THIS ISSUE

CULTURE AND RECRUITMENT: AN EXTRACT FROM

SERVICE-ABILITY: CREATE A CUSTOMER CENTRIC CULTURE... P2

Q&A
AFTER-SALES IS A
SURE-SHOT WAY TO ENGAGE
WITH THE CUSTOMER

> MONDAY 25 AUGUST 2014

www.business-standard.com

RETHINKING
Instead of thinking in silos, marketers should
try to create immersive storyscapes
has become a snacks box for viewers.
Dwell time is as low as 30 minutes per
day or even lower.
Not everyone approves of the trend.
Jayant Singh, executive vice-president at
GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSKCH), says, The life cycle of a TV
campaign is shortening. Multiple creatives wont do much to build a brand.
Since its launch in 2011, GSKCHs oralcare brand Sensodyne has stuck to showcasing testimonials from dentists. As part
of its research, the company saw that the
awareness level regarding teeth sensitivity in India was low at 17 per cent.
Instead of relying only on television, the
company decided to focus on below-theline initiatives to build awareness about
dental problems.

Integrated approach
ILLUSTRATION: AJAY MOHANTY

Sangeeta Sharma, manager, marketing

and communications, Lufthansa, When
lines between ATL and BTL blur, the conn another era, every marketer worth
cept of 360 degree falls flat. So today our
his salt would work relentlessly to
agency partner does not make a presencrack that great creative insight that
tation saying that we will start a camcould then be amplified across media
paign with television. She adds that the
starting with a burst on television. Then
timing was perfect for Lufthansas first
he would drive his agency to integrate
major TV campaign launched recently,
the creative thought across above-theMore Indian than You Think. While marline and below-the-line media in a forceket research pointed out that the German
ful way. That was more or less the stanairline is already known among the fredard approach to media planning half a
quent flyers for its punctuality and
decade ago, before the grand arrival of
straightforwardness, it failed to portray
digital and social media into the mainits emotional side. By addressing this in
stream. Post the Lehman collapse, as the
the latest campaign, the brand has been
world began to turn upside down and
able to reach the flyer-population joining
advertising dollars became hard to come
the ranks from tier-II cities.
by, corporations and their agencies
Televisions dominance in an average
began looking at the digital media in
media plan is undisputed in this country.
right earnest.
Consider e-commerce companies as
In the following years, almost every
examples. When they started appearing
major event in the media and advertising
on media channels like television and
world had at least one panel discussion on
print, many eyebrows were
digital media. As a result, the sigraised. Why advertise on a pasnificance of digital went up seversive medium? Arent they
al notches in the media plans of
mass and therefore impersondifferent product and service catal, the anti-thesis of the interegories. Despite the interest, this
net as a medium? Yet, after the
area remains troubled as a large
success of Flipkarts adult-like
majority of marketers in the counchildren campaign in 2011,
try are still hesitant in allocating
almost every e-commerce
sizeable portion of their media
company with a sizeable
budgets to digital. One reason why
media budget has hitched its
digital advertising is still at 10 per
fortune to television.
cent of the overall ad pie in the
In todays media
The life cycle of a TV
Says Raghu Bhat, cocountry, which stands at ~31,877
landscape, the
campaign is
founder
of
Scarecrow
crore (according to the Pitch
Communications, which
Madison Media Advertising
lines between ATL
shortening. Multiple
handles creative duties for
Outlook 2014, which expects the
and BTL have
creatives wont do
online classifieds company
market to grow strongly at 16.8 per
blurred
much to build a brand
Quikr, If one players TV comcent in 2014 to reach ~37,000
mercial hits the bulls eye, othcrore). By the end of this year,
SANGEETA SHARMA
JAYANT SINGH
er players in the category jump
companies would have spent
MANAGER, MARKETING &
EXECUTIVE VICE-PRESIDENT,
at the first opportunity of
around ~14,300 crore in buying
COMMUNICATION,
GLAXOSMITHKLINE
achieving something similar.
airtime on television, and ~15,405
LUFTHANSA
CONSUMER HEALTHCARE
Bhat has a point, especially
crore in print. Radio will see
in the context of e-commerce
spends in the region of ~1,097
companies. Instead of focusing on profcrore by some estimates.
Beyond ATL and BTL
itability, which is still a couple of years
This is in sharp contrast to what is
A lot has changed in the last 10 years
away for these companies, owners of
happening globally. In 2013, for the first
though. Earlier, as part of a pan-India plan,
these businesses are keen on driving
time ever, interactive advertising reva media planner would cover 20-30 marmaximum user traffic.
enues in the US touched $42.8 billion,
kets in a year. Usually television was the
Since internet penetration is still low
exceeding broadcast television advertislead medium and print followed with long
in India, the challenge for shopping poring revenues of $40.1 billion (according to
copy ads; radio and outdoor were slapped
tals is to be the first destination for somethe IAB Internet Advertising Revenue
with similar creatives without much innoone who has never shopped online. That
Report, prepared by PwC US).
vation. Today, plans are more fluid and
explains why this online battle is being
Despite all the talk, the digital or
may change several times in a given year
fought on television, and to some extent
interactive medium remains thorand are designed according to the profile
print. The likes of Flipkart, Snapdeal and
oughly under-utilised. Barring few truly
of the consumer targeted.
Jabong are learning fast by observing
remarkable digital spots, as an advertisTake Germany-based Lufthansa,
leading players in FMCG, retail and teleing medium, the internet and the mobile
which has been running operations in
com. They are launching quick followhave been in some sort of a time warp,
India for 55 years now. It is an example of
ups and myriad edits of a campaign in
with television and print taking precea brand which has relied on short-durathe same year.
dence, both at the agency and the
tion media plans to deliver results. Over
Short-term sales pressure is visible in
clients end. Much of the time, digital
the years, the brand has learnt a key lesa lot of these commercials that harp on
has simply been used as a reminder
son in media planning: a solid media plan
limited-period sales and deep discounts.
medium a fate FM radio was relegatvaries from one set of its target group to
This also marks a major shift in TV advered to in its early days.
the other. For instance, a first class custising as players from across categories
Anshuman Singh, head, digital busitomer can be targeted more effectively
are moving from brand building on TV to
ness & consulting group, Mindtree
with direct mailers and below-the-line
more tactical pieces of communication.
Europe, says the problem is that digital is
initiatives. In fact, the engagement level
Says Amit Tiwari, director & country
often mixed up with below-the-line comof its direct mailers is 28 per cent. Says
head, media, Philips India, Television
munication. He says, It is like mixing

