The Marksman - October 2015 by The Marksman

The

MARKSMAN

K J SOMAIYA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES & RESEARCH

VOL. VI | ISSUE IV | Oct’ 15

EDITOR’S NOTE Hola Readers, Thank you so much for loving our magazine and looking forward to it with such vigor and enthusiasm. You are truly a wonderful audience. It gives us great pleasure to present to you the October issue of your very own Marksman. This edition boasts of a range of varied articles lined up just for your reading pleasure. Our cover story this month titled –Scarcity is the mother of Selling – deals with the marketing methodology of using fear of scarcity to push sales. This month‘s special story – ―The Highest Level‖ explains how companies at the top are using their power to do good! With immense pride we would like to present to you our new baby section – KickSTART that focuses on the startup – Zivame, this month! In addition to that, we have the usual yet exciting sections on: Tweets, Bookworm, Buzz, Ad-itude, Squarehead, Hallmark Campaign, Pioneer and Faux Pas. We would also like to congratulate the winners for this month‘s Call For Articles – Mamta Gupta and Udayan Dhavalikar, 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 overwhelming response and request you to keep writing to us with the same fervor.

Feedback is always welcome and we would acknowledge and appreciate if our readers keep writing to us. Stay connected with us on www.interfacesimsr.com/the-marksman Happy Reading! TEAM MARKSMAN The Interface – The Marketing Club of SIMSR @marksmansimsr

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Contents

Tweets

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s All About Ad-itude

Brand Markive

Cover Story: Scarcity Marketing

Special Story: The Highest level

Marketing Faux Pas

Hall-mark Campaign

Pioneer

Bookworm

Kickstart

Featured Articles

Buzz

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TWEETS First digital- led campaign by BT business #relationships #BTBusiness

BT Business has come forward to throw some light over the importance of relationships from the business perspective. The video ad portrays how important support and connection are for the global business community. â&#x20AC;&#x2013;Relationships are everything. When we connect, amazing things happen.â&#x20AC;&#x2013;-This is what has been portrayed in the ad. They have used the tagline #seewhathappens as the campaign. Basically, it has been established that the relationships between B2B and B2C businesses are each important on their own front and also that technology is playing an increasingly important role as it is the backbone of all the relationships. The different kinds of relationships are booming because of the reliance of businesses on technology due to which the relevance of the campaign holds well.

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TWEETS D-Mart emerges as top retailer #CoreCompetency #DMartOnTop

Avenues Supermarkets Ltd. owns the famous chain of D-Mart that is included in the top hyperactive retail chains. According to the latest statistical data available, it can be deduced that in 2014-15, the profit value or the revenue generated by D-Mart exceeded that of major retail chains like Reliance and Trent Hypermarkets Ltd. The main reason which has surfaced is that the supermarket chain D-Mart has constantly focussed on its competency which is expansion in food and grocery only. According to the CEO of D-Mart, â&#x20AC;&#x2022;there is so much opportunity in just doing thisâ&#x20AC;&#x2013;. Even the turnover ratio of the inventory reiterates the success factor of the retail chain. Another major reason for other chains like Easy Day to be unable to reach to the expected gain level is the high burden of rental costs which is not the case with D-Mart as 90% of the stores are located in the properties of whose ownership lies with the company itself. But the major reason of success factor of D-Mart lies in the fact that they stick to what they started with.

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IT’S ALL ABOUT AD-ITUDE

Raymond took the premium clothing industry by surprise when it introduced its exclusive made to measure service in 2012. Made to measure allows customers to customize their ensemble according to their own personal taste. Raymond positions Made to Measure as an exquisite craft, the labor of love between art and technology. This positioning is wonderfully depicted through their recent print ad which appeared in a popular national daily. The campaign was released in a teaser sort way wherein the initial creative was first shown with the headline. Here there was no brand name or product name mentioned. This was an instant eye catcher. After a few pages, the new creative was presented which flaunted the brand in with an impressive tagline ‗Even Michelangelo would applaud‗. This was a bold move on part of Raymond but worth the experiment. The creative shows image of the sculpture of Michelangelo. The target audience here is clearly the educated and the intellectuals who have knowledge of history and a certain taste in art.

