The Marksman Jan '12

The

MARKSMAN

K J SOMAIYA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES & RESEARCH

I N S I D E

VOL. 2 | ISSUE VIII| JAN ‘12

4Ps of Samsung Smartphones Sensory Branding Employer Branding vs Celebrity Endorsements for petroleum products at BPCL AND MORE…

EDITOR’S DESK Dear Readers, Welcome to a brand new year, brimming with opportunities, hope and fulfillment! Your MARKSMAN, shall continue to strive harder to meet and exceed your expectations in the new year.

This new year and years to come are going to be defined by people power. With the social media and user generated content revolutionizing market trends and dynamics, marketing has just gone a lot more complex! The new complexities are a chance just as much as a challenge that companies need to adapt to or perish!

With our cover story on Marketing 3.0 experience the evolution of marketing and the importance of building brand credibility today.

Branding days are an evergreen fad with marketers and a successful one at that!

Our special story shall walk you through some successful campaigns that have not only boosted sales but helped increase brand awareness in a sustainable way.

Our heartiest congratulations to Mr. Nikhil Goyal! His entry on 4Ps of Samsung smart phones has been adjudged the best entry for the month of Jan. Our selected featured articles on Sensory Branding and Employer Branding v/s Celebrity Branding also make for delightful reads. We appreciate and thank all our contributors for their entries.

Dedicated sections : Bookworm, Ad-itude, Squarehead, Buzz, Rewind and Tweets have also been laboriously put together and make for interesting reads.

Happy reading folks!

With the 63rd Republic day celebrations just culminating we at MARKSMAN take this opportunity to pay our tributes to the sacrifices and efforts made in the past that make us proud Indians today!

Cheers !!

Team – Marksman The Interface – The Marketing Club of SIMSR

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CONTENTS

Tweets

Ad-itude

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Cover Story

Marketing 3.0 Special Story-Branding Days Featured Articles

4 Ps of Samsung Smartphones

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Sensory Branding

Employer Branding versus Celebrity 16 endorsements for Petroleum products at BPCL

Book worm Rewind JANUARY 2012

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SquAreheaD Buzz

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TWEETS No more “Say Cheese” for Kodak. Digital Photography era spells end for film photography.

Eastman Kodak Co. (EK), the photography pioneer that introduced the Brownie Camera more than a century ago, filed for bankruptcy after consumers embraced digital cameras, a technology Kodak invented and failed to commercialize. It listed assets of $5.1 billion and debt of $6.8 billion in Chapter 11 documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. It now aspires to be a specialist in leaner digital printing.

McDonald’s get a brand new Avatar!

Fifteen years after it entered India, Big Mac is changing colours, literally.

The world's largest fastfood chain is shedding its familiar red-and-yellow colours for more muted tones as it goes for its biggest and costliest revamp in the country, in line with its global strategy of attracting more adults.

A website that runs without internet! It’s the power of Rajni!

It may sound like another Rajnikanth joke, but a new website dedicated to the superstar runs 'without an internet connection'. The website www.allaboutrajni.com was created by Gurbaksh Singh and has gone viral with thousands of hits, shares and mentions across the web every day.

Wikipedia blacked out for 24 hrs Wikipedia blacked out its English-language site on 18th Jan, 2012 for 24 hours to seek support against the two legislative bills, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act(PIPA) proposed by the US Congress that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said threatens the future of the internet.

11th Auto-Expo: Glitz blitz of the hot wheels.

The largest automotive show in India with around 1500 participants from 23 countries was hosted between 7th and 11th Jan 2012, at the Pragati Maidan ,New Delhi . It witnessed the unleashing of supercars like Maruti Suzuki XA Alpha SUV, pure electric vehicle Nissan Leaf, six speed automatic transmission Mini Cooper of BMW and Mercedes- Benz SLS AMG roadster.

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It’s all about AD-itude!

P R I N T

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Brand: Amul Creative Agency: daCunha Communications Here comes another volley from the creative marketing geniuses that keep taking digs at contemporary issues, happenings and Amulize it all, utterly and butterly! So India's dismal performance against Australia in test cricket is the latest in the row of Amul print ads that since 1966 have been using politics, sports and Bollywood to grab attention of every Indian.

The billboards with Amul ads keep changing every week with changing newspaper headlines! Amul ads are timeless, with the moppet playing everything from the coy Madhuri to sensuous Urmila to Jayalalitha to herself in a polka dots frock. The charm of Amul ads lies in their simplicity and humour.

