Manmeet Sabharwal's Marketing Blog

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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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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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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Nirma is a heritage brand which has transformed constantly.It has been one of the earliest branded detergent powder in india.As a product it kept on improving in response to the competition and changing customer preferences.Most of us can relate to the ‘NIRMA’  jingle very well.

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…

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eBay recently came out with their new ad for india.First time when i saw the ad, i just could not understand it.
Both the actors in the ad were also not quite familiar.I somehow identified Dr Narottam Puri.I remember watching some of his sports shows on Doordarshan(DD).The other lady Mrs Komal G B Singh is also a DD veteran.

There are more in the series,you can watch them here.
The ad campaign is different and breaks away from the clutter.It has a retro look and feel.It reminds people of good old DD days with famous DD personalities.It also deliver the ebay message-Safety + Security+…

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Recently Dish TV launched two new ads featuring Shahrukh Khan.Both Ads have emotional touch to them.Dish TV is a brand which keeps on coming with new ads very now and then.
In past few months there have been at least 3 to 4 ads featuring SRK.In all past ads Dish basically banked on the same tagline and positioning,”Dish TV is the biggest DTH service in India,No 1″ .SRK was used to deliver this line in some manner.
But these 2 ads are totally different.The ads are a bit like Airtel Ads.A bit emotional and in upper league.Dish TV ads were never in the that league…

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Dalda has been a big brand in india from past 7 decades.Dalda was a brand of vanaspati ‘ghee’.A vanaspati is basically mixture of vegetable oils that have been converted to solid form by the addition of hydrogen.
Dalda was basically used as a cheaper subsitute to the original ghee(clarified butter) which is inseparable from our Indian cuisine.People who couldn’t afford ghee used dalda instead. In fact Dalda became synonymous with vanaspati.Dalda meant vanaspati and vanaspati meant dalda.

I even heard that people used to refer any general cheaper substitute as Dalda.e.g.any cheaper brand for any product would loosely be referred to as Dalda.On the…

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Few days back Videocon entered the DTH market.It was on the cards from long time.People were speculating about it from the time Videocon had repositioned itself.
From few days Videocon had been giving print ads about the new service.Now some points that came into my mind on seeing the ads.It didnt look like a Videocon product.Except for the name Videocon d2h.There is nothing ‘Videocon’ about it.Why ?
1) There is no sign of the new Videocon logo
2) The whole color scheme of the ad is purple/violet  instead of the new green color scheme used in the whole repositioning campaign.
A company spends a lot repositioning a heritage…

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From past few days we have been seeing ads of Mahindra scooters on TV.Initially it was Rodeo then came Duro.
Mahindra 2 Wheelers(Business Unit) has 3 products in its stable.Flyte being the third apart from the above two.
Mahindra had actually acquired Kinetic in 2008.Flyte was originally a Kinetic product which has been retained.I liked the Rodeo ad very much.The rodeo has been positioned as a power scooter.It is shown as an alternative to a motorcycle which is assumed to be powerful.
A few years back scooters were the obvious choice in India but the things changed when Bikes became the favorites Honda Activa and few other scooterettes could only…

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