>> 20

SPECIAL STORY Marketing & Sports

>>12

FAUX PAS Gap Inc.

>>16

BRAND MARKive

>> 06

HALLMARK CAMPAIGN

WestJet Christmas Miracle

SUMMER 2014 01

EDITOR’S NOTE

Dear Readers,

After a three month break, Team Interface is out with yet another fabulous Summer

issue of The Marksman.

We have chosen 'Marketing Modified' as the topic for our cover story which will

enlighten us on how and why Team Modi broke all records on its way to Delhi. In our

special story, we look at how Sports and Marketing come together to form a

seemingly perfect relationship.

In our section on the Marketing Faux Pas, we look at Gap’s failed attempt at

rebranding. Bookworm enlightens us on the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.

Our regular sections of SquAreHead, Ad-itude and Tweets help broaden our

horizons and add engage our minds in intriguing thoughts.

We decided not to have a Call for Articles section this time around and instead

incorporated in the magazine accounts of some of our team members and their

experiences of corporate life.

We constantly look to bring to you the latest trends featuring in the marketing

world. Your feedback is most valuable to us. Connect with us on

www.interfacesimsr.com/the-marksman to leave your views and suggestions.

Thank You and Happy Reading!!

Team MARKSMAN

The Interface-The Marketing Club of SIMSR

@marksmansimsr.

Team MARKSMAN

The Interface-The Marketing Club of SIMSR

@marksmansimsr.

CONTENTS

TWEETS

02 THE MARKSMAN

MARKETING FAUX PAS

20

BUZZ

IT’S ALL ABOUT AD-ITUDE

Hall-MARK CAMPAIGN

17

16

12

08

06

05

03

29

BRAND MARKive

BOOKWORM

SPECIAL STORY

MARKETING & SPORTS

COVER STORY

MARKETING MODIFIED

23 INTERNS SPEAK

28 SQUAREHEAD

21 MARKETING RealTIME

TWEETS

Ali Baba enters the U.S.A.

China’s largest e-commerce

company is making its first

appearance in the U.S. with the

debut of 11Main.com, an invite-only

online marketplace that showcases

small business retailers.

Industry watchers will be paying

close attention since 11 Main is

owned by Alibaba, the e-commerce

giant in China that filed for an initial

public offering in the U.S. in May.

Bigger than Amazon and eBay

combined, Alibaba had no U.S. e-

commerce presence until now.

Alibaba is starting small with 11

Main, based in San Mateo, California.

The site, which debuts Wednesday

in a beta phase, will feature

"hundreds of thousands" of

products from 1,000 to 2,000

upscale specialty shops and

boutiques around the country that

were vetted by 11 Main.

Nike football

The latest advert released by Nike travels

covers uncharted waters by releasing a

short animated film with all the biggest

names in football. The New advert from

Nike features animated Wayne Rooney,

Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan

Ibrahimovic, David Luiz, Franck Ribery,

Andres Iniesta and Tim Howard. The new

Nike ad animated film is some serious

competition to the best World Cup ads

around this year. Watch it here-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy1rum

vo9xc

SUMMER 2014 03

TWEETS

Xiaomi enters India, gets

Jabong’s co-founder on-board

China’s biggest electronics company,

Xiaomi (meaning "little rice"), is

coming to India and has hired Manu

Kumar Jain as its India operations head.

Jain was one of the co-founders of

online retailer Jabong but had parted

ways to launch his own start-up

Gynger, where he was planning to

launch smartphones, tablets and

wearables. He was looking at launching

high quality smart devices

manufactured by third-party ODMs in

Taiwan and China at aggressive price

points in India. Xiaomi has a similar

model where it sells premium quality

smartphones with top-of-the-line

hardware components at a fraction of

the price of tier one brands.

HomeShop18 debuts in the ad

world

We all know HomeShop18 as that channel

that has the annoying VJs constantly selling

bed sheets, mixer-grinders and what not.

But looks like they are starting a new

branding exercise. Executed by

Creativeland Asia, the first 45-seconder

features Billy, the father cat and Sunny, the

son cat, sitting across a table representing

Homeshop18. They get into a dialogue with

the audience sharing the benefits of

shopping on the brand's TV channel,

website and mobile app. The cats inform

viewers about the various product

categories, delivery and payment options

by directly conversing with the former. The

film ends with the jingle - and tagline -

'Shopping makes me Happy'. The other

films in the series talk about 'Fashion',

'Amazing Offers' and 'Home care &

Kitchen Solutions'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nhhy

G8gPJk

04 THE MARKSMAN

With the growing issue of obesity, it had become important for the French ministry to curb

it at the earliest. And what else could be a better idea that targeting children – because

that’s where obesity takes its roots.

The above print-ad, in the form of a tempting ice cream, features an image of an ice cream,

topped with a big belly. The copy reads "L'obesite commence des le plus jeune age," meaning

"obesity starts at a young age."

