NAAM MEIN AAM HAI – WHAT’S IN A BRAND AND BRANDING!

AN AAM SITUATION

A brand is a brand is a brand – William Shakespeare*.
So what is a brand? A brand WAS something that farmers and herders used to identify their livestock from the rest of the cattle, with a hot iron rod. As the definition evolved, it became a lot less violent and a lot more important. Fast forward to 2014, where companies are seeded by the millions, consumer minds are cultivated and monies are harvested by the truckloads. In this case, an aam mango tree; a metaphor from which you will harvest possible truckloads in the foreseeable future. How do you make it happen?
Now, it is a fair assumption that you are not the only mango tree around, after all a mango tree is quite aam. What you need to do is set it apart from the rest of them. Make it unique. Make it memorable. Make it a brand.

Here are a few points to give you a head start.

• Immersion: Not quite the festive dunk in the nearby river that you think. You need to understand and assimilate into your organisational being, the audience, the market, the logistics and the dynamics. Get to know exactly what industry you are in and what you do. Understand who your target audience is and what THEY do. Who are the players who are already in the market and how are they differentiating themselves? Narrow it down as far as possible and create an outline of it.
• Immersion results: You are an organisation which seeds, grows, picks and delivers mangoes to an audience that ranges from 5 year olds to 50 year olds. You have a great product and a good delivery system in place. There is one other player in the market who is almost exactly like you. Its name is The Aam Aam. They have a fast delivery system where machines pick it off from the tree, dump it into containers and distribute it as fast as possible. 
• Naming yourself: If the people you deliver to, like you, they should remember you, right? Your name should be everything you are and everything you want to be. It should be built for the present and the future. 

• Naming Results: With extensive research, careful consideration, workshops, storming brain things, analysis and in the name of the lord of branding, you are now AAM-EN!
• Brand Definition: If you have done it right, you can make accurate deductions about yourself and your competitors and create a set of unique values for your brand. This unique set of values will also imbibe the essence of your brand and what you stand for.
• Brand Definition Results: The results are in and…you will get trounced if you compete with The Aam Aam on the same playing field. You are not catered for a fast delivery system. What you do differently is that you hand-pick the mangoes. You have a group of very talented, passionate mango pickers and packers who, unlike the competition, do not compromise on the quality of mangoes. As an organisation too, you take pride in your work and your workforce, where integrity is your biggest asset and quality your biggest commodity. 
• Creating an identity: An identity in this case, is the LOGO of your brand. You can follow quite a few brand models that can help you define brand values and create a logo. For example, the Kapferer Model of Identity. The model has been used for big brands such as Pepsi, L’Oreal, Carlsberg, etc.The model is in the form of a prism to make it easily understandable and underlines the 6 most important aspects of creating your identity. This includes:
• Physique: This invokes the physical aspects of your brand in the mind of the consumer.
• Personality: The character of your brand. This includes the style of writing, specific design features, colour schemes, ambassadors, etc.
• Culture: Refers to the kind of environment you promote inside your organisation. What are the highlights and the ideals that everyone in your organisation follows? 
• Relationship: What your relationship is with your customer/consumer. It can be a set of beliefs that your customers share about you.
• Reflection: What is your image in the mind of the consumer? What do they think about you? Are you reliable? Value for money? Undefeated in quality?
• Self-Image: What do consumers think about themselves when they buy your product/service? For example, Lacoste users consider themselves as sporty, even though they may not necessarily play a sport.

AAMING FOR THE STARS

You now have a full-fledged brand, up and running. You have to now concentrate on building equity for your organisation. This includes using branding to build reputation, loyalty and trust for your brand. Using traditional branding mediums such as print media and TVCs or the engaging the internet efficiently can leverage you as the most trustable and memorable mango brand in the minds of your consumer. Of course, in the life of your brand you will encounter new players, new markets and newer avenues to expand and branch off. Your brand will have to understand, assimilate, evolve and rejuvenate, time and again.

With a good brand and good branding, you can aam for the stars.
Wishing you only the very best of luck in your business.
* Disclaimer: Don’t believe everything you read on the internet…Except what you read here.

By

Ganesh Subramanian

Copy Writer

DY Works

What’s Trending in Football?

5 things to keep in mind while posting about trending topics

The 2014 FIFA World Cup has been a football lover’s dream. It has generated precisely the level of thrill, excitement, nail-biting, nervousness and satisfaction that a fan desires and expects from the greatest sports tournament in the world.

