Markathon June-July 2019

Hello Readers!

There have been various advancements in our environment with respect to the time of the previous magazine. With the new government came a new budget and new promises. The government’s focus on SMEs and MSMEs was distinctly visible. Slump in the automotive industry and England winning the ICC world cup have been the talks of the town. But the most exciting event for us had to be the arrival of the new batch of IIM Shillong.

‘Logoistic’ unfolds the interesting evolution of Audi’s logo.

We also take pleasure in bringing forth our i interview with Mr. Sameer Seth, Director – Marketing, Dolby Laboratories, via our Vartalaap section. This section aims at sharing experiences of illustrious personalities and our insights from our conversations with them.

In the end, we would like to thank all our writers for Perspective and Eye2Eye. It was great readThrough the pages of this edition of Markathon, ing your views. We would also like to thank our one would find a mix of branding in B2B and readers for their constant support which serves B2C space. This edition’s cover story discusses as a motivational force every time. the concept of Neuromarketing and the impact it creates on our choices. The perspective section We sincerely hope that you enjoy reading the talks about ‘Branding in B2B space’ by Pankhuri magazine as much as we enjoyed compiling it.

Saxena, IIM Shillong. The test of advertisement continued in this edition with advertisements of brands like Swiggy and Starsports. ‘Jab they Love, failed’ yet again examines a brand failure, talking about Bisleri Pop in this edition.

Team Markathon

June -July 2019

Perspective

B2B Branding and the art of Storytelling

pankhuri saxena IIm Shillong

“Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but the stories you tell” – Seth Godin From ancient to modern times, the one thing that has remained constantly with humans throughout the evolution has been storytelling. This art of storytelling had been a giant leap in our cognitive development throughout the eons. This was the key due to which humans crossed the critical threshold of a hundred and fifty people to form large scale human cooperation. Big brands, huge multi nationals, modern states, cities and religion have all thrived because of the common myths rooted in people’s collective imagination.

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June -July 2019

Perspective All of these were built through stories that people tell each other. In today’s world, this art of storytelling has undergone metamorphosis and emerges in the techniques of integrated branding communications used by brands.

In a time when companies are fighting for attention, higher quality content over

quantity has become increasingly critical.

Customers are turning fickle because of an overload of information and shorter attention spans pf only 8.25 seconds. Presently, B2B brands usually define themselves by their services, industry leadership or the legacy that they have built in the past. But it is critical to think from the customer’s perspective, more specifically the question; why would they care for your brand.

B2B buyers are majorly transactional buyers and pose a threat for defection not because of substandard products or services but rather a lack of customer focus. Hence it becomes very necessary for brands to understand their customer perspective and translating that into meaningful personas and user stories. A report from Deloitte shows that customer centric brands are 60% more profitable than companies who were not. With high client engagement B2B companies can expect more profitability than their counterparts. A staple of B2C content marketing, brand storytelling is less common in the B2B world.

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Looking at technology driven B2B giants, Cisco emerges as the thought leader in creating engaging stories to build their brand.

It has also backed position in Forbes list of most customer centric companies in the B2B segment. Being a networking operation, Cisco always faces the challenge of explaining to end users and potential buyers about

what they actually do. They thwart this by producing a sheer amount of quality content and telling stories in their blog. One such example is Cisco’s sea change, a story of a racing yatch equipped with Cisco powered technologies, which gains a competitive advantage by using Internet of Things.

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Perspective the brand’s products in today’s world. Cisco has also put concentrated efforts in building a customer experience group by involving 27 thousand of its employees.

The importance of brand story telling is not hidden from yet another tech giant – Microsoft. In 2010, Microsoft appointed its first chief storyteller. Steve Clayton, the current storyteller believes that in this era of constant bombardment of information, stories are the anchors to the brands. He is responsible in shaping the company’s image and projecting out Microsoft’s culture of innovation through storytelling. Backed by 20 years of experience in working in this company he was responsible for “88 acres” - a story about how Microsoft is building a futuristic city powered by massive data collection and cloud capabilities. Along with this the Microsoft Stories platform highlights employees from every department within their company, from researchers to artists to video game developers.

