Manmeet Sabharwal's Marketing Blog

Recently Saffola came up with a new offering called Saffola Arise.As the name sounds,its a Rice brand.Wheat Atta and Rice have become marketers favourite off late.Rice which is a commodity has been branded premium or luxurios by many Basmati Rice companies.

Now a new brand Arise.What is it ?
Is it Basmati Rice or simple rice ? What is special about it ? These were the questions that came into my mind when i saw the TV Ad for the first time.

Arise is a new type of Rice which has low GI content.As per the Company,Its not just Rice,its active rice.
Carbohydrates are…

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Whenever i used to think of Trucks,I used to think of the picture below and i bet many would think of a similar picture in their mind for a typical Indian Truck.

These trucks were good,served the purpose but were very basic.They served the purpose but that was it.They didn’t have their own bodies,just the chasis.The trucks were not very powerful.Many a times going on the highway,i remember seeing Trucks upturned due to the load.And when i used to see the trucks used in the other countries like US or European,i used to realize how old models were we using(The Fiat…

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Today i saw the new ad of Rin and it is some ad.The Ad directly compares Rin and Tide.This is Rin Ad so obviously they have shown Rin much better than Tide.

This style of advertising is called Combative advertising.
Just have a look at the ad.

Poor Quality Regretted
The ad is just too direct.There are two ladies.One lady praises Tide(the packet is also shown),suddenly the bus carrying their respective children arrive on the scene.The guy who comes out first has a dull shirt but the guy who comes out next has whitening light shirt and he goes to the lady who uses…

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Once there was a time that a media plan for a big company used to be small precise.These days its huge.Right from all the different targeted channels to social media.
One thing that was omnipresent in all the media plans of the past was DD National.TV meant Doordarshan and vice versa.
Ad on DD National meant you reach everyone you wanted to reach.The only question was at what time and what show,the ad has to target.Today its the next level of TV advertising.TG (Target Group) selection then channel selection then show selection then time selection (repeat telecast issues) and what not.

Today advertisements are much…

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Parle Agro had launched Hippo sometime back in 2009.Hippo is a brand of wheat munchies(snacks/chips).After launching Hippo back then,Parle Agro has come up with a TV commercial now in Feb 2010.

Snacks/Chips as a category has evolved a lot in past few years in terms of advertising.With the likes of Lays,ITC Bingo coming up with interesting ads,Hippo has joined the bandwagon(or the brandwagon).
The commercial is nice and features a satire on evil practices in general.With a Bollywood backdrop song,’Pyaar Baant te Chalo’.It ends with a saying that cause of every bad thing in the world happens because of hunger.So eat Hippo,fight hunger…

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Many a times branding,marketing and advertising might just not only be for profits,bottomlines,sales etc.It can also be for some cause.Aircel recently partnered with WWF for ‘Save Our Tigers’ social media campaign.I saw the ad for the campaign 2-3 days back and I just loved it.

It is in a form of simple but effective story.A cub is being shown alone waiting for its mother who might just not return from the forest.The number 1411 in the end leaves a mark.
Tiger is our national animal.It has been my favorite animal from the time i remember.Recently i went to Sanjay Gandhi National Park…

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Apple is back.Apple recently launched its new marvel named iPad.Apple has been famous to create categories for the consumer.First iPod(digital music),then iPhone(super smart phones) now iPad(category ??).
iPad is not a laptop,its not just an ebook reader,its not a phone,its not just a music player,its just as Apple calls it the iPad.
I own an iPod Touch,the first of such black,single button smart devices by Apple.I am happy with it and use it to the fullest.When i see an iPhone,it just looks the same,same look and feel,same functionality only that it can be used to make calls.
Now when i saw iPad on…

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There was a time when phone meant a landline handset lying in a corner of your house.Service,network were terms not heard of.Over the years the things have changed drastically and today we have dozens of new mobile players fighting for your personal handset .
Now the consumer is not restricted to just an Airtel or a Vodafone but he/she has choices.In recent past many new players have entered the market with a bang.
TATA Docomo,Aircel,Virgin,MTS entered the market in recent past (2008-2009) and gave a consumer the ‘choice’.The price wars started.1p/sec,1/2p/sec etc etc were terms used in daily conversations.
Now yet again a new player…

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PAL(Premier Automobiles Limited) has decided to make a comeback.PAL as a company has a long history in India.Their Padmini(Popularly known as Fiat),NE etc were part of Indian roads not so long ago,but today only cities like Mumbai have a PAL product on roads that too in a form of Taxi.
In my last post on PAL,I had discussed how PAL had caused poor brand image for Fiat in India which is still bothering Fiat a lot.But what about PAL as a brand ?
Where were they ? What were they doing all these years ?
I don’t know about that but what we…

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So here it is finally,The Google Phone.Google has named it Nexus One.From past one or two days i was seeing this on many Google ads on different sites including mine.
So whats the offering ? Is it just another ‘me-too’ touch phone in the market or is it THE phone we had been waiting for ?
If it has Google’s name attached to it,it ought to be good.The initial reviews are good.

Analysts say the phone(to be sold directly to consumers) is not expected to dramatically alter the carrier-hardware vendor relationship the industry relies on, nor is it likely to yield a revenue…

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