The Marksman September 2016 by The Marksman

EDITOR’S NOTE Dear Readers,

It gives us great pleasure to bring to you another interesting issue of our very beloved Marksman. We have curated for you a broad spectrum of interesting articles that should enhance your understanding of marketing. Our cover story for the month is all about how the marketing sector is being influenced these days. The special story helps you understand how the social identity of an individual affects the purchasing characteristics of the customer . We would like to congratulate this month’s call for article winners – Tejas Shah, JBIMS and Ayushi Chugh, MICA whose articles have been featured in this issue. For the remaining entries, we would like to thank you all for your incredible response and encourage you all to keep writing to us with the great enthusiasm. Enjoy Reading! Stay with us on www.interfacesimsr.com/index.php/marksman Follow our Facebook page for more updates.

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Content Tweets

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

Brand Markive

Cover Story: Influencer Marketing

Special Story

Marketing Faux Pas

Hall-mark Campaign

Pioneer

Bookworm

Kickstart

Featured Article

Square Head

Buzz

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TWEETS #BurgerPizzaBollywoodCombo

If you feel confused between eating burgers and pizzas, Domino’s has the perfect solution for you-The BurgerPizza. As part of its promotion campaign for BurgerPizza, Dominos ran a quiz competition on twitter with the hashtag #BurgerPizzaBollywoodCombo. The participants’ had to fill in the blanks of a number of Bollywood movies with another word that changes the name of the original movie title and state what they liked most about the BurgerPizza. The 3 winners won Domino’s vouchers worth Rs.300. This campaign which was run on 11th August, trended 2nd on twitter, in India

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TWEETS #Maggi Hotheads Experiment Maggi launched new flavours under its sub-brand, Hot Heads. To promote Hot Heads, Maggi came out with a very innovative way to engage with its customers. Firstly, it launched a video, which showed five comedians and a VJ. The video used a Hotheads truck as a metaphor for Maggi Hot Heads packet with different flavours of elevating spice levels. The brand used Twitter at its centre of the campaign and had 24 Hotheads trucks to give out. Various Questions were asked to the followers based on the video and the results were posted instantaneously which interested more and more participants. Asking questions about the video made the followers go back to the video thus, increasing the views. The video has received more than 150k views since its launch. Maggi stayed true to its social media image by creating a note-worthy story with a product oriented campaign.

#@SamsungMobileIN Samsung has a history of engaging their customers with different contests and this time was no different at all. To make the launch of the new Samsung Galaxy Note 7 special, the mobile company took their followers down the memory lane. Samsung asked 5 questions in 5 days for them to stand a chance to win Samsung Power banks, car chargers, and headsets every day. The questions ranged from asking followers if they remembered the year Samsung started their Note journey, the features of the previous Note edition, the kind of back panel did the Note have, etc.

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IT’S ALL ABOUT AD-ITUDE Print Ad: ADIDAS: Sports need creators Agency: 72andSunny

“If you call yourself an athlete, create something new!” This is the mantra of the latest ad campaign launched by the German sports giant Adidas. Collaborating with the ad agency 72andSunny, Adidas produced this power-packed ad tapping the likes of James Harden, Von Miller and many more. The ad rather takes a different view at the Sport and tries to break the century-old convention that only hard work pays off. Instead, Creativity is the new way to go. While the campaign is a rich and powerful one in itself, it also fire shots at its rivals, particularly at Nike’s Bill Bowerman slogan, “If you have a body, you are an athlete.” With the right mix of drive, adrenaline and ingenuity, this ad is sure to stir the athlete within each one of us.

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IT’S ALL ABOUT AD-ITUDE TELEVISION AD : Heineken: The Speech

Football is not just a game, it’s a phenomenon. The one that companies never seem to get enough of. The European Championship League has kick started this month and so has the latest ad campaign of Heineken, the official sponsor of the event since 2005. Created by the agency Publicis Italy, the ad features a rather passionate Jose Mourinho, manager of Manchester United, on a rooftop, delivering a motivational speech as he addresses the audience all around the globe irrespective of the time zone and location. Talking of glory and sacrifice, he commands the ‘Legions’ of fans to brace themselves for the moment of truth, the epitome, the game night. The entire hyperbole is set on a rooftop amidst a thunderstorm, giving it a powerful overtone which goes well with the theme. Plus Jose looks really cool in the whole ‘men in black’ look. You’d definitely want to watch this if you were a football fan!

