#Consumerism – 2030

So a lot happened in this week gone by. Two big brands got acquired  (Nokia and Vodafone). Smart watches were introduced in our lives. Google had a strategic tieup with an FMCG brand (Nestle), and then in a strange, yet very correlative tweet,  Nokia took a dig at its rival:

So alliances are being formed, and rivalry being defined. It would be interesting to see what the future would be like.

Looking into the future

2012 was actually an end of an era. The end of the world as we know it. 2013 is the year when we are being introduced to newer technology, newer interfaces to interact with different mediums, while the older products and brands are slowly receding to the background.

While a QWERTY phone was the new technology in the 1990s, we are now looking at Google Glasses which can record, review stuff and watches which will help us take calls now, and show us the weather and location apart from the time.

From a behavior standpoint, this is an important shift. Currently, We have adapted to a handheld device for accessing all possible requirements. Technology like Google glass and Smart watches will now, be able to provide the same functionality in a hands free format. This is the next step in technological evolution. We are literally gazing into the future.

Endless Possibilities

While Smartwatches are being touted as the future, they would still remain secondary to google glasses in one main aspect – Audio / Visual content. We are A/V animals. We love to watch rather than read. While a google glass or any similar product will be able to help us show and tell things, the smartwatches can only be used to see or click – like a remote. These two, in all probability, will be paired together in the future.

Since the glass is directly connected to our vision, we (and with it, the brands) will be able to monitor, analyze and capture all that we see. Things which used to go unnoticed, will now be available for analysis. Subconscious behavior would now be quantifiable. This is a golden opportunity for the brands. Right from where to place the billboards, the products in a store, to actually knowing what we are thinking along with it.

Shopping in the future

Lets look at the year 2030. I choose this year because 17 years ago, around 1995, consumer market started picking up the mobile phone technology. And look at where we stand now.

2030 would help us account for a saturated potential of this now futuristic, till then well adapted and well saturated technology. Lets call this super device as the glass. it would have changed forms by then. In all possibility, it would not have to be mounted on our face like spectacles. They might look something like this:

No, the people would not be becoming Saiyans, but this design of the glass allows the device to access not just the vision, but also the hearing (ears), speech and thought patterns (should not be impossible considering we can monitor our heart rates and other body activities from our mobile phones right now).

We, as a society would have changed into a much more consumeristic, and technology dependent one. And when I mean dependent, I mean a common 18 year old (born in 2012) then, could not imagine a world without a LED TV or a phone with buttons on them. They would not have the need to go to school because they could find all information about all possible subjects just by a voice command to this beautiful device, called the glass.

Wired internet would have ceased to exist with Wi-Fi connectivity available like the mobile networks. Phone would have latched on to our wrists by then. All calls would be free as they would be made over the net. Almost everything would be automated with a decline in the areas where manual labour could be used.

Print media would have ceased to exist, as almost all the content would be accessible online. 3-D printing would be a household thing like the paper printers. Manufacturing plants would have dwindled in numbers because of this. Services industries would be booming with every brand focusing more on customer service and post purchase actvities would see a lot of disruption.

Brick and mortar stores would be restricted to huge malls where we would find everything at one place. Most of the employment will be directed towards monitoring programs. Cyber security would be paramount, as all the personal information would be online.

And, we could shop just by thinking about it. Sounds futuristic? I guess not.

Where, at one time, we were scared of shopping online, we now shop using our mobile phones. This change in mindset is ever evolving.

To entice the consumers, brands and companies keep coming up with newer ideas to get the attention of the consumers.

Ebay recently launched an application to make the lives of online shoppers simpler. This smart browser application smartly notices your browsing behaviour and gives you different buying options depending on he product you are

looking at. You can check the app here: bit.ly/eBayCheck_Extention

Consumerism in the future

 Right now, we live in a world where even groceries are being delivered at our doorstep. We can look for price ranges online, browse through the brands, make payments using plastic money, and then get the product delivered at our doorstep. If we do not like the product, we can return it, and a replacement arrives in a similar manner.

