Pitch feb issue 2014

Volume XI | Issue 2 | February 2014

` 75

Mobile

MARKETING Pitch | Sep-Oct 2013

MARKETING ALERT: Trends and predictions for mobile marketing as 79 49 it enters a new phase

COLUMN ANNURAG BATRA

50 78

| February | February Pitch 2014 Pitch 2014

16-18 March 2014, Capella Singapore

T N E M AY P E H T E T A B E D

AGILITY

NG I T E K R A M E M I T L A E IN R

TRAD WITH ING BITC OIN

CONNECTIN G INDIA

Festival exclusive!

What does the future hold for native advertising in Asia?

20%

discount for readers

promo code: EXC20MPX

Book your place online Join us at the largest gathering of media leaders in Asia Pacific

www.festivalofmedia.com/asia-pacific Partners:

Pitch | February 2014

5

INSIDE COVER STORY

Pitch

44

Volume XI, Issue-2 February, 2014

Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Editor & Director Director President

Annurag Batra Amit Agnihotri Nawal Ahuja Sunil Kumar

EDITORIAL TEAM

Consulting Editor

Vinod Behl

Deputy Editor

Rashi Bisaria

Senior Correspondent

Gunjan Verma

Correspondents

Kanika Mehrotra Ankur Gaurav Devansh Sharma

Senior Art Director

Shamsad Shaikh

Senior Graphic Designer

Joby Mathew

Photographers

Vilas Kalgutkar (Mumbai) Suresh Gola (Noida)

The success stories of brands will be incomplete without mobile as part of their strategy

AD SALES

Rajat Thareja Abdulla M Mazumder Varnikaa jain Sneha Walke

9810134435 9871609348 9769153087 9845541143

BRAND JOURNEY 24

0FFICES

NEW DELHI: Shop No. 32, 33 south Ettn. Part-I, Om vihar, Uttam Nagar, New Delhi 110 059

200 Years of Purity & Innocence

NOIDA: B-20, I-Floor, Sector-57, Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301 Phone: (0120) 4007700

Over more than 200 years of existence Pears has continued with its tradition of purity and pristine appeal.

Mumbai: 301, Kakad Bhavan, 3rd Floor, 11th Street, Bandra (W), Mumbai - 400 050 Phone: (022) 2640 3303/09/14/16 Bengaluru: Flat No. 1,062, 1st Floor, 2nd Cross, 6th Main Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Indira Nagar, Bengaluru - 560 038

CIRCULATION/DISTRIBUTION

Vinod Sharma (Delhi) - 9999447209 vinod@exchange4media.com Anandan Nair (Mumbai) - 9819445200 anair@exchange4media.com On News-stands ` 75 www.pitchonnet.com Printed and published by Annurag Batra on behalf of Adsert Web Solutions Pvt Ltd B-20, I-Floor, Sector-57, Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301 Printed at All Time Offset Printers, E-53, Sector-7 Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301

CASE STUDY

26

Making Impatience a Virtue The ‘Oh yes abhi’ campaign was meant to target the youth - known for its impatience but with a positive attitude. They made impatience a virtue!

An exchange4media Publication

2

Pitch | February 2014

INTERVIEWS

We are in the business of building trust

Coke for all Seasons Debabrata Mukherjeet |

VP-Marketing & Commercial, Coca-Cola India

12

Anisha Motwani| Director and Chief Marketing

The confused consumer is difficult to tap

Officer, Max New York Life

Has this “Unique Third Place” captured the heart of the Indian consumer yet?

Avani Davda | CEO, Tata Starbucks Limited

Professor of Marketing and Director of MBA Programmes at the University of Minnesota Duluth

18

What makes any idea successful is perseverance and hard work 72

Adobe wants to change the world through digital experiences 38 Kulmeet Bawa | Director, Enterprise Business, South Asia, Adobe

Our existing consumers are happy and refer us to their friends and family Jnaneswar Sen | Senior Vice President –

Marketing & Sales, Honda

40

The Seiko Brand will continue to position itself in India as a technology leader 50 Niladri Mazumder | Senior VP, Seiko Watch India Pvt Ltd

Ground-level engagement with consumers is important Alok Bharadwaj |

Executive Vice President, Canon

56

Growth of the digital medium is like a perfect storm brewing in our backyard Marketing and Jaimit Doshit | Head Product, Kotak Securities

Pitch | February 2014

Komal Bedi Sohal |

34

Marketing, Yamaha Motor India Pvt.

60

74

Rajiv Vaidyanathan |

We want to do something for the society, industry and customers Roy Kurian | Vice President, Sales &

62

CCO, Rediffusion Y&R

COLUMNS 70% follow social media for business purposes – Can it be ignored ?

Moneka Khurana |

16

Digital Consultant and Trainer

The Making of Brand Kejriwal: Lessons in Marketing from Delhi’s CM

22

Ankur Kalra | CEO, Vibgyor Brand Services

Of Grumpy Consumers and Geeky Grocers Prof. Smitha Sarma Ranganathan | Strategic Branding &

29

Marketing Management

Building The Digital Transaction Business Anupam Sengupta | Director – Sales and

31

Commercials, Sony Pictures

Mobile maturity to drive native mobile advertising campaigns Anubhav Sharma |

53

Head of Ad Sales and Monetisation, Nimbuzz

Increasing ROI from Facebook ad spends Sachin Rao | Head of Small Business, Facebook India

Clip Licensing: A new Approach to Advertising Jiggy George | Founder and CEO, Dream Theatre Launch Pad Campaign Speech: Sanjay Khosla Column : Annurag Batra

65 70

04 08 67 76 3

LAUNCHPAD

Gadgets & Gizmos ORIFLAME

Roses Collection

The Product: Oriflame Roses collection is a limited edition toiletry range

by Oriflame India, which will also suit best for the Valentine’s Day. The collection comprises a captivating shower cream, a delicate hand cream and a 24 hour deodorant to transcend you into the realm of beauty.

USP: The ambrosial range of skincare products are enriched with the goodness of the most exquisite herbs from Mother Nature’s bounty. Respect for people and nature underlies Oriflame’s operating principles and is reflected

in its social and environmental policies.

Specification: Founded in 1967, Oriflame is a beauty company selling direct in more than 60 countries. Its wide portfolio of Swedish, nature-inspired, innovative beauty products is marketed through approximately 3 million independent Oriflame Consultants, generating annual sales of around €1.5 billion.

Oriflame supports numerous charities worldwide and is a Co-founder of the World Childhood Foundation. Oriflame Cosmetics is listed on the Nasdaq OMX Nordic Exchange. 

SHOTFORMATS

Audio and E-Books The Product: Shotformats, a new-age digital media company who recently launched World’s first ever offline app store called as BISCOOT, is now launching an audio and e-books in an offline format. By releasing the rich literature from the Indian scholars in an offline application format, Shotformats elevates digital space to echelon.

USP: The rich literature from the great Nobel - authored by Dr. Ambedkar, Rabindranath Tagore, Chanakya and Swami Vivekanand now goes digital on the Shotformats Offline App store. The product also will offer regional laungauge circulation on the digital space - Hindi & Gujrati Specification: The highlights of the special features of an audio and e-book are

4

that readers can create a bookmarks, set alarm for a pre decided reading time and can make notes for the sections too in the book. In an audio book if a person misses an important part he/she can go back 30 seconds with just a click. These audio and e-books are relatively cheaper in price thus making easier for a smart buy. The e-books range from INR 30.00 for two stories to INR 100.00 for nine stories and on the other hand audio books are charged for INR 30.00 for one story to INR 100.00 for five stories Background: Shotformats Digital Works Private Limited is a promising digital distribution and a new media company that develops innovative digital platforms, products, and content to service and reach audiences via varied digital distribution streams. 

NIKE

Ordem football The Product: Controlling the ball starts with the first touch, and the Nike Ordem ball is designed and engineered for a highly sensitive feel and explosive response off the foot. Nike Football’s newest proprietary innovation, these grooves are engineered to grip and channel the air to produce the truest trajectory and most consistent flight, which help ensure stability and accuaracy in mid-air. The ball will be used by all Nikesponsored Federations (including the ten teams who will play in Brasil next summer) in international friendly games from early 2014.

USP: Built for the next generation of footballers, the Nike Ordem offers optimal touch with new Fuse-Welded panels; unprecedented flight control with new aerodynamic NIKE AEROW TRAC grooves; and maximum visibility with Nike RaDaR technology to help see the ball quicker.

Specifications: The ball consists of 12 fuse-welded panels in a 3-layer casing system, and a poly-blend wrapped, freefloating carbon latex bladder.

Background: Nike, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that is engaged in the design, development and worldwide marketing and selling of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories and services. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, in the Portland metropolitan area, and is one of only two Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Oregon. It is one of the world’s largest suppliers of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment.

Pitch | February 2014

MITR

MXIT

Ashok Leyland launches LCV

IM for feature phones The Product: Mxit, a South Africa giant mobile social network, launched its mobile instant messenger application in India that enables users to avail features even on normal phones. Mxit wants this app to be easily accessible and aims to bridge the gap between feature and smart phones.

USP: Mxit is a feature phone user’s key to unlock functions usually reserved for smart phones. A simple prerequisite of a basic data connection enables a feature phone user to experience smart phone features by downloading the app. Mxit breaks the norm of exclusivity to smart phones, making an array of apps and games available for any Mxit user.

Specifications: Mxit is available for download across more than 8,000 different feature phones, smartphones and tablets. It will provide the growing 550 million feature phones users across India with the ability to affordably use their basic data-enabled feature phone like a smartphone, with advanced functionality for chat, browsing the Internet and accessing apps and games. The platform is both fast and data light allowing users with even the most basic 2G connection to benefit from an immersive social mobile chat experience, at a much lower cost than the average SMS. Background: Mxit is an OTT (over the top) app – where customers do not pay the telecoms for service unlike text messages or MMS. It has nearly 10 million monthly active users in Africa. Mxit is available on Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Nokia smart phone platforms. 

Product: Ashok Leyland, flagship of the Hinduja Group, launched two new Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) - PARTNER truck, India’s first air-conditioned LCV goods vehicle and MiTR bus, a LCV bus with bestin-class comfort. After the commercially successful Dost and the recently launched STiLE, now PARTNER and MiTR are the latest offerings from the Ashok Leyland – Nissan Joint Venture.

USP: PARTNER, brings to the Indian customer, the latest LCV from Europe and Japan. This focuses on driver comfort and sports a modern Euro cab with spacious car-like interiors and offers global levels of performance and efficiency.

Specifications: With a Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) capacity of 6.6T, the PARTNER will address various applications like parcel goods, durables, perishables and FMCG products among others. MiTR has a parabolic suspension in the front and the rear – an industry-first – and offers class-leading comfort. MiTR also has a school bus variant that adheres to school bus body code guidelines of all state governments. Both PART-

FIAMA DI WILLS COUTURE SPA RANGE

Wendell Rodricks Signature Series Product: Fiama Di Wills has launched its 2nd edition of the Signature series of the Couture Spa Range of Gel Bathing Bars.

The signature series designed by ace fash-

ion designer, Wendell Rodricks, offers a new range in sparkling red, blue and green.

USP: The Fiama Di Wills Couture Spa range of Gel bathing Bars is enriched with Gold, Skin Conditioners and powerful skin care ingredients like Oats, Nutgrass and White Water lily.

Specifications: The signature ingredient of Gold in the Gel Bathing Bar series helps in increasing radiance and glow for younger looking skin. The Skin Conditioners protect

Pitch | Fanuary 2014

NER and MiTR are powered by an advanced ZD30 Common Rail diesel engine, which ensures superior fuel-efficiency and better turnaround time. Both products host features like power steering with tilt-able adjustment and cable-operated gear shifter for superior driver comfort. The com-

pany is offering an engine and transmission warranty of 3 years/3 lac kms and a standard warranty of 1 year/ unlimited kms on the overall vehicle.

Background: For over six decades, Ashok Leyland has been moving people and goods across 50 countries worldwide. It is the flagship of the Hinduja Group, one of the largest commercial vehicle manufacturers in India with a turnover of US $ 2.3 billion in 2012-13 having consistently delivered profits to the stake-holders since inception. 

and renew skin to keep it youthful.

Background: Fiama Di Wills Gel Bathing Bar is handcrafted using ITC’s Innovative Liquid Crystal Freezing Technology, which freezes gel into a bar. Made up of natural ingredients, the Gel Bathing Bar is mild and gives you a long lasting fragrance. Fiama Di Wills Shower Gels, yet another innovation from Laboratoire Naturel, with natural ingredients and fine fragrances gives you an unmatchable bathing experience.  Compiled by Gunjan Verma -gunjan.verma@exchange4media.com

5

LAUNCHPAD

UNIQUE LAUNCHES BAJAJ RE60

Signature Quadricycles

by Christopher Hogan The Product: The Bajaj RE60 is an inexpensive, rear-engined, four-passenger quadricycle built by the Indian company Bajaj Auto and is aimed primarily at the Indian domestic market.

The car was the first four-wheeler manufactured by Bajaj Auto.

USP: Christopher Hogan has designed and personally handpainted each quadricycle in his own contemporary abstract macro style to represent symbolically five national icons – tiger, mango, peacock, banyan tree - that along with Bajaj Auto represent the fabric of the Indian culture.

Specifications: The vehicle will be powered by 216-cc petrol engine delivering 20 horsepower with a maximum speed of 70 kilometers per hour. Available in gasoline, CNG and LPG, RE60 has a fuel efficiency of 37 km/l. 

It’s a U car The Product: The four-wheeled concept car is positioned as an aspirational product for those who already have a premium bike such as the Bajaj Pulsar.

USP: The indigenously designed and developed vehicle is a

low-slung, two-seater product, with scissor doors, a feature popularly seen on a Lamborghini or a Ferrari.

Specifications: The car has disc brakes on all the four wheels, as well as automatic transmission and two scissor doors, and is front-wheel driven. The car would be gasolinepowered, liquid-cooled engine, with fuel injection with airconditioning facility.

Background: The Bajaj Group is amongst the top 10 business houses in India. Its footprint stretches over a wide range of industries, spanning automobiles (two-wheelers and threewheelers), home appliances, lighting, iron and steel, insurance, travel and finance. The group’s flagship company, Bajaj Auto, is ranked as the world’s fourth largest two- and threewheeler manufacturer and the Bajaj brand is well-known across several countries in Latin America, Africa, Middle East, South and South East Asia. Founded in 1926, at the height of India’s movement for independence from the British, the group has an illustrious history. Jamnalal Bajaj, founder of the group, was adopted by Mahatma Gandhi as his son. 

6

Pitch | February 2014

PIAGGIO- NT3

The Innovative Prototype The Product: The Piaggio NT3 is the symbol of the Group’s R&D and design work on future product ranges delivering ideal solutions for future consumer needs.

USP: The Piaggio NT3 has a length of only 2.4 metres (the width of the NT3 Concept is 1,500 mm and the height is 1,600mm), which makes it easy to park and maneuver in traffic and deliver a mileage of 30 km with one liter of fuel.

Specifications: NT3 prototype is powered by a 230 cc or 350 gasoline engine, and has also been developed in a 350cc hybrid version. All the models offer particularly interesting features for urban and metropolitan environments, with a special focus on ecosustainability: 80 km/h, up to 33 km to the liter and up to 70 g CO2/ km are benchmark values, not only in Europe but also in the heav-

MAHINDRA

ily populated areas of India and Asia.

Background: PVPL is a 100% subsidiary of Piaggio & C. s.p.a. of Italy, the inventor of 3-wheelers. PVPL commenced its Indian operations in the year 1999 with the launch of the brand apé which was an instant success and has grown from strength to strength over the years. Its superior product features and benefits coupled with world class customer service have earned apé a loyal & growing customer base. apé is firmly established in the hearts and minds of customers as a dependable brand that helps them maximize their business earnings. 

Reva

The Product: Mahindra Reva, the electric mobility division of Mahindra & Mahindra, unveiled the Mahindra Halo, a two-door, two-seater electric sports car concept at the 12th edition of Auto Expo in Greater Noida.

USP: Designers from Pininfarina and Bertone, who are a part of Mahindra Reva’s in-house design team, have done an exceptional job to make it look radical and give it that sports car feel.

Specifications: The vehicle is available in the Diesel and CNG/LPG/ Petrol fuel variants. The product adds a new dimension to Piaggio’s range of transportation solutions. It has the highest power and

torque in its category, enabling superior pick up and acceleration.

The Halo will be powered by an electric motor developing approximately 140bhp. The high capacity battery which basically runs the show can power the Halo from 0-100km/h in less than 7 seconds while the top-speed is claimed to be in excess of 200km/h.

Background: Founded in 1994, the REVA Electric Car Company (RECC) was launched as a joint venture between the Maini Group of Bangalore and AEV LLC of USA. With global patents in energy management, remote diagnostics and battery management to their credit, the company unveiled the two-seater REVA electric vehicle in Bangalore in 2001.

Subsequently, the same electric car was launched in London as the G-Wiz (2004). In May 2010, the company was acquired by the US $15.4 billion Mahindra Group and rechristened Mahindra REVA Electric Vehicles Pvt Ltd. Today Mahindra REVA has one of the largest deployed fleets of electric cars in the global market. At Mahindra REVA, we constantly experiment with different distribution models and offerings - from designing light-weight structures and creating efficient drivetrains to intelligent, digitally connected cars of tomorrow.  Compiled by Gunjan Verma -gunjan.verma@exchange4media.com

Pitch | Fanuary 2014

7

BUZZ

Campaigns TVC

PIZZa HuT

So Cheezy

Creative Agency: Ogilvy & Mather

denies having said so - the muppet had. All three share a good laugh. .

Story: The TVC shows actor Vinay Pathak apologising for something to his kid in a restaurant. The son is unrelenting and answers through his sock-muppet. Pathak urges his son to eat the pizza, as the child’s mother looks on. The kid continues to answer through the muppet: “Mujhe aapka pizza nahi khaana”. The man confirms with the kid if he is sure of not having the pizza.

On hearing his response, they happily announce that they will finish the whole pizza with a high-five. The kid excitedly says, “Peeche bhi cheese” (cheese behind too).

The kid reaches out to pick a slice with his muppet hand. When Pathak reminds his son that he did not want the pizza, the kid

ouTDoor

PuMa STaMPeDe

MICroMaX Mad

Get paid to watch ads Creative Agency: Lowe Lintas and Partners Story: The campaign pays tribute to some memorable Indian ads.

It features characters that speak about the ads fondly and narrate their storylines to those around them. These include the famous 5 Star (Ramesh-Suresh) commercial and the one for Vodafone featuring the pug that follows its master everywhere. The protagonists

Rationale: With this launch Pizza Hut capitalizes on the consumer’s love for cheese and in the same stroke offers great value in premium innovation with ‘So Cheezy’ starting at just Rs 149. The challenge was to tell an interesting story to the consumers, a story that was relatable, fun and endearing and at the same time not losing on the immense lure value of the product. They took the right mix of ingredients, to bring alive the story - The father (a role essayed by the inimitable Vinay Pathak), the son (you can’t help but fall in love with), and a sock puppet come together to bring alive the drool of the product.n

Run for Passion

Creative Agency: Havas Worldwide Concept : The concept of PUMA Urban Stampede resulted from a deep rooted desire amongst PUMA to give fitness focused corporates, who lead a busy lifestyle, an opportunity to pursue their passion for running.

