Marketing Research by Parveen Ahluwalia as on 30/11/13

The Marketing Communication – Strategy

“Institute is always bigger than the individual, it is a fact”

• ·      PR
• ·      Direct Marketing
• ·      Events
• ·      Promotions
• ·      CRM (Loyalty Programs)
• ·      Others

PR Framework

Definition of the brand objective

• -       Short term
• -       Long term (will have to be quarter wise, considering it’s annual)

      Objective Setting

•     Agency and the client will have to sign of mutually as to what are the agreed objectives that are to be met and how they will be met?     

Strategy to address the objectives

• -       Short term
• -       Long term

Strategy

• -       Target consumer
• -       Target media

“In business newspapers, you’ve Economic Times as the priority 1 and Business Standard as priority, like wise in TV; ET Now is priority 1 and CNN IBN is priority 2 and in magazines India Today is priority 1 and Outlook priority 2”

Media Vehicles

• -       TV
• -       Press
• -       Radio
• -       Digital

 Media vehicle wise Key Messages

For example: “Tehelka has always been a torchbearer of scoops in India – that have shattered many a myth and reputation”

 PR Strategy

Media Bridging 

• -       Seeding

Communication

•      Releases
•      Sponsorships
• 
  

Events – Visibility through key speaker slots

Crisis Management Manual

• -       What if scenarios (about 40-50) upon which crisis will be handled

“Price, Specs and Name are the three most guarded secrets of the Automotive Sector”

“In communication business, the credit for the success or failure of a campaign is to be equally borne by the client”

Events/Promotions/Activation

Promotions

• -       Consumer Promotions
• -       Trade Promotions

No Price offs

No Exchange

Event:

·       One time

·       Lead generation

·       Venue specific

·       TA specific

       

     

Promotion:

• -       Engagement Exercise
• -       Consumer Participation
• -       Consumer Experiences
• -       Target Segments

“Growth rates of the following industries:

• -       Advertising = NIL
• -       PR = 15%
• -       OOH = 22%
• -       Digital = 50 - 60%
• -       Activation = 30 - 50%
• 
  

“Activity on the ground in a nation = Activation”

Activation is an event multiplied over different/across geographies.

Framework Objective

Objective

Target Audience

Connect Points

Exchange Programs (Modus Operandi)

Results

Promotional Mix

                              - Ads

“Idea is incomplete without actually creating a deliverable.”

Marketing Research by Parveen Ahluwalia as on 23/11/13

“Social Media is NOT only online”

Digital Marketing

Web

SEO

Promotion

• -       Online
• -       E-mailer
• -       Social Media
• -       Customer Relations Management 

     

Mobile

• -       Ringtones
• -       Wallpaper

    

Viral

      

Portal

• -       Payment Getaway
• -       Multiple Links
• -       Dynamic

Online Advertisement

- Banners 

• -       CPM
• -       CPC
• -       CPL
• -       CPA

“Marketing Tip: Ideally if you click on a banner ad, it should ideally take you to a different/distinct page, other than your home page”

Most Online Advertising industry/category wise: BFSI > Automobiles > Education.

With respect to an EDM; a relevant subject line is must so as to ensure that it presents itself in either junk mail, spam or gets deleted, an EDM should be sent along with respondent details that are addressed in the following manner:

• -       Name
• -       Designation
• -       Name of the Company
• -       Location
• 
  

   Contests

• -       Sales Schemes
• -       Customer Feedback

“SEO is to ensure that you’re the first search result”

Social Media

-          Blogs

• -       Listening Posts
• -       Viral --> Applications
• -       Inter – Intra group online promotions
• -    Inter – Intra group offline promotions  

Media Relations Strategy

Internal

External

• -       Stakeholders

                  

Example: What are the stakeholders of IIMC (External)

Students

• -       Courses
• -       Training Programs 

Employers

Faculty from the Industry

• -       Guest
• -       Adjunct
• -       Visiting

Regulators

Fourth Estate

-        

•       Educational media

Media Education Industry

Prospective Faculty

PR Strategy Framework

“Any company might not advertise but come what may, they’re doing PR”

Media Seeding

• -       Press Releases
• -       Press Conferences
• -       Informal Press Meets
• -       One –on- One interviews

Media Leveraging

• -       Across Media
• -       Intra Media

Media Update Skits

Familiarisation Trips

Media Research

Media Tracking

Crisis Communication

 

Marketing Research by Parveen Ahluwalia as on 16/11/13

"Advertising never explains to a consumer"

Market Overview

- Segmentation 

- Product Life Cycle 

- Consumer Adaption Life Cycle

- Market/Brand Shares

- Target Consumer Segments 

- SWOT 

Where Do We Want to Be? 

