Assure, Convince, Impress

The taste of pudding is in eating‐ they say. And experiential marketing works the same way. By definition, it’s about attaching unique experiences with the product benefits so as to attract and retain the consumers. Under experiential marketing approach, companies encourage their consumers to try and use the product or service in the real usage environment. P&G used this approach when they went all out promoting ‘Tide’. Their salesmen demonstrated Tide powder by actually washing the clothes using Tide in some of the households. This instilled confidence amongst the housewives as they could see the effectiveness of the detergent themselves. For the fence‐sitters, it was a quick check to verify whether Tide actually delivered what it promised.

HUL, the arch rivals of P&G, followed the same approach when they went ahead with their “RIN
Challenge” in March this year.

Experiential marketing makes a consumer ready before he thinks of actually buying and using the product. More the marketing is done in experiential way, more it alleviates the chances of post-purchase dissonance. If the unique experiences can be created while the customers evaluate (look at/touch/ feel) the product, it gives them a much stronger reason to eventually buy the product. Since the consumers have experienced it themselves, they have no reason to ponder over their decision later. Consumers are often trapped in the dilemma of doubting whether the product will work exactly the same as it is shown in advertisements. And there comes experiential marketing to help the marketers and, to assure the consumers.

Especially for hedonic purchase decisions where customers get pleasure from the very act of buying, using the experiences (along with the product) pampers the fantasies of consumers. Also, the right experiences aid to their self‐expression and emotions. Going forward, it might function as a tool to impress customers.

This is getting even more relevant as more no. of companies are trying to grab share of the same valet. On the marketer’s side, it helps to tell consumers about how the process of usage will fulfill their needs. In today’s world, products can’t be easily differentiated ‐ but experiences can be!

If implemented correctly, this idea will certainly help consumer products and durables companies in a big way, e.g. in the Home cleaning category, if the consumers are convinced that the cleaner wipes out the germs and makes their toilet clean, they will be ready to buy the product. Moreover, if the experience has been assuring and rewarding, it gives an opportunity to command a premium for it.

And some of the companies have started the move in the right direction, e.g. Mahindra & Mahindra realized it early when they launched Scorpio in 2002. They offered test‐drive to the customers and asked them about their experiences. These insights helped them fill the gaps in product features and make it even better. Skoda has recently done the same by offering test‐drive to its customers in select malls/show‐rooms in Mumbai.

Courtesy:
Mithilesh Kumar
SCMHRD 2009-11

Mr. Pradeep Lokhande, CEO, Rural Relations

Mr. Pradeep Lokhande has been working very hard for almost 15 years on his dream - he has been trying hard to make the villages of India computer literate! In this process not only is he helping students in the villages but is providing valuable data related to conditions and challenges faced by these villages to various corporations to help them understand the consumer behavior. It’s a win win situation for all.

Recently he started an effort to make video interviews of the villages by employing the youth from the village. This helps in providing feedback to the contributors as well as interested corporations. He has already helped over 400 schools with a computer which not only keeps the students excited about their schools but help them understand the amazing uses of a computer which has completely changed the way we do business.

He has created an infrastructure which allows for donations to reach its goal without any red tape through his organization: Rural Relations.

Rural Relations, founded by Mr. Pradeep Lokhande is playing a unique role in helping the kids with computer education, in making us all aware of the state of the villages, a very interesting approach to provide valuable data of about almost 70% Indians - The Rural India!

Mukul Varshney (Sr. General Manager and Head Sales and Marketing – Harvesters and Crop Solutions at John Deere)

Mukul Varshney (Sr. General Manager and Head Sales and Marketing – Harvesters and Crop Solutions at John Deere)

A B-Tech from Allahabad University and EGMP IIM Bangalore; Mr. Mukul Varshney has over 22 years of experience in Channel Management, Strategic Planning, Sales & Market...ing, Business Development, Sales Process Reengineering and Human Resource. Agri-solution and Bio fuels management.
He is presently Sr. General Manager and Head Sales and Marketing – Harvesters and Crop Solutions at John Deere India.
He has 11 Years of experience in Sales and Marketing with Mahindra and Mahindra Limited Automotive Sector.

