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Cover Story
Indian Hockey
In a marketing soup?
August12
Marketing Magazine of IIM Shillong Volume 4 | Issue 2
An Interview with Mr. V. Satyanarayana Reddy
Chief Executive Officer of Chennai Division,
Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited
An Interview with Prof. V. Srinivasan
Professor of Management
Emeritus at Stanford Business School
MARKATHON
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Dear Readers,
It was loud, it was defiant; above all it was gloriously,
tumultuously, spine-tinglingly British. Ninety minutes of
dazzling theatre, dance, film and music; a mash-up ofcultural history delivered at breakneck speed, Danny
Boyle's opening ceremony which set off the 2012
London Olympics was a profoundly breathtaking
spectacle. The Indian contingent - around 40 athletes
and 11 officials in all - marched into the stadium with
the men in yellow Rajasthani turbans, blue blazers and
white trousers and the women in yellow sarees and
blue blazers. We sure hope India shines this year at the
London Olympics.
With a streak of 6 Olympic gold medals, the Indian
mens Hockey team remained unbeaten from 1928 to
1956. And with a total of 8 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze
medals, Indian men's field hockey team is the most
successful field hockey team in Olympic history. Today,
its dismal state in India is as true a fact that it is the
national sport of India. If we take to look at the reason
for this, we can go on to list various pitfalls. We may
even say that Hockey, as a sport, has been unfortunate
because of various organizational and performance
issues. But what if we say that problem lies in marketing
of Indian Hockey? Our cover story this time focuses on
this very issue and tries to address the shortcomings of
Indian hockey, marketing style.
To quote Col. John 'Hannibal' Smith from the A Team,
I love it when a plan comes together. We would like
to believe that Google is celebrating Markathon by
displaying a very aptly themed doodle today, the day
we release our magazine.
For our corporate Vartalaap we have with us Shri. V.
Satyanarayana Reddy, the Chief Executive Officer of
Chennai Division of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd.
Having joined Apollo in 1989, Shri. Reddy has a rich
experience on over 23 years. He shares with us his
valuable experience and the growth story of Apollo and
the healthcare industry in India.
We have another interesting personality for our
academic Vartalaap, who became famous for using
conjoint anlaysis for predicting job offers which
students at the B-school would take up. Professor V.
Srinivasan, the Adams Distinguished Professor of
Management, Emeritus at the Stanford Business School,
shares with us the finer nuances of conjoint analysis and
market research.
As always, we will try to improvise and ascertain that
together we will learn and together we will grow. Do
send in your feedback/suggestions to
What are you waiting for? Enjoy yet another incredible
journey that we bring to you through this issue.
Happy Reading!
Team Markathon
FROM TEAM MARKATHON
THE MARKATHON TEAM
EDITORS
G S N Aditya
Piyush Agarwal
Mayur Jain
Sowmya R
Swati Nidiganti
Umang Kulshrestha
CREATIVE DESIGNERS
Priya Kumari Agrawal
Rushika Sabnis
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3
CONTENTS
FEATURED ARTICLES
PERSPECTIVES
MARKETING TO KIDS
PULKIT PANDEY | IIM INDORE 4
A UNIQUE BRANDING EXERCISETHE KAYA STORY
NEHA KANWAL | IIM INDORE7
SUBCONCIOUS TITILLATION 10
AHANA CHAKRABORTY, RUBAYET CHAKRABORTY | NITIE MUMBAI
VARTALAAP
SHRI V. SATYANARAYANA REDDY
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF CHENNAI DEIVISION, APOLLO HOSPITALS ENTERPRISE LTD.13
COVER STORY
INDIAN HOCKEYIN A MARKETING SOUP
SONAM MEWAR, ARPIT TRIPATHI, RAHUL BARWE | IIM S16
VARTALAAP
PROF. V. SRINIVASAN
PROFESSOR AT STANFORD BUSINESS SCHOOL23
WAR ZONE
EYE 2 EYEIS THE SUCCESS OR FAILURE OF MICROSOFT DEPENDENT ONLY ON ITS PRICING?
PAYAL PATHAK | XIMB | RAM KRISHNA PANDEY | NIRMA26
SILENT VOICE
NEXUS 7 27
SPECIALS
ADDICTED 28UMANG KULSHRESTHA & G S N ADITYA | IIM S
BOOKMARK 29
SOWMYA R | IIM S
RADICAL THOUGHTS 30
PIYUSH | IIM S
UPDATES
G S N ADITYA | IIM S 32
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Pulkit Pandey | iim indore
Gone are the days when parents
used to take their children for
shopping. With changing times,the trend seems to have been
reversed and this has certainly
not escaped the marketers
notice. Today the role of children
in purchases is no longer limited to products that
directly influence only them. Children are now directly
or indirectly involved in the purchase of a large number
of products concerning the entire family.
Factors Contributing to the Changing Trends
A number of factors have contributed to the change. An
increase in the overall household family incomes has
been one of the major factors. Couples nowadays
prefer having children only after they have achieved
stability in their careers and are financially well-off. The
emergence of nuclear families has also played a major
role in the shifting of the
buying patterns of
households. This trendwhen coupled with the fact
that both parents are
usually employed explains
the liberty given to children
in purchase decisions. The
tendency to please their
children stems from the
guilty feeling that parents
have because of not being
able to spend enough time
with their children due to
their work commitments.
The increased exposure to
television and internet is
also a major factor. The
time spent by children on
both television and internet
is significant and is also one
of the direct consequences
of the lack of parental
control due to the parents
jobs. This has resulted in parents increasingly giving in
to the pestering of their children.
Psychological Aspects of Kids Marketing
Marketers have been trying to understand the
psychological implications of the above changes. They
have seen the reversal of trend as an opportunity and
have been quick in making attempts to capture this
growing market. The seemingly simple domain of child
psychology has been studied extensively and has
resulted in innovative means of reaching the potential
targets.
Marketers have tried to tap into the desire of the child
to be seen as an adult. The attempt to get the brands
embedded into the subconscious mind of the child has
also resulted from these analyses. Even here, marketers
recognize that brand association is more important with
older kids and younger children are more attracted to
the product characteristics.
In addition, companies
have now realized that this
market has an even
greater potential than
other markets. Families on
thrifty budgets would have
parents cutting down on
their own luxuries so that
they can cater to the
needs of their children.
Marketers have also
worked on understanding
the parents expectations
from the products and the
desire of parents to see
their children learn and
grow. This has resulted in
campaigns where the
parents needs are also
taken into considerationand which results in a
purchase from their side.
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Role of Children in Purchase Decision
There are different roles children play in the purchases
done by the family. They can act as primary purchasers
where they buy products for themselves. This would
include food items such as chocolates, chips, biscuits
and ice-creams; clothes and accessories like watches
and goggles; sports items and video games; and study
related stuff. This is a huge market in itself. In addition
to this, the role of children as influencers has become a
lot more prominent. They have their views on almost all
purchase done by the family and are in a position to
influence the decisions taken. Finally, children are seen
as future purchasers and marketers often like to build
brand loyalties from their childhood. An investment in
this market can yield positive returns in future.
Means of Marketing
to Kids
Marketers are now
coming up with
increasingly
innovative ways of
advertisement to
kids. The traditional
way of advertisements has also become polished over
the years. There is an attempt to pass along a message
in each and every advertisement/promotional means
and this slowly leads to the development of permanent
brand associations. People often relate to Complan as a
milk drink that helps in increasing childs height.
Similarly ParleG, by means of its G for
Genius campaign, tries to
position itself as a product which
is associated with the
intellectual ability of the
children.
