Trancend Brand Consulting Talks

House of Brands - Part Duex

2012-02-06T04:08:00.000-08:00

One of The Oldest Beverage Brands of the FarEast

Sunlight but its a sunset of it in India

"Amami" .....Emami????

Horlicks Mixer "wow"

House of Brands - Part Duex

2012-02-06T04:01:00.000-08:00

AR is "a" live - new dimensions in brand customer engagement

2012-02-01T03:27:00.000-08:00

Augmented reality (AR) is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality. By contrast, virtual reality replaces the real world with a simulated one.

Augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in semantic context with environmental elements, such as sports scores on TV during a match. With the help of advanced AR technology (e.g. adding computer vision and object recognition) the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally manipulable. Artificial information about the environment and its objects can be overlaid on the real world.

Trend picked up from overseas: Bollywood celebrities foray into new branded ventures

2011-12-15T06:40:00.000-08:00

Star value of Bollywood celebrities adds to the appeal of marketing campaigns. But when the celebrity himself is the promoter, it becomes more than just marketing.

The latest celebrity to join the race is former Miss Universe, Lara Dutta. She has charted plans to launch her designer shoe collection next year. The venture would offer high-end, limited edition products, ladies' casual to formal wear including stilettos, sandals and sports shoes.

"I have a fetish for shoes and have about 1,000 pairs of sandals and shoes. We are in talk with a reputed international footwear brand and will launch it early next year," said Dutta, refusing to share more details on the tieup.

She already has couple of fitness DVD 'Heal with Lara' in association with Reliance Home Video to her credit. Globosport, a company run by her husband, will help in marketing the shoe brand in India. Lara is not alone.

A bunch of Hindi film actors such as Neha Dhupia, Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Dutt, Shilpa Shetty and Bipasha Basu is taking fancy to offbeat and alternative business ventures ranging from lingerie line to real estate and investing in solar power project.

Neha Dhupia has taken the e-commerce route launchingherstyle.in, a portal dedicated to women lingerie. "I have always felt that shoppers are extremely shy when it comes to buying lingerie," said Dhupia, who will soon launch a portal for designer shoes.

Dhupia, who has a huge collection of designer shoes, mostly picked up from abroad, is personally involved in selecting the designs and products that are showcased online.

Filmstar Akshay Kumar plans to launch a chain of restaurants in and around Toronto, Canada. Kumar has a huge fan following among the Punjabi people and as everyone knows, there is a sizeable number of Punjabis in Toronto," said a person, having direct knowledge of the development.

Kumar could not be reached for comment. Brand consultant says these initiatives helps to increase the shelf life of celebrities.

"The success or failure of the product will depend on the success of celebrities' career and how they associate themselves with the brands. Having a celebrity involved in a business creates instant buzz, but the brands need to be an credible extension of the celebrity's personality and has to be relevant," said Prathish Nair, brand consultant at Bangalore-based Trancend brand Consulting.

Source: Economic Times- India brand stories

Indian Govt’s Move to Restrict Non Standard Pack Sizes Irks FMCG Brand Players: Trancend Brand Consultancy's quote

2011-12-07T20:29:00.000-08:00

Cos claim move will take away their flexibility to buffer the impact of inflation on the consumer, seek rollback

A government move to restrain companies from changing pack sizes and weight of products such as soaps, detergent, biscuits and coffee to help consumers easily compare them is facing strong resistance from makers of these products.
The ministry of consumer affairs wants about 20 packaged products to be retailed only in stipulated pack sizes. But marketers say this will take away their flexibility to buffer the impact of inflation on the consumer and urged the government to at least keep sensitive price points such as . 1, . 2, . 5, . 10 and . 20 out of this rule in the interest of the lower-income group.
“The manufacturers should be given the flexibility to pack such quantities as they consider to be appropriate at such price points,” a Hindustan Unilever spokesperson said. The ministry issued a notification, Packaged Commodities Rules 2011, on October 24, saying baby food, weaning food, biscuits, butter, cereals, bread, tea, coffee, edible oil, beverages, milk powder, rice, atta, salt, aerated drinks, mineral water, soap, detergents, cement and paint brands must be retailed only in stipulated pack sizes.

“Consumers will now be able compare brands easily as they will all be of the same weight,” a senior official from the department of legal metrology, said. The new policy comes into effect from July next year. The official said that in some cases, manufacturers were incrementally increasing grammage to non-standard sizes but charging a much higher price. Indian Consumer brand goods makers have been reducing pack sizes while keeping prices constant for the past two-three years when prices of raw materials such as palm oil, sugar and wheat, and other costs have been escalating—effectively charging the consumer the same for less, thus protecting their profitability. So, coffee brands are retailed in 170 gm and 175 gm packs, while detergents are available at 713 gm and 400 gm, which will not be allowed once the new rules are implemented.

The government has now stipulated different weight restrictions on different products. For example, coffee can only be retailed in 25 gm, 50 gm, 100 gm, 500 gm, 1 kg and, thereafter, in multiples of 1 kg. For certain categories such as detergents and milk powder, there is no restriction below 50 gm. And salt can be sold below 50 gm in multiples of 10 gm. Violations will invite fines from . 25,000 up to . 1 lakh. Most companies say the move will make shopping more difficult for price-sensitive consumers.

“The entire value chain was based on consumer convenience, particularly with . 5 and . 10 packs,” ITC Foods CEO Chitranjan Dar said. The new policy will impact the company’s Sunfeast biscuits, but will not make any difference to Aashirvaad atta and salt because they are retailed in standard sizes. “Promotional strategies such as offering extra on a pack will not be possible now,” Dar said. The head of anotherprominent biscuit maker said the move will impact both sales and profits. “We are lobbying against this move…especially at a time when we are reaching out to consumers in smaller markets,” said the person, requesting anonymity.
A Mahendran, MD of Godrej Consumer Products, which makes Cinthol soap and Ezee liquid washes, said the Indian Soap & Toiletries Makers' Association will make representations to the government on the notification. The association represents Hindustan Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Godrej Consumer Products among others. Dalip Jolly, executive member of the Detergent Manufacturers Association of India and MD of Fena, too wants the government to revisit the decision.
“As long as accurate weights and prices are printed on packs, we believe status quo on packaging norms should remain,” he said. “It’s not as if we are misleading consumers in any way.” Jolly added that there are no such restrictions in most developed countries.

But there are those who see merit in the government action too. Prathish Nair, director of brand consultancy Trancend, said the move will create a level-playing field for smaller brands that cannot afford to change pack sizes frequently. "Non standards lead to non standard trade practices" added Prathish Nair.

The country’s largest dairy brand Amul too has welcomed the move. “We are in favour of this move because it will benefit the consumer. Many times the consumers don't realise that the sizes of packs they have bought have been reduced,” said RS Sodhi, MD of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, the cooperative that makes the Amul brand of butter, cheese and other milk products.

SARAH JACOB & RATNA BHUSHAN Economic Times Brand

Bought & Forgotten Brands - Trancend's Quote in the Economic Times November 2011

2011-11-28T02:01:00.000-08:00

Titan recently bought flagging Swiss heritage brand Favre Leuba to revive it. But history shows that buying brands, performing or non-performing, is not just about a new life. It’s also about drift & death

There was a sense of déjà vu when, earlier this month, Titan Industries acquired Swiss heritage brand Favre Leuba for . 13.8 crore. “The brand Favre Leuba has been dormant…we intend to revive the brand in India,” explained Harish Bhatt, COO of Titan, India’s largest watchmaker. The 1960s and 1970s were the glory days of the 274-yearold brand, and it even sold in India for about five decades till the early-1980s, a recall that Titan now wants to capitalise on. If it succeeds, it will be a rare instance of an Indian company acquiring an old, but flagging, brand and giving it new life.

In the last two decades, for example, Bunge didn’t manage that turnaround with Dalda. Neither did Dabur with Binaca, or Hindustan Lever with Hamam and Moti. The reasons are many: the new owners did not want to, or failed to, or had a change of plans. “It’s unfortunate that a lot of companies acquire brands and then don’t know what to do with them,” says Ramesh Chauhan, chairman of Parle Bisleri. In 1994, Chauhan sold five aerated-drink brands—Thums Up, Gold Spot, Limca and Citra and Rim-Zim—to Coca-Cola, only to see them mostly being left to drift or die. Another drifter is Dalda, the iconic vanaspati brand that was a market leader till the 1980s. In 2003, when US agri and foods company Bunge bought Dalda from Hindustan Unilever for . 90 crore, the brand had travelled the arc from being the proxy for its product category to a marginal existence. Bunge’s reason for the buy— a toehold in a new market—could have put Dalda back in the reckoning.

The company tried, but the cooking medium market had shifted -- from only unhealthy vanaspati in the 1970s and 1980s to healthier refined oils. Bunge India did not respond to an email. A senior brand professional, who handled a cooking oil brand in the early-2000s but did not want to be identified, says Bunge was essentially a commodity player and lacked the “marketing mindset” to revive Dalda. “The company launched refined oil variants under Dalda, but it was too late, too little,” he says.
Industry players say Dalda now has a share of about 2% in refined oils, where the leader is Fortune of Adani group (13%) and brands of Ruchi Soya (10%). In vanaspati, Dalda is still among the top brands with 12% share, but the segment itself has shrunk significantly.

A worse fate has befallen Binaca, an oral care brand whose popularity in the 1970s and 1980s was next to that of only Colgate, and which was also a prefix to a much-loved All India Radio programme, Binaca Geetmala. Binaca has faded to near oblivion in the subsequent two decades. Dabur bought it from Reckitt Benckiser in 1996 -- for “less than . 1 crore” according to an official at Dabur who was involved with the deal -- with the intention of reviving it to ride into the white toothpowder segment.
Dabur failed in that product diversification because the category was stagnant and margins thin, and it withdrew. Sunil Duggal, CEO of Dabur, calls Binaca’s acquisition a “gamble that did not pay off ”. “Sometimes, when a brand is available at a throwaway price, you don’t think twice about picking it up,” he says. “We bought Binaca hoping to leverage it in some way, but it didn’t work.”

Following an organisational restructuring, Dabur decided to focus on brands that had some herbal association. Binaca, not being one of them, languished. Duggal says Dabur put the brand for sale, but found no takers at the designated price of . 25 crore. It is still present in Dabur’s portfolio as a toothbrush brand; Duggal declined to reveal Binaca’s contribution to its revenues, but says it has helped the company recover its acquisition price.

Viren Razdan, managing director of Interbrand India, a global brand consultancy, says the value in an acquired brand can be broken into four parts: its equity (what it promises); its culture (how the previous owner honoured that promise); its infrastructure (distribution, marketing and sales); and the visual expression of its identity (advertising). “How it ‘fits’ into the future ambition of the acquiring company is what dictates how it is cultivated, or destroyed, for a larger good,” he says.

Killing competing brands by buying them was one flank of Coca-Cola’s entry strategy. While Dalda and Binaca were neglected and dying before they found new buyers, Ramesh Chauhan’s array of aerated drinks were market leaders when Coca-Cola bought them in 1994. Between them, Thums Up, Gold Spot, Limca, Citra and Rim-Zim had a 70% share. Coca-Cola wanted to kill Thums Up and Gold Spot to give its own competing brands -- Coke and Fanta -- greater space to grow. But such was the popularity of Thums Up, it has always remained Coca-Cola’s largest selling brand in India despite poor marketing support in the initial years. Conceding its strength, the company re-launched Thums Up, making actor Akshay Kumar as its face. Today, according to market research firm Nielsen, Thums Up remains the country’s largest aerated drink with a share of about 15% of the . 13,000 crore category.
Thums Up made its own story, but Gold Spot and Citra (citrus drink) could not. A former Coca-Cola India executive says the company let those two brands die a natural death to give life to its competing global brands --Fanta and Sprite, respectively.

Coca-Cola did not respond at length to a questionnaire on its thinking behind these four brands. “As for Gold Spot, we are the owners of the trademark, but do not share future plans for our brands,” was all a company spokesperson offered by way of explanation. “They seem to have no attachment to the brands,” says Chauhan about Coca-Cola’s approach to Gold Spot and Citra. He feels even Limca has been not marketed to its full potential.

For acquirers, more than emotional attachments, such brand buys acquisitions are about business strategy. For example, says Prathish Nair, brand consultant at Bangalore based Trancend Brand Consulting: “When the acquired brands are regional, the companies deliberately don’t take the brands national so they can block regional rivals.”

"It’s what PepsiCo India has done with Uncle Chipps, which was the largest selling potato chips brand in India till 2000. PepsiCo acquired it from Amrit Agro in 2000 to drive its own growth in snack foods. But PepsiCo also had its flagship snack-food brand, Lays, to push. So, while it markets Lays aggressively, Uncle Chipps is distributed in select states, primarily Northern ones, to combat smaller brands. Similarly, Hindustan Unilever has ploughed Hamam, once a national brand of repute, on regional duty. Clearly, more than the brand, it’s about the business".

ET2011

BHANU PANDE & RATNA BHUSHAN NEW DELHI

Dharavi Mumbai’s Hidden Heart

2011-10-25T04:12:00.000-07:00

What big labels are doing to tap into the 30,000 cr urban poor economy in India..

It might have lost the humiliating tag of being the largest slum in Mumbai and Asia, but Dharavi still feels like a large piece of humanity squeezed into a small box. About a million people reside in an area of 1.7 sq km boxed between Mahim and Sion.

While a few thousands of them go to work in the leather and garment units in Dharavi, most go to houses and offices as maids, cooks, plumbers, electricians, security guards, construction workers, and more, earning up to Rs 10,000 a month. Life is not easy. Yet, nudged by need and want, they are spending more.

Manoj Mandal's shop in Dharavi captures this shift. Mandal started in 2004, selling electrical items and hardware goods. Today, one of the shop's three walls is a glassy shelf, holding LCD televisions, DVD players and microwaves. "We changed our products to meet the changing demand," he says. If it's Dharavi in Mumbai, similar change is trickling into urban slums elsewhere too - for example, Khidki Gaon in Delhi; Karad and Patan, adjoining Ahmedabad, and Metiabruz in Kolkata. According to latest government figures, there are about 93 million poor people living in cities and towns.

This market, estimates that Indian slums account for Rs 30,000 crore of spending. This is growing at 20-25% a year, he adds, but companies haven't looked at it in earnest. "It is a market under their noses waiting to be tapped," he says.

