TH 4 ANNIVERSARY EDITION
EDITOR’S NOTE Dear Readers, It gives us immense pleasure to present to you the August issue of our very own Marksman. This is the fourth anniversary edition of Marksman. As always, we have a wide range of varied articles lined up for our esteemed readers. Our cover story this month titled –Mobile Marketing – it deals with how the marketing scenario is changing more into digital by using platforms such as smart phones. This month’s special story – “Not so foreign anymore” explains how colors TV is expanding in the television industry by introducing a new channel called “Colors Infinity”. Our Brand Markive, illustrates the journey of Levi’s right from its inception, its campaigns over the ages. In addition to that, we even have our regular yet exciting sections on: Tweets, Bookworm, Buzz, Ad-itude, Squarehead, Hallmark Campaign, Pioneer and Faux Pass. As this is our anniversary edition, we bring to you a buzzing new section, Kickstart. With immense pleasure, we would like to congratulate this month’s call for articles winners – Abhijeet and Sanket Porwal, whose articles have been chosen to be featured in this month’s issue. And for all those entries that haven’t been published in this issue, we thank you all for your response and encourage you to keep writing to us with the same fervor. Feedback is always welcome and we would appreciate and acknowledge if our readers keep writing to us. Stay connected with us on www.interfacesimsr.com/the-marksman. Enjoy Reading! TEAM MARKSMAN The Interface – The Marketing Club of SIMSR @marksmansimsr
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CONTENTS TWEETS………………………….…..3 IT’S ALL ABOUT AD-ITUDE………..5 MARKETING FAUX PAS .................7 BRAND MARKIVE ………..…….…8 COVER STORY…………………...10 SPECIAL STORY……………..……15 Hall-MARK CAMPAIGN ..............17 PIONEER………….. ………..…….19 REWIND……………………..….….21 TETE-A-TETE………………….……22 BOOKWORM…………................23 KICKSTART ……………..…..…….24 FEATURED ARTICLES ……..….…25 SQUAREHEAD……………..…….31
BUZZ………………………….……32
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# TWEETS #Apple #iPhone6s pre-orders to start mid September this year, new leak reveals
If we take a look back at the weekly news from Cupertino, this week, the Apple Loop included the release date of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, Apple’s changes to stop the iPhone 6S bending, user anger at iOS 8.4.1, iPhone 6S benchmarking numbers beating the Galaxy S6, thoughts on the evolution of Apple TV, Apple Music subscriber predictions, the changes to Apple Store layouts, Apple’s Australian bond issue, and the Apple Watch running iOS 4.1. Few rumoured features of iPhone 6s includes A9 processor, 2GB RAM, Improved 12MP camera, less bendable 7000 series aluminium shell, Force Touch, Improved Touch ID and Gold, Rose Gold, Silver, and Space Grey colours.
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#India is second biggest investment country for #Amazon
In India, Amazon had the fastest rate of adding new customers its history of operations in multiple countries, as said by the company's head of international consumer business, Diego Piacentini. After the US, India is the second biggest investment country for the company, he said. He also added that India was key to Amazon's future success. Amazon's Indian operations were only launched a little over two years ago and the company has been overtaking rivals by gaining market share. Some estimate that it is already second to Flipkart, and ahead of Snapdeal and Paytm. Last year, Bezos had announced that the company has earmarked more than $2 billion in funds for investments in India. While bullish on the mobile platform, which accounts for 65 per cent of its traffic, the company said it would serve its customers on all platforms, even as it thinks app-first. Their rival Flipkart has said it will move to an app-only strategy; its subsidiary Myntra has already become app-only. But Amazon indicated that such a move would be misguided.
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TWEETS #Helpchat appoints Lodestar UM
Helpchat, previously known as Akosha, a messaging-based personal assistant app, has appointed Lodestar UM to handle its media duties post a multiagency pitch. A campaign titleKali Shukla, VP, marketing, Helpchat, said, “We evaluated several agencies on various parameters and finally decided to go ahead with Lodestar because of their sound strategy and approach, buying efficiency and ability to innovate. Also, Lodestar Bengaluru has a head start and expertise in its understanding of e-commerce and the Internet service ecosystem by virtue of handling multiple brands operating in a similar space. “Nandini Dias, CEO, Lodestar UM, added, “We went ahead with a simple yet compelling strategy rooted in consumer insight for Helpchat. Lodestar UM has always believed that strategy lies at the heart of understanding the consumer and that solutions should connect with the audience, being media agnostic.” d 'Har Kam Aaram' has been rolled out.
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Global kids’ fashion retailers like Pepe Jeans, #Jacadi rush to do business in India
Hospitals may seem like an unlikely place for marketers to promote their brands but The Children's Place, top childrenswear retailer in the US, is tying up with hospital chains in India to visit patients in maternity wards and gift merchandise for their newborns. As the child grows, we are hoping they become regular consumers for our brand and we kind of adopt their fashion sense since birth," said J Suresh, managing director and CEO of Arvind Lifestyle, which has a franchisee arrangement with The Children's Place (TCP) and plans to open 50 stores of the mass premium brand in the next four year British denim brand Pepe Jeans plans to bring in its kidswear range into the country this month and open 10 exclusive outlets, while French childrenswear brand Jacadi and Malaysian brand Poney are looking to expand their presence.
