Download in times of slowdown - Club

markezine
November 2009
Recent trends in
Marketing
Videocon’s Brand
Makeover
Unique Marketing
Strategies
marketing
in times of slowdown
Fuelling thoughts
1 AD Review: HAVELLS
How this brand has made Recession a
part of their creative idea
1
4 Product Review: ALIVA
Frito-Lay India's latest offering to
address the growing Indian consumer
7 Trends
10 Brand Equity: The Liril Crisis
Reviewing the new trends in Marketing
The move from 'freshness' to 'rejuvenates 2000 body
parts' - The end of the glamour girl era for Liril
10
Marketing in times of slowdown
Strategic Marketing campaigns adopted by
corporates to get through the slow times
12 Alekhya Chakraborty
Rahul Pangasa
14
19 Product review: Bingo
The rise and rise of Bingo –
What makes the brand tick ?
22 Strategy: Videocon
25 Innovative Marketing &
A Review of Videocon's Brand Makeover
12 & 14
19
CommunicationsTechniques
29
Expanding horizons of CAUSE MARKETING
Companies flaunting their social conscience through cause marketing
Editor’s Desk
Dear Readers,
Marketers should continuously innovate and
always look for opportunities and identify the
lacunae to occupy the space before any one does.
Recession is one best time which made every one
realise this and come out of their complacent
cocoons of the stereotyped marketing. So, to
understand the situation better and deal with it,
we have few lucid insights on recession in this
edition.
Besides these, we have our regular sections of ad
reviews, articles and also few creative
advertisements which were part of our latest
event Ad-o-holic from MarkUp. And we also have
something to tickle your grey cells like Mark-OMeter accompanied by some interesting trivia. So
we would like to constantly come up with new
ideas and engaging topics to provide an enriching
experience to the readers.
We are overwhelmed with the response and
appreciation we received for our last edition and
hope this issue too keeps you engaged in the
world of Marketing and we also look forward to
bring out many more such editions in the months
to come.
In the next edition we wish to take it a step
further to an inter B School level with students
from many other B-Schools enthusiastic to
contribute to the magazine.
Editor
Ramya Dadana
Content Developers
Sanjna Menon
Atmdeo Shekhar
Design & Layout
Ameya Sohoni
Ramya Dadana
We look forward to your valuable suggestions, feedback and any queries. Do mail us at
[email protected]
EVENT CORNER:
AD-O-HOLIC 2009
A glimpse of the print ads presented during Ad-O-Holic 2009
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AD Review
Nitesh Bhagchandani
09FT-185
T
his article of Markezine will try to
review “Shock laga kya” ad
campaign of Havells India and
discuss its merits and demerits and
suggest some measures to revive it.
However, before we start, it's better to
have a brief
1.
2.
3.
4.
Consumer electrical durables.
Wires and cables.
Switchgears.
Lighting and fixtures.
Havells was largely a B2B company but
when it started dealing in consumer
products after 2003, it developed a
penchant for advertisements. It hired ad
agency Lowe ad and media agency group
for its advertising which came with the
following:
“Shock laga kya” ad campaign:
Everyone who watched IPL matches
might remember the following
advertisement of Havells India:
introduction of the company.
Havell's India is one of the leading
companies in production and supply of
low-voltage electrical equipments in
India. It is a part of Indian business
group- QRG group. Earlier established in
1958 as a trading company, Havells came
into existence in 1983. It is now a Rs 1600
crore company with presence in all major
electrical categories.
Havells India Company has focus on 4
verticals
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The recession advertisement of MCB
(miniature circuit breakers) in which
office employees get a shock after
reading a notice of no increment, and a
builder getting shock because of slashing
rates of property. Amidst all these
shocking events, Havells comes into
picture by providing consumers with
option to at least prevent electric shocks.
Positives of the advertisement:
1. Interesting commercial which delivers
the message entertainingly.
2. Ability to create high interest in a dull
product such as MCB's.
3. Brilliant piece of advertising which
connects a product to a negative word
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AD Review
recession through a creative idea.
4. Right blend of lively music and humor
which puts a smile on your face.
5. Unconventional in a way that typically
brands tend to avoid associating
themselves with anything that can be
perceived to be 'negative'. Although
recession denotes negativity still it is
used by Havells which surprises
consumers, and gives them something to
remember by associating itself with a
word which has become a part of their
daily life.
building strong familiarity but fails for
developing brand depth.
Suggestions for revival:
Current advertisement is a good option
for short term as it has enabled Havells to
get attention in a market where it has to
compete established players like
Crompton Greaves, Usha, Anchor etc.
Recession advertisement is a product
oriented ad which has a very limited life
Negatives of the advertisement:
1. There's no signature tune in this
advertisement which could help a person
recall the mother brand of Havells.
Current signature tune is suitable for its
products such as MCB's and not for
mother brand which is more extensive
and covers other products such as CFL
for which electric shock is not a concern
at all.
2. After watching the advertisement if
someone thinks it is of Havells, the
brand, he is wrong. It is just Havells
MCB. Thereby it looks as if this is
promotion of product and not of a brand.
3. Specific tagline for mother brand is
missing. 'Shock Laga Kya' tagline is a
specific tagline for its MCB range which
can't be considered tagline for Havells as
an umbrella brand.
4. This advertisement is successful in
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as recession is not going to remain
forever. Therefore in the long run,
Havells need to create a distinct
corporate brand image for which there
should be some definite changes in the
advertisement.
Most importantly advertisement should
include a corporate tagline which can
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AD Review
help a consumer identify the brand.
Havells advertisement was memorable
because it was high decibel (frequently
telecast) which requires a lot of money in
terms of advertising costs. Now the
advertisement should look forward for
ways by which it can be remembered for
a longer period without being high
decibel which would help in saving
advertisement costs.
This could be achieved by using a catchy
jingle, or a memorable tune like that of
Airtel, or that of Britannia. Now the
advertisement should be more focused
on projecting Havells as an umbrella
brand rather than its individual
products. This will enable Havells to
project a distinct brand image which will
be highly beneficial in future. Havells has
already proved its mettle to use a
negative word such as recession for its
benefit, now it should look forward to
own some other word or phrase like
“Safety”, “Environment friendly” etc.
that can become part of daily vocabulary
of consumer. At last the new
advertisement of Havells should clearly
communicate brand values and brand
mantra which differentiates Havells
from its competitors.
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PRODUCT Review
Surendra Sharma
F
rito Lay has been the success
story for Pepsi in India. And with
the introduction of its Aliva
brand the success of Kurkure has to be
carried forward by it. This also marks the
third phase of story for Frito Lay after
Lays and Kurkure. Aliva is being
positioned as the healthy and tasteful
and Frito lay is bullish on its success
because of the new offering it has and the
way their research
results have been. So
also the positioning
has been done
mainly against
biscuits category
which is roughly
around Rs 8500
crore and has a lion's
share in Indian
snacks market. We will be looking into
the depths of this offering through the
basic tools of marketing which are 4P'S
and STP.
I) 4P'S of ALIVA
Product: Aliva crackers have been
made from a combination of baked
wheat and chana dal, which is healthier
than Kurkure that are fried snacks made
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Frito-Lay Aliva
from rice and corn. Hence they are
flavourful yet healthy snack. Aliva has
been launched in four variants - special
bhindi masala, tomato & roasted spices,
mint flavour with herbs, and original
salted.
Price: Aliva has been made available at
an introductory price of Rs 12 for 60
grams against its printed price of Rs
14.So also Aliva's biscuits have been
priced higher than other similar brands
in the market like Parle's Monaco is
available at Rs 7 for a 75 gm pack, ITC
Foods' Sunfeast
Snacky is priced at
Rs 10 for 100 gm and
Britannia's 50-50 is
selling at Rs 7 for 65
gm. Hence they are
charging a price
premium for extra
benefit of health
being included.
