Marketing Magazine of IIM Shillong
July 2014
MARKATHON Volume 6 | Issue 1
Leveraging
FIFA 2014
through digital marketing and other tools for Brand Equity
Vartalaap with Mr. Harikesh S.Nair Associate Professor of Marketing Stanford GSB
From The Editor They call it ‘the beautiful game’ for a reason. 32 nations were fighting it out during the initial stages of the FIFA world cup but the entire world was engrossed in what can only be termed as the greatest sporting extravaganza of our lives yet. The World Cup keeps getting bigger and bigger with each edition and when a Cricket fanatic nation, which also happens to be the largest democracy in the world, starts going gaga over an event, you know that the popularity of the sport is on an unprecedented rise. Our cover story for the month of July takes you on a joyous ride through the greatest sporting spectacle that is the FIFA World Cup 2014, albeit with a twist – we try to look at the event from a marketer’s perspective, trying to analyse how the biggest brands around the world took it upon them to make the best of the situation by riding on the World Cup bandwagon. While some tried to tap on the emotional connect followers from the world over have with the game, some were shrewder in capitalizing on the star power of some of the greatest footballers of our generation. Our Cover Story “Leveraging FIFA 2014 through digital marketing and other tools for Brand Equity” deals with all these aspects and many more – a must read for all the marketing enthusiasts who also happen to love Football. For our Vartalaap section this edition, we have an exclusive interview with Prof. Harikesh S. Nair, Associate Professor (Marketing) at Stanford GSB. Read on for his views on the use of Analytics in the field of Marketing and get into the nitty-gritties of how quantitative models have
helped marketers understand human behaviour in a better way. Articles in our Perspectives section for the month deal with two stand-out performers in their respective segments – Make My Trip and Audi. Get some insights on how Make My Trip is ‘changing the way India travels’ and how Audi has slowly perforated the market to be one of the most recognized Premium Car Brands in India. Moving onto our Specials for the month, this edition’s Ishtihaar deals with a specific case of Societal Marketing wherein more and more brands are striving to develop campaigns around the theme of Women Empowerment to generate the much needed levels of awareness. Jab They Failed deals with the curious case of the sweeter ‘New Coke’ which ultimately turned out to be a bitter experience for the brand. To cap it off, we have our monthly edition of ‘Addicted’ plus our ‘Updates’ section to keep you up-to-date with the recent happenings in the world of Marketing. With so much in line waiting for you, wait no more and flip through our latest edition. Do keep us posted on your likes and dislikes by writing to markathon.iims@gmail. com and we promise we will come back bigger and better, time and again. Happy Reading!!!
The Markathon Team
Editors Amit Sonwani | B Ushashree | Nishant Prakash | Ramanathan K | Varsha Poddar | Yash B. Bhambhwani
Creative Designers Malini Aishwarya B | Swati Pamnani
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Contents
Strategic Analysis of Audi India Allu Reshma & Vignesh Kannan P | IMT Ghaziabad
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MakeMyTrip - Changing the Way India Travels Sai Pratyusha T & Tonmoy Banerjee | TAPMI
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Leveraging FIFA 2014 through digital marketing and other tools for Brand Equity? Ansuman Misra | IIM Shillong Vartalaap Mr. Harikesh S.Nair Associate Professor of Marketing Stanford GSB
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Eye 2 Eye Flipkart’s move into fashion is a faux pas. Agree / Disagree? Neha Ladha | IIM Shillong & Giri Mallika Bora | Delhi School of Mgmt
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Silent Voice Game of Thrones Hardik Shah | IIM Shillong
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Specials Addicted Swati Pamnani & Yash B. Bhambhwani | IIM Shillong
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Ishtihaar Ramanathan K | IIM Shillong
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Jab They Failed B Ushashree | IIM Shillong
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Updates Amit Sonwani | IIM Shillong
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FIFA 2014 Marketing Campaigns
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perspective
AUDI INDIA A Strategic Analysis
BY allu Reshma | Vignesh Kannan P IMT Ghaziabad INTRODUCTION: Headquartered in Bavarian heartland, Audi was formed in 1930 by merging 4 German automotive and auto-component companies. The four rings logo which is one of the most recognised brands in the world is symbolic of this merger. It is touted to be one of the famed “German Big 3” in luxury car makers, the others being BMW and Mercedes-Benz. It entered the Indian market in 2004. Since then, Audi has seen tremendous growth in the last decade. It is one of the reputed brands in the country now. Commenting on Audi India’s performance, Joe King, head, Audi India said: Our strong leadership is a result of our unique marketing activities, network expansion, diverse product portfolio...” Recently it achieved hat-trick of Best-ever: Best-ever yearly sales-10126 units (FY 13/14); Best-ever quarterly sales-2740 units (Jan-Mar 14); Bestever monthly sales-1404 units (Mar14). Let us take a look at the strategy that Audi has for the Indian market and the marketing and promotional activities in plans on to achieve greater and sustained success in India.
TARGET MARKET: Audi is targeting the customers who are looking for executive segment, premium compact segment sedans, high performance supercars and sports utility vehicle enthusiasts who look for quality products. Targeted Consumer profile for the sedans and SUVs is that of executives; who are in 30-45 age brackets and for the super sports cars, the young adults are the target customers. According to Joe king, “The average age is around 35 years for luxury car buyer in India, which in global scenario is 43-45 years. Hence globally India is the youngest market for Audi ecosystem.”
MARKET POTENTIAL:
India is a growing market with its need for luxury sedans and sports utility vehicles (SUVs) increasing every year. India is one of the top ten markets for luxury sedans now and top 4 in automotive sector in-terms of growth per annum. Since 2010 the passenger vehicles section comprising of passenger cars, SUVs and MPVs had a CAGR of around 17 percent which is very healthy considering the OVERALL BUSINESS STRATEGY: global slowdown of car sales. Audi has followed a strategy of acquiring greater sales by The increase in Audi’s sales has also been good. The com- offering the best features for their customers compared pany recorded sales of 10126 units in India in FY 13/14, to their competitors for similar prices in the luxury auto implying 11 percent growth and thus became the first lux- segment. Their strategy consists of building a strong brand ury car maker to cross the 10000 milestone in the country. presence and high perception of the Audi brand, a good The sales of German Big 3 cars with their percentage in- distribution network and offering an exciting and diverse product portfolio to the consumer in India. Attaining and crease in growth for FY 13/14 in India is shown as:
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perspective maintaining a market leadership position is the primary focus.
to expect from the company in the forthcoming year and thus they pre-emptively create flutter and demand before the cars hit the market. This is a part of their pull strategy.
MARKETING STRATEGY:
Audi also engages in push strategy by giving consumer incentives to purchase the cars immediately without delaying (as delaying in purchase gives chances for brand preferences to oscillate). These incentives include low interest rates and even zero interest EMIs in certain festive seasons such as Diwali and offering branded Audi merchandises such as watches, calendars and key chains etc. Also the sales force is given incentives to push through their sales.
