Marketing Magazine of IIM Shillong
Volume 6 | Issue 2
August 2014
MARKATHON Anniversary Edition
Vartalaap with Mr. Sujan Roy Head of Marketing Services & Product Planning, PCBU - International Business, Regional Head Europe Tata Motors
The beginning of the calendar year brings to us a fantasy of newness and a clean canvas- to paint it prettier, write things differently and to do the undone. We would like to start off by heartily thanking all the past year’s contributors for Markathon. 2015 has finally kicked off and before we dig into it, let us take a glance of what all has already happened this year and events we are going to encounter in the near future. The beginning of this year has been really eventful with Barack Obama’s three days visit to India dominating the headlines. Among the efforts by companies to re-launch some of their brands, Bajaj Auto aims to regain its lost share in the Indian two-wheeler market by implementing six product launches in the next six months. Fulfilling our high hopes, Fiat will finally launch its jeep brand in the Indian market this year. With the election and the cricket World Cup around the corner, we hope to see some more action in the coming months. In this month’s cover story, ‘Are Celebrity Endorsements a push for sale? Think Again!’ we are throwing light on the other side of celebrity endorsements by giving a new perspective to the emerging world of meaningful, emotional and aspirational advertisements. In the Vartalaap section, we have for you an interaction with Mr. Muralikrishnan B, Chief Operating Officer of IndiaProperty.com who will be sharing with us his experience in the field of digital and web marketing with special reference to the real estate sector. For the perspectives of this month we have an in depth coverage on Kellogg’s India and its strategy in the article ‘Productolysis- Kellogg’s Breakfast Cereals in India’ which analyses Kellogg’s initial failed attempt in India and its
subsequent success in the Indian market. In another article we would deal with the biggest trend of the past year, Online Shopping Festivals. It covers the reasons what makes these online shopping festivals so attractive to the consumers. In the Specials segment this month we have Ishtihaar which is a take on the Indian educational system and the impact of the current surge in the number of privately owned institutions. In Brand Story, we bring to you the story of the luxurious brand Chanel and what makes it stand out from its contemporaries. fWe talk about Abercrombie and Fitch in the Jab They Failed section highlighting the reasons behind its failure in the market and in Radical Thoughts we discuss the ‘Hazards of Image Centric Content’. Apart from these we have our regular monthlies Ad-dicted and Updates to keep you abreast with the latest happening in the world of marketing. With so much in line waiting for you, flip through and let us know your comments and feedback by writing to markathon.iims@gmail.com. We thank you for the constant support you all have given and hope to continue receiving the same. With this we wish you a fabulous beginning of the New Year! Happy reading!! Team Markathon
The Markathon Team Editors Cheena Pasrija | Gautam Gopal | Mohammad Fahd | Sumit Bedi | Vinay Jain
Creative Designers Ansul Jindal | Kasturi Guha Thakurta | Sagar Riaz
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Contents Perspectives Productolysis - Kellogg’s Breakfast Cereals in India Amit Yadav and Shaily Chauhan | IIFT Delhi Online Shopping Festivals - The Biggest Trend This Year Geetanjali Gulati | IIM Lucknow
Celebrity Endorsements, a push for sale? Think Again! Kasturi Guha Thakurta | IIM Shillong
Vartalaap
Mr. Muralikrishnan B. Chief Operating Officer | IndiaProperties.com
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Eye 2 Eye
Spicejet’s “Shrink to Grow” a wise decision or a failed attempt at survival? Mohammad Fahd | IIM Shillong & Geetanjali Gulati | IIM Lucknow
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Ad-dicted Ansul Jindal & Kasturi Guha Thakurta | IIM Shillong
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Brand Story Sumit Bedi | IIM Shillong
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Fun Corner Sagar Riaz | IIM Shillong
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Ishtihaar Gautam Gopal | IIM Shillong
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Jab They Failed Vinay Jain | IIM Shillong
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Radical Thoughts Mohammad Fahd | IIM Shillong
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Updates Cheena Pasrija | IIM Shillong
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Silent Voice
Great Online Shopping Festival Team Melange | Delhi School of Economics
Specials
GodSellers 4.0
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Productolysis Kellogg’s Breakfast Cereals in India By Amit Yadav & Shaily Chauhan IIFT, Delhi
Marketing has been often defined as satisfying customers’ needs and wants (Kotler). It involves gauging and understanding consumer needs and wants, designing a product that meets that need/want and then promoting the product to the marketplace. For a marketer, one of the most difficult tasks is to develop a perfect product which satisfies all the needs of the consumer. But when the consumer is habituated and the market is saturated it becomes all the more difficult to break that habit and create artificial need. That’s what Kellogg had to go through while entering the Indian Market. The Indian consumer traditional breakfast composed of ‘Paranthas, idli sambar, poha, milk’ (Differs from region to region) etc. To make and create a demand for the people who are already accustomed to their own eating habits was a massive undertaking in front of the company. It meant that Kellogg had not just to promote its product but also the idea of ready to eat breakfast cereal in the Indian market.
The Initial Failed Attempt
Kellogg was the wholly-owned Indian subsidiary of the Kellogg Company based in Battle Creek, Michigan. Kellogg Company was the world’s leading producer of cereals and convenience foods, including cookies, crackers, cereal bars, frozen waffles, meat alternatives, piecrusts, and ice cream cones. Founded in 1906, Kellogg Company had manufacturing facilities in 19 countries and marketed its products in more than 160 countries. The company’s turnover in 1999-00 was $ 7 billion. Kellogg Company had set up its 30th manufacturing facility in India, with a total investment of $ 30 million. The Indian market held great significance for the Kellogg Company because its US sales were stagnating and only regular price increases had helped boost the revenues in the 1990s. Launched in September 1994, Kellogg’s initial offerings in India included cornflakes, wheat flakes and Basmati rice flakes. Despite offering good quality products and being supported by the technical, managerial and financial resources of its parent, Kellogg’s products failed in the In-
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perspective dian market. Even a high-profile launch backed by hectic media activity failed to make an impact in the marketplace.
• Attack on the Indian Home Maker- Indians had low awareness about processed foods and were not Calorie conscious. Kellogg’s tried to portray in its advertising campaigns that the Indian breakfast was not very nutritious and good for health. This led to a negative psychological impact of its product on the target audience- Indian home maker. This made the mothers angry and reluctant to buy their products.
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• Irregular Breakfast Habits – Many Indians skipped their breakfast and just do away with Tea, Biscuits and breads. Breakfast was not recognized by many households as a meal. Most of the households used to have proper breakfasts only on weekends. • Lack of variety- Indian breakfast is known for its variety. There can be several types of Dosas or Idlis, Paranthas or other types of native Indian breakfast items. Also in other countries, food habits were similar across its length and breadth. But in India, they change every 100 kilometers. Indians are used to a variety of dishes in breakfast and if an item is served once, it will not be on offer for the next two weeks. Asking them to have the same type of corn flake based breakfast was too much of a cultural change for Indians to accept.
