This past month has been especially relevant from the perspective of brands & marketing. Yes, we are talking about the greatest show on earth, the Olympics. In focus were the various brands which had their day in the sun along with their brand ambassadors. Half of the earth’s population tuned in to watch the sports extravaganza. And it’s all about the money. Usain Bolt who completed an unprecedented triple treble of Gold Medals (Gold in same three track events for the third straight Olympics) earned £5 million per second on his way to the Olympics 100m Gold. Yes that’s a cool ₹44 crore for every second he ran. Sports outfitter Under Armour stole the thunder from Nike & Adidas with their sentimental ode to Swimming Legend Michael Phelps through their online advertisements. Swimming brand Speedo lost out when its brand ambassador, Ryan Lochte was accused of making a false robbery claim to the Rio police. Speedo had to drop him as their brand ambassador. You may have noticed the aesthetic changes we made to the magazine in the previous edition. It seems that our readers agree with them, since article submissions to the magazine have reached a sky high figure this time. And in gratitude, our dear readers, this time
we have not the usual four winners but five winners in total. Yeah, that’s right. The best article sent to us will also be the cover story of the magazine. We congratulate Ayushi Chugh from MICA Ahmedabad for being the author of the Cover Story & lending her insights on Myntra’s U-Turn on its App only strategy. We also congratulate Ayushi Bhatia from IIM Ahmedabad & Bhavya Rastogi for IIM Shillong for lending their perspectives to the magazine. Our other two winners are Madhuri Gautam from IIM Indore & Priyanka Grover from IIM Lucknow for Eye2Eye. The way two sportswomen brought laurels to India by being the only medal winners in the Olympics, our prize winners too are an allfemale line-up. We have interviewed Mr. Sugato Majumdar, CMO & Head of strategy at Mahindra Retail as part of Vartalaap. He shares some exclusive insights on the growing ecommerce presence of big brands & Mahindra’s strategy on BabyOye. In the Brand Story section we have covered the German footwear & clothing manufacturer PUMA. We hope it gives you some insights on how sports outfitters build their brands. And as all always the Fun Corner section will make you wrack your brand for puzzlers from the world of marketing. Last but not the least, this magazine is presented to you month after month because of your continued love & support. Please continue to write to us & don’t hesitate to send in your suggestions & comments. Happy Reading!! Team Markathon
The One with the perpetual wanderlust
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E D I T O R
Of The Month
Akshay Seth AND HIS TEAM..!!
Sharad
Astha
Daksh
Harsha
Piyush
Shubham
Markathon
august 2016
Andar Ki Baat Perspective
01 05 Cover Story The Big Myntra Uturn: 12 App or Desktop Ayushi Chugh |
Snapchat:
a Marketing Maverick Bhavya Rastogi | IIM Shilllong
Aligining Nestle Kitkat’s Twitter Marketing on RACE model Aayushi Bhatia | IIM Ahmedabad
MICA Ahmedabad
Eye 2 Eye
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Does Strong Brand Associations make Brand Extentions easy or difficult for a company ?
Priyanka Grover
Vartalaap Mr. Sugato Majumdar CMO & Head of Strategy Mahindra Retail
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Madhuri Gautam Interviewed By:
IIM Lucknow MARKATHON
IIM Indore
Harsha Daga & Piyush Jain | IIM Shillong IIM Shillong
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Andar Ki Baat SpeciaLs
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AD-dicted
Catch & Miss advertisements of the month Sharad Srinivasan & Astha Kabra | IIM Shillong
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Digi - Tally Let’s look at our social media marketing
Marketing Gyan
24 Brand Story A look at what PUMA 23 has been through Daksh Bhagat | IIM Shillong MARKATHON
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Fun Corner
To get the brain tickling Akshay Seth | IIM Shillong
Updates
Fresh from the Marketing World Harsha Daga | IIM Shillong IIM Shillong
august 2016
perspective
Snapchat: a Marketing Maverick By BHAVYA RASTOGI IIM SHILLONG
T
he use of the instant messaging service, Snapchat, is growing rapidly among adolescents. Snapchat has surprisingly become a very interesting social network, not only for users but also for the brands that have started exploring its many features for increased engagement and new creative directions. It has built a new kind of mobile-focused marketing that combines focused engagement, playful creativity, uniqueness and fun filters. Snapchat has achieved remarkable growth measure, counting more than 100 million daily active users. However, the exact nature of the use of Snapchat is difficult to assess, because the content received and sent is self-destructive in nature. Snapchat is transforming into a very attractive platform for brands, while the engagement of its users keeps growing.
