Era of SCREENAGERS

All of us are moving in an era where we move from one screen to another. For example, while working, we are in front of our laptop screen and we are simultaneously looking at our mobile screen taking a call or texting messages. While we are travelling we are shuffling songs from our I Pod and looking at its screen. After we are finished with our work, we go home and watch the Television Screen. While cooking one has to look at the microvave screen or while washing at the digital screen of the Washing machine. Most professionals like Doctors for example, need to analyse data from screens to assess a patients health. This radical shift can also be termed as digital or from hardware to software. However, the presence of a "Screen" is a part of everybody's life now.

Using FEAR to SELL

Fear is an important emotion to sell products expecially those related to life, health, safety, reputation. An element of fear in any business proposition can also be a useful way to create urgency for people to buy. But first, some of the products that use fear to sell are insurance, anti virus software etc. Besides, the "real fear" there is also the fear of being 'left out". This platform is used for example by mobile phone and computer companies which may tell you to update your existing product or be considered "old", "unaware" , "not in the league" etc.
Then there is a fear of "not belonging" in a particular community. So you buy becauses of the "Joneses". Buying a car is an excellent example of why people buy one. They want to seek acceptance within their society, friends, peers etc. While fear is a subjective term, deep within, most of us buy because of fear in some form or the other. The Marketer makes good use of this emotion to sell.

Do trends move from the WEST to the EAST?

It is seen that new products and concepts are innovated and launched in the West and after a succesful proven business model are the introduced in the East. We have seen this happening in almost all products from technology oriented ones like mobiles, computers and cars to consumer products like soap, foods and beverages to service based businesses like retail, hotels and franchising. Clearly, after products are successful they are simply introduced with little or no changes. The questions that occur to me are, whether this phenomenon of "WEST to EAST" is true and whether products can be successfully with little or no adaptation of the original version?
A corollary to the former question is of Eastern concepts like Ayurvedic products and a Sushi bar which are highly accepable and popular in the West and the latter stems from the success of products like Washing Machines which in a country where labour is easily and cheaply available has still been successful.

Using CELEBRITIES as PACKAGING

Celebrities are known to be used for endorsing brands to get a rub off of their qualities on the brand. In a competitive market place where brands are aplenty, the challenge for a marketer is to make the consumer try their brand once, especially in a new product category. Repeat purchase would follow if it has acceptable quality, provides differentiation and is available at the right place/time. But lets say in a competitive category like snack foods, it is key that the consumer "tries" the brand the first time. The key to driving the impulse is to use a Celebrity who represents the brand values and produce an effective advertising campaign.While celebrities have been used for a long term objective like branding, they drive a different objective now and that is for PACKAGING. While the consumer may be driven by different a motivation when he goes till the shelf, a combination of using a celebrity and right distribution can do wonders.

Interactivity is the key

Almost all the gadgets that are being developed or for that matter, the campaigns that are seen/heard have an increasing element of INTERACTIVITY. For example : From a dull and boring device, a telephone is not merely used to speak and hear people's voices. Today, it is a camera cum music player cum PDA all rolled into one. With touch screens, one can enter this world with great excitement and move from one feature to another. Interactivity happens best when there is INTEGRATION of technology. We find that the TV screen is integrated with your cell phone or the internet. For example, you can vote for your favorite celebrity by watching a reality show on TV by texting your preference on your cell phone or doing the same by logging on to a website. All this makes technology "talk" to people and is no longer a one way process. This is all set to increase. We would see innovations and the marketer is in the process of getting the consumer closer and closer to the brand.

Time for consolidation

It is observed that businesses are consolidating themselves whether its in terms of their brand, services, skills, geography, strengths etc. For example, its common sight to see brands extending their name across products/services or business expansion across geographical boundaries. But now its beyond extension and the buzz word is "consolidation". The focus is clearly on inorganic growth and applying one's "skills" across related or unrelated areas. So you may find actors getting into businesses, a start up acquiring rights of mythology characters and developing animated content for a media company or a steel company getting into power generation. Clearly, its time for consolidation and there are numerous opportunities waiting to be siezed.