The Christmas celebrations are still not over and we have reached to another festive day of the year that everybody has been waiting for. The misty blue sky and the warmth of the winter sun is adding to the festive mood. As this year ends, we hope that the New Year brings a lot of happiness and warmth in all your lives. This year has been high on energy with stories written all over about women empowerment, a change in the society, a broader perspective about life and much more. Carrying forward this idea, this month’s cover story brings to you a sarcastic depiction of how Indian weddings are, how weddings are used as a marketing tool to promote one’s family grandeur in the society and how businesses are raking all the moolahs creating perfect start-up ventures around the entire band, baajaa and baarat. We congratulate the winner of our column Perspective whose article ‘Unsaid Variables in Marketing of a Product’ got selected as the best article. Further, we have with us the President of Honeywell’s Aerospace India Mr. Arijit Ghosh, who speaks about the uncertainties in the aerospace industry and how to tackle it. In this edition of Brand Story, we bring to you the success story of Zara and how it is still recreating the brand with each passing day. The Radical Thoughts section ponders over how we can align a brand with social causes
and grow together with the society growing along. This month’s fun corner will take test of your marketing knowledge by quizzing you about the general marketing terms. Let’s see how well you know them. Lastly, we are extremely thankful to all our readers for the involvement throughout the year. You inspire us to continue to do what we love. So, thank you for being a part of Markathon and we hope you will continue to enjoy our magazine. Enjoy this New Year with your loved ones, and make sure to reflect on all the things that make you thankful. Happy New Year! Cheers, Team Markathon
The Markathon Team Editors
Harsha Daga | Piyush Jain | Daksh Bhagat | Sharad Srinivasan | Shubham Shukla
Creative Designers Astha Kabra | Akshay Seth
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Contents Perspectives Unsaid Variables in Marketing of a Product Pulkit Gupta | Welingkar Institute of Management
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Google Adwords: Product Listing Ads Charu Gupta | IIM Kozhikode
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SHAADI MUBARAK : Indian Weddings & Marketing Astha Kabra | IIM Shillong
Specials 20
AD-dicted Astha Kabra & Sharad Srnivasan | IIM Shillong
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Brand Story Daksh Bhagat | IIM Shillong
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Fun Corner Akshay Seth | IIM Shillong
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Radical Thoughts Shubham Shukla | IIM Shillong
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Updates Harsha Daga & Piyush Jain | IIM Shillong
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Vartalaap
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Mr. Arijit Ghosh President | Honeywell’s Aerospace India
Interviewed by Harsha Daga & Piyush Jain | IIM Shillong
Eye 2 Eye
Snapdeal bears brunt of Amir Khan’s statement : intolerant India or flipside of celebrity endorsement! Anil Kumar Diddy | IIM Ahmedabad & Anjali Gupta | Chandragupt Institute of Management, Patna
Silent Voice
Modi’s International Visits Creative Thinkers | Delhi School of Management
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perspective
Unsaid Variables in Marketing of a Product By PULKIT GUPTA welingkar institute of MANAGEMENT
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usiness either grow or fade away. Growth can be achieved by either consolidation, innovation or diversification. Forecasting a new product also has a problem, data available with the company is historical data which may create large amount of uncertainty. If a company build some innovative product, then without innovative marketing product might just lead to failure. Start-ups are making lot of noise these days in the market, but are all of them succeeding, answer is NO: may be the product is brilliant but the amount of awareness and marketing required is not significant. Example Firefox which just got vanished because of poor marketing, Firefox was much better than the other browsers in its time, but couldn’t survive as compared to Chrome which is popular among PC’s and mobiles because of its innovative marketing and promotion on google webpage.
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perspective Take Mobile Phone as a product for analysis.
These are some unsaid variables in the table used directly or indirectly for marketing of the product. User wants to pick not just a product but all of these things associated with the product which marketing or sales person has to understand and leverage on these parameters along with the quality of the product. Customers in 21st century is well informed and salesperson can’t guide him/her as he/she knows exactly the same what salesperson knows because of lot of content floating on internet. Apple was forced by Samsung to increase the size of its mobile to survive in the market that’s the unsaid variable (latent demand) which Samsung leveraged on. Before Designing any product if product management team focusses in brain storming session of finding as many unsaid variables then they could succeed in much better way and they could offer customers what they really want. Banking and NBFC’s products like Paytm, oxygen wallets etc., debit cards, credit cards, NEFT, RTGS are growing a lot in India. Is hard cash free to the government, answer is big NO, according to ‘Ajay Banga’ CEO of MasterCard, it takes around 0.5 to 1.5% of the GDP of the government to print it and to distribute it. US has the GDP of 16.7 trillion dollars and 1 % of 16.7 trillion dollars is lot of money which is wasted by government in printing and distribution. If government start pushing credit cards/ debit cards and paperless transaction imagine the amount of money government will be saving that can be used on other social issues. The biggest stakeholder in this case will be education, awareness, ability to use technology as a whole. Now in Indian context, Is Indian Government doing enough to promote paperless transaction, yes but certainly in a different way. Average age of Indian will be 29 years by 2020, Government is trying to promote Akash Tablet in children, saving account for all, and awareness about use of technology. To increase the PLC of the product, it’s not only the marketing of the product which will drive sales but also it’s the offering and marketing of the other variables associated with the product. Not every product of the company is meant
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for all the existing consumers. Instead of using customer spending matrix, if we use CLV (customer lifetime value) which indicates better response in generating profitability where we calculate NPV (Net present value) of the future profits because Customers who are spending more may not be most profitable customers and some customers who are giving average business might be more profitable customers. If we consider a Bank, bank offers multiple products like saving account, wallets, current account, mutual fund etc. Banks generally try to touch customers who gives more profit which holds true but there is certain percentage of customers which have potential to give more profit to bank but they are not touched by banks because they were not spending more. Majority of customers fall in medium CLV (customer lifetime value) value, which banks should take an advantage by offering bundled and customized products. Lot of Marketing Analytics using models like decision tree, regression, Logistic regression are being used to predict the requirement of user in time period ‘n’ and what type of product will be required by them in period ‘n+1’. Higher the accuracy of prediction, greater chance that person will stick to particular brand. Offering him before he himself ask for it will be an added advantage. Touch points among customers should be balanced out between customers who are frequently touched and who are rarely touched to generate more business to the company. Does always product is marketed, not always, consider construction industry, materials required in construction space will remain same most of the times i.e. cement, TMT bars, bricks etc. but techniques can be new and innovative and can be marketed very well or functionality to use the same old products which can save time and cost will give great impact to a business. Example Harpal Singh constructed 10-storey building in just 48 hours leveraging technology and using pre-fabricated material and including 200 tonnes of steel.
