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Category: Ad Campaigns

  • North India leads India’s organized retail growth, even small towns have immense potential, said Vikram Bakshi, MD, McDonald’s

    Day 1 at ‘THE SHOP’ – North India leads India’s organized retail growth, even small towns have immense potential, said Vikram Bakshi, MD, McDonald’s – Young India is gaining confidence and wants change, retailers have to provide their consumption needs, said Sanjeev Agrawal, President-Marketing, Future Group

    New Delhi, June 28, 2006: THE SHOP, the two-day summit on organized retailing, commenced today at the Taj Palace, New Delhi with the inaugural address from Vikram Bakshi, Managing Director of cDonald’ (North & East India), who stressed that North India is leading the growth of organized retail in India. The SHOP is the first ever retail forum focusing on India’s most promising retail zones. The Retail Theatre at The SHOP had international experts, captains of the industry, CEOs of India’s key retail chains across formats and categories addressing key retail issues – presenting Views, Reviews, Trends, Possibilities, Success stories, Vision of marketing Gurus, SWOT analysis and a lot more.

     

    According to Mr. Vikram Bakshi, Managing Director, McDonald’s, “The retail industry in India is witnessing a very interesting phase where different retail formats and categories are emerging and opening up, not just in the metros and larger cities, but also in smaller towns. Northern India is an emerging retail market with all International brands and national retailers targeting the North. Among the northern states in India, Punjab has the highest potential to develop as a key growth market for retailers. McDonald’ s itself has 88 outlets in India, 64% of which are located in the North.”

     

    “The Shop” is the zonal version of the annual “India Retail Forum” event that takes place in September in Mumbai and is the Asia-Pacific’s largest platform for retailers across the globe to come together and discuss the latest trends, visions and ­­­­­­­ challenges of the Retail Industry.

     

    Speaking at the forum, Mr. Sanjeev Agrawal, President – Marketing, Future Group, said, “Retail as a medium is about being inclusive and not exclusive keeping the real India in mind. The ‘Real India’ frame has many more people than we think. It is imperative to recognize the section of consumers one is targeting. And in India the debate is not between aspiration and value but in creating a convergence of both. We at Pantaloon, believe that retail must constitute everything for everyone and through our brands we wish to target every segment of the retail market.”

    Mr. Sushant Dwivedy, Business Head Leed, Microsoft Business Solution said, “Mass marketing is dead and every individual consumer needs to be treated separately. Technology can be used in the Retail Industry to provide better service to consumers and build loyalty factors. The Industry needs more web enabled services. Success for retailers will be driven by smarter operations.”

    ‘The Shop’ introduced new retail formats to retailers and potential franchisees and retail real estate developers and equip regional players with necessary support and systems and learning from masters in the business of retail. Showcasing the best in retail offering, providing an in-depth analysis of retail business trends and formulating a differential winning strategy, THE SHOP saw the participation of the very best retail concepts, successful brands, retailers and distributors from all over India.

     

    Mr. Amitabh Taneja, Editor in Chief, Images Group and organizers of the summit, said, “We will witness retailer

    s who have their own well-merited views and concepts which would change retail thinkers to reset enchmarks in many areas and share their huge aura of experience with the audience. IMAGES is now all geared up to focus on India’s most promising Retail zones with a series of events titled ‘THE SHOP’ felicitating interaction of international and national players with these regions in order to facilitate retail expansion and strengthen sourcing from regional brands and manufacturers.”

     

    Over these two days the forum will witness national and regional retailers
    across formats & categories, shopping centre developers, potential
    franchisees, investors, retail support & systems, vendors, govt officials, trade bodies. Some renowned people like Vikram Bakshi, MD, McDonald’s, Andrew Levermore, CEO, HyperCity Retail, Vijay Menon, CEO, Mobile Next, Sanjeev Agarwal, President, Marketing, Pantaloon Retail, Sushant Dwivedy, Business Head Leed, Microsoft Business Solutions, Sam Matthew , Head- Client Solutions, Total Outsourcing, Wipro, N. Sathiyanarayanan, Senior VP, Lifestyle, Denny Gerdeman, CEO, Chute Gerdeman, USA, Ratan Jalan, CEO, Apollo Health and Lifestyle, Sandeep Ahuja, CEO, VLCC, Tim Eynon, CEO Prozone and Director Provogue, Bipin Gurnani, CEO, Piramyd, Gopalratnam Kannan, Country Manager, Swatch Group India, Partha Datta Gupta, CEO, Barista and many more.

