The Marksman January 2016 by The Marksman

BRAND MARKIVE >>pg 08

SPECIAL STORY >>pg 14

Brand Lover Marketing

FAUX PAS >>pg 07

COVER STORY PIONEER >>pg 19

EDITOR’S NOTE Dear Readers, Just as a new bloom spreads fragrance and freshness around, may the New Year add a new beauty and freshness into your life and with this thought we bring the first edition of the year of our magazine ‘The Marksman’. The title of the cover story for this month is ‘Brand Lover Marketing’ that gives you a glimpse of how brands leverage the loyalty of their customers to form an influential sales force. A fun section of Brand Markive on Hamleys, is sure to take you back to the toy store you glared at as a little kid and if that weren’t enough our Special Story will take you through a ride of Walt Disney’s Disneyland and the sheer marketing magic it has fashioned over the years. An interesting read about Oreo’s 'Wonder filled' Campaign in the Hallmark Campaign section is dedicated to all the lovers of this sweat treat. In Pioneer we pay our homage to one of the most legendary music artist that ever lived, the incomparable Mr. David Bowie. Don’t miss out the Bookworm section, if you want to find about a book that might just change your views on the importance of EQ as a strategic tool. We are delighted to announce Harinder Kour from Institute of Management, Nirma University, Saransh Mahajan from XLRI Jamshedpur and Ria Dalwani from Great Lakes Institute of Management as the winners of our ‘Call for Articles’ section. We thank all our participants for sending their articles and encourage them to keep writing to us with same fervour. We would appreciate your feedback and articles in the future as well.

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

JANUARY 2016

Contents

TWEETS

IT’S ALL ABOUT AD-ITUDE

MARKETING FAUX PAS

BRAND MARKive

COVER STORY

SPECIAL STORY

Hall-MARK CAMPAIGN

PIONEER

REWIND

BOOKWORM

KICKSTART

FEATURED ARTICLES

SQUAREHEAD

BUZZ

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# TWEETS #TasteTheFeeling #Apple #iPhone6s pre-orders to start mid September this year, new leak reveals

Coca cola has recently launched six new ads touching upon its latest campaign “Taste the feeling”. They plan to take this campaign globally. The idea is to modify the positioning of Coke and make it a staple drink. The effects of the campaign would be visible February onwards when the bottles of the variations of Coke would all have similar packaging with minor differences. This would result in common advertisements for the brand, reducing the costs for Coca Cola. The new campaign of ‘Taste the feeling‘, will take Coca Cola back to its music connections, something it has always had. Moreover, this new campaign is going to replace the memorable ‘Open Happiness’ which is seven years old. In India, specifically, the new campaign will shift the focus from the celebrity endorsers of the brand towards the actual product. Some global ads will also be run in India.

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TWEETS #RajasthanTourism

Recently a new campaign has been launched for promotion of Rajasthan Tourism. The campaign aims at showing various aspects of Rajasthan. The advertisements released so far as a part of the campaign showcase different kinds of people and how they see Rajasthan to be. The aim is to change the perception of people towards Rajasthan and make it a popular tourist destination for all.

#MahindraKUV100 Mahindra & Mahindra launched a new campaign to promote their latest product, the KUV 100, which is going to compete in the SUV category. Varun Dhawan has been made the brand ambassador of the campaign and a television advertisement featuring him has been released. The company came up with a highly customer engaging promotional campaign in which users were asked to send in Dubsmash videos of their feelings on seeing the new SUV for the first time. Users stood a chance of winning the car. The first video was made by Varun Dhawan, increasing the popularity of the activity. Entries were flowing in even after the deadline, confirming the success of the campaign.

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IT’S ALL ABOUT AD-ITUDE The ad campaign designed for the French Ministry of Health highlights the emergent issue of obesity amongst children. A unique concept, art directed and copy written by David Lesage, features an illustration of an ice cream, topped with a big belly in a form of ice-cream scoop. The copy reads “L’obesite commence des le plus jeune age,” meaning “obesity starts at a young age.” The French Ministry of Health ad campaign addresses the big issue that many children in the Western world are afflicted from: obesity. With easy access to junk food in addition to decreased physical activity, it is no surprise that parents are having a hard time keeping their offspring happy and healthy. Or, more realistically, happily healthy considering that what kid wouldn't be happy playing video games and eating junk all day. The campaign created a lot of positive buzz in France and directly resulted in more awareness about obesity amongst children and the chronic effects attached to it. TELEVISION AD Client: Beats by Dr. Dre/Beats Solo2 "The Game before the Game" Entrant: R/GA London Production Company: The Sword Fight Los Angeles/Rock Paper Scissors Santa Monica/Brewster Parsons

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ITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S ALL ABOUT AD-ITUDE

The Game Before the Game' campaign goals were to position Beats at the heart of World Cup 2014, dominate coverage around athletes, be part of the biggest World Cup moments, increase online engagement amongst football fans and be the number-one-selling headphones of the World Cup. In addition, 360 degrees of communication to maximise breadth and depth of reach, by highlighting certain athletes when they were the talk of the tournament. For the semi-finals they collaborated with Jay-Z to create a two-minute remix of the film, featuring original lyrics about â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Game before the Game'.Custom Beats headphones in team colours were delivered to the top teams in the tournament. Despite the ban, the players continued to wear them, drawing even more press attention to the brand and their campaign. At the end of the World Cup, each player from the winning German team received a special pair of 24-carat gold Beats, delivered to them by Naomi Campbell. The impact of this campaign leads to $50m in PR value and 130% growth in online headphone sales.