The strategically placed hoardings displaying Amul ads make every Indian smile while waiting at the traffic signal. The English rather Hinglish and sometimes regional language word play is the source of pun and the crux of all Amul ads.

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Brand: Coca-Cola Creative Agency: McCann Erickson The new coca-cola ad campaign, ‘ Believe in a happier tomorrow’, that was released at the outset of the New Year tries to evoke optimism and happiness in people. Coke has always tried to associate itself with celebration and happiness. Its previous campaigns like ‘open happiness’ and ‘khushiya batne se badti h’ tried to associate coca cola with celebrations and festivities. The new campaign is on the lines of the international campaign ‘Reasons to believe’ with the same tune, theme and motive. The lyrics of the Indian version are written by Prasoon Joshi while Bollywood music composer Shantanu Moitra has composed the music. The ad strikes the right chord with the audiences as it comes as hope in a time when there has been a lot of negativity around with political scams, scandals, corruption, unrest and the economic crisis world over. The ad plays the same old story of how good always wins over evil but seems to be working wonders with the catchy song!

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Marketing 3.0 “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants as long as it is black” – Henry Ford Had Mr. Ford delayed this announcement by around 90 years, most investment bankers and marketers alike would have promptly carved out Ford Motor Company’s tombstone in a split second. Yes, marketing has come a long way.

C O V E R S T O R Y

MARKETING 1.0 Decades ago, in the industrial age, marketing was all about selling products to a target market sans the consideration of needs and wants. Marketing was considered mere selling or persuasion and also gave it the negative connotation of ‘cheating’.

This product- centric marketing era was christened Marketing 1.0.

MARKETING 2.0 The advent of the information age ushered Marketing 2.0.

Consumers are now well informed, making it easier for them to evaluate similar products. Marketing is no longer simple. The focus of the marketer, in this era, is to identify unfulfilled needs and convert them into profitable avenues.

Marketing continues to have a bad name in many circles because many marketers are simply after profit and conduct ‘sly’ tricks. This is known as the customer-centric era.

What led to Marketing 3.0?

Consumers now turn to peer feedback while deciding on a purchase. The source for such solicited advise has now moved from traditional “water cooler conversations” to social media.

Technorati pegs the number of active

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blogs around the world at more than a staggering 15.5 million. Close to one-third of blog readers are influencers. Twitter, the microblogging has been another social media phenomenon that had taken

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COVER STORY the marketing world by storm. Who would imagine how powerful 140 words could be?

YouTube and other sites user generated content have also lead this revolution.

A good example of this would be the case of Dave Carroll, a disgruntled United Airways customer, who uploaded a self-composed soundtrack titled “United Breaks Guitars� on Youtube. Within four days of it going online, the bad PR caused the United Airlines stock to plunge 10 percent, costing shareholders $180 million. An alarming example of how social media can damage a brand.

Watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zO qozo&feature=player_embedded

Alternately, LEGO instils the positive effect of social media. The company enlists influential consumers as online evangelists. Following the launch of its new locomotive kit which was shown to 250 LEGO train fans, their word-ofmouth helped the first 10,000 unit sell out in 10 days with no other marketing.

This has led companies to stop dead in their tracks, acknowledge and amalgamate Marketing 3.0 into their marketing DNA. Marketing 3.0 is the stage when companies shift from consumer-centricity to humancentricity and where profitability is balanced with corporate responsibility. Companies adopting it have bigger missions, visions and values to contribute to the world while aiming to address problems in society. Human aspirations, values and spirit are now imbibed into marketing. Marketing 3.0 gains more relevance during crisis situations, be it economic or environmental. It provides answers and hope to people faced with such grave issues thus touching consumers at a far deeper level.

Marketing 3.0 is value-centric marketing The focus has shifted from imposing the product on the consumer towards giving impetus to the rational and emotional needs associated with the purchase. Hence the shift towards value based marketing. It focuses on people instead of segments. Marketers should identify the anxieties and desires of the consumers to be able to target their minds, hearts, and spirit. One effective way is to include social responsibility in a corporate culture and maintain commitment, the best approach is to embed it into the company’s vision, mission, and values so that they

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COVER STORY company strives to occupy the minds, hearts and then spirit of current and future customers. The other axis takes into account the company’s mission, vision and values.

are understood and imbibed by the employees. The company should introduce this new matrix where, on one axis,

While delivering satisfaction, a brand ought to be seen as realizing aspirations and practicing compassion in some form. It must not only promise ProfitAbility and ReturnAbility to current and future shareholders, but also SustainAbility. It must also become a brand that is better, different, and that makes a difference to current and future employees.

