The Marksman Feb '14

The

MARKSMAN

K J SOMAIYA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES & RESEARCH

VOL. IV| ISSUE IX| FEBRUARY ‘14

SPECIAL STORY

>> Page 15 HALL MARK CAMPAIGNS

>> Page 18 MARKETING FAUX PAS

>> Page 09 BRAND MARKIVE

>> Page 06

>> Page 11

EDITOR’S NOTE Dear Readers, Welcome to yet another edition of your most-liked marketing periodical publication “The Marksman”. In our endeavour to incessantly add more value to your reading, throughout this issue, there are interactive elements and integrated marketing insights that make this edition as riveting as ever.

Our Cover Story ‘Big Data Marketing’, discusses how big data is leading to better marketing and is revolutionizing the industry. We hope that after reading the article, you will be inspired to agree and share your thoughts on how big data marketing is improving customer experiences and how you can apply those changes to best support your own success. Our Special Story on Tomorrowland is sure to make a good read. Read on and Relive the madness and be indulged into the Tomorrowland magic once again.

Keep abreast with what's trending via Tweets, It’s all about Ad-itude, Marketing Faux Pas & Campaign. Delve into useful insights of brand ‘Lego’ with Brand Markive.

Our featured articles of the month talk about How Personalities Create a Stir in the Digital Space & Brands like CCD exploring chat apps for connecting with customers.

We would like to congratulate the winners of the featured article – Priyam & Pallak Sharma.

We hope this issue makes an enthralling read. We, at ‘Marksman’ try to keep pace with the changes, so far remaining flexible & succeeding in pulling together. We hope you enjoy reading this edition as much as we have enjoyed putting it together. So pick up that coffee mug and scroll through your favourite Marksman and don’t forget to fill in the ‘Buzz’.

Your feedback is most valuable to us. Connect with us www.interfacesimsr.com/the-marksman to leave your views and suggestions.

on

Happy Reading!

Cheers!!

Team – Marksman The Interface – The Marketing Club of SIMSR @marksmansimsr

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FEBRUARY 2014

CONTENTS

THE MARKSMAN

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TWEETS

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IT’S ALL ABOUT AD-ITUDE

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BRAND MARKIVE

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MARKETING FAUX PAS

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COVER STORY BIG DATA MARKETING

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SPECIAL STORY TOMORROWLAND

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HALLMARK CAMPAIGN

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BUZZ

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TWEETS P&G LAUNCHES ‘FIRST’ INTERACTIVE TOOTHBRUSH P&G is launching the first interactive toothbrush and returning to brand management, two of several plans aimed at driving revenues through increased innovation and improved marketing productivity and effectiveness.

Unveiled at its annual analysts day in the US, the smart toothbrush uses Bluetooth connectivity to make brushing teeth ‘smarter and more personal”. Launching initially in North America, the brush links up with a smartphone app that can receive brush data and be programmed to help personalise settings.

COCA COLA’S Coca-Cola has a solution to our collective obsession with our smartphones that’s even more innovative than Google Glass: giant, Coke-branded funnels over our heads.

The company “unveiled” the new product in an online video this week. In the ad, which refers to the offline world as “the thing that happens when you run out of battery,” people buried in their phones have a eureka moment when an absurd red funnel is placed on their heads and they’re forced to witness sunsets and look into other human beings’ eyes.

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FEBRUARY 2014

TWEETS CONDOMS TARGET GEN-Y! Previously targeted largely at married couples presumably in their early to late 30s, condom brands, of late, seem to have found an addressable TG in today's young singletons.

This is evident from both, the imagery shown in recent ads as well as other marketing initiatives undertaken by players in the category. Skore, year old condom brand by TTK, parent company of Kohinoor and Durex condoms, recently launched a mobile app to track pharmaceuticals selling the brand.

The app, of course, also provides information about sex positions and the brand's various offerings, among other things. The brand is positioned as a 'youth condom brand' that offers variants (such as the 'climax delay condom') specifically designed to better suit today's young generation. Hardwear, an eight month old condom brand by Kamasutra, in association with youth brand MTV, recently initiated a campaign at the heart of the youth's current hub.

FREMANTLE MEDIA INTRODUCES 'CEO'S GOT TALENT' The event will pit CEOs of corporate India against each other. It will be aired on CNBCTV18. Created for the 'Got Talent' franchise by Fremantle Media, CEOs Got Talent will feature 12 CEOs, names of whom are not disclosed yet.