Lets try to picture ourselves shopping in 2030.

In this world, wants and impulses would reign over needs. The basic needs would mostly be automated by monitoring the inventory levels of the groceries and automated timing for clothes being washed.

Imagine a common man walking down the street with his  ‘glass’ on. While walking, he notices a shirt a stranger on the street is wearing. From the emotion levels, the glass would be able to know that this ‘object’ is desirable to its master. In a SIRI like voice, it would ask its master whether it would like to know more about the object. If the answer is a yes, it would access online data and show the available options along with the brand, price, any offers and the delivery dates if purchased. Along with this, reviews of the product, what people have said about the product, who are the people in their network who are using the product, and other currently trivial, non tracable, but then relevant data, would be flashed on the screen.

If the man wants to buy any of available options, he simply as to say ‘buy it’, and the glass would automatically make the transaction using the fed in financial data in its system.

And all of this, would have happened while the person is walking on the street, without distraction.

So, in the future, we would be living in a world where just thinking about a product would show us alternatives of what we want to buy, help us get reviews from its users – either reading about it, or getting in touch with them directly, and then a simple voice command would buy the product for us.

In short, Life would be simple, and impulsive. Very implusive.

A brand’s Perspective

In these times, the most difficult part for a brand would be differentiation. Breaking the clutter.

For a brand or a company, targeting is the most important thing. If they know who wants their product, they can direct all their efforts to entice them. Thanks to technology, each of our behavior online gives a good enough description about us to tell them what kind of ads we like to see, what kind of products we have bought int he past, and would want to go for in the future. Now imagine these brands having data of all that we see, and listen to in our daily lives. They would be able to pin point our exact want at the exact time, just by a program in their system. Targeting would not be much of an issue, rather than catching the attention of the consumer.

For this, novel disruptive technologies would have evolved where gamification would be used to make the consumer involved with the brand. Disruptive strategic tie-ups like Google Nestle one, would keep them relevant and fresh in the mind of the consumer.

In the future, Word of mouth would be the key thing for a brand. The more and better talked about the brand, the more preferable it would be. The traditional media forms would have become irrelevant by then, as people would become more dependent on what others have to say about the product, than hear it from the brand themselves, who, obviously, would talk good about themselves.

Also, 3-D printing of the products would also be an option available, hence the brands would be concentrating their messaging on the raw materials used to make the products. Services industry would not be affected by this, though.

In the end, I would leave you with a video which, for a brief second, had actually given me a look into the future. This is a fictitious account of a scenario when Google and Amazon join hands to form what is called ‘GoogleZon’ and take over the world. Hope you enjoy it:

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The views and ideas are purely an extrapolation of technology present in today’s times and what it would lead to in the future. This article does not, rather cannot take into account any disruptive technologies which might crop up changing everything we know about our society currently.

#SadarBazaar : The home of Customized #HomeDecor

So its been 3 months for me in this concrete jungle called Gurgaon. Till this time, I was a bit caught up to settle down and get my home in place. My temporary abode had everything you would need except a table. For 3 months, I worked lying down on bed. But after 3 months,when I actually got bored of not having a table around to sit and write on, I finally decided to get a good wooden table for myself.

A friend told me about Sadar Bazaar, the biggest and finest place to buy good, cheap furniture. This post is about my journey into the wooden kingdom. Or rather, the place where you will find anything and everything related to home decor: Furniture, Kitchen appliances, Showpieces, Everything.

Strangely, you will find a market named Sadar Bazaar in every city you go. Apparently, any marketplace which sells wholesale home requirements, starting from wooden furnitures to steel almirah, would be called Sadar Bazaar. This is partly because of the brand this place has built over tie, and partly, due to the lack of imagination of the shoppers in this place who do not really care of a different name as long as the customers know where to come.

