How to browse the net, search, e-mail, social networking, browse maps or track stock market trends - this is what global web-based search engine Google is going to teach people as its custom-built Internet bus drives through 15 towns of Karnataka to expose the people to the digital world.
The bus, which began its journey Monday, will course through the state for the next 50 days.
After a successful two-month tour of 17 towns across Tamil Nadu from December to February, the Google bus began its Karnataka leg Monday from Kolar, a backward district, about 100 km from India's tech hub.
"The Internet bus project is an attempt to educate the people, especially the younger generation about the worldwide web and how Internet serves as a platform to step into the digital world for information, communication, entertainment and education," Google India research and development (R&D) head Prasad Ram told IANS.
The Interent-enabled bus has a video-driven content to showcase how people can make their everyday life simpler by accessing information in multiple formats - data, audio and video through English or local language (Kannada).
The content is tailored to familiarise the common folk with the basics of Internet. The online tool facilitates access to multiple services such as search, e-mail, social networking and browsing maps.
Among the Karnataka towns the Google bus will travel through over the weeks are Mandya, Mysore, Hassan, Shimoga, Chikmagalur, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum, Hospet and Tumkur.
"Tamil Nadu was a big learning for us. It was inspiring to see the people wanted to know about the Internet and share their needs with us. The experience has reinforced our belief that awareness is the key challenge in the growth of the Internet in India," Ram recalled.
In this phase, Google will focus on how mobile phones can be used to access even local information without data plans. Access to the Internet in local language will be its thrust area.
The benefit of the bus project is evident from a couple of instances during its sojourn in Tamil Nadu. A short tour of the Google bus made elderly parents at Krishnagiri to buy a computer for chatting and emailing with their son working overseas.
Similarly, a young businessman at Cuddalore, once a school dropout, learnt to track the stock market movements by browsing the relevant information or data links through the Internet.
"In Coimbatore, a boy who sold flowers for a living and had no exposure to the Internet learnt about Google Maps, Google Earth and Google Search in his native language (Tamil) by stepping into the bus," Ram noted.
The project is in line with Google's global strategy to make access to information, education and entertainment universal and relevant to end-user in English or multiple languages.
"Search has become more local with useful information on business listings, railways and flight status, cricket scores, movie review and et al. Our applications like SMS search, SMS channels and map maker have made Google the most sought after vehicle (engine) for millions in India and the world over," Ram claimed.
Access to information over mobile devices has become easier with mobile maps, mobile search, and mobile Orkut.
Google has also created platforms like the 'Be NetSmart' campaign to educate students, parents and teachers on Internet safety.
After travelling through Karnataka towns, the Internet bus will drive into other states across the country for similar exposure over the ensuing months.
Showing posts with label brand building. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brand building. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Brand You : Presentation about the power of brands and the relevance of personal branding
Slide 1: brandyou greg fisher >>>
Slide 2: Why? Water + Sugar + Fizz (put it into a can) = Costs less than 30c WRITE COCA-COLA ON THE CAN AND YOU CAN CHARGE R5
Slide 3: Why? Take cheap fabric (the cheapest) make pants using a 100 year old design = production cost $7 PUT THE NAME LEVI’S ON THESE ORDINARY PANTS : AND CHARGE $40 (no problem)
Slide 4: Why? Take a human being and break him or her down to the smallest components – atoms. Take that stuff to the commodity market and try sell it – you might get $2 US. (R14) INSTEAD REASSEMBLE THE PERSON – CALL HIM TIGER WOODS AND ASK FOR AN ANNUAL SALARY OF MORE THAN $80 000 000
Slide 5: Brands?
Slide 6: What is a BRAND? Why is BRANDING important? What does BRANDING mean for YOU and me?
Slide 7: What is a BRAND?
Slide 8: What is a BRAND? name logo association
Slide 9: What is a BRAND? arouse emotion ignite passion echo reliability have meaning
Slide 10: What is a BRAND? “A brand is more than a name or a logo – it is a promise and a contract with every customer with whom you are dealing. And if people feel that the offering does not live up to what they expect from the brand, they will decide to stop buying” - Richard Branson
Slide 11: What is a BRAND? “Apple opposes, IBM solves, Nike exhorts, Virgin enlightens, Sony dreams, Benetton protests. … Brands are not nouns but verbs.” verbs Jean-Marie Dru, Disruption
Slide 12: The VERTICAL expansion of the “concept” of a brand
Slide 13: …a country as a brand
Slide 14: Old SA Flag
Slide 15: New SA Flag
Slide 16: …an individual as a brand
Slide 19: WE (you and me) ARE ALL BRANDS
Slide 20: Individuals as BRANDS? “We must look upon ourselves as a company with our own intellectual balance sheet and brand name. We need to invest in ourselves and market ourselves. Rather than employment security funky people go for employability – constantly updating their skills so that they are desirable to potential employers all the time and at any time” - Jonas Ridderstrale & Kjell Nordstom – Funky Business
Slide 21: What does YOUR BRAND reflect? What do you want YOUR BRAND to reflect? What are you doing to enhance YOUR BRAND?
Slide 22: BRAND? Building a Purpose
Slide 23: “Create a cause, not a business.” Gary Hamel
Slide 24: “If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything.” Ronnie Apteker – Founder Internet Solutions
Slide 25: BRAND? Building a Passion Purpose
Slide 26: “A great brand taps into emotions …. Emotions drive most, if not all, of our decisions. A brand reaches out with a powerful connecting experience. It’s an emotional connecting point that transcends the product” - Scott Bedbury – Branded NIKE and STARBUCKS
Slide 27: “Vision is a love affair with an idea.” — Boyd Clarke & Ron Crossland, The Leader’s Voice
Slide 28: …as Purpose and Passion combine…..
