FROM THE EDITOR I am glad that the marketing club got the opportunity to use its monthly magazine as a platform for all the young marketing enthusiasts who are curious to let out their views on various topics. It gives me immense pleasure to write this message as Editor of this unique edition of the magazine. The theme of January's edition revolves around experiential marketing and the usage of artificial intelligence in marketing. The theme gives a sneak peek into the marketing practices of the new age. This edition has a lot under its umbrella, from bringing forward automation, psychology, and a blend of digital and physical experiences while drawing hidden inferences of marketing. I extend my warmest gratitude to all the authors for their interest, enthusiasm, and well-documented submissions of excellent articles and participation in this magazine’s building. I firmly believe that no matter how your magazine is delivered; either at your doorstep or to your computer, printed on glossy stock or on cheap tabloid paper, appearing on your iPad or your cell phone screen, it is still the work of an editorial team for a discerning audience, a beautiful and meaningful (we hope) package of ideas, words and images put together by a group of experts for its readers. While technology efficiently delivers new stories to our desktops, laptops, and mobile devices, magazines are all about context – how ideas and images are presented in relation to one another and spanning a broader perspective. We, the editors, will always strive to keep you engaged.
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CONTENTS 01 The Influence of Cause-Related Marketing Approach on Consumers’ Personality Traits.
03 verything about Experiential Marketing
7 Buzzfeed
05 How AI will help make better Marketing Decisions 11 AI smart enough for Digital Marketing?
15 Marquing The Moments
The Influence of Cause-Related Marketing Approach on Consumers’ Personality Traits. Author: Huzefa Mandasaurwala Mithibai College, Mumbai Think about a hair oil commercial. An advertisement that offers to provide money for research in rural and female education every time a certain hair oil is purchased instead of the conventional hair fall-related and clinical setting with dermatologists recommending specific hair oil. Is this ad going to get greater attention as a result? Do people pay greater attention to the ad's specifics? Will this ad persuade people to buy Hair Oil? A hair oil business in India, Nihar Naturals, has started an advertising campaign named "Small Steps Towards Progress" to promote the education of youngsters. 'Nihar Shanti Amla' will donate 2% of all sales earnings from this campaign to Child Rights and You (CRY). Vidya Balan, an Indian film star and Marico's brand ambassador, appeared in a TV commercial as part of the campaign.
The field of CRM has seen an uptick in academic study thanks to the growing popularity of cause marketing. Previously, CRM research concentrated mostly on two aspects, one from the company perspective and the other on the influence of CRM on consumer attitudes, behaviour, and intentions. No one has looked into whether marketers may use these campaigns to target specific people with certain personality characteristics. In this context, we're discussing Rotter's (1966) Locus of Control (LOC), in which people have varying views on the amount to which the decisions they make can influence their life. There are two types of LOC orientation: one that is external, characterised by a lack
Cause-related marketing (CRM) is a type of marketing strategy in which firms offer to donate a specific amount to a recognised cause as part of their marketing activity. Cause marketing, which has been around for a while, has risen in popularity and is expected to bring in $2.2 billion in revenue this year, an increase of about 5% over the previous year (Business2Community Article, 2018).
of trust in personal efficacy and one that is internal, which is marked by an assumption that one can influence results. To study this phenomenon, authors of the article conducted research to investigate the extent to which consumer locus of control plays a key role in achieving business and social gains in the domain
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of CRM. This study hypothesizes that people who feel personally responsible for the things that happen to them, those with an internal locus of control (LOC), perceive cause related marketing differently and more positively than others who feel, outcomes in life are determined by forces beyond their control (e.g., luck, fate, other people, etc.), those with an external locus of control. The study is guided by the theory of effect of locus of control on information search behaviour. The respondents were administered two scales namely Consumers’ Attitudes towards Cause-Related Marketing (Corić and Dropuljić, 2015) and the Consumer Locus of Control scale (Busserih, Lefcourt and Kerton, 2006). The data analysis indicated significant T-test results between Locus of Control & CRM.
