Foreword for Indian Power Brands

The world’s largest democracy continues its GDP growth at about 8 per cent. A robust growth trajectory has made 1.2 billion people boast of a stable annual growth rate, rising foreign exchange reserves and booming capital markets. The growth story seems to be on a roll indeed, and Indian PowerBrands depicts the extraordinary journey in its one-of-a-kind initiative exemplifying the most powerful brands in India run by the most influential icons to take on and beat their competitors. The ideology further augments the brands’ identity, stability, sustainability as well its credibility. The abundance of the number of domestic companies and rising multinational corporations with a truck-load of brands for consumers to choose from has enhanced the quality of the business environment in India, it has constantly changed nonetheless keeping up with the times in recent years. The strong fundamentals underlying the Indian brand-value make it an obvious choice for investors all over the world, we are the world’s second largest market after all, so why not? There is ample reason for India’s viability as a destination for foreign investment as we live in the times of numerous overseas powerhouses still entering our economic borders. The brand-o-nomics highlight the above, we are talking about higher disposable incomes, an emerging middle-class, a low cost competitive workforce, investment friendly policies and a progressive reform process, and all contribute towards India being the appropriate choice for investors. Indian PowerBrands is a holistic effort to spell out the strength of India Inc. and define the Indian global superpowers of the future.

Overseas investors are still looking at our nation as an attractive investment destination owing to the prospects of high returns. A number of multinational corporations and overseas companies from all over the world have established businesses in India and have expanded over the years. We have witnessed a number of success stories - both Indian and multinational firms have registered higher profits, increased turnover and higher sales over the years. This has induced them to reinvest profits and inject fresh capital into their processes in order to reap the benefits of the Indian growth phenomenon. Investments have been made by corporations across the board and all the sectors have seen inflow of funds. Global players such as Ford, LG Electronics, Samsung, Sony, Amway, Tupperware, PepsiCo, McDonald’s, Oracle, Vodafone, and Nokia among others have benefited from their operations in India and have made expansion plans for the country. The companies plan to expand by way of product diversification, setting up a manufacturing base in India, increasing the existing production capacity, establishing research centres amongst other methods. A brand is always at the center of a company’s interest, managing a brand is not just a matter of putting theories into practice, but an art with a cutting-edge marketability, the paramount importance to the success of the company. This extensive research driven project delivers an array of brand value, brand perception, and brand resonance.

In India, the balance of trade – exports to imports – is higher than what the nation has recorded in recent years, which is only made possible by the marketability of these powerful brands. This phenomenal fact comes from the Government’s viable norm of encouraging the set-up of manufacturing plants and R&D centres along with a sales-wing, formulating an attractive special economic zone (SEZ) platform. Today India officially exports BMW vehicles and parts, Hewlett Packard notebooks, Nokia handsets, Sony electronics to name a few, which is merely a handful of what the list actually comprises of.

Our nation’s brand-economy has strong fundamentals and is host to several eminent global corporate giants that are leaders in their respective fields. The nation has grown to become a trillion dollar plus economy with a largely self-sufficient agricultural sector, a diversified industrial base, and a stable financial and services sector. India looks to the future with confidence of meeting the domestic and international challenges to fast and inclusive growth. Even during the global recession, our nation remained among the top 3 investment destinations. Few nations have the growth potential that India already enjoys, inevitably becoming a land of opportunities. The track record of these Indian companies on the global arena has further strengthened that confidence. I would like to congratulate Marcom on the initiative that they have taken to showcase these Indian companies that have scripted the Indian success story to the world!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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This one isn’t for Adrenaline Addicts. This is seriously social.

In a country where even the most basic of awareness on health-related matters is extremely low, campaigns like saathi bachpan ke are important

I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life ~ Abraham Lincoln

It is easy to understand why TV viewers don’t usually rate an ad that promotes any social cause under the Sun a “5-on-5”. Non-exciting frames, pre-imagined set locations, conclusions which are no different that what can be forecasted by a toddler et al, suck the excitement out of every TVC that comes with a message to make society cleaner and healthier. True. But it is the bundle of emotions that make these ads worth the efforts. And many-a-time, winners. The effort this time comes from the national alliance christened ‘Saathi Bachpan Ke’ (‘Friends of Childhood’ in Hindi; the outfit shares its name with the title of the ad-campaign and was formally launched on March 22, 2010 – World Water Day – by Timothy J. Roemer, the US Ambassador to India), established by the US AID/India-funded Market-Based Partnerships for Health (MBPH) Project, that has diverse partners from both the public and private spheres (including NGOs, research and media agencies and other public health organisations) working to help improve child health by reducing incidences of diarrhoeal diseases in children under five by promoting simple and effective practices of washing hands with soap, consumption of clean drinking water and oral rehydration salts (ORS) therapy. Says Ajay Sharma, Director, McCann Momentum (one of the agencies which is helping to promote the campaign in India) to 4Ps B&M, “Saathi Bachpan Ke is a diarrhoea management programme, focused on children below the age of five and caregivers.”

