Markathon may june 2014

Marketing Magazine of IIM Shillong

Volume 5 | Issue 11

May-June 2014

MARKATHON

Retargeting

Enhancing effective engagement with the customers

Vartalaap with Mr. Krishnan Chatterjee Senior Vice President and Head, Strategic Marketing, HCL Technologies

From The Editor Votes were cast and India awaited its new set of leaders.

From the streets of an Indian town rose the new Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Damodar Modi. Once a tea hawker is now the Prime Minister of one of the fastest growing nations in the world. How can we not call this an excellent execution of some brilliantly planned marketing activities, right from the processions on streets to speeches at holy places it has been a worthwhile demonstration of true marketing skills.

A sneak peek into what the coming few pages hold for you: Our cover story this time states the concept of retargeting and how it is being implemented in the industry. It talks about the current scenario of the online marketing strategies like web page ads, pop ups etc. The article majorly focuses on how the efficiency of these strategies can be increased and how can we convert a large part of our visitors into paying customers.

The perspective column this time has some really exciting articles. The article titled Gamification speaks about, how the idea of turning almost every activity you do into a game can increase usage density of a product. The excitement that the game generates is itself a factor that enhances usage. We also bring an interesting article that analysis the strategic transformations entertainment giant Walt Disney has adopted to hold up its heritage and keep in touch with its audience Vartaalap with Mr. Krishnan Chaterjee this time. After completing his MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and being with

ITC Limited for 9 years, Mr. Krishnan Chatterjee joined HCL Technologies in December 2004, and currently works as Senior Vice President and Head, Strategic Marketing, HCL Technologies. He is responsible for business strategy, brand marketing, PR, channel management, sales excellence and digital/community development at HCL. He shares his knowledge and delivers the best of both industries he has been a part of.

For our regular readers who eagerly await Markathon just to jump to the specials, here’s what we have for you in store: Big Bazaar which is Indias largest hyper market chain has made it to our Brand Story this time and has been called the Indian version of Walmart. Radical thoughts speaks about the mean act of B2B marketing, why mean you ask? Go ahead and read it to find out why.

Updates this time has some interesting news about the latest happenings in the industry covering everything from product launches to brand modifications. Last but not the least for those who are stressing themselves out at their internships our stress relieving fun corner.

That’s all in store for you, hurry up and get started. Happy reading.

Cheers

The Markathon Team

Editors Amit Sonwani | B Ushashree | Nishant Prakash | Ramanathan K | Varsha Poddar | Yash B. Bhambhwani

Creative Designers Malini Aishwarya B | Swati Pamnani

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Contents

Gamification Aastha Pandey | IIM Rohtak

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Disney Strategy Formulation Mufaddal Dahodwala | JBIMS

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Retargeting : Enhancing effective engagement in the customers Priyam | FMS Delhi

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Vartalaap Mr. Krishnan Chatterjee Senior Vice President and Head, Strategic Marketing HCL Technologies

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Eye 2 Eye Experiential Marketing Worth Its Cost - Agree or Disagree ?

Debapi Golder | IIM Shillong & Saket Hawelia | IIM Shillong

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Silent Voice Kings XI Punjab Team Starlit | FORE School of Management

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Specials Addicted Swati Pamnani & Yash B. Bhambhwani | IIM Shillong

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Brand Story Nishant Prakash | IIM Shillong

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Fun Corner Malini Aishwarya B | IIM Shillong

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Radical Thoughts Varsha Poddar | IIM Shillong

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Updates Amit Sonwani | IIM Shillong

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perspective perspective

GAMIFICATION

BY Aastha Pandey Iim rohtak

I just got Foursquared Foursquare, one of the newer social networking sites, is unique because it is built around the concept of sharing your location with friends. The basic idea is that users ‘check in’ to their favorite locations both in real life and foursquare. It also appeals to human curiosity to see where other people check in, get their reviews and advice on places one would want to visit. Moreover users get badges for check-ins. There are even custom badges for certain specific events. And, I would definitely check in as many times as I possibly can to get the ‘Mayor’ badge.

Very few people know that the creator of foursquare had actually made a sort of predecessor app called Dodgeball which also used the concept of check in without the badges or rewards. Sure, I would still get to see my friends checking in, but if none of my friends checked in anywhere, there would be no motivation for me to do the same. The concept of badges and rewards actually made the necessary difference for users to keep coming back to the improved app. Gamification today is about turning what we have to do into something that we want to do.

For marketers everywhere, it’s about turning consumer actions into habits. For consumers, it is about taking very real tasks and breaking them down into games.

The reason why marketers are using gamification

engage customers is that it serves as a means of intrinsic reinforcement. Every time a goal is accomplished, a small amount of dopamine is released from the brain resulting in pleasure. Over time, this changes their brain structure and chemical makeup, making them smarter, more confident and able to take on larger challenges than before called the Winner Effect. The users keep going back to experience that same rush. Another reason is that gaming also serves as a primary source of entertainment for the millennial generation.

Extra Coffee!!

A number of businesses around the world are now adopting gamification as a means to engage consumers. An ex -ample would be Starbucks which awards users with stars every time they pay using the My Starbucks Rewards app.

A total of five stars catapults the user into the green level entitling them to free refills on coffee or tea purchased that day. It features rewards and levels, the rewards are both tangible and intangible. My Starbucks Rewards employs the 3F’s of gamification which are Fun, Friends and Feedback. Fun comes from having been able to earn the rewards, the friends bit by way of being able to send egifts to friends and of course timely feedback like ‘10 stars earned.’

Figure 1: Game Mechanics meet consumer’s most basic needs (pwc, 2011)

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perspective Created a bank account in a Jifi

Users share JIfi’s posts on FB and twitter and earn social points

Users refer Friends and Earn Points

Users transact online and earn transaction points

Users Integrate their Jifi account with FB and Twitter Accounts

Users redeem points through vouchers

Users Sign up for Jifi

Figure 2 The application is aimed at increasing Kotak’s reach amongst the youth by means of referrals, game mechanics, and social media.

Gamification hasn’t yet taken off in India especially when it comes to consumer engagement. However a number of companies like HCL and Accenture have used it to engage employees. There have also been a number of financial institutions who have started using social banking incorporating few elements of gameplay.

In March 2014, Kotak Mahindra launched KotakJifi, a social banking account. Its target segment is the youth of today who prefer to stay online most of the time. It incorporates the game element of rewards in the form of points.

