What makes Chetan Bhagat a Success

Chetan Bhagat recently (8th May) launched his third book titled 'The 3 Mistakes of My Life'. Is it a success ? If sales are your primary criteria, then yes! His first two books 'Five Point Someone' and 'One Night @ the Call Centre' sold over 7 lakh copies. While this book sold two lakh copies in the first two days of the launch! [Source]

What we'll attempt to do in this post is break down this success into parts, so that it makes sense.

The Book

Remember, this is the 3rd book by Chetan Bhagat (CB). So the story is spelt out quite differently for the launch. Expectations for the new book are defined by the previous experiences with the author, which have been quite encouraging for readers. There have been others who tried to emulate his success - like Joker in the Pack. These have not succeeded. In fact, it was a pain to unearth their book titles. They just didn't deliver.

Of course book number 3 can't purely ride on the success of the previous books or the hype associated with the launch. Yash Raj's movie Tashan provides an excellent analogy for "Overpromise and Underdeliver." The reviews for the movie (online and WOM) were so vile that it sank within 3 weeks. The hype won't ever be a substitute for the book.

The reviews for the book over the last 2 weeks have been satisfactory. Given the positive vibes for this release, sales should match or exceed that of the previous books.

CB will be conquering the 'Pop Curve' - which Seth Godin depicts in this graph above. The curve to the right caters to a bigger market - the people who don't want to try things too edgy or focussed - a wide set of customers who want to read books that are good (not necessarily great) and don't really want to get into make specific choices (jargon: dissonance reducing behaviour). John Grisham is another example of an author riding the right curve, while Jhumpa Lahiri would definitely be on the left.

(On a different note, I find the music business in India to be focusing solely on the right curve. There aren't any niche artists at all.)

The Author


Chetan Bhagat has a cheerful and chubby face. Seriously - you don't expect an IITian to look this smart. In fact, when I googled IITian, one of the first pictures turned out to be of another IIT-IIMA guy. This one is more stereotypical and realistic!

(I don't know who this guy is. Guy, if you are reading this, you're welcome :D )

Hmm....Like I was saying, apart from writing a good book, CB has made sure India discovers more about him as a person. A dozen references to his IIMA wife and twin kids on the media and soon he doesn't seem like a distant author at all - instead what is conceived is an image of an aspiring IITian who has found his calling for writing books relevant to Indians. So any Big Bazaar customer with an additional hundred in his pocket, a soft corner for CB and with even substandard reading habits will think "Why not! I'll try out his book now!!"

Though I admit that's not the only way. you can emulate Melvin Udall and be a prick, but CB's strategy is definitely better! Some of his quotes which support my argument.

“I started writing when I was in class 5, and in those days, seeing your name in print used to be a big thing. Since then, this desire to become an author was there inside me,”
"Hey, one more thing. I am Chetan Bhagat, and I just want to be known and remembered as that.”
"What I want to do is entertain people, and I want to do it by writing nothing serious or highbrow." [source]

Beyond the Book

There are two key elements in for the explosive sales for the new book.

• Pricing it at 95/-
• A tie-up with Big Bazaar for greater reach

I am sure the J.K Rowling route of pricing books at ten times this price has some logic behind it. But they suffered a loss of over 40% sales due to pirated copies. As a contrast, books priced below 100 will hardly have a piracy market. (I am quite astonished that music CD's are still priced in India in the range of Rs 300-500/-)

The tie-up with Big Bazaar has turned out to be a symbiotic extravaganza. The book launches have been planned with sessions for Book Reading and Meet-the-Author. Shake hands, get a signed copy of the book - and turn into loud megaphones for the book. Its perfect. Of course, by the time the 5th author tries the same stunt....

CB also started blogging around 3 weeks prior to the launch. (This is much better than the Aamir, BigB, Salman crap). It talks about his reasons for writing the new book, his style of writing, the book launch schedule - same ingredients mentioned above: the book, the author and going beyond the book.

