( Brandasy-Branded World )

Mahmood Nanji is one of the marketing gurus of Pakistan’s branded world, having served at the forefront of many company’s marketing department, including the coveted position of CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) at Tapal. He was the force behind the TVOne program Brand Power, a one-of-a-kind program on the Pakistani electronic medium. Although it generated a

When Dawn launched their TV channel with the brand name ‘Dawn News’ a couple of years back, it was perfectly in line with the immutable laws of branding. It made use good use of an already established brand name Dawn and augmented the brand essence of the newspaper. It positioned itself as the leader of

The questions that arise are, why can’t Aaj compete with Geo in the conventional way, and why should it go after Geo in the first place? Can’t they co-exist peacefully as it is?   For the first question, no. Marketing is nothing short of full-fledged warfare. In a battle, one party avoids going head-to-head with

Up till now we have been discussing the niceties of competition. Unfortunately real life is anything but nice, and so is the competition in any field. Even if you want to play it fair and square, the other guy may have other plans. And then what constitutes fair and square  all depends upon perceptions. The

‘Don’t you think that people today are more program loyal rather than channel loyal?’ Hameed Kashan, the marketing manager for Aaj TV replied in response to my branding scenario for their channel. In other words he was saying that the laws of branding don’t apply to the television industry, which for some inexplicable reason he

Let’s see how the television industry in Pakistan has evolved and how Geo and Aaj fit into the prevailing paradigm. The television industry in Pakistan, just like in any other country, was a one-channel industry in its infancy. One channel in the sense that every channel had all the ingredients to fulfill the needs of