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MARKETING FAUX PAS Teme the terrors of a wrong spelling!

Every brand wants their name to be written in the sky. Some even get it done! Coca Cola, when trying to expand its market in Cuba, decided to use the sky as their canvas by writing “Tome Coca Cola”, which in local language read “Drink Coca Cola”. The stunt, which was sure to get the attention of thousands of people, backfired in a few seconds when the winds turned against the soft drink giant. A blow of air distorted the writings in the sky and the message now read, “Teme Coca Cola” or “Fear Coca Cola” in the local dialect. A message in the clouds gets noticed. And the consequences are heavy. Realizing that this small turn of fate will cost them millions of dollars, Coca Cola tried to act smart. In order to prevent the effects of this incident, the company decided to go with the fearful image it had earned amongst the crowd. Very soon came an ad campaign around bull fighting, a “Teme Coca Cola’ lithograph which

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warned competitors to fear the company. Indeed a smart way to use the blow of the wind to take the marketing campaign forward. While the merchandise and posters read “Tome Coca Cola” for customers, the company claimed dominance in the market with the powerful poster. All great intentions, but the attempt once again failed miserably. Turns out, bull fighting was termed illegal in Cuba. The campaign not only collapsed to the ground, it also earned criticism from government organizations, NGOs and other institutions in the country. Coca Cola was in such a hurry to mend the huge error in the air that they did not do the required research before releasing the campaign. While the blow of the air could be easily excused for uncontrollable reasons, the following attempts to save the incident are definitely a gaffe of a lifetime. It is difficult to determine what got them into more trouble, but it is clear that the latter pit was dug by Coca Cola itself. When going global, language and culture play a very crucial role in deciding the marketing and advertising campaign. Coca Cola has been victim to more than one such incidents and it turns out they learn very little from their experiences. Sometimes even the bull needs to Teme the wrong move.

BRAND MARKive Hamleys: The Toy Story Once upon a time, a good two and a half centuries before present day, a small toy shop named Noah’s Ark was born in London in 1760. Since then the toy shop has grown bigger each year, delighting children and adults alike around the world. Today when you enter a Hamleys shop, the first thing that happens to you is a wide awake smile. Then you look around, and watch every toy with childlike curiosity and wonder how such lovely things came into being. Hamleys was founded by William Hamleys in London in 1760. In 1837, Queen Victoria came to the throne and Hamleys became wellestablished. The most popular toys during that time were pull-along wooden cats, jack-in-the-box and tumbling clowns. With the onset of the industrial revolution in Europe, urbanization thrived and gave rise to increasing middle classes. The demand for toys increased and toys no longer remained the privilege of the rich households. This was the time when Hamleys started focusing on commercial toy making to cater to the new demanding toy market. In 1881, Hamleys opened a new branch in Regent Street, London, which today is the headquarters of Hamleys

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From 1843-1916, Hamleys moved into new profitable markets catering to demand for exploding cigars and rubber noses. In 1900 Hamleys was responsible for marketing a new craze – ping pong. Hamleys faced hard times during the First World War. At the time, foreign imports were banned and Germany was the world’s number 1 toy-maker. But soon British made toys were again restored on Hamleys shelves. During the Second World War, the Regent store was damaged by bombs five times. But Hamleys persevered during tough times and continued to serve customers at their doorstep.

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BRAND MARKive

Today the flagship store in London has seven floors with more than 50,000 toys on sale. It is a major tourist attraction and receives around 5 million visitors each year. It has 10 outlets in the UK and nearly 50 franchises worldwide. Hamleys entered the Indian market in 2010 through exclusive franchise agreement with Reliance Retail. Reliance has an ambitious plan to open 20 outlets in India by 2016. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC; In 2012, Hamleys was sold to a French company Groupe Ludendo which operates close to 300 toy shops across France, Spain, Belgium and Switzerland.

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Off late Hamleys has been criticized my marketers for not making the best use of the e-commerce medium, especially when competitors like Lego have a strong online presence. Hamleys still believes in providing a grand in-store experience to its customers and is not delving too much into online space. It focuses on direct marketing, advertising, events and PR to engage customers. Hamleys provides a dream like experience to its visitors and as long as they do this, the magic of Hamleys will live on.