Another popular means by
which marketers target children
is by trying to create brand
associations by using sources children
can relate to. Frequently, cartoon characters are used in
advertisements. Popular idols from Bollywood and
Sports often feature in advertisements targeted at
children. Saif Ali Khan and M.S. Dhoni are the brand
ambassadors of Lays and Sachin Tendulkar appeared in
Boost commercials for a long time.
Apart from television and print advertisements, other
means are employed by marketers in
their attempt to target children.
Some of the brands have a small
comic strip in popular children comics
and magazines. The concept of giving
freebies has beenexploited by a large
number of
companies in
attracting children to
their products. The
toys given free
with Happy Meals by
McDonalds is a
popular example.
With the increase in
the use of internet by
children, companies
by use of proper positioning in websites visited
often by children (like online gaming sites) make
sure they catch the desired attention of children.
Online contests are held to create brand awareness by
increasing competition and hence participation. Apart
from this, companies also take part in a number of
promotional activities in schools and other popularhubs like malls. Bournvita quiz contest was started with
this aim and at present has successfully expanded to
the national level.
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Other innovative measures have also been undertaken
by companies. One concept that has evolved in recent
years is Buzz Marketing. The
companies try to create a
new trend which is actively
followed by other children.
Children have a tendency to
appear cool and imitate
others who appear so. Thus
marketers attempt to target
those children who act as
trend setters among peers
and this can itself diffuse
through to other children.
Another innovative idea wasemployed by Honda in the recently concluded Autoexpo
in Delhi. The company involved children in contests at
their location and in the meantime parents were
detailed about the various offerings.
Ethical Considerations
With the increased exposure of children to advertising,
there is always a tendency of
companies to resort to unethical
means in order to increase their
profits. Children, especially
younger ones, take what they
observe as true and unbiased
facts. Thus there is an increased
need of regulation and prudent
decision making by the
companies. Parents too have a
major role to play in this regard.
A few positive steps have beentaken by companies in recent
times. A significant example is
the announcement by major food
and beverage companies like
Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nestle and
Kellogg about their commitment
to responsible marketing to
children. Self-regulation
measures like these can go a long
way in helping companies tap
into this huge market without
compromising on ethical
conducts.on the other hand HLL
targeted premium segment as it has always done in
foreign countries. Neither of the two parties tried to
invade into other segment until
they realized that the other
segment will just add to their
profits and economies.
Indian market is very unique. It
is rightly said that there are 2
Indias within India - the urban
and the rural India. The urban
India has always been the
favoured segment for the
MNCs due to the ease of
approaching this segment but
now rural India has shown thatthe secret to success lies in the penetration power of
the companies. The deeper you go to market through
innovative ways the more are your chances of success.
Supply chain management will help to bridge the gap
between the two Indias and will further bring
economies of scale for both foreign and Indian brands.
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Neha kanwal | IIm indore
Introduction
Into its 10th year ofexistence now,
FMCG biggie
Maricos subsidiary
Kaya Skin Clinic has
recently undergone a
rebranding and
repositioning setting,
an example which is
nothing short of a
hot topic of
discussion for
budding managers.
While the results of
the rebranding are
yet to be seen, the
efforts sure seem to
quickly change the
consumer perception
of the brand.
Kaya Skin Clinic has been the prime
mover in a segment that it created in
2002, that of organized skin clinics.
Competing with the large unorganized
sector, the company has been facing
financial losses from the time of its
inception and till now not been able to
get rid of the red since it entered theIndian skin care market which is sized
INR 1850 crores today. However times
are bound to change for the skin care provider as it
takes on a new persona.
The journey till 2011
Marico was initially presented with an idea of selling
laser hair removal machines to dermatologists. Doctors
however, did not like the idea. But what got triggeredwas the realization that the market for skin care needs
was growing and there was a space between doctors
and beauty parlors. Kaya was the answer to this space
and that was the positioning of the brand in the first 9
years of its existence to provide solutions to skin
problems faced by consumers hence the name clinic.But as the business grew from scratch to a turnover of
close to 300 crores, there were some consumer insights
that prompted them to change their strategy.
Triggers for change
Kaya today has more than 80 clinics in 26 cities and all
are company owned. They are the largest employer of
dermatologists in India and do not follow the franchisee
model owing to the sensitive nature of care offered.
However the word sensitive has been the pain point
for the brand. Targeting females of age group 21 45
for skin care solutions, there were some interesting
consumer insights that came up during discussions with
the TG. Some of the reasons mentioned by females for
not going to or referring Kaya to others are mentioned
as under:
Revealing the new Kaya
Down goes the clinic and we have a new and bold
avatar of Kaya with a new tagline to adorn the new
persona.
Beautifully crafted, the new look of the logo in itself
answers various doubts that females had related to a
skin clinic. Consider a college girl going to kaya for skin
care services when she gets a call from her mother
asking her where she is. The answer would aptly be
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Kaya and with the clinic part being downplayed, it
should no longer be a matter of hesitation for the
females to admit going there.The change of color to a dark
Burgundy symbolizes richness
and expertise while the rounded
edges symbolize care and
warmth.
The new color scheme was first
introduced in the Hyderabad
Centre and it wasnt just used
for the hoardings but also to
create the inner ambience of the
Centre signifying that Kaya was a
beauty and wellness solution for
the skin. It is safe to say that the
new look does justice to the premium
positioning of the brand.
It is interesting to note that the process of zeroing down
to the burgundy color was not driven by consumer
insights like other re-positioning moves. It was the
marketing team of Kaya that shortlisted a few color
schemes and then confirmed their choice by asking
consumers on what would impact them more. Needless
to say, the result is a complete makeover of the brand
which we are witnessing today.
Evolution of consumers
The market for cosmetic surgery,laser treatment and other high
end skin services is growing at the
rate of 10% a year according to the
head of Department of
Dermatology, Bangalore Medical
College and Research Institute.
These services which were earlier
availed only by the aged who
wanted to look younger are now
being taken up mostly by the
youth. People who were children in
the early liberalization phase are
now in their 20s and 30s and having
lived in the era where being presentable is very
important. They dont mind spending extra bucks to
look beautiful. Add to it the growing disposable income
of the population and you get a clearer picture of why
Kaya was a wonderful business initiative by Marico.
Apt use of media
In terms of media,
skin care being a
high involvement
category, women
seek a lot of
information before
availing such
services hence it was
important for Kaya
to use the media
that hits the TG at
the right spot and so
they focused a lot on
high engagement
media such as social
media, internet,
print and outdoor.
Kayas advertisingspend went up from
5% in 2010 to 10%
for the current
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campaign. Mass vehicles such as TV were not used till now but with the change in
positioning to a complete skin care beauty solution
brand; Kaya launched its new TV Commercial in June
targeting women who want to look beautiful indicatinga complete game change.
The chart below shows the involvement levels against
price and with Kaya being a premium prices service with
the most expensive service touching INR 1.6 Lacs, the
consumers will sure seek all the information they can
before deciding to pay a visit.
The road ahead
Kaya is set to change the retail identity of all its stores
and also bring about a change in
product packaging and even
possibly in its distribution. We
might see Kaya products adorning
the shelves of some high end
retail stores in the future.
Whatever the upcoming changes
may be, its pretty sure that the
change in consumer perception is
there and it seems that Kaya has
hit the right chord now. While we
wait for the measurable to be
recorded, let us continue to learn
from this unique re-branding
exercise which is being executed
by undoubtedly one of the bestmarketing companies in the count
Comparison of Kayas old and new clinic ambience
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Ahana Chakraborty, Rubayet Chakraborty| NITIE, MUMBAI
Surely you are familiar with this ringit is the famed
One Ring to Rule them All from Lord of the RingsDo
you see Coca Cola etched on the side? Not apparentat first. But once youve seen it, youll probably be
thirsty for a coke. Thats exactly what Coke wants .this
is a sample of their subliminal advertising.
Coke has been using subliminal advertising for decades.