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IT’S ALL ABOUT AD-ITUDE “Sushi is made for sharing”. As the proverb goes, Sushi is a yummy Japanese dish which is prepared from cooked vinegar rice and is often combined with some other ingredients like seafood, vegetables and tropical fruits to convert it into a mouth watering irresistible dish. Pickled “gari” (ginger) is also garnished on top of it to make it more delicious and it must be necessarily shared with friends to avoid it getting snatched away!! The ad depicts the relishing looking sushi which has been designed in the form of drums and percussion instruments. The way in which the designing has been done is undoubtedly creative and eye catching. Press developed to the Sushi festival, in Portugal, which is the first Sushi festival in Europe, which is a blend of fun, music and food. Sushi Fest is the client of this Food Print ad and BAR Lisboa is the agency. Nuno Correia Photography is the producer of the ad and the Ad got famous from Portugal in June this year. Its premium sponsor is Oeiras and the media partners are CACAROLA, RFM, and SAPO.
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IT’S ALL ABOUT AD-ITUDE The strongest pillar of online shopping is undoubtedly “Amazon”. Whatever you wish to grab for your loved ones or for yourself, you just log into Amazon and you have it. With numerous choices for the selection of products of every category which your mind may think of, Amazon has come up with this ad to reiterate their strength in the strategy of marketing and advertising. The “AUR DIKHAO” ad campaign has been conceptualised by Orchard Advertising and easily gained fame in April this year. Production house for the ad is Red Ices Films. The music is given by Ram Sampath. The ad film begins with a man who gets home and starts relishing on some cake, when suddenly his wife intervenes and reminds him of the day being “Karva Chauth” (the day of fasting). This makes the husband realise the need of the amends to be made. In the next scene, he is shown swiping across a smartphone screen with the Amazon app on which he is logged in, for his wife to choose some present for herself. The next part of the film consists of a scene of a family on a vacation as they try to pick between photographers at a tourist spot. There are several other clips which portray the use of selection from different categories and products. The scene with the mother trying to pacify her baby by showing different products by using
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the Amazon app, is funny. The ad ends with the jingle of “AUR DIKHAO” urging the viewers to download the app and enjoy the uses of choice. Manish Kalra is the director-integrated marketing, Amazon India, said that their key strategy is making the availability of wide choice and destination, easier to the customers. A wide choice of over 22 million products across every thinkable category is the basis of the ad campaign “AUR DIKHAO”. According to the chief creative officer, Raj Deepak Das, the ad is able to connect with the Indian customers who love to check out various options before settling for the best one. So, the ad basically portrays the raw truth of the common Indian with whom the term “AUR DIKHAO” goes hand in hand. So, the campaign successfully establishes Amazon India as the most loved brand in India.
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MARKETING FAUX PAS New Coke The Biggest Marketing Blunder of the Century Chinese is a very confusing language indeed. Many big companies tried entering into the Chinese market and failed miserably, mostly due to poor marketing strategies. Something similar happened to Pepsi when they tried to expand their market to China. Like always, the marketing campaign of Pepsi conveyed the essence of life, energy and awesomeness. The slogan of the campaign was “Pepsi brings you back to life” and it was promoted heavily in Chinese language. Mid-way through the campaign they realized that the slogan they were promoting, when translated to English, actually read “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave”.
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Yes! They claimed that in entire China. Probably they employed a Chinese speaking American to translate the slogan. Needless to say that they discarded the campaign, but they at least got the hype and the publicity they needed. Maybe more than required! Whether it was a mistake or a wellplanned strategy no one can say, but it surely is a Faux Pas which teaches us that global isn’t easy. A single word can make a huge difference and cost you millions of dollars. And if you don’t know the language, ask someone who does!
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BRAND MARKive Levi’s It was a simple idea, when Levi Strauss opened his wholesale cloth business, Jacob Davis contacted him to partner up and sell clothing reinforced with copper rivets and the rest was history. If you think of denims you think of Levi's. From making heavy duty denim overalls for the factory workers in the 1870s to being an indispensable part of every youngster’s wardrobe, Levi's has come a long way. Levi's has become a noun in itself. The harbinger of the trends of the season from the designer’s ramp to the high street stores of the masses, it is the one to trust. And Levi’s has built its brand not just on the basis of its quality product but also on its simplistic and effective marketing strategies. "I live in my Levi's" is a statement which would ring true in the minds of every millennial. It is also one of
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the most successful marketing campaigns launched by the brand as a part of its 96 million dollar global marketing campaign in 2014. The campaign highlighted how people from all walks of life owned a pair of Levi’s and how it was an integral part of their wardrobe.
This campaigned worked for its sheer genius where no particular new product was being marketed. It was purely promoted on the basis of the stories of the people, and they are as much a part of their love, life and passions. The television advertisements were particularly iconic featuring different age groups, ethnicities, professions, ideologies. Another campaign which was also out of the ordinary was the Go Forth campaign which was about America’s pioneering spirit and its utilitarian roots with work as a lifestyle.
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Featuring poems like Walt Whitman’s ‘Pioneer, Oh Pioneer’ and ‘The Laughing Heart’ by Charles Bukowski with stills of riots in the background. They featured present day pioneers on social media and engaged people with the social cause of water.org. This was a critical move which helped them launch their water<less jeans, an idea otherwise associated with their jeans anyways.
