Coffee, Conversations and Marketing

D Day - August 27th, 2010

2010-09-04T06:02:00.001-07:00

What was born in early April as an aspiration of the students of the Marketing batch, culminated in “Coffee Conversations and Marketing” the Marketing seminar held at Symbiosis Institute of International Business on the 27^th of August 2010, in association with IAMAI (Internet and mobile association of India). Revolving around the concept of moving towards a stimulated, conversational, form of marketing from the traditional, broadcasting mediums, the day-long event aimed to understand the importance of new age mediums of Marketing communication and their implications on Marketing as we know it.

The day started with Mr Debashish Mitra, Director, Sales & Marketing, Mercedes-Benz India highlighting the importance of a 360 degree approach to marketing, especially in the luxury products segment.

The favourite of the audience was Mr Kiruba Shankar, CEO Business Blogging, who won over the hearts of the audience with his exuberance and enthusiasm. His experiences about the importance of digital communication and social networking as tools of marketing had the students alive with a will to do the same . Also, present on the occasion was Mr. Purnendu Kumar, Associate Vice President, Technopak who enlightened the students about challenges faced by organised retail. He gave rare insights on the ways in which unorganised retail can pose a threat to organised retail and the learnings to be derived from it.

The last speaker for the day was Mr. Rajiv Dingra, Founder & CEO, WATConsult. Aged just 25 years old, this CEO immediately struck a chord with the students with his light hearted but practical talk about niche blogging and the digital era of Marketing.

The lecture series was followed post lunch by a panel discussion on “The changing trends in marketing: Old tricks won’t work anymore”. Vishal Sharma CEO, ithink Labs and Ratan K K, founder associate, Gutsgo e-marketing joined Mr. Dhingra and Mr. Shankar for the panel discussion moderated by Mr. Prithwiraj Ghorpade. A jam packed auditorium was witness to the witty and rich churning of ideas that followed. The panel threw light on the importance of accountability in Marketing, and the increasing reach of digital media for communication.

The event was organised by the students of Marketing, 09-11 batch under the able guidance of Ms. Adya Sharma, Faculty SIIB, who also proposed the vote of thanks. The attendees included students from Symbiosis Institute of International Business, SCMHRD and SCIT besides members of faculty and invited guests from across Pune.

Live Tweeting

2010-08-26T10:40:00.000-07:00

Follow CCM tomorrow online using hashtag : #ccandm

Top 5 Mobile Advertising Trends To Watch

2010-08-20T00:03:00.000-07:00

Top 5 Mobile Advertising Trends To Watch

Are brands evolving or desperate?

2010-08-18T11:29:00.000-07:00

Old Spice - Video case - Named the best Social Media campaign.. ( and yeah it also won the top prize at Cannes !! does it matter ?)

2010-08-11T06:03:00.000-07:00

The Old Spice Case Study talks us through the insight around targeting men & women at the same time to generate conversation around body wash. When it was launched online for the super bowl weekend (and TV shortly after) the campaign managed to capture 75% of all conversations in the category (although I’m sure that was off a small base) before every man and his dog was talking about the Old Spice ads.

To continue that success Old Spice & WK needed to take the campaign to the next level, Mustafa was now a household hero, and they wanted to engage the fans directly. And so the response campaign was born.

Over 3 days, a team of creatives, digital strategists, developers and producers filmed 180 odd videos around the clock, creating videos and responding directly to fans and celebrities in near real time to create what is now known as the best social campaign ever to have been created.

So here are a few of the stats… hold your breath…

* On day 1 the campaign received almost 6 million views
(that’s more than Obama’s victory speech)
* On day 2 old spice had 8 of the 11 most popular videos online
* On day 3 the campaign had reached over 20 million views
* After the first week old spice had over 40 million views
* The old spice twitter following increased 2700% (probably off a lowish base)
* Facebook fan interaction was up 800%
* Oldspice.com website traffic was up 300%
* The old spice YouTube channel became the all time most viewed channel (amazing)
* Thecampain has generated 1.4 billion impressions since launching the ads 6 months ago
* The campaign increased sales by 27% over 6 months since launching (year on year)
* In the last 3 months sales were up 55%
* And in the last month sales were up 107% from the social responses campaign work
* Old spice is now the #1 body wash brand for men.

I don’t think I need to add much more to that. I just really want to see what old spice has in store for us next, in fact i’m itching for it.

Coffee, Conversations and Marketing - Trailer

2010-08-10T20:52:00.000-07:00

Ikea creates buzz with simplest of features of Facebook - Tagging

2010-08-10T06:35:00.000-07:00

Forsman & Bodenfors are known for some great creative work, and they recently devised a Facebook campaign for a new Ikea store in Malmo, Sweden. When small budgets and big briefs clash, the out come only ever heads in a single direction these days… to Facebook!