Slide 29: BRAND? Building a Passion Purpose Planning
Slide 30: “It is easy to decide what you are going to do. The hard thing is to decide what you are not going to do.” - Michael Dell
Slide 31: BRAND? Building a Passion Purpose Planning People
Slide 32: “Nothing the slightest bit amazing has ever been done in isolation. Individual competitiveness = what you know x who you know” - Jonas Ridderstrale & Kjell Nordstom – Funky Business
Slide 33: BRAND? Building a Passion Purpose Planning People Play
Slide 34: “ALL THE WORLDS A STAGE: I l-o-v-e the “Brand You” idea, the “Brand You” life. It is my life. My love. My art. My craft. My performance. Tom Peters , The brand-you 50
Slide 35: 26 280 Days 20 years old = 19 000 to go 30 years old = 15 000 to go 40 years old = 11 000 to go
Slide 36: “life's short – PLAY more” ……………..
Slide 37: BRAND? Building a Passion Purpose Perseverance Planning People Play
Slide 38: 3 Million
Slide 39: “There is a very, very, very fine line between success and failure …. it is about being constantly hammered and coming back from the hard times and low moments.” - Robbie Brozin – Nandos
Slide 40: “If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone, and so hold on when there is nothing in you except the will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’” - Rudyard Kipling…… from the poem “IF”
Slide 41: BMe Inc. uildi Passion ng a BRAND? Purpose Perseverance Planning People Play
Slide 42: Me Inc. Buildi Passion ng a BRAND? Purpose YOU are Perseverance Planning People thePCEO lay
Slide 43: brand you Presented by: greg fisher www.fisherg.blogspot.com gregcfisher@gmail.com
Monday, March 17, 2008
Brands go for the Naked Truth
Talk about a Big Idea: "Feel better," the new Tylenol campaign from Deutsch, New York, is a smart, artful, category basher that manages to talk about health in a genuinely modern, engaging way. And that's no easy task.
Last time we left the old miracle drug, it was being promoted by Deutsch as part of the "Tylenol promise" in interesting TV work that showed Johnson & Johnson employees talking about how the pain reliever is made. "We put love into it," said one woman on the production line. Emotion-wise, she was an improvement over the headmistress -- like senior corporate officer who preceded her and sternly lectured about the need to follow the directions on the bottle.
But while I found Ms. Lovey-Dovey to be memorable and warm, her sentiment about her job seemed so over the top that I wondered what she was covering up. Was "love" actually a code word for "lead" or maybe "shrapnel?"
OK, so maybe I'm paranoid. But not without reason, given that the latest scary health news says our tap water is full of pharmaceuticals, notably Xanax. I have to say, I've yet to receive the Xanax boost.
Back in 1982, there was legitimate reason to fear the brand: Seven people in Chicago died after ingesting Extra Strength Tylenol that had been laced with potassium cyanide poison. Indeed, that tragedy is still part of Tylenol lore, as is the masterly way J&J handled it, expertly bringing the brand back from almost certain extinction. It ended up as a textbook case of excellent crisis management.
Some 20 years later, Tylenol -- now available in tamper-proof packaging and gel caps, two post-cyanide technological improvements -- began moving off the radar as aging boomers and Xers were drawn to the anti-inflammatory powers of Advil and Aleve. Besides, all three were positioned in the same way: for pain.
While "Tylenol promise" was an improvement over less-memorable work, "Feel better" is pitch perfect in that it gives the consumer credit. It uses no scare tactics, and has no hectoring from a health teacher about what you should and shouldn't be eating, smoking or drinking. Instead, it positions the brand as the thinking-person's choice.
"Nobody knows your body better than you do," a soothing female voiceover announces in "Anthem," the introductory spot for the campaign. There's modern, slightly New Age-y background music, but it underscores the directness of what she's saying in a not-annoying way. "You know what parts are strong. What parts are weak. You know what parts feel young. And what parts ache." As she speaks, each line is represented by an isolated body part (hand, foot, shoulder, back) shot beautifully in black and white by director Jeffrey Plansker.
Now, this skin thing is delicate territory. When photographer Bruce Weber shot nekkid flesh for various Calvin Klein jeans and fragrance campaigns, the takeaway was charged and highly eroticized because the models were very young and frequently bare-chested. These images, while no less impactful, are hardly sensual. They're more like living medical illustrations of the human body: muscle, sinew, bone, veins, blood, pressure points. The joints and muscles move, the blood throbs in the veins.
And it's to Plansker's credit that although some of the flesh is old and wrinkled (it's also black, white and freckled), it looks beautiful.
"Tylenol believes the right pain reliever for you is one that works with your body to target pain," the announcer continues, as we see the protruding spinal column of a middle-age woman reaching for the small of her back. Her lower back pain, familiar to so many of us, is communicated loud and clear without her saying a word.
Interestingly, the work is not that visually different from last year's controversial "Pro-Age" spot for Dove, which uses various 50-plus women as models. The spot is still up on the Web site, posted as "The ad we couldn't show on TV." It documents human bodies in a similar manner, showing anonymous, isolated areas, a few head-to-toe nude poses (in a modest, covered-up Calendar Girls kind of way) and, finally, the models' faces.
Some people responded by saying America was "not ready for this." For what? Women who are not perfect, but still look great? Conceptually, the posing does take on a slightly sexualized tone, which was both the great part and the problem; however randy the rest of the culture has become, on a gut level we apparently find older flesh an assault on the senses.
The Tylenol work has a similarly elevated aesthetic, but it's unisex and serves a medical purpose. (In its artful way, the spot also manages to get in some relevant digs. For example, it notes that Tylenol works "without irritating your stomach like aspirin or even ibuprofen can" and "without interfering with certain high-blood-pressure medicines, like Aleve sometimes can." As so many people are on blood-pressure meds, the latter is an important point.)
The spot ends with the tagline, "Feel better, Tylenol," which comes off as conversational, casual and authentic. All in all, "Anthem" is pretty perfect.
Later work will get more specific as each spot focuses on a single, unassailably matter-of-fact medical factoid like, "Dehydration is the leading cause of headaches."
