Economy of Social - Social Media Tips, Marketing and Business

Hindustan Unilevel, India's largest consumer products firm, along with Ogilvy, has partnered with more than 100 dhabas and hotels at the Kumbh mela site to serve rotis that are stamped with "Lifebuoy se haath dhoye kya?"   Economic Times reports that the company has made special heat stamps to make an impression of its message on rotis and hired 100 promoters to stand in 100 kitchens across the mela. The campaign started on February 1 and will run for 30 days. The company hopes to put the hand wash reminder on 2.5 million rotis.

The new Cadbury Bournville advertisement features a white man checking cocoa seeds in front of a African family that supposedly produced it. On rejection the seed starts crying. And well his imperialist buyer (The English guy) says, " He is nothing...Please tell him I am sorry ". An old African man in the family looks perplexed, and a young man in the African family simply throws the seed away from the table. The ad ends with " Only the best Cocoa from Ghana goes into making a Bournville ... Maybe that's why you have to earn it... ". This British mumbo-jumbo is a reflection into past era of imperialism that was characterized by economic dominance and exploitation. The economy of Ghana is primarily sustained by Cocoa and gold. By projecting "English dominance" and an advertisement that portrays a rich English middle aged person, a crying cocoa seed, and a poor African family, What are you trying to project? It's a complete recipe for disaster...

Is advertising clubbed with a philanthropic tone justified ? It has been proven that a consumer responds better to a philanthropic advertisement as compared to a direct sales pitch. But isn't it somewhere misguiding the consumer ?Ultimately a company wants a sale, so it dresses as a sage and comes to you with its product. Its like Baba Ramdev endorsing a pharma company. Although I have my doubts in the Baba himself. Sadly this form of communication is being endorsed by Adage. Peter Daboll is CEO of Ace Metrix wrote in AdAge  Philanthropic ads for major brands continue to show strong advertising value. Consumers respond better to a message about what companies are doing for them, instead of a straight sales pitch. 

Bad advertising ain't that bad actually. Advertising is about building a positive attitude towards your brand. Bad ads did affect in the a bygone era [Remember Burger King ad - " Where's the Herb ? "  (1986)]. Now the scene is quite different. Even if you spend millions on an advertising campaign you'd still find people saying, "Do you really have an ad on TV". Thats clutter.

  This ad hits the reader. If you are smart, you should know that smoking is not good. Please smoke outside .  Big pictures of swollen lungs won't deter smokers. Its such pictures that should be a lesson for marketers when it comes to social advertising.

Mobile number could become your identification if alcatel-lucent's plans materialize. Many people had this problem of their parents keeping strange names that were later made fun of during school and college years. Many even resorted to changing their names to avoid the embarrassment caused. During my schooling in kerala, I had a classmate who changed her name from Radha to Radhika, since Radha was made fun off by her classmates. Imagine what her parents, who were both doctors might have thought of the whole episode. But here comes an ingenious solutions to all the problems faced by those battling strange names woes. Alcatel-Lucent is working with the government of India to make the mobile number a personal identification number. So if it happens, you might call your friend as " Hi 98..., I am 987... " One positive effect of this will be that the mugging up power of people and comfortability with numbers will increase resulting in more people getting into number crunchin...