrej ,maggi ,levis ,colgate . Add to this they strive to keep in line with modern times . Built by performance :: the proof of trust obviously gets built ,by performance of the product /service over a period of time ,either by your own experience or by word of mouth ,example a large set of consumers trust Sony TV ,still to deliver best viewing experience . Built by living upto your promise :: If you make a commitment ,strive hard that you deliver it consitently ,consumer trust would not be far then ,for instance a Fed ex would be our prefered choice for delivering ...

What's on your consumers mind is it on the shelves ? is a good question to always ask both at a marketing front and on the operations front in retail , or any other consumer product business . Brands spend crores in driving awareness and desire , when the consumers come seeking in for the product , its a sheer waste when they dont find what they have come looking for .This is what the blog would term as "mind1 shelf0 "(tm) phenomenon ( where on the mind gets 1 , not on your shelf gets 0 ) So why does this happen always , yes its a historical issue but never is addressed ...here is this blogs take on the why piece i) Too many variants ::most of the problems occur due to the brand's great desire to satisfy everyone , thus the great urge for more skus 'which could take the shape of too many colors ,sizes , contents etc , so more the variants more the chance of "mind 1 shelf 0 " phenomenon ,take a max of two winning variants , with proper de...