In the 1980s Coca-Cola reintroduced its contour bottle
in South Australia with the slogan Feel the Curves!
The poster ad was recalled after the company
discovered the artist had hidden some rather obvious
sexual imagery in one of the ice cubes surrounding the
bottle of Coke. In yet another episode, Coke featured
the silhouette of a naked woman lying on top of its
cans. This imagery is not overt, it is meant to touch an
individuals subconscious.
The term subliminal is derived from the Latin words
sub, meaning under, and limen, meaning threshold. A
subliminal message is not delivered directly. It is
typically embedded in some medium that is not
perceptible by the conscious mind. The extent to which
these messages influence buying behavior has not yet
been established. However, research has shown that on
certain occasions signals delivered below the conscious
threshold of an individual may have an effect on his
later thoughts and actions.
Marketers have not let this opportunity go waste.
Subliminal marketing practices were experimented
with, as early as 1957 when a market researcher named
James Vicary inserted the words "Eat Popcorn" and
"Drink Coca-Cola" into a movie. The words appeared for
a single frame, long enough for the subconscious to pick
up, but too short for the viewers to be aware of it. The
subliminal ads supposedly increased Coke sales by
18.1% and popcorn sales by 57.8%. It was later proved
that these results were probably faked.
But what is it that may make subliminal marketing
work? One is the mere exposure effect. Simply by
exposing a person to certain stimuli for long, breeds
familiarity and subsequent liking for the stimuli. This is a
common strategy for all marketing campaigns that
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strive to enhance visibility to customers. But in todays
world where we build our defenses against the 10,000
ads we are exposed to everyday, fighting for consumer
mind space is a challenge. This is when attacking at a
subliminal level emerges as an option.
Perhaps the most visible element of a brand is its logo.
So why not design logos in such a way that they
communicate more than whats apparently visible?
Some companies such as Amazon and FedEx have
achieved great success with this strategy.The yellow arrow on Amazons logo may not look much
more than just a smile on the customers face. But
theres also a deeper message embedded in the clever
positioning of the arrow running precisely from the
letters a to z. This positioning conveys Amazons
message that it sells everything from A to Z on its online
store. A less obvious but brilliant message is hidden in
the logo of FedEx. An arrow forms between the letters
E and x that conveys the speed and reliability
provided by the courier service.
Apart from logos, advertisements also form a tool for
delivering subliminal messages to consumers. Consider
the 2000 US presidential race, where TV commercial
created by George Bush's campaign team, used this
type of subliminal messaging to deride opponent Al
Gore. When the phrase 'BUREAUCRATS DECIDE'
appeared just after Gore's name was mentioned --
'RATS' flashed up for a fraction of a second. At such a
speed, the bold lettering was scarcely perceptible
except to the subconscious mind.In a similar incident in 2007, a Mc Donalds logo,
complete with the slogan Im loving it had appeared
in a single frame at the end of the show called Food
Network's Iron Chef. Similar is the case with Disney,
which attempted to use subliminal imagery by making
the silhouette of Captain Jack Sparrow in posters closely
resemble that of the iconic Mickey Mouse. The idea
here was to evoke an emotion for Pirates of the
Caribbean, similar to the one for Mickey Mouse.Apart from repeated exposure, what may make
subliminal advertising work is their invariable link with
sex and power. An unchallenged marketing belief is that
sex sells. Advertisers use this aspect of human
psychology by associating their products with sexy
imagery hoping that it appeals to the consumers
subconscious minds. Ads with sexual implications have
been used by many companies, including Burger King
and Heineken.
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Perhaps the best example of subliminal advertising in
recent times has been done by Marlboro. Following the
ban on advertising tobacco at international sporting
events, Marlboro released the Scuderia Marlboro F1
single-seater Ferrari racecar with a barcode on it. The
barcode looks a lot like its logoparticularly when it
whizzes by at 200
mph!
As is evident,
marketers spend
significant time,
energy and money
pursuing this path.
But do these
subconscious
messages really
work? Scientific
research in this
domain is still at a nascent stage to provide a
concrete answer. The studies conducted so
far are ambiguous and contradictory. In a
study, participants ratings of thirst were
higher after viewing an episode of "The
Simpsons that contained single frames of
the word "thirsty" or of a picture of Coke can.
In another case, 80% of participants displayed
a preference for a particular brand of rum when
subliminally primed by the name placed in an ad
backwards. On the contrary, research conducted
elsewhere has shown that subliminal messages produce
only one-tenth of the effects of detected messages.
Marketers seem to have given the benefit of
doubt to consumers in their attempt to try
anything to woo them. In fact, subliminal
messaging has not remained confined to visual
stimuli. Auditory stimuli have also been used
the best example being self-help audio tapes
that claim to have a placebo effect on people
with self-esteem and memory disorders.
Another evolving domain is Scent Marketing,
where firms like food shops use synthetic
fragrances to make
customers mouths
water. Few know
that new cars do
not smell like plastic
and metal they
are sprayed with oil
or leather
fragrance. In fact,
fragrances are alsoused to build brand
identification and
strong sensory
association by
hotels like Sheraton and Hyatt. It is on these lines that
products like scented socks, CDs, USB sticks and papers
have been introduced into the market.
Whether or not these hidden messages truly make us
crave for stuff, as long as marketers persist in theirefforts, having strawberry scented socks is a delightful
prospect indeed!
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An Interview with Mr. V. Satyanarayana Reddy
Chief Executive Officer of Chennai Division, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited
Shri. V. Satyanarayana Reddy serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Chennai
Division of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd. Shri. Reddy has done his B.sc in
Agriculture and there after went on to do MBA and Mphil. He served as Chief
Executive Officer of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd and has been the Chief
Executive Officer at Apollo Gleneagles Hospital Limited since August 2006. Shri.
Reddy joined at Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd. in April 17, 1989 and has 23
years of valuable experience which he shares with us in an insightful discussion.
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Today, Apollo Tele-Network
Foundation has emerged as India's
single largest turnkey provider in the
area of Telemedicine with over 125
peripheral centers including 10
overseas. More than 71,000 Tele-
consultations in 25 different
disciplines have been provided.
Patients have been evaluated from
distances ranging from 200 to 7500km
Markathon: Having seen the
inside and out of health care
industry and Apollo for over 23
long years, how do you think this
industry has evolved over the
period of time?
Shri. Reddy:Before Apollo came
into existence, health care
industry was run only by
government sector, nursing
homes and Trusts. During the
1980s super specialty facilities
were not available. Dr. Prathap C
Reddys vision not only brought technology but also
gave health care sector an Industry standard enabling
the financial institutions investments possible. Today
it is an over 40 billion USD sector. PE and VC
activity has also been increasing in the last
couple of years. Indian hospitals today are
on par with International standards.
Apollo Hospitals are JCIA
Accredited. Clinical outcomes
successes have increased
with latest technologyusage. Clinical
research in many
specialties has
led to
improved
disease
management and
patient care, reduced
ALOS, better BTR (Bed
Turn Over Rates) making
healthcare delivery more
sustainable. Awareness on
diseases and Preventive medicine
is taking shape nowadays. Recently an
American has to go to Apollo for a Heart
transplant, considering the cost difference giving
rise to increasing medical tourism. This is a drastic
change if compare it with the past, say two decades
back, where Indians used to go to US for cardiac
diseases.
Markathon: Today there are a
number of players emerging in the
premium healthcare segment.
What strategies does Apollo
employ in this dynamic scenario to
stay ahead of the competition?
Shri. Reddy: Firstly, Hospital bed
density is still inadequate in India
and lags behind the global
average. There is a huge gap
between supply and demand.
Frankly there is no competition for
Apollo in the health care segment,
including the premium healthcare segment.
