WORLDWIDE REPUTABLE COMPANIES 2020

As per the Global RepTrak 2020 survey, the most reputable companies of 2020 are:

1. 🇩🇰 : Lego
2. 🇺🇸 : The Walt Disney Company
3. 🇨🇭 : Rolex
4. 🇮🇹 : Ferrari
5. 🇺🇸 : Microsoft
6. 🇺🇸 : Levi Strauss & Co
7. 🇺🇸 : Netflix
8. 🇩🇪 : Adidas
9. 🇩🇪 : Bosch
10. 🇺🇸 : Intel

How was this determined?
The 2020 Global RepTrak was conducted between December 2019 and January 2020 and considered 80,540 individual responses from across the world’s 15 largest economies: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S.

There were a total of 153 companies measured, who all have a global footprint and annual revenue of at least $2 billion.

It should be the goal, the dream and the aspiration of every company to feature in this list.

SAMSUNG MICROCODES

In the current world of noise and clutter, it's always a challenge for #brands to get the attention of their target audience.

Every marketer keeps thinking of new ways of reaching their consumer through their advertising and #communication. Now what if you start incentivising people to watch your ads across the different platforms? That is exactly the idea behind #Samsung Microcodes.

This is an initiative in Australia where, Samsung Australia has hidden codes in their ads around the country to celebrate the launch of the Galaxy S20. These codes are extremely tiny and could be hidden in their TV ads, posters, online ads, mobile ads or any other #advertisement that they roll out. The first one to find a winning code gets a free Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G!

Such a creative way to engage people, get them to pay attention to every ad on every platform and also build excitement for the new launch!

GO FETCH

Humour has a very important role to play in advertising. It has the ability to reach people and give them the message in a very simple and easy way.

Humour can also be quite tricky. It does not work for all brands and all categories. Moreover, marketers have to be very careful in selecting the right kind of #humour that does not disgust or offend their consumers but rather makes them laugh.

Agencies and marketing people also have to evaluate their brands with a sharp lens and see whether humour fits the brand personality or not. Otherwise, even the funniest ad will not help in building your brand equity.

Here is an example of a brand that has used humour well. US based dog biscuit brand, Milk-Bone has come up with a series of funny ads, talking about the importance of having a dog as a pet and then how Milk-Bone can make it even more fun.

I am sharing the tortoise film below that gives the message in crisp 15 seconds.

You can also see the other ads here: 

https://lnkd.in/ejM3A5r 

https://lnkd.in/e2SR-gc

YOUTUBE BRINGS SHOPPING TO MOBILE

With a huge user base of people coming to #YouTube through their #mobiles for product reviews, unboxing videos, consumer reactions, bringing shopping ads to YouTube's mobile app seems like a logical thing.

hashtag

#Google understands the power of their channel and have started serving shopping ads so that users do not have to go out of their website to search for the product that they like. 

The shopping ads, a carousel of clickable  consumer products, will appear on the mobile home screen and search results page.

It will be interesting to see whether brands can select where to appear or it would be driven through YouTube's own algorithm. 

I am also wondering the revenue sharing model on this between brands, ecommerce websites, YouTube and even the #content creators.

Can anyone shed more light on it?

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

DONATE YOUR WORDS

hashtag#Cadbury has launched limited edition Dairy Milk packs in UK with no words on the front of the pack. They have partnered with Age UK to support loneliness in the older generation. Research found 4.5 million older people felt lonely in later life because people don't talk to them. The campaign 'Donate Your Words' will donate 30p to the charity for every limited edition bar sold. The initiative is to encourage people to recognize and speak to older people in their communities. The #launch is also supported with a film that tells stories of older people who feel alone. It is quite obvious that only #brands that have strong icons and colours can pull something like this without the fear of whether #consumers would recognize the brand or not.

