Tata Coffee's 'Grand premium' brand

‘The Times of India’ edition on the 1st of October was a real surprise. It emitted an amazing aroma of coffee, powerful enough to induce proper alertness right away, especially in an avid early morning newspaper reader like me.

On what was supposed to be an “International Coffee” day, ‘Tata Coffee’ had launched it’s “Grand Premium” brand. Besides a prominent ad of the same on the front page, the “aroma induced newspaper” was powerful enough to grab the immediate attention of any of it’s readers, none of whom would have failed to notice and adequately register the ad in their minds.

Yet another brilliant example indeed, of what may be called “Surprise Marketing”.

The launch of “Grand Premium” brand was registered very effectively in every reader’s mind, and easy brand recall was never in doubt.  But, as public memory is proverbially short, it is likely to fade way from memory soon, making way for powerful brands like ‘Nescafe’ and ‘Bru’, which perhaps enjoy a better “top-of-the-mind” recall among the consumers.

If ‘Tata Coffee’ intends to position “Grand Premium”, as it’s flagship brand, then besides enabling the potential consumers to “hear the sound of special flavor locked decoction crystals that lock in the flavor to give you a great aroma and taste” by shaking the bottle, they will need to find a real disruptive idea, to create a unique brand value in the coffee segment.

How about combining the benefits of caffeine which enables alertness, along-with those of some key health aiding ingredients to enable their benefits as well in the product, thereby enabling these twin-benefits to consumers of “Grand Premium”?

Students, busy executives, business fraternity, and other such working professionals, who generally need coffee to put in those long hours, could be the among the right target audience. Besides, those who have to exert themselves both mentally and physically during their jobs, could also be among the intended target audience.

That, such a unique product would need considerable amount of R&D, is undoubted, but what is obvious is the kind of brand value which "Grand Premium" brand in particular, and ‘Tata Coffee’ company in general could get, if such an idea is successfully tested and effectively marketed. 😊

Ratan Tataji's philosophy of "Compassionate Capitalism"

“If you want to walk fast, walk alone. But if you want to walk far, walk together” – Ratan Tata

If there is one legacy which Ratan Tata ji has left behind for India Inc to emulate, is his philosophy of “Compassionate Capitalism”, which he imbibed in every possible way, mainly by his legendary humility and empathy towards all those whose lives he touched, including some strays, and above all our environment as well.

Two of legendary examples could be – one, after Mumbai attacks in November 2008, he vowed to take care of the families of those hotel employees who were killed or injured, and also pledged to to pay the relatives of the dead employees the ‘salaries which they would have earned for the rest of their lives’. Second could be the launch of ‘Tata Sustainability Group’ in 2014, well before it had become a buzzword in our corporate sector. The group was established with a clear vision: to drive sustainability initiatives across the Tata Companies, and to make environment and social stewardship integral to the business strategy.

Furthermore, that this conglomerate emerged as the only Indian brand, among the world’s top 100 most valued brands per ‘Brand Finance’ global rankings, could to a great extent also be attributed to this philosophy.

It’s not difficult to guess that such a grand success could be attributed to the pride and a sense of purpose, which each employee had being associated with the conglomerate, thereby enabling them to give their best performance.

Leading business schools and other top educational institutions in India, need to imbibe such a philosophy among their students, by using case studies mainly from the Tata conglomerate. Corporates could also introduce orientation sessions for their employees on the key elements behind the same, along with the positive fallouts for the organization as a whole, with associated benefits to all their key constituents such as - employees, customers, vendors, and in the ultimate analysis to their share holders.

What could be a better way of further accelerating our overall economic progress and development, for generations to come?

Tackling Crisis in the Middle East

With the world economy struggling to recover from the twin shocks of the pandemic and then the Russia -Ukraine war, the current crisis in the Middle East is certainly in no-one's interest, including the key powers like Israel and Iran which are involved.

While the world waits with a bated breath, as to how this would eventually pan out, and whether it would also drag some other powers in the Middle East into a larger confrontation, it is reasonable to expect that some major hectic "behind-the-scenes" diplomacy is going on, to defuse the highly "inflammable" situation.

While, the genesis of the current crisis lies in the savagely attack on Israel by Hamas a year ago, leading to mindless killing of innocents including innocents and children, and refusal by Hamas to release Israeli hostages held captive for a year now , Iran's declared support to "Axis of Resistance" such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis, has only aggravated the tense situation. Israel's "disproportionate" response on Gaza and "Axis of Resistance" can at best be debated but cannot be condemned.