Engagements and Interests:
Trainer – JD Global Performance Management
ISABS – Human Behavior Personal Decisions International USA - Impact Leadership
Dardis Communication USA- Coach
Profiler 360 degree – Coach
Team Enrichment Speaker – JDI internal departments
Visiting Faculty to COE Bhopal, NIAM Jaipur, SIMCA Pune, IIPM Pune and PIBM Pune
Member FIND Pune (A knowledge Sharing Forum)
JD representative for Govt Liaison, Universities and FICCI
IIMB – Member foundation initiative - Pune Chapter
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Nitin Gupta (Rivaldo) is the CEO of Entertainment Engineers

Nitin Gupta (Rivaldo) is the CEO of Entertainment Engineers(www.humorbeings.in)

He is a Chemical Engineer from IIT Bombay famous for creating a Cult Play 'Love In December'. Fresh out of IIT Bombay, he got an offer to perform on Laughter Challenge, the opportunity which he la...ter turned down! The reason is why he founded Entertainment Engineers with a simple mission, to make Stand Up Comedy respectable in India and to create a humor Renaissance in this country. Humor he says, ought to have an emotionality to it. We not only want people to laugh and think, we want them to LAUGH, THINK and FEEL at the same time. T.V. was not the medium to do that. So Nitin took to the Stage, College Festivals, Corporate Shows. And in a short span he has already enthralled the Audiences in some of the Biggest College Festivals in India, IITs, NITs, IIMs including their Alumini Meets. A Guest Speaker at various E- Cell Platforms and Marketing Conclaves. A TED Favorite. He is widely considered as the most Original Orators of present times.
But Theater and Stand Up Comedy is not the only thing on Nitin's Mind. He has already had many offers from leading Production houses in Bollywood to make Love in December. But he is in no hurry, as he candidly puts it, 'Love in December is our baby, hence it will be our Home Production.'
He soon intends to enter into Advertising. Till then we will have to be remain content with his heartwarming Stand Up Comedy Concerts.
See More

Exploring Experiential Marketing in the Rural Market

The new buzz word in the market is “experiential marketing” – using one or more of the human senses to market services and products. The concept is really quite simple and honestly very brilliant; it involves not only giving customers an opportunity to engage and interact with brands, products and services but also helps them build an emotional connection thereby enabling them to make a better purchasing decision. Today, experiential marketing has been used quite successfully in urban market contexts; however, my focus in this article is on exploiting this new marketing model to explore the rural markets in India where the customer is not educated and has a different mindset than those in the cities.


Why the rural market? Well, most of the BOP today lives in a “media dark” zone, meaning they do not have access to radios, TVs, etc. Since, traditional marketing models fail to reach this target experiential marketing can step in and broaden the horizons for brand promotions and consumer education. In addition, the real life experience of touching, tasting, feeling, relating and familiarizing oneself with a new product that the customer is likely investing in for the first time, creates a unique influence on the buyer. On the far opposite end of the "trust" spectrum lie media advertisements which pitch features and benefits. There is little reason for consumers to trust yet another over-exaggerated sales pitch, let alone base their purchase decision on it. It is here that the experiential marketing fits in.


How has experiential marketing made its mark? In the rural markets, usage of promotional tools like kiosks, stalls, free sampling, etc. has increased tremendously in the last decade. Consumers are now demanding testing and tasting of products before buying even a pack of biscuits or tea. Some methods that marketers have employed for satiating this consumer curiosity are by providing samples at the tea stalls at the Melas and Haats (weekly markets in the villages). The smell of the tea accompanied by the taste from a free sample forms a part of experiential marketing luring them towards the products.


A well demonstrated implementation of experiential marketing was seen in Mahindra’s promotion tactic for its Hy Tec tractor brand. These tractors are strong hydraulic tractors aiming to help farmers sow the fields. To demonstrate this technology to the farmers the company engaged them through a technique in which sensors were fixed to the hydraulic and a large LCD monitor was placed for the farmers, which captured the movement of the cultivator on an ECG graph. This activity was easily understood and remembered by the farmers, thereby creating a band impact resulting in significantly increased sales for the company.


One way to exponentially increase the impact of experiential marketing is to combine it with word of mouth marketing. When the consumer is enthralled by his experiences with the brand, he will certainly share these with his friends and family. The results can be truly astounding.
The Aravind eye care system is a prime example of successfully marrying experiential marketing with word of mouth marketing. Aravind eye care systems, largest eye care facility in the world, conducts more than 1500 eye camps where the poor are tested for vision problems and those needing help are admitted to hospitals where the sanitation and medical care is optimum. These camps not only enable brand recognition but also facilitate to build credibility. The word of mouth in this case is extensive enabling to cover a larger target customer base than what traditional media could have covered.

