Fusion- Sun signs and brands- What brand are you?

Fusion- Sun signs and brands- What brand are you?

By no means i am a astrologer, by no means i want to hurt anyone's opinion but yes by all means i am expressing here fusion of sun signs and brands.

Sounds Interesting?

Fusion is the way forward or the future, Cars will be convertible, they will be flying, one remote control will operate all the devices at home, multipurpose wives or husbands will be in demand ( is that fusion?, anyway).

Here i am trying to explain fusion between brands and sun signs, common thing between them is they behave in certain way which makes core of both and then they do layering of characterstics or augment them so as to make themselves sellable.

There may be characteristics which common across the fusion hierarchy, i am just touching the core characteristics of both- Brands and sun signs.

Here starts the fusion

Pisces Brands

Having unmatchable ability to connect with people, eye for detail, emotional connect,sensitive, innovative, solution provider,catalyst,ability to differentiate fake vs real, Creative and articulation are typicaly features of these brands. for instance, Cadbury falls into Pisces brands category, since its inception,cadbury have connected well its audience, building a connect and then taking them beyond chocolates. From Celebrations in the cricket ground, replacement of sweets, highlighting occasions in human life cycle like birthday's , marriages etc , shubhaarambh, kuch meetha ho jaaye,  Cadbury now have moved beyond chocolates.Tanishq is also following same steps however its a bit more rational due to its category- gold.

  
Leo Brands

Committed, focused, fierce lovers, daring,  Owning one complete segment, decision makers are the features of these brands. Harley Davidson is one such brand, look at its buyers! oh boy! distinct! these brands believe in setting new standards for the people. They don't settle for ordinary, these brands have define set of customers, not everyone is their customer, not everyone can afford being a Leo brand. These brands love their customers like anything, they make them feel special. Leo brands are head turners.

Sagittarius brands  

 Sagittarius brands are fun brands, they love to party, there is largely no dull moment in these types. they remember tiny details of its customers. These brands have good sense of humor, meet a Sagittarius brand and they will bring smile to your face. They don't believe in repetition but can easily be mislead. Mentos, Appy, Samsung are Sagittarius brands, these brands believe in latest fashion yet simplicity. they are the perfect blend of art and modernity. 
 
 
Scorpion brands

These brands have many similarities with leo brands however they find themselves filled with too much overload on their head. Tit for tat is their philosophy, these are most passionate brands, they are straightforward lovely brands who love to tell you on the face. You cant lie to a scorpion brand, they understand before you imagine. You will not how much they love or hate you unless you experience these brands. Coke is such type of brand, carrying its legacy since ages. These brands want to achieve so much in so little time hence prioritization becomes key for these brands.



Cancer brands

Oh Boy! these brands needs security from all nukes and corners of the world, These brands are safe players, they do not take risks and believe in harmony in the system. They are most caring brands that one can not imagine. Meet a Cancer brand and they will shower all the love to you. These are brands which strictly follow the institution of marriage between a brand and its customers. However , due to high interest in seeking security from the world, they become vulnerable. Bajaj is a cancer brand who loves the idea of building one product ( remember hamara bajaj) and tend to rule with that offering.

Aries brands

Individualistic, curious, always eager to know more about everything, fun to be with are core characteristics of these brands. These brands always tend to prove something to themselves and to the world and thus perceived as self centered brands. These brands love themselves more than anybody else. They are a good competitor. Apple comes under Aries brand.

Taurus brands

These brands believe in becoming selective in nature and these are no nonsense brands. These brands believe in friendship with limited no of customers vs a large no of people. Once understood, These brands have element of fun in them. Hints of dominance and authority, never give up attitude, focused, committed, hard working are the characteristics of these brands. Nike,Adidas & IBM come under Taurus brands. They mean business.

 Gemini brands

These brands know where to park there money, they judge people very well and respond accordingly. They are loving and cunning, both at one time. These brands have good sense of business and know how to scale up quickly. These brands have hint of meanness in their behavior hence these brands take more time to connect with people. They can pull a crowd on their own and showcase leadership with a defined period of time. LG comes under Gemini brands.
 
