Dear Readers….

If you are wondering what is Market Rook,

the answer is that it is the dreamchild of

NITIE marketing group. It is not just any

marketing magazine that speaks latest

trends and reports news from the world of

marketing. But, it is a means to understand

the marketer in each on of us.

In the very first edition of Market Rook, we

have tried to skim through many waves in

the vast ocean of marketing. The new trends

of social media marketing and proximity

marketing have been highlighted and the

rising surge of Rural marketing has been

examined.

Marketers are not just confined to product

industries, but our own bollywood industry

sights many examples of fine marketing and

advertising strategies. We take a look at

some of them in our special segment “This is

Marketing too”.

Rendezvous with 3HD Media, a digital

media startup unveils the changing horizons

of digital marketing space.

Team NITIE Marketing group in

association with our sponsor National

Insurance Co. Ltd. has also successfully

conducted its first online article writing

competrition across 200 B-schools and we

are proud to publish the winning entries in

this edition.

The first theme of the article writing

competition was aimed at analyzing the role

marketing can play in the insurance sector in

India which still remains a large untapped

market compared to the economies of the

West. The second theme contrasts the role of

celebrities and mascots in building a brand’s

image.

Team NMG extends its heartfelt thanks to

all participants and heartiest

congratulations to the winners.

The magazine also promises to be one that

blends fun with learning. Do take a look at

our Marketainment column and learn

Marketing the gaming way.

Dear Readers, We hope the magazine equips

you with all the weapons needed, when you

“suit up” in the marketer armour.

Your valuable feedback would help us grow

and improve.

Once again, welcome to the world of

Marketing where only one rule prevails-

Give what your customer wants,

Or

make him want what you give.

Happy Reading!!

Editor,

Market Rook

NITIE’s Marketing Magazine

1

This edition of Market Rook….

Go Rural: A budding Slogan For Marketing 1 Harsh Kulhara

Mascot Branding vs. Celebrity Advertising 3 Shilpa Sardar, FMS Delhi

Rendezvous 6 Christopher Lopes, Founder, 3HD Media

How can marketing be used to capture the yet untapped insurance

market in India?

9

Nithya Venkatachalam, National Insurance Academy,Pune

Special: This is Marketing too! 12 Raghu Mantangode

Let’s get Socially Connected 14 Swanpil S. Bhure , NITIE, Mumbai

Market-ictionary: Proximity marketing 17 Rinku Vatnani

Marketainment 18 Neha Goyal

Brandomania 19 Deepak Sahu

1

GO RURAL : A BUDDING SLOGAN

FOR MARKETING

Harsh Kulhara

Why Go Rural ?

Rural Markets have emerged as a „Woken up

Sleeping Giant‟, rising faster than

corresponding urban sectors. Growing

economy has ensued in increased purchasing

power for the rural communities, corroborated

through green revolution that advocates use of

industrial and urban manufactured products.

On account of this a dedicated strategy has

come forth to target country side population:

Rural Marketing, the term means marketing

products in rural areas, often confused with

Agricultural Marketing which means

marketing products of rural produce.

Why go Rural ?

Proliferation of brands has saturated the urban

market and set the planners to conquer new

arenas. With increasing population, agrarian

prosperity and standard of living, demands in

rural sector seem to be ever growing.

Eg.NAREGA Scheme.Large inflow of

investment for rural development from

government and other sources provides the

needful to develop the requisite infrastructure.

Increased contact of rural people with their

urban counterparts brings in brand recognition

and budding aspirations.

Moreover, since the rural markets are

laggards in picking up new products. This

will help the companies to phase their

marketing efforts.

This will also help to

sell inventories of

products out dated in

urban markets.

Rural market

estimation by HLL

that out of 6 lakh villages in India , only 1

lakh has been taped so far. Above all the rural

household form about 72% of total household

constituting a huge market for any product by

any standard.

For Rural Marketing to be the next big thing,

another vital input should be from Rural

Marketing research. For the same MART has

compiled rural data which it has made

available to the corporate sector via the

„Marketing White Book‟ and other

publications. Also, Participatory Rural

Appraisal (PRA) is a very successful tool for

social research. This tool has been adapted to

capture rural consumer insights and social

behavior.

Knowing your customers

Some points here may prove to be critical and

lucid enough to lure the big FMCG‟s.

Consumers in rural India buy products more

often (mostly weekly) and prefer to buy small

packs with low unit price. Another advantage

lies in the fact that in villages brands rarely

fight with each other; they just have to be

present at the right place. Many brands are

building strong rural base without much

advertising support. Illustrative examples of

which include Chik shampoo, second largest

shampoo brand and Ghadi detergent, third

largest brand.

One very fine example can be quoted of

Escorts where they focused on deeper

penetration. Looking at the 'kuchha' roads of

village, they positioned their bike as tough

vehicle. Their advertisements showed

Dharmendra riding Escort with the punch line

'Jandar Sawari, Shandar Sawari'. Thus, they

achieved whopping sales of 95000 vehicles

annually.

HLL started 'Operation Bharat' to tap the rural

markets. Under this operation, it passed out

low-priced sample packets of its toothpaste,

fairness cream, Clinic plus shampoo, and

Ponds cream to twenty million households.

BPCL introduced Rural Marketing Vehicle

2

(RMV) as their strategy for rural marketing. It

moves from village to village and fills small

size cylinders on the spot for the rural

customers.

What I feel, contrary to what many people

may perceive, people in rural India are

fiercely brand loyal like Single Brand

Villages. If they are once converted, it may be

difficult to dislodge them and not to miss the

first movers advantages.

For product and its make customization,

suggestions from rural women can be taken

into consideration before actually executing

the production process. Eg.Chotukool from

Godrej-Boyce.

