Marksman August 2011 by Zigu MBA

EDITOR‘S DESK AUGUST 2011

Interface-the Marketing Club of SIMSR would like to present to you the 3rd issue of ―The Marksman‖. First of all we would like to thank all for an overwhelming response to our magazine. In this issue, we focus our attention to ‗Affiliate Marketing‘- an e-commerce version of the traditional agent/referral fee sales channel concept. Affiliate Marketing has made businesses millions and ordinary people millionaires. Our cover story gives a comprehensive picture of the process and the evolution of affiliate marketing along with the challenges faced by it. Most of us are by now well versed with the Kotlers and the Kellers of the world, the best practice cases, the Nike‘s and the Intel‘s. Its time to get real. We live in country of mass social and cultural diversity, and what works in one country may or may not work in another. Hence, with this issue, we endeavour to bring about a little awareness and knowledge about the significant India, ―The Rural India.‖. In our sections of brands, this time around we focus on a irrepressible, undeniable brand, ―Rajnikanth!‖ (Hope you don‘t MIND IT!) Our regular section of bookworm section, tweets and Buzz will appeal to all. We would also like to congratulate the winner of our featured articles, Sharad Deep! We also have a special Faculty section for this issue, where an article by Ms. Babita and Mr. Saurav, professors at Punjab University, has been featured. Normally, you would not find a faculty‘s article in a Magazine managed entirely by the student fraternity, but the quality of this article forced us to make an exception. We understand that ―knowledge‖ cannot be contained, and we would only be foolhardy to believe that we could encompass all of it in one go. Hence, we would be featuring 6 of the noteworthy articles received, on our facebook page (facebook.com/interface) and we promise you they will be well worth your time! A gold mine of knowledge awaits our readers! Cheers!! Team –Marksman

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COVER STORY AFFILIATE MARKETING…………………………………………………………….……....03

SECONDARY STORY SOCIAL MEDIA– LISTENING OVER COMMUNICATION..……………...……….……….06

ALL ABOUT BRANDS THE UTOPIAN BRAND– RAJNIKANTH..………………………………………...……….08

FEATURED ARTICLES BRANDING PARADIGM FOR THE BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID Sharad Deep, MDI Gurgaon……………... ……..…..11 TWO SIDES OF A COIN: Lehar iron chusti for Rural markets? Pavan Kumar C (IIFT, Delhi),Varun Tejwani (SIBM Pune)……………….…..14

THE BURGEONING RURAL MARKET Asim Kumar Verma, Kritika Chandra (IMT Nagpur)…………………..19 . MIGRATION AND REVERSE MIGRATION-URBAN TO RURAL Ms. Babita Singla, Mr. Saurav Bansal (Punjab University)..………………….…21

REGULARS BOOKWORM ………………………………………………………………….………….....26 TETE-A-TETE………………………………………………………………………………….27 REWIND ………………………………………...………………………...……………….…29 TWEETS ………………………………………………………………………..………….…..30 BUZZ ……………………………………………………………………...…………………...32

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AFFILIATE MARKETING With the advent of e-commerce new forms of marketing have emerged. Here we delve into intriguing world of Affiliate Marketing. We feel that being an affiliate is a bit like being a commissioned sales person onlineâ&#x20AC;Ś.! Read on to find more about it.

WHATâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;S AFFILIATE MARKETING? Affiliate Marketing typically refers to an electronic commerce version of the traditional agent/referral fee sales channel concept. It is a web-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's marketing efforts. An e-commerce affiliate is a website which links back to an e-commerce site with the goal of making a commission for referred sales. Affiliate marketing is a narrower part of online (or internet) marketing. The compensation or commission that an affiliate receives may be based on a certain value for every exposure, visit (pay per click), new client (pay per lead), sale which is usually a percentage of the item sold (pay per sale or revenue share) or it may be a combination of any of these. It is a modern variation of the practice of paying finder's-fees for the introduction of new clients to a business.

two years before the Amazon Associate Program was launched. Adult websites used affiliate marketing methods to promote their businesses even before CDNow. Now almost every large e-commerce site has some sort of affiliate program.

HOW DOES IT WORK? Affiliate marketing network includes three-parts cooperation which involves a merchant (or he is often referred as an advertiser, a brand or a seller), an affiliate himself (or a publisher) and a customer. Affiliate marketing works step-bystep. An affiliate partner signs up to advertise the merchant's goods or services in order to direct a customer to the relevant web page which contains the information about advertised goods or services. For every customer an affiliate gets affiliate marketing commission.

HOW DID IT EVOLVE? In the mid-90's Amazon.com pioneered the idea by enabling Web site owners to link to their books and earn a commission if someone clicks over from their Web site to Amazon and buys the book. Each affiliate is given a unique link to paste into The original idea on the "above-the-ground his or her website, so the vendor can track Internet" was introduced by CDNow in 1994, which affiliate is responsible for generating a

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Sale. An additional benefit of affiliate marketing is embodied in the opportunity to create subaffiliate network (2-tier affiliate marketing). It means that every affiliate is able to attract more partners to work for him or her and bring additional percentage from every customer's action. In such a way, the affiliate marketing sites develop a large program that envelops many people all over the world. AFFILIATE INTERNET MARKETERS As e-commerce continues to evolve, ecommerce affiliates are no longer restricted to

website owners. They also promote the other business by writing articles for blogs, making simple websites that provide consumers information, and even making referral videos and posting them on Youtube! Affiliate marketers don't necessarily have to be affiliate marketers specifically. Sometimes such marketers can be the e-commerce web site that actually sells the products and services. WHY AFFILIATE MARKETING?  No Development Costs- With a good

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

affiliate program, production expenses are no longer an issue as the product has been developed and proven to be good. Best of all, this has all come out of the merchant‘s accounts and not yours. Do not need a lot of money to set up- All anyone will require is a desk, laptop or computer, internet connection in addition to word processing software in order to get going. Costs Involved- Generally it is usually totally free to join an affiliate program,

and most the set up costs and shipment costs will be met by the particular merchant whose products you are advertising. Plus, as you do not need anywhere to store goods, this is actually another reason for joining an affiliate program. Options- There are usually 1000′ s of products and services that a person can choose from. So finding the correct products for possibly a site you have currently or maybe one in which you are planning to create is immense.

