K J SOMAIYA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES & RESEARCH VOL. V | ISSUE IV | SEPT ’14

MARKSMANThe

Colgate: Brand extension backfired

Mahendra Singh Dhoni

The Brand Domino’s

Rise from the dead

>> pg 06

>>pg 10

>>pg 12

>>pg 17

01 THE MARKSMAN

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10

08

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31

TWEETS

BRAND MARKIVE

BOOKWORM

SPECIAL STORY

RISE FROM THE DEAD

COVER STORY

AUTHENTIC MARKETING

MARKETING FAUX PAS

BUZZ

IT’S ALL ABOUT AD-ITUDE

Hall-MARK CAMPAIGN

15

PIONEER

19REWIND

SEPTEMBER 2014 02

EDITOR’S NOTE

Dear Readers,

We welcome you all to yet another exciting September issue of our very own

Marksman!We have a series of exciting articles lined up for you this month.

Our cover story this month features Authentic Marketing talking, about it’s

significance and it’s relevance while marketing a product. This month’s special

story – “Rise from the dead”, talks about reviving the deceased brands and the

process of brand revitalization. Our Brand Markive, discusses about the world’s

most well - known food chain of Pizzas – Domino’s Pizza. In addition to that, we

even have our regular yet exciting sections on: Tweets, Bookworm, Buzz, Ad-itude,

Squarehead, Hallmark Campaign and Faux Pass. Also don’t forget to check our last

month’s newly introduced segment Pioneer.

We are glad to inform you that we had received a great response for our

September’s call for Articles and after thorough evaluation, we have Akanksha

Kriti from the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, Vidushi Trivedi from

MICA and Anu Kaushik from Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Management and

Research whose beautifully written articles have been selected to feature in this

month’s issue. And for all those entries which haven’t been featured this month,

we thank you all for your response and encourage you to keep writing to us with

the same fervor.

Feedback is always welcome and we would appreciate and acknowledge if our

readers keep writing to us. Stay connected with us on

www.interfacesimsr.com/the-marksman.

Enjoy Reading!

TEAM MARKSMAN

The Interface – The Marketing Club of SIMSR

@marksmansimsr

TWEETS

Coca Cola: A step ahead of

‘Open Happiness’

With the festive season around the

corner, Coca Cola Company has

conceptualized a new commercial

urging its customers to skip

formalities. The proposition of

“Celebrating togetherness” has

been an attempt to attract the

consumption at home and a step

into the future. The advertisement

is also seen as an alternative, if not

replacement for tea and coffee, at

home. The ad is conceptualized by

McCannWorld Group India.

Nescafe stutter for all hearts

The new Nescafe commercial around a

stuttering youngster has become the talk of

netizens in the past weeks. The company

has brought the emotional connect with

the line “It all starts…” in a better way. This

has been a shift from the actress Deepika

Padukone as the face of the brand. Nescafe

has served its coffee strong to the online

audience while embedding a social message

without being too preachy.

03 THE MARKSMAN

TWEETS

Facebook: Bandwidth Targeting

for Indian Market

Facebook has 1.32 billion users across

the globe and its India user base stands

at 108 million. About 93.1% of the

Facebook's global revenues during

April-June 2014 came from advertising.

To attract the Indian market, Facebook

has launched a bouquet of features

targeted at the Indian advertiser. Its

most recent introduction is the global

targeting capability, that enables

advertisers to reach people based on

the type of network connection they

usually use -be it 2G, 3G or 4G -when

accessing the platform. Called as

'Bandwidth Targeting', the feature is

available globally via the Ad Create

tool, Power Editor and the API tool on

the platform.

FreeCharge: Recharge with

returns

Remember the classic one liner: 'Paise

kya ped par ugte hain?’. FreeCharge, the

online recharge platform, has positioned

itself as a youth ally giving benefits of

coupons and offers on each recharge.

The mobile commerce company in its

well-knit maiden TV campaign offers

insight that youngsters are often

reprimanded for being reckless and

spendthrift by parents.

For every recharge done on

FreeCharge, the company gives

customers discount coupons from food

joints and popular retailers, equivalent

to the recharge amount, delivered to

their mobile, inbox or even doorstep.

The campaign is executed by Lowe

Lintas.

SEPTEMBER 2014 04

Volkswagen continues its solid tradition of subtle and innovative advertising – this time

without featuring the product at all. What could be faster than teleportation? That is indeed

whatVolkswagen depicts here – seamlessly, playfully.

IT’S ALL ABOUT AD-ITUDE

Client: PenguinCreative Agency: Y&R, Brazil

05 THE MARKSMAN

Client: Volkswagen

Creative Agency: DDB, Mexico

Generations have grown up on Penguin’s books and cherish them fondly. Their latest adimpresses the power of proof reading simply and elegantly the power of reading.Companhia das Letras is Brazil’s largest publisher, 45% of which is owned by Penguin.

BRAND MARKiveDOMINO’S PIZZA

SEPTEMBER 2014 06

A journey of thousand miles begins with a

single step. A slice of this adage clearly

belongs to Domino’s Pizza. Who could have

thought that an investment of merely $

1000 would some fifty years later generate

revenues worth $ 1 billion? The American

franchise, with presence in more than 70

countries across the world and 10,000

stores under its belly, had initially started

out with just one outlet.

In 1960, Tom Monaghan, along with his

brother James, had bought a small Michigan

based pizzeria called “DomiNick’s.” After a

year into the business, James traded off his

half to his brother for a second hand car.

Tom Monaghan, now the sole owner, re-

christened it to Domino’s Pizza in 1965,

two years post which its first franchise

outlet opened in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Within

a decade, it quickly expanded to 200 more,

scrapping Monaghan’s original plan of

adding an extra dot to the logo with the

addition of every new store, the last dot

was added for the third franchise that had

opened in 1969.

It eventually turned global, opening its

first international store in Canada in

1983; the same year it celebrated the

opening of its 1000th store overall. This

was followed by a series of franchisees

mushrooming all across the world right

from down under Australia to upper

class Britain, scorching Africa and even

far east Japan. The year 1998 marked the

retirement of Tom Monaghan, who sold

the company to Bain Capital for a billion

dollars. Talking of big money, in 2004

Domino’s got listed on the NYSE under

the symbol “DPZ.”