There were several reasons why it failed initially• Price conscious Indian consumer - When Kellogg was launched for the first time in 1994, the premium pricing strategy was followed which made it a once off novel product for the just burgeoning middle class consumers. Its competitor Mohan Cornflakes was offering the same product at 20% less price.
• Low Repurchase - Out of every 100 packets sold, only two were being bought by regular customers; with the rest 98 being first-time buyers. Converting these experimenters into regular buyers had become a major problem for the company
• Traditional Practices of Hot Meals - Kellogg corn Flakes have to be consumed with cold milk, and they banked heavily on crispy flakes. For Indians the habit was to consume hot milk as in a tropical country that is very logical. Thus for the Indian family eating corn flakes with cold milk was unimaginable and once hot milk is poured the corn flakes become soggy and are no longer tasty and edible.
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All these led to the failure of Kellogg’s initial offerings in India which included cornflakes, wheat flakes and Basmati rice flakes.
Reformatory Strategies Adopted
Kellogg performed an extensive research of the Indian culture and their breakfast habits. It concluded that it had to Indianize the product in different ways.
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They adopted following reformatory strategies • Product Segmentation - Different varieties were introduced, such as Frosties (April 1997) and Coco Kellogg’s (September 1996), Iron Shakti (2000) aimed at children, Special K aimed towards women (2008). Corn Flakes primarily aimed at the whole family. This targeting also determines the content of the advert and the time of broadcast. The launch also continued with Mazza series in August 1998 - a crunchy, almond shaped corn breakfast cereal in three local flavors - ‘Mango Elaichi,’ ‘Coconut Kesar’ and ‘Rose. The taste issue was solved partly by the chocolate flavored breakfast option Chocos. • Introduction of Price Volume Package - Kellogg’s came up with different Stock Keeping Units (SKUs). Small SKUs were launched to encourage first time buyers while large packs offered greater quantity per rupee spent by the customer. They came up with small 60 gm packages at a price tag of Rs 9.50 thus psychologically pricing it below Rs 10. • Placement – Kellogg’s changed its distribution strategy of placing the products only at select retail outlets. The product was made available across all cities at a number of retail outlets. This helped them in increasing the volumes. The product could be bought at 40,000 retail outlets in 1998 • Promotion - On ground promotion activities like Kellogg health week and free samples distribution in schools and to housewives were adopted. In March 1996, the company offered specially designed 50 gm packs free to shoppers at select retail stores in Delhi. This was followed by a house to house sampling exercise offering one serving sachets to housewives in
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the city. The company also offered free pencil-boxes, water bottles, and lunch boxes with every pack. Plastic dispensers offering the product at discounted rates were also put up in petrol pumps, super markets, airports etc. They used a whole range of media: in the press, on posters, radio and cinema, direct mail and, most recently, on the Internet. • Repositioning – Kellogg’s changed its positioning strategy and now became a healthy, nutritious and easy to prepare alternative to Indian Breakfast, which was reflected in its campaigns. Fun-&-Taste-&- Health. The Change In 1995, Kellogg had a 53% share of the Rs 150 million breakfast cereals market, which had been growing at 4-5% per annum till then. By 2000, the market size was Rs 600 million, and Kellogg’s share had increased to 65%. Thus Kellogg’ was not only successful to raise its market share but it was also responsible for the overall growth of the market. The company’s improved prospects were clearly attributed to the shift in positioning, increased consumer promotions and an enhanced media budget. The effort to develop products specifically for the Indian market helped Kellogg make significant inroads into the Indian market.
The Indian 8 AM Market
The packaged breakfast foods (cornflakes, oats, muesli)
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january 2015 Prospects
Breakfast cereals market is expected to continue growing, by a CAGR of 22% in constant value terms over the forecast period. Growing awareness of the health benefits associated with breakfast cereals along with the rising health and wellness trend among Indian consumers in general, will drive sales of breakfast cereals. Leading players, such as Kellogg, Frito-Lay and Bagrry’s, are expected to continue carrying out consumer awareness programmes regarding the health benefits associated with breakfast cereals over the forecast period. Rapid urbanization and growth of modern retail outlets will also help propel sales of breakfast cereals.
Challenges Ahead
• Frequency of purchase of cornflakes and oats is still very low. More than 60% of the consumers buy it less than once a month. • The quick service restaurants have also entered the breakfast market like McDonald. • The world’s No. 2 breakfast cereals producer, Cereal Partners Worldwide (CPW), a joint-venture between General Mills and Nestle since 1990, is currently not present in the Indian breakfast cereal market. The company is driving sales in over 130 countries. CPW has a strong portfolio of over 50 brands, including Fitness, Cheerios and Nesquick
market in India stands at Rs 900 Crore.Over the last three years, the range of offerings (breakfast) has gone up dramatically, both local and imported. The westernized form of breakfast cereals, muesli and oats has seen a growth of 15-20 per cent year-on-year while the ethnic food category has seen limited or flat growth. Today the company offers more than 50 stock keeping units (SKUs) across four categories — oats, muesli, wheat-flakes and cornflakes. Cornflakes are 80% of the breakfast cereals market and Kellogg’s rules the roost here. Big super markets have their private labels as well. Kellogg with an anticipated retail value share of 39% was the leading player in the Indian breakfast cereals category in 2013. It was followed by Bagrry’s with 17% and Frito-Lay with an anticipated 11%. All the leading players are now focusing on launching India-specific products, which suit the tastes and preferences of local consumers. The competition is priced half of Kellogg’s and is still unable to dent the consumers of Kellogg’s. This can be attributed to the superior quality of Kellogg’s.
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Online Shopping Festivals The Biggest Trends This Year By Geetanjali Gulati IIM Lucknow
Piglet: Pooh! Why are you late today? Pooh: I was shopping? Piglet: Huh? Shopping?!? Pooh: Yes. Haven’t you heard about the Great Online Shopping Festival? Piglet: Ooooh. No! Pooh: 3 days of unadulterated crazy shopping. 80% discounts! It’s fun! Piglet: Oh. What did you buy? Pooh: Honey. Loads. 3 days. 450 retailers. More than 30 categories. Discounts up to 80%. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to 3 days of forget-everything-just-shopping experience. The GOSF, launched as a single day online festival in 2012, came back in 2014, bigger and better. Number of participating retailers was up by almost 100%, and visitors increased by more than 120%. Taking a cue from last year, revenues will see an uptrend of at least 3.5 times. What was new this year was a 299 section, where everything was priced at Rs. 299. There was also an Exclusive Launch Corner, where exclusive items like Chromecast and Nexus 6 were available for the first time in India. Learning from the mistakes of previous years, this time there were no technical glitches. To add to the excitement, there were “pre-party celebrations” in the form of contests and games. In fact, hashtags like #72hoursofcrazy were trending on twitter. Some interesting trends emerged this time. Male shoppers dominated the GOSF-77% were males and 23% were females. So it doesn’t surprise me that electronics was the favorite category, followed by apparel. Flipkart, the biggest online retailer didn’t participate this time, and the biggest share of the pie was shared between Amazon, Myntra and Snapdeal. However, this isn’t an original concept. Cyber Monday, originated in U.S. in 2005, is the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday in U.S. In 2013, its sales touched $2.29 billion. In almost a decade, it has become an internationally
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1. We have nothing much to do- A recent survey by Ericson found that an average Indian spends around 8 hours on the Internet and 3 hours on their smartphones. With the popular shopping apps giving us updates and pings about new discounts everyday-there is no stronger lure.
famous concept and is observed by various countries across the globe like Brazil, UK, Portugal Germany, UAE, Japan etc. Similar to Cyber Monday is the Black Friday concept. The Friday after Thanksgiving is observed as Black Friday and is regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in U.S. In 2014, $50.9 billion worth of sales was recorded during the holiday.
