IIPM Editorial: 10/01/2010

Monday, October 25, 2010

WHAT’S BUZZING THE BUZZ?!

The latest product and gadget launches that garnered the biggest brownie points with respect to the interest they generated in the market

SAMSUNG 3D FLAT PANEL TV

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:
• Touch of Colour (ToC)
• Design scheme
• Built-in ethernet connection
• Price: Rs. 130,000- 435,000 (LED), & Rs. 129,000- 186,900 (LCD)

MOVING TO THE BIGGER PICTURE: After FujiFilm launched its 3D camera last year, Samsung recently introduced the technology in its flat panel TV. With a built-in 3D video processor and 3D optimized panel, this product provides the best picture quality in its segment. Moreover, the wireless-ready capabilities and built-in ethernet connection elevate the overall consumer viewing experience.

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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

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IIPM: Management Education India
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Saturday, October 23, 2010

Accolades galore

Planman Media’s senior photographer Sujan Singh – already a winner of the CNN Young Photo Journalist award – has also won the best photo journalist award for the second successive time at the 15th edition of the glamorous fashion festivity, Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, held in New Delhi last week. The award was conferred by the President of Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) Sunil Sethi and Atul Chand, Chief Executive Officer of ITC’s lifestyle retail business division, in an award giving ceremony during the fashion week at the NSIC exhibition arena foyer in New Delhi. The awards bring together all the fashion talents for an event filled with glitz, glamour and entertainment. Announcing the winners, Sethi said, “The aim behind the awards is to bring to the forefront the talent, grace and finesse available in our nation, representing the multicultural talent of India.” Sujan Singh has also been awarded recently the 2009 Outstanding Performer’s Award at Planman Media.

Monday, October 18, 2010

BIG LEAGUE OR NO LEAGUE

Moving up the value chain has been an aspiration for Indian IT brands for quite sometime now. Now it may well be deemed an unavoidable necessity!

WHY IS COST A RELIC OF THE PAST?

The first point that comes to mind is emergence of low-cost destinations like Philippines, Vietnam, countries in Eastern Europe et al. It is well known that they are proving to be quite competitive with Indian companies on the cost front. Moreover, as Diptarup Chakraborti, Senior Research Analyst, Gartner India, states, “Earlier, difference between US and Indian salaries was close to 100%; now it is just around 20%.” Moreover, it is imperative for them to move beyond the per employee billing rate system; else they risk hitting a revenue ceiling. Chakraborti gives the example of IBM’s revenues, which are 10 times that of TCS, with only 2-2.5 times the number of employees. Improving realisation per employee is absolutely imperative as companies like TCS plan to increase their size and touch revenues of $10-12 billion. An Infosys spokesperson tells us that the company has already started working in this regard. He says, “Infosys offers its clients two business models. The first is the outcome-based or transaction-based model, that offers its clients a value proposition where the rates will be irrelevant and the client pays only for the result the firm provides. The second centres around new opportunities caused by the shift in consumer preferences, where Infosys offers solutions in new platforms such as the mobile network and social networking sites.”

The real risk, in fact, comes from home ground. Sudin Apte, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research, elaborates, “We have to stop comparing Indian companies with MNCs. IBM now has around 80,000 employees in India and Accenture has around 60,000. Who are we calling MNCs?” India is a resource destination and no longer the exclusive domain of Indian companies. Mayur Sahni, Senior Market Analyst, IDC Asia Pacific puts it thus, “Cost competitiveness cannot be sustained unless there is an economic and/or business barrier. The economic barrier has been removed to some extent with global IT and technology players setting up operations in India.” The business barrier, on the other hand, links to the margin a particular player is willing to accept while negotiating a deal. According to industry buzz, when TCS won the deal for Malaysian Airlines, another overseas vendor claimed that the price TCS had offered was below their cost! But then vendors like IBM also pay higher salaries, making them more attractive to top talent. So this age-old bastion may not last very long either.