Keeping in mind the above examples we can say that there is a series of conscious steps that the rural consumers take to "filter" down the set of possible choices and then make the decision based on the comfort level afforded by their own "contexts." And the factor that has the greatest weight in a rural consumer's purchase decision is their own experience with the specific product. It is the difference between telling the rural people about features or benefits within the confines of the thirty-second TV spot and letting them experience it and get their own "a-ha!" event.

Courtesy:
Dhwani Thakkar
SCMHRD 2009-11

Santosh Desai–Managing Director & CEO, Future Brands Ltd

Santosh Desai–Managing Director & CEO, Future Brands Ltd

Santosh is the Managing Director and CEO of Future Brands Ltd. Future Brands is a branding services company that creates and manages a portfolio of brands and offers consulting services in the brand and consumer space. Before taking up this assignment, he was the President of McCann-Erickson, one of India’s premier advertising agencies. A post graduate from IIMA, his interest lies in studying the relationship between culture and brands.

A review of his bestselling book, Mother Pious Lady- Making Sense of Everyday India, by Outlook magazine calls Santosh Desai, “the nearest thing we have to R K Laxman in prose”. His work as a social commentator and a media critic has also documented in his role as a weekly columnist with Times of India, and columns in Mint, Media International & Tehelka.

He is a member of the Advisory Council on Communication (ACSAC) of the UID programme as also a member NACO sub-committee on communications and a trustee at the Centre for Media Advocacy. He is on the boards of ING Vysya Bank, Mumbai Business School and Future Consumer Products limited and on the Governing Councils of Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad & Praxis Business School, Kolkata.

He has addressed several national and international seminars and has served as a Jury Member for the 56th National Film Awards.

Posted By Indranil Das
www.ino-vate.blogspot.com

FRAGE 2010 - Quiz 1

Q1) Identify the logo


Q2) Give the connect


Q3) This popular mascot was created in 1985 in New York.
He represents free spirit and guileless confidence. In India, the mascot is known for his association with a beverage company. Though, he has advocated for Human rights also. Identify.

Q4) launched in 1930s this brand was launched for women
but it is now known more as a brand for men. The brand used ships as its trademark, though they have been now replaced by a yacht. Identify the brand.

Q5) Connect?



Q6) This channel was started by a father –
duo in the late 1970s, after both of them were fired from their respective jobs. This channel was a pioneer in its chosen field of programming. The name of the channel was changed to match the name on the letterheads, which were printed with a typo.

Q7) Identify this gentleman, we can’t imagine
life without his creation.


Q8) What’s her claim to fame?



Q9) This product was the first in its line and was
designed in 1970. It was painted black and white so that it can be easily visible on TV. What ?

Q10) Founded in the late 1970s by a noted economist,
this company created a business model of earning money through routine economic research activities. Now it is the largest private repository of economic data in India. Which company?

Answers:

1. BASIX Microfinance
2. The Gateway Hotels. Soha Ali Khan, Rahul Bose, Rahul Sharma & Manish Arora, are the brand ambassadors of the brand.
3. Fido DIdo
4. Old Spice
5. The Onida Devil. Gopi Kukde created the concept. AAmir Bashir, Ashish Choudhary & Rajesh Khera played the Devil
6. ESPN
7. Martin Cooper. He is credited with the creation of the cellular phone.
8. Eleanor Thornton was the model for the Spirit of Ecstacy, the mascot for Rolls Royce Cars
9. Telstar, the first official football for the FIFA world cup made by ADIDAS
10.CMIE

Frage Quiz 1:

Frage Quiz 1:


Q1) Identify the logo

A) BASIX Microfinance
Q2) Give the connect



A) The Gateway Hotels. Soha Ali Khan, Rahul Bose, Rahul Sharma & Manish Arora, are the brand ambassadors of the brand.
Q3) This popular mascot was created in 1985 in New York. He represents free spirit and guileless confidence. In India, the mascot is known for his association with a beverage company. Though, he has advocated for Human rights also. Identify.
A) Fido Dido

Q4) launched in 1930s this brand was launched for women but it is now known more as a brand for men. The brand used ships as its trademark, though they have been now replaced by a yacht. Identify the brand.
A) Old Spice
Q5) Connect?



