Today's Motivational Thought

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.

RED FM’S CLIENT STRATEGY: WE GO THE WHOLE HOG

What makes 93.5 red FM one of the most preferred radio channels on air today? and what are the issues bothering its management team?

19 years back, any plebeian in India who’d turn on the radio, would sing to the tunes of one channel - the All India Radio (AIR). It was the business and life for all radio listeners. The opening up of radio waves resulted in private FM channels taking up the lead in the FM space in no time over AIR. And there are some that outshone the majority. If one were to mention the favourites amidst a host of radio channels, 93.5 Red FM would be one of the chosen few amongst the top three. Flagged off in 2003, the radio station now has the reputation of being one of India’s most contemporary music stations. Red FM has taken full advantage of the fact that most radio stations have done little to stand out amidst the clutter; differentiation in program content has been key. Red FM’s ‘bajate raho’ attitude has been key to the marketing. B. Surender, Senior Vice-President and National Sales Head, 93.5 Red FM tells 4Ps B&M, “Initially, Red FM was present only in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, and 46 other stations across as many locations, were known by the name SFM. Once we decided to re-brand all 49 stations as Red FM, we came up with the ‘Bajate Raho’ concept, which worked magic for us. It appeals to the youth, explaining Red FM’s fan following amongst teenagers...” The concept has two elements. One is the functional element, which involves playing super-hit and contemporary music round the clock. The other is the emotional element. Adds Surender, “We call it the emotional element because people actually connect to it. Moreover, this emotional element is also what differentiates us from other radio stations.” Everything that is happening with the channel is a deliberate attempt to capitalise on gen-next. About two months back, Red FM repositioned itself as ‘Aaj ke zamaane ka radio station and not baap ke zamaane ka’. The move explained Red FM’s newly discovered positioning strategy without a doubt. Says Nisha Narayanan, Senior Vice-President - Programming & Projects, RED FM, “Through our innovative promotions on and off-air, Red FM has been able to strike the right chord with its listeners and has established itself as one of the most differentiated brands in the Indian radio industry.” It is not just the listeners who are happy with Red FM. The advertisers too seem to be seem to be savouring Red FM’s glory. Recently, Nokia tied up with the channel to celebrate its 15th anniversary. “Whenever we get into commercial innovation, we make sure that it’s not just our clients who are satisfied but the listeners too. In the Nokia campaign, we asked listeners to share their Nokia moments with us. Since Nokia is a brand owned by most of us, everyone had something to say,” says Surender. The campaign was a huge success. In fact, with this campaign accounting for the maximum number of live callers on a single day, Red FM is all set to enter the Limca Book of Records.

Even the launch campaign of the new Maruti Suzuki Wagon R was noteworthy. Red FM became Blue FM for three days prior to the launch. Says Surender, “The very fact that a radio station changed its name created a lot of buzz.” As far as Red FM’s expansion plans go, a lot is expected from the next phase (Phase 3) of growth of India’s radio industry. The expansion will result in 700 new stations being added the picture and this gives the Red FM management a lot of hope. Says Surender, “Phase 3 will do a lot of good to us, but certain basic issues have to be addressed first.” Even Nisha agrees with him. “There are two main hurdles. The first hurdle is an extension of licensing fee from 10 years to 15 years. The second is that of music royalty. We are pleading with the ministry to find some solution soon. The stations in the smaller cities are unable to survive because of the music royalty which goes up to as high as 40% to 50% of the revenues”. Issues indeed, but the seamless integration of the channel’s sales, marketing and programming departments, complemented by its integrated & multi-functional approach to business, definitely seems to hold many promises for the 93.5FM radio giant.

“MARKETING CAN MAKE OR BREAK NISSAN IN INDIA”

Nissan is surely one of the least heard names in the automobile space as far as India is concerned. Perhaps not in the near future. Just having realised the potential of one of the fastest growing economies in the world, this Japanese auto major is now running very hard to make a mark for itself. In an exclusive interaction with 4Ps B&M, Abhijeet Pandit, VP – Sales, Marketing & After-sales, Hover Automotive (Nissan’s India partner), reveals the company’s aggressive marketing plans and talks about the challenges ahead. Excerpts: With the launch of Micra, Nissan has just started marketing aggressively in India. How do you plan to take it forward? Micra is the first CKD (Complete knock down) production model in the country from Nissan and as such our strategy for it is different from the one we had had for our previous models. It’s a model that will bring in high volumes for us and our motto is to increase the awareness of the brand Nissan in the Indian market through it. In fact, we have already started the process by roping in Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor as the brand ambassador for Micra and the response is great. People have started recognising the brand Nissan with Ranbir being there in our ads. Further, we have also tried to price our cars very competitively which has got us a tremendous response so far. In terms of distribution, we are focusing on the A and B category to ensure that we reach out to the maximum. We are also implementing the global Nissan standards in India. This will make sure that the sales and dealership personnel are at par with their global counterparts.  Globally, Nissan does not favour the brand ambassadors for their automobile brands, in general. So, why is India an exception in this case?  You are right. Globally, Nissan is not known for roping in brand ambassadors to ensure success. But the case with India is unique. As Nissan is virtually the last player to enter the Indian market, so, obviously, Nissan in India requires a brand ambassador. Further, keeping in mind the bullish targets of the company, both in terms of volumes and market share, the strategy requires a brand ambassador who can take the awareness level high instantly. The Indian consumer knows Honda and Toyota very well but not Nissan. Some people even ask that whether Nissan is an American company or a Japanese company. Therefore, we had two options to choose from: movies or cricket. And we zeroed in on Bollywood, and eventually Ranbir. In fact, the response has been great so far. Micra got close to 2,000 bookings even before its official launch and is now moving towards the 3,000-mark. All this has been possible because of our aggressive marketing efforts.  Before GM and Ford moved into the small car segment, they had an expanded distribution network in place. But in the case of Nissan, you still have only 20 dealers across the country. What is the reason for this cautious approach? We are targeting a rapid growth in our sales and distribution network, but you need to understand that on the way we need to ensure that the dealership has right infrastructure and right processes in place. We don’t want to compromise on Nissan’s global norms. We are very strict when it comes to sales and services standards. However, we have a target of opening 100 dealerships by the end of FY2012.

