markathon april 2014

Marketing Advisor,BeVocal, Inc.

MARKATHONMarketing Magazine of IIM Shillong Volume 5 | Issue 10

April 2014

Vartalaap with Prof. Praveen Kopalle

Project Gaon: The ultimate

destiny?

The Markathon Team

Editors

Amit Sonwani | B Ushashree | Nishant Prakash |

Ramanathan K | Varsha Poddar |Yash B. Bhambhwani

Creative DesignersMalini Aishwarya B |

Swati Pamnani

From The Editorship, both at the Tuck School. Prof. Praveen talks to us about the ‘emergent consumer’ segment, pricing, and the future of brick-and-mortar companies in this age of e-commerce.

We journey back in time to join Colgate in its quest on unchartered territory in the section ‘Jab They Failed’. ‘Ishtihaar’ takes us through the creative uses that market-ing agencies have put the ‘missed call’ phenomenon in India to. From demonstrating support to social causes to summoning information on a product or service, a missed call can now do much more than signalling the recipient about some pre-decided eventuality. We also have the ‘Updates’ section to bring you to speed with events in the world of marketing – India gets its first online wholesale market from ShopClues, Kellog’s Special K gets a new face in Deepika Padukone and Vodafone tries to renew the power of music through its latest ad campaign. A couple more ad campaigns get showcased in our ‘Addicted’ sec-tion too.

So here’s hoping that as you scroll through this month’s issue, the mark from Mysore Paints and Varnish on your finger reminds you that you made the right choice!

April marks the beginning of the new. What with Gudi Padva, Poila Boishakh and similar festivities ringing in the New Year in various parts of our country and our nation going to the polls, we all hope that the new does begin, once again for us. Even as the MH370 remains missing, quibbling political leaders, Maoist attacks, and the hare-brained remarks by celebrities like Sonam Kapoor (not to forget Mulayam Singh Yadav) have given us much to ‘tweet’ and ‘post’ about. Meanwhile, for management students, April has brought in winds of change as they travel to new cities and break into the shoes of ‘interns’ or begin life afresh as fresh crops of managers having just graduated from their alma maters.

And for this month of change and the new, we bring to you the story of the Rural Indian market – to which mar-keters’ focus has been shifting. The cover story explores the strategies adopted by major players in the consumer durables, automobiles, FMCG and pharmaceuticals in-dustries in their forays into the rural Indian market and outlines the roadmap to locate the wealth that was once thought available at the bottom of the pyramid. In Per-spectives, this month, we take a look at the power of Peer-to-peer marketing – it has become a force to reckon with, especially with stories, testimonials, comments and posts on social media having lives of their own. We also test-drive Maruti Suzuki’s latest offering – the Celerio.

We connect with Prof. Praveen Kopalle, research direc-tor (Internet marketing and pricing) at the Glassmeyer/McNamee Center for Digital Strategies, and a faculty as-sociate of William F. Achtmeyer Center for Global Leader-

IIM ShillongMARKATHON

Markathon april 2014

ContentsPerspectivesPeer to Peer Marketing Dasarathi Varatharajan, Shankar Gopinath & Jitin James | IMT G

Maruti Suzuku CelerioRishi Kumar| IMT G

Project Gaon: The ultimate destiny?Hari Kishan Yenugula & Paladugu Sai Sashanka | IIM Shillong

VartalaapProf. Praveen KopalleMarketing AdvisorBe Vocal, Inc.

Eye 2 EyeShould Nokia support Android in its new phone series?Kranthi Kiran Gude | IIM Raipur & Saket Hawelia | IIM Shillong

Silent VoiceTime Coaching ClassesAvinash Ayyagari | GLIM

Specials

AddictedSwati Pamnani & Yash B. Bhambhwani | IIM Shillong

IshtihaarRamanathan K | IIM Shillong

Jab They FailedB Ushashree | IIM Shillong

UpdatesAmit Sonwani | IIM Shillong

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IIM Shillong1MARKATHON

Business today demands the ability to unshackle ourselves from conventional ways of thinking to “think outside-the-box”. The source of inspiration is everywhere around us. One way how companies are capturing this is through phi-losophy inspired way of doing business. A famous theory in political philosophy - the social contract theory empha-sizes on a legitimate political system formed with the con-sent of people. Social contract provides mutual benefits to the concerned parties, governed by certain constraints. This is essentially how the businesses today would like to build their brand that is more local and social. A firm that sells products/services and its customers are no longer two different entities with different needs, the firms have realized the importance of building a collaborative struc-ture of doing business that is mutually beneficial and one that is driven by the people themselves. Enter the concept of sharing economy, a system built es-sentially on sharing of resources between businesses, in-dividual and community, enabled by technology and peer communities. This collaborative consumption model have been mastered by Airbnb that provides renting services, Taskrabbit- a market place to hire people to do tasks, peer to peer car sharing company Getaround. These peer to peer activities are also being embraced by mature brands

PEER TO PEER MARKETING

through student ambassadors

The American eagle is a very good example of usage of student ambassadors. The American eagle Student union has been formed wherein the pep styles of jeans from all over the country are being projected to the students by means of the ambassador. This way it has been able to capture the market and at the same time was able to establish itself as a leading brand among the students.

like Unilever, Chevrolet, Pepsi, Gap etc. that are trying to build more intimate connections with their consumers. The peer to peer marketing strategy is a promotional tech-nique that relies customers on to promote the product to other potential customers. The user stories, testimonials, product reviews are all part of this strategy. Companies are increasingly catching upon this trend and targeting so-cial groups like college students to promote their brand. The American Eagle Outfitters have been very successful with the on campus peer to peer marketing campaigns. Each college have their own AE student union facebook page and teams of influential brand ambassadors. The trend is being replicated elsewhere around the world and we have seen start ups from India that target this specif-ic user segment increasingly testing this strategy here.A study recently undertaken by our team to understand the effectiveness of peer to peer marketing in Indian context for an educational service provider has been positive (in our study it was found that the colleges seniors were high-ly influential on their peers in deciding college and stream of study for graduation) and we concluded that with a proper peer to peer marketing strategy it is easy to influ-ence consumer choices and buying preferences. American Eagle Outfitters

BY Dasarathi Varatharajan | Shankar Gopinath | Jitin James IMT Ghaziabad

perspective april 2014perspective

Mozilla Firefox The student ambassador program at Mozilla is aimed at creating awareness, to increase the usage of Mozilla products, to promote open web and gain market-ing experience. The student ambassadors will greatly improve the global experience of people on the web.