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perspective How did it become the new trending social platform? Privacy Amidst the ongoing debate on whether or not privacy is the biggest right – Snapchat stepped ahead of the debate to launch its platform of self-destructive images and gave users the freedom to be fun, to be themselves and share it with their group of friends. Snapchat not only created a new way to c o m m u n i cate with friends which is fun and interactive, but also created a sense of privacy by the disappearing nature of the content. We know that security is not foolproof, but it is much better than its predecessors. Unlike typical public social networks like Facebook that leave one with little control over who can see whatever one has uploaded online and private communication messengers like WhatsApp that provide full control of communication, either to an individual or a select group of individuals (group chat), Snapchat’s attractiveness is that it combines the two. Privacy is the most important right - not everyone wants to broadcast their escapades on Facebook. Snapchat is liberat-
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ing in its basic essence; the photography and writing app allows you to be creative and self-destructive images give you the freedom to share with a closed group. While privacy is the obvious benefit of Snapchat, it also has certain advantages which are subtle but equally important: the disappearance of pictures means less digital clutter, eliminating the cognitive overload of dealing with them, and saving memory on phones. Strong User Engagement S n a p chat decided to take the ephemerality of the posts to the next level by setting an end date to them. Reminding us that if we want to enjoy our friends s co u rge , we need to visit the platform every day. Snapchat users on average spend 2530 minutes daily on the platform and the impressive level of involvement led to the idea of mixing the ephemerality and the right psychological triggers in order to keep the users engaged. The fact that the posts disappear after 24 hours makes the users visit the platform several times a day to beat the horrible F.O.M.O. (fear of missing out!) A sense of urgency is thus created amongst the users that is very effective as a way
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august 2016
perspective
to boost the engagement. To turn the product into a habit chat. that will result in an inclination for users to keep using it and to expand audience, every new platform should pur- Brands also use Discover means to enhance the product, sue the most appropriate way to spur engagement. creating content exclusively for this purpose. Live option complements it perfectly, allowing brands to post a For continued user engagement and expansion of user video of key events amidst which they can sell advertising. Global donut chain Dunkin’ Donuts launched an advertising campaign in which they decided to give a free cup of coffee to Snapchat users that unlocked their Dunkin Donut filters that were made available when users were nearby base, Snapchat recently released public social network- a store. Snapchat forms a connection with the users that ing window which has three functions. The first one is the can only be established through personal involvement of Discover feature which is a modernized way to delve into the user in the app by making the user the publisher of Stories from diverse editorial teams. It’s the result of collusion with top-notch leaders in media to frame a storytelling format that puts the narrative first. This put companies in direct contact with the users, making a connection like never before and grabbing the attention of youth. The second is the Live feature that teleports content first, and not just the recipient. Now that users beyou into stories from difcome creators, ferent parts of the world, they want to live events, or even just a contribute with place, such as The Super their content Bowl. Live Stories, the into the right company’s most excepframework tional and unconventional and Snapchat’s feature, has turned Snapmicro-stories chat into a simulcast arena consequently like YouTube. Live Stories helped in a sigare a kind of real-time nificant increase documentary made up by of content in the the app’s 100 million daily past year. users. The third feature is the Newsfeed that proMarketing Lesvides a personal connect sons from Snapto the users by revealing chat the stories made by other Snapchat users, using only the features available on Snap- • Start with a narrow audience:
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A small group of interested people can be very useful in the to come up with innovative thoughts to build an allurinitial stage of a platform to know the responses and users’ ing product by analysing and scrutinizing the current habits. There is no need to chase bigger audience if you are trends. • Think locally, act globally: In the current marketing scenario, think local & act global is the key to a successful branding strategy. Global success comes through focusing on local content and this also occurred to snapchat and its decision to highlight all the local stories that matter to users. Hence, it is vital to uphold local focus when trying to involve with users as it will keep them engrossed in the platform until they decide to publish their own public content.
not sure if your platform really can make a difference. • Spot a trend( the ephemerality of social media): Social media has been popular for direct communication and immediate reaction from users. The increasing content of our feed highlighted the ephemeral nature of our posts were still available. Snapchat decided to take the ephemeral nature of the messages to the next level by setting an expiration date for them, thereby reminding us that if we want to enjoy posts of our friends, we have to visit the platform several times a day. • Seize the mobile power: When a product is launched in a mobile – focused world, the chances of success also increase as the world now is becoming mob i l e -fo c u s e d . Snapchat invigorated us to curate real time content as a part of global stories altering the notion of real time coverage. From Snapchat’s idea of using mobile power, turning users into publishers, creating a new type of live coverage, we can learn that there is always the need
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• Create effective advertising: Snapchat is boosting m a r kete rs and media companies to shoot ads vertically. Snapchat definitely set the tone for vertical videos which turned out to be a secret weapon for further growth, as it created a new trend in content. Since measurement of a campaign matters to all brands, snapchat promises to expand its capabilities by collaborating with industry leading measurement partners to help advertisers understand the impact their ads are having on the audiences. Therefore, the idea of effective advertising makes a platform appealing to the users as well as brands. Indeed, Snapchat has raised to the top of the photosharing hill with over 100 million daily active Snapchatters and growing. It provides great learning to the marketers through its marketing strategy which employs innovative ideas and creativity.
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august 2016
perspective
Aligning Nestle Kitkat’s Twitter Marketing on RACE Model By AAYUSHI BHATIA IIM AHMEDABAD
consumer data collected a decade ago, “ Theis greatly dwarfed by data collected today
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K
itkat is a chocolate covered on a wafer biscuit bar and it is a premium product of Nestle. It became popular when it came with one of the memorable slogan- “Have a break, Have a Kitkat”. This brand has made a commendable presence on Twitter network with its campaign #RichBreak. Kitkat is the first chocolate brand that has gained global following. Twitter is majorly used by corporate corridors in India for brand building and product awareness campaigns. It is because Twitter is more interactive and a quicker response is obtained from this social platform. Kit-
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kat India organized #RichBreak campaign contest in July 2014. In this campaign, participants were invited via Twitter and contest details were shared with them. Nestle Kitkat gained 25 million users on Twitter by leveraging Social media marketing. In this project, we will try to align the Nestle Twitter successful marketing campaign on RACE model. About RACE Model for Digital Marketing: The RACE model comprises the key online marketing activities that need to be managed as part of digital marketing. RACE covers the full marketing fun-
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perspective
relevant, compelling content and clear navigation pathways so that they don’t hit the back button.
nel from: (Plan) > Reach > Act > Convert > Engage
3. CONVERT: This is conversion to sale. It involves getting your audience to take that vital next step which turns them into paying customers whether the payment is taken through o n l i n e E c o m m e r c e transactions, or offline channels.
There is an initial phase of Plan involving creating the overall digital strategy, objective setting and plan. RACE consists of 4 steps of online marketing activities designed to help brands engage their customers throughout the customer lifecycle. 1. REACH: Reach involves building awareness of a brand, its products and services on other websites and in offline media in order to build traffic by driving visits on social n e t w o r king sites/ pages.
customer lifetime value.