A) The Onida Devil. Gopi Kukde created the concept. AAmir Bashir, Ashish Choudhary & Rajesh Khera played the Devil.

Q6) This channel was started by a father – duo in the late 1970s, after both of them were fired from their respective jobs. This channel was a pioneer in its chosen field of programming. The name of the channel was changed to match the name on the letterheads, which were printed with a typo.
A) ESPN

Q7) Identify this gentleman, we can’t imagine life without his creation.

A) Martin Cooper. He is credited with the creation of the cellular phone.
Q8) What’s her claim to fame?

A) Eleanor Thornton was the model for the Spirit of Ecstacy, the mascot for Rolls Royce Cars
Q9) This product was the first in its line and was designed in 1970. It was painted black and white so that it can be easily visible on TV. What ?
A) Telstar, the first official football for the FIFA world cup made by ADIDAS
Q10) Founded in the late 1970s by a noted economist, this company created a business model of earning money through routine economic research activities. Now it is the largest private repository of economic data in India. Which company?
A) CMIE

Posted By:
Indranil Das
Member Marketing Club
www.ino-vate.blogspot.com

Harish Bijoor, CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults.

Harish Bijoor
CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults.
www.harishbijoorconsults.com


Profile:

Harish Bijoor is currently a Brand Domain specialist operating out of Bangalore. He runs a unique boutique consulting outfit branded “Harish Bijoor Consults”, a brand name that has a consulting presence across the markets of Hong Kong, Seattle, London and the Indian sub-continent.

He spent the most recent 18 months of his career as the Chief Operating Officer, Zip Telecom Limited.

He has spent the last eight years prior to his Telecom stint with Tata Coffee Limited in various designations moving through the Brand Management and Marketing Hierarchy. The last eight years have seen Tata Coffee Limited unleash a flurry of value-added coffee brands in the domestic market. Some of these brands include Tata Café, Tata Kaapi, Coorg Pure Coffee, and Coorg Double Roast. The company launched an aggressive presence in the liquid coffee vending market as well with a large number of coffee points across the country. Harish’s career with the company culminated with leveraging exciting joint ventures with aggressive partners in the market. Barista coffee included, in the front-ended liquid coffee Café segment!


Harish spent the first eight years of his career with Brooke Bond Lipton India Limited (now Hindustan Lever Limited) moving through the Sales and Distribution stream during the first four years and the Brand Management stream in the next four. Brands handled: Teas: Red Label, Special, Super Dust, 3 Roses, Taj Mahal. Coffees: Bru, Deluxe Green Label, Tripti, Café, etc.

Harish is actively involved in the world of coffee in India. He is a member of many active coffee forums and delivers lectures on the subject in India and Internationally. Harish is passionate about coffee, a terrain he spent 20 years of his working life in.


He is a member of the Coffee Board of India under the auspices of the Union Ministry of Commerce.

Harish is an active member of the Plantations sub-committee of the Planning Commission for the formulation of the XIth Five year Plan(2007-12). He has a depth of involvement in the rural markets of India, Vietnam, South Africa and Indonesia.

Harish is an actively sought public speaker in the country at forums that relate to General Management, Marketing, Sales, Retailing, Consumer Behaviour, Techno-branding and allied areas.

He loves quizzing and is an active Business and Marketing Quiz Master as well.

Harish has recently published a book titled, “Marketing Trends – Smart Insights into the world of Indian Business” ….. a serious book written in a style that is distinctly young and MTV-ish!

He is currently involved in his second book on core-branding. The book is titled, ”Brand Irrationals: a fundamental journey into brand-think”

Harish has simultaneously been commissioned to write a book on “Customer Service mechanisms” at play in contemporary marketing contexts.

Harish is actively involved in research relating to Rural Consumer Bahaviour, Rural Retail Networks and Trade mechanisms at play. The current research exercise he is involved in spans a 6-year period covering 84,850 consumers across India.

Harish is involved in Urban renewal research and has put together active research formats that are used extensively in India, Pakistan, the UAE and Germany alike.

Harish has published papers extensively on the subjects relating to Strategic Marketing, Branding, Consumer Behaviour, Retail networks, Rural marketing, Marketing research and Trend-analysis.


Harish Bijoor contributes regularly to Business publications on Branding, sales, distribution and related topics. Harish loves Bangalore, but hates all the garbage being dumped around. Harish passionately believes that junk and garbage is going to be the biggest challenge of the new millennium!