Some important findings from this research include: (1)Previous researchers have found that the preference for CRM campaigns that bundled with hedonic products (luxury goods) was caused by emotional complementarity, in which the altruistic utility provided by CRM campaigns exactly compensated the guilt of hedonic consumption but in our research it was found that because of the rise is consumerism, cause related marketing campaigns are not only favourable by luxury brands but also by brands which are targeted towards middle class users (i.e. FMCG and other that sells more and in return consumer expects more donations to be made). (2)Past studies have also indicated such campaigns usually attract the metropolitan consumers but through our research we observed that the distance between Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities is reducing. And with the rise in online shopping and social media, the gap has reduced leading to more consumer
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awareness. (3)The meta-analytic study of social psychology literature found that women tended to be involved in helping activities that are more nurturing and caring, and thus more pro-social. On the other hand, males are engaged in a more heroic or individualistic form of helping behaviour. Similarly in our study female respondents showed more positive predisposition to pro-social behaviour and advertising appeals of CRM, this may conceivably impact their involvement with brands using such appeals. (4)The study also found that importance of the cause to the subject, the reputation of the charitable organization, and the size and effect of the donation, were significant aspects. It was found that strong cause-claims for all individuals were those with educational or environmental themes. Billions of dollars were invested in cause-related marketing as part of corporate social responsibility. Due to the fact that this is a win-win-win situation for companies, non-profit organizations and customers, the number of businesses participating in this marketing communication strategy has been steadily growing. The number of causes for creation of such partnerships is enormous, such as health, animal protection and even human services. However, not all aspects of CRM are positive. Critics of cause related marketing warn against the commercialization of the non-profit sector and warn that the need for 'philanthropism' is not replaced by 'shopping'. Others argue that CRM campaigns only provide a short-term link to a cause, and that the business benefits often outweigh the non-profit benefits by far. Moreover, because companies are driven to minimize risk, businesses tend to support the more popular and politically correct causes at the expense of those that may be stigmatized or less popular with consumers. For a lot of researchers, this area of marketing communication is of interest, particularly the customer perspective part. Studies indicate that most customers have a positive approach to causes-related marketing strategies. But there is still a lack in the area of customer response to CRM, considering all previous findings in the field of marketing commu-
Everything about Experiential Marketing Author: Archana Adiga Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras Today, we live in a time where there are a plethora of businesses contending for market share. People nowadays are quick to forget what has been said and done, but they will never forget how you made them feel. As a result, it is critical for a brand to capture the attention of customers and imprint itself on their minds. Experiential marketing is a marketing technique that involves customers and provides memorable real-life experiences. Appealing to a consumer's emotional side establishes a personal connection, which leads to the customer remembering the product or service. Instead of focusing just on the product or service given, experiential marketing places the consumer at the center of the entire marketing process. Customers may now get a taste of everything thanks to a holistic approach that can lead to client loyalty.
keting budget on experiential marketing.
People value experiences and are willing to pay a high price for them. It could be as simple as listening to a short piece of music alone at home, or as complex as paying to watch cricket in a stadium and immersing oneself in the crowd and becoming a part of the game. As a result, when it comes to marketing, 70 percent of customers link a positive customer experience to improved brand loyalty. The customer is more likely to associate with the brand if they have a tangible experience with it. As a result, an increasing number of CMOs are spending 21 percent to 50 percent of their mar-
ciate an experience, they wish to relive it, this might lead to repeat customers.