Both of these campaigns have been a step away from their typical marketing strategies like ‘Live unbuttoned’ or the iconic laundrette campaign, where it was all about selling sex and good looking models. And strangely enough these were the most successful Levi’s campaigns in the modern times. This is a step towards a more inclusive, more accepting brand image which more and more people can relate to. Levi’s became so popular when it came out because it offered a durable
product and it is what it is today because it maintains that and has a following of millions across the world, because these millions share their history , their youth with it.
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COVER STORY MOBILE MARKETING How the mobile market will bring game-changing benefits to any brand.
The world is going mobile by the passing day. The smartphone revolution has certainly given us an app for everything today. Smartphones have incorporated many of our daily tasksfrom maps, to restaurants, to groceries, to even our wallet! Today marketers around the world would agree that mobile has changed the face of marketing forever. As mobile technology becomes more and more evolved, it has given marketers more opportunity to directly engage with potential customers via the internet. Regardless of what product or service a business has to offer, it is extremely likely that it will be selling to a mobileconnected person. This opens doors for more and more innovative forms of marketing today. Mobile marketing involves the marketing and promotions
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of products and services and creating awareness via the smartphone. Let us look at some statistics on the usage of smartphones. According to Ericsson Mobility reports, mobile technology will be globally ubiquitous by 2020 with about 70 percent of people using smartphones and 90 percent covered by mobile broadband networks. In India the internet penetration is currently low at 19.2% but it still is in the top 5 countries by the number of smartphone users. India is undergoing a mobile revolution with smartphones now outnumbering PCs and desktops. The Indian smartphone market is growing at CAGR of 26%. Smartphone users in India spend 169 minutes per day on their device. Amidst this it is obvious for marketers today to tap the potential of the ubiquitous god of information: The Internet, specifically the smartphone. However, mobile marketing is not as new as one may think. It has come a long way from the old SMS based marketing to the modern app-based advertising.
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COVER STORY newspaper, on a billboard or on a webpage. SMS Marketing: 2003 witnessed the launch of the first Short Messaging Service (SMS) on a mobile phone. This was the beginning of text message marketing, which is prevalent even today. Companies used the SMS to their benefit by texting their current and prospective customers with their offers and services. SMS marketing is utilized by many companies even today. For e.g. Dominos Pizza informs their customers about discounts, offers and other goodies extensively via SMS.
QR codes: QR codes originated in Japan where they are still extensively used. QR is an acronym for Quick Response for they can be easily read by a smartphone. We’ve often seen QR codes in a magazine advertisement, on print ads in newspaper, on a billboard or on a webpage. QR codes: QR codes originated in Japan where they are still extensively used. QR is an acronym for Quick Response for they can be easily read by a smartphone. We’ve often seen QR codes in a magazine advertisement, on print ads in
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QR codes are much more effective and useful from a standard bar code because they can store as well as digitally present much more data than a standard bar code. For example a QR code can store geo coordinates, text and other URL links related to the product or service it represents. They can be easily generated by using Google’s new QR code generator. And the best part is that they can be scanned using the omnipresent smartphone and do not require chunky scanners to identify them! You just got to scan the QR code through your smartphone and it will take you to the website which mentions all the product details. This is brilliant innovation and certainly is one of the most engaging
forms of mobile marketing. It’s smart, it’s cool, it’s nerdy and it greatly appeals to the modern intelligent customer. Today few may use the QR code, but those who do certainly appreciate the technology and the businesses using them.
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Those who don’t are curious about the same. Therefore any business, small of large can use the QR codes to present their product details, URL links, offers and schemes and thus directly market to any customer around the world having a smartphone! The image below showcases the modern business card. This may look quirky today but may soon become the way normal business cards look in the future. One of the most amazing QR-code campaigns was undertaken by Disney in Ginza subway in Tokyo, Japan. App based and in-game mobile marketing: This is a relatively newer concept associated with smartphone. Smartphone users spend majority of their time on apps and this is the place a potential sale can be looked at.