On the similar lines, Google’s AdWords stories are a collection of short videos that highlights the workings of small business and how Google AdWords can have a life changing impact on them.

Successful B2B storytellers follow a recurring theme; it’s the goal to showcase how companies’ products impact the day to day life and the positive change they bring in the life of users. Intel also follows this with their aggressive content marketing strategies and content placement decisions. The focus area from them are super niche sector like Artificial intelligence and 5G network capabilities. Intel injected its RealSense brand into the lives of regular people in its commercial.

Not only these big companies, but small startups are also applying this. Snotbot, a company which manufactures custom built drones features a story on its landing page.

It is an interview with Marine biologist [Dr. Iain Kerr] and his lifelong work of tracking humpback whale colonies. Not only these big companies, companies, but small startups are also applying this. Snotbot, a company

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which manufactures custom built drones features a story on its landing page. It is an interview with Marine biologist [Dr. Iain Kerr] and his lifelong work of tracking humpback whale colonies. The way to do that research was very labor-intensive, very costly and very time-consuming.

But now Snotbot is sending drones out to fly over humpback whale colonies in the wild from a nice safe distance. The drones get visuals, all that data being downloaded in real time onto the ship and artificial intelligence algorithms are being used to analyze and make predictions about important areas.

Recently I came across a video on Instagram – a massive digital platform on which B2B companies have started focusing on. The quirky 2-minute ad literally depicted the ‘corporate jungle’, where a humble water dispenser was the watering hole where the office employees gathered.

And each of them was shown imitating the animal they resembled – the night watchman as the rooster, the workaholic as the horse and finally the boss as the lion; the king of the jungle. This is how Usha international has been targeting its B2B clients i.e. corporates for its water solutions. With an unconventional approach in terms of using social media channels & giving a human touch to an otherwise mundane customer engagement, Usha international clearly shows that even small players are changing their B2B branding approach.

Examples like these inspire budding marketers to make brand storytelling a bigger part of their marketing strategy. They don’t need a huge budget and a wealth of resources to make use of brand storytelling. Whether it’s a big or small business, each one of them have stories to tell.

So, the next time you build out an elaborate marketing campaign, try thinking like a storyteller rather than a marketer.

You might just discover a way to create a deeper connection with your audience.

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Cover Story

NEUROMARKETING SELLING TO THE INVISIBLE Cover Story We have always been told that we are the best judge of ourselves. Well, that’s not true, neuroscience opens up the pandora’s box that contains the deepest secrets of the human brain. The evolution from a reptilian brain to a hunter-gatherer until a civilized man, all of it has its impact on everyone, none excluded.

MARKETING What’s even more intriguing is that most of the decisions that we make are taken unconsciously. And we BUDGET think we are rational! But the truth is that as marketeers, we are actually dealing with the irrational part, the one which prefers biases and prejudices over logic and rationale.

Daniel Kahneman, in his book “Thinking, Fast and slow” calls the unconscious brain as ‘system 1’ and the conscious brain as ‘system 2’. By default, the system 1 is always active, and the decision making in this part of the brain is effortless and automatic.

Most of the everyday decisions, so to say, is taken by system 1, whereas the complex decisions are taken by system 2 which are effortful and calculative. The ratio may be as skewed as 10000:1 for decision made by system 1 vs system 2. The first reactions and initial impressions are made by system 1 and there is a halo effect which influences the opinion that we form, even after gathering complete information. So now we know why they say, “first impression is the last impression”.

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Cover Story

June -July 2019

The brain does not make use of conscious part unless strictly necessary. The reason for this can be explained from evolutionary science, the humans then had to save as much energy as possible for more important activities related to survival like hunting, fighting. Hence, over 450,000,000 years this trait has become a part of the brain. The system 2 is only activated when the ‘normal state’ of system 1 is triggered. Any abnormality like a loud noise, loads of information or anything which requires us to focus, will ring an alarm and the system 2 takes control from thereon.