- Marketing objective 

- Target Segments

- Sales and Distribution Planning

From Market Understanding to Consumer to Competition to Product 

A Brand Plant Strategy 

- Client Brief  

- Creative Brief (Creative Strategy)

- Media Brief  (Media Strategy)

- Below The Line 

- Public Relations 

- Direct Marketing 

- Digital 

- Activation (Events and Promotions)

- Customer Relationship Management 

Term Paper/ Project 

- Individual Project 'issue' to be worked out 

- What are the considerations

• Category/Industry Review 
• Brand Wars 
• Consumer Profiling 
• Image Reviews 
• Strategy Reviews 
• Functions: Review and Importance 
• Campaign Reviews   

Research Design

• Issue Definition 
• Study Objective 
• Issue Definition  
• Scope of Work/Research Objectives 
• Sampling Design  

                 -> Target Segments 

                 -> Sample Size 

                 -> Geography (Delhi Centric)

• Key Deliverables        

   

OOH : Key to Today's Campaign or Not?

Objectives : 

• Size of the OOH Market in India 
• Growth Trends in the  last 3 years and and the reasons for the same
• Overview of the OOH Industry 

Marketing Research by Parveen Ahluwalia as on 18/11/13

“Higher the education – Higher the occupation – Higher the earning” 

Media Strategy 

•                Advertising Objective 

•                Target Audience 

-       From a media point of view

• -       SEC basis

• -       Media Habits (Newspapers, Magazines)
• -       Netographics (Web-portals, websites, html links)
• -       Media Objectives

From a reach and OTS point of view:

Reach

• -       Regionality
• -       Market Prioritization
• -       Seasonality
• 
  

Market Prioritization

Zone                                                State                                                        City

North                                   Delhi/NCR                                           Delhi

                                                Rajasthan                                             Jaipur/Kota

                                                Harayana                                             Chandigar

                                                Punjab                                         Amritsar/Ludhiana/Dhar*                                                            Himachal                                            Shimla

                                                 Uttar Pradesh                                         Lucknow/Kanpur/Varanasi

                                                  Uttarakhand                                              Dehradun

                                                J&K                                                                                               

West                                                  Maharashtra                                       Mumbai/Pune/Nagpur                                                                    Gujurat                                      Gujurat                                                   Ahmedabad/Vadodra/Surat

                                                     Madhya Pradesh                        Bhopal/Indore            

                                                      Chattisgarh                                           Raipur

East                                                 Assam                                                 Guwhati

                                                North Eastern States                                   

                                                West Bengal                                     Calcutta

                                                Orissa                                                Bhuwaaneshwar/Cuttack*

                                                Bihar                                                Patna

                                                Jharkhand                                     Ranchi

South                                                TamilNadu                                     Chennai/Coimbatore/Trichy

                                                Karnataka                                    Bangalore/Mysore

                                                Andhra Pradesh             Hyderabad/Vishakapattanam

                                                Kerala                                                Cochin                               

27 – 35 cities define the markets of India. If a brand is present in more than 12 cities, then you can consider television as a medium to advertise.  

