Markathon_May-June 2015

ence to how the real marketing is different or similar to theoretical marketing. We believe you will indeed benefit from the wise words of the marketing guru.Always high on entertainment, this month’s “Fun Corner” will nudge your grey cells as you sit back to solve the Sher-lock Quiz. Also, know more about Federal Express aka Fe-dEx in “Brand Story”.This being a special May-June edition, we have included summer internship experiences in the marketing domain, by IIM Shillong students.Team Markathon congratulates the winners and all the participants.With so many exciting stuffs lined up for you, flip through the pages of this special Internship Edition of Markathon and let us know your comments and feedback by writ-ing to [email protected]. We thank you for the constant support you all have given and hope to continue receiving the same. Wishing you a very prosperous new year ahead.

Happy Reading!Team Markathon

Summer has passed away and monsoon has set its foot in the country. Amidst rain, rainbow and awesome weather we bring to you the Special Internship Edition of Mar-kathon.We would like to start off by heartily thanking all the contributors for Markathon. The overwhelming number of entries that we have received for this month’s edition show how Markathon has developed as a platform to showcase the best minds in the marketing domain. Let us take a glance of what all has already happened this year and events we are going to encounter in the near future. Last month and the beginning of June created a lot of stir as Nestle got embroiled in the lead controversy for one of its most well known brand Maggi. Nestle is now planning to launch a new product in the ready-to-eat or redy-to-cook segment, to revamp the brand image. In an-other controversy, Kalyan jewellers was blamed for a rac-ist ad campaign feturing Aishwarya Rai Bachchan with a malnourished dark skinned child. Soon, Kalyan Jewellers pulled down the ad. Among the efforts by Mahindra to re-launch some of its brands, it launched the new face of XUV 500 in the end of May. In this month’s cover story, ‘More CSR, More Profit - Stra-tegic Marketing” compiles the CSR efforts made by com-panies, how it plays a major role in the companies’ mar-keting efforts leading to a stronger brand perception. In the Vartalaap section, we have for you an interaction with Professor S. Ramesh Kumar, Marketing Professor at IIM Bangalore who will be sharing with us his experience on the field of marketing and academics with special refer-

Markathon

Contents

Editors Cheena Pasrija | Gautam Gopal |

Mohammad Fahd | Sumit Bedi | Vinay Jain

Creative Designers

Ansul Jindal | Kasturi Guha Thakurta |

Sagar Riaz

The Markathon Team

IIM ShillongMARKATHON

Markathon may-june 2015

ContentsPerspectivesAdWords Revolution, The Changing Ways ofOnline AdsSiji Elza George | T. A. Pai Management Institute

Customer Relationship Management: The New Arena?Vishal Balasaheb Bhandare | BITS Pilani, Pilani

More CSR, More Profit - Strategic MarketingGautam Gopal | IIM Shillong

VartalaapProfessor S. Ramesh KumarMarketing Professor| IIM Bangalore

Eye 2 EyeCash Back offers by sites like Paytm and other wallet companies, a Good or Bad strategy?Ravi Kumar Singh| IIM Kozhikode & Tejashwi Kumar | IIM Shillong

Silent VoiceAnushka Sharma, the reason behind Team India’s loss at World Cup 2015Rangavardhan Reddy | IMT Ghaziabad

Specials

AD-dictedAnsul Jindal & Kasturi Guha Thakurta | IIM Shillong

Brand StorySumit Bedi| IIM Shillong

Fun CornerSagar Riaz | IIM Shillong

IshtihaarGautam Gopal | IIM Shillong

Jab They FailedVinay Jain | IIM Shillong

Radical ThoughtsMohammed Fahd | IIM Shillong

UpdatesCheena Pasrija | IIM Shillong

Internship Fundas

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IIM Shillong1MARKATHON

Have you seen the ads popping up whenever you go to a site or when you access some app on your mobile? It is hard not to get irritated, especially when the ads displayed are irrelevant to the application we are using. But still some ads do catch our attention once in a while and we click those links.Let us see how these ads work and how we as custom-ers are enticed to click on the links provided. All these advertisements whether in mobile application, in search results or in a website that you have opened, it is pos-sible through AdWords. It is amazing to see that how the companies have used AdWords to leverage on the whole advertising market which is slowly reaching its maturity. What is this AdWords buzz all about? It is online adver-tising service by Google so that the companies can earn revenues as well as make their brand more visible. According to Internet Live Stats, the number of internet users increased at a rate of 7.9% and penetration in-creased by 40.4% in 2014. Companies can earn revenue by allowing other sites to display advertisements in their sites. Eg. Jabong adver-tisement gets displayed in some website that you have opened. It can increase visibility by putting their adver-tisement in the top search results or by displaying it in other related sites. Today, the companies are using it largely to gain a competitive edge over others in the mar-ket and to attract maximum traffic to their site. To make a marketer’s life easy, Google released both paid and organic (non-paid) advertisement. One can make their website appear in the top ten search results by sim-ply making the content rich in the keywords search by consumer. This is the basic concept of Search Engine Op-

By Siji Elza George

T.A.Pai Management Institute, Manipal

may-june 2015

AdWords Revolution

The Changing Ways of Online Ads

perspective


may-june 2015perspective

timization. Now how to know what keywords are relevant and which not? One can use webmaster, to see which contents in the website may be causing the problem. These mistakes will be listed for correction and suggestions are provided to enhance the visibility of site. Now if marketing manager wants to know how and where to market their product, the insight tool will help them to arrive at a very decisive option. These are all organic tools which does not incur any expenses to the company. Though if used at its best, can help you gain visibility without making a hole in your pocket. The companies which have enough revenues to invest in mar-keting can use AdWords to place ads in places where the com-pany wants. But the cost alone is not the factor which rides the position of ads in search engine results. The keywords used should be content rich such that the consumers are attracted to it. So here we encounter a disadvantage of the AdWords that even if there is a company which has invested more but has less content-rich data, then there is a chance that it will appear lower in the search results. For the beginners, Google provides AdWords Express. In this, Google will decide on the amount for pay per click. One can update the amount, if required. Now there are some points that have to be kept in mind while publishing the advertise-ments:

1. Less is more: The concept explains that more and more people are getting attracted towards ads which has less but attractive data. The data/keywords which appeals to custom-ers are likely to bring more customers to your brand. Accord-ing to researchers, our brain appreciates simplicity. We can remember simpler ads more than those which are overloaded with information. Example: Nike advertisement with the “Just do it” quote.

Internet User in world from 1993-2014. Source: Internet Live Stats


may-june 2015perspective

This has already been used by many of the known brands like Apple, Google etc. Other companies still need to tap into this huge potential segment. It is time that market-ers also leverage on this technique which is creating waves in the market in recent times.

2. Related Ads - It is recommended that advertisements should be placed in website/mobile applications related to the product. One should use the insight tool provided by google to look at the browsing patterns of the poten-tial and existing customers. This will give a fair idea of the way customers browse for particular product seg-ment. The website which have more traffic is normally used to display ads of companies.

