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Marketing Magazine of IIM Shillong Volume 4 | Issue 12

June

13

Mr. Al RiesBest Selling Author and Father of Positioning Era


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Dear Readers,

As always, this summer was full of activity both inside and

outside the world of marketing. Millions of people who

regarded it as a religion were left disappointed after cricket in

India went through some ugly patches over the last three

weeks. Indian Premier League (IPL) was scarred with

controversies including betting, spot fixing and match-fixing.

Pepsi used the very lucrative platform of IPL to launch its own

brand of a much fizzier drink, Pepsi Atom, with Sushant Singh

Rajput as the brand ambassador. While it is yet to fizz up the

Indian market, Pepsi should hope it carves a fair share for

itself in the pie of Indian soft drink market (worth Rs 50

Billion). Mumbai Indians emerged victors in the sixth edition

of the IPL, Bayern Munich were crowed the kings of Europe

and Rafael Nadal reinforced his supremacy on the red soils of

Paris. The chant and brand of NaMo is getting stronger and

stronger even as the old guard in Bharatiya Janata Party

reluctantly gave in to the demand of a greater majority for a

greater good. Narayan Murthys arrival in Infosys seemed to

have pleased the share market sentiment about the iconic

Indian IT firm.

We want thank you all for the overwhelming number of

entries that we have received for this months edition. This

goes to show how Markathon has developed as a platform to

showcase the best minds of the Marketing domain. For a

team that puts its soul into a magazine month in and month

out, there simply cannot be any greater source of

encouragement.

Though products are manufactured and services are offered

by companies, brands are built only by customers. A

substantial amount of resources are spent by companies in

building their brands. While some companies have been

extremely successful in sculpting positive brand equity,

majority of them have failed more often than not. Though

failures are mostly unanticipated, there are some obvious

mistakes which would lead a brand to its peril. The cover

story of this month is a compilation of seven such sins

which brands must stay away from. There is no right way in

marketing, which makes the domain even more challenging.

Even biggies like Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Ford have failed

miserably in implementing some of their own marketing

strategies. Any marketing activity must be completely in sync

with the expectations of customers from a brand.

There would be times when you are completely awed by

some people in your lives. Al Ries, the father of positioning

era, can be safely counted as one among such people. This

man coined the term positioning, which is almost used

ubiquitously nowadays in marketing. Even though we had

him before on Vartalaap, we believe you will indeed benefitfrom the wise words of this marketing guru.

Always high on entertainment, this months Fun Corner will

nudge your grey cells with advertising campaigns. Know more

about Dettol in Brand Story.

Team Markathon congratulates the winners and all the

participants.

With a host of exciting stuff lined up for you, waste no time in

taking on this delightful journey as you flip through the pages

of the latest edition of Markathon. As always, do send in your

feedback/suggestions [email protected].

Drench in the rains, drink coffee and enjoy this issue!

Happy Reading!

Team Markathon

FROM TEAM MARKATHON

THE MARKATHON TEAM

Editors

Ashok AKamalpreet Singh Saluja

PallaviPrateek Gaurav

Shashank S. TomarSwikruti Panda

Creative Designers

Sushree L. Tripathy

Vaibhav Annam
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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markathon |june 2013

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CONTENTS

FEATURED ARTICLES

PERSPECTIVES

ATOM BOMBED4

BY SUDHEER GV | IIM KOZHIKODE

UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE 7

VATSAL SETHI | KESHAV MAHAVIDYALAYA, DELHI UNIVERSITY

COVER STORY

SEVEN SINS OF BRANDING 11

ERNESTO DHILEEBAN, VAIBHAV ANNAM | IIM SHILLONG

VARTALAAP CLASSIC FROM ARCHIVE 18

MR.AL RIES

BEST SELLING AUTHOR AND FATHER OF POSITIONING ERA

EYE 2 EYE 21"PEPSI'S 160 CRORE IPL BET: MARKETING MASTERSTROKE OR MISCALCULATED

MAYHEM?

SOUVIK DHAR | NIT SILCHAR ; SAURABH KUMAR | NIRMA UNIVERSITY

SILENT VOICE 22

SLEEPWELL MATTRESSES

SPECIALS

ADDICTED 23SWIKRUTI PANDA & SUSHREE TRIPATHY | IIM S

BRAND STORY 24

DETTOL

BY SHASHANK TOMAR | IIM S

FUN CORNER 25

KAMALPREET SALUJA | IIM S

UPDATES 27

PRATEEK GAURAV | IIM S


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sudheer gvIIM KOZHIKODE

Positioning Strategy

Positioning it as the second main stream cola after the

flagship brand Pepsi, PepsiCo created enough hype forthe brand Atom. Also, claims that it is a stronger,

fizzier drink raised huge expectations in the minds of

people about the beverage. Going head on with Thums

Up, spoofing its ad campaigns, PepsiCo tried

desperately to brand Atom as the second major mover

in the fizzy drink segment. In fact, positioning a second

mover is always a difficult task for the top management.

The brand should be positioned either very close to the

first mover or far away from the first mover.

PepsiCo seems to be a bit unclear regarding this as its

positioning of Atom can be strictly classified into neither

heads. But, it has unnecessarily narrowed down its

target base. Aggressive Positioning of it as a symbol of

masculinity, that too, using the words Macho ka naya

funda it has distanced itself from female consumers.

Machismo/Macho has the meaning of a belief in the

supremacy of men over women. During womensliberation movement the term machismo was used by

feminists to describe male aggression and violence. It

seems that PepsiCo has either not read the literature or

misread it or it is a deliberate attempt by the PepsiCo to

evoke anger of feminists and thereby get some free

publicity out of law suits and street protests. Or it might

be a calculated move by the top management

considering India to be a male dominated society that

they could get away with a tagline like this.

According to an Economic Times article, 30% of

consumers of Thums Up are women. In Aaj Kuch

toofani karte hain ad campaign, the ad featuring four

high energy dudes led by Telugu Superstar Mahesh

Babu, Leo Burnette, the creative agency of Thums Up,

has included a woman also. Thums Up only positioned

itself as being extremely strong like a

thunder with a mild signaling of masculine

inclination. It has never explicitly

mentioned in its promos that it is meant

for sir machos. The commercials of

Thums Up often showed daredevilry by

people like Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar to

grab a bottle of Thums Up which they feel

is so strong that it deserves an adventure

of that sort. Another filter that PepsiCo has

put to its target base is the age group. The

repeated PR positioning of Atom as the

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perspective markathon|june 2013

BOMBED!


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Cola for the Youth, getting it endorsed by Sushant

Singh Rajput show that PepsiCo is trying to reach out

only to youth. It is not the case with Thums Up which,

most of the times, used people in their forties like

Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, South Indian star

Chiranjeevi for its brand endorsements.

Pricing

Pricing strategy is one of the flaws that need to be

discussed. On one hand, blaming coke for its predatory

pricing strategy, PepsiCo has done nothing inventive in

the pricing of Atom. It has set an unwarranted

precedent which might have triggered a price war but

fortunately has not.