It will take place at Grand Hyatt on March 7 and will be aired on CNBC-TV18. One of the jury members announced for the event is Colors' CEO, Raj Nayak. CEOs, who form the backbone of Corporate India, will compete against each other to put their unique talents under the spotlight, that usually don’t come into play in their boardroom lives.

A first-of-its-kind property created by within the ‘Got Talent’ franchise, is an effort to recognise the creativity and talent amongst CEOs, which often remains hidden due to their intense day to day business-led LIVES.

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It’s all about AD-ITUDE PRINT AD Nike real time weaving print ad

Nike China marketing team has used a unique method to launch its new shoes with Free Fly knit technology. Working together with Wieden + Kennedy’s Shanghai branch it put together a public spectacle that would attract eyeballs of spectator on an always crowded Nanjig east road in China.

The flagship store of Nike in Nanjig east road served as a backdrop for “live- knitting” session across a huge billboard to demonstrate new Nike Free fly knit’s socks-like quality. 3 workers dressed completely in Nike attire attached adhesive strips of neon threads on the billboard to bring this new shoe to life. In the end they fixed white colour Nike sole on it to finish off the snicker.

TELEVISION AD KITKAT dancing babies’ commercial There has been uniqueness in each ad that Nestle has made. Nestle has always made us believe that good things happen when we take a Kit Kat break. And if we think about Indian audience, it gets highly entertained by the commercials which make them laugh.

So Nestle came up with a commercial in which babies dance and sway when a doctor takes a break from his work and eats a Kit-Kat. As he eats Kit-Kat he notices a room full of babies who break into a dance routine.

These dancing babies were created by Crater studio which is dedicated to art of digital visual effects for television ad films and is based out of Serbia. This commercial was launched on 17th January 2013 and has been seen by more than 2.7 million Indian people till now. These babies make you watch the commercial again and again. It is a hilarious take on how kids make a Kit Kat break truly worthwhile.

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FEBRUARY 2014

Brand MARKive LEGO - Brick by brick success!

Statistics show that with the advent of technology, children between the age group of 4 – 10 yrs do one of the following things to spend their free time: Watch Tv, play videogames, surf the internet, play games on their mobile phones, etc. Not long ago, we as children would wait for our free time so that we could run out to the parks and play under the sun till our feet hurt! Parents are becoming more and more concerned whether this indoor lifestyle of children will restrict their mental as well as physical growth and thus pressurize them to join a cricket club or throw them into playschool even before they can speak their first words.

While most brands see this as a disadvantage because Hercules cannot get a kid to leave the Tv and go outside to ride their bicycle, there is one brand that sees this indoor lifestyle as a major advantage.

Presenting LEGO…a brand that has inspired not only children but the youth and some adults too for the last 80 years or so!

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WHY ARE POPULAR???

THEY

SO

To show you why LEGO is so popular throughout the world, let’s tell you some really cool facts about this brand:  There are about 62 LEGO bricks for every one of the world’s 6 billion inhabitants.  Children around the world spend 5 billion hours a year playing with LEGO bricks.  More than 400 million people around the world have played with LEGO bricks.  19 billion LEGO elements are produced every year.  2.16 million LEGO elements are moulded every hour, or 36,000 per minute.  More than 400 billion LEGO bricks have been produced since 1949.  7 LEGO sets are sold by retailers every second around the world.  The LEGO bricks sold in one year would circle the world 5 times.

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Brand MARKive

Yes that’s how old and famous LEGO is!

But did you know that this the founder of this brand was a small time carpenter from Denmark? I’m guessing not! Let me tell you how Ole Kirk Christiansen, the founder of LEGO turned from a small time carpenter into the world’s biggest toy maker!

HOW WAS LEGO BORN ???

In the year 1932, Ole Kirk ran a small carpentry factory in Billund but due to hard times, he was forced to close down his factory and was left with a wife and four children to feed with almost no money. Known for making best out of his situations and being a master joiner and carpenter, Ole opened a humble woodworking shop with his son Godtfred, just 12 years old at the time.

They manufactured stepladders, ironing boards and later expanded to make wooden toys, and in 1934 dubbed their business LEGO, a contraction of the Danish "leg godt"• ("play well"). He was a man of perfection and the first toys that he created reflected just that. With some trouble to sell these toys initially, Ole and his son were successful in selling all the

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toys they had created and then there was no looking back! This small workshop was soon to become the world’s largest toy manufacturing company. LEGO grew drastically in the next few years and Ole hired some of his older employees to work for him.

