ARTICLES ~ BRANDING IN GOA

Article Count No:4

Industry: Hospitality, Restaurant

Monday, July 9, 2012

Where Else in Goa?.....TITO'S offcourse

TITO'S Tag line, the Best in the industry.

"Just Do It"...... the next thing people will say is "NIKE". With this example one can realize the importance of a good tag line. The whole brand personality of Nike reflects the tag line it carry. Try and recall any of the Nike's ads, think of star footballers doing larger than life things with their football shoots, or remember the local Mumbai boys playing cricket on roofs of city buses, in every communication it is JUST DO IT.

Another good example is recently floated Aquaguard's " Paani ka Doctor".

In Goa, when you hear, see or read about the tag line " Where Else?" the next thing people say is "TITO'S". Certainly the brand Tito's have the best tag line in their business, I would also say one of the best among all the brands in Goa.

It scores well on most of the technical parameters related to a tag line of a brand, Let us understand this more academically by evaluating the tag-line on some of the parameters.

It should communicate the brand’s unique value proposition (UVP)- Tito's command a pull over it customers, it does not push its brand. Their UVP today is the patronage and attraction shown by tourists towards their brand. Their tagline boldly communicates this UVP about their brand.

Economy of words: what else? could have been shorter than Where Else?, absolutely a economical tagline.

It must be believable for the brand: This tagline was attached to the Tito's brand in its maturity stage, it is difficult to connect with a slogan like this at your nascent biz stage especially in tourism products, today the brand has achieved the respect and has a apt tag line expressing the same.

Competitive brands are not saying and cannot say the same thing: I am sure no competition can say the same thing about their brands now. If they do so, they will help Tito's brand to be recalled more than theirs. A powerful tagline which tito's has, have made it very difficult to their competitors to copy their UVP.

It is memorable – it must stick in people’s minds: A simple and catchy tagline of Tito's is difficult to forget, especially when someone has experienced the brand.

It needs to do more than just refer to the product category: The fact that Tito's have extended their product line but still can use the same tagline makes their slogan the best.

Ideally, it should be entertaining or emotionally appealing: one would not deny that there is slight touch of humor and naughtyness to the tag line.

To summarise, I would confess that while doing analysis of the tagline on above technical parameters I was more inclined to find that the tagline is not a perfect one and has some technical fault. However, I only feel good that my final analysis is not biased and shall be agreed upon by most of the experts in branding field.

By goa.paidideas@gmail.com

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Article Count No:3

Industry: Electronic Stores

Monday, July 9, 2012

Electronic Stores not interested in Branding in Goa

Big Electronic stores like E-Value, Radio Mundial and Talaulikar Electricals don't even a website

Some of the oldest and reputed multi-city electronic stores in Goa are completely ignorant about branding their businesses, either they don't feel the need for it or they don't have the knowledge about why branding is important.

They highly depend upon the location advantage and their set of existing customers and believe this as their biggest marketing advantage.

Will the advantages work for players throughout?

I would say NO!

In big Cities, Companies like Tata's Croma, Vijay sales and Reliance Digitals have grown to become giants of this trade, they have established a brand name in this business and now command a strong pull from a prospective customer.

I am sure, that the trend of customers getting attracted towards big brands will fast be a reality in Goa also.

These big players must certainly be planning expansion of their outlets, and Goa too must be there on their cards.

When the local players face competition from this brands, the location advantage and existing customer base would not help. Below things will change for these local players then.

Currently these outlets pull crowd from all section of the society. Customers looking at buying a 55 inches LCD TV and the low end customers who are looking at buying a 21 inches branded TV(budget product) are both visiting these outlets. Post entry of branded outlets, the high end customers will shift and slowly slowly the other set of customers would also start visiting this branded stores, These branded stores will be making big noise about them being a big brand, and this wave will be around Goa in no time. Most importantly we need to remember that all the outlets sell the same branded products like Sony, Samsung, LG, Whirlpool etc. So the only option to build competitive advantage is through building services.

Secondly the Existing customers will get used to new ways and experience of buying electronic products. Like booking through websites, special treatment/discounts/HNI status for repeat customers, preferential services for after sales issues, continuous customer connect through birthday reminders, anniversary wishes etc etc. These will change the people will shop for electronic goods in Goa.

The local players needs to be ready to offer similar kind of experiences/ facilities to their customers, and for this they need to start building their brands immediately by benchmarking these major brands. In Short BE PREPARED TO FIGHT.

Some of the initiatives which our local brands need to start with are below.

Establish a brand identity for your business. Build a personality to your brand through a good logo, consistent marketing material, a business friendly brand perception etc (refer to my article on brand identity on this blog. http://brandingingoa.blogspot.in/search/label/Learning%20About%20Branding)

Build a website for their outlet on lines with these players. Try not to copy it exactly, add your essence and creativity to it. This will help you to connect with prospective customers and shall also ensure that you build a alternative class of customer (Techy) for your brand who certainly in all possibilities will consider your brand for their future purchases. As this guys will not limit themselves to visit only one website. It is a proven fact that a good web experience can be a lasting advantage and can help you retain and repeat customers in long run.

Build Service offerings as part of your overall product, Eg. Customer care phone lines and complaint recording system. Once build, give continuous publicity to these services through various communications like advertising on media, letters/mailers/sms to existing customers, in-house ads inside the showrooms etc etc. This will help our players to make themselves count as a brand in the local market and shall help to soften the effect of the big brands entry to some extend. Please believe that all these shall be your investments for your future business existence and should not avoided now since currently everything is fine.