Right from the start, the menu was kept

very simple, serving just one type of

pizza crust, namely, regular in sizes of

12” and 16”, respectively, comprising of

11 toppings and a beverage option of

Coca Cola. This underwent a change in

the early 90’s with the innovation of

deep pan pizza.

08 THE MARKSMAN

BRAND MARKIVE

Because of market demand, they had

to adapt to the prevailing trend and

updated their menu by adding

Domino’s deep dish or pan pizza.

Around the same time, they also

introduced the first non-pizza item on

their menu, breadsticks, which over

the years made way for a hoard of

other side dishes, viz. Buffalo Wings,

Lebanese Rolls, Spicy Baked Chicken,

Calzone Pockets, Potato Smackers,

SpicyTwistyz, etc.

Although Domino’s had ventured into

India back in 1996 with its first outlet

in New Delhi, it gained momentum

only between 2007 and 2012, during

which time it changed the holding

company from Domino’s Pizza India

Pvt. Ltd. to Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd.

(which operates Dunkin’ Donuts as

well) and even came up with its IPO.

To cater to the tastes of Indian

consumers, it localised 50% of its

offerings. Over a period, it had gained

market leadership by acquiring 72% of

the market share, more than three

times that of its nearest competitor

and more than two and a half times

the slice it had a decade ago.

07 THE MARKSMAN

Trivia:

There are more than 34

million ways to create a single

Domino’s pizza.

In 1998, Domino’s launched an

industry innovation, Domino’s

HeatWave®, a hot bag using

patented technology that keeps

pizza oven-hot to the customer’s

door.

Domino’s is 96% franchise-

owned.

Domino’s is consistently

one of the top five companies

in terms of online transactions,

behind companies such as

Amazon and Apple.

India is the third largest

market for Domino’s just behind

US & UK.

COVER STORYAUTHENTIC MARKETING

SEPTEMBER 2014 08

In the bustle of management trends that

promise to revolutionise the field,

authentic marketing hasn’t yet been heard

of, at least not in the literature. This may

not seem surprising to the cynic (s/he

might even suggest it to be an

oxymoron), but this may be a good sign –

a relief, perhaps, of authenticity not having

already been reduced to a fad, given that

marketing trends are usually largely about

a change in focus and technique.

But that is not to say that it is not being

practised. With the magical charms of IT,

marketing and advertising have come to

what seems to be the ultimate frontier –

advertising that fulfils all its functions

without being advertising at all. The

Interactive Advertising Bureau defines

native advertising as comprising “paid ads

that are so cohesive with the page

content, assimilated into the design, and

consistent with the platform behaviour

that the viewer simply feels that they

belong”.

But is there money in this? You bet. As

of end of 2012, Facebook was earning

14% of its income through its

Sponsored Stories project. Not without

good reason -- says Sheryl Sandberg,

“[they] perform multiple times better

on both desktop and mobile than ads in

the right-hand column”. According to

Adobe’s Digital Marketing Blog, the

“multiple times” in Sandberg’s quote is

as much as 48 times. In short, it’s

working. In a relatively short time,

interest in native marketing has

snowballed such that more than 73%

members of the Online Publishers

Association now offer native

advertising options – with BIA/Kelsey

reporting spending of over $3.1 billion

this year.

But customer attention may not be so

easy to misdirect over time – the

Edelman Trust Trust Barometer 2014

indicates once again that consumer

trust is not as much a result of accident

or manipulation as of the value they are

able to find – depending on whether

it’s from government (lowest), from

media (next in line) or from social

service (high), on whether you are

Chinese or Singaporean (highest) or

Spanish or Russian (lowest). While

online search engines come up as

highest in trust, social media are lowest

in terms of source of information. Tech

and automotive are the most trusted,

while banking and M&E are the least

trusted.

Blends in so well, fishes can fly. [Escher, MC]

COVER STORY

10 THE MARKSMAN

COVER STORY

Besides, as Copyblogger’s April 2014 study

indicates, 49% online prospects have not

yet even heard of native advertising, with

only a 3% of them knowing what it is.

There are any number of statistics and

case studies floated around on the

acceptability of sponsored content, but

they have to be kept in this context –

simply because marketers are quicker to

discover methods/techniques than

consumers. The vast majority of

consumers are not opposed to online

advertising per se. Most of them recognise

that it is needed for the site’s main

content to remain free. For companies,

native ads offer un-interruptive value

through content. While this is certainly

true in many cases, the objective is to use

them not to increase general knowledge

on the part of the consumer but to

eventually lead to sales. As The Onion’s

fictional Publisher Emeritus T Herman

Zweibel puts it, may the ox of journalism

always be yoked to the cart of commerce?

Native advertising is what marketers are

turning to because authentic marketing is

often not worth the trouble. It belongs to

the family (marketing mix) but is the

subversive extreme – to at least appear

true/sincere.

Put more dramatically, native

advertising is the crafty grandson of

authentic marketing – young, promising,

results-oriented, but naïve and

vulnerable.

But what exactly is authentic

marketing? How authentic exactly is

one being asked to become?

Objective morality aside, there is no

significant agreement as to the way in

which the ‘authentic’ relates to the

organisation. For some, it is

transparency of process. No company

should lie or distort truths such that an

incorrect impression is given of a

product or service. That is, there

should be errors neither of

commission nor omission. For others, it

is being in line with the company’s

mission. In this context, authentic

marketing is surely being used as yet-

another-marketing-strategy (“look how

honest we are!”), but whether or not it

will be possible to practise authentic

marketing (actually telling the truth) is

up for debate. This, however, is one of

those cases where one simply has to go

back to the basics. Marketers will do

well to heed their Adi-guru: said Kotler

in the introduction to his Marketing

Management, “authentic marketing is

not the art of selling what you make

but knowing what to make”. With

native advertising, marketing will be

walking a tight rope -- the challenge

will be to balance the sustained

attention-by-misdirection with

providing genuine value. With great

power comes great responsibility.

