Hello readers Happy New Year!
of Industrial Filtration at Freudenberg Filtration Technologies India Private Limited. This section aims at sharing experiences of eminent marketing personalities. Another must read section is the ‘Brand Story’ of Kawai, the world famous piano manufacturing company. Our digital marketing section ‘Digigyaan’ talks about chatbots and how they have changed the way we market. The ‘Logoistic’ section unfolds the interesting evolution story of the IT giant Microsoft’s logo. ‘AD-dicted’ section analyses two advertisements of this month, one of which has correctly strike the right chords with the viewers and one who has completely missed making an impact. Tata salt with its #namakkewaastey has left the audience mesmerised while Piramal Capital and Housing Finance in their Bridge Loan advertisement have failed to make an impact. The ‘Markopedia’ section analysed two marketing jargons which are Snackable Content and YUPPY. Also, don’t forget to catch the latest happenings of the market in the ‘Updates’ section.
This New Year brings a lot of hope, especially to all our cricket fans, with the cricket world cup scheduled this year. This time is indeed an excellent time for marketers across the world to show their creativity and get the audience’s attention. So, this month in the cover story we bring to you ‘The Marketing Campaigns in Sports’. In the ‘Perspective’ section, we have our fellow marketer Siva of IIM Shillong expressing his views about the world famous egg and another fellow marketer Roshan James from Great Lakes Institute of Management beautifully inking his views on knowledge management and marketing. The ‘Eye2Eye’ section discusses a very major dilemma of marketers on whether the luxury brands should use traditional media channel to market themselves or not. This dilemma has been aptly answered by two of our young marketers, Anjali Gupta of IIM Shillong who negates the use of traditional media channels for luxury marketing while Sayan Chaudhary of IIM Shillong sup- In the end, I would like to thank all our writers ports the use of traditional media channels for for Perspective and Eye2Eye. It was great readluxury marketing. ing all of your views, and we are looking ahead to read your pens. I would like to extend appreIt is a pleasure to bring forward the thoughts of ciations to the team Markathon as well! Finally, global marketers on this magazine. This month a big thank to all our readers for their constant we interviewed Mr Anand Singh, Vice President support. You are the ones who motivate us to dig deep and bring good content. Hope this New Year brings success to all of your marketing pursuits. We at Markathon want to be has been a source of knowledge and inspiration to all the marketing enthusiast and will continue to serve our readers in the coming years, and our fuel to this endeavour is the love and support of you all. Happy Reading!
January-February 2019
Perspective
World Famous Egg Siva hemant reddy iim shillong
2019 began with one of the humorous and bizarre incidents of all time. Embellished with a touch of fun along with a bit of competitive edge, a photo of an egg managed to capture the “most liked photo” status on Instagram. The photo of a gold-coloured egg, posted on Jan.4, has attracted 51.7 million likes as of Jan. 31, making it the most liked post on Instagram….ever. Kylie Jenner’s post about her daughter, Stormi -- employing a photo of Stormi’s fingers wrapped around her thumb, and dates back to February 2018 -- had previously held this “most-liked” status (18.7 million likes
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Perspective till date). And, even before that, it was Beyoncé’s February 2017 post announcing her pregnancy (11.3 million likes till date) getting all the buzz. Flash-forward to the latest winning entry: a picture of an unremarkable egg which is able to achieve remarkable accomplishments. The account, @world_ record_egg, posted the simple photo with a caption reading, “Let’s set the world record together and get the most liked post on Instagram. Beating the current world record held by Kylie Jenner (18 million)! We got this. #LikeTheEgg #EggSoldiers #EggGang.”
Kyle Bunch, managing director of partnerships at R/ GA, an advertising agency, also compared the egg to that of a Super Bowl ad. “If you have something really good to put in that expensive placement, then it could be worth it,” he said. Charlie Joslin, social strategist at GSD&M, said that one of his company’s clients has already inquired about partnering with the Instagram egg. “It’s an appealing opportunity for a lot of brands,” he said.
As of Jan. 31, the picture had reached over 51.7 million likes and nearly 3 million comments, with the account at 9.6 million followers. Kylie Jenner responded to this rival post with a video of her cracking a similar egg onto a pavement and she captioned it, “Take that little egg,” creating even more buzz around this viral topic. So how did an egg named Eugene managed to dethrone Kylie, the social media queen? In an age filled with challenges, memes and YouTubers, Eugene’s factor of humour certainly had to have helped. In fact, the usage of viral humour by “Egg Gang”, along with the use of a popular media channel and power of celebrity, to unite Instagramers together to achieve its goal. In just 2 weeks after putting its post online, the Egg Gang is able to achieve almost 2 times its desired total for likes. So, what can entrepreneurs learn this egg? Three things. 1. Communities are just as powerful as brands
The account’s first post was able to achieve its target by Jan 13 and since then, the account has posted series of pictures of the same egg with a progressively larger cracks, suggesting something inside. In 2019, each and every viral moment provides opportunity for branding. “Being the first brand to crack out of the egg is worth at least $10 million,” said Nik Sharma, head of the digital agency VaynerMedia’s direct-to-consumer business. He also added that he would even advise clients “to spend on the egg instead of the Super Bowl.”