Infrastructure and qualified clinicians are the key
resources in the health care segment. Apollo always
had the best physicians and latest technology
making competition irrelevant.
Markathon: What are the underlying
values which makes Apollo such a
strong brand in the hospital
space?
Shri. Reddy: Being
patient centric is not
a goal; its the
core of the
existence
for Apollo.
Tender Loving
Care is the way of
life we promote.
These three simple words
that have a profound impact
on everything Apollo does.
Based on this theme, Clinical
and Service excellence is
something which Apollo never
comprises on. Apollo hospitals have been one
of the pioneers of the technological revolution in
healthcare to enhance the clinical outcomes, be it
introduction of robotics or Apollo 320 slice CT scanner
or the cyber knife technology. It reflects the quest forpatients experiences that Apollo thrives for. That is
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another value which makes Apollo the choice for
customers. Family culture in Apollo makes every
employee to go an extra mile to protect the
organizational values and deliver them to the best of
customers expectations.
Markathon: It is said that Education and Healthcare are
two forces which can change the face of rural India.
Though, technology enabled means such as mobile
healthcare and telemedicine have made rural India
more accessible, but is it really able to reap benefits out
of these advancements? What are the challenges that
Apollo is facing in this effort of reaching out to the rural
people?
Shri. Reddy: The first step towards Telemedicine was
starting Rural Telemedicine centre in 1999 in Aragonda
(in Andhra Pradesh). Today, Apollo Tele-Network
Foundation has emerged as India's single largest
turnkey provider in the area of Telemedicine with over
125 peripheral centers including 10 overseas. More
than 71,000 Tele-consultations in 25 different
disciplines have been provided. Patients have been
evaluated from distances ranging from 200 to 7500 km.
The advancement in technology has really helped to
penetrate in to rural India.
The challenges for Apollo in reaching to rural and semi
urban lies in cost of technology. However Apollo also
successfully ventured in to semi-urban and rural areas
to provide quality tertiary healthcare through Reach
Hospitals. Apollo Reach Hospitals operate in tier-II cities
and offer medical care at rates up to 30 per cent lower
than what is charged by other major hospitals and won
G20 Challenge on Inclusive Business Innovation.
Markathon: Medical Tourism has seen a steady rise in
our country. How is Apollo benefitted from it and is it
taking any measures to create more visibility at a global
level?
Shri. Reddy: Medical tourism has seen a steady raise in
the country and contributes to 2 billion USD market
size. Increased healthcare standards, latest technology,
promising clinical outcomes and relatively low costs are
favoring the medical tourism industry in India. Apollo
gets its patients from across 120 countries. Apollo has
tie ups with various governments and ministries to
promote its world class offerings. Apollo has also global
partners to provide information, support and to
coordinate the visits of International patients in US,
Canada, Ethiopia, Nepal, UK, Japan, Mauritius, UAE,
Kuwait , Saudi Arabia and many other places.
International Patient Services is a dedicated department
at Apollo to take care of the International patients.
Markathon: Considering that Apollo is planning to
adopt a retail model to expand healthcare offerings,
what are the potential challenges and opportunities
that you foresee in this strategy?
Shri. Reddy: The plan to adopt a retail model is to reach
out to the masses. Apollo has already been in retail
space through pharmacy chains and is starting a
national chain of clinics that will total 200 units in three
years. The initiative will target the middle and upper
class segments. Clinics will be set up in neighborhoods,
malls and SEZs. This strategy would help Apollo to
penetrate in to market and also provide primary care to
the masses. The opportunities are huge as the target
segment has immense potential and challenges lie in
providing quality health care at the affordable cost for
customers. However having over 25 years of experience
in the healthcare segment we are confident that we will
be able to meet our objectives.
Markathon: What is your advice to budding marketers
reading this magazine?
Shri. Reddy: Today customers know more than
marketers. Thanks to technology!! Know your product
or service in detail before you promise a customer and
deliver what you have promised is the key to success. At
Apollo we promise on clinical outcomes, service levels
and compete only on it. When you market what the
product/service stands for with authenticity success is
all yours.
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Cover story | Indian Hockey in a marketing soup? markathon|august 2012
1
Indian Hockey - In a marketing soup?
Arpit | Sonam | Rahul
IIM S
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Introduction
Today, its dismal state in
India is as true a fact
that it is the national
sport of India. But,
hockey, yes! our
national sport, had long
served the appetite for
live entertainment of
Indian spectators. It was
a tool to satisfy our
craving of world
dominance. With a
streak of 6 Olympic goldmedals, the Indian
mens Hockey team
remained unbeaten
from 1928 to 1956. And with a total of 8 gold, 1 silver
and 2 bronze medals, Indian
men's field hockey team is the
most successful field hockey
team in Olympic history.
Indeed, a team of hockey
legends and wizards. And, it
would be a sin, not to mention
about Major Dhyan Chand,
whose astounding skills have
been made into anecdotes
that continue to awe and inspire the world. But the
current state is not the same, not even close. Consider
this, India didnt qualify for the Olympics in 2008
(Beijing), first time since 1928. So much for our world
dominance or so much for our glorious past. This trendhad to show on the fan following and public support for
Indian Hockey and show it did. If we take to look at the
reason for this, we can go on to list various reasons. We
may even say that Hockey, as a sport, has been
unfortunate because of various organizational and
performance issues. But what if we say that problem
lies in the marketing of Indian Hockey?
Let us first investigate what we mean by marketing
here. Marketing as a concept has evolved over the time.From focus on production, to that on product, to that
on selling, we now talk
about focus on sense-and-
respond and Holistic
Marketing. The essence of
sense-and respond is
being customer-centered
and that of Holistic
Marketing is realizing the
breadth and
interdependencies of
marketing activities. Now
let us see how marketing
went wrong for Indian
Hockey and how right
marketing can improve thestate of Indian Hockey?
Let us view the Indian
Hockey as an organization, where authorities like
Hockey India or Indian Hockey Federation run the show.
The product is hockey matches and tournaments. And
the consumer, interestingly, is both the spectator and
the prospective hockey player. There are other partners
and stakeholders too, about whom well discuss later.
This organization has taken a few steps to sell itsproduct. For instance, introducing the league format
Hockey in India in 2005 by the name of Premiere
Hockey League. It was aggressively publicized as well.
But it never went popular, or at least as popular as was
expected. Or, by the analogy, the product didn't sell.
The marketing issue here is that the organization is
stuck with the selling concept, i.e. to publicize and
advertise the product to ensure that it sells. And this is
where the marketing plot is missed. We need to see
through the sense-and-respond concept; we need to
make Indian Hockey the way the Indian spectator or an
Indian child looking to become a sportsperson would
want. A spectator of hockey, for that matter spectator
of any sport, has two primary expectations. First,
obviously, is to see his side win the game and the
second is to witness closely contested games or as they
are called nail-biting thrillers. While the latter
expectation is still met, the former is becoming a distant
dream. And this is the reason why once a religiously
followed sport is now not given second look. And this
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itself is the reason
why hockey
doesnt attract
prospective
players anymore.
But now the billion
dollar question is
how do we make
the Indian Hockey
team win? As we
said, the answer
lies in right
marketing and in
this case it's
'HolisticMarketing'.
Holistic Marketing, as has been mentioned, derives its
strength and synergies from the interdependencies of
the breadth of activities taken up by an organization in
the name of marketing. There are four broad
components that characterize Holistic Marketing:
relationship marketing, integrated marketing, internal
marketing and performance marketing. Through these
four pillars holistic marketing ensures that themarketing objective, as derived from the sense and
respond concept, is achieved. For now our objective is
to get Indian Hockey back on track or to put it bluntly,
to get Indian Hockey team win the game more often.
Let us see how Holistic Marketing ensures this.