Their Marketing is quite ruthless. Their main focus when it comes to Marketing is strength in direct sales. In so much so that each dealer of Audi cars is expected to employ at-least 15 sales people. The company has strict policies for monitoring and appraising the sales task force. If any salesperson is unable to make any sales, they are simply asked to leave as they are very sure that it could not have been due to dissatisfaction with their products. Primary activities done to engage the prospective consumer include giving demos and test drives.
PRODUCT STRATEGY:
Consumer satisfaction is very important in the luxury car segments and hence Audi has set high benchmarks for providing the best after sales service. They even provide free after sales service for the first two times similar to what is followed in the two-wheeler vehicles segment in India unlike BMW and other companies offering similar cars.
Audi offers superior performance and driving experience packed with luxury and aesthetic designs and hence it promotes itself and is perceived as Highly Aspirational cars. Its prices and promotions reflect the same. It has created a strong brand reputation by winning several races such as Le Mans, F4 etc. This speaks volumes about their traction control systems and the direct fuel injection system of the Audi cars which is critical in winning these races. Audi A3 is awarded world Car of the Year 2014.
The Print medium is heavily utilised in marketing, especially lifestyle magazines are used to promote the brand. New car launches are extensively covered in press launches and in all leading dailies and news magazines. This is followed by its iconic advertisements in television showing comfort and high quality of ride and its sportiness. Billboards along junctions in high traffic lanes, is another important component of their marketing strategy. Whenever a new dealership is opened in a new city, full-page advertisements are carried out in the dailies and thus footfall in the dealership is increased. Then it is the responsibility of the sales force to convert this footfall into sales. Displaying new models in AutoExpo is also something Audi is very particular about, to let the market know what products
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POSITIONING STRATEGY: Audi has positioned itself as an aspiration brand in India. In line with this strategy, they have launched their best performing cars in India and have delayed the launch of the more economical models such as A4 until recently. They portray themselves as being the leaders in multiple sectors of cars by launching diverse range of products ranging from classy-looking sedans, to sport coupes and strong and agile Sports utility vehicles. This is garnered them a perception of expertise in overall automotive segment and not merely in one range of cars.
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By pricing on par with BMWs and Mercedes they are trying to imply that they are of the same league as these German Auto companies and yet offer more features in their cars. Their motto of “Vorsprung durch technik” (Progress through technology) implies to the consumers that Audi is technology oriented and not just focussed in good design.
sources are a constant threat. Other companies like BMW, Mercedes which have such perception of high German standard cars give tough competition in emergent markets.
AREAS OF STRENGTH:
Future challenges include stiff competition from other German auto manufacturers like BMW, Mercedes-Benz and from Lexus too. The cars on the model of Nissan 350z are both sporty and tuned for the Indian roads. The other models of that chassis and make from Nissan if launched in India would give stiff competition to Audi’s TT’s sales. Also the Indian consumer at present has very high perception of the “Made in Germany” tag that these companies carry. So when they set up manufacturing units in India for its low labour cost, they would have to communicate to the consumer that quality won’t be compromised on at all.
FUTURE CHALLENGES:
1. A strong brand presence (Built by winning several races consequently, and good consumer reviews over the years). 2. Constant innovation in design, form and functionality (MMI, Navigation, Quattro’s four-wheel drive etc). 3. Efficient operations management providing high margins of profit by reducing cost. 4. Association with the super car brand Lamborghini gives it a sporty image and advantages of technological collaboration. 5. Technological superiority through R & D investments in relation to lot of other brands worldwide. 6. Large Product mix and width catering to sedan, sports car, luxury car and sports utility vehicle segments of the auto market. 7. Audi cars are touted to have the right mix of class, comfort and peppiness; striking chord with both young and mature customers. 8. Market leader in the Indian sports car market with cars like R8, TT, RS 5 Coupe and S4 under its belt.
FUTURE POTENTIAL/ GROWTH PLAN:
THREATS:
India is also transforming itself into a major Auto-manufacturing hub. Especially Chennai is on the way to become the world’s largest Auto hub by 2016 by having installed capacity to manufacture more than 3 million cars annually. By 2020, sales of passenger vehicles in India is said to increase to 9 million. Passenger vehicles include passenger cars, Sports utility vehicles and MPVs. Of these, Audi is already into two sectors. So Audi is poised for growth in India owing to the growing demand.
1. Regulations in entering new market and need to make alliances with local companies to enter certain nations like china. 2. Constantly tightening environmental regulations making auto companies to proactively regulate their engine performances. 3. Exposure to fluctuations in currency exchange rates when exporting from Germany. 4. Competitions from larger companies with more re-
As we can see that sales of Audi has clearly been on a growth pattern and has outgrown the likes of BMW and Mercedes which have been long established in India. And with the Annual Luxury Car segment in India set to growth at 15% we can estimate that even if very conservatively all three contenders only manage to get a 15 % share of this growing pie, Audi will still rule the roost in sales for the next financial year.
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more than just technological features to go for a luxury car. They also look for the prestige that such a car carries, which in India is generally created by strong celebrity endorsements and repetitive telecast of advertisements and effective product placement in the Indian movies. This will greatly help Audi to stay ahead in the sales of their cars in India.
Audi is expecting moderate growth for luxury car market for the next 5 years and is planning to bring in six more new models to the Indian market by 2015. These new models will engage the consumers who are brand loyal and also the ones who would want to upgrade from midlevel sedans and the sports enthusiasts. So predictably at least one sports car and one entry level luxury sedan (A4) will be launched by 2014.
CONCLUSION:
IMPACT ON SOCIETY:
Audi has got its marketing strategy in perfect place as is shown by its growth to being the number one sold luxury car brand in India in merely 10 years of its presence. Though to handle the future uncertainties, Audi might need to up its game and engage proactively in product placement and stronger brand equity creation to sustain its position.
The drastic rise of sales of India has a lot to do with the changes that Audi has brought in consumption/purchase patterns in the luxury car segment. While previously there were only two companies in this segment, with the name of Mercedes being common in every household as a symbol of class and luxury, Audi’s entry since 2004 has changed this paradigm. Their Ads focus more on the features than on the brand name which is displayed only towards the end, which in a way make the consumer focus more on the value and features provided and not be stuck in names alone. This has motivated the consumer to look beyond just Mercedes and BMW for luxury sedans and now other foreign brands are also finding India fertile for foraying into. Another impact of Audi’s is that their constant offering of newer technologies to the consumer such as the MMI and the navigation systems, other car manufacturers now have to keep up and offer more such features to the consumer. RECOMMENDATIONS/AREAS TO IMPROVE: Audi’s policy of constant innovation keeps them up to date in technology field. But the Indian consumer needs
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Changing The Way India Travels in the industry through their innovative softwares. It thrilled customers to revisit the portal for majorly two factors namely, convenience and value for money. One such instance is the development of flight comparison software that fetched real time fares for low cost carriers and full service carriers.
