markathon_august 2013

Cover story | Indian Hockey – in a marketing soup? markathon|august 2012

Marketing Magazine of IIM Shillong Volume 5 | Issue 2

Augu

st 13

5th Anniversary Edition

Cover Story

Dear Readers,

Before you dive deep into the exciting world of marketing, we would like to take a moment to thank all our

readers. Markathon completes yet another year in decoding the mysteries of marketing. And what a year it

was. It witnessed a change of guard, added a new section to its ever expanding array of offerings, saw an

outpour of insightful articles and most importantly a lot of love from its readers. All this and much more could

not have been possible without you.

THANK YOU.

With this edition we begin yet another journey with the promise to make the ride even more enjoyable,

interesting and insightful for you. Talking about new beginnings, what better symbolizes it but the phoenix

which rises from its own ashes and if you thought phoenix belonged to the world of mythology, think again.

Our cover story for this month “Rising From Ashes” talks about phoenixes from our world - brands that

scripted the miraculous turn around stories be it the rebel Harley or our very own home grown Dabur.

The corporate Vartaalap this month features Mr. Jatin Lakra, the current marketing manager for Tata Motors

Utility Vehicles and Mr. Pawan Bindal, the Head of the Sales and Marketing Solutions Department at Dun &

Bradstreet India.

For academic Vartaalap we have with us Ms. Barbara E. Kahn, Patty and Jay H. Baker Professor of Marketing

and the Director of the Jay H. Baker Retailing Center at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

To make the Anniversary edition even more special we have an exclusive section “Freshly Brewed” by one of

our alumni Mr. Keshav Sridhar who talks about the two kinds of marketing – marketing that you are taught in

the classroom and the marketing you learn in the real world.

This month’s edition holds a lot of other surprises for you. To begin with we have introduced a new section this

month – “Jab They Failed” and there are a lot more prizes than we promised.

“And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been”

To the new beginnings!!

Team Markathon

THE MARKATHON TEAM

Editors Ashok A | Kamalpreet Singh Saluja | Pallavi |

Prateek Gaurav | Shashank S. Tomar | Swikruti

Panda

Creative Designers Sushree L. Tripathy | Vaibhav Annam

markathon |aug 2013

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CONTENTS

FEATURED ARTICLES PERSPECTIVES MIME – MODIMATICS IN MARKETING EXCELLENCE 4 ANUSHREE PAUL| SIDDHARTH GROVER | XIMB, BHUBANESHWAR

PULSAR – THE PULSE RACER 8 ZEESHAN HASSAN| IIM KOZHIKODE

SENSIBLE ADVERTISING 12 PAVAN KUMAR R | UTTHRAA M| BIM, TRICHY

VARTALAAP MR JATIN LAKRA 15 HEAD OF MARKETING, UV PRODUCT GROUP, TATA MOTORS

COVER STORY

RISING FROM ASHES 19 ASHOK AND SUSHREE | IIM SHILLONG

VARTALAAP PROFESSOR BARBARA KAHN 25 RETAILING CENTER AT THE WHARTON SCHOOL, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

PAWAN BINDAL 28 HEAD OF SALES & MARKETING, DUN & BRADSTREET

EYE 2 EYE LOK SABHA ELECTIONS 2014 32 MAHATHI CHITTA | SCMHRD; SIDDHARTH SHAH | TISS

SILENT VOICE 33 COCA-COLA 150TH YEAR SPECIAL EDITION

FRESHLY BREWED 35 KESHAV SRIDHAR| BATCH OF 2012| IIM SHILLONG

ADDICTED 36 SWIKRUTI PANDA & SUSHREE TRIPATHY | IIM SHILLONG

BOOKMARK 37 PALLAVI | IIM SHILLONG

JAB THEY FAILED 38 VAIBHAV ANNAM | IIM SHILLONG

RADICAL THOUGHTS 39 ASHOK A | IIM SHILLONG

FUN CORNER 40 KAMALPREET SALUJA | IIM SHILLONG UPDATES PRATEEK | IIM SHILLONG 42

BRAND NaMo (NArendra MOdi)

TARGET Youth who are indifferent to the breed of

‘Coalition’ and ‘Communal’ Politics.

Development is the only word which makes

sense to them

POSITIONING Pro-People, Pro-Active Governance,

Development, Economic Growth

MEDIA USED Digital (Social Media, Web and Video)

extending the idea to OOH.

TYPES OF ADVERTISING USED Institutional Advertising, Comparative

Advertising, Potshot advertising, Guerrilla

Advertising, Crowdsourcing, Video

Advertising

Anushree Paul | Siddharth Grover |XIMB

Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize-winning economist opines his

thought on Narendra Modi being the Next PM of India,

"No, I would not like to see Narendra Modi as India's

prime minister”. Professor Sen is in favor of “Someone

who looks at social administration and not just business

administration seriously". Social has a new dimension

when the suffix “media” is added to it----Social Media

and it seems that next PM of India, whoever it is---- has

to use the potential of social media space to maximize

his audience reach.2014 General Elections is well poised

to be a political blockbuster with protagonist NaMo

(NArendra MOdi) releasing on Digital Screens

nationwide with Bumper Openings. The storyline till now

spells out important lessons for a Marketing nerd with a

quaint socio-politico twist in it.

Writing as perceived from a Marketing Lens, the

images, version and resolution may not conform to the

traditional definitions but then if it did strategically fit so

well, this article would have never seen the light of the

day.

INSTITUTIONAL ADVERTISING

This form of advertising allows a company to promote

themselves, rather than a specific good or service.

MODImatics In Marketing Excellence

perspective markathon | aug 2013

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NaMo dangerously flirts on the line of being bigger than

the parent company, and for this BJP takes cautionary

note on its official Facebook Fan page. It cleverly

focuses on seasoned old stalwarts of the party such as

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, L.K.

Advani and serves a recipe of party’s information and

ideals with latest updates. As one hits the site

‘narendramodi.in’, it welcomes you with its message to

de-throne its rival - “Congress Mukt Bharat Ka Nirmaan”

adorned with pictures of NaMo. It is hard not to notice

the halo that NaMo creates for himself with sections

such as Biography, Quotes, Interact etc. projecting the

strengths of NaMo as an inspiring trailblazer, brilliant

orator and an efficient leader. The section on BJP

occupies a small space and sits comfortable among the

ranks of lesser attention seekers on the NaMo site.

Consistent with their Facebook approach bjp.org

showcases the party basking in the glory of well-known

faces of the party other than Modi in order to steer

clear of any overlap with NaMo publicity. BJP has

strategically done well in separating the Modi brand

from the mainstream party on the basis of news-

generating capacity and utilizes the space bandwidth

resourcefully in between the two sites to maximize the

buzz output.

COMPARATIVE ADVERTISING

It is marketing strategy in which a company shows

how its product or service is superior to that of its

competitors by comparing the benefits and costs

within the advertisement itself.

NaMo has used the plank of Gujarat’s success story in

which he generously backs up data for supporting his

arguments. For example, the double digit growth in

terms of GDP in real terms over a ten year period and

how the state has achieved higher growth in 3 sectors

of economy namely agriculture, Industry and Services.

Modi doles out figures which says that India as a nation

has a poverty ratio of 27-28% as compared to Gujarat

where it stands at 12-13% one of the lowest in the

country. Propping the argument with a reported

increase in sex ratio at birth and progressive

improvement in malnutrition than other states and

nation, NaMo barely misses a point. In fact NaMo so

much endorses Comparative Advertising that he would

have been happy if one had a Report Card made, clicked

a HD photograph and posted it on FB for the ‘Like’

Marathon!

Taking a potshot at Congress’ Rahul Gandhi’s

‘accomplishments’ page rahulgandhiachievements.com,

was a clean slate err Blank Page.

Narendramodiplans.com seems to have taken the pain

of little more coding and eye to detail with a saffron

background and beaming Modi. The site says "For a

detailed explanation of how Modi plans to run the

nation if elected to the house as a Prime Minister and

also for his view/perspective on 2002 riots please click

the link below". But the ‘Click’ button runs away from

the mouse cursor, a euphemism of Modi’s evasive

nature when asked awkward questions on Gujarat


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Riots. The NaMo vs. RaGa wars provide good fodder for

engagement for e-savvy youth.

POTSHOT ADVERTISING

It is a mode of advertising common with giants such as

Apple and Samsung who choose to tease a rival

product to promote their own brand.

Of late this kind of advertising has gathered mileage

with the Political Men in India as they endorse it heavily

on the internet landscape. Rahul Gandhi's address at CII

led to trending of #pappu, #pappuCII and Narendra

Modi’s address at FICCI ladies organization led to

trending of #Feku, #FekuFICCI on twitter. What formed

the bait for these hash tags? Rahul Gandhi’s casual

answers such as ‘I’ve lost it' and 'Boss, not happening'.

Narendra Modi’s chapattis, papads (Lijjat Paapad) and

pizzas (Jassu Behn's Pizza) mentioned in the speech

were quickly taken notice of, mocked at and

bludgeoned in this trend. Saris, churidars and shirts too

made it to the humor wardrobe of Feku tweets.

GUERRILLA ADVERTISING

The concept of guerrilla marketing was invented as an

unconventional system of promotions that relies on

time, energy and imagination rather than a big

marketing budget. On social space if we use the

characteristic of creating buzz for a video to make it a

viral phenomenon the tactic can easily qualify for the

term.

One such act of NaMo brand compels me to pen this. In

one of the meetings Narendra Modi’s mike stopped

working. After a 2 minutes lapse when mike functioning

was restored NaMo made use of his imagination and

turned it into an opportunity to exhibit his wits. He said

‘I am thankful to the mike man, because of this

disruption the video, otherwise pedestrian, will now be

news-worthy. The mike stopped functioning but the

news will be broadcasted as ‘Modi Ki Bolti Band’ (Modi

was silenced). The video can be viewed on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44VWaOT3y2g and

has clocked more than 63K views.

CROWDSOURCING

Crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining needed

services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions

from a large group of people especially from an online

community, rather than from traditional employees or

suppliers.

NaMo pioneered a unique social experiment on Twitter

and Facebook wherein he welcomed the youngsters

and students for ideas, suggestion as to why such a

‘Trust Deficit’ has been created. NaMO delivered a

rousing speech to the students of Fergusson College in

Pune on 14th July, 2013 where he crowd sourced ideas

from students via FB. The key underlying theme was

education and how can India achieve modernization

without westernization.


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The post presently has 16,738 Likes, 2160 shares and

close to 1500 comments. It signals the dawn of

technologically branded and aided Politics.

VIDEO ADVERTISING

BJP has aligned itself with NaMo’s vision of leveraging

the online medium to woo voters by launching YUVA –

The Internet TV from BJP. It is a dedicated channel

which is not only for live content but also for

programmed content .The targeting has been youth

centric which will showcase all the meetings, rallies,

programmes, bytes, debates of BJP. Apart from the

BJP4India channel on YouTube, this initiative

successfully helps NaMo to communicate with

youngsters and reach out to internet savvy public who

reside happily in the internet world.

OOH

Out Of Home (Outdoor Advertising) is defined as

advertising which reaches to consumers outside

homes in traditional formats like billboards, street

furniture, transport advertising etc. These are

interestingly seeing an extension of the Digital

campaigns to replicate the impact.

Is reverse flow of information in marketing domain

happening in the political scene? In a recent interview

with Reuters when NaMo declared ‘I am a Hindu

Nationalist’, it became a media rage. The volume of

tweets, shares and posts on the digital media prompted

the debate to come alive in the form of Billboard

advertising in Mumbai. To build on this, merchandise

with slogans such as ‘Do you want your country to be

MODI-fied?” - t-shirts, caps, key chains, mobile covers in

saffron hue will soon be released and distributed for

marketing purpose. In retrospect, even NaMo is a

potential logo to be printed on the merchandise!

