My recontre with the sensuous Skinn…

“Fragrance speaks the loudest on a subliminal level.” 
― Marian Bendeth

The olfactory senses not only complement our gustatory perceptions (you wouldn’t be able to tell apart a potato from an apple, if it weren’t for the smell) but also trigger chemoreceptors of the brain’s limbic system, which in neuroscientific lingo, stimulate the amygdala and hippocampus- structures vital to our behaviour, mood and memory. It would certainly not be an overstatement to assert that the fragrance emanating from your body defines your personality. We Indians please our olfactory senses in numerous ways- flowers, herbs, incense, attars or sandalwood pastes et al. 

I still recall the slippery sensation of the tumaceous Kannuji attar that my mom used to dab charily behind my ears with the squat golden pin-stick. I moved on to deo sprays (dab-ons were never my liking) -Nike Woman being my all-time fav, and colognes-the ostensible milder version of perfumes. Perfumes were reserved for special occasions-be it buying, gifting or using. Today, I proudly showcase Dior, Calvin Klein, Escada and Estee Lauder among other vials in my mirror case-some remnants of  gracious gifts, while others that of my guilty shopaholism! It is not just the whiff that escapes the vial that defines the perfume, it is how the scented oils coalesce with the apocrine sweat glands-that give the human body its unique scent, which can interfere with - or enhance - the scent you wear. Additionally, elemental factors like the intricately sculpted crystal-glass chassis, the translucent shade of the liquid and the grandiose packaging add to the ornamental appeal of your potion. The more intangible elements like the idea of fetching exotic ingredients from pristine untouched natural sources, the apothecial mixing and sanguine testing, and the whole science that goes behind, add to the perfuming legacy. A perfume is much more than a carafe of aromatic contents; it’s a microcosm of senses and sensuality!

I fortuitously chanced upon being part of a perfume launch myself. Titan launched their indigenous Skinn brand of perfumes at the Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai on Sept 16. Mr. Bhaskar Bhat, MD, Titan spoke of the inherent product concept, positioning strategy, distribution, promotion and customer value proposition of the Skinn range. It was followed by an entrancing performance, by a nimble danseuse, celebrating sensuousness and expression. The who’s-who of the Tata Group and the French perfumery clique delivered their pieces-apprising the enchanted audience of the mysticism and diligence that goes into the craft of making and selling fragrances. What seeped in was not just yet another expansionary venture of a conglomerate into one of the lucrative businesses of the day. It was the pioneering of passion into lifestyle, and moulding of a new legacy. Made in France by celebrated perfumers including Armani and Yves, the Skinn collection of six perfumes bears the hallmark of Titan. Skinn would be the first nationwide perfume brand to be customized to the tastes and likes of the lifestyle savvy Indian consumer.

The Skinn concept caught my eye with their ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ pre-launch campaign-wherein olfactory sensuousness was synonymised with sensual pleasures and sinful indulgences. The Skinn range of perfumes includes three variants for men and women each. My favourite one-the enchanting ‘Celeste’-is a balmy and fruity fragrance, typifying crisp chirpiness. The other la femme variants include ‘Nude’-the subtle rosy flair for the uber-feminine, and the musky, oriental ‘Imera’ for the stilettoed madames. The hommes variants include the woody ‘Steele’ for the knight-in-shining-armour viriles, the spicy, oriental ‘Extreme’ for the charmers, and the lemon-bergamot ‘Raw’ for the dudes.

The fabulous curtain-raiser aside, I also chanced a sneak-peek into the behind-the-curtain show. The Skinn Titan team seems to have done an impeccable job-right from the exhaustive market research into the psyche and lifestyle traits of the target populace, and sourcing the finest ingredients and know-how from the global perfumery cult to dishing out the finest to the discerning Indian consumer. Imagine inaugurating and making available the product in-stores simultaneously, and live-streaming and orchestrating the whole event seamlessly! The herculean efforts that went behind the savoir-faire including the production groove, packaging nitty-gritties, distribution and promotion behemoths can only be expected of a most adroit and diligent team! Kudos!

In Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age. A ‘titan’ is ‘the one of prodigious size, strength, or achievement’. Titan, in India, personifies the allusion both literally and figuratively. Titan, the largest watchmaker in India, is a shoot of the Tata house-a proverbial gigantic, benign banyan tree-that bestows its shade of trust and quality on its consumers. Now, it’s time to experience its ambrosial fragrance too! Skinn is, after all, in!
http://www.skinn.in/

Not so starry-eyed...my rendezvous with Starbucks

On the lines of a true-blue aficionado of fine dining, wining, reading and shopping, I deem that a day of your existentiality (hangover effect of Meursault’s musings in Camus’ Stranger) is wasted, if you haven’t indulged in at least one of these pleasures. I landed up at the next location on my bucket-list - the much hyped (and yes, certainly overrated) Starbucks coffee house - to satiate my curious connoisseur pangs. Of course, my reviews are coloured not only from the single day’s experience, but also against the backdrop of my ostensible ‘association’ with Starbucks through newspapers and HBR case studies.

The backdrop: Hearsay, Howard and HBR

Looking at the American chapter, thus goes the 'Starbucks’ story'. Howard Schultz introduced and sold the concept of specialty coffee in the 80’s to the Americans, who were then used to the regular roaster. Initially positioned as a distinguished premium brand, offering specialty coffee to connoisseurs of the Italian brew, Starbucks ended up elevating the hoi polloi to the Starbucks ‘coffee experience’. The chain of stores thus proliferated in America in the ‘90s, with profits and revenues flying off the charts. Initially viewed as a premium coffee house brand, synonymous with upright product quality, excellent service and cozy ambience, Starbucks slowly became a commonplace joint – the 650% mushrooming growth coming at a price. The brand then led its name to packaged coffees, ice creams, jazz CDs, and extended its menu to non-coffee beverages and snack accompaniments. (Thankfully, it did not sell its name to toothpastes, once famously alluded to by Schultz!) It sold at airports, bookstores and supermarkets through mass distribution channels. Thus it broke the mould of a distinguished label and catered to serving the mass market.

Tete-a-tete with the Tatas:

Starbucks entered into Eurasian markets concurrently. The entry of Starbucks in Asia had been accompanied by huge noise, be it Tokyo in 1996 or Mumbai in 2012. The Asians allegedly suffer from the ‘liability of origin’ syndrome, as one of our candid professors had opined, which among other things, manifests into a vicarious pride as well as awestruck anxiety, on being wooed as a potential market by Western MNCs. Starbucks, in the same context, was envisioned as a status symbol; and the brouhaha surrounding its entry and JV with the giant Tatas, its posh SoBo (South Bombay, for the uninitiated) locations including its prospective vicinity in the Taj Hotel had only fueled the hype and hoopla in our eager minds. Avani Davda had also once stated in an interview that he wishes to exclude targeting the student population, so that Starbucks remains an ‘aspirational’ brand for them!

Encounter at last: Enter me!

I landed up at the Colaba coffee house on a Friday evening. The insides of the coffee house were not any less crowded or noisier than the bustling Colaba Causeway, where I had to bide some time as my company ended up getting delayed. Looking at the beeline of customers waiting in the single-floor crammed area, we ended up relocating to the Fort Starbucks.

The Fort Starbucks is a 2-storeyed coffee house, and we thankfully found a table on the first floor (rushing the occupant couple though :P) A female barista suggested Java chocolate-chip frappuccino, which was seconded by my company, who ended up going all the way to the ground floor to place the order, whereas I ended up ‘catching place’ at our table! He arrived with the Caramel & Java chip frappuccinos in about 20 minutes! So much so for an ambient atmosphere and excellent service!

Biased I may sound, but hunger is the best sauce! Though admittedly, the frappe was rich, creamy, awesome and filling. The same barista asked for feedback amidst the blaring music and swarming voices. We contemplated ordering accompaniments, but the waiting time and the teeming crowd was a huge turn off. The much tried-and-tested Marine Lines ended up being our much sought refuge!