BY Sai Pratyusha T | Tonmoy Banerjee TAPMI Travelling is something which I look forward every year. Be it America to see the Statue of Liberty or Louvre Art Museum in Paris, the first thing that awe’s me is delighting with best customer service. Make my trip’s “It’s all about travel” has never failed to deliver this constant customer support over 13 years in the history of travel industry.
The air and rail ticketing concept further extended to roads. Since bus travel is a frequent mode of transport in India for lower-middle class income group, MMYT introduced SMS-based bus ticketing. They saw the prospect for this target segment and developed a simple SMS based application that can be used for all kinds of mobile phones. MMYTs continuous innovation and development of new business model is the main reason for its market leader position in the industry. By defining the customer value proposition through innovations, they maintained a strong leadership position in the market. The major characteristic that differentiates MMYT from other competitors is the development of cutting edge products by their strong technology team. Also, an additional attribute in their website which enhances customer experience is the deployment of cloud based services.
With the advent of internet, Deep Kalra saw this opportunity in the year 2000 to deliver customer loyalty through digital marketing strategy. The objective of his strategy was to transform the sweaty pain hours queued up in front of ticket counters to one click – make my comfort trip method. The driving factor for Makemytrip in this Over-theair-programming (OTA) intense competitive industry is creating a difference through unique customer experience. Deep Kalra spotted the opportunity of online travel and launched MakeMyTrip with new and unique concept of selling air tickets through multiple channels. The company which started with US-Indian NRI travellers segment eventually built its image by expanding its target segment to regular travellers. The margins obtained from selling air tickets were low considering the availability of air tickets in respective airline websites. The company shifted its strategy to add more value to its customers by offering hotel accommodations, bus tickets, and holiday packages. The boon in the travel industry in early 2000 gave another opportunity for MMYT to enhance customer confidence by extending its services to rail. They created a difference
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MMYT realised that the internet penetration rate will eventually increase in future and simultaneously started adding more products to its online portfolio. Their innovation has touched over 1 billion routes with the introduction of route planner which helps the smart traveller to make commute decisions. Even before the rapid development of smart phones, MMYT was the first in India to launch a mobile application. During the development of the application, MMYT predicted a boon in mobile industry due to growth of technological advancements in the market. Their development strategy provided the same end to end user friendly experience to the customers similar to their website.
hance the awareness level among non-internet users, MMYT came up with offline presence by building associations with HPCL, and other retail outlets. Since the Indian market is not fully concentrated through online channel, MMYT took this offline initiative to generate more revenue although not in a greater number of outlets. MMTY succeeded not only through technology and innovation, but also by developing emotional connection between its customers and brand. They increased the sales in online marketing by communicating their message ‘Memories Unlimited’ through campaigns. The company ensured that every customer experiences the memories that they had during the travel through this campaign.
Innovative features like ‘easy pay’ and ‘pay at hotel’ facilities were the prime reasons to show the unique selling feature of MMYT in travel market. The ‘easy pay’ enables the customers to make part payments for certain type of products like international air tickets. MMYT did
For MMYT, understanding consumer behaviour is one of the key strength. Another unique concept introduced by them is ‘Last minute hotel deals’. After analysing consumer behaviour, MMYT came up with a unique proposition strategy by offering hotel booking at a much discounted price. In order to reduce the gap between customer perception and company deliverables, MMYT launched a new
not introduce cash on delivery strategy due to the dynamic price fluctuations. Also, ‘pay at hotel’ which was introduced with a non-refundable fee ensures confirmed booking and payment during check in. This feature was not introduced by any other competitor during its launch giving MMYT an edge in travel market. In order to en-
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proposition “100% money back guarantee� on hotels. The success of the company depends a lot on seamless integration with its various partners. MMYT took a path
fans to follow their team across different parts of the country. Since the major chunk of revenue is obtained from existing customers, MMYT used analytics efficiently to reach its customers by sending promotions, discounts ad offers through personalised SMS and e-mails on regular basis. MMYT leveraged social media platform such as Facebook and Twitter to promote awareness and increase its sales by offering varied themes based on different occasions. Their brand promotion in networking sites became successful as their strategy did not incline only to its target audience.
to increase the value addition by acquiring top players in the market. The main challenge of MMYT that scaled up its offerings in digital marketing strategy is integrating diverse acquisitions mainly through financial partners and travel partners. MMYT provided a solution to support joint customers through acquisitions from ITC group, HT group and other travel agencies. Interestingly they also partnered with matrimonial websites to promote honeymoon tour packages. The culture of the company mainly emphasised on partnering with organizations that brought value addition to it and customers.
The major challenge faced by MMYT is global expansion. Also due to limited Internet penetration and security concerns of money transactions, it is facing the smooth process of increasing customer base The strategies adopted by MMYT helped other players to emulate in the online travel market and became followers to market leader. MMYT got an edge over players due to the first mover advantage and today this competitive advantage is helping it to firmly hold its leadership position.
MMYT increased sales not only by reaching out to its existing customers but also targeting potential customers through various brand building campaigns such as IPL themed television campaign and sweepstake campaign. They were the principal sponsor of Hyderabad Sunrisers attracting the
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Cover Story Leveraging FIFA 2014 through digital marketing and other tools for Brand Equity
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t certainly is not a wrong proposition when we mean to say that human emotions rule his actions, typically when analyzed from a seller’s perspective or broadly a marketer’s perspective. A strong emotional connect can certainly help push volumes in terms of offerings that appease the customer’s cause of emotion and add to his value base. Top brands have exactly relied on the above notion and FIFA World Cup 2014 is yet another vibrant opportunity to capitalize on the same. For millions of soccer loyalists globally FIFA 2014 is way more than just an event. For them it is a connect strong enough to guide many of their decisions. A strong emotional connect , a burning passion and somewhere this boils to a very patriotic angle that showcases ones love for ones nation on this platform. It’s these parameters that rule ones loyalty to certain brands who can establish that fine thread of customer connect with the customers/ consumers. FIFA 2014 along with it has got a mad flurry of promotional campaigns across brands through several interfaces, all in a pursuit to enhance their brand equity and push more volumes. Let’s try and understand the different assumptions these brands have relied upon to reach upto people. 1.Emotional Impact: As discussed previously the emotional quotient of the customer is of paramount focus under such assumption. Digital marketing proves handy under these circumstances. Research proves that people share the most when their emotional attachment to the matter is maximized and sharing and viral spread are the few parameters that measure the success of the given campaign. Hence for brands it’s of subtle importance to identify key
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By Ansuman Misra IIM Shillong
drivers or points that drive emotions and nothing can be better than the love for one’s country, the game and the correlation these two share. However there is a very prominent constraint that can serve an impediment in this entire ordeal. The very subjectivity of humour and emotions validates for the fact that what might be funny to us may not be to someone else. Hence universally translable emotions are the ones on which focus should be laid. More to substantiate for the fact that the audience would relate to it better. To benchmark for, P&G used the Olympics base to emphasize on the importance of the mother child relationship at the onset of Olympics 2012. This excellently established a connect with the pool it targeted and the campaign was relevant to be viewed and appreciated across all age groups/generations. 2.It’s just not the game alone: Brands have tried to identify the story behind their campaign. The clichéd over-drafted method of approaching customers with product offerings and benefits is being done away with. Brands would use this huge platform of World Cup 2014 to globally connect to people across all ethnicity, race and nationality and every diverse aspect they touch upon would have a story about themselves and the game. Brands have tried coalescing all these together to forge a campaign. Something on similar lines has been done by the beverage giant Coca Cola. Coca Cola has embarked upon a nine month long journey where they shall be taking the world cup trophy across eighty eight nations. The sole concept behind the campaign was to engage the consumers and build up their anxiety, anticipation and excitement till the game. Le’ts now question what happens next? The answer would be, for soc-
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cer frenzy nations people would hold Coca Cola close to their heart as they shall perceive it as something that caters to their happiness, as it understands how important soccer is for them, it understands how important the trophy is for them. Building this perception is the appropriate definition of brand connect. During every match people shall appreciate and love opening a Bottle of Coke as they shall symbolize it with Happiness. 3.It’s shifting to the Social Media: Reactive Marketing is the new term this tech savvy generation is perpetrating into. The likes of Twitter, Facebook etc. have made sure that sporting activities and promotional campaigns are updated at the quickest on these sites as they are the most visited. FIFA’s new mobile app has served as a platform to construct a community of dedicated soccer fans. Advertisers now keep an eye on these social networking sites to track what is trending and they can certainly leverage this opportunity to increase their Brand value. Before transgressing into the nitty-gritties of the standout campaigns brands have undertaken to encash upon their brand equity in this Superbowl, lets understand key points that reinforce the stand of digital marketing under the current scheme of things. 1.Real Time marketing shall be at its peak in this Superbowl with a global audience of 3.2 billion and a volume of sixty four matches spread across thirty two days, the scope of audience involvement/engagement shall be the highest. This is where big brands have fixated their focus on and shall leverage upon social media and the internet for their viewership.
