Makathon

Marketing Magazine of IIM Shillong

November 12

MARKATHON Volume 4 | Issue 5

Design Credits to Saiprasad Shetye

Prof. Trichy Krishnan Associate Professor and Vice-Dean, PhD & Research, National University of Singapore

FROM TEAM MARKATHON “Money doesn’t grow on trees” and who would know it better than the common Indian man! With the much debated announcement of FDI in Retail to the big opening of Starbucks in Mumbai, India is fast opening up to the International markets. How will this change the consumer buying pattern and preferences is something worth studying, especially for the marketers.

Whatever be the trend, businesses for sure are going to blossom!

Social media is another big thing which has been changing the business environment since the past few years, Facebook playing an important role in it. With Google+ coming up strongly and putting a brave fight now, it takes us to the age old debate of social media and how it is changing our lives. Our cover story for this month focusses on the journey of these two giants and how Facebook and Google+ were conceptualized from the beginning. It takes us through their respective strategies and how each has evolved accordingly. It ultimately addresses the million dollar question of who will survive the test of time and how.

The cover page and cover story for this edition has been designed by Saiprasad Shetye of PGP 12 and we would specially like to thank him for his tremendous efforts in giving life to the parties in discussion. He has rightly showcased that designing is more than just a play of colours and pictures!

Our Vartalaap section for this month covers Mr. Trichy Krishnan, Associate Professor and Vice-Dean at National University of Singapore. He has done extensive research and published articles on a wide range of topics from loyalty programs to pricing strategies. Having received many awards for teaching, he shares with us insights about his research and the latest trends one should be aware of. An interesting read for all marketers and more so for those interested in research!

Last month Marketing Club organized an intra-collegiate event “War of the Brands” based on the concept of Ambush Marketing. With over 60 teams participating, it saw students coming up with exceptional advertisements on a wide range of brands and then

ambushing each other’s advertisements, which couldn’t have been more fun. It showcased the immense potential in students today. We have published the winning entry in this edition, hope you enjoy it.

With the new team joining in very soon, we would be looking forward to new sections and modifications to further improve the magazine. So if there is anything on your mind, now is the right time. Send in your feedback/suggestions to markathon.iims@gmail.com. It will go a long way in helping us create a better magazine for all of us.

So hold your breath and take a dive into the world of marketing filled with humour, innovation and dynamism.

Happy Reading!

Team Markathon

Team Markathon

THE MARKATHON TEAM Editors G S N Aditya Piyush Agarwal Mayur Jain Sowmya R Swati Nidiganti Umang Kulshrestha

Creative Designers Priya Kumari Agrawal Rushika Sabnis

markathon |november 2012

CONTENTS FEATURED ARTICLES PERSPECTIVES USABILITY VS PERSUASIVENESS PRATEEK UPADHYAYA & PARUL AGARWAL, IIM KOZHIKODE JUGAAD - THE INDIAN WAY OF DOING THINGS KARAN AGRAWAL, KRITI DUA, GREAT LAKES INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT,CHENNAI

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PRODUCTOLYSIS STRATEGIC ANALYSIS, SHOPPING KA NAYA ADDRESS! - A COMPLETE ANALYSIS OF THE MARKETING STRATEGY OF FLIPKART RAM KRISHN PANDE, INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, NIRMA UNIVERSITY COVER STORY GOOGLE+: A CHALLENGER TO FACEBOOK DOMINANCE POCHINENI SHALINI | NIMESH NAIR | IIM SHILLONG VARTALAAP PROF. TRICHY KRISHNAN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AND VICE-DEAN, PHD & RESEARCH, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

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WAR ZONE EYE 2 EYE “WITH SAMSUNG AND APPLE STARTING IT AGAIN, DOES COMPARATIVE ADVERTISING HELP INCREASE BUSINESS?” PAVAN KUMAR R | BIM, TRICHY | ABHINAV BARNWAL |SPJIMR, MUMBAI SILENT VOICE MARUTI ALTO 800

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SPECIALS ADDICTED UMANG KULSHRESTHA & G S N ADITYA | IIM S RADICAL THOUGHTS PIYUSH AGARWAL| IIM SHILLONG FUN CORNER RUSHIKA SABNIS| IIM SHILLONG CAMPUS EVENT WAR OF BRANDS | MARKETING CLUB UPDATES MAYUR JAIN| IIM SHILLONG

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perspective

Usability v/s Persuasiveness

By Prateek Upadhyaya & Parul Agarwal, IIM – Kozhikode

Have you ever wondered why the “logout” button is always on the top right corner of your screen in every website that you login? Have you spared a thought as to why online ticket booking sites show sold out flights or buses? How random is the setup of a supermarket store like a Reliance Fresh or Big Bazaar? Have you ever been tempted to book your movie tickets as soon as possible because the movie theatre site shows “Hurry, few seats left”? (Come on be true to yourself!)

Let us take the help of the concepts of usability and persuasiveness to understand the above phenomena.

The holy Bible for managers, Wikipedia, defines Usability as the ease of use and learnability of a humanmade object like a software application, website, book, tool, machine, process, or anything a human interacts with. Thus it helps in answering questions like who are the users, what do they know, what can they learn, what do they want, what must be taught and what can be left to the machine? So next time when you are filling a form and see help text written below the question, that is how the form is being made more usable for you. This does not imply that marketers assume that users lack intellectual knowledge but are in fact channeling this knowledge so that the users don’t have to put in much effort.

markathon|november 2012 This makes us believe that a marketer should go with the convention as users like conventional things.

Change is something which causes a lot of discomfort to the users, isn’t it? For example, suppose I make a website which allows you to play a virtual game of cricket but you have to login to play. So you login and start hitting the cricket ball out of the park ensuring India wins this virtual world cup. After you get bored, you want to logout. What would you do? Go to the top

right corner to look for the logout button right? But being the shrewd character that I am, I put the logout button at the very bottom of the page on the left side.

So you have to put in extra effort to search for the logout button which could lead to irritation, frustration and ultimately to some dissatisfaction.

As a marketer the last thing you want to see, apart from dropping sales numbers, is an unsatisfied customer. So my boss makes me go by the book

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perspective

markathon|november 2012

and asks me to put the logout tab on top-right corner.

Next time you won’t have to put in an effort to logout.

Usability works on improving the user interaction majorly on five dimensions which can be defined by the 5 Es given below:

result is a very confused customer who doesn’t know what he wants. Thus, there arises a need for the marketer to persuade the customer into choosing the “right” option. Hence, the “Hurry only a few seats left” sign on the movie theatre while making a booking online. The customer who is confused whether he/she

Effectiveness

• Task completion by users - Whether the users are able to finish the tasks that they started

Efficiency

• Task completion in minimum time - Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?

Explanative

• How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design? When users return after a period, how easily can they re establish proficiency?

Error Handling

• How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?

Experience

• Response by user in terms of satisfaction - How pleasant is it to use the design?

