Ford India gets a makeover

Ford motor company is getting a makeover in India. The company is planning to launch its world famous brands like the Ferrari etal in India. Now this seems to be a sound strategy for a company whose market share has shrunk by 0.2% in the year 2007.

For me the company is following a similar strategy what Yamaha did for it motor bikes in India. Yamaha is known world over for its Racing bikes. It has launched bikes which have captured the imaginations of millions of bike lovers all across the world. But in India it was content in launching products which were suited for the 'Indian conditions'. But in doing this the company launched the products it was not good at, I mean the products were not the core competency of Yamaha, in India they were launching 100 cc bikes wheres as they have their competencies in Racing bikes. so here in India they just launched products which were suited for the Indian conditions , the products were based on obsolete technology as far as Yamaha was concerned, but these products were not exciting for the youngsters.

Now coming back to Ford , it was also following a similar strategy, it was launching products in India which had reached the 'maturity stage' in the other developed market. It is to be noted that the marketers adopt these strategies to extend the product life cycle of the brands which are reaching the 'decline stage' in their life cycle.

but Indian customers have changed a lot over the period of time, they are well read, well connected and are aware of the latest technologies from all across the globe. They want to use the latest technologies , use fancier gadgets and use the best products which people across the world use. Their wants are also backed by their purchasing power, so to expect that the Indians would be happy using second rung products or service would be stupidity.

Now is Ford doing a right thing? well to answer this i have already mentioned about the changing Indians , their higher disposable incomes and above all the availability of a market segment for the luxury cars. So for me it sounds a good strategy , but would it affect the sales of other car brands of the same stable , well i think it should but yet they need to innovate and launch the products with the features which are latest in the world and not Indianised as they call

Singh Is King

Indian prime minister Mr. Manmohan Singh managed to prove majority in the parliament and thus managed to save his government. although the voting in the parliament was marked by constant ruckus and pandemonium created by the opposition parties. there were also allegations that M.P ( Members of Parliament ) were offered huge bribes to switch sides and to cross vote or remain absent from the scene. Some of the members actually brought the money and showed it in the parliament.

Honestly speaking I am not bothered by all these. The only positive which I see is that India can now go ahead with the Nuclear deal. This will ensure that the country can get nuclear fuel from the NSG.( Nuclear fuel supplier Group). This would ensure that the country becomes self sustainable in the matters of energy production.

Killing of Brand Logan

The car Logan, is a a joint venture production between mahindra and mahindra and Renault car company. The car was initially pitched as a wide bodied car for marketing purposes. The company recently changed its campaign and started pitching it as "why can't your your first car be a big car" and they also brought in Kunal Kapoor as its brand ambassador.

This is to the background to what i have to say, now coming to the main part of the story, I recently went to Bangalore and was disusing with my friend about the various brands of car. I told him that i was contemplating buying a car in the next 6 months or so , during the discussion when i mentioned the car Logan , his reaction was "its a taxi" , why do want to buy it .

I was not able to understand his reaction initially. later i found out that, after the new international airport came into operation many taxi operators have started their operations in the town, and most of them have bought Logan and have been operating them to ferry passengers to and fro from the airport.

This reminds me of my own reaction towards Indica car by TATA motors , nearly all the cabs in Bangalore are Indica and that's the reason why i didn't want to buy Indica. Now the same is being repeated for Logan. the car which was positioned for young executives is now is now the favourite for the cab operators. Its not that the brands like Merc and BMW etc are not used as cabs , but the difference here is that they are not used on such a wide scale the brand Logan is aimed at 'mass marketing' and its not a 'niche product'.

so how will be the company affected ? do they really care ? , well these will be good questions, the marketing and the sales managers would be very happy owing to the increased sales of cars , but what will happen over the long run , would logan become the next 'taxi car' in India ?

Should company do something , as introduce new variants aimed to cater to this section and differentiate on others. Well its only left to the senior executives of the company to take a decision , its only left to them that what do they want their brand to become .

What a Customer Wants ??

Before i start writing about the topic , i would like to tell you that i have been relocated to Chennai , and that's the reason why i was not regular in my postings . Now i am back and all set in Chennai and the story which i am posting here is a result of my today's experience at an eatery.

