of the monthmukherjee, ceo & co-founder of quipper re-search, a market research firm which...

talaap Section this month, we have Mrs. Piyul Mukherjee, CEO & Co-Founder of Quipper Re-search, a Market Research firm which specialises in conducting Qualitative Research. She shares with us some great insights on the importance of ‘seemingly subjective’ areas of study like anthro-pology, psychology and sociology in Market Re-search. To all those aiming to land a Consulting job, this article delivers a fresh perspective. Fur-ther, while the Logoistic section for the month covers the logo-evolution of that 800-pound go-rilla in the Retail industry - Walmart, the story of the recently discontinued Tata Sumo Grande is elaborated upon in Jab They Failed. Apart from this, we also have fun activities lined up for you to put your marketing knowledge to test, in the Fun Corner section. Lastly, we would like to thank everyone who sent in their valuable contributions for the mag-azine. The response that we receive month after month keeps us motivated to keep doing what we love. So what are you waiting for? Take the plunge, flip through the pages of the July edition of Markathon & soak up all the excitement & knowledge lined up. Also please feel free to write to us at [email protected] regarding any suggestions or feedback.

Happy Reading!!!Team Markathon

With a month into the B-School calendar for 2016-17, students across India have a fair idea of what is expected of them if they want to land their ‘Dream Jobs’. With increasing competi-tion, there is a need for every individual to anal-yse exactly what they are best at and differen-tiate themselves by developing & highlighting those qualities that make them unique. This is not much different from the state of the Retail market in India. Over the past 7-8 years, the increasing penetration of internet & arrival of the E-commerce industry has totally altered the buying behaviour of customers. It has led to a very dynamic market with many gaps which are being exploited by innovative strategies.One such development has been the growth of Private Label brands which currently contribute to 10-12% of organised retail in the country. Re-tailers have responded to the E-commerce boom by promoting private labels, which gives them greater pricing autonomy. This has made it an interesting prospect for the middle class Indian who is both brand & price conscious. Our cover story for the month features this reinvention of the offline retail market and analyses the niche its carved for itself. The article also highlights the categories which are being targeted by pri-vate brands & studies the reasons behind it. We congratulate Suhail Ghosh, the winner of our Perspective section for his article, ‘When In-novation Is Not Just In The Product’. In the Var-

Of The MonthSharad Srinivasan

“

“

AND HIS TEAM..!!

Akshay Astha Daksh

Harsha Piyush Shubham

EDITOR

Because he isBald

& Beautiful

Markathon july 2016

IIM ShillongMARKATHON

Andar Ki Baat

Cover Story

10The Rise & Rise

Of Private LabelsDaksh Bhagat | IIM Shillong

Perspective

01Innovations: When they Go Beyond the ProductSuhail Ghosh | FMS Delhi

06Brand Integration: What’s Happening in the Entertainment IndustryMohit Gosain | KidZania Ministry of Industry

15Mrs Piyul MukherjeeCEO & FounderQuipper Research

Vartalaap

20Is Social Media Mar-keting a necessary in-gredient today in the recipe of success?:

Eye 2 Eye

Saurabh Goyal

IIM Raipur

Andar Ki Baat

Interviewed By:

Harsha Daga & Piyush Jain | IIM ShillongMekhala

IIM Raipur

Markathon july 2016

Andar Ki BaatSpeciaLs

21LogoisticThe Story of Walmart’s LogoShubham Shukla | IIM Shillong

22AD-dictedCatch & Miss advertisements of the monthSharad Srinivasan & Astha Kabra | IIM Shillong

24What went wrong with Tata Sumo GrandeAbir Nandi | IIM Shillong

Jab They Failed

Let’s look at our social media marketing

Digi - Tally

29

23Fun CornerTo get the brain ticklingAkshay Seth | IIM Shillong

25UpdatesFresh from the Marketing WorldHarsha Daga | IIM Shillong


Marketing Gyan

IIM Shillong1MARKATHON

Background and Motivation

In today’s industry, upstream activities, such as sourcing, production, logistics, etc. are nowa-days being outsourced, while companies prefer to focus more on downstream activities which focus on the customer and creating product value or brand equity. Most spending of modern day companies is now focussed on brand building, as compared to product innovation. The strategic question has turned from “What else can we make?” to “What else can we do for the customers?”

BySUHAIL GHOSH

FMS Delhi

july 2016

Innovations:When they go beyond the

product

perspective

The strategic question has turned from “What else can we make?” to “What else can we do for the

customers?”


july 2016perspective

since the markets and the consumers, and not the product or factory floor, is the locus of com-petitive advantage of today’s businesses.If a company can successfully have a say in how the market perceives their products, then they would definitely know how they can success-fully position their offering to the advantage of the customer. Therefore, thinking as a marketer does involve a fair share of judging one’s own offering from the vantage point of the customer as well.

Brand Equity Builders

A classic experiment in the world of branding is to ask people what would happen if hypotheti-cally suddenly Coca-Cola loses all its physi-cal assets and would require to suddenly start afresh with the task of rebuilding everything it had. Most reasonable businessmen concluded that it would not be difficult for Coca-Cola at all to rebuild its empire or even raise fund for the same.

On the other hand, the next question asked was what would happen if all its consumers in the 206 countries suddenly wake up to forget ev-erything about Coca-Cola, including the name, the taste, or even the promotion campaigns. The answer was simple. The company would be doomed. It would have to restructure the 135-year-old business from the scratch despite having all physical assets intact.What do we find from this? It is obvious that the major thing that Coca-Cola has built over the last 135 years is its brand equity. Spreading across 206 countries in the world is not the re-sult of a strong product offering. The product, in fact, is the same for the whole period. What has got it growing is the advertising and pro-motional outlays which position the brand in such a way as to ensure the core benefit is no more the 300 ml drink which the customer is having. But it is the whole feeling that can be attached to it.

Companies have long focussed on the impor-tance of building a strong brand equity and the products sell mainly on how the brand is perceived by the customers. The major driving force is the fact that selling, and not product de-signing, is the touch point for the customer for most products. For a soap, unless the customer is looking for some particular composition, the most common driving force is the visibility of

the product on the shop floor. If a product is not visible, rarely do people look for it elsewhere. All they do is find a suitable replacement without

even batting an eye. At this moment, if a particu-lar brand comes up with something to suit one’s requirements so specifically that they cannot re-place it, we have a successful brand.

Redefining a customer’s purchasing criteria is also a way of getting the customer to consider your brand. Rather than going for a “me too” ap-proach and trying to compete with the biggies of the market by just lowering the price, one can offer a completely different benefit for the prod-uct which might address the unmet needs, which have been overlooked by the market leaders.

A classic example of the same is ITC’s Sunfeast Yippie noodles, which showed courage to enter a



Cialis. Over the next decade, Cialis gained pop-ularity over Viagra and recorded sales of $1.9 billion in 2012. Also, in terms of market percep-tion, duration, which had only 10% value in 2003, surpassed efficacy and safety - which had 70% combined value - in terms of importance.