Place: Since it has the successful
distribution network of its Kurkure
brand, hence Frito Lay would be leverage
the existing distribution network by
which Kurkure has been made available
to consumers in more than 1 million
outlets countrywide. They have zeroed in
on top 100 towns in terms of per capita
income and population concentration
for the initial phases and then the
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PRODUCT Review
extension would be done.
In the last two months they had the first
phase of marketing for Aliva in the top
ten metros with the use of modern retail
chain. Now they are going ahead with the
second phase which will see the brand
being introduced in 20 more cities across
country.
Promotion: The visibility of brand till
now is not much because of the initial
phases of launch and so also due to less of
television and print media being utilized.
But then the company has plans for the
promotion of brand with bollywood star
Chitrangada Singh being signed as the
brand ambassador for Aliva and having a
360 degree marketing campaign with
'Thodi Sharafat, Thodi Shararat' being
the tagline for Aliva.
With Chitrangada Singh on board, they
will be undertaking a marketing
initiative for Aliva targeted specially at
the young Indian women according to
Director (Marketing).
I) Segmentation-Target-Positioning
Segmentation and Targeting
Segmentation forms the basis for
selecting the target market for any
company and the segmentation basis for
Aliva has been behavioural
segmentation in which the consumer
who seeks benefits such as health and
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Frito-Lay Aliva
taste has been targeted.
Hence the consumers' basically young
adults who were previously either having
salty snacks such as Kurkure, Bingo or
potato chips or having biscuits but were
looking for health benefits apart from
taste would be the target consumers.
Apart from this new consumers who seek
health on the go and were not previously
involved with the above defined
categories would be the consumers of
Aliva.
Positioning
Positioning is the act of designing the
company's offering and image to occupy
a distinctive place in the minds of target
market. Specifically, deciding on
positioning requires determining a
competitive frame of reference and
identifying the POP'S and POD'S.
1. Competitive frame of reference
It usually involves category membership
as the starting point and then defining
the competitors, substitutes etc. The
products with which the brand Aliva will
directly or indirectly compete include
biscuits and salty potato based snacks
and hence will include major
competitors like Britannia, ITC, Parle
and Priyagold.
Hence the positioning of Aliva as a baked
cracker in the category between biscuits
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PRODUCT Review
and salty snacks apart from being a
healthy food with ingredients like wheat
and daal has been defined.In fact Aliva
marks the creation of a new baked
savoury cracker category.
2. POP
POP'S are driven by two basic needs - to
establish category membership and to
negate the competitors POD'S. But in
this case of Aliva which has the
ingredients, textures of biscuit and
flavours of Namkeens certainly marks
the beginning of a new baked savoury
cracker category. So also being backed by
Frito Lays which has successful brand
like Kurkure under its umbrella makes it
a legitimate offering.
3. POD
Generally it is up to marketers to decide
at which level to anchor the brand's
POD'S. We will be looking at Aliva's POD
from two levels.
Brand Attribute level: - Aliva has
Frito-Lay Aliva
ingredients like wheat and dal which
strengthen the health factor association.
Also Aliva is packaged such that the
packet is able to stand up straight
without being held by the consumer
while consuming the product directly
from the pack, a feature which is not
available in any of Frito-Lay's products
including Lays, Kurkure etc and hence a
new proposition altogether.
Brand Benefit Level: The biggest benefit
that Aliva carries is of healthy and tasty
food.Since any buyer is interested in the
benefits of a product, so during
positioning of Aliva health benefit has
been emphasized.
Overall besides being a healthy food with
ingredients like wheat and daal, fritolay
is also positioning Aliva as a baked
cracker in the category between biscuits
and salty snacks targeting people
seeking healthy snack options. Now it is
up to the Indian consumers and how they
value this proposition.
VALUE PROPOSITION
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Trends...
Ashish Azad
08FT-135
F
rom Barter system to experiential
marketing, times of Aristotle to
modern internet, the world of
marketing has changed manifolds.
Giants like HLL, Dabur and Wal-Mart
have understood the need of customers
from time to time and have been
innovating for better customer
experience with their products and
marketing tactics.
Online Marketing
Technology has transformed
relationships between businesses and
customers
The rules of business have changed. We
used to go to the yellow pages to find
information, now we go to the internet.
We used to read the newspaper that was
delivered to our front porch, now we read
news on-line. If you're playing the old
game, wake up.
Once you have eyeballs you have to keep
them
The game and trends in marketing and
business success have lead to a
significant point of leverage. And that
leverage is database. Database is king
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and it isn't going anywhere soon. You
have to seize every opportunity to get
permission to connect and then continue
to build relationships through your hub.
Technology is a massive tool that allows
us to connect, stay in touch with, and to
influence.
From segmentation to insights
It's time to move more inside the
traditional Segmentation and look in
depth of it. With identifying the target
segment it is very important to know the
insights of your target segments, the
phase they are going through etc. So it's
time to move from segmentation to
insights.
Time to go Green
It may be a cynical choice by many
companies, but green awareness is the
trend to
come. If even
Wal-Mart is
starting to
promote
e c o friendliness,
where will it
stop? As
there is a lot
of revenue
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Trends...
waiting in this market – be it from selling
eco-friendly goods at marked-up
margins, or actually providing ecotechnology, this one won't go away.
Expect to find a new seat being formed in
the boardroom: Chief Green Officer
(CGO).
Tap the Grey's
Marketers the world over are waking up
to the fact that the older demographic is a
major opportunity – and needs to be
addressed in a different way than the 1834 year olds. Mind you, different doesn't
mean being patronizing and playing on
old age. We're talking people who went to
hill station and did all kinds of naughty
things in their youth – don't talk to them
as if they are senile.
Co-creation
The lazy developers dream – let your
customers come up with your products
for you. The power of harnessing your
customers' insights is amazing. Once
again you are connecting directly to the
insights, wishes and beliefs of your
customers, ensuring that you will hit a
home-run with the rest of the world too.
And the funny thing is – they will do it for
free, and even shout it out at the world for
you, 'hey, I helped develop the next Lego
Robots, and man, they are cool'.
Experimentation budgets
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Following the leaders like Unilever, P&G
and Heineken, marketers realize that
they will have to set a portion of their
marketing budgets aside for well
structured experiments. Developments
in the digital domain are so fast and
furious it's not always possible to wait for
full understanding. By experimenting in
a controlled way companies can get
insights at very attractive cost – and
sometimes even strike gold.
More Consumer Generated
Advertising (CGA)
Not only developers have their lazydream, marketers too: Consumer
Generated Advertising. Let your
customers not only be your Promoters,
but actually make your advertising for
you. As this advertising will always be
based on what they really love about you,
it's sure to strike home with other
consumers.
Mobile: I can hear you now!
This may be the year in which mobile
deserves a closer look as technology
improvements create new opportunities.
Apple's iPhone partnered with Google
and Yahoo to enable ad-supported
programming. Mobile marketing can
deliver highly personalised, and useful,
information when and where needed and
as long as marketers don't spam.
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Trends...
undoubtedly triumph.
Rise of the widget
Net Promoter Scores (NPS)
Mini software applications (known as
“widgets”) can provide unprecedented
access to hard-to-reach targets, as
Facebook and MySpace can attest. For
example, iLike, which allows Facebook
users to share iTunes playlists, grew to
over 10 million users in only 10 months.
Slide, which creates slideshows and
embeds them in social network
homepages, claims to be the largest
personal media network in the world,
reaching 120 million viewers monthly.
That's just the beginning of the widget
avalanche.