2. Hefty Discounts: Inflation is soaring. Your salary account is consistently near the minimum balance. Prices of everything are simply doubling-or that is what you think. So when we see Flipkart’s 90% sale or Myntra’s “8AM Onwards-everything under 999” sale, who in their sane minds would not sit glued to these websites? More importantly, customers feel that online products are cheaper. Which might not be true in some cases. But stilleverything’s under 999-just today! 3. In-your-face advertising: Smart advertisers take advantage of the changing Internet usage patterns. Tools like content marketing and remarketing make sure that ads keep following a customer till he completes the purchase. Complementing this is the mushrooming of small online retailing business, using facebook as a medium to promote their business. Anywhere you go online, the last pair of shoes you searched at some shopping website will follow you. Literally. Ad strategies like remarketing make sure it’s difficult for customers not to complete a purchase.
All seems hunky dory. Everybody is happy. The retailers are happy-they get more visits and sales. The neighbor hood aunty is happy-she got the cheapest bed sheets available without braving the cold winter winds or the huge traffic jams. The affiliated industries like logistics and courier delivery are happy-burgeoning-is the word that aptly describes them. However, let’s take a closer look at what makes these online sales so attractive.
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4. No elbow-pushing aunties: If you have been to Lifestyle’s offline sales, you know what I mean by elbow
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pushing. And snatching clothes the moment somebody throws it back outside the trail room. All these women are in their fiercest avatars during these sales-ready to bite, drag, pull, push anybody to get what they want. But online? No sir! All you need is to sip hot tea and click and click and click. 5. Peer Pressure: Like a shepherd and his lamb, Indian societies have a culture of groupthink. If online shopping is the new trend, and your friends are flaunting it, you have to do it too. And with demographic dynamics skewed towards younger generation, herd mentality is more prevalent. 6. Time saving-Get’em all: This is true for all kinds of online shopping. But if you wait like a hawk for that time of the year when brands have discounts-you go crazy in malls. Rushing from one shop to another-to get’em all. Online of course is fun. All brands right there in front of you. No hopping. Just clicking! With the e-commerce industry growing at a CAGR of 57%(between 2012-16) led by an increasing middle class and young population will make sure that online shopping festivals become bigger and better each year. Till then, let’s wait for the next big billion day!
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Cover Story
By
Kasturi Guha Thakurta
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“Celebrity Endorsements a Push for Sale? Think Again!� Celebrity endorsement is a ubiquitous feature of modern marketing. There is a prima facie awesomeMARKETING ness attached to stars in a way that they inspire evBUDGET eryone to live their lives. They get the best treatment, the best service, the best pay check and above all, they are everybody’s envy. They live an inquisitively inconspicuous life. We try to replicate their style, aspire to live their rich-and-famous lives and thus become the proud participants of the bandwagon of the celebrity craze. We relish the endless gossips churned out by the media about them and always go an extra mile to know what is going on in their lives. There is an enigma about them such that we want to know what they do, how they live and how they behave. We dream to be like them, we follow them and we may leave no stone unturned if given a chance to live their life for a day. It is this need that makes the celebrities sell and the smart marketers cash in on it to sell their products!
tions of a customer become tangible when he sees a celebrity vouching for it and the level of expectations rise with the perceived legitimacy of the campaign. The customer will start to envision himself in the reference frame of the celebrity after the advertised product has been purchased or consumed by him. People buy products not just for the materialistic value it provides but also because they feel that they will be able to possess the characteristics attached with those brands. This generates a certain level of emotional affiliation and a sense of contentment. It is this emotional connection with the brands that makes them so powerful We see numerous advertisements splashed across all the channels with famous faces selling products. Using celebrities as endorsers for a marketing campaign seems to have grown more popular than ever and it is a success mantra used by many brands. Star power in India can be gauged by the successful endorsements done by Sharukh Khan (Tag Heuer, Pan Vilas, Royal Stag, Nerolac Paints, etc.), Amitabh Bachchan (Cadbury, Reid & Taylor, Maggi, etc.), Sachin Tendulkar, Ranbir Kapoor, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Katrina Kaif and others like them. The inevitable question is, does it mean splurging hefty money as celebrity fees will ensure guaranteed success of your brand in the market? Is celebrity endorsement the only success mantra for a brand to sell? Does a marketing campaign with celebrities as endorses ensures guaranteed suc-
Brand- The impact of powerful advertisements
Advertisements project what exactly the brand stands for and what to expect by its consumption and above all the distinguishing features, factors and attributes that differentiate it from its competition. Advertisements are a powerful tool that generate feelings and expectations in customers and force them to recall certain aspects of the brand when they hear or see the brand name. According to the oldest marketing strategy in the books, this thinking process and emotional bonding is catapulted when a celebrity endorses the brand. The intangible feelings and emo-
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cess? The answer is a definite NO! In fact, nowadays more and more brands are opting for non-celebrity marketing campaigns to make their products look more realistic and appealing to the masses. There are a lot of intricacies in selecting which celebrity to get on board for your product. These include the cost of hiring the celebrity, the celebrity profession, his credibility and of course, whether the celebrity’s image is befitting for the brand image or not. Imagine Deepika Padukone endorsing a cough syrup brand and Kailash Kher endorsing an eat-tolose healthy breakfast cereal! Not a picture perfect frame, right?
Free Natura. Salman Khan who is known for his hyper active personality is the face of Revital, an energy tablet.
