Brand Tags and why they matter

When I wore a new T-shirt during a weekend holiday earlier this month, my teenage daughter pondered why I chose this one with a loud-brand name on it, as usually I go mellow on displaying brand love. Even my walking shoes would hardly display the swoosh or the cat or the three stripes. It has been years since I bought formal shirts which bore the “iconic crown” on the cuffs. But even those would be gelled in to the fabric colour. 

So much for a person like me who is brand-conscious but not displaying it in public.

On the contrary, many brands, especially fashion apparel make sure their company / brand names are loudly displayed on their products. Even on PCs, HP, Dell, Lenovo and Acer – the top 4 companies with a collective market share of 95% in the personal computing space display their names while Apple shows just the logo.

From Bata shoes to Adidas, Levis T-shirts to Hidesign wallets, one can see the brand names liberally displayed on the products. Though it is easy to identify, premium bikes such as Royal Enfield or Harley Davidson by its looks, have still large, loud brand forms. When the car ignition is turned on, there is a dramatic appearance (with music) of the brand logos, from Honda to Volkswagen and everyone in between. 

While people buy products for their functionality, consumers “pay the price” for brands.

It is psychological, after all. Essentially, display of brands one uses is one way of display of wealth too. Most people in the world, who earn several lakhs per year (in India) and perhaps over USD 100,000 pa globally are not putting in their efforts for just 3 square meals a day. It is much beyond. 

From the locality and the apartment complex one resides in (especially in India) to the vehicle they drive; filling premium fuel at Shell vs value fuel from HPCL; the brand of eyeliner to the grooming essentials one uses; from the school the kids attend to brands they consume at home from the dining table to the rest rooms, there is an intrinsic tie with the psychological needs, based on the theory of hierarchy proposed by Maslow. 

As people start moving up the value chain, their desire to consume “brands’ over products increases. I have seen this first hand at hypermarkets such as the erstwhile Big Bazaar. While there would be heaps of dal, sugar and rice piled up in large steel utensils, it would be common for women to interact with the staff to enquire the prices and make mental calculations comparing with the local shopkeeper. 

And then, there would be a small set of customers, who would prefer packaged sugar, salt and grocery. There is, in fact premiumization even in these categories such as pink salt, low-iodine sugar and so on.

A friend once told me, whether you travel in an Audi or a (Maruti) Alto, the destination is the same, and that both vehicles have just 4 wheels, a steering wheel and an engine. So, why pay a premium? True.

Between a Jockey and a Lux inner wear or Sudarmani how does it matter what one wears, as this is not even to be seen by anyone! Quite true, minus the quality of the fabric, inner comfort, etc. 

Well, these are the “outlier customers” for brands who do not wish to pay a premium for utility. 

However, as is always said, it takes years to build a brand name while basic products (and services) are offered for their purpose of gratifying a simple need. 2-3 decades back, Indian customers were buying goods and services. In the past 15 years, we have seen branded showrooms for various products mushrooming all over the country. A simple business such as grooming – hair saloon / beuaty parlour – as it was called, is now one of the largest branded business with over 2,500 “salons” across the country. 

There are an estimated 300 malls in India which have the best-in class Indian and international brands. The top 50 apparel, accessories and jewellery brands have in excess of 10,000 exclusive stores, each around 800 sq ft. across the country. Branded coffee shops, from CCD to Starbucks and the much acclaimed neighbourhood favourites, are over 4,000 in India now.

Consumers today are chasing brands and not just the other way around. 

Two new Apple stores were inaugurated in April 2023 at Mumbai and Delhi. Seeing the crowds waiting to be among the early birds for store inauguration in the past for Ikea, Starbucks, H&M, Uniqlo among others, I can confidently say these two stores would have done tremendous business this month. 

While many companies continue to offer higher importance for the “brand” in the communication – on the product, inside the retail store and other communication material, many small as well as large companies ignore it. Unless there is a deeper focus on brand building, with a long term outlook, existing and new consumer stickiness is going to be minimal or worse, nil. 

Indian consumers will buy more branded products in the next few decades. Loud display of affection, from dresses to kitchen knives to drinking glasses to shoes, it is a kind of self-gratification after all.