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2.The women viewership has been on the hike, going by the fact that 43% of the viewers in the 2010 soccer world cup had been women. Women centric buying decisions are likely to see a boost. Women can definitely be the difference in terms of spending power and reach 3.Looking long term is another facet digital marketers are focusing on. The engagement developed this summer shall certainly showcase itself in 2018 long after the trophy is won. So we basically engage our customers and convert them from soccer ambassadors to brand ambassadors such that they carry the word forward. Understanding hashtags and comments has gone a long way in fathoming consumer expectations and serving them better. Samsung: Save The Earth Campaign A path-breaking campaign launched by Samsung that has the famous soccer stars that we can relate to fighting for a cause to save the earth. Exemplifying their soccer skills the advertisement campaign has brilliantly tried portraying the product features of S5 with a wonderful algorithm for relating to the customers. Now the dual advantage of having such campaigns can certainly be indicative of the fact that, consumers know your phone well and they shall buy because it is technically competent. The other implication can certainly be soccer enthusiasts see their stars promoting the phone at the behest of a wonderful concept of saving the earth. Thus the entire bag of goodies related to the product and the campaign at the backdrop of the soccer world cup shall definitely acquire more customers for the brand, it
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shall also reinforce the stand of the loyalists. Nike: Risk Everything Campaign Again dwelling on similar lines Nike has definitely taken a larger than life step in investing a lot in the social media domain and reducing investment in television ads. This has garnered tremendous responses globally. The advertisement showcases the famous stars who have been threatened by the maniacs of a shrewd scientist who develops a genetically identical human version of the players negating their human flaws. Thus the likes of Ronaldo, the Brazilian legend who comes to the rescue of these forlorn players who have been rendered out of their business due to their genetically modified counterparts, brings them back to their business. They identify their capabilities and finally risk everything to win their final battle against their modified counterparts. Point Of Advantage: Now if we do a comprehensive analysis we get to fathom the intent behind the advertisement. This again has a clear demarcated line
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that somewhere Nike understands how priceless are these soccer stars to their fans and how could Nike develop that soft corner in the hearts of these fans by highlighting the plight of the players when they fall out of business on account of the evil scientist’s maniacs that floored them. Comes the Brazilian legend Ronaldo a smart move again, Brazilian soccer fans would love to see their hero serving as a passive hero in the frame by bringing back these footballers together. Finally the advertisement ends on a very high note when the stars show their ultimate weaponry of skills and outsmart their threatening counterparts. Thus the final victory of the favourite stars over the evil by outwitting their miseries and the joy associated with the feeling of seeing their stars savour the victory is what Nike has capitalized upon. Budweiser understood the correlation between beer and soccer and as estimated they hiked their marketing spends to capitalize on the same. Budweiser launched its website and mobile app as a prelude to
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the games to engage the customers and in turn the app also informed the customer as to the nearest place where they can enjoy the game of soccer over a Budweiser. This engagement plan definitely sounds lucrative and has helped Budweiser maximize on the FIFA 2014 campaign. Budweiser calls it the “biggest social conversation ever” Having analyzed the campaigns , it is but lucid and clear that the thin line that separates the successful and the unsuccessful in this pursuit of brand wars has been the correct identification of human emotion and a valid correlation to the existing environment. Talking specifically from the purview of FIFA 2014 big brands have always leveraged upon the football connect and the magnanimity and euphoria surrounding the world cup. Supplementing the emotion of people and standing by them through their entire pursuit of joy and sorrow through the game would certainly help the brand to survive in the customer’s mind. In this context it is imperative to mention about a trend that has been an integral facet of marketing and has contributed to the increasing viewership of FIFA 2014 which indirectly has aided campaigns trying to achieve prominence through digital marketing. This term is called as “cross cultural marketing”. For nations that never had football in their top priority list, things are shaping up differently now. The migration of several communities and their marketing ideologies into the general market has given a huge impetus to the affinity for the game. To be precise, there are a few countries where football is not followed very religiously except for a few local communities who ardently follow the game. Now it’s these communities that push the game into the general market and in turn the overall viewership and likeliness for the sport increases in the nation. We would certainly appreciate understanding as to how would this shape up. United States, a country that is fond of baseball and American football has seen a splurge in the average football viewers and appreciators of the game. Now this particularly has been facilitated by the Latin American and European immigrants in United States of America. It goes without questioning that soccer is religiously followed in Latin America and Europe and in turn the nuances of the game has been infused into United States Of America by this migratory population that has certainly given an impetus to the taste of football in the U.S.A. Now owing to the impetus, a fair fraction of the local population also tries understanding the game and slowly and steadily a loyal base for the
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sport is created. Talking specifically about the United States Of America the passion for the game has been fuelled by the digital and social media. These have enabled these cross cultural advocates of the game to rapidly update about several facets of the game on the social media and gather a follower base. Hence the entire connection built around this social media base comprises of several people who are introduced into the game and are converted into hardcore loyalists at a later stage. Now we must question that what has been the change driver. Soccer had been there since long but why is this change so rapidly visible now. As a befitting answer to this query we might just say that the only difference then and now has been the emergence of social media and its rapid spread. Its social media that has provided us a very convenient way to voice ourselves our choices, takes, likes, dislikes and preferences and it is these parameters that are fathomed by brands who have now preferred campaigning the digital way. This ensures effective spread and quicker response from the customer. FIFA 2014 certainly has been a huge leveraging tool for companies to go big on their campaigns. These campaigns have gathered enough moss and have certainly defined the new age of digital marketing further reinforcing its cause of existence. However this new age shall not stay this way for long, someday saturation shall be a crippling factor. What remains to be seen is ‘How Long?’ Will there be a paradigm shift to a different method or companies shall try and evolve on the existing practice? Whatever might be the deduction, it is imperative to understand that the mind of the customer is a rented space and in order to exist there we must pay the rent and behave properly
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VARTALAAP An Interview with Mr Harikesh S.Nair Dr. Harikesh Nair is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Stanford GSB since 2005. His research is in the area of marketing analytics. His work brings together applied economic theory and econometric tools with marketing data to better understand consumer behavior and to improve the strategic marketing decisions of firms. Prof. Nair received his PhD in Business from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. Prior to that, he received his MS in Transportation Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and his B.Tech in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Madras, India. Prof. Nair serves as an associate editor at Management Science and Quantitative Marketing and Economics. At the GSB, Nair was the Fletcher Jones Faculty Scholar from 20072008, the Spence Faculty Scholar from 2011-12 and the Louise and Claude Rosenberg Faculty Scholar from 2009-2010 and 2012-13. “Marketing is becoming very quantitative and there is a lot of data. So if you are looking for a future and you have access to a University, try to become quantitatively savvy and that will be a huge asset going forward.�
Stanford GSB
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Associate Professor of Marketing IIM Shillong
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Markathon: From a B.tech in Civil Engineering and an MSE in Transportation Engineering, what made you shift gears to pursuing a PhD in Business? Furthermore what really grabbed your interest in Marketing?
