Now over to the idiot box!

IIPM PUBLICATION

The following points are the ruling criteria for selecting and short-listing the winning TVC ads: Product positioning clarity; clinching benefit to the brand; presence of a power idea; visibility of brand personality; expectancy of communication; single-minded focus of message; reward to the prospect; visually arresting and painstaking craftsmanship. Here’s a peek into our TVC verdict for the fortnight ended May 22, 2007. Ready to groove?

BRAND: Reliance Communications
AGENCY: Mudra
BASELINE: Discover net connect

DESCRIPTION: A man is leaving for a car rally and is getting emotional as he leaves behind a pregnant wife. Throughout the rally, he misses her but thanks to Reliance net connect, he is able to chat with her. He misses her all the more when she doesn’t come online for a while and when she does; she is accompanied by their newly born baby. Overwhelmed, he stops the car, kisses the baby’s picture on the laptop and lets his competitors go ahead. The ad ends with a shot where he’s with his wife and is picking up the kid in his arms while the winners of the rally raise the cup.

4Ps TAKE: This ad of Reliance net connect connects and how! Bit on the longish side, it makes you laugh in some parts and leaves you sad and anxious in others but in the end, one is all smiles. No less than a short film in itself, the ad puts forward the ‘buy now cliché’ – Reliance’s network works everywhere and takes the tried and tested emotional route. But, the magic is that the ad doesn’t harp on it and lets its execution speak. The direction and the story board deserve all the accolades which convert an average idea into a brilliant one. The soft and soothing song in the background add to the emotional appeal. The ad scores high on almost all parameters like product positioning clarity, rewards to the prospect, visibility of the brand personality and the backdrop (of the rally) brings out the essence of the network quotient brilliantly!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

‘Reliance’ evokes ‘fresh’ controversy!

IIPM MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE

Reliance Industries have established their Reliance Fresh fast enough, but looks like they have caused a lot of havoc as well. Their retail stores have been facing much opposition from local vegetable vendors, who (fearful of a loss to their business) looted outlets in Ranchi and led demonstrations in Indore against their opening. Reliance Fresh is a Reliance Industries retail initiative which sells fruits and vegetables. In places like Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, even political parties are protesting against their operations. Working on a large scale, these stores benefit from economies of scale and are able to offer cheaper prices to customers and better prices to farmers, which have resulted in them becoming very popular. This has caused apprehension Amongst the millions who work in the largely unorganised retail market. Well, what is good for one, is not always good for another. Looks like this western- style set-up of supermarkets will take time to settle in India.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Continental carnage; or a wishful end?

IIPM PUBLICATION

Presenting an expected anti-thesis to consolidation in European banking

First of all, let’s get the context infallibly right. The latest ABN Amro deal is a deal that dwarfs any other in the history of the financial services industry. And it is also a deal that everyone is presently rooting for. A whopping $91.2 and $98.5 billion is what Barclays Bank, on one hand, and Royal Bank of Scotland (with Fortis and Santander Central Hispano SA), on the other, have brought to the table for ABN Amro. A fierce battle is being forecasted and if you miss this issue, you just might have missed evolution in the making...or as close to it as possible.

No doubt, European banking has seen many big ticket cross-border M&A deals taking place recently (refer table). But the compelling critique now is that perhaps most of these M&A deals are being attempted based on peer pressure (of competitors doing the same) rather than clear logic! Sadly, in European banking today, fallaciously and perniciously, consolidation is being considered more sacred than banking itself. But why is it that banks are fighting it tooth and nail? Citing one of the reasons, John Hitchins, UK Banking Leader, Price Water house Coopers, analysed to B&E, “A matured domestic market is one of the factors leading banks in Europe to merge in order to get entry into new markets.” But haven’t consecutive reports from KPMG, BCG, McKinsey, and various international universities confirmed that between 50% to 80% M&As ‘will’ fail?

In fact, INSEAD Professor Jean Dermine’s classic paper on European banking has proved how there are huge risks involved with consolidation in European banking; in one eye-popping example, he shows how, say in Switzerland, the cost of bailing out even one ‘consolidated’ banking failure would cost the Swiss government almost 24% of the Swiss GDP! But are the European banking behemoths listening? Given the increasing size of buyouts, one doesn’t even have to suspect the answer; it’s a clear ‘No’! Unless the EU wakes up to this clarion call, global publications perhaps wouldn’t have to wait too long for the cover story of the decade!

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative