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Tag: economic slowdown

  • Mother Dairy ups marketing spends by 50% for new “Rishton Ka Swad Badhaye” campaign

    Mother Dairy ups marketing spends by 50% for new “Rishton Ka Swad Badhaye” campaign

    DELHI: The ongoing economic slowdown is bugging a lot of brands and marketers out there but Mother Dairy is utilising the slight slump in the financial market to expand its footprints within the country. The brand has recently announced its new brand positioning with a fresh “Rishton Ka Swad Badhaye'' campaign and is also working hard to expand its distributorship. Speaking to Indiantelevision.com about coming out with a new brand positioning during such tumultuous times, Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt. Ltd business head – value added dairy products Sanjay Sharma said that big brands like theirs remain largely unscathed during times
    of economic stress.

    “What happens is that during such times of ambiguity, bigger brands like us normally try and do better because smaller brands do not have money to expand or advertise. Dairy is a category dominated by small regional brands. Most of the states have strong regional dairy brands except 2-3 national brands like Amul or Mother Dairy. In situations like this, these smaller brands usually suffer. That’s why we thought that this is the right time to hit the market and also
    expand the distribution to leverage more and expand,” he elaborated.

    The brand is taking this opportunity to penetrate deeper into the market and has increased its marketing budget by more than 50 per cent for the particular campaign. The campaign is expected to create awareness among the consumers and strengthen the image of the brand as
    a “caregiver”.

    Sharma elucidates that the brand is planning an extensive digital campaign to promote the new positioning. There has been a change in the packaging too, with 80-85 per cent already revamped. It will take another three to four months to change the look and feel of the complete product portfolio. New additions in the ice-cream category are also expected.

    Expanding further on the marketing strategy, Sharma stated, “The channels we are targetting are dominantly digital and in the next financial year, we are coming out with a TV commercial as well. The TVC will be running on family and kids channel because we are trying to reach out to young mothers. For ice cream and other such products, we will use digital. A lot of BTL campaigns will also happen for the segment including product samplings and reaching directly to the consumers. We are planning very exciting campaigns around our cheese products.”

    Sharma is also very excited to explore opportunities on music-streaming apps like Spotify and Gaana. “We are really gung ho (about voice-streaming services). The TG there is very right for products like cheese and ice creams.The millennials are no longer listening to radio and have
    moved to these apps.”

    He continued, “Our objective is very clear. We want to reach the millennials and what are the different touchpoints we can use for that; it can be digital, TV, radio, print, outdoor, and such apps. The consumer attention is very small now and it is very difficult to find out what is working and when you have such a big campaign, you have to focus entirely, 360-degrees.”

    Sharma is also planning to explore the realm of product integration in digital content to expand the reach of the new positioning and reach the millennial consumer. There are no active campaigns in the pipeline but he has definitely got that on top of his mind as well, he share

     

  • Dealing with the slowdown: Madison Media’s recommendations

    Dealing with the slowdown: Madison Media’s recommendations

    MUMBAI: How do marketers deal with the inexplicable slowdown the Indian market is going through? Run for cover? Hide behind a door? Well, Madison Media has come out with some 10 recommendations for marketers to deal with the slowdown which it has put out in a playbook, it released earlier this month.

    Temper expectations from rural market: Nielsen figures show the brakes have been felt less on the urban market with it showing a growth of eight per cent in Q3 2019 as against five per cent for the rural areas. InQ3 2018, rural had clocked 20 per cent growth as against 14 per cent for urban. Hence, marketers need to focus their energies on urban India until farm incomes rise and rural gets back into higher gear.

    Pick your markets: Much like the current politics, the growth in consumption will not be secular across the country. As per a Bain and Company’s report, consumption will be led by 10 “breakthrough” states — Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. Therefore, marketers will have to repolarise their traditional market prioritisation methodology. Focus on TV investments should be on regional languages channels rather than Hindi GECs.     

    Go for premiumisation: Industry estimates indicate that India will be an economy led by the middle class by 2030. The middle class will be driving 75 per cent of the consumer spending, plus 10 years from now. Therefore, premiumisation and category addition can drive a significant share of incremental spent on categories including F&B, dining out, personal care, and cellphones, etc. 