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BRAND MARKive FOODPANDA When we talk about online food delivery in India, what’s the first name that comes to our mind? Yes, it’s Foodpanda. Foodpanda is currently the market leader when it comes to online food ordering in India. Launched in Singapore in the year 2012, Foodpanda expanded ferociously and covered 16 countries by the end of the same year. Currently, it operates in over 40 countries with its headquarters based in Berlin, Germany. But, how did Foodpanda become the Foodpanda it is today? A lot of success of Foodpanda can be credited to its marketing strategies and offerings in India. The name of the game is staying fresh and offering something new to the customers each and every month in terms of offers, food festivals, social media contests etc. Business models like that of Foodpanda, Justdial and even Google are discovery based platforms; Meaning they help users find services or merchants that they are looking for. Foodpanda works on a model known as the “success-fees” model. They don’t charge their customers anything but cash in on the commissions from partner restaurants which range anywhere from 5% to a massive 25%. To capture the market, Foodpanda targeted the three main sources of information for customers- Email, Social media and Mobilevery effectively. It is very important to revisit social media strategy for any company to survive in this cut-throat competition. When Foodpanda entered the market 3 years ago,

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many thought it to be a restaurant and some as a food delivery company. Three years down the line and everyone knows Foodpanda; with its presence felt in over 40 countries.

BRAND MARKive The credit for this immense success of Foodpanda goes to its mobile marketing. Its userfriendly interface and easy availability tempts the user to access it anywhere, anytime. Good advertising campaigns like â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Foodpanda in your pocketâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; increased these notions further and its easy availability on the playstore helped in rapid growth of the active customer base. The main challenge for Foodpanda was to measure the effectiveness of these programs. And to do this, Foodpanda uses gap analysis to find the effectiveness of team building activity. It also surveys its employees on a regular basis to check the effectiveness of its programmes and alters them if need be. As a result, the employees feel like a part of the organisation and remain committed to the overall company vision. Given the statistics, Foodpanda is expanding at a tremendous rate due to the huge cash reserves it holds, thanks to its incubator, rocket internet. As is their objective, they plan to become the Google of online food marketing. #DontCallJustInstall.

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COVER STORY Influencer Marketing How important is the voice of the customer in building a strategy in promoting your content effectively? Why focus on just one individual when that person can influence many, many people far better than any advertising? With the cynicism towards advertising, which general public find making ridiculous claims and playing to the basest instincts, word-of-mouth is the popular growing trend in a world that is being saturated by advertising and influencer marketing is just a re-invention of it.

to leverage their influence among friends and family. Any person, group, brand or place can be an influencer. For example, celebrities who are highly respected and highly visible are often used to market products. In today’s world, bloggers are also acting as an influencer. As they are seen with authenticity and having loyal followers, their views are often trusted more than traditional advertising.

Deciphering “Influencer” Marketing From building trust and rapport with the people to gaining visibility of the product, Influencer Marketing is a trend of its own. Continuation of the fundamental of word-ofmouth strategy, it has been revitalized by the social media to develop the marketing technique. It helps to engage key individuals

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Influencer Marketing is the next big thing in today’s digital world. By giving opportunities to bloggers to showcase their skills in sponsored contents, it is creating huge returns for businesses. It is helping business to connect with the audiences. It is also proving as the fastest growing channels taking over affiliate marketing, email and paid search. Also, influence marketing is the deciding factor of any business performance.

COVER STORY

COVER STORY the experience they learn from others about a product or service. With authentic content, people expect brands to talk “with them” rather than “to them”. So practically, today brands can partner using its best strategy with the right personalities to spark customers.