Libra Brands 

Charming, Collaborators, Good customer managers. These brands know how to connect with people without actually being connected. They use beauty,charm and heart ( soft skills) as their weapon and take the mind space of the customers. They believe in fair world and continuously work in bringing the equilibrium. these brands love compliments and are the best flirts in the all types of brands. however they generally are poor judge of people. They need validation from the customers on a continuous basis.P&G, Uniliver,, Facebook are types of libra brands.

Aquarius brands

Independent, lively, go getter,  Peacemakers, largely clear in their head. These brands are more focused in their approach towards their customers. They are truth tellers who believe in communicating at the right time and do not go preaching about themselves. they have a good connect with its customers. They believe in expanding their horizon with experience. They have all the weapons in their Armour. They believe in substance than talking big. Google is an Aquarius type of brand which by its strengths in clarity moving up the ladder.


Capricorn brands

Simplicity, high self esteem,fast, experimenters. These brands do not believe in disturbance and have their own set path. These brands believe in systems and procedures. These brands tend to make an impact on overall society. They believe in patterns and studying them. Logic is the key ingredient in their approach. They foster calculative experiments. These brands generally are more likely to get success if they decide on something. They do not believe in disruption and maintain harmony by being effective. Microsoft is such type of brand.

Virgo brands

These are the brands who believe in give and take. these are hard working for its customers. These brands tend to keep lot of information within themselves and seldom use it for maximum use. They believe in making immediate customer happy and satisfied. they often stick to one direction and continue walking that path. Nokia & Toyota is such type of brand.

Views expressed are personal only and people may have different opinions.


So, million dollar question, Which fusion are you?


Vikas Sachdeva

  

   




     

Is Social Media making us anti social?

Is Social Media making us anti social?

No, I am not trying to answer headline of this blog, I am just attempting to give my inputs how social media has become part of our lives and how people are behaving on social media platforms.

One thing i would like to highlight is Social Media is not facebook, twitter and linkedin though these have become definition of social media. Social Media is a platform on which people express their views. Tomorrow anybody can come with some innovation in the way people express which will be more than likes, comments, Retweets etc.

Lets talk about nature of Facebook and twitter and LinkedIn to understand more about them. By nature i mean the way these three platforms behave. Facebook is more visual , Visual cues play important role when people express their views.You know research says blue color is soothing to eyes, it is calm in nature, hence Facebook color scheme is blue. Due to its nature it engages people in pictorial way which means people tend to post pictures on this platform. I loved one line somebody mentioned "The urge in the people to speak/express themselves is the reason of success of this social media". People want to tell about themselves, what they are doing at any given moment and want others to acknowledge it. Thats why more no of likes, comments gives people a high.

Twitter is a different phenomenon. In 140 characters, it forces people to write/express relevant. Text/word is a hero, people think high about usage of right words to express themselves. Hence it is more of text. If you are hyper active on twitter, people don't mind much as one tweets in less space and can tweet more in number however if a person is hyper active on Facebook , pressure of likes/comments makes him feel that people will not respond beyond one point.

Linkedin is a different animal altogether, it supposedly captures professional aspect of a person, his career, his connections. It is basically used by professionals and a kind of no- nonsense platform.

here is a catch, 3 major platforms, different nature! and a most of the people behave differently in all these platforms!

I am a different person in all the three platforms. By nature , i am a content creator not a passive reader. On facebook, i tend to write humor/witty lines as i like entertaining people, on twitter, i play a role of a observer where i tweet about my observations in any topic , be it advertising, brand, politics, bollywood, cricket, management etc. On linkedin, I like to read articles, participate in discussions apart from interacting with right people who have similar interests.

CAN A SINGLE PERSON BE DIFFERENT ON DIFFERENT PLATFORMS?  

In my perspective it is possible , provided you are reasonably active on all these platforms.

