EDITOR’S DESK SEPTEMBER 2011

Interface-the Marketing Club of K.J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research

(SIMSR) proudly present to you the September issue of “The Marksman”. On this occasion, we

would like to thank all our readers for the overwhelming response for the past three editions.

The cover story for the September issue is “EVANGELISM MARKETING”. The article informs us

about how brands get personality and personalities become brands, and how people become

brand ambassadors just because of their belief and perception about it. It sure is a promising read

for those who wish to devour information beyond text books.

The secondary story, “Volkswagen - breaking the clutter” will talk about the marketing strategies

adopted by Volkswagen in terms of media and advertising after being a late entrant in the premi-

um segment of an already competitive Indian car market.

We also have articles covering the Re-branding of Hero Moto Corp ,Faith Marketing and Market-

ing of luxury goods. We would also like to congratulate Mr. Akshat Malhotra (SIBM,Pune)

for his article of Faith Marketing being the best entry amongst the many articles that we received.

Our regular section of bookworm, tweets and Buzz will surely appeal to all our readers.

With this issue, we would also like to welcome our Junior Marksman team, who now would take

the baton and ensure the Marksman light shines in the months to come!

Happy Reading!

Cheers!!

Team –Marksman

Interface - The Marketing Club of SIMSR

SEPTEMBER 2011 01

EVANGELISM MARKETING

Some brands enjoy a very strong word of mouth while others don’t. The answer

to this mystery might lie in what is known as Evangelism Marketing…

In an age where small firms struggle to

make it big and big Brands compete to be-

come even bigger, winning over the con-

sumers mind space and pulling them to the

market place is a game that has chartered

various dimensions. It is a constant race to

reach out through the TV, print media, ra-

dio jingles, outdoor promotions and others

to take control of all the senses of the cus-

tomers. But there is more to marketing and

promotion strategies than what meets the

eye. What influences customers to choose

a particular brand over another? Is it plain

advertising or is someone influencing them?

Some brands clearly get much more Word

of Mouth than others. This month, we try

to explain this trend in the light of Evange-

lism Marketing.

What is evangelism marketing?

Evangelism Marketing can be thought of as

an advanced form of Word Of Mouth Mar-

keting. Companies are turning the tables

around and are now working on developing

customers who believe so strongly in the

product or service that they freely try to

convince others to buy and use it. Hence,

the customers become voluntary support-

ers, actively spreading the word on behalf

of the company.

Unlike in Affiliate Marketing, where compa-

nies provide incentives in the form of mon-

ey or products to its endorsers, evangelist

customers spread their word and try to

attract new customers out of pure belief in

the product or service, simply to provide

benefit to others. As evangelists are not

paid to promote the brand, their beliefs are

perceived by others as trustworthy and

credible.

The word Evangelism means “bringing good

news”. It is a term associated with Christi-

anity and refers to a practice of spreading

information about a particular set of beliefs

to others in order to make them believe in

these set of beliefs. Hence, the marketing

term rightly draws from the religious sense,

as consumers are literally driven by their

beliefs in a particular product or service,

which they preach to others in order to

convert them.

Guy Kawasaki, the former chief evangelist

of Apple Computer, is considered to be the

Father of Evangelism Marketing. He be-

lieves that people become evangelists simp-

ly to make the world a better place. Kawa-

saki is recognized as being one of the first

SEPTEMBER 2011 03

COVER STORY

to use evangelistic methods to promote a

brand through a blog, a concept which

spread like wild fire in the marketing com-

munity.

Creating Customer Evangelists

"Creating Customer Evangelists", a book by

Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, explains

how companies like IBM, Krispy Kreme

Doughnuts, The Dallas Mavericks, South-

west Airlines and many others have suc-

cessfully built their customer base with the

help of targeted marketing programs involv-

ing their biggest fans. These programs have

produced hosts of unofficial salespersons

who proved to be an inexpensive and pow-

erful marketing force. The book outlines

the framework for developing evangelism

marketing strategies in six simple steps-

1. Continuously gather customer feedback.

2. Freely share your knowledge.

3. Create effective word-of-mouth net-

works.

4. Encourage communities of customers to

meet and share.

5. Devise specialized, smaller offerings to

get customers to bite.

Focus on making the world, or your indus-

try, better.

A complaint from a customer is a god

sent gift!

Now as intriguing as it sounds at first, the

fact is that these Customer Care services

help convert already loyal customers into

influential and enthusiastic evangelists.

Customer Experience Research firm TARP

found that customers who complain and

are satisfied are up to 8% more loyal to the

company than those who had no problem

at all.

When customers become truly thrilled

about their experience with a product or

service, they become candid "evangelists"

for the company. This group of “satisfied

believers” can be converted into a power-

ful marketing force to become a growing

influence on customers.

Facebook Facebook

Facebook is increasingly becoming an inevi-

table tool for marketers. Reasons: Creating

a Facebook page is free of cost, very easy

and creates an instantaneous pathway to

evangelists.

