HALLOWEEN 2019 CHOCOLATES

Every year, around #Halloween, there is a number of launches that take place in the chocolate and confectionery world. While USA leads the #innovation at this time, there are also other markets that have realized the opportunity and have started doing special editions to cater to the demand during Halloween. Different #brands play on the different aspects of the marketing mix to bring excitement to the category: 1. Some brands innovate through new #flavours. 2. Others bring in new #formats and shapes. 3. Some change their #packaging graphics and texture. There are also brands that introduce 'Glow in the Dark' packs. 4. Then there are brands that change their #logos or do a word play on the packaging. Irrespective of the hook that they choose to innovate, they know that the 'Trick of Treat' time is the time to generate additional revenues. Here is a glimpse of some of the new Halloween launches of 2019 that stood out for me - the M&M's range, different products from Hershey's, various products of Reese's.

WAR LINGO IN CORPORATE WORLD

In the #corporate world, we love using the analogy of war in our presentations and conversations. This helps in bringing focus, attention and inspiration. 

So, terms like ‘attack’, ‘bombard’, ‘guerilla tactics’, ‘hostile’, ‘targets’, ‘bulls-eye’, ‘War Room’, ‘squad’, ‘surveillance’, ‘Ammunition’ are used abundantly in the meeting rooms and on the slides. 

While we love using military jargon in the corporate world, but we do not learn from them about standing up for your colleague the way the armed forces do. If you speak to a soldier or a military person, he or she is willing to die for their colleagues, even if they like them or not. 

Why? Because that is the only way they know. The readiness to give away your life does not come with conditions and bias. They have the same level of commitment for each and every colleague! 

On the other hand, in the corporate world, forget about life, we will even think twice in giving credit or a word of appreciation to our colleague because of the various emotions (dislike, jealousy, insecurity, ego) and feelings that will cloud our reaction.
So, the true spirit of military jargon will only come to life when we can walk the talk.

ROUND PIZZA BOX

Pizza Hut has recently announced the launch of round pizza boxes! They had been working on this concept since the last two years and it is finally being rolled out in one Pizza Hut in Phoenix, USA.

The key benefits of this round box are:
1. Round boxes will take much lesser #packaging than the standard square boxes, which is great for their costs and also good for the environment. 2. The box is industrially compostable. 3.. The pizzas will stay crispier, giving a better experience to the consumers. 4. The box has easier interlocking mechanism, saving the employee time in folding the square boxes. This means an improvement in productivity. 5. The round boxes also ensure that the pizzas stay intact in delivery. It is clearly a strong idea with lot of advantages. 

Once tested and found successful, this #innovation will be rolled out to other Pizza Huts as well. 

Will this revolutionize the #pizza industry? We will have to wait and watch. 


#launch #kunalviews #idea #brands

2019: TOP 100 BRANDS

The annual list of the top 100 brands by Interbrand is out. As expected, #technology and electronic companies occupy more than half of the top 10 spots. 

While the usual suspects are all there, there are quite a few surprises this year: 1. #Facebook has dropped out of the Top 10 for the first time, since it first entered the Top 10 ranks!
2. There are three new entrants to the list: LinkedIn, Uber and Dell Technologies 
3. The Walt Disney Company enters the Top 10 for the first time since its 96 year history!
4. When compared to 2001, the year this list was published for the first time, only 31 brands remain in the Top 100!
5. There is only one #FMCG in the Top 10.
6. #Apple at first rank is valued at $ 234 Bn. while Prada at 100th rank is valued at $ 4.8 Bn.

There are some key lessons here: 

1. A success today is no guarantee of success tomorrow, unless you show results consistently. 

2. Persistence pays, as seen for Disney.

3. Entering into this list is the first step to the door of growth and brand equity. Staying there is an annual challenge.

INVEST IN IRON

On the occasion of #Dhanteras, when Indians invest in either gold or silver, here is a campaign that is asking them to invest in iron! There is a reason behind it. India ranks the highest in world for prevalence of anaemia among its women, and second woman in urban India is anaemic due to iron deficiency. So, #DSM India partnered with FCB Ulka and launched a special campaign – Project #Streedhan. Project Streedhan raises awareness about anaemia among urban Indian women by asking them to give the same importance to iron as gold, and to invest in it by eating healthy, iron-rich foods to reduce iron deficiency. The entire film has been shot in quite a unique way, showing women from different strata and parts enjoying various iron-rich foods. It has the powerful voice of Madhupurna Ganguly along with music by Debasis Shome. More than 50 jewellers in #India have joined hands in this initiative and committed to spread the message to their customers. 