3. Content-rich - The content in the website should be rich in relevant data which will help the website to be listed on the search results. The keywords should be tested using webmaster to see which of the keywords are making higher impact. This doesn’t mean that the advertisements should be bombarded with all the in-formations felt relevant by the marketing manager. It should viewed from the eyes of the customer to see

which keywords can bring the maximum traffic to the site.

4. Mobile applications advertisements - The font and images in mobile applications advertisements are barely visible to the customer. Thus, it doesn’t materialize into the much needed impact. The pop-up windows which disrupt the application functionalities and decreases customer involvement should be discouraged. There are also instances when the customer clicks on an advertise-ment, it takes ages to load which again creates lesser engagement. Instead, the company can place its adver-tisements in such a manner that there is no need to be redirected to other pages or the pages are made simple enough to load faster.

The total number of mobile internet users in India is ex-pected to reach 213 million by June 2015, according to the report by ET. With the country moving towards larg-er screen mobiles, the mobile advertisements are going to be a bigger investment for the companies. The com-panies should pay more attention to this new platform for more visibility of their brands. It is imperative for companies to realize the need for mar-keting with the use of AdWords. It is creating a platform for companies which it never had before. The compa-nies should try to make the best use of these techniques to benefit the company at large. There is need for the companies to buckle up and have a dedicated marketing strategy to deal with this new emerging technology.


Ohhh…I think, nowadays we are very much familiar to such statements of companies. Companies have long de-sired to establish connections with new customers; retain them and develop long-running relationships. Databases allow companies to track customers buying activities and use it for making strategies. Customer relationship man-agement is a systematicapproach and it means that all departments and employ-ees in the organization take on a customer-centric role, not just marketing professionals.But, the most interesting thing in this whole scenario is that number of times it has been seen that the promise of CRM cannot be found at many of the addresses that make up the consumer world in which we live. Nowadays, it is a well-known fact that the effectiveness of CRM is mea-

By Vishal Balasaheb Bhandare

BITS Pilani, Pilani

may-june 2015

Customer Relationship Management

The New Arena?

perspective

sured through the eyes of the customer and efficiency is measured through the eyes of the company. But, what about the huge amount of money which is being spent in these efforts? CRM costs money. It is the cost of the re-training of the employees, hiring and contin-ual education of technology groups within companies and the eventual re-engineering of the processes that customers and employees use during the service deliv-ery experience. For all these things, somebody has to pay and in the end, it is none other than the customer.Many people believe that CRM technology can solve any problem, but technology cannot do it alone. Com-panies purchase technology with the idea that the in-vestment in hardware and software will allow them to achieve success. But, generally they forget that tech-

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” - Jeff Bezos

“


may-june 2015 perspective

nology requires people to interact with it, to even begin to work. Another important point is, at any point in the business, no matter how well intentioned the company or how proficient their process is, the company will not meet the rising expectations of customers. Consumer satisfaction is simply not increasing at the rate promised by the CRM revolution. CRM raises the bar, and once it is raised, the consumer raises it again. Customer behavior is very dynamic, requiring a business to approach it with a dynamic solution. I truly feel that forcing standards and poli-cies on weak organizations do not provide long-term success. Hence, generally the implemen-tation of ineffective solutions leads both to employee disen-gagement and greater consum-er dissatisfaction. I think, everyone is agreeing on the point that the promise of CRM technology cannot be achieved simply by installing the technology. That’s why, the addition of technology to the contact agent’s workplace without an understanding of how the technology will improve their interaction with customers is the cause of many CRM implementation failures. Moreover, many CRM implementations do not provide enough training on the use of technology and practice with using the technology before letting agents use the new technol-ogy to deal with live customers. Many a time, it has been shown thatCRM technology, when poorly practiced may lead to poorer customer relationships than those that existed before the implementation.In real life, exciting and compelling products, and good services will always win over any compelling CRM strate-gy. Generally, there is a vicious circle of expectations that

is raised in a company with the investment and imple-mentation in CRM. The corporate bodies are invariably led to believe that the CRM implementation will directly solve problems, reduce returns, increase purchase fre-quency or loyalty and lead to greater customer satisfac-tion. But, this is not true and it creates some very unrea-sonable expectations within the company that may lead to the large failure rate of CRM implementation. Hence in reality, many companies who implement extensive and

expensive CRM programs and technology; leave out parts of the organization that are not directly relat-ed.In short, CRM is not new to business and compa-nies that are successful in the long term have always seen the need to stay in touch with their most valu-able resource, the cus-tomer. But, after overall analysis, we can say that

the CRM vision can be achieved by companies that realize that CRM technology will never replace cost and inven-tory control, managerial leadership and strategic price management. It will never eliminate the need for dedi-cated, talented, motivated, and effective people on the front lines of business.Hence, if companies want to win hearts of people and if they really want to build loyal customers segment, then I think, CRM should exist in partnership with all the strat-egies, tactics, operations, and elements that define the company.


cover story may-june 2015

Cover StoryBy

Gautam GopalIIM Shillong

MARKETINGBUDGET

With the inception of the New Company Act 2013 under the section 135 it has been made mandatory for companies with Annual turnover of INR 1000 Cr or more, net worth of the company being INR 500 Cr or more or the company making an annual profit of INR 5 Cr or more, to contribute minimum of 2% of the average profit of last 3 years into the corporate social responsibility (CSR).Is that all a company needs to do?There are almost 2000 companies which do the CSR activities in India. There are several ways how a company can do the CSR ac-tivities : a. In-house CSR activities – CSR activities are carried out by the em-ployees themselves. In this kind of CSR the employees are trained to deliver the CSR activities i.e. teaching youth., taking care of the orphanage, old homes etc.b. Grants to Government/ NGOs- The government has several schemes and projects where the company can contribute for the government projects and schemes or the corporates can tie up with NGOs to do the philanthropic work with them.c. Not for the profit arm of the company –Through non-profit arm, two or more companies of the group can pool their resources to-gether to do the CSR by making a trust or board. As per the new company act 2013, it is mandatory for a company to create a CSR committee, which should comprise of 3 director, one of who should be an independent to the board of directors of

“Strategic Marketing: More

CSR, More Profit”

the company. This committee plans the CSR policies of the company, and the activities related to these policies with a proper monitoring mechanism. In or-der to keep having a feedback of the implementation of the policy and at the end of the year they have to prepare a proper CSR report stating their activi-ties which has to be in lines with the government laid laws.So it is a very simple process, wherein a company has to donate a part of its profit to a noble cause. What is the role marketing in it? The company can choose any medium to spend the requisite amount, why