Marketing as a service
For years, marketers have been more
concerned with what they say than what
their target hears, resulting in seemingly
endless monologues. Those marketers
who continually support their
customers, providing actual value
through each communication, will be the
most successful in 2010. The HSBC Bank
Cab, which provides free rides to HSBC
customers in New York City, is one
example of marketing as service,
transforming customers into brand
evangelists with every free ride.
Marketers who treat marketing as a
service and deliver real value to
customers and prospects alike will
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Sell your shares in market research
agencies – their extensive research
methods will go the way of the dinosaurs.
Turns out, it all comes down to one
question: "On a scale of 0 to 10, how
likely are you to recommend
brand/product X to someone else?" As
the results of this research can be directly
tied to revenue growth, instead of
intangible parameters like brand
recognition, watch the corporate world
being taken by storm NPS, following the
likes of GE and Philips.
And isn't it great that the interruption
during dinner time will only last 10
seconds instead of 10 minutes?
Finally, Sharing a Corporate
Personality
For too many years, large organizations
have focused much of their marketing
and communications on becoming
"faceless" - yet the danger of facelessness
is now becoming better understood. As
more organizations realize this fact, we
will continue to see more "corporate
bloggers" and more touch points for
customers to interact with the true
personality of a brand.
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BRAND EQUITY
Abhinav Sinha
09FT-003
Talking about iconic brands, which
advertisement comes to your mind
which completely revolutionised Indian
branding and marketing scene? I am
talking about the famous Liril ad, which
launched India's most remembered
brand ambassador to date – Karen
Lunel, rewrote the rules of Indian soap
marketing , had a jingle which was
simple but as memorable as Bollywood
songs and even has waterfalls named
after it. It has such an aura and myth that
people who were not even born when the
first Liril ad came on air, keep watching
the ad on YouTube.
More than 30 years ago, a team of
managers was appointed by Jagdish
Chopra , the then MD of HLL, to create
freshness soap in premium price
segment that promised fresh mountain
breeze. A brainstorming session steered
by the late marketing guru Shunu Sen
was held to find out what freshness
meant: like walking barefoot on marble,
being sprayed with a jet of water, like icy
blue and the like, they came up with icy
blue. While test marketing in Nashik and
Indore, the blue Liril failed and the idea
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The Liril Crisis
had to be shelved
.
Next, they took the help of a young,
British marketing head and created a
green marble soap. It was a regular lime
soap owned by HLL. The team's aim was
to get into households with a bang.
Extensive research conducted on young
women and housewives helped them
gain an interesting insight:
"It was found that an average Indian
woman who lived with her husband's
family had to undergo a lot of pressures
in her daily life due to her responsiblities
towards her family and the household.
Apparently the only time she had for
herself was the 10-15 minutes that she
was in the shower. “
This thought provoked the Liril
advertisement created by Alyque
Padamsee , the then Director of
Lintas,which featured a green swimsuit
clad girl, frolicking enthusiastically
under a waterfall. There was no real story
board for the ad. It was pretty much a one
line brief – girl under a waterfall. The ad
was shot at Khandala and Kodaikanal.
The model was Karen Lunel, who was
working as an air hostess for Air India.
The first ad was shot in 1975. Since then,
the Liril girl has become a household
name and been played by famous models
like Anjali Jathar , Pooja Batra , Tara
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The Liril Crisis
Sharma , Preity Zinta and many more.
The ad campaign catapulted Liril to the
market leader spot in the 'premium
freshness soap' category within one year
of its launch.
Liril once enjoyed 14% market share of
the overall soap segment. Then,
somewhere things started going wrong
and the market share started sliding.
HLL tried every variant trick – Liril had a
shower gel in 1994 , a cologne variant in
1996 , Liril Rainfresh in 1999 , and even
an Orange and Icy Blue variant followed
by an Aloe Vera and Lemon introduction.
But none of this has been able to stop the
downward slide of this freshness brand.
Today the brand has a lowly 1.3% market
share by value.
Lime soaps still account for Rs 540
crore of the Rs 7715 crore toilet soaps
market. But the lemon and freshness
offering which Liril was strongly
associated with is now being milked by
mass-market soaps like Godrej No.1 and
HUL's own Breeze. So instead of going
even harder with its core positioning,
HUL has decided to move away from the
'freshness' association and make Liril a
family soap. Liril has been launched as
Liril 2000 and its tagline is 'rejuvenates
2000 body parts'. Though people at HUL
are denying it, the launch of Liril 2000 is
being seen as a way to launch Unilever's
international brand Lever 2000 in India.
The rationale given by HUL for this
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makeover is – 'We are giving meaning to
Liril in the new millennium and moving
it out from being trapped in a few
elements from its past. Closeness and
bonding are the current needs.' But I do
not agree with that. If they really wanted
to target the touch proposition, they
could have taken Pears or Hamam,
which are family soaps. If they did not
want to change any of their existing
brands, they could have launched a new
soap brand. This makeover which HUL is
doing is no makeover at all, since it has
nothing to do with the core values of
Liril. Even Alyque Padamsee has this to
say – 'Liril without the girl-in-thewaterfall is akin to Lord Krishna without
his bansi.' I feel freshness and lemon had
been the core associations of Liril and
had made Liril an iconic brand in the
HUL stable. HUL should have stuck with
the core associations. The 'Happy to
help' campaign by Vodafone is a classic
example of a company sticking to its core
values and making it big all the time.
Internationally, Absolut Vodka and The
Economist have always stuck to their
core associations and that is why they
have been such successful brands for a
long time. HUL has moved Liril away
from its core 'freshness' proposition and
Unilever is trying to bring in its Lever
2000 brand through Liril 2000. Such
makeovers have not worked in the past.
Will HUL succeed in its endeavour? Only
time will tell.
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THEME: Article 1
Alekhya Chakraborty
MARKETING IN TIMES OF SLOWDOWN
Alekhya Chakraborty
08FT-003
M
uch as in life, there are often
two roads to take in marketing.
One which appears to be the
shorter, more apparent and the easier
one to traverse. The other which is filled
with risks, is utterly 'avoidable' to the
average marketer but which promises
the bliss of some unknown Shangri-la.
The trauma of the recession provides
such a crossroad before a marketer-kind
of making him feel like hamlet-to spend
or not to spend! A good way is to look at
some of the interesting steps taken by
some visionary marketing companies
during recessionary times
' The Cereal killer’
Kellogg's brand is a notable example to
quote in this context in the light of the
recession in the 1930s.Post was another
cereal brand which was neck to neck in
terms of market share with Kellogg's till
the recession. When the recession set in,
Kellogg's kept on increasing its
marketing spends while Post cut back ts
marketing expenditure-this was a killer
move by Kellogg's as they went about
capturing the market leadership which
they haven't lost since then.
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'Of Selling Apples during
recession’
Going against all marketing logic, Leo
Burnett decided to launch his own
advertising agency in 1935-bang in the
middle of the depression. The usual
cynics smirked and one of them even
remarked that Burnett would end up
selling apples on the street. The cynic is
nowhere to be seen today-but the
legendary apple icon of the iconic agency
is world famous now.So that's about the
examples, but what is the logic to
understand the secrets behind good
marketing in the times of recession?
Let's begin by understanding why is
marketing an increased challenge during
recession.
Firstly, and possibly most crucially, for
the marketer the share of wallet of the
customer is appreciably less during a
recession. In the words of a HBR study,
in recessionary times only 15% of the
customer's wallet goes towards
discretionary spending, the rest is all on
existing commitments. Further, the
Customer Relationship Management
initiatives lose strength during the
recession-building trust and loyalty
amongst customers to gain the all
important brand resonance is the most
difficult during these times.