     

    Over the years Images has received global recognition for its bold initiatives to support retail growth in India and Images (that includes Conclaves, CEO meets, Exhibitions and Awards) are known for their impact — attracting industry big wigs with almost cent per cent attendance of the key stakeholders.

    About Images Multimedia

    IMAGES is an industry support platform – specific to the Fashion & Lifestyle, Retail and Retail Real Estate sectors – deriving support from its competencies in Research, B2B and B2C publications, Education & Training, Consulting, and Events and Awards of international standards. The Group has been closely involved with over 1000 key lifestyle brands, retailers, the entire retail support network, and real estate developers from across the globe for over a decade now.

    IMAGES Fashion & Retail magazines enjoy the largest readership in their segments across the Indian sub continent & Middle-East with over half a million readers. IMAGES F&R Research wing has been closely monitoring the trends in the market and has been feeding industry, government and media with vital information for strategy formation in association with world’s top consulting & research organizations like McKinsey, AT Kearney, KSA, AC Nielsen ORG MARG, etc.

    For more information please contact: Bhavya Suri, Perfect Relations,
    9871597740, Reena Varghese, Perfect Relations, 9910234004

     

  • Dead men walking!

    By VINAY KANCHAN

    The prologue to an agency review – an agency review is ideally an open minded exercise that is meant to evaluate the performance of the advertising agency over the past year, in as fair and unbiased manner, as is humanly possible. However, since this is about as achievable as having an advertising awards show without at least one self respecting agency deciding to boycott on ‘philosophical‘ grounds, what it‘s very announcement leads to is unmitigated stress, panic and confusion all round.


    “News of an impending review always fuels the need for warm brew.” The hushed oriental accent, the slight flutter of mach speed induced turbulence and Chai-La (the mystical Chinese canteen tea boy) had delivered the customary tea cup and opening barb to Ram Shankar. It was Monday morning and Ram had not yet got his bits and bytes together when Vikas (his boss) beckoned him, in a manner that meant business.


    “Mr Bose has told me this morning that we are going to have an agency review,” started Vikas, adjusting his tie in his reflection in Ram‘s glasses.


    “Do you think the account is in danger?” asked Vikas in a hushed tone.


    “I wouldn‘t know,” began Ram and was cut in mid sentence by PP (the creative director of the exaggerated mustache fame) bursting into Vikas‘s chambers like Ronaldo in the penalty box.


    “Why are we having an agency review man? Are we going to lose the account?” boomed PP in his customary high decibel style, causing weak hearted account executives to instantly sign up for medical insurance policies.


    “Relax PP, its nothing new,” replied Vikas, in his most soothing tone, trying to function for once like the head on the business, but after he remembered that it was the first time that this was happening in five years, his morale fell faster than the credibility of ‘breaking news‘ after the last pest control visit of the BMC had been aired live.


    “This hasn‘t happened with us in a very long time,” echoed Planimus, the media head, in his routinely philosophically platonic tone, “I smell trouble brewing.”


    Almost on cue Dharti, the ravishingly radiant account planner walked in, “Hey the security guard told me that the account was up for review, what‘s happening guys?”


    “Lets just meet in the conference room, we need to figure out a strategy,” suggested Vikas, and for once all the necessary evils were in agreement.


    The scene shifted to the conference room. Vikas, following his perfunctorily servicing impulse of staying on top of things, walked purposefully to the board, marker pen in hand straight from the ‘have whiteboard will scribble‘ school of thought.


    “Let‘s see what we have here,” furiously constructing geometric shapes, like he had a personal vendetta against parabolas (he didn‘t draw any, just in case you assumed).
    He finished with three circles – client, agency and external forces and had somehow managed to link all three with arrows that looked like having directional issues.


    “What does all this mean?” asked an irritated PP. “Why must you complicate simple things? I bet that‘s why the review is happening.”


    “If you had shown more interest in the account after finishing with the film, maybe we wouldn‘t be here, client‘s dislike creative who just do the glamorous jobs.”


    “It‘s not my job to write calendars, I am never good with dates,” retorted PP.


    “Given the numerous angry women waiting in the reception for you daily, for once I would agree,” replied Vikas, relishing the opportunity to kick the old foe in the more delicate, unmentionable parts.


