markathon july 2014

8/9/2019 Markathon July 2014

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Associate Professor of MarketingStanford GSB

MARKATHONMarke ng Magazine of IIM Shillong Volume 6 | Issue 1

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Vartalaap with Mr. Harikesh S.Nair

Leveraging FIFA 2014 through

digital marketingand other toolsfor Brand Equity


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The Markathon Team

Editors

Amit Sonwani | B Ushashree | Nishant Prakash |

Ramanathan K | Varsha Poddar |Yash B. Bhambhwani

Crea ve Designers

Malini Aishwarya B |Swati Pamnani

From The Editorhelped marketers understand human behaviour in a bet -ter way.

Ar cles in our Perspec ves sec on for the month dealwith two stand-out performers in their respec ve seg -ments – Make My Trip and Audi. Get some insights onhow Make My Trip is ‘changing the way India travels’ andhow Audi has slowly perforated the market to be one ofthe most recognized Premium Car Brands in India.

Moving onto our Specials for the month, this edi on’sIsh haar deals with a speci c case of Societal Marke ngwherein more and more brands are striving to developcampaigns around the theme of Women Empowerment

to generate the much needed levels of awareness. JabThey Failed deals with the curious case of the sweeter‘New Coke’ which ul mately turned out to be a bi er ex -perience for the brand. To cap it o , we have our monthlyedi on of ‘Addicted’ plus our ‘Updates’ sec on to keepyou up-to-date with the recent happenings in the worldof Marke ng.

With so much in line wai ng for you, wait no more andip through our latest edi on. Do keep us posted on your

likes and dislikes by wri ng to [email protected] and we promise we will come back bigger and bet -ter, me and again.

Happy Reading!!!

They call it ‘the beau ful game’ for a reason. 32na ons were gh ng it out during the ini al stages ofthe FIFA world cup but the en re world was engrossed inwhat can only be termed as the greatest spor ng extrava -ganza of our lives yet. The World Cup keeps ge ng biggerand bigger with each edi on and when a Cricket fana cna on, which also happens to be the largest democracyin the world, starts going gaga over an event, you knowthat the popularity of the sport is on an unprecedentedrise.

Our cover story for the month of July takes you on a joy -ous ride through the greatest spor ng spectacle that is

the FIFA World Cup 2014, albeit with a twist – we try tolook at the event from a marketer’s perspec ve, trying toanalyse how the biggest brands around the world tookit upon them to make the best of the situa on by ridingon the World Cup bandwagon. While some tried to tapon the emo onal connect followers from the world overhave with the game, some were shrewder in capitalizingon the star power of some of the greatest footballers ofour genera on. Our Cover Story “Leveraging FIFA 2014through digital marke ng and other tools for Brand Eq -uity” deals with all these aspects and many more – a mustread for all the marke ng enthusiasts who also happen tolove Football.

For our Vartalaap sec on this edi on, we have an exclu -sive interview with Prof. Harikesh S. Nair, Associate Pro -fessor (Marke ng) at Stanford GSB. Read on for his viewson the use of Analy cs in the eld of Marke ng and getinto the ni y-gri es of how quan ta ve models have

IIM ShillongMARKATHON

Markathon july 2014

ContentsPerspectives

Strategic Analysis of Audi India Allu Reshma & Vignesh Kannan P | IMT Ghaziabad

MakeMyTrip - Changing the Way India TravelsSai Pratyusha T & Tonmoy Banerjee | TAPMI

Leveraging FIFA 2014 through digital marketingand other tools for Brand Equity?Ansuman Misra | IIM Shillong

VartalaapMr. Harikesh S.Nair Associate Professor of MarketingStanford GSB

Eye 2 EyeFlipkart’s move into fashion is a faux pas. Agree / Disagree? Neha Ladha | IIM Shillong & Giri Mallika Bora | Delhi School of Mgmt

Silent VoiceGame of ThronesHardik Shah | IIM Shillong

Specials

Addicted Swati Pamnani & Yash B. Bhambhwani | IIM Shillong

Ishtihaar Ramanathan K | IIM Shillong

Jab They Failed B Ushashree | IIM Shillong

Updates Amit Sonwani | IIM Shillong

FIFA 2014 Marketing Campaigns

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INTRODUCTION: Headquartered in Bavarian heartland, Audi was formed in1930 by merging 4 German automo ve and auto-compo -nent companies. The four rings logo which is one of themost recognised brands in the world is symbolic of thismerger. It is touted to be one of the famed “German Big3” in luxury car makers, the others being BMW and Mer -cedes-Benz. It entered the Indian market in 2004. Sincethen, Audi has seen tremendous growth in the last de -cade. It is one of the reputed brands in the country now.Commen ng on Audi India’s performance, Joe King, head,Audi India said: Our strong leadership is a result of ourunique marke ng ac vi es, network expansion, diverseproduct por olio...” Recently it achieved hat-trick ofBest-ever: Best-ever yearly sales-10126 units (FY 13/14);Best-ever quarterly sales-2740 units (Jan-Mar 14); Best-ever monthly sales-1404 units (Mar14). Let us take a lookat the strategy that Audi has for the Indian market andthe marke ng and promo onal ac vi es in plans on toachieve greater and sustained success in India. MARKET POTENTIAL:

India is a growing market with its need for luxury sedansand sports u lity vehicles (SUVs) increasing every year. In -dia is one of the top ten markets for luxury sedans nowand top 4 in automo ve sector in-terms of growth perannum. Since 2010 the passenger vehicles sec on com -prising of passenger cars, SUVs and MPVs had a CAGR ofaround 17 percent which is very healthy considering theglobal slowdown of car sales.

The increase in Audi’s sales has also been good. The com -pany recorded sales of 10126 units in India in FY 13/14,implying 11 percent growth and thus became the rst lux -ury car maker to cross the 10000 milestone in the country.The sales of German Big 3 cars with their percentage in -crease in growth for FY 13/14 in India is shown as:

AUDI INDIA A Strategic Analysis

TARGET MARKET: Audi is targe ng the customers who are looking for ex -ecu ve segment, premium compact segment sedans,high performance supercars and sports u lity vehicleenthusiasts who look for quality products. Targeted Con -sumer pro le for the sedans and SUVs is that of execu -

ves; who are in 30-45 age brackets and for the super

sports cars, the young adults are the target customers.

According to Joe king, “The average age is around35 years for luxury car buyer in India, which inglobal scenario is 43-45 years. Hence globally In -dia is the youngest market for Audi ecosystem.”

OVERALL BUSINESS STRATEGY: Audi has followed a strategy of acquiring greater sales byo ering the best features for their customers comparedto their compe tors for similar prices in the luxury autosegment. Their strategy consists of building a strong brandpresence and high percep on of the Audi brand, a gooddistribu on network and o ering an exci ng and diverseproduct por olio to the consumer in India. A aining and

BY allu Reshma | Vignesh Kannan PIMT Ghaziabad

july 2014

maintaining a market leadership posi on is the primaryfocus. MARKETING STRATEGY: Their Marke ng is quite ruthless. Their main focus when itcomes to Marke ng is strength in direct sales. In so muchso that each dealer of Audi cars is expected to employat-least 15 sales people. The company has strict policiesfor monitoring and appraising the sales task force. If anysalesperson is unable to make any sales, they are simplyasked to leave as they are very sure that it could not havebeen due to dissa sfac on with their products. Primaryac vi es done to engage the prospec ve consumer in -clude giving demos and test drives.