To sum it up,

1. Maintain a quality level to please your book reader (critics and literature knights can go to hell!)
2. Give them a reason / lower their hesitation for trying out the product (in this case the pricing of the book)
3. Look beyond being just an author - be a whole person to your reader - online and offline.
4. Be visible - people want to know more so that they can talk more about the same to their peers.
5. Hope for the best!

p.s: I know this should be followed by a normal review of the book (looking beyond Chetan Bhagat's face to judge it :D). I'll have that in the next post!

Mango Drinks - A comparison of TVCs

To provide some base to the analysis, I'll briefly describe the fruit based beverages market in India- divided into 3 categories shown below.

I personally feel that the consumer does not differentiate between fruit drinks / nectars. Frooti, Maaza, Slice all fight for the same mindspace. The juice category (spearheaded by Real) however has clearly scooped a separate space for itself. If you are preparing the strategy for a product (marketing followed by communication strategy), you need to have an idea about the consumer's buying behaviour before deciding how to action communciation objectives. So here are two suppositions:

1. Beverages are low involvement products. In simpler words - They are low cost and I do not go through extensive information search prior to purchase.
2. There are few differences between the brands - in terms of features, taste, pricing etc

Hence, the brand choice is driven by habit rather than any sort of loyalty. (reference: Assael Consumer Behaviour)

Thus the communication objective is that through constant repetition I need to connect with the consumer (who passively receives such inputs). In simpler words - after all the hoochamoocha of marketing, as my consumer stands at at Kirana store, he/she should say "Bhaiya ek Frooti dena" before coming down to option2 or 3 (A similar scenario holds for modern retail outlets, where the consumer should pick up my brand over the other stacked products).

Now that we are thinking on the same platform, let us explore what such products require from TVCs. The framework used in this discussion is the Rossiter-Percy grid. I've summarized the grid recommendations here. (More details are available here). The grid splits ads across Level of Involvement and -ve/+ve reinforcement. Beverages are clearly benefit based products (As a contrast Harpic, Insurance, Clearasil would be -ve reinforcement). The Grid suggests that:

Sell on emotions - try and trademark an emotion
Visuals on their own must do the selling (as contrasted with an informative narration)
Sparse Copy, Strong Slug Line
Celebrity Endorsements and/or humour works well here

Bless the Admakers for dovetailing the theory. Makes our analysis easier! Now lets indulge in the fun activity of nitpicking advertisements.

Maaza (view storyboard)

Maaza has continued to use Satish Shah Kaushik in their campaigns. The baseline is 'Bina Gutli Waala Aam' - claiming Maaza is as pure a version of mango as any other variety. They have used an obvious version of humour - a cheeky kid outsmarting an older person (usually handled by confectionery commercials like Candyman, Mentos). The visuals are below average - long footage for small narratives. At the end, the baseline clearly stands out - so Maaza earns points for that.

Slice (view ad)

They have used a fresh/unique baseline of 'Aamasutra' (a play on the word 'Kaamasutra'). This matches with the suggestion of trademarking an emotion - though I feel its a weak tagline for a mango drink. They have used Katrina in the ad - the first actress to endorse a juice brand. Visuals are again unique for a mango drink, but the excess white reminds me of Air Conditioner Ads!

Will Katrina help break away from the beverage clutter ?

Frooti (view storyboard, ad)

They have reinforced the impression that Mango in India is synonymous with Frooti - explicitly connecting the brand with indulgence in consuming mangoes. Unlike the cheesy nature of Maaza humour, this one is more understated and contemporary (like Vodafone, Virign Mobile commercials). The visuals are a treat, especially the kids getting whacked for mango aspirations! Makes one nostalgic and giggle at the same time.

I personally feel that Frooti has created the best advertisement of the three. I hope that some data on sales would validate these opinons. Till then, enjoy the season of mangoes.

p.s: I hope your understanding and respect for Marketing theory has inched ahead :)
Sources:
Afaqs: 1,2,3
Beverages Industry: 1,2
Blog : Marketing Practice

Cinthol - Analysis

[Warning - A bit heavy on marketing concepts and jargon. Reader discretion is advised :) ]

Ironically, this product has a tagline '24 hour confidence'. When I read this recent article on Cinthol's strategy, it scared me. In a typical MBA marketing course, we were trained to confidently handle such hypothetical scenarios. Say you are the brand manager of a X year old brand. The market share has dipped from 9% to less than 2% over the last few years. You need to define activities to be undertaken to revive market share to X%. Here's what we'll usually come up with:

1. We'll understand a) what are the new/changed/evolved consumer needs b)perception of our brand
2. We'll do repositioning based on existing brand values and on insights from the previous step.
3. We'll use heavy advertising campaign - print, TVC, Outdoor to communicate the change.
And of course we'll throw in some social networking, a bit of online experience and web2.0 jargon to boot.