Posted by:
Indranil Das
Member Marketing @ SCMHRD
www.ino-vate.blogspot.com

Gautam Dutta, CEO, Cinemedia, PVR Ltd.

Gautam Dutta
CEO, Cinemedia, PVR Ltd.

Profile:

Gautam Dutta is the CEO for Cinemedia, PVR Ltd. He joined the organization as Chief Marketing Officer in June 2006 and was later promoted to CEO Cinemedia. He is responsible for the entire marketing and sales of the group. He is entrusted with national responsibilities that encompasses marketing for the organizations entire media product portfolio, leverage footfall for better value, grow the organization’s top and bottom lines year on year; strategic planning and the entire services and brand communication across the country. Rollout of new projects and new services occupy a large part of his work output.

Prior to this assignment Gautam was VP Brand Services and the Delhi branch head of Rediffusion DY&R, an advertising agency of repute. He was completely responsible for a 60 member branch and led teams that planned and serviced the communications needs of national level product and service brands. He has worked for over 21 years with leading companies like Lowe Lintas India and Sista Saatchi & Saatchi. He had joined Lintas as a trainee and over a period of 13 years rose to the position of AVP.

Gautam Dutta is married with two children. He enjoys reading and watching movies in his leisure time.

Posted by:
Indranil Das
Member | Marketing Club @ SCMHRD

Well, Color me purple…

Yes.. This is what I said to my nutritionist when she found out that the reason for her diet plan to fail was my indulgence in something which I (and I believe millions like me) can’t resist.. Chocolates… (Drool…)

Color me Purple (Literally)… Cadbury Dairy Milk is what must have come to your minds when you see a bar wrapped in purple packaging.. Dairy Milk is a true Mega-brand.. It means celebrating life’s everyday pleasures with a bar of Cadbury.. For the last 62 years the brand Cadbury has maintained its image but has matched itself to consumer lifestyles in specific market segments.

You’ll remember the below advertisements if you have grown up in 1990’s in India..



In 1990’s Cadbury Dairy Milk (CDM)re-defined the chocolate category from being “meant for kids” to “meant for the child in every adult” with its “Real Taste of Life” campaign. CDM sensed the spontaneity and Energy in Indian household post-liberalization and voiced it through these TVC’s.. Theun-inhibited expression of happiness by the dancing girl on the cricket field is still etched in everyone's memory.. The girl danced into our hearts and rest as they say is history… (This campaign went on to be awarded 'The Campaign of the Century', in India at the Abby Awards)

Now that CDM had won everyone’s hearts it was time for CDM to take the place of traditional Indian sweets and increase chocolate consumption.. So came 'Khanewalon Ko Khane Ka Bahana Chahiye'.. The campaign was built to increase social acceptance of chocolates among adults thus showed adults sharing moments with CDM chocolates..
CDM had won hearts by now..It was now time to celebrate.. So came the “kuch meetha ho jaye” campaign..



CDM identified lingo that common Indians used in everyday life.. It became synonymous with “meetha”..To such an extent that people ask the retailer for CDM (“Bhaiya zara dairy milk dena”) when they want a chocolate.
Remember “Pappu paas ho gaya”?
The interactive campaign for "Pappu Pass Ho Gaya" bagged a Bronze Lion at the prestigious Cannes Advertising Festival 2006 for 'Best use of internet and new media'. The idea involved a tie-up with Reliance India Mobile service and allowed students to check their exam results using their mobile service and encouraged those who passed their examinations to celebrate with CDM. The 'Pappu Pass Ho Gaya' campaign also went on to win Silver for The Best Integrated Marketing Campaign and Gold in the Consumer Products category at the EFFIES 2006 (global benchmark for effective advertising campaigns) awards. The “Pappu” campaign was used extensively to express joy in a moment of achievement / success and became part of street language.
As a result of the campaign penetration of chocolates increased faster in the last four years than it did in the decade before that! Frequency of consumption among adults grew by 16% in metros and mini metros. ‘Celebrating a happy moment’ emerged as a need state in four years and preference of CDM for celebratory moments increased on an average by 34% across town classes.