Being the only travelling running property, in 2013 PUMA Urban Stampede cemented a nationwide presence in 4 cities – Bangalore, Delhi, Bombay and lastly Hyderabad.

The brand took the race to these cities after

8

TVC

identifying these cities to have the highest number of avid runners in the nation. PUMA Urban Stampede has been conceptualized and positioned as a competitive run that is not cut-throat but an enjoyable relay format.

Here companies invite their employees to participate in a race that needed only a month’s training. Hence, the idea of 4 people, running 5km each was born.

Execution: First unleashed in 2008, the run saw 78 teams from 38 companies participate.

The subsequent years saw an increase to 149 teams in 2009, 294 teams in 2010 till they got to an all-time high of over 400 teams in 2013 in Bangalore. Some companies that have historically sent multiple teams are BIAL, JDA Technologies, Toyota, Infosys, and IBM. The teams with the most podium honours are Toyota and Goldman Sachs in the women’s category. n

express their admiration for the ads, leading to the message ‘Mad about ads?’

Rationale: This campaign reinforces the belief that advertising has always been driven by consumers. MAd Call app (pre-loaded in MAd Phone) is developed by the home team at Micromax India, This unique app helps customers earn talk time, get bill waive offs and avail free recharges by just watching ads before the call connects. The campaign captures the love and recognition consumers associate with their favourite ads and how this appreciation can be turned into benefits in the form of bill waive offs and extra talk time.n

Pitch | February 2014

TVC

Sony LIV

Activation

Mazey ke break lo, kahin bhi dekh lo!

Creative Agency: Havas Worldwide Story: Sony has a two-pronged relationship with its consumers: Nostalgia for the past and relevance to the present. The ads significantly perpetuate the idea that instead of wasting their breaks doing nothing worthwhile, viewers can fill them with small entertainment doses from the Sony stable. The “Jawab” ad, the “Washroom” ad and the “Burglar” ad have notably carried forward the thought.

Rationale: The TVCs also highlight the fact that now you can enjoy every show you were hooked on to since the last 18 years right up to the show telecast last night through SonyLIV.com which makes it your single-point entry into the world of Sony Entertainment Network. The ads significantly perpetuate the idea that instead of wasting their breaks doing nothing worthwhile; viewers can fill them with small entertainment doses from the Sony stable.

Digital

Heineken

Dance more, Drink slow Creative Agency: Ogilvy & Mather

The key message of the ads has been derived on the basis of a consumer behaviour study, which revealed that today’s consumers are hard pressed for time and like their entertainment in bite-sizes on the go. The marketing strategy is inspired by the well-established truth that modern life is all about the little escapes. The objective of Sony LIV is to make these breaks as exciting and rejuvenating as possible for Netizens by making their favourite content available at their fingertips. Hence the campaign idea- Mazey ke break lo, kahin bhi dekh lo! n

Concept: ‘Responsibility’ has become the new buzzword and ‘Sustainability’ the new trend amidst GenNext in India. Heineken launched its new responsible drinking campaign to target consumers and young adults at the moment when they are consuming beer. It aims to make moderate drinking an aspirational behavior when enjoying a night out, highlighting the importance of staying in control. The campaign ‘Dance More, Drink Slow’ aims to inspire behaviour change by encouraging drinking in moderation, rather than in excess, thereby extending time to buy their next drink.

Execution: Heineken has teamed up with world famous DJ, Armin Van Buuren, for this pioneering campaign

Garnier Pure Active

No pimples, No marks Creative Agency: Foxymoron Concept : An undeniable fact is that every Indian loves – Cricket, Ma and Bollywood. Leveraging this craze for Bollywood, Garnier Pure Active launched the ‘No Pimples, No Marks’ campaign. Using layered animation, these iconic characters are brought to life and their dialogues converted to rants about pimples from famous and much-loved Bollywood scenes. The campaign was conceptualized with the insight that social media and Bollywood play an important role in the day to day lives of most youngsters in India.

Execution: The campaign was launched with the release of famous movie posters conveying how pimples have not spared

Pitch | February 2014

anyone in Bollywood. Movie posters included – Rowdy Pimple, The Dirty Pimple, Pimple Tum Kab Jaaogey, I Hate Pimple Stories. Illustrated comic strips of iconic Bollywood characters were released that showcased brand ambassador Alia Bhatt as the savior and means of bringing the Garnier Pure Active Neem Face Wash to the rescue of Bollywood’s pimple problems.n

as DJs can influence people’s mood, especially on the dance floor. A good music track can really lift their mood and make them feel happy and relaxed – similar to the way drinking in moderation can; people can focus on the music, and dancing and go slow on drinking. DJ Armin Van Buuren released a new track in the name of ‘Save My Night’ to support Heineken’s campaign ‘Dance More, Drink Slow’.

The track is communicated to young adults aimed to trigger the right mind-set during a night out and to make drinking in moderation cool.

Available in 42 countries, fans can access the track on iTunes.n

9

BUZZ DIGITaL

CaDBury’S DaIry MILk SILk

The joy of first Love

Creative Agency: Ogilvy & Grey

first love’ with Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk. The idea of creating a special limited edition pack for Valentine’s Day was to tap into the specific occasional gifting opportunity. By doing so the brand was cuing in additional consumption occasions rather than creating a niche for itself.

Concept: Cadbury’s Dairy Milk (CDM) Silk welcomed the Valentine’s Day this season with an innovative digital campaign tapping the specific occasional gifting, this time with first time lovers. Cadbury’s targeted the 15-19 year-olds who typically have their first rendezvous with love around this time. First Love, as an occurrence is something that is not easily forgettable, we therefore the chocolate giant looked to ‘re-discover the joy of

TVC

BIrLa Sun LIFe InSuranCe

Execution: Hashtag #FirstLoveIs asked tweeple to tweet or write on the Facebook wall about what first love means to them and with that created a personalized doodle for each of them. The limited edition pack of CDM Silk pack contained certain Valentine cues like the tiny hearts that appear to be coming out of the chocolate cubes. Also, it was available only during the Valentine season. Once the wrapper was removed, it revealed a paper foil with sweet Valentine messaging. Capturing the television audience, a Limited Edition Pack TVC showcased the ‘he loves me, he loves me not” sentiment of First Love. n

Aaj ko enjoy kijiye

Creative Agency: Taproot India Story: the TVC begins with the husband animatedly talking on the phone excited about the first foreign trip the middle-aged couple is planning to undertake post their wedding.

In contrast, the wife who has just quit her job is discussing rising unwanted expenditure with her friend on her way home from work. In this emotional dichotomy, the wife overhears the husband’s conversation where he states

he isn’t worried of expenses as his wife continues to work and supplement the family income. This is when the wife breaks the news of her quitting the job expecting that her husband will cancel their trip to avoid the unnecessary expenditure. However, he continues to be carefree and still willing to undertake the holiday owing to his practice of steady savings.

Rationale: The company aims to urge

10

viewers to plan their future through regular small savings in a life full of uncertainties with Birla Sun Life Savings with Protection Solution. It tells the audience that you cannot predict what will get in the way of your plans, but you can prepare for it, in a way that lets you enjoy today and secure tomorrow. n Compiled by Gunjan Verma -gunjan.verma@exchange4media.com

Pitch | February 2014

6-8 April 2014, Rome, Italy

20%

discount for readers promo code: EXC20MPX

CONNECT WITH THE FUTURE OF MEDIA Uniting the world’s most dynamic media leaders to debate, trade and find business solutions Book now festivalofmedia.com/global CONTENT ● TECHNOLOGY ● BUSINESS INNOVATION ● THE FUTURE Founder partners: Event partners:

Pitch | February 2014

11

INTERVIEW ANIshA MoTWANI

P

rivate insurance company Max New York Life started operations in 2001 and has been on a growth trajectory. The company has built on the trust factor over the years and prides itself on the quality of advice it imparts to customers through its well trained and informed “Sachche” advisors. They are the first ones to adopt the “Treating Customers Fairly” philosophy and believe in need-based selling. The company has also been quick to adapt to social media having seamlessly integrated its offline and online campaigns to engage the customer. Rashi Bisaria of Pitch spoke to Anisha Motwani, Director and Chief Marketing Officer of Max New York Life to know what makes this company stand apart from the others.

What is the key differentiator for Max Life Insurance? Is it quality of service, products or customer centric approach?

Max Life brand is driven by its core focus of customer centricity. The company’s continuous endeavour is to serve the customer better and in the right way. We have identified our agent advisors as the key differentiators. The brand campaign “Aapke Sachche Advisor” was crafted to take the industry issue and concern of misselling head on and focus

“We are in the business of building trust” 12

Pitch | February 2014

on Max Life’s brand promise for the organization’s quality of advice and need based selling.

The “treating customer fairly” policy stands out for Max Life Insurance. How is it different from what other insurance companies’ claims?

Max Life Insurance adopted the “Treating Customers Fairly (TCF)” philosophy in the year 2011. We are the first ones to do so.

In line with the TCF policy of being completely transparent, customer focused , equitable and fair in our dealing with the customers, many initiatives have been implemented.

And that begins from Need Based selling by understanding a customer’s exact needs and then suggesting a policy to him; minimizing the sale of unsuitable products by encouraging best practice before, during and after a sale; ensuring that customer complaints and claims are effectively addressed and customers don’t face barriers while cancelling or surrendering their policies or switching funds. A governance and audit process is in place to ensure that the customers receive right advice from us; through the use of mandatory Fact Finders and Investor Risk Profiler tools.

Our product concepts are validated through consumer research, to ensure customer benefit realization is at the forefront. Key customer documents and communications were re-designed and simplified for ease of comprehension basis customer feedback.

We have the “Industry first” Service Promise and Claims Guarantee ensuring highest standards of service to our customers.

What is the key to Max Life Insurance’s success? Is it the products, the quality of service or the distribution model?

Or is it a combination of all?

It is a combination of all aspects.

Focus on Agency Quality – We firmly believe in its consultative sales model. It actively promotes agency distribution with well trained and knowledgeable agent advisors who are completely equipped to engage with prospective customers and offer customized solutions for life stage needs. With this ethos, the company is creating a ‘platinum agency’ dis-

The company’s continuous endeavour is to serve the customer better and in the right way. We have identified our agent advisors as the key differentiators tribution, which is a strategic priority.

Diversified distribution model – Max Life Insurance has one of the most balanced diversified distribution model based on three pillars – agency distribution, bancassurance and partnership distribution.

Comprehensive suite of products – Max Life Insurance offers a comprehensive suite of flexible products consisting of a healthy mix of both traditional and ULIPs. Customer centricity – Providing superior customer experience is central to Max Life Insurance and the company has always focused on upgrading its service offering to customers and distributors, thus creating competitive differentiation in the market.

Open and ethical culture – Max Life Insurance has always believed that human capital is the key to the success of any organization. The company has processes that are effective and transparent and engender employee trust and commitment. Max Life Insurances employee value proposition differentiates the company from others.

Financial strength – Max Life insur-

A governance and audit process is in place to ensure that the customers receive right advice through the use of mandatory Fact Finders and Investor Risk Profiler tools Pitch | February 2014

ance is a strong, profitable, and successful institution built on strong foundations.

Additionally we have very strong partners in Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. Ltd. and Max India as our parent company

Max has been one of the fastest growing life insurance companies in recent times. What marketing techniques have you been using to generate topof-the-mind recall?

I wouldn’t call it techniques, rather a well thought our strategy over the years that have gained consumer awareness.

We had the proposition of ‘Karo Zyaada Ka Iraada’ —the protection campaign around death—which took the category by storm. No other company had actually alluded to death this closely and it created salience and the need for an insurance cover.

Then there’s the pension campaign which was built on the insight of projecting retirement as something to be aspired for, something to be desired. Another example, is when the industry suffered from the perception of mis-selling.

We took a thought leader’s stance with the ‘Aapke Sachche Advisor’ campaign which addressed a serious industry issue of mis-selling in an interesting manner.

How are you building communities of loyalists online?

Max Life Insurance anchors a unique parenting community called ‘i-genius’ on Facebook, which has over 3.64 Lac members who engage regularly on various aspects of parenting. This is based on the offline programme called i-genius

13

INTERVIEW Anisha Motwani scholarships. The page has also created Facebook Events for the various offline interactions like in-person meets with Ruskin Bond and Chetan Bhagat, creative writing workshops and the contest rounds.

We launched the i-genius Young Author’s Hunt this year and the response was that we got 5000 stories submitted from across the cities. On the Facebook page we shared sneak peek into the stories submitted for the hunt, while also putting up the regular content focusing on parenting in today’s times, and preparing children for the times they are headed to.

Serving as a guide to parents through i-genius page, we have managed to build an engaged community of parents through Facebook, while earning their trust and loyalty.

We also have a Facebook page called Khusiyon Ki Planning. We have more than a lac fans of the page. Here we engage with customers through various activities and also solve queries on long terms savings and protection.

What marketing method works best for a life insurance company?

More than being in the business of insurance, we are in the business of building trust. Because marketing in insurance companies is unique as we have no tangible products to sell.

For Max Life, our agent advisors are true on ground brand ambassadors who help spread the word about the need for life insurance.

That apart we have a 360-degree marketing approach driven through brand campaign, through product launches and customer engagement initiatives.

This includes on ground activities, a very strong digital and social media marketing strategy as well as traditional media

marketing such as television advertising.

Max takes pride in offering quality advice through its agents. How are your advisors equipped to deliver that quality? Are they specially trained in house?

IRDA has stipulated 100 hours of training for agent advisors. But we have more than 200 hours of training. And this is an ongoing process.

Our training begins from day one

We launched the i-genius Young Author’s Hunt this year. We got 5000 stories as entries from across the cities and we are with our Agents every step of the way. That’s important, because if we compare Max Life’s training to other company training programs, you’ll find that others end training in a matter of few weeks only. The training program is designed to provide training and development for throughout the agent’s career. The agent receives state-of-art training consisting of on-the-job training, classroom instruction, and one-onone coaching. We have a professional trainer in every office whose sole job is to train & guide our new agents.

It takes time to build trust in an insurance company. How have you achieved this trust within a short period?

Building trust definitely takes time. However, this cannot be achieved with marketing strategies alone. One needs to have quality products and services, and the ability and willingness to address customer issues. Most importantly one needs to have an understanding of the needs of a customer.

Every policy should serve a particular need of a customer in each stage of his life. Customers should understand the need to buy life insurance 14

Max Life insurance constantly strives to build a relationship with its customers by understanding their needs and deliver what will be the best for them. For instance, Max Life Insurance launched two new pension plans in August this year.

Prior to the launch an extensive survey along with Nielsen was conducted on awareness and attitude of Indians towards retirement and planning in India.

The study focused on how Indians view ‘retired life’ and their preparedness to

meet them. This enabled Max life Insurance to develop and design products that will best serve the customers and build trust What are consumers expecting from an insurance policy?

Insurance is an intangible product. Customers come to us with their life savings, hence they look for an honest company that they can trust.

Every policy should serve a particular need of a customer in each stage of his life. So customers should understand the need to buy life insurance. What they overlook is how much life insurance and what kind of policies need to be bought at what stages of life.

The amount of life insurance that an individual needs depends on his age, current income, future financial commitments, liabilities and stage in life depends on the number of financial dependents he has.

Life insurance buying should be a carefully planned activity that should consider the family’s future, current financial circumstances, future liabilities, living standards, and health with each of his/her life stages.n -rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com

Pitch | February 2014

COLUMN

70% follow social media for business purposes – Can it be ignored ?

Moneka Khurana

Digital Consultant and Trainer

writetomoneka@gmail.com

7

0% social media visitors are frequenting platforms for business purposes which surely wants to make B2B marketers to want to sit up and take note.

Lets start by understanding a few quick facts about B2B social media marketing • Organisations set varied goals on social media which in descending order range from brand awareness, customer acquisition lead generation to customer retention.

• B2B marketers rate blogs & in person events as most effective

On an average 30% of B2B marketing budgets are allocated to content marketing Pitch | February 2014

• After Twitter and Linkedin, Youtube and slideshare has been rated as second most effective marketing form for B2B content.

• On an average 30% of B2B marketing budgets are allocated to content marketing. Needs to be provision for in all B2b marketing plans without which no amount of promotion will deliver results.

• Most content of B2B marketing are based on industry trends.

• Metrics of success vary from reach, downloads, lead generation to brand sentiment positive versus negative.

• Twitter dominates the B2B landscape whilst in terms of efficacy of content the blog scores the highest.

• The top preferred social media channels for marketers include twitter, linkedin, Youtube, facebook and the blog Platform choices should be decided based on nature of content to maximise conversation value and virality. Serious brand centric content is best placed on blogs, twitter, linkedin etc whilst casual customer centric content thrives on facebook/youtube etc. Also blogs become ideal for thought leadership, linkedin for collaboration and twitter for marketing services.

Today B2B marketers are using various techniques to harness interaction levels on platforms and increase frequency of visitation. Eg: Cisco runs a UGC (User generated consumer) blog and rewards visitors, contributors, active writers, employees who contribute to it in the form

15

COLUMN

B2B brands are recognizing the importance of being conversational and casual of badges and a meter which is trackable using Cisco logins. The same is visible in the screens below.

Dell also runs a rewards programme on facebook to encourage repeat visitation, engagement and conversations .

To strengthen its social media presence it has also set up a social media listening center powered by listening tools. The dashboard ensures realtime responses and feedback along with an always on sense of positive /negative sentiments.

You tube being another very critical b2b channels content investments are being made to build a rich repository of videos ranging from product ,service, customer support, events and specials.

Cisco being a classic example of building a video enabled site on youtube.

B2B brands are recognizing the importance of being conversational and

casual to connect better. Hence posts which spark conversations are becoming critical.

“Wish you could indulge in multitasking/face to face interaction even

in the cloud? What if you could attend a board meeting at the Headquarters without moving an inch from your cubicle?”

The key mantra to good content marketing on social media is to build a rich content property/platform and circulate/ interlink it across social media touchpoints in various formats to multiply reach, virality and conversations to amplify it. The same in turn enables buzz, multiple inbound links, better searchability and scale.

This is a far better strategy versus fragmenting content, creating multiple content inputs and spreading the investments thin. Also to create consumable content for B2B marketing its critical to build it in the form of downloadables, videos, infographics and articles.

Social media success metrics should always be mapped against set objectives which can range from reach within the TG to increasing website traffic or lead generation to influence. The measures vary based on platform . Eg : Views on youtube, followers on Twitter/ Linkedin, fans on Facebook , Mentions/ retweets /PTAT .

B2B marketers need to adopt the following approach to build robust social media presence .

• Listen - don’t pitch • Entertain – make people laugh

Create media products - Video - Articles - Blog posts - Status messages - Audio Publish to Sites - 19 Video Sites - 5 Podcasts - 5 Blog sites - 17 Social Bookmarkting Sites - 15 Socail Status Sites - 27 Article Directories

16

Pitch | February 2014

3. Create a content strategy as a first step before venturing into conversations in the community 4. Build a robust content property around the same which rests in a central location preferably on the blog.

5. Have a distribution plan in place to interlink the content property across social platforms and maximise distribution, inbound links 6. Measure success against the goals set 7. Have relative progressive benchmarks to build on social media plans

• • • •

Educate - Share helpful information Listen some more Ask questions - solicit feedback/market research Be transparent, reciprocative and accountable to the community Whilst we take cues from B2B marketers like Cisco and Dell who have got their act together and made huge foray in social media the following 7 steps would certainly ensure a kickstart in the right direction.

