A Mela During Dussehra - Photo Blogging

Visited a Mela organized around Dussehra, photos to tell the story...

Push Carts as Retail Options

When one talks about retail most of us would start thinking about the plush interiors of an air-conditioned large format retail outlet. But in India the diversity in retail is very high. A few days back I saw this retail option , where VCDs were being sold by a cycle push cart. Now this itself is not new, if you were to be in the ice cream business then push carts form a substantial portion of your retail reach. You can have them at strategic locations across the city, like India Gate in Delhi , in parks ...

But these push cart selling Moser Baer CDs and DVDs located near various shopping complexes in the city forced me think why would a company/distributor look them as an alternate means of reaching the consumers. And the company is the world's second largest manufacturer of optical storage media....

One of the reasons why they would have resorted to this would be looking at the buying habit of consumer buying movie VCDs and DVDs. They are low-priced Rs40/- for a CD and them 99/- for a DVD (appro.), and the company wants to offer a non-pirated and cheap option (pirated ones would be still cheaper). For that they have to be physically present in those places where consumers look for these low-priced VCDs and DVDs. And once the prices are low means the overall margins you can get would also not be very high, thus ruling out the expensive and time-consuming activity of setting up your own outlets, so that is where these push carts become a very good alternative way of reaching your consumers. You reach where your typical buyer would go looking for these kind of VCDs and DVDs and that too at a fraction of the cost of setting up your own outlets...

Even when Nokia initially came to India, they had to rethink the distribution channel strategy, because the typical consumer dealer network did not want to stock a category like mobile phones. They were used to handling larger bulkier products (with low pilferage)and were not willing to work with a new product which might require more hand holding and service issues. And thus Nokia had to look at the small mom-pop stores for stocking of their products, and rest is history...

But innovative alternatives of reaching customers would yield results.....

Celebrities and their contracts, Vijender Singh and Saina Nehwals enter multi-crore contracts...

In my earlier posts on the topic I had written how marketer had started looking at using celebrities endorsements better by tie-ing up with the celebrity beyond advertisements to other activities which he is involved in, and improving product placements link

I have also been against the limited imagination that marketers have had in picking and choosing celebrities, sticking to a limited number of people out of Bollywood and cricket. Infact the day Abhinav Bhindra won the gold in Olympics I had written about the possibility of him getting a endorsement in the tune of at least a couple of crores. The latest data from Business Standard shows that after almost of year, he is getting contracts worth a crore a year, but the surprise is Olympic bronze medalist Vijender Singh who has become one of the country's highest paid non-cricket sportsman, with an estimated contract in the tune of 2-3 crores (though Infinity which is currently managing Vijender Singh is said to have objected against the new deal with perpect, Link)

Though the cricketers are commanding much contract fees, but the trend is encouraging and the fact that we have started working with celebrities beyond cricket and bollywood is a positive trend, As it helps break the clutter and also hopefully encourage youngsters to take up new sports ...??

Jet Airways Strike Customers pay the price...

Was just watching the press conference on time now, where the Jet Airways management addressed the press on the strike crisis and thought should write about it...

Just to give a brief idea about the impact the current strike is having on airline passengers - Jet Airways is the largest airline in the country, with 26.3% market share. This means almost one out of four airline travellers would be impacted by the strike, in absolute a total of around 35,000 air travellers (both domestic and international) would be adversely impacted. Though close to a quarter of them have either been accommodated in other airlines or the flights still being operated by Jet, but all of them would have go through the harrowing experience of not being sure if their flight would take off or not.....

And for passengers whose flights have got cancelled, the impact would be much worse. Reliability and timeliness would be a top priority for travellers by air. And when one fails on the core promise to it's customers we are looking at very serious long term implications for the brand. A look at the awards and recognitions which Jet Airways has got in the last year shows that the airline has been doing well...

The management while assuring the customers told that the Jet airways website will be the centre of managing the crisis by acting as a main source of information for customers on the flight status, but a visit to the website does not give that impression, apart from a small link to check the flight status there is not much information the in the site. An opportunity lost to leverage the website ??