Soon Lego went from just a handful of employees to more than 50 employees by 1948. A fire broke out in Ole’s first factory and he lost most of his wooden toys in the fire. One thing that he did not lose was his courage to move forward and from there on LEGO went onto producing the plastic blocks as we know it today! Ole unfortunately did not live to see his company grow but his son Godtfred made sure that he took his father’s dream forward and pioneered and patented the nowstandard LEGO stud-and-tube configuration, and introduced roof bricks to the "LEGO System of Play,"• which was comprised of 28 sets and 8 vehicles. LEGO hasn't changed the design of their brick since then, which means today's sets are compatible with sets from 1958 onward.

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Brand MARKive

MORE THAN JUST A TOY Today, LEGO is not just another toy producing company, it has become an innovation that is being used in several different fields for several different purposes. The Lego Club - a club for autistic children to provide them with a community of their own where they can fit in and create a world of their own through imagination and creativity, The LEGO League – a science based competition in school which looks at creating solutions for real world problems, The LEGO Land – an amusement park built entirely out of LEGO bricks is present in 5 different locations worldwide with over 600 thousand visitors in its Denmark location in just the first year of it’s opening, The LEGO Movie – an animated movie with all the superheroes made out of…well LEGO! And this is not it! LEGO is being increasingly used for various purposes in the field of science and technology! Who would have thought that a small carpenter could create something so innovative and useful not just for kids but for everybody else as well! LEGO has been a company that is always one step ahead and therefore for the current

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digital generation it has adopted the world of physical play to the world of digital play with its line of programmable Robots that can be controlled using your computer. Not just this but the company has gone further and encouraged its loyal users to create innovative designs for LEGO and share them via social media and YouTube! The company is no longer just a toy company — it is now part of the DIY (Do-IT-Yourself) maker movement. It’s not just about buying tiny plastic bricks for your kids, now it’s also about adults re-engaging with the LEGO brand to build stunning new creations.

It’s hard to think of a single other company that has so successfully bridged the gap between physical play and virtual play. No wonder educators have also embraced LEGO, creating new competitions for students, while parents have also remained loyal to the LEGO brand. As new technologies such as augmented reality and 3D printing enter the mainstream, it will be interesting to see how LEGO adapts these trends in the creation of new products that both surprise and delight the next generation of designers, builders and innovators.

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MARKETING FAUX PAS The Case of the Pregnant Nun by Antonio Federici Ice Cream It all began with the scheduled visit of the Pope Benedict XVI to Anglican England during 2010, when the brand decided to capitalize on the same.

The company on the eve of the visit released a print ad that featured a pregnant nun indulging in the ice cream and beneath the picture ran the tagline that read, ‘Immaculately Conceived – Ice Cream is Our Religion.’

Grabbing any opportunity coming your way is a very old saying – and for brands cashing in on any event of significance is sacrosanct, as it not only provides them a canvas to communicate their offerings, but also capture considerable mind and heart share among the target audience. Well, the way the article begins, might force you to rethink – is there any Marketing Faux Pas that is about to unfurl here? Yes, very much.

The reason why we stressed on the above adage is because, one of the world’s wellknown ice cream brands, in fact voted by The International Ice Cream Consortium as The Best Ice Cream in the World (200910), Antono Federici Ice Cream tried to cash in on such an opportunity – and what was to follow was a backlash leading to widespread criticism.

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The bone of contention was both the print ad and the tagline: while the print ad featured a pregnant nun, the tagline featured the words ‘Immaculately Conceived’. We must note that the ‘Immaculate Conception’ was a dogma (considered an article of faith by God) that claimed that from the moment that Virgin Mary was conceived in her mother’s womb, she was kept or rendered free of any original sin. Now this meant that Virgin Mary received the grace of God (commonly known as sanctifying grace) right from conception, rather than the normal case where the child would be receiving the sanctifying grace post baptism. It is here that we find what the company wished to convey missed to hit the bull’s eye as there was a sizeable gap in perception through the communication. .

ANNIVERSARY 2013 FEBRUARY 2014

MARKETING FAUX PAS Thus we find that Race and Religion are two extremely sensitive aspects of daily life that when not properly used with reference to the context and product / brand may well lead not just to a failed marketing campaign, but also result in a dilution of the brand’s status across the globe.

While the firm claimed that by ‘conception’ they meant the development of the ice cream (over 100 years of quality being delivered), the words ‘immaculately conceived’ with the pregnant nun featured struck the wrong chord with the audience.

