Read Between the Ps

A recent article in Adage, P&G Primes Its Pinpoint Marketing discusses how the world’s largest consumer goods marketer has plans to re-orient its marketing investments, and wants to move closer to the consumers through Relationship Marketing . In this article, Elva Lewis , Associate Director, P&G North America Corporate Marketing, provided some key insights into the marketing efforts planned by the world’s biggest advertiser next fiscal year. P&G attempts to move from traditional media to direct marketing, and plans to integrate the marketing efforts across its 86 brands in North America, thereby focusing on one-to-one marketing. “ That idea is targeted scale , a nearly oxymoronic term for the way P&G, so expert at using its enormous clout to buy vast amounts of TV time efficiently, is trying to leverage its heft in relationship marketing, whether through direct mail, online communities, or even content plays ” This concept of targeted scale entails reinforcing a re...

Sometime back I had talked about the signifance of Annual Reports and their emerging role in Branding for companies . A recent article by Rajeshwari Sharma , " Making a Statement " gives an insight into the policy framework and the specifics of Annual Report Designing. Design and Development of these tools has emerged as a separate function for some companies, and with the growing economy, it is imperative to have a tool which articulates this growth as well. A nice article to understand the norms of the industry, and trends visible in the market. A good bunch of illustrations substantiate the arguments mentioned therein. As I had mentioned earlier, this is an initiative to establish credibility among the stakeholders and promote the umbrella brand or reiterate the corporate brand image , and the article reinforces this perspective. Another trend predicted in this space - Online Reporting ..Rightly so, with the changing face of corporate branding - lesser Annual Reports, ...

Till some time back, Annual Reports were nothing more than a consolidated financial report intrinsic to a firm’s business, with little concern given to the presentation or the style. Maybe, Annual Reports were more of a prerogative of the number crunchers and were of little interest to the “Kotlers” of those firms… However, the perception seems to have changed now, with more effort given not only to “ what the annual reports present ” but also to “ how the annual reports are presented ”. Annual Reports have emerged as a critical brand element for internal as well as external branding purposes . Though this is not a new phenomenon internationally, India is a relatively newer market for this trend. According to an article in the Economic Times , “there’s an attempt to tell a story beyond what the numbers reveal.” Indeed a story is built, and the company takes the centre stage. “Corporates like Sasken, Polaris, 3i Infotech, Greenply and Shoppers’ Stop have revamped the way their res...