Personalized Duffle Bag for Christmas

Christmas is in the air.Singapore’s CBD is already decked with so much gorgeous decors and our simple abode isn’t spared. C & I put up the decors this morning and nope, we didn’t changed the motif to silver and blue as planned, will blog about it later. This season is equated with so many things gifts, parties, foods, exchange gift, etc. And I so love everything about it.

With the numerous upcoming parties we have and exchange gifts, I will be enumerating my wishlist for my Santa(s) to read. Exchange gift is also called Monito Monita or Kris Kringle. So the first in my wish list is a personalized duffle bag. I just feel I am in dire need of this bag – what’s with my frequent business trips to Malaysia. I need a bag that is not too big but not too small, but just enough for an overnight stay. I heart this tan seersucker mint duffle bag, it is made of nylon so it is sturdy enough to carry my thingies. Sure it won’t get lost also, well hopefully, since I am planning my name to be embroidered on the bag.

Today I watched some episodes of Iris, my new addiction. It's a Kdrama that just aired its last episode last week. It's a great action-drama series starred by Lee Byung Hun and Kim Tae Hee.After watching Iris, we went to the city to buy some groceries that we forgot to buy last week for our Noche Buena. There were so many people in the mall and in the streets. I had fun looking at them and walking past them. I can really feel that it's really Christmas in just a few hours. But of course because of the Christmas rush, I expected the very long queues in the counters. Good thing I have already bought my gifts last week to avoid such hassles. I'm very excited to see my sisters' reactions when they open the gifts I bought them. I hope they'll like it. But what I'm more excited about are the gifts I'm going to receive. Who wouldn't be excited right? Christmas, aside from being about God, is also about giving and receiving. And one of the best gifts you can give to students like me is a personalized duffle bag! People who personally know me know very well that I'm not a very big fan of collecting bags. I only get those which I really need. In fact I only have one for each special need I guess. And this personalized duffle bag is one that is not yet in my closet so I will really be delighted to receive one of these cute duffle bags for Christmas. Well, of course, it would be much better if you personalize it and print Super Junior members' names there. I'm also thinking of giving some to my friends and relatives after the Christmas break. A laundry bag would be nice for my classmates who are living in boarding houses and don't do the laundry themselves. Insulated lunch totes would also be best for my cousins who are still students.

Ezy Roller, The Best Christmas Gift

After I had written about cool Christmas present for children and for adults, have you made your Christmas list? To date, it is only 43 days to go before the season of gift giving. I’m sure you don’t want to tire yourself during the peak season of buying gifts for your godchildren and your precious kids. I suggest that as early as now, you make that list and think of wonderful gift ideas that you would want to give the kids… and the kids at heart as well.Ezy Roller is not a bike or roller blade, and it is able to give extreme sensation like riding in a roller coaster when Ezy Roller sliding like a snake. We might remember the sliding board that we usually use during the winter, Ezy Roller is similar with the sliding board, but it is completed with wheels so it can be played any time.Ezy Roller can be used in any surface, indoor or outdoor. The zigzag moving pattern will give a different sensation for our children. This safe toy is made from sturdy and tough steel. It is completed with brake and can be adjusted with the age of our children. The Ezy Roller is easy to be ridden, and if our children get used to Ezy Roller, they can even reach 12mph. Even though it looks like an extreme toy, but actually it is very safe and can be used for children from 3 years old to fourteen years old.Ezy Roller is available in our reliable online store, posylane.com. Penny Laine serves pink, blue, red, and turquoise color for the Ezy Roller. Ezy Roller is offered with flat price. Only with $99.99, we can directly serve the best Christmas gift for our children. Now that we know what to buy for our children, we just need to choose cristmas gift for adult. We can still stay on Penny Laine’s website because we can find special gift for everyone there. We can choose personalized collection like personalized pillowcases, baby keepsake book, nap mat and many other gifts.

