Raunak Munot VCU Brandcenter, Creative Brand Management
Resume About Me Red Bull Case Study National Park Services Case Study Creative Brief: The Neat Company
resume RAUNAK MUNOT Email: raunakmunot@gmail.com Mobile: 804.938.0136 Education: Virginia Commonwealth University– Brandcenter Richmond, VA M.S. in Mass Communication – Creative Brand Management Track, 2nd Semester. • Exposed to a collaborative agency type setting, working in teams consisting of art directors, copywriters, planners and creative technologists. • Successfully completed the online Harvard Business course on Quantitative Analysis. • All round development with courses like media planning and digital engagement. Institute of Chemical Technology, University of Mumbai (U.D.C.T), Mumbai, India B.Tech- Polymer Engineering & Technology (2004-2008) • Overall Grade: First Class (66.7% aggregate score) • Publication- published a paper on “Carbon Fibers” in Bombay Technologist, Vol. 56, pp 68 70,2006. • Final Project: Process & Plant Design for the manufacture of Epoxy- Starch Composites -building a techno-economically feasible process & scaling up to industrial scale. Adviser: Prof
M.A.Shenoy, Head, Dept of Polymer Engineering & Technology, U.D.C.T. Experience: Student Intern at Elantas Beck India Limited- ALTANA Chemie Group, Pune, India • Covered all departments: R&D, quality assurance, manufacturing plant, wire enameling plant, technical services department and a good exposure to safety methods. Did a research project on ‘Solventless Epoxy Paints’ under Dr. V. Bhanu, R&D Manager. Interests: • Latin Dance, Electronic Piano, Languages, Cricket, Ping Pong, Golf, water sports. • Played Basketball at the State level for Pune District, India, 2000-01. • Organized an AIDS Awareness Concert and a Green Marathon in UDCT. Money raised was donated to NGOs, Ojus Medical Foundation and CRY Foundation. Leadership: • General Secretary, Head of the Students’ Council, UDCT, 2006-07. • Member, TRIS (Technology, Research and Information for Society), UDCT’s official PR cell. • Head Coordinator of Manzar, UDCT’s first ever Intercollegiate Cultural Festival. Team – 140 students, Budget – Rs.22,00,000 ($45,000).
about me
I’ve been bought up in a joint family of businessmen who have ventured into polymers, automotives, textiles and electronics distributorship. Consequently, I have grown up seeing how businesses are run and decisions are taken. Being a Polymer Engineer myself, I have a sound understanding of statistics and numbers in general, which is important because, however creative we get, at the end of the day the client always wants to see how a particular investment affects the bottom line.
We act as though comfort and luxury are the chief requirements of life, when all we need to keep us happy is something to be enthusiastic about. – Charles Kingsley
That is exactly how we are trained at the VCU Brandcenter. Being a Creative Brand Manager, we take all the fundamental marketing courses as well as the creative courses. We are taught how to first look at all the numbers, product life cycle, cost structure of the company, etc and understand the premise of the case taken up and only then get creative with it. As a result, we are empowered to take up marketing, product management, brand management jobs on the client side, as well as account management and planning jobs on the agency side. The course structure is extremely dynamic, teaching us how to tie in the latest trends in the digital space in our campaigns.
Coming from the Indian sub- continent, the land of over a billion people with great cultural diversity, living in different parts of the country throughout my education and pursuing grad school in the US for almost a year now, I have seen different perspectives on life.
I believe there are two broad qualities that are necessary to be successful in your workplace; being good at what you do and collaborating well with others. Being a sports fanatic and having played various sports since childhood has instilled a team spirit in me. I’m a passionate and emotional individual and when I take something up, I give it my best.
Red Bull Case Study Case To come up with a line extension or reposition Red Bull in a time where the market has been swamped with new players. Problem Since 2006 Red Bull has been losing market share in the energy drink market coming down from 43% in 2006 to under 40% in 2007. On the other hand, Monster and Rockstar, both distributed by Coke, have rapidly been gaining market share and as of October 2008, their combined market share was greater than Red Bull. Most of these new energy drinks provide a number of flavorful options giving consumers a wide range to choose from. So even if Red Bull is the top of the mind energy drink, the younger generation is open to trying new flavors as a result of which Red Bull is losing customers. Objective To regain its position as the market leader. Strategy To give the consumers taste control, but in a way that maintains the mystique image that red bull has. Red bull created the energy drink category; so to merely add flavors to its product
line like the others in the category have would be a big mistake. Red Bull is a trend- setter, not a follower. So the taste control needs to be provided in a way that will set new trends and become part of popular culture. Concept Creation of a 2oz mini can, called Charge that interlocks with the original can. One has to rotate the two cans in opposite directions. This automatically pops open the lower can and the contents of both the cans mix in order to create a whole new flavor. We will introduce three healthy charges that are nutritious, vitamin filled and energizing; Kiwi Strawberry Charge, Grapefruit Charge and Pomegranate Charge.