Consumer sa sfac on is very important in the luxury carsegments and hence Audi has set high benchmarks forproviding the best a er sales service. They even providefree a er sales service for the rst two mes similar towhat is followed in the two-wheeler vehicles segment inIndia unlike BMW and other companies o ering similarcars. The Print medium is heavily u lised in marke ng, espe -cially lifestyle magazines are used to promote the brand.New car launches are extensively covered in press launch -es and in all leading dailies and news magazines. This isfollowed by its iconic adver sements in television show -ing comfort and high quality of ride and its spor ness. Bill -boards along junc ons in high tra c lanes, is another im -portant component of their marke ng strategy. Whenevera new dealership is opened in a new city, full-page adver -

sements are carried out in the dailies and thus foo all inthe dealership is increased. Then it is the responsibility ofthe sales force to convert this foo all into sales. Display -ing new models in AutoExpo is also something Audi is verypar cular about, to let the market know what products


july 2014

to expect from the company in the forthcoming year andthus they pre-emp vely create u er and demand beforethe cars hit the market. This is a part of their pull strategy.

Audi also engages in push strategy by giving consumer in -cen ves to purchase the cars immediately without delay -ing (as delaying in purchase gives chances for brand pref -erences to oscillate). These incen ves include low interestrates and even zero interest EMIs in certain fes ve sea -sons such as Diwali and o ering branded Audi merchan -dises such as watches, calendars and key chains etc. Alsothe sales force is given incen ves to push through theirsales. PRODUCT STRATEGY:

Audi o ers superior performance and driving experiencepacked with luxury and aesthe c designs and hence it pro -motes itself and is perceived as Highly Aspira onal cars.Its prices and promo ons re ect the same. It has createda strong brand reputa on by winning several races suchas Le Mans, F4 etc. This speaks volumes about their trac -

on control systems and the direct fuel injec on systemof the Audi cars which is cri cal in winning these races.Audi A3 is awarded world Car of the Year 2014. POSITIONING STRATEGY:

Audi has posi oned itself as an aspira on brand in India.In line with this strategy, they have launched their bestperforming cars in India and have delayed the launch ofthe more economical models such as A4 un l recently.They portray themselves as being the leaders in mul plesectors of cars by launching diverse range of productsranging from classy-looking sedans, to sport coupes andstrong and agile Sports u lity vehicles. This is garneredthem a percep on of exper se in overall automo ve seg -ment and not merely in one range of cars.

perspectiveperspective


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perspective july 2014

By pricing on par with BMWs and Mercedes they are try -ing to imply that they are of the same league as these Ger -man Auto companies and yet o er more features in theircars. Their mo o of “ Vorsprung durch technik” (Progressthrough technology) implies to the consumers that Audi istechnology oriented and not just focussed in good design.

AREAS OF STRENGTH:

1. A strong brand presence (Built by winning several rac -es consequently, and good consumer reviews over theyears).2. Constant innova on in design, form and func onality(MMI, Naviga on, Qua ro’s four-wheel drive etc).3. E cient opera ons management providing high mar -gins of pro t by reducing cost.4. Associa on with the super car brand Lamborghini givesit a sporty image and advantages of technological collabo -ra on.5. Technological superiority through R & D investments inrela on to lot of other brands worldwide.6. Large Product mix and width catering to sedan, sportscar, luxury car and sports u lity vehicle segments of theauto market.7. Audi cars are touted to have the right mix of class, com -fort and peppiness; striking chord with both young andmature customers.8. Market leader in the Indian sports car market with carslike R8, TT, RS 5 Coupe and S4 under its belt.

THREATS:

1. Regula ons in entering new market and need to makealliances with local companies to enter certain na onslike china.2. Constantly ghtening environmental regula ons mak -ing auto companies to proac vely regulate their engineperformances.3. Exposure to uctua ons in currency exchange rates

when expor ng from Germany.4. Compe ons from larger companies with more re -

sources are a constant threat. Other companies like BMW,Mercedes which have such percep on of high Germanstandard cars give tough compe on in emergent mar -kets. FUTURE CHALLENGES: Future challenges include s compe on from otherGerman auto manufacturers like BMW, Mercedes-Benzand from Lexus too. The cars on the model of Nissan 350zare both sporty and tuned for the Indian roads. The othermodels of that chassis and make from Nissan if launchedin India would give s compe on to Audi’s TT’s sales.Also the Indian consumer at present has very high percep -

on of the “Made in Germany” tag that these companiescarry. So when they set up manufacturing units in Indiafor its low labour cost, they would have to communicateto the consumer that quality won’t be compromised onat all.

FUTURE POTENTIAL/ GROWTH PLAN: India is also transforming itself into a major Auto-manu -facturing hub. Especially Chennai is on the way to becomethe world’s largest Auto hub by 2016 by having installedcapacity to manufacture more than 3 million cars annu -ally. By 2020, sales of passenger vehicles in India is said toincrease to 9 million. Passenger vehicles include passen -ger cars, Sports u lity vehicles and MPVs. Of these, Audiis already into two sectors. So Audi is poised for growth inIndia owing to the growing demand.

As we can see that sales of Audi has clearly been on agrowth pa ern and has outgrown the likes of BMW andMercedes which have been long established in India. Andwith the Annual Luxury Car segment in India set to growthat 15% we can es mate that even if very conserva vely allthree contenders only manage to get a 15 % share of thisgrowing pie, Audi will s ll rule the roost in sales for the

next nancial year.



Audi is expec ng moderate growth for luxury car marketfor the next 5 years and is planning to bring in six morenew models to the Indian market by 2015. These newmodels will engage the consumers who are brand loyaland also the ones who would want to upgrade from mid-level sedans and the sports enthusiasts. So predictably atleast one sports car and one entry level luxury sedan (A4)will be launched by 2014.

IMPACT ON SOCIETY: The dras c rise of sales of India has a lot to do with thechanges that Audi has brought in consump on/purchasepa erns in the luxury car segment. While previouslythere were only two companies in this segment, with thename of Mercedes being common in every household asa symbol of class and luxury, Audi’s entry since 2004 haschanged this paradigm. Their Ads focus more on the features than on the brandname which is displayed only towards the end, which in a

way make the consumer focus more on the value and fea-

tures provided and not be stuck in names alone. This hasmo vated the consumer to look beyond just Mercedesand BMW for luxury sedans and now other foreign brandsare also nding India fer le for foraying into.

Another impact of Audi’s is that their constant o ering ofnewer technologies to the consumer such as the MMIand the naviga on systems, other car manufacturers nowhave to keep up and o er more such features to the con -sumer.

RECOMMENDATIONS/AREAS TO IMPROVE: Audi’s policy of constant innova on keeps them up todate in technology eld. But the Indian consumer needs

more than just technological features to go for a luxurycar. They also look for the pres ge that such a car carries,which in India is generally created by strong celebrity en -dorsements and repe ve telecast of adver sements ande ec ve product placement in the Indian movies. This willgreatly help Audi to stay ahead in the sales of their cars inIndia.

CONCLUSION: Audi has got its marke ng strategy in perfect place as isshown by its growth to being the number one sold lux -ury car brand in India in merely 10 years of its presence.Though to handle the future uncertain es, Audi mightneed to up its game and engage proac vely in productplacement and stronger brand equity crea on to sustainits posi on.


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Changing The Way India Travels

IIM Shillong5 MARKATHON


Travelling is something which I look forward every year.Be it America to see the Statue of Liberty or Louvre Art

Museum in Paris, the rst thing that awe’s me is deligh ngwith best customer service. Make my trip’s “It’s all abouttravel” has never failed to deliver this constant customersupport over 13 years in the history of travel industry.

With the advent of internet, Deep Kalra saw this opportu -nity in the year 2 000 to deliver customer loyalty throughdigital marke ng strategy. The objec ve of his strategy wasto transform the sweaty pain hours queued up in front of

cket counters to one click – make my comfort trip meth -od. The driving factor for Makemytrip in this Over-the-

air-programming (OTA) intense compe ve industry iscrea ng a di erence through unique customer experience.