COVER STORY BRAND LOVER MARKETING As Peter Drucker points out “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself”. Brand lover marketing is one such concept that takes over the traditional form of marketing. Traditional form of marketing is the simplest form of marketing which incorporates many forms of advertising. Traditional form of marketing is divided into four categories which are print, broadcast, direct mail and telephone. Every company has to necessarily be involved in one or the other form of such advertising depending on what budget the company is having. Some of the traditional marketing campaigns are

McDonalds : “You deserve a break today” Nike: “ Just do it ” Marlboro’s : “Marlboro Man” Coca-Cola : “The pause that refreshes” Volkswagen : “ Think small” But, nevertheless, the shift from traditional form of marketing to brand lover marketing is a positive replacement. While Brand may be characterised by any name, term, design, symbol etc. and it is used for distinguishing between different sellers the

concept of brand lover marketing is needed to rescue these brands. The loyalty towards the brands which seems to be dying out must be retained and this paves way for brand lover marketing. Emotional content generates a sense of love and a sense of belongingness to the brand. The customers feel a connection with the brand from an emotional point of view. High sense of love and belongingness towards a brand is very important because in today’s competitive market, there are numerous brands to choose from for any product. Any brand shall aim to get into the category of “cult brand” and that requires a great deal of love and belongingness. From here “Brand Lover Marketing” gets its other name “Cult branding” . IMPLEMENTATION OF BRAND LOVER MARKETING This practice can be seen as implemented in many companies. There is shared consciousness of liking the brand like a necessity and the behaviour associated is ritualistic. Loyal customers are seen to be persuading their family and friends for trying the brand and it certainly goes a long way in creating a new customer base for the brand. Creating long term bonds with the existing customer line goes a long

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COVER STORY way in establishing connection with the brand. Amazon Being customer focussed is the key to success as said by CEO Jeff Bezos who tops the list of outperforming CEOs by Harward Business Review. Since its inception in 1994 , Amazon has made every possible trial to make online shopping experience a delight for its customers. The customers are always looking forward to the new strategies of brand. Apple has definitely been able to give the ability to its customers for whatever product enhancements they want and also a community where they belong. The products which they produce are in sync with what is required by its customers.

Amazon which has tasted success by developing a customer base of around 30 million people. It has thus become the customer obsessed business leader by its ability of utilizing brand lover marketing. Apple Self-empowerment and self-fulfilment can be combined to build the epitome into one brand that is called Apple. It doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just build products, rather it builds products for its fans that are loyal and faithful and display the true sense of love for their

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Harley Davidson Sometimes a company has to face some kinds of constraints due to which it may be in a dilemma as to how to finance its campaigns related to marketing, advertising etc. So, at that point of time i.e. in 1983, then CEO Vaughn Beals announced the launch of the Harley Owners Group which was a way to connect the lifestyle of the people with the brand. Thus, the most faithful customers were retained and it also led to the spread of the customer base. Also, along with brand lover marketing, there was Guerilla marketing which was also being used there. This is

COVER STORY approach because the time spent by the plane on the ground exceeds that spent in air. But, the Southwest Airlines dared to think differently and they rely for profit on their employees. So, they are successful in creating that bonding between the employees and the Airlines that it creates a huge difference. More planes are put in the air through quick turnaround. They did not use techniques like cutting labour Another concept or a marketing costs and purchasing cheap equipment strategy which is different from other and this is what sets them on a different conventional methods of marketing track altogether. This is what proves the because in it what the marketer does is to create a more of a personal memory in the minds of the consumer by grasping his attention. They increased the customers by starting to sponsor rallies around the country. They solidified the present communities. The people developed interest as they were invited to try the bikes and thus half a million Harley uniqueness of brand lover marketing. enthusiasts were attracted. The feeling Volkswagen Beetle of raw freedom was the idea used to As of today , the Beetle is the best-selling make brand lover marketing sustain. car of all time without a doubt. But, there Southwest Airlines was a time in 1948 when the car was not The idea on which Southwest Airlines is believed to be able to sell itself because it built is that the loyalty begins with the was associated with Nazi Germany. employees. The profitability depends Volkswagen first brought in twenty Beetles entirely on the employees. But the in to the US for a private showing in the major step taken by Southwest airlines city of New York and also to the is unconventional because the basic International Trade Fair which was held in ideology of making profits has been Chicago. Despite of initial setbacks, the changed by the Airlines. Even though company did not let it get in its path and the conventional approach says that thus, soon its trials began to show as a lot flying short distance is an unprofitable of word-of-mouth was generated. The

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COVER STORY unique opportunity to the company to get to know the loyalty of its fans. People of all ages can be found to be die-hard fans of WWE . The fans are vocal enough to make the whole wrestling universe know their presence. It is the only international brand which entails in professional wrestling. The whole empire is a lively example of how association with a brand can be essential for the survival of the advertising campaign was also designed in such a way that it was not boastful like other brands as they were able to develop a unique marketing message. The ads were really very frank, direct and honest. The memorable print ad said “Think Small” and it was able to capture people’s interest and generate a kind of love for the brand because it was so down to Earth and easy to connect to. The unique design and honesty in the advertising is an awesome combination. The Beetle was able to connect to the free-thinkers. Also, the strategy also included not showing any driver in the car and the funky-shaped lovable car was able to succeed in making the car connect directly with the customers. The thinking person was the owner of this car. They used to say “Look!! How much I didn’t pay for the car, instead of how much I paid for my car!!”

brand itself. All these examples go on to show how effective brand lover marketing is for the company and the longevity of its customers. The company grows along with its existing customer base and ultimately it results in a better marketing experience for the customer and better growth, competition and profitability for the company.

