What exactly does Visa and Master Card mean ? Why our debit/credit card is either Master or Visa ?

We use debit or credit everyday and we see either Master or Visa written on it. It can be any bank which could be private or government, big or small bank etc ,but still the common part is that all of these banks have cards which are either Visa or Master . 

 

But why ? And do we the know meaning and use of it ?

Visa and MasterCard are international settlement & clearing houses that help transfer of funds from one entity to the other. For example: You might have a credit card from ABC Bank. If you need to use your credit card at a shop, that shop would need to have a machine provided by ABC bank installed. Only then the shop keeper can accept your payment using the ABC card.

We have dozens of banks and each bank could very easily offer credit or debit cards to its customers. By the time the shopkeeper gets machines from all those banks to deal with its different customers - You can Imagine what could possibly happen .

This is where Visa and MasterCard come into the picture. They are settlement networks which banks can enroll with. Now the shopkeeper just needs to get either a Visa or MasterCard compatible machine and any banks credit or debit card that is endorsed by that group would be accepted.

When you swipe your card, your bank will pay Visa or MasterCard and they in turn will pay the bank with which the shop owner has an account.

Visa and MasterCard are basically payment network operators.The networks consist of banks that help consumers make payments (issuing banks) and help merchants accept payments (acquiring banks).

The Car Market Will Get Hotter As Maruti Plans To Bring Its Sedan " CIAZ" Soon ........

The new Maruti Ciaz sedan, expected to arrive in our showrooms some time later this year, will replace the current Maruti SX4. The new car will bring with it a new focus; one on rear seat comfort and a luxury car-like cabin. It will also be much better equipped and more spacious than the outgoing SX4.

Suzuki has especially laid emphasis on making the rear seat of the upcoming Ciaz comfortable keeping in mind markets like India and China where the car will be sold. Engineers normally sit in the driver's seat, but here, they sat in the back bench to fine-tune and improve ride quality for rear occupants. Other rear seat specific changes include rigid mounting of the suspension components.  


  The Ciaz is expected to have plenty of rear legroom as well. With a length of over 4545mm, the Ciaz will be longer than the new Honda City. Also, its long wheelbase will facilitate good legroom at the rear. Hisanori Matsushima, chief designer of the Ciaz concept, said, “the back seat will have ample space to relax and Suzuki wants customers to enjoy its large internal size”.

   Apart from the spacious cabin, the interior is expected to have a European influence and will make use of clean surfaces and metallic accents rather than just bold styling bits. Suzuki’s sketch helps us deduce that the dual-tone dashboard will consist of a wooden belt dividing the dark top section and the beige bottom half of the dash.

The Maruti Ciaz will compete against Hyundai Verna ,Honda City ,Volkswagen Vento.So we can expect better features and equipments compared to SX4.
Ciaz will give a tough Competition to existing Sedan Car makers ,especially to Honda .

 A large percentage of car owners in this segment are chauffer driven and this focus on the rear seat should work well when Maruti comes to market with its new sedan.

In my opinion , Maruti as a brand in India is seen as a household car maker. But with "CIAZ " as semi luxury car under the hood ,the company may struggle a bit with perception of " not so luxurious car brand"

Unhappy Dollars $$$$

As consumers, we buy a number of products every year. If the product suites the interest and liking we buy it and become happy and so more sells defining a hit  in the market. On the other side it means big money or profits flowing in and by money , company becomes happy.The companies hire people for various functions like designing ,marketing , operations etc. The company invest money and earns by generating sells.

And so it continues and we call it a normal business. But isn't it boring and too simple !!!!
To explain it better I would like to share my experience which tells a bit different story :

I Joined a company as an Intern for marketing profile .The internship was for 3 months , me and my team of 10 people was given a task to generate leads for Microsoft IT Academy project. While I was doing given task , I started noticing things around as I was new in the corporate world .

I noticed a lot of things to understand the corporate culture and one of the things which really which drove my attention was that almost everyone around me looked so fake and seemed that the lingo Corporate means  a sweet knife used for getting the work done by anyone.

When I started the real work of generating leads , I was motivated , told good things , with good smiles etc but all seemed to much fake . And when I finished my internship , I was given  pre- placement offer from the company , as my team including me really made the company happy .In company's perspective this was a good work.`

I generated some happy dollars for the company but I really made my decision that I would never come back to this company again . The reason is very simple-- I wasn't happy . The doubtful faces and a perception of sly of the company is biggest reason for this.
We often hear that employee feel that they are not paid that much or they are not treated well or any other reason , which shows that they are not happy where they work . The result is that employees do not feel that they are part of the organisation and so they switch the companies often. The ultimate result is that in today's era  is that retention rate is getting low.