In India, a clothing brand called Reid & Taylor presented a perfect example when they launched their advertising campaign featuring James Bond fame, Pierce Brosnan. This along with the tagline ‘BOND WITH THE BEST’ was aired but the James Bond idea did not work. After the debacle of the first campaign, Reid & Taylor introduced a family ad where children were shown celebrating their parent’s silver wedding anniversary and they go out to purchase a suit for their father. Even this commercial did not work and it had to be taken off air. As the last resort, the company introduced Mr. Amitabh Bachchan as the Reid & Taylor man; a man propagating the brand for very special people and for a special occasion in life. The commercial in its initial days got a good response and did extremely well as people were able to connect with Mr. Bachchan and the ideals he was propagating. For the audience, there was a perfect match of an ideal Indian family man, a star and a good quality suit brand with a high price making it reserved especially for special occasions and for very special people. But it is not always the case, that all the ads make so much sense or that the celebrities always wisely
Celebrity and a Brand
A celebrity can make or break a brand image. This fact can be brought out by using the example of the liaison between Mr. Amitabh Bachchan and Cadbury. He was roped in for promoting Cadbury chocolates after the infestation fiasco when the brand image of Cadbury India dropped to an all-time low among the people. Soon the company found a perfect fit and a reliable celebrity to transmit the correct message and help regenerate the lost trust. The fit between the brand and the celebrity is evident as Mr. Bachchan and Cadbury, both have faced troubled times and yet they stand tall due to the love and trust they both garner from the people all across the nation. This is a live example of how a celebrity brought certain attributes to a product. Similarly, Sachin Tendulkar being a sports celebrity, an energy drink, Boost fits well with his image in the public. Bipasha Basu has an image of a fitness freak and hence endorses Sugar
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january 2015 Story-telling; A better way to sell than celebrity endorsements
choose the brand they want to be associated with. Many a times, it is due to the monetary perks attached to the endorsements that celebrities choose to endorse a brand. Many brands blindly follow the mantra of celebrity association in order to encash the popularity of the stars amongst the masses. Kareena Kapoor endorsing Boro Plus, Salman Khan endorsing wheel, Amitabh Bachchan endorsing Navratna Oil seem to be such examples. We saw some of the successful ads by some successful celebrities. But more and more brands are now taking a different route and creating rational
and more realistic ads, preferably with a message, to pique the emotional trait of consumers. The ads by Asian Paints for its ‘Ezy Colour’ range features unknown faces who essay the role of a middle class family. The ad shows the women of the house deciding the colour palette of their home in order to impress the men and to convince them not to sell their house. Ezy Colour range, which is comparatively cheaper than the other ranges of Asian Paints chose to use non-celebrities to depict the paint as an ‘affordable’ and a ‘common man’ purchase. On the other hand, for its ‘Royale’ range of colours, Asian Paints used Saif Ali Khan (the royal scion) as the ambassador to befit the image of the product perfectly.
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We already discussed how Cadbury India had used Amitabh Bachchan to uplift the Dairy Milk brand name in India. Later on, Cadbury used non-celebrities, especially in its Dairy Milk shubh aarambh and ‘Silk romance’ campaigns to portray the simplicity of love and life. It had a great impact on the consumers and the ads were declared a hit among the masses. Marketing experts said that since the dairy milk campaigns reflected the mundane lives of people, it helped in striking a chord with the audience. Nestle Nescafe is the recent name added to this list with its #ItAllStarts ad campaign. The new ad from Nescafe India is a major shift for a brand which had
Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone, as the face of Nescafe, along with musicians Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa, and actor Purab Kohli. The ad ‘stuttered’ its way into the netizens’ hearts with its heartwarming advertisement featuring Hussain Dalal, a stammering stand-up comedian. While some are taking the humour route, others are banking on pure storytelling to get the message across. Birla Sun Life Insurance is one such example which has come up with a touching story of a single father’s determination and grit in raising his only child. The ad #KhudKoKarBuland describes the extraordinary journey of an ordinary man. The ad’s
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potential to tug at all our heartstrings serves as the perfect positioning for Birla Sun Life Insurance, which moved away from cricketer Yuvraj Singh as the campaigner. Dove India is also an example of a successful brand that never used celebrities as endorsers. One way to promote the soap brand could have been roping in
yet true situations of how Indian males look on every opportunity to impress the opposite sex. Since the ads share the story and dilemma of every Indian male, using celebrities would not have meant narrowing down the behavioral and character traits of men to that particular celebrity. There are a number of brands that have been built strongly without celebrity endorsements. For some of their brands, giants like Hindustan Unilever and Procter & Gamble do not believe in celebrity endorsement because they believe that customers, especially housewives, are more likely to identify with a normal person on screen rather than a celebrity. From using testimonials from real women (Dove) to depicting the common middle class men, brands like Lifebuoy, Close Up, Fevicol, etc., are leveraging the ‘keep-it-simple’ strategy.
some Bollywood celebrity to croon about how the soap is the reason for her ever glowing healthy skin. But their ads celebrate ‘real women, real beauty’ and therefore, the choice to stay away from celebrities was a conscious decision. In fact, they claim that the women featured in their ads are real women and not actors. The brand is the best example of how a product can work if the message is kept simple without adorning it with celebrity presence. Dabur Vatika hair oil which had Preity Zinta on board for its marketing campaigns recently launched the #BraveAndBeautiful campaign on YouTube sans any celebrity. The hair care brand which was until now all about how using it can help you get long, thick and lustrous hair is seen celebrating cancer survivors. Dabur Vatika is one of the many brands that have evolved from product benefits to aspirational and emotional messages in their ad campaigns. Even Seagram’s clever brand positioning for its Imperial Blue whisky with the catchy ‘Men will be men’ tagline featuring non celebrities gave the brand a real high. The ads by Ogilvy & Mather depicts hilarious
In the warp and weft of infamy lies a lesson
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All that glitters is not gold. Similarly, simply using celebrities in any brand campaign does not ensure a short-cut to success. Remember how Nokia was piggybacking on KKR’s win in the IPL to boost the brand image and increase its sales in 2010? Unfortunately, KKR sank and so did the high hopes of Nokia. Akshay Kumar who had his jeans unbuttoned by his wife for a Levi’s fashion show landed the star and the brand in hot water as the gesture was labelled as indecent. The brands endorsed by celebrities who get embroiled in controversies face the risk of sabotaging the brand name. Whether celebrity endorsement is a wise choice or a fool’s paradise is a debate that is open to interpretation. But there is no denying the fact that nowadays more and more companies are shifting from the traditional celebrity endorsements to wide-ranging contemporary method of campaigns featuring non celebrities. This is a growing trend in the advertisement industry & it certainly seems to be here to stay!
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VARTALAAP An Interview with Mr. Muralikrishnan B.