would say many of the companies getting into the big data space are in this phase. iii) The bottom end includes companies who have heard of big data and want to do something about it but do not have internal processes set in place for it. These companies primarily are involved in the proI don’t think these streams are necessarily unrelated. cess of integrating disparate data sources that are A lot of my research during my MSE in Transportation spread across marketing, sales, finance, accounting Engineering required me to understand consumer etc. these companies are desperate to hire people patterns. For instance I would like to know how many who can make sense of all this data and to set up people would drive on a particular new road that I processes in place. This is very difficult due to the gap am constructing between say Chennai and Mysore in human capital in this field currently. and that will require me to forecast how people’s travel patterns change with time for example tak- Markathon: In one of your studies based on the viding the train or taking the bus, travelling alone or in eo game market, you have mentioned that compagroups… and such long run travel patterns affect the nies misjudge their consumers’ intelligence and set miles travelled on the road which in turn affects the prices high initially in order to reap higher profits material quality to be used. In order to study such early. In your opinion what is a more suitable apissues similar kinds of statistical and econometric proach to pricing in case of forward looking conmodels are used. So the problem of forecasting how sumers? driver behavior will change when he/she responds to a new road or a new travel intervention is very simi- The video game market is huge and today the price lar to the problem of forecasting the consumer be- dispersion for creative products like video games or havior when a new brand or a product is launched. movies is very low. Due to this norm or convention, And my interest lies in the use of quantitative models it seems most of the time that some of the small to understand human behavior and I believe there is games are over-priced. So usually what happens is that when you release a high anticipation product a lot of commonality in all fields of social sciences. such as an iPhone or a huge game, the high willing Markathon: Your research interests include Market- folks will purchase it even at a higher price while the ing Analytics and you have also published papers on mass market or the low wiling folks will wait. When Big Data and marketing analytics. How affectively you reduce the prices at a later stage, the low-willdo you thinks companies are using analytics in their ing market will also start purchasing your product so marketing efforts today? There is a wide spectrum of usage today. I would describe it in three different phases of a company using analytics: i) Predictive Mode: Technology savvy companies like Google and Facebook will be using models for analytics in a predictive way. So that combines a managerial intuition and a marketing policy and uses models to forecast consumer behavior. This is the top end of the spectrum inhabited by few. ii) Descriptive on Reporting: These companies use analytics in a more retrospective aspect rather than a prospective aspect. This means that they use data of their’ and their competitors’ past actions to report it to internal stakeholders. So the analytics for this company has a descriptive flavor where it tries to understand what happened and why it happened. I
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vartalaap Psychology Pricing
july 2014 tive significance of the theory in real settings. I think there is a substantial lag in this aspect. Markathon: You mentioned in one of your research papers that eliminating sales quotas might stimulate profits? Can you please throw some light on that? How else can managers determine how much to pay their salesmen?
A quota basically means that up to a threshold in terms of sales or revenue, you will get a straight salary. But beyond that threshold you start getting commissions as you fulfill your quotas. Why do we need quotas? First of all I need to work in order to get my commission, it gives me incentives. Apart from that managers can’t really see what the sales agents are doing so quotas help in identifying the performance. you end up effectively getting both the high willing However, if we set the quotas very far away, a sales market as well as the low willing segment. This policy agent might never be able to fulfill his quota. Thus works well as long as consumers do not think ratio- the sales agent might feel de-motivated and not nally. However if your consumers rationally examine work at all. On the other hand if the quota can easily the trends and look forward, they will realize that the be beaten, this can erode performance as well. For prices are to come down at a later stage and despite instance if the sales agent has a quarterly quota and being very willing to pay, they will wait till you lower he has made a great sale in January, he doesn’t feel the prices. Firms that are aware of this rationale in incentivized enough to push more sales in February the consumers’ minds, will try to cut the prices in the and March as has already made quota for this quarter. beginning itself but the rational consumers will re- However, in the case that he might not make quota in frain from purchasing in the expectation of further the next quarter, he may decide to hold a sale in Febprice cuts. This cycle can continue until there is no ruary and try to convert it in the next quarter. Now scope left for price cut and the firm loses a chunk of the consequence of holding off a sale in a competiits profit. tive environment would be that the customer would How can firms price their products better? I think the be lost to competition before the next quarter which key is in market research. There are a lot of methods is ultimately a loss to the firm. So all incentive based available today to identify the consumers with lot schemes including quotas face two competing incenof patience and who are willing to wait, consumers tives. On the positive side they generate goals and who are well informed about prices and - basically motivate employees to meet them in the absence your consumers with precise expectations. For these of monitoring. On the negative side, they generate consumers, firms can design products with low price gaming by the sales agents. So the optimal plan has setting whereas for high willing consumers, products to balance both these negative and positive incenwith a higher price setting would work better. tives against economic factors. Now if the quota is badly designed, the negativity associated with the Markathon: To what extent do you think marketers gaming could badly overwhelm the positivity associare giving importance to the psychology of pricing? ated with improved incentives. In which case I can get rid of the quotas and give commission on every I think firms and marketers have realized the impor- dollar of increment you bring in and be better off. A tance of understanding the psychology of the con- well designed incentive system is a thing of beauty. It sumers to price products properly. The gap, if there requires clear thinking, measurement and identifying exists one, is in measurement. So understanding how the kind of people you have in your team, as well as a consumer reacts to certain stimuli is the theory of your customers and your selling system. consumer behavior but in order to make the most Markathon: According to you, what’s the biggest out of this, you need to understand the quantita-
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vartalaap
july 2014
