Knowledge Update

In today’s ever competitive business scenario, positioning could be considered as one of the latest marketing strategies that a company intends to use. It is due to every industry is crowded with more competitors driving to intensive competition. It leaves consumers to be confused with the selection of suitable products/services/brands to buy and consume. Thus, positioning strategy comes to rescue of the companies to use an effective marketing strategy to differentiate from other competitors. The companies used this effective strategy to create a space for themselves in respective industries they do business, as well to capture a place in the minds and hearts of potential consumers.

Brands ranging from Sony to Mercedes to Apple to leading airlines of the world involved in such exercises, thus resulting to effectively capture mind share and money share of their target consumers. Then, came in a new wave of value for money brands (VFM) which offered utility and social value to consumers for the money they pay for. The consumers started moving towards such brands which offered greater utility value, excellent performance etc. for products for the price they paid for. The electronics industry which witnessed such a massive new wave of VFM brands churning out products such as UHD LED TVs , Top end home appliances, mobile phones, electronic gadgets etc. These brands donot belong to the leagues of Sony or Apple, however, they generate revenues either equal or far more than that of leading premium brands. The brands which positioned themselves as premium brands got entrapped in their positions as they could not go down to reach bigger markets consist of larger target consumer base.

The VFM brands are intelligently focusing on Middle and bottom of the market (if World market is considered a pyramid, the peak consists of smaller base of target consumers, and the base of such consumers get wider towards moving down to middle and bottom of the pyramid) which houses larger number of consumer base belong to middle and lower income groups. Such groups of consumers intend to buy and use premium brands if such brands are available at affordable price. To fill such a gap in this market, VFM brands launched products suit to such markets and reaped enormous benefits. Even, some of the IT colleges in Dubai focus on offering state of the art IT programs at affordable fees. Such colleges could also be considered VFM brands in the areas academics. It is a precursor to leading institutional brands to adopt such strategy.

The premium brands those who focus on top of the pyramid got entrapped in their positions due to their image and inability to move down to middle and bottom of the pyramid. Trapping into such positioning statue could help premium brands to woo high end consumers, however, with the ever changing economic and social scenario across the world leave such companies to get entrapped with their positions as such consumers move across to different brands or move away. Such exodus leave the premium brands void of potential consumer base to focus on. Therefore, positioning trap could be a boon to begin with, however, later became a bane to such brands. Hence, it is imperative for such brands to re-invent their strategies to go after new age of consumers who prefer to buy VFM brands and smart enough to how and where to spend and save.

​Bengaluru, June 21 (IANS) Celebrating World Music Day on Tuesday, e-commerce marketplace Flipkart released a survey showing consumer shift towards premium audio brands and massive spike for the hi-tech audio devices. "Music accessories category on Flipkart has witnessed phenomenal growth in the recent months. Most of our customers are either investing or upgrading to new-age smart audio products," Adarsh K Menon, Vice President, Electronics and Auto, Flipkart, said in a statement. The findings showed that Indian youth tune into wireless music gadgets and Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Hyderabad topped the charts in terms of demand for on-the-go music devices. "Music accessories category has witnessed a 40 per cent growth in the last six months. Close to 50 per cent of shoppers of audio devices are young professionals and students," the report noted. Brands like Philips, Zoook, JBL, Konerk are the frontrunners among students while shoppers are increasingly shifting towards quality and premium headphones from brands like Audio Technica, Bose and Harman Kardon. "In the last six months, bluetooth speakers, sound bars and home theatres have emerged as the most popular segments. We expect the music accessories category to grow by three folds this year. We have seen a huge shift in customer preference towards premium brand," Menon added. With 60 per cent growth in demand for wireless devices like Bluetooth speakers and headphones etc., the majority of Indians enjoy music on-the-go and are preferring products with additional features like dust proof and water resistant speakers, the survey noted. ​

New York, June 19 (IANS) US tech giant IBM has patented an eye wear like Google Glass that will have red-eyed night vision capabilities, a media report said. Although not promising a true night vision, the device is described in the patent to improve sight under low light by tricking the brain to focus on high contrast imagery. "IBM's Google Glass modifications include a sensor and 'a comparator device' designed to detect and contrast light intensity. When the light intensity drops below a set level, a pair of projectors -- one for each eye -- bathe the user's eyes in red light," a report in International Business Times (UK) said. The patent claims the effect is similar to that of dark rooms used in photography or the red-tinted glasses worn by some airline pilots. Dark environment with a red tinge cause the rod cells, which are the photoreceptors in our eye, to send high contrast images to the brain. When the user enters a low-light environment, the projector automatically projects a low-level red light in to each eye of the user. Shining red light directly into the eyes creates the same response rods as casting red light onto an environment. Which means it tricks the rod cells into sending higher contrast images to the brain. However, the company also issued a health warning. The patent read: "The wearer of current glasses such as Google Glass is subject to the risk of a phenomena referred to as binocular rivalry and phoria -- a latent deviation or misalignment of the eyes that appears when both eyes are no longer looking at the same object."​