Mario Goetze’s extra time winner for Germany in the final against Argentina was the 171st goal to be scored in the tournament equaling the all-time world cup record of most goals scored. Each and every team registered on the score sheet at least once. 8 out of the 16 knockout games were decided by Extra time or on penalties. If this isn’t exciting enough, the World cup saw more than its fair share of shocks, controversies and upsets. This World Cup was the justification of FIFA President Joao Havelange’s decision in 1998 to increase the number of participant teams from 24 to 32 as it showcased the potential of the “underdogs” with Chile, Costa Rica and Columbia punching way above their weight. On the other hand, World Cup mammoths like Portugal, Italy, England and reigning champions Spain were thrown off their pedestal pretty early into the tournament. Pundits are describing this as the greatest World Cup ever and it has done nothing but add to the already massive popularity and fan following football as a sport enjoys.

FIFA, the governing body of world football now has more member nations than the United Nations. It is truly a global sport and isplayed or followed by billions of people around the world. It is a sport that requires minimal equipment and is played by people from all races, religions, castes, genders or income groups. Football is played on the beach, in the snow, in the desert, on a ground, indoors and even in war zones. It is this flexibility and adaptability of the sport that creates an unparalleled fan following and loyalty.

The tears in the eyes of fans when their team is losing, the celebration during victory, the anger at the transfer of their favorite player from the club they’ve been supporting since childhood to the direct rivals, the delight of qualifying for the Champions league and countless other emotions are shared universally by billions of fans across the globe. These fans respond very positively or very negatively to every piece of news that the world of football provides and one can count on football to provide regular and ample fodder.

Suarez biting Chiellini, Zuniga’s outrageous tackle against Neymar, Lois Van Gaal’s appointment as the manager of Manchester United, Germany’s mauling of Brazil and Kroos’s move to Real Madrid are just a few examples of gossip that football offers on a daily basis.

In digital marketing terms these are called “trending topics”. The fans discuss this exhaustively online and love to read everything they can about every topic there is.

Herein lies the opportunity for marketing, advertising and building a brand.

Posting about these trending topics has really picked up in recent years with memes, jokes, 6 second videos called vines and tweets. These posts on trending topics that fans want to read about can be used to create brand awareness and loyalty. Users would love to read about, laugh at or enjoy such news or gossip and the presence of your brand name along is a sure shot mantra to increase brand loyalty.

Some examples of impactful posts are-

“But the most important question is: Do the Germans know who Sachin Tendulkar is?”

“Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you're hungry just grab a Snickers.”

“David Moyes....The UnChosen One...”

Brands like Amul, Snickers and McDonalds’s do a great job at this while some brands fail miserable. It does not require a creative genius to come up with these posts. A few things if kept in mind would ensure that your brand benefits the most from these trending topics.
 

5 things to keep in mind while posting about trending topics:-

1)    Do not lose focus- Your brand is not the hero of the post, the topic is. The limelight must be on the topic as that is what the users are interested in.
2)    Be precise- The posts would either be memes, tweets, vines or jokes. No one has the time or inclination to read lengthy paragraphs. You must not try and communicate everything in a single post.
3)    Do not be late- Nothing tastes as bad as expired bread. Post when users are interested to know or read about the topic or do not post at all. No one would be interested to read about the Louis Van Gaal’s appointment or Fabregas’ move to Chelsea now.
4)    Use visual cues- Majority of the users scroll down their news feed without reading each and every post. Usage of distinct and attractive visual cues like giff videos or images is the only way to grab their attention and indicate the post’s link to the topic.
5)    Take risks or be different- Last but perhaps the most important point is to take risks or post unique content. Posting the same kind of posts as the competition will not grab any eyeballs. For example – every possible post against Lionel Messi winning the golden ball has been already posted. A post supporting his selection and making an ideal case for it would be refreshing and stand out from the crowd.


By
Siddharth Shetty,
Marketing Intern,
Integrated Corporate Practice
DY Works

Get Wellness Soon!

Consumer experience is evolving at every moment. With the advent of this evolution, the consumer market has got better in terms of quality, technology and in terms of providing exhilarating consumer experience. As a result, wellness as a category spawned in the process of making “the experience” better for people. Spas and resorts form a major part of wellness sector in India.

                                                             
The International Spa Association (ISPA) defines Spas as “places devoted to overall well-being through a variety of professional services that encourage the renewal of mind, body and spirit”.

