Faculty Speak
Summer Diaries
Brandwagon WarS
MM Legacy
In this Edition
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
2
From the editors’ desks:
“W hile the wanton zephyr sings,
and in the vale perfumes his
wings”- these words by John
Dyer pave way for the balmy TradeWinds, bringing
along the evolving trends in the world of mar-
keting. With TradeWinds, the August issue of
MarkMantra, the family embraces its readers.
Known for its innovative and blue-sky ideas, the
house of MarkMantra has yet again come up with
two new sections along with its usual fare. Ser-
mons from the Guru, an informative rendezvous
with Dr. Saikat Banerjee, where he enlightens the
readers with the inside out of brand consulting,
debuts in the August issue. From our arsenal, we
roll out Brandwagon Wars where BrandWagon,
the marketing club of IIFT battles it out over burn-
ing topics in the marketing world. The theme of
this edition is Evolution of Marketing and true to
its words, it has touched upon marketing tech-
niques of different decades. The advent of tech-
nology has ushered in innovative channels of
reaching out to the consumers and this edition dis-
cusses them with equal passion. We are back with
Summer Diaries - to give a glimpse of the corpo-
rate world to the first years. To conclude, this edi-
tion hopes to re-instate its position in the hearts of
its readers while celebrating the numerous
achievements in the marketing domain!
The Team:
Ipsita
Gochhayat
Shatabdi
Banerjee
Supratik
Chakroborty
Inking an Indelible Mark!!
Harshit
Vyas
Shruti Thakre Deepesh
Sehrawat
Suchetana Pal Juhi Arya
Senior Editors
Junior Editors
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
3
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
4
Personalized
Retail
Experience
How Brands
were Born
Sermons
from the
Guru
Market Entry
Strategies
Marketing in the
Time of Crisis
The Olden Days
and Olden Ways
Multichannel
Transformation
of Marketing
Brandwagon Wars
MarkMantra
Legacy
The Tipping Point
in Market Research
5
9
13
16
21
26
30
35
54 44
Summer Diaries
Personalized Retail Experience
T he marketing by the e-commerce
giants in India like “Aur dikhao”
and “nahin kharida, acha kiya”,
(Amazon and Flipkart respectively) was a huge suc-
cess in India. This was one of the ways to pull the
customers to buy products from their site and lure
them by discounted deals. The deep discount
model adopted by them may not be a long term
solution to increase profits, but it surely increased
volume of products sold.
With online shopping through e-commerce
sites gaining traction among the consumers in to-
day’s digital world, the Brick and Mortar stores are
finding it extremely difficult to hold their consumer
base. Consumers now-a-days have a plethora of
options for the prices as well as selections. The
reason they turn up to the Brick and Mortar stores
is the personalized experience that they leverage.
Penetration of e-commerce in India:
E-commerce has emerged as India's new
sun-rise industry and is set to cross business worth
$16 billion by the end of 2015, a joint study by AS-
SOCHAM-Deloitte said. The 'Future of e-
commerce: Uncovering Innovation' study reveals
that the digital commerce market in India has
grown steadily from $4.4 billion in 2010 to $13.6
billion in 2014 and likely to touch $16 billion by the
end of 2015 on the back of growing internet popu-
lation and increased online shoppers. It said online
travel accounts for nearly 61% of e-commerce
business while e-tailing contributes about 29%.
This may be a matter of concern for the e-tailers.
The study also states that the e-commerce compa-
nies are concentrating their efforts on increasing
the penetration of their mobile apps for higher
growth, adding that big players in this space claim
to have more than 50% of their revenue coming
from mobile apps.
Future scope of market:
E-Commerce is becoming a part and parcel of to-
day’s lifestyle. In India e-commerce has grown by a
whopping 34% (CAGR) since 2009 to touch 16.4
billion USD in 2014 and is expected to be in
the range of 22 billion USD in 2015.
With the increasing use of
smartphones, tablets and internet
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
5
broadband and 3G, a strong consumer base is be-
ing formed which is likely to increase further. This,
combined with a larger number of homegrown e-
tail companies, with their innovative business
models, has led to a robust e-Tail market in India
rearing to expand at high speed.
There is a twist:
The post liberalization (Liberalization, Privatization
and Globalization) generation of India which is
tech savvy is using e-commerce as a ‘need’. As per
the analysis of PwC around 75% of the e-
commerce users in India are in the age group of 15
-34 years. However, a major chunk of people still
prefer to visit a shop, touch and feel the product,
bargain with the shopkeeper before finally pur-
chasing it and thus get the feeling of “Customer is
King”
Attribute Brick and Mortar Online retail Pros Quick delivery
Advice from Sales staff
Tangible experience with
product before purchase.
Lower overhead cost
Greater selection
User reviews
Customization possibilities
Less regional market inefficien-
cies.
Cons Lower selection
Higher overhead costs.
Shipping cost
Shipping time
Less benefit from Sales staff
Successful
examples
Groceries/Apples
Jewelry stores
Apparel
Cars
Amazon
Flipkart
Snapdeal
Pros and Cons of the Brick & Mortar stores:
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
6
Personalized retail experience:
Shopkeepers have to be innovative so that
they do not lose their customers to the e-
commerce websites. For this they first need to un-
derstand the diverse outlook of the customers vis-
iting their stores, an illustration of which is shown
below.
The above image shows the choices made
by different people while shopping. It is important
that the retailer is able to meet the needs of few, if
not all, types of customers. The success of the re-
tailing business largely depends on this. In order to
nudge the consumers to buy in-store, offline retail-
ers are using tactics like knowledgeable sales staff,
in-store pick-up of online orders, in-store Wi-Fi,
same employee for same customer etc.
Personalized retail experience is more than
just knowing the name of your regular customer,
though it is the first step. Although ecommerce
websites have the data of every shopper that visits
them, retailers are not behind. Let’s take the ex-
ample of Tesco Clubcard. They have a unique way
of analyzing the data. They look at the lifestyle be-
hind shopping habits and respond to changes. For
instance, when a shopper first buys nappies, they
send coupons for toys – but surprisingly, also for
beer. Their research has shown that new fathers
tend to buy more beer at the supermarket as
they’re going to the pub less. And it works. Tesco
achieved coupon redemption rates ranging from 8-
14% – far higher that the grocery industry average.
Some vital stats:
7.5X Customers who shop ex-
clusively in-store visit an average
of 7.5 times a year vs those who
shop online and browse a retailer
an average of 3 times a year. (5)
80% of customers prefer to be
acknowledged in-store rather
than via digital channels.
46% of shoppers will buy more
from a retailer that personalizes
the shopping experience.
75% of retailers believe that
developing a more engaging in-
store customer experience will
be critical to their business.
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
7
The 8 step approaches to build as
well as retain the relationship with a
customer :
Conclusion:
Consumers today want something that’s unique
and reflects their personality. Retailers understand
this and we are seeing more companies offer per-
sonalized products. There is plenty of data availa-
ble but the trick lies in efficiently using it. Used in-
telligently, this insight will not only shape what
products retailers stock but also how they market
and sell them. There are some more examples
which show that personalized retail experience has
been successful. Raymond Linen suits, Airtel’s one-
family-one-plan, Pantaloons loyalty points, Big Ba-
zaars festive discounts and many more convey the
message that, in spite of having an online player,
they have been fairly successful.
The iron is hot and competition between e-tailing
and retailing is at its peak, it’s up to the players to
Preyas Jain
&
Milan Modi
MMS 2015-17
SIMSR Mumbai
Omni Channel Retailing Omni-channel retailing is the use of a variety
of channels in a customer's shopping experience in-
cluding research before a purchase.
Such channels include: retail stores, online stores,
mobile stores, mobile app stores, telephone sales
and any other method of transacting with a custom-
er. Read More...
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
8
A Brand is a name, term, packaging de-
sign, symbol or a combination of all of it.
A brand is one which helps to identify
one seller’s goods and services from another and
differentiate those goods and services from those
of its competitors. Brands have been around for
many years. The concept dates back to 2000 BC,
when hot iron rods were used to “Brand” or burn
marks or symbols into cattle, crockery, slaves or
any property of value to identify ownership. When
homogeneity dilutes identity, branding steps in as
a differentiating tool. From the ancient Greeks and
Romans who inscribed messages on their pots,
metals wines etc. to advertise and sell them, to the
distillers of the eighteenth century who burned
their names on the wooden casks to identify their
whiskey from one another, to the eighteenth cen-
tury when the brand name used to be the name of
the creators of the product, the brand concept has
seen a gradual incremental evolution. The signifi-
cance of branding was limited since the products
were mostly craft-based, few in number and hence
already differentiated.
The real push came in the latter half of the nine-
teenth century, when with the dawn of industries,
markets assumed a bigger scale. With the advent
of technology, manufacturing plants shifted to
mass production of similar products with con-
sistent quality. Consumer goods like detergents,
soaps, biscuits, teas etc. were affected the most by
this homogeneity, thus giving rise to the need for
branding. Several facilitators contributed to the
growth of manufacturer branded products. Im-
provement in transportation and communication,
attributed mainly to expansion of railroads and
postal service, connected people and helped build
distribution networks across the nation. Urbaniza-
tion and prosperity led to increasing purchasing
power, a change in attitude towards products and
purchase. A middle class of people emerged who
had disposable income and a want to participate in
the consumption of all novel products leading to a
retail revolution. Departmental and variety stores
opened up, giving the middle class a chance to
come and see for themselves what is available for
sale, thus making shopping a more intriguing expe-
rience. Advertising, specifically the print media,
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
9
was turning into a major industry in the period.
Newspapers, magazines and outdoor signboards
were used to reach people and convey brand sto-
ries. Some of the national brands of the time were
Kodak camera, Coca Cola, Heinz, Gillette safety ra-
zor.