09 THE MARKSMAN

SPECIAL STORY

RISE FROM THE DEAD

Binaca, Dalda, HMT, Campa Cola do any of

these product names remind you of some

memories from the past. Brand

Reincarnation gives you a chance to relive

and experience the magic of these deceased

brands.

Brand managers put in their blood and sweat

to strive hard and create, nurture, maintain

and reposition their brands as and when

required. But a new practice is gaining

importance in the present day scenario of

taking a dead brand and giving it a new lease

of life. This is like walking on a two edge

sword where the brand should appeal to the

new generation of consumers and meet the

expectations of the ones who still

remember it.

Imagine Parle’s Gold Spot, which was

discontinued after Coca Cola acquired

certain cola brands from the Chauhans,

bringing it back to life. The soft drink has

some fond memories associated with the

people who are now in their 20s and 30s, in

parallel the brand will obviously look to

fulfill the expectations of the new age

consumers.

The happy news is a couple of brand

conservatives in the United States have

taken up the mammoth task and are active in

the business of brand excavation and revival.

Reasons of the Brand failure can be

attributed to several factors:

Marketing myopia can be one. At times

a brand is too blinded by its success

wears a pair of blinkers and sidelines

the consumer’s needs.

Also, sometimes a brand falters in its

positioning and gets rejected by the

consumers because it fails to connect

culturally with them. Kellogg’s made

this error of judgment in India. Then

there are brands which try to reinvent

themselves ignoring the customer EQ

towards the product and the brand per

say. The New Coke Versus Original

Coke rings a bell.

This amnesia can prove fatal for both

the small brands and the giants.

All of these errors give rise to the new

concept of Brand Reinventing. The new

buds buy the rights of a specific brand

name at a cost less than that of the

New IPhone 6+ trying to capitalize

upon its brand heritage, customer

recognition and historical relevance.

SEPTEMBER 2014 10

SPECIAL STORY

The roadmap of the Process can be laid

down as:

The first step involves extensive market

research to narrow down into products

that the firm terms as “dormant” i.e. out

of use; small in volume or occasionally

some that are stuck in bankruptcy cases.

While we feel that most brands can be

revived, some brands may just not be

worth the effort.

This is particularly true for brands that

suffer from lack of relevant

differentiation, low awareness, and a

negative image. The firm relies heavily on

inside collaboration and interpersonal

skills to carry out the acquisition

process.

The process is followed by Brand

Revitalization where monetary benefits

are taken care of in terms of seed capital.

The final step is the Strategic and

creative development of the ideas

derived in the previous two steps.

‘Scavenger entrepreneur’ a term coined

for the likes of Jeff Himmel, has led to

the development of the malted dairy

drink Ovaltine.

The product was brought from Sandoz

Nutrition Corporation, followed by the

active television advertising strategy

adopted by Mr Himmel of the Himmel

11 THE MARKSMAN

group dubbing the product as a “good-

for-you drink that tastes great”.

The product now has a $40 million hit

turnover and commands 29% of the

chocolate-drink-mix market,

outperforming Hershey's syrup.

Though a herculean task this emerging

trend is likely to grow and not die as a

fad. It requires efforts to rise from the

ashes and build up a new customer base

and make a successful product line out

of a dead brand and with more and

more companies investing in the same,

we can whole heartedly await to see the

revival of some of our favorite perished

brands from the past.

MARKETING FAUX PASColgate Kitchen Entrees-Brand extension backfired

SEPTEMBER 2014 12

Although product innovation and brand

extension is a crucial marketing strategy

that saves companies a lot of time and

money and gives an enriching experience

to the consumer, it backfires spectacularly

if companies fail to understand how their

brands are perceived by consumers. Brand

extensions often go out of plumb if the

company cannot align the product with its

brand, or if they cannot identify their

target market appropriately.

The objective was to make customers

aware of the new products and to achieve

sales of 5% within the first month of the

launch. The idea was after enjoying its

frozen food offerings consumers would go

out and buy its toothpaste as well. The

product was available in different sizes and

prices, but it failed as people could not

establish a link between Colgate as an oral

care brand and Colgate as a ready to eat

brand.

The market and positioning for the

parent brand and the brand extension

were different. The qualities of the

product were microwaveable, healthy and

delicious food at premium price targeting

the middle to upper social class. It was a

huge loss to the company as it wasted a

huge sum of money in commercial

advertisements and promotions. The

brand had conventionally been associated

with personal care and oral care, and the

customers simply did not buy the idea

that they should eat food offered by the

same brand whose products they

normally use to clean their mouths with.

The market segmentation was done in

two parts: Primary market and Secondary

market.

The primary market consisted of the

mothers of middle or upper income

groups whose children were above six

years of age, who had little time for

household work and preferred healthy

meals but find it difficult to prepare

meals. Secondary market consisted of the

young and single individuals who were

studying or working and did not live with

their family, and had no time to prepare

meals. While the idea seemed workable

on the drawing board, Kitchen Entrees

drooped with customers, who didn’t find

Colgate very appetizing. Colgate could

have conducted some more market

research and perhaps introduced its

frozen food products under a new brand.

Colgate

launched

Kitchen

Entrees, a line

of ready to

eat products,

in the US in

1982, hoping

to capture the

growing

market for

frozen food.

From the word go, the notion that

customer is king has been drilled into the

mind of every marketing student. We have

been taught time and again that customers

are the top-most priority for any

organisation. A simple thank you uttered

by a sales rep goes a long way in saying

that the company cares. However, TD

Canada took these simplest of concepts

and produced one of the most beautiful

campaigns seen in modern advertising.

Traditionally, banks have been associated

as being rigid institutions. Lately, the

banking industry has been seeing a radical

change, and banks have been making a

conscious effort in moving towards

customer-centric operations. TD Canada’s

#TDThanksYou campaign is a benchmark

for the same. They found a way to

acknowledge their valued customers in an

extremely personalised and compassionate

way, thus, ensuring that their loyalties

would remain strong for years on end.

