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 Effect).

But things might just change ! It should not take long.Mahindra’s and the TATA’s are coming with the new age trucks which are gonna change the way Indians perceive trucks

Just have a look at the new Mahindra Navistar

These trucks are result of a JV between M&M and Navistar Trucks(US).These trucks are good looking,well built and colorful.

As per the Mahindra website about Navistar

“Designed in India, Mahindra Navistar trucks are ready to outperform even in the most extreme Indian conditions. Capitalising on M&M’s 60 years of experience in India, our trucks are built to meet the challenges of India. And Navistar’s expertise in technology further powers up our capabilities. Hence, we have extremely application-friendly and highly customizable trucks, ready for the most difficult terrains, load conditions, business requirements and challenges.

There are 5 different types of trucks in the portfolio.M25 Tipper,M25,M31,M40 and M49 are different models as per various load and business requirements.The truck not only positions itself as a powerful,business truck but also communicates the comfort level associated with it.Adjustable Seats,Storage Space,Wide Windscreen etc are part of the product.

This was Mahindra’s side,now lets talk about TATA,the original truckers of India.TATA is the brand which has been associated with the Truck in india.The trucks shown in the beginning of the blog are also TATA Trucks.

TATA has realized that the old truck models have really got old now and needed to be replaced by the new ones.They have launched TATA Prima.

All these new trucks have power,comfort,business use and nice marketing to go with.Both the companies have dedicated websites for the brands.They have proper galleries with downloadable content.Proper specifications are given online.Online form to get to the customer are also available.

Both the companies are using Digital Ads to market the products.The trucks were also seen at the Delhi Auto Expo.Net is buzzing about them.

Both the companies seem to target the Business customer and enterprises as whole else how do you explain digital Google Ads.

I think we will see more of them in future in Business magazines,Eco times etc.

One more interesting thing to watch would how would they tackle each other in the competition.TATA would have an edge due to old association with trucks in India but Navistar is a global player so can be a tricky situation.

Right now we can’t comment on the actual success of these new age Indian trucks but one thing is sure that odds are in favour of these marvels.

These definitely would make Indian roads look much better and feel much safer.

India is arriving ?

What Say ?

© 2010, Manmeet. All rights reserved.

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 Rin.

The line’Aunty Kyun Chaunk Gai ?’ is also a satire on Tide which has a tagline “Chaunk Gaye !”

One more interesting point here to note is that HUL has adapted a flank attack strategy on Tide through Rin.Tide and Surf Excel are supposed to be the competitors but now Rin is being positioned as the competitor to Tide.P&G has to concentrate on Rin now to make way easy for Surf Excel.One more thing is that Tide naturals has been used in the ad rather than the more generic orange packaged Tide.

But would P&G fall into the trap or ignore Rin’s effort ?

Combative advertising like this is not new,about an year back Complan and Horlicks too had gone into a similar tussle.They still had shown a glimpse of each others pack but not as direct as Rin has shown.

Horlicks vs Complan

Even in past,Coke and Pepsi have fought it out in the open.I still remember the ‘eat cricket sleep cricket drink only coca cola’ fight between Pepsi and Coke.

Offlate Cadbury’s CDM and Nestle Munch also had a similar ads but were quite indirect not straight on.

Now Rin has taken the combative advertising in India to a new level lets see how Tide reacts to it.

That defintely would be interesting.

Will it be HUL vs P&G ?

What Say ?

Update : Regarding legal implications of the Ad : As far as i know,in combative advertising,you can make any claim as far as you can support it with a proper research or hard facts.Rin have claimed it in the ad.There is a starred line “As tested by an independent lab” in between the ad,which could just be enough.

© 2010, Manmeet. All rights reserved.

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 more advanced than the past but still have we forgotten the DD Ads.The answer is no !

The DD Ads are still fresh in our minds.Who can forget the famous Vicco Turmeric ads in the prime time DD movies.And the other most famous Bajaj Electricals Ad,”Jab main Chhota Bachcha tha”.Dharmendra riding his Rajdoot and saying Jaandar Savari,Shandaar Savari.