IT’S ALL ABOUT AD-ITUDE

Print Ad

Print Ad

Company: Volkswagen's Amarok

Created by: ‘Below’ Ad agency

06 THE MARKSMAN

Company: French Ministry of Health

Created by: David Lesage

Volkswagen gets even more creative and innovative with every ad it comes up with. In order to promote the unique feature of getting more than 620 miles out of single tank of fuel with Volkswagen's Amarok, a series of print ads were developed, inviting people to 'turn on adventure'. This unique print ad features three images within the groves of the car keys -a city, safari and mountain landscape. The idea of covering these three forms of landscapes without exhausting the fuel, comes across subtly yet effectively through this ad

SUMMER 2014 05

BRAND MARKive FIFA WORLD CUP 2014

“For the Game. For the World”

“Football is not really about winning, or goals,

or saves, or even supporters- it’s about the

glory, it is about doing things in style and

with a flourish, about going out and beating

the other lot, not waiting for them to die of

boredom.” - Danny Blanchflower

I think all the football lovers out there

would agree with this with their whole

heart. With the football fever kicking in

they can be found glued to the TV sets.

The impossibly odd hours of broadcast

would not deter the will of an ardent fan.

This time the city of Sao Paulo in Brazil

gets the honor of being the host to the

prestigious FIFA World Cup. The city is a

riot of colors of the Brazil national team

shirts with the overwhelming presence of

golden yellow color. Everything shines

with the color of optimism, energy and

happiness. Ranging from the escalators at

metro stations, hotel foyers, to taxis and

trains running under and over the ground.

Even eye liners and nail paints are

similarly color-coordinated. Like a

splendid sunrise, it is a sight you will

never tire of.

And with Brazil hosting the World

Cup and playing the first match, the

effect seemed million times more

luminous. Men, women and child wore

the Selecao shirt the five stars of

Brazil’s five World Cup triumphs, a

proud adornment.

The 2014 FIFA World Cup officially

began on Thursday with a 25-minute

colorful opening ceremony. It was an

act in four parts. On a carpet that

covered the pitch and with four

massive drums in four corners, it

celebrated Brazil’s nature, people and

the one sport that is part of the

cultural fabric of this country. There

were men and women kicking balls

tied on a string shifting it from one

foot to another.

Men wrapped with a wonderful dress

of leaves, women dressed in purple

with lotus leaves and a wide array of

characters projecting the rich Amazon

heritage of Brazil entered the stadium

with a zig-zag type of formation. The

trampoline filled the audience with a

fresh breath of Brazilian music. Next,

the Samba dancers enthralled the

public with a romantic performance,

followed by the ballet performance of

men dressed in hats and women in

beautiful white gowns.

To liven up the atmosphere more, the

giant flower at the centre of the

stadium opened to vibrant Brazilian

06 THE MARKSMAN

08 THE MARKSMAN

BRAND MARKIVE

“FIFA’s mission statement is ‘develop the

game, touch the world and build a better

future’, and this is something that is

essential for the success of the strategy,”

Today, FIFA has emerged as one of the

strongest brands with a magnificent

presence both online as well as offline. FIFA

has built its brand on the support from

youth engagement all over the world. One

of FIFA’s biggest events is held online: the

EA Sports FIFA World Cup for gamers. Also,

FIFA Interactive World Cup offers its fans a

money-can’t-buy experience – being able to

go to the FIFA World Player Gala, meet the

world players and really get something

which is unique.

FIFA also conceptualized the concept of

watching and celebrating a match together

through the FIFA fan fest it organizes since

2006.

It provides a huge platform for its various

partners to showcase their brands. FIFA as

a brand has perpetuated the lives of people

across the globe thriving on a single

emotion that is passion for the game.

colors marking the time for the official

song for the 2014 FIFA WORLD CUP.

Jennifer Lopez, Pitbull and Claudia

Leiite sang the official soundtrack of

the FIFA World Cup, "We are One"

together. With that the time struck for

football’s biggest show on Earth!

Sitting at the helm of this world sport

is the Fédération Internationale de

Football Association (FIFA), one of the

world’s largest and oldest NGOs.

On 21 May 1904, six countries

(France, Spain, Belgium, the

Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland)

decided they wanted to get in on the

action and formed FIFA as a means of

organising matches between national

teams. Slowly more teams signed up,

with Germany and England both

signing up a year later, followed by

South Africa, then Argentina and Chile,

in 1912.

FIFA evolved from being an

association for protecting the sanctity

of the rules and becoming the major

contact point for the game. The

association’s marketing strategy was

not always consistent with absence of

its branding on the World Cup it had

spent years organizing. In 1974, under

Brazil’s Joao Havelange as President,

FIFA became not only a renowned

global brand but also into a kind of aid

organization.

Havelange aided developing nations

through funding programs to expand

the game and enrich the locals’ lives

participating in it.

SUMMER 2014 07

COVER STORY MARKETING MODIFIED

Most of us would have realized that this

was the first time the youth of the nation

were so excited about the elections and

the people of the nation are now excited

and have huge expectations from that one

man whom we all have been extensively

reading about, watching on TV, following

on internet for past few months, India’s

15th Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi.

How it was made sure that he gets there

where he is now makes us realize the

power of marketing, be it social media, the

advertisements, slogans, events, and so

many other things.

There was a dedicated marketing and

communication brigade working for Modi

and they made use of almost every

possible media channel you can think of,

TV, print, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,

WhatsApp, DTH, radio, hoardings, people-

connect initiatives or events.

You can relate to most of the concepts

employed in Modi’s political campaign to

the contents of Kotler or any other

marketing book or blog. Let us find out

what we as marketing enthusiasts can

learn from this, what now is referred to as

one of the biggest and most innovative

political campaign in India that

successfully established brand Modi.

Role of Social Media – A

breakthrough

The most talked about and perhaps the

most important one that targeted

youth of the nation was the social

media which was used to market Modi.

