ds that stood out in this year’s Super Bowl
With 30-second spots going for as much as $4 million and more than 111 million viewers tuned in for the Super Bowl Sunday this year, marketers left no stone unturned in an effort to make their ads stand out. As always, there were several winners, plenty of losers and even a few that left many wondering. However, few of the ads broke through with messages that proved both entertaining and smart for business. Among those taking the top spots were commercials for Budweiser, Tide, Taco Bell and Chrysler’s Dodge Ram and Jeep brands. But the clear favorite of the Super Bowl Sunday night on Feb. 3 was Budweiser’s “Brotherhood” spot, which told the story of a horse trainer reunited with a Clydesdale he had raised as a foal. Budweiser has featured Cyldesdales in its Super Bowl advertising campaigns for years. Many ads flopped. Go Daddy’s “Perfect Date” ad, featuring a model kissing a nerd, and the Wonderful Pistachios ad featuring Psy singing “Gangnam Style” sparked the most negative commentary.
Facing existential crisis, HMV to shut down stores in UK
HMV Group, the 91-year-old British music chain and entertainment retailing company with operations in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Singapore, and which currently has 220 stores and 4,000 staff in the UK, has announced that it will close 66 shops there. HMV administrator Deloitte said no fixed date had been set for the closure of the 66 identified stores, which would continue to trade in the meantime. However, the first closures are expected in a month’s time even as the other stores could remain open longer. The closure plans come after the group axed nearly 190 jobs across its offices and distribution centres last month. HMV went into administration in January after it faced difficult competition from online retailers, digital downloads and supermarkets. In the digital era where 73.4% of music and film are downloaded or bought online, HMV’s business model has simply become increasingly irrelevant and unsustainable. But the HMV brand, famous for its Nipper, the dog trademark, still holds a cachet for many people and had about 35% of the CD market in the UK in 2012.
RIM rebrands itself as BlackBerry
Barely minutes into the launch ceremony for Research In Motion’s new BlackBerry 10 in New York last month, CEO Thorsten Heins made another momentous announcement. “Today is the perfect time for another big announcement I want to share – from this point forward, RIM becomes BlackBerry!” he said. By changing its name to BlackBerry, the company’s hopes for a streamlined identity as it embarks on a make-or-break drive to regain lost ground in the smartphone market it once dominated. In its latest gambit, BlackBerry has launched two new LTE-enabled smartphones, named Z10, an all touch phone, and Q10, which has the classical BlackBerry keyboard. BlackBerry is marketing its new devices aggressively, hoping that BlackBerry users will remain faithful to the platform. But luring iOS and Android users could be a tough task for the company.
Facebook’s mobile ads
Facebook’s mobile advertising revenues grew 23% in the fourth quarter of 2012 and the social media behemoth has announced gains in its advertising business of 41% over Q4 2011 to total $1.3 billion, or 84% of total revenue. Of that, 23% was mobile ad revenue, up from 14% in the previous quarter. The growth in its mobile advertising revenue is a sign that the social network is seeing early success in expanding onto handheld devices as more of its users migrate to smartphones and tablets. Extending its reach on mobile devices is crucial as more and more of its one billion-plus users are now increasingly accessing Facebook via smartphones and tablets. Launched in February 2004, Facebook has over one billion active users, with more than half of them using Facebook on mobile devices. For the latest quarter, Facebook’s overall advertising business grew at its fastest clip since its May IPO last year.
Philips’ audio-visual biz
Amsterdam-based Philips Electronics will be selling off its “Lifestyle Entertainment” business, including audio, video, multimedia and related accessory products, to Funai Electric of Japan for $202 million in cash and a license fee for the lifestyle entertainment unit. The revamp is part of Philips’s greater focus on building its more profitable business comprising cancer scanners and energy-savings light bulbs. Philips competes with Siemens AG and General Electric in health-care equipment such as medical scanners as well as in lighting. The company’s consumer business has shrunk over the years as customers flock to competitors such as Samsung or Apple for mobile communications and music devices. Its remaining consumer division will focus on health- and wellbeing products such as beard stylers and grooming kits, etc.