PR Strategy

The biggest blunder that PR Agency of Pepsi has

committed is the repeated claim that Atom is the

biggest beverage innovation in the history of PepsiCo. It

sends out a signal into the minds of laymen that

PepsiCo could not come up with a suitable innovation

that could challenge Thums Ups supremacy for the past

36 years. Using the term indovation (India specific

innovation as they put it) just for the sake of short

term gains may damage the reputation of the companyin the long run.

Advertising Strategy

Equally bad is its advertising strategy. Critics have

already started pointing out their fingers at the images

of mushroom cloud appearing at the end of the

advertisement. Historically this mushroom cloud is seen

as a cloud of gas associated with the Atom bomb

explosion that happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The message of this image being shown at the end of

the promo is that Atom generates so much of energy

that is ideally released by a nuclear explosion. In fact

the drink is christened Atom just to drive home the

point that it is as powerful and energetic as an atom

bomb. Bringing this sensitive issue for promoting what

they call a Josh Cola is seen to be insensitive by many.

Only once in history was this mushroom cloud concept

used for commercial / political advertising purpose by

former president of US Mr. Lyndon Johnson and his

Democratic party. Even then after

airing it for the first time the

advertisement was withdrawn

because of its controversial

nature. Now, PepsiCo bringingthe same concept to the fore

front just for the sake of

promoting Atom is really

unfortunate.

As one of the followers on Pepsi

Atom official facebook page

mentioned that it is atrocious on

the part of Pepsi to show A un


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cool guy trying to save a damsel in distress being fooled

in the end. Its a subtle encouragement of people to

mind their own business and not to respond to womenwho are seemingly in danger. Also where is the josh or

energy of Sushant Singh Rajput shown in this ad? Isnt it

contradicting its own core values fizzy, strong when

the protagonist in the ad is cool and in a sense is

indifferent to an apparent attack on a woman?

It seems that in a bid to mock the promos of Thums Up,

PepsiCo has deviated from its intended

corporate communication. In an era of

every day crime happening against women,a responsible company like PepsiCo coming

up with such an ad is really unwarranted.

Digital Marketing Strategy

Coming to its digital marketing strategies,

Atom could get just a little more than 1000

likes for its official page till date. And the

kind of activity that is going on on the page

is miserable. Rather than promoting the

beverage through some innovative ideas

like hosting contests etc, PepsiCo is just

making use of a promo tab that encourages

current fans to invite thirty(or more) of

their friends, to like the page, which makes

them eligible to get a chance of winning a

Lee T-shirt. Most of the netizens are

expressing their displeasure over Atom on

this page, benchmarking Atom against

Thums Up and belittling the former. By and large, it is

appearing that Thums Up is being promoted on this

page more than Atom.

Sales and Distribution Strategy

It is surprising to note that Atom has not yet hit many of

the retail outlets. Even in metros like Mumbai, it is not

uncommon to find many retailers saying unavailable

and some of them even going on to the extent of saying

that Atom is not worth buying. With summer about to

end, it is high time for PepsiCo to effectively manage its

supply chains to ensure the omnipresence of

Atom

Bottom line

Despite its aggressive advertising and

marketing strategies, underpricing, favorable

conditions like the summer season, PepsiCo

by and large has failed to push Atom as of

now. Keep aside its ambition of dethroning

Thums Up, the prospects of its very survival

are being questioned by consumers many of

whom are mocking Atom as a liquid version

of Chyavanprash. This reiterates the fact that

marketing can only be a support function,

which helps in pushing the product to the

people, while the core function is coming up

with a qualitative product.


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Vatsal sethi

Keshav mahavidyalaya | delhi universityWe all know about Godrejs steel cupboards, which

were present in almost everyones homes. The

cupboards which refused to break down and were

passed from one generation to the other. Well, they

have vanished like those old times!

Wikipedia defines Planned Obsolescence as: a policy

of planning or designing a product with limited useful

life, so it will become obsolete, i.e., unfashionable or nolonger functional after a certain period of time.

Modern consumer often faces the dilemma of keeping

up with trends or using the product to its complete

lifecycle. Very often, the life of the product is just equal

to its warranty period, after which the consumer is

forced to restart the buying process and replace it.

Other times, he finds himself at crossroads, when the

product he has is functionally competent but

aesthetically obsolete.

The reason why he often finds himself in this difficult

situation is because ofplanned obsolescence.

On the face of it, it looks like a clever ploy of

profiteering companies to further exploit innocuous and

unassuming customers by using them as pawns in their

strategy towards amassing greater wealth. But, let us

look at few valid rationales before reaching a

conclusion.

Are Producers the real conspirators or mere

scapegoats?

Though technologically possible, it is economically

unviable to manufacture products which last very long.

Consumers or society at large desire products which last


Understanding the concept ofPlanned Obsolescence

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for many years, in contrast to producers who want to

maximise their profits. By producing products that last

for an extended time period, they will simply be

jeopardizing the economic lives of their ventures.

Hence, they produce goods which develop equilibrium

in the market; the consumers find sufficient utility in

them while the producers also earn enough profits.

For firms in the Fashion or Apparels industry, this

phenomenon is just unavoidable. Trends and fads are to

be incorporated in the product lines which make

present products obsolete in the nest season simply

inevitable.

Yet there are a few Exceptions:

Companies like Phillips have always taken initiativesto enhance the durability of their products. Their

innovation of energy efficient CFL in the lighting

market lead to the ouster of halogen bulbs and up

to 30% reduction in electricity consumption, apart

from longer life.

Amaron, the car battery manufacturer which claimsthat its batteries work for the longest time as

compared to others. This claim is sharply expressed

in its advertising campaigns with slogans like- lastlong, really long.

Firms like Century Plywood, whose T.Vadvertisement shows passing of generations

without its wood products getting ruined.

Luxury brands like Rolls Royce, Rolex, etc. swear bythe quality of their products and cant afford them

to get obsolete quickly. Instead, they form the

benchmarks in product design, quality and

manufacturing which are to be adhered to for many

years to come.

Competition is the force that drives them towards

planning their products obsolescence.

Competition forces producers to continuously bring out

new products or upgrade existing ones to outperform

each other in their quest for attaining market

leadership. Thus, they have to think one step ahead of

themselves and two steps ahead of their rivals. By not

doing this, they are just like sitting ducks, waiting to be

attacked by the hunter (read competitor).

Thus, when Samsung launches Galaxy S III to take on

Apples IPhone 5, it has to start working on Galaxy S IV

right away, even before gauging the market response.

By not doing it, it gives Apple the chance to circumvent

it with the next IPhone.

This fast world has forced to companies to always be ontheir toes. Neither can they afford to be lax in

competing with their rivals, nor leaving the customer

unsatisfied. If they dont do it, the competitor will

definitely do it.

On the positive side, these competitive pressures often

result in innovation and efficient redesigning of

business practices. With an aim to catch the

competition, firms look out of the box for solutions.


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Old Ford Figo New Improved Ford Figo

Business Process Innovations:

To reduce the errors in production

process and check its costs,

Motorola invented the

Six Sigma process,

which enabled it towin the Malcolm

Balridge National

Quality Award given

by the United States

Congress in 1988.

