Embrace Innovative Business models or go under

For The Music Industry, Buffeted by Declining sales of Albums and Slowing Digital Downloads, The Writing on the wall is clear. Embrace Innovative Business models or go under.

At a fundamental level, the music industry’s woes can be ascribed to its inability to come up with new alternative music products tailored to keep pace with the changing face of music. Another is the failure of traditional music companies to alter their existing business model, largely based on physical distribution of music (selling CDs), which still accounts for almost 73% of their total revenue pie. Crispin Reed, Managing Director, BrandHouse, a UK based brand consultancy, fully agrees. “Although, sticking to conventional business models might have been a conscious decision, it’s equally likely that this was due to inertia, which is typical in well-established sectors. It’s often easier to create a new paradigm than change a long established one” says Reed. Thankfully, a few big players seem to have accepted the harsh realities of file-sharing, music downloads and independent do-it-yourself market taking over. According to an industry report, both Universal and Sony are using digital music downloads to build buzz around a particular album, which will follow the single months after.

iTunes stores have also shown the industry a way to monetise the digital platform. Introduced by Apple in 2004, users are charged a nominal downloading fee per song. Today, iTunes accounts for 70% online digital music sales and is the largest legal online music retailer in the world. Johnny Ryan, Senior Researcher at The Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) offers some ideas on how the industry can buoy up sales of music. He tells B&E that “the lesson for the music industry lies in the gaming industry. Computer game sales have risen as the music industry’s have fallen, and a part of the former’s success is a result of its approach to piracy and community”. The most successful computer games offer players online communal experiences that allow them to compete against each other, and to leverage the community and social strengths of the internet. At the same time, they also require players to connect via online subscription services that make software piracy impossible. Transferring this concept to the music industry might actually be a good approach.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri 
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles. 

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India’s Top MR Agencies 2011

The Final Ranking of Top Indian Market Research Firms as per the 4Ps B&M survey gives them scores on an aggregate basis as well as on different parameters.

Methodology

4Ps B&M conducted a perception survey in two phases on Market Research firms in India. In the first phase, the team created a list of MR firms in India. The list of 63 was generated based on the frequency of recall of the market research firms (a focussed survey amongst 215 respondents in the corporate world, market research employees and industry leaders was conducted pan India). This was followed by a secondary study. The MR firms taken into consideration were the ones whose forte is to provide services primarily in the field of market research (primary or secondary). Certain firms who are primarily into consulting and only have an internal research team for their support have not been considered under the purview of the survey. Also, research firms who are specific to an industry have been eliminated from the survey. Hence 38 firms were considered for the second part of the study.

The second part of the research was carried out amongst corporates, employees of market research firms, industry leaders and others on a pan India basis on the parameters given in the table below: The respondents were asked to randomly rate 5 selected market research firms on the above parameters on a scale of 1-10 where 10 was the highest score on the perception scale. Since, employees and members of market research firms were also interviewed, the scores of the agency they were working with was not asked or taken into consideration to avoid any scope for bias. The survey used a structured questionnaire through in-depth interviews, telephonic interviews and e-mails. All responses from respondents are primarily their own perceptions. The individual and cumulative scores have been calculated and displayed to give the final rankings for the research agencies. ICMR (Indian Council for Market Research), being a sister organization, was excluded from the research. However, we firmly believe that if ICMR had been included, given the quantity and quality of the research it does and the expansiveness of its clients’ reach, it would have been ranked amongst India’s top five MR agencies. But committed to editorial integrity, we have ensured that it does not feature in this ranking.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
IIPM in the league of best management institutes of India.....
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Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
Planman Technologies
IIPM Contact Info
IIPM History
IIPM Think Tank
IIPM Infrastructure
IIPM Info
IIPM: Selection Process
IIPM: Research and Publications
IIPM MBA Institute India

Advertising - Hotspots and Rankings - They came, we saw and everybody reviewed!