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In 2019 more than ever, online communities will yield results, both in revenue and growth, for businesses. There are so many communities developed by various organisations, whether those communities be organized around cooking, fitness, entrepreneurialism, dating etc. They’re all taking off and becoming a good source for marketing, income and quick results. Some of the benefits of developing a community are • Reduction in customer support costs – 49% of businesses with online communities reported cost savings amounting to 10% to 25% annually. • Boosted brand credibility and exposure, making it convenient for the organisation for word of mouth marketing and also in the take-off of new products
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Perspective
• Communities provides insights on new products or tion from millions very quickly. If anyone looking to services and features grow their page quickly, then they should make sure that the page has informative content on it and then • Heightened engagement results in better customer connect with individuals who have similar markets retention. and can offer a shout-out. This is the reason why building a community that supports a specific mission or goal is what many smart entrepreneurs are starting to realize, and it’s something everyone should start doing in their respective category as well.
Another good example of this type of would be YouTube celebrity PewDiePie. He teamed up with the makers of a horror film set in the movie French catacombs under Paris and created a series of videos in which he underwent challenges in those catacombs. It was pitch-perfect content for his 27 million subscribers, and received nearly double the views as the movie’s trailer. Everybody won. 3. Meme marketing is on the rise The penetration of Internet is so high that Millennials on average spend more than 200 minutes online every day. Memes have become so so prolific that there’s a good chance that millennials and Gen Zers are laughing at and sharing memes while online. This gives brands plethora of opportunities to engage with their audience.
2. Influencer marketing is a fast way to grow Influencer Marketing is a confluence of old and new marketing tools and techniques, taking the idea of the endorsement by celebrities and placing it in the content-driven modern marketing campaign. The difference is that the results of the campaign are usually collaborations between influencers and brands.
The major downside to brand marketing on social media is the level of engagement it often receives. To be candid, nobody wants to see promotional content of the brands on their feed. They just want to skip the lame, commercialized content and get to their normal and funny posts.
When done correctly, meme marketing can yield larger than expected results. It goes past the gaginducing branded content and provides something of value to the audience. Memes work for brands because they’re design is precisely suited for social platforms and provide value to the audience by entertaining them. Also, Memes aren’t overly promoBy having a strong network, Eugene was able to utilize tional -- they make people laugh with a casual refershout-outs and shares to get the much needed atten- ence to the brand.
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Perspective
Because of the entertainment value memes provide, it’s easier for the audience to share them. Think about it: Would we rather share a hilarious meme about McDonald’s burgers or a 500-word blog from McDonald’s about their newest menu addition? We would definitely go for entertainment over information, and the same is true for our audience also. Also the egg isn’t the first simple meme or image to go viral! Just a few months ago, the Bird Box meme (referring to the blind-folded Sandra Bullock’s character) was able to take the Netflix movie and make it go viral, regardless of the moderate ratings it received. This is previously unheard of, but it will definitely will keep happening much more frequently after its large success.
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January-February 2019
Perspective
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING ROSHAN JAMES GREAT LAKES INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, CHENNAI The world has grown leaps and bounds and business today has moved from valuing tangible assets to more intangible assets. The movement that happened was because it is hard to replicate intangible assets and hence it is a very potent competitive advantage. The latest buzz in the global economy has been the knowledge economy and this is seen as the latest stage of development. We started off with the agricultural economy and has moved toward the knowledge economy. Knowledge now exceed other assets in value and a lot of effort is being put on developing, maintaining and structuring the knowledge firms have. This latest stage has been marked by the growing technological innovation and the global competitive need for innovation to stay at the top.
Contrary to what most of society believes, knowledge management is not just a jargon that is used to sound smart. It exists and works wonders! The knowledge economy uses knowledge to generate tangible and intangible values. Knowledge management adds value to firms by aiding in decision making, knowledge solutions, technology enhancement, research and automation.
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There are various changes in the modern business and driving forces that brought about the knowledge revolution. Some of them are: 1. Increasing market awareness and globalization. As we call it the global village. 2. Rise of media channels and ease of information sharing, retrieving and creation. 3. Networking ease, internet access, connectivity and mass availability of resources. How important is knowledge management? Consider these statistics: 1. Poor knowledge-sharing practices are estimated to cost Fortune 500 companies $31.5 billion annually. 2. A majority organizations estimate that effective knowledge management processes increase com-
pany productivity by 10-40 percent. Here are some examples of Knowledge management implemented to a firm’s advantage: 1. Cross-training programs: Sharing of knowledge opens avenues for cross training and collaboration between functions and industries.
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Perspective 2. Document management systems: Ever felt you can’t find a file or folder just when you need it the most. Document management systems solves that for you and makes sure the right files are available at the right place and at the right time.
Given how important knowledge is to efficiency and productivity, it is critical that organizations manage their knowledge effectively. To be frank, knowledge management allows firms to get precise information to the right people at the perfect time. Given the rapid rate at which expectations and landscape changes in the industry, defining proper information, people needs and timing has become tough if not impossible.
3. Content management systems (CMSs): Content management systems allow teams and individuals to publish, update, and access information on a company intranet. It also allows easy handling and maintenance of external websites.
An effective knowledge management system and strategy makes sure organizations create, apply, and share knowledge, reducing gaps and increasing the usage of valuable data. The right sustainable knowledge management strategy protects organizational objectives as technologies evolve, people change, and new processes evolve. This holds companies on the cutting edge of industry trends and ahead of competition.
