Rise and Fall of Saravana Bhavan

Rise and Fall of Saravana Bhavan

In the 90s, a new concept called “High Class Vegetarian” Hotel emerged and the author of that was HSB (Hotel Saravana Bhavan). It was mass dining, but the quality of food was outstanding. The raw material used and the service standards were unbelievable that the middle class population with full of aspirations to grow found this very attractive. The hotel discouraged “Tips” to their employees and the waiters never waited for you to pay them, their sole objective was to serve good food and clear the way for more customers. I still remember one of my friend commenting that the tissue paper near the wash area, never runs out. The pricing was very smart as it wasn’t cheap but the hotel managed an image that did not put them in the expensive bracket, it was “affordable pricing”. They dominated with some of their signature dishes : Adai Aviyal, 7 taste oothapam,

Mini idli, Mini coffee.

 The hotel expanded rapidly with branches surfacing in almost all parts of Chennai. There always news of a new branch opening in the US, Dubai, London kept surfacing in the Hotel’s bill boards. The dining gave a very positive experience to customers as the management rolled out unbelievable packages to their staff which included foreign trips, retirement benefits, education & housing support etc., I am sure a large framed picture of Benefits to our employees decorated the walls of every Saravana Bhavan. Guru  “Kripananda Warrier” photographs along with Lord Murugan pictures decorated every branch and you will see a bowl of “Vibuthi” (ashes) and “Kumkum” in the cash counter. HSB had a consistent image with uniform colors, fonts etc., All the branches will have a minimum of 20 sign boards inside the dining area, with an white uniform for all their staff.

In the mid 90s the hotel brought in a new concept of “Fast Food Counters” that enabled customers to experience quick self service. Brand HSB was so powerful that anyone visiting Chennai will never miss a visit to the hotel . The taste of Chennai was Saravana Bhavan’s Dosa with Coffee. Even now, there are a set of strong spokesmen for their Coffee. HSB’s Radhakrishnan Road branch started off this unique service of “Coffee for Morning Walkers” at around 6am. One could see enthusiastic walkers crowding the hotel in the wee hours.

HSB ventured into fine dining through “pay by weight” concept. While the thought was new but the patronage wasn’t great for this idea, however this enabled them to push their pricing further. Branches like Mylapore, T Nagar, Pondy Bazaar, Anna Nagar, Peters Road too added the fine dining sections into their portfolio.

While their growth story was comfortably cruising a few uncomfortable negative stories started surfacing – “Annachi”, the owner of HSB got in a murder case that revolved around a woman. This fuelled many more such cases / rumours against the man who was scripting a global food chain. But then, never once during those days was Saravana Bhavan quality questioned.

Competition in the form of Murugan Idli, Sangeetha, Annapoorna started their ventures into the capital. But they were struggling to gain mind space as every dish of theirs was compared with Saravana Bhavan. (Murugan idli managed a unique taste for sambar over time). But customers for sure started getting their choices.

HSB moved with brisk pace in signing up with malls, setting up an outlet in Chennai Central, strategically locating an outlet closer to Airport etc., thereby giving customers enough opportunities to experience.

Around the beginning of the new millennium lots of food brands started surfacing in the Vegetarian Food market : Madurai Meenakshi Bhavan, Ratna Café, Murugan Idli, Sangeetha, Adyar Anandha Bhavan, Mathsya, Ramas, Grand Sweets, Sri Krishna Sweets, and many other smaller players. The market got heated up and more players started filling the gaps.

Swiggy and Uber eats changed the food business dramatically. Most of the leading brands got into the platform, but Saravana Bhavan didn’t, for reasons only known to them.

Service Standards of HSB begun to slide as customers realised that they could demand more. Unfortunately, the brand that was aggressively marketing itself through new formats, branches, snack varieties etc., stopped its thinking process. The employee welfare schemes started to fade and we could witness attrition among staff, the familiar faces were missing at the hotel. By now, the staff have started accepting “tips” and the management did remove their “No tips Please” boards.The confident supervisors were no more confident. HSB that was away from Media, went on to advertise across medium rather desperately. With bill boards starting to announce Cost effective Food Combos – the desperation was visible. The staff who were a mute spectator to the orders we do, started suggesting us to consume exotic and expensive food items.