There are early movers tapping the growing spending power and changing consumer patterns of the 'urban poor'. A division Piramal launched in 2005 to target the urban poor and rural markets is now a Rs 325 crore operation. The Future Group, India's largest organised retailer, has launched a smaller format, KB Fairprice, around these urban settlements.

Motorcycle manufacturer Hero Motors is placing sub-dealers - who essentially showcase one or two models in a small, makeshift, shop - in urban slums. Elsewhere, Pepsi and Nestle are making low-priced, yet utilitarian, products for the urban poor. Shekhar Bajaj, CMD of Bajaj Electricals, say the urban poor are graduating from buying unbranded bulbs or irons to branded basic models priced modestly. "They are looking beyond roti and kapda," he says.

Two factors are spurring this shift. One, higher earnings. The daily wage rate has increased from Rs 100-150 to Rs 300-350 in the past three years. Also, adds Rama Bijapurkar, an expert on market strategy and consumer-related issues: "There are more members of the family being employed. People are earning and spending more."

Two, social exposure. The urban poor go to urban houses or plush offices. "This exposure has increased their aspirations and consumption," says Damodar Mall, director of food strategy at Future Group. "TV ads are hugely influencing purchases by youngsters in categories like shampoos, deodorants, razors and body wash," confirms Jayesh Trivedi, owner of a general store in Dharavi.

According to A Mahendran, managing director Godrej Consumer, when their disposable income increases, the urban poor tend to increase their spending on FMCG and entertainment.

"There is a huge middle-class empowerment happening across this strata of society," says Rajesh Shukla, director of the National Council of Applied Economic Research Centre. According to NCAER, 32% of the urban population consisted of daily wagers and casual labourers in 2010-11, as against 23% in 2004-05. Further, they account for about 10% of the total income generated in urban areas and their average household income is Rs 10,000–12,000 a month, which they spend entirely.

Expenditure on food accounts for 43% of their income, while non-food and non-routine expenditure account for 39% and 11%, respectively. Kapoor says the urban poor may not have the right address, but they do have purchasing power. "Marketers are grading them, instead of upgrading them," he says. "The slums are an emerging market story too."

MARKET POTENTIAL...

Kishore Biyani, CEO of Future Group, refers to them as "India 2". About three years ago, his colleague Damodar Mall travelled with a team of marketers and sociologists to Mumbai, Delhi, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. They lived in slums, and interacted with women and traders. "This class of consumers has built their own ecosystem, which takes care of their needs from buying utensils and electronics to educating their children in private schools," says Mall.

One of the group's findings was that people living in urban slums felt distanced, both literally and metaphorically, from large, modern retail stores. This made Biyani set up KB Fairprice shops - smaller retail shops that stock essential items at a marginal discount and are located close to such settlements.

Biyani says KB Fairprice stores sell leading brands of about 300 essential items about 10% below MRP (maximum retail price) and local brands at up to 20% less. At present, there are 220 Fairprice shops in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. "It caters to consumers who would typically not walk into a Big Bazaar," says Biyani.

Some FMCG companies are tweaking their distribution chain to include the urban slums in their business plans. Parle Agro, for example, has added another layer in its distribution chart: an interim sales representative (ISR), to handle what are, typically, low-turnover outlets in these areas. Isrs are either on the distributor's rolls or appointed by the company to service smaller outlets more regularly compared to what its regular sales representatives do.

Girish Eknath Yadav is an ISR with Mars Traders, a distributor for Frooti, in Thane district. While company reps of Parle Agro, the company that makes Frooti, visit outlets twice a month, Yadav's frequency is once a week. He says, of the daily Frooti sales of Rs 8,000 in his region, Rs 5,000 comes from the slums of Anand Nagar. "Companies that reach these markets sell well," he says.

...THAT TRANSLATED INTO REVENUES

"We watch our everyday spends, but feel proud buying brands shown or TV or owned by our employer," says Savita Singh who earns Rs 8,000 a month as a full-time maid in Mumbai. Singh regularly buys sachets of cosmetics and shampoos, and gold jewellery once a year. "Marketers who are not using their imagination to find consumers are the losers," says Ramesh Chauhan, chairman of Bisleri International.

A Piramal Healthcare division (now part of Abbott) is one of the rare examples of a corporate strategy oriented around the urban poor being fleshed out. In 2005, as part of a market expansion, the company launched a division targeting the urban poor and rural markets: Truecare. Hitherto, most drug manufacturers had directed their attention to doctors whose customer base was predominantly the urban middle and upper classes.

In addition to rural markets, Truecare sales reps visited doctors in distant suburbs of growing cities and urban slums. These reps were not only trained, they were also locals. "A sales person from Dadar may not be comfortable going into the interiors of Dharavi, but a person from Dharavi is used to its bylanes," says Neeraj Garg, COO of Abbott Truecare.

Truecare's product portfolio was tailored for these markets. Given the high incidence and quick spread of infections in these densely-populated areas, it leaned heavily on antibiotics, anti-diarrhoeals, painkillers, and cough and cold medicine, rather than on speciality drugs such as antipsychotics or blood thinners.

It also developed products accordingly. For instance, two years ago, it launched a combination of two antiinfectives to treat typhoid that is resistant to existing treatments.

"Today, the combination is marketed by many companies and has become a significant segment," says Garg. Although Truecare's profitability was relatively lower than the traditional business, its growth was substantial. For the twelve months ended May 2011, the Truecare division recorded sales of Rs 325 crore and grew 27% - nearly double the overall pharma market growth of 14%.

PRICE OVER BRAND

Compared to rural consumers, the urban poor are more aware and more discerning. "Since they are reliant on daily or sporadic cash flows, products and brands with a lower per purchase price appeal to them," says Roosevelt D'Souza, executive director of Nielsen, a market research company.

Smaller packs is helping companies reach new consumers - and driving growth for them. According to a recent Nielsen study, lower-unit packs are growing at a multiple of the overall category in most popular FMCG categories - including toothpaste, soaps, biscuits and shampoos.

The greater choice in lower price options is growing that segment, but is wrecking brand loyalty. "When compared to the rural consumer, consumers with a lower purchasing power in urban areas bear the brunt of inflation. This makes them extremely price-sensitive," says D'Souza.

Despite the growing competition in smaller packaging, the action remains here. Dabur, for example, increased the relevance of its anti-mosquito cream Odomos to the urban poor with a liquid variant. The change in form reduced the price per application - from 26 paise to 7 paise, according to the company.

Dabur commissioned a marketing agency to do a campaign with 100,000 potential customers in 10 slums in and around Delhi. The campaign revolved around posters and banners, flip-chart presentations and product sampling, and street plays. To Dabur's surprise, despite any advertising, retailers in those markets started asking for the product.

"Urban consumers living in slums are more aware than rural ones," says Rohit Prakash Gupta, marketing head (home care), Dabur India. The company is considering similar activations for its Amla hair oil and Babool toothpaste over the next year.

Similarly, Pepsico India is planning to launch low-priced snack products aimed at 330 million consumers graduating from bottom-of-the-pyramid to 'socio-economic-B and C classes', which typically includes the urban poor. In April, PepsiCo launched Lehar Iron Chusti puff and biscuits

Lehar Iron Chusti products are the result of a project that aims to introduce healthier foods, mainly for women suffering from malnutrition and deficiencies. Priced at Rs 2 (10 gm pack for the puff and 24 gm pack for the biscuits), both have been initially launched in Andhra Pradesh. In May, the company launched Gluco Plus - a Rs 5 lemon-flavoured glucose drink in a plastic cup with a peel-off cap - in upcountry Maharashtra.

About two years ago Nestle introduced a fortified taste enhancer under its Maggi brand. Called Masala-ae-Magic, a single-use sachet is priced at Rs 3, and is fortified with iron, iodine and vitamin A. It is targeted at lower-income families. Shivani Hegde, general manager (foods), Nestle, says marketing remains a challenge. "We have had to innovate and develop unconventional routes to markets," she says.

They have to. A McKinsey report, in April 2010, estimated that the population in Indian cities will increase from 340 million in 2008 to 590 million by 2030, constituting 40% of the total population. Clearly, it is not a homogenous market. And companies cannot afford not to find their way to the urban poor.

Source- Economic Times 2011

Coke, Nestle JV puts roll-out of Nestea under review

2011-10-14T07:05:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI: The Indian units of Coca-Cola andNestle are reviewing the nationwide rollout of their ready-to-drink iced-tea brand, Nestea, test-marketed in Mumbai a year ago.

Beverage Partners Worldwide (BPW), the equal joint venture between beverage maker Coca-Cola and the world's biggest food group, Nestle, had announced last year that Nestea ice-tea would be rolled out pan-India in early 2011, but the product's availability remains restricted as the JV failed to push the product.

"We plan to apply our learning before we make any further launches of Nestea in the country," a Coca-Cola India spokesman said in an email response to a query sent by ET. "We are studying consumer feedback to help us evaluate the next phase."

Nestea was launched in November 2010 in Mumbai in lemon flavour in 400 ml packs. This came months after PepsiCo and Tata Global Beverages forged an alliance for functional beverages.

While beverage makers Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have been working hard to break into the non-aerated drinks segment to reduce dependence on fizzy drinks and offset a possible slowdown there, not all launches have been successful.

A similar alliance between PepsiCo and Hindustan Unilever for selling Lipton ice tea was announced in 2004 but remained a non-starter for several years. The two firms reviewed their equal JV a few times and even withdrew Lipton ice tea from shop shelves following lack of demand and limited distribution and marketing support. In April this year, the firms revived the JV by rolling out the product in select markets.

Tata Global Beverages's Tion ice tea beverage, too, has barely found takers.

Experts attribute the low demand for Nestea to lack of sustained efforts by the two companies.

"The potential for functional beverages like ice tea does exist, but companies have to crack last-mile bottlenecks like cooling infrastructure and distribution," said Prathish Nair, brand consultant at Bangalore-based Trancend Brand Consulting.

In November, Coca-Cola and Nestle had extended their global equal joint venture BPW for ready-to-drink tea to India, to tap the potential for functional beverages in the country.

While Nestea in ready-to-drink ice tea format was brought under the JV, Nestea ice tea in powdered sachets and vending machine formats continues to be manufactured, marketed and distributed by Nestle.

The right to make, distribute and market Nestea in glass and PET bottles and cartons are with Coca-Cola.

BPW is a 20-year-old global agreement that straddles several countries.
But the partnership hasn't always been smooth sailing for the two global giants. BPW was restructured four years back, which resulted in the partnership covering the total ready-to-drink tea category worldwide except in the US and Japan.

RATNA BHUSHAN,ET BUREAU

2011 Penta Packaging Winners

2011-10-12T02:18:00.000-07:00

Eat, Drink and Then Pick Your Next Car

2011-08-04T23:50:00.000-07:00

Carmakers such as Fiat, Mercedes, BMW & Ford Open Cafes, Lounges to Boost Sales in India

If you love food, wine and fast cars, this is where you want to go: carmakers Fiat, Ford, BMW and Mercedes are busy opening cafes and lounges in the country to boost their brands and warm up to future customers. Italian carmaker Fiat, desperate to check sagging sales in India, will open its signature cafes in New Delhi and Pune next month. The cafes, to be run in tie-up with Lavazza, will have Fiat cars displayed in a lounge environment replete with pasta and other Italian food and aromas of espresso wafting in. And there will be a cultural space for film screenings, theatre and artwork. “The idea is to bring out the Italian-ness of Fiat while introducing the style and technology to consumers,” says Fiat India vice president, Commercial Vehicles, Ravi Bhatia. Fiat is not the only carmaker in the food street. Last week, luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz India opened a star lounge at the Delhi International Airport where it has a model of sports car SLS AMG on display and an exclusive cafe for its existing customers. “When it comes to luxury retailing, you are not just selling cars but a lifestyle,” says Mercedes-Benz India Director – Marketing & Sales Debasis Mitra. “We realized we could not just expect customers to visit us, we had to reach them where they are too.”
And its primary rival BMW, which has been running a lounge in New Delhi for three years now, plans to open a second lounge in Mumbai this year. “Not every one comes to buy a BMW. Those who do not dine or buy a car use the wifi available for work. This is a way for them to indulge with the brand,” a BMW executive said, seeking anonymity because he is not authorised to speak. The lounge conducts art exhibitions and cooking classes to connect with customers of tomorrow.

Food, Wine & Fast Cars

Mercedes-Benz

Opened a star lounge at the Delhi International Airport last week, displaying SLS AMG and offering free food to existing customers

Ford

Set up temporary Fiesta cafes in malls across New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore in April to create a build up for the new edition of Ford Fiesta

BMW
Runs a lounge in New Delhi with Olive Bar & Kitchen. Plans to open another in Mumbai this year

Fiat Will open Fiat Cafes in New Delhi and Pune in

August in tie-up with Lavazza. They will serve

Italian food and display Fiat cars.

Ford India too took the cafe route by setting up temporary Fiesta cafes in malls across New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore in April to create a build up for the new edition of Fiesta. The cafes will be operational till August end. “It was an opportunity to respond to the high interest for the new Fiesta as the product had not been launched at showrooms,” a Ford India spokesperson said brand analyst Prathish Nair, Director—Brand strategy & Client development at Trancend Brand Consulting, feel that the timing is right for such experience zones. “Consumers are not just buying into a car anymore. They are buying into design sensibilities and legacy, which is why companies need to create an experiential positioning and reflect brand values,” says Prathish Nair.

That is why the move may be important for Fiat, which has been struggling in the market. Last year, when India's total car sales increased 30% to 1.98 million vehicles, Fiat's sales dipped nearly 15% to just 21,066 cars.
Market experts say one of Fiat’s problems in India is its image.
“Before Fiat entered into a joint venture with Tata Motors, the perception was that the after sales service of Fiat is not good. The JV has addressed this and increased dealerships, yet consumers at times carry the old perception,” an analyst at a brokerage firm said.
Fiat now expects the cafes to prop up brand engagement here. “The attempt to increase sales is definitely one of the reasons for opening cafes in India,” says Fiat India's Bhatia. “It (café) will be the face of Fiat in India .”

Devina Sengupta & Sarah Jacob, Economic Times

KLF Nirmal's Recent Creative by Origami

2011-08-01T06:13:00.000-07:00

One of Trancend's first brand interventions. This rebranding exercise encompassed developing a compelling brand strategy, the brand ethos, new bottle & structure design for the personal care and cooking range. Below is the recent ad film for Nirmal created by Origami Creative Studio.