Media Strategy/Rationale (2)

Media Mix

• -       TV – ATL 
• -       Magazines– ATL 
• -       Press – ATL
• -       Cinema – BTL 
• -       OOH – BTL 
• -       FM (Radio) – BTL 

The Line

• -       Mass impact
• -       Mass Reach
• -       Fastest Build Up for Your Brand
• -       National Reach
• -       Expensive

Media Weightages

• -                Across Media
• -                Across Markets
• -                Media Schedule

                -> Flighting

                ->Pulsing

•  Media Budget  

“A campaign will have to complimented I, e a presence in at least 2 mediums”

Market research by Parveen Ahluwalia as on 28/10/13

"Creative leap is taken from the a positioning statement"

-> New Company 

-> New Brand 

-> All India Media Campaigns 

• TV 
• Out Of Home
• Magazines
• Cinema 
• FM (Radio)
• Press

Press (Newspapers) 

• Full Page 

- Black and White 

- Color 

• Back Page 
• Solus Front Page (Right Hand Bottom)
• Double Spread, Half Page 
• Strip Ad (Horizontal/Vertical)
• Jacket 
• Ear Panels 
• Island Ad (where an ad is placed in between an editorial)
• Weather Column 
• Cartoon Strips
• News Paper Insert 

Magazines 

• Front Page 
• Double Spread
• Inside Full Cover 
• Inside Back Cover
• Strip Ad 

- Vertical 

- Horizontal 

• Bookmarks
• Page Markers ("Costs hell of a lot")
• Advitorial (an ad in an editorial which looks like an editorial)
• Pilot
• Cover Pull Out 
• Split Cover 
• Centre Gate Fold

"Newspaper have 8 columns" 

CC - Column Centimeter (then)

Sq. Cms is 4 cms… 

TV 

• Television Commercial (TVC) 

- 40 Seconds TVC

- 30 Seconds TVC 

- 20 Seconds TVC

- 05 Seconds TVC

• Logo 
• Animation 
• Ticker 

Cinema 

• In cinema (product placements)
• Cinema Film (Eg: Mukesh's Anti - Tobacco) 
• Cinema Slides
• Ticket 
• Ticket Jacket 
• Movie Schedule 
• Translites 

FM 

• Radio Spot 

- Dialogues  (Thematically and Tactically when you ask your audience come to some place)

         - Jingle 

• Radiotorial (Maruti Suzuki traffic beat is a radiotorial)   

  

OOH 

• Billboard Hoardings (Unipole)
• Poll Kiosks 
• Bus Shelters
• Balloons
• Banners
• Mobile Van 
• Public Utilities 
• Metros  

- Handles 

- Display Sign 

- Seat Covers 

• Traffic Island 
• Gang Tree 
• Sign Walls (on a flyover)
• Bus Wrap
• Building Wrap
• (at) Airports  

- Translites 

- Trolleys 

- Conveyor Belt 

- Escalators

- Travellators 

- Lifts 

• (At) Malls 

- Drop Down Banners 

- Glow Sign 

- Atrium Sign 

- Lift 

- Elevators 

- Food Court TV Display, Standees, Floor Graphics, Coasters 

- Dallaughs (Garbage Dump)

- Wall Paintings 

- Shutters 

• Retail and Merchandising     

- Shop Top 

- Standee

- Shop Window 

- Dispenser 

- Shelf Stickers 

- Billing Counters 

- Floor Graphics 

- Window Graphics 

- Posters 

- Dangler 

- Bunting (10 Danglers strung around)

Corporate Identity 

- Logo 

- Corporate Brochure 

- Annual Report Cover 

- Employee Newsletter

- Dealer Newsletter 

- Product Brochure 

- Product Catalogue

- Product Leaflet 

- Business Cards 

- Letter Heads 

- Envelopes (Small and A4)

Web 

• Home Page 
• Web Page 
• html links 
• Payment getaway 
• Blogs 
• Search words (tags)
• URL  

PR 

• Press
• Media Release 
• Press Conference Set -Up 
• FAQ's for one on one interviews 
• Direct Mailing 

- Existing Customer Mailer 

- Trade Mailer 

- Potential Partner Mailer 

Events / Promotions

• Advertisements

- Print 

- TV 

- Radio 

- TV 

- OOH 

• Set Up 

- Stage 

- Back Drop 

- Fliers 

- Banners 

- Invites

Ad has 5 Elements

- Headline
- Visual
- Body Copy
- Logo/Name
- Tagline

  

Account Management by Shruthi Jain as on 26/10/13

"Campaign is never the strategy"

