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Consumer electronics in India
The Indian consumer electronics market was worth $3.4 billion in 2005, 14 per cent higher than the previous year, writes Deepak Mankar.
I stumbled upon the Mumbai Craigslist page mumbai.craigslist - about rooms and shares - quite by chance. I must confess I found it vastly educative. For instance, only last week, an estate broker had posted an ad offering paying guest accommodation for girls in Mahim but forgotten to mention his brokerage. So, now there's his newest ad mentioning his brokerage amount in capital letters. This ad as well as another ad for accommodation in South Mumbai stress the safety angle. How times have changed! Once upon a time, you took safety as a given when in Mumbai. The South Mumbai ad cites the staff of multi-nationals, investment banks and consulates as 'satisfied clients'. There's yet another ad offering deluxe sharing accommodation near SEEPZ, MIDC, etc ("AC/Non-AC TV Internet Meals available Laundry Personal Maid/Servants Gymkhana Club with Swimming Pool, Tennis Court, Badminton Court etc … All varieties of food available: Chinese, Continental, Italian, Mughlai, South Indian, Pure vegetarian food also available.). It claims to be currently having "people working at JP Morgan Chase, TATA AIG, Ma Foi, O&M, Audi, Reliance, ICICI, Wipro, Royal Sundaram, TCS Students from JBIMS, IIGJ, IIPM, NMIMS Foreign students from USA, France, Lebanon, UK, Australia, Singapore" living there. Also at craigslist there is an interesting, too-good-to-be-true offer "Start Your Biz in USD 5.00" - "(as seen on OPRAH)" - for whatever that is worth. Read, if you wish to, how it is supposed to work. I don't recommend your trying it out, though. Believe it or not, the operative word there is "birthday gift ".
Business as usual. The product, most unusual.
Pam Perry owns Ministry Marketing Solutions, a Farmington, Mich., firm for Christian churches and authors. "What I do, I consider it both a ministry and a business," she claims. Some agree. Perfecting Church, for instance, buys ads on seven billboards in Detroit for $5,000 to $20,000 monthly. It has the Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.-based LAC Consulting for marketing its eight-day Holy Convocation conference, spending about $100,000 for everything from radio spots to a feature on its Web site perfectingchurch to allow people to watch video of services for $9.95 for one night to $39.95 for the conference. 4,000 attended the event each night, says Cindy Flowers, Perfecting's general manage. Recently, United Church of Christ ran a controversial TV spot showing bouncers not allowing some people, including a gay couple, into church with the tagline: "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we." - as part of a $1.5 million ad campaign that some stations refused to air. "The comment I hear most often when people visit the UCC church for the first time is, 'I never knew that a church like this existed.'," said Ron Buford, a UCC spokesman. There are dissidents, though. A fairly recent posting at churchmarketingsucks.com by Frank McClung reads: "I've been really struggling with the whole concept of church using advertising, marketing and branding techniques to promote the Gospel. Something just doesn't sit right in my spirit…" Oh, God! intellisearchnow.
Booming. Consumer electronics in India
The Indian consumer electronics market was worth $3.4 billion in 2005, 14 per cent higher than the previous year, according to market research firm Isuppli. By 2010, sales may be more than $5.8 billion, given the CAGR projection of 11 per cent. The chief propellant seems to be a rise in disposable income available to a burgeoning middle class. The wish list includes colour TVs, DVD players and set top boxes. "We expect this robust growth to continue through the next few years. The Indian economy is expanding strongly, with GDP growth projected at a healthy rate of between seven and eight per cent annually," says Isuppli analyst Jagdish Rebello. The use of credit in India is growing, along with domestic manufacturing of products. Rural penetration of products is slow, though. Companies need to strengthen their distribution networks to supply this market, an expensive process all told. theinquirer.
India's no 1 fast seller. Guess who?
If your answer is 'bicycle', you're way behind times. Cellphone it is - as of now. India is the third largest user of GSM phones - with 83 million subscribers - ahead of the USA (78 million GSM users) but behind China (370 million) and Russia (145 million). The GSM Association (GSMA) gsmworld is claiming that GSM and W-CDMA/3GSM now account for 82.4 per cent of all global mobile connections. The GSMA's 'Emerging Market Handset Initiative' which delivered the first sub $30 GSM phone is partly the reason for this phenomenon. theinquirer.net.
Come to the Marlboro country. Via LTDL.
I found this info at adds-multimedia. LTDL stands for Legacy Tobacco Documents Library legacy.library. To access multimedia, though, you have to go to the search page. "… when I did a search for Marlboro I found that some of the search results had an additional link: 'View Now at: Internet Archive'. That link takes you to a standard Archive.com page which includes a link for streaming the multimedia. LTDL documents available this way include over 45 minutes of Marlboro commercials from 1956-1957 (in one collection), Camel commercials, and congressional hearings from the 80s and 90s," Tara Calishain reports.
Dirty ½ dozen. Google them at your own peril.
A new study by Mcafee Corporation says that search terms like free screensavers', 'download music', 'free games', 'singers', 'bearshare', 'kazaa' can put your PC at great risk. In many instances, up to 72% of the search results had sites linking directly to malware (spyware) downloads and put users at great risk for identity theft. consumer/article and infopackets. The study also suggested that sponsored search engine results are more likely to contain problem websites than non-sponsored results.
India shining. Volvo to enter the market.
Want more proof of India's prosperity getting worldwide recognition? Volvo Car Corporation, Brussels plans to introduce its cars in India, by the fourth quarter of 2006 with a new subsidiary, Volvo Car India, headquartered in Delhi. The product introduction with the Volvo S80 and the Volvo XC90 with more models to arrive in due course. "It is an important step for Volvo Cars to establish a presence on this market at a time when India is showing considerable growth in the passenger car market," says Volvo Cars President and CEO Fredrik Arp. What's impressive is India's steady economic growth, low inflation, a stable currency, and the likelihood of new-car sales increasing from 1 million a year to 1.6 million over the next four years. intellisearchnow
Farecast. Searches and predicts air fares.
At farecast there's a new airfare search engine with a built-in 'crystal ball'. It advises you when to buy your air tickets and how the fares are likely to behave in the future. It's a very limited 'beta' which Tara Calishain describes as "mostly a technology showcase, but it's an interesting technology showcase." researchbuzz.
If you know any artist who needs help for marketing his/her work, please ask him/her to get in touch with Bharat Gandhi on bg@indiaa and Kitab Mahal eapl123@mtnl. They have launched Indiaa.net, a virtual art gallery and a brick and mortar outlet at Kitab Mahal, Fourth Floor, where I worked from 1976 to 1989 at Everest Advertising. indiaa.net.
That's all for now though there's plenty more out there. Join me again next week, same place.
Copyright (c) 2001- 2006 by Deepak Mankar. All rights reserved. Deepak Mankar, an advertising practitioner on the creative side since 1965, is also intensely passionate about the web and web content creation. Read his online articles at asiaondemand.com. Website:http://www.addgandhi.com/original/. You may e-mail him atdmankar@bom8.vsnl.net.in. Blog: popgoestheslop.blogspot.com.
