markezine aug sep'13

Contents

From the Editors’ Desk ………………………………………………………………………………………..2 Political Marketing: An analogy to Product Marketing………………………………………….3 Strategy: The Key Differentiator in Politics…………………………………………………………...5 Various Principles of Political Marketing …………………………………………………………….. 7 The Importance of Building a BRAND in Politics …………………………………………………..9 Political Marketing: The Creation of a MIRAGE …………………………………………………..11 Political Marketing ‘coming of E-age’ ………………………………………………………………….13

Mark-e-feed: BRANDING INNOVATIONS ……………………………………………………….…15

Mark-e-feed: Role of Sentiment Analysis in Social Media (A Customer Centric

Strategy) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………....17 Mark-e-feed: Tsuna-media………………………………………………………………………………….19

Mark-e-feed: Retailer Advocacy-How FMCG companies are going beyond mone-

tary gratification………………………………………………………………………………………………….21 Mark Roadies 6.0 ……………………………………………………………………………………………….23 Words on Wall ……………………………………………………………………………………………..…… 24 Our Industry Initiatives ……………………………………………………………………………………...25 Mark-toon ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….26

From

The

Editors’

Desk

Dear Readers,

Greetings from Club MarkUp, the marketing club of IMT Ghaziabad!!

We are proud to present the XV edition of Markezine with the theme

“Political Marketing and its impact on electoral system”.

With politics being more dominated by the charisma and personality of

the leader rather than the ideology, the leader with the strongest per-

sonal appeal finally gets to run the show. The politician becomes a brand

for the party. Political Marketing can turn the candidate’s obscurity into

popularity. The leader’s endorsement matters more than the worth of

the party’s candidate, whether in Lok Sabha or assembly elections in a

way which is just similar to a celebrity endorsing a mere commodity like

a soap or shampoo.

With 2014 elections on its way, we can see hot political branding going

on in the country through the use of Social Media Marketing, 3D avatar,

print and the media. We believed that this topic has been thought pro-

voking. It was an extreme pleasure to see the response received and we

at Club MarkUp are grateful. We also hope that the first edition by the

newly inducted team of Club MarkUp is well received.

Thanks and regards,

Raunak Sancheti

Disclaimer: The political views and opinions published in this magazine herein

are those of the authors and Club MarkUp bears no responsibility for the same.

Credits

Co-editor: Akrish Sharma Design Team: Ashish Kapoor, Priteesh Raj Deshmukh, Harshit Sharma

Content: Abhinav Grandhi, Asim Goyal, Priyanka Agarwal Write to us [email protected]

Follow us on :

MARKEZINE August-September 2013

Raunak Sancheti

Shyam Suresh

2nd year,

PGDM (Marketing)

https://www.facebook.com/clubmarkup

https://twitter.com/markupimt

Political Marketing: An analogy to Product Marketing

One of the forerunners for prime ministerial can-

didate from an opposition party recently gave a

speech on Independence Day from Bhuj. By

launching a scathing attack on the current Prime

Minister, he tried to establish himself as the un-

disputed candidate for the position. Just a few

days ago, a leader in toothpaste brand initiated

an attack on another market leader in the tooth-

paste segment. The similarity is there for all to

see, the strategy simply being pull your competi-

tor down by focusing on their shortcoming – a

good old technique used in advertising. Today,

marketing is an integral part of the election cam-

paigning system.

“Out of sight, out of mind” - true in real sense of

the phrase, more so for politicians. Politicians, for

years, have been relying on basic marketing tech-

niques such as speeches, rallies and political post-

ers to keep themselves in the eye of public. Politi-

cal marketing is the application of marketing prin-

ciples to political campaigns in order to win over

voters. The analogy is to consider a politician as a

service provider. He is elected to carry out certain

tasks and has candidates from other political par-

ties as

competitors. He may adopt a similar approach

which other service providers adopt to say why

we are the best and why he must be chosen. A

voter in political marketing is the consumer or the

target of the marketing strategy.

A politician has to understand his voter’s needs

just like any good marketer understands his cus-

tomer’s. And it’s not just the current needs, it’s

an ability to predict and analyze what he may

need in the future. Opinion polls are the market

research that politicians conduct to see what

their standing in the current scenario is and on

what area can they improve upon.


4 3

Subramanian Raju

PGDM,

Welingkar Institute of Management Develop-

ment and Research (WE School), Mumbai

The campaign is the time when promises are

made and response in the market place checked.

Market segmentation for identifying your target

audience is also

an integral part

of all political

campaigns.

Some politicians

target people of

a particular reli-

gion while some

of a particular

economic back-

ground. This

segmentation

often goes a

long way in de-

ciding the candidate’s success. Brand manage-

ment comes into picture when the politician posi-

tions himself in a particular manner and then tries

to maintain his brand image.

A politician has to come up with a unique mar-

keting strategy by aggregating all these. He may

use two ways to advertise. One is through the

channel of political workers just like a marketer

goes from wholesaler to retailer to customer, a

politician can do the same through a channel of

MLAs, party workers and so on right until the vot-

er. The second way is the use of mass media like

television, electronic media, newsprints and also

information technology mediums like SMS, emails

and so on.

