zeus FITNESS POINT - the gym

Ana: Clado, see that Christmas Week offer?
Clado: Seems every occasion offers a chance to offer. Are they offering a Christmas tree free? Check no...
Ana: Okay wait...

Ana: And what's this zeus?
Clado: Greek Goddess, perhaps?
Ana: Fitness Point, the gym?!
Clado: Yes. Word meanings!
Ana: So again, why zeus? Is it for women?
Clado: I see no women there. No men either.
Ana: Seems they worship zeus...
Clado: They are pantheists, actually.

New Yamaha Gladiator

Did I surprise you? Probably :)

Alright, Yamaha has discontinued Gladiator. So, is it good or bad? Depends on how Yamaha views the situation.

Here's a perspective. 

Gladiator has been around for quite some time. Few years, to say the least. Biking fraternity knows Gladiator. Why? May be coz of marketing, may be coz of blogs, may be coz of the fact that it comes from Yamaha. There could many more reasons.

Looking at it from purely a business point of view, the brand Gladiator seems to be present in prospects' minds, even if not favorably. In today's world, marketing is unarguably the biggest challenge and perhaps the biggest cost. I am asking, can Yamaha leverage this brand 'awareness' equity?

Of course! Few reasons to my claim and a couple of solutions.

The brand name GLADIATOR is very good. People can have views on the 'degree' of goodness but they can't deny that it can be a good motorcycle brand name. Coming from Yamaha, the name GLADIATOR has the potential to carry forward all the attributes attached to the brand Yamaha in India. You agree?

So, the name's taken care of. The awareness of the name is also taken care of. Now what?

Try imagining a 300cc kind of cruiser with the name Gladiator. Try imagining a naked 250cc (or even a 150cc with a good big tank :)) with the name Gladiator and coming from Yamaha.

To my mind, the second offering might fit better. Importantly what it could do is save Yamaha the hard part of marketing coz the name is already there in people's minds. It will also match the actual product with the already established name and therefore, find it easy to get people to accept the bike.

The thing is if a Hero Honda Hunk (I don't deny it's a decent bike) could sell here, a 250cc naked Gladiator would rock. Besides, aren't Gladiators often imagined naked, if we go by the Hollywood movies :)!

XXX? Sorry, wrong size!

Pic courtesy: imagesfood.com

When I heard the name XXX energy drink, the first thing that struck was, "This would come in a bigger can." Why? Of course, the connotation of XXX.

I get to know that it means Xperience Xtreme Xcitement. Well, not bad. But it doesn't do justice to a great concept hidden in the name XXX. Besides, right below the name it says IMMUNITY ENHANCER.

I guess an amazing concept like XXX has been wasted here.

Who will remember Xperience Xtreme Xcitement? Tough.

Who will remember IMMUNITY ENHANCER? For remember, who will understand the term? Sure, people understand IMMUNITY and ENHANCER as words, but what do they mean in a layperson. Besides, aren't there medicinal supplements which do this job? Chyavanprash does the same job!

To my mind the concepts of ENERGY DRINK and IMMUNITY ENHANCER aren't the same. Perhaps tending towards incredulity.

It's easy to play around in intellectual sounding and good looking words. But the idea to capture one (or a couple at best) important word and tie it with an amazing visual.

Here's my take:

XXX should be offered in bigger cans. The big can would also stand out on the shelves and serve an effective symbol of recognition.

And chuck those words. Just write something to the effect XXX - BIG BIG BIG ON ENERGY.

Mahindra Two Wheelers will it be called?!?!?!

The news is it will be called Mahindra Two Wheelers. Strange.

Mahindra has been always associated with rugged utility vehicles. For years, it has been known for geeps in India. Though it owns the Scorpio brand Mahindra is still more about utility.

Having bought Kinetic's two-wheeler business, is it a good idea to call it Mahindra Two Wheelers? Not really.

Firstly, Kinetic made scooters which were far from utility scooters. They were largely meant for women until the launch of Blaze.

Secondly, Kinetic didn't know how to focus on the market that it helped create, so it simply launched new brands without any sense of direction.

Thirdly, Mahindra had an amazing opportunity to create a new brand and create greater buzz in the market.

In the automobile business it seems that corporate brand (name of the company) matters at least as much as the individual brand. Would you say I ride a Mahindra Blaze? Or a Mahindra Nova? Not only does it sound unfamiliar, it also sounds weird.

Naming must be a consequence of strategy. Not just a matter of labeling or showing off the largeness of the company. Being a late comer, Mahindra needed to first work out the strategy to gain a foothold in two-wheeler market and then decide upon a name.

Instead it has publicized Mahindra Two Wheelers and branded the Kinetic Two Wheelers website with the same. Everything else remains the same. Pity! What was the hurry?

It could be that, even after Mahindra Two Wheelers, the game might not change much anyway. If a new name wasn't acceptable then even keeping it Kinetic could've worked.

Mahindra has risked diluting whatever the brand has stood for over the years.

Indica Vista shouldn't & doesn't CHANGE EVERYTHING

The commercials say CHANGES EVERYTHING. How come? The car's called Indica Vista. Firstly, the name is the same apart from the addition of Vista. The design is inspired (in fact, is an improvement of) by the original Indica design. And it still offers the same thing that Indica offered: Space.

