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 November’s edition revolves around the usage of social media in concepts like Brand marketing, personalization and understanding as to how snapchat can help businesses grow. This edition has a lot under its umbrella, from doing a thorough analysis of various hidden inferences of marketing and consumer approaches to reinstating brands’ latest buzz. 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 Shock & Awe: How Goop minted money through a candle!
03 Can Snapchat help mall business grow
09 Buzzfeed
05 Personalization in marketing
13 Brand Marketing
15 Marquing The Moments
Shock & Awe: How Goop minted money though a candle!
Amit Pant Wellingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Mumbai (WeSchool) If someone introduced something to you saying that this item smells like a primary sexual organ, for many of us it would be an instant turn off. Yet in the mind of Hollywood star and entrepreneur, Gwyneth Paltrow, she had just scratched the surface of this gold mine. In January 2020, her company ‘Goop’, introduced a candle called ‘This smells like my vagina’. As someone would expect, the product, the brand, and the entrepreneur were incessantly mocked for this. Yet this isn’t the first time that Gwyneth Paltrow introduced something controversial. Her company has often dabbled in pseudoscience to develop its products. From ‘Vaginal Jade Eggs’ to ‘Vaginal Steaming’, this candle is in the range of sexually themed products. Doctors have repeatedly criticized the company in the past for making false health claims about its products and spreading general medical misinformation. In 2018 Goop was fined US$ 145,000 under California’s civil penalties laws for making “unsubstantiated” marketing claims about the aforementioned jade egg. Moreover, the candle is steeply-priced at $75 for 300 grams.
When all of this information is present to the general public, this seems like a steep mountain of information for a consumer to ignore and buy the product. Yet the candle was a super hit product, instantly sold out on the goop website. For days it was unavailable and whenever it was, the candle was again sold out within minutes. It was resold on eBay for close to $250. It was officially viral.
The popularity of Goop over the last 5 years. The candle was launched in Jan 2020
‘This smells like my vagina’ candle - Goop
This might seem like a fluke but years of effort and best of minds in tandem, have built a brand that can pull off this. Goop was founded in Paltrow’s home in London, beginning as a newsletter in 2008, and as expected with any star, it quickly gained a following. But what retained the users was the insights she provided on her life. Goop was incorporated in 2011. The products the brand sold were and still are expensive. But the products no longer were just products, they were a lifestyle choice and an entry into the life of a Hollywood star.
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Goop is based on the breaking of taboos. On their website, it says “We go in first, you don’t have to!” This makes the brand seem like an organization that is trying new and innovative experiments that could take society forward. All of this resonates pretty well with the progressive, feminine, millennial, and western crowd. Goop consumers are also forgiving if the product doesn’t work out since all of its products are organic and fair-trade themed. They have positioned the brand with their target consumers in a great way.
removed, it is indistinguishable from the other candles in the market. That hype around the sticker is doing wonders. If you look at the trends, this candle alone lifted the candle market on its own. While many people have said ill about the Goop. It did not matter as it has been building a community of like-minded individuals since 2008. The controversy actually brought more people to the website and just brought the candle just to see what the hype is. Even if people did not buy it, it had brought them to the landing page where there were numerous other products inspired by the lifestyle of Gwyneth Paltrow.
Americans interested in the Goop’s Candle With all of this work being in the background, the product was announced with the name “This smells like my vagina”. When you name a product like that, it is bound to turn many necks on impulse. Every news outlet in the west (some in the east too) did a story on them, expressing a serious doubt on the product. Numerous reaction videos on YouTube were made disparaging the product. This was pretty infamous in the ‘meme world’ too. The market was highly doubtful about the product. But even bad publicity is a kind of publicity. This name was so different that one could not ignore it. The online reach was organic and self-propelled. The outer packaging is flowery and feminine. The actual product is very nonchalant and the font is straight to the point. The vibe of the product feels like it is made for the person who is comfortable with their body and that they simply don’t care about others. To be honest, if the sticker is
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Americans searching about candles; Goop candle in Jan 2020 If you are wondering about the smell of this candle. Well, it does not smell like a vagina. This candle is made with geranium, citrusy bergamot, and cedar absolutes juxtaposed with Damask rose and ambrette seed. Next in line is the candle “This just smells like my prenup” among the host of other products. Goop is worth a quarter of a billion dollars now. So the next time if the customers don’t listen to you; shock and awe them.
