Account Planning

Which brand has a story worth telling?

Today after a meeting a few colleagues and I ended up at Vikhroli Social (which is located inside the Godrej complex at Vikhroli) and the place had a wall full of Godrej Navtals.

And since I am on this spree to capture photos with my phone and all that, I clicked a few photos. Here is one.

That’s Navtal. From @godrej_group and @godrejlocks. Found at Vikhroli @socialoffline. . Part of a new photo series where I click pictures of some of the most legendary consumer facing brands from #India that tell us some of the most fascinating stories. Supported by @c4ein. . Which other brands do I click? In your opinion, which is the most iconic, most legendary brand from India? What brand has the most fascinating story? A story that is worth telling. To others. To the world at large. . Tell me the story. Help me tell the story. . Please. Cc @planneratlarge . #brand #brands #branding #india #marketing #advertising #media #communication #ad #crowdsourcing #help #photoessay #photography #photooftheday #photostories #storyteller #stories #storytelling #brandStories

A post shared by SG (@altsaurabh) on Jul 14, 2018 at 12:53am PDT

When I saw the photo while uploading on Instagram, I thought it has come out really well. It shows me the Navtal in all its glory. It establishes the product. The character. It tells me what it’s supposed to do. And the wall at the back has some character to it. Its a fascinating photo, if you ask me! Ok enough of self promotion.

I got thinking that I want to go click more brands in action. And tell the stories of those brands. And how those brands have added to the lives of people. And how people have relied on those brands to achieve different things.

People click nature, places, things, conflicts and what not. And tell their stories.
I wish to click brands and tell those stories.

So, what if I convert this into a project? A project that marries my love for brands, stories and photography? Sounded like a good idea. And bam! we have a project!

Here are more details.

What is this project?
Lemme use steps to explain.

Run a poll or something and ask people about what brands do they think have stories worth telling.
Once I get a list of 50 odd brands, I click some interesting photos of those brands (and the products / services / experiences) in action.
Interview respective brand managers and understand more about the brands from the perspective of people who manage them.
Talk to end users of the brand (products / services / experiences). Capture their inputs, emotions.
Compile them into a study or something and publish for everyone to consume.

Sounds fun? Indeed!

To what end?
I dont know. I need to figure out. But as a stakeholder in the business of communication and building brands, I believe these stories MUST be told. To the users. And to brand custodians.

Plus I really think I will enjoy doing this.

Apart from this I am not sure of other reasons that taking this up. If nothing else, it helps me learn more about the business of brands, planning and communication.

The next steps? The question!
Tell me 5 brands that you think are fascinating and have stories worth telling! If I were to make a list, in no order, I will include Cadburys (chocolates), Natraj (pencils), Coca Cola, Paytm and Starbucks.

What are yours?

The end notes
What do you think? Gimme some feedback.

I know I am very far from delivering it and I need to do a lot of work on this before I can move ahead (and I will work on it over the next few days). But I need inputs from you. Help me!! Write to me. Or I am at @saurabh on twitter.

Thank you!

PS: Since this post is about a new project, I have removed the number of days left and the date of the post. This is the 5th day of posting on my blog without a break. Yay to that!

Looks. Do Matter.

This post hasn’t been authored by me. This is by the planner in me, who I tried to kill three years back, but he refuses to go away. All characters used herein are fictional. Including references to a certain Bollywood actor. And yes, read at your own peril.

It no secret that I ~~like~~ adore Shahrukh Khan. And the way he talks and the way he acts and the way he looks. No I am not talking about the KKHH look but the way he looks in general.

The KKHH look.

If you excuse his bachpan ka mistakes, he does not look that bad. On a normal day, he is lot more “cool” and far more polished. Take the Kabir Khan look for example.

Kabir Khan. Chak De India.

And if given an opportunity, he can actually get nice shades and do his hair better and look even more awesome (or delicious, as a lot of his female fans say)

The Yummy look.

So, SRK can chose to look great, bad, ugly, yummy or simple as per his wishes. Agreed he has the looks and hair and all that but I think a large credit goto the stylists as well. Merely by changing the way he dresses, his personality goes through a sea change. Like the movie Rab Nay Bana Di Jodi. He plays a simpleton and suddenly, if you dint know who he was, you could easily mistake him for an office going commoner from North India.

Ready for office!

Ofcourse the point is not how brilliant SRK’s style team is, but the fact that merely by changing the way you dress, you can change how you look.

And there are lessons to be learnt, for the mediocre, average Joe like me. The world makes their impression about you, merely by their first look. There is some number to it (first impressions are made in 30 seconds etc) but I am not sure. Imagine going to a client and promising them earth shattering insights about who to sell that expensive hand brewed tea to, and dressed in a torn jeans, old chappals and an ill fitting linen kurta. Will the client trust you with her brand? How many odds do you think you have to win that account, even if you were David M Ogilvy himself?

