Marketing News - Ads, Brands and More...

Levi’s Unbuttons Akshay Kumar
Levi’s 501, the oldest product from the Levi's stable, is being relaunched globally with a new campaign called 'Live Unbuttoned'. Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar is the brand ambassador. Shyam Sukhramani, director, marketing, Levi's, claims that Levi's 501 were the original 'button fly' jeans and other brands only followed suit. Now, Levi's wants to use that very concept as the base of the re-launch of the range. Before Levi's launched the new campaign, it conducted extensive research, which revealed that today's youth crave for fame and popularity. That's why it decided to invite users to pitch in with their ideas for the 501 range. Users have to log on to the website and submit their ideas. The best one will be used in the final campaign and the user will feature in the campaign alongside Kumar. Levi's has also created a campaign, featuring Akshay Kumar, to announce the contest. The campaign was created by JWT Bengaluru and shot in Los Angeles. This is the first time in the history of Levi's that an Indian celebrity has been roped in to endorse the brand globally.

Airtel embarks on Rs 50-cr campaign blitz for DTH service: Anil’s BIG TV ambushes it
The Airtel DTH service is expected to roll out very soon, along with an elaborate campaign spread across various media. The campaign has been created by JWT Delhi, while Airtel’s media duties are handled by Madison Delhi. Titled 'See you at home soon', the campaign has unleashed four teasers – Masai, Cowboy, Band and Meercats. The element that binds the campaign together is a big, red couch. Each teaser starts by revealing a unique character that utters the words, 'See you at home soon', followed by a big red couch flying in and landing with a thud. Each teaser focuses on a particular genre of entertainment that the DTH service aims to offer.

In the case of outdoor publicity, the content remains the same, but the brand has done an innovation of sorts. Billboards with one character are replaced with those for other characters on a daily basis, in order to build up hype.

In a recent development, Reliance Big TV, part of the Anil Ambani-run conglomerate, ran a strikingly similar television commercial, including the red sofa in Airtel Digital’s ad as well as a voice-over that went: “See you at home”. Big TV touted features such as 200-plus channels, 32 cinema “halls” and digital quality audio and video.

“If you (Airtel) are going to tease people, we (Big TV) are going to feed their appetite,” said Bobby Pawar, chief creative officer of Mudra Group, which created the Big TVcampaign. “The brand is called Big (TV) and we don’t do things in half measure.” Big TV also notes that Airtel had no copyright claims since the teaser ads ran with no brand logo or name.
“It’s an open market and every player is expected to respond to competition. The campaign also gave us an opportunity to make specific claims on the product,” says Sanjay Behl, group head (brand and marketing) of the Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.

Idea Presents...
This year, Idea sponsored two TV shows, Idea Dhoom Macha De and Idea presents Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi. In June 2008, Idea was also roped in as the title sponsor for the India-Sri Lanka cricket series, and the series itself was branded as the Idea Cup. Idea has also supported Idea IIFA Awards and Idea Star Singersand Idea Sa Re Ga Ma Pa (on Zee Marathi). Though Idea continues with mass media advertising, one can’t help but notice how the brand is steadily involving itself in myriad sponsorships across reality shows on TV, sports properties and on-ground events in smaller towns. The company says all these are part of a change in Idea’s media strategy. With a fast growing pan-India presence, Idea is looking to become more and more national. This makes television rather cost effective for them, giving Idea a wider reach. Also, gone are the days when a marketer launched a TVC and the world sat up and took notice. The new, intensely competitive environment demands that a company does something big in addition to the usual mass media advertisements.

The Axe-Man Axed
HUL’s lateset Axe commercial for its chocolate fragarance range, Dark Temptation, didn’t suit the I&B Ministry’s tastes. The Ministry, playing its moral policing role, has asked the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) to treat its missive as a complaint and to take further appropriate action as required.

