swatianandbhat

[swatianandbhat]

Burdens of Burberry

Burberry is a brand associated with royalty, nobility and classic history. When I first hear the word "Burberry", trench coats automatically come to my mind.

Now, trench coats or umbrellas can be used by people of any age and remain a classic requirement, as long as there's rough weather. However, interest in other kinds of apparel, accessories, etc. change with trends, especially in the current digital age.

By not having proper licensing and through the proliferation of various counterfeits, Burberry lost some of its value since it had become even more accessible to the general public in this manner.

During World War I, resources were limited and clothing options were also lesser, and with the British royalty following the Burberry trend, it would have been easier to maintain the allure.

In the current times, with a lot more options, more focus on sustainability and presence of more boutique stores with unique designs, it might be more difficult to maintain the elusiveness, especially since Burberry was trying to rebrand as "accessible luxury".

The main problem I see is that Burberry wants to position itself in such a manner that it's trying to be too many things for too many categories of people - being accessible, providing multiple options in apparel, outwear and accessories, providing options for a large range of ages. With competition such as SheIn, where people looking for trends and affordability can find trendy inexpensive apparel, and brands such as Gucci or Chanel that provide timeless classic high-end luxury products, Burberry's essence might get lost.

I imagine luxury brands such as Gucci, Prada, Dior and Hermes least likely to be harmed by counterfeits since those buying the actual brand products would try to maintain the exclusivity and being able to identify counterfeits in the circles. These brands also sell luxury handbags whose retail value keeps increasing over the years.

It is about the limited pieces/quantity of such products and the right to earn one's presence in the inner elite circles that help such high-end luxury brands maintain their position.

[swatianandbhat]

Application of Roger's Five Factors

Roger's five factors depict the likelihood of adoption of an innovation, based on people's perception. The five factors are: Relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability.

Following is the analysis of the 4 products based on Roger's five factors:

Sliced Peanut Butter: It is relatively advantageous in terms of the convenience of using peanut butter - not having to apply peanut butter on the bread, with the possibility of damaging the slice of bread in the process. This would be similar to a ready-to-eat meal kit and hence the complexity is also fairly low for the consumers, however, the process of manufacturing the product might be more complex given the preservation methodology. As a quick breakfast offering, the compatibility is also fairly high, and the consumer can still experience the process of making a whole PB&J sandwich in spreading jelly on the slice. Since it's a CPG product, samples of the product can be made available for testing as well. However, the perceived health hazard of the food-grade wax or other such ingredient might prove disadvantageous. The product may be easily available in stores and recommended through word-of-mouth, increasing the observability, but also people have been used to making PB&J sandwiches and it doesn't take that long, so I'm not sure about successful product diffusion.

Silver Band-Aid: I would be interested in trying out a silver band-aid if it's very effective in healing, however, I would also be concerned about good bacteria being killed leading to lower immunity and also about the potential toxicity of using silver. If proper trials have been conducted, then I see this being a relatively advantageous, low complexity, high compatibility and high observability innovation.

Multiple Music Channels' Stereo Platform Offerings: In the recent proliferation of Spotify, Apple Music, etc. and with the presence of bluetooth or USB connectivity in most new cars, I do not see this product highly diffusing in the market. The cost to switching seems higher and the relative advantage not that high. Complexity of usage would also depend on how it is designed and if there's any training manual available. A better option to increase listeners would be to relook into the existing offerings and make improvements.

Imitation Olfactory Technology: Being a technology geek, I am very interested in trying out this product and I do believe that this technology could be very disruptive, however, the complexity would be high. Also, trialability would be limited to certain sectors, although still very useful. It may be like the telephone innovation at first in terms of compatibility, however, in the current scenario of disruptive technology being quickly and widely adopted, this product could really make its mark.

[swatianandbhat]

Singapore Airlines: Service Beyond Excellence

Singapore Airlines has really shown how one can differentiate themselves even in an industry with low margins and high competitiveness.

Another salient factor is that Singapore Airlines is used by foreigners on international travel more than domestic passengers. So, the airlines had to build a reputation of excellent service among people of different cultures and expectations.

If I were to talk about the one thing that comes to my mind when I think of Singapore Airlines, it's the food. I normally don't like food on airplanes, but I still remember the paratha and later ice cream I had on my first flight on Singapore Airlines in 2015.

It was interesting to read about the efforts the company took in terms of hiring and training, so much so that the airline staff would handle everything in the exact same manner even without a handy guidebook. It also impressive how the Singapore Girl image was integrated with the culture in Singapore and made working at Singapore Airlines a very lucrative career for many.