Enhancing the usability on these five attributes will lead to a more usable product which will be more acceptable. Thus, a website which is unable to retain users for a long time and has a very high bounce rate should re-plan their strategy on its usability model.

wants to watch this movie or which theatre is better in the given list, suddenly sees this sign flashing on one such option, say PVR Rivoli. He/she must now be

Right after reading all that, just when you were beginning to trust the concept of usability and were on the verge of accepting “enhancing usability” as the one single mantra to all your problems, enter Persuasiveness. This concept states that, in this world of clutter when everyone is looking to find that little space in the minds of the customer and every company is trying to outdo others in every possible way, the end

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perspective thinking that since so many people have already booked the tickets, this must be a good movie and PVR Rivoli would be a good theatre to watch this movie in. Thus, the marketer has been successful in converting a confused potential customer to a not-so-confused current customer without giving him/her any offer, discount or reward. How ethical is this? Well as long as it is true, people can argue that it is only to provide complete information to the customer to allow him/her to make a more informed choice. Nothing wrong with that argument!

Let us consider a scene of the supermarket in your locality. A customer wants to buy his/her favorite cream biscuits, Choco Fills Dark Fantasy from ITC. These are premium biscuits with one of the highest per unit cost to the customer in the market. As the owner of this supermarket and as brand manager of this product from ITC, you have to take a decision of where you will place this product on a three-layered shelf? Will you keep it on the top, the bottom or the middle layer?

If you are thinking of the top layer, as it would be more visible and would lead to higher sales, then you are talking in terms of usability. You want to make the product easily visible to the customer who can easily reach it and in turn put it in his shopping basket. But what if the locality is of customers who are price conscious? This customer will look at your product and keep it back after glancing at its MRP while pretending to read the ingredients. So what would you do? You would target the customer indirectly through his/her

markathon|november 2012 kid who also likes your product. So you keep Choco fills in the bottom or middle layer. Now the kid will reach out for the pack and put it in the basket. From here there are two scenarios – Scenario 1 - The parent wouldn’t mind as the kid really wants the biscuit and for his/her happiness would end up buying the product.

Scenario 2 - The parent would keep the pack back in the shelf and scold the kid. The kid will use “Pester Power”, cry and scream to ensure his/her demands are met, and like a weak company giving into the demands of the labor union, embarrassed parent would have to give into the kid’s demands and buy the biscuits. You are, therefore, successful in making the customer buy your product.

In another example, a customer wants to book a ticket from Kozhikode to Delhi on makemytrip.com. As he clicks on the search flights option, he will be shown a number of options. As a member and supporter of the usability cult, you would never show sold out flights as the user would have no use of them. How does it matter to the user if a flight has been sold out? And your question would be answered by the “persuasive” opponent which would say that a sold out flight shows the trust customers place in those Airlines. So in the clutter of the options now available, the customer chooses another flight of the same company or would choose this one the next time he wants to book a ticket.

So the question is, would you be a Rahul Dravid and go by the book, make yourself better at every instance and expect people to praise you, or would you be a Mahendra Singh Dhoni and experiment, be creative, catch the eye of the people and command the respect that you deserve? Well, this question will haunt the marketers in the years to come where they will fight this battle of usability and persuasiveness. So just sit back and enjoy as the marketers fight for some space in your mind.

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perspective JugaaD - The Indian way of doing things

By Karan Agrawal, Kriti Dua Great Lakes institute of Management, Chennai Class of 2013 "It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required."

- Sir Winston Churchill Jugaad is slang for a Punjabi word "Jugaat" which has its root in the Sanskrit word "Yukti", implying, improvising an effective solution to a problem using limited available resources.

The phenomenon of Jugaad has effortlessly made way into our daily lives and is leaving a very strong impression on our existence. At times, it’s not the panacea that we look for, but an immediate and innovative solution that may fulfill the cause. Yes, it is this ‘Jugaad way of life’ that we all are thriving in.

‘Here a little, there a little’ has kept the ball rolling.

‘Jugaad’ in marketing ranges from fixing a spoiled brand image to enhancing the life of a product; from launching new product to establishing a strong brand position, within the scantiest of the available resources. With innovation as its backbone, this eternal phenomenon is holding its ground in the Indian market today. Formulating methods that bend rules, perplex minds, mold resources, stretch imaginations, tantalize tastes, blur thoughts, bewilder minds and yet successfully delight customers and leave a lasting impression. This phenomenon has been flourishing for decades and is now becoming an inevitable part of our system.

The Indian consumers generally appreciate the simplicity of the product, ease of use, care free handling and customizable features.

Marketers who have understood the Indian consumer mind set have delectably dwelled on this concept that is

markathon|november 2012 vividly depicted in various advertisement campaigns.

One of them that I recall is a famous ‘Fevicol’ advertisement that used to be screened a few years back; it showed a bus gliding slowly in a Rajasthani desert with people precariously perched all over it — a usual sight in rural India. The advertisement rightly captured the “jugaad” and adjusting nature of Indians: accommodating more number of people than the bus’ capacity with children, youngsters, females, elderly and even a cock – perched all over. With the driver pacing slowly, mindful of the passengers glued to the bus, they ambled through the dirt paths like a ship of the desert. It ended with a ‘Fevicol - The Ultimate Adhesive’ board at the back of the bus poignantly mocking at the idiosyncrasies of everyday life in India and depicting exceptional adhesive ability of the product.

Jugaad has also been depicted in the Film Industry. An example that pops up in my mind is the character Phunsuk Wangdu played by Amir Khan in the movie 3 Idiots. In this movie, the director Rajkumar Hirani has beautifully connected with the common Indian by portraying jugaads like using car batteries to generate power for an inverter and later using a modified vacuum cleaner as a suction pump for delivering a baby. Also in the movie we saw other jugaads like a scooter motor used as a grain - grinding machine. Such innovative ideas helped a lot to connect with the common audience.

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perspective There have been instances where companies were able to reduce their cost of producing goods significantly by employing simple techniques while their competitors squandered huge amounts. Some desi Indian Jugaads are modes of livelihood for thousands of people throughout the country.

For instance, Indians have modified an age old means of transportation- ‘The bicycle’ in so many ways that people earn their living while moving from place to place using these customized bikes. Some unique occupations include sharpening knives where a skilled person moves door to door with a grinding wheel mounted in front of his bike whose rotation is synchronized with the paddle gear. Another use of the bicycle is for the door to door sale of ice creams; delivery of posts and couriers; electricians with tool kit mounted on one side of their bicycle ; running a mobile repair shop etc. One of the most popular usages is by milkmen across the country with bikes modified in such a way that they are able to balance large cans of milk and use this modified bike to deliver milk door to door easily.

Some Jugaads have even led to new ventures that are flourishing in various parts of India. For Example, VadaPav was a jugaad as the Indian version of Burger.

