Marketing Mistakes....

Phillip Kotler listed 10 mistakes that companies must avoid, in the book 'Ten Deadly Marketing Sins', a must  read for all marketeers....

1. Company is not sufficiently customer focus and market driven.
2. Your company does not fully understand its target customer.
3. The company needs to better define and monitor its competitors.
4. The company has not properly managed its relation with its stake holders.
5. The company is not good at finding new opportunity.
6. The company’s marketing plan and planning process are deficient.
7. The company’s product and service policies need tightening.
8. The company’s brand building and communication skills are week.
9. The company is not well organized to carry on effective and efficient marketing.
10. The company has made maximum use of technology.
Philip Kotler

However all the above flaws in Marketing strategy that Kotler have identified looks like very obvious, and only an "Idiot" CMO could underestimate these, but let me assure you that when you will do little bit research, you will come to know that 90% of firms are committing at least one of the above mistakes.

Dunkin came very late in America, that time Starbucks was highly popular in America, it was like holy place for many Americans, but inspite of all that craze, Dunkin managed to give strong competition to Starbucks. This became possible because they understood where there competitor is lagging, they analyze customer base of Starbucks, problems that customers were facing in Starbucks, and made a customer focused market driven strategy. 

Starbucks target very different customers, who want very different things from their favourite coffee shop. Starbucks is strongly positioned as a sort of high-brow “third place”—outside the home and office—featuring couches, eclectic music, wireless Internet access, and art-splashed walls. Dunkin’ has a decidedly more low-brow, “everyman” kind of positioning.

Dunkins research showed that although loyal Dunkin’ customers want nicer stores, they were bewildered and turned off by the atmosphere at Starbucks. They groused that crowds of laptop users made it difficult to find a seat. 

So is Dunkins good at finding the opportunities?? Probably answer is Yes, which also shows that Starbucks had committed some of the above mentioned sins. 

One of the sin that listed above is ‘companies Brand building and communication skill is weak’. Communication is a factor where many of the companies are lagging, many times we see some ad and we find no relationship between concept of that ad and the product itself, however companies may have some underline message but if ultimate target audience are not able to interpret it then what is the use of such a message. 

For example:
In of the commercials of Hywards 5000 soda in three boys comes on Cruiser bikes & stopped at road side hotel(Dhaba), out of three ,one asked for HAYWARDS 5000…An Old man (which looks like Owner of that Dhaba) said yes from his head and give them a bottle…while opening the cork of that SODA bottle...the roof of that dhaba got burst, from outside it looks like though a bomb have busted inside the dhaba…and all material that involved in roof was fell down along with three girls with miniskirts…One of the girl is sitting with another Old man( seems like his Uncle)closed his eyes…& says Sssshhhh…!!

For these commercial of Haywards 5000 soda one of the writers on ‘Mouth shut’ writes:
‘The major thing about this Ad is that I don’t know the purpose of this...& what they are trying to achieve in commercial’ 

Bottom line: Today’s customer is more intelligent armed with all kind of information, so if you want to sell your product, you have to find what he wants, you have to design product according to his preference and liking, and then most important you have to properly communicate what extra your product will give to your customer.

Marketing in Recession

“Business confidence among UK marketing executives has slumped to its lowest level in three years, as wary companies cut spending on TV, press and radio advertising in favor of price discounting and the internet” according to the latest Bellwether survey.

Companies always cut their marketing expenses, a crucial thing on which their sales depends, during recessions, even though there sales are already falling. What prompt companies to take such a step????

There is one aspects of this behavior of the firms is lack of accountability in marketing. One of the argument with which many of the scholars agree is that CEO get accountability for their investment in finance, production, IT etc. but they don’t know what their market spending is achieving.

There are many other aspects of such behavior….. It’s a topic of research; it’s a hot topic for discussion especially when we are living in a time of recession.

Rohit Goyal

Team Mercatus

Marketing Versus Selling

"Checking the results of a decision against its expectations shows executives what their strengths are, where they need to improve, and where they lack knowledge or information."