The impact of political marketing on election re-

sults is huge. For instance, the numerous mar-

keting campaigns undertook under the leadership

of Obama through market research (opinion

polls) to advertising on the print media ensured

that “Together…We can!” went from an idea to

an execution.

Back home “Jai

ho” song that

was the sound

of the Congress

party’s cam-

paign in 2009

along with what

Congress had

achieved in the

five years from

2004-2009 was

an example of

how perfectly a

marketing campaign can help a political party

achieve its objectives. The India Shining might be

considered an example of a failure, where many

experts felt it alienated since there were regions

of the country which were not actually ‘shining’

and could have well cost NDA some vital votes.

Some might well argue that winning or losing in

election depends on the party’s caliber alone and

not the marketing. But even with the right poten-

tial, candidates might fall short merely because of

poor political marketing.

The unique selling point(U.S.P.) for any politician

can be showcased beautifully through political

marketing. The underlying message is: The

strength of image branding, opinion polls (market

research) and advertising in politics is so immense

that a potential candidate can be made to look

and sound politically appealing even to the most

intelligent citizen when correctly ‘marketed’.

5


5 4

Strategy: The Key Differentiator in Politics

”Market your audience, but surprise them to”

-President Barack Obama

Political marketing, a term coined by Mr. Kelley

(1956), is designed to influence consumers about

political issues. Although political marketing and

general marketing share the same form of tech-

niques, the former is used to promote ethics and/

or appeals emotionally in order to motivate peo-

ple to vote for that idea.

Since any political marketing

campaign aims to create the

maximum impact in the

shortest possible duration

its entire focus is at har-

nessing primary emotions

like – happiness, surprise,

sadness, anger, disgust and

fear, in addition to the most

potent one, hate.

Speaking of the political marketing, we have the

Indian elections coming in 2014 for which the

preparations have already begun. In each election

crores of rupees are spent on a single marketing

campaign. There is a new trend adopted by the

politicians, which is to use the web and social me-

dia to influence the youth. In doing so, coalition

parties like the NDA and the UPA are way ahead

in the race to gather the votes of the youth. The

above parties have employed hundreds of people

to work in their marketing campaigns. While Con-

gress is trying very hard to fix its broken image

after some of the biggest money spinning scams,

its Aam Admi campaign has Rahul Gandhi leading

from the front and is portrayed as a youth leader

showcasing the development done by Congress in

the recent years. BJP launched

a similar campaign, VIBRANT

India, with Mr. Narendra Modi

as its Prime Ministerial candi-

date, who stands for a develop

and technologically oriented

economy as an attempt to al-

lay down its communal image.

Both parties are currently ad-

vertising through various me-

dia and methods in order to

present their ideology to their

potential voters.

Starting from the time when first elections hap-

pened in India, till today the concept of political

marketing has taken new meanings. Physical mar-

keting accompanied with TV, social media, and

mobile are used to add value and create a differ-

entiating factor for their parties. Though the Indi-

an political scenario has not been completely able

to exploit the mobile technology to create its in-

fluence, but it has made sure to unleash the full

potential of the web. On one hand, BJP has

launched a website india272.com that would

“crowd source” suggestions by the electorate.


6 5

Sachin Rao

PGDM,




7 6

It has also launched a website where its members

can upload “charge sheets” on the Congress-led

United Progressive Alliance and on the other

hand, Congress has launched a website fekuex-

press.com that supposedly seeks to expose BJP

misdeeds.

To battle the opposition till the end, political par-

ties have also hired media companies like Dentsu

India, Crayons communication, JWT etc. to design

better effective strategies and marketing cam-

paigns. The reason for such a huge emphasis on

the new age media as a part of their marketing

plan is to create an impact on the currently un-

conquered market i.e. the age groups of 18-24

and 25-34 years. Research by Iris Knowledge

Foundation, Internet and Mobile Association of

India (IAMAI), KPMG and TAM has given enough

justification about the importance of new age

media that influences the age group of 18-34

years spread across urban and semi-urban areas.

Here are some statistical figures that justify the

success of political parties on the effective use of

new age media – Mr. Narendra Modi has already

gained the status of the most followed politician

on twitter with a huge fan base of more than 1.3

million and on Facebook with a following of

around 1.4 million. This lead is followed by Rahul

Gandhi with a fan following of around 238,899

and our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is

not far behind with 374,641 fans.

Thus, political marketing clearly has a cause and

effect relationship with its targeted voters. As Ko-

tler points out “Conscious marketing only promis-

es to maximize the candidate’s potential”. Apply-

ing standard marketing techniques to political

campaigning will at least ensure that the cam-

paign planned is systematic, efficient and voter

oriented. Marketing can promote the most effec-

tive use of scarce resources, generate valuable

information for both the candidates and the vot-

ers, and promote greater responsiveness in the

political process.

Various Principles of Political Marketing

“Marketing is neither moral nor immoral, it is

amoral!” - our marketing professor would often

remark. The blend of politics and marketing

brings out an interesting viewpoint with respect

to the above quote

Politics has, consciously or unconsciously, adopt-

ed and applied many significant marketing con-

cepts – ranging from market position analysis

(which requires determining how the voters per-

ceive the party and their members in different

electoral battlegrounds) to political branding like

“Hindutva” adopted by BJP or Congress’ clichéd

slogan “Congress ka haath, Aam Aadmi ke saath”.

