[Company name]
[Document title]
[Document subtitle]
MARKETING NEWSLETTER
CONTENTS:
1. Foreword
2. Ambush Marketing-Fight or Flight!
3. “Infectious Buzz Marketing is a smart way to build customer
loyalty at your operation” - Article Review
4. From Globalization to Customization: The Way Forward…
SIP
CORPORATE
TALK
5. Impact of brand in lives of people
6. “Initiative” Why did it die?
7. Customer Value Segmentation in the Telecommunication
Industry
QUIZ
8. Mad about the ad!!!
ARTICLES
9. Guerrilla Marketing: War in the shadows
10. Marketing – Doing It Right
11. Social Media Marketing – Creating the Buzz!!
12. Victoria’s Secret – Simple lessons that Entrepreneurs can
leverage
13. In Conversation with Jitesh Bhist....
14. Funny Bones!!
15. SIP Speak…
16. Quiz Time
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Foreword
Marketers in recent times, have seen the onslaught of unconventional marketing tools
challenging the status quo of traditional marketing. Companies have turned their focus on
grabbing the attention of individual consumers using on-your-face kind of advertising
campaigns.
Traditional media like television and print are loosing their importance as marketers look
towards non-mainstream channels such as digital and social media which can track
individual consumer interests to create personalised content. Consumers can look forward
to being pampered by brands with individual attention thanks to these new media.
Even the incumbent players have embraced new innovative techniques like ambush, buzz
and digital marketing to fend their territories against the young independent ventures,
fearing the innovative streak in their promotional and advertising campaigns. Making the
most marketing noise to get the attention of the consumer is the new code of a marketer.
The latest issue of the newsletter adresses the various new trends in the marketing
landscape and how it is reshaping the soul of an industry entrenched in its traditional way
of doing things.
Prof. Rahul Gupta
Coordinator, Marketing Specialization
Institute of Management, Kengeri Campus
Christ University
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Ambush Marketing: Fight or Flight!
Chesna Ann John
Ambush marketing or ambush advertising is a form of marketing strategy in
which an advertiser "ambushes" an event to compete for exposure against
competing advertisers. The term "ambush marketing" was coined by marketing
strategist Jerry Welsh, while he was working as the manager of global marketing
efforts for American Express in the 1980s.It is a promotional tactic designed to
associate a company, product or service with a particular event or to attract the
attention of people attending the event, without payment being made for an
official sponsorship.
Events, especially in sports, have sponsors. These sponsors pay money,
which makes it possible to hold the event. In return for this, they get publicity and
media coverage. Ambush marketing is a name given to marketing campaigns that
are also done around the event, but where no money is paid for the event. There
are many very important events where one company will pay money to become
the exclusive sponsor of the event (or in a category of the event). This creates a
problem for other brands or companies. These other brands then find ways to
promote themselves in connection with the same event. They do not pay the
sponsorship fee. Even if they wanted to, they could not, because one brand is the
exclusive sponsor. They also do not break any laws.
An advertiser may engage in ambush marketing in "indirect" means—where the
advertiser alludes to the imagery and themes of an event without any references to
specific trademarks, or in "direct" and "predatory" means—where the advertiser
makes statements in their marketing that mislead consumers into believing they
are officially associated with the event (including the fraudulent use of official
names and trademarks), or performs marketing activities in and around a venue to
dilute the presence of "official" sponsors.
FAMOUS AMBUSH MARKETING
1984 Summer Olympics; Kodak sponsors TV broadcasts of the games as well as
the US track team even though Fujifilm is the official sponsor.
1996 Cricket World Cup; Pepsi ran a series of advertisements titled "Nothing
official about it" targeting the official sponsor Coca Cola.
2000 Sydney Olympics; Qantas Airlines’ slogan "The Spirit of Australia" sounds
strikingly similar to the games’ slogan "Share the Spirit." despite Ansett Air being
the official sponsor.
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2003 Cricket World Cup; Indian players threatened to strike over concerns that
the anti-ambush marketing rules were too strict. Of particular concern was the
length of time before and after the cup that players were not allowed to endorse a
rival to one of the official sponsors. Players argued that if they had pre-existing
contracts that they would be in breach of them if they were to accept
the ICC's rules.
THE ETHICAL ISSUE
Is it ethical for a company to ambush an event? Why do brands with excellent
reputation get into this? Are they justified? In order to answer these questions, an
examination has to be undertaken of what are regarded as ethical practices, in
addition to examining what comprises of ambush marketing, followed by the
comparison between the two. Typically sports property owners and sponsors view
the practice as being unethical, immoral and sometimes illegal. On the other hand,
many companies unable to afford sponsorship fees will regard the practices
involved as legitimate form of defensive, competitive behavior and perhaps even
deny that what they are doing is ambush marketing.
CONCLUSION
The law as it now stands seems unable to accommodate the concerns of official
corporate sponsors. There is no limit to human ingenuity. As such ambush
marketing at the margins will arguably always occur. As sports has become a
central element of an emerging global culture, marketers have recognized sports
sponsorship as an international communication tool of commerce with the
capability of providing a vehicle for firms to procure a sustainable competitive
advantage.