20 very creative guerilla marketing promotions

2011-07-21T04:44:00.000-07:00

We are so overwhelmed with advertising everywhere that it becomes hard for creative agencies to make ads that stand out. Guerilla advertising is a great way to make unusual, surrealistic visuals and situations that passers by will remember. Here is a selection.

1. Superette – Short shorts

The bench that turns you into a walking advertisement if you are wearing short shorts.

2. Spiderman 2

Pretty clever, the urinal that stands out.

3. Folgers Coffee

Seen in New York, how would you not go grab a coffee there? ViaGothamist.

4. Mr. Proper

I would be curious to know how many people actually notice this ad. Via

5. National Geographic shark bus

Enter the shark, a cool optical illusion for this National Geographic ad on a bus. Via Cool optical illusions.

6. Submerged Gotham

Cool idea to promote the movie “The day after tomorrow”, it gives the illusion that NYC has been submerged by the waters. Via Business Week.

7. Smart, fits everywhere

Feels good not to be in the same category as the big boys. Via Really good adv.

8. Smart Brabus

Small but powerful, I think the message just got across the bridge.

9. Dental implants

Unmissable ad, I’m sure all the bowlers that went there remembered it. Via

10. 3M security glass

Trying to prove the quality of the product, I doubt it was real bills in there. Via

11. Gold’s gym elevator

The right ad at the right spot, not sure I’d go to the gym to look like that guy though. Via

12. The Sopranos campaign

A bit creepy, but certainly noticeable. Via Hungry for Ads.

13. Vijay Barbecue sales

Using the street’s material to create your ad. Via

14. Amnesty International

As often with Amnesty, powerful imagery to raise awareness for Human Rights.

15. Looking for Seafood

Shells at the beach, what a great idea to let wanderer explore. Via

16. Big Pilot’s watches

Letting you try their watches even in the bus, a good idea to bring people at the shop. Via

17. Axe Exit

A new understanding of the Exit boards. Via

18. Casino di Venezia

Travelers waiting for their luggage often hope for luck when standing around, great idea. Via

19. Mini Cooper boxes

Adding would-be boxes of Mini Cooper cars on piles of trash, great way to explain how small and practical the car is.

20. Alteco Super Glue

Way to make a point about the strength of that superglue. Via

Organizational Chart

2011-07-04T04:31:00.000-07:00

Branding Without Advertising

2011-06-05T23:56:00.000-07:00

Can you build a compelling brand without spending enormous amounts of money of advertising?

The answer is yes.
Costco does it.

While we're at it, let's throw in Starbucks, Facebook and Google.

They may not purchase traditional newspaper, radio or TV ads, but Google, for example, invests heavily in its brand. The home page offers nothing but a search box and links to their services. That strategic decision sacrifices hundreds of millions of dollars in potential ad revenue, but Google weighs that against building its brand around something more important than cold hard cash.

They have put customer needs first.

They have narrowed their focus.

So much so that Google now owns a single word.

"Search".

To the point where "to Google" has synonomous with the word "search". Its now part of our everyday language, used as a verb instead of a noun.

Lets look at a few others:

- Starbucks sells "affordable luxury" not coffee.
- Vegas sells "sin" not tourism.
- Mont Blanc sells "prestige" not pens.
- Harley-Davidson sells "rebellion" not motorcycles.
- Disney sells "family togetherness" not an amusement park.
- Rolex sells "achievement" not watches
- Dove sells "self-esteem" not soap.
- Apple sells "cool" not computers.
- Alice Cooper, KISS and Marilyn Manson all sell "shock" not music.

There was a time when ad agencies and media companies also served as chief brand architects for their clients. That was back in the 20th century when the media-industrial complex reigned supreme and audiences were easier to reach. But, that era packed up and left long ago, leaving many design firms and media suppliers forced to recline the fact that high level brand strategy that guides creative efforts are being developed elsewhere.

In today's 21st century Digital Economy, brand strategy requires a fundamental knowledge of business operations, financial engines, competitive landscape, story development and internal culture. In the long and twisting dirt road to building a brand, external messaging usually occurs late in the process - and ONLY if its needed.

While ad agencies and media companies tend to focus on producing spots for short-lived campaigns, great brands are more enduring because the compelling story they represent has to transcend any and all platforms or potential campaigns. And when they do make strategic decisions to invest in on-the-ground advertising or marketing tactics, well-branded companies enjoy better results thanks to a sharper message that lands with a resounding THUD! in the mind of the customer.

Brands of distinction make selling easier.

With or without the ads.

A great example is Brock Wagner’s Saint Arnold Brewing Company. This Texas-based micro-brewery has made suds according to European tradition, without the additives and preservatives common in mass-produced beers. And when you hear Brock's story, it just might resonate with part of your own brand-building efforts.

Brands of distinction like Saint Arnold are built on much more than eye-popping logos, clever taglines or sweeping mission statements. To play at the highest level, brands of distinction share a single word in common.

Trust.

In other words, the ability and capacity to not only make a promise, but to keep it.

Hundreds of companies have blown billions of dollars on Super Bowl ads and other major events trying to build a brand. However, buying your way into the hearts of customers may not be the most effective strategy.

Is there something big companies like Google and smaller ones like Saint Arnold have done with their brand-building efforts you could replicate?

Do you have a remarkable product or service, 100% focused on what your ideal customer cares about most?

Have you been laser-focused on crafting a timeless "story" and enduring message people will actually believe in?

It is possible to create a compelling brand while spending relatively little on advertising. Much tougher to advertise your way to the top without a meaningful brand to take you there.

If you do have to advertise, are you convinced your brand is capable of squeezing every ounce of value out of those precious marketing dollars?

Otherwise, you'll piss that ad budget away like cheap, watered-down beer.

"It is not slickness, polish, uniqueness, or cleverness that makes a brand a brand. It is truth"
HARRY BECKWITH

Bangalore Beats Mumbai, Delhi in Eating Out- Bangaloreans eat out twice as much as their counterparts in New Delhi and Mumbai

2011-04-20T23:23:00.000-07:00

The need to jostle for a reservation despite the explosion of restaurants offers the first inkling of Bangalore’s hearty appetite. It’s official now. Bangaloreans eat out twice as much as their counterparts in New Delhi and Mumbai.

Nearly 12% of Bangaloreans dine out once a month against 6% of Delhiites and 5% of those surveyed in Mumbai, said media planning and buying agency Starcom MediaVest-Bangalore. The data is based on the India Readership Survey for the second quarter of 2010. A majority of Bangaloreans who spend between 800 and 1, 000 a meal earn a monthly salary of 15,000- 20,000. And this average income has been on a rise in the past five years. To add to this, 23% of households in Bangalore bring home two salaries, said market research firm AZ Research. As more women join the workforce, families are cooking lesser at home. Eating joints are also moving closer to the consumer with the emergence of eateries across every residential pocket. “A rise in the number of cosmopolitan single people working or studying in the city is driving the eating-out culture. Technology parks in Bangalore also have well organised food courts with restaurant chains operating on campus,” said Prathish Nair, director client development at Trancend Brand Consulting. These food courts prove a captive audience for restaurants. It is also a convenient option for the variety seeking high-spending IT employee.

“Bangalore is a city which loves experimenting,” said Sandeep Kataria, chief marketing officer of Yum! Restaurants India. It also ranks high on the expatriate radar with nearly 10,000 expatriates drawn by the city’s innovation story. This has meant that entrepreneurs see business value in rustling up world cuisines for both the expatriate and the well-travelled, cosmopolitan city-bred.

SARAH JACOB ECONOMIC TIMES BANGALORE2011

Branding & Awareness

2011-04-05T23:31:00.000-07:00

The office phone rings and the person on the other end of the line is asking a simple enough question, for which there is no simple answer.

"I know this client that needs design work for a brochure. Is there a way you guys can do it quickly?"

But, why does this particular client feel they need a brochure ? What are the specific objectives they are trying to achieve?

"I don't really know ... I just know from talking to them that they have some money in their marketing budget and they want to get some awareness going out there".

Like I said, there is no simple answer to this question.

But, here goes.
Personally, I cringe every time I hear a business owner or a board of directors heading down a one-way street marked "marketing message" or "advertising tactic" before taking "brand strategy" and "clarity" into account.

Ask yourself what can be accomplished by burning tons of marketing fuel and money without first figuring out what the purpose and meaning is? How will it help gain competitive advantage?

One of the toughest things to help business people understand and appreciate about "brand" is that it has little or nothing to do with logos, taglines or advertising strategies. The concept of "brand" once fully understood, needs to be clarified first before any truly effective marketing, promotional or advertising strategy can be implemented.

Otherwise you find yourself on the branding highway with a proverbial cart before the horse.

"Awareness" alone won't create a strong, sustainable, emotional brand.

You could buy all the radio ads you want, splash billboards all over town or beg for likes on your Face-book fan page, "awareness" by itself won't be enough . Just because we know about something or someone doesn't mean we want to buy it ... or them . Forget products or services you see on the shelf or on TV. Just think of all the plastic posing Pollyanna’s or chest thumping jerks in your circle that you are "aware" of. When was the last time you opened your wallet for them?

Customers need to be aware of what your brand stands for and more importantly, what it stands against before they will believe in it. And you can always measure that belief by how much they buy.

Below is an interesting video by Simon Middleton on brands and their deeper meaning.

The formula for success in the 21st century Digital Economy is still astonishingly simple.

Whether it is personal and/or professional, uncommon success lies within your ability to create a powerful and emotional brand.

Put in park any logical thoughts about products and services, because when you shift gears and speak in the context of "brand":

- Starbucks sells "affordable luxury" not coffee.
- Vegas sells "sin" not tourism.
- Mont Blanc sells "prestige" not pens.
- Harley-Davidson sells "rebellion" not motorcycles.
- Disney sells "family togetherness" not an amusement park.
- Rolex sells "achievement" not watches
- Dove sells "self-esteem" not soap.
- Apple sells "cool" not computers.
- Alice Cooper, KISS and Marilyn Manson all sell "shock" not music.

Successful global, regional or local brands have "meaning" figured out long before taking any steps towards "awareness". They actually know why they developed the brand strategy in the first place before deciding on any messages or tactics.

Products and services only get you in the game.

A carefully crafted brand allows you to win the game.

"Awareness", on its own, never cuts the Heinz 57 branding mustard.

Not ever.

"Once you have established a brand, then you can talk about all the different marketing disciplines. Otherwise you are marketing without meaning"
Simon Middleton

Trancend Quote in Economic Times :Ashok Leyland to be renamed Hinduja Leyland

2011-03-08T07:35:00.000-08:00

CHENNAI: Hinduja Group company Ashok Leyland(AL) is in the process of going through a major branding exercise which will include a change in its logo, name as well as category segmentation. Sources in the marketing circuit and the company said that the exercise is part of the larger Hinduja Group corporate branding exercise which is underway. When contacted, a company spokesperson sent an email reply saying: "There is a brand exercise afoot but at present the project is at too nascent a stage to offer any comments."

Ashok Leyland is segmenting and branding the different product categories it will house thanks to its tie-up with Nissan and other global alliances. A source said Ashok Leyland will get a new identity as part of the group rebranding exercise which will give all companies in the Hinduja Group a common brand profile and will result in Ashok Leyland being rechristened Hinduja Leyland.

The company is likely to bring in a fresh team of designers from across the globe for this exercise.

"A complete overhaul for the brand could not have happened at a better time. The commercial vehicles space is becoming like the car market, with all major global players vying for the Indian consumer. So Ashok Leyland has to rethink its positioning in the market," says Prathish Nair, director (brand strategy and client development) at Trancend Brand Consulting. "Vehicles today need to go beyond just being sturdy and reliable- they have to be sleeker, faster and more fuel efficient. Driver comfort is another ignored area that MNCs are leading the way in." The Hinduja Group is also working on a strategy to give a common corporate and brand identity to all the companies. In the recent past, group chairman S P Hinduja was quoted saying that a new logo and image for group flagship Ashok Leyland was being considered. Though not officially confirmed, the branding exercise is reportedly being forged by Martin Lindstrom, while the Ashok Leyland branding.

"In recent years, AL has forged global alliances like its joint venture with Nissan and its 26% stake in UK-based busmaker Optare. As a result, its various product categories require rebranding because it is now entering segments it has never had a presence in before," said a company official.

Swati Anand & Nandini Sengupta, TNN | Mar 8, 2011, 06.20am IST

Creating Path Breaking Brands In India - Trancend Brand Consulting

2011-02-25T03:33:00.001-08:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Creating Path Breaking Brands In India Trancend Consulting

View more presentations from prathish10.

Stop Wasting Money on Brand Preference. Think Brand Relevance - Interview with David Aaker

2011-01-19T23:31:00.000-08:00

Brand Relevance demonstrates the importance and role of branding and perception in defining new white-space product or service categories (or subcategories) - a topic overlooked by other innovation and strategy books. Aaker provides a provocative view that managing perceptions about the new category and making the brand relevant to the unique category/subcategory should take higher priority than managing perceptions about the product or service; a counterintuitive view of traditional brand notions.

Here's my interview with David about his thought-leading work:

Adrian: What is brand relevance?

David: To be relevant to a category or subcategory a brand needs to have the credibility and visibility to be considered. In brand relevance competition the goal is to develop offerings so innovative that competitors are simply not relevant. In contrast, brand preference competition, where the goal is to be superior to other brands in an established category, is a context in which there is ongoing pressure on margins and profits.

Adrian: You describe how companies tend over-invest in brand preference and how often it is a waste of resources because consumers are stuck by inertia and habits to existing brands. Why is innovating a white-space category (or subcategory) and the perceptions around it (Brand Relevance) an imperative for market success today?

David: Because in nearly all established categories from beverages to cars to computers to financial services all the expenditures on marketing and product refinements rarely change the sales or profits of any brand because of the momentum of habitual behavior. When there is any meaningful movement in sales, it is almost always caused by an offering created by substantial or transformational innovation that has formed a new category or subcategory. This observation has been documented not only by industry case studies but by empirical analysis of marketplace data.

Adrian: How does Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant differ from other strategy and innovation books?

David: First, it emphasizes the importance of defining and managing the new categories and subcategories. Second, it emphasizes the need to create barriers to the categories or subcategories formed. Third, the book explicitly includes substantial innovation as a route to new categories or subcategories while other books focus on transformational innovation. Finally, it includes subcategories as well as categories which means that most businesses can identify a relevance opportunity - it is not a once in a decade event.