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment is the best example of brand lover marketing. The live matches of the WWE provide a

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SPECIAL STORY WALT DISNEY’S DISNEYLAND CREATING SHEER MARKETING MAGIC! Walt Disney has touched many hearts; of kids and adults alike! The Disney theme parks, merchandise as well as movies; all make us go down memory lane and revisit our golden childhood. Disney truly has a magical touch which propels the brand to taste success in such a big way and win audiences over and over again! This magic can be detected in Walt Disney’s marketing mix. Walt Disney has three main products – Movies, Merchandise and Disneyland. Disneyland is one of the most profitable theme parks in the world, having a chain of these parks placed in five different countries across the world. This product of Walt Disney guarantees

a once in a lifetime experience that will leave you bedazzled. You get to meet your favourite characters of Walt Disney, go on thrilling and super fun rides and basically, experience the magical world of Disney, first hand! Since Walt Disney is focussed on

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involving the mass population, the pricing is thus fixed, keeping in mind the middle class as Disney wants all kids and their families to have their merchandise and enjoy them through ownership. Disneyland tickets thought not cheap, are neither priced so high which would prevent frequent trips. Most Disney loyalists visit the parks many times a year! Walt Disney promotions are mainly holistic and done in an internal manner. Disneyland parks and its movies rarely need to be pushed as people often wait in anticipation for the next movie to come out or to go on their next trip. Various tours and packages are promoted which make it hassle free for people to visit Disneyland. The people of Disney are known to be very polite and inclined towards their customers. Disney has its own training university for training its theme park employees and customer representatives. They believe that a single customer is a direct contributor to the bottom line of the company as he will later bring in a dozen more customers to Disney with a positive word of mouth. To experience the physical evidence of Disneyland, one must hear the praises showered for it by people who visit the parks. The taglines of Disneyland which include, “the happiest place on Earth”, “where the magic begins” and “where dreams come true”; are accurate and truly

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SPECIAL STORY loved by the people. Disneyland operates on a large scale with over 17 million guests in a year only in Florida. This scale brings in success but also puts a huge overhead pressure ($100 million in maintenance alone) on marketing to constantly attract visitors and capitalize on every spending opportunity. In spite of this massive pressure, Disney’s marketing department has been delivering magic. There are 5 ways the theme park continues to drive exceptional results – by Embracing New Technology like MagicBands wearables; by Using Data to Inform Decisions and optimize everything from staffing to location of a food vendor; by Optimizing User Experience through streamlined processes; by Balancing Accessibility with Exclusivity and; by Delivering Unexpected Moments of Magic like parades, surprise performances, etc. Disneyland’s main customer base is actually local – Residents who hold Annual Passes come several times a year. Disney applies certain strategies to create freakishly loyal customers, which are – All Theming, all the time – Disney’s theming is immersive, complete and cheesy yet classy. Immersion – Fans keep coming back not for the rides, but because there’s always more to see. Disney maintains constant interest by making interesting, interactive queuing areas for the rides. Everyone’s a princess – Disney staff

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treat guests like snowflakes. Cast members greet little girls with balloons, badges and tiaras at random. The perpetually bubbly staff are extremely considerate to guests with disabilities and make sure everyone feels special. Mining the mythos – Disneyland’s greatest product is its own mythology. It never lets anyone forget its past successes as its parades are a constant triumph of its classics. It’s all about perspective – The Disney team used the concept of forced perspective to design the entire park to look bigger, including the Sleeping Beauty’s castle. How was this done? Just like a painting, one can adjust the size of things to make them appear closer or further away. This forced perspective was carried out throughout the park by the team. For instance, they alternated the sizing of the trees and boulders on the Matterhorn, so that the mountain appears bigger and in the brickwork of Sleeping Beauty’s castle. Every detail counts – If one notices the

SPECIAL STORY

venting systems carefully along the path by the candy shops, these machines actually pump out very delicate scents to help set the right mood. They’re reportedly vanilla candy goodness all year, except during the holidays when scents of cinnamon fill the air. Fan Engagement - Getting fans to interact with brands is one of the most important strategies in marketing today. For years, Disney fans have made their way to Disneyland to enjoy the park, but there is also a subset of rabid fans who go back for another "hidden" reason. At Disneyland, the Disney team has planted “hidden Mickeys” throughout the park and for decades Disney fans have been heading back mainly to try to discover and share all the hidden Mickeys in

the park. Lessons in Outsourcing - Imagine if you were in the dark tunnels of the Indiana Jones ride when a mouse suddenly squeaked and ran over peoples toes? Not only would this completely gross out park goers, but it could cause a mayhem that is potentially dangerous and would most likely damage the company's reputation. On the flip side, spraying the park with heavy-duty pesticides doesn't really seem like an appealing option. Disney understood this conundrum. Disney outsourced this dirty issue by having local felines roam the park at night to take care of the mice and bugs. This tradition continues today along with other creative pest control ideas like releasing ladybugs at night.