(And this is a best case scenario. Usually MBA class participation is diminished, the objectives blurred and the output a khichdi of activities)

The brand is doing all of that.
And that's what scares me.

Cinthol Activities

1. Understand changed consumer needs
'Cinthol has always been associated with the alpha male personality. We have revived it, but in a more contemporary manner'
2. Reflect the change in product communication
'The new communication has a masculine tonality, but it is targeted at young adults who aspire to an active lifestyle.'
3. Have a distinctive celebrity endorsement(which according to HarishB was the right thing to do)
4. Reflect the change in packaging (view)
5. Run a planned campaign for 12-18 months bringing together all the above elements
6. Have a website for interacting with customers and creating tribes of like minded users.

One half of me (the MBA part) is acknowledging that Cinthol has been pumped with all the right ingredients. The other half (the consumer part) is indifferent to the efforts being made for the brand. A website for this brand ? So what! ( Objective according to them - 'It will bring together like-minded individuals who keep on moving, irrespective of the hurdles in their life.') Maybe, just maybe some Cinthol loyalists will reach the website.

The Cinthol Website

Interactive ? I don't think so

There are a total of 3 links. One is a link for the TVC, already available on youtube. The other two are static pages - one of which gives banal advice on being physically fresh. The second page has a dumb flash game, I didn't care to play it through.

Loading Screen

Every click is followed by a annoying loading screen, which a visitor with just passing interest (rather than an inquisitive disposition) would have avoided and quit the 'experience'.

According to Sameer Penkar, general manager, marketing, Godrej Consumer Products, “The site will be modified in phases. Currently, what you see on it is part of Phase 1. In the second phase, we will be tying up with portals such as Yahoo!, Rediff, Google and Zapak in order to direct traffic to our site.". Though I don't agree with the phased approach. There won't be a revisit by an online user unless it is enjoyable the first time.

Is there is any piece missing in their campaign ? It would be naive to applaud the strategy and impute execution quality for any poor results. Even if you get all the steps right, follow the tenets of good marketing, how can you hope you've done good work ?

Sources
The Cinthol Ad (indianbrands)
Cinthol on Marketing Practice
Cinthol on agencfaqs (here and here)

Happy to Yelp!

Did you read this news about the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) issuing a legal notice to Vodafone for indulging in cruelty to animals ?

http://www.headlinesindia.com/more/index.jsp?news_code=74993

AWBI claims - "The pet dog was made to run, gallop and chase the school van for a long time on a public road. Thereby, the dog was made to undergo severe pain and suffering due to the exhaustion caused by chasing (the bus)."

Dear AWBI,

It's a dog.
Its name is Rocky.
Dogs are happy chasing objects.
It was the dog chasing the bus and not the bus chasing the dog, which could have been interpreted as bullying behaviour (in which case you could have also filed a complaint against automobiles).
Had the Ad been made for say a Sumit Mixie or Ambuja Cement, then you might have had a point - since a heavy bag or carton isn't a dog's favourite play object.

But the pug is carrying a tie.
A tie!
Get a life you losers.
And find some other way to gain attention.

regards
A Vodafone Fan



In line with Vodafone's positioning of VAS (Value Added Services), the Customer Care TVC is one of the best ads aired in year 2008 (close competition being the 'Kabhi Kabhi' ad again made for Vodafone).

Nirvana Films, aware of such inanities, had also got a 'post-shoot fitness certificate duly signed by the veterinary doctor'. But apparently thats not enough for AWBI.

Maybe we viewers should file a petition against AWBI, for making us undergo severe pain and suffering due to the exhaustion caused by their stupidity.

On a completely different note, IPL is turning out be an awesome entertainment avenue. Here are two interesting articles providing more insight about its marketing and success.