Marketers in india are resorting to tighter ad budgets and far more stingy negotiations with advertising agencies. however, compromising on advertising effectiveness is myopic, more so during a difficult period
 
Call it the effect of a macroeconomic slowdown, a visibly negative consumer sentiment or apprehensions of a poor return on investments, growing advertising spends in the current scenario does appear daunting to businesses in general, especially the smaller ones with relatively shallow pockets.

The advertising industry is, therefore, seeing an impact in even the BRIC economies where long term domestic market potential remains robust. In a recently conducted interview with DJ FX Trader and The Wall Street Journal, Sir Martin Sorrell, founder and Chief Executive of British advertising giant WPP Group, admitted, “We see no significant change in the fast-growth markets in 2012, but it's a lower overall growth rate.” He further added however, on a positive note, that “advertisers in the so-called BRIC countries haven't pulled back on spending in the first five months of 2012”.

If we trace the patterns from the past, ad spends in the developing world have always shown a very strong correlation with GDP growth numbers. The Indian economy, which was looking set for an 8% plus growth in FY 2010-11 is now trailing well behind expectations at around 6.9% by the end of Q1, FY 2012-13. The impact is quite visible in ad spends by Indian marketers. In fact, growth trends for Indian adville are relatively modest compared to other BRIC economies. According to the latest forecasts by Warc, a globally acclaimed marketing intelligence service provider, ad spends in India in the year 2012 are expected to make a 9.3% growth on a yoy basis. This is only slightly better than the 8.9% growth expected in Brazil while it's nowhere near the expected growth in China (15.5%) and Russia (14%). To make things worse, inflation has played its role. After considering the inflationary effect, the same 9.3% yoy growth projection in terms of ad budgets comes down to a mere 1.1%. According to a FICCI-KPMG joint report, the Indian advertising industry clocked Rs.30 billion in revenues in FY 2011-12. It was earlier expecting a decent 12% yoy growth in FY 2012-13, but looking at trends, it had to significantly cut down its growth forecast to around 9.5%.

Jehil Thakkar, Partner and Head, Media & Entertainment practice, KPMG India, puts it thus, “Continuously rising production and distribution costs have narrowed down margins for companies. Hence, they are forced to cut down their expenditure on advertisements and will also look for alternative ways to reach out to their customers.” It's a given that if the current sentiment is turned on its head through improved economic conditions and a more liberalised policy environment sets in, marketers in India will step on the gas with ad spends once again. But in the current scenario, social media and mobile advertising are receiving relatively greater attention as low cost and high impact mediums. Rahul Lamba, MD, Prudential Advertisers and Media Planners, says, “Social media has emerged as a cost effective medium for advertisers. It aims at a highly targeted set of audiences. Hence, your chances to hit the bull's eye are much higher.” If we talk about overall media preferences, digital ad spends in India have grown by 54% yoy in 2011 to touch Rs.15.4 billion. While the base figure may be small compared to Rs.116 billion spend on TV advertisements last year, the impressive growth rate for digital media does indicate its growing relevance to the CMO. As per the KPMG-FICCI report, digital media is expected to register a 30% CAGR from 2011 to 2016.
 
Apart from this, marketers are now actively exploring new avenues to compensate agencies. The major change is a shift from a labor-based to a performance-based compensation approach. In simple terms, it means linking fees of agencies to product sales while cutting down on base compensation and margins. V. Subramaniam, General Manager, Adfactors Advertising, laments, “Due to a tough market situation, the 12-15% commission, which advertising agencies used to enjoy earlier, is now depleting very fast. Nowadays, clients negotiate very hard for every single penny they spend.” Performance-based compensation exposes agencies to greater financial risks if client goals are not met, but conversely, it also gives them the potential for a significant upside.

