Survey for Social Media Consumers in Pakistan (Karachi)

Depends on Your Advisor

Billboard Placement

 By: Hiba Moeen & Moiz Damani

Dou Talwar is often inflicted with lawn billboards that strike it like a viral disease, always eager to invoke bacterial influence in the ultimate consumers. What’s more interesting is that quite a few have started hiring Indian movie actresses as endorsers but the target market they attract might not have such purchasing power.

Local model cum business women have been trying their chance at lawn branding as well with some starting with selling shoes and later coming to terms with their profession inherited stuff, which is, selling awfully high priced clothes not to mention some ‘moulvi marketing’ (by you know whom) where the models’ faces are either covered or heads cut off … well, quite literally for the billboards only. What’s the point in hiding the face when the rest of the body is there flaunting off the newly launched brand, that is the question.

 

Now coming back to the main topic of discussion, breaking free from the lawn clutter was something quite extra ordinary that caught the eye of the marketer and consumer alike. A few months back, Dou Talwar got to have a unique billboard placement with the girl/woman (well, model you know) reaching out for Minute Maid, the 6 Tropical fruit Wonder. From what seems to be a warm and luxurious environment around in her billboard she reaches out to a somewhat cool effect of the juice brand (ehh, hot to cold?) … with a mutated slice of 6 in 1 fruit. This is simply amazing, however, it’s really not evident from mere observation about which billboard came first or whether it was done purposely.

Marketing in Pakistan is growing; it does have a future, provided you create room for healthy growth …

Below is a much clearer picture of the billboard placements (it’s borrowed, I couldn’t risk my phone to be taken out again, it’s a synonym of my hard work :P)

 Photographed by: Mr. Umair Mohsin

Attack of the Billboard Brands

By: Sadia Rashid

During the course of everyday commuting from home to work I’ve to travel the entire length of Shahra-e-Faisal. Since this is the busiest road of Karachi it is also the one targeted by every company for putting up their latest marketing communications (read ‘Billboards’). Due to a) being a marketing student and b) travelling alone, I generally have no other option but to keep myself entertained by looking outside the car windows. Therefore, due to my amazingly enjoyable ride every day of the week I am extremely fed up of all the various billboards regardless from which category they might belong to.

No doubt there are a few brands which are ever innovative and interesting enough to be remembered. Nevertheless, my aim is to forget atleast 99% of the advertisements that I regretfully saw. Let’s take a few current examples;

Head & Shoulders is doing a wonderful job of making people forget about concentrating on the road and instead focus on Kareena. This is due to the “strategic” placements right in front of traffic signals or underneath flyovers right at the eye-level of every person. Not only are these billboards distracting, they are also annoying. My reason for saying this may no doubt be biased since I dislike Kareena but it’s also correct. There is such a thing as being bombarded with the same ad again and again which makes you start hating it. And this is exactly what has occurred with Head & Shoulders!

Lux Body Wash is one more example of an Indian personality who barely resonates with the Pakistani population. I mean seriously how many actual females would go and purchase a Lux Body Wash just by seeing Katrina Kaif in the ads? Furthermore, it is becoming quite hard to differentiate the Lux soap ads with the Lux Body Wash ads and how exactly does putting lights inside the billboards make a person want to go buy them?

Slice mango juice yet again features Katrina with a dramatic close up of her face and hand with a dark background. The entire ad is made to entice and insinuate but looks kind of demented as if Katrina’s head is just floating around. Plus there is simply too much Katrina and with her bland looks it’s hard to differentiate just which brand is she endorsing. After a while all the ads just kind of get mixed up in your head since there are soooo many of them!

 Then there are the many nameless, faceless ads which make you wonder what exactly is the purpose of putting up a picture of the product with its’ name and tagline. I mean what was the company thinking? The only reason I remember these ads is because I cross them everyday twice a day. Yet I don’t feel like actually going and buying the latest Zeera biscuits or those Yummy jelly beans? Or those Ulker slice and pound cakes (what is the difference actually?).

However, thankfully there are a few brands which actually do stand out and make an impact. The Qubee billboards showcasing their latest offerings stand out because they show ordinary everyday people and with them we can actually associate! Celebrity endorsements do work and help consumers make associations with the brands but the actually celeb being used matters the most. For a typical Pakistani Shahid Afridi would have more value than Shahid Kapoor or Shahrukh Khan.

For this reason I personally feel that the Clear Shampoo billboards featuring Aisam-ul-Haq are refreshing. Not only do they break through the clutter of typical Bollywood stars and ordinary unknown people but make a Pakistani feel good about themselves.

Nandos as usual is just marvelous with their witty lines and communications. They make a point, stand out and are actually remembered by the end of the day. Currently they are celebrating their 10^th birthday and have their ads placed on streetlights. Their branches also have ads on special boards on the outside and for now are full of praises for their own wittiness and I say they totally should be!

But to tell you the truth, not once during any typical day do I actually feel like going and purchasing the various brands so proudly displayed throughout the city. Never have any of these billboards made me even consider trying that brand not even something as  basic as an ice cream, case in point, the news Walls Fruttare or the Badami or Dasher by Omore.