Happy New Year

I was among those millions in India who would end up waking up groggy on the 1st of Jan. for a few years every year between 2005 – 2012 or so. The rave parties, get togethers and the whole joy and excitement of welcoming a brand New Year was palpable. From buying new clothes to a trimmed hair cut and what not, there was so much consumer spending around Christmas and New Year. With homes getting a tad bigger, households getting more liberal, party venues moved from hotels and public places to living rooms, esp. in the high rise apartments. Shouting “Happy New Year” from a balcony and wishing strangers was absolutely acceptable on that night (and the next morning!). Many years later I realised how stupid the whole thing was. Been a few years since I attained my “buddha” moment from being a budhu.

The 1st of Jan. is celebrated with fanfare globally, for it marks the dawn of a new chapter in the lives of people in many countries. For them, it’s the starting of a new Academic year for children, a new Financial year for businesses and a new year, with a change in season to embrace the goodness of nature. Lastly, it is also celebratory right after Christmas, a festival revered and celebrated by over half of the world. So, yes for them it makes a lot of sense.

Retailers worldwide run huge sale campaigns right from end-Nov – the Black Friday Sale all the way up to Cyber Monday Sale which has caught up in the past 20 years. People change their cars and bikes, deck up their houses, paint the inner and outer walls as spring & summer season beckons and shop for new clothes to suit the weather conditions. Many professional change jobs and several others retire around December. The entire construct is so different in these countries and has been that way for them. Works well too, I guess. 

However, India and Indians have embraced this trend almost meaninglessly as we try to ape the West in several ways. As long as we imbibe the good – such as environmental awareness, climate change, gender pay-gap among other things, it’s okay. But to celebrate someone else’s new year and go ga-ga about it – has become a weird trend.

For many years now, I celebrate “New Year” twice in a year – one on the 1st of April as the professional year begins. It’s also the change of academic year for my kids, so that’s a reason to cheer and motivate them to do better. A sought after time in the year for employees to look forward to a hike in Salary, expect a Bonus and perhaps, even a job change for many. The second is the New Year celebrated within our community – Ugadi – that phase of the Spring season based on the Lunar Calendar. At a personal level, it’s about offering obeisance to the Creator Lord Almighty and wearing new clothes, but nothing much beyond.

On the professional side, it’s a very important day to look forward to. The run-up begins usually 45-60 days in advance, with the making of the coveted “Annual Business Plan” (ABP), reworking on it several times and finally making the entire team buy in to your vision for the business – right from the Board and Top Management till the lowest cadre employee in the system. While the more organised Corporates and large companies go through this almost ritualistically, several mid-sized companies and SMEs usually tend to ignore the importance of “Strategic Planning”. When I say this, it’s not just about a dream number to achieve – be it any business. Rather, a methodical and practical way to build up the entire narrative – either top-down or bottom-up like a pyramid. But this is just so important, so we know what to do with the next 365 days. That’s a lot of time to achieve any business goal, honestly. 

The first day and the first few days of the new Financial Year is so important towards clear goal setting and creating measurable plans to execute them. While completing the ABP well in advance helps – one gets 365 days to achieve it, even starting off the process in early April is not bad at all. But not having a clear plan for every working day of the year is so important.

It’s better to have a clear plan, try one’s best to achieve it and still, fail to do so, rather not having a plan at all. I have seen several leaders grappling with business challenges through the year – one of it being unplanned on the way forward. 

Here’s wishing you all a healthy, wealthy prosperous FY 22-23 ahead. Cheers & Good luck. 

My trysts with Ad-film making

Yesterday, I completed making my 12^th Ad film, this one for my current employer Specsmakers. Though I always had a liking and flair for commercial cinema, the most I have come close is to write movie reviews. Never in my life did I imagine I would be part of 12 Ad films for 2 brands, one an established one with a great market presence and another, a budding consumer brand. Whichever way, it’s been a great learning experience.

It all began in 2020 during the peak of the first ever lockdown which was an outcome of an unknown viral disease which was popularised by its medical name SARS Novel Coronavirus, moniker name Covid-19. The country was shutdown for over 3 weeks since 27 March and the rest of the world was no different including Europe, Australia and everything in between, save for the US where the former President and many others reckoned that such a didn’t never exist – living in denial for long. 

I read newspaper reports of silly family arguments which led to extreme cases of domestic violence all the way leading up to suicides and divorce. The reason – disagreement to share household work. These were young couples, most of them who had not even crossed their 10^th wedding anniversaries. From a nervous breakdown due to not stepping out of home or socialising to concerns of job loss or loss of income, people were getting more depressed than ever. During late May, my septuagenarian parents tested positive for Covid-19. I took them to the Govt. approved medical isolation centre and dropped them off – eyes swollen and with an eerie feeling, whether I would see them ever after. To all our surprise, they both were discharged on the 3^rd day after a basic treatment even as the Govt. had to fill their beds with more deserving patients.