Moreover, as marketers go hyperactive, they are deploying multiple agencies for increased effectiveness, cost saving as well as for getting the best possible results. One recent and significant example has been Coca-Cola India appointing Lowe Lintas and Weiden + Kennedy along with their age old advertising agency McCann Erickson for their campaign. Coke's arch rival PepsiCo India proceeded on similar lines last year by appointing Taproot as its second ad agency apart from JWT, with which they share a partnership since over a decade. The move led to the highly successful “Change the game” campaign for the company.

Furthermore, some companies are now making another major strategic shifts in their approach due to tighter budgets. Giving up on multiple and regional brand ambassadors and appointing a single brand ambassador for pan-India campaigns is a case in point. South Indian actors are being increasingly used. It not just saves on the hefty fees given to different ambassadors (especially national celebrities) but also cuts down on production costs of multiple regional advertisements. So we have Telugu Superstar Mahesh Babu replacing Bollywood action star Akshay Kumar in the latest TVCs of Thums up, Parle Agro appointing Tamil-Telugu actor Siddharth as the first brand ambassador for Frooti and Tamil actor Karan sharing moments onscreen with Bollywood star Kareena Kapoor for the TVC of Mahindra's two-wheeler Duro.

These tactical initiatives are a clear indication of a sense of urgency among these marketers to make every penny count for more than ever before. V. Subramaniam, General Manager, Adfactors Advertising explains the impact of this on the advertising industry thus, “Client retention has become a very challenging job for agencies. Now they need to do every bit including special discounts, schemes, et al to keep old accounts going and also to get hold of new accounts.”

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Ranjit Yadav asserts that Samsung smartphones sell across the country
 
Will Samsung focus largely on smartphones going forward?
Samsung in India is a full range player; we have products starting from Rs.1200 to products well over Rs.30,000 like the S3. We are committed to the Indian market and have service centres in over 2500 locations. We want to sell the entire range to the Indian market. All our products have the key DNA of innovation, differentiation and quality. Design is also a key differentiation along with ergonomics, like nature being the inspiration for our S3 range.

How has slowdown impacted sales, and what is your outlook for 2012?
Slowdown is a significant risk that we all have to face. Many industries are already showing signs of slowdown. The mobile industry is flat, not necessarily growing anymore; and going forward, there’s a risk of growth dropping off. When times are difficult, the key is how to differentiate and we are good with that. We see this as an opportunity for us. I can’t give you an exact number, but we are already over 40% of the market in both value and volume terms.

How do you plan to expand your share with rising competition?
Our marketing strategy is based on creating the right consumer experience. We will be very strong in digital and experience-based marketing. Like for our S3 range, you can experience a lot of the products in-store and outside as well. We believe that consumers are available across the country for our higher range phones. So we will take our campaign across the country, rather than limit only to top cities. Even rural markets contribute to the sales of our smartphones.

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An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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SC slams AICTE's illicit control on MBA courses
MBA, MCA courses no longer under AICTE
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
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Low-budget movies with quality content and refreshing storylines are reaping a rich harvest.Are movie moghuls ready to switch the paradigm?







What is the similarity in films like Love Sex Aur Dhokha, Shor in the City, I Am, Yeh Saali Zindagi, Tanu Weds Manu, Shaitan, That Girl in Yellow Boots, Dhobi Ghat, Delhi Belly and Stanley Ka Dabba? Yes, they are all relatively recent Bollywood releases. They may not have set the box office on fire but they sure have been sleeper hits in their own rights. Which is not something to be cavalier about considering the fact that the flicks were all launched without any fanfaronade of media attention, nor did they have the agitprop of swashbuckling star names to draw out people into cinema aisles. Yet, given their puny production budgets of Rs.4-8 crore, the slate of movies in question have all reported blowout earnings, making their success all the more stellar. Made on shoe-string budgets, these films were anchored in crackerjack script and riveting content, which not only made them stand out from the clutter but saved them from becoming the misbegotten box-office disasters that has been the fate of many big-budget blockbusters.