A phenomenon that is extremely important for any marketer to know is Associative Coherence. Our mind continually tries to find connections in disparate objects, making associations, forming mental pictures, trying to make sense of anything and everything. We have a massive repository of ideas, which our brain tries to link with information at hand. Much like our attention, which sees only what it wants and expects to see, our associative memory looks to reinforce our existing patterns of association and deliberately discounts evidence that contradicts them. And therein lies the triumph and tragedy of our intuitive mind. To give a few examples, when you hear the name ‘CocaThere is a clear implication of all of this as a marketer, Cola, your brain will instantly flash the color red, the although not very apparent. Which part of the brain iconic shape of the glass bottle or moments of hapshould our marketing communication focus on? Hav- piness on the back of your mind. Similarly, when you ing established that most of our decisions are taken hear the name ‘Nokia’, you would associate it with by system 1, we need to understand how each of the durability and sturdiness. systems responds to the ‘marcom’. When we provide an advertisement with a detailed specification of our offering, present comparison tables with com- Associative Coherence is, in reality, the phenomenon petitors, we make it very easy for the customer to in practice when we talk about celebrity brand enchoose our product, don’t we? This is precisely what dorsements along with the Halo effect. Our subconwe should be avoiding. As soon as the system 1 sees scious brain extrapolates the positive qualities that so much informawe see in the tion, system 2 is auendorser and astomatically alerted sociates it to the to come to rescue. product talked System 2 starts to about. In the latassimilate and make est campaign by calculations, and the One Plus, they result is that the purhave used Robchase is delayed and ert Downey Jr. the offering is stored as the brand for future considerambassador.

I ations. But the real am sure you can deals are the ones now easily guess with minimalistic inwhy.

Spoiler formation carrying Alert! The ada very simple mesvertisement was sage. Such messages launched right are much more effective and impactful as these are after Avengers Endgame in which Ironman (Robert), processed by system 1, which drives our impulses, the most beloved character suffered a tragic death leading to instant purchases or creating strong posi- saving the world. The audience thought of him as tive biases in our minds. We have all probably seen the ‘one true hero’, and his death became the highthose full-page newspaper advertisements with light of the movie. To see him back in the ad. made nothing but just the company logo. So now we also viewers happy and his qualities as Ironman of being know why they say, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophis- a tech geek, with cutting-edge technology and “cool tication.” and classy” persona, was associated with the latest One Plus 7. Take a moment now to think about Ak-

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Cover Story

June -July 2019

shay Kumar & Thumps Up, Sachin Tendulkar & Ceat This is an effort to prime the mind to think of the same tyres, Hema Malini & Kent Purifiers. You can now par moment, which would influence the target audience yourself for having understood the thought process to purchase the product. that goes into choosing the brand ambassadors.

The marketing implication of this is that instead of directly trying to push the product, we must first prime the minds of the customer and then the probability of the sale happening will be much higher.

Moving on to the next concept, which is my personal favorite, is called Priming. It is an implicit memory effect, where exposure to one stimulus may induce a particular behavior and influence the performance in subsequent performance. Priming can be through anything words, images, objects, paintings, smell, person, or even money. Whenever you cross a Subway store, there is a strong smell of fresh bread, The brain is the most complex part of the human which primes our mind to stimulate the craving for brain, and perhaps the least explored organ. The hunger. Quite often, you would see alcohol brands world of neuroscience has opened new facets in a multitude of applications, one of which is marketing.

While conventional marketing has done the trick until now, the future lies in the hands of neuromarketing.

In the world where the modern consumer is faced by the Paradox of choice, the marketing communications and selling effort gets lost in the clutter. It is with the help of neuromarketing that we can break through the clutter, and target not only the right customer but also the right part of his brain. The brand communication should aim to target the system 1 with subtle and yet strong message, so that impulse and instincts go in favor of our product. This competitive edge is perhaps the strongest weapon that lies in the hands have displays and advertisements of a group of of the modern marketer. friends at a party with music and dance.