So, on a weekend afternoon, I happened to visit the original Sadar Bazaar looking for a wooden table. The place took me by surprise. It was teeming with people. I stood wondering what are so many people doing out on the streets on a sweaty saturday afternoon! But then I looked around, and I saw what this place had to offer. You would be amazed by the variety you find in this place. Lets take the example of chairs. Right from the material of the chair (plastic, wood, metal, steel, leather, etc) to the design, height, width,  cushioned, non-cushioned, to coming attached with a small table on its side, you would be able to find everything. This place had something for everyone.

I visited the furniture market part of the huge Sadar Bazaar. While looking through the shops, I happened to speak to several owners about the way business is conducted in the market.

Most of the shops are ancestral, being run by the children of the ones who had originally set up shop there. For the people in Sadar Bazaar, it is a family business. The raw materials come from old vendors who have been in the business for a long time. The carpenters are seasoned, some of them working for the past 30 years, and their children are now being groomed to be a part of this business.

All the furniture is made in-house. This allows a lot of customization to be done. Hence, a huge amount of variety will be found once you start taking a stroll in the market. Tables, chairs, almirahs, you name it, and they would make the one which you thought in your mind.  The furniture can be customized in any way you want them. Right from the material used to make the furniture, to the size, to the accessories. However, the prices would differ accordingly. Customization takes a little more time though, but the furniture will be delivered at your door step.

The rates are set according to the shopkeepers, and it would be difficult finding the same rate at any shop because of the level of customization of furniture.  Though there is a lot of deviation in prices, very few are ready to bargain. This is because the market is primarily a wholesale market, and if you go there to buy only one furniture, they will not bargain much for it.

Also, if you would want the furniture to be made at your house, the costs would be higher. This is because at home, the carpenter has to dedicatedly work on one furniture while in the store, he can work on multiple products at the same time distributing his efforts in different jobs. Also, if any of the parts get damaged, it can be coated up which is not possible if the manufacturing is taking place at the client’s home. Hence, the higher rates.

The shoppers don’t mind if you go and buy it from the nearby store, as they know that if you go, the other would come. Furnitures of the same design would have different prices across stores. Hence, you might have to visit a lot of stores to actually find the right furniture at the right price.

I had a hard time choosing tables. They were of different shapes, sizes and heights. Some had a glass top, some were with cabinets. I was looking for a specific type of table, one with drawers instead of cabinets. I visited almost 15 different stores before I was able to spot the right one. I started bargaining, but they would not budge much. Hence, my tactics changed to buying a table and a chair, and then bargaining on the combined price of both. Once he got the price down, I removed the chair from the equation, and then was able to reduce the price down.

While leaving the market, I asked the store owner whether he is scared that the business might be dying because of different MNCs coming into the market. the old guy seemed to chuckle, and said, “Hum jitni variety dete hain, utna in logon ne kar liya, to inko apni company ka naam Sadar Bazaar rakhna pad jaaega.” I couldnt agree more. It is very difficult to customize furnitures on large scale. Standardization is the name of the game for the big companies, while this market has made its name because of the variety found here.

If you are looking for a customized wooden table, or a cushioned chair for yourself, I would recommend visiting Sadar Bazaar to you. The best place to get affordable, durable and customized furniture for yourself.

The curious case of #BBM : The #Blackberry Story

The news of the blackberry messenger (BBM) becoming available on other platforms must have been quite a shocker for most of us. When I discussed it with some of my folks, they had only one question – “what were those guys smoking in the board room?!” I mean, which organization gives away its most valuable, and probably,the only existing asset away to the world for free? Was it a gesture of social service, a sign of giving up, or a well thought out strategy?

Lets try to connect some dots.

If you see the shares of the OS market, iOS and android account for 92.3 percent of the market. Even  a new entrant, windows, has beaten the veteran to claim the third spot. In India, the BlackBerry OS market share is 2.9%, down from the 6.4% in 2012. (Source: http://bit.ly/12kFBVN). However, on a global scale, the fall has been from 8.8% to 3.5% (Source: http://gtnr.it/X72kkI ) .

