MARKATHON MARKETING MAGAZINE OF IIM SHILLONG | OCT-NOV 2019
Perspective
BIG DATA IN MARKETING, P.05
Logoistic
HOW TO CREATE THE NEXT ICONIC LOGO, P.12
Digigyaan
MARKETING DURING FESTIVAL SEASON
BEACON TECHNOLOGY, P.13
Catch or Miss
GILLETTE V.S AMAZON, P.14
Brand Story
SOULCYCLE, P.15
Vartalaap
MR. ANIRUDH ARUN COO, BLU-SMART MOBILITY
VOLUME 13
ISSUE 1
al
EDITORSÂ of the month AND THE TEAM Adrija and Komalangi
Harshit
Garima
Manik
Kopal
Kaushal
Sahil
Shreyas
EDITOR'S NOTE ADRIJA KHAN KOMALANGI SRIVASTAVA
Hello Readers! Â The picturesque cherry blossoms in Shillong herald the chilly winters, and with it, the twinkling of lights and jingling of bells all around the world. As families immerse in the festive spirit and swarm to stores to buy their beloved some special gifts, companies look to invent new strategies to get their share in the customer's wallets. E-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart woo their customers with their Big Billion Day ventures. But the festive season is not all about discounts, it is about making your special ones feel really special! Marketing plays a crucial role during these festivals, and brands that are mindful of this fact grab a large share of the festive season sales. We look at the innovative festive season Sales and Marketing strategies used by companies in our cover story in this edition of Markathon. In our Digigyan section, we discuss how Beacon Technology is revolutionising Marketing in retail stores. The Ad-dicted section sheds light on two advertisements by leading brands and their contrasting impact on the audience. Brand Story talks about how selling an experience is an important part of Marketing in the 21st century. This edition's Logoistic comes with a twist as we delve into the secrets of making a logo that lasts. The most beloved section - Vartalaap, brings to you an interview with yet another prominent personality, Mr. Anirudh Arun, COO - Blu-Smart Mobility, with years of rich experience in the multiple facets of the industry, which he fondly shares with us. Amplifying the festive spirit on our campus, we had the pleasure of celebrating the Week of Marketing in November. We hosted the 9th edition of our annual flagship event GodSellers which saw fervent participation in huge numbers from the students of IIM Shillong and students of nearby colleges in Shillong alike. The week-long event saw a buzz all over campus as every team came up with unique ways to sell their products. Look inside to find a few snapshots capturing some beautiful moments from one of the grandest events of IIM Shillong. We would like to congratulate Mehak from IIM Shillong for her insightful piece on "Big Data in Marketing" for the Perspective section. A shout out to Subhasish Das from IIM Shillong and Suman Sarkar from IIM Sambalpur for their respective viewpoints in the eye2eye section. We also thank all the participants for sending in their entries for these two sections. We look forward to hearing your feedback and comments about this bi-monthly edition of Markathon. We hope you enjoy reading this as much as we enjoyed creating it. We wish you Season's Greetings and hope you celebrate it gregariously with your families. Happy Reading! Team Markathon
03 | Index
October - November 2019
Andar Ki Baat 05
PERSPECTIVE Big Data In Marketing Mehak IIM Shillong
07
COVER STORY Marketing during festivals Harshit Somani and Kopal Tripathi
11
EYE 2 EYE Are discounts still an effective pricing strategy in marketing? Subashish Das & Suman Sarkar IIM Shillong IIM Sambalpur
12
LOGOISTIC How to create the next iconic logo Sahil Brahmne
04 | Index
October - November 2019
Andar Ki Baat 0113
DIGIGYAN Beacon Technology Kaushal Gupta
14
AD-DICTED Catch or Miss Shreyas Tripathi
15 B R A N D S T O R Y SoulCycle Garima Singh
16
VARTALAAP Mr. Anirudh Arun COO, Blu-Smart Mobility Adrija Khan
18 U P D A T E S Kopal Tripathi
05 | Perspective
October - November 2019
BY MEHAK IIM SHILLONG ‘When one doesn’t know that one doesn’t know, one thinks one knows’. Such is a false sense of knowledge that hinders a marketer’s progress and puts up a veil for him inhibiting him to uncover consumer insights. Here Big Data comes into picture which tells us what it is that we do not know and would be material for a marketer to make the most out of an opportunity. Big Data can be comprehended with the help of 3 Vs 1. Velocity: By this, we mean relentless rapidity of data creation. For example: Netflix closely observes its subscribers’ streaming activities so as to personalize their content page. 2. Volume: By this, we mean the amount and sphere of data that is being collected. For example: Walmart is estimated to create 2.5 petabytes of consumer data every hour, by 2020, the digital universe is expected to reach 44 zettabytes. 3. Variety: By this, we mean different aspects to consumer data to assimilate them into various processes to make the usage more holistic. For example: Amazon uses Big Data for ‘ Anticipatory 4. Shipping’ wherein they anticipate purchases by consumers and start shipping the required to the nearest hub before even the customer submits order online. An incremental innovation thus has been brought up by the use of Big Data Now that we’ve got what Big Data is conclusive of we need to understand WHY is it so important for us to know its implications in and out.