Modi’s team knew that there were over

150 million first time voters between

age of 18-23 years who are social

media savvy and follow a mobile centric

lifestyles. With 17 million likes on his

Facebook page and 4.71 million

followers on twitter, you can imagine

how active Modi is on social media and

the good thing is that activity seems to

continue in the same manner as Mr.

Modi is trying to connect to the youth

via this media and to also lay down a

framework for e-governance.

Twitter

Mr. Modi was seen most active on

twitter just like Obama was during his

campaign. “India has won! Good days

08 THE MARKSMAN

are coming.” This victory tweet of Modi on

twitter has become the most

retweeted post in Indian history – more

than 70,000 and counting. Mr. Modi has

continue to actively use this platform to

connect with the digital generation.

Facebook

This page was regularly active to engage

the huge voter bank which is present on

the web, the youth of the nation. From the

number of ‘people talking about this’ in the

image you can estimate the level of brand

engagement that was achieved.

You-tube Channel

Videos have become most important way

of increasing brand awareness, be it a viral

video or a series of videos talking about

different value propositions of a product.

Modi’s YouTube channel has a vast number

of followers with more than 11 lakh

subscribers. All the speeches which Modi

gave in various rallies and events were

uploaded there.

COVER STORY

10 THE MARKSMAN

COVER STORY

Role of Innovation in Marketing

Like its importance in every field of

life, marketers have learned the

importance of innovation to promote

and sell their products, with so much

competition in the market, its

ultimately what you are doing

differently to capture the attention of

consumers just like Coke has

launched its campaign of innovative

uses of its bottle’s cap, use of flash

mob as a publicity stunt by Mahindra

and many others. Modi’s team also

ventured into ways of campaigning

that were used for the first time in

Indian political campaigning. Let’s have

a look at few of them.

3D Hologram Rally:

The rally in which Modi appeared in

his holographic avatar and which

allowed him to hold 100 rallies at the

same time and he did this in over

1000 rallies. This rally attracted the

voters and stirred an excitement

amongst the masses.

SUMMER 2014 09

COVER STORY COVER STORY

Promotional Events – Chai Pe

Charcha

This was yet another way of increasing

brand Engagement where people

gathered at tea stalls where they could

see or talk to Modi over webcast and sip

tea from cups with his picture on them. It

created a great amount of buzz especially

in less literate people. They might have

been happy watching Modi talk about

development of the country but they

definitely enjoyed sipping free tea. That

was the idea basically!

Modi merchandise

The NaMo online store, was launched

where Modi’s merchandise, T-shirts, mugs,

stationary, Modi pen drives was cheaply

and easily available. Many private

distributors, seeing the market trend have

gone ahead and branded their own

products with the NaMo tag. In Varanasi,

bricks were being sold with 'NAMO'

inscribed on them.

TV/Newspaper Advertisements:

Every second story in the newspaper,

every second on news channels, and then

the TV ads with phrase “Ab ki bar, Modi

Sarkaar”, it was made sure that brand

Modi is around you all the time.

O&M's which has longstanding

association with Gujarat Tourism ad

campaigns played an important role in

this campaign as well. Soho Square, a

Ogilvy Group’s company played a

major role in the campaign. Nothing

works better than catchphrases and

so it did for this campaign. Piyush

Pandey, wrote “Ab ki baar Modi

Sarkaar” and “Janta Maaf Nahi Karegi”.

“Achche Din Anewale hain”, the

cricket animation ads all these were

the artwork of the team working in

this company. Be it in a WhatsApp

joke, Facebook posts or at rallies the

buzz created by these taglines was

such that even a 5 year old child

would recognize these.

Importance of a clear

positioning

Just like “core competency” is

important for manufacturing, in

marketing “clear positioning” is very

important. Often brands fail when

they try to say too many things and

end up confusing the customer. On

the contrary brands that are single-

minded and clear in their

communication succeed. In

manufacturing we talk of “core

competence” and in marketing we talk

of clear positioning. Same way Brand.

Modi focused

on agenda of

development

and good

governance.

10 THE MARKSMAN

COVER STORY

12 THE MARKSMAN

COVER STORY

Marketing Mix of Brand Modi

Product: What did the consumers, the

people of nation wanted very desperately

after Manmohan Singh, a strong ,confident

and non-corrupt leader, with decision

making ability who challenges the status

quo , and besides being a man who is

industry friendly, who has proved himself

for good governance in Gujarat , Modi

seemed to possess all the qualities that

could satisfy the need and wants of Indian

voters. We all know that the people of

India would not have voted in this huge

numbers for BJP had Modi not been its

face.

Place: Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial

candidate, addressed 437 big rallies,

participated in a total 5827 public events

and travelled over three lakh kilometres

across 25 states in his attempt to connect

himself to the people everywhere.

The campaign managers and Modi knew

that gone were the days when a single

agenda like say: Gareebi Hatao would

work for the whole country. Their

Strategy was different for different target

markets with specific targeted messages.

Modi talked about farmer suicides in

Maharashtra and in Punjab, he spoke of

drugs and in Varanasi, Modi talked about

the holy river Ganga.

Price: You might put it humorously to be

the price that the citizens of the nation

paid by bringing Congress into power in

the last elections and now with very less

product appeal of Congress, the

competitors, Modi was all set to take

advantage in the electoral market. Price

can also be the value of the product

which Modi has promised of what he is

going to deliver.

