Shahrukh Khan and Saif Khan in PC Ads!

Yesterday we were having an intersting discussion within our group, about how the technology (B2C) marketing/advertising is changing in India.

So the discussion started with the observation that increasingly the PC companies are hiring celebrities (mostly from Bollywood) to promote their products, and if we see the statitics, both the brands that hired Shahrukh Khan and Saif Khan, are among the top 3 brands of the country!

This stems out from the fact that , firstly PCs have become a commodity and hence one of the ways to do the differentiation is to attach a specific personality to the brand.

Secondly: at the end of the day it's a technical product and a layman would buy your product based on the applications rather than the technology-which he doesn't understand anyways!

Hence a celebrity can illustrate the applications in Bollywood style, and to add to it will attract a lot of eyeballs.

So both : attraction/visibility and involvement or signifying a USP are attained through celebrity endorsement

This indeed takes from where I left in my last blog (see below, "Lack of innovations ...").

and reiterating the fact that a large volume of the PCs sold in India are sold to Home segment. The major drivers of buying a PC in home are:

1. GAMING

2. Multimedia ( listening to songs, designing a greeting card, watching the digital photographs etc.)

3. Entertainment (mediacentre like capabilities)

4. EDUCATION of Children and

5. Internet (chat, email, search, blog)

So, the moot question still is infront of us: What are the PC companies doing to use the above traits/attributes to sell their PCs?

The answer is: They have hired bollywood celebrities, and that's how far they have gone!

I think that's a good start but we need to go far, and faster.

The problem in India is; We do not think big! We are fearful of visualising a BIG market! We are happy the way things are!

What happens if we take each of the above 5 points , and weave a strategy to achieve the goals (quantitaive: how many PCs sold through each of the above 5, as well as qualitative: mindshare, feedback, leads, brand involvement etc.)

Thinking abruptly: Can we have specialised PCs for professionals:

Can we have PCs for Doctors: Even before that can we have a workshop for Doctors; BUT NOT TO SELL PCs, but to explain them how they can really turn super-imapctful with the use of technology

Can we organsie a workshop for Doctors, and explain them how they can use technology to be more efficient:

1. tell them about how a database management system can help them keep a record of patients' history; trends and help them forecast specific ailments in advance.

2. How they can collaborate and be a part of the worldwide health forums

etc.

Similarly can we have workshops for Architects, Designers, CAs, etc.

If we can help them in meeting their needs more efficiently ; these clusters will prefer buying our brands and more than anything else they will bite into the product category sooner than we think.

The market in India is big! Our thoughts are not! The demand of the time is to allign with similar or different product categories, create customised packages and sell innovatively AND INDIRECTLY: through meeting the needs of core TAs.

The Caveat: It may be slightly more expensive to convert the peripheral customers, and the total cost of acquisition will be higher than one is used to. But that's an investment to secure a future market and building a brand. And in long run: one will be able to run a lower than market acquisition costs.

Source of Pitures of Shahrukh and Saif: http://www.funmunch.com