Can you throw some light on the overall ATL and BTL activities taken up by Nissan? In terms of our ATL activities, we have moved very aggressively after the launch of Micra in the Indian market. Apart from outdoors, we currently have a TV and print campaign running for Micra. As far as BTL is concerned, we are using exposure marketing as a tool. Regarding the wired mesh Micra, we have already done it in the metros and now we are moving on to the other cities as well. We also have a direct mailer campaign in place from our CRM team. In fact, we are focusing on doing more things online and will unveil many exciting things in the weeks to come.  Is there a plan to launch a standalone campaign for brand Nissan to raise its awareness in India? We will be using our complete portfolio and not just Micra to make the consumer aware that Nissan is not just a small car manufacturer. Nissan is not known as a small car company globally unlike and as such we will be using our CBU models as well to make the consumer aware of the brand. As far as the standalone campaign for the brand Nissan is concerned, we are not planning anything such, at least not in 2010. However, we are certainly working on a plan to introduce Nissan’s brand value through interactive marketing. We are also planning an innovative activity around the 370Z.  In a nutshell, how important is marketing for the success of Nissan in the Indian market? Marketing, in a way, can make or break Nissan in the Indian market. Unless we use marketing as a very important tool we will not be able to establish ourselves in India. In the later years, when the competition hots up with Honda and Toyota also launching their respective small cars in India, I don’t think there will be much room left for Nissan if we don’t differentiate today. Having said that, there is already a clutter in the Indian market and breaking it is the biggest challenge as of today. In fact, how wisely you spend your dollar to get the right ROI is the most important task for the success of any automaker.

Today's Motivational Thought

Don't waste your life in doubts and fears: spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it.

Are You a Mentor

To teach, you must be willing to learn. I have learnt more as a mentee than as a mentor. Mentoring is not about ‘I give, you take’. Mentoring is about effective communication. Mentoring is about speaking your heart out and it is a skill to develop. A mentor may not even know that he is being considered as a mentor. A mentoring relationship can last forever. If people take your experience as a learning opportunity for them, you’ve already mentored without a formal process. All of us are mentors and all of us are mentees. 

Mentoring is more of a practice than a theory or a concept. It cannot be ‘perfectly’ defined. Mentoring can be used by organizations to increase their ability to deal with people. If it is positioned as an HR initiative, it wouldn’t work as effectively as it would as a people’s initiative. In the corporate sector, mentoring is understood as a tool to develop leadership within the organization. It is a process of the senior and more experienced members of an organization guiding and helping the junior and less experienced members in their career and personal development. Mentoring is a process of building mutually beneficial partnership to help develop skills, behaviour and insights to reach the partner’s goals which a mentor has no stake in the outcome of. Mentoring is a relationship where two people involved are always together at power in the learning process. 

A mentor has several roles to play. He is a Coach, a Counsellor, a Netoworker and a Facilitator. As a mentor, you have to learn to respond without giving solutions. As a mentor you don’t even have to tell people what they have to do as they will never do it. Direction can easily slip into becoming a solution, so as a mentor you don’t even have to ‘direct’. Mentees come for answers but the mentor comes with questions. Mentors find it difficult to hold back solutions and mentees find it difficult to hold back expecting answers to their problems/questions. Mentoring is about listening with intent. Even silence can be used effectively. A basic human skill is to convey what you feel, understand and think. A mentor can never judge his mentee and a mentee is never wrong especially while sharing emotions. A mentor must encourage mentees to hone their skills at what they are already good at. There is research evidence to say that when you appreciate, productivity goes up. 

Do not encourage the mentee to use your name for personal gains. Don’t try to put a ROI on mentoring. Mentoring provides you with the opportunity to develop your leadership skills. It builds your reputation as a good leader and helps you network better. If you learn one skill i.e. to reach out, more than half of your problem would get solved, the skill to reach out. If you have the basic human skills, you can handle almost all your problems. “To get people to become humble” is what mentoring is all about. 

Today's Motivational Thought

Skill and confidence are an unconquered army

The Good And Bad of Being An Independent Entrepreneur

Being your own boss is something that most professionals dream of. Working on your own can have several pros and cons as opposed to working for someone else.

Setting up your own business / service firm can be an exciting, invigorating and challenging experience that gives you the independence to make your own decisions and do what YOU want to do.