The print work starts out with specifics. I particularly like the rubber ducky ad -- a bright yellow duck in bright white space -- that discusses treating a baby's fever with Infants' Tylenol. Again, the tone is soothing and supportive, not hysterical.
While all the print is clever and highly graphic, the approach, especially given all the white space, seems familiar, not as breakthrough as the TV spots.
Another print ad in the campaign, for Tylenol Extra Strength Rapid Release Gels, is a strange, cropped photo of a woman's torso. She's wearing a short-sleeve blouse and her arms are outstretched, with one hand offering a glass of water, the other the Tylenol. It raises a chicken-or-egg-type question about which is better for headaches, the water or the pain tabs and then, making clear the brand is on the consumer's side, the copy reads, "In all fairness, they both are." It goes on to note that "water keeps you hydrated, removes toxins ... which can help avoid headaches. Extra Strength Tylenol ... works with your body to silence the headache pain you can't avoid."
Another in the series features a gorgeous, 19th-century-looking cropped shot of the nape of a woman's neck and is about headache relief. Unfortunately, it includes a jokey line about asking "your spouse for a massage." On behalf of all the spouseless, we are not amused.
There's also a re-skinned Web site (tylenol.com) that offers useful tools. One can compare brand ingredients. For instance, a user could type in Bayer aspirin and compare it to Aleve and Advil, leaving Tylenol out altogether.
All in all, it's vital, transparent work, which makes it seem authentic. Without resorting to corny lab coats or reports of science-y findings, it even suggests an optimistic future for our collective health.
Perhaps there's something in the water: Skin, it seems, is the next advertising frontier. This is illustrated brilliantly in BBH's work for Vaseline, a century-old product that here comes off as an environmentally conscious, game-changing dynamo. The campaign, "Keep skin amazing," goes beyond beauty to something universal and even existential.
(Vaseline's Web site, by the way, has an unintentional There Will Be Blood tie-in, although it never mentions a milkshake. According to vaseline.com, "The Vaseline journey started in 1859, when a 22-year-old chemist from Brooklyn, New York named Robert A. Chesebrough went to Pennsylvania to investigate an oil well." There he discovered a gooey substance known as red wax, the residue of which oil workers would smear their skin with "as it appeared to aid the healing of cuts and burns." He started experimenting with it and the rest is not gravy, but a very successful petroleum jelly business, which over the years became not so much the stuff of beauty as old-fashioned practicality.)
The TV spot, "Sea of Skin," was created by BBH New York, but launched first in the U.K. (It broke here last fall.) "Your skin is amazing," the announcer says. "All 800 million cells of it. A waterproof barrier, a defense against disease, constantly growing and replacing itself. ... Do you see skin the way we do?"
The visuals are astounding. The spot shows us that we are interdependent -- all part of the same living, breathing organism that is the world. It's a big, unexpectedly beneficent message that brings both science and emotion to the brand.
Borrowing a page from the work of photographer Spencer Tunick, who photographs crowds of naked people so that the bodies become abstract and form a new whole, the spot, directed by Ivan Zacharias, was produced on a multi-million dollar budget. It used almost 400 extras in three countries -- Iceland, Spain, and England. Close-ups and long shots of naked people are colorized and distorted to suggest rivers, forests and other parts of nature. Bodies cluster and move and separate, a shot that looks like blood cells being examined under a microscope turns into living people, all nude and raising their arms in cell-like boats.
The bodies come together in a mystical and spiritual way, and the film has a fine art quality and purity of vision rarely found in advertising. By showing the shots out of context, our perceptions are challenged, and the original, magical vitality completely elevates the brand.
A current Vaseline skin lotion print ad from photographer Giles Revell shows hundreds of human hands in multiple hues forming a beautifully intricate, semi-abstract woven pattern. The effect isn't so much a lesson in diversity as it is a fascinating close-up of our physiology.
Photographer Edward Weston, the dean of black-and-white, environmental photography, who famously shot the suggestive curves and lines of shells and peppers, said, "To photograph a rock, have it look like a rock, but be more than a rock."
What we have in these two campaigns is much more than a rock. We get a larger picture of humanity that indeed makes skin amazing. ADWEEK
Last time we left the old miracle drug, it was being promoted by Deutsch as part of the "Tylenol promise" in interesting TV work that showed Johnson & Johnson employees talking about how the pain reliever is made. "We put love into it," said one woman on the production line. Emotion-wise, she was an improvement over the headmistress -- like senior corporate officer who preceded her and sternly lectured about the need to follow the directions on the bottle.
But while I found Ms. Lovey-Dovey to be memorable and warm, her sentiment about her job seemed so over the top that I wondered what she was covering up. Was "love" actually a code word for "lead" or maybe "shrapnel?"
OK, so maybe I'm paranoid. But not without reason, given that the latest scary health news says our tap water is full of pharmaceuticals, notably Xanax. I have to say, I've yet to receive the Xanax boost.
Back in 1982, there was legitimate reason to fear the brand: Seven people in Chicago died after ingesting Extra Strength Tylenol that had been laced with potassium cyanide poison. Indeed, that tragedy is still part of Tylenol lore, as is the masterly way J&J handled it, expertly bringing the brand back from almost certain extinction. It ended up as a textbook case of excellent crisis management.
Some 20 years later, Tylenol -- now available in tamper-proof packaging and gel caps, two post-cyanide technological improvements -- began moving off the radar as aging boomers and Xers were drawn to the anti-inflammatory powers of Advil and Aleve. Besides, all three were positioned in the same way: for pain.
While "Tylenol promise" was an improvement over less-memorable work, "Feel better" is pitch perfect in that it gives the consumer credit. It uses no scare tactics, and has no hectoring from a health teacher about what you should and shouldn't be eating, smoking or drinking. Instead, it positions the brand as the thinking-person's choice.
"Nobody knows your body better than you do," a soothing female voiceover announces in "Anthem," the introductory spot for the campaign. There's modern, slightly New Age-y background music, but it underscores the directness of what she's saying in a not-annoying way. "You know what parts are strong. What parts are weak. You know what parts feel young. And what parts ache." As she speaks, each line is represented by an isolated body part (hand, foot, shoulder, back) shot beautifully in black and white by director Jeffrey Plansker.