I have few other observations:

1. I am beginning to have perception that passive readers on these platforms are increasing.They would scroll down the page and like to read the content of others than posting their own.

2. Since the updates are real time, that gives other people a kick to read more  about other peoples' post.

3. Social media platforms are acting a vent for the people to express their emotions & feelings.

4. These platforms are good for brand awareness not selling of product/service.  

5. With the adding of people in their friend list, people believe they are in touch with each other, but that is not true, through these platforms people have become more accessible. People who spend more time on these platforms are increasingly becoming disconnected since they are not putting efforts on meeting people but interact on these platforms.

Facebook asks " What is on your mind"

Twitter asks " what is happening"

Whatsapp and BBM are too playing their role.

One of the professor in my college mentioned it to me once " Always make efforts to meet people, you will learn and unlearn"

And I thought I am in touch with people though this internet based platforms!!


Vikas Sachdeva 

My latest blog- my dwarka visit

My Dwarka Experience

All the people mentioned in this blog are real and hold resemblance to situations. No feelings are hurt in writing this blog, only various incidents which happened during my visit to dwarka have been described.

I must say God is kind to me, my visits to these religious places have been spontaneously planned and have been executed with ease. They say " More you plan, it never happens" so just spur of the moment and i executed darshan of dwarkadheesh and nageshwar.

There are 12 jyotilings of shiva in india and after covering 10 of them there was a strong urge in me to cover rest 2. While Shiva has devastated kedarnath , only one jyotiling which i could cover in next  1 year was "Nageshwar" in dwarka.

I reached Rajkot from Mumbai at 8 pm and as suggested by my respected seniors, i went to railway station for retiring room, since my train from Rajkot to dwarka was at 3 am in the morning next day, i started roaming around in rajkot city at 9 pm. With silence all over, less crowd and small shops, i was away from madness of mumbai, people seemed to have lot of time for each other and seemed in love with each other talking. I just spotted a panipoori thela who was staring at me from a distance asking me to consume him entirely. being a golgappa lover ( its called golgappa in Punjab and delhi, Puchka in east, Gupchup in raipur, Pani ke Patase in UP) , i was defeated and soon found myself standing next to thela eating so good panipooris ( 8 pcs in Rs 10, worth mentioning). Then i returned to my room and started waiting for the train.

Being a keen observer, my mind was thinking about gujrati people ( i love them for what they are, culture, food is awesome). I was thinking in a city like rajkot if you are not building relationships with local community and get word of mouth about your brand,  no matter how much money you spend in advertising, a brand will face hard time.

I reached dwarka station at 7.30 am and then i witnessed few interesting people and stories:

Auto driver- The networker

After seeing my face, this guy noticed skillfully that i am looking for a hotel and help in planning my day's itenery. after he agreed for rs 40 for a drop to dwarka temple and help in hotel, he started talking ( gujratis love that) , in 15 minutes, he told me all mythology behind dwarka city and his rates if i wanted to take his auto for the day. After being impressed ( shocked!) by the autowala's knowledge, he stopped in front of a hotel. based on appearnce i denied, he insisted if i could see the rooms first and then decide. I bowed down , he was taking his commsion from hotel guy after i agreed for the room. he left the hotel with a winning smile ( money from me and hotel guy).

Hotel owner

He was in hotel business for last 10 years. The valuation of his place had increased 100 times from the price he had bought this hotel long back. Wondering how did i know? he just told me as i was getting room keys. I was surprised as with just a hello, he told me his story of life. he then narrated the way he does business focusing on small revenues then increasing the prices in the season ( navratri and janamashtmi)

Dwarka Darshan

I was mesmerized to see the temple, such a huge old strucure ( 5000 years old reportedly), my speed was slow in the temple, i wanted to see each and every brick, wanted to hear every story, then somebody told me this temple was a court for lord Krishna, this was his office from where he used to operate. Krishna was such a politician, he used every technique to win mahabharata, create his own aura, anyway thats a seprate story altogether. I was told by my wife that dwarka is one of the 4 dham. I did darshan of dwarkadheesh, thanked him for everything and like every indian had my list of wishes ready to ask from him.

