FableGod

Make no mistake… I love Google. I love the way their products just work and over the years, have come to love their marketing as well… Remember ‘the 1 GB inbox’ Gmail… it carved out a space where apparently none existed… It was a perfect flanking attack which shocked Yahoo and proved to be disruptive. Chrome was another of those launches from Google stable which like gmail competed in a significantly mature market and have a great potential to be disruptive.

While the strategic objectives for Chrome go much beyond merely gaining few % points in browser market, the marketing objectives must have been pretty clear from day 1 : Create a positive emotion around the product which would supplement the visibility garnered by the usual Google PR machinery & hence create a strong foot hold amongst the early adopters…

Tough task considering the market was very comeptitive and needed an innovative circuit breaker… Innovative was what Google chose by becoming the first company to launch a major product using a comic book… yes, I actually mean a comic book. Who does that right … well apparently, those who do get huge amount of PR, not only in mainstream web media but at places that actually matter for early adopters, those fabled geek hangouts … Round 1 to Google, Well played…

But this is old news… almost 8 months old now… the fizz from comic book is largely gone… & meanwhile the product has stablized a bit… has found acceptance amongst fanboys… is gaining new users every day because of the hard push its getting from Google’s virtual estate (try accessing google.com using IE &  get bombarded with a free Chrome ad… ditto with youtube and gmail) and Google’s real world  clout (Google has cut few OEM deals for Chrome already)… now would be the perfect time for the next phase of marketing… Marketing objectives presumably would change to expanding user base and becoming more mainstream, and probably go beyond 1.2% the browser currently commands.

& Google has tried… by shifting from comic books to videos… and essentially trying to get community to do their marketing. In theory it makes great sense – Get the beehive to create your videos…  they would almost definitely be cool and they would be free…

The end result is 12 great videos. All submitted by amateurs like us and all of them look great.

Two shining examples of seemingly great stuff. But is Chrome perfect in its marketing… is it doing all it can do. Is it this hard to go beyond 1.2% despite all the hard push its getting?

There is no doubt that Google’s execution has been beyond rapproach but they could certainly do a lot better on market positioning front … lets think a bit here, IE is ‘The ubiquitious browser’, FF is ‘The safe browser’… What is Chrome… they used to be somewhere in between ‘The fastest browser’ or ‘The simplest browser’… in last 8 months they have moved further south and are trying to become a browser that is great in everything (Right now they are ‘A new web browser’ … What Google ??)

& then they could have certainly done a better job of naming their key features… think of their choice of ‘In-cognito’ for privacy feature… Great buzz word… yes, Communicates the benefit to the end customer clearly… no

Think of what microsoft did with same feature in IE8 – ‘In Private’ … firefox folks – ‘Private Browsing’… I can bet that perceived first mover for this feature would be Microsoft not Google (& this despite the fact that Chrome debuted this feature in mainstream when people had hardly heard about Safari and IE8 betas offering privacy features) & perception is all that matters in marketing world.

Chrome needs to understand that its operating in a world where 92% of people don’t understand the meaning of word ‘browser’ … not many would understand In-cognito…

Also have a look at the first TV ad they chose to air…

Very cute… this ad was designed to emphasize the clean and uncluttered interface of the software compared to its competitors and it does that too… but only to people who already know Chrome. It has a call to action in last frame, but that effect is negated to a great extent as for a first timer Chrome can be an OS, a Kid’s Game, A browser, A decorative piece… all with equal probabilities.

Chrome has delivered master-strokes (like the comic book launch) … some of them need some refining before they can help Chrome go beyond 1.2%… its a good product and certainly deserves a double digit market share at least.

Do it Google. You have a wonderful product and a wonderful execution team. Focus your energies on one single benefit and beat the hell out of your communication. Do it right and soon you would be no 3 (or if luck is with you, no 2)…

written by vaneet \\ tags: Ad, Chrome, Google, marketing, positioning

As a relatively new web entrepreneur, one question that i get asked a lot – Why Fachak.com … or how fachak.com … and/or many variations of same question.

Thought would enumerate some guidelines that we had formed while selecting our domain name …

A .com

We were very clear right at the outstart that whatever domain name we choose, it has to be a .com … i always use ctrl + enter and i am sure many more people do so … hence i always ended up typing  slideshare.com instead of slideshare.net before I reached the actual site.

Moreover, I have seen a lot of friends assuming by default that the site they are viewing is a .com … so while they would remember ‘your-domain-name’ out of ‘your-domain-name.xyz’ they would in all probability type in your-domain-name.com … instead of whatever it was.

