Colors - Khataro Ke Khiladi (Direct Response Advertising)

Direct marketing is a sub-discipline and type of marketing. There are two main definitional characteristics which distinguish it from other types of marketing.

1. The first is that it attempts to send its messages directly to consumers, without the use of intervening media. This involves commercial communication (direct mail, e-mail, telemarketing) with consumers or businesses, usually unsolicited.
2. The second characteristic is that it is focused on driving purchases that can be attributed to a specific "call-to-action." This aspect of direct marketing involves an emphasis on trackable, measurable positive (but not negative) responses from consumers (known simply as "response" in the industry) regardless of medium.

If the advertisement asks the prospect to take a specific action, for instance call a free phone number or visit a website, then the effort is considered to be direct response advertising.

Here is direct response advertising of Colors - Khataro Ke Khiladi

Hypothetically objective for this ad can be:

Objective:

• To increase awareness about up coming show KKK-2
• Get the direct response for participation in KKK-2

Apart from print ad, kkk-2 team have used holistic approach for effective media reach. Some of them are as under:

TVC



Micro Site

IBM joins Green Premier League

"While most people think of energy conservation from a hardware perspective, increasingly it is actually software that is providing more options to go green across the entire organization." says Al Zollar, general manager, Tivoli Software, IBM (source).

With today’s market realities—rising energy costs; shrinking power and space capacity; increased regulatory regulatory scrutiny; and higher customer expectations—going green is not only socially responsible, it’s an economic imperative. Traditional green IT strategies have focused on the data center alone, which accounts for only2% of global CO2 emissions.

IBM "Software for a Greener World" help businesses

1. Maximize energy efficiency
2. Reduce costs associated with power and cooling

Promotion:

Here is link for IBM green commercials and down is the print ad of IBM green.


In their (IBM) advertisement company has used little animated critters. The good thing is to notice that slowly marketer are moving towards animated ad. While IBM have same ad through out globe but even if we isolated IBM ad form Indian market still we have many ads using animation critters.

Before animation ads were only present in children segment ads but now slowly and gradually trend is changing following are few link for animation ads in India.


Ads in Children Segment:

• Big Babol

Ads for mass marketing:

• Reliance Communication
• TATA Sky
• Vodafone
  
• Mentos

E-Bikes Branding

E-bike a word which was not familiar is now well know to us. The segment in two wheeler which was nothing few years back is now gaining momentum.

What is E-bike?

An Electric Bike or Scooter is a battery operated vehicle that is very economical with low maintenance cost and zero pollution. Electric two wheelers use the electrical technology of rechargeable battery that converts the electrical energy into mechanical energy. The battery of an EV can be charged easily using a power connection.

Features of E-bike and Scooters

Electric bikes or scooters, light in weight, trendy, efficient and eco-friendly, are becoming potent alternative to the conventional two-wheelers and the Electric two-wheeler industry in India is developing at rapid speed.
Have a look at the unavoidable advantages of Electric Bikes and Scooters :

• Licence and registration is not required for E Bikes and Scooters.
• Electric two wheelers run on re-chargeable battery and uses electricity as fuel in place of conventional Petrol/Diesel.
• E Bikes and Scooters can beat the rising prices of Petrol/Diesel.
• Simple design, light weight and economical Electric Vehicles are very low in running and maintenance cost.
• With the ease of handling, Electric two wheelers saves the commuting time in congested roads specially in urban areas.
• Electric vehicles are more efficient in terms of generating usable energy from their electric engine's battery in comparison to the regular fuel conversion. In this way E Bikes and Scooters are innovative and efficient mode of personal transport.
• Electric bikes or scooters use electricity therefore no emission of harmful gases like Carbon dioxide (CO2) or Nitrogen dioxide (NO2).

Branding:

E-bike with success in countries like US and China is ready to set a stage in India. But then the real challenge is how to promote this product? What should be communication strategy?
Various two wheelers companies have position there product on various attributes such as:

• Technology
• Power
• Style/Look
• Colour variants available
  
• Price

While based on the benefits of E-Bike one can do branding based on:

• Eco-friendly
• Fuel Efficient (as compared to petrol)
  
• Battery run
• Price
• No licence & registration required

Once consumer has knowledge about the product and its benefits (in this case E-bike) then positionig can be done on basis of:

• Design/look
  
• Technology ( in this case mostly battery)
• Other features (Alloy wheels, Antytheft electronic security system etc.)
• Colour variant available.
  

Here are ads of few E-bike companies where Yo-bikes being 1st mover highlighted Fuel Efficiency and Avon which is late comer concentrating on looks & other feature:


Indus Yo Bikes:

Tagline: "Ab rasta hai aapke paas"

Position: Positioned as bike which help you to stay way from troublesome price of Petrol and gives you extreme millage as compared to petrol vehicle.



Avon E-Bike:

Tagline: "In the spotlight naturally!!"

Position: The company has tried to positioned their product which guarantee admiration with its swanky look, comfortable seating and Antitheft electronic security which makes it always in spotlight.

Airline Customer Segmentation

Segmentation can be done on basis of consumer like Corporate, Institutional or General public. When advertising in TOI(pg 3) we can conclude that they have chosen their segment as General public.