Nestle Kitkat’s Twitter Marketing Aligned on RACE Model
2. ACT: Act is means for Interact. It’s a separate stage since encouraging interactions in social media to generate leads is a big challenge for online marketers. It’s about engaging the audience through
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4. ENGAGE: This is longterm engagement that is, developing a long-term relationship with first-time buyers to build customer loyalty as repeat purchases using communications on your site, social presence, email and direct interactions to boost
Kitkat’s Twitter R-Reach
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perspective Nestle chose Twitter as the social media platform to reach to the mass. Twitter is the social network that broadcast the updates across the web. Mixing
building and product awareness campaign because Twitter is more interactive so we get a response quicker than from any other social media channels. KitKat received tremendous response from the participants and fulfill the brand objective. The chocolate – coated wafer brand of Nestle, Kitkat has one of the most memorable tag-lines – Have a break. Have a Kit Kat. The brand is synonymous with encouraging people to take a break from whatever they might be doing. That is exactly how they promoted their new Twitter campaign #RichBreak. The fundamental objective of this campaign was to spread awareness about the brand among all age group people in India via Twitter. This campaign’s
up of official-related tweets about specials, discounts, and news updates with some fun and quirky tweets help to penetrate in the market better. Retweeting when a customer has something nice to say about the brand, really helps the brand to gain a healthy image. It is also a good means to answer people’s queries. Using Twitter as a social media marketing tool revolves around dia-
main focus was to leverage on its popular brand slogan “Have a break. Have a KitKat.” Kitkat’s Twitter A-Act All the campaigning was done on the following Hashtags. #break, #KITKAT, #RichBreak, #mybreak, #chocolate, #Foodgasm etc. It gain huge popularity by these campaigns. It ran various events, competitions. As seen in this tweet, it is emphasizing on taking break with a Kitkat. Such lucrative tweets with pics of chocolates attracts the customers towards the brands. Kitkat bar is available in market with either 2 or 4 bar slices. This is depicted in the figure as well.
log and communication, so it is a substantial networking platform.
Such repetitive tweets make a virtual image of the brand in consumer’s mind. Also, it keeps the user
Twitter is widely used by corporate India in brand
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perspective indulge with the brand.
to market and he/she has to choose between varieties of chocolates, a pre built virtual image of the
Let us look at another tweet which is again emphasizing on break. It is saying that laughter is the best break. This tweet was tweeted on Joke day and it is commendable that how the marketers of Kitkat made full use of the Joike day to publisize their premium product. Attractive figures are also used to attract the user. As on Twitter among so many news feeds, it is very much important to attract user’s attention to your brand. A perfect pictography has been done in these tweets to attract customers.
chocolate bar will help the consumer to choose a product. So, Kitkat has done a tremendous job by tweeting such tweets.
Again a tweet depicting the break as synonymous to Kitkat. A matrix is shown in this tweet where break and Kitkat are mixed together. Similar tweets coming again and again in the news feed compel the users to think about the product at least once. Thus, it has an effect on the buying behavior as well. Whenever a customer goes
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Now, after making a brand image of the product in the consumer’s mind, marketers launched new taste products in the Kitkat range. This strategy helps Kitkat to penetrate the new taste product among consumer’s mind. One of the review on the product was retweeted by Kitkat (as shown in the figure). Such retweets build a positive image for the product. All this started with a Twitter campaign named #RichBreak. This campaign was so successful in publicizing Kitkat on Twitter and around 25 million users got connected to this campaign. In the campaign #RichBreak, many interactive activ-
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perspective ities and events were launched. One of them was tweeted with #RichBreak and was having a chance to win Flipkart vouchers and a trip to Goa. This motivated users to tweet on #RichBreak and thus this hashtag gained popularity. To furthermore spread this
participated in these online activities and these post
hashtag, small events such as “what did one Kitkat finger say to another?”, visit to Goa chocolate factory etc were launched. Users actively
Kitkat’s #mybreak also gained huge popularity among youth. Break from work is something that everyone loves to take. Kitkat has acquired that break by running #mybreak campaign. It means that even a small break of an individual is dedicated to Kitkat. Marketers tried to capture some personal moments of an individual by coloring it in colors of Kitkat. A tweet on “The Classroom Break” depicts the same thing (shown below). Thus, by concentrating on smaller things like passing leisure times, breaks etc marketers have captured the mood of the consumers. All such activities made Kitkat a successful brand.
were retweeted again and again. Thus, a cobweb of #RichBreak was made on twitter and this lead to a successful marketing run for Kitkat online.