This concept was used by an MBA couple Dheeraj Gupta and Reeta Gupta to start a new chain for Vada Pavs : “Jumbo King”. The cheap and hygienic Vada Pavs from jumbo king have become very popular in such a way that the company now has over 30 outlets.

This Bottom-Up Approach enabled them win Awards like ‘Innovative Franchisee model’ and ‘New Concept Franchising’ in March, 2007.

markathon|november 2012 The Hawala Market that had been legal for a long time until recent times is another great example of Jugaad.

Using this method, the poor were able to move money across different geographical locations in a faster and cheaper way than the formal banking system.

Apart from these jugaads, we Indians have also managed to apply innovative ideas to make simplify various cumbersome tasks. For example, there was a huge waiting list in a train for the Railway ticket. It seemed almost impossible to obtain a confirmed reservation for my travel. At this moment, I came across a broker who stated that he would get me a confirmed ticket if I pay him some ‘convenience allowance’, and to my surprise, on that same evening, the broker was able to provide me with a confirmed ticket. Out of curiosity, I asked him how he managed to get the ticket to which he replied that this was only because of his influence owing to contacts with the right people.

Another such incident is when I went to get my license made. The authorities said that it would take almost 20 days to get my license.

In this case also, I came across a person who was able to make my license within 2 hours. This was also due to his jugaad with the authorities at the RTO office. These kinds of jugaads, although unethical, have thrived for long in India. Such kinds of jugaads prove very helpful sometimes but might be a pain for those who do not have access to it.

This tells us of the great survival skills that we Indians have perfected over time. Jugaad is increasingly being used to achieve low cost yet largescale solutions to the unfulfilled needs of many in the country. Jugaad not only is a low-cost product, it's a mind-set of the people who come up with the new ideas and how big companies can learn and adapt from them.

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productolysis perspective

markathon|november 2012

Strategic analysis Shopping

ka

naya

address!

A complete analysis of the marketing strategy of Flipkart Ram Krishn Pande Institute University

of

Management,

NIRMA

After seeing its recent success in Indian e- commerce sector calling it as India’s Amazon is no exaggeration.

A company which is run by operating the mantra ‘Don't count your customers before they smile' is redefining the experiences and perception of Indian populace towards eretailing by providing impeccable services. Yes, I am talking about Flipkart.

The concept of e-commerce is becoming acceptable by the Indian consumer at a fairly rapid pace. With Indian internet users reaching the mark of 150 million by Dec 2012 (IMRB report), Indian e-retailers are continuously strategizing to capture the 7 billion dollar e–commerce market in India. With the slew of smart phones powering their users with internet connectivity ecommerce has brighter prospects.

Possibly founders of Flipkart, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal envisaged these future trends and thus gave form to their dream in

October 2007 with an initial investment of mere 4 lacs and turned it into an organization churning revenue of INR 500 crore by FY 2011-12 and expected to grow to 5000 crore by 2015.

As e-retailing involves delivery of services as well as product it will be significant to analyze Flipkart under the framework of 7 Ps of service marketing.

Product: In its initial two years Flipkart focused on selling only books through its online portal. Basic reasons for focusing only on books were: 1. As most of the books are not expensive, the money spent on the first transaction and get firsthand experience of services is low and within the budget of user.

2. With easy procurement it’s easy to transmit and store books.

3. Books provide healthy margin.

After two years it further expanded its gamut by successfully offering CDs & DVDs, mobile phones, consumer electronics, healthcare and beauty products and more recently Flyteits digital music library.

In its operations Flipkart focused on delivering delight to customers at any cost.

Delights are delivered by wide range of

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productolysis perspective product lines, timely delivery, easy payment options like cash on delivery/card on delivery, unquestioned return policy. These added benefits won over two million skeptical Indians.

Price: In this sector, with the presence of large number of e – retailers, pricing is a deal clincher. Thus Flipkart keeps its price at very competitive levels. Through its price optimization by implementing best supply chain mechanism and managing manpower and time spent by them in handling an order, Flipkart is able to offer competitive price with customer satisfaction. Still Flipkart believes that discounts can’t replace the customer's satisfaction of being serviced promptly and efficiently.

Promotion:

markathon|november 2012 Indian consumer who is very skeptical in paying money for something which he/she has not seen and received posed a great challenge for e-retailers to write their success stories. As Flipkart is the first mover, it needed to battle against these demons of e-commerce itself.

Flipkart which initially relied only on word of mouth publicity and social media has now gone out with a fullfledged strategy to manage this missing trust in Indian masses for e-retailers. Through its testimonial marketing campaign “Don't shop, Flipkart it!” it attempts to popularize the brand name as a verb and trying to remove misconception about e-retail from Indian users.

So far, Flipkart addressed target group that had already shopped online and was aware about its nuances.

Through the campaign 'Don't shop, Flipkart it!' and “No kidding No worries” “Shopping ka naya address” it targeted two categories of people: 1. Those who were familiar with online transactions for tickets on sites like IRCTC and travel sites, but were not shopping for physical goods.

2. People who were skeptical about transacting online.

Place: Flipkart has their delivery service across India supported by the presence of warehouses.

Recent acquisition of Letsbuy.com further strengthened its presence across India. It has less than 24 hours delivery lag in few cities.

Moreover due to tie ups with local vendors it helps them avoid octroi charges.

People: With its 4500 employees Flipkart is generating unique experiences with its consumers. By developing Flipkart logistics, it delivers through its own courier company and delivery boys.

These personnel are trained and thus while delivering, they maintain a certain level of service standards while most of the other eretailers use services of courier companies

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productolysis perspective whose serving capabilities are always questionable. As delivery boy is a touch point for recipient, Flipkart scores on this criterion.

Customer care executives are trained to take spot decisions, address customer concerns and reassure customers that Flipkart has their best interests at heart.

Process: Since its inception Flipkart paid great attention towards improving its processes. In its initial years Flipkart worked on consignment model where goods were procured from suppliers on demand, but with increase in demand and to manage various issues involved with delivery it shifted to warehouse model by forming Flipkart logistics. Warehouse model ensures efficient and quick delivery. At present around 70-80 % of total demand at Flipkart is fulfilled through its own network.

markathon|november 2012

Conclusion: Indian e-commerce market has huge potential for growth, and so is the risk of failure. E-retailers that present themselves with unique, innovative and seamless services before skeptical Indian consumers are bound to succeed but at the same time they also have to keep an eye on their bottom line. Easier said than done, it’s clearly a double edged sword. Till now Indian e-commerce leader Flipkart is sailing well, but it is yet to be seen how long it will succeed to generate delighted “Flipkarters” and enjoy brand leadership with “No kidding and No worrying”.

Physical evidence: Flipkart tries to tangibilize its services by providing user friendly web interface which makes it convenient to use, browse through the products, add products to a cart, get product reviews and opinions, pre-order products, and make payments using different methods.

These experiences add to the customer satisfaction and thus generate loyal customers. According to Flipkart, out of total purchasers 70-80% are repeat purchasers.