No need to have a Merchants Account- As an affiliate marketer, the merCHALLENGES…. chant you are selling the product or serRevenue Generation Time vice to will carry all costs, as well as hanIn spite of its availability, affiliate marketing dle the processing of all payments. So might require some special attention for the you never have to be concerned about first time before it starts working and bringing any possible charge backs, fraudulent some income automatically. purchases or losing your own merchant Spamming account completely as an affiliate. Plus, In its early days many internet users held negano longer will you be worried with coltive opinions of affiliate marketing due to the lecting and storing names and addresses tendency of affiliates to use spam to promote of customers along with their credit card the programs in which they were enrolled. As information, as this will be all affiliate marketing has matured many done by the merchant who you Something to affiliate merchants have refined their are affiliated to. ponder over….. terms and conditions to prohibit affili No middlemen- The advan"I want to add ates from spamming. Many affiliates tage of this method of market- some affiliates to have converted from sending email ing is that it cuts out the mid- my website." spam to creating large volumes of dleman but it does require the autogenerated webpages each deaffiliates to have a high degree "I want to add voted to different niche keywords as of trust in the software and some affiliate a way of SEOing their sites with the products to my people behind the e-commerce search engines. This is sometimes rewebsite." web site in question. ferred to as spamming the search enWHERE IS IT BEING USED? gine results. "I want to add Some e-commerce sites, such as some affiliate links Amazon.com run their own affiliate Click Fraud programs while other e-commerce Click fraud is a type of Internet crime vendors use third party services provided by that occurs in pay per click online advertising intermediaries like CommissionJunction.com, when a person, automated script or computer and LinkShare.com to track traffic or sales that program imitates a legitimate user of a web are referred from affiliates. Some businesses browser clicking on an ad, for the purpose of owe much of their growth and success to this generating a charge per click without having marketing technique. actual interest in the target of the ad's link. There are different technological solutions Click fraud is the subject of some controversy available for merchants who are considering and increasing litigation due to the advertising adding an affiliate strategy to their online sales networks being a key beneficiary of the fraud. channel. Some types of affiliate management solutions include: standalone software, hosted services, shopping carts with affiliate features, and third party affiliate networks. 

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Social media - listening over communication End of one sided communication All readers would at least be having a facebook or twitter profile, moreover it would have been reviewed by you at least once in a day. This is reach & voltage of media called Social Media.

Social Media as the name suggests is media with social interaction. This medium‘s reach is growing by leaps & bound. There are many facets which is intriguing the marketer about this platform. Two prominent aspects are –  A place to communicate about brand, and features which it offers.  A place to listen to consumers The later aspect is been overlooked by many brands currently. Marketers are known for talking, not listening. Many are forgetting that it provides great opportunity to learn at a grassroots level what people really think about a brand, products or services. Indeed, listening to the groundswell of consumer-generated content is the new marketing. This does not imply that tools like focus groups, user surveys or other research instruments would be passé but the new medium would provide better understanding of consumer behavior as this space provides unbiased and free opinions. Some of key characteristics of listening Why listen People are using various means like Facebook post, Twitter‘s tweet or various blog posts‘ blogging about their experience positive or negative with a product or service. The conversations are influencing in multifold. There is avalanche effect due to peer influences. If negative reviews or comments are not handled with care in nascent stage it might lead to complete dilution of brand. What to listen for Share of voice - This is a measurement of how much and to what degree people are talking about you. This will help in understanding the buzz about brand and its competitors.

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Social media listening over communication

Tone of voice - This is a gauge of whether the conversation is largely positive or negative and is often referred to as "sentiment analysis." If the sentiment is positive, reward those who speak well of you. That will presumably encourage them to do even more. If the tone is largely negative, it is incumbent upon you to get to the root of the problem, if, in fact, a problem exists. Fix the problem and the tone will likely change. If it's misinformation that's being spread, you must engage the critics and correct their misunderstanding.

Trends over time - It is important to monitor both the above metrics, over the course of time in order to see the effects of advertising, marketing and PR. How to listen This listening can be done via using free tools like ‗Social Mention‘ or ‗RSS feeds‘ etc or paid tools like ‗Radian 6‘ or ‗SM2‘. There can be manual finding which can be strenuous but very fruitful as this can help in overcoming the flaws of technical tools.

re the Afford to Igno ‘t an C e n O , at ation This sums up th ere is a convers th r, ge n o L y n A E IN IT. Conversation r PARTICIPAT o n o h s‘ d n ra b y happening in an

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The Utopian Brand: RAJNIKANTH

―Yen Vazhi, Tani Vazhi!‖ The above quote is in Tamil. Understandably, they mean nothing to a vast majority of Indians, who have absolutely no knowledge of the language. However if one mentions these four words to someone from Tamil Nadu, in all probability the person would break into a wide smile. The emergence of the image in the person‘s mind, of a young man challenging the evil intentions of a femme fatale would be the reason behind the smile. . After all, when the words have been mouthed by the greatest Tamil actor of all time in his 150th film, which has been one of the biggest blockbusters of his career, there is something to smile about. He is the only person in the world, his fans believe, who can say ―My Way is the Unique Way‖, which is what the above words mean, in, well, his unique way. When someone aged 60 years, acts as leading man in a movie, which, in this day and age is able to gross 216 crores in the first week itself, there must be something special about him. For his viewers, his audience he is ―Thalaivar‖ or God. For his directors, his producers, his co-stars he is the Utopian Brand- one that repositions, reinvents and ensures over-normal returns. His name is Rajnikanth. RAJNI: The Brand The journey of this brand called Rajni, what we might call in marketing jargon as PLC or Product Life Cycle, has been extremely unconven-

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tional. Anyone who has encountered PLCs in the course of study or business would know that the curves are S-shaped, the reason why these curves are called S-curves. There is an inception followed by a rapid growth phase, which is followed by a period of stagnant growth, which then culminates in decline. In Rajni‘s case, there have been periods of stagnant growth, but decline has never crossed his path. The minor hiccups that have come his way may be treated as small kinks in his progress curve, but they have never been able to dent his upward climb. This is because here is a brand that competes not with other brands in the market, but with itself. Each successive film grosses more than the previous film, which has lead film reviewers and critics to rightly mention: ―Only a Rajnikant film can break the record of a Rajnikant film‖. Not only is he a household name in Tamil Nadu, but also in neighbouring Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The entire country connects to his name; associating him with his uniquely styled dialogues and mannerisms. Rajni can arguably be considered as the only Indian actor having a substantial Japanese base, which was built after his film Muthu (1995) was dubbed and released in Japan. Films namely Baba (2002), Chandramukhi (2005) and Sivaji (2007) were also released in Japan, which greatly consolidated his position as a leading Asian star.