Popularized by Toyota, Kaizen is the process of

continuous improvement of business processes by the

formation of quality groups. Google offers benefits like

free gourmet chefs, giant lap pools, ping-pong and

foosball tables, etc. to extract the most from its

employees and secure loyalty. Some other common

changes in todays organisations are: shorter production

cycles, flatter organization structures and beefed up R &

D budgets.

Product Innovations:

Seeing an opportunity between the phone and tablet

segment, Samsung Electronics created a new category

of Phablets or phone + tablets with launch Galaxy

Note, a 5 inch Smartphone. Even after being panned by

critics initially, it went out to become such a success,

that its next model, Galaxy Note II was able to sell more

than 2 million units in its first month of launch.

Remember, there are always two sides to a coin.

Take a look at the Apple IPhone 5. What is the

difference between IPhone 4S and IPhone 5? Half an

inch! Or for that matter between IPad 3 and IPad 4?

Retina display. Thats it.

Agreed that Apple is the leader in a market with cut-

throat competition and companies like Samsung

Electronics inching closer to its throne, but these

incremental improvements just cannot be termed as

innovations or strategies to keep competitors at bay.

These are mere tactics to mislead the consumers into

thinking that the product they possess has become

outdates and lost its ability to offer utility to them.

Rather, through heavy advertising and much hyped

Apple IPhone 4S & IPhone 5


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press conferences, consumers are brainwashed into

believing that by not upgrading to the new version, they

would be left behind, as the rest of the world moves on

to the Next Big Thing.

In the automobile sector this phenomenon goes

by the name of a facelift. Some tweaks inthe headlamps, new bumpers or use of a

little chrome leads to the rebranding of

the old car as a new and improved

one. Car buyers are made to

believe that by incorporating

the changes, the car has

become a new one which

justifies the rise in price,

whereas from inside it is just

like an old wine presented in a

new bottle.

Effects on the Environment

The environmental impacts of such practices

can easily be inferred:

More utilization of resources than is required by thesociety leading to faster resource depletion.

Rising levels of pollution which adversely affect theclimate and crop cycles.

Increased wastage causing ecological imbalancesand over use of energy.

Conclusion

We can conclude that planned

obsolescence is strategy

followed by manufactures toshorten consumption cycles and

augment consumer spending.

This is a zero sum game, where

one party wins (producers) at

the expense of the other

(consumers). Consumers are

misled into believing what they

are consuming is not worth

consumption and must be

replaced by the new version, whereas it is nothing but a

clever ploy on the part of marketers to fatten up their

bottom lines.

But, this phenomenon is not present in all the sectors.

Sectors which involve design, aesthetics and

fashion are the ones impacted by it. This isbecause these thrive on the consumer

interests based on psychological needs

and trends in the world and are

extremely difficult to predict. As a

result, instead of relying on

consumers to identify their

needs, the manufacturers

themselves provide the

consumers with new needs

which can be fulfilled by their

products. Along with the presence

of competitors, planned obsolescence

becomes a more important strategy for

survival than for profits or growth.

On the flipside, in sectors where functionality

matters more than aesthetics or fashion, the

ideologies of durability are followed. As the consumer is

more interested in the functioning of the product than

its appearance, the manufacturers have no choice but

to provide long lasting and well-functioning products.

The competition is played out on the basis of offering

maximum utility to the customer at the lowest price.


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10

It's smoother, uh, uh, rounder yet, uh, yet bolder... A

more harmonious flavour, said the companys CEO.

The day was April 23, 1985. After a thorough market

research which included surveying around 2,00,000

people, a new product was planned to be launched on

this day. The company was hopeful of regaining the

lost market share from its competitor. Researchsuggested that people

preferred the taste of this

new product much more

than the companys own

flagship product.

Management Team decided

that change was the way to go

and introduced New Coke to the

world. The product bombed. Public

outrage and sentiment against New

Coke was so strong that mere 3 months

later, Coca Cola announced it would switch

back to the original formula and call it Classic

Coke. What had gone wrong? How could a

brand as big as Coca Cola, which sells roughly

around a billion drinks everyday go wrong? Well, the

answer lies in the very sentence: BRAND

Welcome to the elusive world of branding, where

even some the biggest names have had to miserably

bite the dust while trying to brand and rebrand.

Brand, in its simplest definition, is the identity of a

product in the mind of the customer. This identity is

influenced, obviously, by a lot of factors. And more

often than not, these factors are quite unpredictable.

Perhaps the single most important attribute of a

brand is the emotional connection which the

consumer feels while using the brand. Its a common

phenomenon that consumers make buyingdecisions based around the perception of the

brand rather than the reality of the product. Trust

in a brand far overweighs any of the 4 Ps which

marketing gurus have been gleefully preaching

over and over again. While most of the global

companies established of yore might not have had

to give significant importance to their brand during

the growth face, now that they are successful only

means they have to live up to delivering their

brand proposition. While building up a brand iscomparatively easy, maintaining the same is quite

a challenge. How well you understand your

customer is quintessential in shaping/preserving your

brand. Bigger companies can still afford to get a

branding activity or two wrong. But this can often be

fatal in case of smaller companies where one mistake

can very well wipe their names off the market.

There are plentiful examples of firms which have gone

wrong in their way of branding. Though there

could be different reasons for failure, one

striking similarity in all these examples is that

brands had neglected one crucial aspect of

branding: focus on customer. Customer is

the king. Clichd it may sound but why is it

a clich if not true. The following

sections present to you our

take on what brands have to

be wary of in order notcollapse and lose their own

value. Presenting to you,

the seven deadly sins of

branding.

Brand Amnesia

Amnesia, in true sense, means a deficit in memory

caused by damage to brain. Well, in the context of

branding, the damage caused because of brandamnesia could be much more fatal. Of late, brands

have assumed a humanitarian touch among

consumers. The feeling of comfort and trust in a

brand is something you would generally associate only

with another human being. So, what happens when

brands forget what they stand for and start delivering

something else to the consumer altogether? Simple,

they learn it the hard way. Lets see what global food


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giant McDonalds did when they introduced Arch

Deluxe.

McDonalds felt that it was perceived as children-

centered brand (having Roland McDonald as their

mascot helped fuel this perception). It wanted to

move away from this image and cater to adult

audience. Thus it introduced Arch Deluxe in the year

1996. The new burger was promoted as the burger

with grown-up taste.

Advertising activities were

outsourced to

an agency

called Fallon

McElligott

for a

whopping $ 100million. In fact the

whole

research undertaken before Arch Deluxe was

launched costed McDonalds an eye-popping $ 300

million dollars. In the TV Commercials whichappeared, Roland McDonald was seen playing golf

and dancing at a night club, only to drive home the

fact that McD is growing up. But the product failed.

Its not rocket science to guess the reason why Arch

Deluxe failed. The customers going to McDonalds

know they are not going in for the tastiest food in the

world. If McDonalds has a sustainable competitive

advantage in something, it is convenience and

simplicity. Period. If you take that away from a McD

burger, it is bound to fail.

It is thus quintessential for a brand to understand

what it means to its customers. A product might be

built by a company; but a brand is always built by the

customer. Any organization which is of the feeling

that brands can be tampered with according to its

own whims and fantasies, is doomed to failure.