An ad is a product of painstaking craftsmanship. Various elements, ranging from positioning of the product, clarity of the idea behind the product to visibility of the brand, its persona and the power of communication have to be intelligently weaved together. But while some ads manage to rewrite preset creative benchmarks, some go the wrong way, fall by the side and fail to excite viewers. In this section, we review three ads that came out tops, for the right and also for the wrong reasons.

Now i love logistics!

Advertiser: Mahindra
Baseline: Outperform
Agency: NA

4Ps B&M Take: Advertising can be defined in five simple steps – why to communicate, what to communicate, where to communicate, how to communicate and whom to communicate. Much to our disappointment, the latest commercial launched by Mahindra to promote its new age Navistar range of trucks, pathetically fails to sufficiently fullfill any of the above mentioned requirements. The creative (with creativity channelilsed in all the wrong directions, though) opens outside a house where a man standing beside his car is waiting for his son Amar. His son comes out all dressed up in a business suit. He looks disappointed as he feels that his parents failed to understand him. As it turns out, he has been roped in to the family business, which primarily deals in logistics. Now he is confused. Why was he motivated to pursue an MBA in the first place if his father had eventually planned to redirect him to the trucking business? Nevertheless, the father and son duo board a BMW as they set out for an important meeting (or so it seems). Moments later, we see that they have landed up at Mahindra’s showroom to collect the order of trucks they had placed. Soon, Amar seems impressed after seeing the modern trucks. And all of a sudden, the entire business starts making sense and he is proud of his dad’s decision. The end. First things first, we don’t really understand how a fancy truck could motivate this kid (in case his kinds are the target audience). Secondly, logistics is about transportation. It’s a pretty straightforward business. What good would a dozen new and expensive trucks do to the business when the same could be achieved by acquiring second hand trucks at a fraction of the cost? Or maybe they would, but if so, shouldn’t the advertisement have talked about the benefits of the Navistar range more prominently and clearly? The kid may be clear, but Mahindra certainly needs some introspection.

dumb... dumb... dumb... d-uh...

Advertiser: AMD
Baseline: Processors that...
Agency: NA

4Ps B&M Take: If you happen to be a brand involved in the business of selling products to the youth segment of India, which has considerable disposable income, then you don’t just need to have a good product. Your brand positioning and communication should be as clear and impactful. Unfortunately, AMD fantastically failed to realise this. The commercial conceptualised by the chip major to promote its six core processor will in all probability do no good to he brand. The TVC opens inside the bedroom of a newly wed couple. As they start undressing each other (they don’t look convincing here either), one starts presuming that this might be a condom ad. However, it turns out that they had been wearing their wedding attire over military uniforms! As you sit perplexed wondering what’s going on (provided you haven’t already switched the channel or banged your head against the wall yet), the couple starts playing a video game and are shown having a lot of fun. VO: With the AMD six core processor, movies, games and music become so really real, you’ll forget everything else. We just have one word to describe this TVC – pathetic. Idea’s 3G ad had a similar theme just a few fortnights back. Besides being original, it was definitely much more likeable.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
IIPM in the league of best management institutes of India.....
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
Planman Technologies

Aman ki (FIAT’s) Asha?

The flag-off ceremony by FIAT India for its ‘Securing borders drive’ took place on Independence Day this year. Under this activity, NCC cadets from Chetana College of Commerce will be driving the recently launched Fiat Grande Punto 90HP Multijet through an epic 18-day drive, which started from the Wagah border and will traverse via Sir Crick in Rann of Kutch and Longewala battle field in Jaisalmer. The event was flagged off by Marius D’Lima, Head- Corporate Communications, FIAT India and Shirish Chaudhari, Vice President, Chetana Trust. The drive is to promote relations between India and its neighbouring countries. FIAT is expecting to gain positive consumer awareness with this initiative – and subsequently, through similar such future exercises.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School
Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri
Planman Consulting

IIPM in the league of best management institutes of India.....
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management