Then i was taken for a tour of 5 hours covering 4 locations which had their own story. the good thing about travelling is you get to know many things , many people, many stories.

Nageshwar

as i mentioned earlier, i was the fortunate to cover 11th jyotilinga of shiva out of 12, i was simply in love with the temple, they had constructed a big shiva statue outside the temple. There was no major rush and my purpose of visiting dwarka was complete as i met shiva.

Gopi talab

story goes like this, Post mahabharata, Arjuna was in lot of awe of himself thinking he is the best with his Dhanush, Krishna being the best judge thought of correcting arjun. he sent 1,00,108 Gopis with arjun to be travllelled from dwarka to Mathura. krishna with his power created few people who had a battle with arjun and arjun lost and 1,00,108 gopis immersed themselves in a pond which is now called Gopi talab.i saw that talab and was ready for next spot.

Bhent Dwarka

They said it was home of krishna, he used to live with his family, this dwarka was mae of gold and was immersed in sea by krishna fearing people will fight for gold when he will not be around. sudama came there with some rice and gave it to krishna, hence name ,'Bhent dwarka" , we covered almost 25 minutes in the sea to reach to this place.

Then there was a Rukmani temple which had its own story.

Back to hotel tired but satisfied with the day, i slept and woke up next day , covered 6 hours in bus travelling inside gujrat and then flight back to mumbai from rajkot.

 This experience of 1 day was eventful, heard many stories, many people.


"Pappa, main aavi gayu" , i heard this voice at mumbai airport, somebody calling home.


"Traveling is like a book, the one who has not traveled , is on one page only throughout"


Vikas sachdeva

I am a customer

I AM A CUSTOMER

I am a customer, lot many companies approach me daily, I get flooded by calls from credit card companies, everybody is trying to give me money, every product is claiming to change my life, every brand takes care of my comfort, whether my room is cool or not, whether there are mosquitoes in my room, whether my telephone bill is more, whenever I walk on the road, every hoarding is telling me I am the best, when I sit down and read newspaper, then also every brand is shouting I am the best! Everybody is decreasing prices for me, giving me plenty of discounts.

They have made me the king.

What they want in return is loyalty , I should stick to them forever but the problem is how I can be loyal to all the brands, so I asked all of them a question.

Are you loyal to me?

No brand spoke, silence!

I asked few more questions!

Have you understood me well enough?

Do you know what problems I face daily? Have you tried to understand what makes me happy? Do you  know which color I like? Do you know what my family loves the most? No, you are just throwing some freebies for me, some discounts for me, ok, I will be happy for that moment when I have to pay less price for buying your product, but in the long run, when I will have choice, I will move to the product which understands me better! I will move to brand who genuinely thinks about me, plays with me, display love for me when required, feels happy for me and you thought that you can play with greed forever! NO!

What Special you are doing for me?

Tell me, why I should buy you? What special you have done for me? Just spend some time will with my family and you will realize that what it means when somebody sends a birthday cake on my son’s birthday? When pizza guy comes, takes the money and says “ apni family ke saath khana, acha lagega!

When I am sitting in a flight and attendant plays with my daughter!

When doctor says, “ Koi baat nahi paisa phir kabhi aa jaayega, aap healthy raho”!

Try to do special for me then I will feel special about you!

Have you made my life simple or complex?

I really feel bad when you don’t mention delivery charges extra explicitly whenever I order online, you try to fool me by showing lesser price and then adding huge amount of delivery charges! Mention the price directly and say ‘delivery charges are included in the price’, I will be clear what I will have to pay. You do multiple verifications when you have to sell a credit card but when due to slow internet , transaction fails, then you say that we will revert to you in 7 days

Why 7 days?

Why can’t you check things online and call me next day and update me with the status.

Why inspite of heavy luxury tax, service tax paid by me in your restaurant, your waiter returns the change in coins? So as I can leave few coins for him.