4. Social networking tools: Private social networking tools such as Workplace and Slack allow teams to collaborate and communicate in a shared space. But these tools also act as knowledge management processes as they possess all historical conversations, enabling employees to search for previouslydiscussed information. 5. Chatbots: Chatbots represent an higher evolution of knowledge management. Chatbots like Spoke use Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to respond to employee questions and information requests. Using the bots chatbots, employees don’t have to look further for their information needs.
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To conclude I would like to quote the former CEO of HP: “If HP knew what HP knows, we would be three times more productive.” – Lewis E. Platt, former CEO at Hewlett-Packard
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Cover Story
MARKETING CAMPAIGNS IN SPORTS
Cover Story
TIn this world, we have a variety of platforms to access content ranging a wide horizon. Sports remains a potential area which can engage a huge number of people at the same time. Through sports, companies can promote their strategies at a global level bringing millions of people with similar interests together. MARKETING The evidence is in the statement by IOC that said that around half of the world’s population tuned TV. This BUDGET sports market is estimated at ̴720bn. It is increasing at a very high rate. In recent times, there has been a major shift in the entertainment industry, especially with how younger consumers are provided with content media like NETFLIX, Amazon Prime, which becomes a potential threat. Also, traditionally a sport like Cricket is watched with friends, relatives, but the younger generation prefers to watch individually on tablets and phones on Jio TV, Hotstar and SonyLiv. This gives media original content to directly influence younger customers through advertisements and other engaging activities. To target Generation Z, broadcast of IPL on Hotstar, Champions league matches on SonyLiv and UEFA finals on Youtube were started so that they could attract this segment of consumers with ease.
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Cover Story
January-February 2019
On comparing the traditional TV with digital platform, I believe the digital platform will always play a better role than the traditional TV. Companies can individually target customers which will have a better impact than mass media. Many of these digital companies are taking the advantage of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) which gives them another chance to interact and engage with customers. Both of the above-mentioned technologies have their own distinct characteristics which can be judiciously used by the companies.
through networking website like WhatsApp where they got fitness and life goals session. A similar campaign was launched by DFS which allowed fans to see how sportsmen live their life. A similar example in the Indian context where PUMA took services of star cricket players like Virat Kohli, Star Cement roped in Hima Das etc. These campaigns allow the companies to formulate their future strategy as they can directly measure the impact of their current campaigns. I believe that recently sports marketing has taken a turn towards lifestyle and entertainment which can be justified with following incident. Talking about this generation, they believe in originality of the content and have criticized sports multiple times for this reason. In 2015, the market of Cricket in India started saturating and the TV broadcasters were tensed about the same situation. Keeping in mind that 2015 was a world cup year, Starsports came out with a brilliant idea of marketing ‘Cricket’ as a commodity through Mauka Mauka advertisement. This was a very well thought and executed. It touched the right chords at a crucial moment before India and Pakistan’s match. This relevant and contextual brought a lot of smile in response. The ad focused much on the emotions that
I believe that as a fan, I want a more engaging and immersive experience. The companies can look into entering and sponsoring a sports property like 360 view of a goal, pre-match strategy or different angle of a shot and can deliver content in a much better way. Nissan, KENT RO etc. have sponsored the manager reaction, and a commercial break in Football and Cricket respectively. The important thing for this is fresh content as there will always be a mass of followers which will show high commitment and will engage in these activities. Activities like mid-time score prediction, interaction with the players can take the engagement to a different level which can be very
useful to companies as they can target the customer related to this match where more than half of popuby engaging them with meaningful conversation and lation watches this match irrespective of their interactivities. est in cricket. This ad became a hit without any big stars from both team and grabbed the attention of Giving an example on similar line, Nike launched a nation in no time. This whole Mauka-miniseries comnew campaign ‘Nike on Demand’ where they made pletely transformed the sports and again brought the a one-to-one connection of fans with sportsmen interest in traditional viewing of sport.
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Similarly, another case of British Table Tennis, where instead of broadcasting on big TV channels, they broadcasted it on their official Facebook handles where they garnered around 2.1 million viewers. This unorthodox way of engaging customers shows how these sports events are thinking out of the box to retain and engage their customers.
I think the biggest challenge for marketers is to keep the millennials engaged in traditional sports. Younger audiences are looking for a highly social and participative platform. Core fans of traditional sports under the age of 25 are not too many. They don’t see the relevance of events such as the Olympics. The problem is that sports mainly relies on traditional TV, which is not being watched by millennials. With Further sports sponsors have also combined enter- newer channels of entertainment coming in, martainment with the sports like including a celebrity keters need to engage in over the top channels. The performance at the inauguration of an event like IPL. focus should be on esports. Millennials are embracIn west, Pepsico, the official sponsor of UEFA roped ing gaming-based spectator activity. The online batin several celebrities for the pre-match program. tle video game, League of Legends, was watched by
In the current world, sports for women is getting a lot of attention in sports and companies are taking complete advantage of it by bringing them under their campaign and making it more effective. Examples like The Girl Can aims to bring women and girls to sports ignoring their shape, ability and size. In Ireland, 20x20 campaign for women in sports to increase the visibility of women in sports.
around 36 million viewers. Marketers need to figure out how to keep the younger audiences entertained and at the same time retain their existing audiences. Nowadays, people want to get closer to the action, both off and on the field. This poses a problem to brand sponsors as they do not go to the official sources anymore, like brand websites, to gather inside information on a story. Fans know that the information available on such sites is highly vetted and that they don’t show the entire picture. We are living in an age with multiple mediums to watch sports. Be it social media, mobile phones or virtual reality, fans are finding it less relevant to physically attend the sporting events, aided by the rise in ticket prices as well. Sparsely filled venues have a drastic impact on the sports marketing mix even if their online presence exists. Sports need to be more accessible. Fans’ experiences need to be enhanced, in comparison to what they get at home.