A simpliified use case for the same in shown in figure 2.

fication holds a lot of promise in the long term but not in the short term. This is largely due to the fact that companies which have implemented gamification have been doing so at a very superficial level. Margaret Robertson, a well-known game designer says that-‘Gamification today should actually be pointsification. Points, rewards, and leaderboards are the least important bits of a game.

Games are supposed to be more complex and make attaining goals interestingly hard.’ The level of emotional engagement which comes with worthwhile choices, fear of humiliation, loss and defeat in a game are not a part of gamification as it is implemented by brands today. It is Gamification didn’t work for our business! easy to understand that, given that brands need to woo customers not drive them away. But, gamification experts need to come up with methods to increase emotional engagement of customers with the brand, points and rewards will only work for so long. It is also important that gamification efforts tie in with business objectives of the firm. A lot also depends on which metrics companies are using to measure effectiveness of engagement through gamification. For example, a mission is defined by a user reviewing a particular product or providing feedback. The goal here is garnering insights in order to improve the quality of a product. However, if consumers don’t really give useful feedback or reviews, the gamification efforts fail. Other issues pertain to regulations and laws. There need to be regulations in place when brand influencers like bloggers are paid or rewarded for providing positive publicity for a product or brand. For consumers, those bloggers are people worth believing, as they are just ‘another consumer’. These brand influencers need to be It is estimated that the gamification sector will be worth forthright about the reasons why they are promoting a $5.5 billion by 2018 .A study by Gartner says that Gami- particular brand. Stealth marketing also becomes an is-

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sue when consumers don’t know that they are playing games which are actually a means of marketing by the company.

What the future holds!

As per Gartners hype cycle for emerging technologies, Gamification is near the peak and it is predicted that it will move from the peak of high expectations to the trough of disillusionment in the next few years.

Along with gamification, wearable user interfaces are Figure 3: Gartner Hype Cycle 2013 (Gartner, 2013) also near the peak.

Wearable user interfaces have already been used as a part be used in leveraging more consumers in crowdsourcof social gamification in order to enable users to work out ing innovations and ideas. More platforms like Phylo (by together. But what if, a wearable interface could be used which users have discovered 350000 potential mistakes in to make the most mundane chores more fun? And what the current understanding of DNA) and Eterna(by which if they could be used to influence consumers by aggregat- people are finding new RNA structures which science has ing their profile data in real time? Gamification used along not yet been able to find) will come into play. Gamificawith gesture control could enable salespeople to identify tion will use the collective intelligence of the audience what the consumer is thinking at that point of time and ac- to solicit ideas, develop those ideas, and predict success cordingly focus on prospects with a high likelihood of con- using prediction market mechanisms. A large number of version. The more prospects converted, the more points vendors who provide software to support innovation and the salesperson gets which affects his performance. And ideas like Spigit would be on the rise. Besides this, there this is just the tip of the iceberg. Gamification could also will also be an advent of better, more complex loyalty programs which are driven by a number of factors like aggregation of the rewards and points (Current rewards are insignificant), recognition of gold or silver level status across networks, exchangeability of points with real goods and services etc. Brands must take note of all these factors and incorporate more complexity into their current brand loyalty programs, to make sure that their consumers remain motivated. However, there the customers need to be clear that the games they are playing are not just for fun but marketing tactics.

In the movie Sight, the dark side of gamification is brought out. The combination of other emergent technologies with gamification, might enable greater manipulation by those adept at its use. But there is also a great opportunity to do good and making wishes come true.Ultimately the use would rest in the hands of the corporations wielding the power.

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Strategic Analysis Of

BY Mufaddal Dahodwala jbims

Current Strategy From its founding in 1923,Disney has a brand name which spans across decades for quality entertainment for the entire family.The company, originally founded by brothers Walt and Roy Disney ,stretched the boundaries of entertainment during the 20th century to bring classic and memorable family entertainment around the world.

Beginning with simple black and white animation cartoons, the company grew into worldwide phenomenon that today includes theme parks, feature films, television networks, theatre production, consumer products, and a growing online presence.

It’s the latest gigantic pop culture acquisition for Disney, which has spent the last decade stockpiling many of the world’s most beloved franchises. First, Disney spent more than $100 million to purchase the Muppets in 2004. Two years later, the company shelled out $7.4 billion for Pixar, home of Toy Story, Monsters Inc., and Cars. Marvel Entertainment came next (in 2009, for $4 billion) and then in October 2012, Disney snapped up George Lucas’ company Lucas film—and all rights to a little franchise called Star Wars—for $4.06 billion.

It recently announced an ambitious new deal with Netflix to create four new Marvel series beginning in 2015. That will be followed by a push into the Disney Parks, with an Iron Man-themed ride planned for Hong Kong Disneyland in 2016.

Paramount, which sold its theme park chain in 2006 and hasn’t controlled a TV network since it launched UPN (United Paramount Network) back in 1995, simply doesn’t have that kind of reach to keep the franchise alive. But Disney remains intent on discovering, rescuing, and rehabilitating precious pop culture artifacts so they can be found or rediscovered by audiences around the world—a modern-day Indiana Jones, indeed.

In the first 2 decades, Walt Disney productions was a struggling cartoon studio that introduced the world to its most famous character ever, Mickey mouse.Very few believed in Disney’s vision at that time but the smashing success of cartoon with sound and the first ever full length animated film, Snow white and seven dwarfs, in 1937 led ,over the next 3 decades to other animated classics including Pinocchio, Bambi ,Cinderella, and peter pan, live action films such as Mary Poppins and the Love Bug , and television series like Davy Crockett.

When walt Disney died in 1966,he was considered best known person in the world. By then the company had expanded the Disney brand into film, television and consumer products., and the Disneyland in southern California its first theme park, where family could experience the magic of Disney in real life even giving it 4D effects which

But the company has to draw a line somewhere to enable its brand to be resonant with the newer generations to come as the entertainment industry changes fast and there is new technology almost every decade and no company can sustain too long.

The whip-wielding archeologist became the latest addition to Disney’s stable on Friday, when the company announced it had reached a marketing and distribution agreement with Paramount Pictures to acquire control of all future Indiana Jonesfilms.

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may-june 2014 divisions to become a significant franchise for the company, including millions of cd sales, video games, popular consumer products, box office movies, concerts around the world, and ongoing live performances at international Disney resorts like hong kong, india and Russia.

Suggested es are now common.