Kitkat’s Twitter C-Convert KitKat
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received
huge
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awareness
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through this campaign. Look at the graphs generated that women relish chocolate quite often than men. This case study shows that a campaign which display strong and catchy slogans would invite more participation from people. Besides this, offering rewards to the best entries will enhance the possibilities of getting more involvement from people. This study also shows that the kind of rewards offered to winners would play a crucial role in deciding the demographic distribution of participants. With so many tweets pouring in with the several questions asked in the campaign, some tweets that won the prizes are as follows: with the help of Talwalker’s new social media moni- In Twitter Influencer is a very effective term. Influtoring tool. In the graph below, on 4th Aug 2014 the #RichBreak campaign was launched. After few hours of the launch potential users reach rose upto 15 million. The tweets were retweeted again and again and it left a huge impact on the users. So many questions were asked by KitKat and a lot of tweets were poured by the participants. The most witty and spontaneous answers has won the contest and rewarded. This campaign was able to reach around 25 million Twitter users and the total number of tweets received with the hashtag #Rickbreak has crossed 5500 mark. encers can add tremendous value to your marketing initiatives, the list of people below have helped KitKat succeeded in involving a large section of people spread the awareness about this contest. And they are spreading the influence in-turn in their networks. #RichBreak was among the top influencers on Twitter, when the campaign was live. Kitkat’s Twitter E-Engage Now after a successful campaign where Nestle was able to engage so many users to its campaign. It is now important for Nestle to retain those users and keep them loyal as long as possible. For this it is very much important to stay engaged with the users. For staying engaged, a conin this campaign. A large number of men took part in nection pertaining to the sentiments of the users is this contest than women participants, despite the fact very much necessary. Marketers keeps on tweeting
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perspective tweets on various Indian festivals such as Diwali, Holi, Eid etc. Also, apart from festivals it tweets on generic events such as Earth Day, thus it binds it to mass rather than users from a particular community. As festival season is a holiday season (a break season). Marketers has linked this concept to promote Kitkat and To make the full use of any celebration, Kitkat has used Twitter up to its full. The above tweets are depicting this thing. Also, Kitkat made full use of Valentines day by promoting its new product called Kitkat Senses. Thus, Twitter has been a very powerful tool for Kitkat to showcase and promote its products and also to glorify the brandname. Conclusion RACE Planning is a system to give a simple frame-
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work and take best advantage of the opportunities available from digital marketing. Nestle has implemented this digital marketing technique quite effectively. It is following the cycle of R-A-C-E (as shown in figure) and it is a benchmark for other FMCG to do efficient digital marketing through Twitter. In R (Reach), it has chosen a very interactive platform Twitter to connect through people. In A (Act), it has conducted various events, activities and competitions on Twitter to reach out to the maximum. It has encouraged the users to tweet more and more about the break philosophy of Kitkat. In C(Convert), the results shows that how a small campaign turned into a huge success for the Kitkat. In the end E(Engage), it has kept its followers engaged by leveraging the festivals, celebrations, events etc. Thus, in FMCG industry Nestle’s Kitkat Twitter marketing is a big benchmark. august 2016
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cover story
july 2016
Myntra’s U-turn Cover Story on app only strategy M
arch 23, 2015 was a historical day for Indian e-commerce MARKETINGindustry. On that day, Flipkart and Myntra, two of the largest online portals, decided to shut down their mobile BUDGET websites, and forced users to install their apps if they wanted to purchase anything. 2 weeks later, Myntra decided to shut down their desktop website as well and go full throttle with “App-only” approach. Some experts claimed this to be the final nail in coffin for desktop usage; while few others termed it as a ‘Mobile Revolution’. On the other side, loyal and hardcore users of desktop felt cheated. Myntra’s sales plunged and losses increased by 4 times in subsequent quarter. Other e-commerce portals like Amazon, Jabong, Snapdeal, eBay vowed never to ditch desktop users but Myntra and Flipkart were adamant. May 3, 2016 was another historical day; as on that day, Myntra finally decided that enough is enough. In February 2016, after nine months of being app-only, Myntra re-opened its mobile site. They had been losing out big time on users who preferred to do their shopping on a browser rather than an app – contrary to what Sachin Bansal (Flipkart’s Chairman) and Punit Soni (Flipkart’s Chief Product Officer) had thought. Since the relaunch in February’16, the mobile site of Myntra gets an average of 1.5 million daily mobile web visits. On 1st June, Myntra relaunched its desktop website operations.
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Why was this decision taken? 1. This decision was taken based on the company’s quick sales growth on smartphones as it claimed 95% of its internet traffic came through mobile and 70% sales were generated through smartphones. However, Myntra never disclosed the ratio of users via its app and mobile site. The company said that “apponly” strategy was meant to improve personalization, but there was a competitive strategy behind it – forcing users to download the app and shutting out rivals. 2. The average smartphone in India has 32 apps, which is lower than the global average of 42. So if the leading apps occupy that space, there’s no room for others to muscle in. At least, in theory. Why “App-only” strategy doesn’t work in India? One of the biggest hurdles for a mobile-only experience is the notso-stable mobile internet network in India. There is no denying that this is one of the biggest reasons why industry giants from Google to Facebook are working towards a ‘Lite’ version. Having to download an app for shopping is not acceptable to many transactional users. Transactional or first time users contribute to a large portion of e-commerce market in India. While it is relatively easy to have a mobile app, it requires deliberate and comprehensive strategy and an execution model to build and sustain a
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mobile app-only ecosystem. An app-only strategy does help the e-commerce player concentrate on building up the mobile ecosystem which is expected to see an avalanche of customers given increasing smartphone penetration. However, as entry-level smartphones offer limited storage space for apps, there is a tendency to uninstall apps which are not frequently used. Unlike food ordering apps or e-hailing apps, ecommerce is not a service that people use on a daily basis. As a result, these are more prone to uninstalls. Google is another factor that the app-only model doesn’t take into account. A lot of shopping decisions are made via Google. People are so used to looking up products on the search engine that the success of any e-commerce firm depends a lot on how prominently they are reflected on a Google search. This source of traffic gets completely ignored in case of app-only model. Was this experiment worth it? The industry is evenly split between the pros and cons of Myntra’s mobile app only experiment. Rishikesh Krishnan, director of the IIM Indore wasn’t convinced with the step, “Cutting off a channel doesn’t make sense unless the channel costs were exceeding benefits or the use of that channel was resulting