Add to this the flexible work hours, as well as an open hand to take your business where you want it to go. Besides business men, freelancers are also entering the realm of independent entrepreneurs who have the power to work on their own terms.

However, all is not hunky-dory when it comes to being your own boss. Head Content Writer at www.contentwriter.in explains "When you work for a Company as an employee, you are responsible only for yourself and the work that you do. However, as you set up your own firm and become your own boss, your life takes a 360 degree turn. There is a rise in the number of responsibilities that you now have to shoulder and it is difficult to get an off from work, both mentally and physically. Moreover, your finances are not just yours. Rather, whatever money decisions you can now make are directly linked with the Company."

Right from administrative issues to finances, deadlines and deliverables - everything needs your time and attention.

If you are considering becoming an independent entrepreneur, it pays to understand just what you're getting yourself into and prepare yourself to meet all the demands of the job.

Today's Motivational Thought

What gems of painting or statuary are in the world of art, or what flowers are in the world of nature, are gems of thought to the cultivated and the thinking

Brand Positioning Strategy - From USP Promise to Execution

A brand positioning strategy is a road map or plan for how a product, service or company plans to attain differentiation and subsequent competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Positioning is often a confusing concept because of how popular use changes the meaning of the word. Positioning actually refers to a space within the mind of the customer marketplace that a company occupies.

To execute your brand positioning strategy and attain your business goals, you must align 3 distinct elements to your core positioning strategy. They are:

• Brand promise
• Brand communications
• Brand experience

If your business strikes a discordant note in any of these elements, your whole marketing system will be compromised. Let's take a closer look at them.

1. Brand promise

The brand promise encapsulates the dominant benefit a product, service or company wants to convey to the marketplace. Ideally, the promise should be believable, rooted in the intrinsic strength of the company, and meaningfully different from those of competitors.

Small businesses often struggle with getting this right. Many small businesses depend on their tactical marketing efforts to make up for lack of a truly differentiated brand promise. 
In the best run companies, it makes up part of the unique selling proposition (USP) - the central selling and differentiating logic that makes a company the choice of the marketplace.

2. Brand communications

Brand communications are all those ways by which a company conveys its brand and USP to the marketplace. It encompasses brand identity elements like logos, and color motifs, to marketing communications like advertisements, brochures, and sales letters.

3. Brand experience

Brand promise, brand communications and brand experience must be aligned and executed properly for any business to see benefits. Brand experience describes how clients, prospects, partners and even the media experience a company's delivery on its brand promise. For business owners, this is the most important part of building a brand after crafting your promise.

This is where business execution meets marketing. Your core processes of organizational effectiveness, operational performance, strategic positioning and systems integration must work together to yield an overall performance that delivers on promises made.

When Domino's Pizza launched its ultimate USP promise ("Fresh, hot, Pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes, or it's free!"), the company had to align every single part of the business to deliver on that promise.

The stores were designed without seating areas, the storage technology was developed to keep Pizzas hot in transit, product lines focused narrowly on Pizzas and items that could be delivered within the 30 minute guarantee, and manager incentives were unified around delivering on that extraordinary promise.

The company did not abandon that USP until it after it had already become a hugely successful company. That successful brand positioning strategy transformed a very small pizza store chain into a billion dollar company in record time.

Importance of Brand Positioning

Brand positioning in simple words means to position your brand or some important products of your company to make it more presentable and known to the customers. This definition can be considered as a right one. The concept of brands has become very famous amongst people and they require the products or services of a renowned brand. If you actually need to make your services or products to gain the category of brands, you need to make them accessible to people in such way that they start recognizing your brand name by the products or services you offer. It makes your brand to gain popularity and streamline the processes of sales in a well defined manner.

The concept of brand positioning is much vaster than this point. It can also be taken as refurbishing or rebranding of your product in such a way that will make it different and uniquely defined than all other products of the same kind. This will really make your product to get under the exclusiveness category and it is a great thing to make your brand or product a renowned name in the any industry or market of your working.

Brand positioning holds much more importance than the things mentioned above. It will go a long way in helping you to measure the real strength of your brand. This can be considered as a form of stock taking strategy. This mode will help you to know how farther you have gone and where you exactly reach in your competitive market. A proper understanding of your present position will go a long way in helping you on the steps to take for moving your products and brand beyond the present state. It is in an effort to give all the popularity, which you think is good as a choice for making your brand to reach top position.

Brand positioning will also help you to sufficiently judge the way customers judge your product in comparison with other very competitive brands available with the same products or services. Of course, you will be accosted with strong competition as there is rarely any niche that does not require the right means to market and with the proper identification and implementation of brand positioning, you will be able to keep your brand in a position where it will rarely be affected by the impending disaster of strong opposition and competition.

There is one thing any way that will be able to make your efforts worthwhile, and that is to build a great brand reputation. It is important to make your ability to make an appropriate customer research. This will help you to get better outputs for the needs of customers. You will need to make some enquiries or surveys from the customers to know about their likings. You may have to pay for some qualitative surveys, but they are actually very helpful to know the customers. Be assured that your product or service will be able to withstand the testing of time and give you the best possible impact.

Name the Car

Today's Motivational Thought

The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all the other woes of mankind, is wisdom.