Deep Kalra spo ed the opportunity of online travel andlaunched MakeMyTrip with new and unique concept ofselling air ckets through mul ple channels. The com -pany which started with US-Indian NRI travellers segmenteventually built its image by expanding its target segmentto regular travellers. The margins obtained from selling air

ckets were low considering the availability of air cketsin respec ve airline websites. The company shi ed itsstrategy to add more value to its customers by o eringhotel accommoda ons, bus ckets, and holiday packages.The boon in the travel industry in early 2000 gave anotheropportunity for MMYT to enhance customer con denceby extending its services to rail. They created a di erence

in the industry through their innova ve so wares. Itthrilled customers to revisit the portal for majorly twofactors namely, convenience and value for money. Onesuch instance is the development of ight comparison

so ware that fetched real me fares for low cost carriersand full service carriers.

The air and rail cke ng concept further extended toroads. Since bus travel is a frequent mode of transportin India for lower-middle class income group, MMYT in -troduced SMS-based bus cke ng. They saw the pros -pect for this target segment and developed a simple SMSbased applica on that can be used for all kinds of mobilephones.

MMYTs con nuous innova on and development of newbusiness model is the main reason for its market leaderposi on in the industry. By de ning the customer val -ue proposi on through innova ons, they maintaineda strong leadership posi on in the market. The majorcharacteris c that di eren ates MMYT from other com -pe tors is the development of cu ng edge productsby their strong technology team. Also, an addi onal at -tribute in their website which enhances customer ex -perience is the deployment of cloud based services.

BY Sai Pratyusha T | Tonmoy BanerjeeTAPMI



MMYT realised that the internet penetra on rate willeventually increase in future and simultaneously startedadding more products to its online por olio. Their inno -va on has touched over 1 billion routes with the intro -duc on of route planner which helps the smart travellerto make commute decisions. Even before the rapid devel -opment of smart phones, MMYT was the rst in India tolaunch a mobile applica on. During the development ofthe applica on, MMYT predicted a boon in mobile indus -try due to growth of technological advancements in themarket. Their development strategy provided the sameend to end user friendly experience to the customers sim -ilar to their website.

Innova ve features like ‘easy pay’ and ‘pay at hotel’ fa -cili es were the prime reasons to show the unique sell -ing feature of MMYT in travel market. The ‘easy pay’ en -ables the customers to make part payments for certaintype of products like interna onal air ckets. MMYT did

not introduce cash on delivery strategy due to the dy -namic price uctua ons. Also, ‘pay at hotel’ which wasintroduced with a non-refundable fee ensures con rmedbooking and payment during check in. This feature wasnot introduced by any other compe tor during its launchgiving MMYT an edge in travel market. In order to en -

hance the awareness level among non-internet users,MMYT came up with o ine presence by building associa -

ons with HPCL, and other retail outlets. Since the Indianmarket is not fully concentrated through online chan -nel, MMYT took this o ine ini a ve to generate morerevenue although not in a greater number of outlets.

MMTY succeeded not only through technology and inno -va on, but also by developing emo onal connec on be -tween its customers and brand. They increased the salesin online marke ng by communica ng their message‘Memories Unlimited’ through campaigns. The companyensured that every customer experiences the memoriesthat they had during the travel through this campaign.

For MMYT, understanding consumer behaviour is one ofthe key strength. Another unique concept introduced bythem is ‘Last minute hotel deals’. A er analysing consum -er behaviour, MMYT came up with a unique proposi onstrategy by o ering hotel booking at a much discountedprice. In order to reduce the gap between customer per -cep on and company deliverables, MMYT launched a new


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proposi on “100% money back guarantee” on hotels.

The success of the company depends a lot on seamlessintegra on with its various partners. MMYT took a path

to increase the value addi on by acquiring top playersin the market. The main challenge of MMYT that scaledup its o erings in digital marke ng strategy is integrat -ing diverse acquisi ons mainly through nancial part -ners and travel partners. MMYT provided a solu on tosupport joint customers through acquisi ons from ITCgroup, HT group and other travel agencies. Interest -ingly they also partnered with matrimonial websites topromote honeymoon tour packages. The culture of thecompany mainly emphasised on partnering with organi -za ons that brought value addi on to it and customers.

MMYT increased sales not only by reaching out to its exis ngcustomers but also targe ng poten al customers throughvarious brand building campaigns such as IPL themed tele -vision campaign and sweepstake campaign. They were theprincipal sponsor of Hyderabad Sunrisers a rac ng the

fans to follow their team across di erent parts of the coun -try. Since the major chunk of revenue is obtained from ex -is ng customers, MMYT used analy cs e ciently to reachits customers by sending promo ons, discounts ad o ersthrough personalised SMS and e-mails on regular basis.MMYT leveraged social media pla orm such as Facebookand Twi er to promote awareness and increase its salesby o ering varied themes based on di erent occasions.Their brand promo on in networking sites became suc -cessful as their strategy did not incline only to its targetaudience. The major challenge faced by MMYT is global expansion.Also due to limited Internet penetra on and security con -cerns of money transac ons, it is facing the smooth pro -cess of increasing customer base

The strategies adopted by MMYT helped other players toemulate in the online travel market and became followersto market leader. MMYT got an edge over players due tothe rst mover advantage and today this compe ve ad -vantage is helping it to rmly hold its leadership posi on.

It certainly is not a wrong proposi on when wemean to say that human emo ons rule his ac -ons, typically when analyzed from a seller’sperspec ve or broadly a marketer’s perspec ve. Astrong emo onal connect can certainly help pushvolumes in terms of o erings that appease the cus -tomer’s cause of emo on and add to his value base.Top brands have exactly relied on the above no onand FIFA World Cup 2014 is yet another vibrant op -portunity to capitalize on the same.For millions of soccer loyalists globally FIFA 2014 isway more than just an event. For them it is a con -nect strong enough to guide many of their decisions.A strong emo onal connect , a burning passion andsomewhere this boils to a very patrio c angle thatshowcases ones love for ones na on on this plat -form. It’s these parameters that rule ones loyalty tocertain brands who can establish that ne thread ofcustomer connect with the customers/ consumers.FIFA 2014 along with it has got a mad urry of pro -mo onal campaigns across brands through severalinterfaces, all in a pursuit to enhance their brand eq -uity and push more volumes.Let’s try and understand the di erent assump onsthese brands have relied upon to reach upto people.1.Emo onal Impact: As discussed previously theemo onal quo ent of the customer is of paramountfocus under such assump on. Digital marke ngproves handy under these circumstances. Researchproves that people share the most when their emo -

onal a achment to the ma er is maximized andsharing and viral spread are the few parameters thatmeasure the success of the given campaign. Hencefor brands it’s of subtle importance to iden fy key

drivers or points that drive emo ons and nothing canbe be er than the love for one’s country, the gameand the correla on these two share. However thereis a very prominent constraint that can serve an im -pediment in this en re ordeal. The very subjec vityof humour and emo ons validates for the fact thatwhat might be funny to us may not be to someoneelse. Hence universally translable emo ons are theones on which focus should be laid. More to substan -

ate for the fact that the audience would relate toit be er. To benchmark for, P&G used the Olympicsbase to emphasize on the importance of the motherchild rela onship at the onset of Olympics 2012. Thisexcellently established a connect with the pool it tar -geted and the campaign was relevant to be viewedand appreciated across all age groups/genera ons.2.It’s just not the game alone: Brands have tried toiden fy the story behind their campaign. The clichédover-dra ed method of approaching customers withproduct o erings and bene ts is being done awaywith. Brands would use this huge pla orm of WorldCup 2014 to globally connect to people across all eth -nicity, race and na onality and every diverse aspectthey touch upon would have a story about them -selves and the game. Brands have tried coalescingall these together to forge a campaign. Somethingon similar lines has been done by the beverage gi -ant Coca Cola. Coca Cola has embarked upon a ninemonth long journey where they shall be taking theworld cup trophy across eighty eight na ons. Thesole concept behind the campaign was to engagethe consumers and build up their anxiety, an cipa -

