29.4.14

Honoring women of excellence

A  power packed evening to honor women achievers across all walks of life - An Award for Women, Voted by Women.

 

Brand Task
Kelvinator and SoBo Films wanted to create a power packed evening to honor women achievers across all walks of life - An Award for Women, Voted by Women.

The show called Stree Shakti Womens Awards 2014, was to be a mix of power packed performances, awards and video profiles, including background stories of the awardees.

DY Works was entrusted with the task of coming up with the brand identity for Stree Shakti - one that would encapsulate the essence of the new age woman and her various facets and roles.  The mandate was to avoid the existing clichés and reflect contemporary values of  woman achievers.


Brand Solution
DY Works decoded the terms ‘Stree’ and ‘Shakti’ and how these manifest the personality, drive and essence of women achievers, to then create an identity that would reflect all of these traits. This identity captured the idea of an age old theory of how the combination of body, mind and soul come together to create a force that makes one go beyond the call of everyday duty.



Brand Insight:
Nature has three main elements – Air, Water and Earth. These power Nature in being the way it is – powerful, productive and permeating.

In the same fashion, the combination of the power of a body, mind and soul make the individuals and groups that Stree Shakti Awards seeks to identify and honour. Using this idea with the visual inspiration in a ‘propeller’, the identity reflected and celebrated women and their many traits.

Taking the concept of the triad that makes up the body, mind and the soul, we see it essentially as the propeller that drives. Mapping it to the various facets like grit, hyperkinetic liveliness, flexibility and fluidity that make the achievers who they are, the logo and the identity have come into being.

It also about the many facets and arenas where the spirit of empowerment can manifest itself whether it is by mentoring, inspiring or by personal achievement.


Impact:
The logo has been well received, in fact,  noted lyricist Gulzaar Sahab was inspired and enamored by it as well!

DY Works is Brand Strategy & Design Firm based out of Mumbai

28.4.14

Bringing Dreams Alive

DY Works & Sobo Films Come Together To Create Magic for the Less Fortunate and Make Their Dreams Come Alive 


DY Works partnered with Sobo Films Pvt Ltd to create a unique platform where reality TV served as the medium to bring optimism and better opportunities to the less fortunate.  Bollywood celebrities will swop roles with the common man to experience what his life is like. The amount earned in this role, through the assistance of celebrity status, will be given to the common man to help him out financially and give him a boost in morale and hope.


DY Works developed the name, something that would evoke the feeling of dreams coming true, of opportunities being made available for a commoner and the feeling of anticipation that comes with the aspiration for a better life. “Mission Sapne” combined this feeling of hope along with determination serving as the appropriate name for the show. The name also reflects the idea of the show’s creators - wanting to go beyond day to day and give back to the community and to use one’ s privilege to make another’s life better.

DY Works also created an identity that would bring this name to life and give it its ideal visual representation. The kite in the identity speaks to forward movement and progress and is apt for the show’s core purpose.  It highlights the feeling of chasing one’s dreams no matter what adversity one has experienced, thus far.

The use of gold, signals aspiration and hope as well as prosperity especially in the Indian content. This against the background of the sky – gestures towards dreams, hopes and desires, coming together to achieve more and go beyond one’s current confines.

Together the name and identity bring the feeling of cheer, development and hope, communicating the essence of the programme. 

DY Works is Brand Strategy & Design Firm based out of Mumbai

Branding Is Healthy in Healthcare

Surprisingly, healthcare of all sectors came across as a very interesting area for me to study. And I am fascinated to see how trends in this have changed with years. To start with, healthcare industry is no more just about hospitals. A lot of private players like smaller diagnostic centers, pathological labs, pharmaceutical brands, health insurance brands all come under the realm of healthcare.

The Indian Healthcare Sector is expected to reach US$100 billion by 2015 from the current US$ 65 billion, growing at around 20% a year, according to rating agency Fitch. Some of the major factors driving the growth in the sector include increasing population, growing lifestyle related health issues, cheaper cost of treatment, thrust in medical tourism, improved health insurance penetration, increasing disposable income, government initiatives and focus on Public Private Partnership (PPP) models

A few fast facts:
  • Hospital and diagnostic centers FDI inflow was US$ 1.3 billion during April 2000 and March 2012, according to the latest Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) data
  • Medical and surgical appliances FDI inflow stood at US$521.6 million during the same period, according to DIPP data
  • The drugs & pharmaceuticals sector has attracted FDI worth US$9.2 billion between April 2000 and March 2012
In this growing competition, big players are doing whatever they can to highlight their brand amongst the crowd. Let us discuss some new approaches that marketing executives in this sector are pursuing to make their brands successful.

Advent of Branding in Healthcare:
There was a time when ‘which hospital to visit’ was decided by its proximity and word-of-mouth factor. Is it the same case even today? Not really.  Subconsciously a customer has started to trust a hospital which has been talking about its high quality medical resources and its high end ambience. But on a conscious level, a common man still perceives advertising of a hospital to be unethical.
But with so many private players entering the market, healthcare in India like all other sectors has entered the world of branding. Their marketing hence, is no more dependent just on ‘word-of-mouth’. In fact renowned brands are hiring advertising agencies to ensure good health of their brands.