To revisit the DD time,i have selected few ads.The full collection can be seen on the new Advertisements page dedicated to Doordarshan National.

BAJAJ

Vicco

ECE-Bhool Na Jaana

Surf Ultra-Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge

Continue to The DD Ads Page

© 2010, Manmeet. All rights reserved.

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 and spread love and peace.Hippo,the mascot,solves the world’s problems by simply helping people fight hunger.In war,terrorism,corruption,politics,Hippo just solves all issues by offering hippo chips.

Nice Positioning and Ad ?

Watch the Ad now

The ad breaks the clutter as Bingo did in the past.Whereas Bingo just concentrated on humour and fun,hippo has gone a step ahead carrying a social message.

Parle(not Parle Agro) also has launched Smart Chips with Aamir Khan running around cities explaining people to be smart and to eat the healthy chips.It also is in similar category,so there is a kind of ‘internal’ competition too for Hippo.

Note : Parle and Parle Agro are not part of a single company but are two separate companies.One simple example is that Bisleri belongs to Parle and Bailey belongs to Parle Agro.Its a similar story to Reliance industries.You guessed it right !

Coming back to Hippo,some days back,i tried Hippo.I liked them but they are not as great as Lays or Bingo but are a bit different.It would take time before people develop a taste for such snacks.

Hippo also have come up with a website HippoFightHunger.com to create additional buzz for the brand.

Ads with social messages hidden in them have always been successful like TATA Tea etc but would it place Hippo alongside other snacks such as Lays,Bingo,Kurkure etc.

That time will tell,meanwhile enjoy Hippo and its adventure.

What Say ?

© 2010, Manmeet. All rights reserved.

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 in Mumbai and saw 3 4 tigers.When i saw them i just kept looking at them,such was their aura.But now i feel saddened by the fact that just 1411 are left in India,which has this animal as its national symbol.

The site SaveOurTigers is well made.It has used Social Media to the fullest.Facebook,twitter,blogs have been effectively used.

You can also join the roar as i have done already.When i saw their ad,it said speak up,blog,share in the end.What better purpose can my blog serve ?

Many big stars like Mahendra Singh dhoni,Baichung Bhutia are supporting the cause.

Still i am a bit skeptic of how can spreading awareness to people like us save the tigers when hunters,poachers and killers are still roaming around in the forest killing them ?

I hope i am wrong.

What Say ?

© 2010, Manmeet. All rights reserved.

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 net it looked like an inflated iPhone(or iTouch).

Jobs with iPad

It again has a single Home button with Multi-Touch interface very similar to the previous devices.

So Does Size Matter ?

If i have an iPod Touch or an iPhone,buying an iPad is a very tough decision.Apple seems to be over obsessed with the idea of having touch based smart devices.Similar was the case with Nokia once.Which ever phone or model you buy in a price range,you get same Symbian interface.Symbian 60,40 etc were part of all the phones that were launched by Nokia.Just the shape and sizes were different else internally all were the same(Line Filling).

Apple has decided to take on Amazon’s Kindle with its iPad in one way or the other.

Critics have not taken iPad very well.The reviews are mixed.Instant comparison with Kindle is being done.

But now i think is this new category of smart devices encroaching laptops ?

In the first Press Conference,Steve Jobs demonstrated how the iPad is used for surfing the Web with Apple’s Safari browser. He typed an e-mail using an on-screen keyboard and flipped through photo albums by flicking his finger across the screen.

The CEO says the iPad will also be better for reading books, playing games and watching video than either a laptop or a smart phone.

There can be a lot of questions asked to Steve on the last claim.Is iPad better than a full fledged laptop when it comes to performance,usability,scalability and ease of use ?

The price of iPad is ranging from approx 499 $ to 800$.Should i buy an iPad or a netbook which might come at a lower price and can perform tasks as i need.

With Apple iPad,I am stuck to Apple’s apps(which don’t come for free majority of time).I would be stuck to a non flash based browser.iPad doesn’t even support multitasking like a basic PC(or even Mac for matter of fact).

These kind of tablet PC is not a new concept or a product.Microsoft introduced it in 2001 with little success but Apple has a history of marketing things in a way no other have done.

