Peter Norvig (Research Director @ Google) has this on his bio / self introduction page (Scroll down to the last section on his webpage).

Achiever of the year - You

File it under other achievements / information and it will quietly act as an inflexion point on the resume. In addition to the great keyword combination – “Person” “of the” “Year”.

Nay sayers might say that only Peter Norvig can get away with this, but yeah also the other 6 Billion homo sapiens as well.

In two words -

Ingenious and crazy style brilliance

-egghead

Views on Marketing in Apple (via Branding Strategy Insider)

Marketing by exclusivity. The author asks – did you exclude a customer today? Interesting thought.

Danone – Reaching the bottom of the pyramid (via WSJ)

Seems like its always the question of price v/s grammage debate while trying to evolve a model to reach out to the bottom of the pyramid.

Facebook and the rise of semantic web (via RWW)

How Facebook (and other host of companies like Best Buy etc) plugged into Semantic Web via a technology called as RDFa / OpenGraph (in my understanding works in the direction of meta information tagging) which might lead to a powerful tool allowing marketers to contextualize their offering ever closer.

Unrelated note : It also marks the debate between recommendation versus search.

Related note: Best practices for marketing on Facebook happening on 28 July (Organized by Altimeter Group and the influential Jeremiah Owyang)

Some great real-time ads from Nestle (via Google Reader)

Vuvuzela Epic Wimbledon Match

Recent Fastrack advertisement (I so love their tongue-in-cheek boldness which clearly excludes the ages to which the brand does not want to be associated with)

Fastrack advertisement

Let me know – egghead

Such an example is Hotel Saravana Bhavan. They have crossed over to North India and locations in UAE, America, UK, SE Asia and many more. As it happens with the outreach, the traditional idli-dosai-meals menu now has a smattering of North Indian dishes as well.

What follows is multilogue between a bunch of North Indians who arrived to one such restaurant in Chennai for their lunch (I was sharing a table with them munching on a rather over crisp Bhatura).

NI 1 – “What should we have for lunch, bhai log?

NI 2 – “What else but some Idli / dosas? I guess they wouldn’t have any roti-subzi.”

NI 3 – “Or we could have a bhatoora (glancing sideways to my plate).”

By this time the menu cards arrive and the guests promptly start searching for the Bhatoora entry in the menu with no success.

NI 1 / 2 – “I guess they would not call it Bhatoora here. I am damn sure they must be calling it some weird name that the local janta can understand. Anyways if we can’t get it we will have something else.”

NI 3 – <Smug laugh>

Once the waiter comes to get the order and this happens -

NI 1 – “Chole Bhatoore” (In a rather sub sonic voice)

Waiter – <Pause> (Apparently waiting for the guest to tell the number of plates they would like to have)

NI 2 / 3 – “It seems that they don’t have it, let us go for something else”

The guest order some other dish and go on with it.

The interesting takeaway from this incident is three fold -

The guests are saying, without pointing out, that Chole Bhatoore though visible as a dish cannot be found in the menu card.

Also, despite both the parties knowing that what they want exists / can be delivered, they miss out on an opportunity to eat it / serve it.

Misinterpretation of silence is dangerous. While the guests thought that indeed their suspicions were true, they waiter stood there counting for the next input, in the form of number of portions, to be communicated.

The guests ate whatever they did not want to eat and went away. However they went away forming an opinion / an image that indeed this restaurant does not have North Indian dishes at all.

The irony of it all being, I was sitting there eating what they wanted. At one point the guests pointed at an entry in the menu card labelled “Chana poori” and remarking – “Probably this is what they call Bhatoora here”, followed by a guffaw of laughs.

And ahoy, we are not dead. -egghead

For the record -

Bhatoora

Puri

Not withstanding the recent spate of advertisements on the hazards of smoking and the pixellated photos doing rounds on cigarette packs, this is what was overheard at a local panwari (Roadside shop) -

“They have destroyed the aesthetics of the packs” (Musing over the pack)

Talk about end user involvement and acceptance

-egghead

Anyways, I spent some time (or you may say wasted both lines and time) on “clutter breaking” because that is what I observed on streets and buildings around me. It was outside Andheri Station in Mumbai when on a bus stop I saw an advertisement of Religare which had a small kid clicking on a camera. Nothing extraordinary right? What caught my attention was the flash of the camera shown, which was a light which must have been placed in such a manner so as to appear to be the actual flash light of the camera from the front.

Another one was today on my way to Gurgaon, when I saw a Nokia N97 ad that showed the phone in use on a very big screen. What was different from the usual in this case was first a ticker that was supposedly there to scroll news and was indeed scrolling live news! The second one was a field that showed temperature and was actually showing teh temperature at that time. Though these two distinctly stood out in terms of not gelling too-well with the original image, still its a way to catch attention.

