Strategy Wall - 10th Edition-The Strategy & Consulting Club | IIM Rohtak

STRATEGY WALL THE STRATEGY AND CONSULTING CLUB OF IIM ROHTAK

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: ELEVATING THE MARKETERS’ ENDEAVOURS

FORTUITY AND FRENZY: THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

10TH EDITION

Strategy is about setting yourself apart from the competition. It's not a matter of being better at what you do - it's a matter of being differnt at what you do.

-Michael Porter

Contents 01 04 07 10 12 14 17 19

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: ELEVATING THE MARKETERS’ ENDEAVOURS

FORTUITY AND FRENZY, THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

VIRTUAL REALITY: A NEW REALITY FOR MARKETING?

PSYCHOLOGY IN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

FOREIGN CURRENCY DEBT AND ITS IMPACT ON THE INDIAN ECONOMY

AUGMENTED REALITY IN THE WORLD OF MARKETING

DECODING THE DOLLAR PARADOX

USING CSR TO REINFORCE BRAND EQUITY

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: ELEVATING THE MARKETERS’ ENDEAVOURS - Sparsh Gupta(Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), University of Delhi)

From ‘Matrix’ to ‘The Terminator’, the cinematic universe has always swooped a fascinating depiction of Artificial Intelligence…..Tony Stark's intelligent system assistant, J.A.R.V.I.S, an aweinspiring feat of technology, remains a fantasy of every Marvel buff. At one time, we cogitated that this far-fetched imagination is technologically unfeasible and would remain a mere fairy tale.

Howbeit, with the advent of the social humanoid robot, "Sophia", this phantasm seems no more a mirage. If you rely on your virtual assistant Siri or Google Assistant to read your text messages, fetch your mails, give you directions, then Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become part of your normal routine. The future is here.

Plenty of things have turned AI-powered nowadays. Take, for example, Gmail or LinkedIn, which offers smart and appropriate replies tailored according to the content of any mail or conversation, saving you time and effort to type. How Gmail provides you with relief by filtering those spam messages is no magic, but the work of an e-brain. Even Amazon, Flipkart or any other e-commerce website quickly uses this mechanism to present a catalog of products you might be interested in according to your search. In this article, let us ponder over this branch ofinformation technology and how it is aiding the marketers.

Overview In simple terms, AI is the simulation of human intelligence processes and machine's ability to replicate the cognitive functions of homo sapiens, with flair to learn, plan, recognize speech and solve problems. This intelligent system, well able to perceive its environment, is now taking the whole world by storm since it has armed the marketers with cutting edge strategies.

The brand new wave of data-driven marketing tactics has capacitated the dealers to devise exceedingly individualized customer encounters, costing significantly less than the previous exorbitantly high priced campaigns. Today even small-scale businesses are postulating publicly available algorithms or off-the-shelf machine learning services to beget advantageous insights into their consumers' behaviors.

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Current Scenario: How AI Is Aiding Marketers The usage of AI-powered merchandising is taking the load off many merchants, and delegating it to pieces of machinery.

This enables marketers to reorient their exertions from marketing and grant more time to product development or address any other challenge that comes in their way. With the imminence of deep learning algorithms, these savvy marketers can create propensity models with every interaction that the client has with a product or service, keeping a prospect to utilize them for future optimization. The AI mechanisms begin from nothing and feed themselves with a regular diet of Big Data, thus, supplying sophisticated data models that can be used for precise decision making. For instance, a study, conducted by ‘PNAS', revealed that these algorithms can predict our behavior better than our spouse by analyzing our mere 300 likes on Facebook, thereby making the advertisements extremely targeted. Due to the multitudinous of variations and innovations in the entire marketing realm

has been reshaped. The latest innovation of ‘Chatbots', designed to mimic human wisdom by interpreting customer's queries, has assisted in strengthening consumer relationships and interactions economically and consistently. These ‘intelligent-bots' work around the clock and tackle all the problems efficiently. Another creative as well as the personalized way in which artificial intelligence assists the marketers is the delivery of customized emails. By analyzing the customer's reading practices and area of interest, this hefty task of sending personalized emails is possible with intelligently segmented subscriber lists. AI also helps in leveraging personalization, which is the need of the hour for every marketer. It analyses sentiments and sensations from user conversations and facilitates brands to initiate an emotional connect with consumers to drive more engagement. AI-powered churn prediction has the capability of keeping customers engrossed, leading to superior lifetime value and loyalty. It serves as a tool for effective customer segmentation to majorly emphasis on the particular needs of distinct personas of each individual by analyzing what exactly motivates them. The recent developments

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each individual by analyzing what exactly motivates them.