Amazon’s Kindle has already created a lot of buzz in the market in recent times.Critics claim that Its an Apple’s extension into Kindle’s territory.

But iPad seems to be an incomplete product as of now.

The Worst Part

1) No Camera

2) No multitasking

3) No USB

4) AT&T locking for 3G

5) No flash support

6) Poor name

Apple is positioning it as a breakthrough product which is better than a smartphone or a laptop but with above list it seems Apple has tried to reinvent the wheel with iPad but donno how well ?

Check out Steve Jobs unleashing iPad to the world

Now lets see how the actual market tackles the product.Would it get the same respect as they gave to  Amazon Kindle or would iPad be Kindled off ?

HP Slate is also just around the corner.Similar product,similar category and similar targeting.Will HP learn from Apple’s mistakes ?

What Say ?

© 2010, Manmeet. All rights reserved.

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 has entered the market named ‘Uninor’.

The new GSM service provider is the result of a joint venture of real estate major, Unitech and Norway-based Telenor Group.They have started their campaigns in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Eastern and Western Uttar Pradesh.

For any new player to get noticed in the current Indian scenario is to market and position their brand well.They have to market it aggressively to get noticed in the telecom jungle.

With number portability just around the corner,brands and service would matter even more.

So what is Uninor doing ?

Are they going for the regular offensive strategy ? Is the price their talking point as Docomo did ?

“We chose to go beyond the immediate functionalities of prices, plans and schemes and offers. There’s something much bigger going on in India. An entire generation is breaking free and reaching out to get what it wants. We hope to be able to serve as a tool in their hands to do this,” explains David Meneghello, executive vice-president, marketing, Uninor.

“Our positioning statement, ‘Ab mera number hai’, is the voice of a young Indian who is restless to succeed; who knows that his or her time has come and it is now. We at Uninor believe that heroes need not necessarily be celebrities and stars. The real heroes are out there — succeeding every day in their own lives, making it on their own and wanting more. And these are the faces you see in our TVCs and on our billboards,” adds Meneghello.(source : Afaqs)

They have started with 15 sec teasers to introduce the brand with the tagline “Ab Mera Number Hai ”

I found 2 full TV commercials for it which set the Positioning straight.

Father and Son

Flatmates

Both ads have similar positioning and similar setup.Both ads are trying to connect to today’s successful ambitious youth.But they have kept getting a job as the base in both ads.But still the ads are fresh,realistic,connects well.

They are not shouting per sec billing,low sms charges etc etc etc,but yes they are important too because they are gonna get you the acquire the customers.

Their plans are different and not at per sec billing.You can check out their website here.They have less plan choices as of now.

Lets wait to see how does this new player backed by strong parentage fight the competition ?

What Say ?

© 2010, Manmeet. All rights reserved.

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 all know is that they are back with a mini-SUV called Rio.It was actually launched on Oct 28th but is yet to create a buzz on advertising space.I saw RiO’s Ad today in Bombay Times.

As per the website,The Premier RiO aims to cater to the segment between mid-size passenger cars and larger utility vehicles.

Looks wise Rio seems quite good,much better when compared to Premiers previous offerings.

Now,we already have many SUV’s in India from Indian as well as international players like Maruti,Toyota,Hyundai,Chevrolet.Almost every car company operating in India has a SUV of its own.

So why Premier chose this segment to make a comeback ?

They could have come up with a car,but then bloggers like me would have written there are so many cars around so why PAL is coming up with a car why not a SUV.This is what exactly they are doing.

Rio is not a regular big expensive SUV.Its in the league of Maruti Gypsy.After Maruti has stopped thinking or advertising about gypsy,there was a kind of a void in that mini SUV segment which RiO might just fill.

Rio base model would cost about 5 lakhs and upper model would be about 7 lakhs.

Rio would not only compete with the other SUVs but also many passenger cars in the same segment.A guy who buys a swift for Rs 5 lakh or so may also want to have a look at RiO.

RiO seems to be a good bet.It has not been able to create much buzz till now but may be when PAL is just playing the wait and watch game as the advertising has not been extensive.

But one question still arises which is would people ignore PAL’s poor brand image and service and its inability to handle competition in the past.