Now comes the question of effectiveness. Though, I really had to ponder hard to recall what brand was that kid and camera ad and moreover, what was that ad about, but in case of Nokia N97, I do know now that these are the two features amongst many others in this phone. It maybe the case that Nokia is fresh in mind and it will only take a week or so for me to again look back to even if Nokia was effective but the point I am trying to make here is that there are three very important aspects to OOH print advertising. First, to the slightest of extent possible, yes it pays if it is “Clutter Breaking”. Second, it should be effective! For instance, if you recall one of the recent Parle Musst Stix ad which shows the spokesperson from Parle making consumers aware of how they don’t like to invest money in advertising and instead believe in giving more quantity in their SKUs with a model popping up in the screen with Musst Stix and the spokesperson asking the staff to get rid of her. This ad, though to me seemed to be good, but speaking to a few people I understood that it might not have been that effective as many people mistook it to be a BINGO ad! Now even in our case, if I remember the flash light of the camera but not the brand, nor the context, though clutter breaking and attention grabbing, was it effective? Thirdly, the placement of the ad is very important, which I think both of these brands had (appropriate if not the best spots).

Various brands have used all sorts of techniques to grab attention, sometimes by playing with size, sometimes with colours used, or a surprise factor, distinctiveness , sometimes mere placement of the ad and then a mix of them. Given below are few examples. Enjoy

-Pikes

Confused? Should be. Actually, the ad tries to highlight one of the features of IE8 which is private browsing meaning there are no traces of your browising session left anywhere in the browsing history or elsewhere. The feature is somewhat similar to what is offered by Google Chrome in the form of “Incognito Window”.

But then whats so offensive about the ad is the meaningless and ugly, rather senseless way of showcasing it. The ad shows a husband and wife sitting on a table with the wife stirring probably a glass of milk and the husband working on his laptop. The husband then stands up and walks away for something when the wife takes permission to use his laptop.

All is well?

What happens next leads to something you may not want to know if you had your meal minutes before. The woman turns the laptop towards her and sees something that sort of disgusts her to such an extent that she pukes!

As if this was not enough, her husband returns and slips because of the slippery floor (slippery because of what the woman did!). In comes a man in the foreground asking “Do you suffer from O.M.G.I.G.P or Oh My God I’m Gonna Puke” and the background still has this woman repeatedly and periodically puking, this time, on her husband lying on the floor. The next 10 seconds of this commercial shows the man in the foreground describing the feature of private browsing in IE while the woman in the background continues to puke on her husband lying down on the floor.

The ad then features the tag line, Internet Explorer 8, Browser For The Better.com

A Microsoft spokeswoman claimed that while much of the feedback received for this ad was positive, some customers found it offensive so they’ve removed it.

Well, if you still want to see it, to which I think that you should re-think, here is that “offensive” ad for you. Watch it and tell me if it was “offensive”, if not then how did you feel about it?

- Pikes

Customer service

The big screens are all HD terminals with ads (I presume), however the story is in the comments. Seeing the busy area someone wants a low key lounge areas and bingo it exists and someone in the JetBlue organization scouts for such comments and lets the world (and the customer) know that the low key avatars also exist as well.

Well done JetBlue!

Hat Tip – Scripting News Flickr Account, Scripting News

-egghead

I am a big fan of Apple ads and this particular “Think Different” ad campaign is my all time favorite.

Back in India, I really love Airtel ads. Both Airtel and Apple try to play on the emotional aspect and their ads just moves you and engages you in the TVC. But on a different note, I was going through my ad repository and found an uncanny resemblance of the following Airtel “Power of human expression” ad with the Apple “Think Different” ad.

Both have a black and white background. They are not promoting their product/service but are just talking about their positioning. Both are emotional in nature.

They may be similar, but what the heck, I just wanted these two ads to be posted on adMark. Both the ads are brilliant in their execution and are a visual delight.

mOrON.

P.S. In case you have missed out, do watch the Bharti’s (parent company of Airtel) Proud to be India ad campaign. Well its brilliant work from Airtel once again.