In order to make the experience seamless for its customers, Singapore Airlines also partnered with multiple other airline companies, although the service expectations from passengers differed. This created more flexibility for SIA's frequent customers and provided more incentive to stay loyal.

All of that was done some time ago, but there are some potential issues that SIA has faced recently or will face in the future that I'm curious to know more about.

For example, did the decision that SIA had to make about pulling out its investments in reclining seats in the early 2000's when flight travel had suddenly reduced play a useful role in making similar decisions during the pandemic?

It would be interesting to observe if SIA considers different competitors than previously, when making decisions and if so, then how it handles some governments, such as the UAE government, investing exuberant amounts of money to provide a similar experience to passengers. Also, according to me, now airlines such as Emirates or Qatar Airways have advantageous main hub locations because these locations are geographically closer to and well connected to many prominent locations around the world.

Additionally, with the avid usage of social media, any service expectations not being met is likely to be made very public unlike in the early 2000s when the case is set. So, I am also curious to know how SIA has utilized social media to its advantage and how it has avoided any potential pitfalls arising from its usage.

[swatianandbhat]

Nudging: A Social Experiment?

Nudging is a useful way of ensuring that certain choices are made by consumers. This could, for example, be actively changing one's behavior or imposing self-control for various reasons.

The process of designing a nudge would involve 2 aspects:

Mapping the context - This would further involve the properties of the decision, information sources, features of the individual's mindset, and social and environmental factors.

Selecting the nudge - This involves determining the bottleneck in the decision-making process.

I have an example of nudging involving environmental factors from my personal life.

I have been a huge Korean Dramas fan since my undergraduate days and in hindsight, an interesting nudging experiment that I ran was to influence my friends to start watching K-dramas with me.

I was living in India, and watching K-dramas was not common at the time. The bottleneck here would possibly have been going against the norm of what young adults usually watched in the country and the inertia to watch something with subtitles at a time when people preferred consuming content in languages they knew.

I was nudged into watching one by a friend, when it was exam season and I needed a procrastination exercise. I guess the environment in itself was conducive to making me feel interested at the time.

My enthusiasm did not go unnoticed, however, the willingness to indulge had not set in for my friends yet. At first, I needed some outlet to share more about the show I was watching, and so I started narrating detailed episodes to one of my friends on our journey to and from home. She really liked my narration and in some time, she would look forward to listening to them.

After listening to the narration of a couple of dramas, my friend had enough interest and curiosity to try watching one on her own. At the same time, her sister had recently been intrigued by the K-pop world and so, she gained insight into that as well.

Similarly, I had another friend, who was interested in Anime, try watching K-dramas. We made an entire trip out of our Anime and K-drama interests.

With more widespread connectivity and globalization, there is more knowledge of and interest in content from the rest of the world. Also, avid usage of social media brings about influences or nudges from web communities that we may not have otherwise interacted with.

[swatianandbhat]

Beers: Heineken and Corona

Heineken's Vulnerabilities and Corresponding Solutions

Heineken's main vulnerability possibly comes from its change in leadership and how the ones most strongly associated with the brand name have either retired or left the company's ownership. The new ownership has also caused a shift since Heineken is associated with Netherlands, but now it is Heineken USA Inc.

Here, the solution might be to create a more global association since the brand is available worldwide, so even if country of ownership changes, the impact is neutral on the brand.

Also, as mentioned in the case, Heineken was only focused on advertising earlier and with the focus on marketing, it might be able to build a more long term positive brand association.

Overall, Heineken seems to be facing a problem of miscommunication within the company, which it needs to resolve by creating proper and consistent communication channels.

Heineken and Corona in the Minds of the Consumers

Since I'm a teetotaler and have yet seen these brands quite often, I imagine Heineken and Corona brands as those that are easily accessible to the consumer and that have cheaper alternatives.

Heineken seems to have a pretty strong global impact while Corona seems to have a stronger foothold in North America, especially in the US and Mexico.

Also, I imagine that the taste of the beers might be different, with the addition of Corona always bringing the image of the beach in mind.

Advertising Campaign Contribution to These Meanings

With the type of advertising campaigns that brands adopt, the aim is to build something sticky in the minds of the consumers, so that when consumers are in a setting similar to one advertised, they will think of buying from the brand, in this case, beer.

For example, Corona has a strong association with the beach, so whenever a consumer is at a beach and wants a good imported beer at a relatively affordable price, they'll think of the brand. Given the association, they will possibly buy some bottles of Corona at the beach since they thought of it first. This would provide a competitive advantage to Corona.

Brand advertising campaigns help establish brand identity and loyalty.