obstacle to effective content marketing? How can firms make their advertisements on social media more effective and not seen as a hindrance? I think the major hindrance in this regard is the proliferation of the content and also the fact that consumers are extremely time constrained. The proliferation of content means that there is so much content out there that it becomes extremely hard to understand which content works for which set of consumers. So it’s not a very vast market out there but rather a niche market and each individual can be thought of having his own tastes and preferences. So in the old days I had 4-5 different content options but now I have thousands. So there is a very big role for research to understand what content works for what audience. The second problem is that most consumers are connected to several devices like mobiles, laptops, tablets, TV etc. For the digitally connected consumer, patience is very limited for any content that is irksome or considered a nuisance and to ignore that is just one click or scroll away. So it is very easy to lose the attention of the consumers today which is compounded by all these issues. Content engineering is extremely important in today’s times. On the flipside, there is a revolution in measurability and data collection of consumer targeting today thanks to internet and access to a lot of consumers. So there are better tools to enable content engineers today though they have to be utilized effectively. There are 2 types of content attributes that marketers typically deal with. The first is the search/informative attribute where there is a lot of data or information
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provided to the users e.g. x amount of calories in this drink. However, there is another type of attribute which is the emotional/persuasive attribute which deals with consumer sentiments e.g. it’s a nice day to drive Ford today which is more like a conversation. So you can have various such emotional attributes encoded into these posts. And surprisingly for us marketers, the data from these posts has shown much higher levels of consumer engagement. So content, especially on social media needs to be encoded with more of emotional and persuasive elements rather than information dissemination. Markathon: Any advice you would like to give to the readers of our magazine? I would say that marketing is becoming very quantitative and there is a lot of data. It just seems that the whole of finance went into a quantitative revolution in the late eighties, when quantitatively trained individuals went to Wall Street and that was the beginning of the Structured Finance. The same kind of revolution is happening in marketing now. But there seems to be a shortage of quantitatively oriented individuals who can solve business problems. So if you are looking for a future and you have access to a University, try to become quantitatively savvy and that will be a huge asset going forward. However, the role of managerial intuition and qualitative aspect of marketing will continue to play a huge role. Quantitative tools and data and managerial intuition are not substitutes for one another. Rather they complement each other
IIM Shillong
eye2eye
december july 2014 2013
Flipkart’s move into fashion is a faux pas. Agree or disagree? neha ladha iim shillong
Giri Mallika Bora delhi school of mgmt
Last year the size of the Indian e tailing market was 15 billion dollars and observing the growth this industry is seeing, expert’s state that it will be a 76 billion USD industry by 2021 in India. The point lies within the fact that though the industry shows promising growth in the upcoming years, is it wise to invest or venture in to newer product lines as the number of competitors increases. Indian e tailing was a comparatively small industry in the primitive years and over its evolution cycle it has grown in scale and intensity. International players and giants like e-bay and Amazon have now entered this market. Analyzing the situation further it seems like Flipkart is firing in every direction possible unaware of the consequences or outcomes. The disclosure of the deal with Myntra comes few days after Amazon’s entry in to the Indian market. Amazon declared its famous one day delivery option soon after its entry in to the Indian market, Flipkart went ahead and declared a similar model 5 days later. This shows that Flipkart has not been able to foresee what they are going to stand against. Though they have declared the one day delivery system, Flipkart is still facing trouble progressing on the lines of a third party logistics partner, which it has been trying to venture in to in the past some time. Such unrest inside the company at such intense times may cause the company to drive itself in to an embarrassing situation where lack of management and proper planning puts the company in bad light. With its venture in to Fashion, its primary focus should be on developing this segment but the company continues to state that its priority will remain in the cell phone market. It can be observed that Flipkart is balancing itself on a very thin line and if anything goes wrong Flipkart is in for a toss.
Flipkarts move into fashion has many strategic implications. Its line of acquisitions including Myntra for Rs 2000 crores till date speaks of the role of inorganic growth in its $1 Billion market valuation. Indian e-tail market is routed to see 100 million buyers, with sales nearing $40 billion by 2018. The Flipkart-Myntra combined entity already holds 50% of the Indian market share and is likely to capture 70% in the next two years. The other motive behind this move can be traced to fighting out AMAZON’S invasion of the Indian Market. In less than a year, Amazon has built a strong supply base of around 5000 number of sellers with 15 million products sold across 25 categories. Hence Flipkarts move into fashion arena has enriched the variety in its Product Offerings. Governmental regulatory compliances – 51% FDI in MultiBrand Retail encourages B2B interactions. To realize B2B operations, Flipkart plans to Tap 50,000 SMEs with FISME and NCDPD Industry Body Tie-Ups. With the aid Of FDI it can definitely scale its operations to a global market. Now the global market of apparel industry can be analyzed on the basis of the following aspects: 1.Indian Apparel Exports – nearly accounts for $17 Billion. The market forecasts a boom period for the Indian Apparel Manufacturers in the next two years for huge business. 2.Global Apparel Retail E-Commerce - Online apparel is the fastest-growing e-commerce category in North America and Europe. By 2016, the apparel-and-accessories sector will account for $73 billion worth of online purchases in the United States alone. 3.Intersection of both the above cited aspects which can give us a glimpse of the capability of Flipkart to tap global market for revenue generation. Even at home, Flipkart need not worry about the internet penetration in India, for with falling handset prices and growing data subscribers, India is likely to grow by 25% each year to reach a mark of 519 million mobile internet users by 2018. The discount based method to attract customers can be its only concern but with the scale of operations in the global market, it can be compensated. In the face of all these thoughts, Flipkart can definitely be optimistic about its move into fashion.
Topic for the next issue: “Big Data is the next big thing in Marketing.Agree/Disagree? ” Your opinion (view/ counterview) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is 26th July , 2014. 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 july 2014 2013
Last month’s results WINNER hardik shah | iim shillong
honorary mention rishabh | Imi delhi
Theme: Game of Thrones
Congratulations!!! Vivek receives a cash prize of Rs 1000!