PERSPECTIVE
BIG DATA IN MARKETING
06 | Perspective
October - November 2019
The significance of Big Data can be gauged from that fact that McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) estimated that retailers exploiting Data Analytics at stage across their organizations could increase their operating margins by 60% and that US healthcare sector could reduce costs by 8% through efficiency and quality improvements. Big Data is nothing but the formation of unique content. The data collected needs to be converted into original and user friendly content. Thus, Big Data analysis is preceded by Content Marketing Strategy wherein the marketer needs to mine out the relevant content which will be best suited as a tool for our marketing effort. It is very well said that ‘Straightforwardness builds Trust’. It is only Big Data that helps us pursue this kind of targeted marketing within organizations. It can provide us with the complete consumer insight, including location, Social circle, Demographics, Product holdings, value, Behavior and usage pattern, Lifestyle intent and interaction.
It is very necessary to define the Target Consumer. This can be done through Predictive analysis which can further assist in presenting the best and targeted deals e.g. Tel Aviv based Optimove, is a marketing automation organization which uses the same. Targeting is being utilized to such an extent that Big Data is being procactively used to estimate whether a female shopper is pregnant and her due dates weeks before her family knows of her pregnancy e.g. Target did this in 2012 using predictive data and enhancing its adaptive capability to influence the customer’s purchases for baby items giving rise to a long term customer relationship c. The analytical capability associated with Big Data, uses inductive reasoning and dynamic capability to cater to customer needs e.g. Southwest airlines record conversations between service personnel and consumer to extract insight using a speech analytical tool which is instrumental in re-engineering the organization by keeping a check on the information flow and meeting hitherto unrecognized consumer needs. d. Next Best Action (NBA) to engage consumers by assessing all the real time offers to the consumers and finally offering them the most optimal one. Big Data uses an algorithm to assess the propensity of consumers to accept the given offer within the complex business standards and situations. Sentiment Analysis is done which comprises of insight into consumer’s emotions and psychological factors that influence a customer’s
priorities and purchase decisions.
The Comprehensive Process Ultimate Marketing Strategy
towards
the
1. The process of collecting and storing records of consumer activities as Big Data 2. Making the data Accessible, Holistic, Relevant, Timely, Trustworthy and Actionable 3. The process of extracting insights from Big Data 4. The process of utilizing insights to enhance Dynamic/Adaptive capability
Sources of Big Data Consumers create data at every step of their Digital Interface. It can be 1. Structured 2. Unstructured Consumers move among devices and channels, various touch points across different mediums- online, offline, third party, corporate networks, social networks, location based and mobile.
Significance of Big Data 1. Customer Analysis: a. It facilitates Market Basket Analysis (MBA) which is a marketing and intelligence technique which predicts the future purchases by a customer and hence helps us in faming a personalized experience.