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“Infectious Buzz Marketing is a smart way to
build customer loyalty at your operation”
Article Review
Author – Jim Matorin
Nation’s Restaurant News, April 30, 2007, 41, 18
Prasidhi Pillai
Weblink http://search.proquest.com/pqrl/docview/229371854/F9C6A9218694
DB8PQ/15?accountid=38885
INTRODUCTION
This article titled “Infectious Buzz Marketing is a smart way to build customer
loyalty at your operation” focuses mainly on how word of mouth publicity has
changed the face of marketing today. The article pinpoints how the marketing
techniques and the boom of social network has changed the mindsets of
consumers, how human- computer interaction has shifted to consumer to
consumer interaction. Similarly the evolution of cell phones has also helped
marketers to recognize network technology as a platform for marketing which
is the need of the hour. The author considers buzz as the new keyword. He
compares buzz to a virus that can change and meet the challenges of a dynamic
environment.
METHODOLOGY
The author has divided buzz marketing into three distinct stages. Inoculation - the
introduction of the product, Incubation-the use of the product by innovative
trendsetters and Infection – widespread use of the product by mainstream. In Buzz
marketing, Infection is the keyword. This is where marketing via social media
comes into the picture. Because once the buzz multiplies and becomes viral, then
there is no looking back for the product, as it becomes infectious and spreads to
customers everywhere. There are various methods suggested by the author to
make this happen. He refers to these methods as authenticity touch points such as
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presenting a handwritten thank you card to the customer as a token of gratitude,
gifting the customer a birthday or anniversary card, providing freebies and many
more.
MAJOR FINDINGS AND RESULTS
The major findings in this article would be:

The use of innovative methods to attract customers.
Since this is the digital age, online marketing alone would not be sufficient. The
personal interaction with the customer is also important.

Ways to keep the customer talking about your product/company etc.
CRITICISM
The article restricts itself to hotels and restaurants. The methods specified here
may differ from company to company.
The ideas and methods which the author has presented here can be an expensive
affair as far as a new or small companies are concerned.
.
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From Globalization to Customization:
The Way Forward…
Anif Raza Haider
There was an article posted recently by Avi Dan in Forbes titled “11 Marketing
Trends To Watch For In 2015” that highlighted trends that we should all be
expecting to see, fairly soon. One of the trends stood out from others: Marketing
will shift from globalization to personalization. Dan states that, “The world is
more connected because of technology these days, but marketing is becoming
more regionalized, and more localized, even more individualized, as consumers
resist homogenization.”
We know this is true because we as consumers live and breathe the technology
world every single day of our lives. As consumers, we recognize that companies
are personalizing their marketing messages and we absolutely love it. We simply
can’t resist those quirky marketing messages directed to us individually. This
doesn’t just go for B2C companies, but for B2B companies also. Personalizing the
messages to other companies is not only a necessity but it is expected in this day
and age.
It is evident that marketing is changing. Emerging technologies, growing
consumer expectations, and developing marketing trends all contribute to this
change.
Why Personalization is the Key to Success
When one opts to adopt a personalized approach towards offering products and
services, their business makes a winning case for itself. Personalizing customer
experience, be it online or offline, is the key to creating a trustworthy brand that
people can return to without hesitation.
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Businessmen often come across clients who carry around a full bag of
expectations related to personalized products and services. Sometimes, a shift in
perspective in viewing customer expectations through a lens of possibility can
lead to a revolutionary personalized marketing technique.
An example could be that of a house-painting company delivering a specific hue
that does not feature in its catalogue. As Walt Disney rightly said, “If you can
dream it, you can do it”, customization offers a brilliant opportunity for the
business house to not just paint dream homes, but to also deliver a unique service
like no other company is able to for the moment.
Risking Reinvention
The next trick in the book towards ensuring this shift in marketing strategy is a
winning one, is to accurately predict customer’s expectations. Currently, Internet
software allows companies to identify the physical locations customers are
signing in from, keep records of customers’ transactions and use tracking cookies
to learn about consumers' other shopping interests.
In order to personalize a visitor's experience, all this data can be hosted on a
customized page of a website featuring their language preference and products
and offers they are more likely to be interested in. Brands such as Nike and
Adidas are leading the way in terms of product personalization. Personalized
service has mostly
been an attribute of
the small businesses
and
local
stores,
where
marketers
usually know their
customers.
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Impact of brand in lives of people
Sarthak Chakraborty
The word “brand” is derived from the term “brandr” meaning “to burn”- recalling
the old practice of burning their mark or brand onto their products. Cattle
branding has been there for a long time where the owners used to mark their cattle
so that the neighbors cannot steal them.
Brand in recent days is a term, symbol, design, logo or other features that
distinguishes product of one seller from that of others.
Branding plays a pivotal role as it is one thing that creates a differentiation in
today’s commoditized market. Brand is more like a personality which reflects a
product’s traits, features, characteristics and what people will perceive of it.
Brands have impacted a common man’s life in a huge way. Every day we come
across a plethora of brands but we are able to retain or recall only a few. Brands
like Apple, Tommy Hilfiger, Louis Philippe, Louis Vuitton, and Airtel have made
such an impact on the minds of the people that people are not able to think about
anything else apart from them. Creating a brand value has become a major
practice to retain customers.
Apple has created a unique brand value by talking about customer experience.