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IT’S ALL ABOUT AD-ITUDE

Television Ad Client: ITC

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather

KWIKNIC is a nicotine based chewing gum, quite ironically a product by ITC, designed to help people quit smoking. The campaign for Kwiknic is conceptualized by Ogilvy & Mather and comprises of three TVCs, of which two are on air currently. The advertisements humorously depict the miscommunications arising due to people speaking incongruously due to constant tobacco chewing. This film is set in a hospital. A tobacco-chewing man is running helter-skelter outside the operation theatre when the doctor informs him that his father is saved by God‘s grace (―Bhagwan ki Daya Se‖). However, when the man tries to inform his family members, they misconstrue it as he has passed away (―Bhagwan ko Pyare ho Gaye‖). The sick father then comes around on his wheelchair to say ―Kwiknic Chabao Theek Se Batao‖. The ad is spot on in positioning Kwiknic chewing gum as the new way to stop chewing tobacco.

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BRAND MARKive Rolex

Rolex, a luxury segment of watches is a Swiss brand known for its quality and exclusivity. Rolex, SA Company was founded in 1905 by Mr Alfred Davis and Mr Hans Wilsdorf who were neither Swiss nor watchmakers. Initially the brand was named Wilsdorf & Davis and later got officially registered as Rolex in 1905.The company name was officially changed to the Rolex Watch Company during 1919. It was later changed to Montres Rolex, SA. In the initial years Mr Hans Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law, Mr Alfred Davis imported Hermann Aegler's Swiss movements to England and placed them in quality cases made by Dennison. The main aim of the firm was to produce affordable watches but the taxes and duties levied on them in great Britain were very high and were increasing the cost since the boxes in which these watches were packed were made of gold and silver .

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The Wilsdorf & Davis Company then decided to move out of Britain and established their headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. . Rolex was also awarded the best innovators in the field of watches as it was the first company to produce the first self-winding watch; the first waterproof watch case; the first watch to show two time zones at once; the first wristwatch with a date on the dial and most importantly the first watchmakers to earn the coveted chronometer certification for a wristwatch. Rolex was one of the most well-known brands even in the earlier times since their watches were quite unique and were designed by best of the engineers using latest technology. Rolex achievements became even greater as it became the record holder firm to produce watches with the most certified chronometer movements. Rolex also began to develop an original quartz watch movement which was the first of its kind the world had ever seen.

BRAND MARKive

Innovation was now a part and parcel for Rolex. They were known for their designs and therefore have become one of the most expensive brands in the watch segment today. Rolex has also made a reputation in watches suitable for the extremes of deep-sea diving, aviation and mountain climbing. Sports models include the Oyster Perpetual Sea Dweller 2000. Rolex signed Roger Federer as their brand ambassador in 2004, the main reason behind the signing was that the Tennis Ace was a Swiss national and always ruled the game just as Rolex ruled the Watch Industry . Rolex certainly is now a brand for the CLASSES and not the MASSES.

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COVER STORY SCARCITY MARKETING - Scarcity is the mother of selling With the festival season coming up, the market is filled with offers and deals you just cannot resist. Amazing discounts and freebies, all for a limited time! Ever wondered why you rush to the store every time you get to know about such deals or discounts? Well it‘s not because of the offer but the fear of losing out on such a great deal. Yes! Marketers use the fear of scarcity to sell their products. The technique is common that it finds a mention amongst one of the most effective ways of marketing a product. Scarcity refers to any limitation placed on a product or service with the goal of increasing sales through pressure placed on the consumer. The fear of missing out causes people to make the decision to buy. The limitation can be a time based deadline or a limited quantity, often mixed with some kind of perceived benefit for acting quickly, like a reduced price, a bonus item, or an increase in status (you got in, where others missed out). It‘s a fairly simple psychological premise. ―We don‘t have many of these left I‘m afraid, you‘ll have to buy it now if you want to.‖ is the simplest and most extreme example. Tell the customers that a product or deal is available only for a limited time, and they rush to purchase. This principle can be commonly used in two broad methods: 1. Limited-number - Item is in short supply and won‘t be available once it runs out. This creates a sense of urgency amongst the

