I'd posted earlier on the coming media battles in India in the near future. Rashmi Bansal, Gargi and Charu have been discussing it on their blogs about how everybody finds the "ad campaigns" (they are in quotes because they profess to be campaigns are end up usually empty slogan cam-pains !)
My take...a slogan is very open to interpretation specially if context is not clear…a generic slogan does not connect with any demographic group…and as brands try to be cool, by acting cool, they only show themselves as inept…most of them seem to be saying the same asinine things, selling the same stuff…so much so when you run into an unbranded soap at the retail shop, you choose it because its cheaper…thats why the Wal Marts and Dells are the biggest organizations today…they have realised that brands that deliver what they promise (lower cost than anybody else) are better than brands that overpromise and don’t deliver (in the mind of the customer!)
Advertising without branding and branding without strategy and strategy without execution is no good and eventually shows you to be a liar….as Seth Godin says…"All marketers are liars" ! Seth's contention is that marketing is not about slogans or snazzy ads...its about telling stories. But when the stories do not inspire belief (and thats because they are not backed up by facts, we distrust them). Read this post titled The placebo Affect
Hi,
ReplyDeletethe issue is that niche products - namely English newspapers - are positioning themselves as mass. and, it just does not connect.
Let there be light - i think is a bulb campaign.
it's in your DNA - wtf does it mean
(how many people even in the English speaking niche do you think know what DNA means)
So given that Mumbai has around 12 to 14 million citizens and 10% are readers of English newspapers - how big is the market to support 4 - 5broadsheets and two tabloids (mid day and mumbai mirror)?
One of the leading English newspapers in mumbai underprints about 2 lakh copies because the marginal cost of supplying the readers is far higher than the revenues from sales. This is just one newspaper.
So what happens to 4?
you are right... marketers seem to feel that finding a smart sounding adline is the ultimate solution to great results in the market. I guess it is an attempt at clutter cut-through but having grabbed the attention of the consumer, then they fail to follow it up with any kind of strategy... (by the way, i loved oyur post on time for hr to embrace branding)
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