2. Pricing: The theory that ‘ Big spenders are the most expensive to keep and least loyal over the long term’ illuminates the importance of pricing decisions in a firm. Dynamic pricing in a firm helps it in using ‘Flexible Pricing’ which enhances a firm’s earnings e.g. Major League Baseball has adopted this to capture the willingness of the fans to pay more for a special game. 3. Competitors: This is a very effective technique to combat competition e.g. Ford is bringing in revolution in product innovation and design. 4. Driving Revenue: Big Data helps in increasing the Conversion Rate’ and hence leading increasing revenues. We can use ‘ Attribution Modelling’ through which we can extract data in ‘Extract- Load – Transform’ stage and create composite metrices to predict business performance. Thus Big Data helps in on the fly detection of changing trends and hence can be instrumental in framing the whole Marketing Strategy. Although the collection of the data might need some investment but the insights that it provides are much more worth than the fortune spent. The Return on data can be calculated as Value of data / Cost of data. Hence, Big Data can be an effective tool only and only if we use deductive and predictive analysis on our existing data to get the content that is material to the organization and its purpose.
07 | Cover Story
October - November 2019
MARKETING DURING FESTIVAL SEASON COVER STORY
HARSHIT SOMANI KOPAL TRIPATHI Companies always want a share in the customers' wallets, and festivals offer them an opportunity to do the same. Designing smart advertising campaigns centred around festivals holds the key to a spike in sales during festival celebrations. Remember the classic ad campaigns from the 90s, like the Dhara and Amul? Or the Cadbury Dairy Milk ads that dominate Indian television till today during Raksha Bandhan and Diwali? What is so unique about these campaigns that attach them to public memory? The idea behind an effective marketing campaign is to be able to deliver and portray a story to the consumer which he or she can relate to. Holidays and festivals are emotional times, and it is a responsibility to create associative links between the brand and these emotions. Not only these relationships with consumers increase sales, but they also help in positioning the brand in a much stronger way.
08 | Cover Story
October - November 2019
fact that the festive season is also a season of sales and discounts. Consumers tend to save and buy during festivals due to the auspiciousness attached to it.
For example, Cadbury chocolates were earlier targeted only to the young generation. Promoting Cadbury chocolates as an alternative to the traditional sweets not only increased its sales during festivals but also increased the target audience and positioned it as a product for all. Today, Cadbury resonates not only with kids but with festivals, happiness, togetherness, and family. Consumer Purchases, be it online or offline, in both emotions drive the decisions. These emotions are high on the positive side, especially during festivals and holidays. And hence, planning a marketing campaign around such occasions and themes is not only beneficial in the short run but also the long run. The recall value of the brands during festivals is likely to be more due to the attachment with the brand during festivals. For instance, a sister gifting her brother a pack of Cadbury on every Raksha Bandhan is a pattern she would have developed over time, and it would have emotions attached to the Cadbury brand. Similarly, gifting one's wife a Tanishq product on every anniversary would have strong sentiments attached to. The annual festive season is a treat to the shopping frenzy with fantastic variety and discounts. It is a historical fact in India that retail sales tend to spike up during the festive season, specifically during October-November. People buy gifts for heir friends and family, corporate enterprises look for gifts for their employees and clients, wishlists are cleared, he actual days of the festival are supposedly auspicious for making precious purchases. All thisshopping frenzy craze is compounded by the
The general trend in the Indian retail market, both offline and online, is that the last quarter of the year witnesses the most sales, partly due to the festive season ranging from Dussehra, Diwali, Christmas and New Year. For years, sellers have used this fact to their advantage by strategically using sales, discounts, and offers to boost revenue. But the current situation is that none can match the level of marketing spectacle that companies like Flipkart and Amazon generate to promote their Big Billion Day ventures. The big players of the Indian online retail market gear up for the festive season every year. Snapdeal has even undergone a significant branding overhaul and unveiled a new logo, which should directly impact its festive season campaign. With this level of competition to look forward to, it is high time to start planning an effective marketing campaign as an online retail seller. Social media plays a vital role during festivals, and hence promotions via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. lead to a high chance of large traffic landing on the website.
A simple seasons' greeting post can also make a lot of difference to your followers. It gives a sense of consideration for their sentiments. Marketing holds the key during festivals, and brands that are respectful towards this fact grab a large share of the festival sales.