You may not realise this, but every time

you hit the like button on a Facebook page,

you become an Evangelist. When you in-

teract with other fans on a fan page on

Facebook, that interaction is sent through

your news feed, which goes to all your

friends, thus urging them to see what the

page is all about.

A fan page surfaces questions, problems or

issues that people are facing and can create

THE MARKSMAN 04

COVER STORY

an immediate fix-it list. It gives the company

a feel of what resonates with fans by the

number of comments and "likes" people

give on each post. Thus, a Facebook fan

page can be a strong indicator of how well

a brand is doing.

Apple took the first bite

The Evangelism Marketing movement start-

ed at Apple Computers in the 1980s, with

the launch of the original Macintosh. It was

Guy Kawasaki, Chief Evangelist, who helped

popularize the idea of a company evangelist

by uniting the developer community to

write software specifically for the Mac.

The primary function of an evangelist in the

early days of the Mac was to convince soft-

ware developers to write software for the

Macintosh. This gave rise to what is now

called “Software Evangelism”. Apple for-

merly had a "Why Mac?" evangelist site.

Then the company ran “Get a Mac”,which

gave PC users numerous reasons to switch

to Macs. Several third-parties still host and

maintain Apple evangelism websites.

What’s your Starbucks Idea?

Starbucks Corporation, the world re-

nowned Coffee company, opened its doors

to its loyal customers in 2008 by starting an

online community for them in 2008 called

My Starbucks Idea. This website was de-

signed to invite suggestions for products or

services and feedback from customers.

During it‟s first year, My Starbucks Idea

generated over 70,000 ideas through the

website and close to 50-60 changes were

incorporated based on customer sugges-

tions.

HOGS!

Harley Davidson has been into Evangelistic

Marketing for a long time now. Harley

SEPTEMBER 2011 05

COVER STORY

Owners Groups(HOGS), an initiative by

Harley Davidson is a common platform for

Harley fanatics to interact with each other.

This organization organizes local and inter-

national events like road trips, biking chal-

lenges, concerts, etc. for Harley lovers

around the year. It is a great place to find

people who share love for Harley Da-

vidson bikes and it has grown into a dynam-

ic community for biking enthusiasts.

Lady Gaga!

She‟s just 25 and with 2 Grammys, more

than 8 million albums sold worldwide, an

army of diehard fans, she has the whole

world singing to her tunes. Lady Gaga can

be cited as a shining example of Personal

Evangelism Marketing.

She doesn‟t like the word “fans” so she

calls them her “Little Monsters”. By giving

her fans a formal name, they can freely re-

late to each other and feel like they are a

part of an exclusive social group. She

doesn‟t like professional photographers tak-

ing her photos but its ok when her fans

take her photo.

In her concerts, she recites the “Manifesto

of the Little Monsters”, dedicating all her

success to her fans. The official little mon-

ster greeting is the outstretched Monster

Claw Hand. You would even find fans

showing each other the Monster Claw out

on the street. Quite the brand recall don‟t

you think?

Whether it‟s her performance art style

stage shows or her bizarre outfits, Lady

THE MARKSMAN 06

COVER STORY

Gaga has created mass hysteria across the

globe. With millions of followers on Twit-

ter and Facebook hooked on to every ac-

tion of hers, it‟s only fair to say that not

only is Lady Gaga an outstanding artist, but

is also a great Marketing Mind!

Evangelism Marketing in India

While we see Evangelism Marketing pre-

sent in a big way in the countries of the

west, the concept of evangelists is still in its

nascent stage in India. Digital evangelists

are now fast becoming the means for

brands to connect with consumers and cre-

ate a positive buzz around brands and new

product launches in India. Karthik Shriniva-

san, Mahendra Palsule, Gautam Ghosh,

Jairaj P- these are people who feature in

the list of India‟s 100 Most Influential Peo-

ple on the Web.

Interestingly, almost 50 of these top 100

are virtually unknown names who have

made a big impact on the Virtual World.

Big brands in India today realize that these

influencers on the web can make a big dif-

ference when it comes to selling their

products and services. Aditya Swamy,

Channel Head, MTV India in an interview

said “By giving early adopters a special ex-

perience, they seamlessly become brand

ambassadors.

When we launched Coke Studio, we

looked for hardcore music fans who were

active in social media to come and experi-

ence a recording first hand. MTV Roadies

has become a cult today. Getting to see

content before it goes on air is very special

experience for these fans.”

Evangelism Marketing can be particularly

beneficial for small businesses and start-up

firms. For instance, Yolkshire, a small busi-

ness in Pune witnessed a 20% hike in sales

after it was promoted on influential blogs.

Brands like Nokia, Reckitt Benckiser, MTV,

etc approach digital agencies like Prinstorm

India and Bloggers Mind to find bloggers

and tweeters who are the right fit for their

brands.

The agencies then approach them to pre-

view and evaluate the brands and create a

buzz about them. In turn, they are provided

with incentives that range from providing

exclusive content and first hand reviews, to

freebies and pay checks. They actively ask

bloggers for feedback and use their net-

works to reach out to a larger community.