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perspective Omni-channel is the new buzz companies are making, prospective client. which is required to target same consumer in lot different way with increasing market place model. Products with similar specification are there from different brands with almost same price range example: 15 inch, i5 processor (5th gen), 4 GB RAM, 500 GB hard-disk—offered by Dell, HP, Lenovo by almost same price it gets difficult to select the model by customer, now consumer will choose a model which has a higher brand value in terms of their perception, and now companies have to think how to increase the brand equity or brand value or change the perception
If Skoda Try to position itself as luxury segment to all the target customers it will be generic, it might not attract in the way it can attract if we try to position to customers via direct marketing shown above. “India is the price sensitive market” this line looks good in broad terms still Indians buy Mercedes, JLR, and some people have the most expensive house in the world in India. Marketers shouldn’t define in terms of that, every product has its market, proper Market Research has to be deployed to identify proper target audience, better the market research higher the chances product will succeed in the market. Example is comparison of market research done by Hollywood movies and Bollywood movies. Most of the Bollywood movies are flopped because of nearly negligible market research done and on the same hand lot of money is invested for market research before producing any Hollywood movie. Lot of data which we call big data is available with the comof the customers. Because every channel will increase the cost of marketing budget, then Word of mouth will play an important role which immediately won’t change the perception but over a period give a big positive hit to the company. 78% of people trust consumer’s recommendation vs 14% of people trust ads according to Neilson advertising survey 2007, Companies should move on engaging directly with consumers i.e. direct marketing should be promoted apart from advertising, advertising should be done definitely to create awareness but tool like direct marketing must be promoted to give enriching experience to customers. Consumer spending on digital media content and technology in 2014 was 1 trillion dollars. Top 3 reasons was • Increase use of smart phones. • Increase in use of broadband Internet • Growing Middle Class in Emerging Market 94% of consumers reported online research to influence purchase decision (Source: AMP agency’s consumer shopping Survey ‘inside the Buy’ 2011). Direct marketing can communicate different product positioning to different
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perspective panies and now companies are leveraging on the data to analyse it and predict future sales, variables driving the sales and customer’s attributes in buying decision so com-
panies can target in proper way. Now if companies are charging ‘X’ dollar as the value of the product and ‘Y’ is the percentage gain of ‘X’, many-times y is kept 0% or very close to zero depending upon the objective of the campaign or company. Now is ‘Y’ 100% dependent on ‘X’ answer is No: it depends on unsaid variables associated with the product. Location based marketing is also gaining momentum for some products, social networks based on location are booming and marketers needs to work more to engage with customers especially with customers. CEO’s of the company ask the basic fundamental question to their managers If we launch the product what will be ROI and PLC of the product and what will be conversion rate. These problems can be solved today by Dynamic marketing where numbers are tracked on real time by the top management of the company i.e. conversion rate is tracked on real time basis and it
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can impact balance sheet in most positive way. Question arises is weather marketing is Important or Product Quality. Well both are interdependent on each other. Apple seeks higher product quality and is the most profitable company in the industry, it doesn’t have to invest much on advertising now because of its strong brand equity. But with increasing number of suppliers and companies branding takes lot of weightage and using customer experience of the product to create an ex-
perience based brand. At the end costumers are getting benefited, weather take Ecommerce companies, sales of Chroma and Vijay sales and other Brick and Mortar electronics shop’ sales are hit significantly, monopoly is getting reduced and customers are getting exposed to the same product via different channel. Bargaining power is coming in hands of customers and customers are now well informed. With increase of wearable devices more data will be available to the company. Say you purchase product ‘a’ in January, product ‘b’ in February, product ‘c’ in March, and product ‘d’ in April, companies can predict what will your next product and when you will be purchasing. Everything is exposed to them, that means latent needs are observed by companies and at the end customers are getting benefited.
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perspective
Google AdWords: Product Listing Ads By CHARU GUPTA | IIM KOZHIKODE
uses personal details when it matches “ Google a user’s search to the advertiser’s ads,
“
Google AdWords is a platform for businesses to advertise on Google and Google Partner websites. It caters to all businesses in all parts of the world that seek to expand their business by exploiting the power of the Internet. Via the Internet, businesses can: 1. Reach out to a much larger chunk of the population as compared to any other media of communication 2. Receive adequate feedback from customers that can thereby be used to improve their offerings 3. Come up with innovative schemes, contests etc. to spread awareness and get people talking about the brand and the products 4. Keep an eye on what competition is doing and the pulse among the customers with respect to the brand and its competitors 5. Keep in touch with brand followers in real time Google AdWords Text Ads is the most commonly used and popular category within Google AdWords. They are
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roughly 8-11 in number per search page, and are located above, to the right and to the bottom of the organic search engine results. Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs) are another category within Google AdWords. They include richer product information, such as product image, price, and merchant name, without requiring additional keywords or ad text from the advertiser. It allows users to search for products on online shopping websites and compare prices between different vendors, without actually having to visit these sites. Therefore, it is much easier for the user to compare product offerings, including price, across a number of ecommerce websites, as all the data is available at the same place. A fundamental difference between the functioning of PLAs and Text Ads is that unlike the latter, the former does not rely on keywords. Instead, it uses Product Data as stored in the Merchant Account by the advertiser. The product data submitted by the advertiser through
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perspective
Value Proposition The value proposition for Google AdWords is: Google AdWords is a performance-based advertising program that enables businesses large and small to advertise on Google and its network of partner websites. The value proposition for Google PLAs is: They’re more than a text ad – they show users a photo of your product, plus a title, price, shop name and more. These ads give users a strong sense of the product that you’re selling before they click the ad, which gives you more qualified leads. The difference for the advertiser with respect to the additional value provided is clearly evident. With Google PLAs, the additional features add considerable value to the ad posted by the advertiser. How Google Ads work? Google AdWords displays ads based on the search terms entered by the user. This helps ensure that the ads displayed are relevant to the end users of Google’s platforms. A user of Google is said to convert into a customer of a client of Google as per the criteria specified by the client itself. Google PLAs are displayed when a product that is sold online in searched by the user. The user can subsequently see ads from various advertisers, along with certain details like price. This makes it easier for the user to compare products from multiple advertisers at the same time.
Merchant Center contains details about the products she sells. Google uses these details when it matches a user’s search to the advertiser’s ads, making sure that the most relevant products are displayed to the user, thereby drastically increasing chances of conversion. Google PLAs look like the photo above Benefits of Google PLAs over Google AdWords Text Ads • More traffic: Many businesses experience significantly higher click-through rates (CTR) with PLAs compared to text ads shown in the same location for shopping-related searches. In some cases, advertisers have experienced double or triple standard click-through rates. • Better qualified leads: As a merchant, the advertiser can increase the quality of her leads by featuring product information directly in her ads to help shoppers make informed purchase decisions. This makes shoppers more likely to complete a purchase on her website. • Easy retail-centric campaign management: Instead of keywords, Product Listing Ads use the product attributes you defined in your Merchant Center data feed to show your ads on relevant searches. Browse your product inventory directly in AdWords and create product groups for the items that you want to bid on. • Broader presence: More than one of the advertisers PLAs can appear for a given user search and, if relevant, a PLA and a text ad can also appear at the same time. This means that the advertiser’s reach with shoppers for a single search could double. • Powerful reporting and competitive data: Advertisers can see how their products are performing at any level of granularity they want. For example, they can see how many clicks a particular brand of shoes got just by filtering their products view – no new product groups are needed. Benchmarking data can be used to get insights into competitive landscape. Growth opportunities can be identified with impression share data and the Bid Simulator tool.