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Vartalaap

June -July 2019

VARTALAAP An Interview with Mr Sameer Seth

by Vishal Gupta & Kratgya Gupta

A veteran in the field of business management and marketing, Mr. Sameer Seth has over 17 years of experience in international business strategy, product development & communications and business planning. Before Dolby Laboratories, the IMI Delhi alumnus has worked in firms such as Dish TV, CNN-IBN, STAR India, and Network18 Media & Investments Limited during which he held various positions of responsibilities managing brand marketing functions, revenue & sales strategy, P&L management, and spearheading the marketing function at these firms.

Dolby Laboratories

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Director Marketing

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Vartalaap

June -July 2019

“ I’ve learnt that a good marketer should understand the difference between information and insight

Question: You had worked with the media industry for a long time as a marketeer, then you switched to a consumer durables space, so how has the Marketing style and communication changed between the two?

use “this” as the basis for my campaign, but this was information and not insight.

Question: Advertisements come under exact same time under all that channels, so whenever there is a break, and I switch, every channel has a break, then what is the broadcaster’s psychology behind having the same common timings of having an advertisement?

Answer: I won’t say it’s a shift of industries per say. Basic principles of marketing are similar. It is agnostic to the category you work with. As long as you are clear in terms of what value you are there to add. Being a marketeer is not just about being a communicator, it is about having a good business acumen, being a great salesperson, and being a great listener. You should listen to your customers and your viewers for which you exist.

I have worked for consumer durables before as well. You work for the same 4 Ps and other marketing principles across domains.

Answer: It is actually not the case. If you are a smart news broadcaster, you should use it as an opportunity. If you know that

Basic principles of marketing are same across industries your competition is taking a break at the same time you should show your programs at that time. That is what is happening right now. If you are studying the break pattern of the consumers, then you should also study the break pattern of the competition.

If you are challenging the leader, the you shouldn’t take the break when the leader of the industry breaks It is a missed opportunity if you are not knowing your competition. It is a coincidence for ads to showcase at the same time and not a planned event.

They are very granular in terms of big data.

Used to happen earlier where all ads were shown at the same time, but off late firms are smart to identify the patterns.

Question: What have been your greatest consumer insights that you have gained while working across industries as a marketeer?

Answer: Over the years, I have learned that a good marketer should know the difference between information and insight. As long as you are clear that you are basing your marketing decision on insights and not information, you will make greater communication. That is something I have learned the hard way. Early in my career, I used to get swayed with information and I should

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Vartalaap Question: Dolby has so much work in creating great sounds. Why isn’t Dolby incorporating their information and insights into making musical instruments, the way Roland and Yamaha do?

Answer: We do work with brands like Yamaha, not on the music instruments side but more on the sounds of the devices.

To correct you not only on the audio side of technology but also on the visual side through Dolby Vision HDR technology. We do create music moments but we don’t work on the instruments. But we do work on the brands that create instruments. Yamaha has a great range of soundbars that we worked with.

Question: As marketing students, we have seen Dolby as a brand has tried to change from an ingredient to becoming a consumer facing brand. Why doesn’t Dolby make its own speaker systems like Bose and Sony? Dolby has the tech so why not the physical devices?

Answer: So, we do have one now. Over the years we have toyed with this question.

Few weeks ago, we came up with out first consumer product. It isn’t available in India at the moment. It is called “Dolby Dimension”. It is a wireless headset and this is our first foray into consumer products.

June -July 2019 August 2018 one should not fall into the trap that from day one into the job you will create great campaigns. As a marketeer, you are not a communication person only, you need to also be a good salesperson. The reason why I exist is because of the business and not because I am a good communication professional. Understand your “Dhanda”. Add value by creating a piece of communication to monetize your product better.

Second, as a marketeer, you will always get a lot of data to look at. Do no fall into the trap of being misled by information, when you see the data, identify what is insight and what is information. Do not base your communication on the piece of information but on insight.

Thirdly, it is very important to be a good listener. Listening to your consumer, your advertiser, or any stakeholder is important.