Too penetrate further into the matter ,Build

Recognition here plays a vital role in the

success of any product in rural market.They

tend to understand symbols and colours

better. I still remember my grandma calling

Lifebuoy as Laal Sabun and Nirma as Peela

Powder

How to communicate with the Rural Folks ?

Dalda Vanaspathi Demonstration

Some more live cases

Mahindra Super Turbo 595DI tractor

GSK : ASHA-a milk food drink from

Horlicks in Andhra Pradesh

Nestle began promoting Maggi Noodles at Rs

4 and Maggi seasoning at Rs 2

Coca Cola has begun selling a powder based

beverage called Vintingo at Rs. 2.5 per sachet

across villages in Orissa

The story never ends here and everybody is

looking at Rural sector for potential Business

opportunities.

Conclusion

The bottleneck to penetrate in rural market

would be distribution aspect - the humongous

task of making the product physically

available to over 600,000 villages, most of

them without motorable roads. But it's not

really as nightmarish as it is made out to be, at

least keeping in mind the present goals of

marketing companies in rural India.

Also word of mouth promotion would be the

best strategy to get along as these markets

enjoy limited media updates.

To conclude providing creative products and

their “life time value” to the “bottom of the

pyramid” customers will always be essential

requirements for any rural marketing scenario.

3

Market Rook Article

Writing Competition

2012

WINNER ENTRY

Mascot Branding vs. Celebrity

Advertising

Shilpa Sardar, FMS Delhi

Brand Mascots have an astonishing effect on

consumer imagination. For the last century,

these mascots have been acquiring great

emotional response at the cost of failure of

celebrity advertising. The greatest challenge,

for now, is to identify where mascots fit in

better than celebrities and vice versa. Also,

the job of maintaining and upgrading the

mascot or celebrity endorsement plays a

crucial role in creating a sustainable brand

image.

Measuring the effectiveness:

Short run vs Long Run: Customers need

time to identify with the branding element. A

celebrity accelerates up this process drawing

rapid public attention while mascots take a

while to establish relationship with the

customers. But once it is done, people get

strongly affectionate about the mascots.

Virtual Product: Mascots personifies the

product and delivers the message.

For e.g. the Pillsbury doughboy

created a personality out of

flour. Without a mascot,

how impossible it would

be to position Pillsbury and

deliver the message of such a

virtual commodity.

Trustworthiness vs Negetive

Image: Mascots gain trust slowly, but once

done trust of the brand stays. Celebrities are

fast in gaining consumer trust but that can

collapse any time due to uneven career curves

i.e. due to negative image, public scandals etc.

Reach in the Market: Mascots can reach

where the company can‟t: birthday parties,

games and matches, store openings etc. They

manifest company and product‟s story, reflect

company culture. They gain trust of the

customer and build relationship.

In a diverse market like India, penetration is

far easier with a big celebrity like Amitabh

Bachhan. A star like him can reach across all

the demographic, geographic, psychographic

boundaries and transcend across the

limitations of age, income, language, region.

He has trust, credibility and can gain

maximum attention, can be persuasive and

likeable.

Creativity vs Innovation: Designing

innovative cartoon character with prop, eyes

and different postures, expressions needs

talented resource. Then, mascot makeover over

a longer period of time also takes large amount

of expertise.

But, for creating celebrity brand, issues

involved are popularity of that celebrity in that

product category, age and class of the celebrity,

whether from film or sports, overall public

image of celebrity etc. After analyzing these,

the matching attributes between celebrity and

brand are taken into consideration, which are

more of creation on practical aspects rather

than innovation.

Luxury brands vs Price Sensitive Items:

Celebrities portray aristocracy and richness of

luxury brands like cars, jewellery etc.

Mascots can never replace classy Amitabh for

Maruti Versa or elegant Lara Dutta for

D‟Damas.

4

A price-sensitive non-luxury item like

sunfeast biscuits penetrated the highly

saturated market with the magic of the mascot

sunny.

Fun vs Serious Issues: Mascots are nothing

but fun. A model of Ronald McDonald in

front of McD store is simply a symbol of

elation. Use of mascots in serious matters can

aggravate the situation. For e.g. celebrities

like Amitabh Bachhan are best suited to

advertise for Pulse Polio campaign.

Return on Investment: In celebrity

advertising, there is

high risk high return

ratio due to large

investment. Unless

there is synergy

between the brand

and the celebrity, it

is proved to be

ineffective. On the

contrary, mascot

brandind is far more cost effective with high

return. The Chintamoni ad of ICICI costs only

7 lakh rupees while celebrity endorsement

would cost in crores.

Brand Switching: Unlike celebrities

mascots are owned by companies for lifetime.

Amir Khan switched from Pepsi to Coke but

it‟s never

possible to

exchange

Nerolac

Tiger Goody with Asian Paint‟s Gattu.

Mascots educate people: Current issues

however delicate may it be can be best

communicated by mascots. As Amul‟s butter

Girl speaks about the current matters in a

funny way reaching customers effectively, no

celebrity can ever replicate this putting their

image at stake.

Celebrity endorsement in india has proved to

lessen expenditure on Media and other

publicity. For e.g. endorsement of Hrithik for

Tamarind has cut down the expenditure by

40-50 percent.

Celebrities whom people look up as ideal

have resulted in bringing favorable brand

attitude to purchase decisions increasing

brand association with the customers.

Multiple Brand-one celebrity: Amitabh

Bachhan is enacting Parker, Hajmola,

Navrattan Oil, Cadbury dairy milk and many

more. It affects the credibility of the celebrity

who sells so many products and reduces his

likeability as well as dilutes the brand

association with the endorser.

One Brand- Multiple Celebrity: On the

other hand, Coke has been endorsed by Hritik

Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Aamir Khan,

Virendra Sehwag and many more in the

category. So many celebrities destroy the

distinctiveness of the product and make the

brand recall difficult.