#TDThanksYou

When ATM Got a New Meaning

Hall-MARK CAMPAIGN

At four different locations, TD placed its

“Automated Thanking Machines” that

surprised every customer who tried to

transact through it. The first such

wonder was when the ATM started

conversing with the customers on issues

closest to their hearts. This was followed

by some very special gifts popping out of

the ATM that were tailor made for each

customer.

13 THE MARKSMAN

A mother sending money to her daughter,

who was suffering from cancer in

Trinidad, was presented with air tickets

to meet her. A Blue Jay baseball fan

received a team jersey, glove, ball and hat.

Further, his favourite player, the very

famous Jose Bautista, himself appeared

from behind and invited the astounded

customer to pitch live in Blue Jay’s

upcoming game. A mother of two

children even received piggy banks with

air tickets to Disneyland.

These were just a few of the many

examples; interestingly, across TD’s 1,110

outlets, over 20,000 employees gave out

envelopes with $20 to their customers

throughout the day. Special awards for

longest-associated customers were given,

and the staff even clicked selfies with

them.

SEPTEMBER 2014 14

This “we love our customers” campaign

immediately went viral on the social

media platforms and garnered a

staggering 3.5 million views in just a few

days.

Touching and caring are seldom used as

adjectives for a bank, but TD

revolutionised its image and quickly

became synonymous as a bank that does

care after all. A very similar campaign

was WestJet’s Christmas Miracle.

Although the value propositions were

poles apart, the underlying feature of

making the customer feel special

remained constant. A single master

stroke by TD has been successful in

creating partnerships that will stand the

test of time. We as marketers will be

looking forward to what they come up

with next.

HALLMARK CAMPAIGN

BOOK WORMWho Says Elephant can’t dance? Inside

IBM’s Historic Turnaround-Louis V.Gerstner, Jr.

OCTOBER 2013 19

In the August edition of THE

MARKSMAN, Book Worm spoke about

the story of McKinsey and its influence

on American Business. Today let’s talk

about the book written by a living

legend who had a considerable stint in

McKinsey and later became the SUPER

CEO of IBM; Louis.V.Gerstner Jr -

Chairman and CEO,1993 - 2002. In

1992, IBM was caught in the cobweb of

its Mainframe Business which was

headed for obsolescence. The overall

organizational issues that ranged from

lack of vision and strong leadership skills

to policies and bureaucracy added to its

misery. However, Gerstner’s shrewd

strategic decisions helped the company

to rise from the brink of bankruptcy and

propelled back to its business with a

thumping victory.

His memoir, “Who Says Elephant Can’t

Dance?” talks about his role in IBM's

competitive and cultural transformation.

The book takes us through five different

sections: Grabbing Hold, Strategy,

Culture, Lessons Learned, and

Observations. It gives us insight about

disaster recovery planning and short

term and long term planning.

In the depth of crisis, identifying and

resolving key strategic issues is what is

critical for stabilizing the company. The

chapter ‘Grabbing hold’ talks about how

he managed the same and curtailed the

revenue loss within the first couple of

years. He sold unproductive assets to

raise cash and re-engineered certain R&D

divisions for new products. The book

also mentions Gerstner‘s meticulous

planning involved in communication with

the media. His iconic statement, “The last

thing that IBM needs is a vision” created

a positive wave and share holders started

to believe his capability to turnaround the

company.

The pivotal sections of the book are

Strategy and Culture. Gerstner says

“Until I came to IBM, I probably would

have told you that culture was just one

among several important elements in any

organization's makeup and success along

with vision, strategy, marketing, financials,

and the like.

15 THE MARKSMAN

BOOKWORM

However, I came to see, in my time at IBM,

that culture isn't just one aspect of the

game; it is the game. In the end, an

organization is nothing more than the

collective capacity of its people to create

value.”

IBM, due to its global presence was

challenging for Gerstner to align every

business unit to the common organizational

objective. The organization which initially

authorized its various divisions to rebrand

and advertise its products themselves was

disallowed during Gerstner’s tenure. This

strategic decision helped the company to

portray it as a single large brand rather

than individual divisions providing cutting

edge business solutions. He was

instrumental in changing work culture. His

most proud accomplishment was to bring

IBM closer to its Customers and inculcate

Customer Centricity in their employees,

break up fiefdoms and align compensation

with performance.

Gerstner identified that IBM’s unique

competitive advantage is its ability to

provide integrated solutions for customers

rather than selling the proprietary system

hardware that had once built IBM in the

preceding decades. This was his Midas

touch which boosted the company to

develop middleware technologies which

eventually led to the rise of market

capitalization and profits. Gerstner thus

made the elephant to dance.

In the ‘Lessons Learned’ section,

Gerstner provides advice and key

takeaways which can be applied to any

industry. One of them is: “A successful,

focused enterprise is one that has

developed a deep understanding of its

customer's needs, its competitive

environment, and its economic realities.

This comprehensive analysis must form

the basis for specific strategies that are

translated into day-to-day execution.”

The book hence gives a lot of guidelines

across areas like Strategy, Marketing,

Planning, Leadership and Communication

which can come handy to all managers. It

is a unique case study in managing a crisis,

and a thoughtful reflection on the

computer industry and the principles of

leadership. Overall it is precise, well

written, thought provoking and a real

page turner.

SEPTEMBER 2014 16

PIONEERMahendra Singh Dhoni (Mahi)

17 THE MARKSMAN

“Anhoni ho gayi honi, aur main ban gaya

Dhoni!” Our very own Captain Cool,

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MSD), is one of

the most valuable assets of India. An

aggressive attacking batsman, a reliable

wicketkeeper, and a level headed captain;

he is the man with the Midas Touch.

He led the Indian cricket team to many

unforgettable victories: the 2007 ICC

World Twenty20, the CB Series of 2007–

08, the 2010 Asia Cup, the 2011 ICC

Cricket World Cup and the 2013 ICC

Champions Trophy. His credentials are

clearly excellent, but how did the little boy

from Ranchi become the 22nd most paid

athlete in the world? Brand Dhoni has

emerged as an almost fool-proof formula

to promote any product.

His endorsements range from Pepsi to

Reebok to Orient Fans to Reliance

Communications. His saleability is not

just because of his impressive track

record, it is also because of his ability to

connect with the masses in one way or

another.