Blackberry, in itself has gone through a lot of changes in recent times. They have re-positioned themselves from an office phone to being youth-centric. The handsets have become more affordable with modifications to the skin. However, the transition of their OS has not been as fast. Maybe they realize the youth wants more, much more than what their OS provide them , and eventually want to phase out the blackberry OS, and graduate to iOS and android. This will give them more time and freedom to concentrate on the handset market. That is where the real money is.

This move might be a goodwill gesture towards Android and iOS so they can later on use these operating systems in their handsets.

Currently, they are in bad shape. There sales have been declining year on year. It didn’t even feature in the top 10 mobile handsets sales in Q4, 2012 (Source : http://gtnr.it/X72kkI )  To improve sales, they have launched all sorts of handsets in the market. They even launched their smartphone Z10 which recently got into the controversy of the returns outnumbering sales (Source: http://on.wsj.com/12Mzazm ). A lot of negetive publicity for the brand needs damage control from the brand’s end.

From a messenger available on handsets, the main competitors of BBM would be Watsapp and Viber. From a feature perspective,  almost all the features are the same. Watsapp and BBM are better than Viber because of the call functionality. (Source: http://bit.ly/10GIvCH )  The main difference between Watsapp and BBM is the pin feature of BBM. While Watsapp becomes activated just by adding another Watsapp user to the contact list, BBM would need a pin to add anyone in their list. This would help people graduate to a more personal group where just being on the contact list and using the app would not mean you are welcome. People having Watsapp would start using BBM because of human need of going for the forbidden fruit once available in the market for free, and then feed their intrinsic need for privacy. This snob factor might help creating a perceptual differentiation similar to what Apple has done with the smartphones. This would increase the brand recall, which they will use to sell the handsets. They have also changed their name from RIM to BlackBerry during the launch of their Z10 model (Source : http://bloom.bg/XiCvin ) .

Maybe this whole exercise the beginning of a long term branding strategy for Blackberry to keep the name alive, and have a different positioning in the handset market altogether.

Lets see how this one pans out for them.

#ZooZoo : The ‘real’ story behind the alternate universe

Note : All the characters in this post are real. Any resemblance with any fictional character is purely coincidential.

Everyone has seen them on TV. Everyone loves to adore them. Some compare them with the Simpsons,  some with the minions (Despicable me fame) and some.. well… simply look at them as comic characters created by the Famous Ogilvy & Mather for Vodafone.

Yes, they are the #ZooZoos.

When I was in B-School, professors often discussed about the strategy behind the Zoozoo campaign; how the need to promote the VAS services gave rise to the Zoozoos. Our marketing professor kept repeating in the class about the ‘Jujju’ campaign and how it was one of the most effective campaigns ever launched in the Indian Market. Launching it in IPL was a masterstroke.  This campaign was engraved into our heads. Ask anyone which was their favorite ad campaign ( an interview question for placements), and most would say ‘Zoozoo’.

However, towards the end of my days in college, I was one of the lucky ones to have interacted closely with one of the team members who created this campaign for the first time. And the facts are a bit further from the ‘story’ we are taught in the schools.

The story goes something like this:

Somewhere in February, Rajiv Rao from O&M, who was handling the Vodafone Account was bestowed the opportunity to come up with a campaign which would run during IPL, season 2. Vodafone had gone with the Happy to help campaign in Season one, and looking at the popularity, knew season 2 would be bigger. It wanted the campaign to encompass the whole series with 360 degree marketing which would touch the lives of Indians who would be drowned in Cricket fever, and remain in their hearts even after the series is over.

One thing was clear. O&M had to better their pug and the ‘happy to help’ campaign. Expectations were already running high.

Now, airing one ad for the whole season would have made them repetitive. Hence, the idea of airing a series of different commercials for the whole series was born. Now, the only thing in Vodafone’s artillery was VAS (the value added services), which could provide this kind of variety. As soon as this idea came on the table, the meeting room started buzzing with ideas of how they can showcased. They could not stop the creative wheel to stop churning!  Hence, the idea of coming up with featuring VAS as the theme of the campaign for the whole IPL series was born.

