The

MARKSMAN

K J SOMAIYA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES & RESEARCH

VOL. VII| ISSUE II | JUL 16

EDITORS NOTE
Dear Readers,

It gives us great pleasure to bring to you another interesting issue of our very beloved
Marksman. We have curated for you a broad spectrum of interesting articles that
should enhance your understanding of marketing.
Our cover story for the month is all about cross cultural marketing. There are
examples of blunders as well as success stories that showcase the challenges and
lessons in marketing to a different culture market.

The special story helps you understand how to deal with not so happy customers. Our
Brand Markive explains the marketing concepts behind Patanjalis success. Another
interesting read would be the Tea-a-me intervention for Donald Trump in the hallmark
campaign.We have many other articles in our usual sections for you to read.
We would like to congratulate this months call for articles winners Nikita Pendse,
IIM Raipur and Tarun Gahlot, SBM, NMIMS Mumbai whose articles have been
featured in this issue. For the remaining entries, we would like to thank you all for your
incredible response and encourage you all to keep writing to us with the great
enthusiasm.
Enjoy Reading!
Stay connected with us on www.interfacesimsr.com/index.php/marksman
Follow our Facebook page for more updates.

JULY 2016

01

Content

02

Tweets

03

Its All About Ad-itude

05

Brand Markive

07

Cover Story: Tele Marketing

09

Special Story

13

Marketing Faux Pas

16

Hall-mark Campaign

17

Pioneer

19

Bookworm

21

Kickstart

22

Featured Article

23

Square Head

27

Buzz

28

THE MARKSMAN

TWEETS
#onlyintheapp

Taco bell has been one of the leading fast food joints for Mexican cuisine but has had a low
social media presence and very few app users. To target almost 2 million of its users, Taco
Bell came up with a new social media strategy, where they turned off all their social media
accounts which simply now read The new way to Taco Bell isnt on network, its
#OnlyInTheApp.

JULY 2016

03

TWEETS
#ThatPepsiIntern
Pepsi, a well-known brand came up with one of the most unique ideas to engage its
audience. Pepsi had roped in Ranbir Kapoor to be the face of this one-of-its-kind campaign
where they were looking for 15 interns through social media. It all began with a twitter
handle #ThatPepsiIntern and the campaign went wild like a fire to engage more than
2500000 people.

Hotstar, which is the most heard of live

streaming site, recently launched a
fantastic marketing campaign to promote
their website for the Rio Olympics and get
more viewership. This campaign features a
girl who is really confused since she wants
to watch more than one sport with
different people at the same time and is
unable to do that. Thats when Hotstar
comes
to
her
relief.
#OlympicGamesOnHotstar

04

THE MARKSMAN

ITS ALL ABOUT AD-ITUDE

Print Ad:
Agency: Hakuhodo, Jakarta, Indonesia

They say a picture says a thousand words. Similar is the case with this print ad. This print ad
is created for PT Phapros Tbk a pharmaceutical company present in Indonesia. The company
established in 1954 is the oldest Pharma company. This print ad is for all the people who are
sick of motion sickness. The company introduces an anti motion medicine named Antimo
in a very creative way. The ad shows a strong, huge, monstrous ocean with strong waves
which gets bisected with a calm center ally. Next, a cruise sails through the calm ally and
waves keep crashing by the side. You can then read the text saying no more motion sickness
indicating the effect of their medicine. Using the least amount of words, the brand just
conveyed the message it wanted to. Its a simple concept executed well sometimes all you
need for an effective print advertising campaign are visuals as strong as these.

JULY 2016

05

ITS ALL ABOUT AD-ITUDE

TELEVISION AD : NIKE Deepika Padukone

Whose name strikes your mind when we talk about the greatest sportsperson in our
country? Sachin Tendulkar? Virat Kholi? Dhoni? Vijender Singh? Sushil Kumar? Milkha Singh?
But never will the names like Sania Mirza, Saina Nehwal, Mary Kom hit your mind first. Such
is the image of women in India in sports. Since ages, sports has been thought of as an arena
where usually only men enter. Earlier, females were looked down upon who tried to enter
into any sports field. Although there has been improvement in this case but the perception
still remains Females are suited in kitchen rather than in sports. To break this very
stereotype, Nike created a very powerful ad showcasing the strength of females. Showing
how females also can be in all the streams which were supposedly only for men. It shows
how females are no more the Delicate Darlings but sheer Daredevils who can punch and
bleed and yet not stop and shy away from learning. Also, the tune Da Da Ding has a high
recall. In the entire ad Nike just tries to depict- Never Give up and Do it. Just Do It.