Apple makes high quality, good design and premium priced products but apple
products do not have many features that other competing brands have but still
people eagerly wait for a new apple product and take pride in owning one. People
simply buy apple products to flaunt it and have a high image in the society.
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Louis Vuitton which makes apparels never puts its products on sale. Instead it
burns down all its products which are not selling. This gives the customers
something to boast about and helps Louis Vuitton create a brand image. People
are ready to pay a premium for this product.
All the private goods which people buy for their personal use are slowly being
impacted by the brand power. From a wallet to a toothbrush which a consumer
buys for his personal use is being impacted by external influence and switching to
branded products. A Van Heusen belt, Arrow shoes, Louis Philippe Wallet makes
all the difference. The power of the logo is such that it makes the person feel
confident and others to perceive that the person is very sophisticated.
Brands convey trust. People believe in brands and make purchase based on that
belief. Organizations are working hard to build that trust and finding ways to lure
people towards them. A simple example is an advertisement of Mercedes Benz in
newspapers. The company knows that their target customers are not the common
people who will read the newspaper but they want them to know the brand value
of that car so that its current customers feel proud that they are Mercedes owners
when common man gaze at the car with excitement and it also becomes a dream
car of the common man.
Brands have changed how people live life. It has made people more impulsive and
irrational. In Indian society, brand power helps get more customers as the
demographics shows that it is a youth dominated society who are more attracted
to brands.
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“Initiative” Why did it die?
Prithvi Reddy
Something happened some time ago which is not supposed to happen the way it
had happened
No, it isn’t a tongue twister; it is a simple context defining the origin of an
initiative. We incept an initiative when we have a situation to deal with or a
change to be brought in. An initiative merely begins on a necessity, which
eventually meets the public demand. Having an idea to bring a change is the
simplest thing anyone could come up with. Kick starting that idea, convincing the
environment that is getting impacted is a challenge that one would face. But
starting off doesn’t end the story, the vital and the toughest part where 90 % of the
initiatives die is how well the idea is sustained. That is the key to bring the
intended change.
“Sustaining an initiative “has a simple philosophy embedded in it. Participation is
the fulcrum of sustainability. It is crucial to maintain a fine balance between
initiator and the participant, because if either one of them falls, the other
collapses. Irrespective of how absolute the idea is, if the participation is not
balanced the idea would die. Looking out for a case? Think about all the
initiatives which have come to an end in your line of work. A straight situation
could be any spectator event, if there are no spectators the event wouldn’t run and
vice versa.
Balancing the participation might sound casual, but a person who has done the
initiation would know the pain in it. The key here is to make itself sustainable,
consider how Facebook works for a moment, the way it bounces and expands
every day. Figure out a way to make the initiative contagious, try to make the
participation rather voluntary than compelling. Analyze the environment that is
being impacted deeply and formulate a plan that would bring everyone on the
same page. This would give a well-oiled and finely greased system which would
accept the initiative and ensure its smooth run.
Certainly the question to be asked is not” Why did the initiative die?” but “How
did it die?”
-We Killed It
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Customer Value Segmentation in the
Telecommunication Industry
Abstract:
This article is based on experience and recent research in the Telecommunications
sector. It looks at the ways in which segmentation has now become generally
accepted within the industry and what is the right sort of segmentation for a target
audience. The article concludes the advance use of customer value segmentation
which allows for precise targeting, with knowledge of what the retention and
value drivers are for each customer. The end result is higher retention and growth,
with the parallel benefit of enhanced business planning, where specific growth
and retention targets may be assigned to each segment.
When it comes to segmenting customers by value, the standard approach used is
the ‘decile’ analyses. This calculates a value measure for each customer sorts the
customer base into descending order by value and then splits the base into 10
equal segments. The first or top decile is the top 10 per cent of the base. The
second decile is the next 10 per cent, and so on. For large companies, with
millions of customers, there may be many more than 10 value segments.
Debate on this approach hinges on a number of issues. One key question is
precisely what measure of value should be used. The answer, as always, depends
in part on the strategic question that the segmentation is going to be used to
answer, in part on the availability and quality of data.
Current Value Segmentation focuses on identifying the contribution that a
customer makes to overall organisational profitability based on current
relationships with the organisation.
Lifetime Value Segmentation identifies the expected (predicted) contribution to
overall organisational profitability based on expected ‘lifetime’ relationships with
the organisation.
In implementing these solutions, organisations need to be clear about their
definitions of profit, contribution, revenue and so on. The closer a segmentation
scheme moves toward measuring the precise contribution made by a customer, the
more useful it may be, from a bottom-line perspective, when it comes to
managing the customer base. However, accuracy always involves a trade-off: in
this case, the proportion of information derived from factors that marketing can
directly
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influence (spend, retention, price of calls and so on) becomes increasingly diluted
by other factors that marketing cannot influence, such as credit-worthiness,
competitor prices, and internal cost allocation.
Here it can be seen that the annual contribution from the top decile is nearly four
times the contribution from the next decile and, in line with Pareto principles, 80
per cent or more of the company's overall profit.
However, this result was produced using aggregate data: that is, average contact
and service costs were applied to each decile. The same analysis is shown below,
only with costs allocated precisely to each individual customer
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The same pattern of value by decile can still be observed. However, it is
immediately clear that individuals switch drastically between decile according to
the data used. Depending on industry, over the entire base, over 50 per cent of
customers may switch by two or more deciles when precise costing is substituted
for average costing.