On July 3, 2013 Narendra Modi became the most

followed politician in India outpacing Shashi Tharoor. If

e-race is a pre-poll indicator and social media popularity

is a yardstick then NaMo has managed to strike the

right chord employing smart marketing tactics.

Did someone chant ‘Om NaMaH Shivaye’ or was it an

exhalation or exultation of ‘Om NaMo NaMah’?!


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Zeeshan hassan

IIm kozhikode

Inception and Ideation

The year 2001 was definitely the defining one in the

evolution of Bajaj Automobiles since then up to this

date. The changing outlook of the Indian consumers and

the aggressive forays made by new competitors like

Yamaha and Hero Honda in the Two-Wheeler market

led to a precipitous decline in Bajaj’s market share. Even

the partnership with Japanese bike manufacturer,

Kawasaki, did not garner good results.

That was the time when the good old scooters were

being replaced by the performance ensuring bikes but

still there was a mammoth gap in

the sports bike category. It was at

this point that we began to spot

machines with muscular tanks,

stylish headlight and powerful

engines that roared in a different

tone than others and were

definitely a head turner on the

road. Thus, Bajaj Pulsar was born! It was launched in the

150 and 180cc category. Still Pulsar was not a pioneer in

the segment; Hero Honda had already launched CBZ

which had shown some positive response. But it was

Pulsar that led to an unprecedented demand in this

category of the market.

It was not just about the product design and the

performance but a very unique marketing approach had

been exploited. The youth was core of this market and

hence a marketing campaign targeting male in the

segment of 20-35 years of age was conceptualized with

a striking “Definitely Male” campaign.

Market for the Product: Who are the initiator,

influencer, decider, buyer and user? The bike targets

consumers in the range of 20 to 35 years of age

generally encompassing the college and the office

goers.

Thus the major decision makers are parents for college

goer who is the initiator, but the influences come from

varied sources. For the College Goer, Pulsar could be

perceived as a very contemporary Hi Tech and stylish

Students Office Workers

Initiator College Goers Office Goer

User College Goers Office Goer

Buyer Parents, College Goers Office Goer

Decider Parents, College Goers Office Goer

Influencer Friends, Social Circle, Magazines Girlfriends etc.

Friend, Coworker, Family

productolysis markathon | aug 2013

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looking product through which he could wear a Macho

persona and hold himself in high esteem in his friend

circle and especially among the girls. In addition he

could be influenced by mass adoption by his friend

circle and social group. Besides this, the final buyers i.e.

the parents could be influenced by the brand name

“Bajaj” which has a long history for reliability of its

machines. Also, loyalty to brand Bajaj could also play a

role if the parents had already experienced its products.

Again, the wide distribution of the service centers and

the dealers throughout the country might help them be

convinced that Pulsar is the best choice they have.

For the office goers, the deciding factors are generally

the blending of style with power and performance of

the bike. They can maintain it easily and then resell it at

good price when switching to a more premium product

of a similar category.

The typical use period of a bike is 3-4 years before it is

resold and new purchases are made because of the

presence of a very good second hand market in the

country. Many a time repeat purchases are made

because of the loyalty developed to a particular brand.

Going Ahead

Even though there was an apprehension in the mind of

the customer for it being an untested product (Bajaj had

never come with such a product), they still embraced it.

And once they had purchased it they showed

tremendous brand loyalty and its popularity kept on

increasing by word of mouth and otherwise as well.

Soon after, the tag line “Definitely Male” was

withdrawn and “Digital Biking” campaign was pushed.

Although, a bit detrimental to the original image of the

bike it was aimed to increase focus on the

technologically superior built of the bike as DTSI (Digital

Twin Spark Ignition) was introduced. This was done to

subvert the competitors like Hero Honda which were

perceived as more technically sound. Now it had

increased power rating and fuel economy. In 2005, alloy

wheels were introduced, fuel tank capacity increased,

power enhanced and better shock absorbers were

featured. The next year, Pulsar UG III was launched

which among other features had turn indicator, LCD

screen for the dash board, engine with more torque

allowance and lesser vibrations.

Year 2007 saw Pulsar launching the free biking

campaign where they stressed on how you ride rather

than where you do it. The Ad that followed showed two

bikers in a blocked street go and find a detour to what

seemingly appeared a dead end. Thus, emphasizing that

Pulsar can help you find ways and in a way leads you to

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victory when others had perceived it as impossible.

During this period they came up with taglines “Distinctly

Ahead” and “Inspiring Confidence” which though catchy

were still less impactful than the “Definitely Male”

proposition.

In 2008, the Bajaj group extended its DTSI technology to

another product introduced by it “XCD 125” which

invoked a threat of cannibalization to the original Pulsar

brand. But at the same time, Pulsar adopted oil cooled

engine and a better digital console as its prominent

features thus it could maintain its top position with

Yamaha FZ sharing the second rung. In 2009, after a

slight slump in the sale and tough competition from

Yamaha, TVS, Honda etc., Pulsar decided to bounce

back again. Pulsar released UG IV which was quoted as

the enhanced versions of original Pulsar 150 and 180.

Apart from increasing engine power and providing

better electrical capability to the bike, a major overhaul

was done on the marketing and promotional front. The

company launched the tagline “The Fastest Indian” and

the ads were perceived to be as thrilling as the seminal

“Definitely Male” campaign. The word “Fastest” in the

ad carries a connotation that the brand Pulsar is better

than any of its adversaries present in the market. The

ad itself has a very good ending whereby, a group of

cops completely encircle a person and with just a touch

of his bike the person vanishes at remarkable speed and

the policemen are left helpless. This was received very

well by the market and gave a boost the brand Pulsar.

2010 saw further add-ins in the product, whereby

Pulsar 220S (Street Fighter) which had all the features of

the Pulsar 220 except that the front fairing was similar

to the original Pulsar 150/180. In 2011 they very

explicitly showed in an ad that “Pulsar sells 5 times

more than any Japanese Sport Bike in India.” Apart from

this a number of steps to lure customers towards it

were taken up by Pulsar. Bajaj had a vast network of

dealers and service which it can capitalize upon. It

found out a category of customers which it calls as

“Probikers” who are very appreciative of the

technology, are knowledgeable and very particular

about the choice of their product. To cater to them a

number of “Bajaj Probiking” stores have been opened

throughout the country where a demonstration of bikes

and their spare parts as well of trial for these could be

facilitated. It also started the very first “e-biking” in

India which stands for online shopping for bikes and

then their subsequent home delivery in order to attract

customer and to reach deeper into the market.

More than a decade of Evolution

Every product that enters the market follows the

normal phases of Introduction, Growth, Maturity and

finally Decline. Though the other variants of the bikes

followed these basic stages, the Bajaj Pulsar seems to

be completely immune to the declining phases the

product life cycle concept. It still sits on the top with

50% market share in the sports bike category.

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Even after twelve years of its introduction, the thrill of

riding a Pulsar has remained intact. This anomaly

becomes clearer on having a closer look at the strategy

of the Pulsar.

Since motorbike is a durable product, the customer

retention is not just confined to repeat purchases.

Relationships are built by ensuring customer

satisfaction with its usage and with the appropriateness

of the services rendered by the vendors and service

centers. And in response we see that the customers

were so happy to patronize Pulsar such that they put up

website called www.pulsarclub.com which resulted in

fantastic publicity for the brand without any

expenditure. Another initiative by the company was

“Bajaj Confidence- Extended Warranty Plan” which gave

the customers a facility to extend the warranty when

the normal 2 years warranty expires. This initiative was

taken to further better the customer relationship

management by the Bajaj Group.

Next on the List

Though appearing to be invincible, the Pulsar division

has been mustering its Marketing and Product Strategy

division to come up with better products and customer

attraction mechanisms so as to be able to stand stiff

against the ever increasing competition. With more

than 1 million likes on its Facebook page, it keeps

updating it with attention catching posts in order to

drive more of the “Pulsar Maniacs”, the ardent Pulsar

lovers. It has also gathered a crew of bike stuntmen

from Kerala called the “Ghost Ryderz”. Sponsored by

Pulsar the Ghost Ryderz have performed at numerous

events, college fests, and many movies. They were also

shown in a reality show called the “Pulsar MTV

Stuntmania” and countless videos performing

unthinkable stunts with the bike are available

on the internet.

Lined up next are two Pulsars to be launched

in November-December of this year, one of

them smaller than its peer 200NS and the other double

its size, the Pulsar 375- the much hyped and ready-to-

raze-anything that comes in its way. The brand equity

itself of the decade old bike serves as a great asset even

before the launch happens. The increase in the power

and speed of the bike is without doubt appreciated but

with soaring inflation and ever increasing fuel prices, it

may lead to disgruntled customers in terms of mileage.

Still the surge of adrenalin is high amongst the youth as

the bike promises more fairing which is loved by one

and all. With this the Bajaj Company has an opportunity

to revitalize its “The Fastest Indian” image which over

the period of time had turned feeble and competitors

had encroached in its territory.

Waiting eagerly for it are also the bevy of cut throat

competitive launches which try to find a space for

themselves in the market for big bikes. Now with the

increase in power, speed and torque comes the fun that

the youth are craving for. But, given the kind of

infrastructure the country has, the roads and the

transportation system, it may be a bit difficult ride such

heavy machines safely and compounded by the

fact that the youth are averse to wearing

helmets and other precautionary gears. The

subsequent level of road mishap is going to be

more fatal than ever as the strength of the

bikes increase.

Let’s hope that the ongoing revolution of Pulsar can

truly and literally fulfill the spirit of “Hamara Bajaj!” for

the good of all. Globally!

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Pavan Kumar R. | Utthraa M

BIM, TRIchy

Advertisements act as secret passages through which

products enter our homes and find a permanent place

in our heart and mind. There have been Ads that have

managed to bring out the “awww” moment, some that

keeps the product and tune lingering in our minds the

whole day, some that inspire, some that increases our

desire and some that may even make us go moisteyed!

There are

Ads that

have

transforme

d non-

existent

phrases to

an eternal

tagline. The Ponds cold cream Ad,

“GooglyWooglyWoosh” is one that has used human

emotions beautifully to embed message about a beauty

product can make the skin smooth and soft, such that

the male counterpart can't resist pinching his lady love's

cheeks no matter how old she is.

One of the most

heartwarming

Ads is the

Raymond, “The

Complete Man”,

where the

“complete man”

goes to an old

age home to

wish his teacher on his birthday. The Ad brings out the

perfect picture of what the “complete man” is to the

Indian Society, one who is smart, reverent and hence is

respectable! The Ad makes the audience feel nice and

even want to get to know “the complete man”.

During the same

time a disturbing

AXE ad with the

tagline, "spray

more to get

more", depicted

the objectification

of women under

the heterosexual

male gaze. In this

ad, swarms of tall, thin women, long hair, flat stomachs

and curvaceous body which seem to strip off the dignity

and self-respect of women. The biggest hit is the

sexualization of the slogan, this may have boosted the

sales but according to many it just indicates that the self

of ownership the man has over his deodorant is

equivalent to that he has over the women.

These cases may have been smart moves by the

marketer, but is he trying to give the message that love

and intimacy all lies in smelling good and having soft

skin? That's for the consumers to decide. Even if they

agree, they may pardon the marketer on the grounds

that these products fall under cosmetics, and when it

comes to cosmetics there is a lot of patch work and

cover up to do!

But what in the case of food products? Can the

consumers allow the marketer to make false promises

on the foods that they consume? Big fat lies of "taller,

stronger and sharper", "a healthy heart", "special K

cereals", "multigrain noodles", and all those labels

behind canned products promising low fat and high

nutritional value all talk of instant results. If these

promises were true; then India's nutritional index

should have shot up by now.


