EDITOR’S NOTE About this Edition > "The most important thing in communication is hearing what is not said." - Peter Drucker. Over the years, brands too have adopted various ways to communicate with their customers. The ultimate goal is to differentiate themselves in a very crowded, image-heavy landscape. Brands these days have come to realize that scaling back on the ‘noise’ around branding and presenting a clear and intentional narrative allows for quicker recognition and ultimately adoption. Our cover story for the month is based on ‘Minimalist Branding’. Today, minimalist branding has gained traction as one of the most popular design schemas. It has overtaken gratuitous, detailed marketing as the new go-to for high-end companies and brands alike. From major names like McDonalds and Apple to small brick-and-mortar operators, minimalism has made its mark and continues to grow in popularity. This edition takes you through a minimalistic journey of stories, empowerment, and much more.
CFA Winners > A very hearty congratulations to the winner and the runner up of this month’s Call For Articles. 1. Parva Chandarana (Winner) – KJ Somaiya Institute of Management, Mumbai 2. Antarip Biswas (Runner-up) – KJ Somaiya Institute of Management, Mumbai You can read their brilliant pieces in the ”Featured Articles” section. We were overwhelmed by the responses that we received from all of you and encourage you to write to us with the same enthusiasm for all further editions as well.
EDITORS
THE TEAM
NANDANI
WRITERS
DESIGN
SHIVANI
ADITYA
TANYA
SAKSHI
AAYUSH
ARKO
JASH
NANDANI
SAMBHAV
SANCHITA
SHIVANI
SNEHA
SUMIRAN
SAMBARTA
RITVIJ
CONTENTS KICKSTART
MARKETING FAUX PAS
COVER STORY
HALLMARK CAMPAIGN
BRAND MARKIVE
MORE THAN MARKETING
PIONEER
IT’S ALL ABOUT AD-ITUDE
AD-TALES
MARK-5
SPECIAL STORY
1
Coolberg:
The Decorated Drink of Freedom! - SUMIRAN NARAYAN Coolberg, India’s first zero-alcohol beer start-up, kick started in the year 2016 with a single-minded vision in mind - catering to a category of drink that is new, trendy, and aspirational. With carefully curated taste and premium design, the brand promises to provide its customers with a pleasant experience.
Kickstart |
July Edition
Coolberg was conceptualized by Pankaj Aswani and Yashika Keswani to provide innovative products to enjoy during celebrations, hangouts, casual meetings, etc. Pankaj Aswani, co-founder and CEO of Coolberg, is a graduate of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and also served as a management associate at a company called Citi.
Aswani stated in an interview, “Basically, wherever you find a cola, we want you to find a Coolberg as well. Increasing this investment will help us strengthen our distribution network and increase brand awareness.” Yashika Keswani is the Co-founder and COO of Coolberg. She graduated from Birla Institute of Technology in Jaipur and then went on to Manipal University in Jaipur for her MBA. She stated in an interview that the Indian beverage market is witnessing an increased demand for new flavors, and all the variants of Coolberg are unique, refreshing, and new to the market. She said, “Our R&D team is strong and keeps a close eye on consumer needs.”
22 The startup has raised a whooping $3.5 million in two investment rounds, a Series A round and a seed round. RB Investments and its current partner, Indian Quotient, led the 2019 financing round. The round also saw participation from Ashish Goenka, chairman of Suashish Diamonds Ltd, and a pool of investors from Indian Angel Network.
From a thought to a premium level startup, Coolberg has had an inspirational journey. It is extremely difficult to produce beer that tastes good without alcohol, but Coolberg has proved this to be untrue. In India, Coolberg was able to usher in a new era of non-alcoholic beverages. It is no longer required for a person to have alcohol to fit in; Coolberg is drink for anyone.
July Edition
Coolberg has a unique process of Brewing. It all starts with carefully choosing hand-picked barley to get malted in whirlpools of pristine water. This intense play germinates the grains and initiates a process that gives the finest of malt, thus giving Coolberg its beer flavour. The blend then undergoes a surreal confluence of fire and ice, marked with intense boiling and cooling that leads to the maturation of the concoction. This rich mixture is then filtered and processed for its alcohol-free properties. The golden brew jets into a strong glass bottle with the very attractive Coolberg logo and bright colour design. And thus, is born Coolberg, the beer for the free-spirited, ready to drink!
Coolberg has 12,000 shops in key cities across India, including Bihar, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Rajasthan. Apart from regular retail outlets, Coolberg may also be found at workplaces, colleges, and airports.
Kickstart |
Coolberg stands apart because it has a perfect amount of sweetness and is brewed impeccably on a natural base of hops and malt. The fizz is equally pleasant to tantalize the taste buds. Although the brew is alcohol-free, the malt variant can undoubtedly pass the beer tasting test. Thus, it justifies its Unique Selling Proposition of tasting like beer.
3
Cartoon Network: Toons or Bombs!?
- RITVIJ TRIPATHI
Marketing Faux Pas |
July Edition
Back in the year 2007, Cartoon Network had launched a newly animated television series named Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The company wanted to promote this show in an innovative and unique way as the show was gaining popularity. In order to do so, the marketing team at Cartoon Network planned to carry out a Guerrilla Marketing Campaign in order to promote the show. On the morning of January 31st, 2007, the company hired men to setup LED lights throughout the city of Boston in order to depict a character from the television show. The idea behind this campaign seemed very intriguing and one of a kind until one of the local residents thought that these LED devices were bombs.
The guy called the police and the Boston Police Department and the Boston Fire Department mistakenly identified the battery powered LED bulbs that depicted the Mooninites, a set of characters from Aqua Teen Hunger Force as improvised explosive devices. This resulted in a panic situation among all the residents of Boston as they were extremely terrified to hear about the presence of explosives all around the city. The situation ultimately transformed into a big terror scare that caused the shutdown of many transportation lines, bridges and roads. The incident cost the head the CEO of Cartoon Network his job and the company had to pay an emergency compensation of 2 million dollars for the emergency response team.