1. Set social media goals which tie back with overall business goals 2. Allocate minimum of 20% of social media budgets for content creation

So its time to gear up to be a truly networked brand and interact, engage, collaborate using available social media platforms & tools.

Sources : B2B Social media brand channels B2B social media whitepapers Forrester research Industry experts POV Slideshare Case studies . 

The views expressed here are of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Pitch

Pitch | February 2014

17

INTERVIEW AVANI DAVDA

Has this “Unique Third Place” captured the heart of the Indian consumer yet?

T

he international coffee chain Starbucks entered India in 2012 amid great hype and in a span of 16 months has opened 34 stores. In a market already crowded with players like Café Coffee Day, Barista and Costa Coffee, Starbucks with its premium range of coffee had a tough task ahead but its aspirational value helped attract a set of elite customers loyal to the brand.

One Cappuccino Grande at Starbucks can set you back by Rs 150 as compared to Rs 95 at Barista, clearly a difference which cannot be ignored. What helped was the joint venture with Tata Global Beverages which supported the brand in navigating the Indian market.

But has the brand won the hearts of the Indian consumer? The exceptional in-store experience which it promises to its customers cannot work if coffee loving Indians cannot see value for money. Its elitist image along with the tendency to remain aloof may not go down well with Indians in the long run.

Kanika Mehrotra from Pitch tried to make Starbucks shed its inhibitions and open up, as she spoke to Avani Davda, CEO, Tata Starbucks Limited.

How has the journey been for Starbucks in the Indian market? Has it been able to create a niche yet in the Indian market?

Starbucks locations are a community gathering place where people come together to connect over coffee and enjoy the unique Third Place. The foundation of Starbucks is built on the experience we are able to deliver to our customers each and every day. The Starbucks Experience is built on three primary components: our products, our places and our people.

We provide more than high-quality coffee. It’s that distinct Third Place, between work and home, with opportunities to connect with others over handcrafted beverages prepared by passionate partners, that make Starbucks unique and a destination for our customers.

How has the response been in India so far?

Our journey over the course of 16 months has been very gratifying and the venture has attracted acclaim from our customers in India. We are overwhelmed by the way in which our customers have embraced us with a lot of people making Starbucks

We provide more than high-quality coffee.

It’s that distinct Third Place between work and home 18

a part of their routine and we hope to see this grow. We are committed to the Indian market for the long-term and we will continue to work thoughtfully to ensure we are exceeding the expectations of our customers and building a strong presence in the Indian market.

What is the India USP of Starbucks? Can you describe its positioning? Does it plan to remain an elite café chain?

We are passionate about delivering high quality coffee with an experience to customers and believe that every ‘moment’ is a moment of connection and recognition.

Our pursuit of innovation to improve the customer experience is core to who we are. Over the years, one of the strongest elements of the Starbucks Experience has been the value that people associate with the product and the experience.

Customers come for coffee, stay for the inviting warmth and return for the very human connection. We have always be-

Pitch | February 2014

lieved in exceeding expectations – one person, one cup, one neighborhood at a time, to ensure we provide our customers an uplifting and enjoyable experience each time. We firmly believe that maintaining a fantastic customer experience is critical not just for a company’s survival, but to its sustainable growth, and we deliver this through our stores, our offerings and our people.

Indian consumers appreciate a quality experience, and we intend to provide just that. We use only the top three percent of the best Arabica beans that ensures an unparalleled coffee experience. This is what our customers come back for and this requires an unwavering commitment, strong brand values and responsible business practices. We aim to offer convenient locations for our customers wherever they wish to enjoy the Starbucks Experience .We believe in our strength to redefine the café market in the country by offering consumers the highest quality coffeehouse experience at a comparable cost.

You have recently opened the Starbucks café in Bangalore. Do you plan to enter the tier 2 and 3 cities also where

| February2014 Pitch Pitch| February 2014

19

INTERVIEW Avani Davda the coffee culture is catching up? What will your strategy be for these markets as Starbucks is a premium chain? What are the cities you are looking at?

Since our foray in the Indian market in October 2012, we have opened 34 stores across Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Pune and Bengaluru. We understand the importance of offering a world class experience to our customers here at a value that reflects the quality of the experience.

Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino, hazelnut coffee and other flavors available at Starbucks’ Indian outlets are similar to the ones that customers get all over the

world. How have you adapted to the Indian market?

Given the diverse and dynamic culture of India, we aim to ensure that we provide a unique values-based Starbucks Experience respectful of India’s strong culinary heritage and of local tastes and preferences. We are thrilled by the welcoming response received for our global favorites - Pumpkin Spice Latte/ Frappuccino and Hazelnut coffee. We look to surprise and delight customers with offerings that are unique to India but represent the global experience and product portfolio Starbucks is known for worldwide. We also believe great coffee deserves great food

and we are therefore very selective in the food items we offer to ensure they complement our coffee and the third place. In each city we go, we introduce exclusive food offerings to cater to tastes and preferences of that region in addition to offering international favorites so customers have a wide range of offerings to choose from.

Our extensive beverage portfolio includes the whole bean coffees, like Veranda, House Blend, and Sumatra, as well as Starbucks VIA Ready Brew and Starbucks Reserves. We are also incredibly proud to launch the India Estates Blend – our special country-specific blend de-

There is a steady shift in consumer preferences in India; coffee has transformed into a mainstream beverage with a national presence veloped thoughtfully with Tata Coffee, for the Indian market to mark our first anniversary in the country.

Do you think Starbucks will contribute to the growth of coffee as a category in India?

The coffee consumption is increasing steadily year-on-year and there is a steady shift in consumer preferences here; coffee has transformed into a mainstream beverage with a national presence. Adding to this is the rate of growth of the café sector and the café business, increased consumer spending, heightened awareness and steadily increasing out-of-home consumption which provides great opportunities for us to share our high-quality coffee, handcrafted beverages, locally relevant food, legendary service and the unique Starbucks Experience with customers here. We are committed to the Indian market for the long term and believe in our strength to redefine the café market in the country and firmly believe in our ability to provide a unique, values-based Starbucks Experience to Indian customers. n -kanika.mehrotra@exchange4media.com

20

Pitch | February 2014

The Eminent Jury

Jury Chairperson Karan Bajwa MD, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd.

Rahul Saighal Chief Marketing Officer Samsung Electronics

Manohar Bhat, VP Marketing, Maruti Suzuki, India

Sujit Ganguly Senior GM & Head, Corporate Brand & Communications ICICI

Sadashiv Nayak CEO Big Bazaar

Satinder Juneja VP Sales & Marketing NIIT Technologies

Sanjay Chitkara Head –Corporate Marketing LG India

Sudeep Narayan Marketing & PR Director Volvo Auto India

Deepika Warrier Marketing Director – Beverages PepsiCo India

Rajesh Iyer Head Marketing- Colors Viacom 18 more to join...

Archana Aggarwal VP Media Airtel

Sumit Kumar VP & Head - Marketing & Customer Services Bata

&

Amitesh Rao Director- Brand & Media, MTS India

SUBMIT YOUR ENTRIES!

OOH Conference & Awards

Register Now www.exchange4media.com/ooh2014/register.aspx

4TH EDITION OF THE OOH ADVERTISING AWARDS

20TH MARCH, 2014 | PULLMAN, GURGAON For Entries, please contact: Sonia Mehndiratta: +91 98999 66264, sonia@exchange4media.com Agnel DSouza: +91 98702 92834, agnel@exchange4media.com

Pitch | February 2014 exchange4media.com

For Sponsorship Queries, please contact: Abdulla M. Mazumder: +91 98716 09348, abdulla@exchange4media.com Siddarth Padmanabhan: +91 99207 13935, siddarth.p@exchange4media.com Sneha Walke: +91 98455 41143, sneha@exchange4media.com

21

www.impactonnet.com

www.pitchonnet.com

samachar4media.com

www.realtyplusmag.com

www.franchise-plus.com

www.businessworld.in

www.digitalmarket.asia

everythingexperiential.com

a ss Gl

gh rou h T

The Loo

kin g

COLUMN

Ankur Kalra

CEO, Vibgyor Brand Services

The Making of Brand Kejriwal:

Lessons in Marketing from Delhi’s CM

ankur@vibgyor.in

D

elhi’s newest Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal rise to the CM kursi is the stuff Bollywood flicks of the 70s were made of. One angry young man and his quest to take on the big, bad, powerful and corrupt world – he was the dark horse, no one believed he could do it, until he actually did.

While the fate of the Delhi government is still anyone’s guess there are plenty of lessons to be learnt from the timeline of how a party that did not even exist till until a year ago captured the imagination and hearts of a few million.

The Kejriwal experience was built on a strategy that touched, moved and inspired people – because when people feel like they’re part of great experiences they tend to incline towards people and brands behind it. Brand Kejriwal is an experience brand – one that was able to deliver spectacularly on-ground and garnered enough support to make him the poster boy of the great Indian middle class. At Vibgy-

or, we’ve been following his actions closely and thinking about how we can use them in some of our clients’ experiences.

Fact #1: They got their groundwork right Poll strategies and party meets may happen behind closed doors but all the real work happens on-ground.

The barrage of radio announcements, posters & Auto brandings showing up across the city had us believing that AAP was leading the poll charts but it didn’t just stop there. All the real work happens onground and that’s where AAP stationed its headquarters. Instead of rallies where the hordes of people are one big indistinguishable mass, the AAP team could be seen at marketplaces, parks, outside colleges, at cafes, waiting outside office – they managed to bump in to people as they went about their daily lives.

They were all over the place, people were talking about them and talking to them. They were the only ones

The Kejriwal experience was built on a strategy that touched, moved and inspired people

22

Pitch | February 2014

who bothered to reach out to people like this and look how they were rewarded.

One to one communication was used extensively and they were able to get the pulse of the man on the street.

Fact #2: Giving a voice to Aam Aadmi Problems All of AAP’s poll agendas were based on issues that people had and that’s what swayed the tide of public opinion in their favour. They were local and colloquial – just the way the common man likes it. Be it inflated electricity bills, water shortage, corruption, safety of women – their issues cropped up from daily lives of people and their brand was positioned as a solution to these problems. Marketing works best when you’re listening to your people and responding to them. Any brand or product that exists must exist as the answer to a problem or a need of the people – otherwise its

AAP managed to make the average, common man its brand ambassador and their problems, its agenda very existence, like the public memory is shortlived. Once the reason for existence is established, make sure you say it loud and clear.

Fact #3: Populism trumps Elitism You know you’re part of a truly mass event when people don’t even need to hashtag it. This was the first people’s movement and the levels of involvement and activism displayed by people is proof that when you get people involved and motivated there’s little else that dares stand in your way. Brands can no longer choose to be standalone or elitist, they’ve got to gauge popular public sentiments and go with the flow. Celebrity endorsements and fancy advertisements are all very well but at the end of the day it’s about being accessible to the people.

Pitch | February 2014

Taking a cue from this, experience zones and pop-up stores are working very well for brands that have traditionally chosen to keep their products confined to their display windows.

Fact #4: Selling the big idea AAP managed to make the average, common man its brand ambassador and their problems its agenda. “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” Kejriwal seems to have taken a leaf out of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s take on leadership, vision and the importance of selling the big idea. Soon everyone was scampering to wear the ‘main hoon aam aadmi’ cap and giving voice to his poll agenda. And

that’s how Kejriwal taught us that products don’t sell, the idea does.

Fact #5: The perfect mixture of insight, live experience and wit In my opinion, every successful campaign has at least two of these three ingredients; Kejriwal’s, by design, had all three. They had done their homework, their on-ground experience was electrifying, they had captured popular imagination and there was a ready dose of wit in everything that fired from their mouths. Package this well for your consumers and you’ve got a crowd-puller on your hands. 

The views expressed here are of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Pitch

23

BRAND JOURNEY: PEARS

200 Years of Purity & Innocence

By Devansh Sharma

B

orn on the streets of Soho, London, Pears- world’s first translucent soap is still in business more than 200 years after its birth. The brand owes its name to its founder Andrew Pears who first produced and sold it in 1789 in London. As per Unilever’s records, it is the first registered brand which makes it the oldest continuing brand. Over more than 200 years of existence Pears has continued with its tradition of purity and pristine appeal.

Pears was introduced in British India in 1902 and was acquired by Lever brothers later in 1917. Since then it is being sold in India under the umbrella of Hindustan Unilever (HUL).

Since its inception in India, the brand has been positioned as pure and gentle, where the transparency of the soap acts as the visual

24

cue for purity and glycerine highlights its gentle appeal. There is an elaborate process of manufacturing and ageing which takes about three months, after which it reaches a state of pure transparency.

The manufacturing process has remained by and large constant for over 200 years.

In the initial years HUL tried to ride on the past strength of Pears. Over the years Pears had shown pretty, sweet little girls with a line that said “waiting to be beautiful”. HUL did away with that approach since it positioned Pears as a children’s soap and came up with a campaign that highlighted product attributes.

The ad showed a girl, looking through Pears and saying “A soap so pure you can see through it… only Pears lets you know how pure it is”.

The campaign talked about only product features and did not create a memorable brand image. Keeping this in mind HUL came up with a number of ad campaigns in an effort to create a brand image.

In late 70’s HUL launched a new ad campaign featuring 5 year old

Pooja Bhatt with a tagline- ‘rang roop mein balpan’.

The ad used motherdaughter relationship as a metaphor, to highlight the purity and innocence of the product. Since then by and large all campaigns have been built around the purity and innocence of motherdaughter relationship.

How Pears came into existence Andrew Pears, the founder of the soap was a practicing barber in Soho, London.

Soho was a wealthy residential area and Andrew’s clients, wealthy people from the socitey who were conscious of their appearance. He realized that his products (powder and cream) were used by people to cover up the skin damage. Consequently he came up with a glycrine based gentle soap.

The reformulation controversy Taking a step forward towards innovation Unilever changed the formulation of the product in 2009, which turned out to be an unwise move. Pears loyalists criticized the addition of chemicals to its traditional 200-year-old formula.

A facebook campaign called ‘Bring Back

Pitch | February 2014

D LEGACY mHERITAGE AN otable ad ca iniconic and n

ost ’- Bra ne of the m le campaign is ‘the bubb s ed as ar er Pe d f si o n co paign arguably , tt ra ar used B J ra mas me. Bar tt child of Tho rtising by so ve s, as ai ad ill n M er t d n Everet father of mo s” by Sir Joh st o le m bb e u th “B e g n d it becam the painti an gn ars ai p ye m 0 al ca than 10 a promotion d. For more an s gl gn En ai p in m er rint ad ca famous post ars ting for its p n Pe ai s p is is M th d d pears use ars introduce 1891-1925 Pe s took part. and later in y young girl an m h ic h port w in tt was to im competition oke by Barra tr ces, rs ie te p as e m m Another ten centi a ion French f ill o m d a ea f st o r in a quarte e accepted er w P’ e, A m ti SO at RS which, at th coin had “PEA into gland. Each em En th in t y u n p en ad p tt h it and Barra ainst it, his inscribed on as no law ag w e er l an th ce Sin e brand unti circulation. ublicity for th p the f o d t ce lo n a u that anno idea earned coins was passed e t h en T . m al ia rl eg Act of Pa currencies ill f all foreign circulation. exchange o drawn from ith w ars tly en u q promote Pe were subse

by Barratt to nlid ea se cl u f o ay l o w b Another ct as a sym u rd o p is e s th tion anlines was to posi es were- Cle pular taglin o utiful lady, p ea e b m a e So b s. nes eparing to Pr s, es , of course! lin d -S o y P-E-A-R next to G h W ? ap so l spel How do you

O

The Original Pears Soap’ made it obligatory for Unilever to get back to the original formulation.

HUL has tried to strengthen the brand with two variants: Blue for Germ fighting

and Green for Oil Control and a range of face washes and hand washes. Pears is a premium segment soap and has a niche audience. In India, the brand has retained its popularity because of its emotional

“ Innovation need not be necessary for all products. For instance we have the example of Johnson’s baby powder which has remained the same. There are a few products which people don’t like any changes in, because they have an emotional connect with them. The size of the market and the scope for differentiation is very limited for some products. Also, Piyush Sinha some brands have inherent benefits and Professor, Marketing, heritage amplifies those benefits. Even the IIM Ahmedabad consumers do not want the core of the product to change. The brand which came first has an emotional connect. The mother-daughter relationship in Pears is being used since a very long time and has given a unique positioning to the product which need not be changed.”

Pitch | February 2013

positioning and different look. The brand continues to use the innocence and purity of a mother-daughter relationship. Constantly Pears has worked around this image which is evident in its TVCs titled ‘NakiNaki’ and ‘Masoom Pears’.

CHALLENGES The premium soap market holds around 15-20 percent of Rs. 8500-Crore Indian toilet soap industry while mass-market soap industry has around 45 per cent share. The market is flooded with several, national and global brands and a large number of small brands, intensifying the competition across various segments.

Pears has monopolized its market, creating loyalists and it still remains a popular brand among its target group. Any change in the traditional formulation might repel its loyalists.  -devansh.sharma@exchange4media.com

25

CASE STUDY:

Making Impatience a Virtue

By Gunjan Verma

Background: Pepsi has been a winner when it comes to advertising. It talks to the youth and taps the pulse of the generation. Whether it was ‘Yehi hai right choice baby’, ‘Change the game’ or ‘Oh yes abhi’, Pepsi has always connected with the current trends. But Pepsi never tried to promote any social changes or dig deep into the subjective alteration of contemporary urban societies but always focused on two most important parameters; they chose the right celebrities and wrote the perfect taglines! So, as Pepsi was losing to other beverages in the market, it changed its philosophy of designing a campaign without compromising on the ad attributes. The ‘Oh yes abhi’ campaign was meant to target the youth - known for its impatience but with a positive attitude.

They made impatience a virtue!

Challenge: Today fashion, fast food, automobile, beverage, mobile brands and many others are all fighting for the youth’s share of mind, heart and wallet. In this fight, the iconic brand was dipping on youth scores.

Pepsi was…

• Not connecting specifically with the youth ‘as a tribe’ but instead being more universal & allencompassing • Moving from ‘young & irreverent’ to ‘kiddish and frivolous’ The concern was the fact that Coca Cola India’s top brands - Sprite, Thums Up and Coke were focusing on the youth in messaging and positioning. This wasn’t a

GROWTH % (BETWEEN PRE- AND POST CAMPAIGN) Spontaneous Recall

6.6

Appealing Advertising

11.6

Refreshment

15.2

Buzz

7.9

26

Pitch | December 2013

Results:

Gain Back Brand Imagery Amidst Youth

ENJOY WITH FRIENDS case of market share being challenged this time; what worried Pepsi was that in a category like Cola (where image is everything) losing ‘youth salience’ to other marketers spelled trouble.

The Big Idea: While Thums Up’s world was of hyper-masculinity (body), Coca Cola’s about happiness (heart), and Sprite’s was of mental smarts (mind), Pepsi decided to own the bold irreverent ‘Spirit of youth’ by making impatience a virtue!