The Guardian magazine The Guardian magazine is yet another example where Student ambassadors are made to write newspaper col-umns about hot happenings in their college campus. This way, the magazine gets promoted and the students are also made known in the newspaper. This is a dual benefit situation for both the newspaper and the student. The competitive advantage The important advantage is the ability to build brand awareness and establish as an employer of choice on se-lect campuses. The brand is also able to access key student groups with a high population of mission-critical talent. The required investment is low and there is a consistent on-campus presence that helps to keep current on what is taking place on campus. The organizations can continue to


april 2014

engage top-performing interns so they return for another internship or full-time job. The main advantage still stands out to be the ability to generate a positive buzz on campus and a better feel for students about the brand. This helps to build a long-term relationships with key campus fac-ulty and staff and with the local community through rep-resentation at events, academic panels, and mentorship. Diversity of fields Student ambassadors take different roles ranging from promotion of the brand within their institute and lo-cal neighborhood to acting as a point of sales. Campus ambassadors are mainly meant for brands and services targeting the youth. Companies that hire student ambas-sador include clothing and apparel brand, renting service providers, educational service providers, Sports brands, Radio Stations, Newspapers/Magazines catering to the youth etc. Student ambassadors can also include those trained in specific fields such as SAP Programing, SAS etc. Here students can serve both as mentors and receptors of the desired information .The specializations help both the students and the organization to have a comprehensive approach towards achievement of the desired results. Some of the companies that use student ambassadors to promote their brand are -

Promotional Activities A large share of brand ambassadorship work is majorly passive. Like in case of an apparel brand store, latest fash-ion seasons’ product will be distributed for free, by simply wearing them well you let the prospective market know about how the brand is unique and distinguished from others.Promotional activities will be included in the job descrip-

perspective


perspective april 2014

brand look attractive to people they contact so that a pos-itive mind frame is created among public.

Peer-to-Peer Marketing Strategies Several strategies can be followed to improve the peer to peer information handling and marketing. Word-of-mouth marketing still stays as the primary mode of P2P marketing. The brands can attempt to increase the group dynamics through effective communication and meet with prospective students. These strategies help to de-velop innovative and creative approaches from young and vibrant minds and help in improving presentations to faculty and student communities. Also firms can conduct targeted awareness programs and information sharing .

Implication and Benefits for the students • The skills displayed as a brand ambassador in great de-mand by graduate employers. Understand how branding and marketing works real time. • Engage with people using enhanced communicating, and increase the skills of negotiating and persuading to feel positive about something.• Being well connected amongst peers and maintaining networks. Make useful contacts at the company which has employed you. These contacts will remember you and help you in future in one way or other.• Exposure to the corporate world;• Publicity and media opportunities; • Further achievements for a better profile creation. Conclusion It is true that the student ambassadorship programs are a great way to reach the target audience but critical ques-tions still remain if this partnership can scale, when two rival firms engage students from the same campus it could possible lead to chaos and in-fighting. The social contract theory envisions mutual benefit, but in most cases it’s the business that has an authoritative hand to an extent that they can influence the lifestyle and buying preferences of youth. We believe the internal control mechanism, checks and balances will ensure that the business don’t prevail over customers. The platform has great potential and can be leveraged to promote social campaigns. These marketing strategies should be looked from the perspec-tive of helping customers to make wiser choices.

tion of the student brand ambassador and usually constitute most of it along with certain pro-active tasks like :• Conducting promo-tional events on campus Showing up on shows and cultural events and effec-tively selling the brand• Providing the samples to their targets and to suc-ceed in turning them into loyal customers• PR stunts• Creating awareness pro-grams, shows and media activities • All these tasks aims at the student ambassador’s pri-ma ry role to make the

Maruti Suzuki Celerio A driving revolution beckons



When Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) MD & CEO Kenichi Ayukawa along with the Chairman R.C. Bhar-gava launched Celerio at Auto Expo 2014, it cre-ated a buzz in India’s compact car segment. The company’s prior attempt to have a successful car with automatic gearbox has failed miserably in its vari-ants of Esteem, Zen, Wagon-R and A-Star. The vari-ous reasons for the failure of cars in the automatic gear segment are high maintenance cost and lower fuel efficiency. MSI has learned from its previous mis-takes and experiences from users of automatic cars and seems to have got it right with its new Celerio.

Presently the market share of cars with automatic trans-mission is only 5% in the overall competitive Indian auto market and there is huge potential for its growth given the right product suitable to consumers’ needs is available in the market. The product pricing is done with a lot brain-storming and is one of the major factors for receiving over 14,000 orders within two weeks since its booking opened. Celerio Zxi model with manual transmission is priced at

Lakh with automatic transmission. This encour-ages the buyer to go for a model with automatic transmission rather than going with a manual one. The Car is also priced effectively in comparison to other competitive products in the compact car segment with automatic transmission like Hyundai Grand i 10 and Hon-da Brio which are priced at Rs.6.04 lakh and Rs.6.19 lakh respectively.MSI also boasts to offer a mileage of 23.1 km per litre for Celerio to compete in a country which is ob-sessed with fuel economy figures. The company has received an overwhelming response of the car after its launch with close to 1,000 bookings per day. The internal management of Marti estimated that the Celerio’s AMT variant would account for approx. 20% of production; according to actual booking figures it has

crossed the 50% mark. According to global brokerage firm Nomura Maruti’s overall domestic volumes increased 2 per cent year-on-year in February led possibly by strong Celerio volumes. Hence, after receiving booking for higher than expected volumes enabled India’s biggest car maker to increase its market share to 52% in February. Another important reason which is motivating the consumers to

BY Rishi Kumar IMT Ghaziabad



buy and enquire for new cars is the recent cut in ex-cise duty from 12% to 8%. On the hindsight, the in-crease in volume of bookings would increase the du-ration of waitlist for Celeries as the company didn’t expect to receive the booking in such huge numbers. So just like several hit models for the company in past, the Celeries too will make its buyers wait for months. The tagline for the Celeries says “Life takes a leap “.The Company has promoted the product with EZ drive tech-nology, EZ Style, EZ Space and loaded with EZ Gizmos. The car comes with a powerful K-NEXT Engine which provides a faster throttle response, better torque delivery and class leading fuel efficiency to the car. The next generation trans-mission reduces mechanical losses and enables effortless gear shift operation which reduces noise in the cabin. Im-proving upon the space in the car the company has intro-duced a concept of XpanDesign that gives a roomy cabin with spacious headroom, legroom and shoulder-room and a large boot-space. It gives an added option of 60: 40 split

flexibility in the rear seats to increase luggage capacity. Tata Motors has already announced plans to introduce Automatic Manual Transmission (AMT) technology in its upcoming car ‘Zedan’ in the sedan segment. The other In-dian giant in auto industry- Mahindra has also disclosed its plans and is expected to soon launch a car in AMT variant. So, the rivals has announced war and it will be interest-ing to observe the strategy of MSI to succeed in this war too as it has been doing since past 43 years and enjoy-ing the spot of India’s most trusted brand in car industry. In an era where Indian car industry is facing an unprec-edented slowdown due to rising fuel prices and rapidly changing preferences of the consumers, a product like Celeries will bring the fresh spirit in the market and will lure the buyers who want to experience the thrill of cars with automatic transmission at an affordable price range and from a trusted name i.e. “Maruti Suzuki India”.