In one sense, there is nothing new in this: detailed value calculation is more
potent than averaging, and marketers need to be aware of the measures included
in any segmentation. It is never enough to look at the end result and take it at face
value.
Someone within the organisation – marketer or analyst – needs to know what goes
into the calculation.
Two further issues tend to arise with value segmentation. There is an ever-present
danger that any scheme looking at customer value now will focus on present
value and fail to deal with past or potential value. The first of these is picked up
below in the section on migration segments.
The second is resolved by focussing not on current value, but on Lifetime Value,
or potential. Neither of these is the optimum answer. Use of Lifetime Value
brings its own problems, as data from telcoms suggest that it is unwise to attempt
to predict this too far into the future.
The telcom business is very dynamic. For some operators in largely pre-paid
markets, the average ‘lifetime’ of a customer is often less than 9 months. In
addition, markets are often so dynamic that products that have no influence on
predicted value in 1 month may be the key to high value just 6 months later.
The end result of value-based segmentation should first be the use of Detail-based
Profitability Measurement to drive CRM. Clearly, there are, or should be,
differences in approach for segments categorised as High Revenue/Low Margin
versus those categorised as Low Revenue/High Margin.
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Mad about the ad!!!
Asian Paints: Nice is just Nice
Aparna Ganesh
Asian paints always tries to come up with catchy advertisements for the various
products it has. At times they want to showcase the launch of a new product,
some other time, they just talk about the exhilarating home decor experience it
provides for the customers and many a times, they just want to remind customers
about their brand presence in the market. Their target audience is the middle aged
man who earns pretty well for his living, and accordingly choose the characters to
represent Asian Paints. For years Saif Ali Khan has been the brand ambassador
for Asian paints Royale. This time they came out with something new, the
concept of “NICE”. The advertisement starts with a couple going to store and
purchasing some of things required for their house. The store person shows one of
the lamp to the couple, the husband (Saif Ali Khan) in response says NICE to the
storekeeper and then tells his wife that whenever anything is just OK, he says
NICE. He keeps on saying NICE for many of the other buying choices they have
to make. Later, they arrange a party at their place and the husband takes one of his
friend opinion on the design and the look of the house and in response the person
also says nice. The husband feels awkward and tries bringing on changes in the
house by renovating it and adding life to it by choosing Asian paints Royale and
making the house awesome and amazing as the husband wants always.
The advertisement is simple and clear in saying that if you want your house to be
extraordinary instead of “Nice”, then use Asian paints Royale and make it look
royal. The ad doesn’t talk about the price of the product , but usually prices for
such products are not been mentioned in the advertisement and the name itself
says its Royale so it’s very much understood that it must be priced in a royal way
too. Distemper and normal paints are the area in which the company talks about
the price and savings, but for premium products like Royale, price is not an
important factor for the customers as well the producer.
Airtel 4G’s open challenge: Fast and furious
Designed as a face-off battle, the ad places two competitors (women) on a
building's rooftop amidst an excited crowd, where they are asked to perform
various mobile data related tasks like web searches and downloads.
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One contender is significantly quicker than the other because she uses the Airtel
4G network, as discovered later in the ad. It ends with a challenge for the viewers,
proposing that if they find a swifter network, their mobile bills will be paid for,
life-long. Through the advertisement they want to inform the customers about the
speed and the service this 4G will provide to the consumer.
This might work well if it goes and hits the right set of audience as these days
usage of mobile internet has increased, people prefer everything online like
shopping, paying the bills, watching a song or movie etc. and sometimes they
cannot do this because of bad network and time consumption (especially when
they are in a hurry) but for them this service will provide benefit as the work they
wanted will be done in better manner without wasting any time.
If we look at it from another angle it might go wrong as the advertisement is
talking nothing about the price and it is not providing enough incentive to the
customer to switch to 4G network. It is good that this advertisement is to the point
by mentioning about the speed it will provide to the customers but it does not talk
about the transformation this 4G network will bring to the customers life, so the
customer might feel that he/she is not missing anything by not using the 4G
network.
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Guerrilla Marketing: War in the shadows
Guerrilla marketing designates the selection of a typical and non-dogmatic
marketing activities that aim to achieve the greatest possible impact in the ideal
case with a comparable minimum investment. It is a fine line between innovative,
creative marketing and producing reactance in the minds of the audience by
exceeding certain limits to have the best impact.
“The guerrilla must move amongst the people,
as a fish swims in the sea.”
It is the same with guerilla marketing, it all makes an abrupt change in the market
by the strategies like kind of a hidden ideas sprouting out like a waving fish
.Often it disrupts the market in many ways. The philosophy of guerrilla marketing
consists of attaining conventional marketing objectives with unconventional
methods. These unusual measures aim at gaining a competitive advantage over
competitors. Guerrilla Marketing is all about creating buzz and unconventional
marketing tactics. A good idea does not need to be expensive. As a designer we
have to find ways to create something visually effective without having a large
budget. So if your company has a creative solution it can be an interesting way to
interact with the community.