5

Overshadow the brand:

Both mascots and celebrities can distract the customers from the brand. Fido

Dido of 7-UP deviated the target group from buying the brand and instead

ended up selling the mascot itself through images in tiffin boxes, water

bottle, shirts etc. But with celebrity, it‟s much more prevalent. In a survey,

80% of the respondents could not recall the brand and rather remembered the

celebrity in the ad.

Model of Meaning Transfer: For celebrity advertising, this model of transferring the brand

message to customer is longer and more difficult than mascots. Firstly, the brand has to find a

celebrity whose attributes matches with the product. Then, the message has to be delivered through

the celebrity. Aishwariya is an epitome of beauty, charisma, elegance which has impeccably

reflected through Nakshatra Diamonds.

Mascot: As the sign of resistance to change: Fast changing world environment and rapid

demographic shifts causing ever-changing customer buying behavior and target group of customers,

demand re-branding exercise as inevitable. Mascots preferably establishing long-term connection

are not enthusiastic in facing change. E.g. Asian paints dropped its mascot Gattu due to image

change for mass appeal in rural areas.

Mascots in mature life cycle: When the market is saturated and it is impossible to sell new

products, mascots come in handy to differentiate the product.

Likeability: Mascots are adorable and are something that you would grow likeness for over a

period of time. A Tiger Woods‟ commercial can be attractive but it can‟t be as likeable and

memorable as Pillsbury doughboy. Friendly and smiling mascots with direct eye contact can build

far more strong chords of faith than any celebrity would do.

Emotional Connect & Brand awareness:

People are emotionally connected to the

words of some celebrities like Shahrukh

Khan, Amitabh Bachhan and would believe

their words more quickly and strongly than a

newly launched animated mascot.

War between Vodafone & Airtel: It started

off with celebrity advertising only. Vodafone

brought Irfan Khan whereas Airtel came up

with Madhavan-Vidhya Balan ads to beat it.

But, Vodafone played its masterstroke by

introducing inimitable cuddly zoo zoos.

Conclusion:

Mascots are a one-shot masterpiece. So,

implementing mascots are more difficult and

less costly than celebrity endorsing. Mascots

if built and communicated in a proper way

which is hard to achieve can yield long term

benefits reinforcing the customer-product

relationship.

In an emerging country like India which is

dominated largely by rural population, perfect

competition exists in the leading sectors like

FMCG, Retail etc. Low cost mascots will

soon be encompassing these sectors where

product differentiation is difficult with low

price margin.

6

New Avenues in Advertising

(Exclusive Interview with Mr. Christopher Lopes, founder, 3HD Media)

With Facebook becoming a unique country in itself, with every autorickshaw wala and every

handcart puller carrying a mobile, with a growing majority of people seen talking when

walking, with the dog following wherever you go and with the number of hours spent online

being more than the hours spent eating and sleeping, Digital and Mobile Advertising has

become more and more attractive for marketers.

3HD Media is a rich digital media agency offering an endless list of digital services all aimed at

engaging the customer on one single touch point that the customer never fails to carry along and

that is their mobile phone.

To find out more about this unique media agency and the ultra-unique services it offers to its

clients, Market Rook had an exclusive talk with Mr.Christopher Lopes, founder, 3HD Media.

7

How was the company started? What ideas and

insights laid the foundation for 3hdmedia?

We just started a couple of months back and we

are growing at a very fast pace. 3HD Media is a

digital media agency and what led to its

formation is the fact that India is a very young

country with 1/6th of the world’s population

making it the cradle of humanity. Facebook and

other digital media space is growing and will

grow in the months to come.

We recognized this potential and developed an

algorithm that could detect people’s mood on

Facebook and it could be utilized to filter and

send selective advertisements to them depending

upon their moods.

From there we picked up and we are galloping

high.

So how fast is your company growing? What is

your Business model like?

3HD Media is a self-financed company. We have

already achieved our break even. We have a

collaboration with a lot of other companies

mainly telecom and earn on a project basis from

our clients.

How do you track the effectiveness of any

campaign or project? The conversion ratio….

The online medium is very easily traceable. It is

unlike the traditional television medium wherein

you have the TAM publishing TRPs for about a

140mn plus based on a sample of just 4000

monitoring meters installed.

Moreover, the digital medium is a 2 way

communication. I don’t like to talk in terms of the

ROI. In my opinion, the world has moved from

being a world of interruption to a world of

interaction, from interaction to engagement, and

from engagement to a world of involvement.

Hence, what is important in today’s times is the

Return on Involvement. The digital medium is one

which can effectively deliver that.

Do you mind mentioning some of your clients.. As a policy, we don’t mention the names of our clients but I can tell you that we have our clients spread across all sectors of the Industry. How effective is the digital medium in terms of

reach and cost in comparison to the traditional

media of radio, television, print and cinema?

Let me give you some stats. Today India has

about 900 million mobile users and each of the

top three telecom operators in India have a

customer base of over 130 million each. That says

about the reach of the digital medium. As far as

the cost is concerned, it is definitely cheaper as of

now than the traditional media esp. television.

A new study that was revealed by Millward

Brown’s Dynamic Logic at Advertising Week’s

Mobile Media Summit, said that Mobile display

advertising generally outperforms online display

advertising. Yet it was reported that ever since

TRAI announced DO-Not-Call registry service,

mobile users are ditching the tele-marketers and

within 5 days, over 5 million people had already

subscribed to the service.

Your comment…

I believe that mobile users will not reject your

advertisement if you give them what he wants. In

most of the cases, digital advertising is done via

bulk SMS without giving much thought to the

target group. I believe that a customer, in the

context of SMS based advertising, says “Show me

that you know me.”

And the idea is one should know how to filter and

reach out to the correct target group, people will

be interested in what you want to give to them.

What is Location Based Advertising? And how

has it benefitted your clients?

