The Marksman August Edition 2021

INTERFACE

The

WHERE MARKETING COMES ALIVE

MARKSMAN Stories. Insights. Knowledge.

VOL XII | ISSUE II | AUG'21

DOES SEX SELL?

EDITOR'S NOTE "In advertising, sex sells. But only if you're selling sex."

Sex attracts attention. Though it is often taboo, companies that use sex in their marketing often create effective and memorable campaigns. It is used primarily to sell impulse purchases. From Axe to Calvin Klein, we've always witnessed brands using eroticism or sexual appeals to grab a customer's attention and drive sales. But research concluded that it's not the sex appeal that works its charms but something else that actually intrigues the customers and tempts them to walk through your showroom door!

Read more about it in this edition's cover story, 'Does sex sell?'

Nandani Kabra

This edition takes you through brand stories of innovation and philanthropy, the happenings on social media, and much more.

CFA WINNERS: A very hearty congratulations to the winner and the runner-up of August Edition's Call For Articles.

1. Swasthik Prabhu (Winner) – Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore 2. Dr. Arpita Sen (Runner-up) – Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai You can read their brilliant pieces in the ”Featured Articles” section.

Shivani Joshi

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.

Less is more

Aditya Gupta

Less is more

Less is more

Arko Ghosh

Tanya Kumar

Less is more

Nandani Kabra

Ritvij Tripathi

THE WRITERS

Aayush Shetty

Sakshi Agarwal

THE WRITERS

THE DESIGNERS

MEET THE TEAM

Sambhav Mehta

Sanchita Khattar

Shivani Joshi

THE WRITERS

Sambarta Dutta

Less is more

Sneha Patel

Sumiran Narayan

TABLE OF CONTENTS 01

Kickstart Grab a cup of tea and read about MBA Chaiwala, a brand that began as a small tea stall and now has outlets in multiple cities.

The story is one filled with hope and inspiration for budding entrepreneurs.

Cover Story We've witnessed several brands subtly sneak in erotic visuals in their ads in order to drive sales. They manage to gauge attention but does that really help? Let's find out!

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What's Hot on the Gram

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The month of August brought in many festivities, creativity, surprises, and fun on the gram. Some campaigns touched the hearts, and some memes tickled the bones. Want to relive everything? Hop on here.

Brand Markive A glimpse of Apple’s history, a Tech fairy tale, started from a small garage in California to now ruling the tech market!

Glance upon this tech giant's journey here.

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More than Marketing As a brand for the people, Tommy Hilfiger understood the gloominess that looms around because of the pandemic and how they took reasonable steps to do their bit and spread happiness.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 06

Marketing Buzz Bringing you freshly brewed marketing news from across the world all in one place.

Hallmark Campaign When the leaders of social networking, Facebook reached out to the heart and soul of every Indian via its amazing social marketing campaign!

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Pioneer

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The legend of Michael Jordan has only grown despite him leaving the sport decades ago. We look into NIKE's Jordan brand and how it eclipsed the star that it was inspired by. A pioneer in a true sense of the word.

Marketflix and Chill A glimpse into the creative marketing efforts undertaken by the popular Netflix show Mr. Robot before the launch of its 2nd season.

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Mark-o-pedia Let us understand marketing terminologies such as A/B testing and Yellow Journalism with real-world examples.

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KICKSTART MBA Chaiwala

Let’s #ConnectOnCutting

-Sneha Patel Tea is a beverage consumed by billions of people every day. It is the beverage that

energizes every inch of a person after having a sip. India is a tea crazy nation. Our

day starts with a steaming cup of tea which acts as a booster for us. Tea is not just a beverage, it is a part of our culture. It is also a symbol of hope in this story of a man starting a chai ki tapri and building a multi-chain franchise out of it.

Started in the year 2017, MBA Chaiwala is the success story of Mr Praful Billore. He started a stall on the streets of Ahmedabad and sold only one thing, which was tea.

The stall has now transformed into a successful entrepreneurial venture with MBA Chaiwala outlets in different cities. MBA in the company’s name stands for Mr Billore Ahmedabad and not Masters of Business Administration. The brand was well known in Ahmedabad and is now becoming popular in other parts of India as well.

Mr Billore’s story is a story that we all can relate to. He, like millions of Indians, aspired to crack CAT exams and study at a top B-School. After multiple attempts, he couldn’t get into a top B-School. However, that did not deter him from aspiring and transforming his dreams into reality.

It all started with the zeal to do something.

Mr Billore worked at a McDonald’s outlet and wanted to start something of his own.

He borrowed some money from his father and started a tea stall. Coming from a middle-class family, Praful Billore broke stereotypes, went ahead, built a roadside stall and sold tea. He showed us that if you have determination and passion, then you will succeed in life.

MBA Chaiwala started by providing only tea, rusk and tissues to its customers.

Instead of using the commonly available plastic cup, Billore served tea old school style, in earthen pots. He would not just serve customers tea but also have conversations with them.

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KICKSTART He would converse with the urban crowd in English to bring attention to his brand.