The political parties have always utilized the con-

cepts of segmentation and targeting of voters

from various groups during their electoral pro-

cess. For example, caste system in India is used as

a major trump card to rope in votes by Mayawa-

ti’s BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) in Uttar Pradesh

and Lalu’s RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) in Bihar.

The classical 4 P’s of marketing have also been

used successfully in politics. Product, includes the

basic themes, issues or ideas that the candidate

may stand for. For example, “law and order”,

“ending corruption”, “full employment”, “active

foreign policies”, etc. Promotion can be seen in

political campaigning where the parties ensure a

right mix of mass media, expanding outreach

through special media attention, canvassing and

political rallies like the Bharat Yatra by BJP lead-

ers.

Apart from the fixed monetary cost of a political

campaign, an analogy can also be drawn between

Price and the attractiveness of a particular candi-

date competing in the elections. Place is where

the promotion of the electoral candidate and his

party is held at a given point of time. Some par-

ties have their stronghold regions where they are

mostly expected to win.

A prime difference between the consumers in a

market and voters is that, the consumers can se-

lect and consume as many products as they wish,

according to their utility. However, in the case of

voters, they can cast a single vote only. The politi-

cal market can be thought of as a monopolistical-

ly competitive one, where all the parties sell,

more or less, similar ideologies on development

and prosperity, but are distinguished slightly in

their target groups.

If a political party is successful while pitching to

the people, it can establish a brand loyalty among

the masses, which may influence voters to re-

peatedly vote for that party.


8 7

Arijeet Banerjee

PGDM,

Loyola Institute of Business Administration

(LIBA), Chennai


9 8

For example, my family members always voted

for the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in

West Bengal, even though they were aware of the

mismanagement by that party recently. Brand

loyalty in politics tends to institutionalize voters

and set their minds to the party ideology so effec-

tively, that they find it difficult to vote for others.

Political parties who study the voter behavior and

the voting patterns often do well, just like a mar-

keter would study the consumer behavior to

place his product better than his competitor. Con-

cepts of social sciences such as selective process-

es, opinion leadership, cognitive processes, group

dynamism, role theory and imagery are also used

in politics.

In conclusion, political marketing has emerged as

a big tool used by the political parties to influence

and target the electoral system. Marketing strate-

gies are adopted in politics with the sole purpose

of winning votes, similar to marketing where the

notion is only to create profits. However, mar-

keting today has changed completely and has ori-

ented more towards the customer’s perspective

rather than just pushing products into the mar-

ket.

Although the world of political marketing is just

evolving, the focus has always been to influence

more and more votes in the party’s favor. This

thinking may not work for the political groups in

the longer run, since people will slowly realize

that they are being duped for votes. A paradigm

shift in terms of thought and perspective is neces-

sary to revamp the marketing strategies and ideo-

logies of the political parties, if they are to be suc-

cessful.

The Importance of Building a BRAND in Politics

"If politics is a dirty business, the marketing of

politics is the dirtiest bit of the dirty business”

-Steve Henry

Marketing is a vital force behind any organiza-

tion’s success, irrespective of the industry or sec-

tor to which it belongs. And if there exists an in-

dustry which makes the most extensive use of

marketing tools, it is the industry of power – POL-

ITICS. Politics and marketing have complemented

each other ever since the idea of striving for pow-

er became the norm in countries with democratic

or republic government.

Political marketing, is the marketing done to influ-

ence customers on political issues. Instead of a

product or service, a leader or an idea is market-

ed. The primary objective is to motivate the public

to vote for the leader or the concerned idea.

Creation and success of Brand “ANNA”:

Anna Hazare is a brand whose value proposition

is honesty, justice, truth, courage and conviction.

Very few political brands in the modern era can

make such an argument.

Like any new product or concept that is launched,

Anna gauged the market response with the help

of a small team in a strategic place like Delhi in

April, 2011. His strategy paid off and in a short

span of time, the entire nation joined him in mas-

sive numbers. His brand loyalty was reflected

from the fact that even when many of his sup-

porters did not understand the pros and cons of

the Lokpal bill they stood by it only because Anna

said so. People comprehended that he was here

for their good.

Promotion of the brand was conducted through

regular speeches at the place of fast, TV inter-

views, newspaper articles etc. which, apart from

clearing any doubt or misconception, also en-

hanced the transparency of the system contrary

to government functioning. This pumped in more

confidence and zeal into the Anna movement.

The team also indulged in advertising through the

social media. Social networking sites were abuzz

with catchy phrases and taglines like ‘I am Anna’,

‘Doosri Azaadi’ and ‘Sab neta chor hain’ became a

rage. Merchandise like T-shirts, caps etc. with ‘I

am Anna’ written on them were made available

everywhere. Companies would splurge millions of

rupees over several years to build a brand like

‘Anna’, but the old man with little funds backing

him became an icon in a few months.

Brand Positioning: Let us analyze two of the big-

gest brands in Indian politics.