Suppose you are 100 metres away from

McDonalds. And I float a message on your

mobile- Get a coke free with a McVeggie. You are

likely to drop in and treat yourself. That is the

power of Location Based Advertising. In terms of

8

how it benefits the clients, it’s a simple answer. It

increases their sales..

A successful product launch today requires an

integrated approach; what role does internet

marketing (or in particular, 3HD Media) play in a

product launch?

For example, let’s say there is a product launch

happening in Mumbai. I could stream that

product launch across the country on the mobile

phones. We have done that in the past.

How do you see companies like McCann Erickson

and Ogilvy & Mather? As high end

competitors?.. Or PayPod, Ozone Media,

Sulekha Ad Network …

We are basically a technology company. We are

not an advertising company. So we don’t compete

with these advertising companies.

In terms of Technology, we could offer you on a

2G network, a 12fps experience on a 70Kbps

bandwidth.

The other companies you mention are also not

our direct competitors. I haven’t yet heard of any

company offering what 3HD media company.

Your company has recently started offering

summer internship programs in streams MBA,

BMM, BMS, BE, MCA. How lucrative are profiles

such as social media manager, or telemarketer

vs. the established profiles of Marketing.

My bit of advice to everybody in the marketing

industry, you should be very keen about the

online medium because that is one medium that

is the talk of the town today.

Most of the marketers today ignore the online

medium which they should not as this medium is

bound to grow tremendously.

Most B-schools today, to be very honest, are still

a lot into traditional marketing. I have been in

touch with a lot of B-school students across the

country. Most B-schools today are training you

physically and mentally for white collar jobs and

my suggestion is that they should offer not only a

course in MBA but also in MBC i.e. Masters of

Business Creation. Not many of these B-schools

are producing entrepreneurs.

You know, it’s the most interesting time of

humanity these days esp. in a country like India.

And it’s so interesting being an entrepreneur in

these times, you have knowledge floating all

around and we are leading such a young country.

What are the skills you look for, in a social

media manager?

To be honest, yes it does require some bit of basic

IT skills. For example, when I talk to an MBA

Systems guy and I ask him to create a Facebook

page. Trust me; there are guys that don’t even

know that. But they are system guys. So, you

don’t have to know HTML, Java, ASP, .Net; but yes

basic exposure to IT is required for this kind of a

job.

I really suggest that B-schools across the country

change their curriculum to incorporate

technology courses and courses on

entrepreneurship and ideation.

Keeping in mind that the world is changing fast

and we live in an uncertain world. And in

uncertain times, ideation is the only way to

survive. If you look at Google or Facebook, they

were not born from inherited Businesses but from

a simple idea.

Scope of Digital Medium in India viz a viz in the

US.

We are galloping high. What US has reached in

10years, we would reach in 2 years. Keeping in

mind a country like India, Marketers cater to a

niche and in India even niche is large.

So my thoughts are that the digital medium in

India is going to move much much faster.

9

Market Rook Article

Writing Competition

2012

WINNER ENTRY

How can marketing

be used to capture the yet

untapped insurance market in

India?

Nithya Venkatachalam

National Insurance Academy,Pune

Need for Insurance penetration:

India with an average growth rate of 8% for

consecutive years, including modest growth

rate of 6.7% during recessionary period of

FY091 is among the fastest growing

economies. There exists inter-relationship

between economic growth and insurance

deepening.

The potential and performance of the

insurance sector is universally assessed using

two parameters, viz., Insurance Penetration

(contribution of the insurance industry in

relation to a nation's entire economic

productivity) and Insurance Density

(Insurance purchasing power). They reflect

scope of insurance sector in a country. As on

July 2011, new premium collection from all

Indian insurers2 (24-Life, 24-General, 1

national reinsurer (GIC), ECGC, Agriculture

Insurance Corporation of India and ESIC)

was Rs.4249 Cr.

Insurance density was USD 64.4 in 20103.

Insurance penetration was only 1.93% of

GDP (life -1.39%, non-life 0.54%) in 19994,

which increased to 5.25% in July 2011 (life:

4.60% and non-life: 0.65%). This number is

abysmal for a population of over 1 billion.

Notwithstanding this growth, most of what

we have learned relates to banking systems

and securities markets – with insurance

receiving only a passing mention.

Reasons for low penetration:

Mindset - Indians are skeptical about

untimely death and dismiss need for

insurance.

Insurance perceived as “push” product - It is

mostly “sold”, rarely “bought”.

Purpose – e.g. Life insurance is taken for

investment, tax saving, in short for

everything apart from need for insurance.

Being an intangible product it is more

difficult to explain.

How and where to begin for insurance

deepening?

Insurance being a subject matter of

solicitation the strategy is:

Explore---Examine---Expedite

People (Explore)

Probing (Examine)

Process (Expedite)

Segmentation based on:

demographics – age, gender, income

bracket, education, job

psychographics – social class,

lifestyle, personality

behavior – consumer behavior based

on shoppers, brand preferences

geographic – province, city, state

10

Targeting – multi segmented approach

providing specific policies for specific

customers through specific channels.

Positioning – Insurance companies should

position themselves as entities that are

infallibly committed to support aggrieved

customers during crisis times when help

sought is the most.

New distribution channels:

Apart from existing channels of distribution

including direct agents, Bancassurance,

brokers, tele-marketing and latest being

Mallassurance5 (e.g. – Future Generali

Insurance sold at Big Bazaar outlets) some

unconventional channels that can be explored

are:

Teleassurance (Microinsurance Distribution

through telecom operators)

As on Dec 2011, India had 893 million

mobile users6. Microinsurance (involving

small premiums) can be marketed using

teleassurance by partnering with IRDA

certified mobile operators for selling simple

products. This channel facilitates ease of

premium payment which can be added to the

monthly postpaid bill or fixed amount

deducted from prepaid phones with every

usage.

Partnership with Electricity Distribution

Company:

Microinsurance is the opportunity to large

untapped rural insurance market in India.