Bottom line of Flipkart is still red. To ensure support and faith of its investors it needs to attain breakeven point as soon as possible.

Big challenge for Flipkart is to maintain and enhance brand value it generated in its five years of operations.

Though current spree of reforms have excluded FDI in ecommerce. But by seeing the trends, FDI in this sector seems next reform story in upcoming years. Thus Flipkart must be ready to face giants like Amazon.com.

As e-commerce sector in India is now cluttered with the presence of large number of players like yebhi.com, snapdeal.com, jungle.com, Flipkart needs to produce unique value proposition for its consumers which can differentiate it from others.

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Cover Campaigning: Marketing Perspective coverstory Story||Political Google+ : A challengerAto Facebook dominance

markathon|november 2012 markathon|september

Cover Story

Google+: A challenger to Facebook dominance

Pochineni Shalini | Nimesh Nair | IIM Shillong

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cover coverstory story||Google+ Google+: :AAChallenger challengerto tofacebook Facebookdominance dominance The world around is cluttered with news of Google+ and Facebook; questioning and analyzing which of these is going to be the future of social media. That is something we don't know about yet but here we try to critically analyze the background behind this ongoing debate.

Facebook, since its inception in 2004, has contributed a lot in making people accept the need for a networking platform. It has lately become a phenomenon and has recorded a whopping 1 billion active monthly user base

by October 2012, which is just 8 years after its inception. Numerous attempts to question its position have all gone in vain. But with the entry of Google+, the world is looking forward to what can be a landmark in the field of social media innovation. These two behemoths are working towards revolutionizing the way the world connects. But to totally appreciate what each has to offer, it is vital to understand where each stands today and how it has reached there!!

Facebook: The journey begins!

The very journey taken by Facebook shows the reasons as to why and how it survived through the testing times. which addressed the basic need of college students to connect better with their peers. Alongside is a snapshot of what “The Facebook� catered to. The platform was open only to universities and then spread to other high schools in 2005.

The result of this was something which became the cornerstone for the survival and growth of Facebook.

Targeting youth, who are the early adopters worked well for it. Concentrating on university students resulted in a healthy mix of users, in terms of gender. As the fairer gender started uploading photos and sharing other personal information, it gave enough reason for others to spend more

markathon|september markathon|november2012 2012

time on the platform. This was the basic idea behind Facebook: to increase customer engagement not through 'navigation search' but through sharing. When it became open to all users in September 2006, the initial ground work done laid a strong foundation. The next move was to focus on increasing engagement among its users which it did fabulously.

2004 - 2006 : Facebook’s First Look Engagement: Sensing that the engagement was vital for the survival of any social media site, it initiated a number of things like: It added a very innovative option to create applications in 2006. This inherently provided free promotion to the applications, which was an incentive for more developers to come on board. Once the applications increased, the time users spent on the site was also enhanced.

Personalization of accounts was introduced. A lot of new services like Newsfeed, Timeline have been introduced time and again on the platform Also, as the number of active authentic users on Facebook increased, companies started coming on board to tap their potential customers. Once the users started investing so much time on the site, companies began spending a lot of marketing budgets on the online platform.

This combined effort of companies' in enhancing engagement of customers and increased user willingness to share data resulted in a model which today is beneficial to all stakeholders and thereby complete in itself. Since the beginning, the firm has

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cover coverstory story||Google+ Google+: :AAChallenger challengerto tofacebook Facebookdominance dominance

been based around people. A snap shot of its journey tells us what has helped it build such a strong base Inspite of such a robust model, there are some points of concern for Facebook, which is why players like Google+ are being looked at:  Older people: The platform as mentioned has users with an average age of 38 years and why is that? Coz of the increasing presence of our families right from our parents to long lost uncles. This inherently makes it a place to be wary about than being “open” for many.  Opt out: Every additional service it launched was opt-out and not opt-in. This means that when a service like News feed is introduced, it is automatically activated on all user accounts. A user, if wishes to, can disable the service, i.e., opt-out.

This attracted a lot of controversies with time and the users at one point in time went on strike against Facebook regarding news feed and the issues surrounding it.  All in one: The question on one's willingness to speak/interact/share with everyone one meets, is in question. The platform is not very suitable for managing customized information share with friends and peers, which has resulted in Facebook's privacy woes

markathon|september markathon|november2012 2012

 Companies Promotion: Firms' advertisements and getting unnecessary information bothers many users. Though Facebook has tried to control the same, as ads become a strong revenue source, conflicts of interests are bound to arise.

These reasons give a clue that there can be a platform which is more user-friendly and customized to the changing needs of the customer but are we ready to let go of the humongous amount of time and effort we have invested on the site is a question we can answer only with time! But before we go on, let us see the reason why Google+ has recorded 200 million users in just one year and whether it is here to stay!

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cover coverstory story||Google+ Google+: :AAChallenger challengerto tofacebook Facebookdominance dominance

Google joins the bandwagon With the mission “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful”, Google set out in 1998 as a Knowledge Company (they still very much are, helping generations in their school projects).

Their most potent weapon “search”, has helped them become what they are today – a billion dollar company with consistent laurels by various rating agencies like being one of the top 3 visited sites of the world. It isn't a brainer to figure out “what do they gain out of providing free search to common people like you and me?” Yes, it is advertising with the UVP of better strike rate as people like us increasingly use google search and its other services and shows our preferences. So how exactly is Facebook a threat to Google and not just google plus. Google in its way realized that although “search” is an awesome space to be if you have an incredibly brilliant algorithm “PageRank” but there is one thing that can beat this algorithm, and that is “people”. Now if we see that almost the entire population on earth that has an internet connection is on Facebook, an algorithm that was once a competitive advantage can suddenly become weak. But then we all know that an equal number of people, in fact more, are already using its search services along many others.

Authentic and increasingly precise customer insights is what any web based advertising company aims for, and

markathon|september markathon|november2012 2012

Facebook tends to be in a better position because of its model.

The main advantage of Facebook is that unlike on other platforms, including Google; users give authentic information because of its inherent nature of service that focusses on “making people stay connected and share their lives with real people they know”. This along with the behavioral pattern of users on Facebook helps in better understanding of the psychographics which any company would want from an advertising platform.

This made Google realize the need of a social plugin in their already existing claim of “understanding people for marketers” to stay relevant in the increasingly connected world. This led to attempts like Buzz with little to show which was followed by Google Plus which has started to pick predominantly among netizens and has shown some promise.

As logical as any market entry strategy can be, Google launched Google Plus with features that were either not present in Facebook or in some way not addressed. Let us understand Google Plus's attempt to come up with a better solution.