should they have a CSR strategy at all?When we talk of a CSR activity the minimum contri-bution which we are talking of a company is 2% of 5Cr which makes it INR 10 lacs. This can go up high in crores for the corporate behemoths. The company’s management has the main agenda to use their re-sources to the best of possibilities and when they are spending such a huge amount they’ll want to have as much profit as possible. There are huge intangi-ble benefits for the company associated with it. The fund is used to serve the society and environment in which the company exists. It is very important with respect to the company’s sustainability model. Nevertheless, there are a lot of tangible benefits as-sociated with CSR. The kind of reputation which a company creates, defines the credibility of the com-pany and the product it sells. This gives the company a good platform to speak about its product aloud and maintain its reputation by connecting to society through philanthropy. In the course of such activities even the company’s sustainability improves. To maxi-mise the profit even further the company can choose to invest its money in further brand strengthening through CSR activities. Various companies use different promotional meth-odologies for their CSR campaign and in return get their brand promoted. On the other hand, they also take help of almost all media to reach to the society with their campaigns and in this process they build their brand image in the society they belong to.Companies are adopting different ways to do the CSR activities and some of them stand apart from the usual route. “Spark the rise “campaign, a com-petition started by Mahindra and Mahindra, where they are trying to build disruptive innovation. For this campaign they envisaged huge youth support and they went on to spend around $ 1 million since its in-



ception in 2011. The various social media campaign which they did, in order to increase their reach, has been amazing. They managed to get their hands on all forms of media be it print media, social media or the TV advertisements. The more the outreach the better it is for the company. In this way they are trying to set up the precedence for upcoming com-panies and trying to make easy inroads into societal and environmental consumerism. Through this campaign Mahindra group is serving the prime motive of working for the society which is one of the utmost priorities of the company. On the other hand, with the help of this campaign Ma-hindra managed to make a mark among the youth. The company calls eminent personalities as judges of the competition. Also the young and bright Indi-ans get an opportunity to meet the eminent per-sonalities which also increases the PR value of the company. The various social media campaigns by the company has captured lot of eyeballs and have managed to raise the number of “likes” to, in excess of 6000 on Facebook. Hence, in a way, they have managed to build good number of potential cus-tomers while serving the society simultaneously. Vodafone’s #Selfies4School

The campaign aims at sending 25,000 girls to school. Ac-cording to the cam-paign, with the up-load of every selfie, Vodafone will send 10 girls to school. The campaign is very innovative which targets at one of the major so-cial issues India has been facing for long - low women litera-

cy rate. Through this campaign, Vodafone is target-ing to educate 25,000 girls and hence making a step towards the good cause. The direct benefit the com-pany is as per the Company Act 2013 for CSR. The indirect benefit which the company is gaining is that it is trying to promote the selfie culture which is a direct mobile application. It also requires the selfie to be uploaded on their sites, this requires internet which is one of the services provided to the custom-ers by Vodafone itself. Through this campaign, Vo-

dafone aligned its thought to a lot of people by giving them the social space and simultaneously built the brand image for itself. These kind of campaigns work as social builders. Vodafone is a UK based company which is trying to do business in India, therefore, through these CSR initiatives it is trying to correlate itself with the problems and issues which prevails in India. This will certainly help the consumers connect with the company’s goal and improve the brand im-age of the brand among its consumers. Every time a person hits Vodafone’s website, the campaign ad pops up and in this way, the customer gets emotion-ally targeted by the initiative.

#Ezeehugs - “Raahat Ek Abhiyaan’“Rahat Ek Abhiyan“ is a CSR drive started by Godrej Ezee. Under this drive Godrej asked people to donate their old warm clothes to the places mentioned in their website and then they would clean those old

warm clothes with their product Ezee and donate the clean cloth to the underprivileged children. This campaign turned out to be a success. In order to promote the campaign, Godrej used social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. They also pro-moted their campaign in print media and TV. The campaign managed to garner over 4 lakhs viewers on YouTube. Godrej partnered with an NGO Aarohan for this campaign. The success of the campaign could be gauged by the overwhelming response. Around 2100 clothes were collected and then distributed among the needy ones. This campaign went on to capture a lot of attention. Godrej, through the CSR expendi-ture which was mandatory to be done, has been in-novative in creating a repel effect which shot up in a matter of no time creating buzz about the brand. These kind of revolutionising ideas do not require a lot of time and money, yet at the same time, compa-nies through their head turning campaigns manages a huge consumer base. There are several NGOs who work in collaboration with the corporates to bring a



panies have managed to make a strong hold in the society and their products are enjoy trust of the customers.

Top 5 CSR contributors for the year 2014 were: TATA STEEL TATA CHEMICALS MAHINDRA GROUPMARUTI SUZUKITATA MOTORS

The stature of these compa-nies is gigantic not just be-cause they have huge profits every year but also because they contribute back to the society and the environment they belongg to, and make their existence felt in all walks of life.



MARKETINGBUDGET

change in the society. CSR is not the only re-sort for a company. Companies have man-aged to create an effect in society through their advertisement cam-paigns also. The “Jago re “ campaign of Tata Tea and “hawa badlegi” campaign of Havels fans, the brands try to cap-ture the young segment of the society. Through these cam-paigns, which are not a part of CSR, the brands have still made their presence felt in the soci-ety. This propensity towards so-cietal marketing is mainly con-tributed to the growing concern of the youth and with the ever improving quality of education, youth can easily correlate them-selves with the society issues and give their contribution in eradicating the social evils.Now Maruti follows an inter-esting approach while allo-cating resources for such so-cial projects. The board of the company ensures that every financial year, Maruti spends at least 2 per cent of the av-erage net profit made during the immediate three preced-ing financial years. And that number today tots up to Rs 50 crore. The unutilized CSR budget, or the surplus, is parked in the ‘CSR Fund’ that the company has created and does not make a comeback to the business as profit.Even before the existence of the Company Act, there were several companies which used to do the CSR activities religiously. Some of the big names in the list were Tata Steel and Mahindra and Mahindra. By virtue of their generous return to the society, these com-

vartalaap


vartalaap may-june 2015

VARTALAAPAn Interview with

Prof. S Ramesh Kumar

Professor S. Ramesh Kumar teaches market-ing at IIM Bangalore in the post graduate, ex-ecutive management and research fellow pro-grammes. He has co-authored and published several cases associated with reputed organ-isations in the Indian context. He was award-ed ICFAI best teacher award by the Associa-tion for Indian Management Schools (AIMS).

Marketing Professor

IIM Bangalore



1. Offer a truly differentiated product to a specific target segment 2. Communicate the benefits to target segment (branding): create a perception of valueChick shampoo had risen when established brands were around, Tzinga drink is another example and re-gional brands like Gold Winner and several brands of soap detergent bars that compete with established brands are examples. Parachute hair oil is an exam-ple that used the culturally anchored belief to build itself in the market.

Markathon: Indian consumers are going through a transition, the products which were earlier consid-ered tabooed, are being openly discussed or encour-aged to be discussed openly. How does it add new opportunities for marketing students?

You may be referring to culturally sensitive offerings like adult diapers, contraceptives and sex related of-ferings. For marketing students:Students with a passion for marketing need to get

Markathon: Contributions of academicians to litera-ture on marketing are immense. Please throw some light, how theoretical marketing concepts can be tactfully implemented practically?

This is actually a myth. There is no tact in applying these concepts nor are academics expected to imple-ment the concepts and literature based theories. Academicians are in the business of creation and dissemination of knowledge –some with a strong research focus and some with a practitioner’s per-spective. This serves two purposes- motivate other academics to develop the literature and provide a trigger to practicing managers who are expected to use their own contextual thinking and combine them with academic framework. There are also practical problems that attract the attention of academics to provide a different perspective.