Customers can be offered alternative, non-

electricity products that can be paid through

their electricity bill including insurance. This

model is successfully implemented between

Codensa, an electricity utility company, and

the insurance company Mapfre in Columbia7.

According to Central Electricity Authority

(CEA), as on Dec 2009 around 18% of

villages and 45% of total households in India

had no access to power8.

Thus, more than 10 distribution

companies providing electricity to remaining

82% villages apart from urban centers qualify

for such distribution. With no intermediaries

over and above the sales force, this channel

will be highly profitable and cost-effective.

Adoption of these strategies will require

capital, resources and infrastructure, funds for

which can be raised through Initial Public

Offerings (IPOs). Thus permitting private

insurers to come up with IPOs will fuel

insurance penetration.

Web enabled channels:

(Social media, company websites,

community sites, search engines):

India has crossed the landmark 100 million

mark of internet users in September, at 112

million users (88 million urban + 24 million

rural villages)9. Smartphone devices, budget

tablets are other sources of accessing internet

while on the move. Customers turn to

websites to fulfill their policy purchases,

renewal, termination, quotes and premium

comparisons. Presence in social networking

media will help insurers connect attentively

with customers.

Thus, web enabled channels accelerate:

1. Customer Acquisition

2. Customer Retention

3. Agent Acquisition

11

4. Employee Acquisition

5. Brand Promotion

Regulator - should advertise the benefits and

importance of insurance in mitigating

risks in a concerted fashion on lines similar to

those of educating consumer rights (“Jago

Grahak Jago”), promoting tourism (Incredible

!ndia), promoting Ayurveda/Homeopathy

medicine etc.

Scope and Limitations:

According to IRDA figures of Nov 2011,

India has about 57 crore of insurable

population. Distribution channels comprising

brokers, bancassurance, corporate agents

accounted for nearly 2110

percent of all new

business in the year 2009-10.

Greater insurance penetration generates

more employment, rise in per capita income

and growth in GDP resulting in systemic

effect. Health insurance premium size is

expected to reach to Rs 30,000 Crores by

201511

. This coupled with increasing

healthcare costs and inflation makes the

segment lucrative. Motor insurance is

mandatory (section 146 Motor Vehicle act

1988) and annual vehicle sales projected to

increase to 5 million by 2015 gives an idea of

potential of this market. Intermediaries are

restricted to selling products of only insurer

each for life and general thereby limiting

customer‟s choices. Social media opens up a

window for critics, bad customers to vent

their anger leading to negative publicity.

Spammers, phishing attacks, lack of internet

access restrict feasibility of promoting

insurance online. With huge power crisis,

electricity supply being intermittent,

unreliable and over 300 million having no

access to electricity, people have little faith in

core competency of electricity distribution

companies. Under such circumstances,

providing services deviant from their core line

of business including insurance may cast

doubt in minds of people about the

effectiveness of such a channel. In the race for

acquiring market share, there is lot of miss-

selling in insurance.

Despite its significant role in economic

development, insurance penetration in India is

low because of lack of awareness, mindset,

agent turnover, lack of capital etc.

Notwithstanding any of these factors, mission

of insurance sector should be to reach nook-

and-corner of the country. Micro-insurance is

necessary as success of schemes meant for the

rural poor in India like the National Rural

Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS)13

,

Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY),

Arogyashri, Indira Awaas Yojana etc.,

depends fairly on the ability of the financial

system to mitigate the risks arising out

of unforeseeable natural calamities and other

disasters. Customer Relationship

Management, customized innovative policies,

augmenting business from existing

intermediaries and encouraging

unconventional channels of distribution is the

need of the hour.

12

Special: This is Marketing too!

Raghu Mantangode

Movie Marketing is the practice

of promotion specifically in the film industry.

As with all business it is an important part of

any release because of the inherent high

financial risk; film studios will invest in

expensive marketing campaigns to maximize

revenue early in the release cycle. Marketing

budgets tend to equal anywhere between half

or three times the production budget.

Publicity is generally handled by the

distributor and exhibitors.

Techniques

In theaters

Trailers are a mainstay of film promotion,

because they are delivered directly to movie-

goers. They screen in theatres before movie

showings. Generally they tell the story of the

movie in a highly condensed fashion

compressing maximum appeal into two and

half minutes.

Film posters

Slideshows - stills, trivia, and trivia games

from the film, shown between movie

showtimes.

Standees (freestanding paperboard life-size

images of figures from the film)

Cardboard 3D displays, sometimes

producing sound

Television and radio

Hollywood movie distributors spend about

$4 billion a year to buy paid advertising (30-

second TV commercials, newspaper ads, etc.)

and over half that total is placed on broadcast

and cable TV, which are the main vehicles for

advertising movies to audiences. TV is

effective because it is an audio-visual medium

– like film – and can deliver a vast audience

quickly, which is crucial because films

typically don‟t linger in theatres more than 4–

6 weeks, according to Marketing to

Moviegoers: Second Edition.

Product placement: paid active or passive

insertion (as on-set posters, and action

figures) of film brand in drama or sitcom

shows, or as passing mentions in dialogue.

For example, 20th Century

Fox commissioned an I, Robot-themed

motorcycle, featured on two episodes (2:17,

2:18) of American Chopper. The

film Memoirs of a Geisha was placed

throughout an episode of the T.V.

showMedium.

Extended placement: full episodes of

television talkshows (Oprah), entertainment

news programs (ET), or network news

programs (20/20), devoted to compensated

exposure of the film, stars, clips, director, etc.

In addition, interviews with actors and

directors which are filmed en masse at a hotel

with local and national entertainment

reporters which are featured on local

news shows, programs on cable networks, and

series such as Byron Allen's series of

entertainment series like Entertainment

Studios.

Production and paid broadcast of behind-

the-scenes documentary-style shows, the type

of which are mainly produced

for HBO, Showtime and Starz.