Promotion: As we discussed already

discussed no channel remained

untouched with promotional activities for

the brand Modi, be it through text, voice

messages, social networking, consistently

giving the message of his achievements

and that he is a man of minimum

government and maximum governance.

Summing up- You just cannot sell a

bad product

Do you think Congress lacked in its

spending power or ability to get

marketing brains to campaign for it and

they did actually spend a lot, but it is a

truism you cannot sell a bad product.

Irrespective of the money you spend on

marketing, if what you are selling fails to

strike a chord in the minds people of the

nation or the consumers, that selling

party will end on the losing side.

Until now Barack Obama's rise to power

is used in some IIMs as a case study to

explain marketing, brand management

and integrated marketing concepts but

now we can very soon might find case

studies related to the making and success

of brand Modi, rebranding done by BJP or

comparison of BJP and Congress

marketing campaigns and so many similar

things. For now one thing is for sure that

the brand Modi is under a huge pressure

to deliver after the promises it has made

and what would be wise of our PM would

be to create a product mix, a team of

able leaders to delegate responsibilities

to them to ease that pressure off himself.

SUMMER 2014 11

SPECIAL STORY

Marketing and Sports

Marketing and sports can be one of the

rare truly win – win situations for both

parties. The sponsoring brands pump

money into the sporting event and the

organizers use that money to make the

event a success which serves in capturing

maximum visibility. This then helps the

sponsoring brand. Come the next

tournament the same thing will be

repeated and the mutually beneficial cycle

is continued.

There are three types of marketing when

it comes to its association with sports.

They are:

1. Marketing of a sporting event

This includes tournaments like the English

Premier League, Olympics, Indian Premier

League etc. This is the most common way

that brands associate themselves with

sport. In some cases, the sponsoring brand

has taken over the name of the event. For

example, the English Premier League

which is sponsored by Barclays is often

called Barclays Premier league. Back here

in India, T20 tournament of the BCCI i.e.

the Indian Premier League is now called

the Pepsi IPL after the title sponsor Pepsi.

Such cases where the tournament is

recognized by the main sponsoring brand

is a common feature if the tournament

occurs annually. The organizers and brand

both reap the rewards of the mutually

beneficial relationship.

In some cases, when the tournament is

a proven success and the TRPs shoot

through the roof, many brands will

flock to be associated with the event in

some way or the other so that its

colours are visible to the eyes of all the

viewers of the tournament. Now all

companies do not have the same

composition of advertising budget, so in

order to accommodate such brands,

lots of innovation is seen in sporting

events and especially Cricket. We have

the Vodafone Fan of the Day where the

fan is all dressed up in red and gets a

signed match ball by the winning

captain.

12 THE MARKSMAN

Until recently we even had the Karbonn

Kamal Catch of the Match in which a cash

prize was awarded to the player who takes

the best catch of the match. What’s

interesting is that not all sponsorships

have to be cash sponsorships. In the India

– England series, Bajaj awarded a Pulsar

bike to the Man of the Match. This too

goes a long way in promoting the brand as

it means the star performer will now be

riding a Bajaj Pulsar. It is a blessing for the

organizers as they have an award readily

available to them. This is forcing organizers

and advertisers to come up with

innovative ways of accommodating all the

sponsors.

The Strategic Time-Out in the IPL is one

such example. Aston bands and logo

flashes for companies that have not

invested in a TV commercial is another

such innovation.

COVER STORY

10 THE MARKSMAN

2. Using sporting superstars to

market the brands products

This is a fairly direct marketing

strategy where brands get superstars

that best depict its positioning and suit

the product being marketed. Sports

superstars endorsing products will

continue grow as the viewership of

major sporting events increases. In

India, they say Cricket is a religion and

Sachin Tendulkar is the God. Imagine

then, how much a brand stands to gain

with somebody like Sachin Tendulkar

being its brand ambassador.

It is also common for players of a team

to endorse one product as depicted by

the advertisement of Britannia Nutri

Choice where they roped in the

Bangalore Royal Challengers team to

promote its products.

SPECIAL STORY

SUMMER 2014 13

But the sporting brand ambassadors in

India are no longer restricted just to

Cricket. Lionel Messi is used by Head and

Shoulders to promote their shampoo.

Roger Federer and Cristiano Ronaldo have

also featured in some advertisements.

Product placements in the field of sports is

also employed. Tiger Woods will be seen

wearing a Rolex watch in golf

tournaments, similarly Rafael Nadal will

always be seen sporting a Nike headband

and wristband during his tennis matches. In

fact his whole sporting gear will be

sponsored by Nike.

The Hockey India League sponsored by

Hero modelled on the lines of its

cricket counterpart is testimony to

this.

Ethical Issues

Until now the article has spoken on

how sports and marketing can co-exist

and actually prove to benefit each

other. Everything seemed to fit. The

picture painted did seem rather rosy,

didn’t it? What could go wrong? Seems

like a match made in heaven. The

Answer – A whole lot could go wrong.

Sports and marketing have always come

under the scrutiny of the public more

so when there are lavish displays of

extravagance and grandeur. The IPL is a

big money spinner and people do not

appreciate unsporting practiced like

match fixing, the Lalit Modi saga, Pune

Warriors debacle etc. Events like these

only serve to leave a sour taste in the

mouth. Similarly at a time when the

Brazil economy is not doing too well,

the government has chosen to invest

money in new stadiums and

infrastructure when a quarter of the

country is facing starvation. The

stadium in Rio de Janeiro only needed a

new lick of paint but the government

decided it was a better idea to

construct a new stadium for the

tournament just to pacify the sponsors.