The taste of tea, the communication skills of Billore and the hospitality with which he served each customer, brought a huge footfall to the tiny stall and his name started growing. Like in any story, there was a twist and he had to shut his first stall down because of some hassles. However, Billore bounced back and opened another tea stall near a hospital premise.

The tea stall was not a just spot where one would sit and enjoy a cup of tea, it became something much more. It became a conversation point, a place where people shared ideas. Billore also would put up fliers of job opportunities for people.

Customers would mention their details and job providers if found suitable would contact them. It became a place for networking.

Billore also worked on the marketing of the brand. One Valentine’s Day, he had come up with an idea to serve free tea to singles and the campaign picked up momentum.

He had created a Facebook event for the same and this initiative gained massive traction on social media. He also has an interactive and creative website that tells the visitors his journey in a fun and humorous manner. MBA Chaiwala is also active on Instagram and posts content on it regularly. Billore has been featured in numerous news and media outlets like ThePrint, The Better India, Humans of Bombay, and many more.

Starting from a small tea stall in Ahmedabad to multiple franchises across different locations, MBA Chaiwala is a success story that inspires people. From failing in his CAT attempts to getting his first tea stall forcibly shut down, Mr Billore persevered. He knew that the only mantra to success is hard-work, dedication and faith. He believed in the words of Robin Sharma – “ Dream Big, Start Small, Act Now” and that is exactly what he did. Even though his dream of studying in a top BSchool was never fulfilled, he has been invited to the same schools as a speaker to talk about his entrepreneurial journey.

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COVER STORY Does Sex Sell?

-Sanchita Khattar

Remember the 2007 Tom Ford's new fragrance ad, which featured a naked woman clutching the bottle either against her thoroughly waxed, slightly spread legs or between her bare breasts? Or any axe deodorant ad which features sexy women running behind a man?

Looking at recent Calvin Klein ads featuring the very famous Disha Patani will prove how almost every brand today uses sexual appeal to attract customers and drive sales.

So basically, Sex in advertising is everywhere! Magazines, TV commercials, retail spaces, just everywhere! But does Sex necessarily sell? How effective are these scantily clad models, sexually suggestive packaging, or extremely attractive product spokesperson in seducing us to buy certain products over others?

According to a book Sex in Advertising, one-fifth of all advertising uses noticeable and overt sexual content to sell their products.

Just visit the Abercrombie & Fitch store once. It's hard not to look! The female mannequins have unnaturally large breasts & the male mannequins have an abnormally pronounced endowment.

Let's find that out in this month's cover story. Stay tuned!

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COVER STORY Moreover, the group that watched Sex & the City had a worse recall of the ad they had seen than the group that watched the family sitcom.

The Chocolate Man Axe ad Axe has always been known for their sexual ads & using eroticism as a way to sell their products. One of their most famous ads was The Chocolate Man. The ad shows a man who turns into a chocolate man after spraying axe deodorant and is being gnawed on by scantily clad women licking & biting off him.

An experiment was conducted in 2007 by Ellie Parker & Adrian Furnham of the University of London, where they tried to understand how well one can recall sexually suggestive ads. People were divided into four groups. They showed two groups an episode of Sex & the City, where the female characters discussed whether they were good in bed, and the other two groups watched an episode of the family sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. One segment each from both the groups was then showed two ads: a sexually suggestive one and an ad with no sexual content.

The Indian audience found the ad so offensive that it had to be taken off. By depicting women in a sexualized way, the advertisement exploited the desires of their male customer base, who eventually wish to attract women. Were it not for the stereotypes associated with chocolate, such as the response of overpowering desire and sexuality in women; they would have never made the spray.

As much as problematic this ad was, it did help the brand increase sales.

It was then concluded that the subjects who saw the sexually suggestive ad were no better able to recall the names of the brands/products they had seen than the subjects who had viewed the unerotic ads.

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COVER STORY What got between Brook Shields & her Calvins? Nothing.

Now let's talk about a somewhat sexually suggestive advertisement by Calvin Klein in 1980, which was also their very first ad showing a 15-year-old Brooke Shields, in Calvin Klein jeans, saying, "Do you want to know what gets between me and my Calvins? Nothing.

An ad such as this, featuring teenagers wearing underwear and getting themselves photographed, was bound to create a controversy and spark public outrage. There were protests but that did not stop the Kleins; and why would it? The Brook Shields campaign drove their sales to 2 million pairs a month! So, they pulled out yet another ad that deliberately mimicked low-budget porn videos. Now, not only there were protests ,but this time The American Family Association got involved and urged the retailers not to carry Calvin Klein products in their stores.

After a lot of protests, the ads were eventually had to be taken down, but the controversies that stirred and the free publicity that Calvin Klein received, was irreplaceable. And the fact here remains that although these ads might be offensive, they are much more memorable for their shock value.

So, now we know that these erotic advertisements ignite a CONTROVERSY, which in turn actually drives the sales and not the sexual appeal.

