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MARKMANTRA | SEPTEMBER MARKMANTRA | SEPTEMBER
MARKMANTRAMarketing Magazine of IIFT Kolkata
BWBRANDWAGON
ISSUE 4 | September 2010
MARKMANTRA | SEPTEMBERMARKMANTRA | SEPTEMBER
Editor’s NoteDear Readers,
I am pleased to release the 4th issue of
MarkMantra. Issue after issue me and my team
have been working hard to make this magazine
better and better. With the help of new editing
team we feel much more equipped and confident
to deliver better.
This issue is close to our heart since we had
done few major changes. We have incorporated
new columns to enrich the understanding of
few concepts which are not that easily available
elsewhere.
Vikram and Snehal have come up with an
interesting article on T24 the buzz word these
days in the telecom and retail industry. They will
tell us what T24 is all about.
International marketing is very important a
concept to know. Time has gone where domestic
players used to focus on domestic markets, now
domestic players are exploring international
markets to survive domestically. With such an
environment around us, International Marketing
is truly of great importance. Hence, we have
introduced a new column on International
Marketing which will deal with the strategy used
by various MNCs to market their products and
services internationally.
I am thankful to Mr. Vivek Gupta for his precious
time giving us his interview and sharing with us
his experiences. Vivek, the Managing Director
of a online shopping portal called KOOVS has
explained what it takes for a firm set-up in
Singapore to operate its business in India.
We are launching our first ever competition
through MarkMantra, To see the creativity side
of all the marketing enthusiasts we are inviting
print-ads for KOOVS. The two best entries will
take home certificates and cash prizes.
Jayant of 1st year MBA at IIFT has explained
what Marketing 3.0 is all about. As an ending
note, we are listing down all the recent product
launches in our special column LAUNCHPAD.
I hope you will thoroughly enjoy this issue with
its rich content.
Happy Reading,
Praveen Kumar G
EDITING TEAM
Managing Editor
Naveen Gupta
Associate Editors
Arvind yadav
Gaurav Gudka
Radhika Ravichandran
Vipul Saini
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CONTENTS
Banking on Marketing 4
Marketing Terms Exposed 7
International Marketing 8
Telecom: Dissolving Boundaries 10
Corporate Interview 13
Print-Ad Competition 15
Marketing 3.0 16
Launchpad 18
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Banking on Marketing
How often have we walked into
the bank feeling that it’s a chore
to be completed and gotten over
with at the earliest? Banks aren’t really
places that attract you the way perhaps
shopping malls do, through it’s a common
thread of money running through it all.
Money needs no marketing; it’s perhaps
one thing that is inherently designed
to attract people.
However, investment
options for money need
their share of attention-
grabbing approaches
and we see banks often
portraying the same in
the media. Banks are
trying to build valuable
brand images with consumer-oriented
advertising and distinct product lines.
Banks can no longer be order-takers,
which was the characteristic of the old
banking industry. Today, banking across
all segments of people – be it rich or poor,
urban or rural – first and foremost requires
walking hand-in-hand with the customers
and understanding their concerns. Given
the financial crisis the world has gone
through, nothing can substitute an element
of trust in the mind of the customer about
the bank’s advisory services offering a
wide gamut of financial products.
Despite what many believe, a bank’s true
brand value isn’t about its logo, tagline
or its glossy financial products brochure.
Instead, a bank’s genuine potential is
reflected through multiple components, all
of them necessary - including customer
interactions, employee communications
and corporate philosophy, and not just
Are Banks Customer Friendly? Do Banks attract customers ? Do Banking services talked about ?
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advertising and marketing efforts. Banks
cannot merely show flashy advertisements
on T.V or print self-congratulatory full
page ads in the national newspapers
bragging about the number of branches
and get away with it.True marketing for
a bank happens when a customer steps
into a bank. The ambience at the bank,
the tone of the bank employee and
their willingness to listen, the level of
assistance offered, the speed at which
the transaction is executed without any
unnecessary obstacles – all this goes a
long way in creating an experience which
the customer will either appreciate or
never want to relive.
In the world of banking, Jyske Bank brings
in a difference. Jyske Bank, Denmark’s
third largest financial institution, invested
400 million Danish kroner (equivalent to
54m euro or 72m USD) to redesign and
brand their bank as an experience bank,
when asked by management to double
the number of retail customers. As you
enter its branch office, you encounter the
smiling face of a Jyske advisor standing
behind a PC monitor on a countertop.
