Creating Brand Value

For years, prescription drug boxes have traditionally been white. Crowded pharmacy dispensaries are often a sea of white, which makes it difficult to distinguish between different medicines, strengths, and quantities. 

Our local Pharmaceutical companies can tap into this opportunity by adopting a new color-coded packaging system, designed to reduce the possibility of dispensing errors.

A bold yet simple color system would enable pharmacists to quickly distinguish between various drugs. This color code would visually instruct the pharmacists before they even read the text on each box. A strak two-color system would use one color for the box, with a single stripe in a different colour to denote the strength.

This packaging system would have simplicity, quick restocking potential, and enhanced safety.

Online communities have changed the rules commerce. Amazon.com was one of the earliest examples of the link between communities and purchasing power. Users rate titles on the site, suggest other favorite books, and provide raw, undeited opinions about what they loive & hate. Also, sites such as ebay.com, epinions.com, buy.com provide firsthand news and reviews about every product under the sun, and consumers have become to expect this feature. Communities might rally behind a small venture that doesn’t seem to have a prayer in the marketplace. If members deem it smart, cool, funny, hip, or worthwhile, anything is possible. Such loose groups of like-minded people can even rediscover existing products and elvate them to bestseller status overnight. Fading brands like PUMA have gained new life by finding favor with a small community of trendsetters who are key influencers with the peer group. PUMA was revived by the hip-hop community, which embraced the company’s retro styling and made it a popular choice for a fashion- forward new generation. Communities are also changing the ways businesses are conducted. They’ve revolutionzed how we make deals, discover people, award status and distribute products & services. They’ve done away with old hierarchical systems an set up their own networks. Brands are now accountable for everything they do & say, and will be swiftly punished for a lack of accountability. Should you try anything strange or underdeliver on your promises, your brand community will bring you down. Regardless of whether your organization or industry has online communities or not,  everyone needs to listen & respond. Such communities have created a new power structure that will continue to shift & evelove.

Today’s generation wants personal recognition. They feel ready to be known and and ready to have their dreams & experiences acknowledged. In response to this more & more companies should wake up to the power of personalization. Personalized license plates, stamps, and mailing labels have all been done. Some local beverage companies can tap into this opportunity. From labels to flavors, they can let their customers lead the way.

Here’s how it will work:- They will invite fans to initiate flavors, goofy names & bright colours. In this regards, customers can be a constant source of ideas for the brand. The company can also start a labeling program. The company will continually change the photographs on its bottle labels, and the photos will be from customer submissions. There will also be a brief introduction about the person who has taken the photograph. When a customer will get to see that a picture taken by him/her is in the bottle label, and it also states something about him/her, they will feel a surge of pride & satisfaction & gain instant recognition.

This program can become a corenrstone of the brand, and can be an instant hit at parties where customers order the customized packs.

This way, the companies can assure their customers that the latter still have some say in what the company does and give them due importance.

Today’s generation wants personal recognition. They feel ready to be known and and ready to have their dreams & experiences acknowledged. In response to this more & more companies should wake up to the power of personalization. Personalized license plates, stamps, and mailing labels have all been done. Some local beverage companies can tap into this opportunity. From labels to flavors, they can let their customers lead the way.

Here’s how it will work:- They will invite fans to initiate flavors, goofy names & bright colours. In this regards, customers can be a constant source of ideas for the brand. The company can also start a labeling program. The company will continually change the photographs on its bottle labels, and the photos will be from customer submissions. There will also be a brief introduction about the person who has taken the photograph. When a customer will get to see that a picture taken by him/her is in the bottle label, and it also states something about him/her, they will feel a surge of pride & satisfaction & gain instant recognition.

This program can become a corenrstone of the brand, and can be an instant hit at parties where customers order the customized packs.

This way, the companies can assure their customers that the latter still have some say in what the company does and give them due importance.

For the past theirty years, customer service differentiated one brand from another, and companies that delievred the best service would rise above the competition. Today, the bar is being set to an even higher level, as more & more brands are beginning to deliver exciting, interactive, and compelling experiences. A new premium is being placed on venturing out into the world, collecting new adventures & memories, and pushing personal limits.

Today, world famous brands are incorporating adventures, games into their brand experience.

Nike Operation 6453

One such great expample is that of Nike, when it introduced the new Air-Force-X MID shoes, in 2004. Nike created an adrenaline-filled promotional event to infuse excitement and urban adventure into the official launch of the shoes.

Nike’s Operation 6453 was an on-foot scavenger hunt that navigated participants through the streets of New York to find sixteen different poster locations. To get involved, would-be participants sent a blank text message to 6453-NIKE and received registration instructions. Players sent text messages to Nike for poster locations, and in turn were sent cooedinates. The hunt took place over four days, and when players located posters, the messaged a code on the poster, to Nike. The shortest times between receiving and finding the posters received the highest scores. Winners bagged a limited-edition version of the Nike Air Force_X MID, designed by New York street artist Stash. Runners-up got a chance to buy the shoes at an exclusive prelaunch event.

Now, that’s the way to create a brand experience for the new generation of consumers who constantly crave adventure and something new in their lives.

In today’s market, consumers look for authenticity and substance. They expect the promise that you’ve made to them, to be kept. Otherwise, they’ll no longer buy your product or find ways to expose your half-truths.  A recent incident has prompted the writing of this article.