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Competition The biggest source of competition for Google AdWords is the presence of alternate media that display ads that are much more customised to the end users as compared to Google AdWords. Since Google has almost 70% market share globally in the search engine domain, it is a market leader and does not face competition from other search engines and portals like Yahoo! and MSN. The two platforms that have the power to threaten Google’s dominance in the online ad space in the coming future are: 1. Social media like Facebook and Twitter 2. Ecommerce giants like Amazon and eBay This is so because these platforms have ample data regarding the end users and their preferences, choices, likes, dislikes, habits etc. This user specific data can be exploited to display ads to them that are specific to them and are customised to their personalities and behaviours. Hence, the likelihood of converting such users into customers of clients of these platforms is much higher as compared to Google. Google PLAs make it easier to combat the rising threat from social media and ecommerce companies, since Google can address issues related to users visiting ecommerce websites directly instead of using Google to search. Also, since the PLAs displayed are related to user’s search terms in real time, the relevance of the ads to the user
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perspective is much higher. This helps in ensuring that users see ads customised to their requirements and preferences in real time, thereby increasing the chances of conversion for the advertisers. Some of the PLAs as displayed on Facebook are:
lowers. Real time feedback can be obtained and actions and initiatives can be undertaken. In the recent past, HCL used the Twitter platform for recruitment. It posted questions and candidates replied using its Twitter handle. Candidates were then shortlisted and the process was carried on.
Apart from PLAs, businesses can also advertise via their Facebook Pages, as below.
On the other hand, ads displayed on ecommerce websites are completely in reference to the search performed by the user on the ecommerce website, in real time. Following are some of the ads on Amazon. The following snapshot shows ads that are displayed to the user about what other users who performed the same search did on Amazon. This is related to the product in question.
Some of the additional advantages that Facebook PLAs & Pages have over all formats of Google ads are as follows: • Reach to a huge number of interested users, ensuring greater chances of converting them into the businesses’ customers • Posts are highly customised to what the users want • Businesses can keep a constant tab on the pulse of the customer(s). This can help them to come up with new promotional campaigns or to address rising and viral issues. • Businesses can get immediate feedback about their initiatives, actions, products, services etc., in real time Twitter is also expanding rapidly in the online advertising domain. Businesses can tweet to reach out to their fol-
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The following snapshot shows ads of products related to the product that the user has searched. Since the
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perspective products displayed are highly relevant to the user, the chances of conversion are much higher.
ternet, though it is increasing rapidly • Increasing penetration of small screen devices, like smartphones and tablets. This limits the number of ads that can be displayed upon each search, thereby limiting revenues for both Google and its clients • Increasing penetration of social media platforms and e-commerce websites • Changing behavior of Google’s end users with respect to the searches performed. For example, users may look for an ecommerce site in specific, like Amazon, instead of a product sold on it • Google PLAs can lead to cannibalization of Google AdWords Text Ads as both ads are displayed side by side. Advertisers would focus solely on their own conversions and would dedicate a fixed amount of budget to their Google AdWords account, without dividing their focus onto PLAs and Text Ads. This may imply that Google would receive revenue from PLAs at the cost of Text
The following snapshot shows ads displayed from other ecommerce websites.
Some of the advantages that PLAs on ecommerce websites as compared to Google PLAs are: • Chances of sales of associated products or competing products increases thereby increasing the chances of higher revenues • Users can conveniently check reviews, ratings and feedback from other customers who bought the product. This can greatly help the user to make her final decision regarding the purchase of the product • Product bundling is possible, therefore increasing the chances of higher revenues for the advertisers • Product specifications are provided in greater detail The user can perform other actions related to the purchase funnel, e.g., the user can save the product for later, or add it to her list of desired products. These actions increase the chance of future conversions. Customer value Google’s clients realise revenue once a conversion has been made. For example, customers can subscribe, buy their offerings etc. The costs realised are the bids placed for displaying the ads. The clients have to bid in realtime a user carries out a search on Google and Google Partner websites. The actual bid amount paid is that required to be just above the next player in the auction. So, the actual cost incurred with respect to the bid is lesser than what the bid was on the ad. There are various costing strategies employed, like cost-per-click and costper-1000 impressions. All clients are provided with a free tool, Google Analytics. Clients can use this tool to assess the performance of their ads and compare with competitors. Clients even receive customised suggestions.
Ads, which have, till date, been the primary and largest source of revenue for Google. Opportunities for growth • Regions across the world seeing rising Internet penetration and improving infrastructure to support Internet • Customization of ads displayed to the users of Google’s platforms, for example, by using cookies, Google+ profiles etc. • Expanding Google PLAs to more countries; it is currently available in 23 countries • To limit cannibalization of Google AdWords Text Ads by Google PLAs, Google can change the costing strategy for the ads. Or, it may have a policy of limiting the Text Ads that can be displayed when PLAs are being displayed, or vice versa. • Advertising on competitors’ websites. Though this may not help in expanding market share in the online advertising domain, it can lead to increased revenues for both Google and its advertisers, thereby ensuring that Google does not lose its existing share of advertisers.
Challenges • Reaching out to and convincing businesses to advertise on Google. Small businesses in particular, have huge future scope due to their large numbers. • Educating clients about the usage of their services, like the various reports, to their advantage • Poor infrastructure and limited penetration of the In-
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Cover Story
By
Astha Kabra
SHAADI MUBARAK:
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Indian Weddings & Marketing W
ith the ongoing wedding season one can’t help but notice that the Indian wedding industry huge. All of us have attended a big fat Indian wedding. We have all experienced the glam and the sparkles at these weddings. What if you were to find out that in the end, an arranged marriage is nothing but a marketing process! Yes, it is as crazy as it sounds but also true. Let us look at a typical arranged marriage from a boy’s perspective and see how it is in the end the marketing concept of consumer decision making process. Here the boy and his family is his customer. The girl is the product which the boy seeks to purchase. Step 1. Need Recognition: The boy and his family realise that the boy is of an agreeable age and should be married to a girl from a decent household. The boy has emotional, functional and physical needs that the girl will fulfil. There is also pressure from the household to get married (Latent Demand). Step 2. Information Search: After the need for marriage has been recognised, the family begins looking for the perfect girl. Generally suggestions are received from relatives and neighbours about the most suitable girl for the guy. (Internal Environment Analysis). The family also looks for various options in newspapers, on matrimonial sites and other such sources. (External environment analysis). This in marketing terms is quite similar to a market survey by a customer in search of the right product. Step 3: Evaluation of Alternatives: The boy’s family decides to personally meet up with a few girls’ and their families in order to make the best decision. The boy’s family is given a grand welcome by the girl’s family in order to make them happy. (Customer is the King). During this meeting, the girl is well
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groomed and looks extremely stunning in order to make a lasting impression on the boy. (Product Packaging). After this, the families get talking and the girl’s family try to woo the boy’s family by throwing light on the qualities and achievements of the girl. (Brand Offering). They try to showcase how the girl’s qualities will be a perfect match for the needs of the guy. (Value Proposition). The girl and the guy then meet up alone, away from the relatives, in order to understand each other better, so that they don’t regret it after marriage. (Cognitive Dissonance). After evaluating all the alternatives in the similar manner, finally the boy’s family decides upon the girl that the boy will marry. (Purchase decision making). The girl that best fits the needs of the family and boy is chosen as ‘the one’. (Customer Value Satisfaction). Step 4. Purchase: After all this, we come to the actual wedding where finally the boy and girl get married. (Customer turns into consumer). Yes, this is what most of us see, the big fat Indian wedding.