This area is called the AskBar. In a Jyske
branch practically everything is called a
“Bar.” Even the till has been renamed the
MoneyBar. At the AskBar you can get an
orientation either from the bank advisor
or from a short video. Or you can just
proceed into the rest of the bank, at the
centre of which is the aforementioned and
seemingly essential CoffeeBar, where
they serve some very fine coffee for free.
There, from the big plasma screen, you
can watch the news (via RSS feeds from
various prominent newspapers around
the world), weather reports, and so on,
while you help yourself to the coffee.
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Another integral part of the new Jyske
“bank of the future” is something called
the Theme Island. This is where you pick
up “packages” that describe the bank’s
“products.” Jyske has made an attempt
to make its products physical by putting
them into boxes like software boxes or
DVD boxes, to make intangible and often
complicated things like investment options
easy to understand and interesting to buy.
Anyone can walk into the bank, just like
they would into a coffee shop, read papers,
hang around and maybe even check out
some new products and services the
bank offers. The packaged products have
a barcode that you scan on specially
designed computers which will then show
you a small movie about the product and
what it has to offer. The conference rooms
in Jyske Bank branches also feature huge
wall-mounted plasma monitors. These
are touch-screen controlled. Customers
can stroll into a conference room with
coffee in hand, and a bank advisor can
show them video presentations or use the
touch screen to help them calculate what
their mortgage payments might be, for
example. Jyske Bank is a bank, a store,
and a modern library. It is the place where
customers become smarter, inspired, and
experience a straightforward atmosphere.
Jyske not only managed to double its
base, it also managed to get so much
free press for its efforts that the bank’s
awareness skyrocketed.
Banks in India still have a long way to
go to creating a memorable experience
for the customer that matches up to the
kind of experience a fine hospitality set-
up like Jyske Bank would offer. However,
there is always the scope of creating
an environment that encourages the
employees to be truly concerned about
the customers. The banking industry does
not have many points of differentiation
because the nature of product offerings
is more or less similar. But they can
differentiate by providing high quality
service which in turn will lead to customer
satisfaction.
The banking sector has a huge role to
play in safeguarding the prospects for
economic development across the globe.
Financial awareness in India is still in its
infancy where the masses are concerned.
People still need to understand the basics
of financial planning and how best they
can create, manage and sustain wealth.
Banks have a very important role to play
in the new India that is growing at a
pace which was never seen before. The
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need of the hour is to go beyond merely
selling depository services and financial
products. It’s not really about selling,
it’s about creating value. If marketing in
banks comes up to this, the day isn’t far
when banking will become an enjoyable
experience for the customers and the
ambience in the banks will begin reflecting
a warm and welcoming environment.
Going the extra mile is what is ultimately
going to bring the customer back again
and again, something that even the best
of brand taglines can never do.
Wriiten By
Mehak GandhiMBA IB (09-11)
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade
Tryvertising:
It is a term actually used to make the
consumers familiar about the product be-
fore they actually buy it by actually mak-
ing them try the products. It is actually a
new breed of product placement in the
real world, integrating the goods and ser-
vices into daily life in a relavant way. In
this way the customers can actually make
up their minds based on the experience,
not on messages.
Product Placement:
Is also sometimes known as embedded
marketing, where the products are con-
texually placed in movies, television seri-
als or news. This method is very effec-
tive as it is able to make a “emotional
connect“ and better dovetailing with the
relevant content.
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International Marketing
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Written byArvind Yadav
MBA IB (10-12)Indian Institute of Foreign Trade
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Telecom: Dissolving boundaries
It is rule of game called “Treasure hunt” that if you are not finding the hidden
treasure then either search for new locations in the vicinity or expand the vicin-
ity. Something similar is happening nowadays in the telecom industry. They are
now crossing the telecom domains by aligning themselves with other sectors or by
establishing themselves in new geographic locations in search of revenues. Earlier,
ARPU was very dominant factor for telecom industry but it is not the exact measure
of profitability. But now telcos have realized it is not only about the ARPU but the
minutes of usage i.e. time for which subscriber is using the network. More the net-
work is used, more the revenue is being generated by the operator. The importance
of co-branding is reiterated with the latest developments in the Telecom industry.
