The POWER of a BRAND…..branded GENERIC products

The encyclopedias define generic products as –‘unbranded products identified only by product category’.
But the pictures you see above show some products which have managed to become generic despite of being branded. Two contradicting terms brought together by something I call ‘the power of the brand’

Let me explain how –

Customer 1to shopkeeper: give me a bottle of Bisleri

Customer 2 to shopkeeper: I need a Walkman

Customer 3 to shopkeeper: give me some chips….the shopkeeper gives him Uncle chips

In the above examples what the customers want is packaged water and a cassette player, they are not at all conscious about the brand instead they see the brand name as the generic name for the product.

This is the power of a brand, making some products so popular that they become the generic names. The power of the brand, its popularity makes u believe that if u need package water it has to be Bisleri and in most cases we even feel that the brand name for the product is actually the product itself (even I didn’t know that walkman is a product from Sony, I thought walkman is a synonym for cassette player).

This strategy can indeed help your brand to easily become the market share; exploiting the ignorance of the customers about brands or their inability to differentiate products by brand names (I have no intentions to disgrace the consumer’s intelligence here).

Most of this has been happening automatically over the years. The reason maybe the brand being the market leader in that particular category or sometimes the only player in the category or maybe in some cases the first mover.

Then why call it a strategy??? The companies never planned this। That’s true; it just came into their bounty by luck.

But I’ll still call it a strategy because presently some companies have started looking forward to deliberately convert their branded products into generic names। The best example for this can be none other than that of

COKE. Remember the ad ‘thanda matlab coca cola’…….. Mostly the customers are not particular about brands in purchase of undifferentiated products or the products that require lesser involvement in purchase.

So what coke wants is that whenever a customer asks for a ‘thanda’ (cold drink) he should end up purchasing a coke …….that is the reason why time and again coke comes with new and innovative ads but the concept remains the same, the mantra for its success i.e. THANDA MATLAB…..COCA COLA

Out of d......BOX

Out of d……….BOX

"Make your product so good that it sells by itself - philip kotler"
…very true…then who needs advertising????

This phrase may have proven to be true in ancient times when there were no efficient media for advertising ….but at that time also; one form of advertising existed…. WORD OF MOUTH…which still is considered to be the best from of advertising.

The phrase above is true no doubt…but who knows your product is good…it’s only you…and before people start talking about the goodness of your product, your competitors will follow with the closest possible imitation and steal your well deserved award…

This is what makes advertising so important in today’s world….and not just conveying your message solves the problem, but you need to do it better than your competitors….
So the need of the hour is not just advertising, but being a lot creative in the way you present your product……I call it OUT OF THE BOX thinking…..


Some experts have their
view on this ‘out of the box’ thing…
Abbas Tyrewala….writer of ‘asoka’,
‘munna bhai MBBS’ and many other
popular movies says… >>>>>>>>

Need an ad campaign??? Start with anything….anything at all that has the slightest of relations to your product….. Start by seeing what is working. Is anything working? If so, why does it work?

I and my group members had a chance to develop a new product and a campaign for the same as a part of our ‘marketing communication strategy’ project…..
This was our first time so we were so excited and at the same time scared of people not liking our idea….but we started….and we thought of just anything and everything (the product we developed was an innovative one…a quick and convenient, brushless shaving cream that worked without water) the product was a differentiated one....so had to be its advertisement….look what we came up with>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

…….Now you can do the best things in life…

…. And still get the time to shave

….THIS IS EVOLUTION



Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
THEORY OF EVOLUTION


Now don’t shave….
…… just ACE through

The picture shows that charles darwin was a great man but he didnt hav the time to shave...but now with ACE, you can do the best things ever...and still get the time to shave
now d ques is what's out of d box here??...just recall what shaving cream ads always try to show...a clean shaved man ...ever seen a shaving cream ad with a beard person???...i hope u got d answer...
The name of the product was ACE which stands for speed, professionalism and most of all for the person who is unbeatable….so do you think the idea was successful….well you are intelligent enough….

So just try thinking out of the box….and if u can’t ….try to increase your box’s L*B*H....rememember...the most amazing things happen when you least expect them to...

The 3D product...do you really need to innovate??

Differentiation, innovation, adaptation, change management……the heavy weighs whenever we talk about product management. But what if we can survive or for that matter perform much better even without innovating…..

Sounds confusing?? …it has to… because we always follow the mantra CHANGE OR DIE….but is it possible to survive without changing…well in some cases it is

Let me explain this by considering the product to be a 3D object while what a normal customer sees is its 2D view. So you always have the opportunity to work on its 3rd dimension which is not visible to the customers….and guess what when the customer gets bored with the 2 dimensions he has been seeing from a long time, just rotate your product to display the 3rd dimension you have been working upon. Let the customer admire the beauty of the new dimension by the time you start working on the dimension that’s facing you…

Still confused??….let us take the example of Maruti 800 cc model, every now and then you see Maruti experimenting with it…the headlights, the tail, fog lamps and even new colors…I don’t call that innovation…but every time a new variant hits the market the sales boost up. If u think that is true only for the market leaders or established products…..let’s talk about Bajaj’s pulsar

Pulsar which is a comparatively new product (if we compare it to hero Honda or Yamaha bikes) has been repeatedly performing well with the introduction of each new model
(where new stands just for a color change like the ALL BLACK PULSAR or maybe a slightest change in design or engine capacity)

If you still consider that to be innovation let’s take the example of PEPSI COLA which being a highly non differentiated product (remember we are talking about product differentiation and not brands) has come up with Pepsi MY CAN which is a packaging in form of 250 ml cans…and I think that is a good idea….and its much more affordable than the existing can packagings

So if Pepsi can do it with packaging alterations, Bajaj can do it with engine capacities and Maruti can do it just with new colors ….so we have an answer to the above question…..