Today, we walk into any HSB outlet there is a feel of emptiness even during peak consumption hours. Customers are hesitating to walk in to Saravana Bhavan as the truth is out and it has even crossed the Chennai shores. The quality of food and service has become highly subjective, so much so that while ordering a cup of coffee it is advisable to specify the waiter “Please bring it hot”.

Learnings:

As regards to a service brand’s deterioration, when and what went wrong is difficult to peg .

A service brand needs to be always on an evolution mode

Service brands should quickly learn and adapt from competition, however small they are.

Adapt new technologies faster

The employee motivation/welfare schemes should keep improving as they are the face

Reputation management should be a constant affair

Communication with loyal customers need to be a part of the calendar

Television Advertising during IPL 2019

This is a window that is high on cost but delivers the desired audience to the advertiser. The aura around IPL has only grown year on year and the viewership and the cost of advertisements are proportionately increasing. The brand, if uses the window judiciously can gain considerable share of voice for sure. Surprisingly the quality of communication is on  a decline and we still have to search for those magical 30 sec TVCs.

We saw more Celebrities : Aamir Khan, Shahrukh, Amitabh, Salman, Akshay, Dhoni, Madhavan, Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Deepika, Ayushmann Khurana, Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Paresh Rawal, Ajay Devgn, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Hemamalini etc., Who says Celebrities in advertising don’t work? But it looks like unless we spend time in crafting the communication, chances are that we might go unnoticed.

There is a long list of commercials that ran during this IPL which I have tried listing and at the end I have chosen my favourites.

1.                        FOGG Deodorant : “Aur kya Chahiye”

Rolled out multiple TVCs.

2.                        Lloyds Air conditioners : Featured Deepika and Ranveer Singh. The communication was around the high end mobile operated controls of the AC

3.                        Byju’s Learning APP: SRK with Kids, had a set of commercials, everything looked pretty much the same except for the last shot.

4.                        Dr Fixit : Amitabh Bachan highlighted the need for waterproofing before construction. (Octopus, Frog and  Tortoise)

5.                        PayTM : Had multiple commercials highlighting the ease of using this app.

6.                        Poly Cab : Continued the last year’s Paresh Rawal Commercial and did a new product intro through another brand ambassador : Ayushmann Khurana

7.                        Tata Intra : Multiple Akshay Kumars launched the mini truck from Tata

8.                        Swiggy : Continued its No minimum order, faster delivery etc.,

9.                        Vivo : Aamir Khan presented the new high definition pop up camera feature

10.                OPPO : Did the same as VIVO

11.                Urban Clap : Wanted to cash in on the season’s necessity : AC servicing through the App. (Brand Ambassador : Ayushmann Khurana)

12.                Usha : Set of Fan commercials

13.                Cadbury’s : Did Silk, Fuse and Dairy Milk

14.                Kent RO : Mundane Hemamalini Testimonials

15.                Policy Bazaar : Akshay Kumar presenting the advantage of using this for choosing the best insurance

16.                Maruti Vitara Brezza: Multiple commercials focussed on Attitude

17.                Havell’s : Presented its Circuit breaker through multiple situations depicting the importance of the product

18.                Big Bazaar : Focussed on “SALE” aspect of the brand through other brands

19.                Tasty Treat : The inhouse brand of Future Group presented their entire range

20.                Haier : Advertised its range of products through multiple TVCs

21.                Phone Pe App : Aamir and a Kid demonstrated all the features of the APP

22.                Britannia : Ran its 97 promo “ Britannia Khao World cup Jao” for the upcoming world cup

23.                Dream 11 : This cricket focussed App  had some very interestingly shot TVCs that shared some very realistic situations. These TVCs had a lot of empathy factor in them. (Dhoni the Brand Ambassador)

24.                Jio : Song and dance that used almost all the IPL teams

25.                Kingfisher Radler : A new non-alchoholic beverage

26.                CK Birla Group: Dhoni the brand ambassador was promoting Orient Fans

27.                VIVO : Had different commercials for their phones

28.                Asian Paints : Multiple commercials were running. They promoted Tractor Emulsion, bacteria free paints, and Luxury Emulsion brands . Brand Ambassador : Ranbir Kapoor