What's in Store for us: The positioning of Google Plus is more of a knowledge based social platform where people interact and connect based on their passion or interests rather than simply connecting to friends of friends, proved by the fact that initial adopters are more of tech savvy netizens. This along with the fact that most of our family circles are already on facebook satisfied with their connectivity needs, the average age for personal usage groups that gets attracted remains under 30 at least for now. Circles in Google plus may not be the next “wall” but it definitely goes a long way in managing way in a much secure manner compared to what is on offer by Facebook. Especially after realizing that it is not easy to manage thousands of friends we all have made on facebook, circles from the start gives the user an opportunity to classify our friends in circles based on any criteria we choose, breaking the level of interaction in different customized levels. Circles on one hand has tried to address the privacy concerns by simplifying management of our connections, Hangouts on the other hand is a unique feature that tries to become a differentiator of sorts. It would be interesting to see how many of Skype users use this added functionality but it definitely is a plus to have a multi

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cover coverstory story||Google+ Google+: :AAChallenger challengerto tofacebook Facebookdominance dominance video chat option on the same social media platform, not to mention its interoperability among other services.

What's in store for the marketers?

Today when especially Facebook among many others is faced with a conflict of interest with its very own users in terms of pushing them with ads, Circles has shown a promise of becoming a winner. Experienced marketers know that any list into which their followers opt-in is far more valuable than any message pushed at them. This is why opt-in email lists still have the best conversion rates compared to other outreach methods. It's just that creating a real time opt-in list is easier said than done. But Google Plus with its interest based circles as its core; brands have an opportunity of classifying their followers (subscribers) based on their preferences onto lists (circles) they want to be, in a way they “optin” to be. So, the Brands have a guaranteed receptive audience for those posts, and the recipients have a better feeling toward you because they are getting what they want from you. Win Win! And as far as hangouts there have been lots of intuitive uses suggested by multiple people, one being video conferencing in offices among many others. Apart from these benefits the most important benefit brands would be to have a chance to figure in that coveted “Google's 1st search page” if it has a substantial +1s to its credit.

We wonder whether SEO firms would be given a run for their money!! Everything said and done Google Plus's journey is not going to be easy despite having clocked the fastest growth of any social media in its very first year. Increasing first time adopters and time spent on G+ will be the two key issues that it faces given that it has come up with a competitive product. And Google understands that better than anyone given it increasing focus on promotion to early adopters - the youth.

markathon|september markathon|november2012 2012

Google+: How is it making itself heard!

Not many players can be serious contenders to threaten the established place of Facebook in Social Media. But Google+ has an inherent advantage of a network integrated with the every-day life of billions of people around the world which forms the first leg of its creating awareness about its new offering. On site promotions includes various Google+ campus engagement programs being conducted across schools to increase its presence.

Are they really competitors?!

By the looks and the approach both have adopted it looks that there is a world out there where both Google+ and Facebook can coexist, for their offerings are not supplementary. Google+ has come up with hangouts, circles and much more but how many of the users would give up their heavily-invested efforts on Facebook to be a part of Google+ is always debatable.

Presented below is a gist of how the two platforms cater to different needs:  Google+ aims to enhance the user privacy by giving filtered content sharing mechanisms (In the form of circles), while Facebook's mission is to make the world more “open” and connected  Google+ believes in “navigation search” to keep users engaged, while Facebook believes in sharing among friends, family, peers, etc.  Google+ is more about gaining knowledge and pursuing interests as you have dedicated circles while Facebook is a perfect place to login in your free time and is more inclined towards entertainment All in all, these are two platforms work on very different philosophies. Each promises to keep you connected to your network but the world around you will be different with each of these platforms. A startup within 8 years from its inception has been successful in making more than 1 billion people connect and share….let us see what a behemoth like Google has in store for us!

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markathon|november 2012

An Interview with Prof. Trichy Krishnan Associate Professor and Vice-Dean, National University of Singapore

Professor Krishnan, Trichy is the Associate Professor and ViceDean at National University of Singapore. He has done extensive research and published articles on a wide range of topics from loyalty programs to pricing strategies. Having completed his B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Madras University and MA and PhD from university of Texas, he himself has received many awards for teaching.

Markathon: From Ashok Leyland to NUS, it must have been an exciting journey for you so far. Which was your most favourite part of the journey? Why? Mr. Trichy: I would say it is my PhD student life in The University of Texas at Dallas with my advisers Professors Frank M. Bass and Ram C. Rao. For one, the research angle and discipline that I got exposed to dazed me because I had by that time well settled in the role of an automobile engineer working in the field and looking at solving the day-to-day problems. I never had time or guidance to look at the marketing issues we faced in Ashok Leyland from a marketing-researcher perspective. My automobile engineer life and the PhD were poles apart, although in both I was basically

working on marketing issues. After that initial novelty effect wore off, it took some time for me to settle in the PhD setting but both my professors helped me a lot in that process after I showed some promise with my first summer paper. Looking back, I would say that I was impressed and continue to be influenced greatly by Franks’ gut feel to identify and unearth research issues and spot the solutions and Ram’s clear thinking in not just laying out the research issues in black & white but also in the process he sets about to solving them. Of course, I have to confess that when I took to researching in new product diffusion the area was no longer new. It had by that time matured and looked more like a sunset research area lacking in market appeal, but till date I have not regretted my decision,

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partly because I really love that area and partly because my works have played a significant role in reviving research in that area.

Markathon: Do you think innovative pricing strategies like decoy effect or mid level pricing actually work on the consumers?

Mr. Trichy: Of course, they do. Although sometimes consumers knowingly and perhaps willingly fall into that “trap” because these marketing tactics offer an easy way out for consumers to make a decision and help them justify the purchasing decision ex-post rather quickly. However, when the decision involves higher involvement goods, the decoy pricing will have almost no impact while the mid-level pricing will have some residual impact. Clearly, in B2B markets, they will have relatively much lower, if not zero, impact.

Markathon: There is a lot of debate on the relevance of customer loyalty programs? Is it a cost or an investment? Does it alienate great prospective customers? What is your stand on it?

Mr. Trichy: Yes, Loyalty Programs have not been unambiguously shown to be a profitable program and, in fact, we have shown through a theoretical research work that it is possible for one firm to remain more profitable by not offering loyalty program when facing a competitor offering such a program. Setting up and running a loyalty program is quite expensive. Further, because it pushes up the expectation level of those loyal-consumers companies end up spending more $$ to monitor and manage the service experience. This is because when things fail, loyal-consumers tend to make much more noise than non-loyal consumers. It is also true that when the airlines and retailers initiate loyalty programs to offer enhanced service experience or priceoff for loyal-consumers they sometimes inadvertently let the system “ignore” others which amounts to affecting negatively the experience of the non-loyal consumers. Some retail grocery stores in the US offer shelf-price reductions but say “available only to cardholders”; while these “open discrimination” may enhance the shopping experience of the card-holders, others might get offended and even might feel they are

markathon|november 2012

subsidizing the card-holders. This frustration could manifest into bigger problems if those general consumers happen to be high paying customers as well who expect high quality of service that is commensurate with the high price they pay. In the case of Hal Brierley, there is an added twist. He was not a general consumer but one who had got used to the “loyal” treatment by AA, and so his expectations were much higher than a general consumer. In fact, in case of Alliance Network in the airlines industry, it has been reported that loyal-consumers of one airlines carrier feel less served by the partner airlines. I am currently involved with a research work that shows why this is likely to happen.