Deloitte reports that there is a 37% higher retention rate for customers who have been referred by other customers. Either in terms of highly effective ROI, retention factor or customer acquisition, a growing number of marketers are promoting their brand image and products or services by using influencers. One example of Influencer marketing is how Guess showcased its products by collaborating with fashion bloggers in order to create new contents, boost its brand awareness, and even encouraging users to post their content with the use of hashtag #loveguess to make sure that their message is heard. Rising of Influencer Marketing in social media Social media today, is not an alternative to traditional media, but it’s turning the traditional model on its head. Past few years, customer’s purchasing decision was based on the ads they saw or heard. Today, digital connection has made them aware and to connect with other consumers via social media.Their purchasing decision is based on

As per new studies, social media influence marketing is 11 times more effective than banner ads. 71% of the consumers are likely to purchase an item based on social media referrals. Since consumers have started trusting the opinion of friends, bloggers and celebrities, more than getting direct messages from brands. Recently, Forbes conducted a research to see how consumers engage with different organizations and businesses such as retail, hospitality and entertainment through social media networks. They found that a whopping 81% of their purchasing decision is made by the recommendations of their family, friends.

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A child suggesting her mother to smoke

COVER STORY

Talking about Influencersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; favourite social platform, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are considered as the best. The Instagram is rising as the new billion-dollar social force and the Twitter is coming up as the mainstream marketing platform. Nearly a third of US influencers who currently work with brands cite Facebook as being the best platform for influencer marketing followed closely by Instagram as per July 2016 research. This is because the influencers use photos and video contents more when marketing on behalf of the brands. Twitter, on the other hand is no far behind with just 140 characters to promote a brand. The research was done by SheSpeaks, a female focused engagement network which polled 347 US influencers who have an active blog and are active on social media

bloggers are based out in Mumbai and Delhi, whereas a lot of smaller cities are gaining transactions. Based on demographic dissection, most of the influencers are young and fall within the range of 20-40 years.

Future of Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing penetration in India With the gaining pace of digitization in India and with more meaningful campaigns, companies are spending a rather generous portion of their marketing budgets with renowned influencers. Most Influencers and

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Customerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s purchasing habits are impacted by the influencers, with young generations emerging and making the marketers revamp their strategy. The right influencers are the one who believes in your brand and can clearly communicate the brand message. Many influencers are a part of the millennial generation and so the brand needs to focus on their time and effort on finding the right influencer.The future of a successful market

COVER STORY . It’s time for the marketers to take time and understand the target demographic, so that consumers can be more effectively engaged. In today’s world, targeting people by behaviour and persona is necessary rather than targeting audiences by location. Location only makes sense with a particular service or sale. Influencers – A valuable asset relies on successful campaigns and the voice of the influencers to spread the messages. For a consumer to speak and make sure that everyone knows if they have liked or disliked a product or service, User Generated Content Sharing is very important. With UGC, a message to a larger audience can be spread by a brand, and the message is never repeated. UGC should serve as a social proof, and let the brand encourage their customers, fans and employees.

So, for any brand, a well-connected influencer is a valuable asset. The most important element to keep in mind is how credible the influencer appears from the perspective of target audience. Influencer can be said to be relative as they impact the market negatively or positively. Influencers just demonstrate what products or service people generally needs and this result in everyone having a winning influence.

Again “The Power Middle” influencers- also called the tier 2 influencers are often easier to engage with and can be very effective for any campaign. For enabling rapid scaling of marketing campaigns, these low ranked influencers can be helpful in discovering rich sub-communities. While utilizing the same resources and to reach more people, effectively combining tier 1 and tier 2 influencers should be done in an effective way

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Special Story TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY THAT IS After a hectic day and lots of exchange of arguments at home, I gave up and agreed to go for gift shopping for the little neighbour. I have a disliking for these kind of shopping. No personal grudges but I simply envy those kids for having all the liberty of owning those adorable toys and cute little stuffs without being judged for. After reaching a nearby shop, I stood at the middle of the kid’s section and gazed at that hello kitty, Doremon and Baymax toys. Its always a struggle for me not to buy those “kiddish” things in front of my friends or even alone! I can always sense the eyes of the public and the shop owner staring and judging me for behaving so immature and childlike even today. How judgemental the world is! How can I let them know that I still “have a thing “for those cute little characters. Being a grown up am I always supposed to act like one! This dilemma is faced by a lot of people. There is always a constant question running in the consumer's mind whether or not to buy a particular thing at a particular time. Numerous things affect the buying decision of a consumer. One of it is social identity. It is the lens through which we see ourselves, and how others see us. But, this leads to the bigger question. All of us carry an image of ourselves which is known as self-concept and social identities that results from our perceived membership in different groups. Your identity is also conveyed through the groups with which you associate. Think of the LinkedIn requests you accept and the LinkedIn Groups you join. The people and brands you follow on Twitter or Facebook.

