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	<title>RP Singh's Personal Blog</title>
	<link>http://brandrp.com/index.php</link>
	<description>The blog is all about Digital Marketing</description>
	<language>en</language>
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      <title><![CDATA[Professional Consultancy in Digital Marketing]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Hi Fellow Marketers 

As digital marketing is becoming essential in each brand's expansion plans, many of us still struggle to get the equation right specially when it comes to Digital marketing areas like Online advertising, Mobile Advertising, Search Engine Marketing &amp; Search Engine Optimisation. While we are struggling with these, there are avenues like Social Media Marketing, Widgetisation, Web 2.0 remain unanswered. 

To hire an agency with all these skill sets will definitely invlove a lot of cost &amp; time effort. Therefore, I would like to offer my services to all who want to explore Digital Marketing for their brands &amp; products. I have about 8 years of Digital Marketing experience which will grow even more working with you. 

Do mail me your requirements. 

To know more &amp; to get intouch with me pls mail me at brandrp@gmail.com. 

]]></description>
      <link>http://brandrp.com/post/index/13/Professional-Consultancy-in-Digital-Marketing</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[www.WeAreAvailable.in launched for Marketing Communication Professionals]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Dear All 

Please visit this site if you belong to Marketing Communications industry and if you are looking for career options in Advertising, Media &amp; Public Relations. Please provide us with your feedback to improve this website. 

Thanks 
R P Singh 
Co-Founder
WeAreAvailable.in]]></description>
      <link>http://brandrp.com/post/index/12/wwwWeAreAvailablein-launched-for-Marketing-Communication-Professionals</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[The more you talk about price, more the customer evaluates you on price! ]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[This is in continuation of the &quot;Pricing vs Branding&quot; discussion we had some time back. When we talk about brands getting effected by Price wars. I gave it some more thought and found that its the marketers who create these boundaries or so called parameters to rank a brand in his consideration set, which triggers a different evaluation criteria in the minds of customers and that is Price. The moment we talk about price being competitve it dissolves all emotional connects which a Brand Team has created spending some good years on it. Do you agree?]]></description>
      <link>http://brandrp.com/post/index/11/The-more-you-talk-about-price-more-the-customer-evaluates-you-on-price</link>
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    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Sensory Branding ]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Sensory Branding: It Makes (Five) Senses
Most marketing plans appeal to only two senses: sight and hearing. How come almost all marketing and brand building concentrate on two senses when we know appealing to all five is likely to double brand awareness and strengthen the impression a brand leaves on its audience?
Several surveys document our olfactory sense as probably the most impressionable and responsive of the five senses. Smells invoke memories and appeal directly to feelings without first being filtered and analyzed by the brain, which is how the remaining four senses are processed. We all recognize and are emotionally stimulated by, say, the scent of freshly cut grass or the perfume of roses, smell of rain hitting the dust.
Let's not forget hearing and touch. Sound evokes memory and emotion. A hit song from your youth brings back the excitement and anxiety of your teens. AOL stepped up to the plate by using a voice familiar to many young Web users. Brittney fans discovered they can hear their idol not only when experiencing CDs and videos but also when launching AOL. Brittney lets you know, &quot;You've got mail.&quot;
Touch? One major reason online clothes shopping never took off is -- you guessed it -- people couldn't touch the product. Amazon avoided this problem because people don't attach so much importance to the feel of a book as they do to its content. Clothes, on the other hand, must be felt and tried on for size, color, texture, and so on. Physical proximity to product is elemental to purchase decisions. Shopping behavior depends on it.
The only example of integrated sensory marketing I'm aware of comes from Singapore Airlines. The airline has demonstrated an understanding of the psychological importance of the senses in establishing and maintaining customer impressions. By appealing to all senses (music, fragrance, manner, and demeanor mingle in the cabin to evoke the airline's image), the airline has created a branded flying experience.
So how can on ..]]></description>
      <link>http://brandrp.com/post/index/10/Sensory-Branding</link>
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    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Brand Activation: Bringing Your Brand To Life ]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Brand Activation
Marketing, as we know, is all about waging war against competitive forces to win market share. For this purpose, marketers create warriors which win the perceptual battle for them, and these warriors are called BRANDS. Brands have proved their worth by earning premiums, decimating competitions and even beating time factors (as many brands are still leader as they were a century ago). Owing to this, marketers have stepped up their efforts to build their brands. They are building their marketing programs around their brands.
Today, marketplace is replete with competition. Opening up of economy has led to the entry of foreign brands into the marketplace. These brands are also adding to the chorus. Advertising has always been seen as main weapon to build brands by the brand managers. Excessive reliance on this form of communication has resulted in “over communication”. Ad clutter has been increasing gradually and the future shows no sign of relief. Not only has this, advertising also lost its credibility if we compare it to what it used to be decade back. Reasons are many: More knowledgeable customer, comparative advertising, internet etc.
Therefore, marketers are exploring new ways of supporting their brand. One such method is called Brand Activation. Brand activation can be defined as marketing process of bringing a brand to life through creating brand experience.
Next question now is what to activate? Generally, the core features or brand values of a brand are used for activation. That’s what every brand manager strives to achieve i.e. communicating their brand values to their target customers. But a word of caution here: select only one or two features or brand values to activate. Don’t try to communicate each and every detail of your brand. One has to appreciate the fact that branding is based on the concept of singularity.
This concept assumes a greater significance in case of services which are intangible in nature. Let me take example for b ..]]></description>
      <link>http://brandrp.com/post/index/9/Brand-Activation-Bringing-Your-Brand-To-Life</link>
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      <title><![CDATA[Integrating Corporate Strategy &amp; Brand Management ]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[
ALL companies emphasize the importance of marketing in general and branding in particular. The truth is that in many boardrooms, marketing continues to remain on the sidelines. The reason is that the orientation of the top-level management is not towards marketing &amp; branding. What matters the most is the terms like, turnover, Market Cap, market share, etc. I am not denying the fact that these are very important issues to be taken care of. These things have a direct impact that is visible to the naked eye. But the brand is a strategic asset that creates an impact that is not visible to all. You need to have an approach that is totally different. 