Adrian: Unlike many brand books that are about promoting the brand and associated products via the use of logos and jingles, you provide a refreshing view that executives should focus on managing perceptions of the unique category (or subcategory) first and then link the brand/product/service to the unique category in a relevant way. In other words, the book has everything and nothing to do with "brand" as most people know it. What prompted you to take this view?

David: Marketing professionals are hard wired to build brands and building a category or subcategory is foreign to most. Yet that is exactly what is needed in brand relevance competition, to manage the image of and preference for the new category or subcategory. The process is very much like brand building but with a different objective. Ironically, the process of focusing on the category and subcategory is usually a way to add interest and credibility to the brand so it often turns out to be an effective brand building strategy even though that is not the goal. One key to success is to make the brand the exemplar or representative of the new category or subcategory because the exemplar is in a position to control the definition of the category or subcategory.

Adrian: What are examples of companies that have eliminated their competition through brand relevance?

David: Apple has at least six times created or became the early market leaders of new categories-the iMac, iPod, iTunes, the Apple store, iPad, and iPhone-- in just over a decade. In automobiles there is Jeep, Ford Thunderbird, Ford Mustang, VW bug, Pontiac Firebird, Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager, Lexus LS 400, Mazda Miata, Saturn, Prius, Minicooper, Nano, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Zipcar. In retailing examples include Zara, H&M, Tokyo Hands, Best Buy's Geek Squad, Whole Foods Market, Zappos.com, Muji, REI, and IKEA. Every industry has a host of examples.

Adrian: How can executives distinguish between a sub-category that is perceived as unique and defensible vs. incremental innovation that contributes to unprofitable product proliferation and noise?

David: Good question. It goes to the fundamental judgment as to whether a conceived subcategory is meaningful enough to affect buying, whether the target segment is worthwhile, whether the firm can deliver on the value proposition, and whether barriers to competitors can be built so that any success will not be short-lived. An erroneous judgment to build a subcategory based on an incremental innovation will waste time and resources. An incorrect judgment that a substantial innovation is incremental could mean that the firm passes up a rare opportunity to create a profit flow and growth platform. Both are serous strategic blunders.

Adrian: What key steps should executives take to apply brand relevance to their innovation processes?

David: They should develop an organization that has three somewhat inconsistent qualities. First, it needs to be selectively opportunistic based on ongoing external intelligence, the willingness to engage in substantial and transformational innovation, and the ability to pounce on opportunities. Second, it needs dynamic strategic commitment, the willingness to fund and execute behind an opportunity and to engage in incremental innovation to support. Finally, it needs to be able to engage in organization-wide resource allocation so that initiatives that do not fit into large business units can be funded.

Final Takeaway: This book not only advances the fields of strategic marketing and innovation, but it should be a staple on your bookshelf with your other business classics.Brand Relevance is so abundant with wisdom about how to build unique categories in the mind of the consumer that you will want to refer to it again and again.

Fast Company2011

Trancend Quote in Times Of India : A LEAF FROM NILGIRIS Varkeys seeks private equity

2011-01-13T20:18:00.000-08:00

Chennai: Faced with the prospect of closure, the Kerala-based grocery retail chain Varkeys is scouting for funds to stay afloat. The grocer has mandated IndigoEdge Management Consultancy to find investors for Rs 40 crore. The promoters are open to selling 65% stake in the company. Varkeys started as a single store in 1926 and has 59 across Kerala. The retailer’s expansion in the state through debt funds has hit Varkeys.
    “We’re looking for a private equity partner to help us consolidate our business,” Toby Alapatt, executive director of the Varkeys chain, said. “We’re not open to a buyout from any other retail chain.” He is looking at a deal similar to private equity player Actis’ investment in retail chain Nilgiris.
    The chain, which includes hypermarket brand V-Mart, expanded rapidly anticipating entry of competition. In 2009-10, Varkeys had a turnover of Rs 163 crore. With current liabilities, including bank loans, supplier credit and overdue salaries, running into almost Rs 20 crore, the company has asked vendors to stop supplies until the revival.
    “The brand equity of Varkeys in Kerala can be compared to Ratnadeep Supermarket in Hyderabad or Thoms in Bangalore,” said a retail adviser. “Varkeys went wrong with their timing. They expanded when the economy was still in slowdown mode. What’s worse is that they did it without getting their supply chain in place. Fortunately, the brand has been around long enough for them to recover provided they get immediate funding and experts on their board.”
    Retaliers like Subhiksha and Vishal Retail had expanded through the debt route and due to slowdown had to either scale down or shut shop.“Varkeys has been a pioneer in supermarkets in Kerala. Their bakery, especially, the Varkeys biscuit is extremely popular and the brand has immense equity and recall in the state,”said Prathish Nair, director (brand strategy and client development) at Trancend Brand Consulting.

Swati Anand TNN

Brand Archetypes

2011-01-06T06:55:00.000-08:00

The exploration of the universal themes, characters, and stories that repeat throughout history, appearing in every form of human expression from the Bible to Star Wars. These archetypes repeat because they resonate deeply with human consciousness, Not surprisingly, some of the most meaningful brands have tapped universal archetypes. These brands stand for something powerful to the consumers who buy them.

Nike –> The Hero
Harley Davidson –> The Outlaw
Pampers –> The Helper
Virgin –> The Jester
Ben & Jerry’s –> The Innocent
Patagonia –> The Adventurer
Charles Schwab –> The Sage
And so on

Marketers spend a lot of time drafting brand pyramids, positioning statements, and messaging. Most of these are wordsmithing exercises. What can be more powerful is to understand your brand archetype. Mapping your brand to an archetype forces you to choose. The best brands narrow to one or two archetypes. Without narrowing, a brand is trying to be all things to all people. It ends up standing for nothing. When brands stand for nothing, the only way it can compete is on price. All brands have the potential to tap and leverage a universal archetype. You could find some useful guidance from Olivier’s Blanchard in a post called “Archetypes and Brands“. He includes this exerpt from a piece from Jon Howard-Spink called “Using Archetypes to Build Stronger Brands.”

Tom Fishbourne

The curious case of the "Real" Juice

2010-12-10T19:43:00.000-08:00

The Rea Juices sold across France, Spain at Auchan &Carrefour

The Dabur Real Juices in its new & old avatar

Visit to the House of Brands @ Notting Hill

2010-12-01T03:28:00.000-08:00

Probably the very first Indian Brand in the 18th Century, don't understand the big fuss now.

The very first Horlicks in a bottle, its strange the composition was already called Horlicks.

VIM the first brand to start the Canister, then in paperback

The Emergence of Tin, Johnson's Brand "Baby Powder"

The First Lux Soap and Lux Cleansing Solution, it was a detergent brand earlier

The Cadbury's Milk Chocolate Brand, it was always stood for milk chocolate

Some of Brand's in the 18th Century , the end of the commodity era and the emergence of brands into mainstream.

http://www.museumofbrands.com/

Trancend's Comment: First look at Airtel’s new, redesigned brand logo:

2010-11-17T19:58:00.000-08:00

Telecom giant Airtel is readying up with an allnew international avatar as it’s all set to go global. First the company dumped advertising agency Rediffusion for J Walter Thomspon (JWT). Now, they’re planning a new logo and rebranding exercise. The new logo, which The Times of India has, will retain the colour red, which is reportedly Sunil Mittal’s favourite colour.

    Airtel’s company spokesperson refused to comment on the new logo: “We’re not discussing anything on this matter with the media.” The new logo is set to be launched next week.
    The rebranding is said to have a budget of around Rs 300 crore to Rs 400 crore. This is Airtel’s third logo. The company had its second rebranding exercise in 2002. Back then, the logo was designed by Bangalore based branding agency Ray + Keshavan. R+K later became part of the WPP conglomerate as The Brand Union (TBU).
    This new logo has been designed by TBU in London. “Airtel was very particular about maintaining secrecy and so did not want to get this done in India,” says a TBU Bangalore employee.
    Experts say that the new logo has come at the right time since Mittal’s acquisition of Zain has already ushered in Airtel’s entry to the African market as well as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Seychelles.
    “The lower case Dax font with rounded edges communicates approachability & clarity, which is what Airtel is looking to convey as it enters these newer geographies,” says Prathish Nair, director (brand strategy), Trancend Brand Consulting. “The company is looking to move from a consumer services to solutions based approach.”

FUTURE READY: The new logo, designed by TBU London, is seen superimposed on the existing one

Swati Anand | TNN

Trancend Quote in Times Of India : FB & Twitter are passe, apps is the new buzz

2010-11-15T20:09:00.000-08:00

If you're on prime time television, you couldn't have escaped the deluge of mobile phone advertisements -- and their newest buzzword, apps. With features like 'long running battery', 'push mail' and social networking becoming common, it's apps that seem to have caught the fancy of smartphone ad spiels.

"The mobile device in today's context is not just a simple communication device. The convergence of various tools and utilities are driving the usage of mobile phones for meeting various needs of consumers," says Amit Gujral, head (mobile device engineering and value added services group), LG Electronics India. "Therefore, we decided to highlight apps, that we communicate what is needful or somewhere aspirational or somewhere knowledge improving for consumers to get a job done on mobile phones beyond just using it for simple communication."

So while LG ads show a man outsmarting a shopkeeper by identifying cheese that's from Nashik and not Paris, in the Samsung ads, a guy impresses a girl by showing what all his set of apps can do. That smartphones -- and staying connected on the move -- are no longer elitist privileges was conveyed succinctly by Vodafone's 'We Are BlackBerry Boys' ad. And with the 3G wave rippling across the country, apps are being seen as the next big thing.

    "The journey so far indicates that entertainmentled content is the king when it comes to Indian mobile users," says Jasmeet Gandhi, head of marketing for devices, Oxygen Phone Manager and services at Nokia India. "While mobile music will continue to be the major revenue generator, we will also see a burgeoning demand for entertainment such as games, mobile TV and video services as well as location based service."
    So the Nokia ads have leveraged their brand ambassador musician A R Rahman to showcase the range of music on the Nokia Ovi store.
    Barely six months ago, mobile phone advertisements were all about social networking, like the John Abraham-Genelia D'Souza-Abhay Deol LG ad or the Samsung Corby ads that highlighted Facebook and Twitter as the USP. "But with technology soon becoming more accessible and Indian mobile handset companies making the market even more competitive, apps are the only way MNCs can sustain their market share," says a brand manager of an MNC mobile handset company.
    Android-based phones give consumers access to over one lakhs apps. "We launched our bada platform in mid 2010 and are working with developers all over the world including India to offer more applications for our consumers," says Ranjit Yadav, director (mobile and IT), Samsung India.
    As of now the one mobile service provider that has taken the lead on apps and advertising them -- an otherwise mobile handset dominated space -- is Aircel. "Our focus is on VAS, where apps play a major role," says Gurdeep Singh, COO of Aircel. "In other parts of the world, VAS and data contribute 25% to 30% to revenues, whereas in India, the industry average figure on that is just 10%. We intend to strongly focus on that and that is why invested in 13 out of the 22 circles for 3G."
    Brand experts say exclusive apps will pave the way forward. "Common apps like Shazam (a music app) will soon become a 'given' like Facebook. Companies will do well to invest in apps that cater to their customers and market those as their USP," says Prathish Nair, Director (brand strategy and client development) at Trancend Brand Consulting. BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), WhatsApp are some examples.
    Companies have already started. LG has 'Oxford Dictionary' with option of English-English, Hindi-English, English-Hindi conversion, and is planning to roll out more. At Samsung's Bangalore and NCR R&D centres, developers are working on apps and looking to roll out some in the near future.

Swati Anand | TNN

Chennai

Trancend Quote in " Private labels give brand biggies a run for their money" Times of India Chennai

2010-09-29T07:01:00.000-07:00

Pvt labels give brand biggies a run for their money

Chennai: ITC Foods’ Aashirvaad Atta is not just competing with the likes of Pillsbury and Kissan Annapurna, but also with Smart Choice. Smart Choice is the private label of Spencer’s and is steadily gaining market share with their customers. Spencer’s started private labels in just a few categories of staples, sauces, noodles, pickles and some home-cleaners around five years ago. Today, the company says their labels are brands in their own right and giving some of the top brands in the country stiff competition.

    “Our four labels in the home category (food and non-food) are given prominent shelf space, at the eye level, colour coordinated focus areas and are laced next to the brand leader of each category. Private labels are no longer generic product offerings that competed with their national brand counterparts by means of a price-value proposition. They no longer carry the stigma of inferior quality,” says Sanjay Gupta, V-P (general merchandising and marketing), Spencer’s. “The private label portfolio at Spencer’s has grown to contribute about 15 % of the total revenues. We plan to take it to 30 % in about two years.” In categories like noodles, cookies, diapers, incense sticks and cleaning products, Spencer’s private labels outsell leading brands.
    What started out as plain Jane packaging of staples and poor cousins of FMCG products are today fast becoming brands that are adding significantly to store revenues. Private labels typically enjoy a cost advantage since the retailer saves on marketing and advertising budgets. “Our private label products are cheaper by 15% to 25% and sometimes more if one were to take the promotions into account,” says Viney Singh, managing director of Max Hypermarkets, that runs the Spar chain of supermarkets. “For instance, on most cleaners the price advantage is anywhere between 20% to 25% since a pack of two 500ml toilet cleaners is priced at Rs 72 as against leading brands which are priced at Rs 72 for a 750 ml product.”
    So retailers are now focusing on brands out of the labels. At Big Bazaar, there are products spread across five merchandise categories spanning over 300 SKUs (stock keeping units). The company sources such goods from close to 50 vendor partners some of whom supply to big multinationals and FMCG majors.
    “The whole idea is to build independent brands in this space,” says Devendra Chawla, head, private brands business, Future Group. The company ventured into the private label business almost four years ago. In the last 12 months, Future Group has launched three new brands, Ektaa (community foods), deodorants under their John Miller brand and Sach toothpaste. Big Bazaar is betting big on the community foods segment and currently rice varieties are available under Ektaa in different regions such as red rice in Kerala, Sona Masoori in Hyderabad and basmati in Punjab. The company is planning to launch flattened rice (poha), community specific pickles, snacks like khakra under the Ektaa label.
    At the Aditya Birla Group’s retail venture More, the FMCG category alone has over 280 active SKUs, while the staples range has 100 SKUs “FMCG products account for nearly 40% of the chain’s volume sales, of which the contribution of private labels is close to 6%. Personal care products such as dishwashing liquid and some of processed foods range outsell branded products,” says Thomas Varghese, CEO of Aditya Birla Retail.
    Companies now invest heavily in last mile promotion strategies – better shelf display, neater packaging, instore display and of course, combo deals. When a new product has to be introduced, it is bundled with a product that is doing well. For instance, a new snack variant is bunched with an existing bestseller. Or to simply identify two things that a customer would like together. For instance, Spar’s combo deal of their private label of noodles and ketchup, was a sell-out. This works as a win-win deal for the customer and the retailer – the customer gets a value buy that a national brand cannot beat and the retailer pushes sales, builds loyalty and even gets feedback on what works and what doesn’t.
    But experts aren’t too impressed yet. “A lot of branding and packing in private labels have a distinct metoo feel about them and the future for private brands is to create a destination brand, operating on price alone is not sustainable and does not add value to the store brand. Premium and loyalties can only be driven by creating destination brands,” says Prathish Nair, director, brand strategy and client development, Trancend Brand Consulting. Private labels in India still have some way to go before becoming brands like the President’s Choice label at Loblaws. “Besides, some stores try to force their private label on the customer. For instance, some More stores don’t stock Lay’s chips because they want customers to only buy their private label. This only works against the retailer as the customer can see through such tactics,” Nair says.