The ISPA further categorizes spas as:

Day Spa: A spa offering a variety of professionally administered spa services to clients on a day-use basis.

Destination Spa: A destination spa is a facility with the primary purpose of guiding individual spa-goers to develop healthy habits.

Resort/Hotel Spa: A spa located within a resort or hotel providing professionally administered spa services, fitness and wellness components.

Club Spa: A facility whose primary purpose is fitness and which offers a variety of professionally administered spa services on a day-use basis.

India, with its deep-rooted traditions, is known for being a hub for alternative treatments dominated by ancient healing –Ayurveda & spirituality. In recent years, enormous growth has been identified in the Indian spa industry. With over 2,300 spas, the industry makes around $400 million annually.

According to a report release by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, the Ayurveda and yoga segments, alone, were expected to earn a business of 600 Cr and revenues prospects for medical tourism predicted to be around 400 Cr.

Despite these numbers the wellness sector is largely underdeveloped in India especially because it is unorganized & there is less awareness about the services offered by this sector. There are a very few wellness brands which have succeeded in positioning themselves in line with the modern consumer’s need for a wellness experience. The core problem which one can identify is right branding in the right place.                                          
A lot of upcoming wellness brands entering this segment position themselves as rejuvenation destinations which offer authentic traditional treatments. India’s destination resorts, wellness retreats and spas address body, mind and spiritual wellness through the traditions of yoga, ayurveda and numerous other healing practices. Their branding is also strategically done. Ananda in the Himalayas is one of the examples. Have one look at the website and you will realize how strongly it represents the essence of India and its traditions.  The font style used in creating the identity also has a certain feel of ethnicity.

                                                                                                               

Vivanta by Taj is another example. Their spa brand is identified as ‘Jiva Spa’ which is in line with the spirit of India. Major components of Branding like the attire of the staff inside, the aroma; the products used, strengthen the essence of India and create a unique experience for the customer.                                                                                                              

                                                       
Subtle branding as one can understand is the key to create the right awareness by wellness brands among their target audience which still has a long way to go. Once, the power of branding is realized by the wellness sector, there should be no looking back as the consumer waits for “the experience”.

As this category is growing, the players are growing stronger with their branding, and there certainly is a lot more for us to observe.
                                                   


By
Avani Bapat,
Integrated Corporate Practice,
DY Works

Technology, Jargon and Branding

India is a very social country. People love talking, about everything under the sun from rocket science to global economy to what time the neighbour’s daughter returned home the previous night. We love to talk, gossip, discuss and debate with an authority that seems formidable on the subject but rarely has enough substance if tested. Just for example, last evening as I was returning home by the local I overheard two co-passengers discussing the about-to-start FIFA World Cup and how Real Madrid are the favourites having won the Champions Trophy! I did not bother pointing out the several flaws in each of his statements; he was just another brick in the wall.

But as we have evolved, so has our ability to consume data and information from everywhere around us, grasp the finer points and then make our conversation more relevant. We consume at an immense pace, keeping track of not only ours but pretty much the world’s activities through the virtual world that is wrapping us. Whether it be stalking a friend’s FB wall or following their thoughts via Twitter, we are everywhere consuming all kinds of information, and then happily spreading it around. Social collaboration is at its all-time high without an end in sight.

 

We just love being social!

Source:http://thinkmarketingmagazine.com/

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

Avani Bapat, 

Integrated Corporate Practice Team,

DY Works

THE CHANGING AVATAR OF THE INDIAN WOMAN

The post- independence period in India saw a lot of focus on the topic of women in India. We have seen a multifold of change from a social and economic point of view towards the Indian women. The below article gives a glimpse of the changing avatar of the 'woman' in India

The stereotyped Indian woman 

The typical Indian woman was stereotyped to be traditional, caring, putting family before herself, very active (read “on her toes morning to evening” with unending supply of energy). She was expected to be talented in cooking and art and be the know-all about her house and the family. She would sleep after everyone in the house and wakeup before everyone (even before sunrise).

It was every woman’s endeavor to be the ideal housewife, ideal daughter-in-law and an ideal mother. She wouldn’t think twice before sacrificing her choice, wish, dream, ambition, passion for her family.

The breaking of the stereotype

While the change in her attitude is gradual, the Indian woman has started opening up. Her priorities are changing from being available at home at all times to being social.

In an urban setup, we see this change in attitude taking place rapidly; where we see that the woman is willing to juggle between work and life, herself and her family. She is now willing to explore opportunities and experiences outside of her home, with her group of friends or colleagues, or even in social circles of mums with kids of similar age as hers.

