Markathon October Edition

Marketing Magazine of IIM Shillong

Volume 5 | Issue 4

October 2013

MARKATHON

Perspectives From

Past

Vartalaap with Mr. Deepak Jolly Vice-President, Public Affairs and Communication, Coca-Cola, India and South West Asia

From The Editor After Raghuram Rajan it was goddess Durga’s turn to give the economy the much needed boost and she sure didn’t disappoint us with thousands of shoppers braving the rains, traffic jams and rising prices to flock to the high street and malls across metros and smaller cities dispelling the fear of a slowdown in demand this season caused by dual demons, inflation and interest rates are. Even the auto industry which has been gloomy for almost a year now due to the declining sales ended up smiling.

Staying true to the mood of the season we, the Markathon team, want to give an additional reason to cheer to our readers. We receive numerous entries for perspective during the month. But owing to our own constraints, we cannot publish them all. We thus came up with an idea to publish some of the articles from the past that we would have loved to have in our magazine but couldn’t in the month they were sent.

So be ready to have a blast from the past for we have some really thought provoking and insightful articles ranging from a beer shampoo that cautions it is not for consumption to how the companies today are using the power of crowds on Facebook and Twitter with a ‘real’ twist.

It has been more than a month since Pepsodent sounded a cry of war against Colgate and a lot has been written and discussed about it but the opinion

is still divided on its effectiveness. This time in the section “Eye2Eye” we see what the student community has to say about this.

For our “Vartalaap” this edition, we have an exclusive interview with the Vice President, Public Affair and Communications, India and South West Asia of the brand which is on the mission to spread happiness, Deepak Jolly of Coca Cola. A professional with 29 years’ of experience, Mr Jolly in this interview talks about the successes and challenges that Coke has come across in recent times and his journey so far in the company.

Check out what went wrong with Barbie’s boyfriend Ken in the second offering for our recently introduced section “Jab they Failed” and what we think about the book ‘Brand Leadership’ by the guru of brand equity David Aaker in the section “Bookmark”.

With so much in line waiting for you, wait no more and savor the delight that this latest edition promises to be. Your feedback is invaluable to us so keep us posted on what interests you and what doesn’t by writing to markathon.iims@gmail.com and we promise, like goddess Durga we too won’t disappoint you.

Happy Reading !!

The Markathon Team Editors

Ashok A | Kamalpreet Singh Saluja | Pallavi | Prateek Gaurav | Shashank S Tomar | Swikruti Panda

Creative Designers

Sushree Tripathy | Vaibhav Annam

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Perspectives

october 2013

Contents

A Sweet Deal Zeeshan Hassan | IIM Kozhikode

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Wrong message, Wrong people, and Wrong time – Branding Pankaj Kumar | SJMSOM, IIT Bombay

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Brand Crowdsourcing: A Way Ahead in Designing Effective Marketing Strategy Pritam Banerjee | IIM A, Sumoya Ghosh | FMS-BHU

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High Times Pallavi Mishra | SCMHRD

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David vs Golliath Ankit Uttam | SIBM, Bangalore

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Vartalaap Mr Deepak Jolly Vice-President, Public Affairs and Communication, Coca-Cola

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Eye 2 Eye Pepsodent’s latest comparitive ad - Tactical Torpedo or Debacle in Desperation?

Prateek Gaurav | IIM Shillong & Vaibhav Annam | IIM Shillong

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Silent Voice Whisper Sanitary Pads Vivek Unnikrishnan | National Institute of Agricultural Marketing

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Khlur Thma: B-School Fest of IIM Shillong Touchstone: The True Test of Your Marketing Acumen

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Specials Addicted Sushree Tripathy and Swikruti Panda | IIM Shillong

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Bookmark Pallavi Chauhan | IIM Shillong

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Jab They Failed Vaibhav Annam | IIM Shillong

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Radical Thoughts Ashok A | IIM Shillong

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Updates Prateek Gaurav | IIM Shillong

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A Sweet Deal the use of their brand name. The idea, they assert, came from their realization that not many people knew about what a Key Lime Pie is and how it tastes. And thus one of them at the Google office suggested the name Kit Kat. No sooner a call was made to the Nestle UK advertising office that was more than happy to accept the proposal.

The details of the deal were finalized in a covert meeting in February between the two groups but the outcome was kept secret. No one including a number of employees of the firms themselves came to know of the pact. They continued to call the coming version of the software as Key Lime Pie for all their transactions, no information leaked.

This was to create an element of surprise for the audience at the time of announcement and they successfully did it.

The essence of the deal is cobranding where two or more companies work together to prepare a marketing strategy for themselves. In the modern world one alone cannot walk the uncertain path of persistent success. It is imperative to make alliances and develop trust between the organizations so as to use the strengths and capabilities of each other for a mutual benefit. Such are the projected

By Zeeshan hassan iim kozhikode

O

n September 3, 2013, the world stood still as its expressions vacillated between a benign smile and an uncanny interjection. The android had released the name of their new version of operating system as “Kit Kat”. This came as a bolt from the blue as the android spokespersons and officials had been referring to the new 4.4 version as Key Lime Pie. This is one of a kind deal where a confectionery brand was coupled with a technology company. But then why not, android had been naming its previous versions right from the android 1.5 version with the name of desserts and confectionery items of the likes of Cupcake, Donut, Éclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean. It was obvious that the new release would be starting with the letter ‘K’ but none except the android people themselves could have anticipated the name ‘Kit Kat’.

The marriage between the software giant and the Swiss food and beverage producer, Nestle has huge marketing and branding implications and people around the world are waiting to see the extent of the success of this tie-up.

A mutually benefitting pact and still Google has told media that none of them are paying each other anything for

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synergistic effect of a cobranding endeavor.

Not many companies have put this idea to test.

The intent of the activity could be to increase the market share, brand extension (extending the same brand name for different categories of products) or to attain a global strategy by the blend of the two brands. Successful examples of such ventures are ‘Ferrari taking the name of Marlboro’ and ‘Dell Computers and Intel Processors’.

Smartphones using android climbed to about 79% (Wall Street Journal) in August 2013, and is set to cover larger and deeper markets in days to come. This translates to more than 700 million android smartphone users out of which 89% of the users keep their android phones handy throughout the day (Source: Go-Gulf.com).

One can imagine the kind of brand and publicity reach it will have if one associates its product with such an omnipresent phenomenon.

distributed by Google.

After having joined hands with Kit Kat, Google too had to make changes to its marketing stance. It took a lot of steps to align its strategy to that of the Kit Kat. In front of their headquarters at California, they have placed an Android statue made of Kit Kat chocolate like bars besides its old android statues. These marketing strategies seem to completely make sense. Each adopting the characteristics of the other, each trying to sell the other and thus their combined sale will overshoot each ones summed together.

Revamping the Strategies

In order to push ahead with the deal Kit Kat had to change its current branding strategy. They are still those sweet and chocolaty bars on a crisp wafer but in an entirely new avatar. Nestle has set a target to sell at least 50 million chocolate bars shaped and molded in the form of the android mascot. Besides this, they have revamped their whole website for marketing in this direction. The website now features its chocolate bars with their technical specifications like weight, dimensions, compatibility and standby time. These specifications match those of any tech product and more precisely with that of a cell phone.

Also, on the purchase of the limited edition android shaped chocolates you stand a chance to win prizes to be

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Let’s finally delve a bit deeper to examine why Kit Kat agreed to “‘K’ for Kit Kat” • Kit Kat will get noticed. It has an opportunity to sell itself aside from traditional marketing. Every brand is running a race, if you don’t stand out, you may be lost.