The Utopian Brand: RAJNIKANTH The Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, on a visit to Japan in 2006, acknowledged the role of Muthu in forging positive relations between the two nations. Infact, Rajni received a remuneration of 26 crores for his film Sivaji, which catapulted him to the position of 2nd highest paid star in Asia after Jackie Chan. Rajni’s 2005 film Chandramukhi which is to date the longest running Tamil film, having run at the theatres for 800 days, was dubbed in German and released in all Germanspeaking nations. The way his latest film Enthiran is grossing, it is expected that the curve would bend higher still. For artistes who have been in the industry for 35 years, achieving this trend is an aspiration. For Rajni this has been a reality: having acted in over 150 films in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telegu, Hindi and even Bengali, over a period of 35 years, his popularity and his saleability refuses to wane. Not to forget the Hollywood movie Bloodstone produced by Ashok Amritraj in 1988, which featured him in a supporting act. In 2007, Asia week named Rajni as one of the most influential persons in South Asia. All these facts make one wonder, how did the Rajni phenomenon come about and what were the reasons behind it. Fan frenzy is not new to the Tamil industry. Sivaji Ganesan, Gemini Ganesan and more prominently MGR were one of the greatest actors who enjoyed great popularity levels among the masses. One may

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recall that MGR’s ill health and subsequent death unleashed a flurry of death, suicide and chaos all over Tamil Nadu. But Rajni’s popularity seems to surpass that of all his three predecessors. In this respect one may recall the movie Thalapathy, in which Rajnikanth co-starred with the Malayalam superstar Manmooty. The film initially showed Rajnikanth getting killed trying to protect his friend Manmooty, who later takes revenge for his death. However, when this movie was released in Tamil Nadu, there was widespread discontentment, and two or three screens were burned. The producers had to later remake the film, with Rajnikant surviving, and Manmooty dying, and the former taking revenge. All this cannot be attributed to screen presence alone. This calls for a ―product analysis‖. RAJNI: ―The Product‖ To understand the adulation that Rajni commands, we should first ascertain who the person is, what his origins are and how he reached the pinnacle of Tamil cinema. In other words, in order to fully appreciate Rajni as a person, one should know the story of how a bus conductor named Sivaji Rao Gaekwad became the superstar Rajni. The point worth mentioning first is that the biggest superstar of the Tamil film industry is a

The Utopian Brand: RAJNIKANTH Maharashtrian. He was born in Bangalore, and was the youngest child of his parents. His mother died when he was aged 5 years, and what followed was an impoverished childhood. To make ends meet, he served as a coolie in his community. After some basic education, he joined the Bangalore Transport Service as a bus conductor. His passion for acting was noticed and deeply encouraged by his friend and coworker Raj Bahadur. It was with his help that Rajni came to Chennai, to try his luck at acting, and subsequently joined the Madras Film Institute. It was there that one day, the renowned director K. Balachander noticed him and casted him in his first Tamil movie Apoorva Raagangal: The Beautiful Raga (1975). The role however was that of a cancer patient, with low screen presence. RAJNI: â&#x20AC;&#x2022;The value-addâ&#x20AC;&#x2013; One of the major contributors to the immense popularity of Rajnikanth is his humility and piousness. Ego and starry airs are unknown to Rajnikant. During breaks he hardly ever rushes to his air-conditioned makeup room. Instead, he prefers to sleep on the sets, even without a pillow, merely covering his eyes with a wet cloth. Everyone in the film unit from the spot boy to the director, share an equal rapport with Rajni, which goes on to show his down-to-earth attitude. He never comes to functions with a retinue behind him and even prefers to drive his own car. He is known to be a very religious person as well. Apart from that, his philanthropic activates have also contributed a lot towards endearing him to his audience. His stand on public welfare issues such as the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu

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Kaveri water sharing verdict, protesting against which he undertook a fast have also won him a lot of respect in Tamil Nadu. The great man that he is, he has also thanked the Karnataka Govt, and the Kannada film industry for their receptiveness, when his 2008 film Kuselan was released there. CONCLUSION The intent behind this article is to showcase a brand which has defied all the theories that brands generally adhere to. The brand has repositioned itself from time to time. Any marketer would love to possess a brand in which he would be comfortable to invest a figure around 160 crores, since at the back of his mind he knows that the brand is so strong that it will break-even in the first week itself, and the brand goes a step further and breaks even in the first day itself, quoting Enthiran figures. Nothing is more profitable than a brand that will surprise you every time, as Rajni once mentioned in an interview: â&#x20AC;&#x2022;Yesterday I was a conductor, today I'm a star, tomorrow what I'll be, only He knows!" I am one of his biggest fans, the reason why I have written about him. When a Maharashtrian goes over to Chennai, becomes the greatest star the Tamil film industry has ever produced and inspires a Bengali to write about him, there must be something about him. That, is Rajnikanth for you.

Branding Paradigm for the Bottom of Pyramid Market -Sharad Deep, MDI Gurgaon

Introduction The rural population in India accounts for 74.3 percent of the total population. With increasing consumption patterns in the rural areas, all marketing companies have realized the importance of rural marketing in the last decade or so. A simple example demonstrating

Figure 1: Rural Areas - Increase in usage from 2001-02 to 2009-10

this can be given by highlighting the Nirma vs. HUL scenario of the 1980s when Nirma took a huge market share from HULâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s Surf by playing on lowest-priced brand factor. In response, HUL came up with segmentation strategy to win back part of its market share. Thus, HUL learned the hard way that different brands need to be created for different segments of the society. With diverse cultures, classes, creeds, languages and festivals rural India can be further divided into regional segments. These segments tell us the stereotypes that could be found in rural towns and villages.

Figure 2: Rural India - Different People, Different Culture

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Branding paradigm for BoP markets

Figure 3: Branding Paradigm Prof Rajagopal has given this branding paradigm for BoP markets. He says that brand passion is derived from behavioural factors namely personality, image, reputation and trust (PIRT) as well as marketing mix of the product. Because of this brand passion, there is a consumer pull effect making the brand more tensile. Also, since rural consumer is slow in accepting a new brand, Prof Rajagopal says that a new brand will face sluggishness in the beginning and later become strong when loyalty increases. He further says that the aggregate buying power of BoP market is very large although per capita sales may be lower. Whenever a company wants to penetrate a BoP market, it needs to keep the following things in mind: consumption needs, lifestyle and societal indicators. In order to inculcate brand loyalty, BoP brands need to focus on two things: low price strategies and standardized products. The reason being that the rural segment is highly price sensitive and also that they are not able to differentiate between many products. We now look at each step of the above mapping to understand the implications of branding at each level: 1. Knowing the Consumer The segmentation shown in Figure 2 tells firms that they need to adopt multi-brand strategy in order to cater to different consumer needs of different rural markets. This would be useful in fighting off the huge unorganized sector which has monopolized the Indian rural market. Firms need to conduct periodical surveys so as to identify the changing needs of rural consumers as they move from Innovators to Early Adopters to Early Majority because at each stage, the behaviour changes.

