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Ad-o-holic is an annual marketing and advertising extravaganza orchestrated by MarkUp (the official marketing club of IMT Ghaziabad). It is an inter B-school marketing event and focuses on promotion strategies thereby challenging contestants to come up with innovative communication decisions. The purpose of this event is to provide a platform for budding advertisers to showcase their creativity and ingenuity. Ad-o-holic is the predecessor event to Marketing World Cup, the biggest b-school marketing event in India. Ad-o-holic11 carries the practical case of TV show promotion. The participants will be formulating promotion strategies for three shows, each belonging to different genre. It thus gives the opportunity to participating students to advertise Dance, Dare and Ditchism and win the 7 P.M. war of reality. Students can read the coverage of Ad-o-holic in Markezines September edition.

From The Desk Of the EditorDear Readers,

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Greetings from Club MarkUp, the Marketing Club of IMT Ghaziabad!! After a short sabbatical for summer internships, we are back with the August Edition of Markezine. This time around, the team has conceptualized some brand new sections like Mark-toons, Mark-efeeds: happenings and trends and WOW (Words on Wall). The theme for this edition was Co-Marketing: Cost Collaboration or Smart Strategy and we have been overwhelmed with the response both in quality and quantity. Co-marketing or cooperative marketing is an emerging trend and has been catching up in the recent years as a smart strategy to build up Point-Of-Differentiation as well as expanding consumer base. However, to segregate it as cost collaboration strategy or a smart strategy is a tough nut to crack because the current trends affirm to both the sides of the coin. For example in the case of Senseo coffeemaker, the Philips made appliance is associated with the coffee brand Douwe Egberts and is a smart move of brand association to leverage sales. Whereas HPCL and DSCL collaborating is a clear example of co-marketing to cut costs. So, dive into the depths of co-marketing as you read diverse views on this trend. We have an impressive article on an intriguing technology Foursquare in our new section Mark-efeeds: Happenings & Trends, some incredible views on the topic Sachins 100th ton in a losing match how will marketers perceive this? in our WOW section as well as a brief overview of the lecture delivered at IMT, Ghaziabad by the widely recognized thought leader Mohanbir Sawhney. The edition offers a sneak peek into the current offering by MarkUp, Ad-o-holic - an advertising event with a difference and covers the highly successful inaugural event of the academic year 201112, Mark Roadies 4.0. We thank all of you for your wonderful response and hope to see the same enthusiasm and participation in all our future endeavors. We look forward to your valuable suggestions, feedback and any queries. Do mail us at markup.imt@gmail.com Sit back and enjoy this edition. Nilesh

CONTENTS1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Co-marketing: Cost Collaboration or Smart Strategy.4 Tussle between cost collaboration and smart strategy..6 Scratching backs to remedy a mutual pitch.8 Mark-e-feeds: Happenings & Trends9 Mohanbir Sawhney @IMT..10 Mark-toons...11 Markezine Team Mark Roadies 4.012 WOWwords on wall.14 EditorNilesh SuranaContent Development Ankit Gupta, Prachi Agarwal Cover DesignVarun Singh

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CO MARKETING : COST COLLABORATION OR SMART STRATEGY

By

Co-marketing is an effective way to take advantage of existing distribution networks and a partner's knowledge of local markets. To ensure healthy collaboration both partners must get mutual benefit, by improving brand image or profit sharing or cost cutting. The latest co-marketing strategy employed by various brands includes green marketing and innovative collaboration by power supplier.

ABHINAV SANKAR, IIM INDORE

COST COLLABORATION:Collaboration between Nirma detergent and Sintex tanks: To save on costs, the empty Sintex tanks were filled with Nirma detergent packets and transported. Nirma thus was able to capitalize on delivery channel of Sintex and in return the logistics costs were shared between the two.

NISHANT HINGU, IIM INDORE

ROSHAN TIRKEY, IIM INDORE

McCharger It is the first charging station for electric vehicles (EVs) in Stockholm by McDonalds and Swedish electricity supplier Elforsk. While eating a menu at a McDonalds Restaurant one can recharge his/her cars battery. With rise in EV within the next years a great market potential exists for this co-operation approach which is bound to have a strong customer recall and green brand positioning. McDonalds characterizes this project as its own small contribution to a more sustainable mobility in turn building brand image of McDonalds as green, sustainable and responsible.

