Ashish Gupta Silla

Surf the web, save the world http://tab.gladly.io/?r=11332311

Well there have been many brands which have been a success or a failure in the recent past.For any successful brand there are three things which a brand should have:-

*First is Consistency: Focused, consistent branding makes it clear to customers what they can expect from you. We talk a lot about omnichannel marketing, and a focused brand is at the heart of this concept. You need to be presenting consistent images and messaging to customers in each of your marketing channels, whether it be your website, social media, email, advertising, signage or the in‑store experience.There should be a vision statement,value proposition and Positioning statement for your brand.

*Second thing is Community: Once you have a clear definition of your brand, you can zero in on the right market for your business. You can target customers that share the values, behaviors and personality traits you have defined for your organization.A well‑defined and consistent brand experience allows you to not only attract like‑minded customers but also like‑minded employees. Now you are creating a community. In this way, a strong brand clarifies how your organization behaves both externally and internally.

*Third thing is Content: Now that you have a clearly focused brand, it’s time to bring it to life. Content is the vehicle to achieve this. Good content allows you to interact with your community. You position yourself as their ally by sharing your expert knowledge through how‑to blogs, videos, webinars, infographics, eBooks etc. With this content, you are building engagement with customers and framing how they can use what you offer to fulfill their needs or desires. If your brand definition allows you to be more aggressive, you might consider email or advertising campaigns that explain why your organization is the best, or only, solution for them.

Successful Brands: Firstly let us take Virgin as a successful brand,Virgin’s personality is playful, fun, young and bright. Everything about the brand, from its advertising to its website, its staff, its stores and retail touch points like Virgin Lounges to the wacky PR stunts that founder Richard Branson regularly pulls off, has the Virgin DNA built right in.Second is MacDonald’s.McDonald’s does a fantastic job of understanding customer needs before they’re even voiced. From McVeggie burgers in India to the McArabia pita bread wrap in Morocco, McDonald’s offers unique items on their menu to suit the taste buds of each of the 119 countries that they operate in.Third one is Maggie from Nestle.It is the most popular brand in noodles in India.It is successful because it targeted the right target audience and hence made huge profit because those right people liked it.

Brands that failed: Now lets talk about brand failures.Netflix was a brand failure. Netflix lost close to 1 million customers throughout the second half of 2011 because the company failed to appreciate how strong brand loyalty is.Second was Playbook.When the PlayBook tablet debuted in 2011, there was little incentive for anyone to buy it.So it lost on sales and became a failure.Third was HTC status.The HTC Status was dubbed “the Facebook phone” and was the first smartphone to fully integrate a dedicated Facebook share button. AT&T and HTC believed the HTC Status would be snapped up by young people who spend hours on Facebook each day. However, both companies failed to realize that it’s easy to access Facebook from most mobile devices today. There is little incentive to switch to an HTC Status.

Well its not impossible to build brands without mass media,but its seen less nowdays.But yes we can do it,we can easily.I will tell you how.Firstly there are new communication channels,which in some cases allow individuals to bypass advertising as they pursue entertainment options (e.g. youtube).Secondly some people even pay a premium price to access ad free in internet as well as mobile channels. (eg gaana.com, some torrent sites).Thirdly because of limited media availability costs have been rising.Lastly,managers of certain brands in Europe have found out have found that communication through traditional mass media has been ineffective, inefficient and costly.

So how should it be done.You should let brand strategy drive your business strategy.Then you should clarify your brands identity.Afterthat you should have an identity of building brand exposure creates visibility.Lastly you should involve the customer in brand building experiences.Senior managers should drive the brand building and should actively make brand building part of their strategic plans.Egbody shop’s founder and CEO, anita Roddick, who believing that advertising is wasteful, has made her alternative brand building methods the basis of her company’s strategy.Another example is Nestle’s newly appointed CEO peter brabeck, his involvement helped launch one of the food industry’s most original experiments to bypass retailers and communicate directly with consumers.Youshould never pass on your brand strategies to an advertising agency.

“Big data” helps brands to quickly and dynamically measure customer’s response to a marketing activity. However, the danger with basing marketing decisions completely on this kind of information is that it might be turned as a negative one in the long-term brand image such as price bad publicity, etc. The results can be more on the negative/damaging side that ultimately degrade the brand.