"Brand definition should always include an emotional point of view, regarding the kind of people, kind of regions that the company/brand comprises of/where it is situated"

" As a brand, pricing is the worst strategy you can adopt and it will come back to haunt you"

Chair Exercise: The one in where one dude Ritwik was made to sit on a chair and the rest of the class (in vain) attempted to get him off the chair by using only words (no abuses though). The learnings from this chair exercise was "If you don't know about your consumer or what drives them, then you're not doing much"

"Don't leave any stone unturned for you don't know under which you'll find a gem of an insight"

      

Printing Techniques by N. N Sarkar as on 22/10/2013

"Typography isn't mathematics, you'll have to see it"

Graphic Elements

- Pictures
- Colors
- Graphics
- Typeface


Typography was developed in the 15th Century and revolutionised communication, owing to the great man Gutenberg (who's known as the father of the communication)

Letterforms

Signography: Drawn, fabricated letterform. It is manipulated.

Calligraphy: Freehand letters an art of beautiful writing

Typography: Letter character that has developed by some mechanical system, standardised letterform made from mould, stone on grid.

Typeface: Letter image as the body which gives impression on page that is read.

Typebody : Type that carries letter image and gives impression on page which has been linked.

You don't have a long text in capital letters you see/view words as a rectangle box and if everything begins too look like a block then it hampers your reading speed.

   Special scale known as the Pica scale is used for type measurement.

Unit of Pica Scale : Picas and Points
                               12 points = 1 Pica
                               6 Pica = 72 Points = 1inch (approx)

 
Book Recommendation: Art and Print by N.N. Sarkar


Font is a formal term that includes all of the upper and lowercase letterform, numerals, punctuation, symbol that comprises of a particular size, style and weight.

A family of type include all the variation of a type design in all sizes.

1. Classical: Thick and thin fancy lines with short angular strokes; Family: Old, English  

2. Roman: thick and thin strokes with serif attached to the man strokes; Family: Times Roman

3. Lineal:

• a) Square uniform strokes within a letter with serif; Family: Rockwell, Serif 

• b) Sans Serif: Even body without serif; Family: Arial, Avant Garde

4. Fancy:

• a) Decorative: Highly decorated faces not having clear cut characteristics; Family: Galliard 

• b) Novelty: Legible, minimum decorative faces; Family: Optima, Souvenir 

5. Handwritten:

• a) Resembles calligraphy but mechanically developed. Mainly joint letters; Family: Brush

• b) Cursive: Separate letters, handwritten style; Family: Legend  

Marketing Research by Parveen Ahluwalia as on 09/11/2013

"Advertising that works for for your client is the best advertising" 

Position Strategy  is based on four basics, them being:

- Competitive
- Relevant
- Distinctive
- Credible


(With the case of) Live Brand

- Competitive Brand image
- Self Brand Image
- Current Brand Position
- Competitive Brand Positioning


"Dead Brand : No iota of brand recall, when compared to other brands"


Category Benefits Analysis


Step 1

- Evaluate all category benefits


In the case of category being whisky…

- Blend (smooth taste)
- Heritage
- Ingredients
- Price (w.r.t. Value For Money)
- Attitude

"In terms of brand loyalty, consumers of whisky and cigarettes have the highest loyalty"


Step 2

- Blend (smooth taste) B2, B4, B7
- Heritage B1, B3, B7
- Ingredients B5, B6, B8
- Price (w.r.t. Value For Money) B1, B4
- Attitude B1, B9

With B1 to B10 being different brands, We need to see and find out as to how many competitive brands are focusing on one key attribute and are talking about them.


Step 3


- Blend (smooth taste)
- Heritage
- Ingredients
- Price (w.r.t. Value For Money)
- Attitude
- XXXXX  

May be like a streak of lightning, you're hit with a stroke of genius and you happen to think of a 'new' attribute that didn't exist until now.  Again this happens in extremely rare cases.


"Positioning is about a reason/rationale to buy/purchase. Period."