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PepsiCo, a multinational food and beverage company

with global brands that millions of consumers enjoy

every day, has realized the vitality of communicating

responsibly about their products and healthy eating.

They are committed to responsible advertising practices

and ensuring healthy choices are offered in schools.

They have joined hands with the International Food &

Beverage Alliance, a Swiss-based NGO, to adopt a

worldwide voluntary commitment to advertise to

children under the age of 12 only those products that

meet specific nutrition criteria. As verified by an

independent third party, they have achieved 99.6

percent compliance by the end of 2011 in globally

representative markets including the Indian Market.

Unilever has put a clear message across, that is,

“Children should be top of the Agenda when it comes to

responsible Marketing”. It aired a short film

“Onslaught”, with the tagline, 'Talk to your daughter

before the beauty industry does' at the end of the film.

The film portrays young girls being bombarded by

advertisements promoting a stereotypical vision of the

perfect woman. This pushes young minds into stress

and as a result of which they end up taking drastic

means to be the “Perfect Woman”.

Who is to take responsibility when

an “offensive” ad is aired? The Ad not

only puts off the viewers, but also spells bad

news for both clients and agencies associated

with it.

When Ford India’s print Ad to promote ford figo

compact car was screened, it not only raised a lot of

eyebrows, but also came across as offensive, distasteful

and misogynistic. Ford immediately apologized stating

that these Ads were not approved by them but rather

created by staffers at JWT India, which handles

advertising for Ford in the country. Such ads, created

without client approval, are often called "fake ads" or

"scam ads" and are made by creative professionals

seeking attention and looking for ways to bolster their

portfolios. The controversial posters were uploaded for

public view at a time

when India was in

crisis over sexual

assaults on women.

The swift dismissal

of the JWT India

employees

responsible for the

ads in March this

year was a clear sign

of responsibility that

the agency was

trying to own up.

The most recent case on World’s leading cereal

company, Kelloggs came as a shocker to many. Kellogg

US has agreed to pay $4 million to settle a class-action

lawsuit over the marketing claims it made for Frosted

Mini-Wheats. The company, which also makes “Frosted

Flakes”, “Eggo waffles” and “Pop Tarts”, was sued for

saying that the cereal improved children's

attentiveness, memory and other cognitive functions.

So what exactly happens with today’s customers

“Loyalty Equation” when there are so many

advertisements aimed at wooing customers instantly?

There has been a gradual seismic shift in the consumer

behavior with the drastic advancements in this creative

community.

Consumers are now more social than ever. They are

constantly sharing information, researching based on

testimonials, posting pictures, tweeting events, etc.

Now social media services have become a huge part

of connecting people online. Consumers know what

they want. They are clear on their

requirements and the internet

acts as an aid in making

everything verifiable. They check

competitor’s prices or contact customers who

have bought the products. People are more

demanding than ever before and in case of any slip


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in message delivery, the business is bound to be left

behind.

Consumers support social responsibility. People make

purchase decisions based on the green options

available, what the company is doing for the community

and how they integrate corporate social responsibility

into business plans. So with consumers possessing such

pellucid thoughts, just a fancy Advertisement will not

win you a customer anymore!

So the new recipe for success and winning customers

would be to focus on being honest about the product,

being sensitive towards audience’s feelings and most

importantly, giving them Respect!

Advertising professionals should keep in mind that the

audience will not sit glued on to anything that is offered

to them in the name of “Advertisements”. They are

open to humor and glamour, provided it is in the right

mix.

Censorship in media is a must, but if one puts too many

rules on entertainment, then audience will not enjoy

the content. The key is to put the message across

without upsetting the audience. However it is essential

to have a purpose in one’s communication and the

creative community should be sensitive towards

animals, women, religion and children, and be more

aware of the society’s sentiments. Advertisers tend to

sometime go overboard out of desperation to make

their presence felt amidst an intense competition. But

little do they realize that they could fall into a situation

where NGOs take notice of the harsh communication,

which in turn would agitate the government to stand up

and take action. Such a scenario would be cumbersome

for the future of advertising. In order to fight this

scenario, every professional in this creative Industry

must rise up to the concept of self-regulation.

When the use of a pug in a campaign created a rage and

everyone wanted a pug as a pet, little did people know

that pugs have a very painful delivery process and need

the presence of vets to see through the process. As a

result of this, many pugs ended up dead. Therefore

advertising professionals need to keep many factors in

mind that go beyond just the mere communication of a

message. The need of the hour for advertising

professional is Sensitivity and Social Responsibility to

avoid a backlash.

Interesting to note that India’s “Adspend rate” which is

-2.0% as against china’s +8.8% and USA’s +2.8% still

managed to get the Silver Medal for “Best Practices” in

advertising in an event held in Milan last month which

was awarded by the European Standards Alliance

(EASA). Adspend is a driver of economic growth thus

those countries with increased adspend should enjoy

continued economic growth. However sustained long-

term growth does require best practice advertising

regulation. So this Award for India should be taken on a

positive note with a pinch of salt. Despite advertising in

India being self-regulated under the purview of the

Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) the

Department of Consumer Affairs only seems to have an

increasing number of complaints from audience. This

puts the effectiveness of our Country’s self-regulated

advertisements under the scanner. The road ahead

should be to have a stronger Government Intervention

in the form of setting up a separate Administrative

Authority.

The new Advertising mantra is not about roping in big

shots, mocking at competitors, or using inexplicable

jingles but about honest messages,

sensitivity towards consumers’

feelings and keeping it simple. The

message should be loud and clear,

“Advertise responsibly and win your

customer’s heart with respect”.

A worthy product 10%

Differentiate from competitors 10%

Sensitivity towards the audience 20%

Honesty, no false promises 30%

Respect the Audience 30%

End Product 100%=Customer loyalty


14

cover story | markathon|month 2013

10

An Interview with Mr. Jatin Lakra

Head Marketing – UV Product Group at Tata Motors Limited

vartalaap markathon | aug 2013

Mr. Jatin Lakra is currently the marketing manager for Tata Motors Utility Vehicles brands. Mr Lakra

has handled all the perspectives of sales & marketing, including product planning and brand

management. He has gained insights & exposure across various business, acquired business

intelligence and capabilities of strategizing & execution. He was closely involved with the very

famous “Full Throttle” campaign by Tata motors in the year 2011. His long term goal is to become a

leader recognized in the industry and make a difference to the firm & society.

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Markathon: You have been involved in a lot of areas

like product planning, sales projects, content

development, training etc. Which has been the most

exciting assignment that you have done in your

career?

Sales! Sales is my passion. Product development has

been very exciting. We have been working on it for

the past 2-2.5 years. Finally, as I understand it now,

the 2 projects that I had been working on have been

given the green light. So that has been quite a

satisfying experience. Learning has been great. I

believe that wherever I keep getting to learn new

things is where the excitement remains.

Markathon: How does the automobile sector go

about determining the ROI metrics from the

customer perspective?

Whether it is a fleet operator of a truck or the fleet

operator of a car, all of them are looking at what the

consumer is ready to pay on a per km basis or on a

daily basis and what is the cost that they incur, the

driver cost, the fuel cost or the EMI or any other

running cost that we have to pay or the overhead

costs and lastly the re-sale value. After a time line of

3-4 years when today the time cycle has changed,

now you have to show the consumer the net benefit

he will get at the end of this time line.

Markathon: While coming up with a new car

portfolio, what are the market analysis techniques

you employ within the auto segment?

The auto segment is all about finding newer usage of

the car. It is like a huge canvas and you have to find

out, which are the areas that are open and you can

identify and capture those. The product development

cycle is much long. So, you have to identify the open

spaces much earlier and come up with the product.

Markathon: When a whole lot of other players were

coming up with a pure play Sedan or SUV, how did

TATA motors think novel, to come up with a cross-

over?

Aria was developed as a cross-over, X-over was show-

cased in Geneva. And that was also showcased in

Auto-expo India in New Delhi. Based on this, we went

ahead and developed technology and tried creating a

new segment “Cross-Over” in India.

Markathon: The Indian automobile retail sector is

undergoing a revolution but lacks novelty. In US

General Motor Saturn came up with “no haggle

pricing”. As a channel management person, what

retailing novelties do you think will come up in near

future? What are you planning for TATA?

The channel as we know today is going to evolve

further. And we will look at things like availability of

vehicles over net as people have become very tech-

savvy in tier-I cities today. No haggle pricing will take a

few years before it comes up as Indian consumer is

very price and deal conscious. The deal is the second

largest criteria for the consumer when he is deciding

on the final purchase. This may not be in the segment

above 20-lakhs. But Audi, BMW, Mercedes are also

coming up with schemes like “Rs.55,000 is your

EMI”,”Rs. 56,000 is your down-payment”. So, deal is

not going away in any segment.

Novelty-wise, the show-rooms of TATA motors today

are very different. So, the kind of experience, if he

walks into the show-room is very different.

Consumers are available over the net. But they are

not able to buy a car on internet. Soon they will be

able to do so. As Indian law is going to change and

GST comes in, it will be really easy to buy cars over

internet. Other than that, today the retail chain and

retail out-let is going further into tier II, III, IV. Most of

the old players have started building their network.

Currently most retailers are trying to make their

channels profitable on their own. So, multi-brand

retail is not going to happen.

Markathon: How could retailing evolve to give

different point-of-sale experience to different

customers walking in with different experiences?

We are working on it. Currently we have processes

and systems which we are trying to implement via

training, up-gradation of man-power, looking at

specific leadership man-power structure which would

ensure that we deliver the different experience that

each individual needs. Since this is the second biggest

purchase that a person makes in his life-time, we try

to ensure that the experience is tailor-made so that

he cherishes it for long. Our focus is on getting that


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kind of man-power. The front-end is not very

competent as the salary structure is not very high. We

are working on these issues continuously as the

consumer is evolving on a daily basis and so are their

cars, so the point-of-sale experience has to.

Markathon: Apart from the regular ATL advertising

platforms, what are the other avenues TATA motors

seeks to promote its products?

TATA Motors has been working on lots of ATL

activities which include television, hoardings, radio,

over internet (a big focus area). We also do BTL

activations be it on taxi-stands or in the malls. We use

wall arts, wall paintings or hoardings of their own. We

do a lot of connect. One of the initiatives last year was

full throttle. But you are connecting with consumers

who are high on thrill, high on reliability, high on

product reliability and they have a huge circle

connected with them. There was also one day where

customers come with their SUVs where we take them

on an off-roading event for an entire day and then

take their feed-back on how they felt about the

product. So such are the connect points. Last year

with the launch of Safari storm we came up with the

thrill experience through extreme drive. Apart from

that we have explorer club also. All product groups on

their own are trying to ensure that they connect with

the consumer and they try to have other mediums

through which they can get referrals and make sure

that they can keep the interest of the consumer in the

brand alive.

Markathon: We have all seen great digital marketing

campaigns by automobile companies of the likes of

Volkswagen. Even though Tata Motors brands are

garnering likes, do you think you have a high amount

of focus on the digital space. Could you share with us

any plans for the future?

Our focus on digital marketing has not been for very

long, you’re right. It’s been about 2-3 years that we

have been focusing on the digital world the way we

should have been. Tata Motors as a brand doesn’t

need to be promoted as such. So, what we promote is

individual product brands and that probably isn’t

giving us the results that we would want to have. But

the traction that we have been getting on the digital

world in the last 2-3 years, after ensuring basic

hygiene of our websites is good. We have also got into

Google marketing. The whole idea of digital for us

today is not just brand building, it’s about actually

creating leads and pursuing them to generate sales.

The direction is we will be spending more brand

money on digital. The big idea, however, is that we

should generate immediate ROI on the efforts.