Peter Drucker

In theories we studied that Marketing is a long and continuous process which starts from Market research, goes on to search for new opportunities and then gives a direction to the evolving strategies. Then Marketers design a STP strategy.

Segmentation: The Company divides a broad target market into subsets of consumers who have common needs and applications for the relevant goods and services.

Targeting: They identify a target market which is a group of customers that the business has decided to aim its marketing efforts.

Positioning: In this process marketers try to create an image or identity of its product, brand etc. in the minds of their target market.

Then keeping in mind all these they design marketing mix i.e. four P’s: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. And also additional 3 P’s People, Process and Physical evidences

Then they roll out the product and related campaign and if something goes wrong then marketers look back and analyze what went wrong.

For instance one of the big reasons why Apple IPhone didn’t work well in India when it was introduced in 2008 was that it was priced very high and for a phone which offers no new features except the touch screen. Priced at Rs31000 for 8GB and Rs36100 for 16GB most of the phone buyers felt it’s not worth it.

But market dynamics have changed and narrowed down the above scope of marketing now. One of the deadly ‘Sins’ that companies commit is that they limit marketing efforts to Sales and advertisements.

Philip Kotler shared an experience in his book “TEN DEADLY MARKETING SINS”, once he asked Marketing Vice President of a major European airline some questions:

Whether he sets the fares Price? He said no finance department does that.

Do you influence the food served on the airplane (Process)? He replied no catering does that.

Do you set a standard in hiring cabin crew (People)? He replied no Human resource does that.

Then what do you do? He replied sales and promotion.

Marketing is not simply a part of a business which could be run in isolation but it runs parallel to all the other activities of business. Suppose you are in service industry then your marketing effort should comprise and keep in mind each and process of business, be it HR, Operations etc.

No customer will remain loyal to the Airtel if they do not provide effective services, no matter how much they spent in their promotional activities.

So if you want to be successful you have to integrate marketing in the core of your business.

For instance Tata Nano was a new innovation, they spent a huge money on promotions, price was kept at a level that it could attract a huge customer base, all equation were just right but it did not do as well as it was expected the main reason were production delay, waiting list etc. so even though there marketing mix were good and to large extent coherent to each other they were not backed by the other processes.

Bottom line: Today’s market is very dicey, people have excess to all the info, they always demand more and in this competitive area no process of business can run in isolation and marketing efforts should be backed by all other processes of a business.

By:
Rohit Goyal
Team Mercatus Mantra

TOI V/S THE HINDU

Indian journalism is adopting a different kind of marketing strategy, recent aggressive advertisement campaign of THE HINDU have literally going to change whole dimensions of Indian media's advertising campaigns. Among newspapers Predatory pricing, and price war are a common phenomenon but the advertising campaign which came along with the changes in the Hindu's business and editorial team looks pretty interesting from a marketer's prospective.We have seen so many advertising wars be it Cola v/s Pepsi war or Complain v/s Horlicks but now the fight is between two media house. And we can be sure that this war will bring a lots of learning for a marketer. A big question arises here is thus this kind of war is beneficial for readers and also nation as a whole after all now this fight is among players of a industry which is considered as fourth pillar of democracy.

A unique phenomenon is also arising recently Mint published an editorial. Just go through it :

"Few ads I have seen in recent times have made me feel as good as the new ones for The Hindu, where the paper takes on The Times of India.

For those who haven’t seen the ads (there are three), they show an invisible questioner posing questions to some young people (executives and college students). None of them seem to know the full form of ATM, or the identity of Ratan Tata’s successor (one young man says: “His son… Mukesh Ambani”), or the name of Ram’s father ( “I haven’t seen Ramayan,” says a young lady). Yet, all know the nickname of actor Hrithik Roshan, the gender of Aishwarya’s baby, and the identity of the Bollywood actress with a size zero figure. The questioner then asks the young people which newspaper they read, and while their answers are beeped out, their lip movement leaves little to the imagination. Nor does the punch line: “Stay ahead of the times.”