Incidentally, the Axe ad has won a Gold Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Festival, 2008. It shows a man who has used Axe Dark Temptation turning into a chocolate man. Transformed thus, he is irresistible to women, who kiss, lick, bite and touch him everywhere he goes. According to HUL, the ad was meant to show how a men's deodorant could have an irresistible effect on women.

- Ana Kapur & Pallavi Sud

Customizing for the Indian Consumer - What's Working, What Not?

Customizing is defined as the design and creation of product/service that meets a customer’s specific needs. It can be based on a lot of parameters like age, gender, location etc. This article shall focus on what have been the trends of customization followed in the Indian context and a brief analysis of the same, with the help of multifarious examples.
Internationally, Pril is a popular dish wash liquid, but in India and the rest of the sub-continent, the company transformed it into a bar because that’s what the consumers were used to. This is just one of the many instances of what companies have to do to make a dent in new markets. So what do companies not used to the Indian market take into account when they enter this country?

Cultural differences, naturally, are the plank on which customization is done. Take the Indian Insurance sector; the kind of investment Indians make for their children is very different from the rest of the world. A daughter’s wedding, in India for instance requires years of financial planning. Child plans in the insurance sector don’t exist in most markets while that contributes a sizeable chunk here. As a point of contrast, in the West, especially in the UK, funeral schemes are a big draw as parents don’t want to burden their children with those; in India, these expenses are generally not considered a big deal.

Customization need not only mean the tweaking of the product functionality or attributes. Minor changes in the product which convey strong connection of the brand with the consumer can work well enough. The Korean brand LG, understood the stratification of Indian markets, came up with customization that included TVs with menus in regional languages and TV sets that factored in poor reception quality in rural areas. With this it dovetailed a marketing-distribution blitzkrieg in small towns. Pril even launched a mango-vinegar variant in its liquid, as mango skin is used as a scrubber in Uttar Pradesh, with an intention to refine the customization further to regional habits. Nokia came in with its ‘Made for Indian conditions’ phone to face the dust and grime of the country, which was very well received.

But that leaves us with another big question: How do multinational companies in the Food & Beverages sector keep their brand equity and yet endear themselves to the local market? From potato veggie burgers to tandoori chicken pizza, various innovations and combinations have had to be devised to have Indians sink their teeth into Western foods. But while acknowledging the need for customization, McDonalds also found out that consumers want a unique taste, not a samosa or paneer, so the company came up with a wrap which is basically a rumali roti but contains salsa, of Mexican origin, for some spice kick, which worked very well.

Packaging is another important element of customizing, affecting price and benefits. Pril introduced sachets of Pril liquid to motivate customer trials – none had done this in the dishwash segment so far, and it set off a trend in the market. It is said HLL came up with the idea of scenting the wrappers of their soaps as well, since customers were found to smell the soap(obviously with the wrapping over it) before they purchased the product.

In the automobile sector, Kinetic’s new launch, the Flyte, made in collaboration with SYM of Taiwan, was turned into a different vehicle for India altogether. Originally a unisex product, in India it is been positioned as a women’s vehicle – it’s a scooter with front fuelling so that the driver need not get off at the petrol pump to have it filled, there’s higher ground clearance to ensure a smooth journey on all kinds of roads, and its shape is in keeping with Indian preferences.

Let’s flip the coin now to see what doesn’t work. Japanese companies are reputed to make the best consumer durables, but in India, it was the Korean ones which were able to generate huge market shares. They brought in relevant technology, price points and had a good distribution strategy, whereas the Japanese goods were seen as having high-end features and high prices, which did not meet the requirements of the Indian masses. This tells us that a universally acknowledged excellence may not become popular. It could also be that brands that customised failed due to poorly conceptualised customisation – for example, Kellogg’s cereals with Indianised flavours (Mango-Elaichi, Rose and Coconut-Kesar).
Another important thing to be noted is that, customising for regional clusters needs a mindset which accepts that the needs of a village in Bihar are as different from those of a town in Tamil Nadu, as are, say, Africa and Japan. The diversity of India makes it essential to innovate at a more local level; treating the country as a homogeneous whole is as sub-optimal as treating India as part of a large global cluster.