Kottler’s 10 credo’s of Marketing 3.0 CREDO 1: Love your customers, respect your competitors: Multiple telecommuni-cations companies in the United Kingdom such as Motorola, O2, Vodafone, etc., collaborated with Bono and Bobby Shriver to introduce a new RED mobile phone designed to help fight AIDS in Africa. Tens of millions of pounds was raised for the cause.

CREDO 2: Be sensitive to change, be ready to transform: Toyota sensed the trends in the market and realized that it had to introduce a hybrid car quickly before it became obsolete.

Thus, in introducing the Prius, it broke many of its strict Japanese management systems and acted quickly in product development.

CREDO 3: Guard your name; be clear about who you are: The TATA group has always been India’s leading example of a valuedriven business. They furthered the TATA

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Core Value of Integrity during the rebranding of TATA tea with the “Jaago re!” campaign.

CREDO 4: Customers are diverse; go first to those who can benefit most from you Apple has never strived to be a mass market product developer. They have always focussed on a unique segment of early adapters and technology lovers.

This has led to higher margins per unit sold. Apple continues to apply this to the iPad and iPhone devices.

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COVER STORY CREDO 5: Always offer a good package at a fair price

CREDO 8: Whatever your business, it is a service business: Imbibe the spirit of wanting to serve your customers.

Candies, a restaurant in Bandra, Mumbai, has always been known for providing its TG of students and young professionals a good ambience at affordable prices. In spite of rising operating costs, they have managed to

maintain their prices constant, albeit with a minor calculated dent to their margins.

CREDO 6: Always make yourself available, spread the good news Don’t make it hard for your customers to find you.

Vertu, a British-based manufacturer and retailer of luxury mobile phones provides its customers with a concierge service called “Vertu Concierge”. On accessing it through the "concierge key", one can avail of its concierge service anywhere in the

world.

Johnson & Johnson uses its www.babycenter.com to connect with the customer while providing expecting and current mothers useful tips and advice on everything related to their young offspring.

CREDO 7: Get your customers, keep and grow them

Amazon.com builds recommendations based on past customer purchases and delivers personal recommendations via customized homepage and email.

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CREDO 9: Always refine your business process in terms of quality, cost, and delivery Maruti works with its local suppliers and ancillary industries by sharing technology to improve their individual productivity.

CREDO 10: Gather relevant information, but use wisdom in making your final decision Due to the emergence of a powerful competitor, the Hershey’s Trust decided to sell its stake to Wrigley, a decision that was financially sound. However, a group of angry employees refused this acquisition and protested against the sale. They realized that their decision was wrong as they hadn’t considered the social impact of their decision and cancelled the sale transaction.

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S P E C I A L S T O R Y

Particular dates honoring a particular issue or person come and go with clockwork regularity, year after year. It could be national days, days of festival, days to celebrate the birth of national leaders, days dedicated for environmental concerns or days dedicated to show family and friend’s love and affection.

These special days provide for opportunities for corporates to run campaigns, articles, events, talk shows, competitions. Infact, the greeting cards (like Archise) and website businesses

have wisely commissioned research teams to come up with more special days, so that no day passes by without drawing people’s attention to some person, cause or issues. Nowadays corporates are : •Promoting brands around special days- For instance the Big Bazaar campaign of ‘Sabse saste teen din’ around 26th Jan and 15th August .

•Creating special days around brandLike Hindustan Times’ latest campaign of ‘No TV Day’

Hindustan Times – “turning your TV black” Calling 29th Jan ‘No TV Day’, the media outlet is asking the people to talk to their real F.R.I.E.N.D.S and acknowledge the real Master Chef at home. They have shown their presence on social media, outdoor advertising like the transit ads and hoardings, and the conventional ones- Radio and Television. To invite people outdoors, HT has organized carnivals that include games, magic and dance shows, city tour and various other events around the city. HT is following a good marketing strategy, pleasing its readers as well as attracting prospective readers. It was a success in 2011, and with its success in 2012 it would take the minds of people away from TV screens.