“SPEECH IS SILVER, SILENCE IS GOLDEN”
The world has changed its perspective now to:-
“SPEECH IS GOLD”
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Marketing has reached such a level that we cannot recognize what is to come,
even TV ads has changed their concepts. We are unable to determine whether the
shown advertisement is of a deodorant or a washing powder, that’s where now
marketing stand. So to stand out is the only way to be in the market. Creativity in
marketing is very much different from creativity in arts, although marketing is as
eclectic an art form as has ever been devised by humankind. Marketing embraces
writing, design, photography, video, special effects, music, dancing, and actingand yet its purposes are not those of the arts. Guerrillas view marketing with ten
insights into marketing creativity that illuminates the path for them. These
insights prevent them from going over the edge, losing their way or wasting their
time and money. Guerilla marketing is all about the strategies adopted, the way it
gets planned and the extent to which it is executed determines the success.
A firm which believes in the spirit of risk taking only can behold the feel of
guerilla marketing to its full swing and depth .What we do in this segment instead
of traditional behavior in marketing are : Instead of investing money in the marketing process, you invest time, energy
and imagination.
 Instead of ignoring customers once they've purchased, you have a fervent
devotion to customer follow-up.
 Instead of believing that single marketing weapons such as advertising work,
guerrillas know that only marketing combinations work.
So it is all about thinking out of box …
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Marketing – Doing It Right
“Make your marketing so useful people would pay you for it.” – Jay Baer
The greatest marketing campaigns are those that are memorable. They are the
ones that resonate with your audience and really create an affinity between your
customer, the messaging, and the product or service. Because there are so many
ways to reach customers in today’s complex digital world, marketers have more
and more opportunities to create campaigns that leverage different mediums.
Some of the most innovative campaign are capturing attention both online and
off, and leveraging sound, sight, taste, and even smell
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola has really hit it out of the park recently with their campaigns. They
have done an incredible job at connecting with their audience through
understanding their motivations and the nostalgic feelings behind craving a can of
Coke. Another impressive aspect of recent campaigns is the attention that Coke
puts into making each message global. Coke has smartly positioned them as a
brand that connects millions of people across the world.
Recently, Coke has upped their game with how they get people to not only
emotionally engage with their brand, but also with each other. They created a
vending machine that enabled people in India and Pakistan to communicate. And
in Europe Coke is offering customers a chance to customize their own Coke
bottles with their names. The most recent iteration is the idea of having a can of
Coke that twists apart into two smaller cans so you can share! I immediately
resonated with this. I love Coca-Cola, but I often can’t finish a full can, so having
two small cans that I can share with a loved one is genius. Currently, the cans are
only available in limited quantities during a trial through their “Happiness Truck”.
So that is a bummer, but I have high hopes the concept will make it to the
mainstream
Red Bull
Austrian company Red Bull does such a great job with global marketing that
many Americans assume it’s a local brand.
One of its most successful tactics is to host extreme sports events all over the
world. From the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix to the Red Bull Air Race in the
United
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Kingdom to the Red Bull Soapbox Race in Jordan, the brand's powerful event
marketing strategy takes them here, there, and everywhere. Aside from events,
Red Bull's packaging also plays a part in its global appeal. Red Bull really looks
like a product from a global economy. It doesn't look like a traditional American
soft drink -- it's not in a 12-ounce can, it's not sold in a bottle, and it doesn't have
script lettering like Pepsi or Coke. It looks European. That matters. Though it's
since diversified its product selection since that article was
published, the fact
remains that Red Bull's consistent packaging has helped this brand go global
Apple
Apple stands as the one technology company that truly gets marketing. It defines
the next big thing and creates game-changers in existing markets before people
themselves even know what they want. It doesn't use focus groups or research;
Apple is its own focus group. It controls its channel and message better than any
company on earth.
Apple’s unique products are communicated to customers through novel and
provocative advertising. Although Apple’s product development utilizes multiple
branded partners, it broke with industry norms and turned down attractive
financial incentives to keep customers focused on the Apple brand and not its
component providers. Apple has brought on new suppliers such as Intel,
Microsoft, and ATI to provide hardware and software solutions for many of its
products. However, it has turned down co-marketing efforts (such as Intel stickers
on its machines) that every other major competitor participates in with those same
suppliers.
Nike
Nike (NKE) is a sneaker business that somehow became the world's largest sports
footwear and apparel company, one of the top brands in the world, and a $48
billion S&P 500 component. How? Great marketing: the swoosh logo, "word of
foot" advertising, and, of course, sponsoring athletes. I don't know, I guess Nike
Just Did It.
Nike has been able to evolve its global presence through the careful selection of
international sponsorships such as its previous long-standing relationship with
Manchester United. Although sponsorship spending can be fairly unpredictable -demand costs tend to surge due to triggers like championships and tournaments -these partnerships have certainly helped the brand capture the
attention of a
global audience.
Nike's NikeID co-creation platform serves as another strategy that the company is
using to appeal to international markets. By putting the power of design into the
hands of the consumer, Nike is able to deliver customized products that align with
different cultural preferences and styles.
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Social Media Marketing – Creating the
Buzz!!
“Marketing is the art of selling a product to a negatively biased or even an
unwilling customer”
Being a major contributing factor in business, marketing has always been held up
as significant by every corporate and industry. Because, if you can’t sell a product
then there is no use producing it.