Relationship Marketing
It is based on the idea of developing
a long term relationship with thekey constituents of our business
who directly or indirectly affect
the success of marketing
activities of our organization.
There are four key constituents
from the view of relationship marketing:
customers, employees, marketing partners
(channels, suppliers, distributors, dealers,
agencies) and financial community (shareholders,
investors and analysts). If we take the context of Indian
Hockey, we have
already discussed
about the
customers- the
spectators and the
prospective player.
To the spectator the
best benefit, as
already discussed, is
to see a good game
of hockey and, more
often than not, see
his team win the
game. This would
ensure a sustainedsupport and loyalty
of this customer. And if there is support of the spectator
to make hockey popular, the prospective player
(another customer) would be attracted to hockey.
Looking at the employees, our organization analogy
would map various zone, state and other boards
members, the staff in these bodies, the stadium and
venue staff etc. as the employees of Indian Hockey.
Being governmental bodies, there are all the chancesthat bureaucracy would be pervasive. This definitely
locks up the scope of improvement for employees. But
what can be looked at is the establishment of a basic
benefits structure for the employees with a
communication that Indian hockey is
committed to the benefit of its stakeholders.
The other line of employees, rather more
important ones are the players,
coaches and support staff in the
sport of hockey in India, right
from the zone to the national
level. As an organization, their
prosperity has to be of prime
importance. It can be ensured by
practicing good remuneration,
facilities and schemes for them. This
would ensure a long term relationship and
commitment by these employees. And this
endeavor would directly show at the
performance of the Indian Hockey.
Customers
Employees
Marketing Partners
Financial
Community
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Marketing partners look for the long term sustainability
on the business that partner with and financial
community looks at the returns. Objectives related to
these constituents of our business would be de facto
met with the improvement in the performance of the
Indian Hockey team.
Internal Marketing
Holistic marketing
also ensures that
each member of
the organization is
aligned to the
same mission and
vision.
Appropriate
marketing
principles should
be followed all
over the vertical
and horizontal
level.
Applying the
concept of internal
marketing to
Indian hockey we
find major
loopholes. Indian
Hockey has two governing bodies: Indian Hockey
Federation and Hockey India. With international
recognition to Hockey India from FHI but the local
support to Indian hockey Federation creates a lack of
strong leadership at the top. Though the major powerlies with HI after successfully conducting great world
cup but local state associations are still more loyal to
IHF, which made Nimbus chose to partner with the later
for World Series Hockey. This initiative was as a result
was discouraged by FIH. This further demotivates the
players. The situation has further worsened by lack of
proper pay and incentives to the players. Thus, absence
of a visionary senior management has left a lot of scope
of improvement in the internal functioning. Though, the
hiring of foreign coach, Micheal Nobbs has produced
some successful results.
Internal marketing ensures that the marketing efforts
are supported and appreciated all over the
organization. Any marketing plan shall only be
successful if its a comprehensive approach of
packaging, promoting and delivering the game to the
consumer to fulfill their need; entertainment. It
confirms the basic
preparedness of all
the employees to
serve the
customers and
promise excellent
service. Thus,
hiring and training
also become
crucial. Past
incidents like that
of 2008, where IHF
Secretary K.
Jothikumaran was
caught in a sting
operation takingbribe for including
a player in the
team has created a
negative
environment. Not
to mention again what happened in Beijing Olympics
2008. Transparent approach should be followed while
selecting players. Former captain Dhanraj Pillay has
quoted one of the reasons to quit was the lack of
respect to captain in the team. According to him,
captain had a little say while choosing the team and at
the same time he was not even consulted for important
issues related to his team. All these practices discourage
and lower the spirit of the team. The proper training
and hiring of the employees are also vital for internal
marketing. The appointment of foreign coach, Micheal
Nobbs, has brought some new hope among the players.
The team has produced some successful results in past
and looking for London dreams under his guidance.
Such initiatives, of hiring appropriate talent and training
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IntegratedMark
eting
Primary target market
Spectators
Players
Coach
Other staffs
Secondary target market
Corporate Sponsors
Advertisers
creates a big impact on any organization. Indian Hockey
should also focus more on their internal training and
camps for assuring that our players meet the
international standards.
Integrated Marketing
Integrated marketing is about creating, communicating
and delivering value to a target market. But
who is the target
market for a sport like
hockey? One will say
its the spectators and
the prospective players
or we may say the
consumers. A course
on sports marketing
will tell you that there
are more than just the
spectators that need to
be marketed. Other
than the spectators we
have participants
including the players
who play the sport, the coach who train them and othersupport staff. These are the primary target market. The
secondary target market could be the corporate
sponsors who use sports to communicate positive and
distinctive image about their products and company to
large group of spectators or it could be the advertisers
who use this platform to promote and communicate
their products. Also, there exists a big secondary market
in the form of players endorsements of products where
companies use sports personalities and celebrities to
create better consumer perception towards their
products. Let us look each of them one by one by
defining the marketing goal and how it can be achieved.
Starting with players and coaches, their need is
recognition and, of course, money. Though
tournaments like World Series Hockey (WSH)
tournament, league format conceptualized recently,
provide a great platform for players to get recognition
and also earn money, they have failed miserably due to
organizational conflicts between HI and IHF. The
marketing goal here is not only to attract right talent
but also to encourage more youngsters join and
embrace the game. But we find in India, every
youngsters role model is a Sachin or a Dravid and not
a Prabjhoth or a Dilip Tirkey. How can we change
this? We see players like Sachin and Dravid regularly
attending public
conferences;
interact with
youngsters in
schools and
colleges but we
dont often see
hockey players
doing the same. Weneed our hockey
champions to
engage more
closely with our
society, if possible
on social causes to
create connect with
the youngsters.
Also, we need more
school and junior college level tournaments which
encourage youngsters to play hockey. Yes, the recent
announcement of INR 5 lakh grant by Hockey India to
each of its State Associations towards organizing senior,
junior, sub-Junior level tournaments and school level
tournaments for the first time since the start of men
and women hockey from 1927, is a good sign but
probably a bit late.
One of the most important target markets, of course, is
the spectators which include not just the people who
come to watch the match in the stadium but also the
television viewers, people following the match on radio
or newspaper. Who are our spectators? In a broad level
they are the youngsters who seek entertainment and
who generally dont take much time to switch to other
entertainment sources. Some consumers may not be
specifically attracted to the core product which is
hockey, but to the way in which the core product is
packaged. For example, music, half time promotion,
good commentators and other entertainment can be
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Performance
Marketing
Financial
Accountability
Social
Responsibility
marketing
important factors for encouraging people to watch the
match. As a marketer one needs to look at the behavior
of the consumer which could be done through a
thorough market research keeping into account the
demographics, the Psychographics and other traits of
the consumer. For instance, hockey sticks are often
projected as a tool for aggressive behavior at college.
Can we use this notion to project to our youngsters that
hockey stick is for playing and not for fighting and we
need them to play our national sport. Such market
research will help in finding the right way to
communicate to the spectators. There is a need to
brand Hockey as a sport. Like golf is seen as the game
for professionals and is used often as a tool of
interaction by businessmen and other eminentpersonalities, we need to brand hockey may be a team
sport to be viewed with friends or something. Based on
it, we can provide college bulk discounts to spectators.
The idea is to connect with the people. We can even
broadcast local games in local languages to connect
with the local people. The National Basketball
Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB)
have many of their games broadcast in languages
spoken in Hispanic and Asian cultures.
We also need to engage with sponsors and advertisers.