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SPECIAL STORY Big Bazaar- Celebrating Republic and Independence Day These days that mark independence and freedom are also now being celebrated as the days of shopping festival. Thanks to Big Bazaar for redefining these occasions in India.

Big Bazaar started campaign ‘Sabse Saste Din’ on January 26, 2006 with 24 stores.

Big Bazaar has very well understood how to attract customers. A very simple strategy it followed was understanding customers needs while maintaining their home budget. Continuing its efforts, this year Big Bazaar aims to provide customers ‘value’ with rock bottom prices, best possible discounts and mega offers. Apart from the flagship Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar stores, other Future Group retail formats, like Furniture Bazaar, Electronic Bazaar and Home Bazaar stores, are also a part of this mega campaign.

Visual merchandise used at various Big Bazaar outlets remain in sync. Aggressive advertisement via radio, television, flyers, and newspapers is conducted. It’s not just the consumers making the most of this shopping fiesta; the retail behind the event, Pantaloon Retail India also makes moolah from the endeavor.

Lifebuoy- Marking the Global Hand Washing Day Having a dedicated day for a cause or an issue really helps you talk about the same and increase its visibility besides increasing brand awareness. To promote the understanding of the importance of hand washing, Lifebuoy marked October 15 as the first ever ‘Global Hand washing Day’ in 2008, together with the United Nations and other partners. under the auspices of a public-private partnership for hand washing (PPPHW).

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SPECIAL STORY It coordinated the efforts with more than 50 organizations in 19 countries. In 2010, more than 80 countries celebrated Global Hand washing Day. Lifebuoy has spread the message more widely using Facebook and Twitter.

Millions of school children have taken part in awareness-raising activities and were encouraged to make hand washing pledges.

Colgate- not just a day but 30 dedicated days of Oral Hygiene!

The generic brand and the world leader in Oral Care, Colgate has always been at the forefront of initiatives that improve the oral health condition in India. In 2004, the month of October was earmarked as the Oral Health Month. Colgate has continued to build on this initiative year on year.

During this month series of events are planned. Just to highlight a few of them: a unique event wherein Colgate got children from across India to pen down lyrics on the theme of 'Spread a Smile' which was the base for ‘Spread a Smile concert’.

Also ‘Spread a Smile Quiz’ was conducted to test the knowledge on recommended oral care practices of the participants and ‘Free dental check-ups’ were organized on a mass scale in six cities. Colgate also targeted the untapped segment such as rural areas, orphanages and slum areas to spread awareness on oral hygiene.

The only trouble of coming out with campaigns on special days is that the status of it being so ‘special’ that its ‘message’ should be put away carefully in order to bring it out again on the same day, the following year. Corporate world that loses no time in cashing on special days to print banners, merchandise t-shirts and other products. Corporatization of special days is a good thing because it spreads the message in a more consumer- friendly fashion, generates business and makes it an economically viable endeavor.

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FEATURED ARTICLES

4 Ps of Samsung Smartphones -Nikhil Goyal, BITS-Pilani Samsung has emerged as a preferred brand focusing on affordability and availability. And it has instant hits like Galaxy range. With superb marketing and wide range of products, neither of which Apple has been able to provide, the company has earned brand loyalty.

Let us now take a look at the 4Ps of Samsung smartphones so as to understand what made it possible for Samsung to beat Apple in Smartphone sales.

PRODUCT Samsung offers innovative smart mobile devices across different operating systems and different price points, giving the customers more choice. It has a portfolio of 13 smartphone models. It has offerings on different platforms including highly popular Android, Microsoft Windows and Bada. Apple uses the standard iOS in its iPhones. Samsung Galaxy Note has a unique offering of both a tablet and a smartphone becoming the first hybrid phone in the country. For younger generation “who wants to be expressive, socially active, wants to stay connected� Samsung recently launched Wave Y. The highly successful Samsung Galaxy Ace was a middle end handset that delivered in every way. Apple however has highly standardised smartphones which are high end and it fails to target a large audience. The next big thing from Samsung for India will be the dual sim smartphone Galaxy Y Duos, another feature that mesmerizes Indians.