Buying organizations scrutinize
proposals more minutely during
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recessionary times. Thus convincing
buyers across the supply chain becomes
increasingly difficult for the customers
costly to pull off-which fits the cost
cutting approaches of companies
perfectly. .
'Not just nice but necessary’
One school of marketers in vogue in the
21st century are the ones who believe in
provocation based marketing-who go
one step ahead in their marketing
communication apart from satisfying the
customer's need. They convey the
message to the customer that the
solution is not just nice in terms of
his/her need but absolutely necessary in
the current situation. A few successful
marketing campaigns in this regard will
explain this simple yet brilliant
marketing idea during a recession.
Airtel urging its customers about not
enforcing any 'cutbacks on expressing
matters related to life'.
'Referrals based marketing’
Especially in case of high involvement
products, instead of going for high end
promotions for products, smart
marketing companies can rely on
referrals based marketing or similar lead
generation techniques. In recessionary
times, this serves a double purpose.
Firstly, gaining the all important trust of
the prospective customer is easier as the
product/service is referred to him by
someone he knows/relies upon.
Secondly, this method is hugely less
costly in terms of saving time and money
for the company.
Walmart's “Don't hold back on living”
campaign urging the customer to
cutback on matters less priotized in life
than day to day rituals.
Increased Green marketing efforts of
companies like Nokia, HP to
communicate to the consumer the
necessities of buying such
environmentally compatible products to
combat the evils of global warming.
'More BTL, Less ATL’
One more smart approach that has been
adopted by some market leaders during
recession is to focus their
communication activities towards BTL
promotions than ATL promotions. This
serves two primary purposes: firstly,
these activities are more focussed
towards the end target consumer.
Secondly, the activities are much less
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So much for some of the smart ways to
spend your marketing budget during the
recession-however to come back to the
dilemma that we began with-to spend or
not to spend, during a recession. There is
a strategic thinking behind having
increased or continued marketing
expenditure during a recession. Here is
why.
This is quite the easiest time to gain
competitive advantage over rivals
cutting back on marketing spends which
might prove to be sustainable in the long
run. Having the larger share of voice
during the recessionary times when the
noise is less proves to be beneficial for
the player with the lesser market share in
the normal times post recession.
Companies should realise that brand
building is a long term proposition and
deterrents like the downturns are to pass
by with time. The key lesson is to try and
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build one's share during recession and
not just treat marketing as an expense
but as a positive expenditure.
Overall, recession helps marketers to
revert towards a disciplined marketing
approach as each buck of the marketing
proposal is scrutinized by the boards
before being approved. This discipline is
essentially imposed on four fronts.
With respect to the brand-both
internally inside the company and
externally with the potential and existing
customers. With respect to the
competition-existing and new entrants.
With respect to the all important
customer, irrespective of the company
being in the B2B or the B2C arena. And
lastly with respect to the marketing
communication-as evidenced by the
path taken by the marketers to adopt a
more provocative approach towards
marketing in a recession.
In conclusion it is seen, that during
recession, the choice is not an easy one
for the marketer. It surely is a bad
situation for the customer as also for the
company. However, from the point of
view of the company and more
importantly the marketer, the one who
takes the greater risks by utilising the
opportunities on offer, will surely have
the last laugh and enjoy sustainable
competitive advantage. Truly, fortune
favours the brave-even the brave
marketer during trying times as a
recession
The Grounded Maharaja
The logo of Air India is now a red-coloured flying
swan with the 'Konark Chakra' in orange, placed
inside it. But advertising and branding gurus are
yet to figure out the reason for dumping the
earlier logo – the Centaur, a stylish version of star
constellation Sagittarius — which had become a
part of the airline's identity since 1948.
AI executives say the flying swan has been
morphed from the Centaur, whereas the 'Konark
Chakra' is reminiscent of IA's logo. But experts
say the decision is as illogical as the earlier
initiative in 2005 to tweak the logo and the name
of the airline. That time, the management
removed the hyphen between Air and India and
decided that the Centaur logo will be readjusted
to point upwards to show the “progressive
growth” the airline had made.
“But no one noticed the subtle changes even
though a lot of money was wasted,” says a
former Air India executive, adding the airline had
in between changed the logo to Sun, which
didn't work, and had to bring back the Centaur.
Equally illogical was the change of the name
'Indian Airlines' to 'Indian' just two years before its
merger with AI. The logic then was to revamp the
domestic airline's image in preparation for an
initial public offering. The logo was also changed
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to the Konark chakra. The experiment was
hugely expensive, too. All the 40 planes were
repainted to sport the new logo, setting the airline
back by around Rs 200 crore. But the re-naming
remained good for only a few months as the
name of the brand changed to Air India after the
merger. Result: All the planes are being
repainted again to make sure that the latest logo
is visible prominently.
The logo and name change is just part of the
story. Ad agencies say the main problem has
been that all these changes have not been
accompanied by a consistent brand
communication strategy. For instance, after the
merger of the two airlines, there have been just
eight print advertisement campaigns.
Additionally, the carrier's communication with its
customers has been limited to the
announcements of its new flights or fares.
Besides, too many creative agencies were
involved, with each working on one part of the
project without anybody having a holistic
strategy.
Air India's brand equity has taken a beating and
privatization is the only way forward to take it out
of the mire it finds itself in
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THEME: Article 2
Rahul Pangasa
09FT-113
A
slowdown is a contraction phase
of business cycle and its perceived
impact varies significantly with
the size and economic sector of a
business which requires marketing
managers to make adjustments in their
strategies in order to stay both profitable
and customer responsive. In economics
a recession is a general slowdown in
economic activity over a sustained
period of time .India defines recession as
a decline in Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) for two or more consecutive
quarters.
Let us analyse what exactly is the
challenge faced by a marketing manager
during a slowdown. Riding on a negative
sentiment consumers are not willing to
spend. They are buying less, postponing
buying decisions, looking for lucrative
offers, switching to different brands and
different product categories. As a result a
degree of uncertainty prevails in
consumer markets. The crux of a
slowdown is the natural reaction of
consumers to re-evaluate every business
relationship they have. So the real
challenge faced by a marketer boils down
to the dilemma of counter reaction – to
cut down sales and marketing
expenditure or to give customers
additional reasons to stay at this critical
time.
Considering Indian perspective the
response was unexpected. When most
companies tightened their belts some
traded short term profitability for long
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Rahul Pangasa
term gain and refocused on future cost of
losing customers and acquiring new
ones. They believe that reducing the
share of voice in market place
significantly affects their market share in
long run. These companies continued to
invest big time in marketing and
advertising. The IPL and T20 world cup
saw many brands raising their media
spending.
The Vodafone ZooZoo
campaign and Reebok 'Hexride' were on
a kill. Complan and Horlicks, Pepsi and
Coke, Bingo and Lays invested heavily in
respective competitive advertising.
Another marketing strategy widely
applied by marketers was reinforcement
and strengthening of best selling brands.
A brand must reinforce the attributes
that make it appealing and
differentiating in the eyes of the
customers. In automobile sector Bajaj
launched new generation Pulsar, Tata
Motors launched next generation Indica
Vista and Honda launched the new
Generation City and redesigned its
Activa scooters brand. FMCG biggies like
HUL and P&G were also upto a similar
game plan. Reckitt & Benckiser is
already celebrating for its flagship brand
Dettol as it comes close to becoming a Rs
100 crore brand. Maggi is running a high
decibel campaign on the occasion of its
25th anniversary.
Many companies are reaching out to its
customers by creating new segments and
launching new products. New product
launches during a slowdown create more
impact on consumers because not all
competitors have the capacity to do so.
Therfore there is a relative ease of cutting
through in a less cluttered environment.