It was regarded as a direct mockery of Roman Catholics and their beliefs.

Magazines such as The Lady and

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Grazia were some of the noted magazines that featured the ad. These magazines received complaints regarding the same and admitted to having ‘misjudged the communication’ thereby leading to the state they were in. The company later took down these ads and announced their plans to launch new ones ‘in continuation with the theme’ of their previous ads.

We do find that Antonio Federici’s Ice Cream had got into trouble previously as well. In July 2009, the brand’s ad featured a nun and a priest appearing as if they were about to share a kiss. The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) banned the ad.

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COVER STORY BIG DATA MARKETING

A customer’s journey begins the moment he decides to purchase any product. This act triggers a series of information which results into a shopper leaving certain footprints behind; whether he is posting a comment about a fabulous customer service on Facebook, or he is ordering the latest musthave product on a company website. Every customer interaction produces data that provides insights into buying pattern, purchase habits and consumer behavior.

We are at the brink of an information revolution. The demand for technology has never been greater. The accelerating volume and velocity with which data is being created and consumed through mobile devices, collaborations, social media, and brick and mortar stores is unprecedented.

This phenomenon now known as Big Data represents a huge opportunity for organizations that are prepared to embrace it.

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So where does marketing come into picture with such monstrous amount of data being thrown around?

Let’s say a company wants to gather data to monitor how its product is doing in the market. There are various available sources to analyze this. During product development the company accesses structured and unstructured data. They gather competitive intelligence and market information about the company product and a myriad of other sources like research press and social media commentary, call center logs, customer feedback, device data, 3rd party data, consumer sentiment on retail sites and forums, transactions and other input from sales and search engine requests; and these are just a few methods to gather data.

Companies then use predictive analytics to target consumers and their desire and behavior. Theses insights are then shared with cross functional teams like marketing, sales and engineering services to drive product innovation.

Engagement with prospects and customers via social and mobile channels is producing oceans of data to be harvested and analyzed and is then being built in all big marketing initiatives.

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COVER STORY MARKETING CHALLENGE OPPORTUNITY?

OR

Why does this matter for marketing? Big data is not about data. For a marketer or business leveraging big data it’s not about capturing and storing this information but it’s all about insights. Blogs, Twitter or Facebook ask us to join in the conversation and we do and create footprints for companies to analyze later.

Marketers tend to think that the most difficult challenge is technological: handling the amount, selection and speed of the information.

varieties and knowledge speeds of a size they weren't acquainted with.The pinnacle of associate degree analytics at an insurance underwriter told North American nation that the marketers in his firm weren’t ab initio ready to form and execute promoting campaigns sooner.

“It sometimes takes three to four months to induce a giant campaign out the door,” he said. “When I tell them they may do this in three or four weeks, they can’t be nevertheless. They don’t have the processes in situ.They

We spoke with variety of executives – particularly from the IT and analytics cluster – United Nations agency aforementioned that promoting managers were discomposed by the thought of getting to subsume volumes,

don’t have the mentality to maneuver that quickly. And, in some circumstances, they don’t have the means, or the expertise of trusting the information, or having the ability to maneuver that quickly.”

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COVER STORY REVOLUTIONIZING THE FOOD INDUSTRY… THE BIG DATA WAY! The food industry is one of the most important industries in the world today.

People literally live to eat different and be different. The food industry has grown in a big way and it makes sense to take advantage of the big data services to better understand their habitué, increase potency or to simply create new recipes to try.

Below are just three of the many examples where big data is revolutionizing the food industry: The Bacon Obsession Bacon has always been a protein ingredient. It fits in any meal, as part or whole or added to soups and salads, burgers and sandwiches. Our obsession with bacon doesn’t end there! Off late, bacons have started inundating our desserts, cocktails and even clothing!

Wired.com and foodnetwork.com conducted a study to test the importance of bacon in improving the taste of food.

The study through 906,569 ratings concluded that sandwiches that include bacon see the biggest improvements in ratings. However, it was also found that bacon in desserts does not improve the dessert recipes. A study at the University of Michigan added to this study by mentioning that ingredients such as cream cheese, whipped topping, strawberries and avocado improved the ratings.

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Get Creative!