Swati Anand & Aparna Ramalingam | TNN

Trancend Quote in Economic Times :Cafe business becomes big draw as Bangalore's chic set splurge

2010-09-24T04:39:00.000-07:00

The influx of wealthy migrants and the increasing cosmopolitan culture has created huge infrastructural problems, but has also benefitted Bangalore in other ways. Many neighbourhoods such as Indiranagar, JP Nagar, Whitefield, HRBR Layout, Electronic City, HSR Layout, which would have otherwise been sleepy middle-class areas, are now rolling in wealth.

These are areas, where it would not be uncommon to see a BMW SUV parked under a tree, while a Honda or an Audi idle inside the car park. While Richmond Town, Jayanagar and Malleswaram neighbourhoods have traditionally ranked high in terms of wealth, according to research firm AZ Research Partners, it is the emerging suburbs of Electronic City and Whitefield where the consumer spending propensity is high.

Only 4%-5% of households earning annual incomes of over a million rupees in Bangalore came from the Electronic City region five years back. Today, that figure is 14%. Whitefield, on the other hand, was not in the consideration in 2005, but it now accounts for 11% of millionaire households, data provided by AZ Research Partners shows.

Wherever major companies have created campuses, the markets have surged with employees moving in, creating a domino effect across sectors.

"One of the definite factors is the presence of IT/ IT es and its ancillary companies. Even if the companies are not directly located in that market, the employees reside in these areas leading to the development of its retail components," added Mr Magazine.

Hanging Out

The neighbourhood format, on the other hand, is increasingly catering to regular consumers—a hangout spot for the youth or a late night de-stress indulgence for the working executive. "Unlike malls, the footfalls in a high street are independent of the success of the structure or promises of a real estate developer," said Brewberrys promoter Gupta.

According to Asipac’s January 2010 study on organised retail formats in India, the average trading density of coffee shops ranks low at Rs 600 per sq ft per month. This is followed by furniture stores, multiplexes and family entertainment centres. "There seems to be 2-3 cafes every five minutes away today and they are all not necessarily running full," said Amit Bagaria, CEO of retail planning consultancy Asipac Projects.

So Concorde Cuppa Beverages, set up by real estate entrepreneur Naren Reddy, is drawing up in-store branding opportunities for its franchisees including a deal with telecom firm Aircel. "Almost all our stores have broke even because we are focused on delivering a value add," said Mr Reddy.

The chain pairs wine with food and has live bands in neighbourhoods.

It is maximising footfalls in non-peak hours by opening doors for birthday parties replete with a special birthday menu. Cafe Beanstalk, on the other hand, is teaming up the game parlour concept with its second foray.

"Independent cafes are personalised and experiment much more when it comes to their menus than chains," said Prathish Nair, director and Trancend Brand Consulting. When Brewberrys entered Bangalore, it was a bistro offering beer as a key offering to crack the proliferated market.

Or take for instance, 2/3 Cafe Spa which combines teas, coffee and hookas with a spa.

"India is a market in transition in terms of eating habits. While consumers would vouch for biryani or a thali lunch earlier, today they are keen on grabbing a burger or a wrap instead. This is where the opportunity lies for chains like us," said Yograj Naik, co-founder of burger joint, Starke’s, who worked at KFC in the UK for six years.

But problems remain

Not all neighbourhoods are keen on housing cafes in purely residential streets. With the youth staying on late, constant music as well as noise emanating from such commercial properties cafes have become a pain point for some residents. Incidentally, Café Retro has not been the first innings for Mr Tastagir who had first set up an outlet called Route 9 at HRBR layout.

Mr Zaid too had set up Café Beanstalk in Ulsoor earlier but soon realised the need to relocate in the interest of neighbourhood privacy.

By Sarah John, Ecotimes

Brand- More than a logo

2010-09-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

A brand is not a logo. A brand is not a corporate identity system. It's a person's gut feeling about a product, service, or company. Its about the simplest thoughts we use daily to interact with things around us.

WHAT A BRAND ISN'T

Firstly, A brand is not a logo. The term LOGO is short for LOGOTYPE, design speak for a trademark made from a custom-lettered word (LOGOS is Greek for WORD). The term logo caught on with people because it sounds cool, but what people really mean is a trademark, whether the trademark is a logo, symbol, monogram, emblem, or other graphic device. IBM uses a monogram, for example, while Nike uses a symbol. A logo brand mark is used to create recognition.

Both are trademarks, but neither are logos. Clear? What really matters here is that a logo, or any other kind of trademark, is not the brand itself. It's merely a symbol for it.

Second, a brand is not a corporate identity system. An identity system is a 20th-century construct for controlling the use of trademarks and trade-dress elements on company publications, advertisements, stationery, vehicles, signage, and so on. Fifty years ago, lithography was the communication technology du jour; identity manuals were designed to dictate the sizes, colors, spacing, and architecture of the printed page. Today there's still a need for identity manuals and the visual consistency they bring. But consistency alone does not create a brand.

Finally, a brand is not a product. Marketing people often talk about managing their brands, but what they usually mean is managing their products, or the sales, distribution, and quality thereof. To manage a brand is to manage something much less tangible—an aura, an invisible layer of meaning that surrounds the product.

So, what exactly is a brand?

A brand is a person's gut feeling about a product, service, or company.

It's a GUT FEELING because we're all emotional, intuitive beings,despite our best efforts to be rational. It's a PERSON'S gut feeling, because in the end the brand is defined by individuals, not by companies, markets, or the so-called general public. Each person creates his or her own version of it. While companies can't control this process, they can influence it by communicating the qualities that make this product different than that product. When enough individuals arrive at the same gut feeling, a company can be said to have a brand.

In other words, a brand is not what YOU say it is. It's what THEY say it is.

A brand is a kind of Platonic ideal—a concept shared by society to identify a specific class of things. To use Plato's example, whenever we hear the word "horse" we visualize a majestic creature with four legs, a long tail, and a mane falling over a muscular neck, an impression of power and grace, and the knowledge that a person can ride long distances on its back. Individual horses may differ, but in our minds we still recognize their common "horseness."

Looked at from the other side of the equation, when we add up the parts that make a horse, the total is distinctive enough so that we think HORSE, not COW or Bicycle.

A brand, like Plato's horse, is an approximate— yet distinct—understanding of a product, service, or company. To compare a brand with its competitors, we only need to know what makes it different.

Brand management is the management of differences, not as they exist on data sheets, but as they exist in the minds of people. So a brand is more than a mere logo.

BrandGap 2009

BRAND IDENTITY: A DELICATE BALANCE BETWEEN IMAGE AND AUTHENTICITY

2010-08-31T23:02:00.000-07:00

The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico got me thinking about the brand image implications for BP and, more generally, about the need for brand authenticity in brand identity exercises. A decade ago,

BP called in a leading global brand consultancy firm for a makeover. Well, nothing new in this — companies periodically embark on such an exercise to update their  brand logo and identity. For brand consultancy firms, it is an easy and lucrative line of business. The consultancy firm most probably did what one does in such exercises — spoke to important stakeholders of the firm, especially the BP top management, employees and dealers, to ascertain what the brand stood for and what it aspired to be.
    Successful brand updates also require that the brand tap into the current and emerging societal values since large companies require what is called a “license to operate” from society. As such there is a need to show one is doing more than simply serving customers — being a positive force in the larger community. Nowhere is this more crucial than in the oil (or any natural resource extraction) business where companies bid in two markets — the downstream market to sell oil to consumers and the upstream market to obtain licenses from countries to explore for oil. Finally, ‘nirvana’ for any branding exercise is, if beyond being relevant and responsible, the corporate brand could also be positioned as being unique in the industry. Over the past three decades, environmental stewardship is being increasingly demanded by populations of the developed world. No surprise here. The famous psychologist, Abraham Maslow, in his model of human motivation had placed “self actualisation” as the highest human need after one fulfils physiological, safety, social and self esteem needs. With increasing economic standards, consumers in the West are demanding companies become socially responsible, especially with respect to the environment. Oil companies, being in the business of fossil fuels, are in some sense the whipping boys for the economics of consumption triumphing over responsibility for the environment. For the oil industry, this is a source of great frustration. Imagine being the CEO of a big oil company and having to defend the oil business in every interview and public forum.
    The result of the brand identity exercise was that BP decided with its brand consultants that it would unveil a new “green” brand image. BP was now written in a wonderful green font and accompanied by a new corporate logo — a stylised flower blooming with green and yellow petals — as well as a new corporate slogan: Beyond Petroleum. Predictably, this exercise concluded with a fat check and industry awards for the brand consultancy firm. They must be magicians if they can convert a big oil company into being about the green environment.
    But folks, it was a sleight of the hand! Oil has been and is a ‘dirty’ business. Consumers may not want to see it and oil executives may not want to accept it, but the reality remains unchanged. The outcome of the brand identity exercise did not reflect this reality. There was no brand authenticity and it is almost as if BP wished they were in another business. But they were not. Oil drilling is a risky and dangerous business. The BP oil spill is the tip of the iceberg. Because it took place in America under the gaze of the world media and not in Nigeria or Congo, it received tremendous publicity.
    The underside of this business has always been, and continues to be, ugly. In the past, oil giants were known for funding the overthrow of governments to obtain oil drilling contracts. Today, they fight any attempt that moves the industry towards transparency of exploration contracts. Most populations of oil-rich countries (Norway being the exception) would love to understand how the contracts given to large oil companies for exploitation of the oil resources has not resulted in the wealth flowing to the general population. In fact, academic research talks mostly about the “oil curse” — the richer the country is in natural resources, especially oil, the poorer it is in political freedoms and economic growth.
    Previously, consumers demanded that brands be relevant and unique. As consumers, especially in the developed world, increasingly demand social responsibility from brands, companies are rushing to position themselves on this frontier. But wishing doesn’t make it so. Being socially responsible is only sustainable if it is authentic. A brand cannot stand for something it is not. Branding is a delicate balancing act between what one is and what one wishes to be.

By Nirmalya Kumar is Professor of Marketing and co-director of London Business School.

Corporate Brand Identity Evolution Of Automobile Groups

2010-07-27T09:45:00.000-07:00

A company’s brand is its most important asset. A brand is a leadership tool. A brand defines your business, products and services you offer. It is a guarantee of quality. Your brand helps your business establish a relationship with customers and define your position in the market. The brand makes a promise to customers and key stakeholders that must be delivered at every touchpoint. There are a lot of fascinating stories associated with companies’ logo histories. Below we share logo stories of some of the biggest automobile companies today. Be sure to let us know if I have missed anything!

01. Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo, the Italian car manufacturer, traces its beginnings to France. The company was initially founded as Società Anonima Italiana Darracq (SAID) in 1906 by the French automobile firm of Alexandre Darracq, with some Italian investors. After the partnership failed, one of the investors, Cavaliere Ugo Stella, moved the company and renamed it as Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili (Lombard Automobile Factory, Public Company) or A.L.F.A.
The first logo of ALFA was designed in 1910 by Romano Cattaneo, and has an interesting story. He was once waiting for a tram at the Piazza Castello station in Milan, when he was inspired by the Red Cross on the Milan Flag and the Coat of Arms of the Noble House of Visconti (the coat of arms featured a grass snake, biscione, with a man in its jaws, symbolizing “[to the] Visconti’s enemies that the snake [was] always ready to destroy”). The words ALFA and MILANO were written around the two symbols separated by two Savoia Dynasty Knots, to honor the kingdom of Italy.
In 1916, Neapolitan businessman Nicola Romeo bought the company and converted its factories to produce munitions and machineries for World War I. In 1918, the badge was redesigned by Giuseppe Merosi, to include the words ALFA and ROMEO (after the name of the owner Nicola Romeo). Post war, the company went back to producing car and was named after its owner as Alfa Romeo.

02. Aston Martin

Aston Martin is a British manufacturer of luxury sports car, which was found by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford in 1913. Initially, the duo started to sell sports car made by Singer but later decided to make their own vehicles. Their first car was named Aston Martin, after the name of the owner Lionel Martin and the Aston Clinton Hill Climb Racing Course (one of their Singer cars, they sold earlier had won a race there).
In 1959 James Bond happened, and frankly the Aston Martin story cannot be told without Mr. Bond. In 1959, Ian Fleming put the super spy James Bond in an Aston Martin DB Mark III. When the movie was released in 1964, James Bond drove the upgraded supersleek silver Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger (1964) and Thunderball (1965) (complete with machine gun, passenger ejector seat, and revolving number plates!).

03. Audi

Audi is a German brand which produces cars and is a part of the Volkswagen Group. The company was founded as A. Horch & Cie by August Horch in 1899, and its origin has a very interesting story. August Horch, a German Engineer, was forced out of his own company in 1909, after which he continued to use the old brand name of Horch. However, his partner sued him for trademark infringement, and Horch was forced to look for a new name.
During a meeting at his business partner Franz Fikentscher’s apartment, Franz’s son came up with the name Audi (which is a Latin translation of Hoch, which means listen):

During this meeting Franz’s son was quietly studying Latin in a corner of the room. Several times he looked like he was on the verge of saying something but would just swallow his words and continue working, until he finally blurted out, “Father – audiatur et altera pars… wouldn’t it be a good idea to call it audi instead of horch?”. “Horch!” in German means “Hark!” or “listen”, which is “Audi” in Latin. The idea was enthusiastically accepted by everyone attending the meeting. (Source: Wikipedia, A History of Progress (1996) – Chronicle of the Audi AG)

After this the company was named as Audiwerke GmbH in 1910. In 1932, four car makers Audi, Horch, DKW, and Wanderer merged to form Auto Union. The four interlinked rings that would later become the modern Audi logo, was originally the logo of the Auto Union. Initially the Auto Union logo was used only for racing cars and the four companies continued to produce cars under their own brands. Finally in 1985, the Auto Union became the Audi company we know today.
in 2009, Audi introduced new logo which is also the current one. The modern Audi logo shows a three-dimensional texture and shadowing, resulting in a polished chrome look. The Audi name is now smaller, has moved away from the center to the bottom left corner, while the font has changed as well.