An article in the November issue of HBR, “Don’t Let Big Data Bury Your Brand,” by Peter Horst and Robert Duboff lists the dangers of relying too heavily on big data and what can be done to reduce those risks. The article notes that major companies such as Time, Michelob, and Capital One succumbed to the trap of measuring the ROI of marketing programs using short-term markers, and their brands were significantly damaged as a result.

They suggest three ways to protect your brand from the pitfalls of big data:

1.     Develop and use long-term measures of brand equity instead of, or in addition to, short-term indicators. Factors such as perceptions and attitudes toward a brand, and loyalty for a brand are important indicators of brand equity. Also, use the common sense test. Is this program consistent with what we want the brand to stand for? (Of course, this assessment requires that the brand first have a vision that is clear, known, and accepted.)

2.     Find programs that both incorporate brand building and stimulate an immediate response. For example, General Mills adds a promotion at the end of its branding ads. Fidelity has a green navigation line that symbolizes Fidelity’s ability to put people on the right track, which bridges the gap between brand building and inspiring action.

3.     Compel the brand teams, which are usually staffed by many different types of people, to work together to create win-win programs. For marketing programs to be impactful in the near term yet still build equity over time, the perspectives and talents of each group are needed. The challenge is to create an organizational structure that allows them to collaborate successfully.

Of course, there are many ways big data can enhance a brand’s marketing efforts that carry little risk. For example, big data can be used to create strategic insights about the brand’s customer segments and behaviors. General Mills uses data to understand the sentiments of consumers who are buying for young children or those responding to cholesterol guidance from a physician. Big data can even be used to change the consumer experience like L’Oréal did with their Make Up Genius app.

The way we communicate with others has changed a big way today. Branding altogether is a dif­ferent ball game. The strat­egy that was considered the right way to build a brand just a few years back is all wrong today. Market­ers were doing a great job all these years and then came Tim Berners-Lee and changed it all. He is the man who invent­ed the ‘World Wide Web’. With more than 2 billion users the growth in the number of people using the Internet in 2013, as compared to 2000, has been 566%. That’s humongous. It’s this Inter­net which has created a unique genera­tion of consumers called the ‘Millennial’. People in the age group of 18-34 fall in this category. They are the consumers of the future and as brand builders it’s critical for us to make them believe in our brands. How­ever, this generation is very different from its parents. They live differently, decide differently, and hate being marketed to, making things very difficult for marketers. Gone are the days when you picked up a Lonely Planet or any other travel guide book to know about a new destination you wanted to travel to. Today, you just ‘google it’ and can know more about the place, and even see real time videos of the place.  If you want an education many prefer to go on­line than to a campus. In fact, even if you want to protest for a cause you do not need to go out on the streets rather you go to the Facebook page and ‘like’ it.

It’s said knowing your audience is the key to building a great brand for then you know exactly what he wants. All these years brands were built by connecting and engaging the customer at various ‘touch points’, and the traditional touch points used to be TV, print, radio, outdoor hoardings, and direct mailers. But slowly all these touch points had been changed. Today this new generation watches his favorite TV programme on YouTube, or records it on his set-top box and watches it by fast forwarding the ads. He does not listen to the radio but tunes in to his iPod, MP3 player etc. So, if this is the case then how are we going to ‘touch’ this generation? 

If you want to reach the new generation then there are certain things you need to do as follows: (a) Think digital Instead physical media.

(b) Think of mobiles instead of traditional TV. It will be playing a big role big in fu­ture and most brand building activities will happen in that area.

 (c) Forget mass, think personalization. Mass mediums like TV and print have lost a lot of their sheen. It’s mediums which can send customized messages to con­sumers that will work.

Decisions regarding product line extensions are always painful to make and are often fallen into the kind of strategic decisions that might break or make the company’s future. Hence, companies invest lot of time and at the same time a lot of thinking and research goes into these kinds of decisions. The pressure created by the competitors, product market dynamics and the brand image as perceived by the customers are the key elements that make these decisions hard to make.