24000 acre theme park in Florida was a dream which was success.The 2 brothers had created a brand that stood for trust, fun and entertainment that resonated with children, family and adults all alike through some of the most moving and iconic characters ,stories and memories of all time.

The company stumbled after losing leadership of 2 founding brothers but by 1980’s,The Walt Disney company was back on its feet and expanded in new areas that would retain older audience as well as influence new generation.It launched Disney channel, Touchstone pictures and touchstone television.In addition it sold Disney classic films during the Disney Sunday night movie and videos at extremely cheap rates in order to reach the whole new set of children.

The brand continued to expand in 1990’s as it tapped into publishing ,international theme parks like in hong kong and paris, and theatrical productions that reached a variety of audiences around the world.

Today Disney is comprised of 5 business segments:1. The walt Disney studios which create films , recording labels and theatrical performances.

2. Parks and resorts, 3. Cruise lines and other travel related assets.

4. Disney consumer products which sells Disney branded products, 5. Media networks which include espn, abc and Disney channel; and interactive media.

Disney’s greatest challenge today is to keep its 90 year old brand relevant and current to its core audience while staying true to its heritage and core brand values.

As a brand that people seek out and trust, it opens doors to new platforms and markets, and hence to new consumers.When we deal with company that has a great legacy, we deal with decisions and conflicts that arise from the clash of heritage versus innovation versus relevance.

Internally, Disney has focuses on the “Disney difference” -a value creation dynamic based on high standards of quality and recognition that sets Disney apart from its competitors.

Disney leverages all aspects of its businesses and abilities to touch its audience in multiple ways, efficiently and economically.Disney’s Hannah Montana provides an excellent example of how the company took a tween-targeted television show and moved it across its various creative

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Strategy

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Disney’s

business-

Business restructuring along with changing policies and processes are required to remain dominant in the market for next 50 years.The external environment is very volatile with banks making loss and if the business strategy is not improved,many companies including Disney may face tough times.

Disney uses emerging and new technologies to maintain a strong foothold and connect with its customers in innovative ways.It was one of the first company to begin regular podcasts of its television shows as well as release ongoing news about its products and interviews with Disney’s employees, staff and park officials.

Disney’s website provides insight into movie trailers ,television clips, broadway shows, virtual theme park experiences, and much more.

The company should continue to explore ways to make mickey mouse and his peers more text friendly and virtually exciting.

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Consumer spends 13 billion hours immerses in Disney brand each year.Disney is 63th largest company in the world with revenues nearly 42 billion dollars and 1,66,000 employees.

One business that Disney should invest is the edutainment sector as already it is in entertainment for kids,it can leverage this strength to provide education through entertainment.

All types of social differences would also be removed by providing education to every child in the world.Their intellectual resources could be developed and potential for competing and succeeding in school would be greatly improved.Employing the TV commercial format in education would involve using short repetitious video segments.

There will be 2 markets for such programs :-parents who have to approve it and even be entertained by the shows and second :the young children would have to be capti vated by it.

The format can be 1 hour show with 20 individual segments, each with specific learning objective.The lessons should be communicated using proven television techniques including animation, music and live action film in a neighborhood setting.A sample of children who regularly watch the show should be analyzed before launching the show worldwide and to a large audience.

Todays shows should teach basic reading skills and number counting from 1 to 50 and topics like adoption, live, birth, death and rebirth should be dealt with great clarity and caution as it can lead to negative TRP and scrapping of the episode at a later stage.

The need for education and entertainment simultaneously is definitely present and this needs to be explored to a greater level.There is intense competition in childrens programming.Its primary target should be young but experienced television consumers with short attention spans.

It can use television production, publishing, licensing the name and characters for use on clothing and children’s or consumers products.

The Disney App

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The value of trust and brand image would remain intact as there cannot be any deviation from the entertainment industry and television channels.It cannot venture into altogether different business like real estate or retail 3 years down the line.

The consumers are very well perceiving the value of this old company and this should remain everytime in the hearts and minds of the consumers so that they can connect both rationally , emotionally and spiritually.

The brand of Disney is in the minds of consumers already and the focus should be on attracting new customers through its various business segments.

It should tieup with an NGO who caters to children and their education.It can gain maximum out of commencing socially responsible culture within the company as well as with all stakeholders.It can contribute to the society which can reap benefits and rewards to itself few years down the line.

and no parent was to take any chances here,so adequate research through primary, secondary, deduction and observation should be done in order to be the market leader in this space.Also, informal research can be done once the product is finalized and ready for launch.

The children’s television arena is headed for a new change both in domestic as well as overseas market. Success in other countries like India, Pakisan, Spain, Germany,etc. depends on the appropriate education level of the show ,the presentation style best suited to the culture and the topics that will capture the interest of the parents and children.India will require shows with Indian flavour and context appropriate for all types of children here .

Children tend to spend more time with babysitters and day care operators so a method should be developed in order to train these people in how to use the educational tool.A mystery show can also be developed after adequate research and once the television cartoon shows along with education element goes hit in the market, other shows can be developed accordingly.

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Cover Story Retargeting:

Enhancing effective engagement with the customers

By Priyam FMS Delhi

of the conversions.1 The regular online banner ads are able to garner a click through rate (CTR) of a meagre 0.1% which means that the ad gets one click out of every thousand times the ad is shown.2 The retargeting campaigns make it possible that the ads get clicked 200-400% times more often. A powerful and well-designed retargeting campaign can do wonders for a business by dramatically boosting conversion ratio and hence, sales. It lures back the customers who were indecisive before by making them come across tailor-made ads. It is easy to do so as the customer being re-targeted has already demonstrated interest and invested some time into looking for similar products or services on the internet but have not converted their interest into a purchase. Retargeting makes it 70% likely that such a person will become a customer.3 Retargeting not only brings back those On a daily basis, millions of consumers visit online who intended to make a purchase but also makes the sites for shopping; some of them end up buying, brand a top-of-mind recall for the window-shoppers some don’t. It is an organization’s obligation to re- so that when they actually intend to buy, the site is tain its customers but is it wise for the firm to give one of the first they look for. It saves a lot of time, up on those who aren’t its customers yet? Absolutely money and effort and amplifies return on investment and undoubtedly ‘NO’. So, the inevitable question is (ROI) for a firm. how to convert those visitors of the sites into paying customers. The answer lies in a simple but smart How to retarget: concept; Retargeting, a yet another chance for a firm to engage with its target audience in real time. The 1.Keeping track of visitors and identifying precisely idea of retargeting is increasingly becoming popular who are the retarget audience: Retargeting is most among today’s marketers and it further underscores effective if a company segments its visitors (e.g. and underlines the prowess of repeated & recurring people who looked at watches vs bags) and tailors the retargeting ads shown to each group, or not reexposures of a brand. target them all together. Granularity and relevance of ads go hand in hand in the context of retargeting.