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Cover Story
January-February 2019
MARKETING BUDGET Channels like Star Sports are coming with ‘Cricket ka asli king kaun’ to restore the audience specially in the World Cup year. To engage millennials, companies need to come up with a solid plan tapping the right chords
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Having said that, brands can bring in more engaging campaign as with rising standard and more developing market can help them increase their profit multifold.
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Vartalaap
January-February 2019
VARTALAAP An Interview with Mr Anand Singh by Astitva Kumar and Shobhit Chandak Mr Anand Singh is a veteran in the field of management with a demonstrated history of experience in filtration systems as well as energy and environment industry. He is skilled in Research and Development (R&D), Business Planning, Process Engineering, Procurement, and Engineering. Apart from his managerial capabilities, he possesses vital technological know-how about how the filtration industry works. Having graduated as a Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi, Mr Singh possesses over 23 years of industry experience. He is currently holding the office of the Vice President in Freudenberg Filtration Technologies India Pvt Ltd from August 1998, which accounts for over two decades of experience in the Filtration Industry. He has previously worked as a Sales Manager in Thermax Limited and has also been a part of Lupin. He has excellent leadership qualities and is a highly respected leader known to specialize in Product Development, Lean Manufacturing and Business Strategy.
Freudenberg
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Vice President
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Vartalaap
January-February 2019
“Behave like a customer to yourself and then go and meet your customer “ Markathon: Working for more than two-decade in the industry, what characteristics do you think successful marketers should have or develop? Also which brand would you associate yourself with and why? In marketing, the basic concept and the key to success is value for your customer and understanding the needs of your customer. What I usually train is behave like a customer to yourself and then go and meet your customer. Unless and until you understand what she/he would expect, you would never be able to deliver that. That is the key to marketing and then comes value which translates from the product and/or services. So marketers should capture the emotional quotient and expectation of the customer. Once I asked this question to a very senior person in Freudenberg that all our products are the costliest in the market, so how do you think we could still increase our prices and how do you explain that. So he replied that could be done because we don’t perceive that we are selling a product, we are selling peace of mind. Anywhere any product whether it is an industrial product or a consumer product people buy it for peace of mind and satisfaction. That’s what we should look for and understanding that being a customer. I would be associating myself with some European company because they do not do business just for the sake of doing business. They really understand that they have to develop the society through business. So the philosophy that a European company has is missing in other parts of the world.
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Markathon: With the north-eastern market rapidly developing at double-digit growth figure and still being neglected by major brands how do you plan to cater to this segment? As far as the northeast is concerned, we have already developed a business model within Freudenberg. If you talk about other companies like our partners they are sceptical about this region and they are sceptical because of certain things which they are facing in this region from the last ten years. This region is very rich in natural resources, has a lot of natural gas which is key to a lot of industries. This region is also given tax benefits, so a lot of pharmaceutical companies have come up. Still, there is a lot of hindrance to business. It is costly to supply a container to places like Numaligarh refinery or the OTPC power plant in Agartala who are customers to us. Among the hindrances first one is transportation. A container coming to Kolkata or Haldi from Pune charges approximately 60000 rupees, the same container to Agartala costs 220000 rupees for a short distance from Kolkata to Agartala. You know why because the transport agency say they have to pay money on the borders to these hindrances. It is a politically created thing which industry foresees that it will slowly go off which we haven’t seen, but we expect that to happen in the future. Secondly, the technical and professional education in this region is not to that extent that they get employment in these industries have made the local people unemployed. But things are changing at a fast rate. For example, if you see Tripura, it is mildly getting connected by Kolkata Tripura by pass-through Bangladesh. The bus service has started, and in sometimes the goods movement will also start.
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Vartalaap Markathon: Marketing is very dynamic, and the scenario is ever-changing. Information is power, and staying up-to-date is the need of the hour but what is most important is understanding which information to use and which to discard. How can marketers make sure they get accurate and authentic information and use them to their benefit? Personal connections with your consumers.
January-February August 2019 2018 educate the customer so that in end of the session he says thanks a lot it was a great learning because when he goes back to his office he exactly knows what to compare then I know my product is the best and then he arrives. It is better to sell your product to people who really need it. Understand a consumers need, take their feedback develop the right product and compete. Something like co-creation.