The condition of the Peak Sealing Technologies (which was a leader in quality, performance and technological innovation in the adhesive and the sealant industry at that time) had faced a similar challenge in 2013 when some small regional tape producer had found some success with a cheaper, economic version of their products. And this has given rise to many questions like, was this is a threat that they should respond to? Could a company known as a technology leader in premium grades offer an economy product? If they were to offer, how it should be marketed?

A brand can be defined in many ways. It’s more than a product/service that a company offers and its intangible in nature. My take on brand is that its is a mental image that is created in the minds of customers over the years. This image once created will remain as such for a long time and is hard to kill. Hence, companies these days invest so much in brand building.

The world today is very dynamic and a lot of things change with time which makes it very hard for the companies to maintain the brand image that they want to have in the minds of their customers. Hence, companies need to evolve and adapt continuously to the changes or else it will hit the brand image partially (as in most cases) or completely. The best example for this in recent times would be the fall of ‘NOKIA’ which was the leader for almost 2 decades in the mobile market. It still has a very strong name with respect to the quality of the hardware of its mobiles but it completely lost its image with respect to the mobile software.  This clearly exemplifies the case that when companies don’t keep up their pace with the changing environment, their brand image will take a hit on certain areas, might not be on the overall components of the brand.

The crisis in Syria has unleashed one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern history. Roughly 12 million people – over half the country’s population – have been displaced by the fighting, many seeking refuge in neighboring countries. Syrian parents are faced with enormous obstacles while trying to keep their children safe and healthy.

Your gift will help World Vision meet the urgent needs of Syrian families.

Displaced Syrian families lack adequate shelter, clothing, food, and basic supplies. World Vision has scaled up our response to the crisis, and your help is needed more than ever.

$15 can provide a blanket to a refugee. $50 can provide a refugee with food for one month. $55 can provide a family with clean, safe water using a water filter. $100 can help provide a learning program for refugee children, preparing them for school. $250 can help establish a safe space for children to play and begin healing from trauma. $325 can provide newly-arrived refugees with the basics they need to survive their first month. $3,875 can keep a Child-Friendly Space running for one month, providing a safe place for 120 children to play. Without increased humanitarian aid to Syria and border countries, more refugees will flow into Europe. We must help refugees and internally displaced people, half of whom are children, by giving them the vital resources they need to keep children safe, healthy, and secure. Please pray for these children, and give a gift to help Syrian families today.

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LINKS FOR DONATION & OTHER WAYS TO HELP: http://donate.worldvision.org/syrian-refugee-crisis-1

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Today, I want to share an experience that took place in my college life while I was pursuing my engineering. I just tried to explain my point on what all it takes to do some small random act of kindness, don’t know wither I made it clear enough or not :P.  So it goes like this…

It was a hot summer, hotter than expected. As usual after the class got finished I was on my way to my room. I was walking and sweating, meanwhile once again cursing the sun for being too hot and mean to me. Suddenly I noticed an old woman, withered, exhausted, & lying on the side of the road asking for something to the other students passing by. When I was about to pass by, I thought she will ask for money or food. But to my surprise she asked me water, just a glass of water to quench her thirst. I was speechless by seeing her condition and the way she was pleading for water. Unfortunately I didn’t have water at that time. I said sorry to her and left. I think that’s what others before me also did when she asked them. Then from there till I reached my room, I was thinking about that incident. I am a 22 years young lad; I was feeling so thirsty and tiered because of the heat on that hot sunny day. I just got a thought like how hard it should be for her at that age on the road without even a shade to cover her head. Just tried to be there in her situation for a moment. From then I was not able stay helpless for her condition. I just can’t stay saying that “what could I do, I don’t have bottle at that time”. I was fighting with myself for being so inhuman to her. After a great fight I thought myself like why shouldn’t I go back to her and give water to her. Is that too hard to do? Is that going to take hours of time? Do I need to travel 100 kilometers? The answer is ‘NO’. I can go back and give her water and quench her thirst with a very little effort. So, I searched for a bottle, filled water in it, went back to her and gave her the bottle. She was very happy as if she got a million dollar check.   Yes, for that poor lady surrounded by people who felt very helpless even to give water under that hot son, it might be a million dollar check for her.