Step 5. Post Purchase Evaluation: The girl and the boy live a life together, rejoicing in the decision that they made after so much deliberation. Well, mostly rejoicing, as much as one can in a marriage. Even in the wedding, other families get influenced and feel the need to get their children married off too. (Domino effect). And the entire cycle repeats, only for different products and different customers.
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Having seen how weddings are the perfect case study for marketing, let us now look at the Indian wedding market in detail! We still live by the good old times! Even today Indian weddings are about more than just the nuptials of a bride and a groom. In India, since the times of Maharajas, weddings have rarely been about just a girl marrying another guy. Weddings then were about one kingdom getting married to another kingdom. Today, it is one family getting married to another family. And the recent trend of grand palatial weddings is a living embodiment of the fact that we are not ready to let go the good old wedding style out of fashion yet! So even though the golden age of kings and maharajas has ended, the tradition of opulent weddings continues to this day. Designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee, one of the prominent and most sought after designers in the Indian wedding market, very aptly explains how this constant struggle for class works. “There is royalty. Then there is old money. Then
there is new money trying to look like old money. Then there is new money. Then there is new, new money, and very, very new money. Then there is upper middle class, and middle class. And everybody wants to move upwards.” With each passing decade the Indian weddings are getting grandeur. However, no one’s complaining; at least not the retailers and associated players!
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cover story Who said only one wins the race? Be it entertainment, beauty clinics, cosmetic giants, interior decorators, or a matrimonial website, everyone gains from the booming wedding market. Inspired by this, a lot of foreigners solemnise their weddings in India, only adding to the grandeur and the scale of this industry. Think only e-commerce websites are making money by the hour today? Various online portals like Shaadi. com, ShaadiSaga.com, We d d i n g S u t ra . c o m garner close to 250 crores each year from match making. With the belief that this business is only going to get bigger and better, various start-ups in on similar lines are coming up. Start-ups like iitiimatrimony.com and iitiimshaadi. com have found a way to make a way straight into the hearts of Indian parents and have created a niche for themselves in the market. If these online websites are booming, the event managers, fashion designers florists, confectionery makers are not very far behind. Palace look a likes and replicas of famous temples of India are a very common demand as dĂŠcor. Destination weddings and expensive dĂŠcor is the way to go today. Add to this the demand for exotic food items for different functions. Cuisines like Continental, Lebanese, Italian or Mexican are in huge demand today. Small things matter the most! The smaller associates of a wedding are also booming because of the wedding market. Take for example the wedding card market in India. From 10 million weddings performed annually in the country, they rake up close to 10,000 crores. Gone are the days when wedding invite was a simple declaration of a marriage between two people. Wedding invites today are more of a style statement. An elaborate
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december 2015 wedding card comes with the main card and around four add ons like the reception, engagement, mehendi and sangeet functions invite. Last, but definitely not the least, the wedding apparel industry is on a huge rise. With people becoming more and more style conscious and wanting to don the trending clothes, it is impossible for this industry to not spread its wings. Indian weddings are incomplete without the dhols, bands, baggies with horses, elephants and camels, elegant lightings and beautiful flowers. Estimated at around Rs 5000 crores annually, this segment of the Indian wedding is in itself a booming industry. Wedding Start-ups to watch out for! Did you think that after all these numbers, the Indian wedding market was saturated and had no place for any innovation? Well these start-ups surely disagree and are all set to bring about creative disruption in the wedding industry! 1. Marrily Marrily was founded in August 2015 by Sourabh Varma, Ajay Pandey, Harsh Vardhan, all alumni from IIT Kanpur. Marrily is a Mumbai based matchmaking start up that believes in first connecting, then committing. This mobile only app uses Facebook for registration. In order to ensure that only genuine users sign up the app also requires a selfie for verification at the time of registration. Having experienced the pain, frustration and awkwardness of the process of getting married, Sourabh, one of the co-founders at Marrily found the gap in the market and decided to make life better for others facing similar problems. By using an algorithm to suggest matches,
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Marrily connects mutually interested people over inapp chat. Only after both of them discover mutual compatibility and are sure of taking it ahead, Marrily notifies family members about the same. With the freemium model, free for basic functions and paid premium versions, the app has built a base of 500 users and about 15% users visit the app on a daily basis. The ability of a person to accept or reject other profile without any notification is the USP of Marrilly. While the Android version is available for free, the iOS version is under development. 2. WeddingPlz A wedding search portal, WeddingPlz is a start-up that helps people plan their weddings, right from idea to execution. WeddingPlz helps in finding every wedding product and service such as parlour services, music and band services, floral decoration, catering, jeweller and thousand other small things that are a must for a grand wedding. With listing and detailed infor-
mation of more than 37,500 vendors across 41 categories, WeddingPlz has spread its wings in Mumbai, Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Bangalore within two years of incubation. Apart from regular features of a search portal, other features of WeddingPlz include various planning tools such as guest list, e-invites, budget, wedding checklist etc. WeddingPlz’s USP lies in its offering of a wedding website for their to-be-married couples, where in users can create and share personal wedding website free of cost. With the launch of mobile app by the end of 2014, the start-up is growing strong and steady. WeddingPlz
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plans to come up with its own wedding directory of wedding vendors. As far as expansion plans are considered, WeddingPlz aims to gain string presence in more than 16 cities by the end of 2016. With about 100+ paying customers in its early revenue stage, WeddingPlz has generated 40000+ leads till date and has over 3 lakhs visits each month. 3. Marry In a Week As innovative as their name, MarryinaWeek is a matrimony portal which features, in rotation, every profile that is listed on the platform for a week. This cycle repeats itself every month. Thus, unlike other matrimonial websites, each featured profile becomes visible to all potential matches and generates interest in each registered user profile. Each time an interest is generated, it expires in 7 days. Thus the user who has received interest, must accept or reject the interest before expiry. This makes this process as efficient as it can be. Also it increases the visibility and interests per registered profile. Launched in April 2015, the start-up raised around Rs. 1.5 crore as seed funding and has received 8000 organic downloads so far. The start up has recently acquired Parikshalabs which will be launched soon. Also its marketplace app, a one stop wedding search portal, will be launched soon. Thus we can see that the wedding market in India is in nowhere near saturation. The wedding market in India is expected to double in the next few years. This points towards only one thing that is Indian weddings and the associated industries are bound to prosper! All we as marketers can do is surf the wave and successfully showcase our skills at this true marketing platform. After all, all the world’s a wedding stage, well sort of!