06

THE MARKSMAN

BRAND MARKive
PATANJALI
There has been a lot of hoo-ha over how
suddenly a small Indian brand has become a
major threat for big international brands
selling in India. So, what is it that is working
in the favour of a marketing layman, Baba
Ramdev and enabling him to make the
bigwigs sweat?
To start with, for a brand to be able to gain
consumer trust, its credibility is essential. It
is important for the consumers to believe
what is communicated and see the brand as
the expert of the offering made. To establish
faith in them, brands need to do their
research to come up with the ideal logo,
image or tag line and work to exceed
expectations. However, in the case of
Patanjali, that part was already covered.
Baba Ramdev made quite a name for
himself when he started featuring on our
television screens. People were doting over
him for making their lives better with
simple techniques of yoga. The word spread
like wildfire and he became a household
name even for those who had never
considered exercising. Brand credibility
then was a piece of cake for Patanjali.
Brand communication is also an important
factor for building good brands. Patanjali
has been doing this very well . Most of their
communication focusses on rekindling the
connection between India and Ayurveda.

JULY 2016

This works well in their favour by reminding

the consumers of their roots. Not only does
Patanjali practice content marketing brilliantly
but also builds an emotional connect with the
audience. Such communication paired with
Baba Ramdev who features in them,
furthermore increases the trust that the
consumers have in the brand. Besides, Baba
Ramdev himself is very active in publicly
sharing thoughts about many issues and has a
huge following on the social media. Now that
these building blocks were in place for them,
Patanjali had nothing other than the product
to really work on. They did that very well too.
They cover a diverse range of products in
their portfolio. Some of their products are
toothpaste, hair oil, shampoo, biscuits,
detergent soap and face wash. Not only that,
they are pretty disruptive when it comes to
their products. The perfect example to
support this are the Atta Noodles that were
introduced by Patanjali. Their timing was
impeccable too. While the consumers were
disappointed about the lead content, they
couldnt help but cry over the ban on Maggi.
That is when Patanjali Atta Noodles jumped
in to satisfy the Indian consumers.
Patanjali has not only been attentive to
consumer needs but has also ensured of
reminding the audiences of the same by
breaking advertising records. In a short
duration, Patanjali has managed to set the bar
high for MNCs. Now thats marketing!

07

BRAND MARKive

08

THE MARKSMAN

COVER STORY
Cross-cultural Marketing
When Gerber, the popular baby food brand
by Nestle first started selling their baby food
in Africa, they used the same packaging as in
the USA with the cute baby on the label.
However later they found out that in Africa
companies routinely put pictures on the label
of what is inside the package, since most
people cannot read. Similarly, Pepsi expanded
their market to China, with the slogan, "Pepsi
brings you back to life", without even realizing
that it translated to Pepsi brings your
ancestors back from the grave. Brand
blunders like this often result from lack of
research of cultural nuances of a new market.
This just points out the rationale behind
carefully
analyzing
cultural
values
underpinning a society and highlights the
importance of cross-cultural marketing..
Decoding Cross-culture Marketing
Cross-cultural marketing is the tactical
course of marketing amongst consumers
whose culture differs from that of the
marketer's own culture at least in one of the
central aspects, such as language, religion,
social customs and principles, education, and
the living style. Cross-cultural marketing
demands marketers to be conscious of and
delicate to the cultural dissimilarities; to
respect the right to culture by the consumers
in various cultures and marketplaces,
marketers should understand that they
deserved the right to their cultures. If the
marketers want to be the conquerors in
cross-cultural marketing they must create the

JULY 2016

marketing mix that meets the consumer's

values on a right to their culture. It involves
knowing that people all over the world
have different requirements. The main test
involved in the cross-cultural marketing is
HOW to do it. Businesses today are
developing stratagems to take benefit of the
incipient commercial opportunities. The
main reasons for going multinational are
increasing demand of goods and services of
one country in another country and foreign
markets becoming the best opportunity for
future growth.

When Does Culture Matter in

Marketing?
From the demographic viewpoint all
market comportments are culture-bound.
Both consumer behavior and business
practices are executed to a great degree by
the culture within which they take place.
Consequently, in order to match the
marketing mix with consumer preferences,
purchasing behavior,

09

COVER STORY

COVER STORY

and product-use patterns in a potential

market, marketers must have a thorough
understanding of the cultural environment of
that market, i.e., marketing cross-culturally.
However, this is by no means to suggest that
in the 21st century all marketers should focus
on cultural differences only to adjust
marketing programs to make them accepted
by the consumers in various markets. In
contrast, it is suggested that successful
marketers should also seek out cultural
similarities; in order to identify opportunities
to implement a modified standardized
marketing mix. To be able to skillfully
manipulate these similarities and differences
Promise, marketplaces
large promise,isisone
the of the
in the worldwide
sol of anmarketing
advertisement.

most important
strategies
for
Samuel
Johnson.
businesses in the 21stCentury.
Cultural blunders: Brands gone wrong
Coca Cola entered the China market;
naming their product something which
sounded like Coca-Cola. The only problem
was that the characters used meant, Bite the
Wax Tadpole. When they learned of their
mistake, they later changed it to a set of
characters that mean Happiness in the
mouth.
Fiat released an ad in Italy in which actor
Richard Gere drives a Lanica Delta from
Hollywood to Tibet. Gere is hated in China
for being an outspoken supporter of the
Dalai Lama there was a huge online uproar
on Chinese message boards commenting that
they would never buy a fiat car.
Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in
Mexico, its ads were supposed to have read
It wont leak in your pocket and embarrass
you. Instead, the company thought that the

10

word embarazar (to impregnate) meant

to embarrass, so the ad actually read: It
wont leak in your pocket and make you
pregnant.
Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan finger
lickin good came out as Eat your fingers
off in China. Also when launching in Hong
Kong, they used chickens raised and fed in
China. The Chinese feed their chickens fish
so the taste was nowhere near the same
as American KFC as a result the company
had to close shop.