Markathon: With the automotive industry being one Sitting in an air-conditioned office, getting the data of the major clients of Freudenberg, how does the from all over the globe, analysing it and arriving at onset of electric car industry shape the future? the right point and coming to a conclusion that the North America requires this and the South America Lovely question! E-mobility is one of the themes we requires this doesn’t work. Preparing an advertise- are working on. We have long strategic business plan ment for north India and just dumping it in south till 2050. Earlier it was e-mobility but last year we India doesn’t work. So you have to get connected changed it to variable mobility because e-mobility with the consumers. Marketing is still an on field is not picking up at the pace which was seen till last thing. Digitalisation is a tool for marketing and not year. Now people are confused if it will only be elecfull marketing. tric cars, cars driven driven by fuel cells or hybrids of these two or any of these with fossil fuel. So talking Markathon: Brand loyalty is very important for a about Freudenberg, we are foreseeing that and makmarketer. How does a marketer make sure that a ing ourselves ready for that. For example, Freudenconsumer doesn’t switch? berg is one of oldest investors in fuel cell technology. Though people have now been working on it for Companies have to become accommodative to more than past 30 years, it’s still very nascent and not competition. Suppose you are Apple and you can much has been done. You won’t see a single fuel cell create a portal wherein one can choose and com- car. But people are working on it we are one of the pare a Samsung model, One Plus model, Lava major contributors in R&D in terms of funds as well model and have a transparent comparison of the as people. Second comes, the battery. In this room, same. It is like showcasing this is me, these are my you will find at least 10 applications of nonwovens. positive, and these are my negative and this is my In a battery, there are cathode and anode which are competitor and these are their positive and these to be separated by a non-conducting media and that are their negative and being transparent and true non-conductive media is a nonwoven. This can be a to the consumer because if they are giving false in- material which when soaks water, swells and doesn’t formation and if they put anything trying to show allow water to pass, so that even when battery gets customer that they are better, it won’t sustain. wet, there is no spark between anode and cathode. So that’s one application. So there are various such applications where we are working on different variable mobility models so that we can sustain ourselves in the business.
It is better to sell your product to people who really need it
Here in Freudenberg we never sell our product; we just educate our customers. They automatically buy our products. Till date in my 20 years career in Freudenberg I have never made a presentation to sell a product, I have only made a presentation to
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Markathon: Freudenberg rebranded itself. What are the challenges that come up while rebranding a multi-billion dollar organisation? It was a five year project just for rebranding. Normally for people, rebranding would be just change the logo, change the letterheads, change all the emarketing and portals, change your slogans etc.
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But for a company, rebranding starts from change in thinking and thought process, and that’s very difficult. Earlier, Freudenberg didn’t have the slogan at the base. Rather, every business vertical had their own. Like filtration had, we improve quality of life. This time company incorporated “Innovating Together” and it took more than 7-8 months to arrive at this simple slogan. It has to gel with every business. In none of the business, if I put a slide somebody should be able to question me, “I don’t give you a feedback, you are not innovating with me”. So it has to gel with every business and sieve into the brain of each and every employee of the company. Today we are having around 52,000 employees and that too in different geographical locations. It was very difficult initially to bring in the theme of this change. And it was not only the slogan, it was the complete change. The mission and vision statements got completely changed. Over time, you realize that a decision taken by people at any level makes them pass through their mission statement day-in and day-out. Somewhere it sits at the back of the mind. So bringing that into the brains of the people is the most difficult thing and that took 2-3 years. The concept was built in Germany, taking feedback from the globe. Believe me, there are certain words in German for which you will not find translation in Hindi. For example, the single word translation for sustainability in Hindi does not exist. Such a buzz word of the industry and we still do not have a single word for it in Hindi. Similarly, when you have to translate, it becomes very difficult and doing that took a lot of time and that’s where rebranding becomes a difficult task.
and is it worth taking that extra mile, bearing the associated costs and then serving? I’ll take you the other way round. The customer should not become environment friendly, we should teach the customer to become environment friendly. That’s what we do. Let’s take example of automotive industry. Out of all the automobile plants, only Maruti has an incinerator. An incinerator is a plant that can burn waste material at nearly 2,700-4000 degree centigrade. At that temperature, nothing is left except ash and most of the toxicity burns away. Still we make certificates that if the product is incinerated, there will be no toxic emissions. If you go deep into it, do you think it’s just because they sell cheap cars that Maruti is successful? No, they have a lot behind it. If sometime you get the details, read into the philosophy of Maruti. It’s very well suited to the Indian environment. We supply huge amount of filters. So see where you paint the cars, there has to be a constant flow of air and that air has to be completely clean because one dust particle of 10 micron falling on a painted body is like a mountain and the car has to go for repair. Maruti makes one car per minute in one of their shops and one car per repair takes 7 minutes. That means loss of 7 cars. If an average price you take of 5 lakhs, one minute costs 35 lakhs. So they built 4-5 layers of filters and there has to be an airflow so that the paint settles on the body in a particular fashion so that there is shine. So there are huge filters and there is so much dust that after 6-8 months they are to be taken out and thrown. Now disposing off those filters contaminated with all that dust and everything in it is a challenge.
For people, rebranding would be just change in the logo, the letterheads or your slogans. But for a company, rebranding starts from change in thinking and thought process.
Markathon: Seeing your business model, with customers becoming more and more environmental and socially sensitive, how do marketers incorporate the principle of sustainability in all the dealings
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Now the second part of that question, is it worth going the extra mile? How would you like your child to be? As healthy as you, at least? That is sustainability. Now you think whether you have to take care of it or not.
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January-February 2019
LUXURY BRANDS SHOULD/SHOULDN’T USE TRADITIONAL MEDIA CHANNELS TO MARKET THEMSELVES Sayan chaudhury IIM Shillong
Anjali Gupta iim Shillong
According to many marketing professionals, the traditional media channels include mediums like television advertisements, radio advertising, print advertising etc. Luxury brands like Mercedes Benz, Armani, Versace etc. are utilised by the consumers in the higher disposable income levels and ranging from age groups of 35-50 years. The segment is completely brand-conscious and selective; hence the brands do not have to use mass marketing strategies but have to utilise targeted marketing. This segment, as per marketing survey conducted by many researchers, believe in quality and uniqueness. Now, when the luxury brands try to market them in the newly developed media channels, the urge to stand out from the crowd gets diminished in the minds of the consumer.