1915-1929 was the era which witnessed new
methods of brand management. Few firms like Le-
vi’s Strauss and PepsiCo employed functionally
specialized management structures to manage
their brands. Brand managers coordinated all mar-
keting activities for the brand, focused on product
quality and consistency, advertising and distribu-
tion channels. In coordination with advertising
agencies, they worked out promotional strategies
for the brand. The brand management system was
born in 1931, when Richard Dupree, President of
P&G, approved of P&G having its own formal
brand managers and assistants dedicated to the
advertising and other marketing activities of P&G.
1950s was the era in which brands finally started
making sense to consumers. Branded products
were associated with good quality and were recog-
nized easily since they were rigorously promoted
through advertisements and sales promotions.
Manufacturer-branded products had distinct iden-
tities and consumers started forming their brand
preferences based on their experiences with the
products.
Till the 1960s, companies did not focus on adver-
tising their products. The reason was simple, they
didn’t feel the need for it; for as far as the quality
of your product remained better than that of the
competitors, people will buy your products for
sure. Companies like Coca-Cola, Levi’s and Strauss
co., American Express were enjoying the monopoly
of providing the best quality products to the con-
sumers. However, things started changing when
competitors also started providing quality at par
with the earlier market leaders. Hence, consumers
now had the option of choosing between products,
giving rise to the need for differentiation.
Large corporates started analyzing strategies to
distinguish themselves from the competitors and
thus began the “Brand War”. Be it the automobile
sector, consumer durable or retail sector, compa-
nies started building their distinct identities. This
led to the emergence of the “Mad Men” era during
1960s. The smart-marketing activities of 1960s
have stood the test of time and laid the foundation
and standards for all brands today. Successful mar-
keting was suddenly all about understanding the
consumers and designing the appropriate brand-
mix, which encompassed the brand logo, product
price, packaging, advertising and promotional ac-
tivities. Hence, brands became more than just
products. Corporates came up with their value
propositions in the form of “Brand Mantras” to win
over customers. If the message was properly con-
veyed, people would start connecting with the
brand.
It is clearly said, “In advertising, reason informs,
but emotion persuades.” Let us see some of the
major brands’ slogans in that era. Volkswagen
(1969) said “It’s ugly, but it gets you there.” John-
nie Walker (1968), one of the major brand in pro-
duction of whisky came up with “Just smooth, very
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
10
smooth,” whereas another whisky manufacturer
brand named Pinch (1968) said “An inch of Pinch,
Please.” Kellogg’s corn flakes (1965) had one of the
most connecting slogans ever, which said, “The
happiest people you meet in the morning get their
sunshine out of a box. And the box is Kellogg's.” It
was necessary for companies to build an emotional
connect with their consumers to win over their
trust and ensure they refrain from purchasing
competitors’ products. Gradually companies like
Coca-Cola, Unilever, PepsiCo, General Mills, and
Proctor & Gamble made a place for themselves in
the minds of the consumers through aggressive
branding.
(Exhibit 1).1960s, the decade of “creative revolu-
tion”, saw traditional ways of advertising paving
the way for innovative methods of engraving the
face value of brands into the minds of the consum-
ers. The decade experienced many social and cul-
tural changes that led to erudition, modernization
and the growth of youth culture. The period wit-
nessed aggressive marketing campaigns by several
companies that actually laid the foundation of
modern marketing techniques. How can one forget
the “Think Small” campaign by Volkswagen? The
campaign was featured for its car, the Beetle
(Exhibit 2).
When every other car manufacturing company
started producing and marketing large cars,
Volkswagen came with its small size car Beetle and
marketed it as “Think Small”. It even came up with
a witty statement, “It makes your house look big-
ger”, which caught the attention of one and all
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
11
The campaign was ranked as the best advertising
campaign of the 20th century by Ad Age.
In the 1980s brand management systems wit-
nessed several ups and downs. Johnson & John-
son’s Tylenol crisis put the brand’s image at stake.
However, J&J successfully rebranded themselves
and gained the trust of the consumers in a short
time. This is a significant event in the history of
branding. There were allegations on McDonald’s
too and it was seen as an unhealthy and a detri-
mental fast food restaurant. This forced them to
redesign themselves with the usage of greens and
yellows in their ads to position them as a part of
healthy lifestyle.
Today, a decade into the 21st century, marketing
activities have molded to accommodate changes in
consumer behaviors over the ages as well as im-
provements in business technologies. An average
customer is exposed to thousands of brand mes-
sages daily, thus making it a cut-throat competi-
tion for companies to make their brands stand out.
With the advent of digital media, marketers are
trying to keep their audiences engaged and de-
lighted through compelling brand experiences.
Customers today are more informed and selective
than ever. Hence, the need of the hour is not just
brand building and promotion, but to bring one’s
brand to life.
Sanchari Majumdar
&
Tirth Jani
PGDM 2014-16
TAPMI
Lights Camera
&
Rewind!!
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
12
Q. Nestle has seen ups and downs, where do you
see Maggi now?
In my opinion consumers still have a very soft cor-
ner for Maggi. Consumers are hoping for Maggi to
make a comeback and emerge clean from this con-
troversy because as you know the controversy has
different dimensions. Consumers are getting differ-
ent news from different ends. Media report is also
not consistent. We as consumers are in dilemma
and become skeptical about the claim since the
brand is very close to our heart. In addition, many
other noodles brands are still doing roaring busi-
ness in the market. The challenge for Nestle is to
clear Maggi as quickly as possible to get the
ground back. If the ban continues, it may be detri-
mental for noodles market as a whole as consum-
ers may stop buying noodles slowly and may
switch to other options. I think Indian consumers
are still hoping for some positive news about Mag-
gi as both Maggi and Nestle have a long positive
association with Indian consumers.
Q. When Indian brands desire to enter foreign
markets, how do they position themselves?
Depends on which route they are following. Going
from the South East Asian route should not be a
problem as there is no perception issue as such. In
developed market, the major problem is low trust
on Indian brands. If brands are planning to ven-
ture in a developed country they may fall into
‘Asian Brand: inferior quality’ perception trap. To
the developed world, our service sector is some-
how well known. Our intellectual capital is getting
accepted. However, a major portion is still offering
low end jobs where the price you quote is surpas-
Rendezvous with Dr Saikat Banerjee
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
13
sing the brand. To handle this negative perception,
first we have to develop brand ‘India’ as a whole.
As part of nation branding of India, positive brand
association need to be developed about India and
any brand from Indian terrain may piggyback on it.
So, need of the hour is to make India as a brand.
‘Make Brand India’ will automatically lead to suc-
cess of the philosophy called ‘Make in India’,
‘Made in India’, ‘Made for India’ and so on.
Q. Commodities like basmati and sugar, how is the
branding done?
Commodity branding is a very old phenomenon.
They are of two types: for domestic markets and
for international markets. Branding means identifi-
cation is clear, differentiation is clear and proposi-
tion is well defined. We have to create an aura
around the brand through investment in brand
building. Whenever you buy a brand, first we set
some expectations from the brand and during our
association with the brand we simply match the
same with our brand experience. When your expe-
rience is better than your expectation then you are
a delighted consumer. We expect that experience
should be better than expectation, If not better
then at least at par to make you a satisfied con-
sumer. Suppose you are taking rice and keeping it
in an attractive package, giving it a name and a
catchy tagline; basically you are proposing some
sort of expectation from the brand. But the chal-
lenge is that your competitors are also doing the
same. In international market, task is stiffer as you
are facing cross-border competition. So, your task
is to prove your brand ‘the best’ among equals. As
a result, you need to have more weapons in your
arsenal. In case of Basmati rice, Indian Govt en-
sures ‘Geographical Indication’ to protect produc-
ers. You have to protect your trademarks also. In
addition, you need to attach intangibles like val-
ues, association and promises around your brand.
If we take the example of branded sugar, what are
my expectations from that Brand? Quality? Purity?
Hygiene? and so on . Then what next? What type
of intangibles to make it less vulnerable to compe-
tition? These are the issues that a brand marketer
should explore. Like Tata Chemicals tried to mix
salt with ‘Desh ka Apna’ sentiment. ITC is trying to
play with the brand name of dal, rice etc. However,
we are still waiting for some serious branding ac-
tivities in commodities like sugar, rice, dal etc.
Q. We have heard that P&G is going to divest its
beauty products section, so we want to ask why
do big brands want to divest entire divisions
while making profits?
First of all there might be many internal and exter-
nal reasons. From internal part, it sometimes hap-
pen that you get into a business sensing growth
opportunity and later realize that either the verti-
cal is not gelling with your core competency or you
don’t have skill to manage the type of business.
External reasons might be competition, lukewarm
response from consumers, market turbulence, de-
motivating category growth etc. On a positive
note, sometimes, it is part of your strategy. You
launch something and once it gets bigger, you di-
vest it and earn handful to explore other avenues,
it is not really negative, and it’s a strategy. So, it is
a part of your plan and you are proactive in your
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
14
approach, you may gain. In other cases, divest-
ment may be a proposition where you are trying to
minimize the current loss for a better balance
sheet. For a company, it shouldn’t become a com-
pulsion to divest.
Q. The brand Chings is an Indian brand but it posi-
tioned itself as a Chinese brand. So what is the
rationale behind such kind of branding?
The trend is very common. Marketers try to piggy-
back on country of origin perception. Marketers
often pick brand names, packaging in line of com-
mon perception of the consumers. As we perceive
luxury with Italian names, fragrance with French
connection etc, many brands follow the same
route to play with your perception. Idea is to cre-
ate a positive brand image and ensure a quick ac-
ceptance. If you go by research findings, very few
of us really go through whatever there is on labels.
Majority of us normally look through MRP, date of
manufacturing and date of expiry; for food prod-
ucts, may be glancing through ingredients quickly.