Markathon: What is the significance of diffusion models in marketing? What is their relevance in today’s context?

Mr. Trichy: Diffusion had its day in the 1970s and 80s, lost its charm in the late 80s and 1990s, and has picked up some momentum back as it has become increasingly possible to analyze the adoption behavior at the individual consumer level. One reason for this trend is the emergence of new, powerful econometric methodologies that have enabled researchers to quantitatively analyze consumer behavior at micro-level (ex: scanner data analysis), garner new insights (ex: differences in consumer responses to marketing mix), and seek applications in new areas (ex: empirical IO).

These econometric methods are now currently finding their way into the diffusion research, and so we will see more interest in this diffusion area as well. Further, the recent phenomena such as growth of two-sided online platforms and viral marketing are piquing the interest of researchers, and we might see new developments soon.

Of course, as long as new product development retains its position as the main strategy of companies to grow and get more profitable, diffusion as a research area will continue to stay relevant. But, how we develop new diffusion models and how we do analysis to deliver new insights that are useful to practicing managers will be the determining factors eventually.

Markathon: Your paper on the bass diffusion modeling was selected for the 1994 John D.C. Little Best Paper

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markathon|november 2012

Award. Can you share some of the insights from the paper with our readers?

Mr. Trichy: The Bass diffusion model which was published in 1969 offered a refreshingly new method, i.e. quantitative method, to look at common marketing issues such as impact of WOM in sales growth and forecasting of new product sales. But it didn’t have any followers for the next 7 years until in 1975 two researchers from Kodak company used that model to explain how a company could use that forecasting tool to dynamically set their prices (i.e. pricing over time) to get higher profits than those achievable with the thenprevalent pricing methods such as cost plus or myopic pricing. This spurred a great amount of interest in the field and in the following 15 to 20 years, many researchers all over the world started producing modified Bass model to explain diffusion in various settings. When I started working on my first summer paper with Frank Bass, what I saw in the extant literature on diffusion shocked me because in spite of all those 20 years of development there was not a single convincing evidence to show that the marketing mix elements were also actually playing a role in the diffusion, along with the WOM. I started working in that direction but could not make much headway except for a few sparks here and there. Then we realized that the normal approach would not work. So, we turned around our query and asked ourselves the following. Previous researchers ought to have tried to solve this obvious mystery but apparently could not solve, and what could be the reason? After a few trials and tribulations, we realized that the “time” variable used in the Bass model was somehow accounting for the omitted variables such as price and advertising! Ex-post it looks easy to understand but it was a tough nut to crack that time.

Going further, we reasoned that such a correlation between time and other variables was made possible

because those variables were moving “linearly” with time. At the same time when Frank and I were working along this dimension, Dipak Jain at Kellogg (now dean at INSEAD), who is also a Frank Bass student a few years senior to me, was trying to solve that same issue using the econometrics technique he had employed earlier in FMCG context. So, we three started working together and eventually came up with the 1994 paper. What I learnt from this experience is that while sometimes a solution to a problem is sort of easy to understand expost, the process of coming up with that “easy” solution is all but easy.

Students should think deeply and read widely to understand the various linkages and networks that influence and affect new business models and practices.

Markathon: Are there any upcoming trends in marketing which students should be aware of?

Mr. Trichy: Clearly, online marketing and the influence of online channel on the marketing issues are going to become much more critical within the next few years. However these are still evolving, and what seems to be working one day is found wanting on many aspects within a few months (ex: Groupon) and so it is very important that students put their focus to identifying the few stable and underlying processes and build upon them. This is easier told than actually done. Students should think deeply and read widely to understand the various linkages and networks that influence and affect new business models and practices.

Another area is B2B, which has not got its due attention in marketing literature for lack of reliable data. A third area is to explore the differences in marketing issues in Asia, especially China and India, vis-à-vis those in the western markets and see how one can tackle them.

Note that most of the research ideas have been developed with the western consumer and markets in focus, and things might be different when Asian consumers are involved.

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war zone | eye 2 eye

markathon | june 2012 2011 markathon | november

Comparative advertising is an extension of competitive based positioning strategy that helps a company compare the benefits and value it offers to a customer compared to its rivals. Often used in politics to project wrongPavan Kumar R doings of opposition parties, this BIM,Trichy technique has spread out to the marketing arena where competition is at its peak today.

What Samsung and Apple are involved now is a similar campaign to gain individual mileage and supremacy over the smart phones and tablet computer market which they wish to control and dominate in the future.

Comparative advertising would work only if the comparisons portrayed are factual, accurate and capable of substantiation. Any incorrect representation or denigrating experience portrayed could lead to serious damage to the advertiser and back-fire the advertising brand, as clearly evident in the Reebok Pump ad case of early 1990’s. In a few countries, comparisons are still seen as inappropriate, and therefore should be avoided.

Several surveys have proven that comparative ads also work when the competitor’s name is not directly disclosed. These ads are easier for the consumers to understand and are more persuasive for viewers.

Comparative advertising could be effectively used in categories where benefits are rational and there is no direct effect on the emotional state of the consumer. As witnessed in the recent The Hindu vs Times of India case, the results of comparative advertising were positive as both The Hindu and Times of India registered impressive increase for this year in the Indian Readership Survey results released earlier this month.

Comparative advertising has evolved to stay and presents an effective option for brands such as Apple and Samsung to create a distinctive image to its consumers in today’s competitive market.

Human beings are born while crying for attention, and the same holds true for advertising. Often the cut throat competition between businesses manifests into comparative advertising. But the question is, at what cost Abhinav Barnwal SPJIMR, Mumbai are the companies indulging into it?

Comparative advertising is like walking a thin line between ethical and unethical practices. It’s easier to poke holes into competitor’s product than bringing your product up to the market expectation level. Calling names to competitor’s product might give a temporary fillip to a brand at start but it might also end up degrading the company’s goodwill and status in the market. This may lead to grave consequences for any business in terms of embarrassment and reputation loss, apart from the likely damages paid to the disgruntled competitor.

If the loyalty of rival’s consumers is questioned, comparative advertising might even bomb. Within hours of Samsung’s ad being featured, Apple fans mocked it and listed all the features that Samsung had (intentionally!) forgotten. In the Rin Vs Tide ad, the targeted brand -Tide was visible for almost 75% of the ad time. Does it make sense to expose users to your brand rivals even if has been done in an attempt to prove your products superiority? It’s not prudent to wake up a strong competitor and challenge it openly; the targeted company might get the benefit of being the poor victim of blatant advertising.

Competitive advertising might seem pragmatic, but trying desperately to shoot a competitor from a point blank range by comparing to it directly might not be a good decision for any company to increase business.

“Often the cut throat competition between businesses manifests into comparative advertising.”