Now, this skin thing is delicate territory. When photographer Bruce Weber shot nekkid flesh for various Calvin Klein jeans and fragrance campaigns, the takeaway was charged and highly eroticized because the models were very young and frequently bare-chested. These images, while no less impactful, are hardly sensual. They're more like living medical illustrations of the human body: muscle, sinew, bone, veins, blood, pressure points. The joints and muscles move, the blood throbs in the veins.
And it's to Plansker's credit that although some of the flesh is old and wrinkled (it's also black, white and freckled), it looks beautiful.
"Tylenol believes the right pain reliever for you is one that works with your body to target pain," the announcer continues, as we see the protruding spinal column of a middle-age woman reaching for the small of her back. Her lower back pain, familiar to so many of us, is communicated loud and clear without her saying a word.
Interestingly, the work is not that visually different from last year's controversial "Pro-Age" spot for Dove, which uses various 50-plus women as models. The spot is still up on the Web site, posted as "The ad we couldn't show on TV." It documents human bodies in a similar manner, showing anonymous, isolated areas, a few head-to-toe nude poses (in a modest, covered-up Calendar Girls kind of way) and, finally, the models' faces.
Some people responded by saying America was "not ready for this." For what? Women who are not perfect, but still look great? Conceptually, the posing does take on a slightly sexualized tone, which was both the great part and the problem; however randy the rest of the culture has become, on a gut level we apparently find older flesh an assault on the senses.
The Tylenol work has a similarly elevated aesthetic, but it's unisex and serves a medical purpose. (In its artful way, the spot also manages to get in some relevant digs. For example, it notes that Tylenol works "without irritating your stomach like aspirin or even ibuprofen can" and "without interfering with certain high-blood-pressure medicines, like Aleve sometimes can." As so many people are on blood-pressure meds, the latter is an important point.)
The spot ends with the tagline, "Feel better, Tylenol," which comes off as conversational, casual and authentic. All in all, "Anthem" is pretty perfect.
Later work will get more specific as each spot focuses on a single, unassailably matter-of-fact medical factoid like, "Dehydration is the leading cause of headaches."
The print work starts out with specifics. I particularly like the rubber ducky ad -- a bright yellow duck in bright white space -- that discusses treating a baby's fever with Infants' Tylenol. Again, the tone is soothing and supportive, not hysterical.
While all the print is clever and highly graphic, the approach, especially given all the white space, seems familiar, not as breakthrough as the TV spots.
Another print ad in the campaign, for Tylenol Extra Strength Rapid Release Gels, is a strange, cropped photo of a woman's torso. She's wearing a short-sleeve blouse and her arms are outstretched, with one hand offering a glass of water, the other the Tylenol. It raises a chicken-or-egg-type question about which is better for headaches, the water or the pain tabs and then, making clear the brand is on the consumer's side, the copy reads, "In all fairness, they both are." It goes on to note that "water keeps you hydrated, removes toxins ... which can help avoid headaches. Extra Strength Tylenol ... works with your body to silence the headache pain you can't avoid."
Another in the series features a gorgeous, 19th-century-looking cropped shot of the nape of a woman's neck and is about headache relief. Unfortunately, it includes a jokey line about asking "your spouse for a massage." On behalf of all the spouseless, we are not amused.
There's also a re-skinned Web site (tylenol.com) that offers useful tools. One can compare brand ingredients. For instance, a user could type in Bayer aspirin and compare it to Aleve and Advil, leaving Tylenol out altogether.
All in all, it's vital, transparent work, which makes it seem authentic. Without resorting to corny lab coats or reports of science-y findings, it even suggests an optimistic future for our collective health.
Perhaps there's something in the water: Skin, it seems, is the next advertising frontier. This is illustrated brilliantly in BBH's work for Vaseline, a century-old product that here comes off as an environmentally conscious, game-changing dynamo. The campaign, "Keep skin amazing," goes beyond beauty to something universal and even existential.
(Vaseline's Web site, by the way, has an unintentional There Will Be Blood tie-in, although it never mentions a milkshake. According to vaseline.com, "The Vaseline journey started in 1859, when a 22-year-old chemist from Brooklyn, New York named Robert A. Chesebrough went to Pennsylvania to investigate an oil well." There he discovered a gooey substance known as red wax, the residue of which oil workers would smear their skin with "as it appeared to aid the healing of cuts and burns." He started experimenting with it and the rest is not gravy, but a very successful petroleum jelly business, which over the years became not so much the stuff of beauty as old-fashioned practicality.)
The TV spot, "Sea of Skin," was created by BBH New York, but launched first in the U.K. (It broke here last fall.) "Your skin is amazing," the announcer says. "All 800 million cells of it. A waterproof barrier, a defense against disease, constantly growing and replacing itself. ... Do you see skin the way we do?"
The visuals are astounding. The spot shows us that we are interdependent -- all part of the same living, breathing organism that is the world. It's a big, unexpectedly beneficent message that brings both science and emotion to the brand.
Borrowing a page from the work of photographer Spencer Tunick, who photographs crowds of naked people so that the bodies become abstract and form a new whole, the spot, directed by Ivan Zacharias, was produced on a multi-million dollar budget. It used almost 400 extras in three countries -- Iceland, Spain, and England. Close-ups and long shots of naked people are colorized and distorted to suggest rivers, forests and other parts of nature. Bodies cluster and move and separate, a shot that looks like blood cells being examined under a microscope turns into living people, all nude and raising their arms in cell-like boats.
The bodies come together in a mystical and spiritual way, and the film has a fine art quality and purity of vision rarely found in advertising. By showing the shots out of context, our perceptions are challenged, and the original, magical vitality completely elevates the brand.
A current Vaseline skin lotion print ad from photographer Giles Revell shows hundreds of human hands in multiple hues forming a beautifully intricate, semi-abstract woven pattern. The effect isn't so much a lesson in diversity as it is a fascinating close-up of our physiology.