Good news is that you don’t need to create an app for customers to view your product. Services like ‘Google AdMob’ and Apple’s iAd help advertisers create mobile ads that appear within third party
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mobile apps. For example- The ads which appear at the bottom part of your smartphone screen when you’re viewing an app or playing Angry Birds. Advertisers pay Google to use Admob as a platform to promote their product. When the app generates revenue the business makes money and obviously the technology provider takes a small cut. However, mobile ads are often an annoyance for smartphone users due to constant interruptions slowing down the device. But on the upside, mobile ads enable developers to offer the app or game for free, letting them make revenues from advertising instead. Location based marketing: As the name suggests, location-based marketing targets consumers based on their location. The marketing strategy changes depending on where the potential clients are located. It uses the GPS tracking technology to locate the customer and offer him services based on his/her location. Location-based marketing is extremely popular among a range of startups in data science. One of the best examples of locationbased marketing is Nivea with its Bluetooth proximity beacon. In Brazil, Nivea used a Bluetooth proximity beacon which was embedded in magazine
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ad. This could be torn out from the magazine page and tied around the wrist of a child, acting as a smart wrist band. A smartphone app can be used to track how far the child walks away from its parents in places like beaches. Parents receive an alert when the child walks out of a pre-defined range, and can then bring them back to safety. This was a brilliant marketing campaign which completely changed the consumer perception of Nivea in Brazil. Nivea is now seen as not just the maker of creams to be used in sunny
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locations, but also a brand which cares for its consumers’ children. Another example of location-based marketing is U.S music group Blue Brain which produced the world’s first ‘location aware music album’ which changes the mood of the music as the app user walks by landmarks in locations in New York City’s Central Park. These are just some of the ways in which mobile marketing is influencing the way marketing is being carried out today. The mobile way is limitless in terms of innovative ways in which a product or service can be marketed. Mobile marketing is such a compelling proposition that Coca Cola has stopped print media advertising in Singapore, said Rannajoy Roy, former ASEAN Digital Marketing Lead at Coca-Cola. Ecommerce giants Flipkart and Myntra have moved to app-only platform due to the sheer
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COVER STORY geographic reach of the smartphone. However, for mobile marketing strategy to be a success, the mobile ads have to be concise, creative and catchy. The ad may receive only a fraction of a second of the customerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attention time and it has to create an impact in that little time. This is why when using mobile marketing, the only thing worse than doing no marketing would be doing bad marketing as the ad is visible to millions of customers around the world. Mobile offers businesses the privilege to directly market their product but in case the marketing is annoying or lackluster then todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s smart customer will not wait to put up his experience online and share with millions of people around the world. Therefore mobile marketing is a double edged sword which should be used carefully and tactfully to the businessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; benefit. Nevertheless, the advantages of mobile marketing certainly outweigh the disadvantages. Mobile is the future of marketing. More and more companies today are realizing the power of a smartphone in the hands of a potential customer. With the advent of 4G technology in India
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and government initiatives like Digital India it is evident that mobile technology will rule the roost of marketing in the near future. The smartphone has not only made life easy but has become a way of life in itself. We can eat, shop, bank, travel, holiday and do numerous other activities via the mobile. In fact mobile marketing will become the norm and blend seamlessly into what we know as just regular marketing.
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SPECIAL STORY NOT SO FOREIGN ANYMORE! While Americans were shelling out for Netflix subscriptions to see the epic finale of "Game of Thrones”, and Indians were burning the midnight oil downloading the pirated content on U torrent. There came a revolution in Indian television like no other. As the global insurgency became a phenomenon and the east-west dichotomy was shattering, the audience all across the globe craved for something new. Especially in India where the ‘saas-bahu’ soap opera were serving to only a specific segment of the society. The reason is that India rarely makes TV Serials for the different demographic because the TV series that were being made were mainly meant for the Indian Housewives to watch in between their house chores. This meant they had to pick a topic with which anybody and everybody would relate, and moreover, they had to take the series forward in such a way that even if you miss a few episodes, you still can be back to the plot progression and running in no time. So as a result we got a slow-moving emotional drama centred around family politics which will run till infinity and still garner high popularity. If we look back in the 1980s Doordarshan showed some wonderful programs which was a combination of serious serious content Tamas, Discovery of India and social issue
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centric series like Hum Log, Buniyaad and Nukkad. Even comical sitcoms were there with shows like Wagle Ki Duniya, Mungari lal ke Haseen Sapney, and Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, which revolved around the changing Indian lifestyle and values plus there was Ramayana and Mahabharata. All in all good entertainment, but now sadly that is not the case anymore. Leader in Indian Television, Colors by Viacom 18 stepped into English entertainment with the launch of Colors Infinity .The channel roped in Bollywood biggies like Karan Johar and Alia Bhatt as co-curator with multiyear deals with Warner Bro International Television Distribution, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures Television, Twentieth Century Fox, Lions gate, MGM, BBC and Endemol Shine amongst others. Today, we are the world's second largest English speaking population and also live in an environment where
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SPECIAL STORY English is seen as a ladder to personal progress", said Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO, Viacom18. According to him while the market is widening, viewers haven't been invited to consume international entertainment yet. He further quoted "English is an extremely important space for us and with this move, we will further strengthen our share in the category" The launch line-up has the most widely acclaimed international television series served on the platter with a pinch of salt such as 'Better Call Saul', 'The Flash', 'Orange Is The New Black', 'Fargo', 'The Big C', 'My Kitchen Rules', to name a few. Moving away from regular television format, three episodes of a new show will be aired, back-to-back, every day of the week at 9 pm. This love for the west is not one sided, as India accepted the content that they had to offer even west acknowledged the Indian talent. Priyanka Chopra paved the way by being the first ever Indian to star in lead role on an American T.V Series. Serials today, whether funny or serious are not of the same quality. Hence, in India as English as a language is promoted at a very early age, it has led to many youngsters watching only English programs. Adaptation of highly popular show 24 was keenly watched by many people in India due to its serious, dramatic and thrilling storyline. Also keenly awaited is the return of Big Bang Theory a sitcom which is very popular among young
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people. Other honourable mentions which are very popular are the Castle, How I met your Mother, Two and a Half Men and Modern Family which is a combination of fun and dramatics. Dramatic television series like Grey's Anatomy, Prison Break and Lost are also popular and who can forget the X Files back in the nineties. From UK in the present times, the TV series Sherlock Holms is very popular. We also have so many English channels who broadcast latest and past favourite shows. At present their six English channels which are STAR World, FX, Zee Cafe, AXN, Fox Crime, and Comedy Central are catering to the English speaking audience in India.