THEME FOR NEXT SILENT VOICE: Team Brazil (FIFA World Cup) LAST DATE OF SENDING THE PRINT AD: 26th July, 2014 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
PRODUCT: Asian Paints
POSITIONING: Feel at home CREATIVE AGENCY: Ogilvy & Mather
december july 2013 2014 BY yash bhambhwani IIM Shillong
CATCH
POSITIONING: Anti-boring CREATIVE AGENCY: Ogilvy & Mather
R
YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=EoPqXi02Ztc&hd=1#! CONCEPT: “Har ghar kuch kehta hai” is a quote that is on every Indians mind. Why you would ask? It’s because the brand has positioned itself as a brand that every Indian associates with, no matter what your economic status is you must have used a product of Asian Paints at home. Asian Paints is known for coming up with a mix of witty and emotional ads. This time we take up an emotional ad that tells you what Asian Paints is exactly up to. The ad portrays a girl, walking in to the house of her future husband who is a military officer, who is a civilian. She is a girl with free spirit that is portrayed through her personality which is a tad bit different from her future husband. The husband keeps every part of the house in complete order and in plain colours that are dull and do not match the personality of the girl. The moment she enters the bedroom there is a drastic change and everything inside resembles her home. VERDICT:Catch Asian Paints has tried to capture the emotions of millions by portraying how someone can take care of their beloved daughters by the use of Asian Paints. The concern of a leaving daughter is something that bothers every parent and an advertisement like this puts Asian Paints in a good light. With an audience consisting of Indians who are driven strongly by emotions, this ad is sure to capture significant sales. Markathon’s take on this ad is that it’s a CATCH.
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BY swati pamnani IIM Shillong PRODUCT: Alpenliebe Pop Lollipop
YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=8dioiQmmSk0
MISS
CONCEPT:
Alpenliebe Pop Lollipop TVC opens with a young girl memorizing historical dates relating to Mughal emperors. She gets shocked as three men dressed in Mughal finery suddenly appear in front of her. They introduce themselves as Babar, Akbar and Humayun. Babar asks her if the chapters on their lives bore her, petrified seeing this, she first nods in approval and then in disapproval. Babar then says no one can change history, and gives her an Alpenliebe Lollipop that will help her endure history boredom and the other men ask for her forgiveness. The film concludes with a voice over saying ‘Alpenliebe Pop- Anti Boring’. Then the girl at last asks if they are on Facebook to which Babar replies that they are only in textbooks. VERDICT: Miss Showcasing a lollipop as an antidote to boredom related to history is difficult to take up. It can be agreed by looking at the age of the protagonist that the film is targeted largely to the youth, but the concept does not go well with the segmentation. Also, assuming that memorizing dates or history is boring for many is a far-fetched thought. Bringing in historical characters into real life and their apologies, no doubt added humor to the film, but failed to build up an insight that the youth can relate to.
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ishtihaar
july 2014
Ishtihaar RAMANATHAN K | IIM Shillong Marketing Responsibly India, in the case of many indices related to gender, is at par with or worse than, some of the least developed nations in the world. Post the 2012 Nirbhaya incident in Delhi, India has become more open to discuss and act about gender equality and women empowerment. It is encouraging to see some corporate houses are already doing their part in achieving this collective goal. Now that the 2 percent of the three year average PAT should be spent on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), it is expected that even more and more companies would focus on issues related to women. That being said, coming to the marketing front, certain companies have gone a step ahead and used this trend to position their products and especially their campaigns in theme of women empowerment. This socially relevant positioning not only puts forth their opinion sternly but also ensures that they catch hold of the current trend in the market thus fuelling their business. Havells- Respect Women Havells in its latest campaigns, positions its range of domestic appliances as gender-neutral products by humorously targeting those men who think that household chores are meant for women alone. The beauty of such positioning is that it bears both the functionality as well as a point of view. What this also does well is that it offers the company a clear differentiation in a largely undifferentiated category of products. Idea Cellular – No Ullu Banana The campaign builds on a simple cultural insight that in India, people easily fall prey because their ignorance. Even though it was aimed at both men and women, it was clearly evident that their strong focus was more on women and how empowered they have become because
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of internet. Both these examples beautifully portray how companies are formulating their businesses to create value for both themselves and other stakeholders particularly in the theme of women empowerment. Now if these companies invest in the area of women empowerment under CSR, it seamlessly fits their values and helps in achieving a greater relevance with the stakeholders. Women empowerment is one among many such growing concern in India which needs to be addressed seriously. This new mandatory CSR spending in India can be looked at a completely different angle given the power of socially relevant positioning. Rather than simply supporting external programs, companies can themselves become a force for positive social change and at the same time create value for their organisation. The CSR committee and the marketing team should come together to discuss, collaborate, explore and engage their societal and cultural relevance and aim to create a shared value in their approach towards societal concerns. After all can’t marketers be socially responsible? P.S You got to check out the latest P&G’s campaign – Like A Girl!
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jab they failed
july 2014
Jab They Failed Curious Case of the New Coke
b ushashree | IIM Shillong
There’s nothing New about Coke
One of the profound Brand failures marketers can learn from is the “Curious Case of the New Coke”. In April 1985, Coca-Cola did away with its original coke and came up with a newer, sweeter version nick-named the New Coke. This wasn’t an arbitrary decision for the Cola Giant. The new coke had undergone a series of blind taste tests before it was finalized. However, understanding the context behind this historic move is important. How could CocaCola which had been the pioneer in the cola market by positioning its drink – Coke as the “real thing” change the taste so abruptly? In 1985, The Coca-Cola Company’s share lead over its chief competitor Pepsi had been slowly slipping for 15 consecutive years. The reasons for this were many-fold - the cola market itself was largely lethargic. Pepsi had came out with a rigorous campaign positioning its cola as the drink for youth and to Coca-Cola’s horror, consumer preference for Coca-Cola had been dipping. Moreover the market share of Coke was being eaten up by Coca-Cola’s other drinks such as Fanta and especially, Diet Coke which was more closer to Pepsi Cola in taste. In 1983, the year Diet Coke moved into the number three position behind standard Coke and Pepsi, Coke’s market share had slipped to an all-time low of just under 24 per cent. The then chairman and chief executive officer Roberto Goizueta started worrying that Coke was losing relevance in the Cola market. That changed, however, in the summer of 1985 as the consumer outcry over “new Coke” was replaced by consumer affection for Coca-Cola classic.
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Why disturb the original Coke: Coca-Cola felt that the problem lay in the product itself and conducted several surveys to prove it. They found that majority of the people preferred the sweeter taste of Pepsi cola. So in what must have been seen as a logical step, Coca-Cola started working on a new formula. A year later they had arrived at New Coke. After producing its new formula, Coca-Cola conducted 200,000 blind taste tests to see the consumer response. The results were overwhelming – not only did it taste better than the original coke, but people preferred it to Pepsi-Cola as well. Since Coca-Cola couldn’t have two directly competing products on the shelves at the same time, it decided to scrap the original Coca-Cola and introduced New Coke in the market. The consumer response was something the company was simply not prepared for! People were distressed with the company’s decision to abandon the Original Coke. By June 1985, Coca-Cola was getting 1,500 calls a day, compared with 400 calls a day before the taste change. People seemed to hold any Coca-Cola employee who worked for Coke — personally responsible for the change. Finally, after the huge consumer outcry and dismal sales of New Coke, Coca-Cola had no choice to bring back its original. This move saw an instant surge in the sales of the Original Coke which was soon back to its number one spot. Lessons for marketers: While New Coke is considered by many as the biggest brand failure till date, in hindsight, it was a wakeup call for the Cola giant and is a lesson for all marketers. Could Coca-Cola have avoided this? Maybe yes, if they had done the right market research. Their researchers conducted several blind taste tests but failed to make the connection that their brand preferences would still exist once the product was launched. However logical and compelling it may seem to clone your rivals, a marketer must not forget the power of brand perceptions. Coca-Cola became too obsessed with the product to see the emotional attachment that people had with their brand. Finally, the biggest lesson to learn here is the fact that Coca-Cola didn’t shy away from reverting back to the original and admitting its mistake. This registered with the people who embraced the Original Coke again and the rest as we know it, is history!