This has led to mass protests and many

people have taken to the streets. A

somewhat similar situation surrounds

the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

3. Marketing of the sport to increase

viewership

This is undertaken to benefit the sport.

The abysmal state of Indian hockey is

evident to the nation yet very little seems

to be done about it. That’s because cricket

is where the “moolah” is.

The government has only recently started

promoting hockey to the youth and

encouraging them to take it up in a bid to

revive the future of Indian Hockey.

SPECIAL STORY

14 THE MARKSMAN

Greece hosted the Olympics in 2004 at a

time when their economy was in shambles

and the event only added to their already

massive debt. Their economy has been left

crippled and does not look like it will

recover in the near future. We do not

need to pollute sport and entertainment

with such unsavoury events. A clean way

can always be found out, a middle ground

established where brands can use sport to

further their interests, not at the

detriment of the people but to their

benefit. After all, the viewers are the

ultimate stakeholders.

COVER STORY

10 THE MARKSMAN

SPECIAL STORY

SUMMER 2014 15

MARKETING FAUX PAS The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

The Gap Inc, was established in 1969 by

Donald G. Fisher and Doris Fisher and

they opened the first Gap Store in San

Jose, California which mainly housed Levis

and LP merchandise. In 1974, they began

to sell private label merchandise. In the

year 2010, Gap changed their logo to

Helvetica font a blue box overlapping the

“P”. This logo change was a step taken by

the company to reposition their brand.

Gap is known for everyday basics and the

logo change was undertaken to appeal to a

more hip crowd. Unfortunately, the

company didn’t understand who their

target market is -- the people who want

the basics and aren't interested in trendy

styles. Their loyal customers felt that Gap

was changing their image for the worse

and hence, lost a connection with the

brand. Gap was also unsuccessful at

attracting the younger, trendy generation

with this redesign.

After a slew of criticism, the company

announced that it would incorporate

customer accommodation in its

company and if a change was required

would handle it in a different manner.

The logo failed as the predecessor logo

was one that did not appeal to the loyal

customers and the use of Helvetica

font made the logo look tacky and

hence, unappealing. Thus, the most

important lesson learnt by the officials

was that the customer has to be

engaged in the change process and the

product positioning has to change

before the logo change to increase

acceptability chances and hence, allow

the brand to evolve and at the same

time be accepted by customers over a

period of time.

16 THE MARKSMAN

BOOK WORM The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

-Al Ries and Jack Trout

OCTOBER 2013 19

So far, the closest and the most precise

definition of marketing I have come across is

that given by John Cater, which goes as follows:

“Marketing is the science of convincing us that

What You Get Is What You Want”

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing is a short

and an effective piece of work by Al Ries and

Jack Trout, which talks about all major aspects

of marketing, in a set of comprehensible laws.

The following is the summary of the various

laws that the book talks of:

Law 1 (law of leadership): Being first in the

market is better than having a better product

than a competition. Examples: we all remember

who first flew over Atlantic or who the first

man on the moon was but almost no-one

knows who the second was. Heineken was the

first imported beer in USA and still is No. 1

imported beer. Same for Miller Lite, first

domestic light beer. Being first doesn't matter if

the idea/product is not good.

Law 2 (law of category): Given that it's very

hard to gain leadership in a category where

competition already exists, it's better to create

a product in new category than trying to attack

existing categories. Category doesn't have to be

radically different, e.g. if there's dominant player

in imported beer, one can become the first to

import light beer. If one can't be the first to fly

over Atlantic, one can still be the first woman to

fly over Atlantic.

Law 3 (law of mind): It's not important to be

the first in the market but the first in the mind

of consumers.

Marketing is the science of

convincing us that What You Get Is

What You Want

“ ”

SUMMER 2014 17

BOOKWORM Law 4 (law of perception): Marketing is

not about products (their features or

quality) but about perceptions (how people

perceive products). Reality doesn't exists,

what we call "reality" is just a perception of

reality that we create in our minds. Honda

is a leading Japanese car manufacturer in US

but only third in Japan (after Toyota and

Nissan). If the quality of the car was the

most important thing it should have the

same position in all markets. In Japan,

however, people perceive Honda as a

manufacturer of motorcycles. Therefore

what's important is that marketing should

be focused on changing the perception.

Law 5 (law of focus): "The most powerful

concept in marketing is owning a word in

the prospect's mind". Owning in this

context means that if people hear or see

this word they usually connect it with a

company that "owns" this word. IBM owns

"computer". FedEx owns "overnight". You

can't take somebody else's word.

Law 6 (law of exclusivity): It's fruitless to

try to take over a word that is already

owned by a competitor. Burger King tried

to own word "fast" which was already

owned by McDonald; and failed miserably.

FedEx tried to take over "worldwide" from

DHL.

Law 7 (law of the ladder): Marketing

strategy depends on your position in the

market. If you're No. 2 you use different

strategy than when you're No. 1 or 3. Avis

was No. 2 in car rental and when they

advertised as "finest in rent-a-cars" they

had losses because their marketing wasn't

credible (you can't be "finest" being No. 2).

That had profit when they switched to

"Avis is only No. 2 in rent-a-cars. So why go

with us? We try harder". Then they had

another disastrous campaign when they

started claiming "Avis is going to be No.

1".

Law 8 (law of duality): In the long run,

every market becomes a two-horse race.