One reason why I like the ads (and I will be honest about this) is editorial hubris. I see The Hindu as a paper that, like Mint, is fighting the good fight.

Another is the aggression on display. For too long, the Mahavishnu of Mount Road has played safe and it is good to see the paper becoming aggressive about what it does and, more tellingly, what it thinks of The Times of India’s style of journalism.

This kind of aggression may be a little late in coming. The Times of India has, over the past few years, become a good read and, perhaps driven by the realization that Page 1 of the country’s most-read English newspaper needs to reflect the sentiments of the English-speaking middle class, the daily has adopted an anti-corruption and anti-government stance that seems to have worked. Still, the subtext of The Hindu’s ads aren’t out of place because there are times when The Times does inexplicable things: like the Page 1 plugs it carried for a New Delhi-based wellness centre and which the Times group’s CEO Ravi Dhariwal defended, in a comment to WSJ.com, as not being “…an advt/advertorial” for the centre which, it emerged, was fully owned by the Times group. “No money has been charged for it. We do cover our in-house activities/events/launches in a similar manner.” The Page 1 plugs, which also appeared in The Economic Times, did not carry any disclosure that the wellness centre was owned by the Times group.

(Disclosure time:

1. My first job in journalism was at The Hindu Business Line, published by Kasturi & Sons Ltd, which also publishes The Hindu, and since I didn’t go to J-school, it wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate to say that I learnt a lot of my journalism in a quiet corner of Mount Road.

2. The Times of India competes with The Hindustan Times, published by HT Media Ltd, which also publishes Mint. The Economic Times, another fine paper published by the Times group, competes with Mint.)

Anyway, I digress. This column isn’t about HT Media. Nor is it about the Times group. It is about The Hindu. I hope the ads aren’t a late response to The Times of India’s excellent ad for its Chennai edition. (For those who haven’t seen this ad, which was released last year, it shows a young man in a dhoti and white shirt sleeping his way through various happenings. A newspaper (The Hindu) is always in the frame. The punchline: “Stuck with news that puts you to sleep? Wake up to The Times of India”.) Instead, and because there are three ads (which, I must stress, are artfully scripted), I hope the aggression displayed by The Hindu reflects a more fundamental change in how the paper, and the company behind it, will react to competition.

The ads also come at a time when The Hindu has a new editorial and business team in place. I know from my own experience that a new editor, even if he is hand-picked by the old one, will, even as he keeps the core of the paper intact, try new things and experiment in an attempt to put his own stamp on the paper, and that can only help its cause."

Now we have to see is this a marketing or something else...........

By
Rohit Goyal
Team Mercatus Mantra 

Taking Brand Global

To make Airtel brand global Bharti Airtel joined hands with Manchester United for a five year exclusive agreement”

“This partnership is intended to delight Airtel customers across India, Sri Lanka and Seychelles by offering them a variety of benefits”

The above mentioned lines are self explainatory towards the value that airtel adds to its customers. The benefits specified for the customers are:-

Airtel customers will have access to rich and exclusive Manchester United content on their mobiles. Nominated Airtel customers to participate in Manchester United Soccer Schools training session. A once in a lifetime opportunity for Airtel’s guests to travel with the Manchester United first team during their way to UEFA Champions League matches and also to watch matches at Old Trafford.

“We are very excited to partner with Manchester United, a powerful global brand with huge following across the world and in India.” said Sanjay Kapoor, Deputy CEO, Bharti Airtel. He added “Football is definitely seeing a growing interest amongst the young population in India. Therefore, we are making a pioneering effort to bring to them rich football content on their mobiles, a fantastic opportunity to be part of the world’s leading football club through participation in soccer schools, and also an opportunity to watch football matches across Europe.”