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The Movie Sex and the city 2 (SATC 2) is the classic showbiz example of Co- Marketing. It is fascinating how many brands and products, a movie like SATC 2 can place into the centre of attention. Every aspect in the daily life of the four women is practically monetized: From the designer clothes they wear, the handbags they have, the expensive shoes they buy, the cocktails they sip, the coffee they drink, the jewellery they wear, the cars they drive and the computers and laptops they work on. Dior, Gucci, Vivienne Westwood, Prada, Mercedes-Benz and HP, are just a few of the official advertising partners. By placing them into the movie SATC2 has not just got itself an official sponsors but also have aided the brands by publicizing their products through a different media channel; indeed a quid pro quo .

SMART STRATEGY:Automobile manufacturers and watchmakers Through co-operations with car manufacturers watchmakers can broaden their product lines and address new customer segments. High end Automobile themed watches make it possible to carry the prestige of an Aston Martin. A Bentley or a Maserati watch on a wrist, while the car itself might be sitting in the garage or even, for that matter, when one doesnt actually own one. For car manufacturers, these partnerships support them in their effort to address future customers (that dont have the funds available to buy a premium car but might have in the future) and start a relationship with them. Moreover, both partners can use these co-operations to strengthen their high-end image. Special Dance floor at Vancouver Olympics in Power Smart Village British Columbia Hydro collaborated with Holland based Sustainable Dance Club B.V. (SDC) to create SDC dance floor at Club Energy which comprises of individual tiles sitting on springs hooked up to generators. The harder people dance, the more the springs move, and the more energy is generated. Less than a week into the Games, it generated over 8,000,000 watts - enough to power 80 houses for a day. While BC Hydro stresses its commitment to the sustainable development of the energy sector and has shown that it is open to innovation by bringing the dance floor to the Olympics; Sustainable Dance Club became known to a much broader public and received a lot of (well-deserved) publicity. While SATC2, McCharger, Automobile manufacturers, watchmakers and Disco club are all about brand association & Product Placement, Nirma is all about cost collaboration. Smart strategy is marketing our products and showing concerns for stakeholders involved, whereas cost collaboration is about concentrating on margins/ using one company as a promotion platform. Many a times cost collaboration is in itself a part of smart strategy as in Nirma and SATC2. If it wasnt a smart strategy, the cost collaboration itself would not be possible in the first place. Although Co Marketing superficially implies that it is a Cost collaboration measure but on a very fundamental and long term level it is a smart strategy as the brands and channels draw symbiotic strength from each other and synergy helps them to gain more profits, market share and brand strength.

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A tussle between Cost Collaboration and Smart Strategy

CO

What is Co Marketing? To answer the question, I wont take any definition from any book or journal or white papers or anything which is highly academic rather I would just cite one example to illustrate it. Global Collaboration Brings the Worlds of Sports & Music Together Like Never Before Five years ago, in the year 2006, this was the famous tagline and news revealed by Tech giant Apple. Apple needs no introduction of its own as it is the best known MNC to design and to market the electronic products. Some of its products include iPods, iPhones, and iMac and yes not to forget the amazing iPads. Apple in collaboration with the Just Do it brand, yes you are right with none other than Nike, the biggest manufacturer of athletic footwear and accessories launched their Nike+iPod product Figure depicting theory of co-marketing which would bring the world of sports and music together. This partnership boosted the sales of both the companies and both were mutually benefited which definitely showed a Symbiotic relationship. So by now you must have got an idea about co-marketing, which formally means that Co-marketing is a marketing strategy where two business entities enter into an agreement and co-operate for the promotion and marketing of their products jointly.

M A R K E T I N G

The major advantage of co-marketing is that a product may be convincingly positioned by virtue of the multiple brands of different organizations. It can generate greater sales from the existing target market as well as opening additional opportunities for new customers and channels. It also can be a helpful in reducing the cost of product introduction as it involves two well established images and thus speeds adoption. Adding to these many pros, co-marketing is also a valuable means to learn about consumers and the approach of other companies. Despite of many pros co-marketing suffers with some cons as well, which are the risk and lack of control in becoming aligned with another brand in the mind of customers. With the involvement of other brand, customer expectations are likely to boost, so unsatisfactory performance could result in negative repercussions for both the brands. For co-marketing to succeed, the two brands which are getting involved must separately have some brand value and equity- adequate awareness and a positive brand image. The most vital and the most important factor to deal

By NIRAJ SATNALIKA PGDM, IMT GHAZIABAD

upon is the logical fit between two brands, such that the combined branding strategy maximizes the advantages and minimizes the disadvantages.