Launc & Biddin
Godselle 9.0
I '
wra !
Godselle 9.0
11 | eye2eye
October-November 2019
Are discounts still an effective pricing strategy in marketing SUBHASISH DAS IIM Shillong
SUMAN SARKAR IIM Sambalpur
When a customer is presented with a discount, it is only natural for him to evaluate the difference between the discounted price and the real price. Based on this the consumer decides if the offer is attractive enough. Research shows that there are ways to make the difference appear bigger than it really is. Fundamentals governing discounts are deep-rooted in human psychology. Marketers take advantage of people's aversion towards mathematics and poor understanding of psychological concepts such as feelings of perceived gain, aversion towards loss etc. to design effective discount strategies. They are especially effective for specific business situations - to nudge new visitors, reward loyal customers and many others. Below we look at two tools that are used by marketers to design discounting strategies. The framing effect is centered around the idea that different ways of presenting the same information evoke different emotions. For instance, people also prefer 1+1 offers over 50% off on products. Similarly, a 25% discount on top of a 20% discount appears more attractive, instead of a single 40% discount. And yes, again, this comes down to the exact same discount. Anchoring effect is a cognitive bias where an individual depends heavily on initial information to make future decisions. It is a powerful pricing strategy, well leveraged especially by FMCG companies. Every time we see a discount with Rs 100 Rs 75, the Rs 100 is an anchor for Rs 75 sale price. Since we do not have the ability to approximate a final product’s real value we rely on initial information about prices that we are exposed to. The huge benefits offered by discount marketing negates its downsides. Although, discounts spoil consumers, in the sense, they train consumers in a way that isn’t helpful for firms in the long run. Once people are offered discounts they would be unhappy if they aren’t offered one the second time. Therefore, when it comes to discounts, the right question to ask is, what kind of discount marketing strategies are more effective than others.
Discounts
are
used
as
a
tool
for
customer
promotion to push sales downstream in the supply chain. It is used to replace old stocks with the new and
upgraded
ones,
so
as
to
stay
relevant.
Technology has increased the competitiveness of the market, where a firm losing out on launching a product
on
time
may
actually
break
the
consumption pattern of that product. So, its customers will break its habitual buying behaviour with the company and go on a variety seeking
VERSUS
mode. This makes him locked in by a competitor’s
The
product, thus, cutting short tzhe customer lifetime value for the firm. So, companies sell older products by discounting it. Discounts may be offered to check price sensitivity of customers or to gain a higher market share. Offering discounts to sell its products may hint that the brand is not strong enough to sell its products on its own. Strong brands do not sell their products at a high discount. They dispose their unsold products by removing their brand name. Also, the quality perceptions change when a company is offering discounts. Consumers perceive that it is of cheaper quality to be sold with discounts. Sometimes, when a company offers frequent discounts, it may increase its consumers’ price sensitivity. They will be unwilling to buy at full price later on. They will wait for discounts to happen and this tendency will squeeze the profits for the company. Sometimes, early buyers who buy at full price will feel betrayed to have paid a higher amount They will get less brand loyal and may switch elsewhere. Also, discounting may lead to price wars, where the category will become dried of profits. So, to sum it up, discounting may be a financially a feasible option but from a marketing perspective, it has mixed reaction. It will help in customer adoption of product but it will also tarnish the brand and quality perceptions.
Topic for the next issue is: "Is India a breeding ground for the advent of Sports Marketing?", Your opinion (viewpoint/counter-view) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is 15th January 2019. Include your picture (JPEG format) with the entry. Winners will receive a prize money of Rs 500 each.