• Nowadays, technology can take anything forward. Especially in case of smartphones the technology has immense reach. It is perceived as dynamic and a fun thing which goes well with the position of Kit Kat. • Android has a convention of naming its product in alphabetical order and that too on sweet snacks.

This position of ‘K’ could not have been more apt for Kit Kat where it can seamlessly position its name in the sequence of alphabetical order.

• In today’s world, returns over traditional media relations are quite modest when compared to creative advertising techniques. This is one opportunity which Ki Kat could not miss if it wants a creative marketing.

This is a Kit Kat equivalent of the icon-

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ic Red Bull Stratos.

• After all, there is always a fear of someone else taking up the piece of the pie. It could be possible that if Kit Kat had declined the offer, someone else would have accepted it. And then if Nestle tried to do it later with some of its product then definitely the kind of buzz that has received now would not have been possible then..

• Eventually, it’s all about getting attention. The kind of reach and popularity that smartphone can provide would not have been given to it by any of its promotional vehicle.

Mutual Benefits

The contract was made in February and was revealed in September, 2013. The company deliberately deferred telling the audience about it and kept referring to the new version as Key Lime Pie. They voluntarily made these lies so as to strike the people with a surprise. This resulted in an unmatched buzz about it which was mutually beneficial. Also, with this deal, two renowned behemoths joined hands. Every supermarket harbors Kit Kat and every time people see it they are reminded of Google’s Android. And whenever you hold your smartphone in your hands it’s like holding a Kit Kat chocolate there. Thus the brand recall and the brand awareness increases manifold.

for its baby milk in the developing countries so much so that it had to withdraw its products. Similarly, Google has had a controversy that it is a mobile OS which is the most vulnerable to malware and viruses. If such controversies about any of these players do crop up in the future, the other may be liable to face the consequences of customer dislike for it and through no fault of its own.

Looking at the other end of the view, the deal could have potential pitfalls as well. When a brand is associated with the other, its weakness and not just its strengths are transmitted to it. If any of the two brands is to hatch up a scandal then the other will be tainted too. Nestle, in the past has been criticized for the promotional strategy it adopted

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However, for now things seem to go in the right direction for both the players and we sure hope it remains so in the future too

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WRONG MESSAGE WRONG PEOPLE TIME

How it can affect brand communication

By Pankaj kumar sjmsom, iit bombay

Take the first example of Saffola oil. In their first promotion saffola played a scene where a family was taking a man into hospital for the reason of heart attack. And in the end they gave the message that you could reduce the chances of heart attack by using Saffola oil. Now what was wrong in that? This promotion gave a false impression to the Indian public that Saffola oil is only for patients with heart problem. Through research it was found that people were even using different cooking oil for different family members. People considered the option of using Saffola oil for its medicinal effect and it is not for healthy people. In the same family, a person with heart problems was served with food cooked in saffola and other family members were using same old oil which they had been using in the past.

So in this case the “Message” went wrong. Even though the promotion was made to increase the value proposition to attract more customers, it ended up limiting its business with very little CAGR. The other two factors were right in place. It focused on upper middle class population which was increasing in India day by day with increasing purchasing power.

We know 4P’s of marketing, Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. The mix of all these parameters helps in launching a product in market. But the next big thing is how to make customers understand the accurate value proposition. If it is not done in a specific fashion considering multiple factors, this may lead to miscommunication and can give results opposite to our expectations. We can briefly divide these factors for promotion in 3 parts i.e. Message – People – Time.

For any promotional activity to be successful, it is necessary to give the right message about your product to the right target population and at the right time of industry product life cycle. There have been failures in past which remind us of the fact that even if any one of the factor is missing in the promotional activity, it will fall flat and led to loss of brand image. Let me give you some examples which missed this whole concepts and will explain them one by one. These examples are Saffola Oil, Bournvita, and LML Adreno: two wheeler motorbike.

Second example for this theory is the promotion of Bournvita. This time what the marketer missed is the people part. The message was very clear. They were explaining the nutrient content of the product. This was a very unique product which was launched in the market. Time was right because people were happily accepting the new methods of food habits. Traditionally milk was supposed to be taken with sugar or turmeric. Bournvita launched the promotion to explain that the nutrition content of milk can be increased by mixing Bournvita. But what went wrong? In the promotion, Bournvita tried to focus on the importance of milk in day to day life of a

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child. They always used children as subject for their promotion. This again led to a perception that this product is only for children and not for everyone in the family. Again they themselves limited the sales.

In this example, the message was very clear that the product is filled with more nutrition, the time was right because consumers were accepting non-traditional methods of food consumption. But the only thing missed was a family product.

ful models in market. This time people were looking for more style than convenience. So we can say that Adreno was launched in the market before the time when people were ready to accept it in the market. Today Yamaha models launched in 2011 which are based on same design are also very popular among youth.

So, who got it right…?

There are people who were able to solve this trio and customized their promotional activities around these three parameters. Two such examples are that of Amir Khan’s advertisement for inspiring people to cast vote in the elections and “Kuch meetha ho jaye” campaign by Cadbury.

Take the example of the Amir Khan promotion for voting which launched well in advance to encourage people to

Let me explain to you how important the “Time” factor is while launching a product in the market. LML-Adreno, some of you might remember this two wheeler bike, never reached to the level of a popular bike among the youth. This bike was launched in year 2000. The main issue with the bike was its design. The headlight was attached to the main body of bike i.e. attached to the petrol tank. Even though it was a new design to give more masculine look, it had its own shortcomings. People were not ready to accept a bike which couldn’t throw light in the direction of the handle. This lead to huge dissatisfaction and it never became a popular idea to buy a new LML Adreno. But the same basis design was launched by Pulsar in its model Pulsar 220 in 2007 and Hero Honda Karizma in 2004. Pulsar was already in market with its different models. This was a new model after few success-

participate and vote. He touched the emotions of Indians by Explaining “Apne bacchon ka bavishya kitne main bechenge aap, ek botal saraab, ek bori genhu, radio, TV, sari ya 2-4 hajaar rupey”. This is a perfect example for the right message being delivered, for the right people and at the right time. Another example is Cadbury’s promotion of Dairy Milk chocolate promoting “Kuch meetha ho jaye” for all occasions of happiness. Earlier it was assumed that chocolate is for children or girls. But Cadbury linked its consumption with events instead of demographics, so that there is no difference in any consumer who is purchasing the product.

Thus we can conclude that other than the marketing mix of 4Ps it is necessary to extend the planning of launch of a product to these three key parameters so that it does not fall apart in the end

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Brand Crowdsourcing A Way Ahead in Designing Effective Marketing Strategy Pritam Banerjee | IIM A Sumoya Ghosh | FMS-BHU Branding is one of the most important tasks of any company. It is the key-differentiator of its products and creator of a unique identity in the minds of the customers.

A brand is the promise of a company to its consumers.

However, in the presentday scenario the biggest hurdle that marketing professionals face is that whether the brand achieves its prescribed objective or not. With markets becoming more and more dynamic and competitive, substantial negative consequences can arise in the minds of the consumers due to a small gap in the perception of the management in terms of branding. In order to cope with the changing environment, marketers are looking for newer ways of branding. Brand Crowdsourcing is one such phenomenon which is gaining traction in recent times and will continue to do so in the future.

ions and ideas from millions of users, consumers and followers that add value to the brand. A fancy new addition in the arsenal of marketers a few years back, brand crowdsourcing has become an integral part of the marketing mix of companies today. Consumers are asked to design the next product, or shoot the next viral video, or compose the next tune, or choose flavors of the next potato chip.