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updates
december july 2014 2013 By Amit Sonwani IIM Shillong
Brand Launch Amul wins World Dairy Innovation Award 2014
India’s Amul has won the World Dairy Innovation Award-2014 for the best marketing campaign for its “Eat Milk with Every Meal” campaign. The finalists and winners in the World Dairy Innovation Awards 2014 were announced on June 17 at the 8th Global Dairy Congress in Istanbul, Turkey. According to the Global Dairy Congress, the judging panel considered almost 160 entries from 30 countries in 17 categories. R.S.Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF said that expansion, innovation and brand building are the three pillars of Amul’s strategy to achieve the growth. We are glad that our efforts are being recognised at the global level. Flipkart asks senior executives to do delivery After asking its top management to attend customer calls, Flipkart has once again asked its top management to engage in customer facing activity of delivery of the products. As the industry has grown in size from $1 billion a year ago to over $2.3 billion this year, all the top online retailers have been battling rising customer complaints. By making this compulsory with leaders, we are trying to drive the whole ‘customer first’ message within the organisation. This move by Flipkart has come after the peers from the industry like Jabong and Myntra who have already applied similar steps. Google to partner with Indian players for low cost smartphones Google will tie up with local Indian handset makers Micromax, Karbonn and Spice to launch smartphones under $100 (Rs 6,000) on the company’s just announced Android One initiative, which will become available between September and end of the year. India will be the first country where these devices will be launched, before going global, intensifying competition in the already crowded segment of the market. Google also said that it was working with Indian carriers to offer affordable data packs to go with the smartphone.
Brand Watch Flipkart unveils its own brand of Tablets Online retailer Flipkart launched its own brand of tablet devices in the last week of June. The tablet is being unveiled under the company’s in-house electronics and accessories brand Digiflip. Called Digiflip Pro XT712, the tablet will be the first of many models that Flipkart will launch, the company announced today. The XT712 is priced at Rs 9,999 and is available in black and white variants. The seven-inch tablet’s features include 1280 x 800 pixel high-definition resolution with IPS display, 1.3GHz Quad Core Cortex A7 processor, 1GB DDR3 RAM, dual SIM 3G calling and weighs about 285 grams.
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updates
december 2013 july 2014 Apple launches cheapest iMac at Rs 79,900 Apple has launched a cheaper iMac, aimed at boosting sales as tablets eat up the market share. The new model has a slower processor, lesser storage space and lower-end graphics, but is Rs 13,000 cheaper than the current iMacs. The new iMac has a 21.5-inch Full HD screen with dual-core 1.4GHz Intel i5 processor, 8GB RAM, 500GB hard disk and Intel HD Graphics 5000 as standard configuration, priced at Rs 79,900 in India (US pricing is $1099). Buyers can also choose 1TB SATA, 1TB Fusion Drive or 256SSD storage options, which raise the price.
Amazon makes entry to smartphone market As expected, Amazon on Wednesday entered smartphone market with Fire Phone, a device that has a 4.7-inch screen. While in terms of specifications Fire Phone looks similar to a high-end Android phone, Amazon has utilized its strength as an e-retailer to equip the device with a few extra features. Fire sports a screen with HD resolution. It has a 2.2GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 13 megapixel camera with optical image stabilisation, a dedicated camera button, and stereo speakers.
Media Dalmia Cement awards creative mandate to Bates CHI&Partners Dalmia Cement has awarded the creative mandate to Bates CHI&Partners after it invited a multi-agency pitch which included DDB Mudra along with a local agency. The cement manufacturer has plans to enter markets beyond eastern India, where it has already made strong footprints. Dalmia Cement has established itself across south and east India through a portfolio of regional brands. It is known for its super specialty cements used for airstrips, oil wells and railway sleepers. Bates CHI&Partners is a network start-up that was formed in December, 2012 bringing together Bates - an Asian agency with 14 offices in nine countries across Asia - and CHI, an independent agency from the UK. M-Seal plugs the leak The Pidilite Industries-owned M Seal is running an activation in the under-privileged areas of Mumbai to promote the use of M Seal to prevent roofs from leaking during the forthcoming monsoon. The activation is being carried out in slums of Dharavi, Bhandup, Kalina and Thane. The M Seal team shows easy â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Doit-Yourselfâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; methods by conducting live demonstration at various key points. The purpose of the initiative is to create awareness amongst slum dwellers about cost effective and affordable solutions to manage water leakages at home.
Ad Watch Honda launches Mobilio Ad with Kapil In an altogether different move from industry peers, Honda has roped in Kapil Sharma for its advertisements of its latest offering Mobilio. The resounding success Kapil has had in the last two years made Honda pick him.
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updates
december 2013 july 2014 The ad is just like a typical comic piece from Kapil pitching to a customer for
the car as well as himself. The cars features are highlighted through dialogues but too much attention has been given to Kapil and the car is hardly visible. One must say that Honda got the ingredients right but the recipe wrong. Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jpLOO8SRM0
Fortune Ghar ka khana Advertisement This four minute clip from Piyush Pandey strikes just the right chord you want an ad to do. Describing a grandmothers futile attempts again and again to get her injured grandson to have the ‘Dal’ prepared by her and being constantly denied to do so by the nurse from the hospital, the ad ends with Dadi winning over the nurse by making her eat the Dal and a feeling of joy on the faces of grandson and grandmother effectively drives home the message “Ghar ka khana, ghar ka khana hota hai”. No reason for this ad to not go viral.
Big Bazaar- Making India beautiful Big Bazaar has tried to break away from its positioning of ‘Isse sasta aur acchcha aur kahaan’ through the new ‘Beautiful ban raha hai India’ campaign during the past two months. The ad in discussion shows the cultural shift Big Bazaar has brought about where a Dadi is looking for hot pants for her granddaughter and is not satisfied until it is hot enough. Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuXU989B2p8
Articles are invited
“Best Article”: Allu Reshma | Vignesh Kannan P| IMT Ghaziabad They receive 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 26th July, 2014. Please send your entries marked as <ARTICLE NAME>_<SENDERS’ NAME(S)>_<INSTITUTE> to markathon.iims@gmail.com.
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updates FIFA 2014
december 2013 july 2014
FIFA 2014 WORLD CUP MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
Real-Time Marketing is Good, But Right-Time Marketing is Better MARKATHON
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We would love to hear from you: markathon.iims@gmail.com www.issuu.com/markathon
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Markathon, IIM Shillong