Inaugural Session: “The Consumer Retention Route to Enhanced ROMI”

Sunday, August 01, 2010 Posted by Bhushan Bapat

Keynote Speaker - Mr. Santosh Desai, MD & CEO of Future Brands

Session I: “Spoil for Choice – The Retention of Indian Youth”

Speakers:

1. Mr. Ashok Bajpai, General Manager - Taco Bell at Yum Restaurants International
2. Ms. Simeran Bhasin, Marketing Head - Fastrack & New Brands at Titan Industries
3. Mr. S Srinivas, GM Marketing - TVS Motor Company
4. Mr. Rahul Shanker, Senior Marketing Manager - Wrigley India

Session II: “Retaining the Exclusive Tag: The World of Luxury Brands”

Moderator for the Panel Discussion:

Ivan Coste-Maniere
Director - Marketing Department, Skema Business School, France
Director - MSc Luxury & Fashion Management, Skema Business School, France

Panellists:

1. Mr. Devasish Dutta, CEO - Gitanjali Lifestyle Limited & MD at MGPL Private Ltd.
2. Mr. Amit Dutta, CEO - Luxury Marketing Council India and MD & Founder at Luxury
Hues Consultancy Limited & Quintessentially Concierge India
3. Mr. Sandeep Vij, CEO - DDB Mudra Group at Mudra Communicatio
4. Ms. Ruchita Sharma, Head of Luxury Retail at the Bird Group & Head of Strategic
Planning at Globaluxia
5. Mr. Sudeep Chhabra, Head of Marketing at DLF Emporio
6. Ms. Roasie Ahluwalia, GM - Marketing Communications at Genesis Luxury Fashion
Pvt. Ltd.

Session III: “Charming their way to Consumer Loyalty – Th e Services Industry”

Speakers:

1. Abhinav Rahul, VP Corporate Communication at Max New York Life Insurance
2. Mr. Mouli Venkataraman, Head - Portfolio Planning and Insights at Nokia*
3. Mr. B Hariharan, VP Sales & Marketing at ITC Hotels*

* Confirmation Awaited

Labels: Brandwagon, Events, IIFT, Marketing

NATIONAL MARKETING SYMPOSIUM 2010

Sunday, August 01, 2010 Posted by Bhushan Bapat

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“THE CONSUMER RETENTION ROUTE TO ENHANCING ROMI”

“Loyalty cannot be blueprinted. It cannot be produced on an assembly line. In fact, it cannot be manufactured at all, for its origin is the human heart – the centre of self respect and human dignity. It is a force that will leap into being only when conditions are exactly right for it – and it is a force very sensitive to betrayal.” ~ Maurice Franks

Let us begin with a simple question: Who gives a bigger return on marketing investment – an existing consumer of your brand who must be retained for the possibility of a future repurchase; or an uninitiated user who expands your consumer base and gives you volumes?

THE THEME – NATIONAL MARKETING SYMPOSIUM 2010

“T he c onsumer ret ent ion rout e t o enhanc in g RO M I” – Understanding Brand Loyalty, Efficient Measurement of Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) and Strategies for Consumer Retention; including low cost IMC techniques aimed at consumer retention to facilitate a greater ROMI. A brief description of the various sub-themes mentioned above is presented in the following paragraphs.

UNDERSTANDING BRAND LOYALTY

As advertising spends break records after records, rivals are leaving no stone unturned to pull your consumer away from you. Besides this, post the deregulation of the Indian economy in the 1990s, the entry of some of the biggest international players in the market has presented Consumer India with a plethora of options to choose from. As clichéd as it may sound, an understanding of the underlying factors that drive consumer loyalty is becoming increasingly important for organizations facing a competition which is stiffer than ever before.

MEASURING ROMI

ROMI – Return on Marketing Investments; is a metric used to measure the overall effectiveness of a marketing campaign to help marketers make better decisions about allocating future investments. ROMI precisely signifies profitability generated for every rupee spent on marketing activities. Some of the parameters that it takes into account are: product positioning (market share), profitability (contribution/
EBIDTA margin) and marketing philosophy and aggression (Selling & distribution).

STRATEGIES FOR CONSUMER RETENTION

A growing top line for an organisation today is not a function of an increasing consumer base alone. Consumer involvement of existing users through engagement, feedback, variants, extensions, upgrades, value addition and a unique experience has become a critical aspect for a year on year sales growth of all successful organisations. The word of mouth publicity which results from all these activities often helps in transforming brands from the ordinary to the iconic.

On August 12, 2010 at The National Marketing Symposium at IIFT; some of the best minds from the corporate world and some of the brightest students in the country will unravel the mind of the consumer who is already connected to a brand.

We welcome you to join us in this discovery.

Labels: Brandwagon, Events, IIFT, Marketing

Piggybacking on Comics

Friday, March 05, 2010 Posted by Raghav

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written by Janani Kandaswamy

Imagine Asterix deriving his strength from Maggi soup in-stead of druid‘s potion, or Calvin playing with a Lego toy instead of Hobbes. Sounds preposterous? Maybe not. With a lot of fore thinking and planning, marketers are targeting a huge segment of customers by capitalizing on the unique place that comics hold among various age groups.