McDonald & Burger King. Coca-Cola &

Pepsi. Nike & Reebok. Crest & Colgate.

Law 9 (law of opposite): If you're

shooting for second place, your strategy

is determined by the leader. Leverage the

leader's strength into a weakness. Don't

try to be better than the leader, try to be

different. E.g. Pepsi marketed itself as a

"choice for the new generation" when

faced with Coca-Cola’s "old and

established" brand.

Law 10 (law of division): Over time a

category will divide and become two or

more categories. E.g. computers started

as a single category but broke up into

mainframes, workstations, personal

computers, laptops etc. Cars started as a

single category but divided into luxury

cars, sport cars, RVs, minivans etc.

Companies often don't understand that

and instead think that categories are

combining, believe in synergy. Leader can

maintain dominance by addressing

emerging categories with new brand

names instead of using brand name

successful in one category in a new

category. E.g. when Honda wanted to go

up-market it created a new brand, Acura.

Law 11 (law of perspective):

Marketing effects take place over an

extended period of time. It's a mistake to

sacrifice long-term planning with actions

to improve short-term balance sheet. E.g.

sales increase short-term profits but in

long-term educates people not to buy for

regular price, therefore decreasing long-

term profits.

18 THE MARKSMAN

Law 12 (law of extension): There's an

irresistible pressure to extend the equity

of the brand and it's a mistake. Instead

one should create new brands to address

new markets/products.

Law 13 (law of sacrifice): You have to

give up something in order to get

something. There are three things to

sacrifice:

Product Line

Target Market

Constant Change

Law 14 (law of attributes): For every

attribute, there is an opposite, effective

attribute. You can own the same word as

the competition. You have to find another

word to own, another attribute.

Law 15 (law of candor): When you

admit a negative, the prospect will give

you a positive. Candor is disarming. It's ok

to admit, as Avis did, that "Avis is only No.

2 in rent-a-cars".

Law 16 (law of singularity): In each

situation, only one move will produce

substantial results. People tend to think

that success is the result of a lot of small

efforts well executed, that working

harder is a way to success. In marketing

only thing that works is a single, bold

stroke.

Law 17 (law of predictability): Unless

you write your competitors' plans, you

can't predict the future. You don't know

the future, you don't know what your

competition will do so you have to build

your company and marketing strategies

to be flexible, to be able to quickly

respond to changing situation.

Law 18 (law of success): Success often

leads to arrogance, and arrogance to

failure. Don't be arrogant, drop the ego,

be objective.

Law 19 (law of failure): Failure is to

be expected and accepted. Drop

things that don't work instead of

trying to fix them. Don't punish for

failures (if you do people will stop

taking risks).

Law 20 (law of hype): The situation

is often the opposite of the way it

appears in the press. The amount of

hype isn't proportional to success,

often failed products are heavily

hyped.

Law 21 (law of acceleration):

Successful programs are not built on

fads but on trends.

Law 22 (law of resources):

Without adequate funding an idea

won't get off the ground. You need a

lot of money to market your ideas.

In my opinion all the examples stated

in "The 22 Immutable Laws of

Marketing" that illustrate the laws are

taken from the relatively small pool of

the biggest companies in the world.

It's not evident that the same rules

apply to small (or medium) businesses.

This is one of the frequent flaws in the

book.

BOOKWORM

SUMMER 2014 19

`

‘Twas a night before Christmas and all

across the land, the good folks of WestJet

had a miracle planned. On the eve before

flying the guests were in their beds, visions

of travelling danced in their heads. While

out on the runway something secret had

arrived, it was left in the lounge it was a

Christmas surprise.

The Canadian airline, WestJet touched

their passengers’ hearts with an

astounding surprise. When the guests

travelling from Toronto to Hamilton

arrived at the airport, they noticed a

massive and mysterious gift with a screen

displaying Santa. Shortly, they were having

an exciting conversation with Santa about

the presents they wished for that

Christmas.

From children to the elderly, every guest

conveyed their Christmas present wish to

Santa by scanning their boarding pass first.

These wishes ranged from an Android

tablet, to a large screen TV and to socks

and underwear. Simultaneously, WestJetters

took notes and got ready to shop quickly.

WestJet Christmas Miracle

Hall-MARK CAMPAIGN

The airline staff or the WestJetters

rushed to Best Buy and other stores as

they actually purchased all those gifts

from the list of the passengers’ wishes.

While the guests relaxed in their flight,

unaware of what’s in store for them, the

WestJetters were busy in neatly gift

wrapping the presents.

After the passengers landed and waited

at the conveyer belt for their luggage,

they were left in a state of wonderment

as they saw some presents with their

name tags coming through. They tore the

gift wrappers of their presents only to

discover that they actually got what they

had asked for. Never had they thought

that the WestJet Santa would make their

wish come true.

Filled with smiles and tears, the

Christmas Miracle campaign of WestJet

Airline is unforgettable and definitely a

marketing Hallmark as they proved that

miracles do happen!

20 THE MARKSMAN

MARKETING RealTIME

It's been close to two months into my

journey as an 'MBA' graduate and these

two months have seen me getting exposed

to various functions as a part of my

training programme. Being part of the

sales team implies that we must be

exposed to not just our function, but then

other core functions such as Marketing,

Sales Strategy, Post Sale processes

including customer relations. The best part

so far has been paying visits to our sites as

customers and experiencing the sales

process that every customer of ours' goes

through. Through this we also understand

the elements that act as a differentiator

for a luxury brand - one of them being the

Sales Process in itself.

