Monday, January 11, 2010
Lays Dillicious contest - Interesting concept
Times are changing and so do a lot of things. The saying old is gold may not neccessarily hold true. Well at least from a business standpoint. The reason is simple, when times change; people change, their mindset changes, what they appreciated yesterday may not be appreciated today, what made them look at a product yesterday may not even come in their consideration set today.
With changing dynamics, there needs to be a change in strategy that will help businesses reach out to their audiences better and faster resulting in not only brand awareness but also an effect that really engages the audience in a positive manner. Its like a prospect of yesterday buying a Ferrari because he knew what Ferrari stood for, he knew what it symbolized, he knew what the brand was all about. Now imagine if I engage todays' prospect in a slightly different fashion. Instead of again harping on facts that he already knows, an approach of may be inviting the prospect to Ferrari factory or showing him the works that goes behind what he drives or having a contest where the prospects come up with some new generation design for a Ferrari that is to be launched, will create such an effect that people will get engrossed in it. It then not only remains something that a prospect buys but an experience that makes him feel he contributed to a phenomenon. Something that makes him feel great not only because he owns the product but also because he was an integral part of its making.
From a marketing perspective its a new strategic paradigm that organizations are exploring to not only be competitve, to not only be constantly innovative but also an approach that will get them closer to their audience. Loosely this is being termed today as "crowd sourcing" but I believe there certainly can be a better term for this is actually a strategy that is here to stay for long and more and more businesses will get in to this, particularly FMCGs.
There have been quite a lot of examples of this strategy being applied in India. If you recall the Maggi campaign where Nestle reached out to people asking them their various Maggi preparations and then using their snaps on the package. On similar lines brands like Dove, Vodafone, Axe deodorants etc., have also ventured in this area. But what is going the extra mile is the latest Lays Dillicious Flavour contest. I guess its a brilliant way of reaching out to its target audience and engaging them in the main function itself - flavour prepartion for the potato chips that it makes! Something that one couldnt even have thought of in the era gone by. The way the buzz has been created about this from an advertising perspective, from a PR perspective is bang on. However, I would still say that it can still be further strengthened. May be if Lays tries a bit more and reaches out to its target audience by way of mock worshops in malls, outside colleges or have "create a flavour kiosks" at strategic locations, the mileage that it can gather would be phenomenal. May be this could even become a model that others would follow.
In my interactions with a few people of different age-groups, flavour ideation was something that came up a lot of times and people just threw around ideas of some flavours they would like to taste in potato chips. Some were very interesting like "pachranga achaar flavour" and "chaas flavour" and "chaat flavour", while some were really pathetic. But whatever the ideas, one thing is sure, Lays has done a good job by way of publicity and PR to create that feeling of interest among people.
In fact a quick search on google about the Lays contest in different ways shows that there are more than 40 million searches that have happenned for the contest for this month!
Jaydeep Deshpande
With changing dynamics, there needs to be a change in strategy that will help businesses reach out to their audiences better and faster resulting in not only brand awareness but also an effect that really engages the audience in a positive manner. Its like a prospect of yesterday buying a Ferrari because he knew what Ferrari stood for, he knew what it symbolized, he knew what the brand was all about. Now imagine if I engage todays' prospect in a slightly different fashion. Instead of again harping on facts that he already knows, an approach of may be inviting the prospect to Ferrari factory or showing him the works that goes behind what he drives or having a contest where the prospects come up with some new generation design for a Ferrari that is to be launched, will create such an effect that people will get engrossed in it. It then not only remains something that a prospect buys but an experience that makes him feel he contributed to a phenomenon. Something that makes him feel great not only because he owns the product but also because he was an integral part of its making.
From a marketing perspective its a new strategic paradigm that organizations are exploring to not only be competitve, to not only be constantly innovative but also an approach that will get them closer to their audience. Loosely this is being termed today as "crowd sourcing" but I believe there certainly can be a better term for this is actually a strategy that is here to stay for long and more and more businesses will get in to this, particularly FMCGs.
There have been quite a lot of examples of this strategy being applied in India. If you recall the Maggi campaign where Nestle reached out to people asking them their various Maggi preparations and then using their snaps on the package. On similar lines brands like Dove, Vodafone, Axe deodorants etc., have also ventured in this area. But what is going the extra mile is the latest Lays Dillicious Flavour contest. I guess its a brilliant way of reaching out to its target audience and engaging them in the main function itself - flavour prepartion for the potato chips that it makes! Something that one couldnt even have thought of in the era gone by. The way the buzz has been created about this from an advertising perspective, from a PR perspective is bang on. However, I would still say that it can still be further strengthened. May be if Lays tries a bit more and reaches out to its target audience by way of mock worshops in malls, outside colleges or have "create a flavour kiosks" at strategic locations, the mileage that it can gather would be phenomenal. May be this could even become a model that others would follow.
In my interactions with a few people of different age-groups, flavour ideation was something that came up a lot of times and people just threw around ideas of some flavours they would like to taste in potato chips. Some were very interesting like "pachranga achaar flavour" and "chaas flavour" and "chaat flavour", while some were really pathetic. But whatever the ideas, one thing is sure, Lays has done a good job by way of publicity and PR to create that feeling of interest among people.
In fact a quick search on google about the Lays contest in different ways shows that there are more than 40 million searches that have happenned for the contest for this month!
Jaydeep Deshpande
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