CDM is now into celebrating small moments of happiness that life has to offer... The latest ones being the “Celebrating the Pay Day” campaign on “Kuch meetha hai khana aaj pehli taareekh hai”.. And the “Shubh Aarambh” campaign launched a month back. The campaign is about CDM consumers to also enjoy their much loved chocolate before embarking on an important task, in anticipation of a successful outcome.The “Shubh aarambh” TVC is targeted to the youth who have come of age but still have Indian values in their heart. The TVC has a young boy asking a young girl sitting in a bus stop enjoying her CDM for a cube of her chocolate and stating the reason as having something sweet before starting something auspicious- asking her to drop her home on his bike.


The success of the Cadbury brand can be seen in how its image iscontinually maintained over time. Identifying brand values, and matchingthese to consumer lifestyles in specific market segments can helpdevelop a clear advertising message.
The Most recent Global campaign of Cadbury is a run up to the 2010 London Olympics (Cadbury is the official treat provider) and it aims to take consumer engagement to a next level.

As games get people playing, they bring people together and sometimes they even reveal an undiscovered talent. Cadbury has launched Spots v Stripes. They are asking people to choose sides and split into Spots or Stripes in order to play, what’s quite possibly, the biggest, longest game ever. The games range from on-ground events (cricket, dirt racing etc.) in 5 cities of Great Britain to online games (where everyone can take part)... To take part people have to register (http://www.spotsvstripes.com) with the side they want to play for - Spots or Stripes. Then whenever you play a game against someone from the opposing side, the winner scores a point for his/her side. All the points get logged and are updated live on Score’o’tron on the website. The teams have to score enough points and participants stand a chance to become one of their side’s all-star heroes along with prizes.



So..
Is stripes to straight for you or spots too rounded??
Have you joined your team yet??

Author: Manjushree Raina

Aroma Marketing

Ever wondered how..
Every single time you pass a flower shop, a smile emerges on your face?
Everysingletime you pass a cafe, you feel the urge to go inside and have a cuppa?
Everysingle time you pass a pizza place, suddenly your taste buds start craving for cheese?

Welcome to the world of Aromas! In this world, the sense of smell gets activated and takes you to a world enchanted with mouthwatering delights and soothing scents, where everything is happy and just what you’d want it to be. A world full of flowers, coffee and pizzas I suppose??
It’s a part of an experience- an experience that leaves your mood uplifted. You feel happy and enticed to try or at least have a look- The marketer’s job is done, the desire to try has been induced.
Aromas can be used to induce trials, no doubt. Be it during a sampling activity being conducted in store, wherein the smell of hot food would lure you to the standee or the scent of a woman, who’d lure you towards her anyways!!

A scent “can affect consumer attitudes” – in other words the ‘odour’ is mind altering

Supermarkets are known to spray scent of fresh bread around their bakery goods aisle and second hand car showrooms spray perfume with mixed essence of leather and new car smell to make consumer’s subconscious believe it to be a new car.
Apart from such trickery, aromas can be used to soothe and relax a customer during spa treatments, or something as opposite as shopping. Certain aromas are known to ignite the urge to spend!
From the signature smell of “basmati rice” to the café lattes at Barista. From the French Fries at McDonalds to the alooparantha’s at home…..
…..Igniting your sense of smell is the ultimate recall.

Author:
Harleen Kaur

References: www.herbsphere.com

Axe - Call me campaign

“What is Mobile Number?” – a typical Govinda song which had him crooning all over the place for getting Karishma Kapoor’s mobile number. Little did we know at that time, that he is asking the same damn thing that every guy wants of his favorite ‘kudi’. David Dhawan surely might not have thought of getting this thing researched and implemented from a marketing perspective, but there was somebody else who did this.

The Men’s Deodorant market is cluttered with a number of players jostling with each other for space. New entrants are getting churned out every now and then with most of them are playing around the same theme: Apply my Deodorant, Swoon the girls around you! So, in such a situation, what did the supposedly big daddy of Men’s deodorant market, ‘AXE’ do? Well, they gave people an experience that would linger on their minds forever, whenever they think of buying a deodorant.

A recurring story in small town research was that a signal of potential romance is when a girl ‘carelessly’ throws crumpled paper near a guy – a seeming piece of trash that actually contains gold - her carefully penned mobile number. Access to this private line of communication allowed the guy to have suggestive and flirtatious conversations not possible to have in public. Hence getting a girl’s number is a huge affirmation of attraction. A girl offering her number on her own makes the ultimate fantasy even more intense!