10 dollars or less

If you are rich and have tonnes of money, you may as well spend much more … there is a sprawling domain market where can get you great domain names for millions.

But this was never even a consideration for us … not even a single thought was spared on spending anything more than 10 dollars on domain name … we had limited resources and we would be better off spending them elsewhere.

Easy to pronounce

Ever wondered what makes google or yahoo or ebay sound so good …  may be its because they are  both bisyllables … amazon, orkut are tri syllables but still great domain names … facebook, myspace have four syllables each … add anything more and it becomes almost unpronounceable … try bruceclay.com … does that give your tongue some curls …

So our domain had to be limited to two or max three syllables. Fachak.com depending upon which side you stand on …  is either a bi or at max a tri syllable. And whatever is the no of syllables, its easy to pronounce.

Difficult to mistype

Ever noticed how you almost never misspell while typing google or facebook … now try wakoopa … how many times do you mistype that out of 100 times … is it a significant no … most probably yes … why … because its easier to type ‘g’ than it is to type ‘w’ … its easier to type ‘o’ than it is to type ‘p’ … All the letters in google – g,o,l,e or in facebook – f,a,c,e,b,o,k are at relatively easier words to type in a qwerty keyboard. Similarly, all the letters in fachak – f,a,c,h,k are at relatively easy fingertips.

Hard to misspell

If you are a startup, a significant lot of marketing would happen by word of mouth … probably on those water cooler conversations … so try misspell that domain name thats lingering in your mind since last night … is it possible to misspell it … if the answer is yes, be sure a lot of people would do it.

Notice that sudden peak in cool.com …. thats because cuil.com was launched around same time. A lot of people typed in cool.com instead of cuil.com … and traffic died down once cuil.com’s traffic died down … albeit its still larger than the initial traffic.

In fact, thats a problem for us too … some users have reported that they  typed in facha.com the first time they tried to reach fachak.com … so thats one thing we need to work on in our communcation …

A positive or no meaning…

If you were lucky, you were yahoo … but that was 1995 … and for rest of us are mere mortals … words with positive association that would still satisfy other guidelines are not so easily available … so go the sony way … coin a word that carries no meaning .. and do a lot of marketing to give it a meaning …

That was the route we followed with Fachak. Although, fachak signifies sound of splash in  native Hindi …. in most other languages its an unknown word.

No rule is indispensable

The most important guideline – none of above guidelines is indispensable … if you find a name  that’s great in some areas but lacks in one or two, you may as well go ahead with it … ultimately its your baby … if you feel its right choice, go ahead right away.

In fact, Fachak was not a result of following these guidelines strictly but more a result of  a creative streak inspired by an advertisement in a comic book. We had tried about 500 keywords while searching for available domain names – all the while trying permutations on words with positive meanings – cool, trendy, hip … et al … when I finally found something that was available. When we crosschecked fachak against the guidelines we had formed, it fitted the bill perfectly … or almost perfectly

Finally, do give your domain name about 3-4 weeks to grow on you, before you finally accept it or reject it … especially with names that carry no meaning at all …

It took my team almost 3 weeks, before all of us really started liking Fachak.com … before that it was yet another idea thrown in by a crazy entrepreneur

Vaneet

written by vaneet \\ tags: com, domain market, domain name, domain names, fachak, internet, marketing, syllables, web entrepreneur, website

Working at a startup would teach you many things. A founder is supposed to don many hats and simultaneously handle many jobs. Unlike well established companies, where you always have a specialized team at your disposal for each big or small task, a typical startup would never afford such liberties. It’s always the one man show where each founder is playing multiple roles of the programmer, the designer, the marketer & the financier.

When we first contemplated Fachak, we were lucky to have partners who were from different backgrounds. All of us had skills that complimented those of others and hence we thought that there will be well defined responsibilities from day one. But so I thought.

Initially, as we thought, my major contributions were supposed to be in marketing & product strategy as those were the parts i had some experience at … but a start up is bound to surprise you with the vocations it has in store for you. As it folded out, soon after we started, I found myself working closely and all most full time on design – first with Jasginder and now with Jetin. I also had luck of interacting with Nandini  recently and she brought some completely different user behavior insights.