Now as the world is moving towards the new age, the internet age, every little
transaction becomes online right from buying something as simple as a hair brush
to something as complex as furniture. And as more and more people go online, it
is vital to attract the online population to stay afloat in business.
This is where the Online Marketing comes into play.
Online Marketing primarily involves selling promotional marketing messages to
the customers through various means ranging from e-mails to Search Engine
Marketing and Social Media Marketing. While sending promotional emails have
been in business for a while, social media marketing is something new and
trending as we speak.
Social Media Marketing is one which revolves around increasing the website
traffic through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Let me say for an
example you have an e-magazine. How would you make people aware of your
presence? You can’t go about distributing pamphlets around which is by
anybody’s guess outdated. You need to get the attention of the people who would
matter. This is where social media comes into play. Let’s say Twitter for example,
if you’re a sports magazine, you watch the match online and tweet the timely
incidents promptly with the preset perfect hash tags. Other active twitter users
following the same match would be intimated by your tweet and your tweet
eventually becomes retweeted. That’s how you become famous. When the
number of retweets
increases every time, people are bound to check you out
and a good number of them are bound to start following you.
Facebook involves ceaselessly sharing your page’s contents to make others aware
of your initiative. Promotional measures and advertising which Facebook provide
for a price are also a good way to improve followers and potential customers.
Apart from these, a number of websites and mobile applications allow
advertisements to be posted in their space for a fee. This is too is a very good
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promotional method. The trick is to find the exact balance between tempting
people and annoying people as anybody would get annoyed by a random
advertisement popping out of a website or an application. The means of sending
promotional emails is gradually reducing as most people can’t isolate them from
spams and most email service providers tend to mark them as spams.
Forbes Magazine list Social Media Marketing as one of the major trend setter in
the forthcoming era of business. If companies don’t adapt themselves to the
change, there’s a good chance that they may perish in the longer run. A good
example for this is the chains of mobile retailers which developed in South India
by early 2000s which thrived once. Now all that remains is empty shops with
eager salesman waiting for customers who are far happier buying things online.
Because, if you can’t inspire a change, you at least need to accept the change to
survive it.
Change is synonymous with technology. And it is so fast it has a tendency to
leave you behind if you can’t change fast. The shift from the traditional marketing
to such forms of marketing boomed with the boom of the internet culture. And
nowadays, every company has a considerable online presence to earn customers.
“Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the
customer feel smart.”
– Joe Chernov
.
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Victoria’s Secret – Simple lessons that
Entrepreneurs can leverage
Feather wings, crystals, corsets, lace and a lot of skin... These are the first
things that come to mind for most people when they think of Victoria’s
Secret. It is the largest retailer of lingerie in America. It has impressive
and growing annual sales figures of $6 Billion. It spends an upwards of
$15 Million every year on its annual flagship Victoria’s Secrets Fashion
Show.
Victoria’s Secret was founded by a Stanford University alumnus Roy
Raymond, after an unpleasant and embarrassing experience while
purchasing lingerie for his wife at a departmental store, where he felt like
an unwelcomed intruder. This incident was all set to disrupt the very
concept of lingerie shopping. After studying the market patiently for eight
years and sourcing funds alongside, he along with his wife establish ed the
first store at a shopping mall, and the rest is history.
Here’s a look at some of the simple lessons which entrepreneurs can
leverage to disrupt the industry, and create great products and services
which will sustain and thrive even in highly competitive markets.
Build a brand bigger than product.
Victoria’s Secret sells a lifestyle. The spokeswomen are supermodels called
Angels. So, as you know, it’s not all about lingerie. To build a world-class
brand you’ll have to grab your customers’ lenses and look deep into their wants,
needs and desires. Essentially, your marketing efforts should tap into the
intersection of a customer’s interests and the features of your brand, also known
as consumer insights. Move past short-term transactional selling (i.e., promote
and sell only) to building long-term relationships. Learn why they care about your
brand. What are their underlying mind-sets, motivation, and aspirations that
trigger their attitude and actions?
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Engage in brand building activities.
The Victoria’s Secret annual fashion show, debuted in 1995, is just one shining
example of their strategic brand building efforts. Sure, the retailer is concerned
with transactional sales, but they also understand the bigger picture – one strategic
event can indirectly impact your bottom line. According to reports, the
extravaganza has evolved into the fashion event of the year and reportedly is
worth $6 billion in sales.
Create a snowball effect.
How does a social media post get people talking about your brand? How does
your trade show attendance impact other success metrics? Remember:
conversations spark awareness, and when people are aware they are more likely to
recall your brand. This indirectly supports conversions.
For example, according to analysis by Crimson Hexagon a social monitoring and
analytics firm, “While the Semi-Annual Sale seemed somewhat successful,
the Victoria’s Secret Fashion show proved to be by far the most effective
marketing tool to get people talking about Victoria’s Secret on social media. The
peak in conversation about the show also spurred conversation about the store and
the brand.” The company’s marketing efforts are keeping underwear on the minds
of consumers during a key sales and gift-giving season.
Think 360 integration.
Victoria Secret has created a “360-degree” brand. The retailer successfully
connects the dots between its retail, catalog, and web sales. “Across all
channels—catalog, stores, Internet—the same products are launched at the same
time, in exactly the same way, with the same quality, and same positioning.”