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Leading the trend are India's same
worse it faced tough competition from
automobile markets which were
Dabur in shampoo space and from
bleeding losses as they cut down shifts
Colgate-Palmolive in oral care. The
and workforce in their plants. Tata
reason was its inability to contain prices
motors notably stole the show with the
due to closure of modern trade outlets
launch of Nano as global auto majors like
(Subhiksha) and passing over the burden
General Motors filed for Chapter 11
to consumers.
Traders reduced
bankruptcy. Back to back roll outs of Ainventory levels to half as they did not
Star and Ritz by Maruti Suzuki confirm
want to be struck up with high priced
a g g r e s s i v e
goods. Most FMCG
investment in
players reduced per
Weaker
items
in
p r o d u c t
unit grammage (net
development. The
weight) of products
product
line
should
latest and by far the
while maintaining
be pruned. A nice
most surprising
popular price points
offering was Jazz
however consumers
example
in
point
is
from Honda as it
reacted adversely to
shifted focus from
the case of Britannia this practise and there
sedans to premium
was a massive
in
rural
markets.
hatchback segment
slowdown in sales
targeting the
volumes. Companies
BritanniaTiger
booming upper
learnt it the hard way
biscuits
priced
at
Rs
middle class
and started reducing
segment. A similar
prices at a later stage.
5/are
the
most
feather in the cap of
HUL reduced the price
Mahindra was Xylo.
sought after biscuits of Lifebuoy by Re 1/Coming over to
and other FMCG
in
rural
India.
FMCG sector,
players followed trend
companies riding on
with prices of soaps
the 'summer factor'
and detergents coming
generated aggressive action. As Pepsi
down. More recently Parle Agro,
launched Nimbooz , Parle Agro came out
Britannia and ITC increased prices of
with LMN and Grappo Fizz. Personal
biscuits by 3 to 6% due to soaring prices
care brands were also at their best
of sugar. The price hike has been
launching new products for male
minimal with cost cutting measures like
grooming segment.
reduction in advertising spends and
grammage.
FMCG majors utilized the slowdown as
an opportunity to rework pricing and
Some more recent practices by
packaging strategies which gave them
companies to market products during
some early jitters. HUL lost potential
slowdown are as following:
market share to its rivals during this
Increasing spends on market research
phase. P&G, Garnier chewed on its profit
because marketers need to know more
in skin care while Godrej leapfrogged in
than ever how consumers are redifining
soaps category. As if conditions were not
value and responding to slowdown.
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Marico and Dabur who were more
concentrated in domestic markets are
expanding in newer geographies like
Middle East and South Africa. At the
same time companies like Britannia,
HUL and ITC are looking at the Indian
rural markets as their next hotspot. HUL
and ITC are already into huge
investments in market research of rural
segment through their respective
projects: Project Shakti of HUL and
Choupal Sagar/e-Choupal concept by
ITC.
Focus advertising on family values
rather than individualism, sports or
adventure because uncertainity prompts
people to stay connected with family and
friends. Consider the latest TV
commercial of Lehar “Kurkure” where
Juhi Chawla talks about “tedha” Indian
families connecting them with “tedha hai
par mera hai” brand Kurkure.
Forecast demand for each product in the
portfolio as cutomers trade down to
models which stress good value. Weaker
items in product line should be pruned. A
nice example in point is the case of
Britannia in rural markets.
BritanniaTiger biscuits priced at Rs 5/are the most sought after biscuits in rural
India. There is a definite demand of this
product across rural India which opens a
market of around one tenth of the
world's population (rural India) .
Maintain healthy relationship with
distributors to stock your full product
line. Extended financing , generous
return policies and early buy allowances
can play the trick. For example TATA
Motors commercial vehicles segment is
constantly trying to make its distribution
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channels widespread as well as deep so
that TATA genuine spare parts are easliy
available. TATA authorized distribution
and retail outlets can be found on
highways, in transport nagars and in
auto parts retail market.
Strong players tend to increase market
share as they attract repeat purchases.
Therefore brands which increase market
share during slowdown stand to benefit
from this multiplier once the economy
rebounds. A slowdown brings plethora of
of suitable undervalued acquisition
targets which can catapult the company's
market share. Examples are acqisition of
Imperial Energy by ONGC Videsh,
acquisition of Wyeth by Pfizer, Bharti
and MTN merger, Britannia's plans to
raise Rs 20 bn for funding acquisitions.
Innovation is the key to success and can
be the biggest potential multiplier of
profits. How can one forget what O&M's
Zoo Zoos did for Vodafone ? Cross
promotions, new media vehicles and web
2.0 channels like Second Life are more
recent ways to reach out to customers.
Second Life is a virtual world developed
by Linden Labs which is accessible via
internet. It sells 3D virtual reality to
enterprises which can use the platform
for marketing their products and
services or for virtual collaboration. IBM
and INTEL have been using this
platform for quite some time now.
Re-evaluate media channels and go viral
to connect at every touch point as
consumers become selective and
research purchases more carefully.
Social networking websites like facebook
and orkut, entertainment websites like
Youtube and mobile phones fit these
criteria perfectly. Viral marketing refers
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to marketing techniques which use preexisting social networks to increase
brand awareness through self replicating
viral processes.
prominent sky scraper which appeared
as if the child was pushing and moving a
section of the building with his bare
hands.
Re-evaluate messages to justify the
cosumers that they are making a smart
choice by choosing your product. In
short aim for a rational response instead
of an emotional connect. A perfect
example is Videocon's “Experience
Change” campaign.
Plan a post slowdown strategy to win
back abandoned customers and reach
out for new ones when the business cycle
swings back. Usually banking, financial
services and information technology
sectors ride the recovery wave sonner
than more capital intensive sectors like
automobile and real-estate. Healthcare
companies like Cipla and Dr Reddy
Laboratories invested in intensive R&D
during slowdown so that they can
bounce back to recovery as soon as the
phase was over.
Use guerrilla marketing which is both
innovative and cost effective to
communicate your message to the
customer. This fairly clever and ambient
marketing campaign was created by
McCANN ERICKSON in Mumbai for
Anando milk. Anando milk wanted to
increase consumption of milk among
children. The competition in the form of
juices and energy drinks focus on being
cool and fun. So Anando wanted to
change the perception of milk being a
boring drink. Considering every child
lives in the world of fantasy, the idea was
to exaggerate the benefit of milk into
almost giving the child superhuman
powers. So a hoarding was used amidst a
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PRODUCT Review
Amandeep Kohli
T
he organized snacks category was
largely dominated by two players
prior to the year 1997 – The
traditional segment (Bhujia, Chana etc)
by Haldiram and the Western segment
(cheese balls, potato chips etc) along
with the Finger snack segment by Frito
Lays. So when ITC decided to foray into
the highly competitive and dominated
market, a large number of eyebrows were
raised
.
Two years on and the sceptics seem to
have their voices muffled. ITC's Bingo
already has a 16% market share in the
snacks market while that of its biggest
rival, Frito Lays, has fallen a mindboggling twenty percent down from 65%
to 45%. Add to the fact that this
spectacular feat has been achieved in a
time-span of 18 months is no mean feat.
According to Ravi Naware, divisional
chief executive, ITC Foods, “Success in
snacking requires an all-rounded
approach and huge preparation. I don't
know how many players are there in the
market with the arsenal to match us. If
there's someone who's got it better than
us, they will succeed, but I doubt it. We're
now aiming for a 25% market share”.
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The Birth Story
ITC signalled its entry into the snack
food segment at the ICC World Cup in
2007 with the launch of Bingo and timed
it to coincide with the World Cup, of
which ITC Foods was an associate
sponsor. While the Indian prospects
were shattered in that World Cup, Bingo
made an almost immediate impact in the
market with its high level entry which of
course did not go unnoticed in the minds
of the Indian consumers along with its
competitors, PepsiCo's Frito Lays and
Haldiram.