During course of designing for Fachak, we did a lot of mistakes. All of us were inexperienced and learnt a new thing everyday. There were a lot of hit and trials and we got to know a lot of things the hard way.  Looking back, we went through a lot of cycles.  I have tried to condense what all i have learnt about good design in these 5 observations:

KISS your design

Good design should be about simplicity. Any design team would always have a zillion choices but more often than not, what is best is also the simplest of the choices. Make sure that design doesn’t make the users think; as their primary aim of being at your website is not to enjoy the design but to use the website. Strive for the KISS (Keep it simple stupid).

Open your PSD’s and see what all places there is a choice between effectiveness and design. Remove all unnecessary components without sacrificing effectiveness. See if there are simpler methods with design to achieve the same results. Iterate this process a few times. What you would get at the end would be much better than what you started with.

Nutshell – A great design should be almost invisible.

‘Design is not an art’

Your design team members are working 24 by 7 on your project with all their hearts into it. It’s but natural that some emotional connections would take roots. It’s very humane to feel attached with your creations and design is no different. Only that it’s an ambush a good design team can’t afford.

Design is not an art, it’s not a form of personal expression. It’s all about users. It doesn’t matter what you think, what matters is what users think. Give users what they want. Even if it means scrapping what you have worked on for past 4 months and starting from scratch, do it. Usability and not design is the primary factor behind success or failure of a website. So if it’s not usable, it may as well not exist.

Nutshell – A design is always about solving problems and if its not solving what’s intended, scrub it, stash it, slice it … do whatever but ensure that it starts solving what its supposed to solve.

Lead your user around

A great design should be able to lead the user’s eye around the screen to the information he wants to get. So decide what the important parts of your website are from a user perspective and decide their visual weights in your final design.

For example, in Fachak, the first thing a user  want is to know where he is … so he should see our logo. Then, of course, the most important thing for him would be content, so our design should lead him to what he is here for. After he had a look at the content, he may wish to vote or share the content and hence our design should lead him to those options, uniformly, easily and without hiccups.

Typical web users don’t read, they scan or at worst they skim. They use websites in glances. Back to Fachak’s example, our design has to ensure that logo gets the first glance. So it gets a big chunk on the top left. Content gets a warm white space covering most of user screen space, hence making it easy for the user to focus there … voting and sharing options get bold colors and icons to capture user attention after he has seen content.

Nutshell – Discover the most valuable actions for your users and place them at the most valuable places in your website.

Maintain Consistency

Design is like a symphony. Even if one tone is bad, it spoils the whole experience. Everything has to be orchestrated and has to be perfect. Similarly in design, everything has to be perfect. So what that means is: match everything – headings, colors, buttons, photos, icons. Make sure that there is one unifying and coherent theme throughout the website. Make sure that all the changes that you did during later iterations of your website are reflected in pages that were frozen weeks back. Make sure that while jumping from one page to another, user still feels the part of same website. Make sure that there is no inconsistency anywhere in your design.

Nutshell – Inconsistencies lower the quality perception and hence lower the user experience.

Test Early, Test Often

This is one lesson we have learnt the hard way at Fachak. We waited for Fachak’s design to be finished before showing it to the outside world. And when we first showed it, feedback surprised us. We were expecting the feedback to be very positive and when it wasn’t so it bit us. big time We had to go back to drawing board and it took us quite some time to get it right again.

Don’t stay in shell. Start taking user feedback as soon as you have something to show. Complete your logo and show it to your friends. Do your first cut and get some feedback. After a team has worked on a design for few weeks, its almost impossible for them to observe it from a fresh perspective. Hence  get some people who were previously unexposed to your design. User feedback will always bring some new insights.

Nutshell – Design something, take feedback, fix it, take feedback, fix it again, take feedback.

I have started calling the above observations as C-Salt (pronounced as sea-salt) principle. Consistency, Simplicity, Not an Art, Lead your user & Test your designs.

These were the few learnings that we had over last few months. With the expert consultancy we have now on board with us, I am sure there would be a lot more in future. C ya till then !

written by vaneet \\ tags: C-Salt, design, fachak, marketing, Principles of Design, product strategy, startup, Style, Website Design

Dettol… So what does your marketing hat say!! Is it Germ Protection or does it sound as Health Soap or may be Everyday Protection … of course, what else… it has been the Protection against disease causing germs since ages. And you are not alone as million other marketers would think same.

