OF MISTAKEN LOGOS: THE MOST USED ONE IS THE MOST MISTAKENLY USED ONE!!!

An eye-opener

A consultation session with a Doctor always means waiting for a long time and recently on one such occasion came the bouncer question. My younger daughter asks “Dad, Look a logo on the Doctor’s Car. What is it?” The knowledgeable dad in me who plays and fights with logos everyday quite confidently replied, “That is the Symbol of Medicine used by Doctors as Doctors’ logo on vehicles.” On the spot came the next question a little tricky one though, “But what is the use of that logo on a Doctor’s vehicle”. I had to think a bit to answer this as I haven’t given much thought before on this doubt. Though not sure about myself I faced the question bravely and answered “Oh that is used to recognize a Doctor’s vehicle so that in an emergency they can be given special privilege to reach their destination.”(Still am not sure about that answer but she seemed satisfied). Now came the million dollar bouncer question (maybe because she hear a lot about logos and meanings of colours in branding and blah blah blah talked around her by  me) “What is the meaning of that logo and why is a snake used in it?”. I started to answer as we do always to a child as if we know everything more than them. But alas I really didn’t know the answer for that. Now the researcher in me gets motivated and starts learning on the symbol and here goes the interesting find. Symbol of medicine or the Doctors Symbol is the most mistakenly used logo in the world and the Doctors or healthcare practitioners are the ones who use this symbol most mistakenly all around the world!!!

The real one: Rod of Asclepius

A single snake on a rod is called a Staff or Rod of Asclepius (sometimes also called Asklepios or Aesculapius). According to Greek mythology Asclepius was a son of Apollo and he is depicted as the God of Healing. His daughters are Hygieia (goddess of cleanliness), Iaso (goddess of recuperation from illness), Aceso (goddess of the healing process), Aglea (the goddess of splendor and adornment), and Panacea (goddess of universal remedy). The Rod was believed to have magical powers in the hand of Asclepius and though there are different versions to the story, the snake is believed to be on the rod to show the power of Asclepius to resurrect dead people through his healing process. The serpent is also a symbol of rebirth and fertility due to its character of changing skins on its own.  In those days snake bite was the one of the most dangerous causes of death but Asclepius is believed to have the power even to bring back the dead to life through his healing powers. 

The mistaken one: Rod of Hermes or The Caduceus

Two snakes entwined on a Rod with wings is called the Staff of Hermes. This symbol is also known as The Caduceus. According to Greek mythology this is the staff of the Greek God Hermes (also known as Roman Mercury). Hermes is known to be the protector of merchants, business men, shepherds and even gamblers, thieves and liars. Unfortunately this is the symbol used mistakenly by many people associated with health care and medicine. The serpents on the rod here is believed to be symbolizing peaceful negotiations in business and the wings depict the speed of God Hermes as he was the messenger of Gods too.

How came the misrepresentation?

There are studies conducted on the subject years back. According to a survey conducted in 1993 of 242 medical logos, over 38% of American medical associations and over 63% of American hospitals use the Caduceus as their symbol. It is believed to be first misrepresented by the US Army in 1903 while creating a logo for their Medical Corps Unit. The Caduceus symbol is also used by more than 75% commercial establishments as the symbol of trade. So this symbol got more popularized as we see the symbol of Hermes more than the symbol of Asclepius all around us. 

Conclusion:

Both logos may look similar but both stands for very different symbolisms. Using the right logo goes a long way in sending across a message. There are no wings on the logo of medicine and only one snake on the rod. 

References:

http://medtiquity.com/2015/08/23/the-symbol-of-medicine/

https://www.florenceinferno.com/rod-of-asclepius-and-caduceus-symbols/

https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=7229

https://www.livescience.com/33104-why-is-the-medical-symbol-a-snake-on-a-stick.html

PROMISE LESS; DELIVER THE PROMISE - CHANGE IN CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS

Gone are the days when big promises used to bring customers in flocks to the store. Technology and specifically the internet have changed the whole business scenario. Though we perceive that the easy accessibility of online stores has made the customer more demanding, if we look at it from another angle it may be working the other way round. Yes the customer is more demanding still but the customer demand has become more specific rather than waiting for lots of offers and goodies.

Let us make this clearer through real life scenarios. Imagine yourself as a customer. You have booked a hotel room directly over phone in one of the three star hotels in a city. You got the best price after bargaining over the phone and the moment you enter the room you start complaining on the size of the room, to the size of the bathroom, to the colour of the window shades, the service quality of the room boy and what not. Now if the same room was booked by you through a mobile app like OYO and you get the same room for the same price as before you don’t complain on anything. You will just stay there in the same mediocre room with mediocre facilities till you have completed your business trip. Yes it is all about the quintessential PROMISE. The customer expectation while booking an OYO room is way less than the hotel offering its facilities directly just because OYO promises less and the customer EXPECTS less.