As trends go, small-budget but slickly crafted films are the flavour among the cinema-loving audience. The latest crop of small-budget releases – Paan Singh Tomar, Kahaani and Vicky Donor – have all hit the bull's eye at the box office and garnered rave reviews from critics and fans alike. As per trade reports, Vicky Donor was produced on a tight budget of Rs.5 crore and had already grossed over Rs.28 crore within three weeks of its release. In contrast, budget-busting flicks like Players, starring the leading lights of the Hindi cinema industry – Abhishek Bachchan and Sonam Kapoor – proved to be thin gruel for audeinces’ taste buds. Other recent big-budget releases with a star cast of reigning Bollywood supernovas – like Ra.One and Agent Vinod – and made on mind-numbing budgets of Rs.100 crore and Rs.60 crore respectively, fell like nine pins without even a cheep of concern from moviemongers. Looking at such unmitigated flops, it seems that mega budgets and marquee names, without credible content, can no longer set alight the tinsel screens or make the audience’s pulse race. “More and more movie-lovers are gravitating towards meaningful cinema with palatable content that they can relate to and empathise with. And you don't need mega budgets to make such films,” says Aparna Hoshing, Producer, Rash Production.

Many also see the present success of the small-budget films as a pointer to the productive phase for Indian cinema. “There is a risk involved in making unconventional small-budget films but at the end of the day we have to take the risk. But producers and distributors have become more affirmative in taking up such films,” says Girish Wankehde, Deputy General Manager, Public Relations and Corporate Communciation, Cinemax. He attributes the good performance of small-budget films to their new themes and refreshing storylines. “Also, as investment is less, these films do well with the right kind of marketing,” says Wankehde who also looks after the distribution of small-budget films made by independent film makers under the Cinemax banner. A similar view about the industry becoming more confident in launching small-budget projects is voiced by Hoshing. “There are primarily two reasons for producers investing in small-budget films. Firstly, the small cost of such projects makes the whole proposition risk-free. Producers do not have to invest a lot in various aspects of movie-making. Secondly, the returns are quite high if the film is even an average hit.” The math, in fact, is pretty simple. For example, if a producer invests Rs.3 crore in a movie and even if he manages to get a return of Rs.1 crore, he ends up making a neat pile on his modest investment, in this case a profit of 33%.

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An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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In this issue of first cut,we cover a uniquely new positioning compaign for Mahindra’s UPS product, powerol

In a country where the peak shortage of electricity hovers near 12.9% (Central Electricity Authority), secondary power supply has become an indispensable part of our lives. The inverter market in India posts a growth of 10-15% annually, with revenues touching 4 million per annum last year (PwC data); and still, nearly 45% of the market remains unorganised.

Clearly, this isn’t the only reason to inspire Mahindra, which has been making waves in India in the SUV segment with its XUV 500, Xylo and Scorpio models, to enter the uninterrupted power supply (UPS) segment. In fact, some would already know that Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd has been selling engines and diesel gensets since 2001 under the brand name Mahindra Powerol. But living up to the mark in an already cluttered inverter market has posed a real challenge to Mahindra since July 2009 – when it entered the UPS industry – in terms of creating brand awareness as well as differentiating the product offering from its competitors. To that extent, the latest TVC two-part campaign series from Powerol intends to change that equation.

The first TVC of the series opens up with a family hanging upside down like bats in their house, with their eyes lighting up like the night creatures whenever the electricity fails. Apparently, because they behave like bats, their daily schedule doesn’t get affected even when the power goes off. A VO says, “Kitna acha hota agar hum chamgaadar hote; andhere me bhi dekh paate (it would have been so good, had we really been bats and could have seen in the darkness like them). The entire family suddenly falls to the ground with the grand entry of an inverter (Powerol, if you may) into their house and the lights coming back on, completing the visual drama, with the VO asking you to behave like humans and buy the Powerol inverter. For added effect, portraits of bat-like family ancestors hanging in the living room suddenly get vaporized due to the Powerol’s presence.

The second TVC of the series is made quite similarly, but features the family behaving as owls rather than bats; with the cinematography conveying the same philosophy as the first TVC.