Brand Positioning
Today big brands in the sector of healthcare are following their brand vision statements and values to position their brands differently from all others.
A few examples include ‘Wockhardt hospitals’ whose brand mantra is to provide the best advanced super-specialty in healthcare while the brand mantra of ‘Aravind Eye Hospitals’ is to offer quality eye care at reasonable costs.

 Another successful branding example is ‘Mayo Clinic Hospital’ in Scottsdale, Arizona, US. It is branded as a 'healing environment'. The Mayo Brothers believed that the best interest of the patient is the only interest that should be considered.  The clinic has a soothing environment with soft music playing, the ambience of corridors are quite peaceful. There are no announcements made to hamper the environment inside and the visitors are never asked to leave. This has helped create an extremely welcoming image of Mayo Clinic Hospital.




Social Media: When you come to think of it, social media is a great way to strengthen the existing value of a brand. The best thing about social media is that it allows one-on-one conversations with customers which no other medium does.

Apollo, Fortis, Narayana Hrudayala are few names with great social media presence. They are on all relevant social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. And it is not just about being there, brands are making sure that they engage regularly on these platforms as well. Social media experts are helping brands optimize the use of this new media.

One of the best examples of Social Media used effectively is Scott &White Healthcare located in Central Texas. During the Fort Hood shooting attack in 2009, Steven Widman, (MEd, Scott & White Healthcare) used twitter to post updates about victims directly from the hospital. He also re-tweeted news from the Red Cross to keep people informed. This led to an increase in their Twitter followers by 78% in just 3 days.

Public Relations: Healthcare is a very sensitive and critical issue for a customer, which is why brands in this sector need to take account of a lot of things. They have to ensure that every customer’s emotions are taken care of. Especially in this digital age when a person practically has access to the entire world, consumers are getting smarter and are making their own decisions. In such cases, one little slip-up and the brand is out of customer’s consideration set. How does a brand come out of situations like these? The answer is simple - PR. More like reputation management.
Wellness is a booming thing in healthcare industry. Brands in this sector are dependent on the local media and it is amazing to see how they utilize it. One example of the same is how celebrities are involved with these brands. Recently there was a lot of buzz when Salman Khan was present for an event at Gold’s Gym, Mumbai. Considering the image of a fit body that Salman carries with himself, his association with Gold’s Gym was a perfect win-win for both Salman and the brand.
To talk about healthcare and celebrities, another famous actress Shilpa Shetty now owns a spa called Iosis which was in news last year due to its branch out in Lucknow.
Exploring more on the new segments of this industry, diagnostic centers are names that I came across very frequently. One very successful PR story of a small diagnostic center is of Suburban Diagnostics when they talked a lot about the high quality services that they provide. Due to the positive image of Suburban in the market, big venture capitalists ended up investing in them.
Apollo hospitals are in news regularly sending out positive stories about their achievements. This has helped Apollo achieve many smaller hospital brands partnering with them.
Branding in healthcare is new and yet to be explored. All we know is that there will always be something interesting that will be practiced in this complex yet intriguing sector. In future we will witness more marketing professionals getting into healthcare marketing and branding.

By
Integrated Corporate Practice Team,

21.4.14

Driving User Engagement For E-Commerce

The surge of digital & social media has changed the way consumers behave and interact with brands. Today consumers connect and engage with multiple brands through multiple channels. But the influencing power no longer falls with the marketers. By reviewing the brands, consumers are increasingly shaping and reshaping these brands themselves.


Owing to continued years of great credentials, owners Runit Shah and Kapil Hetamsaria reached out to DY Works with a new challenge: To create a jewellery brand that unites best independent designers from across the world, experiential online shopping and social media marketing.

As this concept was unprecedented, the goal for DY Works was not only to reach out the right target group but also educate them about the brand. The task was to build a corporate brand strategy through its website and employ various social media platforms.

The interactive and informative website www.velvetcase.com - the core brand touch point – is an intelligent and contemporary 2-way communicative interface that bridges accessibility of the Internet and the charm of culling through unique designs created by global designers.

Following our recommendations, Velvetcase designed gift boxes as one of the brand’s hallmark: a Velvet Case. Beautiful and elegant it carries forward the brand essence to the hilt. This was followed by an intensive e-mail marketing campaign to promote this unusual brand.

DY Works also helped the brand capitalize its website by deploying the new in-thing - User generated content.  On International Women’s Day, a contest was launched that allowed consumers to design and create their own jewelry. Which was promoted extensively through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Blogs to create a buzz to drive traffic back to the website. Over 600 participants and 8800+user interactions were logged during the 3 week long contest that included Indian television celebrity, Drashti Dhami. The facebook page hit a whopping 40,000+ likes. 

          
 

Besides this, the V Blog talks about to-dos/don’ts, product polls and every latest trend possible in the jewelry world. A lookbook, youtube channel are other activities being explored.

 The extensive online marketing was put to effective use to witness incredible results: new trends in consumer buying behavior and identifying new target markets by mapping existing and new visitors at all brand touch-points. The bounce rate dropped to a steady 6.6 %, a remarkable upside from 38%. This sure speaks volumes.  

Currently another Instagram contest is running which lets users upload and vote for their ‘Selfies’. And thus, DY Works continues to leverage onto user generated content with social media interactions. With the way digital world continues to evolve and expand every second the brand can only stand out and sparkle.

By
Prabha Kadam
Brand Partner
Integrated Corporate Practice
DY Works