Markathon: We believe the ‘Art in Motion’

campaign for Tata Nano on Facebook was the most

leveraging factor for the amount of likes. How is Tata

Motors endeavoring to building brand advocates

through customer testimonials?

It starts internally by making brand ambassadors. We

start by making ourselves, the community within Tata

Motors, brand ambassadors. Secondly, there are

referrals on the pages where people are asked to put

their remarks, that are re-tweeted. We have referral

pages on most of our websites. We are also engaging

with websites like Cardekho, Carwale, Car Trade,

Gaadi etc. to ensure they take test drives of our

vehicles & write about it. We are also open to

feedback, positive & negative. We are currently in the

process of ensuring that any negative feedback is

immediately tackled. If it is a consumer issue, then it is

closed positively, taking a satisfaction note from the

consumer and turning it into a referral. Referral

schemes happen mostly via SMS and calls. The kind of

relationship that is established while calling a

customer advisor at the dealership is far more potent

& useful than any other referral programs that we

run. Finally, it is more to do with emotions than any

other form of gratification as the customer needs to

be handled by someone to actually generate

worthwhile references, effectively. Personal connect

is what will lead to more and happier conversions.

Markathon: Coming back to the UV segment, we

believe Tata Aria came out as a very technically

advanced product. This shows that a lot of such

technologically superior products are in store for us.

So, what are your plans for the UV market in India?

UV market in the last 20 years has grown by a jump at

the time of a product launch. Be it the launch of

Sumo, Safari, Scorpio or XUV. Aria unfortunately did

not give out the lead that we were expecting. You

must be aware of the ‘Build a dream car’ and ’36 Hi-


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tech features’ campaigns that we did. Our market

research says that the consumer is not ready to

accept it as a crossover or he still doesn’t want to

understand too much about a crossover because we

are talking to a customer who is at 17-18 lakh on-road

pricing point while they are able to understand a

BMW X1 at 23-24 lakhs. The consumer there shifts a

bit, he would rather go for a Fortuner or a Storme

because he still wants to feel ‘bullish’ in his lifestyle. I

would rather term it as ‘Bhaukaal’ as they call it in UP.

That is the reason the consumer doesn’t want to

accept this kind of a product in larger numbers. At

times we sell 45, at times 145. We saw launches like

Santa fe and Skoda Yeti that haven’t done wonders to

their bottomline or top line. Going forward we are

bringing Aria at a price point of 10.5-11 lakhs and

offering it to both fleet & individual consumers and

that has given us some traction in the last couple of

months.

Markathon: Tata Motors did an incredible thing by

creating this new market, a cross-over segment in

India.

That’s what we believe too. It is very difficult to enter

this segment at this day and age, the only other player

in this segment before us was Forester. But finally we

are driven by numbers. The cross over segment will

remain, but we will work on ensuring that the product

is seen on the roads. A repositioning & repricing of the

entire range is done. Instead of having 5 -6 variants,

we now have 3. You will see more traction coming in,

going forward. We will not be leaving the cross-over

segment.

Markathon: In the UV space, do Tata Motors

products target different kinds of customers?

The customer is evolving fast. We have been investing

in getting specific markets for us. Let’s say the

consumer for a Tata Safari Storme is a white collared

guy, or a guy into politics or an SME. The consumer is

not different at different places. It is matter of what

he is ready to afford and what is he looking for in a

product. We are getting huge amount of traction for

Storme. We are projecting the car as ‘go anywhere’,

but the consumers coming in do not necessarily want

to go anywhere. They are enthralled by the brand, by

the update of the product and they are buying it.

Markathon: With the alternate fuel segment gaining

prominence, what are Tata Motors plans to foray

into this segment?

On 19th June, Tata Motors launched 8 new products

and upgrades of which 3 are CNG variants- Indica

CNG, Indigo CNG & Nano CNG. These products would

be coming to the marketplace in a few weeks. That’s

the current plan for alternate fuel segments.

Markathon: Any plans to foray into the electric

vehicle segment?

There are plans and trials that we are working on.

There is an Indica project going on abroad. You can

find details over the web. You will see the car Vista

moving around in the UK as well which is in EV. ut

there is no specific comment I will be able to make on

them. For the UV segment, there is not much we are

looking at in the alternate fuel segment, most of it is

diesel.

Markathon: With the fact that the Jaguar Land Rover

acquisition has been a huge success for Tata Motors,

what have been the learnings from this endeavor?

Lot of learnings, process learnings, understanding how

a brand needs to be positioned, what needs to be

done in terms of a brand pyramid, how to integrate

the core values of the brand with product attributes.

All these things are great learnings from JLR, and that

will continue. Processes are huge learnings; those

guys are technologically so way beyond our current

manufacturers in B, C or D segments today. There are

joint workshops which make sure we learn from each

other. We have learnt a lot from them in terms of

visual quality, while they learn from us in fields like

frugal engineering. Learnings are huge.

Markathon: What will be your advice to the aspiring

readers?

They should start at the front end. They should start

by interacting with the consumer at the point of sales

& then grow into marketing roles so that they get

better insights of the consumers. They would be

aware of what are the realities of the POS to be able

to devise policies and plans when they move into

other marketing roles.


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Ashok | Sushree | IIM Shillong

Cover Story

19

cover story | Rising from ashes markathon | aug 2013


10 10

“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I

have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have

been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I

missed. I have failed over and over and over again in

my life. And that is why I succeed.” - Michael Jordan

Behind every success story there is always a

humiliating and an embarrassing first effort,

occasional stumbles, a massive setback and

sometimes even a radical change of direction. From

Michael Jordan to Steve Jobs, from Hewlett Packard

to Coca Cola, all have had their fair share of failures in

their path to glory. When it comes to organizations,

we have witnessed dramatic turnarounds over the

past century and this century. In all such big

turnarounds, one thing was always common.

Marketing has played a huge role in staging the famed

comeback. In many instances even a single marketing

campaign has turned the fortunes of the company

around. Would you believe us, when we say there was

a time when Reebok sold more shoes than Nike? You

should, as it was the case once. Nike primarily sold its

shoes to Marathon runners. Then there came our

beloved hero in the picture – Marketing. The

marketing department at Nike spotted that there was

a fitness craze emerging among the Americans and

they felt this was their moment. So they came up with

“Just Do It” campaign. Just three words but it

encapsulated the whole meaning of living a life of

conquering the challenges. It instigated us to push

ourselves further. The marketing campaign connected

well with the consumers and they started relating it to

the

product itself.

So here is the issue,

which we will speak about in this

article. Of all the domains associated with a successful

comeback of a company, why do we think marketing

is the indispensable thing?

The demise of a once-famous brand often causes

shock and sadness among the consumers. Though the

consumers would have shifted to better competitor

brands, consumers would still want their once-

favorite brand to comeback from its current state.

Though we have shifted to Sony Digicams and Canon

DSLRs, we still have pleasant memories of Kodak

cameras and negative development rituals. Kodak

used to be the generic name for photography, but

today the case is entirely different. If we look at most

of the comebacks in past decades, we can easily see

the revival was either due to a mind-blowing

campaign which repositioned the brand in minds of

the customers or due to a new innovative product as a

result of the company product strategy which is

mainly marketing.

All of us know old spice. Once upon a time it was

synonymous with aftershave lotion. We grew with the

smell of the lotion. But the brand lost its value and

P&G was contemplating to pull it out of the market.

Then came the revival. In 2010, P&G came up with an

advertising campaign titled, ‘The Man your man could

smell like”. It was first broadcasted during Super Bowl

and it became an Internet phenomenon later. The

company announced that the lotion sales increased by

more than 50% after the campaign. This is one

example of how marketing can bring an almost dead

brand to life.

Next we will see two greatest comeback stories of the

past century, where marketing played a pivotal role in

the dramatic resurrection. Both are American

Countries; one does not exist now as a stand-alone

company. But it has merged with one of its

competitors. Both the companies do businesses in a

highly competitive and dynamic industry – Airlines

and Automobile.


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How Marketing helped Continental rise out of

the ashes?

We all know Continental Airlines. Though it

has merged with United Airlines, it was one of the

best airlines that have ever operated. But

Continental’s

history is

studded

with numerous

troughs and crests. It was once

considered one of the worst airlines to fly in

US skies. It filed for chapter 11 Bankruptcy twice in its

history. To know how it staged a dramatic comeback,

we will need to delve into the history. Frank Lorenzo

acquired Continental Airlines in 1982 for a sum of USD

154 million. Soon after he bought the airlines, he took

it to the bankruptcy court, filing Chapter 11. This

allowed Continental to continue operating but spared

its obligation to meet heavy interest payments. In

1986, Lorenzo acquired Eastern Airlines and a failing

Frontier Airlines, both of which will backfire years

later. In the meanwhile, Continental emerged out of

its bankruptcy and the industry saw this revived group

as the crown jewel of Lorenzo and established Frank

Lorenzo as Master Financier and Visionary. In spite of

his financial acumen and strong vision, he faltered

continuously in day-to-day affairs of the office. He

didn’t ask what flyers wanted. He never minded

where most flyers flew. He didn’t question about the

excitement of flying with Continental. He never

bothered about the market research team. All these

resulted in heavy loss to Continental. It was ranked

one among the worst airlines in various parameters

like On-time performance, mishandled baggage,

number of unhappy flyers etc. At the same time, the

Eastern airlines, which he acquired sometime back,

went out of

business due to

Lorenzo’s

stubbornness

and union

strikes. When

Eastern filed

for bankruptcy,

the creditors pushed for a merger with Continental,

which could expose Continental to bankruptcy for

second time in its history. Ultimately the bankruptcy

was filed, Continental came out of it but Eastern was

chucked out of the business.

When

Continental was at the verge of exit, there came the

savior in the name of Gordon Bethune. He was the

General Manger for Customer Satisfaction at Boeing

before taking up the reins of Continental Airlines.

Immediately after arriving at Continental, he knew

what was wrong with the Airline. He understood there

was no single set plan or strategy for the company. It

tried to compete with Southwest in value segment

and with other players in Business segment.

Continental was perceived as one of the low price

carriers in the industry but nobody chose it to fly. The

company priced their tickets so less that nobody was

ready to fly. Basically the customer perception of the

airlines was in shambles. Adding to that, the culture

started by Lorenzo was still in every part of the

organization and employees dreaded the top

management and ideas and suggestion never flowed

in. He rectified the internal problems first and then

moved on to what were his forte, marketing and

customer satisfaction. He knew there existed a huge

listening gap between the company and flyers.

Bethune commanded that Continental would not fly

the passengers where Continental flies; rather it will

“fly to places where people wanted to go”. This

meant, for example, cutting back on six flights a day

between

Greensboro,

North Carolina

and Greenville,

South Carolina.

This was done

to keep away

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from Southwest’s Friends Fly free fares, which

“essentially allowed passengers to fly anywhere

within the state of Florida for $24.50”. The frequent

flyer program was introduced. Going a step further,

the company apologized to travel agents, business

partners, and customers and showed them how it

planned to do better and earn their business back. He

made sure that timely performance was up to

industry average; baggage handling was accurate,

better on-board service and so. For this he instituted

incentive system for employees and invested in

Customer engagement processes. He made efforts to

tie up with Business firms, volume discounts were

given, more first class seats were added and specific

routes were attended to carefully.

Gordon Bethune left Continental in 2004

after an illustrious carrier. By then

Continental was the fourth largest airline

but it was the largest airline by number of

international destinations it flew to.

Gordon concentrated on how to delight

customers and he succeeded. Without a marketing

way of thinking the business, there would not have

been Continental airlines.

How Harley Davidson rose from the dungeons to

deliver the American Dream?