Brand building through advertisements can be seen in the structure of the brand ladder. The brand ladder consists of the attribute level, the functional level and the emotional level of communication with the audience through promotion. In a market research on brand-cen-

tric transformation across the globe by seven partners of the Boston Con-sulting Group, they found that most managers were aware of the brand ladder but the key to a successful brand building was how the marketers linked the various steps of the brand ladder.

They came up with the suggestion to look beyond the emotional level of the brand ladder. Rather than going with the gut feeling approach to brand perception, one needs to look at the financial value of every trade-off so as to ensure the scien-tific approach to the brand ladder.

Products can stay on a particular level through-out and extract maximum benefits from that too. If we look at how Gillette comes up with innovation, it is known to provide the next lev-el of innovation in terms of razor specifications. At a technological level, it is well known what the next innovation can be.

More often than not, they add a new layer of a blade to the existing product thereby offering

market dominated by the Nestle Maggi noodles. After a few months of initial struggle, Yippie rede-fined its positioning as non-sticky noodles, which was a great hit among mothers. Maggi had the habit of sticking and forming a cake like a shape when cooled, and hence, children hated to eat it during lunch breaks.

Yippie also revolutionized the shape of instant noodles by introducing a pan shaped cakes in-stead of the traditional square form, which meant that it was no longer needed to break it before putting into the pan. Hence, they ensured that the noodles were not broken when pre-pared and were long like regular noodles. This positioning has ensured that Yippie survived the strong domination from Maggi and has made a place of its own.While we look at how Cialis defeated Vi-agra in the pharma-ceutical market, we can find how new-comers can actually take the “David vs Goliath” route and defeat market leaders in their own game.

Viagra was well es-tablished and by 2001, had reached $1.5 billion worth of sales. It didn’t have a competitor until 20, when Lilly Icos launched Cialis, which positioned it-self slightly in a dif-ferent way than the former, to customers with erectile dysfunction.

It gave a long lasting experience of up to 36 hours, as compared to the mere 4-5 hours as offered by Viagra. The marketing team focussed on this and promoted the idea of romance, a work of longer periods, instead of just sex which could be related to shorter periods. This campaign became popu-lar and couples decided to give more emphasis to romance, and hence going for the longer lasting


july 2016perspectivea cleaner and less painful shave. But if any other company comes up with this technology, people don’t accept it. Hence, in the world of shaving technology, a new change is only accepted if Gil-lette comes up with it. As Niraj Dawar puts it in his article for the Harvard Business Review, “four blades are better than three. But only if Gil-lette says so”.

Hence, brand building is a very careful exercise a n d t h e r e a r e various dos and d o n ’ t s as far as brand-ing ex-e r c i s e is con-cerned. W h i l e D a s Naray-a n d a s , in his H B R a r t i c l e s a y s that brand building and customer loyalty should be the focus of all businesses worldwide, we have Alexander Zutkowitz writing for the same magazine that Marketing today is dead because of Brand Loyalty.

Narayandas takes the example of Apple, saying how people who have used the I Phone are the major target audience of the next versions, and hence I Phone is so successful in maintaining its loyal base of customers. Zutkowitz however, takes the same example and says that this per-ception of people has killed the desire of other companies to come up with new and improved marketing techniques to beat Apple.

Hence, we see that a strong brand equity does come from different ways of targeting the right audience and coming up with something to suite everyone in their own unique way. While iPhone targets the Indian customers, they focus on a bride showing how the good things in life can come in small instalments, thus letting the customers know that they need not shell out the whole sum at one go to get their I-Phone. The

target is to ensure that every customer feels special with a minimum number of strategy differentiation, and who has done it better than Coca Cola!

Coca-Cola: A Living Example

What do you feel when a truck arrives on the busy streets and distributes toys, balloons, and beverages among people just for free? Or, when

a cer-t a i n b r a n d tries to u n i t e people w o r k -ing in a far off nation, to their f a m i -l i e s ? Let us consid-er our-s e l v e s in the spot of t h e s e

protagonists. What is the one common thing that will strike us, when we come across such treatment, or should we say, pamper? Only one

t h i n g : Happi-ness!

T h e a b o v e a n e c -d o t e s w e r e s o m e of the m a j o r innova-tions in b u i l d -i n g b r a n d equi ty p e r -formed by the

giants of the beverage industry: Coca-Cola.



The same old beverage, for the past 135 years, has always managed to ensure that the brand lives up to the expectation of more and more modern consumers around the world, thus keeping itself alive.

How Coke comes up with different ways of brand building is best shown through their bottle. The legendary Coke bottle has com-pleted a hundred years in May 2015, and the way it was celebrated by the company shows how much brand equity can be earned through a simple element of pack-aging. There were snip-pets of different parts of the bottle, the contours, the curve and how the way out of the bottle feels from the vantage point of a simple bubble in the bottle. When the company was marred by competitors and copy-cats across the world, they needed an element of consistency in their of-fering. Hence, scooping up $500 from the compa-ny coffers, Coca-Cola is-sued the following brief: “We need a bottle which a person will recognize as a Cola-Cola bottle even when he feels it in the dark. The Coca-Cola bottle should be so shaped that, even if broken, a person could tell at a glance what it was.” This was the smash-able element and the cult figure in the brand Coke: the bottle.

The company carries on the tradition of offering

happiness throughout their campaigns. Even in its current campaign in Belgium, they have a person laughing really loud on the tube, and looking at his hysterical behavior, people start laughing around him. Hence, spread happiness! Looking at most of their Through the Line cam-paigns - some of which have been mentioned

above - we get the same, common mes-sage all through.

The long-term per-spective of the company, its vision 2020, as mentioned in 2012, by the CEO Muhtar Kent, in-cludes addressing some of the very se-rious issues, such as water neutrality, are all biased towards building the brand through consumer benefits and philan-thropic activities.

Conclusion

All in all, we have observed that the companies that have succeeded in building a strong brand have ensured

that they focus on the promotional activities equally, if not more than its technological in-novation. Also, in the case of razors, we saw how the technological advantage was neglect-ed by consumers unless mentioned by Gillette through promotional outlays. Thus, the world is moving towards innovation in promotions, more than that in products.

IIM ShillongIIM Shillong6MARKATHON

History

Marketing and advertising have been relevant since ages. It is a simple concept i.e. anything that is to be sold in the market has to be advertised/marketed to the relevant set of people so that they trust the com-

pany/brand and buy the respective product. But, like everything marketing/advertising has evolved a lot. Like in every other field, in order to be more effec-tive, there was a need for innovation in this segment as well. This led to the evolution of the concept of brand integration which has been majorly practiced in the entertainment industry. The traces of this phe-nomenon was seen way back in the 19th century. By the time Jules Verne published the adventure novel, Around the World in Eighty Days (1873), his fame had

By MOHIT GOSAIN

Assistant MANAGERKIDZANIA MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY


led transport and shipping companies to lobby to be mentioned in the story. Whether Verne was ac-tually paid to do so, however, remains unknown. In movies, prominent brands started showing up as early as 1922 which featured the logo of Red Crown gasoline in several scenes (although there is no definitive proof that this was paid for).