Have a dialogue. Try and listen to what is happening. These aren’t soft skills anymore; these are hard skills. You need to be a great listener, to be a great marketeer.

Do not fall into the trap of being misled by information, when you see data Question: What is that one insight that you would like to give the budding marketeers who will be joining their respective firms are summer interns of fulltime employees?

Answer: I would say 3 things very clearly;

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eye2eye

June -July 2019

Digital Vs Traditional Marketing in B2B anjali gupta Iim, shillong

sachin agarwal iim Shillong

Marketing in B2Bspace has its challenges, but it is also full of opportunities. In B2B, generally, the target segment is very niche, and one of the biggest challenges is to identify and create targeted communication for this segment. Digital marketing offers a customised solution that can help B2B companies to address their problems. In today’s world a robust digital presence is indispensable for a brand, thus companies in the B2B domain should actually focus more on developing a comprehensive website- since customer in B2B, unlike B2C, are going to make decision based on rational and reasoning, and engages with the company only after careful consideration of all the resources available, therefore, the website content should present a clear picture of what an organisation stands for, the service it provides, PODs, testimonials and case studies for credibility.

With longer lead time in B2B space as compare to B2C, using targeted content marketing for lead nurturing can be one of the powerful ways to push leads down the conversion funnel Building a knowledge resource through blogs, staying connected through drip email marketing and publishing informative content in the form of videos and e-books are some of the tried-andtested content marketing strategies for B2B. Also, while B2B companies are continually seeking out new customers, vice-versa is true, i.e. customers are also looking for service providers. The presence of B2B companies in the digital domain and with the advent of Search Engine Optimisation a B2B brand can gain a substantial visibility Thus digital marketing represents enormous potential for the B2B space to expand their client base and grow their business. With the adoption of digital marketing, the brands can not only gain visibility in the industry but will also open the door for new customers.

B2B industry majorly uses traditional channels of marketing like Field marketing, Conferences and trade shows, Word of mouth, referrals and outbound calling. Such methods are still preferred since the B2B segment deals are essentially bigger and have a direct impact on the operations of the company.

Thus, these deals require building credibility as well as face to face pitch of the seller’s value proposition.

v e r s u s

Such practices are easier done using the traditional channels like referrals and conferences. Digital channels of marketing also pose the issue of lower confidence of delivery and trust in the B2B segment.

There is also the mindset of the B2B marketers that digital marketing is not for this segment which severely limits the potential of this channel in this domain.

According to a lot of sources, the best ways to build credibility in B2B sector are still free trials, referrals, product demos, conversation with analysts and user reviews. Tata Steel still sends its sales representatives to complete/close its deals with its customers.

Even though the digital channels are growing rapidly in the B2B domain, the majority of companies still bank on traditional channels to finalize their deals and build credibility and only use the digital channels to provide information and to have a brand awareness in the industry.

Topic for the next issue: “Is ROI the best way to measure marketing efforts” Your opinion (view/counterview) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is 15th Sept 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

June -July 2019 August 2018

Audi is a German luxury automobile manufacturer. Volkswagen Group currently owns Audi. It was founded in 1910 by August Horch. Audi’s slogan is Vorsprung Durch Technik, meaning “Being Ahead through Technology”. Audi’s logo is an exciting journey to various mergers and acquisition which the company has been through its life.

In 1909 August Horch quit his company Horch due to a disagreement with the board of directors. He founded another car company for this company he couldn’t use his surname Horch as that company already existed. The word Horch sounded like hoerch which in German means to hear. Hear is Latin is Audi and hence the company was named Audi. In this logo, Audi is inscribed on a black triangle with number 1 on top. Audi merged with three other oldest car manufacturing company of Germany in 1932. The logo of this new company was four rings for each of these company. The first one from the left was for Audi; the Next represents DKW, the third is Horch, then the fourth ring is Wanderer. Because of similarity to the Olympic logo, the World Olympic Committee sued Audi in World Trademark Court, where they lost In 1969, Auto Union merged with NSU which was the world’s largest producer of motorcycles in the 1950s. The company name was Audi NSU Auto Union AG, and their logo was Audi NSU written on a black rectangle.