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customers and they act fast. It is a smart way of telling people that the product is in great demand. Thus, it not only helps in pushing sales, but also increases the value of the product in the minds of the customers. It includes two highly effective techniques like: a. Only X items left: When the customers read or get to know that only a few items are available in stock or in that offer/deal, they buy the product without much research or thinking. Especially if the discount value provides huge benefits in price, this is the best technique to use. b. Out of Stock: What customers hate more than losing out on a deal is to wait for the product until it comes back. This is why sellers prefer keeping the ―Out of Stock‖ tag on the product page/shelf so that customers know that they have missed it this time. As soon as the product reaches the store/website again, these customers will rush to but it because of the fear that they might miss out again. Product sold, problem solved! 2. Deadline (Limited-time) - Item is only available during that time period. The limited time offers are equally effective in

COVER STORY

the service industry as they are in product selling. A smart way to make people act in the moment is by telling them that the offer will probably not be available the next time they think about buying a product or a service. Examples include auctions such as on eBay or clearance sales of popular stores which last only a day or two. The most popular are the ―While you are here‖ offers which require the customers to take instantaneous decisions, mostly in favor of the seller. The special discount on the online course which is available only during the free webinar prompts subscriptions like large promise, is theto plan, nothing “Promise, else. It not only looks easy soleasy of antoadvertisement. “ manage but is very implement and Johnson. too. Some of- Samuel the current trends in online shopping are heavily driven by the scarcity model. Here are some of the most popular examples of scarcity marketing we see every day: Amazon’s “Only X left in Stock” Trick So you have your eye on this beautiful time piece available on Amazon but just can‘t decide whether to buy now or save for later. You know what helps? The ―Only 5 left in Stock‖ warning sign written in bold red letters! You know that if you do not order it now, you will probably not get the same deal for a really long time. No one really knows if there are actually 5 pieces available or it‘s a trick, but it seems to work every time.

are only available for short periods of time, usually 24 hours, and offer a hefty discount on regular price. That is all you need to drive sales - A very short deadline, a discount and a sense of exclusivity for those quick enough to pounce on the offer.

eBay’s Auction Sales An auction has a time and quantity based limitation. The countdown timer for the auction to end spurs bids that increase price. There‘s one item and multiple people bidding for it, so there can only be one winner. This is like a perfect storm of scarcity, and thus eBay became a huge company. People believe that the prices quoted on eBay are very less and the offer is very limited because of the hundreds of buyers bidding, and works the trick of selling the product in a flash.

Groupon’s “Grab the Deal” Approach It seems that Groupon works exclusively on the principle of scarcity marketing. Deals

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COVER STORY

Deal of the Day

Holiday Special Discounts

Out of Stock

Only Few Left

Clearance Sale

Auctions

Scarcity

Clinch the Deal Offers

Apart from these, many sellers and outlets also choose to create a sense of scarcity to compel sales, sometimes willingly and sometimes simply because the product is scarce. Imagine that you are getting an amazing deal on your flight to home and it says only a few seats left. You know that an airplane has limited seats, and thus you act quickly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; pay and grab the seat before the deal closes. In all, the idea of using scarcity for selling a product is a smart technique if used properly. The only thing to consider is whether your product qualifies for creating a fear of scarcity in the minds of the customers or not. If yes, then all you got to do is put up a limited offer tag and a stop watch on sales â&#x20AC;&#x201C; your product goes out of stock itself!