In the past, branding remained isolated from corporate strategy. Good branding meant a well-designed logo, a clever ad campaign or a large ad budget with glitzy commercials during television broadcasts of the Olympics, cricket tournaments or popular soap operas. But today, management of the brand is far more encircling, extending to customer service, packaging and quality, customer experience, and other areas that go well beyond the purview of advertising. 
In today's business environment, the traditional approach to brand management needs a total reorientation. Brands must be viewed as strategic assets. Brand management must be integrated into corporate strategy. A strategic approach to brand management, among other things, calls for top management involvement, cross-functional approach, building trust and discharging social responsibility. 
The top managements of many companies today are realizing they must personally get involved in brand management. This not only ensures that brand management gets the kind of quality attention it deserves but also facilitates a cross-functional approach. 
Let us take an example of Dell, which has revolutionized PC marketing with its direct model. Dell has built its brand around the consumer by attaching greater importance to customer service and better pricing and value, as oppos ..]]></description>
      <link>http://brandrp.com/post/index/8/Integrating-Corporate-Strategy--Brand-Management</link>
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      <title><![CDATA[Is your brand vulnerable to price reductions? Read on………….]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[India has always been a price sensitive market. People succumb to price falls. Most of the customer’s are price conscious rather than brand conscious. This is not to say that customers in India are not brand conscious at all but significant portion of India is still price sensitive.
In today’s marketplace, competition is being fought on price grounds. One company reduces price of its brand and others follow the suit. This is how brands are caught in vicious price reduction spiral. This very logic goes against the concept of brands which are known to earn premiums.
So the big question which remains is how to make brands less susceptible to price reduction, if not impervious? I have been thinking over this issue for quiet a while now.
I think marketers have been playing this &quot;price factor&quot; at a very high pitch. They need to play it down. Otherwise customers will get used to it and will expect your brand to bring down its price. Any price increase may lead to rejection of your brand as your brand is seen as ‘discounted brand’. In such a situation it becomes difficult to bring the brand out of price ceiling and also becomes difficult to maintain its leadership (if your brand is leader).
Therefore marketers should consider creating an &quot;emotional cushion&quot; around your brand. Airtel is the one of the best examples one can give. It enjoys brand leadership in its respective category. Airtel has been least affected by price reductions. None of ads that they air, contains any price element. Ads are aired with an intention of creating &quot;strong brand preference&quot; which in turn will generate sales.
&quot;TVS Gold&quot; keyboards brand is the second example of a brand which has fought price wars with its &quot;quality&quot; feature. TVS gold still commands a premium price where you can get two keyboards with the price of TVS Gold keyboard. TVS Gold enjoys strong brand preference. Brand has never given way to price reduction thanks to its consistent quality.
In the end, I would like to say that pri ..]]></description>
      <link>http://brandrp.com/post/index/7/Is-your-brand-vulnerable-to-price-reductions-Read-on</link>
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    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Product Placement-What’s in there for Brands?]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Will the sports car driven by James Bond entice movie-goers to consider test driving that car? Are television viewers more likely to purchase snack products they see their favorite programme? Would a song blaring in the background of computer game lead gamers to purchase the artist’s CD? Marketers hope, with these product placement promotions, the answer to these questions is yes! And many are counting on product placement promotions to boost sales and build positive brand awareness.