on and excitement ll the game. Le’ts now ques onwhat happens next? The answer would be, for soc -


cover story july 2014

Cover Story By Ansuman

MisraIIM Shillong

Leveraging FIFA 2014through digital marketingand other tools for Brand

Equity


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cer frenzy na ons people would hold Coca Cola cl oseto their heart as they shall perceive it as somethingthat caters to their happiness, as it understands howimportant soccer is for them, it understands how im -portant the trophy is for them. Building this percep -

on is the appropriate de ni on of brand connect.During every match people shall appreciate and l oveopening a Bo le of Coke as they shall symbolize itwith Happiness.3.It’s shi ing to the Social Media: Reac ve Market -ing is the new term thi s tech savvy genera on is per -petra ng into. The likes of Twi er, Facebook etc. havemade sure that spor ng ac vi es and promo onalcampaigns are updated at the quickest on these sitesas they are the most visited. FIFA’s new mobile apphas served as a pla orm to construct a communityof dedicated soccer fans. Adver sers now keep aneye on these social networking sites to track what istrending and they can certainly leverage this oppor -tunity to increase their Brand value.Before transgressing into the ni y-gri es of thestandout campaigns brands have undertaken to en -cash upon their brand equity in this Superbowl, letsunderstand key points that reinforce the stand ofdigital marke ng under the current scheme of things.1.Real Time marke ng shall be at its peak in this Su -perbowl with a global audience of 3.2 billion and avolume of sixty four matches spread across thirty twodays, the scope of audience involvement/engage -ment shall be the highest. This is where big brandshave xated their focus on and shall leverage uponsocial media and the internet for their viewership.

2.The women viewership has been on the hike, go -ing by the fact that 43% of the viewers in the 2010soccer world cup had been women. Women centricbuying decisions are likely to see a boost. Womencan de nitely be the di erence in terms of spendingpower and reach3.Looking long term is another facet digital market -ers are focusing on. The engagement developed thissummer shall certainly showcase itself in 2018 longa er the trophy is won. So we basically engage ourcustomers and convert them from soccer ambassa -dors to brand ambassadors such that they carry theword forward. Understanding hashtags and com -ments has gone a long way in fathoming consumerexpecta ons and serving them be er.Samsung: Save The Earth CampaignA path-breaking campaign launched by Samsungthat has the famous soccer stars that we can relateto gh ng for a cause to save the earth. Exemplify -ing their soccer skills the adver sement campaignhas brilliantly tried portraying the product featuresof S5 with a wonderful algorithm for rela ng to thecustomers. Now the dual advantage of having suchcampaigns can certainly be indica ve of the fact that,consumers know your phone well and they shall buybecause it is technically competent. The other impli -ca on can certainly be soccer enthusiasts see theirstars promo ng the phone at the behest of a won -derful concept of saving the earth. Thus the en rebag of goodies related to the product and the cam -paign at the backdrop of the soccer world cup shallde nitely acquire more customers for the brand, it





shall also reinforce the stand of the loyalists. Nike: Risk Everything CampaignAgain dwelling on similar lines Nike has de nitely tak -en a larger than life step in inves ng a lot in the so -cial media domain and reducing investment in tele -vision ads. This has garnered tremendous responsesglobally. The adver sement showcases the famousstars who have been threatened by the maniacs of ashrewd scien st who develops a gene cally i den calhuman version of the players nega ng their human

aws. Thus the likes of Ronaldo, the Brazilian legendwho comes to the rescue of these forlorn playerswho have been rendered out of their business due totheir gene cally modi ed counterparts, brings themback to their business. They iden fy their capabili -

es and nally risk everything to win their nal ba leagainst their modi ed counterparts. Point Of Advantage: Now if we do a comprehensiveanalysis we get to fathom the intent behind the ad -ver sement. This again has a clear demarcated line

that somewhere Nike understands how priceless arethese soccer stars to their fans and how could Nikedevelop that so corner in the hearts of these fans byhighligh ng the plight of the players when they fallout of business on account of the evil scien st’s ma -niacs that oored them. Comes the Brazilian legendRonaldo a smart move again, Brazilian soccer fanswould love to see their hero serving as a passive heroin the frame by bringing back these footballers to -gether. Finally the adver sement ends on a very highnote when the stars show their ul mate weaponryof skills and outsmart t heir threatening counterparts.Thus the nal victory of the favourite stars over theevil by outwi ng their miseries and the joy associ -ated with the feeling of seeing their stars savour thevictory is what Nike has capitalized upon.Budweiser understood the correla on between beerand soccer and as es mated they hiked their mar -ke ng spends to capitalize on the same. Budweiserlaunched its website and mobile app as a prelude to


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IIM Shillong1KATHON

cover story july 2014the games to engage the customers and in turn theapp also informed the customer as to the nearestplace where they can enjoy the game of soccer overa Budweiser. This engagement plan de nitely soundslucra ve and has helped Budweiser maximize on theFIFA 2014 campaign. Budweiser calls it the “biggestsocial conversa on ever”Having analyzed the campaigns , it is but lucid andclear that the thin line that separates the successfuland the unsuccessful in this pursuit of brand wars hasbeen the correct iden ca on of human emo onand a valid correla on to the exis ng environment.Talking speci cally from the purview of FIFA 2014 bigbrands have always leveraged upon the football con -nect and the magnanimity and euphoria surroundingthe world cup. Supplemen ng the emo on of peopleand standing by them through their en re pursuit ofjoy and sorrow through the game would certainlyhelp the brand to survive in the customer ’s mind.In this context it is impera ve to men on about atrend that has been an integral facet of marke ngand has contributed to the increasing viewership ofFIFA 2014 which indirectly has aided campaigns try -ing to achieve prominence through digital marke ng.This term is called as “cross cultural marke ng”. Forna ons that never had football in their top prioritylist, things are shaping up di erently now. The mi -gra on of several communi es and their marke ngideologies into the general market has given a hugeimpetus to the a nity for the game. To be precise,there are a few countries where football is not fol -lowed very religiously except for a few local commu -ni es who ardently follow the game. Now it’s thesecommuni es that push the game into the generalmarket and in turn the overall viewership and likeli -ness for the sport increases in the na on.

We would certainly appreciate understanding as tohow would this shape up. United States, a countrythat is fond of baseball and American football hasseen a splurge in the average football viewers andappreciators of the game. Now this par cularly hasbeen facilitated by the La n American and Europe -an immigrants in United States of America. It goeswithout ques oning that soccer is religiously fol -lowed in La n America and Europe and in turn thenuances of the game has been infused into UnitedStates Of America by this migratory popula on thathas certainly given an impetus to the taste of footballin the U.S.A. Now owing to the impetus, a fair frac -

on of the local popula on also tries understandingthe game and slowly and steadily a loyal base for the

sport is created.Talking speci cally about the United States Of Amer -ica the passion for the game has been fuelled by thedigital and social media. These have enabled thesecross cultural advocates of the game to rapidly up -date about several facets of the game on the socialmedia and gather a follower base. Hence the en reconnec on built around this social media base com -prises of several people who are introduced into thegame and are converted into hardcore loyalists at alater stage.Now we must ques on that what has been thechange driver. Soccer had been there since long butwhy is this change so rapidly visible now. As a be t -