Following are the key point which a marketer keeps in mid while strategizing the comarketing: Right kind of fit in values Appropriate balance in brand equity Right fit in capabilities and goals A Marketer rightly said: Giving away your brand is a lot like giving away your child-you want to make sure everything is perfect So proper analysis and survey needs to be completed in order to promote co-marketing. A survey was conducted on the practice of co-marketing by companies in Germany, the result of which was amazing which clearly depicts the fact that co-marketing is a smart strategy of the promotion of products and is gaining importance of its own? Figure shows the trend of the co-marketing adopted by the companies in Germany. A very successful example for co-marketing could be the Nike-MSN deal where the Nike-MSN launched the Pan European online football game. With the strategy to communicate Nikes overall football positioning and showcase the products Nike joined hands with MSN to use its 8.5 million youth users, which is its target audience, in Europe. The result of which was that MSN surpassed Nike objectives and Nike generated impressive trade coverage in six different European markets. David Indo, Media Director of Nike Europe said, Nikes objective with this campaign was to reach out to our target audience in a new way and allow them to fully interact with the brand. The Instant Messenger deal matched our objectives to onlines capabilities, creating an excellent solution . The most recent strategy of marketing depicting Co-Marketing in all sense is declared by none other than Automobile Giant Tata Motors. Tata Motors has tied up with the online retail business giant, Snapdeal to promote and sell Tata Indica Vista at discounted prices. This breakthrough of selling a massive product like a car online is an achievement in itself which marks two notable points

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G i v i n g away your brand is a lot like giving away your child-you want to make sure everything is perfect

The world of E-Commerce has taken its toll and it is the buzzword for the era Co-marketing as a business development strategy is becoming highly acclaimed by the organizations these days .

Further to add to the list of co-marketing promotions, Apple iPhone 4S will be launched in India by telecom giant Bharti Airtel, which previously launched iPhone 3G and 3GS as well and boosted the sales to great heights thus increasing the revenues for both the beneficiaries. Apple Inc. Was benefitted by deal because it had very limited Apple Stores in Figure co-marketing trend in Germany India so the sales would have been a major setback where as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone having access to many Tier 2 towns expected to cross almost 2.5 Lakh stores to sell iPhones which became the largest launch for Apple iPhone ever thus boosted the sales of phone massively. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone on the other hand marketed their brands through Apples Global Brand and attracted customers across different segments. Thus to conclude, in a nutshell it can be said that co-marketing is a smart strategy adopted by organizations to promote their brands and its application is seen all over.

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Co-Marketing: Scratching backs to remedy a mutual pitchWhile the idiom, of scratching each others backs has been around for quite some time now, its emergence in the Indian marketing context has been rather delayed. Imagine entering a Reebok store looking to buy the latest pair of Reetones (to increase your muscle activity in the gluteus by 28%) for a fabulous derriere only to find that you get a 20% discount if you are a member of Fitness First (this is not an actual alliance!). You may also find that a Fitness First membership costs less if you sashay in, in your Reetones. Enter your favourite salon (Habibs) and you find them encouraging you to use Sunsilk shampoo (and conditioner). Now it hits you that just yesterday you saw Javed Habib being featured as the hair expert in the Sunsilk Ad. Welcome, co-marketing. It is a known fact that buyers perception of one brand is often used to catapult another. Indeed, high-quality performance on one product can often be transferred to another product via the brand name1. So is this all that co-marketing is? Co-marketing brings with it some obvious cost benefits. For one, both brands get a higher brand visibility at little extra cost, all this time without having to hire a new team for marketing. Not only do both the brands get a pre-existing customer base to pander (and expand) to2, they also get to share profits Success is always sweetest when shared (Howard Schultz Starbucks). Besides, it is always an excellent way for the co-marketers to keep track of customer preferences and reduce preference tracking costs in a large customer segment, on account of cost sharing and economies of scale. Co-marketing also augments knowledge sharing. All this may sound too good to be true to the dreamy eyed but there is more to this than costcollaboration. Co-marketing has to be strategically plausible. Co-marketing entails a huge risk brand hit. When co-marketing with another company, both companies know that once they set afoot, the two brands are bound to entwine in public memory. Case in point, imagine Azharuddins endorsement of Pepsi as co-marketing when one brand got tarnished, the other had to quickly sever ties to save face. Since brand management is now onerous on both involved, they must be faced with an equal amount of risk/loss. By this premise, it is virtually impossible for two disproportionate (in scale) companies to co-market since one may have much more to lose than the other. So a small fry riding a big fry may never happen because neither does the small fry risk as much nor does he offer as much. Another risk is when one partner grabs a larger share of profits3 leaving the alliance bitter. Also, copromotion could highlight differential caliber of partners inducing customers to switch preferences4. Other weighty issues to be considered offerings and compatibility. In order for co -marketing to be a success, there needs to be a convergence of goals somewhere like Habib and Sunsilk both aspire to offer better hair to the customer, or (hypothetically) Reetone and Fitness First would both be selling fitness. This compatibility in segment is what helps factor in economies of scale as well as makes the alliance logically coherent. Two behemoths would bring to the table a mutually desirable set of customers and improve each others brand recall. Not only would they help share costs and risks of expansion but they would also be able to leverage each others promise of quality (to the consumer) to improve brand image. With all its risks and rewards, co-marketing has much to promise. It has many variants and has much to offer to all industries alike. Some subtle ways of co-marketing could include publishing articles together, organizing events or doing conjoint research. Such alliances have spanned from entertainment industry to hi-tech hardware to FMCG. But co-marketing still has a long way to go. However, to cover ground companies must find their match and scratch![1] - (Moorthy, 1985, Using game theory to model competition, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. XXII, August, pp. 262-82) [2] - Sherman, S., 1992. Are strategic alliances working? Fortune 126 6, pp. 7778 [3] - (Main, J., 1990, Making global alliances work, Fortune 122 15, pp. 121126) [4] - Bhargava, M., 1990, Context and sequence effects on choice, unpublished PhD Dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin

ByROHIT SHARMA PGPM (MDI, GURGAON)

Mark-e-feedsHappenings & Trends

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Foursquare has emerged as one of the most intriguing technology to look out for. Created in 2008 and funded by big names like Union Square Ventures, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz etc. Foursquare is already creating a lot of buzz. So, what is Foursquare? Foursquare is a location-based mobile platform that makes cities easier to use and more interesting to explore. A mouthful of words? Not really. You sign up to the Foursquare application with your Facebook or Twitter and as you visit your favorite restaurant, coffee shop or retail store, it automatically updates the status on your social networking account based on your GPS location. What more, you can even add new places in your locality to the Foursquare map. The next time you are looking for a place, you can check with your friends favorites, the places they visit most often and isnt it so much easier. So, why should anyone update their status? You get points in the store and get promoted in the hierarchy, eventually become mayor even, of the store you visit most often, which translates into more discounts and personalized services. Foursquare also conveys to you the various discounts available in the various stores in the city, according to your previous purchases. Why Foursquare? Multinationals know social media is one of the most powerful media and word of mouth can generate the most revenue with the least cost. People tend to visit the stores their friends visit or hangout at the places they can find their friends at. Foursquare can generate a lot of money by studying potential consumer data in various cities, preparing syndicated research for clients and partners. In India, Caf Coffee Day has already partnered with Foursquare and with the rapidly increasing demand of 3G, it will soon be launched by other major companies including retail, hospitality, restaurants, cafs, antique, cinema and others. By SUMIT SINGH, IIM ROHTAK One of the potential threats Foursquare has is its dependence on Facebook and twitter. If these companies pull out their socks on Foursquare, then it could be disaster, for a concept so beautiful. For now, we can only watch, and wait.

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Mohanbir Sawhney @ IMTProf. Mohanbir Sawhney visited IMT Ghaziabad in July 2010 and addressed a large crowd of budding managers on upcoming trends in collaborative marketing and engagement marketing. The 48 year old professor from Kellogg delivered a presentation loaded with in-practice marketing techniques of western world and how they can be seen in India in upcoming future. The presentation had some very interesting illustrations and latest happening. Needless to say, the ace marketer captivated the audience and communicated the topic with full effectiveness. Prof. Mohanbir Sawhney is a management consultant, author and McCormick Tribune Professor of Technology at the Kellogg School of Management-Northwestern University.

freecharge.infreecharge.in is a business unit of Accelyst Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Accelyst core focus is to create innovative channels which can deliver value for money to the Indian consumers. freecharge.in is one such attempt to provide convenience and savings to the users. What does freecharge.in really do? freecharge.in enables the user to recharge their mobile phone and make it free. For every recharge done via freecharge.in, the consumer gets discount coupons of top Indian food joints and retailers, equivalent to the recharge amount. These coupons are delivered at the consumers door step and can be used to save money on day to day purchases.

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MARK-TOONSMarkezines August edition presents the marktoon for the theme of the month i.e. Co-Marketing. Below is the illustration for cobranding of POLO.