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2. Awareness At this stage, the consumer becomes aware of the brand. Firms need to follow aggressive branding â&#x20AC;&#x201C; BoP brand strategy requires an attacking sales force, intensive advertisements and sales schemes. Rural people can be exposed to a new brand through the following media:

3. Information: Firms should extend the product line enveloping the mass market segments in order to provide more shelf space to brands and narrow down competition to emerge as brand leaders. In these markets brand equity is determined by the consumers in reference to perceived use value and value for money measures. 4. Inquiry: A consumer wants four things from a brand: 1. Affordability i.e. price advantage 2. Social status i.e. if his reference group will approve of the brand or not 3. Perceived Use value i.e. in what ways can he use the product 4. Quality confidence i.e. if the brand will serve him in long term or not 5. Consideration: For a brand to enter the consideration set of a consumer, it has to exhibit certain favourable attributes like packaging, taste, smell, appearance, ingredients. The uniqueness of the brand in these aspects is desirable here. 6. Purchase: In order to entice the consumer BoP brands need to have better packaging. Rural people want ease of storing a package more than urban people. Moreover, keeping the various segments and their distinguishing characteristics (Figure 2) in mind, the sales people need to modify their selling techniques. 7. Enjoyment & Advocacy: Coca-Cola recently declared that it will sell its products in rural area where there is severe power shortages by using eKoCool â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a solar energy driven chest cooler. Thus, Coca-cola is solving two purposes for rural people: It is providing a source which can keep things cold The solar energy can help light up their homes. By satisfying their basic convenience need of electricity, Coca-Cola has devised a win-win situation wherein it is doing CSR activity as well as enhancing its brand value. So, to conclude the discussion we can say that firms need to follow the above stated paradigm in order to succeed in the Indian rural markets keeping in mind the cultural diversity and propensity to spend of the rural consumers.

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TWO SIDES OF A COIN Pepsi Launches: "Lehar Iron Chusti, a fortified iron snack” for rural markets. Will it work? Pranav Kumar C, IIFT Delhi

FOR

Sangamjagalamudi, a village around 15 kms from Tenali town in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh was in the news recently for the launch of a product which attracted attention from National media. More than 100 men, women and children gathered recently under a canopy on a narrow street to watch a promotional film from PepsiCo Inc. In the film, a teenage girl sits in her bedroom, tired and listless. Based on her symptoms—fatigue, breathlessness and an inability to concentrate on studies—her mother concludes she is anemic. She explains what anemia is, how to look for it (examine your tongue and the whites of your nails and eyes) and that iron-rich foods such as spinach, chicken liver, lentils and a squeeze of lemon can help. Then the pitch: Also helpful are two new snack foods from PepsiCo fortified with an iron supplement. One is a cookie; the other is like a cheese puff. Composition: Lehar Iron Chusti is an extruded snack and a sweet biscuit that are richly fortified by Iron. The products are made with wholesome local ingredients like grains, peanuts and jaggery. To sell the cookies and puffs, PepsiCo has hired a woman in each of the 84 villages targeted in Andhra Pradesh. The women go house to house each week to pitch the health message and are accompanied by a sales agent armed with the products.The project in India is part of a broader global push by PepsiCo into healthier snacks and beverages around the globe. The small, single-serving fortified-snack packs are designed for low-income emerging-market customers, selling for two rupees, or about four cents. The Target Audience- Women between the ages of 15-49, 55% of whom are suffering from anemia. The objective is clear: to test-market affordable products that fulfill a health need of bottom of the pyramid (BOP) A billboard at a market near Athota, India, advertises consumers. The potential market size: snacks under PepsiCo's Lehar Iron Chusti brand. over a billion consumers. The bulk of PepsiCo's $60 billion in annual revenue still comes from products such as Pepsi-Cola and Lay's

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TWO SIDES OF A COIN FOR

potato chips that the company describes as "fun for you.'' But it launched a Global Nutrition Group last year and Chief Executive Indra Nooyi aims to more than double revenue from "good for you'' products to $30 billion by 2020. India will be the first country in the PepsiCo system to target the value segment with multiple products. In line with this they are looking for next billion consumers at the bottom of the pyramid. What are PepsiCo is adopting a twin the gaps? What are the offerings? And what's the business pronged strategy of Vertical model required to reach these consumers? Late management movement and selling them at guru C K Prahalad brought the fortune at the bottom of the Cheaper Price Points which is pyramid to the fore and many companies, primarily consumer likely to be a success in long goods marketers, have been looking at ways to make inroads run. into this market. Outside of India, Pepsi has ambitions for other healthy foods. In China, the company recently began rolling out "Quaker Congee,'' an oatmeal variant of the rice -based breakfast staple. PepsiCo is looking at launching a new beverage for some Latin American markets that combines fruit, oats and dairy. It also says it's trying to identify nutrient-dense staple crops in sub-Saharan Africa that can be used in locally produced snacks. Will it work? PepsiCo is adopting a twin pronged strategy of Vertical movement and selling them at Cheaper Price Points which is likely to be a success in long run. GOING VERTICAL: NourishCo, PepsiCo's vertical in partnership with Tata Global Beverages, has just rolled out its first product, a lemon-flavoured glucose-based drink, called Gluco Plus, in Maharashtra. It is priced at Rs 5. An innovation vertical has launched biscuits and snacks priced at 2 under the Lehar Iron Chusti brand. This line-up of healthy foods is targeted at women under 'Project Asha', PepsiCo's codename for Nooyi-commissioned plan to develop low-priced nutritional foods for the poor. While separate operations, sales and marketing teams have been set up for the verticals, PepsiCo has further split its go-to-market (distribution) model into three divisions. There's a premium arm for distributing Tropicana juices, Gatorade sports drinks and Quaker oats; a mid-rung one for aerated drinks like Pepsi and Slice and snacks like Kurkure and Lays; and a division catering to mass products like Lehar Iron Chusti. This strategy to set dedicated sales teams helps in Communication and marketing for these products in a different way yields significant flexibility

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TWO SIDES OF A COIN FOR when it comes to areas like packaging, as the firm can write labels in Telugu, a language which is widely-spoken in Andhra Pradesh, on Lehar Iron Chusti. In short they are acting like local players, but offer products that don't compromise on taste or quality."