In 1978 the company decided to shortened its Audi AG and the logo to Audi. The logo was merely a mild evolution of the original Audi text logo in an oval. AG stands for Aktiengesellschaft which is generally placed behind all the German public limited company.

Audi merged with three other oldest car manufacturing company of Germany in 1932. The logo of this new company was four rings for each of these company. The first one from the left was for Audi; the Next represents DKW, the third is Horch, then the fourth ring is Wanderer. Because of similarity to the Olympic logo, the World Olympic Committee sued Audi in World Trademark Court, where they lost

In 2009 the company changed its logo to celebrate Audi’s 100th birthday. The typeface was modernised and giving a more sleek, simple yet modern look.

The logo is now four three-dimensional translucent overlapping rings that now appear more sharp-cut. Aesthetically the logo perfectly complements the horizontal lines of the radiator grille.

The aluminium colour in the rings reflects a sophisticated look. The colour of the font changed from scarlet to cherry.

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By Riya sarkar IIM Shillong

CAMPONY: PepperFry POSITIONING: Don’t wait for Diwali Sale december June -July 2013 2019 YouTube Link: : https://youtu.be/j2SphaMixrM

AD-dicted AD-dicted

By Rishi Ahuja IIM Shillong

Company: Swiggy Campaign: What A Delivery!

Creative Agency: Lowe Lintas Bengaluru YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/GmsWXkQmjX8

Concept: Cricket match and good food is a great combination and Swiggy does not miss this opportunity. The ad shows two elderly friends enjoying the cricket match at one’s home.

They first try to order something different from the routine food through the Swiggy app. After ordering, both of them look at each other with seemingly confused and apologetic faces. One of them breaks the ice and asks if something simple and mainstream food like “daal khichdi” can be ordered. The other jumps to the advice and quickly orders the same.

CATCH

Verdict: Catch The ad film perfectly shows that it is so easy to order food from Swiggy that even old-aged people use it. The underlying theme is to encourage trying new dishes that are available on the app, even though the two old men in the film cannot pronounce it right. Inclusion of some of Harsh Bhogle’s commentary excerpts in the end adds to the humour as well as cleverly tells what are the benefits of using Swiggy. The background music is peppy and goes well with the theme. Markathon thinks this is a CATCH as it clearly communicates the benefits of convenience and wide variety in a crisp ad and always brings a smile to the viewer.

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Company: Start Sports Campaign: ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 Creative Agency: Ogilvy YouTube link: https://youtu.be/ks4f_lRpSag

MISS

Concept: As the excitement for the big match rises, Star Sports is back with the continuation of its “Mauka Mauka” Campaign. The characters in the ad represent different countries as can be seen by the jersey they wear. The Pakistan fan is joined by Bangladesh fan, who wishes him luck for the upcoming super match. The Pakistan fan replies by quoting his father’s advice of being persistent and keep trying. The Indian fan then intervenes by a jocular remark and establishes an impression that ‘he is the father’. The Bangladesh fan is also then seen as hiding his grin over the remark. The concept of the ad film is based on the occasion of India vs Pakistan WC match and Father’s day coinciding on the same day.

Verdict: The previous campaigns had light and clever humour and even the audience enjoyed it. But this time the ad film is really disappointing. Firstly, it has failed to surprise and has continued the same old theme. Secondly and most importantly it has gone overboard on taking a dig at our neighbour. The ad is disrespectful and has a negative connotation. It has hurt the sentiments of fans and has also garnered serious criticism. Cricket is considered as Gentlemen’s game and every organisation involved should respect it. Lastly, even the background score is not that appealing. For all these reasons Markathon considers it as a MISS.

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Jab They Failed

Kratgya gupta IIM Shillong

June -July 2019

JAB THEY FAILED

This is the story of Bisleri pop the carbonated drink launched in the year 2016, marking the entry of Bisleri in the carbonated drink segment after nearly 20 years. This product was the brainchild of Mr.Ramesh Chauhan. The Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bisleri International Pvt Ltd.