4 This teaches a valuable lesson to all the marketers that they should be completely aware of the current trends and public events while making campaigns especially large-scale guerrilla marketing campaigns of this type that involves more than a million of people. They should sincerely consider all the possible outcomes possible before launching the campaign live. Once we take the emotion out of the campaign carried out by Cartoon Network, it was really an innovative way of intriguing people about their show. But lack of knowledge about public sentiments backfired for the company and they had to face serious consequences at every front.
July Edition
Nobody would have thought that a Lite-Brown comic character was going to evoke a bomb scare.
Marketing Faux Pas |
The police even arrested the people hired by the company to put the placards around the area. The seriousness of the situation can be realized by the fact that Jim Samples, the President and the General Manager of Cartoon Network , who had spent 13 years at the company had to leave his position. "I deeply regret the negative publicity and expense caused to our company as a result of this campaign. I feel compelled to step down, in recognition of the gravity of the situation that occurred under my watch“ he said.
5
Minimalist Branding: When less is MORE
- SAMBARTA DUTTA “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”
- Leonardo Da Vinci
Cover Story |
July Edition
It is the inherent nature of mankind to stand apart from others. This leads to the desire to showcase one’s unique qualities using every means at disposal. The world of marketing is no different in nature. In this complex stage, the brands more often than not seek out innovative ways to garner the attention of their consumers. In the traditional gamut of marketing trends, engaging the consumers is achieved by using various focus elements to capture the sight of the target audience. Remember the brands from your childhood? Be it the flashy wrappers of the Alpenleibe candy or the Big Babol chewing gums or the gaudily decorated Kulfi carts making rounds, all of them had something in common. They all screamed for attention to your face with their colours and decorations.
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But with the tectonic shift in brand competition over the last couple of decades, there has been a need to reinvent the wheel. The new philosophy that is talk of the town is called ‘Minimalist Branding’. What is Minimalism? Minimalism is an ideology that originated way back in the 1960s in America. It is all about conveying complex messages in simplest possible manner. This is achieved through multiple approaches of design philosophy and aesthetics like – use of subtle designs, colours, short texts etc. Minimalism in branding is a bit different from the historical approach to minimalism. It builds on its fundamental concepts and delivers a united, cohesive framework, emphasizing clean, basic designs with an exhausting focus. It combines a modest style with clear aims that bring a clean, precise and yet accessible structure together.
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6 Apart from this, the casual portrayal of the characters and exchange indicates that FedEx as a brand, targets consumers across economic backgrounds and communities. This move reinforces the brand equity of the company.
Created by German ad agency Serviceplan, the campaign is an epitome of fusion of simplicity and creativity to drive home a message. The context is even more targeted as these print ads were displayed online and on art magazines, which suits the target audience of the company and bolsters the brand presence.
July Edition
One of the key aspects of minimalism is to deliver a message using fewer words which is understood across the cultures irrespective of the positioning. One of the best known example of that is the FedEx ‘Neighbours’ print campaign created by DDB Brazil to reinforce FedEx’s global reach and efficient delivery network for a growing number of Brazilian exporters. FedEx collaborated with Brazilian photographer Manolo Moran to bring this campaign to life by clicking a series of pictures depicting people passing packages through windows. The walls outside the windows are painted in mellow shades of yellow and brown and feature scaled murals of the continents. This clearly signifies the passage of goods across continents takes as little time and effort as passing it down to your neighbours.
When it comes to catering to artists, the German colossus, Faber-Castell is perhaps the most iconic brand. So its no surprise when they stepped up to set a timeless example of minimalist advertising with their ‘True-Colours’ print campaign. The creative visuals cleverly fused their products with day-to-day objects thus conveying how close they represent the true shades of real life.
Cover Story |
Brands tryst with Minimalism
7
Cover Story |
July Edition
Playing with subtle elements to drive an impact is the bread and butter of minimalist strategies. But what happens when you add a dash of shock factor involving a subject of taboo? The figure of Adolf Hitler has always been confined to national shame and historical tragedies in Germany. So, its no wonder the German hat maker, Hut Weber, created ripples in the community when they released their advertisement featuring the silhouettes of the notorious dictator alongside a similar figure of the British comedian Charlie Chaplin. The resemblance is uncanny with just a single difference in elements, a bowler hat sold by the hat maker with an English caption “It’s the hat”. This brilliant piece of communication is ground-breaking because it took a subject of taboo and turned it to the talk of the town. It did receive its fair share of controversies but it clearly imprinted the product on the mind of the consumers by creating a differentiating factor. It was just bold enough to turn heads but not offensive enough to turn away the entire market.
The global soft drink giant Coca-Cola Company has been a master of this approach. For their subsidiary brand Coca-Cola with Lemon, they collaborated with Publicis to depict the iconic font of Coca-Cola in the form of a lemon peel, highlighting the primary flavour of their product. These sorts of content reinforcement also works in synergy with the taglines as showcased by Nestle KitKat. The creative depicts 2 KitKat sticks forming a pause sign. This emphasizes the tagline of KitKat – “Have a break, Have a KitKat”. These types of visual cues are not just quirky but creates a long lasting impression on the consumer’s mind at a subconscious level.
8 Minimalism: Fad or Future? Some may argue that the idea of minimalism has been there for decades. However, according to some design experts, Minimalism doesn’t exist in design. In their perspective, it’s just a derivative of modernist design philosophies. Modernist design is utilitarian by nature and is built on function, not just aesthetics.
The design strategy of minimalist marketing focuses on fewer people and more use of systems and software to keep it simple. This helps the entire process happen in an untangled manner, this optimising the resources available and reaping the best possible results.