With internet penetration on the rise and social media being the buzz, crowd sourcing can have had tremendous impact on brands and companies.

Leveraging the potential of crowd Crowdsourcing may be used in a gamut of ways by marketers. Its cost effectiveness and customer involvement nature can be harnessed by companies to generate new, innovative ideas especially during tough times with constrained budgets. Creative costs can be reduced to a minimum. It is an effective tool connecting marketers with consumers on one hand, and provides them with consumer insights, views and preferences on the other. It reduces the risks to marketers and equips them to handle market uncertainties by acting as an information provider.

At the same time, it reinforces customer involvement,

Understanding crowdsourcing Deren C. Brabham was the first to define “crowdsourcing” in the scientific literature in 2008 “Crowdsourcing is an online, distributed problem solving and production model”.

Merriam-Webster defines crowdsourcing as “the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.” Simply put, it is a way by which marketers seek opin-

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october 2013 it and the company. This can be further ingrained with the help of positive reinforcements like rewards and recognition.

Crowdsourcing can be used in reinforcing the values of the brand, or for getting help in terms of branding (like redesigning logo, jingle). Creating new content for the brand, and or promoting of the brand to increase customer engagement and creation of a separate community for product design are some of its various functions. It creates a buzz and also generates a lot of ideas to companies at minimal cost. Overall crowdsourcing is the next big thing in the marketing domain that will dominate in the future.

Crowd sourcing can also be used for brand positioning.

creates stronger brand affinity and increases chances of creating brand evangelists. According to a research done

by Forrester in 2009, community users are more satisfied customers and are more brand-loyal. They are more likely to recommend products to others and less likely to defect products to competitors. In another research under taken

by Jake McKee and Jacob Nielsen, they proposed a 90-9-1

model of participation of consumers. According to them, 90% of the users are audience or “lurkers�. These people get passively involved with the brand. 9% of the total users are editors. They do not actively contribute to content creation but are active in a thread. The final 1% consists of creators who are involved in the idea creation process.

This idea is corroborated by the experience of Wikipedia.

It was found on review that more than 50% of edits were done by 7% of users. Amazon also had a similar experience. Its 167,000 book reviews were done by few reviewers. This 1% of the users can indeed become social hubs for the brand and can promote it actively. The remaining 90% will just be loyal to the brand even though when competitors may promote aggressively. It is no wonder that when people are willing to invest time and effort on the brand, they develop certain emotional attachment to

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Acknowledging the idea of crowd sourcing alone is not enough. Marketers must do things right to garner the potential benefits offered by the idea. Like all marketing strategies, campaign starts with having a clear understanding of the business objectives. Business objectives are the driving engine of the campaign. It is only after having a clear idea of the business objectives and goals can any manager design a campaign.

Defining the goal of the campaign starts with designing the crowd sourced campaign. The goals need to be SMART – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound.

Not only this, the manager must also know what he wants goals his crowd workers should achieve. The main risk of any crowd sourcing campaign is any deviation from the intended objective. So steering crowd workers in the right direction is extremely crucial. Also the goals need to be communicated to the crowd. This will help them to stay focused and ensure constant validation. Failure to clearly communicate can lead to disastrous result and may even lead to the entire campaign being futile.

It is essential to keep in mind that crowds are primarily heterogeneous in nature. So before reaching out to the crowd a careful evaluation is essential. The best way is to

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reach out to existing customers as these customers are a result of effective segmentation and targeting of the entire demographic population. Also while reaching out to the crowd the image of the product in the mind of the people needs to be checked and re-evaluated. In some cases hyper specialized crowds may be targeted. Research shows that they are loyal and they know, believe and trust the brand. Also a bigger crowd needs to be targeted to achieve substantial number of active workers.

The crowd workers put in efforts and time to give suggestions and ideas. The company needs to treat them as coworkers in the office. So it is imperative to empower them, praise them and give them recognition. In some cases rewards, either monetary or non-monetary, may be given to such workers. This will be treated as a positive reinforcement mechanism in their minds. Also a sense of transparency needs to be maintained. It will provide credibility clubbed with a sense of fairness to the campaign.

Tales from the Brands There are several brands that have leveraged the power of crowd sourcing and have reaped benefits. In this section we look at the success stories of some brands and look at the reasons behind their success.

Coca-Cola Coke made a paradigm shift in 2012 when it announced that it would change its business model to a more open one. From that time onwards the company has involved its customers to enhance brand communications and has sought feedback from them on product development. The company asked about 50 million of its Facebook fans to come up with an invention, cause or social app that could spread happiness. The company even aligned some of its advertisements by implementing these ideas. The taglines “Happiness is in the air” and “Open Happiness” is outcomes of this assignment.

Through successful crowds o u rc i n g the company is able to create a connec-

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tion with its customers.

PepsiCo PepsiCo has launched the Pepsi refresh program which got almost 61 million votes. The 2010 initiative awarded approximately $20 million in grants to individuals, businesses and NGOS that came up with innovative ideas. The “Do us a Flavor” contest of Frito Lay awarded as much as $1 million to the individual who submitted the winning flavor.

Oreo The product of Kraft foods, Oreo crowd sourced its design to the public. As a result there was a lot of promotion going on in all forms of media. The 100 day series cookie design contest called “Daily Twist” made the product’s Facebook shares increase by as much as 4000 percent.

Air New Zealand The aviation academy of Air New Zealand turned to its passengers to design the experience of flight. This included designing the cocktail, eye mask, in flight food and o t h e r flight experiences. The winner got a free trip to London to sample the implementation of his idea. The campaign increased the involvement of the customers and generated more interest for the company.

Giffgaff The Company which is a SIM only mobile virtual network operator positioned themselves at people who are highly brand loyal and who have high brand engagement. Uses, commonly referred to as “giffgaffers” provides ideas like functionality and pricing, market the company through word of mouth publicity and even provide support to the community. With no call center and with highly constrained advertisement budget, the company is able to reach millions of customers

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Park Avenue Beer Shampoo

By PALLAVI MISHRA SCMHRD Gone are the days when male grooming was sneered at.

But today, the male grooming segment is no longer limited to shaving creams, razors and deodorants. It is gaining

strength in the Indian market with a surprising momentum even as the male consumers need a different cream for their tougher skin, a stronger hair dye for their ‘different hair’ and different exposure to outside world, or even a different face wash to wash off the pollutants they encounter in a hectic day’s work.

Counting on the increasing Rs. 3000 crore male grooming segment, Raymond’s launched Beer Shampoo under its Park Avenue brand. Rising from a notch to a beauty concept, riding on the statement by Catherine Zeta Jones three years ago who said beer to be her top home grown beauty secret for her hair, beer shampoo hit the headlines. The product is priced at par with HUL’s Clear and P&G’s Head and Shoulders and positioned as ‘Party time for your hair’. Aspiring to be the ‘axe’ of shampoos, ‘the only beer shampoo of India’ is targeted towards the ‘stylish young Indians who want to groom themselves with innovative products’ as per its marketing manager.

AN ILL-PLANNED PARTY? The product promises to give Great Shine, Great Bounce and Great Conditioning. The two ingredients of beer: malt and hops are

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known for conditioning hair. But aren’t all other shampoos in price range promising the same value proposition albeit with different ingredients?

Shampoo, as a category, is normally a problem solving category and more often than not people do not change shampoos unless encouraged by new and relevant promises supported by significant ‘findings’ and clinical researches.