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All of these speak as to how you see yourself and how you want others to see you. One is always in the mid-way of positioning oneself. You can either make yourself happy and content or try to fit in the group you want to. Three factors that affect social identity are: 1.Family : A lot of our identity comes from the family we belong to. If all of our lives, we have seen our parents or other family members being loyal to a brand, we too tend to serve that brand the same loyalty 2.Reference group: Like in my case, I couldn’t buy those cute cuddly stuff only because I felt I belonged to a group- my friends or the people I am associated withhave a certain image about me. 3.Role and status : It’s a very common happening that you buy things to display a certain class or status. For example, a CEO of a certain company won’t use a Honda Aviator to roam around the city. He is supposed to use things which help him flaunt that he belongs to that rich clan. Social identity is a subjective term. It tends to change with the surrounding. May be with one group of people I might not be very open to show my love for cartoons and animations. But the other group is okay with it. Unilever has used some real-time tracking in its marketing campaigns for the deodorant Axe. The ad focused on how the product makes its target market of young men more attractive to women. It had a huge success in almost every country, but somehow it didn’t work in Italy and executives were quite

SPECIAL STORY were quite perplexed to know that. To find out the reason, a research was conducted which revealed; Young men in Italy were often still living with their parents, so when they saw the ads on TV at home, their relevant social identity was “a dutiful son” rather than “an available man.” Hence they rejected the ad’s message, since it focused on behaviour that seemed uncomfortable in front of their mother. Then how did Axe marketed its product? The answer was to target the potential customers when they were out with friends during evening, through billboards and “Axe Police”attractive young women who sprays passing men with Axe. Same target consumer and same message but delivered in the context of a different social identity. Marketers need to fix these problems in order to get their product selling. With the social identity shift happening every second, it’s quite a task for them to keep the market going. But now they or atleast few of them have found ways to get to the varying needs of the consumer and still persuade them for buying the products. A recent advertisement of Mia by Tanishq tries to break all of the clichéd presumptions for an Indian woman. They show six different women, who might dress differently, probably be out of the “per say definition of Indian women”. But they are strong and ambitious who knows how to work hard, how to dress uniquely and in best what’s suited for them. The social identity for Indian women describes them as simply dressed reticent women Our country is changing and Mia’s ad is one among all of the

other advertisements that are contributing to that change. Women might not accept it now. But they eventually will! When asked to Mr. Arun Iyer- chief creative officer, Lowe Lintas-the creator of the ad that whether women empowerment as a topic is overdone while making digital or TV ads. "The Myntra Anouk and the Titan Raga ads were more about 'change your thought', but we are not saying that. We are saying women have changed. The core thought is different. We are not asking society to change its thoughts". He adds, "This is from the point of view of how women are so focussed and are so clear about the fact that they are only concerned about bringing out their best at work and are not bothered about what anybody else has to say or think."

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SPECIAL STORY

According to Iyer, the film is not about what to say or think about women. "We are just saying this is how women think today. There lies the big difference. We can't keep telling the society, "Hey, change the way you treat women!", because women have moved ahead. They have moved in their heads, moved in their attitude and moved in everything and that's the fundamental difference. Time and again the marketers have to keep thinking out of the box in order to maintain the pace with the identity shift that keeps taking place. They require a long term commitment and trust which the customers will blindly have for the brand. In order to sustain their strong hold in the market, the shop keepers have to time and again bring new ways to retain their image in the customer’s mind. It’s a never ending process . We, as customers, are those stubborn species who is never satisfied. Marketers need to pull up their socks and keep innovating. This is actually a game where the marketer who plays it well gets to win the “happy customer “trophy !