Why retargeting?

It’s estimated that first visits only result in 2 percent Besides, it is imperative for a firm to prioritize its seg-

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ments according to the nature of different segments and the firm’s own strategy. For example, those in the segment ‘travel’ need to be retargeted as quickly as possible as compared to those in the ‘jewellery’ segment.

insights that should be quickly incorporated in the campaign e.g. expanding reach with addition keywords, or maybe limiting to the sites that perform best or opt dynamic remarketing etc.

Ways of effective retargeting: 1.Search Retargeting: Here, a firm segments its target audience on the basis of what they searched recently on major search engines. It pinpoints those who typed in and searched keywords pertinent to a firm’s business. For example, an online retailer which is determined to promote its footwear sales can target those who have googled Nike or Adidas shoes.

2.Displaying customized and creative ads: Attractive and beautiful ads featuring previously visited, recommended or other relevant products while highlighting any existing offers on the same, does nothing but serve as a constant reminder to enhance recognition and hence, recollection of a brand. Offering innovative discounts on the products recently visited will add icing to the cake.

2.Site Retargeting: Site-based retargeting enables a firm to display its ads to its previous Website visitors as they browse through other content on the web.

This results in intelligent segmentation of its audience as they are the ones who have already considered the brand and its products.

3.Monitoring conversions and spotting which sites deliver the best results: A meticulous scrutiny of clicks, returns and conversions will ascertain who are most valuable customers and which site are most surfed by them. With visibility into which sites the brand’s ads are being served, bids can be raised or lowered based on site performance.

3.Email Retargeting: Email retargeting focuses on the actions someone takes when receiving an email from a firm. Different actions need to be taken based on whether someone actually opens the email, doesn’t even open it, or clicks on a link and forwards it to

4.Tweaking and tailoring the retargeting program according to the observations: Continuous supervision of the retargeting campaign will bring forth valuable

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Where to look if an organization wants to retarget?

Google and Facebook, the most frequently visited online giants offer excellent platforms to retarget and remarket. Remarketing is the term coined by none 4.Behavioural Retargeting: Behavioural targeting is other than the ubiquitous Google for its version with based on the browsing behaviour of a potential cus- the Adverts. Apart from these two giants, many retomer. targeting platforms offer the twin solutions of creating brand awareness and conversion optimization 5.Engagement Retargeting: In this type of retarget- like AdRoll, Google Remarketing, Bizo (for businessing, a firm targets those who have demonstrated in- to-business re-targeting), and Retargeter etc. A vaterest while browsing a bog or site of the firm. For riety of features are provided by these retargeting example, those who have already spent some time vendors that enable them to customize and modify watching videos related to a brand might be the right their retargeting campaigns. The traditional first step in the process of retargeting is creating a pool of tarones to go after on media platforms like YouTube. get audience and further classifying them under dif6.Remarketing for mobile apps: This entails reaching ferent product categories and priorities etc. customers who have previously visited specific sec- An unseen snippet of code in JavaScript popularly tions of a brand’s mobile app, and display tailored & termed as cookie or pixel is added to web pages of the firm that wishes to retarget. The persons browstargeted ads to them when they use other apps. ing through the site get tagged and included the re7.Social Retargeting: It leverages the penetration marketing list of the firm and an anonymous and unand power of the most prevalent social media sites. obtrusive cookie is added to their browsers. With the It uses purely interest-based data points from con- cookie attached to their browsers now, various retarsumers to identify and create audience groups. Un- geting platforms search for them in their network to til recently, Facebook was a prime example of social serve them the ads. These platforms do this by forgretargeting but today, Facebook has expanded its ing a strong partnership with ad network giants like targeting capabilities to include search- and site-level Google, Facebook etc. This is an effective way to segdata. ment those who have visited the sites, opened a relevant email newsletter or gone through any related friends. Those who don’t open are probably not interested, those who click a link or forward it, are the ones who are the prospective shoppers.

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app. The cookie lasts for a duration of 540 days which is adequate time to bring back a potential customer.

Use of dynamic remarketing where adverts are automatically generated based on the products customers view in an e-commerce store is another crucial tool in the toolbox of retargeting which helps a firm to gain substantial competitive advantage.

With the plethora of gains from retargeting, there are some crucial aspects that should always be kept in mind: •Retargeting delivers exceptional outcomes when it is accompanied by some or the other measures for demand generation. The inbound and outbound marketing techniques take care of driving traffic to the website and retargeting facilitates the process by conversion optimization.

•Retargeting campaigns should ensure that campaign is transparent, data is not shared with third party and viewers always have the option to opt out of viewing their ads.

amount of time. Smart but subtle approach is the key in retargeting.

In a nutshell, retargeting means showing the right customers the right ads, at right time, at right place and right number of times. It not only reinforces the brands but also enhances and encourages the brand visibility, reach and awareness and hence, promotes the prospects of customers returning to the website.

Retargeting has probably provided a potential proof that maybe the so-called ‘lost opportunities’ are not really lost if one knows how to retrieve them, especially in the world of marketing, if not anywhere else.

The below-mentioned quote aptly signifies that the lost conversions in the first time are probably not a loss at all.

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.--Henry Ford

•Over-inundating the target audience with ads, messages and emails can only harm the brand. The visitors should be followed only for an acceptable

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VARTALAAP An Interview with Mr. Krishnan Chatterjee After completing his MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and being with ITC Limited for 9 years, Mr. Krishnan Chatterjee joined HCL Technologies in December 2004. Currently Mr. Krishnan is the Senior Vice President and Head, Strategic Marketing at HCL Technologies. He is responsible for business strategy, brand marketing, PR, channel management, sales excellence and digital/community development at HCL. He is a Multi-disciplinary strategic marketer with experience straddling consumer goods (B2C) and technology (B2B) industries in domestic (India) and global markets. “There are four boxes that make a brand, one below the other. The topmost box is Identity. Next box is Positioning, that is, how the business is uniquely different. Then, the next box is Proposition. The bottommost box is Campaign.

