INTERNET GROWTH: 2011

Globally, internet audiences are rapidly proliferating – 87% of the internet population now belongs to regions excluding the united state. Many Emerging Regions are likely to bypass the old modes – skipping dial-up and moving straight to broadband. Moreover, E-commerce growth is now being driven primarily by existing online shoppers, a trend which was at a nascent stage few years back

Asia taking over?

According to the recent report released by comScore, Asia Pacific with 41.2% now represents the region with the largest internet population in the world. From 2000 to 2011, world internet usage has grown by a mind boggling 480%.As a measure of engagement, comScore also analyzed that internet users outside the US account for 13% of the world’s online population in 2011 as compare to 66% in 1996. Many emerging regions, with social networking and mobile internet, are expected to gain momentum over the next few years. That has strong implications for marketers fancying their online edge.

Coupons on the money
A few specific categories have secured top slots in terms of driving web growth. As far as web growth in US is concerned, those are the coupons & retail-movies categories that have driven the growth. Humour was ranked the top gaining category last year with a growth of 88% in Unique Visitors (UVs), but has now dropped to the least growing category with only 8% growth (maybe they need them only in economic downturns!). With already a strong visitor base, unique visitors to the gaming information category grew by 13% since July 2010 and kids sites grew by 16%.

Socially & musically sold

While conversational media sites such as Tumblr & LinkedIn with 223% & 52% yoy growth in UVs respectively are known to be popular among the younger generations, properties such as Vevo & entertainment sites other than social media are fast catching up too. Vevo had 18.6 million more visitors in July 2011 than in July 2010. Even advertisers & marketers are looking for opportunities to advertise on social networking sites as traffic on these sites is comparatively very high. However, the music & entertainment category is fast gaining favour among the youth who are getting attracted to sites like Vevo and Pandora.

India on a searching spree

The global search market continues to grow at an extraordinary pace, with both highly developed and emerging markets contributing to strong growth worldwide. With the recent facts & figures revealed by comScore, it can be seen that 27.4 billion searches were performed in July 2011, which marked an 8% growth rate over the July 2010. India is ranked 8th in the global list of number of searches conducted but it has grown at a rate of 19%, which is the fastest after Turkey & Brazil when we compare the other countries in the top 10 list.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
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Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
Planman Technologies

Nation Branding: What Works?

David Aaker, author of the all-time best selling branding textbook – Managing Brand Equity, attempts to identify the most effective nation branding tools

During August, I spoke at the inaugural conference on nation branding, a project the President of Korea initiated in 2009 to create a nation branding programme for Korea. In preparing my talk, I attempted to identify the most effective nation branding tools. I came down to four.

The first is the hosting of global events such as the Olympics, the World Cup, the British Open, The Australian Open, or the G20. Such events get enormous visibility through media coverage, they provide all sorts of positive associations, and they generate visits from influential people and others who will talk about their experiences. The second are events created and owned by the country. They can be within a country, such as the annual Korean Knowledge Forum that attracts luminaries and thought leaders around the world, or the Singapore Film Festival. These events also provide visibility, association involvement and visitors. The events can also be hosted outside the country, such as Korean Day in New York with a K-Pop contest where the winner received round-trip tickets to Korea. Such events provide a culture story, a country experience for those who have not visited, and a chance to allow people to relive a prior trip.

The third is the identification and leverage of country symbols. Symbols can take many forms, such as the Guggenheim at Bilbao, the Edinburgh Castle, a visual of trekking in Nepal, Queen Noor of Jordan, or prominent athletes such as Rafael Nadel of Spain. Such symbols make vivid some aspects, perhaps the central aspect, of the country. A symbol, unlike a verbal description, is easy to remember especially over many exposures.

The fourth is to encourage and leverage corporate brands. Think of the impact Singapore Airlines has on Singapore, or Mercedes has on Germany. These corporate brands control many of the salient country image factors such as cultural values or perceived innovativeness. Further, the sheer budget makes a difference. Samsung plus Hyundai/Kia will spend well over $1.5 billion in media advertising in just the US, a budget that will dwarf the promotion budget of any nation. The impact of Samsung product leadership in the 90s and Hyundai’s ability to get 5% of the US car market with quality and upscale cars has had an enormous impact on the Korean brand.

There are a host of other approaches including advertising (which works mainly to attract tourists) and social media. But, in my view, these four, properly managed, generate the most impact.