What future holds for infinity is unknown but one thing is for certain that we have moved away from the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;dubbed viewershipâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; days and have started appreciated the entertainment on a global scale.The impact and affect of this change can be debatable but this change comes with wider spectrum of choices,which can never be a bad thing.
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Hall-MARK CAMPAIGN THIS RAMADAN SEE WITHOUT LABELS Red, white and chilled. Combine these three and what comes to the mind is one of the world’s most valuable brands, COCA COLA. And it has never failed to draw our attention, just like this time. Rolling out campaigns specific to festivities has become a routine now. In Egypt and the Middle East, during the holy month of Ramadan, it has become a common practice to engage in CSR activities. And Coca cola, as always is ahead in this game too. Instead of spending millions on running a television advertisement at a prime slot during Ramadan, Coca Cola decided to post them on social media and use the money saved to help develop 100 underprivileged villages in Egypt, a country that has 16.7 million children living in poverty. The stereotype of spending more on promoting charity
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than actually contributing to charity was broken and Coca Cola didn’t stop here. After a lot of anticipation the campaign was launched on social media during Ramadan 2015. In the campaign, Coke talks about breaking barriers when it comes to prejudices and stereotypes which is a destructive habit observed in Egyptians (sounds confusing...‘among Egyptians’ may sound better?). They are guilty when it comes to judging and labelling people based on the colour of their skin, eye, hair, their religion, social status etc. (based on skin and hair colour, eye-shape, religion and social status). Their social media campaign consists of an ad wherein a group of Egyptian men from diverse backgrounds are conversing in a dark room about their life, likes, their passion and what each of them perceive about the person speaking, not really knowing who they are. After some time the lights are switched on and their reactions say it all. It depicts how quickly
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HALL-MARK CAMPAIGN we form opinions and prejudices about people without knowing them and how wrong we can be about the same. This brilliant message was further carried forward by Coca Cola on social networking sites where they used the hashtag #onesecondmakesadifference. They asked people to abandon prejudice and spend some time before forming any opinions. The company also called for people to post pictures with their index finger raised against prejudice (a finger for an extra second) with the hashtag and promised to
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donate 1 Egyptian Pound extra for each such picture to the village development project. Prejudices exist not only in the Middle East but all around the world. Hence, carrying this campaign forward would work brilliantly not only for Coca Cola but it might help destroy the habit of stereotyping and judging. And just like coke, we, too, believe that without prejudice we’d make a happier world. We should “OPEN TO OTHERS”. Check out the ad at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84 OT0NLlqfM
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PIONEER Kim Kardashian While many may criticize Kardashian as she doesn’t seem to fit the right moral ideals, Kim actually is a savvy businesswoman who has monetized every aspect of her life. She is aware of her target audience which largely consists of the common folk and she consistently provides them what they want to see through her magazine covers, her Instagram photos, her tweets, and through her public appearances, and also manages to Born on October 21, 1980, Kim keep them wanting more. Kardashian is the daughter of Robert Kardashian who is famous for being the defence attorney in the infamous case of “O.J. Simpson”. However, she became tabloid fodder thanks to her leaked homemade sex tape, which was soon followed by her the reality show “Keeping up with the Kardashians” which featured her extended family. The show not only became a mega hit in American households but also spawned several spin offs. Kardashian epitomises the idea of “famous-for-being-famous” and staying In the past year, Kardashian made the relevant is her USP, may it be through most money from public appearances. her 72 day marriage, her ‘break the Her other income sources include a internet’ stunt, her ubiquitous presence cut of wholesale earnings from the on social media or her “Kim Kardashian: “Kardashian Kollection”, a clothing line Hollywood” app, Kardashian makes sure sold at Sears that she promotes she remains a part of the conversation. alongside her sisters Khloe and This has enabled her to establish herself Kourtney. It is estimated that the as a brand which is an amalgamation of family fashion empire made uphill of glamour, fame, family and togetherness. $600 million at retail in 2013.
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PIONEER Her unique fragrances and endorsements of numerous products also unfailingly add up to her income. Besides, she also takes a cut of revenue from “DASH” that she co-ownswith her sisters, a chain of boutiques, selling the dresses that she is often captured wearing by paparazzi. If this wasn’t enough Kardashian is also paid outrageous sums of money; around $25-30K to tweet out ads to her millions of fans. All this only goes to substantiate that she’s surely got her figures in all Pies. With over 28 million Instagram followers, 30 million Twitter followers, a net worth
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of $85 million, an annual personal income of $30 million and counting, and a gaming app with revenues exceeding over $200 million; Kim Kardashian surely takes the cake when it comes to being the pioneer in terms of social media and personal branding.