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MARK ROADIES 4.0Life is not about milestones, its about moments and repeating those moments with a greater magnitude every year is called success. In its 4th iteration, Mark Roadies, orchestrated by Club MarkUp, the marketing club of IMT Ghaziabad, created a new buzz and enthusiasm among the batch of 2011-13 in IMTGhaziabad. Creativity, Imagination and Innovation - these were the only three terms pitched to the juniors for inviting participation. The buzz around the event translated into a participation of 55+ teams or 165+ participants. As the name suggests, we all were expecting something along the lines of the reality show MTV Roadies and the senior MarkUp team delivered by mixing tasks with the fundamentals of marketing. The first round of the event was built around the 4Ps of marketing. This round began by distributing a clue to each team which would eventually lead them to another clue. The general perception among the participants at that time was about an event based on treasure hunt, and this is where the perception turned out to be deceptive. On solving the first clue, the participant had to perform something based on one of the Ps in a stipulated amount of time. These included creating an advertisement (Promotion), delivering a sales pitch (Product), price estimation (Price) and solving a crossword puzzle at the weirdest places (Place) in the campus. On the completion of all the steps, the participant had to combine the clues and reach the final destination. The main aim of the first round was not only to judge the participants on their marketing skills but also to provide them with an opportunity to have fun and take a break from the rigorous academic schedule. Unfortunately not everyone can win an event; so the top 7 teams were selected for the final round based on the quality of their performance and time. The final round was more challenging, intended not only to judge people on their innovation but also to provide them with a brief idea about the initial cycle of new product development. For this, they had to conduct a detailed market research analyzing the requirements, needs and demands of the students. Based on their research, they had to develop a product which was not only practical but also feasible for further development. The finalists were also required to make a physical prototype of their product. For the entire exercise, they were given a time period of 7 days.

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As the day of the event arrived, the final 7 were buzzing with excitement. The judges for the final round of presentation were Dr. Lawrence L. Garber, a visiting faculty from the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business at Elon University and Dr. Bikramjit Rishi, marketing faculty at IMT - Ghaziabad. Innovative products like Mini Bucket AC, Mini Cooler, Mechanical washing machine, Multi-utility pillow cover, Cold Mint Coffee, USB fan and Management software were battling for the Mark Roadies crown. All the products were high on the innovative quotient and addressed the basic needs of the students on the campus, but the rules of competition meant that only one would win. After the esteemed judges had evaluated each product in detail, the multi-utility pillow cover developed by the team Zingaro was declared the winner and the cold mint coffee - Java Passionado on the Go (JPG) developed by the team Mark Roadies came a close second. Keeping all the excitement, innovation and hard work aside, the best part of this event was that actually nobody lost; every participant learnt something valuable about marketing and perhaps the only bonus which the winners got was the cash prize. To a lay mans eye it was a successful event organized by Club Markup, but for the members of the club it was another regular day in office and a job well done.

Courtesy Varun Singh Member, Club MarkUp

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Sachins 100th ton in a losing match how will marketers perceive this?Sachins 100th century in a losing match will still be an iconic achievement. Marketers know of his Godly stature and his incredible impact. They will project the loss as if God thought of sharing the limelight by gifting a win to the opposition and putting them into history books forever. - Sandeep Sharma, MBA, IIT Kanpur

Marketers of Team India wouldve to revitalize the brand; a la Cokes Sir utha ke piyo. Having repositioned its image from the Sachin-dependent India especially post WC11 final customer perceived value would be thwarted. Lost market share in the target segment youngsters wouldve to be regained through aggressive promotion centuries! - Anurag Agarwal, MDI Gurgaon

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As a marketer Sachin 100th ton is far better marketing proposition than India winning the test, as if India would have won the match it would be a news for only 2-3 days or maximum a week but Sachins ton will be remembered for decades to come and will be an immortal moment for cricketing world. - Gaurav Verma, SJMSOM, IIT Bombay

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Although the war was lost but the warrior never gave up! Sachin's centurion knock yet again proved that he is dependable, of high calibre & consistent performer even under pressure. As a marketer Id want all these attributes to be associated with my brand & be perceived likewise by consumers. - Abhinav Sonkar, Nishant Hingu, Roshan Tirkey, IIM Indore

Name "Sachin Tendulkar" is a trusted brand for marketers although things have changed over the years. Earlier winning/losing was related to Sachin's performance but now teams performance (specially of youngsters) counts. So marketers at one hand, can still brand Sachin Tendulkar and associate him with royal heritage brands, while team India concept as adopted by companies like Nike can co-exist simultaneously. A series loss will definitely mute the celebrations, no doubts, but remember public memory is short lived and marketers know this! - Kashish Sethi, PGDM(IT), IMT-Ghaziabad