I googled for “Facebook Marketing” and landed up with a cool resource which was an eye opener as to the plethora of options available for marketing using Facebook. Facebook offers many ways to get the word out and bring the people in. Listed below are few means to get started:

I. Tools for Guerrilla Marketers

1. Profile Page
2. Groups
3. Pages
4. Events
5. Notes and Photos
6. Messages
7. Marketplace
8. Share / Posted Items
9. Networks
10. Mini Feed and News Feed

II. Tools for Advertisers

11. Social Ads
12. Integrated Opportunities
13. Beacon
14. Polls
15. Facebook Platform Ad Networks
16. Facebook Platform Application Sponsorships
17. Sponsored Facebook Groups

III. Tools for Application Developers

18. Profile Box
19. Mini Feed
20. News Feed
21. Invitations
22. Facebook Notifications
23. Email Notifications
24. Application Directory

To read more, check out this: The Facebook Marketing Bible

Orkut is also going the Facebook way by including things like status updates, adding applications, tagging etc. But has Facebook gained first mover advantage?

mOrON.

Cut the chase to India. I am not claiming that analytics is not being done, already, but I see great potential for certain service providers which I will elaborate below.

1. Category 1 – Mobile service providers – Mobile providers are sitting on huge data which at the moment seems under-utilised. For example, I land in Chennai, for the first time. The mobile service provider for once knows for sure that I have landed in Chennai for the first time. They can send me an SMS titled “These are the 5 things that I can seek in this city”. If the subscriber likes the service he/she can subscribe to it paying some fee.
2. Category 2 – Banks – I am just puzzled at their potential but still they are sitting idle. They collect our personal details to the extent of our birthdays etc. What are the potential – based on my age – they can create products or cross sell their existing products. When I am nearing the age of 30 – sell me a house loan (which almost everyone requires). At the age of 45+ – sell me a pension fund. Simply offer me a customised plan on my birthday. “We see you will turn x years old in the next five days, here is what Y bank has to offer on a limited basis to you and your family member”. Seeing the context, hell yeah, I wouldn’t mind it.
3. Category 3 – Credit card -Analyze my transactions for the past year. It will reveal a lot about me and my likes / dislikes. If ICICI were to do such an analysis, books would clearly emerge as my first love. Do you realise the “cross selling” potential here. Infact aggregate this data over their customer base and there you go. Nice targettable micro-segments.
4. Category – 4 – Any service provider who collects my date of birth – Customize offers
5. Category – 5 – ATMs – Banks could analyse the volume of cash transaction on an area by area basis. Given that users will be allowed to take out cash from any banks, abstracting the ATM layer, banks can gain a lot. Suppose in my area, I withdraw a lot of cash from a Z bank where I don’t have an account. My own banker, Y bank, can aggregate the transactions in my area to see whether that is the case indeed with other customers of Y bank. If yes, then Y bank can open a separate ATM branch in my locality. Vice-versa if an ATM is not generating that much cash withdrawals, then close it down and open one where the volumes are more. Across bank data can be used to arrive at these volume details. Lot of inter-bank collaboration can be used, if Y bank’s ATM serves more Z bank’s customers, then share the data and charge’em for it. Vice versa hold as well.

Here is a campaign well done – CROSSWORD

Crossword clearance sale

Okay I am a sucker for books, accepted. Still the Brio offer sounds a good enough reason to move my ass and visit the sale. This is what I was referring to in transaction analysis for credit cards.

What are the implementational issues – in terms of software. What will be the issues? I don’t know. Whatdya reckon, let us know.

-Egghead

Take a look at this which landed in my Google Reader – An article about a cricket in the Marketing and Media section of Livemint.

WTF, no seriously.

Anyways these days because of the enormous input of Marketing and Sales related “education” that my brain is always in a fix when all these things happen -

1. Reading a line which says “brand new habit” (I am wondering brand – woohoo where is it and then I realise that is the normal english word)
2. Whenever I see an advertisement, immediately the brain does some swift calculation on the TG, the creative brief, the storyboard and whether there will be recall or not.
3. Ads inside toilets – immediately a voice shouts “interstitials”.

See each career has its own risks. Share in your risks and curiosities !!

-noop

India sells approximately 78.7 million copies of newspaper every day, second only to China. However, the business model of the newspapers rely less on the revenue earned from the subscriptions (app. 40% revenue) and more on the revenue earned from advertisements (app. 60% ). Of course, one might argue that the advertisement revenue itself is subject to the circulation, reach and reader segment attracted. And hence it does not come as amazement when the Wall Street Journal decided to provide free newspapers to important corporate houses and business schools. If they get addicted, money would surely follow. Let’s look at some of the initiatives taken by Indian newspapers, and am sure, by most of newspapers abroad too!

Now let’s take a look at the bundling principles through newspapers. Of late, newspapers have been bundled with magazines and local newspaper. For example, The Times of India in Mumbai is bundled with the Mumbai Mirror and a bundled price of Rs. 4.50/- is charged for the same. Have we noticed? Yes. But have our preferences changed for the addition couple of rupee we have to shell? Actually, no. And hence bundling becomes a mode of survival for this industry. Maybe the future could see newspapers bundled with your train ticket in the morning, or a monthly subscription free with your month’s groceries!