One the other hand, premium brands like Kerastese, Tresemme, Matrix etc. go by salon promise. Given the price range it has been launched in and the target audience i.e. innovative young males, the shampoo indeed can find its way into showers on its novelty value. But, eventually, a product needs to move from innovators to early majority in order to be successful. But it cannot, on account of a few peculiar characteristics of Indian consumers. If we talk about the family of this particular target segment in India, beer shampoo would face instant hit-back. Reason: Psychographics.

Firstly, the target population is still living in a household where the male uses the shampoo lying on the shelf which more often than not has been bought by the women of the household. Secondly, the taboo associated with having beer in family may work counter to having something resembling it in bathroom. Thirdly, for single males, shampoo has never seen a long decision process before purchase. The stage of evaluation of alternatives is itself short and sometimes non-existent as long as the brand is good. In that case, surely the novelty factor may bring them to buy it once they

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counter the first doubt: ‘will I smell like beer?’, but never will it see a long term loyalty for the association of beer is never on cleansing part: which might explain the tagline ‘party time for your hair’. These customers will definitely get back to a proper bath regime once they get bored of that beer bottle in shower room.

Further, the home-made recipes have never been seen in male thought process. Even the beer recipe has come from a female actress. Kitchen recipe’s and using edible (and of course drinkable) things to use externally is not a Man-thing. A look at the product reviews and who-istalking-about-us online would reveal that all the reviews are coming from girls in the girl blogs who are finding the product exciting and yes of course want that shine and bounce for which they keep experimenting with different products till they get satisfied. Hair is a significant contributor to their looks. But even for them, long-term health of hair is the most important value they seek in shampoos.

Going a step higher if the product might miserably look upon to premium brand users for adoption, the concept of being packaged in a beer-bottle resembling package itself makes it lose the charm of what characteristic the inside content itself might have. The product does not stand for ‘premiumness’ but for excitement. The brand has a personality of that of a rebel, and adventurous.

It does not talk about the superior content or scientifically proven constituents that might improve the health of your hair.

A LOOK AT OTHER BEER SHAMPOOS IN THE GLOBAL MARKET In the 70’s Bristol-Myers launched Beer-enriched ‘Body on Tap’ shampoo made with 1/4th real beer but ‘don’t drink it’. The product did not last long. Another product Duffy’s Brew exists in the market but the product has certain promises to make associating it with goodness of alcohol. It even states that it has no harmful chemicals like SLS (Sodium Laureth Sulphate) and is good for hair. Tasmanian Beer Bar is yet another beer product for hair but in its entirety it focuses on the benefits of beer and other natural ingredients in it. Likewise Cynthia Sylvia Stout, BROO and Redken for Men have also bottled beer for personal

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care but with promise of beer’s natural property of enhancing hair vitality.

A HAPLESS MOVE A product has to be taken to consumers and not vice versa. When it was launched in India, the method was unplanned and as a bandage, Park Avenue Beer Shampoo concept had to work towards countering the social stigma associated with beer. The main stigma lay with the Indian Parents. Hence the Hitlekar Campaign; which was an effort to change the mindset of Indian Consumers against beer shampoos. ‘Hitlekar is not only against you if you

use Park Avenue Beer Shampoo, but also your parents.’

The company launched YouTube ads around Hitlekar concept and organised contest ‘Hit Back at Hitlekar’ to show ‘angst’ against him. The concept has not garnered the kind of word of mouth which is required for personal care products. It requires a word of credence to go around. Viral is not essentially success. At best it can bring visibility, but not liking or preference.

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WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE RIGHT? To conclude, beer as a shampoo concept is new in India, but none of the campaign has educated Indian consumers on it. No communication highlights hops, proteins, Vitamins, Minerals etc. present in Beer or that how it works for better health of hair. In short the product is relying on excitement alone for acceptability which is not possible in hair care segment. Also, the assumption of the Indian consumers to get credence form a Hollywood celeb or even that every Indian has been educated by the statement made by her years ago is fallacious. A communication which builds preference of Beer Shampoo is needed in communications in advertisements as well as on social media

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DAVID vs Golliath

Ankit Uttam SIBM, Bangalore The one thing that took centre stage during the month of February in USA was the power outage at 47th Super Bowl so much so that it outshined an otherwise shining Super Bowl. The gossip mills had a field day blaming the cause of power outage to different reasons that ranged from fire to terrorism.

Super bowl, the third most-watched program in television history, last year drew a record 111 million viewers. And the big numbers in viewers gets the average spends on a 30 second advertisement to monstrous stature. Just look at some of the numbers,

The power outage might took some shine off from the otherwise glittering Super Bowl but the ensued darkness threw some glaring lights on a mounting problem for Facebook - its lack of relevancy during a live-event.

Figure 2.Average Cost of a 30 sec ad Figure 1.Mention in advertisement during Super bowl: by Marketing Land Super Bowl, this year, was accompanied by 52 TV commercials. As figure 1 clearly depicts that Twitter was mentioned in 26 ads, or 50 percent of the time, aired during the game coverage. Facebook took home four mentions accounting for a mere eight percent. Comparing the data of the last year, Twitter received more than three times as many mentions this year, while Facebook saw a 50 percent drop in big game ad mentions year-over-year.

Now, why are we talking about Super bowl? And moreover how does it affect Facebook or for that matter Twitter by the number of mentions they get in a game that is just limited to a country? The answer to both the question lies in the same caveat.

Marketing is changing.

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The same 30 seconds of ad time cost as much as $3.8 million in 2013. That’s up from an average of $3.5 million last year, and up 60 percent from a decade ago. Anheuser Busch InBev has been the biggest advertisers in recent history by a long shot, spending about $250 million over the past five years, with Pepsi following the lead by spending $183 million over the same period of time, as per the Kantar Media.

So all this and more that cannot be measured in numbers makes the question extremely relevant that it completely affects Facebook or for that matter Twitter by the number of mentions during a Super bowl. Then there comes the next question and the question that looms large in shaping the future for these two social media companies. Why are big brands, who shelled out an average of $3.8 million for a 30 second spot, are shying away from a social network that has more than a billion users for a micro-blogging platform that has just around 200 million members?

According to an study by SocialTwist, Facebook makes up

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perspectives from past

october 2013

around 80 percent of traffic among all social networking sites while Twitter accounts for a mere five percent, but on an average “tweets” having embedded links gets 19 clicks while Facebook’s shared links only gets three clicks. So what does that mean and how Twitter is winning the battle where Facebook was always a clear favourite?

thing like that can be done on an ongoing basis as part of a marketing strategy. And they chose to do it on Twitter and Vine. That says a lot.”

P for Price In the marketing war between Twitter and Facebook, if it is starkly dissimilar at some place, it is the price of an ad. While Facebook is planning to start TV like ads for $ 1 to $2.5 mn per day, a promoted trend price on Twitter accounts to $200,000. If you know your market, you know where to go.

Let’s analyze it in the simplest of the simple terms; 4Ps. P for Place Everyone will agree to it that when it comes to the amount of monthly active users Facebook have an extreme edge over Twitter, but... but... but... if you look it from an advertiser’s point of view, the only number that matters to him are the number on the platforms that are most inhabited during a live-event.

Asking social media users to interact with a brand on a platform other than the one they are currently on would mostly lead to less than desirable results. A case in point here is the lack of a Google mention in a single Super Bowl ad. There aren’t enough users there, the brands feel.