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Hall-MARK CAMPAIGN

Oreo Unveils Animated 'Wonder filled' Campaig Having wrapped up a year of successful market predominance across the globe, Oreo is onto its next creative drive, with a major new campaign dubbed “Wonder filled.” to celebrating its centennial. The whimsical, animated, distinctly upbeat campaign is Oreo’s first from The Martin Agency which is known for it’s out of the box humorous campaigns. In this Oreo advert the agency presents witty, illusory scenarios about how sharing an Oreo can transform negative outcomes into more positive ones. Though the creative approach is intentionally childlike, but is aimed at adults. The campaign’s catchy “Wonder filled Anthem,” written by Martin Agency’s creative director Dave Muhlenfeld himself and is performed by Adam Young, from the American alternative band Owl City. Young was chosen because his style of music “embodies sanguinity and a carefree nature,” according to Oreo parent Mondelez International. The campaign aims to be reminiscent for adults about how a small thing like an Oreo can bring happiness to even the darkest of times and vilest of people, Oreo Brand Director Janda Lukin told Creativity Online. "Kids already have a sense of wonder in how they see the world and interpret it, but adults need to be reminded of that,” she said. “The stories are going to resonate with

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different people, but overall, it's an adult campaign.” Other components include digital and cinema ads, radio promotions to introduce the new Oreo song in the top 10 media markets, ongoing Facebook and Twitter engagement, public relations and some “big stage” events, according to Mondelez. One such event took place today in New York City, where more than 500 a Capella singers including The NBC Sing Off winners Pentatonix, who sang the “Wonderfilled” song in locations across the city. The event culminated with a sing-a-long with Owl City in Union Square. Oreo shared video highlights from the event on Vine throughout the day. Oreo has enlisted local a cappella groups to stage similar events in Chicago and Los Angeles. The advertising creative amounted to a £2.1m marketing investment aimed

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HALL-MARK CAMPAIGN aimed at driving growth of demand for Oreo within biscuits by attracting incremental consumers to the category. The campaign also included Video-onDemand, Social Media, Product PR, Sampling and In-store Promotions. The first look of the campaign was launched on TV during an episode AMC’s Mad Men with the aim of getting exposure to the audience of the highly popular show which manly consisted of adults. It’s a lovely cartoon but at first viewing it is a surprise that Oreo chose a cartoon of nursery rhyme characters to increase brand awareness in adults. And as with

any marketing campaign, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The ad on YouTube hit more than 250,000 views in only 5 days! The vivid and heart-warming “Wonderfilled” campaign has been immensely effective, Not only the consumers got engaged with the brand; they were engaged with the brand’s message. Consumers have taken to creating and sharing their own versions of “Wonderfilled” on social media. So let’s wait and see – and who knows, maybe this is a genius branding angle and the Oreo brand will be associated with wonder for ever more.

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PIONEER David Bowie It is nearly impossible to articulate the life of a man considered to be the godfather of glam rock and the patron saint of defiant outcasts in mere 400 words. Even the best of one’s attempts would fail to capture the flamboyance and extravagance that the great David Bowie personified. But here’s my attempt to decode the icon that fell to the earth (Movie featuring David Bowie) and changed the face of Rock and Roll. Born and raised in South London, David Bowie was an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, painter, and actor. A figure in popular music for over five decades, he was considered an innovator and a pioneer by critics and musicians. His interest in music as a child, led him to eventually studying art, music and design before

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embarking on a professional career as a musician in 1963. At the age of 15, Bowie formed a band named Konrads, but frustrated by his band mates limited aspirations he quit the band. Post that he became part of several bands like King Bees, Manish Boys and The Lower Third to name a few and all his collaborations resulted in commercial failures. But on 11 July, 1969 (five days prior to Apollo 11 launch), David struck gold with the release of his single ‘Space Oddity’ and from thereon there was no looking back. In 1972, he created his most successful stage show character, Ziggy Stardust; a flamboyant, androgynous alter ego. All of his work, be it Ziggy Stardust or The Thin White Duke reflected the

PIONEER subconscious yearnings of his generation. David’s endeavours were not restricted to music or acting only. As it happens he was also a financial pioneer. In 1997, he issued the popular ‘Bowie Bonds; one of a kind celebrity bonds. Prudential Insurance Company of America bought the bonds for $55 million. In the late 90s he launched a bizarre internet service called BowieNet, which was not only an ISP that came with some access to Bowie material, but also let people explore a 3D world populated by Bowie’s imagery and music. During his lifetime, David sold an

estimated 140 million records worldwide. In the UK itself, he was awarded nine platinum album certifications, eleven gold and eight silver. In the year 1996, he was initiated into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He elevated his music to what can only be described as an art form. One could never predict or pigeonhole David Bowie as he was in a continual state of change. He influenced the lives of his fans in the truest sense. On 10 January, 2016, David bid goodbye to the world after his 18 month long battle with cancer. But he exited the world in pure style. Just two days prior to his demise, on his birthday, he launched his new album, Blackstar.