The story of the last remaining American motorcycle

company in the 1980’s is one of grit and

determination. Harley Davidson. Started in the year

1903, by William Harley and Arthur Davidson, Harley-

Davidson rose to

popularity when it

manufactured 20000

motorcycles to the

US army during

World War II. As the

Indian Motorcycle

Manufacturing

company shut shop

in 1953, Harley

became the last

surviving American

Motorcycle

manufacturer in the

world. With its mechanical supremacy, distinctive

rumble and a characteristic bad-boy mystique, it rose

to an American institution altogether. How often have

do we see customers get their chests tattooed with a

brand’s logo?

They hit the bumpy road ahead in 1980s when a

protracted recession hit their traditional target

segment particularly hard. Lurking by the corner came

the aggressive Japanese manufacturers, who swept

the market with their lightweight offerings, Honda

leading the pack. Like most

iconic brands at their time

of glory, the team at

Harley Davidson made the

mistake of turning a blind eye

to this formidable competition

which soon started pursuing

the heavy weight

motorcycle segment and

directed impacted the

former’s market share.

Their cavalier attitude was reflected in the

plummeting quality of the bikes, as they had long

being concentrating on quantity rather than quality.

Dealers complained of having to use padding under

the bikes in showrooms to absorb oil leaking from its

tubes and parts. In 1982, estimated sales in the US fell

by 18 percent, their first downturn since 1975 and it

registered $25 million in losses.

On the verge of bankruptcy, senior manager Vaughn

Beats and his team of twelve Harley Davidson

executives took to charge and acquired the company

through a leveraged buyout. They quickly realized that

their

production

system was

flawed and

took a leaf from

Japanese

manufacturers

and their

practices. Call it

industry spying

or

benchmarking,

they toured the

Honda

22



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motorcycle plant in Ohio and picked up their best

practices such as Just-in-time Inventory, good labor

relations and employee involvement. They planned on

‘turning right when the competition turned left’ and

applied this insight into the 4 P’s of marketing.

What set them apart was the special relationship

between the company and the Harley owners. They

weren’t just buying motorcycles. They were buying

the Harley experience. 75 percent of Harley riders

made repeat purchases. Taking forward this insight,

the team focused on creating a classical, evolutionary

design rather than a revolutionary one that would

change every year or so. In 1983, they started the

innovative ‘Harley Owners Groups’ or HOGs aimed at

enhancing relationships between customers, dealers

and employees. They offered free subscription to

magazines like ‘HOG Tales’ and ‘American Iron’ for

motorcycle enthusiasts. Other services like invitation

to events, emergency road service, insurance and

support groups were meant exclusively for Harley

owners.

From 1988 to 1995, annual shipments doubled. In

fact, demand grew faster than manufacturing capacity

could keep up. The impact of this marketing strategy

trickled beyond just numbers. It humanized the

company and made customers feel like a part of the

family. The brand rose to a cult status, turning hard-

core bikers into believers. The take-away from this

iconic turn-around is that there is absolutely no room

for complacency out there. In the words of Richard

Teerlink, “Change is here to stay. It’s never going to go

away. Get used to it.”

There are few Indian companies, which have

resurrected their businesses using the magic wand

called marketing. The best example would be Dabur,

India’s own international brand.

How Dabur pushed its boundaries to pull off a

comeback?

At the turn of the century, a decade into liberalization,

competition in the Indian FMCG segment intensified

as multinational players stepped up their game to

capture market share. Despite rising disposable

incomes in the economy and a strong and trusted

brand image of Dabur in place, it was having a tough

time converting these to numbers. Under the able

leadership of CEO, Sunil Duggal, they charted out a

multi-pronged plan to put Dabur back on the growth

track.

They set their focus on delivering quality consumer

products by outsourcing the non-core activities. The

product portfolio was revamped with new offerings in

sunrise categories like fruit-juice, toothpaste and skin-

care so that the brand remained contemporary to the

needs of its consumers. The packaging of the

entire portfolio received a face-lift to be more

appealing to the changing aspirations of Indian

buyers. Such renovations in place, they also

saw an opportunity in venturing into newer

markets. They recognized the untapped

potential of the rural Indian market and

chalked out plans to expand its distribution

footprint in the interiors.

Next, they set their eyes overseas. Before

2000s, Dabur’s overseas business was confined

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to exporting a select number of products to the Indian

community in certain West-Asian markets. Banking on

their understanding of the consumer preferences in

these markets, they set out to expand their

International business. Dabur set up manufacturing

facilities abroad to

ensure a leaner supply

chain and created

products specifically

for these markets.

Soon they furthered

their expanse into

sub-Saharan and

neighboring markets

like Turkey

establishing an overseas business that contributed 30

percent of their consolidated turnover.

"The point is we do not believe in pushing what we

like, but what our consumers like”, says Anand

Burman as he reflects on the journey of Dabur to

becoming the true Indian Multinational.

But there are some who didn’t make the cut..

In our generation, we have witnessed a handful of

turnarounds. Anne Mulcahy who

brought Xerox out of oblivion, Indra

Nooyi making Pepsi a global

powerhouse, Meg Whitman putting

an ailing HP back on track, Angela

Ahrendts turning the fortunes of

Burberry and there are many more

to mention. And of course, some

other turnaround efforts failed to

bear fruits and succumbed to

failure. After the latest global

recession, it was the turn of many

big companies to face the music.

There are many great companies,

which moved court doors for

bankruptcy in the past decade.

Lehman Brothers, Delta Airways,

Enron, General Motors to name a

few. Some have emerged from

bankruptcy and some shut the

doors completely. One such

company, which is failing badly due to marketing

failure, is Research In Motion, the troubled makers of

famous Blackberry smartphones. Even during its

heydays, RIM believed in technology and not on the

consumer trends and changes. At an investors

meeting a decade ago, when analysts asked Mike

Lazaridis, the founder of RIM, about the color screens

in mobile which are

becoming popular in

Asis, he replied, “Do I

need color screen to

read emails?” This

showed RIM’s

indifference towards

the changing

customer trends and

over confidence in

their proprietary technologies. When executives at

RIM insisted Lazaridis that RIM should concentrate on

features like Music player, Camera, Touch screen etc.,

it fell on deaf ears. RIM believed consumers use

mobile to make conference calls, red emails securely

and message securely and nothing more. But the

mobiles were becoming the single device for multiple

purposes. Then came Steve Jobs with his iPhone and

changed the mobile market forever. Before RIM could

breathe, iPhone has stolen the

major share in the Smartphone

market. Again RIM failed to

understand the customer, which

is a classical marketing failure.

Corporate customers, primary

customers for RIM is shifting to

app powered Apple, Google and

Samsung devices and RIM is at

the brink of disappearing. None

of the models like Storm, Torch,

Z created an iPhone-like buzz.

If RIM starts to understand its

business properly like customer

expectations, competitors’

strengths and product

development, it can pull off a

huge comeback. Will the RIMs

of today pull up their sleeves

and regain their past glory or

will they perish like the Kodaks

of the past? Only time will tell.

24



10

An Interview with Professor Barbara Kahn

Professor of Marketing and the Director of the Jay H. Baker Retailing Center at The

Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania


Barbara E. Kahn is the Patty and Jay H. Baker Professor of Marketing and the Director of the Jay H.

Baker Retailing Center at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Barbara had earlier spent

17 years at The Wharton School as the Dorothy Silberberg Professor of Marketing. She was also

Vice Dean and Director of the Wharton Undergraduate program. Barbara is an internationally

recognized scholar on variety seeking, brand loyalty, retail assortment issues and patient decision-

making whose research provides marketing managers with a better understanding of the consumer

choice process. She has published more than 50 articles in leading academic journals. Between

1982 and 2006, she was the world’s seventh most published author of articles in the most

prestigious marketing journals. In this exclusive interview, she shares with us some interesting

insights on the world of marketing.

25


10

A strong global brand must have the same core

meanings everywhere, even if the local

implementation differs. That means the basic

positioning should be universal as well as

strategically differentiated.

Markathon: With close to three decades of

experience in the academic world, which has been the

most cherished experience of your career?

Barbara: That’s a tough question since being an

academic is such a rich positive experience – there

have been so many high points. Being a marketing

professor involves three critical areas - -and each is

very rewarding. There is research, in which you come

up with a new idea or run a series of experiments and

illustrate a new way of thinking. Most of my research

has been in the area of understanding variety and I’ve

learned why people seek variety, when variety is good

and when it is overwhelming and ways to increase the

perception of variety. I have also done some research

on patient decision making and have discovered ways

to help patients cope with the stresses associated

with those kinds of decisions. The second area is

teaching, and it is always wonderful when students

tell you that you have made a difference in their lives.

And the third area is addressing business issues, and I

just love when an industry person says to me, “where

have you been all my life, your research is so relevant

to what I do.”

Markathon: Would you say that marketing has

become all the more challenging in a globalized world

of today? How can firms position a strong global

brand and manage it in this world of total

transparency?

Barbara: The global connected world offers

advantages as well as challenges. A strong global

brand must have the same core meanings

everywhere, even if the local implementation differs.

That means the basic positioning should be universal

as well as strategically

differentiated.

Transparency means

that brand managers

have to actively

manage their brand,

authentically portray

brand messages and

promises, and

ultimately be

responsible for

everything associated with their brand. That is

difficult since much of the communication about

brands can come from consumer-consumer

interaction.

Markathon: Can you throw some light on the variety

of behavioral and structural shifts that are occurring

with consumer decision making and purchase

behavior as a result of the continued adoption of

internet and mobile technology?

Barbara: We have always known the consumer

decision making process is staged. First consumers

must realize that they have a need that can be

satisfied by a purchase, and then they need to search

for information about the brands that can meet those

needs, then they have to evaluate the various

alternatives, make a decision, a purchase and use the

product. Then customers need to decide whether to

purchase again, and whether to tell others about the

experience. These stages have always existed, but

now they occur 24-7 across many different channels.

The information search can be done online or in the

store, the purchase can be made on a mobile phone

or at physical outlet. Social interaction can now reach

literally millions of others. All of this makes the

marketing job much more difficult; especially if the

process is under one brand name. Consumers expect

the various stages of the brand purchase process to

be consistent, and they are generally channel-

agnostic. That means that retailers, for example, that

had distinctly separate operations for their online

business versus their offline business, now need to

think about omni-channel strategies. This has

implications for inventory management, human

resources compensation, overall strategy and

customer experience.

Markathon: As

marketers today feel

divided between

short-term survival

and long-term growth

strategies, how can

they achieve a


26


10

Know your customer and

deliver value better than the

competition. All customers

are not the same

balance between offering price promotions and brand

building?

Barbara: In the end, marketers need to be concerned

about long-term growth and they should not be

making short-term decisions that will ultimately

threaten the long term positioning of their brands.

This was the big lesson of the recession in 2008.

Some luxury brands panicked in the holiday season of

2008 because inventories were bloated and

consumers were not buying. In response some

merchants deeply discounted their product, and

undermined the long-term value of the brand. As

marketers realized that was not the best strategy,

they made subsequent decisions during those deep

recession years by cutting costs and more strategically

and realistically managing inventory.

Markathon: In the fast-evolving multi-channel, multi-

media retail environment of today, what are the

challenges that marketers face in deciding the ideal

combination of channels to ensure maximum

engagement with customers?

Barbara: This refers to what I was speaking about

earlier. The consumer is channel agnostic and

anything that is branded must be consistent across

channels and media. That means for example if there

is inventory in the stores, the website should not

show “stockouts.” This can happen though if the

online business is managed distinctly from the off line

business. Similar some brands had different buyers

and merchandisers for their online businesses than for

their offline businesses, or for one country versus

another. All of these processes have to be integrated

in a seamless way. Profitability, inventory

management, customer experience has to be

managed across channels, across countries and 24-7.

Markathon: You co-authored the

book ‘Grocery Revolution’ that

chronicled the dramatically

changing supermarket industry and

outlined how consumers make

choices within the supermarket.