Brand Deception

Time and again, one point we have been stressing

heavily on is the trust between a customer and a

brand. Once this trust factor is gone, the reputation of

a brand can take a severe beating. Its a general

prevailing tendency among many firms that branding

activities are simply a way to cover up the

shortcomings in a brand. Some companies feel that

what the product lacks in can be covered up

intelligently by deceiving customer into something

else. While others have adopted unethical meansmerely to increase reputation among customers. Lets

see what Sony did.

Columbia Pictures, as you all know, is owned by Sony

Pictures Entertainment. In the year 2001, two movies

by the film-house hit the silver screen. The first one

was A Knights Tale, which starred Heath Ledger.

The second was The Animal, in which Rob Schneider

played the lead role. The movies were given excellent

reviews by the film critic David Manning. HeathLedger was called as the years hottest new star and

The Animal was Another Winner! according to Mr

Manning. Things went fine and both the movies

attracted quite an audience. But the trouble started

when Newsweek magazine revealed that David

Manning does not exist. In fact it was discovered that

David Manning was the pen name of an executive

who worked for Sony. A fraud of such scale was not

expected of the studio, which had delivered famous

movies like A Few Good Men, Sawshank

Redemption, Men in Black among many others. It

was an incredibly foolish move by Sony and they

ended up paying a refund of $ 5 to every unsatisfied

customer who went to watch the movies based on


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Mannings reviews.

A learning indeed for brands which

believe they can cheat the customer and

get away with it. Brands must remember

that in this age of technology, people are

connected. Views and thoughts get easily

exchanged. Deceiving customers is

definitely not the way to take. Customers

respect only those brands which are

completely honest in their approach.

Brand ego:

Do you know stretching your muscles too

much can actually make it less

functional? Its not very different from a brand even.

When a brand gets too big for its boots and over-

stretches, it finally ends up paying a hefty price. It is

evident from the past, when brands tried to conquer a

market single-handedly and failed miserably. Even the

most successful ones, sometimes fall into the trap of

overestimating their own importance and their own

capability. Let us now walk through the Tescos billion

pounds brand ego trip to the US market.

On April 17th, 2013, supermarket giant Tesco has

announced their first drop in annual profits in 20

years with Fresh & Easys failure costing a hefty billion

pounds. In this case the stretch was from its core

market in the UK to the notoriously difficult US

market. Even though Tesco spent a fortune on pre-

launch consumer research, including doing extensive

in-home studies, the real problems of Fresh & Easy

came into light only

after launching the

chain. The victory ofTesco in other foreign

markets made them

complacent as they

underestimated the US

counterparts. It didn't

fully respect the

competitive retailers

who already had a

foothold in the US cities

where Fresh & Easylaunched, and failed to

add enough value

versus the existing offer in the market. The US

customers didn't like having self-checkouts and havingto pack their own bags, and the smaller store format

didn't fit well with the habit of doing big shops. After

trying out different things, finally Tesco admits its

mistake and exits from the US market.

One of the problems with brand ego trips is that they

divert time and talent from the core business, in this

case Tesco's UK supermarket business. In conclusion,

Tesco's US troubles are a stark reminder of how hard

it is to stretch from the core into a new market, with aneed to add genuine value versus established

competition.

Brand Megalomania:

Egotism often leads to Megalomania. When this

happens, brands want to take over the world by

expanding into every

product category

imaginable. Some, such

as Virgin, get away with

it. Lesser brands,

however, do not.


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10

While motorbike apparel (Motor-clothes

merchandise) and ornaments probably matched

the Harley Davidson cult heritage brand, the

company had lost focus. In the 1990s, it extended

the brand too far. It introduced products like wine

coolers, aftershave and perfumes. Even the loyal

fans did not like the idea, as it did not resonatewith the tough brand identity. The company was

clearly not focusing on what it knew best building

strong bikes. Customers wanted strong bikes and

accessories that complimented the brand, but ties

and infant clothes went too far. Activities like

cruise biking were good initiatives by the company

to involve the customer and enhance brand loyalty.

However, Perfumes and wine coolers were eroding

the mystery of the Harley Davidson brand. After

strong criticism from the loyal customers, the

company pulled of many inappropriate products.

Harley Davidson had learnt a branding lesson. More

products did not mean more revenue and

overextending the brand meant a short-term focus.

Brand Irrelevance:

Could General Motors have managed once-great

brands much worse? With or without a bailout,

nearly all of GMs brands are classic examples ofbrands that lost their relevance with consumers. How

did the market share leader, with a portfolio of brands

that delivered exceptional performance (Pontiac) and

aspirational image (Cadillac) fall so far? As always,

consumers lifestyles and preferences changed over

time; General Motors did very little to respond.

Among the major marketing mistakes that led to this

fine mess:

They lost touch with the consumer. Since theirpeak market share days, when the brands

product lines and marketing messages

captured consumer desires, GM listened

lesser and lesser. Their focus, tragically, was

on what they could make, rather than what

the consumer wanted to buy. For example,

Toyota, Honda and others did a far better jobanticipating and responding to consumers

interests in smaller cars, better fuel-efficiency,

and SUVs.

Their innovation lagged competition. Once leadersin innovative product design, they became

followers, at best. And when they actually could

innovate, they were late. Their manufacturing

process became so complex and unyielding that it

took them at least 2 years longer to introduce anew model, than competition. That dooms any

innovation program.

The brands positioning became unclear. Just afew decades ago, Pontiac was the ultimate sports

car and Cadillac was the American dream for

luxury. And now? A virtually indistinguishable

array of ill-defined, overlapping brands. And GM

vacillated on managing the portfolio sometimes

focusing on nameplate brands (e.g. Buick orGMC), sometimes on the model brands (e.g.

Sunfire or Escalade). Meanwhile competitors did


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an infinitely better job at building compelling

nameplate brands (e.g. Lexus, Toyota)

Underestimating competition. Despite years ofdeclining market share and getting pummelled by

global

competitors,

GM

management

remained

steadfast in

their insular

assumption

that the GM

way was the

best way.

Wake up. Themoment you

lose market

share your

consumer is

telling you; I dont prefer you anymore. Thats

the warning sign to adapt and respond.

Brand Fatigue

What happens when you keep wearing the same T-Shirt over and over again? You eventually lose interest

in it. The next sin we will talk about is a similar

concept. Brands which have been in existence for a

very long time often undergo what is called as Brand

Fatigue. Creativity takes a beating and the urge to

continuously re-innovate leads to the demise of the

particular brand. At this point, we want to stress on

the following statement: What takes birth, eventually

will die. Brands are no exception to this fact. As it

stands, all big brands be it Pepsi, Nike, Mercedes Benz

or Proctor and Gamble will eventually cease to exist

(this might not happen immediately or in near future

but given some time yes). Well thats the law of

nature. But what can be done is delay the demise by

adopting proper strategies. Pears, the very famous

transparent soap of Unilever, is a classic example of

Brand fatigue.

Pears was introduced in the late 18th Century. The

product became an instant hit in the market.

Marketing campaign surrounding Pears helped boost

its visibility. Notable among advertising efforts would

be the Bubbles campaign, which featured a baby

boy bathing in a tub of bubbles. Till the first half of

20th century, Pears remained market leader in the UK.