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in wrong positioning. Myntra’s app-only strategy certainly got them some media attention, but doesn’t seem to have served the business purpose”. On the other hand, Kartik Hosanagar, Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions who wrote a case study on Myntra two years ago, believes there could be some “potential side benefit” from the app-only experiment: It would have helped inculcate a mobileonly mind-set in the firm. “Even if the mobile-only strategy didn’t work, I suspect that mobile-first is still the way to go. So the changes in the company’s culture and mobile product will continue to be beneficial even if the strategy wasn’t the best one”. Why Myntra took a U-turn and relaunched the desktop ver-
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sion? A mix of internal and external market factors resulted in Myntra going back on their decision and embracing desktop version of their site. 1. The smartphone isn’t yet the ideal shopping device: Smartphones may beat desktops on a lot of fronts, but providing the best shopping experience isn’t one of them. While s m a r t p h o n e s make payments easier, apps are more customised to a user’s preferences and notifications help them discover better deals; but the lack of screen real estate and patchy and slow mobile internet connectivity in India are two huge hindranc-
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cover story
july 2016
es. Myntra, too, acknowledged that people like the other two. By alienating users that wanted viewing products such as home furnishings and to shop on desktops, Myntra wasn’t just losing fine jewellery on larger screens, not to mention users but indirectly fuelling the growth of its rifashion products vals. All along, it was require more assumed that number scrutiny before would be quite small, purchase than but Myntra’s claim something like that bringing back its groceries. desktop website can yield an additional 152. The web expe20% in sales this year rience is catching turns that assumption up with native on its head. apps: Google’s Chrome browser Learnings from this is the most wideexperiment ly used browser in the world. So, Developments over any improvelast 12 months have ments to Chrome given everybody in can be counted as start-up ecosystem overall success some valuable insights to web browson the ongoing debate ing. Google has between mobile and built in several desktop. Couple of asfeatures into sumptions have been Chrome that parturned on their head allel native apps, and industry as a sinsuch as custom notifications, auto logins, location gular entity has matured further. logging etc. and has even improved the kind of data web developers can collect from their users. 1. Mobile is big; Mobile is happening; But Desk3. Flipkart can’t afford to alienate even a small top users aren’t dead yet. number of users: they are engaged in a heated battle with rivals Snapdeal and Amazon and regard- Desktop shoppers tend to be more mature, proless of who’s in front and who may be closing in, fessional and buying-oriented, rather than moit’s probably right to assume that every customer bile users who are restless, new users of technology, and inclined towards discounts rather than loyalty or branding. Maybe things would change in the next 3-5 years, but still, desktop won’t be dead even then. 2. Ecommerce products needs to viewed on big screen; that is desktop/laptop.
Flipkart and Myntra turn down is a customer of
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As observed so many times, serious online buyers always want to have a better, bigger look of the products they are buying. And very few mobile users in India have a bigger screens. Now, where will an average mobile user with small screen go to check the products?
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reality glasses and seeing yourself clothed in a 3. Bargaining is an essential ingredient of the dress or trousers you like on Myntra, and things are indeed moving in that direction. However, shopping process in India. until mobiles get that far ahead of the PC, we Indians love to bargain, compare and check their can’t dismiss the good old devices just yet. products – be it offline or online. As we had shared earlier, mobile app shopping experience 2. Windows 10 App: Myntra’s parent Flipkart has curtails this liberty for shoppers, and somehow already built itself a Windows 10 app that runs on desktops runrestrict their natural ning Microsoft’s flow of action. latest OS. If apps do indeed provide What lies ahead? better experience than websites that Industry veterans in turn result in believe that Indian higher yields for e-commerce sector marketplaces, we is still in nascent can expect Myntra stages compared to to do the same. By global peers. Next launching a Win3-4 years are exdows 10 app, Mynpected to see fair tra will be able to bit of consolidation, cater to the few correction of valuusers of Windows ations, entry of AliPhones as well baba, improvement as desktop users in mobile internet that are willing to speed amongst other major changes. Listed below are some devel- download its app. opments which might impact Myntra’s business model and comparative position in Indian mar- 3. Brand Dilution: The real danger for Myntra could lie in its brand erosion. Myntra has built a ket. very strong brand name for itself in the fashion 1. Augmented and Virtual Reality: The future category. But a new move to get into home furbelongs to technologies such as virtual reality nishing, Kitchenware and expensive jewellery and augmented reality and they will be primar- items may erode its image as a fashion leader. ily driven by smartphones. Today it’s not farfetched to think of putting on a pair of virtual
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vartalaap
august 2016
VARTALAAP An Interview with Mr. Sugato Majumdar Mr. Sugato has around 20 years of experience across a diverse set of industries and organizations - both large transnationals and smaller privately held corporations. He has worked for companies such as GSK, Coca-Cola, Agio Countertrade in Russia & Azerbaijan. A part of Mahindra group for more than 10 years now, he has led Strategy & M&A at Mahindra Holidays and is currently the CMO and Head of Strategy at Mahindra Retail.
Mahindra Retail
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CMO & Head of Strategy IIM Shillong
vartalaap
august 2016
Firstly, the nature of the problem should be very clear. Though the rigid definitions of Marketing or other domains as a function are collapsing, but consulting is a much wider canvas depending on what interests you. In case you plan to specialise in a particular section such as sectoral consultant and be an industry specialist. Certainly, what’s something different with consulting is that you get to deal with a much larger variety of issues with the same customer or subtly with multiple customers. Marketing on the other hand, assumingly marketing in a company, challenges remain almost the same getting the customers, how to increase market share, identifying the measures of strengthening the brands. The only difference left between brands, at any level now is price and there it has led to this kind of madness that’s going on. There are exceptional brands with such effects as which turn them into premium brands. This n the end boils down to whether you have a value
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We have already expanded in the retail segment. Mahindra’s physical store business was operating under the brand name. In Dec 2015, Mahindra acquired the ecommerce business, BabyOye and subsequently decided to have a unified brand name. Our store brand is called Baboye, with a massive marketing exercise that happened. The online sale came under the website Babyoye.com, catering to channel initiatives. We want the consumers to see us as a single brand across multiple channels, be it physical store, website or app. There is no standard manner of success, every company is choosing its own Omni channels. Markathon: What do you think of the challenges faced by the multi-brand retail outlets? Multi-brand retail faces a greater challenge. Some of it is accentuated or amplified by general challenges that retail faces like we spoke of commodification where the only differentiator that remains is the Price, which is a place that you don’t want to be in. They face a great challenge from the high real estate
There is no standard manner of success, every company is choosing its own Omni channels
differentiator, whether you can sustain that differentiation and will it be profitable enough such that you can meet financial projections. Other than this the industry may be facing its specific problems. Markathon: What are your thoughts on the expansion of Mahindra retail?
