Thumps Up For Thumps Up

People always criticize when a new marketing strategy is launched. The will give you loads of advise and point out thousands of flaws in your strategy. The same thing happened with Thumps Up during the launch of their recent campaign "Aaaj Kuch Toofaani Karte Hain". The ad depicted the famous Sourthern Superstar Mahesh Babu doing daredevil stunts after having his Thumps Up

Watch the ad here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWXHXPQddlY

People said they are doing the same thing what Mountain Dew does. In mountain dew ad's , u see people doing daredevil stunts after having mountain dew. So Thums Up has lost its exclusivity. At one point of time , even I thought that the strategy may go wrong but Thumps Up has been able to garner a lot of eyeballs and it has again become popular among the youth.

In short, in marketing its not the rules which always work, but your instinct to.  

Now Thumps Up latest strategy to appoint Salman Khan as its brand ambassador is also a correct move. Salman Khan's personality traits like that of being a strong macho guy go well with Thumps Up traits too. Mahesh Babu will do the needful in south and for north , they have Salman Khan. Coke should advertise Thumps Up more like the way it does it's parent brand. Positioning can be different as coke is always been promoted as a family drink and thumps up can be promoted among youth esp. boys who love adventure and thrill in their life.This way Thumps Up will not be able to eat Coke's market share as both products positioning would be different.

 So, its Thumps Up for Thumps Up.

OSBORNE EFFECT IN MARKETING

Obsorne effect is a negative outcome for a company in which a company prematurely releases the information of its future products which in return impacts the sales of their current products.People in return of better products in future stop purchasing current products of their company.
The term was coined in 1980's when a company named Obsorne Computers Corporation after releasing a successful portable computer announced prematurely the release of its future products. Customers in anticipation didn't purchase the current products , The sales of the current line-up dried up and the company had to suffer huge losses.
RECENT EXAMPLES:

Recently Microsoft announced that all current Nokia Lumia devices like Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710 will not be uppgradable to Windows Operating System. The new apps developed by microsoft will also be not compatible with the current lumia devices. The customers may not purchase current lumia products as they may wait for the future Nokia Lumia devices as they will support Windows 8 operating system.

Companies should be clever and a bit tactful while announcing new products. They have to ensure that they get the maximum returns from the existing products. One should follow Apple's policy. They are so secretive while launching new products.With the hype they create with new products, they can easily kill the sales of their existing products. They slowly withdraw the inventories from the stores and display immediately a new product after its launch..Who would like to stuck up with unsold inventory and stocks.
One should be wise in announcing the launch of new products in the market. These small strategies are what which make a company success story or a failure.
YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
REFERENCES:
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/O/Osborne_Effect.html
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/07/07/nokia-rim-and-the-osborne-effect-oh-apples-here-to.aspx

ETHICAL MARKETING

Since joining my MBA last year, I have learned a lot in marketing. Starting from product management to supply chain management to consumer behavior to sales. A lot of topics have been taught . But there is one topic which I find is missing and probably will never be taught. That topic is "ETHICAL MARKETING".
Ethical Marketing generally means all the claims and promises which a company makes to its customers needs to be fulfilled.
In a country, where official figures state that 77% of population lives on almost Rs. 20/day and where only 2.7% people pay taxes- people would want that they get equal value to the amount they spent on purchasing goods and services. Our country boasts of a market where majority of the population is price sensitive and they have their economic reasons to be so. So, its an obligation for the companies to fulfill all the promises they make to customers at the time when they purchase gods from them.
But such obligations are hardly fulfilled.
Read this link: http://health.india.com/news/are-nestle-pepsico-and-others-misleading-you-with-wrong-labels/.
This link has an article how companies food and snack companies misrepresent facts regarding trans facts. Many companies like kurkure , pepsi, uncle chips claim that they have Zero trans fats but instead , you find that trans fats have high fats which are harmful for our health.
If you take the telecom companies, the claims they make at the time of taking connections is different after you are asked to pay the bill. The rates , packages and schemes turn out to be different after a connection is taken.
The problem is establishing trust among your customers. During this era of digital age, customers are well aware of which the wrong hings happening around them. With options increasing for customers in case of the goods and services provided in the market, they might stop using them in case don't think to change their policies.
The problem with companies is that they go for short term profits and don't look at the long term future. If customers have adequate trust in you, it will pay you in the long run in case of increased customer base and long term profits. So, fulfill the promises or don't make any.
YOOOOOOOOOOO

i Pad Mini - Taking Up a Smaller Market

When i Pad was launched in April 2010, it began a new era in the personal computer market. Apple which is considered to be a market leader in innovation, offered a product which I personally was launched at the right moment where its rivals were coming up with ultabooks and netbooks  with superb features. Although, I would like to bring to your notice that the i pad was not the first tablet to be launched . Micosoft, Apple, ARM, Webbook contemplated or launched a tablet pc but they were never conceived well either due to technical problems or poor response from the customers (Checkout history of tablet computers-wikepedia). But what i pad has achieved in a short span of 2.5 years, that no other company has been able to achieve.

From the above table , we can see that Apple i Pad commands the highest share in the Pc tablet market globally. Its rivals are far in terms of market share.Its cool features plus the apple brand has helped the product a lot to become successful. 
Now apple is coming up with a new version of its tablet computer named the i pad mini in october this year. .It will have a screen size of 7-8 inches . It is being launched to take on smaller tablets offered by Google and Amazon. Google nexus and Amazon's kindle fire have 7 inch screens and are priced at $199. Apple sells its latest version at $499. 
But the problem here lies is that neither Google nor Amazon have been able to make profits from a smaller inch tablet.
They haven't been able to make any profit margins. Even Hp co. had to kill its product coz of poor margins.
But I personally feel that Apple will be able to do wonders with this product to because they have one thing which other companies don't have is the brand ' APPLE'. Analysts have said that if the i pad mini is sold between $199-299, Apple would be able to make profit margins. Most apple fans just want an apple product no matter what it is. Now with the Mini i pad coming with a lesser price, they will surely be able to do so.
i Pad mini will also be successful in price sensitive markets like India where people crave to have a apple product but can't coz of its high cost. So watch out apple fans, here comes i Pad Mini.
REFERENCES: Wikepedia.org
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