Who is participating in forex market trades?

The forex market is all about trading between countries, the currencies of those countries and the timing of investing in certain currencies. The FX market is trading between counties, usually completed with a broker or a financial company. Many people are involved in forex trading, which is similar to stock market trading, but FX trading is completed on a much larger overall scale. Much of the trading does take place between banks, governments, brokers and a small amount of trades will take place in retail settings where the average person involved in trading is known as a spectator. Financial market and financial conditions are making the forex market trading go up and down daily. Millions are traded on a daily basis between many of the largest countries and this is going to include some amount of trading in smaller countries as well.

From the studies over the years, most trades in the forex market are done between banks and this is called interbank. Banks make up about 50 percent of the trading in the forex market. So, if banks are widely using this method to make money for stockholders and for their own bettering of business, you know the money must be there for the smaller investor, the fund mangers to use to increase the amount of interest paid to accounts. Banks trade money daily to increase the amount of money they hold. Overnight a bank will invest millions in forex markets, and then the next day make that money available to the public in their savings, checking accounts and etc.

Commercial companies are also trading more often in the forex markets. The commercial companies such as Deutsche bank, UBS, Citigroup, and others such as HSBC, Braclays, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase, and still others such as Goldman Sachs, ABN Amro, Morgan Stanley, and so on are actively trading in the forex markets to increase wealth of stock holders. Many smaller companies may not be involved in the forex markets as extensively as some large companies are but the options are stil there.

Central banks are the banks that hold international roles in the foreign markets. The supply of money, the availability of money, and the interest rates are controlled by central banks. Central banks play a large role in the forex trading, and are located in Tokyo, New York and in London. These are not the only central locations for forex trading but these are among the very largest involved in this market strategy. Sometimes banks, commercial investors and the central banks will have large losses, and this in turn is passed on to investors. Other times, the investors and banks will have huge gains

Debt Spirals

As debt spirals out of control for more and more people it can be difficult to understand the options available to you to get your financial stability back. There are a number out quick options, but these can often further your outstanding debt.

An IVA, also known as an Individual Voluntary Arrangement is one such way that people with large debts can help reduce their monthly or weekly payments to their creditors, but what exactly is it? I will explain what this involves during this post.

An IVA is a legally binding agreement between all of your creditors to reduce the amount that you pay back. Because an IVA is arranged to help you reduce your debt in its entireity, the likelihood of you clearing the debt is often much higher.

The concept of an IVA is based around the idea that your creditors are more likely to get a return on their money or recoup some of their losses invested in you if they loosen their repayment terms. That way, the creditors don't force a person heavily in debt into bankruptcy and they are able to get their money back - its usually a positive outcome for all parties involved.

For some people, once the financial IVA payment has been made they find that up to 65% of all of their previous debt has been written off. Terms can vary in length, but these can last anywhere up to 5 years or more depending on the size of the debt.

Although an IVA may not be for everyone, it can sometimes help thiose in severe levels of Debt.

Today's Motivational Thought

No road is too long for him who advances slowly and does not hurry, and no attainment is beyond his reach who equips himself with patience to achieve it

Creating the best work culture

The work culture is the key to high performance.

More important, influencing the work culture is a manager's best opportunity for creating high performance. "Culture" is a 24-hours-a-day training program that exists inside any organization. It's teaching and influencing all the time. Sometimes it's teaching what we like it to teach, and sometimes it's not. It's very difficult to "swim upstream" against the culture.

For example, you can teach value added and long-term relationships all you want, but if the work culture is really about short-term, adversarial relationships with clients, that's what you're going to get--that plus a lot of confusion.

The best of all possible worlds is a consistent, positive, reinforcing culture--and good sales managers are discovering that the best way to leverage their efforts is to manage the culture. After more than 10 years of research, we've come up with five factors that are critical to creating and maintaining a high-performance work culture. Listed in order of importance, they are:

1. A Shared Sense Of Mission Or Purpose. It's the culture equivalent to purpose. It answers the questions "What's expected around here, what do we do, and why do we do it?" If the only answer that you have is "making money," be prepared for your people to ask for as much as they can get for doing as little as they can. On the other hand, if you've taken the time to establish a mission--and especially if you've taken the time to involve your people in the process--that larger sense of mission will help people focus on achieving their part of the mission.

2. Clear And Attainable Goals. People perform best when they have specific goals. Goals that are reachable yet that stretch them. Don't tell people what to do, or how to do it, but give them the map, the destination, and sometimes the general direction in which to start.

3. Frequent Objective Feedback. People learn quickly and work well when they are told how they're doing. Debrief and summarize every joint call you make. Don't assume that people know how they're doing or know what you think. Lead with positive information first, but always be honest, objective, and specific. Help your people learn from every selling experience.

4. Positive Rewards For Appropriate Or Approximate Performance. Selling is like playing tennis: Very few people get it right the first time. Sincere, positive reinforcement ("You did that really well." "You really understand this." "You're doing a great job.") helps people learn. Catch people doing something right, and tell them about it.

5. Timely Support And Help When Requested Or Needed. This is an issue of priorities for most sales managers. It's deciding what your job is. Are you there to track numbers and quotas, or are you there to support your people? Clearly, both jobs have to be done, but the job of coach is the critical job in creating a high-performance team.