costs. The kind of money that goes into is huge and recovering it takes a long time. And how much of increase in costs can you really transfer to your customers. However, what I feel, the biggest hurdle befalling them is of stagnant, if not decreasing footfalls. Only higher number of brands will not attract customers. In fact the moment an e-commerce retailer comes
“The moment an e-commerce retailer comes into picture, everything falls apart” MARKATHON
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Markathon: . What according to you is the difference between consulting vs marketing?
vartalaap
august 2016
into the picture with like 2000 brands and maybe bring home some of those enduring Mahindra brand 200,000 products, everything just falls apart. values & deliver that through the BabyOye brand & where it is relevant. For example because of the kind Markathon: Private labels are currently on the rise. of products we sell, primarily baby products & prodDo you think they will eventually prove a big threat ucts for expecting mothers. Values like safety, relito the established so called ‘Big Brands’? ability & trust are very important.
I don’t want to sound clichéd, but I would suggest the students to find their own route to success. There is only so much that you can pick up from secondary sources be it the textbook or professors or your peers. My only advice is that build the foundation. And from the tools you have, go out there & do your thing. Apply them, make mistakes & learn from them & figure out your own route. Just keep doing, keep experimenting & keep trying. By doing the same thing again & again or doing what you’ve already learnt, you are not going to make mistakes. And unless you make those mistakes, you are not going to learn. It’s only through those mistakes that you have the chance to
My only advice is that build a strong foundation
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Markathon: What is your lookout while branding BabyOye? Do you show it as standalone brand or something that is owned by Mahindra?
Don’t get bogged down by anybody that comes your way
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Markathon: What would be your advice to marketing enthusiasts who are budding managers & want to have a successful career down the line?
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Yes we do see a lot of these private labels come up but its launch seems to be more of a tactical measure on the part of these multi-brand retailers. Since some of them practice it on a long term basis one may now say that it was a strategic move however the objective with which they are formed is very different. Generally if you see they are priced at a level lower than that of the national/international brands. It maybe to add to the basket or help these retailers in increasing the ticket size of each bill that is generated, or probably simply to be available at various price points and cater to a wider set of customers. So a Croma may sell its own electronics products in its own name or a Reliance may do so by the name of R-Connect but will these become brands big enough that they can compete with the bigger ones and will become so popular that one can actually take them out of just their own store, very unlikely. A success story in this field is yet to be evidenced while currently it is only the increase in number of these brands that pose a potential threat as they are the ones eating up your shelf space, without paying for it.
strive & stumble upon something unique. My only So BabyOye was an online platform only and the ob- advice is whichever function of marketing or otherjective of buying it out was to enter this space. The wise you chose, marketing more so because of the kind of capabilities and associations it gets along with nature of the domain, you should continue to exit are very different than what we already had at Ma- periment. In fact if you don’t do that, & I’ve told you hindra retail, which on the other hand had a much about the market we are in you will not be able to stronger presence in the physical world. And we keen escape. You may not be able to differentiate yourself to add BabyOye to our portfolio. So for Mahindra Re- in everything but all of it put together may work. So tail & when it comes to what it wants to offer to its apply your principle & go ahead & try it. But don’t get customers, BabyOye is the primary focus. There is bogged down by anybody or any advice which comes certainly more scope for us to leverage our product & your way. Always use your own judgement.
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eye2eye
august 2016
Does Strong Brand Associations make Brand Extentions Easy or Difficult for the company?
MADHURI GAUTAM IIM INDORE
PRIYANKA GROVER IIM LUCKNOW
Historically, strong associations for a majority of brands have contributed in a positive way for brand extensions that are closely related to what the brand stands for. Take the example of Nike which is associated with the powerful ‘Just do it’ image. Its extension into active wear turned out to be a huge success, as the brand could translate the same brand values into merchandise. The brand extensions are successful when two important conditions are met. One, the extension must be closely associated with the brand DNA, i.e. it offers similar value and extends the already existing brand story. Hence, relevance of the brand extension is highly important. Two, the communication of the brand extension must be powerful enough to convey the right message. Brands utilize their strong presence within a category to gain a rub-off effect on their extensions. For instance, Colgate leveraged its well-built brand association with oral care as an opportunity to launch its toothbrush which turned out to contribute significantly to their market value. Similarly, Park Avenue exploited its association with men’s grooming to move from men’s wear to products like perfumes and shaving creams. Brands extending within their area of expertise enjoy the loyalty of their regular consumers. Plethora of technology companies use this to their advantage. The major task is to take care of the brand stretch or fit before moving to a new product/market as an absolute must. Consumer’s behaviour towards an extension can always be turned favourable through strong brand associations, which acts as a check point and a driving force to induce the purchase.