Brand Modi Vs Brand Rahul:

The Modi brand is primarily built on the ‘Hindu

fighter’ image and the more intellectual public

find its ‘development platform’ appealing. Hence,

it is a complete brand. Therefore, for the rest of

India even if its primary image does not work, the

sales still increase because of its secondary prom-

ise.


10 9

Rahul Biswas

PGDM,

Xavier Institute Of Management, Bhubaneswar


11 10

However, brand Rahul is the exact opposite.

There is no focused brand positioning hence

keeping the consumer confused and unclear as to

what it promises to deliver. Moreover, the USP of

the brand – the name ‘Gandhi’, has lost relevance

over the years. So, in term of positioning or place-

ment, brand Modi is a clear winner.

Use of the media: The prejudice and negative

campaign coverage by the media is often criti-

cized by the public, who demand a non-

manipulated information. Technically, the media

influences what issues voters should care about in

elections and on what criteria they should evalu-

ate the candidates. Sometimes the media helps in

setting the political agenda by focusing on certain

stories so that both the public and the govern-

ment are engrossed in them.

In a nutshell, one can conclude that the basis of

political marketing lies in forming emotional con-

nections and lasting impressions on the voters.

Although, political marketing is a treacherous do-

main, inspiring passionate and strong opinions in

most individuals, if a candidate can stay truthful

and connect with the masses emotionally and

positively, their chances of acing the electoral

process improve greatly.

Political Marketing: The Creation of a MIRAGE

Max Weber, one of the founding fathers of soci-

ology, divided legal authority into three: Rational-

Legal, Traditional and Charismatic. With a steady

rise in the number of democracies post the Sec-

ond World War, political candidates increasingly

began utilising consumer product related mar-

keting strategies to con-

vince their populace of

their stake for rational-

legal authority. This phe-

nomenon witnessed a big-

ger jump with the collapse

of the Soviet Union led

communist bloc going

hand in hand with an ex-

ponential rise in Infor-

mation and Communica-

tion Technology (ICT).

To showcase the same,

this article divides itself

into two. The first section,

in brief, looks at the theo-

retical concepts of Political

Marketing and the second focuses its attention on

the American Presidential race of 1960, between

Senator John F. Kennedy (hereafter referred to as

JFK) and Senator Richard Nixon as the one that

redefined the strategic importance of political

marketing for time immemorial.

Political marketing while as a phenomenon has

existed since the time of Aristotle; as an academic

discipline is only in an embryonic stage. Within

the scope of enquiry assigned to the field, it has

shown the political candidate as the focal point of

the campaign due to which the brand of the same

becomes of capital importance. The

realisation of this has seen politics

being converted into perception

politics where the mannerism of

delivery (promotion of the candi-

date) rather than the deliverable

itself (the candidate) becomes the

main objective. In such a scenario,

the emotion of the populace is the

top prize up for grabs. The method-

ology employed to achieve the

same is to substitute rational argu-

ments by emotional ones. Hence, in

due course of time a certain visual

impression of the candidate, which

may very well be

different from reality, is first con-

structed, then improved, later amplified and final-

ly managed (different stages of brand building).

Thus, slowly but surely a constructed image is ini-

tially registered and then embedded into the cog-

nitive make-up of the populace. It goes without

saying that the nature of such a visual impression

has to be perceived as ‘good’. The reason

attributed to this observation is that human be-

ings have an inherent need to look good and tend

to be biased towards those who appear as good.

This cognitive concept when mixed with the theo-

retical aspects of political marketing makes for a

highly effective cocktail.


12 11

Shiv Ram Krishna Pande

PGDM,

FORE School of Management, New Delhi


12

There is no, arguably, better case to showcase the

same than the presidential race in the United

States of 1960. JFK was thrust into electoral poli-

tics by his father, Ambassador Joseph ‘Joe’ Kenne-

dy Sr. in the wake of the death of his elder broth-

er and father’s heir ap-

parent, Joseph Kenne-

dy Jr. in the II World

War. With the patri-

arch, Joe Sr. bankrolling

an electoral campaign

managed by younger

brother Robert F. Ken-

nedy, JFK was present-

ed as a young, ener-

getic, handsome war

hero and a thorough

family man. These tout-

ed qualities were how-

ever diametrically op-

posite from the real

state of affairs JFK had

a history of always be-

ing sick, was a chain cigar smoker and often en-

gaged in adultery. The key component in propa-

gating a particular heroic image of JFK required

extensive use of visual media. With presidential

elections closing in and Kennedy behind Nixon in

the approval ratings, the campaign needed much

more than just extensive use of the visual media

to win. They needed a secret all powerful weap-

on, or as per Hindu mythology, a Brahmastra.

They found theirs in the idea of challenging Nixon

to face the eloquent Kennedy in a series of live,

nationally televised debates. While backing out

from the same would

showcase Nixon as be-

ing timid, the conse-

quent acceptance of the

same saw the Kennedy

camp inflict a double

whammy on Nixon. The

live debates amplified

the above mentioned,

propagated qualities of

JFK while showcasing

Nixon as old, non-

smiling, arrogant, bald-

ing and thus an undesir-

able presidential candi-

date.