What's the need to CHANGE EVERYTHING? Perhaps the folks at Tata do not want to keep Indica attached to taxis. Perhaps they are not happy with the perception of Indica as it stands now - that of a spacious but inexpensive small car. But the ironically they are using the same name: Indica (perhaps to leverage the name). So how does it CHANGE EVERYTHING? At least not the perception of brand Indica.

But, what if it does? What if the consumers do come to believe CHANGES EVERYTHING? Yes, of course the price has gone up. The design has become better but then perhaps it's not really that great when compared to other brands in the segment. The argument can go on. But what Tata might end up losing the strong positioning of MORE CAR PER CAR. Yes, that's what Indica is. That's what sold Indica in spite of all the problems.

On Indian roads, size of the car really matters. Small cars won't lose favour for a long long time to come. But with that the requirement for adequate space is also not going to go away. MORE CAR PER CAR is what made Indica, is what gave Tata a foothold in the India car market. Invaluable and lasting position!

Tata had better not change anything. Simply make the same thing better.

Delhi 6 - a case of loss of focus

Many movie reviewers have pointed it out correctly - Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's heart is at the right place but there's a lot more to be desired. By 'more' I think they are talking about execution quality perhaps.

I would say the movie needed a little less. It needed:

1. fewer eccentric characters
2. fewer types of music
3. fewer visual themes
   
4. fewer social issues
   
5. fewer narrative themes / metaphors
   

Though the movie was breathtaking in individual bits and parts, though all the actors did justice to their characters, though the settings were amazing, there was a lot to contend with for the audience and therefore, while every issue was relevant, the impact wasn't as forceful as one would expect.

The movie felt like a collage of great visuals, good music and good performances. But that's what spoilt it for Delhi-6. The task of weaving them seamlessly wasn't a simple one; they were brought together eventually in quite a style but not with the required intensity.

The movie would have been far better made had there been a simple focus on the Abhishek-Sonam relationship with a backdrop of Hindu-Muslim tensions and mediated by the incident/metaphor of Kaala Bandar. The distracting visuals, music, characters would have automatically fallen in place.

Rare is a case where almost all the parts are perfect but the whole is less than perfect. Such is the perfection of each part that each one of it should ideally stand on its own and be converted into a separate movie.

Think about it. Does not each of the issues highlighted deserve a movie in itself? If that's the case, why complicate matters by mixing it all up in just one movie.

Photo courtesy: www.planetbollywood.com

Junior should not attach with Chyawan should not attach with Granules

That's a rather strange title to begin with. But not stranger than Dabur's strategy. I happened to see a full-page ad for Dabur ChyawanJunior

Chyawanprash has always associated with Dabur. Chyawanprash is not a Dabur brand though; it's an old recipe based on Indian scriptures. And therefore many other players in the market use the name in branding their products. You have Baidyanath Chyawanprash, Himani Sona Chandi Chyawanprash, etc.

What is Chyawanprash? A dark, brownish/blackish paste-like mixture of edible herbs in specified quantities. What's the benefit? Many benefits. It is said to provide one with many nutrients for one's over-all health. Okay, is there any problem with the product? Not really, just that children/youngsters don't find it tasty enough or good-looking enough to consume.

So, what did Dabur do? Converted the ugly looking, odd tasting paste into liquid (especially milk) soluble granules. So of course, the idea is children could have it with milk. But wait a minute. What do children have with milk? Complan, Horlicks, Bournvita... What do these brands do? They also help in growth and developing intelligence. And they taste great. Suddenly the product (Chyawanprash) which stood as a distinct category is now in direct competition with global brands and on their turf. The battle would be interesting.

So, what could be the future of Chyawanprash granules? More specifically, now that Dabur has branded it ChyawanJunior and described the product as Chyawanprash Granules, what could be said about the strategy?

1. In the first instance, on hearing or seeing the name ChyawanJunior, one would think that it's a special Chyawanprash for youngsters.
2. On a little more thought, one who has tasted Chyawanprash could get sceptical of the taste of the new product. One can say that Chyawanprash tastes the way it does because it is made of certain types of herbs. Now if the taste has changed, there's a question: has the mixture changed too? And if the mixture has changed, will it be still be so effective? How is it that Chyawanprash paste suddenly gets converted into granules? The credibility about the effectiveness of the new product could be doubtful.
   
3. For the ones who've never ever tasted Chyawanprash in life, it is immaterial whether the product is called Chyawan or not. It could as easily be called something else.
4. So, is ChyawanJunior a 'cool' name? The first part of the name might not sound as cool to the youngsters.
5. The name Chyawan also succeeds in confusing coz apart from products of other players with similar brand names, Dabur itself has Chyawanprash, Chyawanprakash, Chyawanshakti and now, ChyawanJunior!
   

It seems that Dabur could be worried about low acceptability of Chyawanprash paste among the youngsters of today. While repositioning was an option, Dabur chose the path of product innovation. It developed a new form of Chyawanprash. However, for the new form it chose to leverage on the name of the earlier product. If the earlier product was low on acceptability or was on its way down in terms of sales, then making the new product ride on former's name might not yield result. And even if the earlier products were doing well and Dabur needed to increase the market, the riding on the former's name might not yield a great deal since it might be perceived as just another variant instead of a different product altogether.

Dabur and other players in the market seem to have lost an important opportunity to create a new category.