Brain Storming.....Identify the Company

IS MELA MARKETING THE NEW BUZZ?

Gatorade did it in the USA in 2001! Indian marketers Are of late investing big money in mela marketing. DO rural consumers matter that much?

Fairs (melas, as we better know them) have always been an integral part of the Indian life style. It’s difficult to find a person in the country who has never visited a fair or come across a Bollywood flick with a typical 1970s storyline of family separation and re-union, all happening in melas (mostly Kumbh mela). Well, the creative brains of our marketing world know this better than anyone else! After clichéd cult of ‘Lost and Found’ mela brothers created by script writers, it’s these marketing honchos who have brought fairs to the centre-stage by using them as a platform to market products. So much so that big fairs like the Mahakumbh held in Haridwar, Lord Jagannath’s car festival in Puri and Surajkund mela et al now find prime importance when the companies plan for their BTL activities.

But certainly, the roots of such mela marketing are not just desi by any means. In USA, for example, in 2001 the sports drink giant ‘Gatorade’ tried to cash in on the theme of Thanksgiving and invested millions in marketing its drink during the Thanksgiving fairs across the country. Later, in 2008, they even came up with a TV commercial Replay which was also built around a match that has always been played on the eve of Thanksgiving.

Not that Indian companies were alien to this – but till now, mela marketing simply was seen as a social service for rural folk (aka e-choupals, for example). But this year’s various melas, including the iconic Maha Kumbh Mela that started in January and lasted till the end of April, have seen surprisingly huge investments in product marketing campaigns. In the Kumbh Mela, the element of novelty was 26 brands marketing their products using the mela as the focal point of their campaign. For instance, Dettol marketed itself with a tagline, “Kumbh mein Snaan ek baar, Dettol mein Snaan baar-baar” (Bathe in the holy water of Kumbh Mela once, bathe in the water with Dettol regularly). Boroline came up with “Kumbh se Punya Kamao, Boroline se Achchi Twacha Banao” (Attain bliss by visiting the Kumbh Mela, attain a softer skin by using Boroline). The question is, does mela marketing work? Especially if you’re not in the FMCG industry?

Shankar Das, Marketing Head-Boroline, G.D. Pharmaceuticals, tells 4Ps B&M, “You cannot think of a better direct promotion of your brand than what you get in these fairs. These fairs attract huge chunks of people from different strata of the society at one place for the longest period of time. And all this while, they are exposed to your brand. The impact is substantial and it does have an edge over other modes of marketing.” Mela marketing has proved to be a beneficial strategy and the company has incorporated it across regional melas in places like Orissa and Gujarat. Their next destination is Jharkhand and the regional fair that is going to be organised in the coming months.

Another example was the Dabur campaign for its mosquito repellent ‘Odomos’. At the Kumbh Mela, where devotees stay in tents and are prone to mosquito bites, it made a lot of sense for Dabur India to market this product in such a way that it directly established a need for Odomos during the fair. “With over 70 million devotees coming together, Kumbh Mela is the largest ever congregation in the world”, says George Angelo, Executive Vice President – Sales, Dabur India Ltd to 4Ps B&M. He further adds, “We used the occasion to educate consumers about the benefits of certain products, besides informing them about the right methods of usage.”

The interesting thing is, while urban melas (like the Trade Fair), which attract highs of between 2.5-4 lakh people on their weekend days get hundreds of advertisers, events like Kumbh Mela (which attracts upwards of 10 lakh people even on non busy days) still churn up at best only 26 advertisers. Lessons? Of course. Mela advertising remains great for point-of-sale immediacy conversion and would work only in relatively low-priced FMCG products or services. For non-FMCG sectors, well, it’s clearly not such a promising deal currently as most of the masses at these melas do not have an intent to purchase durables during their visits. Think about it – when was the last time somebody went to a mela to buy a car!

IS MELA MARKETING THE NEW BUZZ?

Gatorade did it in the USA in 2001! Indian marketers Are of late investing big money in mela marketing. DO rural consumers matter that much?

Fairs (melas, as we better know them) have always been an integral part of the Indian life style. It’s difficult to find a person in the country who has never visited a fair or come across a Bollywood flick with a typical 1970s storyline of family separation and re-union, all happening in melas (mostly Kumbh mela). Well, the creative brains of our marketing world know this better than anyone else! After clichéd cult of ‘Lost and Found’ mela brothers created by script writers, it’s these marketing honchos who have brought fairs to the centre-stage by using them as a platform to market products. So much so that big fairs like the Mahakumbh held in Haridwar, Lord Jagannath’s car festival in Puri and Surajkund mela et al now find prime importance when the companies plan for their BTL activities. But certainly, the roots of such mela marketing are not just desi by any means. In USA, for example, in 2001 the sports drink giant ‘Gatorade’ tried to cash in on the theme of Thanksgiving and invested millions in marketing its drink during the Thanksgiving fairs across the country. Later, in 2008, they even came up with a TV commercial Replay which was also built around a match that has always been played on the eve of Thanksgiving. Not that Indian companies were alien to this – but till now, mela marketing simply was seen as a social service for rural folk (aka e-choupals, for example). But this year’s various melas, including the iconic Maha Kumbh Mela that started in January and lasted till the end of April, have seen surprisingly huge investments in product marketing campaigns. In the Kumbh Mela, the element of novelty was 26 brands marketing their products using the mela as the focal point of their campaign. For instance, Dettol marketed itself with a tagline, “Kumbh mein Snaan ek baar, Dettol mein Snaan baar-baar” (Bathe in the holy water of Kumbh Mela once, bathe in the water with Dettol regularly). Boroline came up with “Kumbh se Punya Kamao, Boroline se Achchi Twacha Banao” (Attain bliss by visiting the Kumbh Mela, attain a softer skin by using Boroline). The question is, does mela marketing work? Especially if you’re not in the FMCG industry?