A hoarding should have an option of response action (As in email, phone, website)


Creative Strategy Considerations

- Tone and Style => (Confident, Warmth, Seductive, Bold are all examples of tone)
like for example A movement called Telco used an empathetic tone.  


"Ideally an advertising should talk to a consumer, better if it talks with the consumer" 

- Visual Dominant or Copy heavy
- Objective of the campaign (if it's a new brand, then you'll have/should use worse that defines that it's it's a new brand and thus is a launching)
- Role of Branding
- Brand Personality

"Personality is that intrinsic, trait that differentiate one from another"



If you build your personality such that it is too highly placed as in the case of Four Squares Kings which was Highly Extroverted, Fantasy and more Outdoorsy than when compared to Gold Flake Kings, people will like you but there's a good chance that they won't buy you, a point that is driven home by the fact that Gold Flake Kings sells 4 times that of Four Square Kings.


Celebrity Personality

Celebrity's personality should match to that of the Brand's personality, if they compliment each other then it is in good stead. If the celebrity is all too pervasive as in the case in point of Amitabh Bacchhan in Navaratna Ad, then that will invariably mean the the very end of the brand.      

Communication Theory by Naren as on 22/10/2013

“You can become anything professionally but if you don’t understand the ways of life, then your life becomes futile”

Manufacturing Consent…

“If there isn’t a consent then the establishment will overthrown or over ruled”

“People who own the means of production, own the means of mental production”

Propaganda: Ideas that are false, biased and that which are spread in order to help a group, institution, nation etc…

Responsibility of Journalism as a Fourth State…  

•       Report events objectively as they occur, to allow citizens to make informed political choices
•          Control governmental abuses of power, through investigative journalism

Herman and Chomsky consider US media to be a failure with respect to the above but in turn they consider US media to be a propaganda system.

è 

•      Unlawful activities have to be unearthed by the fourth estate; this is its very principle.

Like P. Sainath said, “There’s a compulsion to lie” for a simple reason that, it is precisely how the nature of business and business interest work.

Corporate Ownership = Political Economy

“You don’t pay PR agencies for negative PR”

“Only 12% of shares are written by journalists”

The three ownership of media:

• ·      Corporations
• ·      Politicians
• ·      Government

“There’s none who’s out of the sphere of the politics and economics”, in fact it is commonly believed that “Bad Economics is Good Politics and Good Economics is Bad Politics”

“Political economy is the study of social relations”

“The key in every economy is labor”

Capitalism and Communism are the two major kinds of Economy. Capitalism will mean free flow of money; there will be a right to private property. Communism on the other hand will mean that none will have the right to private property and the means of production will be in the hands of the state.

Communism later got branched into Liberalization and Social Democracy; Production process is the one barometer, which is one of the most important facets that’ll tell you about any company, followed by distribution.

Globalization came up as a result of stagnation; they needed to open up their economies considering their own respective economies were in tatters. All the banking facilities of the world like IMF, ADB and the likes are not exactly in the business of charity, thus with India taking their monetary aid had to finally give in and forced to open up our economy.

“With Homogenization, it is the dominant culture that will survive” 

Market Research by Narayanmoorthy as on 23/10/2013

Market Prioritisation and Product distribution

“Media Planning is the closest discipline to marketing”

-       

•       The markets addressed in the media plan must closely replicate the product distribution
•             This will maximize Return on Investment (ROI) for the brand 
•             The most common cause of friction between the media agency and the client is on the market  prioritisation
•             Clients invariably provide a market prioritization in the brief rather than the data used for such prioritisation
•             Resulting in the media agency not fully understanding the logic behind the market prioritisation
•             Clients often state that the reasons for the improvisation of the data is that of lack of confidentiality (owning to frequent changes in jobs by ‘our’ generation)
•             Thus could very will copy/use the data of their older client in order aid it’s competition

“Understanding the logic of market prioritization is the appreciation of using the right data” 

Common issues whilst handling data:
-         Accessing the right data
-         Using the right amount of data
-         Understanding and interrupting the data correctly

This has even lead to the term “Paralysis by Analysis”

Brands Market

• -          Is it a big one?
• -         What is its evolution?
• -         Which markets are similar?
• -         Who are the competitors?
• -        How is the product distributed, what role does the retailer play?

