This month has been really important for our team. With junior members now inducted into the club, it has been a confluence of new and fresh energies in this edition. You will see many new changes in the subsequent editions and like the changing world of marketing we need to keep up with the latest trends. This month in itself has been full of new developments for the industry captains and market leaders. One of country’s biggest IT firms has received a change of leadership. World’s biggest video sharing platform has brought out its new face, the markets are gearing up for post GST dents with newer offerings. These are only some of the biggest developments, but the point is that change is necessary in the world of marketing for survival.
From the perspective column we have an entry from the corporate world, giving us insights on the relevance of consumer centricity in the retail industry. The other article takes a very different view on the B2B marketing and gives the latest trends to hit the B2B marketing jackpot with upcoming new technologies. As for the Eye2Eye section Amandeep Singh from IIM Rohtak and Pranjal Choudhury from JBIMS will battling it out to have a final word on Brand Extensions.
The Vartalaap section has a slight modification in this edition, we bring to you the talk with our reputed professional from the supply chain department, it gives a very different perspective on the outlook of business in consumer centric companies. The supply chain department is usuWith this in mind we bring to you this month’s ally considered very operations oriented, but on cover story on the rebirth of brands. So brands the contrary there is a lot more to it. are many times considered synonymous with the company itself, but there lies a very important We have our take on the marketing behemoth difference between the two and therefore when itself, Coca Cola in Brand Story. The saga which a company talks about rebuilding its brands, it coke continues to create is too great to conquer, is mostly not about just changing the logo or but we’ve tried our best to capture it. In Logoisthe ads, it is about changing its values. Many tic, we’ve covered Twitter and its very interestbrands have gone under brand rebuilding, but ing collection of Logos over the years. Finally, do only some have been truly successful too retain catch up on our verdict for different ads in Adtheir true glory post rebirth. With the ease of dicted, also keep yourself up to date with the latcommunication due to digitization, brands can est marketing trends with the top 5 reads of the very easily lose their image and therefore need month and the Updates. So enjoy reading this to rebuild themselves. edition and do write back to us with your feedback and suggestions.
Cheers! Team Markathon
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Andar Ki Baat Perspective
01 06 Cover Story Rebuilding & Rebirth 10 of Brands
Customer Centricity in Retail Industry Venkatesh KG | TCS
B2B Trends
Nisarg Savla | Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies
Ravitej Vadlamani | IIM Shillong
Eye 2 Eye
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Brand Extension: a shortcut to building trust across new product categories?:
Vartalaap
15 Pranjal Choudhury
Amandeep Singh
SPJIMR
IIM Rohtak
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With A Supply Chain Head
Interviewed By:
Himanshu Chugh & Archita Singh| IIM Shillong IIM Shillong
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Andar Ki Baat SpeciaLs
19 20
Logoistic
The Story of Twitter’s Logo Samarth Parikh | IIM Shillong
Top 5 Reads of the month
Articles which you just 23 cannot afford to miss
AD-dicted
Catch & Miss advertisements of the month Aishwarya Tiwari & Anurag Pandey | IIM Shillong
Marketing Gyan Brand Story The Rise and Rise of Coca-Cola
21 Apoorv Gupta | IIM Shillong MARKATHON
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Updates
Fresh from the Marketing World Aishwarya Tiwari | IIM Shillong
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perspective
Consumer Centricity In Retail Industry
By Venkatesh kg business consultant,tcs
“For a small/new player, customer centricity is the feasible strategy for adoption since it is not much capital intensive also all the major players in the market are adopting this strategy�
B
ackground
Retail Industry in India is seeing a continuous change in the way the business is done because of the increasing adoption of internet, smart phones and Social Media. Traditional brick and motor stores are striving hard to get online presence to stay in the competition. Retails having sufficient muscle power started having their own ecommerce portal, while the smaller players are taking help of aggregators. These retailers are striving to provide seamless shopping experience across MARKATHON
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perspective different channels / touch points. Consumers on the other hand are becoming increasingly demanding because of many specialized players in each segment in this space.
Key Capabilties a Retailer is Expected to have This is putting more pressure on the existing players in retail space because new players are entering this space since online presence adoption is becoming inevitable for sustenance. At the same time since this business is margin driven except for luxury division, it is becoming imperative for retailers to be cost players (leader).
clearance. Of the 3 retailing strategies mentioned, for a small / new player, customer centricity is the feasible strategy for adoption since it is not much capital intensive also all the major players in the market are adopting this strategy. Customer Centricity does not deal with just providing products and services at front end, it deals with: (1)Ensuring the whole customer shopping journey is seamless across channels / touch points which needs superior backend system integration across channels
For being successful in retail space, the key capabilities which a retailer is expected to have are:
(2)Understand customer behaviour and identify the shopping interest of the customers to come-up with right product suggestion by assessing the customer behaviour in different touch points – online, brick & mortar store, mobile, social media, cart abandonment, download of a coupon to mention a few.
(a)Tap Economy of Scale: Organic growth takes time at the same time inorganic growth (M&A) always have issues in cultural fit of the 2 organizations joining hands. (b)Have superior logistics support: This enables quicker fulfilment of customer orders with optimal cost. (One of the core competencies of Flipkart lies in its strong logistics capability which is very difficult for other players to imitate since it is capital intensive, other players would rather invest in their core business).
(3)Making shopping simpler for customers by adopting technologies like iBeaon in suggesting products of customer’s interest, empowering in-store employees with smart devices to assist the customers with additional product information and helping them shop products in their online channel when product is not available in the physical store.