    Focus on modern trade and e-commerce: The Indian heartland is embracing modern trade with open arms. As per property management company, JLL, 50-60 per cent of the new modern trade outlets are coming up in tier II and tier Ill cities. Brands and marketers should also drive the wave by shifting substantial trade promotion monies to e-commerce portals and managing categories with modern trade. 

    Invest in brand love: During slowdown, brands have a temptation of running promotions rather than building the "Brand Love”, which can prove to be a fatal exercise. A study conducted by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising [IPA] suggests that emotional campaigns work nearly twice as hard as rational campaigns. It would be wise to synchronise and invest in "bottom funnel" campaign probably using digital media. Such an approach will ensure Share of Mind is translated to Share of Market.

    Manage brand portfolio: To maximise the ROI, marketers should devise and adopt a brand portfolio management approach. Brand portfolio management is all about developing and maximizing halos (cross brand elasticity). Rigorous analytics can help to identify the donors and recipients of "Halos" and thus develop a portfolio strategy that adds to the marketing ROI.  

    Do not under-invest: As widely known, advertising has an ‘S-shaped’ response graph on a plane. If marketers invest below the threshold point– determined by brand size, category, and advertising copy, the entire advertising budget gets wasted. Hence, it is very important to invest in analytics to identify the threshold point and plan advertising spends accordingly. And if a brand is unable to invest at threshold levels, it would be a better strategy to remain silent and mount a BTL campaign. Thus, a proportional slashing of budgets in the wake of slowdown induced budget cuts is not recommended.

    Play ESOV game: It is very common for marketers to slash advertising budgets during slowdown but data suggests that the opposite should be done. Excess SOV (ESOV = SOV – SOM) metric developed by Neilsen indicates that ESOV had a definitive correlation with share growth. On average, a 10 point difference between SOV and SOM led to 0.5 per cent of extra market share growth. However, ESOV was found to be working harder for brands with greater emotional appeal and those who had a higher share of market. For every brand, analytics can help calculate the required Excess SOV for the target market share gain. Downturn is the best time to mount a share gain exercise with ESOV as category heat is expected to be moderate. 

    Milk Existing Assets: To maximise Rol of marketing monies, advertisers could resist the need to change creative assets and instead find ways to extract more out of existing assets. It is only a promotion led campaign that has definitive shelflife. Millward Brown had conducted a global study and articulated that true "wear out" of a TV ad is rare, and many TV ads could have a longer useful life than advertisers realise.

    TV and Digital to be go-to media: Recent study by Accenture titled "Cross-channel advertising attribution report" has quantified the halo impact of TV on digital performance campaigns. Without TV, standalone ROI of digital campaigns comes down by 18 per cent. For a branding campaign, digital adds to the incremental reach of TV at higher frequency at a lower cost, thus increasing the campaign ROI. 

  • Cinthol won’t go hyper-aggressive with offers: GCPL’s Urshita Nema

    Cinthol won’t go hyper-aggressive with offers: GCPL’s Urshita Nema

    MUMBAI: India’s famous soap brand Cinthol, owned by Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) is gearing up its effort to connect to consumer for its freshness portfolio as the heat after monsoon kicks in. The popular brand held an interesting day filled with fresh adventure, in association with the cricket sensation, Shubman Gill as part of its #TurnDownTheHeat campaign of Cinthol Lime & Cinthol Cool soap variants.

    “We have done a 360 degree here. It starts with TV campaign; the TVC is on all of national channels. We are also doing regional media taking Maharashtra and West Bengal channels. Along with TV, we started this digital campaign, which has thought and led to activation campaign where Shubman Gill came in as the celeb and he started asking about what is your adventurous spree to turning down the heat along with Cinthol Lime and Cinthol Cool,” GCPL personal care generale manager marketing Urshita Nema shared the details of the campaign.

    “Cinthol as a brand has done a lot of outdoor activities and we got responses from across the nation. We picked up the winners and then we had micro-influencers to lead the campaign. Multiple influencers started posting their pictures may be with a parachute, diving in the waterfall and we tried to involve them in the campaign,” Nema added.

    Nema also added that Cinthol’s target is practically youth oriented and while the brand has been there for years, it has been refreshing itself constantly to connect with its TG. But she also added that TG is more about psychography and people who are young by heart, who love to go out for sports and adventure, they are also the brand’s TG.