In my talk directed at the Council for Nation Branding established by the President of Korea I discussed the importance of creating a strategy that would include objectives, target marketing and brand vision. With a strategy in place, I identified four effective nation branding tools: hosting a global event such as the World Cup, creating events such as the Korean Knowledge Forum, identifying symbols such as the Guggenheim at Bilbao, and supporting the work of corporate brands such as Samsung and Hyundai. My theme was that, in my view, efforts of the council to build the Korean brand should focus on opportunism, support and leverage. I suggested the council should not sponsor or direct brand building programmes, especially local ones, nor expect an ongoing budget to create communication programmes.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
IIPM in the league of best management institutes of India.....
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
Planman Technologies

When Jack came out of The Box!

What Jargon would you use to Describe the form of Advertising Skillfully integrated into your Natural Surroundings such that it Catches your Attention at places you least expect it? 4Ps B&M adds yet Another term to your Marketing Dictionary. Call it Ambient Advertising

A vagabond once shared an anecdotal experience about one of the several magnificent churches in London. He would describe the finery of the church and then mention about the inevitable cracks in the walls, both inside as well as outside the church. Now, cracks in walls are not astounding to an extent that they need a mention, though they are definitely a pain for the maintenance people. In fact, you too might have observed such cracks in walls, which are usually T-shaped, almost crossing each other, resembling a cross at times. But there was something extraordinary about the cracks in the walls of this particular church in London.

This church had almost the same kind of cracks, but instead of filling them up the church authorities had framed those cracks and written right beneath them: “God exists in everything!” Certainly, God is the last person who would require any marketing strategy, but what a way to use your surroundings to spread across a divine message that God is omnipresent. You might take this as devotion, but it is ineluctably a classic example of an effective yet simple advertising strategy called Ambient Advertising.

Simply put, Ambient Advertising is advertising integrated into our surroundings to catch our attention when and where we least expect it. “It’s about looking at everything in your surrounding as having the potential of becoming a medium of advertising,” Zenobia Pithawalla, Executive Creative Director, O&M India tells 4Ps B&M. For instance, when you finish eating a fairly luscious choco-bar, you expect nothing inside except mushy vanilla and choco crust. But when you are finished eating it all, you end up with a stick, which is not a usual stick that you would just throw away without giving it a second look. Yes, you will throw it away eventually, but not before you spot a toothbrush made out of that stick, and a small yet conspicuous ‘Colgate’ written at the top of the stick, and a ‘Don’t Forget’ message following it (the creative agency for this project was Y&R, Bangkok, Thailand). That’s precisely what Ambient Advertising is! Positioning the brand in a surrounding where the consumer least expects it, but having found it believes that it is the best place to have encountered the brand’s existence.

For starters, Ambient Advertising found its first user in 1996, when a UK based ad agency, Concord Advertising, at the wish of a client, who wanted a change from the traditional mediums, started placing ads at unusual places such as on floors, on fuel dispensers at petrol pumps, toilet doors, et al. Clearly these places were not traditional places to advertise for a product. But the idea worked, and in 1999, British Media recognised this form of advertising as ‘Ambient Advertising’.

Ambient Advertising encapsulates two key factors, one being unusual locations and the second being the quintessential ‘wow’ factor, something that catches you unaware. For instance, when JWT London got a little artsy to emulate a KitKat chocolate bar on a bench in a park (to make it look like a chocolate bar cum bench) with ‘Have a break have a KitKat’ inscribed on the bench; it made use of the both, an unusual location (a bench in a park) and had the wow factor, because the moment you sit on the bench to relax the tagline seems to work on your senses and since you are having a break in the first place, you can’t help but have a KitKat bar!

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website
IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
IIPM in the league of best management institutes of India.....
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS

Atoms in Ad-Orbits?

For years, Sandipan & Manoj have worked together to create ads that have moved minds. And they want to move around till the road ends...

Sandipan Bhattacharya and Manoj Deb might have kept their grungy look on hold for now (having chopped their long tresses off and having shed many pounds), but the two are still considered amongst the freshest of young creative rock stars in the Indian ad-fraternity. They hail from the BBDO India brigade and over the past many years, have proven that they’re worth their weight in gold, metaphorically speaking, given their real-world dieting plans. In terms of experience, having worked together as a duo in the world of ad-making for eleven years, the pair is the most seasoned amongst those featured in this cover package.

