Miel’s Story: why JK Rowling is OK!

There’s a part of me that is livid with the whole marketing razzmatazz of the Harry Potter phenomenon. Young children desperate to own a copy even when they can’t read more than primers.

And then I spoke to my niece, Miel, all of eight. She’s now a big girl. When she’s bigger, she’ll read all the Harry Potter books. She still bought her own copy at Landmark, Chennai. And she sent me these few lines on her experience:

"I woke up at 5 o’clock and I rushed to Landmark, I got the Harry Potter book and I was so excited I got a tattoo. Then I was with my friends Nihara and all. Then I had a hat, a black hat with stars on it. I felt so happy when I got the book that I had to jump! And I got my pictures taken and I had to feed a SS Music girl with cake. I can’t read the book but I read some words in it. "

Harry Potter got Miel excited; got her so happy the she had to jump.

And I think to myself, what a wonderful book.

Even if I haven’t read a single Harry Potter.

Bloomsbury WILL announce 8th Harry Potter or new series by Rowling

Because the franchise is too big, and makes far too much money for Bloomsbury and Rowling to walk away from.
It’s naïve to believe that they would throw away the considerable investments made in both Harry Potter and JK Rowling. The 8th Potter book, if ever written, will sell like hotcakes – as will the first book in a new series “by JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series”.
If I were Ladbrokes, I’d open books on both, the 8th Potter and the first non-Potter Rowling.
And I hope they would acknowledge the fact that they got the idea here.

Harry Potter: the end is the beginning

On July 21st, a few million kids worldwide will buy a copy of the new Harry Potter, and a few million parents will buy a copy of the new Harry Potter for their few million kids.

And the sum total of these few million will become more than a few million, and these more than a few million owners will read the new Harry Potter back to front immediately after having a copy in their possession.

Because the first level of cool will be the ownership of the book.
The second level will be the knowledge of the ending.

And the second coolness will be achieved only by reading the book back to front.

And don’t be surprised if you quiz a few people who claim to have read the book in a few hours and none of them knows how the book began.

Now, Rexona from Lever

What's common to new commercials of HLL's brands in India?

A one-second slate at the end displaying the HLL logo.

Commercials produced earlier continue to run without this slate, but one would presume that, over period of time, all commercials will follow suit.

Interesting, the highlighting of the mother brand in the TVCs. Will we see a larger logo presence in the packaging, and the leveraging of Lever?

Understanding toy market is no child's play

Bryan Stockton, Exec VP International, Mattel, quoted in this morning's Brand Equity:

"Interestingly enough, as parents are waiting to have children until they are a little older, there is more disposable income to spend on their children and we are seeing the benefit across the industry. In addition, grandparents are playing an increased role in toys as they are actually younger than the generations before them, and have more disposable income to spend on toys."

Therefore, older parents + younger grandparents is the magic formula.

That's great news for today.

However, this also means that the future is not too bright for toys, as the propensity to delay having children that the current generation seems to have will create older next gen grandparents.

One day, I will understand consumers and marketing. And research.

AB’s got to worry

Now the debate on the use of film stars as brand ambassadors can start afresh.
Amitabh Bachchan, arguably the most preferred brand ambassador that this country has produced, talks up Mulayam Singh’s cause during the election campaign to the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
And Mulayam Singh comes a cropper.
Consumers do see through communication and storyboards – and they have rejected AB’s plugs for the Samajwadi Party.
Arguably, the most significant failure of AB the brand ambassador. Worth chewing on.

I want to divorce my mobile service provider

When I was a kid, I loved Aesop’s fables. And I learnt a lot from them (I do not necessarily apply what I learnt, though).
I’m a lazy learner. I can’t handle brilliantly written management books without illustrations. Give me a case study, and I’ll chomp up the principles that the author intended the reader to absorb in a jiffy.
And I visited Kathy Sierra’s blog after ages, and I felt like a kid again. She’s the Aesop that people like me need so that we better understand what’s right and wrong with issues such as the one I link to -- the customer: company relationship.
Too many companies, she says, are like bad marriages. We all know what bad marriages are like (even if you’re not in one). Therefore, understanding why companies are like bad marriages is a breeze the way Sierra writes it.
What I loved about this post is that there are so many companies in India that could learn from this. The service industry is exploding, and most of the “service” providers love you only during the brief period that they’re out to win you; after that, they couldn’t care a **** for you.
If you’re a sufferer of such a bad marriage, send the Customer Relationship Manager a link. Not to this post, to Sierra’s.

Levi’s launches jeans for suckers

The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Sometime in the late 1800s, PT Barnum (might have) said, “A sucker is born every minute.”
And Levi’s, who have an awesome memory, extricated this gem from the recesses of their corporate brain.
And launched a pair of iPod compatible jeans, which will cost the Indian consumer Rs. 9,000 a pop.

And they will sell many pairs.

Because, sometime in the late 1800s, PT Barnum (might have) said, “A sucker is born every minute.”

And despite what Henry Ford might have said, History is not bunk.