Reckitt Benckiser used popular gadget and

gaming bloggers to tweet and blog about

their new game Urban Thrill. The company

created the game so that it could connect

with the youth. The incentive to play was

that winners would get a ticket to a desti-

nation of their choice. By engaging the gam-

ers through blogs and twitter, the game in-

creased its online players four folds in just

two weeks, thus creating more awareness

and buzz around the brand.

SEPTEMBER 2011 07

COVER STORY

fɔlksˌvaːɡən - The People‟s Car

Volkswagen‟s marketing team focuses on

its key brand pillars- innovation, to make a

strong impact throughout the roll-out in

India. Innovation was showcased not only in

Volkswagen‟s product introductions, but

also in its communications and advertising.

Road block in newspaper- When it first started in India in November

2009, it combined its campaign with Times

of India to bring out a successful roadblock

that blocked out other ads and filled up the

entire paper with its own ads, wholly or

partly in thirteen of the twenty two pages

of the newspaper. This roadblock did grab a

lot of attention and created awareness for

the brand.

VW Polo- Hole in newspaper

The Times of India had a car-sized hole in

its special edition, courtesy the Volkswagen

marketing team who drove their New

Volkswagen Polo through the eight pages.

The hole, when aligned with the main edi-

tion showed the Polo car.

The advertisement did stand out, and must

have caught the attention of every reader.

One doesn‟t know if Polo, the company

that makes the popular mint candy called

Polo- a mint with a hole, was happy with

the innovation. But after this, one can ex-

pect advertisers to drill holes in other

newspapers too.

World‟s First Talking newspaper The advertisement was carried in some 2.2

million copies and a small talking device

was attached to it. The talking newspaper

ad created a sensation in India, and gar-

nered worldwide attention for taking print

advertising to a new level.

But other than the initial shock of having to

hear from your paper – the novelty wore

off quickly – as there wasn‟t much detail to

the voice message, other than usual mar-

keting information.

Volkswagen-Breaking the clutter

Redefines innovation, grabs maximum eyeballs, the most talked

about!! Message innovation or just another media innovation?

THE MARKSMAN 08

SPECIAL STORY

Till date it is one of the most discussed and

blogged topics and the most searched sub-

ject amongst the online community. So it

wasn't just the ad that did the talking but

got its readers talking about it too!

Volkswagen (Toy car on logo) Bill-

board The Billboard had a VW logo and a small

model of a Jetta which navigates through

the logo and traces the path cut out inside

the VW. This hoarding was an honest ef-

fort at doing something innovative and

catching the attention of potential custom-

ers.

Better if paid attention to details!!

The company is trying to promote the

brand more than the car itself as it can be

seen in the picture the model car of Jetta

was hard to notice. The model car moves

so slowly that it takes some time for you to

figure out if it is moving or stationery.

How it could have been better?!

If their primary objective was to familiarize

people with the logo of the brand, they

might have just fared better by displaying

only the logo and done without the car in

motion or they could have made the car

glow in the dark or used a bigger model to

make Jetta noticeable.

Volkswagen Jetta- paint it Silver

With the launch of the new Volkswagen

Jetta, Volkswagen came up with an adver-

tisement printed on silver sheet that ac-

companied TOI.

The jacket connotes the USPs of the all-

new Jetta. Silver is VW communication col-

or , thicker cover represents the quality of

the car, and glitzy looks stands for the all

new design of the new Jetta.

On a Downside: The excitement created

by the media and the information provided

by VW about Jetta is not that exciting.

Glitzy silver printing diminished the appeal

of the car itself. Silver foil printing is new

but the link between that and Jetta does

not get established to a layman.

#anything4jetta- This campaign has

taken Twitter by Storm

Grey Digital has designed a social media

campaign, wherein users need to post a

wacky tweet on what they would do to win

SEPTEMBER 2011 09

SPECIAL STORY

the all-new Jetta. There are multiple ways

to participate, including mobile (texting or

recording a message), posting one-liners,

pictures and hilarious videos. The more ac-

tive the involvement, the better are the

chances of winning.

Volkswagen‟s proposition for the all-new

Jetta was simple- that one can do anything

to drive VW. VW decided to test their

proposition with a simple question: Would

you do #anything4jetta?”

GOOD Number Score- Over the first

three days, the campaign recorded 54,000

Tweets. Peak activity was as high as 2,900

tweets an hour, and the website received

100,000+ views in three days. The

@volkswagenindia account also netted an

incremental 4,000 followers, fostering a

community for future activities.

Das Auto- The Car Through such campaigns VW clearly sends

out a message that it is not ready to com-

promise when it comes to innovation, be it

in its products or its advertising. Even its

simple tagline evokes attention bringing

both things to the front, one; that they are

a superior German engineering company

and two; that they have full confidence in

their product lines when they say it is THE

car and not A car!