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REWIND Usually on a Friday here at SIMSR, when we look at our batch mates, we see faces eager to rush out of class and get on with their weekend plans. However, on the 7th of august, 2015, with a marketing workshop conducted by Team Interface and Mr. Anshuman Mishra, the representative from Mercadeo Education Pvt. Ltd., the sight was different. He is an alumnus of IIM Lucknow who has worked for companies like Tata Steel, Deloitte, Nike, Flipkart, Bharat Matrimony, Gilette, KPMG as a consultant. His experience was reflected in the instances he narrated. The entire workshop was very interactive and informative keeping the participants on the edge of their seats for the entire duration. The workshop started with a very simple question which is not so simple when one really thinks about it â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Which specialization to opt for? The speaker broke the stereotypes and spoke about how the basics of operations management is required even if you are working in a field like marketing. Instances were given to showcase the challenges one faces when out on the field. The crowd was introduced to the profile of data scientists, which is really picking up in the industry with companies like Amazon offering as much as 15l per
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annum for it. What are the campus recruiters looking for? That was another aspect thrown some light on. The room was divided into two halves and a small activity was conducted. One side was to conduct the launch of a product from scratch in the traditional manner while the other had to use digital means. The activity showed that there is a lot that goes on in between advertising and launching of a product. Chocolates were showered throughout the session which kept the audience active. concepts like hunger marketing and territory planning were introduced that gave a glimpse of what really goes on in the industry beyond the 4 Ps. Towards the end of the workshop the room was introduced to CMSA, a certification in sales and marketing, designed by top executives in the industry. To sum it up, the session was a great start to a weekend leaving the students with a lot more enthusiasm that they came in with.
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Tete-a-Tete Here’s an excerpt from the interview with Mr. Anshsuman Mishra (A B.Tech from IITKharagpur, Diploma in Economics from LSE and Political Science, PGDBM from IIM-Lucknow. Q. What triggered the idea of starting something like Mercadeo Education and how do you see it relevant in the lives of management aspirants? A. After working for many years, I met with my friends a few years ago and we happened to discuss how was college value at? How it was completely irrelevant and something was wrong there. The way marketing is taught, needed to be changed. There is this huge gap. And to fill this gap, the idea of starting Mercadeo education was triggered. Q. It is a known fact that we are operating in a very dynamic world. How dynamic is the marketing world in your purview? What changes do you observe? A. The marketing world is very dynamic and currently there are 3 key changes that I observe; first would be the availability of humongous information that the customer has access to. There is Facebook, twitter and all the other sites where one would find reviews of hotels, cars, food and almost everything else. The amount of information available is maddening. This works both ways though. It can be a nightmare too sometimes.
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Second would be that traditional marketing, the sales channel has gone for a toss. You can see these changes, like Myntra is now app only, it is no more online. The attention span of the consumer is decreasing day by day. The third and the final change is that the consumer activism has shot up. It’s a boon and a bane both. But more of a bane for marketing. Q. How can a marketing aspirant prepare for it? A. Frankly speaking, you can’t. But what you can do is stick to the basics, forget the 4Ps, 5Ds etc, instead know who your consumer is and what is the need that you have to fulfil. If you are clear about these then you are doing good. For example, Johnson and Johnson. Their absolute bottom line is to provide hygienic products; they can’t stand if there is an issue there, they know their consumer and the need they have to fulfil. Q. what would be your advice to a marketing aspirant,? A. My advice would be that you should go and meet as many customers, shopkeepers, sales people as possible. Understand their aspirations, feelings, what they need etc. Also of course, read along with this. Books give you a base but not a great career. The more you meet people, the more you would understand.
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BOOKWORM How I braved Anu Aunty & co-founded a million dollar company -Varun Agarwal
How difficult can it be to think of being an entrepreneur in this country? How difficult can it be to chase your own dreams and not of some neighborhood ‘Anu Aunty’s’ ? How difficult can it be to defy our stereotypical society and start something new on our own? Who knows better than Varun Aggrawal, author of How I braved Anu aunty & co-founded a million dollar company?
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The book narrates Varun’s journey from an aspiring entrepreneur with a nascent idea to a co-owner of, now, a million dollar company. It all starts from the year he realizes engineering isn’t his cup of tea, and that he wants to wait for his true calling to beckon him. But to his misfortune, an Anu aunty was eagerly waiting to methodically destroy his dreams and tell him how he couldn’t possibly succeed without an engineering or medical profession. Varun’s story from there on is of sheer determination and perseverance against India’s biggest problem today – “Log kya kahenge?”. We’ve all faced it, we’re still facing it and most likely we’ll always do. But Varun chose to believe in his dreams and focus what he felt was right for him. It’s an inspiration for all of us who struggle against the strangest and silliest inhibitions within and outside of ourselves.
Read it, for it gives one hope to dream and the encouragement to make it come true. And who other than us budding entrepreneurs can appreciate this struggle more?
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KickSTART Man needed food, God gave him food. Man needed clothes, God gave him clothes. Man needed shelter, God gave him shelter. And then Man needed Online Shelter, OYO ROOMS gave him the same. Starting from a single room in a hotel two years ago in Gurgoan to India’s largest network of hotels, the journey of Mr. Ritesh Agrawal (CEO and Founder of OYO ROOMS) through E-commerce has revolutionized the hotel industry. Inspired by Mr. Bill Gates himself, Ritesh Agrawal is now an inspiration to many . A college dropout from Orissa with a great idea went against his entire family and made it big. In this society with a preconceived notion that success is directly proportional to the number of degrees and accolades one holds, this man with a will of his own proved to be an exception. OYO ROOMS is a big fat family of 10-20 IIMs, 200 IITians, HBS and IVY league grads. But the journey from a hotel room start up to one of the biggest of its kind in the country was not easy. With a good technological know-how and the world’s first tablet based property management app OYO
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ROOMS connects with its partners to provide hospitality services to its customers. Ranging from Rs.999-4000 it satiates the needs of majority of the travelers. The app provides customers with facilities like ordering food to requesting room services. With 2000 plus hotels and counting currently the largest chain of budgeted hotel rooms in India has a BHAG of becoming the world’s largest hotel chain. OYO ROOMS is a good start up to watch out for.