In essence, perception

had gained and achieved preponderance over

content. As each debate closed, JFK’s approval

ratings also rose. The rest as they say is history

with presidential debates, now viewed by an in-

ternational audience, becoming one of the defin-

ing features of any American presidential election

race.

Political Marketing coming of 'E-age'

“Rahul Gandhi to take social media classes for

Congress workers”, “Congress deploys Shashi

Tharoor as tweeter-in-chief to take on Narendra

Modi”, “Narendra Modi stays most mentioned on

social media”.

All these news few years back would have held

least significance in the context of Indian politics.

But the growing use of internet, the power of so-

cial media, the involvement of youth and the ever

changing technologies have forced political par-

ties change their strategy. Voter dynamics are

changing with their changing socio-economic pa-

rameters.

What does political marketing mean? Simply put-

political marketing is the process by which politi-

cal candidates and ideas are directed at the vot-

ers in order to satisfy their political needs and

thus, gain their support for the candidate and ide-

as in question. Marketing has been used in Indian

politics more for communication and targeting

the potential electorates through the manifestos

and agendas. But off late political parties have

given a serious thought of using social media mar-

keting as a strategy to target their potential vot-

ers.

Political marketing and product marketing are by

far the same and involves the same set of rules.

The voters in this case are the potential consum-

ers, who go through a process similar to a cus-

tomer purchasing a product while selecting the

party. The buying/selection process, starting from

problem/opportunity recognition leading to infor-

mation collection and evaluation which results in

a purchase and its post purchase evaluation,

more or less remains to be the same. And so does

the selling process as there lies significant similar-

ity between that of a company selling its product

and a political party trying to win the elections.

Campaigning in Indian elections comes of e-age

Twitter has been the online battle ground for

both parties with the General Elections-2014

coming closer. Social media has pushed the

boundaries for political parties in terms of its ca-

pability to send messages and reach out to sup-

porters. Communication for political parties is no

longer about maintaining the party website or

handing out press releases to journalists. There

are other media (like Facebook, blogs, YouTube)

which have intensified the battle for the General

Elections-2014

One of the ways by which the parties have started

to market and promote themselves in the tech-

savvy states is through the Bluetooth Pushers. If

a person walks into a shopping mall in Mumbai,

Delhi or Bangalore with his Bluetooth reception

turned on, there’s a high chance that he’ll receive

a request to download a message from the politi-

cal party.


13

Vineet Shreshtha

PGDM,

Goa Institute of Management, Goa


14

Nothing official about it

A fierce battle has been in the form of #Feku vs

#Pappu between the two major political parties.

Both parties have targeted the main rival leader

through the websites or blogs. Although, no one

openly comes out as the owner of these websites,

it’s not really tough guessing who’s running

what!!

A Step Ahead

As a part of their strategies to have an impact on

the outcome of the elections, parties have started

to take help of the professionals to keep an eye

on their rivals. Recently BJP hired Proof of Perfor-

mance Data Services (POP), a specialist in out-of-

home advertising database, to monitor the out-

door campaign activities of the Congress Party in

Delhi. POP will keep an eye on 6,000 out-of-home

media sites, including billboards, bus shelters,

bridge panels and other such platforms, to see

what the rival party is communicating thus help-

ing their clients come out with a different and a

stronger message to attract the voters.

Conclusion

Although the 4 P’s of marketing can be tweaked

to incorporate the strategies of the candidates,

the parties must ensure that they don't stretch

the limits of marketing by overdoing this.

The etymology of the word “brand” goes right

back to the times when animals were branded or

trademarked to indicate ownership. The concept

of brand is ever evolving and marketers agree

that branding has moved on from a commodity-

based model to a value-based model. This has

helped consumers to use the identification sys-

tem as an instrument to find their way through

vast offerings of common products. This enables

them not only to distin-

guish the best products,

but also to purchase fa-

vorable products again.

As branding has extend-

ed from fast moving con-

sumer goods to services

and corporate brands,

there has been an in-

creasing realization that

branding is much more

than a public face of an

organization. It is an ex-

pression of an organization’s behavior, beliefs and

culture.

The rapid changes happening in today’s market

scenario has laid emphasis on the fact that it is

essential for a company to establish a brand that

is relevant to its target audience. In order to do

so, it is important for the companies to under-

stand consumers’ tastes & preferences, the emer-

gence of new technology or new competitors or

any new development taking place in the market

environment. A brand can be dynamic and can

prove to be a relevant asset only if brand innova-

tion takes place. Brand innovation directs a brand

with a purpose and creativity, which aids a brand

to reach a position of preference in the market. It

demands a new ap-

proach and commitment

on the part of the man-

agement to seek a tangi-

ble and positive change.

The brand which evolves

through this kind of

transformation is the

brand that will thrive

today as it is contempo-

rary and related, and

will grow tomorrow be-

cause it anticipates and adapts to the future. The

brand will be able to build value with the custom-

ers through meaningful dialogue, active participa-

tion and creative connection.

Brand innovation can accomplish numerous as-

pects, often in combination with one another. It

helps the customers to overcome constraints in

the market, it allows the customers to do more

with the product, and leverages brand experience

into customer experience. A brand also increases

the customers’ proactive powers and creates a

community that supports the customers.