Why don’t you try to simplify my life, once you do that, we both will grow!

Don’t overpromise if you can’t deliver!

Don’t overpromise, you don’t know how many people apply your fairness cream because you promise that they will be fair someday, Instead say it improves skin texture.

Deliver the parcel in time committed to the customer; someone may be waiting for the parcel.

Don’t say yes when you know it is no.

Don’t think I am angry at you; I just want to say that if you are seeking loyalty from me, then you should also be loyal to me!

Sincerely

A customer!

Apple and 4P's of Marketing

 

Apple- not following 4Ps of Kotler?

Out of many thought provoking lines, I just started thinking about a tweet from one of my respected senior.

“Apple, a Failure of traditional 4P’s of Marketing and yet a success!

I analyzed the same, I began to run through 4P’s and yes, bang on, it seemed true! And I was convinced of greatness of apple brand who had challenged the traditional theory.

But there were some counter views when I discussed the same with one of another respected senior who was of the opinion that it was not true.

Two different people, same tweet, two opinions, I was confused! I wanted to get to depth!

View

Product- Apple has not done any innovation in products, portable music player was not launched by them, Apple may seem to be innovative company and brand but they have beautifully done innovations in product design and user experience, all perfect! If you compare features of apple phone with competitors, features are same or even less, so nothing great features wise! An Ok product!

Promotions: an apple has never promoted its products, only word of mouth has been the sole reason for its success (because of good product design and user experience), one may argue what is the need of promotion if your product is selling well on word of mouth ( highest form of marketing) but apple has never focused on promotions.

Pricing- Apple products are way to highly priced (one may argue its their pricing strategy) but why? what does the product/brand hold to deserve such high pricing? Great product, no? Great value, no? Great features, no? Why then he is charging so high pricing? 

Place- Apple has been purposefully denying its availability of products in India, a country who can give its sales a great spurt, a country with affordability? Why such demarcation?

Overall, a sidelined view of 4P’s, but apple brand /product is a success story in itself! It’s a league, it’s a community, and it’s the pride of owning apple products which is driving its sales.

Counter View

Product- it’s a brilliant product with such a great user experience, experience is driving people crazy and people are buying it, wanting it, waiting for it! What else a product can offer, experience only which is there in apple, one up for apple product!

Promotions: It’s a company strategy not to promote its products so extensively when their product is selling like hot cakes. Why promote? Word of mouth is enough.Who said a brand needs to promote?, it’s a calculated decision and in some ways of the other , it is creating required word of mouth promotions required to sell the brand., two up for apple.

Pricing: it’s the experience for which people are paying it, high or low doesn’t matter and they are ready to pay much more.

Place- it might be possible that there is enough demand outside and they are not able to match the production levels, they may be wanting to ramp up production levels to cater to that demand and then possibly make easily availability in india.

What a Magic , apple has created, I have not figured out yet, what made me spend on iphone , I don’t know, was it experience? Was it the features? Was it word of mouth created by others?

Yet lot to learn from apple, a masterpiece!

Vikas sachdeva

Telecaller

I am an Telecaller

T- Hello ,I am calling from XYZ bank, you are offered a free credit card sir!

Abhi kisi card ki zaroorat nahi hai, bang!!!

T- Hello, am I speaking to Mr Rahul , this call is regarding personal loan, abhi koi requirement hai sir?

Aap baad mein phone kariye, bang!

T-Hello, XYZ life insurance ne aapke liye ek nayi policy nikali hai , aap interested hain

Kitni baar kaha hai mujhe koi requirement nahi hai, bang!

These were few calls from a telecaller’s desk; imagine how many times he/she has to undergo the pain of insult, pain of not being spoken nicely, pain of not being heard.

Just imagine, you are being spoken to rudely most of the time in a day, how you will feel!

Telecaller’s have to wear plastic smile on their face daily for hours.

