>> 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.
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.
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
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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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
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