Pran, one of the largest local food companies in Bangladesh has recently launched “Tiffin Chutney,” – a 15 pieces combo pack. It’s their regular chutneys packed in a nice tiffin box. Many people will be lured to buy the product because of the nice tiffin box, and hey, the chutneys aren’t that bad either.

Now, what was of concern was this:- in the package (a carton wrapping) it states that the combo pack contains 7 pcs. of tamarind, 2 of boroi, 2 of mango, 2 of olive and 2 of mixed chutneys. All well and good…. but when the box was opened, all it contained were 15 pieces of the SAME flavour- tamarind, and not even a trace of the other ones. It might seem trivial, but I assure you it’s not. The company has failed to deliver what it has promised and the customer in question has been disappointed & will think twice about buying it again and receiving the same “surprise.” It’s not a matter of pricing (each pack costs 60 taka), but whether your customers are getting what they’re supposed to.  It’s very natural for them to be pissed off if they’re being lied to or deceived.

Now, this might have been an “innocent” mistake by the company, but who knows? Whatever the case, for the sake of their future business, they must correct their ways. Because if you mislead your customers, you might get away with it once, but not over and over again.  In the long-term you say sayonara to any more future business.

Don’t try & fool the very people who hold the key to your business’s future.

What if you could pitch the next great idea to potential investors, business partners, service providers and fellow entrepreneurs through online video?Anyone, across all industries, at any stage, can share ideas, products, services and businesses with the rest of the world, mainly through video.

Interested people will sign for an account on the website and then be able to upload pitches for their ideas, projects or businesses in a rich media environment by uploading video, images, PPT or PDF files. They can choose to share their pitches with a personal network or with the entire community. Users can build their networks by inviting friends to join or browsing through other ideas and connecting with like-minded people on the site. The website would also include tips on creating compelling pitches, such as how to pack the most punch into a three-minute video clip.

The IT companies in Bangladesh can actually introduce this serve and then who knows? Maybe you could win a business through your very own video pitch.

Although healthy eating habits & food awareness are very much the in thing, it is quite tedious to continuously keep track of what you take in. Most people don’t have the discipline, time or interest to continuously track what they’re eating or how many calories each meal or snack adds to their daily intake. A practical solution is working with health officials & doctors to help consumers keep tabs on what they’re digesting.

How will it work?

Before you dig into your food, you sms whatever you’re eating and send it to a designated number. Nutritionists will analyze the meal and its nutritional value, following up with advice and necessary adjustments. Feedback will follow within three days. This service can be adopted by telecom companies that already has a Healthline where subscribers can dial and get medical help. This service will help diabetic, cardiac patients to keep tabs on what they eat and lead a better & healthy life.

Given growing health issues and the near ubiquity of cell phones, this could be huge.

Let’s face it. The appeal of mass advertising is dying. Experienced consumers couldn’t care less about commercials, ads, banners and other fancy wording & imagery that are forced upon them . So it’s high time that marketers move onto more interesting ways of igniting conversations between corporations & consumers.

Another alternative, called tryvertising is all about  consumers becoming familiar with new products by actually trying thme out. 

Nestle already does it with Nescafe, by arranging promotional campaigns in universities, letting consumers try out their coffee or other beverage.

A bit more about the old type of tryvertising we’re all familiar with: free shampoo samples in magazines, or point of sale promotion in a supermarket. The challenge has always been a certain lack of relevance: there’s no guarantee that the samples are actually being tried out  at the right time, at the right place & by the right target audience.

Opportunities to explore

1. Waiting areas:- who likes to wait? It seems like life is a waiting game….at the bus stop, at the dentist, queue at the cinema….So, the beverage companies can have coffee machines that can offer the people waiting a freshly brewed cup of coffee. It’s ten times more relevant than a billboard trying to show the aromas.

2. Hotels:- many new hotels are springing up in the city. So, they can tie up with the high-end furniture companies and have their rooms furnished by these local furniture companies

Tryvertising has already taken off and is one of the most effective new ways of pitching your products to consumers 

Many advertsiers would like to know the answers to the following questions: Does product placements work? If so, why? If not, why not? If a person sees a movie character sipping Starbucks coffee, will s/he go out and get one? If they see a Survivor contestant gulping down Mountain Dew, will they be inclined to do the same?

Here are some reasons why product placement works:-

1. You can’t veto it out: because it’s part of the actual entertainment

2. It’s not interruptive: viewers aren’t annoyed because their favourite T.V programs are not interrupted and they do not have to wait to go back to what they really wanna watch- the TV show or movie

3. It’s almost like a celebrity endorsement: the viewers think that if theese famous people are using it, then they must like it and it must be good

4.The message is subliminal so the filters in our brain that normally weeds out advertising messages don’t step in to block the message. It seeps into our subconscious

Here are some reasons why product placement doesn’t work:-

1. Consumers are not stupid: they know that these brands are paying big bucks to have their products “placed” into the entertainment. They are skeptical and do not buy whatever message the advertiser is trying to get across

2. Consumers feel manipulated: They think that this type of “advertising”is sleazy because it’s not honest. At least in a commercial, the advertiser admits that it’s an ad. However, with product placement, the consumers feel that the advertisre is trying to “put one over” on the consumer.

3. Diminishing ROI: product placement costs are skyrocketing and it’s extremely difficult to measure the effect. So, many advertsiers are thinking whether it’s worth it or not

So, whether product placement works or not, or whether it’s ethical or not is still debatable.  What do you guys think?