    Before PP could venture into his nuclear explosion, Dharti patted a firm hand on his shoulder, fortified with a smile that spoke waist downwards.


    “Must we be fighting like this? Let‘s try and figure this out,” she purred, instantly sending goose pimples down Ram‘s spine.


    However years of crunching and rounding figures had made Planimus oblivious to the wiles of women, and he still had some ax to grind.


    “Madam, you knocked us all out the last time we discussed strategy, I think the client is still nursing the bump on his head from your last interaction. In my time strategy used to be simple, over and done with in ten minutes.” He finished with a sardonic smile.


    “This isn‘t your time Planimus,” cooed back Dharti, in an interesting tone that bordered between spite and contempt.


    “To lose the war, put four generals together in a room and ask them to arrive at a decision-Old Chinese army saying.” Chai-La popped in and out of Ram‘s subconscious mind, leaving behind the sacred brew nestled in his fingers.


    Ram waited for the mayhem to subside before deciding to make his point. A valuable tip he had picked from Planimus, about advertising when clutter was low for more impact.


    “Could it just be that given the new personnel at the clients end, they want to look at everything in a fair and unbiased manner? You know like bringing a newer perspective to the table so that the communication that we create could actually get better and more focused? Are we making too much of our fear of losing the account?”


    All the participants in the room starred at Ram in rapt silence, like people would have when Moses was reciting the commandments. Then the conference room erupted with laughter.


    “Fair and unbiased,” choked Vikas, as he hung onto PP‘s shoulder for support in a rare ‘Kodak moment of camaraderie‘.


    “Should we be scared of losing the business?” stuttered Planimus as he kept banging the table in an almost tribal ritual.


    Dharti sat composed, dignified and silent through it all.


    Ram felt he had at least one supporter. All the others turned to look at her.


    “Bringing a new perspective so that we can create better communication,” she said and burst out into laughter, further fuelling the mirth factor in the room.


    Ten minutes later all attention was back to the whiteboard, though not strictly at the seismographic visuals Vikas had crafted earlier.


    “We need to figure this one out. You know how the boss panics when he hears these things, we will end up creating 42 campaigns for everything,” mulled Vikas.


    “Why 42?” Dharti queried innocently.


    “That‘s because the boss is a Douglass Adam fan and you know the bit about 42 being the answer to life, the universe and everything. The chief applies it everywhere.”


    “Well I don‘t mind writing a 42 slide presentation,” cooed Dharti.


    “What about the creative trying to churn out 42 campaigns, are we going mad?”


    “Well statistically 42 is an interesting number,” started Planimus and was instantly rebooted by the chilling glares that were shot in his direction.


    “Why don‘t we just call Bose, maybe he will help us,” asked Dharti.


    “After the way I keep taking his case in meetings,” said PP, “I think he is having this because he wants to settle scores with me. I expect to be the target.”


    “Tchah!” interjected Vikas, “He hates it that I‘m not involved on a day to day basis,” not wanting PP to steal the limelight even in such issues.


    “Why don‘t we just call him?” implored Dharti


    “Who should?”
    Furtive glances were exchanged across the room.


    “He hates me.”


    “He is intimidated by me.”


    “I can‘t stand the creep.”


    All eyes rested on Ram Shankar.


    “Call him chief,” chirped Vikas, relieved that the onus of this ‘stress call‘ was off him. “Make it seem natural, start like you were just inquiring when it is.”


    All the others offered encouraging glances by way of support.


    Ram‘s hand was trembling as he began dialing the number, somewhere deep down he felt that he was a bit too junior to be making that call, but Vikas‘s quick fingers zipped across the number pad and the phone was buzzing at the other end before Ram could even think of formulating an escape plan.


    “Mr Bose, I was just calling to inquire when the review meeting would be?” he began in his most earnest voice, all eyes in the room transfixed on him.


    There was silence as Bose‘s voice cackled its usual cacophonic tone for a bit. Ram put down the phone, his hand still shaking. “He says it was just a misunderstanding. The Chairman had told his assistant, ‘Get the agency to Hotel Sea-View to meet me.‘ That fellow apparently has a hearing problem and so he spread the word about the agency review.”


    “I knew it!”


    “How can they dislike our work?”


    “Or our planning.”


    “Or strategy.”


    And before he knew it the other four had cleared the room and zipped off for a lavish lunch, the voucher of which Ram would have to clear later (with much explaining).