July Edition
So, as they say, ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’, similarly any minimalist brand communication will always receive its fair share of praise and criticism based on individual perspective. However, it is a popular element of visual branding that’s been on the trend for a while and so every marketer should take notice of this to stay relevant.
Cover Story |
Minimalist branding is also sometimes deployed to communicate any new service or value addition to the consumers. When McDonalds Australia (Maccas) launched their free Wi-Fi service across select outlets in Australia in partnership with Australia’s largest network provider Telstra, they ran ad campaigns depicting their famous fries in the motif of Wi-Fi signals.
One of the roadblocks to minimalism is the often skewed approach to discard even the simplest of things to stick to the character. It is often argued that the minimalist approach strips away the level of creativity in the world of branding. It also comes with the added risk of missing out on key information.
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Zomato:
The Curious Case of Leaked Chats - NANDANI KABRA
Hallmark Campaign |
July Edition
This July, Zomato set its foot to win hearts yet again by its wits and charms. In order to celebrate their 13th birthday, Zomato took it to social media to showcase how revealing WhatsApp chats were their way of celebrating not just the birth-day, but also the entire birthmonth. Zomato turned 13 this year, and as a part of their marketing campaign, the brand shared a screenshot of a purported “leaked WhatsApp chat” that reveals conversations between the CEO and other departments of the company, wherein they discuss
ideas to celebrate Zomato’s birthday month. The chats en-route a funny path and give a sneak peek into brainstorming sessions between marketing, finance, and other departments with the company’s boss. As the CEO starts the conversations asking departments to suggest ways to celebrate their birthday, the marketing team is the first one to appeal to the wits by saying, 'let's have a 10 day off’ only to be reminded that they are supposed to celebrate it with customers and not themselves alone. The chats quite simply and hilariously
10 July Edition
After the marketing team, the growth team suggests throwing a big discount like 60 percent for customers with special stress on the word ‘big.’ Not trying to be the party pooper, but the finance team steps in here to politely yet cautiously suggest that a 60 percent off for the birthday only sounds like a good plan. But as the chat proceeds and excitement heightens, the discount gets bigger and gets extended to more number of days the finance team is no longer amused, till finally its unanimously decided to have an offer of “60 percent off for the entire July.” The chat ends with the finance team exiting the chat, displaying its disapproval.
The screenshot of this quirky, little chat was shared with customers as a mailer with the blessings of the CEO and not so much of the finance team. The post sold like hot cupcakes on social media, where everyone was amused to their core by the wits and satire of Zomato. In addition to this, it also continued to spread its charm on LinkedIn with a light-hearted banter between Zomato’s CEO Deepinder Goyal and CFO Akshant Goyal. The company’s ‘No Cooking July’ proved to be a success, and all major marketing-oriented Instagram account lauded their move. Zomato has always had a way of winning hearts by delivering delicious food on time and delivering happiness by these cute marketing gimmicks.
Hallmark Campaign |
venture into how each department has a few ideas up their sleeves that will add to the fun.
11
Johnnie Walker:
The evolution of the striding man - AAYUSH SHETTY
Brand Markive |
July Edition
Originated in Scotland in 1820 as a grocery shop, Johnnie Walker’s first scotch whiskey was blended in 1865. It currently holds the reputation of a Scotch whiskey brand having massive reach in terms of distribution and presence in every nation. Johnnie Walker’s story is one of ardour & ambition. John Walker's spark, imagination, and entrepreneurial hearth were the impetus to a hugely successful commercial enterprise and in the end a brand-new destiny for Scotch whisky. Over the last 200 years, Johnnie Walker has been defined by using its exceptional dedication and its commitment to development symbolized through the famous Striding Man logo. His sons introduced a signature rectangular bottle in 1860 which caused lesser breakages. The next significant milestone on the
adventure of Johnnie Walker was the acquisition of the Cardhu distillery in 1893, which is of vital importance to the brand. It’s this blend that imparts the smoky taste of most Johnnie Walker blends. However, the actual purpose behind Johnnie Walker’s success has been its thought-leading advertising. The first primary marketing investment for the brand was the discovery of the 'Striding Man'. It was initially created by the cartoonist Tom Browne. There were many iterations of this striding man over time in print fabric and ads. He had a grin on his face and a monocle on his eye. The striding man stands for the journey of progress from one milestone to the next. Each bottle inside the stack has a tale of excellence that mirrors the milestones the purchaser sets for himself. Johnnie Walker is famous for having a unique marketing approach and
12 doing many promotional sports for brand cognizance. Their logo strategy is likewise selling, keeping the loyalty of their customers. To sell the legacy of the logo, they'd released a short film in the year 2009, which created consciousness about the Brand's records and how it came into existence.
This campaign launched in March 2018 to celebrate Women's History Month and International Women's Day. This campaign was released to aid women in numerous fields of work – politics, business, and tradition.
The brand’s parent organization Diageo started a member club titled 'The Striding Man Society' for dependable drinkers of Johnnie Walker. The emblem is the respectable whiskey sponsor of Formula 1 and Golf tournaments, just like the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles and Johnnie Walker Classic.
They also released limited edition bottles to celebrate the final season of the famous show, Game of Thrones. Such activities and proactive marketing in tandem with drawing inspiration from ongoing trends has catapulted the brand to great success.
Brand Markive |
The Jane Walk Campaign By Johnnie Walker wherein a lady mascot was added to the longlasting striding man brand after 100 years.
July Edition
The very famous tv show referred to as 'Mad Men' in its 6th season released an ad marketing campaign with Johnnie Walker that featured Christina Hendricks.