This is the most probable reason why brands like Abercrombie & Fitch, Calvin Klein or Axe are always on our minds. The reason exactly why another Calvin Klein's somewhat controversial ad, which was also termed as 'soft porn,' not only increased their sales but soon this controversial brand controlled 70% of the jeans market at significant retailers like Bloomingdales.

Now, if Sex doesn't always sell, what about extreme beauty? Does it sell?

For this as well, evidence suggests that just as Sex hijacks our attention away from critical information in an ad, so does extreme beauty or a very famous celebrity.

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COVER STORY attractive people, our brain makes us believe that we are equally attractive and cool. The same thing goes for sexual appeal. While viewing a sexy Victoria's Secret catalogue, most women imagine the feel and touch of the lingerie against their skin - thus feeling equally sexy. Sex in advertising is all about planting dreams inside the consumer's head and wish fulfilment.

Even though it might increase, in the near future, it will go underground in the long run.

This is because today everything is all out there, available to us and for us, all the time.

So, this shock effect that has kept us engaged till now will eventually fade away.

But, for now, we’ll be paying slightly more attention to ads that use sex appeal to sell their products.

A famous study conducted at the University of Florida proved that most women were turned off by extremely attractive models and then decided not to purchase the product they were promoting.

Another reason that beauty doesn't always sell is that we, as customers, are far likely to identify more with people who look like us rather than with gorgeous celebrities.

The exact reason why Dove's "real beauty" campaign, which featured stories from women of all shapes and sizes, was so successful.

Now, if Sex & beauty don't necessarily sell products, why are they so much visible in marketing & advertising?

The exact reason why you’ve also paid so much attention to this article…. Maybe not a bad marketing technique after all!

The answer to this lies in several brainscanning experiments. It's the mirror neuron. So, when we see young and

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WHAT'S HOT ON THE GRAM From Bachpan ka Pyar to CEO Entrepreneur and everything in between

-Nandani Kabra

Instagram in August was a den for all crazy things happening where a 10-year old kid, Sahdev Dirdo, who created a viral sensation, featured in the official video of Bachpan ka Pyar with rapper Badshah and Aastha Gill. The song was released on August 11 and is a blockbuster with tunes that make you tap your feet. Being on Instagram, it would have been impossible to miss yet another groovy tune which goes like "Jeffery, Jeffery Bezos, where lyrics continue to sing, “look at where you came from, look at you now.” This amazing tune became a way for people to show their journeys from childhood to growing up or even another way to promote their small businesses.

While this was not enough to keep the netizens hooked to the 'gram, adding to the madness, there were memes to tickle the funny bones on the recent Sabyasachi x H&M collaboration. Sabyasachi, whose label by the same name is known for its gorgeous Indian wear, ranging from lehengas to saris, is synonymous with luxury fashion. He attempted to make his clothes affordable and available for a fastfashion brand like H&M for the Indians, however, ended up butchering their expectations.

The collection's reveal surely lost positive responses on the way, but memes on the same surely made their way through. Here's a meme that garnered a lot of laughter and attention.

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WHAT'S HOT ON THE GRAM

August also witnessed a lot of festivals and occasions too important to be missed by brands and companies. Zomato, who is an ace in social media, took a quirky path to wish Indians 75th Independence Day. They uploaded the image below on 15th August 2021 to showcase how Indians refused to take orders from anyone starting from 15th August 1947. The caption, however further explains, how they are still accepting orders. Many other brands and creators all over the country hopped on the bandwagon and put a creative spin to wish the netizens a happy Independence Day. It is always interesting to witness what creativity these brands come up with and how they leave audience stunned everytime.

The festivities of Rakshabandhan and Onam continued to bring out creativity and some new and old tear-jerking ad campaigns, which managed to win hearts.

Some people relieved sibling rivalries and the trivial things that mean the world yet at the same time start wars in a brothersister duo. In addition to this, Indian athletes' performance in the Olympics won medals and hearts and began a series of posts on Instagram congratulating and celebrating the athletes. The pride the country felt in our athletes was immeasurable. With August bringing so much festivities, creativity, surprises, and fun on the 'gram, it only fits to wait for the surprises the month of September has in store for the Instagrammers.

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BRAND MARKIVE Apple

The Timeless Top Dog

Whether you are a Mac or a PC user, there is no denying that Apple is among, if not the most valuable and successful brand in the world. In recent years, it has become very rare to not use an Apple product at some point in your day. The little bitten apple has become synonymous with technology, music, photography and growth. Apple Inc. is an American MNC headquartered in California, that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. It is one among the Big Four technology companies, along with Amazon, Google, and Facebook. The history of everyone’s favourite, Apple, is a tech fairytale with one garage and three smart friends -Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne

-Sumiran Narayan

and their passion to do something big!

Both the Steves attended the Homebrew Computer Club, a computer hobbyist group that gathered in California's Menlo Park from 1975. Wozniak produced the first computer with a keyboard similar to the then very convenient typewriter and the ability to connect to a regular Television.

Later christened the Apple I, it was the archetype of every modern computer hand-built entirely by Wozniak.