12 | Logoistic
October-November 2019
HOW TO CREATE THE NEXT ICONIC LOGO BY SAHIL BRAHMNE
1. Wordmark: The most common type of logo you will find. Brands like Google, Disney, Coca-Cola and Sony fall in this category. If you are a relatively newer business, this might be the one for you since you want your audience to constantly be reminded of your brand and create a recall 2. Pictorial: Brands like Apple, Shell and Target fall in this category. This would probably be good for you once you have established your brand and carved out a niche for your brand. A strong visual image, if you can create it, will go a long way in establishing a strong connect
3. Abstract: Brands like Nike, Airbnb, Adidas, and Chevrolet. It is very different and unique. It does not necessarily resemble your brand’s name, but gives a brief about the idea behind your brand. Once you have established a powerful connect with the logo, you can use it anywhere on your products and use it to churn out profits, much like Nike and Adidas
Miss logos have a vintage feel to them. They 4. Verdict: Emblem: Emblem convey class and heritage. Brands like Warner Brothers, Harley Davidson, universities like Harvard, Columbia and Car Brands like Porsche, BMW and Ferrari have some of the most iconic and recognizable logos. If you want your logo to convey extravagance, luxury and class, you consider going for an emblem logo 5. Mascot: This is a rather uncommon category and can be combined with one of the above categories. Brands like KFC, Monopoly, Amul, Air India fall under this category. Mascots are usually preferred if the Target Group is usually young since a physical presence is usually well appreciated. Taking selfies with these mascots and promoting it on Social Media will help you in having a greater online presence
LOGOISTIC
When you’re considering the factors that go into building a business, creating a logo might not seem like a top priority. But it should be! “Maybe I don’t even need a logo at all,” a little voice is whispering in the back of your mind. Don’t listen to that voice; it couldn’t be more wrong. Your logo is an integral part of making your brand a successful one – right up there with having high-quality products and positive referrals. It was observed that 40% of 4-year olds can recognize logos and match it with a company and 100% of 11-year olds can do the same. So now that we have established how important having the right logo for your company is, let’s get to creating the iconic logo for your brand. Now whether you have the smaller budget of creating a logo, like of Nike - $15 and of Twitter - $35, or the have the much bigger budget of Obama’s 2008 campaign - $ 1 Million or that of BBC - $ 1.8 Million, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is the direction you take when you think of the logo you create. So let’s start with the basic types of logos:
13 | DIGIGYAN Voixce
October-November 2019
DIGIGYAN : BEACON TECHNOLOGY
BY KAUSHAL GUPTA
BEACON TECHNOLOGY Beacon technology has been gaining recognition from marketers since the year 2013. This technology promises to open the door to a truly personalized shopping experience, which is a “holy grail” for mobile marketers. Beacons are small wireless transmitters that send signals to other nearby smart devices. This works similarly to GPS but is less complex in operation. With the passage of time, Beacon technology has emerged as one of the tools for the retailers which can be used to influence the consumer behavior at that sweet spot of time when they are passing from nearby their store. Companies first need to encourage their customers to download their App. After that, retailers strategically place beacons around their stores. As soon as the customer passes by that store, beacons connect to the customer’s Bluetooth enabled smartphone app and send a signal to the phone so that the apps get opened. Once the app is opened, retailers can post their offers or any related information about their brand like loyalty programs or discount schemes at that particular point of time. This can be in the form of messages or app notifications.
Also, at the same time, it can be used to capture the analytics such as the number of times a particular customer visited the store in the last month. Various others insights from this technology can also be gathered like which particular section(s) of the store is/are visited primarily, which can help to expand or modify that particular section accordingly and infer suggestions for what can be done in other sections to increase the footfall. This kind of proximity marketing can help in improving the in-store experience. Not only the physical stores but also the online E-Commerce platforms are leveraging this technology by placing beacons nearby to the relevant stores which are available on their platform and can send their campaigns and offers to their apps. This will help such aggregators in building up a customer database in terms of their footfalls to the different categories, their purchase patterns, and the preferences which can help them to target these customers over and over in future. By looking at the growth of mobile apps and businesses majorly shifting on App based platform, the technology surely has a huge potential in future and businesses are looking this as a new low-cost marketing tool. Also, no technology can be successful if they don't benefit the consumer and only the marketers. It provides an interactive platform for the customers to know about their brand. In this competitive market, it helps the consumers to compare their preferred brands and different offers. It also saves a lot of time as the customers don’t need to go store by store for offers and discounts as they can figure out everything on their app only. Ultimately, beacon will help to understand your target audience, also can analyse what all the discount schemes or loyalty programs are running sound for the company and what all features consumers like about us. The younger generation has recognized the importance and value of this technology and is making use of it. The technology is new in market but with the increase in digital marketing campaigning business firms are looking positive to inbuilt this in their marketing campaigns. There are certain disadvantages too associated with the usage of this technology, say from the viewpoint of the marketer, if you over communicate through beacon marketing, you risk your app getting deleted or your push notifications getting muted. Hence, the future marketers need to take proper care of all such things while communicating with the consumer so as to make maximum use of the technology.