13
IKEA :
A Sense Of Caring
More Than Marketing |
July Edition
- JASH SHAH Established in 1943, IKEA is at present the biggest worldwide furniture corporate store on the planet. With more than 440 stores, this Swedishestablished organization is known for deciphering the requirements and tastes of customers into affordable and well-designed home furnishings. From its level stuffed bookshelves to its particular Swedish meatballs, IKEA stays focused on its basic mission "to make a superior regular day-to-day existence for the numerous individuals." IKEA Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) endeavors are driven by Chief Sustainability Officer, Pia Heidenmark Cook. The home improvement and outfitting tie began to explore CSR reports under the title People and Planet Positive starting from 2012. IKEA CSR endeavors and exercises contain supporting nearby networks, teaching and enabling specialists and resolving the issues of sex correspondence and minorities inside the organization. Besides, the worldwide furniture retailer attempts to reduce its energy utilization and get energy from elective sources. Since the launch of its People and Planet Positive program in 2012,
IKEA has developed into the third most worldwide perceived innovator in ecological supportability and social responsibility. With an aggressive and imaginative plan, IKEA's 2020 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) objectives focus on three key drives: 1.Healthy and sustainable living In 2020, IKEA extended its supportable living system while additionally watching out for the ecological effect of its activities. Specifically, these CSR endeavors included reestablished support for advancing the individual wellbeing and prosperity of individuals. In accordance with this target, IKEA broadened its 2020 home product offering to incorporate home air purifiers, energy-efficient LED lights, solar-based boards, and water reusing frameworks for showers and showers. Last year, IKEA presented more plant-based food options in their supermarkets and eateries, setting it on target to make half of its café dinners and 80% of its bundled food range plant-based by 2025.
14 3.Social equality and fairness Accepting all individuals are similarly capable, IKEA's Diversity and Inclusion strategy keeps on driving the way in sexual orientation balance. In 2020, 40% of the organization's top administration positions were held by women, highlighting its obligation to accomplishing a 50/50 gender split by
4.COVID-19 Relief IKEA attempted extraordinary CSR drives to ensure and uphold the wellbeing and livelihoods of laborers, clients, colleagues, and networks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most outstandingly, IKEA's COVID-19 effort included: Joining forces with more than 80 neighborhood noble causes in Portugal to give "we should play and learn" units to help home learning for 10,000 youngsters and their families. Providing more than 117,000 items to clinical offices in China Giving sheet material, materials, and other related supplies like chairs, wipes, and water containers to clinical staff and volunteers fighting COVID-19 in the urban communities of Daegu, Korea, and Hyderabad, India.
July Edition
2030. To additional support reasonable and equivalent treatment of representatives paying little heed to sex or sexual direction, IKEA has found a way proactive ways to guarantee its organization strategies line up with the UN Standards of Conduct for taking out LGBQT+ segregation in the working environment.
More Than Marketing |
2.Climate positive drives IKEA keeps on putting resources into CSR initiatives that emphasize costeffective, eco-friendly materials and processes. In 2020, the organization arrived at its objective to coordinate more feasible wood sources in its goods, with 98% of the wood utilized in its items got from FSC-affirmed sources as well as reused materials. Related to these arrangements, IKEA keeps on working with providers and accomplices to limit its natural effect by working on the sturdiness of its home goods. To additional its environment positive targets, 80% of its textile items and delicate goods are currently produced using reused polyester. The organization likewise revealed huge walks in staging out single-utilized plastic items from their home goods, with 44% of its plastic items being made from reused or inexhaustible materials in 2020.
15
Ryan Reynolds:
Don’t Aviation and Mint - SAMBHAV MEHTA
Pioneer |
July Edition
Whenever we hear the name “Ryan Reynolds”, all we can think is about his acting career in movies like Deadpool Series, Green Lantern, and more. But you will be surprised to know that there is more than that meets the eye. Ryan Reynolds started his acting career at the age of 13 as he landed a leading role in Nickelodeon’s teen soap opera “Hillside” after he attended an open casting call. Later he entered Hollywood and played a few supporting roles. His first major breakthrough came with the 2002 comedy National Lampoon’s Van Wilder. In recent times, he has been known for his work in movies like Deadpool, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Green Lantern.
While Ryan has an amazing acting career, it is not the only thing he is proficient in. In 2018, he invested in Aviation Gin and became the brand’s co-owner and de-facto ambassador when he acquired an undisclosed minority stake. Ryan infused the gin’s image with his wry humor, including chuckle-inducing out-of-office autoreply emails. After this collaboration, the product has taken off (pun intended) and became the secondlargest brand within the US superpremium gin segment, the announcement claims. The very same year, Ryan Reynolds along with George Dewey founded Maximum Effort Marketing after collaborating on the first two Deadpool films.
16 On 17th August 2020, Ryan sold Aviation gin to Diageo, whose liquor line-up includes the gin Tanqueray, as well as Smirnoff vodka, and Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky for $610 million. However, Diageo stated that Reynolds still maintains an "ongoing ownership interest" in Aviation. Recently, Ryan Reynolds sold his marketing ad agency Maximum Effort Marketing also, to MNTN (pronounced as Mountain). Ryan Reynolds is now a chief creative officer of MNTN and partner George Dewey is now chief brand officer. Dewey will also maintain his role as president of Maximum Effort. This shows that Ryan has got the right and cunning mind for business, marketing, and acting. In 2020, Ryan Reynolds was also given the title of “Brand Visionary” by Adweek which shows his proficiency in the marketing world as well.
July Edition
Apart from owning a Gin company and running a Marketing company, Ryan also holds a part-ownership stake in the popular prepaid carrier “Mint Mobile” back in 2019. The Mint Mobile was, founded back in 2015 as a subsidiary of another prepaid carrier Ultra Mobile.
Mint Mobile is an American telecommunications company which sells mobile phone services and operates as an MVNO on T-Mobile’s cellular network in the United States.
Pioneer |
Maximum Effort Marketing is the ad agency behind viral and creative ads like dating platform Match’s fiery “Match Made in Hell” and all of the recent advertising work for the Mint Mobile (also owned by Ryan Reynolds) and Aviation American Gin. It was under this ad agency absurd and dry humored ads for the Aviation Gin were created including the one about how Reynolds’ tears are key to the gin’s taste.
