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Tag: KFC

  • Nimbuzz’s India focus is organic growth, acquisitions to follow

    Nimbuzz’s India focus is organic growth, acquisitions to follow

    Mumbai: After shifting its main base to India from the Netherlands, Nimbuzz has decided to follow the organic growth path to settle down in the marketplace before it pursues acquisitions.

    As a first step, the global mobile call and chat applications provider, which has raised $25 million in venture capital and strategic funding from Naspers and Mangrove Capital Partners, plans to expand its offerings in India to capitalise on the fast-growing mobile advertising business.

    Says Nimbuzz head of operations Joby Babu, “Once the mobile advertising field starts posting steady growth rates, we may look at the inorganic route. Our focus now is the organic route and our methodologies for developing in India are working in our favour.”

    The application developer has clear plans to launch more platforms over the next two to three months but has not frozen the ascending order of these service introductions in the country.

    Says Babu, “We aim to become an integrated mobile application provider. Maybe, music will be next on the cards. Nothing can be said for sure, but we surely want to expand our portfolio.”

    Founded by Evert Jaap Lugt in 2006, Nimbuzz has developed call and chat applications but does not have applications for services like music launched in India.

    In order to foster growth in India, Nimbuzz has introduced applications and platform that have relevance and greater returns on investments for users as well as the advertisers.

    “We have put in a lot of features and platform support to localise the kind of advertising support we have. The brands are really liking it and specially the creative agencies that work closely with the brands and this has kind of made us the default partner of choice for many brands when it comes to mobile advertising. The whole ecosystem of features is helping mobilise a lot of budgets in the mobile advertising field,” avers Babu.

    One such feature introduced by Nimbuzz is the Hyper-local targeted ads (HLTA) which adds relevance to advertising. In this application, the user receives ads on the mobile according to the location. So if a user is walking into a mall, an advertisement will flash on his or her mobile giving information on a sale or a special offer at one of the shops. Some of the brands using this platform are KFC, Pizza Hut, some e-commerce portals and automobile brands like Mahindra XYLO.

    Nimbuzz does not feel that it does not face any real competition in India as it offers multiple services and platforms under one umbrella. “Platforms like Whatssapp are our competitors in a way, but the advantage Nimbuzz has is that it has consolidated mobile services across chatting and social media,” he says.

    Nimbuzz, which saw exponential growth in the past one year with its subscriber base more than doubling to 100 million, recently shifted its base to India from the Netherlands to be closer to Asia and the Middle East, its major markets that account for 61 per cent of its global subscribers.

    The mobile advertising market in India is estimated to be of Rs 1 billion and is growing at approximately 50 per cent annually.

    “India was doing very well for Nimbuzz and in order to get the best possible product for the market, it is important for it (the product) to be built there. The product managers need to understand what the users really love. We, thus, decided that product development and marketing will be operated out of India,” explains Babu.

    Another reason for choosing India as the epicenter of its global operations is its convenient location to the fast growing markets.

    “The geographies doing well for us include India and South East Asia, especially Indonesia, a little of Middle East and parts of Western Europe. So it is much easier for us to handle our business – product development and marketing – from here rather than from Europe. This puts India in the prime spot in the global operation,” says Babu.

    The thrust on mobile advertising is increasing and this means growth opportunities for entities like Nimbuzz. The mobile advertising field is getting a fair share of the marketing pie with each passing campaign. The ratio of mobile advertising to the total advertising spends is also going up in the country, says Babu.

  • Culture should be used for market segmentation and not geographies: Chaudhuri

    Culture should be used for market segmentation and not geographies: Chaudhuri

    MUMBAI: Since the launch of International brands in the Indian market, there have been few successful stories and few unsuccessful stories too. But there has always been learning for all, and that is- “don‘t treat Indian customers like those of other parts of the world”.

    Culture and people here are different and the market need to be targeted differently. It‘s same for the other markets of the world. Strategy of one market can not successfully work in the other; says IIPM dean (centre for graduate studies) and Planman Consulting director Rajita Chaudhuri, while speaking at the World Brand Congress 2011 that concluded here today.

    She said, “Culture is the new tool for branding. As marketers, one should remember that standardising doesn‘t work. Cultural influences remain strong. The way a consumer decides to pick a brand is culture specific. In the west there are pragmatic consumers, in east there are critical consumers, in north there are consumers who can be influenced by entertaining campaigns while for the south the campaign has to be informative.”
     