Success Stories: Conquerors

multicultural markets

of

Coca-Colas America the Beautiful

ad campaign is an often-used example of a
successful cross-cultural campaign which
capitalizes on the diverse population of the
USA. It consists of the song being sung in
seven different languages reinforcing the
idea that Coca-Cola is for everyone.

THE MARKSMAN

COVER STORY
Kimberly-Clarkd Celebrate Family
Unity marketing program linked five of its
brands: Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kleenex, Scott and U
by Kotex. It was a platform created to inspire
and encourage families to come closer
together and give them fun ways to drive
family pride and celebrate their unity. It took
inspiration from its Hispanic consumers a
key consumer segment but was targeted at the
universal market.

languages with endorsement from notable

celebrities.
McDonalds is perhaps the longest
standing American multicultural marketer.
With product portfolio including a mix of
standard and region specific food items:
from McAloo tikki in India to Le Croque
McDo in France and strategies targeted
to market these offerings have led to the
immense success that McDonalds enjoys.
Cross-cultural checkpoints
When firms enter into a new market
having a different cultural context, the
market managers must think over the
alternative strategies, such as the global
strategy, multi-domestic strategies and so
on. From companies that have successfully
mastered the art of transcending across
cultures certain key takeaways can be
drawn. The followings can be provided as
Gillette has achieved a giant market share in recommendations to be successful in the
diverse markets through its diverse product global business;
portfolio that caters to the needs of both Understanding ones own culture:
classes and the masses; apart from most other Until the companies have a clear
companies that also have a continuous stream understanding of who they are and what
of new products is that Gillette seeks has shaped them, and what makes us, they
worldwide leadership for all its new products. are incapable of understanding them. This
The advertising concentrates on the using would ensure that every encounter with
sports
celebrities
and
models
for another market is a cross-cultural
advertisements.
experience
and
would
help
an
Pepsi is marketed in US and Europe as a side organization learn from each market not
drink to go with pizza or lunches, In East Asia just about each market.
it is associated with being fashionable and cool Knowing ones Expertise: It is
and thus there is the use of local pop and rudimentary for an company to have a
sports stars. In India Pepsi is marketed more in clear knowledge of its expertise and what
terms of being a thirst quencher and being a area it needs to work upon to be
drink that provides a lot of fizz. The advertising successful across markets and cultures.
in East Asia and India is always in the local

JULY 2016

11

COVER STORY
This also involves taking help from
marketing experts for the target countries
Content Localization
Thorough research: Researching the
culture of the target countries and the way
people
in
that
particular
culture
communicate, negotiate and work is also
crucial while making decisions related to
market strategies. Is the target market a high
context (for example South Asia) or low
context market (US)? What does a company
need
to
know
about
non-verbal
communication while trooping to another
market? It involves a detailed research aimed
at the understanding of psychological,
cultural and social characteristics of explicit
markets.
Cross-cultural workforce: Nothing could
be more beneficial to a company with
multicultural aspirations than a work force
consisting of human elements of varying
cultural backgrounds as the companies to
conquer new markets can use their
employees own vivid knowledge of culture
as a strategic tool.
Taking care of the Peripherals: Know
how of local festivals, religions and taboos,
holidays, employing professional translators,
content localization and all supplementary
considerations that work within the
periphery of investigation are also critical
whilst formulating a marketing approach.

12

As brands become global, companies might

forget the fundamental objective, which is
to know your market. Cross-cultural
marketing is simply about using common
sense and exploring how the diverse
elements of a brand are influenced by
culture and amending them to put them
across to their target audience in the best
possible sense. As already mentioned above,
many international establishments have had
difficulties with expanding their brands
worldwide because they have failed to put
in the research and effort necessary to
understand the culture. This has lead to
several failed brands, to offended
consumers, and to the loss of millions of
dollars that comes with having to start all
over again. Needless to say a deep
understanding of consumers cultural
background and then devising a strategy to
market keeping the culture in mind is
imperative for success.