14 | Ad-dicted
October-November 2019 BY SHREYAS TRIPATHI
Company: P&G Brand: Gillette Agency: Grey India Theme: Shaving Stereotypes Link: https://youtu.be/uGUC0YSmrH8
Company: Amazon Agency: Lucky Generals Theme: Amazon Holiday 2019 Link: https://youtu.be/s2K0flh9uMc
Concept
Concept
Audiences get used to the marketing techniques adopted by various brands and they stop reacting to them. This phenomena is called Habituation. The cornerstone of successful marketing is understanding your target audience. Therefore, it didn’t take marketers a lot of time to realize the importance of social issues in evincing audience’s attention. Gillette through its #Shavingstereotypes is showing responsibility and taking a stance on an issue that has plagued our society for ages, thereby building the much needed trust between the audience.
CATCH brand
and
its
target
The advertisement opens with a little girl singing the jingle ‘Everybody needs somebody…’ who is joined by the amazon singing box. The singing boxes’ co-stars include a diverse cast: children at fancy dress party, passengers on a train, a delivery driver making her rounds; an older couple dancing while talking to loved ones, toe tapping office workers, bus passengers and a wistful Santa. The advertisement does a good job of creating brand awareness with the product and service centrally positioned from start to finish.
R
MISS
Verdict: Catch With the tagline “The Best A Man Can Be” Gillette has successfully struck chords with the sentiments of millennials. The campaign was launched on International Men’s Day (19 November) featuring the real life story of Lt Col Manoj Kumar Sinha, SM (Retd). The new campaign is an attempt to redefine masculinity. The crux of the film comes to light when the father and son share an emotional moment and the father breaks down, the same man who once said ‘boys don’t cry’. The advertisement drives home the point that showing your vulnerability doesn’t make you any less of a man. This campaign has been able to garner 3 million+ views so far on YouTube and has been able to engage its target audience on social media platforms.
Verdict: Miss The advertisement fails to bring the dose of magic or plot twist to bring the ad to life. It clearly showcases the happy faces but where is the element of surprise? Do people really love the singing boxes? Does shopping on Amazon fill the customers with warm and fuzzy festive feeling? The advertisement clearly misses on addressing these crucial elements. The retention span of this advertisement will be considerably low as there is no emotional connect with the audience.
15 | Brand Story
October-November 2019
BRAND STORY: SOUL CYCLE BY GARIMA SINGH Imagine walking in a dim, candlelit room packed with people breathlessly pedaling their feet in unison, while a mix of Lil Wayne and Charlie XCX songs plays in the background. An instructor at the front is taking you through a fluid narrative of intention and purpose, "this is not about a class. Not about a bike. “This is about you. Your purpose. Your goals. Your drive”. SoulCycle describes it as a “cardio party”- a fitness experience benefitting not only the body but also the mind and soul. Great brand stories may not necessarily change the world, but they make their target market understand why their brand is worth the time and money. And for SoulCycle, it is the experience, the storytelling, and the ‘pack’ mentality, which makes the riders feel connected to something larger than themselves. And this is compelling enough for people to pay the equivalent of a monthly gym subscription- for a 45 minute session! SoulCycle itself started with a story of two busy, ambitious women in NYC who couldn’t find a cardio routine that “made their hearts sing”. In early 2006, Elizabeth Cutler and Julie Rice decided, during their “best blind date ever” to start an indoor cycling studio, emphasizing a full-body workout and spiritual component. SoulCycle has ushered in a national craze of synchronized boutique group exercise in the US. And a key component of their success lies in the way the brand talks to its people. Its iconic lemon-wheel logo evokes joy and a positive vibe, unlike traditional gyms. The company finds clever ways to help that permeate the entire SoulCycle experience right on down to the exclusively lemon-scented products in its locker room showers.