Concept of Brand Integration

A simple definition would be the use of com-mercial products in the story line of a television show, film, etc. for the development of specific objectives, strategies, plans, and tactics to drive the business. The brands today need much more visibility and credibility than a 30-second spot on television or the OOH in malls and roads. Brand integration thus comes into play as an innovative marketing technique to provide the brand the req-uisite amount of credibility that it deserves and generates trust in the eyes of the customer.

Whether it’s within a dramatic series, competition show or reality program, brand integration allows advertisers to reach the consumer when they are completely engaged with the content. Integra-tion provides an uncluttered & unsuspecting en-vironment with content that can help to establish

Brand IntegrationWhat’s happening in

Entertainment Industry?


july 2016 perspective

moods or emotions for your brand. Once a product is placed within content, it is embedded in it for-ever– especially if the storyline involves the prod-uct. Plus, there is implied product endorsement by the characters. The kind of effect, brand integration has on the minds of the audience is unparalleled. The audience registers the brand message, absorbs it and thus, the recall value of the brand increases up to a phenomenal level.

Product placement is a little different than brand in-tegration, in that placement gets your product into a film (a case of Pepsi or bags of Doritos). Brand in-tegration entails the company name or the product being openly discussed within the story.

To further differentiate the two, Product Place-ment is the process through which an advertiser integrates a product into selected media for clear visibility. Although the product is visible, it is often not the focus, since it needs to fit almost seamlessly into the context of a scene or story.

Examples

1. MOVIE- CHENNAI EXPRESS (2013)BRAND - NOKIA LUMIA

Being a big budget Shah Rukh Khan film releasing on a holiday, it was bound to get a lot of eyeballs. Nokia made full use of this opportunity and inte-grated its newly launched model Lumia 920 in one of the biggest blockbusters of all time. Being a com-ic flick, Nokia also makes a joke of its product when

Deepika Padukone after listening to its magnificent features remarks sarcastically “yeh call kar sakta hai na?”.

2. MOVIE- MERE DAD KI MARUTIBRAND- MARUTI SUZUKI

This movie is the best example of brand integration; in fact, the title of the name has the brand name i.e. Maruti. In the movie, characters keep talking about the brand and their love for it in such a seamless way that it does not seem forced at all. As the brand

is loved by the Indian families, the characteristics talked about in the movie resonates well with the audience. Also, the movie served as a platform for the brand to launch its new car in the MUV segment. Songs and dances galore, it’s the brand which is a complete winner in this deal.

3. TV SHOW- MASTERCHEFBRAND- COLES

Coles, Australia’s biggest retailer scored a massive brand integration (rumored to be $3 million) deal with Master Chef Australia. Coles had its name dis-played on the studio storeroom and other in-show promotions. Coles also hosted in-store challenges, promoted recipes used in the show and had spon-sored links on the official website. With such posi-tive branding and that too with a show which has its

heart and soul at the right place, Coles definitely has nothing to regret in this deal.



4. MOVIE- THE INTERNSHIPBRAND- GOOGLE

Another movie which is a great example of this niche area of innovative marketing is the movie ‘The In-ternship’. The movie not only is cantered on google but also provides employer branding of top notch. It is clear that ‘The Internship’ shows Google in a posi-tive light. The actual work that the employees and interns do in the movie is vague. What really shines instead is the culture, the community atmosphere, and the really cool technology. The nap pods, slide, and free food all highlight the company’s unique and slightly ridiculous work atmosphere. Google’s success is in its acceptance of its own quirks. Google embraces its nerdy employees, making the employ-

er more desirable. They not only talked positive but made fun of themselves, altogether coming out as a brand which can take a joke or more. One of the best international examples of brand integration in the recent times.

Whether its Hrithik Roshan drinking and praising Bournvita in Koi Mil Gaya or Vin Diesel flashing Co-rona while speed driving his cars, the entertainment industry is currently full of such examples of brand integration. Next, we will talk about the future pros-pects of the brilliant concept of brand integration.

Future Prospects

Brand integration is here to stay. With the number of movies increasing every year both internationally and nationally, brands today are looking forward to associating themselves with big productions and communicating their brand message in an enter-taining as well as effective way.

With branded entertainment, the advertiser is ac-knowledging the increasing value of consumer at-tention and is attempting to reduce the upfront “fee.” In fact, well-executed brand integration adds value to the content and no longer becomes a “cost” to the consumer at all. This is all a rational response to the increased leverage consumers have been gaining in these transactions. But simply re-ducing attention costs is not going to be sufficient over time.

Future looks really bright where brand integration in the entertainment industry concerned. Apart from the routine practices, there can be a whole new di-mension that can be added to this form which will elevate the consumer experience to a level where it will actually be able to feel the brand rather than have an audio visual experience.

Examples

1. In the 4dx format of cinema which involves a lot of play with smell, major brands with unique odour


IIM ShillongMARKATHON 9

can actually integrate their smell when the product is actually on screen. Imagine Vin Diesel drinking a corona and the users being able to experience the aroma of the same while sitting in the auditorium. This will be an experience to reckon.

2. Sony Six promoting their UFC i.e. Ultimate Fighting Championship with the help of a ham-mer arcade machine as a part of experiential marketing and using Century Ply Wood to make that particular hammer. Sub con-sciously the message delivered by Century will be that of a tough brand to its potential customers.

The future also in-volves a lot of screens as the average screen per person by 2020 is going to be 4.3. Thus, content that is be-ing watched has to be well integrated with the brands as this will ably support both the brand as well as the entertainment indus-try.

Why I Preferred Writing AboutThis?

Personally, I prefer audio-visual form of entertainment rather than reading stuff. Also, a major chunk of people worldwide en-joy it much more than the usually written content. Also, as a budding mar-keter, I have a keen eye on the trends that are rel-evant to the current times.

“Mere Dad Ki Maruti” & “The Internship” actually generated enough curiosity about this concept when I watched them for the first time. This was the perfect opportunity to dig deep into a topic which actually excites me the most. Brands have actually gone far

to reach their con-sumers and catch their attention at a subconscious level where they might not know but they are actually consum-ing brand messages. That is the reason a lot of money is being pumped in neurol-ogy for marketing.

When Shah Rukh Khan advertises for Lumia during a com-mercial, the mes-sage may be easily skipped as no one is interested in the commercial but when played during an ongoing movie, sitting in a theatre the same message is integrated within the story, the audi-ence not only pays full attention to the message but also records at a much more non com-mercial level. Also, it helps generates new customers as the message is being received by people who are not the part of the actual TG of the brand. Thus, it is one of the most fas-cinating and practi-cal concepts under

innovating marketing which is only bound to grow multiple times in the near future.


cover story july 2016

MARKETINGBUDGET

Private brands vs National brands – Does this question bother you, when you enter a multi-brand retail store for your daily, weekly or monthly purchases? India has evolved to be one of those countries which has faced a drastic shift in the demographics of its population, with more than 65% of the people below 35 years of age. Another important factor is the birth and rise of an entire new influential segment – the Middle class. These considerations have greatly affected customer’s tastes and preferences, leading to a consequential impact on their buying behaviour.