That’s when it stuck to me that I should do an AD film which would go on TV to showcase how Senior Citizens in India (and worldwide) went about doing their own things while the younger generation was complaining. The result was a TVC shoot feat. Pandmashree Dhananjayans, the ace dance couple from Chennai who popularised Bharatnatyam dance form world over. The couple shot for 8 hours, showcasing household work and enjoying Levista coffee & their own company! In a few months, we shot 3 Ads for Levista coffee to celebrate the association with Chennai Super Kings. The Ads which were played exclusively on TV channels and on Youtube went viral, garnering mass appeal and great brand presence. Later, we did 2 more ADs to celebrate the festival spirit and festivities as well as accepting WFH and moving on.

In 2021, when I joined Specsmakers, we shot 2 Ads, one of which was an industry first. The lead actor prompted people to buy a new pair of specs as part of their festival shopping which had some serious positive impact on our Deepavali Sales. The other one was two friends discussing about affordable specs continues to garner more and more respect for the brand.

And over the last 2 days, we shot six TVCs – yes, six of them in a tightly planned and executed schedule which wouldn’t have been possible without the cooperation, strategic planning and execution of the Director and his capable team members. While all the 12 Ads have been directed by professional Ad film makers of high repute, I must say that I was actively involved in evolving the concept, writing the script, being at the shooting spot and making on-the-spot corrections and improvisations and of course, to plan their broadcast appropriately so the respective brands got their desired and deserved visibility and promotion.  Needless to say, never tried to ghost-direct the scenes while leaving all creative liberties to the Director, Camera & Lighting team, Costume Designers and the Actors.

Last but not the least, I also ended up acting in an AD film for Quick Heal anti-virus products which was released earlier this week. Though I desired to take up modelling 25 years back, it finally happened now! 

My most important learning from the creation of these Brand assets – either being behind the camera or in front of it, something for which I have not been formally trained, is that one can excel in any field of their choice including film-making, whether short form or long and at any age in their lifetime, provided we give our best to sincerely learn the techniques from scratch with dedication and latch on to the one who teach us. 

Practical experience that I have gained watching innumerous commercial feature films all these years have also helped me to appreciate the detailing and importance for nuances which have often come out at the sets and on the spot much to the surprise & delight of the crew!

Moving on... #Miles2Go

The past 12 months have been the most unfortunate and unhappy for millions of people worldwide. The Covid-19 pandemic was beyond comprehension in its new form since Mar. 2020 onwards and took epic proportions over the next few months. 

As they say, there is always calm before storm and in my case, it worked exactly this way on the professional front. Just that the lockdown period was the calm and what followed was storm, quite literally. I consider myself a lot luckier than the unlucky millions because I not only had a job to feed my family – my parents, wife and both kids tested Covid-19 positive (and I was the sole negative member in the home!) in May ’20 but each of them fought bravely and bounced back in full form in less than 45 days; I managed to ensure my team – starting from 100 around June ’20 growing all the way to 175+ around Mar. ’21 remained cautious of the dreaded infection and less than 10% of my workforce & their immediate family tested positive for the virus; increased point of sales presence for Levista Coffee across Tamil Nadu and Karnataka from 26,000+ in Mar. ’20 to over 79,000+ by Mar. ’21 – completely led by my brave boys in the field; which eventually led to a whopping 42% growth in the Brand’s top line over the past Financial Year; and finally – painstakingly have built a “solid team” of sorts which would work cohesively (and I sincerely hope) in my absence as I step down from Levista Coffee as Vice President - Sales & Marketing after joining in Jan. ‘20. 

It’s not been an easy decision for me to step down, honestly. It was unprecedented that I had to move on, even though things were looking bright for the Brand. Sometimes in life, we need to do what is right, rather than continuing to do what works well – for us and for others. More than this, I restrain from saying here or elsewhere the whys and whats of my decision – life moves on.

I wanted to summarise my learning through this tumultuous period even as thousands lost lives and livelihood, and here I was – making history by the day and night with unheard of and unseen types of marketing strategy coupled with fabulous execution by my team. By the way, these accolades have been showered by well-wishers around me – which I have openly declared as not mine and solely belong to my team, though there have been some black sheep around me. 

