Just this morning, on my way to office the cabby decides to stop for a gas fill!! Exasperated, i look around. Facing the Delhi chill and smoke in your face, i stand..looking around.
Then i finally rest my eyes on a billboard. It's for a cold cream..which makes sense taking account of Delhi winter. But then it's at a petrol pump!!! Actually thats what caught my attention, the odd placement.
But again, how much sense does it make to have a billboard for a cold cream , in which the image of a pink blushed lady is rather oddly stretched (very poor creatives and the company should actually sack their creative/ad agency for the shoddy work) at a gas station...even if we consider all the influencing factors:
a) how many women actually drive (substantial number in delhi)
b) How much time will each direct/indirect buyer have at the petrol station in the morning rush (which is when most people get the petrol filled)
c) What is an apple actually doing on that image - its a colourless fruit that the hoarding projects and actually just pushes me away from buying it
d) Can we never move away from stereotyping our products
e) Can our placement/positioning ever be rationale based rather than emotion driven (here the overriding emotion of looking beautiful with soft skin)
f) Will the reason oriented approach actually work? Will I ever purchase a product which gives me the technical benefits of a product? Probably.
This takes me back to my classes where our professors cried hoarse over correct placement and positioning. Looking at this ad today just made me realise that either they were living in a utopian world or this particular company is ful of jokers. For a low end product like the one in question, why would you spend so much on a hoarding also when it doesnt break away from the clutter. Wouldn't you rather understand who your consumers are and hit them in a more concentrated manner? And then we cry over big international giants with deep pockets hurting our small local companies.
My dear fellow countrymen, those deep pockets also seem well supported by great thinking brains. They hardly make mistakes and when they do, they are rather quick at rectifying them. An Olay, for instance, knows their target is not a college girl so they wont go after a Priety Zinta/Kareena Kapoor as a brand ambassador. They are looking at the thinking woman, who is what she is and flaunts it to the hilt. So Sushmita is the best choice they can have. This kind of positioning goes beyond the staple!! You will never see Sushmita with a lifeless apple and some hurriedly written copy smiling at you from a stupidly positioned billboard...and you dont need management gurus to explain that to you.
Well, it's hardly more than common sense!!
So while the Olay and the Clarins of the world fight for a little shelf space, the desi brands will just have to take a back seat, specially with this kind of monstrous goofups doing the rounds!!
Wake up or give up!!
image source: cavincare.com
.jpg)