IBM has forayed into the food industry by creating a computer program that generates original recipes. The program works in five steps to ensure that the recipes are creative, unparalleled and yet delightful! The first step of the program feeds in certain criteria such as name of the ingredient, the regional cuisine and type of dish. In the next step, the program extracts a giant collection of data from various sources. This includes everything from relationships of ingredients in particular recipes and the molecules and chemical compounds present in each ingredient, to human flavor preferences. This technology would definitely help the food manufacturers and top chefs to come up with creative ideas for new recipes. And not to forget, it’s a blessing for people who hate monotony!

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COVER STORY Improved Efficiency Individual restaurant chains have also started implementing big data to get bigger and better! For instance, McDonald’s has dived deep in the trend analytics bit of big data.

This helps it to understand the performance of its restaurants at an individual level and draw best practices to improve its overall operations. It uses big data to optimize its drive-thru experience based on design, information provided on the menu and types of customers driving through.

Thanks to cloud computing and the big data, this technology is sure to ease lives of many in the food industry in the future. It will be interesting to see how creative dishes and trends in restaurants create a creative trend in the future!

BIG FUTURE Forrester predicts that Big Data will have a significant impact on marketing in 2014. An analyst at Forrester said: “In 2014, big data will finally be put to good use as marketers stop waiting for insights to reveal themselves and start finding actionable paths through the information. This effort will affect channels across the marketing ecosystem, further breaking down the silos that separate interactive and traditional marketing vehicles.”

Thus the report predicts that additionally marketers will begin to utilize “big data” or data on user’s likes, preferences and interests, to target people with content that’s personalized to their interests.

Thus big data in a way is creating such hysteria where the future will be all of big data interactions from big data transactions.

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SPECIAL STORY Tomorrowland –A tomorrow in marketing

Doesn’t the name conjure some images? To me it spawned the image of some fairy-tale landsurreal but real! It’s my earnest request that you see this video before reading on. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7CdTAiaL es I am sure this must have made the images lucid. Level 1 of the marketing game cleared, catch the fancy of the audience and prod them to find out more, that’s the effect it had on me!

Heard of trance music? I wonder how people can revel in something without lyrics. But yak this to a trance music enthusiast and you will invite the wrath of the Gods upon you!!! I have access to one such fanatic – my brother!

Locked in a room with headphones piercing not just his ears but his brain, he floats into another world to the tunes of dubstep, house and trance.

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Phewww! He’s not the only one, I know quite a few connoisseurs like him. A cult, a clique, a secret brotherhood, you never know what they know about the mecca of trance – Tomorrowland. The marketing of this destination is an epitome of targeted marketing, exemplifies social media marketing and showcases the potentiality of simple word of mouth marketing. It also shows how the champions of a brand are an important part of its marketing armour.

It all began in 2005 in Boom, Belgium.

Tomorrowland hosts one of the most sought after electronic dance music (EDM) festivals in the world. An elaborate fairy-tale decoration with an electrifying ambience is the USP of the event which spans over 3 days for a modest price of 135 euros. They sign up some of the best names in the business including the likes of Armin Van Buuren, David Guetta, Paul Van Dyke and many more. The arena consists of a ‘church of love’ in addition to the ostentatious stages and statuesque lakes. The festival consists of two parts, the actual festival and the camping festival (camp is called Dreamville).

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SPECIAL STORY The organisers pan out a Global journey package consisting of tickets to the event, flight tickets and stay. In the first year a modest crowd of 10000 people graced the event. By the third year the number burgeoned to 50000. As for the 2014 figures the number is as high as 360000.

ID&T are the organisers. They wield social media with great panache to their advantage. They are present on Youtube, Facebook and Twitter.

After the 2011 event they posted an aftermovie with the ‘book of fortune’ brilliantly shot, on Youtube which garnered 1 lakh views in 2 days.

Simultaneously they tweeted (2 promo twits with 74 retweets) and put up posts on Fb which garnered 2948 likes, 249 comments and 58 shares. In 2 weeks they garnered 1000000 likes, 2 promo twits with 7 retweets and 2 fb posts with 4584 likes, 351 comments and 279 shares.

They organise various contests on Twitter with tickets to be won as prizes. The number of posts surge from January to April and their content divulges what artists will play or professes new artists. This engages customers and builds excitement afore to the event. After the event, aftermovies spread word about the success and arouse interest in next year’s event.

They also have a mobile application which updates users about the happenings. Had they advertised on TV or Radio the pride and ego boost the bon vivants derive by being a part of a cult would be killed.

The latest count is 68 million views.

