Advertising needs to catch up with changing times..

The way advertisers are communicating and reaching out to costomer has been on a constant drift. From the tuk tuk's carring loud speakers and posters for the movies in the theaters around, now its the time of internet and digital technologies. The cluttered advertising space has been annoying consumers since decades for now, but now has taken new heights specialy when it comes to teli-calling and SMS promotions. The advertisors constatly innovate new ways to reach consumers. But research revels that due to so muny brands(Products) and the advertisng space has totally turned into a clutter the challenge in recent times. This mandates that, sooner than later, advertisers will have to seek out ways by which consumers' themselves are driven towards the communication provided by the marketer (Pull Marketing), rather than forcing on it to the so called target audience (Push Marketing).

In such a scenario, corporate website, product specific websites or micro websites and landing pages become the most important element to provide information. Also, the social network sites which is doing wonders, in terms of growing number of active users can be ignored at all. Earlier, the fight was to spread good word of mouth, but now it is to fight back the bad word of mouth. Definitely, this can only be done by bridging the gap in between what marketers' communicate and what they deliver. It's not uncommon to find consumers or even  people in general complaining about product and services which they found unapt or feel it that way, albeit they have never used it.

For example, just yesterday one of my friend's Face Book status bar read "f**k Tiger Airlines, its HORRIBLE", Tiger Airlines is a Singapore based low cast career. Almost 40 people responded to her status bar with all sorts of comment, within next couple of hours. Now even I have a bad perception of it, though I have never known it earlier, and may never travel if I had to in future. Next day, her updates showed she had joined a community "We Hate Tiger Airlines", having hundreds of Facebook users, who share the same opinion. This is just a small instance, and we all know its every where. Be it review sites, blogs or community the negative viral spreads much more than positive...

The answer is making consumers happy come what may, not to over commit, communicate with consumers rationally and unquestionably be better than the competition!

Would Pepsi be able to do what it desires, with Thumbs Up ?

Pepsi and Coke have again a new game to play, this time initiated by Pepsi though. Already the "Black Cola" is having maximum variants from both the companies, be it thumbs up, coke, diet coke from Coca Cola or Pepsi, Diet Pepsi from Pepsi. 

Pepsi is now ready to take on thumbs up, with launching Pepsi Max in India, a Cola variant already present globally. Though a low calorie diet, it would be positioned almost like thumps up, "A macho drink- with that extra fizz." 

As a consumer, what I feel is, with already with many different SKUs and variants present, majority of consumers' may not find variant or SKU of their first choice mostly. Its really head over heals, especially for a small or mid sized retailer, first to stock and then to place all variants of 'Fizz Drinks' with other so many sorts of other potables, in the fridge. 

Also, I am of the opinion that, with monsoon set to come, this is likely, not the right time for a new variant to make a big bang. I hope this effort of Pepsi, doesn't end up like its rival's failure of pissy tasting Marida-Apple Flavor which is almost absent from the market now. 




The article below about the LAUNCH is from Economic Times, Dated June 23, 2010

"PepsiCo To Launch Low-Calorie Cola Within A Month To Take On Market Leader Thums Up"


PEPSICO will throw a fresh challenge at Coca-Cola within a month or so by launching its second cola, Pepsi Max, which will be pitted against market leader Thums Up as a macho drink.
A low-calorie, no-sugar drink positioned as a macho adult brand, Pepsi Max is expected to hit shop shelves in the next four-five weeks, at least four people familiar with the development told ET.
Though a low-calorie drink, Max has consciously distanced itself from occupying a ‘diet’ positioning and instead has been promoted as a macho drink targeted mainly at males — a platform Thums Up has successfully occupied over the years to lead the Rs 8,000-crore fizzy drinks market by a significant margin.
A PepsiCo India spokesman neither confirmed nor denied the development, only stating that the company “would not comment on market speculation”. People close to the development, however, said PepsiCo wants to pit Max directly against rival Thums Up, originally created by Ramesh Chauhan over three decades back and later acquired by Coca-Cola India. “Besides attacking Thums Up, Pepsi Max could also crack open the lowcalorie colas market – till now a small category, and more associated with women,” said a business associate of PepsiCo, requesting anonymity. Despite diet versions of colas existing for more than a decade, the demand for it remains insignificant and occupies less than 5% of the total aerated drinks market. “The diet cola category is yet to be cracked open in India, mainly because diets come with a taste challenge – they taste different so are not very well received by Indian consumers,” the person said. “Max could fill that gap since it does not contain ingredients of a diet cola and yet is a low-calorie drink,” he added.
Pepsi Max, sold in more than 40 countries, will be available in bottles and PET cans and it will be competitively priced, the sources said.
While PepsiCo may want its new cola to take on Thums Up, Coca-Cola may try to upset its plans by bringing in Pepsi Max’s global rival Coke Zero, a sugar-free cola. Coca-Cola is testing out the potential of Coke Zero in the domestic market, a person close to the world’s largest beverages firm said. Indirect imports of Coke Zero are already available in stores.
India is a key market for cola companies and has been clocking quarterly growth rates in excess of 20%. The country, in fact, has come to the rescue of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, which are facing stagnant sales in their home market, the US. Till now, all three cola brands available in the country are promoted differently. Thums Up is advertised as a brand associated with dare devilry while second-ranked Pepsi is promoted as a ‘youth’ brand. Coca-Cola tries to occupy the ‘family’ platform.
In an attempt to shake the stranglehold of Thums Up early last year, PepsiCo had added more fizz to its cola brand in Andhra Pradesh (AP) — a traditional bastion of Thums Up which has a dominant 80%-plus share among colas in the state