Have you ever thought twice before buying the very next novel written by your favourite author or would you be shy using a new fragrance by ZARA, Absolutely not! After all they are brands you love for their value and you buy what you believe in. And the context true for every buyer segment in India because we associate ourselves with a brand identity as easy as we breathe. HUL, ITC or P&G would not have been able to create epic product portfolios if it was not for the strong brand associations that they had. Companies enjoy and leverage on their new products the trust that they have instilled within their customer base through their established brands, thus making brand extensions quite a favourable effort for themselves. You drive a Harley, You wear one too! You apply Betadine on your wounds, you gargle it too for relieving from cough. Thus stated are the successful forms of brand extensions; however the picture is not always rosy. Companies thrive on yet another feature of customers which is perception that they carry for a particular brand and with every successful brand the name of the company also becomes more and more synonymous with that segment. Kotler might have enlisted a row of successful brands but the failure of Ponds toothpaste also coexists resulting mainly from customers’ perception of Ponds synonymous with fairness and beauty which made it awkward to digest the toothpaste extension. Thus a company’s strong brand associations can certainly help them make brand extensions, however at the same time strong brand associations also create a stereotype for the company as it becomes synonymous with the segment. So the clue lies in how compatible the brand extension is? That would define the rather thin line between acceptance or rejection of the new brand by the customers
Topic for the next issue: “With the spate of advertisements leveraging the recently concluded Olympics, Is associating your brand with sports a win-win or too niche a proposition??” Your opinion (view/counterview) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is 15th September, 2016. Include your picture (JPEG format) with the entry. Winners will receive a prize money of Rs. 500 each!
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AD-dicted AD-dicted
december august 2013 2016
By SHARAD SRINIVASAN IIM Shillong PRODUCT: Pepsi - Mini Can
By ASTHA KABRA IIM Shillong PRODUCT: Micromax ECCO Blue Air Conditioners
POSITIONING: Mini Can can teach you a Big Lesson
POSITIONING: Don’t Sweat Without a Cause
CREATIVE AGENCY: J. Walter Thompson, India
CREATIVE AGENCY: CreativeLand Asia
CATCH
R
YouTube Link:: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atQ qwoB6HVo
YouTube Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=stbKq-MfHFg CONCEPT: For the launch of its Mini Can in India, Pepsico has come up with a humorous web series. The protagonist is an Italian mafia boss, ‘Mr Can’. In the first part Mr Can is shown to be discussing with his right hand man, ‘Mr Cornell’, the dynamics of his succession. They decide that the trait most important to the business is honesty. Subsequently a test of honesty is held among 3 young men in which they are asked to create a pyramid with Pepsi Mini Cans, blindfolded. Two of them complete the task while the third remains seated and hasn’t even begun. When asked why, he responds saying that he could see through his blindfold & to do the task would have been cheating. Mr Can is impressed with his honestly and the film signs off with the message: ‘Little Can. Big Message’.
CONCEPT: The advertisement first marked Micromax’s entry in the Air Conditioner market. The commercial opens with a lot of ambitious enrepreneurs talking about their determination to achieve success in life. They talk about all the hard work and efforts that they are willing to put in. The TVC next shows how this room in which they are working will mark the begining of their success. The all inspired entrepreneurs talk about how they will give time, effort and even blood in making things go their way. But they will no longer break a sweat. And the TVC moves on to explain about Micromax and the feautures of their Air Conditioner which sets it apart from the rest in the market. The TVC ends with the new Micromax tagline : Nuts. Guts. Glory.
MISS
VERDICT: Catch
VERDICT: Miss
Pepsico’s ad campaign for its Mini Can is a great example of Social Marketing. The target population of Pepsico has always been the passionate young population. With this ad campaign they are trying to bring to light the importance they place on developing traits like ‘honesty’ in the youth of the country which would benefit the society as a whole. Markathon believes the campaign is tailor-made for its target audience. The youth of our country can be safely assumed to be aspirational, to whom the concept of an Italian Mafia Boss would seem appealing. Also the film has a great flow & the humor adds positively to it. All in all, Markathon believes the new ad campaign ticks all boxes and can be expected to be a success.
Markathon believes that even though the advertisement tries to convey a very strong message of how they support the next generation of entrepreneurs, the entire message takes a dive with the end when they say will give it all but not our sweat. Along with this Micromax moving from mobile phones directly into the air conditioning market is yet to be accepted by the Indian customers. Inspite of connecting the commercial to upcoming Start-ups which is on a rage currently, Micromax fails to deliver its message and convince its target audience regarding the value proposition for their air conditioners. All in all, Markathon believes this advertisement was a miss on Micromax’s end.