Mr. Muralikrishnan, is one of the fore-runners of the e-tail race. A graduate from the IIM Calcutta, he was one of the successful early movers in India’s e-business growth. He setup iWay, India’s first embracement towards cybercafés during his tenure at Sify. He then moved to eBay where he handled Product Management before taking over as the Country Head. “Ofcourse ,the difference in scale of spend budgets makes you more creative in a Startup”
India
Property. com
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Chief Operating Officer
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Markathon: Being the former country head of EBay India, tell us how difficult it was to market the idea of E-commerce in India where it was a relatively new concept and how has the marketing changed since the day you joined in 2005? eCommerce has come a long way from the early days and this transformation has occurred pretty much across the entire eco-system. Merchants across the country and more specifically in smaller towns, have woken up to the potential of seeing the entire nation(and not just smaller towns, but the entire world) as their market through their online presence. The Mobile accessories seller in Lamington road, Mumbai, the small apparel exporter from Tirupur and the Jeweler from Surat etc., the story of eCommerce in India is underscored by their ascendance amidst all the glitz of the popular Online Marketplaces such as Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and eBay. Besides sellers and merchants, the other significant evolution that has happened is the enablers. Logistics, payment solutions, mobile networks, etc., have all evolved and come a long way in enabling the revolution. From a Consumer Marketing perspective however, the fundamental driver continues to Value – discounts, coupons, offers etc. While attempts are being made to use convenience and experience as a differentiator, the market has a long way to go to mature. So for now, the players who are most visible and give the deepest discounts are the winners. This, needless to say, would change when Selection and variety starts being an important factor.
keting different for a huge company like E-Bay for a startup like Almond Wellness Tech? While basic concepts of Marketing don’t change on the basis of the size and context of the organization, the channels you use vary. Marketing a startup is a lot more about growth hacking, experimenting, innovating on social media and using referrals as a key growth driver. A more established company with deeper pockets can think more long term in terms of brand building and competing on share of voice using a combination of offline and online media. Ofcourse ,the difference in scale of spend budgets makes you more creative in a Startup Markathon: How big a role does digital marketing play in today’s time and should it be something all students interested in marketing be good with? Can any brand today afford not to think digital and infact going one step further, afford not to think Mobile? Any student of Marketing must learn the art of science of managing a Digital campaign, optimizing it, using data analytics to get more sharper insights and scaling campaigns more successfully
Markathon: You have started a venture ‘Almond Wellness Tech’. Ltd. How would you say is the mar-
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vartalaap
january 2015 ing sector, how important is it to market well in a country like India? It is important to market well in any market in any stage of evolution. Specifically on eCommerce, the market evolution is at an interesting stage where it moving from infancy to adolescence. During infancy, the focus was on category creation, solving for Trust and driving the Discount value proposition. In its current stage, the players are focusing more on building a franchise in specific categories (apparel, home furnishings etc) and driving the Selection and Variety proposition Essentially, interesting times! Markathon: What would be your advice to the budding marketers who want to make it big in the industry in the coming years?
Like I said earlier, the concepts of marketing don’t change, but the rules of game and the tools have changed a lot over the past decade and it has become Sweat it out on the field. Talk, Listen and Learn from imperative to find ones relevance being challenged. Customers. Play with Data, but don’t get caught in paralysis by analysis. Think Digital and Mobile. Markathon: How big a role does the country head Finally, the basics on Marketing and Consumer beplay in devising the marketing strategies of an orhavior are pretty much golden. Times change, but ganization? basics don’t
Markathon: Personally, do you feel that Marketing is overrated as believed by some or do you feel that it is a vital part of an organization to survive in the market?
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All the time under the sun, sweating while market visits, customer contact sessions are also marketing
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The role of a leader is to set direction, provide guidance & resources, build smart teams and enable people to take risks. I would view it as no different in Marketing. The Strategy creation process is best when it focuses on bringing differing perspectives, marrying that with data and deriving insights and takeaways. A leader needless to say actively participates in the same and also in the process of identify the key priorities.
If understanding the Consumer and creating value propositions to suit the need of the consumer is overrated, then you may say that marketing is over-rated. One should be wary of not missing the fundamentals. Glitzy ad campaigns or PR alone is NOT marketing. All the time in the sun, sweating doing market visits, customer contact sessions and all that it teaches you, is also Marketing. Markathon: Coming to E-commerce which is a grow-
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eye2eye
december january 2015 2013
Is Spicejet’s “Shrink to Grow” a wise decision or a failed attempt at survival Mohammad Fahd Geetanjali Gulati iim shillong IIM Lucknow
SpiceJet posted its highest ever losses this year when it posted an annual loss of Rs 1003.2 crore & while they have cut down their losses in the succeeding quarters the company still teeters on the edge of bankruptcy. The Indian aviation sector is in dire straits however with the volatility in oil prices currently lower than what it was throughout 2014, SpiceJet should focus on milking as many routes as possible to minimise its losses. SpiceJet has been given a January 10 deadline to find an investor if it wants to ensure its survival which would not have been the case had the ‘Shrink to Grow’ strategy, which has been effective. In fact, the reduction in flight routes has been one of the reasons why the company has not been able to find an investor yet. As stated by the chief of Qatar Airways, Akbar Al Baker, the lack of penetration in tier 2 cities by SpiceJet is one of the primary reasons why his company does not want to invest in the ailing carrier. As a result Qatar Airways is vying for a 49% stake in IndiGo instead. SpiceJet should certainly have closed down its operations on the routes where the traffic is abnormally low & retiring the non-efficient aircrafts in its fleet to improve operational efficiency was a step in the right direction too. However, the level of shrinkage undertaken by the company can be termed as nothing but a failed attempt at survival.marketing.
After posting losses for four quarters, SpiceJet has decided to follow a “shrink to grow” strategy where they aim to cut capacity by 10%, reduce fleet size and shrink by 14%. Let’s do the math stepwise. A loss is the difference between revenues and costs. To minimize the losses, SpiceJet can either increase revenues, or reduce costs, or do both. If SpiceJet wanted to increase revenues, it could either increase the price, or increase its sales volume. Now, increasing price is virtually impossible- customers would have enough cheaper alternatives to switch to. So, increasing prices is not viable. Consider increasing sales volume. The law of demand says, quantity demanded increases when price falls. SpiceJet has explored this option by announcing $8 flight tickets on some flights. Benefits of such a move are visible-as occupation rate goes up, cost of carrier goes down. However, price wars will be initiated and this option will require deep pockets-which SpiceJet doesn’t have right now. Labour costs form the biggest percentage of costs of an airline. These labour costs can be reduced in two ways. First, is to reduce the labour force in absolute figures and retain only efficient ones. This will definitely reduce the salary bill. If fewer planes are flying, cabin crew costs will be cut down. Second option is to reduce the wages-which will be useless if industry average is higher than what a company pays The other major component is airline fuel, the price of which can be assume d to stay constant for a while. SpiceJet’s move to cut the fleet size is a good move as fuel costs would reduce. Also, as an airplane’s lifespan increases, fuel efficiency reduces-they simple become fuelguzzling machines. By returning two 14-year-old planes, it will again save on fuel costs. This analysis shows that out of all possible options that SpiceJet had, it chose them wisely and “Shrink to Grow” seems a wise decision. After all, in Michael Porter’s words “Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; It’s about deliberately choosing to be different.”