His ability to convert anything that he

endorses into a prospective way to

connect with people has definitely

worked in his favour. An example is the

‘Believe’ campaign started by Star Sports

which includes memorable lines like:

Mujhe yakeen hai ki sirf sheher chote hai,

wahan ke log aur unke khwaab nahin’ (I

believe that only towns are small, not

their people and their dreams).

SEPTEMBER 2014 18

PIONEER

As the captain of the cricket team in a

country where cricket is not merely a

sport, but a religion, his job is not easy. He

excels in fulfilling this responsibility. His

honesty highlights the humble roots that he

comes from. His commitment towards his

team-mates, his followers and his country is

exceptional. MSD understands the psyche

of a complex nation and the emotions

attached to this wonderful sport.

He understands that in this nation,

cricketers are heroes, and the nation will

always look up to its heroes. He strives to

maintain his image as Mr. Dependable, on

field as one of the best finishers in the game

and off field by setting an example in all his

endeavours.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has created a niche

for himself in a way that he is now

irreplaceable, and this is what makes him a

pioneer.

When his actions reinforce the words

spoken by him, a country truly

believes in having the courage to

chase its dreams, come what may.

There is immense respect for any

person who fights seemingly

insurmountable odds to eventually

excel beyond expectations, and MSD

is the perfect example.

His constant experimentations with

his looks through his myriad of

hairstyles has been another way by

which Brand Dhoni has evolved. It is

the first time that an Indian

sportsperson has dictated trends that

were hitherto an area ruled by

Bollywood stars or models. His unique

sense of style, his unmatched

confidence paired with his consistent

cool demeanour is what has made

Mahi a success.

REWINDA Sales Pitch for Sales

19 THE MARKSMAN

Normally a dull and lazy Sunday morning at

SIMSR was transformed into a state of

excitement and enlightenment with the

successful workshop conducted by Team

Interface and the representatives from

Mercadeo Education Pvt. Ltd. on the 14th of

September, 2014.

With distinguished speakers like Mr.

Anshuman Mishra (Manager-KPMG,

Business Advisor to firms like Nike, Emami,

M&S, Fonterra, DuPont, Sab Miller) and Mr.

Himanshu Chauhan (more than 6 years of

experience in Sales & Marketing in sectors

including Insurance, Education & IT), the

workshop had to be an instant success. The

speakers’ erudition and experience on sales

and marketing drove the session to new

heights. The student participation and

enthusiasm was also commendable.

The session started with the age old

question that circles around in the mind of

every MBA student—Sales or Marketing.

A show of hands confirmed that there

were only a few takers for sales. People

were looking for profiles with core

marketing like brand management and

market research and analysis. But are

sales and marketing really that exclusive?

With the examples and illustrations that

followed, it became quite clear that both

are intertwined. But without the desired

sales, even the best marketing plans can

go for a toss.

The speakers spoke passionately about

the growth paths and career prospects of

sales as well as marketing. Why are the

CEOs of many major companies from

sales? Why such a skewed preference

towards sales executives? These

questions were also effectively answered.

A detailed description about the

certification program CSFA and why it is

required for students was also explained.

In the end, play time was conducted with

loads of goodies for the participants. All

in all, it was a very interactive and

informative session.

Another show of hands in the end

showed that a lot of people were

convinced how important sales is and

were inclined to pursue that as a career

option. If this was not an effective sales

pitch, we don’t know what was.

Tete -a-TeteMr. Anshuman Mishra & Mr. Himanshu Chauhan

SEPTEMBER 2014 20

Here’s an excerpt from the interview with

Mr. Anshuman Mishra (Manager-KPMG,

Business Advisor to firms like Nike, Emami,

M&S, Fonterra, DuPont, Sab Miller) and Mr.

Himanshu Chauhan (more than 6 years of

experience in Sales & Marketing in sectors

including Insurance, Education & IT),

Q1. What led you to move from a

successful career in marketing to form a

training and certification company?

Mr. Chauhan: It’s about an idea coming up.

An idea that comes through your heart.And

about being successful marketers, when it

comes to entrepreneurship, with any idea, it

is all the skills, finance, operations, HR, and

collaborating all these skills which have

many challenges. Life is full of

entertainment, but it is only entertaining

when you have challenges, so it’s all about

accepting challenges.

Mr. Mishra: Why entrepreneurship, it’s

fairly simple. I read a quote a while back

which said that you either have a dream

and you follow your dream or somebody

will hire you to make their dream come

true. So that’s the reason. And about

Mercadeo, it was high time somebody did

this. Whatever professional success I have

today, much of whatever success my friends

have today is purely because of what we

studied in marketing, and there was nothing

which was going back, no feedback.

So one night we got this idea, why don’t

we create a marketing answer to CFA.

Q2. How do you differentiate your

certification from others such as that of

the SMEI or SMPS (Certified Professional

Services Marketer Program)?

Mr. Mishra: When we took up this idea

about three years back, exactly the same

bit of research went into how do we

make CSFA different or special. One

thing about SMEI or SMPA is that it

predominantly targets working

professionals. So they assume that you

know sales and then work a little bit out.

This is a course which is aimed at giving

you a lot of knowledge. There’s a proper

reading compilation and there’s a lot of

research that has gone into that and it is

mainly focussed around business school

students.That’s essentially the difference.

Mr. Chauhan: Also, sales is a very

important aspect of marketing. But the

topic of sales is often misunderstood.

21 THE MARKSMAN

Tete -a-Tete

Mr. Mishra: When we started, I didn’t havea number in mind. I had a reasonablecareer. It isn’t the money which is drivingus. What we’re looking for is that this

actually helps you when you walk into your

summer interview to get that edge over the

others because you’re much more prepared

in that field. What we have in the

certification is very different from what you

read in Kottler.

Mr.. Chauhan: Another thing that we

have included is that in the certification is

that not only academicians have

contributed but also people who have

more than 8–10 years of experience in

sales and marketing have shared their

insights. It isn’t just theory and

fundamentals. Its viewpoints coming across

from different experienced people.