It was sold with a kit concept, as a motherboard with CPU, RAM, and basic textual video. The approach was to make something simpler, yet big.

This philosophy reflects even today in Apple’s products.

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BRAND MARKIVE According to the biography of Steve Jobs, the name was given by him after he returned from an apple orchard. He thought the name sounded fun, spirited, and not intimidating. The name also likely stood out by beginning with an A, which meant it would be nearer the front of any listings.

Apple Computer, Inc. was incorporated in 1977, without Ronald Wayne, who had left and sold his share of the company back to his co-founders, Jobs, and Wozniak only twelve days after having co-founded Apple. Multimillionaire, Mike Markkula provided essential business expertise and funding during the establishment of Apple Inc. During the first five years of operations, revenues grew exponentially, doubling about every four months.

From Motherboards to iPhone and more...

Steve Jobs understood that GUI (Graphical User Interface) was the future and hence was born, The Apple Lisa. Despite an amazing breakthrough, it was a commercial failure due to its high price and shortage of software titles. The Macintosh Computer, Apple's most successful product yet was launched in 1984. The New York Times said that the Macintosh marked a "revolution in personal computing." In 1997, when returned to Apple as the interim CEO, a new personal computer was introduced- The iMac, a strong seller, and Apple quickly went to work developing a suite of digital tools for its users. These tools were launched as a software bundle known as iLife.

In 2001, came the iPod and Apple sold 390 million units of this portable music player.

2007 came with the iPhone and AppleTV. iPhone was a game-changer for the industry because Apple sold about 2.7 Lakh units in the first 30 hours of sales, which is huge. After years of research and speculation, Apple unveiled the iPad in 2010. In May, the same year, Apple's market cap exceeded that of Microsoft for the first time since 1989. Steve Jobs passed away in 2011, months after stepping down as CEO, marking the end of an era for Apple, replaced by Tim Cook. Apple continues to enjoy growth and remains the timeless top dog in the industry, and, why not?

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MORE THAN MARKETING Tommy Hilfiger: Moving Foward Together We are the people

For many across the world, 2020 did not go according to plan. The global pandemic spread and the racial riots, social injustices, and hate crimes cast a gloomy shadow over 2020. People, and rightly so, felt angry, sad, helpless, and agitated. Even though 2021 didn’t bear any significant good news, and as the future across the world is still uncertain, there is one thing 2020 has taught all of us: that humans are not meant to be isolated from one another.

In these difficult times, brands across the globe have tried their best to offer a ray of hope to their customers. Tommy Hilfiger made one such attempt via their campaign, 'Moving forward together,' to help build a better future. The campaign celebrated

-Shivani Joshi

what the future might represent when all the communities came together and made it an agent for social change. The campaign was fronted by a diverse cast of advocates and activists, like Jameela Jamel, all fighting to create a society that ‘Wastes Nothing and Welcomes All.’ The advocates and activist shared their activism journeys and stories to inspire consumers to create a brighter future.

The campaign was a part of the brand’s philanthropic efforts, which saw the brand donate 10,000 white T-shirts to frontline healthcare workers. It also launched a collection co-designed by the Tommy Hilfiger community, and the proceeds earned from the same went to Covid-19 relief efforts.

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MORE THAN MARKETING With this collaboration, it hoped to provide access to a valuable range of social impact educational courses. This initiative added to the theme of their Spring 2021 campaign, ‘Moving Forward Together,’ where various activists from the campaign hosted one FutureLearn course each. In a statement issued by the brand, they said that they wanted to inspire and enable their fans to make a positive difference in their own lives and the lives of others. Curating and creating accessible, meaningful courses through the FutureLearn platform was how the brand tried to equip them. These online classes were driven by a social cause.

They also took active steps to create a conversation on social media using hashtags #TommyHilfiger and #MovingForwardTogether.

The campaign tried to provide the consumer a hope that these hard days will eventually end and the future is brighter.

The collaborations with recognizable advocates and activists who have faced a fair share of discriminatory treatment in their past; made it easy for the audience to recognize themselves in them. The campaign aimed to inspire a better future, and it can be said that Tommy Hilfiger indeed succeeded, and it can be ranked among the best social cause campaigns of the year. The brand also announced a new partnership with the online learning platform, FutureLearn.

They taught lessons that aren’t always covered in schools but are very important in today’s world. Many brands like to think they have incorporated philanthropy into their business model, but it’s not as easy as it looks and can just be used as a marketing ploy. This campaign was successful because its ambassadors weren’t just a load of social media ‘influencers’ but people actually representing the cause.

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MARKETING BUZZ The news on the block

- Sambarta Dutta Visa begins brand transformation under the ‘Meet Visa’ initiative.

Phir se #Jeetkahalla: Indusind applauds Indian Para-athletes.

"Meet Visa" is the new initiative in Visa's reinvention into a digital payment brand.