We develop our perception based on brand ele-
ments and marketing communication. For Chings
also, It’s their strategy because popular perception
is that noodles is originated from China. As Chings
sound Chinese, it indicates a quick Chinese connec-
tion and that doubly ensure authenticity of the
brand. Another such example is Da Milano Italia
leather products. Being an Indian brand, they
picked Italian name to leverage the same percep-
tion and signaling premiumness of the brand. Fun-
ny part with branding is that until you use the
brand, you cannot develop a feeling about that
brand but with such kind of brand naming, it is
easy to create perception and that may hook your
customers.
Q. What is the scope of brand consulting in present
market scenario?
Brand consulting is a serious and mature thing.
Brand consulting means that you are out of your
functional domain and you should have knowledge
about different functional areas of management.
Normally you specialize in marketing but as brand
consultant you should have exposure to other re-
lated disciplines. Two years of MBA is not sufficient
to have knowledge of brand consulting as you do a
2 credit elective course on brand management. It
takes time to become a brand consultant as brand-
ing world is vast and dynamic. You should start as
an Assistant Brand Manager nurturing one brand
of your own and slowly understand the dynamic
world called brand management. You should expe-
rience brand planning, launch, communication,
equity plan, value understanding, big data etc. This
will slowly make you mature to be custodian of a
bouquet of brands. Flip side is that one may be a
good brand manager but every brand manager
can’t be a brand consultant because you should
have inclination to understand different categories
also. So, be an avid reader, develop good data
crunching skills, keep stimulating your creative side
and be analytical. Welcome to the world of Brand
Consultancy. Good wishes from my side.
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
15
Introduction
T he famous French Philosopher Michel de
Montagne once remarked that marriage is
“a market which has nothing free but the
entrance”. Indeed, in today’s world, as more and
more organizations are extending their presence
beyond borders, they need to be careful in the
mode and manner of entry into a
new market for a sustainable benefit.
The motivation for movement
abroad can be proactive whereby a firm has higher
profit & growth goals, technology competence,
need for economies of scale by venturing into for-
eign markets where they see demand for their
products. It can also be reactive as in, when there
is considerable competitive pressure in the domes-
tic market. Once the decision to venture out is
made selection of target market and correspond-
ing entry mode needs to be decided where envi-
ronmental knowledge about target market espe-
cially cultural sensitiveness is most crucial. E.g. Tea
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
16
is the standard drink of Chinese dinner while low
alcohol content beer is common for the Swedish
dinner while drinking beer with food is a strange
thing for the French people. In Japan “Quality”
means ‘perfection’; it is ‘according to standard’ in
Germany; ‘luxury’ in France; ‘it works’ in US.
Here in this article we will see examples of how
some of the big MNC’s today have successfully
ventured into new markets while several others
have failed miserably. The entry modes can be
broadly classified into the following types:
Export
Exporting is the most traditional and well estab-
lished form of operating markets wherein goods
produced in one country are transferred cross bor-
der and sold in the foreign market. This method
requires least amount of investment and opera-
tional indulgence and hence is the least risky op-
tion. A firm can export directly or indirectly
through an intermediary depending upon its
knowledge of foreign market, logistic capabilities,
volume & frequency of trade. Indirect export is
particularly suitable for companies with little inter-
national experience, since almost all international
operating functions are borne by the agent, includ-
ing the costly and time-consuming requirements
such as bills-of-lading, customs clearance, and in-
voice and collection. The intermediate agencies
have their own expertise on a type of good or mar-
ket. Prominent examples of some notable export
agencies from India are Jyoti Trading Corporation,
Bhabha Exports, NKD Logistics Private Ltd etc
Licensing
Licensing is a business arrangement which involves
allowing another company to use patents, trade-
marks, copyrights, designs, and other intellectual
property in exchange for a percentage of revenue
or a fee. For companies having a distinctive and
legally protected asset this is the desired mode of
entering a foreign market and generating income,
as the efforts involved in sales & distribution be-
comes the responsibility of the licensee. Licenses
are usually taken up by well established businesses
and terms of 16-20 years are common. This meth-
od is common in case of pharmaceutical compa-
nies whose innovative molecules come under pa-
tent protection. One of the more notable examples
is Disney which earns billions in revenue by licens-
ing its characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck,
Batman among others to manufacturers and mar-
keters in categories such as toys and apparel even
in its domestic market. This gives Disney the luxury
to focus its own efforts on its core competencies of
media production and distribution. Mattel, Lego,
Hot Wheels, Under Armour, Mad Engine are some
of the licensing partners Disney has. Even Kellogg’s
has paired up with Disney to produce food prod-
ucts, while Johnson & Johnson is working on
health care and other products. It has many licens-
ing arrangements in China which allow its charac-
ters to adorn apparel or toys suited to local taste in
terms of color, styling, or materials. Disney Brand
generated a record $40.9 billion
from licensed merchandize in 2013.
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
17
Joint Venture
Joint ventures are defined as an enterprise in
which two or more than two investors share con-
trol and ownership over operation and rights to
property. Joint ventures are a more all-
encompassing form of participation than either
licensing or exporting.
Joint ventures make it easier to share risk and
combine the local comprehensive knowledge with
a foreign partner with expertise in process or tech-
nology. It also provides joint financial strength. But
in case of a JV partners do not have full control of
management and it might be impossible to recov-
er capital if need be. If the partners can carefully
map out in advance what they expect to achieve
and how, then many hurdles can be overcome.
Sony-Ericsson is one of the most famous joint ven-
tures in recent history. It was between the Japa-
nese consumer electronics company Sony Corpo-
ration and the Swedish telecommunications com-
pany Ericsson to make mobile phones. The most
vital reason behind this venture was to combine
Ericsson's technological leadership with Sony's
consumer electronics expertise in the communica-
tions sector.
The company employed a "liquid identity" logo. It
embraced the "make.believe" tagline in the year
2009. As part of its rebranding effort, the company
positioned its logo in seven color variations.
The company's aims were to attract
consumer emotions and promote
itself more effectively on digital me-
dia. Saatchi & Saatchi, Dare and Iris put together
its campaign. The other constituent of the compa-
ny's campaign was a viral marketing campaign
known as "spark something." In this endeavor the
company launched an exciting interactive piece of
activity which enabled consumers to pump up
space hoppers using Twitter.
Anyone on Twitter or on the site could tweet
#pumpt and see a hopper being inflated. At the
same time Sony Ericsson were asking customers to
tell them what they would like to do with the
space hoppers, the best proposal received was
made real, filmed and posted online. This was one
of the most unique advertisement campaigns run
by the firm.
Franchising
Franchising can be termed as an arrangement in
which one party (the franchiser) allows another
party (the franchisee) the authority to use its trade
-name or trademark as well as some business sys-
tems and processes, to manufacture and market a
service or good according to certain agreed upon
specifications. Franchising is a good way to start
overseas operations. It opens the door to low risk
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
18
business relationships as the capital does not get
tied up in remote operations and there remains
possibilities to buy into existing partner or provi-
sions to take royalties in store. However, the big-
gest downside of franchising is that the partner
garners know-how of the business and so franchis-
ing is mostly a short term arrangement.
Some of the biggest names using franchising mod-
el are Starbucks, Subway and Pizza Hut. Ingenious
marketing and robust brand management have
permitted these firms to make their foodstuffs
available ubiquitously. The Subway and Pizza Hut
franchisee are chief examples of the security
afforded by a well-known brand while launching
own franchise business.
The lower capital costs required for franchisees are
one of the most important aspects of the mar-
keting strategy of Subway. The unique
brand equity of lower levels of fat content in the
food products offered by Subway is promoted by
advertising the weight loss of its customers. Health
equity of the brand was given an impetus with a
national promotion featuring a range of low fat
(97% fat free) subs. It also developed high levels of
consumer attraction to the delicacies offered by
Subway. Moreover, the franchisees are trained to
provide excellent customer service which has been
advertised extensively.
Subway’s unique “Franchisee Advertising Fund
Trust” or SFAFT governs its advertising campaigns.
SFAFT manages funds contributed by SUBWAY
franchisees. It was established to create advertis-
ing and marketing plans that are designed to grow
restaurant sales and promote the system’s image.
Keeping the price sensitive Indian market in mind
Subway launched branded affordability campaign
with its Everyday Value Program in 2010 whereby
menus were offered @50rs. In 2013, McCann
Worldgroup created the TVC “Throw your treats at
Subway” for Subway’s newly launched egg & Mayo
sandwich at a price of Rs 50.The commercial fo-
cused on the affordability of the sandwich and
urged people to settle all their treats at Subway.
Local flavors were added to the national menu like
Tandoori Chicken Sub and Achari Chicken Sub to
cater to local taste. Such strategies have helped
Subway grow tremendously in India from its incep-
tion in 2001 to 500+ stores in 2015.
Wholly owned Subsidiary
A wholly owned subsidiary in foreign country is
when the parent company has 100% controlling
stake. It can either be through Greenfield invest-
ment or through acquisitions. It involves the great-
est commitment in capital and managerial effort.
The ability to communicate and control 100% may
outweigh any of the disadvantages of joint ven-
tures and licensing but it possesses maximum risk.
In 1994, after India had opened its economy, the
US giant Kellogg’s decided to enter into the market
as a wholly owned subsidiary. The twin reason of
increasing domestic competition and stagnating
demand at home as well as the massive opportuni-
ty in the untapped Indian market encouraged Kel-
logg’s to invest around 30 million
USD in launching its flagship brand,
Corn Flakes. The Indian Consumer
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
19
was habituated in traditional tradition breakfast
composed of paranthas, idli-sambar, poha, milk
etc. varying from region to region. Concept of
cornflakes was novel and hence it was a mammoth
task for Kellogg’s to generate a paradigm shift in
the breakfast behavior. They promoted their prod-
uct as healthy food and in their advertisement
campaigns hinted the traditional food as unhealthy
and not nutritious. This hurt the sentiments of
homemakers who were accustomed to the hearty
and full traditional breakfast and they psychologi-
cally rejected the concept of Cornflakes. Also, the
Indians drank hot milk which made the crispy corn-
flakes soggy. The pricing was also on the higher
side. It was much later in 1996 that the company
repositioned itself as fun-filled nutritious product,
resorted to competitive pricing, attracted schools
and housewives through free sample distribution.