Industry analysts felt that the snacks
market offered little or almost no
differentiation and was largely
commoditised but this is where Bingo
made its impact felt. Bingo offered its
products through various shapes and
textures while being crispier and
crunchier.
According to Hemant Malik, ex-head of
marketing, ITC Foods, "Consumers have
not had too much choice and our
understanding of the Indian consumer
and the Indian palate has helped us
develop different offerings."
Critical Success Factors
What has made Bingo so popular and a
marketing success is its effective use of
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PRODUCT Review
the 4 P's of Marketing, namely Product,
Price, Place & Promotion.
Bazaar outlets and that shelf space was
taken up by Bingo.
1. Product
3. Promotion
Since the snacks market consisted of an
undifferentiated product offering, ITC
formed an 8 member research team who
studied various home-made snacks like
Bhel, Gol Gappa, Khakra etc. Hence their
initial offering in the potato chip
segment consisted of flavours which
catered to the eating habits of people
from different parts of the country while
finger snacks segment consisted of
unique and innovative offerings like the
Pakoda inspired Live Wires and Khakra
inspired Mad Angles.
Bingo was strategically launched around
the time of the World Cup to cash in on
the ravenous appetites of cricket lovers
who loved to snack in between matches.
Also the advertisements along with the
flavours have a very Indian touch with a
dose of humour which was the marketing
strategy of Bingo all along – the cheeky,
humorous ads which stay on your mind
long after the advertisement has passed.
Along with the television
advertisements, Bingo has made its
presence felt on outdoor hoardings and
the internet. Their website
www.bingeonbingo.com has been
designed to target the youth and offers a
range of functions from downloads,
mobile games to even a virtual world!
Their advertising blitzkrieg has seen
them tie-up even at with the Aerosmith
rock concert.
2. Place
This is another point where Bingo strikes
a major punch. It is leveraging heavily
and effectively into the vast distribution
network of ITC and this has resulted in
Bingo being present even in 'paan' shops.
The distribution network is estimated at
around two million outlets and hence
penetration has not been a problem for
Bingo. Hence the 360 degree approach
for ITC Foods – target the grocery outlet
along with the 'paanwaala'. Also, ITC
Foods has tie-up with retail giants like
Kishore Biyani's Future Group and this
was the reason why Frito-Lays was taken
off the shelves in Big Bazaar and Food
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4. Price
The different flavour offerings of Bingo
are priced at par with Frito-Lays and the
chips come in two standard prices of five
and ten rupees. But Bingo's USP is that it
offers 16 variants thus forcing
consumers to take that first bite. With its
pricing strategy, ITC Foods is targeting
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PRODUCT Review
the HORECA segment (hotels,
restaurants and cafes) which usually
have little or no branded snacking
options on offer.
consumer has to do now is wait and
watch for the Boing! sound to ring
louder.
Another advantage that ITC has is its
strong farm linkages which are crucial
for the sourcing of potatoes. The success
of Bingo, therefore, is on account of the
aggressive strategy adopted on all fronts
— product, pricing, promotion and
distribution. While this has reaped
benefits for Bingo till now, maintaining
this strong position and wresting the
numero-uno position from Frito-Lays
will be a different task altogether. All the
Swine flu brings a surge in Domino's sales
Sales at Domino's Pizza are
booming in the economic
downturn and could get a
further boost if more people
stay at home because of
swine flu.
Britain's biggest pizza delivery
chain said it was on course to
beat City forecasts for this
year, after reporting a 25%
surge in first-half profits. As
economic gloom has
descended on the country,
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Domino's has been cashing in,
with more people preferring
home delivery to restaurant
meals.
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STRATEGY
Atul Gupta &
Jayesh Attal
V
ideocon has recently gone
through a complete brand
makeover, clearly visible with
the change in its logo from sturdy steel
crafted V to a fluid green colored V. This
new brand element was recently
unveiled by Bollywood star Shahrukh
Khan in LA. To communicate this
makeover, Videocon has launched new
marketing campaigns with two green
colored animated characters called
Chouw and Mouw which join to form the
new V logo. The choice of green color is
deliberated to get into the peppy
bandwagon of 'going green' initiatives
recently adopted by many other
organizations. Though this has been
substantiated by their upcoming 5MW
solar PV project in Jodhpur. According
to the company's official website, “The
Videocon logo is the heart of the new
brand identity. The Fluid lava reflects the
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brand idea, 'Experience change'. The
color palette has been chosen to reflect
the philosophy of Videocon Group i.e.
the color green is symbolic to the
company's ecology drive.” It has also
changed it tagline from 'Truly Indian
Multinational' to 'Experience Change'.
With the current portfolio of consumer
electronics (TVs, DVD players and audio
systems) and home appliances
(refrigerators, washing machines and
Acs), Videocon is also going to foray into
unchartered territories of mobile
handsets, mobile services and D2H
services.
Over the last two decades of existence in
the Indian market Videocon has been
doing well in entry/middle level
segment, but in the premium segment it
far behind LG and Samsung. The
company has recorded consistent top
line and bottom line growth in the past
few years with net sales standing at Rs
10,105 crs and profits of Rs 854 crs for
the year 2007-08 (Videocon follows Oct-
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STRATEGY
Sep financial cycle). But these figures
have slumped in the past 2-3 quarters,
unlike the other electronic giants like LG,
Samsung and Voltas which have
registered consistent growth even in
recession.
From a marketer's perspective, it is
important to understand whether these
change amount to brand revitalization
strategy or is it merely brand
reinforcement. Reinforcement, as name
suggests, is to maintain consistency of
marketing programs with greater vigor.
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But it may involve many tactical changes
necessary to maintain the strategic
thrust and direction of the brand. In the
given case of Videocon's brand
makeover, though its success over a
period of time is questionable, it is
indeed a revitalization strategy and can
be understood from Brand
Revitalization Model suggested by Keller
as explained below. The strategic
direction adopted by Videocon with this
brand makeover has been highlighted in
green.
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STRATEGY
market, with Chouw & Mouw giving that
Why the change?
dynamic angle to the brand, it is to be
seen whether these two little chummy,
The new brand identity has been
bubbly characters can connect to the
targeted to give a new environment
customers. If the customers are not
friendly, improved technology, young
connected the brand is not accepted. The
looking multinational look to the
choice of the brand
company. The company has
makeover design can
planned hi-blitz promotional
With the brand also be analyzed, with
campaigns across all the media i.e.
the Zoozoos of
print, electronic and radio plus
positioning
V o d a f o n e ,
various BTL & on ground
changing
humanized network
activities, marketing collaterals,
almost every 2- bars of RComm &
visual merchandising etc.
Unique characters of
According to their website,
3 years, the
Virgin already in the
internally also the focus is on
competition,
consumer can
further developing latest
Videocon's Chouw &
get confused.
technology products with thrust
Mouw could actually
on quality and innovation,
end up being “Meimproved service penetration and
Too”. This is more likely since Videocon
increased employee morale.
is planning to enter into the same market
space of mobile handsets/ services.
The brand has been changing
its
positioning quite a few times now,
starting from the older 'Videocon
washing machine' jingle to the more
recent ones with Shahrukh Khan ads
with tag line like “Bring home the
Leader”, “New Improved Life”, “The
Indian Multinational”, “Ecologic for
sustainable life”. With the brand
positioning changing almost every 2-3
years, the consumer can get confused.