Some of the best campaign strategies are simple, and none simpler than using the default “tagging” tool on facebook to help create a bit of buzz for an online competition.
Users were drawn to the new Facebook profile page of the store manager, who’d uploaded pictures of his new showrooms.

People were told that the first to tag their name on any item, would win it. With the way tagging works on Facebook, the moment you tagged anything, everyone in your network instantly knew what was up for grabs! Subsequently, thousands and thousands of people were flooding the Facebook page in search of freebies!

Heineken plays a Super Prank !!

2010-08-08T23:03:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty brave guerrilla marketing event by Heineken on the eve of one of the biggest matches you can imagine, Real Madrid vs AC Milan. Now you’re probably thinking it’s something out on the street, taking advantage of all the crazed soccer fans passing by, but you’d be wrong…

Heineken decided to stage a fake event at the same time the game was to be played, a mix of classical music meets poetry in an Italian theater. To make this happen, they recruited about 200 people to help get over 1000 people away from their TV’s and into this event, sacrificing the biggest game of the season!

Heineken even had the event broadcast live on SkySport, with crosses for interviews of famous sporting celebs to aid in the Authenticity, or infact, leverage some of the people who’d been stung by the stunt! As the event got underway and the males in the audience got increasingly bored, the stage slowly released clues to involve them as the big reveal came! A live projection of the entire game for all 1000+ people in the audience, with Heineken the absolute heroes!

All this went hand in hand with some of their latest campaign work around men increasingly loosing the ability to watch the sacred football match with friends. Very cool on a massive scale.

Gen Y and Marketing

2010-08-08T06:54:00.001-07:00

Generation Y also called millennial generation includes all born between 1977 and 1998. The way of living of this generation is a bit (read: a lot) different and has began to enter the workforce. It is not only funny to know that members of this 75 million person group were raised and are being raised at the most child-centric time in our history and the impact to marketers is undeniable. :)

To market your product / service to this generation, it is vital to understand the way they live and what marketing concepts do they accept and what they consider as funny.

In general, it is said that this group displays a great deal of confidence. This could be the result of focus they receive from parents and high expectations placed upon them – not to mention their new found independence with the advent of cell phones, the internet, and other electronic forms of communication.

This is truly the first generation to grow up completely online and as a result, the marketing mix used to target them needs to evolve. As you might expect, this group is technically literate like none other.

These sons and daughters of middle and upper middle class families are expected to get best of education as their parents just crossed the threshold of basic education, which always made them force their kids to study and ensure they become smart enough for good earning. This has also brought in special kind of hatred towards traditional education, but thats a different issue altogether. From an academic perspective, they are the group that was able to play a sport, attend school, and engage in social endeavors. Millennial believe in going green and supporting endeavors that are good for the environment.

Socially, Millennials are different as well. They are typically team-oriented, banding together to date and socialize rather than pairing off. They work well in groups, preferring this to individual endeavors. They are also good at multi-tasking and were the ones studying while listening to the radio or watching television - all the more reason to ensure that you utilize cross-media marketing and ensure consistency among your communications.

When it comes to work, Millennials seem to expect structure. They acknowledge and respect positions and titles, and want a relationship with their boss. Millennials are in need of mentoring and they'll respond well to the personal attention. Millennial are fine with live-in and gay relations. When considering the management of Millenials, be mindful that they appreciate structure and stability. Mentoring Millennials can either be completely formal or completely casual.

Are you Millennial?

If you are not born between 1977 and 1998, you may still have these characteristics! To check for yourself, when you sit in front of TV, do you find some adds so stupid that you smile at them and think, "how stupid!". Do you see some adds on TV and you are so impressed that you remember the add but not the product?

Now that we understand a little more about the target, consider the places they go for information and the way they behave. Millennials are logging into their Facebook accounts 3 – 10 times each day, sending instant messages to friends, and uploading their videos to YouTube. More than the number of times they log in is the time they spend socializing. Are you there?