In 1997 they organized “Kellogg’s Breakfast Week”,
a community-oriented initiative to generate
awareness about the importance of breakfast.
“Jaago jaise bhi, lo Kellogg’s hi” TVC, “Iron Shakti”
TVC, “Special-K” TVC were hits. Kellogg’s recog-
nized that in order to succeed in India they would
have to adapt to local conditions
both in their products and promo-
tional campaigns. It was a matter of
changing the eating habit of the natives which
could not be done overnight. Such small steps pro-
vided them with a strong foundation and today
Kellogg’s is the market leader with 60% market
share in the 700cr Indian organized breakfast cere-
al market.
Conclusion
The choice of entry mode in a market by a firm de-
pends on several factors including its risk appetite,
controlling competencies, entry barriers, economy
of operation etc. As we have seen from various
examples that the key to successful operation in
foreign country is adaptation to local environmen-
tal factors. The Uppsala model, developed by a set
of notable Nordic researchers, puts forward the
theory that companies normally start their expan-
sion in a psychic nearby market. There, they have
enhanced knowledge of the market and more con-
trol of resources, thereafter gradually when the
companies become more experienced and acquire
better resources, they expand to the more dis-
tance market, where distance is a combination of
cultural, geographical, political and language fac-
tors.
Dwaipayan
Mukherjee
&
Atish Mukherjee
MBA(IB)2014-16
IIFT
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
20
B e it World Wars or Recession: a time of
crisis has always been challenging for the
marketers. When a country or region
goes through a rapid economic downturn, there is
a significant change in consumer spending power,
buying patterns and demand, for which well-
crafted and planned marketing strategies are re-
quired. Historically, the Great Recession of 2008
had led to reduced demand, immense pressure on
suppliers to reduce prices and decreased spending
power throughout the world.
This kind of an economic slowdown is a very chal-
lenging and crucial time for companies to retain
their customer base. By carefully studying the envi-
ronment and customer requirements, companies
can adapt their marketing strategies to meet mar-
ket place challenges and turn them into opportuni-
ties.
Success lies in adapting
The most profitable companies in a recession are
typically those that adapt their marketing strate-
gies in order to retain existing customers and win
new ones, and be profitable at the same time. As
Harvard Business School Professor John Quelch
recently stated, “Successful companies do not
abandon their marketing strategies in a recession;
they adapt them.” (Harvard Business School Work-
ing Knowledge, 3rd March
2008). This is because there
is no unique marketing
strategy for any economical
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
21
condition, but it is how a company can adapt/ cus-
tomize the existing one. Ensuring implementation
becomes challenging in crisis. There are cases
when well planned
strategies are not implemented in the desired way
due to pressure created by economic turmoil. Thus
it is really important to ensure that a planned
strategy is executed effectively, leading to signifi-
cant return on investment. The most common re-
actions at such times are:
Not proactive: Some firms are not reactive and
do not realize that there is a downturn lingering
on. And till the time they realize it, it gets too late.
Mass layoffs: Slashing odd manpower (human
resources) without realizing their value.
Cost cutting: Companies usually cut costs on pro-
motion, sales etc, in a panic situation
Only ~2% firms globally have not been affected by
pressures of recession
Results from an online survey
conducted in 2009, after the
Great Recession (sample size-
~300 global MNCs)
More than half the firms
have been severely affected by recession histori-
cally.
What have these 2% firms done right
to survive?
This is the key question that comes to mind: How
did these firms adapt to the pressure and turmoil?
What were their marketing strategies? What did
they change? How did they adapt?
Well, the answers lie in the most fundamental con-
cept of marketing: The 4Ps Model or the Marketing
Mix. It is the marketing mix that these companies
customized in order to fit in the existing situation.
There are other strategies as well, that have been
followed, but the marketing mix theory is the most
relevant, which can be substantiated with numer-
ous case examples if we look back in time.
The 4Ps revolution
In times of economic turmoil, going down to the
basics becomes too important. It is the foundation
for survival. And it is the fittest that survives. Com-
panies have customized/ adapted their marketing
mix in order to remain profitable, when the times
have been tough.
Let us take the case example of McDonald’s, and
understand how this helped them become
“recession resistant’.
The First P: Product
The products were customized in order to meet
the consumer demands in a better way. The com-
pany removed its double cheeseburger from its US
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
22
Dollar Menu, to replace it with a double burger
with one slice of cheese in response to the in-
crease in dairy prices. A plethora of healthier op-
tions were introduced as “McHealthy” strategy, as
the consumers wanted quality diet and value for
money.
The Second P: Price
Providing customers with products they wanted at
prices they can afford, even during hard times,
contributed significantly to the stock market per-
formance and financial results of the company.
They introduced an affordable range of coffee
shakes- McCafe, which was a cheaper alternative
for Starbucks coffee.
The Third P: Place
McDonald’s upgraded their outlets, in order to
reflect positivity during tough times. It polished its
image by adding upscale touches such as leather
sofas and wall paintings to its European stores
To draw younger and more sophisticated clientele,
it began selling latte and espresso coffees and
offering Internet access and rental iPods. This for-
mula allows franchisees to reinvest in the brand
and stores, which drives more sales. Brand loyalty
keeps customers coming back, and expanded
product lines and physical upgrades to stores bring
new customers.
The Fourth P: Promotion
McDonald’s continued their aggressive marketing.
They tried their best to retain their loyal customers
through quality food, convenient stores and cus-
tomer service. They not only has refrained from
laying off workers, but announced plans to enlarge
its worldwide work force by 6 percent. This incul-
cated confidence in people. The McDonalds case is
a classic example of how a company adapted its
marketing mix in order to be profitable and retain
their customers, and at the same time winning
new clientele. The downturn can be a blessing in
disguise, if the right strategies are created and exe-
cuted.
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
23
Value based marketing: The future of
marketing in crisis
A value marketing strategy is one which will sow
the seeds to success leading to prosperity after the
recession. This is in stark contrast to the least popu-
lar low price and low cost strategies, which are like-
ly to position the firm as non-competitive, once re-
cession ends. A survey after the
Great Recession showed that the companies have
now been focusing on value-based marketing.
Common strategies that have been employed in
past and during recession (Results from a B2B mar-
keting survey conducted during the Great Reces-
sion)
From Recession to
Recovery
Forward thinkers like Unile-
ver and Hyundai have always been a step ahead.
These players think ahead of the crisis situation,
and spend efforts in forging and cementing rela-
tionships with customers and marketing & product
innovation. This way they can be more competitive
once the situation is normalized.
Hyundai’s Assurance Program: A win
-win situation for consumers
Hyundai’s Assurance Program was initiated during
economic slowdown in US in 2008. It promoted as-
surance to car buyers that they could return the
cars if they got laid off, or in life-altering circum-
stances. It was the first vehicle return program of
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
24
its kind. In the words of Joel Ewanick, VP-marketing
at Hyundai - "We're saying, 'Things are better, but
not great -- so we're going to hold onto this
[Assurance program] until it's over”.
These kind of strategies pave way for lasting rela-
tionships with the consumers during and after cri-
sis situations.
Planning for a post-recession future
It's been said over and over: There's no time like
recession, when competitors are retreating, to
ramp up innovation and marketing to grab share.
This was the strategy that Unilever followed by de-
veloping innovative products even during the Great
Recession. Unilever ramped up support behind
products like Dove hair-minimizing deodorant. The
company also invested in a host of new innovation
approaches, such as a global project for Axe in
which the consulting firm Face Co-Creation helped
assemble a group of 16 target consumers to help
vet a new scent and develop the marketing plan
behind it. The plan was to develop products and
market to position Unilever for a post-recession
future.
Market/customer segmentation and customer
satisfaction and loyalty are the second and third
most popular strategies in recession. Alongside val-
ue marketing, they can be considered customer-
focused strategies, for they all seek to better meet
the needs of customers and extract more value
from them.
Thus, shifting thinking to long term by value based
marketing has become one of the key strategies in
times of economic slowdown
Conclusion: Stay Hungry, Stay Fool-
ish
Companies should keep on exploring new and im-
proved strategies because- “one size does not fit
all”. An effective marketing strategy during crisis is
the one where-
Customer requirements are met effectively
Quality is not compromised
Core proposition is supported and sustained-
Loyal customers are satisfied
Firm stays competitive after crisis
Kunal Gupta
MBA(IB) 2015-17
IIFT
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
25
I got an opportunity to intern
with Raymond Limited as a part
of the Summer Internship pro-
cess at IIFT. I interned with the Retail
team of the Sales and Marketing de-
partment under the lifestyle business
there. I worked on two live projects in
close cooperation with the Opera-
tions and Merchandising teams of
Raymond.
The work environment at Raymond is
extremely dynamic. The exposure to
different facets of a business is im-
mense. During the 8 weeks stint, I
could gain an understanding of a lot
of things that happen behind the
scenes before a product reaches the
market such as store operations, in-
ventory management, promotional
marketing campaigns, sales tech-
niques etc. Though my projects were
linked to ops and merchandising
teams, I was able to interact with a
lot of other teams who are actively
working in the field of E-commerce,
M-commerce, Omni channel retail,
Digital marketing, Product launch,
Campaign management etc. The work
environment at Raymond promotes
inter-team interaction, something I
had not seen at places I had worked
before. The thing that I liked the most
about the company was that it gave
the interns an opportunity to work on
Name:
Akshay Kumar
Gupta
Company:
Raymond
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
26
projects which are really contempo-
rary and have a lot of bearing on the
current goals and objectives of the
company.