Now what if u are Brand Manager for Dettol for a day and have to decide on a new soap variant. Ok… well… lets have some time to think… what fits with the existing brand message… (They have already launched a skincare variant… not much chance there)

Huge dilemma… right…

Lets see what Dettol actually did… What about a freshness soap… A lot of us might not agree with launching a freshness soap to take on the likes of Liril and Cinthol… Why? ask yourself, how does Dettol Cool sound… Dettol is not cool… Dettol is reliable but it’s not cool… From pure Marketing theory view, this would be a long term failure. But then test market results were very surprising and four months later this soap with a promise of Freshness with protection of Dettol is a big success across India. In fact the numbers put its sales as a significant percentage of Dettol Original soap in the many outlets.

Is this a phenomena that will change the philosophy of marketing… or is it just an over extension that is an exception to the conventional marketing thinking… or yet further, it’s just an initial success and Dettol Cool wouldn’t be able to maintain its success in future.

Let’s get some perspectives. Well here is what Dr. H V Verma, Senior Marketing Professor, FMS Delhi thinks:

“An extension in a product category like soap characterized by diminished real product differentiation, rampant switching and search for something new and ‘exciting’ may have contributed to unexpected high initial sales. Also there is a great possibility of parent brand cannibalization. So it requires serious statistical analysis to find out the real source of sales the new extension has generated.”

But what does Dettol Brand Manager, Mr. Vikram Datta, who himself is an MBA from IIMB and had an extensive experience at Colgate Palmolive before taking over the reins of Dettol has to say about this move. He first clears the clouds over the source of cool soap sales:

”Source of business for cool soap has mainly been from health and herbal soaps … little cannibalization… approx 10% of cool soap volume sourced from Dettol original and Dettol skincare.”

But Mr. Verma has much more to offer when it comes to branding:

“This move is not new. Many strong brands have gone this way to eventually weaken the parent brand by going overboard on extensions. There are two possible ways moves of this kind may hurt the parent brand in the long run:

First is by creating brand dilution; That means when many inconsistent concepts start hanging on the name, the focus is sacrificed in favor of breadth. The parent brand begins to lose its core value proposition and meaning. Second is brand confusion. This implies haze that surrounds in the mind of customer”

Liril once being a very strong brand with core essence of ‘freshness’ lost ground precisely by line extensions like menthol, cologne, ice blue etc. Also Cinthol was once a strong soap with clear positioning ‘with ingredients that fight odor causing bacteria’. Later the brand suffered when it tried to fight Liril by launching variants that copied Liril’s core ‘freshness and lime’ position.

So ask your self do you want Dettol to be cool? You may want effective bath or you may want cool experience. Probably not both at the same time.”

Well that sounded convincing… probably most of us would have decided by now that this move is a wrong move and is going to take Dettol nowhere in long run. But Dettol Brand manager, Mr Datta, has his own logic:

“This move adds a new dimension to the already entrenched notion of protection…. Variant differentiation is key … The Cinthol and Liril soap extensions failed as they were not sufficiently diffentiated. This is not the case with Dettol Cool.

The key to success for an LX (line extension) lies in leveraging the core brand proposition to present it in a new light to the consumer. Here it’s important to upfront the “new news” – in this case cool refreshing sensation, since a freshness consumer would not compromise on the freshness aspect, protection being an add-on for her. Also, one needs to sufficiently differentiate the LX from the base brand – both for getting new users as well as enhancing consumption among current base brand users. Finally, while the LX does take the equity from the parent brand, it should also give back in terms of enriching the overall brand imagery.”

So who wins the argument finally. A little chance for conventional thinking; a small chance for innovative thinking… a major chance for a stalemate … Dettol Cool may become a major success and it may go into arena as yet another revolution that forced us to add another dimension to the basic laws of marketing … or… it might end up just being another entry into the huge encyclopedia of marketing failures … only time can tell. Best of luck to both parties till then.

First posted – 7 September, 2006 … Dettol Cool has since become a major NPD success for RB

Update – April 11, 2007 … I found this statement on internet from a Reckitt Benckiser Guy

Parents of western teenagers won’t believe this, but Eastern teens actually shower a lot. It’s their response to the humid conditions. Unfortunately for us, though, they didn’t feel that Dettol was for them.

Our response was to launch Dettol Cool, a variant with menthol to cool the skin.

The advertising, featuring youths playing volleyball, made clear that it was a brand for active teens. They were certainly active in the shops. After just a couple of months, Dettol Cool grabbed a cool 30% of our shower foam sales.

Nick Horn – Category Director, Germ Protection

written by vaneet \\ tags: brand, branding, cool, dettol, line extension, marketing, positioning, Reckitt, soap