29.                Hero : Complete Range of Two wheelers, tried promoting as a Global Brand

30.                Sprite : Had some interesting TVCs that highlighted the product’s proposition “The coolant”

31.                Amul : Promoted its icecream

32.                Voltas Adjustable Inverter AC :

33.                Toyota Glanza : More Space

34.                Hector : Futuristic Cars

35.                Heineken 0 : Set of interesting TVCs established the product promise

36.                Samsung S10: Wireless charging feature of its products

37.                Linkdn: Powerpoint style TVCs brought out the benefit of networking

38.                TATA’s Harrier SUV: Set of 4 commercials, nothing great

39.                Vimal Pan masala : Ajay Devgan featuring in this long commercial

40.                Daily Hunt : Parrot ad

41.                Frooti  with Aliabhatt and Varun Dhawan

42.                Coke : Ranbir Kapoor and Paresh Rawal combination

43.                Magic Bricks

44.                Thumsup : Ranveer Singh

45.                Appy Fizz : SalmanKhan

46.                Colgate : “Start with a smile” TVCs

47.                Makemytrip : Aliabhatt and Ranveer Singh

48.                Netflix for Selection Day

My choice of advertisements that had some recall value and stood high on empathy quotient were, ( Not in order of choice )

§ Heineken 0

§ Coke

§ Sprite

§ Dream 11

§ Phone pe App

§ Magic Bricks (though a old ad, still has relevance)

§ Swiggy (Minimum order by the oldman, this time Motichoor Laddu)

§ Netflix, Selection day Promo films

What we learn from this window of advertising?

1.                        You cannot garner mileage with one standalone advertisement, as the time span for the IPL is roughly 60 days. You need to create atleast 4-5 TVCs that can be played at regular intervals. This also helps in engagement with the TVC. A Good example is Phone Pe App and Aamir Khan.

2.                        Use Celebrity not as an endorser but as a character and try to weave the story around. Eg : Coke – Ranbir and Paresh Rawal

3.                        Real life situations drawn from experience and with engaging production value will stand out. Eg: Dream 11 commercials

The Game of Politics

More and more people want to get into politics; all with one noble intention: to do good for the people. But they all end up losing the war. Look at the cases of Nandan Nilekeni in Karnataka, Jayprakash in Hyderabad, an IIT Topper in Chennai, and several other leaders across the country. The political game and the election-process are not only about the intention to do good, but also require the individuals to be shrewd in calculations and sound in strategy.

Let us consider an example: RK Nagar is going to poll with 258 polling booths for 2,24,000 people roughly translating to 1085 votes per booth. If you have the ability to personally touch these 1085 voters in that area, and similarly, all 258 booths in the given 45 days time, then, you make a difference. Mind you, this isn’t easy considering the fact there will be at least 100 booths that will have one-party domination and an equal number of booths where two parties will go neck to neck. The state of the independent ‘good candidate’ finally narrows down to at best 10 booths which means 10850 votes. Even there, ruling and opposition parties will have a vote share; plus, like-minded good candidates will garner some. Finally, you end up with 5-10K votes at the end of the day. If you are great candidate you will finish with an average of 10% votes that means 22400 votes. This, you may consider, as the best possibleoutcome for yourself. Imagine that you float a party, and there are 235 constituencies in Tamil Nadu; you need to be in a position to repeat what I just narrated while sweeping the state. A mammoth of a task, isn’t it? The politicians have cracked this secret code to be somewhere in the 30 – 40% vote market in every constituency, which means in the given 45 days, they just need to garner that extra 20% votes to be in the race. This is where their door-to-door campaigns, advertisements in newspaper / TV etc., play a dominant role. Apart from this, their ability to pick the local issue, local leaders, caste leaders, merchant clubs etc., helps them with another 10% of the votes. A newcomer and do –gooder starts with his basic step of introducing himself after filing nominations. By the time he finishes one round around the constituency, the election date comes up. There ends the campaigning. He is forgotten till the elections. Experts from political parties quote that Rs. 20 crore per constituency is what is needed to be spent (Conservative estimate) to participate and have a chance to win.

Does this all mean that we will be stuck with the same set of politicians? Unfortunately, with the current state of affairs, it is a big YES.