The internship turned out to be a
great learning experience for me. I
have had prior work experience in
small size companies before joining
IIFT. Raymond is the first of the large
size company exposure I got. The
team I worked with, gave me a lot of
freedom in whatever I wanted to do.
This really helped me to come up with
creative solutions to the problems be-
ing faced by my team. My experience
in the field of data analytics came in
extremely handy. I devised a BI tool
which will prove useful to improve
upon existing store operations across
the retail network of Raymond. In the
other part of the project, I worked on
an analysis on the POS data and came
up with recommendations related to
cross selling of products.
For those who aspire for a career in
S&M, Raymond is an ideal place to
work for! IIFT’s curriculum is exhaus-
tive enough to cover the prerequisites
for joining the company. I would sug-
gest to focus on Marketing domain
specific subjects and develop an in
depth understanding of concepts to
become ready for any stint in the do-
main.
Kolkata Campus: Foundation Day
Centre Head Dr. K Rangarajan
with Chief Guest Shri Basudev
Banerjee- Additional Chief Secre-
tary, Home Department, Govt. of
West Bengal who graced us with
his presence on the occasion
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
27
P ursuing your Summer Intern-
ship in Sales isn’t an easy
task – at least not in Voda-
fone! One finds herself in the midst of
project charters, surveys, analysis
tools, meetings and reviews. I look
back at the two months’ exhilarating
frenzy called “Summers” as an enrich-
ing experience in a familiar yet unfa-
miliar atmosphere. I call it familiar
because my “Territory” (like a typical
salesperson!) was near my home; and
also unfamiliar as I wasn’t acquainted
with the business dynamics of the ev-
er changing telecom industry.
The journey started with the two day
induction in Mumbai where I learnt
the basics of the industry and the or-
ganization. I made quite a few friends
from other B-schools during those
two days thanks to Vodafone’s exer-
cises and fun activities. I had my initial
bouts of nervousness when I was allo-
cated a project in the Bihar circle.
When I met my mentor, the Assistant
Vice President – Sales at the circle, I
knew I was in for serious business. As
with everyone else at Vodafone, he
was always ‘happy to help’; however,
he never compromised on quality or
discipline.
The project assigned to me was about
distribution strategy and information
gathering about the competition. I
had to design questionnaires and in-
terview customers, retailers and dis-
tributors through field visits in the
market. I visited a total of 200+
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
28
shops all over Dhanbad including ur-
ban and semi-urban areas. The task
required a lot of patience and perse-
verance- at times one faces fatigue
after asking the same set of questions
to over a hundred people! Further-
more, it required a lot of local travel-
ling in the scorching heat of the coal
capital. I recall my disappointment at
the peace I observed in Wasseypur
(darn, these crazy Bollywood movies!)
My take away from the internship was
the application of marketing and con-
sumer behaviour concepts in real life
scenarios. Also, I learnt how to inter-
act with people with different back-
grounds, education and upbringing. I
would suggest my readers of the jun-
ior batch to be open minded and take
up the challenging tasks offered by
Sales. Be patient and enjoy the travel-
ling involved; and yes, being talkative
always helps!
Kolkata Campus: Foundation Day
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
29
I n 1895, John Deere started a quarterly pub-
lished magazine by the name of “The Furrow”
for educating the American farmers on how
they can better manage their crops. He never in-
tended to use the journal for promoting the brand.
But a century later, this magazine is now one of
the leading agricultural journals promoting the
brand of John Deere GmbH & Company and is pub-
lished in fourteen languages with mass readership
around the world. This is the effect of time which
has changed the course of this journal.
Going off with that notion, it would be fair to put
forward that what might be useful today might not
be tomorrow. The advent of time will bring new
advancements that will point the tipping scale in
the favor of future.
Vintage Advertisements:
The Legacy
Whether it is the ‘Doodh ki safedi Nirma se aaye’
or ‘Vico Turmeric Ayurvedic cream’, each of these
products has created an everlasting impact on our
minds and is in fact an
epitome of how well a
product can be positioned
in the mind of the custom-
er and the consumers to
ensure top of the mind re-
call.
Facing the constraints of restricted marketing
channels (print and electronic media), the mar-
keting minds had to formulate strategies to grasp
the attention of the consumer upon a single view.
Since it was a single page framework, all the essen-
tial characteristics of the product had to be dis-
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
30
played within the boundaries of the exhibit to de-
fine the uniqueness of the product. This made
these single page advertisement’s text dense and
processing of all the infor-
mation- a strenuous task.
But as time passed, a lot of
different factors contributed
to the opening of the market
which led to an increase in
competition which further
lead to developments in the field of marketing
strategies and marketing platforms. Some of those
factors contributing towards change in consumer
trends are:
1. Liberalization of the Indian Economy
The change in the policy framework of 1991
opened up the Indian market for private and for-
eign investments. This made the economy much
more market oriented and a lot of different players
flocked towards it. Time was witness to such never
seen before levels of competition which compelled
the marketers to look out for more effective routes
for information dissemination.
2. Rapid Urbanization
Urbanization has taken place at a very rapid rate in
India and this has resulted in the genesis of a new
breed of population called ‘urbanites’.
The working urbanites depend more on fast and
ready-to-serve food with preferences towards
bulk purchases from hyper stores rather than fre-
quent visits to the neighborhood “Mom n Pop”
stores.
This lifestyle has led to the creation of new mar-
kets like those of frozen and packaged goods and
quick-and-easy-to-make foods.
3. Increase in Personal Income
With the growing economy, the per
capita income has risen significantly
which has paved way for an in-
crease in the disposable income of a
large section of the society.
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
31
This increase has given consumers a lot of op-
tions in terms of the wide range of products that
come within their purchasing power. This is the
reason that consumption of luxury goods and
consumer durables has increased to such an ex-
tent that some of the products of this segment
like watches and cellphones etc. have shifted to
the FMCG category.
4. Shift in Areas of Expenditure
There has been a shift in the spending pattern of
the consumers. This can be evidenced on one
hand - with the falling shares of Food, Beverages
and Tobacco Industries (from 40% in 2005 to
22.3% in 2020) , whereas on the other- a rise
seen in the segments of Miscellaneous Goods
and Services (from 8.9% to 25.1%) along with
Recreation, Education and Services (from 3% to
4.2%). This shows that our consumer’s interest in
luxury items has increased due to the increased
disposable income and has resulted in greater
circulation of money in the market.
5. Increase in Credit Card usage
The growth of various organized sec-
tors has been aided by the penetration of credit
cards in India. The number of transactions has
increased from about 80 million in 2004 to about
260 million in 2009. The data for the value of
those transactions for the same period stands at
almost INR 250 billion in 2004 and INR 600 billion
in 2009.
The Youngistan’s liking for plastic money has al-
so made their purchasing power strong and out -
of-reach consumables more accessible to the tar-
get audience. The increase has been a steep one
till 2009 and this curve is expected to maintain its
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
32
direction in the time to come.
Change in time: Increase in expo-
sure to the Internet
With the advent of the 21st century, there has
been a tremendous upsurge in the use of the
World Wide Web. The number of people using
the Internet has increased to around 3 billion in
2014.
If the data of top ten countries in terms of inter-
net users is analyzed then the year-on-year
growth of the users ranges from 3% to 16%.
With such a large number of people using the In-
ternet around the globe, this platform has tran-
spired into a new segment for which different
marketing strategies have to be devised.
This has helped marketers go leaps and bound to
promote their products across borders with
greater ease and has considerably changed the
marketing scenarios.
In India alone, the number of people using the
internet has increased from about 5.5 million in
2000 to about 243 million in 2014. This number is
predicted to reach half a billion by 2018.
The country’s share is about 8.33% in terms of
world Internet users and thus presents itself as a
huge market. This has been achieved by wide
spread penetration of the Internet into the rural
areas and digitizing policies of the government.
E-commerce and Social Network-
ing: The Pandora’s Box
The birth of zillions of e-commerce startups has
given the consumers a lot of choices to choose
from and when a consumer is empowered to
choose from such a wide range of products that
also falls within the desired price range, then
brand loyalty takes a hit. Moreover the heavy dis-
counts that are offered, allow the consumers to
upgrade to the price range from which they earli-
er shied away, by spending a little extra money.
With the high penetration of the Internet, using
the online platform provides greater coverage at
a very considerable drop in the cost.
Marketers have found a very proficient tool that
promotes in the form of social media platforms.
The number of social media users was 86.7 mil-
lion in 2013 and it is anticipated to increase to
around 225 million in 2018.
The consumer engagement through
social media helps in positioning the
product in the mind of the consumer
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
33
by repetitive and specific targeting over a period of
time. Engagement activities include usage of vari-
ous interactive channels such as online ads, videos,
mobile apps, etc.
Conclusion:
The effect that the vintage advertisements had on
our minds can never be downplayed and mar-
keting strategies kept in place were phenomenal in
getting attention of the target audience in that
time but it is important to understand that what is
constant is CHANGE. And with change in time,
novel factors emerge that play an extremely cru-
cial role in deciding the fate of the
products.
This is the reason that because of
advancements in technology, a new
and more informed generation of consumers have
evolved who possess the power to shift products
from one segment to another or create a new seg-
ment altogether. Therefore, catering to the needs
of such a target audience requires intelligent and
smart utilization of all the tools at one’s disposal
with maximum efficiency thereby rendering the
earlier used ways and methods ineffective. Yes,
inspiration on consumer engagement can be taken
but presenting the same thoughts will vary consid-
erably in those two time periods.