ng answer to this query we might just say that the

only di erence then and now has been the emer -gence of social media and its rapid spread. Its socialmedia that has provided us a very convenient way tovoice ourselves our choices, takes, likes, dislikes andpreferences and it is these parameters that are fath -omed by brands who have now preferred campaign -ing the digital way. This ensures e ec ve spread andquicker response from the customer.FIFA 2014 certainly has been a huge leveraging toolfor companies to go big on their campaigns. Thesecampaigns have gathered enough moss and havecertainly de ned the new age of digital marke ngfurther reinforcing its cause of existence. Howeverthis new age shall not stay this way for long, somedaysatura on shall be a crippling factor. What remainsto be seen is ‘How Long?’ Will there be a paradigmshi to a di erent method or companies shall try andevolve on the exis ng prac ce? Whatever might bethe deduc on, it is impera ve to understand that themind of the customer is a rented space and in orderto exist there we must pay t he rent and behave prop -erly


vartalaap july 2014

VARTALAAP

An Interview withMr Harikesh S.Nair

Dr. Harikesh Nair is an Associate Professor of Marke ng at StanfordGSB since 2005. His research is in the area of marke ng analy cs.His work brings together applied economic theory and econometrictools with marke ng data to be er understand consumer behav -ior and to improve the strategic marke ng decisions of rms. Prof.Nair received his PhD in Business from the Graduate School of Busi -ness at the University of Chicago. Prior to that, he received his MSin Transporta on Engineering from the University of Texas at Aus n,and his B.Tech in Engineering from the Indian Ins tute of Technol -ogy (IIT) at Madras, India. Prof. Nair serves as an associate editor atManagement Science and Quan ta ve Marke ng and Economics.At the GSB, Nair was the Fletcher Jones Faculty Scholar from 2007-2008, the Spence Faculty Scholar from 2011-12 and the Louise andClaude Rosenberg Faculty Scholar from 2009-2010 and 2012-13.“Marketing is becoming very quantitative and there is a lot ofdata. So if you are looking for a future and you have access to aUniversity, try to become quantitatively savvy and that will be ahuge asset going forward.”

AssociateProfessor

of Marketin

Stanford

GSB


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vartalaap july 2014

would say many of the companies ge ng into the bigdata space are in this phase.iii) The bo om end includes companies who haveheard of big data and want to do something about itbut do not have internal processes set in place for it.These companies primarily are involved in the pro -cess of integra ng disparate data sources that arespread across marke ng, sales, nance, accoun ngetc. these companies are desperate to hire peoplewho can make sense of all this data and to set upprocesses in place. This is very di cult due to the gapin human capital in this eld currently.

Markathon: In one of your studies based on the vid-eo game market, you have men oned that compa -

nies misjudge their consumers’ intelligence and set prices high ini ally in order to reap higher pro tsearly. In your opinion what is a more suitable ap - proach to pricing in case of forward looking con -sumers?

The video game market is huge and today the pricedispersion for crea ve products like video games ormovies is very low. Due to this norm or conven on,it seems most of the me that some of the smallgames are over-priced. So usually what happens isthat when you release a high an cipa on productsuch as an iPhone or a huge game, the high willingfolks will purchase it even at a higher price while themass market or the low wiling folks will wait. Whenyou reduce the prices at a later stage, the low-will -ing market will also start purchasing your product so

Markathon: From a B.tech in Civil Engineering andan MSE in Transporta on Engineering, what madeyou shi gears to pursuing a PhD in Business? Fur -thermore what really grabbed your interest in Mar -ke ng?

I don’t think these streams are necessarily unrelated.A lot of my research during my MSE in Transporta onEngineering required me to understand consumerpa erns. For instance I would li ke to know how manypeople would drive on a par cular new road that Iam construc ng between say Chennai and Mysoreand that will require me to forecast how people’stravel pa erns change with me for example tak -ing the train or taking the bus, travelling alone or in

groups… and such long run travel pa erns a ect themiles travelled on the road which in turn a ects thematerial quality to be used. In order to study suchissues similar kinds of sta s cal and econometricmodels are used. So the problem of forecas ng howdriver behavior will change when he/she responds toa new road or a new travel interven on is very simi -lar to the problem of forecas ng the consumer be -havior when a new brand or a product is launched.And my interest lies in the use of quan ta ve modelsto understand human behavior and I believe there isa lot of commonality in all elds of social sciences.

Markathon: Your research interests include Market -ing Analy cs and you have also published papers onBig Data and marke ng analy cs. How a ec velydo you thinks companies are using analy cs in theirmarke ng e orts today?

There is a wide spectrum of usage today. I would de -scribe it in three di erent phases of a company using

analy cs:i) Predic ve Mode: Technology savvy companies l ikeGoogle and Facebook will be using models for analyt -ics in a predic ve way. So that combines a manage -rial intui on and a marke ng policy and uses modelsto forecast consumer behavior. This is the top end ofthe spectrum inhabited by few.ii) Descrip ve on Repor ng: These companies useanaly cs in a more retrospec ve aspect rather thana prospec ve aspect. This means that they use dataof their’ and their compe tors’ past ac ons to reportit to internal stakeholders. So the analy cs for thiscompany has a descrip ve avor where it tries tounderstand what happened and why it happened. I


vartalaap july 2014

you end up e ec vely ge ng both the high willingmarket as well as the low willing segment. This policyworks well as long as consumers do not think ra o -nally. However if your consumers ra onally examinethe trends and look forward, they will realize that theprices are to come down at a later stage and despitebeing very willing to pay, they will wait ll you lowerthe prices. Firms that are aware of this ra onale inthe consumers’ minds, will try to cut the prices in thebeginning itself but the ra onal consumers will re -frain from purchasing in the expecta on of furtherprice cuts. This cycle can con nue un l there is noscope le for price cut and the rm loses a chunk ofits pro t.How can rms price their products be er? I think thekey is in market research. There are a lot of methodsavailable today to iden fy the consumers with lotof pa ence and who are willing to wait, consumerswho are well informed about prices and - basically

your consumers with precise expecta ons. For theseconsumers, rms can design products with low pricese ng whereas for high willing consumers, productswith a higher price se ng would work be er.

Markathon: To what extent do you think marketersare giving importance to the psychology of pricing?

I think rms and marketers have realized the impor -tance of understanding the psychology of the con -sumers to price products properly. The gap, if thereexists one, is in m easurement. So understanding howa consumer reacts to certain s muli is the theory ofconsumer behavior but in order to make the mostout of this, you need to understand the quan ta -

ve signi cance of the theory in real se ngs. I thinkthere is a substan al lag in this aspect.

Markathon: You men oned in one of your research papers that elimina ng sales quotas might s mu -late pro ts? Can you please throw some light onthat? How else can managers determine how muchto pay their salesmen?

A quota basically means that up to a threshold interms of sales or revenue, you will get a straight sal -ary. But beyond that threshold you start ge ng com -missions as you ful ll your quotas. Why do we needquotas? First of all I need to work in order to get mycommission, it gives me incen ves. Apart from that

managers can’t really see what the sales agents aredoing so quotas help in iden fying the performance.However, if we set the quotas very far away, a salesagent might never be able to ful ll his quota. Thusthe sales agent might feel de-mo vated and notwork at all. On the other hand if the quota can easilybe beaten, this can erode performance as well. Forinstance if the sales agent has a quarterly quota andhe has made a great sale in January, he doesn’t feelincen vized enough to push more sales in Februaryand March as has already made quota for this quarter.However, in the case that he might not make quota inthe next quarter, he may decide to hold a sale in Feb -ruary and try to convert it in the next quarter. Nowthe consequence of holding o a sale in a compe -

ve environment would be that the customer wouldbe lost to compe on before the next quarter whichis ul mately a loss to the rm. So all incen ve basedschemes including quotas face two compe ng incen -

ves. On the posi ve side they generate goals andmo vate employees to meet them in the absenceof monitoring. On the nega ve side, they generategaming by the sales agents. So the op mal plan hasto balance both these nega ve and posi ve incen -

ves against economic factors. Now if the quota isbadly designed, the nega vity associated with thegaming could badly overwhelm the posi vity associ -ated with improved incen ves. In which case I canget rid of the quotas and give commission on everydollar of increment you bring in and be be er o . Awell designed incen ve system is a thing of beauty. Itrequires clear thinking, measurement and iden fyingthe kind of people you have in your team, as well asyour customers and your selling system.Markathon: According to you, what’s the biggest

Psychology Pricing


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IIM Shillong15 MARKATHON

vartalaap july 2014

obstacle to e ec ve content marke ng? How canrms make their adver sements on social media

more e ec ve and not seen as a hindrance?