This change, however, is gradual in a rural or semi urban setup. In smaller towns, we see smaller groups of women gathering every month - they call it Mahila Mandals. She actively participates in such social gatherings in her neighborhood. She is now finding her slices of freedom at such meetings, exploring new interests or participating in various programs run by companies in her locality, for instance being Shakti Ammas (of HUL Shakti initiative) etc – needless to say, at no compromises with family.

The Indian woman is thus seen to be aspiring to make an impression in the society she belongs to and to even fulfill her own dreams.

Brand social responsibility 2.0

  21st Nov 2013, Business Standard

The country's largest fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), has just kicked off Project Sunlight, simultaneously with Unilever's other markets, to compile the social missions of its many brands. It is an attempt to invite consumers to get involved in doing small things to help their own families, others and the planet. In India, HUL will highlight brands such as Lifebuoy (cleanliness), Dove (improving women's self esteem) and Knorr (work with farmers).

It is a manifestation of how brands are combining CSR with business objectives.

HUL has been scaling up initiatives for social good across brands. Its recent Domex Toilet Academy, for example, has the objective of building 24,000 toilets by 2015 in areas where there is lack of sanitation. The motivation came from the increasing importance its parent Unilever is giving to the cause of social good as espoused in its "Sustainable Living Plan" flagged off three years ago.

Besides specific sustainability targets, managers at HUL were asked to interpret a social purpose in the local context. The lack of basic sanitation afflicts Indians is well-known in a country which accounts for almost 60 per cent of open defecation in the world.

HUL saw an opportunity to plug its brand Domex, a toilet cleaner competing with Harpic from Reckitt Benckiser. Hemant Bakshi, executive director, home & personal care, HUL, says, "We realise the importance of the need for safe and hygienic sanitation practices. We have an important role to play to help make our communities free of open defecation. As a brand, Domex can make toilets free of disease and safe to use."

Under Lifebuoy, the company has been running a large school contact programme to help sensitise children to the need to wash their hands. Experts say, it is a clever marriage of social and business objectives. By targeting children and instilling in them the need to use a soap to wash hands, HUL is playing a good corporate citizen, even as it creates a ready market in the schools and among the parents of the students.

Tanishq and Havells, through their recent ad campaigns, have been questioning so-called taboos. Tanishq's on-going campaign for its bridal collection, where it portrays remarriage of a woman with a child, has been noted as a break-through by pundits on social media (though, a similar trope had appeared in a Femina ad in 2001).

Havells, the electrical components and appliances brand, touched on issues such as inclusivity (a domestic help being asked to join her employer-family for dinner at the table) and women's rights (a husband's decision to adopt his wife's surname) in its summer campaign this year. Vijay Narayananan, vice-president, marketing, Havells, admits the campaign did stir people enough, making them sit up and take notice of the brand. Launched at a time when the clutter is high on television, Narayanan says the campaign induced recall in a low-involvement category such as fans.

Tata Tea's Jaago Re campaign, meanwhile, has evolved into a viable platform for change. Jaago Re's current edition, coinciding with the relaunch of Tata Tea Gold, dwells on how women should not be ignored by politicians since they constitute 49 per cent of the voter base. Harish Bhat, MD, Tata Global Beverages, says, "At a time when the country is gearing up for elections, it made perfect sense to dwell on this aspect."

As corporate social responsibility (CSR) becomes mandatory for Indian companies, the seriousness with which most are approaching it has increased. Gautam Chemburkar, partner, KPMG, says, "From something that was tracked by a small team, CSR has moved up as a key item on the CEO's list. By making it mandatory for companies to disclose what they've done with the two per cent of profits they now have to set aside for CSR activities, companies will track where the money will go, since it will form part of their distributable profits."

According to industry estimates, the likely obligation arising out of the CSR Bill, which comes into force next fiscal, will be $2 billion (or Rs 12,400 crore). This is if the cumulative profit of India Inc will be $100 billion (or Rs 6.2 lakh crore) by then.

Chemburkar says the Indian corporations can't afford to ignore such an amount. "If earlier companies paid lip-service to CSR, restricting their efforts to communities around their factories, today the scope of their operations has increased," Alpana Parida, president, DY Works, a Mumbai-based brand consultant, says.