Listen to the conversation. Where many businesses are failing today is that they are not listening to the conversations that the Millennials are having about their products or their company. Sign up for Google Alerts, visit Technorati and see what individuals are blogging about.
Create accounts in FaceBook and twitter. Put you name out there. Make sure that you company has a space among social media outlets. One thing to keep in mind though is to not be overly commercial. Millennials can see right through it. Rather, be genuine and let your prospective market understand what you’re really about and what you stand for.
Communicate on a personal level. Create a two way dialogue with your audience. Give them an opportunity to speak to you. Whether you let them rate your products, share comments, or share their experience with friends, providing a forum to socialize is essential.
Focus on consistent messaging. Regardless of which media type you use (email marketing, direct mail, adwords, etc.), keep your messaging consistent. If you say one thing and do another, or change your messaging frequently, you will not be building the trust necessary to ensure lifetime customer value.
Be creative. When your marketing is creative, it can very quickly gain momentum. With the advent of YouTube, Flickr, and Delicious, messages are quickly shared and distributed. Don’t force the issue. Rather, create something meaningful, fun, and worth sharing. Before you know it, the Millennials will be sharing and distributing information about your and your brand.

Traditional Marketing. Even if you are using traditional marketing efforts, do not forget that millennials value sincere efforts and creativity. The banner ads, billboards, Newspaper/magazine advertisements must be logical but uninterrupting. And do not forget to mention your url, for all to find more information.

Improving the effectiveness of your marketing to Millennials is no small undertaking. To be truly successful, you need to understand the social dependence these individuals have when communicating and the value they place on the opinion of others. Although much of Millennial marketing needs to happen online, don’t lose track of some tradition media like direct mail. As much as marketing has changed, traditional media can still be effective – just make sure it has a social component.

How it all began - The genesis

2010-08-08T04:35:00.001-07:00

Venue: SIIB Class Room No: 507, Tuesdays - Emerging Structures and Relationships in Markets class

Time: Somewhere around 9 PM

The atmosphere is delirious. Few of them couldnt take it any longer. They walked out stupefied by the energy of the discussions that were held. The discussions held were unlike any other B-School Class. Although the discussions were peripherally around marketing, the essence was far deeper. It was about the world shifting rapidly under our feet. While most of us grew up witnessing this phenomenon of change, the change never felt so real until now. Starting from the Industrial Revolution till the Twitter phenomenon, the panoramic picture was visible like a clear sky line on a bright sunny morning. We felt we wanted to share to the world the excitement of having unraveled this change!

Wouldnt it be wonderful if we could organize a marketing seminar in our college to showcase this wondrous tapestry of change happening in the twenty first century

Day 1: We approached our marketing HOD and told her feverishly our desire to organize a marketing seminar on the paradigm shift happening in the world of marketing. Our HOD couldnt say NO to such a group when everyone was brimming with enthusiasm to organize something of this kind. Second semester was about to get over. Our HOD told us to think of ways and means how we could organize something of this kind for the first in the history of SIIB. Although SIIB has been traditionally famous for its marketing batch, the marketing batch has never conducted a marketing seminar

And after few months of chaos all around the campus, with an endless juggle of discussions and debates strutting along with classes, as it happens invariably, we are now ready to launch

Coffee, Conversations & Marketing.

Coca Cola, number one brand in the world!

2010-08-04T06:51:00.001-07:00

Coca Cola is reportedly the most valuable brand. Just the brand Coca Cola was valued at $67Billion in 2006. Coca Cola’s website states “The product that has given the world its best-known taste was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886. Dr. John Stith Pemberton, a local pharmacist, produced the syrup for Coca-Cola®, and carried a jug of the new product down the street to Jacobs' Pharmacy, where it was sampled, pronounced "excellent" and placed on sale for five cents a glass as a soda fountain drink.”

That is how it all began. But there were so many products which started during this time or maybe earlier. What did Coke do right that it landed and managed to hold on to that coveted No.1 brand of the world status for so so many years? I stumbled upon so many startling facts. Presenting some facts which created the folklore of Coca Cola.

1) Santa Claus:

Starting in 1931, magazine ads for Coca-Cola featured St. Nick as a kind, jolly man in a red suit. Because magazines were so widely viewed, and because this image of Santa appeared for more than three decades, the image of Santa most people have today is largely based on Coca Cola’s advertising. Before the 1931 introduction of the Coca-Cola Santa Claus created by artist Haddon Sundblom, the image of Santa ranged from big to small and fat to tall. Santa even appeared as an elf and looked a bit spooky.

It is amazing how a character created as a part of advertising of a company has become such a folklore.

2) Coca-Cola® Landmark Signs

· For more than 80 years, the Coca-Cola® sign in New York City's Times Square has been one of the longest-standing, continuous billboards in the world, and was among the first electric outdoor advertising signs in history. Coca-Cola signs have been landmarks in Times Square since 1920.

· In May 2003, Coca-Cola neon spectacular was added to the skyline of downtown Atlanta, GA. The retro sign replaced a series of Coke signs in Atlanta for nearly 50 years.