(c)Customer Centricity: Understand what customer is looking for by (1)Providing seamless shopping experience across different sales channels. (2)Understand purchasing trends of products by different segment of customers and plan merchandizing according to the demand / requirement to avoid discounted sales for stock
The true winners of Consumer-Centricity will be those who:
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(1)Widen the gap between the cost of the product/service and the maximum willingness of the customer to pay by superior value proposition to the customer.
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(2)Have a better understanding of their merchan- Customer Centric Retailing-Strategy dize and propose the right product to the custom- Model: er hence increasing the customer cart value. External Trigger: This corresponds to the latest Some examples of retailers who focused products in the market / new technologies adon Consumer-centricity: opted by other players. Also research updates on the trends collected from 3rd party will be (A)Amazon shows recently viewed items to the taken for deciding the business strategy customers and provide recommendation based on their past search in their website in the home (a)Cross-channel Operation: Integration of inpage. ventory across channels and providing seam-
less shopping experience across channels for both forward and reversal flows irrespective of origin store. Also IT system need to be integrated in such a way that customer related information is captured at all touch points and maintained in a centralized Database in a con(C) Pandora asks the user to provide the song or sistent manor. the album name. Based on the feed provided by the customer, it plays songs based on the profil- (b)Analyze Customer Purchase Trends: Puring of the customer. chasing pattern of the customers need to be (B)Netflix & Hulu analyzes the types of movies / television shows consumed previously and the ratings provided by individuals to provide suitable recommendations.
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perspective analyzed at all touch points and the data need to be properly segmented demographic, psychographic basis across different channels and their behaviour across channels need to be analyzed. Products purchased by different consumer segments need to be collected. Also products for which the consumer had expressed interest (eg: adding product to wishlist) need to be collected. (c)Demand Driven Merchandizing: Based on the quantity of products purchased / has shown interest by different segments of consumers, quantity of products to be kept in hand has to be decided. Cyclicality of demand has to be considered to decide inventory level so as to avoid discounted sales for stock-out. Also based on the products purchased by consumers, canjoint analysis can be run to include closely related products for sales. (d)Pricing Strategy: Willingness of the customer to pay for different product segments can be analyzed using analytical techniques like Canjoint Analysis to mention one. Also product bundling pricing can be assessed for pricing across different consumer segments. (e)Right Promotions: Formulating the right promotion for the right set of consumer at the right time in the right channel at the right time based on the interest shown by the customer for purchasing but didn’t end up in purchasing it. (f)Positioning: Based on the pricing and sales decision made in the previous phases, the business positioning can be done. For instance retailers which are focusing more on margin driven business can portray itself as promotional / discounted retailing by displaying discounts / promotions on different products in the website home page and other places across channels. On
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the other hand, retailers which are selling premium products would focus on their value proposition by showcasing it with the right brand personality. (g)Monitor and Course Correction: Based on the product & non-product decisions made at the past for different consumer segments, the end result is analyzed to check if the changes brought in are bringing expected outcomes. Also the end result if it is favourable need to be analyzed if there is any other influencing factors which is not considered for analysis / decision. If not, it is analyzed for failure and what changes need to be introduced is suggested. (h)Innovation: New technologies which can be integrated with the existing system is assessed. Decision to enter or leave a new line of product segments is decided and the corresponding product and non-product strategies / Ideas are considered. (i)Cascade Objectives: Based on the inputs got from Internal Innovation decisions and external factors, the final business objectives and strategy is decided and will be sent across for implementation.
Issues In Customer Centric Decision Making: (A)Inconsistency in data format collected across different channels. (B)Error in identifying the right correlation because the data is huge and may involve many other influencing factors not considered for analysis. (C)Industry has attained maturity so the system has become very dynamic because all the
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players analyze real time data in their business lose their presence in the business after beand / or get customer insights from 3rd party ing acquired by bigger players (Eg: Flipkart analysis which shorten the cycle period making acquiring Myntra). Rather retailers need to
the data collected not real time enough for for- formulate a strategy which is sustainable and mulating the business strategy and executing the not easy for other players to imitate so as to same. have a sustainable competitive advantage in Mistakes and Learning from them: their line of business. (A)Reflect True Custom Beauty a subsidiary of Conclusion: P&G in 1999, allowed customers to customise their cosmetic and hair-care products. However A customer-centric strategy can enables comP&G shut-down this operation in 2005 because panies to understand the changing customer it was not well accepted by the customers. Rea- needs and the price customers are willing to son being they were too early in their initiative. pay, and consistently deliver on their promSo proper Market Research need to be conducted ise to customers with sufficient sample size so as to avoid loss. (B)Bottom lines of many retailers are red. Reason being they are compromising on their margins to gain volumes. After a few years of operation, they
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Better Consumer Assessment With Sustainable-Superior Unique Value Proposition, Higher Sales, Better Bottom Lines Hence Better Days!