The recent developments of robust AI data analytics help in gaining deep and expedient insight for more strategicand optimized campaigns. Additionally, it imparts accuracy in predicting customer behavior by observing their past and present patterns The Bottom Line From taking sales forecasting to another level to optimizing ad campaigns, AI has armed the marketers with a plethora of applications, thereby revolutionizing the

digital world and rendering personalized experiences in today's highlycompetitive direct-to-consumer space.

This is the era of competitive struggle and fierce competition, where each marketer relentlessly is striving hard, and to combat this AI is the new emerging trend that has come to the rescue of producers. A marketing specialist should not feel complacent with what he or she has achieved yet rather grab this invaluable opportunity to rise the corporate ladder and be on a constant lookout for innovative measures.

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FORTUITY AND FRENZY, THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

-Abhishek Chakravorty (Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Amritsar)

Traditional marketing good-sense dictates that you reach your intended consumer demographic through a medium with the biggest spanning. Now, more than ever, the target customer of a company spends most of his/her time on a smart device with often mindless consumption of content on social media. As of today, there are more than 5 billion internet users around the globe — that's 67% of the world's total population.

Active social media users make up 3.4 billion (45% of the population), with 627 million in India. With the current level of penetration, social media as a marketing channel is most definitely a force to reckon with. Annual digital growth of 10 % is an added impetus for companies, big and small, to hop on the social media bandwagon.

With an ever-increasing user base, social media is slowly but surely emerging as the de-facto source for product, service, and brand validation. Blogs, video campaigns, online forums, and communities can be excellent sources of building a company's PR value. Social media has the potential to engage and make connections with various stakeholders, like prospective clients, customers, and talented professionals. It is also an excellent source of hearing honest consumer insights and understanding market trends. Social media does an excellent job of allowing quality products to flourish by doing away with information asymmetry. A brand's Facebook page can reach 10.7% more people than its current number of followers, and 4.2% of all Facebook users who see a Facebook Page's engage with it.

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There is a burgeoning online food and service delivery app market, and these apps increasingly use social media marketing. Sponsored advertisements on Instagram remind you of how hungry you are, though it has been all of three hours since your last full meal. Running advertising on social media can do an incredible job of engaging the viewer's senses in a way that was never possible with tradition mass communication media; such is the pull of social media.

In-built analytics in social media apps allow you to track progress and access the user engagement of your ad campaign. Hypertargeting, used in Facebook and LinkedIn, is a cost-effective way of user acquisition without wasting ad-spend on ineffective generic advertisements. After developing and introducing social media campaigns, over 90%; marketers reported increased brand equity and visibility.

Social media allows you to tap into a whole new segment, the ones who don't spend as much time on conventional media. A GlobalWeblndex study claims that millennials, individuals in the age group 1834, are spending over 2.5 hours each day on social sites. Multi-networking is the norm, with each user holding an average of 9 accounts across social media platforms.

These millennials hold enormous buying power and associate credibility with online recommendations. Nearly half of the respondents of Schwab's 2019 Modern Wealth survey said they were more likely to spend on something because of social media influence.Social media is the flavor of the hour in consumer advertising and

allows brands to exploit the network effects that it offers fully. Marketing on social media would invariability increase reach by allowing for interaction between people who have used your product/service and users who have just attained awareness of your product. Consumer reviews and comments are up online, and satisfying recommendations to family and friends are rife. Ardent loyalists would now become proxy sales force and serve as advocates for your products in their social circles. This user-generated content is known as "Earned media" and helps increase wordof-mouth sales.

Creating "Viral Content" on social media is a cogent tool to create "buzz" for their products and massively scale profits. These campaigns help increase the recall value of the brand and effectively improve awareness and buying intention for the product. Appealing to the benefits of their audience, addressing pertinent issues, and getting the timing of the campaigns right are all constituents that go into making a grand social marketing mix.

The response series launched by Old Spice across Facebook was a huge hit outperforming all other viral material across platforms at the time. Taco Bell's "Taco" filter, which went viral on Snapchat last year, was hugely successful, with over 224 million views in a day significantly increasing the footfall at Taco Bell for weeks to come.

Dove's "Real Beauty Sketches" campaign was the perfect example of how a brand can create compelling content by associating with

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a cause that connects across cultures.

Customers get attracted to a product or service whose value they can identify with.