We will also introducing alcoholic charges; Skyy Vodka Charge and Jaeger Charge owing to the popularity of these drinks.
Positioning The original energy with the new way of customization. Creative Red Bull has always had a focus on non - traditional advertising. Keeping that in mind, to get the word out in the media about Red Bull Charge, we decided to do some point of sale displays, guerilla marketing, have presence on the Red Bull website, redbull.com/charge and a zorb surfing event.
We will have these on buses and subway trains in major cities in the US; New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles and Atlanta.
The website will have detailed information about all the charges.
We decided to use their Brand Ambassador, Shaun White to help spread the word around the launch of Red Bull Charge. Like the Flug-Tag, we will be introducing another event called Wasserweg, a zorb surfing event. The Red Bull Charge logo will get visibility throughout the event. A small Charge Car will follow the Red Bull Car around college campuses and busy streets in major cities in the US. All these efforts, although non- traditional will be picked up by the media and bloggers, because the whole idea is to make this campaign coontagious and spread like fire in the digital space.
Budget Based on a Forbes.com 2005 report, UVA Darden Business School Case Study we were presented with, and secondary research on the internet, Red Bull is exected to sell about 1.4-1.5 billion cans in the US in 2008 with a total revenue of over $1.5 billion. In 2005, Red Bull spent 30% of total sales on Advertising and Marketing. Considering the high amounts they spend, a $6.67 million budget for launching Red Bull Charge is well within limits. The broad breakdown of the various expenses is as follows:
Budget Breakdown
ROI Calculation based on Expected Value
Product Development Out of Home Website Charge Car Wasserweg Sampling
$3,000,000 $2,000,000 $20,000 $150,000 $500,000 $1,000,000
Total
$6,670,000
Expected value helps us better predict the performance of a product over a given period of time. A probablity is assigned to every event and expected sales are calculated by adding up the sales based on probablitly of each event.
Pricing for Red Bull Charge Retail Price Wholesaler Price Cost of production
$0.80 $0.50 $0.15
Unit Contribution
$0.35
Breakeven Analysis Cans to be sold to breakeven = Total Budget Unit Contribution Cans to be sold to breakeven = 19 million (approximately)
This ROI calculation is based on the sales of the Charge alone. It does not take into considertation the additional Red Bull cans that will be sold since it is difficult to estimate that.
National Park Services Case Study Case To create a long term integrated campaign that plays out across different media, including a strong digital component that creates an engaging and involving user experience. Problem Firstly, the National Parks are not in the consideration set for many people when the consider doing something outdoorsy because everyone’s perception of a National Park is different; one may think of it as a picnic place, while someone else may think of it as mountains and waterfalls. However there is a bunch of other cool activities that can be done at these parks, which many are unaware of. Secondly, the Centennial Initiative aims to renovate and update the parks in order to make them relevant to the American people, but there is no real effort taken to reach out to the people. And the people they are targeting already have the parks in their consideration set. Concept The Park Idea- aims to transform the preconceived notions of the people and expand their definitions of national parks. The campaign uses technology such as Augmented Reality, Microsoft Photosynth and Geo-Tagging to make the
information more accessible and engaging. The Park Idea will have its own simple website and every technology used will be tied back into the website. The campaign also comprises of various co-opt partnerships with PBS, REI, Nalgene and Microsoft. The Ken Burns documentary on National Parks, to be released on PBS in September 2009 will be tied into the campaign. The campaign also aims at forming a community where sharing information can benefit all. Mission The Park Idea’s mission is to enlighten the American people of the extraordinary, exciting world that exists within the borders of their own country. Target Young Professionals, 22-34 year olds, Single or without children. They are active and well rounded people. They consider themselves to be intelligent, globally minded and have an affinity for technology. According to Mintel reports, they’re more likely than any other group to have been exposed to outdoor activities at an early age. However as they’ve aged it is no more top of the mind.
Timeline The campaign starts in Winter ’09 with the launch of the website and the Configurator. The Configurator is a tool on the website that allows you to put in your personal information including hobbies and interests and based on that it tailors all the park information, maps, events and activities that match your interests.
The geo- tagging application acts as a guide while you are near a hot- spot. It pings up information about that particular hotspot on your smart phone while you’re in a particular range around it. You can also click pictures and they are automatically tagged with the date and place where they are taken.