Photographer Edward Weston, the dean of black-and-white, environmental photography, who famously shot the suggestive curves and lines of shells and peppers, said, "To photograph a rock, have it look like a rock, but be more than a rock."
What we have in these two campaigns is much more than a rock. We get a larger picture of humanity that indeed makes skin amazing. ADWEEK
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Growing a Brand. Growing a Team
It's natural for a brand to grow. But brand growth isn't an entitlement. Nor is it the result of launching new products and new marketing campaigns. Brand growth is the by-product of syncing the purpose, the vision, and the passion of the business with the actions of its employees.
In this presentation, John Moore shares lessons he�s learned first-hand from helping grow the Whole Foods and Starbucks brands as well as growing the teams responsible for making growth happen within those businesses. You'll learn how complacency, conservatism, and conceit will derail the growth of any brand and the growth of any team. And, you�ll leave with advice on how to instill a sense of purpose within project teams to thrive during times of change.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
'Made in India brand has better credibility than China's'
Indian textile products have a better brand credibility than Chinese products that are flooding the markets across the world, according to Indian Textiles Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela.
"It is no point comparing Chinese textile products with India's. The 'Made in India' brand has extremely good credibility across the world," Vaghela said at a press conference here Monday evening.
The minister is leading a high-level delegation on a four-nation tour to promote Indian textile exports and attract foreign direct investment in the textiles industry. After visiting Istanbul, Athens and Cairo, the delegation reached this west Asian commercial hub Saturday.
"Yes, we cannot compete with Chinese textile products in terms of prices but so is the case with all other goods. But in all the markets that we visited this time, we found that the brand credibility of Indian products is much better than China's," he said.
He, however, added that the appreciation of the rupee has hurt India's textile sector.
"The rupee appreciation has hurt the textile industry in terms of exports and our exports fell last year."
The minister has invited investors in the United Arab Emirates to invest in India's textile sector.
"We have invited potential investors in the UAE to invest in India's textile sector with 100 percent equity through the automatic route," Vaghela said, adding that his delegation's mission is not only to promote exports of India's textile products but also to attract foreign direct investment in India's textile sector.
Of India's total exports of $12 billion to the UAE, exports of textile products stand at $1 billion. India's total textile exports across the world amounts to $19 billion.
"We got very positive response from potential investors here. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many people expressing interest in investing in India and having friendly ties with India," he said.
Qaiser Shamim, joint secretary in the Ministry of Textiles, who is accompanying the minister, said that textile merchants in this Gulf nation have promised more imports from India.
"The Textile Merchants Group here, whom we met, have promised to increase imports from India by at least 20 to 30 percent," he said
Vaghela met UAE's Minister for Planning and Economy Sheikha Lubna bint Khalid Al Qasimi in Abu Dhabi Monday morning.
The delegation was also given a presentation by the Jebel Ali free port zone near here about the facilities it offered.
"The talks with the authorities of the Jebel Ali free zone authorities have been extremely fruitful," Shamim said.
Indo-Asian News Service
"It is no point comparing Chinese textile products with India's. The 'Made in India' brand has extremely good credibility across the world," Vaghela said at a press conference here Monday evening.
The minister is leading a high-level delegation on a four-nation tour to promote Indian textile exports and attract foreign direct investment in the textiles industry. After visiting Istanbul, Athens and Cairo, the delegation reached this west Asian commercial hub Saturday.
"Yes, we cannot compete with Chinese textile products in terms of prices but so is the case with all other goods. But in all the markets that we visited this time, we found that the brand credibility of Indian products is much better than China's," he said.
He, however, added that the appreciation of the rupee has hurt India's textile sector.
"The rupee appreciation has hurt the textile industry in terms of exports and our exports fell last year."
The minister has invited investors in the United Arab Emirates to invest in India's textile sector.
"We have invited potential investors in the UAE to invest in India's textile sector with 100 percent equity through the automatic route," Vaghela said, adding that his delegation's mission is not only to promote exports of India's textile products but also to attract foreign direct investment in India's textile sector.
Of India's total exports of $12 billion to the UAE, exports of textile products stand at $1 billion. India's total textile exports across the world amounts to $19 billion.
"We got very positive response from potential investors here. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many people expressing interest in investing in India and having friendly ties with India," he said.
Qaiser Shamim, joint secretary in the Ministry of Textiles, who is accompanying the minister, said that textile merchants in this Gulf nation have promised more imports from India.
"The Textile Merchants Group here, whom we met, have promised to increase imports from India by at least 20 to 30 percent," he said
Vaghela met UAE's Minister for Planning and Economy Sheikha Lubna bint Khalid Al Qasimi in Abu Dhabi Monday morning.
The delegation was also given a presentation by the Jebel Ali free port zone near here about the facilities it offered.
"The talks with the authorities of the Jebel Ali free zone authorities have been extremely fruitful," Shamim said.
Indo-Asian News Service
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Why Brand Integration Belongs In Your Media Mix
ACCORDING TO A RECENT PIPER Jaffray study, nearly 90% of people with digital video recorders (DVRs) skip TV ads. Forrester Research predicts DVRs will be in over 50% of homes by 2010. If those stats are accurate-or even reasonable approximations-forward-thinking marketers need to find new methods of leveraging entertainment to build their brands. And they need to start now.
It's not only in television where audiences are using new technologies to avoid interruptive ads. Satellite radio. Pop-up blockers. IPods. Bottom line: we're in the era of the empowered audience, and audiences are using their power to consume entertainment-TV, music, web content-while avoiding the interruptive ads that have traditionally supported it. So how can marketers leverage the awesome power of entertainment to connect with consumers? Through brand integration and product placement-embedding their brands into the entertainment itself.
A growing body of research supports what marketers know at a gut level: brand integration works. In the largest study of its kind, "The Performance of Brand Placement on Television," Nielsen found that nearly 60% of viewers felt more positive about brands they recognized in a placement.