INDEPENDENCE DAY - LIBERTY

This year, India celebrated its 73rd year of Independence on 15th August with the hope and promises of the nation progressing further and taking another step in becoming a super #economy. This means change for the better. A nation only changes when its people change and their mindset evolves. These can be small or big changes, verbal or non-verbal changes, behavioural or attitudinal changes. Here is a powerful ad by Liberty on this Independence Day that makes you pause and reflect. The voiceover by Piyush Mishra does justice to what is being said. I also like the wordplay and the use of the brand name to talk about Azadi - Liberty. The video will surely get buzz, eyeballs and earned media. It is already being shared on #socialmedia. Not sure how much of that would translate into #sales, but sometimes brands need #salience to come back into the consideration set.

#advertising #communications #kunalviews #brands #momentmarketing #contentmarketing #earnedmedia

Friendship Day - Beyond Humans

This year, Friendship Day was celebrated in many parts of the world either on 30th July or on the first Sunday of August. Irrespective of the date, there were #brands who came up with their own videos and social media posts to be a part of the conversation. 

One piece of work that really stood out for me was a short and lovely video from Sony BBC Earth. Staying true to what their channel is all about, the video captures beautiful moments between humans and animals and ends with the lines:

Life is beautiful when you're friends with nature. Happy Friendship Day. 

I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did.

CHANDRAYAAN-2: BRANDS CELEBRATE THE LAUNCH!

On 22nd July, 2019, ISRO launched Chandrayaan-2, its second lunar mission and the entire country of India celebrated this moment with great excitement! 

A successful landing would make #India the fourth country to achieve this feat after USSR, USA and China! This was clearly the topic that was #trending on all social media platforms yesterday, and brands were quick to latch onto it and make an interesting post out of it. The trick and magic of moment marketing is about taking the trend and integrating it with either your product or your positioning. Not all brands are able to do this. You need quick thinking, creative minds, fast approvals and a bit of risk taking ability. From all the brand work that I saw, I have compiled and put together on a single image, the ones that really stood out for me:
L to R (Top to Bottom) First row: Ford, Amul, Mumbai Indians
Middle Row: Bisleri, Softovac, Vicks, Manforce, Frylo
Last Row: SpiceJet, Mountain Dew, Colgate, Lotus Herbals, Parle-G and Ola

Were there any others that you saw and found amazing?

#momentmarketing #contentmarketing #chandrayaan2 #brands #positioning #kunalviews #opportunitymarketing #trends #moon #isro

Completion of a Decade: 10 Years and this is where we are!

It was the second half of 2003 and most of us were worried of what lies ahead. Within a few months, our two year Post Graduation Programme would come to an end and each one of us was keen to get placed. With a batch size of 88 students, everyone had their share of fear, doubts, nervousness and all the other feelings that one gets before an important exam! There were questions on which companies would come on campus and which would not. There were meetings that took place with the Placement Committee where tempers ran high, with each one expressing his or her insecurity disguised in the form of a loud tone or argumentative statement. 

Today, as I write this, I smile at all of that as a decade has passed since we graduated. 

I smile at the fear that we had within us. There were questions that popped in each of our heads like:

• ‘Will I get a job?’
• ‘Will I be able to earn decently?’
• ‘I love brands. Will I be able to manage brands ever?’
• ‘Advertising is my love. Will companies allow me to show my creative or strategic side?’

All these questions and many more have been answered and have lost relevance. With the completion of a decade, when I look around, I see my batch mates and my people from my senior batch who have done phenomenally well across companies, countries, sectors, industries and brands. I see people with wonderful careers.

There are some who took the plunge and went the entrepreneurial route, few others who have been with their first company till date, there are some who still felt that they wanted to study more and went ahead and did another course/another programme, a few decided to get married and stay at home, a few decided to become writers. Some even managed to get very senior roles in the organisations that they are working for. 

So depending on who is looking at them with what lens, their level of success may differ as measurement of success is always relative and a point of perspective. How you see someone and how I see someone may be completely different and each one’s point of view is true in their own eyes. 