Foreseeing pressures from the consumers owing to rapid technological and socio-economic changes over the last de-cade, retailers were forced to innovate and build new brands (Private labels) across various price points in order to attract more buyers to their stores. Not only has this been successful in

establish-ing new b r a n d s , but it has also influ-enced the incumbent ones to customize according

to Indian tastes. Also with the increased growth of the orga-nized retail sector and global economies recovering from re-cession, private brands have gained momentum in the mar-ket.

The $3 billion e-commerce industry in India is getting highly competitive and is dominated by threats in the form of imi-

The Rise & Rise of Private Brands

Cover Story

Daksh BhagatIIM Shillong

tation from copycat models. With a rising ma-turity of the online ecosystem, private labels are expected to create their own competitive advan-tage. Hence, the traditional definition of Private brands – a product sold by retailers, exclusively in own stores, no longer holds true. Moreover, business models are getting reinvented at rapid rates to accommodate this investor-friendly category. Many popular M&A deals such as Flipkart–Myntra, Zovi–Inkfruit and recently concluded Snapdeal–Exclu-sively.in have won inves-tor’s confidence only on the basis of the high gross mar-gins that are offered by the private labels.

In fact, Nielsen has estimated that India’s pri-vate-label market will grow fivefold to reach the USD half billion mark by 2015. With such a positive projection, India’s private-label sector is definitely better poised than its counterparts in other emerging economies such as China, South Africa, etc. Let us look at the various aspects that have or have been impacted by the entry and growth of private labels in the country.

Market share

Currently estimat-ed at $250 million, the private label market in India ac-counts for about 10-12% of organized retail. Brick and mortar modern re-tailers have always put their bet on private labels and hence, this segment has been success-fully able to meet targets owing to its ability to satisfy value conscious customers. Retailers such as Pantaloons, Trent, Shoppers Stop and Spencer’s have increased focus on pri-vate label retailing. Private labels constitute 90%

of Trent’s, 80% of Reliance’s and 75% of Panta-loons’ overall sales. Aditya Birla Retail plans to increase the share of own brands in sales from the present 3% to 10% in the next 2-3 years. Cur-rently, Shoppers Stop and Lifestyle derive 15-25% of sales from private labels and this percent-age is as high as 70-80% for Trent and Landmark.

E-tailers on the other hand have been able to leverage this segment much more effectively than their of-fline counterparts. Leading ‘horizontal’ players such as Snapdeal, Flipkart as well as ‘vertical/ niche’ players such as Big Basket, Urban Ladder and many more are deriving at least 20%

sales contribution from in-house labels. Also, while we are discussing the retail sector of India, we surely can’t miss the growth potential in the form of unorganized sector which still consti-tutes more than 90% of the Indian retail market.

Product categories

Private brands have been introduced in many categories across various diverse segments. Most major retailers have introduced private la-bels not only in food and grocery products, but

also in apparels and ac-cessories, consumer du-rables, toys, healthcare, and home furnishings. The Future group plans to increase its private la-bel portfolio by adding more than 60 products to its private label range. As Walmart (with a ro-bust 5,000+ private la-bels portfolio globally) plans to ramp up its own brands in India, we can

see many other categories such as pet foods, household electronics, and baby products to gain traction. Globally, private label brands are strong in commodity-driven product categories



such as food & apparel where the manufactur-ers have attempted a lot of experimentation and generic results have reflected customers’ overall indifferent behaviour while purchases of such products However, research indicates that there is ample room for many more including gener-ic medical products and paper products in the market.

Online lingerie is one such niche segment where most e-tailers started as aggregators of estab-lished brands but subsequently faced difficult feasibility tests. Private labels can identify such gaps and solve these situation as ‘category fillers’ to cater to Indian shoppers across price points. More and more foreign collaborations have proved that MNCs too are showing confidence in the growth trajectory of this sector. The recent Mi-b e l l e –Future d e a l h i g h -l i g h t s the en-t r a n c e i n t o m o r e c o m -p l e x c a t -egories such as person-al care. The scope of private label is expected to become more broad-based in coming years.

Why choose private brands?

What works in favour of Private brands is that Indian customers are less brand conscious and more quality and trends conscious. They prefer to buy private brands over national brands due to both availability and price benefits in that category. Not only this, consumers prefer to buy such products from large chained retailers, which also offers them a wide variety of private label products with better quality.

In the current retail market structure, private labels are a win-win solution for both retailers

and customers. While for retailers, better bar-gaining power with their vendors, in turn bet-ter margins and control over their merchandise mix, is what is in the store, customers get a wid-er range, better quality and good prices for the products. For private labels, margins can range from 30-50 per cent (more than the usual 20-25 per cent), according to market experts.

The retailers offering private labels are also able to fill gaps in their product range which may not be able to be currently addressed by branded suppliers; including but not restricted to a prod-uct variant or a size option in that category. In order to differentiate their store’s product range from competitors, the retailers use distinctive private labels, creating a competitive advantage. This further causes an improvement in profit-

ability and loyalty to the retailer.

E - c o m -merce has s u r e l y c a p t u r e d a huge chunk of the sales of multi-brand brick and mor-tar retail-

ers. Quoting a retailer, “Private labels afford us exclusivity. Now, there is the other avenue of online sales for other brands. Hence, our lever-age with outside brands, especially in apparels, has gone down. With our own brands, we can ensure profitability as there is no middle-man, control the price-points and decide whether to discount or not, unlike the others brands with whom we have to follow suit when all other outlets for those slash rates.” Not only this, the private brands also make room for innovative products. A movable air-conditioner is one of our innovative products, for example.

Marketing strategies

Enough of Gyaan (facts) I believe! Let us now



The best part about in-house brands is the level of flexibility which they offer to retailers in terms of controlling price-points, retaining margins

and of course, experimenting even when the con-sumer turns stingy. Shoppers Stop and Lifestyle, two national anchor store chains are sprucing up their marketing efforts. Lifestyle, belonging to Dubai-based retail and hospitality conglomerate

Landmark Group, recently signed up the ac-tor Deepika Padukone to model for the print ad campaign of its apparel brand Melange. Shoppers Stop had earlier signed up actors Soha Ali Khan for its ethnic wear Kashish, and recently signed up Shruti Haasan for its fusion wear Haute Curry.

How do customers perceive private brands?

To identify what drives the private-label mar-ket, it’s crucial to understand the character-istics of the modern shopper. With growing

levels of disposable income, shoppers are far more open to experimentation than ever before. With the rising modern trade, grocery shopping is revamping. Rather than viewing shopping as a chore, more and more Indians are finding it to be a more pleasurable experience. It is hitting on to the aspirational aspect of the Indian popula-tion.