The content of the newspapers is gradually becoming more target group driven. Debatable, yes, but here’s my take on it. Different sections of the newspaper have been targeted at different segments which was earlier not so much the case. And hence there is a clear distinction between editorial contents of the same day in different newspapers.

In order to make the newspaper attractive amidst the clutter, the publishing houses have come up with innovative ways of advertising. And thus, the first page of my morning newspaper always has a startling content, colour, font or interestingly shape! It surely does work, especially when it’s difficult to hold on to the newspaper! Add to that the advertorial page (Mint recently published “From time to time, you will see a page or a feature in Mint that is clearly labelled as Media Marketing Initiative. Such sponsored content is entirely generated by an advertiser or the marketing department of Mint on behalf of an advertiser, and does not involve any Mint editorial staff...”

The print industry is in a mode of collaboration (media and print), extension (Dainik Bhaskar keeps adding more cities to its network regularly), and the advent of local newspapers and of vernacular newspapers. All these, together, make me think optimistically regarding the print media in India.

The online print media and its evolution is another huge aspect, but maybe some other time. Also, the mobile phones may usher new revolutions in this space. I leave you with the question. Is there something the west could learn from the print media in India? Or is it just that “we are like that only!”

- Nemo

What really drove me to this post is a comment from my friend who said – in certain parts of a city in India Domino’s refuse to serve/deliver pizzas in 30 minutes to customers citing that the traffic in the approach roads hinders prompt delivery. Think about this (this is largely India specific) -

1. As a city in which Domino’s operates adds more and more vehicles to its roads which don’t expand to match the gap between the demand of better road spaces and the actual physical supply of roads, what happens to Domino’s brand promise. Such a brand promise becomes highly dependent upon the city’s infrastructure.
2. If the city’s infrastructure fails / is under great pressure, then due to this dependency your brand promise is in jeopardy.
3. If you were in Domino’s what would you do – the only feasible solution seems to be open more stores serving smaller areas in order to combat this dependency.

To me, Domino’s brand promise consists of two elements, internal and external. Internal – Process for making pizzas, External – Delivery mechanism. Now we can see the issue in their positioning. The external element is the real pain point (and going forward in India it could become a real problem, with denial of service already happening).

Isn’t it better to architect your brand promise on elements internal – like a Pizza Hut (Taste) or a Volvo (Safety)?

Therefore it’s not just about your product but also the overall environment which also affects what you set out to do with your brand. It’s upto the company to decide the extent of dependency on the external environment.

Let me conclude with a question – Are brand promise and positioning the same? What do you think?

Let us know in the comments.

-Egghead

I tried to order a pizza from “A” centre to be delivered to my place which is near Apna Bazaar in Andheri(W). First of all the centre respondent, after taking down the entire order, told us that they could not deliver because we ordered for four pan pizzas citing that its not a bulk order.

If that’s company policy – it is okay but whose responsibility is to indicate the same on the website?
We then tried four different centres to get our pizzas delivered. Finally we found the Jogeshwari centre who could DELIVER our pizzas.

My logic tells me Lokhandwala centre would be closer to our place. Anyways that could be the problem of your software. But isn’t indicating “that we don’t deliver until you order zillions of pizza making it a bulk order” Domino’s’ responsiblity.

WHY CAN’T THE CENTRE RESPONDENT HAVE THE COURTESY TO OFFER US HELP AND REDIRECT US TO THE RIGHT CENTRE? Where is your CRM in practice? If this is what it delivers – then it is of no practical use as far as I see. Revamp it. The point is basic courtesy is prevalent in normal life but curiously not in business. Are we customers from MARS?

PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE THE RECEIPT OF THIS CONCERN ON MY E-MAIL ADDRESS. Otherwise I would think that this feedback is just another web – form. AWAITING ANY RESPONSE.

As you can see I am miffed but two learnings from this episode.

1. Domino’s has a location segmentation that thinks Jogeshwari is closer to Apna Bazaar in Andheri(W) than their Lokhandwala centre.
2. Forget CRM, I think the phone respondent could be taught to at least handle customers as humans. We are lost looking for a number from where we can order our pizzas.
3. Why can’t Domino’s change their website so that the consumer can point out the nearest location on a map (that derives out of their location segmentation software, if any) and spews out a number that will get his order.
4. If you are setting up centres that deliver only bulk orders, then isn’t it the priority to first apprise the customer of the same.
5. Best CRM still is extending basic courtesy from day to day life to business as well.

End of rant and Amen!!

-egghead