Shareability across platforms is critical in promoting the product, which lets the customer engage with the brand in previously never seen ways. Another great example is the ALS Ice bucket challenge, which went viral across social media sites in 2014, and they were able to raise a whopping $115 million through the campaign.

Increasingly, businesses are trying to make their presence felt on social media. In the latest CMO Survey of more than 600 senior marketers, 36% said they saw a high return on investment (ROI) from social media

marketing, and 24% saw significant qualitative improvement in brand value.

Hence, spending on social media is on an increasing trend. A Nielsen report by Twitter said that one in four customers bought their car influenced by patterns on the social media giant.

To sum it all up, social media today is an indispensable instrument for businesses globally, and there is empirical evidence that it has improved the bottom-line for firms regardless of their size. Thus, there is an unmissable need for companies around the world to increase visibility on social media and leverage the secure network to open new vistas.

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VIRTUAL REALITY: A NEW REALITY FOR MARKETING?

-Pruthvi Mandge(Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research (WE School), Mumbai)

‘Change is the only constant’ is rightly quoted by Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher. It signifies the current situation of marketing around the globe.

The world is changing rapidly with new and better tools for marketing, rolling out time to time. With viewers being exposed to new experiments of marketing, even the tools for presenting these promotional pieces are developing One such levitating tool is Virtual reality (VR). It primarily immerses a person into a virtual universe which enables him/her to manipulate things and perform a series of action. It creates a computer-generated environment with a range of equipment such as headsets, Omni-directional trade mills, gloves, etc.

Although the technology is extremely expensive to develop, it has a huge entertainment value. Hence a huge potential with respect to marketing too. It has mass appeal from the age group of 18 to 45 years. Hence with VR having such a promising future, many marketers are equipping themselves with VR marketing.

Media equation theory: Based on the research of Clifford Nass, it's a communication theory that claims that humans tend to treat computers and related technology as real people or places. Hence while interacting with them, humans are socially receptive and experience a feeling of presence. It makes VR an incredible storytelling platform.

Other than storytelling, VR also provides a chance to showcase their product to a potential customer without him moving away from his place. It also facilitates 360° display banner ads. This results in a great addition to brand awareness while encouraging customers to buy what is being promoted. With impressive content, a product already earns high recall value because of the growing fascination towards VR, also resulting in some assistance in positioning the product As per the Virtual Reality Brand Power Index, 75% of Forbes's most valuable brands have implemented VR equipped experiences for their customers. .

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Pokémon Go was one of the first popular VR games which were available to a common man. It was about physically going to various places and capturing the virtual Pokémon. The game launched in 2016 and it gained so much popularity that people started spending more time on it than social media. As a promotional strategy, businesses started buying ad space on this game, they also registered themselves so that players can come to their restaurants, shops, etc. for capturing Pokémons.

Another mind-bending example of effective use of VR is, HTC partnering with HBO to deliver VR experience based on the popular show ‘Game of Thrones'. IKEA's virtual store or Thomas cook’s initiative named ‘Try before you fly’ are some of the innumerous examples which prove that VR is the next big thing.

When it comes to sliding the ads in while a person is viewing something on the gadget, VR facilitates an opportunity to reach a completely immersed audience, it also implies that the ads should be so effective that people don't mind watching or could cope with the interruption.

It requires a critical understanding of the genre which the viewer is watching. It becomes extremely crucial to create such content that is compelling. Ads are almost unwelcomed all the time. Hence, spending a hefty amount on VR promotion only to get a negative response or getting the ad skipped, is a huge risk involved with VR. Additionally, it's still not an effective medium for mass promotion because VR users are still in the early adaptors stage.

When stated that marketing through VR approaches a completely immersed audience, it is of tremendous help for marketing analytics in a way that no other medium can do. Here, a brand is placed right in front of the viewer, hence marketer can find out where a viewer is looking.

Pupil movements and dilations can tell responses of a viewer towards brands.

This will be of great use for planning segmenting, branding and ad placement strategies.

The worldwide VR market is buzzing and is on the paths of becoming mainstream.In India, VR technology is still developing and at the stage of seeking ROI justification.

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It is also majorly affected by the lack of proper hardware, buying the power of a consumer and lack of VR content makers.

But with the advent of 4G and 5G, encouragement for tech-based startups VR market is expected to grow by 76% over the next five years (Source: Business standard). It avails tremendous opportunities for marketers who aspire to stand out from the crowd. For instance, amazon unveiled VR kiosks in malls in India to promote a Prime Day sale event.

Where it virtually took the viewers on a hot air balloon ride through a city full of Prime Day products.

