Innovative “Soundbox” from Paytm

I am fascinated by new products. Yes, it is true that 80% of new products are not new and are at best ‘new wine in an old bottle’. They are new, improved versions to induce to the jaded buyer to rebuy the products. At best it is a weak appeal to the customers to get excited again akin to a sixty-year-old Indian hero prancing around in a ridiculous wig and with fluorescent clothes with a young lass who would be in his granddaughter age! 

But some products are new, and they are very much needed. One such product that caught my eye is the “Sound Box” from Paytm. It is a boon for the harried retailers, who are becoming more and more dependent on online payments and that through the omnipresent Paytm App. 

I watch with great astonishment when the twenty-somethings pay six rupees for their cup of tea using Paytm app. What would happen if the internet or Paytm suffer an outage? I am sure that the Indian economy will take a hit on Sensex fearing a massive spread of the Coronavirus causing havoc on world markets. 

Paytm synonymous with digital transactions in India. The app rose to popularity during the demonetisation phase in 2016. When a customer is trying to pay via his smartphone, there is a long, elaborate conversation with the retailer to share the QR code which the customer then scans and then wait till the payment is confirmed and the retailer gets a message. The SMS often doesn’t come instantly, and there’s an awkward silence till the time the SMS comes in.  

Both the customer and the retailer are impatient. In some cases, the customers claim that the payment is made and walk away. The retailer is hard-pressed to balance his concentration between tracking the digital payments and in serving his other customers. 

Paytm is looking to smoothen the payment process with a new smart device the ‘Soundbox’, It has a speaker with a SIM card slot attached that will act as a voice-activated POS (point-of-sale) machine for the retailer. The Soundbox will alert the retailer the payment is complete, instead of the retailer having to wait for an SMS on their smartphone. 

The Soundbox loudly announces the amount paid, thus relieving the retailer of the stress of tracking SMSes. A user will still have to scan the QR code on this device to make the payment. With the Soundbox, the retailers do not require another smartphone to accept Paytm transactions. 

Cadbury - Do Nothing Advertisement - Absurd to say the least!

I just watched the latest advertisement for Cadbury Five Star - Do Nothing. Surprisingly Cadbury has taken irrelevance and being in-the-face to the next level!

Sad to think that this is the brand that gave us some memorable advertising campaigns like Cadbury Cricket. The advertisement starts with an old lady on a bench. Just a few feet away is an upstart youngster nonchalantly eating a Cadbury Five Star.

The old lady's walking stick falls on the ground, and she asks the youngster to pick it up. The youngster responds 'yes Maa Ji" AND DOES NOTHING.

The old lady resignedly gets up walks to the stick and picks it up. A large piano crashes and hits the bench that the lady was occupying JUST SECONDS BEFORE! The bench is blown to smithereens.

The old lady is shell shocked — the thought "what if" races in her mind. "I could have died". She looks admiringly at the youngster and says "thank you beta, For doing NOTHING."

The youngster breaks out into a smile " you are most welcome" is his cheeky reply.

I am surprised and mildly shocked. Cadbury is mocking the tradition of respecting and helping elders. And it is glorifying, condoning, justifying and even rationalizing the act. It is saying that if the youngster had helped the old lady, she would have died. This is absurdly twisted logic.

Wish Cadbury came out with a better campaign. Doing nothing and consuming Cadbury is a great concept. You don't need a reason to eat Cadbury. Brilliant idea, Eat Cadbury -Chumma or like they say in Tamil Simply like that. But the execution stinks to high heaven.

Hallmark Greeting Card Company had popularized the concept of No Occasion Day. On that day people sent each other cards chumma simply, in other words just like that!

Come on, Cadbury. You have a harrowed reputation to protect. Don't sully it with such advertisements. Give us campaigns that we are proud of and which we show in our classrooms to inspire youngsters to take up marketing/ advertising as a career. Not campaigns that mock our traditions and values.