Advance trailers, longer previews, or

behind-the-scenes footage on rental videos

and DVDs.

13

Internet

Creation of standalone studio-sponsored per-

film websites such as "example-the-

movie.com".

Viral marketing: free distribution of trailers

on movie-oriented websites and video user-

generated-content websites, and rapid

dissemination of links to this content by email

and blogs. Includes alleged leakage of

supposed "rushes" and "early trailers" of film

scenes. Sometimes, the efforts go further such

in the lead to the successful premiere of the

film, The Muppets which preceded by several

original film shorts on YouTube over a

number of years while the film was in

production.

Creation of Internet Marketing campaign

using Paid Advertisement and Social Media

Marketing

Marketing through new online film market

services such as Rightstrade and Mediapeers

Print

Paid advertisement in newspapers,

magazines, and inserts in books.

Cross-promotion of original book or

novelization, including special printings, or

new cover jackets ("Now a major motion

picture.")

Comic special editions or special episodes

Merchandising

Paid co-branding (Eragon in American

Chopper-two episodes), or co-advertising

(Aston Martin and James Bond films) of a

product with the film.

Promotional giveaways: branded drink cups,

toys, or food combinations, at fast food

chains.

Promotional tour

Film actors, directors, and producers appear

for television, radio, and print media

interviews, sometimes showing a clip from

the film or an outtake. Interviews are

conducted in person or remotely. During film

production, these can take place on set. After

film release, key personnel make appearances

in major market cities, or participate remotely

via "satellite" or telephone.

Audience research: There are seven distinct

types of research conducted by film

distributors in connection with domestic

theatrical releases, according to "Marketing to

Moviegoers: Second Edition." Such audience

research can cost $1 million per film,

especially when scores of TV advertisements

are tested and re-tested. The bulk of research

is done by major studios for the roughly 170

major releases they mount each year that are

supported by tens of millions of advertising

buys for each film. Independent film

distributors, which typically spend less than

$10 million in media buys per film, don‟t

have the budget or breadth of advertising

materials to analyze, so they spend little or

nothing on pre-release audience research.

When audience research is conducted for

domestic theatrical release, it involves these

areas:

Positioning studies versus other films that

will premiere at the same time.

Test screenings of finished or nearly

finished films; this is the most well known.

Testing of audience response to advertising

materials.

Tracking surveys of audience awareness of a

film starting six weeks before premiere.

Exit surveys questioning film goers about

their demographic makeup and effectiveness

of marketing.

Title testing in an early stage.

Concept testing that would occur in

development phase of a film before it is

produced.

14

MySpace, Orkut and Facebook

• To stay in touch with friends

• Share ideas

• Meet new people

LinkedIn

• Best for entrepreneurs and professionals

• Create contacts for hiring / outsourcing

Flickr

• Sharing photos

Let’s get Socially

Connected

Swanpil S. Bhure

NITIE, Mumbai

Anyone cognizant about innovations in

internet technology and computer mediated

communication streams (whether for business

purposes or personal discourse), has probably

noticed the surge in usage of interactive

membership communities, more commonly

known as "social networks" and "social

media." New research by Knowledge

Networks states 83% of the entire online

population, aged 13 to 54, now use the

internet to engage in social media. Social

media marketing involves using membership

spaces to engage and connect to an audience

of potential customers in the language and in

the places they are accustomed to. Put simply,

if prospective customers are using online,

social networking communities, then that's

where an organization's outbound marketing

messages should be. Now there are no

traditional divisions between the marketing,

advertising and branding. The far-flung use

of social media calls for a fully integrated

approach to communicating the value of the

brand by integrating the social media

marketing into all phases of marketing plan.

Social media site brings a revolution in the

overall sale and traffic, if marketed properly

using some best SEO techniques. Companies

use social media tool to launch a product and

also to interact with its customers. In fact,

there are many companies have used social

media to promote their brand to improve and

some of those companies have achieved

remarkable success. Top 10 social media sites

are:

1. Orkut

2. Facebook

3. Twitter

4. Flickr

5. Hi5

6. My Space

7. Xanga

8. Linkedin

9. Blogger

10. WordPress

The success of social networks marks a

dynamic shift in how people are using the

Internet. We‟ve evolved from just searching

for information to creating and participating

in social spaces with other individuals

through the Internet. This model is based

upon the hive mentality where people identify

themselves as part of a group with similar

likes and interests that draw them together.

This is easy to do online because the

traditional communication barriers of physical

locations no longer exist.

SEO and Social Networks

Social networks make viral marketing and

word-of-mouth marketing much easier than

before. The best use of social network is not

to make money „directly‟ off them, but to

harness their marketing potential and to use

them to market your business. The main goal

of any search engine marketer is to drive more

traffic to their site. The best way to do that is

to optimize your website for your target

keywords. Online social networks present an

efficient platform for you to use in the spread

of your marketing message. In addition, it is

also a great tool for getting tons of visitors

and thousands of page views to your site.

works in the exact same fashion, except

15

•The audience you are targeting

•The message you are sending

•Plot proper strategy before implementing

Think

•A topical conversation about the brand and listen the response

•Learn what the audience want and what motivates them towards the product or services

Create

•Have a honest discussion on what the customer want and how they can fulfill that

• Instead of pushing the customer try to pull them toward the brand

Engage

•Real-time information

•Tell the real stories that are really happening

Provide

people choose to provide your link without

being asked to do so, and places like

del.ici.ous, Digg, Blogpulse, and Technorati

give them the ability to do that.

In offline terms, that means turning towards

your friends and family to ask for their

opinions. Online, it means turning towards a

group of trusted people whose opinions and

recommendations you value.

Indian companies in social media

marketing

There are many companies in India who are

doing good in social media marketing and one

of the companies is DOCOMO. The Tata

DOCOMO social media strategy has been

carefully built on five pillars.