CHEAPER PRICE POINTS This involves attempting to provide goods appropriate for the 330m potential buyers moving from the "C"-level demographic into the more affluent "B"-level socioeconomic category. Lowmargin products like Iron Chusti will obviously not be profitable in the beginning, but PepsiCo is hoping that the products will achieve scale in about 24 months. The success of PepsiCo's core business of snacks, such as Kurkure and Cheetos at Rs 5 was a resounding success. They are the fastest growing among PepsiCo's foods arm and contribute 45-50% to the division's foods sales. More broadly, as three-quarters of PepsiCo's customer base buys goods both from its food and beverage stable, there are considerable possibilities for incremental growth, and hence, Lehar Iron Chusti provides ample of growth opportunities for the company in the long run.

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TWO SIDES OF A COIN Pepsi Launches: "Lehar Iron Chusti, a fortified iron snack” for rural markets. Will it work? -Varun Tejwani,SIBM Pune

AGAIN ST

Another blunder in the making: PepsiCo‘s Iron Chusti It has been reiterated in books, journals, magazines and by management gurus all across India that the rural consumer looks for value and not for price. Almost all major FMCG companies in their foray into the rural market have forgotten this important lesson in rural marketing. They have more often than not introduced small SKUs to capitalize on price points. Reduction in price with reduction in quantity or size does not increase value for the rural consumer. Hence, almost all of them have failed to capitalize on the growth of the rural market. Lately, I was surprised to see that PepsiCo is foraying into the rural market with its Iron Chusti snacks and cookies. To address the problem of iron deficiency in the rural India, PepsiCo India inspired by the global PepsiCo head Indra Nooyi in their ―noble‖ mission to transform into a ―good for you‖ products organization has launched these iron supplementing snacks and biscuits. The brilliant minds at PepsiCo have found a market gap and decided to address the need profitably. However, they have gone wrong in understanding the rural consumer. They believe that they are delivering value to the rural consumer. My question to them is- What is value to a rural consumer? To be more precise, what does a rural consumer look for in a snack? Is it protein fortification, glucose content, vitamins or is it something else? If he doesn‘t look for all these, then no amount of communication or convincing can lure him into buying it. Let‘s take the example of Parle G. Parle G does not sell in the rural market because of the glucose content or ―G mane genius‖. The rural consumer does not look for glucose content or mental benefits in a biscuit. It sells primarily because of the quantity it offers and at the price that it offers that quantity. ―G mane Genius‖ may work really well in the urban market but not in the rural market. Coming back to value in a snack for the rural consumer, value merely stands for 2 things in the rural market:  

Quantity (filling ability of the snack) Taste

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TWO SIDES OF A COIN AGAINST

Quantity: Compare 100 grams of Parle G to 24 grams of Iron Chusti biscuit and compare 30 grams of Haldirams to 10 grams of Iron Chusti snack- it is quite clear that value is not delivered.

Taste: Rural consumer still finds it difficult to adapt to the taste of a Kurkure which essentially uses all Indian spices. He is happy with the tastes of Haldirams Namkeens and Lehar Moong Dal because the origin of these namkeens is local. How do you expect the same consumers to like snacks the taste of which resembles cheese puffs?

Lastly, if a rural consumer was looking to cure his/her condition of anemia, he/she would be advised by the doctor to eat spinach like Popeye and not to get 7 milligrams of iron from Iron Chusti snacks. In Rs. 5 of spinach, one can get a monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s dosage of iron where as Rs. 5 of Iron Chusti canâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;t even supply the daily requirement of iron. Hence PepsiCo has failed to deliver on all counts this

THE MARKSMAN

THE BURGEONING RURAL MARKET Asim Kumar Verma, Kritika Chandra (IMT Nagpur)

The Indian economy which was once dependent on foreign aids and supplies is growing with a fast pace of 8 %. The huge Indian population which was once a curse for the whole nation has given immense opportunities for all the marketers of the nation. The rural market that was untouched till recent years has become lucrative and is now attracting major companies like ITC, HUL and Godrej which are investing huge funds to tap the market. The whitepaper published by CII-Technopak estimated the growth of the rural market at 25% a year with the size of the market standing at US$425 billion in the year 2010-11 which was US$220 billion in 2004. The Union Budget of 2010-11 also increased the fund allocation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to US$ 8.71 which says a lot about the government focus to boost the rural economy. The Indian rural market has given a unique chance to marketers to enhance its sales and spread it wings to few areas that were inaccessible few years back. Hindustan Unilever Ltd which started â&#x20AC;&#x2022;Shaktiâ&#x20AC;&#x2013;, its rural initiative in the year 2001 has been able to reach 80000 villages in 18 states. The response of the people in these villages has been overwhelming for the company. The recent report released by Nielsen India said that the demand of personal care products grew at faster rate in rural market than the urban market. Fig 1. A Typical Rural Haat Insight into Rural Customers The intensified competition and moreover stagnant phase of growth has forced companies to penetrate the urban market. The improved lifestyle and rise in purchasing power of the rural consumer have further encouraged the markets. The breaking up of joint families into nuclear families has resulted in demand of consumer durables like TV, refrigerator and washing machines. Though most of the products released by companies in the rural market have been the original version but in most of the instances they have been forced to adjust them according to the needs of the rural consumer. The unique uses developed by the consumers in the villages have also forced them to do the same. The popular black hair dye of Godrej was being used by the villagers in Raipur to polish their cattle so that they could fetch higher prices in the cattle market. In another situation the lamps ignited by kerosene were comfortably adjusted to use mosquito repellant mat Good Knight.