17
It’s a SWAP !!
Cookie with Karan and Zakir - SHIVANI JOSHI
It’s All About Ad-itude |
July Edition
Given the buzz their advertisement campaigns created, getting celebrities to act in ways you do not expect them to seems to be CRED’s territory for now. However, it is Britannia Good Day who has decided to take this route with its latest campaign. In four spots released over a span of seven days, the biscuit brand has roped in the likes of Karan Johar, Zakir Khan, Udit Narayan, Baba Sehgal, RJ Balaji, and Gautham Vasudev Menon. The campaign was to create a buzz about Britannia's Good Day surprise pack where all these celebrities performed surprising acts as a teaser for the bigger surprise. The release of the four spots was strategically planned to create a sense of intrigue among the audience as they had no clue what was inside this pack and were urged to go and buy one.
Out of these four spots, the role reversal between Karan Johar and Zakir Khan generated a lot of interest on social media. Two of these four spots from the campaign feature Karan Johar and Zakir Khan, who hilariously trade places for a new secretive Good Day pack. “S-O-T-Y 24”, “Kashyap lighting”, “What nepotism yaa”… the advertisement is full with bits of Karan Johar that are relevant to India's youth. However, there is a twist in the tale; it is Zakir Khan essaying the role of Karan Johar. And, on the other end, we see Karan Johar perform stand-up comedy by mimicking ‘sakth launda’, aka Zakir Khan. To drive their message home and urge the audience to find out the surprise in the good pack, the campaign was centered around the element of surprise.
Given the similarities, it is but natural to compare this campaign to the one from CRED. It is not just the celebrities doing the unexpected, but the aim is also to generate interest. But is generating interest enough? Or is communication of the brand message the ultimate goal. Interest generated is fleeting, however impact is something that remains long lasting. It would be interesting to see, what do brands choose in the long run for their communication.
July Edition
18 The element of surprise works very well in this case as we are all comfortable with Karan Johar in his eloquent element and Zakir Khan in his typical persona and this advertisement hilariously swapped them. The main intention of this campaign was to pique the attention of the viewers through the personality swaps of these famous stars, and it did that in style.
The result was that the viewer was left intrigued by what the product was all about.
It’s All About Ad-itude |
Explaining why they decided to follow this route to advertise their new surprise pack, the company said that these celebrities surprise the audience with their distinctive styles and nuances in a never-seenbefore avatar.
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Titan:
Mozart of watches, ads, and music - SNEHA PATEL
Ad-Tales |
July Edition
Music is a great tool to make any person nostalgic. It can invoke emotions and memories which are somewhere hidden in the deepest pockets of our brain. Titan has always used this tool in its ads and brewed some magical content. The melodious tune is a parallel protagonist in all the ads for Titan watches and it soon became a fantastic point of brand recognition for the company. The tune is so deeply etched in the minds of Indians that a consumer will quickly recognize it as Titan music. Most Indians are not aware of the fact that it is not an original composition but a part taken from Mozart’s 25th Symphony. In an era where Indian consumers preferred jingles with catchy lyrics and Indian music, Titan took a risk and added a western tune as background music to its advertisements. The risk was a success, with people still remembering the iconic tune.
The Joy of Gifting ad brought the signature tune back to the small screen and along with it reiterated its brand proposition of gifting. The heartwarming ad starts with a professor writing something on the blackboard and the students banging their desks, tapping on calculators, and making music from their stationery. The entire class recreated an acapella rendition of the Titan tune, with some singing and some using stationery as instruments. As the ad starts to reach its conclusion, we see a girl walking towards the professor and handing him a book. Inside the book, there is a watch and a farewell note. Seeing this, the professor becomes overwhelmed and can’t control his emotions. This ad paid tribute to the teaching community and celebrated the gurushishya relationship. The ad was conceptualized by the creative agency, Ogilvy and Mather.
20 Titan ads always broke stereotypes, right from choosing a piece of western classical music as the focal point to its progressive storytelling. Titan, through its advertising strategies, has celebrated people from all walks of life, be it a man, woman, businessman or a teacher. It has always been a progressive brand. Titan’s advertising has always been ahead of its time. In this conundrum of having a story to tell in 60 seconds and using music, actors, and equipment. Many brands at times fail to highlight the main thing for which the ad was made in the first place, which is the product. However, Titan has always made balanced ads, which have a sprinkle of everything and at the same time highlight the watches as well. This is the reason why the ads are so memorable and the consumer connection is so high.
July Edition
For the brand, the objective of this campaign, shared Rajan Amba, the then global marketing head and product head of Titan Watches, was to return to its roots and celebrate its core proposition: the joy of gifting. "Gifting is one activity in which both the receiver and the giver feel good. Titan has always been synonymous with gifting. We have attempted to re-create the joy of gifting. We wanted to make our evergreen theme tune larger than life.
And there is never a good or bad time to return to your roots; it is something you can do at any time, "he further said.
Ad-Tales |
The insight that led to the campaign was simple: With the increasing popularity of online shopping, gifting as a practice has become an impersonal affair. Thus, the creative brief given to Ogilvy was to get consumers to look at the brand as the 'original owner of the gifting platform'. The brand had to be presented in a new light with a sense of nostalgia. This was achieved by highlighting the everpopular theme music and celebrating personalized gifting.
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Laws of Marketing - SANCHITA KHATTAR It is generally assumed that a welldesigned, well-executed, and wellfinanced marketing program will always work. Over the past ten years, companies have paid a hefty price for destroying their brands' identity by making a mistake in marketing them. When a company makes a mistake, it quickly shows up as the competition begins to run off with the business. Now, to get the business back, the company has to wait for others to make the same mistake and then figure out how to exploit the situation. To ensure that all your marketing programs are in tune with the laws of marketing, this article will skim you through 5 of the 22 fundamental marketing laws.