We all equate experiential marketing with modern-day marketing strategy, but it may surprise you to learn that it was originally used in 1983 by businesses like Wrigley's and Pabst by handing out samples to encourage sales. However, experiential marketing has come a long way, and it now comes in a variety of forms, including permanent installations, pop-up activations, and B2B conferences. Instead of focusing on interruptive one-sided traditional marketing strategies to sell a product, a simple act of setting up a booth enabling people to freely stroll over and interact with the brand might be used. When individuals appre-
Why is experiential marketing the greatest way to go forward today, if it is such an ancient concept? People today are skeptical about commercials, with 89 percent dismissing them. Websites, emails and social media have become popular as a result of ubiquitous internet connections. Experiential marketing can be used to provide more customization and overcome the limitations of generic traditional marketing methods. It may lead to Omnichannel Engagement
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Opportunities, as research shows that 98 percent of people generate digital material about their branded experiences and share it 100 percent of the time. As a result, this can be leveraged to attract media attention, and these experiences can then be turned into content marketing, user-generated social content, and commercial ad filmmaking. Experiential marketing allows firms to demonstrate their authenticity through a human-to-human touch. It's a terrific approach to let people know who you are, what you stand for, and what you're attempting to accomplish. It's more about shaping or modifying the user's perception of the brand than it is about making sales. It facilitates word-of-mouth because people are always eager to share their experiences, whether positive or negative. According to studies, 92 percent of customers trust recommendations from friends and family, therefore this plays a significant part in improving your company's sales. Building a cohesive user profile using the facts provided by the user throughout the engagement and then nurturing the user based on it can also generate sales-qualified leads and bring value to the business. Is it simple to put an experiential marketing strategy into action, given all of this? The answer is an emphatical no. This is due to the fact that experiential marketing is not a passing fad, but rather something that must be remembered. While using eclectic methodologies, an experiential marketing strategist must focus on the customer experience, treat consumption as a holistic approach, and recognize both the rational and emotional drivers that play a large role in consumption. The goal is to create an experience by appealing to the subject's sense, feel, act, and relate aspects. Experiential marketing that is dispersed and unconnected causes, not just strategic but also organizational issues. When an immersive marketing engagement is badly executed, it can result in difficulties such as wasted time, inappropriate group targeting, highcost involvement, loss of corporate branding, and poor brand extension. So, how can we get a good experiential marketing campaign off the ground? Experiential marketing requires a wide and multifaceted strategy. Before incorporating it into the
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marketing plan, it must be rigorously scrutinized for flaws. It should be able to meet the objectives in a competitive manner. Every team member should engage in individual conceptualization, in which he or she conducts independent research and jots down ideas. Then, during team conversations, these ideas can be explored and the most feasible ones should be chosen. Then these concepts must be strategically developed, with the elements layered to achieve our objectives, deliver powerful messaging, and increase interactivity to improve the user experience. Any issues that are discovered must be addressed with actual solutions or workarounds before the campaign is put to the test. Is it safe to say that your experiential marketing campaign was a success? To assess this, start with pre-event intelligence gathering, which can include anything from interest to brand recognition. The registration metrics can then be measured to assess how effective the registration techniques were. The measurement of on-site engagement or interaction is the next area where there is a significant gap; this is a critical stage in determining whether the campaign was directed to the right group of customers in the right way. Then it's time to track onsite conversions to see how effective the campaign was at getting people to take action. This should be followed by post-event intelligence collection to ensure the campaign's overall effectiveness.