How do the different market perform in terms  of:

• -       Pricing
• -       Distribution
• -       Promotion
• -       Packaging
• -       Range
• -       Communication
• -       Sales
• -       Market Share
• -       Image
• -       Awareness

“Ideally clients should provide the data for market prioritization”

•        Retail Audits
•      Internal client data (or published industry data)
•           Adex (ad expenditure) data (the media agency has access to this data)
•         Usage and Attitude
•         Consumer Panel Data
•         Tracking and Barometer studies
•         Image data

Retail Audits

-       Scanning of product codes and store visit by professional auditor

• -       Tracks sales, volume, maximum retail price, any promotion if the brand is running one, merchandising etc
• -       To help management to gauge overall product preference, distribution, promotional activities and sensitivity (wrt price)        

S      Scope of Retail Audits 

• -       Supermarkets
• -       Gas/Petrol stations
• -       Convenience Stores/Kirana
• -       Pharmacies
• -       Independent Food Stores

Retail Audits happen either monthly or weekly, in FMCG and some durable goods market, and the main institutes that conduct this are AC Neielsen, IRI and Gfk.

Key Measures

• -       Sales – Volume and Value, unit sale
• -       Price – Retail selling price, regular price and promotional price
• -       Distribution – percentage of stores selling the brand
• -       Promotional activity –Percentage of Stores:

ð Displaying the brand

ð In-store materials

ð Price reductions

ð Special Packs 

There is no retail audit date for Leisure and cultural activities, Service markets like; Banks, Insurance, Catering etc…

Reasons as to why Retail Audits is not necessary:

• -       Structural (Monopoly)
• -       Cultural (No share of information)
• -       Economic (Too expensive)
• -       Free syndicate or legal data exists.
• 
  

Use Internal Client Data

• -       Issued from trade and sales forces checks marketing and financial services
• -       The main problem is to have competitor’s market information
• -       Any syndicate or legal battle unavailable
• -       How does the management keep up with the business?

Communication Data (Adex)

• -       Examine how competitors are fighting the battles in terms of their communication

ð Media Mix

ð Media Spend

ð Share of Voice

ð Weight

ð Timing

ð Geographic Spread

ð Scheduling

ð Key Creative Message

ð Target Group

Split data by media and type of communication:

• -       Spend
• -       GRPs
• -       Share of voice

Consumer Data

• -       How many are there, who are they?
• -       Are they regular purchasers of my competitive brands?
• -       How important is my product category to them?
• -       What is the frequency of purchase of consumption of store visit?
• -       What are their motivations?

“Empty Box Syndrome – Whenever something goes empty, you go out and buy it” 

Consumer Panels

• -       On a daily basis a representative sample of the national population, equipped with how scanners indicate their product purchasers.
• -       In addition to the information provided by the bar code the panel member indicates the price, the quantity purchased, the purchase date and the total amount spent.

  Key Measures

• -       Options consumer purchases, volume and value
• -        Penetration (percentage of households buying)
• -        Brand weight of the purchase (average bought per household)
• -        Weight of purchase
• -        Average spend per household
• -        Frequency of purchase
• -        Loyalty/ repeat purchases (No. Of buyers purchasing twice or more)
• -        Buyers purchasing on offer and by offer type

Tracking and Barometers  

• -       A continuous basis quantitative survey to measure a range attitudinal variables
• -       Taking into account all the competitive brands of the market to allow comparisons
• -       Barometer is a lighter version of tracking

  

   Key Measures

• -       Brand Awareness – Spontaneous, Prompted, Top of Mind (summation of all these is Total Awareness)
• -       Purchase Behavior – Regular, Occasional, Purchase initiators
• -       Advertising – Spontaneous, Prompted, Proven recall

Usage and Attitude

• -       Quantitative survey based on face to face interview
• -       A basic and heavy study conducted generally every two years
• -       Aim is to understand consumer market

Key Measures

• -       Perception
• -       Segmentation
• -       Expectations
• -       Evocation, tenacity of communication
• -       Who in the household is buying and what for? 
•