Our decision to cast a vote is also similar to how we decide on a particular toilet soap brand. The brand that is more visible; the brand that gives the tallest promise; the brand that belongs to a larger group; the brand that gives us gifts.

Rarely, that we select based on ingredients, process, or quality of raw materials.

Where & How should the change come from?

From the candidate himself. They should become volunteersway before they intend to contest. They need to take up welfare activities along with friends whom they intend to start this party with and get connected with people from all sections. Eg: The formation of AAP. Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi both rode the wave formed by Anna Hazare and capitalised on it to carve a career for themselves. Kejriwal started AAP; Kiran Bedi joined BJP and is now a Governor.

The candidate needs to understand the geography in which they operate, the number of people, the number of shops, PDS outlets, schools, colleges, primary health centers, sex-ratio, drinking water pipes, tanks, electricity polls, waste disposal mechanism, and everything else. As this knowledge will help during speeches, interviews, media interaction, and, well, interaction with the general populace.

The candidate should create an organisation with a structure that will reach out to every constituency and form constituency based groups. These groups should be allotted different departments like a mock ministry, and the individual groups will be a part of drafting the manifesto during the elections.

The candidate needs to be on top of everything that is going on in the constituency and should, without a hesitation, get in and give his point of view.

The manifesto should address all cross-sections of people including the dominating ones in that constituency.

One big burning issue needs to be a consistent discussion point for the candidate apart from all other things. Consider the following: Sterlite by Vaiko; Lokpal by Kejriwal; Swissbank by Modi; Mandir by BJP; Nano by Mamta; Tamil by Karunanithi; Farmers by YSR; and so on. This gives them an identity and a relatability that remains unique to theeir face-value. The more sharper the issue that you take the better chance you have to win. (Kamal went to Ennore and spoke about something that I can’t remember, but didn’t follow up; and now no one remembers.)

Bottenecks that you will have to face

The caste that you belong to should be a popular one; even here if you are from a forward/upward caste, issues will be raised!

The friends around you also need to have a clean chit, as media is waiting to sensationalise anything and everything.

The threats and embarrassments that you will face during your journey will leave you red-faced (you need to be a thug as well!)

Funding. You need to really mobilise a lot of money to stay ahead.

Good intentions are great beginnings, but if you don’t crack the code, the game of politics shall leave you defeated.

The dynamic growth of ITC

Till 2005, we never knew that ITC could be anything but cigarettes. They had ventured into Greeting cards through their "Impressions" brand again as Gold Flake impressions. Everyone was aware they had paper business. But a dynamic and aggressive move from this company has now made them spread their wings across a diverse set of categories. In almost all categories ITC has taken on the leader and in some cases gained shares. What i personally liked is even in overlapping categories they did not go for brand extensions, they launched unique brands. They are now into

1. Bingo : As a snack brand it took on the might of Pepsi's Fritto Lay's. Today they are on par with them if not better. Look at the no. of flavours they have and the kind of pathbreaking advertising they did, i could recollect the "Vaango Pongo" and the "why is this chips not round" etc., They went one step ahead in getting scripts with local flavour to connect better. I still remember Ogilvy Dakshin had done some work on the Tamil versions.

2. Sunfeast : Biscuits is now a large brand that challenges the leader "Britannia". Marie, Cream, Cookies, Salted and so on. Very high brand visibility through strong media presence they managed and almost suppressed competition.

3. Candyman : Confectionery is supposed to be a difficult nut to crack and they did succeed. Eclairs, orange candy, kaccha aam, Coffee and so on.

4.Vivel : Range of products that includes soaps, fairness cream, body wash etc., targetted at the middle segment was launched using Trisha as the brand ambassador is highly visible, however i am not sure about the product offtake and market shares.