Volkswagen Gallery

POLO

JETTA

BEETLE

THE MARKSMAN 10

SPECIAL STORY

What you all associate with Tommy Hilfiger,

Nakshatra, Armani, Nike, Titan, Levis, Wran-

gler, Bausch and Lomb, Adidas, Ralph Lauren,

Marks Spencer, Prada and Christian Dior !

Luxury has

never been

someth ing

easy to de-

fine, yet this

m y s t e r y

concept is

someth ing

highly de-

sired by one

and all alike. Luxury goods give the owner

the psychological benefits of esteem, pres-

tige and status.

MARKET INSIGHTS

Luxury good market in India is one of the

most diverse and challenging market. The

size of the luxury market in India is around

$7.5 billion in 2009 & it is estimated to

reach $30 billion by 2015. In India there is a

great untapped opportunity for luxury busi-

ness. Five out of ten wealthiest person of

the world are from India. 1.7 million Indi-

ans qualifies as rich. Subdivision as (super

rich, sheer rich, clear rich and near rich).

These rich people can be well targeted by

brands. India is still a virgin market for lux-

ury goods. Companies like Swatch,

Montblanc and Chanel are only ones repre-

sented in limited way.

Source : www.cpp - l uxury . com ,

www.siliconindia.com

“Why do I need to know how the watch market is doing? I‟m

in the business of luxury”, Patrick Heiniger, Ex-CEO Rolex

MARKETING OF LUXURY GOODS

LUXURY PRODUCT MARKET

Source: A.T Kearney Research Report

HOW TO MARKET LUXURY

GOODS?

The 3 important features of a luxury brand

are:

1. The brand itself

2. The reputation of the product or ser-

vice provider

3. Price-value relationship of the luxury

brand

And they have great story to tell Clearly marketing of luxury brand is more

than selling a product. When you buy a

branded bag or branded watch the purpose

is not that you need bag that can be served

by a normal bag or that you need to know

time. So beyond the function there is

something else. You need to have sense of

SEPTEMBER 2011 11

FEATURED ARTICLE

- Divya Bhatia,Welingkar Mumbai

superiority. Real attraction has been to be

associated with something authentic and

genuine.

Source: Experiential luxury report

Unity marketing, 2008

Source: A.T Kearney Research Report

LUXURY CONSUMER

X-fluent (extremely fluent)

Spend the most on luxury and are most highly invest-ed in luxury living

Butter-flies

The most highly evolved luxury consumers. They search for meaning and new experiences and have the least materialistic orien-tation

Luxury cocoon-ers

Are focused on health and home. They spend most of their luxury budgets on home-related purchases

Aspirers Those luxury consumers who have not yet achieved the level of luxury to which they aspire

Temper-ate Prag-matist

A newly emerged luxury consumer who is not all that involved in the luxury lifestyle

THE MARKSMAN 12

FEATURED ARTICLE

CHANGING TRENDS:

E-MARKETING

Initially Luxury brands had very less online

presence. There can be reason for very

less online presence as luxury brands are

investing very much on their stores; they

want to give physical surrounding and per-

sonal attention of luxury to customer. For

them luxury is not only in their

products but also in their stores.

But now trends are changing,

luxury brands along with exclu-

sive stores are also benefitting

by use of internet marketing. Wider audi-

ence, easy access,

Convenience, time saving, research and ad-

vertising are some of the benefits of E-

marketing.

www.luxurionworld.com , India‟s first

portal to cater the needs of consumer of

luxury brands. Act as two way communica-

tion between brands and consumer.

AD WORLD

Luxury brands are focusing on their exclu-

sive customer. The message of their adver-

tisements is pretty clear.

If you need to ask how much our stuff

costs, you can't afford it. Most of print ad

of jewelry featured a close-up of a hefty

gem and read the straightforward text, but

there won‟t be mention of price.

Brands are coming with slogans like:

RAY BAN: GENUINE SINCE 1937

TITAN: BE MORE

ASMI: FOR THE WOMEN OF SPIRIT

SANGINI DIAMONDS: HEERA HAI SADA

KE LIYE

All these slogans show that brands are fo-

cusing on authenticity rather than price.

SEPTEMBER 2011 01 SEPTEMBER 2011 13

FEATURED ARTICLE

GENDER BIAS

Initially all luxury brands were quite famous

among females. But now brands are also

looking towards male consumer. Items

such as cufflinks, belts, wallets, luxury

wines, champagnes and cigars are now on

the wish-lists of many Indian men seeking

luxury brands.

COUNTERFEITS

Do they affect the brand? They have both

the positive and negative effects on the

brand. I think they don‟t damage a luxury

brand much in a negative way. No one go

for counterfeits if they have ability to buy

the original one. A person purchases the

brand not because of the product but for

experience.

But you see people carrying fake product

on the streets, this may affect the brand!

This is not the case. Counterfeit might

allow us to offset non exclusive image of

the brand. But counterfeits are very

strongly used to measure market de-

mand. One of the reasons you know that

a luxury brand is healthy, is when it has

attracted a good deal of counterfeits.