Using comic characters to reach across to children allows the advertisements to become a part of their world. Bubba the cat, for instance is the mascot for Cadbury India‘s bubblegum brand Bubbaloo. Chandamama also figures in Parle‘s strategy of promoting the multi-coloured confectionery Poppins.

What is so attractive about comics as a marketing media for children?

Comics are an integral part of childhood. The intensity of children‘s engagement with comics is very high.

Comics brands such as Tinkle, Amar Chitra Katha and Double Digest are contemplating the idea of tying up with automobile and consumer durable brands. ACK Media, the owner of these comics has already churned out comics featuring LIC India, Kirloskar Brothers Ltd and the National Stock Exchange. An-other brand called Virgin comics is keen to extend its services to a lifestyle brand and a consumer products company. In the coming years there is bound to be more marketing oriented companies following the comics route of attracting young consumers.

On the other end, adults are also being targeted by advertisers. The best example would be Google who marketed their internet browser chrome through an online comic book created by Scott McCloud. The book explained the inner workings of chrome and was de-signed as a printed comic for journalists and bloggers. With good presentation, thought, useful information and easy language it created the awareness which led to a firm entrenchment of Chrome in the minds of its potential users.

With the arrival of comics as a reliable means to garner attention for a product, the marketers have to refine the groundwork they do before zeroing in on a particular medium (web/print etc). There is no single comic for everyone. So creators need to initially identify the type of people who are likely to enjoy it. Once the general audience is identified, they have to deter-mine the influencers in that group and what social media they tend to gather around.

Keeping in mind the success of comics as a marketing medium, we might just get to see our favourite comic characters assuming the roles of brand ambassadors. Now wouldn‘t that be refreshing!!!

Labels: Brandwagon

Brandwagon Coordinator Writes

Tuesday, February 09, 2010 Posted by nitesh

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Written by Akshay Moorthy

My first article as Club co-ordinator of BrandWagon, the Marketing Club of IIFT and I will begin with a quote by Juan Carlos Castillo – “In marketing there are those who satisfy needs and those who create wants’’. When I was asked to write this article I was a bit reluctant initially but what clinched the deal was when Preyoshi said what better way than an online forum to promote your club and publicise your activities. She had gotten through to the marketer in me. And the culmination of that conversation is this article. For the record, Preyoshi belongs to the latter while I would like to believe that I belong to the former!

Talking about BrandWagon…

BrandWagon happens to be, after all, the most happening club on campus with strength of over 200 students as its members. It is, I believe, the only club of its kind in any B-School in India to have a title sponsor of its own. For this, we owe our complete gratitude to SAMSUNG who saw BrandWagon worthy enough to associate their name with.

For non-IIFTians, future students, potential recruiters and the uninitiated public at large, BrandWagon is a forum for students interested in marketing, either as a subject or as a preferred career. Being one of the most sought after clubs at IIFT, BrandWagon ensures that it continually expands and enriches the students’ classroom experiences.

B Schools across the world consider one and only one book as the Bible of marketing and its author as the undisputed guru of marketing. I am, of course, referring to Philip Kotler. In his words, Marketing takes day to learn. Unfortunately it takes a lifetime to master. The marketing club of IIFT sets out to prove the very guru of marketing wrong.

For, members of BrandWagon have successfully mastered the art of marketing in their two years at IIFT and have been displaying their proficiency in sectors ranging from Telecom, Automobiles, IT, Textiles to the big players in the world of FMCG.

Marketing is perceived as mundane theories formed upon simple tasks. If only I had a nickel for every time someone said “Yaar, marketing is all gas… its just playing around with words”…. BrandWagon aims to dispel this very notion. It functions with certain objectives in mind chief among them being to challenge individuals to move beyond jargon and clichéd theory and explore the real world of marketing, to provide a platform for IIFTians to express their creativity, use their acumen in industry analysis, and invest time and effort in live projects and several such activities and to help in updating members’ knowledge of marketing by keeping abreast with the latest in the marketing world.

We at BrandWagon try to achieve this through a myriad set of activities like BrandTracker(A brand tracking event), Dwijanma(A competition on study of failed brands and their proposed revival), Goal Mart and Vastutva(a market research competition). This coupled with the magazine Mark Key serves as the topping to an already attractive cake. If this was not enough, we have a Symposium or a Conclave every year where the best marketing minds in India come together and analyse the current market scenario, concepts of marketing and advertising and predict future trends in the industry. Add to this mix, discussions and interaction with eminent people from the industry (we had the COO of Wal-Mart, India on campus for a guest lecture) and you have students with a well rounded and holistic knowledge of marketing.

My fellow co-ordinators Raghav & Shweta and I aim to continue this very tradition of BrandWagon of churning out some of the brightest marketers the industry has ever seen, year after year. As we journey along, many more new and exciting events have been planned and are on the anvil. BrandWagon 2010-2011 promises you a great year ahead.
Why do we need to say all of this on an online forum; why the need to publicise our club, you may ask. In my defence, all I can say is we are not here to make noise, but we wont talk in whispers either.

To highlight just how essential this forum is to BrandWagon to draw attention to its activities and achievements (thank you, Preyoshi!) I shall reproduce someone’s words