Markathon: What should be the initial plan of branding for unknown offerings in the Indian sce-nario so that they stand out in a market full of es-tablished players?

vartalaap

aLLA Little Larger

The plus size store

Academicians are in the business of creation and dissemination of

knowledge

“ “

themselves conceptually prepared and also gain some field experience while these markets develop. Having these preparations and then waiting for the right opportunity after some experience in consumer products would help. These markets are opening up and may take a while to develop themselves into full -fledged markets. Just as online marketers have start-ed taking MBAs recently, these markets may require insightful thinking in the near future Having said that, I do not think any marketing stu-dent with a strong flair for marketing should wait for specific categories to develop- they should develop the ability to market several kinds of products and services.

Markathon: Companies like ALL (A Little Larger) which targets people who need extra large sizes of clothes is an example of a situation where the organization took advantage of an untapped market, Indian mar-ket consists of a lot of obscure niche markets. How should young entre-preneurs tap on such markets profit-ably?

It depends on how effectively the entrepreneur develops a market and establishes a name for the brand. The ability to cater to a niche and develop a strong brand is a prerequisite rather than a factor that contributes to survival. If the offering is good, the word of mouth through the social media can be tapped. Today we are in a digital world where even established brands are get-ting discounted (Amazon, flipkart, snapdeal to name a few portals). This threat is equally applicable to es-tablished brands. There are several brands of little known mobile brands being bought online. In fact a smaller brand is at an advantage when big brands fail to deliver. With the internet consumers rely less on branding in a number of categories (they rely more on their sources and this is an important factor for such brands).

Markathon: At which stage of Product Life Cycle of a convenience product would PR strategies of the company be most and least important?

PR strategies are important when brands enter the mar-ket and when they are growing or when they are revital-



izing themselves. First of all PLC cycles are indicative of where the brand is heading towards and the stages are not absolute strategies by themselves –Kotler has gone on to mention that the stages can be self –fulfilling prophecies as perceived by managers. Body Shop is an excellent example of how PR was used. Old Spice with its recent digital campaign is another example of how the ad went viral because of its news worthiness to specific media channels (which is the essential part of PR)

Markathon: Do you think the impact of guerilla mar-keting increases if it is planned after mainstream ad-vertising techniques?

There is no specific “before or after phase” for plan-ning guerilla strategies that take a competitor by surprise. Ambush marketing used by Pepsi “Nothing official about it” when Coke had won the official spon-sorship as the brand associated with a sports event is a guerilla strategy. A leading brand of shampoo that launched a major sales promotion campaign that had extra volume of shampoo just when its competitor was planning to launch a new brand is another ex-ample.

Markathon: How do you balance between central and peripheral route of persuasion on platforms like digital media which is equally used by left and right brain consumers?

First, what is the brand all about? Secondly, what are the strategies of competitors? Thirdly, what is the ob-jective of a campaign? Fourthly, is the brand planning an IMC? What is the online and offline communica-tion synergy? Finally, what is the synergy expecte4d between brand’s association and the planned cam-paign? Unless there is systematic process oriented thinking, the usage of terminologies will fail to add value to the brand.

“ “

Body Shop is an excellent example

of how PR was used



Markathon: How do you visualize the future inte-gration of online- offline marketing techniques for rural India?

There is no single way to integrate – there are 5000 towns in India and demographically they can be di-vided based on several criteria. ITC is an excellent example of how online and offline integration was done for its e-choupal. It depends largely on the cat-egory and target segment. Markathon: In a past interview, you had said, “A social network on the mobile may provide content, and may double up as a transactional platform from where the consumer may be able to buy several cat-egories.” Can you suggest some innovative methods that can be used to market a brand on social me-dia platforms which are not being used by Indian organisations already?

In order to be have clarity, there are two questions here - one on mobile content and the other on social media. Mobile content – Zomato the Indian brand that operates in several countries is an example of how it has cultivated a base of consumers by pro-viding content that is relevant to the young and vi-brant segment. A tire company may come out with a content that advises consumers on selection of tires based on their usage of cars, terrains covered and loads involved. There is endless opportunities to develop apps can be relevant to target segment.Well, marketing students need to understand it is the appropriateness of the context rather than the new-ness of the approach that counts. The second question is on the usage of social media:

A brand requires a synergy of conventional and digi-tal platforms (unless there are specific reasons to ex-clusively rely on digital route). Coke effectively com-bines several digital and conventional strategies. Red Bull is another example.

Markathon: What would be your advice to the bud-ding marketers who want to make it big in the in-dustry in the coming years?

Making it big depends on a host of factors-to be pre-pared the “formula” is Conceptual knowledge and contextual application – the knowledge learnt plus individual ability to apply it matters in differentiating average marketers from czars of marketing.

eye2eye

Ravi Kumar SinghIIM, Kozhikode

The generic strategy of cashback of-fers by Paytm has gained a lot of

popularity, especially amongst the mobile phone users. The higher penetration of the mobile user with smooth and faster transactions is driving popularity for these offers. The cash back in Paytm wallet offers a one stop shop for the growing online shoppers. It has brought a wide range of consumer-related products at one place where the shoppers can directly negotiate with the respective merchants thereby avoiding the middle-man charges. Cash back brings to an individual the direct benefits of discounts. It also provides shoppers with qual-ity deals and immediate savings for each purchase made. Purchasing becomes a hassle free task when an individ-ual is provided with convenience. With a big and diverse Indian market there is a huge scope of success following the differentiation methods adopted by Paytm. Customer retention by way of cash back offerings seems to be just fine and beneficial in the near future. The integration of the cash back also helps in availing benefits at many plac-es to pay for purchases. An individual can avail the cash back services at various destinations like Uber, Makemy-trip, Bookmyshow, Healthkart, Homeshop18, Zovi and many more. In the modern era becoming a market leader with maximum customer retention is of utmost impor-tance to outrun the competitors. The Cash back key strat-egy has been working in favour of Paytm. This strategy provides a sustainable competitive advantage to Paytm over its rivals.

IIM ShillongMARKATHON

Cash Back offers by sites like Paytm and other wallet companies, a Good or Bad strategy?

Topic for the next issue: “Nestle’s silence till now over Maggi controversy: a thought upon strategy or accep-tance of the blame?” Your opinion (view/counterview) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is 10th July 2015. Include your picture (JPEG format) with the entry. Winners will receive a prize money of Rs. 500 each!

Tejashwi KumarIIM Shillong

Great Cash Back Offers on Paytm is the buzz of town. Everybody is happy. Pay-tm is happy for getting all the new visits on the website, customers are jubilant for buying up stuff at such cheap prices and investors are happy knowing that the idea they have invested their money in is going bigger.