RESEARCH

The main question which bothers luxury

brand is: To what degree we ask the cus-

tomer what they want?

Brands do not spend much on research.

Most of luxury brand are fashion brands

and they believe fashion is not about

giving consumer what they want, it is

about changing the things.

But now in changing trends brands do

involve themselves in simple research focus

group, surveys, sales data etc.

Clothing, Fra-

grances, Premi-

um Footwear,

Home Electron-

ics, High End

Watches, Mobile

Phones

Jewelry, Cosmet-

ics, Skincare, Lin-

gerie, Handbags

And Mobile

Phones

By marketing luxury brands at large scale brands are making themselves available to large

number of people. So the question which arises is

“Making luxury goods affordable to large number of people decreases its value”?

It was case in the past. In the present global world brands are selling large number of

products. The trick is to get as many sales as possible, but while maintaining a very high

level of quality and also using price to maintain that exclusiveness

SEPTEMBER 2011 01 THE MARKSMAN 14

FEATURED ARTICLE

The alarm bell rings exactly at the time you

set it up but you still feel a little sluggish.

You take a shower, dress up meticulously

and get ready to head towards the exami-

nation center. Of course, today is the D-

Day, for which you prepared year long.

And you don‟t want to mess up with any-

thing. You leave home

and suddenly 15

minutes down the drive

you recollect that you

have forgotten to wear

the amulet given by

your mom on the ad-

vice of that distant aunt

of yours. Is it wise to go

back home or is it get-

ting too late? You figure

it out that without

wearing it; anyways

there is no chance of

you excelling into exam.

So you rush back to

home as you have now

decided to take that gi-

ant leap of faith this

time.

This is the power exercised by lucky

charms, amulets, gemstones and different

yantras laming to bring all the happiness

and success of the world to you. And many

of us will even pay a premium price to use

these products. The global market size for

spiritual products and services is estimated

to be approximately $100 bn. And most of

it is highly unorganized, especially in the In-

Strategies of marketers selling spirituality and related

products and services

Faith Marketing

dian context. Absence of a market leader

also signifies it to be a blue ocean unex-

plored by many entrepreneurs. India being

considered as a land of snake charmers for

ages has now become an IT superpower,

yet the belief and attitude shared by many

Indians regarding spiritual products remains

unshaken.

Many of us will go

that extra mile to

buy these products

as if they are a pana-

cea for all of our

problems. All we

need is some expert

opinion and advice

to choose which

product to use and

when. Branding this

product category

can help in increas-

ing the credibility of

these items. An

interesting thing is

that you pay a pre-

mium price to buy

such products which doesn‟t gives even a

fraction of guarantee that they will fulfill the

requisite you were looking for. Since it is

impossible to tell with absolute certainty

about whether any such product will serve

its purpose, the best way to promote it is

using the recommendation of opinion leaders

such as Astrologers, Palmistry and Feng

Shui experts, Taro card readers, Zen and

meditation experts. The advertisements of

the same can also be placed among vehicles

Source: http://1.imimg.com/data/4/4/MY-

977126/religious_10471168_250x250.jpg

SEPTEMBER 2011 01 SEPTEMBER 2011 15

- Akshat Malhotra ,SIBM Pune

FEATURED ARTICLE

of mass media such as newspapers, maga-

zines which will eventually help in spreading

the word-of-mouth publicity among masses.

The typical Indian consumer always yearns

for value and feels more confident about his

purchase if it satisfies this basic premise. To

increase the value factor, these products

can be coupled with jewelry which guaran-

tees some certain monetary returns to the

customers and also to enhance the aesthet-

ic value since the mystical power of these

products can‟t be assured in a quantifiable

manner to the customers. For this purpose,

liaisons can be formed with large jewelry

houses such as Gitanjali, Tanishq, D‟Dmas

for below the line promotions.

Since special products coupled with special

features come at a premium price, custom-

ers now demand an extended period of

service as well. Hence, to resolve the post-

purchase dissonance if any, a help line is a

must. Added to this, offers such as a “free

consultation with our astrology expert eve-

ry three or six months till one year of

purchase” can be clubbed with the prod-

ucts. Not only this, during non-peak hours,

similar help line can be used for telemar-

keting and providing consultation by

charging a nominal fee from subscribers.

How can we forget to formulate an online

marketing strategy? An interactive website

can be used so that customers themselves

can browse through vast collection of

products available.

Most of these products have a certain ritu-

als on how and when to use it using man-

tras, shlokas etc. These methods can be

provided on the website as a part of the

package and as a limited feature for every-

one else. Social media and public forums

can be used to increase awareness among

the users and inviting people to interact

with each other on real time basis where

everyone can share their expert opinion,

myths and ideas with each other.

With the proportion of disposable income

increasing among Indians backed by the

ability and willingness to experiment with

the luxury products, this product category

is definitely poised to see some action hap-

pening in next few years. As according to a

Persian saying “Go and wake up your luck”

rings a bell with many of those who are

yearning to raise their bar of success and

happiness filled life. Amen!