In Chennai I am finding a hard time to get good food, (please consider the fact that I am from the northern part of India and my taste preferences are different) therefore i have nearly tried all kinds of food offered nearby , but i didn't like any of them. The one reason is primarily taste and the second reason is perhaps the way these Shop owner operate and treat their customer, particularly those people who do not know the native language.

I am not kind of person who believes in regionalism and things like that but down here in this part of India the rationalistic feelings are very strong,( for me it presents a good marketing opportunity , perhaps i will write about it later ) now coming back to my story , today in the afternoon I was led by one of my office colleague to a small eatery located on the third floor of a nearby building. this was a kind of place one can not find if he is not aware of it, the place was very ordinary and had very basic furniture , 2 tables and 4 chairs and a ceiling fan to counter the heat and humidity of Chennai. Now the food , the food was also south Indian food and nothing was great about it either.

Now the question which might arise in your mind , then why did i bother to write so much and that too with the caption , "what customer wants", now the thing which i did not tell you till now was the service which i got from that small eatery .

The lady did not knew Hindi and could not speak or understand English. She was so caring that she made us feel at home and let me tell you that i really enjoyed that food although it was not of my taste.

She also enquired to us about our taste in the symbolic language and also complained that we did not had 'rasam chwal ' a local preparation .

Now coming to the moral of the story , in today's world there is only one thing which can make a customer stick to a product or service, and that is the kind of 'Customer Service' a company , firm or an organization provides to their customers. A good experience always remains in the minds of the customer and this always helps him /her in choosing brands or services. During the information search stage if he recalls this experience then there is a chance that he will buy the same product or service he had a memorable experience. Therefore the marketer's must ensure that at all the points of contacts the customer has a memorable experience and that can be only brought by a good customer service, in my case I am now a regular customer to her shop.

Shah Rukh , Aamir and Abhishek makes it to the Forbes List

Forbes publication, known for its rankings of wealthiest persons across the world, has named Shah Rukh , Aamir and Abhishek are the stars among ten celebrities adding star-power to mobile.
The three stars are the brand ambasasdors of the mobile phones Nokia , Samsung and Motorola respectively . the Celebrities have been joined by two international sport stars Maria Sharapova and David Beckham, four singers Usher, Fergie, Rain and Andy Lau and race car driver Danica Patrick in the 'Ten Celebs and Their Cells' list published on the Forbes website

Miss Universe 2008

Miss Venezuela Danyana Mendoza was named Miss Universe 2008, everyone saw her pic wearing the crown ...i thought to share these images .....

well u can consider it a gimmik to increase traffic to my site ;)

Worlds Oldest Blogger says Goodbye !!

Olive Riley , hailed as the worlds oldest blogger died at the age of 108.
We will miss u Riley on the blogger world.

Its Brands even in Case of Films Too !!

Recently in India two movies were released, both the movies were similar in a sense that in both the movies two youngster made their debut. Harman Baweja made his debut through his film 'Love Story 2050' and Imran Khan through 'Jane Tu Ya Jane Naa'.

Now let me tell you about both the actors and their films , Harman belongs to the reputed 'Baweja family' a family known for its superhits in the Indian film Industry. The theme of the movie was futuristic and Harman with his Hrithik type looks and dance steps tried to woo the audiences.

On the other hand Imran is a cousin of 'Aamir Khan' , one of the top actors in the Indian film faternity. The movie is set on the backdrop of college going youngsters and their life and their experiences.

Now the result Imran movie is a hit, it has surged past the Harman starring Love Story 2050.

This presents an imp branding and marketing concept before us , not only your product should be new but it should boast of a few key features which are unique to your product, in other words its yours brand USP.

Harman's acts and his looks resembled so close to Hrithik roashan that people didn't find any thing new or fresh , whereas Imran's chocolate boy image and Aamir Khan production created a brand which helped the movie to do good business, the viewers went to the cinema hall to watch a new talent and not a look alike.

The same principle applies to brands as well the 'mee too' brands often fail to make a mark in the consumers' mindset because they do not have any thing special to offer. Their offerings and their products are essentially the same as their bigger competitors and thus more often or less they fail . So my advice to Harman , dude create your own style, well you cant do much about your looks though.

The New King ...!!!