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REWIND SGMC With great pride KJ SIMSR hosted the 11th SIMSR Global Marketing Conference with the theme â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Experiential Marketingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; from Jan 13- Jan 15, 2016 under the guidance of Convenor Dr.Vandhana Khana. The three day event was filled with a round table conference, a key note address and enriching presentations of the research papers. The 3 day event kicked off with a round table conference moderated by our very own Prof. Isaac Jacob on the topic experiential marketing in the era of high tech marketing where our eminent speakers Dr. S.M Dhume (Associate Professor, NITIE), Dr. M. K Jain (Professor, Business Admin, School of Business, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya), Ms. Chumki Neyogi (Sr. VP Operations, Andromeda BPO Pvt Ltd.), Mr. Satish Rajamani (Lead- Digital Strategy, FCB Ulka) and Mr. R Ravishankar (CEO, P.S. LIVE) enlightened the crowd. Every panellist brought in light different aspects of our theme. They also talked about how technology could be used to amplify the reach of experiential marketing. A Q&A round followed the discussion. The second day was the highlight of the event. We hosted the key note address by Mr. Vidyadhar Wabgaonkar, Sr. VPStrategic Planning, Interface Communications

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and he has an illuminating experience with companies like P&G, Marico, Roche group, Leo Burnett India and FCB. He is also a certified practitioner of clinical hypnosis and has been facilitating ideation workshops for Tata DoCoMo, Zee network, Godrej Sara Lee etc. He enlightened the crowd with an attractive visual presentation on experiential marketing (videos of Samsung TV, the TNT advertisements etc.) and juggled with various definitions of experiential marketing and listed out the flaws in each definition. The key note speech was followed presentations of research papers for the day. The third day started with presentation of research papers on various topics which were really thought provoking. Different views on various concepts related to marketing were presented. It was followed by the Prize Distribution Ceremony and the Vote of Thanks.

REWIND Navikaran Navikaran, the annual marketing fest of KJSIMSR was held from 21-23 January. The two day marketing fiesta was packed with case studies, panel discussions and a marketing based musical treasure hunt. The events were conducted in association with our sponsors Save Pocket Money.com, Saavn-the online music and citybump. The marketing fiesta started off with the musical treasure hunt call ‘The Saavn Hunt’. Prior to the main event, just at the stroke of midnight, a small treasure hunt began inside the hostels. Clues were circulated using Whatsapp groups and the students turned the hostel upside down in search of chocolate boxes. Within an hour they were posting selfies on Facebook with their prize. The treasure hunt had two rounds-the first was an online marketing quiz. When the much awaited D-day arrived, the six shortlisted teams assembled and thus began the hunt. The teams raced it out by completing interesting tasks and answering marketing questions at every location. The most interesting twist was that the clue to the locations was a song. The winners were given Bluetooth headsets on the final day of Navikaran. A Panel Discussion on Hybrid Consumer Engagement was held as an informative event at Navikaran ‘16. It was chaired by Prof. Isaac Jacob, the chairperson of the marketing

department of the Institute and the panel included Ms. Chavi Jafa (Senior Director, Head of Payments, IDFC bank), Mr. Anirudha Rohit Patel (AVP, The Economist), Mr. Harikrishnan Pillai (Reliance Broadcast Ltd) and our very own, Prof Hardeep Singh (faculty of marketing KJSIMSR). The discussion started off with Prof Jacob throwing questions like, how high is the degree of transformation of the digital platforms in marketing and how organizations in emerging markets can leverage the same to serve the consumer in a whole new way. The discussion took a humorous turn when Mr. Pillai pointed out ground realities and took a witty one when Mr Patel took the crowd with his outlook on the contemporary scenario in advertising and customer engagement at large. Ms Jafa gave an insight about how banks, by providing more customer friendly business solutions can create an environment of financial win-wins. The discussion was followed by an interactive Q&A round. The final round of the Ranniti: the B-plan competition, was conducted on January 23. The judges from Savepocketmoney.com analysed the ideas presented by the participants and were very impressed by the quality of these presentations. The finalists were from Mica and will soon receive their cash prizes.

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BOOKWORM Emotional Intelligence 2.0 -Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves

Emotional Intelligence is an expression that we frequently come across but rarely do we pay any attention to it that it truly deserves. Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves highlights the criticality of understanding one’s own emotions and employing them in life improvement.

himself the book presents methods of not just increasing one’s EQ skills but also using these EQ skills to surpass goals and accomplish one’s fullest potential. The book showcases the power and impact of emotions on our lives; both personal and professional while simultaneously elaborating the underlying fact that EQ is different from one’s personality, just as it is from IQ. The book goes on to define the four central EQ skills namely self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management and devices an action plan of how one can increase his/her EQ by employing numerous strategies. As if this wasn’t enough one can use the included pass code to access an emotional intelligence test online and learn which areas are holding them back and which of the book's 66 strategies would increase their emotional intelligence the most. It is often pointed out that a true marketer has to be pragmatic and hard-headed but it’s not that often when we talk about the importance of other petals of the emotional flower that form our genetic make-up, it’s high time we investigated and understood their significance and used them to our advantage.