I credit the success of the Brand with the quote “Due to Corona or Despite Corona” but for the first time, I must confess that I kept moving on all these months “despite the black sheep or due to them”. At one point, you give in - for you need to do the "right thing". No blames, Peace. 

My single biggest learning during this period is to nurture people in the team and believe in them – as the adage goes, take care of your people and they would take care of the business. The moment it was formally informed of my leaving, many people within and outside my team reached out to me and expressed their disappointment over my decision. Goes to show that though I could have been harsh on them sometimes, they have perhaps realised and seen the  benefit for them – the larger view, perhaps. Another learning has been that I have maintained a healthy space between those around me and myself. This measured space ensured that we all had the much required time and thought process to ourselves. 

The fact that I have never called or summoned anyone on weekends or after office hours – not once in the past 12 months – is a simple edifice that appreciating everyone’s time works well. Keeping the interest of the staff and their families in each act and activity of the Organisation and staying on it genuinely works in the larger interest thereby delivering positive results. 

And lastly, never to antagonise those who are closer to the people who matter and speak behind you – it probably gives them more ammunition to pull us down. I had a choice – not to antagonise people and keep moving for the sake of money and a steady career; or to do the "right thing". I chose the latter. 

Obviously. When you are brought up with the right kind of “values” from childhood, that’s what you do. Works best for all of us, isn’t it. Adios, Amigos. Moving on and moving ahead in life. 

I have miles to go, after all. 

Consumers & Advertising

In my new role at Levista Coffee, I have a dual role to play in Sales & Marketing. While Sales is something I have been on to almost every day of my 23 years’ in Retailing, Marketing is an even more interesting and close-to the heart subject which precedes my Sales experience. Right from college days (and even before as a curious consumer), I have always wondered why Companies market their products if it’s Sales worthy. In fact, it’s an old adage that a great product doesn’t need Advertising. This doesn’t hold good for any product or service in today’s context (and perhaps, even for people given how Mr. Trump & Mr. Modi promoted their agendas at Motera Stadium). So, any business needs Marketing and Consumer facing businesses need a tad more. A lot more rather, with the increasing and insane competition.

As I have been talking to Heads of various media businesses ranging from GEC Channels to Entertainment, News Channels to Spirituality, I have been able to decipher the needs of Media consumers and thought I should write about it briefly. In my opinion, Consumers have three key characteristics – Gossip, Anxiety and Greed. The programs with highest TRPs are Soaps (Tele-Serials), Reality Shows and News Debates. No wonder that they fit in to the three-key human characteristics.

Tele-Serials are all about gossip. The characters in the play gossip and play truant against one another. This vicious cycle goes on for weeks. Contrary to many people who think that Serial scripts are pre-decided and are usually written like film scripts, no they are not. Script Writers change the storyline every few weeks based on audience reaction as well as, wait “BARC Data” which ultimately announce TRPs! So much so, that Script Writers are even replaced by the TV channels / Producers should they wish to. 

As consumers (serial-viewers) love this “gossip” quality of others and themselves, they get hooked to the screens, small and ultra-small ones (almost all Tv Channels have OTTs now to view on Mobiles). So are the News Channels which have more debate-style programs than actual News Reading sessions. No matter how loud a motor-mouth he or she is, the audience love their Anchors! And that’s what raises their popularity and the program’s ratings, after all.

Reality Shows build anxiety, be it KBC-styled quizzes or Box-styled houses that prison inmates for 100 days or even Music Performances which have elimination rounds where even normal looking Musicians outperform their onscreen persona with inimitable hyper histrionics. So is it with Cookery shows or task based programs, especially ones that involve NCC-type arduous tasks in real life situations. Nerkonda Paarvai, the show hosted by Ms. Lakshmi Ramakrishnan began with a bang on 24 Feb. 2020, this time on Kalaignar Tv and is sure to rock TRPs. 

Lastly, greed. Media Consumers want more of what they already watch. With an estimated 10+ Regional General Entertainment Channels in over 10 top Indian languages and almost a similar number in mainstream Hindi, the audience is spoilt for choice with the need to make more time to watch these serials, even while on the move (on OTTs) or on YouTube rehashes. 

Surprisingly, spiritual programs such as temple information or horoscope reading have low TRPs, rather lower viewership. Maybe consumers feel God doesn’t have much to do with their greed, anxiety or gossip. Probably. But Advertisers like us have our customer profiles cracked. We know what and when they watch, so we feed them what they love. So, they ultimately visit a retail store or a website / app and order our stuff. I seem to have been in the most exciting part of my career which I think is yet to begin. Honestly. 