04. BMW

BMW or Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (Bavarian Motor Works) was originally founded as an aircraft company. The aircrafts manufactured were painted with the colors of the Bavarian flag, which is the color of BMW logo. Another explanation is that when the pilot used to sit in the plane he would see alternating segments of white and blue due to rotation the plane propeller (blue being the sky).
The major business of BMW was to supply planes to the German army during World War I. But after the war they were forced to change their business. It made railway brakes, before making motorized bicycle, motorcycles and cars.
The logo itself hasn’t changed a lot during the years, but now has a more stylish look due to the different gradients. The unchanged logo has made it easier for people to remember and has given the company more recognition.

05. Buick

Buick Motor Company, which would later become the world’s largest auto company General Motors, was founded in 1903 by David Dunbar Buick, a high school dropout! Buick had dropped out of school at 15, to work for a plumbing fixture manufacturer. Buick and his friend took over the business, after the last owner decided to shut down the failed business. Buick sold his share in the company after an argument with his partner because he used to spend most of his time tinkering with car engines.
With this money, Buick founded the Buick Motor Company and within a few years he ran it to the ground. Around 1904, James H Whiting took over the company and brought in William Durant to manage his acquisition. Buick was kicked out of the company by Durant and had to sell his share for just $ 100,000. Buick’s share would be worth more than $ 100 Million today. Later Buick held low paying jobs, and died penniless as an inspector at the Detroit School of Trades. Ironically, Durant himself was kicked out of the company years later and denied him pension. He too died penniless.
Before 1937, the company’s logo was a variation of the cursive word “Buick”. In 1930s, Ralph Pew, a General Motor’s Styling Researcher, found the Scottish “Buick” family’s crest and the company used that as its logo. In 1959, the company logo incorporated three such shields, one each for its three models at that time (LeSabre, Invicta, and Electra).
In 1975, the company launched its Skyhawk line, and the company logo was changed to include a hawk named “Happy”. The familiar tri-shield logo returned in late 1980s when the company stopped manufacturing the Skyhawk car.

06. Cadillac

When Henry Ford left Henry Ford Company, the financial backers wanted to sell the company’s assets. Cadillac was found in 1902, when an engineer, Henry M Leland, convinced the financial backers to hold on to the company assets.
Cadillac was named after a minor aristocrat Antoine de La Mothe, Seigneur de Cadillac (Sir of Cadillac), and the family crest of de La Mothe was used as the first company logo back in 1906. Antoine de La Mothe, born in France, was forced to move to America, (some say he had committed a crime, others say he had a debt which he was unable to pay) where he assumed a new identity and formed his family crest by borrowing from different crests.
In 1998, the company started redesigning its logo under the design philosophy called “Art & Science”. The new logo finally unveiled in 2002, didn’t have the six birds (merlettes), crown and the crest resemblance, and looked like it was made by Piet Mondrian.
in 2009, As part of the new marketing vice president Bob Lutz’s campaign to revive and spin the GM image around, Cadillac’s general manager, Bryan Nesbitt, revealed the brand’s new logo, in fact a very minor-tweaked version of the old one.

07. Chrysler

The Company was formed by Walter Percy Chrysler on June 6, 1925, with the remaining assets of Maxwell Motor Company. The original Chrysler logo, which vanished after 1954 from all but 1955-1956 Windsors, C300s, and 300Bs with manual transmissions*, and reappeared in 1994, is a rendition of a wax seal complete with ribbon affixed at the lower right. The thunderbolts above and below the name are actually “Z”s, a tribute to the prototype built before Chrysler took over Maxwell, which took the name “Zeder” from chief engineer Fred Zeder. (At the time, Chrysler was trying to keep development of the new car and his involvement in it a secret, probably still upset about the loss of the car that was supposed to be the first Chrysler. This car design was sold to Billy Durant as a liquidated asset in the Willys-Overland bankruptcy; Durant eventually built this car under the Flint name.)
Starting in the 1980s, Chrysler adopted “modernistic” logos in print materials and on some car nameplates. During the “rebirth” of Chrysler in the late 1990s, the Chrysler “seal” logo was installed in wings. After Cerberus bought Chrysler, Trevor Creed was let loose on the traditional pentastar. Shortly after the Fiat takeover, Chrysler trademarked another new logo, based on a modernized wing design. [Read More..]
In 2009, Chrysler redesigned it’s logo for their adorn cars, The look is sleeker and clearly more modern than the previous winged logo, which incorporated the old Chrysler seal. The new one has an almost Aston-esque (Aston Martin) vibe to it, featuring “Chrysler” embossed in a blue emblem centered between the outstretched wing.

08. Citroen

Citroen double arrow that is found in every logo Citroen has a fascinating history.
Brand founder, André Citroën, was fascinated by wooden gears with spiral teeth, produced by a Polish inventor and business partner’s André Citroën, he decides to produce steel, bought a license and open a factory in St Denis, France. This business, ENGRENAGES Citroën brings profits, of mention is that these gears, Citroen products were used on the Titanic.
Logo factory and later the Citroen brand is stylized and two teeth “cut” on the clutch.
In 1919, Company start production of cars, the first model is Type A, we observed first logo Citroen, octagonal with arrows logo on a blue background with silver or gold, on top of the radiator. After been many ups and downs, In 2009, The new company logo is shown in the time she was born founder, André Citroën. Belongs design firm Landor and presents new trends in automotive three-dimensional logos. Citroen change appearance. Arrows (chevroanele) out in relief, gained strength. Writing Citroen keeps its traditional red color, as a bridge between history and future. Both, together, represent brand identity, Citroen subliniand restore confidence in the values and ambitions.

09. Fiat

Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (FIAT) was founded in Turin (1899) by a group of investors including Giovanni Angelli who later became the Managing Director of the company. At this time a poster was created to celebrate the event, and the company name in the top left corner of the poster became the company’s first logo. In 1901, the company changed its logo to a brass plate with the name FIAT in the centre. The logo had a characteristic ‘A’ which has remained unchanged till date.
In 1925, the FIAT logo became circular, from an oval shape in 1904. The laurel wreath around the circle was to celebrate the company’s victory in first competitive car races. The shape of the logo kept changing from square to shield, and returned to a circular logo in 1999, with the characteristic ‘A’ and a modern stylish laurel wreath around the circle.
The current FIAT logo was launched in 2006, and was first seen on Bravo.

10. Ford

Henry Ford used to work for Thomas Edison. He founded two companies before settling on Ford. His first company went bankrupt after just two years, and he left the second company after just one year. However, the second company became Cadillac later on. His third company, founded in 1902, was called Ford & Malcomson, Ltd.
He was unable to pay the bills for parts in his third company, but some investors agreed to put money in the company, and it was renamed as Ford Motor Co. This is the company name in the first logo of 1903. The 1909 logo, which has a similar font as today’s logo was borrowed from Childe Harold Wills, who had made this font for his business card.
In 1912, the Ford logo was given a complete makeover, as compared to the earlier simplistic design. When a car was launched in 1927, called Model A, the famous blue oval was introduced in the logo. This was the shape and color, on which all future Ford logos have been made.
The Company has experimented with different shape going from ellipse to circle, and even a diamond like shape in 1957. The 1976 logo was essentially, the last major change in the symbol, and is very similar to their current logo. Finally, in 2003, the company released a new logo, which came to be known as “Centennial Blue Oval”.

11. Mazda

The company derives its name from a West Asian God named Ahura Mazda, the God of wisdom, intelligence and harmony. The company was setup in 1920 as Toyo Cork Kogyo Co. in Hiroshima, Japan. The company was setup to produce a cork substitute because there was a shortage of real cork in Japan during World War I. However, after the war when real cork was again available, the company failed.
In 1927, Jujiro Matsuda joined the company, and it started manufacturing tools, three-wheeled trucks and finally cars. After World War II, the company registered its trademark under the Mazda brand, and the first logo was launched. The curved “M” in the logo was inspired from the Hiroshima city emblem. The 1936 logo had a combination of the curved M from the city emblem, and wings that represented the “company’s agility, speed and capability to soar to new heights”.
The current company logo was designed by Rei Yoshimara in 1997, and was nicknamed as the “owl” logo. According to the company, the new logo has the following significance :

Capturing the spirit of Mazda, the stylised “M” evokes an image of wings in flight and symbolises the Mazda’s flight toward the future. The “V” in the centre of the “M” spreads out like an opening fan, representing the creativity, vitalty, flexibilty and passion that is Mazda. The symbol as a whole expresses the sharp, solid feeling that Mazda will be seeking in all of its products. The dynamic circle symbolises our readiness to spread our wings as we enter the 21st century.

Some people saw a stylized Tulip instead of the stretched wings.

12. Mercedes-Benz

The Mercedes-Benz was formed by the merger of two car companies – DMG (Daimler-Motored-Gesellschaft, founded by Gottlieb Daimler) and Benz & Cie, founded by Karl Benz. Both the companies were similar in their work and were situated in close proximity.
It was after the World War I, when the German economy was shattered, that both these companies decided to from a syndicate in 1924, and then finally merge in 1926, called Diamler-Benz.
In 1902, the logo for Mercedes was nothing more than the simple company name. However, it was changed to a 3 pointed star in 1909. The origin of this star came from a postcard by Diamler, where he had drawn a 3 pointed star which represented ‘making vehicles in land water and sky’.
After 1926, a new symbol for Mercedes-Benz came into picture, where the original logo of both the companies was merged into one. It combined the 3 pointed star of Mercedes and the laurel wreath of Benz.
Over the years, the symbol has been improved vastly in design and simplicity. It has been recognized as a symbol representing luxury and top tier cars.

13. Mitsubishi

The Iwasaki family, who started the Mitsubishi brand, lived in 1854 feudal Japan, and had to go through very tough times. When Yataro Iwasaki was in school he was called home one day because his father was injured during a dispute with the village leader. He asked a local magistrate to hear his father’s case, and when the magistrate refused, he accused the man of corruption. Yataro was promptly jailed for 7 months.
After abolition of Japan’s feudal clan system, Yataro, acquired Tosa Clan’s shipping business in 1873 and named his shipping business as Mitsubishi. Later, a fourth generation Iwasaki, Kayota, turned this company into a giant corporate group, with an automobile manufacturing company called Mitsubishi Motors.
The Mitsubishi logo was a combination of the Iwasaki family crest, the Tosa Clan three-leaf crest (see origin of shipping business above), and three stacked diamonds. The official translation of the logo itself is “three diamonds”.

14. Opel

Opel is a so important historically and currently, to a large class of people, representing the quality for a mid-price category. We thought so to present to those who still not a history facts in a circle logo used by the company of great importance in Europe.
The founder of the Opel factory sewing machines, Adam Opel died in 1895. His sons bought Lutzmann company and produced the first Opel car in 1898. On the right you see first company logo Adam Opel, a manufacturer of sewing machines.
In 1900 they began to import and Renault cars and Darracq, which purchased and a production license. During the company has adapted a logo Art Deco since 1906.
After 1906, there are many version of opal logo introduced and from 2002 to today is just a bit modernized version of 1987, complying with the 3D design style of this era. With the introduction in 2008 of the Insignia which reached the 2009 Car of the Year worldwide, the company introduced a new logo to strengthen brand image. The new logo received in addition to the previous logo, OPEL inscription in the upper part of the circle.

15. Peugeot

Peugeot, a major French car brand was started by two brothers Jean-Pierre and Jean-Frédéric Peugeot in 1812. The company was a steel mill for decades, making different products like machine tools, crinoline dresses, umbrellas, wire wheels, irons, sewing machines, kitchen gadgets. In 1855, the company started making bicycles and was one of the largest bicycle manufacturers in France.
The company entered the automobile industry due to its bicycle manufacturing business. In 1889, Armand Peugeot created the company’s first car which was run by a steam powered engine. After meeting Gottlieb Daimler, the company replaced the steam engine with a gas powered internal combustion engine.
The Peugeot “lion” logo was based on the flag of the Région Franche-Comté, designed by a jeweler Justin Blazer in 1847. Earlier, the logo was used on the company’s kitchen gadgets, to denote the signature quality of their steel, and was introduced on cars only after Armand could convince his family, that cars could be a profitable business.

16. Porsche

Porsche, a German manufacturer of luxury high performance automobiles, was started as a company called “Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH” by Ferdinand Porsche. Initially the company didn’t build any cars under its own name and offered consultancy for motor vehicle development. This company is known for designing the first Volkswagen car, Volkswagen Beetle. Ferdinand turned this company into Porsche in 1931, but the first Porsche car wasn’t introduced till 1939.
In 1950s Dr. Ferdinand, set about developing a company logo to denote their location in Stuttgart and a dynamic, powerful image. After several draft versions, a logo created by Porsche engineer Franz Xaver Reimspiess was decided as the company emblem and has become the trademark of the company. The rampant house in the centre was derived from the city seal of Stuttgart, and was a symbol of forward thrusting power.
Unfortunately, Ferdinand died in 1951, before the company shield first appeared on the Porsche 356 model in 1952. The logo first appeared in the centre of the steering, and started appearing on the bonnet of 356 from 1955. In 1959, the shield appeared on the wheel-caps too, allowing the sports car to be recognized from the sides to. The Porsche shield has remain unchanged over the years, and still appears on the steering, bonnet and the wheel-caps.

17. Renault

Louis Renault, the founder of Renault, produced his first car in his own backyard when he was 21 years old. When he started receiving orders from companies to build more cars, he started the Société Renault Frères Company with his brothers and friends in France (1898).
Renault’s first logo introduced in 1900 featured the initials of the Renault brothers: Louis, Ferdinand and Marcel. In 1906, the logo was changed to a front end of a car, enclosed in a gear wheel.
During the First World War, Renault produced light tanks for the Allies. Renault changed its logo to a tank after the war due to the popularity of its tank, Renault FT-17. The diamond shape, which appears in the company logo till date was first introduced in 1925. Victor Vasarely designed the modern Renault logo in 1972.