This symphonic-like marketing harmony is accomplished by long-range planning.
You don’t have to pull together a 12 month marketing calendar just yet; start with
a quarterly marketing plan that supports business goals. And most importantly,
execute in unison across your company website, social media channels, email
campaigns, retail stores, etc.
Make sure the left hand knows what the right hand is doing. Take a look at your
efforts and ask yourself, “Is our brand experience consistent whether a customer
visits our website, clicks on an email
newsletter, or follows us on Instagram?”
Reference – Erica Nicole for YFS
Magazine.
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In Conversation with Jitesh Bhist....
Natasha Thomas
Jitesh Bhist is our very own alumni, our fellow christite who was from the 201113 batch, Kengeri Campus. Jitesh started his career with InMobi and is still very
much working with them.
Here we take a look into his journey with InMobi and how his passion for work
has managed to make a huge impact on the company.
Q. How did you end up at InMobi?
A. Ever since I was in college I had a thing for startups. I knew that I wanted to
work for a startup where I get to make a difference with my contribution. I used to
go to lot of startup events. InMobi was a company I knew had something for me
and to my good fortune, they ended up coming for placements.
Q. What is the work you do in InMobi?
A. I’m into Partner management which is synonymous with relationship
management. I look into business development, managing app developers, mobile
app developers, understanding their needs and educate them as to how to make
more money, which user to target, which format to go for, understanding the
revenue model of developers.
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Q. Partner management is more of a consulting role. Did you start of with
the same role when you joined?
A. No I didn’t, infact my first role at InMobi was more of an operations role. I had
to design processes in delivering the customer proposition. Then I moved to the
role of a business analyst and then to my current role which is partner
management.
Q. Recently, you’ve been in news for being chosen as a character in a game.
How did that happen?
A. (laughs) Yes, that’s right. I was working with a Belgium based game
developer. During our meetings, I used to give them ideas on what can be done in
the game and in one of those meetings, they asked me if they could make me one
of the characters in the game. I’m a yogi baba in the game! (laughs)
Q. How does that feel?
A. Obviously it feels good. It’s something I never saw coming.
Q. So what are future plans?
A.Umm… my future plans, yes I have a couple of things in my mind. I want to
come up with my own venture, I want to explore game developing. So yes, my
venture will be more or less in the same sphere.
Q. What were your learnings from Christ?
A. I had engineering before coming to Christ. The two years in Christ helped me
move the ladder, it helped me identify what I wanted to do and in which direction
I wanted to go.
Q. Any advice you would like to give to current batch of students who will so
on be sitting for placements, looking for jobs, trying to find a place for thems
elves in the corporate world.
A. My advice would be to go with an open mind and be a generalist, don’t restrict
yourself to just one thing. Go out there, explore the world and in due process,
explore yourselves as much!
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Funny Bones!!
1. You’re at a party and see gorgeous girl. You get up
and straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour
her a drink, you open the door (of the car) for her,
pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her ride and
then say: “By the way, I’m rich. Will you
“Marry Me?” – That’s Public Relations… “
2. You’re at a party and see gorgeous girl. She walks
up to you and says “You are very rich!
“Can you marry me?” – That’s Brand Recognition. ..”
3. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to
her and say: “I am very rich. Marry me!” She gives you
a nice hard slap on your face. – “That’s Customer Feedback…”
4. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to
her and say: “I am very rich. Marry me!” And she
introduces you to her husband. – “That’s demand and supply gap…”
5. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to
her and before you say anything, another person come
and tell her: “I’m rich. Will you marry me?” and she
goes with him – “That’s competition eating into your market share…”
6. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to
her and before you say: “I’m rich, Marry me!” your
wife arrives. – “That’s restriction for entering new markets…”
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SIP Speak…
Manish Kuruvilla
Deepshika Baksi - Interra Information Technologies private Ltd
Topic –“Predictive analytics: Building sustainable model to gain insights into
prevailing trends and preferences.”
My task was to find a suitable model for predicting the initial bidding price for metal
auctions with the help of data from the previous 4 years. Instead of depending only
on natural instincts, prevalent macro and micro environmental and experience of
stalwarts, we used regression model to have an insights on the prevalent
parameters and their association with the auctioning process, thus being able to
logically and accurately deduce the future auction prices. The biggest challenge was
to find out the right model with an accurate precision as required by the client. We
used various tools like SPSS and R Programming to fulfil the need. The model
showed 77% precision which was significant considering the limited number of
variables given .It helped in eliminating the insignificant variables whereby
considering those variables contributing maximum in this model.
Deepti N Mitty - Vodafone Shared services
Topic – “Feasibility study of used goods market using mobile as a medium.”
Vodafone Shared services deals with developing various applications that
Vodafone designs. I was recruited as a market researcher where I learnt about
the corporate world, how they work and their work ideologies. I learned new
concepts and applied the same in the span of 10 days. At one point it was very
hard as I had to get approvals from different managers who weren't always
available due to their travel schedules. I had to meet executives from Mahendra
group who was buying the Vodafone SIM for their Reva cars which allowed me
to learn about different business transactions. I travelled different places of
Bangalore where I got to meet different people with different lifestyles. The
product I worked upon is mbazaar which deals with buying and selling of used
goods having mobile as a platform. I was allowed to analyse my research and my
findings and inferences helped the organization to find more alternatives. I
would conclude working hard and smarter are equally important for a better
output
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[Cite your source here.]