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brand story
august 2016
Brand Story DAKSH BHAGAT | IIM Shillong
I
t is a popular saying that a cat has nine lives. But PUMA is a cat that needs no extra lives – it being one of the world’s leading sports brands, designing, developing, selling and marketing footwear, apparel and accessories. For more than 65 years, PUMA has been producing the most disruptive products for the fastest and strongest athletes across the globe. Selling its products in more than 120 countries of the world, PUMA surely lives up to its new mission statement: ‘To be the fastest sports brand in the world’. Let’s look at how the brand became a success story. The journey began in 1924, when two brothers, Rudolf and Adolf Dassler, with a knack for making sports performance enhancing shoes, founded Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory, operating out of their mother’s laundry room in the small German town of Herzogenaurach. The brothers got their first breakthrough when the African-American track star Jesse Owens wore their shoes as he completed and won four gold medals in the 1936 Olympics. Owen’s victory gave the shoes international exposure, and sales of their product increased manifold. Like most others stories, even this one didn’t have a happy ending. The mutual discords between the two brothers led to the company getting split into two in 1948, giving birth to PUMA’s one of the biggest competitors, Adidas. Herzogenaurach came to be known as “the town of bent necks” since people first looked at which company’s shoes you were wearing before deciding whether they would talk to you or not. All said and done, PUMA’s first major contribution to the football world came up in 1952 when it released the Super Atom- first football boot with screw in studs. Over the years, the company developed its enhanced version called Brasil. This turned out to be a successful marketing strategy when the Brazilian team won the 1958 World Cup in Sweden sporting PUMA shoes. In the 1960’s, PUMA became famous for using an advanced production technique of vulcanization (a technique which bonds the sole and shaft of the shoe). This led to a much more enhanced performance and the same was showcased using ads and other promotional events. The ‘60s saw world famous athletes like Pelé and Portuguese football star Eusebio winning events and PUMA made sure it never missed the highlight. PU-
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MA’s world famous jumping cat logo- introduced to the world in 1967- was the brainchild of a cartoonist Lutz Backes. This logo was amended in 1979 to a PUMA jumping across the corner of the word PUMA. This came to be seen on all PUMA shoes and apparel as a mark of quality and superb attention to detail. PUMA caught world’s attention for innovative marketing in 1996 when Linford Christie showed up at a press conference wearing contact lenses with a white PUMA cat emblazoned on them. The 2000s focused mainly on PUMA’s expanding line of football related products. Also Usain Bolt, the best of all brand ambassadors became the primary reason for PUMA being in the limelight during those years. On entering India in 2006, it had two options - either fall back on discounting to push sales or continue with its strategy of slow and sustained growth. It chose to go with the latter. The brand in India also initially positioned itself more on the lifestyle plank than pure performance, the domain of its rivals. The brand later began PUMA Loves Vinyl, a concert and music compilation series showcasing Indian indie acts and the PUMA Social Club in Bengaluru, which features a cafe and a bar. PUMA’s success in India, lies in smart rather than aggressive marketing, prudent expansion and sticking to the basics of shunning discounts. PUMA continued to make a name for itself in 2014 with the release of the evoPOWER football boot and the appearance of its innovative football products at the Brazil FIFA World Cup. In 2016, the brand has a clear objective to demonstrate that PUMA is back in sports and that our brand has great assets and a distinctive attitude: Brave, confident, determined, and joyful. The second Forever Faster brand campaign, in which several million Euros have been invested in 2015, focuses on our brand ambassadors and shows how they are training with PUMA products to get into peak form for the major competitions in 2016. Rihanna joined Usain Bolt, Arsenal London and other athletes for the campaign on a number of fronts, including the first TV spot for PUMA’s training shoe IGNITE XT. Leading up to this, she has ensured a high level of attention in the media and on social networks. The story of PUMA conveys a strong message to small players vying to make it big - though you start small, you can make it big with hard work and perseverance.
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fun corner
august 2016 AKSHAY SETH IIM Shillong
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By Harsha Daga | IIM Shillong
Moving Beyond Smartphones We will now see the smartphone and tech giant Xiaomi bring its air purifiers to India after a successful show of it mobile handsets and some other accessories. The Airpurifiers were first showcased in China in 2015 and is slated to hit the Indian markets at a price point of around Rs.7000 per unit. With this the company has also expressed their plans of gradually growing into the offline market channel as well.
ShopClues.com is bringing the world to us ShopClues has always positioned itself as your desi street side local shops but with better quality and range. However, now the giant has roped in many international brands and has become a world market, and not just in one category. From apparels to watches, ShopClues brings the best of global brands to India, offering a price range as wide as beginning from Rs.100 to Rs.13 Lakhs!
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What happens when Pharma Giants expand into Skin Care Sun Pharma launches its sunscreen in its Global Consumer Healthcare segment. Sun Pharma aims at making Suncros, their skin care brand, the number one Dermatologist recommended sunscreen in India. The competitive landscape in the Indian FMCG has never been so interesting when the giants face threat from multiple sources including changing consumer preferences towards herbal/ organic products as well as full-fledged entry of pharma giants which have the credibility of doctors to back them up. Malibu - first to bring IoT to FMCG consumers Malibu is looking to capitalize on consumers’ “contactless behaviour” by turning 40,000 of its bottles into media platforms, offering consumers access to exclusive content simply by tapping their smartphone on the bottle. Using the NFC technology, each bottle will turn into a digital touchpoint for consumers. These bottles will ensure direct connection with the consumers’ smartphones, enabling Malibu to increase and strnghthen its digital reach.
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updates FedEx is changing all of
march 2016
its logos to Purple and Orange
The FedEx logo is one of the most recognized one in the world, however, a research conducted revealed that the combination of purple and orange was the most recalled one and hence the best representative of the brand. The company believes that there is only one FedEx in the world and hence, there must also be only one consistent communication at all touchpoints, across all divisions.
When you want the right thing, you get it any way The TOMS brand of shoes was an online seller of shoes for all. With their One For One vision where with the sale of every product, TOMS helps one person in need. However, when they decided to enter the offline retail, they made sure that it was done in a way nobody could imagine. For the first time, a shop-in-cafĂŠ model was introduced. This innovative retail format created a pull effect driven by the environment enhanced by regular cafĂŠ goers, who actually landed up buying the merchandise.
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digi-tally
august 2016
Our Facebook page has been buzzing all month. Check out some of our posts here!
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digi-tally
august 2016
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digi-tally
august 2016
https://www.facebook.com/markathon.iims/
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http://iims-markathon.blogspot.in/
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Articles are invited
“Best Article”: Bhavya Rastogi | IIM Shillong She receives a cash prize of Rs.1000 & a letter of appreciation We are inviting articles from all the B-schools of India. The articles can be absolutely anything related to the world of marketing but it should be an original work that is not published elsewhere. The articles can be specific to the regular sections of Markathon which includes: •Perspective: Articles related to development of latest trends in marketing arena. •Productolysis: Analysis of a product from the point of view of marketing. •Strategic Analysis: A complete analysis of marketing strategy of any company or an event. Apart from above, out of the box views related to marketing are also welcome. The best entry will receive a letter of appreciation and a cash prize of Rs 1000/-. The format of the file should be MS Word doc/docx. The last date of receiving all entries is 15th September, 2016. Please send your entries marked as <ARTICLE NAME>_<SENDERS’ NAME(S)>_<INSTITUTE> to markathon.iims@
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