If one considers the basic marketing structure in both the rural and urban markets, it might seem quite identical but on delving deep into the rural markets, the opportunities and challenges that the rural mar-kets offer are innumerable. Some of the key challeng-es faced by the marketers in rural markets include the high costs to serve these markets due to lack of proper sales and distribution networks, transporta-tion issues and seasonal demand for the products. The game is played differently here and to realize big-ger numbers in the long run, this aspect cannot and should not be ignored. With increasing competition in the urban markets and growing potential in the rural segment, it is becoming essential for the companies to target the rural markets. According to India census report, around 70% of the Indian population live in rural ar-eas and the mean monthly household incomes in the rural regions have been increasing over the past few years. Since the year 2000, per-capita GDP in rural ar-eas grew by a CAGR of 6.2% when compared to that of 4.7% in urban areas. Between the years 2009 and 2012, spending in rural areas has reached USD 69 bil-lion which is significantly higher than the USD 55 bil-lion spent by the urban counterparts. So this is a seg-ment that the marketers cannot neglect as they see a lot of growth opportunities in this segment. How-ever the consumer behavior is very different from the urban markets. The rural population is utility driven. Despite the rising incomes and spending, the people will only put their money on products which are of use. Branding, sophisticated packaging, using a popular brand ambassador and other promotional strategies may not be as effective. “Price” is perhaps

the most important part of the marketing mix here as well as the distribution channels employed.Four P’s in Rural marketingThe 4 P’s of marketing have to be tweaked taking into consideration the customer requirements in the rural areas.Product Strategy:Customers in rural areas generally prefer simple prod-ucts which are easy to use. Sophisticated packaging adds to the cost of the product and does not offer any advantages. The products should not just cater to the needs of the customers but provide value for money as well. Eg: Sampoorna television launched by LG which had Devanagari script on screen display, Bhumiheen credit cards launched by Bank of India which extended credit card facilities to landless farm-ers. Pricing Strategy:The rural customers are price sensitive and therefore, the pricing must take care of this requirement. Many companies began to offer their products in smaller units in order to make them more affordable. The concept of value engineering, which involves replac-ing costly raw materials with cheaper ones, without compromising on quality and functionality, must be adopted for rural markets. However, if the product belongs to an expensive category then the position-ing must be done in such a way that the customer perceives it as a bundle of offerings. Eg: Godrej in-troduced Cinthol, Fair Glow and other Godrej prod-ucts in 50 gram packs which are priced at Rs. 4-5, Lux toilet soap made available in 25 gram packs in rural areas, Philips introduced its radio which does not re-quire any batteries. SKUs and price points that make


cover story april 2014

Cover Story BySai Sashanka

Paladugu &

Hari Kishan Yenugula

IIM ShillongProject Gaon: The ultimate destiny?

sense to the rural population needs to employed for maximum reach and acceptance.Place Strategy:The marketers should try all attempts to deliver the product directly to the customers and in this regard, direct contact with the local vendors and retailers should be established. However, formulating an ef-ficient distribution channel remains as one of the key challenges for the marketers. In spite of these hur-dles, many companies were able to successfully cater to the rural customers and garner huge profits. Eg: Project Shakti - Hindustan Unilever’s rural direct-to-consumer retail distribution initiative, eChoupal by ITC, Ajanta India distributes its products through the paanwalas and the chemist stores. Promotion Strategy:The channels which are appropriate for the rural markets should be used for promotion activities as well. Positive word-of-mouth considered as the key to success in the rural markets. Other methods such as distribution of pamphlets and use of mobile pub-licity vans can also assist in establishing a relation-ship with the rural masses. Eg: Asian Paints identi-fied some opinion leaders in the villages and painted their houses to demonstrate that the colour does not come off. In addition to the 4P’s, the companies must follow a three legged strategy to achieve success in the rural market i.e. reach, acquire and retain.Reach:When it comes to reaching the rural customers, the biggest obstacles in catering to these markets include inadequate distribution networks, partners with lim-ited capabilities, and weak marketing channels. The following strategies must be followed to overcome

the above challenges:•Reach “the last mile”: the companies must follow a multi-pronged approach which is used to increase the penetration in the rural markets and also to over-come the difficulty of finding the channel partners with the appropriate capabilities. Some have also fol-lowed the village entrepreneur model to overcome the distribution problems. It is equally important to leverage e-Commerce to gain efficient access to the customers.•Market expansion: The companies must perform a detailed market scanning and segmentation so that they can understand segment- specific nuances and prioritize the best opportunities. A few of them have also used technologies such as GIS mapping to get a comprehensive understanding of the target seg-ments.•Build sustainable channel relationships: As rural markets grow, more players enter the fray, which drives up the demand for capable channel partners. In addition to this, there is always a risk of partner at-trition. The most successful companies in rural India create sustainable channel partner relationships and constantly motivate their partners.Acquire:To acquire the rural customers, it is very important to understand the cultural, economic and demographic dimensions which significantly differ from their ur-ban counterparts. Organizations often make mis-takes in this regard by considering both the rural and urban markets to be similar and make their offerings similar in terms of the value propositions demanded. The following steps must be followed in order to en-sure success:•Create trust: Companies that want to master rural markets must engage with a wide set of stakehold-



