Congratulation! On Raping Humanity

Dear, dear SBI, where have you been? Were you undergoing some brutal learning session on how to rape humanity? It seems so. At least your Debit Card commercial says such.

How nicely you started with your brand image building exercise, creating 'Chimanlal Charlie' as the ambassador, followed by Auto Loans commercial with him. Though it slipped from the main track, a bit, while you talked about Home Loans and further away while informing about ATMs, still, it was in sync.

But dear, what is this? Your Debit Card commercial is just like ‘As if I care.’

Let us try to understand the positives of this commercial. All it has are perfect character choice, fantastic location choice, good direction, and neat editing.

But hey, what about the idea? Do you think the idea is one of those out-of-this-world types capable to pitch your product as the icon for new transaction system? Darling, just turn back and look at what HSBC did few years ago, when the concept of cashless world was just incepted. To get across the idea they showed a busy traveler hurdling through a crowd to catch a train, where he was pushed only to realize that his pocket was picked. However, the protagonist did not panic, but sighed, smiled and opened his wallet to find his HSBC debit card is still in place. The commercial categorically expressed the target market and the benefit of the product. Darling, it was strong enough to ring the bell even today.

However, in your communication we are yet to see the target audience and the benefits.

Astonishingly your commercial only talks about the pain and toil of one negative-beneficiary of your product. Let Bholu be in his place and try to find a profession that suits him best. Why are you bothered about Bholu? Instead why not put up the thinking cap again and recreate a commercial for your Debit Cards which is positive, striking, and sellable and not just creative for the heck of it. I believe that will also take away the hassle of calling press conference to justify your idea, what say? You never know, with your refreshed commercial aired even Bholu could arrange some moolah and apply, may be by picking pockets.

All for "Wall Street"

It could have been a bit tricky for Titan to get Amir endorse their brand ‘Wall Street’ which defines work code. But the final execution is impressive. Though it took a turn table approach to get to the point, unlike other Titan commercials, still the additional time is worth it.
Amir’s regret of not completing his study with an MBA degree is not because he could not join the corporate, but because he could not wear the Wall Street collection, which is only for people who goes to work, does speak about the brand image.
The assistant is seen more verbose in this commercial in comparison to the other. Good thought- because a person of entertainment domain who is hawked by media and standing at the precipice of fame cannot think of something which relates to corporate thinking and corporate culture. A person who is into service can only think about such idea.
Moreover the craving to possess such a brand and the sneaky approach to get it on the wrist by an icon, really gives a moral boost to those who actually deserve the watch.
As the brand is targeted towards a market where people go to work, wear formal attire, go out for meeting, close deals, and develop business opportunities; the approach taken is very neat.
At every shot the definition of the market is either spelt out or shown to make the audience aware about the position of the brand. More importantly Wall Street is not positioned as any other watch which one would like to wear at office, it is positioned as a need-wear, it is the work code.
All the aspiring individuals who wish to grow across the corporate ladder and are starting their career will surely get hit by the communication. Direct, simple, persuasive and effective - the commercial is an eye catcher. But whether it is a success or a failure will only depend on Titan’s sales report. Let us give it some time.

Mirchi is Humorously Hot

The news of opening the bids for FM radio channels must have set the media on ablaze. It is probably the reason why Entertainment Network has started again to polish their Radio Mirchi.
Good creative. It directly talks about the image of the brand. A sewage-cleaner completely oblivious about the world on top singing aloud while working, need not state anything else. Brief and crisp the commercial does not take more than 12 secs to bring forward the brand name. And it does not even have abominably expensive brand ambassadors nor does it have glaring special effects. The commercial saves on a lot on model cost, production cost, post production cost and airtime.
However, what is striking in the campaign is its absence in print and out-of-home (OOH) media. The previous campaign charged all the media altogether, and the charge was massive. In comparison to what had been done, complete invisibility from print and OOH might create a blockade in getting the desired result. Consumers do not have much of recall elements once the commercial gets over. Did the idea of ‘budget campaign’ somehow pricked in entire planning?
Along with it, another question stands, why a sewage cleaner as the protagonist? Is it a campaign to tap the market where the spending capacity is not very high, is it for the reason to portray that the brand is for all or is he a rep of the geographical demography of the cities and areas FM is about to extend its hands on?
The answers are expected from the horse’s mouth. Till McCann or Entertainment Network open up we have to stay happy with the subtle humor of the commercial and keep an eye on the market to find out who are the new listeners of Radio Mirchi?

Cola and movie, partnering together

‘Coke’ and ‘Rang De Basanti’ (an unpcoming Indian movie) has joined hands to promote each other. The deal took this shape for the current chemistry between Coke and Aamir or to be precise between Prasoon and Aamir. At one end Aamir Khan endorses the brand in its current ‘Piyo Sar Utha Ke’ campaign and plays a leading role in the movie Rang De Basanti, at other, the sire of Coke campaign Prasoon Joshi wrote the script and the song of the movie.
The current partnering strategy will offer Coke consumers as well as movie watchers some excitements. While Coke has thought of releasing a new set of 300 ml bottle which will feature star cast of the film along with their standard red white colors (only for Delhi & Mumbai), the movie trailers also can be seen in various TV channels with snippets of ‘Piyo Sar Utha Ke’ campaign.
The movie posters are set to initiate a consumer engagement program. Contests are in the pipeline, whose winner will get a chance for a dinner date with Aamir Khan. Consolation prizes for the contests include t-shirts, CDs and cassettes of the film.
The reason for this entire hullabaloo is the common string between the brand and the movie- the target market; youth. While both of them try to approach the market with common theme ‘honesty and reality’, they figured out this co-promoting plan.
Joshi’s version is, Coke, as a brand possesses the image of honesty and vigor. The movie encircles around the same theme as well. This gave them the opportunity to address their consumer together.
The marketing of this co-branding strategy will be designed by Interactive television, the movie marketing company. Interactive Television’s director Ajay is quite excited to be a part of this plan. According to him, Coke is always a brand they had pleasure to work with, and now with a 360 degree promotional approach, consumer involvement is sure to rock the brands.
The movie is announced to be released on 26th January 2006. A perfect time to stir the emotions of Indian youth, which, Coke and Rang De Basanti, are so crazy to lay their hands on.

SBI is buzzing

With their new ad campaigns and Out Of Home (OOH) coverage, SBI's position as no.3 brand is very much an 'expected result'. With making Nokia and ICICI showing its heel and trailing after Airtel- as no. 1- and Hutch as no. 2, SBI has surely come a long way in terms overhauling their brand image.
Glancing at banking in 21st century, will reveal that the service is not contrained to giving a saving option or offering a loan. Banking has done the make up of being an identity who you can rely on, take HSBC campaign for instance. In such an environment, the image polish for a brand like SBI was inevitable.
Graduation from being just a bank to a financial support is the call of the day, which SBI's new image is answering rightly.
THe market is expanding, the psyche of consumers are changing, shift from meeting needs to acquiring convenience is vivid. Denominators like those created a pipeline for SBI which it had to enter if it had to survive.
It is obvious that consumers are looking beyond than standing in a queue and encash their cheque and spend fifteen valuable minutes of their day. If consumers are asking for loans, it is obvious again that are looking forward to an instution who will think by putting themselves in the consumers shoe. Look again you will find SBI is talking about that. The good part is they are stating the fact with the undertone of their intention - 'We are not what you have been thinking'. Best part is the story telling in the campaign and placing their point accross in the OOH media.
The next step in the line should be developing 'Customer care' unit which matches well with the sleekness and directness of its campaign. It is about time SBI understands what branding is all about and the buzz states they already did