What Say ?

© 2010, Manmeet. All rights reserved.

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 windfall in the short term, though executives said it could be profitable.

Google plans to use what it calls a “superphone” (the first of many types of smartphones that it will make) to expand its reach from the PC to the mobile world and ensure its online products and ads get prominent placement on a new breed of wireless Internet devices.

The highly anticipated Nexus One, which marks the first time the 11-year-old Internet search titan has designed and sold its own consumer hardware device, could provide Google with a viable challenge to the iPhone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry.

After iPhone came into the market,it witnessed many of its touch clones(not cousins) bombard the market.Each and every cell phone manufacturer(even Nokia) came up with their own ‘iPhone’.

All phones without keypads,rectangular in shape,with normally one (or max 2-3) button were common in the market.

Now the next question is Whats the price and Where is it available ?

The Nexus One is available “in large quantities”  at Google.com/phone. An unlocked GSM version of the phone that will work in most countries is $529.

Google is also offering a subsidized version of the phone – also unlocked – through T-Mobile for $179. The service plan offered by Google is 500 minutes/unlimited SMS/unlimited data for $80/month. T-Mobile’s termination fee is $200, and some users might be tempted to buy the T-Mobile version and terminate immediately, paying just $379 for the unlocked phone. Google says that users terminating too soon will be charged the full price of the phone, however. But even the T-Mobile version of the phone can be used overseas on trips by slipping in a different SIM.

Google will ship the unlocked version of the phone to customers in the U.S., U.K., Hong Kong and Singapore. In the Spring they say they’ll add a CDMA version of the phone through Verizon, and set up a European store with a carrier plan via Vodafone.

U.S. users can also use the unlocked phone with AT&T, although the phone’s radio isn’t able to use AT&T’s 3G network.

The bad news for India right now is that its not available in India.

The Nexus One is an important milestone in the smartphone market. This is a software company, frustrated with making compromises with hardware manufacturers, that has taken the product bull by the horns. HTC makes the phone, but the branding is mostly Google and it’s clear that they directed every aspect of the development of this phone. It’s Google’s vision of the perfect Android device, from the huge and beautiful screen and massively fast Snapdragon processor to the software elegance of Google Navigation, Live Wallpaper and the Voice Keyboard. When combined with Google Voice there is no phone on the market today that can touch the Nexus One.(Source : TechCrunch)

After reading and researching about Nexus,it seems to come up as the biggest competitor for iPhone.The “smartphone” market which was witnessing a battle of sorts between iPhone and Blackberry is set for a War now.

So how would Nexus One fair in the market ? Would it bite Apple or RIM where it would hurt them the most ? Is Microsoft observing from the flanks ?

Lets wait and watch.

What Say ?

© 2010, Manmeet. All rights reserved.

This jingle and positioning has been nearly constant over the years.Nirma as a brand has enjoyed good position in brand awareness and recall.In recent years it has faced a lot of competition.From Wheel to Tide,the list is long.

Now few days back,a new Nirma ad has been released.It has the same jingle(unchanged) but the way it is delivered is totally different.It has a certain hidden dimensions and positioning to it.

Have a look at the ad

The all smooth happy cheerful Nirma jingle is delivered with a certain attitude.It is not exactly rude or harsh but yes it is delivered in a way that sounds harsh to the pool of mud and dirt.The protagonist points the finger to the pool and reminds it that if it touches her,it has to meet the harshness of Nirma which would finish it.The pool gets scared and doesn’t touch her.

The positioning is that nirma is hard on dirt,so hard that the dirt is scared on mention of it.

After Surf Excel and TIDE ads,Detergent Ads are now no longer constrained to just housewives washing clothes but a little more than that.

Coming back to Nirma.There have been mixed reactions to it.Some people liked it some didn’t.People have not taken the change in delivery of jingle well.

But still,the ad is such that you can’t ignore it as you listen something familiar in a different style.More eyeballs means good ad right ?

Will the ad do the needful  ? Would it bring Nirma in the same consideration set as tides and surf excels ?

What Say ?

© 2010, Manmeet. All rights reserved.