‘Can Snapchat help small business grow’ Yashna Bhagchandani VES Business School Any individual who wants to be successful in life has the dream to build an empire, but for that the first step is to start by the scratch and build themselves a small business. However, it depends how you do your business, the competition is everywhere and to keep up with it have to be a step ahead of the competitors to survive. This means that one must be very clear on any opportunity that will help skim your business to the next level. One such important point is to ensure that you are up to date with the changing technology and adopting to the innovations. One such example is Snapchat, it is a one to one and group messaging app for sending photos, videos and text messages that disappear in seconds. It has features such as including stories, memories, and different features and stickers to portray your messages in a more creative manner. Marketing your business on Snapchat is not for everyone and every business, its important to know about the strategy, base and very much important is your commitment towards creating content and not just content but unique contact to stand out. It’s not a normal social media application, its more personalised and has more quirky content creation which basically has the personality. Why market your company on Snap Chat? Not many people are comfortable with the app, so there is less competition and that makes you more likely to stand out. There is no algorithm which hides your posts and if a user adds a story, so it can be easily seen that you have added a story and play it. Also, there are no ads and no extra links to drive traffic away from seeing and interacting with the content.
Snapchat user base bends to the younger age group i.e. 71% of all users are under the age of 34-years old. So, if that’s the age group you are focusing on then this is the best app to be at to market your products. This also means that the type of content your young audience needs must be carefully considered. How do marketers promote their content? 1. Behind the Scenes Also known as BTS, people prefer the authentic and raw look of the product. BTS tours and sneak peaks helps the audience to feel connected and be a part of the experience. 2. Takeovers Employee takeovers help people get to know the co workers and see what life is like in your corporation. It’s a great way to highlight your culture, your team mates’ interests, and get creative and innovative content that is beyond your office and products’ field. 3. User Generated Campaigns The exposure of your account can be amplified by curating snaps featuring your audience. Ask your users, audience on other media platforms, and Snapchat friends to send you Snaps that you can use on a particular strategy in an early feature. To allow extra interest and submissions, you could also tie this to a giveaway. 4. Games A game can be a fun way to get your audience on Snapchat to connect with you, either from the chat feature or by asking your audience to send you Snaps. That day you might even feature them in your post.
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As you share your memories, create amazing experiences and begin to analyze your target audience, this platform gives potential for immense growth. If you’re considering Snapchat marketing for your business, make sure you read about the campaigns mentioned below. •Cisco’s “Day in the Life of an Account Manager” Snapchat Series Hardware maker Cisco does not seem like a good fit for Snapchat at first sight. However, in its “Day in the Life of an Account Manager” series, Cisco found a way to make its “boring” industry enjoyable by chronicling the day-to-day activities, meetings and workload of an account manager. The series covers one of Cisco’s account managers’ regular workloads, humanising a B2B brand better known for its networking hardware. It’s entertaining and exciting enough to draw Cisco’s tech-savvy audience, as the series blends the mundane with entertainment.
The question is why did it work? Well, the essential meaning of Cisco’s Snapchat campaign is that by focusing attention on the individual side of business, even the most “boring” brands will create content that is enjoyable, entertaining and intriguing.
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•Gatorade’s #GatoradeDunk Lens Gatorade gained a massive amount of popularity during Super Bowl 50 by developing a personalised sponsored Snapchat lens designed towards fans of American football. As the business called it, #GatoradeDunk allows users to simulate being “dunked” with Gatorade, much like the coach of a victorious American football team. In a commercial starring Serena Williams — one of the company’s endorsed athletes, Gatorade advertised the lens.The lens was immensely famous. It was watched more than 100 million times over the duration of the Super Bowl weekend. The overall view count had climbed to over 165 million by the end of the campaign.
Was it a success? The initiative demonstrated football fans with a positive, engaging way to participate in the excitement and feel a stronger connection to the game and their team. In fact, the Gatorade promotion was such a hit that it was brought back in an improved version by the sports drink brand for 2017, encouraging consumers (or at least supporters of the winning team) to dunk themselves to celebrate victory.Snapchat is a unique type. It is one of the first platforms for both the consumer and the marketer to successfully gamify ads and make it enjoyable. Snapchat is on track to become one of the world’s most dominant outlets in the coming years with its youthful audience and wide scope. It’s really in its infancy, and on the platform it’s much easier to get heard. In reality, a study found that when consumers see the Snapchat Story of a company, they watch it 88 percent of the time in its entirety. All this suggests that it’s a perfect time to start promoting the company and creating a reputation through Snaps and Stories. And, happily, it is not as difficult to learn Snapchat as you would imagine.