“Aligned closely with the company’s business strategy and future outlook, this brand transformation is aimed at adapting the brand to emerging scenarios that add newer dimensions to the payment ecosystem,” the company said in a statement. It is intended to portray Visa as an all-encompassing payments network and as a leader in the digital payments arena, as opposed to a brand that is only linked with card payments. It is Visa's goal to educate India's enormous population of Visa customers with the brand's dynamic.

Additionally, Visa's blue and gold colours will be updated to make it more appealing to consumers on digital devices.

Bank

IndusInd Bank, in cooperation with GoSports Foundation, launched a unique new campaign to highlight the achievements of Indian para-athletes across several sports disciplines, preserving the essence of 'Jeetkahalla', a campaign launched back in 2016 to create nationwide support for them. Phirse #Jeetkahalla is a new campaign that highlights the rigours of the Indian paraathletes' preparation as they prepare to compete against the world's top paraathletes on an international stage.

As part of the campaign, the Bank has also unveiled a heart-warming and inspiring ‘Anthem’ that showcases the grit and determination of these athletes. An extensive digital media campaign has been launched by the Bank in an effort to spread the word about this initiative and inspire people to show their support for these heroes.

In addition to a series of short videos, Wieden+Kennedy has created a new visual brand identity that better reflects Visa's principles of trust, security, acceptance and inclusiveness.

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MARKETING BUZZ OLA launches electric scooter on 75th Independence day.

The Indian Ride-sharing giant OLA launched its much anticipated electric scooter on 15th August, on the occasion of India's 75th Independence day. This is Ola's first venture into the two-wheeled vehicle market.

Colgate-Palmolive to launch recyclable toothpaste tubes in India.

In a video at the unveiling function, CEO of Ola Bhavish Aggarwal called for the need to reverse climate change and advance the development of the nation. According to Aggarwal, Ola's electric vehicle revolution will provide India "freedom from petrol" much as the freedom war was a revolution that gave India independence.

To meet its environmental goals, ColgatePalmolive has introduced recyclable toothpaste tubes in India. The rollout was done for variants like Active Salt and Vedshakti, with other Colgate products to follow in the near future. EPL Ltd (previously known as Essel Propack Ltd) has teamed with the company to launch the recyclable toothpaste tubes.

Ola Electric's gigantic "Future Factory" in Tamil Nadu, will begin rolling out electric scooters in the near future, a move that threatens to shake up the e-scooter market in India.

As far as the company is aware, it is the only oral care brand to undertake such a large-scale An official statement from the firm said, "Colgate's recyclable tubes represent a stepping stone in its path to attain 100 percent recyclability across its oral care portfolio in India".

With the company's Corporate Sustainable Ambitions for 2025, Colgate-Palmolive India hopes to improve its carbon footprint and offer sustainable technologies to its customers.

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HALLMARK CAMPAIGN Facebook

The Ultimate Marketer!

Facebook never fails to amaze people with one of its kind advertising campaigns. It recently launched an amazing Diwali campaign in October, 2020 on the auspicious occasion of Diwali that left a majority of Indian population in tears and instilled in them a feeling of hope as the festival of Diwali is very close to their heart.

It was by far the most challenging Diwali for every Indian, as people had no hopes of normalcy returning to their day-to-day lives. The pandemic continued to affect people in every possible way and increase in unemployment being one its major consequences. Facebook planned to send out a strong, motivating and inspirational message via its new advertisement.

-Ritvij Tripathi

The company released a 7-minute video which revolves around a girl named Pooja who owns a milk centre named Pooja Milk Center. She reads an article in a newspaper about people losing jobs in the Covid19 pandemic. She is deeply concerned about their livelihood and wants to do something for their betterment. In order to do so, she updates a Facebook post from her mobile mentioning that her shop is in urgent need of workers. This attracted a large number of people who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic and she hired everyone.

Her brother was not happy with her decision as they were already overstaffed and couldn’t afford to hire more employees. As a consequence of

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HALLMARK CAMPAIGN

this, the quality of their products decreased because the hired employees had no prior experience of making dairy products. As a result of this, their revenue shrinked and Pooja was left with no money to pay her employees. She did not lose her spirit and sold her personal car so that she could keep her employees happy and pay them well. All the members of her family were unhappy with her decisions and blamed the newly hired employees for their losses in business.

their respective Facebook accounts which brought in a lot of views and everyone came to know the story of Pooja. Next morning, when she woke up and went to her shop, she was surprised to see a huge crowd outside her shop and felt that something terrible had happened. But she was amazed when she got to know the real reason behind all this. Their shop made a huge sale.

This campaign from Facebook was an hallmark in its own way and presents an excellent example of Social Marketing that sends a very deep message to all the individuals of the society that we should try to help the needy people during such tough times of Covid19. The tagline for this campaign of Facebook was “Dil Kholo, Duniya Khulegi”

The newly hired employees were deeply upset with this and wanted to do something for their favorite Pooja Didi. So, they created a video of themselves speaking about the things that Pooja didi had done for them and requested everyone to come and shop products from their dairy. They posted the video from

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PIONEER A Dance For The Ages ft. Jordan

-Arko Ghosh

The recent saga of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi leaving their clubs and its differences in their valuation shows how sports personalities are so much more than just that. They have become a brand themselves, and while people say it's a team sport and no player is bigger than the team, the total paradigm shifts within the sport brought by these legends speak for itself.