Shankar Das, Marketing Head-Boroline, G.D. Pharmaceuticals, tells 4Ps B&M, “You cannot think of a better direct promotion of your brand than what you get in these fairs. These fairs attract huge chunks of people from different strata of the society at one place for the longest period of time. And all this while, they are exposed to your brand. The impact is substantial and it does have an edge over other modes of marketing.” Mela marketing has proved to be a beneficial strategy and the company has incorporated it across regional melas in places like Orissa and Gujarat. Their next destination is Jharkhand and the regional fair that is going to be organised in the coming months. Another example was the Dabur campaign for its mosquito repellent ‘Odomos’. At the Kumbh Mela, where devotees stay in tents and are prone to mosquito bites, it made a lot of sense for Dabur India to market this product in such a way that it directly established a need for Odomos during the fair. “With over 70 million devotees coming together, Kumbh Mela is the largest ever congregation in the world”, says George Angelo, Executive Vice President – Sales, Dabur India Ltd to 4Ps B&M. He further adds, “We used the occasion to educate consumers about the benefits of certain products, besides informing them about the right methods of usage.” The interesting thing is, while urban melas (like the Trade Fair), which attract highs of between 2.5-4 lakh people on their weekend days get hundreds of advertisers, events like Kumbh Mela (which attracts upwards of 10 lakh people even on non busy days) still churn up at best only 26 advertisers. Lessons? Of course. Mela advertising remains great for point-of-sale immediacy conversion and would work only in relatively low-priced FMCG products or services. For non-FMCG sectors, well, it’s clearly not such a promising deal currently as most of the masses at these melas do not have an intent to purchase durables during their visits. Think about it – when was the last time somebody went to a mela to buy a car!

IS SPENCER’S BACK ON TRACK?

Last year, not only did Spencer’s Retail shut down several stores, but also lowered its expansion drive. However, of late, it seems to have found its lost aggression. And it is paying off as well!

It was raining when we reached the head-office of Spencer’s Retail located at Duncan House in Kolkata. As we made our way into the office we could sense the serenity that prevailed there, in stark contrast to the air of general gloom (and doom) that should have dominated an organisation which is not in profits. But then, there’s a reason behind it and it’s none other than RPG Group’s Vice Chairman Sanjiv Goenka himself. Unlike many others, Goenka doesn’t shy away from revealing the real state of affairs – Spencer’s Retail incurred losses to the tune of `2.2 billion during FY2009. And unlike many more, he’s not one who is willing to weep over losses. “Spencer is into losses but we will soon make it a profitable one,” he tells 4Ps B&M. Today, his team is busy chalking out means and ways to come out of a ‘troubled situation’. In fact, after shutting over 100 stores (a process that started in 2008) across India, Spencer’s Retail is back on an expansion spree and has already committed a whopping `15 billion towards it, over the next few years. But, there’s other side of the coin too. Since the beginning of 2010 we have seen Spencer’s closing down its four stores in Delhi. The situation is somewhat similar in Rajasthan as well. So, when it all seems gloomy, what’s propelling Spencer to be in a sunny spirit? A closer look at the ongoing scenario in the retail industry and one can see that while players like Subhiksha have already bid adieu, global giants like Easy Day (from Wal-Mart) are still in a very nascent stage. The only competition, on the national level, as such remains from Food Bazaar and Big Bazaar (from the stable of Future Group). So, what better time could have Spencer asked for to regain its lost aggression? In fact, to create an edge over its rivals, Spencer’s is deliberately avoiding the time-honoured consumer attracting strategy of economical pricing. The retailer has clearly categorised itself in the experiential marketing category and now focuses on the upwardly mobile and affluent class – SEC A category – in the age bracket of 25-34 years. “We don’t want to claim that we offer the lowest price, but at the same time we are not expensive. In fact, we offer affordable luxury,” Sanjay Gupta, VP – General Merchandise, Spencer’s Retail tells 4Ps B&M.