Source: Census India 2011 Source: Credit Suisse India customer survey 2013



ers in order to prove that their business is mutually beneficial for every stakeholder involved. This is very important because each stakeholder would influence the customer buying decision in some or the other way. This approach also increases the awareness of companies and enables the companies to tap into the latent demand. It also increases the touch points in the early stages of buying process at a very less cost.•Define a unique value proposition: Successful com-panies know their rural customers and deliver expe-riences which are specifically tailored to their needs and preferences. They should also invest heavily in customer analytics to gain insights into rural consum-ers and their latent needs.•Involve the right influencers: As most brands have a short history in rural India, word of mouth plays a much more significant role in acquiring rural custom-ers than it does in urban markets. In order to achieve this, the businesses must identify the right influenc-ers and constantly engage with them.Piggybacking is one of the strategy used by many marketers to acquire customers to a new product (say A) through an existing successful product (say B). By offering B free or discounted with product A, people would like to try B which would provide an opportunity for the B. This is a relatively cheap and more effective marketing strategy. One should be aware of the concept before applying it to make it more fruitful. While targeting rural markets, one can look at a successful product which commanded the loyalty of the masses and using its brand name for promoting the new product will create a base for the new product instantly. It’s like sub-branding within a product to get an instant connect. The target market and the timings should be crosschecked before going ahead with the concept so as to make sure it works in the intended manner.Retain:Although most of the companies are focusing heavily on rural consumer reach and acquisition, bolstering customer retention efforts has gained importance as the competitors deepen their market penetration. One of the major obstacle towards this is providing reliable and consistent after-sales service. The fol-lowing strategies can be adopted in order to over-come the challenges.•Low cost models for after-sales service: After-sales support plays a crucial role in customer retention. It also strengthens the company’s rural bonds and com-mitments, which increases customer loyalty across

all stages of the product lifecycle. To do so, the com-panies must tap into local talent who would offer the service at a cheaper price.•Investing in rural development: In order to master rural markets, the companies must align their long-term interests with development of local communi-ties to gain their trust and loyalty. Most companies do it by integrating the local partners in their value systems. What Tata Motors Limited did to overcome this chal-lenge?After demarcating rural market as the “battleground” of future, TML had identified the challenges for for-aying into these markets. The time was so right that the Govt. has increased its spending on rural infra-structure and employment, leading to improvement in the rural spending and hence the vehicle sale growth.TML’s challenges:The challenges mainly include access to rural mar-kets, cost of access and financial concerns. As the concept of dealership was mainly focused in the ur-ban and semi-urban areas, lack of dealers and hence the access to the rural markets is very limited. It’s the small commercial vehicle (SCV) portfolio which was seen as ideal fit for the rural market and without the dealers, the customers will not be in a position to get trusted advice and hence will not be in a position to really explore the option of going for a SCV as a means of livelihood and business opportunity. With the rural market so widely spread with relatively low



demand per area, high costs are incurred to reach the market by giving dealerships in the rural markets. With poor availability of the relevant documentation, it would be difficult for the financial institutions to provide funds for the purchase of the vehicles.TML’s approach:TML’s go-to-market strategy includes a thorough un-derstanding of the market through a couple of thou-sand interviews with the existing and potential users of SCV. This gave some insights with regards to their needs, preferences and buying behavior. The three target customer segments that emerged due to this activity are as follows:•Youth for self-employment•Large agricultural families as a secondary source of income•Small businesses for transportation of goods and peopleTwo indirect local engagement through government and non-government bodies for rural development helped TMI to get the access to the talent pool chris-tened as “Tata Gram Mitras” (TGM) who acted as the “trusted” advisors to rural customers. These TGMs are properly trained and from the respective areas, leads are generated. This will be complemented with an outlet network of corporate partners with proper rural reach.The cost component was maintained well under the limits by considering the indirect channels as the fixed costs and keeping the dealer’s costs minimum. The dealers were paid commission during the sale of the vehicles and hence, the model was sustainable and profitable from the beginning.The project team that planned the whole arrange-ment had negotiations with the local banks, govern-ment agencies and NBFCs to increase the vehicle fi-nance. Simultaneously, the finance arm of the Tata group has made the process less cumbersome for the vehicle finance in the rural market.Sales and the CRM technology systems were aligned with the marketing, sales of the rural sales process-es to make sure the complete project run smooth-ly. When the demand matured in the rural market,

dealer branches were opened to continue with the model.

What Novartis did to overcome this challenge?Novartis, with presence in more than 140 countries, is a world leader in pharmaceuticals. Its research discovered an information gap in the rural areas. Villagers are not properly diagnosed and hence are not aware of the treatments available which lead to the treatment in the advanced stages and avoidable deaths in some cases.Novartis’s challenges:People were not aware of the importance of the healthcare and did not maintain health records which made it difficult to identify the major health issues in a region. Adding to the ignorance of the people was the inconsistency of the healthcare ecosystem. The existing ecosystem of doctors, clinics, hospitals, diag-nostic centers, medical shops and equipment were inconsistent and disconnected. The finance require-ment to sustain the local camps and to make sure not to turn them to R&D centers as the proper treat-ments might not be available in the area.Novartis’s approach:The never ending vicious cycle of the required eco-system and awareness was thwarted by establishing a cohesive ecosystem by establishing doctors, clinics, medical shops, etc. which in-turn helped in spread-ing awareness among the people. Company is also trying to push the boundaries by bringing-in selec-tive cost efficient equipment for rural operations. The awareness created by various camps organized by Novartis were measured using the referral cards which were issued during the camps and has to be returned by the patients when they visit doctors. To penetrate into the masses, Novartis has partnered with the R&D firms to develop low cost equipment like ECG etc. Along with the equipment design, the products offered by the company are customized as per the rural needs in terms of low cost packing, information printing in the local language, etc. Now that the healthcare ecosystem has been built, dedi-cated distribution channel was made available to re-

IIM ShillongMARKATHON


plenish the medicines to the different stakeholders of the system including the patients.What Idea did to overcome this challenge?Idea, 3rd largest mobile phone service provider in In-dia and 10th in the world, faced an intense competi-tion in the urban market. It won a bid across 27 rural clusters (without asking for any subsidy) where Govt. offered subsidies for establishing infrastructure and reach under-penetrated rural markets.Idea’s challenges:High operating costs (about 15% higher than the ur-ban market) are a major challenge due to the unavail-ability of power and water at times. It’s a low mar-gin market where usage is primarily based on voice and not on data and other premium packs. With the rural partners having less to invest in the business, the availability of SIMs and the recharge coupons is highly affected. Even the people who are trained by the Idea used to go to the competitors which added manpower issues. Most of the rural areas are less covered in terms of towers and the retail stores.Idea’s approach:Idea has used technology not only to offer different products to the subscribers but also used for pre-dicting the demand based on operational metrics, consumer profiles and the infrastructure required to meet the demand. It has not only covered the under-penetrated rural markets, but also created

