There are 143 million social media users in India as of April 2015, as per a report by ‘Social Media in India 2014’ by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International.

The growth of smart phone and social media usage by 100 per cent and 35 per cent over the last year in Indian rural and urban areas, respectively, and with the launch of 'Digital India Week' by Prime Minister Narendra Modi simultaneously in 600 districts across the country, with a view to transform India into a digital economy, these numbers are only going to increase.

Acting upon these developments, FICCI FLO Mumbai, the Women’s Wing of FICCI has organised an exclusive event on 'The Social Media Opportunity' with Kirthiga Reddy, Managing Director, Facebook India and Hareesh Tibrewala, Joint CEO, Social Wavelength on Friday, 10th July at ISDI Parsons Mumbai.

The event will offer an insight into India's explosive social media growth and the means to leverage this growth for business.

Sharing her views on the same FICCI FLO Chairperson, Mrs. Falguni Padode said, “FLO (FICCI Ladies Organization) has always taken initiatives to promote women empowerment at every level. With digital marketing growing at a pace like never before, events like these will help women look beyond traditional marketing and exploit the digital medium for growth.”

The sessions include:

Keynote Speaker: Kirthiga Reddy, Managing Director, Facebook India will talk about Facebook’s India journey from a digital and networking platform to a digital broadcast medium, its human engineering initiative, Facebook’s scope in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and success stories of entrepreneurs.

In the second session, Hareesh Tibrewala, Joint CEO of Social Wavelength, India’s largest social media agency,  will talk about the importance of social media, facets of digital and social media marketing, Ecommerce and Apps and how SME businesses can leverage the digital medium.

As a brand, Havells Wires has always stood out in the way it communicates its core message to its audience. Taking its credo ‘Wires that don’t catch fire’ further, Havells Wires has unveiled a new campaign that depicts an emotional bond between a father and daughter. As it has done with its past campaigns, the brand has leaned on an emotional tale to lend across its message to the general populace. The strategy being that a functional benefit such as a fire-proof wire when shown through an emotional angle makes the communication seem more relatable and believable.

The campaign is live on digital platforms and will be on-air across major television channels soon.

Explaining the rationale behind the new film, Vijay Narayanan, VP-Marketing, Havells India Limited said: “The objective was to reinforce the product proposition of ‘flame-retardant wires’ by means of a powerful emotional story which connects with the consumers.”

Conceptualized by Lowe Lintas Delhi, the commercial has been shot in the picturesque state of Kashmir. The story is set on a cold, winter morning at Dal Lake, Kashmir. A daughter, who must have risen early to prepare lunch for her hardworking father rows a boat across the lake to deliver food in a tiffin box. By the time she reaches, the food is almost cold. Fearing that the food will become inedible once it’s cold, she urges her father to eat immediately. But her father bogged down by work, shirks her away. Undeterred the girl continues urging her father, but then she eventually gives up and leaves. But before leaving she uses Havells wires as an apparatus to heat the food.

Sharing his thoughts on the creative approach behind the film, Amer Jaleel, National Creative Director, Lowe Lintas + Partners said, “We consider each category piece on Havells as a mother brand piece. Although this is about a specific benefit of wires it feeds into the Havells brand. These days some brands are also channels. What will emerge from Havells is something that people are looking forward to. In that light we wanted the wires work to add to the emotional equity on Havells. We try to be simple and real and somewhere we wanted the brand to be viewed as being a part of lives in every part of the country. Set in Kashmir, the little story echoes every girl’s feelings for her Dad.”

Directed by Anupam Mishra from Crazy Few Films, the film captures the father–daughter relationship in the backdrop of the beautiful Dal Lake, and of course the essence of the usability of Havells Wires propagating their catchphrase “Wires that don’t catch fire.”

Credits:

Creative: Amer Jaleel, Shriram Iyer, Shayondeep Pal, Prasad Venkatraman

Account Management: Amjad Ali, Sonia Upadhyaya, Abhishek Jain, Twishi Pande

Planning: Anurag Prasad

Producer: Crazy Few Films

Director: Anupam Mishra

A brand name can be one of the most valuable assets a company possesses. It can lend credibility to product efficacy and provide an assurance of quality, letting consumers know what they can expect when they buy a product. But because brand building can be costly and time consuming, it can be extremely advantageous for established brands to lend their name to a new item in the same category through line extensions. In fact, line extensions are approximately three to four times more common than “new manufacturer” and “new brand” launches combined.

For consumers, line extensions create confidence in a new product’s ability to deliver against promises, and can relieve some of the apprehension often associated with trying something new. Nielsen’s Global New Product Innovation Survey found that nearly six-in-10 global respondents (59%) prefer to buy new products from brands familiar to them, and 21% say they purchased a new product because it was from a brand they like. Consumers in North America and Latin America value brand recognition more than consumers in any other region. In both, it was the second-most important reason (after affordability) that consumers said they purchase a new product.

Brand recognition is particularly influential in developing markets. On average, more than two-thirds of developing-market respondents (68%) say they prefer to buy new products from brands they’re familiar with, compared with 57% in developed markets. In addition, more than one-fifth of developing-market respondents (22%) say they purchased a new product because it was from a brand they like, compared with 17% in developed markets.

“Brands can signify quality and inspire confidence,” said Rob Wengel, senior vice president and managing director of Nielsen Innovation in the U.S. “For a consumer with limited disposable income, the potential loss from an underperforming product is magnified. As a result, they’re often hesitant to take a risk on a product that might not live up to expectations, and are sometimes even willing to pay more for brands they trust. For new products launched without the benefit of a strong brand name, extra care must be taken to provide strong assurance that the product will be perceived as a good value for the money.”