- Aparna Ravia

In Profile - Prahlad Kakkar

You might have heard the saying “Jack of all trades and king of none”. Exceptions are always there, aren’t they? Here we have a man who truly is the jack of all trades and king of one; Advertising. He has done it all and done it with élan.

Juggling many hats at a time be it advertising, scuba diving, restauranteering or cigar making, he has aptly been called an Ad-hatter. Sporting his cowboy appearance with a degree of élan, Prahlad Kakkar maintains his characteristic - disheveled look carefully. His verve of non-conformism is in fact the core of his entire persona.

Fondly referred to as the ‘madman’ of the ad world, Prahlad today happens to be one of the most creative ad film makers the country has. As a graduate from Fergusson College, Pune, he started work in 1972, with filmmaker Shyam Benegal. His monthly income was Rs. 300, which he spent in setting up an office table at "Khatmal Niwas'' (the place was infested with bedbugs, therefore the name).

For six years, he assisted Benegal in making ad films and art films such as Ankur, Manthan, and Bhumika. He later went on to set up his own production house ‘Genesis’. Initially he accepted anything that came his way. The difference was in the way he presented those ads. With his words they were special, irreverent and over a period of time it became a style. Besides a hectic work schedule Kakkar manages a teahouse in Mumbai, runs a jazz club and trains people in scuba diving in his own school located in Lakshadweep.

Presently, he directs TV commercials, trains assistants and sets them up. He has no qualms about teaching youngsters his style. For Kakkar, being young at heart makes all the difference. Of all the ad filmmakers, Kakkar works for the youngest brands in the market - Pepsi, Kit Kat, Nestle, Maggie Sauces and many more. He believes that ‘To understand the young, you have to be young yourself’. And so he is. When asked where he gets all his energy from, he says, “Essentially I have never really worked a single day in my life. Combining a whole lot of fun and passion into my work days, makes my work much more interesting”. No prizes for guessing where all the ‘fun and passion’ goes. They don’t call him the Ad-guru for nothing.

He is the creator of endless ad campaigns that turned case studies overnight. He has tackled some of the major issues of advertising with ease and come out with flying colours. Celebrity advertising for instance is a very tricky proposition, especially if one is dealing with brand ambassadors like Bachchan and Tendulkar. Mainly because they have been done to death and are common among a whole gamut of brands. But Prahlad Kakkar has been able to deal with the issue with style.

The Navratna hair oil ad is a case in the point. The ad starts off with Bachchan talking about his career in the film industry and the highs and lows that he had to go through. And then the real anticlimax is when he says, that he could manage all this because of Navratna hair oil. The ad aims at amusing the audience and getting a laugh or two at its sheer innocence and in the process also establishes its utility as a stress reliever. The strategy here is essentially reverse branding, so instead of the brand introducing Bachchan, here it is Bachchan introducing the brand. Thus, the ad succeeds in highlighting the star power of Amitabh Bachchan without diminishing the importance of the brand.

Another ad which goes to show the creative genius of Kakkar is the Pepsi commercial where all the kids are wearing mask of Sachin Tendulkar, and while drinking their Pepsi, they start taking off their masks. They’re stunned with delight to see that one of them is actually Sachin Tendulkar. The idea was the brain child of Prahlad Kakkar. What made this ad unusual was that the kids were actually unaware of the fact that Sachin would show up behind one of the masks as Prahlad wanted a natural reaction of the kids. Also, the kids not being professional child actors and the village background gave a real feel to the ad.

With each such ad, Kakkar adds a new feather to his already loaded hat.
Success in the creative world lies in your ability to capture the simple, identifiable, everyday small things. And that’s what our ad-guru has always successfully done – mesmerised the audience with his simple yet captivating style.

- Pallavi Sud

IPL - The New Marketing Cocktail

The IPL auction of cricketers in February was called the 'Mumbai Cattle Market' by those horrified by the tamasha of industrialists and filmstars throwing dollars at players. The creme de la creme of the stars were placed for bidding and lapped up at varying prices - more for their local star attraction value rather than their cricketing skills.

