Is ‘young’ the undisputed flavour of the day?

Are yesterday’s sweethearts suddenly, dreaded victims of the don’t-call-us-we’ll call-you disease? Monojit Lahiri surveys the scene...

Recently, a screaming headline in a tabloid grabbed my attention. Out of work Sush loses ad deal to petite Asin. A gorgeous, glamorous, sophisticated diva like Sushmita Sen, given the heave-ho (for a product she’s been associated with for years – Pantene) and replaced by young, pretty [but nowhere as charismatic or enjoying pan-India popularity with the upmarket crowd] South Indian actress Asin, of Ghajini fame! Why, even the great King Khan – whose other name seemed to have been ‘Pepsi Khan’ – is, reportedly, dropped from Team Pepsi in their latest outing. Ditto for yesterday’s queens Ash Rai Bachchan, Rani Mukherjee and Preity Zinta, say adbiz and Bollywood insiders. On the cricket front too, similar tremors have been felt. Yesterday’s icons Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, V.V.S. Laxman, even the sensational Sachin Tendulkar, have suffered anything between a meltdown to a slowdown. It’s the T-20 kids – Dhoni, Yuvraj, Ishant, Raina, Zaheer and gang – that are zooming centre-stage and replacing them in the endorsement sweepstakes. In Bollywood, new dazzlers rocking it include Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Asin, Genelia, Jiah Khan, Katrina Kaif, Imran Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Kangana Ranaut, Deepika Padkone, even Farhan Akhtar! With half of our one billion population said to be under the age group of 25, marketers are indeed getting hot n’ heavy in the business of torpedoing this target base, all the way!

Is it working… and what drives it? Who better to kick-off this debate with the very person who founded and coined the ground-breaking term youngistan – which for Washington Post defines young India as also TV channels and political parties identifying the new India – Soumitra Karnik, Creative Head of JWT’s Pepsi team who says, “Much as I am tempted to say that I suddenly dreamt it all up one stormy night – like fake directors or smart plagiarists! – I didn’t! Its just that, while reading up something, the words ‘Young’ and ‘Hindustan’ struck me as interesting cues for coining something new, fresh, simple along street-speak lines that would resonate with the target base. That’s how it was really born. If it captured popular imagination instantly, I guess its largely because it was red-hot topical, had the required bindaas tone to it and reflected the mood, colour and voice of today’s most important segment-youth.” Karnik doesn’t munch his words and packs in a solid punch when he says that today’s marketers live in the here n’ now and grab only what they believe will rock their product. “They are pretty much like fair-weather friends – and why not? They have a job to do. If its not working, then its goodbye time! The new kids on the block, both in the Cricket and Bollywood arena, reflect this reality in dramatic fashion, right? The age of loyalty is over, boss. It is the age of Return on Investment (ROI)!”

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Take for instance the white goods major LG. Hit by a decline in consumer spending in urban areas, this hitherto premium brand has made a paradigm shift in its strategy and is now focusing on the rural market. Not only is LG rolling out a line of entry-level products, it is also investing heavily in channel expansion and setting up services network for its rural customers. Moon Bum Shin, MD, LG Electronics India Ltd, asserts, “Our penetration in the rural markets is low, but we are taking it as a potential market for future as it is very important in terms of profit. In a span of ten years, the market anatomy for urban and rural would be really in a good balance.”

But that’s not all India Inc. is experimenting with; a host of companies are capturing the market and improving their sales in their own different ways. While for the first time ever, Maruti extended its sales season till February (instead of offering discounts only till December), big real estate players are giving unheard of freebies (getting a Mercedes free on the purchase of a penthouse is no big deal now) or even developing ultra-low budget houses to lure lower and mid-segment consumers. Even public sector banks, like SBI, which had never seen the sunnier side of marketing spends ever, have scaled up their ad investments like never before, given the general negative perception in the market about private banks.

If Kingfisher, in order to improve occupancy of its full service carriers, cut its fares by 50-60% in January 2009 (and subsequently reversed the strategy a few days later; and re-reversed it in February); Skoda Auto, which has always produced premium sedans and hatchbacks (like Fabia) have announced the launch of a small car in the range of Rs.3-5 lakhs to capture the mid and lower segments. The retail space too is seeing a few first-time strategies adopted by companies. Says Arvind Singhal, Chairman, KSA Technopak, “Reliance Industries, the promoter of Reliance Retail, has generally not been open to joint ventures and strategic alliances. Yet, for their retail start-up, very early on, they’ve started seeking partnerships.” He further adds that even Shoppers’ Stop has started to actually shut down nonviable formats, which is also a shift in their strategy. “Overall, the focus of retailers being on achieving profitability first, and then on aggressive growth, itself is a shift in strategy,” Singhal avers.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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CHINESE POTION

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In a toughening market, Lenovo needs to bring in products that stand out, and yet are priced right

In the midst of their growing animosity, there remain precious few companies like Lenovo, who symbolise the power of American and Chinese collaboration. That bond now stands considerably weakened, for Lenovo, the world’s 4th largest PC maker has got on board Yang Yuanqing, former Chairman of Lenovo as CEO, replacing their American CEO William Amelio, who held the mantle of the firm since 2005. Also, Liu Chuanzhi (who was instrumental in the formation of the company 25 years ago) has taken the post of Chairman.

The reasons, however, are more to do with fading fortunes rather than Sino-US relations. The company posted losses to the tune of $96.7 million as opposed to a profit of $171.7 million during the same period last year. Revenue and sales too dipped to $35.92 billion and $3.6 billion from $44.94 billion and $4.5 billion respectively. The main reason was the dampening of demand in the US and European markets and a weak dollar against a CNY. However, amidst gloomy quarterly results and a recession-stricken economy, a ray of optimism is still beaming across Lenovo as it has got on board their former team of Chinese management. Will focusing on ‘Chinese solutions’ set the distraught PC maker back on track?

“Chuanzhi said that the company would refocus on the China market, and expand offerings for homes and small businesses. The biggest challenge (for Chuanzhi) will be to craft and execute a revised business/product strategy during the current economic crisis,” professes Charles King, Principal Analyst, Pund-IT, Inc. Hitherto, Lenovo’s primary focus had been on enterprise customers, which heavily contributed to losses in the last quarter. “This seems a reasonable response… But it’s difficult to see how consumers and SMBs will contribute significant revenues over the short term,” King adds. The company is seeking the low cost route to return to profitability. Moreover, it has to contend with stronger competitors, particularly HP & Acer, which have gained market share y-o-y by 3.5% and 31.1% respectively in the December quarter, while Lenovo has suffered a decline of 4.5% y-o-y (Gartner).

Concentrating on the Chinese market seems to be a good proposition for the time being as further penetration in the US and European markets in such tumultuous times will be difficult. Explains Rob Enderle of Enderle Group, “No competitor will give up shelf space without a fight and currently Lenovo needs much more retail shelf space.” Enderle opines that Lenovo should follow the Apple model of building high profile products and driving consumers to them. “This approach results in fewer products that will require less shelf space and puts most of the rest of the problems within Lenovo’s control,” avers Enderle. With this kind of pull strategy, Lenovo can gain significant bargaining power over retailers. But it must also realise that it cannot price such ‘wow’ products at a significant premium at the moment, so it needs to balance price and features diligently for the recession hit market.

Savreen Gadhoke

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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