With the right infrastructure, marketers can tap into a powerful new integrated ad unit that audiences not only won't skip but will view at a high engagement level. Such a system will also create new incremental revenue for entertainment companies. As an industry, we're getting there. Here are a few suggestions for getting started quickly in brand integration:
Find a scalable solution
The first step to capitalizing on brand integration's power to elevate your brand is finding a system that enables you to scale into this medium. If you represent athletic apparel, the right solution will find you anything from an opportunity to outfit a production, through building a cross-media campaign that features your clothing in every "bike ride" scene.
Find the budget
With brand integration historically an ad hoc tactic and not a standard ad unit, it's hard to know how it figures into the mix. According to NextMedium's research, the typical marketer should dedicate 3.9% of their ad budget to integration. Redeploy some of your spend-your innovation budget, for example-to execute and analyze an integration campaign. Experiment with new technologies available to help you scale. Start now.
Find the content
The most effective integrations are those in which brand and content match-where the brand is relevant to the entertainment, and the entertainment seamlessly communicates the brand's message. So it's important that you work only with those entertainment properties that will communicate your brand's messages to your target consumers.
Remember, a growing body of research shows brand integration has a significant, measurable impact on brands. But simply getting your logo into a TV scene isn't enough. Effective integration requires a scalable solution, a committed budget and the ability to systematically identify the right entertainment matches. The good news for marketers: effective brand integration is now a reality.
It's not only in television where audiences are using new technologies to avoid interruptive ads. Satellite radio. Pop-up blockers. IPods. Bottom line: we're in the era of the empowered audience, and audiences are using their power to consume entertainment-TV, music, web content-while avoiding the interruptive ads that have traditionally supported it. So how can marketers leverage the awesome power of entertainment to connect with consumers? Through brand integration and product placement-embedding their brands into the entertainment itself.
A growing body of research supports what marketers know at a gut level: brand integration works. In the largest study of its kind, "The Performance of Brand Placement on Television," Nielsen found that nearly 60% of viewers felt more positive about brands they recognized in a placement.
With the right infrastructure, marketers can tap into a powerful new integrated ad unit that audiences not only won't skip but will view at a high engagement level. Such a system will also create new incremental revenue for entertainment companies. As an industry, we're getting there. Here are a few suggestions for getting started quickly in brand integration:
Find a scalable solution
The first step to capitalizing on brand integration's power to elevate your brand is finding a system that enables you to scale into this medium. If you represent athletic apparel, the right solution will find you anything from an opportunity to outfit a production, through building a cross-media campaign that features your clothing in every "bike ride" scene.
Find the budget
With brand integration historically an ad hoc tactic and not a standard ad unit, it's hard to know how it figures into the mix. According to NextMedium's research, the typical marketer should dedicate 3.9% of their ad budget to integration. Redeploy some of your spend-your innovation budget, for example-to execute and analyze an integration campaign. Experiment with new technologies available to help you scale. Start now.
Find the content
The most effective integrations are those in which brand and content match-where the brand is relevant to the entertainment, and the entertainment seamlessly communicates the brand's message. So it's important that you work only with those entertainment properties that will communicate your brand's messages to your target consumers.
Remember, a growing body of research shows brand integration has a significant, measurable impact on brands. But simply getting your logo into a TV scene isn't enough. Effective integration requires a scalable solution, a committed budget and the ability to systematically identify the right entertainment matches. The good news for marketers: effective brand integration is now a reality.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
10 Cheap Ways to Build Your Brand
Many small businesses are good at pursuing a relationship with customers, but they aren't as good at nurturing it. Nurturing a relationship allows you to reinforce your brand and increase brand loyalty. This also helps you weather the storms of increasing competition. For example, your competitor may drop its price, but your customers will remain loyal to you. Furthermore, small businesses have a "leg up" over large competitors because they're more flexible and personalized to the individual customer.
Many entrepreneurs assume branding is expensive. But reinforcing your brand doesn't need to cost a lot. Here are 10 easy, inexpensive ways you can boost your brand:
1. Create an affiliate program. A good affiliate network allows you to grow your e-business efficiently and affordably, channeling additional traffic to your site without the expense of pay-per-click advertising. Provide your affiliates with links and ads that carry your branding message.
2. Start or contribute to a blog. Look for a highly trafficked and searched blog in your industry, then write and post relevant articles about your business. Let your personality shine through in the tone of your writing.
3. Print your logo on labels or stickers and place them on all communication with customers. Stickers appeal to our tactile nature and add interest to just about anything. They don't need to be fancy, but they should feature your logo and colors.
4. Attach your tagline to your e-mail signature. If you don't already have a tagline or motto that communicates a key difference between you and your competition, create one and consider trademarking it.
5. Print your logo on an inexpensive premium like a hat or golf ball. The more memorable the item, the better. Distribute your premium on every sales call, to customers, prospects and even suppliers. Buy in bulk to reduce costs.
6. Start an e-mail newsletter for your customers and prospects. Include your own articles and link to other pieces related to your industry. This is a great way to keep your brand in front of customers and prospects regularly.
7. Offer your expertise to local or industry media publications that are read by your target customers. Make yourself available as a source for upcoming stories related to your business. Or, write an article and pitch it to target publications.
8. Visit your clients around holidays (or minor holidays like Groundhog's Day), leaving them a holiday-themed surprise with your logo on it. Use the stickers you print (see No. 3) to customize the treats you choose. This one takes some creativity, but a little candy can go a surprisingly long way.
9. Follow up with customers to thank them for their business and get feedback on your product or service. Call, e-mail or visit current customers as often as time permits.
10. Ensure that all your promotional materials match one another graphically. At the very least, your business cards, stationery, signage, packaging, brochures and website should all feature your name, logo and tagline consistently.
At its core, branding is about building trust with your target audience. This takes time and consistency, but not a huge advertising budget.
Monday, November 5, 2007
So You Think You Can Raise a Brand-Free Kid?