“Almost everything in life is just an iteration on an existing direction or trend line,” Calvin Carter says. “VR is just a really big one.”

- Calvin Carter, CEO of Bottle rocket

To conclude, Virtual is reality is still an introductory stage and businesses are skeptical about using it for marketing. VR gadgets and content are expected to be mass-produced and hence will be affordable for a common man in the coming years. Virtual reality as a tool of marketing will influence several sectors such as entertainment, online shopping, communication, etc. Along with specific benefits, VR also facilitates generic digital marketing such as marketing to potential buyers skipping the other lot, viewer's track data, remarketing, etc. With a growing inclination towards data-driven marketing, it is necessary to emphasize VR and other emerging tech tools.

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PSYCHOLOGY IN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING -Josephine Padmini(Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad)

“Social Media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.”

- Brian Solis The recent hashtag about a Tamil comedian Vadivelu (#PrayForNesamani) which was trending worldwide and was retweeted and liked by millions, made me ponder over the fact on how a simple psychological trigger about a funny scene that made people remember a happy moment of them watching a movie and laughing with their families back in the 90s created a trend. On the other hand, people spend millions in SEM, SEO and paid promotional methods to induce a trend, yet it fails. So, what is it that psychology is capable of in Social Media Marketing?

After researching multiple websites, books and reading multiple articles from blogs, I was able to zero down on five major methods that can make psychology play a major role in making your brand or your campaign a great success in Social Media: 1.Making it relatable: Remember the #RealBeauty campaign of Dove?

Unilever made sure that every woman in this world is able to relate herself to the campaign: any body shape, any complexion, any hair length, any hair type, and the list goes on. The advertisement made the viewer put herself in the shoes of the lead woman and made her believe that she is

beautiful. Little did the viewer know that the shoe was made to fit anyone! Also, why do you thinkbreakfast cereals show a mother giving a child the bowl filled with the product. Why not the father? Because the Key Opinion Leader who purchases the cereal is a mother. And she is the one who feeds the kid. The underlying logic is that the marketers are creating a simulation in the minds of the mothers: telling them that the cereal is healthy and nourishing. And their kids will be happy if they eat them every morning. These examples show the importance of making the advertisement relatable to the target customer.

2. Keeping the content positive: From the journal of the Association for Psychological Science, “The sharing of stories or information may be driven in part by arousal. When people are physiologically aroused, whether due to emotional stimuli or otherwise, the autonomic nervous is activated, which then boosts social transmission.” This proves why the ads about jewelry are always about weddings and happy occasions. If the advertisement triggers positive thoughts in the mind of the viewer, there is a high possibility of converting the viewer into a potential customer.

3. FOMO plays a major role: Fear Of Missing Out. The very fact that their peers and friends have done something and they have not will put people in a very vulnerable position. So, the point is to

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divide the target consumers into segments and make one person from each segment buy your product and let others know that they did. This will prompt other people to jump into the bandwagon as well. This is where "Influencer Marketing" comes in. The influencer posts something like "I have tried XYZ brand. Have you?" Any idea how much neurotransmitters can a statement can trigger in the brain?

4. Instant gratification: People are stuck to Social Media because of the instant gratification it offers. You post something, you get alike. Viola! Ever wondered why many successful campaigns declare their results so soon or rather on the spot?

Instant gratification.

“We want instant lunch, instant cure, instant miracles, instant salary, instant success— instant everything. This instant civilization, we have obsessed with, has made us grow a tad too impatient in virtually everything about life. And, of course, that doesn’t serve us so well.” ― Boniface Sagini 5. Develop a community: Remember how Harley-Davidson pulled it off?

People always want to associate themselves with something that expresses their persona and is socially acceptable at the same time. HarleyDavidson did not use demographics to target their customers. They used psychographics. With quotes such as:“We ride. To fly. To touch. To breathe.

To laugh. To soar. To overcome. To relax. To prove them wrong. To belong.

To feel strong. To heal. To love. To be loved. To communicate with words. We ride to live’”

“You don’t stop riding when you get old – You get old when you stop riding” They literally created a Cult! They targeted every individual who wanted to feel strong, powerful and created an illusion in the minds of such individuals that they can be strong and powerful only if they ride a Harley Davidson.

Thus, Social Media as the name suggests "Social" is more about psychology than about technology. This is about time marketing is perceived from that angle.

Many times, we get engrossed and entrapped in bookish knowledge that we fail to understand that we are humans. And as Maslow has suggested that psychological needs like love and belongingness come before self-actualization and esteem needs.