If you are not yet convinced extend the imagination to any other product. Say you are a customer who has gone to buy a pair of shoes from an offline store which advertised 50% off (of course with a *conditions apply that no one can read). Your expectation is to get a good deal on a good brand. The moment you enters the store you come to know it is only on selected models. Years back in a same scenario you may try to select from those 50% items but in today’s world you would just walk away from the store as you have other hundreds of options. Now even if you buy from the store after umpteen number of try outs and checkups, the moment you come back home you might think it was not a good deal and want to return it. If the same shoes you buy on an offer from an online store like myntra you don’t expect your shoes to be more valuable than you pay, even expect it to have some faults but most probably end up using it even though returning it to myntra is quite easy. So again it is all about the PROMISE. The less you promise the better the customer will be satisfied. The better a customer is satisfied the better they come back. If still not convinced just go to any store, even big brand showrooms and you can see any tall claims with hidden agendas out rightly being rejected by customers. Extend this thought to any product be it cars, airlines or any service offerings or even movies and you will be convinced of this change.

This doesn’t mean offers & discounts are not attractive to customers. Actually customers are all the time looking out for offers but they bite only the ones they feel are genuine ones. So promise only what you can deliver. Try to deliver more than you promise. Customer expectations are more realistic nowadays and this is a blessing in disguise for businesses. Less offers means better bottom lines and turning out your customer to a loyal one is not any more based on cut throat competitions on price but on the genuineness of the product or service. The new age customer is not looking for tall claims from you but transparency in what you are offering them. The customer is not looking to buy from the No.1 in the business all the time nor is he looking to buy from the biggest showroom in town. His expectations have come down. He is looking out for genuine PROMISES, the ones that he expects you to deliver. Mind you, PROMISE LESS; DELIVER MORE is one of the basic theories of brand building & marketing communication. Better go back to the basics to meet the new customer expectations rather than being worn out by over feeding the customer expectations with tall undeliverable promises.

In-film branding & Content Marketing down South

Though late as always, Kerala brands are waking up to content marketing. Thanks to demonetization, the subsequent fall in business and less black money to flaunt around, business houses in Kerala are now thinking different. From the all-out spending on creating television commercials & traditional advertising they are slowly but steadily moving towards content driven advertising including online & in-film branding and they have started to look for other avenues for their marketing communications. But as usual there seems to be a tendency to misuse these new mediums both in terms of creative content and expenditure on such media. This might be either because of the ignorance about the basic concepts of such marketing tools or just because of the age old misconception of advertising - ‘the more you spend the more it reaches out and the more you spend the more you should have voice in such content’. Times have changed. It is not how much you advertise but what you advertise that matters. Today content is the King. Future is in content driven marketing ideas and the content will be influenced and even created by customers.

In-film branding

Recently I happened to watch a Malayalam movie which had in-film branding by about a dozen brands in Kerala. Unfortunately it was done in such a bad way that it didn’t do any good to the movie or the brand as such. The basic concept of in-film branding is that our brand subtly slips into the narrative of the film rather than shouting at every opportune moment. In most of the recent films we can see blatant use of in-film branding techniques which makes a negative impact on the viewer’s mind rather than a positive affiliation to the brand. It would be good if some basic points are kept in mind while going for such branding techniques.

·         Viewer is sitting out there in the theater to watch the film not our brand. So never should our brand be shouting at the viewer in between the film’s story line.

·         Whatever be the brand’s spend on a movie, tweaking the story line to suit the needs of the brand should never be done as it spoils both the brand and the movie. First the movie gets spoilt by such in-film branding and second it results in wastage of money for the brand to be in a flop movie.

·         Hear out the whole story line and decide whether your brand could fit in somewhere in the story line. For eg. a movie about atrocities in a medical institution and your hospital brand being used in the film as that hospital will be disastrous for your brand.

·         Do not shout your brand at your audience because you are not airing your TV commercial within a film. Keep in mind that James Bond is not every now and then waving his Omega watch at the audience; rather it is a device that helps him all his way. James Bond is not mouthing out the words ‘I am using an Omega watch” rather the brand is promoting James Bond films in their other communication materials.