Tanuj Maheshwari
MBA(IB) 2015-17
IIFT
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
34
Y ou happily book your vacation ticket and
when you log off your IRCTC account, a
joyride automatically takes you to Ama-
zon.in to add to your happiness. In today's highly
networked economy, building and strengthening
relationships requires that you interact with cus-
tomers via multiple channels. Developing and
maintaining long-term customer relationships can
“Marketing isn’t magic. There is a science to it.” -DAN ZARRELLA, Social Media Scientist, HubSpot
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
35
be the lifeline of a business.
Today, the customer expectations are driving mul-
tichannel integration. Customers are more varied
and selective with their expenditures and are sig-
nificantly less loyal to any one brand in particular.
Gone are those opportunistic days, when a physi-
cal store or a catalog could be relied upon to pro-
mote a business and reach out to customers.
Let’s take you out on a date with the by-gone era
where print marketing via newspa-
pers, magazines and direct mail marketing through
postcards, brochures, letters, catalogs, and fliers
were used to attract consumers through postal
mail. One of the earliest and most well-known ex-
amples of it is the Sears Catalog, which was first
mailed to consumers in 1888.
Broadcast marketing by dint of television and radio
advertisements have been around since the 1900s
and television advertising was quicker to adopt,
with less than ten years between its inception and
the first television commercial in 1941.
Traditional marketing campaigns often have the
advantage of staying powerful. They can become
iconic, and instantly familiar to millions round the
globe. Some of the memorable campaigns of the
20th century, according to NBC have been -
McDonalds: “You deserve a break today”, Marlbor-
o's “Marlboro Man”, and the most revolutionary of
all, Volkswagen’s “Think Small”.
Along with these extensive above-the-line chan-
nels of communication to catch the hungry fish in
the net, the businesses are now focusing coequally
on below-the-line channels of ‘business to con-
sumer’ communication. Nowadays consumers
have different cognitive learning styles, which
mean that brands need to communicate with them
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
36
through different ways- which means using multi-
ple communication channels and disciplines. From
magazines and newspapers to e-mails and web-
linked kiosks (82% used), pop-ups to in-store smart
TV’s, all have seen a mammoth change. To quote
Julian Saunders of the Joined-Up Company,
“Nowadays everything communicates, or tries to”.
The conventional classification of channels in-
volved communication at personal and non-
personal levels. But today, though the ends are the
same, but the means have undergone stupendous
changes. The increased pressure to maximize the
shareholder’s value on businesses has driven con-
tinuous improvements in communication effective-
ness as well as devising technically contemporary
ways to reach out to the potential targets. With a
free sign-up and result oriented cost incurred,
Google ads is one of the biggest facets of all mar-
keting channels. It offers higher customer out-
reach, global advertising and a right target at right
time approach with a meagre starting budget of
1000 bucks a day. That means, of the 3.3 billion
users accessing Google search engine, your ad
could be seen by a significant number of people.
Another most cost effective and revenue gener-
ating channels being widely used today to connect
with current, past and potential customers is E-
mail marketing. It increases brand awareness, re-
inforces and strengthens Company-Consumer
bond, announce sales, share latest company de-
velopments and lastly disburse articles, promotion-
al material and whitepapers. Giant corporates or-
ganize annual Tradeshows where they divulge eve-
rything from newsletters to display working mod-
els of their key product. An intrinsic truth that can-
not be neglected today is that- Content is king and
you don’t get the crown without winning content
marketing program. Thus the content we dissi-
pate is as much important as the varied channels
we communicate it through.
How can we forget our social media and the indis-
pensable role it plays as one of the largest and
most widely used mediums of present day mar-
keting? From Twitter to LinkedIn and from Face-
book to Blogs, everyone from corporates to sole-
proprietors find it the most lucrative and viable
option to strike a cupid at the target consumers
heart. Directory sites like Thom-
asNet, MacRAE’s Blue Book and
GlobalSpec are an icing on the
cake. Almost every business fea-
tures a company video on its web-
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
37
site as well as other video platforms like YouTube,
Vimeo etc.
A relatively strategic concept which is being exten-
sively used by numerous businesses worldwide is
that of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (29%
used). All you need to do is feed Google, Yahoo et
al with the most valuable keywords and phrases.
Another approach known as Pay per Click (PPC)
also leverages industrial keyword research, im-
proves on-site conversions and controls cost. What
if you are in dire need of a house loan and an angel
in disguise calls you to inform about their most
borrower friendly loan scheme. Well, Telemar-
keting (17% used) is no less popular a tool when it
comes to some of the most widely used and exten-
sively followed channels of business communica-
tion.
Today, most of the brands have come up with an
option of customized shopping where-in the cus-
tomers can search, match, virtually try and hence-
forth finalize a perfect fit for them. Another en-
trant into the et al market is the ‘gift card’, which is
a convenient, portable, easy-to-use, rechargeable
card that comes with a life-time validity.
It is rightly said that You must be where your cus-
tomers are. And they are everywhere. There’s no
doubt that customers today have much more con-
trol over the buying process than marketers do.
Thanks to the proliferation of available channels,
customers have more choices than ever when it
comes to how they want to get information. Today
there are more ways to reach customers – both in
terms of number and variety of channels – than we
could have imagined not so long ago. And as the
number of channels continues to rise – and it will –
the need to embrace multichannel marketing will
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
38
become not only a good idea, but a critical one.
The road of marketing channels is not as smooth
as it appears to us, sitting on a comfortable couch
at our homes. Thanks to the plethora of channels
and choices facing customers, delivering the right
message to the right audience isn’t enough. Not
today, most of the brands have only must your
customers receive your message, but they also
must be attentive, receptive and willing to act –
regardless of the channel. Expecting customers to
change channel or devise preferences is unrealis-
tic. As a result, marketers must constantly develop
and coordinate highly orchestrated touch points
and micro-campaigns that span multiple channels
fluidly, in a way that the customer finds meaning-
ful and trustworthy.
The right mix of traditional and contemporary mar-
keting, instead of the lone star act is the need of
the hour. By combining the two, you put the right
form of communication in front of the right people
and give them a reason to visit both your website
and your physical store. Both the strategies com-
plement each other to meet the unique goals of
today’s business houses. While the new-age mar-
keting is more cost-effective, measurable and ter-
rific for brand development with a tremendous
potential for exposure, the time-honored mediums
have proven to be effective, more impactful and
Mohit Mahajan
&
Ishan Gupta
MBA(IB)2015-17
IIFT
Man of Steel or Man of
Brands??
Man Of Steel Holds the record for
maximum
Product Placement
2013
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
39
P roject – To enhance Go-To-
Market capability of RB in
Delhi and 50 Lakh plus
towns in North India.
The project was centred on identifying
gaps and opportunities in the current
sales & distribution network of RB (All
SKUs), benchmarking itself against its
competitors. The territories for the
same were Delhi, Lucknow and Kan-
pur.
The scope of project demanded dili-
gent & extensive field work. It en-
sured that as an intern I am exposed
to the challenges of the “World of
Sales”. I was expected to reach Dis-
tributor Point before sales opening (to
understand dispatch of goods) and be
there before closing (to observe billing
of orders) daily for the 1st week. The
visits ensured that I learn about the
intricacies of distribution channel &
selling process at distributor level.
The next 3 weeks were dedicated to
market visits to interact with whole-
salers & retailers, both large & small.
During the stint I covered 300 stores
in and around Delhi. The visits not on-
ly helped me identify the gaps & op-
portunities in the S&D network but
also to collect data for benchmarking.
Surveys with wholesalers & retailer
and interaction with them can provide
some really useful information regard-
ing the competitors as they know the
tricks of the trade & are eye and ears
of the company. It ensured that I learn
the art off networking & execute the
Name:
Ankur Suri
Company:
Reckitt
Benckiser
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
40
humongous task of obtaining competi-
tor’s data successfully for efficient
sales benchmarking.
The other data points for the same
was competitor’s sales force. I spent 2
weeks in gathering the same. This re-
quired diligent recordkeeping and a
knack to identify which stakeholder
can provide what type of information.
Be it the Regional Sales Managers or
the front end Sales Representatives all
were potential sources of data; how-
ever to get most relevant data was a
challenging task and required asking
of right set of questions at the right
time to the right stake holders.
Following weeks were spent in analys-
ing the data which included brain-
storming sessions with my Project
Guide Sponsor and the sales team.
These sessions helped me to under-
stand that though data analysis can be
executed through excel crunching;
however it is meaningless if not
viewed from right perspective. The
meetings helped me to learn the art of
looking the results from the right per-
spective and make it speak volumes.
It is essential to understand the objec-
tives of the project and the expected
deliverables. Timelines should be
strictly adhered to as any glitches
would be difficult to cover up. Spend
adequate time in brainstorming with
your guide & mentor to ensure the
project is on track and correction if
any can be made in time. Also ensure
giving them a weekly status report
regular reports regarding your pro-
gress. Since a sales stint requires a lot
of networking and travelling, adhering
to timelines & dependence on perfor-
mance of large number of external
stakeholders; keeping oneself moti-
vated till the end might be challeng-
ing. However never give up & give
your best shot till the end!
Besides being one of India’s
oldest FMCG Firm , Dabur
has the Oldest Supply Chain
In India
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
41
Name:
Murtaza Ali
Company:
Flipkart
Before joining a B-School, some of you
may have worked with well-
established companies, some of you
may have been associated with start-
ups and some of you may have joined
straight from college. All of you may
be having various experiences at your
end but I assure you, interning with
Flipkart is a game changer. Flipkart,
true to its image, gives a unique expe-
rience to its employees at its work-
place. The whole atmosphere is lively
and vibrant. The culture is so open and
accommodating that from the time
you step into the office you are treat-
ed as a Flipster and no less.
I was working in Retail – Marketplace
Division in Flipkart which involved
some part of marketing and some part
of operations. I had the opportunity to
work with various teams and wit-
nessed the conceptualization and im-
plementation of ATL and BTL activities
across India. I was also involved in the
branding of the program and could
relate it to the concepts and frame-
works taught at IIFT. It was more or
less the same steps (though custom-
ized) that were being followed and
classrooms lessons helped me a lot in
that project.