Advertising during IPL 2017

We could witness some interesting ads during this IPL, personally i am happy that marketers are looking at this window for some good communication. Here we go with some very good and not so good advertising during 2017:
Vodafone: This brand from Ogilvy has always lured the audience, made them talk about their TVCs. Zoo Zoos were exclusively created for this way back in 2006. This year’s advertising features the product story on 4G through Padma Bhushan Shanta Dhananjayan and V.P Dhananjayan from Chennai. The brand has engaged the audience so effectively that one is looking forward to the next spot. The brand has managed to maintain the interest on the communication.
Vodafone did use the popular Zoo Zoos to celebrate 10 years of IPL during the initial phase of IPL 2017.
Amazon: Another Ogilvy campaign that took forward the idea of “Sapno ki apna dukhan” through a series of TVCs exclusively created around cricket and IPL. As this one also has a cricket team, Some of the spots were good as they brought a few smiles. But the engagement and empathy factor wasn’t growing nor there was any intrigue.
Polycab wires : Considering the strong national footprint the IPL will offer these commercials are made in multiple languages with one common anchor “ Paresh Rawal”. Models from the respective regions have been used. I felt the whole idea was a refreshing one, as they avoided dubbing. Strategically impressive but creatively not scoring.
Ceat Tyres: Fresh set of commercials centered around “There are idiots on the road” impresses with its execution. The performance of the cast is excellent and we could easily emphathise with every situation captured. Another Ogilvy contribution.
Havells : Multiples TVCs on different products were rolled out. The one that stands out is the “Tuh fire hai tho mein wire hai” commercial on the TN popular art form “ Puli aattam”.
Set of ads featuring Bomman Irani for MCB switches simply irritates and goes overboard, doesn’t have the finesse of the earlier set.
The dust resistant fan commercial featuring a couple comes good
Parle has come out a set of commercials with each one bringing forward atleast two of their biscuit brands. These are interesting as they just attempt towards driving one point “Parle Range”.
Kingfisher commercial using different IPL teams for its “ Mannequin Challenge” looks fresh
Frooti with Aliabhatt just concentrates on execution
Voltas Inverter AC doesn’t cut enough ice
Oppo camera phone irritates you inspite of having an excellent product feature
Maruti has focussed on Brezza with 2-3 spots, fail to impress
Jupiter from TVS has rolled out some fresh commercial on the thought of “ Impresses by its looks”. Usage of languages in the song makes it different for better recall
Durex with Ranveer Singh lacks the required punch
Yamaha Fascino, Reliance Jio, Sporto underwear, Standard Fans, Surya bulbs, Crompton, Fair & Handsome, Airtel, Ajay Devgn for some pan masala, Taj were some of the other brands that get affected in the clutter.

Commitment vs Delivery

Commitment vs Delivery

The current government committed to a whole lot of things when they were fighting the elections- they fought it pretty hard against an already dead snake. They beat them to death and came to power, my belief was in any case BJP would have come to govern with or without Modi as 10 years of UPA was too much for us to take. We were perturbed by a lot of scams and scandals that the anger in us was clearly highlighted during the elections’14.

But after BJP took charge i was expecting a lot from the government that would benefit the selfish tax payer (me!).  So, when i started commenting people around me said, “ Boss, you need to give time” Agreed, it wasn’t fair from my part to expect miracles to happen when one never expected anything from UPA for the past 10 years. We witnessed a lot of high end drama as the Prime Minister did a big “Sashtaanga Namaskaram” when he entered the Parliament and all of us said, “What a man” and we believed that he is out there to change the course of our country. Unfortunate that we weren’t aware that the GDP, Industrial growth, Inflation, Petrol Prices etc., were under control with the UPA govt. As a smart strategy the BJP never went on overboard to criticise Dr.Singh, PC, Sonia, Jayram Ramesh, instead they consistently made Rahul the scape goat and continued with their assault. This improved the image of the BJP and its leaders thereby dented the congress. The common man was made to believe that what BJP is delivering needs to be cherished. Prime Minister continued his foreign trips and made all of us believe that the relationships are improving with all other countries in the world except for China, Srilanka and Pakistan (which actually matters).

PM launched demonetisation and said all the black money will come to the roads, but unfortunately all of us came to the roads and stood in the queue to withdraw our own money. The banks kept strict stipulations that we cannot withdraw beyond a certain amount, but we all quietly adhered thinking that the black money holders are going to come to the roads. This is where we need to appreciate ourselves that when we believe, we believe. The Government took almost 8 months to give us an account of what was collected(99%). There is no clarity,

on what was the cost of this whole exercise called “Demonetisation”,

on what happened to those people who died standing in queues,

on those who lost jobs and

many who lost their businesses.

 Forget about the time we all spent discussing about this damn demonetisation.