18. Rolls Royce

Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce founded the Rolls Royce Limited in Britain (1906). The company manufactured automobiles and aircraft engines. In 1973, the Rolls Royce Motor Company was separated from the parent company, which was nationalized following a huge crisis in 1971.
In 1884, Henry Royce, One of the founders of Rolls Royce, started an electrical and mechanical business. He made his first car, a two-cylinder Royce 10, in his Manchester factory in 1904, and was introduced to Charles Rolls at the Midland Hotel in Manchester on 4 May of that year. They both agreed to create a company that would later go on to manufacture the ‘best car in the world’. The name of the company “Rolls Royce” derives from the surnames of the company founders, Henry Royce and Charles Rolls.
In 1971, the company and subsequently the brand were split. Rolls-Royce plc, the owner of the famous Rolls-Royce trademarks, initially granted permission for use to a newly formed entity, Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motors Ltd. In 1998, this license was withdrawn when the motorcar trademarks were sold by Rolls-Royce plc to a BMW company, now known as Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd. This company today manufactures luxury automobiles and accessories in the name of Rolls-Royce from its headquarters in Goodwood, England. Its identity system and brand are consistent with the original principles of the company founded over 100 years ago.

19. Saab

Saab, the automobile manufacturer, started as an aircraft company back in 1937. In 1937, to meet the needs of the Swedish Air Force, Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget (”Swedish Aeroplane Limited” or simply SAAB) was created.
After the Second World War, SAAB company started manufacturing automobiles to diversify its business. In 1947, the SAAB Automobile Company was incorporated, and the first manufactured car was named as SAAB 92 (because it was the company’s 92nd design, all previous designs were aircrafts). The griffen logo, featuring the head of a mythological beast that had a body of a lion and head and wings of an eagle, came from Vadis-Scania, a truck manufacturer that merged with SAAB (airplane) company. The griffen was a coat of arms of the province Scania.
In 2000, SAAB Automobile Company was acquired by General Motors (100% stake) and just a week ago (Feb 23, 2010) GM announced that it has completed the sale of Saab to Spyker Cars NV. Simply put, from the of announcement, Saab is part of Spyker and the new life for the troubled Swedish brand begins. To make things even clearer, GM announced the wind down of Saab operations has ended.

20. Skoda

Skoda, is an automobile manufacturer based in Czech Republic. It became a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group in 1991. The company was started as a bicycle manufacturing company back in 1890s. Vaclav Laurin and Václav Klement started a bicycle repair shop in Mladá Boleslav (1895), and later they started a bicycle and motorcycle manufacturing factory in 1898. The company’s first logo was based on the Slavia brand, with lime leaves, to represent the Slav nations. The logo also included the owners’ names which later became the main foundation for future logos.
In 1905, “L&K” logo (initials of the owners) was designed and was influenced by Art Nouveau, an artistic style at the beginning of the 20th century. From 1926, the cars were produced under the brand name Skoda, which is reflected in the oval shaped logo of the company. The laurels enclosing the brand name were retained in the new logo as well.
The famous “winged arrow” logo was first introduced in 1926, but its origin and designer is unknown. This was merged with the Skoda brand logo and the new logo was used on cars from 1994. The black and green logo, gives the Skoda brand a great degree of originality. The black color symbolizes the company’s 100 years tradition, and green color signifies the environment friendly production of Skoda cars.

21. Volkswagen

Volkswagen means ‘People’s car’ in German. The history of the company is tied with Adolf Hitler.
Before the rise of Hitler, the German economy was in a very bad shape; as a result people couldn’t afford to buy cars. In 1933, Hitler raised the idea of an inexpensive car in the Auto show.
In 1934, Ferdinand Porsche met with Hitler to design the car. Hitler gave him all the specifications of the car and Porsche promised to deliver the design. In 1937, the Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH was created (it became simply Volkswagenwerk GmbH a year later). In 1938, Hitler opened a state funded Volkswagen factory in Walburg. It was suppose to produce commercial cars, but it was used to churn out military cars. It was only later found that Hitler had intended to use the Porsche car as a military vehicle only, which could carry 3 men and a machine gun.
After the WWII, Britishers took over the company. They renamed the car as Beetle. Surprisingly all the car makers like Fiat and Ford declined to take ‘free control’ of the Volkswagen factory. So, it was returned to the German government, and went on to become one of the world’s bestselling cars ever.
The first logo was designed by Franz Xavier Reimspiess, a Porsche employee during an office logo design competition. The main part of the logo hasn’t changed much, but understandably after the WWII, they got rid of the design around the circle which seems to be inspired from the Nazi flag. I love the colors that were added in 2000, to the logo which was built after WWII, it depicts a positive change in the company and the ability to adapt to the new millennium.

22. Yamaha

Yamaha’s logotype, featuring the combination of the tuning fork mark and the Yamaha logo, was established in 1967 when the tuning fork mark was standardized. Following a period in which the tuning fork mark was not used, the company unified the logotype to the one used today. The Yamaha brand has its roots in the name of our founder, Torakusu Yamaha. Familiar with western science and technology from his youth, Yamaha initially found employment repairing medical equipment. This led to a request to repair a organ, a project that resulted in the birth of the Yamaha brand.
The three tuning forks of the Yamaha logo mark represent the cooperative relationship that links the three pillars of our business — technology, production, and sales. They also evoke the robust vitality that has forged a reputation for sound and music the world over, a territory indicated by the enclosing circle. The mark also symbolizes the three essential musical elements: melody, harmony, and rhythm.
In 1967, The Yamaha logotype was established but in 1980 The Yamaha logotype was revised. A design using simple lines (the current special version of the logo) was established as the standard version of the logo. Then in end of 1987, The Company changed its name to Yamaha Corporation to mark the 100th anniversary of its founding. To emphasize the Yamaha name, the tuning fork mark was eliminated but again in 1998 the tuning fork mark comes into picture. The current standard version of the Yamaha logotype (upper line) and special version (bottom line) were established.
There is a slight differences between the Yamaha logotype and that of Yamaha Motor. Yamaha Corporation uses a Yamaha Logomark with the tips of the tuning forks contained within a circle. And an “M” with a middle column shorter than the outer legs, and features “YAMAHA” printed in an asymmetric font. The logo of Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. is printed in a symmetrical font and uses red as its corporate color, while Yamaha Corporation uses violet. There are many talking about why Yamaha changed its color from blue to red. The one which we believes that Yamaha motors want to match the logo color with Yamaha Japan’s corporate color.

Trancend Brand Consulting Comment - Bharti Airtel rings in deal with WPP arm in India for Brand Makeover- Brand Union India

2010-07-25T21:11:00.000-07:00

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6029898.cms

Marketing and the Placebo Effect

2010-07-23T05:43:00.000-07:00

Neuromarketing, Neuroscience Research

We all know what the placebo effect is – give a group of patients a sugar pill instead of a medication with active ingredients, and some of them will show an improvement in their symptoms. Drug researchers treat the placebo effect as an annoying artifact that must be eliminated by using double-blind studies. Other health care advocates see it as remarkable evidence of human capacity for self-healing, and a topic that deserves extensive study. But what relevance does it have for marketers? New research shows that the placebo effect is related to the brain’s reward system, and it’s not a big leap to say that much of marketing is trying to achieve a non-medical placebo effect in the minds of customers.

First, the new research: a ScientificAmerican.com article by Nikhil Swaminathan, Expect the Best? Placebos Are for You! New study links expectations of rewards to placebo effect, describes a study performed by neuroscientist and radiologist Jon-Kar Zubieta and colleagues at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Subjects were first tested for their response to a placebo “painkiller” administered prior to a needle stick; as is typical, subjects exhibited different levels of pain relief from the bogus injection. On another day, they participated in a seemingly unrelated game of chance in which they were told they could win money.

Participants were told they could win or lose a certain amount of money each round; they would then push a button to determine the real take. Several of the participants showed a flurry of activity involving dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens while awaiting the outcome, indicating that they were expecting a reward. The people whose nucleus accumbens lit up during the game also reported greater relief from the sham painkillers. “What surprised me the most was the strong link between this element of reward processing and the fact that you can predict the placebo response,” Zubieta says. “The placebo effect is a resiliency mechanism in the brain. � You don’t [really] need the medication, you simply need to be convinced that something is going to work.”

This is significant news for medical researchers, who see new avenues of treatment being opened up. Long before neuromarketing became a buzzword, though, marketers have known about managing expectations. Simply put, marketers know that if they can create an expectation in the mind of their customer, and then not do anything to contradict that expectation, they have a good chance that the customer will find that expectation to be fully met. The “not contradicting” element is the key part of the process. Marketers try to create expectations with just about every customer contact. Often, though, those expectations are crushed, or at least strained, during the actual experience. It’s easy for a marketer to create an expectation of “fast, friendly service” – but if the customer has to wait in line to be served by a surly clerk, the expectation will fail to turn into the customer’s actual perception. Indeed, the dissonance between the promise and the reality may actually increase the customer’s perception of bad service.

But lots of expectations are a bit more nebulous – if a customer is expecting to be served coffee that is “aromatic, rich, and bursting with complex flavor… made using the finest coffee beans from the farthest corners of the globe, picked at the perfect moment, and roasted using a special process to lock in flavor and enhance the taste” and gets a cup that’s not half bad, he may attribute some of those superior characteristics to it. Like the placebo recipients, though, some customers are more likely to be influenced by the message than others. The same kinds of positive individuals who expect to win in a game of chance will probably experience the product as described by the message if there are no major disconnects between them.

Although the reports on the placebo study didn’t describe the personalities of the groups for which the placebo worked vs. those for which it didn’t, I’d assume that the latter group contained individuals more cynical in nature with generally pessimistic expectations. This would be the same type of person who, given a chance to wager a sum of money, would say, “I know I’m just going to lose…” These individuals are likely to cast a jaundiced eye at any marketing effort, assuming that the marketer is exaggerating if not being actually deceptive. (Maybe we’ll do a piece on “marketing to cynics” in the future.)

This concept differs from priming. Priming is more subtle than a placebo because it works entirely below the conscious level. By presenting the subject with non-obvious cues, the subsequent behavior of the subject is altered. In administering a placebo, an overt act is accompanied by a description of the expectated experience, e.g., pain relief, relaxation, etc.

To sum up, the key elements of placebo marketing are,

* Describe the positive experience the customer will have when she uses the product, visits the establishment, etc.
* Ensure that the actual experience doesn’t actually contradict the expectation you have established.
* Understand that some, but not all, customers will end up having the experience you described for them.

Do watch this interesting video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHBwHVbUwig&feature=related

Telecom where are we headed...

2010-06-09T03:08:00.000-07:00

With telecommunications and geospatial solutions continuing along their current trends, human society will soon be communicating with each on such a huge and fast scale, we may as well be thought of as making up still larger minds and beings. Physical location will be irrelevant.

As a species, we have always wanted to gather together in order to survive and flourish. We have an instinct to follow leaders. We oftentimes play one tribe off the other, so our own tribes can learn from their mistakes and we can broaden our own means of growing and interacting.

Long distance conference calls used to be, at one time, disembodied voices and pauses between speakers as the information was relayed. Then the pauses got shorter and disappeared. Then the voices began to have faces.

The next step, obviously, is to improve communication so much, that people everywhere, not just in offices, can communicate as if they are in the same room. There will be no more need to place importance on where a person is located physically on the globe. I

This is all happening now, of course. But when even larger amounts of spatial data can be sent even quicker, it will make this possible on an ever-growing scale. The faster and quicker we can communicate the most information, the larger those new groups that require no physical space of their own will grow.

If this happens for a long enough time, only a few of these huge new groups will exist at all on the planet. They would be communicating with each other so fast and effectively, that the people that make them up might as well be considered to be thinking alike. They would still have their individuality of course, but now their thinking will be nuanced in such a way that their thinking is the same when viewed from the scale of the group. The groups will then take on their own distinctions and become individual thinkers themselves.

So the physical space itself? It will be the apparatus that support the people who all think (relatively) alike. For all the different of these groups on the Earth, there will be that many sections that will function as the “bodies” of those groups. They will be like their own organisms. Soon, there will be only one group of people left, it’s body all the things we have constructed for ourselves, feeding on the planet.

The final future of telecommunications and geospatial solutions is that it will create mass cultures of humans that will eventually come to behave as their own organisms.

Killers Be Gone - Mosquito Genie

2010-06-06T22:55:00.001-07:00

Killers Be Gone

May 26, 2010

A solar-powered table lamp that provides lighting and kills mosquitoes using all-natural organic ingredients. These materials begin to break down and release vapors into the air that can significantly reduce the female mosquito population. The product—which lasts for three months and requires only a refill replacement—eliminates the pests without smells, zapping, manmade chemicals, clean-up, or monitoring. Dont we need this here in India

Photoshop Cream...yes it works

2010-06-04T02:01:00.000-07:00

Cos in race for pleasing women customers-Corporate Trends-News By Company-News-The Economic Times

2010-05-25T02:03:00.000-07:00

Cos in race for pleasing women customers-Corporate Trends-News By Company-News-The Economic Times

Why Cars From The Past Are The Way Of The Future

2010-05-14T04:21:00.000-07:00

We are wondering why it is that car manufacturers are tripping over each other inventing boring and redundant “super modern” and “high design” cars, when the end result is a sea of lookalikes. One can no longer recognize a “premium” make from a lower-end car, certainly not by distinctive and recognizable design features.

They are unimaginative, uninspiring and suffer from a serious case of follow-itis. As opposed to being leaders and, in particular, design leaders. We see design tweaks and add-on features advertised as if they were a revolution when in fact, there’s nothing really significantly new or exciting. No wonder so many are giving up cars altogether. Why spend all that money to get what?

Our hopes are up a bit with a sighting of the carbon fiber-bodied “Bella Figura” Bugnotti. It is Delahaye USA’s tribute to Ettore Bugatti’s son, Jean, and it was inspired by the 1937 classic Type 57S. This retro beauty will debut at the Retro Auto at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Aug. 13-15 in Monterey, CA.

We are all for going back to the basics, to looking at the best and most beautiful models of the past and resurrecting them. For example, there is nothing to add to the iconic design of a classic Saab. It was designed for minimal drag and that was partly the reason why the Saab was such a hot ticket as a rally car in the 1960s. And they had 3-cylinder engines, too.