Working at Flipkart is fun. No matter
how many hours you toil during work
hours, you come out refreshed. Never
will you feel tired after a good day’s
work. Flipkart gives an unmatchable
opportunity to work with
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
42
industry leaders sharing the same
work space. It promotes interaction
and every day you keep on learning
from your managers.
Flipkart is a one of the best places to
intern in, but getting selected is a her-
culean task. You will be tested with
unconventional questions that will
test your creativity and awareness.
You should not only be apprised about
Flipkart and E-commerce sector in
general but should also be updated
about various marketing and catalogu-
ing techniques used in E-commerce
industry. People eyeing for operations
profile should prepare well about vari-
ous models already in place to provide
hassle free delivery experiences to
customers. You should treat this infor-
mation as a reference and should not
limit your preparation to this. Wishing
you all the best for summers!!
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
43
Success Mantras from E-commerce Gurus. Read More..
Internet of Things
I oT or Internet of things is defined as an eco-
system where devices interact with each
other over the network. Devices include
sensors, monitoring instruments as well as
the smart phones we use, TV’s, refrigerators; es-
sentially every gadget that surrounds us today is a
potential candidate to be a part of this system.
Do not take this to be just another fad on the hori-
zon. Salesforce.com puts it very nicely “…it may
sound like a business buzzword,
but in reality, it’s a real techno-
logical revolution that will im-
pact everything we do. It's a gigantic wave of new
possibility that is destined to change the face of
technology as we know it.”
The term “Internet of Things” was coined
by British entrepreneur Kevin Ashton almost a dec-
ade and a half back in 1999, he feels that he should
have coined it as “Internet FOR Things” instead of
what he eventually named it.
Marketing, in the last half a decade has seen a
whole lot of disruption and IoT is another step in
the same direction. It will for one change the dy-
namics on a scale that has never been seen or
About the Author
Amar Budati
Business Analyst at ITC Infotech (2014 till present)
Editor-in-Chief, Mark Mantra (2012-14)
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
44
heard before. Just to give you the scale of IoT,
Gartner says there would be 75 billion connected
devices by 2020. Now that you’ve been exposed to
the scale of it, let’s get down to the mechanics of
how marketing would be affected in reality.
Localization of content is already a reality, thanks
to the location sharing facility on our phones. We
now are used to getting offers, as we cross a coffee
shop, QSR. Now imagine that you are out shopping
with family and your phone vibrates with a mes-
sage from your refrigerator to pick up some veg-
gies as you have none back at home and you have
guests coming over. How does this happen, of
course with the devices “talking” to each other as
well as scanning our gadgets for information which
could be used for making decisions that aim to im-
prove the overall quality of life.
Think of digital marketing in the future, wherein
devices start giving out tweets, posts on what is
trending based on the current events in the sur-
roundings. Engaging with customers at an even
more personal level than ever before. Devices will
be able to tell you when they need a refill, repair.
So here is a system that has gadgets which are
learning all the while, becoming smart in the pro-
cess; so much so that the advertisers will have a
tugh task getting people to go ahead and make a
purchase, as there are multile factors at work. Only
when a product manages to satisfy all existential
criteria would it be displayed to the customer on
his device, essentially what we are looking at is a
100% CTR.
That is both amazing as well as challenging to an
advertiser’s ears now.
IoT: The future is yours ;)
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
45
Social Media Marketing IS an invasion of privacy?
W ith the advent of digital age, the world is changing fast and the marketing ways are
changing with it. In the last decade we have seen the rise of two of the biggest mar-
keting tools the world has ever seen namely social media and big data analytics. Social
media provides the marketer a platform where
they can interact with billions of customer and big
data analytics tells them how to do it. However
this nexus between social media and marketers
raises a big question about the invasion of privacy
of the customers. In the recent times we have
seen numerous cases where the privacy of the
customers was not only invaded; their personal
information was sold for a handsome profit.
In today’s world the producer has to realize that to promote their product and bump up their sales they
need to understand the buying behaviour of the customers and find out about their likes and habits. This
Because A Truce is not Amicable !
ANMOL GARG
SENIOR CLUB COORDINATOR
BRANDWAGON KOLKATA
SHASHANK GARG
JUNIOR CLUB COORDINATOR
BRANDWAGON KOLKATA
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
46
Social Media Marketing IS NOT an invasion of privacy?
S ocial media is a digital space for interaction between people across all boundaries. They meet,
discuss and exchange ideas over a wide range of topics in the form of group discussions, blogs,
articles, images, videos, audio etc.
That means when you log into social media you do that to in-
teract with the entire world. You accept its ‘Terms of Use’ and
willingly give up your privacy. You are very well aware that it’s
a ‘public domain’ and not a ‘personal space’. You go to social
media to share your thoughts, not to write a personal diary
page. Whenever we post something on social media it gets
added as a new virtual book in the public library we have creat-
ed in the name of the Internet.
Advertising on social media involves advertisement through
your own pages or blogs and targeted advertisement on users’ home page. This can be compared to tra-
ditional ways of marketing like pamphlets in Newspapers. Both social media and newspapers are sources
PIYUSH SOOD
SENIOR CLUB COORDINATOR
BRANDWAGON KOLKATA
ISHAN GUPTA
JUNIOR CLUB COORDINATOR
BRANDWAGON KOLKATA
Because A Truce is not Amicable !
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
47
had led them on the ominous path where breaking your online privacy is no longer off limits. This in-
volves tracking people’s online activities and harvesting personal data and conversations from different
social media platforms. Usually research companies harvest this data and later sell this compiled data to
companies who in turn uses this data to design targeted marketing campaigns for their products.
There have been several cases in the recent past where com-
panies have been alleged of serious online privacy violations.
In May 2011, a media research company named Nielson Co.
was caught scraping every message off PatientsLikeMe’s
online forums. A forum where in the delusion of safe and pri-
vate environment people talk about their emotional prob-
lems. Similarly , in probably the biggest and the most famous
case of online privacy violation Facebook in 2012 experiment
on about 700,000 of its users’ by manipulating their users’
news feeds to show them content that was either predominantly negative or positive and later analysing
their emotional responses to their feed. In addition to this , Facebook keeps and stores all information
pertaining to users such as IP (intellectual property), photos etc. that have been deleted by the users.
This information can be shared with marketers who bid the highest for it. It has been reported several
times about certain apps that leak information
about their users to advertising and internet track-
ing companies, without the users having clue.
This blatant encroachment of your private profile is
equivalent to a stranger going through your ward-
robe without your permission to find out your per-
sonal preferences while promising better services
and convenient shopping in the future.
Surveys conducted across the world have time-and-again showed that the consumer is worried about
this breach of their online privacy. The TRUSTEE Consumer Confidence Index 2014 conducted in US
showed that 90% of users in America are concerned about privacy in social media.
The proponents of social media claim that by its very nature, a social media platform is a public platform
and one where users should have the weakest expectation of privacy however they forget that the even
when we go to social media we choose who we share this information with. This is the basic right to free-
dom that every citizen of world should not be deprived of.
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
48
of information. Pamphlets in newspaper and advertisements on social media are targeted on a particular
section of people reading or searching for a type of information, for example, business news. If the for-
mer has never been considered as invasion of privacy, why should the latter be?
While advertising on social media in itself does not account
for violation of privacy, conduct of marketers can lead com-
pany into lawsuits claiming invasion of users’ privacy. For
example Public disclosure of private facts that involves
posting embarrassing, privileged, or confidential infor-
mation about another person on its social media page. The
violation happens if a marketer uses his/her customer’s
name for an advertisement but does not have their con-
sent. The famous case of Lane Vs Facebook case where
plaintiff Sean Lane bought a ring for his wife on Over-
stock.com , the purchase was broadcasted on his network
of 700+ friends without his consent, showed what greater harm can be caused with breach of privacy.
Hence, marketers need to be wary as they walk on a very thin line when it comes to social media mar-
keting.
Marketers of today have a lot to gain when it comes to marketing through social media. Social media not
only provides them the reach to their target audience but is the most cost effective method to market
their products. Be it the Durex Naked Box
Challenge or Maybelline Baby Lips cam-
paign, companies have tasted the sweet
taste of success with an increase in
crowdsourcing activities through social
media. Looking from the viewpoint of the
customer, getting customizable advertise-
ments for themselves makes the process of
search for information of products even simpler.
In todays’ tech-savvy generation’s time, where people stay connected through Social media for almost
the whole time, potential of Social media marketing cannot be ignored. Concept itself does not involve
any violations of Privacy but marketers need to restrict themselves while fighting to achieve their targets.
Social Media can be the most powerful tool any company can have to market their product in the coming
days.
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
49
Name:
Samarth Kothari
Company:
Britannia
I knew that working in sales de-
partment of an FMCG company
would never have been an easy
task but landing up with a project per-
taining to rural sales in Rajasthan in
the month of April came as a bit of
surprise. My project revolved around
creating a road map for the expansion
of the rural distribution network. My
first step was to understand all the
deliverables from my mentor i.e. basi-
cally what Britannia expected me to
do in the coming 8 weeks and what
would the ideal outcome be. And then
I took to the streets and obtained in-
sights from all the stakeholders whom
I would be dealing with. In sales, it is
not just the end consumer who
matters but the retailers, salesmen,
distributors also matter equally. Thus
having understood the challenges that
lay ahead, I prepared a timeline for
the 8 weeks and stuck to it (in most
cases!). And then came the time of
Strategy Formulation. One thing I
learnt was that no matter how fanci-
ful your strategy is, it of no use if you
cannot implement it . It is always
better to start working on the crux of
the project in the early stages, be-
cause if something is not working you
have a chance to go shops all over
Dhanbad including urban and semi-
urban areas. The task required a lot of
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
50
patience and perseverance- at times
one faces fatigue after asking the same
set of questions to over a hundred
people! Furthermore, it required a lot
of local travelling in the scorching heat
of the coal capital. I recall my disap-
pointment at the peace I observed in
Wasseypur (darn, these crazy Bolly-
wood movies!)