They are the ones who
bring money into the
game. Recently, Sahara
India felicitated Indian
hockey team with a cash
incentive of INR 1.12
Crore for their brilliant
performance in FIH
Olympic qualifiers. This
shows we have a very
committed national
sponsor in the form of
Sahara India Pariwar,
but the situation is bleak
when it comes to local
or state tournaments. A
number of professional sport teams have started
initiatives to increase the diversity of their corporate
and sponsorship partners. For example, the Los Angeles
Avengers of the Arena Football League had hosted
special events to promote opportunities with local
Hispanic businesses, and Major League Baseball (MLB)
offered similar events for Native American business
owners. We also need to do the same. The state
associations need to conduct such events to build up
good relations with different sponsors. We also need
our hockey players to endorse various products. This
will start the trend of investments from sponsors and
advertisers into hockey. Few courses on public relations
will definitely help players but ultimately it all depends
on the performance of players on the field which will
give them endorsements from companies.
PerformanceMarketing
The other important aspect
of holistic approach is Performance marketing. It looks
into the performance of the
various marketing activities and
efforts. The performance is
measured with respect to the
business returns obtained from
the investment in these
activities and also at the same
time handling all the concerns
with respect to the social,
ethical, legal and environmental
effects of the marketing
activities. The managers should
not only focus on the top and
bottom line of the business but
they should focus on the
complete balanced score card which accounts for
customer satisfaction, customer retention, product
quality and other such activities. Thus, the twoimportant parameters for performance marketing
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include financial accountability and Social responsibility
marketing.
The financial accountability of the entire fund allocated
to each activity should be established. The initiative can
be taken up initially with various state associations. The
performance of each state association can be judged by
their contribution of producing national level players.
The performance
bonuses can thus be
given to those state
associations giving
the best results. The
various other
investments for
building
infrastructure
should also monitor
as bureaucratic
intervention and
other unseen
reasons have
brought a lot of
inefficiency in the
same.
As a part of societal
marketing,
Government should
promote more of regional or local level tournament.
Young children or youths should be encouraged for the
game. Scholarships for school or college students
playing hockey shall also promote hockey at ground
root level and at the same time it assures societal
wellbeing. Tournaments at schools and distributinghockey merchandises as the prizes can be more of such
efforts. Further, hockey players shall also involve
themselves in various social issues and working for
them in their free time. It will not only help them in
fulfilling their social responsibility but at the same time
their visibility will also increase.
Finally, can we say that good marketing can sell even a
bad product? Not exactly! Only a good selling practice
cant sell a product, but a good holistic marketingpractice can improve a bad product by responding to
the customers needs and thus selling it to them by
matching their requirements. Indian hockey currently
has a poor product i.e. a poor performance that does
not have any market neither international nor domestic.
By practicing internal and performance marketing it can
improve its product quality and simultaneously
following integrated and relationship marketing it can
build the connection with its external customers and
communicate the
new product
delivery to the
market. Indian
Hockey thus needs
a holistic marketing
approach to buildthe game at par
with international
level and revive the
lost brand value;
The National Sport
of India: Hockey.
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An Interview with Mr V. Srinivasan
The Adams Distinguished Professor of Management
Emeritus at the Stanford Business School
Professor V. Srinivasan, Seenu as he is commonly known is his circle, is the
Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, Emeritus at the Stanford
Business School. Having completed his Bachelors from IIT Madras as a goldmedalist, he worked for two years at L&T, prior to joining Carnegie-Mellon
University where he received his MS and PhD in Industrial Administration. He
has an expertise in the area of market research, especially in the field of conjoint
analysis where he has done interesting experiments, predicting job offers which
students at the B-school would take up.
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Markathon: Can you share few of the learning from
your work experience at Larsen & Toubro which helped
you in your management journey?
Prof. Srinivasan: It has been a real joy to teach the
intelligent, diligent, and experienced students on bothcampuses. Stanford has a two-year (18 months) MBA
program compared to the 12-month program at the ISB.
The Stanford program allows more soak time but the
ISB program is more efficient for the ISB students who
often borrow large sums of money (relative to their
incomes). An important additional difference is that the
majority of Stanford students are non-engineers but the
majority of ISB students are engineers. Consequently,
the ISB students are more inclined toward the
mathematical details of the material we cover in the
classroom.
Markathon: Your work on conjoint
analysis is highly acclaimed. It is
said that you correctly
predicted which job offer
each of your students at the
B-school would take up!
Can you share some
insights over the
applications of this
technique?
Prof. Srinivasan: Here
was another pivotal turn in
my life. As I applied to U.S.
Management programs, I
thought I was going to do an
MBA and return to the world of
business. What I learned very quickly
during the MBA program was that I was
more interested in and had greater aptitude
for research, asking and answering
important intellectual questions.
Indeed, a few of my faculty
members at Carnegie-Mellon
asked me to switch to the
doctoral program at the
end of the first semesterof my MBA. I ended up
finishing up my Ph.D. in
less than three years and getting an MBA en route.
At Carnegie-Mellon I had a roommate, Allan Shocker,
who was very much interested in marketing, which
differed from the Manufacturing Operations emphasis
that I had acquired from L&T. Our numerous
conversations led to the thought that if we can find out
what customers want, we can combine that knowledge
together with cost data and information about
competitive products to come up with products that
customers would want to buy while still allowing
companies to make greater profits. Understanding
customer preferences by indirectly asking customers to
rank hypothetical products described in terms of
multiple attributes or features became an interesting
basis for a linear programming procedure (LINMAP) thatwe jointly developed,
resulting in two influential
research papers. The name
Conjoint Analysis itself
was coined by me and
Professor Paul Green of
Wharton in a research
paper in 1978. (There was
something called conjoint
measurement at that time,
but it is very different in
terms of focus.)
As a way of testing whether
conjoint analysis can really
predict real world behavior, I
used Stanford MBAs job
choices. Preliminary qualitative
research had identified eight
factors (area of the country where the
job is located, number of days in a typical
month the MBA would have to travel away
from home, salary, nature of the job,
growth rate of the company, etc.)
The MBA students completed the
conjoint analysis task prior to
receiving any job offers. At
the time of graduation they
provided us data regardingwhich job offers they
actually received and what
Marketing analytics are very useful in
answering a number of questions such as
relative effectiveness of alternative
promotional decisions, customer value
analysis, and so on. India is playing a
significant role in doing marketing
analytics. Conjoint analysis is
complementary in that it answers a
different set of important marketing
questions regarding the product attributes
we should provide in a product or service
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the attributes of each of those jobs were. We could
then use the conjoint analysis results for each MBA to
predict which job he/she would choose and compare it
with which offer each of them actually took. We were
correct three out of four times.
Conjoint Analysis is now used over 14,000 times
worldwide. It is most often used to help define the
product (or service) and associated price. Conjoint
Analysis can answer questions regarding how much the
market is willing to pay for a feature of a new product,
how much the market values one brand over another
(brand equity), defining the market in terms of benefit
segments that enable definition of product lines, and
answering numerous what if questions in terms of
what is likely to happen under alternativeconfigurations of our companys and competitive
companies product and pricing moves.
Markathon:With so many factors driving the purchase
decision of consumers, what are the main
considerations while deciding on the list of attributes
for conjoint analysis?
Prof. Srinivasan: Qualitative market research (focus
groups, one-on-one interviews, ethnographic methods)is very useful as it helps us come up with a more
complete list of attributes. I have (with my former
doctoral student, Oded Netzer, currently Associate
Professor at Columbia) developed a method called
ASEMAP designed to help us prioritize amongst these
attributes.
Markathon:With the advent of technology and social
media, data mining and data analytics have become the
order of the day. How effective would conjoint analysisbe in this setup?
Prof. Srinivasan: Marketing analytics are very useful in
answering a number of questions such as relative
effectiveness of alternative promotional decisions,
customer value analysis, and so on. India is playing a
significant role in doing marketing analytics. Conjoint
analysis is complementary in that it answers a different
set of important marketing questions regarding the
product attributes we should provide in a product orservice.