Further, the strategy now includes equal focus on small towns and cities. But then, looked upon as a retailer providing international experience to its customers with little focus on value-pricing strategy (or the mega discount trend adopted by other retailers), how does Spencer’s plan to home-in on in these smaller towns? The secret lies in private labels which today constitutes over 50% of the group’s total business. In fact, to beat competition and to grab a bigger market share through private labels, the group is busy creating new brands in this segment. For instance, Spencer’s have already floated brands like ‘Living Smart’ and ‘Tasty Wonders’ for its bed-bath and corn flakes range respectively. A new juice brand ‘Alive’ will also be rolled out by August end. While the group has shown wonders in creating private labels, it has failed to create same magic in states like Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan. Spencer holds high real estate cost responsible for the failure and as such instead of betting big in these cities, the group is once again focusing on its core geographical areas like Chennai. International tie ups too seems minting moolah for it now. For instance, the group has just tied up with American brands Beverly Hills Polo Club and Marc Ecko. Though with these new strategies Spencer’s seems to be well on track towards a profitable future (with same store growth reaching 14% during Q1 FY2010), it should make sure that its efforts are not cornered as other players too seem to now develop a liking for private labels (Aditya Birla Group’s More) and foreign tie ups (Tata’s Trends and Zara). And why not? When it comes to retail, there are little points of differentiation. If Spencer’s has a distinct positioning, then it must go all out and communicate with its customers. Only then it may work in the favour of Spencer’s.

Today's Motivational Thought

All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible

Say Your Piece

Say your piece – Without disturbing the peace 

Do you find it hard to say “No” when asked to work late (yet again)? Do you feel pressured into taking on more work than you can handle? Is it hard for you to ask for help when you need it?

These situations, and many more like them, show why good assertiveness and negotiation skills are a vital part of maintaining a healthy work life balance.

Whether you bottle up your frustrations and then explode, or end up feeling like the office doormat, an inability to communicate openly and to find an agreeable compromise will be damaging your health.

“One of the problems we hear about most frequently is that people feel sabotaged by the demands of others. They find it difficult to deal with these issues and stay in control of their feelings. They get very anxious about such situations and end up feeling put upon and taken for granted. They often feel resentful and angry – which is always bad news for your health.”

“People do not realise that there are techniques they can learn to make these situations more successful. We are not all born assertive or natural negotiators but we can learn these skills and improve our life balance as a result.”

Here are a following tips for those struggling with assertiveness or negotiation.

1. Don’t be pushed into making instant responses. You need time to think so make sure you take it.

2. If you know a particular situation is going to be difficult, prepare well. Think about what you are going to say.

3. Like all skills, these need to be practised so make sure you rehearse them and use them regularly.

4. Body language has a huge impact on how you are perceived. If you stand like a victim you’ll end up being one. Look strong - be strong.

5. Do not rise to the bait of personal remarks – stick to the issues. If someone’s behaviour crosses the line be prepared to end the encounter. Do not stay around to be abused.

6. Listen carefully and be aware that your own biases and options will give you a tendency to pre-judge. Try to remain open minded.

7. When using new techniques find a form of words that works for you – adapt them to your natural style.

8. Practice difficult situations with a neutral party beforehand. 

9. Know what it is that you want to get out of the situation before you begin and then work towards that goal.

10. Believe you are worth it. If you are to negotiate successfully you must believe you are worth the outcome you want.

People’s beliefs about themselves, their rights and responsibilities are an important cornerstone. 

FIIs net buy Rs 283 cr, DIIs net sell Rs 123 cr

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers of Rs 283.02 crore (provisional) today, according to data released by BSE.

While FIIs made gross purchases of Rs 2,016.26 crore, gross sales totalled Rs 1,733.24 crore.

Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net sellers of 

Rs 123.50 crore today. While DIIs made gross purchases of Rs 759.60 crore, gross sales totalled Rs 883.10 crore.

FIIs were net buyers of Rs 147.90 crore on Thursday, September 2, according to data released by Sebi today. While FIIs made gross purchases of Rs 2,051.10 crore, gross sales totalled Rs 1,903.20 crore.

Mutual funds (MFs) were net buyers of Rs 19.50 crore on Thursday. MFs made purchases of Rs 593.80 crore and sales of Rs 574.40 crore.

Today's Motivational Thought

The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret to outward success

Should work experience be made mandatory for management institutes

Stand: Yes, work experience should be made mandatory for management institutes. Defense: An education in management has two aims. Firstly, to increase the understanding of the factors which influence the conduct of organizations and secondly to provide students with some tools and techniques which they may use to influence organizational life.  Most subjects that one studies in a management programme are composed of theory and practice. Management education emphasizes on the application of concepts in the industry. For example, Information Systems (IS) is the application of information and system technologies to organizational and managerial needs. Almost every industry and field relies upon information systems and technologies to compete in the marketplace, to streamline current operations, and to create effective work environments. Information systems professionals analyze, design, develop, implement, and manage a wide range of computer-based information systems.  Operations and Systems Management (OSM) specialization students learn how to set standards, goals, and objectives and measure their achievement. Continuous improvement, benchmarking, six sigma methodology, quality management, operations research, decision sciences, project management, technology management, operations management, supply chain, and business process analysis are some of the tools that OSM specialization students use for performance achievement. After having looked at IS and OSM as subjects in a management programme, we can safely conclude that most management subjects are application oriented subjects which cannot be best understood by reading a text book alone.  On the contrary, an individual having adequate work experience in the respective field can better understand the concepts and is in a far more better position to grasp the essence of what is being ‘taught’ in the class.  The student can directly relate his/her work experience to the theory compared to mucking up books.   A classic book on Organizational Behaviour by Stephen Robbins defines ‘learning’ as any relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of experience.  We have ample research evidence to support that a ‘hands on’ or a ‘live’ experience teaches us more than what the best books can teach.  The adage – “Lessons of experience are far more trustworthy than those given by doctors and universities” is not a waste…If all students come into management institutes with prior work experience, this will immensely add to the quality of inputs and discussions in class. One important attraction of a reputed management institute is its Placement Services.  Today, there are about 857 business schools in the country providing education to at least 60,000 students.  It may not be feasible for every institute to provide placements to each n every student.  If work experience is mandated in a management programme, students can leverage their contacts with the industry for their summer projects as well for their final placements.  Management education also harnesses live projects or concurrent projects during the MBA programme.  Students can make positive use of their contacts with the industry for their academic assignments.  They can seek references from their previous employers and thus gain an easy access into the corporate world, which otherwise might seem to be a mammoth task. In business you have to DO things, take decisions, take action, and monitor results. You cannot operate any business by just planning what to do on paper. Planning is, of course, an important step in the process, but there are many examples of businesses, which have had excellent plans but failed because no one implemented the ideas.  So, isn’t the best way to learn about how to do business, to work in a business and learn from others? NO.  In the heat of battle, and business today becomes a battle, you cannot learn to fight, there are too many day-to-day pressures, and few people have the time (or the capability) to explain what is happening and, more importantly for someone trying to learn, the reason for decisions. The alternative is to mandate relevant ‘work experience’ as an eligibility in a management programme.  At the entry level itself, if only those candidates with work experience are admitted into the institute, one can be assured of the quality of management education when there will be sixty individuals with sixty diverse work experience backgrounds in the class.   In the management education programme, it is not only the faculty who teaches but more so the discussions that students initiate and questions and answers ….There will be a tremendous value addition to the classroom teaching with 60 + work experiences !