There is a major aesthetic difference between a luxury product and an ordinary one. Thus it is essential to make sure that this unique aesthetic, characteristics and values are emphasized while marketing the product, as opposed to the way mass product brands are marketed. It should be noted that traditional marketing model does not attract the modern generation of consumers, Moreover, according to the survey conducted by Danziger, millennial doesn’t seem to find any value in these luxury brands. Therefore, it is vital for the brands to persuade this generation. One of the best way to reach out to this generation and influence them is by exploiting social media marketing while preceding the traditional means of marketing. Following are the reasons why luxury brand marketers should switch from a conventional form of marketing:
v e r s u s
This plays a negative psychological effect on the consumer and neglects an emotional differentiation. It can be observed that the segment mostly reads the newspaper daily to keep abreast of latest trends emerging in their scope of work. Their favourite channels include mostly channels like Fox Life, FashionTV and News channels. According to a survey conducted by 4Cinsights.com, by displaying advertisements on these channels, Mercedes Benz increased its marketing impact on the social media channels by 130.1%. Similarly, L’Oreal increased the impact by television advertisements in the January To conclude, luxury brands should ditional media channels to gain er market share in the particular
81.4% by of 2018. use traa largsegment.
1. A luxury product is not a basic need: A traditional marketing model cannot work in case of Luxury products the reason being that in traditional marketing model, the brand listens to what consumer wants and positions so that it could meet the needs of their potential customer. In other words, the consumer is not expected to change, but the brand is evolved to fit the needs of the customer. This kind of model cannot work in the luxury market segment. 2. A luxury brand requires uniqueness and not mass marketing: One thing that sets a luxury product apart is its uniqueness. Therefore its marketing content should be such that it provides its customer with an individualized experience Thus the whole secret to a successful marketing strategy is understanding the difference between a luxury brand marketing model, and mass marketing model. A brand marketing strategist who understands this difference can take the brand into the desired position, where it is viewed as an icon of success
Topic for the next issue: “Personalised Advertisements: Intrusive or Helpful?” Your opinion (view/counterview) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is 25th March 2019. Include your picture (JPEG format) with the entry. Winners will receive a prize money of Rs. 500 each!
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Logoistic Logoistic
January-February August 2019 2018
Since 1975, Microsoft has built itself into the most prolific software company in the world. As creators of the ubiquitous Windows operating system and its suite of Office applications, the company has formed a consistent and critical part of how people manage their content and run their businesses, leading to exponential success and a striking evolution of their brand. The company’s first logo was created by none other than Bill Gates and co-founder Paul Allen. The partners would use a programming language to generate their first corporate logo. Concentric lines and rounded edges form an all caps wordmark influenced by a disco aesthetic - timely for its era but ultimately destined for change. It’s a new decade, and Microsoft has partnered with IBM. To remain visually relevant and appeal to the new market, a logo with a decidedly bold look is created. With its sharp edges, diagonal lines and exaggerated stems on M, R and F, one could be forgiven for believing that the company was making heavy metal records as opposed to software. Seeking a more modern image suitable for mass consumption, the wordmark is distilled into a solid, geometric sans-serif font. The letter “O” is carved from a series of parallel lines - an icon which is nicknamed the “blibbet” by employees. This logo would become the face of Microsoft’s flagship Windows operating system. The use of a much bolder, title-cased wordmark represented the most notable departure from previous logos. Due to the triangular sliver carved from its side, employees would affectionately dub this as the “Pac Man Logo”. On August 23, 2012 a much anticipated new brand was launched. Rather than hire a firm or tap in-house designers, this logo was the result of a collective brainstorming amongst many employees. Most notable here is the use of colors in the famous four-box icon, which represented the success of Windows along with its color-coded suite of Office applications
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AD-dicted AD-dicted
december 2013 January-February 2019 Company: Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Agency: Point of View Brandcom India URL: https://youtu.be/sD0nCXgR-Og
By riSHI AHUJA IIM SHILLONG Company: Tata Salt Agency: Ogilvy URL: https://youtu.be/8IwjJpVuVvg Concept: This ad by Tata Salt attempts to go back in time and tries to appeal to the nationalistic sentiments of the viewers on the occasion of the 70th Republic Day of India. It uses the salt art to convey the message. The ad film focuses on the various aspects of our Constitution like equality, seclarism, fundamental rights etc. It has a very sensitizing tune in the background with a very soft but confident and proud voice narrating the story. It promotes the #NamakKeWaastey campaign.
CATCH
R
Concept:
The ad film is about PCHF’s new financial product that simplifies buying a house by bridging the time gap between buying and selling a house. There is a buyer of the house named ‘Subramanium’ who has finalised the deal with the seller but cannot process the payment as he is still unable to sell his own house. As a result, he keeps the seller waiting for too long. The seller after repetitive requests finally sells the house to someone else who is ready with the payment. All the scenes are tried to be shown in a jocular manner.