Sharon Johnson - Vodafone solutions group
Topic - “Market research for new market development”
First of all….DETAILING…how important do you think is detailing is in your
work? Very? Highly? Detailing not just lets you perfect your work but if
practiced religiously will actually save you time. When you here the term it
might sound very generic because it is! So generic that you should use it in
every single thing you do, preparing your report to the spacing and
punctuations you put it in. Well let’s just say most of the top level and able
managers will be extremely scrupulous everything they do.
Next is EXCEL, this is something I wish I would have learned before starting
the internship, it would have saved me a lot of time, as I had to enter every
single of my research responses into an excel file
I must say that I was lucky enough rather than to say talent that let me
actually contribute to the organization, because I know for a matter that
most of my friends had to perform their tasks which were given by
organization, which has no space for contribution from their end. The
research I did for the product is in the pre-launch phase in India, and my
suggestions and inferences had helped product team to search for more
alternatives.
[Cite your source here.]
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Victor Mondal -Kotak life insurance
Topic – “Business Development and Market research on Kotak Life insurance products
and services”
Summer Internship at Kotak gave me a chance to understand the imperative need of
insurance in each individual’s life as well as the desired skill set required to sell an
insurance product. Doing my summer internship in my hometown made my work easier
in converting potential customers into leads. During the negotiation process with the
customer I built trust and established a lucid communication before discussing about the
products. I used to follow-up the customers at regular intervals to convert them into
leads. Many of the times, people were refraining from reviewing their insurance unless it
seemed absolutely necessary to them. I contribute a considerable amount of revenue by
selling some insurance products. I also did a market research to find out what are the
important factors that a customer looks while buying an insurance product. This data
complemented the company’s strategy on customer centric analysis and design of the
product. I also did a market research on which channel would harmonize the sale of
Kotak insurance products and my findings had proved that Insurance agent has the
maximum potential. The survey was done in Kolkata and the data was collected in the
form of questionnaire by a face to face interview. The target respondents were selected
by convenience sampling method.
Kartik S. – Kennametal India Ltd., Bangalore (U.S. based machining and tooling
company)
Topic – “Generating leads and estimating market size of cold forging markets”
The project was related to the estimation of market potential of cold forging in the
machining and tooling industry. Kennametal serves currently, tier 1 companies. It
wanted to enter other markets, which comprised of smaller companies using cold
forged tools. The task was to generate leads other than tier 1 companies and estimate
current market size of the industry. At the end of project there were more than 50 leads
generated and the market size estimation done was more or less matching with the
internal estimation done by company’s management. The time constraint was a major
challenge as the project was more of research, it required analysis in depth except that
there were no other major difficulties in carrying out the project .The project went off
track couple of times, so it is very important to discuss the decisions you take with your
mentors to save time and be efficient
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Quiz Time:
Q1) The Company was founded in 1910 in japan. The company was coined from
two kanji characters meaning “sun” and “rise”. Identify the company.
Q2) Which company mobile phones are marketed with the slogan – Big inside.
Small outside.
Q3) Which is the US brand of Coffee that TATA coffee acquired for $220 Million
Q4) Which is the world’s first credit card?
Q5) Which famous logo was designed by Carolyn Davidson in 1971 for just 2
dollars an hour.
Q6) Which cricketer has signed on to endorse for KFC.
Q7) Horlicks is a product of ________.
Q8) CEOs of the following firms
A) McDonalds
B) Harley- Davidson
C) Zara
D) Porsche
E) Intel
Q9) Taglines of which firms
A) Don’t dream it. Drive it
B) It’s everywhere you want to be.
C) Between love and madness lies obsession
D) Quality in everything we do
E) The world’s networking company
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Answers:
1) Hitachi
2) Samsung
3) Eight O Clock Coffee
4) Diners Club
5) Nike Swoosh
6) Muthaiya Muralidharan
7) Smith Klien Beecham
8. A) McDonalds – Donald Thompson
8. B) Intel – Brian Krzanich
8. C) Harley- Davidson - Keith E. Wandell
8. D) Zara – Pablo Isla
8. E) Porsche - Matthias Müller
9. A) Jaguar - Don’t dream it. Drive it
9. B) VISA - It’s everywhere you want to be.
9. C) Calvin Klein - Between love and madness lies obsession
9. D) AT&T - The world’s networking company
9. E) Ernst & Young - Quality in everything we do
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Minds behind the M-Ask
Top Left to Right : Jishnu Banerjee, Vaskar Dey, Prof. Rahul Gupta, Dona Jose, Pramudula Akhilesh
Bottom Left to Right : Dipanjan Datta, Natasha Thomas, Deepti Mitty, Aparna Ganesh, Ishvaryaa B, Manish Kuruvilla
Institute of Management, Christ University
Kengeri Campus, Mysore Road, Kanmanike,
Kumbalgodu, Bangaluru – 560060
Karnataka, India
www.christuniversity.in
Join our marketing group
www.facebook.com/groups/ChristUniversityMarketingClub
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