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perspective
B2B TRENDS By NISARG SAVLA Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies
The only way to consistently grow in B2B is to be better than very good -Seth Godin
Y
our partner’s birthday is coming up and you have the perfect gift in mind. You go online, type in some key search words and spend a few minutes browsing a variety of products. Everything you need to make an informed purchase is right there on the screen, including detailed descriptions and delivery times, customer reviews and even alternate product recommendations. After paying for the perfect gift online, you finish the lunch break and get back to work. As an industrial procurement manager you might expect the same great customer experience when ordering online, in a professional capacity. But would your expectations be met? The process builds up in the following way:
Awareness
Today’s procurement managers, covet ranking highly in a Google or Bing search. But they need to go further than that. International heating systems manufacturer Viessmann is a good example of a company that effec-
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tively raises customer awareness through regular news feeds. Booths are expensive and without a targeted, engaging plan you could be standing around talking with fellow employees while possible clients march past you. So geofencing can be used to track the number of show attendees browsing the booth, or walking by without stopping, while determining the most popular hours, how long visitors stayed at the booth, and even which sections of the booth were most popular. With this data a business can offer attendees an optimal experience without having to request a visitor survey or specifically ask for the information.
Raising interest Customers want to know how your products work, what kind of services you offer and how your products could fulfil their needs. Companies like Bauder or Schneider Electric provide the customers with personalized homepages to meet the needs of different stakeholder groups. Each section of their homepage presents the various target groups with tailored content which eases their search for information. Videos and webcasts are
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perspective
making their purchase, all of which is done online. The entire purchasing decision is easy, intuitive and fluent, leaving very little room for the customer to cancel the purchase on the grounds of complexity.
the tools of choice.
Evaluation This is about convincing the customer and you now want them to decide to buy your product .Second hand car dealer Vroom demonstrates how the B2B sale of complex products like cars can benefit from digital tools, with the launch of a new virtual reality showroom. All that potential customers need to do is wear a VR headset to see what their chosen car looks like from the inside or hear how the engine sounds. They can even enjoy a virtual test drive. Vroom’s multichannel approach facilitates the personal contact with the customer that remains so important in an emotional buying experience such as a car purchase while simultaneously reaping the benefits of next generation digital tools
Retention It is essential to keep customers interested in buying the products again. General Electric, has an Industrial Internet Blog. Various authors post articles here about recent developments or their point of view on the digital manufacturing future. E-newsletters are familiar to everybody as a means of engaging with future and existing customers.
Programmatic Digital Ad Spending This uses software to buy digital advertising instead of the traditional method of humans buying and selling ads. Nowadays for most B2Bs (which rely on big data), this can be a boon as it ensures that budgets are being spent appropriately with a mathematical eye towards the ROI of campaigns.
Purchase US company John Deere has found a way to make the purchasing experience for the customer easy and Amazon-like. Customers go to the website and build their own product, adding any optional equipment of their choice. They can locate a dealer in their neighbourhood to answer their questions if need be, before selecting a financing option and
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Use of Blockchain As brands continue to pull spend from Google amid concerns their adverts will appear alongside content
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promoting hate and extremism, the idea of using Blockchain for ad verification could prove seriously attractive to marketers. It could provide a mechanism for marketers to know, with certainty, where
tive basis. An early player in this space is BitTeaser, a Danish ad network that displays all click-throughs in the Blockchain in real time, which can be easily tracked by users.
Machine learning and AI For decades, B2B lead generation has been a process of hours of human research into different companies and categorization of people with purchasing influence within each company. In this instance, the value of AI lies in the machine’s ability to identify and generate B2B leads that grow your company’s database. Which companies are going to be good customers? Which sales team members are going to have a great quarter? Which blog articles are going to get the highest reader engagement? These are the challenging enigmas that B2B sales and marketing leaders still lose endless hours of sleep over. A software tool can do the work of picking out the top
their ad has been placed. This could potentially enable publishers to blacklist against fraud on an itera-
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decision-makers with buyer roles in each company, It can save your sales team hours of manual searchgiving you a direct contact to several potential new ing for target clients, giving them a solid pipeline to work with — one which they can add custom details clients.
Once the potential clients have been targeted, the tool can generate a target list and highlights key data points to help you segment your audience and develop personalized messages.
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to any time they wish. This leaves them plenty of time to focus on discussing sales and closing deals. It must be able to predict both personality and preferred communication style using data from previous communication on social media and email.
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cover story
august 2017
Rebuilding & Rebirth of Brands
Cover Story
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n this age of digitization and rapid change, none of us can afford to be complacent or stagnant. This holds true for brands as well, as they must evolve and change to remain relevant. MARKETING However, with the advent of social media, and other modes BUDGET of communication, every move, every statement made by a brand is under tremendous scrutiny. Many a brand has been the subject of controversies over the years, either due to regulatory controversies or outright brain-fade PR blunders by the company representatives. Brands have been required to firefight these challenges and respond quickly to try to rebuild and regain the lost trust in the minds of the consumers. These controversies have been one of the major reasons where brands have had to change in the recent past. So traditionally brand rebirths can be divided into the following four categories: 1. A change in vision: It might often happen that a brand may have outgrown its vision or simply the company sees a bigger future for the brand, and in these situations, change is necessary.
a.Alphabet: Google recently restructured its organization to expand, enhance and communicate a new vision to the customers. While the motive for the change has been debated
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upon, what it has managed to do is to create transparency to its cash cows and highlighting their approach of using “Google-style” technology to solve a wide range of problems. The name stands for a return above benchmark and Googles new visual identity also represents the new vision. b.Skull Candy: Skull Candy was built on a vision of being an inexpensive and good quality head phones for rough use. However, it failed to compete with the likes of Beats, Sony, and Bose. So, when the new CEO took over, the company changed its focus to product innovation and sound performance. This lead to an increase in sales.
aging cells and extended its expertise to medicinal research. 4.Back to Basics: If the brand strays from its core values and becomes too diversified or fragmented, it needs to get back to the basics and rebuild the essence of what it stood for. a.Burberry: A company that was known as a luxury brand and its iconic trench coat, Burberry lost its direction due to no clear product strategy. When a new CEO was appointed, she refocused the company on the trench and elevated Burberry back to a luxury brand with heritage.