If you are working somewhere , ask this question to yourself - Am I really happy where I am working ?

Lets now look the customer's side:
The company develops a product and then heavily markets it. In many cases the product which may not be that useful still marketed heavily as if you can't live without it. People get attracted to the product and buy it. Happy customer for the product and happy company for profit. The funny part comes when we talk about the after sales service of the product. While marketing the product the companies show as if the customer is not the customer but companies  near by relative. But when a customer really goes to service center (in case of a problem in  the product). He/she is treated  as if  the customer is a asking for something he has not paid for.
                                                  

Because of these reasons the customer often switches brand in almost every type of product he buys. Then companies often talk and gives statement that customer behavior is hard to understand and retaining customer has become very difficult .
But just think , if the customer is treated well and pleased with the product then the customer would rarely switch that brand. He develops an association and bonding with the brand.The customer's perception towards the good brand is always good , in many cases he may even ignore the other brand with better features .
Simply because the customer is made happy.
The word happiness is ignored  but yes dollars is seen and the irony is without happiness , dollars is hard to earn.

I  believe that earning dollars in not difficult but yes making dollars with real happiness of internal customers(i.e. employees) and the end customer , is much more important . Many companies don't look anything other than  just the ways to earn money and so many companies  fail to retain their position  or even to survive .

At the end :

Ask this question yourself - Did the company whom you are working for or the company selling you products ,has really made you as the part of it ?

And are you happy as an end customer or even as an internal customer ?

-----------------------------------Unhappy Dollars--------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------By Ankit Sapra----------------------

The concept of " Giving the control to the customer "

The goal of marketing is to stand out and be noticed. Good marketing keeps drawing your customers' attention to your products and services.. Many of your marketing activities will focus on communicating to customers the greater value of your products (i.e. compared to your competitors). Consider which promotional activities will best meet your marketing needs.

And of one of the main aspects is  which strategies to use. Companies use either  Push or  Pull strategies   for accomplishing their marketing goals.

Above all this what's  important is that these strategies can be highly successful if customer involvement is high .If customer engages with the promotional/marketing campaign then it helps the company in many  ways i.e. branding,customer desire to purchase the product,respect for the company ,awareness etc.

One of the ways  by  which companies can  do this to attract its customers  is

“Giving the control to the customer”

This concept states that let  the customer  take  important decisions which companies generally decide like the price ,color of the product etc. Let customer decide what they want ,give the  control to the customer .   

This startegy can really do  wonders for any coampny provided that the company has  really done its homework.As if you give control on important aspects of the product ,it enagages the  audience .

When any  company opts  this strategy ,the promotional campaign or ad automatically creates interest as now its not a simple purchase but involving the customer to really decide how they can purchase the product

Crowdsourcing is about giving over control of creating ideas, knowledge.

Let us see some examples :

●Give away control of your pricing: Radiohead’s album “In Rainbows” was sold using a pay-as-you-like model, which was a limited time offer, and the album sold more copies than previous Radiohead releases.

●Microsoft invited hackers to fix bugs in their Xbox Kinect gaming console.

One of the banks in India (Indusland Bank) did a promotion in which they offered customer to decide  their bank account no.

Giving away control drives sales in the long-term

An even more radical example was Patagonia’s "Don't Buy This Jacket" advertisement during the peak of shopping season. It may have jeopardized short-term sales, but it built lasting, long-term loyalty based on shared values.

But Sometimes giving less control (and more meaning) works even better.

It is the opposite of giving control .It means rather than telling and asking things to the customer ,give customers a surprise or something which makes them excited ,something new and out of the box.Giving people less control might be a way to make them happier. It works when people are terrified by an abundance of choices.

Giving people less control might be a way to make them happier. It works when people are terrified by an abundance of choices.

As example – the travel service Nextpedition turns the trip into a game. It does not tell the traveler where he/she is going until the very last minute.

Therefore if the company really understands the market and its customer then either of strategies i.e.Giving Control or Less Control can  be  really useful for achieving company's goals.

By Ankit Sapra

Analyses of Shine.com add in MINT

ADD : SHINE.COM( in Mint ,newspaper,6-dec-2013)

The appeal which is predominant here is seen clearly as

The advertiser uses Fear Appeal here.

Advertiser  attempts to create anxiety in the consumer on the basis of fear, so that the consumer is encouraged to resolve this fear by purchasing the product or service. The  advertisement  uses people's fear of offending or of rejection to influence them to purchase the  products.

Also the advertisement tries to make customer to realate the fear and the solution given by the product to overcome that fear.

This is shown by the tag line used “ don’t take chance with your CV “  which realtes to picture shown being the words and then enforces the customer to read the lines of the product.

Let us see the salient features of the add

1.The add is relatively small but effective with the content.