Of course, it goes without saying that we

also need to be thoroughly aware of what

goes into the making of such elegant

towers / villas - as every marketer / sales

executive needs to know the product

'from the base to the top'!

In addition to the above we have also

been exposed to the real estate sector

as a whole - our major competitors -

their products, marketing styles, pricing

- for we know how tough this sector is.

While training might sound too

'presentation-ish', here it does demand

a lot more - being assigned real-time

business problems for which sufficient

research (primary / secondary) will

have to be done in a week (at the max)

post which we would then be

presenting our solutions /

recommendations to the top

management. These projects act as

huge takeaways - for not only do we

know about the company and the

sector, but also about the way the

business works - given the ever rising

competition and consumer

expectations!!

Well, I guess that's how it is for now -

very shortly will be posted to one of

Lodha's projects - and then it's time to

Start Selling Luxury!!

Anirudh G Manager - Sales

SUMMER 2014 21

I did my MBA after a work experience of

2 years in an IT company. Joining Havells

India Ltd (electrical manufacturing) coming

from IT background was itself a big

transition. I found a complete turn around

in the cultures of the two industries. I

could feel it by the way employees interact

here, their visions and their ideology. At

Havells people work 6 days a week, while I

came from IT industry with a habit of 5

days working.

Being a Management Trainee recruited

from a reputed institute the expectations

of my new employers are higher. We are

supposed to be fast learners, quick

adapters, efficient decision makers and so

on. And with that we are also given higher

responsibilities.

Stepping in a new industry requires us to

learn about its products, customers and

competitors. With the products becoming

more n more technical, its also requires

better fundamentals about the product. A

complete understanding of product helps

in better selling.

MARKETING RealTIME

Ankit Gupta Management Trainee

22 THE MARKSMAN

I've joined the industrial sales division

where sales and marketing are

completely different than consumer

products. In our MBA course, we go

through case studies mostly based on

consumer products, but never through

B2B cases. This is something I feel

incomplete about my post graduation

while working at Havells. B2B

marketing is lot tougher than B2C

marketing, and this is something we fail

to understand while our post

graduation.

With my small experience as a

management graduate, I could only

express my excitement while I march

towards bigger opportunities and

challenges. There always has been a lot

to learn in college and even more

when I'm out on the job. I believe we

can always learn more n more if we

follow the course of our job with an

open mind

Intern SPEAK JWT Mumbai

You know your office is going to be fun,

when the workplace is colourful, people

are dressed in quirky clothes and it's not a

9 to 5 thing! Yes that's an ad agency- JWT,

where employees are allowed to be free

spirited so that they can completely hone

their creative skills.

Sunsilk, Kellogg’s, Lux, Rin and Shaadi.com

are some clients of JWT Mumbai. JWT

consists of three main verticals- Client

Servicing, Account Planning and Creatives.

Account Planners work close with the

consumer’s mind as they try to implement

consumer insights into the advertising of a

brand to make it more effective by

building a better connect with its

audience.

I worked in the Account Planning

department under a fabulous mentor-

the Account Planning Manager, Mr.

Siddhant Lahiri. I undertook a consumer

behaviour research project for Sunsilk. It

was an exploratory research that

involved interviewing girls in the 18-22

years age bracket. The objective was to

understand the life, habits, dreams and

aspirations of the modern Indian female

youth. We were expected to deliver a 20

minute AV of the insights garnered in

the research and a powerpoint

presentation applying these insights to

the brand Sunsilk.

It might seem like a tedious task, but the

entire research process was interesting

too. From making a discussions guideline

to interviews to brainstorming ideas for

the AV and editing it, at every step there

were a whole lot of new things to learn

from.

Stepping away from our infeasible ideas

for brands that we included in our b-

school presentations, we actually learnt

how to think of path-breaking ideas for

a brand through these insights,

considering the client constraints as

well.

Niharika Srivastava

SUMMER 2014 23

Getting an opportunity to intern with a

company which is amongst the “Top 10

best companies to work with” in the

world according to Fortune magazine was

an opportunity of a lifetime.

Professionalism is what is evident when

you enter the company. From the initial

phase of documentation including my tour

to the assigned cubical to providing me

with all the necessary material, was very

well planned and ready even before I

stepped in the company. Interning with

Disney definitely proved to be a bragging

right which had knocked on my doorstep

and I did not want to let go of it.

COVER STORY

Disney India

An office which was totally filled with

toys and other character merchandise

increased my excitement by knots.

The Corporate today mainly appreciates

the concept of maintaining a distinctive

decorum at work. While on the contrary,

Disney defies the concept of maintaining

decorum. It is in every sense a “Fun”

place to work. Passion for perfection and

freedom of ideation is what is practiced

by everyone at Disney.

Aditya Basrur

24 THE MARKSMAN

Being a Disney fan ever since my childhood

days, an opportunity to work in the same

company had got me all excited when I

entered the office on the first day.

I was lucky to have got an opportunity to

work and be a part of the Marketing

(Franchise & Consumer Products) team.

Marketing is something which I had always

dreamt of doing and finally I was where I

thought I belonged. The project assigned to

me excited me as it revolved around the

Superheroes from the Marvel & Star Wars

franchisees, targeting the current youth of

our country.