So, while the above are the major reasons for a company to change, sometimes may need to come as 2.Reboot: It might happen that the brand stops a result of controversies against the brand. Some standing for anything and becomes irrelevant. cases have been seen where the brands have had This needs a start over for the brand. to firefight. a.Dominos: The brand was struggling till in 2008 it owned up to shortcomings in its recipes and So, what should a brand do when it faces a condecided to invite consumers and chefs into its troversy? kitchens to revamp its offerings. Dominos now identifies itself as a tech company with a focus Currently estimated at $250 million, the private on digital utility, user lThere is no set path or a experience and meetcure all strategy. Crisis ing consumers expectamanagement requires tions. It has also dropped more than an apology ‘pizza’ from its name to from the CEO or an expand into other categoappearance on a new ries. channel. The news goes viral and spreads in a 3.New Direction: Many flash. Companies must a time, a brand may lose be nimble on their feet value to its customers. and be ready to respond It may also happen that to disasters quickly and disruptive factors or decisively, using all competitors are forcing modes of communicathe brand to change and tion. It is important to bring something unique to the marketplace minimize the damage to the brand and regain a.Fujifilm:A success story of strategic brilliance. the trust of the customers. For this, the following We all know that with the advent of digital cam- steps can be taken: eras, iPhones. So how is that this company is on the rise. Fujifilm recognized the changing dy- 1.Accept and Acknowledge: Silence does not go namics and leveraged its competencies in man- down well in times of turbulence. It is important
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that the leadership recognize the issue and either apologize or refute the charges levied against the company. In case of the latter, it might help to setup an independent investigation into the matter and communicate the results to the public. Staying silent or acting slowly can do more harm than good. Deriving at least 20% sales contribution from i2.Reach out to the loyalists: Even if the company is going through turmoil, there will be certain customers who will stay by your side. It is important for the company to reach out to these people, arm them with talking points, and rely on the fact that these customers will be able to influence the others and eventually the brand may be able to rebuild the trust. 3.Create Empathy: If the company is guilty of what it is being accused of, the company need to do and show that it is doing everything it can to make amends to the mistake made. Offering compensation, communicating the changes in the company to ensure that such an incident does not occur again are some of the measures that can be taken. 4.Reduce the damage: While this seems quite rudimentary and obvious at the outset, many companies have been too late to react in times of controversies. The competitors will be like hungry vultures looking to swoop down on you, and it is necessary to setup a task force with the sole purpose of stopping the bleeding. One has to think as the competition would think and aim to reduce the loss in market share.
received with skepticism. Everything you do, products, advertising, the strategy should revolve around building this trust.
Maggi One of the largest FMCG brands in the world, Maggi was dealt a cruel blow when tests conducted in India revealed that the instant noodles had excessively high quantities of MSG (Mono Sodium Glutamate) in them. Nestle was ordered to take Maggi off the shelves indefinitely. Nestle spent nearly three decades building this brand, embedding it into the lives of millions of people around the world and creating emotional associations and one PR debacle sent this brand into a tailspin and cost Nestle over half billion dollars. So how did Nestle respond? It was slow at the beginning. It took nearly two weeks for the company to issue a statement in this regard. Nestle preferred to deal with the authorities than the press and public. When the product was banned by FSSAI, the CEO responded by assuring the customers that Maggi is safe, these are unfounded concerns and that we will be back.
Nestle fell short in handling the crisis initially. It was blinded by pride. The company simply refused to accept that their product is unsafe and this resulted in a lack of empathy while dealing with the regulators and the press. The silence from the company did not help as rumors were spreading fast about the noodles. Nestle was committed to dialogue with authorities but 5. Rebuild Reputation: While one may argue failed to look ahead and see what would happen that everything said above is to rebuild reputa- if these talks failed, which they did. It ended up tion, it is important to ask yourself as to what’s being caught in a media storm with the brand needed to recover your lost reputation. The com- being ripped to shreds. Nestle also failed to unpany has lost its most essential element, “trust� derstand the context, for weeks it considered and so everything you do from now on will be this as a technical issue without considering
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the social, political and emotional ramifications these results might have. It failed to be empathetic and engaging. Nestle also lacked the systems in place to handle a PR storm of this kind. For weeks, the company was silent, and when it did talk, it was talking at the consumers rather that to them. As one would expect, the vultures swooped in with ITC, Patanjali and other brands looking to pick up the pieces of the newly available 70% market share that Maggi once commanded. After the court ruling that Maggi is safe for consumption is when Nestle started fighting back. It brought out a brilliant campaign “#WeMissYouToo” on social media. The company began with the young people who were forgiving and loyal to the brand and targeted them with this campaign. To assure of safety, it got real mothers MARKETING to give testimonials of how they trusted Maggi. BUDGET Nestle delivered the product as widely as possible on day one. The no added msg label was replaced with “Our commitment to goodness you can always trust.” The brand was back and as
allegations levied against them and used advertisements to firefight.