    Talking about current focus of marketing initiatives, Nema shared that they are focusing on ‘hyperlocal marketing’ right now. She explained that while they divide the term, one of it has to be rich media and TV will be there.

    “But when we have to connect to our TG, we look into the relevance of which market we are working. Cities in North, West like Delhi, Bombay all these cities’ digital connect is very good. So, we have taken up this as digital friendly. We have few states where we are doing experiential marketing campaign like Ola, Uber tie-up. We gave fresh lime wipes. So, it depends on market what we pick,” she added.

    Nema also pointed out that where consumers are going is practically digital savy. While the brand also understands internet rates are coming down, everyone is hooked onto digital, they are going digital with micro-influencers, OTT platforms like Hotstar, Voot.

    GCPL posted its second-quarter financial result on Wednesday and the soap segment’s revenue declined by 4 per cent year-on-year and the brand’s overall ad spend sharply fell down by 22.1 per cen year-on-year. In an exception, India’s recent economic slowdown has affected FMCG brands also which are usually more immune to slowdowns. While asked about the impact of the slowdown, Nema said that  slowdown news is correct but there are markets like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu which are still growing.

    Due to weak demand, FMGC major HUL slashed prices of Dove, Lux, and Lifebuoy soaps recently and Wipro Consumer Care, the maker of Santoor soap, also cut the price of the soap. While Neema was inquired if Cinthol is also thinking of a similar move, she answered that the brand is ready to react to competition anytime.

    “But I would say we are not in a stage where we have to go hyper-aggressive to counter competition with offers. The brand pull for Cinthol is very high. We would say we are least impacted in the situation,” she added.

  • Tech-enabled marketing can help brands sail through economic slowdown

    Tech-enabled marketing can help brands sail through economic slowdown

    MUMBAI: The consumer of today is discerning and careful about where one is making expenditures but will not shy away from spending on good things, remarked MediaCom global managing director of Blink & strategic partnerships Bianca Best, as she interacted with Indiantelevision.com at the inaugural flagship BLINK_live event in Mumbai. The theme of the event was ‘Decoding Growth in A Slowdown’, which was well-timed given the current economic slowdown in India.

    Best noted that brands need to be aware of how the consumer behaviour is changing in today’s time and how they are interacting with various advertising platforms. She laid emphasis on the use of technology-enabled marketing to target the new-age user.

    She said, “If we think about the changes that have happened in the past decade, technology has changed how consumers behave and interact with brands. The marketing is so disruptive nowadays that clients often find themselves confused about what to do next. I think it is technology-enabled marketing that we should be focusing on right now. We need to understand consumer behaviour and use data to be present at the right place at the right time.”

    Best, who was here in India for the first time, also noted that marketers are feeling a little daunted by the economic slowdown that is plaguing the global industries right now and only tactical marketing can keep them on the top of  the consumer mind and sail through these tough waters.

    Speaking about the conference, which had speakers like Kantar Insights CEO South Asia Preeti Reddy, WPP overall lead for Borderless team Nihar Das, Mediacom chief product officer APAC Josh Gallagher among other, Best said, “I am superbly positive about the conference. I think clients need some reassurance in this era of volatility. Hosting events like this gives clarity around very specific points that brands can approach in this time of downturn and become positive they can control.”

    She added, “In the volatile, exciting and ever-evolving landscape brands are operating in today, Blink satisfies not just the potential that comes from trialling innovation (which we see as part of every client brief) but is an absolute necessity to ensure clients achieve sustainable, long term business success. Only once brands partner with technology specialists are the ambitions of true digital transformation realised.  I’m incredibly invigorated to be enabling this for our clients and see Blink becoming an essential complementary pillar to MediaCom’s already world-class offering.”

  • Sun TV Network cautious about FY20 growth expectation due to economic slowdown

    Sun TV Network cautious about FY20 growth expectation due to economic slowdown

    MUMBAI: The current slowdown in the Indian economy has stunned the expected growth of major companies, and media conglomerates are not an exception. South India’s largest broadcaster Sun TV Network is being cautious about the growth expectation for the rest of the year especially due to a headwind in the advertising sector. Due to this, the Marathi channel launch has been put on hold.