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MARKETING FAUX PAS Urban Decay – Razor Sharp Eye Liner Urban Decay, an American cosmetics brand, which is a subsidiary of French cosmetics company L'Oréal, recently found itself in hot waters for its quirky and supposed to be appealing advertisement in social media. It is famous for its cosmetic product range that includes lip, eye, and nail colours, as well as other face and body products .Urban Decay has traditionally targeted young consumerstypically women and teenage girls. The brand recently launched a new range of eye-liners marketed as Razor Sharp Eyeliner .The brand’s promotion of Razor Sharp eyeliner, which it called "Razor Sharp Swatches," drew ire and dislikes of many of its consumers. The matter escalated at an issue of a photo, wherein the brand tweeted a shot of a model with colour swatches on her wrist—which, although was intended as a reference to the given name of the product, but unfortunately ended up as being viewed by some as a reference to self-harm by cutting.

It is a common practice in the beauty industry, to use the wrist to highlight product shades; yet many find it hard to believe that the marketing team didn't spot any issue while using this tactic to promote a product with such name. Urban Decay isn't definitely the first brand to draw criticism online for a tactless promotion, but the way it addressed the issue points towards the glaring fact that the brand shows a lack of empathy towards those who have a problem with the advertisement. The marketing failure along with its non-redressing points towards the negative brand image and careless promotion that got impressed upon the general public. Although the management of Urban Decay is yet to set off in a damage control mode, experts believe that the brand should address the matter properly instead of shrugging it off

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Hall-MARK CAMPAIGN Apple health app”Everything’s Connected”

Apple has recently launched a health app which aids in improving your health and wellness. The company is putting a lot of focus on helping its users live a better life. The famous app starts with friendly looking videos that explain the key areas to the users. Apple is trying to pitch in with these simple new spots, which use stop motion and animations to show the benefits of being good to your body. Instead of showcasing app users feeling satisfied with its usage, the spots take a broader view, arguing that concentrating on your health can and will revamp your life. "Staying healthy can sometimes feel complicated," the voice narrates. "The truth is, making changes in four key areas can make a huge difference. Just move a bit more, eat a little better, sleep tighter and grab a moment to ease your mind." That’s a smart strategy, combining a pleasant , almost dream like narration with seemingly perfect graphics-to tranquil the viewers into realising that using the app will make them feel just as relaxed as the ads do. "Check in, see how you are doing, and keep an eye on your progress over time," says a pretty British woman. "When you know your health better you know yourself better. Simple, really." The health app used to be quite perplexing for the users, but now they are ready for a new set of users tracking their fitness with Apple watch 2.

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As magnificent as the ads are, it's very easy to see how someone could read the approach as condescending. Is taking care of your health really as simple as portrayed in the ad? No. But it's still good to hear the different ways in which you can think about it.

PIONEER Bob Dylan Bob Dylan! We hear this name and the tunes of ‘Like a rolling stone’, ‘Knockin on heaven’s door’, ‘The times they are a-changin’ and numerous other classical favourites automatically start playing in our minds. This man needs no introduction. He is amongst the greatest singers, songwriters, artists and writers the world has ever witnessed. Bob Dylan is considered to be the spokesperson of his generation, and has influenced millions through his songs and other works for over five decades. Some of his celebrated work chronicled the social unrest during the 1960’s, and many of his early songs became the anthems for American civil war and anti-war movements. Dylan’s music has always defied the conventional styles of pop music, and are mostly personalized with respect to genre. He always used on-going social, political and philosophical aspects in his music. He was awarded with a special citation by the Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 for his impact on American music and culture, and for his numerous lyrical compositions possessing extraordinary poetic power. Bob Dylan is an inspiration for the teens as well as for the old, such has been this man’s reach and influence. The most amazing fact is the simplicity with which Dylan connects with people, giving them a natural impression that Dylan is just like them, and mind you, he’s been successful in doing this over numerous generations. Numerous brands observed this aspect of his persona and tried to feature him as an ambassador and endorser for their

respective brands. One of the most talked about commercials was Dylan featuring in the Victoria’s Secret advertisement in 2004. He had joked way bay back in the 1960’s that if there ever was anything that he may endorse, it would be “ladies garments”. When the ad was aired for the first time, there was a lot of hype and angst amongst the fans, to whom he sang the famous lines from one of his own songs, ‘But even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked’. Owing to such kind of personality and charisma, even people like Steve Jobs worshipped and drew inspiration from this artist. Bob Dylan's influence on popular music is immeasurable. As a songwriter, he pioneered several different schools of pop song writing, as a vocalist, he broke down the notion that a singer must have a conventionally good voice, henceforth redefining the vocalist's role in popular music. With all that this man has given to the world of art, he is a true pioneer who acted as a driving force in redefining everything that was conventional .