Coke chose to continue with its existing commercials in the “Thanda” series. Once the heat of the controversy started to dissipate, the advertisement entered the living rooms in the form of a teaser. The teaser soon evolved into a full advertisement, but interestingly, the ad made absolutely no reference to the entire fiasco which had transpired. Pepsi did the opposite. The brand ran a commercial series in which celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan, Sachin Tendulkar were seen reinforcing as to how safe Pepsi was. Two very contrasting ways to handle the controversy, one chooses to steer clear and carry on like nothing had happened, while the other chooses to communicate the desirability of the
the market leader again. While the market share had reduced, it launched new flavors to reinvent itself. While they didn’t handle the crisis perfectly, they did manage to keep the long-term picture in mind and return with a bang.
Pepsi and CoCa-Cola We all know the pesticide controversy which hit the two largest cola manufacturers in the world. In the days after the fiasco both the companies adopted starkly different strategies through their advertising. Both the companies responded quickly, within a day. It was perhaps for the first time in history that two major rivals teamed up against the regulatory authorities in a press conference.The brands vehemently denied the
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product by talking about the issue. There isn’t a clear answer as to which method was better. Both the brands were back on the shelves and did well for the companies. If you can manage to use the issue and have a rational argument to defend yourself, going Pepsi’s way might be advisable. It’s a risky strategy as compared to what coke employed. While all the brands may not be able to comeback quite so easily, they have their lucky stars to thank that the customers’ memory is short indeed.
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vartalaap
august 2017
VARTALAAP With a Supply Chain Head
“Talking about the core and augmented
product, the difference lies in the affordability and need
“
Markathon: What according to you is more challenging a customer, a business unit(B2B) or the consumer?
Hence, meeting the demands of the B2B customers is more challenging and requires in-depth analysis.
As far as the supply chain goes, it is more challenging to manage a business unit. The interaction with the consumer/customer is usually very limited. The major interaction is with the distributors and other intermediaries.
Markathon: As students of B2B, we are learning a lot about Value Pricing, how does it come into play in Industry? How do you leverage the same? Does the augmented product cannibalize the core product?
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vartalaap
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Every consumer, whatever strata he/she belongs to, at the end of the day it is the value of the product/service that matters. So the customer who is willing to pay less will also pay for the value that he/she needs. The person will pay according to his affordability but will also seek value. For example, a person may just demand a vanilla ice-cream, but depending on his affordability, he may add another topping but will pay additionally for the value that he is seeking. When you value selling, you get to compare your product with your competitor. Your competitor may be charging a certain amount, and you may charge the same amount but also provide additional benefits. So the value pricing also helps you to gain competitive advantage.
you can add additional features to your product, it helps to make the product stand out and not become a mass product. Hence focus has to be on maintaining the quality of the product, cutting costs and prices to make it a mass product is should never be done at the cost of the quality of the product. Markathon: Could you throw some light on the promotional strategy in consumer goods Industry?
The advertisement for products should be targeted in nature. A particular product catering to a particular requirement should have a well planned and focused campaign strategy and target audience, Advertisements should get featured in regional channels too. Also, there should be a peek in promotions and advertisements around Talking about the core and augmented the festive season, because that helps us product, the difference lies in the af- in boosting the sales during the prime fordability and need. If you have the season. money and you have the required need, you will most likely purchase the aug- Markathon: Could do you segment the mented product with additional fea- market for a product like durables? tures because you can afford it. Hence, the chances of cannibalization are gets Segmentation begins with identifying reduced in such cases due to the afford- the needs at various levels. Some conability. sumers require as basic as a normal product, and then there are consumers Markathon: With initiatives like Make who need decorative and augmented in India and the competition from the products for their utility. So you need Chinese products, how do you tackle the to identify the needs of all sections and problem of commoditization? then come up with different products which satisfy these needs independently What plays a role here is the differentia- or together as a whole. tion. With additional features and better quality, the problem of commoditiza- Markathon: As a Supply Chain profestion gets tackled to a large extent. When sional, what are your expectations from
There should be a peek in promotions and advertisements around the festive season because that helps us in boosting the sales during the prime season.
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the marketing team? How should Sup- then supply chain can be the way to go ply Chain as a function be positioned in about it. Now talking about chances of promoting to the senior management pocorporates? sitions, it is often believed that employees Every function and domain are important from Sales and Marketing make it to the for the proper functioning of an organi- senior management roles. However, when zation. As a Supply Chain professional I one reaches the senior management role, expect that the Marketing team should the tasks are more generic and requires be transparent, they should share infor- seeing the overall picture rather than just the functionmation well ahead al domain. of time with all stakeholders. Inter Knowledge of department Nego- The collaborative role of Supply Chain the functional tiations should be a vertical with all the other functions domain is impordialogue, and then makes it special. tant, but when other functions one is at a senior can have a genuine management opinion so that the role, the situdecision comes out as an organization decision. Various ation is a little different. You also see verticals should support each other and employees from Supply Chain and other collectively think in the development of domains making it to the senior roles in the organization. Hence, whatever path the organization as a whole. you choose, it is of utmost importance to An organization should value supply have an inclination towards it and excel chain as a function. Believe and sup- in it. The future career path follows if port in all the processes makes it very you work for the department in which integral part of the organization. The your interest lies. collaborative role of Supply Chain vertical with all the other functions makes it Markathon: How important are classroom concepts for B School graduates? special. Markathon: What is your advice to students who are looking at different domains such as Finance, Marketing, Consulting, and Operations? What should the outlook be when deciding on the domain for careers? Every business function is very important and plays a certain role in each organization. Talking from the perspective of Supply Chain, the task is very demanding and requires meeting deadlines. If one is not much inclined for a field job,
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Classroom knowledge is very essential. When you enter in the job, you can obviously learn while working but a pre knowledge of various tools and frameworks gives a new manager edge which is essential in such a competitive scenario. There is no place for error once you are on the job and therefore theoretical knowledge ensures that a student has a strong foundation upon which he can build a strong hold on the domain through his practical knowledge and experiences.