“Comparative advertising has evolved to stay and presents an effective option for brands”

With Samsung and Apple starting it again, does comparative advertising help increase business?

Topic for the next issue’s Eye to Eye: “Should Tatas have used the name Tata Starbucks instead of Starbucks in order to leverage the Tata coffee brand?”

Your opinion (view/counterview) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is 18th November, 2012. Include your picture (JPEG format) with the entry.

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markathon markathon | november | april 2012 2012

war war zone zone | | silent silent voice voice

Silent Voice

LAST MONTH’S RESULTS Theme: “Maruti Alto 800”

WINNER: RAHUL JHUNJHUNWALA | XIMB Congratulations!!!Rahul receives a cash prize of Rs 500!

HONORARY MENTION

Rakesh Marar & Aditi Sharma | Prin.L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai

NEXT THEME FOR SILENT VOICE: “Launch of Starbucks in India” LAST DATE OF SENDING THE PRINT AD: 18th November, 2012 EMAIL ID: markathon.iims@gmail.com Send your entry in JPEG format named as SilentVoice_<Your Name>_<Institute>only.

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specials || ADdicted ADdicted specials

markathon | | november january 2012 2012 markathon

Ad-dicted Umang Kulshrestha | IIM S

GSN Aditya | iim s

RODUCT: Renault Scala

PRODUCT: Maggi Atta noodles

POSITIONING: Yeh Dosti hum nahi chhodenge

POSITIONING: “2-minute mein Khushiyan”

AD AGENCY: Law & Kenneth, India

CREATIVE AGENCY: Publicis Capital, India

YouTube Link

YouTube Link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BhdUk0emhY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBoroS2Ybjw

CONCEPT:

CONCEPT:

The TVC presents how a not so famous kid in school became an eye candy among his fellow mates and was taken care of, for each and everything. Right from being given a favourite dish at the canteen to inviting him over for a game of cricket in the predefined group, the boy gets it all, hoping to get a ride someday in the Renault Scala, from which they had noticed the boy stepping out.

“2 minutes” has been the core of Maggi’s value proposition since inception. Maggi has taken it one step further by launching the “Meri Maggi - 2-minute mein Khushiyan” campaign. Maggi invited entries from its consumers to describe how Maggi delivered happiness to them within 2 minutes. And voila you have the Big-B walking into one such unsuspecting household to describe how a little kid helped save the pride of the “ladki wale” (bride’s family) by serving “Maggi Atta noodles” to the baraati (bridegroom’s family)

VERDICT: Catch/Miss- Catch A very apt background score to use, with the Yeh dosti hum nahi chhodenge, the ad brings back the happy friendship line of thought, giving a good positive start to the ad and also delivering the concept very aptly. Added to it, the ad, in a musical format is very well aimed at using the emotional side of viewers with the innocence of school kids and their desire to sit in the Renault Scala which makes them friends with another person. All in all, a sweet and different perspective of marketing a car through more emphasis on emotions rather than features. It is indeed time to step up!

VERDICT: Catch/Miss- Miss Not only is the scene over the top and silly, it also looks obviously fabricated. The campaign as such has the potential to be a winning campaign if executed properly. And at a time where Nestle’s leadership position is under fire from the likes of ITC, Nestle badly needs a winning campaign. Maggi as such is known for its simplicity. The campaign should have instead focused on the simpler things in life and how Maggi makes them better.

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specials | radical thoughts

markathon markathon | november | may 2012 markathon | august 2012

Yash Chopra – Not just the king of romance Piyush agarwal | IIM S Yash Chopra took his last breath on October 21, 2012 in Mumbai’s Lilavati hospital.

The legendary director/producer's demise is being mourned by the whole country and is being considered as the end of an era for Indian cinema. He is widely regarded as the ‘King of Romance’ and known most popularly for giving us masterpieces like Kabhi Kabhie, Silsila, Chandni, Lamhe, Veer Zara in that genre, but in his long spanning career of 5 decades, the man always chose to take the road less travelled.

markathon | august 2012

markathon | august 2012 nature of the movie, it was met with a lot of protests and violence. During this period, he made a few other movies all unique in their own way. Daag dealt with issues like bigamy, Waqt was the first movie to start the multi-starrer trend and then the first movie without any songs or interval – Ittefaq. He was also one of the first directors to film his movies in foreign locations such as Switzerland and the UK.

His first directorial venture was ‘Dhool ka Phool’ way back in 1959, which tells the story of a Muslim man raising an illegitimate Hindu child. One needs a whole lot of confidence and sensitivity to address such an issue and Yash Chopra had plenty of both, which he demonstrated all through his career. The movie was a success and the man never turned back from here.

In the year 1971, he parted ways with his brother BR Chopra and created arguably the most successful production house in India – Yash Raj Films. In this era, he gave India “The Angry Young Man” through groundbreaking movies such as Deewar and Trishul. He is also the man responsible for immortalizing the heroine in Indian cinema, in movies like Chandani – Sridevi or Kabhi Kabhi – Rakhee. The man had an eye for picking out talent and in the 90s, the ‘King of romance’ introduced India to the man we popularly know today as the ‘Badshah of Bollywood’ – Shah Rukh Khan, by making the anti-hero popular in Hindi cinema through movies like Darr, and forever changing his career by giving him the lead role in what is considered as the longest-running movie in Indian Cinema – Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.

His next venture was the National award winning ‘Dharmaputra’ with dealt with issues like partition and Hindu fundamentalism. Because of the highly political

Yash Chopra was not just the ‘King of Romance’, he was a man who clearly had vision and a penchant for doing what he believed in. Sir, you will be truly missed…RIP.

Born on 27 September 1932 in Lahore in a Punjabi family, Yash Chopra was the youngest of 8 children. He was the younger brother of producer and director BR Chopra. He started off as a film journalist but his passion for filmmaking took him to the Mayanagari (Mumbai).

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specials | | Fun fun corner specials Corner

markathon|november 2012 markathon|september 2012

Fun corner Rushika Sabnis | IIM S

Across

DOWN 1. Bournvita 2. Microsoft 3. Xerox 5. Fastrack 7. HarleyDavidson ANSWERS

DOWN 1. Tan Ki Shakthi, Mann Ki Shakthi 2. Your Potential. Our Passion 3. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re moving beyond documents 5. How many you have ?

7. American by birth. Rebel by choice. ( 2 words)

1. Biocon 4. Gillette 6. Haier 8. Jaguar 9. HSBC 10. Apache 11. Kodak 12. GeneralElectric 13. IndigoAirlines 14. BusinessIndia 15. Nestle

ACROSS 1. The difference lies in our DNA 4. The best a man can get 6. Inspired Living 8. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t dream it. Drive it.

9. The World's Local Bank 10. Racing DNA Unleashed 11. Share moments, share life 12. Imagination at work (2 words) 13. On Time is a Wonderful Thing (2 words) 14. The Magazine of the Corporate World (2 words) 15. Good Food, Good Life

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specials|fun corner Name the brand/product/event with which the following mascots are associated with

markathon|november 2012 markathon|september2012 2012 6.