Beauty major L'Oreal has just announced its commitment to transform the way it does business by 2020, spanning the entire value chain from manufacturing, marketing to business development. L'Oreal, like Unilever, hopes to touch consumer lives with not only sustainable products, but also initiatives that can help make a difference.


Alpana Parida is president of DY Works (erstwhile DMA Branding).

The Practice of Branding : As presented by Devatanu Banerjee to the management students of MISB Bocconi

Devatanu Banerjee  introducing 'Branding' to the Management Students at MISB Bocconi - Powai (2nd August 2013).

The topics that were covered included ; An understanding of the branding space, Tools that can be used by management students and What is expected from Management students when the join the global workforce.

Click here to view the presentation

Devatanu Banerjee is VP Retail, IT & New Media, DY Works

NAME, NAME , NAME

The practice of using a brand name is the evolution of the ancient custom of branding one's belongings.

Name is the foundation of your brand. Once in the market, your brand name will greatly determine your position in the fight for consumers.  Far more than just a series of letters, a successful brand name can help your product survive for a long time if it is able to stand the test of time.

Also the historic approach of family names is increasingly taking time before they resonate with consumer for newly launched products, services or companies.

Powerful brand names can fire imagination, trigger an emotion, and be suggestive of an experience or attitude. Though names are only one ingredient, they have significant influence over how a brand is perceived.

It represents a mix of attributes - tangible and intangible - symbolized in a mark

THE RIGHT NAME

• The right name for your brand, does more than just identify.
• It speaks of the personality, the quality, the essence of your company and its products.
• The right name for your brand provides an umbrella under which products and services, divisions and subsidiaries can be a cohesive family.
• Most of all, the right name sets your company, your products and services apart from the rest. 

 

MUST PASS MUSTERS FOR NAMING

Visual : Every word has a visual feel. Even before it is designed to appear in a certain way. It evokes images. It stands for certain pictures. There are visual associations with it, which at times are universal.

Intonation : It means the pitch one uses to speak aloud a word sometimes can change its meaning. Our words must be easy on the tongue.

Phonetic/ Audio : It’s the way a word sounds. Certain words are harsh, some soft. Some sound alien, some have a very next-door feel to it.

Understanding : While preserving a sense of mystery and intrigue, it must not be complicated. It has to have meaning. It must generate curiosity, not debate.

Impact :This is our desired response in a way. It has to have the overall impact in a consumer’s mind, filling it with all the attributes discussed earlier. Design will of course enhance it but just the word must do its job at its own level.


 Article by
Priyanka Shah,
General Manager Strategy,
 DY Works

What's In a Name? Make the Right Decision While Selecting a Brand Name

A brand name is a very strong part of a brand’s identity. Its role is to make sure that the brand name ‘sticks’ and people find it hard to forget. Whether Haldiram or Jabong, DLF or RuPay , brand names have their own logic.

Types of brand names:

1. Lineage Based – these could come from the family name of the promoter (like Dabur) or based on location (like Canara Bank/ Bank of Baroda) 
2. Acronym – GVK, GMR, DLF, IBM are all acronyms where they mean little to people as full forms; but the acronyms have a lot of meaning imbued in them.
3. Nonsense Names – that stand out for their uniqueness. Jabong, Google, Xerox, Mirinda, Blackberry. These can be nonsense words or words that have no connection with the product    
4. Crafted Names – are created, and mean something even though they don't really. Names such as Accenture, Avantha, Flaavyo, Microsoft fit the bill here
5. Product Descriptors – these are brands names such as RuPay, SimCash, Fruit Plus, Meats & More, Funskool, Playboy etc
6. Association – Names by association such as Apple (from the apple falling on Newton’s head), Pedigree (dog food), American Express, Victoria’s Secret, Coach, Maruti (Hanuman – son of wind)
7. Product Experience/ Promise – Kurkure (the sound of the crunch), Seven Eleven (the timings of the store), Yippee, Skore are all derived from the benefits of the product.

At the end of the day, any name can become the face of the brand and have meaning accruing to it. Arrow, Oberoi, Skoda – the words don't connote much and yet they have become recognizable brands. Brands are a sum total of the experience they convey. Think of a name/ identity as the tag on a file. Contained in the file are our perceptions about the brand based on name and identity, packaging, the material used for packaging, the product or service, the quality and delivery of the product of service, the ambience, the environment, the type of décor, the communication, the associations, the brand ambassadors and the name/identity are what we recognize and in the same instant unlock all our perceptions built up about the brand.