Q4. How do you reconcile sales targets

and your own conscience?

Mr. Mishra : That mainly depends on

where I’m working. Typically what you do is,

you need to be convinced about what you

want. Sometimes you do it for the money. If

I’m selling cigarettes and I have a target to

match, and I cannot advertise. You may think

it’s immoral or unethical, but there’s a

target to be met. Often the targets are not

achieved by your campaigns or promotions,

but by how much your distributor is

actually able to push it.

As far as the conscience is concerned, it is

your call.

Even when you can pick your subjects,

what you pick is mostly brand

management or consumer behaviour

because you’re always thinking long

term. You’re not thinking what you’re

going to do immediately after you

leave MBA. So, Anshuman brought this

point into the business idea that this is

one thing that has been completely

ignored, at least in the first year of

MBA. And when you go for an

internship in a sales/marketing field,

this is the profile that you get. This is

what we want to bring into

perspective.

Mr. Mishra: You keep studying Philip

Kottler, and you get a rosy picture

about marketing. So the image I had

was that I would pass out, I would sit

in a conference room with Aishwarya

Rai, and we would design a nice ad to

sell coke. When we go out the world

is completely different. And I’ve seen

guys who are very good at marketing

fail. When you join marketing, what

you essentially do is sales. All your life,

you’re prepared for the BCG matrix

and the Ansoff matrix, which I’m sure

everybody is good at. But that’s not

what we’re going to do.

Q3. Will your growth strategy

typically depend on a critical threshold

of people from the top rung institutes

doing your courses?

FEATURED ARTICLES#ALSIcebucketchallenge: Marketing lessons for

a social cause

-ANU KAUSHIK

BHARATI VIDYAPEETH

INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

AND RESEARCH, NEW DELHI

Creating an appearance for product and

services or providing content awareness

through utilising diverse channels of e-

marketing, the question arises, is it enough

for any organisation?

In today’s changing situation with the

changes in trend, it appears to be not

sufficient for any organisation or individual

who’s using the latest technology called

web to just create content anymore;

achievement lies in making substance so

effective that it will captivate the crowd

and persuade them to spread the

expression.

Therefore, the quest is on for a “formula”

that gets individuals attention, and

how a brand positions its cause that

succeeds is worth gaining from.

What do you get when you bring

together a basin of ice, access to

online networking and one non-

benefit mission for disease

awareness?

The ALS ice bucket challenge—

This brilliant idea was given by a

former Boston College baseball player,

Peter Frates living with ALS

(amyotrophic lateral sclerosis—the

disease), who understood the value of

social networking and initiated this

revolution for a cause with his unique

idea.

In this challenge, individuals post their

videos online featuring themselves

while dumping buckets full of ice water

over their heads for bringing a cause to

light and for donations to ALS; they

further challenge their

friends/companions to dump water on

themselves, a typical stipulation is that

challenged participants have 24 hours

to perform and if not done within that

period, they forfeit by donating certain

charitable financial amount.

SEPTEMBER 2014 22

Understand the importance of social

media:

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was an

immaculate storm of online networking,

superstar and grass-roots generosity,

creating typhoon-quality viral social

engagement amid the pooch days of

summer. It also demonstrated how social

networking might be useful, harnessed,

coordinated and oversaw for a social

cause.

As indicated by Facebook, between June 1

and August 17, 2014, in excess of 28

million individuals have joined the

discussion about the Ice Bucket Challenge,

including posts, remarks or likes to further

promote it on a large scale. More than 2.4

million people have been identified

imparting and sharing the ice bucket

challenge among each other.

Whether you’ve chuckled at your

companion’s response to the icy water or

initiated to take the challenge yourself,

posts related to it are all over the place.

This activity has accomplished something

that is each advertiser’s fantasy: turning

into a web sensation and catching wide

consideration of the country in just a

month or two.

Thus, each advertiser spreading a cause

needs to learn where the best

combination lies? Is it in innovation, like by

giving a platform to some different idea or

bringing change/an excitement through

freshness for the audience?

A further lesson for marketers to

understand how ALS ice bucket

challenge has capitalised through social

media is given:-

Utilise perfect timing—Summer is

the mainstream time for getaways, and

a lot of people are delighted in a more

loose work plan. By understanding the

need of the customer, challenge started

at such a time when students were

enjoying their school vacations, and

their were augmented hours of daylight

permitted individuals to partake in the

Challenge and feature their super

splashing after-work. An Ice Bucket

Challenge would have never been

successful in the winters. Therefore, its

initial start in summer proved as a

perfect time for the challenge to

engage thousands of people.

FEATURED ARTICLES

23 THE MARKSMAN

Recognize the objective—The objective

of the ice bucket Challenge is to extend

mindfulness and raise money for ALS

research, and its prosperity has surpassed

introductory desires. The objective is

straightforward and clear, and the challenge

doesn’t oblige many efforts from members:

going online to participate or donate

doesn’t ask for much exertion.

Today’s buyers like straightforwardness and

immediate information. They ordinarily

won't take the time to peruse through a

whole article, pamphlet or page to

comprehend a message. Advertisers: your

companion is straightforwardness.

It’s extraordinary, basic and

sufficiently insane-

The #Alsicebucketchallenge feels like a

healthy natured clip featured on YouTube

and other platforms. It provides an ease of

finishing with the client’s assent; it is to a

great degree entertaining to watch; and it

has an extraordinary follow-up message.

Alongside a pinch of light heartedness, the

#Alsicebucketchallenge is likewise

exceptionally straightforward and simple.

No email, no entering and no external site.

Low responsibility is amazingly vital in case

you’re attempting to get an expansive

number of individuals involved. It’s,

additionally, another method for “becoming

a web sensation.” Instead of one bit of

extraordinary content being shared again

and again, every video is viral inside

that member’s prompt circle, and it is

linked by an easy, excellent hash tag.

Vital role of Celebrities—The

promotion got to be viral after some of

the biggest celebrities and sports

figures responded to the call, including

Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Sheryl

Sandberg, Oprah and many others.

Their massive following permitted the

Challenge to explode from one

country and expanded worldwide.

