Nike Just doing it for its consumers!

New York Times carried this interesting article on how Nike is shifting its attention from conventional marketing to doing more for its consumers

Of course size matters!

Noticed that bar of Cadbury's 5 star looking alot less than it used to!or that packet of Fritos Lays having a handful of chips!I'm sure you've noticed this,"YOUR PAYING THE SAME PRICE FOR
IT!!
To beat the rising cost of raw materials, more and more consumer goods companies are taking advantage of the amended Standards of Weights and Measures Rules,1977 to reduce quantity without changing the price.

To make the tale a little more woe filled manufacturers like HUL,ITC Foods and Parle have increased their prices whilst reducing the weight!!so be ready to shell out more for a lot less.With statements from the Godrej consumer products Ltd, COO RK Sinha like,"Our consumers feedback shows they realised the weight is less only after they bought the product home and started using it" and"there is a resistance from consumers to price hikes,especially for low end packs,Pravin Kulkarni,Marketing Manager Parle Products, only goes to show that marketing minds are gettin more devious by the hour!!!

Gettin in the loop!!

When BPL Mobile launched its 'Get in the Loop' campaign as apart of their re branding exercise, i honestly didn't quite like the campaign, it seemed quite cluttered and the all encompassing 'LOOP' managed to get more importance than BPL Mobile.

Just the other day i came across an article on something really interesting that BPL had done, wouldn't really have expected BPL Mobile to be the first few to ride on the digital wave but turns out they did just that.
BPL Mobile launched an innovative online marketing strategy wherein they asked their users to upload their group pics on the site www.getintheloop.in and the winners pics would be put up on a billboard promoting BPL Mobile ‘get in the loop’.

Super duper leveraging of the internet!Who wouldn't want to see themselves on a hoarding!While BPL got the faces they wanted, brand recall, more interactivity than before.Maybe if this online campaign was backed up with more on ground and social networking activity maybe there would have been much more hype around this marketing strategy

No A sale here, not a sale there, not a sale anywhere :(

I love the festive season!More than buzz than surrounds the festive preparations I'm guilty of looking forward to the Mega sales!Dhamaka offers!!the 70% offs!!

This year sadly i cant see too much of that,there are the discounts,sales and offers but nothing that one wouldn't already find anything during the year.It seems like the festive season has lost its sales appeal with marketers.Across sectors,October-December sales are down 7-10% as marketers create events out of Valentine's day,Womans day,Friendship day,Mothers day and others prompting consumers to spend a packet on each of these occasions. Consumer durables a segment that once clocked in record sales during the festive season are the hardest hit.
According to R Zutshi, India deputy MD,"The October-December season now accounts for 25-30% of our annual sales down from 40% three years ago"

The key reasons for this are:

• Globalization

With the dawn of globalization came high disposable incomes,increased consumer awareness and reference for new high quality advanced products.

• Buyers market

No longer is it a sellers market where the customer has little or no choice and is subject to high prices and low quality.Today custmers demand quality prices and with cut throat competition from international players sellers have no way out other than to sell their products at reasonable prices

• Youth driving purchases

The Indian youth today are a techno savvy bunch, well aware not just of Indian trends,products and prices but their international equivalents as well.They constanlty demand better quality, more advanced technology and lower prices for the products they purchased.The chances that a seller could dupe this lad or lass are unlikely