Parents, be warned: It takes only a single visit to McDonald's for your child to get hooked on the greasy stuff for life.
Okay, so that's an exaggeration. But the three-year-old son of Angela Verbrugge still remembers his one and only meal under the golden arches. Which has Verbrugge worried.
And Kyla Epstein swears if her young son Max ever wants to eat there, he'll be doing it on his own dime.
These parents aren't raging against the health detriments of fast food. Instead, they are making a conscious effort to limit the amount of branding and advertising their kids are exposed to in all aspects of their lives; what they eat, wear, watch and play with.
It's not easy. Brands are everywhere -- literally.
Disney 24/7
Genevieve McMahon says she experienced an "eye-opening" moment the first time she bought disposable diapers for her newborn daughter Imogen, who was then too small for the cloth variety her parents preferred.
"We were unpacking them to put them in her drawer and realized there were Walt Disney Winnie the Pooh characters all over them," she says.
"It was at that point when we were like, oh wow ... it's everywhere. I mean, she's not even conscious and yet here they are advertising. I'm staring at it everyday. And eventually...she's going to recognize them."
She describes one study in which toddlers are shown a made-up commercial with a mouse character. The researcher's hypothesis? If the mouse was seen eating a certain kind of cracker, when given a choice later, the child would choose those same crackers.
The study didn't support that hypothesis, but what it did demonstrate is the amazing capacity of young children for character recognition. What surprised the researchers is that many children were able to recognize the mouse later, even if they didn't appear to be paying much attention to the TV screen.
Plethora of Dora
"The chief piece of learning that very young children mastered from watching characters on television was the ability to recognize them," Gregory Thomas writes.
Epstein, for one, is clearly frustrated with this kind of character prevalence. She remembers trying to find a Spanish-language picture book for Max, 11 months.
"Everything was Dora!" she exclaims, referring to the popular Dora the Explorer animated kid's show about a 7-year-old latina girl and her friends.
"I don't want all his books to all be TV characters."
Licensed characters are huge moneymakers for companies. In 2005, Winnie the Pooh earned Disney $6.2 billion in retail sales, according to Gregory Thomas, second only to the mouse.
Verbrugge believes all of this merchandising is the real problem, not necessarily the characters themselves.
"They're trying to sell kids other products, from clothing to bedding...there always needs to be something else that they're striving to buy," she says.
"It scares me when I see advertisements that showcase all these different products that show the child being engaged with a toy," she says.
"They're saying all the right things in the voiceover about baby learning and interactivity...yet you just want to take that baby and turn him around to face the mom and have her play a simple game of patty-cake."
Parents as sitting ducks
All the parents interviewed said they feel targeted by advertisers, and indeed, the desire to make one's child happy is a powerful marketing tool.
Verbrugge, who used to work as a consultant on projects related to children's online activities, says she attended many marketing conferences as part of her job.
"It taught me how sophisticated marketers are in reaching people, and more and more how integrated marketing is in everything we see and do," she says.
"I think we're seen as consumers...how much wallet share do kids have, and how much can they influence our spending."
Yet the push to buy doesn't jive with the values these parents want to instill in their own kids -- values like critical thinking, individuality and sustainable living.
Finding the balance between what their kids want, what they need and what's available is difficult, say these parents. And they are the first to admit they are by no means perfect.
Off the wagon
"The only thing we can really do is in our home environments, in the environments we choose for our children," says Verbrugge. She and her husband request that friends and family buying for their three children steer clear of plastic. But when Verbrugge's father insisted on a plastic wagon for his grandkids, she figured the item wasn't worth a fight.
Epstein and McMahon both say they make these requests as well -- and they are usually heeded.
"For his first birthday, we said gifts are not necessary, no plastic and preferably previously-owned and wearable or readable," says Epstein.
At the same time, she says Max has toys she and husband Melvin would never buy, "but he loves them and a friend passed them on."
"It's not that I want to hide him in a bubble, away from all things Disney...it's just that I want to be there to have a dialogue with him, like my parents did," Epstein says.
Gabe Epstein, Kyla's father, says he and her mother "didn't buy brand-name stuff in those days."
The retired Grade 1 teacher says he regularly saw different trends and fads sweep through the school, but in his own class and home he tried to encourage individuality.
"While it lines the pockets of large corporations, branding undermines creativity and choices, in a sense," he says.
"[Diversity] encourages the capacity to create something different."
Hemp clothes, natural blocks?
This kind of dialogue is critically important for children, says Michelle Stack, an assistant professor in educational studies at UBC.
"I'm really concerned about the fact that rarely can children engage in play or interaction that don't involve commercial or don't involve getting their parents to buy something," she says.
"It's impossible for a kid not to be exposed to massive amounts of advertising even if the TV's off all the time -- it still requires a conversation."
Stack says children need help understanding that, although they may find pleasure in TV and other media, they are designed with a purpose and often that purpose is to sell products or ideas.
Resisting the urge to spend for the sake of convenience or pleasure is difficult for parents as well (especially when toting around a baby or toddler). And, as all the parents pointed out, often the "best" choices -- natural wooden blocks or organic hemp clothing -- are also the most expensive.
"The most challenging thing about making an effort to not brand your child in what they wear, or play with...is the fact that sometimes there aren't choices and sometimes the choices are economically out of reach," says Epstein.
'Not easy'
But, as McMahon says, the best parents can hope to do is try and live the values they want their children to learn -- for their sake and for the sake of the environment.
"I think it's really important to show the down side to it too ... in the sense that it's not always easy," she says.
"It's not always easy to be a one-car family, it's not easy to limit processed foods, to try to buy locally. But I think at the end of the day, you have to live the values that you want, that ultimately you want your children to have."
Monday, October 29, 2007
To 'brand' a company, meld image and message
Build a good reputation, target your audience and craft a creative strategy, marketing experts say
For meat buyers, branding signals a quality cow. But for business owners, branding can make or break a deal or beat out the competition.