AUGUST 2011

Even the consumer durable like washing machine has been put to use for unintended usages. In some regions of Punjab and Haryana, it was used to churn the buttermilk to make lassi. Winning Strategies The company focusing on the rural market should tweak its four Pâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s of marketing to win the market share. The rural market prefers simple and easy product with core benefits speaking volumes about the product. The packaging needs to be convenient and should be durable to make it suitable for long distances. Sachets and smaller stock keeping units (SKUs) have really revolutionized the local rural market. The consumer durable goods should be easy to use and instructions should be well explained in the local language. LG was quick to analyze it and launched Sampoorna television with Devanagari script and ability to catch weak signals, which reaped huge success for the company. Fig 2. Washing Machine being used to make Lassi The pricing holds an important key among the four Pâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s for a rural market because the rural consumers are considered to be the most price sensitive. Each and every customer evaluates the price of the product with the value derived from it. Some of the major companies like HUL, Godrej and Tata reduced its stock keeping units to cater to the market. Godrej introduced its leading soap brand Cinthol in 50 gram packs with a price of Rs. 4-5 and HUL launched Lux in 25 grams pack especially for the markets of Bihar and UP. The distribution channels of the company should be made robust to tap the rural market. The distributor should be willing to go till the last mile to deliver the product to the customers. The Kosi floods of 2008 in Bihar had jeopardized the distribution channel of the major companies giving a unique opportunity to the local bakery & biscuit manufacturers. To avoid such situations the companies should have local warehouses and try to decentralize the distribution as much as possible. Many companies have been able to build penetrative distribution channel that has catered the rural market well. Here, the marketing strategy adopted by Ajanta is worth mentioning which sells its toothbrushes even through local betel-shops and chemist stores. Rural market holds unique untapped opportunities for the marketers. But the winning strategies adopted in the urban market might not be a success in the rural market too since the customers are completely different with different requirements. Moreover the awareness and increased purchasing power is making them well informed customers with unique needs. One who is able to deliver value at minimum cost will be the winner in the long run.

THE MARKSMAN

MARKETING AND REVERSE MIGRATION: URBAN TO RURAL Babita Singla (Assistant Professor)– babitasingla.bfcmt@gmail.com Saurav Bansal (Lecturer)– sauravbansal.bfcmt@gmail.com Punjabi University, Patiala Executive Summary Retail‘ is the new tale to tell in India now-a-days. If we view the consumer markets as a Pyramid (standing upright), people at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) are the main constituents of these markets. As the global markets have begin to slowdown, Mr. C. K. Prahlad suggested that four billion poor can fuel the engine of next round of global trade and prosperity, and can also be a source of innovations. Sadly people at BOP have been ignored by the companies by considering them irrelevant, have a low disposable income, hence low buying power. So, companies are in continuous search to find the answer for question i.e. How best to tap the opportunities available in this segment? This paper is written with special focus on Buying Behaviour of people at BOP.

It is imperative to understand the needs these people have before jotting down any marketing strategy as needs leads to demand, which in turn in satisfied by the product or service.

Characteristics of Market at Rural Zone Highly Price Conscious – Generally, price is sole determinant of selection in this category as people at BOP mind every penny they spent. Hence, they look for value for money. Generic Product for Basic Needs – Needs of these people are very basic in nature, hence they also require very generic product to satisfying their needs. They are not fascinated by each and every product. Low Brand Loyalty – Generally, no brand loyalty is observed in this market because they do not have that much money to follow a particular brand. In some cases, where the brand is very cheap, they do exhibit some amount of brand loyalty like for example in case of India i.e. Nirma Washing Powder.

AUGUST 2011

Challenges at BOP Main challenges in this market can be summarized as:Illiteracy prevailing in this section of society becomes a challenge for the companies to communicate their value offerings to them. Counterfeit or Look alike Goods makes it possible for companies to fool them. That is why we see many companies just changing a letter in the brand name or creating a name with the same ascent of that of a famous brand. Unorganized Market i.e. small ―Haats‖ and shops at every nook and corner presently caters to the needs of the people at BOP. Lack of Knowledge and Capabilities about market, its synergies and 4 A’s – Availability, Affordability, Awareness and Access poses a great challenge.

Huge Potential – In terms of market size and in order to inject a new life to the organization, this market offers a huge potential for growth. Poor live in high cost/low quality economies. With respect to India, potential of this market can be summarized as under:-

Strategy of Execution To target and tap this opportunity a different mindset is required. A standardized ‗western‘ marketing mix offering cannot be employed in this scenario. So, we will understand their behaviour with the help of Engel – Blackwell Miniard Model.

THE MARKSMAN

The exposure to information regarding a general product in this segment is very low, hence very little attention regarding the communication. They accept what is provided to them and are guided by their past purchase behaviour. This in turn becomes their consideration set and a part of their memory. Need Recognition- Regular

Exposure-Low

Stimuli Influence-Low

Search- Limited

Attention-Low

ComprehensionLow

Alternative Evaluation- No

Memory

BeliefsStrong

AttitudePositive

Intention-To buy product, Purchase Determined, Convenient outlets

Acceptance-High External Search- Limited

Retention-High

Outcomes

Dissatisfaction

Satisfaction

Figure: Engel-Blackwell Miniard Model

As this market is characterized by daily wage earners, whenever the need arises to buy a particular product, they go for very limited external search or no search at all regarding the options, and hence there is no evaluation. They go for Internal Search i.e. their memory. Now, if a particular product satisfies their needs, they become the regular user of that product. They also spread positive words about the product which serves as exposure for the product among their peer group.

AUGUST 2011

Detailed Marketing Strategy encompasses: Anti-Precision Pricing: Precision Pricing involves truly understanding the tradeoffs between price, volume, and profit, and then systematically identifying highly targeted opportunities in which well-managed pricing can increase profit and boost growth. What it requires is a rigorous, consistent, and insightful focus on that basic but critically important question: How much will customers buy of my product, and at what price?

Fig: A Typical Precision Cloud

Many companies offer their smaller customers net prices that are as good as or better than those offered to large accounts. Precision pricing helps dispel such clouds. Different customers frequently place different values on products and services, as well as on specific components of an offering. The keys to capturing such value are:

Fig: Keys to Capturing Value

THE MARKSMAN

The companies need to take the exclusion decision in a very calculated manner since negligence in this aspect can lead to loss of market share. Group appeal rather than targeting an individual can lead to success.

Products offered to BOP markets must have localized content and firms need to capture larger volume leads to larger profits. Conclusion Therefore the strategy should be culturally sensitive and relationship based. This can include:  A unique business model tailored to the local market.  Identification of the real needs of consumer and product adapted to them.  Remove the infrastructure problems faced by BOP consumers. Adopt a participative approach. The above framework is general and should be tailored as per the needs of the company and type of the product. References: India's Rural Poverty and Possible Solutions – Y S Rajan The ‗Bird of Gold‘: The Rise of India‘s Consumer Market – Mckinsey Global Institute, 2007 Prof. Dr. Hermann Simon, (2003), ―Pricing: It’s the process – The call for a Profit Renaissance‖, Simon Kutcher & Partners, October 7, 2003. James P. Andrew, J. Kevin Bright and Henry M. Vogel, (2002), ―Precision Pricing for Profit, Growth and Advantage‖, The Boston Consulting Group, September 2002. Alex Pratt, (2007), ―The Price is right (or is it?)‖, Director Publications Ltd., February 2007. Anderson, C. 2005. Long Tail vs Bottom of Pyramid International Marketing At The Bottom Of The Pyramid, Richard Fletcher, University of Western Sydney Working with the Bottom of the Pyramid: Success in Low Income Markets: Confederation of Danish Industries: Copenhagen V.