Evidently, while both TVCs are unique, quite successful in brand recall too, they’re still not spot on in bringing out the differentiating qualities of a Powerol inverter (say, when compared to other leading inverters). Sanjeev Goyle, Senior Vice President, Marketing & AppliTrac, Farm Equipment Sector, Mahindra & Mahindra in conversation with 4Ps B&M, says, “The core thought was to depict how human beings start adapting to darkness and behaving like nocturnal animals till they are reminded about their existence as human beings.” Shailesh Gupte, VP, Interface Communications, the agency that executed the shoot, additionally reveals some of the moments that were physically demanding on the actors, “In the bat film, the cast had to actually hang upside down for their shoot. And the problem was that no one could be left upside down repeatedly for more than 10 to 12 seconds as it used to cause quite a rush of blood. Yet, the whole shoot was quite funny and challenging.”

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
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The viability of the mobile banking channel continues to grow in line with smartphone adoption and the proliferation of mobile banking apps. The industry continues to invest heavily in developing new services and features for mobile banking as banks continue to monitor trends and evaluate the best opportunities for them to strategically invest or partner with key innovators in the space.

Smartphones driving M-banking

Widespread adoption of smartphones among mobile users has allowed a more user-friendly web-browsing experience and significantly greater access to apps associated with bank accounts. As a result, population of mobile bankers is larger than any other group within the mobile financial sector, having grown at a rapid pace (up 30% from nearly a year ago). In Q2 2011, 33.5% of all mobile users owned a smartphone, enabling greater mobile media consumption and access to bank accounts while on-the-go. By November 2011, this percentage grew to 39.1%.
 
Customers need education

Across the spectrum of available mobile banking features, awareness is limited to slightly more than half of all smartphone owners with a bank account. Even among those who are aware of mobile banking functionality, awareness is twice as high as actual adoption, indicating an area of opportunity for banks to continue educating customers on mobile banking services and understand what might be hindering adoption. Not surprisingly, the banking activities conducted most often from a mobile device are checking balances and viewing transactions – fairly basic account monitoring functions.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website
IIPM Proves Its Mettle Once Again....
Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet.....
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
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Image perception has a significant effect on the destination choice of tourists in today’s highly competitive and global economy.

From 1950 to 2010, international tourism arrivals expanded at an annual rate of 6.2%, growing from 25 million to 940 million, according to the UNWTO. The World Travel & Tourism Council describes the tourist sector as follows: “It is one of the world’s largest industries, or economic sectors, contributing trillions of dollars annually to the global economy, creating jobs and wealth, generating exports, boosting taxes and stimulating capital investment.”

From the above it is clear that the tourism sector is characterised by heterogeneity: a great variation in tourist types whose motives may differ dramatically from health, sports, recreational, cultural, spiritual, professional and business to visiting friends and relatives. On the supply side, it is a system comprised of five interdependent components, but fragmented in remit: attractions, transportation, services, information and promotion. This asks for effective implementation of tourism marketing strategy and is exacerbated because the responsibility for directing and managing tourism development is typically deferred to a series of different organisations that often operate without a clear mandate.

Also, there is a lack of political will to implement strategy, at both local and national levels. Failures at the local level have occurred because there was no clear implementation path to follow. At the national level, the most common factor influencing the government’s ability or desire to assist the implementation of the strategy seems to center on financial assistance, which is often not forthcoming to assist in the development process and conflicting mandates between the ministries.

A key aspect of strategy implementation failure is that authority to implement does not accompany the mandate to implement. And if available, mandates are often unclear or exist in conflict between organisations.

Mobility Trend: Accelerating Structural Change
By 2015 ten Southeast Asian economies will establish a single production base and an integrated community offering high potential, free-trade markets. This regionalism mantra is an environmental influence highly likely to affect consumer behaviour.

