Read Between the Ps

An innovative method of outdoor Advertising in Europe by Schweppes - placing Schweppes bottles in lakes and fountains. Created by Duval Guillaume’s Antwerp , the campaign would include fountains across European countries placing Schweppes Bottles “illustrating the product's sparkling effervescence” Since Europe is well known for its scenic features, such a campaign would definitely get high visibility. More so, the popularity of the “Indian Tonic” brand reflects in its sales in Europe. According to the official website, Schweppes sells enough soft drinks in Europe to fill over 4,000 average sized swimming pools every year! Great idea for a transparent carbonated drink for sure. An idea to chew on definitely…. [via Adrants and Adverblog ] A comprehensive background about the brand is given on the website of Cadbury Schweppes (Schweppes merged with the Cadbury Group Ltd in 1969 ) I specially wanted to mention this, since the inventor of Schweppes, Jacob Schweppe , is considered to ...

I have earlier talked about various segments of Women Consumers: Women in the IT sector , women aged between 35-45 years and " Can you lose sales in two words? " from Women. Let me take it a step further and delve into specific consumer mindsets . I managed to read a few articles on Women Consumers – some dos and don’ts and certain imperatives for Marketing to Women. Let me first talk from a generic perspective for Women and highlight key findings of certain research reports and then subsequently, cite certain peculiarities with respect to the Indian mindset and Consumer attitude. Pre-school days - Relational Aggression [via adweek ] At a time where I hear a lot about " pecking order ”, there is one more aspect I read about, relating to Women psychology – “ Relational aggression ” – something which is very high on their pecking order since childhood days! According to a research conducted at Brigham Young University , pre-schoolers regularly practice what is called a...

A recent series of hoardings led me to delve into a very unique trend specific to Indian advertising – Surrogate advertising … a trend which is fast catching up and has suddenly attracted a lot of innovative and creative brains around the country. Reason? On one hand, the govt cannot allow public advertising of liquor companies. But ironically, liquor and cigarette sales are the biggest revenue generators in terms of taxes and duties on these items. That’s why an overt acceptance of the marketing in these sectors is not legally acceptable. This has led to one of the biggest ironies of the country – Sales of these items are not banned, yet advertising on the same has strictly been prohibited ! Talking about the market size and the different segments would not be pertinent to the discussion (for the records, it is more than 100 million cases in India!). But what is the significance of this trend vis-à-vis the entry points for new players and sustainability of existing ones? Multinati...

My Paper on " Restructuring of Indian Firms for catering to Emerging Markets " recently got published on Brand Channel . Based on Corporate strategy , the paper talks about the strategy that Indian firms need to adopt in the changing business environment and the evolving dynamics of the Indian Markets. Traditionally, the Indian businesses have been family-run businesses and conglomerates . They established the backbone of Indian business and have been the face of India Inc. in the Corporate World. But with modern avenues to exercise, along with globalization , privatization and liberalization - the very definition of conglomerate needs to be redefined. The global markets emphasize value adds, innovation, flexibility, excellence and customized products and services. The big question is whether the conglomerates should diversify into strengthening their internal functions or take a focused approach to establish and consolidate their markets. In the published paper, we (I a...