Branding Wednesday- Another HDFC Ad, Tulika Sharma

I rather like the HDFC Tulika Sharma ad. For many reasons. The biggest reason being that the father is quite OK in taking money from his daughter. Looks like a single child family set-up too, with the added advantage that the only child is a girl. You can very clearly see what kind of target audience they have in mind. After all this ad is not going to appeal to the set 'beti se paise nahin le sakte' (you can't take money from your daughter). Only minor peeve is that the mother is included as an afterthought in the ad.

More about this one at The Ad Critics.

Branding Wednesday- Gawker's Take on HDFC Na Sir Jhuka Hai Kabhi ...

Remember the HDFC Ad where a family is shown at the railway station where everyone refuses each-other's help. Gawker at 'A Goose Nest' stretches it to its logical conclusion. The post is hilarious and I have cross posted it at the Ad Critics too. And if you can find a video of the Ad, please let me know because I can't find one.

A little boy is playing on the platform, probably the old guy's grandson. He falls down. The old guy is about to run and pick him up. His son frowns at his father, saying no. The old guy is chastised. Little boy stands up on his own. He maintains his dignity.

Everyone walks to the parking lot. Old guy is about to cross the street. A car comes careening by. The son is about to pull the old guy back in order to save him from being run over. His mother frowns at him. The son, chastised, lets his father walk on. The car runs over the old guy. He maintains his dignity.

The old guy is hurt and bleeding. He tries to get up. His wife puts forth her hand to help him off the road. His son frowns at her. She pulls back, chastised. The old guy falls back onto the road. The old guy maintains his dignity.

A crowd gathers. Someone calls the ambulance. Paramedics are about to help the old guy onto a stretcher. The old guy frowns at them. They cease and desist. The old guy crawls onto the stretcher by himself, moaning in pain and leaving a trail of blood behind him. The old guy maintains his dignity.

Branding Wednesday- The Airtel Kids Playing Football at the Border Ad

I thought I will try to write a branding/advertisement post once a week, maybe on Wednesday. Why Wednesday? Because by then I am squarely in the middle of the week and with a strong feeling that I have accomplished very little!

The Ad posts, I have decided to write on the Ad Critics. So this time I am talking about the Airtel Ad where kids are playing football at the border that looks like the Middle East. Have a look and let me know what do you think.

Off Topic- The Hari Sadu Naukri.com Ad

I wanted to write since a long time about Naukri.com 'Hari Sadu' ad. Then I remembered the Ad Critics website. I asked them if I could do the post at their site and they agreed. So here is my take on the Hari Sadu ad. No, you have to click that link, I am not saying anymore :D

Off Topic- Branding Again

I was digging a 1966 reference in Harvard Business Review (HBR), don't ask me why! But one good thing came out of it. I stumbled upon Theodore Levitt's 1966 article 'Branding on Trial.'

I said before that these days I am reading a lot on branding and I am one of those who thinks 'good life' is exactly the opposite of what the brands try to portray! If someone asks me to spend a lot of money in order to have a good life, I immediately become suspicious.

But then one idea that I read in the' Branding on Trial' article in HBR by Theodore Levitt really made me pause!

He talks about Russia in the 1960s. Several factories made 17 inch TV sets and all were identical. By their buying experience, the pulic came to understand that one company made leomns (seriously defective products). Now there are no identifying marks and the public in general was forced to buy less 17 inch TVs. Later factory names were put on the sets to help labor officers identify offending factories and not for common public. But the public used the same information and soon the factory that made defective products saw its sales drop (Levitt, 1966).

Now when I think of it, I think I will prefer to live with branding (and consumer reviews on the internet) rather than identical products with nothing to differentiate among them!

Reference
Levitt, T. (1966) 'Branding on trial,' Harvard Business Review, 44:2, 21–33.

Talking about Branding

I consider myself to be pretty brand unconscious. I really enjoyed reading No Logo by Naomi Klein quite sometime back. Now due to some writing that I wish to do, I am doing a lot of academic reading (literature review) around branding. I just finished reading 'Brand Hijack' by Alex Wipperfurth. Before that I read 'Citizen Brands' by Marc Gobe.

The problem is my personal experience with branding keep coming in between my readings. I was once (and I have done it only once, I am in no hurry to repeat the experience) splurging money and among other things I wanted to buy a handbag. I narrowed it down to two, one was Hidesign (must be their most basic range) and other had no name on it. Both were same price. I can't find a good link to one of Hidesign's print ads (and I am not particular to provide a link here) but I find them so obnoxious that I bought the other no name bag.

We all know that advertisers often target a particular segment and 'type' of personality with the right kind of cash in the pocket. The problem is I may occasionally have the cash to spare but I have no 'aspirations' to lead the particular kind of lifestyle they are insinuating at. And I am sure they must be having a name for my kind of cattle err consumer.

And I am reading about branding! Initially I would just switch off when I read what I didn't like. Now it is a bit better. I can read on even though I may disagree with the idea.