Mark-5 |
July Edition
Law of Leadership: It's better to be first than it is to be better. The fundamental issue in marketing is to create a category your brand can be first in. This is because it is much easier to get into the mind first than to convince you that you are the better one. We all know who the first person to fly the Atlantic Ocean solo- Charles Lindberg was. But do we remember who the second person was? No, right? The second person who flew the Atlantic Ocean solo was Bert Hinkler. He was a better flyer, used less fuel, etc., but did we remember him? The leading brand in any category is almost always the first brand to get into the prospect's mind. This is because people usually tend to
stick with what they've got. It's also simpler for the brand to maintain its leadership since the name becomes too generic. E.g., Xerox, the first plain-paper copier company, has become the name for all plain-paper copiers.
Law of Category: If you can't be first in a category, set up a new category to be first in. After Heineken became a big success, Anheuser-Busch could have launched another imported beer. But instead, they found Michelob, which is the first high-priced domestic beer. Today Michelob outsells Heineken. Everyone is almost always interested in what's new and rarely in what's better. When you're the first one in a particular category, always promote the type. Your edge here? You have no competition. Moving back to our Atlantic Ocean solo flyer example, do we remember the third person to fly solo? Of course not. But do we remember the first woman to fly the Atlantic Ocean solo? Yes, it was Amelia Earhart. She was also the third person to fly the Atlantic Ocean solo. She was the first one in a new category, hence always on our minds.
22 Law of Perception: Marketing is not a battle of products but a battle of perceptions. Everything that is in the world of marketing is all perception in the mind of the customer. People are always under the impression that marketing is a battle of products. That is incorrect. It is a battle of perceptions. If marketing were a battle of products, the same sales order for a particular product would hold for all the countries. For instance, in Japan, the most to least sold automobile brand is Toyota, Nissan & Honda. But in the United States, Honda is the most sold automobile brand.
Law of Focus: The most powerful concept in marketing is to own a word in the prospect's mind. Here, you basically 'burn' your way into the customer's mind by narrowing the focus to a single word or concept for your brand. For instance, the federal express was able to infuse the term 'overnight' in the minds of its customers since it focused on overnight package delivery only. All successful brands do this. If the words are copier, chocolate bar & cola, the most relatable terms/brands will be Xerox, Dairy Milk, & Coke. There is also the halo effect. If your brand firmly establishes one benefit, the prospect will give you a lot more benefits. E.g., a 'safe' car always implies better design & engineering. Basically, the essence of marketing is narrowing the focus.
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Since marketing is a battle of perception and not product, it's the mind that takes precedence over the marketplace. If your brand wants to make a big impression on someone, you can't work your way into the prospect's mind and then slowly build an opinion over some time. You have to always blast your way into the mind. This is because people don't like to change their minds very quickly. In marketing, you cannot try to change the mind of the customer. Once you're perceived in a way, it's done. For instance, Apple's edge over other brands was its easy-to-remember name, which helped them stay in the prospect's mind.
So why this difference? It's because there is a difference in the perceptions of the customers' minds.
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Law of the Mind: It's better to be the first one in mind than to be the first one in the marketplace.
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Zomato Could Start a Domino: Food for Thought
- ARKO GHOSH
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The story of Zomato has been nothing short of inspirational and one of those that everyone thinks is too good to be true. However, they have proved to be one of the greatest startup stories that one could come across. A large segment of the population perceives Zomato to be a food delivery app with really effective advertising and a very strong social media influence which is quirky, a perfect balance of humor and moment marketing, and something that sticks with the audience. While all of this has been an added advantage to the company, there is much more that has led it to the position it has in the market today and growing at a continuous pace. A company that started with trying to solve the hunger problem to becoming the first unicorn in the public market, it is showing a possible shift in the whole startup segment
with a lot more companies waiting for the same opportunity. The idea of trying to pitch to the Indian investors who were very skeptical about investing in a loss making company with limitless potential. The company is still clear on trying to scale up before turning to the topic of profits, and that is only because there is a genuine belief that the company is only going to grow more. The market cap also grew exponentially post them going public and with all the buzz, it's only fair to go down the memory lane and see their evolution to India's top 50 companies. The company was founded in 2008 as Foodiebay, a food listing platform with its founder
24 By the year 2011, they expanded to all the major cities of the country like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune. They had done a really good job on banking on the smartphone era and did their best to direct crowds to its webpage for more engagement. In 2012, the company built the first Android and iOS app as well as going international by expanding to countries like Sri Lanka, Qatar, UK, South Africa and Philippines. By 2013, they were gaining the confidence of multiple investors in the company's potential and raised $16.7 from InfoEdge as well as $37 million from Sequoia Capital while simultaneously expanding to New Zealand, Turkey, Indonesia and other countries. 2014 was a year where Zomato moved into an acquiring phase by taking over Menu-mania, Gastronauchi and Cibando. They also raised $60 million at a post-money valuation of $660 million.
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In the year 2010, Foodiebay decided to rename itself as Zomato.com. The company said it they derived their name from the word 'tomato' and added a certain zing to it. The rebranding was also done with the hope of expanding their operations beyond the usual. Foodiebay was restricted in its scope as it meant the company would only cater to food which was not something the founder was keen on.
This was also the year when Cofounder and CTO Gunjan Patidar joined the company.
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Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chhadah working on this idea while they were still a part of Bain Consulting. In a very short time they became the go-to place for restaurant search. Their struggle to find menus and restaurants around their workplace led them to create Foodiebay that would make the menus of restaurants available online. The focus was not always towards such an idea. Deepinder had started another website called foodlet.com which was a venture where it would tie-up with restaurants and put their promotions on its website and the customers could order food online from the website itself. However, they eventually decided to make Foodiebay a huge success by combining the features of foodlet.com to it.