The UN Security Council should waste no time in passing a resolution, asking Israel to desist from any further military action, and at the same time asking Iran to rein in it's proxies ,by ensuring safe release of Israeli hostages and declaring the Red Sea safe, thereby ensuring no disruptions in the global supply chains. A quid-pro-quo by Israel should also be part of the deal.

Furthermore, the Security Council has to also work out a two-nation solution, by forcing Israel to recognize the "State of Palestine", thereby taking a "giant-step" towards a durable solution to peace and prosperity in the Middle East.

That such steps would be in the economic and overall interest of all the key powers in the Middle East in particular, besides the world in general, is anyone's guess.

Needless to add, the United Nations would also enhance it's credibility and relevance, that it certainly can be counted upon to tackle any crisis, which threatens the peaceful world order.

All r

Importance of addressing mental and physical health of Employees

As part of their 'Employee Value Proposition', It would be great if corporates can tie-up with some reputed healthcare entities, to periodically check both physical and mental health of their employees, along-with identifying the stress factors afflicting them (if any).

The feasible remedial steps taken to address such stress factors, would certainly go a long way in boosting the morale and motivational levels of their employees, thereby boosting their loyalty factor and enabling them to put in their 100% to their jobs. This in turn can ultimately reflect in better productivity, finally translating in significantly enhancing the valuation and shareholder returns of such corporates.

That, it should now be one of the key areas of attention by the 'Board of Directors' of such corporates, is quite obvious.

Could 'Koo' have survived?

Close on heels of news regarding shuttering of ‘Koo’, a microblogging site similar to Twitter (now X), came the news that Meta’s ‘Threads’, another such platform, had garnered 175 million followers.

In their parting note, the founders of 'Koo' said “partnership talks fell through with the large internet companies and media houses, who didn’t want to deal with user generated content and the wild nature of a social media company".

Without being privy to the respective strategies deployed by ‘Koo’ and ‘Threads’, one wonders if ‘Koo’ management reflected on the key use of this platform for its users, beyond just posting their thoughts on the same, and hoping that the same would get noticed by other users, thereby enabling them recognition and fame on this platform?

While as per media reports, ‘Koo’ was adopted by some well known personalities, it appears that their patronage could not sustain for long. It would have been ideal if this platform was positioned for serving as:

·       A key communication channel between those personalities and their followers/admirers. Furthermore, the opinions/feedbacks posted by such followers/admirers could have been summarized, and presented to the respective personalities, for their information and necessary action as required,

·       An important channel to gauge the opinions/perceptions of some of the users, by some well known brands. Again posts by such users could have been summarized and presented to such brands periodically, which could have served as a valuable insights for their respective strategies,

·       An important medium for some Startups, which could have used it to test their ideas among some users, thereby benefitting them as they navigated the tough market conditions,

·       One of the key channels for Government bodies and public utilities, to make important announcements, and gauge responses from the public, which could have enabled them gauge the efficacy of their services, and applying correctives accordingly, and

·       An important source for media houses including those from vernacular languages, which could have sourced some newsworthy content from posts from it's users etc.

Well, by adopting such strategies, ‘Koo’ could have gained some loyal patrons among some leading brands, startups, celebrities, public utilities, Government bodies, media houses etc. which could have resulted in a ‘snow-balling’ impact on its popularity, and user base, and which could have easily rivalled that of ‘X’ in India.

And, as in any other business – keeping their ‘hand on the pulse’ of their stakeholders, and applying correctives as and when deemed necessary, could have helped a lot.

With such strategies, and such loyal stakeholder categories as indicated above, which could have been an important source of it's revenue, the financial viability of ‘Koo’ could have catapulted it into a much desired acquisition, by some of the leading media houses etc. 😊

State of our stock markets today

The state of our stock markets today, resemble to the state as prevailing during December 2007, when it kept gaining new heights, with every passing day, and for no valid reason.

A year later, that is in November 2008, a headline in 'The Economic Times' read, "Don't buy a burger, buy a blue-chip instead." This summarized the depths to which our stock markets had sunk, post the collapse of 'Lehman Brothers', leading to severe financial crisis due to lack of confidence in the financial system.

Let's hope and pray that such history doesn't repeat itself now, even for different reasons. There are headwinds, especially by way of the forthcoming Presidential elections in the US, and fingers are crossed regarding the policies of the next government, irrespective of the political party in power. Trade policies and commitment to climate change are the two key areas which would be closely watched. It's ramifications would be felt around the world.

Similarly, with stalemate continuing in the Middle East, one can't be too sure if Israel gets too aggressive in getting it's hostages released from the captivity of Hamas, which can only worsen the situation.

And so on....

Let's hope and pray for the best 😊