According to me, all of us have done quite well and all the trepidation that existed back then was useless. I remember going back to MICA a couple of years back as a Guest Speaker in the Alumni meet and I was asked to share my journey with the students. I said “Irrespective of whatever I may share about my journey, the reality is that all of you will find or create your own paths and ten years down the line, when you do look back, you will be proud of the distance that you have travelled. At that point of time, whatever I am saying today will seem like a distant memory in the past as no one else except you yourself will be able to decide where you reach and how you feel about that journey!”

Personally, it feels great to have completed a decade of corporate life. I know that I have a long way to go ahead, the destination is still far away but I am enjoying the ride, enjoying the wind as I traverse this journey with no idea of what lies ahead. 

I also feel happy, inspired and delighted to see some of my friends doing work which I know that I can’t even imagine doing and it feels wonderful to see each of them continuing on their beautiful journey where they cross different milestones at different phases at their own pace. 

I would conclude by saying:

Completion of a Decade: 10 Years and this is where we are!

Does your brand give the SPA benefit?

Marketing is not like mathematics. There is no set formula that will help you in arriving at a final answer and being able to prove that the theorem is right.

Marketing is a lot about trial and error, individual personalities, conviction and confidence, guts and gumption, risks and courage, fundamentals and basics and much more. 

There are enough and more books out there that promise you marketing gyaan and marketing knowledge with each one coming up with their own way of building brands. I have also read a few and I still intend to read a few more. There is no harm in getting to know different views and perspectives that exist out there for a subject as wide and as abstract as marketing. 

But over the years, I have also picked up my own understanding of brand building and what works. Instead of giving lot of theory and corporate jargon, if I could offer you one tip of how to build a brand, then my suggestion would be that your brand can only be successful if it offers the SPA benefit. 

Now stop scratching your head and wondering that if your brand has got nothing to do with salons or massage or SPAs, how can it offer the benefit of the SPA. This SPA benefit that I am talking about is not what you are thinking. 

SPA in this context means:

S – Salience

P – Performance

A – Advantage

Now that I have taken care of your doubt and you have stopped considering me to be talking like a lunatic, let me elaborate on what I mean.

A brand has to offer the SPA benefit to become successful and stay successful. Let us understand this a bit more in detail:

Salience – Irrespective of how big a brand may already be, the brand will lose traction with its consumers, if it does not spend enough and be visible and salient in the minds of consumers. People often ask me why big brands like Coca Cola or Nike need to advertise as everyone knows them and thinks about them when making a purchase. My answer to them is that, as brands stop advertising, they start losing share of mind and that is when the downfall of a brand begins. Share of Mind is a critical aspect as it plays a crucial role in the purchase decision at the store and salience helps in driving share of mind, which leads to share of the wallet of the consumer. 

Performance – You can spend millions of dollars on your brand across mediums, but all of that money is money down the drain if your brand does not perform in line with what it promises. Positioning of a brand has to be chosen after lot of consideration because this positioning that a brand takes, forms the barometer by which a consumer judges the performance of a brand. This combination of positioning and performance then helps in forming the perception of the brand in the minds of the consumers. So it is critical for brands to ensure that they perform what they promise. 

Advantage – It is a competitive world out there and market conditions like a monopoly do not exist anymore. Sectors, industries and categories that see great growth and profitability will always attract more and more new players. Amidst such clutter and din, it is absolutely critical that your brand has a competitive advantage over the other brands, and the consumers should be able to tangibly feel or see that advantage. This will allow you to stay ahead of competitors who will always try to pull you down and overtake you.

So brand building basically starts from identifying the advantage that your brand has over your competition. This advantage should then be converted into positioning of the brand and monies should be spent behind that, to drive the positioning in the minds of consumers and building salience of the brand. This would ideally lead to trials or repeat of your brand and over time, the performance of the brand will help in building the perception of the brand and thereby the brand itself. 