My third, or technically the second, rendezvous with Starbucks was a week later on a Saturday evening when my roomie and I ended up at the Powai Starbucks. The lure of trying ‘The Starbucks’ was too elusive for her, to be weaned by my reviews. I realized that I too was in her shoes the week before! Starbucks, I realized, had ended up becoming a Salman Khan movie, which attracts starstruck one-time watchers, who end up with nothing but disillusionment once the movie has ended! Anyway, we ended up ordering hazelnut flavoured frappe and chicken croissant. The experience was almost the same. I was seated on the corner of a sofa, whereas my roomie perched on a chair – the only space we could locate in the crammed place. The door was not glazed, so the sunlight ruined the lighting ambience. The décor, paintings and furniture were ethnic and classy, but our peace was disturbed by the humming noises. Add to that, the barista at the counter used to yell each customer’s name when his or her order was ready! They could have well taken a leaf out of the neighbouring Dominoes, which discreetly displays order numbers without embarrassing its customers with mispronounced names! The overall experience, as expected, was a dud.

The frappe had cost about 160 bucks. We discussed on our way back, how Starbucks had miserably failed in creating the much fabled ‘coffee experience’ for its customers. Customers, including us, would have readily paid an even greater price premium for it– something that Davda had been recommended too, when he priced the plain latte at Rs. 85.

Today, Starbucks has burgeoned into 11 stores all over India and Davda plans to move into Tier-II cities too. Given this pace, a Starbucks carafe would soon move from the stores of Dolce Vita to your local kirana dukaan! Ironically, I recalled the interview in which he positioned Starbucks as an aspirational brand for young students. Seriously? Did he envisage that students who lap up Rs.99 happy meals could not afford a coffee for Rs.90! Or that the erstwhile argumentative Indian had not turned experimentatively indulgent! Had Starbucks accurately captured the psyche of its target customer and aligned its positioning with the already elevated expectations, the young urban hedonistic bourgeois would have surely poured their hearts into it! (sic)

Marketing WACCed!

I've attended lectures (that’s what I precisely do!)…more enticing ones and a plethora of, uh, well, more lackluster ones. But none have been able to attack my writer’s block or say lazy blogger’s block. Today’s Written Analysis & Communication Course (WACC) lecture, though, was somehow successful in converting my ponderings into a systematic blog post!

The professor quoted an ad. The one in which a little girl of about six is upset because of her ostensibly plain looks and is unable to garner her classmates’ attention. In comes Daddy Dearest and swishes her to school, in a swanky car. All her previously indifferent classmates come wagging along! Our Marketing professors would have gone gaga as to how the ad-maker had successfully adopted the Elaboration Likelihood Model by aiming at the targeted segment of customers through the direct as well as the peripheral/emotional route by tugging at their heartstrings and evoking mushy-mushy paternal feelings! What kind of a stone-heart would ignore a little girl’s puppy eyes? What kind of a father would be oblivious to his darling daughter’s little social dilemma? The ad had perfectly segmented the car buyers’ market, targeted the desired ‘my-daddy-strongest’ group (Another ad jargon! And people think only sugar daddies are in vogue!) and positioned itself in the family man’s heart. A perfect recipe dished straight out of the hallowed bibles of Kotler & Al Ries.

But our lady in command is hardly a marketer’s muse. She knew too much about neuromarketing and psychology to be fooled thus! She strongly reviled the entire context and trashed the concept itself. She literally (communications class, man!) tore the ad into shreds by stating its subtext to not only be male chauvinist by pushing a little girl to be a male-attention seeker and shallow enough to equate looks with beauty; but also sweared that the depiction belittled the male gender for being hollow enough to fall for pulchritude and shows of riches! She went on passionately about how it purports into creating a socio-cultural scenario wherein girls grow up to realise that the only aim of their lives is to attract the male attention and that the only way to achieving that is through made-up looks or daddy’s money! The ad maker should turn in his sleep out of the guilt of compromising on his ethics and fuelling a social evil! Many a feminist would give away her left hand to tune in to her vehement censure of fairness cream ads promising an ugly duckling to swan transformation of not only the skin (authenticity of such claims being quite questionable in itself!), but also of the girl’s career, love and social lives!

Actually the aftermath awaits! The lure of Class Participation has caused disparate and desperate discussions over the same cases (Nirma, Starbucks, Walmart et al) across classes from Marketing to Strategy to HR! Who knows, this ad might earn someone a few more (D)CP points on some D-day!