How AI will help make better marketing decisions Author: Varun Verma Fr. Conceicao Rodrigues Institute of Technology with an attention span shorter than a goldfish, every individual cherishes a personalized user experience and AI helps in doing exactly that. Intelligent algorithms work incessantly to analyze thousands of datapoints about a single user (including location, demographics, interaction with website etc.) to display the best-fitting offers and content. This personalized content helps companies to market their products in a much more efficient and decisive manner with the use of AI. Additionally, push notifications assist the marketing team by sending out customized messages to individuals, delivering them the right offers at the right time. A Use of AI in marketing has become an integral Real-Time Personalization Survey held by Evergage part of the digital era and hence, has given rise showed that AI powered personalization helped imto a term called AI Marketing. AI Marketing is prove the conversion rate as well as the user experience. a method of leveraging technologies to collect data, customer insights, anticipate customer’s But AI powered customization is not limited to just next moves and make automated decisions that personalized website experience or content, it can impact marketing efforts. Simply put, it helps also be used in the healthcare and fitness industry to understand the customer on a much deep- by providing personalized training routines and nuer level which allows to target the right strate- tritional plans based on data from other consumers gy to the right individual in a timely manner. having similar lifestyles. For instance, UnderArmour So, now that we know what AI Marketing is, an American sports equipment company uses IBM the million-dollar question that surfaces is, how Watson’s AI to create personal health consultants for exactly does AI help in marketing and more- its users. The personal AI consultant learns about over, how can it be used to make better mar- the user’s nutritional intake, sleep pattern and daily keting decisions to improve the efficacy of the activity to provide the user with customized fitness overall organization and most importantly en- plans [5]. This tailored information about each and hance customer satisfaction. The subsequent every individual helps the marketing team to underparagraphs of the article will discuss about the stand the needs of the customer and provide them various ways in which AI can be leveraged to with the best products available and support their maximize business and make better decisions. customers in achieving their health and fitness goals. As humans we are naturally prone to making misFirstly, Personalization has become the most takes, AI on the other hand helps to identify human important aspect in today’s fast paced lifestyle, errors by analyzing every micro detail. UnquestionJoe Chernov once said, “Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart”. Every company in this day and age strives to attain the unattainable by carefully and rigorously marketing their products to the general public, while simultaneously understanding their target market to comprehend what works and what doesn’t. With the recent advancement in technology and a rapid growth of AI (Artificial Intelligence), companies and industries can leverage AI to not only make better marketing decisions but also serve their customers with personalized content and as a result attain maximum efficiency.
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-ably, AI exists to avoid human intervention that ultimately eliminates the likelihood of human error. With the growth of technology and an increase in personalization of content it is of supreme importance for businesses to safeguard customer data. Marketing teams rely heavily on the fact that data used for increasing profits will not be leaked or divulged with competitors plus will be protected from cyber-attacks. Furthermore, to be at the peak of the competition, it is crucial for companies and organizations to understand and solve customer queries or issues in a prompt & punctual manner. If you have recently communicated with a customer service representative, your helpful correspondent named Emily or Jill might have held a little secret – she’s a bot. Customer service which was once monitored by actual humans
as per their taste [5]. This definitely helps marketers to understand and comprehend data through AI chatbots to make better decisions regarding beauty products in the near future. Automated Image Recognition is another crucial tool that marketing teams use extensively to provide users with more personalized content. Use of Image Recognition powered by AI algorithms helps identify people and objects from images and videos. Big brands like Google, Amazon, Facebook use Image Recognition on a daily basis to understand its users and provide them with the best suitable content which they will cherish. From a marketer’s point of view, image recognition could mean a better sync between online content and store visits. Many stores trace customer’s in-store visits through facial recogni-
has now been taken over by chatbots which run on intelligent algorithms having access to millions, if not billions of customer-centered datapoints. This AI powered technology enables humans to focus on more pressing matters which need human assistance and therefore reducing decision fatigue. Providing users with solutions to various complications is as important as marketing the product which the users might have a query about. But, chatbots are not limited to just customer service roles, they serve as personalized stylers too. For example, Sephora, a multinational beauty products company uses chatbots to conduct mini quizzes to understand the user’s makeup preference and suggest them beauty products
tion software and link it to their profile to serve them with better online shopping experience. In conclusion, AI can be a very promising tool for marketers to make better marketing decisions. Additionally, it can help humans by taking over monotonous tasks which are very time consuming and let people focus on more important matters at hand. AI enables marketers to achieve a dream previously considered impossible – to engage with every individual user in a personalized and a much more meaningful manner. Therefore, AI is no longer just a hype – it’s a ‘must have’ technology that every company and industry should put to good use to help make better marketing decisions and hence improve efficiency and profitability.