Only a little trigger to the Central Nervous System can make that happen. It is more about "Brain Wash" rather than "Brand Wash". A simple set of questions to yourself: Why do I use that shampoo? Why did I purchase that brand of socks? Why should I watch the movie only in that movie theatre? I can give you the answers. How many times is it only for the product attributes? How many times it is for the "feeling" you derive out of using the product or getting the service? That is the power of emotions and subconscious mind. Finally, I would like to conclude by saying the immortal words of Elizabeth Gilbert: “Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.” If the marketers understand the importance of emotions in the very first stage of the marketing funnel: Awareness, they can easily make the customers sweep through the funnel and make their brands and campaigns, a great success.

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FOREIGN CURRENCY DEBT AND ITS IMPACT ON THE INDIAN ECONOMY

-Baishali Jain (International Management Institute (IMI), Kolkata)Â

Foreign currency Debt occurs when the devaluation of rupees makes it expensive for the nation to pay bonds, which is one of the primary forms of borrowing money in the form of debt. This debt occurs when bonds are issued in the foreign currency where principal repayment and periodic interest payments are not made in Indian Rupees, but instead in foreign currency.

As per the statement of our Honourable Finance Minister in the union budget of 2019-2020, India used to issue government bonds in rupees and then borrow in foreign exchange from the official lenders like World Bank, but now India would start hiring in external markets in external currencies. The up took decision also elaborates that as India's external debt to GDP is less than 5% globally, it will also increase the demand for government securities in the domestic market. India has decided to sell bonds

overseas because it is unable to raise funds due to the shrinkage options, which is making the economy going down, thus impacting tax revenue. India's sudden attack into the international debt market may attract much attention as the nation is going to overcome the feeling of fear/anxiety, which it had in the past about borrowing in the foreign currencies. India's first venture into the overseas bond market would partly shift some amount of the 7 lakh crores ($100 billion) borrowing abroad and enable them to get a full pool of funds.

There is a fear that it may increase the nation's dependence on foreign borrowings, which will further enhance the currency volatility and elevated debt costs that will ruin the country.

The Government has to make sure that it sticks to its fiscal deficit target of 3.3 % of GDP and ensures that overseas borrowing does not lead to a higher deficit. It would be better for foreigners to register as foreign portfolio investors rather than issuing a foreign currency bond where there will be no control that is going to invest. Issuance of warrant for the first time will not pose any concern, but once the platform is set, the government will be tempted to issue more bonds with attended risks.

Many analysts are of the view that a foreign currency bond creates a long-term risk for the economy, thus allowing rich foreign

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nations and Financial institutions to dictate India policies. As said by the former Governor of Reserve Bank of India, India's plan to issue foreign currency debt will fetch no benefit and will add to a risky portal. The number of domestic bonds which is to be absorbed by the local market will not be reduced by the global relationship. It is being said that faddish investors are buying when India is hot and dumping the nation when it is not as funds are not being raised in the domestic market at a reasonable rate.

It has been since ages that India has a strong dislike for foreign currency. The view of the policymakers is that it is an unnecessary risk to present themselves to foreign capital flows and then believing to get mercy from International Investors.

There is a fear that India's Future will also be like Argentina and Greece, who were burdened with foreign borrowings, and after that, they failed to balance their budgets.

East Asian crisis in the late 1990s was caused due to foreign currency debt, which increases the risks of the financial crisis.

Higher the ratio of foreign currency debt to total debt, higher is the risk of currency and debt crisis, taking into

valuation falls.It has been estimated that rupee has depreciated seven times in the last ten years. India may have the pricing power given there is a scarcity of upcoming market issuance, which is emerging and the increase in the bundle of negativeyielding debt.

There is also a worry that Asia's thirdbiggest economy will come under pressure during a short period of risk aversion taking into consideration of current backdrop of slow global growth. Hedging costs should be included, which will make the rupeedenominated debt sale cheaper. Debt issued overseas will be worse hit than onshore bonds when the market is in turmoil as onshore bonds can be again paid by printing domestic currency. The benefit will get that it is an open invitation to the world that India has gained the confidence of opening its economy.

consideration the size of a country's reserve base and its policy credibility. The fear of this is that once we have started doing this continuously, we can get into pressure situations needlessly. Borrowing from overseas will not only increase the risk of higher inflation and currency volatility but also increase the debt cost on dollar bonds when the rupee

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AUGMENTED REALITY IN THE WORLD OF MARKETING

-Varun G and Akash P (Delhi School of Economics (DSE), New Delhi)Â Â

The marketing landscape is in a transitional state in this VUCA world as new techniques are quickly developing.