Since the last few days, this video has been gaining traction, and the media has also been talking about it, helping the campaign achieve its objective of informing, educating and generating conversations.

PERIODIC TABLE OF CONTENT MARKETING

If you remember your chemistry lessons well, you would remember the periodic table of elements too. Here is an effective Periodic Table of Content Marketing that helps in putting your #contentstrategy and approach in place if you are a content creator professionally or personally. This table talks about platforms to use, strategies to apply, trends to tap into, metrics to measure against and much more. I found it extremely useful. I hope you do too. 
hashtag

                                          Image credit: Econsultancy Ltd                                                                                                          
#socialmedia #kunalviews #content 

DIWALI KA SAFAR

As #India gears up for #Diwali, there are many new brand campaigns that are being launched. Each one of them tries to build an emotional connection, showing bonds between families and relatives, distribution of sweets, bursting of crackers and all the other rituals that you associate with this festival. However, in their new TVC, Samsonite India Pvt Ltd takes a step back and weaves a beautiful story through long form content with an impactful voiceover. It is a well made film with the right level of emotions and the connections between the scenes. I do not want to give away much as I would like you to enjoy and feel the ad film. 

Do notice how every story is related to travel, making it perfect for #Samsonite to own it. 

                                #diwalikasafar #kunalviews #communications #marketing

NEVER OFFLINE!

When the Apple watch was launched in 2015, the #Time magazine had a very eye-catching cover on their digital edition with statistics that said that 50 million Americans are never offline. Wearable #technology was expected to boom across markets and the numbers expected to rise with every decade. Since then, many other big and small companies have joined the bandwagon with their own versions of #digital watches. But wearables also ask you to give up control. Your phone starts telling you what you should and shouldn’t eat and how far you should run. It gets in between you and your body and mediates that relationship. Wearables also make your physical self visible to the virtual world in the form of information, just like any other device. 

I am wondering, by 2020, how would the numbers look like globally for people who are never offline.

Are you one of them?

COCA COLA TIC TAC

The Coca-Cola Company and Ferrero have come together to launch #Coke flavoured Tic Tac in 70 markets globally! 

Although a licensed deal, this launch marks Coke's first foray into the mint category. The launch will be supported with an integrated marketing communications #campaign across TV, print and social media. This is an example of two iconic #brands coming together and using their individual distribution muscle and consumer base to reach out to more people and more channels, driving their brand equity and boosting their revenues beyond the core. 

It will be interesting to see how Pepsico reacts to this and how the existing confectionery players respond to such a launch!

                                                #FMCG #CPG #kunalviews #innovation

CATEGORY DISRUPTIONS

Quite often, when doing competitive analysis and market share reviews, we are busy analyzing direct competitors whereas there is a different category that is slowly eating into our segment, which has not even come into our radar or attention. 

Sometimes, the realization happens quite late and then either you have to live with that reality or go back to the drawing board and change your business model completely. 

Here is a great example of how the #camera industry thought that it would be impacted by the explosion of digital cameras, but it was the smartphone segment that ate up all their revenues, year after year with constant improvement in its camera technology. 

A clear lesson for all the players across industries. It is not about how your market share is changing but more about where is your consumer going with his or her money. hashtag#Netflix sums it up quite well when it says that is not competing with the other #OTT players, it is competing with sleep!

BEER IN PAPER BOTTLES

With the focus increasing towards protecting the environment and coming up with #sustainable options, paper #packaging will be one of the hottest trends of 2020. Few days back, Carlsberg Group unveiled two prototypes of their green fibre beer bottles in paper packaging. These bottle are made from sustainably sourced bio-based wood fibres. These are not the final designs and there is still work to be done, but it is a great progress that the company has made since the time they started working on this idea in 2015. 

They are not the only ones working on paper bottles. Other companies like Coca Cola, Absolut and L'oreal have come together with Carlsberg to form a paper bottle community. It is a joint venture called #Paboco. So keep watching this space as the excitement and announcements will increase in the months ahead!

hashtag#innovation #sustainability #kunalviews