Tag: marketing

Advertising is the new Content!

Prasad Ajinkya4 Comments

Got to read this from here.

In the new web savvy world, catching the attention of users is getting more and more difficult for advertisers. Gone are the days when unsuspecting users would click on banners that would say Click here! in bold letters. Google came up with the concept of inconspicuous ads with Google Ads. Added to that the context sensitive Google Ads ensured that the customization factor was there.

Now, Google has gone one step further … widget based ads that actually draw the attention of the user to it. Not only drawing the users’ attention, but also ensuring a healthy level of interaction with the ad itself! Be sure to check out the Intel ad in the link I have provided. The way new features of the processor are highlighted are just too good. At one point of time I was just playing the game to see which feature comes up next. The ad was the content I was interested in.

Indians are Brand Conscious

Prasad Ajinkya8 Comments

This is from LiveMint. They say that Indians rank third in the world in terms of being brand conscious. The study further says that Indians are not only conscious about the imported brands but also know about the domestic brands as well. Heres a quote –

In a luxury brands survey conducted by The Nielsen Company, a global information and media research company, India ranked third after Greece and Hong Kong in the list of most brand conscious countries in the world.

And if you look at it, its true! Heck, I just bought an iPod … I would categorize Apple as a luxury brand. Just take a look around you, and you will see brands everywhere …

  • He is an IIM grad
  • I just took a Kingfisher flight, the air hostesses were worth it
  • Moods please
  • It’s a SONY
  • One Signature large please

Need I say more?

Vanity Brands

Prasad Ajinkya2 Comments

We were having a team lunch … the four of us, Manish, Mayank, Ranjith and myself. One of the rare occasions these days when all four had a free time slot in the middle of the day. So, sitting at Eat Street, Hyderabad near the Hussain sagar lake, having fast foods like the rest of urban India. As I reached for the Subway Cookie that I had bought, Manish remarked that I could have bought an entire packet of biscuits at 60% of that cookie’s price.

While the others were laughing, I informed him that the utilities in both the cases are different. In case of Hide&Seek, the utility is value-for-hunger, in case of a Subway Cookie, its more or less Vanity (well actually its not vanity, but I just like them). But then we got into a discussion where other well known brands are often flaunted for vanity. There are so many of them … Ferrari, Mercedes, Maybach, Apple, Tommy Hilfiger, Rolls Royce … effectively all brands that could be used as a status symbol.

God as a Brand

Prasad Ajinkya1 Comment
blue skies

I tend to have these philosophical discussions with my roomies. It can meander from God to Good and from behavior to endeavor. The works. If I document these entire discussions, then that itself would be a blog. So, one fine day we were discussing God. I know, its such a great topic … if only I had a rupee for every time god was discussed on a blog, I would not need to work then.

We were discussing God as a Brand … and a very successful brand at that as well. Imagine, even the non-believers discuss god … effectively people who refuse to accept the existence of the brand also accept the brand. Can there be a greater brand recall and brand value. I think not!!

Also, imagine, each religion has a different brand of its own. So the concept of god is actually a category and not a brand :-). Being a Hindu, I can only say that my religion has a multi-pronged strategy … multiple brands. A good example of Segmentation-Targeting-Position. What say?