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SPECIAL STORY THE HIGHEST LEVEL This relates to making life better. Similar is the case with FMCG leader Unilever. Its mission is ―To add vitality to life. To make people feel good and get more out of life.‖ Thus spreading happiness and improving life is their aim. It is not that such visions are limited to only a particular field or some businesses. Consider any business that is a leader in its field and you will find the link with humanity either directly or indirectly.

Companies begin as new entrants, face immense competition and threats from rivals and have an unending desire for growth. Companies move forward from new entrants to settled players, from settled players to the key players and from the key players to market leaders. It is very similar to spiritual progress when one moves from me to we and from we to us all. When one moves to the top, views change. Instead of catering to customer needs, catering to humans is the aim. Instead of giving its serving and instead of merely satisfying it‘s creating happiness and spreading love. This in fact is the basic of all endeavors that we undertake as living entities on earth. IKEA the Scandinavian multinational furniture producing giant has ―Improving everyday life of many people by providing service to as many as possible‖ as their vision.

What has an airliner like jet Blue have to do with bringing humanity back to the skies or The Coco Cola Company relate to when it says open to happiness. It is the broader picture that they see which other players fail to recognize

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SPECIAL STORY

―I do not want India to be an economic superpower. I want India to be a happy country” – JRD Tata

Back in 1895 Ardeshir Godrej started a company manufacturing locks with a vision of ―Made in India products‖ today the company has diversified into a number of fields and operates under the vision of ―A Godrej in every home and every workplace‖ and a mission of ―Enriching the quality of life everyday and everywhere‖. Businesses need to recognize this in order to widen their scope, to see things differently and to get on the top. Today we need to enlarge our visions to explore the unexplored, to see the unseen and to do what cannot be done. You need not have a business to apply this. Ask yourself what your vision is? Does it connect in any way to serving humanity, betterment of life and spreading love and happiness? If not try to link your vision in each area to these basic values and experience the difference.

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MARKETING FAUX PAS Airbnb: Passive-Aggressive much! Airbnb, a room letting platform, has revolutionised the mechanism of lodging industry. The platform provides an interface between ‗hosts‘, who want to rent out a couch, a room or even their house in order to earn a little extra cash, and ‗guests‘ who are not just looking for a less expensive stay option but also a different experience. Airbnb earns by charging a rather small fee to both the hosts and guests for arranging the stays and by doing so the fairly new-fangled lodging player has already netted an estimated valuation upwards of $20 billion. Nonetheless there's no rose without a thorn and this couldn‘t be truer when it comes to Airbnb‘s current stance in its mother city of San Francisco.

As the judgement day on Prop F draws closer, Airbnb is getting more aggressive in its bid to get the proposal sacked. However Airbnb‘s latest marketing stunt backfired when instead of rousing gratitude, the ads that popped up on billboards, bus shelters and bulletin boards around the city, ended up offending the people of Frisco. The ads all refer to the estimated $12 million in hotel taxes that the company has paid to the city in the last year, suggesting ways that various departments could spend the money with a fairly smug, "You're welcome" message to them. This passive aggressive strategy caused a big social media conflagration, leading to a public apology by Airbnb and immediate takedown of all such ads, sending Airbnb in some serious damage control mode.

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MARKETING FAUX PAS

What is Prop F? Proposition F or the â&#x20AC;&#x2014;Airbnb Initiativeâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC; is an initiative targeted at short term rentals in the city of San Francisco. The proposal would be on ballot for San Franciscans on November 3, 2015. A Yes to Prop F would mean restriction on private rentals to 75 nights per year and imposition of provisions designed to ensure that private rentals are paying hotel taxes and following city code, something which Airbnb has not really been paying thorough attention to in the past. Prop F targets websites such as Airbnb, which feature rental listings nation and worldwide. The campaign opposing Proposition F has received a whopping $8.4 m in campaign contributions as of October 2, 2015 out of which 96.6 percent was donated by Airbnb. However this ad campaign has made Airbnb come off as a smug and greedy enterprise, playing directly into the hands of its opposition.

