Branding Reliance in retail space

I have recently seen Reliance opening 2 of their stores in same building - next to each other, Reliance Digital Express & Reliance Fresh!

I know there are several companies (Ex: Sony) using single brand or name for multiple vertical / sectors & been successful, but this attempt (or you can say arrogance) by Reliance seem too difficult to accept, a not so purist brand observer like me...

Let's take a contrary example of Future Group, they own several brands in apparel, durables vertical (BigBazzar, eZone, HomeTown) & each one of them have been branded separately and have seem expressing WOW, when they are told that they all belong to a single parent company.

Approach taken by Reliance, tend to set higher expectation (if delivered by 1 of their retail unit) across multiple verticals of Reliance - that would put pressure for similar quality performance (irrespective of the margins from that vertical) but with approach taken by Future Group - they have the luxury of adjusting the frills, performance, quality of each vertical based on the margins they make.

Can we wait to see... Reliance withdrawing from these non-core business of theirs - some day!

-Bhaskara

teething problems...

Every new product, profession or thing we start doing... would have teething problem? - is it because we are so used to working with old products or routine that make us think, there is something wrong with this new one?

What are the means to reduce this teething problem?
Try to have a trial or walk through of the product or service - by an experienced person or best thing, get a trial for few days.. so you can have both old & new for a while, before you jump into using the new product or service.

-Bhaskara

Is it lack of law & enforcement?

Can the HUGE difference between developed & developing countries - be attributed to lack of law & enforcement? (apart from the other aspects of economy, population etc) - let’s take couple of examples find the differences & analyze if these could be solved with better law enforcement:

Town Planning -

• Developed countries have a great town planning - that would ensure there is no compromise on width of the road, number of house in a street, standard dimension of plot / house

• Isn't this a case of proper law & ENFORCEMENT (is more important than law) - as even in developed countries we establish some form of law / rules & regulations around town planning - but they are brutally abused because of lack of enforcement (more in detail later)

Traffic Control / Management -

• Same as above - developed countries have much more organized movement of traffic, adherence to rules - if broken would mean serious consequences

• Developing countries - have some laws, but the enforcement is poor or even the authorities break them (don’t set by example)

Enforcement - why are the developing countries weak in implementing the law to the word?
I could think of following reasons - some of them are because of financial constraints, but some are easy to avoid

• Respect by law safe guards towards the law / rules & regulation is low - either they are not educated well enough about the law or they are aware & ignore it
• Authorities have too many other things to handle - tend to compromise on the law enforcement
• Lack of second level of review or check on enforcement authorities - should there be a second level of check on the enforcement authorities to make sure they are not being lenient on the law enforcement
• Lack of funds to enforce - you need sufficient funds to enforce the law & they are short in many cases, could this be solved if government considers the cost of enforcement as part of an initiative, so sufficient funds are allocated?

Wish, we have younger generation specialize in government / constitution law & enforcements to help make it stronger & reduce the mediocrity in law & enforcements.

-Bhaskara

Challenges in B2B product launch...

You think launching a new product or innovation in B2B space is easier? ready with a detailed industry gap analysis, found an opportunity & come up with a solution to fix the gap? It also sounds easier compare to B2C products, because there are less number of people to pitch your product, take to market, go live!

YET - B2B products are as harder to launch & be successful, I have tried to list a few... based on a recent research that we have done in B2B space:

• Current Process - are you changing the existing process, that business are using currently? for them to adopt your product - if yes, think again... might have an uphill task in convincing the potential customers
• Savings - is your pitch mainly on cost savings to the business? be sure that you have done a complete research & understand is the cost line item you are replacing is on the top 10 of the cost line items for the business
  
• Payment Cycle - assume you will be a paid product for the businesses, you should be aware of the payment cycle of the businesses in the industry - helps to know what is the money needed for WIP & be ready for such a cash flow
• Literacy of People - are the target users in business literate with the tools or technologies you are using or proposing? if no - then you might waste & break your head with people not willing to learn or use the tool
• Industry - last, but an important one... is the industry you are targeting shown a sign of adoption or willingness to look at new products, open for change, backed with legal (formal or informal) compliance to ethical practices

I still think B2B market has better chances of succeeding on innovation, profitability & target revenue realization... rather than living in virtual money or valuations of B2C market (at least for the tech companies)

-Bhaskara

Target Users for Social Media Marketing

Internet Users are the target for social media marketing; snapshot of 2009 online user metrics in India is as given in section below. Social Media Marketing is about finding the genre specific vertical or website that can provide the target users to position the product / service.