Topic for the next issue: “Carl’s Jr.’s sexually suggestive super bowl ad for its all natural burger : Cheap stint to grab eyeballs or coming of age witty concept?” Your opinion (view/counterview) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is 10th Feb 2015. 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 january 2015 2013
Last month’s results WINNER Team Melange || Delhi School of Economics
honorary mention Two Marketeers IIM Trichy
Theme: Great Online Shopping Festival
Congratulations!!! Vivek receives a cash prize of Rs 1000!
THEME FOR NEXT SILENT VOICE: Obama’s visit to India LAST DATE OF SENDING THE PRINT AD: 10th Feb, 2015 EMAIL ID: markathon.iims@gmail.com Send your entry in JPEG format named as SilentVoice_<Your Name>_<Institute>only.
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AD-dicted AD-dicted
december january 2013 2015
By Kasturi guha Thakurta IIM Shillong PRODUCT: Titan Raga
POSITIONING: Khud se naya rishta CREATIVE AGECY: Ogilvy & Mather
POSITIONING: Sexiest phone in the world
CATCH
CREATIVE AGENCY: AndAnd
R
YouTube Link: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=DqhjExlrYsc
YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=zXRobOjVI9s CONCEPT: This advertisement features Bollywood female actor Nimrat Kaur as the independent and confident coming of age women of today. She is shown sitting and reading a book at the airport when she is interrupted by her ex-lover who happens to accidently run into her. When asked about how he has been, he makes a reference to Kaur leaving him. During the conversation, he learns that Kaur is still single and on being asked the reason she tells him how she never gets time from work. Hearing this he makes a passing comment on how they could have made the relationship work had she quit working. On this Kaur retorts by saying that even he could have quit his job but he defends himself by saying that he could not have quit because he is a man. Amused, Kaur looks down at her Raga watch and wittily tells the man (Akash) that how right he was when he said that he is still the same man she left. This leaves Akash ashamed and embarrassed. VERDICT: Catch
MISS
CONCEPT:
The advertisement opens in a hotel reception where a beautiful woman is shown checking in. She places her phone (Elife S5.1) on the desk. The phone allures the attendant’s attention and he asks the woman whether he can check the phone. After the approval of the woman, the man picks up the phone and then a lady (hotel staff) takes the phone from him. Soon, another staff member takes the phone from her. Then, a couple tourist entering a lift have the phone in hand and they’re shown clicking a pic of their own. Soon, the chef is shown playing with the phone and checking out the different photos clicked on it. The attendant who had asked the phone owner for permission to check it out is then shown taking it back from the chef. He still continues to check out the phone as he walks through the hotel. The phone is lost again then, and this time we see two girls clicking selfies near the swimming pool. The film ends with the staff attendant standing by the owner of the phone and tweeting for ‘the sexiest phone in the world’. And the phone is introdued VERDICT: Miss
The advertisement shows the perspective of a modern woman: self-assured, assertive and ambitious and therefore perfectly reflects the brand positioning of Raga. Raga has been shown as an evolved watch for the evolved women of today. This ad will trigger the imagination and inspire many modern woman.
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PRODUCT: Gionee ELife S5.1
By Ansul Jindal IIM Shillong
According to the Markathon, the idea for the new TVC is to convey ‘how fabulous’ the phone is and how fast it can become the talk of the town. But it fails to convey the same. Whereas the unique feature i.e. slimmest phone concept was not portrayed in this very gracefully. Hence this TVC failed to attract eyeballs to an extent.
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brand story
january 2015
Brand Story Sumit Bedi | IIM Shillong
Y
es! This is the brand that makes a woman’s heart skip a beat. This is the brand that brought a “revolution” in modern women’s attire. This is the brand that stands for luxury, elegance and style. This is Chanel. Gabrielle Chanel started House of Chanel in the year 1909. Hat was the first product she sold. One thing that caught the imagination of the people was the simplicity and the elegance of hats. The new trend broke away from the tradition of flowery, fancy and heavy hats. The women of Paris accepted the style with grace. Over next 4 decades, Chanel brought a revolution in the women fashion industry. Chanel, in a stroke of genius, liberated women by shortening dresses, revealing ankles, freeing the waste and eliminating corset. The Chanel suit was born. Black, a color that was formally reserved for house servants became the ultimate color of aristocracy when Chanel brought in the little black dress. Coco Chanel said, “ A woman wearing black draws attention to herself, not her dress.” Chanel over the years has been able to position itself as the premium luxury brand. It advertises in the best lifestyle magazines. Top Hollywood actors and actresses endorse the brand. Marilyn Monroe at the peak of her career said in an interview to LIFE magazine that she wears just a few drops of Chanel No 5 while sleeping. The marketing genius of Chanel is reflected by the names of its products. No. 5 was the first perfume by Chanel and it was named No 5 because the perfume was sample number 5 out of a total of 80 samples that were showcased to Coco Chanel in 1921. Chanel named the famous Chanel handbag 2.55 because of the date of its creation. It was crated in February 1955. Recently, Chanel became the first women luxury style company to get a male Hollywood star (Brad Pitt) endorse a female perfume (Chanel No 5). Chanel is also credited for making the most expensive Television commercial ever. It spent $33 million to produce the advertisement. The ad featured Nicole Kidman and was directed by Baz Lurhrmann the director of “Moulin Rogue”. The advertisement boosted the Chanel No 5 sales as people instantly connected with the persona of Kidman and Chanel. In the year 2013, Chanel brought a new marketing campaign named Inside Chanel. Here, the company actually spoke about the story of the evolution of the brand
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through a series of videos. They used the catch phrase “Once upon a time” that brought out an element of ‘then and now’ for the brand. The company won Luxury Daily’s 2013 Luxury Marketer of the Year for coming up with this campaign. A thing that is common to all premium brands in the world is that they stand for some intangible values. People do not pay such huge premium for just better quality products. Coco Chanel represents the brand value of Chanel. She stands for strength, love, dignity, ambition and above all, freedom. Unlike competitors, the brand does not stand for just “fashion” - fashion can get outdated. The brand elements it focuses on are “style” and “elegance”, associations that would stand the test of time. Now, another aspect that adds significantly to the value of the brand is the store layout. This key attribute is taken care by the best architects of the world. Recently Peter Marino was hired by Chanel to redesign its flagship store in America. Peter studied the brand closely before he came up with a design. He went to Paris to study all about the company’s history and persona of Coco Chanel. He also attended many runway shows. A key difference between premium brands and value brands in terms of store layout is the number of products stacked inside the store. The value brands use their store space to keep in as much inventory as possible but the premium luxury brands use their store to make their product standout. This is accomplished by creative use of lights, mirrors and space. Chanel has got almost all its cards right from the day of its inception. It has constantly revolutionized the way women dress and feel. The brand loyalty it demands and constant increase in sales year on year is a standing proof of the great work that the brand is doing. Chanel can further enhance the customer experience by integrating its stores with digital media. “Phygital” (Physical + Digital) is going to revolutionize the retail experience of tomorrow. Smartphone has become a commodity today and hence a mobile application for the brand enthusiasts can be a great option to engage the customer. All said and done Chanel is an awesome brand. It is a great case study for young marketing enthusiasts like us to learn and get inspired from
IIM Shillong
fun corner
january 2015
F u n Co r n er
Sagar Riaz IIM Shillong
Can you answer the following questions
ANSWERS 19
3. Coca Cola 4. Volkswagen
1. Hero Group 2. Sun Group
5. Adida MARKATHON
IIM Shillong
ishtihaar
january 2015
Ishtihaar GAutam Gopal IIM Shillong
Marketing and Education in India
Are education institutes in India attracting or trapping students? With the growth of the Indian economy the education standards in India have also improved which is clearly evident from the literacy rate which shot up from 63.04% in 2001 to 74.04% in 2011. This has led to an even greater increase in the number of educational institutes which offer various courses in different streams. The education industry in India is expected to grow up to be a $110 billion industry by this year. The major reason for this spurt is an unusual growth in privately owned institutes.