Isn’t this great? No! Not at all. This is not one of the best market-ing strategy for a company. The offers are posi-tioning Paytm as just a cash back site. The cash-

back has become the core competence of the company. Now, company can’t afford to give such an offer for a long time. It will soon run out of cash and people will be won-dering why Paytm is not giving them any more cash back.The worst part about such a strategy is that people will come to you for a free lunch but will not stick around for long if they have to pay for it. The price sensitive Indian consumer will not think twice before shifting to another vendor, which has a better price to offer. Also, a company’s positioning can go for a toss. For in-stance, Paytm initially started as an online wallet service. Then it started to offer mobile recharge facility as well. Today Paytm is a full-blown e-commerce website offering products from toilet paper to iPhone and competing with the likes of Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal. Hence, a company should refrain from such a mindless cash burn because if it continues for long, there won’t be any company to market.

eye2eye may-june 2015

14


Congratulations!!! Vivek receives a cash prize of Rs 1000!

silent voice december 2013 silent voice may-june 2015Theme: A

nushka S

harma, the

reason be

hind Team

India’s

los

s at

World

Cup 2015

Last Month’s ResultsWINNERRangavardhan Reddy || IMT Ghaziabad

THEME FOR NEXT SILENT VOICE: Bollywood celebrities taking a plunge into Hollywood

LAST DATE OF SENDING THE PRINT AD: 10th July, 2015EMAIL ID: [email protected]

Send your entry in JPEG format named as SilentVoice_<Your Name>_<Institute>only.

honorary mentionRahul Deepak Devarapalli || IIM Trichy

CATCHRMISS

AD-dicted december 2013


By Kasturi Guha ThakurtaIIM Shillong

PRODUCT: Lava Iris X8

POSITIONING: We put the art in smart

CREATIVE AGENCY: Shop Ad agency YouTube Link:: https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=BVVNQD53ZBg

CONCEPT: This new ad by Lava for its Iris X8 mobile phone shows a girl meeting a boy in a flight training academy.

Both of them misunderstand each other to be the in-structor and board the airplane in this confusion. While on air, both realize that neither of them is the instruc-tor. Panic stricken on what to do next, they take out a Lava Iris X8 Phone and switches on something which looks like a flight training app! Following the instruc-tions as they appear on the phone screen, they manage to avoid a crash and save themselves. As the phone saves their day (and life), the ad comes to an end.

VERDICT: MissLaunching the phone with the airplane flying app as its positioning highlight misfired the entire strategy (if there was any). Unlike other mobile ads which either highlight phone features or try to connect emotionally with the au-dience through a story, this ad lacks any of the success ‘mantras’. The ad lacks plot and anything else that would have otherwise made for a good ad. It fails to generate any interest for the phone, thus serving no purpose.

By Ansul JindalIIM Shillong

PRODUCT: Tanishq Jewellery

POSITIONING: A wedding to remember

CREATIVE AGECY: Lowe Lintas and Partners

YouTube Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqggcpL79qw

CONCEPT: We live in a country where marriage is seen as the new chapter of once life.A lot of emotions are connected with the institution of marriage. And we cannot deny the very fact that we live in a male dominating society. Since ages ago,a man can have multiple marriages and even today the concept of remarriage of a man seems com-pletely fine but the same vision blurred when it comes to women.Tanishq latest flick,with the premise of remar-riage as the backdrop of the storyline,the heartrending advertisement depicts a little girl on the occasion of her mother’s wedding while the mother hushes up the girl’s signal to join the couple in the pheras, the father seeing her evident disappointment take her in his arms and the three make their rounds arounds the sacred fire portray-ing wedding to remember.

VERDICT: Catch Tanishq, has successfully managed to create a sound of a young and bold women depicting her uniqueness of choice, ideas and design. This ad not only breaks the old norms but also create the new one’s where a women is free to feel and take important decisions of her life. The background Music and the scenario created in this ad only highlight its optimism and the passivity of message through emotions is the show stealer. Tanishq has success-fully established itself as the institution, connecting emo-tions with their product and are selling happiness widely. This ad definitely make us sit back on our couch and pon-der the beauty of emotions draw in a single thread and thus making it a must watch.

AD-dicted may-june 2015


brand story may-june 2015

Brand Story Sumit Bedi | IIM Shillong

You would have looked at the logo of FedEx sev-eral times. Have a look at it again. Do you see something peculiar? No? Try finding the arrow. Yes, that forward arrow be-tween E and x. That is the beauty of the FedEx brand. It talks about moving forward towards the future. Founded in 1971, the company started as a courier deliv-ery service but it has grown into the 5th largest airline in the world. With over 656 aircrafts in air, FedEx has pio-neered the art of overnight delivery. FedEx was not always FedEx. It was called Federal Express for over 2 decades since the day of its inception. In early 1990s, the company had made such a mark on the pack-age delivery market that its name was almost used as a verb. Customers started calling it FedEx instead of Federal Express. Hence, in 1994 the company rebranded itself. The name of the company was changed to FedEx Corporation. FedEx is not a normal package delivery company; it is a premium courier delivery and supply chain solution pro-vider. You will have to shed out 200 bucks instead of 40 if you wish to send a few documents weighing 100g from New Delhi to Mumbai via FedEx. Now why does FedEx command such a premium?Firstly, FedEx guarantees timely delivery of a product, similar to the Domino’s Pizza. Its delivery network, which is spread across 220 countries, is so strong that it guaran-tees that it will return all the money paid by the customer back if the parcel is delivered 60 seconds later than the committed time. Secondly, it ensures no wear and tear of a product. You can send things as delicate as a mirror through the Fe-dEx channel. It has even delivered Beluga Whales and Dolphins from one place to another. They were alive and healthy after reaching the destination. A large number of luxury carmakers use the FedEx Custom Critical to trans-port delicate windscreens and engines from one country to another.Thirdly, FedEx spends billions of dollars each year as mar-keting expenditure. FedEx also sponsors various sports that share the attribute of speed, reliability, precision, teamwork and flawless execution. It has been associated with NFL and NBA teams. It also has a racing competition named FedEx racing. In addition FedEx broadcasts televi-sion commercials all across the globe.Now, all this marketing ensures customer delight. There

are thousands of e-commerce businesses that ensure cus-tomer delight by using FedEx as a channel partner. People in USA are delighted to see a parcel arrive with FedEx (the premium package delivery service). Over the years FedEx has developed its brand architecture and naming system in such a way that it extends the FedEx brand without compromising on its integrity. FedEx Ex-press, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, FedEx Custom Criti-cal, FedEx Supply Chain Services, FedEx Office all use the same FedEx logo but with a different color. This ensures that the company can leverage its existing brand image even after creating a significant differentiation in the product offerings.FedEx is not just a combination of logos, good colors, a few videos and event sponsorships but it is a powerhouse of great customer service. In year 1994, it became the first package delivery company to provide online support through its website. It was able to receive orders through its website and also able to assist its clients at any time they wanted. FedEx is a player in commodity business. Package deliv-ery has been there since ages. Its innovative methods have ensured that it continues to charge a premium for the amazing service that it has to offer the world. The constant investment is branding saves the company from getting into a price war with its competitors and hence ensuring profitability. FedEx is a pioneer in the industry. It has always led the change in the market place and has displayed amazing re-sults to the onlookers. However, it might face some challenges to position itself well in the emerging markets of the world. It will be dif-ficult to command the same level of premium from the price sensitive customers. Also, cab aggregator services like Uber can disrupt the market with a new kind of delivery system through cabs. Ola Cabs in India has started Ola Chef, which delivers food to customers Moreover, FedEx can actually gain some cost advantage by partnering with cab aggregators for the last mile delivery. All said and done FedEx is an awesome brand. It is a great case study for young marketing enthusiasts like us to learn and get inspired from.