It is the tip of the iceberg. “

HCL Technologies

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vartalaap

may-june 2014 Markathon: Keeping the marketing machine of HCL constantly humming, how challenging do you find getting noticed in front of global competitors?

Markathon: What hurdles or challenges did you face during your academic/career transition from an economics graduate, to working in ITC, an FMCG leader after post-graduation, & finally transforming marketing at HCL in IT sector?

It is getting less and less challenging as time passes, because there is a huge impact of digital media now.

As long as only traditional media was involved, companies like us could not spend much globally. And most of these global competitors stand since many decades with strong traditional media backing which The biggest requirement for a marketing professional poses a challenge. The major advantage that digiis to be able to continue doing what he does and to tal media has brought in is a change in advertising be able to create frameworks and structures because paradigm, whereas in traditional media your job as marketing ultimately is an art of connecting uncon- a marketer was to create advertisements and show nected dots and creating ideas out of them. In or- it to customers through various channels with an der to be a good marketer you have to play in many aim to reach 70% of customers at least three times. dimensions, the wider the range of experience you This is not possible with digital media. Now, we have have, the better. So, the challenge is to continuously to craft a story, gift it to the customer and the story think and innovate. On the contrary, if you are not dy- has to be so compelling that customer talks about namic enough it would be difficult to pursue a career it to ten more people. Given that our organization’s in marketing. For me, it was always important to get entire business is based on a management model out of my comfort zone, so that I can continuously called “employees first, customers second�, our folearn new things and always keep myself grounded. cus is always on creating uniqueness. There is a film

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on Youtube titled “Employees fIrst effect”, with largest views that an IT film has got. So, like this, you must have compelling content that people might like to share. In addition to marketing, my team is also responsible for the company’s strategy. We are also crafting what the business is doing on its own, ALT ASN is the theory based on this change. Our task is to create content for different market segments and that gives us a very big edge over most of our global competitors.

ed Airlines where saving $1200 cost over 10,00,000 negative views on Youtube under title “United breaks Guitar”. This stands as a testimony to the fact that customers are capable of toppling a brand’s reputation if it does not live up to its promise. As I said, in HCL’s case, the advantage that we have is, given that we start from employees first, everything goes first internally.

For example, we have recently launched our new positioning campaign, called “relationship beyond the contract”. For framing the same, first two months, Markathon: Now as we see that digital media has we did a survey of 3000 HCL employees who are ina large say and can even topple the success of a volved between sales and delivery under 166 probrand and at the same time customers are taking cesses that touch them in the company and we asked informed purchase decisions, how is HCL keeping them to choose the processes that are broken. These pace with this changing environment? people have guided us to 6 processes that are problematic. Now, we have dedicated task forces who are I am not worried about the pace of change in this en- working very hard to solve these issues. Therefore, vironment. For me, the biggest change that digital is before we took the campaign outside, we first enbringing about is that now brand is equal to business sured that our business model could live up to the model. This means your brand cannot continue mak- promises . We tracked every of ours customer facing ing promises that are not being delivered by your employee in the world. And for them, we are running businesses. Traditionally the business model was a a certification problem that these employees are cablack box, but when customers discovered the busi- pable of delivering this message. After doing all this, ness models of certain companies, say in case of Unit- we launched the campaign. Before launching our

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vartalaap

may-june 2014

“employees first” campaign, we practiced it inside the company for 6 years. This way nothing goes out of HCL which is not strongly built over its business model already. Following all this, we are keeping HCL in pace with the evolving digital media.

in my house with different colors. This way he has made a proposition for me and I know how he is relevant to me. The bottommost box is Campaign. It is the tip of the iceberg. Our ‘Employees first policy’ stands as a management model the company follows . This identity of ours has now become ideapreneurMarkathon: In IT sector, when customer service is ship, with which we have become world’s largest what decides success of a brand, how has the strat- employee driven Innovation Company. We have a egy of keeping Employees first and Customers sec- number of tools and processes used by employees to ond helped HCL to evolve? ideate every day, on behalf of customers. With this, we are creating billion dollars’ worth of value outside There are four boxes that make a brand, one below the contract. Also as in the campaign I mentioned, the other. The topmost box is Identity. If I walk into we made sure that each and every employee is able a party, somebody says I am from GE, my head will to speak the language and deliver on this front. This quickly think about quality and six sigma, though I also helps because in service business, your employdo not know this person comes from which of 100 ee is your brand. different businesses. Next box is Positioning, that is, how the business is uniquely different. Next if a per- Markathon: You also take time from your busy son tells me I am in GE Lighting, we can quickly con- schedule and pursue being a vocalist and guitarnect with sustainable lighting. Then, the next box is ist for HCL’s band ‘Contraband’, to what extent do Proposition. Now the person offers to light up walls you think pursuing a hobby or passion can impact a marketer’s ideas or his job performance?

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vartalaap

may-june 2014

I have learnt a lot of professional lessons from the band. First, you learn a lot about leadership at such a place. Unlike an organization where you have hierarchy, someone is the boss, somebody reports to somebody, but here we have intense collaboration and team work. And when you bring these learnings back into work, you are able to get a lot more from the team. Second, as marketing is a very creative profession and people who therefore keep in touch with creativity, are able to bring in lot more value and new ideas. One of the biggest problems in marketing these days is the traditional agency kind of setup due to which many marketers have lost the ability to think and outsource everything to the advertising agencies. Thus, as a marketer, it is very crucial to stay in touch with a creative line, where you constantly create yourself. Third, philosophy of the band also helps a lot, it helps us to stay happy in a white collar job. It focuses on creating rather than consuming. A lot of unhappiness comes in work life if you have a consumption mentality. If you believe your source of identity is the thing which you create and not which you consume, you’ll attain a mental balance.

Markathon: In the fast moving and evolving technology market, what are the challenges that marketers face in deciding an ideal medium of communication and perfect combination of channels?

You have to first understand the context of market place that you are targeting. Initially the focus of IT

s i t i , r e t e As a mark o t l a i c u r c very e t a e r c y l t constan ! ! f l e s r u o y MARKATHON

companies was 70% on running the business and 30% on changing the business. Today this sharing is shifting to 50-50%. Bringing this 70% down to 50% is what I call unlocking capital, so that this capital can be reused to bring 30% up to 50%. Now, the market place for HCL is the rebuilt market where contracts are coming up for renewal . Now again the customer would expect a change in the way the service is being delivered to him. The channels to this market are different from general advertisements. The biggest channel impacting this market is Advisory channel, which has people to advice clients on which vendors to pick, how to run the process and so on. Then one invests heavily in acquiring that channel. This way a perfect mix of channels is to come from good understanding of the market and buying behavior there, and based on it you craft your channels. This is the last layer called campaign in the business model.