India Online User Metrics

• 47 million people online, regular users reaching 38.5 million
• 4 million users access internet on mobile phone
• 4 out or 5 online users are 19 - 35yrs
• 91% of regular online users - search or buy online
• 20% have bought online in past 1 year

are they mass or class users for your product?
Social Media users are your quality / class users that you want to reach & communication the message, it’s not yet a mass media in India – because of the much smaller user base on internet compare to TV, Radio etc., It can help you reach students in Bangalore, who are passionate about movies – a focused smaller set of people that have a higher chances of receiving the message & considering to purchase or recommend to other users.

how is the conversion ratio of aware consumers to purchase?










Traditional Media has a smaller conversion ratio in consumer consideration to purchase funnel, because the nature of advertising is mass, we need more impressions to reach the target awareness stage of the product & achieve the required recall rate. Social Media can provide a higher conversion ratio, if the right social media channel is chosen for communicating your product / service message. Also, it’s a shorter cycle of money spends – as the performance metrics of the campaign can be viewed on a daily / hourly basis & corrective actions can be taken quicker than traditional media.

Right selection of online channels to promote your product / service can yield good return on investment, social media marketing is an emerging trend / topic in advertising industry - that has gained a significant share of advertising in US Market... but in early stage of use (only limiting to technology related products / services) in India.

-Bhaskara

What is Social Media Marketing?

This is the first in series of post about "Social Media Marketing" - we will cover the basic definition of social media marketing, how the media differs from the traditional media... that we are aware of & used extensively for marketing currently. In subsequent posts, we will understand the suitability of social media marketing for India market.


Wikipedia: “Social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures.”

Marketing has been inside-out (one way) approach – to broadcast the product message to the consumer with & expect the user to listen, consider purchase of the product. Social Media Marketing is use of media that is capable of two way communication, engage consumer in a dialogue, hear their review comments, spread your product message among their network – along with increase in product sales, you would also get feedback from consumers.

Traditional Media








Television, Radio, Print are the traditional media, currently used for marketing the products / services, characteristically it adopts the “law of few” (scarce resource) that leads the products / services to fight for limited media available to broadcast their message, pricing. Demand to Price elasticity is driven by the quality of the program on the media.

Social Media






Internet & Mobile Phones are the two main constituents of Social Media and it differs in availability of scale, does not have the problem of few, less elastic demand curve compared to traditional media. Specific / narrow target user social media channel can be found or created to market the product, a new channel creation has lower entry barrier.

Bing is favorite rest of world... other than US?

Is Bing catching up as "decision" sorry, the "search" engine of choice by people all over the world? Looks like yes as per this non-scientific poll by Time.

Interesting only US State that is in blue, for Bing is Iowa, all other states have a "leading" Google choice as favorite search engine.

Rest of the world's 81% liking for Bing, makes Bing the winner in this non-scientific post.

I Personally love Bing search - it gives me the results I need & in a structure format that makes me easier to navigate to the destination... not having to spend time wasting to look for my destination on the map (may we say the search results page on web is a map?)

The coolest thing that I like on Bing is the "new image" for every day... that keeps me informed about a remotest island that I never heard or some interesting facts of a place that I have lived in or visited.

I'm not a microsoft fan, but a supporter of innovation, new products, early adopter... I truly believe Google is suffocating as search engine & will be getting into catchup mode, if they don't change soon.

Wait... I thought people in US were early adopter's, but why are they stuck with Google, while rest of the world has embrace Bing?

-Bhaskara

AD theme in recession...

US and probably most countries in the world is going through a tremendous change during these recession times, what used to be unique product based positioning & marketing... is moving towards advertising on "price" - price based competition is the one of the first consideration for advertisements, below are some examples of TV Ads...

• Subway - $5.00 footlong sandwitches
• Hyundai - Offering $1.49 /gallon gas for the entire year
• KFC - $5.00 for chicken, side & drink
• GM is becoming "green" from the traditional blue.. to give a new message
  
• Chillis - $20.00 3 course menu for two people
• Walmart - continues to give the message of everyday low prices
  

and every street has at least one store in NY, has one of the following boards...

• going out of business
• everything is 80% off
• buy 1 get 1 free

How does the world of advertising change in these recession times?
First thing that happens in time of recession for advertising is cut in budgets & change of positioning & message for the product to something more valuable, less price, better over the competition etc,

How do you innovate in advertising your product?
It should be back to basics...

a. re-think the competition for the product, as because of new macro-economic conditions the marketplace might have changed, could be competing with a #6 company in the market

b. understand the new value of your product in the recession, new economic conditions might mean different to your consumers...

c. change your advertising strategy, start with a clean slate in the communicating the message to the consumers

the list can keep going to innovate, position and marketing of the product.

-Bhaskara