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Hall-MARK CAMPAIGN Be Brave And Beautiful - Dabur Vatika In this era of clutter advertisements and marketing where each brand tends to propagate only the functional and emotional benefits of the products, Dabur Vatika has taken the marketing world by storm with its ‗Brave and Beautiful‘ campaign. The campaign is a tribute to the women who have battled cancer and is a peek into the life of a cancer survivor and the many odds that a woman is faced with during this trying phase of their journey. The campaign comprises of a short 4minute video. The video shows a bald woman, a cancer survivor who is hesitant to go out because of her low self esteem and confidence. But with her husband‘s support she musters the courage to face the world. Fearing rejection, she goes to her office where to her surprise, she is welcomed warmly by her colleagues, thus underlining the idea as to how immediate and genuine support from family and friends can help the survivor muster strength to battle all odds.

The advertisement ends with a message stating ―SOME PEOPLE DON‘T NEED HAIR TO LOOK BEAUTIFUL‖ highlighting the idea that beauty is not always what you see outside, a lot of it is what is inside. The melodious background song called, ‗Tu faulad, Tu phool‘ sung by Salim Merchant makes the advertisement all the more effective and appealing. The campaign calls upon people to share their cancer survival stories that could act as an inspiration for millions of others battling the same gruelling disease. As soon as the campaign was launched it immediately gained attention as it appealed people on an emotional level. The video was uploaded on a Friday and by Monday the video got viral. The Campaign is a unique attempt to garner brand awareness. It is pretty common for brands to market their products by supporting a cause that highlights the value proposition of their products.

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HALL-MARK CAMPAIGN But how often do we come across a brand that is bold enough to roll out a campaign that supports a cause which is exactly opposite to the value proposition its product offers. The answer is almost never. Who would have imagined a hair product brand supporting a campaign for bald women!!! But with the new campaign Dabur Vatika has brought in a new concept, one that is both novel and bold, that great brands not only differentiate but also bring a difference in the lives of the people.

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The initiative has helped Dabur Vatika fulfil not only its Corporate Social Responsibility but it has also helped it increase the brand awareness of Vatika by 11%. The Campaign is perfect example of customer engagement and how great brands appeal to the emotions of the consumers. It makes Vatika not only a socially conscious organisation but also an innovator.

PIONEER Mark Zuckerberg

And who doesn‘t know this guy? Mark Zuckerberg, one of the five co-founders and CEO of social networking website Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984, in White Plains, New York, in a comfortable, well-educated family, and lived in a village nearby to Dobbs Ferry. Before the birth of Facebook Mark developed various other software like ―Zucknet‖, a messaging software which was used by his father. After completing his graduation at Exeter in 2002, he enrolled at Harvard University. By the end of his second year he had developed a reputation of go-to software developer on campus. He developed other software known as CourseMatch, Facemash. Birth of Facebook Zuckerberg along with his friends created a site that allowed users to create their own profiles, upload photos, and communicate with other users. The group ran the site— first called The Facebook - out of a dorm room at Harvard until June 2004. After his sophomore year, to dedicate his full time to Facebook, Zuckerberg dropped out of college, moving the company to Palo Alto, California. By the end of 2004, Facebook had 1 million users.

Rise of Facebook On receiving a whooping amount of $12.7 million investment from a venture capital firm Accel Partners, the popularity of Facebook gained a boom. And it is because of this investment Zuckerberg could grant access to other schools, colleges, high school and international schools, thereby increasing the membership and users of the site which reached 5.5 million users by the end of 2005. And this huge user base started attracting various other big companies who wanted to advertise on the very popular social networking site. Some big firms like Yahoo and MTV Networks had a prying and keen eye on purchasing it from him, but he was focused on expanding the site, developing more features etc.