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In 2015, they finally launched food delivery while also facing its first big hurdle, a data breach, which the team was able to resolve within 12 hours. They were also able to raise a staggering $110 million in that year over two rounds. They continued to acquire other food portals like Urbanspoon, MapleGraph and Nextable.
2016 led to them purchasing Sparse Labs, a logistics technology startup to enhance their delivery option by optimising delivery routes and ensuring minimal wait time for the riders. It was renamed as Zomato Trace and the company also decided to roll out this service free of cost to its restaurant partners. In 2017 they launched Zomato Infrastructure services to help the partnered restaurants and acquired Runnr. In the year 2018, the company initially raised $150 million from Ant
Financials after which in the month of March, Pankaj Chaddah decided to part ways with Zomato while still being a part of the board of directors. It also entered the unicorn club with a valuation of $1.3 billion and hit a $100 million revenue run-rate and registered a 40% growth in 2 months. In April, they claimed to reduce cash burn from $15 million to $11 million while also posting a revenue of $74 million in FY 2017. In the coming months it came up with a Piggyback loyalty programme for its customers to save on their orders, acquired TongueStun and entered the B2B foodtech space. They also launched Zomato pickup in 13 cities, raised $210 million and hit a valuation of $2.3 billion. They even entered the drone delivery space by Acquiring TechEagle Innovations. They hit a massive setback when a delivery staff was caught eating food from multiple packages and reselling them which led them to launch tamper-proof packaging, which eliminated the possibility of any further mishaps
26 26 On 23rd July they opened at 116
They called this event a bell ringing ceremony and it was done digitally of course with the company thanking all the stakeholders in its official statement. Zomato has shown yet again huge potential and that is the reason it created such havoc in the market. The company is growing on all fronts and with its plans of further expansion, it's only a matter of time before it is not a loss-making company anymore with potential but one that has achieved beyond what was imagined.
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Come year 2021, Zomato has raised $250 million and has signed a deal with Grofers to invest $100 million in the company by acquiring 9.3% stakes of the company. Company decided to go public and the IPO was open for subscription between 14-16 July and the price range was that of 72-76 rupees.
rupees per share and went as high as . 138 rupees before closing at Rs 125. The company had a 66% rise in their share price, something no one had anticipated with a market capitalisation of $13 billion.
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In the year 2019, they elevated Gaurav Gupta to the co-founder role and did the same for Mohit Gupta in the year 2020 while simultaneously acquiring UberEats business in India in an allstock deal, giving them 10% of their combined business. They raised a combined $114 million from Temasek and Kora and launched Zomato Market.
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MOMENT MARKETING: Done Fast! Done Right!
- ANATARIP BISWAS Moment Marketing – What is it?
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If you have followed the recent News keenly, you would have noticed a big hype caused by the Zomato IPO. Many companies took to their social media platforms from start-ups to large MNCs and posted memes and posts either poking fun at Zomato or congratulating them. But most importantly, all these posts were secretly promoting their core businesses and products. What was happening is called Moment Marketing! So, to explain a Layman, Moment Marketing is any piece of topical content that keeps the conversation going with the customers. It is a short campaign aimed at garnering the maximum attention of the viewers. Although digital marketing gets all the center stage when we talk about online marketing, Moment Marketing stills holds a large chunk. In today's fast paced world, the scope of Digital Marketing is slowly decreasing. Moment Marketing is now taking its place to become the most powerful tool for quick, on-time marketing.
Why do Brands prefer Moment Marketing? The World Today is hooked on to all kinds of screens, almost for everything. Moment Marketing allows a brand to know its audience honestly. With good knowledge of their audience base and intelligent planning, a brand can latch on to a particular event and get famous. A Brand has to touch the consumer Rationally, Emotionally,Aspirationally, Physically, and Spiritually – (REAPS). Hence every moment can be a touchpoint. Brands are made in the consumers' minds and hearts. Using REAPS, Brands can access new "locations and occasions of consumption." Such moments in Advertising and Marketing help create an influential brand. A Deloitte digital trend report defined moment marketing as "The ability to take advantage of an event to deliver relevant and related, seemingly spontaneous, and often fleeting interactions with customers in realtime." The Digital space has got a boost with Moment Marketing. It has helped brands to connect with their consumers in a conversation space of their liking. Also, conversation points that would previously create a spike but end by being a headline in a newspaper or short-term gossip among acquaintances now can become creative for a brand that its audiences like to engage with.
28 The Ideal Moment Marketing Campaign! The idea is to grab a piece of News and make promotion through it quickly. Amul has always done this; any News, either national or international, is immediately turned into a catchy post for newsprint and social media.
Event-led or Communication –
Occasion-Specific
Brands create posts that are eventspecific or occasion-specific to get maximum leverage during a festive season. Food delivery brands like Swiggy and Zomato have used this technique to promote specific food items to a particular season. Many brands use their products creatively within an advert to show support to a festival or event.
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Steps Brands can use to Excel in Moment Marketing There are five ways in which a Brand can succeed in Moment Marketing – Identify Trending News Create Humorous content that is shared Easily Get the Pop Culture Involved No Hard Selling Not Follow every Trend
Sales must be the Core of the Campaign – Ensure that the communication has direct ties to your products and thus increases sales. Netflix always ensures that people know about their Streaming Service. Fevicol has posts where Glue gets the most focus.
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As the Internet audience grows and is more engaged with topical activities, brands will constantly find newer ways to engage through conversation points of their audience's choice. Be it the launch of a popular movie, a new government coming to power, or a celebrity kid wearing a specific clothing brand, the new dialogue would be one between the brand and the audience discussing it.
29 Pop Culture Support – Latch on to a celebrity, movie, or TV show and use their posts or plots to access niche crowds. We have seen this happen during Game of Thrones or Marvel Movies, where specific scenes from the shows or movies are taken to create quirky ads. Recently, Ronaldo shifting the Coke bottle caused enthusiasm on social media.