    “Tale of the review woe is useful to keep agency on toe,” the ancient Chinese rhyme (for better or verse), the express delivery of the tea cup and Chai-La had vanished into one of the circles on the whiteboard.


     


    After stints at Lowe, Mudra and Everest the author is now with Triton as Associate Vice President Brand Services. In addition to that he is also patron saint of Juhu Beach United – a movement that celebrates obesity and the unfit ‘out of breath‘ media professional of today. To join up contact vinaykanchan@hotmail.com


    (The views expressed here are those of the author and Indiantelevision.com need not necessarily subscribe to the same)

  • It wasn’t me!

    By VINAY KANCHAN

    Passing the buck – the one skill that is genetically transmitted through the organizational DNA over decades. Some agency systems have actually developed ‘propriety models‘ to perfect this activity. Perhaps the old adage that ‘models give events structure but not direction‘ is likely to be proven wrong during the course of events.


    “Why do you guys always screw up so badly? Especially after everything was so crystal clear after the last meeting?” enquired a fuming Mr. Bose (the client) of the agency team.
    His outburst was after an eventful meeting with the client top brass. To say that the meeting was bad would be tantamount to describing a Tsunami as a mildly agitated ripple in the water.


    “Open your eyes with belief, and thou shall come to no grief” the hushed Chinese accent, the express delivery of the tea cup and Chai-La (the mystical Chinese canteen tea boy) vanished in the smoldering embers of Mr. Bose‘s previous statement, but not before leaving Ram with a riddle to ponder over.


    As Ram scratched his head trying to make sense of Chai-La‘s latest conundrum, he could not help but notice all the other agency people – PP (the handle bar mustached creative director), Vikas (Ram‘s boss and the account head), Planimus (the media planning head) and Dharti (the account planner), look strangely a little past Mr. Bose, almost like they were looking beyond him at another person.


    Then Vikas spoke, with his tone matching the aggressive intent of Mr. Bose‘s.


    “Mr. Bose, firstly there was no clarity on when this meeting was to take place, secondly there was no agreed upon agenda, and thirdly there was no direction in terms of what was to be done for creative. The creative was left without a clue as to what was needed for today.”


    Ram, baulked for Vikas, thinking PP would typically fly off the handle on that accusation of ‘a lack of direction‘. But PP was mysteriously calm, almost frighteningly composed (for a creative sort that is). He gently tugged at his moustache, stroking it with almost philosophical poise, as he also strangely looked beyond Mr. Bose, as if for guidance.


    “To be frank, we were quite stumped with what sizes to take and what duration commercials we should create, because to the creative this was more a question of what could be achieved through the effective and innovative use of media, but since that picture was never truly clear we were left groping in the dark. A bit like watching Ganguly play short stuff,” ended PP, with a resounding guffaw, not really supported by the lone client representative.


    Ram‘s jaw dropped to the level of an audible thud. He was perplexed by PP‘s statement, because that squarely placed the ball in the court of Planimus-A man who undertook his business with gladiatorial passion. A man who readily fought with creative for shorter durations and smaller sizes with the frenzy of a wounded humpback whale trying to stave off a pack of Orcas.


    Planimus however barely raised his eyebrow from his laptop. In that faintest movement of his retina, Ram deduced that he also had looked beyond Mr. Bose for higher enlightenment and direction.

    “Even I need to depend on what understanding of the consumer is provided to me from account planning. The nuances of the consumer, who he is, what he does, and in what manner the brand finds a role in his existence. All these inputs are very important to me before I begin my work, and if there was no clear brief from that end I could only do that much.” concluded Planimus, squarely placing the onerous task of taking on the lions in Dharti‘s court, as he returned his uninhibited focus to his laptop.


    “Any pass is better than carrying the ball.” These immortal words from a documentary on ‘How to play the beautiful game‘ had remained etched in Ram‘s memory from an early age. But the realisation that this was applicable in modern day business was just about dawning on him.


    Dharti‘s pretty eyelashes had briefly fluffed when Planimus passed the baton to her. But something behind Mr. Bose seemed to reassure her.


    Mr. Bose turned his head in her direction; his neck was getting its best workout since Wimbledon. His smile and patience was getting a little wearier. However, given that it was Dharti he was looking at, he reached from deep within to showcase his best.