We are talking about a product that has been in

existence for over 150 years. Thats a long time for

any brand. And for all obvious reasons not a lot of

marketing was observed towards the end of 20th

century for the legendary soap brand. Market sharefell and Pears was no longer a priority for Unilever.

Brand fatigue seems to contradict what we have

been saying so far. On one hand, we said brands

must not fall trap to brand amnesia and on the

other, we are warning brands to be wary of brand

fatigue. Dicey, isnt it? Where do we draw the line

now? Well, brands can keep reinventing

themselves as long as what they deliver is in sync

with the perception of the brand amongconsumers.


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Brand Paranoia

Sometimes, even the best crumble under the pressure

of delivering. Diminishing market share leads

companies to take drastic and at times vague

measures. More often than not, brands often cave in

to the longing propensity of imitating the competition.

But what brands forget is that what works for one

brand might not work for them. No two brands are

same. Copying competition will only result in the loss

of competitive advantage. Sometimes, brands havethis constant urge of reinventing themselves

continuously within very short periods of time. This

results not only in large advertising cost, but also a

great deal of confusion among consumers about the

brand proposition. Another form of

paranoia is tendency to file lawsuits

against rival companies. This puts the

brand at risk of eroding its own goodwill

among consumers. Apple-Samsung patent

wars are a classic example of companies

trying to hurt each other in order to gain

more market share.

The important take home for brands is

that wise decisions are taken only when

they are completely composed. Paranoia

about competition will result in obsession

of wanting to defeat them rather than

increasing focus on the customer.

So Finally

It is a common knowledge that there is a

lot more knowledge in a failure than a success. Post

mortem of those branding activities which failed have

revealed a lot of things. Take focus off your customer

and you are over. It is important to understand what

your brand means to the customer. While there is

nothing wrong in experimenting and ideating, any

kind of branding activity must completely comply withwhat the brand stands for. Market leaders are

consistently the best and most prolific innovators.

Brands, like people, maintain their vitality by

evolving positively over time.

Three months after the launch of New Coke, the

CEO Mr Roberto Goizueta said in a press

conference, We have heard you. And Coke

announced that it would be returning back to its

original product. Coke Classic was received bycustomers gleefully and its market share was even

better than before. Coca Cola had failed to

understand what people expected out of it. Being

the pioneer in Cola-drinks industry, last thing

people wanted from coke was a makeover which

came in the form of New Coke. Coke understood

this post launch of New Coke, retracted and gave

people what they really wanted.

Brands must always try and stay away from the sevendeadly sins. Some could be lucky and big enough to

make a comeback after a failure. Others would simple

get washed away.


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vartalaap markathon|january 2013

Al Ries is the cofounder and chairman of the Atlanta-based consulting firm Ries & Ries with his partner and

daughter, Laura Ries. Along with Jack Trout, Ries coined the term "positioning", as related to the field of

marketing, and authored Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind, an industry standard on the subject. Ries

graduated from DePauw University in 1950 with a degree in liberal arts and accepted a position with the

advertising department of General Electric before founding his own advertising agency in New York City, Ries

Cappiello Colwell, in 1963. The agency later changed to a marketing strategy firm, Trout & Ries. Ries was

selected as one of the most influential people in the field of public relations in the 20th century by PR Week

magazine in 1999. Ries has also written a number of books on Marketing and Branding that have made the

BusinessWeek best seller list on a number of occasions.

An Interview with Al Ries

Best Selling Author and Father of Positioning Era

vartalaap classic from archive markathon|june 2013

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Markathon:Youve had an illustrious career spanning

from Liberal arts, to advertising, to marketing strategy

and now a Consulting firm. How has been your

journey through all these diverse assignments?

Mr. Ries: It's like a journey through an enormous

country. Every stop has taught me something new and

different. I don't think I could have ever worked at a

traditional job for a traditional company. Doing the

same thing over and over again would have become

extremely monotonous.

Markathon: You came with the Postioning era in

1972 and Marketing has never been the same, How

do you see the companies in todays fierce

competitive environment taking the concept of

Positioning forward? Will it be tweaked?

Mr. Ries: Positioning has become famous, but many

of our positioning principles are still violated every

day of the week. Therefore we have a big job to do to

convince companies that there is a different approach

to what they are doing. Take the "line-extension trap,"

which was one of our basic positioning principles. As

we wrote in our first article on the subject, Just

because a company is well-known in one field, doesnt

mean it can transfer that recognition to another. In

other words, your brand can be on top of one ladder

and nowhere on another. And the further apart the

products are conceptually, the greater the difficulty of

making the jump. That was 39 years ago. Regretfully,

line extension is still the preferred marketing strategy

for many companies.

Markathon: Youve written many

Bestselling books, which one of them

is the closest to your heart and why

so?

Mr. Ries: You always favor your last

book. My last book was "War in the

Boardroom," written with my

daughter and partner Laura. Some

people are left brainers and somepeople are right brainers. I'm

convinced that top management of

most companies today are left brainers: verbal, logical

and analytic. On the other hand, most marketing

people are right brainers: visual, intuitive and holistic.

The two sides are destined to clash. (And in my

career, I've witnessed hundreds of those clashes.)

Actually, we believe that companies need both types

of people to be truly successful. But both sides needto understand each other. That's the objective of the

book.

Markathon: Youve had consulting experiences with

some of the biggest brands in the world; can you

share with us one of these assignments which youd

call the most challenging one or a memorable one?

Mr. Ries: We can't talk about any recent assignments

for confidentiality reasons. But a constant theme of

many of our assignments was to keep the company's

core brand focused and expand the company's

product line by introducing new brands. And

naturally, company management wanted to expand

its existing brand. That's what we call the line

extension trap. We argued with IBM about the need

for a new brand for its line of personal computers.

Instead, IBM line-extended its brand. After 23 yearsand a reported $15 billion in losses, IBM sold its

personal computer operations to Lenovo. We fought

with Xerox about the need to launch a desktop laser

printer line to compete with Hewlett-Packard. Xerox

had invented the laser printer (the first one was

driven by a mainframe computer) but didn't think the

market was ready for a desktop version. They waited

too long and got shut out of the market.

The Xerox situation illustrates a common

problem of many companies.Management tends to try to predict the

future and make decisions on what is

likely to happen. Xerox management was

convinced that the desktop laser printer

had no future, so decided not to waste

money getting into the market. Our

position is that companies should invest

in potential new categories and treat

their investments as "insurance." If a

company gets in early and the category

does take off, then the company will be in

a good position. Xerox used to be a much

Always check your

theories against what

is working and what

is not working. And

the only way to do

that is to constantly

read the business

media.


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bigger and more profitable company than Hewlett-

Packard. But they lost the desktop laser printer

market to Hewlett-Packard. Today, Hewlett-Packard is

six times the size of Xerox. Sometimes one key

decision can mean the difference between enormous

success and mediocrity.

Markathon: Youve emphasised the need to build

Brands by Publicity and not advertising in your books.

What would you term as the essential differentiating

factor between Publicity and Advertising?

Mr. Ries: Credibility: Advertising is not nearly as

believable as publicity. But we're not opposed to

advertising. After a while, a company runs out of PR

potential. No publication today, for example would

run a story about a wonderful new drink called Coca-

Cola. The only stories they run about Coke are

negative. That's why after a certain amount of time

has passed, a company needs to shift its marketing

programs to advertising. Our philosophy: PR first,

advertising second.