Personalization in marketing Rithika Rao VES Business School Had we ever wondered if most of the wellknown retail stores we visit would have a virtual platform for us to shop from wherever and whenever we liked? Or the fact that we wouldn’t have to step a foot outside the comfort of our homes to buy grocery? Most of us would answer with a solid ‘No.’ Innovations are introduced from time to time, keeping in mind the linchpins of any business; the consumers! With the introduction of technology and Digital marketing came a unique concept of Personalized Marketing. And it focused only on serving content of relevance and value to these linchpins.
Customers are always seeking to come across a differentiated buying experience. By indulging customers in personalized experiences with the help of data analysis, smart segmentation and digital technology, brands are building a one on one relation with their buyers. With individualized emails assisting to the needs of a certain group of choices alike, customization in products and services, custom videos by social medias for birthdays and memories, these brands are able to communicate with their customers and provide them with a finer Today, in a world of silent races, businesses want experience. Thus, increasing customer engagement to outwit their competitors so their product can and shooting sales revenue. rule the market. But it surely isn’t enough if the public only just likes the virtual representation A brand website can enhance a customer’s experiof the product. The consumer needs to physience and introduce a window shopper to its hospically opt for the product and connect to it. The tality by collecting personal information from them message of your marketing campaign cannot like their birthdays and offering one-time discounts, connect to each and every individual because more or less on their first purchase or their birthday our perspectives and opinions differ from that months. For example, when Starbucks offers a free of one another. So, if one wishes to convert their birthday month drink to the customer on purchase viewers into customers, targeting them individ- of a Starbucks card. Thereby converting these visiually is what needs to be done here. Because, tors into buyers. don’t we all love it when our inevitable needs and wants are catered to keeping in mind our In a time where E-Commerce is taking all the limepersonal taste and preferences? light and wanting to increase website traffic, personalization has become all the more important. With Be it online or offline marketing, companies changing times, we have all in one way or another seek to establish a one on one relationship with shifted to online shopping. Based on our purchase their existing and prospect customers, giving history and buying preferences, we often receive them an edge over the marketing strategies messages like ‘Here are some handpicked items we adopted by rivals. From your content to your thought you might like.’ And when we actually visit products, customers are looking for personalthe options, it might shock us to see how relevant it ized experience that befits them and checks all is to our taste! their condition boxes. Remember, the customer always looks for exclusiveness. The OTT platforms have also managed to increase
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their share of views by indulging viewers with popping notifications of recommendation of movies and series or with their ‘Top Picks for’ segment. Customers are always looking to satisfy that craving of extra attention. Market captivation of these platforms begins here.
With AI taking over all the industries like blazing fire, it has its own impact on marketing as well. AI based personalization can help leave a good impression in the minds of the customers by bifurcating data from multiple channels and coming to an outcome that serves an individual consumer. AI can
Though personalization has already spread its wings pertaining to the upcoming trends in marketing, it has a long way to fully be effective. Companies are either underequipped or haven’t found a way to incorporate personalization in their marketing
enable them to virtually try on an outfit on themselves and even give them a glimpse of how well that shade of lipstick would suit them without having to physically put them on. This makes online shopping a discrete experience for buyers. It is all
campaigns. As rightly quoted by Niels Bohr “Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.” Companies should invest in the development of personalization supporting technologies that would be a suitable participant for their marketing campaign as to begin early for shooting profits in the future.
about offering fulfilling experience to your consumer and escalating your sales. Like, when Lenskart came up with its virtual try on, customers were thrilled to experiment these glasses on their own 3D images by clicking selfies. With this innovation, Lenskart became one of the most prominent brands for glasses.
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Although, asking for personal details like demographics, location, etcetera from the consumer helps the marketer build a data base and use the collective information to deliver tailored content explicitly for a consumer, it also gives the consumer a sense of fear to provide this fragile information. But once the brand becomes successful in winning a customer’s trust, the visitor who was earlier hesitant to indulge in an experience with a label, now becomes a loyal and a frequent buyer of the brand. And that trust of one customer, adds a few more loyal ones to your basket. With personalization it is also easy to manipulate a customer’s psychology and make some quick gains.
But instead of earning more, you might on the contrary end up losing prospect customers as no one enjoys buying from a brand with negative reviews. Personalization is not only a current marketing trend; it is the future as the gravity of delivering value to the customer can never go out of fashion. Also, feeling connected is the need of the hour in this era of incalculable spam mails rusting in your inbox and the constant flashing ads that pop up out of nowhere. And personalization is what makes your brand’s marketing campaign stand out in the crowd, like a full bloomed lotus in a water garden.