Consumers' requirements and wishes increasingly motivate markets. As technology progresses, those wishes alter, keeping pace with those modifications is essential for a brand. The marketers are eager to understand client preferences from using analytics to AI to give them distinctive value propositions.

Consumers have experienced marketing through Ads, emails, social media, e.t.c. And so much noise surrounds them that most of them get numb. They are now looking for something different, which could create a sense of involvement. This lead to the introduction of Virtual Reality succeeded by Augmented Reality.

As far as marketing strategies are concerned,compared to traditional platforms, Virtual Reality(VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) stay comparatively untapped resources.

These immersive media offer excellent prospects for promotion of brands and the sale of products and services, but also the involvement and retention of B2C and B2B clients. Due to powerful sensory, emotional, and perceptual stimuli, virtual and augmented worlds are the perfect context for establishing experiential marketing possibilities.

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are often mistaken for each other. Yes, in some form or shape, they both change our physical environment, but VR takes it a step further and immerses the user in a virtual environment. VR takes us to another place and cuts us away from Reality, using virtual reality headsets.

Unlike virtual reality, which needs you to live in a completely virtual environment, augmented Reality utilizes your current natural environment and overlays virtual data. Augmented reality applications can be as easy as a text notification or as complex as instructions on how to perform a life-threatening operation. They can highlight specific characteristics, improve understanding, and provide timely and accessible information."Augmented Reality will be one day as important as eating three times meal in a day." - Tim Cook, CEO of Apple.As reported by The Drum, AR has been able to catch the attention of people for over 85 seconds, boost interaction rates by 20 percent, and enhance click-through rates to purchase by 33 percent. Augmented Reality opens up fresh possibilities for marketers who seek to engage customers in deeply customized and meaningful ways that are

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not feasible in other channels while meeting important KPIs. In the marketing sector, AR can assist the following: Brand Recognition: Businesses need to discover creative methods to achieve brand visibility, build confidence and authenticity. AR offers a unique chance to interact with clients in ways that are impossible for traditional printing, radio, and television. In brand-safe environments, brands can rapidly reach a significant amount of customers to communicate with potential customers and make it easier for users to communicate repeatedly with their brands.

Brand Engagement: AR is distinctive, perceptible, and thus social and viral.

Augmented Reality allows advertisers to communicate much more profound than ever before with customers. People can now talk directly with brands instead of passively viewing a static ad or watching a video.

Conversion & Sales: Today, there is no way of knowing whether an image adequately represents the product your ultimate buy.

Augmented Reality offers the chance to fill this gap and boost trust in purchasing. A company can now readily produce AR assets representing its physical goods to allow a virtual experience of product testing.

Product Information and Try-On: AR can be used to enable customers to obtain more knowledge about products, pricing, accessibility, and, most interestingly, customers can nearly try products.

Below are some companies examples using AR innovatively and inspiringly. All the inspiration we need to brainstorm and implement a fantastic long-term marketing strategy for AR should be these examples: Home Depot Home Depot published its Project Color app in 2015, which utilizes patent technology to demonstrate consumers what paint color looks like at home. In the room, the AR technology takes lighting, objects, and shadows into consideration, so you can see how one shade will look in real life.

Timberland By providing clients a fun and useful alternative, Timberland stands out as a profitable brand with the use of AR; they can create a virtual fitting room in Moktow Gallery in 2014. The suitable virtual space of Timberland enabled shoppers to see a picture of their face and a model body of similar size in varying outfits.

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Pepsi Pepsi installed AR technology in a London bus shelter in 2014, making it appear as if for Londoners, a lion, UFOs, flying saucers, and other items were headed directly. It demonstrated the playful character of Pepsi and offered an outstanding experience for the audience. A video of the AR technology of the bus shelter attracted more than six million views on YouTube, making it one of the most widely viewed advertising campaigns on YouTube.

Taco Bell For their Doritos shell campaign, Taco Bell put an AR feature on each Locos Tacos box and soda cup. By scanning the table with the Taco Bell app, a customer could see product-

related information on their devices from Twitter and Facebook. By this, Taco Bell effectively used AR to cultivate a more excellent feeling of community by linking its customers with live social media content.

It is not hyperbolic to suggest that in the same manner the Internet has revolutionized information dissemination, Augmented Reality will become a gamechanger. With this tech, we're looking at a tectonic change, not just in e-commerce, but in how individuals make their purchase choices. And marketers will develop AR policies to become the first digital point of contact between customers and brands.

