Targeting Competitors Directly

One among the various strategies adopted by the brands to promote themselves in the market is targeting their competitor directly through their ads. This method is normally followed by new entrants and by aiming the main competitor they are challenging the position of the competitor. Automatically through the process they are showcasing them self superior to the existing player and the indirect benefit is getting noticed in the market. Recently the same strategy was applied by Datsun Go in their new ad campaign by targeting the top player Maruti Suzuki. Through out the ad they showed various models of Maruti Suzuki and the ad theme was about moving forward and think something new and big. Also the ad was positioned particularly on the new generation and youngsters. Datsun couldn't have a better ad indeed to come into the limelight and make their brand a topic of discussion in the market. With this ad they are also challenging the years long monopoly enjoying by Maruti in the Indian Market. Its sure that Datsun is aiming the first time car buyers, in that case their real competitors are Hyundai i10 or Ford Figo. We need to wait and see whether Datsun Go will taste success in the Indian market like his sibling Nissan but the campaign surely caught the attention they aimed for.

Know Your Clients for better positioning

I never saw a chocolate positioned separately for boys and girls. That too with separate packing with different colour codes. Ferroro India, gained 6% share in the Indian Chocolate market share in 5 years and that too by challenging the biggies such as Nestle and Cadbury. All the three products, Ferroro Rocher, Tic Tac or Kinder Joy had made their own consumer targets over these years. But if we take Kinder Joy particularly, there are many things to mention about the success and positioning of this products. There were many products in the market already aiming to catch the attention of the kids. They came out with small versions, unique packaging, toys along with pack etc to tap them. But this product not only made a clear division but also were priced higher. When a brand position their product in a higher price either they are too confident about their product or are very particular about the targets. By pricing the product at Rs. 30/- for 20 gms they actually took an initial risk but what played good for them was the surprise gift. The egg shaped product offered a surprise gift inside the pack itself which made the buyer sure that they will get it while buying.

The product is now a hit among the kids and now the company is realizing the need to convince the parents about the quality. The recent ad campaign of Kinder Joy is focusing on the ingredients and the international standards they keep while preparing the product. This is actually an advance step taken by Ferraro before any allegation or complaints arise as happened with Cadbury few years back. We need to wait and see will Ferroro continue with the shape of Easter Egg or will come out with a different one with a smaller pricing. 

Surviving Indian Brands

Since LPG was introduced to the Indian market in 1991, over these years we have seen lot of Indian brands got wiped out from our domestic market. The main two reasons were substantially low quality and poor pricing. Any improvement currently seen in the domestic brands are majorly to meet the quality offered by foreign brands. In an online forum i recently read about the brands that are no more existing in our domestic market. The numbers were much more than i expected. On the other side, there are brands which are fighting hard and also giving tough competition to foreign players. Few succeeded due to the quality they maintained and others due to the effective pricing they did for sustaining. We must admire the resistance from local brands such as, Micomax, Raymond, Royal Enfield, Cafe coffee day etc to the global players. One such brand is Flipkart, which rose in a stream which was entirely new to us in the beginning of 2000. The e-commerce arena was pretty new to a developing country like ours. But the founders not only survived in the market in lat 7 years but they build a business worth of nearly 10,000 crore. From a mere online book sellers they now challenge the global giants such as amazon in all fields from capital sourcing to meeting the on time delivery cycle. Competition will eventually either make you surrender or will make you lift the standards for better competition. Either way the consumers will get the best and who offer the best will survive. 

Focus shifting to Brasil 2014

Like any other vital occasions, football 2014 also saw the focus of entire world shifting to Brazil. When such an event with an estimated viewership of nearly 70 million is watching the game on a daily basis for a month, every possible brand would like to explore the opportunity at the best available cost. The effect of this fever was quite visible from the fact that the India England test match played at Trent bridge last week was almost like a secret match as there was hardly any following or discussion on the century by Murali Vijay or the result of the match. Along with the regular traditional mediums such as TV and Radio, the growing new generation mediums also played an important role in expanding the reach of this high spirited game among the fans and followers. It is expected that more than a million tweets are generated on the final night from India along. Riding on the football mania, social media spend increased to 4% of the total digital media budget for many brands in 2014. In order to catch the attention of the viewers and listeners, the brands adapted their campaigns, creatives and punchlines to the theme of Football. After telecasting IPL and now by telecasting the complete tournament for the time, Sony Six placed themselves as a strong competitor among ESPN & STAR SPORTS. They were aiming for a 200 crore ad revenue at the starting of the tournament and the ad spot for final match was quoting between 2-3 lakh for every 10 second. Surely they must have gained much more than the estimates in real terms. 

Global brands going Local

In today's competitive world, its all about sustainability. For the survival you need to change or modify your strategies, approach and some time even your products . Over these years we have seen brands who never believed in advertising were forced to assign millions of dollars in various advertising platforms to gain the customer loyalty. Established brands such as Apple, were forced to come up with buy back offer in India to gain the market share. Change some time even happen in the product offering. You need to localize your products so that it suites the country and the taste of the people. Brands such as McDonald & Pizza Hut already mastered in this and adds a new product variant according to the country they are in. As a part of the same strategy Pepsico introduced Nimbuzz, the lemon flavor soft drink to target the niche. Localisation also goes to the product name, you need to make sure the name you selected doesn't have a wrong meaning in any other language. An example of this was the situation Oreo faced in Russia were in Russian language it had a negative meaning. Studies have shown that 60% of consumers prefer to see the product information in local languages which shows how important it is to localize make your products and its communication. So eventually the coming ages will of Glocalisation were brands need to give preferences to the local tastes and cant have a uniform product for all markets. 

Good Communication in Ads

Like any other marketing mix, effective communication also plays a vital role in the success of a product. Having a good product may not be enough if the marketers doesn't know how well to communicate it to the target consumers. Marketer should answer the what, why & when along with deciding the content of the ads. Every ad should be able to catch the attention of the viewers in the first stage before creating the interest among them. It should evoke a desire to the viewers or targets to try the product. The communication should not be of any false claim or statement & towards the end all the above efforts should result in an action of purchase. Communications should not hurt any kind of sentiments and while making ads in regional language the makers should certainly double check on the translations. When & How to communicate also plays an important role in the success of an ad. Ads during local festivals with special offers and schemes are always attractive to the buyers. Selection of the right medium is another channel that will decide on the effectiveness. Right medium will go like an arrow shot from the bow, mostly right on target.

Note: Image shown is just for example with good intentions.