MISS Verdict:
Verdict: Every work that Tata undertakes reflects patriotism for the country. This ad reinforces that idea. They try to show that as salt in food goes unnoticed, same is the case with our rights and duties that go unnoticed in the constitution, hence let’s try and remember them. Eminent people like Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Mahashweta and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar are depicted very beautifully to add emotions to the film. Viewers can feel the importance of Republic Day and our Constitution through this well-crafted film. The salt art shown is also something new. Markathon believes it is a CATCH as with minimum and relevant visuals, it delivers the right message.
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Although the theme is jocular, the ad film fails to create humour, rather the constant repetition of “Waiting Waiting” might be annoying for viewers. It misses out on creating an impact on the viewers or prospective buyers as in the real life, buying and selling a house is a serious issue. Many emotions are involved in this process in reality and Piramal clearly is not able to connect with the audience in this scenario. Also the product is meant for the buyer of the house, however in this case the buyer is shown as a fool and is overshadowed by the seller. Demeaning your own customer is not very advisable. Hence for all these reason, Markathon’s verdict for this ad film is a MISS.
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Brand Story
Kratgya Gupta IIM Shillong
January-February 2019
BRAND STORY KAWAI
Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co., Ltd. is a piano manufacturing company headquartered in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan. The company has a remarkable history of 90 years and was established in August of 1927. The founder of the company Koichi Kawai was born in Hamamatsu, Japan. What’s more interesting to know is the fact that he shared his neighborhood with none other than Torakusu Yamaha. The founder of the biggest piano manufacturing company in the world, Yamaha. Koichi Kawai was taken by Torakusu Yamaha as an apprentice. Kawai with his zeal to learn was later
taken into the research and development department and the team that first introduced pianos to Japan. The piano manufacturing industry in 1920 almost faltered in Japan after the death of Torakusu Yamaha in 1916. Soon after Yamaha was taken over by Nippon. The new management began to rapidly diversify the portfolio. This resulted in backlashes in the company and disturbed corporate culture, which led Kawai to leave Nippon and found the Kawai Musical Instrument Research Laboratory. The company is currently looked after by the third generation of the Kawai family. Presently the company is headed by Hirotaka Kawai who was appointed as the president in 1989. His appointment as the president brought some real change in the company and the way it manufactured piano. He introduced advanced robotics in the manufacturing process, expanded Kawai manufacturing facilities around the world and also introduced new models of grand, upright and digital pianos. One thing that has always kept Kawai on the top is its use of technology and innovation in the piano manufacturing space. While all major brands have been following a simi-
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lar manufacturing processes from their inception, Kawai has always been experimenting with its pianos. It has always been a pioneer at the technology and innovation front. The company has been able to achieve this only because of its strong research and development department. In 1960 the main problem for Kawai craftsmen was centered on the wood. The reason why wood was a problem was because under continual high stress the wood was susceptible to breakage. Another problem with wood was its tendency to shrink and swell with a change in the climate. This posed a serious challenge to the quality and tone of the piano. So the company thought of alternative materials that could act as a replacement to those wooden pieces that were more prone to breakage under high pressure. Hence after considering a lot of alternatives, the company came down to a polymer composite material called ABS Styran. The material was found to be much stronger than the wooden counterparts, did not get affected by any change in climate and had been widely used in some related industries. Keeping all this in mind Kawai took a bold step and became the pioneer in using ABS Styran in its pianos. But this move was met with criticism. Where critics blamed the company of using plastic to save money, some even issued advertisements saying “Don’t buy a piano with plastic parts!” In reality, when the check was done, it was found that all those critics had no basis and it was mainly done to confuse the consumers and keep them away from the discovery of ABS Styran. So to make sure that the company does not lose out on its customers because of some biased critics, the company went to the industry experts and asked their opinion on using ABS in pianos. And here is one of those excerpts that were made available over the company’s website. “Plastic parts have some advantages over wooden ones. They can be made more uniform in shape and weight, are indifferent to temperature and humidity changes, and have no glue joints to come apart…” – Larry Fine, RPT The Piano Book Only because of this responsiveness the company has been able to become the second largest piano manufacturing company in the world. If I had to speak one thing that I like about the brand, it will definitely be the way it communicates to the world about how a Kawai piano is built. This is what the company say “The birth place of a Kawai grand piano is not in a building or a factory, its origin is in the heart, the heart of a craftsman.”
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January-February 2019
Digigyan
BATTLE OF THE BOTS: HOW CHATBOTS HAVE HELPED CHANGE THE FACE OF MARKETING Riya SarkaR
Human progress, missing. Correspondence channels, quiet. The majority of the general population have fled, threatened by endless notices and estranging messages. What could cause such a destroy scene? Terrible bots. OK, perhaps that sounds a lot like a general superhero blockbuster. Be that as it may, it wouldn’t be the first time that brands mishandled another innovation until the point when individuals were covered in spam up to their eyeballs. You’ve likely heard: Bots are what’s to come. In case you’re pondering today regardless of whether your business ought to make a bot, you’re asking the wrong thing. Bot-controlled business is our cutting-edge show fate. In any case, that doesn’t mean we can’t mess it up.