​London, June 16 (IANS) Planning to buy a new smartphone? Remember that the device may lose half of its value in a month which is even faster than your car, says an interesting study. While cars typically lost 20 per cent of their value a year after being driven off, money-draining smartphones went down up to 65 per cent of their value in just a month of being released, musicMagpie.co.uk reported on Thursday. The findings showed that only iPhones could retain their value much better than android-based devices. While the iPhone 4 continues to retain 39 per cent of its value even five years after its launch, the iPhone 6 (16 GB) has managed to keep 50 per cent of its 539 British pounds market value a year after its release. However, iPhone 5 showed a significant depreciation, losing 66 per cent of its value after eight months, the report stated. The highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S4, which released in 2014 lost half of its value within two months of appearing on the market. That's nearly a £300 loss off its original selling price of £579, the study said. HTC One M9 has suffered the worst in the android sector. It was sold for 579 British pounds when released in March 2015 but lost a staggering 65 per cent of its value in just a month. Phones go down in value because better, faster and technologically superior models replace them. Demand for a certain phone model can also affect its popularity and consequently depreciate its value, the report concluded.​

People across the world have been looking for alternative to petroleum for automobiles. There have been many attempts to create the commercially viable electric cars and other vehicles, but the success eluded entrepreneurs in most of these cases. Tesla motors has come out with new alternatives. The expected success of Tesla motors to replace petroleum with electricity for automobiles with hugely impact the international business scenario.

​San Francisco, April 27 (IANS) Focusing on software and services in addition to its flagship hardware, Apple services revenue in the second quarter is expected to reach $7 billion. "While the iPhone remains Apple's biggest top-line contributor by far, services such as Apple Care and Apple Music surpassed the Mac last year, as revenues topped $24 billion," technology website marketwatch.com reported. Revenue from services, which represents Apple's most profitable business segment, is expected to climb 18 per cent to $7.1 billion this quarter, according to financial data and software company FactSet's survey of around 40 analysts. Apple is expected to report GAAP earnings per share of $2.02, up from $1.90 in the year-earlier period and will report revenue of $53 billion, up from $50.5 billion in the same period last year. The company is expected to have shipped 52 million phones during the quarter, up from 51 million in the year-earlier period. Benefiting from its expensive 'plus' models and rising demands of its products, Apple Inc will be worth at least $824 billion this year, analysts predicted earlier this month. Apple's shares already soared more than 16 per cent to fresh highs during the second quarter but analysts are optimistic the stock has much more room to grow. According to a report in USA Today, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak believed that Apple, Google and Facebook will be bigger in 2075 and dominate the world.

​New York, April 21 (IANS) Taiwanese consumer electronics company HTC has announced that its next flagship squeezable smartphone called 'HTC U' will be officially unveiled on May 16. The company has also tweeted on its official Twitter account that reads "Squeeze for the Brilliant U. 05.16.2017 http://www.htc.com/launch." "The device is rumoured fo sport 'Edge Sense' technology that lets users control many features with gestures that users will perform on the device's metal frame," GSMArena.com reported on Friday. 'HTC U' is expected to come with 5.5-inch 2560 x 1440 display, a Snapdragon 835 processor, 12MP rear and 16MP front-facing cameras and Android Nougat 7.1.

 Apple and Nike are working to expand their smartwatch series partnership for the Apple Watch 2 with a new limited edition NikeLab offering.

"NikeLab will feature a simple face to focus on fitness and will go on sale April 27, but will only be available through Nike's website and at an Apple pop up shop in Tokyo," US-based new service thestreet.com reported on Friday.

Last year, Apple released Apple Watch Nike+ that features built-in GPS to track users' pace, distance and route -- even if they don't have iPhone with them.

Apple Watch Nike+ is water resistant (50 metres). Training data including pace, distance and heart rate are available at a glance and through shared run summaries.

​San Francisco, April 21 (IANS)

Mumbai, April 18 (IANS) Hyderabad-based wearable technology company Ducere Technologies on Tuesday announced its partnership with Tata-owned consumer durables retail chain Croma to offer the worlds first haptic-based interactive insoles -- LECHAL -- for offline distribution. Priced at Rs 6,999, Lechal wearable product is GPS navigated and helps users track their direction, keeps a record for their route and checks fitness levels. By pairing the insoles with the Lechal app to track Maps via bluetooth, the user can set a destination and receive directions via haptic vibrations on his/her feet making any journey truly hands-free. The Lechal app is available on both android and iOS-enabled devices. "We are happy to announce our partnership with Croma, one of the biggest consumer durable retail chains in the country. With union of these two big alliances this year, we truly believe to have a balanced business outcome," said Krispian Lawrence, Founder and CEO Ducere Technologies in a statement.

​New York, April 16 (IANS) Customers who need to replace their fourth generation iPad will now get a newer and more capable iPad Air 2 as a substitute from Apple Stores and authorised service providers, a media report said. Apple is doing this because the company has no stock left of the aging and now discontinued fourth generation iPad, 9to5Mac website reported on Saturday. Apple has also asked its staff to inform customers of the replacement unit's colour and capacity. The iPad Air 2 introduced a new gold colour option, and has 32GB and 128GB storage options while 16GB and 64GB models were discontinued. For that reason, the users may receive a slight upgrade in storage when getting a replacement in addition to the device's newer and more powerful internals overall.