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FEATURED ARTICLES PRICE While Apple carries a hefty price range of Rs.30,500 to Rs.44,500 Samsung offers a wide range of Rs.6000 to Rs.34,990. Pricing seems to have played a significant role in Samsung’s success. Initially iPhone was sold at same price in India as in US. But later iPhone 4S was being sold at 35% less than the price in India. This pricing communication was one of the reasons for the iPhone comedown. On the contrary Samsung claims of selling smartphones at a relatively cheaper price than other countries. An executive justified Apple's pricing in India on three counts: Local taxes and import duties, depreciation of the rupee against the dollar and the fact that the unbundled phone accounts for a minuscule share of total sales in the developed markets. The manufacturing facilities at Noida and Chennai have given Samsung an added advantage of localisation and a good price position. The different price points in Samsung give consumers more choice and extra options than any other brand.

PLACE Samsung has 18 state-level distribution offices and a direct dealer interface. The direct dealer interface helped the company get quick feedback from dealers and enabled it to launch products according to customer needs. The rigorous marketing strategy enabled Samsung to reach 70,000 outlets in 2011, and managed to strengthen the distributor infrastructure in both tier-1 and tier-2 markets. At the time of the launch, Apple’s license holders in India Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar sold the handsets only at their outlets thereby limiting their availability. Thus Apple failed to strike the right entry strategy. The distribution model was a failure.

PROMOTION Samsung launched a new television commercial drive for its Galaxy Y and Wave Y smartphones “Desh smart ban raha hai, aap kab ban rahe ho?”. This is one of the most aggressive campaign by any smartphone player in the country. Samsung has always established itself in Indian consumers’ mind with its corporate advertisements. On the other hand Airtel, Aircel and Vodafone ran commercials outsourced from Apple and the company didn’t run its own campaign thereby failing to leave an impression in Indians’ minds.

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FEATURED ARTICLES

Branding is not only about getting a preference over your competitor by the buyer but also about leaving an impression in the minds of the customers that you are the sole provider of the solution to their problems. Thus Sensory Branding. Sensory Branding involves the use of the senses in creating this relationship with the product. The science behind the effectiveness of Sensory Branding is that our basic understanding of environment is through our senses, which are linked to our memory. We store our memories in the cells of brains (called as Memory Banks).The stimulation by senses however has to do very little with the quality and performance of the product, yet it creates an impression in the minds of the people. The stimulation offered by the senses: 1. Influence our choices.

2. Create a connect with the brand.

3. Distinguish one product from the other.

4. Part of our decision making process.

Sensory Branding have an effect on all the five senses of the human. The various forms of sensory brands cater to each and every sense.

What They See: Marketers mostly cater to this sense, as this is the most effective tool to establish your mark. In his book “Brand Sense – Build Powerful Brands through Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight, and Sound”, Martin Lindstrom emphasizes on identifying the brand even if the logo wasn’t there. He wants to establish a connect even the color with the brand so strongly that in the absence of the brand logo the color alone should be sufficient to identify the brand.

E.g. Vodafone, the red color and also the pug campaign leave a strong impression in the minds of the people that every time when the pug campaign is in the air the audience will automatically understand that it’s Vodafone.

What They Hear: This is the second most favorite senses targeted by the marketers. A distinctive ring tone tells surrounding theatergoers that the offender is a customer of Nokia or Motorola. And a startup bong lets nearby latte sippers know whether the writer huddled over the laptop in the corner bought her operating system from Microsoft or Apple. Such is the strong connect of the auditory senses to the brand proposition. Also we all know music helps in creating an ambience. So auditory connect with the brand is the best way to identify your brand.

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FEATURED ARTICLES What They Smell: Olfactory sense is the most responsive sense of the five senses. Smell invokes memories and the customer can visualize the memories associated with the smell immediately. This is due to the fact that there is no filtration or analysis by the brain. Next time a person smells the same fragrance he/she is reminded of the ambience of the store. 75% of our emotions are generated by what we smell, this is sufficient to prove that how important olfactory senses are to the Brands.

E.g. Victoria's Secret, have long used fragrance as part of the sensory environment in their stores.

What They Taste: Taste helps a lot particularly in the food industry to leave a mark of its brand name. I mean if you taste McDonald’s burger either in Delhi or Mumbai or Kolkata or Chennai, they all taste the same and their unique taste helps in establishing the foothold in the minds of the people.

What They Touch: Feel of a product is the major driver of its sale. Apparel industry runs on this fact. Most people don’t shop online and the major reason for the fact is that they can’t feel the product or I would say touching the product. For a product to survive we have to touch it to have a feel of what the product is all about. We all remember our parents touching the stuff of cloth before buying it. Whenever we buy anything we like to take in the hand.