Markathon: What will be your advice to Markathon readers who aspire to start up their career as managers in IT domain?

People who are looking at becoming a marketer in IT domain. IT domain gives you a very strong sense of purpose which enables you to perform better, because it directly or indirectly employees over 15 Million people in India today and it has grown from a nowhere in 2000 to one of the largest contributing sectors to the country’s GDP. India is now seen as a technology power house. It is not an easy industry and may be challenging on your lifestyle. One cannot take tasks in this domain as just a job as it goes beyond the responsibilities in a 9-5 job. If you take a step with this perspective, you can do very well in this industry. It is different from sectors like FMCG where they initially force you to work, here you have to force yourself

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eye2eye

december may-june 2014 2013

Experiential Marketing - Worth its Cost? debapi golder iim shillong Besides the need to catch more eyeballs, one of the other reasons why companies had been drastically increasing their advertising expenses, is because of the fact that advertising has become so common, that people are increasingly switching themselves off from them. Thus billboards on the roads generate only a cursory glance, we swap TV channels as soon as the current one starts advertising and we have taught ourselves not to get diverted to and thus mostly ignore the advertising popups or banners in webpages. Handling samples and promotional vouchers to just get the brand out in the market or bombarding us with advertisements or making stunts to get the people talking about the brand is fast losing its “wow factor”. In such a scenario, marketers came up with strategies to not only attain our glances but also retain our attention and a possible conversion to a loyal consumer. So now it’s about getting the consumers interact with a brand and giving them a memorable experience. Experiential marketing is thus one of the newer marketing trends and it is here to stay for the following reasons:-•Chance for Big-data used by the companies to be replaced by real data: more the interaction with consumers, the more relevant on-the-field data collected •Generation Y consumers constitute a big chunk of the overall market and they rely lesser on impulse (as compared to other age groups) and more on product experience for a purchase •Possibility of measuring the market receptiveness and feedback of the brand in a live atmosphere (where the consumers directly interact with the brand ambassadors) Experiential marketing integrates emotions with the general consumer’s thought process of using logic and rationality and that is where it scores above other marketing methods and gives brands a potential beyond comprehension, where costs are immaterial.

saket hawelia iim shillong They say “it pays to undertake marketing”… what is ignored is that it costs too! Experiential marketing seems to be the new mantra with the organisations trying to provide the consumers an emotional connect with the product. However, the fact is that all the organisations are trying to provide that same “experience”, leaving little scope for the customers to differentiate across brands.

Experiential marketing backed by emotions may make the consumers purchase a product once; businesses obviously cannot sustain for long on the basis of single purchases by individual consumers. Brand patronage comes from continuously exceeding the customer expectations in terms of product quality. Today, the customers want the brands to talk less and do more. Repeat purchase comes only from product performance.

Experiential marketing comes with a caveat; the marketers have no control over the experience which the consumers may actually derive from the campaign. Determination of positive/negative experiences is subjective, depending on consumer psychology; for many customers experiential marketing may just be a waste of time. A company may also have to incur unnecessary costs towards those uninterested customers who enjoy the pre-purchase experience without having the intention or capacity to actually purchase the product.

A constraint on the number of people that can be reached via experiential marketing means that the cost per customer would be exorbitantly high. Moreover, it has been seen in the past that experiential marketing has run companies to huge losses. The 2007 Cartoon Network fiasco is testimony to the same where a failed experiential marketing campaign led to the termination of its top boss.

Just because in experiential marketing, the customer is “tricked” into trying the product before making the purchase decision, it does not mean that experiential marketing will necessarily benefit in the long run. Hence, focus should be on continuously improvement of product performance rather than incurring millions to provide “that experience”!

Topic for the next issue: “Flipkart’s move into fashion is a faux pas. Agree or disagree? ” Your opinion (view/ counterview) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is 1st July, 2014. Include your picture (JPEG format) with the entry. Winners will receive a prize money of Rs. 500 each!

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silent voice

december may-june 2014 2013

Last month’s results WINNER Team Starlit | FORE School Of Management

honorary mention Neha Ladha | IIM Shillong

Theme: Kings XI Punjab

Congratulations!!! Vivek receives a cash prize of Rs 1000!

THEME FOR NEXT SILENT VOICE: Game of Thrones LAST DATE OF SENDING THE PRINT AD: 1st July, 2014 EMAIL ID: markathon.iims@gmail.com Send your entry in JPEG format named as SilentVoice_<Your Name>_<Institute>only.

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AD-dicted AD-dicted

december may-june 2013 2014 By swati pamnani IIM Shillong

PRODUCT: Fevicol

PRODUCT: Slice Swayamvar

BY yash bhambhwani IIM Shillong

POSITIONING: High quality adhesive

POSITIONING: Slice swayamvar mein kaun banega sabse khas

CREATIVE AGENCY: Ogilvy & Mather

CREATIVE AGENCY: JWT Delhi

CATCH

R

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=6hQn2eb1Ies CONCEPT:

Fevicol India has come up with a non-preachy and witty commercial this election season, following its strategy of communication based on situations. TVC sets its plot in a wooden furniture store, with a dialogue between a carpenter and a tea vendor. On question raised by confused tea vendor seeing bizarre chairs, owner answers pointing to a lotus-shaped chair, “This flower one is for Narendra Bhai’s party!” He points on to another handshaped chair, “I don’t know who is going to sit on this one, so I’ve made it little adjustable!” and shows it to be adjusting up and down. Owner further describes to a row of chairs joint together as, “This one is for the third party; there are so many of them. So, I have made it by joining a number of chairs, now it can seat many.” TVC moves with tea vendor suggesting to make all chairs with Fevicol so that they can last long. He further adds to sell it at thrice the cost of chair, because only one will get sold, and the rest two will be left here. The film concludes with owner suggesting tea vendor to quit his job and become a special advisor to the Election Commission.

VERDICT: Catch With a wonderfully conceptualized commercial and tongue-in-cheek references, Fevicol takes us away from usual vote appeal election advertisements. It has yet again explored the situation in a memorable and humorous manner, giving away a message of forming a stable and strong government.