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The most progressive bots are fueled by man-made consciousness, helping it to comprehend complex solicitations, customize reactions, and enhance collaborations after some time. This innovation is still in its beginning stages, so most bots pursue a lot of guidelines tailored by a human using a bot-building scene. It’s as straightforward as requesting a rundown of on the off chance that announcements and composing canned reactions, regularly without any need to know a single line of code. It’s the twofold edged sword of informing. Bots give a versatile method to cooperate one-on-one with purchasers. However, they fizzle when they don’t convey an ordeal as effective and awesome as the complex, multi-layered discussions individuals are acquainted with having with different people on informing applications.
Advertisers have a horrible propensity: They grasp gleaming, new correspondence channels and burn them to the ground. It starts with a feeling of frenzy. Gathering of people is regularly waning and rivalry is consistently rising — yet, despite everything they need to meet their month to month objectives. Along these lines, they make increasing content, send more messages and then sit and cross their fingers. Also, when a blue sea channel opens up, they dash — overlooking the reason individuals ran there in any case. They state the individuals who don’t recall the past are sentenced to rehash it. Advertiser, business pioneer, business person — information will be an extraordinary promoting channel. Be that as it may, will you reorder your systems of old and rehash similar mix-ups? So, what are bots? No compelling reason to overcomplicate it. A bot is just a PC program that computerizes certain assignments, regularly by talking with a client through a conversational interface.
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Digigyan
January-February 2019
Time and again, bots come up short on an unmistakable reason, don’t comprehend conversational setting, or overlook what you’ve said two air pockets later. To aggravate it, they don’t clarify that they’re a bot in any case, leaving no choice to raise the issue to a human agent.
Man-made reasoning will keep on fundamentally shaping this front, yet a bot ought to associate with your present frameworks so a common contact record can drive personalization.
Utility bots take care of a client’s concern, whatever that might be, using a client provoked exchange. The most evident precedent is a shopping bot, for example, one that encourages you to arrange blossoms or purchase another coat. As indicated by an ongoing
There’s no way to downplay what bots could offer us. For brands and consumers alike, bots give us a chance to redeem communication and commerce. Research ends up being convenient, purchases streamlined, and service personalized.
HubSpot Research think about, 47% of customers are available to purchase things from a bot. Be that as it may, utility bots are not restricted to making buys. A utility bot could consequently book gatherings by filtering your messages or advise you of the installment memberships you overlooked.
But just as quickly, we can also transform bots from helpful to disruptive, wanted to unwanted.
Regard the conversational UI. The full communication should occur locally inside the application. The Instructive bots furnish clients with another organi- objective is to perceive the client’s expectation and zation in which to devour content. For example, you give the right substance least client input. Each incould buy into breaking news alarms dependent on quiry ought to convey the client closer to the appropriate response they need. your perusing propensities.
Talking with a bot ought to resemble conversing with a human that knows everything. In case you’re utilizing a bot to change an aircraft reservation, the bot should know whether you have an unused credit for you and whether you normally pick the walkway or seat by the window.
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Don’t miss the opportunity here. By nature of what bots are, they offer a radically new reality. Bots are built to be helpful. They require a person to opt-in. And for the first time, they encourage scalable, oneon-one conversations between brands and consumers.It’s the makings of a marketer’s dream: a world where brands can build authentic relationships with their buyers, and buyers can learn to trust brands again.
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By vishal gupta | IIM Shillong Gillette brand takes a hit as ‘#metoo’ ad backfires The ad plays on Gillette’s famous slogan ‘The best a man can get’, replacing it with ‘The best men can be’. Aiming to “celebrate the stories of men making a positive impact and to inspire others in the process”, it shows a compilation of actions often associated with “toxic masculinity” and examples of how men can take action to create meaningful change. However, the ad has split opinion. While some have praised the brand for tackling an important issue, others have criticized it for its approach and questioned why the razor brand is inserting itself into the debate. If the objective is to get people talking, Gillette has certainly done that.
PR and elections - the emergence of new party politics Perception in politics is a key driver to take a successful election campaign home. Contextually, PR has emerged as an indispensable tool that ensures the idea is perceived in the manner it should be. PR has successfully used technology driven strategy for political candidates during election campaigns. The main purpose behind these technologydriven campaigns is to help voters make informed decisions while casting their votes. Voter responses to these electoral campaigns helped individual candidates and political parties (via their technology teams and consultants) to rework messaging their agenda till the very end.
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The Body Shop to turn its stores into ‘activist hubs’ to combat The Body Shop is planning to turn its stores into “activist hubs” in order to overcome difficult trading conditions on the UK high street and attract more visitors to its shops. The Body Shop’s renewed brand purpose will focus on gender equality. Macneil-Brown explains: “We’re seeing our way into the women’s rights space because at the heart of our activism we want to work towards gender equality and be a real feminist brand.” A core part of ensuring activism is at the heart of stores is up-skilling teams to run local activism projects. Despite being a competitor, Brown cited Lush as a “huge inspiration” for its work with activist groups “to bring to life issues in store”.
HERSHEY’S is extending its ‘Meethe Bahane’ campaign into an interactive marketing gig Sarosh Shetty, Marketing Director, Hershey India, said, “We want parents to know of the versatility of the HERSHEY’s range of delightful products and how they could simply add a delicious twist to their everyday dishes. The insight behind the campaign is that children come up with sweet and naughty excuses, to avoid eating everyday food. This is where Chef Ranveer steps in and co-creates delicious dishes, along with parents and of course, HERSHEY’S products. We look forward to an exciting association with Ranveer, and to helping parents achieve their goal of making everyday food even more exciting for their loved ones.”
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January-February 2019
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