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december 2015
VARTALAAP An Interview with Mr. Arijit Ghosh Mr. Arijit Ghosh, President-Honeywell’s Aerospace India, is responsible for providing strategic direction for aerospace operations, prior to which he led Honeywell’s Defence and Space efforts. Previously, Mr. Ghosh worked at McKinsey & Co. and with the Indian Foreign Services. He also led Shanghai-India Business Association and Japan-India Friendship Association. Mr. Ghosh earned a Bachelor’s of Engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and a Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard University, USA.
President
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Honeywell’s Aerospace, India
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vartalaap
december 2015
There is a lot of scope for innovation and creativity depending upon how how you define these terms. Innovation and creativity that is there in the consumer marketing does not have that much relevance in B2B marketing. However, principles everywhere remain the same. There are certain established ways of selling, certain established ways of marketing a product. Can you go out of the box? Can you think of certain different means of marketing and selling which will ultimately result into a positive impact on your topline and bottomline. For example, as you mentioned direct selling, so is there a scope for using distributors in the chain? So then it no more remains a direct marketing, it becomes an indirect channel. Maybe some people are able to segment the people and their customers in a certain way that in certain
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gears and one person may spend the whole lifetime in understanding the high pressure stage of a gas turbine so in that case how do you structure your sales force and how do you incentivise them become important because different sales persons are going to sell different things to the same customer then you will say it is sub-optimal. It makes sense to have one sales person or one key account manager who looks after one customer. That is what is done in most of the businesses, but here we cannot do that because the key account manager might be selling engine but have no clue about the landing gears. So how do you plan that? There are different ways and means and different compromises that you have to strike which also calls for innovation and out of the box thinking. So it all depends on how you are looking at it. Markathon: So maybe some things which are very normal for other businesses might turn out to be a great innovation in this segment because the business is such.
There are some companies in aerospace who don’t spend a single dollar on advertising.
areas that the distributor is selling more and at a lower cost than what they would have done directly. So that is an innovation. That is a creative development. Similarly you can also think of how can you incentivise your sales force. As typically it is a complex business with complex products, where one person cannot understand all the products. You are selling aircraft engines, avionics, you are also selling landing
Yes. And then there are things which is very normal for other businesses will be comletely inapplicable to us. For instance there are some companies in aerospace who don’t spend a single dollar on advertising. They believe it’s not necessary. The stuff that they make have only three customers to tap. Boeing, Airbus and Embraer so there is no need of advertising for that.
“There is a lot of
scope for innovation and creativity depending upon how how you define these terms.” MARKATHON
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Markathon: What we understand of the aerospace business is that it is purely direct marketing to the clients and it’s a B2B selling, so what according to you is the scope for creativity and innovation in this segment?
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vartalaap
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Markathon: Coming to your profile where you worked as a consultant where you specialized in B2B marketing, how was your experience being on the other side of the table? And also how was the journey while you were spanning through various industries and finally came to settle in something as niche as aerospace?
dently without this B2B bells and whistles which have different processes.
Markathon: We were also wondering how digital marketing is used in this sector, as Digital marketing is booming these days. We see many companies use social media and other online platforms to reach out to larger customers so how does a company use this There is a fundamental difference in the way your is the aerospace industry? assignments are structured in a consulting and in an operating business. In operating, the buck stops with There are certain things we can do to use this boom to you. You not only have to devise a plan or a strategy our own advantage by firstly reaching out to your own but also have to implement it on a real time. That is employees to develop a certain philosophy or culture a bigger challenge than the strategising piece as strategizing takes relatively less time but requires intense brain power whereas the execution bit takes longer and takes perseverance. So those are two different application of your brain and energy what you aim to achieve is a short burst of intellectual horsepower as well as your long term ability to persevere, stay focused on some things. Discipline in execution is the key. It is very important. Consultants put focus on the for- that you want inculcated in them. Social networking mer hence you devise of a strategy but then you are sites are very helpful is these cases. Beyond that in not implementing as it is somebody else’s and if he our B2B industry it can solve purposes such as influmesses up, it is he who messed up. So you will not be ence public opinion about certain specific features held accountable for anything that you have for that. and aspects of our business, like talking about something that happened in India, a couple of high profile Markathon: Also sir having talked about B2B and helicopters crashed over the last few years which hapB2C, Honeywell offers a wide variety for both the pened because they lacked a system called the ground private consumer and also to major corporations. proximity warning system. What it does is it informs How does Honeywell handle that and how is B2B the pilot if there is a rock nearby in the proximity of different from B2C? the helicopter or a kind of concrete structure that will interrupt the movement of the helicopter blade. It See Honeywell is different for different people we could be avoided. Both the cases the pilot did not see have many business groups. So there are products in or did not apprehend the distance with the concrete/ automation like air purifier that are B2C which we are rock properly and so it crashed. So when it comes to selling through Amazon and Flipkart and aerospace Digital Marketing, it could be used to make people in completely B2B except a few like private jet own- aware about such equipment’s, can also be used for ers and private aircraft airplane owners. . Their buy- redressal purposes. There are things available that ing behaviour is governed by consumer like behav- can counter these things that could have told someiour. So we have a separate division for that because body in the government to make these things or inthat market is completely different as it’s mainly in stall such equipment’s in the helicopters to avoid such US. It’s fairly common there to have an airplane or a accidents. This would have helped the pilot, passenfractional ownership of an airplane. They think dif- gers and the supplier which is us in this case. So digiferently. The purchase or the ticket size of which are tal marketing will not be useful as such to tell Boeing as small as 800-1000$ ticket price. For them we have as to what to make or about the engine. So directly a separate organization and approach this indepen- one cannot sell to its customers but can educate and
important
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in execution “Discipline is the key. It is very
IIM Shillong
make people and its consumers aware which will indirectly affect them.