LOVE

MOST POPULAR

Strategy: Pepsi carried out a series of research throughout 2012 to understand the pulse of the Youth that showed: • The young believe that the present is exciting and acting ‘Now’ leads to a better ‘Next’ • Today, a surfeit of opportunity to experience life has created an increased ‘Fear of Missing Out’ thereby fuelling the need to ‘Make the Most of Now’.

Now, Brand Pepsi had to make the most of this phenomenon. In India, Pepsi has been its best whenever the brand challenged an existing order or an existing convention, whenever the brand gave a license to the youth – gave them a mantra to live by.

So, while the youth are ‘impatient to make the most of now’ and the adults ‘frown at their restlessness’, Pepsi sided with the youngsters and chose to stoke this ‘can’t wait attitude’!

Pitch | December 2013

TRENDSETTER

27

CASE STUDY: Execution: Creating a New Youth Anthem Pepsi created an ‘Anthem’ for a TV Commercial “OH YES ABHI” that aired across multiple youth and general entertainment channels. The TVC used celebrities like Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, M.S. Dhoni as well as regular youngsters to show how one’s impatience to act now and following one’s heart helps make the ‘here and now’ exciting. Celebrities were carefully chosen to be the ones who had achieved a lot early in their respective careers and with their bold, dynamic all-new look. ‘NOW’ was dazzlingly captured.

Pepsi wanted to evoke urgency for ‘NOW’ through digital - where the target audience resides. With a series of contests and conversations, it encouraged people to act ‘Now’!

Results:

Because of “Oh Yes Abhi”, consideration scores grew

TOP OF MIND RECALL

CONSUMPTION (PAST 4 WEEKS)

DIGITAL NOT ONLY COMPLEMENTED THE MAINLINE CAMPAIGN BUT ALSO SPEARHEADED ENGAGEMENTS

CONSUMPTION (PAST 3 MONTHS)

1.

2.

3.

28

#CANTWAITABHI: It asked people to show their impatient side by telling what was that they can’t wait to do using #CantWaitAbhi on Twitter. All impatient wishes were curated in a virtual Pepsi bottle on our microsite. Pepsi made the most impatient users’ wishes come true.

PEPSI MUSIC ABHI: India’s first on-demand online concert engaged music lovers across the nation PEPSI SHOT 60: Make the most of your impatience! Pepsi Shot 60, the shortest short-film making competition, gave users 24 hours to shoot, edit and submit a 60 second film.  -gunjan.verma@exchange4media.com

Pitch | December 2013

COLUMN

Of Grumpy Consumers and Geeky Grocers With increasing competition in grocery e-tailing, Smart Analytics will pave the way to gain new ground Prof. Smitha Sarma Ranganathan

Strategic Branding & Marketing Management

sarma.smitha@gmail.com

T

he Grumpy Consumer A 30-something working woman reminisces amidst a super-packed work noon of supplies in her kitchen hitting critical quantity – levels, wherein a run to the local store is but inevitable to manage a decent dinner. Unarguably an overwhelming moment for any lady who has walked this path before to procure supplies, process the ingredients and prepare the dish, all after a super hectic work day! On a bad hair day, she almost gives up, reluctantly deciding to order take away yet again from the fulla-oil-round-the-corner-restaurant!

Ask a young working mommie attempting the rope trick of balancing work, parenting and family priorities; or that of a working couple grudgingly putting away grocery shopping to end of every week, only to realise most of the weekend went past in a jiffy guarding the picked up groceries and running the trolley race at hypermarket aisles.

The Geeky Grocers Given the increasing grumpiness of our urban existence coupled with acute time poverty, it does seem the momentous moment for geeky online e-

tailers to spin their merchandise net on the web! Furthermore, in a generation that has taken to ‘flip-karting’ like never before, it’s not surprising that online grocers such as Bigbasket, Localbanya, Ekstop are gyrating with activity. A quick check on the online grocery e-tailer websites gives out interesting pointers. Besides the need-to-have quality parameters, width and depth of merchandise on offer, and same day delivery slots, these grocery e-tailing platforms allow for formulating order catalogues that can be classified as being weekly, fortnightly or monthly shopping lists. This small yet smart functionality rids the redundancy in repeated recall associated with routine purchases.

Furthermore, grocery etailers currently limit operations to tier 1 cities, understandably owing to buying behavior characteristic to urban contexts. There seems to be increasing buzz by brick-n-mortar retail grocery chains too to vie for their portion in the precious pie by positioning themselves on the convenience platform.

Big Bazaar Direct is an initiative in that very direction, and will see increased penetration in tier 2 cities as well Pitch | February 2014

29 92

COLUMN Opting for the franchise mode with local kirana stores and enabling them with order-cataloguing tablet devices, this category of retail too will compete stiffly with online e-tailers. Big Bazaar Direct is an initiative in that very direction, and will see increased penetration in tier 2 cities as well.

Grab that Byte Undoubtedly grocery e-tailers have had an encouraging start, primarily owing to Convenience, Cost and Customer service value propositions. However, they need to get on quickly with their game plan to take these 3Cs to the next level so as to thrive and do so profitably. In this context, picking nuances of digital

While most shopper account names created appear to be male, the key consumption influencer and order placer seem to be women consumer behaviour will hold the key to craft segment specific strategies. For instance, the simplest demographic variable relating to gender and age of the customer continues to be a blind spot to most e-tailers.

While most shopper account names

created appear to be male (reflective of men creating most accounts for use by their spouses/family), the key consumption influencer and order placer seems to be women! Further, considering the generic nature of the buy, there are very little pointers that enable customer pro-

filing. Hence, besides laying emphasis on achieving operational efficiencies, time is perhaps ripe to embrace smart data analytics so as to engage meaningfully with the customer group. Remember, grocery e-tailers are fundamentally dealing with service conscious and time-starved customers who will soon get used to all the convenience associated with online buying and will have limited tolerance to inefficiencies.

For instance, if data points towards more women getting on to the online carting model, and many of these woman are stay-at-home ladies who use their smart phones to browse and order, it may be useful to develop touch points at apartment communities similar to the Tesco Virtual Shopping Wall, wherein customers can scan the QR code and place orders. And this could only be one small possibility to bring in novelty to customer shopping experience. With customers on board, it’s critical to map and manage their expectations well, and to achieve this sound data capturing and smart analytics is the need of the hour! ď Ž

The views expressed here are of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Pitch

30

Pitch | February 2014

COLUMN

Building The Digital Transaction Business Anupam Sengupta

Director – Sales and Commercials, Sony Pictures

Anupam_Sengupta@spe.sony.com

H

ollywood studios have been the first to push digital transactions on key digital stores like iTunes, Google Play, You tube,Sky etc in India.

The journey began in Dec 2012. Prior to that companies like Sony Pictures were instrumental in closely working with various partners to launch their services in an emerging digital market like India. It’s a year now and there are some notable learnings.

Consumer Behavior: Consumer journey on digital platforms is quite different from physical world. Convenience drives basket size, a younger demographic and a less predictable journey as opposed to pre-planned trips to store creates both challenges and opportunities. Planning campaigns to tap this intent in a way that targets this consumer journey through optimized search cam-

paigns in an increasingly device agnostic environment becomes important . Even using basic free tools like Google trends can produce heatmaps within a geography like India - top states, top queries etc which can further aid a search /social campaign.

Powering Consumer acquisition strategy : It’s crucial to profile consumers into Strategic segments in close consultation with partner stores. Mapping out consumers basis their digital store visits , average transaction size, genres, devices owned to name a few helps cross-sell and up-sell products and formats on these digital stores. For example: A ‘techno loyalist’ (consumer who owns mult-devices and is a high convert) can be targeted with Premium VOD release or Early Electronic Sell thru. Similarly a’ fence sitter’ on the opposite end of a consumer profile and who is yet to sample on digital , can be tapped with a subscription package deal or a thematic mark down of the top slate for limited days. Social channels also throw up a

Sony Pictures was instrumental in closely working with various partners to launch its services in an emerging digital market like India Pitch | February 2014

31

COLUMN

It’s a myth that consumers do not download HD on devices .

On the contrary HD downloads feature prominently in India

: VOD tier drop , HD bundles , Price rooms etc to drive loyalty and retention.

lot of data. For example on facebook one can measure specifics KPIs on Likes, Reach and Engagement and mark them to Revenue / Conversions over a period of time .

Mining them into actionable insights increases ROI significantly.

Long tail Management -SEO, Email, Mobile, and Video: SEO has become increasingly challenging and with Google’s humming bird and other updates, one needs to be out there with good content and better optimization techniques on both web and mobile. This becomes important to drive long tail uplift . Its a constant effort and blogs do become crucial to translate traffic into Revenues . Email marketing - Segmented approach basis Attributes, Activity and Usage drives conversions on deep catalog. It of course has its own challenges given Google’s division of Gmail into

32

primary,social and promotion tabs. App analytics insights help drive Mobile optimized campaigns like CPD on android platforms or java script event optimized campaigns for a specific product release .

Strategic Placements: Marketing resources are always limited and hence trading with partners on titles, promotions and online activations basis deliverables become a key ingredient to success on digital stores. It’s important to secure some of the best online in-store placements for one’s products through aggressive digital marketing initiatives and creating new product Segments

Driving HD adoption: It’s a myth that consumers do not download HD on devices . On the contrary HD downloads feature prominently and organically in India. Driving consumer convenience, building engaging interface with a rich experience - drives consumer transaction. With telecom billing this will become even more convenient as ecosystem surges ahead.

The digital Transaction business is here to stay and sky is the limit as far as innovations go. Studios and retailers that orient themselves to ‘thinking’ digital consumers and make the right marketing investments to scale traffic and transactions will lead this space. 

The views expressed here are of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Pitch

Pitch | February 2014

Watch out for the Pitch Madison Media Advertising Outlook 2014 Report in the March issue For advertising opportunities, please contact: (North) Rajat Thareja : +91 98101 34435, rajat.thareja@exchange4media.com (West) Sohini Ghosh: +91 99308 11744, sohini.ghosh@exchange4media.com (South) Sneha Walke: +91 98455 41143, sneha@exchange4media.com Pitch | February 2014 exchange4media.com

33 www.impactonnet.com

www.pitchonnet.com

samachar4media.com

www.realtyplusmag.com

www.franchise-plus.com

www.businessworld.in

www.digitalmarket.asia

everythingexperiential.com

INTERVIEW ROY KURIAN

“We want to do something for the society, industry and customers”

F

ido Dido, Colonel Sanders, Ronald McDonald, Pillsbury Doughboy, Amul girl, Bibendum, commonly referred to as the Michelin Man are some of the famous heroes who are running the show for their brands just like any other celebrity endorsement. A brand mascot excites the kid inside and establishes a relationship that is hard to leave the memory of the consumer. Yamaha

Motor India Sales Pvt. Ltd. (YMIS) has unveiled its maiden mascot to instigate road safety measures in kids, who will be the next generation riders. Roy Kurian, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Yamaha Motor India Pvt. Ltd. talks to Gunjan Verma of Pitch why Yamaha felt a need to introduce an unknown cartoon mascot in competition to Honda’s Chota Bheem.

The face of our mascot is heart-shaped in keeping with the tagline - Revs your heart - and is sporty, loving and colorful like the brand itself 34

| February Pitch 2014 | February Pitch 2014

What gave birth to your maiden mascot?

The Yamaha Children Safety Program (YCSP) is a first of its kind social initiative by the company to educate and influence both parents and children about vital road safety measures. The Mascot has been developed to arouse interest among kids about the program.

Our Yamaha Safe Riding Science Program (YSRS) did not receive exciting response and so we thought of connecting with kids through a cartoon character and that gave rise to an idea of a mascot.

Our mascot personifies all the brand attributes, especially innovation and styling, which is synonymous to Yamaha.

Honda roped in Chota Bheem. Do you think popular characters give more mileage to a brand?

Known characters are very easy to be used but their pitfall is that are over-used for various products across almost all categories. We wanted something different and original. The face of our mascot is heart-shaped just like what Yamaha

Yamaha’s milestones in India Yamaha made its initial foray into India in 1985 Yamaha was the pioneer in launching superbikes in India in 2008 with the likes of R1, FZ 1 and VMAX Yamaha launched India’s first sports bike YZF R15 in 2008 Yamaha launched its popular FZ series in 2009 Yamaha signed MoU with the Tamil Nadu Govt. for setting up its 3rd Plant in Chennai in 2012 Yamaha entered the scooter segment in 2012 with Yamaha Ray India Yamaha Motor Pvt. Ltd established a separate sister concern, Yamaha Motor India Sales Pvt. Ltd in 2013

Yamaha is a long term brand in India and so we have a vision for the brand. We want to do something for the society, industry and customers. talks about - Revs your heart - and is sporty, loving and colorful like the brand itself.

What message Yamaha wants to put across through this initiative?

Yamaha is a long term brand in India and so we have a vision for the brand – we want to do something for the society, industry and customers. One of our brand visions is to do something good for the society. Through this program,

Pitch | February 2014

we want to meet twin objectives – one, to teach kids who after 10-15 years will be all young riders, so the lessons they will learn now will stay with them to make them responsible future riders. Second, when we teach kids, they tend to keep a check on their parents or anyone for not abiding by the safety measures, and also stops them from doing wrong. In India, if a kid tries to teach you something, people take it seriously because of the emotional connect attached to it. So, as a result, we will be contributing to the safe driving message. -gunjan.verma@exchange4media.com

35

FEATURE: BIG DATA ANALYSIS

Harnessing big data remains an elusive proposition for marketers

By Ankur Gaurav

T

here is a growing buzz around big data and the mine of information it provides about consumers, their buying behavior, preferences, social media presence and much more. However, Indian marketers are still grappling for a proper definition of big data, leave alone analysing and utilising it to their advantage. The data is out there – be it on the average amount a customer withdraws from the ATM or the POS data accumulated during the entire day’s transaction at a grocery store – but when it comes to how best to use this information available, marketers can be quite clueless.

As Gautam K Gandhi, Head - New Business Development, Google US/ India succinctly puts it, “I can’t see a lot of sectors using such data at all. For example, car manufacturers are not using it anywhere. The problem is we have a lot of data but don’t know what to do with it.”

A Harvard Business Review, while pointing out the voids in the entire process beginning from knowing to utilising big data, noted in an article, “The biggest reason that investment in big data fails to pay off, though, is that most companies don’t do a good job with the information they already

have. They don’t know how to manage it, analyze it in ways that enhance their understanding, and then make changes in response to new insights.

Companies don’t magically develop those competencies just because they’ve invested in high-end analytics tools. They first need to learn how to use the data already embedded in their core operating systems, much the way people must master arithmetic before they tackle algebra. Until a company learns how to use data and analysis to support its operating decisions, it will not be in a position to benefit from big data.”

In 2013, McAfee had released a study that revealed the helplessness of organisations around the world to harness the power of big data for security purpose. According to a report titled ‘Needle in a Datastack’, businesses are becoming vulnerable to security breaches due to their inability to properly analyse or store big data. Magnanimity of Big Data can be realised from the fact that the global output of data is about 3 Zetabytes, which is equivalent to 1 billion terabytes. Firms such as Google, Facebook and Yahoo! are among the few to lead the evaluation of big data to a recommendable level.

“The problem is we have a lot of data but don’t know what to do with it” Gautam K Gandhi Head - New Business Development, Google US/ India

How best to harness big data?

Marketers are aware that if they do not utilise it for their own good, competitors might use this data to their advantage. Take the case of Vodafone India, which introduced credit facility for its pre-paid customers based on the data regarding the high number

The biggest reason that investment in big data fails to pay off, is that most companies don’t do a good job with the information they already have

36

Pitch | February 2014

of such customers running out of their phone balance. This was later adopted by all other telecom companies as well.

Similarly, there are a few key areas, after working on which, companies can easily feast on the Big Data Buffet.

Small is good Segregating big data into smaller packets is the first step towards utilising the data fruitfully. Identifying a pattern in a chunk of data coming from a localised source is how Bookmyshow.com tried to locate a constant behaviour pattern, as observed by a particular customer whenever he/ she surfed on their website. E-commerce is among the first ones to have shown some success in using this data. The Shopping Cart concept on a lot of e-commerce websites helps them understand customers’ tastes and preferences.

Magnanimity of Big Data can be realised from the fact that the global output of data is about 3 Zetabytes

Problem of authenticity No doubt big data can help businesses to a great extent, however, there are always concerns regarding the authenticity of the data being churned out. As shared by Bhaskar Sharma, GM, Red Bull India, “The authenticity

“The authenticity of such data is always at stake as you never know if the data is sourced from customers or is being generated deliberately” Bhaskar Sharma GM, Red Bull India

Pitch | February 2014

of such data is always on stake as you never know if the data is sourced from customers or is being generated deliberately.” He, however, has a solution to this problem. According to him, “The problem of authenticity of any data on the web can be solved as soon as you have tagged someone’s identity with their action on the internet. Once a person comes on web through his real profile and identity, chances of behaving irresponsibly vanishes.”

Marketers looking forward to using big data should focus more on putting their analysts in place, who can churn the data to produce significant insights.

A lot of brands have more than a million fans on Facebook, which gives them access to billions of bytes of data coming out of the conversations happening on their page. For companies that are not doing any e-commerce activities from their websites, analysing the conversations on their Facebook pages can prove to be the first step in winning over big data.  -ankur.gaurav@exchange4media.com

37

INTERVIEW KULMEET BAWA

“Adobe wants to change the world through digital experiences” I

n a digital world, it is imperative for brands to make use of online business optimization methods to improve performance.

Marketers need to move at the speed of digital. Consumers need personalized experiences delivered to them at the right time. Adobe Marketing Cloud, is an integrated marketing solution that has helped marketers make the right digital marketing decisions. Kulmeet Bawa, Director, Enterprise Business, South Asia, Adobe Systems explained the scope of the Digital Marketing Cloud to Ankur Gaurav of Pitch How has Adobe’s strategy changed resulting in the development of Digital Marketing Cloud?

Adobe’s promise is to change the world through digital experiences and that’s what we have been doing for the last three decades. Today, we make, manage, measure and monetize content. Simply put, we help to create content for brands and also measure the value of that content of the entire world. In other words, we help the art and science to meet. We change the art of content creation into the science of monetization. Earlier we had bill board ads, TV ads, print ads, magazines, newspapers etc. There was no measurable ROI for that, but today we actually help marketers, and the CFOs to measure the ROI on all their advertisements.

38

How do you define Digital Marketing Cloud (DMC)?

Creative cloud includes Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Acrobat, Flash. Marketing cloud is all the tools with which we help our customers make money out of content.

That’s the reason why we diversified into this strategy. In 2009, we at Adobe were satisfied by our performance just before the digital boom came and most of the businesses started moving online. Customers came to us with two requests , to ensure that all content worked seamlessly in the online world, and secondly to build optimization and monetization strategies for them. That was our trigger to build the digital marketing cloud.

In recent years, following the strategy to build DMC, Adobe has made many acquisitions and investments. Can you elaborate ?

We started off by acquiring a company called Omniture. Omniture was our first acquisition made in 2009, which was the gold standard in the world of web analytics. Customers gave us the valuable insight about which content was doing well in the online world and which was not. The actual insight from them could probably save billions of dollars for them and that’s how Omniture came about. Post that, we entered the digital marketing business and later acquired a whole stream of companies. There was a lot of inorganic growth. Two and a half billion

Pitch | February 2014

dollars were invested in this and we acquired a host of companies. We started by looking at Magic quadrants, Gartner, Forrester where we were picking up gold standards. We acquired a company called Day software, then we acquired Phone Gap, and we have now acquired Newlane, Demdex, Attitude. With all these acquisitions we started coupling the in house organic staff Adobe is famous for and started building the marketing cloud for ourselves.