Disney India

SUMMER 2014 25

My journey began with understanding

what Disney actually stood for, followed

by a detailed introduction into the

Disney characters via a Brand Induction

session. Characters (franchisees) are

what the business in Disney revolves

around. In order to be a part of the

team and be able to give in valuable

inputs, it is important to know each

character and understand their story.

Disney believes in creating and giving the

fans an experience which they will never

forget. This seemed like the motto of the

company and was stressed upon during

my briefing repeatedly. Understanding

both, the characters as well as youth was

a vast topic in itself. Amalgamation of

Youth with an appropriate event

experience and building awareness about

the Superheroes through immense

ideation was a task which was

challenging yet extremely interesting. My

main focus was to persuade the youth to

in-turn act as evangelists to help

enhance the awareness towards the two

franchisees.

As it is rightly said, with great freedom

comes great responsibility, this project

was a mammoth responsibility that was

bestowed upon me. I cherish every

moment spent at the beautiful world of

Disney India and am glad that I have got

to learn more about the Media and

Entertainment (Franchise & Consumer

Products) industry in the area of

Marketing.

COVER STORY

OgilvyOne

My internship has been a fun-filled

learning experience of 8 weeks. I say this

because the combination of Ogilvy and

Dubai has been absolutely exhilarating!

Dubai being one of the most happening

places in the world and Ogilvy being one

of the most amazing agencies in the

world! I interned with one of the

Digital marketing subsidiaries of Ogilvy

called as OgilvyOne. I worked in the

search department in the area of Search

Engine Marketing. It has been a great

learning for me because I worked on live

campaigns for some of the best brands in

the world like IBM, Volvo, AmEx, Metlife,

etc. which happen to be the clients of

OgilvyOne.

Saqib Rizvi

26 THE MARKSMAN

Apart from my usual internship curriculum,

I also had a chance to work with other

departments like social media and account

planning. I also got to learn the impact of

cultural differences on marketing, as UAE

has very different culture from India. The

internship at OgilvyOne Dubai gave me a

great experience of not just Search Engine

Marketing, but of International Digital

Marketing on the whole!

Getting an opportunity to work with

Lifestyle Retail India, a part of Landmark

group, was probably the best learning

experience for me. Lifestyle is a multi-

brand retail store for apparels, foot wears

and lifestyle products.

My area of internship constituted the

Visual merchandising of the store. Visual

merchandising includes the activities of

developing the floor plans and three-

dimensional displays in order to maximise

sales.

The purpose of VM as described by my

mentor is to highlight the features and

benefits of various products of the store.

Lifestyle India

Lifestyle has several In-house brands such as Code, Bossini, UCLA, Fame Forever, Kappa, Melange etc. Our prime concern was managing the display of these in house brands whereas external brands were managed by them. The Task list of a Visual Merchandiser includes filling of the VM checklist, which ensures that the entire setup is proper, signage's are correct, Acrylic displays are in order. Thereby ensuring the maintenance of International standards in the store is the primary concern for VM. The most interesting part of our

internship was implementation of

planograms/dockets in the store that

were planned by the head office.

Store’s external windows hold prime

importance in attracting the customers.

Thus tracking the sales of products that

were displayed on windows was an

important part of my project. It helped

me understand the effect of Visual

Merchandising on sales.

A great field to analyse, a great support

from my mentor, Ms. Sukanya Sharma,

and a great heritage that the Landmark

group carries was perfect for me to get

close to my field of study, Retail

management.

Aman Dua

SUMMER 2014 27

SquAreheaD

28 THE MARKSMAN

BUZZ

CLUES

PUZZLE ACROSS

2. Which pizza chain delivered a pizza

using Drone in India?

4. Which company acquired Beats by

Dr Dre for $3Bn?

6. Which is the newest airlines to be

launched in India?

7. Which brand does a health

campaign called ‘Start Healthy Stay

Healthy’?

8. Which country prepared the

soccer balls to be used in FIFA World

Cup 2014?

DOWN

1. Which country will be hosting the

Football World Cup in 2022?

3. Which company has acquired a

major stake in Network 18?

5. Narendra Modi is the ____th PM

of India?

Answers:

1. Quatar 2. Francesco’s 3. Reliance 4. Apple 5. Fifteen 6. AirAsia 7. Nestle 8. Pakistan

SUMMER 2014 29

Call for ARTICLES

CALL FOR ARTICLES JULY 2014

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

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

clearly mentioned.

The best adjudged article will be given a Winner’s Certificate.

Deadline for the submission of article will be : 20th July 2014

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

1. Reebok Rebranding: Will it change its

game?

2. Air Asia pricing strategy: The perfect

market penetration.

3. Marketravel: The new age innovation.

30 THE MARKSMAN

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Follow the link:-

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he-marksman.html

THE TEAM

TWEETS by Asheeb Raina

It’s all about Ad-itude by

Shweta Panikker

Brand MARKive by

Pavanshu Aggarwal

COVER STORY by

Kapil Maggo

SPECIAL STORY by

Dylan Menezes

HALLMARK CAMPAIGN by

Niharika Srivastava

BOOKWORM by

Prasanthi Kasinathan

SquAreheaD by

Aanchal Loya

BUZZ by

Alakh Krishnani

FAUX PAS by

Megha Gupta

PROOF READ by

Asheeb Raina

Dylan Menezes

Alakh Krishnani

DESIGNING by

Ishaan Srivastava

Aman Dua

Ritika Bramhe

PROMOTIONS by

Alakh Krishnani

Niharika Srivastava

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.

The TEAM

SUMMER 2014 31