It is important to keep in mind, however, that while a brand extension can provide a strong foundation for success, it doesn’t guarantee it. In fact, if a company doesn’t manage a line extension well, it could actually harm the parent brand. To protect a brand’s reputation, a line extension should clearly link with the core product while also offering consistency, uniqueness and relevance in the market. Line extensions with little differentiation could lead to cannibalization. Likewise, if a line extension varies too dramatically from the parent, it can dilute sales.

CONSIDER CONVENIENCE

Time pressures and stress are facts of life. Shoppers want products that help restore balance and free up time to do the things they value most. More than one-fifth of global respondents (22%) say they purchased a new product because it was convenient, and slightly fewer (19%) say they purchased it because it made their life easier. Consumers’ desire for these kinds of products is even higher. More than one-quarter of global respondents say they wish more products were available that make their life easier (27%) and are convenient to use (26%).

While convenience-motivated purchasing is rated high in all regions, shopper sentiment differs in regard to the order of importance in certain regions. In Latin America, for example, respondents list convenience after branded, indulgent and family-friendly products, while in Europe, products that offer novelty, indulgence and brand recognition are more important than convenience.

ABOUT THE NIELSEN GLOBAL SURVEY

The Nielsen Global New Product Innovation Survey was conducted between Feb. 23 - March 13, 2015, and polled more than 30,000 consumers in 60 countries throughout Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and North America. For the purposes of this study, we defined a new product as any item a consumer has never purchased before. The sample has quotas based on age and sex for each country based on its Internet users and is weighted to be representative of Internet consumers. It has a margin of error of ±0.6%. This Nielsen survey is based only on the behavior of respondents with online access. Internet penetration rates vary by country. Nielsen uses a minimum reporting standard of 60% Internet penetration or an online population of 10 million for survey inclusion. The Nielsen Global Survey, which includes the Global Consumer Confidence Index, was established in 2005.

Source:Nielsen

Amazon can craft an entire list of books, movies and music based on my purchases and browsing, and then either deliver them to various devices or accommodate the increasingly antiquated idea of tangible entertainment consumption through next-day delivery (soon to be drone-enabled). Starbucks knows when I am within a certain distance of one of their locations and pings my smartphone with a reminder that I may be thirsty or interested in their new flavored beverage.

In essence, technology has allowed for companies and brands to “know” and market to consumers at an unprecedented level of personalization. Yet while the speed of change has been quick across so many facets of the marketing world, we continue to lag behind when it comes to understanding and creating relevant, insights-driven connections with multicultural consumers. Much has been written about the impending population shifts and how that translates to buying power, but few are ready with the insight and strategy to capitalize and fundamentally shift existing mindsets. According to our research at 84.51° Asians, African-Americans and Hispanics will contribute nearly 90% of population growth between 2014 and 2019. By 2040, the non-Hispanic Caucasian population will drop below 50%, becoming the minority. The three largest ethnic groups in the U.S. will each be over 125 million.

The future is now for the multicultural shopper. Without a fundamental shift in how we think about marketing—from the products on the shelf to the way we communicate with consumers about these products—brands will likely be left behind. This fundamental change requires looking well beyond demographics.

In addition, there is no typical or average multicultural shopper. The purchase behavior of these consumers is influenced by so many facets beyond their ethnic or demographic classification. This can be seen across nearly every category, including what Hispanic, Asian and African-American consumers are placing in their carts at their local grocery store. Here are a few insights into these customer groups, according to our research:

Asian consumers: frequent and fresh. The buying power of Asian consumers is significant and growing at the fastest rate of any consumer segment within the U.S. Asian households have different shopping patterns in totality. They have smaller grocery baskets but visit the store more frequently, and those trips add up. They are also engaged in fresher, more perishable items, with 20% higher spend in produce and 50% higher spend in natural foods.

African-American consumers: convenience is key. Previous perceptions of convenient categories are evolving. Frozen food relevance has met a steep decline with African-American millennials. For example, within the frozen, single-serve premium meal space, engagement with African-American millennials has declined nearly three times as much compared to the rest of the population.

Hispanic consumers: personalized strategy. Having a single Hispanic strategy just won’t work. Whether looking at generational status or acculturation level, the needs and corresponding shopping patterns are fundamentally different. For example, more acculturated Hispanic shoppers are engaged in center-store offerings at nearly a rate of 1.5 times that of less acculturated consumers. Variety-seeking behavior also varies drastically across the acculturation spectrum.

With all of these nuances, a blanket multicultural strategy is no longer sufficient in today’s world. Whether that entails using any of the above insights to guide new product innovation, assortment decisions at shelf, promotional strategies, or personalized media efforts, marketers today need to change their thinking to a more personalized strategy versus a one-size-fits-all strategy. Isolating similarities, differences, emerging needs, and shifts in behavior enable retailers and brands to tailor strategies, personalize communications and ensure relevance across their portfolios.

The insights exist, but we need to value these insights enough to do things differently. As the wise marketers at NBC once said, and then subsequently animated, “Knowing is only half the battle.” Transforming insights into action that let us create meaningful relationships with multicultural consumers will be a differentiator for success in the years ahead. The future is now.

Authored by Erin Liber, Director of customer science at Cincinnati-based marketing agency 84.51°

Source:ama.org