Through a snowball process and judicious and concerted use of the three mediums more and more viewers saw the video. A cost effective way of increasing brand awareness, ain’t it? Their ticket sales were directly proportional to their social media presence – the 2012 tickets sold out in 2 seconds.

Previous years it had taken them 2 weeks and 5 days respectively to get sold.

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SPECIAL STORY The festival has been awarded “Best European Festival’ according to International dance music awards 2011 and ‘Best music event of the world’ by IDMA 2012.

According to Expresso Group study conducted in 2010, “more than half of the world’s population is under the age of 30 [and] they have never known life without the Internet”. This is the rationale behind festivals like Tomorrowland which target the youth skewing towards social media where their target audience are present.

The road ahead for Tomorrow land is a boulevard not a by lane! All the 4Ps of the marketing mix seem to be well taken care off. A ritzy product, thriftily priced, at a panoramic place with a coy but effective promotion is a notable case for service marketers to look at.World class

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performers, well taken care of travel and stay arrangements and the glamorous dresses and image nail down the additional 3Ps of service marketing.

Before I tail I would like to throw in some food for thought. Do you think that Tomorrowland should step on the bandwagon of traditional marketing?

Will social media work for them in the future as well or do they need to change their communication? Do they need to shell out more from their kitty when they are already getting what they want at practically no cost!

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Hall-MARK CAMPAIGN Child Abuse PSA Delivers Encrypted Message Only Kids Can See slogan along with it which reads “sometimes, child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it.”

The Spanish organisation ANAR (Ayuda a Ninos y Adolescentes en Riesgo) which means “Support children and adolescents at risk” has recently released an ad campaign which was so creative that can only be seen by children victims of abuse - without acknowledgement of the abuser.

ANAR is a non-profit organisation which engages itself in the defence of children and adolescents at risk in Spain and America since 1970. It supports the minors psychologically, socially as well as legally when they face certain problems like child abuse. ANAR works with a vision to have a world with children and adolescents having their rights fully protected. And the mission is to reaching to this category of children, providing them with homes, using technology to reach to these children and leading to complete surrender to the lives of children they serve.

In this ad campaign ANAR used “Lenticular printing technology” (particularly used in 3-D images) so that different images are viewed when one sees from different angles. So anyone who is having a height of more than 4’5” sees a poster with a normal child and a

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But when this image is viewed from the height of an average 10-year old boy the images comes out to be a child with bruises on his face. Along with this provided is hotline number and a message “If somebody hurts you, phone us and we will help you.”

The innovation and creativity behind this ad has come out to be very impressive to the group which often feels that they are invisible to the world and they don’t have any options for help. Also giving right message to the right audience has helped gain the confidence of the target segment.

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FEATURED ARTICLES How Personalities Create a Stir in the Digital Space!

Pallak Sharma IMI, New Delhi How many people around the world use the internet today? Approximately 39% of the total world’s population use the internet everyday, which comes out to be 2.7 billion internet users according to the International Telecommunications Union 2013. And how many people does it take to start any sensation on the internet? The rule of 80/20 fits appropriately over here.

The 80/20 principle says that 80% of the effects are a result of 20 % of the causes. In other words, 80 % of the work will be done by 20% of the participants.

Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that any message, book, product, fad or just about anything, becomes popular simply due to some 20% of the people who are rightly coined as the Mavens and the Connectors by Malcolm Gladwell in his famous bestseller “The Tipping Point”. The Mavens are the ones who have the knowledge and social skills to start a word-of-mouth epidemic whereas the Connectors know a large number of people and through their high interpersonal skills; they connect other people with the world. They are the social glue who spread the word across the globe.

But who are the Mavens, responsible for creating a stir in the digital space?

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These are those people who have the social skills to start a trend over the internet.

Sometimes the famous personalities themselves, mostly unknowingly, end up starting an epidemic in the digital space and sometimes it’s any common man who, by way of his knowledge bank and social skills, uses any famous personality in order to create a phenomenon in the digital space.

How come ‘Joker’ became synonymous with Anushka Sharma? As soon as the The Koffee with Karan episode in which Anushka Sharma was the guest was telecast on the national TV, there were some Mavens, followed by the Connectors, who quickly earned her the sobriquet of “Joker” lips and made her a butt of many Twitter and Facebook jokes, and then there was no stopping to the memes being shared all over the digital space. Such was the sensation over the internet and text messages that Anushka Sharma had no option but to post a letter on Twitter in order to calm down the twitteratti and Facebook posts which were going crazy about her ‘lip-fix’.