the means with the end. The question to

ask is if the media used is targeted or not.
A lot of digital media is still treated like
above-the-line. For example, just because
I am visiting Business-standard.com
from the UK, doesnt mean that I am
interested in enrolling for Barnet College
(Barnet and Southgate College is a further education college in North London).
This ad is no different from what might
appear in the education section of your
newspaper. That is because the space
is bought in bulk. Even today, most social
media campaigns rely on extrapolation
of reach. You can leverage custom
URLs in TV and print campaigns to calculate the same.
To an extent the problem with digital
is not just about focus; it is also a factor of
reach. Of the total population of 1.27 billion in India, only 243 million people are
internet users. (Source: Internet and
Mobile Association of India)

Digital and radio are similar, especially

in terms of their consumption patterns.
Both the mediums can be consumed onthe-go, their appeal is personal and the
content can be localised to a large extent.
That is exactly what Hindustan Unilever
(HUL) achieved with its Kan Khajura
Tesan (KKT) campaign. KKT or The

Earworm Channel is HULs very own

structured, branded media channel on
the mobile platform that offers jokes,
music and Bollywood content. This content is interspersed with advertisements
for HULs mass consumer brands. This
was done through a missed call campaign.
Now look at what Philips did recently
during Jamai Shashti, a festival celebrated in West Bengal and dedicated to sonsin-law. Philips decided to push the shavers
from its personal grooming range as a
gifting option during this festival. As part
of this pilot, two local radio stations were
roped in. RJs spoke to the viewers about
the festival and recommended Philips
shavers as one of the gifting options.
Says Singh of Mindtree, I think a mix
of strategy is what works. A company may
create awareness using mass media, but
may leave a hook for targeted messaging.
Simple missed call campaigns have far
wider reach than apps or websites.
So there you have it: no point in thinking TV, print, digital. The best way to deal
with the customer who jumps in and out
of different mediums is to follow them
around like the Vodafone pug. In sum,
use all the mediums seamlessly.

Vantage
point

Relationships at
the workplace

THINKSTOCK

THE MEDIAPLAN

ROHIT NAUTIYAL

MICHAEL MAYER, DIRECTOR,

VOLKSWAGEN PASSENGER
CARS INDIA
P3

Interpersonal relationships at work

can contribute in subtle yet visible
ways to career and job success. There
is a direct correlation between
happiness, motivation and
productivity and having friends at
work, according to the LinkedIn
Relationships @ Work study. Fortysix per cent of professionals
worldwide believe that work friends
are important to their overall
happiness. In fact, 67 per cent of
millennials are likely to share
personal details including salary,
relationships and family issues with
co-workers, compared to only about
one third of baby boomers.
In India, millennials said that
friendships at workplace impact
them in a positive way, making
them feel happy (62 per cent),
motivated (56 per cent) and
productive (44 per cent) while
28 per cent in the age group of
55-65 said friendships with
colleagues have no bearing on their
work performance. Interestingly,
19 per cent of millennials in
India would sacrifice friendship
with a colleague for a promotion,
compared to 15 per cent of
baby boomers.