P for Promotion Twitter released post-game social stats that detailed the major peaks of Twitter tête-à-tête during the championship game. Measured in TPM (Tweets per minute), the power outage at New Orleans’ Super dome witnessed a game-high 231,500 TPM. A 108-yard kickoff return by the Ravens’ Jacoby Jones was good for second place with 185,000 TPM. In totality, more than 24 million game-related Tweets were posted.

“It took just four minutes for the first Promoted Tweet to appear against searches for [power outage] on Twitter,” As per the statements by the company itself, illustrating the speed with which the advertisers moved in to capitalize on the moment in real-time.

“In fact, the blackout was the defining moment that portrayed the difference between Facebook and Twitter” according to Craig Elimeliah, V.P. and director of technology and digital solutions at Rapp. “It was a small blip in the advertising continuum that I believe with impact the industry forever… I applaud those brands that chose to see that opportunity and seize it without over-examining the creative and testing ad nauseam. It showed that some-

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P for product Product wise Facebook allows for a status of up to 63,206 characters, so one is not exactly focused on keeping it concise.

“Facebook is an investment in time,” Elimeliah said. “The Timeline itself tells us that Facebook is for collecting and scrapbooking your life so that one day, maybe, you will look back on those fond memories.” On the flipside, “Twitter is real-time. The speed of Twitter is what keeps it true. You can’t polish your posts because there is no time to polish the post. You have to think fast and think smart.

It challenges the way we communicate and is as real-time as real-time can possibly get.”

If audience already struggle reading 140-character Tweets in the fierce cycle of repeatedly checking the TV and their phone, longer status updates stand absolutely no chance.

Another thing is Facebook is akin to a walled garden.

Although it recently added subscribe/follow buttons to give users access to content from those they may not be friends with, it is mostly used to connect with friends and family members. This means an interesting thought posted on Facebook by a friend of a friend or someone on the other side of the world has very little chance of ever appearing in your news feed.

Tweets, on the other hand, by default, are published to the world. Twitter users are encouraged to follow and connect with those that share their interests, while meeting in real life is not a prerequisite. Facebook’s mostly closed garden approach — although useful to create an intimate community setting — is a massive real-time barrier.

Facebook still has the power in terms of sheer numbers when it comes to friend-ing the brands than following

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perspective

october 2013

SWOT ANALYSIS If one thing that can give us a better picture of their futures is the how both of these capitalize on their strengths, overcome their weaknesses, Use the vast fields of opportunity while minimizing the threats.

A closer look at the SWOT analysis of their marketing effectiveness gives us something like what is shown in the next page.

them. But the difference lies in the number of active users who follow or friends a brand. Facebook and Twitter both fare neck to neck in this segment with around 68% and considering Facebook has more users than Twitter so percentage wise Twitter wins here with a huge margin.

Here are some stats from the website Brandongaille which proves these points in detail.

The purchasing decision of a buyer is more likely to be influenced by social media network in the present scenario.

Twitter leads the roost here by showcasing that 37% are more likely base their purchasing decision on what the Twitter recommends as compared 17% on Facebook.

Facebook is still strong when it comes to the number of users or the integration with websites and apps but all that is yet to translate into a substantial click through rate. Facebook still struggles in mobile market and that still is a major stumbling block to its mar-

keting dominance. While it is struggling in the mobile market its own online advertisement growth rate is slowing down as more and more people are shifting to mobile for

But how one can explain brand loyalty just by looking at the number of followers or friends and more importantly how one establishes a loyalty towards a brand in this fickle market?

The above data from Brandongaille explains the answers of these questions clearly. Twitter numbers show that its real time prowess has resulted in greater number of customers who looks for offers and deals as compared to Facebook.

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perspectives from past

october 2013

data consumption.

Twitter on the other hand derives its strength from its high rate of mobile penetration and CTR. Twitter has definitely made large strides in the business community by serving as a platform where one is more likely to meet its target audience. All this has made the Twitter a next-goto-screen in a marketing professional mind.

Twitter also has challenges, majorly about security and its own fail whale. Twitter also lacks a clearly defined revenue model and prone to acquisition due to its small size. Despite all this Twitter is turning into a darling of the marketers and is clearly a more convenient medium on a companion device.

Conclusion

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Twitter could possibly be Facebook’s major real-time barrier. Users and brands recognize Twitter’s platform as the current go-to next-in-line-screen.

Twitter till now has shown a keen sense of market and future trends as compared to Facebook. Its business model and product are more in line with the current trends as compared to Facebook and hence the growth rate. Despite all this Facebook cannot be termed as a loser since they, although are late to the party, are now looking to re-imagine their product line so that it can be more align with the current market.

But right now if you look at the numbers and go where the money is, Twitter Crushes Facebook when it comes to effective marketing

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vartalaap

october 2013

An interview with Mr Deepak Jolly Vice-President, Public Affairs and Communication, Coca-Cola, India and South West Asia

Deepak Jolly is Vice President Coca-Cola India and South West Asia. In his current assignment he heads Public Affairs & Communications function for the India and Southwest Asia Business. Deepak specializes in the field of Corporate Communications, Public Policy, Corporate Social Responsibility, Consumer Response and Corporate Security. He has been working with CocaCola since year 2005.

A Public Affairs professional with 29 years’ experience, Deepak has worked in service and manufacturing across diverse industries such as hospitality, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and Telecom in companies like Bharti Airtel, Godfrey Philips, Pepsi Foods Ltd. among others. Since the last eight years at Coca-Cola in India, Deepak has lead several communication initiatives and engaged with numerous NGOs and activists on issues relating to the soft drinks industry. Deepak was awarded the best Communicator of the year award instituted by PRCI (Public Relation Council of India) for the year 2007. He is also the winner of Best MarCom Professional of the year in 2010

by Indira Group of Institutes and PRCI Hall of Fame for outstanding contribution to profession of PR. In this exclusive interview with Markathon, he speaks to us about his experiences in the industry and a peek into Coca Cola’s strategy.

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vartalaap

october 2013

Markathon: Having immense experience in the consumer goods segment, can you tell us about the most exciting assignment you have taken up and accomplished successfully?

lating to quality standards and has been accused of dis-balancing the water table in many parts. How have prompt PR initiatives helped you sail safe through such crises?

Mr Jolly: The pesticide residual strategy, when the shares were falling due to the perceived anomaly with the product, the whole strategy to get back the trust in the brand is one of the great successes I would recount. Another such instance is to bring down the rate of excise duty from 125% to 50%, working with the govt. When Hindustan Unilever launched the fertilizer business, I was a part of the team. My job was the toughest to get the subsidy check from the government.

Mr Jolly: I think the quality issues you are mentioning are regarding accusations of false pesticide residue being present in the brand. The fact is we did not have any pesticide residue. Even if it were there, you cannot measure.

In parts per billion if it is less than 0.01. But if you start measuring in parts per trillion then you can find trace here and there. Regarding the water table issue, we made a commitment that Coke will always do a due diligence on water. We will take surface water and wherever we take ground water, we will replenish more than 100%.

Markathon: When it comes to marketing communications, Coke is a brand that heads the league globally.

Specifically in India, what was the core thought that led to the transition from “thanda” to “Opening Happiness” as far as positioning is concerned?

Mr Jolly: The campaigns are in accordance with the international campaigns. The “Open Happiness” campaign is so universal, that you can simply relate with the happy brand and the family all the time. Whereas in the “Thanda matlab” campaign, our motive was selling the brand throughout the year. Because “Thanda” you will have only in summers. In winters if you push people to say “Thanda”, they will say “Wait a minute”. That’s where we looked at revisiting the strategy. But I think it established the brand and the credentials very well.