We acquired 15 companies and all of them are a part of our Digital Marketing Cloud.

Adobe is growing at a healthy rate of 3035 per cent y-o-y basis. How is this being reflected in the functionality of your business?

Four years into the system and we are the world’s largest digital marketing company growing at the fastest pace ever. We are growing at more than 40 % year on year worldwide. We manage 30 petabytes of data where we handle more than 10 trillion transactions. We optimize online advertising expenses, and today we are handling businesses worth more than two billion dollars worldwide on ad spends alone. We have almost 5000 customers already under our belt.

What brands is Adobe handling?

Eight out of the ten telecom companies are with us, nine out of the top ten eretailers in the retail industry work with Adobe on the digital marketing cloud. 10 out of the top 10 media and entertainment companies and nine out of the top ten banks work on DMC today.

Can you name a few Indian brands working on DMC and how they are utilising it?

Among media companies we are in the early stages of a deal with Malayalam Manorama. We are replicating it in the industry. In the E-retailer segment Flipkart and Makemytrip are with us. This business

is growing at a rapid pace.

What are the challenges you face with Marketers and how is your solution helping them improve their strategy?

Unlike other businesses, in this part of the business we really deal with the CMOs, sometimes also with the CIOs or CFOs. What we have understood from marketers is as follows: 1. They have a lot of disparate data sources which gets overwhelming for them 2. There is a clear lack of skills in digital marketing 3. The tools are very fragmented The marketer has no clue where the customer could come from. In today’s world we are exposed to four screens which are TV, Mobile, Tablet and PC, and each has a mix of paid media and earned media. Adding to this complexity, a user can come in demanding an experience from any of these options. No two customers or no two journeys will be the same. The marketer today needs to present a unique, personalized compelling experience to his users. The time from when the action is initiated to the time when the user needs it to be given to him

In APAC, the average spend in digital marketing is about 10 per cent whereas in the US today it’s 30 per cent.

There is scope to grow and keeps people motivated Pitch | February 2014

is very less. CMOs need to listen, predict, assemble and deliver data within that last millisecond and there is an engine which starts predicting as to what is it that will excite the consumer and that’s what Adobe marketing cloud is.

Can you cite an example?

Makemy trip is the best example from a user point of view; if you have a login id it will have all the details of your last transactions. Next time you visit the site they will give you the best experience based on your details. In today’s world , a lot of customization is possible. So at the back end this is what we do from our marketing cloud.

What are the numbers that excite you about the growth of this vertical of Adobe?

In APAC, the average spend in digital marketing is about 10 per cent whereas in the US today it’s 30 per cent. That is scope to grow and keeps people motivated. Some of the new startups or e-commerce sites spend a lot on it. Marketing has become the new finance. The CFO is happy because every dollar that is being spent is measurable in the ROI. Mobile penetration is more than a billion connections, internet users are increasing everyday. Today, the CFO prefers to spend that extra dollar on digital marketing for which he gets ROI. n -ankur.gaurav@exchange4media.com

39

INTERVIEW jnaneswar Sen

“Our existing consumers are happy and refer us to their friends and family” F

ollowing the launch of Amaze, the first diesel car by Honda last year, there has been high anticipation for the 4th Generation Honda City and the introduction of its diesel variant in the market. It was the diesel variant of Amaze that turned the fortunes for Honda despite the recession in the auto industry as it accounted for 55,000 of 79,000 cars that Honda sold between April and November last year.

With the launch of the 4th Generation City, Honda is eyeing a greater share in the midsize Sedan market. Jnaneswar Sen, Senior Vice President – Marketing & Sales, talks to Devansh Sharma about Honda’s performance in the year 2013 and their future plans. Some excerpts:

The launch of Amaze with a diesel variant has created a new playground for Honda. Earlier, we were not present in that segment. Partly, because of Amaze, our market share increased up to 66 percent. Amaze has been instrumental in increasing our sales.

What are your plans for 2014? Are you planning to increase the product portfolio of Honda cars in 2014?

We have launched two new models in India; Honda Mobilio and The All New 3rd Generation Honda Jazz at the Auto Expo 2014. Besides, we have also showcased a wide range of exhibits including

cutting edge technologies and products such as the NSX Concept, the Accord Hybrid 4th generation all-new City and the Amaze equipped with advanced iDTEC diesel engine.

What kept you waiting for so long before entering into the diesel car market in India?

What factors have contributed towards the growth of Honda despite the slump in the Indian automobile industry?

There are several factors responsible for this growth. First is the launch of new models and the much awaited 1.5 Liter i-DETC diesel engine with the launch of Honda Amaze. The second is excellent word of mouth publicity. The demand for Honda cars continues to be very strong.

Our existing consumers are very happy and they further refer us to their friends and family. It’s like snowballing the consumer-ship.

What role has Honda Amaze played in increasing Honda’s market share in its segment?

40

Pitch | February 2014

We wanted to set a new benchmark in this market. Honda did have a diesel engine before this but it was a heavy 2.2 Liter engine. We were developing a 1.5 Liter engine under the Green Earth Technology series.

Considering that other leading players like Volkswagen Vento, Skoda Rapid, Hyundai Verna and others, have been leading this category especially with the options of diesel variants, how do you plan to position the 4th generation City amid this clutter?

Honda City has always been an aspirational car for its audience. There has been very high anticipation amongst the Honda loyalists who have been eagerly waiting for the 4th

Pitch | February 2014

41

INTERVIEW aNIsHa MOTWaNI

Generation City and introduction of the Diesel variant. City is India’s most fuel efficient car across all segments. The petrol variant is already close to 50 percent market share. We are sure that the new City will further strengthen the bond with our consumers and we will lead this segment.

What will be the marketing strategy for Honda in 2014 and which media will you focus on?

Our focus will be on a 360 degree approach including electronic and digital media like we did for the 4th Generation City. We launched two television Commercials (TVC’s)- one before the launch and the other after the launch. The prelaunch campaign focused on the power and new features.

The post- launch TVC ‘A Greater Drive’, talks about the target consumer and the product. The story revolves around a golfer who inspires kids to study if they aspire to have a greater driving experience. The TVC projects the target user as a sophisticated, stylish achiever but most importantly a class apart from the others.

42

The demand for Honda cars continues to be very strong.

Our consumers are happy and further refer us to their friends and family. It’s like snowballing the consumer-ship On the digital front for City, a Twitter contest was organized highlighting its fuel efficiency. The webcast witnessed 1.21 lakh visitors and 3.24 lakh mobile hits.

For Honda Amaze we came up with a pre-launch build-up campaign that trended on Twitter. Digital promotions to the right target group generated 50,000 queries.

Consumer experience is the buzz word in the marketing industry. What initiatives have you taken towards enhancing the consumer experience?

Since we have recently unveiled the new 4th Generation City and the improved version of Honda Amaze

there is a lot of buzz in the showrooms.

And once this settles down we will come up with some experiential initiatives to get closer to our consumers.

Honda Amaze is doing really well and the new City has also received a warm response. How do you plan to meet the increasing demand?

We have started a third shift at the Greater Noida plant in November 2013, while earlier we were operating on two shifts. Our Rajasthan plant will be ready in this quarter. Both have the production capacity of 1.2 lakh units per annum.  -devansh.sharma@exchange4media.com

Pitch | February 2014

Volume XI | Issue

2 | Febr uary 2014

` 75

TERM

ISSUES

PRICE

WHAT YOU PAY

SAVING

One Year

12

Rs. 900

Rs. 675

Rs. 225 (25%)

Two Year

24

Rs. 1800

Rs. 1260

Rs. 540 (30%)

I will pay via:

Demand Draft

Cheque (At Par)

Mobile MARK

ETING

MARKETIN Trends andG ALERT: for mobile predictions it enters a marketing as new phase

Cash

My Personal Details: Name: ............................................................. Address:

Residence

Office: ...............................................

...................................................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................................................

City: ..............................................................................................................................................................................

PIN: ...................................................................... Phone (Residence): .....................................................................

Phone (Office): .................................................................. Email: ..............................................................................

Please draw Demand Draft (Payable in New Delhi) in favour of: Adsert Web Solutions Private Limited B-20, Sector-57, Noida - 201301 Ph: 0120 4007700

Terms & Conditions

Rates and offer are valid in India only. Please allow 3-4 weeks time for the delivery of magazine through courier / registered post. Indicate your name and address on the reverse side of the DD. Offer is for a limited period. Publisher will not be responsible for delays or non delivery of the magazine. For subscription related |queries please2014 contact: 0120-4007700 (Delhi); 022-26403303/3303/3309/3314/3316/3319 (Mumbai) or email: subscription@exchange4media.com 7 February 4 Pitch

COVER STORY

The success stories of brands will be incomplete without mobile as part of their strategy

By Rashi Bisaria

T

he figures are staggering and quite unexpected but India is expected to overtake the US as the second largest internet base in the world in 2014 according to a report released by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International. The report also says that internet access from mobile devices will see huge growth in the coming years. Add to this the fact that India is set to become the world’s second largest smartphone market in the world and we know where the country

44

Pitch | February 2014

is headed. Gartner sees India mobile users at 993 mn in 2014 and there are all kinds of numbers to suggest that mobile has become dominant in the country.

But this emergence of mobile is witness to several other emerging trends in the country. The definition and jurisdiction of marketing is undergoing a sea change as brands develop their strategies tailored to this device. However, it is not as simple as it may first appear.

Mobile has thrown open an avenue for advertising for brands. A study by Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) in partnership with exchange4media has predicted the mobile advertising market in India to touch Rs 430 crore in 2014, a huge momentum for brands to cash in on. Brands have begun to allocate a large chunk of their digital budgets to mobile. Samsung, a heavy spender on the mobile platform expects its ad spends for mobile to be 20 percent of their digital budget this year. HDFC Life, Kotak Securities and several FMCG brands like HUL are investing heavily in mobile. HUL’s brands like Wheel, Red Label, Pond’s, Lux, Close-Up, Rin, Lifebuoy, Lakme and Tresemme have already excelled in marketing through mobile. “Mobile penetration is highest as compared to any other medium. This is a great opportunity which we would like to leverage,” said the spokesperson of HUL, when approached for the story.

As Mobile becomes a preferred marketing platform for several brands, Google is serving as a facilitator. Google Mobile Ads help marketers reach audiences on-the-go. These ads appear on mobile devices in Google search results.

Winning new customers, earning con-

“The next 100 million Indians coming online will be primarily mobile based” Sandeep Menon Director, Marketing, Google India

UNDERSTANDING THE CONSUMER IS KEY

Increase my social standing:

61%

Be shareable with others

60%

Have something interesting o talk about

58%

Allow for creative expression

67%

Samsung, a heavy spender on the mobile platform expects its ad spends for mobile to be 20 per cent of their digital budget this year Pitch | February 2014

versions had never been easier. According to Sandeep Menon, Director, Marketing, Google India. “The next 100 million Indians coming online will be primarily mobile based. So mobile needs to be at the core of any marketing plan. Google has always adhered to the Mobile first philosophy.”

A study by Yahoo and Mindshare has offered key insights into smartphone device usage in India. The study highlights the potential of smart devices becoming the next mass media, along with the opportunity for brands to connect with consumers. The study attempts at understanding the Indian consumer better to unlock the potential of mobile

In India, the ideal mobile advertisement should be informative and increase the user’s social currency.

An Indian’s expectations from an ideal mobile advertisement

Source: Yahoo-Mindshare study

Be fun

58%

45

COVER STORY MOBILE MARKETING UNDERSTANDING THE CONSUMER IS KEY Over 80 percent of Indian smart phone users, intentionally click on a mobile advertisement, while 30 percent of them use devices to make pre-purchase decisions.

Smartphone users in India are avid consumers of News – the top content genre on both smart phones and tablets is news.

Smart devices satisfy the Entertainment obsession of the Indian mobile user, even beating Communication as the top daily activity for Indian smart phone and tablet users.

Infogathering /Reading comes in third.

Source: Yahoo-Mindshare study

see in the mobile ecosystem is location based advertising. Shubodip Pal, CMO, Micromax explains, ‘Mobile marketing can be really effective if the data available is properly utilised. For example, location based advertisements can work well with

advertising for brands. When brands start understanding the customer, their strategies would become more relevant and successful. Talking about the potential of mobile, David Jeffs, Head of Insights, India and South East Asia, Yahoo said, “Given the mobile growth in India, the potential for brands to engage with their audiences via smart devices is tremendous. To unlock this, marketers need to think beyond mobile as a reach extender. When we start to think of mobile as a platform and not a channel, we are one step closer to developing a truly integrated mobile device campaign.”

ONE KEY TREND One of the trends that marketers fore-

46

“When we start to think of mobile as a platform and not a channel, we are closer to developing a truly integrated mobile device campaign” David Jeffs Head of Insights, India and South East Asia, Yahoo

this medium. If you know the location of your consumers, you can create personalised schemes based on the person’s location and preferences. A lot of retailers and restaurants are using it in the west and reaping its benefits.” Coca Cola is another brand that is taking location based advertising seriously. Kim Siler, Coca Cola’s Head of mobile brand strategy and global interactive marketing said, “There’s going to be a lot of focus on location-based strategies this year. Finding the right balance of local insights, universal brand truths, consumer value (and customer value) is not going to be easy. But ultimately we believe that when coupled with location capabilities of the mobile device, networks and data become the ultimate way-finding tool for customers thirsty for an ice cold Coke. Add mobile payments and we can draw a bright red location thread from awareness building advertising to transactions.”

So on the one hand are marketers who are trying to maximise this momentum that this increased mobile usage has built, while on the other hand,

Pitch | February 2014

are mobile marketing solution providers that are making this revolution possible.

But there has been a slow evolution of solutions. Vinish Kathuria, COO of Digital Quotient explains, “ I can say, as a country, we are evolving. The lack of tangible data has been hurting growth.

Some of the data collection practices have not been in the best interest of this industry. As those practices are being changed and more emphasis on big data, analytics and personalisation is happening, we are gradually witnessing positive changes. FMCG, Retail, Entertainment, Financial Services, and Travel are some vertical already thriving by implementing this channel.”

“There is more emphasis on big data, analytics and personalisation on today’s date” Vinish Kathuria COO, Digital Quotient

THE USER EXPERIENCE IS CRITICAL Another important factor that can lead to the success of a mobile marketing strategy is the quality of user experience offered. The experience needs to be seamless and smooth and the ads should not become disturbing to the user. This is where native advertising comes in to play. Native Ad platforms allow App developers and mobile publishers to deliver an engaging, in-context, native ad experience to their end users. Mobile advertisers can now present their brands to users in a new, nondisruptive manner that is much more effective than traditional ad formats.

Banner ads are reaching the end of their shelf life and advertisers need to appeal

Some mobile marketing trends that Digital Quotient predicts for the future

Fundamentals of marketing remain the same for mobile marketing as well. It’s all about getting your message out to the customer in the right manner at the right time.

The huge number in mobile usage coupled with the very personal aspect of the medium makes it an exciting yet challenging opportunity

Consumer trends - youth and women are more perceptive to mobile marketing, if done right. This is creating huge opportunity for FMCG and lifestyle brands to leverage this medium

Pitch | February 2014

Smartphone and tablets usage in India is growing significantly, lot at expense of feature phones.

Brands are now more inclined towards Smartphone-centric marketing than before such as creation of applications, etc.

Social media & videos consumption on mobile is dominating. Hence, marketing on these consumption patterns on a mobile device is the area for additional growth

47

other media such as Domino’s Pizza, major retail brands and FMCG brands.”

India is moving into a mature phase of mobile marketing and Jay Altschuler, Director, Global Media Innovation, Unilever sums up the future of mobile, “I expect this to be the year brands consistently use mobile as the connective tissue that holds communication plans together; World class storytelling now

to an increasingly mature mobile user base. Independent Ad networks like InMobi continuously come up with innovations with native ad platforms to spur engagement on a massive scale, driving ROI for brands, agencies and publishers.

“Our mission is to consistently innovate and deliver engaging and nonintrusive ads to end users that do not compromise the app’s user experience,” said Pankaj Bengani, Vice President Global Strategic Partnerships, InMobi.

“There’s going to be a lot of focus on location-based strategies this year” Kim Siler Coca Cola’s Head-Mobile brand strategy and global interactive marketing

“New platforms, helps us deliver unparalleled value to app publishers through our relationships with top brands. Additionally, with over 700 million monthly active users on our network and our big data technology capabilities, we can deliver rich native-user experiences that drive greater engagement and revenues for our partners.”

Native advertising is surely going to be useful for both brands and publishers but some things need to be taken care of. Manish Godha. Founder and CEO, Advaiya, a technology solutions provider, warns, “With rapidly evolving channels every day, you need to set up the right platform and have the right skills for enabling cross-channel native advertising.”

But with the focus being so much on mobile, its important to remember that no strategy can excel in isolation and has to be integrated with other media. Vinish Kathuria of Digital Quotient says, “I believe it works best when integrated with other mediums to utilize its complete power. Because integration allows resonance of the brand in the mind of the consumers, as it is the same consumer that the brand is targeting through various media. Most effective campaigns in India so far have been where mobile has been the central point of execution strategy, complemented by

Source: Ministry of heavy industries & public enterprises

48

“I expect this to be the year brands consistently use mobile as the connective tissue that holds communication plans together” Jay Altschuler Director, Global Media Innovation, Unilever

means capitalizing on dual screen viewing; Beacons will transform the out of home experience; location targeting will be built into every smart media strategy; and On pack will be the most powerful Owned media channel pushing valuable information to people’s mobile device at the moment of truth. Moving forward, the most powerful, lasting and significant brands in the world will be crafted through a mobile first approach.”