Can you remember any issue that has affected us the most that we were discussing about the government between 2004 to 2014?

Look at some statistics,

The crude prices have comedown drastically while our fuel and cooking gas prices only look north.

The country’s GDP is at an all time low since 2006.

GST is all set to screw small and medium size businesses as they will have to only keep filing GST returns (40 times in a year).

The Swaach Bharat only added in the form of taxes and the dirt still exists. The amount of money spent on communicating the program runs into 100s of crores. The Make in India initiative remains to be a nice jargon and no great movement beyond Adani and Ambani. The news channels have surprisingly sounding pro government.

But the Central Govt is very busy preparing for election after election across the country and their only agenda is “Congress mukht Bharat”.

Friends, we need prosperity and not eradication of a party that doesn’t have power in any case.

Kamal as a Politician!

Kamal as a Politician!

Why not?    Is the first reaction.

Does he have the experience? Will he handle, Is he eligible, numerous such apprehensions. My submission is, the people  running the show according to me are neither eligible nor qualified. If we have accepted them and they are at the helm of affairs for many many years and giving (mis)governance to us,  why not Kamal? The way he has stepped in makes his intentions clear.

During the 80s, he defined clearly that his fan clubs be made into welfare organisations and need to take up social activities. They were known for their blood donation camps, organ donation camp, eye donation etc.,Unfortunately, Kamal didn’t have the huge mass that Rajnikanth possessed. The choice of movies and characters that Kamal chose never indicated his preference towards becoming a leader or a do-gooder.  He focussed on his talents to be a film maker and was trying his luck with all departments of movie making. The amount of criticism he used to receive from within the industry was enormous. The beauty of Kamal was he never would get disturbed and continued with his job.

Kamal was known for his confused speeches and interviews, i suppose he always wanted to portray himself as an intellectual amidst the crowd. But what has been witnessed post his “Viswaroopam” struggle was a lot of clarity in his communication. He started speaking less but with lot of substance. He was bold enough to criticise the Government directly for its inefficiency during the Chennai Floods. When the govt. machinery came down severly on him by disconnecting power and water supply to his Alwarpet home. He was cool enough in handling the situation by not reacting to it.

It was a cinematic situation where Kamal was dragged into the political scene by some immature politicians reverting to silly remarks. Kamal used the “Bigg Boss” opportunity in the right manner to revert back. His progressive thoughts and comments were received well across a lot of social groups. This has given him a lot of confidence and he too has transformed a lot as a presenter. He did make some strong point of views and overtly shared a lot of anti government statements both in twitter and through Television.

The question to ponder upon is, Can thoughts be converted into action?. Does he have the ability to convert support into a Vote. In Politics, especially during the process of election it is this skill that is displayed effectively by seasoned politicians to garner votes. The machinery deployed, the grassroot’s commitment and discipline to work for their leader makes a big difference in winning and losing. Our politicians have mastered this art over a period and clearly dominate the scene.

The methodology they adopt in selecting the village secretary to district secretaries to regional secretaries largely depends on the caste/communities they belong. Can Kamal enter into a game like this? Will he succeed? The way the monies are spent on communication are definitely beyond what the Election commission prescribes, all parties have their way in executing their plans without falling into EC’s gambit. Can Kamal pull these off? Every Political outfit has a team of top rung leaders who move around the party high command. These leaders generally exhibit skills such as mobilising crowds, charting out campaign plans, handling communities and castes, mobilising finance, handling press, holding internal meetings and so on. Can Kamal make successful identification of these characters? Because this will reflect a lot on the party that he intends to start. Another critical thing that Kamal and his family in whole needs to be prepared as there will be lot of personal mudslinging which will hit really hard. Not only Kamal will be on the radar, even his children and wife and girl friends will face enough and more from the media. An unbiased splitting of personal and public life should be undertaken with lots of care.

Summing it all, Kamal as an individual has the charisma, character, brand image and fan following. The aspect that he needs to work on is developing an organisational structure and a mechanism to reach out to the grassroots. He has the physical strength to be a leader for masses, but he needs to take care of the last mile connect. Before he begins Kamal needs to travel the length and breadth of TN and should reach out to his loyalists, identify local issues, identify local leaders and so on. If he successfully programmes all these then there is no stopping of Kamal as a politician!