MARKATHON

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBsF-SCwZuc

MISS

CONCEPT:

With the Indian entertainment industry raising levels of obscenity in movies, somehow it has started influencing other areas as well. One of the many children of this industry is advertising and the influence of which can be seen in this ad. The ad shows slice in three new variants the Dussheri, Banganapali and Kesar. Earlier it was aamsutra and now its swayaamvar. The use of visuals such as the drop of slice on her lips passes without understanding to the viewer and leaves him confused whether the product from the brand is Slice or Katrina herself. It appears to be that content marketing no longer holds meaning to companies whereas the consumer is looking for true content.

VERDICT: Miss The mismatch between the consumer and the brand can prove to be a fatal mistake and might even cause loss of market share in the mango fruit drink segment. An advertisement should focus on the need of the customer, the feasibility of purchasing the product and the benefit one gains out of it. Slice has forgotten all this and has gone ahead with the current fad of using sensuality to sell almost anything. According to Markathon the advertisement is a miss and has no potential to recapture its lost market share.

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brand story

may-june 2014

Brand Story

Nishant Prakash | IIM Shillong he latest trends suggest that the World’s largest re- too much on its low-cost image. Walmart still struggles to tailer would stay away from the lucrative Indian Retail shrug-off this perceived image and loses out on a trendier market and instead, concentrate on the cash-and-carry and well-to-do consumer base; but given Walmart stores’ wholesale segment. But what if we told you that Walmart huge footfalls, there is little motivation to change. Big Bahad already made its way into the Indian Retail Industry zaar on the other hand, had to cope up with the changand has been in existence for nearly 13 years now? Albeit ing Indian consumer. With the disposable income of its this Indian Walmart is not owned by Sam Walton and nei- consumer base on a rise, the brand quickly changed its ther does it have a $476 Bn revenue base; instead, the In- tagline to ‘Naye India Ka Bazaar’ focusing on consumer dian Walmart was founded by a certain Mr. Kishore Biyani lifestyles and age for segmenting its consumers rather and rakes in a substantial $1.8 Bn in revenues in the yet-to- than their implied Income. The product lines, especially in fully-mature Indian Retail industry. We are ofcourse talk- the apparel section, became trendier.

The brand recently launched its biggest marketing ing about ‘Big Bazaar’, India’s largest hypermarket chain.

Perhaps the biggest similarity one can think of is campaign since inception. The whopping Rs. 100 Crore that both Walmart and Big Bazaar are known for being campaign would focus on a new tagline ‘Making India Low-price retailers. While Walmart promised its custom- Beautiful’ with a new ad film to be launched each week. ers ‘Every Day Lowest Prices’ (EDLP), Big Bazaar was there Some might see this as a cautionary-yet-aggressive approach to the recently changed FDI policies; to the others, to remind them – ‘Isse Sasta Aur Achcha Kahin Nahin’.

Sam Walton had a vision: to make everyday items this is yet another shining star in the brand’s long list of available to consumers at the cheapest price possible. marketing endeavors over the years – a list that includes Given the fact that the consumer goods do not carry an the brand’s new logo that was launched to commemorate MRP in the US, the retailers’ job became a bit easier. 10 years of its operations (2011) and the subsequent agWalmart’s strategy was primarily focused on intense Ven- gressive marketing campaign developed by Mudra Comdor negotiations to get the best deals out of them. Big Ba- munication. What’s more is that the brand is on the verge zaar, on the other hand, had to tread a bit more carefully. of a major shift in its operational activities with the launch Product prices in India were fixed by the manufacturers at of Big Bazaar Direct, wherein franchisee owners would be an MRP and thinking of differential pricing across retailers able to sell Big Bazaar products using tablets and kiosks in in such an atmosphere was not that easy. However, like areas which do not have brick-and-mortar outlets – how its US counterpart, Big Bazaar started a system of pricing much of a push this will give to the revenue figures is yet which offered the manufacturers higher volume of sales to be seen but one concern that we have is how customin return for a smaller margin on their products. This led ers would react to such a format, especially when FMCG to the realization of further similarities between the two products are received days after placing an ordering.

Aided by the Government’s xenophobic attitude – like Walmart, Big Bazaar too started to focus on larger towards FDI in Retail, Big Bazaar has already established pack sizes as well as product bundling.

The similarities do not stop there. Be it its image a presence across the country which would be hard to as a one-stop solution for all your needs (integration of emulate even for the likes of Walmart. However, one area Food Bazaar et al), innovative initiations (pilots on RFID where we’d like to see the brand put more efforts in is a technology), a focused online presence (with futureba- loyalty program. A good loyalty program, coupled with fozaar.com) or a ‘Black Friday’-esque ‘Maha Bachat’ day cused targeting efforts can go a long way in gaining further (which was later extended to a biannual 6-day event) you market share – take Kroger’s example in the US where the can draw innumerable parallels between the two. To the retailer has eaten into Walmart’s market share by means new age consumers, this might seem as a luxury she en- of innovative loyalty initiatives like Individualized pricjoys across all retailers, but one must not forget that Big ing etc. Given the scale of its operations and the nascent stage of the organized Bazaar was the one to retail segment in India, launch most of these we would love to see for the first time in Big Bazaar take the first India on such a large mover’s advantage in scale. these relatively newer

One thing techniques that the Indian retailer was quick to learn was that it cannot stress

T

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fun corner

may-june 2014

Fun Corner

Malini Aishwarya Batchu IIM Shillong

Check out if you can identify this marketing terminology!!

P _ _ _ _ _ g _ _ ph _ _ s

Analysis of consumer lifestyles to create a detailed customer profile.

Goods that the customer purchases frequently, immediately, and with minimum effort.

C _ n _ _ _ ie _ _ e G _ O _s A short-sighted and inward looking approach to marketing that focuses on the needs of the company instead of defining the company and its products in terms of the customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; needs and wants.

_ar_ _ _ _ ng M_o__a

A vendor who rents space in a retail store or supermarket to display and sell products.

R _ c _ J _ _b _ r

P _ _ k-us _ _ P _ _ i _ g

A form of pricing where customers pay an additional fee during periods of high demand.

Discouraging the demand coming from certain customer classes.

S _ _e _ _ive D _M _ _ ke _ _ NG

Sc _ _ _bl _ d M _ _ chan _ _ _ ing

A situation that occurs when a retail business offers a mix of unrelated products that do not reflect the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s original focus.