Sensory Branding is important in today’s time as: 1. So many advertisements, so much information leaves customers indifferent towards brands, so we need something extra to create the impression.

2. Nowadays none compromises on the quality so we cannot compromise on the quality itself.

3. A physical connection always serves best in promoting the brand.

Sensory perceptions are unique to each of us, as memories are. We experience powerful stimulations from them. The opportunity of brand building by leveraging the five senses is wide open. But only few companies have integrated their brand-building strategies to appeal to all the senses. This is probably the case for two reasons: 1. Not all media channels are able to connect with each of the five senses, and 2. We really don't know how to handle the phenomenon of total sensory appeal.

The challenge of sensory branding is to think more broadly about how people experience products in the real world and find ways to enhance these experiences. In India, the advent of modern trade provides an opportunity of creating a sensorial experience.

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FEATURED ARTICLES EMPLOYER BRANDING VS CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS FOR PETROLEUM PRODUCTS AT BPCL -Sameer Bhambhani, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Executive MBA Oil & Gas

Employer Branding: The management of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited has always been fervent in the pursuit of qualitative brilliance for maximization of all the stakeholders contentment. The organizational design of BPCL comprising of 5 different SBU’s i.e. Aviation, Industrial & Commercial, LPG, lubricants & retail, refinery is a testimony of greater customer focus.

BPCL understands that it is essential to own dominant brands in the gung ho scenario prevalent in the petro retail sector. The Marketing team continuously strives to build a strong brand image reflecting Bharat Petroleum's core values of being 'INCARE', viz. INnovative, CAring and REliable & emulating the same in their product characteristics. The Brand management team relentlessly works to understand the customer changing needs, behaviour, expectations & focuses to gratify these needs in the most cost-effective manner.

Pure for sure signage is a commitment made to the customers for the pure quality & proper quantity of fuel for their vehicles.

Over & above fostering loyalty by giving Petrocards, pioneering the concept of convenience stores & providing V-care (Vehicle care) facilities in the urban network only enhance its brand value People above oil has been the success mantra for BPCL. The management firmly believes that employee empowerment is the way to innovations which could help sustain growth in the competitive global scenario. The firm fosters the best HR practices through continuous Performance management, Competency modeling, identifying & bridging such gaps & encouraging multi-tasking through various initiatives

Celebrity endorsements: Celebrity endorsement is the trendy modus operandi followed by marketers for their product promotion & to follow competition in the market. But celebrity endorsement is a high risk, high gain event as there is always a presence of human element involved. Hence it is essential that the characteristics of the product should

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FEATURED ARTICLES match with the celebrity brand values. MAK brand of BPCL signed up MS Dhoni as it’s Brand ambassador in the year 2006 to promote it among the youth & improve the visibility of the brand. Rise of MAK brand coincided with the rise of MS Dhoni, who with his all round performance delivered his best, in all the forms of the game for India. He was made the Indian captain in the smaller as well as the longer version. Synopsis derived was that MAK would deliver under all conditions much like MS Dhoni.

Employer brand

Celebrity endorsement

Product sales & value

Summing up, employer branding is the base on which the future strategic decisions of the company are based. When celebrity endorsement works, it is an ideal combination of brand & product. This is known as the halo effect as the aim is for some of celebrity’s glamour to rub off on the product. Celebrity endorsements act as boosters enhancing the overall effectiveness of the brand. When they go wrong they have to be completely detached from the product, whereas the employer branding co-exists with the product as it is based more on the basic values. When the Indian team does well, the ad campaigns of the cricketers are incessant. As the player & team performance goes down, the ads are rarely shown as they might have a direct effect on the product sales. Thus when the celebrity image compliments the product characteristics, it’s a win-win situation as far as the product sales & the product brand value are concerned. However, with the decline in performance, the celebrity endorsements may backfire.

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BOOKWORM Bookseller: Nemona Collectables (San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.) Bookseller Rating : ( Courtesy: http://www.abebooks.com) THE BIG IDEA by Robert Jones In this world, people are continuously looking for more, for change and for excitement. People want the future to be very different from the past. What will make the future from the past is the Big Idea. `The big idea', is a need for every company, to find and manage in order to create a differentiation for themselves and survive in this world. The way this world is going forward ‘The Big Idea’ will give something which any company wants most – a scope to grow In this book, Jones questions the common understanding about three familiar business concepts- strategy, benchmarking, and customer segments. His first target is strategy where according to him, the whole idea of strategy is starting to feel wrong. How can you have a five-year strategy, a path mapped out into the future, when the over whelming mood is to leave every possibility open?