If possible, hire a branding and marketing consulting firm to help you guide through this initiatives.

I am sure, these above inputs would make the current players in Goa think about importance of branding and hoping that they would take steps towards it.

Author: goa.paidideas@gmail.com

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Article Count No:2

Industry: Retail, Mall

Monday, July 2, 2012

CACULO MALL GOA- is it missing something?

One of the Marketing professional I know, said that the only good thing Caculo did with its shopping complex is that it called it a " MALL".

In real terms what is a mall? an Mumbaikar would say "Malls is a place that have something for everyone," right from clothes, Electronics, Multiplex, Food court, Home decor, Household supplies, Gifts, Books etc. I am sure Caculo Mall has most of these, but one would notice that the concentration is more on Clothes, hence in a visitor's mind, most of the time the brand perception of a " MALL" does not digest well after his/her first visit.

Is there a major disconnect with the Brand perception and Brand experience?

Yes, and hence there may be a need either to change the communication strategy of the brand or to do more work on building the product itself to match with the brand perception.

One of the things caculo team can do is, project the brand as a specialized destination for Shopping of clothes (for which the product is already Matured). Build all the future communications with this intention, let people recall Caculo Mall as a place for buying clothes. The objective here is to ensure that whenever someone thinks of garment shopping, the first destination they should think and should visit is Caculo Mall. Relate this to the example of our neighbouring Belgaum being perceived as a destination for wedding shopping, people from across get flooded in belgaum during wedding season.

I am not very sure, whether this idea will be acceptable to the Caculo management, since there is already lot of effort, money and time spend on creating the existing Brand perception, however, I am sure a campaign to highlight the specialty area of your product would definitely help in securing one set of target segment.

One must say that the Management is putting in admirable efforts in increasing the footfalls at the mall, activities like competitions for kids, celebrity visits, entertainment by dance/music troupe are definitely adding to the flavor of a Mall.

To conclude, I feel that there are lot of right things happening with the brand as part of the overall marketing, But if they are looking at dominating the space of " Malls in Goa", and want to be known as the most preferred brand of mall in Goa, a proper vision for Branding is what the management need to deliberate upon.

Such vision would definitely make lot of sense in near future as the other competitors steps in and build products that would synchronized with the brand perception of a MALL.

Owner of the Article: goa.paidideas@gmail.com

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Article Count No: 1

Industry: Retail, Super Stores

Brand Perception....Magsons superstore in Goa

Oh this superstore is meant for Rich class people!.. The goods will be expensive here!..we may not find our common items here! I am comfortable at my regular super store!

To further explain these above statements, let me put forth a technical question...."Does a brand perception (of being a Elite class superstore) play a role in either inviting or limiting customer flow in a super store? The answer is definitely YES!
" Brand perception is the driving factor for pulling the type of customers you receive in your stores"

To define Brand perception, it is a impression created by consumer experience with the brand's product or service. In other words, perception is the emotional values consumers attach to a brand. It is a set of beliefs held about a specific brand.

Let us analyze the concept of brand perception from a point of view of 2 types of superstores that exists in Goa, for Eg. Magsons (primarily perceived as Super store for the rich and middle class), others like kitchenette, Borkar super stores who have not yet labeled themselves as Elite class super stores.These differently perceived superstores have different sets of customers visiting them.

When it comes to brand perception for a super store, I feel there are 4 important and critical perceptions that a superstore brand cant go without.

These are listed below.

Brand which offers quality service,
Brand which stocks quality products,
Is a one stop shop for every need,
Has a dignified value for being in the biz for long/or knows how to run this biz

If your brand perception has above elements, you can target all set of customers who can afford to buy the products your shelves. Apart from these, if you have few unique propositions like Magsons is known for quality imported products, kitchenette known for variety of frozen products, can help you pull in and retain those extra set of customers.
Magsons superstores have been one the most prestigious brand in this biz, they have uniqueness in their products offering, their brand is perceived having all the above elements, they are also known to be the leader in this biz in Goa and are perceived to be the best.

But i feel they have gone little further in nurturing only a particular segment of customers and this has limited the flow of other sets of target customers in their stores.
Well, currently it may not impact their top line or bottom line in any ways, they may be happy with the number of customers they have, But my point is to understand this from the future point of view, especially when strong competition may come in. In this industry there are no entry barriers, no permanent loyalties and no strong competitive advantage, a player with deep pocket can replicate this biz model easily.

Going ahead, competition may eat up into the Magson's elite class customers and if this happens, pulling in those sets of customers who are comfortable with a common man brand of superstores will be a difficult task. In this biz you have a daunting fixed operating cost always around, any drop in the customer flow may make a deep dent financially to your biz.

Point is that Magsons should make deliberate efforts through a marketing campaign to change its brand perception, this needs to be done in a very smart way where in they don't detach the existing set of elite customers for whom Magsons is the first choice, as well as start pulling in those customers which otherwise where not visiting Magsons. Pulling Customers from larger segment always makes biz sense. Secondly, I cannot see any strategic benefit (for a superstore) in building a brand perception that comforts a niche segment, especially when it is discouraging other target segment towards your brand.

To sum up, the future for super stores in Goa is bright, and the top players will be those who have larger customer base.

You can send your comments on E-mail: goa.paidideas@gmail.com