Markathon: If we talk of Brand equity measurement,
how can something as intangible as brand equity that
connects to the emotions of a consumer, be quantified?
Prof. Srinivasan: I believe we can both measure and
understand brand equity by conceptualizing brandequity as what the brand adds in terms of incremental
(profit) contribution over and above what the
underlying product or service can provide. In a research
paper with my former doctoral student Chan Su Park,
currently a Professor at Korea University, we provide a
method that examines four different components of
brand equity: brand awareness, incremental preference
based on attribute perceptions, non-attribute based
brand equity (customer self-expression), and the
increased distribution the brand enables. Of course, we
should not expect the same degree of precision in a
brand equity study as in a conjoint analysis study.
Markathon:What would be your advice to our young
readers who aim to become successful marketers?
Prof. Srinivasan: Marketing is an exciting field because
it emphasizes both the creative side of coming up with
new ideas for products and services and communicating
them to consumers, and the scientific side ofunderstanding customers and marketing analytics. It is
important for students to take advantage of their time
at MBA programs by taking courses that give them
knowledge that develops both their qualitative and
quantitative skills. It is also truly important to learn
from successful examples in marketing past and present
in the world around us.
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war zone | eye 2 eye markathon | june 2011
light, and comfortable to hold. However, Microsoft has
been rather vague in coming up with a pricing and
availability plan. A lot of hype has been built around thefirm for producing its own computing hardware, the first
time in its 37 year history, instead of using original
equipment manufacturers. This fact along with the
smart coupling of physical keyboard and trackpad with a
tablet to preserve the light weight and portability of a
tablet may not be enough of a seduction to prospective
buyers.
Additionally, consumers won't be able to get the Surface
tablet until Windows 8 ships and the Intel Core i5Surface for Windows 8 Pro wont be available for
another three months after that.
Moreover, the product is rumoured to have only a short-
range Wi-Fi connection that would drive prices down.
This would also mean on line usage of the tablet will
need consumers to find a Wi-Fi hotspot, which isn't
always convenient. This could hamper the tablet's
chances against the iPad and other similar devices.
Finally, the pricing strategy for the Windows RT Surface,
quoted to be at par with a comparable ARM tablet,
leaves technogeeks expectations dangling mid-air with
prices ranging wildly from those for a no-name Chinese
Android to the top-end iPad with 4G.
The success and failure of the Surface tablet would
finally rest on the ability of Microsoft to deliver on its
promises in time, an art perfected by its close
competitor-Apple.
developed their followers base and loyal customers.
By seeing current trends it can be easily inferred that
Microsoft is losing its ground in the smart phones
market as sale of NOKIA smart phones with window
Phone 7 has had lacklustre performance. Thus it
became imperative for Microsoft to prove its
presence in tablet market but its fate in tablet
market weighs heavily on the performance of
Surface.
Thus to maintain its turf Microsoft has to come up
with an outstanding product which beats its rival notonly in pricing but also in features. Microsoft Surface
will not only compete with ipad or galaxy pad but
will also compete with the ultra-book and ipad
mini which could be released by Apple in
September 12 in the price band of $250-$300. Thus
low price will not serve the purpose as with new low
price innovation by its rivals, it will be difficult for
Microsoft surface to further undercut its price. Thus
it has to offer such features which can create its own
consumer base. Moreover, at this point Microsoft
needs to concern itself with building up user base
first and making money second.
Thus by seeing these challenges it is quite evident
that just lowering price will not be only option but
this product with reasonable price must also
compete with various contemporary features of
non-tablet segments.
Topic for the next issues Eye to Eye: Hosting Olympics: Marketing of the Nation but is it worth
the cost?Your opinion (view/counterview) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is
15th
August, 2012. Include your picture (JPEG format) with the entry.
Payal Pathak
XIMB
The Microsoft Surface tablet,
available in two versions,
"Surface" and "Surface Pro",
running on the Windows RT and
Windows 8 Pro OS respectively,
was announced on June 18,
2012. Equipped with clever
features like Touch Cover and
Type Cover, the product is thin,
Microsofts foray into tablet
market through Microsoft
Surface is a very late entryinto a crowded market. This
market is marked by great
deal of innovation by
technology giants viz. Apple,
Samsung and Blackberry.
Moreover these tablet
manufacturers have already
Microso
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itha
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turMicrosothastocomeuwithanoutstandin
roduct
26
Ram Krishn Pandey
NIRMA
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war zone | silent voice markathon | april 2012
15
NEXT THEME FOR SILENT VOICE: Philips BodygroomRead more@ http://goo.gl/bBbTS
LAST DATE OF SENDING THE PRINT AD: 15th
August, 2012
EMAIL ID:[email protected]
Send your entry in JPEG format named as SilentVoice__only.
LAST MONTHS RESULTSTheme: Nexus 7
WINNER: MANSI PATIL | SIMSR, Mumbai
Congratulations!!! Mansi receives a cash prize of Rs 500!
Akshat Jain | WeSchool, Mumbai
HONORARY MENTION
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specials | ADdicted markathon | april 2011
PRODUCT # 1: Maruti Suzuki Pvt Ltd
POSITIONING:Indias most fuel efficient cars
CREATIVE AGENCY: Publicis Capital, India
VERDICT : Catch
CONCEPT: Set in the pre independence era, the AD
tries to underplay all foreign car makers. The Ad
features Amelia Johnson as the first woman to fly
from England to Australia (A spoof of the famous
Amy Johnson who was the first lady to fly from
England to Moscow). She symbolises all the foreigncar makers and upon reaching India she is greeted by
a large crowd of eager Indians. She begins to flaunt
the specifications of her plane but the Indians are not
impressed and are unfazed by the superior
specifications. Suddenly, one Indian from the crowd
asks her Kitna deti hai ?, for which Amelia has no
answer and can only smile in embarrassment as she
(foreign car makers) knows that her plane is no good
when it comes to mileage.
Breaking it down: Maruti Suzuki has learnt over the
years that it cannot pass off as a luxury brand or as a
high performance brand owing to its experiences with
the Kizashi and SX4 respectively. Its cars are regarded
as fuel efficient, cost efficient and easy to maintain
cars. And Maruti Suzuki has realized over the past two
years that this is what most of the Indian automobile
consumers want. The AD is as sarcastic as it gets and
hits the nail on its head with this subtle attack at all
the foreign car makers. It conveys one simple
message: If you want a car to flaunt, you have
numerous brands; however if you want a practical,
fuel efficient car, Maruti Suzuki is your best option.
YouTube link :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AyynrjP3EM
Rank 2: GoodKnight Advanced
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q0eB_SKO2s
Rank 3: Cadbury Diary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pidPlb9GZdo
Umang Kulshrestha, GSN Aditya| iim s
PRODUCT #2: Red Label Tea
POSITIONING: Healthy tea
VERDICT : Catch
CONCEPT: With the three disappointing ads of this
month being, Garden Vareli, Vodafone and Red, we
choose to talk on Red Label!
In short lets reflect on the other two, starring the
Cocktail fame, Diana Penty, Garden Vareli ad though
being nothing so impressive type did not really have
much of an option belonging to that typical saree TVCwhere you can show a beautiful girl with a flowing,
patterned saree and the other Vodafone ad that just
wanted to emphasise on the happy hours available
from 2-4 p.m. built my hopes in the beginning with
the Munnabhai MBBS dj vu that had a carom stud,
old Uncle, got shattered in some time when the
carom play built on to nothing! Neither does it
connect well with the point why 2-4 pm happy on
Vodafone which practically does not have link with
carom, despite using it symbolically for fun.
Now comes the turn of Red Label! Akshay Kumar is
shown drinking tea doing possibly anything on the
set; fighting, exercising and even when dancing.