The format has also triggered the transforma-tion of the shopping experience from being a ne-



MARKETINGBUDGET

delve deeper into the marketing aspect of private labels. Private label brands are often positioned as lower cost alternatives to regional, national or international brands. Although, in few recent cases, some of the private brands have been positioned in the premium category match-ing the existing “name” brands. The psyche of the Indian customer is such that it estab-lishes a direct relationship between price and quality, thus downgrading the private labels at times.

Industry standards estimate private label margins for electronics goods to be around 20% higher compared with average nation-al brands. This increases to 30-50% when it comes to clothing. When it comes to pricing, department stores tend to price their prod-ucts at par with standard-priced products of some leading brands in India, while electron-ics and appliance specialist retailers with volume sales at focus, and generally price their products lower than the respective leading brands.

The private brands are following the footsteps

of national brands with regards to the market-ing efforts. From signing on Bollywood A-listers to investing more in the supply chain, the retail-ers are ensuring that their in-house brands come handy when it matters the most. Shoppers, are turning towards malls only when there are ram-pant discounts. This is leading to a hit on mar-gins of the private labels, much lower than what they would otherwise get. Thus brand aware-ness and brand image becomes a relevant con-cept for consideration.



cessity to becoming a sensorial experience with less dependence on planning and a fixed list of brands. Interestingly, we find that consumers sometimes choose private labels in certain cat-egories because of the assurance they get from knowing that they can interact directly with the retailer during their shopping trip.

It has been reported that middle to high-er income consum-ers in developing countries are often the first to try and accept private la-bel as low-income shoppers are more cautious in their purchase and need higher levels of trust in a product. Though the lower income households purchase more pri-vate label goods in both edible and non-edible catego-ries than the other two income brackets, it is also true that national brands still constitute the bulk of their market baskets. (Nielsen Homescan, 2012)

What’s in store for the retailers?

Retailers are playing strategically with the pri-vate labels. They are not any more offering low quality products for a lesser price, but are creat-ing a new level of differentiation, better pricing for a good quality product and new merchandis-ing and promotion strategies. Any which way, the Indian mind-set would choose quality over price.

Another important observation is that food, rather than fashion and durables, dominate store brand sales. The food category alone accounts for 76 percent of the total sales in private label, and within this, some areas are making bigger waves than others. Packaged grocery, for example, has a particularly dominant position, as it pulls in a

whopping 53 percent of total sales.

Retailers feel that though there is a huge scope in selling private label products, organized retail is still at a nascent stage and constitutes just six per cent of the total Indian retail market. With rapid urbanization and an upsurge in the number of

malls, a lot more value conscious customers have been attracted towards value for money pri-vate labels.

C o n c l u s i o n and the way ahead

A Nielsen study in 2013 estimates the private la-bel market to reach $500,000 by 2015, con-cluding that the new generation

shopper is less brand conscious and more open to experimentation with private labels. Retailers can help overcome the challenges that certain product categories face by enhancing in-store awareness, increasing visibility and providing value for money options.

As private labels gain traction, national brands need to focus more on differentiating their prod-ucts to prevent shoppers from switching. Con-sidering the steady growth rate of private labels through modern trade, it looks as though India’s fast-moving consumer goods market will con-tinue to diversify with increasing levels of pri-vate label and national brand products on offer.With 5-7 million internet users added monthly, we are expected to cross 500 million users by 2017 from 350 million users today. As the e-com-merce story unfolds in India and offline only models are reinvented in the next few years, the private label market will be a key enabler in In-dia’s retail movement.

vartalaap


vartalaap july 2016

VARTALAAPAn Interview with

Mrs. Piyul Mukherjee

With over 20 years of experience in the field of Market Research, she has been able to carve out a with Quipper specializing in Cross-Cultural Qualitative research assist-ing the international players to set foot in In-dia with localized consumer insights. She is also on the international panel of Unilever to develop the best of qualitative abilities. She has tremendous passion for teaching and is a visiting faculty at Northpoint, Khandala.

CEO &Co-Founder

QuipperResearch


vartalaap july 2016

think qualitative research is ‘in the devel-oping phase’ in India! In Quipper, we have always had our hands more than full with projects from a gamut of blue-chip clients, both national and international - who un-derstand the need to make sense of the con-sumer, and the role played by ‘quali’ as it is referred to. With India poised to grow faster than the rest of the world, the need to un-derstand what makes its consumers tick, will be even more than ever before.

Markathon: With increasing importance given to data and hard facts, how do you see corporations moving towards quali-tative research, especially in India?

Again, a puzzling question. All those who go for hard facts alone, can never be successful in the world of real consumers, who live and breathe and dream and decide on brands on the basis of all sorts of soft beliefs. Cor-porations that want to deal ultimately with selling products to consumers, cannot af-

Markathon: India has been and always be a very diverse country. What cultural insights have been observed while con-ducting research in India?

A sub-continent continually peopled over millennia, is rich with the influence of cul-ture in all aspects of life – in how we think of senior citizens, to what parenting is all about, to the value we give on education, how we accommodate different perspectives to how status is important in the hierarchi-cal world that we take for granted. Perhaps, the biggest insight is that amongst the diversity of languages and food habits, how alike are we all are, across religions and regions!

Markathon: Qualitative market research is still in the developing phase in India. How do you see it taking shape in the future?

Would be very interested to know why you

“All those who go for hard facts alone, can never be successful in

the world of real consumers”

The need to understand what makes the customers tick

is today more than ever in India

“ “

vartalaap

ford to stay away from making sense of con-sumer attitudes, and attitudes can never be ‘measured’ as data. Think terrorism, or our response to poverty or the need for ostenta-tious weddings, and tell me that everyone’s beliefs regarding each of these can be pre-cisely measured in your own class of stu-dents!

Markathon: What are some of the tech-niques of conducting qualitative re-search? Which are the most promi-nent ones?

Any method in which we ‘meet’ end-consumers directly or observe them directly comes under the aegis of qua-li. So whether we are observing their responses on twitter or FB, or observ-ing them work at something within their home, or talking to them one-on-one, or in a focus group – these are all part of our toolkit.

Markathon: Qualitative market research involves a lot of subjective analysis. How do you ensure that personal biases are kept at bay throughout the process?

In fact, quali is not at all about subjective analysis. This is the typical belief of folks who use it without knowing how to use it. It is a precise discipline, wherein the setting up of any project is crafted with care, and so is the later analysis, where trained pro-fessionals – in the field of anthropology or sociology or psychology, or those who have

studied these subjects post their MBA – can glean the most.


vartalaap july 2016

The problem with us Indians is that we be-lieve only subjects like Math and Science are ‘real’ and ‘objective’, whereas in the world we all live in, we live with our own subjec-tive ways. Do all engineers marry only on the basis of IQ, or do they still look for looks? Are they all equal? Do all mathematicians make excellent spouses – after all, they should know precisely what is right or what is wrong. Is every student who scored nearly

800 in GMAT then as successful in his or her personal life? What we do not realize is that globally, the liberal arts as disciplines have evolved so much that there is lots to imbibe and learn from. So many thinkers, social scientists have studied the macro and micro struc-tures of society, and built theories and hy-pothesis. Some of my favorites are Bakhtin and Buadrillard. As important to the under-standing of the world, as any scientist, yet not many would have heard of them. The problem with us is that we believe the only worthwhile subjects are technological - math and science, and anything else is with per-sonal bias, cause it cannot be measured and

marked in numbers!