Could you share with us some insights from the same?

Barbara: The book was written in the late 1990s and

we were examining the threat of Walmart coming into

the grocery business. This was and still is a very real

threat for local and smaller grocers. The only way to

compete was to focus on the meeting the needs of

the customer. This suggests that supermarkets should

have a consumer-focus rather than a product focus.

To do this, a retailer must understand fully the

consumer decision-making process. Much of the book

focused on understanding that process and managing

to it.

Markathon: As consumers are being bombarded with

numerous reward programs with an eye on building

brand loyalty, memberships are lying inactive and

they have stopped paying attention to such programs.

How can one devise a loyalty strategy that is able to

create sustained demand?

Barbara: In order to make these programs work a

marketer has to have a customer-focused strategy

and critically must deliver REAL customer value to

keep a customer loyal and to increase customer share.

The key insight is that it requires good customer

knowledge; what are the customers’ preferences,

what have they done/purchased in the past. Where

do they get their information from? Understanding at

a deep level how customers make decisions, and

responding to those needs and preferences with real

value is the only way to make these kinds of programs

successful and profitable.

Markathon: What will be your advice to the aspiring

marketers who read our magazine?

Barbara: Know your customer and

deliver value better than the

competition. Further, all customers

are not the same. Segment the

market and target customers who

like what you offer and are willing

to pay for it.


27


10

An Interview with Mr. Pawal Bindal

Head of the Sales and Marketing Solutions Department at Dun & Bradstreet India


Mr. Pawan Bindal is the Head of the Sales and Marketing Solutions Department at Dun & Bradstreet

India. He has been holding positions of high responsibility at Dun & Bradstreet for more than seven

years in the areas of Research & Advisory Services, Economic Analysis Group, Risk Management

Solutions besides the Sales & Marketing division. An alumnus of the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of

Management Studies, he has had a rich experience in the corporate world at various capacities in

high performance firms like Citibank & HSBC. Mr. Bindal specializes in the areas of product

development, business strategy, business development, product management and marketing

strategy. In this exclusive interview with Markathon, he takes us through his rich experiences and

valuable insights in the world of information services marketing.

28


10

Markathon: You have held positions of high

responsibility in an array of domains starting from

banking sector to risk management to business

information services. Which has been the most

exciting role in your career?

Mr Bindal: At the risk of sounding conventional, I

must say that (I hope) the more exciting roles in my

career lie in the future. But yes, if I do look back – I

have enjoyed all my different roles and gained from

each one of them.

I can recount my experience in Dubai, while I was

working for D&B with focus on Middle East & Africa.

Essentially, when I got this role – I had the question

‘what will my role be’ – and I thought it prudent to

postpone this question until I landed there. And,

when I did raise the question to my leader he simply

said – “What is it that you want to do?” This set up a

fascinating journey of 5 years+ of setting up a

(economic & business) consulting business from

scratch. The most exciting part of the role was to

groom a team of (highly motivated and capable)

young professionals with diverse backgrounds into a

cohesive consulting unit. The real learning from this

experience was that “we are only limited by our

imagination”.

Markathon: In a recent IBM study, "Marketing

Science: from Predictive to Descriptive," only 23% of

marketers surveyed claim to be highly effective at

using data to uncover new

insights. What are the major

challenges a firm faces in

making sense out of the

sophisticated data

available?

Mr Bindal: In today’s

environment, availability of

huge amounts of data poses

as many questions as it

answers and I see three

broad challenges.

The first challenge is around

the how data usage is

positioned. This is a bit

similar to how many companies mistakenly deploy IT

as a “solution” – without first examining the business

problem at hand. In a similar way, data usage has to

be subservient to a marketing question and not seen

as an end in itself.

The second challenge relating to usage of data arises

from data itself – i.e. data often presents itself as

large pieces of unstructured data. This necessitates

additional “rework” on data, often leading to

marketers choosing to rely on experience rather than

investing resources in data reformation.

The third challenge involves development of

necessary culture and expertise around data and

marketing analytics. Companies that actively develop

a data-driven culture and encourage experimentation

will have a greater chance of crossing the chasm

between predictive and descriptive analytics.

Markathon: Today when brands focus on cutting

costs and fail to show ROI on their marketing spends,

the Data Management Solutions provided by you

assure measured returns through analytics. Can you

explain our readers how the same is accomplished?

Mr Bindal: I think it is crucially important to

distinguish between the core principles of marketing

and the execution methodologies. While the core

marketing principles remain the same, the latter is in

midst of a transformation due to following:

a. Faster product

evolution: Compare current

frequency of product

launches with that even a

decade back. Today, to even

survive in categories like

mobiles, cars or even the

“old-fashioned” products

such as ready-to-eat snacks

– one needs a new product

launch every six months or

sooner!

b. Emergence of

technology and social

media: With consumers

How data usage is positioned

“Rework” on data

Expertise around data and marketing analytics


29


10

From a corporate world

perspective, especially in B2B

arena, 80:20 rule often applies –

i.e. 20% of the customers

contribute about 80% of business.

At the same time, the challenge is

to identify and acquire new clients

from the perspective of sustaining

growth

shifting where they spend time – marketers have

to shift to – i.e. to mobile, internet and social

media. This means that it is truly possible to

personalize marketing and to measure results

“directly”.

The impact of these trends is visible in the way

marketers adopt various marketing methods. While

the need to measure ROI is in itself not a new

phenomenon, the “time-cycle of return” has been

shorted. In effect, the time gap between marketing

intervention and expected results has been reduced

from quarters and months to days and hours.

Marketers need to, and are using data as a weapon

more effectively. At D&B, we help our clients in

knowing their customer better through our

proprietary data and using the data insights to plan

more effective marketing campaigns. Here one must

refer back to core principles or descriptive analytics –

the use of our data really caters

to the core principle of customer

segmentation and thus

ensuring the right

marketing message

reaches the

customer through

the right medium.

Markathon:

Identifying the

most potential

customers forms the

most vital cue to

improve the final

conversion rates and

successful account closures in the

corporate world. In such

times how distinctively

effective are the

profiling solutions on

offer by consultancy

firms?

Mr Bindal: From a

corporate world

perspective, especially in B2B arena, 80:20 rule often

applies – i.e. 20% of the customers contribute about

80% of business. At the same time, the challenge is to

identify and acquire new clients from the perspective

of sustaining growth. It is also important to nurture

existing account relationships through quality client

servicing. In all of this, systematic information about

the client: company profile, decision makers, product

/ service requirements, competitor actions etc. is

often residing only with a few salespersons or simply

unavailable. This is where consultancy firms,

technology & data solution providers can play a role in

building and harnessing a knowledge framework that

leverages vital customer data.

Markathon: Today the onus of improving the top line

of a firm lies solely with the Sales unit. And lead

generation is the

function that kick-

starts the sales

force. How does a

consultant engage a

firm to have faith

and enter into a

close-loop lead

management

programs?

Mr Bindal: I would

say that the topline

of a firm is an outcome

of multiple factors,

wherein the Sales unit

plays a most important role.

In a B2B sales scenario, lead

generation has to be seen as a first

step in building a relationship with a

client. Outsourcing of this first

step is an increasing trend

today with the mantra on

business efficiencies.


30


10

Marketers need to accept

the bitter fact that, in the

short-term brands that

inappropriately leverage

personal information may

gain some traction.

The success of such (outsourced)

lead generation programs

invariably depends on how well

trained is the outsourced team on

various aspects of business. The

customer is the best judge of the

overall relationship and

experience and votes with their

budget / decision. A B2B marketer

must hence subject this first

(outsourced) step to the

same level of quality scrutiny

as he/she would to an in-

house salesperson.

Markathon: While companies are concerned over

how to effectively leverage massive databases of

personal information, consumers are concerned about

the privacy of their data in corporate hands. In such a

scenario, how can marketers make privacy a brand

asset, not a brand liability?

Mr Bindal: This is literally a multi-billion dollar

question. As someone who is watching this space

closely, I dare say that this debate on privacy versus

marketers is only going to grow louder and louder. As

individuals, we are all leaving our digital footprints all

over the web and this information is a “virtual”

goldmine for marketers. The moral and legal compass

on privacy is today being pointed primarily at ‘social

media’ companies that are seen to be collecting such

information – say a Google, Yahoo or Facebook.

However, marketers need to realize that they need to

hold themselves to highest standards of privacy laws

and practices – rather than assuming that this is a

problem to be tackled by social media companies

alone – i.e. outsourcing the moral and legal dilemmas

is akin to abdicating responsibility.

One simple thumb rule to follow is to simply respect

“the choice of the customer”. Also, marketers need to

accept the bitter fact that, in the short-term brands

that inappropriately leverage personal information

may gain some traction. However, in the long-term

(and possibly not too long given the intense activism

on privacy), responsible brands will see their brand

equity grow.

Markathon: What will be your

advice to the aspiring marketers

reading the magazine?

Mr Bindal: My advice to all of you

reading this magazine would be to

always back yourself and follow your

dreams. While this may sound (and

is) cliché, but one needs to know that

numerous reality checks await us

when we start our careers. The

collective direction and impact of

these reality checks may cause us to dilute our

dreams. However, to keep going and to have the

passion one needs to succeed – one has to keep

believing in and working for the dream.

Another area that I would advise marketers is when

choosing professional roles; choose businesses and

segments that are on growth path or the primary

focus of the employer organization in question. This is

important to ensure that there is resonance of your

efforts with the organization’s priorities.


31

Topic for the next issue: “Over Emphasis on Data Analytics: Stimulating or Stifling Creativity of the ad-makers?”

Your opinion (view/counterview) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is 20th Aug, 2013.

Include your picture (JPEG format) with the entry.

MAHATHI CHITTA | SCMHRD

The social media usage in the 16th Lok Sabha

Elections, which are barely a few

months away, is unprecedented,

especially with the giants’ pre-poll

lock of horns online adding to the

heat. The increase in buzz about

social media following is due to

•The middle class- the majority in the population got

a platform to be heard.

•The content posted comes unmodified.

•Politicians can elucidate their agendas to the masses

But the potentiality to convert the social media

following to real votes is questionable. The internet

users in India are around 135 million-i.e., less than

11% of the total population. 78 millions are active on

social networks-that implies 90% population would

vote in traditional ways, uninfluenced by social media.

More-so Venn diagrams of the different social

networking users are overlapping. Of this, the

percentage of eligible socially committed voters is

lesser, considering the general turn-out. Majority

users belong to urban areas but the rural turn-out is

higher. Similarly majority users belong to middle class

but lower classes hold the major vote bank. Out of

543 constituencies, 160 constituencies have high

impact of social media, 67 medium, 60 low and

remaining 256 have “no impact”. So the online “army”

is actually a small number.

Indian votes are mostly driven by religion, caste and

region politics. Other factors are:

•Disgust about the prevalent conditions

•Promises made by the parties or the perks/favours

given to the voters legally or otherwise

•Loyalty and favouritism to one party or strong

aversion towards another

Most of these exercise their vote right but do not

necessarily voice out. Potential vote bank means

potentiality to ensure victory, which at the moment,

the social media groups do not possess.

SIDDHARTH SHAH | TISS

I think social media followers are not just virtual

armies but potential vote bank.

They influence the vote bank

both directly and indirectly.