Now the recency of these athletes has brought forth the argument of whether these are the most influential athletes ever. That is understandable as Gen Z dominates social media. However, there is

featured on License Global's coveted 2019 Influentials List adds to the argument of him being the most influential sports figure ever to exist.

an athlete who has transcended through generations and has created a brand that has eclipsed the inspiration of the same.

It's none other than the NBA icon, Michael Jordan.

Jordan is more than just a sports legend; he is a branding juggernaut and getting

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NIKE's Jordan brand had led him to become "The World's Richest Athlete," and it is dominating the footwear segment to a point where we hardly see any competition. The brand brought in a staggering $3.14 billion in revenue in the fiscal year ending May 2019, and Michael Jordan himself earned an estimated $145 million. Jordan's net worth is $2.1 billion due to his majority stake in Charlotte Hornets and other deals he had struck with McDonald's, Coca-Cola, General Mills,

PIONEER and he still has partnerships Gatorade, Hanes, and Upper Deck.

with

Under Nike, the Jordan brand has various sponsorship associations and collaborations with multiple NBA stars, Epic Games, soccer club Paris SaintGermain, Travis Scott, Justin Timberlake, and many more.

The brand's sales skyrocketed after the release of the Netflix documentary "The Last Dance," which led to multiple celebrity partnerships and reimagined versions of retro styles. The documentary perfectly captures the icon.

and the Air Jordan deal led to them earning $100 million in sales in the first year itself.

Jordan as an individual, is earning money through various revenue streams, and as the famous quote goes, "It's gotta be the shoes!" has really come to life recently.

Michael's mentality always made him stand out from the rest, something even his brand is doing in the market.

While "The Last Dance" might have ended in terms of his heroics in basketball, Jordan's business empire is a dance for the ages and will transcend through the coming generations as well.

According to multiple reports, NIKE held 86% of the U.S. Basketball shoe market, and of course, the Jordan brand was the highest contributor to the same. The credit has to go to Michael Jordan, who put Nike on the map when it was still in the growing stage. The success was mammoth.

While athletes come and go and legends are made, Michael Jordan will always be a pioneer in the sporting industry, and his one-of-a-kind story is what makes people dream of the unthinkable.

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MARKETFLIX AND CHILL Mr. Robot:

fsociety hacks Facebook Live

-Aayush Shetty

An act of utmost brilliance, Mr. Robot, USA Network's hit show, decided to promote their second season debut. For this, they made a powerful social media campaign that used an unconventional reach to break expectations of traditional television marketing. The mission was to prompt enthusiasm over the digital medium and bring about significant awareness, fully expecting the debut.

The show's anecdotal Anonymous-style group, fsociety, hacked the USA show's Facebook Page as a feature of a worldwide composing promoting effort. The transferred video contains a worldwide message against Evil Corp, trailed by a 1.5minute-long clip of the Season 2 debut.

According to the storyline, the clasp is a flashback of stars Rami Malek and Martin Wallström minutes before their characters, Elliot and Tyrell Wellick, executed the 5/9 hack on Evil Corp. The worldwide promoting effort, which will be on Facebook Live across 13 nations, has been specifically customized for every region, conveyed in the region's native tongue.

Each tirade was executed in the unmistakable tone and style of Mr. Robot in tandem with the languages and governmental issues to keep up with validity.

Each live video was designated to its target segment utilizing a paid promotion, empowering the worldwide crowd to partake progressively.

At no other time had a campaign used the capability of Facebook Live on this scale, adequately making an internationally designated real-time video promotion for 13 nations. . It eventually accumulated 20 million impressions, 5 million views,

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MARKETFLIX AND CHILL Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, and usanetwork.com. Word spread rapidly, and it collected more than 750,000 views in under the 3 hours and received 15 million all-out impressions.

The entirety of the aggregate promoting endeavors brought about an astonishing 10 million media impressions, intensified by highlights on NPR, The Tonight Show, Wall Street Journal, Tech Crunch, Variety, and that's only the tip of the iceberg.

The social sentiment was predominantly particular through the two stunts with

260,000 likes, 57,000 comments, and more than 16,000 shares worldwide.

Unbeknownst to fans, there was a significantly bigger uncover not far off.

Fifteen minutes into the live stream, the clueless online crowd was stunned when a masked individual from fsociety showed up on screen and interfered by dropping Part One of the Two-Part Season_2.0 debut.

remarks basing on the energy for the full two-part premiere, just as praise for the eccentric strategy.

At the end of the Facebook stream, a solitary tweet showed up from @whoismrrobot, reporting a restricted window of accessibility to get Part One of the debut across numerous social stages:

The entirety of this discussion not only brought about Mr. Robot trending on Facebook and Twitter for several days but also assisted with filling in as a fantastic launchpad for Season_2.0.