THE MARKSMAN
FEATURED ARTICLES Movies as Brands: An Idea that’s one in a minion
Sanket Porwal -Welingkar, Mumbai Interesting idea? Reaching out to the Indian hoi-polloi has always been an uphill task for companies trying to communicate on pan India level. The ways of communication have increased especially with the digital space getting hotter with every passing day. Companies from different industries joining hands for mutual benefits are giving newspapers and news channels enough feed to fill their slots. So the idea of Movie production houses and companies joining hands together for mutual benefit is an interesting bit that can be nurtured and can be called as the way forward.
Money spinner? In India we already saw a film that centred on a Maruti Car in a film called “Mere Dad Ki Maruti”. Coming from Y-films, a subsidiary of India’s premium production house Yash Raj Films, that film clocked more than 10cr nett INR and also achieved footfalls of more than a million in India. That sure wasn’t any biggie film treading new grounds but it did recover its shoestring cost. So the idea of companies investing in making movies centred on a brand is definitely fruitful provided you have the back of a stupendous creative manpower. The other benefits are that the movie won’t just earn theatrically but also on Television. The producers get money for selling off the satellite rights to Television channels and screen them forever. Isn’t this unthinkable for companies who have been shelling quite a bomb to secure some 30seconds of a TV channel slot and now to earn from same source and not by telecasting for 30 seconds but for 150 minutes? Any problem? But one sure can’t pass by the
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FEATURED ARTICLES hurdles this industry can throw. With the evolving taste of audience, where a big star movie can do less business than a movie that might not have a mega movie star shows that everything boils down to content. With the evolving taste of audience, where a big star movie can do less business than a movie that might not have a mega movie star shows that everything boils down to content. If the creative team of the movie along with the communication and branding team of the company can’t be on the same page then it might not only result in a mediocre film but it would hurt the brand to an extent that it might need reinvention right through after the release. It doesn’t take time for a bad film to become a talking point in a drawing room-discussion or getting trolled on Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp. A bad 30 seconder TVC can be forgotten in a jiffy but a bad 2.5 hours movie might linger in people’s head for a long, long time. Because in here you are calling an audience to pay to see the movie that endorses your brand and the audience today is evolved enough to realize if what they watch on celluloid is just a marketing gimmick or a genuine want to make a movie creatively endearing. So a bad film indeed can break a momentum of a brand.
goes well, then movies are best place where creative juices flow. The creative ideas are not just restricted to 30 seconds or some posters. The writers and directors can work their own ways to maximise those 2.5 hours of movie making experience. Think of it, it’s a double bonanza - the company funding the movie will also invariably fund for the P&A, a term famous among Bollywood Trade pundits for “Print & Advertising”, meaning the money spent on advertising a brand on hoardings and various other mediums can be rather spent on advertising the movie, that has your brand written all over it, on the same mediums. The other upside towards it is, Movies won’t only have an appeal towards the domestic audience but also for diaspora living in different parts of the world.
The numbers Sure the economics of movie making business won’t be same. A star might not want to be associated with a brand or might want to charge a fortune to be associated with a full-fledged movie branding. Movie branding concept is still in nascent stage in India and to bring it into the mainstream realm is a hard task to achieve. But Movie business is
Double Whammy! But keeping the negatives aside, if all
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THE MARKSMAN
FEATURED ARTICLES grappling with the Hit ratio forever. The number of hits in a year is extremely lower considering the number of releases in a year. If we take Bollywood into consideration then the number of unsuccessful films outnumbers the number of Hit films by huge distance. In 2014, Bollywood had only 10.45% success ratio, while n 2013 it was 11.41%, in 2012 it was
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i16.36%. It is not just Bollywood. Even in the west the unsuccessful films outnumbers the successful films though the ratios could vary. The final word To put things into perspective, the idea of “Movies as Brands” is surely bankable provided there’s an ingenious concept that will not just translate into an entertaining movie but also a smart branding gimmick.
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FEATURED ARTICLES E-commerce platforms becoming apponly: A killer move or a fatal error?