This insight lead to the idea of the campaign called - “Numberitis”

The Plan:
HUL actually made the guy experience his fantasy – ‘a flirtatious and sexy engagement with a girl’ and the mobile phone was offered center stage. The average Ramu, Shamu and Dhamu now got the opportunity to talk to a hot Axe angel over the phone. They also had the experience of waking up every morning to the sexy voice of a hot Axe angel. The campaign encouraged guys to call a number and talk to an Axe angel.

The Implementation:

The Seed Phase:

Researches were carried out in various cities and the findings were shown in the form of provocative headlines on how women give out their phone numbers to guys and how they use mobile phones in interacting with guys. This built curiosity and set the stage for the next phase.

Numberitis Phase:

A fictional disease called “Numberitis” was bought to life. PR was used to sensationalize market research findings and made the topic of exchanging mobile numbers a hot topic.

Launch Phase:

This included launch of TV ads and outdoor advertising. The ads had women giving out numbers to guys applying AXE deodorants in various ways, be it ketchup inside a loaf of bread or blowing it up on the glass window of a car. The phenomenon was catching up.

Engage Phase: Once people got those numbers and called them up, they were greeted by sexy, cool voices of Axe angels who behaved flirtatiously with them.

Re-engage Phase:

To take the experience one step ahead, the Axe angel also offered free wake-up call service, where the guy would be woken up by the angel for a week. This ensured that the consumer had continuous connection with the brand. Besides this, axe ringtones were up for grabs and there were opportunities to win I-Pods and I-Phones.

All this resulted into tremendous success for HUL's Axe. Engagement with the consumers increased in a tremendous way, leading to increased market share.

So, the next time you keep your eyes and ears open for any Bollywood numbers. Who knows, just another idea of making the consumers experience something unique might just spring up!

References: www.afaqs.com


Author: Balaji Venkatraman
Blog: www.balajimyblog.blogspot.com

Concept- Experiential Marketing

"If I tell you something you'll forget it, if I show you something you may remember it, and if you do something you understand it and it becomes part of a powerful experience”

- Carson Tang (Illinois Meetings & Events 2008)

However one truly recognises and loves a person only when one meets, interacts and works with him i.e. experiences him in his entirety. This relation holds true for products as well. Today, the marketing paradigm has shifted. People are just not ready to accept advertisement for the heck of it. They want it to create a lasting impression….. to woo them…..An experience they can relate to………..and this is Experiential Marketing. While traditional marketing appeals to a consumer’s rational buying triggers, experiential marketing appeals to the rational as well as emotional buying triggers. It integrates elements of emotions, logic, and general thought processes to connect with the consumer, activating their sensory glands thereby increasing brand recall value and driving sales up.

Shortened attention spans of our “Teflon Generation” demand that any ad campaign make a quick impression, or the opportunity to engage the consumer will quickly pass. By appealing to all the senses, and making the connection quickly and seamlessly, this approach to the marketing task ensures that businesses can still attract and satisfy the needs and desires of consumers.

According to the article published in TheWISEmarketer.com , The Top Ten Marketing Trends for 2008 included Experiential Marketing. So how is this all done??? By giving customers an opportunity to live the brand, interact with it and experience it!!! Striking displays with powerful visual elements, such as websites, and visual media such as print ads should not only be visually appealing, but also conjure up daydreams of locales and reminders of sensations that are enjoyable to the individual.

Such Unique experiential encounters help to create unwavering affinity, produce ardent evangelists and shape durable intentions which then translate into higher revenues. These moments can happen in a matter of hours, minutes or seconds and depend purely on the magnitude of the experience – how much it can impact the right side of the brain as well !!!

The statistics here speak for themselves:

Trendwatch published a survey by TBA Global and Event Marketer in 2007. An overwhelming majority of marketers (82%) surveyed stated they were getting more value out of their current events with more than a third (36.5%) citing experiential marketing as the most effective vehicle for developing a bond between company and customer; beating advertising, direct marketing, sales promotion, online and public relations, etc. According to D. Keith Pigues (Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, PlyGem, Inc), moving from a purely rational value proposition to "rational plus emotional" as part of a brand repositioning contributed directly to driving up sales volume 229% and profit up 201% in a single year for Cemex.

The human mind is the ultimate experiential consumer. You must have mindshare before you can have marketshare.


As the saying goes, He CAME, He SAW, He CONQUERED…
We do believe - He CAME, He EXPERIENCED, He BOUGHT.


Marketing Club,SCMHRD
www.marketing.scmhrd.edu