Those who don't get on board with this brave new world now will likely be left behind later.

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DECODING THE DOLLAR PARADOX

-George Santhosh (Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai)

A Paradox is a statement that contradicts itself. There is no confusion when it comes to more money or less money: People will always prefer to work for a competitive salary. And there is no uncertainty in terms of Salary or benefits in kind vs. fulfillment.

Still, the achievement will win out. And combining the two conditions above, it can be concluded that, while everyone likes a big paycheck, there are many other aspirations behind it. Thus, a dollar paradox does exist.

On the HR Conclave hosted by NMIMS Mumbai, Mr. Deepayan Sensharma, the Director of HR for Jardine Lloyd Thompson India, began with a new test. He started with an activity for the audience – an Epitaph Test. The aim was to elicit responses from the audience on what they would like to see on their epitaph after death and burial. The reactions varied from various values like Authentic, Trustworthy, Helpful to titles like 'Best Dad ever' to even 'Former CEO of Google.' However, it was noted that no one brought up the value of their last paycheck to be written. Neither did they want to mention how much their net worth would be. People wanted to be remembered for the way they have been able to give satisfaction to others. Money isn't everything for the individual today.

What about the desire to make a difference? Or to touch the lives of others?

Organizations need not just to offer a competitive salary but provide ways to engage the workforce. Firstly, it is essential to give them a sense of purpose.

If jobs are held only to pay the utility bills, a shallow level of engagement and high levels of attrition are often observed.

Secondly, ensuring safety to the workers is to be made an utmost priority. Innovation being one of the critical factors of competitive advantage today, it is imperative that employees be encouraged to take calculated risks. A genuinely safe organization is where one can take risks without fear of repercussions. Where honest mistakes are forgiven, and growth and innovation are encouraged. Finally, it is ensuring the excellent user experience is the way forward. A true visionary will view its HR function, not as processes, but as products. If you can book a cab with a single press of a button, then why can't one access their Performance report the same way? An HR function can genuinely evolve, only when simplicity and transparency are adopted, which promotes ease of understanding, use, and value addition for the business.

The shift in the importance of monetary rewards can often be witnessed through the change in the HR strategies of businesses.

Many companies today focus on providing rewarding experiences that matter instead.

They seek to provide reinforcement, which brings excitement to the minds of its employees, instead of mindlessly throwing money in hopes of commanding loyalty. In 2014, PepsiCo India had a unique program where top performers got the chance to go to New York to meet the company's senior leadership team and executives from other regions. Meanwhile, the top performers

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in the food business got free tickets for the 2015 Cricket World Cup. Google discovered that giving monetary rewards fosters resentment and jealousy among the employees, so it rolled out a program that offered experiences that included everything from dining experiences, to new tech gadgets, to trips to places like Hawaii.

Employees said that they found the new program more fun, memorable, and thoughtful. Sometimes, companies take to on the spot appreciation for worthy accomplishments of its employees. Wipro's Feather-in-My-Cap is an on-the-spot recognition of an effort, awarded to a project or project team to appreciate excellent productivity.

Companies have realized that sharing the message that 'We care for our employees' is best expressed not just through paychecks. In today's scenario, where maintaining fitness is a challenge, companies are coming up with campuses that have space for recreation and sports, where employees can go and enjoy before or after the office hours.

Google is one of the numerous companies that encourage employee fitness by providing fully equipped gyms. Similarly, Hindustan Unilever provides its employees with yoga classes and meditation rooms.

Other companies like Jardine Lloyd Thompson have monthly challenges where employees who walk the highest number of steps are rewarded exclusive coupons.

It is important to remember that compensation is a hygiene factor, and remains so today. But the changing mindset and priorities of the millennials, as also how this shift affects their expectations from their organizations. Employees are now concerned about the environment, the experiences they get, and other benefits they can derive from companies, not just pay. How companies look to become employers of choice by catering to these shifts in employee expectations, is one of the roads currently being traveled by the HR champions today.