Markathon: Can youshare with us a couple

of trends which you

think will impact the

world of Marketing in

a big way in the

coming decade?

Mr. Ries: Marketing

can be roughly divided into strategy and tactics.

Strategy is more important, but it's almost impossibleto predict a trend in strategy. Tactics are easier to see.

There' s no question that marketing is moving into the

digital era, an era that has spawned social media and

many other digital techniques. There's bound to be

many, many developments in the digital era that will

affect how marketing is practiced. Keep in mind,

however, that tactics are not a substitute for a good

strategy. Without a good strategy, a company cannot

win, even though it might have good tactics.

Markathon: Would you like to give any advice to our

readers who are looking to make a career in the field

of marketing and brand management?

Mr. Ries: Read especially the newspapers and

magazines that cover global businesses. In America,

that would include publications like The Wall Street

Journal, Business Week, Fortune and many others. If

you want a long-lasting career in marketing, you need

to know what is working and what is not. Take Apple,

for example. Apple has become the most valuable

high-tech company in the world. What is Apple's

strategy? Create a new category you can be first in

and then dominate that category by launching new

brands, the iPod, the first high capacity MP3 player,

the iPhone, the first touchscreen smartphone, the

iPad, the first tablet computer. Apple is not a brandname. Apple is a company name. Nobody says "I

bought an Apple." They say "I bought an iPod." Or "I

bought an iPhone." Or "I bought an iPad." This is just

the opposite of the line-extension strategy of Apple's

competitors. Now do you suppose that would change

the minds of the millions of people who believe that

line extension is the

best strategy for a

company? Of course,

not. They don't read;

they don't think. They

just cling to an idea

that might make sense,

but doesn't work.

Always check your

theories against what is

working and what is

not working. And the only way to do that is to

constantly read the business media.

Markathon: One last question, what keeps Al Ries

ticking? And are there any other books you are

currently working on?

Mr. Ries: My daughter and I keep finding new ideas to

think about and to write about. Laura is working on a

new book that I believe will be exceptionally well

received. What it is about we want to keep secret forthe moment.

Marketing can be roughly dividedinto strategy and tactics. Strategy

is more important, but it's almost

impossible to predict a trend in

strategy. Tactics are easier to see


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Saurabh Kumar

NIRMA University

Topic for the next issue Eye to Eye: IPhone Mini: Market Penetration or Brand Dilution?Your opinion (view/counterview) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is 20

th

June, 2013. Include your picture (JPEG format) with the entry.

Sometimes its really hard to predict the outcome of

any bold strategic decision as it might either bring

laurels or even might be a trigger to

a disaster. PepsiCo betting 160

crore on the million dollar cricket

league of India is surely a great risk

taking gamble in context to the

current scenario and may end up

as a miscalculated mayhem for

them.

The aggressive marketing strategies of Pepsi in IPL

have brought down the old tussle of the cola players

back down from the memory lane. During the 1996

Cricket World Cup, although Coca Cola was the official

sponsor of the tournament, Pepsi ambushed the

whole campaign by coming up with the tagline

Nothing Official About It. So this time when Pepsi

has invested such a huge amount it might not be a

great shock for PepsiCo if Coke comes back with such

a good similar strategy which would definitely hurt

the prospect of Pepsi

PepsiCo has left no stone unturned as it bagged the

crucial title sponsorship of the IPL, associate

sponsorship of SET MAX , marketing rights of eight out

of nine participating teams. But Coke is not sitting idle

and is using its earlier alliances with Mumbai Indians

to counter these strategic moves of PepsiCo. As if we

go little back down the memory lane in IPL - 2 Coke

had hijacked the Youngistan campaign of Pepsi by

getting their brand ambassadors like Sehwag and

Ishant in their promotional activities.

In response to Pepsi aggressive advertising strategies

Coke used its pricing strategy to counter their

opponents by offering their 200 ml at a mere price of

Rs 8 thus sending a clear message to its competitors

that advertisement alone wont be enough to grab the

market and gain huge profit. Thus under these

scenario it would be not a great marketing moves on

part of Pepsi to take such a huge bet on IPL.

Miscalculated Mayhem, this is what most of us must

be conceiving regarding Pepsis 160 crore IPL bet. But

in-spite of thinking short term,

we must look into its long

term benefits. Then only we

can call it a Sachins stroke, i.e.

a Masterstroke in the field of

marketing. PepsiCo is building

360 degree fan salience by

taking it to the next level.

Theres a strong correlation between salience and

consumption. Numbers suggest that there are around

200 million people who engage with the IPL.Moreover, India is a country with huge growth

opportunity, as currently it is a very low per-capita

consumption market for beverages. It can be said that

the plan is to go beyond advertising. Smartening up

the pitch, creating 500-ml 'fan' cans, Pepsi Tweet20

tournament on Twitter, Can-shaped player dug-outs,

3D pitch mats, a remixed horn, a count-down timer, a

new beverage, and much more are implemented.

I know there are critics talking about our acquisition,but PepsiCo is a sports marketer, we've always been

sports marketers. The expertise is built into the

system, and we do know how to leverage sports.

~DeepikaWarrier, VP beverage marketing, PepsiCo

If we talk about the numbers, then as compared to

last year, PepsiCo is spending 25% more this summer

across brands. This is because of the reason that a

good 50% of volumes come in the April to June

months itself. Besides Pepsi, other products like 7Up,Mountain Dew, Gatorade and Lays are also being

activated. Pouring rights has given immense

opportunity to do regional marketing. 7Up is a very

strong brand in the South. Hence, the company is

activating it with the Chennai, Hyderabad and

Bangalore teams. For Mountain Dew, which is very big

brand in the North, alignment with the Rajasthan,

Punjab and Delhi teams is done.

war zone | eye 2 eye markathon | june 2013

Betting

160croreonthemilliondollarcricketleagueofIndiaisagreatrisktakinggam

bleincontexttothecurrentscenario

Wemustlookintoitslontermbeneits.ThenonlwecancallitaSachinsstroke,i.e.aMasterstrokeintheield

omarketin

Souvik Dhar

NIT Silchar

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Sakshi Goyal | NIRMA University

NEXT THEME FOR SILENT VOICE: NJOY e-cigarette

LAST DATE OF SENDING THE PRINT AD: 20th

June, 2013

EMAIL ID:[email protected]

Send your entry in JPEG format named as SilentVoice__only.

Silent VoiceLAST MONTHS RESULTS

Theme: Sleepwell Mattresses

WINNER: Pulkit Kohli and Ankur Baj

Great Lakes Institute of Management, ChennaiCongratulations!!! Pulkit and Ankur receive a cash prize of Rs 500!

war zone | silent voice markathon | june 2013

22
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


23/30

PRODUCT: Mc-Donald's McEgg

POSITIONING:An all steamed wholesome meal

CREATIVE AGENCY: Leo Burnett, India

YouTube Link:

Ad-dicted

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embe

dded&v=LLWNIqTBF5U

PRODUCT:Coca Cola

POSITIONING: Coca Cola Small World Machines-

Bringing India & Pakistan Together

specials | ADdicted markathon | june 2013

Sushree tripathy | IIM SSwikruti panda | iim s

CONCEPT:

The ad has been designed to launch a new productMcEgg Burger targeting a major segment of Indians who

are not non-vegetarians but do not mind egg i.e.