Like it or hate it, the IPL is probably here to stay, the first edition showing enough promise. So much so that it could be called the biggest business initiative of 2008. And as all business is ultimately marketing, it's a marketing concoction. It's about BCCI, business houses, the media and the film industry putting their collective might to create a brand of unprecedented proportions. It could also be looked at as a cocktail of four Indian diseases. And here’s the recipe:
First, the base - cricket. Add some glamour in the form of cinema, the opium for Indian masses. Then shake it with some celebration. Indians need an excuse to celebrate, to enjoy. Our respect for all faiths gives the average Indian a festival to celebrate almost everyday. Each has its own rituals of the community coming together to dance, sing and create general cacophony, unmindful of environment pollution and civic sense. Finally, top it with Celebrity Craze. India is a country of 330 million Gods and we make heroes very easily. Cricket stars or film stars, they are easily deified and venerated. People flock in thousands just for a real life glimpse of their heroes.

When these four potent ingredients come together, the cocktail is called the Indian Premier League. Package this in a business proposition and you have something that could re-write the rules of business, sports and entertainment. With the backing of some of the best business groups and the high-decibel promotion, it makes for an experiment worth tracking.

The IPL taps into local pride much like the EPL in football in the UK. The concept of the game, revenue generation model, team ownership and even the concept of cheer leaders, is being lifted from American sports industry. The whole business behind IPL looks like a MLB, NFL or NBA, except for one change, BCCI is not the ultimate beneficiary there! Every dollar earned comes back to franchisee. The basic revenue model for the franchisee is; in-ground ticket sales, in-ground marketing revenue, and other in-ground sales revenue. Considering the amount of money they spend on team players, and other costs they need to take care, it might not be possible for franchisee to break even in first couple of years. However, if the great rush continues, it makes sense from business perspective.

Will this spell the end of other forms of cricket: five-day cricket or one-day internationals? While it may seem so, the truth is every product has its place in this world if properly nurtured. After all the fast-food restaurants and take-away joints didn’t kill sit-down restaurants, did they?

IPL’s Revenue
IPL has already signed deals that add up to $2 billion with sponsors and broadcasters for the next 10 years. Last year, they made $91 million from broadcast rights, $72.4 million from franchisee bids, and sponsorship added up to $30 million. So, for a year it adds up to approximately $200 million . This does not include associated revenues such as ticketing, which is handled by franchisees.
For next year, they are looking at the same except for the sponsor bit, where we are looking at selling a couple of more slots at around $7 million. Depending on when they are sold, it should add $21 million to revenues. Discussions are on with certain brands but nothing has been finalized.

The franchisee ownership model, tender process, composition of teams, the auction process, etc. Each of it has been carefully thought through and to call IPL a marketing success would be a little shallow in thinking. IPL’s success tends to be evaluated only in marketing terms. The noise levels in media and the talk value can easily be passed off as a marketing hype. Those who can peel the layers see the real value of the product. The league has caught the fancy of people across the world with outstanding response from the non-cricketing countries too. It is the media that has lapped up the product and taken it places. Every single market has appreciated the product. Consequently, IPL is spreading the game globally.

SWOT Analysis
Strengths
1. The Indian Premier League (IPL) is based upon the Twenty20 cricket game which should be completed in 2 ½ hours. That means that is fast-paced and exciting, and moreover it can be played on a weekday evening or weekend afternoon. That makes it very appealing as a mass sport, just like American Football, Basketball and Soccer. It is appealing as a spectator sport, as well to TV audiences.
2. The IPL has employed economists to structure its lead so that revenue is maximized. The more unified the sport, the more successful it is.

