MAM
These brands faltered in their communication
NEW DELHI: There have been ample researches by Kantar stating how important it is for the brands to have a voice amidst this lockdown and keep advertising. It has been insisted that brands stay creative, empathetic, and understand consumer needs as they work on their campaigns.
Dwelling at length on how brands should be planning their communication to Indiantelevision.com in an earlier interaction, Dentsu One president Harjot Singh Narang said that brands will have to go deeply humane and adapt to the new paradigm exactly like how human relationships adapt to and grow in uncertain times. Wunderman Thompson South Asia chairman and group CEO Tarun Rai had also mentioned that brands need to be empathetic in their approach.
However, despite so much discussion about what and how a brand should be promoting itself during this period, there were some brands that faltered in their planning. The biggest example of this came in the form of KENT RO’s distasteful, classist, and misogynistic ad for its atta maker.
The social media ad was called out by netizens and brand experts alike and the brand quickly took it down with an apology, stating that it was ‘unintentional’.
There were two other campaigns that caught the attention of communication consultant Karthik Srinivasan, which he talked about in his blog and LinkedIn page.
The first one was cooking oil brand Gold Winner, which did a ‘shabby’ job out of its influencer campaign on social media.
The brand used images from other popular cooking channels and websites without taking creators’ permission or giving credits and used them for a mass copy-paste campaign on Twitter. The worst part was that they misused the sentiment of “we cooked for our mom” to earn some brand points.
Srinivasan wrote in his blog, “I have no clue why brands and agencies still indulge in such monumentally stupid and shallow online promotions. It’s not as if they know all these things. The only explanation is that they know it and couldn’t care less. All they want is a LOT of people talking about their product with stock statements and stock photos. It doesn’t need to be real for them and even questions and mockery of the campaign don’t really matter to them at all. You could call it anything – confidence, bravado, chutzpah… or idiocy.”
Next was not as much a brand going wrong with communication but the unfortunate placement of its ad next to a piece of negative news. Amul and Indigo found their ads placed quite close to the news of Indigo fliers testing positive for Covid2019 on the first day of them resuming flight operations.
Most recently, Diet Sabya, an anonymous social media account calling out designers and celebrities for copying designs, voiced its opinions on a far graver issue by calling out jewellery brand Dhora for creating a Covid-themed necklace.
The brand clarified that it sees the design as a lesson that all have learnt from the crisis. It wrote in an Instagram story, “I guess, it’s the lessons we learn from all the crisis, wars, struggle for independence, etc. and yet remember that day as a lesson to empower our present. You can shut your eyes with disgust to a crisis or you can take the learnings and implement it to make a better future.”
Dhora further added, “I am glad that we all can co-exist happily with different opinions yet support each other. We are all game for criticism. Thanks to our supporters and customers. However, it’s probably the worst time to pull each other down @dietsabya. All we have right now is each other.”
Diet Sabya was quick to respond stating, “Trying to leverage Covid-19 by making over-priced necklaces is anything but privilege… Do you really think that any more would want to remember a crisis that has so far uprooted the lives of millions? Do you really think people want to remember the worst recession in history? Do you really think ANYONE would want to wear this ‘ART’ to remember the 362,124 lives lost?”
Brands
Flipkart completes reverse flip to India ahead of IPO
Walmart-owned e-commerce giant shifts domicile from Singapore to Bengaluru
MUMBAI: Flipkart has completed its restructuring to move its parent company from Singapore back to India, marking a key milestone as the Walmart-owned marketplace prepares for a potential initial public offering on Indian stock exchanges, ET reported, citing people aware of the matter.
The move, often referred to as a “reverse flip”, relocates the company’s legal home to India and aligns its corporate structure more closely with its largest market. It also clears an important regulatory step for Flipkart as it explores listing plans.
As part of the restructuring, several Singapore-based entities have been merged into Flipkart Internet Private Limited, which will now serve as the main holding company for the entire group.
The consolidation brings a number of major businesses directly under the Indian parent company. These include fashion platform Myntra, logistics arm Ekart, travel booking platform Cleartrip, healthcare marketplace Flipkart Health, and fintech venture Super.money.
Under the new structure, global investors including Walmart, Microsoft, SoftBank, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will hold their stakes directly in the Indian entity rather than through an overseas holding company.
The redomiciliation required approval from the Indian government because Chinese technology company Tencent owns around a 5 to 6 per cent stake in Flipkart. Under Press Note 3, investments from countries sharing a land border with India require prior government clearance.
Flipkart had already secured approval from the National Company Law Tribunal in December. With the latest clearance from the central government, the company has now obtained all the regulatory approvals needed to complete the relocation, ET reported earlier.
Flipkart had originally shifted its holding structure to Singapore in 2011 to tap global capital more easily. However, as India’s capital markets have matured, several start-ups have begun returning their domiciles to the country ahead of public listings. Companies such as Razorpay, Groww, and Meesho have taken similar steps.
The company is now expected to move ahead with its IPO preparations and has begun early discussions with merchant bankers. According to people familiar with the matter, Flipkart could file its draft prospectus later this year, setting the stage for what may become one of the most closely watched listings in India’s e-commerce sector.
Flipkart has been majority-owned by Walmart since 2018, when the US retail giant acquired a 77 per cent stake in the company for $16 billion in one of the largest e-commerce deals globally.