We will also have a presence at the Green Festival to be in 5 major cities. Microsoft Photosynth allows you to see the popular hot spots on any park in a unique 3D view (look at image). You can contribute to this view by submitting your own image of that particular hot spot and tag it.
Creative Since we want to surprise this audience with the extraordinary things they can do in a park and transform their preconceived notions. We thought of using Augmented Reality in the creative execution.
very appealing and intriguing and it changes the forces the users to reconsider their perceptions of a park.
In the following two ads, on the left side is the print ad that will feature in magazines. It’s looks like a simple image of a mountain but below it gives instructions to hold up the image in front of a webcam. And when you do that a virtual image of a person sand surfing comes to life.
Besides the print ads, we have couple of Non-traditional ideas; teaser ads on the canoes and boats in certain big cities as well as presence during the Green Festival.
In the next ad, on the left it looks like a person is climbing up a rock, whereas when you hold it up in front of a webcam an image of a person snorkeling comes to life. This technology is
Measurability We can measure the success of this campaign based on the number of website visits, increase in park visits, contest entries, photosynth uploads to the website and geo-tagging. In tough economic times, people are cutting back their expenses on vacations. Also the younger professionals prefer many smaller trips than one big vacation. Considering all that, we are sure that this campaign will succeed in engaging the target audience.
The Neat Company Brand Manifesto & Creative Brief Brand Manifesto- Bringing the brand to life. I made a video in iMovie to do the same. Here is the link to the youtube video. Thank you for wathcing this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgD2n0RzB28
Creative Brief What is the goal of the communication? Neat changed its name from NeatReceipts to The Neat Company on 1st October, 2008 as a part of its rebranding initiative, owing to broadening of both the its mission and product line to suit a range of needs. This campaign is aimed at creating awareness of the new name and the new trend in managing personal and professional documents. Who are we talking to? What do they do? What is their life like? Business Professionals and Freelancers. They typically lead busy lifestyles trying to juggle bettween work and home. At work they deal with a lot of paperwork; documents, receipts and business cards and management of information is very important. After their jobs they come back home to manage family chores.
How do the consumers experience the category? What are their needs, wants, desires? This is a case of new business development. We are creating a new category. Several times a soft copy of a printed document is required. At such times a regular scanner is used. However, with that the information cannot be edited. As the world goes more digital, professionals want to reduce the use of paper and want easier ways to convert all the information into soft copies which reduce their clutter and also saves time. With the Paper Reduction Act (1980), many companies too are looking at ways to reduce the use of paper. Most of the work is done using Microsoft Office. So if the consumers scan documents, they want the option to edit in MS Office. How do the consumers experience the brand? Quotes from consumers: "The easiest way to keep all your records in order." "I'd go so far as to say that this little gadget now ranks on the indispensability scale right up there with TiVo, iPod and HDTV." "I hate dealing with paper, and this product helps me become paperless." The products are easy to use and make managin information extremely simple. They read data from the documents and a software organizes these documents automatically.
What is the single most important message that needs to be communicated? Your own perosnal assisstant that keeps you efficient. How can the brand authentically talk to the consumers? The products are innovative and would be a great addition to any office. It is necessary to take the first mover advantage and fix a position in the minds of the consumer. It's much more than a regular scanner; the soft copies can be edited in Microsoft Office. What media best engages the consumers? Print Ads in Business Magazines. Viral video about functionality and emotional benefit that can be circulated in the corporate circle via emails and blogs. Non-Traditional: Partner with an airline company to give demos of the products in the Business Class. When hit with advertising, what is the desired reaction from the consumer? The users should feel,�Oh Sweet Lord! I never knew something like this existed. It’s going to save so much of a headache and time more so. I really need to get this thing.�
I will not do it in the forest No, I will not do it in the forest, Although the temptation is rising. You said no one would see, If they did, it'll be embarrassing.
Creative Thinking Excercise We had to come up with a peom that included the following three words; bulk, forest, plenty.
With every step, of the plenty to come, In the woods as we amble, You look at me, with eyes that say, As if it weren't a gamble. It can be done behind the bulky rock, Surrounded by the trees plenty, Lets do it now, I said to myself And get it done in twenty. Now that it's done I feel all fresh, But a feeling inside me, not so loud; Says crapping in the midst of a forest so huge, I'm not really so proud.
Thank you for taking out time to go through my book. This was a slight preview of what we learn and do at the VCU Brandcenter and I can guaranttee we’re all getting better by the day. It will be a great experience to work with you and I look forward to hearing back from you. Yours Sincerely, Raunak Munot 804.938.0136 raunakmunot@gmail.com