Manchester United Club CEO David Gill said: “Manchester United is delighted to announce the partnership with Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecommunications company and one of Asia’s emerging global brands. This partnership demonstrates the enduring strength of the Club internationally. We are very proud to have Bharti Airtel as the first Indian company to partner with Manchester United Club. This major partnership will bring the action and the passion of Manchester United directly to the millions of fans of Manchester United across India and other Asian countries."

Key Highlights of the agreement

•Airtel will be able to bring for its customer rich exclusive content such as Video clips of Premiership matches and UEFA Champion’s League Highlights, Classic Goals and Games of Manchester United, Match Feeds & reports and editorial features. Also, downloads of Mobile Games, Ringtones, animations, and Wallpapers of popular Manchester United first team players such as Ronaldo, Rooney, Ferdinand.

•Airtel customers will be able to access the internationally popular Manchester United Mobile Portal where rich Mobile Products and content will be exclusively available for the Airtel customers.

•Airtel customers can also watch Manchester United Football matches at the Old Trafford Ground in the Premier League, FA Cup, Football League Cup, UEFA Champions League. A few lucky Airtel customers will also get an opportunity to travel with the Manchester United first team during their away UEFA Champions League matches.

•Football enthusiasts among Airtel customers will get an opportunity to train at one of the Manchester United Soccer Schools (MUSS). MUSS are currently run in Hong Kong, Seattle, Toronto and Dubai as well as Manchester and it enables people around the world to participate in soccer activities. These programmes take their lead from the coaching at the Manchester United Academy and First Team training sessions.

For details visit:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByXEFtrFN64

This agreement spark a new kind of marketing strategy and the strategy is “ make partners and use partner’s image to do your marketing”…

Question here is whether this strategy of Airtel will work in India as we all know that there is only one sport in India that joins us together and that is Cricket……..

Content provided by:-

Abhishek Jain

Mercatus Mantra

Marketing Strategies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some time back it was in news that Google tied up with Bollywood Actor Shahrukh khan’s production company Red Chillies Entertainment for promoting his film Ra.One. Besides promoting Ra.One on You Tube, Shahrukh did online chats with fans through Google’s social networking site ‘Google+’ The producers of Ra.One set a record marketing budget of around 52 crore(US$10.55 million), of which 15 crore(US$3.04 million) was used for online promotion, making it the highest ever for a Bollywood film

Often described as the "longest promotion in Bollywood history", as well as "the most comprehensive and all-pervasive among people's lives", the term "promotional blitzkrieg" has often been used in connotation with the project's extensive marketing campaign.

Promotion of the film officially began as early as December 2010 when the first poster was published in all leading news papers across the country. The film's first look was later unveiled by Khan on his Twitter page on January 1, 2011. Several months later, director Anubhav Sinha announced that he would be launching two teaser trailers of the film during the 2011 Cricket World Cup, a prior nine months before the film's actual release date. Asked about why he was launching the film's trailer so early, Sinha commented, "Ra.One is not a Bollywood film that the audiences have seen before. The kind of size and magnitude that the film has requires it to be slowly introduced to the audience and that is the very purpose why we are starting the whole communication so early." The film's first theatrical trailer was released three months later to the public. As a way to promote the theatrical trailer, Khan was accompanied by the director on a five city tour, which included such places like Delhi, Chandigarh, Indore and Ahmedabad. During the same event, a 3600 ft long fan mail collecting audience wishes and messages for the film was also launched.

Even though he used such an aggressive add campaign even though movie did not do wonders on the screen more over some critics said that it is the excessive marketing that created a excessive expectations among public and when they don’t find it up to the level it backfired.

Now the main question is whether what Red Chilli did was right in the current scenario???

Did it really become a victim of excessive marketing???

Would these kinds of marketing strategies (online marketing) flourish in Indian Markets? Who would benefit the most from strategies - Google+ or Ra.One?


By:-
Rohit Goyal
Mercatus Mantra


For More info on the marketing strategy of Ra.one please watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4GaKcHOAmE

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