Let me park that thought for a minute. Lets talk about other men who are not actors but have a distinct look/style. Steve Jobs for example. Black turtleneck, blue jeans and sneakers.

The Steve “God” Jobs. Since 1988.

Steve went like that to all the meetings. After 88, there were hardly any occasions when he made a public appearance in different look and yet he could command an audience faster than most of us blink our eyes. It would be brilliant if I could be like that. Irrespective of the way I look, I should be judged on what I bring to the table.

But, alas, we are programmed to be lazy and conserve energy. We are happy to put people in silos and group them into generalizations. We love to categorize people and them rather than taking each case on its merit, we try to put every incident in a previously thought of bucket and apply all characteristics. So for example, if you called a nanny and he was bearded, wore denim shorts, Vans shoes and had tattoos and piercings all over, would you trust him with your kid? May be the nanny is more comfortable in a pair of shorts than a boring set of trousers. May be the tattoos are an extension of this thoughts and he has the balls to cry his thoughts out loud. May be his girlfriend appreciates a beard over a clean shaved look? Remember that talk about being comfortable etc?

Coming back to thought I parked, I realized today that if I am to be successful, I need to leave my stubbornness behind and try to do things that are in line with the expectations of the world. And start “belonging” to the safe and trustworthy bucket. And this ladies and gentlemen, marks the beginning of the end of the great SG. I mean I can chose to be someone like Gail Wynand but what are the odds? I dont even know what Hell’s Kitchen actually mean.

I mean if I was Jobs, or Gandhi, I would have been so good with what I did that I would not need a “look”. But then I am not. Ofcourse it took them time to become who they were. Inshallah, so would I. And now that I am starting my business where I need to do some real work (rather than coding a website where my audience votes on pics of college kid), I would rather not leave any stone unturned. I will not die for sure. The looks bit, may end up being just another tactic to delay the death. Lets see how it goes.

And the real reason of posting this? Does anyone know of any good professional “image/looks consultant”? In Mumbai?

Chevrolet Cruze – Hunter (2012)

Of all the ads that are on TV, because of the sheer number and the frequency with which they bombard you, very few catch you eye, your attention and make you take note of what is happening on the screen. The new TVC for Chevrolet Cruze is one such commercial.

Unlike most great ads, its not a one minuter and there are no powerful characters or dialogues. Its a very simple ad that has just one hero – the product itself. And unlike all car ads, there are no cliched stories and it does not talk overtly about the power, mileage, young adult protagonist or the awesome looks of the car.

Have a look, if you haven’t seen already.

The lyrics go as follow…

Run boy run there’s a storm on the run… dust… rising!
There’s a beast on the prowl, there’s a roar, there’s a growl… thunder and lightning!

Wow! Beautiful visuals, amazing lyrics, awesome voice and great music. A brilliant package. There is no way that the target audience for Cruze will not like it.

Talking about the target audience, for any car company, typically the key sets of audience are…

Potential customers – the ones who are actually considering buying a sedan that is high on comfort, value for money and stylish enough for them to buy it. The car must elevate their status within their heads and more importantly, in their peer group. For a prospective Cruze customer, I am assuming, from the commercial, that they are looking at selling it to fast rising corporate kinds rather than the old businessmen. These young men want to play, rather than just commute in comfort. For “play”, the hunter and prowl is a brilliant place to be at.
The automotive fanatics – the kind of people who know what horsepower the engine is, what is the turning radius, the clearance and other such things that are Greek and Latin to people like us. These people participate in forums and post their opinion on portals. These are the people that potential customers actually turn towards for their buy decision. Even though, the commercial has zero stats or numbers, it has everything that would make a car fanatic take note. The drifts and looks will make one search for more. The Cruze website does an ok job at it.
Dealers/sales team etc – the ones who will actually sell the car. These people are often oblivious to the content of the ad but need the gratification that the “company” is advertising on TV and is spending money to help sell easier.
Competitors – merely to take a jab at em ;P

The ad clearly does a good job at appealing at all 4. Even though, it would be tough to get the sales data just for Cruze but it would be interesting to see. At least in this category, premium sedan category, there must be a direct correlation between advertisement and sales. Since in India, a car is a very very high involvement product, its really important for a car commercial to appeal to emotions.