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MARK-O-PEDIA A/B Testing and Yellow Journalism

-Sambhav Mehta

A/B Testing A/B testing is a method of comparing two different variations of a single variable, such as a website or e-mail, to improve the company's marketing efforts by determining which variation performs the best. Under this method, A represents the 'control' or original testing variable, and B represents the variation or a new version of the original testing variable. This method is a part of the Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), and with the help of this, you can get both qualitative and quantitative insights from the users. This information can further be useful for understanding user behavior, engagement rate, and website behavior.

Basically, A/B Testing enables optimizers to make data-backed decisions. Let us understand this by an example, ShopClues increased its visits-to-order by 26% from optimization of its home page. ShopClues carefully examined and noticed that the navigation bars, especially 'Wholesale,' were getting many clicks. So, they decided to replace the 'Wholesale' section with other marketing categories such as 'super saver' bazaar. The 'Wholesale" section was moved to the left side of the page to make the look of the page more aligned and helps the company in getting betterqualified visitors. As a result, this change helped the customers to navigate through other category pages and improving ShopClue's click-through rate.

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MARK-O-PEDIA Yellow Journalism Yellow journalism is a style of reporting that emphasizes sensationalism over facts.

It usually refers to biased stories that newspapers present as objective truth.

Televisions and the Internet focus on big and vivid fonts over the article's credibility as the articles are less researched. Some of the characteristics of 'Yellow Journalism are extensive use of anonymous sources by overzealous reporters, use of multicolumn headlines and dominant graphics, front-page stories that varied from sensationalist to salacious in the same issue, pandering to the so-called hoi polloi, especially by using the newspaper layout to cater to immigrants, jingoism or

The inflaming of national sentiments through slanted news stories, often related to Civil War, and one-upmanship, or the scooping of stories, only later to be embarrassed into retractions. Let us understand this by some examples; during the Apple and Samsung case, a story was made viral that Samsung paid a $1.2 billion settlement to Apple in nickels. This story was originated as a comic story but was published as a true story by an American journalist. Another example would be that ABC News reported that Benjamin Netanyahu called Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin a traitor; however, this report was false and had no credibility. Thus this focuses on most negative aspects in our world to engage more followers

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CALL FOR ARTICLES Are Consumers going Numb to digital ads?

-Swasthik Prabhu

Do you get irritated by repeatedly watching a character in an ad transforming into a press reporter questioning, "Kya aapke toothpaste mein namak hai?". We all do! Does this make us indifferent to such ads? Let us find out!

Before the advent of television, the need for marketing a product was minimal. Most of the companies produced commodities based on the needs of the people. As television arrived, the companies had a new tool to reach the masses and create advertisements. It was the easiest way to reach the households. They did so with an engaging story and background music.

This way, instead of satisfying a need, you could create a want. Companies did a lot of business by creating a product and

publicizing it through television. However, this did not last long. The consumers lost trust in the TV commercials, and the ads became ineffective soon. After this, many technological advances have given marketers the platform to advertise their products. Currently, we are in the digital world, with the internet being the medium.

As the internet became pervasive, advertisements became pervasive as well.

And the story repeats; the consumer is slowly going numb to the digital ads as well.

Now, let us look at what makes the audience unresponsive to the ads. Mainly there are three reasons—first, the frequency of the ads. If a person is

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CALL FOR ARTICLES bombarded with advertisements throughout the day, it is obvious that there will not be any attention given to these ads. For example, a working professional uses Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and watches television daily. All these platforms have ads, and the frequency of ads in each of these platforms adds to their daily frequency and drastically reduces one's attention to ads.

The second being the repetition of ads.

Ads are repeated to keep the brand or the product in the customer's mind and increase the brand's top-of-mind awareness. However, if it's repeated beyond a certain point, it might lead to consumer fatigue. An example here would be repeated telecast of "Fogg Chal Raha Hai" during cricket matches on TV.

Finally, the non-relevance of the ads. Even if the ad is well crafted, non-relevance to the consumer kills the whole purpose and gets the audience irritated. Say a Zomato ad is shown to a person who lives in a city where Zomato does not deliver.

The consumer might not appreciate or even become unresponsive to the ads because of either these reasons or a combination of these. This leads to either installing ad-blocker wherever possible or going for a paid subscription where the ads would not be shown.

As a marketer, how can we solve this problem?

First and foremost, it is critical to know our target customers and the story that we intend to tell. If there's a mismatch between these two, there is a high chance that we might be risking our brand of going unnoticed by our target consumers.

Let us look at the target consumer part first, as we all know a brand cannot be everything for everyone. Therefore, it becomes crucial to correctly segment the market and pick the relevant segments

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CALL FOR ARTICLES

to be targeted. Once we have identified the targeted segment, we know what kind of media they consume and where they spend most of their time. This information makes it accessible to micro-target our potential consumers, thanks to digital marketing. Here we solve the relevancy problem, as we know that the product will be of value and therefore relevant to the consumer.