Imagine if we could again drive cars this cool? Of course, they’d have the relevant and useful modern technology and electric power as well. Why is that not possible?

Top 10 myths about electric vehicles

2010-04-29T01:14:00.000-07:00

OSLO, Norway 22 April, 2010

By,Richard Canny

Like all new technologies, misconceptions abound in the EV space. Here are Canny’s top 10 EV myths

1.“You are just moving the pollution out of the cities to the countryside.”

Busted: Electric vehicle motors are three-to-five times more efficient than gasoline-powered vehicles.. While it’s best to power EVs from renewable energy sources (which are growing quickly), the efficiency of EVs makes them cleaner, producing less carbon, under any situation – even when they are charged using coal-fired electricity

2.“Customers will never buy a car with less than a 200 mile range.”
Busted: So-called ‘range anxiety’ diminishes when people get used to driving EVs on a daily basis. It’s just like charging a cell phone overnight. You plug it in, and in the morning it’s ready to go, fully charged. As more EVs hit the road, businesses and cities will add charging points to encourage EV use. And THINK recently announced a new standard for fast charging—zero to 80% charged in just 15 minutes-- to help cover those rare situations when an EV will be needed to cover more than 100 miles in a single day.

3. “The battery won’t last.”
Busted: EV batteries are designed to last at least 10 years and more than 100,000 miles. THINK has cars on the road in Europe with batteries approaching the 10-year mark and brings that experience to modern Lithium ion batteries to ensure they meet or exceed that target.

4. “You’ll need to build a lot more power plants.”
Busted: Actually, there’s enough off-peak electricity in the U.S. to power 79% of U.S. driving demand. . As more EVs are deployed, it’s important to ensure that the smart-charging (time-based charging management) and vehicle-to-grid connectivity progresses as well. A connected network of millions of micro energy storage devices – which EVs would become – provides significant opportunities to improve the stability and performance of electric grids and better balance peak demand.

5. “We’re going to run out of Lithium – and isn’t it poisonous?”

Busted: Lithium carbonate today comes from dried salt lakes in South America (Chile, Argentina and Bolivia) and China. There are also other huge sources for lithium, although these are more expensive to develop. Lithium can even be extracted from salt water and projects are under way to do this. The industry will not have a shortage of lithium for the next decade. It is also possible that new battery technologies will be based on other light metals like Zinc or Nickel.

Lithium from used batteries will be recycled in dedicated recycling plants. Lithium batteries contain no poisonous heavy metals like lead in lead-acid batteries or cadmium in NiCd batteries.

6. “The infrastructure has to come first.”
Busted: In our experience working with more than 20 cities across Europe, the best way to deploy EVs is to get cars on the road first, then add infrastructure. If there’s no EVs to use those plugs and parking spots, people see it as wasteful. We think infrastructure is a small part of good policy at a federal, regional and local level to support EV early adopters.

7. “They’re not safe.”
Busted: Highway-certified EVs like the THINK City meet all the same safety and crash test requirements as regular production cars with some important extras. For example, new European Union regulations require EVs to conform to the European CE electrical standards for plugged-in appliances, with the toughest electrical safety requirements. THINK City is the first to meet those requirements.

8. “The technology is too complicated.”

Busted: A modern electric car has only about five main moving parts compared with hundreds in an internal combustion engine. There are no regular visits to the dealership for an EV. No oil changes, no filters – even brake pads last two-to-three times longer than in conventional cars, because EVs like the THINK City use regenerative braking to recapture the energy that would otherwise be lost while braking. Your first trip to the dealership with an EV for scheduled maintenance is at 40,000 miles to check the brake pads. Eventually, you’ll need new wiper blades and tires. But that’s about it!

9. “Fast charging EV batteries in 15 minutes will wear them out quickly.”
Busted: Modern prismatic lithium batteries can be developed with fast-charging in mind – like THINK’s EnerDel battery solution. The critical technology is in the cell design to manage battery temperature during charging. Limiting fast charging to the 0-80%range also protects battery life. THINK’s view is that 95%or more of all EV miles will be driven on EVs charged during overnight off-peak periods when electricity is cheaper and readily available. Fast charging locations provide reassurance and peace of mind for those occasional days where more than 100 miles are required.

10. “Plug in hybrids represent the best solution.”

Busted: Carrying around the extra weight and cost of two powertrains makes little sense. In some ways, a ‘hybrid garage’ (where one car is an EV and the other a relatively fuel-efficient ‘normal car’) is probably most economical for a typical family For a small urban commuter car like the THINK City, an EV drive with a relatively small battery pack and low weight makes the best sense. As plug-in hybrids get bigger and heavier, they need more batteries and stronger gas- or diesel-powered generators or engines. It becomes a ‘vicious circle’ of more cost and more weight to achieve acceptable range and performance in both modes.

THINK CEO Richard Canny is a motor industry veteran with 25 years previous experience at Ford Motor Company. He has held key international leadership roles across every major automotive manufacturing continent, with positions including President-Ford South America and Director of Strategic Planning for Ford globally.

The latest generation THINK City is a purpose-built, all-electric car designed for urban environments. It can travel at highway speeds and cover 160 kilometers on a single charge (via any 220V household outlet), with zero local emissions. It is the world’s first EV to be granted certification with the European CE conformity mark and EU homologation requirements (M1 certificate). To achieve these exacting standards, the THINK City has successfully completed very thorough testing and validation procedures.

Placement with Relevance - Bit old but nice

2010-04-09T04:14:00.000-07:00

Walmart Rebranded

2010-04-06T02:03:00.000-07:00

Walmart

Industry: Retail Stores/Property Developments
Enterprise Rebrand
Country Base: USA
Below: Before Images, Rebrand Images, Summary, Credits

Summary:

Industry Setting - Since its first store opened in 1962, Walmart has grown rapidly from its roots in rural America to a global presence as one of the world’s most successful retailers. Always looking to stay in tune with customers, the retailer undertook a massive initiative to revitalize its brand.

Challenge - Walmart needed to extend its appeal to a broader audience without losing sight of its core customer base. As a well-established and highly visible brand, Walmart wanted to refresh its identity while retaining brand equity, and bring the brand to life with over two million associates in 7,000 stores.

Strategy - The strategy is best summarized by the new tagline “Save money. Live better.” which emphasizes how smart shopping not only saves money, but also enables customers to live better lives.

The refreshing Walmart’s positioning to shift the focus beyond price to the emotional benefits of shopping at Walmart and the shopping experience. Our team also translated the new Walmart brand into all aspects of the in-store experience -- from designing new interiors and signage to merchandising display concepts.

Result - We created a new logo and visual system that communicates the brand attributes that shoppers value. Our “Brand Book” inspires and guides Walmart associates, while an online brand center is a real-time source for brand guidelines. Retail environment prototypes provided Walmart with new ways to approach the shopping experience.

2010-03-25T21:08:00.000-07:00

B A u s c h + Lo m B This well-known eye care
product brand introduced its new brand identity at the beginning of the year. Founded in 1853,
Bausch + Lomb is headquartered in Rochester, NY and employs over 10,000 people worldwide.

Its products include contact lenses and lens care
products, ophthalmic surgical devices and
instruments, and ophthalmic pharmaceuticals.
Comment Why rebrand? Their old brand
identity was just over five years old (see New
Identity Alert, May 2004). The rationale for the
rebrand, “strong momentum coming out of last
year, as well as a number of planned new product
launches and market initiatives over the coming
months…” is hardly an indication of a significant
change that would dictate the need for a new
brand identity. The other puzzling aspect of this
rebranding initiative is why they would introduce
the “B+L” initials. They rightly identify Bausch +
Lomb as a well-known brand. Why dilute it by
trying to move to initials? It’s not as if their name
is either too long to pronounce, or is incongruent
to their current brand (i.e., GE no longer being
primarily focused on electrical products).
And, after all these efforts to rebrand, the new
brand identity is not a better mark than their
previous brand identity. It is not bad, just one
more question in an undefined, perplexing
rebranding initiative.

India to be fastest growing economy by 2018: Economist

2010-03-22T21:48:00.000-07:00

India to be fastest growing economy by 2018: Economist

India is the second largest growing economy after China, but it will overtake its neighbouring country by 2018, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research arm of London-based Economist magazine, said Tuesday.

“We forecast that India will overtake China as the fastest growing major economy by 2018. We expect India’s growth on an average of eight percent in the next five years,” EIU senior analyst Anjalika Bardalai told reporters on the sidelines of 14th Business Roundtable here.

She said the Indian economy would grow at 6.8 percent during the current fiscal, at 7.7 percent in 2010-11, and 8 percent the year later.

But the statistical arm of the Indian government, the Central Statistical Organisation, has projected the economy to grow by 7.2 percent in the current fiscal.

“Our growth projection is based on expenditures in the economy and is not based on factor cost as done by the Indian government,” Bardalai explained.

The Indian government measures growth on the basis of factor cost. Factor cost is the cost of factors of production used to produce final goods and services.

India’s GDP during the three quarters in the current fiscal grew at 6.1 percent, 7.9 percent and 6 percent. While during 2008-09 it grew at 6.7 percent and in 2007-08 at 9.1 percent.

“The GDP will not return back to 9 percent and more as it was during 2005-08. Also the monetary pressure may not go down as expected,” The Economist executive editor Daniel Franklin said.

Driven by increasing food prices, India’s annual rate of inflation, based on the wholesale price index, rose to 9.89 percent in February from 8.56 percent in the previous month, according to an official data revealed Monday.

It also predicted inflow of investments through Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) at $75 billion by 2014.

Hilton's new identity

2010-03-03T21:14:00.001-08:00

Hilton launches its new corporate identity

The new Hilton corporate brand identity

Hilton Hotels Corporation today launched its new name, Hilton Worldwide and new corporate brand identity. It had also recently moved its global headquarters from Beverly Hills, California, to McLean, Virginia.

The company indicated that the hotel brands, including Hilton Hotels, will remain unchanged. However, the Hilton HHonors brand identity has been updated to bring it inline with the new corporate brand identity.

The new brand identity for Hilton HHonors has adopted the new corporate brand identity.

Hilton Worldwide states its portfolio of ten brands has over 3,300 in 77 countries, with more than 300 hotels slated to open this year.

2010-02-19T10:33:00.000-08:00

Interesting machine there...drop a 10 cent coin...press a button and you could win a pack..this guy was trying for a whole 10 mins and dint win...so much for smoking could kill...

Trancend Brand Consulting Talks

House of Brands - Part Duex

House of Brands - Part Duex

AR is "a" live - new dimensions in brand customer engagement

Trend picked up from overseas: Bollywood celebrities foray into new branded ventures

Indian Govt’s Move to Restrict Non Standard Pack Sizes Irks FMCG Brand Players: Trancend Brand Consultancy's quote

Cos claim move will take away their flexibility to buffer the impact of inflation on the consumer, seek rollback

SARAH JACOB & RATNA BHUSHAN Economic Times Brand

Bought & Forgotten Brands - Trancend's Quote in the Economic Times November 2011

Titan recently bought flagging Swiss heritage brand Favre Leuba to revive it. But history shows that buying brands, performing or non-performing, is not just about a new life. It’s also about drift & death

BHANU PANDE & RATNA BHUSHAN NEW DELHI

Dharavi Mumbai’s Hidden Heart

Coke, Nestle JV puts roll-out of Nestea under review

2011 Penta Packaging Winners

Eat, Drink and Then Pick Your Next Car

Carmakers such as Fiat, Mercedes, BMW & Ford Open Cafes, Lounges to Boost Sales in India

BMW Runs a lounge in New Delhi with Olive Bar & Kitchen. Plans to open another in Mumbai this year

Fiat Will open Fiat Cafes in New Delhi and Pune in

August in tie-up with Lavazza. They will serve

Italian food and display Fiat cars.

KLF Nirmal's Recent Creative by Origami

20 very creative guerilla marketing promotions

1. Superette – Short shorts

2. Spiderman 2

3. Folgers Coffee

4. Mr. Proper

5. National Geographic shark bus

6. Submerged Gotham

7. Smart, fits everywhere

8. Smart Brabus

9. Dental implants

10. 3M security glass

11. Gold’s gym elevator

12. The Sopranos campaign

13. Vijay Barbecue sales

14. Amnesty International

15. Looking for Seafood

16. Big Pilot’s watches

17. Axe Exit

18. Casino di Venezia

19. Mini Cooper boxes

20. Alteco Super Glue

Organizational Chart

Branding Without Advertising

Bangalore Beats Mumbai, Delhi in Eating Out- Bangaloreans eat out twice as much as their counterparts in New Delhi and Mumbai

The need to jostle for a reservation despite the explosion of restaurants offers the first inkling of Bangalore’s hearty appetite. It’s official now. Bangaloreans eat out twice as much as their counterparts in New Delhi and Mumbai.

SARAH JACOB ECONOMIC TIMES BANGALORE2011

Branding & Awareness

Trancend Quote in Economic Times :Ashok Leyland to be renamed Hinduja Leyland

Creating Path Breaking Brands In India - Trancend Brand Consulting

Stop Wasting Money on Brand Preference. Think Brand Relevance - Interview with David Aaker

Trancend Quote in Times Of India : A LEAF FROM NILGIRIS Varkeys seeks private equity

Brand Archetypes

The curious case of the "Real" Juice

Visit to the House of Brands @ Notting Hill

Trancend's Comment: First look at Airtel’s new, redesigned brand logo:

Swati Anand | TNN

Trancend Quote in Times Of India : FB & Twitter are passe, apps is the new buzz

Swati Anand | TNN

Trancend Quote in " Private labels give brand biggies a run for their money" Times of India Chennai

Pvt labels give brand biggies a run for their money

Swati Anand & Aparna Ramalingam | TNN

Trancend Quote in Economic Times :Cafe business becomes big draw as Bangalore's chic set splurge

Brand- More than a logo

BRAND IDENTITY: A DELICATE BALANCE BETWEEN IMAGE AND AUTHENTICITY

Corporate Brand Identity Evolution Of Automobile Groups

01. Alfa Romeo

02. Aston Martin

03. Audi

04. BMW

05. Buick

06. Cadillac

07. Chrysler

08. Citroen

09. Fiat

10. Ford

11. Mazda

12. Mercedes-Benz

13. Mitsubishi

14. Opel

BMW
Runs a lounge in New Delhi with Olive Bar & Kitchen. Plans to open another in Mumbai this year

Industry: Retail Stores/Property Developments
Enterprise Rebrand
Country Base: USA
Below: Before Images, Rebrand Images, Summary, Credits