Markathon: Which is one of the re-cent advertisements or promotional campaign which according to you has captured the cultural insights of India in the most beautiful man-ner?

That’s a great question. I recently saw the Axis Bank ads on twitter that are all

less than 2 minutes each and make use of the hashtag #foodventures, with the celebri-

Any method in which we ‘meet’ end-consumers directly or ob-

serve them directly comes under the aegis of quali.

The problem with us is that we believe the only worthwhile sub-jects are technological - math and

science


vartalaap july 2016

ty chef Vikas Khanna. It is a fabulous amal-gam of multiple insights – our local profu-sion of amazing foods as well as our global social networking on twitter; our need to know recipes while at the same time, our low attention spans; our need to relate to someone home-ly while also want-ing the larger than life nature of celebs. It has captured the sense of the global-ized youth comfy in their Indian skin well.

Markathon: Who do you consider as the closest competitor to Quipper and how do you think you differentiate from them?

Our closest com-petitor to Quipper is complacence. The day we feel we can let go of our alertness to detail, we are done.

Markathon: Any advice to our budding entre-preneurs & mar-keters?

If your readers are MBAs, I request you all to go out and meet life head on. Travel in sec-

ond class compartments, take the public road transport, be sure to go to the homes of the blue collar and unorganized staff who help you at home or at the workplace, and sometimes, their native places wherever it

may be. Talk to everyone you meet, get to know them - not superfi-cially, but by a deep listen-ing. I guaran-tee, you will

appreciate the same MBA that was taught as theory in fan-cy institutes, better, and make you a better team player at your workplace, and a more harmonious person overall.

Interviewed by:Harsha Daga & Piyush Jain | IIM Shillong

Our closest competitor to Quip-per is complacence. The day we feel we can let go of our alertness

to detail, we are done.

vartalaap

IIM Shillong IIM Shillong19MARKATHON

vartalaap july 2016

Qualitative market research is often not given the attention it deserves in the Indian market, which

is strange consider-ing the rich diversity and strong cultural codes which prevail here. An internship with Quipper Research showed us just how effective an instrument it can be in getting to know

your consumer and in being able to tap into their emotions and desires in a way that binds them to your brand. We saw familiar actions and “facts” which are so ordinary and obvious that you almost turn a blind eye to them, give rise to fascinating insights which have the power to transform key strategies employed by brands. Not just that – to help certain brands shed away their old garb and don a new avatar – the feeling of being able to be a part of this transformational process is indescribable.It is a job that absorbs you. The world of semiotics, of consumer behaviour, is one which is so layered that there is always some-thing more around the corner, and is the ride fun!! Specially, with the two wonderful and supremely talented ladies at Quipper guiding us at every step of the way, breaking down complex problems into simple questions of everyday behaviour.

Meghna ThapliyalIIM Shillong

It was a lifetime of experience. Workings on proj-ects varying from Sports & IT start ups to deter-gents brands was a roller coaster ride and kept me on my toes all the time. Every project was a great learning experience and it was quite interest-ing to observe how the company’s beliefs of the consumer’s thought process, the consumers’ beliefs about the way they would think in a certain context and the way they actually ended up thinking and behaving, often drastically differed. Making a report for a 150-year-old foreign brand sitting in an office in Mumbai was as exciting as it sounds. Both the founders directly undertook all the projects and working under their rich experi-ence helped me enhance my perspective towards the Indian market. I conclude by saying Market Research only helps companies to position themselves according to the cultural insights shared by the customers but what the customers think they want (good answers vs. real answers) & what they actually want is the catch that most companies struggle with in a cut throat Indian market & this is where a company like Quipper comes in.

Aditya SaxenaIIM Shillong

INTERNSHIP FUNDASHere’s what summer interns at Quipper Research

have to say

MEKHALAIIM RAIPUR

Seth Godin- an American author quotes, “MARKETING IS NO LONGER THE STUFF YOU MAKE, BUT ABOUT

THE STORIES YOU TELL”. The method is all about under-standing the chemistry needed to create great results. And in the age of social media, it’s important to ensure you’re on top of emerging issues and to resolve the exist-ing ones, it’s the magic formula and the special recipe that delivers results time and again for marketing success.It is said that you can’t expect to take a fishing boat out and just watch the fish jump into the boat. In today’s marketplace, businesses who want to stay competitive should stay on Cutting edge, Face book, LinkedIn, Twitter. People spend more time on social media than on any oth-er activity, making it the perfect advertising venue. Social ads and promoted content are ideal ways to achieve your marketing goals.If you can’t thoroughly demo your product, you’ll die on the vine. Social media is an Investment. Its success isn’t met overnight; but with time, social media presence can become a valuable asset to help achieve goals! With few things like real commitment which says we lead you till the end, consistency- to show audience reliability and trustworthiness without having to say it stands as a foun-dational recipe for true success in social media that can be stretched and pulled to fit industry, business goals or ideals.To conclude Erik Qualman-an American author rightly says,’’We don’t have a choice on whether we Do social media, the question is how well we Do it”, because it’s the ultimate platform to build audience, engage, develop relationships and ultimately sell the products/services.


Is Social Media Marketing a necessary ingredient today in the recipe of success?

Topic for the next issue: “Does strong brand associations make brand extentions easy or difficult for the com-pany?” Your opinion (view/counterview) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is 15th August 2016. Include your picture (JPEG format) with the entry. Winners will receive a prize money of Rs. 500 each!

SAURABH GOYAL IIM RAIPUR

One way of characterizing today’s mar-ket dynamics is, perceiving it as an “At-tention-Economy”. That is, customer’s attention is the most precious asset companies compete for. Fast life-style, shifting customer-focus and plethora of choices are few market-trends that make companys’ job difficult. It is against this backdrop that the role of social media marketing should be seen.There are two sides of the argument. First, take a look at the following facts. Social media is no longer only a recre-ational platform. People socialize on it (facebook). They build professional networks on it (LinkedIn). They follow world leaders and celebrities on it (Twitter). And they pro-mote their fashion designs on it (Instagram). A study ar-gues that the typical internet user in India spends 25% of his online-time on social media. So the first conclusion is that no company can discard social media from its market-ing strategy. No wonder, social media was an important medium that shaped public mandate during 16th LokSab-ha election in 2014. However, there is another sobering side to the above argument. Internet penetration is still just 15% in India. Active social media users still hover around 1.35% of the total population. Digital divide limits rural-India’s reach to social media. Hence, companies need to be more prudent while selecting social media in their marketing strategy. It should be specific to product and target-consumers. Take car-repairing service, for instance. There is no point pro-moting it on a platform like LinkedIn. However, promoting career consulting firms on it makes marketing sense.To conclude, social media is no doubt an evolving yet important marketing platform. Companies should, by all means, gear themselves for it. But as it goes with most situations in life, companies should not apply lazy gener-alizations to complex market situation. Hence the cuisine of success does require Social media marketing, but with a pinch of salt. ilever was founded in 1930 by the merger of Dutch Mar-

eye2eye july 2016

20


eye2eye july 2015

14

By Shubham Shukla IIM Shillong

Whenever you think about retail, the first company that pops into your mind is Walmart. It’s concept of everyday low pricing has bought a revolution to the retail sector all around the world. Although the sup-pliers to Walmart might not be very happy on account of the squeezing margins being levied by Walmart but the end-consumer is surely having a great time, and this confidence shown by the end-user has led to Walmart acquiring the first position in the Fortune 500 list of the year 2015. It is indeed one of the most famous companies in the world and so it would be a crime not to discuss the logo of Walmart and how it has evolved over the centuries.