Bisleri pop also marked the return of Mr. Chauhan to the carbonated soft drinks business, one that he sold in 1993 to Coca-Cola for 180 crores. While it was a very ambitiously taken up by the company, chances are most of you reading this may not even have tried or even heard of this carbonated drink.

Bisleri in just one year had to shut this product but is now back in 2018 with some changes to the product. What will happen this time is again skeptical and uncertain but what has already happened can surely be a source of learning for each one of us.

Hence the question remains when the Founder was so sure of the product when Bisleri already has such great distribution network then what went wrong?

The major problem with Bisleri entering the carbonated drink was that it entered this market when health-conscious consumers are giving all these sugared carbonated drinks a miss. This is a major reason why the soft drink industry has been struggling to grow beyond Rs — fifteen thousand crores for the last two years. However what’s worthy to note is the fact that of this 15000 crores colas and lime bring 12000 crores, leaving not much opportunity in terms of market share for other products in this segment.

After reading this one would think, if that is the case with the carbonated drink segment then why did Bisleri try washing its hands in a sea that’s already hard to sail in? To understand this let’s look at what Mr. Chauhan said in an interview “All the soft drink brands are identical today, and nothing has changed for the consumer for

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The failure of Bisleri Pop at least 20 years”. To his mind there is a huge gap that exists and only using product innovation and attractive pricing can this game be won. Hence he thought of mixing different flavors and come up with something fresh.

As a result of which Bisleri came up with the Bisleri Pop. This was initially launched in a few major cities and was available in four flavors namely Spyci, Fonzo, Pina Colada and Limonita. All these flavors came in PET bottles and cans with a price tag of Rs. 10 for a 200 ml bottle and Rs. 15 for a 300 ml bottle, which was around 40% cheaper than its competition. But still, the product could not make an impact that the promoters thought it would.

“A soft drink is an impulse consumption product, and

the consumer does not like to spend time looking for it.

Besides, most of India’s soft drink consumption is done outdoors,” points out Arvind Sharma, former chairman, Leo Burnett. Hence it is hard for any brand to make itself known in this duopoly market led by Coca-cola and Pepsi. This is the same reason why we don’t see any new players in this market very often. It’s hard to compete with these giants in this space. Some marketing professionals even called this move by Bisleri a disaster. Even the industry believes that Mr. Chauhan is unreasonably optimistic. One remark that was made by the Group president, Food FMCG brands at Future group Mr. Devendra Chawla is worth noting here; he said: “While Bisleri brings instant recall and trust, I am not clear why a brand which has been a category creator for purified water and thus hygiene would dilute its equity.” In a world where even cola giants are furiously trying to play up their health credentials, he argues, Bisleri which already owns the space, is marching in the opposite direction. Hence one can easily say among the major reasons that contributed to the failure of this drink one that needs special attention is the understating of consumers. While people are growing more health conscious and boycotting the present carbonated drinks, a company selling bottled water, giving these consumers just the same thing with some added flavors won’t make any difference to them. However, the company is now coming back with the same pop range, but this time it’s not just flavors but real fruits. We hope this time it works out well for Bisleri and the Bisleri pop becomes as popular as the brand wishes it to be.

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By SIMRAN MIGLANI | IIM Shillong GO Sport partners with Adidas to promote ‘Run for the Ocean’ campaign GO Sport, a French global multi-brand, multi-discipline sports superstore has partnered with Adidas to support ‘Run for the Ocean’’ campaign. It is a global movement to raise awareness about the threat of marine plastic pollution and inspires positive action. GO Sport was recently introduced into the Indian market by Tablez, a retail arm, with two superstores in Mumbai and Bangalore. As a part of the campaign, GO Sport organised a 5 km wellness run called GO Run wherein Adidas, a leading responsible shoe brand, through this partnership, reached out to over 3,000 runners to support the campaign.