Though this positioning is targeted at the
youth & premium segments of the
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So now the success of the 200 crore
brand revitalization campaign actually
lies in something more basic, something
which consumers demand and i.e. good
quality products & service. Say if an older
customer who had bad experience with a
CTV or washing machine will never even
try new products just because you have
change to Green color. So the change in
brand identity has to be backed up by
excellent after sales service & really good
product.
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Innovative Marketing &
Communication Techniques
Arunaabh Raj
Rupesh Nagar
Battle for the consumer mind
through innovative marketing &
communication techniques
Marketing, as we all know, is an ever
evolving process of satisfying needs till
self actualization level and the utility
derived by consumers on Maslow's need
hierarchy. Existence of segments is a
proof of complexities in providing the
consumer the combination of three
things: maximum convenience,
maximum choice and lowest possible
prices. One is not alone in fulfilling
consumers' basic and evolving
requirements, the competition is tough,
unforgiving and relentless in pursuit of
the consumers. In such a cut throat
environment it is but natural for
marketers to search and utilize
innovative and radical avenues for
reaching wider audience and convert the
potential consumers to users of their
products & services.
Endeavour of this article is to bring out
the new trends in vogue, new
methodologies being adopted by
successful marketers on unconventional
platforms like internet, blogs and real life
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instances. For brevity's sake, we have
divided this article into mini caselets
featuring various examples taken
primarily from the Indian context.
Ÿ
·
Promotion of Entertainment
Products i.e. films / videos through blogs
and dedicated websites
Ÿ
·
Corporate Social Responsibility
cum Marketing Initiatives
Ÿ
·
Viral marketing
Ÿ
·
Radical methods of Marketing
Promotion of Entertainment
Products i.e. films / videos through
blogs and dedicated websites
Few interesting observations regarding
blogging are shared below. Famous
bollywood stars and directors like
Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan & Ram
Gopal Varma express their thoughts,
views, and opinions through dedicated
blogs like bigb.bigadda.com.
aamirkhan.com/blog & rgvzoomin.org.
These websites not only prove to be the
most direct link between content
producers and content consumer but
also act as a platform where likeminded
people express, chat, opines and share
their love for the product (i.e movie, song
or video) and their stars. Above
everything else these blogs & websites
act as one of the launch pad for
forthcoming movies. We've had first
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Innovative Marketing & Communication Techniques
hand experience of this while browsing
through aamirkhan.com wherein
viewer's feedback & reactions (on the
website) were duly considered and some
accommodated in the movie after few
weeks of release. In same breadth
rgvzoomin.org and bigb.bigaada.com
have been regularly utilized by Mr
Varma & Mr Bachchan for promoting
videos, posters and shoots of their
various movies and getting a first hand
knowledge of customer preferences,
likings & disliking.
We must bear in mind that the traffic that
flows on to these celebrity blog's/
websites represent the people who are
earliest adopters of their products(i.e.
movies) and plays a very important role
in success of their product. The hits that
these websites get are in millions and
increasing popularity of these forums
can be gauged by average reactions in
thousands for each blog they write. This
then appears to be a classic case of brand
awareness being utilized in extracting
maximum out of a given product
category to the benefit of all the
stakeholders and at least possible costs.
Corporate Social Responsibility
cum Marketing Initiatives
Corporate Social responsibility is the
buzz word now a days and companies are
flocking to have dedicated CSR
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initiatives. The buzz is not altogether
mistaken, as the benefits are twofold.
Such initiatives helps in the betterment
of society as well as provide the platform
for reaching out and growing a new set of
customers.
An example to consider would be project
Shakti by HUL. Armed with micro credit,
women become HUL direct-to-home
distributors of consumer goods in
remote villages which help them earn a
living as well as increase the distribution
reach of the company manifold. This is a
classic case of catering profitably to the
Bottom Of Pyramid consumers. In this
project, the company helps the village
women, known as “ Shakti Ammas”,
develop selling skills and start their own
small ventures. Project Shakti
has
created livelihood opportunities for over
45000 rural women and in the process
has reached more than 300,000 brand
new consumers.
With reference to the same, 'Shakti Vani'
program was initiated to educate rural
people about basic health and hygiene
factors. The Vani program covers areas
including pre and post-natal care, infant
nutrition, sanitation, good hygiene
practices, and the prevention of common
diseases. By end 2007, the Vani
programme had covered over 50,000
villages, reaching out to over 50 million
people.
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Innovative Marketing & Communication Techniques
Initiatives like these should both be
commended as well as portrayed as
trend setter for new kind of marketing
activities. Rural segment is still a vast
untapped segment for marketers and
techniques such as above would
definitely give new dimension to the
marketers as a whole.
Viral marketing
Viral marketing is the use of internet to
create product awareness in multiple
connections,
creating potentially
exponential growth. Viral marketing
techniques are increasingly used in
promoting bollywood films, few
examples would help to elaborate the
issue at hand.
Love Story 2050 used the internet to
generate a different buzz around the film
through some innovative campaigns and
the Akshay Kumar starrer, Singh Is
Kinng partnered with web portal
Indiafm.com, wherein through an
interactive campaign users could see
Kumar doing stunts, also the users could
play a game where they get to be Akshay
Kumar.
Film advertising now has improved
much and it has reached levels where it
ensures direct interactivity with the
audience. Microsoft Advertising rich
media banner did film promotion in
somewhat similar way where Imran
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Khan promoting his film 'Jane Tu ya
Jane Na' came alive to interact with the
user on his desktop, walked on the
website, looked around, knocked on
uder's screen and then walked back into
the advertisement click and even danced
to the tune of the song 'Kabhi Kabhi Aditi
Zindagi'. A separate shoot was done only
for this advertisement which had a clickthrough rate (CTR) of 2.8%.
The average CTR of banner
advertisements is 0.3% and the
incremental benefit (2.8–0.3) through
viral marketing techniques is evident.
Songs are the first consumer touch
points for most Bollywood films and
draw audiences to theatres. Love Story
2050 and Jaane Tu had groups on
Facebook as well much before their
releases where the film's pictures and
posters were put up and the group would
facilitate discussion on the film.
Internet is a good way to advertise even
for those movies that are not primarily
targeted at the youth. The general
audience can be reached through
conventional advertising but if
producers are looking at a blockbuster
hit then the youth must be engaged too
and what better way to undergo film
advertizing than viral marketing.
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Innovative Marketing & Communication Techniques
Radical methods of Marketing
With breakaway positioning a product
disassociates itself from its existing
category by deliberately associating with
a different one. Marketers leverage the
new category's conventions to change
both how products are consumed and
with whom they compete. The marketers
can change how consumers "frame /
view" a product and, therefore, how they
respond to it. Instead of seeing the
breakaway product as simply an
alternative to others in its category,
consumers perceive it as altogether
different and a superior one at that.
2007 Gujarat Assembly Elections made
us witness to a curious phenomenon, and
that was every BJP grassroots level
worker sported face of Narendra Modi,
literally. This not only created a widest
possible avenue for reaching consumers
for the incumbent but it also positioned a
political leader in a way that was never
done before. Traditionally politicians in
India are not considered as stars or
celebrities but in the form of face masks,
Mr Narendra Modi was positioned, in a
breakaway mould, to be a star and
celebrity combined. This star like appeal
combined with an impeccable image of
an able administrator turned the tide
and BJP won the assembly elections
comfortably with a majority.
What lessons do events like above have
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for traditional marketers? Is it a one off
case or this can be consistently utilized in
solving the existing positioning
dilemmas. We can see through example
below that breakaway positioning
distinctively add to the customer affinity
towards the product, its awareness and
the ever beneficial, usage. Films today
are surely treated as products with
promotional strategy, brand imaging,
hiring of marketing agency coming into
picture for launch and successful
promotion of films.
