I Choose My Own Path, I Choose Dell…

Dell chooses to focus on SMBs this time with people who have chosen the path not well trodden. The focus audience here is the independent thinker, the maverick businessman, the nonconformist. The ambassadors it chooses to convey the message are P. Rajendran (Founder and COO of NIIT), Prasad Bidappa (Image Consultant and Founder of Prasad Bidappa Associates), Sanjana Ratnam (Designer and Founder of No Ordinary Bride), V. K. Prakash (Filmmaker and Founder of Trends ADFilm Makers), and Raman Roy (Founder and CEO of Quatrro), and how products like Dell PowerEdgeTM servers, Regal Red Dell LatitudeTM laptops, Dell VostroTM, Dell PrecisionTM Mobile workstation, Dell OptiPlexTM desktops are helping them refine their process each day. The Dell site features these Dell Hereos with videos about them and their experience with Dell products.
Dell is now focusing increasingly on BRIC countries. The change in focus from large enterprises to SMEs comes from snaring a meager 3% of the SMB pie, in which HP is leading the pack, and hence a change in paradigm. The company launched its VostroTM range of laptops in August this year, targeted at SMBs.
The brand ambassadors truly represent an egalitarian mix. The campaign has a tagline too “I Choose My Own Path, I Choose Dell.” However, I think the ads focus too much on the larger than life images of its brand ambassadors, rather than the message and its impact.
Have a look…

The campaign conceived by Enfatico has earned widespread drubbing abroad and here. It has been panned for its lack of originality, and has been panned across board, across nationalities. Though it has tried to get its focus on the people right, the emphasis on the products and the services for the sector it wants to cater to is missing. The SMB segment is fraught with uncertainties and led by HP. A tough fight with a tough competitor with an ad campaign that does not permeate through the intended audience may not bode well for a company still trying to find feet in this sector.
Sources: Business Standard, November 16, 2008, http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=338223
http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/ap/topics/microsite/en/take_your_own_path?c=in&cs=inbsd1&l=en&s=bsd&~page=1&~ck=anavml

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ET Awards 08 ads...

The Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence commemorates 10 years of The Economic Times Awards this year. Creating a legacy takes time...but maintaining a legacy takes astute advertisements.... The campaign, created by Rediffusion DY&R, kicked off with front page headlines in the ET like "Now Pay Your Bills via ATM," "Incoming Calls Are Now Free," "DDI and II to become 24-hour channels," "GDP revised upwards to 5.1%," headlines which made headlines 10 years back. It reminds readers that ET has been chronicling India Inc's progress and success...and how much has changed over the last 10 years. The advertisements for the ET Awards then go on to quote industry stalwarts like Narayana Murthy and Indra Nooyi to politicians like Chandrababu Naidu. The ads instantly strike a chord, urging our billion plus to quit armchair politics and take a proactive role in politics (Chandrababu Naidu, former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, ET Business Leader 1998), building a successful coffee enterprise (V G Siddhartha, Chairman, Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Co. Ltd., ET Entrepreneur, 2003), being successful business leaders (Indra Nooyi, Chairman & CEO, PepsiCo, ET Global Indian 2006), to realize the importance of chasing your dreams (Narayana Murthy, Founder & Chief Mentor, 2006, ET Lifetime Achievement Award 2007), the strength of empowerment (Jaswantiben Popat, Founder, Sri Mahila Griha Udyog, Lijjat Papad, ET Businesswoman, 2002). The ads work on the power of the words, and past feted leaders. The success of the ads lies in the strength of the message, effective and appealing to the heart. A simple but successful strategy...All the ads urge the readers to wield the baton...and be the change that India wants to see...by people who have been the change themselves...

Sources: http://www.indiantelevision.com/mam/headlines/y2k8/sep/sepmam85.php
TOI dated November 5, 2008, November 13, 2008.

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ICICI delights yet again….

Over the past few months, ICICI released a slew of articles, published in the TOI and ET, titled the “ICICI Bank Customer First Series,” an initiative into customer education. The series were about home loans, personal loans, educational loans, safe banking, demat series, credit card series, deposit series, self banking, financial counseling, financial planning, NRI banking, banking system, and so on. Each series had 3-4 articles. The thing that makes you sit up and take notice is that all the articles could be read by almost anybody, from housewives to students. No special financial knowledge was required. The campaign really deconstructed concepts, refrained from using complex jargon, the bête noire of all financial midgets, like me. All the issues are explained as simply as they can be, with an SMS contest thrown in for customer pull. The “Did You Know” and “FAQs” provide for interesting trivia and snippets, respectively.

Truly a delight for finance minions!

Source: The Times of India, The Economic Times, and http://www.icicibank.com/Pfsuser/gallery/customer.html

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