1950-62:Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart named his first store as Walton’s after his franchise lease with a re-tail store called Ben Franklin expired and he decided to

start a re-tail store of his own.

Not much attention was paid on the logo as a symbol of the company and he named the store thus probably because he wanted to leverage his name and reputa-tion in the surrounding areas of the store.

1962-64:This was the first official logo of Walmart. The found-ers were not very focused on the font or size of the logo and the printer was thus instructed to use any font/size that he had available.

1964-68:The main features of the logo remained the same but there was a hyphen added between Wal and Mart in or-

der to draw more focus t o w a r d s Walmart as

a retail store. The bold letters of the logo were retained and its color was changed to black in order to signify an aggressive image.

1968-81:In this period Walmart started including more informa-tion in its logo like “Satisfaction Guaranteed” and “We sell for less”. This they did in order to build a stronger image for the brand as a low cost seller. Some people

however were not very happy with the logo as although they wanted to shop at a lower price they did not want this signal to be so aggres-sively communicated

by Walmart.

1981-92:Walmart again changed its logo in the year 1981 and went back to the idea of not c o m m u n i -cating their “We sell for less” philosophy in the logo. The font of the logo was changed but the boldness of char-acters retained. The color was changed from Black to Blue. Later another Brown variant of the logo was also introduced.

1992-2008:Between 1992 and 2008 the Walmart logo was-changed and the hyphen replaced with a star in

o r d e r to pro-vide a quirkier

image to the brand rather than just the functional aspect that people associated with Walmart. The font and colors remained the same.

2008-Present:Walmart changed its logo significantly in the year 2008. The company wanted to project a much more humane image in the aftermath of the controver-sies that it was squeezing suppliers and destroying businesses. The star was re-placed by a burst in or-der to indicate a freshness in the brand. This was in line with the change in company’s vision: From offering everyday low prices to helping people save money so that they could lead a better life. Only the W in Walmart was capitalized in order to reduce the aggressiveness of the logo and project a much friendlier image of the brand in the minds of the consumer.

CATCHRMISS

AD-dicted december 2013


By SHARAD SRINIVASANIIM Shillong

PRODUCT: Airtel – India’s First Open Network

POSITIONING: Transparency makes Airtel India’s best mo-bile network

CREATIVE AGENCY: Taproot Dentsu

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ya83LjUHJ4

CONCEPT: Airtel recently launched Airtel-Open Network,

a first-of-its kind initiative through which customers can view its entire network coverage data. The ad cam-

paign demonstrates how Airtel has tried to address the problems its customers face by increasing feedback. A group of customers are shown complaining about all the network service providers in the country. After a long rant by them, a voiceover responds by demonstrating how Airtel in response to the demands of transparency by its customers, has launched its own Open Network. The scene ends with people reacting positively to this initiative & the voiceover, “Kyunki sahi galat saamne aane se hi banta hai, Sabse Best Network”.

VERDICT: Miss

Although Airtel’s effort in terms of strategy & advertising is surely unique in the context of Indian Telecom Service providers, the expected outcome of its ad-campaign is overstated in our opinion. The main problem Airtel has been facing of late is the high number of call drops & it’s Open Network, for all the transparency that it brings to the table, is not going to solve it. The ad goes on to state that Airtel’s focus on ensuring transparency makes it In-dia’s best mobile network. Markathon believes the advert would have been more logical if Airtel – Open Network was positioned as an additional development to em-power its customers rather than a panacea for all of their problems.

By ASTHA KABRAIIM Shillong

PRODUCT: TATA Salt: #NamakKeWaastey

POSITIONING: Show your support to the real superstars of your country at the RIO Olympics

CREATIVE AGECY: Ogilvy & Mather

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=OIjRWPPv6EQ

CONCEPT: The campaign has three ads which spread the same mes-sage which is to support The Indian Contingent at RIO Olympics. The ad starts with an athlete’s introduction who will be representing India at the RIO Olympics. The athlete speaks a little about his background and talks a little about the sport that he/she plays. Towards the end the athlete asks for the support of Indians with which he/she will be able to make the country proud by win-ning at the RIO Olympics. The ad uses the hashtag ‘Na-makkewaastey’ which means repaying your debt to your country.

VERDICT: Catch Markathon believes that This ad was a hit because it was successful in invoking the spirit of nationalism in its view-ers. In a country like India where no sport apart from Cricket has huge following, this ad made an impact which proves our point. The music used in the ads is very in-spiring and hence adds emotions to the ad. The athletes share the situations where they overcame all odds to train for their sport and claim that the physical pain that they endure is nothing when compared to the joy that winning a medal for their country would bring. This makes viewers realise that these sportspersons also deserve the same kind of love and support that they give to the cricketers. The ad very smartly uses the line “namak ke waastey” which it connects to its product and also makes a deep statement. Markathon, inspired by the ad will give its full support to the Indian Athletes at the RIO Olympics and wish them success in making India proud.