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Stay close to Core Brand Message Don't dilute your brand message or compromise on your values while you post. Always ensure that you support the ideas and beliefs of your customer base and try to promote your brand values amongst the new crowd.
Humour! Humour! Humour! – Brands use Humour to grab the attention of the viewer. An eyegrabbing campaign can gain them a loyal fan following as they put out specific content that identifies with the brand personality. Using Memes can help connect with people from various parts of the country without explaining the complete product details.
Conclusion With social media being the most critical arm of online marketing these days, the concept of Moment Marketing will only become more robust. With brands churning out new ideas, audiences can only dream of the possibilities of advertisements. From an Indian perspective, this is excellent News – giving more opportunity to businesses to expand into new territories within India.
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Neuromarketing:
How Our Brains Respond to Marketing - PARVA CHANDRANA
Remember the last time when you came back home and left your keys somewhere? A few moments later, you forgot where you had kept the keys. Right now, brands fear being those forgotten keys.
Our brains cannot register things that are flashed for a duration below a certain threshold. But our unconscious emotions capture them and leave a lasting impression. In layman terms, subliminal messaging is something passing under your mental radar and imbibing itself deep in the subconscious brain. The phenomenon of subliminal messaging pays big dividends when we feel a sense of relatability for a product, even though we haven't interacted with it. Hence you would observe peppy, funky music artists like Dua Lipa in stores like H&M and Marks & Spencer. The music makes customers relate to their products better. If you wish to see how lasting the impact is, tell me what brand comes to your mind when the 'DaDum' sound plays. Netflix, right? These kinds of subconscious connections are what brands aspire to achieve through subliminal messaging.
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Cue, neuromarketing. It is the art of pandering to the subconscious part of the brain. For all the woes and scares that a new era of marketing brings, neuromarketing is the messiah. But what exactly is neuromarketing, and why is it the next big thing in marketing? 90% of the consumer journey is subconscious. The average time that a user takes to pick a brand is just 2 seconds. So, it becomes crucial to understand how our subconscious mind reacts to certain stimuli.
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The 1960s were a chaotic time for the advertising industry. This era, excellently portrayed by AMC Studio's 'Mad Men,' saw the industry boom and reach heights like there's no tomorrow. But amidst all this chaos and hullabaloo, some things remained constant. Because you see, all it took to make it big was one big eureka moment and a little luck by your side. Mix these, and you and you would have left a mark for decades to come. Ex USA President Lyndon B Johnson's election winning "Daisy" campaign and Marlboro's Cowboy ad are testaments to the fact. But the days of Don Draper and blatant inyour-face advertising are now long gone. Over time the consumer sentiments have changed drastically. Some celebrity feature with a catchy jingle won't cut it anymore.
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Somatic Markers Somatic markers are our body's gradual, built-up response to certain stimuli. The way we respond to these instances goes on to decide how we make decisions. Brands bank on triggering these emotions and connections to ensure that you pick their brand. Colors are an excellent example of somatic markers. Different colors instill certain emotions in you which can help in perceiving brands in a different way.
Implementing somatic markers in your campaigns can give you an advantage. Take the case of the wipes and tissue industry of the UK. There is a tight competition between two significant aggregators - Kleenex and Andrex. Both are on similar lines regarding pricing and quality. But, Andrex has the dominant market share. The reason? A puppy mascot! Think about it. A puppy can be easily related to happiness, young families, and potty training young ones. These somatic markers invigorated positive emotions and made customers pick Andrex over Kleenex. We also have some brands that pander to the worst of our somatic markers related to fears and insecurities. Such messages trigger the anterior cingulate (empathy, impulse, decision-making part of the brain) and amygdala (dread, anxiety, and fight or flight activity side of the brain).
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Rituals & Comfort We, as humans, are creatures of habit. Once we find specific products that best suit our needs and wants, we tend to form rituals around them and become loyal. Be it watching The Office for the gazillionth time or picking Oreo over some other stuffed cookie. Once brands do get such a loyal user base, it is easy to trigger the Us Vs. Them mentality to portray the superiority of their product and get an edge in the market. The classic Apple Vs. Samsung debate is an example.
Neither of them shies away from launching marketing campaigns that show this air of superiority. Visa, Mastercard, Apple, Samsung, Coke, and Pepsi are some of the many brands that realize the perks of being a "comfort" brand in a hypercompetitive space.
Neuromarketing is a relatively new entrant in the field of marketing. Up until a few years ago, it was considered to be a fad. But a plethora of studies and research have made marketers think otherwise. And in a reality where garnering eyeballs is a monumental task in itself, understanding how our brains respond to marketing would be the way forward.
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Look at how Johnsons and Johnsons depict their baby shampoo as a 'No Tear Shampoo.' A bad shampoo can give your baby red, itchy eyes, which is more than enough to scare a parent. So when they go to the store to get a shampoo for their baby, they would be getting J&J.
CALL FOR ARTICLES AUGUST 2021 EDITION The Marksman provides one and all the opportunity to discover their hidden talents in the literary field through our “Call for Articles”. For the upcoming month, the articles can be sent on any of the following topics:
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Services Marketing- How similar or different is it from product marketing?
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Are Consumers Going Numb To Digital Ads ?
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How are NFTs changing the marketplace?
Please ensure that there is no plagiarism and all the references are clearly mentioned.
Kindly follow the guidelines given below: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
One article can have only one author. Your article should be approximately 800 – 850 (strictly adhere to the word limit). The article must have relevant pictures that can be used to enhance the article. Send in your articles in .doc/.docx format to marksman.simsr@somaiya.edu Subject Line: Your Name_Institute Name_Course Year. Kindly name your file as: Your Name_ Topic.
The best adjudged article will be given a Winner’s certificate. The First Prize Winners will be awarded Rs. 500 Cash Prize.
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