Product placement is a marketing practice designed to intentionally insert products into the content of entertainment programs, such as movies and television programs. In most cases the placement is subtle so as not to divert significant attention from the main content of the program or media outlet.

Placement can take several forms:
visual imagery in which the product appears within the entertainment program
actual product use by an actor/actress in the program
dialogue spoken by an actor that contains product information

Product placement opportunities have existed in movies for over 50 years but did not evolve significantly until the 1970s when tobacco companies recognized the advantages of this promotional approach. In recent years, marketers have become more aggressive in identifying outlets for product placements, especially in television programs.
From BMWs showing up in James Bond movies to Nokia mobiles prominently displayed in the Indian Idol 2, product placement is an effective and often indirect way to build brand awareness. However, product placement is no longer limited to movies and television. Electronic games, such as EA Sports Madden Football, are wildly popular and are often on par with television for attracting the entertainment attention of many teens and young adults, in particular.
A few examples of product placement in Indian scenario are:
Peas-Pass brand in Yadkin
Coke in Tail
Marti Swift in Bunty Aur Babli
Hero Honda in Koi Mil Gaya
Bru in Sa ..]]></description>
      <link>http://brandrp.com/post/index/6/Product-PlacementWhats-in-there-for-Brands</link>
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      <title><![CDATA[Media Fragmentation: Implications for Brands]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[There was a time when marketers used to reach maximum number of their customers with a single medium. Life was very easy for brand planners, media planner and other concerned people. Reach and Frequency were never a cause of concern for marketers. But today the scenario has changed. Media has got fragmented, thanks to globalization. The world has become a global village. For example, number of channels has increased drastically today. With fragmentation of media, audience has got fragmented too. Not only has it become difficult to reach maximum number of people but it has also become difficult to reach your &quot;Exact Target Audience&quot;.
Media fragmentation has posed some serious issues in front of Mass Brands. With fragmentation, the number of people which they can reach with one channel has come down. Now they to rely on more number of channels to reach the same number of people which they used to reach with one channel. This increases the media budget. Spill over cost has also increased in case of mass brands.
As media has become more expensive.
Fragmentation has come as bliss for niche brands. Niche brands can now select their media which pertains to their TG with minimum spill over.
Media Planning has become more cumbersome today. With plethora of channels to choose from, selecting a channel which will yield maximum return is the most difficult job today. It involves huge efforts on part of media agencies. That’s why media planning is specialized field. It also emphasizes the need to not to club media agency with an ad agency.
For example, Thums Up brand can get maximum mileage from AXN channel than from DD-1 because the kind of audience which this branding is catering to has more probability of watching AXN than DD-1. It signifies the importance of studying the brand, its audience and channel’s audience well.
You can have best of creative ad with you but without the selection of proper media, it’s a creative waste.
At the end, I would like to say that I fores ..]]></description>
      <link>http://brandrp.com/post/index/5/Media-Fragmentation-Implications-for-Brands</link>
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      <title><![CDATA[CPA or CPM ? That is the Question. ]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Online marketers face a tough decision. Do you buy online media for branding power or purely for cost efficiency? Beyond the media buy, whether you use cost per action (CPA) or CPM has strategic implications.

Given online advertising's measurability, both brand and response-centric marketers look at online spend in a strictly action-driven, promotional context. From this tactical perspective, they use online promotional budgets to generate leads or other actions that, like their offline equivalents, yield some branding. Yet the potential synergistic effect of smart spending can be overlooked.

I personally feel that a hybrid media model delivers the best results by building brand and purchase intent while selling.

CPM and CPA are complementary advertising buys that fill different needs. CPM brands, while CPA primarily drives response. CPM can also be used for direct marketing. (Remember, direct response doesn't work for every product.)

Strategic Perspective

Consider your marketing strategy's media aspect. How do the following apply to your offering?
• How do target customers use the Web? How does this relate to your offering? How does it fit into your overall strategy?

• What are your marketing and advertising goals? Do you need to improve branding to build purchase intent, drive immediate response, or both? How will the Internet get you where you need to be?

• How does your ad's viewing environment reflect on and influence branding and purchase intent? Can your media buy scale? Broadly assess editorial direction, content, target audience, and other advertisers (in terms of product and quality).

• How does creative, including copy, design, format, and landing pages, relate to the target customer and your marketing strategy?

Tactical Considerations

Publishers price ad impressions based on reader quality and demographics. Marketers usually advertise online to acquire customers and immediate sales, as measured by return on investment (ROI) ..]]></description>
      <link>http://brandrp.com/post/index/4/CPA-or-CPM--That-is-the-Question</link>
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