US Hispanic Chamber more lending to small businesses

PRESS RELEASE
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), the arch apostle for about 3 actor Hispanic-owned businesses and over 200 bounded Hispanic accommodation throughout the United States, declared a alloyed acknowledgment to today's appear improvements to baby business lending, acquainted a move in the adapted direction, but additionally an amplification of old measures that accept not yielded adapted results.

As allotment of February's bang package, Congress allocated $730 actor to the Baby Business Administration (SBA) to briefly abandon fees and admission guarantees the bureau offers banks that accomplish condoning small business loans. Admitting those measures, SBA lending connected to fall, bottomward 36% in the 2009 budgetary year compared to a year earlier.

Twenty-two of the better TARP almsman banks accept cut their baby business accommodation portfolios by $8 billion.

"The band-aid is to somehow affluence the abhorrence of banks to accommodate to baby businesses, and for the SBA to acknowledge itself in the role of provider of absolute loans." said David C. Lizarraga, USHCC Chairman of the Board. "Beyond that, the Administration charge brace any federal accomplishment to advance baby business lending with abstruse abetment on the arena in adjustment to advice businesses cross the process."

Small and boyhood entrepreneurs generally face an inherent claiming advancement adapted financials, managing banknote flow, abyssal the appliance action and advancing affection abstracts including accommodation bales and complete business plans. These are ample obstacles for any baby or minority-owned business that applies for a loan.

Lizarraga continued, "many bounded Hispanic Accommodation throughout the country accommodate chargeless abstruse abetment to bags of Hispanic entrepreneurs and assignment carefully with banking institutions and bounded SBA offices to advance and ensure admission to capital. We can absolutely use federal abutment to abetment a abundant beyond cardinal of entrepreneurs. The charge for this blazon of abetment is far greater than is actuality currently met."

America's baby businesses apply bisected of the country's clandestine area workforce and accept commonly created 70-80% of the country's new jobs. Since January 2008, these businesses accept absent over 2.5 actor jobs. While the Administration has formed to abate fees and advance Federal guarantees on SBA loans, baby businesses cannot account unless banks absolutely affair them.

Emergency ARC baby business loans from the SBA accept such akin agreement that few businesses qualify. For example, admitting bags of applications for assistance, alone 61 businesses in the absolute accompaniment of Texas accept able for loans.

"The Baby Business Administration provides emergency loans to baby businesses afterwards a accustomed adversity ... and this abridgement is attractive a lot like a adversity for too abounding baby businesses," said Javier Palomarez, President and CEO of the USHCC. "Small businesses charge advice now, and the SBA charge get aback in the business of absolute loans, so it can be a lender of aftermost resort."

Palomarez continued, "Greater admission to TARP funds for baby business loans and application CDFIs is a abundant step, but is absurd to accomplish abounding added loans unless assets are fabricated accessible to abetment businesses to admission these funds."

Turtle : A Little Deeper

Brand : Turtle
Company : Turtle Ltd
Agency : RK Swamy BBDO

Brand Analysis Count : 431

Turtle is an interesting brand story. This is the story of a small brand metamorphosing to a national brand. The brand is from Ladsaria family. The brand was born in 1995 in Kolkatta. The brand is the brain child of Amit Ladsaria who teamed up with his uncle to start a small shirt manufacturing unit with an initial capacity of 20 shirts.

Amit Ladsaria saw a big opportunity in readymade dresses at that time and wanted to cash in on that opportunity. The brand name Turtle was inspired by the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (source)

The brand which started with a capacity of 20 shirts is now a 60 crore brand poised for the big league. In May 2009, Future group took a strategic stake in the company. The backing of this retail giant is set to take Turtle brand to a much higher level.

There are many interesting facets of this brand. Although a small brand, Turtle was very careful in building its brand. The brand has been consistently investing in print and TVCs and the quality of communication was also very good.