Source:

http://www.oios.in/Om/astrology.jpg

SEPTEMBER 2011 01 THE MARKSMAN 16

FEATURED ARTICLE

After its formal separation from Honda

Motors, Hero Group recently undertook a

massive rebranding exercise to appropri-

ately position their parent brand “Hero” in

the market and transfer the huge brand eq-

uity, loyalty and connect that the brand

„Hero Honda‟ has enjoyed over the past 27

years of its existence, to the new parent

brand „Hero Moto Corp‟.

The 360 degree advertising, leveraging al-

most all forms of conventional media plat-

forms, ranging from print to electronic to

OOH to social media, seem to be primarily

focused on maintaining the customer con-

nect and trust that the brand is known for

since it launched its first product in joint

venture with Honda Motors of Japan in

1984.

One of the biggest challenges that the

group faced was to reposition the parent

brand “Hero”, which was traditionally asso-

ciated with bicycles, as a trusted brand for

motorcycles. All three brands, “Hero”,

“Honda” and “Hero Honda” trigger three

different emotions in the mind of the cus-

tomers.

Do you Like it?

Hero Honda Re-branding to Hero Moto Corp:

While “Hero” has been traditionally linked

with non-motor based conveyance like bi-

cycles, brand “Honda” is widely respected

for its technological sophistication and ex-

cellence usually associated with Japanese

brands in motor engine based vehicles. On

the other hand, “Hero Honda” stands for

an Indian brand with global quality and ap-

peal in the psyche of its target segment.

The advertising blitzkrieg intended to cre-

ate the same kind of psychological associa-

tion that Hero Honda created with its cus-

tomers. Hero Honda, riding on the back of

“Dhak Dhak Go” campaign, intended to

instill a sense of pride among its Indian tar-

get segment for owning an Indian brand

which directly appealed to people‟s heart

due to its superior, world-class engineering

and services. In the nutshell, it represented

the aspiration and confidence of an Indian

to take the world by storm and to an-

nounce with pride that we have arrived.

The new series of advertisements, through

its theme “Hum Mein Hai hero”, endeavors

to create the same connect with the cus-

tomers. By highlighting that we all have the

potential to excel and its more about confi-

SEPTEMBER 2011 01 SEPTEMBER 2011 17

FEATURED ARTICLE FEATURED ARTICLE

- Pratima Rani, IIM Kozhikode

dence in one‟s abilities than the abilities

themselves, the advertorials attempt to

push the real message, that “Hero” touches

and is inseparably intertwined with every

Indian‟s life.

A completely new and appealing brand logo

designed by London based Logo specialist

Wolff Olin's was unveiled to mark the new

nomenclature of the business enterprise,

„Hero Moto Corp‟, reducing its previous

name „Hero Group‟ to obsolescence. The

new logo and name underlined its inde-

pendent presence and identity in the Mo-

torcycle segment, and successfully con-

veyed the message that the brand was no

longer confined to bicycles and tricycles,

but had shifted its trajectory to the next

level of value creation and delivery. It also

endeavored to allay any fear among its ex-

isting and potential buyers that it may not

be able to be as successful in its new, self-

dependent technology avatar.

The series of advertisements, most catchy

among which have been the television com-

mercial with an attractive jingle by the cele-

brated Indian Music Maestro and Oscar

Winner A. R. Rehman, appropriately sup-

ported the message that Hero Moto Corp

has matured to the level where it can take

on the world on its own. The 2+-minutes

long commercial beautifully created by ace

film director Anurag Kashyap under the su-

pervision of Law and Kenneth Communica-

tions (India) Pvt. Ltd, are based on Indian

characters with strong determination and

spirit indulged in different acts of heroism.

It successfully portrays that Hero Moto

Corp has the confidence and expertise, like

resurgent India, to make big on the world

stage. Overall, the new rebranding exercise

seems to have hit the right chord among

the customers and though it is too early to

declare a verdict, it can be safely said that

till now, it has been largely successful in

avoiding dilution of brand equity of the

group and has maintained the customer

connect. And yes, I like it.

SEPTEMBER 2011 01 THE MARKSMAN 18

FEATURED ARTICLE

Company: McDonalds

Ad Agency: Leo-Burnett

Ad description :

The moon dazzling in the starry night sky

and hands (made of McDonalds‟ fries…lol)

raised in a prayer. This is how McDonalds

greeted everyone Eid Mubarak this year.

This ad takes the cake away for sheer

“simplicity”. Open palms and the Eid ka

chaand... these are the only two elements

which tell the entire story of the ad and

create an instant emotional connect with

millions across the globe. It‟s innovative,

effective and just with the use of three col-

ors -yellow, black and white, it sends out a

clear message: Celebrate Eid with McDon-

alds. McDonalds has for many years been

using such innovative advertising strategies

to capture the minds of the people. This is

a brilliant strategy of how well an Interna-

tional company connects with its custom-

ers on an emotional level by going

“Glocal”.