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Bookworm Crossing the Chasm By Geoffrey A. Moore Twenty years ago, not many people would have thought of Google, Apple and Amazon becoming such big names. Someone dreamed about them and made the dream come true. Crossing the chasm is book dedicated mainly to B2B businesses but is a must read for anyone looking to start his own venture. Known as the Bible of entrepreneurial marketing, the book mainly discusses marketing and selling high-tech products to mainstream customers. It focuses on the marketing activities of high-tech products during startup period of a business. It tells the difference between successfully entering the mainstream market and creating lead user base. Traditional technology product cycle assumes that products are diffused from “early” users to “following” users automatically. This is one of the major misconception that Moore debunks. He says that both the groups should be focused equally. The earlier users mainly focus upon the technological advancement and breakthrough and take higher risk. The following users focus upon the stability in innovation of the product and will aim to have value for their money. This is the biggest chasm that many tech startups fail to see and fail. The book has got valuable insights for everyone from marketing, finance, sales, founders, investors etc.

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KickStart Chaayos Tea and coffee – Some of the basic For now, they aim to deliver all across NCR refreshments that you find in almost every in less than 20 minutes and want to expand Indian house, things that accompany your further in future. morning breakfast and evening snacks, things that are almost impossible to live without. Yet marketers have been successful in carving out a niche market for the same. Coffee, which is already a booming business around the world, is facing some competition from its cousin – The Tea. A walk through the streets of Mumbai and you can sense increase in its popularity. Something that was confined to the “cutting chai” and the “special chai” is beginning to find its feet. One such company which is driving this wave is Chaayos. Chaayos was started by two IITians-Nitin Saluja and Raghav Verma, who quit their top paying IT jobs and followed their passion. Their first outlet store was launched in November 2012 in Gurgaon, Delhi. “Experiments with tea” was their tagline which surely helped in increasing the curiosity levels. They basically have 25 varieties of tea which can be customised in 12000 ways. Versatility of tea with a wide range of flavours is their USP. Another way they have marketed their business is the ambience inside these outlets which represents the “chai way of life”. The interior design of the café, right from the lamps made of cutting chai glasses to the chai samples in taste tubes, showcase the experimenting nature of the firm.

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FEATURED ARTICLE The Era of Mobile Marketing Automation - AYUSHI CHUGH,MICA There are 2.6 billion smartphone users on the planet today, and in less than five years there will be 5.1 billion. And that means mobile phone is one of the most powerful channels which brands have got in their marketing tool box. With this exponential growth projections for next 5 years, it will be a cardinal sin for any new age marketer to ignore the power and reach of Mobile Marketing Automation. To most people, it sounds like three of the most unlikely words combined together to make a phrase of sorts. However, it is much more than just that!

Mobile Marketing Automation (MMA) can be defined as an amalgamation of modern app analytics solutions, old-school CRM, and webbased marketing automation solutions. Just as traditional Marketing Automation Platforms (MAPs) streamline and organize different aspects of brand messaging, lead generation and lead nurturing;

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MMA delivers on making the mobile focused campaign management easier for todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s marketers. MMA platforms work within the mobile app ecosystem for delivering actionable insights about users, automated messaging service and user behaviour analytics. Some of the leading MMA platforms providing solution across mobiles, tablets and wearable devices are Urban Airship, Kahuna, Tapjoy, Swrve and Leanplum. Leading MMA solutions provide the levers and controls to change the mobile appâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s user experience on the fly depending upon who is using it and update it without , going through the app-store police. Big apps like Subway Surfer and Plants vs. Zombies along with leading consumer brands such as Starbucks, ESPN and McDonalds have been the flag bearers when it comes to using MMA to boost monetization and increase engagement for achieving seamless omni-channel marketing. Is Mobile Marketing Automation really worth it? Marketing automation as a domain is still vastly underutilized. With the propagation of smartphones and tablets, mobile marketing has increasingly become the most impactful and efficient way to reach customers at exactly the right moment. MMA has the potential to save time and increase the bottom line by providing compelling offers and valuable engagements right when the consumers