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#BUZZFEED #BUZZFEED
Humaning Mondelez has announced an evolution of the company’s global marketing strategy, i.e. Humaning. They intend to apply humaning approach to all that they do, both internally and externally. Snacking is all about forming connections with other people over the snacks we enjoy. People are craving comnection and a human experience from brands. Humaning helps in connecting with consumers as people and genuinely leaves an impact.
Zomato offers Rs. 25 lakh for consumer created ad
Humaning is a unique, consumer-centric approach to marketing that creates real, human connecZomato is proof that they can turn criticism into a super innovative marketing campaign. After contions with purpose, data-driven tactics, and uncovering what unites us all. Humaning was coined sumers. After consumers expressed their growing boredom with Zomato’s monotonous YouTube and by Mondelez International, the company that makes Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers and Philadelphia TV ads, some users took to social media to criticize Zomato’s butter chicken ad. However, Zoamto cream cheese, with the help of the Ogilvy advertising agency. It set off a social-media backlash seems to have played its cards well by coming up with a smart idea to help it come up with fun camwhen it entered the lexicon this month, shortly after Mondelez declared that the word captured its paigns while engaging with their customers. approach to marketing snack foods around the world. Almost immediately, the coinage elicited a particularly human reaction: ridicule. Critics said “humaning” was yet another example of marketThe firm went all out, proclaiming that the ads do suck. So now, it has opened the floor for creative ing lingo run amok, creative wordplay disintegrating into gibberish. ideas from customers. What was commendable was that, apart from the novel idea, they also shared the feeling with their customers that made them win many hearts.
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#BUZZFEED
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#BUZZFEED HiPi - India’s New Favorite Zee5’s newly launched social media platform – HiPi – is the latest buzz that’s doing the rounds. The app allows brands to engage with their audiences through filters, hashtag challenges, effects, music tracks, etc. By joining HiPi, brands can give their engagement a boost in multiple ways. The experience on HiPi is just like what you’ll get on other short-video platforms. It offers vertical scrolling of hundreds of videos that can be liked or shared across social media platforms. Content creators can also add music tracks in the background of their videos. Nevertheless, Kumar said that it was the content differentiation that made HiPi a different platform altogether.
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#BUZZFEED HiPi is indeed a platform for short videos that isn’t something similar to what’s already available on Zee5. But nonetheless, it has been provided as an integrated part of the Zee5 app only. Zee5’s Kumar said that instead of offering a standalone app, the team decided that move essentially to provide an identical experience irrespective of hardware. The platform focuses on a young user base across India, going beyond Tier I and Tier II regions. Keeping the local cultural nuances in mind, appropriateness, brand security, and safety are the pillars of the platform. Brands have the opportunity to engage with young and curious individuals, independent content creators, celebrity enthusiasts, entertainers, trendsetters etc. Brands have joined the HiPiverse to showcase their stories to the youth. Joining a social platform like HiPi enables them to engage with the youth organically. Brands can also benefit from HiPi’s features like filters and effects to make their content more interesting for their audience.
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Brand marketing Vijay Rajeev T.A. Pai Management Institute(TAPMI), Manipal Brand story telling is a very interesting and vast topic. It gives a more in-depth connection to a customer with a brand than what an ad can. Ads are generally short and when meant for a particular product, its rare that the impact it produces lives for long, especially when there are many other ads coming from different companies that offer different products. That’s where a brand and its story telling comes into picture. Here 2 main industries will be considered-automobile and mobile phone. Consider the mobile manufacturing company, BlackBerrywhich had a history of competing with Apple Inc, when Samsung wasn’t even in the picture. While Apple build a story around the company with the iPhone(the original iPhone), Macintosh, iPod etc, BlackBerry concentrated on providing security and sturdy products to the customers. Soon enough, people started remembering Apple for what the brand offers-premium and rigid products even if at higher price, lower security and other features. BlackBerry became a product of the past. The only story that revolved around them was about their security features. They failed to adapt and refresh the customers about what the brand was and what it stood for. Soon, BlackBerry faded out of the major picture and now is struggling to stay afloat. They started changing too late and by then, the final nail was on the coffin. Stories like these should be inspiring other companies not to make similar mistake. Yet, there is a major company which is at the verge of similar fate-Sony-in particular: mobiles. Sony adapted when BlackBerry refused to, provided first in class features which most if not all any mobile company cannot offer. But deep inside, even Sony was a dead story. When you consider Apple or Samsung, you get a clear idea about what you are looking for. The solid edges of the iPhone or the curved display of the Samsung, all of which told a story which captured the mind of the general public, regardless of whether they bought one or not. Sony continuously tried to push innovations and value for money to the customers (even