Markathon: Not just promotional activities, the distribution network of Coke is best in its industry. How is the rural consumer enticed and convinced to contribute a major chunk of the sales pie of the beverage segment?

Mr Jolly: I think rural segment, we are getting almost fiftyfifty, depends on what you call rural at this point of time.

The good news is that, for rural segment we have been able to have low pricing and the strategy has been led by returnable glass strategy. When the fuel prices went up, it became difficult to maintain those price points. Coke works with bottlers and the bottlers have their own distribution network, that’s the core way we work across the entire system. Our biggest strength is we have a BPPCO strategy (Brand, pack, price, channel, and occasion). If you have the correct strategy you will put that pack, that price in that channel. You would never put a Rs.60 pack over there. You will only allow RGB, Rs. 12 pack of Maaza there.

Now we have ‘Maaza chhota pack’ prices at Rs.6.

Markathon: Consumer is not a fool today. Keeping in mind this fact, Coke went ahead to accept the reality in by running a campaign which talks of the calories content of the products in its portfolio and the harm caused.

Is the bold move appreciated and shown in increasing the overall brand equity? How is the impact measured in such cases?

Mr Jolly: These are communication exercise to tell people that the calorie content that you have come out of various things that you do. And if you do not exercise, calorie-in and calorie out will not work.

Markathon: What would be your one piece of advice for all the marketing enthusiasts following Markathon?

Mr Jolly: Brands, today, not only need to communicate to the consumers, they have to communicate to all the stakeholders as well. And whenever you put a brand campaign, in short, that brand has a heart and that in today’s context works much better

Markathon: Recently the brand has faced problems re-

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eye2eye

october 2013

Pepsodent’s latest comparative ad: Tactical Torpedo or Debacle in Desperation? prateek gaurav

vaibhav annam

iim shillong

IIm shillong

Comparative advertising has been an eye grabber for brands and has helped the challenger brand to be placed in the consideration set with the leader brand. The days of cola wars are still fresh in our memories due to the high retention and appeal created by the comparative advertising. It is an age old tradition being practiced in the west be it BMW vs. Audi or FedEx vs. UPS but the same is not popularized in India may be due to the legal tussle that follows.

With a market share of around 29.4%, Colgate is the undisputed king in this industry. Practically speaking, in case a smaller player (read Pepsodent, which has a market share of 6.4%) wants to establish its stronghold in the market, there are only a few options left to be pursued. One would be to bleed itself by offering its product at a lower cost. And the other would be to prove that the product it is offering is better than the market leader.

Pepsodent’s latest ad of its toothpaste revives this tradition by hitting directly at market leader Colgate. Although Pepsodent Germicheck has a paltry market share of around 7% compared to around 30% of the rival brand Colgate’s Strong Teeth, such comparative ads get people talking about the brand. Moreover, the timing of the ad was exemplary as the ad was launched on an extended weekend helping it to grab lot of eye balls and hit at its intended target audience. Even the court in its verdict said that as long as the ad does not try to demean the rival brand, there is no harm in airing it on Television and other forms of media. Pepsodent’s claim of its germ tackling ability and claiming it to be 130% of that of the leader tries to create a space in the minds of consumer of superior performance and hence better germ protection.

Moreover, not only did the ad garner huge media buzz but it also took away the spotlight from P&G’s foray in the toothpaste segment with the Oral B brand. Hence, Pepsodent’s marketing magic proved to be a panacea for the toothpaste brand to get the mileage and create a buzz in the market beating competitors on their own turf.

Pepsodent has taken the latter route on more than one occasion now. Back in the late 90s, Pepsodent claimed that its toothpaste was 102% better. And now, in its recent TVC, it claims its Pepsodent Germicheck is 130% better than Colgate Strong Teeth, probably to appeal to the egodefensive and knowledge function of the consumers. A couple of years back, the brand roped in Shahrukh Khan in those “Dishum Dishum” TVCs in a futile attempt to attract consumers. Repeated claims of superiority over the market leader and inappropriate choice of brand ambassador is only an indication to the very obvious point that Pepsodent might be experiencing what we call brand paranoia.

Well, marketing gimmicks might have worked in the past but the consumer is growing intelligent with time. Cognitive dissonance altogether might be a very dangerous consequence of the TVC. A claim of superiority of a 130% over the market leader without sufficient approval from a body like Indian Dental Association is certainly not going to help Pepsodent’ s cause. Although Pepsodent’ s intent might have been to divert attention away from the new comer Oral B by P&G and establish that Indian oral care industry has only two players, the TVC might have only worked in favor of the current number one.

Topic for the next issue: “Yahoo’s new logo: Technical glitch or Matching the brand identity” Your opinion (view/counterview) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is 2nd November, 2013. Include your picture (JPEG format) with the entry.

Winning entries will receive a prize money of Rs. 500 each!

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october 2013

silent voice

october 2013

Theme: Whisper Sanitary Pads Last month’s results Winner Vivek unnikrishnan | NIAM

Congratulations!!! Vivek receives a cash prize of Rs 1000!

honorary mention Ankita Bapna | NMIMs, Mumbai

NEXT THEME FOR SILENT VOICE: Victoria’s Secret LAST DATE OF SENDING THE PRINT AD: 2nd November EMAIL ID: markathon.iims@gmail.com Send your entry in JPEG format named as SilentVoice_<Your Name>_<Institute>only.

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october 2013

Touchstone

Touchstone was the flagship event conducted by Marketing Club, in association with Shillong Lajong FC,

as a part of Khlur Thma - The B School Fest of IIM Shillong. The event, which started as an online quiz meant to test the marketing acumen of the participants culminated into a grand finale in IIM Shillong on 5th October 2013. Participants got a chance to work on suggesting ways of formalizing the existing fan base of Shillong Lajong FC. With participation of over 800 students, over 75 colleges and Rs 80 000 on the crads, this was the biggest event organized by Marketing Club of IIM Shillong. Team Markathon thanks all its readers for making this event a huge success.

Chief Guests at the event: (L-R) Mr Ashley (GM, Centrepoint Group), Mr Larsing Ming (CEO, Shillong Lajong) and Mr Habamutlang (Marketing Manager, SLFC)

Winners: Team #19 of IIM Shillong

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Participants in the final presentation round

Runners up: Team Symbions from SIBM, Bangalore

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AD-dicted

october 2013

BY Swikruti panda IIM SHILLONG

BY Sushree tripathy IIM SHILLONG

PRODUCT: Fevicol

PRODUCT: Old Spice

POSITIONING: “Jud jao is tyohar - Bond together this festive season”

POSITIONING: “Smell Mantastic”

CREATIVE AGENCY: Ogilvy & Mather, India

Wieden +

YouTube Link:

YouTube Link:

http://w w w.youtube.com/ watch?v=4bvjQAp0q_8

http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=dLX23D1uR9I

CATCH

CONCEPT:

CREATIVE AGENCY: Kennedy

CONCEPT:

The 19 second short commercial unveils showing two elephants furiously screaming at each other.

Just when they were at the verge of locking horns, the drum rolls on the Dandiya beats and sways the angry souls away along with its festive melody and in no time the trunks try to sync with the beats, tapping foot on Dandiya notes with the sugarcane branches (torn initially to take a toll on the other). Even before one can come out of the Dandiya melody and company of cute creatures on the screen, Fevicol proudly announces the two elephants trying to imbibe a sense of togetherness with the festivities are none other than the ones trying infuse trust in the Fevicol bond in its logo all through these years.