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Brand Extension: a shortcut to building trust across new product categories? PRANJAL CHOUDHURY SPJIMR
AMANDEEP SINGH IIM ROHTAK
Brand Extension is a terminology used to describe the use of a recognized brand name in new product categories. Brand extension have gained phenomenal importance in the last few years as new product launches have gone up substantially. In the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, brand extension is a tried and tested method for managing brand equity, reaching out to new consumers and generating extra revenue. There are plethora of success stories success stories. For example: •Detergent brand, Tide, launched a branded home laundry pickup and delivery service in Chicago, leveraging on the previous accomplishment of its dry cleaning service which started in 2008. •Dove, which began as a brand solely known for manufacturing soap, grew to become a major player in the shampoo, deodorant & body wash markets. Major benefits of brand extension are: 1.Utlize Equity – Leverage the hidden potential of brand to extend its equity to realize a broader scope of customer needs. Customers use recognized brands as quality cues i.e. they use brand name as an indirect evaluation of quality 2.Efficiency in Spending – Extensions offer chance to pool in marketing budgets across the extension, thereby optimizing advertising and promotional spends. The advantages of “spill over of advertising” works for products which are associated with the brand. 3.Faster Adoption – Consumers are acquainted with the brand. This increases the propensity to try out extended offering of the brand and results in faster adoption.
In a highly competitive environment, brand managers are increasingly under pressure to increase short term results and show a good return on investment. So, using your existing parent brand and stretching it may look like a best and economical route. In general, too many marketers believe that strong brand equity and a good idea are more than enough for a successful brand extension. I, do agree a good brand name helps, get the consumers know that the new offering comes from a serious company. However, it is not a shortcut to building trust across new product categories. Consumers will only buy the new product or services if it makes their life better, easier, faster or so on. Brand extension easily becomes a failure because organizations try to use or milk their parent brand and do not work enough to provide the consumer new benefits. Thus, also the number one reason for failure, they just do not bring enough value to the consumers. For e.g. McDonald’s, McPizza product failed because consumers thought that its value proposition was similar to Domino’s or Pizza Hut. I do think, successful extensions rest on three pillars. It consists of fit, leverage and opportunity. The brand should fit or be in sync with the parent brand, the parent should give the brand an edge in the market and the extension should provide sufficient sales volume.
Topic for the next issue: “Is there a shift from Brand Centricity to Product Centricity from the perspective of the customers?” Your opinion (view/counterview) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is 28th September 2017. Include your picture (JPEG format) with the entry. Winners will receive a prize money of Rs. 500 each!
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eye2eye
july 2015
By Samarth parikh IIM Shillong
Whenever you think about retail, the first company a complete redesign from scratch. This move set tTwitter, an online social networking and news ser- the bird to evolve slowly and brought it where it vice where users interact with one another by means is today. As it can be of short messages, restricted to 140 characters, or seen, the second and “tweets. Twitter Inc. has offices located in San Franthird iterations are cisco, California, United States, and has more than 25 somewhat similar in offices around the world. shape, but twitter inc mainly sought to “Twitter” was created in March 2006 by 4 partners, make the bird more namely, Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan friendly and carWilliams, and was toony. This shift in launched in July of design was done to that year. In 2012, attract young population to set the trend in the more than 100 mil- world of social networking. lion users posted over 340 million The next step by the company was to drop all tweets a day, and the silly cartoony details and revert to a silhouhandled about 1.6 ette look. This change was done to attract esbillion search que- tablished people and encourage them to use the ries per day and social networking medium that began gaining have been growing popularity amongst ever since. Howevyoung teenagers. er, the logo of “Twitter” has evolved over the years, During this process, in the following manner. the bird’s shape was made more Though the Twitter logo has gone through multiple streamline. The changes in recent feet were removed times, many of which and the wings were included no bird at all, redrawn in such a there have been five way that the bird major iterations of looked as if it were flying forward rather than the actual Twitter bird upward. Along with these changes, the beak which was formerly was made less awkwardly curved. known as Larry. The company’s first logo Now coming to the newest logo, aside from the was a thin little bird change of direction from the bird flying forward facing left, and his to it facing upward, there are several other noname was Larry, named after the Hall of Fame Bas- table changes. The wings on the left, have one ketball star, “Larry Bird.” less feather or ridge. Also, the fluff on top has been removed, and the enlarged silhouette’s The original logo had Larry, a blue bird which de- head that was there has been scaled down conpicted the sound a bird made called “tweet”. It repre- siderably and further smoothed out into a circle. sented the user interface where one could send out a message without directing it to someone and others The uniqueness of the newest logo is that it is could read them. Since it was limited to 140 charac- made from a collection of perfect circles. The ters, it resembled the short tweet of a bird. design of this logo has properties from each of the previous logos. Thus the evolution of TwitThe 2nd version of the bird wasn’t a gradual step but ter’s logos happened
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AD-dicted AD-dicted
december august 2013 2017 By Aishwarya Tiwari IIM Shillong
PRODUCT: BIBA:
PRODUCT: Fair and Lovely
By Anurag pandey IIM Shillong
POSITIONING: #ChangeTheQuestion
POSITIONING: All day beauty cream
CREATIVE AGECY: Brandmovers
CREATIVE AGENCY: Ogilvy & Mather
CATCH
YouTube Link: https://goo.gl/yKHKfc
YouTube Link: https://goo.gl/ET6aTJ
CONCEPT: The advertisement starts with a lady dressing up in her ethnic best and complementing her husband on his look. The husband is meanwhile shown busy on his phone. She then proceeds to ask him the question probably every lady asks – whether she looks fat in the dress. The husband doesn’t pay much attention to his wife’s question, much to the dissatisfaction of his wife. Then their child enters the room and the couple shower her with compliments; one from the husband being that she looks as beautiful as her mother. But because the child probably heard her mother questioning her appearance, the child also questions whether she looks fat, with a tinge of disappointment on her face. Realising the impact of their perceptions and insecurities on a small child, the couple encourage the child to understand that she is perfect the way she is. VERDICT: Catch Markathon believes that this advertisement took a subtle approach towards the issue of body shaming and yet managed to create a great impact. It took a rather common asked by people, and showed how people tend to associate being healthy as not being beautiful. This advertisement is in line with Biba’s “ChangeIsBeautiful” campaign, which raises other issues like “Change the convention” and “Change the conversation”. The inclusion of a young girl in the advertisement is keeping in mind the segment of 2 to 15 years old girls BIBA girls is targeting. In this age of glorified beauty standards that make even young girls insecure about themselves, this ad associates with the brand a feeling of acceptance.