Written by | Vikram Singh | Snehal Gajbhiye | Symbiosis Institute of Telecom
Management
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Telecom in Retail
It is well known fact that consumer ac-
quisition cost is much more than retention
cost and hence Telco’s are also looking
for different innovative and loyalty based
programs to retain their customers. This
may prove to be a better technique in-
stead of using all your money for market-
ing, branding and advertising as telecom
industry enjoys one of the most lowest
customer retention rates. Tata Teleser-
vices is among the very first operators
to enter into a strategic alliance with Fu-
ture group to bring about a new marketing
concept of “Retailer-Telco partnership”
under “T24” brand. T24 simply means
talk for 24 hours which is a loyalty based
program in which consumer will buy more
to talk more or talk more and buy more.
This concept is similar to petro cards in
early 2000s which was joint effort of pe-
troleum and credit card companies like
HPCL-ICICI Bank credit card and IOC-
Citibank credit card where customer is
getting exemption from the surcharge
imposed on fuel, 15% discount on pollu-
tion under control check, 5% discounts on
Exide batteries, MRF tyres. Future group
is also giving a thought to have collabo-
ration with fuel companies, free electric-
ity offer for those who have purchased
electric appliances from Future retail out-
lets. In the era of increasing competition
only option left with the operators is to
gain as well as to retain. Same strategy
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can be followed by Airtel with Easyday
as well as Reliance with Reliance fresh.
As a matter of fact that Virgin Mobile tar-
gets mostly the youth sector so they have
decided to have tie-ups with electronics,
consumer goods, apparels, restaurants,
consumer goods. But still there is lot to
be explored and achieved in this concept
of co branding. For example: Companies
giving international SIM like Airtel has re-
cently launched World SIM for interna-
tional roaming can also collaborate with
Airlines.
Telecom in Media
Way in which telecom entered into re-
tail sector, same way it has entered into
media and multiplexes. Vodafone Tues-
days: a concept in which Vodafone cus-
tomers are being awarded 2 movie tickets
at price of one on Tuesdays with Satyam
cinemas in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai. Loop
mobile is also providing similar kind of
services with Cinemax multiplexes and
Sterling multiplexes on Fridays. One can
also purchase a combo pack of regular
Popcorn & Coke at just Rs. 50. Through
this tie-up with all 13 Cinemax theatres
and Sterling Cinema in Mumbai, Loop
Mobile subscribers located anywhere in
the city will be at convenience. While the
procedure to avail this is very simple, the
scheme is open at a first come first serve
basis cueing subscribers to book the tick-
ets well in advance after receiving the
Mcoupon.
Bundling of Services
Most people think telecom is restricted
to voice calls but there are lot of things
under umbrella called telecom like DTH,
wire line, wireless, VAS, Broadband. So
operators like AIrtel, Tata, Reliance which
are in all the verticals can gain an added
advantage by providing discounts on ac-
cess of all these services from the same
operator. This is bundling of services.
Moreover if we observe the scenario in
European countries, we find that they
have started convergence of all these
services on single platform which not only
saves on the cost but also reduces sub-
scriber churn and provides retention.
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Q1. Could you tell us about Koovs and its
business model?
Koovs Singapore Pte. Ltd. provides an online
platform for mass dealings of products & services
at an exceptionally great bargain. It assists all
Merchants (big/small) through personalised
consulting, and packaging their products &
services into lucrative e-commerce saleable
People usually confuse E-commerce with only
having ‘www’-presence and ignore the possibility
of offline associations with complementary
businesses. Perhaps exploring the offline
association for any E-commerce is the most
important piece of advice I would recommend to
all new ventures.
Q5. Reasons for choosing Singapore as your
attractions so that they can get
more business and benefit from
economies-of-scale.
At the same time it helps its
Customers in availing amazing
products & services and gives
individual customer a great
buying power through demand
aggregation strategy.
Q2. How do you communicate with your target market?
Always moving ahead with our new strategies,
Koovs’ competitive-advantage has made it
unbeatable in Singapore because of its strategic-
partnerships through which we have managed
to affiliate ourselves with indirect channels of
Government support. In addition, we deploy all
major E-commerce expansion tactics through
revenue-sharing affiliation programs, linking up
with several social-media and social-networking
websites like Facebook, Twitter etc.
business center?
Singapore is the world’s fastest
growing business destination.
Its dense demographics
and high currency valuation
makes it an attractive choice
among many APAC and SEA
countries. It offers many
challenges and opportunities at
the same time and thus gives
an immense grooming platform
for entrepreneurs like me.
Q3. What are some of the Promotional
strategies you employ in Singapore?
Without a doubt there are millions of businesses
that have a proven track-record of E-commerce
venture. But that’s not the case with many
businesses that are trying to sell products &
services in a competitive market.