AD-dicted july 2016

IIM Shillong IIM Shillong23MARKATHON

fun corner july 2016

AKSHAY SETHIIM Shillong

Tata Sumo Grande


jab they failed july 2016

Jab They FailedABIR NANDIIIM ShIlloNg

As the Royal Rumble for the MUV market in India reaches a fever pitch, with Mahindra, Hyundai, Renault, Ford, Nis-san, Maruti Suzuki and others in the fray, one is reminded of the tortured existence of the Tata Sumo Grande. Tata Sumo Grande was part of Tata Motors’ attempt to move into the Family MUV/SUV segment until its demise in 2015.Since its launch in 1994, Tata Sumo redefined the com-mercial vehicle segment in India at a time when Mahindra Jeeps ruled the roost. It was an instant hit as it delivered on the promise of a rugged, sturdy, spacious and cost-effective car built for the Indian heartland. It became a favourite of those people who ran tour operator and taxi businesses and established an enduring brand. Soon, in the early 2000s, competitors swooped in- the Mahindra Bolero and Toyota Qualis. The Qualis, offering ev-erything that the Sumo did and the added benefits of luxury and styling, wrested the tag of the market leader away from the Sumo. However, the Sumo brand stood the test of time in terms of volume. Meanwhile, the new category of the luxury MUV/SUV emerged and Toyota capitalised on this segment with the Innova. Tata wanted a piece of the same, and they wanted it bad.In late 2007, Tata Motors launched the Sumo Victa. It was clear that Tata Motors wanted to create a foothold in the family MUV segment as it was supported by an ad campaign wherein Victa drivers were characterized as self-made successes who dared to venture off the beat-en track. This now iconic campaign featured the slogan, “Kuchh Log Sumo Chalate Hain”, and sought to cater to those ambitious Indians in ways more than commercial, signifying the Victa as an extension of their bold and con-fident selves. It was the first Sumo campaign wherein they had engaged in a brand building exercise rather than a features-based campaign. However it failed to gain accep-tance as the family MUV. It did, on the other hand, appeal to a band of people who ran one-man show businesses and offered them the twin benefit of a commercial and personal vehicle. In the end, the Victa managed to widen the base of Sumo buyers, encompassing the purely com-mercial segment and this narrow band of ‘Kuchh Log’, to emerge as a winner.On January 10th, 2008, Tata Motors launched the Tata

Sumo Grande. In a dramatic departure from the tradi-tional Sumo aesthetics, this new car featured looks that fit the bill of a car for personal use rather than commercial. With smooth curves and stylish design, almost futuristic, it proclaimed loudly that it was an SUV. It was supported by an ad campaign that was truly a paradigm shift for the Sumo brand. Set in a foreign locale, it featured a beauti-ful woman in a swanky sports car exchanging looks with a man in a Sumo Grande and playing a game of cat and mouse as a catchy little number played in the background. As the dance of the meaningful glances continues, the man’s son is revealed while the man drives away, leaving

the woman exasper-ated and embar-rassed. The message ‘More Than Meets the Eye’ is communi-cated to the viewer, based on the prem-ise that the Sumo Grande will deliver more than what one might think it would. Yet, despite all of this, the Sumo

Grande failed. In retrospect, it is clear that the malefac-tor was the brand name itself- Sumo. A name that com-manded instant respect in the Indian Tier-II/III heartland was also a name that signified a rustic to the people this campaign was targeting. Tata missed out on a simple con-sumer truth to their target market- they did not want to be seen getting out of a Sumo. They did not want to be asso-ciated with a brand of passenger carriers. To them, Sumo was for plebs. The value-for-money proposition went out of the window once they sought the SUV market where class was everything. And they had priced it high enough so that the cushion of its traditional customer base was not there as it had been for the Victa.One might wonder why Tata Motors stuck with the Sumo brand name. The story for the Grande could have been very different had it been launched as an independent brand. Did Tata lack the courage to do so for fear of can-nibalizing the Safari? Even the Sumo Grande MKII, despite fixing a lot of the features-related issues, carried the Sumo name and the same fiasco was repeated. They finally shed the ‘Sumo’ in 2011 and went on to rechristen it as the Movus in 2014, but the war was lost long before the first battle began.

Do you think of ring-ing Domino’s at any time other than meal time? Well, now they are giving you a reason to do so for all those evening snack-time cravings for a power-packed burger. And more so, even before people could question their abil-ity to make burgers, they come out in the open and accept it. What they promise is wholesomeness and full ‘Pizzaness’ wrapped in buns. We’re drooling already!

No Kiddin! Domino’s is now making burgers

LG’s new TV helps you get rid of those irritating mos-quitoes

Yes it’s true. You can now watch your favorite mov-ies and shows in complete peace without the con-stant buzzing of mosqui-toes. Equipped with an ultrasonic device which uses high frequency sound waves to shoo away the mosquitoes, when the de-vice is switched on, with-out the emission of any harmful radiations. Now this is quite an interesting product we say, but how much value do the cus-tomers see in this is yet to be unveiled.

By Harsha Daga | IIM Shillong


From Bleed Blue to True Blue

Sachin Tendulkar, in col-laboration with Arvind Fashion Brands, launched his premium line of mens-wear. We are very much accustomed to seeing them cricketers sell vari-ous products. But hey! Featuring in an advertise-ment and actually part-nering with a brand are not the same game. The first store is all set to come up in Mumbai with anoth-er 25-30 in the pipeline in the coming 5 years. Class, sophistication and luxury is dripping from the brand identity. Let us see how much justice this new in-nings does to Sachin’s

Because before you stag-nate, you gotta transform

A complete makeover of its image is being aimed at with the aim of refresh-ing the brand and creat-ing a stronger impact. The purpose is to create a single brand architecture and identity system so that regardless of where someone is geographical-ly or what business they interact with or what de-vice they use to reach us, they have a consistent and meaningful Deloitte expe-rience. For greater impact on smallest of the devices, the logo has been further shortened as only D with the green dot.


updates march 2016

On a natural journey to-wards becoming India’s largest fashion platform, Flipkart eyes this step as a big milestone. With a combined base of Myntra and Jabong, the Flipkart Group has more than 15 million active monthly users and offering the best of the best brands

Flipkart acquires Jabong through its fashion arm Myntra

Dove is all set to extend into Baby Care

After establishing a con-nect with all the mothers, Dove is not prepping to en-ter the Baby Care segment in India, which is currently dominated by Johnson & Johnsons with petty shares gained by Dabur and Hi-malaya. Dove is one of the fastest growing brand in HUL’s portfolio and brand extension seems to be the easiest way to enter into new segments. But, as the Marketing Gurus say, ‘”how much is too much?” is the most dif-ficult question to answer.’


Because no fruit can ever replace coffee!

Nescafe is no behind when it comes to tapping into the ‘Ready-To-Serve’ cat-egory. With the launch of 3 new flavors in trendy tetra-packs, Nescafe is ex-pecting to further increase its foothold in the cold-coffee space currently dominated by Amul Kool.

The same brand, but a different feel

FMCG major CavinKare launches ready to serve fruit milkshakes. The only competitor in fruit based shakes is the Amul Kool with glass-bottled or canned offerings and Da-none’s smoothies. How-ever, Cavin promises to deliver much more than what their competitors do in terms of product quality (taste and thickness) along with distribution to remote areas. And well, the price point is no different than competitors. So we see a good mix of Product, Price and Place. We can’t wait to see how Cavin will beat Amul in its Promotions!

digi-tally


Our Social Media Pages have been buzz-ing all month. Check out some of our posts here!


digi-tally july 2016

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ARtIcleS ARe INvIteD“Best Article”: Suhail Ghosh | FMS Delhi

He receives a cash prize of Rs.1000 & a letter of appreciation

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

includes:

•Perspective: Articles related to development of latest trends in marketing arena.•Productolysis: Analysis of a product from the point of view of marketing.•Strategic Analysis: A complete analysis of marketing strategy of any company or an event.

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

the file should be MS Word doc/docx.The last date of receiving all entries is 15th August, 2016. Please send your entries

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

of the monthmukherjee, ceo & co-founder of quipper re-search, a market research firm which...

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