    “There were so many things said at the last meeting, and many possible new directions emerged, that one had lost track of what was finally decided, e.g. I recollect that briefly there was talk of repositioning our itching cream for the groin as a face cream, given the thinking that if it can handle ‘low down‘ bacteria than that at the top should be infinitely simpler. So I had to begin from the minutes mailed to me by the account team.”


    All eyes in the room turned to Ram as he found himself looking straight into the cold eyes of Mr. Bose, whose triumphant grin resembled that of a Tyrannosaur, who has just magically discovered a chained goat left behind by nature for supper


    Ram‘s panic stricken mind was groping for an answer. He looked around and saw encouraging looks from each and every person in the room, sans Mr. Bose. As if they all had expected that the spotlight would rest finally on him and that he would be able to handle it. Astonishingly even Vikas was looking supportively towards him, it was almost unreal.


    As he closed his eyes to muster his wits, he felt the express delivery of the tea cup in his hand and prophetic words spoken in a hushed oriental tone in his ears.


    “To protect thyself from the oncoming rage, look around and thou might find the answer on a page”


    He looked up in time to see Chai-La disappear into an inter office memo with an unerringly loud cackle of demonic laughter.


    Ram felt his hand go forward and touch the page. It felt a little strange, almost like he had made a cosmic connection. As he looked around at his team mates he caught relieved smiles on all their faces.


    Then as he turned to Mr. Bose he saw her.


    She had a divine, 1000 watt radiance about her. Her hair was glowing, long lustrous strands that shampoo brand managers would have betrayed their mothers for, her skin was flawless and blemish cum acne free, her smile was angelically sly enough to cause the will of reticent accountants to waver, for a minute he thought he was witnessing a supernatural being. But he saw a sash on her that said ‘Ms. PTB Propriety 2006‘ and that convinced him otherwise. Mysteriously Mr. Bose seemed completely unaware of her existence.


    Ram continued to watch her in awe as she did a small pompom routine and topped it off by moving both her hands together in a circular arc across the room tracing every occupant in it until they stopped at Mr. Bose. Then she dazzled a smile at Ram and vanished. For once Ram knew what he had to say


    “Mr. Bose, I did write and circulate the minutes of the last meeting, but I had also emailed you the same and put a very important highlighted footnote there that Vikas had insisted on. The footnote said that you had to get the minutes seen and ratified by the chairman before the next meeting. You never got back to us on that.” He said feeling a strange calm and peace in him as he went about every sentence.


    Mr. Bose‘s smile disappeared of his face with the speed of platonic thoughts leaving your mind once the channel switches to Baywatch. Sweat began to form on his massive brow.


    “Yes! Why didn‘t you?” asked Vikas, thumping the table with great gusto.


    Mr. Bose began mopping his forehead with a handkerchief that he seemed to have produced from the medieval era, “I have to get back to the office to meet the chairman, but you can take your time for the next presentation, let me know when…”


    He vanished from the room even before bothering to punctuate the previous statement.


    There were collective yells of joy and high fives that were exchanged within the agency folk as they all trickled out of the room, visibly elated at having successfully defended their spotless home game record in this respect.


    As Vikas was leaving the room, he looked back to see Ram immersed in deep thought.


    “What‘s up chief?” he asked Ram.


    “Who was she?”


    Vikas smiled his all knowing smile,” She was the propriety model that we have developed for passing the buck PTB-2006, I can‘t really tell you any more, its top secret.”


    “But why could I see her only after I touched the memo?”


    “Because it‘s difficult for underlings to see her, unless they fully understand the organizational DNA, and sometimes getting in touch with papers that symbolize how we excel at passing the buck (PTB) like inter office memos does help,” concluded Vikas as he left the room to resume his hostility with PP and every other creative in the world.


    “Then I saw her face, now I am a believer,” a markedly Mandarin version of this classic song began playing on Ram‘s Taiwanese walkman, as Ram found his fingers fondling a tea cup even as Chai-La disintegrated into one of the Chinese letters on the walkman logo.




    After stints at Lowe, Mudra and Everest the author is now with Triton as Associate Vice President Brand Services. In addition to that he is also patron saint of Juhu Beach United – a movement that celebrates obesity and the unfit ‘out of breath‘ media professional of today. To join up contact vinaykanchan@hotmail.com


    (The views expressed here are those of the author and Indiantelevision.com need not necessarily subscribe to the same)