Weakness
1. Twenty20 has been so popular that it could replace other forms of cricket i.e. damage the game that generated it.
2. Some fans will also have to pay for travel to the ground. There may be large queues for the most popular games. There may be some distance between where the fan lives and the cricket ground.
3. Stakes are very high! Some teams may not weather short-term failures and may be too quick to get rid of key managers and players if things don't go well quickly. Famously, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) sacked their CEO Charu Sharma for watching his team lose 6 from their first 8 games.
4. Some teams have overpriced their advertising/sponsorship in order to gain some short-term returns (e.g. Royal Challengers), and some sponsors and are moving their investment the more reasonably priced teams.

Opportunities
1. Since it has a large potential mass audience, IPL is very attractive as a marketing communications opportunity, especially for advertisers and sponsors.
2. The league functions under a number of franchises. Each franchisee is responsible for marketing its team to gain as large a fan-base as possible. The long-term success of all of the franchises lies in the generation of a solid fan-base. The fan-base will generate large TV revenues.
3. Different fans will pay different amounts to watch their sport. There will be corporate hospitality, season tickets, away tickets, TV pay-per-view and other ways to segment the market for the IPL.
4. There is a huge opportunity for merchandising e.g. sales of shirts, credit cards and other fan memorabilia. Grounds can also sell refreshments and other services during the games.
5. Marketers believe that the teenage segments need to be targeted so that they become the long-term fan-base. Their parents and older cricket fans may prefer the longer, more traditional game. The youth market may also impress on their parents that they want them to buy their club's merchandise on their behalf - as a differentiator or status symbol.
6. Franchise fees will remain fixed for the up until 2017-18, which means that the investment is safe against inflation which is traditionally relatively high in India.

Threats
1. The level of competition that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) can generate determines long-term viability of the league. If the level of competition drops, then revenue will fall. For example, if the top names in cricket cannot be attracted to India, the appeal of the game will fall. Often getting hold of the big names is a problem - Australian domestic cricket runs concurrent with the IPL and if players move form Australia to India to follow the money then their domestic game will be hit. This is known as 'Free Agency.'
2. If the franchisee's fan-base does not generate income then they may not have the cash to pay the salaries of the best players. However, if you invest in the best players and they do not win the trophies, then you may not see a return on your investment. It won't be a quick return on investment - so owners need to be in it for the long-term.
3. Franchises are very expensive. The most expensive franchise - Mumbai Indians - was bought by Mukesh Ambani for $111.9 million, whereas the lowest priced franchise - Rajasthan Royals was picked up by Manoj Badale for a mere $67 million.
4. The most highly priced teams may not be those that have the early success. Revenues will come from the most highly supported teams.

- Pramod Seshan

Rural Marketing Strategy of Coca Cola India

Coca Cola India (CCI) reentered the Indian soft drink market in 1993 after its exit in 1977 due to various issues. In the early 2000s, CCI started focusing on the rural markets. This decision was not surprising due to the stagnant growth and flat sales in the urban areas. With more than 128 million households, rural population is nearly three times urban population.
The major obstacles faced by CCI were the poor rural infrastructure, erratic power supply, different consumption pattern, preference for traditional beverages, and the price of the beverage.
In order to overcome these problems and obstacles, CCI came up with the rural marketing strategy based on 3 A’s - Availability, Affordability, and Acceptability
Availability: CCI realized that the centralized distribution system used in urban areas will not work in rural markets, as taking stock directly from bottling plants to retail stores would be very costly due to the long distances. The company instead opted for a hub and spoke distribution. Under this system, stock was transported from the bottling plants to hubs and then the stock was transported to spokes which were situated in small towns. These spokes fed the retailers catering to the demand in rural areas. CCI also changed the type of vehicles used for transportation. The company used large trucks, medium commercial vehicles, and rickshaws for transportation, based on distance.
Affordability: In order to make coke affordable to the rural population and to close the gap between traditional beverages, CCI introduced a new 200ml bottle, smaller than the traditional 300ml bottle and priced it at Rs.5. CCI also introduced Sunfill, a powdered soft-drink concentrate available in a single-serve sachet of 25 gm priced at Rs.2 and mutiserve sachet of 200 gm priced at Rs.15.
Acceptability: To increase the acceptability of the product, CCI started advertising heavily on Doordarshan with the “Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola” tagline, positioning itself as a generic cold beverage. Due to the lack of electricity and refrigerators in the rural areas, CCI also started providing low-cost ice boxes for new outlets and thermocol box for seasonal outlets.