However, budget was a constraint. It would take a lot of ads to be shot for showcasing all the VAS. It was decided to use common characters for all ads. In the initial meetings, the idea of coming up with cartoon characters were discussed as something would automatically give the audience a humour quotient, and would be clutter breaking as very few animated ads had been tried on the Indian screen. Ogilvy experimented with several characters and finally went with ‘egghead’ characters that don the colour white (with black dots for eyes and a mouth), have heads resembling eggs, and disproportionately thin bodies.

Time was still a constraint. They had less than a month to execute the whole campaign. Bangalore based Nirvana group came to rescue when they came up with the idea of getting costumes made and shooting the commercials. IPL had been shifted to South Africa, and as the activation needed to happen there, the whole crew shifted to South Africa. The ads were shot on south African actors wearing the white ballooned quirky looking costumes.

The series of 25 ads were shot in a record span of 10 days, as well.. the IPL was beginning in a week!

This was the first ZooZoo ad ever on TV :

The ZooZoos were an instant hit! The media came running, asking who are these white creatures, what is their name? Rajiv Rao was sitting in office when someone told him about this. No one had thought of it as it wasn’t a task to popularise the name in the first place! He called a meeting. People thought of different names, and Finally, the name ‘ZooZoo’ was coined. . There’s no science to it, as Rajiv explained – the name just had to be something fun, memorable and catchy, and not a clever one that’s difficult to pronounce. (Source : http://bit.ly/18lLVRN)

And hence, came into existence the celebrities that we know now.

ZooZoos has given Vodafone an asset they can use for a long long time. Set in an alternate universe, these white humanoids mimic every human emotion in their quirky way, and inform us how Vodafone makes our lives better.

O&M has experimented with the character sketches a lot – A super ZooZoo was created for launching the 3G services in the later seasons. the newest ones have mini ZooZoos which talk about the internet services that Vodafone provides.

And to think of it, one accidental idea gave birth to so many case studies for the B-school generation. And how we lapped it up!

Gillette – Soldiers for Women. Really?

I know i might be a little late in the day to talk about this. But many would have seen, or heard about this campaign being run by Gillette known as ‘Soldiers for Women’.

For those who have not heard of this, here is the silent, serious looking ad for the campaign :

We all know what it means, and what it points to. Without is saying a word. Thanks to its timing. Given the kind of time we live in, someone had to pick up the baton to speak out loud. But did Gillette play it right, or was it just trying to milk the cow at the right time? Also, could P&G have done better?

This campaign has been very popular, because of its launch along side the Delhi Gang Rape incident. It targets men in the age group of 15-45 years, and, in the words of the Marketing Manager, Sharat Verma, calls out to all the men who embrace the values of the solider by standing up for women.

When I saw the ad for the first time, I had a problem with it. While it did hit the right note by asking men to protect women, it also, in a very strange way, assumed that women cannot defend themselves, and need protection. It shouted out from the TV screens that you DO need soldiers who would stand by you while you are riding back home from work, or going for a party.

It is sad that our nation, especially the capital, is a place where the women do not feel safe. They are scared to come out at night because there might be wolves of the night waiting to tear them apart. They need protection from them. Question here is: who should protect them? should they need a man all the time, as a bodyguard with them. or should they  take it upon themselves to be able to do the same?

From my perspective, this campaign reinforced the fairer sex to be the weaker sex.

Gillette is  a men’s Brand – one of the few which P&G has, considering its female dominion. Of course, the target segment for this ad would be men. This message is directed to only the male gender. Not the Female ones. And what do you want to tell the men at a time like this? Respect the women, and protect them. In this respect, P&G might have been right.

However, given the fact that P&G is a brand which is known for its female centric brands, P&G could have used its female centric brands to spread the word for women. Or as its umbrella brand policy to bring all its brands under one roof, come up with an intensive 360 degree campaign using all the brands together to have more impact and more noise.

Maybe it is too much trouble managing between the different brands, and P&G really tried doing their bit. Maybe, I am just asking for a bit too much from the global brands whose mission is to improve and touch our lives.