2.The picture of soiled resume really makes customers think .

3.As it an add related to career , the company uses such take punch lines which is engaging the customer.

Inform and persuade:

Advertiser(SHINE.COM)  informs the potential consumer about products their benefits and utilities. It also persuades the consumers to purchase such products and services.

In short, the add  is focusing in  awakening of a desire to possess product(shine services ) . Also it  is a mass persuasion  appealing   career oriented people.

One question really comes in our mind -Is the ad really attractive and helps the company to accomplish its objective?

In my opinion the add is effective  but not that much.

It is effective because it moves in right direction and fine message and so manages to do a fine job.

On the other side  the fear appeal is not so engaging that the customers would be really motivated to buy quickly .

Also if the company could have created a full sized page add then it would have much more effect than the current one. I think the company could have also used punch lines like “ don’t  risk your career as you may not have a job further ,contact us ”

Colgate Plax latest add really makes consumers think !!!

The add below  is captured by  me in one the chemist shop in Lajpat Nagar  New Delhi

Few days back I went to a medical store in Lajpat Nagar -1  to buy medicines for my grandmother .The visit to this common  medical shop was really uncommon.As when I entered this shop, on my left side many  products  were displayed  and on the right was the main counter to get the medicine .But before I can buy the medicine I  stopped at the entrance where the products were displayed  and the reason is the picture that you can see above.

The space where Colgate Plax was put  and was decorated  or surrounded by its add really made me think.

This add  which is unusual  with a garbage faced person pointing towards Colgate Plax , and saying  "Saas ki Bhadbu ko bolne na de" (in Hindi)  . In English meaning that the product wont let your  bad breath speak.

And at the bottom right "Lambey smay tak taza saans" meaning  fresh breath for long time.

Looking at this add and placement of it  made me say "wow" .It is an amazing add .

The garbage faced person  on the add  and words used, links to the people whosoever sees this.The add states the problem on the decorated space which makes you think but also  at the same time shows the solution which is physically existing on that very space making ,one feel  better   .

My experience was ,that after looking the add or place   I started thinking if I smell bad or not  and while I was thinking I saw Colgate Plax  on the display shelf.It really made me feel that I should buy the product because the add really connected to me and made me think i.e.showing me the need and solution -Colgate Plax.

The matter is not confined to point that if I  or anyone has bad smell breath or not but the important thing is it made me think because anyone can bad smell any day ,so connection of the product  with Psychology or thought process,  made  me  stop and think for while.

Conclusion : The idea of showing ad  may be on paper but  showing solution physically or vice-versa  can really effect the thought process of the consumers and ultimately lead to benefit of the brand as the consumer may buy that product in many cases.

One thing to notice here is that the example and ad pic given above was placed at right location i.e. chemist or medical shop and targeting the right audience i.e. urban/semi urban segment (Lajpat Nagar here).

And  so ,along with creative ideas and strategies ,target audience and location  also matter when objective is "To Trigger"  in consumers current state.

By Ankit Sapra

A bit about the freshness expert

About Ambi Pur

Ambi Pur is a brand of air freshener products available in the United States, Europe, Asia and Oceania. Their range of products may be used in the home or in the car with a variety of smells and properties such as odor neutralisation

Products

• Plugins - singles and multi fragrance.
• Stand-by, and not the plugin.
• Washings, cleaning toilets.
• Aerosol, mini aerosols and timed multi fragrance aerosols.
• Car air fresheners, and one multi fragrance.
• Air freshener for wardrobes and small spaces.

History

Ambi-Pur's first product was launched in 1958 in Spain by Javier de Merelo Barberá Sanromä Cruz. Cruz Verde was a Spanish household brand selling a wide range of products, and even in the 2010's is a well-known brand in Spain because of the great tradition of innovation and advertising. Cruz Verde was purchased in the 1970's by the US multinational company Syntex. Ambi-Pur, which differs from other products and Cruz Verde, became a brand name, with cellulose products "constant" and aerosols, and in the late 1970's and 1980's, continued to strengthen the brand with new products and diversification of the intended use.

Acquisition by the Sara Lee Corporation

In 1984, the Sara Lee Corporation acquired Cruz Verde and began to roll out air fresheners throughout Europe. It was the first brand to launch a plug-in liquid air freshener, toilet rimblock fluid, and fluid air fresheners for cars. After Western Europe, the brand expanded to Eastern Europe, Asia, Japan, and Oceania, as well as in the United States and Canada. From the 1990's until 2010, Ambi-Pur was among the three market leaders for air freshener brands in Western Europe.

Acquisition by Procter & Gamble

The Sara Lee Corporation announced on 11 December 2009 that it would sell Ambi-Pur air care business to Procter & Gamble for $468 million.