Social media's role was very vital

in the street protests – the

Hazare agitation, the protests

sparked by the Delhi gang-rape

etc. Social media has also created a platform for

unfiltered news. For eg Janis Krums became a

breaking news reporter by sharing evacuation plans

via twitter. What social media has done best is that it

has distributed power by rapidly increasing

information sharing. Now a political party is not

limited to its workers to influence voters. Everyone

using social media plays a significant role in

considerably influencing the vote bank. Social media

generates soft leads. A like, a comment or sharing

influences vote bank’s perception. As marketing

strives to generate leads which determine the

propensity of the inquirer to purchase, in a similar

manner social media satire, posts, cartoons etc. on

politics shape the perception and image of politicians

which is converted into votes for them or their

competitor. Another research talks about how we are

hard wired for remembering live social media content

rather than something in a newspaper or a book. This

affects how we discuss political things posted on our

social media profiles offline. Also the number of social

media users in India at the time of the 2009 election

was only 1.6 million. In 2014 this figure would be 80

million. In the end, a research by Iris knowledge

foundation strengthens my point of view. They

mapped Facebook users by Lok Sabha constituencies.

In about 160 constituencies out of the total of 543

constituencies, where Facebook users account for

over 10 per cent of the voting population are likely to

be influenced by social media during the next

elections.

war zone | eye 2 eye markathon | aug 2013

Ind

ian

vo

tes

are

mo

stly

dri

ven

by

relig

ion

, ca

ste

an

d r

egio

n p

olit

ics

A like, a

com

men

t or sh

arin

g in

fluen

ces vote b

an

k’s percep

tion

LOK SABHA ELECTIONS 2014: SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWERS A

POTENTIAL VOTEBANK OR JUST A VIRTUAL ARMY?

32

Tishya Relia | SIBM pune

NEXT THEME FOR SILENT VOICE: Raymond- The Complete Man LAST DATE OF SENDING THE PRINT AD: 20th August, 2013

EMAIL ID: [email protected]

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

Raminder kaur | imi delhi

Winners

Silent Voice

LAST MONTH’S RESULTS

Theme: “Coca Cola 150th Year Special Limited Edition”

war zone | silent voice markathon | aug 2013

33

Congratulations!!! Raminder and Tishya receive a cash prize of Rs 1000 each!

mailto:[email protected]

Keshav Sridhar | Batch of 2012|IIM

Shillong

Marketing courses offered in a management institute

are so much fun and thumps us with the illusion of

knowing everything that the marketing department of

any company needs. ‘Ask the team to rework the logo’,

‘Ingredient branding is the one step solution’, ‘What

nonsense, they should have improved the customer

touch points,duh!!’ are words of wisdom we spew at

ease upon analyzing a case after a healthy five minutes

of analysis! You could tear

down Intel’s marketing

strategy and propose a

plan to rake up their

revenues can alter McD’s

customer services based

on differential advantages

and magically make them

successful in any country.

BUT once you get to work

for a company, you would probably want to

rest your wisdom within the confines of your

classroom.

Upon joining, what typically happens is that

one is asked to familiarize themselves with the

company, their products, the operating

environment and the competition. This is a very

long process as it goes against our pedagogy

which is all about skimming through. Out here,

the people are real, the system is alive and the

news is not about events that are disconnected to you,

they determine your association with naukri.com and

the likes.

People who enter sales are to typically deal with

expletives (give & take), move around a lot, travel light

& smart and make-do with erratic food timings. They

have the closest association with customers and need

to interact with people more than processes. Out here,

no current MBA concepts come to your rescue. It’s all

about common sense, ability to listen & take note and

mastering Google Maps. Oh yea, a 3G connection goes a

long way.

The others who enter marketing have a relatively

peaceful environment to work in. Your responsibilities

will fall in either improving customer satisfaction( after

sales), framing the pitching points for the sales team,

garnering macro and micro environment data which

helps in forecast & strategy ( Is that an MBA term I

see!), dealing with pricing/ discounts, channel member

relationship and probing newer areas to

enter. Out here, your ability to think

originally, using methods in statistics

which can convince others to see what

ANOVA etc. imply, what the current

industry practices are and so on makes

better sense.

Unless a company is quite new, you can

expect silos between smaller departments

as well. The ease of information flow is

actually…uneasy. Each

team works on its own

directive and

department head. In

fact, on a micro level,

your team can be a

stark contrast to what

the majority of the

company’s culture is.

So, please do go with

an open mind. Nothing is as it seems from outside.

Although these pointers focus much on soft skills, you

will know that they make more sense once you are in a

system which involves people. When I was asked of my

interest between sales or marketing, I was not sure

where I had wanted to start; these were the words of

my AVP, M&S ‘At the end of the day, it’s all about the

thought-process. You get that right, you can don any

role out here. It is as plain and simple as that’.

A Marketing major? Who, me? These are perspectives of someone who is a new entrant in a product-based industry

freshly brewed markathon | aug 2013

35

CATCH

H

Swikruti Panda | IIM S

Product: Binani Cement

Positioning: “Sadiyon ke liye”

Ad Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai

Youtube Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AfoomfNqVU

CONCEPT:

The ad is shot in the study of Mr. Amitabh Bachchan

with soft notes of piano playing in the backdrop. As

the camera rolls on to capture him reminiscing the

loving memories of his parents, as he caresses their

belongings like his father’s spectacles or tinkles with

his mother’s

bangles or flips

through an old

album, the legend

speaks about how

parents stay with us till eternity and

never seize to amaze us through their

presence in the most unconventional

manner. We may see their glimpse in

something we suddenly utter that they

used to, in some of our gestures we picked sub

consciously from them, in the hesitation we feel while

lying and sometimes deep in the eyes of our children

and grandchildren. The ad closes by saying that

parents never leave us but stay in the subtleties of our

lives forever …“Sadiyo ke liye”

VERDICT: Catch

Brilliant take by a firm selling a commodity like cement!

Mr. Bachchan with his strong legacy could not have been

portrayed better to build such a strong emotional

connect with something as mundane as cement. In a

country where family values keep us all enrooted, there

will be hardly any among the audience who could miss

on connecting incidents in his/her life to what Big B

speaks. Not only the script which in the baritone voice of

Mr. Bacchan is like a beautiful melody but also the soft

demeanor in which the ad is shot has left me in awe. The

best part of the ad is that the celebrity is not recklessly

selling the product. But it stays, if I have to make a

purchase decision on cement, Binani is sure to ring a

euphonious bell in my ears.

Sushree Tripathy | IIM S

PRODUCT: MTS Always Talk plan

POSITIONING: “Best Value Promise”

CREATIVE AGENCY: Rediffusion-Y&R

YouTube Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YKCU4GLnsk&feature=endscreen

CONCEPT:

MTS launched its latest campaign to promote its ‘Always

talk’ voice call plan which is offered at an aggressive

price point in the market. It has rolled out a nation-wide

campaign, introducing their new brand ambassador

Imran Khan. In the series of five ad films, Imran is

portrayed as a politician, a bridegroom and a hostage

among others. In each of the films, he faces an

emergency and tries to call someone over the phone,

only to get a busy tone. He tips off that the person on

the other line is busy talking on an MTS network.

The ending shot shows Imran frustrated at

repeatedly trying to reach the other person and

says this is bound to happen with people on an

MTS talk plan.

VERDICT: Miss

Based on the simple insight that the ‘Always talk’ plan enables MTS customers to enjoy voice calls without having

to worry about the charges, the message is simple, relatable and comes out clearly. The catchy tune gives the ad a good amount of recall and the selection of Imran Khan as endorser cuts through the young and mass audience well. However, it cannot escape the fact that it is a hackneyed plot used by many brands earlier. The product specifications come at the very end, failing to make an impact. Another cause of worry is that the five films differ in humor and overall impact rendering the campaign inconsistent. Finally, the brand ambassador shown being frustrated with the very brand he is endorsing, though a brave attempt, may put them on treacherous grounds.

MISS

R

specials | ADdicted markathon | aug 2013

36



DIFFERENT Escaping the Competitive Herd

-Youngme Moon

Review by Pallavi

Price Rs.432

Marketing is the only function

within the organization that is expressly designed to sit

at the intersection where business meets people. REAL

people. And the problem with real people is that they

don’t see the world the same way a businessperson does.

They don’t speak the language of bullet points; they

don’t organize the world into flowcharts and

frameworks. People, real people, view the world more

organically. They are idiosyncratic. They are

unpredictable. They are beautifully disorganized. –

Different, Youngme Moon

Summary:

The book “Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd” by

Youngme Moon stands on the premise that more

fiercely the companies compete with each other, the

more similar they become to the point that theses

“differences” become laughable. This is particularly true

in mature product categories.

The author defines this point as a “heterogeneous

homogeneity”: a point where there are actual

differences between products, but to the consumer

these differences are lost in the sea of sameness. This is

a dangerous point for businesses because the essence of

business is the ability to compete and the ability to

compete depends on the ability to differentiate. But At

this point the concept of competitive differentiation

essentially becomes obsolete.

The reason for this, according to Moon, is the increasing

emphasis on business intelligence. With the advances in

technology it is now very easy to gather data about the

competitor activities and respond to them in shorter

time period. However, what they do not understand is

that “being better is not the same as being different”.

She then goes on to give examples of brands that

manage to stand out, creating loyal fans who are ready

to go miles to defend the brand. One way in which

brands have done this is by not giving what the

competitors offer and what the customers expect like in

the case of IKEA where they

do nothing: no pre-assembled furniture, no standard

delivery, little variety in terms of design, no sales staff to

assist customers or in the case of the clutter free

homepage of Google as opposed to that of Yahoo!

Although Moon states in the beginning itself that this is

not a “how to” book, she mentions three criteria at the

end which she believes the brands need to meet in order

to differentiate themselves from the crowd. Firstly, that

the brand will have to offer something that is difficult to

obtain. Secondly, the brand will need to tie in with a new

way of working or living and be part of a larger idea. And

thirdly the brand will need to be humane.

Organization

The book is divided into three parts. In the first section

the author talks about the mistaken assumption that

product proliferation begets product diversity. In the

second section she brings out examples of brands that

have been successful in standing out and how they went

about to achieve this. The third section harps on the

need for creativity – “the need to develop new habits,

new disciplines, and new conventions” around the

exercise of competition that would lead to the possibility

that an extraordinary outcome may emerge.

Verdict: 5/5

The book is a fresh take on brands and what

differentiation really is. The author brings in the concept

of “competitive herd” and successfully articulates her

ideas. It is insightful, thought provoking and entertaining

all at the same time. Written in a very simple language

the author gives it a personal touch with a generous

sprinkling of anecdotes from her own life making it

different from the regular management books.

Bottom-line

A MUST READ

specials | radical thoughts markathon | aug 2013

37


10

JAB THEY FAILED: McDONALD’S GOES ADULT VAIBHAV ANNAM | IIM S

McDonald’s has always enjoyed one of the quickest

brand recalls among people across the globe. It has

had, for ages, a children-friendly and lovable Ronald

McDonald feature in most of its advertising

campaigns. The mascot commands an immense global

appeal. While brand promise of McDonald’s has been

convenience, people do not mind going to this food

outlet for a party or a hangout with friends.

Towards the end of twentieth century, competition in

the hamburger industry started increasing with Burger

King emerging as a major competitor for McDonald’s.

McDonald’s felt that it was being perceived as a

“children’s brand” and decided that if wants a larger

chunk in the market, it must make some products

which were “Adult oriented”. Thus were introduced a

chain of new offerings which

included McDLT, Mc Lean Deluxe,

Filet Fish Deluxe, Grilled

Chicken Deluxe and Monster

Mac. None of these products

were successful but

McDonald’s spent over $ 100

Million on research for

another product which it was

sure would appeal to the

adult crowd. The product was

called McDonald’s Arch

Deluxe.

Introduced in May 1996, this burger was marketed as

“Burger with Grown-up taste”. The burger contained a

lot of ingredients ranging from quarter pound of beef,

potato flour to mustard and mayonnaise sauce. The

intention was to make the burger in such a way that

kids would not be interested in even tasting the same.

In fact advertisements which followed tried hard to

drive the same point home.