Next, the story that we tell. The brand story should be in line with the consumers' values, beliefs, and biases in the target group. It would be great if the story leverages these elements and create something aspirational. When the ads are made based on these elements, consumers are compelled to engage with

the brand and might create a strong positive word of mouth for the brand. For example, the ad campaign 'Best at Work' by Mia by Tanishq, a workwear jewelry brand, addresses the issues that working women face and boldly breaks the stereotypes, making it aspirational.

To sum up, it is a natural phenomenon for the consumers to go numb to advertisements projected through different media of communication. It might have happened already. However, it is our job to make the marketing communication relevant, exciting and to the point for our audience to enjoy watching them and become a consumer and translate into an advocate of the brand.

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CALL FOR ARTICLES How are NFTs changing the marketplace?

-Dr. Arpita Sen

If you've been on the internet recently, you've likely heard a lot about nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Post Malone partnered up with a business named Fyooz to develop a celebrity beer pong league using NFTs. Lindsay Lohan and YouTuber Logan Paul both created digital collectables based on NFTs. The first NFT artwork was just auctioned at Christie's, a famous auction house.

What is an NFT, exactly? What is the mechanism behind them? Why do they seem to have appeared out of nowhere? Is there anything about NFTs that could potentially be useful for brand marketing in the long run, if you look past the rising hype and investment sprees?

Let's start with a definition of the term.

NFT stands for a non-fungible token,

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which is a sort of cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, unlike a normal coin on the Bitcoin blockchain, an NFT is one-of-a-kind and cannot be swapped for other NFTs (hence, nonfungible). In essence, an NFT is a collectable digital commodity with value both as a cryptocurrency and as a work of art or culture. NFTs, like art, is now regarded as a long-term investment. But how is this to be accomplished? Consider this: if bitcoin tokens are equivalent to blockchain-verified dollar bills, then NFTs are equivalent to blockchain-verified artworks. No one cares which hundred dollar note they have since they all have the same worth and are thus interchangeable, but we do care which piece of artwork we have because different artwork has significantly varied value, both monetarily and artistically.

CALL FOR ARTICLES As a result, each NFT is given a digital hash during the encryption process that identifies it from other NFTs of the same type. In the areas of digital goods, digital media distribution, and access management, the advent of NFTs brings up exciting new possibilities for brand marketers. Let's look at how NFTs influence each of these fields separately.

Making Digital Goods Scarce and Valuable Most NFTs are now associated with collectable things such as digital art and virtual goods in video games, but they could be expanded to cover other digital assets in the future. Real estate, event ticketing, brand licensing, and even tokens representing real-world assets are all potential use cases being investigated. In December, Nike, for example, patented CryptoKicks, a type of NFT that allows users ‘breed' different shoes to create custom sneakers that can then be manufactured in the real world.

This application of NFTs deftly blurs the barrier between actual and virtual space while monetising both.

Unlocking New Digital Media Monetisation Models Another potentially revolutionary characteristic of NFTs is that they can completely change how digital media is delivered and marketed. Most digital material is currently monetised through platforms, whether they are ad-supported, such as Facebook or podcasts, or subscription-based, such as Netflix or OnlyFans.

The power to make branded digital assets both remix-able and non-fungible is what the NFTs bring to the table. The worth of a TikTok video is determined not only by the number of views it receives but also by the number of copycat versions it inspires, each somewhat different from the original as users put their pin on it.

The more meme-ified versions appear, the more popular and precious the original becomes.

Ownership comes with accountability, and NFT allows companies to be solely responsible for the original content they create without jeopardising its viral potential.

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Tokenising Service & Experience Access NFT is also being used to authenticate access to digital experiences, in addition to encrypting digital commodities and media assets.

Microsoft published a game honouring women in science and awarding players with NFTs that unlock secret games within Minecraft. Owners of $RAC, a social token created by recording artist RAC, gain access to a secret discord channel and receive first dibs on merch releases.

Because NFTs were used to tokenize access, they became a commodity that fans could trade amongst themselves.

Digital tickets are typically easy to transfer and interchange because they all serve

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the same purpose: to authenticate access to exclusive experiences and events, both online and off. NFTs add to the equation by making each individual ticket unique in and of itself, beyond its functional worth, similar to a celebrity-signed ticket stub.

As a result, access gets tokenised and commodified, allowing it to be bought and sold without the need for a middleman.

There will be a slew of other developments in this decentralised economy that no one can predict. Those who believe they are witnessing a passing fad are unlikely to be ready when it occurs. The worth of NFTs, like the value of most man-made items, is determined by the number of people who believe in it and agree to uphold it.

CALL FOR ARTICLES October 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:

Community Marketing Purpose-driven campaigns to take centre stage Vernacular content: Adding a desi touch Please ensure that there is no plagiarism and all the references are clearly mentioned.

Kindly follow the guidelines given below: One article can have only one author.

Your article should be approximately 550-600 words (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.

Deadline For Submission Of Article: 22nd October, 2021

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For any queries, please contact us Email: interface.simsr@somaiya.edu / marksman.simsr@somaiya.edu