an awareness of using mobile for the development of the community through different advertisements that are conducted in the local melas and haats. It has used the latest banking tools like NEFT and RGTS to make the transactions with its rural sales force to increase the speed of the operations along with the volumes. Electronic Top-ups through mobiles has in-creased the sale of the vouchers multi-folds. The lo-cal talent was recruited based on their will to make a difference to the village from the towns where the company had installed towers and trained them in sales and marketing. This has created a loyal work-force who own the brand and promote it through the talent acquired during the training to increase its sales. The company has even prepared itself to pen-etrate further into the remote rural areas through individuals (Idea Grameen Pratinidhis) who act as mobile outlet and take care of the respective areas. Through its understanding of the customer profiles, it has created products (in terms of small vouchers with denomination of Rs. 5, Rs. 10) to target the riches at the bottom of the pyramid.Our perspectiveJust like the western countries are saturated and the companies are focusing on the developing markets, future is all about the rural markets whose potential to consume is on the rise. All the companies are not equipped to deal with the rural markets which are

Idea Rural Van Activity

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different on a lot of fronts. Rural markets are charac-terized by low access, low margin and largely distrib-uted. This is the scenario across the globe. To deal with this kind of markets, sudden and aggressive plans will not work. The strategy has to be thought through and ground study of the consumer behavior has to be undertaken. Based on the results, specific solutions have to be applied.The wealth at the bottom of the pyramid is a myriad and an obvious fact like the sun rising on the east. The earlier a company identifies this fact and chang-es its value chain the better it will hedge its future with intense competition that has already begun. It could be simply the SKU or the distribution system or the product that is specifically designed or a product that gives more value than the monetary one, any of these changes can bring the company closer to the rural market. One needs to closely observe the needs by putting themselves in the shoe of the rural con-sumers. Giving them an Air conditioner might not de-light them as much as a table fan which can be used outside during the sleep. It’s not always the superior product that works, it’s the better product that suits

the requirement that wins.Since the needs of the rural consumers are distinct from the ones urban consumers want, we suggest that the companies should find the talent from the very same consumer base so that he/she can em-pathize with the consumers and create a difference. This concept is not new as such as it is already being used when a company enters a new country but was not put in use for the rural market so far.With consumerism on rise and increasing markets, companies should look into sustainability in terms of sourcing and should be responsible in making the products long lasting. This is an inherent characteris-tic of the rural consumer: To use products which lasts long and even keep the scrap for the future use.In spite of its many challenges, effective marketing rural regions can have many-fold benefits. Many companies have realized this over time and have established themselves in this segment. It will be in-teresting to see how the game changes as more and more players enter the market

vartalaap


vartalaap april 2014

VARTALAAPAn Interview with

Prof PraveenKopalle

After teaching at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, for four years, Prof. Kopalle traded the warm, southern weather for the charming Northeast and joined the Tuck School in 1996. His teaching and research interests include marketing management, marketing re-search, pricing strategy, and new product development. In addition to his awards, research, and editorial accomplishments, Prof. Kopalle is also a research director (Internet marketing and pricing) at the Glass-meyer/McNamee Center for Digital Strategies, and a faculty associ-ate of William F. Achtmeyer Center for Global Leadership, both at the Tuck School. He is a marketing advisor for BeVocal, Inc., based in Santa Clara, CA and is an avid cricket enthusiast and a HAM radio operator.“Most often firms focus on current customers, and call themselves customer centric but totally ignore the non-customers as they think that’s not a strategic market for them.s”

Marketing Advisor

BeVocal, Inc.



landed me a fellowship at Columbia Business School, Columbia University, New York. It was an amazing experience at Columbia, particularly under the guid-ance of my advisor and mentor, Professor Don Lehm-ann. That’s when I realized that I was tailor made for academics as I enjoy both research and teaching. Since then, there has been no turning back. If I can go back in time, I would follow the exact same path.

Markathon: Can you please throw some light on the ‘emergent consumer’ segment that you came across during your research? How do you expect consumer reviews to evolve in the coming years?

An estimated 40–45 percent of all new products fail. One way to improve the new-product success rate is to focus on which consumers are the “right” ones to use in the new-product development process, partic-ularly in the consumer goods industry. I propose that the right consumers to use for new-product concept development are the “emergent consumers.” These are individuals who have three key characteristics: (i) a visionary nature, i.e., an ability to imagine or envi-sion how concepts might be developed so they will be successful in the mainstream marketplace, (ii) em-pathy, so they can connect with typical consumers, and (iii) making associations, such that they can con-nect the dots more easily.

A key cognitive skill for generating innovative ideas is association—making connections across seemingly

Markathon: From Undergraduation in Mechanical Engineering to a pHD in Marketing, how would you describe your journey in academics?

When I was doing my undergraduate studies in Me-chanical and Production Engineering at Osmania University, I had always thought that I would pursue higher studies in engineering, most likely in the Unit-ed States. Then my father suggested that I should take the CAT and try for the IIMs. It was a low likeli-hood event, but I gave it a shot anyway. I was actu-ally surprised to get a call back from IIM, Bangalore, for an interview and group discussion. One question they asked me then was, “why did you apply with-out any work experience?” To which I said, “I thought if I get admitted, my classmates would appreciate a purely academic view, one that is not contaminated with industry experience!” I was thrilled to get into IIMB. There I fell in love with marketing, particularly consumer behavior. Given my quantitative back-ground, I thought I could add value by developing mathematical models of consumer behavior. Given my inclination and the nature of my questions, my professors at IIMB suggested that I pursue doctoral work in marketing in the US. Their recommendations

vartalaap

offering in-store coupons, this may become easier to implement via online.

Markathon: With the advent of e-commerce, Price has probably become the most talked about ‘p’ of marketing. To what extent do you think marketers are giving importance to the psychology of pricing? How can they utilize the reference price effect to their advantage?

Retailers are definitely giving a lot of importance to the psychology of pricing. I actually evaluated the algorithm developed by a pricing company called Kh-iMetrics (now owned by SAP International). KhiMet-rics helps retailers in the U.S. coming up with optimal prices for each of their SKUs by using weekly sales data. In their model, they have a specific section on leveraging the psychology of pricing. This is how re-tailers can utilized the reference price effect to their advantage. Say people are used to buying Coca Cola (Coke) at $2, i.e., their reference price is $2. However, it turns out that more people are sensitive to a $0.25 price decrease around this reference price relative to a $0.25 price increase. Because of such “gain-seek-ing” consumers, reducing the price of Coke to $1.75 during a week would increase demand for Coke by 15 percent; this incremental bump could be due to consumer stockpiling as well as shifting from other lower priced brands that they would have otherwise bought.