    “We are seeing a lot of deceleration in sectors like auto and real estate and because of that, there is some multiplier effect which is pulling down the momentum in the economy. So, if you look at all the numbers that have come out from FMCG companies, barring some notable exceptions, like Asian Paints, everybody is painting a very down outlook. So, in that context, we shouldn't expect anything spectacular for the remaining calendar year at least. People are saying that if the monsoons are good, things will pick up because of better spending power coming into the rural economy. But all that is still a guesstimate,”  Sun TV Network group CFO SL Narayanan commented in an earnings call with analysts after the 1st quarter of FY 20.

    Explaining the current situation, he noted that the outlook for advertising this year is pretty challenging. Narayanan also added that the company is unable to give any guidance on advertising as well and need to set expectations very reasonably. According to him, even ending up with a mid-single-digit growth would be lucky this year.

    For the first quarter of FY 2020, advertisement revenues stood at Rs 368 crore, broadcast at Rs 10 crore, international subscriptions around Rs 41 crore, revenue from pay channels including digital was about Rs 169 crore and DTH Rs 228 crore. Along with these segments, movie production helped to garner around Rs 41 crore and IPL Rs 244 crore.

    Along with the slowdown in the national market, the situation in Tamil Nadu’s regional market has not also been very rosy. The spending of local and regional advertisers has also shrunk because of a lack of liquidity in the system. Narayanan also added that people are not seeing any ROI in advertising.

    “We have seen 2-3 per cent growth in the market share which we have gained over the past couple of weeks. So, our endeavour is to further keep growing the market share. And ultimately, it leads to the level where we were a couple of years back. So, I think the desire is to go to 50 per cent and we are working towards it,” Narayanan commented on Tamil Nadu market share expectations.

    Sun TV Network MD R Mahesh Kumar also added that some of the competitors are losing substantial share in the Tamil Nadu market. However, a series of launches happening in the market is making them confident about  gain in further market share eventually leading to better monetisation. He also added optimistically that the company will also improve the revenues accordingly.

    While the broadcaster forayed into the Bangla market at a time when the new tariff order changed the entire scenario, it left an impact on the newly launched Sun Bangla as well. Sun TV's CFO is still optimistic about the revenue of its Bangla GEC. He also added that the channel needs to be given some time as it launched only five months back. According to him,  the company’s strategy to venture into Bangla market is a well thought out expansion strategy.

    “I think it’s a step in the right direction because we think that there is a lot of potential there. It is a market where there is not much of TRPs available for trading and there are 2 well-entrenched competitors. And I think that our content strategy also has been very well thought. All those series have been very well made, slickly made. But it will take some time. Rome wasn’t built in a day. And so we are doing all the right things. And I’m sure we will see an uptick pretty soon,” Narayan explained.

    “I don’t think we can sit back and say that we shouldn’t have done this. We’ve actually applied a lot of thought and we identified that this is the place to go because to go into the regular Hindi market would have called for enormous amounts of capital. So even assuming but not admitting at some stage this [Sun Bangla] turns out to be a damp squib, it is not something that will wreck the balance sheet of Sun TV,” Narayanan added.

  • Economic slowdown: Smart marketers will not make cuts in advertising

    Economic slowdown: Smart marketers will not make cuts in advertising

    MUMBAI: As India battles, probably, the worst of its economic crisis since independence, a lot of industries are battling to keep their businesses going but it seems like the advertising industry is immune from the ill-effects. The marketing industry and the advertisers are seeing the slowdown as a need to advertise more and get more consumers.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com on the subject of economic slowdown, Liberty Shoes marketing head Barun Prabhakar said that while the financial crisis is real, it is not going to hamper their business or marketing prospects. “Some 10-20 years back, Indians used to earn first and then burned it. But in today’s time people are spending first and then thinking about earning the money back. So, the challenge for the brands is to stay visible even in tough times, as there is a lot of competition out there, especially from smaller businesses.  The marketing becomes very competitive and you have to evolve your strategies and budgets accordingly.”

    Pidilite Industries Ltd CEO Fevicol division Nitin Chaudhary shared similar thoughts as he quipped that smart marketers will not do short-term cuts in marketing budgets.

    He said, “For brands in our category, there is no direct link between media spends and demands. We advertise to build the brand and keep it salient. I think, in tough times, it is all the more important to make sure that your brand is visible and that’s why the smart marketers will not do any short term cuts. In fact, when the times are tough, they invest in the brands accordingly.”