With so many private universities coming in, digital media has been used effectively to enormous effect by many of these new entrants to undertake their digital and social media marketing. Various institutes such as IIPM have promised their students to provide them with the best education in the country through their digital & print me-
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dia channels. With a good marketing strategy IIPM had expanded its stretch to 18 cities with an annual strength of over 5000 students, until it was proven to be a faรงade in 2014. In addition, there are various sites like Shiksha.com which provides young aspirants seeking education a customised option of choosing an institute on the basis of their pre ferred city and preferred qualification. Moreover, various educational institutes further milk digital media by placing side advertisements or pop-up advertisements on educational and career related sites and blogs. These institutes also use a well compiled database in order to target their customers by sending direct mails and phone calls, thus promoting their institutes on a personal basis. This push-based system of marketing used by these new and not-so-famous institutes should be properly and shrewdly evaluated by the aspirants as not everything which they claim is true. Nonetheless, there is no denying that digital media is not an effective channel of marketing for educational organisations. There are institutes which have used digital and social media marketing to their interest and therefore institutes such institutes continue to attract dedicated & hard-working students & in the process have established themselves as institutes of great repute that continue to produce skilful MBA graduates
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jab they failed
january 2015
Jab They Failed Abercrombie & Fitch
Vinay Jain IIM Shillong
“A
n organization’s small mistake may impact its results in a big way” and “We must change with the times”, these statements are something most of us must have heard from someone at one point or another. A strategy that was successful at one point of time may not yield the same kind of results in the future and even a small step taken by the organization may have a drastic impact on its performance. This is something Abercrombie & Fitch learnt the hard way. Abercrombie & Fitch is an American clothing company that has retail stores across the globe and is headquartered in New Albany, Ohio. It has three offshoot brands namely Gilly Hicks, Abercrombie Kids, Hollister Co. the first thing that comes to our mind when we hear the name ‘Abercrombie & Fitch’ is the sexiness attached to the brand. Lot of brands use sex as a tool to sell their products but A&F pushed the boundaries and this made it popular amongst the younger generation and received a lot of criticism from the parents. Yet this was a successful strategy as they were able to sell merchandise worth Billions of Dollars. We can’t blame the CEO Mike Jeffries for continuing its strategy for two decades as it was the one that got A&F the glory that it has today. A&F was making losses of around 25 million dollars a year when Jeff Fries joined in 1992 and it was his idea to make A&F a young, hip brand and came up with racy marketing strategies. People laughed at his strategies but after looking at the results nobody was laughing. The earnings climbed steadily for 52 quarters. This was like a dream run for A&F, they had made their mark in the industry. Until a statement made by the CEO Mike Jeffries changed it all. In 2014 an interview given by Mike Jeffries with Salon in 2006 resurfaced and created quite a controversy. He made statements that clearly said that A&F is only for good looking and cool people and fat, old, skinny people are not a part of their target group. Apart from this it was observed that the A&F stores don’t have their clothes in large sizes. This gave an impression that plus size kids weren’t as cool and A&F was an exclusionary brand. This really offended the people and created a negative publicity for A&F. Apart from this there was a change in the values and the needs of their target market (young people). They now wanted clothes which fit their pocket money and didn’t really want to spend too much on the same kind of clothes which they might find at other stores like H&M, ‘Forever 21’ for a fraction of the cost. The sales of A&F fell 11% in
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the second quarter of 2014. After making steady growth for 52 weeks A&F saw a decline. This shows that no matter how big and successful you are, if you don’t pay attention to the changing needs of the target market and respect it, you will lose the market and the brand will lose its value. After this A&F realized their mistake and have come up with a plan to deal with this issue.
The first thing they did was they started coming up with larger sizes yet there are people who claim that not all designs have all sizes and some designs don’t even have an XL. Their new strategy is to drop the logo focused apparel approach. This is kind of surprising because the logo was the sole reason why people were willing to pay so much for the clothes because they liked showing the logo off. But the company is doing the right thing as the younger generation in the USA have become more Price conscious and don’t really like wearing clothes which look like billboards advertising a brand. Markathon’s take on this: An organization should always be updated with the needs of their target market which in today’s time is very erratic. Also, in the current era of information even a small statement might ruin your organization’s image and may severe impacts so the people representing the organization should be careful before making any public statements.
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radical thoughts
january aug 2015 2014
Radical Thoughts
would desire to portray their product as the vehicle of choice for kidnappers is beyond comprehension.
Mohammad Fahd | IIM Shillong
The Hazards of Image-Centric Content Image centric content has been the mantra for marketeers in 2014. Photographic images are rapidly becoming a universal language. With social media networks such as Instagram, Tumblr & Facebook continuing to grow exponentially it is easier than ever for marketeers to promote their products by sharing photographs & images online. Pictures are considered to be more mobile-friendly in India as compared to videos due to the lack of high speed internet to a majority of the population & therefore it becomes obvious as to why image-centric marketing is once again on the rise. Now, while some marketeers have absolutely nailed the bull’s-eye, others have been a disaster. A picture is worth a thousand words but what’s often forgotten is that in a picture each of those words need to be spot on. A number of marketeers forget this basic fact while seeking sensationalism & end up with catastrophic results both for themselves & their organisation. Charlie Hebdo recently released their magazine with a caricature of Prophet Muhammad on its cover page & while it was clearly planned as a marketing stunt its repercussions turned out to be extraordinarily gruesome for the editors of the magazine. The act of terrorism against the magazine is certainly condemnable, a pitiful & cow-
Similarly, Gillette’s #shaveorcrave campaign depicting Neha Dhupia & Chitrangda Singh which tries to send across the message that you won’t get intimate with women if you aren’t clean shaven is another poor work of marketeers. A much better example of image centric content is presented by Volkswagen, who found an innovative way to promote their product through a print-ad campaign without even showing the car on it. Volkswagen while promoting the Polo GTI only showed 2 places in their banner but successfully managed to get across the message that travelling from one place to another in the Polo GTI is fun. Our attention is captured much more easily by images & since visual effects trigger an immediate reaction in the brain there is a very high chance that image-centric content will continue to rule the roost in marketing circles. After all, this form of communication requires much less
ardly act by the perpetrators of the attack. Nonetheless, it begs the question as to why did the editors of the magazine go for a move that was bound to hurt the sentiments of 1.6 billion people on the planet. Sensationalism, without taking into consideration the effect it may have on the audience is a recipe for a disaster. Ford too ran a similarly inadvisable ad campaign in India wherein in order to highlight its spacious boot on the Ford Figo, they showed a picture of Paris Hilton taking out her reality TV competition, the Kardashians, by binding, gagging & storing them in the boot of her car. Why anyone
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effort from the audience in a world of continuous bombardment through an overflow of messages, however marketeers need to ensure that the wrong message is not communicated. It is all too easy for a customer to form a negative impression of an organisation through an illadvised marketing campaign
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updates
december january 2015 2013 By Cheena Pasrija IIM Shillong
Brand Launch Bajaj to Launch 6 new Bikes in 6 months
Bajaj Auto aims to regain its lost share in the Indian two-wheeler market. It has in store- six product launches in the next six months which will include a new 100 cc bike besides a 400 cc model under its flagship brand Pulsar. The company that had once looked away from the high volume 100 cc segment is looking to create a new space in the mass market as it eyes an overall share of more than 20 per cent in the domestic market by March, this year.
