Netxpress Online

Anyone who knows me would be well aware that I get truly annoyed when marketers look for the easy way out to market the products. Rather than understanding true insights coming from the consumers, they look towards existing trends and easy solutions for trying to grab the consumer’s attention and trying to get their brand to stay Top Of Mind. Our beloved Telecom Industry too by and large falls for the pitfall of taking the easy way out. My mind immediately goes to the somewhat raunchy “Baat Ban Jaye/ Public Deman” Ufone campaign of a couple of years ago. As is the case with most instances of taking the easy way out, the ad is just attention grabbing noise, and nothing more.

More recently, the telecom industry seems to have been taken over by the song and dance formula, and sees Telenor and Mobilink competing with each other to see who can get more mileage out of it. In all honesty, even though the formula has little to do with the brand or the product, the concept made some sense initially because it was unique and attention grabbing. Lately though, it has become synonymous with what I like to call Random Noise Generation. Why not just shoot a video with a bunch of guys and girls screaming and then have the “Jazz” tagline at the end? The concept of thinking before launching any campaign seems to have fizzled away. I seem to remember the Jazz High Octane campaign sometime back, which at lease seemed to have some sense and reason behind it. The only thing that seems slightly amusing in the latest High Budget Random Noise to come from Jazz is the sight of Wasim Akram dancing around, and oh yes… there is further addition to the growing plethora of Jazz Brand Ambassadors / Endorsers / Models / Celebrities / Famous People! What exactly are they?! Do they actually use Jazz or do they only sing (or dance) about the brand?

But what really got me was the latest ad from Mobilink which I saw yesterday. A 15 second (or so) spot called ‘G.I.60 Seconds’ to the theme of Mission Impossible. I wonder where I’ve heard that theme before and kudos to the creative team for thinking of a unique original never before used term of Gone in 60 Seconds. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not criticizing the ad this time (not really), I am criticising the Reason for the Ad. Something we marketers like to call the ‘Discriminator’ for the Brand. Something that is unique… the Unique Selling Point and what not… this time round, the so called USP is a ‘value’ added service through which you can have your SMS disappear from the receiver’s set in 60 seconds, a-la Mission Impossible. Why oh why would you want that? Can’t you just simply delete the text? Why do people save old text messages? Is there anyone home at the Mobilink Consumer Research Centre?

Come forth dear readers, for this GI60 service is the perfect example of Gold Plating, whereby companies add services to the product that the consumer don’t need or want, and then market them as if the service was a God Send. The wonderful service of hearing songs when you call a telecom number is another one of those Gold Plated Value additions.

I sincerely hope someone in these Telecom companies sees sense and at least tries to be creative with their messages and concepts. A quick look at Indian Telecoms Advertising can certainly be productive!

Till next week. Be safe and beLIEve.

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