fun corner may - june 2015

Sagar RiazIIM Shillong


ishtihaar may - june 2015

GAutam Gopal IIM Shillong

In today’s world with technology growing at a brisk pace, no business plan or business strategy is perpetual. With the introduction of new, small but audacious firms having a dynamic approach to their business the big be-hemoths are under threat of revising their business strat-egies periodically. A new business term “agile strategy” is becoming a buzz word in the corporate world which is revolutionising the orthodox thinking of various businesses and their modus operandi. Cus-tomers today are becoming very peculiar to their needs and are not ready to compromise on their existing options. They are more inclined towards the indi-vidualised tweak of the product and the entire campaign by a company starts revolving around the individual needs of a con-sumer. Hence the agile market-ing which takes care of the two way interaction with the customers and use their exist-ing limited resources in the best possible way to cater to the largest number of the consumer base. The orthodox methodology involves designing a mass campaign for a large consumer base and be indifferent to the individual requirements of a consumer. This perception of the mar-keters requires to be changed and agile marketing plays a handy role in doing so by reaching out to each individual customer and trying to provide them the highest levels of satisfaction.The very first step in agile marketing is to use existing re-sources to satiate consumer needs in the best possible way. Most of the other marketing concepts remain the same adapting to the changing demands of consumers. Agile marketing revolves around needs of a consumer. As the needs of the consumer and the experience of the customers in buying and using the product becomes a de-cisive factor for a company while designing their adver-tisement campaign the priorities for a marketer begins to change with the trend from the existing and robust strate-gies. In agile marketing, a company starts with the marketing backlogs which is the list of all the potential activities which a company can do. The backlogs go on to become the “wish list” for the company and they have to work hard to fulfil this wish list.

The first help which a company gets by adopting agile marketing is to break the jinx of thinking in a traditional fashion and start thinking on new lines. The biggest ad-vantage of agile marketing is that it reduces any misun-derstanding between marketers and consumers. In agile marketing, the marketing team meets with the “executive management for sales” for 30-60 minutes & then decide

upon what are they working on and sets up a new priority. The team tries to add new ideas to the backlog (wish list) and starts work-ing on the same as soon as pos-sible. The duration of this work is 2-4 weeks.This duration of 2-4 weeks is called a “sprint”, after the sprint is over a review team is called upon which comprises of the executive man-agement and the sales personnel who take a call on the work of the sprint team and different thoughts

are shared at the same platform following which remarks are given. The entire review system is done in order to keep the sense of transparency and accountability intact. The review for such a sprint becomes important as it clari-fies how the priorities work and what all new fundamen-tals are to be added for the future in order to make such a sprint successful.For the marketing team it becomes very important to have a fair knowledge of the customers’ requirements and their take on the products or the services offered. In this short span (sprint) of 2-4 weeks the marketers are the best judge to understand the ongoing trend. Thereafter a decision is made regarding the existing marketing strate-gies and what all changes in the strategies and the priori-ties can be brought about, in order to cater to their con-sumers in the best possible way with the existing limited resources.There have been many instances when a company’s mar-keting wing came out with a new technology and the mar-keting campaign for the same, for a very small period of time and tried to gauge the thinking of consumers there-by trying to build upon the genuine responses received from their customers. So, for a company, big or small, “Agile Marketing” is effec-tive.

IshtihaarAgile Marketing - Quick and Effective

Orkut


jab they failed may-june 2015

Jab They FailedVinay JainIIM Shillong

Everybody is busy today. Some people are busy with their work, some of them with their families and some of them are busy doing nothing but everyone is busy. So it is natural that you may not know what your best friend is up to after he moved to Mumbai or what is happening in your favorite cousin’s life cause he is so busy making his career. You may also like making new friends and see what is up with your favorite Band or actor or sportsperson. A Social Networking website fortunately, covers all the above needs. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace,

are all such websites which make it possible for you to know what your loved ones are doing, finding new loved ones and also making sure that your loved ones know about you. Google’s Orkut, was one such website. Unfor-tunately, it is not there anymore. It saw its last day on 30th September, 2014. Only 10 years old and died very young. There was a time in India, before Facebook came into pic-ture when everyone who knew about social networking was on Orkut. Even I started social networking with Orkut. Everyone was happy with it but then all of a sudden it saw a sudden decline in its users. Let’s find out why did this happen.Orkut wasn’t evolving fast enough. If compared to Face-book, the user interface of Orkut was a little complicated and didn’t come up with new features as fast as Face-book. If you observe, Facebook keeps coming up with mi-nor changes all the time which shows us that Facebook gave importance even to the smallest things which made the experience for the user better, the option of showing ‘how you are feeling?’ while posting a status is one such example. Also ‘Scrapbook’ which was a public chat option on Orkut which was similar to the ‘wall’ on Facebook was not as much fun as it is on Facebook. Privacy settings of Orkut was also one of the issues. It had very basic settings and didn’t think about a situation where different people would want different settings. Because of this people

started moving to Facebook. Scaling up was also an issue. The initial version of the website had too many technical issues and it wasn’t made a serious project but only as a pet project, which people in Google are allowed to do. Even after it became popular there were still issues and users could find the famous error page ‘no donut for you’ too many a times. This just proved that for a huge com-pany like Google where simultaneously there are multiple projects taking place. Orkut was just another pet project and hence wasn’t given attention that it ideally deserved. Orkut also could not come up with a concrete strategy of monetizing itself. Like Facebook has successfully made it possible for advertisers to post ads and not particularly spoil the experience for the users. Orkut never had prior monetary plan and therefore it was clueless about this is-sue, from the early stages. Even when it was doing well in 2009 it didn’t have a plan to make money from advertise-ments or any other source. Learnings: Internet has made the world smaller than we can even imagine. One can talk to his/her friend in Greece while sitting in China and order food from a place from somewhere in the city and also give a review about it on social media. But there is a negative side to it as well from an organization’s point of view. If you falter at any moment be ready to bear the brunt on social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter etc. Even these websites aren’t saved from the public outcry. They have to manage issues related to privacy, experience given to the users and make sure that no public sentiment is hurt. The biggest learning here is that for a social networking website experience of the user is everything. Things should only get simpler and better for a user which Facebook has successfully man-aged to do so far. Also, a long term view as to how will the website be scaled up and how will it generate revenue should be thought of. Snapchat had a plan and we can fi-nally see it in action with short adver-tisements already started in the west-ern countries which generate revenue for it.