Build consumer

engagement

Beyond the day

to day and one-

on-one

interactions with

our fans and

followers, Tata

DOCOMO has

constantly

launched

consumer

engagement

programs with a

heavy social

media angle.

This has helped

us build repeat

engagement

points with a

large number of

our fans. Be it diet sms which was rolled out

exclusively through social media, ageekthing

which involved Orkut, gadgets, Facebook

applications and automated Twitter tools or

happy DOYear which could be played

through Facebook, Twitter and Orkut.

Address and resolve complaints

Even before the launch of social media

engagements, a dedicated customer response

mechanism was laid out for priority resolution

of all social media grievances / enquiries. Top

management at Tata DOCOMO has taken

great pains to make sure that literally the buck

stops when an issue is raised through social

media channels. From activation problems,

network issues, handset settings or billing

related matters, every single issue has been

promptly addressed and resolved. Comes as

no wonder therefore that initially the Tata

DOCOMO Twitter account was nicknamed

the “unofficial helpline”.

Web

strategies

There are

certain

factors that

are driving

the

popularity

of the social

media

marketing.

Actually the

number of

potential

customer

engaged on

social media

is

underestima

ted by many

organization

s. The economic turndowns where there are

very few customers in general and finding and

engaging them is the higher priority. The

applications of Social Media Marketing can

be many, we have to just target the potential

16

areas and hit them. Some of the strategies that

are followed:

• By the use of this medium we can figure it

out what the people is talking about your

customer. So, before making a deal with your

potential customer you have an idea about

your customer.

• There are many blogging websites on

Internet, but you have to identify which blog

is the one who can satisfy your requirements

better.

• Find your competitor on web and follow

them on Facebook and Twitter etc. to check

out their new strategies, products and data.

•The site‟s traffic is the measure by which we

can study the effectiveness of our website and

www.compete.com is the one who gives the

opportunity to study the traffic of our website

with respect to other competitor‟s website.

Create informational podcasts about a

product‟s overall space, not just the product.

Explore distribution. Can you reach more

potential buyers/users/customers on social

networks?

Ensure you offer the basics on your site, like

an email alternative to an RSS subscription.

In fact, the more ways you can spread and

distribute your content, the better.

Uploading video interviews, video press

release and other videos to build more

personable relationship.

Crowd sourcing

Very early in the social lifecycle of the brand

Tata DOCOMO realized it had hundreds of

well-wishers who were all brimming with

ideas on new product-service offerings that

could be a real differentiator for the company.

The social team has repeatedly engaged with

its beta consumers, collecting feedback about

usage, preferences, bounced off product ideas

and pretested concepts to help the product

team develop compelling product service

offerings. The icing on the cake was when we

involved our techy Twitter followers to hack

into a social game launched by Tata

DOCOMO as part of the ageekthing contest

and suggest ways to prevent others from

doing so. Many of the recent product service

launches like GPRS packs and parts of the

buddy Net program have been built on crowd

sourcing inputs.

Build brand advocacy

Continuous engagement and proactive

problem resolution has helped Tata

DOCOMO build extremely loyal fans on

social media. Innovative ways of recognizing

such efforts through fan of the week on

Facebook and Twitter has further enhanced

the cause.

Micro communication

With close to 100,000 direct followers and

over 6 million secondary reach, all

communication from Tata DOCOMO enjoys

a sizeable instant audience. However our

social team remembers the names,

occupations and past communications with

thousands and thousands of our fans. This

helps us micro communicate with each

individual building a personal touch and

therefore a high impact to our messaging.

Conclusion

Products are something that are created in

plants, brands are something that are created

in the minds and mind contains impression,

Impression about an item, an event or a

person, and social media marketing is doing a

marvelous job in creating impressions in the

minds using its networking power.

17

PROXIMITY

MARKETING

Rinku Vatnani

Imagine one fine evening, when you are

walking with your girlfriend alongside the sea

at Bandstand, wondering where you could

take her for dinner. A place which wouldn‟t

hurt your wallet much and would also not hurt

your girlfriend‟s expectations. And suddenly

you receive a message on your Samsung

Galaxy, “Pizza Hut offers 30 % discount just

for today. Drop in at the nearest Pizza Hut

parlor”. Probably your first thought would be

like – “Wow, God really exists and He does

seem to have improved on his response time

of fulfilling wishes”

Exaggeration apart, Proximity marketing

does have that power if used on the right

target group. So what exactly is this proximity

marketing? It refers to a localized broadcast

of an advertising message associated with a

particular place. Advancements in digital

technology, coupled with growing consumer

acceptance of mobile marketing, have made

proximity marketing a lucrative field for

marketers today. To support the same,

consider these statistics: The number of

mobile phone users in the world today are

proximately 5.6 billion out of which, India

with a mobile user base of 903 million ranks

second after China in terms of mobile usage.

The very numbers provide an opportunity for

marketers to get their product or service

noticed.

Proximity Marketing may use various

medium for broadcast, the prominent ones

being

Bluetooth

Near Field Communication(NFC)

– based Systems

SMS ( Short Messaging Service)

Some of the observable benefits of Proximity

marketing are:

The reach: More target-specific

Better chance of turning prospects into

customers

Offers rich content to the recipients which

can be either static or interactive (movies,

images, games, redemption codes)

In terms of Bluetooth Proximity marketing,

advertisers will be able to record all devices

identified and messaged, and track which

devices have accepted or rejected their

message, maintain them to improve future

advertising.

Unlike the traditional medium, marketers

can track the effectiveness of their campaigns

easily.

Despite the many benefits there is a flipside to

the coin. Ethical and moral debates are

associated with this kind of marketing. It may

also have a negative influence on the minds of

customers and may hurt brand images if

customers perceive this kind of advertising as

too pushy and feel that companies are

pressurizing them by sending marketing

literally into their pockets.