The future looks promising if only marketers can live up to the promise and maintain the momentum.  rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com -With inputs from Ankur Gaurav and Devansh Sharma

Pitch | February 2014

CALENDAR 2013 - 2014

April 2013

October 2013

→ Release of samachar4media ‘MEDIA MAHARATHI’Ranking of India’s Top 50 Hindi Journalists → Goafest 2013 Specials → Festival of Media Global 2013 Specials

→ Youth Marketing Summit & Awards 2013 → MQ – What’s Your Media Quotient? – Quiz Contest

May 2013 → → → →

BRANDS 50 – Pitch Awards for Excellence in Marketing e4m India PR & Corporate Communications Summit & Awards North East Media Summit Realty Plus Conclave & Excellence Awards

June 2013 → Conference on the Future of Talent in Advertising, Media & Entertainment Industry and Release of IMPACT M School Rankings → IDMA 2013 – Indian Digital Media Awards → Pitch CMO Summit (South) → IAA Marketing Summit on Global Next Practices Powered by exchange4media → Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity Specials

July 2013 → INK 2013 – Indian Newspaper Kongress & Newspaper Advertising Awards → Pitch Conference on Analytics for Marketing

August 2013 → exchange4media Conclave 2013 → eNBA – e4m News Broadcasting Awards & NewsNext – Conference → Ninth IMPACT Anniversary Issue

November 2013 → APPLAUSE – Experiential Marketing Awards and Conference → GOLDEN MIKES2013 – Awards for Excellence in Radio Advertising

December 2013 → → → → →

IMPACT Person of the Year 2013 IMPACT Digital Power 100 PITCH Anniversary Issue e4m Rewind 2013 EFFIES 2013 Specials

January 2014 → IMPACT Trends Report 2014

February 2014 → Pitch Madison Media Advertising Outlook 2014 → IMPACT Top 30 Under 30

March 2014 → IMPACT 50 Most Influential Women → Pitch CMO Summit → OOH Conference & Awards 2014

September 2013 → → → →

Indian Marketing Awards 2013 MMA Mobile Marketing Forum & The Smarties Awards Show IMPACT Television Advertising Awards EMVIES 2013 Specials

&

DELHI | MUMBAI

OOH Conference & Awards

3RD EDITION OF THE OOH ADVERTISING AWARDS

SUMMIT

For Sponsorship opportunities, please contact: Rajat Thareja (Delhi) +91 9810134435 Abdulla M. Mazumder (Delhi) +91 98716 09348 Pitch||February February2014 2014 Pitch VarnikaaJain (Mumbai) +91 97691 53087 Sneha Walke (Bangalore) +91 98455 41143

55

50

Pitch | February 2014

INTERVIEW NILADRI MAZUMDER

T

he global watch brand Seiko announced its partnership with world famous Tennis player Novak Djokovic recently. Known for perfection in watchmaking, this was a move by the brand to reiterate its desire to be the best. Rashi Bisaria of Pitch caught up with Niladri Mazumder, Senior Vice President, Seiko Watch India Pvt Ltd, to understand the brand’s philosophy and its strategy for the coming year.

What are the brand attributes that are common to Seiko and Novak which led to this partnership?

We choose to believe that Seiko is, today, a real leader in watchmaking. We invented the quartz watch in 1969, we invented the Kinetic watch in 1988 and just two years ago we invented Astron GPS Solar-The only watch in the world that identifies all 39 time zones using the GPS technology.

In summary, we strive for perfection in

a mercury free battery that Seiko makes itself and the Divers and Premier watches are powered by Seiko’s unique ‘no battery change’ technology.

Thanks to SEIKO’s leadership in green watch making, Novak’s love of and respect for, the natural world is reflected in his watch collection.

Which global market is Seiko as a brand most popular in and why?

SEIKO is a truly global brand and we are not reliant on any one market for success.

In Japan SEIKO is the most popular brand after USA, Europe, India and South East Asia to name a few countries.

How is Seiko doing in India considering that it is available on e-commerce sites also? Do you think there is a market for such brands in India?

Seiko has come a very long way since we launched the brand in India in 2007.

“The Seiko Brand will continue to position itself in India as a technology leader” What kind of marketing mix is Seiko planning over the next 3 years of this partnership?

Over the last 2 years, our Investment in India on the Marketing and other fronts has grown very significantly. We feel our association with India’s most popular sport and most watched tournament, through our partnership with the very popular Kolkata Knight Riders Team has helped raise our brand awareness significantly.

We shall be continuing with this during 2014 as well. On the other hand, innovative media initiatives and effective below the line activities and trade schemes have also helped the growth story to a great In the last 3 years, our CAGR as a Company has been over 50 % extent.

We are perhaps the only serious Interwhich is an enviable achievement and India is one of the top 4 national Watch Brand that has created an entire collection specifically for the Indian priority markets for Seiko Watch Corporation, worldwide

watchmaking. ‘We always have and we always will’.

In Novak, we see someone who shares our desire to be the best and who is determined to maintain his status as a leader.

Like Seiko, Novak is dedicated to perfection. And like Novak, Seiko is determined to be ‘one step ahead of the rest’.

Novak’s 2014 watch collection (yet to be released) highlights another aspect of the partnership that is important for both Novak and Seiko. We both share a passion for the preservation of our environment. Astron uses just the power of light, the Sportura chronograph is powered by

Pitch | February 2014

We are currently one of the top 3 Brands in the Premium segment of the Indian Watch Market. We retail Seiko from more than 350+ of the best stores in the country. In the last 3 years, our CAGR as a Company has been over 50 per cent, which is an enviable achievement. India is one of the top 4 priority markets for Seiko Watch Corporation, worldwide.

Currently SEIKO does not officially retail on the e-commerce sites, but yes there is a huge potential we see in the next few years on the internet business. We are working on a strategy and plan to be present in this segment as well, in the next couple of years.

51

India is a perfect example of ‘Think Global and act Local’ and that is the strategy we shall follow in India market i.e. Lord collection. The designing of this very successful collection over the last few years have been based on inputs solely from the Indian market and keeping in mind the specific needs of the Indian consumer. We are also looking at a Ladies collection in the near future which will be India-inspired.

What kind of benefits does a brand expect from a high profile partnership such as this?

A brand ambassador is someone who represents a brand and is the face of the company and its products; it embodies the company’s image in every way. Such associations largely help create perceptions and image of the Brand in the consumers mind.

We cannot help Novak win tennis matches, but we can help him manage time in every other aspect of his life.

What has been the positioning of the brand till date and is it looking to change this brand positioning or per-

sonality now?

India is already one of the key markets worldwide for any serious International watch brand. This is only going to get stronger as time goes by and the Indian economy continues to fulfill its potential.

However, in India you cannot ‘cut paste’ the same strategies you follow in other countries. Any Brand which does that, I feel is heading for failure. India is a perfect example of ‘Think Global and act Local’ and that is the strategy we shall follow in India.

The Seiko Brand will continue its positioning in India as a technology leader that delivers a Brand of substance to the end consumer. We are currently active in the Premium / Affordable Luxury category of the Indian market and we shall continue to do so. However, Grand Seiko and Astron shall make a play, as it does world-wide, in the Luxury category of the Indian watch pyramid Does Seiko retain its heritage in its products?

We have many worlds firsts in Watch making innovations to our credit which sets us apart within the industry.

Seiko is determined to be ‘one step ahead of the rest’ 52

One Such example of Heritage in our Products is on the occasion of 100 years of watch making at Seiko last year. To mark this fantastic milestone, we introduced “The Kintaro Hattori Special Limited Edition Watch – Worlds First GPS Watch SEIKO Astron”. On the case back, we have inscribed our founders Motto “One Step ahead of the Rest” along with the original SEIKOSHA logo that was registered by Kintaro Hattori in 1900.

What sets this brand apart from other luxury watch brands?

We strongly focus on technology when compared to other watch brands. We have many worlds firsts in Watch making innovations to our credit which sets us apart within the industry. Seiko is determined to be ‘one step ahead of the rest’.

How big is Seiko’s presence in India?

What is the distribution network like here?

We today have a very strong and a robust distribution network of 350+ Multibrand Premium Watch stores in the country. We also have 5 stand-alone Seiko Boutique stores in Bangalore, Chennai, Cochin and Kolkata and we plan to add another (5 Boutique) stores in the year 2014. -rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com

Pitch February 2014 2014 Pitch || February

Mobile maturity to drive native mobile advertising campaigns Anubhav Sharma

Head of Ad Sales and Monetisation, Nimbuzz

W

hen was the last time you checked your phone vis-à-vis your laptop? Our bet is, you did it 10 times more than you looked at your laptop or tablet or any other screen! And that is true in India, as much as it is, in any other country.

Attaining mobile maturity Mobility devices have permeated into our lives in a manner that we’re constantly staring at them - be it for information, entertainment or transactions. They’re at our side whether we’re sleeping, working or playing golf. These devices are being used by schools for education purposes. The entire pitch for promoting the Akash tablet had this written all over it. At the workplace, banks use it to secure information of prospective and existing customers’ while on-the-go. Research agencies use it as preferred onsite content aggregators. And even grandparents use it to stay in touch with their families.

These are some reasons why India is touted to be the second largest smartphone market by 2014.

Mobile web has most definitely been the platform for all these possibilities to emerge. As per IAMAI, in June 2013 there were 91 Million users accessing the Internet on mobile devices, with 70.2 million users in urban India. Rural

Life OK provided the Nimbuzz Chat Buddy for The Bachelorette, a dating reality show starring Bollywood starlet Mallika Sherawat Pitch | February 2014

India is not that far behind in this regard with a base of 21 Million Mobile Internet Users in June 2013. It reached 25 Million in October 2013. Mobile usage and hence, mobile internet usage has seen huge jump from the 2012 penetration levels.

From the stage of experimentation to the stage of consolidation As a consequence of this content consumption via mobile, marketers need to lay special emphasis on mobile

53

advertising. This has begun for sure with marketing having mobile friendly versions of campaigns that maybe planning across TV, print, radio and radio advertising. But currently most campaigns run on mobile are web version campaigns run on mobile, as brands were in a state of experimentation. They wanted to understand the benefits of going mobile and it’s also

a nature adoption curve they’re on.

The future though will see more native mobile advertising.

Engagement is the key The biggest opportunity with mobile is utilizing its full potential technologywise. Brands can actually leverage each one of those functions, to create engaging campaigns. For example, Life OK!, a Hindi entertainment channel, provided the Nimbuzz Chat Buddy for The Bachelorette, a dating reality show starring

54

Campaigns that worked through last year were those that used the mobile ability map and engaged with the customer Bollywood starlet Mallika Sherawat. This was the first time that a reality show of such scale recognized the engagement value that Chat Buddies bring to the entertainment industry. The Buddy created one-to-one engagement through questions around Mallika’s eventful Bollywood career and her exciting personal life. As a result, the Bachelorette Buddy reached out to over 25 million Nimbuzz users in India on their mobile phones giving Life Ok an opportunity to initiate a dialogue with the masses through a format native to the Nimbuzz platform.

20% of the top apps available across app stores. Add that to the lack of search as a preferred mode for content discovery and we could well witness a shortage of display inventory on mobile. This would essentially be because a lot of apps wouldn’t really take banner advertising but would push for their own native formats.

These evolved trends would continue to push advertisers to have more focused approach towards mobile marketing and think beyond standard display ad units.

A careful look at campaigns that worked through the last year showed

Other trends shaping the mobile advertising landscape There are other trends that will shape the mobile advertising landscape too, such as the proliferation of apps. With apps becoming preferred service delivery models, the number of apps that were made and listed in the respective apps stores increased. This will continue to happen through 2014 too.

That said, 80% of content generated or consumed, is on approximately

that those that used the mobile ability map and engagedwith the customer worked better; whether it was those that crowdsourced ideas or problems, or those that saw a continuous conversation with consumers.

It is this mobile maturity and gradual traction that are going to drive more investments in native mobile advertising campaigns in 2014.  The views expressed here are of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Pitch

Pitch | February 2014

MARCH

2014

MUMBAI

POWERED BY

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

HEMANT BAKSHI

Executive Director, Home & Personal Care at Hindustan Unilever

FOR SPONSORSHIP PLEASE CONTACT: DELHI : RAJAT THAREJA | +91 98101 34435 rajat.thareja@exchange4media.com | ABDULLA M. MAZUMDER | +91 98716 09348 abdulla@exchange4media.com SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES CONTACT MUMBAI : SOHINI GHOSH | +91 9930811744FOR sohini.ghosh@exchange4media.com SIDDARTH PADMANABHAN | +91 9920713935 siddarth.p@exchange4media.com Pitch | February 2014 KANGKAN JYOTI SARMA | +91 9967356650 kangkan@exchange4media.com BANGALORE : SNEHA WALKE | +91 98455 4114 sneha@exchange4media.com

5

INTERVIEW Alok Bharadwaj

“Ground-level engagement with consumers is important�

F

ollowing the decline in the market of compact digital cameras last year, Canon, a leader in the fields of professional and consumer imaging equipment and information systems, announced its focus on B2B services. Dr. Alok Bharadwaj, Executive Vice President, Canon spoke to Devansh Sharma about the challenges of marketing in the B2B space, about entering new domains like document management and the importance of customer experience.

What has been the impact of the growing popularity of smart-phones and tablets on the compact digital camera market of Canon?

The smart phone popularity has caused a decline in the compact camera industry as a whole. The impact is both negative and positive. The negative impact is that the demand for compact digital cameras declined and the positive impact is that it has increased the demand for Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras. Canon has recorded a growth of 20 per cent in

We are now looking forward to expand by entering into new domains like document management and print room services 56

Pitch | February 2014

the DSLR category and a decline of 35 per cent in the compact digital camera market. So the overall impact is neutralized.

How difficult or easy is it to market in the B2B space?

B2b space essentially targets large enterprises and offers various opportunities.

The challenge is to help organizations to save without compromising on the efficiency, help them with various programmes in document management area.

What strategies have worked till now for Canon and what will the marketing be like in 2014?

The first is offering of outsource services. We are now looking forward to expand by entering into new domains like document management and print room services.

Buying documents, making manuals, offset printing are a few domains we are looking at. We are looking to provide all kinds of printing and document management services.

From that angle, we can develop an organized segment from an unorganized segment. Through our entry in this area, we are hopeful of creating an organization in the business process outsourcing industry. There are a large number of opportunities in large enterprises where document management can be modernized and that is the future requirement which people are not aware of. Our marketing challenge is to be able to sensitize our customers and make them aware of futuristic trends and to help them prepare for that scenario with complete immunity to future technology innovation.

Our marketing challenge is to be able to sensitize our customers and make them aware of futuristic trends Besides, in the near future we will also be providing record management services. Security is one of the challenges these days and organizations are on the lookout for enterprises which are reliable and can provide a secure environment.

The third big area is the area of optimization or cost saving.

When you go to small agencies or fragmented agencies you don’t know whether you can save costs holistically in the current transaction, or not. Our offers are such that provide holistic cost savings to the company.

Pitch | February 2014

How important is customer experience for B2b companies. And what technologies and marketing campaigns do you see enabling better customer experience?

One of the most important experiences in B2B areas is the experience of trust. When you are dealing in outsourcing of services there has to be a reasonable amount of trust we have about the experience we offer. We are the domain experts and are not doing experimentation with the client.

We are gaining expertise in various verticals essentially in the area of insurance and banking, pharmacy, and real estate.

These are very document centric companies. So, this is one of the most important

parts when it comes to experience.

The second important experience in B2B area is to provide simple solutions instead of a complicated solution to the consumer. We do not want our consumers to invest heavily in a complex manner. We offer them modular architecture cost of our outsource services so that they have choices.

There is a very clear, visible cost saving that we are able to produce besides the optimized process, excess of information retrieval and archival facilities.

How does digital marketing fit into the B2B marketing plans of Canon?

Our offering is a technology offering and our target audience is also technology driven. When it comes to the digital medium, it comes as an important part of our communication strategy. But in order to create conviction or give compelling reasons to our customers to respond, we have to resort to ground level engagement with the consumers.

What is the role of content marketing in the B2B space?

In the B2B space, content can be used to create awareness among people and create endorsement of our offerings. We use various websites to create content on endorsements. So the role of content in the digital medium for B2B is to create credibility, trust and awareness.  -devansh.sharma@exchange4media.com

57

FEATURE : SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

Innovation helps two brands survive the auto industry slump Innovation becomes the game changer for Honda and Ford as the auto industry grapples with the slowdown

By Devansh Sharma

O

wing to reasons like the economic slowdown, inflation, and a rise in fuel prices the year 2013 remained sluggish for the automobile industry. It was only the fittest that survived the slump and Honda was one of them. Honda Cars India Limited (HCIL) sales increased three fold in comparison to last year. HCIL recorded highest number of sales in January 2014 and sold 15,714 units as compared to 5,451 units in January 2013.

Innovation in technology 2013 witnessed the decade’s worst slump in the auto industry Honda

could sail through the worst year with ease and the credit of its success goes to Amaze, which was launched in April of 2013. The Amaze, fitted with Honda’s first 1.5 Liter i-DTEC diesel engine, accounted for 55,000 of the 79,000 cars the company sold in India between April and November, pushing its total sales up by more than 65 per cent in comparison to last year.

Auto expert Murad Ali Baig believes that the onus of Honda’s success rests on innovation. “Honda delivered a good performance because they were able to introduce the diesel engine to some of their popular models and in-

According to SIAM report, the sale of passenger vehicles declined by 5.15 per cent during AprilSeptember 2013 over the same period last year

58

troduce smaller models. Undoubtedly Amaze turned the fortunes for Honda, being Honda’s first diesel engine car.

The same engine is now being used for Honda City. Honda’s large hatchback Jazz was not very successful because it was placed in the price category of Honda City and was more expensive than anticipated. So when Amaze was launched, it hit the right spot and the results are outstanding.” Baig said.

According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the sale of passenger vehicles declined by 5.15 per cent during April-September 2013. The worst affected was Tata motors as their sales went down by around 41 per cent from 11,257 units to 6,537 units in December.

“There is too much pressure to get ahead, therefore new products, new

Pitch | February 2014

engines, and new technologies are becoming very important for survival. You have to innovate to prosper. Innovation is imperative and companies like Fiat and Tata Motors that have not been able to innovate much, have suffered” Baig added.

Tata motors reported a decline of around 40 per cent in passenger vehicle sales, and the numbers dropped to 10,974 units in January, down from 15,209 units a year earlier.

Innovation in Pricing Quoting the example of Ford EcoSport Baig said “the outstanding Ford EcoSport engine has certainly made it a very successful car. Its 1000 cc engine gives power of 1800 cc engine with higher fuel efficiency. EcoSport has followed the Duster in also being able to consolidate a lower cost SUV. Earlier SUVs were costing more than 15 or 20 lakh rupees but now you are getting them in the 10 lakh range and it has suddenly opened a new market”.

“Modern cars are very reliable but people buy one with significant features. For instance, why would I buy a hatchback if in the same budget I can get a SUV” Baig added.

Ford India’s profits went up by 10.6

Pitch | February 2014

“There is too much pressure to get ahead. New products, new engines, and new technologies are becoming important for survival” Murad Ali Baig Auto expert per cent to 6,706 units from 6,062 last year. Launched back in June 2013, Ford EcoSport has been one of the top selling compact Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV).

The compact SUV received a warm response in the market and its popularity can be judged by the bookings of EcoSport which crossed the 30,000 mark in just 17 days of its launch.

Vinay Piparsania, executive director, Marketing, Sales and Service, Ford India said “We launched the all-new Ford EcoSport, fulfilling the company’s promise to bring more global vehicles

to consumers in India. The response for the Ford EcoSport, especially in such challenging conditions, has been phenomenal and it is extremely gratifying to see consumers appreciate the great value-for-money proposition that we are offering in the EcoSport’s compelling smart package” “The automobile industry has been facing challenging times which is a result of several factors including the depreciating rupee, high interest rates and an overall slowdown in the economy. Ford in India has been focusing on bringing products and services that make value sense and take a quantum leap towards reducing cost of ownership. Our One Ford plan is already succeeding and increasing the pace of product introductions. The company is on track to deliver on its committed investment of US$ 2 billion towards its expansion plans to elevate India as the center of excellence for small cars and low displacement engines, both for domestic and export markets.” Vinay added.

Innovation is the key to survival. Auto companies will have to innovate at all levels continuously to survive the unstable economic conditions.  -devansh.sharma@exchange4media.com

59

INTERVIEW JAIMIT DOSHI

“Growth of the digital medium is like a perfect storm brewing in our backyard�

A

fter the 2008 financial crisis that had affected the world drastically, most investors lost confidence to invest in the stock market. One of the biggest challenges marketers have faced since then has been to attract customers back. Kotak Securities has been actively using the digital medium to attract investors. But while social media engagement can be useful, it can also lead to problems if the conversations are not managed with care.