16 15

Priyanka Patil

PGDM,



Mark-e-feed: BRANDING INNOVATIONS


17 16

Collaboration and Co-creation for Brand Innova-

tion

T oday, customers are more outspoken with

respect to what they feel about a brand and how

a brand can add value to them. As a result, com-

panies are opening up to collaborations and co-

creating solutions so that they can offer better

value to their customers. Companies such as Ni-

ke, Hallmark, P&G and Dell have been successful

by adopting the concept of co-creation. ‘My Stra-

bucks Idea’ and Dell’s ‘IdeaStorm’ are some ex-

amples that have been excellent sources of inno-

vation.

Ipod is another example of brand innovation

which, along with iTunes, forms a new brand

that allows customers to take delight in music

and express themselves through music by having

a personal control over it. Also, Harley Davidson

popularly known as “bad boy” machines devel-

oped into a brand by customizing bikes.

Brand innovation is therefore an important as-

pect as it transforms a brand into a valuable as-

set and helps the brand to sustain in a competi-

tive and dynamic market environment. It is only

through innovation that a company can make its

products and services a big hit amongst its target

audience.


Sentiment analysis in social media is a technique

to gauge the emotional aspect of the socially rele-

vant data. It captures the essence of what people

have to say about your company, services or

products. Every post and tweet by consumers

contains valuable information for the brand

which is talked about and can give useful insights

into the experience of the consumers. When con-

sumers interact with the company about their

products or services, they voice their opinions

through social media channels like Facebook,

Twitter, Foursquare etc. Sentiment analysis helps

capture customers’ views in this manner and do a

client research to calculate whether an opinion

expressed is positive or negative.

Organizations today are actually interested in this

kind of data to improve their market by improving

customer service, which influences product up-

dates. The new age analytics of sentiment analy-

sis can help us systematically identify the online

exchanges that are most relevant when various

tools available in the market are Radian6

(salesforce.com), Cymfony (Visible Technologies),

ScoutLabs (Lithium Technologies). Some of the

bigger known IT giants like TCS, Infosys and IBM

also have their customized tools for doing a client

based research and brand wise analysis using Nat-

ural Language Processing (NLP) and they have

generated huge amounts of revenue through

these platforms.

Companies like Starbucks and American Cancer

Society (ACS) have been using sentiment analysis

for reading customers’ feelings online. Did you

know that there are 10 tweets every second men-

tioning Starbucks? The ACS gets about 6,000

mentions a month on Twitter, public Facebook

pages, blog posts, and in comments on blogs or

articles. The percentage of content in which posi-

tive or negative sentiment was identified rose

from 15% to more than 95%. The accuracy rate

rose from less than 30 % to more than 90 %.

Best Buy (BBY), Viacom's (VIA.B) Paramount Pic-

tures, Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Intuit (INTU) are

also using sentiment analysis to determine how

customers, employees, and investors are feeling.

In one of the case studies, Verizon, which was

considered a fee happy company with consumers,

due to a change in its policies regarding fee charg-

es, faced the consumers’ wrath as they didn’t

welcome the news. Crimson Hexagon analysed

over 4,000 reactions on Twitter, and while the

reaction was (as expected) resoundingly negative

at 51%, it’s interesting to identify what specifically

those on Twitter were griping about (what’s driv-

ing the sentiment).

The major challenge faced by Sentiment analysis

is capturing the essence of the data when there is

a difference between the actual context and the

implied context. It is sometimes impossible to

know the context in which the opinion has been

made, rendering the data as positive when it

might be said with a negative tone.

18 17

Saurabh Jain

PGDM,

Goa Institute of Management, Goa

Mark-e-feed: Role of Sentiment Analysis in Social Media (A Customer Centric Strategy)


19 18

‘Sarcasm is so cool’ might be considered positive whereas the intention is negative, being able to effectively pull apart sentences and phrases piece by piece to identify the subject, the context and the sentiment, is probably the direction many technology vendors are going to take. Automated sentiment analysis looks good with accuracy levels of between 70% and 80% which compares very favourably with the levels of accu-racy we would expect from a human analyst. In a

time when machine automation is the new indus-try standard, high-quality and consistently accu-rate human judgments have become a scarce commodity. It is imperative to provide a system which is better than human analysis and provides an impetus to the organizations to improve upon their decision making models through automa-tion. However, serious changes need to be imple-mented to improve the efficiency of the systems which will imitate decision makers in future.


Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has man-

dated to cap advertisement slots to 12 minutes

per hour, out of which 10 minutes can be used for

advertisers and 2 minutes for channel programme

promotions. Earlier slots extended even to 25-30

minutes in an hour leading to huge discontent

among viewers. This mandate will have a huge im-

pact on the entire media and entertainment in-

dustry. Let us look at all the major stakeholders to

be impacted by this decision:

Media Companies:

Media Companies are

the ones to be severe-

ly hit by the latest

changes in regulatory

norms. Unsurprisingly,

citing economic com-

pulsions, top media

channels have already

hiked or are planning

to hike their rates.