Both Bhattacharya and Deb, who are today the Executive Creative Directors of BBDO India, were brought on-board during the very early days of BBDO’s India voyage. That was two years back. In fact, during that time, Josy Paul, the current Chairman and National Creative Director of BBDO India, had commented thus, “Both of them have the potential to break the clutter and do something out-of-the-box.” They did so. In the past couple of years, the mind-blowing advertisements that have been rolled-out of BBDO India’s stable – from the 7 Up commercial to the Nimbooz launch campaign – have all been creations of these two brain-boxes. And as if they are out to prove that expenditures in the form of ad-dollars help any brand grow and earn, the ad-campaign during the launch of Nimbooz (the lemon drink from PepsiCo), not only gained heightened interest of the consumers in India, but also forced supply to play the catch-up game with demand in the FMCG market.

But that’s not their only claim to fame. In fact, their credentials make a long envious list. The duo met for the first time when Manoj joined Saatchi & Saatchi in 1999 (where Sandipan was already trying his hands on the creative side of the ad-game). Soon after, their combined efforts started yielding rich results. Initially, they held the creative mandates for Hyundai’s Santro and Accent accounts, but when the agency bagged Maruti Suzuki’s account, they were even handed creative duties for the tall-boy WagonR. In due course of time, they hopped forward from Saatchi & Saatchi to Enterprise Nexus and Grey. There, they worked on clients like Chevrolet, BPCL, Haier, Aviva Life Insurance, OCM Suitings, Suzlon, Wrigley’s Doublemint and Orbit White.

Somewhere along the line, their twain became inseparable. “Our biggest strength is balanced teamwork. Any creative process brings forward many conflicts, but it has to be treated as a healthy debate. And that is when the real value gets multiplied manifold,” says Manoj Deb, adding that this stimulates them to deliver fabulous creatives, ad-after-ad, client-after-client and year-after-year. But that is not to flatly claim that there are no conflicts. “I would say that advertising is not about marching individually. It is a collaborative work. After staying together for so long, we really don’t know what are the negative and positive points about each other. Although respect is key, at the end of the day, the creative process in advertising comes individually. Therefore, it is important that two minds also work uniquely...” Of the two, Sandipan is more inclined towards the creative end of the scale, while Manoj has his hands right in art direction.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website
IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
IIPM in the league of best management institutes of India.....
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management

Farmers lured with new policy

With the August 12 deadline to seal a deal closing in, and farmers remaining insistent on higher compensation, Greater Noida Authority (GNIDA) is banking on the state's new land acquisition policy - that offers farmers not only higher rates per square metre but also a handsome annuity - to break the Noida Extension ice.

After inviting Patwari village to talks on Wednesday, GNIDA officials met the village headman on Thursday. The village, which won its case against land acquisition earlier this month, accounts for the second largest piece of acquired land in Noida Extension. According to the Authority, the new policy offers land owners compensation ranging from Rs 960/ sqm to Rs 1,050/ sqm. But its highlights are benefits such as 7% developed land with compensation, or 23% of developed land without any compensation, an annuity of Rs 23,000 per acre for 33 years (increased every July by Rs 800), or a onetime payment of Rs 2.76 lakh. The Authority is hopeful that farmers will understand this economics of land acquisition and development. It has already begun renegotiating with them on their three main demands: increased compensation, rehabilitation benefits and sorting out the long-pending abadi land disputes. While most farmers are currently undecided on the rate of compensation they now want, they are unanimous in seeking rehabilitation benefits, including developed plots, annuity payments, minimum agricultural wages etc. Besides, the farmers are also contemplating demanding a list of other benefits, such as health services, jobs for the unemployed etc.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School
Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri
Planman Consulting

IIPM in the league of best management institutes of India.....
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management

Total lunar eclipse on June 15

Over the next 30 days, there will be three eclipses, two partial solar eclipses and one total lunar eclipse. Of these three, however, only the total lunar eclipse will be visible from India and also from the city.

The first one, a partial solar eclipse will occur on June 2 between 12.55 am and 4.37 am as per the IST. The eclipse, however, will not be visible in India. But the total lunar eclipse, the first this year, will be visible on June 15. During the lunar eclipse, the moon will be completely covered by earth's shadow from 11.53 pm on June 15 to 3.32 am on June 16.

The eclipse will, however, begin at 10.53 pm and end at 4.32 am.