Although the brand name was derived from a movie, the brand owners was wise enough to attach a meaning to the brand. Turtle brand is a Turtle lover. The brand has tied up with World Wildlife Fund and The Wildlife Society of Orissa for conservation of rare turtles. The brand contributes an amount for every product they sell. According to reports, the brand has already given more than 18 lakhs to these organizations.

Another interesting feature of this brand is the website . Turtle brand site is one of the best brand sites I have seen in recent times. The brand has been very careful in cultivating a sense of style around itself.

Turtle is targeting the young urban professional. The brand is on the premium side of the price band with the price ranging from Rs 695 - 995.

The brand is being positioned on an emotional platform . The brand persona is a successful goal oriented individual with a softer core. The brand has adopted the tagline " A Little Deeper " to emphasis the different side of the personality. Most of the campaigns are highlighting the soft touch persona of the brand.

Watch the tvc here : Elevator


Although the positioning theme has similarity with Raymond's, the theme offers opportunities to present the brand differently from Raymonds. Although the brand has been consistent in their communication highlighting the emotional positioning, it is necessary for the brand to communicate rational benefits also. This is important when addressing the first-time customers. I would love to see some more information about the quality of fabric and craftmanship in their ads.

Turtle is a strong brand from the East. The brand has slowly but steadily capturing various markets. The strong support from a partner like Future group will increase the brand's reach.
Turtle is a brand with a vision. The brand owners have followed it up with consistent investment and let us hope that the brand will reach its desired destination.

Brand Update : SBI

SBI has been on an overdrive in the advertising world with a series of campaigns following the much acclaimed " Surprisingly SBI" campaign. The entire world was surprised because of the aggression of India's largest bank. The bank was successful in changing the perception of many new generation customers about the key advantages of SBI like " largest number of ATMs", branch connectivity etc.

Then came the second series of campaign " Every Indian's Banker".The ad was a big fall from the quality hype created by " Surprisingly SBI" campaign. The second series campaign was aimed at projecting the bank as a common man's bank which served no strategic purpose as such. Every one knew that SBI used to serve all class of Indians. The second series of ads served no business or brand purpose. Neither the ad gave any new information to the consumers nor it invoked any brand equity for SBI.

Then came the third series of the campaign. The series is currently running across media. The ad shows India's eminent personalities like Tagore, Bose to Tata with the caption - The Banker to this Indian. The brand is trying to show off that it was the banker to the most eminent sons of the soil.
Frankly speaking, I am not the least impressed by the new campaign. Nothing but just a waste of money.

SBI was right when it launched the 'surprisingly SBI ' campaign because it needs to remind the customers about the advantages of banking with the largest Indian bank. SBI obviously had lot of advantages like " government backing" , largest number of branches and lower rates. With the high profile ad campaign by both public sector and private banks, SBI needed such a campaign to keep its brand on top of its customer's minds.

But the second and third series aiming to create an emotional connection was a total disaster.
I was a poor customer who believed SBI claims that it had restructured itself and has shed all the previous "PSU" style functioning. Reports suggested that it had trained all the staff and has become more customer friendly than ever before.Even being a cynical fellow , I believed all the claims ..

Then one day, I visited the SBI branch to take a demand draft. It was during the Lok sabha election time. The person manning the DD counter flatly refused to issue me the DD saying that he had closed the counter early because he had to attend an election training program. I stood there wondering how can a bank refuse to issue a demand draft to a customer ? . I went to the manager and was really surprised when he admitted his inability to help me out because of staff shortage. I had to shout and threaten to file a complaint with the banking ombudsman inorder to 'motivate' the manager to take necessary steps to issue me the demand draft.

What ever that SBI do to prop up its image, nothing will work unless the bank take care of its service DNA. The bank is still to change its customer service culture. They are in the service business and people form an important part of the service marketing mix. Having said that,SBI can breathe easier because the service quality is not remarkable in other banks as well ( private banks included).