Now lets discuss target audience for Kingfisher and SpiceJet based on their ads.

SpiceJet:

Targeting: One time flyer i.e. those who do not travel regularly.
Positioning: Low cost Indian airline.

Reason : SpiceJet have come up with concept of Happy Hour where you can get 1 free ticket on purchase of a ticket. This offer is applicable on all sectors on the SpiceJet network till 24th October ‘09. But there is limited inventory only for 2 days and which clearly show that they are targeting people who are going to travel in near future and have pre-planed travel.

Kingfisher Airline:

Targeting: Frequent flyer
Positioning: Premium Service airline

Reason: Just by the scheme we can predict that they are targeting frequent flyer.

Important: This STP is on basis of these two ads only. May be there are some more ad targeting different sets of consumer. So you never know whats next.

TATA Indica Vista

TATA Indica not an old name to us. Started its journey in 1998 and still running very successfully. Recently TATA celebrated its 10th anniversary. With time product changes and so has Indica. The new Indica Vista was revealed at Indian Auto Expo 2008.

Here is the Print ad of TATA Indica Vista. The ad on right hand was published in November 2008 and ad on left was published in today's TOI. In pic under I have compared change in the copy text of these two ads.

Indica which is in the market for long time and had got appraisal from million of customer and by those also who are not but then is it really necessary to advertise just to tells about its features, engine or any other feature or design. Though Indica Vista has significant change than its previous version and it is very much required to communicate it but i think its high time to associate NEW car with the consumers.

For consumer car is not just for the purpose of traveling but it shows their status/personality. Without associating with the consumer I don't think its really going to click any one or gets motivated.

We have example of Corolla Altis "Inspiring envy", SX4 "Men are back", and many more. What is different in these ads from that of Indica Vista is that they are associating with some personality set. For that matter here is ad of Indigo which is clearly targeting specific audience.

In fact TATA Indica also did it earlier but now they need to do it again.

Yes ! I agree that these are commercial not print ad but then whether Print or Electronic in the end what matter is right communication.

Here is one more example. You all have seen commercial of SX4, here is Print ad supporting same message.

I really don't say that Indica Vista ad is useless. Of course it is very much required to communicate each and every thing but then there are no. of ways to do so. Instead their ad agency must have come up with some creative where not only they highlight features but also gets emotional appeal.

what you all say??

Mahindra Xylo Positioning

Mahindra Xylo teaser ad:
If someone wants to know what is positioning of Mahindra Xylo then you can easly predict it from its teaser ad clearly stating that "THE ERA OF SEDANS IS OVER". Below is the full TVC of Xylo.

Mahindra Xylo full TVC:

I think they have position themself very smartly as they are targeting people who are looking to buy car like Dezire and at this price there are chances like that Xylo can be taken as taxi just like Qualis. Although they are also looking to attract people who are planning to buy Innova but with such TVC one can clearly predict that they are trying to be on safer side and don't want people to perceive this car as taxi but as family car.

What you all say???

ING Marketing Strategy

Lets see ING advertisement form the point of DAGMAR approach. Here I will be discussing various stages of DAGMAR approach i.e. Hierarchy of effects model.

The Hierarchy of Effects model is as under:

1.UNAWARE
ING first started with cosponsoring Renault road show on 9th November and then followed by launching print ad as well as commercial for the same as under:

ING ad

This is where we can say that consumer as no knowledge and ING wanted to increase awareness of the consumer.

ad by Govt.

Commercial(awareness)

2.AWARE
Once the awareness was increased the next stage was to tell them about their services in more detail and try to position. Here is again one more ad which again has objective to increase awareness and position as friendly bank.


3.1.COMPREHENSION
Here the main object was to aware consumer about the services(ATM) and how it differs from other.

ING ad (ATM)

3.2.IMAGE BUILDING
Once the attributes/services are been informed then next stage is of building Image of the company. In following advertisement ING is trying to position itself.

Recent ad (image building)

.

Kingfisher Airline ad, Loyalty Program

Here is the ad of Kingfisher Airline.


Kingfisher Airline is one of the premium service provider in India and the only airline with 5 star rating. But since the Indian people are very much price conscious and prefer low carriers, attracting them to your services is one of the biggest challenge for company like kingfisher & Jet airways. To do the same what is required is to come up with strategy which not only attract the new customer but also retain the existing with out diluting your image as premium services provider.

In this ad Kingfisher has come up with loyalty program where frequent flyer can earn extra miles with each travel. However this is not something new in the industry, various airlines are offering these services but whats in this ad is there communication strategy.

Kingfisher Airline is consider as the premium brand in Airline services and what was required by the company was to come up with communication where they do not dilute there image and can effectively attract price conscious customer.

The first line says "We're redefining low fare flying. Introducing our new service. Kingfisher Red" . In ad one can clearly portrait from the picture that with frequent flying total amount will be same as that of low cost airline due to Kingfisher Red service. Also red colour which resemble kingfisher, coming up with their service name "Kingfisher Red" is not only creative but will defiantly help in recognition.