In terms of how a planner would have approached this TVC, a typical planner is trained to think in two dimensions – rational and emotional. Rational – you talk of the benefits that are apparent, measurable and verifiable. Examples could be better mileage, superior looks, impeccable build quality or extra space. Emotional – you talk of benefits that a customer will perceive after they are exposed to your communication and hence are non-quantifiable, subjective and open to interpretation. The examples could be “makes you a hero”, “takes you home”, “your first car” etc. The rational ones are easy to make and the emotional ones are difficult to pull off. This commercial is definitely not rational and slightly evolved for classifying as purely emotional.

For the category, the commercial is spot on. Easily breaks the clutter and makes the audience take a note. Take a note of the hunter on prowl! In the end, its a #win commercial for Chevrolet. Kudos to the agency that came up with the insight and wrote this commercial (who?). And to the client that approved the concept and is actually spending money to air it.

I’d rate the commercial a 4 on 5. Go see it. And yes, it makes me want to go and buy the car. Just that I dont have the money to do so. Sigh!

Disclaimer: Personal, opinion, only.

Hudson News and Dunkin Donuts in India

Yesterday, I stepped out of my home after like 5 days. I am in the middle of a root canal and its painful, even when I dont have any drills or injections in my mouth. Anyways, so I was out and I was going to CP. On the way I saw two new international brands being launched in India. Hudson News (retailers of books, magazines and more recently food, cafe etc) and Dunkin Donuts (retailrs of donuts and coffee etc).

While thinking about these two brands I realized that a brand like Hudson News, probably has no long term future in India (true for most “retailers”). Simple reason. They are in the commodity business. If I set up exact same format at Hudson and called it GargSon and offered as good or better experience, ambiance, convenience, price and service as a Hudson, there is no reason why customers would not flock to GargSon. So if Interglobe (The company that runs Indigo Airlines and is launching Hudson in India), created a new format and a new brand all together, they would have done far better (unless they want to launch house labels or private labels, like a Bharti Walmart).

One may argue about expertise and process experience that Hudson may bring to India from their international presence. But then enough has been written about how India is a different market and how the customers behave, perceive and decide differently.

On the other hand, if its a brand like Dunkin Donuts (being launched by Jubilant Foodworks, master franchisee of Dominoes Pizza in India), customers pay for the product. And for the “association with” and “consumption of” the brand (end of the day its a Donut and there are enough and more good and tasty donuts available in India). The association and consumption of a Dunkin Donuts can not be replicated by a Saurabh’s Donuts. And thus, it makes a lot of sense to get international “product” brands in India. These two words – association and consumption – are the only two reasons why host of product brands would do well in India. Starbucks, Ikea to name a few!

And yes, I did try a Dunkin and it was ok. Not close to M.O.D. but it was great to see a Dunkin’s in Delhi. Exciting times ahead.

First posted on Sandbox.

An Opportunity for Snack/Food/Beverage brands!

At some point in time, a few years back, I was an account planner with a then emerging advertising agency. I was there for almost two years and dint really do lot of work that I could speak about out loud but I did learn a lot in the process and it helped shape my thinking quite a bit. ~~It has programmed my mind to question every premise~~ My mind was already wired to question everything and a stint with the agency made me learn to try and find reasons for all the actions. Today something interesting happened. During one of those long taxi rides, I started questioning a basic premise and it led me to come up with some amazing insights that a food/beverage/snack company may want to look at.

So, while I was on my way from Bangalore airport to Indiranagar (about 90 minutes cab ride through open highways and crowded city), I had this desperate urge to take a break, rest for a bit, seep in the scenery, tame my mind/thoughts, relax my head/body, eat/munch onto something and generally stop. And there were tons of places where I could have done that. It was an open highway with shops that sold stuff ranging from cheap country made liquor to tea to coconut water to aerated drinks to snacks to chips, cigarettes etc. And this is when I realized that for a non-smoker like me, there is no alternative to smoking a cigarette when I want to take an unscheduled break.

Let me take a break from the back story a bit and talk about a cigarette. A typical planner, would define the cigarette and the use as…