SBI just need to instill a DNA of customer service in their branches. In most of the branches, the bankers feel that they are doing some favor to the customers. In a service business, the brand is built at the moment when the customer avails the services not when he sees a campaign.

Flipkart : The book store at your door

Flipkart is an Indian online bookstore modeled around Amazon . The site was started by two IIT graduates Mr Binny Bansal and Mr Sachin Bansal. The site became operational in 2007. Within a short span of time, Flipkart has created a lot of buzz among the book lovers.

I am a book lover and my job as an academician demands that I read a lot of books. I came to know about flipkart quite accidentally. I used to buy books from another famous e-commerce site where I was a loyal customer with a gold level book club membership.

Marketers know that it is very difficult to poach loyal customers from a competitor. Lot of factors cause customers to stick to a familiar brand. Inertia, trust , averse to risk are some of the factors that prompt customers to stick with their old way of doing things. I was also of that type.

One friend suggested me to check out flipkart and and when I did, it split my loyalty instantly. One of the main USP of flipkart is the ease of use. Unlike other e-commerce site, flipkart is very very easy to use. Searching books was very easy and the site was also minimalistic. During that time, my earlier bookstore revamped its interface and it became very difficult to search books in that site which prompted me to look for alternatives. The simple interface of flipkart and their fast delivery also inspired my colleague ( who is a voracious reader) to switch to this site.

In services marketing theory , often we teach that " high level of performance " is an attribute that can cause delight in customers. Flipkart is an example of a site that differentiate itself on its performance rather than low price.


According to reports, Flipkart 's USP is its simple interface, fast searching and free shipping. The owners have rightly identified the critical differentiating factors and their service delivery is also quite fast. According to the brand owners, the market for online bookstore is around Rs 25 crore out of the total market size of Rs 4000 crore ( source). Competition is slowly hotting up in this space also.

What is interesting about flipkart is that the brand does not rely on above the line promotions. Rather, the brand depends on SEO and word of mouth publicity to drive customer traffic to the site.

Not all things are perfect for this brand. I still buy from my old store after comparing prices. The lack of a loyalty program is a big minus for an e-commerce site like flipkart. I feel that bookstores' cashcow will be the loyal customers rather than unique visitors.

For a startup, flipkart has really succeeded in getting basics correct. The brand has the potential to lure or poach customers from other similar competitors because it can deliver its promise faster. But when the customer base grows, it is a challenge for the brand owners to keep the high level of performance intact.

Brand Update : Rexona (Reborn November 2009)

HUL never ceases to surprise me. One year back , HUL decided to kill Rexona and migrate the brand to Hamam. The brand also launched a high profile campaign announcing the migration of Rexona to Hamam. It created a Hamam variant named Hamam Abhyangasnanam and all the ads screamed - Rexona is now Hamam Abhyangasnanam .
Yesterday , I was surprised to see a television commercial of Rexona. So the brand has been resurrected after one year. I am not sure why a company like HUL has such a complicated brand strategy. How can a company decide on killing one brand, spent crores of money in promoting the brand migration and after one year decide to bring back the killed brand??

If the company doing this is an amateur firm, then it can be seen as a learning experience but when the company is HUL, no logic can explain this. Can a company like HUL misjudge consumer mindset like this ?

The only reason I see is that there is some serious brand vision issue with HUL. The company has lost its vision for the brands. There is a discontinuity in the strategy for the HUL brands and this is evident in the way HUL has dealt with the brands in recent times. I have a feeling that the brand managers have lost a long term focus on the brands. They are now driven by the ROI and short-term profitability which is driving them in unnecessary brand extensions and migrations.
At the deo front , Rexona deo is a neglected brand . The promotions are not good enough and nothing exciting is happening at that domain. It is time that HUL devise some longterm brand vision for its brands before it is too late.

Anyways , as a customer, I am glad that Rexona is back. This is a sensible brand and have a potential to be a good simple family soap.