Maybe, this nation would not need such campaigns in the future. Maybe, I’m a dreamer..

Hope, I’m not the only one. 🙂

Samsung and Dropbox : Strange Bedfellows

Samsung has recently signed a deal with Dropbox which enables users of Samsung Grand, S3, Note 2 and the soon to be unveiled S4 to have 50GB of free storage space in Dropbox  One can access their music, videos, photos and other applications right from their mobile phones. The deal ensures that more of Samsung devices including cameras and PCs will have this pre-installed feature when they are passed on to the consumer.

The new TVC of Samsung Grand showcases this new tie-up and tries to educate the users of having the convenience of a Dropbox account.

Given that the smartphones are becoming increasingly smarter, and the need for users for more storage space is on the rise, this is a very interesting way to keep users happy. Instead of having a hardware upgrade, Samsung decides to strike a deal with Dropbox. Now a Samsung smartphone user can simply drop a movie in their Dropbox  and can watch the movie while on the go on their mobile devices. However, most of the smartphones still use 2G connection. Downloading a movie from a Dropbox account to your mobile phone might take ages. Songs and Photos would be simple enough though. The upside is, 3G is well on its way.

The real fun is in uploading photos and videos directly from the phone to your PC. This would be helpful especially for people who have the habit of taking a lot of pictures with friends and while travelling. Now they can transfer their files directly to their laptops or PCs. Hence, having a Dropbox account on your Samsung Camera would help you transfer files without worrying about storage space in your memory stick and allow you to take unlimited pictures.

While this deal is sweet for Samsung, it is honey for Dropbox. Firstly, being associated with Samsung gives it access to the ever increasing user base of Samsung smartphone users who would open a Dropbox account after buying the phone. The ads showcasing the features of the software gives it free airtime. without even having a media spend, people are being educated about it. The best part of the deal is, its not an exclusive one!

That right. Dropbox is still independent to have associations with other mobile phones. It already has one with HTC One where it provides 25GB of free space, and is already in talks with Sony and other undisclosed companies (Source : http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/27/dropbox-ceo-drew-houston-opens-the-door-to-samsungs-competitors-wed-love-to-work-with-you/ )

So its more of an open relationship marriage where parties are allowed to sleep with other people too. and everyone gets to have sex! 50GB of it. Porn-unintended! 🙂

BlueStar Ad : Using Media Effectiveness to the max

I guess many would have seen this new BlueStar Ad running on TV.

Air conditioner maker Blue Star has launched this campaign, building on its proposition of ‘office-like cooling at home’. The TVC created by Interface Communications aims to increase awareness for the brand  targeting the residential segment and has tried making deep inroads across the country including the non-metros.

However, I am not here to talk about the ad and its creative aspect.

What struck me while I was browsing through the channels  was the ad playing at 3 different channels at the same time – AXN, Comedy Central and CBS Prime. You flip through either of these channels, and you find the same ad playing just as if you had not changed the channels.

I thought it to be a coincidence, so I decided to confirm it with one of my friends who has fair bit of knowledge about media spends by brands. He confirmed that the exact time of the advertisements are mentioned in the media plans decided by the brands.

So, BlueStar had had planned this to the T.

3 channels having similar Target Audience who would flip through channels of their liking when there is an ad coming on one of them to find the same ad playing and catch their attention.

Come to think of it, its not a bad idea to have this idea for your TVC to improve the media effectiveness. People who have a tendency to flip channels, flip to specific channels when they want to avoid ads. For example, movie buffs would switch to a different movie channel when there is an ad coming in one (Star movies to HBO to Sony Pix) . English Music lovers would move from VH1 to 9X0 to Spark) . A Star world watcher would rarely switch to a Colors or Zee TV for his dose of entertainment (though there are rare occasions when this is true). Having a study about your audience and their TV watching habit might give a brand a fair idea of which channels to focus on, and play the ad simultaneously at these channels would ensure your audience has nowhere to go.

Smart move this, by Bluestar.