But this takes time. Brands are built over years and new brands face the challenge of breaking through a cluttered landscape of competitors. A truly distinctive, smart and ‘clever’ name can become a memorable hook for the brand to form its associations on. 

The name matrix below is a useful guideline for choosing the type of name required.

 

By
Alpana Parida
President

 DY Works 

D(id) Y(ou) Work?

After brilliant posts by two awesome people I got to meet during the internship, I guess it would be difficult for this quiet guy to live up to the reputation. But I guess I will give it a try…

From almost an all boys engineering college to a geek’s paradise tech consulting firm to the fast paced world of a management institute, everything till now for me had been different in its own way. But this internship stint
has been completely different from any of the other experiences.

Firstly, embarrassed to admit, but yes, I had never been around so many women before. Probably that is the reason I came around to be a bit shy.

Secondly, the energy this place possesses is amazing. Frequent meetings, long hours, foosball matches, evening snacks, yoga, Friday talks and I guess the list is endless of the things people here are so enthusiastic
about. The attention to detail in each and every client presentation and design just blows your mind off. I
remember witnessing the presentation of the strategy team on my first day and this time I am not embarrassed to admit I had goose bumps. And the wealth of knowledge on the subject is truly remarkable.  It was always a pleasure to hear people speak about their work and their experience in the field. All of it shows the passion people at DY Works have for the work they are doing and it is definitely worth getting inspired by.

The best part, however, has been that all this happens in an environment that is nothing but fun. And fun is what we had, all three of us – marketing and strategy interns. Food, as it always is when I am around, has been central to all this. We explored almost all options around NextGen and we definitely found our favourites. Smiti found the love of her life in the Blueberry Cheesecake, Swati found plenty of places to keep her ‘spirits’ up and I just gorged upon anything and everything that was there in front of me.

Two months in 107 and B2 have definitely been well spent. Placi, we would trouble you no more to open the door for us.

By 

Piyush Gulati

Intern, Strategy

DY Works

In a new bottle

Business Standard, Monday, April 1, 2013

The old paradigm of business - where manufacturers produced, marketers relayed product messages, consumers listened and sales followed naturally - has crumbled. It has given way to an economy where consumers co-create with manufacturers, marketing stands for two-way interactions, and made-for-the-customer offerings zip into the marketplace bypassing traditional channels, using platforms unheard of even a few years ago.

Frooti gears to move to its next phase of growth with new commercial

The Economic Times, Wednesday, 03 April 2013
 
For those who have seen it carefully, the new brand campaign for Frooti reveals a subtle shift. It shows the newly signed brand ambassador Shahrukh Khan glugging the mango drink from a PET bottle, rather than a tetra pack, which is no longer as respected as it used to be and which also made Frooti most instantly identifiable when it was launched for the first time.

The Rs 1500 crore brand is ready to move to its next phase of growth, in a world filled with competitors like Coca-Cola's Maaza and PepsiCo's Slice on the one hand and carbonated beverages on the other. For instance getting on board one of the most recognised faces is being touted as the game changer for the 27-year old homegrown brand considering it has never resorted to getting a celebrity endorser before.

Feels marketing consultant Harish Bijoor, "Frooti's big strength is the fact that it has been around for donkey's years. It has become generic to the category altogether." This is a strength and a weakness as well, in his view, which the brand has to manage swiftly and carefully.

Nadia Chauhan Kurup, MD and CMO, Parle Agro agrees that the biggest challenge has been to get the magic back for a brand as old as Frooti. It's trying to combat some part of that challenge by getting the recognised face of Shahrukh Khan onboard. Frooti seems to be the last in the race to join the celeb-band wagon: the other players in the mango beverage space already have their ambassadors: Maaza features the pranks of Imran Khan and Parineeti Chopra while Slice has Katrina Kaif 's sensuous Aam Sutra moves.

The recent commercial shows a bunch of kids in a football field watching Shahrukh Khan gulping Frooti. He looks around when he is done and what he sees is a bunch of young adults whose longing for Frooti apparently has them lapse into a childlike state of wonder. He simply asks them 'what?' which snaps their reverie.

Shares Sajan Raj Kurup, founder and creative chairman, Creativeland Asia, "One of the key tasks in the brief was to capture the feel of relishing a bottle of Frooti and up the appetite quotient for the beverage." Even as the initial thoughts read more like 'oh no not again', Kurup wanted to create drool value purely through human emotions, reactions and expressions. Prakash Varma of Nirvana Films has directed the film. The team was very clear on how to use the celeb power of Khan without letting the brand get ambushed.

