The 5-10 Plan to Marketing

The first thing we are taught in marketing is the 4 Ps - Product Place Price Promotion.The first thing I was taught in advertising was the Trikaya Grey 5-10 plan.
Everyone knows the 4Ps; but the 5-10 Plan? Whats that? This is what it is:

Simply put; the 5-10 plan states that any brand communication needs to aspire towards a rating of 10.To reach the same you need to first have a strategy( or proposition/brief etc).On strategy you can either be right or wrong. Hence the strategy can either be 0 or 5.No 1/2/3/4 etc.Once you have reached a 5 on strategy it is the job of the creative product(including its execution through media) to take you towards 10. So the creative can take you to a 6 , a 7, a 8 , a 9 or a 10.
Right strategy with creative that takes you to a 6 can also work. Only; you will end up spending a lot of money to get your message through to the consumer ( eg some P&G ads).Right strategy with a creative product that takes you to a 9 or 10 can fulfill the same task. Only at a much lower cost( eg some of the CeaseFire ads of the early 90s)

So what relevance does this have to the 4Ps? Well the first P i.e the Product is like the right strategy.Either you have it...or you are a 0. The other 3 Ps i.e the Price, Promotion and Place of distribution are the elements that can take your brand from a 5 to a 10.

Simple? Or simplistic?

You decide.

Advertising Categories that defined a decade

Every decade throws up a period defining category .

A category that hits the sweet spot where client needs, agency business and the creative product meet. A category that not only throws up hip, buzz creating , award winning work; but work that actually helps sell the product. A category whose growth ,ad spends (and competition!) booms.

Let's look back at the 70s/early 80s. I'd say the defining category of that decade was soaps and detergents. Be it the bikini clad Liril girl, the Nirma girl and "Surf ki khariddaari mein aur bhi samajhdaari hai", "Rin ki safedi ki chamkaar"; the ads from this category and that era are still remembered.

Then came the 80s. A decade when India got wheels. So "Fill it .shut it .forget it." and "Hamara Bajaj" ruled.

The 90s were clearly about colas . The cola MNC entry and the subsequent cola wars gave us memorable campaigns that most agencies would give an arm to have on their portfolios. Remember " Yehi hai right choice baby", "Nothing official about it", "Mera number aayega", "Taste the Thunder"?

And the first decade of 2000 clearly belongs to the mobile category. Be it the Hutch/Vodafone dog, Airtel "Express Yourself" , or even "What an Idea Sirji"; mobile service/mobile phone campaigns are the most ubiquitous and talked about in todays day and age.

So what is common among these categories that made their campaigns decade definers?

Firstly; it was a category that came of age in that decade. Indians made the mega shift from laundry bars to detergents in the 70s,from cycles to two-wheelers in the 80s, started drinking soft drinks Vs sherbets/water in the 90s and ofcourse , in the first decade of 2000, mobilephones evolved from a techno-status toy to an indispensible must have.

Secondly ; the consumer evolved to appreciate the value of the category promise; and had the werewithal to buy into it.

Given the above decade defining category characteristics; is it possible to forecast the hot advertising category for 2010 to 2020? The category that's going to have big spends and win big awards?

My wager is that it'll be financial services. A category currently considered dull, boring, confusing and something that any self respective creative person will run away from.

But then ; consider some facts.With India growing from a 1 trillion dollar GDP economy to a 2trillion dollar economy in this decade ; and with savings rates around 35%; people are going to have a lot of money to invest in money!

What's more with the category opening up(thru the entry of multi-nationals) and the consumer evolving via insurance, mutual fund communication ; the financial services category is surely one whose advertising star is on the ascendent.

So my guess is that instead of detergent wars, cola wars and mobile wars; the coming decade are is going to have a new type of marketing war - the Money wars!. Be it banking, wealth management, insurance, broking or insurance.

In a hi-growth, competitive scenario; brands will need to be a lot more creative to take advantage of the opportunity.The stakes are large and the opportunity immense. In the coming decade; the campaigns of the year will be from this hitherto unheralded category. A beginning has already been made - IDBI Bank 'Elephant', SBI Life'Diamond', Motilal Oswal 'Knowledge First' etc.

But this is just the beginning of the wave.The coming decade can look forward to some insightful, creative and buzz creating campaigns from the financial services space.

Ad agencies are your ready?

Global Marketing /Advertising /Promotion Spends

Just read that Businessweek estimates worldwide Marketing, Advertising and Promotion spends at 1.2 trillion dollars per annum. That's 20% higher than India's GDP; btw.

Now coming to the famous "Half of my marketing money is wasted; but I don't know which half" quote; figuring out wasted marketing spends is a 600 billion dollar business!

Marketing Efficiency experts please take note.

ps: wonder what's the global size of the IT Industry? Any guesses?

THE ROLE OF BRANDING IN FINANCIAL COMMUNICATION

In financial services everything can be quantified. The amount of money you invest, the returns you get, the fee charged; everything can be neatly put into a P&L.So in such a cut and dried world; what role would branding have? After all; isn’t branding the fuzzy, subjective discipline ; the role of which cannot be quantified by anyone –the consumer or the business?

There is a strong role that branding plays in a financial services business. And it can be summarized in two words –Trustmarks & Choice Simplifiers.

Finance is extremely complex for the lay investor. And in more cases than not, financial products and advisors complicate things even more through the use of conditions, riders, etc. What's more; every financial product is different and works in different ways. It takes an expert to gauge one offering from another. Consumers inherently like simplicity. If they can get a single hook to evaluate/form a perception of an offering it helps them all the more. That's where Trustmarks come in. It gives the consumer a simple understanding of what he can expect from a particular brand. Be it transparency & ethics(Tata's), Knowledge based advise(Motilal Oswal) or Financial Supermarket(ICICI) you can trust the brand to deliver on that parameter due to its track record.You then evaluate the Trustmark on how relevant it is to you before taking a decision. The role of branding is in building solid trustmarks.

There are over 200 brokers who you can buy shares from, over 100 banks that you can bank with, over 25 life insurance policies, over 500 mutual fund schemes…..do you think in today’s ‘time poor’ lifestyles we will have the patience, bandwidth and knowledge to evaluate all of them? That’s where branding comes in. Based on your overall perception of the brand( how to build this perception is the focus of another post)you bring down this list of hundreds to a list that is manageable, one you can count on your fingers. You then evaluate this list one-on-one to choose the brand you want to park your precious money(and future) with. Brands act as Choice Simplifiers.

So the next time someone asks you how brands can add value to a financial services business ; you can summarise in two words - Trustmarks & Choice Simplifiers. Neither of these feature on a balance sheet or performance statement; but something tells me they are valued more than both !

Cheers.