Colors has already

hiked ad rates while

Star India and Zee En-

tertainment have also

agreed that business cannot be sustained with the

same revenue rates and that hike was on the

cards. Media Companies currently charge

Rs.75000-80000 for a 10 seconds slot and Rs. 2-3

Lakhs for prime time slots. Huge viewership across

General entertainment channels (GECs) makes this

price a still cheaper source of promotions (Rs 2 per

1000 viewers approximately). Shortage of Ad in-

ventory (amount of ad space available to sell to an

advertiser) is a big issue for broadcasters, leading

to a huge supply demand gap and has also led to

high rates for prime time slots. Media planners

will be under a huge amount of pressure to opti-

mize the limited resources at their disposal to

churn out the best

possible benefits for

the company.

Innovation in content

can actually revolu-

tionise the whole con-

tent creation business.

So far content has

been created to cater

to consumers while

money is generated by

selling the ad space.

But there could be a

paramount shift in the

way content is creat-

ed. The rate at which ad spaces are sold depends

on the prime time slots, which is when viewership

is at its peak based on the popularity of the show.

Brand Integration with the show will be of para-

mount importance to retain or acquire advertis-

ers. Coke Studio and Tata Nano Road Trip are few

examples which pre-empted the trend but it is still

in nascent stage. Integrating brand with the show,

as a concept requires a subtle mix of communi-

cating and making sure that the brand is not forc-

ing itself upon the viewers or the show.

20 19

Saurabh Jain

PGDM,

Narsee Monjee Institute of Management

and Science

Mark-e-feed: Tsuna-media


21 20

Creating Content weaved across the brands is a

challenge in itself which requires a blend of

writing and understanding the essence of the

brand. If created successfully, it could turn out to

be the big win-win situation both for advertisers

and media companies.

Advertising Companies:

Advertising Agencies will also feel the heat of cur-

rent regulations. Reduced Advertisement slots

means reduce ad content, eventually leading to a

cut in the TV ad business in their portfolio. Keep-

ing the external changes in mind, advertising

firms will aggressively explore other mediums

(Print, Digital), but TV advertising forms the ma-

jor source of revenue both for the media and ad-

vertising firms and cannot be ignored. The chal-

lenge which advertising firms will face is the ex-

pectation of the client to convey his idea in a

shorter time frame. Agencies successful in doing

so will emerge as a leader in an already ultra-

competitive advertising industry.

Advertisers: FMCG MNCs as advertisers are the major contrib-utors of advertisements in TV industry. Big MNCs

like HUL, P&G etc. may even sustain the in-creased cost but it will be smaller players might have to explore other feasible avenues.

Banking & Financial Services which is more of an

informative category can shift their promotions

to print media, but the Auto sector which has

more visual appeal cannot afford to lose their ad

spaces despite the hike. Changes in regulatory

norms will be a huge booster for the social media

industry. Companies will have to reformulate

their communication strategy and be more ag-

gressive on the social platform. This reduced ad

timing can actually prove beneficial for the play-

ers sticking with TV, since reduced advertisement

time will lead to reduction in channel switch and

more consumer attention.

With margin squeezing and consumers having

more control over what they want to see, Media

business is bound to face a major overhaul in its

business dynamics.


While the new advertisement of Coke is focus-

ing on “Open happiness“ campaign for the con-

sumers in India and Pakistan, a bunch of trainers

from Coca Cola university are training retailers in

Lucknow. Why, a brand so aspirational in its core

terms is now focusing on retailers? The answer

may lie in the busy lanes of Tier 2 and Tier 3

cities. While Tier 1 consumers are aware of the

international brands through TV ads, their coun-

terparts in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities need to be told

about it in a different manner. "In urban India, it

is a question of reach. But in rural India, it is

about reach and preach” says Jagdeep Kapoor,

chairman and managing director of Samsika Mar-

keting Consultants, a brand marketing-services

firm in Mumbai.

Since early 90’s FMCG companies have been giv-

ing monetary benefits and festival gifts to retailer

but that relationship has always been transac-

tional. Over the last few years Companies have

now started to go beyond the monetary gratifi-

cation and looked to build an emotional relation-

ship with the retailer. A case in point would be

the Soft drink giant, Coca Cola. In late 2008, Coca

-Cola launched a nationwide training program

called Parivartan using 20-seater buses for mom-

and-pop retailers. So far, the program has cov-

ered more than 30,000 retailers in cities includ-

ing Agra, Ludhiana, Chandigarh and Lucknow,

with courses on such topics as how to display

products and improve inventory management.

Ram Yadav, one such retailer in Pehrladpur area

near Okhla attended the Parivartan program. He

recalls - “The program was divided into multiple

workshops, the first one being in an Air condi-

tioned Bus. The program explained how one can

increase the sale of his/her firm’s products and

can manage the shop in a better way. It was defi-

nitely not a publicity gimmick to fool the retail-

ers. They (Coca Cola) explained me that they are

here to help me. They didn’t tell about their

product, not even a single word”. This, he says

won his trust about the company. The training

has helped him increase his sale by 30%, he says.

Coca Cola then conducted another workshop in

which it explained how Coca Cola can become a

partner in retailer’s success. The retailers were

then given a certificate of completion which he

proudly hangs at his shop.