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Import duty Xiaomi Zomato offersevasion Rs. 25 :lakh for consumer created ad
According to an official announcement, Xiaomi’s India unit has been slapped with a Rs 653 crore notice for alleged import duty evasion. Xiaomi India has been issued a show-cause notice after papers were discovered during inspections on company facilities that showed remittance of royalty and licencing fees to US and Chinese entities in accordance with contractual commitments. Zomato is proof that theygathered can turnby criticism into a super marketing campaign. After conAccording to evidence the Directorate of innovative Revenue Intelligence (DRI) during investigasumers. After consumers expressed their growing boredom with Zomato’s monotonous YouTube andby tions, neither Xiaomi India nor its contract manufacturers included the amount of royalty paid TV some users took to socialvalue mediaoftothe criticize chicken ad. However, Zoamtomantheads, company in the assessable goodsZomato’s importedbutter by the company and its contract seems to have played its cards well by coming up with a smart idea to help it come up with fun cam-that ufacturers, which is illegal under customs law. During the investigation, it was also discovered paigns while engaging withfee” their customers. the “royalty and licence paid by Xiaomi India to Qualcomm USA and Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co Ltd, China (a Xiaomi India related party) was not included in the transaction value of The went all out, by proclaiming that and the ads do suck. So now, it has opened floor for creative the firm goods imported the company its contract manufacturers. Furtherthe investigations revealed ideas from customers. What was commendable was that, apart from the novel idea, they also shared that Xiaomi India is involved in the selling of MI brand mobile phones, which are either imported the with that made them win many hearts. by feeling the firm or their built customers in India using components supplied by Xiaomi India’s contract manufacturers.
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Leena Nair : Chanel’s New CEO Chanel has a new CEO: Leena Nair. Chanel is the renowned company that made the little black dress a necessity for every woman. On December 15, the haute-couture business announced that Nair, the former Unilever human-resources director, will take over as CEO in January. Alain Wertheimer, Chanel’s co-owner, is being replaced by her. Nair is expected to become Chanel’s first female CEO and one of the industry’s few women of colour in the top echelons. Nair, who is of British Indian origin, is joining an industry that has been shaken by the pandemic, with businesses closing and customers flocking to online shopping. Chanel, unlike its competitors Gucci, Prada, and Versace, does not sell its well-known handbags online, making Nair’s task more difficult. Nair may also have the significant task of assisting in the shaping of Chanel’s aesthetic vision, which experts believe is still in the works following the death of Chanel’s renowned artistic director, Karl Lagerfeld, in 2019. With her, Nair brings a powerful vision. In recent interviews, Nair, 52, demonstrated that he is not hesitant to speak out on the need for global leaders to make businesses more inclusive. Nair didn’t go to the top of the corporate ladder the typical manner. Nair, a former engineer, began climbing the corporate ladder in 1992. According to Unilever, she became the company’s “first female, first Asian, and youngest ever” chief human-resources officer in 2016. She formerly worked for the British government’s Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy as a nonexecutive director.
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AI smart enough for Digital Marketing? Author: Ishu Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore Introduction Digital marketing techniques have revolutionized over the past few decades. As we continuously improve the algorithms, the lag between our retrospective actions towards trends, and the corresponding display of advertisements, is minimized. This is because of the ever-evolving algorithm models which analyse an individ ual’s behaviour and use it to display relevant
Data collected from various sensors integrated in our devices, form a network which is then utilised to analyse the data consumption patterns of an individual. This network is commonly known as the Internet of Things where different devices owned by the same person
advertisements. We can now observe that Facebook targets their advertisement to relevant people only. Artificial Intelligence has become a significant entity in the realm of digital marketing. In the digital age, advertisement agencies depend on AI-based technologies to evaluate customer interests and gain their loyalty. This works by collecting data and running it on a set of assigned patterns or commands to find out the most efficient way for client and customer interaction.