    Auto industry has taken a serious hit because of the economic slowdown but it also seems positive about the future and denies any chance of revising their marketing spends to lesser amounts.

    TVS Srichakra Ltd executive vice president sales and marketing Madhavan P noted, “Though the industry has been impacted by slow vehicle production in the past few quarters, we expect the domestic tyre demand to grow by 6-8 per cent in the next few years. We are totally confident about the growth of two-wheeler tyre segment, both motorcycles, and scooters. The industry is expected to grow not only in urban and semi-urban areas but also considerable growth will be witnessed in the rural areas in the coming quarters. We are totally confident about the growth of two-wheeler tyre segment, both motorcycles, and scooters.”

    Isobar South Asia group MD Shamsuddin Jasani, however, differed a little in his perspective as he communicated his fears of marketing spends getting slaughtered with a dip in sales. He said that in such cases, advertising takes the first hit.

    But he was positive about the growth of the digital medium. “Advertisers consider reviewing their spends when the times are tough and that gives us a good opportunity to come forward as consultants and help them modify their business so they can have a bigger impact.” He also added that broadcasters who don’t have a sound digital strategy will take a hit in terms of ad revenues as the lines between digital and TV are blurring.

    Prasad Shejale, co-founder and CEO of Logicserve Digital also noted that digital medium is going to strive despite an economic slowdown and many advertisers might take chunks away from traditional spends to invest online.

    He said, "Digital is a way of life and brands will like to be where consumers are at various stages of the buying lifecycle. Thus, the digital industry will see a sustained rise in short as well as long term. In the current scenario, I am not seeing a slump in digital ad spend. Since digital channels are more measurable and efficient, I foresee more number of brands driving budgets from traditional media to digital, and this trend will continue to rise."

    "Brands are certainly cautious while allocating advertising budget but digital continues to be the preferred medium," he added.

    Prabhakar had also hinted a similar trend as he mentioned that dropping ad revenues on TV channels can't be attributed to economic slowdown but a change in the viewers' choice of medium.

  • News channels urge government to keep Trai’s ad regulation in abeyance

    News channels urge government to keep Trai’s ad regulation in abeyance

    NEW DELHI: Fearing a huge impact on their revenue models, TV news broadcasters have urged the government not to implement the ad time regulation notified by the Telecom ReguIatory Authority of India (Trai) till digitisation is implemented across the country.

     

    News channels feel that high carriage fees and low subscription revenues due to constraint of bandwidth on analogue cable networks are issues that need to be sorted out first. Any current regulation that would harm their advertising revenue, which amounts to more than 90 per cent of their total income, can only be “ill-timed”. Advertising has been “slow” and the economic slowdown of 2008 “has not been corrected yet”.

     

    According to the Trai notification, news and current affairs channels will have to limit their commercial time to 12 minutes per clock hour.

        
    Expressing “deep shock” over the new notification, the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) today said it was “appalled that by way of advertisement regulations, the Trai has issued the most sweeping and intrusive controls, and not just regulations, in relation to advertising that may be carried on TV channels.”

     

    NBA urged the government to keep the notification in abeyance till such time digitisation is fully implemented in the country (with consequential benefits of no or low carriage fees and credible subscription revenue) and DAVP recommences advertising on news channels at rates which are fair and acceptable.

     

    Despite Phase-1 of digitisation being implemented from 1 November last year, the benefits have not yet accrued to broadcasters, particularly news broadcasters. Carriage fees continue to be high and most news broadcasters do not get subscription revenues. Over the last year or so, news organisations have not received any advertising from DAVP, which has cut rates to levels 75 per cent lower than they were even five years ago. All of these factors have ensured that most news channel companies face losses on an annual basis.

     

    The NBA said it believed that in the garb of “regulation of advertisements”, Trai has imposed severe restrictions which amount to “control of content” which is “anathema to our constitutional scheme”. The ad regulations are in violation of Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution, which entitles a citizen to carry-on any trade or business, NBA stated.

     

    The NBA notes that the recent regulations reveal a clear lack of understanding of the actual problems on the ground and the environment that the industry operates in. “The regulations, if implemented, will force many news organisations to shut down, taking away our democratic right to inform and educate and to do it independent of Government. With the general elections looming ahead, it would appear that this is an attempt to muzzle the media by taking away its ability to operate independently,” NBA said.