    Further explaining with examples, she mentioned, “When Coca Cola launched in India, they came up with the same western campaign and it failed drastically. Even Dove‘s ‘Real Beauty‘ campaign in China was unsuccessful because ‘Chinese don‘t believe in real beauty concept‘. KFC when launched in India served chicken wings but it didn‘t work very well and it eventually started serving vegetarian to Indians too. So, those brands who change survive. Coca-Cola changed its campaign theme to ‘thanda matlab Coca Cola‘ and it succeeded.”

    “MTV offered only English music but then it changed to Hindi and survived. Pillsbury has come up with Punjabi flour. Samsung, Nike‘s, Pepsi who have associated with cricket have managed to break the clutter. Britannia came up with biscuits that can be dipped in tea and consumed. It became a hit as we Indians love to do that.”
     
    Talking about homogeneity, she added, “India is not homogeneous, the markets are no longer homogenous. Culture should be used for market segmentation and not geographies. Customisation is essential. For Bengali market LG has attachments in microwave for cooking fish, for south they have attachment that can help them make Idli. Cavinkare (Fairever) has promoted that the cream is made with saffron and milk so it will not only keep the skin fair but also healthy. This is very impactful for target market like India.”

    According to her packaging should also be influenced by culture. She said, “Shampoo sachets and combo packs for Punjabis are example of it. Those who understand the local market will rule.”

  • Narayan Devanathan is Dentsu Marcom national planning head

    Narayan Devanathan is Dentsu Marcom national planning head

    MUMBAI: Dentsu India Group has appointed Narayan Devanathan as national planning head, Dentsu Marcom.

    Based out of the Group‘s India headquarters in Gurgaon, Devanathan will be a key member of the new leadership team at Dentsu India Group.

    His primary responsibilities will involve leading strategic planning for current and prospective clients across Dentsu Marcom offices in India.

    Devanathan joins from Euro RSCG where he was chief strategy officer. Over his 19 years in the business, he has worked across capacities in planning and copy with leading advertising agencies in India and the United States.

    Prior to Euro, Devanathan was senior planning director at Ogilvy & Mather India. He has also worked with US based Cramer-Krasselt and Admerasia, New York.

    Devanathan‘s diverse category experience includes FMCG, automobiles, banking and financial services, beverages, fast food retail, technology, healthcare, real estate, personal care, pharmaceuticals, crafts and apparel.

    Dentsu India Group executive chairman Rohit Ohri said, “It‘s an exciting time for us at Dentsu India Group. We‘ve triggered a transformation, a new beginning and a reinvigoration of our India presence. Narayan will partner Titus Upputuru and Hiroshi Omata to lead Dentsu Marcom to its next phase of growth. The width of Narayan‘s experience and passion for the creative work will be invaluable for Dentsu India.”

    On joining Dentsu Marcom, Devanathan said, “Over the years, I‘ve figured the 3 principles that I work best by are honesty, simplicity and collaboration. In the new scheme of things at Dentsu India, that‘s what I‘m looking to harness as the head of strategic planning – to help create a fantastic future for brands, together with my agency, Dentsu Marcom and client partners. After some terrific stints at American and Indian agencies, I guess I‘m hoping to find love in Tokyo too.”

    Devanathan has worked on brands such as Reckitt Benckiser portfolio (Dettol, Strepsils, Lysol, Mortein, Airwick, Harpic, Easy Off Bang, Veet, Vanish, among others), Fair & Lovely (digital for Unilever), Sprite, KFC, American Express, GE Healthcare, Mitsubishi Motors, Baskin Robbins, IBM, Motorola, Cisco and Teacher‘s .

  • O&M bags creative biz of Taco Bell

    O&M bags creative biz of Taco Bell

    MUMBAI: Yum! Restaurants India, which has a chain of restaurants and eating joints, Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell under its banner, has assigned the creative duties of Taco Bell to Ogilvy and Mather India.

    O&M now has the creative mandate for two of Yum‘s brands — KFC and Taco Bell.

    Until now JWT India handled the Taco Bell account. Though the agency still retains the Pizza Hut brand.
     
    There was no pitch involved and the account will be handled out of O&M‘s Delhi office.

    Ogilvy and Mather India group president North and East Sanjay Thappar said, “We have been handling the KFC business. The client has given us the Taco account based on the work we did for KFC.”