Next comes the concept of benchmarking where Jones asserts that: `No longer is ``best practice'' any kind of guide to the future. The best way to do things hasn't yet been invented. And more to the point, the best way for you to do things is your way, not someone else's.'

The third concept which is questioned by Jones is that of customer segments. According to the author, this idea is very redundant because of the fact that in today's world, the organizations are transforming into a larger, constantly changing confluence of people, interacting with each other. As organisations become more and more customer-centric, ‘customer segment’ becomes an irrational idea.

Some of the book is written in new age style, with chapter titles such as `Starting the journey' and` Crossing the shadows'; however, it would be wrong to underestimate the business nous which informs this contentious but stimulating and enlightened book. Hans Snook of Orange, Sir John Browne of BP Amoco, and Ingvar Kamprad of IKEA, among many others, have been interviewed, as their companies are deemed to have found and nurtured a big idea in exemplary fashion.

(Courtesy – Dr.Keith Dinnie)

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SquAreheaD

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REWIND Seventh SIMSR Asia Marketing Conference 6th and 7th of January 2012

Mr. Nitin Paranjpe, CEO and MD of Hindustan Unilever Ltd.

The 7th SIMSR Asia Marketing Conference was conducted by SIMSR in collaboration with its academic partners – School of Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok; Deakin University, Australia and College of Business and Public Administration, California State University, San Bernardino, USA. This two day long conference had scholars coming together to share their research papers on new and emerging trends in the field of Marketing. This year saw participation of scholars from the U.S. , the U.K. and the Asia Pacific regions.

The theme for this year’s conference was “Marketing Unbound”. There were presentations on diverse fields ranging from Brand Management, Consumer Behaviour, Integrated Marketing Communication, Rural and Social Media Marketing, e-Marketing, Strategic Marketing and Management, and Retail Management.

Day one of SIMSR Asia Marketing began with Mr. Nitin Paranjpe, CEO and MD of Hindustan Unilever Limited, inaugurating the conference, followed by an engaging discussion on the “Changing paradigms of Marketing”. What will be the future of Social Media?

How will on demand television change our lives? Is the end near for television advertising? These were some of the thoughts he shared with us. Mr. Paranjpe also unveiled the book of selected research papers from the 6th SIMSR Asia Marketing Conference which was based on the theme “Marketing in Transition”.

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REWIND

Mr. Bhaskar Das, President, The Times of India Group, Bennett Colman & Co. Ltd.

Mr Sanjiv Sarin, Regional President of South Asia, Tata Global Beverages Ltd.

The second day was opened by Mr. Bhaskar Das, President, The Times of India Group, Bennett Colman & Co. Ltd. Mr Das, a voracious speaker, took us through the impact of the changing world of marketing and communications on the different forms of media. The conference ended on a high note, with an addressal by Mr Sanjiv Sarin, Regional President of South Asia, Tata Global Beverages Limited.

In all, it was two days of power packed discussions, presentations and lectures filled with insightful knowledge and ideas, compelling us to ponder over the possible changes that we will witness in the coming few years and how we, as marketers should address such changes.

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BUZZ THE CROSSWORD

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5. Adbur

7

9.

3. Hutch Essar 4. Siri

4

This software developed by Intel was recently ditched by Nokia in favor of Windows, name the software.

An Indian pharmaceutical company whose logo is provided acquired this German Pharmaceutical company for 2250 Crore. Identify the German company.

What does “T” in the late Gulshan Kumar founded T-series stand for?

2. Alfa Romeo

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ANSWERS: 1. Pearlpet

1

In 1985, which company first launched the concept of storage containers in India?

Identify the logo of this Italian car manufacturer A recent 11000 Cr. court ruling went in favor of a company present in India in a case of tax evasion when it was buying its minority stake from CGP investments in Cayman Islands.

Name the Company.

This revolutionary service is present in a recent Apple product.

“Adbur” is the in house brand agency of which Indian company?

With the help of the logo ,Identify the country in which a major event will happen in 2012.

22

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JANUARY 2012

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