Bollywood blockbuster Ghajini (highest
grosser of all times, above 300 Cr)
heralded a new era in terms of not only
marketing extent but also the scope.
Breakaway concepts used for marketing
were sporting of Ghajini look/hairstyles
by the multiplex usherers and spot boys,
Aamir Khan himself turned barber for a
day in New Delhi and gave “Ghajini
Haircuts” to his friends ( from a small
boy to a middle aged man). Now, its
easier to dispel such events as gimmicks
but the bumper opening day collection of
INR 28 Cr (Prepaid show opened at 7 cr)
and till date gross have proven all the
skeptics wrong. Therein lies the impact
which breakaway positioning can create
for experiential products like movies and
politics.
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Expanding the horizons of CAUSE MARKETING
Kanwarpal Singh
08IB-029
C
ause marketing can be defined as a
strategic and marketing tool that
links a brand to a social cause
which have a mutual benefit. American
Express started this type of marketing in
1980’s under the name of CRM in which
they served a cause of “restoration of
statue of liberty” in New York. And then
this trend caught up and entered the
Indian market in the year 1990, CRM
basically provided companies a edge to
fight against their competitors, potential
benefits of Cause marketing were
attracting and retaining customers,
Market differentiation etc.
Some of the brilliant concepts that have
come up in the Indian market and helped
both the companies as well as the cause
would be discussed further and even the
most important thing is that cause
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marketing is expanding its horizons it is
just not limited to the corporate it is
being used by political parties, actors to
market themselves and to create a link
with audience.
Cause marketing initiative in India was
taken by TATA Salt in which they
contributed 10paise per pack of TATA
Salt sold in Indian market for CRY (Child
Relief and U) and they inspired the
Indian audience with a very catchy
tagline “The Desh Ko Arpan
Programme” and their initiative was able
to collect 33lakhs for the organization in
just 1 month.
If I talk about STAR plus, India’s leading
General Entertainment Channel
recently launched ‘Sabki Laadli Bebo’.
Taking this concept a step further, the
channel announced its annual CSR
initiative – Project Laadli, in association
with KC Mahindra Educational Trust
Project Nanhi Kali to create awareness
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regarding various issues associated with
Hindi and English equally well.
Expanding
the
horizons
of
CAUSE MARKETING
the cause of girl child. The Laadli Week
Celebration, from April 13, 2009 to April
17, 2009, witnessed a series of fund
raising events and promotions across
STAR Plus’ shows. A special on-air
contest was activated wherein viewers
sent in messages and pictures of their
daughters. The best messages were aired
on the show Sabki Laadli Bebo. More
than 51,000 messages were received
during the Laadli Week Celebration, out
of which more than 30,000 viewers
contacted Nanhi Kali to contribute for
this noble cause. The SMS initiative
crossed all standard benchmarks, it
received 8 to 10 times more messages per
day compared to any normal campaign.
STAR has also donated money towards
this cause which will be used to educate
approximately 600 underprivileged
girls.
Coming further and talking of the TIMES
OF INDIA “Teach India” initiative
earlier Amitabh Bachchan was the brand
ambassador then came in Shah Rukh
Khan then finally came in Aamir Khan,
Aamir can be seen currently on
billboards across the country,
supporting the Teach India movement.
Aamir was selected for his strong sense
of ethics for a social cause. “He stands
out as credible and honest”. The role that
Aamir essayed in his last movie, Taare
Zameen Par, teaching a dyslexic child
and helping mentally challenged
children, also went in his favor.
Bachchan was chosen for India Poised
because the campaign highlighted India
in its 60th year of independence and TOI
wanted someone who was truly iconic to
deliver the message to the entire nation
and someone who could speak both
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Similarly, Shah Rukh was chosen in the
second phase of Lead India because of
his status as a youth icon and the
campaign was a call to the youth to come
out and do something for the nation.
Cause marketing during elections by
Congress from a marketing
communications perspective, it was
interesting to see how positive messages
won the day. Electoral alliances and
political agendas aside, there was
something about the Congress campaign
that caught the public imagination. Its
campaign tune, Jai Ho, matched its
central slogan “Aam admi ke badte
kadam, Har kadam par Bharat buland”
and offered optimism, inclusion and
association with all. The Congress’
marketing revolved around talking to the
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common man about his issues in the
Talk concept created ripples in market,
Expanding
the
horizons
of
CAUSE MARKETING
sharpest manner possible. The result
when government came up with UIC
was communication which people could
initiative Idea came up with the
relate to. Congress zeroed in on
campaign “dekha yeh hum kabh se keh
identifying specific target segments
rahe hain”. There are many more
within its overall audience, identified
examples like Nokia, ITC, and Dell etc.
issues that had immediate appeal to
And the expanding horizons of cause
these segments and projected a number
marketing can put in many more
of credible leaders. The messaging about
corporate, political parties, actors to use
youthful leadership and young India was
this in near future.
fresh, sincere and credible. While the
Congress reminded people about
Though Cause Marketing has started as a
opportunities seized and offered, the
commercial activity, it has evolved as a
BJP and the Left talked about problems.
concept and has gone beyond
At a time when the economic crisis was at
commercial activity to community
the top of everyone’s minds, such
activity. Companies have gone beyond
messages fell far short of expectations.
the level of reactive competitive
Running an
strategies, and have
election campaign
shown the world the
Its (Congress) campaign
is about gauging the
soft side of
tune,
Jai
Ho,
matched
its
pulse of the
marketing strategies
central
slogan
“Aam
electorate – just like
– a shift from hard
creating a great
factors to soft factors
admi ke badte kadam,
m a r k e t i n g
is evident in their
Har
kadam
par
Bharat
campaign. The
m a r k e t i n g
brand which has its
s t r a t e g i e s .
buland” and offered
ears to the ground
Companies should
optimism, inclusion and
always wins.
contribute truly for
association with all. The
the sake of cause
TATA Tea “Jaago
without expecting in
Congress’ marketing
Re” campaign was a
return.
revolved
around
talking
brilliant picture of
cause marketing it
to the common man
targeted all the
about his issues in the
Indians who did not
sharpest manner.
go for voting. Some
more examples are
Procter & Gamble’s
brand, positioned itself as a wildlife
rescue and animal rehabilitation product
campaign called ” Everyday Wildlife
Champion”.
Idea cause marketing concept having a
number for each Indian and Walk and
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1. What was originally called 'Brad's drink'?
2. After the Kurkure express and the Kingfisher Express, the Bangalore Delhi
Rajdhani Express has also been branded. Which company is sponsoring the
train?
3. If Raymonds is 'the complete man', the 'Incomplete man' refers to which
brand?
4. Microsoft agreed to buy a $240 million piece of this company in a
transaction.One of the ad system of this company is Beacon.Which company?
5. In 1997, the TATAs sold Lakme to HLL and acquired Britain based
Littlewoods chain. What did it later re emerge as?
6. Which corporate entity has come up with the punchline 'The edge is
efficiency'?
7. What is unique about the Gujarati magazine “Chandan”?
8. Which watchmaker plans to introduce premium brands like Ferragamo,
Versace and Valentino in India?
9. Which famous car giant originally started off with textile business?
10. In Taiwan, Pepsi-Cola made a very grave error (no pun intended) with their
slogan 'Come alive with the Pepsi generation'. The catch phrase was
translated a little too literally in Taiwanese, and ended up saying what?
ANSWERS
1. Pepsi 2. Airtel Bangalore Delhi Rajdhani Express 3. Metro Shoes 4. FaceBook 5. Westside 6. Bombay Stock Exchange
7. This magazine has been coming with no Ads for the last 3 decades and has been placed in the Limca Book of Records.
8. Timex 9. Toyota 10. 'Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead.’