Its time to invest in Cold Chain Infrastructure

It is now the high time for the govt of India to start investing in the cold chain solutions. The country is the highest producer of vegetables and second highest producer when it comes to the production of fruits . The food grain production has been also robust over the years. In spite of the huge growth and the huge profits earned there has been great concern in the recent years regarding the efficiency of marketing of fruits and vegetables in India. It is believed that poor linkages in the marketing channels and poor marketing infrastructure are not only leading to high and fluctuating consumer prices but also only to a small proportion of the consumer rupee reaching the farmers . There is also substantial wastage, deterioration in quality, and frequent mismatch between demand and supply spatially and over time.
Recently Over 10 lakh tonnes of food grains worth several hundred crores of rupees, which could have fed over one crore hungry people for a year, were damaged in Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns during the last one decade. The damages were suffered despite the FCI spending Rs 242 crore while trying to prevent any loss of food grains during storage. Ironically another 2.59 crore was spent just to dispose off the rotten food grains. FCI informed that 10 lakh tonnes of food grain was damaged in the godowns of government owned agency, which is responsible for procurement and distribution of food grains across the country.
The FCI informed that 1.83 lakh tonnes of wheat, 3.95 lakh tonnes of rice, 22 thousand tonnes of paddy and 110 tonnes of maize were damaged between 1997 to 2007.
The FCI said in the northern region -- UP, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi -- the damage incurred was seven lakh tonnes and the PSU spent Rs 87.15 crore to prevent the loss besides spending over Rs 60 lakh to dispose off the damaged foodgrain.
The problem has become more acute today because of rising inflation. The cost of food grains have gone up substantially . Considering this the wastages mentioned above are a matter of national shame, it is high time now that the country should start investing in the Cold Chain solutions.
Today the cold chain facilities in the country are rudimentary , the facilities are either absent , not working or not used because of inadequate information to the farmers . As a result wastages occur and tonnes of food grains which can feed millions of Indians goes to the drains year after year .
The government should look at this matter very seriously because the country can not afford the wastage of food grains at a time when all across the world there has been a shortage of production . Moreover the government’s agencies not only collect commission’s but also earn directly by selling the food grains. Therefore the current situation demands that the government should take active measure to set up an entire supply chain infrastructure of cold chain.

Planning to share a Video .... beware !!!

If you are a person who loves sharing videos through youtube then this news might be for you. Google has been ordered to hand over details of YouTube users' viewing habits by a judge presiding over a copyright infringement case against the site, the case was filed by Viacom the parent company of MTV. The company insists that copyright material was routinely passed over the website, arguing this the company has filed a $1 billion lawsuit.

The company has been ordered divulge details of every video clip uploaded to the site, along with viewers’ YouTube usernames and IP addresses.

So as a regular file sharer you need to be careful that you are not violating the copyright laws.

India regains trillion-dollar stock market status

Indian Stock market jumped back into the coveted trillion-dollar global club as the cumulative worth of all the listed companies in the country rose to 1.01 billion dollars alongside a 703-point surge in the benchmark Sensex.
The total value of all listed companies at the BSE today rose to Rs 43,75,813 crore (about 1,013 billion dollars), up from Rs 41,97,000 crore (966 billion dollar) yesterday.
However, the total value of all the NSE listed companies continues to remain below the trillion-dollar mark, as there are less number of companies listed at this bourse.

For MBA Grads its time to learn a Different Language

According a new report as per the economic times , the MBA graduates of Indian origin can be immensely benefited if they learn Mandarin language. the reason , most of the American executives are having a tough time adjusting to the Chinese culture and they are planning to go back to America. this would create huge opportunities for the executives who know the Chinese language.

During our International Marketing classes we were told about the fact that the cultural shocks are the most disturbing , the lifestyle , food habits and even the behavior pattern all change 360 degrees. these all results in the inability of the persons to adjust to a local environment. this is equally applicable for the products we market in any region , until and unless we bring localisation and include local tastes and/or preferences into that product, that product is bound to fail .

So to sum up all MBA grads like me, need to start looking for a good language school where we can learn Chinese, and then start adopting and adjusting ourselves for the cultural shock we would have, if we are lucky enough to go to the manufacturing hub of the world.