they have a big lead time. Aircrafts get delivered over a certain period of time. So after getting the order one would know how many aircrafts to deliver within Markathon: We spoke about how we can use so- the next 2 years because once you have taken a cercial networking to reach to our employees and cus- tain amount of order you cannot take any more for tomers. As a company we know Honeywell ensures the next year so you have accurate information rethat it keeps in mind both the pilots and passengers garding the next 1-2 years. For 10 year also we can while making its product, like the proximity system, predict somewhat. The main issue is between 2-10 etc. So how difficult is it to market the product and years. cater to both the customers at once? Markathon: As you said that there are various nuSome things are important to all like safety and being ances that needs to be thought about and be taken reliable, i.e., being on time is important to passen- care of, so what kind of research and analysis goes gers, as if you are in on time then more passengers on in Honeywell for the same? will come to your airlines if they are happy. Like fuel consumption is more important to the airline and not We have got very good analysts that constantly at all important to the passengers as it might help the monitor and analyse different data like the airlines company reduce costs but indirectly might reduce plans, order book data, the aircraft OEM service and
In the global scenario, it is difficult to anticipate year on year demand especially in the short run. As the global situation varies and so does the market in India. the flight charges but not directly. As it has to be fuel efficient and then only airlines will buy your aircraft. Different customers have diff needs and so you need to keep in mind all those different needs and try to satisfy all and keep all happy. Markathon: We were going through a report by Deloitte, where we saw that the number of orders vary from year to year, though they are increasing. So as a strategist and a marketeer how do you anticipate the demand and understand the market? In the global scenario, it is difficult to anticipate year on year demand especially in the short run. As the global situation varies and so does the market in India. In the long run with quite decent accuracy we can predict the demand for the next 5-10 years. A mean can be estimated with reasonable accuracy but that is also depended on various aspects which gives the company very less lead time to play. May be for business jets it is possible but not for passenger jets. Airline customers have to go and book aircrafts and
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also how the data are trending in global and regional markets. The passenger growth is robust now which is around 20% per year so they analyse what will be the growth next year and commensurate to that the demand for aircraft. On the basis on 1.5 GDP growth we generally deduce the passenger growth in the Indian Market. Over the long term we can deduce GDP growth. That will enable us to understand how many aircrafts would be needed. Some big consulting companies who have hundreds of analysists do such research and analysis like centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation. We do it for business jets primarily for the global market. Sometimes they are pretty accurate and sometimes there will be some discrepancy. Markathon: Commercial side of aerospace vs the defence side. Do we have collaboration with the Indian government here and how do you see it shaping in the near future? The Defence sector follow a very structured process and pattern. Airforce navy, army have certain re-
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vartalaap
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quirement. First they start with a 20 year plan which is not made public and then they make a 5 year plan which is made public from which we know what the armed forces are looking at. They are looking for a certain type of aircraft not of a certain make but like a specific combat aircraft. Then you will know who the potential contender’s for it are. So they do not actually collaborate as such with any private sector companies to supply their demand profile. They are deliberated in the parliament and cabinet often and so they become available in the market and then based on that it can have its own forecast of what
operation and become supplier for that place, these things help a company overcome the initial two years of hardship that one would have to face if they enter it directly as these 2 years are the most difficult times. Once they have spent 5-6 years in China then they know how to get information. Some companies have done it differently but their number are very few. What they have done is they have either found a Chinese partner bought their firm or have got bought themselves. Markathon: As we know you have been through an MBA yourself so what advice would you like to give
See Marketing comes in different flavours some like consumer behaviour, digital marketing, brand management, etc. and some get into B2B marketing is required but the forecast are of very poor quality cause at the end in the government the time element is very unpredictable and stretchable and therefore while we can have a broad idea of what they need and they might procure we cannot actually forecast it very well and the accuracy will be low. Markathon: You have helped Indian companies enter the Chinese market, what do you think from the perspective of a marketeer how is it different in India and China cause as India and China both are developing nations, growing and also the service and manufacturing sectors are booming here so sir what is your take on this?
to all the readers who have an inclination towards marketing? See Marketing comes in different flavours some like consumer behaviour, digital marketing, brand management, etc. and some get into B2B marketing so people who have a flair for brand management, consumer behaviour should focus on that in particular but for people who are interested in not so glamorous part, the best way to get into a marketing firm is through a consulting company. From that you can get into a strategic marketing role. That has worked for me and I have seen that has worked for many people. You have to target the right company also.
I was working for the Indian companies in China. The Chinese market is a closed market by design as language and information is a barrier there so Indian companies face a lot of Non-Tariff barriers and I am sure they still face the same to enter the Chinese market. So the best way to approach the Chinese market therefore is to approach it head on. Send your people there (this is what most of the successful companies did to enter the market) and chose one the two options A) take their local company, like Ranbaxy purchased a local company or b) if you are a supplier to an MNC then tag along with them, go to their Chinese
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Interviwed by: Harsha Daga & Piyush Jain IIM Shillong IIM Shillong
eye2eye
december 2015
Snapdeal bears brunt of Amir Khan’s statement: intolerant India or flipside of celebrity endorsement?
ANJALI SHARMA CHANDRAGUPT INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, Patna
ANIL KUMAR DIDDY IIM AHMEDABAD Amir Khan is well-known for taking a stance. In India, most of the celebrities would refrain from making public statements about issues concerning the society. We must admire Amir for his brave acts of putting across his opinion. Recently, Amir expressed his fear of the happening adversities in India. He played the role of an average citizen telling how they would react to such news. However, netizens started to protest by degrading or uninstalling the Snapdeal app. This behavior indeed solidifies his argument of growing intolerance in India. If you protest against a person who calls you intolerant, doesn’t it prove the former’s point? In fact, this is disagreement, not intolerance. It’s the social media that has made easier for us to express our opinions. If a protestor believes that Amir’s statements to be detrimental to the society, they should act in a way that changes the world to a better place to live. Portraying their disagreement by uninstalling an app and doing nothing else would only lead to people staying reticent or talking only about good things. It is not desirable as it would not encourage the country to identify the important issues to resolve them. On the other side, customers portray their adulation by using the brands endorsed by their celebrities. It develops a sense of attachment to the celebrity and the brand. It brings in customer loyalty to the brands too. However, sometimes when ‘The Idol’ remarks in an unexpected way, the customers tend to abandon the brand and the celebrity too. Thus, celebrity endorsement is a doubleedged sword. However, the #AppWapsi campaign has worked well in favor of Snapdeal. News reported that the Snapdeal’s rank on Google’s Playstore had improved a few days after the campaign. It is a blessing in disguise for Snapdeal.
Snapdeal has been a major E-commerce player in India. In recent times, the company is facing a major turbulence after its Brand ambassador Amir khan who was signed for a whooping amount of Rs. 15 crore, made a statement about rising intolerance in the country. Twitter is flooded with #Appwapsi campaign and people are uninstalling the Snapdeal app and downgrading Snapdeal’s app on the Google play store. The entire episode raises the very apt point, whether Snapdeal is facing the adverse effect of the celebrity endorsement. The Celebrity endorsement is a double edge sword. Shimp (2000) said that there are four critical factors affecting celebrity endorsement namely the credibility of the celebrity (the credibility is a function of expertise and trustworthiness), Celebrity and audience match up, Celebrity and Brand match up and celebrity attractiveness. The most famous example has been the Cadbury case where Amitabh Bachchan (Famous Bollywood actor) helped the Cadbury brand in getting over the Worm episode. But sometimes the story can be very different when a strong brand gets affected because of the negative image of the celebrity or some controversy surrounding the celebrity. Whenever the celebrity gets surrounded by some negative sentiments (Just as Amir khan found himself at the centre of intolerant debate) the trustworthiness of the celebrity takes a back seat and that loss of trustworthiness gets replicated in the loss of trustworthiness for that specific brand which the celebrity is endorsing, as the target audience more often than not thinks of the celebrity as a corporate image and symbol of the specific brand. In this case the entire incident has led to loss of emotional connect between the Snapdeal and its target customer base which is clearly depicted from the tweets and facebook posts of the people
Topic for the next issue: “Is Free Basics a violation to Net Neutrality?” Your opinion (view/counterview) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is 10th January, 2016. Include your picture (JPEG format) with the entry. Winners will receive a prize money of Rs. 500 each!