Taco Bell launches ‘Win the Cup, Win the Taco’ campaign Taco Bell, Mexican-inspired quick service restaurant brand, announced the launch of ‘Win the Cup, Win the Taco’ a campaign to cheer for India’s win during the World Cup 2019. The campaign draws inspiration from the brand’s US based baseball campaign, ‘Steal a Base, Steal a Taco,’ which promises all of America a free taco when a baseball player successfully ‘steals’ a base during a game. In its maiden run, ‘Win the Cup, Win the Taco’ will reward Taco Bell fans in India by giving them a free taco if the country wins the final game of the tournament.

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KFC lures flexitarians and curious vegans with Imposter Burger KFC targets flexitarians and vegans who want to try the taste of fried chicken as it trials its first-ever vegan burger in the UK. Consumers might be surprised by KFC’s latest product given the brand has long put the quality and taste of its chicken front and centre. After the trial period, KFC plans to roll out the vegan burger next year. As per Meghan Farren, the CMO, KFC aims to offer more choice to vegans and vegetarians who have never been able to try the restaurant but may want to, as well as people who eat less meat for health and ethical reasons.

Amazon beats Apple and Google to world’s most valuable brand ranking Amazon has overtaken Apple and Google to become the world’s most valuable brand, according to a new report from WPP and Kantar. The 2019 Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking was as ever dominated by technology, with five of the top 10 designated as tech providers. Of those in the top 10, Google – last year’s victor – fell to #3. Amazon saw a 52% brand growth from the previous year. The biggest winners were Instagram, which climbed to #44 with a yearly growth of 95%, Netflix (65% growth, #34), and Uber (51% growth, #53).

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Clickbait

Clickbait, as the name suggests is a click being placed on the webpage as bait. It usually consists of enticing headlines, not more than 300 words to lure readers. Clickbait is known to have a higher click-through rate as the content appears to the reader as very interesting. Therefore clickbait is considered to be a strategy to increase the number of views to a particular web page. Hence it is often said that the clickbait works on the curiosity-gap principle.

But the problem with clickbait is that the content of the clicked web page is not as interesting as the headline and hence suffer from high bounce rate also. This has attracted clickbait its fair share of criticism as a lot of people consider it to be a misleading and dishonest strategy, that under delivers on the expectation it builds up. Also because of high bounce rate, these web pages suffer a lot in their search engine marketing, and these pages suffer a low ad rank which pushes them down the web page.

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Because clickbait attracts a lot of eyeballs it is usually used to direct the user to a page that may require payment or registration to capture as many records as possible. Some examples of clickbaits are

You’ll never believe how much weight this celebrity lost in a month!

Celebrity weight loss secrets finally revealed!

Shocking details of this celebrity’s latest diet!

Earn $50000 per month

DINK/DISK/ DINKER/GINK D: Double (or Dual) I: Income N: No K: Kid In targeting, we often choose our target market based on different segmentation which can be demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioural. Based on these segmentations a target market is selected.

DINK are couples with above-average household income and no dependent children, tend to exhibit discretionary expenditure on luxury goods and goods for personal satisfaction.

In DINK household structure mostly both the partners are working, but this also includes the case of a working partner with two incomes.

Usually DINK household have more disposable income because they do not have the added expenses that are associated with raising children.

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Also, DINK couple have more flexibility in their time, and this is due to time saved because of no parental obligations. DINK have more control over their schedule and can accommodate longer work days. Also, DINK can have more time for themselves and can indulge in their hobbies and pursuits.

Consumer goods, travel, personal satisfaction and other companies find this target group very lucrative as DINK have increased the availability of time and money.

The availability of more disposable cash with DINK give them an opportunity to save or invest their money where their salaries are the only limiters on how much the family

can spend.

It is also quoted as DINKY in Great Britain, and the expanded form of this abbreviation is Double Income, No Kids Yet. “DINKER” is the extended version of dink which when abbreviated means “dual (or double) income and no kids, early retirement”.

Another extension is “GINK” which means “green inclinations, no kids”, referring to those who choose not to have children for environmental reasons.

DISK also is derived from DINK and means “Double Income Single Kid.”

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June -July 2019

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