ET – Insights

There are three heuristics or key mental shortcuts that help people decide between brands.  These rules of thumb are what behavioural scientists call the ‘availability heuristic’, the ‘affect heuristic’ and the ‘processing fluency heuristic’. Put simply :  -FAME : If a brand comes readily to mind, it’s a good choice. -FEELING : If a brand feels good, it’s a good choice. -FLUENCY: If a brand is consistently recognisable, it’s a good choice. All of these conform to system 1 of Kahneman & Tversky. The reflexive instinct is the path to consumer relevant positioning.  This brand impact is aided by availability but not only due to it. In fact, analysis will not get you the magic.  Those who don’t understand the magic of branding theorise and do endless analytical brainstorming only to go round and round and round.  As Wordsworth said :  “Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;  Our meddling intellect  Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things: We murder to dissect.  Enough of Science and of Art;  Close up those barren leaves;  Come forth, and bring with you a heart  That watches and receives.” Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann in their seminal work, The Social Construction of Reality  showed that the world we each perceive is not objective and given, but shaped by the stories we are told about it, the language we use about it, and the many ways in which society has evolved shared and predictable habits of dealing with it. This is the highest act of positioning : that brands can shape your view of reality. It has been done by great practitioners Ed Bernays, Ernest Dichter, David Ogilvy, Bill Bernbach and many more

Positioning at the level of attribute(s) is merely scratching the surface. All products are more or less able to claim a hygiene level of performance.  The positioning that works taps into a deeper need of emotive gratification.  Let me offer an example, taken from Ernest Dichter’s method of motivational research. The example is quoted in the ‘Handbook of Consumer Motivations’ but elaborated upon in ‘The Strategy of Desire’ The question is – What is a lighter ? The reliability of a lighter is important because it is integrally connected with the basic (that is unconscious) reason for using a lighter.  Now if you were to ask people why they use cigarette lighters, the answer they would give would generally be “to light cigarettes.” That is the manifest or conscious explanation of why people use cigarette lighters. The latent or unconscious, and more significant reason, has to do with other matters. The basic reason for using a lighter is the desire for mastery and power.  The capacity to summon fire inevitably gives every human being, child or grownup, a sense of power.  Reasons go far back into man’s evolutionary history. Fire and the ability to command it are prized because they are associated not only with warmth, but also with life itself.  As attested to by the Greek legend of Prometheus and many other myths, the ability to control fire is an age-old symbol of man’s conquest of the physical world he inhabits. A cigarette lighter provided conspicuous evidence of this ability to summon fire. The ease and speed with which the lighter works enhances the feeling of power.  The failure of a lighter to work does not just create superficial social embarrassment, it frustrates a deep-seated desire for a feeling of mastery and control.  Thus, at the next level down, the pre-conscious level of the psyche, cigarette lighters are connected with a desire to demonstrate mastery and power. At the conscious level, we use cigarette lighters to light cigarettes Now what would you position a brand of lighters on ?  Pedigree, reliability, effective conversion of fuel to fire, design, inherent cost, best value for money, serviceability, delighted customers , large portfolio of lighters !?  This essence of motivation is what any positioning exercise needs to keep at its heart !  (We didn’t start the fire. It was always burning  Since the world’s been turning) Sreekant Khandekar Venkata Susmita B.  Benita Chacko

Those who mention positioning a lot generally understand it the least.  However,  it has been used as a crutch to make things complex, over extend the portfolio and pin blame away from bad business fundamentals.  The clarity and consumer intimacy positioning demands cannot come from being officious and hierarchical.  In 2005, when the industry publication Ad Age ranked the most important marketing ideas of the past 75 years, positioning came in at No. 56.  Four years later, in 2009, when Ad Age polled its readers about the best books on marketing,“Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind” (1981) was ranked No. 1. When Al Ries first thought of the concept of positioning, he called it “the rock” – the foundation upon which every advertisement for a brand rested. It was Jack Trout  who suggested the name‘positioning,’  Over the years , it has become the most talked about marketing concept.  Positioning is not about more.  It’s about less.  Above all , positioning is about making sacrifices!  Sreekant Khandekar

Toys “R” Us has released a video advertisement created almost entirely by generative artificial intelligence. This marks a first among the large corporations/ brands in using AI for mainstream commercial , video advertising.  The Ad depicts Toys “R” Us’s late founder, Charles Lazarus, as a child who dreams of a toy store and Geoffrey the Giraffe, the store’s brand mascot.  It was made using Sora, an OpenAI tool that converts text to video and that hasn’t yet been released to the public. Native Foreign, was the production company that partnered with Toys “R” Us on the ad reports the Wall Street Journal  Each shot or frame was generated  by giving Sora several paragraphs of instructions. Sora completed 80% to 85% of the work before the agency went in to make finishing touches. The Ad contains imperfections. But it points to the future .  Now the question of inward movement of core creative duties within the four walls of an enterprise becomes even more critical.  Anyone who is looking for creative answers from agencies alone is headed in the wrong direction and looking for fool’s gold.  Annurag Batra  Prasad Sangameshwaran  Delshad Irani  Sonali Krishna  Sreekant Khandekar  Raahil Chopra Bijoya A Ghosh   https://lnkd.in/d_wmrS2x

 #CXOChatter | Do you remember the iconic ‘Mauka Mauka’ campaign from the ICC ODI World Cup 2015, or the Pro Kabaddi League’s ‘Le Panga’ campaign? We’re sure you do, and it was a pleasure for us to sit down with one of driving forces behind these incredible campaigns and much more.   In a freewheeling conversation with Shubhranshu Singh, Global Head of Marketing at Tata Motors’ Commercial Vehicles business we take a walk down memory lane and peer into future of all things branding, seeing what’s indelible, ephemeral, and everything in between. Don’t miss our latest episode of CXO Chatter!   In Frame with Karan Karayi, Editor in Chief, Marksmen Daily   Watch the whole video: https://lnkd.in/dS2_kpre   Visit our website: https://lnkd.in/dfQpdrnm   #maukamauka #icc #lepanga #marketing #tatamotors #tatamotorsindia #digitalmarketing #shubhranshusingh #campaigns #branding   

Wonderful couple of hours at the Digital News Publishers Association – DNPA’s conclave. These are exciting times for digital media.  Chaired tha panel on the emergence of AI and its impact on our lives and livelihoods.  A big thanks to DNPA, organisers and leaders in the space and most of all, my fellow panelists.(Mr Suresh Prabhu, Kevin Vaz, Sanjay Sindhwani, Sabina Dewan)  Suresh Prabhu Sanjay Sindhwani Senthil Chengalvarayan Vikram Chandra Delshad Irani Sabina Dewan Kevin Vaz