Mohammed Fahd | IIM Shillong

Successful ad-making is a subtle art. One that re-quires the designer to have a consummate under-standing of the nation’s heartbeat or atleast the target audience’s pulse. The O&Ms and the JWTs of the world strive to unravel the many secrets of this Pandora’s Box but what is the tool that allows them to do so? This is where semiotics comes in. Semiotics is the study of the signs, symbols & their significance in human life. To fully understand semiotics one has to understand the cultural nuances of their target audi-ence. Valid argu-ments can be made that a plethora of cultural backdrops exist in our nation however one has to understand that these cultures are interwoven through a common link. It is this link that is the crucial key to the lock. This tiny thread that can unravel the Pan-dora’s Box & provide the seeker with an idea that can appeal to all.The old Bajaj ad with its extraordinarily catchy tag-line of “Humara Bajaj” & the oh-so-delicious ‘Jalebi!’ ad by Dhara cooking oil are delightful examples of se-miotics executed to sheer perfection. Let’s take them one by one. The “Humara Bajaj” ad established Bajaj scooters as the stalwart of its time, with the ad not only showcasing the importance of the scooter in the life of the common man but also capturing the every-day routine of India & the special position the scoot-er held at that time as the family’s personal mode of transport. The ‘Jalebi!’ ad is all the more special

because it invokes nostalgia in the adult viewers by painting the perfect picture of a child’s delight at the mention of his favourite sweetmeat – Jalebi! With the roles portrayed to perfection everyone in the tar-get audience is able to relate to the ad which is exact-ly what was intended. That’s not to say however that semiotics was only applicable in the 80s & the 90s of the previous century. There are a number of exam-ples that still depicts the application of semiotics & its all-capturing characteristic. The “mauka-mauka” ads that played upon the Indo-Pak cricketing rivalry appealed to every Indian regardless of whether they were a cricket fan or not & the latest “Aur dikhao” ad by Amazon.com also has a similar attribute as it wittily highlights the desire of most Indians to have more choices at their disposal even when a particu-lar option has appealed to them.That being said, the use of semiotics is not restricted to that of a key instead often serving as a medium to completely build upon a brand’s appeal. The use of

logos happens for just that kind of a purpose however such a process takes patience & can stretch over decades. Thus steps need to be taken to ensure that the logo that is being pushed should not only remain in the minds of

individuals but should also be readily acceptable & these steps are always aided by a semiotic analysis of the target audience. The McDonald’s Golden Arches & the Amul girl are probably the best examples of lo-gos that immediately enforces brand recall thus pro-moting the product even through images that may be remotely similar. Therefore, semiotics, if done right, can probably be termed as the panacea for ad-vertising as not only does it provide a short-term fix but also delivers a long term solution for brand pro-motion. However, it needs to be remembered that semiotics is a subtle art & if not executed to perfec-tion, might lead to the company’s entire promotional plan crashing down in flames.

Radical Thoughts

aug 2014 may-june 2015 radical thoughts

The secret behind the art of successful ad-making


updates december 2013 updates may-june 2015

Brand Launch

Xo lo to launch its online only brand ‘Black’ in June The Noida based company backed by Lava is also entering the online-retail only segment in the mobile phones category. A sub-brand ‘Black’ will have 5-6 handsets launched in this year. The First phone under this will be launched in June with a dual rear camera and priced below Rs 15,000. All upcoming mobiles will also be in the range of 10,000 to 20,000 and will be 4G enabled.

By Cheena PasrijaIIM Shillong

Brand Watch

Mahindra launched the new face of XUV 500 in the end of May

Mahindra XUV 500 facelift was launched on 25th may. The changes made in the car have been strictly cosmetic like the new alloy wheel pattern, the L shaped chrome finished fog lamp etc. The other features like the engine churning out a hefty 140bhp and 330Nm of torques while also being fuel efficient by returning 15.1km/l remain the same. The company has a lot of hope to capture the market with the improved version of the XUV 500.

Heinz Fiasco aplogizes for QR code error

Heinz has finally come up with an official apology to its consumers for it. It apologised to consumers in Germany after a QR code on of one of its bot-tles contained a link to a pornographic website. According to Heinz -the code was out of date and the company was taking steps to prevent it from happening again. The QR code, placed on the back of the bottle, was re-quired to be scanned by people using a smartphone in order to access con-tent online for an online competition. This was done as part of a promo-tion by the company but instead fired back as the URL was hosting porn.

Kalyan Jewellers serves as a learning to other brands

Kalyan Jewellers’ recent ad campaign serves as a lesson to most brands. Their recent ad featuring Aishwarya Rai as the brand ambassador and a malnour-ished, dark and lanky kid serving as a servant in the back was seen as racist and pro-child labour.

Updat e s



Media

Coca-Cola‘s happy association with Mad-men Coca cola has been associated with the American TV series ‘mad-men’ for years now. The T.V show has always created a rosy picture for the brand and it was with this trust that the brand allowed the television series to use its hill-top advertise-ment without asking any questions. At last, the entire ad of 60 seconds was run and was used to put an end to one of the most successful series in the country. To Coca-Cola, this proved to be an amazing and an unexpected gift.

Nestle trying to reposition the brand

Nestle is planning to come up with a brand new snack that will serve as an alter-native to Maggie and will help the brand in repositioning it as healthier. Accord-ing to their upcoming plan-B, their new product could be either a ready-to-eat or a ready-to-cook food item. This will involve launching the old classic Maggi noodles in a new format. According to Nestle- Food has never been safer. More than the product, it is the public perception, they have to work on. According to Brand’s Finance, Maggi is expected to lose more than two hundred million dol-lars in brand value after the FSSAI ban.

E-COMM initiating conversations on Twitter The new age e-commerce companies are taking on each other on social me-dia platforms like Twitter. Sometimes it seems like just bantering but on a few occasions the Companies might get into an ugly brawl. Be it the recent tussle between Amazon and Zomato or the casual flirtation between Snap deal and Free charge, the brands are surely loving it and taking it as an op-portunity to show themselves as cool and witty to the new age customers.

Dabur to hire Star-comm Media vest Dabur India has given all its media duties to Starcomm media vest group (SMG). In the words of KK Chutani, executive director, marketing, Dabur India, “Dabur has ad-opted a fresh approach to its media strategy with a focus on the younger generation and emphasis on the use of digital media as a way to create the right impact”. SMG has become the first agency in the history of Dabur to solely take care of the entire media planning and buying. SMG is keen to help Dabur deliver the business goals.

Digital is solving problem in the music industry Going digital in the music industry is surely helping the Industry fight piracy. There are a lot of music apps with Saavn leading the pack in India. The India-New York based start-up is spending a lot on advertising with brand ambassadors like Ranbir Kapoor on board. Saavn has hired McCann as its creative agency and has also tied up with Prasoon Joshi for its campaigns and help improve user engagement further. It is currently competing with Times Internet’s Gaana and Airtel’s wynk in the market.

Ad Watch



Articles Are invited“Best Article”: Siji Elza George | T.A. Pai Management Institute He receives a cash prize of Rs.1000 & a letter of appreciation

We are inviting articles from all the B-schools of India. The articles can be absolutely any-thing related to the world of marketing but it should be an original work that is not pub-lished elsewhere. The articles can be specific to the regular sections of Markathon which

includes: •Perspective: Articles related to development of latest trends in marketing arena.•Productolysis: Analysis of a product from the point of view of marketing.•Strategic Analysis: A complete analysis of marketing strategy of any company or an event.Apart from above, out of the box views related to marketing are also welcome. The best en-try will receive a letter of appreciation and a cash prize of Rs 1000/-. The format of the file

should be MS Word doc/docx.