AUGUST 2011

BOOKWORM Be The Elephant: Build A Bigger, Better Business by Steve Kaplan

Be The Elephant is the second in a series of books written by Steve Kaplan. This book focuses on growing businesses of all sizes. However, most of the information focuses on small businesses that want to grow larger.

OUR RATING

Steve Kaplan is founder of The Difference Maker Inc., which provides a wide range of business tools to help companies of all sizes succeed.Kaplan developed and used his Bag the Elephant strategy as the owner of a small business, first landing contracts with one of the biggest Elephants of all, Procter & Gamble, and then many other big customers before selling his company. Over the last decade, Kaplan has refined his strategy with 23 businesses he has led and the more than 100 companies with which he has consulted.

Know more about the book at:

Available in SIMSR library. Classification no:658.049

What will make you buy? Three things make this book a worthwhile investment  It is concise: Usual business books like to over-explain things. Be the Elephant luckily is less than 220 pages.  It provides tools: Helpful, simple tools for business analysis like Calculators, Business Success Quotient (BSQ), Business Assessment Model(BAM).  Website - the book is backed up by a website (http:// www.differencemaker.com) that has templates for the tools. Why wouldn‘t you want to buy?  The coverpage is coated thick with exaggerated superlatives and overpromises of success like: A foolproof road map to success. Don't grow your business without it.  The statement (whether) "you run a $5 million consulting business or a three person bakery" then this book will help you is an exaggeration as someone running a $5 million business has far past what this book has to offer.

goes iding growth o v : s A e t l. o il u st g Q Key ing.‖ o standin rowing or dy g ess, there‘s n n r e si h u b it e In e u have ― ‘r  . To last, yo f nature; you ry o a s ss w e c la e e n t th u against esirable, b is not only d th w ro G ―  same.‖ re not the a r e d a le to grow.‖ a being owner and ―Being an

THE MARKSMAN

Mr. Shankar Subramanianâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Product Manager, Onida

It all began with just a vision. In the year of 1981, Mr. GL Mirchandani and Mr. Vijay Mansukhani started a company called Onida with just a goal of manufacturing television sets and going beyond convention. With the passage of time, superior products and the combination of a distinctive voice, a cutting-edge advertising strategy, and purposeful marketing ensured that Onida became a household name. The common perception was that Onida was a focused TV manufacturer. But then with a knack for spotting a gap in the market, Onida realised that there were undiscovered needs and wants in other categories of consumer durables as well. Discovering these latent synergies enabled Onida to provide customers with a wider range of products under the ONIDA brand including washing machine, air-conditioner, DVDs, LCD, mobiles and LEDs.

Mr Shankar has over 11 years of experience in the area of sales, marketing and business development in the white good sector. An aluminus of IIM Calcutta, he is adept in conceptualizing Strategies for business development and developing new market segments for maximizing sales growth. Having worked in BEN Q, YAAS Wholesale India Pvt. Ltd., Samsung, Bluestar, LG Electronics and now Onida he has significant experience of handing large business operations profit center management at all India level. Markman: How do you think customer demands have evolved over time? A. Customer demands have evolved based on the life cycle of the product. From window ACs, the customers are now moving towards Split ACs and from CRT to LCD TV. The demand is transforming towards more technologically advanced products that define their lifestyle. Emphasis is also being given to features such as energy â&#x20AC;&#x201C;efficiency and convenience.

AUGUST 2011

Marksman: What are the challenges in the current consumer durable industry? A. The consumer durable industry is flooded with choices for the consumer and the major challenges include product and feature differentiation and cost- effective communication to the customer. The customer today has multiple options within the same category and it is challenging to not only focus on acquiring new customers but retaining the old ones. The affordability of the customers has increased over the past 10 years which provides an extra stimulus to the demand prevailing in the market. The company and the industry also has to face challenges from the retailers‘ end. In the competitive times of today channel management is emerging as another big challenge. It is imperative for the company to provide adequate margins to the retailers while ensuring that customer demand and awareness about the product and not retailer margins is the driving force to generate sales.

Marksman: Onida has done away with its all famous Devil and the tagline ‗Neighbour‘s envy. Owner‘s pride‘. What was company‘s rational behind this decision? A. The devil was launched at a time when the industry focused more on product based advertising and at the time of liberalisation when owning a television was considered a big thing. However with the entry of foreign players product differentiation became more challenging and neighbours no longer benchmarked their neighbours with the choice of appliances From the more competitive approach, the brand is now focusing towards the softer aspects of things which is getting quite visible in our communication strategies and processes. We are trying to position the brand as one that understands the customer‘s needs through our tagline ‗Tumko Dekha to yeh design aaya‘ Marksman: What are the most promising products in the consumer durable industry? A. LCD TV are expected to grow at the rate of 30% while Air Conditioners and Microwaves are emerging as the next best promising goods expected to grow at the rate of 20% over the next 5 years. These products are emerging as the key growth drivers for Onida. Marksman: The current market penetration of LCD TV and ACs is only 2%. How does Onida plan to overcome this challenge? A. We have launched a new range of LED and LCD tv‘s in order to gain more penetration into the market. Onida LED, with iCare technology is easier on the eyes due to being reflection free and is also tougher than most other LCD‘s/LED‘s available in the market. With such product offerings, we aim to gain a stronger footholds in the lucrative LED/LCD market. With regards to the AC segment, we have launched world‘s 1 st pre-cool AC, wherein you can switch on your AC through a simple SMS even while you are away from home, and by the time you reach back home, your room is well cooled. With this we aim at targeting the more affluent customers who value a pre-cooled room over anything else.

THE MARKSMAN

A RECAP OF INTERFACE EVENTS

Event: Guest Lecture-Wipro Consmer Care Speaker: Mr. Abhishek Jha Regional HR, Wipro consumer care Date: August, 2011 Venue: Seminar Hall, SIMSR Event: Guest Lecture-Onida Speaker: Mr. Shankar Subramanian Product Manager-Onida Date: July,2011

Venue: Seminar Hall,SIMSR

Event: Nissan Student Brand Manager Contest Launch Guest: Mr. Dinesh Jain CEO, Hover Automotive India (HAI) Date: June,2011

Venue: Red Auditorium,SIMSR

The Japanese car maker NISSAN announced the second edition of its ‗Nissan Student Brand Manager‘ (NSBM) Program 2011 in India and the press release of the event took place on 20th june,2011 in SIMSR. Targeting the most talented young student crowd in the country, Nissan has invited over 150 colleges spanning 15 cities across India to participate in their brand management contest that is looking out for 20 Student Brand Managers‘ from a total of 1200 shortlisted applicants. The 20-selected NSBMs‘ will work under Nissan for a period of a six (06) months (July to Dec‘2011) and will play a key role in bringing the Japanese car brand closer to both the student community and the public in general through their innovative marketing initiatives.