The importance of the social TVC to the Indian masses cannot be denied. According to the ‘Safe Water, Better Health’ report by WHO (2008), India is the country where maximum count of deaths by diarrhoeal diseases is recorded (close to 400,000 deaths per year – 26.67% of the global count – of which 90% occur amongst those below the age of five). Surprisingly, a majority of these deaths are easily preventable through proper precaution and cure, one of which (ORS therapy) is promoted by the TVC.

The creative idea used in the making of the ad is based on the simple concept of a mother never giving up when it comes to taking care of her child. The TVC – created by Thompson Social-JWT – is indirectly also a tribute to the untiring spirit of a mother. The ad conveys a message that saving a child’s life through the ORS therapy demands just the patience that mothers display when they watch their child grow up – from teaching them to walk and talk, to waking up at midnight to attend to them and running behind them et al. “Thoda thoda ORS, baar baar” is the message of this ad. The background music – which is a typical melodious lullaby – runs throughout the 40 second-long duration of the TVC, strengthening the emotional appeal of the ad. “The film is based on the insight that caregivers are not persistent in giving ORS repeatedly to a child suffering from diarrhoea since the child often refuses to take the solution. It urges the mother to be as consistent in ORS usage,” explains Kavita Ayyagari, Programme Director of the Saathi Bachpan Ke alliance.

Shot at Madh Island, Mumbai and directed by Pushpendra Misra of JWT, the TVC was released on November 5, 2011. Television is indeed one of the best mediums to communicate with population clusters that are branded either rural or the uneducated class. For India, where education and awareness on health-related issues is a big concern, such efforts must be applauded. Our verdict: in this world of profit-making, such TVCs with relevant social messages are as unique as they are perhaps non-exciting. They appear easy-to-make, but are far more difficult than going on a vacation.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

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

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TAKE A STAND: SOMETIMES LEADERS NEED TO SAY ‘NO’

Corporations, across the globe, must serve the communities in which they do business, as well as their customers and shareholders.

4Ps Business & Marketing, in a strategic alliance with the new york times service, presents a column by howard Schultz, Chairman, President and CEO of Starbucks corporation

There are times when business leaders are so bound by their responsibilities to shareholders that we can forget we have free will.

I am not implying that we should shirk the obligations we have to deliver a return on investment to the people and institutions helping our companies to grow. What I mean is that we as leaders should not become so beholden to Wall Street and short-term performance goals that we stop doing what we believe to be right – inside and outside our organisations.

I recognise this trap because Starbucks and I got caught in it.

Several years ago, while I was serving as the company’s chairman, Starbucks went through a dangerous period of hyperexpansion. This behaviour was fed by a need to meet Wall Street’s high-growth expectations, which analysts had adopted, in part, because our company had fueled them. Starbucks had a rich history of annual revenue and profit increases of 20%, which became tougher to maintain as the company got bigger and the economy began to slide.

Every day, with every decision, my colleagues and I felt more pressure to meet that bar, fearing the stock would tank if we did not. I got so caught up in our monthly sales performance that I often forgot I had the ability – and sometimes an obligation – to say “no.”

“No” to opening new stores rapidly instead of thoughtfully. “No” to selling products in our stores that had nothing to do with coffee, such as board games. In short, we were chasing a pace of growth with quick fixes rather than with more sustainable activities.

One of the reasons I agreed to return as Starbucks’ CEO in 2008, after eight years as chairman, was to reverse this trend. After retaking the reins on day-to-day operations, I began the painful but necessary process of weaning the company from the yoke of short-term expectations.
We began to say “no” to growth for growth’s sake and “yes” to more investments that might not deliver an immediate ROI but would strengthen the company in the long term. We said “yes” to risky but potentially game-changing research and development projects, to closing underperforming stores, to investing in our information-technology infrastructure and in creative marketing campaigns. Many of these decisions involved short-term costs that ultimately paid off.

Perhaps the biggest “yes” was insisting we keep health-care coverage for Starbucks’ part-time workers, despite pressure from Wall Street to drop it. The potential savings would have dramatically boosted our bottomline. But eliminating health coverage for some of our workers who had come to value it would have been unethical, in my eyes, and would have forever drained the reservoir of trust we had established with tens of thousands of people.

Saying “yes” to these types of long-term investments were, in large part, how we reversed the company’s downward spiral.

More recently, I have said “yes” to something else that, while providing no measurable impact on shareholder value, should deliver an equally important return.

In August I wrote a memo to Starbucks partners (our term for employees) to air my personal frustrations with the failure of America’s politicians to work together to effectively address the country’s complex economic problems, including high unemployment. I followed that with open letters to other CEOs and to concerned American citizens, asking them to join me in withholding campaign contributions to any political party until our elected leaders could do what they were put in office to do: cooperate and compromise.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

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

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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
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