Kanika Mehrotra from Pitch spoke to Jaimit Doshi, Head Marketing and Product, Kotak Securities about the importance of digital marketing in the BFSI sector.

What have been Kotak Securities’ latest engagements for marketing?

Kotak Securities is focused on maximizing the use and reach of digital media to further its business and brand goals.

These are in the realm of acquisition, engagement as well as deepening of the relationship with the consumer. Digital in many ways is enabling the practice of evidence based marketing within the firm.

Will it be correct to say that the digital medium has become the most powerful medium for the financial sector?

60

Pitch | February 2014

Digital should be the preferred hunting ground for the financial sector. With its reliance on numbers and precise targeting tools, there is a natural fit between the two. With broking in particular, the growth of the digital medium is like a perfect storm brewing in our backyard.

In the past, the factors that marketers would lament on are the very same ones that are now driving the perfect storm.

On one hand while KYC (Know Your Customer) norms would hinder acquisition, on the other hand they have made it possible for the industry to accurately profile the customer towards targeting and thus servicing him better.

Information from around the sphere influences the customer, giving the firm an excuse for not being able to influence the client. Today the same information can be sent with a high degree of relevance to the client, putting the firm back in the saddle.

Investments are not expenses with a natural cap. How many toothpastes or shoes can one buy? Relevant profiling, targeting and customization coupled with a bouquet of options to reach the customer, have provided an almost infi-

Conversations between people may be in the open but they may be private in nature. Companies must exercise control while intervening the exchange to target better is a science that is used to further the brand’s social goals.

Consumers are now able to talk freely and voice their delight and displeasure.

This is a great thing. It puts the right kind of pressure on a firm. Firms have always been trying their best to hear the voice of the consumer through research. Now this listening has become a, constant, continuous process; Now there is also the additional responsibility for the firm to participate in it. With power comes responsibility. We must tread carefully.

Conversations between people may be in the open but they may be private in nature. Companies must exercise control while intervening. So while responding to a complaint is great, eavesdropping and uninvited butting in is taboo.

With broking in particular, the growth of the digital medium is like a perfect storm brewing in our backyard nite range of opportunities to the marketer for deepening engagement with the customer.

Hence it is not surprising that digital consumes the maximum mind space of the marketer, especially within the financial services such as ours.

Some companies have also resorted to ‘paid likes’ on a particular campaign or company’s page on a social media site.

What do you have to say about such practices and do such practices help in the marketing of a brand?

Use of the digital medium is growing, but has it also led to some problem as a lot of conversation takes place on these sites. How do you tap this conversational data and how should the companies be taking care of this conversational data?

I haven’t really understood the value of irrelevant paid likes. The holy grail of social is engagement and irrelevant likes only reduce the quality of engagement.

But at the same time targeting customers of yours and encouraging them to be fans, helps in engaging with them. Using

Pitch | February 2014

After the 2009 financial crisis, how difficult has it been to attract people to invest,?

We haven’t seen a massive ground swell rivaling the scale of 2008 yet. But the penetration for broking as a category is as low as around 2 per cent. The bigger challenge is to expand the pie and attract customers who are new to the category.

I suspect that the number of people fearing a loss is greater than the actual number of people who suffered a loss. Hence the communication is targeted towards demystifying the market and educating the customer towards adopting the correct styles of investing. Nobody can guarantee profits but the aim is to use setbacks as stepping stones to a longer investment journey As the share market is affected by external factors very frequently, how difficult does it become for marketers to reach the customer, explain the reason for the downfall of the market and then attract them back on a frequent basis?

It’s not difficult to reach these customers.

Whenever there is a loss customers look to learn from the experience and look for a way forward. We ensure that we talk regularly to them, demystifying jargon and making sense of the macroeconomic environment. These are addressed through private and public means of communication such as email updates, conference calls or media communication. Having a range of experts advising the client on fundamental, technical, currency or derivatives helps in addressing the queries of the customers.n -kanika.mehrotra@exchange4media.com

61 61

Earlier, we were predominantly a sports brand, sporting a fun with fitness attitude.

Now, we have sharpened our positioning and moved into the fitness zone

C

oca-Cola began the festivities for 2014 with the ‘Reasons to Believe’ campaign that received good response from the consumers .Coke also plans to ‘De-seasonalize the Coke’, a campaign to change the general notion that soft drinks are to be enjoyed only in the summer season. In a candid interview Debabrata Mukherjee, VP-Marketing & Commercial, Coca-Cola India, spoke to Kanika Mehrotra about the success of the ‘Reasons to Believe’ campaign and the way Coke plans to execute its ‘ De-seasonalize campaign’.

62

Coke’s latest campaign is ‘Reasons to Believe’. How do you see the response to it in India? How successful has it been?

The Coca-Cola campaign ‘Reasons to believe’ ushered in the new year with optimism and happiness. It created a world of hope with reasons to believe in a brighter and happier tomorrow. For the past three years, we have started every New Year with our message of optimism, positivity and happiness. These are the values that Coca-Cola stands for.

Pitch | February 2014

INTERVIEW DEBABRATA MUKHERJEE In the beginning of 2012, we had the ‘Reasons to believe’ campaign, followed by ‘Crazy for Happiness’ in 2013.

This year we have followed the same pattern by bringing back the first campaign-‘Reasons to Believe’. 2013 has been a tough year for most and hence we wanted to reinforce the message of positivity.

This clearly is a testament to the popularity of this campaign. It also had a very strong mobile link where the ever so popular jingle could be downloaded for free. Additionally, there was a strong TV and radio leg to it. The response to the song download has been phenomenal and we registered a 100,000 downloads on the first day of the campaign going on air.

Another target of Coca-Cola India for 2014 is to ‘De-seasonalise the soft drink’. How do you plan to do that? Which mediums will you use to market this idea?

We are working on a strategy to generate sales of our soft drinks across all seasons rather than just the summer. We endeavor to de-seasonalize the business and make it a 12-month business.

That means, not just year-round marketing but efficient distribution systems reaching remote untapped markets, affordable pricing, innovative cooling solutions and trade activation. Our expenditure will be At Coca Cola all in keeping with our the products and brand plans and our communication stratprices are in sync egy will also be aligned with our OBPPC to this business reality.

(Occasion, Brand, Price, Pack, and Channel) architecture Pitch | February 2014

Coke is soon coming out with smaller bottles. How do you plan

to launch those and what is your tar- broke our Thums-Up campaign leveraging Salman Khan’s digital assets (Face get audience?

Coca-Cola is already available in a book and twitter) before putting it on 200ml packaging, the returnable glass mass media. We ran a very successful bottle, across many markets. There is social media campaign for ‘Coke Studio a high demand for this size especially Season 3’ and also the Sprite ‘Teen Till I from people who want to enjoy the re- Die’ initiative. freshing taste of Coca-Cola while they Google’s Pakistan-India union are on the move. From a conadvertisement has gained sumer’s standpoint, our praise from the adverstrategy comprises oftising industry as well fering a range of Our as the consumers. products in different communication Coke had come up packs at different plan has four with a campaign prices which is in ‘small world makeeping with our parts: paid, chine’ on similar OBPPC (occaowned, earned lines. Please comsion, brand, price, ment. pack, and chanand shared We have received nel) architecture. media only positive responses Providing consumers from everyone who has inwith choice and value teracted with the Small World continues to be the cornerMachines. The experience evoked many stone of our business strategy. heartwarming and emotional reactions.

What role does social media play for One of the many people from Pakistan realizing the trend among the target who took part in the initiative said “It’s audience and how does it help the great to connect with an average Indian company to plan its marketing strat- who is in most ways similar to an average Pakistani.” Another said “It’s someegy?

The Coca-Cola Company has been dy- thing to really bring the countries tonamic in its approach over the years. It gether,” and also “It’s fantastic that you’re has created a two-way dialogue by be- allowing people to see the other side as ing sensitive to the current requirement well, to not let it be a mystery anymore.”

The very fact that people took note of its consumers and always delivered a variety of products accordingly as and of this video was very encouraging in when the need arose. This landscape is itself, considering that it was only rethe ‘liquid and linked.’ This simply means leased on the digital platform, unlike that we need to develop compelling and other ads/ videos. That really mattered uncontrollable ideas. These concepts to us and kept us going. In the social and ideas will then acquire a life of their media space, the video has been widely own when consumers after identifying appreciated not just by consumers but also the media community. It has garwith them, share and re-interpret them.

As far as leveraging assets and plat- nered around 2.3 million views and is forms is concerned, our communication still being viewed and shared the world plan has four parts: paid, owned, earned over. We did not issue any formal comand shared media. Anyone of these can- munication to announce the campaign not take the brand very far. One cannot and yet the initiative was so powerful in pay one’s way to greatness anymore. uniting the hearts of the people across In our kind of model one avenue is not the two countries that reflected in the evaluated in competition with another. speed with which the video went viral, For us, all kinds of media have their bit not just in India and Pakistan but all over to contribute. For example, last year we the world.

63

platform has created an opportunity for the immensely talented as well as the unknown musical talent of India to come to the fore and mesmerize music lovers with the powerful magic of Coke Studio’s Signature Fusion music.

We have received a very positive and encouraging response to Season 3 and are finalizing plans for 2014. It will be a little too early to share anything right now since the plans are still pre-mature. We will keep you posted once they firm up.

We were very excited by the fact that this video sparked several conversations. We consider this as our success. Notably, this work has won several awards at Cannes last year.

Coke is already very popular among the youth. Is it planning any special campaigns to target the older generations also?

Coca-Cola stands for Happiness and Optimism. It has been able to spread innumerable, magical and memorable moments of happiness to people across 207 countries over the past 128 years only because happiness transcends across age, geography, caste and similar other factors. Happiness has indeed been Coca-Cola’s secret formula.

With people in India becoming very conscious about calories, how do you plan to market the Diet Coke? Is there any special digital campaign planned for it?

Offering low and no-calorie beverages is a part of our strategy to offer consumer a choice. We strongly believe that all of our products can be part of an active, healthy

64

Coca-Cola has also associated itself with social causes. Is there any specific social issue /project for which Coke is going to tie-up with the concerned authority?

Are there any digital social camCoke paigns also lined up? focuses on Over the last 20 years, the Cocainitiatives that Cola India system has partnered reduce our with government bodies, civil societies and business organienvironmental zations to play a positive role in footprint, support the growth and development of active and communities. With an enduring healthy living commitment to building sustainlifestyle that able communities, our Company includes a senis focused on initiatives that reduce our sible, balanced diet environmental footprint, support active and regular physical activity. Consumers, who want to reduce the and healthy living, create a safe and inclucalories that they consume from bever- sive work environment for our associates ages, can choose from our portfolio of low and contribute to the development of the and no-calorie beverages, as well as our communities where we operate. Some of regular beverages in smaller sizes. As a part the company’s flagship community develof this effort, we will also continue to pro- opment programs include the ‘Support My mote healthy, active, live programs across School’ program, the ‘Parivartan’ retailer the country like our U-16 football and training program, ‘Women Empowerment’ cricket initiatives, offer low or no-calorie program as a part of the global 5BY20 cambeverage options in every market, provide paign and the recently launched ‘Thums transparent nutrition information, featuring Up being Human Veer’ campaign for the calories on the front of all of our packages physically disabled.

We also ran a successful digital campaign and market them responsibly, including no advertising for children under 12 anywhere for initiatives like the ‘Support My School’ program. However, we re-evaluate the in the world. need to have a digital leg to a campaign/ COKE STUDIO@MTV has become a syno- initiative depending on the overall comnym for great music. Is there any other munication message, the objective of the initiative as well the target audience. Digital tie-up of this kind planned for 2014?

Over the last three years, Coke Studio@ necessarily needn’t be a part of every iniMTV has become synonymous with in- tiative we undertake, be it sustainability or dependent fusion music reflecting Coca- marketing. Cola’s unique viewpoint on music. The -kanika.mehrotra@exchange4media.com

Pitch | February 2014

COLUMN

Increasing ROI from Facebook ad spends Sachin Rao

Head of Small Business, Facebook India

T

he myths of youth marketing. The question had me stumped. Being not too old in this marketing game I turned to the wise old man of twitter Mahesh Murthy and promptly came the reply: There is no youth marketing – there is only marketing. And I was back at the starting point. Since I couldn’t submit a haiku as an article I decided to take my chances.

A lot of small businesses have a customer database. Often it’s a list of email addresses or phone numbers of customers who have bought something from

their business before, downloaded their e-book or signed up to their newsletter.

These customers recognize the brand and have demonstrated some positive intent towards it. Imagine if such a brand could show advertising content targeted to these customers. The cost of their advertising would reduce, the engagement with advertising would increase and their business would see a greater return on investment!

Now businesses can achieve this on Facebook Facebook’s Custom Audiences tool does exactly that. It lets businesses upload a contact list of people whom they would like to reach with an ad. They simply

With every marketing campaign, it is important to start small, track results and refine campaigns until you find the sweet spot 65

COLUMN need to upload the list of customers from their database and then create an advertising campaign that is targeted towards them. It is a great way to reach specific audiences with customized messages.

Once the contact list is uploaded, each person on the list is given a unique code and this is then used to match their customers with their profiles on Facebook.

Over the last few months, Facebook has seen great results from small businesses that have used Facebook’s Custom Audiences tool. Businesses can be more strategic when they use Custom Audiences in conjunction with Facebook’s Offers product. Combining Facebook’s Offers and Custom Audiences also allows businesses to be targeted with an offer. For example, the business can design different offers for customers at different price points. Businesses that have loyalty program are able to segment and target messages to their customers effectively.

Take a ‘test and iterate’ approach As with every marketing campaign, it is important to start small, track results and refine campaigns until you find the sweet spot. Once you identify which customer segment is driving the most results, you’d want to reach customers who are similar to them.

Facebook’s Lookalike Audiences tool can help businesses reach new people who demonstrate characteristics similar to your existing customers and are likely to be interested in their business. While using Custom Audiences, the businesscan choose to create a lookalike audience that targets people who are similar to the Custom Audience list. Lookalike Audiences can help businesses reach people who are similar to their current customers for multiple marketing objec-

66

college students and female professionals. By making their ads more targeted and relevant, Zivame.com reduced their cost per click by more than 70% and increased conversions by more than 2X. Zivame used an in-house datamining tool, which allowed them to identify various demographic and psychographic profiles based on their customers’ buying patterns. With this data, they were able to create custom audiences to target existing customers with ads featuring products relevant them. They also used the data to create Lookalike audiences to reach potential customers who had profiles similar to their existing ones. For example, Zivame segmented people based on their product preferences, purchase

This is the power of digital and Facebook in particular, where granular targeting and segmentation is available at the click of a button tives – customer acquisition, site registration, online shopping, coupon claims and brand awareness.

Driving conversation and loyalty A brand that’s using Custom Audiences very well is Zivame.com, India’s premier online lingerie store. Zivame.com wanted to lower the cost of acquiring their Indian female clientele by 50%. Finding these customers is expensive as Internet users in India are often male, making it difficult to reach a female audience without attracting negative clicks. What’s more, buying lingerie online in India represents a fundamental change to current customer behavior. Specifically, Zivame. com was seeking to double their return on ad spend over 6 months.

Zivame.com used Facebook to target female audiences in India based on their interests, with ads and messaging relevant to the target segments. Over a six-month period in 2013, the brand used different ad images and ad copy to target

frequency, affinity for deals and offers, as well as other characteristics, showing different ads to each custom audience.

Zivame also used custom audiences to reach people who were registered with the site but had not yet purchased. And one-time buyers were shown a different set of ads to encourage them to make a repeat purchase. Customers who had bought more frequently were targeted with an entirely different set of ads.

As a result, Facebook has been Zivame’s main channel to bring relevant, first-time visitors to Zivame and has improved their cost of user acquisition along with the overall return. This is the power of digital and Facebook in particular, where granular targeting and segmentation is available at a click of a button.

The views expressed here are of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Pitch

Pitch | February 2014

CMO LEAGUE 2014

From Mindless expansion to

focused growth

Marketing expert Sanjay Khosla shares his guidelines on focused growth at the CMO League

O

verturning orthodoxies on its head and stressing on the importance of execution, former Executive Vice President of Kraft Foods Sanjay Khosla, held the large audience of CMOs in rapt attention. It was the third edition of the CMO League organized by exchange4media and the theme for the keynote was “Fewer, Bigger, Bolder: From Mindless expansion to focused growth”. Some excerpts from his speech.

“It’s not about how many things you do but how you can do a few things really well by keeping focused on them. I started my life in Jammu as a salesman and I learnt that we only have five fingers on our hand, which is what we can remember. That is where the whole journey of Focus and research started. So, you should only do few things and measure them; this will help you to stop doing everything else that is not relevant.

Do few things and do them big, bigger and bolder to change the whole paradigm of growth. The 7-step framework is applicable to any business model across the world and different geographies. The framework involves - flawless execution, co-creation, the discovery phase, the 5-10-10 strategy,

“It’s not about how many things you do but how you can do a few things really well by keeping focused on them”

Pitch | February 2014

67

CMO LEAGUE 2014 blank cheque strategy and unleashing the potential of people. The most important part of the 7-steps is not the ‘What’ and ‘How’ but about KKH- Karna Kya hai. Thus, the focus should always be on – execution.

Our 5-10-10 strategy worked well with Cadbury. The decision of acquiring US $ 20 Billion Cadbury in 2010 was a very brave decision by Kraft. But it paid off!

In 2006, Kraft gave low gross margins.

An investment as big as US $ 20 million was a risk but Cadbury paid it back by becoming a US $ 16 Billion brand from US $ 5 Billion in five years. We only focused on 5 categories, 10 brands and 10 markets (5-10-10 strategy).

Moving further to being mindlessly global and hopelessly local, one of the best examples is Oreo. Oreo was not doing well outside the US, but Oreo made US $ 200 Million in 95 years and crossed US $ 1 Billion in the next 5 years. The growth was a result of execution, adaptation and collaboration.

We kept the balance between being mindlessly global and hopelessly local!

The brand’s global essence of twist, lick and dunk remained the same but execution in terms of price points, packaging etc was adapted to the different demands. In 2006, Kraft revamped its plan for Oreo’s China market, connecting locally with customers by readjusting the recipe, which was by packaging Oreos in the form of wafers and advertising on bicycles, T-shirts and buses. This made me proudly think that I was the biggest expert at mass marketing. But I did make some mistakes. I took up the launch of an affordable food in Latin America and made one of the biggest mistakes by getting too emotionally involved and almost arrogant. I still do not have an answer why it failed! Being a marketer if you think you know everything, it is a matter of concern. Failures are bad but doing nothing is a sin!

We can afford to maintain a hit to flop ratio of 7 out of 10.”n -Compiled by Gunjan Verma

68

In Conversation

What is the difference between the Indian markets and global markets with respect to execution?

At the end of the day, it is 10 per cent strategy and 90 per cent execution and that is totally applicable in India as well as in the global markets. Once you have got the business model right, focus completely on continuously improving on execution to achieve better. So, if something is working perfectly, you have to be boringly consistent and consistently improve and also keep on measuring what you have been doing.

Is the difference between developed markets and developing markets shrinking?