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CONCEPT: The ad begins with Yami Gautam stating that the Makeup look is necessary for the entire day because one must click and post selfies and photos constantly throughout the day. Then the ad talks about the negative effect of applying makeup for the entire day. Here Fair and Lovely BB Cream comes in which provides the Makeup look without harming the skin. Thus, the ad is trying to suggest use of Fair and Lovely BB Cream which will provide long lasting fairness as well as Makeup look without harming the skin.
MISS
VERDICT: Miss Markathon believes that even though the ad could bring out its value proposition the ad positions itself in a negative manner. The ad is based on the premise that it is necessary for women to have Makeup all day and that one must continuously click photos and selfies and upload them on social network. Fair and Lovely has been criticized for its positioning many times in the past because of linking beauty with fairness. If Fair and Lovely wants to improve its Brand Image, one expects a change in positioning which is not reflected in this ad. In fact, it tries to assume that women want to wear Makeup all day, click and upload photos and selfies on social network. The ad tries to emphasize that the cream is not just a fairness cream but it’s good for the skin and gives a makeup look. However, Yami Gautam’s role is not convincing and the ad fails to position the brand positively thus this add is a miss.
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brand story
august 2017
Brand Story APOORV GUPTA | IIM Shillong
THE RISE AND RISE OF COCA-COLA
Y
ou might have the most appetizing of pizzas or succulent burgers on your table but it would all seem incomplete till you bring in the secret ingredient. And when you add this secret ingredient and ‘taste the feeling’, the experience gets completed. Well, of course, it is Coca Cola we are talking about. Coca Cola is one of the world’s most recognizable brand and is consumed by people in 200+ countries. But preoccupied with the current success of the brand, many don’t pay attention to the unique history that the brand possesses. In 1886, a pharmacist by the name John Pemberton came up with a caramel coloured liquid, mixed it with carbonated water and offered it to workers at Jacob’s pharmacy a few blocks away. Seeing the extraordinary response for the product, John and Frank Robinson decided to sell the product at 5 cents per glass and named it Coca Cola. Only 9 glasses of Coca-Cola were sold per day in the first year of operation. A major breakthrough came during 1888-1891 when Asa Griggs Candler, an Atlanta Businessmen, secured rights to the business for just $2,300. Candler went on to become the first president and established a clear vision for the growth of the company. From 1893-1904, Candler started issuing coupons for complimentary distribution of Coca-Cola and increased focus on branding the Cola-Cola name through calendars, clocks, urns and apothecary scales. The tactic worked and Candler was
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able to setup three syrup plants across the US by the year 1895. Another significant development came when Benjamin Thomas and Joseph Whitehead secured exclusive bottling and selling rights for the beverage. With growing popularity, many imitators began to come up forcing Coca Cola Company to focus on building authenticity of the brand through ‘Demand the genuine’ and ‘Accept no substitute’ campaigns. They also created a distinguished bottle design, the famous ‘Contour Bottle’ in 1916 which is still the signature bottle used the company. The company expanded quickly to France, Canada, Cuba, Panama and other countries. In 1923, Ernest purchased the company from Asa Can-
dler and made his son Robert Woodruff the president. Even today, many would agree that Robert Woodruff was
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brand story
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the primary force in making the company what it is today. Through his marketing genius, Woodruff introduced CocaCola to the Olympics Games in 1928 which helped the brand travel to Europe. He spearheaded the overseas expansion strategy which helped the brand gain worldwide recognition. During World War II, the company supported the soldiers by offering a bottle of Coca-Cola to every man in uniform for just 5 cents. The company acquired various new customers during the war and was well established to expand the overseas business further after the war. Coca-Cola became a part of the relaxed and cheerful lifestyle and this was reflected in the positioning of the brand. During the mid-1940s to 1960, the number of overseas bottling plants was doubled. During the early 1940s, the company also decided to diversify its offerings ranging from Fanta in the 1940s, Sprite in 1961, TAB in 1963 and finally Fresca in 1963. With the high growth in home markets, the company also expanded to more countries like Turkey, Cambodia, Macau, Paraguay etc. In the early 1970s, came the “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” campaign that gathered worldwide attention and appreciation.