Written on the walls of the studios are inspiring mantras like “We inhale intention and exhale expectation,” “We find freedom in our sprints,” and the like. Their online persona matches their offline persona, with marketing campaigns encouraging people to “Screw resolutions” and “Eat the damn cookie.” The SoulBlog has personal stories of transformation of the instructors and riders, subtly promoting the product. Their retail apparel line consists of bright-colored tank tops, leggings, and hoodies emblazoned with the signature “Soul wheel.” It makes their riders the brand ambassadors even when they’re not in class. SoulCycle also has a partnership with Apple Music, where they create exclusive playlists and share motivational audios of their instructors. They are planning an in-app experience called SoulBeat for their riders to track progress, measure individual performance, and receive personalized feedback. But the cult-like following of SoulCycle is attributed to its empowering and inspirational messaging that makes the rider the hero. And their knack for storytelling elevates this experience to a lifestyle. The personal-story based community feel is very strong, and that brings in negative feedback too. But that keeps people talking. And that is what best brand stories are like- they are unapologetic about their point of view, craft stories strong enough to repel people, and immerse believers in the narrative.
16 | Vartalaap
October-November 2019
AN INTERVIEW WITH ANIRUDH ARUN BY ADRIJA KHAN
COO, BLU-SMART MOBILITY
Be open about your entrepreneurial idea. Start discussing it with your peers. This makes it easier to find flaws and loopholes in your idea As most automobile firms make the switch to electric, how do you think Electric Vehicles will ensure profits and shape business besides being eco-friendly?
India is on a one-way street to Electric.
The interesting part about electric mobility is that it is the cleanest form of mobility till date. Coincidentally, it is also the cheapest form of mobility. The cost of fuel is about 80p/km, when compared to a CNG car where the cost is Rs 3.5/km. Petrol and diesel are also about 5-6 times as expensive as electric.
Ola and Uber do about 3 lakh odd trips in NCR as compared to Blu-Smart’s 1500. So we are still at 1% market penetration as of today, just as a proof of concept. But one major problem with these traditional cab aggregators is that their driver partner also doubles as a financing agent. For this they had to give exorbitant driver incentives. Many of these vehicles have been repossessed by the financing partner due to the driver’s inability to pay loans on time. Now Ola and Uber are facing huge supply constraints which is hindering their scope to grow further. When they made their driver partners the financiers, they lost out on the ride experience, they had no control over the quality of car or driver’s behavior. They also lack exclusivity. At Blu-Smart, we realized that the skill set of the driver lies in driving the car, not funding it. Our model is very different and owns the full stack. We have control over the asset, the driver and the entire ride experience.
Now with EVs, the fuel cost is relatively low, so the more kilometers I run, the better my overall total cost and the more I am saving. This is the reason why fleet operators are becoming Early Adopters of Electric mobility. For commercial assets,
we
try
to
maximize
the
number
of
kilometers run, and this is the business case for electric
How is Blu-Smart planning to go up against giants like Ola and Uber?
VARTALAAP
Mr. Anirudh Arun is currently the Chief Operating Officer at Blu-Smart Mobility, an up and coming electric mobility start-up. A 2011 graduate from IIT Roorkee as a Chemical Engineer, he enjoyed working for 4 years at Schlumberger, an oil and gas company, gaining diverse cultural experiences from working on-shore as well as off-shore on remote projects with clients like Shell, BP, ONGC and Reliance in different continents. However, he always had an entrepreneurial spirit in him and wanted to do something on his own. As a hard-core Sports fan, he started an initiative called Khelfie that made Sports wearables. They raised around $100,000 through crowd funding through a platform called Indiegogo. Now he is working on creating a sustainable automobile future for India at BluSmart. He has also authored a book called “The Steadfast Tin Soldier?”