I think the major hindrance in this regard is the prolif -era on of the content and also the fact that consum -ers are extremely me constrained. The prolifera onof content means that there is so much content outthere that it becomes extremely hard to understandwhich content works for which set of consumers. Soit’s not a very vast market out t here but rather a nichemarket and each individual can be thoug ht of havinghis own tastes and preferences. So in the old daysI had 4-5 di erent content op ons but now I havethousands. So there is a very big role for research tounderstand what content works for what audience.The second problem is that most consumers are con -nected to several devices like mobiles, laptops, tab -lets, TV etc. For the digitally connected consumer,pa ence is very limited for any content that is irk -some or considered a nuisance and to ignore that isjust one click or scroll away. So it i s very easy to losethe a en on of the consumers today which is com -pounded by all these issues. Content engineering isextremely important in today’s mes. On the ipside,there is a revolu on in measurability and data collec -

on of consumer targe ng today thanks to internetand access to a lot of consumers. So there are be ertools to enable content engineers today though theyhave to be u lized e ec vely.

There are 2 types of content a ributes that marketerstypically deal with. The rst is the search/informa vea ribute where there is a lot of data or informa on

provided to the users e.g. x amount of calories in thisdrink. However, there is another type of a ributewhich is the emo onal/persuasive a ribute whichdeals with consumer sen ments e.g. it’s a nice day todrive Ford today which is more like a conversa on. Soyou can have various such emo onal a ributes en -coded into these posts. And surprisingly for us mar -keters, the data from these posts has shown muchhigher levels of consumer engagement. So content,especially on social media needs to be encoded withmore of emo onal and persuasive elements ratherthan informa on dissemina on.

Markathon: Any advice you would like to give to the

readers of our magazine?

I would say that marke ng is becoming very quan -ta ve and there is a lot of data. It just seems that

the whole of nance went into a quan ta ve revolu -on in the late eigh es, when quan ta vely trained

individuals went to Wall Street and that was the be -ginning of the Structured Finance. The same kind ofrevolu on is happening in marke ng now. But thereseems to be a shortage of quan ta vely orientedindividuals who can solve business problems. So ifyou are looking for a future and you have access toa University, try to become quan ta vely savvy andthat will be a huge asset going forward. However, therole of managerial intui on and qualita ve aspect ofmarke ng will con nue to play a huge role. Quan ta -

ve tools and data and managerial intui on are notsubs tutes for one another. Rather they complementeach other


eye2eye december 2013

Flipkart’s move into fashion is a fauxpas. Agree or disagree?

Topic for the next issue: “ Big Data is the next big thing in Marketing.Agree/Disagree? ” Your opinion (view/ counterview) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is 26th July , 2014. Include your

picture (JPEG format) with the entry. Winners will receive a prize money of Rs. 500 each!

Giri Mallika Boradelhi school of mgmt

Flipkarts move into fashion hasmany strategic implica ons. Its lineof acquisi ons including Myntrafor Rs 2000 crores ll date speaks of the role of inorganicgrowth in its $1 Billion market valua on. Indian e-tail mar -ket is routed to see 100 million buyers, with sales nearing$40 billion by 201 8. The Flipkart-Myntra combined en tyalready holds 50% of the Indian market share and is likely

to capture 70% in the next two years.The other mo ve behind this move can be traced to ght -ing out AMAZON’S invasion of the Indian Market. In lessthan a year, Amazon has built a strong supply base ofaround 5000 number of sellers with 15 million productssold across 25 categories. Hence Flipkarts move into fash -ion arena has enriched the variety in its Product O erings.Governmental regulatory compliances – 51% FDI in Mul -Brand Retail encourages B2B interac ons. To realize B2Bopera ons, Flipkart plans to Tap 50,000 SMEs with FISMEand NCDPD Industry Body Tie-Ups. With the aid Of FDI itcan de nitely scale its opera ons to a global market.Now the global market of apparel industry can be ana -lyzed on the basis of the following aspects:1.Indian Apparel Exports – nearly accounts for $17 Billion.The market forecasts a boom period for the Indian Appar -el Manufacturers in the next two years for huge business.2.Global Apparel Retail E-Commerce - Online apparel isthe fastest-growing e-commerce category in North Ameri -ca and Europe. By 2 016, the apparel-and-accessories sec -tor will account for $73 billion worth of online purchasesin the United States alone.3.Intersec on of both the above cited aspects which cangive us a glimpse of the capability of Flipkart to tap globalmarket for revenue genera on.Even at home, Flipkart need not worry about the internetpenetra on in India, for with falling handset prices andgrowing data subscribers, India is likely to grow by 25%each year to reach a mark of 519 million mobile internetusers by 2018. The discount based method to a ract cus -tomers can be its only concern but with the scale of op -era ons in the global market, it can be compensated. Inthe face of all these thoughts, Flipkart can de nitely beop mis c about its move into fashion.

neha ladhaiim shillong

Last year the size of the Indian e tail -ing market was 15 billion dollars andobserving the growth this industry

is seeing, expert’s state that it will be a 76 billion USD in -dustry by 2021 in India. The point lies within the fact thatthough the industry shows promising growth in the up -coming years, is it wise to invest or venture in to newerproduct lines as the number of compe tors increases. In -

dian e tailing was a compara vely small industry in theprimi ve years and over its evolu on cycle it has grownin scale and intensity. Interna onal players and giants likee-bay and Amazon have now entered this market.Analyzing the situa on further it seems like Flipkart is

ring in every direc on possible unaware of the conse -quences or outcomes. The disclosure of the deal withMyntra comes few days a er Amazon’s entry in to theIndian market. Amazon declared its famous one day de -livery op on soon a er its entry in to the Indian market,Flipkart went ahead and declared a similar model 5 dayslater. This shows that Flipkart has not been able to foreseewhat they are going to stand against. Though they havedeclared the one day delivery system, Flipkart is s ll fac -ing trouble progressing on the lines of a third party logis -

cs partner, which it has been trying to venture in to inthe past some me.Such unrest inside the company at such intense mes maycause the company to drive itself in to an embarrassingsitua on where lack of management and proper planningputs the company in bad light. With its venture in to Fash -ion, its primary focus should be on developing this seg -ment but the company con nues to state that its prioritywill remain in the cell phone market. It can be observedthat Flipkart is balancing itself on a very thin line and ifanything goes wrong Flipkart is in for a toss.

eye2eye july 2014


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Congratula ons!!! Vivek receives a cash prize of Rs 1000!

silent voice december 2013silent voice july 2014

T h eme: G ame

of T h r ones

Last month’s resultsWINNERhardik shah | iim shillong

THEME FOR NEXT SILENT VOICE: Team Brazil (FIFA World Cup)LAST DATE OF SENDING THE PRINT AD: 26th July, 2014

EMAIL ID: [email protected] your entry in JPEG format named as SilentVoice__only.

honorary mentionrishabh | Imi delhi

CATCHRMISS

AD-dicted december 2013


BY swati pamnaniIIM Shillong

PRODUCT: Alpenliebe Pop Lollipop

POSITIONING:An -boring

CREATIVE AGENCY:Ogilvy & Mather

YouTube Link:h t t p : / / w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m /watch?v=8dioiQmmSk0

CONCEPT:

Alpenliebe Pop LollipopTVC opens with a young girl

memorizing historical dates rela ng to Mughal emper -ors. She gets shocked as three men dressed in Mughal

nery suddenly appear in front of her. They introducethemselves as Babar, Akbar and Humayun. Babar asksher if the chapters on their lives bore her, petri edseeing this, she rst nods in approval and then in dis -approval. Babar then says no one can change history,and gives her an Alpenliebe Lollipop that will help herendure history boredom and the other men ask for herforgiveness. The lm concludes with a voice over saying‘Alpenliebe Pop- An Boring’. Then the girl at last asks ifthey are on Facebook to which Babar replies that theyare only in textbooks.