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radical thoughts

may-june 2014

Radical Thoughts

glamorous tools of consumer industries. Instead, it carries under its arms weapons such as brochures, thought leadership papers carried out in collaboraThe mean business of business-to-business marketing tion with the Nielsens, Gartners and McKinseys of the world, webinars, and the quintessential confer Almost always, without exception, the term ences to engage with customers. marketing is used to refer to a business to consum- Keen B2B marketers try to maintain consiser scenario. It conjures up images of glitzy ad cam- tency in the communications sent out by their brand, paigns, harrowing customer surveys and innovative and this can be a daunting task given the predomisample packs and freebies. However, there’s the nance of long sales cycles and the presence of rather other, forgotten-about, limp arm of marketing that conditioned sales personnel who have learnt to trust hangs neglected. B2B marketing or business to busi- their instincts more than anything else during their ness marketing is this hand that an aspiring marketer long stints as sales personnel. Not to mention a tarmay come to hold unsuspectingly. get group of customers composed of employees of

Marketing in B2B companies struggles to be a other organisations – their purchasing patterns often support function. It is a combination of content man- inscrutable. For often, there is no purchasing pattern agement, PR, customer data management and lots at all and very little role played by personal choice or and lots of in-house mailers which are invariably ig- whimsy. There is only so much that marketing can do. nored.

As far as marketing in B2B goes, the mantra

It is difficult to present security cameras as is, if I may borrow from the Bard, “What’s in a name? value-added watchdogs that bark when they catch That which we call a rose / By any other name would sight of something suspicious. It is difficult to sell smell as sweet.” And therefore, B2B marketing is maintenance contracts as something more than forever stalled in the product concept of marketing what they are – support at hand in case something evolution – for in this case, if your product is not a goes wrong. And this makes marketing in B2B sce- cash cow, it might as well find its way to the slaughnarios a ‘tell it as it is’ function. terhouse

Marketing in B2B is far removed from the Varsha Poddar | IIM Shillong

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updates

december may-june 2014 2013

By Amit Sonwani IIM Shillong

Brand Launch Cadbury launches 5-Star Chomp

Cadbury India, part of Mondelez International, Tuesday launched another variant of its 5Star chocolates ‘Chomp’. The new Cadbury 5Star ‘Chomp’ is priced at Rs 15 for a 30 grams bar. This launch is an important milestone in the journey of Cadbury 5Star and is expected to widen the brand’s play in the category.

Aquagaurd launches water filter for Rs. 595 Home appliances maker Eureka Forbes has launched mobile water purifier ‘Aquaguard-on-the -Go’, priced at Rs 595.Aquaguard-on-the-Go is in shape of a sipper loaded with miniaturised water purification technology and would be available across retail outlets and general stores. This product is a new addition to the low cost filter market which has players like Tata Swach.

Amazon enters into apparel segment

Brand Watch

To enhance its position in the apparel market lead by Myntra and Jabong, e-commerce major Amazon made its entry into apparels with the launch of ethnic and Indo-western wear for women on its platform. It also announced the launch of a dedicated sunglasses store with the selection of more than 2,800 styles catering to men, women and kids, across all ages, occasions and price ranges. This move is also backed by the launch of amazon TV commercials aired during the IPL matches.

Cadbuty India becomes Mondelez India Foods Ltd Cadbury India, a subsidiary of Mondelez International, has changed its name to Mondelez India Foods Limited. The change in name of Cadbury is in line with the gradual changeover of the name of all subsidiaries of Mondelez International globally. However, the change in name of the company will have no impact on the names or packaging of its products like Cadbury Dairy Milk, 5 Star, Gems, Bournville, Perk, Celebrations, Choclairs, Halls, Bournvita, Tang and Oreo, which will continue to be sold under the same brand names as before.

Media Flipkart bets big on OOH promotions Online shopping portal Flipkart has launched a campaign across different cities to promote its new helpline and the launch of its mobile app. The brief for the campaign was to create visibility across certain cities. The first campaign focuses on introducing Flipkart’s new helpline in tier-2cities like Nasik, Nagpur and Jaipur whereas another campaign targets major Indian airports in all metros.

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updates

december 2013 may-june 2014

Ogilvy to handle the Indian Super League account After getting a very good response from corporates like Aditya Birla group, Videocon and celebrities like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and John Abraham. Indian Super League is trying to leave no stone unturned ahead of its first edition to be held between September. A part of the steps taken by it, Ogilvy India will handle the creative duties. ISL is promoted by IMG Reliance and STAR India under the aegis of All India Football Federation. The idea behind the league is to promote the game of football among the Indian masses.

Ad Watch

Getting the IPL-2014 going with Promo Ad featuring Sachin After the forgettable “Dil Jumping japang” jingle ad last year, IPL has done some sort of recovery by launching an ad which people would love to watch over and over again during the breaks. The ad talks about the raising levels of competition in IPL as years pass by, ending in an emotional statement by Sachin that its hardest for him as he isn’t playing this year, a masterstroke use of the Masterblaster’s mass appeal.

Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiSbwuOBVjs Fevicol

launches

Politically

Mazboot

ad

Cashing on the election season in the country Fevicol has come up with a new advertisement describing the kissa kursi ka. The ad is a comment on the political scenario in India and the expectation of Indian masses for a stable and strong central government using the right kind of symbolism in form of the shapes of the chair.

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxQzUr-XErk

Articles are invited

“Best Article”: Aastha Pandey| IIM Rohtak She receives a cash prize of Rs.1000 & a letter of appreciation We are inviting articles from all the B-schools of India. The articles can be absolutely anything related to the world of marketing but it should be an original work that is not published elsewhere. The articles can be specific to the regular sections of Markathon which includes: •Perspective: Articles related to development of latest trends in marketing arena.

•Productolysis: Analysis of a product from the point of view of marketing.

•Strategic Analysis: A complete analysis of marketing strategy of any company or an event.

Apart from above, out of the box views related to marketing are also welcome. The best entry will receive a letter of appreciation and a cash prize of Rs 1000/-. The format of the file should be MS Word doc/docx.

The last date of receiving all entries is 1st July, 2014. Please send your entries marked as <ARTICLE NAME>_<SENDERS’ NAME(S)>_<INSTITUTE> to markathon.iims@gmail.com.

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We would love to hear from you: markathon.iims@gmail.com www.issuu.com/markathon

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Markathon, IIM Shillong