To penetrate a saturated market like in Singapore
one needs to have ideas lucrative enough to divert
CORPORATE INTERVIEW
Vivek Gupta, MD, KOOVS
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traffic towards his E-commerce platform. At Koovs
we strongly believe in strategic-partnerships. One
of our partners is Recycle Machine Enterprise
(RME), run by a group of philanthropists. They
deploy their recycling vending machines in most
crowded and posh areas of Singapore. And the
people who use these recycling machines to
throw in plastic-garbage are rewarded by Koovs
coupons whose price may vary from $1 to $20.
Even big-corporate cannot compete with Koovs
in rewarding people with such a hefty offer for
recycling a used plastic-garbage.
Thus, Koovs is playing a big role in the ‘Green
Singapore’ promotions by the Government.
Likewise, in India Koovs has over 30 corporate
tie-ups (IBM, Cisco etc), over 20 affiliate
partnerships (Lootmore, Foodiebay, Accentium
etc) and many strategic-partnerships (Myntra,
Ferns & Petals etc). On a similar note we are
proceeding on to new territories.
Q4. What are the future prospects and growth
avenues your company is looking at?
With the pace our start-up venture Koovs is
expanding we expect it to be among the top
service selling E-commerce venture in South-
east Asia by Feb 2011. Koovs’ altered strategies
and innovative ideas have been successful till
date and most likely will outperform the top-most
regional competitors.
As of now we have presence in India and
Singapore. And we are up for a big launch in
another big SE Asian country soon.
Q6. How are you targeting customers in India, or
other countries: International marketing aspect?
Koovs is among the early starters of Group-
buying websites in India. Today it is a very
renowned and popular venture. Also it is the first
and the only Group-buying company to expand
overseas. Although our regional operations target
location-specific market but the internal sharing
of expertise and resources that we have acquired
over a period of time gives us the edge over
competition.
Q7. What was your prime motive in becoming
an entrepreneur?
I consider myself an above average risk-taker
and an opportunist. Being an aggressive doer
who can relatively easily deal with today’s
struggles without getting distracted by future
rewards or lucrative substitutes during failures, I
would say, in one word, it’s the ‘job-satisfaction’
that was the prime motive behind becoming an
entrepreneur. And the love for the ownership and
willingness to take responsibility of activities/
tasks help me deals with the ‘motivation’ part.
This interview was given by Vivek K Gupta
an IIT grad who had done his MBA from
Nyenrode Business University & Kellogg
School of Management. Presently he is the
MD of KOOVS.
MARKMANTRA | SEPTEMBERMARKMANTRA | SEPTEMBER MARKMANTRA | SEPTEMBER
PRINT-AD Competition
Design a print ad for the promotion of Koovs. To know more about Koovs, please refer to the
interview of MD Koovs published in this edition. For further detail visit at koovs.com.
Prizes
The top two entries would receive certificate of appreciation and prizes worth Rs 500 each.
Rules
1. The maximum number of members in a Team may be two.
2. Please send your entries with subject line as well as document name as
<Koovs>_<TeamName>_<Institute name> to [email protected].
3. The last date of receiving all the entries is 25th October 2010.
4. The entries would be judged by the IIFT professors and the shortlisted entries would be sent
to Koovs MD for final decision.
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The Next Level : Marketing 3.0From Products to Customers to Human Spirit !!
Marketing, today, has really come of
age – from being ‘product centric’
(Marketing 1.0) in the industrial age to
being ‘customer centric’ (Marketing 2.0)
until recently. But the world is fast reaching
an inflection point, at which a complete
shift will occur in the way customers are
perceived and in the way marketing is
done. And to stay ahead of the curve,
brands will have to evolve themselves
to survive in
the renewed
market, to think
on their feet
and express
their benefits
through ideas,
service and
entertainment.
Welcome to the world of Marketing 3.0
– the ‘human centric’ era. Today, we are
witnessing a transition from the information
age to the ‘age of participation’, and
hence it is imperative for the marketer to
look at people not just as customers, but
as ‘humans’, who are active, expressive,
anxious and conscious. No longer is
the purpose restricted to identifying and
fulfilling only the needs and wants of the
customer; now it’s vital to identify and
fulfil their deepest anxieties and desires
as well.