THE MARKSMAN

Special Story
How to deal with unhappy clients?
In todays world every business has to deal
with difficult and unhappy customers. Dealing
with these customers poses a big challenge to
businesses across the globe today. Unlike old
times where an unsatisfied customer used to
spread the word to ten other people around
him, today an unsatisfied customer can reach
to millions of people. Organizations thus
cannot afford to let go off these customers.
These recent communication developments
make it extremely important for businesses
to deal with unsatisfied customers. This helps
to safeguard the companys reputation and if
properly explored, can become a strength of
the company in todays competitive business
environment. As satisfying everyone is not
possible, following technique comes in handy
to deal with such customers.

perspective. This helps one to give 100

percent to the problem at hand and work
towards the customer delight objective.
This is linked to the basic act of listening.
Whenever a customer raises his concern, it
is because he wants to be heard.
Remember to start a dialogue on a neutral
mode. Keeping a low tone helps in calming
down the prospect and reduces chances of
a potential heated argument. An argument
is never won by anyone. A common thing
that we do, not only in business but also in
life is that we listen so as to reply. Active
listening includes actively grasping what is
being conveyed. To send out a message that
the customer is being heard, repeat the
concerns that he has mentioned. Even if the
problem has been spotted right away, do
not interrupt and let the customer have a
say. This conveys a message to the customer
that he has been heard and understood by
the company Active listening brings the
problem to light and helps in evaluating
customer expectations.

The first and the basic thing is to adjust your

mindset. When a customer is unhappy, one
needs to shift to a customer service mindset.
Having a service mindset diverts one from a
fault finding perspective to a problem solving

JULY 2016

13

SPECIAL STORY
Putting oneself in customers shoes helps to
evaluate customer needs. It also gives an
insight into what the customer is expecting.
This helps to find a median between what
the customer needs and what the company
needs. While being a part of this situation do
not straight away disagree, instead be on the
customers side. Eg. A Sorry, this cannot be
done can be replaced by Let me see what I
can do for you in this situation. Such things
shift the supplier-customer thing to a
friendly ally point. The gist of this part is to
avoid negatives in the first place. Some
customers try to impose control and so the
balance between being courteous and
helpful without letting the customer walk
over you is a must.
Once the problem has been understood and
if the company is at fault apology can play a
key role. Most people express concerns so
that companies realize their fault.
Apologizing is what calms down people.
Acceptance of fault and an apology might
sort out things and turn complex situations
into an easy one. If its not the companys
fault then facts need to be conveyed calmly
and in a neutral manner. Standing firm on
ones ground firmly and proving it is also
required at times. Now there are two
different ways to make customers happy. If a
company knows what would make its
customer happy then tell them the way they
intend to solve this problem. If not, then
presenting a solution and interacting with
the customer/client on what they would
suggest on solving the problem can be done.
The trick lies in directing the customer
towards the organizations way of solving the
problem.

14

Let them choose your way of solving the

problem.

Care should be taken that the solution is not

too hypothetical and that the conditions can
be fulfilled. It is more like reaching a
common ground and jointly tackling the
situation. The company needs to have a set
of strategy for solving problems but the
response needs to be a personalized one.
Once a solution has been reached upon
follow up needs to be taken and the
aforesaid promises need to be fulfilled. This
needs to be dealt with seriously because not
everybody gets a second chance. Follow up
with the client is also a must. This sends a
message that the company cares about the
customer and ensures that the situation has
been successfully dealt with. Resolving
problem in such a way helps instill a positive
reputation in the minds of the customers.
Many companies have been practicing this
and have built a strong reputation.

THE MARKSMAN

SPECIAL STORY

Today many clients complain over the phone or respond via e-mails. If possible, they need to
be invited for a face to face conversation as most people do not express anger in a face to
face situation. Human contact is a very effective way to tackle issues at hand. However
modifications in the above process can be made and adjusted according to the
communication media being used.
Companies need to seize such opportunities. It has been often noticed that solving
problems often leads to loyal customer rather than a problem free service. Companies need
to see such problems as opportunities to strengthen corporate relationships. They need to
take these learnings positively and inculcate them into the system so that the same
concerns do not arise again and again. Angry customers are honest sources of reviews and
help to find the existing anomalies in businesses.

JULY 2016

15

MARKETING FAUX PAS

Airtel 4G
Airtel has been applauded for its innovative
and touching marketing campaigns in the past.
However, 2015 and the current year seem to
be the years wherein Airtel seems to have lost
its idea of creative campaigning that people
used to connect with. Airtel came up with a
series of TV ads in 2015 which annoyed almost
every viewer who saw it. Enter Airtel 4G girl!
The ubiquitous girl seems to constantly travel
to remote corners of the world and always
tries to act cool. The typical monologues used
to remind customers of Airtels presence
across the country can annoy even the calmest
of the viewers. The script of the ads lack
sensibility and only seem like a loud
bombardment of words to drill down the idea
that Airtel provides 4G connection almost
everywhere on the planet! This could have
been alright had there been only a couple of
ads to showcase the idea. But Airtel went
overboard and came up with series of ads; all
on the same idea with little thought put into
creating something unique with each ad. The ad
seems to mock people by showcasing this girl
again and again repeating the same facts about
Airtel 4G.