are integrated with each other to ensure efficient work. However, such networks collect huge data which is later sent to cloud servers to be analysed. These manufacturer’s use this network for surveillance purposes for intrusive advertising. We have already been experiencing AI bots crunching on our behaviour from social networking websites and smart devices in our homes to display relevant products amidst our feed. It has reduced the human dependency for various tasks such as data
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curation and boosting customer conversion rates. Popular social media sites charge 0.49$ CPC (Cost per Click) for their advertisements. For us, it means that we can use the well-established AI interface developed by them to advertise our products to relevant consumers and pay 0.49$ for per-traffic converted from their platform. It proves to be a very efficient way of advertisement because we intentionally aren’t investing/missing anything because of the ads, but the platform analyses our behaviour in the background and shows products which might be relevant to us. Challenges The extensive influence of AI in digital marketing shows the importance of innovating this sector in the modern marketing world. As the field gets denser, new opportunities and challenges will appear which consumers and corporations have to face. As consumers and developers of the modern generation of Artificial Intelligence, we must consider certain factors before making drastic investments into the next generation of digital marketing infused with AI. According to many profound AI-developers, it is beneficial for a company in the long term to optimize its AI. In the current generation of data consumers, an upcoming trend is almost unpredictable. An action or object which appeals to the community can reach trending overnight. Therefore, it is important for an AI developer to focus on the frequency between simulations to advertise a client’s product to a user. It is difficult for a developer to upgrade the employed software and make them adaptable to the upcoming trends. Currently, the data is much more precious than the computers used to process them. If evaluated properly, trend patterns can be identified from the past and then implemented at the looming stages of a trend. Hence, even if an organization decides to upgrade their employed software, they have to be wary about the fact that the upgrade shall in no form damage or alter the stored data-sets.
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As stated earlier, an AI investment reaps the benefits in a long-term period. (But the results will be inherently based on the efficiency of the model to crunch data). Even so, an algorithm alone isn’t capable of delivering results, it would be up to the people inferring from the results and executing them efficiently. Hence, including AI development in the marketing sector is a High-risk/High-reward situation. Developing AI specifically for the field of Digital Marketing requires huge investments and if not implemented efficiently, can lead to the advertisement not reaching the target audience. Organizations are investing heavily in this sector to add an AI platform to automate existing processes to enhance the user experience. Social media draws a significant percentage of their profit from the AI which executes the simple job of allocating an advertisement to a consumer who might be interested in it.
Since the 2000s, AI has made its way into our lives and is deeply integrating with our daily lifestyle. AI keeps on evolving and can work for hundreds of hours without frequent breaks. Companies are increasingly incorporating AI to maintain their position in the market. Therefore, it is a point of concern, that up-to what extent can an AI replace individual workers. There are a lot of benefits that AI brings with itself. Humans admire the productivity and viability of AI-powered machines but their misuse can result in severe issues. If passed on to the wrong hands, it can be modified to accomplish malicious tasks. For instance, if a social media AI is not well configured, there is a chance that it could end up promoting their rival company. Even though the vast majority of AI applications depend on enormous volumes of data to learn and make decisions, AI can be adapted to work on cultivating cross-sectional data sets on an individual’s activity over time. Due to this, an AI is prone to data breach and identity thefts. As everything is growing and progressing towards the direction of AI integration, websites are reshaping their designs to keep their clients and consumers mindful. Conclusion Artificial Intelligence works like a black box for people. People do not feel comfortable working on something which they do not understand. People have deep trust in on-site campaign posters because they are straight forward so that an average human being can understand. While in the case of an AI, the multi-layer neural networks which an average human cannot understand will result in loss of trust in the next generation of AI investors. Moreover, these systems learn from the databases to improve themselves, which can become a weak point as acquiring raw data to work on also requires time and effort. The use of Artificial Intelligence in the field of Digital Marketing is like a double-edged sword which if not
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