VERDICT: Miss

Showcasing a lollipop as an an dote to boredom relatedto history is di cult to take up. It can be agreed by look -ing at the age of the protagonist that the lm is targetedlargely to the youth, but the concept does not go wellwith the segmenta on. Also, assuming that memoriz -ing dates or history is boring for many is a far-fetchedthought. Bringing in historical characters into real lifeand their apologies, no doubt added humor to the lm,but failed to build up an insight that the youth can relateto.

BY yash bhambhwaniIIM Shillong

PRODUCT: Asian Paints

POSITIONING:Feel at home

CREATIVE AGENCY:Ogilvy & Mather YouTube Link:h t t p : / / w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m /watch?v=EoPqXi02Ztc&hd=1#! CONCEPT:

“Har ghar kuch kehta hai” is a quote that is on every Indi -ans mind. Why you would ask? It ’s because the brand hasposi oned itself as a brand that every Indian associateswith, no ma er what your economic status is you musthave used a product of Asian Paints at home. Asian Paintsis known for coming up with a mix of wi y and emo onalads. This me we take up an emo onal ad that tells youwhat Asian Paints is exactly up to. The ad portrays a girl,walking in to the house of her future husband who is amilitary o cer, who is a civilian. She is a girl with free spir -it that is portrayed through her personality which is a tadbit di erent from her future husband. The husband keepsevery part of the house in complete order and in plain co -lours that are dull and do not match the personality of thegirl. The moment she enters the bedroom there is a dras -

c change and everything inside resembles her home. VERDICT:Catch

Asian Paints has tried to capture the emo ons of millionsby portraying how someone can take care of their beloveddaughters by the use of Asian Paints. The concern of aleaving daughter is something that bothers every parentand an adver sement like this puts Asian Paints in a goodlight. With an audience consis ng of Indians who are driv -en strongly by emo ons, this ad is sure to capture signi -cant sales. Markathon’s take on this ad is that it’s a CATCH.

AD-dicted july 2014


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ishtihaar july 2014

RAMANATHAN K | IIM Shillong

Marke ng ResponsiblyIndia, in the case of many indices related to gender, is atpar with or worse than, some of the least developed na -

ons in the world. Post the 2012 Nirbhaya incident in Del -hi, India has become more open to discuss and act aboutgender equality and women empowerment. It is encour -aging to see some corporate houses are already doingtheir part in achieving this collec ve goal. Now that the 2percent of the three year average PAT should be spent onCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR), it is expected thateven more and more companies would focus on issues re -lated to women.That being said, coming to the marke ng front, certaincompanies have gone a step ahead and used this trendto posi on their products and especially their campaignsin theme of women empowerment. This socially relevantposi oning not only puts forth their opinion sternly butalso ensures that they catch hold of the current trend inthe market thus fuelling their business.Havells- Respect WomenHavells in its latest campaigns, posi ons its range of do -mes c appliances as gender-neutral products by humor -ously targe ng those men who think that householdchores are meant for women alone. The beauty of suchposi oning is that it bears both the func onality as wellas a point of view. What this also does well is that it o ersthe company a clear di eren a on in a largely undi eren -

ated category of products.Idea Cellular – No Ullu BananaThe campaign builds on a simple cultural insight that inIndia, people easily fall prey because their ignorance.

Even though it was aimed at both men and women, itwas clearly evident that their strong focus was more onwomen and how empowered they have become because

of internet.Both these examples beau fully portray how companiesare formula ng their businesses to create value for boththemselves and other stakeholders par cularly in thetheme of women empowerment. Now if these companiesinvest in the area of women empowerment under CSR, itseamlessly ts their values and helps in achieving a great -er relevance with the stakeholders.Women empowerment is one among many such growingconcern in India which needs to be addressed seriously.This new mandatory CSR spending in India can be lookedat a completely di erent angle given the power of sociallyrelevant posi oning. Rather than simply suppor ng exter -nal programs, companies can themselves become a forcefor posi ve social change and at the same me createvalue for their organisa on. The CSR commi ee and themarke ng team should come together to discuss, collabo -rate, explore and engage their societal and cultural rel -evance and aim to create a shared value in their approachtowards societal concerns. A er all can’t marketers be so -cially responsible?P.S You got to check out the latest P&G’s campaign – LikeA Girl!

IshtihaarCurious Case of the New Coke

There’s nothing New about Coke


jab they failed july 2014

Jab They Failed

b ushashree | IIM Shillong

One of the profound Brand failures marketers can learnfrom is the “Curious Case of the New Coke”. In April 1985,Coca-Cola did away with its original coke and came upwith a newer, sweeter version nick-named the New Coke.This wasn’t an arbitrary decision for the Cola Giant. Thenew coke had undergone a series of blind taste tests be -fore it was nalized. However, understanding the context

behind this historic move is important. How could Coca-Cola which had been the pioneer in the cola market byposi oning its drink – Coke as the “real thing” change thetaste so abruptly?In 1985, The Coca-Cola Company’s share lead over its chiefcompe tor Pepsi had been slowly slipping for 15 consecu -

ve years. The reasons for this were many-fold - the colamarket itself was largely lethargic. Pepsi had came outwith a rigorous campaign posi oning its cola as the drinkfor youth and to Coca-Cola’s horror, consumer preferencefor Coca-Cola had been dipping. Moreover the marketshare of Coke was being eaten up by Coca-Cola’s otherdrinks such as Fanta and especially, Diet Coke which wasmore closer to Pepsi Cola in taste. In 1983, the year DietCoke moved into the number three posi on behind stan -dard Coke and Pepsi, Coke’s market share had slipped toan all- me low of just under 24 per cent. The then chair -man and chief execu ve o cer Roberto Goizueta startedworrying that Coke was losing relevance in the Cola mar -ket. That changed, however, in the summer of 1985 as theconsumer outcry over “new Coke” was replaced by con -sumer a ec on for Coca-Cola classic.

Why disturb the original Coke:Coca-Cola felt that the problem lay in the product itselfand conducted several surveys to prove it. They foundthat majority of the people preferred the sweeter tasteof Pepsi cola. So in what must have been seen as a logi -cal step, Coca-Cola started working on a new formula. Ayear later they had arrived at New Coke. A er produc -

ing its new formula, Coca-Cola conducted 200,000 blindtaste tests to see the consumer response. The resultswere overwhelming – not only did it taste be er thanthe original coke, but people preferred it to Pepsi-Cola aswell. Since Coca-Cola couldn’t have two directly compet -ing products on the shelves at the same me, it decidedto scrap the original Coca-Cola and introduced New Cokein the market.The consumer response was something the company wassimply not prepared for! People were distressed withthe company’s decision to abandon the Original Coke. ByJune 1985, Coca-Cola was ge ng 1,500 calls a day, com -pared with 400 calls a day before the taste change. Peopleseemed to hold any Coca-Cola employee who worked forCoke — personally responsible for the change. Finally, af -ter the huge consumer outcry and dismal sales of NewCoke, Coca-Cola had no choice to bring back its original.This move saw an instant surge in the sales of the OriginalCoke which was soon back to its number one spot.Lessons for marketers:While New Coke is considered by many as the biggestbrand failure ll date, in hindsight, it was a wakeup call

for the Cola giant and is a lesson for all marketers. CouldCoca-Cola have avoided this? Maybe yes, if they had donethe right market research. Their researchers conductedseveral blind taste tests but failed to make the connec -

on that their brand preferences would s ll exist once theproduct was launched. However logical and compelling itmay seem to clone your rivals, a marketer must not forgetthe power of brand percep ons. Coca-Cola became tooobsessed with the product to see the emo onal a ach -ment that people had with their brand. Finally, the biggestlesson to learn here is the fact that Coca-Cola didn’t shyaway from rever ng back to the original and admi ng itsmistake. This registered with the people who embracedthe Original Coke again and the rest as we know it, is his -tory!