My take away from the internship was
the application of marketing and con-
sumer behaviour concepts in real life
scenarios. Also, I learnt how to interact
with people with different back-
grounds, education and upbringing. I
would suggest my readers of the junior
batch to be open minded and take up
the challenging tasks offered by Sales.
Be patient and enjoy the travelling in-
volved; and yes, being talkative always
helps!
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
51
Achievers’ At IIFT
Sai Bharath & Vishwajeet Singh won the
Airtel Quiz-o-Mania Title 2015
I t begins on the first evening of
your B-school life and lasts at
least until your first final place-
ment interview. And for it to end
sooner, the route still shall pass
through it. Hence, each one of you is
to say the least, intrigued as to what a
summer placement is. You are practi-
cally chanting ‘summers’ until you
cross the threshold of your reporting
office in the first week of April.
For me, it began on April 6 with my
assigned project under the mass mar-
kets team of Janssen, the pharmaceu-
tical company of J&J. The project re-
volved around identifying and engag-
ing a specialty of doctors for almost a
30-year old brand in India. It required
familiarizing oneself with the patho-
physiology of the disease it cured, car-
rying out secondary and primary mar-
ket research and building an engage-
ment strategy for the identified spe-
cialty. From the office premises to the
project outline, from the scheduled
travel itinerary to the execution of
every project detail, things were suc-
cinctly and effortlessly in place. Owing
to the project pre-work assigned, all
interns were perfectly capable of
starting off with their projects in no
time.
During secondary research, I found
myself juggling with research data
from external agencies to identify tar-
get group and target locations for pri-
mary research. Moving on to what
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
52 52
fieldwork had in store: well, it made
the expression “cruel and beautiful
world” come alive for me. It isn’t just
inevitable but indispensable, for you
cannot possibly know how until you
know what to fix. During this patch of
my internship, I gained insights on cus-
tomer (physicians) expectations & in-
hibitions and glimpses of how the field
force strives to deliver on the same. A
striking contrast that pharma mar-
keting offers is that in addition to ca-
tering to whims and fancies of the cus-
tomer you need to satiate the ra-
tionale/reason of those who have
been in practice longer than you have
been in existence. And as my project
guide aptly put it, “You get to see the
human side of the Gods on earth”
I was plain lucky to end up with a pro-
ject, guide and team that enabled an
increased clarity of tasks ahead with
every passing day. Initiatives were en-
couraged, suggestions were well re-
ceived and progress was tracked at
appropriate intervals. Sadly, this may
not be the case for every intern even
in the same organization. This should-
n’t dishearten the aspirants in the
least. Yet again, it isn’t even impera-
tive to come from a biology back-
ground to perform in pharmaceutical
marketing. Keep abreast with the de-
velopments in the industry and in the
organization; set goals for yourself
both before and during your intern-
ship; hone your analytical skills and
excel adeptness, in particular while
there is still time. Lastly, needless to
say, in pharma marketing, like any oth-
er sector diligence and confidence
goes a long way in having a splendid
learning internship experience to
write about!
Logo Recall
Identify the Logo in the picture
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
53
T he most basic dictionary definition states
that- ‘Market Research is an activity of
gathering information about consumer’s
needs and preferences’. But in today’s world, with
the market flooded with a zillion products and a
gazillion choices, does this very definition encom-
pass the entire gist of what market research is all
about?
The 21st century is no longer restricted to a physi-
cal market place where a buyer and seller meet in
person to carry
out their transac-
tions. The mar-
ket has now up-
graded itself to
smartphones; or
we can say that it has digitalized itself into the lives
of the people. Today, we have got the option of
buying any amenity, right from a safety pin to an
electric appliance, from food supplies to apparels;
and what not with the click of just a few buttons.
Looking at the other side of the coin, even
though having such luxuries available at
one’s hand, people still prefer to take a stroll down
the good old lanes which are crammed up with
food stalls and street vendors (both organized and
disorganized); enjoying the view and relishing a
delicacy here and there, whilst keeping an eye out
for something that might be worth their penny.
And sometimes they take a ride to the uptown
lounge and enjoy a delicious meal in a good ambi-
ence.
These varied and dynamic trends are making it
quite difficult
for a marketer
to analyse the
market. Apart
from going with
the primary re-
search, and keeping track of the latest trends of
people’s buying behaviour, the marketer now has
to resort to the new high-tech advances like ERP,
SAP, Big Data, Hadoop, Cloud and more.
This change in the market trends has become the
Tipping Point for market research.
The tipping point is that magic moment when an
idea, trend, or social behaviour crosses a threshold,
tips, and spreads like wildfire.”
― Malcolm Gladwell
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big
Difference
MarkMantra TradeWinds 2015
54
Let’s have a look on the journey of market re-
search, before and after the Tipping Point.
Flashback
In yester years, the marketer used to talk to both,
the sellers and the consumers in person. Initially,
the market research was majorly based on data
collection and creating methodologies for under-
standing that data. Multiple techniques were
bought in place for collating and researching data-
starting with punch cards
(early 19th Century, used in
US polling process). Couple
of decades later, the
“commercial research”
came into picture- data
crunching and analysis pav-
ing its way into the market, justifying the
‘Research’. “The Likert Scale”, “Sampling”,
“Focused Groups”- used for analysing data; and
data collection techniques such as
“Crowdsourcing” involved recruiting hundreds of
citizens to collect the ethnographic data used for
PAPI: Paper-And-Pencil-Interview.
The advances in analysing the modified data
brought a change in the approach of market re-
search, dividing it into Qualitative and Quantitative
methodologies. These approaches do go hand-in-
hand and bring in the paradigm shift with continu-
ous evolvement in both the practices.
The Tipping Point
Now that we know what tipping point is all about,
let’s see how this has changed the picture of mar-
ket research. Over the time, the market has shifted
its focus to making smart decisions. Companies
have become more customer centric- they are try-
ing to launch products with features that the cus-
tomers look for. They have put their products in
the hands of the customers, by means of the e-
commerce industry. Moreover, various forms of
advertising have come into effect which appeal the
customers to buy a product. For example, the Fevi-
col promotion, wherein a stall is put in the middle
of the mall, and people are asked to take any prod-
uct of their choice free of cost. The trick here was
that when people tried to take those products,
they found that the items were glued to the shelf
with Fevicol. The intent of the act was very clear-
to make people test the product themselves and
say “Majbut jod hai, Tootega nahi”. All these inno-
vative changes in marketing are the by-product of
intensive market research. The present day scenar-
io of market research has taken a really high road.
Present Day
Google, to the rescue!! One of the tools that the
marketers can use is Google’s ‘Survey-Wall’, a
place where a short survey is floated on the web-
site, the one where you don’t have easy access to,
unless you pay for it. These survey forms consists
of crisp, sharp questions keeping in mind that most
of the youngsters or users won’t spend an addi-
tional second on reading and answering those long
questions. But the incentive to get to read or use
these ‘walled apps’ would make users answer a
question or two on the form. All you have to do is
take out few seconds, fill the survey and voila! You
can use the data, free of cost.
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Other technique widely used for the purpose of
analysis is ‘Google AdWords’. Marketers make use
of this functionality by keeping track of what all
keywords the user is typing to refine his search,
and makes use of this data to finish their analysis.
Moreover, with the advent of time, the market has
become more sensitive to the customer’s needs.
The marketer’s job thus becomes a notch difficult
as he now has to analyse the buying characteristics
of a huge number of customers with a variety of
buying characteristics. In today’s tech-savvy world,
the answer to this is sentiment analysis, social net-
work analysis, association rule learning and more.
The core of all these algorithms is the data gath-
ered by all the information sensing devices and
software on mobile phones or laptops. When the
data collected is too diverse, fast-paced or massive
for conventional analysis approaches, Big Data
comes in.
Consider a typical day-to-day situation– we were
off doing online window shopping, and after some
casual ramble, we go to check our FB timeline for
any updates. That is when, the PRODUCT we were
just stalking, unsure whether to buy or not, sud-
denly pops up in the Ad section of Facebook. What
just happened is the ‘cookie-based ad targeting’
working its way into finding our shopping patterns
based on past searches. Just imagine if big data
also comes into this picture.
First off, what’s this shout around BIG DATA? How
big is this BIG DATA? In today’s world, emphasis
lies on storing each and every ounce of data gener-
ated, anywhere and everywhere, on the
web of the web. This large amount of da-
ta, both structured and unstructured is the BIG DA-
TA. And this massively huge data is measured in
the terms of Exabyte, which is bigger than
petabytes, and much bigger than terabyte. For
number-crunchers, 1 Exabyte is equival-ent to 250
million DVDs, i.e. approx. equivalent to 1 Billion
movies. And that’s just NOT it, as of today, every-
day almost 2.5 Exabyte of data is created.
Most of this data is generated by analysing (or
snooping on) our buying trends. More accurate
analyses may lead to more confident decision mak-
ing processes. And better decisions can mean
greater operational efficiencies, cost reductions
and reduced risk for the marketers. Thus, we can
safely assume that the time is not far away when
as soon as you enter in a shopping complex, the
new “Intelligent” devices will automatically predict
and guide you to your shopping destination.
Conclusion
All in all, a lot has changed with the advent of tech-
nology and the marketer’s job is becoming more
challenging and interesting. Not only he has to an-
alyse what is going on around, but he too has to
keep himself upgraded and updated with various
research tools and environments. We can safely
say that the tipping point has managed to keep the
marketers on the tips of their toes.
Juhi Arya
&
Tushar Saklecha
MBA(IB)2015-17
IIFT
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