The following week, when Coke increases its price



unrelated fields, problems, or ideas. My coauthors and I developed a scale to identify emergent con-sumers and in two distinct product categories, home delivery and oral care, we identify such consumers and find they are able to develop new product con-cepts that mainstream consumers find significantly more appealing and useful, compared to concepts developed by typical, lead-user, or even innovative, consumers. Going forward, I expect more and more firms to seek out reviews and feedback from people such as the emergent consumers.

Markathon: According to you, how can the manu-facturer alleviate the retail pass-through problem? What is your take on supplementing trade promo-tions with advertising trade deals directly to con-sumers?

Actually, I do not see retail pass through as a prob-lem. If there is going to be a significant lift in sales due to a promotion, it is in the best interest of a re-tailer to pass through to the consumer any manu-facturer supported discount. Past research suggests that in some cases, retailers may pass through more than the discount offered by the manufacturer. How-ever, the median pass through is much lower than 100% -- and that is in categories where the lift is not that high. In situations where manufacturers feel that retailers may not pass through the discounts to consumers, they have couple of options: (1) have a contractual agreement regarding the pass through, or (2) offer deals directly to consumers – apart from

eye2eye eye2eye



to $2.25, the decrease in demand is only 10 percent since these consumers are less sensitive to a price increase around the reference price. This means that when Coke increased its price, it didn’t lose that many of these customers. The bottom line is that retailers can now figure out, in each category, the proportion of its customer base that is more (or less) sensitive to price changes around the reference price and then determine the sweet spot for the prices of its prod-ucts in those categories.

Markathon: You have mentioned in one of your arti-cles that “The line between online and offline retail-ing will blur”. How can companies achieve the much needed balance between the bricks-and-mortar and the clicks modes of retail?

There are three ways how retailers can achieve the balance between the bricks-and-mortar and the on-line stores: (1) providing same-day delivery of online purchases. This can be achieved by partnering with delivery companies as well as with the postal ser-vice. (2) Match online prices in the bricks-and-mortar stores so that consumers don’t browse in the retail stores and place their order online. Best Buy, a large retail store in the U.S., just began following this strat-egy and it is turning out to be successful for them. (3) Provide the same, high quality of shopper experi-ence both in the bricks-and-mortar stores and in the online world.

Markathon: With a foray of more and more new products in the market, what would your advice be for the budding marketers in new product develop-ment?

My advice is three fold: (1) Keep track of cutting edge research in new product development. When you read things such as the Emergent Consumers, explore such ideas to see if they are suited to your company. (2) Analytics will rule. Instead of doing guesswork in new product development, make sure there is ex-perimentation, and that decisions are based on hard data and analytics/simulations. (3) Customer centric-ity is key. It is about having a good understanding of the needs or pain points of your customers of the future, as well as of your current customers, and de-signing solutions to meet those needs or pain points.

Most often firms focus on current customers, and call themselves customer centric but totally ignore the non-customers as they think that’s not a strate-gic market for them. I don’t call that 100% customer centricity. I think firms should spend a non-trivial amount of time thinking about their future custom-ers


eye2eye december 2013

SHOULD NOKIA SUPPORT ANDROID IN ITS NEW PHONE SERIES?

Topic for the next issue: “Experiential Marketing - worth its costs. Agree or disagree? ” Your opinion (view/counterview) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is 3rd May, 2014. Include your

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

saket haweliaiim shillong

The increase of the technologi-cal fad that has inculcated a de-sire among the customers to be in vogue has just added to the intense competition among the marketers. Many companies have leveraged on the opportunities while the market share of a lot more has declined. Despite the sliding profits of Nokia and sugges-tions of many to switch to Android, I believe that Nokia should continue to stick to Windows for Nokia X.Differentiation seems to have become the order of the day. Android Market is one rat race where there’s con-stant struggle. Samsung is the only manufacturer using Android to have succeeded; HTC, Sony and LG seem to be in a continuous scuffle. Nokia with Windows brings some-thing fresh and different for the customers. In fact, Nokia has had its share of success while retaining its own iden-tity with Asha “budget phones” and Lumia devices; sans Android. In fact, Lumia offers a new quirkiness lacked by Android and a camera coupled with of MS Office; which have apparently struck a chord with the newer genera-tion.Even if we consider the pros of Android, the fact is that its implementation would be expensive for Nokia. It would still have to pay Microsoft the licensing fees for intellec-tual property patents and at the same time pay to its own developers to make something unique. By concentrating on Windows phone, not only is Nokia actually getting money from Microsoft, instead of paying them to use An-droid; but Nokia is also being subject to a huge potential that Windows 8 and Xbox Ecosystem has to offer.To conclude, now that Nokia will be a part of Microsoft, it doesn’t make sense for Nokia to move to the Android platform, even if it wants. So, as of now Nokia should con-tinue to stick with Windows, which I believe would be for the better.

kranthi kiran gudeiim raipur

At Mobile World Congress, Barce-lona, it has been raining innovations in the smartphone market but, the

show stopper is Nokia with its new Android smartphone, releasing into a market which is already cluttered with so many smartphones from different manufacturers but, it is definitely able to create waves in the market. There have been rumors going around since couple of years that Nokia is entering into Android market. But, few people have dismissed those rumors linking to its strong alliance with Microsoft. Many have equated it to Lionel Messi moving from Barcelona to Real Madrid. But, making those rumors true Nokia entered into the market of Android smartphones at the time when its smartphones using Mi-crosoft OS have been doing fairly well in the market. With this launch Nokia, who was a market leader few years back, wants to get back its lost market share. Nokia uses Android Open Source Project (AOSP) operating system for its new Android releases i.e. a forked version of Android. But, this version of Android does not support Google apps such as Google Maps, Play Store and also any app which uses these features. But, Nokia managed to link the services provided by Microsoft which has helped it to link best features from both the worlds. Apart from the limitations of using AOSP Nokia X still comes with the same flavor of Microsoft OS and is still working on easy ways to transfer data from Nokia X to Lu-mia. Nokia, though it has moved into the Android OS, still maintains the flavor of the windows OS through its live tiles and FastLane for multitasking. This actually serves as a Point of Difference for the Nokia smartphones as the in-terface will have a different look and feel when compared to other Android smartphones in the market.