16

The same girl smiling and pretending to be

an Airtel know-it-all has already bored the
audience to irksome levels. On product
front, Airtel hardly seems to offer anything
attractive. Also, the false claims of Airtel
4G presence across remote corners of
the country acts as a put off. The ads are
extravagant and lack a deeper connection
with people that a good marketing
campaign usually offers. The ads are
preachy and talk down to customers. It
makes the customer feel like s/hes dumb
and needs to be told so and so about
Airtel. Therefore, at a psychological level, it
irritates the customer. The overexposure
to the ad and the typical expressions used,
has made it to qualify as a bad marketing
campaign. The stickiness of the ad is only
because of the frequency of airing it
across media channels like T.V, Youtube
and others.
Lets hope this is the last of the annoying
marketing campaigns by Airtel and it
returns to its previous innovating style of
marketing.

THE MARKSMAN

Hall-MARK CAMPAIGN
TRUMPING DONALD: A TEA-AME INTERVENTION
For your sake, for Americas sake, for the
worlds sake said the Kolkata based tea
company, TE-A-ME to Donald Trump urging
him to drink more green tea to cleanse
himself by sending him 6,000 tea bags to
purify mind in their new campaign. The
gutsy on-ground activity involving the
controversial Republican nominee and the
U.S. presidential election candidate was
later converted to a digital film.
Te-A-Me, an Indian tea company selling
flavoured tea internationally sent a special
delivery from Kolkata to Trump towers in
New York, via two sari clad women while
onlookers looked on in amusement. It even
has U.S. citizens urging Trump to go ahead
and drink the tea! Te-a-me had a simple
message for him, Mr. Trump, its never too
late to cleanse yourself. Conveying the
benefits of green tea in a humorous
approach,

JULY 2016

Te-A-Me said in its video we are sending you

lots and lots of natural green tea. It fights
against harmful free radicals. It helps purify
mind and body and regain a healthy balance. It
has also proven to make people smarter.
Please Mr Trump drink the tea.
Mr. Trump has everyone - the whole world
worried and Te-A-Me decided to send him tea
because there was a lot of negativity around
him. The digital film has been conceptualised
by Fisheye Creative Solutions, a Bengaluru
based creative agency. As a company, the only
agenda of Te-A-Me was to increase awareness
of the benefits of green tea which they were
successful in doing. With this Through the
Line marketing and conversion to a digital film
to increase its reach, the company has
garnered a lot of recognition and PR. They
have been able to create a big digital buzz. It
has been trending on social media with a
viewership of 3.2 million on Facebook and
YouTube combined, in just 4 days.

17

HALL-MARK CAMPAIGN

18

THE MARKSMAN

PIONEER
Seth Godin
Sometimes known as the ultimate
entrepreneur for the information age, Seth
Godin is an American writer, successful
entrepreneur, marketer and a public speaker.
Born in Mount Vernon, New York, Godin
graduated from Williamsville East High
School in 1978. He received degree in
computer science and philosophy from Tufts
University. Seth did his MBA degree from
Stanford Graduate School of Business and
worked as a software brand manager before
he started Yoyodyne, one of the first
Internet-based direct-marketing firms, with
revolutionary ideas on how companies
should reach their target audiences. In 1998,
he sold Yoyodyne to Yahoo! for $30
million US dollars after it became groundbreaking firm in providing marketing services
to multinational companies and himself
became Yahoo's vice president of permission
marketing.
.

JULY 2016

In March 2006, Godin launched Squidoo, a

community website that allowed users,
called "lens masters, to create pages (called
"lenses") for subjects of interest. The site
donated 5 percent of the profits to charity,
and 50 percent to the lens masters. He is the
author of 18 books that have been
bestsellers around the world ranging from
topics of post-industrial revolution, the way
ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership
and most of all, changing everything. His
books have been translated into more than
35 languages; with Linchpin, The Dip, Tribes
and the Purple Cow being the most popular
and successful ones. In April of 2016, Godin's
book, All Marketers Are Liars, was selected
by Carine Alexis at Forbes as one of six
essential books every marketer should have
on their shelf.

19

PIONEER

Keeping up with his upbeat innovative ideas to encourage people in the field of marketing,
Godin announced in a blog post that he would offer a six-month alternative MBA program
at his office in New York in 2008. . He professes the idea of making information available for
everyone in the world and starting a global conversation on business and marketing in which
everyone from everywhere can take an active part.
In 2013, Seth was inducted into the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame, he being one of three
chosen for this honor. Recently, Godin once again set the book publishing industry on its ear
by launching a series of four books via Kickstarter. The campaign reached its goal after three
hours and ended up becoming the most successful book project ever done this way.

