Tuesday, September 21, 2010

eBay’s latest TVC may refresh the good ol’ memories of Doordarshan instantly

but will it actually make an impact in the consumers’ minds to eventually hop on to internet’s buying and selling world is still an unanswered question.

Location: Humboldt County, 420 km north of San Francisco, California. Three cows, eight houses, and a post office. Add to it a population of less than 25. Founded in 1865 in the aftermath of the California Gold Rush, it boasts of three owners in the last 130 years. Still Clueless? Bridgeville, the tiniest of towns in North Western California may provide a little help, which seemed long past its glory days when in 2002, it shot at immortality as it became the first town ever to be listed on eBay. The world’s greatest auction and shopping website has again made heads turn with its ‘Super Deals, Super Safe’ campaign in India. But is this really a new beginning of ‘The eBay way’ in the country?

Narottam Puri and Komal GB Singh, the oldest anchors on the Indian television, reignited the nostalgia of Doordarshan’s talk show programs via the latest TVC of this online shopping giant. The names are well-known to almost every single Indian individual belonging to the 20+ age group as they ruled Doordarshan’s charts when simplicity and to the point talk ruled the roost and glamour and frivolity were almost non-existent. The TV commercial showcase a similar talk show called ‘The eBay way’ where callers ask questions related to various choices in their lives and the hosts direct them to the eBay website with the message of getting the best and the most secure deals. This move by eBay at one level, creates a unique identity in the minds of the target group so as to enhance the brand awareness and brand recall but fundamentally, this campaign is trying to achieve something far bigger (read: tougher). According to market reports, close to 50 million Indians go to the internet at least once a week. Out of these, at least 35 million visit the internet daily. And around 90% of those surf the net for some or the other sort of products, be it goods or services. But, as it

goes with the Indian psyche, word of mouth publicity still towers above all and most netizens still want to follow opinion leaders in their reliability sphere. Hence, still maximum purchases happen to be offline. And that’s the wall eBay is trying to crack with this campaign.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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