Fallon McElligott, an advertising agency based in

Minneapoli was hired to develop the advertising

campaign. One advertisement showed young children

looking at a complex burger and saying, “I don’t get

it”. Some children appearing the advertisements said,

“You don’t even get a free toy with that”. What could

be the result of a campaign like this?

Doomed. All efforts by McDonald’s in vigorously trying

to move toward an “adult-oriented” brand failed

miserably. The TV Commercials featuring young kids

only confused the viewers. The general perception

that was developed was that McDonald’s burgers

started to taste bad. Observing this reaction from

customers, McDonald’s switched to its conventional

way of advertising involving Ronald McDonald. The

next set of commercials which followed showed the

mascot doing grown-up activities like playing golf and

going to night clubs. Alas, even this could not save

Arch Deluxe. And eventually the product was taken off

the menu in two years.

What went wrong in this case?

McDonald’s failed to address its

brand promise – convenience.

Every person who goes to

McDonald’s knows that he is

not in for the best tasting food.

The value proposition over

here lies in utter simplicity. A

burger is a burger – how and

why would you want to target

different segments of

customers when selling

burgers? Another blunder

which McDonald’s committed in its TV Commercials

is that it showed kids making “yucky” faces at a

product from its own menu. An onlooker will only get

confused about whether the brand is trying to

reposition itself or making a mockery of its own

shortcomings. Understanding what a brand means to

its customers is the most quintessential part of

Marketing.

Well, McDonald’s definitely learnt it the hard way.

With close to a whopping $ 300 million spent on

research, production and marketing, Arch Deluxe

turned out to be the most expensive and

embarrassing flop from the land of Roland McDonald.

specials | jab they failed markathon | aug 2013

38

specials | radical thoughts markathon|january 2013

10

Reviving the brand

Datsun. Will it pay off for

Nissan?

Ashok A | IIM S

This month in Radical thoughts, I am not going to take

any particular stance. Rather I will provide arguments

on either sides and leave it to the readers and the

time to decide the fate of the much expected brand

revival. The revival plan for Datsun started way back

in 2009 as a part of Carlos Ghosn’s Power 88 strategy.

Datsun always brings bad memories to the Nissan

employees who were there when the Brand was

killed. When Nissan dediced to bring the brand down,

it was the second highest selling non-US brand in USA,

with nearly 580,000 in sales. But Nissan stopped using

Datsun brand name and decided to use Nissan instead

to bring a corporate unity. This led to lot of confusion

among the consumers and dealers alike. After this

move, Nissan went on a downward spiral and this is

considered as one of the worst marketing decisions in

the history. The company almost touched the doors of

bankruptcy before Carlos Ghosn came to the rescue

and put Nissan back on track.

Since it was a big slap for Nissan, now bringing back

seems like walking on fire for Nissan. The main reason

they want to revive the brand is simple. The growth

for Nissan has stagnated in all developed countries

and in emerging economies like India, South Africa,

Russia and Indonesia, its market share is very less. For

example, Nissan’s market share in India is 1.3%. And

Nissan argues that they don’t have a car for these

markets at right price points. They want to provide a

sub 4 lakh mass car and this cannot happen under

Nissan brand name because it is a Global brand.

But why couldn’t Nissan have created a new brand

altogethe

r without

facing the

hassles of

waking

up the

dead?

The

brand

could be kept less associated with the parent brand to

reduce the chance of parent being affected in case of

a failure. But Carlos Ghosn believes that reviving

Datsun brand, which was once a successful brand, will

create a sense of excitement in the market which it

will act as a marketing tool and the marketing spend

can be saved many folds.

It is really tempting for an ambitious company like

Nissan to place big bet on markets like India where on

38 out of 1000 people has a car compared with USA

where 808 people per 1000 has a car. But Carlos

Ghosn is putting all his hard earned victory and

reputation at a stake. If he succeeds, he will become

one of the best CEOs to inhabit this planet, but what if

he fails? What will happen to him and Nissan is the

biggest question in the rounds.

Nissan says it does not keep the past failure of Datsun

or any impending failure in mind, but is sure to pull

the revival big time. Vincent Cobee, the head for

Datsun is oozing with confidence and argues that a

Sportsman does not think of failure when he is

sprinting or during a football game, but we are pretty

sure this revival is much more than a game.

Many argue that Brand comebacks are opportunistic

because of the macro-economic changes that have

forced the people to shuffle their priorities and brand

preferences. But history shows us that there is always

positive behavior towards the retro-chic trend, as

people believe it’s cool to be connected with the past.

So even I am waiting for the verdict and we have to

wait till Datsun Go goes into the market. Adios.

specials | radical thoughts markathon | aug 2013

39

14

specials | Fun Corner markathon|september 2012

2012 ACROSS

3. Which hosiery company owns the lingerie brand

‘Wonderbra’?

5. Which is the world’s largest e-commerce retailer?

6. Under what brand name would PepsiCo be marketing

yogurt worldwide?

10. Which indie film by Anand Gandhi has received

multiplex release thanks to support by Kiran Rao and a

well thought out social media strategy?

12. Which group has a grocery retail chain called

‘Nature’s Basket'?

13. Which famous fast-fashion apparel brand has the

policy ”If a new style is not a hit within a week, it goes

off the shelf”?

14. Edifice watches are sold by the F-1 team Infiniti Red

Bull Renault as official merchandise. Which co owns this

brand?

15. Which brand created an edutainment site,

“thefuturegenius.com” and roped in Ruskin Bond to

Blog in it?

Down

1. There was an advertisement for Tigre Blanc music

app in the newspapers, last month. It was a surrogate

advertisement for which product?

2. With which brand has Sachin Tendulkar had the

longest association since 1990?

3. With which brand would you associate Hausla Buland

Academy?

4. NourishCo is a JV between an Indian and a global

FMCG major to market vitamin fortified water in India.

Tata Global Beverages is the Indian major, which is the

global major?

7. What is the new name of the company Cadbury

India?

8. The old refrigerator brand Kelvinator was relaunched

last year. Which company owns the brand now?

9. Which brand was concocted by William Lever in 1894

and sold it as a means to combat cholera? It is no longer

sold in UK but sold in India.

11. Which brand of water filter provided water to all the

visitors of the most recent Kumbh Mela?

ACROSS

3. Hanes

5. Alibaba

6. Muller

10. Ship of Theseus

12. Godrej

13. Zara

14. Casio

15. Parle-G

DOWN

1. Vodka

2. Boost

3. Haywards

4. PepsiCo

7. Mondelez

8. Videocon

9. Lifebuoy

11. Tata Swach

ANSWERS

specials | Fun Corner markathon | aug 2013

41

By Prateek | IIM-S

BRAND LAUNCH

Oral Care Madhuri Style

Consumer products giant P&G extended its Oral-B

family in India with the launch of its toothpaste Oral B

Pro-Health. And who better than Madhuri Dixit Nene to

endorse the all-round protection guarantee the brand

provides. The Indian toothpaste market pegged at

around 6000 crore is dominated by Colgate and HUL.

P&G’s Oral-B toothbrush has been a major success in

the Indian market and the FMCG behemoth looks to

cash in on the success of the brand name with this

extension.

Economy mode, Blackberry way

The emerging markets are proving to be the biggest

battleground for smartphone makers. And Blackberry

taking cognizance of this fact has come up with its latest

avatar: Q5. The mid-range smartphone featuring 5MP

camera primary camera and a host of other features is

likely to face tough competition from Samsung Galaxy

S4 mini, Sony Xperia SP and Nokia Lumia 820.

Audacity redefined with Audi S6

When you marry sporty, sophisticated and luxury, you

get the new S6 from Audi. In a bid to increase its

presence in India and in tune with its aggressive

strategy, the German automaker presented Indian

consumers with this engineering marvel. A new feature

that they have added to control casualty and promote

safe driving is the electronic speed governance when

the need touches 250 kmph. Priced at around 86 lakhs,

the new machine from Audi is likely to push BMW and

Mercedes for new variants in the luxury segment.

BRAND WATCH

Scaling Social Media with Adobe

Adobe’s latest gift has put marketers in a position to

tune in to customer conversation. Adobe social, an

integral part of Adobe Marketing Cloud looks to bridge

the gap between social media and business. The new

feature which can be added to Flickr, Foursquare,

Instagram and LinkedIn, is an analytical tool which looks

to scrutinize the business impact through social media

campaigns and helps companies act according to the

analysis given by the tool.

Google Nexus 7 on its way

One of the most talked about devices in recent times,

Google is planning to unveil the new version of its

tablet much to the delight of people. The device

manufactured by Asus on behalf of Google received

rave reviews last year because of its product quality and

price. With rivals like Acer and Amazon crowding the

market, it will be interesting to see what Google comes

up with in its latest offering.

India says Come Soon Datsun

With the auto industry bleeding badly, Nissan tries to

cheer up the consumer sentiments with its latest

machine, the Datsun Go. To woo the price sensitive

Indian consumer, Datsun has strategically pegged the

price of this model in the sub 4 lakhs category, putting it

in direct competition with Maruti and Honda. Datsun

plans to lure the first time car buyers with its big car

appeal. How its fares in the competitive market? Only

time will tell.

MEDIA

Coke UK ties up with Spotify

In a bid to revamp the fifth P i.e. packaging, Coca Cola

has introduced a snazzier avatar of its 250 ml can which

features Spotify logo at the bottom. Supporting the logo

is a line asking people to visit a website which enables

them to tag the place where they are listening music.

The app shows a red map of the world with tags of

songs being heard by people across the globe.

Humor served with Amul

“Eats milk with every meal” is the slogan of the latest

print ad and digital campaign of Amul which is trying to

specials | updates markathon | aug 2013

42

Articles are invited

“Best Article”:

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 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 the marketing strategy of any company or an event.

Apart from above, out of the box views related to marketing are also welcome. The best entry will receive a letter of appreciation and a cash prize of Rs 1000/-. The format of the file should be MS Word doc/docx.

We’re inviting photographs of interesting promotional events/advertisements/hoardings/banners etc. you might have come across in your daily life

for our new section “The 4th P”. Send your self-clicked photographs in JPEG format only.

The last date of receiving all entries is 20th August, 2013. Please send your entries marked as <ARTICLE NAME>_<SENDERS’ NAMES>_<INSTITUTE> to [email protected].

connect with consumer via the tested route of humor.

The character depicted in the ad include a man trying to

lift his car to change the tires, an office weirdo who

hasn’t taken a sick leave in last five years and the like.

Looks like Amul sure has its sight on maintaining its

leadership in the processed food segment.

AD Watch

Honda Hands: The best way to describe this ad is to

fold both hands and stand in awe. This masterpiece

created by Honda takes you through its journey of

product evolvement and captivates your mind with the

amazing graphics. At the end of the ad when the tagline

‘Power of Dreams’ flashes, you are simply left in awe

and feel as if you have woken up from a dream.

Youtube Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxy4n0UT82o

Binani Cement - Parental Love

If the number of likes and shares on social media is

something to go by, this ad surely seems to have struck

the right chord and created an emotional connect with

the people. Featuring Bollywood legend Amitabh

Bachchan who is seen narrating several small instances

to show how our parents live for eternity in the various

subtleties of life in his powerful voice, this ad engulfs

you and reminds you of the nostalgic moments with

your parents.

Youtube Link:


Tanishq Mia

A no frills ad conveying the message of the brand

effectively is the best way to describe this effort by the

jewelry giant. The beauty of the ad lies in the fact that it

never tries to overpower the characters in the ad and

very subtly plays the protagonists giving due

importance to the theme of the ad. All in all, a nice

visual with the right targeting and connect.

Youtube Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq3Kh-tHsyk

43

specials | updates markathon | aug 2013


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxy4n0UT82o


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq3Kh-tHsyk

Please send in your comments/feedback to:

[email protected]

Visit: www.iims-markathon.in

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