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PIONEER And after this there was no looking back. According to present statistics Facebook has 1.23 billion active users monthly, 945 million mobile and 757 million daily users. Mark, the philanthropist that he is has started Internet.org as his share to the betterment of the society. This initiative of his is mainly to provide internet access to 5 billion people who are not connected to internet as of the day the venture was going to be launched i.e. in 2013. It aims at creating new jobs and opening new market by using three tier strategy. Mark ranks #7 in Forbes 400 with a net worth of $42.5 billion as of 2015. He is #4 richest in tech as per 2015 and ranks #22 amongst the Powerful people.

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―My goal was never to just create a company. A lot of people misinterpret that, as if I don't care about revenue or profit or any of those things. But what not being just a company means to me is not being just that - building something that actually makes a really big change in the world.‖ - Mark Zuckerberg ―Advertising works most effectively when it's in line with what people are already trying to do. And people are trying to communicate in a certain way on Facebook they share information with their friends, they learn about what their friends are doing - so there's really a whole new opportunity for a new type of advertising model within that‖ - Mark Zuckerberg

BOOKWORM Global Content Marketing - by Pam Didner

Pam Didner is a leading Global Content Marketing Strategist, renowned speaker and the author of the book ―Global Content Marketing‖. With some great years of rich experience, Pam outlines the best practices and provides an informative and detailed roadmap for functioning in today‘s world. Her book is well structured and she possesses an engaging writing style, with a number of case studies throughout contributing to the message. The chapter topics in the book revolve around the 4 P‘s of the Global Marketing cycle – Plan – strategy before the execution Produce – to create content that matters Promote – to distribute content in this digital era Perfect – to measure and optimize in order to drive the maximum impact Each of these four components of content marketing are further illustrated by multiple case studies from big brands like SAP, LinkedIn, Intel, etc. The book is strong in substance and is of great value to business leaders who interact with their marketing groups, as it provides deep insight into ensuring the marketing and business objectives align.

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Bookworm Pam provides a holistic view on content marketing right from planning to execution and measurement. She believes that having a strategy is important, but having a strategy with the local teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s buy-in is even more vital. Working together in tandem to align on objectives and goals and acting with clear roles and responsibilities are the key requirements for global content marketing. The key takeaways from the book include â&#x20AC;&#x201C;

Building a high performing team is vital for scaling content marketing. Though each region and business unit may require different content, there must be strong alignment between the teams to develop a well-oiled content creation machine. Develop a plan up front. This exercise of planning, editorial calendaring, and defining your audience, personas, resources and competitors is hugely valuable for large content marketing teams.

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Produce efficiently. Even big companies generally have limited resources for content marketing. Content can be efficiently and effectively created through a number of techniques like outsourcing, repurposing, and translating, etc. Focus on promotion as much, if not more than production. Promotion is more than half the battle in content marketing. Perfect through optimization and measurement. Content marketing must be measured based on its impact. Pam has defined impact in terms of business goals, marketing optimization and internal communications. The takeaways from each chapter are clear and actionable. Didner wraps up things with a chapter on Skills and another one on the future of global content marketing. The book has taken into account the unique challenges facing every global content marketer and has perfectly shown how to address each one of them.

KickStart ZIVAME In this modern world when the females in India still feel discomfort and embarrassment about lingerie shopping, something is surely wrong. To change the way women feel about this and revolutionize lingerie shopping, ZIVAME came to help (ziva means radiant in Hebrew, zivame means ―radiant me‖). It is the first online lingerie retailer in India which is changing the way females buy intimate wear and they have made it ―cool‖ to talk about this category. Started in late 2011 by Richa Kar, the founder and CEO with borrowed money (Rs.30 lakh) this start up is currently valued at $100 million! An engineer from BITS Pilani and a management grad from NMIMS, Kar started Zivame after she quit her high paying corporate job in SAP where she worked with the Limited (which owns the brand Victoria‘s Secret). She studied the Indian lingerie market there and realized the discomfort associated with it and felt it was the most neglected part of any Indian woman‘s wardrobe and that is when she chose to work on these gaps. Started with just one hire, this Bangalore based start up is now big and growing with over 200 employees, a good product mix of around 5,000 styles, 50 brands and 100 sizes. Kar is now on her way to open 100 physical stores in India for a personalized experience (just like Victoria‘s Secret), with women requesting for consultation and fittings, as she believes ―this would enhance customer connection‖.

