Laurels of Past - Relevant?

Basking in Laurels of distant past - Justified?

A lot of brands continue with decades old campaigns thinking that customers remember them for that and hence they should keep doing the same thing.

Eg - Onida's Devil, Flipkart's kids playing adults.

Apart from instant recognition, do you think there are downsides of such elongated repetition?

IMO, few aspects one should consider-

1. Is the idea still relevant?

Neighbour's envy Owner's Pride by Onida was a classic line in 90s for a TV market with few brands. New wave of liberalisation was bringing consumerism in people's lives and importantly what brand of color TV u own. And those days, people used to frequently mingle with neighbours.

With current times, that bonhomie is over. Millenials and later gen spend time more within themselves.

Flipkart made its point super clear of "kids kind easy way of shopping online" decade back with thier campaign. But at times, they still show it despite being #1 ecommerce player today & that too in same markets where consumers frequently use thier app (they understand its easy). Why we stretch too far without much freshness?

But others do it well in retaining legacy or great ideas. For eg, Daag Acche hain by Surf Excel. I dont know, i am seeing it for at least 15 yrs and they keep refreshing the context. And idea is still relevant!

2. Do mascots still work?

With media mix changing from large screens/Print to smaller forms, consumer directly clicks logo to land wherever you want him to. The mascots were emotional/human symbols for brands to convey retention of the story. Does it lose to clicks or QRs? Relevant?
Dont remember mascots in recent times other than kids categories where clicks/devices are away.

What do you think?

#brand #mascot #consumer #marketing  

Power of Will?

Just do it!
Where there is a Will, there is a way!

Lot of such slogans or sayings, exhort us to simply move ahead and accomplish any task.

The ability to control oneself to determine one’s actions is powerful. Base it on training, we call it discipline. But do it because you simply can, that’s raw power. Also, called as “Willpower”.

Heard of Marshmallow Test? Where kids were locked in a room with a marshmallow and given a task of delayed gratification (u can eat this marshmallow now or if u wait for 15 min and don’t eat it, you get one more). The test told the world that kids who passed or ‘gratification delayers’ were far more successful in life throughout. There in that test again it’s about willpower - to delay gratification.

But, when I try this in my life, I realised that my resolve to not have that unhealthy food/drink, when it’s sitting in the kitchen isn’t uniform all through. I can easily resist in first half and eat that apple but in evening I give in to cookies. The willpower is gone.

Willpower has a battery life, it drops through the day, and needs recharging with downtime.

Heard of “Eat that big frog first thing in the morning”? Essentially, manage willpower and use it in the morning (when it’s full) to do most important & difficult stuff.

In this book, “The One Thing”, author suggests evidences how decisions made by judges drop to easy/default verdict as the time passes through the day, essentially suggesting dropping willpower. “Take best decisions early or we drop to default/easy levels of decision making”.

Do you feel you have the Will to accomplish, but you give up thru the day? Manage your willpower like a mobile battery. Make important calls earlier on, when it’s full :)

#life #learning #productivity