eye2eye april 2014


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

silent voice december 2013 silent voice april 2014

Theme:TIME Coaching

Classes

Last month’s resultsWINNERAvinash ayyagari | glim, chennai

THEME FOR NEXT SILENT VOICE: Kings XI PunjabLAST DATE OF SENDING THE PRINT AD: 3rd May, 2014

EMAIL ID: [email protected] Send your entry in JPEG format named as SilentVoice_<Your Name>_<Institute>only.

honorary mentionKALPENDRA MANU & NITIN SONKAR | IIM RAIPUR

CATCHRMISS

AD-dicted december 2013


BY swati pamnaniIIM Shillong

PRODUCT: Chota Pepsi

POSITIONING: Ab kaise hoga wait

CREATIVE AGENCY:JWT India

YouTube Link: h t t p : / / w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m /w a t c h ? l i s t = U U 6 z g S V c - - P q 3 _ZpxDhUz5DA&v=DSAjcnLmEz0

CONCEPT:

Pepsi has come up with a TVC to lead off its Rs. 8 bottle, featuring its brand am-bassador Ranbir Kapoor. The TVC starts with a South In-dian cultural ensemble going on a stage, with Ranbir on a drum-shaped instrument, a man playing a wind instru-ment and a lady doing Bharatnatyam. Both the instru-ment players alternate, and then suddenly Ranbir goes missing. The man tries to make up and the lady is shown with a perplexed look. The TVC proceeds showing Ranbir in back stage, who went off stage to grab a Pepsi, and says, “Ab kaise hoga wait, jab Pepsi hai Rs.8?” The film concludes with a voice-over and a sign off with “Oh Yes Abhi” tagline.

VERDICT: Miss

Though the set designed is innovative for a beverage ad, but it is a big time failure for a number of reasons. There was a lot of scope to utilize the space and the star pow-er, but both fizzled to create a mark. It is a little illogical and non-convincing for a performer to leave an ongoing performance to grab a cold drink bottle. Also, the po-sitioning not at all shows that it aims to highlight the price factor, except the tagline. With a little interesting background setup, Pepsi aiming to challenge Coca-Cola on advertisement grounds, fails to even stand nearby.

BY yash bhambhwaniIIM Shillong

PRODUCT: Idea 3G

POSITIONING: An Idea against Ullu-ism

CREATIVE AGENCY: Lowe Lintas

YouTube Link:h t t p : / / w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m /watch?v=tdwDITm9Csk

CONCEPT:

“Get an idea sir ji”. This quote rings in the mind of every Indian who watches TV. Idea is known for coming up with refreshing ideas and catchy tunes that will grab your at-tention the first time. This time it’s the power of the inter-net that empowers you to protect yourself from people trying to fool you. It is a well known fact that people in India easily get carried away and accept whatever others have to say, but with idea brilliantly portraying the fact that its reach has expanded and no one can ever fool you if you are an idea user, people are sure to be tempted. With the ever green brand ambassador of idea, Abhishek Bachchan, playing the role of a painter who talks about a smarter India where people are empowered and are no longer dependent on others for information. VERDICT: Catch

In the age of the internet and right to information, idea has timed its advertisement well and has conveyed its message through common citizens which is the best way to connect to the consumers. According to Markathon the advertisement is a catch and is sure to add to the grow-ing sales of idea sim cards and shares the idea of no ullu banaoing.

AD-dicted april 2014


ishtihaar april 2014

RAMANATHAN K | IIM Shillong

When we are talking of a section that is exclu-sively dedicated for marketing techniques exclusively adopted for India, how can one miss the missed call cul-ture that is so prevalent that it is estimated that 65% of the 900 odd million mobile phone users in India prefer to give this ‘quick’ call. Missed call is now the modern day Morse code. It conveys any pre-decided short mes-sages. So if you want to know the latest weather, the latest Groupon-style deal, or the real-time bus schedule, you can send a missed call to the designated number and get an automated or manual voice call back with the an-swers you need at free of cost. Welcome to the world of missed call marketing. This missed call phenomenon is more and more moving beyond personal communication and number of businesses including big brands has started adopting it. The ease of use of missed calls and zero charges associ-ated with it gives it a huge advantage over other newer forms of communication including SMSes. This innova-tive and cost efficient communication tool drives two to fifty times more engagements for businesses than when they use SMS. T he first time the service went vi-ral was when it tapped into India’s biggest obsession: cricket. During the 2011 world cup Zipdial, a mobile marketing and analyt-ics company relayed cricket scores and up-dates through text messages in exchange for missed calls. On the day that India played Pakistan Zipdial clocked 4 million calls. It then gathered data about callers by ask-ing responses on their gender, age, city etc which later formed a huger database for other companies about their potential tar-get audience.

Some other popular examples are:

Anna Hazare’s CampaignThis innovative tool was put best into use for Anna Hazare’s fight against corruption campaign. When Hazare started his fast-un-to-death at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, organiz-ers requested the public to give a missed call on 022-61550789 to register their support. Within two months, over 75 Lakh unique missed calls came to show their support.

This acted as a way to channelize their support and en-couragement for all those who could not make it to the protest.

Rural India CallsAlso In rural India, the missed call model is being put to some innovative uses. For instance, a Marathi daily has started a campaign asking its readers to give a missed call to a particular number to renew their subscriptions. Farmers in Karnataka, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh now give a missed call on a number to get an SMS of daily prices of about 24 crops in their Mandis. What started as a way to avoid exorbitant call rates has now become a way for marketers to communicate and interact with their target audience. This 500 Cr. business is thriving rapidly in India where already millions and millions are dialing and disconnecting. If you love this section, why not show it by giving a missed call to 08415921950!