Company: Vodafone

Ad agency: Ogilvy &Mather

Ad description:

Storyboard: The ad shows a guy whose

day starts by checking his Facebook notifi-

cations. He is hooked on to Facebook the

entire day, updating his profile, uploading

photos, spying on his ex‟s new catch and

chatting with friends. "He's always on Face-

book"-is the theme song of this TVC that

promotes Vodafone‟s latest Facebook

Phone- Vodafone 555 blue.

The ad has highlighted all the special fea-

tures of Facebook like instant notifications,

status updates, pokes and so on. It instantly

makes a connect with the fast moving, so-

cial networking youth who are high on Fa-

cebook. In this ad, Facebook truly comes

alive in a grand musical Broadway like fash-

ion with a delightful background score to

go with it which makes it a fun watch.

It’s all about Ad-itude!

This is the new section we are introducing where we will be picking good advertisements that touched a

chord among the viewers.

SEPTEMBER 2011 01 THE MARKSMAN 19

NEW ENTRY

“Predictably irrational”, makes an insightful

read for all marketing enthusiasts. Nobody

has better explored the unexplained, irra-

tional consumer behavior towards decision

making like Dan Ariely. The book questions

the widely accepted consumer behavior

theory of utility maximization. It is engag-

ing, rebellious and ground breaking, yet

simplistic in thought and process.

Why to buy?

At the heart of every marketplace are its

people. The greatest skill a marketer can

have is an understanding of people and

what guides and influences their decision.

The book shatters many long held doc-

trines about consumer behavior. First, con-

sumers are independent individuals and

consistent in choice. Second, consumers

know what they want and thus their choic-

es are rendered predictable. Third, con-

sumers can gauge the value, as Ariely

writes, “we know all the pertinent infor-

mation about our decisions” and “we can

calculate the value of the different options

we face.” Dan, through this book has re-

vealed how people get swayed by impulse,

emotion and contextual feelings, falling prey

to anchoring effects, immediate gratifica-

tion, intrinsic and extrinsic motivators and

endowment effect among others. The writ-

ing is riveting, funny, credible and smart.

Why you might not buy?

The book seeks to confirm irrationality

with experiments. But the most obvious

faux pas the book apparently makes, is of

simplifying the results and drawing conclu-

sions conveniently, ignoring other possible

unseen causes. Dan Ariely at times seems

to be making sweeping statements that

could go either way.

About the author

Dan Ariely is an Israeli American professor

of psychology and behavioral economics.

He teaches at Duke University and is the

founder of The Center for Advanced Hind-

sight

Rating

3.91/5

(Courtesy : www.goodreads.com)

BOOKWORM Predictably Irrational -

By Dan Ariely

SEPTEMBER 2011 01 SEPTEMBER 2011 20

BOOK WORM

Event: Guest Lecture-PepsiCo

Speaker: Mr. Tushar Srivastava, GM and

Senior Key Account Manager of PepsiCo, Mumbai

Date: Saturday, 3rd September, 2011

Venue: Seminar Hall, SIMSR

About the Speaker:

Mr. Srivastava has done his BA in Economics from Osma-

nia University followed by a PG Diploma in Sales and Mar-

keting from Rajendra Prasad Institute of Management Sci-

ences. After his stint at P&G, he worked at Kellogs India

as Area Sales Manager from 1998. He joined Pepsi in Oc-

tober 2006 as Key Accounts Manager in Modern Trade.

Topic of Discussion:

Discussion on Sales and Distribution channels of

F&B sector, structures implemented and problems

faced in the supply chain.

Takeaways: For the students of SIMSR, it was a great experi-

ence to have a speaker from an esteemed brand

like PepsiCo in the campus. Along with an engaging

talk, Mr. Srivastava answered a wide variety of

questions asked by the audience very enthusiastical-

ly. It was a much awaited event and greatly enjoyed

by SIMSRites.

Parting Words:

Inspite of all the glamour associated with it, PepsiCo and in

general, the whole F&B sector is not a very easy place to

work in. You have to be on your toes at all times making

sure that you are at par or ahead of your competition. Make

your future decisions wisely and I wish all the students here

best of luck for the future!

A RECAP OF INTERFACE EVENTS

SEPTEMBER 2011 01 THE MARKSMAN 21

REWIND

It‟s no secret that Google has been ramping up its use of the

Google Doodle. There seems to be a new one almost every day,

and this outing is, despite being animated, one of the less ambitious.

It doesn‟t sway with the movement of a laptop‟s accelerometer, or

let you play a tune by clicking your mouse, as previous efforts have.

It‟s just a dressed-up YouTube video. Google hasn‟t even bothered

to hide the player controls.

The proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger is shaping up to be

an iconic business case saga and a judicial milestone. They

take it as an easy way to become market leaders and gain

monopoly if U.S. Department of Jus- tice lets them go ahead

with it

Reports of the loss of an iPhone prototype, the second

instance in a year and a half, has created suspicion that the en-

tire event could be a publicity stunt by Apple to market the de-

vice. In April 2010, Apple lost an iPhone 4 prototype that went

missing in a bar just before its release. But Apple was lucky to

get it back after it had been sold by a finder to tech blog Gizmo

do for $5000. But this time Apple is having a tough time getting

back its iPhone 5, which was reportedly sold on Craigslist for

$200.

Automobile major Mahindra, on Monday announced

its five year association with the Buddha Internation-

al Circuit (BIC). Mahindra will provide 25 Scorpios as the

official support vehicles to the BIC, at its facility in Greater

Noida. In turn, BIC is supporting the popular Mahindra

„Adventure Initiatives‟ throughout the year like The Great

Escape, the Monastery Escape - off-road rallies. As per the

agreement, Mahindra will provide 25 Scorpios including 10

Scorpio VLX and 15 Scorpio Gateway to be used in the the

October 30 F1 races.

UK firm Reckitt Benckiser has overtaken

Wipro Consumer Care for the first time in

the 8,800-crore Indian soap market, as its germ-

fighter Dettol emerged the third largest soap

brand in the country. According to market researcher Nielsen's data,

Reckitt was the third-largest soap maker in the country with a 9.1% share in the market

in value terms in June this year, ahead of Azim Premji-promoted Wipro, which had 8.1%

share with brands such as Santoor and Chandrika. Wipro, however, said it is not con-

vinced by Nielsen umbers. Hindustan Unilever, with brands such as Lifebuoy and Lux con-

tinues to be a clear leader in the segment with 45% share, followed by Godrej Consum-

ers, according to Nielsen data.

TWEETS

SEPTEMBER 2011 01 SEPTEMBER 2011 22

THE CROSSWORD

THE CLUES for the questions

BUZZ Map the crossword with the visual and textual clues

Theme : Old Logos

•Across

3.Originally a phoenix with wings out-

spread to match the program‟s original

name: Phoenix. For legal reasons, the

name was changed and the logo was re-

drawn.

5.2nd largest Korean conglomerate after

Samsung and was established as Lak-Hui

Chemical Industrial Corp.

6.Started by several California banks as a

competitor to that of Bank of

America.

•Down

1.This logo for a concept came up in a

designing competition conducted by Chi-

cago based company on first Earth day.

Identify concept.

2.The Company is actually the acronym

of its Italian name and is based in

Turin, Italy.

4.Earlier name of the company was

CTRC, Computing-Tabulating-Recording

Company. What is the current name.

7.Began as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co.,

Ltd, in Japan in 1920, and produced

weapons for the Japanese in the Second

World War

8.Founded in 1937 by the Nazi trade un-

ion, the German Labor Front and it was

called the "the People's Car".

9.Founded in 1906 in Rochester as The

Haloid Photographic Company by Ches-

ter Carlson.

Answers -

1.Recycle 2.Fiat 3.Firefox 4.Ibm 5.Luckygoldstar(LG) 6..Mastercard(across) 7.Mazda(down) 8.Volkswagen

9.Xerox

THE MARKSMAN 23

CALL FOR ARTICLES

OCTOBER 2011

Articles can be sent on any one of the following topics*:

a) All Marketers are liars! Please give your views either for

or against the topic.

b) Marketing without spending a single rupee- Old Monk. How

have they done this?

c) The 4Ps of Anna Hazare campaign.

*Please ensure that there is no plagiarism and all references are

clearly mentioned

One article can have only one author.

Your article should be for 500-600 words and MUST

be replete with relevant pictures so that it can be used to en-

hance your article.

Send in your articles in .doc/.docx format with font size

11 (Arial) to: interface.newsletter@gmail.com

Subject Line: Your Name_Institute Name_Course Year.

Kindly name your file as: Your Name_Topic

The best adjudged article will be given a winner's certificate

with the noteworthy articles being published in the September

issue and on the Interface website / Facebook page.

Deadline for submission of the articles: 11:59 PM ,

12th October, 2011.

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 copyright.

The Marksman does not take any responsibility of any kind of plagiarism in the articles

received from students of other colleges.

To subscribe to "The Marksman", Follow the link:-

http://interfacesimsr.weebly.com/the-marksman.html

OR drop in a mail to interface.newsletter@gmail.com

Subject line: Subscribe: Your Name_Institute Name_Course Year

Contact us at: interface.newsletter@gmail.com

Website: http://interfacesimsr.weebly.com

Follow us at: http://www.facebook.com/simsr.interface

THE TEAM

COVER STORY Tilottama Sanyal

SPECIAL STORY Hinal Shah

It is all about Ad-itude ! Tilottama Sanyal

Hinal Shah

BOOKWORM Niyati Chamyal

REWIND

Tilottama Sanyal

COVER PAGE Vibhav Shukla

TWEETS Upveen Tameri

BUZZ Sujit Mishra

DESIGN Vibhav Shukla

Yash Chamaria