End of the road for Dunlop?
Dunlop India Limited (DIL), India’s oldest tyre manufacturer that had set up its first factory at Sahaganj near Kolkatta in 1936, has been given winding down orders by the Calcutta High Court. It has directed the official liquidator to take immediate possession of the company’s assets and books of records. At least 17 creditors had moved the Calcutta High Court in 2008, filing a winding up petition, which sought DIL’s liquidation. The liquidation was sought on the ground that DIL was transferring its assets without paying the Rs.1,000 crore of dues to its creditors. However, the DIL counsel later submitted before the court that the DIL management was taking every possible step to settle the issue and that there should be a stay on liquidation. Subsequently, a two-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court has restrained the official liquidator from taking immediate possession of DIL, but it asked the tyre manufacturer to deposit a sum of Rs.10 crore with the court Ruia Group chairman Pawan Kumar Ruia had taken over the ailing Dunlop from the Chabbria’s in 2005 but the company has been hit with problems since 1996.
Tata and Wolverine launch brands
Tata International, which entered into a 50:50 JV with the US-based Wolverine Worldwide in April last year, is looking at launching more brands from Wolverine’s portfolio in India over the next 3-4 months. The JV has launched apparels, footwear and accessories under the premium brand ‘Cat’ (a global licensee from Caterpillar Inc.) from Wolverine’s portfolio so far. Tata International is a leading leather product exporter and it is the global trading subsidiary of the Tata Group. Wolverine Worldwide has 16 brands under it such as Bates, Harley-Davidson Footwear, Cat, Hush Puppies among others. Hush Puppies is currently marketed by Bata in India. The Tata International Wolverine Brands will boast of high quality products in denim and woven apparel for men and women, footwear in an array of styles and cuts, along with an accessory collection to add the right amount of ruggedness to the “Cat” inspired look. With its presence across 200 countries, Wolverine Brands is now eyeing India as a big market and has plans to unleash almost 16 brands from its portfolio such as Harley Davidson, Patagonia, Merrel, Wolverine, Keds, Stride Rite and Sperry Top-Sider. Most of these are primarily footwear brands.
Lenovo bets big on smartphones
Chinese PC major Lenovo, which entered the Indian smartphone market late last year with five Android devices priced between Rs.6,500 and Rs.28,500, has now decided to become a major player in India’s 16-million smartphone market. The company is working to expand its operations by tying up with Reliance Communications and will soon be launching low-end smartphones that work on both GSM and CDMA technology platform simultaneously. Currently, Lenovo offers smartphones in the South Indian states and Gujarat under a testing phase but is now looking to grow its smartphone business across the country over the next few months. Lenovo’s handsets will come bundled with RCom services, while consumers will be given the option to use both CDMA and GSM services simultaneously. The device will have in-built capability to switch between CDMA and GSM networks during a call or a data session, if one of the networks loses the signal. While the handset will be locked for the CDMA network with RCom, the GSM would be kept open and consumers can avail service of any other operator if they wish to.
Fastest growing retailers
According to Deloitte’s recently released 2013 Global Powers Retailing Report, emerging markets count for almost half of the world’s 50-fastest growing retailers in the 2006-2011 period. Chinese and Russian retailers are well-represented among the fastest 50, as well as retailers from Africa/Middle East and Latin America. The report attributes continued growth in emerging markets to the burgeoning middle classes, youthful populations, and sizeable foreign direct investment. The report adds that the growth in large emerging markets such as China is projected to add at least 70 million new consumers to the global middle class per year, which is an additional 500 million new middle-class consumers by 2020. One thing’s for sure – there is a lot of growth, and therefore opportunity to be found in emerging markets across the globe. According to the report, the top 250 retailers maintained a healthy 3.8% composite net profit margin in 2011, matching the industry’s 2010 result. Nearly all of the companies that disclosed their bottom-line results (181 of 194 reporting companies) operated at a profit in 2011. The revenues of the world’s 250 largest retailers grew by 5% to reach $4 trillion during the fiscal year ended June 2012, despite the global economic downturn, the report found.
