google plus -definitive plus in google this time?

This time looks like google is finally going to reach somewhere near challenging Facebook!

So as from my understanding of using google for now almost 25 days I have found some really interesting and some useless things about Google plus. As they say first the positives:

1.  A bit different from FB- just the novelty may make it successful to an extent

2. Circles look interesting concept. You don’t want to publish everything to everyone. Its what FB was trying to do this to an extent in the form of groups, but google does it very differently with a class. I like it.

3. Seamless integration with Gmail(most of the people i know have gmail as their primary email)

4. I don’t have to reload my picassa albums (even though i may just have one)

5. After having and trying to maintain multiple accounts I just want to use one login to access everything online, Google plus can take me there with some more brilliant planning and execution.

5. Sparks- clear demarcation of pages from friends.

 

Now the areas of improvement:

1. I dont really like the mega size posts. I can do with small ones. If interested I can click through and read more.

2. Since not everyone is there I still dont have much to do except putting people in circles.

3. Random friend requests are starting from day 10 itself.  This is getting more like Orkut and random friend suggestions from FB.

And I am yet to understand how it can replace Twitter?!

Does Klout tell it all?

In the last two days I came across two Social Media experts talking skeptically about the much hyped term Influencers – One in a general term (@augieray) [social-media-influencers-are-overrated] and  other Klout (@jowyang)[ klout-for-business-a-sometimes-useful-metric-but-an-incomplete-view-of-customers/]. While Augie Ray talks about the utility of using ‘INFLUENCERS’ as brand ambassadors or the prime promoters by Brands, Jeremiah expresses his findings about how Klout actually doesn’t tell us all! Further in his comments section the discussion got down to Klout for Augie Ray as well.
So looks like the whole world [atleast the social media world] is worried about and is talking about Klout scores. Infact I must confess I got a bit obsessed myself with Klout score as well until I realized a few faults in its metrics:
1. The ratio of followers/following is a measure which doesn’t do justice – to give an example I see some social media professionals (e.g. Augie Ray) have more number of following than followers – the reason can be anything for that –maybe he doesn’t want to miss out on any crucial/interesting opinion or discussion relevant to his field. Or maybe he has a liking towards a high number of musicians (from some of his recent tweets). But does this imply that he does not have a high influencing power? I don’t think so.
2. I am sure almost all of you would have come across retweets from people who retweets anything and everything that anyone has spoken to them (i.e. where their name is mentioned @user). Even when we go down the funnel of retweets a person who retweets his retweets has higher influence than who doesn’t do the same (and causes less pain to his followers). In case Klout does not have a way of taking care of this – this is a loophole widely exploited
3. The blog world- Klout score doesn’t take care of the blog world which still holds high prominence in the internet world.
4. As pointed by Augie Ray and Jeremiah Owyang also Klout doesn’t take care of the domain- this is a critical as well as highly complex field to work on. The Klout score does show the area e.g. I still see @MarketingProfs in marketing domain only but if they start talking about something else will it be considered influencing still or not?

Groupon Tibet Ad

The Groupon superbowl ads have ruffled a lot of feathers..
These ads are being termed as exploits of people’s sentiments. Okay people who all have been talking about the groupon ad being in bad taste have u checked Google maps and looked for Tibet?Its already a part of China. So what the ad says isn’t wrong [truth hurts]!

Though I wont recommend the Ad by itself I would definitely say that it has maybe got the focus on Tibet once again and I definitely hope it helps in some way.

The other ad also talk about exploiting whales(as bad as exploiting humans) though the Brazil one doesn’t hurt anyone!

What the Brand need is a proper damage control owing to its missing the sanity/common sense check before the ads release.
I wonder how they can do it? Its a #BP crime on a smaller scale.

The agenda of an ad is to aid brand recall..and i guess they have succeeded in staying on top of mind for customers- though the sales may decline if customers who say they are quitting Groupon are to be believed..

Dropping Names

I am very happy with the news of the green mermaid coming to India for two reasons:

1. I will have one more option (not just cafe but the coffee shop colours as most Indian coffe chains follow a red code.)

2. The competition will buckle up which means better service and hopefully more options and innovations in the offerings.

Year 2010 and the begining of 2011 looks like season of rebranding/brand refurbishing by some major names across the world and in India as well.

This month both Star bucks and Target have decided to drop their names from their logos – Starbucks because its trying to expand in newer products and Target, for its own reasons.

Starbucks has apparently changed their logo for the fourth time since launch and every time the change looks minimal. However dropping a name from the Brand is a big step but a necessary one I guess if they want to move into a new line of products.

Last year Gap faced a severe backlash from public due to its logo change and reverted back to its earlier one.

Back Home Airtel went through a major rebranding exercise which was again criticised suggesting Airtel new logo to be a combination of the vodafone and videocon logos; which is exactly how it looks. However the firm dint pay much heed unlike Gap maybe due to the fear of having to return to its previous logo making the whole expensive brand redressing affair a wastage or maybe Airtel still thinks its good enough to decide how it wants to handle its logo.

Recently flipkart.com also changed its logo to a newer darker version from its initial light bright one. The reasoning as suggested by the team is that since they are moving away from online books to online mobile shop as well the change is necessary. Or another reason as suggested by some people is that the initial logo of flipkart looks heavily influenced by Amazon from where some of its team members have joined.

While some of the above examples justify the logo change others look at rebranding as more of a marketing gimmick.  Rebranding makes sense only when there is a major overhaul in the offering either in terms if attribute s or price or the target customer segment has changed. Otherwise the brand stands to loose its identity as the image that it has been trying to imprint for a long time will get changes even before its mark has been made.

Awesome Advertisements – I love this page on FB

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Advertising-Ka-Kamaal-An-Academic-Look-at-Advertising/112210802146430

This FB page posts ads- mostly TVCs and Print on its wall but has some excellent examples of Ambient Advertising as well.

Bio

Okay,…before addiing further information on this site let me introduce myself to you. A couple of months ago  i typed my interview for whohub and am putting the link here to give my professional bio:

http://www.whohub.com/artee

Ad Campaigns Recap 2010-india

This post is inspired by an article on mint covering top5 ads (TVCs) chosen by Balki.

My top favorite TVCs for 2010 are:

1. Idea – get an idea theme – almost all in this series are good and it talks about all kinds of problems from billing to connectivity to being put on hold.

2. Surf Excel – Daag achche hain – really a good theme to promote noble work and taking kids as models the ads are attractive too.

3. Lifebuoy- tera saboon slow hai kya- This ad is a catchy one and appeals because of its simplicity and innocence.

4. Tanishq- Jewellery temptation by mom -family in car – This is an ad which connects pretty easily to all the women out there as this is a stage in life which all of them go through one day or other. The product focus is never lost even though the script is dramatic enough.

5. 25 years of Kotak – i specially like this ad as this is something new from a bank where ads are generally about building trust and relationship and highlighting customer service wherein we all have experienced something bad sometime or other with our banks. So this ad talks about reality and it feels fresh.

6. Cadbury’s kuch meetha ho jaye-  wife in jeans for the first time- An ad where most of us can see our mothers/aunts/grannies. This is how they behave when doing something “mod” for the first time. A connection works in this ad.

7. Blackberry boys- A catchy tune plays the biggest role and the expressions on the first five models’ face do the trick.

In all these ads the idea is something that we can relate to and they are not loud ads without loosing the brand focus.

There would be many more but these ads last in mind building unaided memory and hence have achieved there purpose as well.

What’s in this blog?

This blog is meant for my personal views and sharing interesting developments and ideas on marketing of others with due source, brands and everything else but mainly Marketing.