Naturally, pulling in a varied blend of A-

list famous people and celebrities who

have risen to the Challenge, their

followers chose it likewise helping to

generate more funds.

The call to activity is fun and

free—Although donations are

supported, there is no piece of this

fight that requests clients purchase or

giving personal information to

participate. The main thing it stipulates

is “spill water over your head or

donate.”

Thus, the last lesson for advertisers is

this: The trap isn’t to duplicate or copy

an incredible crusade; it is to gain from

it and consolidate the lessons into

future thoughts. The

#Alsicebucketchallenge is fun, it’s for a

decent cause, it had the right timing, it

doesn't compel and it’s new. The

greatest lesson from this ice storm is

that individuals like to connect with

individuals and not with organisations.

FEATURED ARTICLES

SEPTEMBER 2014 24

FEATURED ARTICLESThe art of making a viral video:

AIB genius of the year

You are yet again working late. After

handing over the report to your manager,

the long day at the office seems finally

over and you step out to fetch your car

from the parking lot. On your way back

you ponder silently about your hectic life,

pray for less traffic on the road and scan

through FM stations at the signal. On the

crowded street, vendors are trying to

make their final sale for the day and the

menacing auto rickshaws and

motorcyclists try to nudge and get ahead

of the other cars. Irritated drivers keep

honking while mendicants take an

opportunity to make some extra pennies

at the traffic signals. You aimlessly listen to

the radio jockey talking or to the several

commercials being played between songs.

Finally, you reach home, remove your

uncomfortable heels or the suffocating

neck tie and relax on your couch. Now,

how much attention did you pay to the

street vendors, the beggars, the radio

commercials on your way home? You

ignored them all in plain sight.

To make a video go viral, we need to

think like street performers. Street

performers grab the attention of the

people who have no time yet they are

eager to see what follows. These

performers perform some unbelievable

tricks that get the onlookers engaged.

Similarly, the internet is filled with a

plethora of digital media. If you want to

make people watch your work, there

needs to be a surprise element that

engages them.

This video showcases Alia Bhatt’s self-

deprecating humour that surprised the

social media circle. Let us analyse the

reasons for the success of this video:

It’s all in the name!

Howsoever good the content of your

video may be, it may end up being

ignored because the name did not grab

the eyeballs. The title of this video,

‘Genius of the Year’ instantly brings to

attention the following characteristics

about the video—

25 THE MARKSMAN

“I believe in crying for people and laughing

at myself”

– Alia Bhatt

VIDUSHI TRIVEDI- MICA

•It acknowledges the popularity of the

Bollywood super-hit ‘Student of the Year’

and indicates the reference of this video.

•It’s a pun on the word “Genius” given

that Alia has been a Twitter victim for all

the Dumb Indian Blonde jokes.

•The title gives out a vibe of a fun-filled

experience to its audience.

StoryTelling

It is important to grab the viewers’

interest in the first five seconds. In the

words of Jon Steel— “People are

inherently complex, emotional,

unpredictable creatures, whose

relationships with each other and the

things (including brands, products and

advertising) around them are more

important than the things themselves.”

(Steel, 16 March 1998)

Thus, storytelling helps form the

relationship of our

product/advertisement with the

consumer. Our story must be greater

than our products because this is what

binds our consumers to us.

The backdrop of this video was the

episode of Koffee with Karan Season 4,

where Alia sputtered the name ‘Prithviraj

Chauhan’ when asked who the President

of India was. Ever since, she has been the

butt of all jokes. This video depicts Alia’s

efforts to correct her ‘dumb’ image by

working hard to improve her general

knowledge.

This video tells you the story of a

journey from failure on national television

10 THE MARKSMAN

of an upcoming Bollywood star to

redemption in the most humorous way

possible.

By making fun of herself, Alia leveraged the

negative publicity by exaggerating it further

and eventually won the hearts of everyone.

Emotional Rollercoaster Ride

Once the viewers’ attention has been

grabbed, it is necessary to keep them

intrigued for long. It is imperative to engage

the audience emotionally—to make them

smile, then sad and again make them laugh.

Alia starts off with an emotional dialogue “I

had thought that day would be the best day

of my life…but…” and the video shows

that even her family and friends started to

crack jokes on her. Thus, the funny video

also had its share of contrasting emotions

that kept the audience interested.

There is little doubt that Alia has already

been successful in Bollywood. Many

youngsters look up to her. The negative

publicity spread a wrong message to the

nation that successful Bollywood stars are

ignorant and have low IQ.

SEPTEMBER 2014 26

FEATURED ARTICLES

Now, Alia showed her followers that she

accepted her shortcomings and did

everything she could to inspire the youth.

Her career was strong before and will

continue to be after this video, but in the

eyes of the audience, she emerged as a

strong, wise, young and successful Bollywood

actor.

Touch Hearts with an idea that

Connects

This video not only makes us laugh

but it also shows Alia doing what most

of us will refrain from doing—

admitting our flaws and taking

corrective measures.

This video is a courageous attempt

made by the actress of not finding the

easier way out but handling the

situation head-on. We all fear being

talked badly about, and the video

shows you, how one should take

criticism.

Using all possible social media

channels

As it had been the internet world and

mainly the youth who had targeted

Alia with a series of jokes about her,

creating a video on the same

communication medium helped it

reach out to her critics. The video

gained popularity across YouTube,

Facebook,Twitter, Blogs and Posts etc.

Keep it simple and stupid

Our audience is not keen on watching

something that is grave and requires

immense concentration. They want to

watch something that helps them relax

and forget the hectic mundane life.

This video uses simple and witty ways to

convey the message to the viewer—from

the way Alia cries to her work outs in the

‘mental gym,’ all the jokes being cracked

on her such as “she is suffering from an

acute state of Darsheel Safari.” Even

though the end is dramatic and heroic, her

crying out in a state of being overwhelmed

makes you smile. Key is to keep it simple

for the viewers to be able to easily

understand and laugh at.

FEATURED ARTICLES

27 THE MARKSMAN

FEATURED ARTICLESAirtel's 'The Smartphone Network' ad

campaign: Women empowerment?