· Adorning the world's tallest bottling plant in Shatin, China, is a painted sign covering nearly 3,300 square meters.

3) Coca Cola Slogans

It is amazing to see how many times Coca Cola has changed their slogans according to the circumstances. Some examples:

1906 Slogan: "The Great National Temperance Beverage," reflects a time when the society in the United States was veering away from alcoholic beverages, and Coca-Cola provided a nice alternative.

1917/1925 Slogan: These revolved around sales, because by then they were a well known brand and they just wanted to highlight their strength. "Three Million a Day" from 1917 or "Six Million a Day" from 1925.

1948 Slogan: This involved around Hospitality, quality, entertaining, etc. "Where There's Coke, There's Hospitality."

1985/86: In 1985, the introduction of a new taste of Coca-Cola (commonly called new Coke® ) and the reintroduction of Coca-Cola classic and the original formula led to multiple slogans. 1985 featured "America's Real Choice," while by 1986, two slogans were used to differentiate the brands, with "Red, White & You" for Coca-Cola classic and "Catch the Wave" for Coca-Cola.

Then there so many like: “Life tastes Good”, “Coca Cola Enjoy”, and of course the Indianised “Thanda Matlab Coca Cola”.

From 1886 till date they have changed their slogans for a staggering 48 times in US. Incorporating the slogans for specific countries this figure is well over 100.

Some more incredible Coca Cola facts:

1) The Coca-Cola contour bottle was so durable that on average, it would make more than 37 round trips from the bottling plant to the retailer.

2) During World War II, five billion bottles of Coca-Cola were sent to American servicemen and 64 portable bottling plants were established to quench the troops' thirst and remind them of home.

3) If all of the Coca-Cola ever produced was put into 8-ounce contour bottles:

a. There would be more than six trillion bottles, which stacked end-to-end, would reach 468 miles high - 85 times taller than Mount Everest.

b. The six trillion bottles roughly equals 966 bottles - or more than 56 gallons of Coca-Cola - for every person in the world.

c. If laid end-to-end, these bottles would reach to the moon and back 1,677 times.

4) Till date Coca Cola has been shown in more than 400 Hollywood movies with actors enjoying and mentioning about Coke in various capacities.

What does Engagement Mean?

2010-08-02T12:14:00.000-07:00

I have been wrestling with this word for quite some time. A recent article which lambasted this innocuous word for being used irresponsibly across the Social Media articles provoked me to probe into it. From its simple English usage, one does understand that it is the means to build a good relationship, be it over the real world of atoms or over the virtual world of bits. However, if we introspect over the meaning of engagement in the real world ( or to be precise, in the traditional media sense), we would observe that the meaning isnt quite the same. Let us take a simple example of a Radio Commercial which I happened to hear recently. The brand was American Tourister: The tough luggage. The positioning hinged upon the idea of toughness

The voiceover in the Ad said : "How many times have you ever been tough to challenging situations like: a) somebody occupying your seat in the train and never budges to move... b) when you were subjected to eve-teasing c) you were accosted by a ruffian.

Share with us your tough experiences through an SMS to xxx number and win cool gifts from American Tourister."

Now what do we make of this? Can we call this an effective "engagement" with the consumers? Some might say "Yes", calculating how quickly over 15 seconds, the ad conveyed its positioning and also teased the audience to grab a gift using their tough stories, thus cementing a relationship between the toughness of American Tourister and that of the consumer.

Let us remember we are talking about Radio as a medium. If you look at the TVC, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysIcnD5oFHg&feature=player_embedded

we can see this well shot Ad of a foreigner's luggage finding its way bravely in the dreaded Mumbai local trains. The attractive power of the visuals makes us vicariously feel the toughness of the brand.

As we can see, engagement is reinforced over a span of few seconds, through injecting the persona of the brand. This engagement could turn into a long-standing relationship with the brand, or might simply fade away, depending on the power of the message. As we can see, the onus is here on the attractiveness and unique nature of the message which has the potential to break the clutter and make its presence felt. This is becoming increasingly difficult with the explosion of media channels.

So what does engagement mean in the Social Media Space? As the cliched line goes, It’s all about conversations. It is the closest any brand can get to building long term relationships, much like humans do with other fellow beings. As we all aware, this engagement takes time. Ask all those who set out to woo a girl. They will tell you how much time it will take. However, the fruit of this long term investment is immense. The obvious reason being, over the period of time, the relationship becomes a sense of commitment with the user. This long-term aspsect is indeed the haggling part of this entire ball game. Marketers must learn to be patient and keep their stakes to build this long relationship. It is quite easy to get tempted to embrace the easier route through traditional media where the engagement is all about flaunting. Haven't we seen in parties, strangers trying to flaunt their talents and their achievement? We feel nauseated and often shun such company. We are witnessing something very similar in the media space. We are looking for a brand which speaks to us in a human voice. The million dollar question is: Are marketers ready?