Eggitarians. The ad shows the after-effects of eating a

McEgg burger. People in different settings take a bite of

the McEgg burger and then start squawking like a

chicken to their astonishment. In a shot a girl starts

clucking all of a sudden sitting in a McDonald's outlet. In

following shots a sleeping girl wakes up to a fellow

passenger's squawking; pak-paka noise keeps arising in

various settings likewise. Then in a luscious manner the

steamed egg is shown going in with mayo and spices to

make the McEgg.

VERDICT:

Catch/Miss- Miss

No doubt that the sound effects of the squawking

chicken register well in the minds of the target audience.

But too much of it in the ad makes it look like the launch

of just another variant in the menu as typical variants of

fries were launched making a lot of noise as there was

little new to show about the product. McEgg is a new

complete product in itself that can capture the huge

eggitarian sect of Indian population. There is more to

the product that just egg, i.e it is a steamed healthy

wholesome meal. In the rising health conscious nation

missing out on this factor may cost merry. The new

supply chain established which is very picky in selecting

only one in every three eggs should also have been high-lighted in the ad. Overall I give it a "not half bad".

CREATIVE AGENCY: Leo Burnett, IndiaYouTube Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts_4vOUDImE

CONCEPT:

Addressing one of the most infamous political hostilities

in the world, Coca Cola came out with a 3 minute ad on

YouTube, embracing the digital medium. The video

shows the events that followed when the brand put up a

live communications portal equipped with webcams &

touchscreen, which also served as vending machines, in

different cities of India & Pakistan. Passers-by were

encouraged to interact with strangers across the

national border by simply joining hands, waving,

dancing, and making peace signs through the screens, at

the end of which the vending machine dispensed cans of

Coke. The machines named Coca Cola Small World

Machines were meant to bring Pakistan & India

together saying what unites us is stronger than what

sets us a art.

VERDICT:

Catch/Miss- Catch

Yet another novel initiative from Coca Cola, the video

evokes heartwarming and emotional reactions in the

viewer implying how people can overcome differences

and come together in a simple act of joy. It scores high

on execution as the Small World Machines are a

technological marvel to watch as well as the production

induces a warm & fuzzy feel. The result is extremely

moving and has a high entertainment value which makes

it much more effective than a hard-sell product spot.

Besides, Coca Colas intention of changing some hearts

in Pakistan, where Pepsi is the leading player, is subtlyand smartly weaved into the ad. Heres hoping the ad

does open happiness for the two countries as well as

the brand alike.

23
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LLWNIqTBF5Uhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LLWNIqTBF5Uhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LLWNIqTBF5Uhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts_4vOUDImEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts_4vOUDImEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LLWNIqTBF5Uhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LLWNIqTBF5U


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BRAND STORY: DETTOLSHASHANK TOMAR | IIM S

A near Rs. 1000 Crore brand, available in over 20 Lac

outlets across India, Dettol is the brand synonymous

with Antiseptic Liquid for the Indian consumer. The

rich heritage of the brand is apparent by the fact that

it has featured consistently in ET Brand Equitys list of

Most Trusted Brands since the year 2000.

Dettol was launched in 1933 in India as an antiseptic

liquid to be used for disinfecting purposes in hospitals.

However, the brand began to be used by the common

masses for variety of hygiene related purposes. The

positioning of the brand has mainly been functional-

as a brand used to eliminate germs and bacteria, withless stress on sensory benefits. Its

characteristic smell, the symbol of Sword on

the white and green pack and the

clouding action of mixing Dettol

with water have been deeply

embedded in the consumers

cognitive system.

The brand capitalized on

heightened personal hygiene

concerns of its TG (urban

affluent consumers) and

successfully transitioned from a

cuts and wounds brand to a

germ protector by entering several

other categories of personal hygiene such

as soaps, shower gels, shaving creams, hand

wash, sanitizers and prickly heat powders.

Dettol forayed into the soap category, which

commands 88% share of Indian Personal Care market,

with Dettol Original Soap offering a value proposition

of mild and gentle skincare. Successively, Dettol

Skincare (moisturising) and Dettol Total Protection

(refreshing) were launched to target consumers

seeking sensorial benefits. The usage of Dettol soaps

was found to be highly seasonal with consumers using

it only during summer and monsoon seasons. Thus, an

educative nation-wide campaign was launched,showing instances of germ pick-up in every season,

which helped in giving a huge push to sales in 2007.

Dettol Liquid Hand Wash was launched in 1994. One

of the biggest innovations by Dettol has taken place in

this category in the form of Dettol No-Touch Hand

Wash, which had a soap dispenser automatically

pumping out soap without making contact with the

pump.

The Dettol brand was extended into home-care

category with the latest launch of Dettol Healthy

Kitchen Gel, a multi-purpose gel to clean utensils as

well as kitchen surfaces to ensure a safe and germ-

free kitchen. The product has been under fire from

the category leader Vim, which took up the ante bydirectly taking pot-shots at Dettol for

being a harsh anti-septic unfit for usage

in the kitchen.

Dettols communication

strategy has always centred

on being the mothers best

friend in helping her keep

the family secure and safe,

by evoking positive

imageries of health and

protection. Aapka Dettol

Kya-Kya Karta Hai campaign

was launched in 2008,

showcasing Dettol as being the

first product to be used by the

consumer wherever and whenever

disinfection was required. Another major

campaign Dettol Surakshit Parivar was launched

for on-ground consumer contact program to educate

mothers and school-children about best hygiene

practices. Though Dettol has been reasonably good in

broadcast media, it is yet to do anything prominent in

the social media.

It will be worthwhile watching Dettol, a brand that

stood firm in the face of competition from the likes of

Savlon, take on the biggies like Vim and Lifebuoy.

Time will test if the Indian consumer will Be 100%sure of Dettol as a home-care brand.

specials | brand story markathon|june 2013

24


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specials | Fun Corner markathon|february 2013

17

Fun cornerKAMAL SALUJA | IIM S

.

IDENTIFY THE BRAND

The past few years have seen top brands coming out with powerful digital marketing campaigns.

Although most top Indian brands are still banking on conventional television marketing

campaigns, it will be interesting to see when and how Indian brands come up with new digital

marketing ideas.