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FEATURED ARTICLE Is Using Big Data Marketing A Must These Days?

Mamta Gupta - SIMSREE WHAT IS BIG DATA? Data means information and when one attaches the word ‗Big‘ with it, it simply implies handling humongous amount of information. The right data at the right time if utilized effectively and appropriately can help people make better and faster and smarter decisions and lead to new concepts and ideas. With unlimited data pouring in day by day to all of us all, it‘s gullible to become seduced by the illusion of certainty and objectivity it provides. But ultimately the collation of data will only provide a description of what has happened. The challenge is to look at the data available, analyse in-depth and come to an original conclusion or a novel concept or an idea that shall help in future prospects. Bigger, endless and better data gives us a more clear insight, and better understanding of our world and subsequently a more solid foundation to build bigger, better and original ideas. WHY BIG DATA? According to one of the research carried out by KPMG, about 80% of Indian CMO‘s believe they have a holistic view and understanding of customers but only 22% of customers believe the average retailer understands them.

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One of the challenges in this mismatch lies in the inability to capture customers as individuals and focussing not only on transaction data but also their preferences, interests and beliefs. So, to overcome these underlying problems companies are now embracing big data to solve the personalisation challenge with the ultimate goal being to leave consumers feeling less like a test subject with the barest illusion of privacy and more like a special valued patron of the brand who manages to snag the best and this undoubtedly requires a great collaboration of left brained number crunching and also good right brained creativity! INDIAN EXAMPLES USING BIG DATA A plethora of Indian Start-ups have started using big data to their advantage. One such example being of Social Cops, a data technology start up, started collecting micro level street sanitation data from citizens in Delhi. They then used this data to rate areas on cleanliness and create performance initiatives for the cleaners in Delhi. Subsequently, performance improved and there was a boost in attendance rate. Today, social cops has built an extensive data exchange that has multiple uses-from governments deciding healthcare allocations or a marketer pondering which villages

FEATURED ARTICLE a brand of soap should be introduced. It is also working in collaboration with HUL for an information delivery project targeted at pregnant women. Petoo, a start up in Bengaluru, uses big data analytics to predict consumer behaviour, reduce food wastage and speed up the home delivery time ; in addition to capturing data like the weather and estimates the number of orders in a day. Matrimony.com is an online matrimony site with 150 customised websites, call centres and even physical outlets and an estimated 3 million users. The onerous task of getting relevant messages across to appropriate individuals was getting incredibly complicated when IBM applied its predictive tools to segment data, assign weightage and build campaigns around these which then helped the site run a campaign encouraging users to update their profiles with more information and updating the same, something that significantly enhanced their chances of finding a match. In 2006 Maruti Suzuki realised that their dealers had huge collection of data that needed to be aggregated, organised, cleaned and then analysed This was accomplished through streams of databases from phones, credit cards,, and even airplanes, because of which they managed to sell 50000 extra cars purely because of data mining.

FUTURE SCOPE (Fig 1: Big Data Market Forecast,Wikibon) Big data is what they all call the incessant incoming of data and has become the buzz word in industries today and to cater to them in an easier way at a mere distance of a single button click where you can find all information related to user which makes it easier to handle them. The graph denotes the amount of money that is been pumped in for Big Data and forecasts thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s close to 84.69 Billion Dollars would be pumped in for Big Data by the end of 2020 (Fig 1). But is it yet another fad? Many theorist and researchers put their findings that only 20% of enterprise will use more than 50% of the total data they collect to achieve competitive advantage over others.

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