The many sided process of re-drawing ASEAN boundaries has major implications pertaining to the former external factors, including social, cultural, business and media variables, increasing the mobility of labour across borders; altering not only the firm’s internal logic, but also the collaboration with a variety of stakeholders in formulating and implementing marketing strategy. Technology is the main enabler of mobility contributing to shrinking relative distance. In turn, influencing individual consumption lifestyles, values, emotions and engagement and, potentially, global interconnectedness. So, what implications may 2015 have, for instance, on tourists’ behaviour patterns? And on India’s tourism marketing strategy?
 
Economy: Driver of Change
“In 2010, international tourism generated $919 billion in export earnings” (UNWTO, 2011). Air travel, healthcare, telecommunications, IT services, tourism and logistics are set as priority sectors to realise liberalisation in the integrating ten Southeast Asian economies. Same implies that tourism is seen as one of the change drivers.

In this context, the essence of formulating and implementing tourism marketing is to attain broader economic and environmental goals of the society. This involves three dimensions. There is, first, a process at play within the tourism value chain involving other sectors, due to forward and backward linkages. This indicates, second, that the process should result in ‘output’ or products. In turn, these can yield region’s positive economic and less tangible benefits or negative impacts. At the same time, the relationships between culture, tourism and economic development are subject to global pressures.

This reminds us that context is relevant and requires appropriate governance for a virtuous cycle of activities to blossom. Its absence would likely set a ‘vicious circle’ of spatial development of tourism in motion, which if unchecked could lead to a destination’s economic instability.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
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IIPM Proves Its Mettle Once Again....
Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet.....
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
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While building your brand for sustainable competitive advantage, one of the greatest horrors can be an ad agency that doesn’t fit your bill. Here’s how to avoid such a possibility.

The past few years have seen major changes in firm and customer communications in both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) marketing. Among the major forces are globalisation, the need to integrate various communications forms, digital communications, and a shift from almost exclusively firm-to-customer communications to communications modes that also include firm-to-customer, and also customer-to-customer.

Notwithstanding these many changes, for many companies, the choice of advertising agency remains a critical decision. In most cases the firm selects an advertising agency to create ideas that provide the firm a powerful connection with customers and devise the communications element of its marketing strategy; sometimes the advertising agency’s responsibilities extend to marketing research and more fundamental marketing decisions. Furthermore, in most cases, the firm does not just require an agency to be responsible for advertising; it may also be concerned with direct response, publicity, public relations, Internet communications, product sampling, and other forms of interfacing with customers, and communications requirements that are increasingly international or global.

Before the firm arrives at the point of defining criteria for its choice of agency it must make several critical strategic decisions. First, does the firm want the agency to be its general contractor, making decisions in all communication areas, or does it want to select individual agencies (best of breed) for each communications area. Second, assuming that the firm operates internationally or globally, does it want to select agencies for different countries/geographic regions? Or, again, does it want a single agency to deal with all of its geographic areas? Finally, the firm must decide if it wants to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond. Large agencies offer multiple services in multiple geographies, but the average firm may not be that important in a large agency. By contrast, if the firm selects a small agency, it may be one of that agency’s most important clients, and receive the sort of attention consistent with that position. Start-ups often select smaller agencies for this reason: In the 1970s, Federal Express selected Carl Ally, and Nike still uses Weiden+Kennedy, a relatively small agency.

Having made these decisions, the firm must now face the choice of agency decision by focusing on four areas:

Meet the Team
When the firm invites various agencies to solicit its business, it typically meets the agency A team. Agencies put their best feet forward with their best people to show their agencies’ in the best possible light. But, frequently, these individuals will not be the people working on the account. The firm should ensure that it meets with the team that will have the responsibility for working on its issues, and make sure it is comfortable with these individuals, their way of working, their creative potential, and how they would interface with the firm.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
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IIPM Proves Its Mettle Once Again....
Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet.....
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
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Prasun Kumar, Head - Marketing, Sony Ericsson, talks about what differentiates Sony Ericsson’s products and campaigns from the rest in the market