Marketing or Sales – Take your pick?

I participated in a professional debate after a very long time last week. The Topic was “Marketing or Sales - Take your Pick” organised by TiE Chennai. Quite obviously I was given the topic of Sales and the co-speaker was a much senior person to me with vast experience in Marketing & Lead Generation. The Moderator conducted the session very well asking some uncomfortable questions on behalf of the august audience who were all members of TiE Chennai and many of them young Entrepreneurs. The topic was more in the scheme of Entrepreneurship and Start-Ups. For a young Start-up, be it 1 month old or 3 years old (Oh, btw, Flipkart and Ola are not start-ups anymore – the unofficial timeframe that is globally accepted for a new business to be called a Start-up is only 5 years!), should it put its focus, money and effort on Marketing (Offline or Online) or on getting the first Sale (and successive Sales) therefore effectively in building a Sales Team which will eventually build a Sales pipeline. The jury was out that evening, as decided by the Moderator and “Sales” won the topic of the day hands down. However, my co-speaker as well as a few in the audience (and some of my friends too) had a different view. Many felt that a product becomes a Brand only because of it’s Marketing, Promotions, Brand Recall and so on. 

Here’s my take. If a Brand is only remembered for it’s Marketing and probably not for its Sales, then it is, perhaps not selling enough! There’s a good old saying that a good product doesn’t need Marketing. Then there is evoking, invoking and hard selling the theories of Ace Marketing Professor Peter F Drucker (with which accompanies loads of 2 decade old emotions from University PG days) by one and all. I am of the humble opinion that Marketing, in it’s true definition and application has truly changed in the last 3 decades, more so in the last decade with the emergence of the Millenials and Gen Z as consumers of products and services.

For Ex., the newest Indian Interest which are the Food hailing Apps, affectionately (sic) known in the Start-Up ecosystem as “FoodTech” – apparently using technology to sell food (hic). Companies that are funded by Wall St., the Chinese and the Japanese, tease customers who order through the App with deep discounts, at times 50% or more effectively making a mockery of the efforts of the Restaurateurs who prefer to align with these Apps for the fear of losing out to competition. Interestingly, none of these discounts are offered in most cases by the Restaurants themselves, rather by the FoodTech companies – in order to acquire new customers and retain existing ones. The so called coupon codes aka cost of acquiring new customers is shown as Marketing – for convenience purposes as well as for the Balance Sheet. So, what was traditionally known as a one off “Sampling exercise” has now morphed in to this. Most e-commerce companies that sprang up in the past 10 years or so have effectively used this tactic to raise more funding. This, I do not call as Marketing. Cut to bigger and established consumer brands who offer 10% extra Shampoo or 15 gms extra of Biscuits and 20% more of Air in packs of Chips for the same price – No, this I do not call Marketing either. 

The core principles of Marketing haven’t died, they have just been tweaked conveniently to suit new age Marketing Campaigns, created by new age Marketers, approved by new-age Marketing Standards to please new-age Millenials and Gen-Z Consumers. Be it is a Start-Up or a Larger company, if you are not selling enough to fund your cash flows, you will cease to exist in the short term, no matter how strong a brand equity you build. Everyone is not as lucky as a Flipkart or Idea Mobile. 

I have been a firm believer of the adage, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. In the recent Tamil film “Petta”, there’s a conversation between two friends how a Facebook video garnered thousands of likes and shares to which another quips, if these could fetch him a beer. This is the reality of the so called new-age Marketing. Even as we felt that the physical sampling of audience viewership by Research Firms was a dubious exercise, today’s digital marketing metrics are not just dubious but futile. In fact, most of today’s new-age techniques do not have a conversion to sale, thereby making the money and most importantly the time invested in the exercise, a gross wastage.

Yet, there’s so much hype for Marketing a new product or service without giving it the much needed Sales push. There’s only so much Marketing can do, finally the product has to sell. And sell again and again for the company to remain in business. Be it a Start-Up or an established one. Take your pick.

Breaking fast the traditional way!