Another personality, who is a household name now- Kapil Sharma, has given the internet users a precious lingo “Babaji Ka

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FEATURED ARTICLES

Thullu”. He has changed the way people comment on each others’ photos, statuses, or simply interact with each other over SMS, whatsapp, twitter et al. It won’t be surprising if we happen to see sometime in the near future, “Babaji ka Thullu” next to “Like and Comment” tabs on social media, which is rather amusing.

And then came the turn of Rahul Gandhi.

The famous or not-so-famous interview of Rahul Gandhi by Arnab Goswami gave everyone, who witnessed it, a dose of laughter. But it just didn’t end there in eighty minutes.

Rahul Gandhi created a buzz in the digital space as well which continued for days to go. Be it memes, videos, photos, jokes; everywhere people were sharing their views and opinions about the interview in one way or the other. It was as if people wanted to scream out loud to the world that they too had watched the interview (indirect way to prove that they watch news) and very much understood the phenomenon trending then.

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And of course, who doesn’t remember the famous Alok Nath and his recent connection with the digital world? Such was the impact of the phenomenon that Alok Nath finally spoke about it in an interview to The Times of India, “My kids told me about it, and then some friends started calling wondering if I was unwell. I checked some of the jokes myself and found them to be hilarious though I wondered about those who had so much time to invest on me (Laughs).”

All of this definitely proves one thing that no matter how hard the PRs of the celebrities try to make their public image flawless and distant from becoming a joke for the common mass, there will be some Mavens ready to break the barriers and create a stir in the digital space by using the celebrities who become victims to such a mockery owing to their own deeds (sadly). The Mavens simply start the fire through their extraordinary social skills and information bank and the Connectors through their large network of friends and acquaintances spread the word everywhere like a snowball.

So, it will not be wrong to say that once the Mavens, the Connectors and the Personalities get together, there is no stopping to the epidemic to be caused in the digital world!

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FEATURED ARTICLES Brands like CCD exploring chat apps for connecting with customers Priyam FMS, Delhi To know and share what offers your beloved brand is holding, all you have to do is open your instant messaging app and there it is!

Sounds so convenient. Doesn’t it?

Recent times have witnessed the proliferation of digital marketing and the way it has taken brand promotion to an unprecedented level. A novel yet promising kid on the block is use of mobile chat apps which are a unique blend of digital marketing and the everubiquitous chat. The increasing prevalence and pervasiveness of chat apps as a way of instant messaging and their consistent and ongoing evolution into content-rich platforms, have presented a massive marketing opportunity for today’s marketers. The reach of chat apps is such that close to 90% of smart phone owners use one or the other or more of these apps.1

To name a few, Facebook, Snapchat, Whatsapp,, Instagram direct, Tango, kik and their Asian counterparts like WeChat, Line etc. are some of the most widely acknowledged ones. Such an endeavour to find platforms to build

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one-to-one & intimate relationships has stemmed from the paramount importance of personalized customer engagement and the fact that other available avenues of digital marketing have failed to provide such avenues of associations, at least to this extent.

Brands that have proactively adapted to the increasing penetration of these apps and have adopted it as a marketing tool, are able to display content, hold contests, give away discount coupons, lure followers with behind the scene footage etc. CCD at its very outset on WeChat had a buy-one-get-one crunchy frappe offer as a return gift for following CCD on We Chat, thus benefitting both the brand and its followers. All these features do nothing but enable an intriguing and appealing experience. Plus, most of the app users are under 25, so in order to target them it makes sense for brands to be present where these potential customers prefer to hang out.

The customers can also avail the arrangement; if they want to bring a product error or complaint to the management’s notice, sharing on an app is an easier, speedier and smarter way. Brands can also deploy these apps to address customer service

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FEATURED ARTICLES issues and brand reputation management. Another major plus over the old school advertising tricks is the ‘very little if any’ cost incurred in this way.

The ability to benefit from geo-location and then, notifying app users about retailers in their vicinity or otherwise is another promising prospect. The app providers ensure that the choice always lies with the users to opt for or out of following a brand on the app and the brands are also cautious that they don’t inundate and irritate users with messages.

The realm of personal branding is also unlikely to remain untouched as many celebrities have already launched their official mobile apps for an interactive and engaging experience with their fans and followers.

Apps like WeChat, Viber, Nimbuzz, and Snapchat have given way to the rising wave of fostering private and personal relationships with customers. Even though Whatsapp has declined content marketing, due to multiplying purchases of smartphones and boost in technology, it’s only a matter of time that even this app will join the league of its counterparts.