Why personal branding matters?

2010-08-02T12:05:00.000-07:00

The word 'brand' no longer carries its old world charm. It is used often casually at the drop of a hat, as if it were a proposition in the long-winding sentence of our lives. However, we are not blaming anyone. Aren't we living in an over-marketed world, littered with brands seeping inside every fabric of our lives? If this sounds cynical and depressing, it simply means that, you have to wake up to the new reality we are living in. Wait, this reality is not about adjusting our fragmented lives in a commoditized world. This is entirely different. This new reality is all about an invisible, yet powerful seismic shift that has occurred in the last decade. This paradigm shift has thrown to the winds, whatever we knew and read about Branding. Let us understand this paradigm shift using a simple metaphor. Let us go back to the days when we learnt about Astronomy in geography classes.

Let us rewind back to those days when we sat in little creaky chairs, with trepidation and awe, wearing those boxed 3-D glasses, to witness a simulated reality of the solar system. The panaromic image of the blazing sun at the center of the Solar system, with the celestial objects orbiting around the Sun remains etched since our childhood memory. Not so long ago, brands occupied the centre of our lives. Our lives revolved around them. We were so enamored by their style, elegance and we would do almost anything to rub off the magic of brands in our mundane lives. It helped that brands were few and they often carried an aura of exclusiveness. Several successful brands which were built in the twentieth century were tall monoliths, revered like demi-gods, by faithful followers.

As the clichéd line goes, times change. Technology began to shake the foundations of these monoliths, as they razed down the artificial barriers to information. With information out in the open, brands could no longer afford to repose in ivory towers, disconnected from the users. They could no longer occupy the centre of the universe.

Who has taken their place? No prizes for guessing. It’s YOU. When TIME Magazine chose YOU as the Person of the year 2006, they weren’t simply flattering. They sensed clearly this dramatic power shift that has placed YOU as the centre of the Universe. What once was the Sun is now one among several dwarf planets, dying for your attention, ever-ready to pamper you with its offering. These are hard times for marketers and brand-managers. They know you have the power of technology at your side to change the destiny of his brand. You may wonder cockishly, So what? What does this mean to YOU?

Well, you are no longer are an cog in the industrial machine! YOU exist, not just physically, within the grasp of your bag of bones and flesh, but also virtually. Your virtual existence isn’t confined to the groups you belong to. You are omnipresent in this hyper linked world. In such a world, anyone is just a few clicks away. Nothing is hidden from you and anyone. While this thought may be scary, it opens a vista of opportunities. You are respected and your voice is heard as long as it is sensible. With the power of networks, if your voice is strong enough, you can inspire a legion of followers. As Spider man says succinctly, great power comes with great responsibility.

Kaya Skin – Getting under the skin of digital media

2010-08-01T11:17:00.000-07:00

Kaya Skin Clinic, the brand most associated today with a scientific approach to skincare, has redefined the bridal make up market using the platform of social media marketing. It was researched that the to- be-bahu today is googling for bridal make-up before her wedding day and seeking a lot of advice before making her purchase decision. Internet branding gave Kaya a platform to engage the customers and have a two way dialogue with them.

Currently, they spend 5-7% of their budget on the digital medium. They realized that there is a widespread lack of awareness about skincare and there is a need for expert advice on skincare. There are millions of web searches and hundreds of queries on skincare. But over 250 dermatologists worked with Kaya to actively respond to these queries on various forums like Yahoo Q&A etc. They also reached out to prominent bloggers for skincare education. They also used social media to update their existing and potential customers on the latest offerings which included services, technology and special promotions. They are active on Facebook, Orkut, Twitter and Youtube and on portals like Yahoo. In addition to service and product updates, they give daily skincare tips and engage customers who actively seek information on regular skincare. Also significant was the fact that videos which would have been used by other firms for advertorial purposes was used by Kaya for educational purposes to demystify bridal package for potential customers.

The overall result: within the first four months, it could reach out to more than one lakh prospective customers through 24 PR sites, 36 social networking sites, 65 forums, 10 videos, 11 contests and many more.

If a skin care brand can engage with its customers, why aren't many luxury brands leveraging this media to build a deep relationship, especially when the nature of the luxury brands demand high involvement?

Come, let's explore such avenues and more at Coffee, Conversations & Marketing!