What Starbucks should do in India!!

Starbucks one of the biggest coffee brands may not be so worried about its operation in India. But there are certain things to ponder upon. With the beverage segment in coffee already divided by others presence, entering the market and making a good impression is a challenge. This means Starbucks should know what tickles the taste buds of Indian consumers, what it takes to change one's regular coffee from others to Starbucks, why should others apart from those who know the brand will try and come back again as their regulars?

Drive Thru Coffee/ Burgers & Pizzas

Quite a few motels/restaurants are their at the highways in India. Road Transport is still not preferable for lot of folks, but it is growing at a faster pace than ever as the highways are getting better. Reservation numbers through RedBus or any other medium are increasingly growing. With roads becoming safer and better medium, soon it will be time for business opportunities for hotels/restaurants to have a Drive Thru/Take Away places near petrol pumps or places where buses halt.

EasyJet Flying High Inspite Downturn in Global Business

EasyJet, UK's low cost airlines & rival to Ryanair, Air France, Lufthansa, is flying high despite weak economic outlook and high fuel cost in Europe. Thanks to a good strategy unveiled last year aimed at business and leisure travelers EasyJet is sailing high tides smoothly, keeping a tight focus on cost to improve margins and finding room for growth in providing better services.

Axe Lynx Outdoor!! Ad banned

The above AXE Lynx Outdoor Ad is banned by advertising Watchdogs for the reason that it objectifies woman and hence is degrading to them. The above poster attracted a lot of complaints for the same reason. In its defense Unilever said the ad shows how the product makes wearer attracted to women in easy going and light-hearted tone. But ASA doesn't want to take the justification.

Airlines in India (need to learn!!)

Airlines in India are facing a tight margin due to increasing fuel prices, high mandatory charges at airports, Weak economic situation and strong competition from competitors. This needs to be tackled before it gets worse and without the measures it is going to hurt all of us be it customers, Airline's employees & employer's or the governing bodies.

A few lessons which Kingfisher, Indigo or Jet can learn are from the Airlines which operates in foreign countries and are leaders in their business. With a cut throat competition in foreign countries, they prevail and fight by innovating things, customizing solutions & giving better options to customers.

Coffee War!!

With established brands like Starbucks and Costa Coffee entering the market, Others(Gloria Jean's, Coffee bean, Java Coffee) ramping up presence in india, it is time for established ones(CCD & Barista) to think a step ahead and attack the most spending segment(Techno Analysts). Opening up as many small outlets in corporate premises or independent outlets in a cyberpark will help more than increasing the numbers in malls or airports.

Ryanair's Marketing Bag

Ryanair is the low cost airline in Europe. Over the years it has been a successful brand and a successful business.Michael O'Leary has a business model with a central focus on cost reduction. In around 20 years he has taken Ryanair from a single plane company to become the largest airline in Europe. The business simply has lower costs and those costs are passed on to their passengers in the form of low fares.

There are lots of factors which contributes to his cost reduction models. Ryanair does not use travel agents so it does not pay agency commissions. It uses direct marketing techniques to extend products and services to customers, which in turn reduces costs. Online booking saves them 15-20% on agency fees.

Ryanair uses Secondary Airports. It is cheaper to from a secondary airport than from the primary/busier airport. Also Since it is less busy aircraft can be turned around very quickly. Many of Ryanair’s destination airports are secondary. For example if somebody wants to go Copenhagen(Denmark) you arrive at Malmo(Sweden), which is a less than 50km drive from Copenhagen.

Keeping aircraft in the air for most of the time is another important part of low cost for which Ryanair has tweaked their operations. There is no check in, One has to show passport and supply your reference number. One cannot select a preferred seat. It is first come, first served. This aids speed. Baggage is deposited directly onto the terminal - it's quick.

Beyond any doubt, Ryanair is one of the strategic marketing successes of the last decade. Undoubtedly synergized by Michael O'Leary - the low cost strategy that it employs is remarkable and industry changing.

What Next for Deals??

Deals war is going on between Snapdeal, Dealandyou blah blah... so many and it will be survival of the fittest. Innovation and persistence is the key here as everyone gets bored after a while. Increasing the domain will be one important factor i.e. capturing more services. Putting up new options like bulk deal, group deal will keep the customers engaged. Will have to wait and watch.

Snapdeal - Dealsandyou - Dealivore - Groupon ...

List goes on!! quite a few have entered the market and a furious competition is expected from global or local players in the near future. But the one who will make the first mark in new cities will be the one who will shine brighter. For instance a friend of mine wanted to gift from one of these e-commerce business to one of his friend in Indore but couldn't find the city enlisted.

India is a deals savvy market. Though metropolitan people have the luxury to spend and overlook the price still most of the shopping is done during season off(when heavy discounts are offered). We go for shopping at Shopper Stop, Pantaloon or Mark & Spenser's but we carry their loyalty cards to get the extra 10% discount on card holders or special days.

Catch here is that Metropolitan comprises not even 10 percent of the population. The rest who don't have the luxury to spend but the wish to buy luxury items at affordable price don't have the option. A whole such segment remains untapped and is waiting for such thing to happen. Once somebody enters it will be the talk of the town, avoiding the marketing cost for their customers and vendors.

Times of India has a huge network & resource in India, wonder what Timesdeal is waiting for.

Advertising @ Ryanair

Ryanair spend as little as possible on advertising. It is done in-house. O'Leary himself oversees much of the promotion of Ryanair. They use simple adverts that tell passengers that Ryanair has low fares. Ryanair employs controversy to promote its business. For example in 2009, the company reasoned that passengers would be charged £1 to use the toilets on board. O'Leary reasoned that passengers could use the terminals at either the destination or arrival airport, would speed things up. It was reasoned that this is what passengers wanted. O'Leary also argued that larger passengers should be charged more since they took up more room - again it was reasoned that majority of passengers want this to happen.

Ryanair has been a fun little jokster. Take into account that they have a history of pulling April Fools jokes in the past. There was this prank of Selling porn to on-boards, then their was one with providing moon flights

Ryanair launches moon flights , click here for more details.

After you click another message appears: GOTCHA, Happy April Fools Day, we’ve no moon flights yet, but we’ve millions of FREE earth flights! Click here to book your free flight.

Then there was “first class seating” April Fools prank, which goes as follows

The Irish discount airline Ryanair today announced plans to introduce a First Class section on all of its pan-Europeanflights. Aircraft conversion is scheduled to begin after the busy summer travel season and is expected to be completed in time for the Christmas travel rush.
Ryanair's new premium product will provide travelers with a whole list of unprecedented travel comforts at no additional charge. Travelers will enjoy the following amenities:

Use of Check In Desk
Free Hand Luggage (15lbs)
Free Checked Bag (35lbs)
Boarding Pass
Use of Jetbridge (where available)
Guaranteed Seating
A generous 30" pitch
Reading Light
Window Shade
Overhead Luggage Bin
Free Water
Access to the Newly Introduced Inflight Refreshment Center
Valet Luggage Delivery via Baggage Carousels
Free "Ryanair First" Sticker

Overall Ryanair has been viral in terms of advertising, first you get media outlets to report on the story, creating buzz and free advertising. Then, after it is announced it was a joke, there is another round of free advertising, saying it wasn’t true and how silly Ryanair is being.