Ishtihaar

Colgate Kitchen EntreesLeaving a bad taste in the mouth


jab they failed april 2014

Jab They Failed

b ushashree | IIM Shillong

Brand extensions can be extremely tricky as the exist-ing consumer perceptions regarding your brand have a huge say in the success of your new product. Companies that attempt extensions without taking note of this fact have experienced “falling flat on their face”. One such ex-ample is that of Colgate entering into a range of frozen food products called Kitchen Entrees in 1982. Colgate has been a market leader in that segment and has been syn-onymous with dental care. In one of its bizarre extensions ideas – yes there is more than one, Colgate decided to capitalize on its popular brand image to sell a new line of frozen dinners. Would you put something in your mouth which has the same name as that of your favourite tooth-paste? As expected, the product line did not work as Col-gate intended it to. The product was taken off shelves as soon as it came and never got to leave the US soil. Colgate is not the only brand to have failed with food products. At Markathon, we try to look at the brand failure of Kitchen Entrees and why venturing into new product ideas in the food segment is so tricky.When we go to the supermarket, we go with certain ex-pectations. For instance, we expect ketchup to be red and not purple. When these expectations are turned on their heads, not only is there a bit of cognitive dissonance, it’s just weird. And it’s not until the shock wears off that we ac-tually ask ourselves, “Why would anyone possibly want to buy this?” Christopher Cornyn, the president of DINE, an agency called upon by major brands when they’re looking to roll out new products stresses that creating a new food product is complex. According to Cornyn, today, a product needs to satisfy about 5 consumer need states - the con-sumer’s functional, nutritional, emotional, social, and cul-tural needs. Ten years ago, you only had to satisfy one or two and you had a hit. Now inventing a new food product requires a holistic approach that addresses all of these. If you think a consumer judges a product only on the basis of taste, you have just seen the tip of the iceberg. There are attributes beyond taste that catch the consumer’s eye. For instance, the packaging and the pricing is crucial in such items. In case of food, its packaging must entice the consumer to buy it and enjoy the dish. If the packaging is gross, people will not even bother to see what’s inside. Moreover, food products, especially the ready to eat seg-ment can easily be substituted by cooking. Though Indian markets are slowly opening up to these type of meals, a

freshly prepared meal is always preferred. Here pricing becomes critical as people will be willing to purchase this only if they find their money’s worth in it. What really hit Colgate Entrees was that like any other brand extension, the product was still connected to its core brand. No amount of beautiful packaging, tempt-ing discounts or mouth-watering tastes could counter the effect of that. Brand extensions thus should be well-thought-out, field tested, and should happen to make a lot of sense. Colgate Entrees wasn’t a bad product as such but Colgate should have released it under a different brand. They could have also changed the packaging and not put Colgate logo in huge, bold letters. Before ventur-ing into this product, Colgate should have spent some ef-fort in understanding consumer perceptions and the fro-zen foods market. Probably then they could have foreseen that the frozen food market was already pretty saturated in 1982, and when people think of Colgate they tend to think of clean teeth, not frozen meatballs


updates december 2013 updates april 2014

Brand Launch

Nokia X, android based smartphones unveiled Nokia X, the much-awaited Android-based budget smartphone by the Finn-ish giant, is set to make its first appearance in India, The Nokia X is based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), and is powered by Microsoft and Nokia services. The highlight of the Nokia X is the highly customised version of Android, with the Metro-inspired UI and access to Nokia’s own app store.

By Amit SonwaniIIM Shillong

Brand Watch

Hyundai launches modern family sedan ‘Xcent’

Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL), the country’s largest exporter and the second-largest car manufacturer today launched its highly anticipated compact family sedan “Hyundai Xcent”. Xcent will further redefine Hyundai’s automo-tive excellence in India in the compact sedan segment for the aspirational, stylish and value-seeking Indian customer. The Xcent has been developed for the Indian market to cater to the needs of the evolved Compact Sedan seg-ment buyers who value style, space, economy and technological features.

ShopClues launches India’s first Online Wholesale Marketplace

ShopClues became the first e-commerce company in India to offer an online platform for wholesale transactions by opening a wholesale marketplace. This new platform will be the part of the main ShopClues.com site. While the ShopClues WholeSale Marketplace gives buyers the benefit of purchas-ing bulk quantities at very attractive wholesale prices, it gives hundreds of wholesale merchants an avenue to take their business online for buying or selling. So, merchants can now get their own branded online storefront and buy-now facility, backed by ShopClues’s technology, marketing, merchan-dising, cataloguing, payment, fulfilment and customers support services. All the items bought and sold in ShopCluesWholeSale are also covered by ShopClues’s Buyer Protection Policy, under money back guarantee program.

Amul chocolates ranked as top performer brand by Consumer Voice

Consumer Voice, a leading magazine published by VOICE(Voluntary Orga-nization in the Interest of Consumer Education), has found Amul chocolates as the top performer brand. In its March 2014 edition, the magazine, which conducted a study on chocolate brands, said Amul Milk chocolate is the high-est-rated brand in the milk chocolate category. It left behind leading brands like Cadbury Dairy Milk, Lindt Lindor, Hershey’s and Chocon Milcreme. In the dark chocolate category also, Amul Dark chocolate has been rated as the number one ahead of Cadbury’s Bourneville which has been rated second.

Shoppers Stop, Infiniti chief bag top honours at Economic Times Retail Awards The fourth Economic Times Retail Awards, celebrating the best of global retail, were held last week in Mumbai in part-nership with the Retailers Association of India (RAI) to recognise the brightest, best and the most innovative. Ajit Joshi,


updates december 2013 updates april 2014

CEO and MD of Infiniti Retail, won the coveted ‘Retail Personality of the Year’ award, Cafe Coffee Day’s founder VG Siddhartha was awarded retail’s ‘Hall of Fame award’. Shoppers Stop won the ‘Most Trust-ed Retailer’ as well as ‘Customer Loyalty Initiative’ award. The ET Retail Awards was presented in partner-ship with ICICI Bank while Pricewaterhouse-Coopers was the process advisor and validator for the awards.

MediaPriyanka Chopra is new brand ambassador for Rajnigandha Silver Pearls

Priyanka Chopra has been named as the Brand Ambassador for Rajnigandha Silver Pearls and she features in the new TVC announcing the launch of saffron blended, sil-ver coated cardamom seeds, ‘Rajnigandha Silver Pearls’ from the house of DS Group.

Myntra ropes in Lowe Lintas, Ogilvy India Worldwide to maintain leading position in apparel retail

Myntra, a fashion portal, has roped in advertising agencies Lowe Lintas and Partners and Ogilvy India World-wide to spearhead its marketing strategy in an attempt to maintain its top position in online retail of apparels.

Ad WatchGoogle’s pledge to vote After the immensely famous reunion campaign, Google has again struck the chord of the hearts of the Indian television viewers through its Pledge to Vote advertisement. The Ad tries to inspire people to go out and cast their vote by featuring the story of Mr. Shyam Saran Negi, the first voter of independent India. Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuXU989B2p8

Articles Are invited“Best Article”: Dasarathi Varatharajan, Shankar Gopinath and Jitin James

| IMT Ghaziabad They receive 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 3rd May, 2014. Please send your entries marked as

<ARTICLE NAME>_<SENDERS’ NAME(S)>_<INSTITUTE> to [email protected].

markathon april 2014

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