Lawfirm

The blistering growth of e-commerce in India (estimated to be around a size of $ 1.6 billion) has thrown up a Pandora's box of problems for marketers. The channel conflict has become intense between the traditional brick and mortar channel members and the online market place. The conflict is real and brands are caught in between the fight for the customer's wallet.  The issue has come to the forefront  with brands like Toshiba, Lenovo and Cannon publishing advisory to customers on purchasing their brands from online retailers. ( read news here : Lenovo , Cannon ). The basic issue between the online retailers and the traditional channel members is the predatory pricing adopted by the online retailers. Traditional retailers with their huge overheads and investments are not able to match the pricing of the online retailers. The issue has become more complicated with large online retailers like Flipkart, Snapdeal adopting the 'market place' model . The eCommerce market has ...

Its been a long time since Indian advertisement world saw a humorous fight between the brands. There has been high profile competitive wars between the brands like Horlicks Vs Complan, Vim Vs Dettol, Dettol Vs Lifebuoy, Pepsodent Vs Colgate etc but these were serious fights.  Recently the new war started between the arch rivals Perk and Munch. These brands were keeping different paths between each other for quite some time. Both were trying to position themselves on different attributes ; Perk focusing on the glucose content while Munch was focusing on the crunchier proposition. However, Perk decided to poke Munch by launching the first TVC featuring the son - Monu leaving home because his father gave the bigger, heavier Perk to his brother Sonu. Watch the TVC here : Perk Monu Not to be left behind, Munch countered with another TVC which features Sonu leaving the father because he gave the tastier Munch to the brother Monu. Watch the TVC : Munch Sonu The Perk TVC was hilarious wit...

A recent article in ET mentions that the challengers in the Rs 7000 crore toothpaste market like Anchor,Ajanta Babool and Vicco were wiped out by the major brands like Colgate, HUL etc. A few years ago the major toothpaste brands like Colgate and Pepsodent were shocked by the huge challenge from brands like Anchor ,Babool etc . The challenger brand used price as the major USP and gained more than 15% share in the market. Its interesting to understand how the majors fought these challengers. The following are the strategies used by the major brands to fight the price competition - React aggressively : The assault from the challenger brand was faced by the major brands aggressively. Brands like Colgate, Pepsodent etc reacted sharply to the competitor first by reducing the price to arrest the severe market share loss. Flanker brands : The major part of the success of market leader was the use of flanker brands to ward off price competition. Colgate effectively used Cibaca as the flanker ...

As Valentine’s Day is upon us tomorrow, I think about commitment and how it not only matters in my marriage but also in my fitness and overall health.  They both take dedication and work right?  Think about that: if you cheat on your marriage, it will not work…if you cheat on your health, it will not work…see what I mean.  In order to maintain a happy, healthy relationship, it takes commitment, effort and work on a daily and consistent basis.   In this journey of life, I have learned what I do and do not want, and I certainly have found a gem in my husband and cherish our relationship as top priority.  I feel the same way about my fitness and realize that my life is a precious gift worthy of my time and attention to reduce the risk of illness and maintain a healthy quality of life.  Commitment is a word that I do not use lightly and is a promise that I will maintain my relationship in a healthy way with my hubby and with myself.  Really, I do not need ...

Pepsi was in a soup recently when the celebrated endorser Amitabh Bachchan publicly told the media that "    he stopped endorsing Pepsi some years ago, after a young girl asked him why he was advertising a drink her teacher said was “poisonous  " ( Source ET) The brand was obviously embarrassed since Bachchan was endorsing Pepsi for more than 8 years.  Although the media took the  sensational issue initially, the issue died down thanks to the clout of Pepsico.  The problems that brand faces when celebrities turn rogue is nothing new. There has been a spurt in the recent past on these kind of mishaps because more and more celebrities are being roped in for endorsements. But things are different here in this case of Pepsi where BigB has virtually de-endorsed ( new word) the brand by subtly saying that he made a mistake in endorsing . Celebrity like Big B is not going to be affected and may even will be praised for saying such things. But for sure this is a th...

Brand : TRESemme Company : Hindustan Unilever Brand Analysis Count : # 539 TRESemme launched in 2012 was an attempt from Hindustan Unilever to prevent the competition from attacking from the flanks. There premium shampoo from HUL was Dove which was more of a Masstige brand rather than a luxury brand. Hence HUL feels that there is a gap in the product porfolio in the premium shampoo segment which is open for competitors. Already the shampoo brands from HUL stable is facing increasing competition from Lo'real, P&G  and the likes.  TRESemme was born in 1950. The brand name was coined in honor of Edna Emme who was a cosmetologist and a community leader.The brand came to Unilever from the acquisition of Alberto Culver in 2010.Originally the brand is sold only to salons. The positioning of TRESemme is interesting .The brand is positioned as a salon like experience for the hair. The insight is through a research which stated that ladies feel that they get more satisfaction when t...

Society really needs to stop the glorification of busy, and I am not one who is going to listen and accept all the excuses of not having enough time to care about making health a priority in life.  Let me rephrase that, I may listen to the laundry list, but I will definitely provide the tough questions in response and offer that better time management choices and priorities need to be addressed.  So many people create too much “busy” in life that every second of every hour is consumed by work, overtime, functions, social, social, social, volunteer work,  more work, more functions and the “YES” list goes on and on.  How can anyone pull themselves out of such a drowning pool of stuff, and many times all those so called important things consuming every minute are not even necessary.  Further, many of the things that fill those precious seconds are ways to avoid or hide from just “being”.  What is wrong with society to feel guilty sitting still for an hour alon...