the first-time brand extension was used at the company. Within just 2 years, the product picked up as the top low calories drink in the world. Among volume, the product was 2nd only next to Coca-Cola worldwide. Goizueta also
initiated the development of ‘New Coke’ in 1985. While the product tasted better, the public clearly had a deep emotional connect with the original. This is sometimes called as one of the biggest marketing blunders but Coca-Cola listened to its customers in time and switched back to the traditional formula. The 1990s saw the company promoting the brand more through sports channels like Olympic Games, FIFA, Rugby and NBA. The company went on further with product line diversification by introducing Powerade and Oasis, a sports and fruit drink respectively. The company also acquired major brands like Thums Up, Limca and Maaza. Other major acquisitions like Inca Kola in Peru and Barq’s root beer in the US helped the company establish presence in more than 120 countries.
The marketing strategy for the firm remained consistent during the 2000s and Coca-Cola has offered drinks for each lifestyle and occasions. The company has more than 160 low or no calorie drinks. Recently, the company is trying to make a shift to less sugary drinks keeping the changing consumer sentiment in mind. The company’s Live Positively campaign launched in 2009 emphasized on redesigning the way we work and live to create a positive living environment. The major commitments of the program were to build sustainable communities, reducing waste, recycling, reducing carbon emissions and supThe 1980s saw the rise of Roberto C Goizueta in the com- porting an active and healthy lifestyle. pany and he introduced the ‘intelligent risk taking’ strategy. Among his top moves were the organization of various So the next time you grab a bottle of coke, you would bottling operations into a new into Coca-Cola Enterprises, be able to relate much better to the aspects that make a new public company. He also introduced the Diet Coke, Coca-Cola, well, Coca-Cola.
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Facebook dark ads can swing opinions
1)
Psychographic profiling classifies people into personality types using data from social networks such as Facebook. Using publicly available data to ensure that the adverts were seen by the right people at the right time, Sumner tested how effective such targeting can be. Link: - https://goo.gl/b9rZUW
2)
Going for the silver in the grey
Have senior citizens moved on from being the target audience for just some categories – insurance and banking, for instance – to other sectors where they were not considered a market earlier? From props who provided advice and humour to protagonists? Link:-https://goo.gl/5dodXv
3)
Apple and Nike top the list of millenials favourite brands
Basically, a brand has to improve a millennials own brand, whether it’s making them appear to be socially responsible (think TOMS or Warby Parker), stylish-looking or even help them be funny, if they can share brand content with their networks. Link :- https://goo.gl/QXomPX
4)
What's the ROI of influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is seen as the perfect way to boost reach and relevance, but in the highly measurable world of digital, it often fails to offer the directly attributable ROI of programmatic or paid social Link :- https://goo.gl/L5dWGJ
5)
Life at Baba Ram
Reverence for the guru is just one facet of work life at Patanjali Ayurved. The other is the missionary zeal with which the company is run. More than the man at the helm of a nearly $4 billion commercial enterprise, Ramdev is a man on a swadeshi mission. And so more than a conservative corporate CEO, Ramdev sounds like a colourful crusader. Link :- https://goo.gl/XxC16R
By Aishwarya Tiwari| IIM Shillong
YouTube changes its iconic logo for the first time Making the first and biggest change ever in its logo, Google-owned YouTube takes the red “tube” out of its tube and shifted the emphasis on iconic play button, placing it before the name. The 2nd most popular app in the US is also making a number of changes to its typeface, colour scheme; thus changing the feel, look and functionality of the app. Terming these changes as “an evolution, not revolution”, Christopher Bettig, the head of YouTube’s art department, informed that YouTube is planning a basket of changes.
Maruti takes up rebranding to woo tech-savvy customers In an attempt to ride the wave of increasing influence of digital media in India, the country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki announced the rebranding of its retail network across India under its “Transformation 2.0 initiative . The company’s showrooms selling mass market models will now operate under Maruti Suzuki ARENA chain, which currently sells premium products under the Nexa retail chain. This exercise is in line with the company’s strategy to meet its goal of selling two million cars by 2020
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Google Unveils Android Oreo Mixing the “playfulness” of Oreo and the “intelligence” of Android, Google named Android 8.0 as Android Oreo. This name and the associated female superhero with this version were unveiled during the solar eclipse viewing event, an event that Oreo has used in the past for its campaign(2015 partial solar eclipse). The location, New York’s Chelsea Market, also held special significance since this was where the original Nabisco bakery, the first Oreo bakers, was present.
GST dents India Inc profits A report published by domestic rating Icra observed that the growth in aggregate revenues of 448 companies slowed down to 5.3 per cent over the preceding January-March period as against the 8.3 per cent growth witnessed for the quarter-ago period and 10.6 per cent in the year-ago period. This comes at a time when the industry was recovering from the impacts of demonetisation.
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digi-tally
august 2017
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Articles are invited
“Best Article”: Venkatesh KG | Tata Consultancy Services He 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 28th September, 2017. Please send your entries marked as <ARTICLE NAME>_<SENDERS’ NAME(S)>_<INSTITUTE> to markathon.iims@gmail.com.
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