Despite the cons, the pros are strong enough

to enable this means to become the marketer‟s

favorite in the near future.

So folks, watch out on your mobile. Your

wishes are being heard!!

18

CLUES ACROSS

1. Thinking only about product and not about market (2 words)

4. Major part of Place in the marketing mix

6. What people think of your brand (5,5)

9. Product _____. Getting customers to buy a product for the first time

10. When people don't want to pay more they are price ____

14. The number of products you have

15. A brand that is owned and promoted by retailers rather than manufacturers (3,5)

16. Money put into the product

18. TV, Magazine and newspaper advertising (5,3,4)

20. The life of a product (4,5)

21. Research designed to provide information about opinions, attitudes and behaviors

CLUES DOWN

2. Product or brand with a high share of a mature or declining market (4,3)

3. Company that has the biggest share of the market (6,6)

5. Direct mail, PR and product placement (5,3,4)

7. Get the right ___ of the 4P's

8. Distribution __________. How a business gets its products to the end

10. Surveying a small group of a population to gain research insights

11. The group of consumers or customers aimed at by a business (6,6)

12. Makes it different from its competitors

13. _________ pricing. Setting a low price to gain a higher share of a market

17. Extra benefits

19. Marketing promotion that relies on word-of-mouth or online networks to spread the message

Find answers at our facebook page.

19

Deepak Sahu

Garnier: Take Care

Garnier is a brand

that epitomizes

smart marketing

practice. This is one of the global brands

which have understood the dynamics of

Indian market. Garnier can be considered as a

masstige brand. Although positioned as a

premium offering, the brand was wise enough

to price it reasonable. Currently Garnier is

targeting the middle and upper socio-

economic class.

Loreal uses a strategy based on product

innovation which works best for a brand like

Garnier. When the consumer sees regular new

product flow from the brand, it creates a sense

of excitement with in the consumer which

will prompt her to stick to this brand. Garnier

was the first brand to introduce a cream based

hair coloring solution.

Garnier is present in the hair-care and skin-

care segments and has two sub-brands:

Garnier Fructis and Garnier Ultra Doux

Fructis is an interesting sub-brand which has

clicked in the Indian market because of its

positioning as a fruit based product and

consumers readily embraced the product

because it made sense to depend on a natural

shampoo rather than chemical based one. The

brand has a very catchy tagline "Take Care ".

Garnier's positioning strategy is more

products based in

the sense that it has tried to emphasis

individual product properties rather than a

common brand image. Most of its

commercials are emphasizing on product

strengths and innovation which is an example

of a successful rational product based

advertising success.

Another interesting marketing strategy

adopted by Garnier is its advertising

execution. True to its global parentage,

Garnier was careful in its advertising theme.

It uses a blend of foreign and Indian models

and themes for its campaign. Garnier ads can

be termed as localized international

advertising which has a global touch but does

not appear alien to Indian realities.

Garnier recently launched another new

innovative product in the Indian market -

Garnier Shampoo + Oil 2 in 1 shampoo. This

is something that Indian consumer has never

seen before. Garnier Oil + Shampoo are a

blend of 3 oils and shampoo.

The brand tried to redefine a negative

relationship between two attributes and tried

to convince the customers that there is a scope

for oil and shampoo working together

positively. The brand developed a credible

story that consumers had to agree. Once

established, it proved to be a powerful

differentiator.

The premium positioning, smart pricing,

heavy investment in brand promotion,

innovative products and strong distribution

reach has enabled this brand to create a

special place in the Indian personal care

industry.

Well, a lesson for aspiring brands!!

20

ALL OUT

All out is the mosquito repellent brand of

Karamchand Appliances Private Limited.

KAPL might not a familiar name for the

average Indian consumer. However, KAPL's

brand 'All Out' is very well-known. In fact,

the name All Out is almost a generic name for

Liquid Vaporizers segment. Within a decade

of its launch, All Out had converted a large

number of customers into vaporizer users, and

had also established itself as the market leader

in the segment. The initial success of All Out

was largely due to technological innovation

and first-mover advantages; it was widely

believed that what had kept the brand going

was strong marketing.

While the other companies concentrated on

the coils and mats markets, KAPL promoted

the use of vaporizers. Vaporizer reportedly

doing extremely well in the Japanese market,

as it was much more effective than mats. The

name All out was coined by younger brother

Naveen after KAPL rejected the agency's

recommendations on a name Choo Mantar .

Choo Mantar was dropped as it would not

have made sense to non-Hindi speaking

people and the brothers felt that All Out was

better than Freedom.

As we already know that what kept the brand

going was strong marketing. An out of box

solution or what you can say a bold step

KAPL took when it decided to handle the

advertising for All Out on its own, surprising

many industry

Watchers and drawing criticism from some ad

agencies. On television, KAPL preferred to

sponsor news programs rather than costly and

more conventional soaps or game shows such

as the hugely popular Kaun Banega Crorepati.

The company also pioneered the concept of

sponsoring song/dance and fight sequences in

movies on many satellite television channels

(primarily) SitiCable and Doordarshan. All

Out advertisements would appear before each

song/dance and fight sequence in the movie.

As Hindi movies typically featured 4-5

songs/dances, the viewers watched the All

Out advertisement at least 4-5 times. This

resulted in the brand attaining a very high

mind-share among consumers.

The famous trademark advertisement of

Allout featuring the animated frog came

during that time. The ad showed the Allout

machine like a jumping frog eating all the

mosquitoes. The ad was a big hit among the

consumers. The ad was simple and

communicated the brand purpose effectively.

More than two decades old, brand AllOut is

repositioning itself. It has put to rest its most

powerful brand element and mascot - the

animated frog - and changed its tagline from

'Maccharon Ka Yamraaj' to 'Maccharon Pe

Vaar, Surakshit Aapka Parivaar.'