Fiat to launch Jeep Fiat will finally launch the Jeep brand in the Indian market this year. The brand was to be launched in 2013, however, it didn’t happen and then there were rumors that Jeep might not make it at all. In news that will please Jeep fans, a publication says the Jeep brand might make it to India this year with its two products – the Grand Cherokee and the Wrangler. The Grand Cherokee might be powered by a 3.0-litre, V6 engine churning out 188bhp and 440Nm of torque mated to an eight-speed ZF unit. The SUV has a claimed 119mph (191kmph) top speed and can do the sprint from 0-100 kmph in 8.2 seconds.
Brand Watch Parag Milk Foods India’s largest private dairy Parag Milk Foods with brands such as Gowardhan, Go, Pride of Cows and Topp Up, has unveiled its new corporate identity and logo. The brand is aiming for expansion and is following an aggressive growth strategy. The next strategic move will be to create a strong parent brand and ensure umbrella branding for all of its present offerings which will surely help them emerge as a more powerful brand.
RSS’s new propaganda Swadeshi Jagran Manch, the economic wing of RSS, is suggesting Indians to avoid using foreign names for their brands. There are many Indian brands which follow such strategy including Aditya Birla Group owned Peter England, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Louis Phillipe, and Raymond owned ColorPlus which they had perceived to be foreign brands. They released a list of desi-videshi brands on a forum to promote the local brands. Swadeshi Jagran Manch always had a problem with the outside brands but now they are also against their names being used by our local players.
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updates
december 2013 january 2015 Ranbaxy ‘s OTC segment to get a push
Excise increase to reduce sales
Ranbaxy’s consumer healthcare portfolio, with brands like Revital, Volini, Pepfiz and Garlic Pearls, is set to get a big push from Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, which is in the process of acquiring the Gurgaon headquartered drug manufacturer. Ranbaxy’s over the counter portfolio (OTC) is going to be one of the key segments for Sun Pharma in terms of both investment and expansion. Sun Pharma is not present in the OTC segment and brands like Revital and Volini, which are doing very well might prove their decision to be fruitful. Their top executives have confirmed that Sun Pharma has drawn up a plan to focus on the OTC business and is also likely to make significant investment in the same.
The excise increase that will affect the luxury car brands much more than the lower priced mass market cars has led the former to plan the price mark up by targeting new customer segments. Top players like Mercedes Benz, Audi and BMW are planning a product and marketing offensive strategy in 2015 that will help them counter the overall slowdown and keep the growth momentum going. For example Mercedes Benz, which clocked its highest ever sales in India in calendar 2014 with a tally of 10,201 units using the same strategy. The Company achieved double digit growth in 2014 (13%) despite facing multitude of market challenges, which saw the overall luxury industry growth slowing down.
Media Media Person of the Year SY Lau, head of the online media group at Chinese Internet giant Tencent, is to receive the ‘media person of the year award’ from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the annual advertising industry festival. Previous recipients have included Google’s Eric Schmidt, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, HBO’s Richard Plepler and YouTube’s Salar Kamangar. The Lions organizers said Lau had been named: “for his leadership in overseeing the emergence of Tencent’s OMG as China’s leading online communications, social and entertainment service company. Reputation Management with Digital and Social Media Managing your brand image or reputation is a bit tricky these days. The more the merrier does not always hold true in this scenario. As major brands get better at their digital and social media marketing, they risk alienating consumers. Pharmaceutical brands like Pfizer who does not sell directly to the end consumers, needs to keep a note of such things. In such cases, not only is the hard sell out of the question, but even the soft sell is an inappropriate topic for social media conversations. Companies needs to understand, we consumers don’t always appreciate a conversation with a big company, even a sincere one.
Ad Watch Munchification Munch is up with brand new advertisement campaign promoting confidence to be themselves. The plot of campaign is the social neglect people are subjected to because of their lack of comfort towards English language. Munch’s new campaign for Munchification is a tad long-winded but is all set to usher in a new generation of people who can nei-
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updates
december 2013 january 2015 ther speak English nor Hindi well. Although the issue with ad might be the brand connect and brand association. The new concept is not very aligned with its past campaigns. So it might be a make or break situation for Munch. Munch is up with brand new advertisement campaign promoting confidence to be themselves. The plot of campaign is the social neglect people are subjected to because of their lack of comfort towards English language. Munch’s new campaign for Munchification is a tad long-winded and is all set to usher in a new generation of people who can neither speak English nor Hindi well. Although the issue with ad might be the brand connect and brand association. The new concept is not very aligned with its past campaigns. So it might be a make or break situation for Mun ch. Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwZxoX57WcY
Dabur Vatika: Brave and Beautiful Vatika’s new ad honors and celebrates the spirit of cancer patients. The ad caption ‘some people do not need hair to look beautiful’ says the message clear and loud. It is the first kind of advertisement where it was more about the non-users than the potential users. Vatika seeks to salute the inner strength and beauty of the women who have fought and defeated cancer, and have resumed normal life. Brand Vatika, as the marketing head points out, has always stood for ‘Woman of substance’. It is not just about the beauty of hair, that Vatika wants to promote but the overall beauty of women. Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QomoNyfkqvg
Articles are invited
“Best Article”: Amit Yadav & Shaily Chauhan |IIFT, DELHI 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 Feb, 2015. Please send your entries marked as <ARTICLE NAME>_<SENDERS’ NAME(S)>_<INSTITUTE> to markathon.iims@gmail.com.
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updates events
december 2013 january 2015
GodSellers 4.0
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