The last date of receiving all entries is 10th July, 2014. Please send your entries marked as <ARTICLE NAME>_<SENDERS’ NAME(S)>_<INSTITUTE> to [email protected].

Myntra: Bold is beautiful

“Bold is beautiful” is the first ever Indian ad campaign which features a lesbian story. It is marketed under the name-‘’the visit’’ and has got more than 3 million views on the social media within two weeks.The fact that it’s been released in a country like India- does make a difference. So what is the take of the Bollywood crazy public on this 3 minutes ad which shows lesbianism? Probably those 30 lakh Facebook views does indicate a better time to come.

Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef27m5ocK6Q

Shine.com: Getting jobs made creative

Shine.com, India’ s second largest job search site has come up with a creative campaign “ Lag gaayi waat”. These advertisements are not just eye catchy but deliver the message in a light mood. Whether it is the Naagin Dance commercial or the Gamla commercial, the concept is innovative and is instantly grabbing attention. Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVHnemWCzIc


aug 2014 may-june 2015 internship fundas

I worked as a summer intern in the Branded Products, Retail and Solutions (BPRS) division of TATA Steel, a division which has been a trendsetter for the entire steel industry. Brands such as TATA TISCON, TATA Shaktee and innovative solutions such as Nest In have had their genesis in this division. Coming to my experience with this Steel major, I was asked to first do a feasibility analysis and then devise a strategy to launch a new brand for Galvanised Plain Sheet. This product was used to manufacture trunks, containers, coolers etc. So we started looking into the finer nuances of the market and found out various pain points of the customer. The experience and respect I got while visiting various dealers and customers was overwhelming to say the least. One learning that came out predominantly from the entire experience was that there is nothing better than being on the field yourself to contrive a strategy. Overall it was a wonderful learning curve for me. And yes, the launch pilot for the brand will be implemented soon in Jharkhand!

The eCommerce space in India is going through a period of tremendous growth, with every major player in the market looking to acquire more customers and gain market share before its competitors. These are surely some exciting times to be in the eCommerce business and that’s exactly where I found myself in the summer of 2015. My project was to develop the Social Media Strategy for ShopClues right from scratch. This involved formulating a brand communication strategy, putting into place a proper process for the Social Media exercise within the brand, working closely with the content and the brand communications team to establish a communication strategy on Social and finally analyzing what the other players in eCommerce are doing on Social in the short and long term. A part of my project involved formulating the key metrics that an eCommerce brand should track on Social. My mentor gave me the complete freedom to explore ideas that I felt were important and implement them. In spite of an unforgiving Indian summer, 8 weeks flew by. I had a great time working with the fantastic team at Shop-Clues. The high pressure, fast paced world of eCommerce gave me some very valuable insights in branding building in an increasingly digital world.

Name: Shivam PaliwalCompany: Tata Steel

Role/Team; BU: Sales and Marketing; Branded Products, Retail and Solutions (BPRS)Project Title: Market development and branding opportunity of GP Retail

Name: Mehul JogadiaCompany: Shop CluesRole/Team: MarketingProject Title: Social Media Strategy and Competitive Analysis

LEARN

INIT

IATE

IMPLEMENT

Internship Expeiences 2015

Internship Fundas


updates december 2013 internship fundas may-june 2015

My internship experience at Perfetti Van Melle (PVMI) reassured love for marketing. In B-schools we emphasize on the planning and tend to ignore the execution of the plan. During my internship I understood the importance of success-ful execution, by turning around an entire consumer promotion in 3 months (generally a promotion planning takes 7-8 months). I worked directly with the Brand Manager and Category Head of PVMI. My project was divided into three segments. The first part was to analyze our global competitors in the jelly/gummies segment and understand the vari-ous consumer promotion done by them in the past 10 years. The second and most important segment was to plan and execute a consumer promotion for the Juzt Jelly brand. The verification of idea was done through various consumer research (mostly focused group discussions). Quality checks of the promotion were implemented and timely produc-tion readiness was ensured by me. Along with my team, I designed new packaging of mono packs and jar labels for the consumer promotion. The consumer promotion was to reach the consumer through a TVC. I decided the route/script for the TVC along with the creative agency. The third segment was to analyze quantitative data provided by AC Nielsen and suggest future growth initiatives for Juzt Jelly. In a time frame of 2 months I was given the complete ownership to execute a national level promotion for a star brand of PVMI. I couldn’t have asked for a better learning experience than provided by PVMI.

During my internship in Titan, I was handling three projects. The first project was named “understanding competition intelligence and identifying their best practices”. The other 2 projects- “Network expansion” and “working out other marketing channels for customer communication” were initiated by the company on the basis of my prior suggestions on the first project. I was given immense freedom and favourable financial backing to carry out my projects.I was made to do everything what is done by ASM and more- I travelled all around Mumbai, visited all Titan Eye plus’ and competitors’ stores, carried-on a full fledge market survey, acted as a mystery consumer and understood the ground level working, met property dealers and finalised potential Titan eye plus properties, hired web developers, formed a face-book page and designed a full fledge marketing campaign. As a fresher, it gave me a profound idea on how the industry works, the impending challenges and plausible expectations from a marketer.

The two months of my internship with Wipro has been a tremendous learning experience for me. This being my first corporate experience, I tried to leverage the most out of it. Unlike the perception that marketing in a B2B IT company must be redundant, Wipro has dedicated marketing teams for all its business units. Being in the Strategic Marketing team, I was also involved in the day to day strategic decisions. My supportive Guide (your immediate boss) had given me full freedom and access to all the critical information and international client contacts. Those helped me to take critical decisions that were regularly implemented as part of the regular strategic decisions by the team. My project required me to come up with an idea to measure the business impact of the marketing initiatives by Wipro ENU. After some primary research, I took up an app which was lying dormant for over a year and decided to revamp it into a cus-tomer connect app which can also be used as a measurement tool by Wipro with built-in analytics and other strategic features. My Guide liked my idea and my project turned up to be live project which involved significant amount of investment by Wipro. Finally, by the end of 6 weeks, the app was launched for the pilot run. At present, it is ready to be launched in a few weeks’ time and it feels great to see my project shaping up into something important for the company.

Name: Noopur KhareCompany: Perfetti Van MelleRole/Team: MarketingProject Title: Planning and Executing a Consumer Promotion for Alpenliebe Juzt Jelly

Name: Cheena PasrijaCompany: Titan

Role/Team; BU: Marketing and Strategy; Titan Eye PlusProject Title: Understanding competition intelligence and identifying their best practices

Name: Kasturi Guha ThakurtaCompany: Wipro TechnologiesRole/Team; BU: Strategic Marketing; Energy, Natural Resources and Utilities (ENU)Project Title: Activity Process and Business Impact of ENU Marketing

Markathon_May-June 2015

Documents

Transcript of Markathon_May-June 2015