The third eclipse will be another partial solar eclipse on July 1. This too will not be visible from India.
N Raghunandan Kumar of Planetary Society Of India , Hyderabad said that the society plans to conduct a sky observation programme on June 15 on the lunar eclipse day for school children.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
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Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

IIPM B-School
Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri
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IIPM in the league of best management institutes of India.....

IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
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Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management

MBA: A potion for creativity?

DESPITE SOME BIGGEST NAMES IN THE AD WORLD COMMENTING THAT CREATIVITY CANNOT BE LEARNT SIMPLY BY GETTING AN MBA DEGREE, THEY DO GRUDGINGLY ACCEPT THAT AN MBA PREPARES PEOPLE TO MANAGE A MULTITUDE OF TASKS IN THE AD INDUSTRY BETTER THAN THEM

A chewing gum can light up a complete village, a soft drink can make you popular with the ladies, a bank can take care of all your financial worries for the future… Advertising is mostly intended to persuade an audience to purchase or take some action upon products or services, which is cuddled around a power idea that strikes the decision chords of the consumers. Cutting the elongated story short, how does one learn how to get the ‘great creative idea’? Cutting it further, can an MBA education help an individual in becoming more adept at creativity – especially with exhaustive subjects on innovation, business process reengineering, branding and consumer marketing being taught?

On the positive side to the debate is the fact that a B-school education teaches the student much more about marketing than can ever be learnt by a pure-experience bred ad industry professional – really, would an ad-industry professional ever truly understand the concepts of Johari Window and perception management? Better is the point that while an MBA graduate is busy in making ads that lead to closing the sale, the ad-industry ‘creative’ professional is simply bent on creating the “world’s most creative ad,” so to speak, sales be damned. But then again, on the huge negative side is the fact that a Zoo Zoo would never have been a Zoo Zoo if an MBA had tried to create the idea. In other words, creativity – critics claim – requires those extra grey cells that are God and parents gifted, through exposure and education while growing up, and not just through an MBA school. So where do MBAs stand on this?

Arvind Wable, Executive Director & CEO-Delhi, Draft FCB-Ulka, also an IIM-A alumni, believes creativity and management are completely cohesive in the ad world and that a good strategy is as important as creativity – “The degree develops marketing skills, makes you understand the strategy behind it and most importantly, makes you well planned. All this give rise to advertising where both skills meet.”

V. Sunil, Executive Creative Director, Wieden+Kennedy, agrees with Wable’s concept that a B-school degree is relevant in the ad world, though in its own place. Sunil (who’s most recent creation is the Indigo Airline ad, which, while being creative, focuses on ensuring that the viewer understands Indigo gets you ‘there’ on time!) says, “A lot of time is invested in planning and deciding what the advertisement should communicate to its target audience. It is the wholesome effort of a team to make a great ad, to bring out the vision of the brand with the creative vision of the script, music and lyrics well planned in advance and then executed. A degree in management helps one execute in a planned way.”

Rahul Nanda, Chief Operating Officer, Webchutney, a leading interactive consultancy in India, disagrees to an extent and feels that a B-School degree is essential when it comes to planning and account management, but not in creativity – “Management surely is important everywhere and it sure makes the processes easier in advertising, but the main onus still remains on the creative guys.”

Advertising companies have evolved today because they have successfully diversified into complete media consulting firms. Says Viraj Kalra, Head, Planman Marcom and an IIPM alumnus, “The money they receive from their overall media businesses are much higher compared to the pure advertising portion of it.” One example being father-daughter duo of Sam and Lara Balsara, who’ve now diversified their Rs.25 billion firm Madison into 20 units across 9 specialized functions in advertising, media, out-of-home, PR, rural, retail, entertainment, mobile and sports, at the same time employing over 800 communication professionals, a significant bunch being MBA graduates. Arvind Sharma, Chairman and CEO, Leo Burnett India, goes one step further and accepts to 4Ps B&M that he even uses MBAs for targetted creativity, “Leo Burnett has been a regular recruiter at the business school campuses for two decades. They say that great campaigns are born out of great briefs.

Great briefs are an outcome of considerable amount of analysis and pre-work – the kind of work MBAs are well trained to do.” Sharma adds that among MBAs, those with a good innate understanding of people and communications are preferred. The debate is surely here to stay and would require some more years of analysis to end. For now, MBAs in the ad world are an inevitability.

Swati Sharma

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website

IIPM B-School
Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri
Planman Consulting