An unprecedented coalescence of low-
cost computing devices, easily available
bandwidth and open-source has allowed
unlimited connectivity and interactivity of
corporations and individuals alike. So
today, the people are creating news, ideas
and entertainment as well as consuming
them. The means of marketing must now
evolve as the media itself evolves, and
as the marketer exercises little, if any,
control over what the customer sees.
The internet and the multifarious forms of
social media have enabled the customer
to see what a company is doing for the
benefit of the community as a whole.
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Hence, collaboration with the customer is
called for to listen to his/her voice and to
capture market insights which can help in
distilling out a distinctive ‘cultural dynamic’
that has a significant resonance among
the various communities. Moreover, as
a natural consequence of globalisation,
cultural issues urgently need to be put at
the core of a company’s business model.
A steady rise of the ‘creative society’ has
also necessitated that the products and
services must overreach the satisfaction
of needs to deliver an experience that
touches the customer’s spiritual side as
well. The customer isn’t just the king,
but s/he’s also the R&D and product
development head today. Hence, it
is imperative for companies to create
personal communications with the
customer by promoting their freedom to
talk about the company and its brands.
The customer today demands collaborative,
iconic, and independent marketing
approaches. Sophisticated consumers of
today are creating the future’s creative
consumer markets, in which targeting
the mind isn’t enough, but the key is to
target their hearts. So, marketing must be
emotionally relevant and redefine its root
as a triangle of Positioning, Differentiation
and Brand. A clear positioning in the
customer’s mind will lead to a distinct
brand identity; strongly differentiating
your brand will give it a different brand
image; and a clear positioning bolstered
by a strong differentiation will lead to
formidable brand equity.
Companies must also realise that they are
a part of the society and the environment,
and must align their mission, vision and
values towards social responsibility.
Aspiring for sustainability will definitely
strike a chord with the people and this is
what people share on social networks.
Marketing 3.0 requires the companies to
create not only products and services,
but entire corporate cultures, which are
customer value driven at the fundamental
level. Instead of a linear relationship
between a brand and a consumer, an
interconnected linkage between company,
brand, employees, consumers and
community is the need of the hour.
Written ByJayant Rana
MBA-IB (10-12)Indian Institute of Foreign Trade
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Product
LauchpadProduct 1
Company Name: Brabus, Germany
Sector: Automobiles
Company Profile: Brabus, Germany, is
a high-performance aftermarket tuning
company which specializes in Mercedes-
Benz, Smart and Maybach vehicles.
New Product: Brabus iBusiness Sedan
The latest products from Apple, New
Product: Brabus iBusiness Sedan
The latest products from Apple, including
the iPad, have all been integrated into
a Mercedes-Benz S-Class to create
the Brabus iBusiness. Not only does it
promise to be exciting to drive, but the
rear passenger compartment is fitted with
enough tech to make an Apple junkie’s
head explode. Steve Jobs, your stupid-
fast luxury sedan has arrived.
Launch Time: August 2010
Target Market: The ultra-premium class
who are tech-savvy especially Apple
lovers
Positioning: The new mobile office
Product 2
Company Name: Virgin Group, UK
Sector: Telecom, Aeronautics
Company Profile: Virgin Group Limited
is a British branded venture capital
conglomerate organisation founded
by business tycoon Richard Branson.
The core business areas are travel,
entertainment and lifestyle.
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New Product: Virgin Galactic- Space
Travel along with 340 Virgin Galactic
Astronauts at a cost of $ 200,000.
Launch Time: Spring 2010
Target Market: Customers keen to reach
infinity and beyond are from all walks of
life – from trust fund teens, to a 78-year
old grandmother and who can afford the
USD 200,000 price tag on a single ticket.
Product III
Company Name: TATA Teleservices
Sector: TelecomCompany Profile:
Tata Teleservices
Limited is one of
India’s leading
private telecom
service providers that offers integrated
telecom solutions to its customers under
the Tata Indicom, Tata DOCOMO, Photon
and Walky brands, and uses both the
CDMA and GSM technology platform(s)
for its wireless networks.
New Product: DOCOMICS, a sequel to
TATA DOCOMO’s recently announced,
unique, industry first, m-Comics, enables
consumers to read full comics on mobile
along with special effects like character
vibration, sounds, zooming text bubbles.
at a nominal rate of Rs 15/- per comic
chapter.
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Launch Time: Jan-Feb 2010
Target Market: TATA DOCOMO users
and customers with rich-media devices.
It is accessible through viewer application
platform for reading mobile comics.
Written byRadhika
MBA-IB (10-12)Indian Institute of Foreign Trade
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