We have learned that marketing communications success is judged by the ROI. If we take the cost of one billboard on the main road of Karachi and multiply that by the several of the same brand lining the entire city imagine the final cost! The best thing about billboards for brand/marketing managers or advertising agencies is that there is no method for measuring the ROI for them. No statistical or analytical data which provides the feasibility or the effectiveness of these ads. No wonder they are used so much in Pakistan…. 

Olfrute goes Green

By: Hiba Moeen

When the nation gets a chance to show it’s patriotism for the country, it finds ways to do it through various means and when everything in the world begins with an ‘O’ it’s a known fact that it’s Engro foods.

For a company that has been growing at the speed of the competitor’s desired light, it has been putting in utmost efforts to maintain it’s edge be it through new product launch or BTL activities.

Olfrute has launched it’s green cocktail on this very day, March 23, 2011 that adds to the celebrating touch of Pakistan Resolution Day and the already thrilling cricket match between Pakistan and West Indies. And guess what? Catches seem to be generating an appealing touch today at times without any reason at all.

With social media platforms and everything going viral real time, some of the most interesting tweets cannot be forgotten which read as follows:

·         Boyzes are on overdrive! They forgot it’s not the T20 world cup

·         Akmal is also the team's cheerleader , gimme a O gimme a U gimme a T....outzeh #pakistan #wc2011 (Maverika)

·         Now that ball is coming in hands of Akmal, he appeals on every catch :P (Kryptec)

So far it seems to be a great day for the launch of a new and green variant on a bright green day for Olfrute which has also announced that it would give away free ipods for the next five days provided you post a witty and catchy green message. Their Facebook fan page seems to be generating quite a handsome level of engagement and interaction:

http://www.facebook.com/Olfrute

Though, it is a commonly practiced way to communicate through giving a reason to the consumer’s personal space to engage with the brand, any brand that starts off with incentivizing it’s audience takes a risk of losing them later on when the scheme ends that’s why we have the concept of brand evangelists through brand building activities, Omore’s BTL activities are an example and perhaps Olfrute can follow the same pathway. For the time being the brand can enjoy the right selection of the day for it’s new product line launch, the Green Olfrute Cocktail Drink!

About the Author: Hiba Moeen is an MBA student at SZABIST where her field of expertise is Marketing. She is a freelance research and fiction writer. Other than Marketing Maniacs she also writes for www.pakmediablog.net and www.hibamoeen.blogspot.com. 

Linkedin: http://pk.linkedin.com/pub/hiba-moeen/16/152/304

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/hibamoeen

Creativity downfall in Pakistan

By: Saeed u Zaman Shaikh

It is cricket fever all around the country and the same fever is very much present in the brands. Most of the brands have come up with their special campaigns regarding the world cup and are supporting national teams. Some of the brands have come up with complete songs and some have started their dedicated cricket programs. Few of the brands have brought cricket feel in their advertisements. One thing which I have noticed is that all the campaigns are not BREAK THROUGH campaigns. None of the campaign is there which we can call the “best campaign”. Let’s analyze few campaigns of Pakistan.

JAZBA Campaign:

Out of all the campaigns in the market I like Jazba being a bit better because of the fact the song they have chosen portray the brand as well as the theme of the song. The song is good and related, however, the product and concept is a question mark. I think they have made a sad attempt to integrate SMS in their campaign by showing a person with cell phone texting “NOW” and “Such Jazba  Jagao”.  Song is relevant, music is good but the production is again as I said earlier is a question mark.

Coke Junoon Campaign:

After the coke studio hype and best campaigns by coke they came up with Coke Junoon Campaign in which they are collecting photos of passionate Pakistani and making a flag out of it. I personally think that idea is good but this campaign has missed one biggest thing; they have failed to connect with the audience. They have invited people from different walks of life but missing the most important people who are cricketers.  People would like to listen about cricket from cricketers rather than Najam Sheeraz and Fakhar e Alam.  This campaign is another sad campaign in relation to world cup.

Pepsi Campaign:

Pepsi has come up with two campaigns. First campaign is the one in which cricketers are playing at airport and the second is a song by Ali Zafar 'Yeh duniya hai dil walon ke'. Let start analyzing the first campaign of cricketers playing at airport. I think this is the worst campaign of a life time and I would like to support my argument by looking at Pepsi's Campaign by Indians where they have taken another route and associated cricket with Pepsi and not cricketers with Pepsi. Pakistani ads of Pepsi are showing disrespect to the team going to world cup guy coming up saying take me along with u means I am evenly competitive like you guys, this is a total disrespect to Pakistan National team. Indian campaigns have associated cricket with Pepsi, moreover, portraying them in humorous manner is totally an unbelievable advertisement. Such are the ads when a person would say WOW.

Now after watching all Indian advertisements of Pepsi I am sure you hardly like the campaign of Pakistan.

Talking about Ali Zafar's song, it is pathetic in nature, not at all connecting to cricket. The lyrics are totally not linked with each other. I am not sure what Pepsi was thinking but one thing I know what Pepsi is trying to do, they are following shinny object and repeating past where world cup song is the way of showing your support to your team.

All the comments expressed are my personal views, people can agree or disagree. After looking at the campaigns by huge MNC's  I feel they are wasting money and they have not arrived to a point where they can justify their expenditures. Companies are spending huge amounts of money but their ROI has to be measured in order to see effectiveness of their campaigns. I think this world cup is a huge opportunity for companies to shine because they have highest reach and they can generate huge ROI. 

Nescafe & Cricket