20

THE MARKSMAN

Bookworm
Meaningful: The Story of Ideas that Fly
- Bernadette Jiwa
Marketing is the art of telling a story
that moves people to act
Bernadette Jiwa, in her book Meaningful:
The Story of Ideas that Fly talks about
how important it is for businesses to offer
products that matter to people. She insists
that marketing starts with the customers
story, and the job of the marketers is to
compete for meaning. Meaningful aims to
establish that without meaning or a motive,
products
and
services
are
mere
commodities and customers will never feel
connected to them.
Great businesses are founded on the
truth that marketing is the art of telling
a story that moves people to act, and
not merely a tactic to sell stuff. Its
about finding ways to create meaning
and making people feel something,
rather than making them do what you
want them to do in the short term.
When the marketers are moving towards
data analytics to assess the trends,
Bernadette points that numbers often fail
to measure what matters most. The book
beautifully reminds us that one important
difference between a good idea and a
commercial idea is the context or meaning
it holds for people. The understanding
about who the product or service is for
and what do they need goes a long way in
determining whether the product will be
accepted by the customers.

JULY 2016

An example discussed in the book is of Nike

FLYEASE a shoe made especially on the
request of a boy suffering from Cerebral
Palsy. It talks about how Nike made
something that was needed by people and
how easy was it to market the product.
We spend most of our time trying to
make people love things, when we
should be simply making things people
love, she says.
Apart from her fresh and emotional appeal
towards marketing, the book also features a
new take in writing. She uses lines such as
What does she want to do, but cant? What
can you do to help her? when talking about
the customers. This makes it a new approach
in the conventional marketing where the
customer has always been a he.
In all, it is a great book talking about how
important a good product is for marketing.
Definitely a must read for marketing
enthusiasts!

21

KickStart
StayUncle
Gone are the days of sneaking around and
being embarrassed to get a room!
A nation like ours which loves to go into a
frenzy over every Tom, Dick and Harrys
opinion and lets the moral police often run
amok, has found itself a debate for the ages!

The unique service offered by this start-up is

that privacy starved couples can book rooms
as per their requirements, say for 8-12 hours
and pay for only those many hours instead of
paying for the entire 24 hours. They
currently have 12 hour booking slots but are
planning to shorten the hours for making it
With this hot new start-up in the market, truly an hourly booking venture. Rates are
couples can finally be themselves and book a reasonable and cost between Rs. 1400 and
room without judgement or fear of safety. Rs. 5000 only.
Unmarried couples have had to bear the Interestingly, the story of how StayUncle
burden of moral shaming and social stigma secured their first round of investment is
since time immemorial.
unique and involves chasing prospective
customers rather than investors. Luckily for
StayUncle which is based in Gurgaon is the the co-founders, they pitched to early
brainchild of CEO & Co-founder Sanchit adopters
using
nothing
but
great
Sethi; who is a Mechanical Engineer from personalized content and emails, which
BITS Pilani. It is the latest buzz in town and turned the tables in their favour as that got
an absolute hit among the cupid-struck them a lot of WoM in the market and soon
lovers.
investors seeked them out.
Sanchit sharing his views on his hotel, had
said, There is no law in India that prohibits
unmarried couples from renting a room. As
long as they have a government ID card, a
room can be given to them. We dont live in
the 1950s anymore. What we are trying to
do is change the mind-set of hoteliers. The
thought of being modern is harmless and in
the betterment of society.
The StayUncle has a unique caption saying
Couples need a room, not a judgement
and has tie ups with 34 hotels in Delhi, 10
hotels in Mumbai and plans to spread across
the whole country to help couples book
rooms without any inconvenience.

22

THE MARKSMAN

FEATURED ARTICLE
Raymond: Celebrating single Moms on Father's Day
- Nikita Pendse, IIM Raipur
A father is the provider and mother is the
nurturer-these roles have been assigned to
each of the parents since time immemorial.
Out of the two parents, fathers are responsible
for materialistic as well as emotional wellbeing
of each of the family members. From pre
historic times the man in the house had the
duty to go out hunting for food for the whole
family. With changing times this duty evolved as
earning money. Also, they are capable
caretakers and disciplinarians. A good father is
the first man to love the daughters and for
sons he is the idol.
Fathers Day is the day which honors this
important person in everyones life. It
celebrates the contributions fathers and
fatherly figures make to our life. We express
our love and respect for them by giving them
gifts and cards.
But in recent times the social demographics
are changing. The number of single mothers is
on rise. These mothers raise their children
single-handedly. They essay the roles of both
the parents with finesse. On one hand they go
out and earn for the family and essay the role
of fatherly figure and on the other hand
provide the warmth and care of a mother.
But their hard work and extra efforts go
unsung and unnoticed. Even their children
dont know whom to celebrate on Fathers
Day. This Fathers Day, Raymond did something
different and path breaking. They dedicated an
advertisement saluting the single mothers.

JULY 2016

The Raymond ad film opens with a

mother and son sharing a leisurely
moment in their living room. The
protagonist is reading a newspaper while
her son is carefully trying to distract her
and places his present hidden behind a
cushion next to her. She unwraps the gift
and there lies a mug that readsWorlds
best dad.