Offering a more engaging music experience has been the core strength of Sony Ericsson in its strategy to woo more consumers towards its handsets. Taking forward the legacy of ‘Walkman’ phones, the company has recently launched its new offering, ‘Live with Walkman’ – an Android smartphone in the Indian market. Backed by an integrated campaign that includes mediums like TV, print, BTL, digital and out-of-home, as the company says, the product offers an innovative music experience in a more engaging and wholesome way than its predecessors like W8 and Mix Walkman. 4Ps B&M speaks to Prasun Kumar to discuss the marketing plans for this product. With more than 15 years of experience, Kumar has worked with Capital, McCann Erickson, Madison Media, General Motors and Levi’s. Before moving to Sony Ericsson in January last year, he was the Director - Brand and Marcom at MTS and was credited with the successful launch of MTS in India by positioning it as a modern data brand. At Sony Ericsson, Kumar is focused on making Sony Ericsson one of the most preferred brands of the Indian consumer while staying true to the core strengths of the handset maker.


Sony Ericsson’s products stress a lot on entertainment; mainly music. Does that make any difference in the way you judge the performance of your campaigns that showcase such products?
We keep our campaigns relevant trying to make a strong connect with the TG. At the same time, they should meet the ultimate objective. There are many parameters to evaluate a campaign. There are hardcore marketing parameters including brand parameters, media parameters, business parameters to judge a performance of any campaign. We look at all these parameters when it comes to evaluating the performance of any campaign that we do. The fundamental job of any campaign is to help sell more and work towards establishing the proposition of the brand in the mind of the consumer in a differentiated manner.

Your latest offering Live With Walkman is a smartphone, but from its positioning, it sounds more of music. What is the thought that went behind crafting such a campaign for this offering?
As a brand, Sony Ericsson is known for communication and entertainment. Over the years, through our products and various propositions we have always differentiated ourselves on that. While our smartphones are as good as any other smartphones in the market, they offer the consumer that extra bit in terms of proposition. A lot of this differentiators come from our Sony legacy. We have had a very successful range of walkman phones in the past that stands for differentiated music experience. Live with Walkman is an extension of that proposition. Apart from the smartphone features, it also offers a wholesome music experience. That’s what our campaign explains. The idea of doing this campaign came from the fact that music is generic to entertainment and to the mobile phone category. We wanted to give a wholesome experience to the user. Consumers over a period of time have moved on from just listening to music to doing much more with their music and getting a much better experience. So our entire communication talks about how music completely immerses the user into the overall experience rather than just listening to it. The entire ecosystem that we have built with the help of application, content and additional hardware bundles, delivers the desired experience to the user. The ecosystem is the differentiating factor for this handset. We have gone beyond conventional to give this experience to the user. For instance, rather than going for the plain handset, we are giving a funky set of Benetton handsfree with the handset. In addition, the handset has pre-loaded chartbusters, applications, videos et al which gives the user a complete solution for music with smartphone proposition placed at the centre.
 
Sony Ericsson has bundled this handset with Aircel for data services. We have seen that bundling efforts haven’t delivered the desired results in the past. What makes you believe it will work this time?
It is not very tough to put these together. Success of mobility owes to both, operator and manufacturer. A smartphone becomes a smartphone only when you use it for data services and for doing that, you need a data pipe. Whether you take it from Vodafone, Aircel or Airtel, that is a different issue, but the fact remains that you need a data pipe. In our case, we are giving an additional option to the consumers to choose the data pipe from Aircel as it comes with an additional benefit. The consumer might be using any data pipe at any point of time and we hope that the consumer will feel excited about choosing this option for using data services on the handset.