Abhijeet
-IMT,Ghaziabad
A lot has been said and discussed on one of the hottest topics of this year, one can debate it all they want but cannot ignore it. Owing to the low-cost strategy of start-ups majority of them are now opting for the easier yet effective route of App-Only. On the other hand, there are Unicorns such as Uber and Snapchat which are still treading this path, primarily because of the type of usage their products have. The Myntra Mantra: Earlier this year Myntra became the first major Indian E-commerce firm to go apponly raising more doubts than thumbs up. But, before jumping any guns to judge the move let us first look at Myntraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s target group and the way it generates revenue. Myntra targets customers of the age group 18 to 27 years staying in the Tier-II and Tier-III cities, this target group generates 50% of its Gross Merchandise Volume. These transactions are coming from Tier-II and Tier-III cities, a market where the majority of its population only uses mobile phones to get online! When we specifically talk of the Ecommerce industry, all the major players have accepted exponential
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growth in the number of mobile transactions. Snapdeal has seen transactions grow by 66% on mobile devices in last 1 year. Flipkart currently generates 70-75% of its traffic from the mobile app as compared to 6% last year. Deeper Dive into the Conundrum: For an established brand, the genesis of moving to App-Only model lies in the intention of extracting maximum benefits by pushing the application to customers. But why move to the mobile app at all? Prime reasons of doing so are: Lower Bounce Rate: Mobile apps have an inherent characteristic of decreasing the bounce rate of online consumers by removing the option of switching from one website to the other thereby streamlining the customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; search funnel to one brand. Push Notifications: This is one of the
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FEATURED ARTICLES most powerful features that a brand can capitalize on once it has developed its presence on a customers’ mobile. For an E-commerce player, it also provides a way to balance their inventory by providing special offers and communicating it to the user in real time. Of course, this feature if overused can be easily disabled from the users end, but any sensible brand can gain a lot by not being outright greedy. the websites to target their ads. Easier to understand user and deliver what is best for them: Flipkart has recently launched “Image Search” feature on its app. Other E-commerce players are also releasing app only features one after the other, this has been made possible only due the understanding of consumers’ preference that they have developed. Makemytrip has mobile-only features like the offline e-tickets and hotels booking on which Accessibility to invaluable data: they see 40% of hotels traffic and 34% of Mobile phones have become an integral hotels transactions, on their app they part of our life. It captures data have added feature to select vernacular throughout our daily chores, data that languages amongst Gujarati, Telugu and can be priceless for companies to assess Tamil as they see a lot of traffic from consumer behavior. An application can these states. extract all the data available on mobile in contrast to websites which only has Surge in Smartphone and Data Usage: access to the browser cookies. Using In India, 80% is the year on year growth cookies also has a flipside, these cookies rate of smartphones. The number of help you win, but they can make you lose smartphone users in the country which as well because internet cookies are stood at 117 million in the year 2014 is being used by all forecasted to reach 205 million by the year 2015. And the number of 3G subscribers is forecasted to grow from
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FEATURED ARTICLES 88 million to 173 million between the years 2014 and 2015. Google Going the Mobile Way: The behemoth Google has focused special attention towards mobility to an extent that it is the inventor of most used mobile device OS - Android. Centerpiece of “Adwords Livestream 2015” hangout held on 5th May and “Google I/O 2015” held on 29th May was mobile devices and majority of all the announcements made were about advancements in mobile devices. From the special ads for mobile devices to free testing of all the upcoming android apps, all the developments are in the direction of mobility.
M-Commerce transactions. When most of India E-commerce companies get over 50% of traction and transaction from mobile phones and apps, Alibaba, receives only around 30% of its GMV from mobile phones and apps. To sum up, it is certainly a smart move for E-commerce companies to become app-only since the trends in the market are evidently in favor of mobility. Also, now that Flipkart has all the experience and insights gathered from Myntra’s move, what remains to be seen is the move it makes for the parent portal!
India Leading the M-Commerce Way: India is ahead of China and the US in
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SquAreheaD
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BUZZ BUZZ PUZZLE
ACROSS 3. Lets go places (6) 4. This company has created a film festival in Taiwan to combat the decline in camcorders market (4) 5.This is where the beer campaign is taking its campaign. (7) 8. They faced a lot of heat for restricting entry to holders of international passports when they opened in Delhi (10)
CLUES
DOWN 1. The recent campaign by OLX to reunite those separated at the 1947 partition (8) 2. It’s now nearbuy! (7) 6. Often dubbed as ‘Uber for groceries’ 7. They have bagged sponsorships rights for all home cricket series in India (5)
Answers: ACROSS 3) TOYOTA 4) SONY 5) TWITTER 8) HAAGENDAZS DOWN 1) DAASTAAN 2) GROUPON 6) INSTACART 7) PAYTM
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Call for ARTICLES CALL FOR ARTICLES SEPTEMBER 2015 Articles can be sent on any one of the following topics*:
1. Public display of emotions – Maggi missed its customers 2. From ‘Bech de’ ‘Daastaan’-e-OLX
3.
to
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lo’
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ALPHABET to include G for Google now
*Please ensure that there is no plagiarism and all references are clearly mentioned.
1. One article can have only one author. 2. Your article should be approximately 800-850 words and MUST be replete with relevant pictures that can be used to enhance the article. 3. Font Type: Gill Sans MT 4. Font Size: 14. 5. Send your article in .doc/.docx format to marksman.simsr@somaiya.edu 6. Subtitle line: Your name_Institute Name_Course Year 7. Kindly name your file as : Your name_Topic The best adjudged article will be given a Winner’s Certificate. Deadline for the submission of article will be : 20th September, 2015
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The TEAM THE TEAM TWEETS by Prateek Aggarwal Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all about AD-itude by Neha Sharma Brand MARK ive by Jayati Trivedi COVER STORY by Janhavi Kothari SPECIAL STORY by Sampada Srivastava FAUX PAS by Samarth Amarnani HALLMARK CAMPAIGN by Ashka Mevawala PIONEER Shikhar Dubey REWIND by Mansi Mahajani BOOKWORM by Sidharth Iyengar SquAreheaD by Ashka Mevawala BUZZ by Mansi Mahajani KickSTART by Ishita Shah, Vivek Gariba and Priyank Wani PROOF READ by Shruti Mohapatra, Puneet Punjabi, Abhinav Jain, Dipika Soneja, Ishita Shah, Vivek Gariba and Priyank Wani DESIGNING by Sidharth Iyengar Mansi Mahajani PROMOTIONS by Mansi Mahajani Dev Sewlia
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