Paraphrasing the encouraging attitude of chat apps towards marketing on their platform, Talmon Marco, the CEO of Viber quoted, “This is definitely something we are looking at. We do want to allow it. I see no problem with someone like CocaCola or Lady Gaga communicating in a positive, opt-in way with users.”

HOW DO THESE APPS DO IT? Snapchat stories enable marketers to tell stories by merging many snaps into an

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interesting and replayable story.

Instagram is also taking roots in the game with Instagram direct that facilitates one to one & group communications.

Kik, with its feature called ‘cards’ makes it a lot simpler and speedier to find and share content and eliminates the need to find it on the browser, then copy and paste.

WeChat lets brands open official and authentic accounts and send updates to those who subscribe to these accounts using which brands can reach out to their fans and customers through pictures, voice, video, stickers and offer location based services & custom responses.

Blackberry also plans to introduce its channels that become a meeting ground for brands and their customers.

Retailers like Big Bazaar, Cafe Coffee Day, TV Channel Colors, PVR Cinemas etc. are increasingly wielding this new weapon in the quiver of digital marketing. Needless to say, early adopters are likely to be rewarded and the brands which underestimate or underutilize the prowess of chat apps, risk lagging behind in the race of content marketing. So, if in the near foreseeable future, you find many brands ‘online’ in your friend list of a chat app, don’t be alarmed; as the sun of interesting, interactive and intimate relationship building via mobile chat apps, is shining bright in the sky of marketing.

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SquAreheaD

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FEBRUARY 2014

BUZZ ACROSS

PUZZLE 1.

3.

4.

5.

7.

Which company recently acquired Viber for $900 Million?

There have been recent reports of company X being planned to be acquired by one of the biggest Indian telecom operators. Name X. Which brand has launched new flavors imaginatively called ‘ cookie dough’ and ‘ marshmallow Krispy’?

Adidas created a store like a shoe box to promote their very popular Stan Smith range of shoes. Where was this store set up?

Which Indian company is running a TV / Youtube campaign with the tagline “Husbands are useless” ?

CLUES

DOWN 2. Which country will soon implement a ban on two wheelers and three wheelers that may impact Bajaj Auto adversely?

3. Which company has acquired the Motorola Mobility business from Google for $ 2.91 Bn? 6. Which ad agency is behind the Congress election campaign with the headline “main nahin, hum”?

8. Which company has launched a project called 'Apollo' to layoff their 13000 employees worldwide?

ANSWERS 1. Rakuten 2. Egypt 3a. Loop 3d. Lenovo 4. Oreo 5. London 6. Dentsu 7. AsianPaints

8. IBM

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Call for ARTICLES CALL FOR ARTICLES MARCH 2014 Articles can be sent on any one of the following topics*:

1. Facebook Whatsapp acquisition - What does it mean for brand FB???

2. Google's project Tango - How will it change the future of customer experience???

3. Complan's renewed attempt to challenge Horlicks – Will it work???

*Please ensure that there is no plagiarism and all references are clearly mentioned.

1. One article can have only one author.

2. Your article should be approximately 800-850 words and MUST be replete with relevant pictures that can be used to enhance the article.

3. Font Type: Gill Sans MT 4. Font Size: 14.

5. Send your article in .doc/.docx format to marksman.simsr@somaiya.edu 6. Subtitle line: Your name_Institute Name_Course Year 7. Kindly name your file as : Your name_Topic The best adjudged article will be given a Winner’s Certificate.

Deadline for the submission of article will be : 20th March, 2014

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FEBRUARY 2014

The Team

THE TEAM

TWEETS by Richa Garg It’s all about AD-itude by Mandar Dongre Brand MARK ive by Meeta Khatri COVER STORY by Smriti Sudhish SPECIAL STORY by Roma Sehgal HALLMARK CAMPAIGNS by Mandar Dongre MARKETING FAUX PAS by Annirudh Srinivas

The MARKSMAN is the newsletter of INTERFACE, the Marketing Club at K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai.

Images used in THE MARKSMAN are subject to copyright. THE MARKSMAN does not take any responsibility of any kind of plagiarism in the articles receives from students of other colleges.

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PROOF READ by Priyam Prasad Smriti Sudhish

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DESIGNING by Divya Damera Richa Garg PROMOTIONS by Nishant Singla Meeta Khatri

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