Indians are fond of their meals, especially their breakfast. Except that they find increasing lesser time - to prepare as well as to consume. A typical bachelor skips his or her breakfast atleast 17 times or more a month according to a survey conducted by the students of a premier B-School in Chennai. And most other times, their obvious choice is Maggi or Bread & Jam prepared in a jiffy at home or hostel or mansion where they live. In the family households, its usually Idly/Dosa in the South Indian households on the weekdays and something a bit more exciting on the weekends when the family spends more time together. Typically, the breakfast options include Omlette with Eggs and/or Parathas/Puris in the North & East of India while it is the ubiquitous Vada Pav & Poha in the West and Central parts of India. The upwardly mobile and the health conscious have moved on to more healthier options such as Corn Flakes and Oats, which is more a fad at the moment than a habit. Doctors prescribe atleast 3-4 short meals a day with a 3-4 hour break in between and recommend that the Breakfast should be the most healthy and sumptuous while Dinner should be the least. 

With increasing awareness through TV and Social Media coupled with higher spending power, consumers are naturally looking at better options for their breakfast. India has the highest number of Diabetics in the world and those having this disorder are stricter with their diet regimen than the others. A large segment of Senior citizens who are part of SEC A+ A and B are also quite health conscious with their diet, especially their breakfast. And this is good news to companies who are operating in this segment. Kellogs India has been present in India for 15 years now and has gradually replaced traditional breakfast with their corn flakes over the years. There are many variants of the Corn Flakes now and are an attractive for people of all ages. Another rapidly growing breakfast category is the good old Oats, but in a new avatar. Oats has several benefits: cholesterol, sugar and weight control; easy to digest; filling and energising; fibrous; and easy to prepare, says a Nielsen India report, 'Oats are making waves at the breakfast table'. The annual sale of oats is growing at 38%, higher than the breakfast cereal category's 21.7% growth according to the report. Quaker Oats is the market leader in the organized Retail segment followed by Kellogg's, Saffola (from the house of Marico Industries) and Horlicks (from Glaxo Smithkline). 

Kellogg's has done a lot of innovative and interesting Marketing over the years and some of them have been within the confines of the retail stores as well as outside through traditional and social media. At Retail Stores such as Food Bazaar, part of the 12,000 Crore Future Group, Kellogg's conducts sampling exercises of its corn flakes and oats to customers - normally a small portion is given to sample the product and apparently, there is a 30% conversion of users to buy the product, according to Ms. Smita (29), a product associate at one of the retail locations who has been promoting Kellogg's products for over 2 years now. Saffola provides samples of oats along with 2/5 Litre Oil packs to its customers and such exercises are undertaken at premium retail outlets to reach out to the relevant target segments. "Kellogg leads the ready-to-eat cereal category and is a major player in oats. It continues to innovate and invest. Kellogg's Oat-bites is the only ready-to-eat in the market. We expect to see sustained growth in breakfast cereals, driven by consumers' increasing nutrition awareness and spending power," said Sangeeta Pendurkar, MD, Kellogg India in an interview to Hindustan Times.

On Pongal day this year (15 Jan. 2015), which is celebrated as Harvest Festival in the South of India, Kellogg's put out an interesting advertisement on the first page of The Hindu - proposing readers to switch over to Oats pongal as an alternative to the traditional Pongal which is made out of Rice & Ghee. The idea had a mixed response among readers. My 73 years old aunt was happy to note that there was such an option from Kellogg's - she has been consuming Oats for a couple of years now and sensed that this could be tastier and crunchier as well. Some people felt that nothing can be replaced by the steaming hot traditional rice pongal which is consumed with a tinge of liquid ghee on it. 

From a "call to action" point of view, I felt that they could have done a bit more than just mere advertising. In today's context, Modern Marketing is all about reaching out to consumers collaboratively. Kellogg's could have perhaps provided free samples along with the newspaper, quipped someone. I spoke to a general marketing practitioner and he said most companies have refrained from such activities because a few retailers take advantage by buying newspapers themselves and hoarding the free samples. Also, logistically, it is a nightmare to attach a sample pack with every newspaper, especially at 3 am in the morning when the newspapers reach the distributors. Instead, Kellogg's could have tied up with a prominent retailer which could have provided free samples. This way, the brand could have collaborated with a Retailer to drive footfalls which benefits the latter as well while attracting massive visibility. The paper-cutting could have been used to redeem the sachets at the retail store. And perhaps the customer would have also bought a thing or two in addition to the free sample. The same Ad through the Kellogg's Facebook Page could have generated much interest to the internet addicts as well - they could show the Ad to the retailer to get a sachet too!

The upcoming years would be interesting times for Retailers and Brands. Its not about selling (products) to consumers anymore. Its all about engaging them for the long term. And we have just begun.