- AKANKSHA KIRTIIIM Kozhikode

"This is a classical example of denying menrights. The boss lady finds satisfactions ingiving extra load of work to her maleemployees and makes them work extrahours denying basic human rights to gohome after usual work hours. Then shemake a 2 min noodles and show that toher husband to cool him down.the poorand loving husband who is obviouslyhungry falls for her trap ! Dedicated to allhalf brained feminists"[1]

If this youtube comment pops up as a

question in KBC and one has to guess the

ad that is being referred to, chances are

many of us would find this question a

sitting duck. And, why not given the

attention this Airtel’s ‘The Smartphone

Network’ ad has received. According to

Unmetric, it suddenly became the buzz of

the town and became the most engaging

post from Airtel in the duration. (See the

statistics of youtube for the ad popularity)[2]

The vignette comment may sound

ludicrous to few, humorous to some,

just to others and innocuous to many,

nonetheless, it in itself symbolizes that

ad had stirred up a hornest’ nest

among feminist groups and had been

deftly able to capture first A –

Attention of AIDA model (Attention ->

Interest -> Desire -> Affect).

It has successfully cut through clutter

by striking at all time contentious issue

of women emancipation and

liberalization. One school of thought

finds the ad as portrayal of empowered

women who is breaking the glass

ceiling while adorning the seat of boss

and exuding authority and elegance

even while assigning tasks to his

subordinate (who in the meanwhile

turns out to be her husband).

SEPTEMBER 2014 28

The other school of thought takes it with a

pinch of salt and asks the important ‘WHY’.

Why a working lady (read wife) boss has to

be shown cooking food for her husband

while she is at home. Why the scene can’t

be replaced with her enjoying food at a

restaurant and ‘missing you message’. Why

can’t there be a cook serving food at home

and wife missing supper which she used to

take with her husband or why couldn’t the

ad end at simply a video call?

To answer these, let us look at existing

patriarchal structure of our society. Today,

many men desire for a wife a who is

educated, confident, assertive and

independent as Madhurima Tuli in the ad

but at the same time expect her to be

homely, subdued, sanskari enough to give

priority to home/ husband. Isn’t it a case of

split personality where lady boss has to

adorn two different masks to get

acceptance and mild down her success by

getting into the shoes of cook? Sadly,

answer is yes and the ad is conveying the

message, though subtly, that you may be

boss at office but at home you are wife and

have to juggle with household chores

notwithstanding of how hard you toil in the

office.(note that lady boss leaves her office

at odd working hours).

If ad agency has to show romance why

can’t it be shown with role reversals –

a female employee in the office and

her husband, considering her work

commitment, is cooking food for her –

hadn’t it been a better salute to all

corporate women who too work late

and work hard. This would have made

it a better ad with due appreciation to

dedication of women workforce of

the country and at the same time,

acceptance of ambition of women and

the fact that they equally have desire

to get recognition and honour at

work instead of conveying the

message that if you need to be a boss

at office you must be a subordinate at

home.

Cynics may say that it is just an ad and

should not be delved into with so

much scrutiny. But the pertinent

question is shouldn’t an ad just like a

movie be made with some social

responsibility?

FEATURED ARTICLES

29 THE MARKSMAN

SquAreheaD

SEPTEMBER 2014 30

31 THE MARKSMAN

BUZZ

4.

5. 6.

1. 2.

3.

PUZZLE

CLUES

ACROSS:

1. An e-commerce website

founded by Jack Ma

2. Name the parent

company of Royal Enfield

3. A popular brand which

belongs to swatch

DOWN:

4. Name the company that

announced Prasoon Joshi as

New chairman for Asia

Pacific region

5. Its common between

Micromax, Karbon, Lava,

Indigo

6. Aravind Limited is the

marketer for this famous

denim brand in India

Answers:

1. Alibaba, 2. EicherMotors, 3.Longines, 4. McCann

Worldgroup, 5.Indian, 6.Wrangler

Call for ARTICLES

CALL FOR ARTICLES OCTOBER 2014

Articles can be sent on any one of the following topics*:

*Please ensure that there is no plagiarism and all references are

clearly mentioned.

The best adjudged article will be given a Winner’s Certificate.

Deadline for the submission of article will be : 20th October 2014

1. One article can have only one author.

2. Your article should be approximately 800-850

words and MUST be replete with relevant

pictures that can be used to enhance the

article.

3. FontType: Gill Sans MT

4. Font Size: 14.

5. Send your article in .doc/.docx format to

marksman.simsr@somaiya.edu

6. Subtitle line: Your name_Institute

Name_CourseYear

7. Kindly name your file as : Your name_Topic

1. #MakeInIndia : Its implications on the world

2. Filing patent infringements : Innovative

marketing strategy?

3. Deepika Padukone, TOI fiasco : Helping TOI

bounce back

SEPTEMBER 2014 32

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Follow the link:-

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OR drop in a mail/contact us at :

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THE TEAM

TWEETS by

Kavya Dubey

It’s all about AD-itude by

Abhijit Sharma

Brand MARKive by

SankalpThakur

COVER STORY by

Akshay Peshave

SPECIAL STORY by

Shruti Gupta

HALLMARK CAMPAIGN by

Dhruv Maheshwari

PIONEER by

Sukanya Remesh

REWIND by

PalakThakkar

TETE-A-TETE by

Sukanya Remesh

Akshay Peshave

BOOKWORM by

Dilip Anatharman

SquAreheaD by

Abhijit Sharma

BUZZ by

VasundharaTewari

FAUX PAS by

Rishika Saxena

PROOF READ by

Minoli Sheth

PalakThakkar

DESIGNING by

RahulVangani

Shweta Panikker

Niharika Srivastava

PROMOTIONS by

Abhijit Sharma

The MARKSMAN is the

newsletter of INTERFACE, the

Marketing Club at K.J. Somaiya

Institute of Management Studies

and Research, Mumbai.

Images used in THE

MARKSMAN are subject to

copyright. THE MARKSMAN

does not take any responsibility

of any kind of plagiarism in the

articles received from students

of other colleges.

The TEAM

33 THE MARKSMAN