According to Jim Walton, president of a new Indianapolis marketing agency, the term "brand" is thought to have originated from the practice of branding cattle. But in the advertising world, a brand is more than a sign of ownership -- it represents the public image of your company.
"It comes down to what the audience believes," Walton said. "You can have a beautiful logo, but if the product stinks and nobody likes it, what is your brand? Your brand is a bad product."
Branding often is misunderstood in the business world, says Walton, a 30-year veteran of the marketing industry. It is more about a company's reputation -- and what the consumer believes about its products and services -- than a logo.
"When it comes to how to approach an audience . . . it's important to understand who (your customers are) and how they want you to speak to them," Walton said.
His agency, Brand Acceleration, uses three basic steps to create a brand for a variety of businesses.
No. 1: Understand your brand and your audience. Walton caters to three audiences: the customer, the prospective customer and the staff members.
"We look for feelings, thoughts and emotions that are common among all three audiences," he said. "And once you find words, emotions and thoughts that all three audiences agree with, then you have found the core of the brand."
These points of agreement ensure that your business says what consumers want, not what the business wants, and that your employees say the same.
While it is important for the brand to be what the consumer wants, Walton said it also is important for that brand to be honest.
When a community hired Brand Acceleration to create a brand that would attract more people to the area, it wanted to portray itself as a cultural arts community. But it really wasn't. Instead of trying to create the illusion that it was a cultural community, Walton advised that it should portray itself as it really is -- welcoming, friendly and hard-working.
No. 2: Create a strategy to convey your message or brand. A brand can be conveyed verbally and visually, Walton said, but it is how you say it and how you show it that brings your brand to life.
No. 3: Produce and distribute the message or brand. Brochures, advertisements, Web sites and e-mails all can be used based on the demographic of the audience, Walton said.
Lorraine Ball, founder of Roundpeg, discovered that font, color and design would help her Web site say more about the Carmel-based marketing company's brand than its mission statement ever could. She chose bold colors and playful fonts to convey Roundpeg's brand: creativity, collaboration and positive energy.
Ball recommends choosing three words that you want your consumer to know about your business, then using those words to convey the message through your choice of photographs, writing style, type fonts, colors, language and images.
Along with smart branding advice, there are also advertising/marketing mistakes that all small-business owners should strive to avoid:
Inconsistency. Scott Flood, a local freelance copywriter, says that inconsistency is the biggest advertising misstep a business can make.
"You want to make sure that every contact you have with your customer is consistent. Your ads should sound like your brochures, should sound like your Web sites, should sound like your employees. When your employees are dealing with your customers, they should convey that same approach," said Flood, who writes ad copy, brochures and online content.
Your marketing materials are there to act as a salesman for your business when you or your sales reps cannot, he added. So they must look and sound like the business's brand.
Trying to speak to everyone. Ball says a general advertisement designed to attract all demographics is almost sure to kill the brand.
Instead, pick a target audience and advertise to its needs.
"It you are relevant to everyone, you are relevant to no one," Ball said.
For meat buyers, branding signals a quality cow. But for business owners, branding can make or break a deal or beat out the competition.
According to Jim Walton, president of a new Indianapolis marketing agency, the term "brand" is thought to have originated from the practice of branding cattle. But in the advertising world, a brand is more than a sign of ownership -- it represents the public image of your company.
"It comes down to what the audience believes," Walton said. "You can have a beautiful logo, but if the product stinks and nobody likes it, what is your brand? Your brand is a bad product."
Branding often is misunderstood in the business world, says Walton, a 30-year veteran of the marketing industry. It is more about a company's reputation -- and what the consumer believes about its products and services -- than a logo.
"When it comes to how to approach an audience . . . it's important to understand who (your customers are) and how they want you to speak to them," Walton said.
His agency, Brand Acceleration, uses three basic steps to create a brand for a variety of businesses.
No. 1: Understand your brand and your audience. Walton caters to three audiences: the customer, the prospective customer and the staff members.
"We look for feelings, thoughts and emotions that are common among all three audiences," he said. "And once you find words, emotions and thoughts that all three audiences agree with, then you have found the core of the brand."
These points of agreement ensure that your business says what consumers want, not what the business wants, and that your employees say the same.
While it is important for the brand to be what the consumer wants, Walton said it also is important for that brand to be honest.
When a community hired Brand Acceleration to create a brand that would attract more people to the area, it wanted to portray itself as a cultural arts community. But it really wasn't. Instead of trying to create the illusion that it was a cultural community, Walton advised that it should portray itself as it really is -- welcoming, friendly and hard-working.
No. 2: Create a strategy to convey your message or brand. A brand can be conveyed verbally and visually, Walton said, but it is how you say it and how you show it that brings your brand to life.
No. 3: Produce and distribute the message or brand. Brochures, advertisements, Web sites and e-mails all can be used based on the demographic of the audience, Walton said.
Lorraine Ball, founder of Roundpeg, discovered that font, color and design would help her Web site say more about the Carmel-based marketing company's brand than its mission statement ever could. She chose bold colors and playful fonts to convey Roundpeg's brand: creativity, collaboration and positive energy.
Ball recommends choosing three words that you want your consumer to know about your business, then using those words to convey the message through your choice of photographs, writing style, type fonts, colors, language and images.
Along with smart branding advice, there are also advertising/marketing mistakes that all small-business owners should strive to avoid:
Inconsistency. Scott Flood, a local freelance copywriter, says that inconsistency is the biggest advertising misstep a business can make.
"You want to make sure that every contact you have with your customer is consistent. Your ads should sound like your brochures, should sound like your Web sites, should sound like your employees. When your employees are dealing with your customers, they should convey that same approach," said Flood, who writes ad copy, brochures and online content.
Your marketing materials are there to act as a salesman for your business when you or your sales reps cannot, he added. So they must look and sound like the business's brand.
Trying to speak to everyone. Ball says a general advertisement designed to attract all demographics is almost sure to kill the brand.
Instead, pick a target audience and advertise to its needs.
"It you are relevant to everyone, you are relevant to no one," Ball said.
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