The latest ad campaign from the stalls of Old Spice is an Indianized recreation of their global campaign ‘Smell like a man, man’ and features the epitome of Indian masculinity Milind Soman in the shoes of Isaiah Mustafa. Seated on a throne in his richly embellished fort, in just a towel and a gold neckpiece that read ‘Man’, Milind talks about how he realized what it takes to be a real man. Neither gelled hair nor a sexy chest, neither Polo Championship trophies nor membership from the principal adviser at the Principality of Monaco, but only an Old Spice deodorant made him a real man. He then asks what it requires to become a true man; and reveals that to be a “Mantasic”, refined man, all one needs is Old Spice.

R

MISS

VERDICT: Catch

VERDICT: Miss

This is a brilliant TVC coming from the stable of one of the most brilliant advertising brands, who have not only been successful in transforming the brand to the noun for the category but have also been able to keep the audience waiting for the next, every time they come up with a funfilled rejuvenating ad communicating the core brand in a seamless subtle manner. After a successful attempt to resonate the cute animated elephants with Fevicol through a short Rakhi commercial, Fevicol wants to ride higher on the theme and on similar platform has released the ad to cash on the Indian population high on Navaratri celebrations. No doubt in just 19 seconds Fevicol has managed the desired impact, if you are waiting for the cute elephants to fire crackers coming Diwali!

Although the brand’s Indian ad is similar to its international counterpart in the underlying message and treatment - a satirical take on masculinity, it fails in execution.

While it is very refreshing to see Milind Soman back on the small screen after long, despite the grey hair, but the dialogues and the execution is truly disappointing. The brand has perhaps for the first time tried to adapt its communication to give it an Indian touch. However, while the brand’s strategy of playing on masculinity works well in the West, the Indian culture has never accepted sissymasculinity in the first place. Hence, the parody of the metrosexual male is completely out of context. Rather, a dig at the Indian concept of macho would have been better. Besides trying too hard to keep up with its international imagery, it fails to be as entertaining and comes across as ‘preachy’.

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bookmark

october 2013

Bookmark Pallavi Chauhan | IIM Shillong “It’s a new brand world” – it is with this clever quote by Tom Peters that David Aaker introduces the new paradigm of brand leadership, from classic/tactical to modern/strategic brand management in his book Brand Leadership, which is the third book in a trilogy about creating and managing brands. The first book was Managing Brand Equity and the second was Building Strong Brands. David Aaker always presents his books as a mix of marketing theory and actual branding case histories and this book is no different.

Summary Every strong brand has two key ingredients: An identity and a Positioning in the marketplace. The author begins the book by recounting and extending this brand identity and positioning model for building a strong brand and goes on to suggest ways to develop strong brand identities with support from examples such as Virgin Atlantic and L.L. Bean.

Brand architecture is presented next, with helpful insights on how to understand brand relationships which exists between brands and sub brands within the firm’s portfolio and how to conduct a brand audit to define and improve the organization’s brand spectrum. An effective brand architecture should link all the brands together productively to create synergies and have clarity in customer offerings to avoid confusion. This can be done by allowing each brand to be positioned carefully and deliberately.

Moving on, the authors examine some unique brandbuilding programs that go well beyond traditional advertising with cases from marketers like Nike, Adidas, Nestle, and BMW. According to them brands are formed and built through memorable programs which bring the brand to life. In the current times this has to go beyond advertising and include elements such as sponsorships, web and other interactive media and public relations and other initiatives which play a very important role in today’s world.

In the last part the authors describe a structural model for organizations to create strong brands based on their study of 35 benchmark global firms. It probes into some insights and best practices for developing a global brand leader and articulates the strategic importance and benefit of a well-supported branding/marketing function.

Organization The book has a total of 10 chapters divided into five parts

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and broadly developed in the form of four themes.

The first theme extends the concept of brand identity. The second one addresses the problem of brand architecture. Third explores how to move beyond adverPrice: Rs 460 tising to build brands effectively and efficiently. And the final theme considers the organizational challenge of managing brands in a global context.

Verdict

With 350 pages, the book is a bit on the heavier side but is a very easy read. The book must have been full of new insights when it was first published in 2000 but today it reminds more of the old school marketing and branding.

There are not many ideas which the marketing students of today do not know already. However, the concepts in the book are explained very clearly with the help of real world cases for each of them..

Bottom-line The book is a bit dated at this point but is not a bad resource. You can give it a miss but if you are looking for some good theory on branding, you don’t have to look any further

“It’s a new brand world” - Tom Peters

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jab they failed

october 2013

Jab They Failed When Barbie’s boyfriend came out of the closet Vaibhav Annam | IIM Shillong Marketers strive hard to create that emotional connect between a product and the consumer. Probably, one of the most successful instances wherein the product became much more than just a toy was Barbie. Created by Mattel, Barbie was introduced to the world in the year 1959 at the annual Toy Fair in New York. The universal appeal she has had is owing to the fact that she has moved hand-in-hand with the changing lifestyles of different generations of girls. In order to increase the connectedness, Barbie’s boyfriend Ken was introduced in the year 1961.

Like Barbie, even Ken had gone through many different avatars to suit what was in vogue. While almost all his fads turned eyeballs, he did something in 1993 which attracted attention for a very different and unanticipated reason.

Our dear Ken flaunted an earring for the very first time in an attempt to look more “cool”.

Now as you are reading this article, you might be thinking what the fuss really was all about. It was, after all an earring yet the media slammed it to no end. “It would seem Mattel’s crack Ken redesign team spent a weekend in LA or New York, dashing from rave to rave, taking notes and Polaroids”, said a journalist. Change is the only constant, they say. And Ken had changed in order to look cooler. But, the repercussions were something which Mattel could never have imagined even in the wildest of its dreams.

What went wrong was that sporting an earring was associated with gay men and immediately after the launch; Earring Ken was dubbed as “Gay Ken”. The purple vest along with a mesh shirt obviously did not help Ken’s cause.

People immediately started inferring that Mattel is trying to change with the changing norms and sexual values in the society. This was not what Mattel had wanted with Barbie’s boyfriend. At the end of the day, these toys were meant for small girls. Even if people had appreciated Mattel for acknowledging homosexuality, the target market most certainly did not have to know about this.

Most of the sales of Ken were in the gay community. What next? Had Mattel chosen to strongly deny an indication of homosexuality in Ken, there was a strong chance that media would again slam Mattel accusing it of homophobia and intolerance towards homosexuality. Negative PR

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was the last thing Mattel would have wanted at this time.

So when did it start going wrong for Mattel? Let’s explore.

It wasn’t really the case that Mattel randomly put an earring on Ken. This insight came after a fair deal of primary research. Mattel researchers wanted to know the perception of girls about Ken. They wanted to learn if girls thought Barbie had it enough with Ken and wanted a new boyfriend. But the answer was a definite no. Five year olds, who were asked this question, said Barbie should stick to Ken but Ken could be made to look cooler. Now, the problem was that even if young girls play with the toys, it is ultimately their parents who are going to buy it for them.

No parent would buy a toy knowing very well that it was symbolic of homosexuality. Mattel’s designing team failed to effectively capture the insights from its research team.

Also, 90s was time when gay-rights movement started picking pace. So, this experience with earrings taught two lessons to Mattel: analyse research data properly and be receptive to what’s happening in the world around you.

Soon enough, Mattel recalled as many earring Kens as possible from the shelves. Damage was curtailed to an extent. But by then Ken completely understood what it actually meant by “coming out of the closet”

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radical thoughts

october 2013

Comparative Advertising: What’s your take on it?