The marketing approach of Sony Ericsson has always been innovative. And this time the campaign talks about inclusion of experiential marketing...
This campaign is all about experiencing the proposition. Once the TVC, that is on air, establishes the proposition, you will see a lot of work being done on the digital forum integrated with below-the line activities that take the consumer experience to the next level. Talking of the digital front, we are India’s first, if not the world’s first , dance talent hunt show conducted on the digital medium. We have tied up with Shiamak Davar and his group for this activity. It is a six-city on-ground activation which is linked to digital. It is a very close knit campaign and it gives consumers a chance of making more out of life.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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By building a strong brand in an unorganised segment, style spa has managed a great start. Now it has to ably compete with multi-brand chains

Trying to introduce a brand in a market that is highly fragmented, unorganised and dominated by unbranded, local vendors can be a double edged sword. It can either pay you quite handsomely because you are the first to bring a welcome disruption, or it can fail miserably; mainly because the particular category may not be ready for that kind of marketing ingenuity. Chennai-based Style Spa, a furniture brand launched by the S.K. Poddar group is a notable case study for those who want to find themselves in the former category. The company has defied the odds and expanded its network across the country in the past decade and a half (it commenced operations in 1996 in alliance with 53 year old French furniture maker “Gautier” and was associated with them for 5 years), and is now a very serious competitor in the rapidly organising furniture space.

As a premium furniture brand, Gautier has always moved on with an unquenchable thirst for creativity, innovation, research, customer satisfaction and excellence. While maintaining the traditional touch & feel in their products on one hand, Gautier has always ensured that the designs on offer are contemporary and suit the tastes of their customers, which are spread across continents. It has very successfully passed on similar values to the then young company Style Spa. The association with Gautier helped the company immensely in building its expertise initially and understanding how to meet customer expectations. Since the split, the brand “Style Spa” has made a very significant impact on a standalone basis in the Indian market.

In its entire journey, the company has undergone several challenges and continues to do so. Only, the nature of the challenges has changed. In the initial phase, customers had to be educated about the whole concept of branded furniture and organised outlets. Simultaneously, the company had to survive at a time when cheap imports and local furniture vendors were dominating the market. Now people are getting accustomed to mall culture, but players like Style Spa have to compete against large format multi-brand retail chains like Woodart India, Durian Furnitures, Sunrise Furniture Mart, et al, where the immense variety in products and brands proves to be very exciting for customers.

The marketing endeavours of Style Spa have been focused on a select mix of media. Primarily print led communication supported by local level events for that ‘below-the-line’ push have been their preferred media vehicles. With the rapid growth of social media and its popularity among urban Indians, the brand has also bucked the trend of connecting with people using social networking sites like Facebook. The company also does promotional campaigns from time to time to maintain the visibility, but these are never discount-based campaigns, as the brand is positioned as a Money for Value brand. Style Spa saw a great leap in its brand equity when it adopted the brand manifesto, “Everything that we do is for the love of furniture.” The thought behind this was that style and comfort need not be mutually exclusive of each other and consumers need not to compromise on either while buying furniture, since it stays in one’s life for years (their tagline says, “Where life lives”, which has an instant emotional connect). Their ingenuity in terms of positioning and the courage to stand above the rest of the pack have been crucial to their impressive track record in the market so far.
 
The company is also simultaneously attempting to build lasting loyalty for its brand among customers. In 2010, Style Spa started “Club Sterling”, a loyalty-based program to reward its loyal customers. It offers rewards to its loyal members through accumulated loyalty points. The more you buy, the more points you accumulate, which can be redeemed at any Style Spa retail point. So far, the club has got over 15,600 members. Apart from this, the company is also planning to organise a number of exciting events under Club Sterling to keep customers engaged. Such an effort is arguably the first of its kind by any furniture retailer in India. To add to their potential for repeat business, the company has also started a dedicated customer helpline desk to take care of customer complaints and also register their feedback, sending the message loud and clear that customer experience is the most valuable asset for them in their bid to sustain their brand equity.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website
IIPM Proves Its Mettle Once Again....
Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet.....
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
Planman Technologies
IIPM Contact Info
IIPM History
IIPM Think Tank
IIPM Infrastructure
IIPM Info
IIPM: Selection Process
IIPM: Research and Publications
IIPM MBA Institute India

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