Raymonds suiting is a premium Indian

fabric and fashion retailer. It is today one
of the largest players in fabrics, designer
wear, denim, cosmetics & toiletries. The
products are largely aimed at the male
consumers.
The marketing strategy of Raymonds was
different since its inception. It created
'The Complete Man', a metrosexual,
caring, family man who was very different
from the way men were portrayed in the
70s and 80s. That was the angry young
man era. But the Raymond man was softer,
and every communication created showed
the changes happening around the Alpha

23

FEATURED ARTICLE
male.
The protagonist of Raymond was born
sometimes a caring father, at other times a
doting husband or a sincere friend and
always looking dapper in a crisply ironed
Raymond suit. Some of the advertisements
just concentrated on the man and his
qualities. The fundamental idea was
anchored in a basic human truth that a
man values his family. Today, two decades
later 'The Complete Man' lives on.

The success of the ad campaign can be

attributed to the fact that it changes the
setting of the ad film in relevance to the
contemporary society. And this years
fathers day ad campaign by Raymond was in
sync with this spirit.
The new Raymond film depicts the beautiful
mother-son relationship, through the
beautiful narrative described above.
Raymond breaks away from the clich and
salutes Single Mothers on the occasion of
Fathers Day. It was a piece of
communication that wonderfully decodes
the brands philosophy The Complete
Man, a soul we celebrate. Through this film,
Raymond has brought in a twist to portray
some of lifes real circumstances, in this
case a salute to single mothers.

24

The Complete Man is not just the perfect

man, but more like an ideal or value. Using
this yardstick they have been exploring
different roles, forms and expressions that
the Complete Man can own. Single mom is
one such expression.
The film captures the honest emotion and
understanding of our world through the lens
of a little boy. An embodiment of love, the
boy realizes his mothers contribution in
shaping his life and playing the role of both
his parents. And he makes sure he
communicates his love to his mom in his
own little way.
Explaining the relevance of the tagline
Complete Man with the concept of the ad
film, the filmmakers said, Complete Man is
just an idea and it is not necessary that it has
to be a man. Rather, a Complete Man could
be any individual.
This is a scenario of today and only a brand
like Raymond can be true to bringing this
alive in a contextual and progressive manner
to the audience, recognizing the rejoicing
role of a single mother. The Raymonds Team
created something that evokes the right
emotions and touches the human angle.
The Raymond ad is trending on social media
and has been getting a positive response on
all platforms. The people are appreciating the
ad film to bring into light such a known yet
not discussed topic in light in such a
beautiful way.

THE MARKSMAN

FEATURED ARTICLE

Content Marketing: A secret weapon for outsmarting

competition
- Tarun Gahlot, SBM, NMIMS Mumbai
Businesses crumble and perish at the same
pace with which they are launched. Even if they
are among the lucky ones that thrive, there is
still no guarantee for the bright future.
Therefore, everybody wants an edge. And hey,
every business needs one.

The best strategy to edge past the competition

hasnt changed since business started :
a) Create a killer product or service
b) Delight your customers with it, and
c) Do it all profitably.
However, you have to know what your
competition is doing else you would be too
nave to think that simply being good is enough
to walk away with a win. You dont agree with
it? Just ask Ned Stark from Game of Thrones.
It is too easy to get blindsided. Ideally, the
businesses needs to beat the competition at
their own game. And in my opinion, content
marketing is particularly well suited for this. It
is relatively easy to take acue of your
competitors success and foundering and
leverage them for yourself.

JULY 2016

Content marketing, as a strategic

marketing approach, focuses on creating
and distributing relevant, consistent and
valuable content to attract and retain the
customers and ultimately drive profitable
action through them.
Basically, it is the art of communicating
your message with your customers and
prospects without direct selling. As a noninterruption marketing technique, content
marketing pitches your products and
services to the buyer along with the
plethora of information - making your
buyer more intelligent and smarter. The
basic essence of this content strategy is
the belief that if the businesses deliver a
valuable and consistent information to
buyers, they will ultimately reward them
with their share of wallet and loyalty.
A lot can be learnt about another
companys content marketing program:
What content they are publishing on
their weblogs and other websites :The
businesses can sign up for the
competitions newsletter or subscribe to
their weblogs RRS feed. A folder could be
created in the inbox for each and every
competitor. Alternatively, Google Alerts
can be created for the companys name
and products.
How, when and what they publish on
social media platform and whether the
social media following is shrinking or
growing level of engagement of
customers:

25

FEATURED ARTICLE
By employing content search tools and
searching by your competitors website URL
the business will be able to get a list of top
content published by your competitors on
the social media platforms - articles, videos
and infographics as well as the social shares
for each piece of the content. Tools like
Follower Wonk, Twitter Audit and Fanpage
Karma can be used to see how well their
social media is performing and how engaged
their audience is.
Best of all things, youll be able to see who
shared your content. These sharers are
probably acting as the influencers for you.
Since, you have an understanding of what all
content the influencers are interested in
you
can
then
follow
them
on
Twitter/Facebook for a while and post on
social media to let them know that you have
published something they might like. How
well their pay-per-click advertising working
i.e. which terms and keywords they are
bidding on, how much they are paying for it
and the ad copy: In an era of digital
disruption, website speed & mobile
optimization can give you an edge in search
engine rankings.