Below are some of the most innovative and successful digital marketing campaigns seen in recent

years. Identify the brands behind these campaigns. After you have answered the questions, watch

the YouTube links and have fun.

specials | Fun Corner markathon|june 2013

1. This automobile brand targeted women in the UK for doing their makeup while driving. The

campaign was used for an important cause and the videos shock value caught people attention

and incited them to share the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFqSjjnte0

2. This brand gave people the possibility to offer its product to anyone in the world via its

mobile app. Then, it filmed the effect and positive associations created with the brand. Even

though this campaign could have been carried out using a classical website, the mobile app was

a smart use of technology that reinforced the brands sense of purpose.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45Z-GevoYB8

3. This brand created a new interactive YouTube channel where people could ask anything and

get a response in video form. This transparent position for the global brand piqued peoples

curiosity and reassured people who were wary of the brand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSd0keSj2W8

25
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFqSjjnte0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFqSjjnte0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45Z-GevoYB8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45Z-GevoYB8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSd0keSj2W8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSd0keSj2W8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSd0keSj2W8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45Z-GevoYB8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFqSjjnte0


26/30

specials | Fun Corner markathon|february 2013

17

1)Volkswagen

2)CocaCola

3)McDonalds

4)Nike

5)TNT

6)Proctorand

Gamble

7)Dove

Answers

4. This sports-centric brand combined a digital campaign with the launch of an entirely new

category of products. In doing so, it broadened its value proposition by becoming a health

partner and devised a manner to access data that will allow the brand to better address its

customers in the future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG0vLFFtZDs

5. This American cable television channel in its digital campaign to enter the European market

created a real-life action scene and filmed it. The element of surprise made viewers share the

video, which became the third most shared ad in the digital advertising world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=316AzLYfAzw

6. Through its sponsorship of the 2012 London Olympics, this brand was able to push an

emotional tribute to mothers worldwide in its powerful digital campaign. The campaign was

launched on Mothers Day and subtitled in various languages to extend its reach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVGlrs2K2ow

7. This brand in its digital campaign used an FBI-trained sketch artist to draw women first

based on their own self-perception and then based on that of a stranger. The campaign elicited

a strong emotional response from viewers, making it the most viral ad video of all time.

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

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specials | Fun Corner markathon|june 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG0vLFFtZDshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG0vLFFtZDshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=316AzLYfAzwhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=316AzLYfAzwhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVGlrs2K2owhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVGlrs2K2owhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVGlrs2K2owhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=316AzLYfAzwhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG0vLFFtZDs


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By Prateek | IIM-S

BRAND LAUNCH

Luxury has a new address: Vertu TI

The super-premium segment of phones got a new

member with Vertu, founded by Nokia, introducing the

TI segment phones to its arsenal. The phone boast of

fine titanium craftsmanship and has a ruby key for

concierge services. The phone which is flaunted by

celebrities like Madonna and David Bekham is bound to

leave of poorer by more than Rs. 600000.

Enjoy the ride with Chevrolet Enjoy

The MPV auto segment is bound to witness another

price war with competition heating up after the launch

of GMs latest avatar, the Chevrolet Enjoy. With this,

GM plans to go head on with Toyotas Innova and

Maruti Suzukis Ertiga. The MPV which is offered in 7

seater and 8 seater variants is launched in the price

range of Rs. 5.49 lakhs and Rs. 6.69 lakhs for the petrol

and diesel variant respectively.

Battle the heat with Rasna Ju-C

Its time to juice up the ready to drink beverage

segment with fruit drink concentrate maker Rasna

entering the juice bandwagon. The company launched

its juices in four flavors namely Mango, Apple, Orange

and Mixed to spice up the Rs. 5000 crore juice segment

in the country and pose tougher challenge to the

established organized brands like Real and Tropicana.

BRAND WATCH

Merc moves on from classy to youthful

In a bid to diversify from being a status symbol to being

the fantasy of the youth, the German luxury car maker

has come up with its new SUV series- the GL Class. The

car bears a sporty look which is typical for an SUV and

plans to become a hot favorite with the youth. With all

of its 100 launch units being pre-booked, it might be on

its road to glory.

Empower the youth with MPower says Philips

Product Portfolio and consumer base expansion were

the pivotal goal for Philips in its bid to launch the

MPower series of grooming tools for men. The series

features Play- a trimmer which is targeted at 15 year

old plus. The company has tied up with MTV to come up

with MPower pack to attract the young audience and

establish itself as a youthful brand.

Tata Home Loans paints Dream City

Consumer engagement saw a new high with Tata Home

loans encouraging artists from Mumbai to paint the city

walls with their sublime creations. Apart from being a

strong branding exercise, the themes on display

presented an array of strong social messages like anti-

corruption and eco awareness and were the talking

point on social networking sites.

MEDIA

Mentos Batti Jalao riddle 2.0

After the success of Batti Jalao Murder Mystery,

Perfetti Van Melle is all set to launch the second avatar.

The first version creatively engaged consumers giving

away weekly prizes of Rs. 1 lakh and encouraging them

to come up with innovative solutions. The successor

aims to take the mystery one notch above keeping the

consumers glued to the brand.

Drive home a Nano via MTV

The Nano Drive with MTV is back and promises

unlimited fun on the run. The campaign started by

Nano to connect with the youth via facebook, twitter

and other social media platforms like pinterest and

instagram in its second avatar promises unlimited fun

and travel across the country. Nano with this initiative

hopes to ail its falling brand image and lift its consumer

base by associating itself with a youthful brand like

MTV.

specials | updates markathon | june 2013

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Articles are invitedBest Article: Sudheer GV | IIM Kozhikode

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 entrywill receive a letter of appreciation and a cash prize of Rs 1000/-. The format of the file should

be MS Word doc/docx.

Were 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

June, 2013. Please send your entries marked as

__ [email protected].

AD Watch

Pepsi Atom-The Josh Cola

With mercury soaring and demand for cola drinks beingat an all-time high, its time to bring back the Cola Wars.

Pepsi launched its competitor to Thumbs Up in form of

Pepsi Atom with the positioning Kuch Akalmand Karte

hain taking a dig at the number one selling cola brand

in the country. Though the ad could have been made

interesting, focusing on ridiculing the competitor does

not seem to impress a lot of crowd and the ad has

received a pale response.

Youtube Link-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0aOGRJjmi8

Coca Cola- Small World Machine

Coke does it again. Every time you think this is the best

campaign ever, they prove you wrong and come out

with another masterstroke. Their latest ad trying to

strike a bond between the common people of India and

Pakistan is a beautiful initiative to strengthen the

relationships between the people of arch rivals and the

moment is celebrated with a coca cola. Hats off Coke!!!!

Youtube Link-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts_4vOUDImE

Shaadi.com

The marriage season is in its full swing. And to cash in

on the trend, Shaadi.com has come up with its new ad.

The ad conveys the emotion of love and captures the

understanding gained by the couple over the years of

marriage. The ad ends with the tagline Come find love,

arranged by Shaadi.com which conveys the meaning

effectively. Overall, a nice take by JWT.

Youtube Link -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt9rQWFVF00

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specials | updates markathon | june 2013
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0aOGRJjmi8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0aOGRJjmi8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts_4vOUDImEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts_4vOUDImEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt9rQWFVF00http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt9rQWFVF00http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt9rQWFVF00http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts_4vOUDImEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0aOGRJjmi8mailto:[email protected]


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picturepage markathon | june 2013

Main building of IIM Shillong

Abode of Clouds, Meghalaya

Credits:Arnab

Saha

Credits:Taru

n

Gupta

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Please send in your comments/feedback to:[email protected]

Visit: www.iims-markathon.in

Team Markathon, IIM Shillong
mailto:[email protected]://iims-markathon.in/http://iims-markathon.in/mailto:[email protected]

markathon_june2013

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