FEATURED ARTICLE need them. However, marketers need to address a few questions before misinterpreting MMA as one size fit all strategy. Does your TG engage in heavy mobile usage? For example, do you market to traveling management consultants, multiregional companies, or smaller and very young organizations whose ecosystem almost completely runs on mobile platforms? If so, MMA might be a natural fit. How mobile-ready is your sales funnel? Do you have mobile-optimized versions of each whitepaper, case study and in-depth report that your leads download as they move closer to buying decisions? What is the nature of your customer touchpoints? Do touchpoints tend to happen almost immediately after encountering some of your marketing messages, or do they take days or weeks to unfold?

small screen are losing revenue opportunities with each passing day. Not including a Call To Action - What’s the point of sending an in-app message about a new feature without telling customers where to click to get a tour! Not capturing important data -There are touch points to capture data from the very second a customer learns about a brand to long after they’ve made a purchase. Businesses are missing the boat if they’re not collecting this marketing goldmine. Relying solely on one channel – Combination of in-app messaging, emails, push notifications and social media is far stronger than the individual components, and brands that don’t use MMA with at least three or four channels are doing themselves a disservice.

Deadly and Avoidable Pitfalls of MMA Though mobile marketing automation can build trust, increase customer satisfaction, create new customers and boost existing customers’ number of purchases, but it comes with its own set of pitfalls which are best if avoided. Blasting (Marketing without personalization) - Irrelevant messages are one of the quickest ways to annoy customers and increase unsubscribes and opt-outs. Not optimizing marketing for mobile devices - Not everything that looks good on a desktop monitor renders perfectly on a mobile device. Brands which don’t optimize marketing campaigns for the

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FEATURED ARTICLE Not using A/B Testing -How does a business know which mobile marketing tactics are working and which arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t? A/B testing enables marketers to compare the effects of two or more versions to determine the best options. This process will almost always produce results that far exceed the time and money spent on analysis.

Mobile marketing automation has emerged to address the disconnect between what consumers want and the tools that are available to brands. When implemented correctly, it results in higher retention, greater revenues, more engagement, and customer delight. Despite the clear advantages, penetration of MMA is low at this point. Even the largest players, like Starbucks, Virgin Airlines, Amazon, Ebay, Macyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s etc. have only gotten into the space recently. This means the best tips and tactics are being rewritten every day.

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FEATURED ARTICLE Marketing to LGBTQ Customers TEJAS SHAH,JBIMS -LGBT The acronym LGBT stands for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender” and is a term that generally refers to a group of people who are diverse with regard to their gender identity and sexual orientation (also, “LGBT community”). Sometimes the acronym is depicted as “LGBTQ” to include those who may be questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity. Worldwide, LGBTQ community is referred to as “DINKS” – Double Income No Kids; justifies that the community members have higher disposable income compared to their normal counterparts. Nowadays, companies are coming up with creative plans to serve the LGBT customers. Likewise, there are many other organizations/brands, where marketers come up with diverse marketing plans to meet the needs of consumers. One of the myth people usually have that there should be a different marketing strategy for LGBTQ community but the approach may be neutral by avoiding any reference to lifestyle or sexual orientation. In such cases, the context (e.g. advertisement in a gay newspaper) will have to make sure the audience understands the implicit message that the offer is actually meant to appeal to homosexuals as well. The marketing to LGBT customers involves depth market research and strategizing a plan. Let me put this up in below steps:

Conducting survey: Conduct a regionwise (India, USA, Europe etc.) survey. It should include questions which covers the type of customer, interests, type of product/service frequently used, type of language they speak, etc. This list can further be improvised by analyzing the responses of customers.

The LGBTQ store “Azaadbazaar” in 2009, says “LGBTQ targeted marketing is not isolated to just LGBTQ consumers but also to other customers as well who visits the store in huge crowd. Survey Analysis: This will give us an idea about the population of LGBTQ community in each region, their choices, consumer patterns, demographics and language they speak. It may be inferred that in one region population of gay & lesbians is higher while in other region population of transgender is more. This will help in analyzing the data for gay,

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