Consider, in addition, the phenomenon of protectionism. Admittedly, that isn’t a real worry, since companies have begun to accept offshoring as an inevitability. As Chakraborti cites an example, “Let us say that Exxon Mobil suddenly decides that we will do all IT in-house, while they don’t have the capacity. It will take them 3-5 years. What will they do in the interim?” So, if outsourcing is stifled, it will hurt them more. But it is also true that these debates do weigh heavy on client perceptions, while going for deals. In a recent NASSCOM conference, Pramod Bhasin admitted that this was one of the key reasons why Indian IT companies were going for on-site hiring.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

THE CREATIVITY ABNORMALITY

Despite being populated with innumerous product categories, the Indian FMCG sector has invested dramatically in promoting creativity to ensure a distinct brand imagery that has broken the clutter

It was an irksome Wednesday afternoon. Mrs. Kathuria, a housewife, had just switched on the TV to calm down her foul mood. Her son, Rohan, who was hitherto quite excited about rescuing his best buddy in school from a bunch of bullies, had just been scolded by his mother for ruining his uniform, which was now completely mud-soiled. And suddenly, in the background, starts the jingle, ‘Agar daag lagne se kuch acha hota hai, toh daag ache hain!’ A scene right out of a TV advertisement? Wrong! What we described is actually verbatim how the mother of a truant school going kid (aren’t all of them) in one fine South Delhi household explained to us the moments preceding the jingle (which had started in the background during the break in the afternoon soap serial). But that’s not what’s important. What’s important is what she told us further on. “The moment I heard the jingle, my fury reduced immensely and I, in a way, felt less angry at my son – well, the coincidence between what the ad was showing and what was happening every day in front of me could not be ignored,” exclaimed Mrs. Kathuria. So what’s the dope we’re pushing here?

Creativity! Compare any standard (say) American FMCG advertisement to a standard Indian FMCG advertisement, and the difference would hit you fantastically hard. Comedy, shock, surrealism – Indian advertisements score miles ahead of Western advertisements in ensuring that the brand is recalled like nobody’s business by the consumers. Think about it. If we were to ask you to fill in the blanks in the punch line, “xxxx ki safedi,” a majority Indians would bang on hit the right target!

To some extent, Surf (and of course, ‘washing powder Nirma’) was amongst the first ones, daring to be different at a time when the advertising of detergent powders a few years back showed the same run-of-the-mill commercials promising greater whiteness, gentle on clothes proposition, floral fragrances, et al. And this in fact was true for most of the product categories in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) category? How many TVCs of toothpastes, soaps, creams, et al, of different companies could were differentiated from one another? Hardly. Didn’t all toothpastes promise fresh breath and white teeth just a few years back? Didn’t one-third shampoos promise Zero Dandruff, another third promise Zero Hair Fall and remaining guarantee shine and strength (in fact, don’t they do so even now)? Clearly, even in India, till just a few years back FMCG products, in most categories, were unable to create a unique brand promise!

NEW DAYS, NEW WAYS (ALMOST)

With every player in the Indian FMCG arena battling to stay a step ahead of others, one can see a lot of new (and not so new) weapons in their marketing strategies. 4Ps B&M sums up four such strategies, which have now emerged as top competitive tools

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF FMCG NETWORKING

A new wave of marketing is emerging through social networking sites

Those were the times when Steve Jobs depended on blogs to find out whether his new launch was being trashed or trusted. India seems to have ridden up the wave to some extent, and FMCG players are realising that social networking sites are fast emerging as an important tool for FMCG players to keep in touch with their consumers. Recently, Dabur opened a Twitter account for news, views, latest updates and discussions on Dabur and its flagship brands. Organisations like Perfetti Van Melle, Coca Cola, et al, are also using this route to touch base with their target group. But strangely, presence on the net in India in no way promotes the sales of the product – due to extremely low internet penetration and usage – but allows the companies to understand critical views that might be easily handled in advance than later.

WHY CADBURY SHOULD THANK KELLOGG

Five years ago, there was just one brand Kellogg fighting hard to educate Indians about health; today, it’s a stampede

It was a tough battle for Kellogg to break the habit of Indians, who were used to indulge in high-in-calorie breakfasts like paranthas. Today, Cadbury India is reaping the benefits of the health-conscious Indian consumer with it’s pro-health promotion of Perk (‘with glucose energy’ of course). Now, it’s almost a Zimbabwean wilder beast stampede in progress. So we have Saffola Arise (healthy rice), Parle Monaco Smart Chips (non-fried chips), Maggi nutri-licious Pazzta (100% made of suji), all launched in the last two to three months, and all harping over the health-quotient. But do Indians really worry about health enough to eat only ‘the healthy stuff’? Umm, ask yourself, do you?

Angshuman Paul & Savreen Gadhoke