Shares Nadia Chauhan Kurup, "The campaign is breaking not just the category clutter or the advertising clutter, but it is even breaking the celebrity endorsement clutter." It is not often that SRK has been used in such a way where the only dialogue he gets to mouth is 'what?'" she says. When asked if he charged any lesser because he was made to talk less, she grins and shares how she wishes that it worked like that in which case "we would have just kept him silent." According to Satbir Singh, managing partner & chief creative officer, Havas Worldwide, "The usually talkative SRK quietly polishing off a bottle of Frooti makes it stick. Most agency and marketing teams would have him mouth a hundred words in praise of the brand." Studies have shown that culturally, kids and women prefer mango drinks just as the core audience for cola/ caffeine drinks (Mountain Dew, Red Bull etc) is men.

 Alpana Parida, president, DY Works feels that this campaign reaches out to all ages and appeals to the child in men, to kids themselves and certainly the mothers who are both shoppers and consumers.It lifts the humble Frooti from a kiddie realm and will probably do more for the brand than all its past campaigns put together. According to Jitender Dabas, head of strategic planning, McCann Worldgroup, "A mango drink is about the pleasure of consuming mango and with this campaign Frooti seems to be coming back to its core." But is this the new positioning or just a commercial, is what he would like to know.

Along with the brand film, the marketing plan includes outdoors, BTL, mall activation, visibility at retail outlets (POP) and strong digital presence. Interestingly the first leg of this campaign was launched on the social media and as per Kurup in less than a week, its total timeline deliveries amounted to 52 million. It managed to garner over 8 million twitter handles and a whopping count of 80,000 tweets. Frooti's YouTube channel views increased by 2.5 million and subscribers increased by 600%.

Even as the brand spends 40% more on it's marketing this year compared to the last, it will have to quickly address one of its biggest weak spots — its relatively feeble presence in the returnable glass bottle (RGB) space. The returnable glass bottle is at the top in the pecking order of the caste system of packaging of soft drinks followed by the PET bottle and then the tetra pack at the bottom-rung, shares Bijoor.

This has been a pain-point that the brand is trying to tackle on a war-footing. Agrees and shares Nadia Chauhan Kurup, "Currently there are only four manufacturing plants for RGB which would eventually go up to 20 plants. The bottle form is one of the highest penetrated packing formats and there is a huge market for it." The glass bottle format has been launched in a phased way in some markets and would be increased soon as manufacturing capacity increases.

And perhaps that's what it will take for Frooti, the oldest brand in the category, to give a better account of itself in a growing market for mango beverages.

Alpana Parida is President of DY Works, a leading brand strategy and design firm.
 

The Gift of Love

As a people, we recycle everything, particularly gifts. We gift transactionally– marking the ‘importance’ and the social status of the recipients, keep track of what others give (indeed there are notebooks devoted to that) so that we can reciprocate appropriately and are only just learning to carry gifts with us at dinner parties. Traditionally, we have carried good wishes and not measured relationships with the value of gifts.

In our literature, popular culture or mythology, there are no stories of joyous gifting. There is ‘dakshina’ given to the guru or the mendicant, there is the boon that is granted to the devotee, the dowry that is brought by the bride or the ‘stree-dhan’ gifted by her parents, the gift from the brother for Rakhi, the new clothes bought and the ‘business gifting’ during Diwali – all are structured and proportioned by the occasion and the recipient.
Birthday gifts are an accepted norm now for perhaps one or two living generations and are a ‘learned’ phenomenon like the birthday party and the birthday cake. There is nothing in our culture that suggests spontaneous, joyous gifting that marks an outpouring of love.

Indeed, there is no Indian festival that celebrates ‘Love’. Not in the way Valentine’s Day does. As a society, we have been at odds with an overt expression of love and have sought to bury it in the transactional.The only Indian festival that comes close to this romantic notion of love is KarvaChauth, where a woman prays for her husband’s longevity. Love, here, is couched in the transactional. It is a prayer by the woman so that she may be cared for all her life. Her identity and well-being comes from the man in her life and on his death she could be destitute. Thus, the whispered blessings of “Akhand Soubhagyavat”i or “may you die before your husband” are what every bride receives.This is the Indian construct of love, submerged in carefully constructed societal boundaries.  Love traditionally, is measured, circumspect and if unleashed, met with Anarkali like consequences.