Concepts like ‘Focus’, 7-step strategy,

doing few things well and fewer, bigger, bolder are easily applicable across developing and developed markets. I have worked with both markets and the only difference that exists between the two is that very often developing markets tend to be more volatile. There is a certain type of uncertainty and you have to be more nimble and flexible in your execution.

What is the most important attribute for a marketer?

I believe that it is ‘Passion’. You do something with passion and believe in it and that is the reason for your existence. A person with passion, gives me energy even after working across different businesses.

Pitch | February 2014

FEATURE:

Are Marketers listening to conversations on SOCIAL MEDIA platforms?

By Kanika Mehrotra

S

ocial media listening, also known as social media monitoring, is the process of spotting and reviewing what is being said about a company, individual, product or brand on the Internet. Conversations on the social media platforms are gigantic unstructured data. It’s very important for a brand, therefore, to define the targets for a social listening initiative.

The new wave of social media marketing overlaps with the PR executive’s ability to converse and build relationships with the consumer. This has led to usage of the vast scope of social media in the digital marketing strategies.

Speaking about social listening, Sanjay Tripathy, Senior Executive Vice President, HDFC Life Insurance Company said that social listening is a great way to inform any business effort that would be assisted by input from a relevant social media platform.

On being asked about the problem and the difficulty that is created by the excessive conversation on social platforms, Nikhil Rungta, Chief Business officer, Yebhi said “These days there are tools available to extract insights from the billions of conversations happening on social media at any given time. With the help of the tools it is able to get notification about what is said across a range of sites including LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, blogs, and video.

Pitch | February 2014

Brands can monitor their brand names, products, services, and competitors by keyword and geographic location. The tools help users to identify influencers among the people who are driving conversations.

Nikhil further added that the time span in which the brand replies to the negative feedback on social media platform should be a maximum of sixty minutes. It’s very important for the brand to reply. The consumer should feel that his query has been read and would be solved.

uct in the segment in which our product is to be launched in the near future. It is a deliberate leak of the feature in which it has an upper hand as compared to the product to be launched by the competitor. This deliberate leak may act like a teaser and is very acceptable on social platforms” Another Panelist Bipul Kiran Singh, Public Affairs Adviser and brand expert advised the brands to communicate with the audience as if the conversation were between two humans and not between a common man and a big brand. The conversation on any platform should give consumers a feel

Social listening is beneficial not only in one way conversation between the consumer and brand but also on a larger scale Social listening is beneficial not only in one way conversation between the consumer and brand but also on a larger scale.

Sudeep Narayan , Marketing & PR Director Volvo said “ Social listening is not just about what people say about a particular brand but also what is said about the competing brands and the response of the competing brands.”

Sudeep, with an example, explained how listening to competitors could be very useful. Sudeep said “It is useful to learn that a competing brand is about to launch a prod-

that he is being heard by some human being and not the big brand. If senior officials start responding on social platforms, it can certainly gain more faith of the people.

Has the concept of social listening penetrated in the public sector ?

Bipul Kiran said “The government sector has still not got active with social listening.

They are still engaged in the traditional ways of media. In the political classes its one way listening. Even if the public posts something the replies are not that quick”  -kanika.mehrotra@exchange4media.com

69

COLUMN

Clip Licensing:

A new Approach to Advertising

Jiggy George

Founder and CEO, Dream Theatre

A

sure way to gauge the strength of economic growth of a country is by reviewing the growth of the advertising industry, or to be more precise, the output of the creative agencies – there are new products being launched, the industry is brimming with talent, agencies push the envelope with fresh fearless ideas and clients are more open to exploring new ways of communicating to their target audience. More often than not, the more robust economies usually have high quality advertising emanating from them. The Indian advertising industry has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few decades, but what is more encouraging is that India now is in the forefront of creating path breaking, award winning and iconic advertising that connects with the audience and propels the brands and products to the fore front.

TV and Print advertising still rule the roost in India and we have seen many memorable ads accounting for almost 80% of the Rs 36,200 crore market. But a recent trend is the growth of digital media, which now has very clever, clutter breaking ads, some of which are being created purely for the digital media and are doing a great job of both delivering the message effectively as well as engag-

Clip Licensing involves using clips from existing Films, TV series and Animation Films or Series to create advertising campaigns 70

ing with the target audience.

A hitherto un-explored creative route in India is Clip Licensing which has been leveraged extensively in the US, Europe and most recently in Australia. Clip Licensing involves using clips from existing Films, TV series and Animation Films or Series to create advertising campaigns.

Simply put, Clip Licensing involves using existing or customised footage or clips from films, TV series and animated content to create brand advertising. This could also take the form of “Inspired by” iconic films or series or characters as well as “Spoofs.”

While top networks and studios around the world offer clip licensing possibilities, Warner Bros. has taken massive strides in the global market within this arena with a repertoire of 7000+ titles, 50,000+ hours of television programming and 15,000+ animated titles.

To delve a little deeper, the following are various forms that Clip Licensing could take: Clip Licensing: The most simple version is of using Pre-existing footage inserted directly into advertisements. “Clips” also refers to still images lifted directly from footage or from an original promotional poster. Google, Nike, Gillette have used this form successfully in campaigns.

“Spoofs/ Inspired by” form of Clip Licensing: Campaigns inspired by equity (famous scenes, quotes, character traits or likeness, choreography, etc.). Amex has created a great campaign spoofing Superman and Seinfeld in the US and

Pitch | February 2014

Coca Cola has done some great work across films and animation series in the Inspired by form of clip licensing, again in the US.

New Animation Clip Licensing: Animation also offers the opportunity to create New or Customised animation based on existing properties that can be incorporated into or created around a brand message. Metlife, AT&T, Ford Motors have run campaigns using customized clips in their TVCs. Closer home Perfetti Alpenliebe and All Out have created clutter breaking and outstanding TVCs with India’s most popular toon duo - Tom and Jerry.

Character Inspired Clip Licensing: This form utilizes key characters, recognizable icons or other property elements to inspire an advertising campaign. ANZ Bank has now run a very successful and sustained campaign in Australia using Patrick Jane, the lead actor, played by Simon Baker, of the famous Warner Bros. TV series “Mentalist”.

The licensed assets include a wide range of assets and open up innumerable possibilities. It includes Pre-existing Clips and Stills, Customised Clips and Stills, Dialogues, Choreography, Film or TV Titles, Characters or Character Names, Recognizable Imagery, and any derivatives thereof. Interestingly, evens Spoofs and “Inspired by” ads require a license because it exploits intellectual property.

The Clip Licensing process involves identifying the clip or brand for usage and working closely with the property owner to secure the license rights, fees and du-

Pitch | February 2014

ration of the campaign. A Clip License contract is drawn up accordingly and the creative approval process is started. The creative, whether TVC or Digital or Print or Outdoors or Radio or any combination of mediums is put through a creative and brand assurance process to ensure that the licensed brand is represented correctly and all associated rights have been secured. Each medium includes different stages of approvals by the Brand Assurance team of the licensor or property owner. For example, TVC creative approval includes concept, storyboard, rough cut and final cut approvals.

In India, Clip Licensed hasn’t been explored and exploited to its full potential. The global nature of entertainment means that Warner Bros. treasure trove

Jerry – lends itself perfectly to universal brand themes that a product may want to communicate in their campaigns. The iconic brands almost become your brand ambassadors basis what they stand for and the messaging that the brand wants to communicate.

While we do see a frenzy of clip licensing across big movie releases whereby brands use clips from upcoming films to create promotions or associations, there is so much scope to leverage this form of licensing to create sound, long term and strategic communication plans; Creatives can leverage the equity, sometimes built over generations like in the case of Superman and Batman, sometimes path-breaking like Matrix and Inception, sometimes just for the sheer

of brands across films ( Casablanca, Matrix, Superman, Batman, Hangover and numerous others), TV series ( Friends, Big Bang Theory etc) and Animation series ( Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes) are iconic brands and are also a part of our popular culture. The beauty of clip licensing as a medium lies in the resonance of the DNA of the brands – whether is it the strength and integrity of Superman or the mischief of Tom and

popularity like in the case enduring series like Friends and Big Bang Theory or sometimes just for ability to connect and laugh, no matter how old we are, like Tom and Jerry. Each Warner Bros. property has distinct identities and DNA that can be mined and used for building long term communication. The views expressed here are of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Pitch

71

INTERVIEW Komal Bedi Sohal

“What makes any idea successful is perseverance and hard work” W

ith a career spanning 19 years and several accolades under her belt, Komal Bedi Sohal is a name to reckon with in the field of advertising.

Her work on the Tata Nano “Awesomeness” campaign as Chief Creative Officer of Rediffusion Y&R has been widely appreciated and given the “people’s car” a new avatar. The “celebrate awesomeness” campaign attracted 5 million views on Youtube in 30 days and successfully repositioned the car as a fun, peppy car to drive around in. Having worked on global brands like Harvey Nichols, Land Rover, LG, Citibank, Colgate, Virgin Atlantic, Axe Deodorants and Microsoft Xbox, Komal’s oevre is spilling over with such successful campaigns. Kanika Mehrotra caught up with her on the sidelines of the Epica Awards in the capital to ask her more about her “awesome” campaigns..

How was the experience of coming up with a campaign like ‘awesomeness’?

The experience was fantastic, awesome.

Here was a chance to do something meaningful, do something for the brand, a brand that wanted to change the way it was perceived. The brand needed a successful makeover. The results are definitely positive and the efforts put in by me and the entire team have paid off.

You have worked with different brands in different countries. What is the difference between the consumer behavior in emerging economies and developed economies?

In India, there is a vast range of consumers. The same TVC is seen by a person travelling in a Mercedes and a person travelling in an auto and also the person

72

The brand wanted to change the way it was perceived. It needed a successful makeover. The results are definitely positive.

Pitch | February 2014

Most importantly, people should relate to what is being said, it should be able to touch their hearts. The emotions remain pivotal in developed, developing and even in an under developed economy.

The campaign should strike an emotion.

A trend that is seeing phenomenal growth is the use of Digital Campaigns.

How differently do you have to prepare for a digital campaign as compared to a TVC or a Print campaign?

The most important factor for a digital campaign is that it should be share-worthy. Consumers should feel like sharing it.

The consumer should feel for it. For the digital medium, the consumer is the master. In a TVC, the viewer may not change the channel due to many factors. It could

can connect with the youth by adopting the ‘lingo’ of the youth in the campaign.

The ‘awesomeness’ advertisement which has been liked by the youth so much had more than 5 millions views on YouTube.

The same TVC was telecast on TV but as it was targeted at the youth, the response on YouTube was overwhelming.

This was also because it was very fresh in its category. Now the digital medium is used in tier 2 and 3 cities also and the range is increasing by the day.

One advice you would give to anybody who is planning a digital campaign or TVC? Don’t give up. Fight for your ideas, and believe in them. You have to live in the ethos of creativity. Until you fail, you will

A TVC is seen by a person travelling in a Mercedes and a person travelling in an auto rickshaw and also by the person driving it be because they are watching in a group or just being lazy. They might watch the TVC even if they do not find it captivating.

But in the case of a digital campaign, the person has to be moved and feel strongly enough to want to share it with people.

who is driving the auto. There is economic disparity as well as cultural differences in India .One thing that works universally are emotions. People all over the globe relate with the emotion of fun, excitement and enjoyment.

Pitch | February 2014

If digital campaigns have to be worth sharing, is it more difficult to plan a digital campaign as compared to the TVCs? In the digital medium, the target audience is mostly the youth and hence most of the digital campaigns are planned around the youth. The digital campaign should be able to connect with the youth.

The key to connect with the youth is by understanding their attitude, aspirations and attitude towards things. The brand

not appreciate victory. Ideas do get rejected but that should not scare you. Every day is a big struggle to come up with ideas. It may seem very cool and glamorous, on the outside but a lot of hard work goes behind each campaign and every “like” received from the consumers. What makes any idea successful is perseverance and hard work. I still work for 12-14 hours every day just to bring out the best.

Creativity can’t be tapped in the time frame of working hours. A creative person can’t say that he is creative only during his working hours. Creativity has to be the way you live. You have to be brave, have fun, and enjoy work. The moment work becomes a drudgery, the quality dips. n -kanika.mehrotra@exchange4media.com

73

INTERVIEW RAJIV VAIDYANATHAN

“The confused consumer is more difficult to tap than the less informed consumer�

P

rofessor of Marketing and Director of MBA Programmes at the University of Minnesota Duluth, Rajiv Vaidyanathan’s vast experience in consulting and research sets him apart from the other experts. His research interests include the examination of how consumers perceive prices, process information for decision-making and the

74

marketing implications of e-commerce.

His research has been published in several international journals and used in the proceedings of several international marketing conferences. In India to speak at a marketing conference, Professor Vaidyanathan spoke to Kanika Mehrotra from Pitch about consumer behavior and the nuances of marketing.

What are the basic principles of marketing, the ones that have not changed over the years and will not change even after emergence of new and different mediums of marketing?

No matter how many new ideas, strategies or mediums for marketing come up , what will always remain the same is the need to satisfy and listen to the customer. What will never change is segmenting, targeting and positioning. The methods of achieving these principles may change but what remains the same is the principle. Today, there is no marketing degree that can be earned without studying consumer behavior. The understanding of consumer behavior is an everlasting principle.

What difference do you see in the consumer behavior in developed economies as compared to emerging economies? If you could also share similarities in consumer behavior

Pitch | February 2014

around the world.

I think the needs of the consumers are quite different. In emerging economies, the difference in the economic status of the consumers is a very important criteria. In India, among the different groups of middle class urban population, each has different expectations from goods and brands.

The most important similarity marketers have to understand the consumer’s need and his emotions. Emotions are the same across the globe.

purchase. They can compare price, customer service and many other factors. They are flooded with information which can confuse them. The confused consumer is more difficult to tap than the less informed consumer.

In India e-commerce is growing very rapidly. How different is the marketing, advertising for e-commerce websites?

For e-Commerce websites a very important factor is customer satisfaction.

Word of mouth is also very important.

Earlier consumers didn’t have many options, and had to depend on the sales person in the shop, marketing generated material like leaflets, Flyers etc.

Today a consumer has the option to read reviews on various websites about the product as well as the e-commerce website before making an important

How difficult has it become for brands to market products to these well-informed consumers?

This is one of the biggest challenges for marketers. They have less control on the information the consumer has and specially the information that will be the deciding factor for buying a product. It is not only due to the ability to search but also about the emergence of social media. Social media now changes the way the products are perceived. Information about the product circulates on social media and affects the consumer.

Social media provides people a platform

A constant monitoring of data and information on internet is the biggest challenge brands and marketers face today

For e-Commerce websites a very important factor is customer satisfaction to communicate bad and good about a product. A consumer after having a bad experience may post it on facebook, twitter or write a blog and post it on various websites and it may be picked up in Google search. Marketers have lost control over the information shared by the consumer. A constant monitoring of data and information on internet is the biggest challenge brands and marketers face today.

How do you see digital marketing growing in India? What should marketers keep in mind with re-

Pitch | February 2014

spect to digital marketing?

Digital marketing is definitely growing and a large consumer base is present on social media. Companies have to take care about not just the content they upload as a part of marketing strategy but also what its employees post on social media. People perceive a single employee’s opinion as that of a company.

Brands need to send specific information to the consumer. When mailing started marketers started sending bulk mails. This resulted in the spam folder.

This defeated the purpose of marketers of connecting with the consumer.

Marketers should be very careful of not disturbing the consumer on social media. Brands should send information to consumers very specifically and should be helpful to them.

Mobile advertising is another medium that is growing. How marketing on mobiles is different than other mediums and how effective is mobile advertising?

Mobile marketing has not even scratched the surface yet. This is one area where there is a lot of scope. The biggest advantage of mobile marketing is that the penetration is very high. How to use it effectively needs to be learnt. If a consumer has a mobile phone then via geologistics, the marketers know where the customer is. Smart phones allow the marketers to know what the consumers are searching for on their smart phones.

As the marketer has access to all this information, the advertisement can be very specific and targeted.

Marketers have to understand they can’t afford to irritate their consumers with unwanted and repeated messages.

If the customer gets irritated the brand may lose him as a customer. -kanika.mehrotra@exchange4media.com

75

COLUMN ANNURAG BATRA

Can marketers maximize the power of the mobile phone?

Annurag Batra Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, Pitch Magazine abatra@exchange4media.com @anuragbatrayo www.facebook.com/anuragbatrayo

O

n the brink of the new financial year, we look back at a year that was marked by a slowing economy, inflation and over-cautious consumers. It was not easy for companies as they struggled to attain double digit growth.

But it did have a positive fallout. Marketers became more innovative in their approach to reach consumers and engage them. India is the second largest user of smart phones in the world second only to China.

Not surprising then that marketing on mobile emerged as one of the outstanding methods to tap the digital natives.

Mobile phone penetration has grown phenomenally in India riding on the surge in mobile internet users in the country. With the increase in the number of feature phones and smart phones, marketers now have a range of opportunities.

Mobile phones have made it possible for the marketer to reach people who cannot read and also those in areas with frequent power outages. The mobile phone therefore has unimaginable reach and companies like HUL are tapping people by sending SMSes, and Interactive Voice Response

mechanism to engage them.

But while we know that mobile marketing has great potential for brands, India still has a long way to go to harness its full potential. Mobile marketing is passing through that stage where brands are taking a cautious approach and agencies are busy figuring out the ways in which it can be used. There is no tried and tested formula about the usage of this medium and therefore it’s a challenge in hand for agencies and their creative heads to develop a model which works well on mobile based platforms. At present the budget allocated for mobile marketing initiatives by brands is not more than 1 per cent but looking at the trends, this figure is likely to go up significantly in 2014. For some FMCG brands, getting marketers excited about mobile has become a priority and strategies are being devised especially for mobile.

With marketing on mobile gaining ground, greater customization can be expected but marketers need to be sure that the user experience is enjoyable and not annoying for the customers. Mobile mar-

For Indian marketers it is important to plan their mobile communication keeping in mind the various devices and operating systems available to the target customer 76

keting consultants and device manufacturers should join hands to create an experience that is easy and non-intrusive for the consumers. For Indian marketers it is important to plan their mobile communication keeping in mind the various devices and operating systems available to the target customer. India is a fragmented market and the methods developed by marketers and advertisers should take that into account.

As a result of an increase in mobile marketing, content will gain prominence in the coming years. Video Content has already picked up as a marketing tactic in the last few years and will only become bigger. With the rising interest in Pinterest, Instagram, SlideShare visual content has caught the interest of marketers. Companies that provide customized mobile video technology are being treated seriously. Mobile video has become an engaging tool for advertisers and video content will give the next push to mobile marketing.

The best part about mobile marketing is its ability to target consumers based on their location, time and online behavior. I am looking forward to some of the most engaging campaigns on mobile in the year ahead. ď Ž

Pitch | February 2014

February2013 2014 Pitch | Sep-Oct

495 77

MOTHER TONGUE RULES ODISHA MARKET TV

SARTHAK TV

SARTHAK TV

TARANG

STAR PLUS

ZEE TV LIFE OK

SONY

4

TAM, CS 4+, Avg Mega Serial TVR Wk-1 to 5 (2014), TB-1900-2300, Market Orissa 1 to 1 mn.

Pitch | February 2014 TV No-1 Odia channel

RNI REGN.NO.:DELENG/03/11/11487

COLORS E TV ODIA