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USING CSR TO REINFORCE BRAND EQUITY

- Diksha Punia (Sri Ram College of Commerce (MBA-GBO), Delhi)

ABSTRACT: A considerable number of studies (e.g., Bhattacharya and Sen 2004; Du et al. 2010; Melo and Garrido-Morgado 2012) have shown that companies benefit from engaging in CSR activities, not only by obtaining favorable consumer awareness, attitude, and a sense of attachment but also by building positive corporate image and good reputation in the long run. According to a study by Reputation Institute, a private global consulting firm based in New York, your Willingness to buy, recommend, work for, and invest in a company is driven 60% by your perceptions of the company—or its reputation, and only 40% by your perceptions of the products or services it sells. This points to the fact that It’s a core element of reputation and can be used to help establish trust and goodwill amongst stakeholders. The term "Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)" can be referred to as a corporate initiative to assess and take responsibility for the company's effects on the environment and impact on social welfare (Corporate Social Responsibility Rules under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013).

The term generally applies to companies' efforts that go beyond what may be required by regulators or environmental protection groups. Corporate social responsibility also referred to as "corporate citizenship", can involve incurring short-term costs that do not provide an immediate financial benefit to the company, but instead promote positive social and environmental change ultimately resulting in building brand equity.

CSR is the process by which firms think about and evolve their relationships with stakeholders for the common good and demonstrates their commitment by the adoption of appropriate business processes and strategies. Thus, CSR is not charity or mere donations it is how you conduct business. Firms use CSR to integrate economic, environmental and social objectives with the company's growth, social image and brand equity. One major factor influencing a consumer's behavior is brand equity. Brand equity refers to a value premium that a company generates from a product with a recognizable name when compared to a generic equivalent.

Companies can create brand equity for their products by making them memorable, easily recognizable, and superior in quality and reliability. We can define corporate brand equity as the consumers' belief in the trustworthiness of the information offered by a company's brand. A brand should be willing to deliver what is promised to be perceived as credible (Erdem et al. 2002).

Because credible brands signal their product positioning, consumers perceive less risk and gather less information during the decision-making process.

Accordingly, corporate brand equity is an important factor in influencing consumer purchase intentions and further contributing to a company's whole image (Fombrun 1996; Lafferty et al.

2002). Brand strength provides benchmark of the brand’s ability to secure ongoing customer demand (loyalty, repurchase, and retention) and sustain future earnings, which translates branded earnings into net present value.

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THE EFFECT OF CSR ON COMPANY EVALUATIONS: First, CSR enhances the consumer perception of corporate marketing performance (e.g., brand credibility, reputation, and brand equity); the corporate brand or marketing manager should pay attention to CSR activities and invest marketing resources in CSR activities. Consumers tend to feel that more socially responsible companies are more credible and perceive these corporate more favorably in terms of corporate reputation and brand equity.

Second, companies pay much attention to brand communication and building a brand identity for strategic brand management because the importance of brand equity is recently being emphasized.

Many companies already recognize a crucial role of CSR and are heavily investing in CSR initiatives to enhance positive, strong and differentiated brand equity. In this market situation, various CSR activities, such as donations to charity, cultural support, and public services, are implemented. Such activities may create a positive brand association for the focal company.

However, companies can maximize this effect if the association is linked to brand credibility.When consumers regard CSR activities as stemming from a company's sincere moral behavior, they tend to trust the company in the belief that it would continue to keep its promises

(Bhattacharya et al. 1998). In particular, the company's CSR activities are considered to create a trusting relationship between the company and the consumers in the global market. Further, a good reputation protects the company from consumer perceptions of negative information. So, more a company is perceived to be socially responsible, the greater the customers' motivation to identify themselves with and support the company.

TCSR engagement encourages consumers to perceive the brand as an ethical player.

The more a company is perceived to have a high CSR, the greater the consumers' belief in its brand credibility.

Looking at an iconic example of how CSR activities can help in developing and monetizing on brand equity, we have BMW. According to a study by Nielsen, almost half (49%) of consumers across the 15 markets agree that the automaker is a responsiblyrun company that behaves ethically and is open and transparent in its business dealings. Corporate reputation is a valuable intangible asset for a company suggested that reputation plays a role as a signal of the company's key characteristics and as a source of competitive advantage. Thus, consumers rely on corporate reputation to judge the company's product or service when faced with a lack of information about a product or a company.

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THE STRATEGY AND CONSULTING CLUB OF IIM ROHTAK snc@iimrohtak.ac.in

ABHINAV TRIPATH KAJAL PATIL KANUJ KHURANA MANOHAR GUPTA PUJA ASHWINI AKANSHA LAWHALE AMRISH RAI MEDHA WAGH PRITHA BARUA SAURABH AZGAONKAR SUMAN SHARMA TEJASWI NETTAM

DISCLAIMER: THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS MAGAZINE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE OPINION OF THE STAKE HOLDERS OF IIM ROHTAK