17 | Vartalaap
October-November 2019
Our supply side is through a lot of partners, who are able to deploy hundreds of vehicles through our platforms and we give them benefits in return. Thus we separate the drivers and suppliers, bringing the drivers on a fixed employment model with fixed incentives. So we have changed the entire experience. The drivers are uniformed, they never cancel and there is no surge pricing, so even the customer is getting a unique chauffeur-styled experience. It is very competitively priced, sustainable, reliable and extremely safe for all. Our goal is to have clean, sustainable mobility.
We focused on Golf, building the brand of Golfication and patenting our technology because that segment of the customers was more affluent.
Ultimately this is a capitalist environment, so if people see a monetary opportunity, they will rush to invest in it. But the Sports industry will have
to
create
that
opportunity
for
businessmen.
As an entrepreneur, do you believe in the concept of Zero-to-One? What according to you makes a start-up click?
My first advice to any B-school student is to be about
discussing
it
their with
entrepreneurial your
peers.
idea.
This
Start
makes
it
easier to find flaws and loopholes in your idea.
While we only look at the rosy side of things, other people may very easily point out glaring mistakes in our idea. At B-schools we are surrounded by people who can punch holes into our theories and challenge us, and we need to use that to our advantage. It is a lot better to identify shortcomings before starting, than to face them after raising capital and starting to grow. I have also authored a book called “The Steadfast Tin Soldier?” and I keep telling people that even if I share the first 3 chapters of the book, they will have to buy the book to know the entire story. So do not worry about someone stealing your idea. You can either go with your gut feeling or work in consulting for a few years, know the market inside out and then have a founder market fit. As an entrepreneur, you will have a multi-functional exposure and the learning curve is extremely steep. So do not be afraid of failures.
While you were working with Khelfie, how did you gauge the scenario for Sports Marketing in India? The CEO of Delhi Daredevils was on our team of founders for Khelfie and I have also interacted with the brand managers for the likes of Virat Kohli. The industry in India is at a very nascent stage as compared to the West. Indian sports persons usually go to their personal contacts, and they in turn become their brand managers. It works in the same way in the Entertainment industry as well. For Sports Marketing to become mainstream in India, Sports as a whole will need to grow, and not just cricket. The adoption of Sports in India is a fraction of what it is in the West, although recently there have been initiatives in Football, Badminton and Kabaddi. However, our engagement ends at watching the sport and not participating in it. This will need a change in mindset. When you look at European sports, they have separate scientists measuring and analysing each player’s data, and providing personalised feedback. This was kind of our objective at Khelfie. We partnered with Virender Sehwag to promote our array of wearables that would help sports persons understand the game better, collect data and analyse performances.
What would be your message for our readers? As the crème-de-la-crème of India, there has to be a change in mentality from “I’ll be a job-seeker” to “I’ll be a job-creator”. Although there are risks, there are certain fallbacks you have created for yourself and you can go very far with your potential. You need to leverage your brand and believe in yourself. There is no shame in failing, learn fast and execute fast. Try to understand a sector well, innovate and build a community of entrepreneurship!
VARTALAAP
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We are slowly getting there with higher disposable income now. But it will have to be a top-down approach.
UPDATES
18 | Updates
By
KOPAL TRIPATHI
October-November 2019
Facebook’s new Safety move: Facebook has started giving advertisers new safety measures, allowing brands to choose where their messages appear before the ads go live, via whitelist mechanism that pre-select the publishers and video makers they support. It has also developed new ways of reporting to advertisers after the ad campaigns have run, which will make it is easier for them to get a rundown of exactly where the ads appeared. A brand safety setting could now be applied to all campaigns for a given brand, instead of having to adjust the settings for every campaign.
GSK reinvents pain reliever brand: GSK, the British multinational has added a fresh extension to its 40-year-old flagship in hope of leveraging the brand's recall and expanding its remedial reach. R, GSK Consumer has launched a new variant for headaches, over and above the Crocin for cold, pain and fever that are already part of its over-the-counter (OTC) play in the UK. This is not a full-fledged brand extension, but a repositioning of its anti-pain medicine. The attempts of extensions and repositioning under Crocin are not just aimed at refreshing the brand’s promise to consumers, but also at expanding its footprint.
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October-November 2019
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