1.

7.

2.

8.

.

3.

9.

4.

10.

1. Michelin 2. Mr Clean 3. Sunfeast 4. 7 Up 5.ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 6. Linux 7. Lijjat papad 8. Quaker Oats 9. Asian Paints 10. Pillsbury

ANSWERS

5.

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markathon|november 2012 2012

event Intra B | school war of event the brands | War of brands

War of THE Brands

The intra collegiate event “War of the Brands” saw over 60 teams literally battling it out in the world of Ambush last month. Here is the winning entry by Anoz Sethna and Keshav of team “Brand it like Beckham”.

They win INR 4000 and certificates. Congratulations!!!

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specials | updates

BRAND LAUNCH Alto 800 launched to carry forward the legacy After the near demise of Maruti 800 and long pending makeover of Alto, Maruti Suzuki has finally launched the awaited Alto 800 to carry the crown of Alto which was the largest selling passenger vehicle in the country for eight straight years. The new Alto 800 is based on the same old platform but is offering far better interiors along with sturdy and nice exteriors. With 15% increase in the mileage at the starting price of 2.44 lakhs Alto 800 seems to offer more value for its money and is set to give tough competition to Tata Nano and Hyundai Eon.

Dabur India relaunches “Thirty Plus” brand Dabur India, which had acquired ‘Thirty Plus’ brand from Mumbai-based Ajanta Pharma last year, is launching a product in its re-energised form. As the name hints, the product is meant to target adults with age greater that thirty. The company has appointed Malaika Arora Khan as its brand ambassador.

Hero Moto Corp launches its new brand identity “Hero” in Nepal In an effort to expand its global foot prints, Hero Moto Corp has chosen Nepal as the first international market to launch its new brand identity. After the breakup of 26 years old successful venture with Honda, Hero is vigilant in its approach so that it does not lose market share to Honda which is performing much better in Indian two-wheeler segment.

New launches to boost automobile market before Diwali

markathon | november markathon | march 2012

Two important launches in the utility vehicle segment came this month with the introduction of Tata Safari Storm and the much awaited Mahindra SsangYong Rexton. The two cars are aggressively priced at around 10 lakhs and 18 lakhs respectively. Apart from this, enthusiasm is shown by many other brands with the launch of Figo facelift by Ford, Brio automatic by Honda and Manza club class by Tata Motors.

BRAND WATCH “Khushiyon ki home delivery” to “Yeh hai Rishto ka time” Domino’s has evolved a lot in its positioning since its inception in 1996 in India. With “happiness” becoming too generic, as around 30 companies use happiness in their positioning like Coke Happiness campaign, Nano’s “Khushiyon ki Chaabi”etc., Domino’s is targeting another best alternative “Relations” to target its potential consumers.

Starbucks opens its first store in India With the collaboration of Tata Global Beverages with Starbucks, Starbucks has successfully entered India and has opened its first store in Mumbai. The locations for the stores are strategically chosen keeping in mind the target customers, however Starbucks is offering lowest price in India compared to its Global price offering to tackle the price sensitivity of Indian consumers at least in its initial stage.

Interbrand to enter India early next year The world’s largest brand consulting firm, Interbrand is planning to set up its Indian operation in January 2013. The brand strategy and design consultancy arm of Mudra group, “Water” will be turned in to Interbrand India. The company

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markathon | november markathon | march 2012

specials | updates

considers understanding of Indian culture as its biggest challenge to its local operations.

P&G to target women through its branded content website

CCI serves notices to 17 car companies in India

The leading FMCG major, Proctor & Gamble has collaborated with Yahoo and Mediacom to launch an entertainment and custom branded website, “Style factor” to target tech savvy women across three countries including India, Indonesia and Philippines. The website is expected to showcase entertainment, fashion, lifestyle news and information across various areas such as fashion, skincare, hair care etc.

The anti-trust regulator, Competition Commission of India charged 17 car companies for abuse of their dominant position. The companies are charged for anti-competitive and anti-consumer welfare practices. According to CCI, companies are rendering consumers with limited choices by allowing exclusive market availability for auto parts and tools, that too, at very exorbitant prices.

MEDIA Tanishq’s ‘Mia on Wheels’ creates buzz in Bangalore Tanishq recently revealed its second collection of Mia, the jewellery line designed for professional women. To create a buzz around its product, they have introduced a unique experiential marketing campaign named “Mia on wheels”. Special designer buses are arranged for two weeks to drive working women to their place of work from selected locations. Inside the bus these women are offered services like massage, food and a chance to try out new collection of the jewellery during their travel.

Volkswagen, Eurobest’s best advertiser of the Year The brand which has won maximum number of awards for its innovative branding exercises from time to time has again won the best advertiser of the year 2012 in Europe. Volkswagen, which has earned this award, is Europe’s top and one of the leading car makers in the world with many product brands such as Beetle, Passat and Golf in its portfolio.

AD Watch Advertisement council of India moves online Advertising council of India which was formed to serve the interest of the Indian Advertising Industry which includes Advertisers, Agencies, Media and other related bodies in an integrated manner, has come over to online platform through its own website, www.adcouncilofindia.org. At present the website contains general information about the council and links to various related websites.

Cadbury’s new commercial to target consumers during the festive season Cadbury’s famous ‘celebrations’ product line which has set an example in the industry by increasing the occasions for chocolate consumption with its famous “Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye” has again come back in full swing to make use of Diwali season. The recently launched TV commercial is focusing on ‘making someone happy’ through its new rich dry fruit collection.

Click here to watch

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 launched Whenever asked, whether the Samsung Galaxy Note is a phone or a tablet, the answer which Samsung gives is

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markathon | november markathon | march2012 2012

specials specials||updates updates

‘it is best of two’. The TV commercial which is launched along with the product seems to do a nice job of highlighting the product features focusing mostly on its multi-tasking abilities.

Click here to watch

Piyush Pandey Creative Scholarship by Berlin School

The Berlin School of Creative Leadership has instituted a scholarship in the name of Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and creative director South Asia, Oglivy and Mather. The scholarship will provide tuition fees support for top executives from India to participate in Berlin school’s part time global EMBA program.

Leadership

Articles are invited “Best Article”: Prateek Upadhyaya & Parul Agarwal, IIM Kozhikode He/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 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 the 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.

We’re inviting photographs of interesting promotional events/advertisements/hoardings/banners etc. you might have come across in your daily life for our new section “The 4th P”.

Send your self-clicked photographs in JPEG format only.

The last date of receiving all entries is 18th November 2012. Please send your entries marked as <ARTICLE NAME>_<SENDERS’ NAMES>_<INSTITUTE> to markathon.iims@gmail.com.

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Please send in your comments/feedback to: markathon.iims@gmail.com Visit: www.iims-markathon.in

Š Team Markathon, IIM Shillong