26

Tools like Googles PageSpeed Insights and

Mobile-Friendly Tests could be used to find
out how your site is performing vis--vis
your competitors.
To find out what the customers are saying
about you and your business: Irrespective of
the fact that your business is localized or
not, if you are able to get traffic from the
review sites like Google and Yelp to your
website/stores, you will want to know how
your competitors are doing on those
websites in your analysis as well. Look for
trends in both positive and negative ratings
to see whether there is something your
competition is not delivering - on which you
can beat them? Check out their reviews and
what all ratings they have. And find out if
there are any unmet demands that that can
be leveraged upon to grow your business.
There is more to its advantage, but that will
be probably enough to pique your interest
on it. The underlined point here is that you
can get a complete a content marketing
diagnostic on yourself &any competitor of
your choice and then use that information to
avoid the mistakes committed by them.
Consequently, apply your time and resources
to do more of what has worked for them. If
it is observed that they are dominating one
topic or niche then learn how to side-step
their strengths and avoid a competition with
them head on. Therefore, content marketing
is being employed by some of the greatest
marketing organizations in the world like
HUL, P&G, Microsoft, Harley Davidson and
John Deere. It is also being developed and
executed by small and medium enterprises
around the globe.

THE MARKSMAN

SquareHead

JULY 2016

27

BUZZ
PUZZLE

ACROSS
5. ______ launches 'Bees Ka TV'
campaign to raise awareness about the
affordable platform that makes TV
accessible to anyone with a phone
6.
Verizon
Communications
Inc.
announced plans to buy core assets of
this internet content provider
7. ____, in its recently-launched ad film
'Da Da Ding', features women athletes
aimed to inspire young women to take
up sports
DOWN

CLUES

1. Flipkart recently announced the

acquisition of this fashion and lifestyle ecommerce platform from the Global
Fashion Group
2. HT Media has launched its second
radio station, Radio _____ 107.2 FM, in
Delhi. It will be a retro station which will
only play old Bollywood music
3. ________, owned by Tata Chemicals
cheers Indian athletes heading to Rio
Olympics with 'Namak ke Waastey'
campaign
4. ShopClues launched this seller-bidding
platform which is a self-service solution
to help merchants promote their
products
Answers:
Down: 1.Jabong 2. Nasha 3. TataSalt 4. AdZone
Across:
5. DittoTV 6. Yahoo 7. Nike

28

THE MARKSMAN

Call for ARTICLES

CALL FOR ARTICLES AUGUST 2016
Articles can be sent on any one of the following topics*:

1. Are Loyalty programs a thing of past?

2. Measuring return on Digital Investment
3. How brands create a signature brand story
*Please ensure that there is no plagiarism and all references are
clearly mentioned.
1. One article can have only one author.
2. Your article should be approximately 800-850 words
and MUST be replete with relevant pictures that can
be used to enhance the article.
3. Font Type: Gill Sans MT
4. Font Size: 14.
5. Send your article in .doc/.docx format to
marksman.simsr@somaiya.edu
6. Subtitle line:Your name_Institute Name_Course Year
7. Kindly name your file as : Your name_Topic
The best adjudged article will be given a Winners Certificate.
Deadline for the submission of article : 20th August, 2016

JULY 2016

29

The TEAM

THE TEAM
TWEETS by Vivek Gariba
Its all about AD-itude by Ishita Shah
Brand MARKive by Mansi Mahajani
COVER STORY by Shikhar Dubey
SPECIAL STORY by Priyank Wani
FAUX PAS by Janhavi Kothari

HALLMARK CAMPAIGN by Ashka Mevawala

PIONEER by Dipika Soneja
BOOKWORM by Samarth Amarnani
SquAreheaD by Ishita Shah
BUZZ by Kashyap Salvi

KickStart by Shruti Mohapatra

PROOF READ by
Dipika Soneja
Kunal Sanghrajka
DESIGNING by
Ishita Shah
Kashyap Salvi
PROMOTIONS by
Dipika Soneja
Shruti Mohapatra

30

To subscribe to "The Marksman",

Follow the link:http://interfacesimsr.com/index.p
hp/marksman

OR drop in a mail/contact us at :
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The
MARKSMAN
is
the
newsletter of INTERFACE, the
Marketing Club at K.J. Somaiya
Institute of Management Studies
and
Research,
Mumbai.
Images
used
in
THE
MARKSMAN are subject to
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does not take any responsibility
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of other colleges.

THE MARKSMAN