Content Marketing

Though content marketing has reached its advanced stages in India and abroad, Kerala brands still don’t use content marketing as a part of their marketing tools. Online is all about content which is relevant to the viewer. Even Social Media like FB, Twitter etc. are used in a wrong sense by most Kerala brands just as another medium to showcase their print ads or TV commercials. Better be aware of some basic points while using online as a medium.

·         Internet is a medium which can be used to make loyal customers but it can be done only by giving them relevant content. For eg. a print ad put out as an FB post wont create a customer for your saree showroom but a relevant information about a particular cloth material may create interest in the mind of an FB user.

·         Nobody is going to search out and see your TV commercial in YouTube. Create short films, music and other contents which help out to reach your brand to viewers instead of posting your TV Commercials.

·         Think yourself as an FB user. The third time you see an irrelevant post from a business house or a brand you would hide such posts. So no need to insist on daily posts of your brand in social media. Rather go for interesting posts keeping intervals between the posts and make sure they are relevant for your target consumer.

·         Internet is not only about social media and social media is not only about FB, twitter & Instagram. It is a wide wide world out there which includes blogs, travelogues and much more. Use online media in such a way that internet has rich content about your brand or product, again make sure it is relevant to the reader.

·          Mobile games, mobile apps are all alternatives to increase your brand visibility but again it all depends on how you create content specifically for these mediums.

·         Last but not the least, online marketing is all about interactivity and even a single post on FB can create interactive sessions with your customers if they feel it is beneficial for them to interact. Better stop shouting online about what you have to say about your brand/product and start speaking what your target audiences want to hear.

Branding in the Time of Demonetization

Branding in the Time of Demonetization

“He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera.

Business and Economics is always about adjusting to market situations and reacting to market demands. Maybe it is for the first time that both business men and economists have reacted to a situation in the same voice. Demonetization and its after effects have rattled business men and economists alike. Nobody (here it should be read as ‘those who were not big enough to get highly classified information’) knew it was coming and now most of them don’t know how to deal with it. Those who thought this was just another gimmick are now coming to terms with demonetization as a reality but still most of the businessmen I came into contact were divided in their opinion as to how to deal with it.

Accept Reality

Yes it is for real. Demonetization has happened. Whether it is good or bad for our business is unpredictable. Alas if market economics were so easy to predict then we would have got lesser number of entrepreneurs in this world. Entrepreneurship would have been boring if there was cent percent predictability in market situations. The first thing to do for any business is to accept the reality. Accept the change in mode of operations. Government is going to push digital transactions like anything, telecoms are going to push their services more, and people are going to use digital transactions more. So stop cribbing about the advantages of dealing in cash and move on.

Every disruption in the market is an opportunity

There is a popular story narrated at most management classes about the Chinese that while the US markets were reeling under the shock of 9/11, the Chinese had already started exporting caps & t-shirts with US national flag elements printed on them. Demonetization is definitely such a catastrophic event in business world which has disrupted the whole market operations. Does that mean everything is doomed? No, there will be opportunities among disruptions. The faster you find those opportunities the better. Especially in an Indian context we have smart business houses who innovate in every way to market their products. Each market within our country is unique and the effects of demonetization are different in each state and even different in parts within each state. The need of the hour is to find out which market is faring better and reach out to that set of customers. Find new markets, new opportunities, out of the box marketing techniques like cross branding and so on.

Digitalize your transactions

Yes digitalization is not a future thing but the present thing which has captivated all the markets in the world and it is transforming the way business is done. The earlier you digitalize your transactions the better your customers would stay with you.  Already the government has announced discounts & offers for digital transactions and we all know what happens when customers are lured with such bounties. The same customer who sided up with us today, the same guy who hated to use digital payments would ask us why you are not offering digital payment options. The scarcity of POS machines/ swipe machines is not an excuse you can hang upon for long. Customers are more aware of options like internet/mobile banking, paytm, mobile wallets etc. more than before and will be ready to use them more because it is not the customer who is worried about paying that extra tax on billing but the shop owners are. It is not the customer who is afraid about the source of their income while making a purchase but it is the shop owners that are worried about the consequences of under billing or low stock declaration levels. Customer loyalty starts when they get what they expect from a brand and ends when they feel they don’t what they expect. So the day your competitor starts accepting digital payments with offers, your loyal customer will be the first one to leave you. Digitalizing your transactions has its benefits. You get better customer database, can learn on the customer buying behavior and improvise your offerings at a lesser cost than before. So it’s all about adapting to the situation at the earliest and reaping the benefits of digitalization than lamenting about the demerits of demonetization.