When Sonakshi rebukes him expressing her views
that may be it was tasty but not healthy, Akshay asks
the audience to call on a number to prove to Sonakshi
why it was healthy because she says, Sab bolenge
tab manungi! Firstly, the flow does not captivate the
audience and secondly if some do connect, no one
knows what on Earth should make the audience call
on that number to prove it to Sonakshi that Red
Label tea is healthy.Engaing the audience is good butwith no incentive or drive to do it, the attempt is a
waste. A mood spoiler end with a very feeble build of
the entire act.
YouTube Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKCsNUnr6Us
Rank 2: Vodafone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPM8UNfMzLs
Rank 3: Garden Vareli
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES_4qfQcHFI
28
specials | ADdicted markathon | august 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AyynrjP3EMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AyynrjP3EMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q0eB_SKO2shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q0eB_SKO2shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pidPlb9GZdohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pidPlb9GZdohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKCsNUnr6Ushttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKCsNUnr6Ushttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPM8UNfMzLshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPM8UNfMzLshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES_4qfQcHFIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES_4qfQcHFIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES_4qfQcHFIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPM8UNfMzLshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKCsNUnr6Ushttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pidPlb9GZdohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q0eB_SKO2shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AyynrjP3EM7/31/2019 Markathon August 2012
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(20th Anniversary Issue) ; Al Ries and Jack Trout
Review by SOWMYA R
TMH Publications | Price Rs.244
To quote the words of George C.Scott,
No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He
won it by making another poor dumb bastard die for his
country!
When on the battlefield, you either survive or perish,
there is no middle ground. Marketing Warfare, written
by two legendary marketers Al Ries and Jack Trout is a
timeless classic that takes you through battles won and
lost, and prepares you for the biggest lesson of war-
How to return from the point of no return?
Summary
Perhaps the most basic similarity one can find between
Marketing and war is the language. We launch a
marketing campaign; promote people to higher
positions; report gains and losses and issue uniforms.
Hundreds of companies, thousands of brands, scores ofproducts- Marketing is indeed warfare, but it is fought
on a battlefield 6 inches wide, the mind of the
prospect!Winning this battle is a matter of possessing
the weapon called perception. Taking analogies from
actual battles and applying their principles to actual
business scenarios, the book enthrals the reader with
its sheer logic- the logic that irrespective of who wins
the battle, in the end the better side emerges victorious
in the war.
Organization
The book begins by outlining the four positions that a
company/brand can take on the battlefield, namely
defensive , offensive, flanking and guerrilla. The book is
then organized into 4 major sections, one devoted to
principles of each of these styles of warfare. It gives
invaluable lessons to players in each category such as:
Best defensive strategy is to have the courage to attackyourself.
When on the offensive
find a weakness in the
leaders strength.
Tactical surprise is key to a flank attack and the pursuit
is as critical as the attack.
In guerrilla warfare, never act like the leader no matter
how successful you get.
Following this, the book covers four wars that have
been immortalized over the years, namely: The Cola
War, with Coca Cola and Pepsi at loggerheads with
each other and the Uncola Campaign; The Beer War,
which had Heineken and Miller vying for their markets.
The Burger War of McDonald and Burger King is as
timeless as this book itself and finally The Computer
War of first vs. better products still rages on.
The final part of the book discusses Strategy and tactics
and the importance of a good general (leader) to lead
the troop as they wage war upon each other.
Verdict: 4.5/5
Needless to say, the book is gripping and is a guide to
every manager to both identify his/her position as well
as to launch and defend attacks from opponents. It is
well-structured and has abundant examples to illustrate
the elements of the battlefield.
The updated edition features the latest, most-powerful
tactics which are crucial in todays competitive
landscape
Bottom-line
The only thing that can ensure your victory in the
combat zone is preparedness. War has already
broken out. It is now you who has to steer thebattleship. Grab a copy of this book and tread the path
that warriors have set foot on.
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specials | radical thoughts markathon | may 2012
Piyush agarwal | IIM S
What I write here has nothing to do with marketing, but
needs to be written nonetheless. My assumption here is
that by the time the magazine releases, most, if not all
of you would have seen The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR)
(If not, please open your browser now and book the
tickets to the next available showseriouslyRIGHT
NOW).
Before I start off, in the interest of full disclosure: I am a
true Nolanite and YES, I loved TDKR!
What led me to write this story was that a lot of people
I know really disliked the movie but I believe that they
have perhaps misunderstood the movie. They certainly
represent a very small minority as IMDB has got TDKR
on 9.1 with over a hundred and fifty thousand votes.
Ive always taken this column as an opportunity to give
voice to the counterview by playing the devilsadvocate. The popular opinion, Ive usually always
found to be somewhat flawed.
Not this time though.
Here is my attempt to address some of those issues in
the limited word limit this column has been assigned
(Trust me, I can fill this whole magazine up with my
views on TDKR)
TDKR sucked, TDK was much better
'The whole is greater than the sum of its parts'. One
couldnt find a better example to prove this philosophy
than the Dark Knight Trilogy. Nolan has brilliantly
summed up the trilogy with each installment perfectly
aligned with the theme of, FEAR, CHAOS, PAIN. TDKR is
part of a story, two thirds of wh ich weve already seen
and loved. You have to watch with the bigger picture in
mind. You cant comprehend this part in isolation. It
makes sense only if youve seen the other two (If you
havent please go on to the next section)
TDKR was much grander in comparison to TDK in the
sense that the whole city of Gotham was terrorized like
never before. In TDK joker says to Batman See, their
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specials | radical thoughts markathon | may 2012
morals, their code... it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first
sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows
them to be. I'll show you, when the chips are down,
these... these civilized people? They'll eat each other.
This has been illustrated perfectly in TDKR. Bane
inspires anarchy in Gotham; we see the civilized eating
each other up.
Joker vs. Bane
Joker was a very entertaining character and perhaps
one of the best villains in cinematic history but amountof artistic license which Nolan took with Bane just blew
my mind off. Bane was both physically and intellectually
a much stronger nemesis to Batman compared to Joker.
His mere physical presence was terrifying, the
modulated voice only added to the menacing persona.
Also, the kind of loyalty which Bane commanded from
his army was unparalleled as opposed to Joker who
basically took advantage of mentally disturbed
schizophrenics. In essence, both Joker and Bane
terrorized Gotham and Batman but in completely
different ways.
Weak female characters
One beef which audiences have always had with Nolan
is the absence of a strong female character in his
movies. The powerful characters of Selina Kyle
(Catwomen) and Miranda Tate (Talia al Ghul) take care
of this issue. Both characters were developed
beautifully and had depth. Everyone had their aversion
towards Anne Hathaway playing her part, but I think
she aced it.
My only non-issue with this movie is perhaps the lack of
chemistry between Miranda Tate and Bruce Wayne,
and the short screen time of Alfred. But I understand
why, given the movie already stretched to over two
hours and forty minutes and addressing these issues
would have stretched it by another half hour or so (Im
sure fans would have loved that)
To me, a good movie is a movie which takes me by
surprise and keeps me at the edge of my seat
throughout. It should be unpredictable and keep me
guessing at every moment, making sure I guessed
everything wrong. TDKR managed to do it perfectly
well. Nolan explored and experimented with many
different emotions in this movie which audiences were
unprepared for and thats a good thing. If you didnt like
this movie because it was very unpredictable, you need
to redefine the way you rate mo vies.
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specials | updates markathon | march 2012
BRAND LAUNCH
Nissan to launch multiple products in 2012
After a not so aggressive entry with Xtrail SUV in
India in 2005, Nissan is coming now with a series of
launches to target the emerging car market in India
by joining the league of foreign companies who arein full swing to push down the market share of
already established player. The product which is
first in the line is the MPV Evalia at a starting price
of about 9 lakhs