Today's Motivational Thought

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.

Talent Sustenance – A Predestined Call

Jim Collins once said: “People are not your most important asset. The RIGHT people are.”

With the conquest of a world full of populace brimming with a massive punch of quality education, best of experiences and an incredible wrap of superior talent, managers around the cosmos are facing one of the most critical challenges of today’s times. An era where talent is in abundance and the excesses either create a chaotic milieu of talents or a battle ground of talents. To top this, pressing business imperatives, such as increasing turnover as the economy improves, globalisation of markets and labour forces, aggressive competition and heightened corporate oversight, have intensified the need to acquire, develop, deploy, motivate and retain key talent within the organization.

The call is inevitable: Sustenance of this talent!!

Organizations across are thriving to wrestle and keep the best talent in the industry with them at all costs. Concepts like ‘Talent Acquisition’ ‘Talent Retention’, ‘Talent Management’ are all going berserk to ultimately tag this ambiguous phenomenon of how to sustain talent within the organization so that one not only nourishes talent but also escalate it to an overall boom for the individual and the organization. Is acquiring, retaining and managing talent the only answer to this vague but persistent covet about holding on to the best in the industry? What after successful talent management? Does the pursuit get over here?

Not long from now, we will have organizations coming to a complete standstill in this matter. Taking ahead, the consortium of talented individuals will become a major ordeal for all these organizations. Companies need to preempt this catastrophe and program viable options to elucidate it. Before we delve deeper into the intricacies of the subject, let us briefly try to understand the various jargons used for the word ‘Talent’ in the ‘Management World’.

Talent Management refers to ‘a conscious, deliberate approach undertaken to attract, develop and retain people with the aptitude and abilities to meet current and future organizational needs. It also involves individual and organizational development in response to a changing and complex operating environment. It includes the creation and maintenance of a supportive, people oriented organization culture.’

Talent acquisitions and talent retention are a crucial part of Talent Management and are positioned to keep talent management throbbing. However retaining this talent in the times of today’s recession becomes an even stronger challenge for the companies all over. Most of the talent pool would look forward to change jobs for growth, stability, security, challenges or for various other reasons. Efforts to generate fresh perspectives and innovative ideas to maintain competitive advantage is frequently critical to business success.

Hence, in order to accelerate this phenomenon, one needs to look into the various dimensions of the culture, style & system of an organization. Each organisation has a different style and culture, alongside different business needs and priorities. The organization’s system has to be meritocratic and performance driven corporate culture. It is vital to start with the right definition. 

These are people with exceptional skills. Losing them is not only giving in to our competitors but directly giving in to our very own inability to sustain them within our organizations. Talent goes waste when it stays stagnant for a long time. It needs to be fostered and cultivated with the right amount of nourishments or else it may putrefy. It requires to grow…. Talent to grow naturally, it would, but, to help it grow creatively as well, is what is necessary.

Talent sustenance is beyond ‘something to do’. It is something to be. A belief. A mindset and not just another HR fad. It breeds an aggressive reap which roots ownership and accountability for optimising talent and potential. It needs to be embedded in the entire organization championed by the leadership, modelled by the Management, supported by a range of initiatives collectively developed by the business and HR.

Coaching, mentoring, empowering, benchmarking and sponsoring are just some the winning principles of Talent Management but we need to build a‘Winning Environment’ too. We need to go beyond the concept of talent management. We need to nutrify talent. It will perish into the oblivion of today’s corporate cut throat competitiveness if it is not allowed ‘to flourish’.

Les Brown aptly quotes, “I believe that life is a journey, often difficult and sometimes incredibly cruel, but we are well equipped for it, if, only we tap into our talents and gifts and allow them to blossom.”