Overall, it is said about the word 'crisis' in Chinese is composed of two words one meaning danger and other meaning opportunity (though latest entry in wikipideia disputes that ), is very appropriate here. Many companies have gone through such crisis and have come out stronger by showing that they have the customer interest at the centre of their operations, experiences of jet blue and others show that , but will Jet Airways be able to do the same??

Twitter Updates 04.09.09

Brand Comm thru Cinema still strong in pockets in the country, case of Sumo Victa being promoted in a Bhojpuri Movie http://bit.ly/vWCoh

India is a sachet market, now OTC drugs are also planning to use the same route, http://bit.ly/X45ko

Nokia Music Store India http://bit.ly/SSJyv

Will Dish TV’s tie-ups help? http://bit.ly/3dwBo

More on Tata Tea's "Jaago Re" campaign http://bit.ly/Pi7gG

Tata Ace story, how they have redefined or rather created a new category, http://bit.ly/lKFlI

Kaya Skin Care Clinics Slow and cautious expansionhttp://bit.ly/HRFb7

Hero Honda's "Har Gaon, Har Angan" rural campaign for rural push http://bit.ly/YltwS

RT @futurescape: You might want to have a look at this regard state broadcasters http://bit.ly/4t62Ni

Yum! Restaurants India has aggressive expansion planshttp://bit.ly/3ZGTYm

Festival Season and Cars http://bit.ly/UHZ5f Honda plan to launch festive civic http://bit.ly/rc3Ry

Retail looking up http://bit.ly/kjPx1

Nestles Spoof ads against Cadburys Pay day adshttp://bit.ly/y6cEV

Media planners focus on individual show than channelshttp://bit.ly/R6Fvn & recent study - doordarshan is most watchedhttp://bit.ly/fFRhd

Tata DoCoMo in bid to 'do the new' campaign http://bit.ly/Xr5v8

HUL cutting down on proms http://bit.ly/s85Sw

i had written on ipill on my blog http://bit.ly/8oGwd & now National Creative Director FCB Ulka also wriote on it http://bit.ly/2UZmb

Bata on the reinvention path http://bit.ly/fMEiR wants to become a serious player in institutional markets

More on the Airtel DTH Ad http://bit.ly/2BAMsy

Paid location services still forms a very small part of VAShttp://bit.ly/4wrJ0

India is still a low cost location for many businesses ,http://bit.ly/2t4wVE

Radio Companies on Social Networking sites http://bit.ly/CUmIu

Samsung Star S5230 becomes fastest to touch 5 million sales in 4 months http://tinyurl.com/mtozff

flavors have come full circle, when chips were launched 10yrs back international flavors were rejected,now we can see them making a comeback

Tried Aliva of Frito-Lays and found it be good but a tad expensive at 12/-

New Blog Post : Emergency Contraceptive Pills , are they being marketed too well??? http://rajeshaithal.blogspo...

Harley Davidson bikes be will be available in India from 2010 onwards, price more than Rs 7 lakhs..

RT@emergingfutures:RCom’s blueprint to drive mobile phone in rural market http://bit.ly/Db607 Yes I also think rural India next battleground

According to Tom Peters Design is..an understanding that all the senses were created equal more on this on his blogposthttp://bit.ly/4hwn3d

Rural Telecom in India, Still a long way to go http://bit.ly/Unf3i

Tata Jago Re Campaign gets into fight against corruptionhttp://bit.ly/z6Mfy

Airtel Digital's campaign - bollywood film style http://bit.ly/4zp32P, do read the comments

Chlorophyll story http://tinyurl.com/kkjvzh

Vodafone rebranding http://tinyurl.com/lwll3b

Godrej No1 Story in India http://tinyurl.com/kmc8lx

New blogpost - Regional brands in Indian markethttp://rajeshaithal.blogspo...

Jaipur foot, Indian ingenuity at it's best, http://www.jaipurfoot.org/

V-Guard Story http://bit.ly/aD4Du

Thums Up and the 20 year old campaign still running and giving results http://bit.ly/16tQsi

Mahindra Scorpio the number one SUV in India, http://bit.ly/7c1DH