·         On phone for 10 hours- Its their job

Telecallers have to be on phone for 10 hours a day, will you hold a phone for over 1 hour daily? Speaking the same lines every time you call? They don’t have the option, its their job. All that we can do is speaking to them nicely.

·         After sometime it becomes emotionless

After the morning hours, you observe the tiredness in telecaller’s voice, you will realize that there is no emotion in the voice, it’s like robot speaking, a tired robot wanting somebody, somebody to talk to them, at least hear what they are saying.

·         A Polite no will make them happy

If you don’t want it, then say it politely, they have not done any crime by calling you, it was their misfortune that you didn’t want their product/service, don’t punish them for that. Say No, Politely.

Remember we need their products/services at some points in life, it’s the way we speak that matters.

Vikas Sachdeva

World of small things

First Scene – Me with empty trolley

Location- Food Bazaar, HUB Mall, Goregaon

Scene opens with wife having monthly grocery list and a pen, She said “Let’s start with kitchen items first “& the warrior was ready to put items in the trolley and move as per directions given by her.

Sugar 2 kg, Besan 500 g, Pulses 500 g, 10 Shampoo sachets, 50 g Face wash, 2 kg Surf Excel…..

I tried my best to put my point across “Why are you buying such a small qty of each and everything, but not large packs and we can survive for longer time”?

After repeated efforts, I got an answer “15 din ke baad phir aa jaayenge” and this happened months after months and I decided to understand this psyche and started observing a normal shopper behavior across modern as well as traditional retail.

Thought Came: When shopping, why we intend to buy smaller packs, less qty of items?

Possible reasons I could found:

Less Money Shell out at one go ( Less Risk)

As Indians, we are taught to save money (save, save, save) leading to point that money in hand is more important if required in contingency. Its life savior, due to this, we tend to hold money with us more than we can spend. So now

10 Sachet of shampoo of Rs 2 each, Money spent= Rs 20 vs Rs 35 bottle of more qty at one go.

So Risk is less, a Psychological savings.

Trial

Buying smaller packs gives a consumer opportunity to try that product, if it suits you, then you can buy bigger packet later. Largely it is there in personal care products.

A small 100 g Masala will convey its message whether it is good or bad, so no buying the same next time.

Unitization

This is very interesting Point, during my visit to Vapi with my Head of Marketing, Mr Alok Kapoor, he taught me one interesting concept.

Commodity--------Product……….Brand

Companies charge premium when a commodity moves to product and then to a brand.

He gave one example, Sugar is essentially a commodity, when one buys the same in its loose form from a grocery store, and he will get it at say Rs 40/kg.

When a company packs the sugar in good plastic bags and changes the form to sugar cubes, it can now be unitized, 1 packet- 2 cubes, 2 packets-40 cubes, company charges the premium from a customer as a price of changing the form (cubes) now same 1 kg sugar is now Rs 45 / kg,( Liquid drops to be more costly as Rs 60/kg)

When it moves from product to a brand (Company has created its imagery of quality, trust, endorsed through brand ambassadors), perceived benefit is very high , customer is ready to pay more premium of branded sugar Rs 80/ kg.

A customer will always pay premium to a brand if his perceived price that he needs to pay is lesser than product’s price (That is separate point, will write about it later)

So unitization (smaller packs) has made customer believe that they are paying for a unit than whole pack.

When asked about price, vegetable sellers always say price of lesser qty,

8 rupaiye pao ( 250 g) than Rs 32 per kg, if he says Rs 32 per kg, customer will say, Mehnga hai and will walk away, but with Rs 8 per 250 g, vegetable seller has made sure that customer can buy less also.

(Smart tactics but with logic to it)

No Brand loyalties

Gone are the days when people use to stick to one brand, with hundreds of options available in each and every category, people tend to switch brand loyalties, if they buy larger packs, they will have to stick to that product for a longer time binding him not to use other products.

Last scene- I was seen standing in long queue to pay the bill and I was getting ready to lift 4 heavy bags of grocery…..

Vikas Sachdeva