A social object. When I am smoking, there is an instant connect with anyone else who is smoking close by. Both the smoker and the other unknown smoker, suddenly belong to the same tribe. They could start by sharing a light, a stick, a tea, a conversation and eventually a relationship. I can safely say that people bond over a cigarette and its as social an object as they come.
Cheap at 5. It costs anywhere between a rupee and 10. This is the right price point that customers in India are oblivious to. They can spend this kinda money without thinking too much about it. Ofcourse this is a gross generalization (more on this in the next planning posts).
Kill time. A typical tick takes about 5 minutes to consume. This is the right amount of time that someone may want to kill when they are taking a break. Anything short is too short. Anything longer is too long. This is the right amount when you could disappear from that long/boring meeting and yet go unnoticed. This is the right amount of time that you need to recharge your batteries.
Un-awkward. If I am standing on a corner idle, I become an eye sore for everyone else. I dont have a business there. But, if I am holding on to a lit cigarette, I suddenly become a part of the scenery. No one questions my presence. My role is defined. I can pass off as yet another cigarette smoker that is just having his regular fix of nicotine. No one would give me a second look. And no, a cig is not alone here. You could have tea, hold a newspaper or may be merely fiddle with your phone.
Savor the after taste. After I have had it, there is that after taste that I can savor for long. Of course there are people who have issues with the after smoke but thats a different story. Then the kick that nicotine gives, also helps and for the ease of convinience, I would add to the after taste category.
Available. Its as ubiquitous as condoms, potatoes, water and air are. There are small kiosks after every two feets (at least in India, even at remote locations). I can buy a pack, I can buy one stick, I can buy alternatives, I can experiment. Nothing is as easy as buying a cig in India.
Does not affect appetite. Unlike a juice, or a tea or fruits, I can have as many cigs and as often and it would not affect my apetite. I would not skip a cig because having too much of it will make my stomach full and make my skip my dinner/lunch. So it serves the purpose of giving me a break, recharging my batteries and yet not affect my subconscious mind (assuming the ones smoking are aware and yet ignore the results of excessive smoking).

So after this rather large description of a cigerrete as a commodity that we humans consume, here is the million dollar question. Can brands/businesses in the foods, beverages or snacks industries, take these lessons from cigerrettes and create a product? Or may be create an experience? Or may be create a social object? Or something that

To make it simpler, can someone come up with a fmcg product that is cheap (<INR 10), available everywhere, allows me to kill those 5 minutes, makes me bond with other patrons of the product and does not give me anything but a break from the rigmarole?

More I think about it, more lucrative this seems. Ofcourse everyone would have tried taking this space. From things like coconut water to road side tea to street snacks to big established brands like Snickers (break at 4 PM), Kit Kat (have a break, have a kit kat), all the snacks (Hippo, Lays etc), lot of biscuits and million other assorted things have tried but they lack one thing or other. No one has been able to crack this bit as yet and when someone does, it would be a huge huge market waiting for them.

Wonder what do people in the business have to say about this? I can think of a response that one of clients for my ex-agency would have some up with. What else could be a valid response? And this is more of gut feel research right now and I would love to spend more time and effort on this. Primarily to validate the assertations and to unearth more such ideas. Anyone wants to commission a research?

Published first on sgSandbox

Aug 14: Maid in India

Apart from being a mere domestic help, maids in India play myriad roles.

The chief one being the unofficial communication channel between women of a particular locality. This unorganized and apparently rag-tag channel is infact better and faster than most of the other traditional medium. Even the breaking-news-by-the-minute tv stations. In fact, more than mere messengers, these maids are like clearing houses for all the gossip. It also helps that these maids often come with life time warranty and terrabytes of gossip storage capacity. They can store specific pieces of gossips for decades and retrieve it at any later date with an uncanny ease. You can nudge them on shoulders and drop unconnected word and they would weave a story around it. The impact they have had on the peace deserves some gallantry award. At times, its this intervention of maids that has prevented those intra-locality battles.

Then, these maids often serve as advisers to our housewives. Ask them about cheapest grocery store around, ways to clean those ziddi daags, projection of gold prices over the next ten years, plots of ANY of those million saas bahu soaps (where the story, the richness and fancy clothing remains the same), reasons for corruption in India, spat between Ambani brothers, performance of Dhoni and his boys (and grown up men) in the test series against England and all other things that a woman of substance should be knowing.

Coming closer to home, all those times when you thought that your wife made that extra spicy gravy, the way you like it, it is your maid at play. Every time you spill that gravy on the cushions, and you thought your daadi maa ka nuskha shall clean it, its the maid. She is the one that ensures that your pot is clean. She is the one to wipe and dust those shiny surfaces that you otherwise know as television, ref, music system etc. She is the one who would more often than not carry your letters (if you still get those) up to your place. She is like that invisible hand that you always wished you had!

Of course our dear maid is one those those unsung heroes who end up remaining anonymous, not because their contributions are miniscule, but because they always work under the shadows of larger, more powerful allies. Its time we give them their rightful share of respect that they have always deserved. Lets stand for them. Lets do that candle night vigil, that walk to Jantar Mantar. Any anna’s, bedi’s, political parties want to take lead?

This is day 14 in a series of 31 daily blogposts. Other posts are here.

Once upon a time, I used to be an account planner with an advertising agency. I may have actually used this as a briefing document for the creative team. Gosh, I miss those days!