The Parivartan program is not alone in such en-

deavor. Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) has

successfully run the Shakti program all over In-

dia. Shakti was not only a rural distribution pro-

gram but also aimed at building a relationship

through women retailers and leverage their in-

fluence on the end consumer. HUL understood

the problem in rural India where entrepreneur-

ship was hampered due to lack of funds and

training. HUL allowed ‘Shakti Amma’ micro credit

opportunities and trained the women to become

self-dependent.

22 21

Shobhit Gupta

PGDM,

Institute of Management Technology,

Ghaziabad

Mark-e-feed: Retailer Advocacy- How FMCG companies are going beyond monetary gratification


23 22

This has left them indebted to HUL and now they

go door to door selling HUL products and other

products. The retailer becomes more so im-

portant in dark market products such as Tobacco

and Liquor where laws are becoming stringent

day by day. Companies have thus started to un-

derstand the retailer’s problems and provide so-

lution tailored for him. One of the pain points of

convenience stores in Delhi was security against

theft. ITC has ensured these retailers 50% burden

will be shared by them in case of theft.

This came as a huge relief for a retailer whose

stock inventory can sometimes amount to thou-

sands of rupee and made him susceptible to huge

loss. Another Tobacco company IPM, which sells

the famous brand Marlboro in India provided free

health insurance and check up for all the retailers.

As more and more companies dive into the FMCG

markets, it is becoming increasingly difficult for

them to differentiate themselves from others.

Advancement in technology in multiple media

such as Internet, mobile, etc. only adds to the

complexity. The retailer thus becomes the most

important cog in the wheel of communication to

get the message across.


Mark Roadies 6.0

24 23


Mark Roadies 6.0, an intra college event at IMT,

is designed for the first year students to get a

feel of the B-school learning and kick start the

new academic

year. It tests the

first year students’

sales pitching skills,

observational

prowess, mar-

keting abilities and

physical stamina all

which are the re-

quirements of a

sales manager.

Mark Roadies 6.0

was held on 23rd

July 2013 which

saw close to 100

teams battling it

out in a treasure

hunt with location

based clues and

spot tasks to test

their decision mak-

ing. The event also

gave participants

an opportunity to

demonstrate their creativity by tasks such as de-

livering a sales pitch and preparing a short advert

on the topic given to them. The day saw a lot of

running around and intense competition, but in

all each team was high-spirited and made a great

day out of the event.

Round Two held on 27th July 2013, saw 10 teams

shortlisted and were asked to present a business

idea to solve any campus based problem of their

choice. The event saw a panorama of great ideas

being presented before the judges. The winners

were “Team B8” comprising of Shubham Jain,

Akanksha Chadha

and Vinayak from

first year, IMT-G.

Their winning idea

was to provide a

small four-seater

car - The Bajaj

Re60 for transit

between IMT CDL

and IMT Main cam-

pus. “Team Athe-

na” and “Team

Chole Bhature”

were tied for the

1st runner up spot.

Club Markup takes

this opportunity to

congratulate the

Winners and thank

the various partici-

pants from IMT for

their overwhelm-

ing response. We

hope that their first

B-School event lived up to their expectations. We

would also like to thank Dr. Harvinder Singh, As-

sociate Professor and Area Chairperson, Mar-

keting Management for being the judge and for

providing his valuable inputs to the participants.

Overall, we would say that the Markup-ites are

very proud of having pulled off a great event that

was useful for all stakeholders.

24


24

Our Industry Initiatives

T his year Club MarkUp in association with

printbindaas.com introduced the 3rd edition of

Bindaas Marketeer at IMT, Ghaziabad. As a BM

you need to promote the various offerings by

Printbindaas at your campus by engaging Print-

bindaas in most of the college activities and also

be a campus manager for India’s first student

managed inter B-school magazine – “B-

spionage”.

Also Club MarkUp in collaboration with Mar-

cadeo Education conducted a workshop on the

launch of the Chartered Sales Force Analyst

(CSFA) certification program, where industry ex-

perts from ITC and KPMG provided valuable in-

sights into the importance of sales in the mar-

keting industry.

A note from the horse’s mouth - “In our years of

having implemented sales effectiveness solutions

at clients in FMCG, B2B and services, we have

seen that a large part of the sales effort is fo-

cused on matching the numbers on the sales tar-

get, though not without a reason. But most cus-

tomers today are no longer satisfied with simply

buying a product or service. Increasingly, they

have higher-order needs that involve improving

their overall economics in the use of a product.

They want to improve operating efficiency, or

reduce their risks, or help their own customers

grow revenues. As customer needs grow more

complex and demanding, sales programs cannot

rely on incremental improvements to product

quality, delivery time, and other basic competen-

cies. Successful selling efforts are the result of

smart moves on a number of fronts: tailoring the

message, product mix, and price to the highest

value customer segments; delivering that mes-

sage with an efficient sales process; developing

the right tools for properly trained staff; and

aligning incentives to drive value rather than vol-

ume.”

- Anshuman Mishra

Manager, KPMG Advisory India Ltd


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MARK-toon

markezine aug sep'13

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