AUGUST 2011

Google vs. Facebook Google and Facebook get personal in battle for social networking rewards. It is one month since the launch of Google+, a belated attempt at a social networking tool that invites users to follow friends' activities in their news feed and share favorite content by marking it "+1". If this sounds familiar, it shows the extent to which Google is playing catch up with Facebook, which is brewing a public offering next year that could value the firm at $100bn and, critically, has positioned

itself as the gateway to the web for many of its 750 million users. Though Google+ is an intelligent attempt at a social networking tool, it seems a typical Google product in that it is brilliantly, heavily engineered but lacks the human focus required for a social network – the fuel that has propelled Facebook to 750 million users. Google and Facebook are both keen to burnish their scientific credentials, ultimately the real battle is over cold, hard cash. Google made 97% of its revenues, or $32.3bn, in the past 12 months from advertising. EMarketer, meanwhile estimates that Facebook's largely ad-generated revenues will grow from $0.74bn in 2009 to $5.74bn in 2012 – yet the site has hardly begun rolling out truly personalized, targeted advertising. If there is any of Google's lunch to be eaten, it is here.

Why Reebok bonds well with The Masses and the classes? Reebok‘s marketing strategy to associate itself with the cricket frenzy Indians, instead of banking on the aura of international sports stars to push its wares — which Nike, Adidas and Puma tried doing unsuccessfully in India — proved to be a resounding success. Thanks to its association with cricket, Reebok enjoys total brand recall and stickiness in the minds of consumers.

THE MARKSMAN

01 30

Global beer compa nies battle it out: SABMiller goes ho Global brewer SABM stile with $10 bn Fo iller took its $10 bi ster's bid llion bid for Austral shareholders on W ia-focused Foster's ednesday just days Group direct to before the Australia show flagging profits n brewer's annual re . The cash offer at $A sults are set to4.90 a share was un proach in June, which ch an ge d from SABMiller's fir was rejected by the st apFoster's board. BCG hires McKinsey to advise it on how to become number 1 Strategy consulting major Boston Consulting Group (BCG) announced today that it has hired the services of the world‘s number 1 strategy consulting firm McKinsey to advise BCG on how to replace McKinsey as the number 1 strategy consulting firm. McKinsey has readily agreed to serve its new client as professionally as possible. Officer's Choice , McDowell's No 1, Celebration, liquor chart Honey Bee and Old Tavern top global Indian liquor swep t the 2010 list of top-10 global spir the first five spots its brands in volu almost entirely on mes growth, taking do m estic sales. Allied Choice came in as home B le nders & Distillers the fastest volum ' (A e BD) Officer's generator with 2. London-based rese 98 million nine -litr arch firm The IW e ca se s added in 2010, SR said in its Aug 2009. ust report. The br and was ranked fo urth in

Nestlé‘s mint Polo launched with a 'hole new fashion' Ever heard of designer polo mints? As bizarre and whacky as it may sound, it‘s true. Nestle has tied up with Goa-based designer Wendell Rodricks for its confectionary brand Polo's stylized look. So it's not 'The mint with a hole' but a 'Hole new fashion' that has taken over.

THE TRUTH AB OUT THE GOOG LE-MOTOROLA Disaster DEAL: It Could E nd Up Being a Google is now com peting with its partne rs. And hardware m kind of business th anufacturing is an en an Google's core bu tirely different siness. And hardwar margin commodity e m an uf acturing is a crappy business. And Motor , low ola is massive--Goo company by 60%. A gl e ha s just increased the nd the deal appears size of its to be purely a defens ive move, not an offe nsive one.

JULY 2011

Map the crossword with the visual and textual clues.

Across: 1. Asocial networking site aimed at teenagers where are ‗credits‘ and ‗pixels‘ used as currency 4. The unique market research firm's logo has this unique symbol 6. An automobile manufacturer whose name means double dragons. 7. The Hindu and Jain mythology refer to this company's name as the centre of the universe. 8. Hand block prints from Jaipur which is derived from the Sanskit word ―to play‖ 9. Mascot of which brand of cookies?

THE MARKSMAN

Down: 2. Manufacturing clothing, fragrance, and fashion accessories endorsed by Emma Watson 3. His collections of clothing and accessories for both men and women are usually identified by the presence of his multistripe signature somewhere on each item. 5. The company which celebrated US landing on the moon with "Its ugly but it get you there"

CALL FOR ARTICLES SEPTEMBER 2011

Articles can be sent on any one of the following topics*: a) Hero Honda Re-branding to Hero Moto Corp- Do you like it? b) How would you market " Indian Grand Prix " to cricket fans c) Marketing of Luxury Goods d) Faith Marketing- Strategies of marketers selling spirituality and related products and services. *Please ensure that there is no plagiarism and all references are clearly mentioned 

One article can have only one author.

Your article should be from 500-600 words and MUST be replete with relevant pictures that can be used to enhance your article. 

Send in your articles in .doc/.docx format with font size 11 (Arial) to: interface.newsletter@gmail.com 



Subject Line:Your Name_Institute Name_Course Year.

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Kindly name your file as:Your Name_Topic

The best adjudged article will be given a winner's certificate with the noteworthy articles being published in the September issue and on the interface website / Facebook page. Deadline for submission of the articles: 11:59 PM , 10th September2011

Deadline for submission of the articles: 11:59 PM , 7th August 2011

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.

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Contact us at: interface.newsletter@gmail.com Website: http://interfacesimsr.weebly.com Follow us at: http://www.facebook.com/simsr.interface THE A-TEAM

COVER STORY Divya S Shelani A

SECONDARY STORIES Hetal G

ALL ABOUT BRANDS Pramit G

BOOKWORM Rajat P

TETE-A-TETE & REWIND Namita S Rishi M

COVER PAGE Vibhav S Niyati C Hinal S Tilottama S

TWEETS Kavita S

BUZZ Rajat P

DESIGN Namita S Shelani A

Rishi M Rajat P