Praised by the most emotionally tranquil man on earth, the Dalai Lama

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KickSTART Chumbak Dream it. Wish it. Do it. And this is exactly what founders Shubhra Chadda and Vivek Prabhakar of the quirky lifestyle brand Chumbak did. Everyone whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s online would know what Chumbak is, majorly attracting the youth. The traveller duo were fond of collecting souvenirs from all the places they visited around the world but soon realised that India had very less to offer. It would always be small Taj Mahals or other such replicas but the vibrant culture of our country was missing from these handicrafts. This is when the idea of adding color, humour, modernity and quirkiness to little trinkets struck them. After understanding the potential of their idea, the duo sold their 3BHK Bangalore apartment to invest in their vision. It was a pretty bold step to take, but the founder Vivek emphasizes that it is essential to invest your own money in the venture as a testament of dedication. Their first product line was funky fridge magnets and this gave them their name, Chumbak (meaning magnet in Hindi). The range became very popular and soon they came up with a variety of other product categories which took an entire year. They didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want it to be a niche brand, being

a mass brand was the whole idea! Chumbak initially used online marketing and advertising through Facebook and then started retailing in Crossword and small boutiques. After suggestions from customers to see all their products under one roof, the physical retailing started with a small kiosk in a Bangalore mall. Today, the brand has 150 store in India and 70 in Japan, with a strong ecommerce presence. The collection has expanded manifold with around 400 products and a three time annual growth. Recently, Chumbak has been selected by Google as one of the three companies worldwide for a case study on how companies have successfully used Google services. With a goal of annual revenue of Rs. 400 crore in the next few years, Chumbak has proved that if you work towards achieving your dream, nothing can stop you. Be fierce, take risks!

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FEATURED ARTICLES Ola boats rescue operation, humanity or marketing

Harinder Kour - Institute of Management, Nirma University When the social media buzzed with memes of boats deployed by Ola to rescue the people caught up in submerged areas, as the world laughed; Ola acted. What happened next was an example of the extent to which brands are stretching themselves today to carve a place in the noisy, overcrowded compartment of e-commerce space. In the third week of November as Chennai continued to endure the evil side of nature, Ola decided to go beyond sitting and sulking as to how

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they had lost their daily revenue. As most areas in the city were waterlogged or submerged, the drivers were unable to move out of their houses and be of any use. The Ola team in association with professional rowers and fishermen used the boats to rehabilitate the drivers and their families while providing them essentials like food, emergency lanterns and umbrellas. Once the drivers were safe, Ola got them to ply their cars, thus meeting the requirements of the main city. It further went on to deploy boats to several other parts of the city citing the increasing demand of people to be rescued to safer areas and lack of

FEATURED ARTICLES basic supplies. While many viewed it as a well-timed marketing gimmick, it is vital that we go beyond the phrase to understand how exactly the entire plan was executed. Due to unavailability of drivers, commuting from one place to another was turning into a nearly impossible task and that is where Ola got their problem statement. Next was the task of looking for alternatives to achieve the core objective that Ola stands for: making cities more accessible. The idea of deploying boats may not have been the brainchild of the minds at Ola but the swiftness with which Ola arranged for the boats and rowers, trained them on the objective of the exercise and made them available at the right time, in the right place, in the right way is a classic example of working not only efficiently but effectively too. Despite the catastrophic state of affairs in the city, Ola’s classic marketing move exhibited clearly the kind of manpower it possesses in strategy, marketing, supply chain, human resources and other departments. All was good in the world and the city was finding its way out of the disaster steadily until the masses decided to point a finger at Ola and say, “Hey, those boats there weren’t sent as a gesture of humanity that was sheer marketing!” And we cannot say these arguments were completely implausible. The prime evidence being that the boats and rowers

had the logo of Ola embedded.

Marketing is all about cultivating the right value for the market and introducing it to the audiences at the correct juncture. What Ola did was; sense the environment and display what true responsiveness is. The entire crux of service brands is customer involvement and that is what makes it a sensitive domain to pursue. Service brands are difficult to build and every moment of satisfactory performance that a consumer derives from the service gets converted immediately into a recommendation or a repeat purchase. Though the tricky bit is that these sweet moments of satisfactory performance do not happen only when a customer buys your service and that is what most service brands in the current generation are failing to understand. You can roll your sleeves up and go to your consumers at any

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FEATURED ARTICLES moment to create a moment of truth that can move him. Ola was not the only one that tried to sweep the crowd off their feet and this was not the sole effort that they made from their end. The less critiqued initiative continues to be the one via OlaMoney where using code CHNRELIEF; people could donate money. The subtitle continuing to be, Chennai Needs Us. The food delivery giant Zomato launched a customised offer called “Meal for Flood Relief”, Ola’s closest rival Uber launched uberCARE, Practo and PayTm too tried their hand at it but none emerged as strongly as Ola did.