Once again, I would like to conclude by reiterating the fact that you can build a successful brand only if your brand offers the SPA benefit. 

Marketing with Ps or Marketing with a C?

Pick up any marketing book and chances are, that what Philip Kotler had proposed in his marketing theories is what everyone else is also propagating. What that means is that every book/every author/every marketer will tell you about the importance of the four Ps and how it still holds relevance even after so many years. 

I also entered the world of marketing with the same belief but over the years, my thinking and belief has changed and evolved. While I do not negate the importance of these four Ps, one important thing that no marketing book or theory tells you is about the importance of a C in between all these Ps. The C that I am talking about is that of CONVICTION. 

Yes my dear friends, Conviction is as important an element of marketing as any other. If you are not convinced about what you are doing then no amount of marketing can help you to see success, whether it is a product innovation, a consumer promotion or a campaign for your brand. 

When you think of conviction, the first name that comes to mind is that of Steve Jobs. He showed lot of conviction in the product idea and design that he believed in. Even when no one could fathom the existence of things like the iPod, iPad and the iPhone, he persisted with his conviction, made others believe in it and turned Apple into the success that it is. 

The dream of the Wright brothers to fly and give this world a machine that can take you in the air was built on the solid pillar of conviction. So was every other product innovation that change the dynamics of the market. 

While consumers and markets may or may not give you insights, directions and feedback, it is your own conviction that will help you in moving forward your brand and your market share. But remember conviction does not come alone. With conviction, you need lot of patience and the ability to be challenged and yet hold your ground. There will always be people who will try to prove what you are doing as a failure or as something that is not working and that is when the conviction should not waver and rather come out much stronger to tone down all such doubting critics. That is when you will stand tall and be seen as someone who delivers whatever be the circumstances. 

So guys, go out there with complete conviction and make a success of whatever you are working on! 

DLF Emporio - luxury with a capital L

If you want to indulge yourself and luxury is what’s on your mind, then just head to DLF Emporio in New Delhi. It is a mall that defines class, luxury and prestige. It will make you want to soak in its elegance, exclusivity and aesthetics every time you visit.

Located in South Delhi’s tony Vasant Kunj area, DLF Emporio houses 74 International brandsalong with 111 Indian designer brands and other lifestyle brands under a single roof. Designed by architect Mohit Gujral in a five-star setting and conceptualised around two dramatic atrium courtyards with skylight, it has openness as its central theme.

Some of the top-end international brands that form a part of DLF Emporio are Alfred Dunhill,Bottega Veneta, Canali, Cartier, DKNY, Ermenegildo Zegna, Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Hugo Boss, Jimmy Choo, Louis Vuitton, Tods, Tom Ford, Versace, etc. These are brands that fashionistas love to flaunt and they spend considerable time and money here in a bid to make their lives more glamorous.

If you have a big Indian wedding coming up, then once again this mall is the place to head to, as you get a plethora of choices - Abu Jani & Sandeep Khosla, Abraham & Thakore, Ashima Leena, Ashish Soni, Kimaya, Malini Ramani, Manish Arora, Rina Dhaka, Rohit Bal, Satya Paul, Tarun Tahiliani. Any designer worth his or her money has a presence here. With so many options to choose from, you definitely won’t go back complaining that you did not get what you wanted.

After some retail therapy, one is bound to get hungry. Fret not, as they have taken good care of that aspect as well. They have a SET’Z – Restaurant and Bar, spread over an area of 19000 square feet featuring six world cuisines – Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Italian and Indian.  If you are in the mood for a quick coffee or an ice-cream, then head straight to Café DLF Emporio on the Ground Floor in the lobby area and enjoy the experience of Palm trees and their lovely sink in sofas. During the Delhi winters, if you want the lovely rays of the sun from the terrace, then you should order your pastries from On the Go and enjoy the weather.

All of this put together makes this the best luxury mall that India has to offer. If you have not visited yet, make sure that it's on your agenda the next time you're out and about or visiting Delhi.