13/15

Honda launches Mobilio Ad with Kapil In an altogether di erent move from industry peers, Honda has roped in Kapil Sharma for its adver sementsof its latest o ering Mobilio. The resounding success Kapil has had in the last two years made Honda pick him.

IIM Shillong21KATHON

updates december 2013updates july 2014

Brand Launch

Amul wins World Dairy Innovation Award 2014

India’s Amul has won the World Dairy Innova on Award-2014 for the best market -ing campaign for its “Eat Milk with Every Meal” campaign. The nalists and winnersin the World Dairy Innova on Awards 2014 were announced on June 17 at the 8thGlobal Dairy Congress in Istanbul, Turkey. According to the Global Dairy Congress,the judging panel considered almost 160 entries from 30 countries in 17 categories.R.S.Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF said that expansion, innova on and brandbuilding are the three pillars of Amul’s strategy to achieve the growth. We are gladthat our e orts are being recognised at the global level.

By Amit SonwaniIIM Shillong

Brand Watch

Flipkart asks senior executives to do delivery

A er asking its top management to a end customer calls, Flipkart has onceagain asked its top management to engage in customer facing ac vity ofdelivery of the products. As the industry has grown in size from $1 billiona year ago to over $2.3 billion this year, all the top online retailers havebeen ba ling rising customer complaints. By making this compulsory withleaders, we are trying to drive the whole ‘customer rst’ message withinthe organisa on. This move by Flipkart has come a er the peers from theindustry like Jabong and Myntra who have already applied similar steps.

Google to partner with Indian players for low cost smartphones

Google will e up with local Indian handset makers Micromax, Kar -bonn and Spice to launch smartphones under $100 (Rs 6,000)on the company’s just announced Android One ini a ve, whichwill become available between September and end of the year.India will be the rst country where these devices will be launched, be -fore going global, intensifying compe on in the already crowded seg -ment of the market. Google also said that it was working with Indi -an carriers to o er a ordable data packs to go with the smartphone.

Flipkart unveils its own brand of Tablets

Online retailer Flipkart launched its own brand of tablet devices in the lastweek of June. The tablet is being unveiled under the company’s in-houseelectronics and accessories brand Digi ip. Called Digi ip Pro XT712, the tab -let will be the rst of many models that Flipkart will launch, the companyannounced today. The XT712 is priced at Rs 9,999 and is available in blackand white variants. The seven-inch tablet’s features include 1280 x 800 pixelhigh-de ni on resolu on with IPS display, 1.3GHz Quad Core Cortex A7 pro -cessor, 1GB DDR3 RAM, dual SIM 3G calling and weighs about 285 grams.


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Amazon makes entry to smartphone market As expected, Amazon on Wednesday entered smartphone market with FirePhone, a device that has a 4.7-inch screen. While in terms of speci ca ons FirePhone looks similar to a high-end Android phone, Amazon has u lized its strengthas an e-retailer to equip the device with a few extra features. Fire sports a screenwith HD resolu on. It has a 2.2GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 13 megapixel camerawith op cal image stabilisa on, a dedicated camera bu on, and stereo speakers.

Apple launches cheapest iMac at Rs 79,900

Apple has launched a cheaper iMac, aimed at boos ng sales as tablets eat up themarket share. The new model has a slower processor, lesser storage space andlower-end graphics, but is Rs 13,000 cheaper than the current iMacs. The newiMac has a 21.5-inch Full HD screen with dual-core 1.4GHz Intel i5 processor,8GB RAM, 500GB hard disk and Intel HD Graphics 5000 as standard con gura -

on, priced at Rs 79,900 in India (US pricing is $1099). Buyers can also choose1TB SATA, 1TB Fusion Drive or 256SSD storage op ons, which raise the price.

Dalmia Cement awards creative mandate to Bates CHI&Partners

Dalmia Cement has awarded the crea ve mandate to Bates CHI&Partners af -ter it invited a mul -agency pitch which included DDB Mudra along with a lo -cal agency. The cement manufacturer has plans to enter markets beyond east -ern India, where it has already made strong footprints. Dalmia Cement hasestablished itself across south and east India through a por olio of regionalbrands. It is known for its super specialty cements used for airstrips, oil wellsand railway sleepers. Bates CHI&Partners is a network start-up that was formedin December, 2012 bringing together Bates - an Asian agency with 14 o cesin nine countries across Asia - and CHI, an independent agency from the UK.

M-Seal plugs the leak The Pidilite Industries-owned M Seal is running an ac va on in the under-priv -

ileged areas of Mumbai to promote the use of M Seal to prevent roofs fromleaking during the forthcoming monsoon. The ac va on is being carried out inslums of Dharavi, Bhandup, Kalina and Thane. The M Seal team shows easy ‘Do-it-Yourself’ methods by conduc ng live demonstra on at various key points. Thepurpose of the ini a ve is to create awareness amongst slum dwellers aboutcost e ec ve and a ordable solu ons to manage water leakages at home.

Ad Watch


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Big Bazaar- Making India beautiful

Big Bazaar has tried to break away from its posi oning of ‘Isse sasta aur acchcha aur kahaan’ through the new ‘Beau -ful ban raha hai India’ campaign during the past two months. The ad in discussion shows the cultural shi Big Bazaarhas brought about where a Dadi is looking for hot pants for her granddaughter and is not sa s ed un l it is hot enough.

Youtube link: h ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuXU989B2p8

Articles Are invited“Best Ar cle”: Allu Reshma | Vignesh Kannan P| IMT Ghaziabad

They receive a cash prize of Rs.1000 & a le er of apprecia on

We are invi ng ar cles from all the B-schools of India. The ar cles can be absolutely any -thing related to the world of marke ng but it should be an original work that is not pub -lished elsewhere. The ar cles can be speci c to the regular sec ons of Markathon which

includes:•Perspec ve: Ar cles related to development of latest trends in marke ng arena.•Productolysis: Analysis of a product from the point of view of marke ng.•Strategic Analysis: A complete analysis of marke ng strategy of any company or an event.Apart from above, out of the box views related to marke ng are also welcome. The best en -try will receive a le er of apprecia on and a cash prize of Rs 1000/-. The format of the le

should be MS Word doc/docx.

The last date of receiving all entries is 26th July, 2014. Please send your entries marked as__ to [email protected].

The ad is just like a typical comic piece from Kapil pitching to a customer forthe car as well as himself. The cars features are highlighted through dialoguesbut too much a en on has been given to Kapil and the car is hardly vis -ible. One must say that Honda got the ingredients right but the recipe wrong.

Youtube link: h ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jpLOO8SRM0

Fortune Ghar ka khana Advertisement

This four minute clip from Piyush Pandey strikes just the right chord youwant an ad to do. Describing a grandmothers fu le a empts again and againto get her injured grandson to have the ‘Dal’ prepared by her and being con -stantly denied to do so by the nurse from the hospital, the ad ends with Dadiwinning over the nurse by making her eat the Dal and a feeling of joy on thefaces of grandson and grandmother e ec vely drives home the message“Ghar ka khana, ghar ka khana hota hai”. No reason for this ad to not go viral.


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FIFA 2014 WORLD CUPMARKETING CAMPAIGNS

Real-Time Marketing is Good,But Right-Time Marketing is Better

markathon july 2014

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