does that now). But sales are more or less negligible. The very same Sony has another section of mirrorless cameras and DSLRs, which are sought after in the market. Sony created a story around it making people know why they want a Sony product-the sleekness, the offering etc. Basically, the value proposition is clear in this case. But for the mobile segment, this part is empty. Unless Sony mobiles cause a drastic and dramatic change, Sony mobile phones will follow BlackBerry. Now, consider the electric auto manufacturer Tesla- or rather Elon Musk, who is the name of the company. Tesla started in 2003 with the model Tesla Roadster, using chassis from another car manufacturer called Lotus. It was a failure in many senses as it didn’t create the wave it was expected to make- an electric car in a country where Ford and GMC were fighting and making different variations to get more market share. Even though Roadster was an innovative and radical approach, there wasn’t such to talk about it. Performance was average, it wasn’t breath takingly beautiful or cheap. All the wrong boxes were checked. At the verge of bankruptcy, Elon Musk introduced Tesla Model S, which was a roaring success and suddenly, Tesla made front page. The story could have ended there, but instead Tesla started radical changes that even the market leaders didn’t even consider for the next 3-4 years- the supercharger network. Now Elon Musk wasn’t exactly role model type in most eyes. But his actions created waves that trembled the thrones of Ford, GMC among the main competitors that they all started following the footsteps of Tesla. The story hasn’t even started there. Tesla later produced 3 more variants- model 3, model X and model Y. It didn’t take long for the people to catch upon the model names and the “coolness” of the company. Tesla was already a market leader dethroning every
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major player in the industry. Now it wasn’t just Tesla that benefitted from this. Elon Musk had changed all his companies to similar way and made a name of it. Story of Tesla shares skyrocketing with each new variant now reflected most companies even relatively associated with Elon Musk. Now once the car line up was steadily growing, even the subsidiary products such as Tesla Semi and cyber truck. Cyber truck was a controversial product for its aesthetics but the ideology that Tesla followed worked out. Any news is good news, when it’s a Tesla (although this was an overkill statement). The cyber truck blew up the product market yet again, and the competition started following the footsteps of Tesla before Cyber truck was even launched. Point being, Tesla had an enormous story behind it. From tip of bankruptcy to under 130th rank in Fortune 500 companies in the world. Although there were hiccups, Tesla had a continuous story that prevailed in the minds of the people. It was crafted in such a way that people who have never even seen or sat in a Tesla had good things to say about it-the word used it “it” and not any particular product because this was a generalization for the entire line up of Tesla cars and this is a Brand Story telling that went well. There are 1000s of companies that did well like Tesla and there are 1000 times more companies that failed to do so too. Unless a brand makes a connection with the customer, everything would become instrumental and lifeless. And customers aren’t going for a company that feels robotic: customers want involvement and be part of the story the company has to say.
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They do that by owning either products or shares of the company. As an ending note, let’s consider a brand that tried (and had) to create a mark in the customer’s mind, but failed to follow up. In Kerala, a company that understood the mind of the customer decided to market well before even launching their very 1st product. They created a cloud of excitement, offering products that the customers wanted. They introduced mPhone, similar to iPhone, using mango as the symbol, similar specifications like a typical android phone-except when it came to pricing. They had created a very solid story and had gathered a customer base ready to welcome the 1st mPhone. But the company priced it 40-50% higher than a similar phone in the market. Now the entire build up of the story and the brand went off. Suddenly the story the company was talking about and the end product didn’t match. There ended the entire story. They tried for a comeback, but deed was done. Having a brand story that is in continuation with time and one that keeps the customer anxious are the ones that can have a loyal and growing customer base. Brand stories help brand to connect with people even if there are no ads. The stories that have a continuation keeps the brand fresh (like Tesla-17 years and still flourishing) or they won’t prevail (like BlackBerry). Social media helps a lot in this case to- keep constant interaction with the audience and having something new in continuation with what was there before. Of course, this doesn’t always work, but for most cases, this is the best way to spread word of mouth and improve the reputation (if the story turns out to be good).
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Marque - The Marketing club, IIM Rohtak
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ARQUING OMENTS
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MARQUE - THE MARKETING CLUB INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT ROHTAK
marketingclub@iimrohtak.ac.in
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this magazine are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the stake holders of IIM Rohtak EDITOR : Hassan Ahmed DESIGN : Divya Yadav FOLLOW US ON :