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silent voice
december 2015 2013
Last Month’s Results WINNER CREATIVE THINKERS || DELHI SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
honorary mention SHASHANK RAWAT | WELINGKAR, MUMBAI
THEME FOR NEXT SILENT VOICE: Delhi’s ODD EVEN car driving rule LAST DATE OF SENDING THE PRINT AD: 10th Janary 2016 EMAIL ID: markathon.iims@gmail.com Send your entry in JPEG format named as SilentVoice_<Your Name>_<Institute>only.
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Theme: Modi’s International Visits
Congratulations!!! Vivek receives a cash prize of Rs 1000!
AD-dicted AD-dicted
december december 2013 2015
By Astha Kabra By Sharad Srinivasan IIM Shillong IIM Shillong PRODUCT: Barbie: Imagine the Possibilities PRODUCT: Indian Terrain: Where I Belong
POSITIONING: When a girl plays with Barbie, she imagines everything she can become CREATIVE AGECY: BBDO, San Francisco
CATCH
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CREATIVE AGENCY: Unknown
YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=l1vnsqbnAkk CONCEPT: This digital only debut by Mattel Barbie has surely grabbed a lot of social media attention. The two minute advertisement quite brilliantly captures, through hidden cameras, five girls pretending to be professionals in real life environments. Where one girl is a college professor, teaching a group of students about the brain, another girl is a soccer coach instructing her confused team of male athletes to kick those “knees up like a unicorn!” Others include girls enacting the jobs of tour guides, veterinarians and corporate business women. All of this was done to unsuspecting real-life audience, which was definitely pleasantly surprising for everyone. VERDICT: Catch Markathon believes that, considering the scrutiny that Mattel has been going through because of Barbie, the commercial is a welcoming change to turn the company around. The women empowering advertisement with contagious optimism very aptly conveys the idea of ‘imagining the possibilities’ and at the same time creates an emotional bond about the importance of Barbie in a girl’s life. All in all, with 16 million YouTube views in two months, the advertisement will definitely have a positive impact for the brand. Because who wouldn’t want to take a life lesson from a little girl?.
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POSITIONING: When a person dons Indian Terrain clothing, he experiences a sense of belongingness which only his home can provide him with.
YouTube Link:: https://www.youtube.com/watc h?v=KRgLI8GV6Vc
MISS
CONCEPT: The setup of the advertisement is in a classy, upscale home in which a man is walking and thinking to himself. He is projected as a successful, self-made man who has travelled the world and gained significant wealth. But during the course of his career, the experiences he has had have led him to develop a new perspective on life. He looks at all his belongings and thinks back on all that he has achieved. He longs for a sense of belonging which none of his successes have been able to give him. The advertisement ends with the man putting on Indian Terrain clothing and realizing that what he really wants is to go back home, and the Brand Name – Indian Terrain flashes on the screen. VERDICT: Miss Markathon believes that the advertisement fails to connect the idea trying to be conveyed with the product offering of Indian Terrain. For a first time viewer, it would be difficult to imagine what exactly Indian Terrain is trying to sell. Also, although the idea by itself is powerful, the flow of the advertisement is not catchy enough to keep a first time user hooked on to it. All in all, the advertisement fails focus on the basics i.e. product description/details and viewer engagement, making it an easy to forget ad.
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brand story
december 2015
Brand Story DAKSH BHAGAT | IIM Shillong
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magine yourself in an apparel store with an entirely new collection, matching the latest fashion trends and completely different from what was on the racks when you visited the store two weeks back! Seems possible in a utopian world? Zara has turned it into a reality. It comes as no surprise that Zara has become the world’s largest retailer and its founder, Amancio Ortega, has become the 4th richest man in the world. The brand started off as a small dressmaking factory in Spain in the year 1963. 10 years later, Ortega opened a small store named as Zorba in La Coruna, Spain with a budget of a just 30 Euros. The store was later named – “Zara”. By 1989, more than one hundred Zara outlets had opened up in Spain, all of which became renowned for the choice of their location. When Zara entered the midrange clothing market, the market was already dominated by players such as Corte Inglés and Cortefiel. In this scenario, Zara’s positioning of quality with affordability worked well, as neither of the two existing players appealed to youthful fashion sense. The company’s first annual report, which was produced in 1999, outlined Ortega’s goal, stating, “Zara’s aim was to democratize fashion. In contrast to the idea of fashion as a privilege, we offer accessible fashion that reaches the high street, inspired by the taste, desires, and lifestyle of modern men and women”. To realize this goal, the company followed the fast-fashion model, which involved bringing clothes from design stage to stores in a matter of few weeks where most other fashion brands would take a whole six months to get their new designs into the market. Zara has a unique policy of “Zero investment in marketing”. Instead, the money saved here is used to open new stores. The striking feature about Zara is that it has noticed differences that matter to the consumers and used them to differentiate itself from the rest of the competitors. In other words, its key marketing strategy is based on exclusivity, experience, differentiation and affordability. In essence, the company relies heavily on the word of mouth advertising. The products’ target population lies in the age group 18-40 years and lives in the urban areas. Specifically, the market segment comprises of women (65%), men (25%) and children (15%) all of them being fashion conscious and falling in the educated middle class category. Zara’s branding strategies were executed keeping in consideration the fact that clothes are a perishable commodity that peo-
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ple love to use and throw away. The designs were mostly spotted in fashion shows and then copied by in-house designers. The strategy was to ship fewer pieces, in greater variety, while trying to avoid high inventory costs and the frequent clearance sales common amongst most fashion retailers. The company produced only what would sell in its shops. One of the things that make it a stand out brand is the fact that it is a vertically integrated retailer. From designing to manufacturing and distributing the products, it does everything by itself. This approach seems to be working for it because it has managed to establish itself as one of the leading Spanish fashion stores globally. 90% of Zara stores are owned by the company and the rest are joint ventures of several franchises. This means that customers experience the same environment when entering one of the Zara stores be it in London, New York, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, New Delhi etc.: the stores are spacious, well-lit, modern and walled with mirrors. Zara has an official IPhone APP. This application is designed to have the ability to let browsers search through the latest information regarding new collections. In 2010, there was a lot of negative feedback regarding the functionality of the application. Zara has taken all of the negative review in consideration and immediately improved. The application now includes prices, locations, GPS map, and contacts to the specific shops you select to browse in. One of the things that speaks volumes about Zara’s strong culture is the fact that it that it hires young designers and trains them to make quick decisions. In other words, while good decisions are encouraged, bad decisions are not severely punished. Facing several problems related to rent space, every mall owner in the World is ready to provide free space to Zara, owing to the popularity of this brand in urban areas and the long way it has traveled. The culture of an organization like Zara takes years to hone and requires leaders with more than an understanding of numbers-they need to have a feel for the human component. It’s a classic example of a successful supply chain network and a learning for many budding entrepreneurs venture in the domain of merchandising.
