Digital Brand synergy

While researching about brands I came across a write up on an Indian brand of apparel - Turtle, named after the famous Teenage Mutant Ninja Series... but the owners 'went a little deeper' into what they'd like the brand to communicate and came up with a brand story communicating testudine (like a turtle) aspects they wanted to incorporate...they've used the fact that turtles are very active and outlast every other being... thus communicating that they will always be in the middle of things... coming out with new product lines, designs and their brand will last for a really long while...

I personally haven't seen their range of products but I'm sure the touchpoints used will have tremendous brand synergy... I say this because when I logged onto their website http://www.turtlelimited.com/ I was very impressed with it... the website is very interesting and every aspect has a brand story- simplistically told...

every category of their website builds on the story to culminate into a whole picture which is completely in sync with their brand values and what they stand for...

Brand building

'Brand' is such an over-used word that sometimes it becomes a filler or impressor phrase. But there is a lot of depth to this term. I've been thinking of how to crystallize my thoughts on Brand Management to be able to pen them down for my own reference.

If somebody wants to build a brand (product or business) he or she needs to build their brand first. Now why is this important you may feel? If there is an existing brand that you want to manage.... you have to be able to demonstrate that you can manage it better... and for that you need to build your brand...If you're launching a new brand... you need a strong brand (your own of course) to be able to create alliances and prove your brand (product, business) is the right choice.

I'm going pen down what Vertebrand Management Consultancy has to say about brand building...

The best way to start would be to clearly define the industry the brand is in... once that is established, it is essential to understand

A. The industry to see how competitors are:

- functioning

- talking

- dramatizing

B. What your strenghts, weakness', stories and vision, mission, objective are are - figuring internal capabilities is extremely important because every company will have some peculiarities which can be highlighted and communicated into brand stories.

Figuring these two out lets you understand what the brand needs to have to belong and what it needs to cultivate to stand out by creating a distinc brand identity and personality - i.e. essentially be top-of-mind when a consumer thinks of buying a product in that category

C. Target Customers & their wants - As cliched as this is, inspite of brands claiming to be customer centric they don't always know what the customer wants or arn't able to deliver it... which means with solid customer relationships (which take time to build) a brand will know what to offer in keeping with trends and how to communicate it. Understanding customer segments and their buying behaviour will allow the brand to be able to constantly tweak its delivery, communication and hopefully over deliver leading to customer delight

All these facets of the business will eventually let you figure out what your brand's core values, differntiators, identity and personality are. This in turn allows for a more synergistic logo, positioning statement and marketing strategy.

Yo!Retail

The Nielson company recently released some data on how people network.

I've uploaded the stats for Facebook & Twitter users segregated age wise. Now if you look at the splits you notice that majority of the users are in the 25-49 age group, followed by the 50-64 category... The interesting aspect is that people in the 25-49 bracket are usually the target customers for most brands... even if they arn't being advertised to it is usually their wallet which is under attack!

Now given this age group's networking preference i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, MySpace, it is only logical that brands create an online Retail presence on these sites.

I've joined the adidas originals Facebook community and am pretty impressed with it... it isn't as active (at least in India) as I'd like it to be... but it has over 2 million fans and it does use the platform pretty well to connect with us... there's house party updates, collection showcasing, events updates, downloadable widgets that are all used pretty well to keep the fans coming back for more!

Facebook & Twitter make it so simple for brands to have an online presence (I don't see how Linkedin can be used and have no clue about MySpace) But when I look for fashion and apparel brands, I don't find too many of them on Facebook... in fact, too many is a euphemism! The option of creating a virtual property isn't exploited enough and this I find very shocking given the penetration of facebook users across the world!....

Facebook (at least) makes it so easy for a brand to build emotional equity by engaging users through various activites - it can update its fans (loyalist, advocator etc) about the latest collection, create ensembles, find stores, send out events invites and so much more!

I'd love to work with brands to create their online properties! It'd be sooo much fun coz the online space allows for so much interaction...I'm sure brickbats too are in equal measure... but I think even that could be converted into a fun game.... for example.. if you don't like a brand, you can throw stones, water balloons etc at its store.... it is the brand fan's job to prevent somebody from throwing stones or the fan can help clean off the paint...

that's the only thing that came to my mind.... but I'm sure there's an interesting game lying there somewhere... and what with the number of people diligently taking up Yoville!, Fishville! etc... I'm sure there will be takers for my YoRetail! game, if ever I come up with it....In fact... YoRetail! can work along the lines of all the other vil(l)es... buy land, develop a mall, upgrade it, convince brands to rent space, manage it et al! I think it could work...