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When Ola deployed boats, the cab aggregator alongside helping people get back on their feet, saw a major opportunity to market their services. The proactive behaviour is exactly what set them apart from others in the crowd. People complain that Ola exploited the situation in the name of humanity and these very people need to wake up to take in the reality bites of the industry! It is vital to understand that they are a business and this is what ideally businesses do. And having said all of that, Ola knows how to build a brand and it knows it better than most in the industry.

FEATURED ARTICLES Free Basics, is it really Net Neutrality?

Ria Dalwani

- Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai

Decades ago, there were ideas; and there were innovations. The electric bulb’s discovery by Thomas Edison and the discovery of the steam engine by James Watt. These were breakthrough innovations that brought revolution to the daily grind. Rapid industrialization followed by concepts of ‘specialization’, ‘division of labor’ and ‘management’ came to the fore. While these were drastic discoveries during that time, it took a long period for the benefits to seep in. Though there were innovations, the general population remained unaffected for a long time. Commercialization of innovations was difficult in those times. This situation changed when the Internet was born. In the late 1980s, the US army adopted the ARPANET with a communication protocol (TCP/IP) to communicate among different machines. This was used for defense purposes, but seeing the utility of the system the Internet soon expanded and there were new inventions such as the World Wide Web and web browsing. Little by little, the internet buzz caught on; and more and more people began to get connected online.

This situation changed when the Internet was born. In the late 1980s, the US army adopted the ARPANET with a communication protocol (TCP/IP) to communicate among different machines. This was used for defense purposes, but seeing the utility of the system the Internet soon expanded and there were new inventions such as the World Wide Web and web browsing. Little by little, the internet buzz caught on; and more and more people began to get connected online. As Thomas Friedman aptly remarked, the world began getting increasingly ‘flat’! With the advent of the internet, everything began changing from the traditional sense- cultures, lifestyles, mindsets, technologies, jobs, businesses, structures, boundaries,

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FEATURED ARTICLES products and services; and processes. In his 2005 bestselling book- “The World is Flat”, Friedman explains how the global economic playing field is getting levelled; and the Americans are not ready for this huge change. Business organizations began changing the whole way at which they serviced customers. The bargaining power of consumers increased exponentially due to the Internet. The world has moved in terms of globalizing in three distinct phasesGlobalization 1.0 - Countries were the source of globalization Globalization 2.0 - Companies were the source of globalization Globalization 3.0 - Individuals started globalizing This last phase of globalizing began in 2000 and continues to be observed till date. The idea of individuals globalizing is indeed revolutionary. Each individual is today empowered to think about and communicate his/her ideas to a vast audience. Creating an online business is easy with limited regulations and the growth and penetration of the online marketplace. How often do you go out shopping for consumer durables and electronics? With the ease of use, convenience, low prices and best deals consumers are increasingly turning to various e-commerce websites like flipkart, amazon and alibaba for their shopping needs. Penetration to the lowest level has been made possible because of the internet revolution. The Internet’s main principle is that of

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open and free communication between individuals in the world. This was the very concept on which it was built. The concept of ‘Net Neutrality’ went viral since 2014, when this concept was threatened by some Internet service providers (ISPs). Some companies like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T proposed to create fast lanes for travelling data dependent on the additional fee paid by the internet subscribers. Now, the internet is supposed to be free. Yes, we do pay data charges to access the internet on our laptops or cell-phones, but these charges are a sort of maintenance fee for the ISPs for handling the cabling, wiring and networks. Data is and should be essentially free for everyone to access. The idea of charging users extra to access certain websites defeats the very purpose of the internet. Large scale activism and awareness led to people taking notice of Net Neutrality. People realized that internet service providers should have no control over which networks should supply data; and which networks should not. An ISP

FEATURED ARTICLES cannot by any means dictate what data travels or does not travel through any network line. The Internet was and is supposed to be neutral and equal for everybody.

When social networking giant Facebook launched ‘Free Basics’, a rebranded Internet.org; it was met with backlash from internet activists of developing nations. Zuckerberg wished to invite interested developers to provide their internet data free to the subscribers. It was marketed as a method to provide free basic internet services to all. Sounds like a reasonably good idea right? Why then was this initiative denounced by net neutrality activists? Understanding the intricacies of this program, makes one realize that Free Basics does not really provide equal and neutral internet to users. Only those few app developers and websites which tie up with Facebook would have their data transferred to the general public on a preferential basis. Obviously these would be cash rich developers who want to

expand their user base; and Facebook would be paying the interval subscription amounts to them on contract. With Free Basics, Facebook would have even more users, thus more number of advertisement revenues flowing in. As it is Facebook’s initiative, of course the networking site would also be streamed to users at faster speeds and close to no extra charges. A rational person would wonder… What benefit does a social networking website have on improving the life of a common agriculturist in India or China? These are the countries where Zuckerberg is targeting the Free Basics platform. Observing from a holistic angle, Free Basics is just a clever marketing gimmick undertaken by Zuckerberg in order to paint a rosy picture of Facebook’s good corporate citizenship. Ultimately, there are underlying monetary benefits to both Facebook and the affiliated ISPs who wish to tie up in the platform. Understanding this and communicating to the masses is important; lest they fall into the hallucinatory ideas of “equal internet through Free Basics”.

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