Deconstructing love, we see why it is such an addictive yet elusive emotion. Firstly, it truly blooms when it is given as it is received. (Unrequited love is a lonely and bitter place). Being loved makes a nobody into a somebody. Recognition, being singled out, being made to feel special and being accepted unconditionally (in the first throes of love at least) are gratifications that deeply resonate with the human psyche. Love is the ultimate celebration of the human condition and reportedly, the joy of the first flush is unparalleled in life. In every language in the world, people ‘fall’ or ‘slip’ in love, they become ‘mad’ and are ‘inflamed’. While this may be a transient state – it is what pushes people ‘headlong’ while throwing all ‘caution to the winds’. Love gives extraordinary courage to defy emperors or ‘Khaps’, overcome social norms and communal boundaries and transcend the ordinary, the banal. Love is the giving of oneself, of a total surrender of one’s wishes and desires to the other. It is entirely giving.



A gift is the perfect symbol of love. A true gift is giving joyously without the expectation of receiving.  When life settles into the humdrum – besieged by met and unmet expectations of lovers and the protagonists become ordinary people, a gift is symbolic of the depth of feeling that is not so overt anymore. The selflessness of love is perfectly epitomized by the joy of gifting. The success of Valentine’s Day is just that – a ritualistic marker to the affirmation of love.

In India, while the notion of love has changed and courtships and love marriages are increasingly common; we are only just learning to gift in love. In the US, 70% of jewellery sales are due to gifting by the man. In India, it is less than 15%. Overall, gifting accounts for 20-40% of retail sales in the US, depending on the category; and Valentine’s Day is a significant economic engine.

Valentine’s Day has enormous potential in India – as our definition of love changes, new rituals can be designed. The savvy marketers should leverage this opportunity to build brands based on gifting. Not just Valentine’s Day, we also need to understand the potential of KarvaChauth. The romanticization of the festival by the Johars and Chopras has made it pan-Indian, pan-gender (it is practiced by my Muslim friend and his half-Bengali, half-British wife) which allows for it to be leveraged as the Indian Valentine’s Day. The motifs of KarvaChauth are the crescent moon, a mesh, a reflection in water. What can be more romantic? This could be the day symbolically marked by exchanged gifts.

Given our Hinglish lives, with wedding sangeet and reception with cocktails or hors d’oeuvres that include chicken tikka, both festivals can become a part of our lives. As marketers, we can ‘brand’ these with symbols and rituals, myths and stories. Valentine’s Day has a clear visual language. The color red and the symbol of hearts are easily recognizable. What is the color of KarvaChauth? The symbols are not universal designs that are iconized in our consciousness. This needs to be done in a concerted manner by branding agencies, retailers and industry bodies such as CII.

Festivals are economic engines and both the western and the Indian Valentine’s Days are rife with growth potential.

AlpanaParida is President of DY Works , a leading brand strategy and design firm.

Branding Cuisine?

When I was asked to write for the office blog (on any topic, mind you),  I immediately thought of food. To which came the immediate response that it should be about ‘brands’ or ‘branding’…. notwithstanding these words of advice, I continued.

Last Sunday, my husband and I were lunch guests at a very dear and a true Malayalee (I refuse to say Keralite. It’s just too propah for my liking) friend’s place.

Fried Prawns (Chemmeen Porichathu)

We began snacking on fried prawns and drinking some good Chilean wine. Yes, you read it right – Chilean wine. And you know what – they paired very well indeed.












Then got on gorging on some delicious fried Karimeen (Pearlspot) and continued to drink .

 Fried Pearl Spot (Karimeen Varutathu)

And a little later, the lunch table was laid out in full splendor with puttus, steamed rice, Kerala style dal, beans poriyal and some fabulous chicken curry. I had never (over) eaten to this extent in a very long time. The entire experience was very nostalgic as it bought back many memories of my childhood.

Chicken Curry (Kozhi Varutarachathu)

Kerala Dal (Parippu)

Beand Poriyal

Puttu

Rosematta Rice

And then came the thought – how can food like this can be branded?

Be it Bengali, Oriya, Assamese or Malyalee or from any state in India, the choice of food in each of the cuisine is so vast that it cannot be clubbed together.

And it is therefore, that we categorize it by region - is this not a step towards branding?

Or does branding always have to involve a specific name or ‘identity’ and therefore a ‘logo’; ‘packaging’ design, the container or ‘structure’ that will hold the product?

For me it’s also about the experience. What is it for you?





Suma Joshi
V.P - Creative Services
DY Works