Radical Thoughts Ashok A | IIM Shillong We have seen many of it. Coke vs. Pepsi. Walmart vs.

Sobeys. Mountain Dew vs. Sprite. Rin vs. Tide. Now more recently, Pepsodent vs Colgate. A comparative advertisement in my opinion is a genius. But pardon me if I seem to take a different stance in the course of this article, as I would look on both sides, which we have been doing always. A comparative advertising allows a brand to throw cards on the table and show the audience its points of difference and points of dominance over its competitor brands.

Comparative Marketing campaigns were made famous during 1980s in USA by Pepsi at the peak of the famous Cola War. ‘Pepsi Taste Challenge’ showed that consumers preferred Pepsi over Coke in a series of blind taste tests. But this was not orchestrated well enough to pull off a victory over Coca-Cola. Pepsi claimed that over 50% of the consumers preferred Pepsi. This was a highly ambiguous claim, from which viewers could not deduce anything. This is the most common trap that most of the brands fall into. This shows that the claim which the brand makes should be clear and unambiguous.

dows guy every time. The ad was witty and straight, pointing to the features of the computers.

Another famous one is by Samsung. This time around, Apple was at the receiving end. Samsung resorted to offensive ad tactics in promoting its Samsung S3 against the iPhone 5. The ad was successful for so many reasons. It pointed out and compared the features that mattered most to a smartphone user, rather than speaking about trifles. Also Samsung used humor to its advantage. Using Humor works in many ways in Comparative advertising. Firstly it helps grab One of the most successful ad campaigns was crafted the eyeballs. Next it takes away the intensity of comby Apple. It’s Mac vs. Windows ad campaigns were petition and desperation from the ad. immensely successful and helped a lot of non-mac users to know about the advantages of using a Mac. But people belonging to the other flank warn of such The ad featured a smart mac guy outsmarting a win- escapades as they feel it can cause some serious damage to your brand and aid the competitor brand in a big way. They claim that, in the current scenario where people are not all ears during the ad breaks, brands can only make a part of their message go into the viewer’s head. Even a mere mention of the competitors name or imagery can make the viewer think that it is the competitor’s ad.

Overall, Comparative marketing tactics can pay high rewards if planned and executed carefully by making claim more clear and with proper support to the claims made. Adios!

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updates

october 2013

Prateek Gaurav | IIM Shillong

Brand Launch Here Comes the iGoliath

Amidst much hype and speculation, the tech giant Apple released its latest version of operating system, the iOS 7. A host of conspicuous features have been included to make life easier for users maintaining its supremacy over other operating systems. Inclusion of Control center, swipe function, a smarter Siri are some of the notable features packed with the latest version of the software.

Lenovo enters the Game Zone

The gaming industry is slowly but surely booming in India and taking note of such a scenario, Lenovo launched its new range of PCs with a price tag between 50,000 to 1,40,000. The PC’s are powered with Intel i7 processor and is loaded with Windows8 operating system. The market which is dominated by Alienware systems thrives on high graphics requirement with fast processing speed.

It goes to see if Lenovo will be able to deliver a power packed performance with its latest offering.

Grand hatches out from Hyundai

The hatchback segment has always been fiercely competitive for OEMs and market leaders like Maruti and Hyundai have dotted the market with offerings at various price points to suit the consumer’s pocket. On similar lines, Hyundai unveiled its Grand i10 which is seen as a direct competitor to the segment leader Swift. Interesting thing here is that it has launched the car in both petrol and diesel version spoiling the customers for choice.

dustries to Titan Company came as a surprise to many but later the purpose of the same became clear with the company trying to rebrand itself from a watch company to a lifestyle company. The company which is considered the country’s foremost timekeeper has evolved over the years with its portfolio including jewelry, eye gear and watches at various price segment to attract consumers with varied spending power.

Heal it up with a diamond touch

The wound care market in India is likely to see some competition with 3M entering the segment with Nexcare. The segment creator and leader Johnson and Johnson has always been the dominant player in the market with rivals like Dettol trying hard to grab a share of the pie. What is working in Nexcare’s favor is its form factor in diamond shape and licensed branding. The company has launched bandages for kids using licensed brands like Barbie, Hot wheels and Ben10.

Apple for the colorful

Amidst much hysteria and fanfare, the innovation czar launched two new offerings for the consumers: 5C and 5S. Countering the speculations that Apple will be targeting the emerging markets with low priced phones, Apple remained true to its premium tag offering 5 color options through its 5C model which has become popular among its target segments.

Though initial reports were not exciting, Apple is set to soon garner the expected sales from its new gadgets.

Media Rebranding SKS microfinance with Jack Trout

The leading thinker in the field of positioning, Jack Trout has been hired by SKS Microfinance for its rebranding exercise. SKS is looking to improve its brand equity among its members and stakeholders and has hired Trout who considers it interesting to work in the social sector.

Brand Watch Titan positioning itself as a Lifestyle brand

Abused Goddess Campaign

The recent move of Titan to rename itself from Titan In-

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Campaigns spreading social messages have been doing the rounds over internet for some time now. Created by

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updates

october 2013 Youtube Link: watch?v=4Oz9R64yYY4

http://www.youtube.com/

Flipkart :India wants to know

The cute children are back. The online megastore in its attempt to drive its value proposition to consumers continued with featuring child artists in its ads and has effectively communicated its messages. Moreover, featuring child artists dressed as adults is a welcome break from scantily clad models or Bollywood superstars selling everything from soap to soda. The ad has been taken well by its viewers and been doing the rounds on social media sites.

Taproot, this powerful campaign hits hard at the menace of domestic violence and tries to highlight the fact that if no step is taken against this social evil, even the women worshipped by us will not be spared. The conceptualization and portrayal of the message has been immaculate and has been creating waves particularly in social media.

Ad Watch Say Cheers to man hair with Park Avenue

J.K. Helen Curtis owned Park Avenue has launched specialized shampoo focusing on man hair and the ad tries to convey the same trying to be funny at times. The ad conveys the positioning effectively essaying that man hair is different from women hair and beer makes the hair shiny and bouncy. Whether it affects the offtakes at the retail stores is something to watch out for.

Youtube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrFiaB5ahE

It’s your fault or is it??

Crime against women is at an all-time high and rather than blaming the culprit, we end up blaming the victim. Such is the biasness of our society and the hypocrisy of gender equality that we preach. Focusing on the same issue, a social campaign featuring Kalki Koechlin has become a rage over the internet and has attracted over a million hits on YouTube in 5 days. The campaign effectively throws the hypocrisy of society and the agony faced by women tormented by sexual crimes against them. Overall, a very nicely portrayed message that hits hard at the male chauvinistic society.

Youtube Link: watch?v=ZBqdMjXJyHM

http://www.youtube.com/

Articles are invited

“Best Article”: Zeeshan Hassan | IIM Kozhikode 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 specific to the regular sections of Markathon which includes: • Perspective: Articles related to development of latest trends 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.

We’re inviting photographs of interesting promotional events/advertisements/hoardings/banners etc. you might have come across in your daily life for our new section “The 4th P”.

Send your self-clicked photographs in JPEG format only.

The last date of receiving all entries is 2nd November, 2013. Please send your entries marked as <ARTICLE NAME>_<SENDERS’ NAMES>_<INSTITUTE> to markathon.iims@gmail.com.

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october 2013

Cherayi Beach, Kochi

Golf Course, Lakshmi Vilas Palace Baroda

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We would love to hear from you: markathon.iims@gmail.com www.issuu.com/markathon

Markathon, IIM Shillong