Cliche Campaigns for Brand Strategies

On my way home last evening I suddenly thought of cliches and how they're comforting because:

1. The person spouting them knows what to say (it can be a mindless statement)

2. The recepient has a choice of responses and hence won't be dumbstruck

I guess its comforting by virtue of the fact that its known and familiar as oppossed to the panic that sets in with not knowing (usually)

Now while thinking along this pathetic train of thought, another more interesting thought was added to my brain's computing power...I'd been watching ads online coz I love doing that... I realized one thing that even though an ad is extremely funny and creative (read unusual) it still wont be as sticky in the long run as a well executed but been there done that concept infused with emotion.... for example a havell's ad may not be as sticky as a cadbury's ad (the old one) and this has nothing to do with the nature of the product... (of course I could be wrong)

But what this made me conclude is that branding is about building relationships with customers, promising them something and delivering it repeatedly... with cliched but emotional concepts such an effect can be achieved and I feel that maybe for a more successful brand campaign you should use a more emotional approach than an off-beat unusual approach... because the consumer already has emotions related to your brand and with a campaign adding to those emotions and given the power of repetition, the % of mind-share may be higher... Just a thought.. unfounded as of now!

Baseball Philippines

Hey All,

I'm gonna deviate a bit from bhavisha generated content to publishing something that I'm very inspired by. An alumnus from AIM worked on a thesis report to establish an MLB (Major League Baseball)-esque format in the Philippines called Baseball Philippines.

I actually think very few people in the world are fortunate to find something they are passionate about and Leslie Suntay the proponent in the Baseball Philippines MRR is one such person... he has the guts to follow through with taking his passion and turning it into something that has the potential to bind the whole country... SPORT! it takes a lot of courage to establish a circuit like the one he's set up... especially in an age where people are looking to secure themselves only through monetary means... by no means am I saying that Baseball Philippines is not capable of generating huge returns... quite the contrary... sports is a big market.. in India it's almost a 1900 crore market!

So here's how Leslie ventured into Baseball Philippines:

"With a bit of divine luck and perseverance, matched with a desire to pursue what excites you will more often result into something special; my story is only one of the many in Baseball Philippines that helped pursue a common dream for baseball that led to the creation of the only existing premier baseball league in the capital today. In 2003, my road began by helping organize an open amateur league for “weekend warriors” called the Titans baseball club, where from four teams it grew to eight all due to the clamor for more tournaments. The next challenge was to cater to a good number of players to want a Class “A” league. This prompted me to seek the help of sports gurus with a common passion that led to Baseball Philippines Pilot Series last May 2007. The work has never stopped then and what was once a simple dream has brought the game to our live radio coverage and select games shown in our very own television sets. I’m glad to be a part of something that makes me and many others happy, as the saying from the classic movie goes…”if you build it…they will come.’"

Are we losing out coz of a servile attitude?

I've been plagued by this question for a while now... I've always found that when it comes to confrontation, no matter how motivated we are amongst ourselves, when it comes to taking an issue up we always falter!!! Why?

Then I came across an article which said that Indians by nature, like to please others... example: If the boss asks you when you can deliver something, without knowing for sure you'd say next week when realistically speaking it'll take over 3 weeks...and that's coz they want to please their superiors...

During another conversation with a friend, discussing sports, I've always wondered why we haven't made it big... and what emerged was shocking,... .coz we arn't wired to win... is that a direct implication of being servile?

While talking to another friend about the racist attacks against Indians, a friend said that such attacks were not frequent or intense against Chinese nationals coz they're scared that if one Chinese guy is attacked his whole community will stand up for him and take action... there's no such 'worry' when it comes to us Indians...

We apparently like to mind our own business at our own expense.

Makes me that more certain that I will veer away from such behaviour... I could be completely off on my diagnosis but I can't understand why we can't work together and stand up for each other... sometimes taking a stand is important!

Manchester United on a platter...

Last term at AIM I opted for Brand Equity Management as one of my electives... as one of our course requirements we had to study Real Madrid and recommend branding strategies for them... which of course our class would judge and not the 'real' team... anyway.. so as part of our recommendations we suggested that Real Madrid go into a chain of restaurants... more like sports bars... coz fans usually go watch games at bars and owning a chain of restaurants is pretty cool... at least in my books... owning a restaurant has a high lifestyle, image, glamour quotient...

So when I came across a press release that Manchester United (no surprises there... they are fantastic at marketing) has given Manchester United Food & Beverage (MUFB) Asia, a Singapore holding company, exclusive rights to own, operate and develop a chain of Man U restaurants & bars all over the APAC region... I was super thrilled...

Total Sports Asia (TSA) envisioned the entire branding strategy... India's going to have its very first Man U Cafe in Mumbai at Nirmal Lifestyle in Mulund thanks to Billionaire Sports...

Right now I'm a month away from completing my MBA but I'm dying to get back home (Mumbai of course) and check the place out... so expect 'experiential' blogs about the place...