I don’t say that I had done something very great like mother Teresa or some noble charity to her. I am not even considering that as a help that I did. My point is how much effort is required to quench her thirst? Why many people even including me took that much time to react to her condition feeling so sorry for ourselves thinking that we couldn’t help since we don’t have water at that time? Why? Isn’t it our responsibility as being the great future of the nation to help that old helpless lady with a small glass of water with such a little effort of ours? Why are we not trying?

It is said that ‘Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery’. I find that little dubious at first but my trip to Anjaneri shattered those doubts into pieces. Now I am going to explain you about how all that happened to me, hoping that even your doubts about that quote will be cleared.

First of all let me introduce myself to you, I am a management graduate perusing MBA degree in Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management, Nashik. As you know that our life here is very busy and fast; with a hell lot of assignments, presentations and exams. We usually don’t get the time to enjoy the serene beauty of Nashik. But once in midst of our hectic academic schedule we got a day free for ourselves.  I thought to myself that I should go somewhere far away from college to get close to the nature and should not miss this opportunity. A like-minded friend of mine also joined me and then we decided to go for an adventure trek to Anjaneri Mountain. That day we packed our bag, tied our shoes, purchased necessary stuff, took other friend’s bike, and then headed to Anjaneri. That’s how all of it started, a journey in search of nature beauty, more than that a journey in pursuit of tranquility and a journey that’s so special and unforgettable to me.

               Anjaneri Mountain has got a lot of history and is a very famous place among both spiritualists and hikers. It’s said that it is the place where lord Hanuman, ‘Anjani’ was his mother,  thus the name Anjaneri for that mountain. It is situated around 30 KMs away from our college on the way to Trimbakeshwar, which is almost an hour drive for us. It was 11 in the morning when we started, it’s sunny but cool at the same time and the road to Anjaneri was so good with full of greenery and scenic beauty all the way. After an hour’s awesome drive we reached to the foot of the mountain, till where bikes can go, from there we have to start our trek.

               I started trekking with lot of enthusiasm, energy and the further I started climbing; the more I am getting excited with the surrounding scenery and the locations. The steps way (above picture) was looking very gothic as if in a historic movie, a narrow rock cut path through the mountain, there are also small cave temples side by to add to this excitement. After climbing this steps way, there comes the majestic green land. It’s just like entering a new place. It was so windy there and the feeling of fresh breeze hitting you is just so refreshing and lively. Then comes the Hanuman temple, a very simple and small one. And then there is a lake beside the temple that adds to the beauty of the place. These all are just half-way to the peak, from that lake again there are steps to reach the peak point of the mountain. We took a small refreshing break there at the lake and then again resumed our journey to the peak.

               There are many other groups of people who have started the trek with us, but some returned back after visiting the temple. It was 1:30 pm at that time i.e. almost one hour since we started trekking; we are still at the half way to the peak. It’s may be because of the joy of being surrounded by the nature, or may be the urge to conquer the peak of the mountain that we are not feeling hungry or tired at that time. We are neither rushing to reach the peak nor stopping at some place, but we took our time to enjoy the whole journey of trekking. We both had discussed about many things ranging from science to philosophy and so on. Finally, around 2:30 Pm we reached the peak. It was so great feeling that you get after you reach the top of the mountain as if you have achieved something great. And then all of a sudden we started feeling tired and hungry after that long three hour trek. We had some snacks that we brought and then took a small nap. There at the top of the mountain, 4200ft above the sea level, there is no buzzing noise of the city; there are no tensions of life, there are no limits and no boundaries. All you have is fresh cool breeze and greenery all around. It was so peaceful and relaxing there.

After staying there at the peak for two hours we have returned back to our place, thereby back to our mundane life. And that’s how the journey ended. The whole trek starting from the step way entrance, the sceneries, caves, temples, lake and the nap at the peak, all those were like one of my most memorable moments of my life. I even can’t explain completely the kind of feelings I have experienced, the joy I got during the whole journey. I think everyone should go to some or the other places like that once in a while and take a break from their busy life. Trips like these will give you new energy, new experiences, and will be a great refreshing time for you. So, whenever you get some free time don’t let them go away just like that, instead fill it up with memories worth remembering.