Measure your ROI on Ad spends

As a brand strategist it is interesting to note that most of the times it is good for brand owners to face disruptions. Be it a recession or a demonetization, these are the times to retrospect and reinvent. When the cash flows are over flowing most business houses spend too much on advertising without even caring about the return on their investments in such huge advertising budgets. If there is one thing that we all agree upon it is the fact that demonetization has brought upon us, as individuals & households, a certain kind of accountability, even spend thriftiness, in our daily expenditures. The same applies to business houses. This is the time to relook at your advertisement expenditures. At the same time every business needs to market their products to grow and in these times of cash crunch it is the time to be patient about brand building activities. More importantly it is a time to measure the effectiveness of your expenditure on advertising. Whether your brand reaches out to correct target audience is to be taken seriously and the necessary changes in the medium of advertising is to be made. Gone are the days of mass marketing only through print & TV. Other media vehicles on the Internet like social media, blogs, YouTube are all now part of daily life of an average customer and more importantly we are going to see mobiles playing a major part in marketing your products. Still except from big corporates, we see very little branding activity on those frontiers like mobile apps, mobile games and virtual reality from smaller entities. Make sure your marketing communications break the clutter. Use innovative and creative approaches to your marketing communication. Go back to your basics, call your loyal customers one by one and inform them about the new mode of transactions. Help them if they need help in moving to digital transactions. Forget those days when you had lots of unaccounted money to do mass advertising. Revoke those old days when you talked to your customer directly. Maybe relook your product packaging and renew it with new digital windows like QR codes, bar codes etc. Get online to reach out to new customers.

Love in the Time of Cholera

Use this period to understand your employees and customers. Love your employees more, love your customers more. Make the ambience of your store or appearance of your product more appealing to them. Use this period to build your brand and reach out to untapped markets. If you can come out in good shape after this demonetization period you are well equipped to fly higher.

Internet is no more a competitor but a facilitator

C’mon Kerala Retailer, Internet is no more a competitor but a facilitator.

Let us slow down opening up huge stores in every small town.

Its high time the brand custodians in Kerala, be it the client or the branding agency, wake up to this reality. The customers out there have turned smarter in a blink of an eye and they are using their internet facilities in their smartphones or on their desktop/laptops not only to get info about products/services but also to make their purchase online. 

 

Still not convinced?

Just order something from a popular online site and instead of getting your parcel delivered at your doorstep visit the courier office of Blue Dart or DHL directly and get your product. Your consignment will be picked up from a room full of parcels from online sites. Maybe this activity will clear your doubts whether your customer still prefer the traditional way of purchasing. If still in doubt just ask your friends, relatives, their sons & daughters whether they have ever purchased online. It would be an astounding number of online buyers that you had ever imagined.

Internet is not a competitor

Let us make this clear. Internet is not a competitor any more for the traditional stores. Or let us put it this way. Traditional stores in their traditional mode of operations are not at all a competition for online sellers today. Why? Its quite evident. An online customer has more options to choose from, get all the info & comparisons of a product, will get back his money if damaged, can send back the product within a limited time (in some sites it is more than 30 days), even exchange one thing for another if not satisfied and all this they can do on the go. The advantages for a customer are enormous when compared to traditional stores.

Still opening up huge stores?!!!

Most of the Kerala retailers are on a spree to open up new, that too huge ones boasting in terms of the sq.ft of shopping area they occupy, stores on every nook and corner of the state. Small towns are being focused for this strategy where the investment cost is too much when compared to the footfall of customers or even the total population of that small town. All this is going on while even small town customers are the biggest online purchasers and even if not purchasing online they love visiting their nearest big town for their exclusive purchases be it a brand or an occasion. Unless it is an exclusive store or a traditional store with an innovation in product or their service its better think twice before going into all out store expansion gear.

Yes, Internet is a facilitator

I just did an experiment on this subject. I browsed through different online sites for a mid value smartphone.  Of course I need to get the best price and also wanted to buy it directly from the store. So the search narrowed down to sellers in my hometown and just as expected the best price was quoted by a small time vendor who has just one store in the entire district. Is it because they get it at the best price. No, it is just that they have grabbed the opportunity to use internet as a facilitator instead of seeing it as a competitor. While the bigger stores fight with the internet for their geographical reach by opening up unviable stores all over, small time vendors are using the internet as their extended store. Dear big time Kerala retail brands as the old saying goes ‘Better befriend your bigger enemy rather than go down fighting with them’. And by saying this using the internet doesn’t mean just updating the company facebook page, it is way much more than that. Overhaul and manage your website, use online partners to sell your products and instead of just using that old time web banner in your online advertising creatives use online platforms to interact with your existing & prospective customers, get them to visit your website and if possible make them ask for a quote from you.