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fun corner
december 2015
AKSHAY SETH IIM Shillong
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radical thoughts
december aug 2014 2015
Radical Thoughts SHUBHAM SHUKLA | IIM Shillong
Aligning Brands with Social Causes “We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for the society”
the where there is not much significant difference between your product and your customer’s associating your brand with a significant social issue or charitable cause can give your customers a new reason to pick your brand over competitors in the market. Championing a social issue or engaging with charities is a worthy way to boost brand equity and invest in a little feel-good-factor. Aligning marketing activity with cause related issues enables brands to build a
There was a time when companies believed in just giving the customers what they want but now they are moving towards portraying their support for social causes and well being of the society in general. Apart from trying to fulfill their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) requirements, this is also being done in order to gain the attention of the customers and stay in sync with what they want. According to studies, more than 85% of millennials correlate their purchasing decisions (and their willingness to recommend a brand to others) to the responsible efforts a company is making. The primary reason for this is that millennials grew up in the information age, where the Internet and social media forced transparency for the companies. They want the companies to
reputation with their target market and building an emotional connection can help strengthen brand loyalty. Customers feel they are extending the value of their purchase to include a worthy cause investment and are more likely to be repeat purchasers. Not just attracting consumers, aligning your brand with social causes or cause marketing as they call it also helps to keep employees motivated. According to findings, employees who are active in company causes are happier; 93 percent say they are proud of their company’s values, while 92 percent say they feel a strong sense of loyalty to their company. Apart from the customers and employees, cause marketing also helps to attract worthy stakeholders towards your business. By associating yourself with social causes you also attract those stakeholders to your business who believe in the same cause as your company. Not just that, they also tend to be more involved in the process and feel more committed towards their partwork with a strong sense of ethics, to operate trans- nership with the firm. Thus, aligning your firm with parently and responsibly, act as a positive agent of social causes in the present scenario is not only necchange in their communities, and give back. They essary to fulfill your CSR commitments but for the also realize that companies today have more tools overall health and well-being of your brand and its at their disposal than ever to make a difference – equity. they’re more global than ever, with fewer language barriers, more technology, and greater access to NGO and public private partnerships. Aligning your brand with a positive cause cultivates a more caring image in the minds of the customers. In a market where
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updates
december 2015 2013
Updates HARSHA DAGA | IIM Shillong
Brand Launch TATA to launch hatchback called TATA Kite TATA with its HorizoNext-the four pronged customer centric approach plans to launch TATA Kite. In a new teaser featuring brand ambassador Lionel Messi, the automaker christened TATA Kite Hatchback as the Zica. TATA motors looks to re-establish its image in the entry-level hatchback segment, where currently it had only Indica eV2, which again has lost its charm as it seems outdated when compared with competitors such as Maruti’s Swift and Hyundai’s Grand i10.
PULSE - latest candy launched by Pass Pass The entry of this new candy into the market by Noida based DS Group (makers of products like Rajnigandha Paan Masala and Pass Pass) might not be new to people from states like Delhi and Rajasthan, but now the entire nation will be privileged to get a taste of it. A simple Re.1 candy is showing new trends, wherein consumers are making bulk purchases of 8-10 candies at once as against a usual behavior of buying only a single piece at once. Aeropostale forays into Indian markets with Arvind Lifestyle The American apparel and accessories retailer plans to foray into the Indian markets in collaboration with the Arvind Group of Arvind Lifestyle. Aeropostale is a mall-based retailer targeting young women and men, hence reaching out to a very large segment of the Indian retail population. The brand aims at having 30 standalone stores along with 25 shop-in-shop (or multi-brand retail store) locations in the next three years. The American apparel and accessories retailer plans to foray into the Indian markets in collaboration with the Arvind Group of Arvind Lifestyle. Aeropostale is a mall-based retailer targeting young women and men, hence reaching out to a very large segment of the Indian retail population. The brand aims at having 30 standalone stores along with 25 shop-in-shop (or multi-brand retail store) locations in the next three years.
The Moson’s group announes a new brand by the name of Indian Woman The Moson’s Group, a Kerala based maker of Indulekha range of personal care products which has been acquired by HUL, has announced a new brand by the name of ‘Indian Woman’ under which it will sell non-personal care products. They plan to do the same through the Self Help Group (SHG) model with the primary objective of providing quality education to the to the Indian girl child.
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AD Watch Happydent makes the world go bonkers! In a very trendy manner, HTC and Snapdeal not just captured the hearts of Delhi-ites but also twitteratis across the network. They announced their partnership in a storyline when executives from both the companies went across NCR clicking pictures of the monuments, streets and people. They tagged each other in every post by eliciting response by the other one. They also used the opportunity to market the fine camera of HTC’s upcoming phone One A9. Looks like this team is here to give others a ride for their buck.
Durex calls upon for Unicode Consortium While all other condom brands are struggling to hold ground and going the usual “pleasure” way to advertise, Durex always has something much more interesting. And this time to on World Aids Day on December 1st, Durex encouraged its customers to call upon the Unicode Consortium, who oversee the introduction of new emoji, for an emoticon depicting safe sex. Their aim was to make more and more people comfortable to have a conversation about the importance of Safe Sex, and hence a condom. What a way to integrate societal marketing with digital media.
Scarbble’s new ad says more than just playing with words “Words” is the first thing that strikes you the moment you come across Scrabble, but their new advertisement capturing the same in a set-up that is most expected in the holiday season, is so exceptional that feelings become the more dominant proposition for the board game. Leveraging the festivities and the spirit of joy and celebration to connect with their consumers they ensured to pull their attention towards the game with the use of anagrams.
Brand Watch HDFC introduces sonic marketing by developing first ever MoGo HDFC introduces sonic marketing by developing the first ever Mogo (musical logo). It’s for the first time that music will be used by a large, main stream corporate for purely branding purposes. HDFC plans to use their mogo at various touchpoints at a pan-India level, through ATMs, phone banking, mobile banking app and the website. The company aims at capturing the interests of the youth as use of new age technology and ways of branding
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updates
2013 december 2015
HTC & Snapdeal: The newly found friendhip In a very trendy manner, HTC and Snapdeal not just captured the hearts of Delhi-ites but also twitteratis across the network. They announced their partnership in a storyline when executives from both the companies went across NCR clicking pictures of the monuments, streets and people. They tagged each other in every post by eliciting response by the other one. They also used the opportunity to market the fine camera of HTC’s upcoming phone One A9. Looks like this team is here to give others a ride for their buck.
New Channel Launch Mobile Advertising - Tango Media Tango media, a subsidiary of Mogae Group, launched a mobile advertising platform helps the companies in connecting with consumers, without the pre-requisite of data connectivity. Its patented technology uses keywords that it sells to various players who can directly communicate to the customer keying in ** followed by the particular keyword. Tango has currently tied up with five telecoms for carrying out the activity, hence reaching out to a humongous consumer base.
Articles are invited
“Best Article”: Pulkit Gupta | Welingkar Institute of Management 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 10th January, 2016. Please send your entries marked as <ARTICLE NAME>_<SENDERS’ NAME(S)>_<INSTITUTE> to markathon.iims@gmail.com.
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MARKETING CLUB OF IIM SHILLONG WISHES YOU AND YOUR FAMILY
HAVE A GREAT 2016!