The initiative and the strategy of CCI turned out to be very successful, with around 80%of the new drinkers coming from rural markets. Its rural market penetration increased from 13% to 25% in the year 2001 to 2003. Thus, CCI was able to identify its potential market, appreciate its different needs and designed a marketing strategy which takes care of the peculiar needs of its target market. It positioned its product in the mind of the rural customers so as to ensure the acceptability of the product and reaped the benefits in the form of increased consumption and revenue.

Ad of the Month - September

Using social issues in ads is not a new phenomenon. Companies have been using religious animosity, wars, civil distress as backgrounds for ads. Interestingly, this is not a part of the CSR initiatives of these firms. It is a way of reaching out to the audience who is increasingly aware of the issues relevant to them. The recent Idea campaign is an example for the same. ‘Education for all’ had a huge impact with the ‘School chale hum’ campaign. But, Idea picks up from where that ended. Schools are still not available to a large number of the rural populace. So, what better to do than imparting distance education through cellphone! The brand ambassador, Little B, is a fatherly priest who heads a convent school and comes up with the brilliant idea. The thing I like is that Idea seems to be going towards an independent direction that is distinct from Airtel or the uber-popular Vodafone. When we talk of positioning, it seems as if the company is trying to place itself in the rural segment as well. But, the more significant undercurrent is the fact that the ad simply makes Idea look good in the eyes of its potential users. Another similar campaign was Jaago India by Tata Tea. The key is to follow up these campaigns with some action on these fronts. As Mr. Bharat Desai recently wrote about the campaign, ‘Today’s good idea could become tomorrow’s exploitation.’ But overall, I would say What an Idea Sirjee!

Bang on Target – Bingo

On 14th March 2007, ITC launched Bingo, targeting a market share of 25 percent of the 2000 crore branded snack market, in 5 years. Within a span of 6 months, Bingo captured a market share of 16 percent cutting into Pepsico Fritolay’s market share by 50 percent. With Business Standard's Annual Brand Derby selecting Bingo as the most successful brand launch of 2007, the brand seems a winner.
This was not the first time ITC had tried entering snacks market. They failed earlier with Bischips in 2003-04 when the product was rolled back in months. ITC was new to the food market and the failure of Bischips was due to lack of advertisement, product not catering to consumer wants, and a failed distribution strategy.ITC was careful not to repeat its mistakes.
What went to the launch of Bingo:–
1. Bingo was the outcome of a comprehensive research done by a cross functional team of 8, travelling to 14 cities to find what the consumer was looking for; which was found to be novelty and excitement.
2. The recipe was prepared by the chefs of ITC hotel.
3. 5 Rs and 10 Rs packs were launched in 16 flavours
4. The target segment was people of age group of 16-30.
5. Five commercials which had humour and which was irreverent was aired on youth channels like MTV, mass hindi channels like Zee and Star and new channels. They advertised through hoardings, radios and national dailies. The company also created a website “www.bingeonbingo.com” with offers, games, etc.
6. ITC distributed more than 4 lakh large racks for display at all points of sale and it also fully leveraged its strong distribution system. ITC now distributes Sunfeast in addition to cigarettes in the country.
7. The timing of the launch coincided with World cup where ITC Foods was an associate sponsor.
When Bingo was launched, it was not just another Lays; it was a new and innovative snack with Indian flavours. A case in point is the product Mad Angles (a combination of Khakra and tomato flavouring), with an innovative shape. The ads didn’t have any movie stars but made a mark with consumers.
Learning from the past mistakes, ITC got the basics right. It covered all the 4Ps in launch and had bingo bang on target.